Innavedr

by Imploding Colon

Rating: teen
Tags: Random, Alternate Universe, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Adventure
Length: 283591

A broken party of friends struggles to reunite. Rainbow Dash continues to fly east.

A broken party of friends struggles to reunite.

Rainbow Dash continues to fly east.

Published 2013-03-09 06:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-30 03:51:42 UTC

Dolling Up Dash

Slowly, her tongue flicked out, licking the dry edges of a blue muzzle.

"Mmmm... so... so awesome..." She rasped, her eyelids fluttering. "Just... one m-more mug." Her throat gulped as her neck twitched. "Best cider ever. I'm sorry f-for everything I said about the c-competition, AJ." Her lips curved, then almost immediately blanched. "Please... d-don't be mad at me. I'm sorry, Applejack. Sorry for... f-for everything."

Her jaw clenched, and a spasm flew through her features.

Right then, her ruby eyes flew open.

The claustrophobic interior of a slender manaship loomed all around her.

Rainbow Dash blinked. She looked to her left.

Row upon row of metal weapons, crystal rods, armored plates swayed in the vessel's hold.

Squinting, she next looked to her right.

Teeth, tail bones, animal vertebrae, and countless other totems hung from a metal rack.

Rainbow Dash's ears twitched alternatively. Her lips curled into an awkward grimace. She sat up on the slender metal bench that was her stool. "Uhhh..." A gulp ran down her throat. "Okay. Is it just me, or did I get buried inside a giant aluminum cigar?"

The whole ship rocked, its entire contents rattling.

"Yeah, screw this." Rainbow Dash jumped up and tried spreading her wings. A loud clanking noise emanated. "Huh?" Blinking, she looked down at her heavily armored body. "Whoah, what the frig?!" She tried rearing back, only to slam her exposed head into a ceiling crossbeam. "Augh! What the frig!" She stumbled forward, tripping over her collosal metal boots. "What the frig—What the frig?!" She fell and rolled over like a titanium pill bug, her body rattling from head to flank.

"Careful!" a voice growled from the front, a voice even raspier than Rainbow's. "That's Grade-A Searonese Mana-Busting Shell Armor! And as righteous as that all sounds, it doesn't exactly fit you. I'd hate for there to be any damage from you stumbling around like a hydra with its eight balls cut off."

"Unngh!" Rainbow Dash sat up, tossing her mane as she brandished a scathing frown. "You!"

"Granted, I'm talking about preserving the armor," spoke a familiar figure, hunched over before a tiny cockpit with her ringlet'd mane draped over the seat's headrest. "You're damaged enough already."

"After what I did for you?!" Rainbow Dash snarled and galloped murderously towards the seat. "Sparing your life and setting you—" Her blue muzzle flattened like a squished plunger as she slammed skull-first into a sparkling force-field. "—frig!"

"I see your choice of words is as solid as your choice of tactics," Roarke muttered, her lensed eyes pistoning towards the array of glowing diodes before her. She pulled a lever and navigated around a billowing cluster of clouds from beyond the ship's speeding bow. "How you ever defeated me is a mystery only the Great Searo could solve."

"Mmmmf... You wanna test your smelly fart of a god queen once more?!" Rainbow Dash snarled. "Lower your glowy fence thingy and come back here! We can have a round six!"

"I doubt you can do much with the way you're hurting right now, girl."

"Like hay, I can't!" Rainbow Dash stirred and writhed in her suffocating armor. "Everything's gone south! Crimson and Eagle Eye are screwed! The friggin' Ledomaritans have my friends! Shell's burning half the countryside and—owwwwwww..." She winced, a beam of agony shooting through her adorably cockeyed expression. "I'm really hurting right now." She flexed her left limbs. "What gives?"

"You've suffered multiple fractures and lacerations to your left wing," Roarke grunted. "You're in no condition to kick any pony's butt. Besides..." She flung half-a-glance over her shoulder. "I'd just pummel you into a million rainbow pieces if we went at it again."

"My wing..." Rainbow Dash hissed, rubbing her left side through the amor. "Is that why you got me wearing this ridiculous tin shell?"

"No, saving your wing took some wicked tourinquet skills that I didn't even know I had. Heh..." Roarke's lips curved beneath her copper lenses. "It should keep your feathers from falling off." She tongued the inside of her brown cheeks. "Mostly..."

"Huh?!" Rainbow Dash started to hyperventilate. "You... you patched me up?" She turned around. "H-how'd I even get in here? This whole time I was—" She did a double-take as her voice cracked. "My tail!"

"Huh?"

Rainbow Dash spun around, angrily wriggling her barren, armored flank. "What in the name of Celestia on a unicycle did you do to my friggin' tail?!"

"Oh, right." Roarke droned. "I had to get rid of that."

"You got rid of my tail?!"

"Don't worry! It'll grow back!" Roarke turned more dials as she coasted along the crest of another cloud, blurring south. "Maybe it'll look even better this time!"

"Yeah, but... but... but..." Rainbow Dash shook a hoof before pointing at herself. "My tail!" she squealed.

"Look, it couldn't fit into the armor, and I had to patch you up quickly! I'm no Imre, after all."

"Who... it... that... huh?!" Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "Who in the moldy fudge is Imre?!"

"A pony who can do a job like that far better than I could, given the right payment," Roarke said. "Which is why we're going to go see her."

Rainbow Dash squinted out the window from beyond the force field. "We're heading south..." She blinked, and her ears folded back angrily. "You're taking me to your home, aren't you?"

"I really think you should sit your blue flank down about now."

"You're just carting me across country like some hunted game!" Rainbow Dash's hoof slapped the bulkhead framing the force field. "The nerve!"

"Nine hundred percent more attuned than the common mare or breeder," Roarke remarked. "Which is how I know that your heart race has increased and you're sweating profusely. Please don't—I hate it when my armor smells."

"Enough of this crud! I am sooooo getting out of here!" Rainbow said, gazing all around the rattling hold.

"I don't think so."

"Screw you and this turd-ship you flew in on!" Rainbow Dash raspberried as she trotted across the chamber and started banging her hooves against the hull. "I've taken down timberwolves, dragons, and centipedes as big as your mom! I'm pretty sure I can rip open this lousy tin can from the inside!" She grunted and slammed the metal door from the inside. "Nnnngh! Doll me up like a blacksmith's wet dream—I've got friends to save!"

"Unnngh..." Roarke made a bobbing motion with her head, as if she was rolling her eyes beneath her lenses. She flipped a brown switch to her left. "Nighty night."

"Huh?!" Rainbow Dash frowned at the bounty hunter. "You kidding?! This is no time for sleep! I gotta—" Her nostrils flared as green mists seeped out of a vent and flew into her breathing passages. She smiled deliriously as her ruby eyes crossed. "Oooooooh—freckles!" She collapsed, her ruby pendant rattling around her limp throat.

Roarke exhaled, then weathered a curve to her lips as she angled the vessel southeast, aiming towards a gray, hazy continent looming beyond the horizon.

"Well, at least she's shut up."

The cockpit roared from the thunderous sound of a lone pegasus' violent snoring.

Roarke's ears drooped as she slumped in her seat. "Oh, Searo spare me..."

Dig a Pony

It was a series of deep, slumbering breaths that woke him, as if a fitful dragon was gargling in the same room. His lavender ears twitched, and soon his petite body stirred as he stifled a heated whimper. Groaning, Eagle Eye sat up, his slender hooves scraping over a flat black floor of industrial grade metal.

He squinted across the claustrophobic room.

Several other equine bodies were lying about in pairs, stirring fitfully under the crimson glow of a single, grated light overhead. It was stuffy and cramped inside the square interior, and the place smelled of sweat and feces.

Eagle Eye gazed around, blinking. He saw bruised and battered bodies, ponies with their hooves worn into blistered limbs, even a few emaciated stallions murmuring incoherent madness into the shadows. Everything that graced his senses was laced with misery and suffering, as if each living thing inside that chamber was simply waiting for its turn to die.

The lavender unicorn blinked at the desolation, turned his head, and instantly gasped. "M-my mane!" He raised two weak limbs and felt the frazzled bangs hanging loosely from his scalp, splotched in several spots with dried mud and chunks of sapphiric crystal. "Ohhhhh..." He bit his lip, sighing heavily through his nostrils.

It was then that he noticed something wrapped about his right hoof. Squinting, he studied the object up close. It was a titanium cuff—a manacle of sorts—and it hung snugly just below the elbow. What's more, it constantly glowed with purple effluence.

Licking his lips, Eagle Eye aimed his horn and shot a bolt of lavender energy into the cuff. In response, it shot a magic bolt straight back to his skull, knocking him back onto his flank.

"Ooof!" He winced, his eyes tearing up slightly. "Okay. That's not getting off so easily." He fidgeted a little bit more with the binding, then froze in place. His ears drooped, and a gasp escaped his lips as brightness swam over his eyes with a horrifically lucid thought. "By the Spark... Belle... Pilate..." He jumped up on all fours, upsetting several of the half-sleeping stallions around him. "Rainbow Dash!"

Hyperventilating, he spun in place, then finally found his eyes locking onto a tall, vertical seam of metal. A heavy door hung on the far end of the room.

"H-hello?!" he exclaimed. "Hello?! Is anypony out there?!" Straightening his torn vest, he ran speedily towards the frame. "You gotta let me out! My friends are in trou—"

His entire body sparkled with purple energy. He gave a high-pitched shriek as the manacle around his right leg pulsed brightly, flinging him back by an elastic band of artificial leylines. In less than a second, he was flung straight into the body of an obese stallion wearing a matching, strobing manacle on his left forelimb.

"Ooof!" Eagle Eye winced all over as he slammed hard into the bigger unicorn's muzzle.

"Mmmmf..." The stallion's nostrils flared, getting a good whiff of the petite mercenary's mane. "Mmmmm..." Josho's bearded face smiled as the unconscious enforcer rolled over and hugged Eagle Eye tight. "Straight Lace. Darling..." He nuzzled Eagle Eye's soft neck, purring. "I've been on the front for far too long..."

Eagle Eye grimaced and sweated profusely. "Uhhh... Uhhh..."

Josho's face frowned. Just then, his bleary eyes opened.

Eagle Eye spat up the tiniest bit of bile.

"Gaaaah!" Josho hollered.

"Aaaack!" Eagle Eye flailed.

"Daaa-aaaah!" Josho flung Eagle Eye out of his grasp.

"Uuugh!" The lavender unicorn flew back—only to be caught once more in the artificial field which flung him straight back into the burly stallion like a living yo-yo.

"Augh!" Josho stood up, this time bucking Eagle Eye away with two legs. "Get off me, you lavender slice of slug meat!"

"You were in league with—!" Eagle Eye scooted away, only to bounce back from the field and scoot away again. "Y-you were in league with—!" The wide-eyed unicorn's body and voice repeated like a broken record. "You were in league—"

"Friggin' cut it out!" Josho stopped him this time with a single, fat forelimb pressed to the shivering stallion's face. "Nnngh..." He stood up, taking a grim survey of the setting. "Obviously we're being held captive by ponies proficient in the art of mana elastibands."

"Mmfmmmff—" Eagle Eye raised both hooves and shoved Josho's hoof from out of his face. "Mana elasti-whats?!"

"They're used by non-unicorns to form equine chain gangs. It's technology that revolves around self-conductive crystalline fragments—" Josho hiccuped and glared at the petite unicorn. "For Spark's sake, kid! How long have you been a mercenary?"

"Grrr!" Eagle Eye scowled, slapping Josho's hoof away and struggling to stand up straight. "Like I would ever want to be graded by a merciless killer like you!"

"Listen, you hyperactive bottle of perfume—" Josho snarled and pointed at himself. "I've only ever been in the business of killing Xonans and monsterous freaks! You should be glad that somepony under the glare of that Prime Enforcing snake-in-the-grass had the stones to not bash your skull in when he was commanded to! Oh, you're welcome by the way, ya little turdlet!"

"Well, you shouldn't have been working for him from the get-go!" Eagle Eye squeaked.

"Like I'm gonna take sass from a would-be soldier who sounds like a deflated balloon!"

"I'll deflate your balloon! C'mere!" Eagle Eye charged forth angrily, galloping and galloping and galloping and—

Josho sighed, holding the red-faced mercenary in place once again with a single hoof. His bloodshot eyes swam across the stuffy, metal interior of the place. "Let's at least figure out how in the Queen's shimmering teat we got here." His graying brow furrowed. "I know I teleported us—but I don't remember being able to shoot myself that far..."

"Why didn't you do it earlier, huh?!" Eagle Eye gripped his limb and all-but-climbed it like a log on the edge of a furious river. "Why didn't you get my friends out of there before that crazy lunatic of an Enforcer turned them to mince meat?! Why didn't you save Rainbow Dash or—" He froze in place, panting. Softly, his features melted, and his eyes took on a pained angle. "Or Cr-Crimson," he mewled like a wounded kitten. He slid off of Josho's forelimb and squatted low, gazing into the rusted floor beneath him. "Spark help me... I should have fought harder. I should have... h-have been stronger..."

Josho opened his mouth to say something, but instead he sighed, staring off towards the metal seam of the door. Then, after a few seconds of weathering the beleaguered breaths of Eagle Eye, he blinked with a piercing thought. He glanced down at the unicorn. "Wait a minute... it was you. You were the one who severed it."

Eagle Eye sniffled, running a hoof through his disheveled violet mane. "S-severed what?"

"My leyline entanglement space burp thingy—I dunno. I'm not a clever pony."

"Hmmmf..." Eagle Eye muttered aside. "That much is certain."

"Look, I'm serious here! Straight as a razor!"

"Heheh..." Eagle Eye deliriously chuckled. "That much is certain too—"

"Nnngh!" Josho knelt down and gripped the petite mercenary's shoulders. "Will you shut up for a second and listen! I know you were the one who freed the zebra's manaballs or whatever from my leylines!"

"Yeah, so?"

"So you're obviously gifted!" Josho grimaced as he narrowed his gaze on Eagle Eye's scrawny figure. "S-somehow..." He cleared his throat and managed a weak smile. "So maybe you can use that snazzy talent of yours to break our binding!"

"Pfft. I already tried." Eagle Eye waved his left, bound hoof around. "It's no use. Besides..." He tossed his head girlishly and glared at the tall walls of the room. "We don't even know where we are! You gotta know who your captors are before you risk running from them."

Josho opened his mouth to speak—gave Eagle Eye's mane a double-take—then shrugged it off. "Look, it was just a thought."

"But I thought you said you weren't a clever thinker—"

"Just lay off!" Josho growled, shaking his hoof threatening. "I'm stuck here the same as you! Rrrggh!" He paced about, dragging a helpless, yelping mercenary with him. "It's those metal mares. I know it has got to be!" He slammed his heavy hooves down, missing Eagle's flinching neck by mere inches. "Spark! What I wouldn't give to rip their horns off and shove it up their—"

"Ask one of these stallions," Eagle Eye wheezed. "Maybe they can tell us all we need to know."

"The heck they will," Josho rolled his eyes. "We're nothing but fresh meat to them."

"How do you know that?! Just ask!"

"A stallion doesn't go around asking for directions! I wouldn't expect a broken vial of perfurme to know anything about that—"

"Ohhhh ho ho ho—don't you start!" Eagle Eye snarled.

"Or what?" Josho hiccuped. "You'll giggle me to death?! Just why'd you desert the army to begin with?! You felt that the color yellow matched your vest?!"

"No—!" Eagle Eye stood up, quivering in anger, and glared up at the obese warrior. "I abandoned the forces of Ledo because me and every courageous stallion I ever cared about was sick and tired of working for soulless machines who would slay innocents to get the job done! Heck, if a grunt as dense as you woke up to that, maybe you would have had the opportunity to spit into that Prime Enforcer's face years ago!"

"You think I enjoyed what I did?!" Josho hollered back, staring down the petite unicorn. "I gave up my entire career to save your sorry flank, ya half-pint!"

"Hah! Some career!" Eagle Eye sneered. "What kind of medal do you call that you're wearing, hotshot? The 'Five O'Clock Bronze?!'"

"Rrrrgh!" With raging telekinesis, Josho effortlessly lifted Eagle Eye up, slamming him against the metal wall and raising a fist to pound his face in. "That's it! You're about to become Franzington's latest casualty! The youngest basket of fruit in history to earn an iron cross!"

"Unnngh..." A haggard earth pony sat up besides the fitfully slumbering prisoner he was bound to. "Will you two newbies shut the heck up? This is our only time to catch some z's before the Killas put us out to work again."

Eagle Eye and Josho blinked down from where the bigger pony was near-strangling the tiny one. They exchanged glances and looked at the earth pony again. "The 'Killas?'"

Suddenly, a loud hiss emanated throughout the chamber. Everypony instantly woke up and ritualistically stood up as the door to the room slid open.

The earth pony rolled his eyes and struggled to his hooves. "Don't say I didn't warn you..."

A blinding swath of golden light swam through the room. Josho squinted, craning his neck curiously. He dropped Eagle Eye to the floor with an unceremonious thud.

"Whoah!" Eagle Eye tumbled, wincing.

Through the blinding light, a dozen armored figures walked in. They stood upright, although with hunched bags. Several braying noises filled the room, like the whimpering of jackals. As everypony's gaze came into focus, the first of several glaring, canine faces loomed into view.

"Diamond dogs...?" Josho murmured aloud.

"Dogs?" Eagle Eye wheezed looking up. "They don't look like any puppies I've ever nuzzled."

"Shhh! Shut up, kid."

"Make me..."

Josho almost growled something—but the obese stallion froze upon the approaching glare of the tallest canine. The snarling alpha male stomped towards him, wielding a heavy club that sparkled with electrical energy.

"Hrmmmf... New pony flesssssh..." The diamond dog hissed, a pair of mucousy eyes leering from beneath a metal pith helmet. "Your graying bonesssss still good enough to haul rocks?"

"How about I haul your smelly carcass into a field and poop you into an anthill?" Josho dared.

With a bark, the diamond dog slammed the hilt of his club into the stallion's gut.

"Oooof!" Josho doubled over, losing his breath.

"Heheheheh..." Eagle Eye squeaked, grinning and slapping the floor with his hoof. "That was actually pretty great—"

The same diamond dog slammed Eagle Eye in the chest.

"Gaaah!" Eagle Eye doubled over, rolling into Josho. "Ow ow ow ow..."

"You talk... you hurtttt..." The canine snarled, addressing the newer, more frightened souls collected in the pen. "You fight... you ssssscream. You work... you eatttt." He slammed his club into the ground and barked even louder. "You are all property of the Killas! Now and forever! When you die... you die by my company's time!" He pointed a furious paw out into the blazing light. "Now... go! Go and dig, you mangy mulesssss!"

"Unngh... I got it... I got it..." Josho hissed as he clambered up on all fours. He caught Eagle Eye by the tail, yanking him out of a fetal position and forcing him to trot by his side.

Soon, both stallions joined a flood of ponies lurching out of the room—and out into the blazing light. They squinted, finding themselves descending a metal plank that extended to a chamber built into an enormous brown tank of metal. The vehicle was easily four stories high and hundreds of feet long, parked on gigantic tank treads as its steam engines hissed over the crest of a giant quarry. Down below a sloping crest of rock, Josho and Eagle Eye saw a gaping pit full of hundreds of exposed, oversized sapphires. What's more, the gaping chasm was crawling over with twice as many quadruped slaves, laboring endlessly with pick-axes and drills to unearth the valuable crystals. Patrolling the grounds were heavy-set dogs, the self-appointed "Killas," all carrying clubs and manarfiles trained on the sweating, suffering ponies.

"Oh, well this is just lovely," Josho grunted.

Eagle Eye's lips quivered as he got an eye-ful of the agonizing day ahead. He gasped as a growling dog shoved a heavy hammer into his grasp. He glanced at the tool, his eyes watering a bit at the shape of it. Gulping, he calmed his nerves the best he could and stumbled forward with the line. "Okay... I-I can do this. I... can totally do this..."

"No offense, kid..." Josho shouldered a heavy drill, utilizing his telekinesis as he wheezed and limped to the right of his unwitting cohort. "But I think your mane has a greater chance of outlasting this than you."

"Oh hardy har—"

A whip cracked overhead as another alpha dog shouted, "No gabbing! Only digging! Mush! Mush!"

Crimson Fern Grows

"Roque?!" Shouted a young, breathless colt as he scampered over the jagged hill of a stony plateau. Far behind his shiny figure, the gleaming image of a trapezoidal, crystalline house stood in the glare of a noonday sun. "Roque, come on! Toss the disc back!"

A slightly older colt stood at the crest of the hill. His glassy eyes sparkled like kaleidoscopes in the daylight as he gazed into the sky. He spoke over his pearlescent blue shoulder. "I lost it, Nexx!"

"Lost it?!" Nexx stammered as she lurched to a halt besides his brother's shiny flank. "How could you lose it?! The thing's made of southern dragon sapphires! It glows brighter than the sun!"

"I found something cooler," Roque said with a wide grin.

Nexx's shimmering eyes crossed in confusion. "Huh?! What do you mean, 'cooler?'"

"Look for yourself." Roque pointed towards the southern horizon with a lustrous hoof.

His younger sibling stood beside him, squinting. A high pitched gasp escaped his lips. "Whoah! What is that?"

"Beats me, but it's coming at us fast!" Roque remarked.

Both foals' eyes were trained on a thin, silver shape gliding in from the south. It followed the edge of the ravine that ran past their rock farm along the western plateau.

"What is it, a bird?" Nexx chirped.

"It's too big to be a bird, crackflank!"

"Hey! Mom said you're not allowed to call me 'crackflank!'"

"You're not gonna earn a cutie mark saying dumb things like that. At this rate, you'd might as well chisel something on that blank butt of yours!"

"I'm telling on you!"

"Shhh!" Roque leaned back on his haunches, craning his glimmering neck. "Look!"

Nexx's eyes widened, for the object was descending, lowering towards the horizon and passing over the tops of the forests on the other side of the canyon. Soon, it was skimming over the plateau, flying so close to the ground that its silver body was reflected off the many jagged sapphires sticking out of the earth.

"Uhhh... R-Roque?" Nexx stammered, hobbling backwards on trembling limbs.

"Will ya listen to it..." Roque cooed, his mouth agape in wonder. "It sounds like a hundred crystal foundries..."

"Roque, I'm scared."

"Pfft! You're always scared!"

"No, I mean it," Nexx squeaked, tugging at his brother's sparkly tail filaments. "Move! It's gonna hit us!"

"No it ain't—!"

"Yes it is!"

"No, it—"

At the last second, the glider twirled to the right, its unconscious pilot collapsing over the controls.

"Whoah!" Roque howled. In a single leap, he swooped Nexx's shrieking body off the ground and dove the two of them down the hilltop. The two colts rolled out of the way just as the aircraft ricocheted off the earth. The vehicle bounced, spun, and slid for several yards until it slammed hard into a ten foot tall chunk of sapphires. With a shower of blue shards, the crash landing had ended, and all was dust and foreboding haze.

Nexx coughed several times, waving the dust away from his mouth.

Undaunted, Roque stood up and trotted swiftly over to the crash. A worried Nexx waddled after him. Soon, both colts were staring at a niche carved out of the base of the sapphiric spire. Within the crater, the managlider was crumpled, its silver exoskeleton folded in over itself. But that was the last thing that was stealing their breath away.

"Holy cow!" Roque exclaimed.

"No way..." Nexx leaned down and squinted. "A real, live unicorn?"

"I think he's dead, Nexx."

"Uh uh!" Nexx tried to frown, but his frightened eyes were locked on the muscular figure below. "If he's dead, how could he have flown this thing?"

"Duhhhh. He died in the air."

"Why would you fly in the air if you knew you were gonna die?"

"How the hay should I know, crackflank?! It looks like he's a soldier—Whoah!" Roque did a double take, smiling in bizarre wonder. "Look at that! His forelimb is totally ripped off!"

"Oh, ew!" Nexx trembled, standing behind his brother as if the older colt could somehow erase the fact by blocking his sight of it. "That's terrible! Why's he—like—got sticks and stuff attached to it?"

"I think he just came out of a battle and needed a crutch," Roque murmured, his eyes squinting as he observed the stub of the injured limb. "Man, he's got bloodstains and everything!"

"C-can't he just grow it back?"

"Pffft. Nexx, just because he's a unicorn doesn't mean he can grow stuff back."

"But I thought all non-shiny ponies could grow legs back after they snapped off!"

"They don't snap off, doofus! They have blood and muscles and guts and stuff."

"Ewwww..."

"I know, right?"

"Uhm..." Nexx bit his lip. "Do you think..." He trembled even more. "Do you think the pony's from Searo?"

"You really are dumb, aren't you?" Roque smirked down at him. "Does he look like a girl to you?"

"Uhhh..."

"Well?"

"No..."

"All dudes in Searo are slaves. Everypony knows that. Besides..." Roque stood up tall. "If it was a real metal mare, I'd kick her butt for you."

"Would you really?"

"Yeah! I'm not afraid of any Searonese bounty hunter! Or a Ledomaritan!"

"Ledo... martian?"

"Ledomaritan, crackflank! Y'know, soldiers from the north?"

"What's he doing way down here in Sapphire Country?"

"Beats me." Roque began trotting down the crater.

"Roque! Roque!" Nexx squeaked, tugging on his tail. "Stop it! What are you doing?"

"What do you think?" Roque smirked back at the younger one. "I hear you get an electric shock when you touch a unicorn horn!"

"Ewww! No no no no! Don't touch itttt!"

"Why not? Pfft. Not like he's going anywhere—"

"Roque! Nexx!" A deep voice shouted from a shadowy figure above. "Get out of there now!"

Eyes wide as saucers, Roque instantly scampered out of the hole and stood besides the tall stallion. His brother was right behind him. "Sorry, Pa. We were just—"

"You were just nothing!" A leering pony with a reflective coat and a shimmering mane brushed them both aside as he swiveled a shotgun around his flank. Once it was propped in front of him, he sat on his haunches and slid his forelimbs into a pair of hoof-braces. "Get back in the house with your Ma and don't come out until I tell you too!"

"He's hurt, Pa!" Nexx squeaked. "His leg's broke! I think he snapped it off!"

Roque growled, "What did I tell you about unicorns—"

"Enough, both of you!" The father spat. He concentrated, and a stream of glowing light coursed down from his skull, through his limbs, and into the crook of his hooves where he made contact with the rifle. Soon, the crystals housed inside the chamber hummed with dangerous energy. "It's not enough that I hear the sky falling outside my backdoor and think my two foals are dead! This stallion is dangerous!"

"You gonna shoot him, Pa?"

"Get into the house! Now! I'm not asking you another time—"

"South..." A raspy voice rose against the dusty wind. "Trying... to go south..."

The two colts gasped and hid behind their father.

The stallion squinted suspiciously down the sight of his rifle.

Crimson stirred, his pained eyes squinting over a grimacing muzzle. "My friend... h-has been taken by a metal mare. Must... s-save her..."

The father blinked. "Is that right?" He intensified the energy burning into his rifle. "What reason should I have to believe you're not just a paid thug working for the Killas?"

Crimson panted, trying to stand up—only to collapse on his side with an agonized wheeze.

Nexx and Roque watched mutely, anxiously.

"Nopony comes flying in on a thing like that without wanting to crack some heads!" the father exclaimed. "So how about it, huh?"

"F-Franz... ington..."

The farmer lowered the crystal gun. "Huh?"

Crimson gulped and murmured, "Not... with Searo..." He hissed, then added, "Or with Ledomare..." Exhaling hard, he slumped down to the wrecked remains of the managlider. "Eagle Eye... Phoenix... I-I failed you..." His body fell unconscious with a lasting wheeze. "Rainbow... Dash..."

The stallion stared at him, his polished face gaining a further sheen with sudden sweat. He lowered the rifle and ran a hoof through his sparkling mane. Just then, a feminine voice called out from the far side of the plateau.

"Tweak? What's all the commotion? Are the boys okay?"

His nostrils flared as he gazed at the stallion's muscular body, his weak breaths, and the bloodied mess his forelimb had become.

"Awwwww shoot..." Tweak muttered, then tilted his head back. "Fetch the first aid and some hot water, Ma! We've got company..."

Yes Yes Yes

All that he knew was that he was moving.

His ears twitched to the sound of grinding, squeaking wheels as a warm breeze fluttered through his thick mane. He woke up as if from a long hibernation, and his every joint ached.

"Unnngh..."

Pilate stirred, his forelimbs uncurling, swishing through a sea of tightly packed straw. He was lying in a pile of hay, and from the touch of wooden beams framing his position...

"A wagon?"

He sat up, and his muscles instantly screamed as if a thousand needles were ripping through him.

"Augh! By the Sp-Spark!" he sputtered.

"Striped boomer doesn't move so soon," rasped a voice from ahead of Pilate and the wagon he was in. "Lies down and waits for the glimmer glimmer to leave his body, he does. There's a good boomer. Yes yes yesssss."

"Nnngh... Huh?" Pilate tilted his head around. His brow furrowed. "Hello? Is somepony there?"

"The sky has no reason to keep boomer, but Floydien isn't cruel. Catches the boomer, he does. Now Nancy Jane waits for two instead of one instead of none. Yes yessss."

"Fl-Floydien? Nancy Jane?" Pilate coughed and lurched forward, still wincing. "Sir, I-I'm blind. Please help me out here. Who are you? Where are we? And how did I... Wait..." He made a face. "You caught me? H-how?! Are you a unicorn?"

"Always is mistaken for a stabby stabby horse, poor Floydien. No feelings does Floydien have to bleed, only glimmer glimmer. Glimmer glimmer waits for Nancy Jane, as does the heart. The boomer doesn't know and Floydien forgives him. Yessssss. Hmmmm... there is much help the shiny boomer gift has for Nancy Jane..."

"Sir, thank you for... erm... saving me..." Pilate stirred again, but exhaustedly fell back into the wagon. "Unngh... but... b-but you have to understand! My beloved... my mate Bellesmith is in trouble! An entire armada of diabolical Ledomaritans have her held captive and... and..." He shuddered and stifled a shuddering breath. "They're dragging her north to be shoved into those machines again. Oh beloved..." His clear eyes teared up at the edges. "What are they doing to you as we speak...?"

"Boomer has a Nancy Jane just like Floydien. Too small a world, yes yessss—but it glimmers no more and no less. All is in the boomer's shiny gift, thinks Floydien, and is a good thing for Floydien heads north too."

"Wait... we're..." Pilate felt the jostling motions of the wagon as his hairs stood on end. "We're heading north?"

"Yes yes yesssss... to free Nancy Jane. A most beautiful maiden. They steal her, the stabby stabby horses. Think to do with her what they did to Floydien's antlers; is bad bad glimmer. Boomer helps Floydien free love of his life before they make glimmer of her as they make glimmer of Floydien's antlers."

"H-huh? Sir, I don't know who or what you think I am, but all I want to do is find my beloved and—" Pilate gasped, feeling his barren choker with two hooves. "The sphere! O.A.S.I.S.! It..." His muzzle grimaced. "Spark's fury... it must have broken when I fell." He moaned and covered his face with a pair of hooves. "Bellesmith, help me, I've never felt so blind..."

"Boomer sees, Floydien thinks. Sees with his mind as he smells with his heart. Yes yes yes. Fell to Floydien's glimmer glimmer for a reason, Floydien thinks. Would love to introduce to Nancy Jane. Would also love to make stabby stabby heads explode in string of firecracker farts."

"Wh-what?!"

"North brings us much glimmer glimmer and Nancy Jane. Striped boomer rests until popping skulls."

"Hey! Look... I thank you for taking care of me and all, but I-I don't like the sound of what you're..."

"Shhhhh..." The voice took on a whispery tone as a static energy filled the air above the wagon. "Sleepy is the boomer of stripes and wisdom. The double dark calls to fitful mind to be sharp once more. Yes yes yessss?"

"I'm not sleepy! I have to get off this wagon and find my beloved! I have... have..." Pilate fell under intense drowsiness. "Oh Belle, I am so sorry. So..." His striped head fell to the hay. "So exhausted...."

"Hmmmm... A bristled stone, boomer is," the voice murmured as the wagon rolled faster. "Happy is Floydien not to rip stripes off and wear them for camouflage. Nancy Jane wouldn't approve, would she? Hmmm-hmmm-hmmm..."

With an awkward melody, the voice hummed, carrying Pilate's twitching ears into darkness.

Victory in Defeat

Shell's eye flew open as he woke with a start. He sat in the darkness of a lopsided cabin, a dying candle as his only means of seeing his own pale sweat. With a shudder, he ran his hoof down his scarred face.

Several breaths later, he stood up, hobbling on the metal prosthetic. From extensive wear and tear, the brace was starting to lose its crystaline charge. It chaffed and bent at his still unmended forelimb, sending waves of pain through his body.

Nevertheless, he shuffled his way towards a bright slit, then pushed the doorframe open. His eye squinted into burning daylight as his ears were assaulted by the noise of hammers, power tools, and shouting ponies. Outside, the body of the Steel Wing rested—or at least most of it.

The battle with Rainbow Dash and the subsequent collapse had smashed several chunks in the hull, warping the port side beyond recognition. Currently, the enforcers and remaining crew were working around the clock to salvage the vessel, patch it up, and make it air-worthy once more. Thankfully, the ponies of the Steel Wing were not alone. Several airships hovered low to the burnt, charred-black remains of Foxtaur. Smoke continuously billowed over the south horizon from the smoldering forest as Shell's hooves took him from the shattered deck of his ship to the brown, ashen earth. He walked around crates of supplies that had been dropped off by escort vessels, and he navigated his way through thick groups of ponies sawing at what good trees remained of Foxtaur, converting them into raw planks of wood that could be use to patch the Steel Wing.

From a distance, Shell heard loud whistles and the shouts of stallions as search teams continued combing the burnt woods in search of the enforcers who were lost in the most recent air battle. Already, a pile had been formed of the cracked and shattered remains of managliders excavated from the fire-swept region.

Shell was silent during the entire walk. Through the edge of his vision, he became aware of enforcers glancing at him and immediately looking away as soon as he came within proximity. Despite the heroic efforts of everypony to salvage the ship, their morale was anything but chipper. Jittery anxiety ran through the group, so that their breaths alone kicked the dust and ash of the burnt fire constantly up into the air.

At last, the Prime Enforcer made his way to a row of supply crates that had been erected to form a crude table. Captain Filta had a map stretched out, and he was busy speaking to one group after another as ponies lined up to give reports and receive orders.

"Send two supplies of mana crystals to group ceti," Filta said, telekinetically scribbling onto a scorched piece of parchment. "Hopefully it will let them extinguish the flames so that they can salvage what's left of the fallen Stone Star."

"Aye, sir."

"And tell the east team to finish salvaging the cores out of those gliders!" Filta called out to another pony as he galloped away. "We need those if we're gonna get the Steel Wing back up into the air!"

Shell shuffled up, and Filta's gaze met him.

"Got some rest, I hope, sir..."

"I'll rest when I'm dead," Shell muttered. "What's the progress?"

"You want what I'd tell the Queen or the Honest to Spark truth?"

"You're the last pony on earth I'd expose to any amount of anger, Captain." Shell gestured towards the sheets. "How does it look?"

Filta sighed. "It could have worse. The Steel Wing is missing its central mast for the ballast support, and the hull along the port side is completely smashed. We were lucky to have survived with so many of our crew intact, but it doesn't change the fact that we need to patch up the hull and re-structure the mast or else we are not getting anywhere."

"How long, then?"

Filta took a deep breath, adjusted what was less of his tattered uniform, then said, "Four days. And even that is pushing it, sir. We won't know how well she will fly until we have her up in the air." Filta gestured towards the huge, fallen vessel in between charred lengths of trees. "If we really wanted the vessel to survive another ten years, it needs to be taken into port." He turned and gazed at Shell once again. "Blue Nova is the closest."

"Mmmm... The city is far from the eastern front. They're only equipped for supplying merchant vessels, not battleships."

"The Northern Facility is at least a week's flight from here at the Steel Wing's speed."

"It matters little," Shell said. "That Searonese metal mare could only have taken the target south." Shell's eye pierced the horizon in question. "We're all that lies between the bounty hunter's home and a return trip."

"A return trip?" Filta asked.

"It goes without saying just how tenacious the pegasus is," Shell droned. "She will break loose from her bonds—and when she does, she will head north." He turned and gazed coldly at the Captain. "That's where the only thing precious to her remains, though she'll likely be expecting two precious things."

Filta swallowed and said, "Four days is the best I can promise, sir. Three and a half, but that's assuming we can get the crane lifts up and running."

Shell gazed at the distant pile of managliders being collected. "You're salvaging them for their energy cores, correct?"

"Yes..."

"Would a triple-layered mana conductor assist in getting the cranes operational more swiftly?"

Filta did a double-take. "Well, of course! But the only such battery is being used to operate the communication array with the Council!"

Shell rubbed the fresh, gray stubble forming on his chin. He took a deep breath, gazing lethargically at the shattered husk of the Steel Wing. "Rip it out."

"Sir...?"

"The array is in disrepair. It was damaged too badly in the fall to be fixed."

"Sir, if that was the case, my deckhooves would have reported such to me..."

"I'm giving you my word as a Prime Enforcer..." Shell turned around, his cold eye glinting in the daylight. "It no longer serves us a purpose. Do you understand?"

Filta squinted at him for a few seconds, then gave a knowing breath. "Aye, sir. I understand."

"Good. The sooner we get off the ground, the better," Shell said. His metal prosthetic thumped with renewed vigor as he trotted off to survey the repair teams. "Do not count this day as a loss, Captain. So long as we have half the prize, victory awaits. Our fate now lies in the 'package' being delivered up north..."

Feel the Need

Into the burning crimson haze of the setting sun, three manapowered transports soared. Gliding north, they banked to the left, approaching a line of mountains to the west that rose and rose to join a jagged series of white-capped peaks in the distance. To the east, the haze of a large Ledomaritan city lingered, its alabaster spires turning dark in the shadow of waning daylight.

The three vessels stopped veering, following the left aircraft's lead. Fanning out, they formed a solid line as they threaded their way north.

In the center vehicle, Phoenix sat, his forelimbs bound. A pilot grabbed the controls before him while a gunner sat at the rear, a manarifle aimed at the mustached mercenary's flank at all times.

Phoenix took a deep breath, all the while weathering the wind of speedy flight as the tight squadron skimmed the alpine forests and grassy fields of northern Ledomare beneath them. The only sound was the air continually beating against his ears. He took a forlorn glance to the left.

The flanking aircraft was filled with three Enforcers—one in the pilot's seat, one in the middle, and a third in the gunner's position. Upon noticing the movement of Phoenix's head, both the gunner and the middle stallion glanced at him through the windy currents.

Phoenix jerked his gaze straight ahead, clenching his jaw. After a few minutes of silent riding, his ears flicked, and he braved a glance to his right.

Bellesmith was slumped in the middle of her craft, her head hanging low—almost resting on the flank of the pilot ahead of her. She was too exhausted to keep upright, and yet too wrestless to give into slumber. As the aircraft bobbed and weaved, she limply shook with it. Her face was the utter definition of solemnity—every rising shadow of the dying day accentuated the grayness that had washed over her figure. There was a vacant look to her eyes, accompanied by the soft an inarticulate murmur of mute lips.

Biting his lip, Phoenix stared at her for a minute... two minutes... five. There was something stirring to the right of his vision. He turned his head.

The gunner behind Belle was yawning, stretching even. While his hooves remained tightly bound to the crystal diodes of his station, he had his head hanging—almost as if hypnotized by the limp figure of the mare before him. Fortunately for the other ponies on board the glider, he wasn't the designated pilot.

Phoenix blinked a few times. As the next ten minutes passed, he stirred anxiously, his nostrils flaring as the last shivers melted away from his figure. Suddenly, he was sitting upright, the very model of a proud soldier. He said nothing as he gazed directly ahead of the group.

As the squadron approached a thin forest of sporadic trees below, the burning-bright sunset hid behind sparse clouds. Crimson rays danced through the airspace, allowing the eyes of the pilots to relax for a brief reprieve from the glare.

Belle sighed, her entire body slumped forward against the gliding craft. She tried closing her eyes, but something disturbed her. The mare's lids fluttered open, and she stirred awkwardly, as if a strange itch was overwhelming her figure.

Curious, she flung a look down at herself. Her eyes found their way to the midnight blue saddlebag adorning her figure. It suddenly occurred to her that one of the pouches was open.

No, that wasn't it. The pouch was actually in the process of opening...

A gasp escaped Belle's lips as she saw the dimmest of dim auras encasing the clasp that fastened the pouch shut. With quivering chestnut eyes, she glanced to the left.

Phoenix was looking dead ahead, his face tense with concentration. Unbeknown to the enforcers—but not lost to Belle—was the tiny glow of light emanating from his horn.

Belle's face grimace. Her eyes darted back. She saw the gunner nodding off in her peripheral vision. A stirring sensation flounced through the saddlebag, and she glanced back at Phoenix, her body frozen in place and not daring to move.

Bulbs of sweat began forming on Phoenix's face. From several feet away—in the open air and at high speed—he nevertheless managed to telekinetically reach into the saddlebag.

Belle gulped and mouthed her disapproval, whispering it over and over again in hopes that he would see but none of the other ponies would.

All it took was one movement of Phoenix's eyes—a hardened glare—and the mare silenced herself. She nevertheless squirmed as she felt a heavy weight lifting from her saddlebag. Panting, Belle watched as Rainbow Dash's hatchet slowly, slowly slid out into the open, floating on flimsily maintained telekinesis.

The a ray of sunlight burst through the edges of the cloud and reflected off the blade.

Phoenix paused, his eyes darting to the right.

A reflection bounced off the gunner behind Belle. He stirred slightly, shook his head, and was still again.

Phoenix glowed his horn harder. He gnashed his teeth, forcing the hatchet to float a full foot out from Belle's saddlebag. She looked at him in mixed horror and anticipation. Phoenix looked back; he took a deep breath.

Just then, the faintest of confusted, grunting noises came from the gunner behind Phoenix.

The sun emerged completely from the clouds, blinding everypony for two seconds.

Phoenix wasted no time. With a jerk of the head, he flung his horn to the left.

The hatchet followed suit, ringing through the air. It sliced its way straight towards his neck.

Belle stifled a shriek.

Muscles heaving, Phoenix ducked. The flying hatchet grazed his mane. The gunner behind him, however, wasn't nearly as lucky. The weapon cleaved its way into his eyesockets, embedding into his skull.

The sun's glare faded, and the winds were full of sprinkling blood.

The pilot ahead of Phoenix was the first to look back.

Seething, Phoenix tilted his horn forward. The hatchet flew out of the gunner's gurgling head, twirled, and flew towards the front seat.

The pilot jerked to the side as the hatchet embedded into the hull of the craft. His horn glowed as he reached for a manapistol.

Phoenix was already reaching behind him with his mouth, grabbing the dead gunner's rifle with his teeth.

The pilot spun around, aiming his weapon.

With a grunt, Phoenix slammed his skull with the butt of the rifle.

The pilot flew forward, sprawling onto his controls. Phoenix leapt forward and—with the use of his conjoined forelimbs—wrestled the length of the rifle beneath the pilot's sputtering neck. The two struggled, inadverently knocking aside the controls. Phoenix's transport veered towards the left.

The enforcers in the leftmost craft took notice, but it was too late. The sharp-edged wings of the middle craft surged at them. The pilot and gunner ducked, but the enforcer in the middle was too slow. He was rewarded with instant decapitation.

Phoenix and the pilot jolted in their fight as the manacore of their vessel puttered from the blood being filtered through the engines. With an animalistic snarl, Phoenix slammed the enforcer's skull repeatedly against the control console, sending sparks and fragments of an impacted horn flying.

Meanwhile, the left craft had evened out, in time for the surviving ponies on board to arm the rear turret. The gunner swiveled the manacannon around, aimed over the headless corpse of his wingpony, and fired at Phoenix's figure.

Two hot streams of magic flew past his flank. A third made contact, however with the vessel's rear thrusters. Phoenix and the pilot gasped as the craft bobbed and weaved out of control, ultimately veering to the right.

By this time, the pilot and gunner of Belle's ship were fully awake and aware of the hellish situation. The mare shrieked as they tried swerving out of the way, but the approach of Phoenix's vessel was too swift. The two ships collided, and, with a flash of sparks, the fins built into their wings interlocked. The twin transports swayed and jostled as one, joined at the side.

No less than two seconds after the chaotic collision, the pilot in front of Belle aimed his mana pistol and fired.

Phoenix glanced over and jerked his hooves up instantly. In fortuitous fashion, the magic blast severed the manacles holding his forelimbs together. Barely registering a second thought, Phoenix let loose a war cry and dove off the unconscious body slumped in the front seat of the middle craft.

The pilot in front of Belle grunted as the full weight of the Franzington mercenary fell on him. Both stallions wrestled for the weapon, their bodies already slinging the trajectory of the vessel left and right as its thrusters fought to compensate for the massive vehicle attached to its left side.

Over the noise of the third craft's pursuit, Belle heard a shouting voice. She spun and looked behind.

The gunner was pumping his rifle and aiming a crystal bullet towards the back of Phoenix's head.

Gritting her teeth, Belle swung both of her bound hooves at him with a yelp.

The unsuspecting enforcer took the blow to the mouth, his teeth chipping. He dropped his rifle which clattered loudly over the hull of the tarnsport.

Phoenix heard it from up front. Breathless, he slapped the pilot's hooves against the craft several times until he forced the enforcer to fire a shot from his pistol. The mana blast surged past Belle and into the throat of the gunner behind her. The enforcer clutched at his throat and writhed in agony while Phoenix got the upper hoof of the pilot.

Belle, in the meantime, had her teary eyes locked on the third craft in swift pursuit.

The gunner reloaded the cannons and aimed at the conjoined vehicles. Twin barrels glowed with violent intensity.

Belle flinched, her entire body expecting to burn.

Suddenly, the pilot of the pursuing transport shouted something and pulled back on the controls. The managlider pulled up, gaining swift altitude.

Blinking curiously, Belle looked ahead. She gasped.

The edge of a sharp, rocky hill loomed directly ahead. The two vehicles were soaring straight towards a stone cliff.

She shouted and pointed ahead.

Amidst his struggle, Phoenix glanced forward. He saw it. Reaching past the angry pilot, he snaked a hoof around the controls and yanked hard. The transport's wings tilted, but the other vessel's weight threw them off balance. They pitched seventy degrees upward, angling the abandoned craft towards the earth.

When they hit the cliffside, the empty transport took the brunt of the blow. It shattered completely, tearing off the vehicle and taking a chunk of the wing with it. A buzzing alarm filled the air as Belle and Phoenix's glider roared past the hill and over dense forest, veering into an inescapable spin.

Belle flew into the side of her seat, pressed hard against the inside of the craft from the sheer tug of gravity. She shouted something indiscernible, but Phoenix was too busy trying to break free from the pilot who's flailing body was clinging to him in the cyclonic spin. Finally, the mercenary resorted to pummeling the enforcer several times with merciless bucks to the face. With one final kick—snapping his horn off—he tossed the screaming stallion into the swirling nether of fir trees.

Not affording a breath, Phoenix grabbed at the controls and yanked them so hard that the stick nearly snapped from its console. The aircraft leveled out, but not after spinning three times. When it landed, it did so in the forest canopy, its thrusters dying as the vessel's weight caused three massive trees to bow and dance. The air was full of leaves and pollen, and then—for a briefly blissful second—all of the noise and chaos ended.

Belle panted and panted, shivering in her seat. Just then, the entire aircraft lurched. She shrieked, feeling herself falling into open air. Her eyes rolled back as the fatal height of sixty feet loomed below her. Just as she plunged, an aura of silver telekinesis surrounded her figure. She hovered in mid-air, struggling for a panicked breath. The body of the dead gunner fell past her and splattered like a bag of oats on the forest floor below. Shaking feverishly, she looked up.

Phoenix was perched on the shattered wing of the ship. His face was scrunched up tight as he struggled to lift the entire weight of the mare up. "Just... don't... move..." He hissed, "I got you—"

No sooner did he say this when twin blasts of bright blue mana exploded in the tree right beside them.

Belle shrieked. Phoenix spun and looked over his bloodstained shoulder.

A dot blurred across the burning sun. With a roar of mana engines, it turned out to be the third transport coming in on its murderous approach. The pilot angled the vessel with the target suck in the trees while the gunner reloaded a final roud.

"They're coming..." Phoenix hissed above the hum of the approaching enemy, his horn glowing to the breaking point. "They'll incinerate us."

"We got t-to get down!" Belle stammered, shivering as the entire weight of the vessel lurched once more in the tree. "Please...!"

Phoenix glanced at the gunner's seat, at Belle, then back at the approaching aircraft. "There's no time," he muttered.

"Wh-what?!" she squeaked, then gasped as her floating body was flung towards the branches.

"Grab ahold!" he wheezed, at the breaking point of concentration.

Belle obediently flew her bound forelimbs forward in the nick of time. She clung to a wobbling branch just as his magic field dissipated. "Phoenix, wh-what are you doing?!" her voice cracked.

"Climb down!" He shouted, clawing his way into the lopsided gunner's seat.

"B-but... I can't! Not on my own!"

"Yes you can!" Phoenix shouted, swiveling the turret around. "I'll be right behind you!" He trained the cannon on the approaching glider and slapped the manablasters to life. "Just gotta take care of something first!"

The enemy aircraft screamed closer. Its gunner fired.

Blue streaks ripped past Belle's body, exploding a tree behind them and filling the air with sharp splinters. She fell three feet and clung to a lower branch, her golden body swinging like a pendulum. "Phoenix!"

"I said go!" he howled, returning fire with a surge of blue energy. "Climb faster!"

His blue volley ripped through the air. The vessel veered to the right and fired again.

One blast flew past him. The other impacted the wing to his right. Shrapnel lit the crimson sky as the stuck vessel lurched another twenty degrees off the treetop. "Gaaah!" he shouted, struggling to stay within the precarious gunner's seat.

Down below, Belle gripped tighter to the branches at the entire tree wobbled. Twigs and pinecones fell past her like comets. She was halfway to the bottom and struggling with every limb.

"Come on... come on..." Phoenix spat blood and wiped his chin clean. He swiveled the turret around to follow the body of the aircraft as it veered over the treetops. "One more turn. Face to face. Come on..."

Belle descended as quickly as she could, a task made difficult with her front hooves bound. Her ears filled with the thunder of throttling engines. She looked up, eyes wide.

The enemy craft angled straight once again. The cannons on board glowed intimidatingly.

Phoenix hissed and jerked at the controls, but at his precarious angle, he couldn't get a solid shot on the incoming vessel. His eyes suddenly caught sight of how close the enemy was flying to the tree tops. So, in desperation, he fired a steady stream of blue mana at the trees between him and the attacker.

Rows of wooden trunks exploded in a burning river between them. At last, a burst of splinters erupted just before the craft, blinding the pilot. An audible shriek flew through the air, and the aircraft turned at an awkward angle, coming so low to Phoenix that it almost lopped the mercenary's ears off.

The stuck glider wobbled from the proximity of the careening enemy as Phoenix spun to watch its trajectory.

The enemy craft flew into a cluster of trees, snapped into three pieces, and erupted in a violent fireball of blue energy. Chunks of Ledomaritan metal whizzed and sang through the branches, then were silent.

A gasp of relief burst through Phoenix mouth—and then he yelped as the tree finally gave way from the weight of the transport. Twirling completely upside down, the managlide plunged in free-fall towards the forest below, taking Phoenix with it.

Belle gasped and flinched, her body swallowed up by the shadow of the metal craft.

Just then, the surviving wings of the glider got wedged in the branches of adjacent trees. It snapped still in place, tossing Phoenix out of the gunner's seat.

"Augh!" he grunted, clasping onto the edge of the cannon, his lower legs dangling as the weight of the craft bobbed in its new anchorage. At a tearing noise, he looked up. His eyes twitched to see the body of Belle's tree starting to split down the middle. The craft slid and lerched, preparing to take the trunk of the tree with it.

"Ph-Phoenix!" Belle managed.

"No time!" He swung, swung, and swung his body. With a stifled growl, he flung himself onto a pair of branches above Belle and started feverishly climbing down past her. "Go go!"

"B-but!"

He grabbed her in the crook of his right forelimb and leapt the two of them completely off the tree. "Hold on!"

She clung to him, wincing as they plunged the final twenty feet.

The stallion's face contorted painfully as his horn sparked with the brilliance of an exploding star. He managed to levitate them both just enough to slow their descent. It didn't stop Phoenix legs from collapsing painfully under him as he took the brunt of the fall.

"Aaaah!" he shouted, instantly grabbing at his knees. "Ghhh!"

"Phoenix!" Belle shouted, tugging and pulling at him as the bodies of the trees and the managlider between them started to groan sickly overhead. "Are you okay?"

"I'm f-fine!" he grunted, hobbling forward while Belle supported his shoulder. "Just move! Move!"

The two limped and stumbled their way forward. The trees snapped overhead. Branches littered the ground on either side of them, followed by the massive trunks as it flung the body of the ill-fated glider towards them like a gigantic club. As soon as its mana-core struck the floor, it imploded, sending a frothing wave of hot blue energy outwards, consuming every chunk of wood in the forest.

Belle's and Phoenix's bodies were flown—screaming—by the wave of chaos. They landed separately in the grass, curling up into fetal positions as they were buried by dirt, debris...

And darkness...

A Little Late

With a chorus of coughing breaths, the two ponies crawled their way from the burning line of trees. Belle slumped on the swaying grass of the adjacent field as Phoenix, hobbling, turned to gaze at the wreckage behind them.

There was no remaining pieces of the mana transport to be seen. The forest was being swept over in blue energy and billowing flame. Wooden trunks crackled as they snapped in twain, falling to ashen clumps on the bottom of the burning forest.

He took several breaths, his exhausted body riddled with scrapes and bruises. Nevertheless, he shook his shivers loose with courageous poise and reached a hoof down to the mare. "It's over," he said. "We gotta make for cover someplace that isn't burning."

Belle lay on the ground, shivering.

The mustached stallion gulped and grasped her shoulders to lift her up. "Come on. We gotta go or else scout vessels might see us—"

"Nnngh!" She shook him off with a feral shriek. Scrambling on weak limbs, she scooted away from him and grimaced as she spoke. "Why did you do th-that?! Why did you have to do all of that?!"

"We were their prisoners! The Ledomaritans do not treat their prisoners with respect!" Phoenix exclaimed. "We are property to them! There's nothing to stop them from taking us apart!"

"And that excuses nearly ripping us to shreds with that... th-that ridiculous stunt you just pulled?!" She panted. "What was the whole point, Phoenix?! What are you trying to prove?!"

"Look, I saved us, didn't I?!" He barked, gesturing towards the darkening horizon north of them. "What should I have done?! Allow the enforcers to take us all the way to their hold in the mountains and torture us to death?!"

She gulped and gazed at him with a quivering lip. "And yet, wh-why did you...?"

Phoenix opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. His gaze fell to the windswept grass between them.

She sat up on her haunches and squinted menacingly at him. "Where was that courage... that tenacity and resolve when we needed it?! Before you let those evil ponies attack your closest comrades?! Before you let them chase down Rainbow Dash?! Before you let them capture me and... a-and..." Her face melted as she covered her muzzle and collapsed into sobbing heaves. "My b-beloved... Nnnnghhh-Uhhhhh! Oh Spark, spare me... oh bl-blessed Spark..."

Phoenix bit his lip. He trotted gently over and laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Belle... I..."

"Get away from me!" she shrieked, shoving him violently off of her. She stood up on teetering limbs, her frowning face awash with tears. "I don't need your help! I never did! I never asked for it!" She heaved and spat, "Don't you see?! You've ruined everything! Evrerything! And it's... it's f-far too late to bring back anything that is special to me!" She hyperventilated, running two trembling hooves through her disheveled mane. "You c-can't bring back Pilate. You can't bring back the love and j-j-joy of my life! Why didn't you just let the Ledomaritans carry us for our doom?! It would have made everything simpler!"

"You know I can't do that!" he shouted into the shadows of the dying day. "Belle, I'm sorry for what I did! They blew Zenith's head off and threatened my family! I was scared and I was stupid and I am sorry—"

"If you are sorry..." She glared at him, her lungs roaring through her raspy throat. "If you are truly, truly humble, then you will leave me alone..."

'But Belle—"

"Leave!" she howled at him, her voice echoing against the burning trees lining the field. "I don't want your help... I don't want your last second heroics... I don't want to see you ever again!" With quivering lungs, she spun from him and limped off in a southeasterly direction, sobbing the entire time.

Phoenix gazed after her. He almost made a move to pursue the mare, but instead he slumped to his haunches, his face long and encumbered by weak lines. Closing his eyes, the bruised Enforcer sat perpetually alone in the field, surrounded by the meager sounds of his own shuddering breaths.

Light Your Way

Into the shadows of falling night, Bellesmith stumbled, alone and breathless. Even if she could see the path ahead of her, her sight would likely be blurred by the myriad of tears flowing out from her chestnut brown eyes. She sobbed openly, allowing her wailing voice to be carried in the cold winds blurring over the grassy Ledomaritan countryside.

She tilted her head up, lips quivering, and spied the stars flexing and spinning above her. Between blinks, she saw another life through a rosy-colored lens, filled with warm colorful faces, bright skies, merry songs, and friendly laughter.

She had lived between the ghostly parentheses of Rainbow Dash's past. Not once did Belle think that she'd ever truly relate to the daring pegasus' present.

Nevertheless, she closed her eyes, blissfully drowning herself in those colors. She imagined a mysterious land named Equestria, a place where ponies lived in harmony with nature, instead of warring murderously with one another. How odd it seemed that a place with such peace and tranquility could exist; how much more appropriate it was that such a thing would forever be alien to her, just as it had become alien to Rainbow Dash herself.

For a moment, she flew—just like the pegasus. However, when Belle's eyes reopened, she remembered that she didn't have any wings, so there was nothing to save her as she plunged blindly over the sharp edge of a steep hill.

"Ah!" Belle shrieked. The stars were apathetic to her resulting tumble. She rolled and spun and veritably cartwheeled downhill, finishing only when her body bumped brusquely into a dune of shifting soil. As soon as she came to a stop, the unclasped pouch of her saddlebag flew open.

Stirring painfully, Belle slowly sat up. She gazed down at the multiple contents lying in disarray. They were not her things, but they belonged to a lifeless phantom nonetheless. She picked up one artifact after another, imagining Rainbow Dash's hooves having grazed the surfaces of the objects on dozens if not hundreds of occasions. She sighed when she folded the shredded remnants of a canvas blanket. She cracked a weak smile as she balanced a fragile pair of goggles in her hooves.

Then... her forelimbs cradled a book. From the touch of its rough texture, she knew without looking that the binding was dark green. However, the other haunted memories attached to the object were flimsy, fading away with each millisecond. She wasn't sure what motivated her, but she dared herself to open the book in trembling hooves.

The first of several glossy faces stared at her. She knew that the friendly ponies were bright and colorful, but it was too dark under the Ledomaritan sky to see so much as a single hue. Instead, every image of every face flickered beneath her in monochromatic haze, and when she flipped through the pages in rapid fashion, they resembled black and white stripes.

That was when she utterly collapsed. Belle hugged the book to her chest, hyperventilated, and sobbed until the tears soaked every end of her golden face. She cried until the pain had risen out of her lungs and burned its way into her throat and mouth, reminding her of the lips she would never again have the grace of touching, of the voice that would no longer whisper lovingly into her ears.

Several minutes passed, and her body had begun rocking, attempting to shake loose the dead past that belonged to her and Rainbow Dash all the same. It was exhaustion that persuaded her—and not sorrow—to finally relinquish hold of the book. So, with gentle grace, she reached back, opened the saddlebag, and slid the book in.

Belle froze.

Something inside the saddlebag was glowing.

A breath escaped her, the first solid exhale since she had begun sobbing like a lost little filly. She jabbed a hoof in and pulled out what turned out to be another book. This tome was also familiar, though it did not belong to Rainbow Dash—much less any pony—until just recently.

It was the ancient item that Belle's friend had grabbed from the pegasus skeleton deep in the cave just west of Foxtaur, though Belle was at a lost to recognize it. The binding was glowing, more specifically: a single symbol was growing. To Belle's studious eyes, it appeared to be a curved lantern shape with half the body of a solar crest on the top, separated by a jagged line in the center from a segmented crest on the bottom. She remembered the symbol from one of Pilate's many studies, only now it was glowing with bright, lavender luminescence.

"What... is this...?"

She tilted it higher, as if the starlight could somehow intensify the phenomenon better. To her surprise, the lavender glow dissipated.

"Huh?"

She lowered the book back, and she saw the symbol glowing again. Belle blinked, then resorted to pivoting the book left and right. She found that when she was aiming the book northeast, the symbol glowed the brightest, as if with some divine purpose.

Her brow furrowed, Belle glanced up towards the northeast horizon.

At first, she thought that she was staring at the dark outline of mountains in the haze of the Milky Way. But, as lights appeared in the heights of it—including several that were floating—she realized that it could only be the same urban sprawl that she had seen during her captive flight there.

"A maretropolis..." She thought aloud. She gulped. "Blue Nova. It has to be."

She glanced at the distant shape on the horizon, then back at the lavender resonance of the book in her grasp.

"What... in spark's name could be so important there?"

Several seconds passed. A minute. Three minutes.

There was no more time to sob, think, or doubt. With a tight-jawed expression, Bellesmith slid the book back into her saddlebag, stood up, and began trotting briskly forward, cutting a willful path through the darkness, heading towards the city on the horizon...

And towards purpose...

The Disillusioned Ones

"Fasterrrr! Fasterrrrrr, poniessss!" A diamond dog paced over the deep pit of crystals, lashing a whip over the flanks of several sweat-stained stallions hard at work. "You wantttttt to eat?! Then dig harder!"

Josho grumbled, his horn aching as he levitated the power drill at a slanted angle and pounded away at the base of a giant, sapphiric shard. "What I wouldn't give for a can of kibble and some arsenic right about now..."

"Shhhh!" Eagle Eye insisted, squatting just a few feet away from the heavy-set stallion. The purple binding of their manacles shimmered between them as the petite mercenary continued chipping away at a cluster of crystals with his pick-axe. "I'm trying to clear out this wall here..."

Josho flashed an incredulous look to his left. "The heck do you think you're doing?"

"You heard those 'Thrillas.'"

"'Killas.'"

"Whatever. They're gonna punish us if we don't get this pit cleared out." Eagle Eye licked the edges of his lips as he carefully plucked one stone out after another. "I, for one, plan on eating before I die of not eating."

"It's been dark for over an hour now. Night has long fallen," Josho grumbled over the roar of his engine. He sweated and struggled with the device, his stubbly muzzle awash with sweat. "I seriously doubt they're gonna throw us a bone that they haven't chewed on already."

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Eagle Eye murmured aside. "Who enslaves ponies at this hour?"

"Jeee, I dunno. Why don't you go take it up with the bellhop in the damned lobby?!"

"No talkinggggg!" A passing dog slashed a whip across Josho's shoulder. "Only digging!"

"Augh... I hear ya, Fido! I hear ya!" Josho glared over his shoulder. "Why don't ya save it for a flank less blubbery than mine so that the pony can feel it?!"

The dog gave an indignant snort. He looked ready to whip the Enforcer even harder, when a wave of crystalline filament flew towards him. He immediately retrated, scaling the edge of the pit and slapping a breathing mask over his face. Breathing safely, he escaped the settling layer of glittering sediment.

Josho paused in operating his power tool, squinting curiously at that. "That's funny. These are diamond dogs. One would think they'd be used to the earth's farts in all of those mangy tunnels they dig..."

"Ungh!" Eagle Eye groaned as he inadvertently chipped a pristine crystal in half. "Didn't I say to stop yapping?! Now look what you made me do..."

"The heck is your deal, kid?" Josho hissed at him. "There's no need to be so damn exact! You're supposed to be their slave, not their homemaker."

"In your book, those two probably count as the same," Eagle Eye grunted.

"Oh, hardy har hary..." Josho spat and rammed the power tool deep into the rocky wall. "You can't afford to be delicate here, sissy saddle! All these drooling buckets of butt loogeys want is for us to break rocks, not practice sculpting. The moment they catch you wasting precious time, they'll have your guts for garters."

"Hmmph..." Eagle Eye smirked. "Bet that'd make your life a lot easier."

"Kid, I could have flattened you into a pulp hours ago if I so much as sneezed wrong."

Eagle Eye raised his pickaxe and glared over his shoulder at him. "Then what's stopping you?"

"I don't know the rules of this pathetic place!" Josho hissed, once again glancing at the patrolling canines. "These Killas aren't acting just like any normal pups! What's more, I think... I know it's strange, but I think they're scared crap-less by the rocks we're digging up. Who ever heard of that?"

"It doesn't matter," Eagle Eye spat, chiseling away at more pieces of reflective stone. "We're prisoners, and we'll probably die as such." He clenched his chin and paused in chiseling. "Is it such a crime that I wanna do so with dignity and my belly full?"

"Yeesh. No wonder you deserted the Queen's forces, ya friggin' wuss."

The air sang from Eagle Eye swinging the pickaxe until it rested against Josho's nose. "I didn't abandon the front because of cowardice!" He frowned. "To have given in blindly to orders would have been the mark of a true weakling. Thankfully, I had a marvelous, strong, family-devoted stallion to inspire me to greatness! But he's gone now! And everything that ever mattered to me is gone with him! All thanks to you and stupid jerks like you who value murder over... m-murder over..." Eagle Eye's lids fluttered as he tilted forward.

Josho actually gasped as he caught the teetering stallion in the crook of his left limb. "Spark's crapping, kid!" he wheezed as he flashed a nervous look behind him. "This ain't no time for the friggin' vapors! Get up or I'm gonna shove that pickaxe straight down your throat until it becomes a bookend on the other side!"

"I... I-I don't know what's happening..." Eagle Eye teetered back onto all fours, his eyes bleary. "The crystals..."

Josho cleared his throat, nodding. "Yeah. I think something's in them. I don't know what it's doing to us, but it's obviously something those Killas don't wanna get close enough to pee on."

"Why w-would they do this?" Eagle wheezed, summoning the strength to whack away at the wall with the pickaxe again. "Why run us into the ground?"

"Their prison is on tank treads. Whatever it is they're after, they're not sticking around in one place to clean up after themselves." Josho shuddered. "Or our bodies..."

Once more, a whip cracked nearby.

"Stupid poniesssss! We told you to digggg!"

Grumbling, Josho hammered away at the crystalline wall. "I'm not sure how much friggin' more of this I can stand."

"Well..." Eagle Eye nevertheless managed to sing-song as he swung the pick-axe once more. "You know what they say. 'Where there's a whip, there's a—'"

"Shut your banana hole!" Josho hissed, his eyes blood red. "You shut it right now!"

Left, Right, Left

"Why's he squriming around so much?"

"Shh! You crackflank! You'll wake him up! Besides, he's probably drifting in and out of the magic plains."

"The magic plains?"

"Yeah! It's where all unicorns go to gallop together when they sleep. You see, they all share the same dream cuz their thoughts connect through their horns and stuff."

"No way!"

"Yes way. That's how they're able to build such large armies and take over countries and stuff!"

"You... d-do you think he's come to invade us?"

"I dunno, Nexx. But I'll protect you if he tries to attack us—"

There was a heavy set of footsteps across the cabin.

Roque and Nexx spun from where they stood in a bedroom, flanking a mattress where a pained Crimson lay in his sleep. The door-curtain parted ways, revealing Tweak. The crystal stallion's body still twinkled from the starlight he had absorbed during his trek outside. He took one look at the two antsy colts in front of his guest and grumbled.

"Don't you two have better to do than stirring up a commotion?"

"We're not stirring up anything!" Roque exclaimed. "Honest, Pa!"

"Nexx was telling me about the Magic Plains!"

"Shhhh!"

"Well you were!"

"Get! Both of you..." Tweak pointed towards the main body of the cabin. "Go talk to Ma, then head on to bed."

"Awwwwww..."

"I mean it. You're up late enough as it is."

"We could have stayed up later if you hadn't opened your shimmering mouth," Roque muttered.

"Hey!" Nexx hissed.

Tweak watched them pass by. He closed the curtain behind them, flexed his stony joints, then turned towards Crimson. Marching over, he carried a bucket of wood over to a stove and fed a few more tiny logs into the warming fire.

"Nnnngh... mmf... Rainbow..."

One of Tweak's shiny ears twitched. He turned and gazed over his shoulder.

"H-heading south..." Crimson murmured, tossing and turning. "Must... c-catch Rainbow..."

"I'm afraid it's nighttime, sir," Tweak uttered, closing the stove with a naked, burn-proof hoof. "That would be rather difficult without sunshine or a rainstorm."

Crimson's eyes squinted open. He gazed curiously at the bedroom that he was in and the covers over his figure. "Wh-where am I?"

"Aurum Province," Tweak said. "The western reaches, to be more specific."

Crimson gulped and tried sitting up under the covers. He failed. "I can't honestly say that I have heard of it."

"Hardly a surprise," Tweak remarked, shoving Crimson back down with a firm hoof. "There isn't much here in Aurum that's worth your conquering, unless you want to get involved in the politics of Killas and Searonese."

With a shudder, Crimson said, "I am not Ledomaritan..."

"Then why were you flying south from the Confederacy?" Tweak squatted beside the bed with a suspicious leer. "Did you have a reason to escape their airspace? Are you a prisoner of sorts?"

Crimson bit his lip and stirred. "I... very well am one, in a s-sense..."

Tweak's eyes narrowed. The next comment came out of him like a wad of spit: "You're a deserter."

"I am alive," Crimson said. "And possessing a great deal more honor and pride than most ponies." He stirred under the covers until he lifted his dismembered limb. His eyes went thin as he observed the bandages over the shivering stub. "I... tr-try and tell myself that it is worth it."

Tweak said, "My wife and I have had experience in treating unicorn wounds before. There was once a Ledomaritan company sent down here to drive out the Diamond Dog gangs. They hung around for as long as their Queen saw it fit, and then they were dragged north to fight the tattooed horde." His crystalline nostrils flared. "To say the least, they didn't quite finish the job. We've been hounded by the... hounds ever since."

"The Confederacy has become a huge weapon of war," Crimson murmured. "Weapons don't think."

"Is that why you abandoned your superiors?"

"No!" Crimson briefly growled, then calmed down a bit. He gazed thinly at Tweak. "I abandoned my superiors because I couldn't abandon my fellow stallions. We were in a place where we were told to do the unspeakable to innocent ponies, and it was my job to get them home."

"Well, from the looks of things, that didn't exactly turn out well for you," Tweak muttered.

Crimson grimaced, avoiding his gaze as his eyes softened. "No... and neither did some of my soldiers."

"You were a Captain, then?"

"I was a brother," Crimson murmured. "A comrade and a friend." He clenched his jaw as a frown crossed his features. "I was too trusting, and two of my soldiers betrayed me because of it. I failed them, and I failed myself."

Tweak's glittering brow furrowed as he rubbed his chin. "Hmmmm..."

Crimson weakly looked up at him.

Tweak saw the glance, and he said, "I have not known a warrior of Ledo to admit failure so easily."

"I am not from the Confederacy," Crimson hoarsely emphasized. "I am from Franzington."

"Never heard of it."

"I intend for it to stay that way," Crimson uttered with a nod. "I have discovered too many terrible things in this world that would gladly rip the place apart. I would be there now, if it wasn't for... for..." His voice trailed off, as did his eyesight.

Tweak said, "A friend of yours was captured, I'm guessing." He pointed out the window. "Carried south to Searo."

Crimson nodded. "Out of everypony I've fought to protect, she's the only one I know to still be alive. A bounty hunter named Roarke carried her away from a battle and into her ship. I saw the pegasus dangling from the snares of the metal mare's vessel."

"Pegasus?" Tweak remarked.

Crimson went on: "She's on a journey that's bigger than anything I've ever done in my life," Crimson wheezed. "And because of my stallions, that's all been shattered. I have to free her. I owe it to her to make up for my mistakes..."

"And what of your home? Do you have a family?" Tweak squinted. "Surely you owe it to them to return..."

"And what would I be when I returned?" Crimson muttered. "I've... I've lost so much..." He covered his face with his remaining forelimb and winced. "So many resources... so many stallions... so many good friends and..." He shuddered. "Rainbow Dash was right. It's possible to be too loyal. I... I should have been selective. I should have turned strangers away and made sacrifices, like a good leader."

Tweak glanced at Crimson, then at the bed that he was in. "I... always figured that sincere hospitality was what made good souls out of ponies."

"And I-I thank you for taking care of me," Crimson muttered. "But... I've crashed the managlider, and now Rainbow Dash is beyond reach. It's the last failure... the final straw..." His tired eyes reflected starlight as he gazed melancholically towards the window. "There is nothing left to me. When I return home, my wife and foals will try to love me, but all they'll embrace is a husk, empty of promise and warmth and..." He gritted his teeth, hissed slightly, then murmured, "Eagle Eye... Phoenix... Z-Zenith.... You could have had so much more. I'm sorry. I'm so... so sorry..."

He fell asleep before the grown stallion could come close to crying. Even in slumber, his breathing was fitful.

Tweak looked at him. Stretching his legs, he walked out of the bedroom with a sigh. "I don't know who you are, but I'm sorry too, my friend..."

Rainbow Dash Prime

"Mmmmf... b-but you got it all wrong..." Rainbow Dash's lips moved as she squirmed on the floor in her armor. "Spitfire... I j-just want her autograph. That's all..."

With a loud clash of noise, the entire ship shook.

Rainbow Dash's ruby eyes flew open. She hopped up—only to bang her prismatic head against the roof of the slender vessel's interior. "Gaaah!" She slumped down onto the nearby bench, rubbing her skull with a metal-laced hoof. "Uggh... right. This. I forgot about this."

"About time you woke up," Roarke grumbled as she piloted the vessel in a southeasterly direction. "Now maybe things will be quieter."

"Quieter?" Rainbow's brow furrowed. "Wait... speaking of which, what was that noise just now—?"

The ship rocked again, this time producing a sharp yelp from Rainbow as she clung to the shuddering hull of the craft.

"Yup..." Roarke hissed, her lenses pistoning in and out as she navigated a barrage of flak. "They're happy to see me."

"They?!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "Who're they?"

"The guardians of Searo Peak," Roarke droned. "We've been greeted."

Rainbow made a face, wincing from the sharp pain still shooting through her left side beneath all the armor. "You call that a greeting? They're trying to kill us!"

"I doubt they think we're anything but fellow warriors returning home."

"Why's that?"

Roarke's lips curved. "Because we haven't flown away yet." She slapped a lever and a porthole rotated open besides Rainbow. "Feast your eyes, sister."

Rainbow Dash blinked. She turned and glanced over her shoulder. "Oh... Hello..."

Roarke's ship wasn't the only vessel to be flying towards their destination. Several other mana-powered aircraft were roaring towards the same location, namely the top of a jagged series of rock spires that protruded from the dull morning mists. Perched upon the mountain like the top to a Hearth's Warming tree, a gigantic stone fortress loomed, armed with an insane array of cannons powered by flickering teslacoils. Lights streaked left and right as armored equines with mana-driven rocketpacks soared from one part of the stronghold to the other. Patrol ships orbited the summit with open platforms, upon which metal mares studied the incoming vessels from afar and fired warning shots whenever it suited them. One by one—with the sound of roaring engines—the vessels of bounty hunters returned from their prowl, lugging cargo—both alive and not—as they decelerated and glided their way into one of several gaping hangar bays.

"On the hoofrest, behind you," Roarke said.

Rainbow Dash blinked, being snapped out of her hypnotic gaze on their destination. "Huh?"

"There's a helmet," Roarke said. "Put it on."

"What?!" Rainbow frowned. "No way! I told you—I'm not gonna be one of your spoils of the hunt!"

"Unnnnghhhh..." Roarke groaned as she piloted the vessel slowly into a hangar. She landed the craft with a hiss and flipped a lever, shutting down the forcefield between the cockpit and the rest of the vessel. She swiveled around in the air, stood up, and marched towards Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow squatted in a fighting pose, her muscles coiling up. "That's right! You want a rematch?! I don't care if we have to Montrot Screwjob it in a sardine can! Make your move!"

"My move..." Roarke grabbed the helmet herself. "Is to get you to Imre." She tossed it at Rainbow.

"Ooomf!" Rainbow caught it awkwardly, her eyes blinking. "H-huh?"

"Think about it, feathernipples!" Roarke leaned in, hissing. "Would I really, really go through the effort of slapping so much armor on your blue keister—in the middle of my very own ship—just to go round six against a mare with her left wing broken?"

Rainbow frowned at her with squinting eyes. "Stranger things have been known to happen."

"Don't I friggin' know it." Roarke slapped a piece of metal to the back of her head. It attached to her metal plugs with a hiss, then wrapped around her mane and skull like a metal canteloupe, turning into a helmet. Soon, only her mouth was exposed beneath the red and black sheen. "Now get your flank suited up. I won't ask another time. The only thing shorter than my patience is the fuse of the dockmasters." She slapped a metal muzzle-piece over her mouth, and her voice now had a muffled, metallic ring. "By the way, they're waiting for us to trot out before they blow this vessel to Searo's harem in the sky. So let's move."

Roarke opened the door to the vessel and marched out with a clanking of metal hooves.

Rainbow Dash lingered behind, squirming in her metal suit. She glanced at the helmet, then winced as another wave of pain throttled through her left side.

"Nnnngh... why do I feel like I'm getting prepared for a rusted slumber party?"

She eventually slapped the helmet over her head, covering her spectral mane. Swiveling about, she trotted towards the ship's exit.

"Huh... y'know, this doesn't feel so bad—"

She proceeded to slam her skull against the doorframe.

"Augh! Lunapoop!"

Rainbow and Pillage

"You must march behind me at all times," Roarke grumbled into her helmet as she marched swiftly through the broad, cacophonous hangar full of manaships, bounty hunters, and repair equipment. "If you have any questions, direct them to me, or else you might lose a limb... or worse."

"Uh, yeah... I-I have a question," Rainbow Dash muttered, stumbling to catch up in the loose, oversized plates of armor. "Why doesn't my helmet have a mouth piece to cover the lower muzzle?" Her exposed teeth winced. "I feel like a friggin' Wonderbolt initiate here."

"I've no clue what an insufferable 'Wonderbolt' is, but that's not too far from the truth."

"Huh?"

"You're a half-blade."

"I'm a wh-what now?"

"A metal mare in training," Roarke uttered, glaring ahead of the two of them through her red and black helmet visor. "It'll explain the noticeable lack of mana-plugs along your exposed coat."

"So how come I gotta be such a sucky thing as a jerk-in-training?"

"No two metal mares occupy the same ship," Roarke said. "And if you were my prisoner, you'd have been processed as soon as you stepped out of the ship."

"Aren't I your prisoner though?"

"Follow me," Roarke merely grunted. "Imre's station is this way, deeper into the mountain."

"For the love of parasprites!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, trying to tilt her helmet straight. "Why won't you just explain yourself?! What's all this about? Why are you trying to help me—"

"Shhh!" Roarke hissed. "Metal Mares approaching. Remember—Do not talk."

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash bumped into Roarke's flank.

Roarke was busy assuming a rigid posture, her armor glistening in the overhanging lights above. "Good hunting, sisters!" she shouted in a voice that resonated with metal and menace. "Spill much blood for Searo!"

"Blood for Searo!" Several of the ponies shouted, each wearing a uniquely different suit of armor, armed to the spikes with mana-powered weaponry. "Let all who resist her spirit tremble!" As soon as they trotted by Rainbow, however, they paused, and the first one slammed her hoof into Rainbow's chest.

"Daaah!" She collapsed to her front elbows. Wheezing, she grunted, "You jerk! What was that f—"

"Shhh!" Roarke hissed, then tilted her helmet towards the passing mares. "Forgive the half-blade. She is not exactly quick yet."

"Hah hah hah!" one mare's voice shouted metalically as she passed by the first. "Well, she will learn soon!"

"L-learn what?" Rainbow stammered, only to receive another heavy blow to her helmet. "Aaagh!"

As the mares marched off to their vessels, Roarke's hooves resumed trotting. "Let us continue."

"The frig was that all about?!" Rainbow Dash grunted, hobbling after her. "I mean, I'm not surprised that every pony here is as female doggish as you, but c-come on!"

"I guess I forgot to mention," Roarke said, stifling a chortling breath. "It's tradition that a half-blade and a metal mare exchange blows upon meeting, so as to teach the apprentice to be on her guard."

Rainbow turned to look at Roarke. "On her guard against what?"

"Blood for Searo!" another mare shouted, swiping Rainbow's hooves out from under her with a prehensile metal tail.

"Grrrkk!" Rainbow fell on her left side and stung all over. "Ow ow ow ow ow owwwww..."

"Get up. You're coming across as weak."

"Yeah?" Rainbow sputtered, remaining curled up on the floor. "And what of it?"

"The other huntresses may be tempted to roast you in your own armor and feed your congealed flesh paste to the quarray eels below."

"H'okay!" Rainbow sprung to her hooves and bounced after Roarke. "Where to... uh... m-mentor?"

"Hmmm..." Roarke hummed as the two passed through a sliding stone door and into a grand hallway lit by torches and levitating manaspheres. The air was hot and thick, filled with the reverberating cries of angry mares shouting at one another, punctuated every now and then by the sound of bodies being pile-driven into the concrete.

The sound of energy weapon fire echoed down the grand corridor. Rainbow Dash flinched, her armor rattling as she glanced every which way. She saw the heads of creatures—some of them once potentially sentient—erected on pikes in front of a leatherworker's hovel. A half-blade mare was being tossed violently out of a weapons shop, her body being subsequently pummeled by older equines, laughing at her plight. Finally, a grand tavern loomed, complete with mares toasting mugs of brew while engaging into various arguments, stories, and tales of the hunt with one another.

"Y'know... all things considered, it's only half-bad," Rainbow Dash muttered.

As if on cue, a loud noise filled the room. She turned and gasped to see a bloodsoaked manticore charging directly down the corridor. Roarke stepped out of the way without saying a word. Blinking for a few seconds, Rainbow Dash witlessly followed suit. A herd of armored mares charged after the panicked beast's tail, shouting with adrenaline and bloodlust. One metal mare skidded to a stop, pivoted, and slammed Rainbow Dash upside the helmet.

"Aaaaugh!"

"Blood for Searo!" the mare pumped a hoof and tore after the manticore once again, shouting bloody murder.

"Nnnngh—Mmmf!" Rainbow Dash flung her helmet off and flashed Roarke a furious glare with a whip of her sweat-stained mane. "Okay, this is stupid! Gimme that rocket pack thingy of yours and I'll go see Imre myself."

"Put... the helmet... back on..." Roarke grunted.

"Why?! So these punks can play pedestrian polo with me some more?! I don't think so!"

"If you don't help me help you..." Roarke's helmet flickered red as she pivoted coldly to face her. "I will infiltrate the deepest facilities of the Confederacy. I will rummage through the most secret files of the Council of Ledo. After learning when and where they found you, I shall proceed—without fail—to retrace every step, stumble, flight, leap, and bound that brought you here. I will find your home, no matter how deeply nestled it may be in this Searo-forsaken earth. And then, when I have found everything or everyone you pretend to care for, I will grab each and every one their heads and bring them here and trade them for brothel money."

Rainbow Dash merely snorted at that. "Hah! As if! I've traveled thousands and thousands of miles, buckethead! Not even a pony as angry and grumpy as you could do such a thing!"

Roarke glared at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash glared back.

Roarke glared...

Rainbow Dash blinked. She bit her lip.

Roarke's helmet tilted forward. "Put... it back... on..."

"Uh... goingbackonmyheadnow." Rainbow squeaked, slapping the article once more over her skull.

"You think wisely," Roarke droned, turning to trot down the corridor again.

"Nah..." Rainbow's body shuddered as she stumbled after the metal mare. "I'm just suddenly thinking about a chicken with its head cut off..."

"Of all the insufferable wastes of mana-cores!" a voice boomed across the epic hallway. "Roarke! You backstabbing daughter of a lone stud!"

"Unnghmmmmfff..." Roarke's bobbing head suggested a pair of lensed eyes that were rolling under her helmet. "Searo spare me," she grunted. "Terra..."

Rainbow's head leaned to the side. "Who's Terra?" A massive, cedar-trunk of a limb shoved her aside. "Waaaugh!"

As Rainbow's body crashed against a rattling torch, a gigantic equine loomed a good three feet above Roarke's helmet, staring down at her with wickedly bladed shoulders. "Did you or did you not owe five bounties since the last time I saw you, runt?!" The massive pony shouted, her voice deeper than any male whom Rainbow had heard in ages. "Huh?!"

Roarke bravely stared up at the behemoth. "Just one, Terra."

The blade-armored pony shook, raised a hoof... and slapped it amicably on Roarke's shoulder. "Bwa ha ha ha!" she bellowed. "That means I'm still ahead of you! Hah! Glory be to Searo!" Her helmet unfolded down the center, metallically framing a grinning face with heavy cheekbones and a bronze-plated monocle over the left eye. "I will reach Top Spear before you, worm! Just you wait and see!"

Roarke returned the gesture, exposing just her lensed eyes and crooked attempt at a grin. "Do not bite off more than you can chew, Terra. I have much meat to scrounge up in Confederate Country."

"Bah! The Queen's ponies are a bunch of sissy fillies who know nothing of honor! They hide behind their zeppelins and manacannons. You'll have to spend a century combing their wasteland for a single prey worthy of the hunt!"

"I like a challenge," Roarke said. She leaned forward and hissed, "Unlike some mares whose flanks are bigger than their brains."

"Rrggghhh!" Terra's entire left limb converted into a mana-sparkling mace. "Was that an insult, Roarke?!"

"Yes," Roarke returned. "And a great deal better than you've ever thought up, you big dumb ox."

Terra snarled, growled—and then that growl turned into a long, wheezing laugh. "Haaaa ha ha ha! You are best and the worst all at once, runt! I almost wished you had joined us on the Aurum hunt!"

"Aurum?!" Roarke spat on the ground. "Who would waste their valuable resources on a bunch of living, jaded gemstones?"

"Not all of them are jaded, little worm!" Terra replied with a smirk. "Why, that province holds many treasures. Why, just last week, Aeterna returned with ample bounty! Thanks to her, Searo's Hold has seen light for another decade!"

"This, I have to learn more about. Where is Aeterna?"

"On another hunt. She's so impatient, she neglected to upgrade her ship. Bah!" Terra spat on the ground. "I don't know how she ever became full blade!"

"Perhaps the spirit of Searo propels her heart."

"But not her mind!"

"And how are you a judge of that?"

"Haah haah haah! Oh! That reminds me..." Terra leaned forward, squinting. "While you were in Ledomare, did you hear of this most peculiar bounty involving a winged horse?"

Roarke gazed blankly. "A winged horse?" She heard the stirring sounds of Rainbow Dash getting up beside her. With nostrils flaring, Roarke didn't break her gaze. "Now you are truly full of wasted grime, Terra."

"I kid you not!" Terra grinned. "The bounty is said to be quite exceptional! Even if it's a fanciful wild goose chase, it begs the question: is that why you've been gone all this time, runt? Chasing phantoms in Ledomare?"

Rainbow Dash shook the cobwebs out of her head. While the two metal mares spoke, she heard a gasping—almost whimpering sound to her left. She glanced over and spotted several frail bodies besides a torchlit bazaar. At first, she thought that she was looking at shorn sheep. Then, upon further squinting, she realized that they were ponies—stallions, and all of them with their coats cut noticeably short. There manes were completely shaven, right down to the stubble, and they shivered on the end of several lengths of rattling chain.

As Rainbow watched, a fully armored metal mare marched up to the scene and hoofed a cluster of bits over to a vendor. After a few words were exchanged, the bounty hunter pointed at a stallion off to the far right. A rope of chain was unlatched from a pole and hoofed to her. She fastened it to her armor and trotted off. The one stallion stumbled to get up on weak knees. He glanced over, his soft brown eyes reflecting Rainbow's figure in a glossy shine—and then he yelped as he was forced to trot after the mare along the way towards an adjacent corridor.

Rainbow Dash bit her exposed lips. She didn't realize that she was backtrotting from the sight until she heard the voices of Roarke and Terra exploding behind her.

"Well, be on the look out, runt!" Terra turned on massive limbs, smiling. "You never know just what you might run into! Here's hoping I run into it first! Hahah! I need the bounty!" She stumbled directly into Rainbow Dash. Tilting her exposed face down, she growled, "Watch where you stand, paltry half-blade—"

"Ohnoyoudon't—" Without thinking, Rainbow Dash spun around and slammed both hooves across Terra's face. "Nnnngh!" She followed this with a left jab, a right, and then a full-on head-butt. "Raaaugh! Hah! How's that for... tr-training..." She shrunk back, gulping.

Terra stood above her, massive, muscular, and unfazed. Her eyes narrowed. With one hoof, she yanked Rainbow up until she dangled in her grasp. "You better watch where you spot to crap, half-blade, or else I'll be waiting with a grenade to blow your mana-core out!" Terra blinked. She yanked Rainbow's muzzle forward and kissed her savagely on the lips. "Mmmmm—!!"

"Snkkktt—" Rainbow hissed and sputtered.

"Muah!" Terra dropped Rainbow Dash on her hooves like a toy soldier. "Hah! Tastes like starlight! Think I'm ready to spill blood!" She closed her helmet and galloped away, knocking over a plate of armor and nearly setting fire to one of the torch-lit columns.

"Hmmph..." Roarke stood besides a dazed Rainbow Dash. "Well, that was certainly close. Quick thinking on your end, if you ask me."

Rainbow Dash merely stared after the thundering equine. Suddenly, she winced, clutching at her left side. "Ow! Dang it! Ow ow ow owwww..."

"What?" Roarke flinched, almost showing concern. "What is it now?"

"Ughh... Nothing..." Rainbow Dash hissed throuch clenched teeth as she gazed Roarke's way. "Can we pleeeeease go see this 'Imre' pony so I can get my wings fixed, already?"

"Hmmph..." Roarked motioned with her helmeted head and trotted towards a stairwell at the end of the grand hall. "Follow me. And remember, stay close."

"Feh. I think you girls have a different definition of 'close.'"

"Don't push it."

Grow a Pair

Her voice was muffled as she bent over to weld two metal joints together with a sparkling needle. "And I've told you time and time again, if you wanna kill yourself..." She lifted up and raised her goggles, revealing a pair of jaded brown eyes in the center of a square, red face. "...do it on your own damn time!"

"My time is your time, Imre, you Searo-forsaken runt!" A Searonese mare growled. She sat on a table in the middle of an infirmary smelling of disenfectants and copper blood. Her metal joints were exposed to the pale blue manalight as she leaned over and snarled in the surgeon's face. "If my rear legs fail me for the fourth time in a row, I am going to take your spine in my last two good hooves and—"

"—what? Gag me to death?" the surgeon droned back. "Cuz your smelly flank is doing enough of that for the two of us." Imre's shaved brow furrowed. "Would it kill you to believe in hygene as much as you believe in crushing skulls?"

"Bah!" The mare hopped down from the table, shifting her weight to test the structural durability of her freshly fixed limb. "I don't see why I should listen to you! You're no warrior, Imre! You've never tasted of fresh blood."

"Uhhhh..." Imre wore a frown that could cut glass. She pivoted aside to point at a veritable basin full of bloody rags and red-stained surgical tools. "Would you care to run that by me again?"

"Hmmph!" The bounty hunter began attaching her armor, turning up an indifferent nose. "Don't act as if you have something to be proud of, servant! Putting bodies together is a weakling's craft!"

"Yeah, well, this 'weakling' has single-hoofedly fixed your mana-powered joints three times consecutively!" She frowned and slapped her instruments down in a tray before folding her scarlet forelimbs in indignance. "One of us is doing her job. Wanna guess who? I'll give you a hint—it's not the dumbflank meathead who keeps charging muzzle-first into a furious gang of Diamond Dogs with futile desperation to nab their leader!"

"Rrrgh! I will get that mangy hound!" The mare roared, slapping on her helmet. "And when I bring back his head on a pike, I'll shove yours on a rod next to his so you can stare at my glorious triumph!"

"You'll much sooner be roasted over a spit for the dogs to devour," Imre droned. "Look, I frankly don't care if you wanna kill yourself. Just try and make my job a little easier by banging up your joints less. Is that really too much to friggin' ask for?"

"A servant has no say! You should know that by now." The mare brushed rudely past her with an armored shoulder as she made for the exit. "Why Lady Pestiferous tolerates you, I'll never know."

"Jee... maybe it's because I keep her 'fellow sisters' alive long enough to earn her more plunder?" Imre growled over her shoulder. "That wasn't free, by the way! You'd better get your flank to the treasury office or I'll personally tell Terra to rip your ovaries out through your nostrils!"

"Yeah, yeah..." The mare strolled by two figures on the way out.

"Mmmmph..." Imre fumbled over her instruments, carting them over towards a pale sink for "sterilization"... or else the next best thing. "If I'm lucky, she'll trip on her own hooves, if she can even find them from behind her ego..."

"Ahem..." Roarke's voice coughed from the far end of the infirmary. "Hello, Imre. Long time no see. I need a favor from you."

"Nnnngh..." Imre rolled her eyes with an undeniable grown. "I swear, one of these days, I'm going to shoot myself in the head."

Icily, Imre twirled around with a glare that was as cold as the metal scalpels lining the counter beside her.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here, Roarke," Imre said in a dull tone. "You've still haven't paid nearly half the bill you owe Lady Pestiferous for that metal job on your ribcage."

"The Lady and I are on good terms," Roarke said. "Terra can vouch for me."

"Terra can eat a hippopotamus and crap out wild boars. What's your point?"

"Point is, I may be in debt for the rest of my life," Roarke said. "But I still won't be as low in the food chain as a scalpel-sucking slave like you." Roarke's helmet parted ways to show her scowling face beneath a pair of lenses. "I'm here. You're here. Let's get to work."

"On what?" Imre's lips showed the faintest hint of a smirk, and it was most definitely venomous. "You?" She brushed a scarlet hoof through nonexistent hair, a noticeably lingering habit. "You hardly seem worse for wear. Don't waste my time. I've got two limb-cannons and a tail-lash to prepare by tomorrow or else my womb gets eviscerated and sold for chump change by the end of the week."

"I need you to fix a limb for me."

"Is that so?" Imre's brown eyes squinted. "You seem to be standing just fine. What's the matter, Roarke? Has chasing all those ghosts in Ledomare made you dizzy?"

"Something like that." Roarke reached back and yanked a stumbling figure in black armor into the infirmary.

"Ow ow ow—Must you always grab the left side?"

"Shut up." Roarke slapped the top of Rainbow's helmet.

The panels in the headpiece opened up, revealing an awkwardly blinking pair of ruby eyes and a twitching mouth beneath it. "What the—?! How the hay did you do that?"

"I need you to fix her," Roarke said. "And what's more..." She reached over and slapped a hoof on a panel, shutting the metal doors behind them. All three were alone, locked away inside the infirmary. "...I need you to do it without telling any of the other mares," Roarke said.

Imre squinted. "What is this?" She looked Rainbow over. "A half-blade? Roarke, since when were you taking up training a runt?"

"For the love of Celestia—I wish everypony would stop calling me a runt!"

"Shut up, runt."

"No!" Rainbow Dash batted Roarke's hoof away and stepped aside. "Enough hauling me around like I'm cargo! Should we forget that I'm the one who totally owned your flank!"

"You didn't own my flank," Roarke droned, nevertheless hiding her disgruntled expression. "You came upon me with tricks I'd never seen before."

"Oh, so now you're saying you meant for me to get the upper hoof on you!"

"I see..." Imre folded her forelimbs and smirked bitterly. "Not an apprentice, but a filly friend."

"NO." Shouted two voices, followed by the exchanged glances of Rainbow and Roarke, momentarily startled to have bellowed the same word at the same time. Rainbow brushed Roarked aside and limped towards Imre. "Look, you're a doctor. I see that. Can you help me out here? How I got to this place doesn't matter anymore. But I have friends out there who need me to find them and—" She froze, blinking. "You're a unicorn."

A blood-red horn stuck out of Imre's skull, slicing through the thinnest strip of purple mane hair. The rest was stubble over a shaved head... with a face that was caustically frowning at the bumbling outsider.

"Yeah, and you're an idiot." Imre hissed. "Small world, huh?"

Rainbow Dash gulped. "Not really." She squinted curiously at Imre, then flashed a confused look at Roarke. "What... wh-hat is this...?"

"Imre's talents have been... acquired... through various means," Roarke said, strolling over to the group. "What matters is that she's here—"

"Under protest," Imre grunted.

Roarke sighed, pausing in the middle of grasping Rainbow Dash's armor to glance Imre's way. "If you wanted to kill yourself by now, I'm sure you would have."

"I just like sticking around to give you and Terra and everypony else an earful," Imre droned.

"No, you're waiting for something, and until you tell us what it is, you're more valuable here than as a bounty." Roarke snapped a metal panel loose from Rainbow's armor and lowered it. "Why you haven't bothered to 'fess up is a mystery to me..."

"Pfft! Like you're one to care," Imre said, then blinked. "Wait... what's going on here? It's not like you to worry about another metal mare, Roarke. Do you owe her bits?"

"Just look at her limb, will you?" Roarke grumbled.

"Her legs look fine!" Imre stammered, pointing with an errant hoof. "I don't see why you're wasting... my... time..." Her voice trailed off as she blinked.

Rainbow Dash was wincing heavily. Nevertheless, she allowed her battered, bloodied wing to hang in full view of the surgeon's gaze.

Imre ran a hoof over her chin, chewing on her lip. "Hmmmph..." She glanced at Roarke, then back at the injured pegasus. "Yes... most definitely a small world..."

Do No Harm

"Well, first off, you can get her off her hooves and onto my table," Imre grumbled, trotting across the infirmary. "Spark knows how infected she might be with you hauling her around inside that garbage pail you call armor with a broken limb."

"The other option would have been leaving her to rot in the hooves of the Ledomaritans," Roarke said.

"Yeah, why didn't you leave me to rot in the hooves of the Ledomaritans?" Rainbow asked, then winced as she was practically shoved onto the table. "Ow! Ow ow ow ow—Watch it!"

"Don't tempt me," Roarke muttered, then turned towards Imre. "You ever worked on wings before?"

"In my glory days of sleeping through half of my introductory med classes at Blue Peak University, I recall one or two autopsies on albatrosses." Imre trotted back over with a tray full of syringes and scalpels. "Whatever the case, when I'm not slapping metal death machines onto your bone-headed 'sisters' here, I'm eagerly reading up on all manners of biology, including avian." She leaned in and squinted at Rainbow's left side. "A giant wing is still a wing, nevermind the fact that it's attached to an equine body." She reached in and pressed a part of the feathery mass. "Does this hurt?"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!" Rainbow shrieked.

Imre jerked back and exhaled. "Yes, I do think this will take some meticulousness." She glanced up at Roarke. "You do realize that it will cost a fortune from the Treasury to cover the materials I will be using."

The bounty hunter nodded. "Yes, yes..."

Imre's brown eyes narrowed coolly. "And... it will take even more for me to cover exactly why I am using the materials and for what."

"I get it," Roarke grumbled. "Just fix her wing already."

"Wait!" Rainbow wheezed, squinting at the two ponies. "Don't talk like I'm not here! Why are you going through all of this for an outsider like me?! And is she even registered—?" She turned and looked to see a cutie mark in the form of a razor sharp bonesaw on Imre's flank. "Daaa-gi-gi-gi!" She hopped up. "On second thought, who needs to fly? I-I'll just frolic east for the rest of my life."

"Look. You're here. I'm here." Frowning, Imre shoved Rainbow back down onto the table. "And, believe it or not, beneath all of this pretty exterior lies a unicorn who wants to help others get better, no matter how abrasive or... mmm... fantastical."

"Fantastical?!" Rainbow Dash made a face.

"How long do you think you will be at this?" Roarke asked.

"Assuming I can figure out an appropriate operation to tackle, she will need to recover for the better part of a day. Maybe two."

"I am not fantastical!" Rainbow Dash pouted.

"And then you will have to keep her off her wings for even longer."

"Nnnngh..." Roarke face-hoofed. "Then how am I supposed to get rid of her?"

"Okay... maybe I'll settle for 'fantastic' but not 'fantastical'..."

Imre sighed and leaned past Rainbow Dash. "That's none of my concern, Roarke. You dragged her here. She's your burden, not mine."

"Yes, well, you were once my burden too," Roarke said.

Imre rolled her eyes. "I would like to think that all of my hours of slavery have earned my way out of your good grace. Besides, I answer to Lady Pestiferous now. And so do you—though for some infernal reason you're too proud or distracted to admit it."

"I have things to do, Imre. I'm a busy metal mare."

"Doing what?! Chasing crystal huffers in Ledomare? Face it, Roarke, you have no business flying around in the Confederacy. It's going to suck your share of the Treasury dry and soon Terra and the rest of the metal mares here will tear your impoverished flank apart."

"Hey... uh..." Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Do you two mares need a room?"

"Nnnngh..." Roarke turned away, folding her forelimbs. "A crematorium comes to mind."

"Stop being melodramatic, Roarke," Imre droned as she grabbed a syringe. "It doesn't suit you." She then jabbed the needle straight into Rainbow's shoulder.

"Owwwwwwwwww!" Rainbow hissed then jerked as the needle was pulled out. "Ow ow ow ow ow! Unnngh..." She flung daggers through her eyes at Imre. "The heck was that for?"

"For the pain that might follow."

"P-pain?"

"Oh... uhm... by the way..." Imre fidgeted where she stood with the empty syringe. "Do you have any allergies—?"

"Buh..." Rainbow's eyes rolled back and she collapsed with a clang on the table.

"....well, then." Imre turned to Roarke. "I'd better get to work. Do us all a favor and close the infirmary doors behind us on the way out."

"You will do your best to fix her, yes?"

"Absolutely, Roarke. What do you take me for?" Imre's shaved brow furrowed. "And why do you do this to yourself?"

"Hmmm? What?"

"You only hurt yourself when you do things like this," Imre muttered, lying Rainbow on her side so that her left wing was exposed. "You lost half your arsenal when you pulled me from the Xonan prison camp. Or have you forgotten?"

"You were worthless there, Imre," Roarke said. "You were just wasting away, contributing nothing. I figured that you could be of much greater worth to my sisters and I here in Searo's Hold."

"Hmmph..." Imre's lips curved bitterly. "And in all the time it took you to pierce Xonan airspace and grab me from their clutches, did it ever occur to you that I'd be in just the same misery either way?"

"No, but it did occur to me that a mare as resourceful as you only ever got herself captured by the Xonans because she wanted to be."

Imre said nothing.

"Nnngh... Look, just patch her up, and I'll take her out of your hooves," Roarke said. "Nopony needs to know. Not even—"

"Lady Pestiferous?" Imre glanced up. "She's been asking for you, you realize."

"What?!" Roarke's lenses shrunk back. "Since when?! Terra didn't tell me..."

"Between you and me, Terra would like to see you digesting in the translucent belly of an Ursa Major." Imre stretched the unconscious pegasus' wing out. "She's next in line for ascending to the seat of Searo. Though you've lost several fortunes as of late, you're potential competition, Roarke. I know for a fact that there are a lot of mares out there who would relish you crashing and burning before you even get there."

"Jee... thanks for keeping an ear out for me."

"Roarke, go see Lady Pestiferous," Imre droned. "At the risk of sounding sappy, life here is a little bleaker without knowing you're around for me to throw insults at."

"Hmmph. If it makes things easier for you, I'll see if I can poke my head into her throneroom." Roarke started trotting away.

"Damn it, Roarke," Imre suddenly spat. She reached for Rainbow's pendant. "I thought you had the good sense to remove all of her armor—"

"Do not touch that!" Roarke shouted.

Imre froze in place, blinking.

Roarke sighed, then more calmly said, "Believe me. There is... erm... an enchantment about her. Bad things will happen if you remove the pendant from her body. Trust me on this."

Imre glared. "You brought an enchanted pegasus into my infirmary?"

"Suck it up, princess." Roarke turned with a swish of her metal tail. Her helmet closed as she made a cold exit. "I'm off to stare Madame Death in the face."

"You do that."

Boomers Gonna Boom

His forelimbs squirmed, and for a moment he felt as though he was stroking silk-soft bangs.

"Mmmm..." His lips quivered. "Beloved..." He winced. "So sorry... please... don't give up hope... don't... don't..."

He felt the mane hair, only it wasn't mane hair. A leafy head of vegetation was being levitated towards him. He heard the air crackling with magic, and his ears twitched.

"B-Belle?" Pilate's striped brow furrowed as he tried sitting up. "You... y-you got your horn back?"

"Most certainly not a stabby-stabby horse, am Floydien," spoke the hoarse voice. A pair of cloven hooves tilted the zebra's head up so that his muzzle dug into the floating leaves. "Eat, the boomer must, for he has no glimmer glimmer to give him strength. No no."

"Mmmf..." Pilate's face scrunched up. Nevertheless, hunger took over, and he took a bite or two of the substance. His exhausted mouth instantly watered. "This... this is cabbage?"

"Floydien would most certainly hope so. Cabbage does not do well to imitate things that are not cabbage, yes yes yes?"

Pilate almost plunged forward. He took a hearty bite of the scrumptious head, then a second. His mouth filled with delicious greenery, and he swallowed with utmost ease. "Mmmm... oh blessed Spark..." He took a few more bites, finally cradling what was left of the levitating head in two forelimbs. "Mmmf... sir, thank you. Really... for everything. I know we got off to a bad start—"

"What bad start could this be that striped boomer speaks of? We are both refugees of the stabby stabby boomers of the world, we are. The glimmer glimmer consumes us both, by stabby hooves and stabby machines. All is spill. Floydien hates it, but hates not friendly, wise boomer. You eat until nature itself gives you glimmer to gleam with, yes yes?"

"I... I thought..." Pilate's brow furrowed. "Where are we?" He stirred his lower legs, feeling the bed of hay and the body of the wagon beneath it. "We've stopped moving."

"Indeed. Far away from the burning Floydien and striped boomer are. All the closer to Nancy Jane. All the closer to sparks that will lead the way to most beloved maiden of sun and stars."

"Where... Is this yours?" Pilate asked, reaching a hoof out so that he felt a crooked railing of the wagon. "Are you a farmer or something?"

"Negative. Floydien built wagon out of stabby stabby horse bones."

"Gah!" Pilate flinched away from the side of the wagon.

What followed was a bursting shout, like a gunshot, repetitive in its warbling pitch. "A joke Floydien makes. Yes yes yesssss. Scare the stripes off the boomer, almost. His wisdom makes him see enough to become blind once more."

"Er... y-yes..." Pilate gulped and fumbled with what was left of the cabbage. "I've been known to be... erm... d-dense on occasion." He sighed. "Belle would always tease me about my absent-mindedness..."

"Boomer has a Nancy Jane to crawl home to. Yes yes yes. Of understanding Floydien is, and would help the truer glimmer arise to bring both boomers to their maidens."

"Yes... Yes!" Pilate sat up, his face stretched in vigor. "That's what I've been trying to convey all this time, sir!" He gulped and said, "I need to find my beloved. But..." He winced. "I... I can't do it blind. You've done so much to help me, but..." He sighed and felt the barren collar around his neck. "Without the other half of O.A.S.I.S., I can't see enough to save Belle even if I was to find out where she was." With a sad tone, he added, "And it's very dangerous, sir. I can't expect you to go all the way through with it. Besides, you have this 'Nancy Jane' to fine."

"There is only one Nancy Jane. Nancy Jane knows it and waits for Floydien beyond the horns of the stabby stabbiness. Floydien hates the glimmer but needs it to save her."

"Erm... Right." Pilate took a breath. "Listen, Floyd, I have—"

"Floydien is Floydien."

"Floydien, sorry."

"Forgive the striped boomer, Floydien does."

"Floydien, I have to split ways with you sooner than later," Pilate said. "I know that sounds rude and cruel, considering all you've done for me. But... it's just that... well..."

"Boomer is scared of Floydien. Floydien sees what boomer cannot say."

"No! It's not that! It's just that... I-I don't exactly think we have... erm... the same interests."

"Same interests, perhaps, but same mouth? Is the glimmer's fault that we fault to feel with our words."

"Err..." Pilate bit the edge of his lips. "Indeed..."

"Big world is small world is big, yet simple, because of glimmer glimmmer," Floydien said. "Striped boomer cannot see and Floydien cannot lift... at least not for long..."

"You mean your magic?" Pilate leaned forward. "It's running out, isn't it?"

"Indeed. Floydien hates the glimmer, but the glimmer can love Floydien. Will help Floydien find Nancy Jane and will help striped boomer find his own only own... only. Yes yes yes."

"I beg your pardon?"

"A tower rests north of us. Doors to stabby stabby glimmer there be. Floydien would walk through doors but Floydien's antlers do not like to work."

"Wait... you... you mean a Ledomaritan compound?" Pilate grimaced. "Mr. Floydien, I just got thrown off the side of a zeppelin belonging to those heartless vagabonds. They're the ones who have my beloved captured!"

"Yes yes yesssss. All the reason for Floydien and boomer to knock on their skulls."

"I don't think you understand! I-I'm completely blind and useless without my manasphere! And you... you're... you're..." Pilate sweated. "Well, just what are you?"

"Am missing Nancy Jane. The rest is spit."

"Yes, but—"

"Spit!"

"I get it!" Pilate growled. "At least I think I do. But... w-we could get hurt! Captured! Even killed!" He swallowed hard. "I know you want to get to Nancy Jane, Mr. Floydien, but if I'm to get to my beloved Belle, I gotta do it the smart way."

"The tower is the smart way is the smart way. Their heads will smart. They will learn knowledge of stabby stabby, the knowledge they do not wish to find. They will open the door to us or else they will open the door to more of their own spit."

"Sir, it... I..." Pilate closed his eyes and exhaled long and hard. "...I don't have a say in this, do I?"

"Boomer has stripes and half-a-glimmer. Allow Floydien to have the rest. No harm will come to boomer."

With that, the wagon started moving again, following the clopping sound of four slender hooves.

"Boomer did not fall to fall again!" Floydien said, his hoarse voice almost taking a joyous pitch. "Will only fall upwards, like Nancy Jane! Floydien promises! Yes yes he does!"

With a groan, Pilate curled up once more atop the wagon. "Sometimes I wonder why I didn't go deaf instead..."

"Would it bring glimmer to the boomer for Floydien to sing?"

"No."

The Jaded Hues

With a groan, Crimson sat up. From a thin crack in the window above his bed, a beam of light was glimmering across the cabin bedroom. However, there was another light, one far more intense, and it emanated from a place just beyond the bedroom door.

"Unngh... h-hello...?" Crimson winced. He kicked some of the covers off him, overwhelmed by a great dizziness. However, the growling in his belly was even stronger, and he found himself stumbling forward across the room. "Mmmfff... hello? Somepony? How long have I been out?—Gaah!"

He stumbled, nearly pratfalling onto his muzzle when he reached for a right hoof that wasn't there. He dangled halfway out of the bed, glaring at the space at the end of his foreward right stub. With a sigh, he glanced across the room and found a broom. Squeezing it under the pit of his right limb, he formed a temporary crutch and hobbled towards the brightly-lit door.

The door swung open with a squeak. Eyes narrow, Crimson peered immediately into a dining room. Four ponies were gathered at a table: two adults and two children. They had plates full of corn, potatoes, and broccoli. As they ate from the healthy bounty, their crystal bodies lit up from energy that churned deeply within.

"It's simply until he is healthy enough to move around on his own," Tweak said.

"Move around?! Pa, he's only got three legs!"

"He's a strong stallion, Nexx. I can tell. He won't stay down for long."

"Where's he gonna go? Are the Ledo ponies gonna come pick him up?"

"Somehow, I don't think the Ledomaritans are the ponies he wants to contact, Roque."

"Is he in trouble? Do we have a criminal in our house?"

"Oh wow, that's awesome!"

Crimson opened his mouth. "I... uhm..."

Plates and silverware clattered. The glow dimmed slightly as all four members of the family turned and gazed across the cabin.

Crimson winced. "I... w-would definitely feel criminal..." He gulped. "For not showing my gratitude for you kind hospitality." He tried bowing, but he nearly fell on the broom he was using to hold himself up with. "Unnngh... seriously, though. I thank you..."

The mare immediately got up from the table. "Now, now... careful there. You may feel better, but the resonance can still have an effect on you."

"R-resonance?" Crimson remarked as she rushed over to help him over to a chair at the end of the table.

Tweak gazed calmly over at the two young colts. "Roque. Nexx. Stop eating for a second."

"Awwww... but we're hungry!"

"Just for a minute."

The colts took a deep breath, as if meditating. Soon, the glow inside their bodies dwindled. In perfect timing, Tweak and his spouse also glowed with less brilliance.

Crimson found the fog in his vision clearing. When he finally sat down at the table, he could sit upright. "Wow... uhm... that was... that..."

"You've not been in the company of crystal ponies, have you, sir?" the mare asked with a gentle smile.

Crimson slowly shook his head. "I... uh... I can't say that I have."

"We're of the sapphire variety," she said. "Ponies of our strain have a... uh... certain effect on creatures sensitive to leylines. Like unicorns or diamond dogs with metallurgic nerves. It's why most soldiers who have ever flown here from the north don't say long." She gasped. "Oh! I'm sorry! We haven't met, have we? My name is Stasia."

Crimson nodded his head towards her. "Greetings, Stasia. Thank you for your hospitality." His eyes darted towards Tweak, then back to her. "Are you... uh...?"

"Twelve years, peacefully in charge of this property together," Tweak said in between sips of water. "We intend to keep it that way."

"Tweak, darling, don't start with that," Stasia said with a frown. "You know as well as I do that he's likely starving. Besides, haven't you interoggated him enough?"

Tweak glanced at Crimson. "I'm not sure, have I?"

Crimson bit his lip.

"Was it a dragon that bit it off?" Nexx asked. Roque slapped him upside the glossy head. "Ow!"

"Boys..." Tweak droned.

Crimson didn't hesitate. "No. It was a Prime Enforcer," he grumbled. "A very cruel one at that. He made off with the ponies closest to me." With a shudder, he added, "All things considered, I should be dead."

Stasia leaned forward, her jaw dropped. "You battled a Ledomaritan Prime Enforcer... and lived?"

Tweak glanced from her to Crimson.

Crimson caught his gaze and nodded. "But... uhm..." His eyes fell towards the table. "I don't need to... burden you with the tales of my woe. I know the road that lies ahead of me. Once I have gotten my bearings again, I will leave you be."

"Not without getting something to fill that stomach of yours!" Stasia remarked. "Please..." She gestured towards the food. "I do hope you're capable of digesting crystal pony food."

Crimson gazed calmly at the potatoes and corn and smiled. "Oh... I'm sure I'll have no problem. It looks an awful lot like unicorn food."

"Where will you go?" Nexx asked, almost summoning another swat from his older brother.

Crimson merely blinked at him.

"You're so banged up. Why are you in a hurry?" Nexx further asked.

"Now boys..." Stasia grumbled.

"It's a sound question, Ma," Tweak remarked from across the table. His glossy eyes narrowed. "We live out on the fringes of the Confederacy. You may be far from patrolling enforcers, but there are diamond dogs and bounty hunters at every turn. It's not a safe landscape to traverse alone, much less without a terrible injury."

Crimson gazed curiously at him. "I was aware of diamond dog populations in the southeast... but the Searonese?" He blinked. "I thought they always flew past the Sapphire Plains."

Tweak shook his head. "I wish that were so. Aurum is running rampant with them. When you arrived I thought..." His voice trailed. He turned and gazed aside at Stasia.

Stasia hung her head.

Crimson squinted. "You thought what?"

Tweak sighed. "Never mind. It is not the business of unicorns. You have enough problems as it is."

"No. I am curious." Crimson remarked, leaning forward. "What business do metal mares have with simple crystal farmers?"

Tweak said nothing, merely busying himself with another drink of water.

Crimson gazed past Stasia's limbs as she prepared him a healthy plate of food. He caught the gaze of Roque staring at him.

The older colt smiled as he said, "I think the way you flew in on that glider was spectacular!"

Crimson raised an eyebrow. "You mean how I plummeted it to the earth and just barely missed smashing into your cabin?"

"I've never seen a ship like that up close!'

"I hope you never have to."

"Huh?"

Crimson tilted his head aside. Suddenly, with a soft smirk, he leaned towards the colts' side of the table. "You're not scared of anything, are you... uhh..."

"It's Roque! And nope! When I grow up, I'm gonna hunt metal mares!"

"Over my fractured body!" Stasia exclaimed.

"I wanna hunt metal mares too!" Nexx added.

"Nuh uh! You're running the farm!"

"Awwwwww shucks...."

Roque beamed once more. "They're always sticking their helmets into everypony's business! Being bullies! Some stallion's gotta teach them! We crystal ponies—we're not defenseless! We can zap timberwolves from one hundred miles just by shooting light at them! KaPOW!"

"Enough with the theatrics, boy," Tweak grumbled.

Roque instantly hung his head. "Yes, Pa..."

"You know..." Crimson brushed his bangs back with his remaining hoof. "I knew a colt like you." He gulped. "Much, much younger, granted. He too wasn't afraid of anything."

Roque glanced up with a devilish smirk. "I bet he wasn't as fearless as me!"

"Heh... sometimes I wonder." Crimson's smile was a fragile thing; he appeared to be looking through the family table at this point, his gaze caught up in the brown shadows of the rustic abode. "I remember three times he had to be saved from attacking a Franzington glowsnake in one week. He seemed so desperate... so determined to prove that he could fight off evil things." He bit his lips as his brow furrowed. "I wonder how big he's gotten now. I wonder if... he can even pick up a blade, if he's maybe even hurt himself trying to do things that isn't right for his age." The muscular stallion slowly spun the plate of food around with lethargy. "I'd give anything just for one chance to see him and tell him... th-that the fight is not worth it for the fight alone, that he could do the good battle at home. That's where he has everything he'll ever need. He should just leave the fighting... and the p-pain to ponies who are broken already." His voice trailed off as he bit at the air. After a few seconds of drifting, his eyes darted back up towards his present company, and he blinked as if waking up for a second time.

Stasia had a soft expression on her face. She glanced over at Tweak.

Tweak saw the hurt in her eyes. The father grumbled, but stifled it long enough to glare at Crimson. "You've faced metal mares before?"

Crimson's ears perked up. He sat straight. "Ahem. Yes. Yes, I have..."

Tweak twirled his glass of water around a few times. His nostrils flared in thought, and ultimately he blurted, "Let us talk after dinner."

That'll Do, Crimson

"Years ago, a large group of Diamond Dogs showed up from the east," Tweak said. He and Crimson stood on the front porch to the cabin, leaning on the wooden railing as they basked in the morning glow. "They piloted a large tank of sorts—a mining vehicle capable of carying hundreds of tons of ore. They attempted to capture and enslave several of the farmers of these lands. We put up a resistance, but as it turned out, we didn't have to try very hard."

"Why's that?" Crimson asked.

"The canines were of a particular breed. They had a peculiar sensitivity to the magical aura produced by crystal ponies in their natural state." Tweak sighed and adjusted the weight on his hooves. "It was rather obvious that they wanted to enslave us and force us to work in extracting sapphires from the earth here in Aurum. However, they couldn't stand to be in the same vicinity as us for very long."

"So they let you be?"

"As well as they could afford to," Tweak explained. "They tried threatening us—driving us out of our homes with long range ordinance and explosives. However, the entire effort proved too costly."

"The farmland you have here is very valuable to them, I see," Crimson remarked. "I can't imagine that they'd simply give up."

Tweak shook his head. "They'll stop at nothing to excavate the minerals of this land. They're sensitive to the rocks just as they are to crystal ponies themselves; that's why they've relied on enslaving the equine population. Since there are so few non-crystal ponies around these parts, their production has been slowed to a crawl, not like it was blazing much to begin with."

"Right..."

"So, to weed out the local dissenters, they've resorted to establishing bounties."

Crimson's gaze narrowed. "The Searonese."

Tweak nodded. "The price has not been cheap. Every month or so, the diamond dogs—these self proclaimed 'Killas' pay a steep bounty, and a metal mare flies in and grabs one of us off our land."

"Surely you resist..."

"Have you fought a metal mare before?"

"Yes."

"You and your entire company of fellow soldiers?"

Crimson opened his mouth again, lingered, and ultimately uttered, "Yes."

"You didn't win, did you?"

Crimson was silent.

"As you can imagine, it's been nothing but pain, stress, and heartache. Many good households around here have lost ponies close to us."

"Were your neighbors... murdered?"

"That's not the metal mare way," Tweak said. "The ponies around here have been grabbed, one by one. And only the stallions too."

Crimson swallowed. "I see..."

"Just a month ago, Fresh Cut of the south farm was snatched away from his own wife and children. Two months ago, Straight Shot of the blue ravine. Three months ago..." Tweak winced slightly. His eyes fell to the side. "Lucky Strike, my brother."

Crimson's gaze fell. "I am sorry to hear that."

"I believe you," Tweak muttered. "And I sense that you're a stallion of conviction, regardless of your fortune. But please understand..." He glanced up. "I do not tell you this so that you can worry about a bunch of perfect strangers."

"Then why are you telling me this?"

"I figured that..." Tweak sighed, gazing towards the horizon as his shoulders shrugged. "That if you're heading towards the metal mare homeland anyways, that maybe... just perhaps you can be on a lookout for them." He swallowed. "Especially my brother."

Crimson leaned his head aside. "What makes you think that a three-legged unicorn with battle scars can make it to the metal mare homeland?"

Tweak fidgeted slightly. Ultimately, he said, "I'm no soldier, but I've seen my fair share of scuffles. I've battled diamond dogs tooth and nail." He winced. "I've seen their insides. I've heard their screams, knowing that I've slain them to protect my house. My wife. My children." He shuddered. "To do horrible things in order to keep the world safe: it takes strength. But it also takes strength to know when to come short of doing what's truly, truly terrible." He glanced back up at Crimson. "I think you're a very strong pony, sir. But I think you stand to remember that about yourself."

Crimson blinked.

"Maybe you'll remember it by the time you get to metal mare country. And if so, I wouldn't mind you doing something strong for my brother and two neighbors." Tweak shrugged. "Since... well... you're so hell-bent on going there anyways. What, with this Rainbow Dust..."

"Dash," Crimson corrected. "And I would be honored to find out where your friends and family are. This was a rescue mission, after all."

"Really?" Tweak's lips curved ever so slightly. "From the way it sounds to me, I figured it was a suicide mission."

"Not at all," Crimson instantly replied with a shaking head.

Tweak squinted at him. "You sure of that, sir?"

Crimson fumbled for words.

Before he could generate a reply, two teenage ponies galloped up, their crystal bodies glittering in the morning light. "Tweak! Tweak! You gotta come quick! Grab your rifle!"

Tweak spun about. "Huh? What is it?"

"In the marketplace! There's been an explosion!" One exclaimed, panting for breath. "There's trouble!"

Tweak's mouth hung open. "What kind of trouble?"

"What do you think?" the young stallion grunted in reply.

If Tweak had a coat, it'd be standing on end. With a chiseled frown, he stomped towards the cabin door. "Go get the neighbors down the road. We'll cut this one off before she grabs another!"

"Is this what I think it is?!" Crimson exclaimed.

"You lost your leg, not your brain, bucko."

"Let me help! I have experience with metal mares!"

"No, you have experience at losing to them."

"I mean it!" Crimson exclaimed. Nevertheless, he stumbled clumsily across the front porch, overwhelmed with dizziness. "At least let me lend my magic!"

"You can lend it!" Tweak said, darting in and coming back out with his rifle. "Right here!" He cocked the weapon and shouted aside. "Protect my family!"

"But—"

"Do this, and we're square," Tweak said, flinging Crimson a glare. "Consider our hospitality earned." That said, he galloped furiously down the road towards a rising column of smoke beyond a throng of blue crystals.

Crimson watched, pensively biting his lip. He turned around.

Stasia stood in the cabin doorway. Roque and Nexx clung fearfully to her limbs, sharing her same expression of pained worry.

Grinding his teeth, Crimson spun around. His eyes searched the nearby farmland, until his attention fell to the crumpled wreckage of the Ledomaritan glider, still sparking from within.

Weakest and Strongest

"Unggh... Look..." Josho frowned and rolled over across the metal floor. "Will you stop shivering?"

Eagle Eye grimaced, clutching his forelimbs to himself as he lay besides the heavyset stallion in the middle of the rusted prison hold full of exhausted ponies. "I c-can't help it..."

"It's not even cold in here!" Josho hissed.

"It's not the cold..." Eagle Eye whimpered.

Josho's gaze narrowed. "You started doing this crud right before they shoved us back into this thing."

"Shhh!" hissed one of the many miserable equines of the place.

"Yeah! Keep blowing!" Josho grumbled at him. "If you like, I can come over there and carve you a new trachea!"

The other prisoners said nothing.

With a sigh, Josho layed his head back down. His bleary eyes stared into the rusted floor. "Spark alive, what I wouldn't give for a drink right about now..."

"The cr-crystals..." Eagle Eye stammered.

"Yeah? What about them?" Josho grumbled.

"They must be doing something to m-me..." He said amidst his quivers. "To all of us..."

"Well, you the most, obviously."

"I think that's why the Diamond Dogs don't want to get too close. They know there's something toxic or d-dangerous..."

"Jee, you're just now figuring that out?"

"So sue me!" Eagle Eye grunted back, wincing as he felt the metal loop of the manacle around his forelimb. "I was always the dexterous one... not so much the clever pony." He sighed. "That was always Zenith's department. And Crimson..." He bit his lip and covered his sad face with a pair of limbs. "Ohhhhh Crimson..."

"Give it a rest, will ya?" Josho grumbled. "It's not like you were gonna marry him..." He then squinted and glanced over his shoulder. "Were you?"

"It wasn't like that..."

"Seems that way to me."

"It wasn't!" Eagle Eye frowned, then sighed yet again. "I knew he had his own life to live, his own family to return home to, his own future to care about..."

"Then why do you make such a big deal about him?"

Eagle Eye exhaled long and hard, ultimately murmuring into the rusted shadows of the room, "B-because I loved him anyways..."

"Heh. Figured—"

"Enough that, once we got back home..." Eagle Eye gulped. "I was thinking of hiking back north and g-getting captured."

Josho raised an eyebrow. He tilted back. "Say what?"

"Crimson is brave and all, and I'm glad for all he did to keep us safe." Eagle Eye shuddered. "But the fact is... the Ledomaritans don't stop for nothing."

"You got that right—er...." Josho winced.

"They would march their way into Franzington to find the four of us, even if we did make it," Eagle Eye said in a soft breath. "So, I had this idea that... maybe... just maybe I could sneak out and get myself captured, so that I could concoct this story about how every member of the Blades Guild died but me. Then... p-perhaps they'd believe it, and they would have left Franzington alone."

Josho shook his head. "Not a chance. They would have tortured you for the truth first."

"I wouldn't have given it to them."

"How could you possibly believe that?"

Eagle Eye opened his mouth. He lingered, but ultimately squeaked forth, "Because it's h-happened to me before..."

Josho blinked. He turned to look at him.

The young unicorn's eyes were moistening, but he sucked it in with a frowning breath.

Josho squinted. "Now you're just pulling my leg." Silence. "Aren't you?"

"When I went into battle in the northern Xonan heights..." Eagle Eye muttered, "I was ready to die. There was... more than one reason for that."

Josho's face was awash with confusion. Just then, a beam of light shone on them. He sat up and squinted towards the bright, outside world as the bodies of diamond dogs shuffled inward.

"Wakey wakey, poniesssssss!" An alpha canine slapped his whip against the nearest wall. "Back to the quarry!"

"Nnngh..." Eagle Eye tried getting up, but stumbled.

Josho glanced at him, then at the captors. "You gotta be drinking from toilets! You just had us retired less than three hours ago!"

"You want to dig?!" The diamond dog pointed at him, frowning. "Or you want to die?"

Josho glared. As ponies lurched up on all fours around him, he stood up and nudged Eagle Eye. "Come on, squirt. Up and at 'em."

"I... I-I can't do it," Eagle muttered.

"You think I give a crap?" Josho hissed. "If you don't get up, they're gonna rip your head off and I'll be bound to a slightly crappier smelling pony!"

"All the b-better... for you..." Eagle Eye wheezed, his body limp.

Josho's brow furrowed. He looked at the crowd surging out, then at the bright world beyond. With a groan, he glowed his horn and forcibly lifted Eagle Eye to his hooves.

Eagle groaned. "Where... why?"

"Just friggin' move," Josho grumbled, trying his best to make Eagle Eye look animated as the two lurched out of the prison cell and into the dust of the sun-lit crystal quarry. "I really, really don't want to spend the afternoon burying you."

"Why n-not? It h-has to be loads easier than hammering rock."

"Shut it."

Make My Day

There was a fire in the heart of Aurum. Tweak and his companions saw the ashen fringes of it as they galloped around the final bend leading into the centermost town. When they came upon the straightaway leading down the line of buildings and vendors, a cluster of wooden shards flew their way. One crystal pony gasped, his skull reflecting the splintery material.

"Get down!" Tweak shouted, shoving his neighbor down before his polished head could get decapitated. The three of them rolled in the dust, gasping as another explosion lit up the air before them. They glanced ahead in time to see the general store bursting in flames. A mare and her three children cowered on a street corner as the owner of the establishment was tossed like a ragdoll across the street.

Marching out from the flames, looming above the family and its weakened stallion, was an equine decked out in dark emerald armor. The helmet flared back in twin spokes that danced with electricity like tesla coils. A triply segmented tail comprised of spiked metal twitched left and right, brimming with energy. Hissing misty breath, the metal mare spoke menacingly from within the suit.

"You dare incur the wrath of Aeterna?!" The bounty hunter's right forelimb extended several rows of metal teeth brimming with electricity. "Your time has come, crystal lamb. Searo's spirit needs you to thrive."

"Please..." The stallion hissed, struggling to sit up. "Whatever you do, just leave my family alone..."

"I didn't fly all this way north for work alone." Aeterna's voice rang with a sickly chuckle. She pivoted towards the mare and gasping children. "I got a bunch of new upgrades, and I'm dying to know if they can shatter rock."

"Don't!" The stallion growled. "I'll murder you!"

"Fat chance..." The Searonese attacker then raised her forelimb over the sobbing family.

The other two ponies gazed at Tweak. Tweak was already gazing up above the bounty hunter for options. He saw that the chainlinked sign to the burning general store was still intact. With expert precision, he stood up, aimed his rifle, glowed a bright gold deeply from within, and fired. Energy shot through his body and into the weapon, exploding out the end in a righteous burst. The blast was so hard that it blew him back onto his haunches.

Nevertheless, the shot flew true. Aeterna barely had a chance to turn and see where the blast had come from. The energy discharge flew into one chain of the sign. The heavy oaken emblem flew down and smashed into her metal body, flinging her through a crashing window and directly into the flames of the smouldering store.

Tweak exhaled with relief, then motioned at his two companions. "Go! Now!"

The other two galloped ahead, grabbing the family and pulling them away to safety. Tweak ran to the store owner who was just then getting the strength to stand upright.

"Tweak! You are a m-miracle worker!" the stallion wheezed.

"No, my gun is," Tweak replied, helping the stallion to stand upright. "You had best gallop away before—"

"Raaaaugh!" With a reverberating shout, Aeterna burst out from the burning shop, slamming down between the stallions.

They fell down on the ground, wincing from the burning splinters splashing all around them. The grass steamed from where the metal mare's red hot horseshoes made contact. She shook the smouldering embers off her and turned towards Tweak with a menacing glint of her helmet.

"Searo be praised. I was looking for an excuse to crack more than one skull today..."

Tweak gritted his teeth and summoned another charge of energy through his fallen body. But before he could channel the blast into his rifle, the metal mare had spun and smashed the rifle to bits with her spiked tail. She then lunged forward with a blast of her rocket thrusters, shoving Tweak's body across the street and into the base of a flagpole, denting it.

"Aaaugh!" Tweak hissed in pain, but nevertheless swung a hoof across Aeterna's skull.

Her head turned from the blow, but pivoted slowly back. "Mmmm... delicious." She raised a hoof, protruded a blade form it, and stabbed it into his shoulder. A chip of crystal flesh flew off.

"Nnnngh!" Tweak grunted, his body fluctuating all over in prismatic energy. Before he could summon a pained grasp, he was body-slammed to the ground. He hissed for breath as Aeterna stood atop of him, planting her sharp horseshoes into the back of his skull.

Blasts of energy flew across the street as Tweak's two companions and a belated millitia of ponies finally came to his aid. Before their volley could knock her off the stallion, Aeterna simply turned towards the advancing crowd and shouted, "One more attack, and I snap him in two!" She converted her right limb into a buzz saw for emphasis.

Reluctantly, the furious crowd froze in their place, clutching their ineffectual weapons and waiting the metal mare's next move.

An eerie chuckle escaped from her mask in a vent of steam. She kept the blade trained on Tweak's neck as she lowered her metal muzzle and murmured, "You've got a lot of energy pent up in that crystal shell. I think you'll do fine this month." Panels opened in the side of her armor as metal coils extended to bind his legs up. "Maybe I can test a myth or two before I turn you into Lady Pestiferous. I always wondered how... mmmm... solid crystal stallions can be..."

"I have a family," Tweak grunted, wincing against her weight on his neck and skull. "We all have families!"

"Indeed..." She began coiling the metal around his front limbs. "And that is your weakness, breeder..."

"When I heard explosions, I didn't think they'd be coming from a coward!" shouted a voice from far behind.

Aeterna's whole body twitched. She uncoiled the metal rope in a snap, stood up off of Tweak and pivoted all the way around. "Excuse me?!" her voice rang with vehement fury.

A three-legged unicorn stood at a distant street corner, breathing heavily beneath the billowing fumes.

Aeterna's helmet pivoted to the side, as if the metal mare was squinting incredulously from beneath.

"Hey! You can hear me! Good!" Crimson shouted above the smouldering chaos. His hooves were propped on a fallen metal shingle that had been blown from the nearby building face. "Nice to know that there's more between those ears than manure and pretense!"

"Well, look what testicles dragged in!" Aeterna's voice cackled. "Real meat! This is crystal pony country, breeder. You've come an awful long way south just to explode."

"Shhhh!" Crimson hissed into his bandaged stub and motioned towards the air. "You hear that?"

Aeterna craned her helmeted head to the air. Several seconds of absolute silence followed. She pivoted back towards Crimson. "No."

Crimson frowned. "That's the sound of me giving a flaming crap about your Spark-forsaken whining." His horn glowed as he grinded his one good forelimb into the ground. "Now how do you want to do this, rust bucket? With me kicking your flank? Or me kicking your flank harder?!"

"What are you doing here?!" Tweak sputtered. "I told you to stay with my family—Ooof!"

Tweak had been kicked hard to the side. Aeterna extended a pair of emerald wings from her armor and angled herself to meet Crimson head on. "Ohhhhh, you are really asking to become pulp. I have a spot on my wall back in Searo's Hold that would be perfect for your head."

"The only tropies you're ever going to earn from now on are the notches on your gravestone," Crimson said coolly. "I swear on my life."

Aeterna growled, "Have it your way." With a burst of rocket power, she flew straight forward.

Tweak shouted, "No! He's and outsider! Don't—"

"Raaaaaaaugh!" Aeterna howled, her metallic voice thundering through the burning street. Her forelimbs produced sparkling tasers aimed straight at Crimson's skull.

Crimson held his breath as she charged him. At her angle of approach, she couldn't see the sparkling, dislodged energy core of a Ledomaritan managlider that he was levitating behind his back. With a concentrated burst of mana, he fired his horn at the ground. The soil split in two and launched a fountain of dust towards her incoming figure.

She easily burst through the obscuring veil of dirt. As soon as she emerged, however, she found a glowing orb flying straight at her. Aeterna gasped and skidded to a stop on sparkling hooves. Sitting upright, she flung her forelimbs up—awkwardly catching the bright orb. She gazed at it for the next few milliseconds, dumbfounded.

Already, Crimson was reaching for the family pitchfork he had dragged all the way there with him. Twirling his whole body, he launched the thing like a missile straight at his frozen opponent. "Nnnngh!"

The three-pronged bludgeon flew murderously fast. Its centermost barb viciously impaled the heart of the orb. The managlider's energy, no longer pent-up, exploded instantly, bursting out of the shell and directly into Aeterna's helmet. The resulting plume of heated plasma engulfed her from skull to flank. Two seconds later, she was a stumbling, screaming mess, desperately attempting to peel out of her armor as flames consumed her inside and out.

Tweak's eyes twitched. The other stallions watching gasped.

Crimson wasn't finished. Frowning, he kicked the metal shingle in front of him and performed a running leap. Landing on the rusted platform, he combined his momentum with a burst of mana and slid forward as if riding a sled. When he reached Aeterna's floundering body, he had snapped a burning panel off a nearby building and was presently pummeling across her red-hot armor like a club.

"Raaaaugh!" He smashed across her helmet, shattering it to bits and exposing the second degree burns beneath. He followed this with an uppercut to the chin, a jab to the chest, and a vicious downswing to her back.

Aeterna rolled across the center of Aurum's mainstreet. The flames had ended, but not her torment. Hissing and sputtering for breath, she stumbled to her hooves and extended her thruster wings to fly away.

Just then, Crimson came down at her with the metal shingle like a guillotine, snapping one wing down the center. He tripped briefly, as if forgetting that one of his limbs was freshly missing, but then he jabbed down with the sharp corner of the rusted plate, prying a panel of her armor open. "Nnnnngh-Ghh!" The plate snapped free, and the metal mare's red-hot armor fell apart like an eggshell. Hobbling away, Crimson shouted sweatily into the air. "Now! Now! She's exposed!"

Aeterna merely sputtered in dismay.

Tweak was already standing up. A fellow stallion tossed him a shotgun. He pumped it... smiled, then aimed. So did every other pony in the area. Soon, a solid wall of golden energy was flying down mainstreet, lighting Aeterna's body up like a Hearth's Warming tree. She took the torturous volley with a warrior's scream. When the energy blasts were finally ceased, she lay beside the dented flagpole, crumpled up in a steaming heap, her naked skin singed and bruised all over.

"Unnnngh..." She curled up in a pained fetal position, her exposed teeth gritting.

Cheers lit up the air. The store owner had dashed over to his family and was sharing a hug full of smiles and tears. Several stallions leered over Aeterna, using her own metal coils to bind her twitching body to the flagpole.

Crimson, in the meantime, had found a non-burning building to lean against and rest his hyperventilation. Struggling to catch his breath, he wiped a fountain of sweat off his brow and glanced over to see Tweak hobbling up to him.

Tweak rubbed the fresh wound on his crystal shoulder and glanced at the daredevilish unicorn. "Well," he muttered. His lips curved ever so slightly. "You owe me a new pitchfork."

Crimson looked at him. He smiled.

Cool Hoof Josho

"Dig harder, poniesssss!" A diamond dog hissed as he patrolled the crystal pits with his lash. "The Killasssss do not sleep. The Killas see all that you do and don'tttttt do! Only we will feed you and only if you work so workkkk!"

"When I return to Blue Slope from all of this I am shooting every friggin' dog I see," Josho grumbled as he heaved his massive drill around and rammed it into a chunk of crystal. As he began to prime the machine, he heard labored breathing. He threw a nervous glance to his side. "Come on, kid. You're making us look bad."

"I... c-can't help it..." Eagle Eye whimpered. He was flinging his pickaxe as hard as he could against the fragmentary walks of sapphiric ore, but he hardly made even a dent. His lavender face was pale and his brown drenched in sweat. "Just... so weak... th-these crystals..." He gulped. "I-I don't know what's in them..."

"Look, you'd better shape up!" Josho uttered, cranking the drill to life. A dull hum filled the crook of rock where they were surrounded by fellow, laboring slaves. "If they see you collapsing like a ragdoll..."

"Nnnngh..." Moaning, Eagle Eye slumped down to his forelimbs, dropping his pickaxe altogether.

Gritting his teeth, Josho glanced over his shoulder, then squatted down beside the younger stallion. "They're going to rip out your throat, kid," he whispered. "They're gonna kill you and toss your meat to their puppies."

"Why..." Eagle Eye stammered, writhing in dizziness. "...d-do you care?"

"Pfft. Believe me, I don't..."

"Then... j-just let it end..."

"What you going on about, kid?"

"It's all done with..." Eagle Eye wheezed, his eyes thin and glazed over. "The Blades Guild... Rainbow Dash... Belle and Pilate..." He gulped. "Crimson is gone. I... I can't ever return home. Not even my father will have me back..." He exhaled heavily, turning his head aside as if about to fall asleep. "Save yourself the trouble. I'm done with..."

"Dammit, you're a soldier, aren't you?" Josho frowned, his teeth showing. "So be a soldier and get up! I mean it! On your hooves!"

"It is finished..." Eagle Eye murmured.

Josho was about to protest louder when a whip slashed at his flank. "Augh!"

"What is going on here, pony?!" The canine jumped down, wearing a gas mask. His muffled voice hissed as he coiled the whip tighter and loomed over the two. "There is no resttttt if there is no digggg! Do you want to eat tonight?!"

"Look, just give him a friggin' moment!" Josho grumbled from behind his shoulder. "Can't you see he's sick?"

"Sick, you saaaaay? Dead ponies don't get sickkk." The dog took a deep breath, then slipped off his gas mask to reach for a whistle. He brought the brass instrument to his lips.

Josho glanced at the dog, then at Eagle Eye. He sighed long and hard before ultimately muttering, "Ohhhhhh screw this with a ten foot sausage and a side of grits." His horn glowed and Eagle Eye's entire body levitated.

The canine paused in whistling to do a double-take. "What...?!"

"This is what!" Josho spun and threw Eagle Eye at the dog's skull. The lavender unicorn's horn flew straight into the canine's neck, sticking in deep and spilling blood.

Eagle Eye woke instantly, gasping. Instinctually, he shot a burst of magic out of his horn.

The dog took the pulse of mana to his skull, and his eyes exploded in bloody fountains. When Josho floated Eagle Eye back, the dog fell back, clutching his face as his screams gargled on a copious vomit of blood.

Several slaves gasped, staring wide-eyed at the carnage. A few chuckled deliriously.

Eagle Eye stumbled on his haunches, shaking his head dizzily. He raised a hoof to the trickle of dog blood on his skull, then looked at Josho. "What d-did you do?" He looked down at the bloody, eyeless diamond dog and gasped. "What did I do?!"

"Congratulations, kid," Josho was in the middle of slamming his drill repeatedly into the wall. "You're officially a veterinarian." The machine broke apart, and the elder stallion slid the many sharp components out from its metal innards. "Send me the bill later."

A bullet ricocheted off the quarry wall just inches above their skulls. Slaves ducked as the two unicorns spun to look.

A canine overseer was reloading his gun while two of his lackeys ran down the craggy hillside with their whips. "You are dead meatttttt, ponies!"

"Back at ya, Fido!" Josho roared as he mashed the metal bits together with telekinesis and flung the wave of shrapnel back up at the dogs. "Haaaugh!"

The first two stumbled as their faces were sliced to ribbons. The gun-toting canine had a shard of metal fly into his paw. He fell back, shrieking in pain. Whistles sounded off and the air filled with loud barks.

"By the Spark!" Eagle Eye shrieked, wide-eyed. "Are you mad?!"

"Something like that."

"Wh-what do we do now?!"

"You kidding?!" Josho tugged Eagle Eye along with him as the two bounded uphill by their manacles' binding. "We gallop like hell!"

Failure to Cooperate

"Will you move your flank, kid?!" Josho grunted.

"Nnngh!" The lavender unicorn stumbled after the elder enforcer. "The name is Eagle Eye!"

"You're gonna be called 'dead meat' in a hot minute if you don't friggin' catch up to me!" Josho shouted. He rounded a wooden supply shack which exploded from rifle shot right next to him. "Gaah!"

Both unicorns spun to look.

A phalanx of canines were standing on a ridge overlooking cowering slaves. They were in the process of reloading their weapons while their leader pointed a scimitar in the fugitives' direction.

"We gotta find s-some cover!" Eagle Eye stammered.

"I'd say the same about them!" Josho lifted the bullet-riddled side of the wooden shack with telekinesis. Growling for strength, he yanked the panel clean, heaved it over his shoulder, and bucked it with both rear hooves. "Nnngh!"

The wooden splinters flew towards the line of diamond dogs. The Killas gasped and dove aside to dodge the tossed bits.

Eagle Eye shook his head. "There're still too many of them—Aaaugh!" he yelped as his bound hoof pulled him violently towards the edge of the quarry.

"If I asked for a play-by-play, I would have shoved a megaphone into your mouth!" Josho grumbled. "I see a forest up ahead!"

"Yes, and about two dozen dogs!" Eagle Eye had to shout above a rising tumult of barks.

"You just let me do the fighting!" Josho shouted as they came upon an even plateau with dogs charging head-first. "You just stand behind me and look pretty!"

"I can do both at once!" Eagle Eye telekinetically lifted a pair of pick axes from gasping slaves. As the dogs ran up with their lashes, he gritted his teeth, concentrated, and shoved the tools against each other so harshly that one handle skewered another. He then flung the conjoined axes like a double-bladed boomerang over the heads of the attacking overseers.

All of the dogs ducked. The last one was rather slow, and he lost an ear with a spray of blood. As he yelped in anguish, Josho was already galloping murderously into the group.

"Aaaaaugh!" Josho head butted one diamond dog, bucked a second, and prepared to smack a third.

"Stupid horsssses!" A Killa dove down from a crest of rubble above, flinging the full length of his rope towards Josho's neck.

Eagle Eye gasped and concentrated a pulse of mana through his horn. In a flash, the whip froze in mid-air like a petrified snake.

The dog tugged and tugged at the anchored lash in frustration.

Josho turned, saw the whip, and clasped onto it with his bare teeth.

Eagle Eye let go with a gasping breath while Josho yanked at his end of the lash, pulling the diamond dog towards him. The elder enforcer then proceeded to roll the shouting dog over his shoulders and buck him straight into a line of advancing guards. The canines rolled down hill like a hairy set of bowling pins.

"Spark alive, I forgot what it felt like to be sober," Josho grunted before tugging a breathless Eagle Eye down a craggy hill of gravel. "Come on!"

"Like I h-have a choice!" Eagle chirped.

The two slid and tumbled and rolled to a stop. Scampering back onto aching hooves, they galloped down row after row of leather-bound drilling equipment. Canines gathered on the hilltop around them, aiming with a murderous line of rifles. Bullets flew down and shot up dirt, gravel, and packing material.

"Yaaaaugh!" Eagle Eye shrieked.

"Put a cork in it, lady!" Josho shouted as they came upon a solid line of wooden crates. Sweating like a frenzied hog, Josho gripped Eagle Eye with both forelimbs and flung the petite pony—shrieking—over the wall of wooden boxes. He clambered up the sunlit side of it with bulletholes forming all around him. "Nnnnngh!" Finally, with much burly effort, he tumbled down and landed in a grunt besides Eagle Eye.

"Uhm..." Eagle sweated, shivering nervously.

"Hush, kid..." Josho grumbled, wiping the sweat from his brow and muzzle. "Just gimme a second to think. I haven't done that since we turned that one dog's eyes to jelly doughnuts."

"Uhhhh..." Eagle Eye tugged on Josho's shoulder. "Uhhhhhh..."

"Look, will you shut up?! Don't make me hit you like a broken record—"

Eagle Eye gulped and pointed ahead. "That's the least of my worries."

"Huh?" Josho looked up. He blinked.

Over three dozen tents stretched before the group, and half-sleeping canines were crawling out of them. An entire camp full of confused, angry Killas glared at the two fugitives. They stood up from tables full of roasted meat and reached for their weapons.

"Oh well..." Josho grumbled. "I always wanted an epic way to die."

"Wait! I know!" Eagle Eye gasped.

Josho rolled his eyes. "I just didn't think I'd have a talking cherry on top..."

Eagle Eye tugged on his forelimb. "Use your teleport ability!"

"Kid, I don't even know if that works with these cuffs on—"

The first of many diamond dogs cocked his weapon and aimed at the bigger pony's forehead. "Looks like we've gottttt ourselves a bigger lunch, boyssss!"

"Look! I know you can do it!" Eagle Eye shrieked, wringing Josho's neck. "I promise that I will allow you to call me any manner of fruit if you just get us out of here—"

Josho was already shouting for concentrtion. "Raaaaaaaauuugh—" His horn glowed like a shooting star and—

The diamond dogs stumbled back, whining in pain from the blinding sight.

In the meanwhile...

Josho's horn stopped glowing. He blinked, seeing nothing but forest canopy above him. "Huh." He glanced down at his hoof, only to see a purple-glowing manacle around it. "Well, fish barf. I guess that's gonna be hard to get off—Daah!" He yelped as he was suddenly tugged back. The enforcer realized that he was lying on a thick branch extending outward from the tree.

Something with a decent amount of weight was pulling him hard against the body of the branch from below.

"What in Spark's name?" Josho struggled, twitched, and finally looked down.

"Nnnnngh—" Eagle Eye was dangling by his bound hoof, floating thirty feet above open forest. He looked up with frightened, violet eyes. "A little help here!" He squirmed and wriggled.

"Just stop moving—Stop swinging!" Josho shouted—then gasped as he rolled off the branch.

"Aaaack!" Eagle Eye plummeted under the shadow of Josho. The two fell like twin anvils towards the forest below.

"Kid!" Josho grunted, flailing upside down. "Blast the ground! Quick!"

"Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez—!" Eagle Eye somehow managed to fire a charge of mana earthward. The soil bubbled briefly with energy, then exploded upward. A column of dirt and leaves caught the stallions' descent, and what was once a suicidal plummet turned into a ridiculously annoying tumble.

"Ooof!" Josho grunted, landing first.

"Mmmmmf!" Eagle Eye landed against him, chest to chest.

It took the better part of five and a half milliseconds for Josho to fling the lavender body off of him. "Yeeugh! Not in a million years, slick!"

"As if, you huge bucket of... of..." Eagle Eye scooted away from him with a red face and spat, "Poo!"

"Pfft. That the best you got, kid?"

"Better than the best you've got! The heck was that all about?!" Eagle Eye barked. "You almost got us killed!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe you'd rather be back in the quarry kicking rocks until you become puppy chow!"

"Did you even have a plan beside using me as a living lance?!" Eagle Eye ran a hoof up to his mane. "Unnngh... I'm gonna be washing blood out of my hair for days!"

"You want blood in your teeth, that can be arranged."

"We're totally doomed, y'know," Eagle Eye said, hopping up to his lithe hooves. "There's only two of us and—like—a gazillion of them!"

"Will you relax?!" Josho stumbled up to an aching stand. "Unngh... Look, we're only two slaves. It's not like they're gonna send all of their dogs out for just two lucky punks."

"Lucky?!" Eagle Eye's face was pale with worry. "They've got a huge armored tank!"

"Yeah, on treads." Josho smirked wryly. "Don't you see? This is the best scenario possible. The one vehicle they got is as slow as a snail—"

Just then, the earth shook. Both stallions' ears twitched. As a veritable earthquake roared through the ground, they glanced up.

From a hilltop overlooking the lower forest, a line of trees exploded. The Killas' enormous tank plowed through wave after wave of vegetation. It's immense rusted body blotted out the sun, for it was bearing down ravenously on the two equines.

Josho gulped. "Dog gone it..."

"Come on!" Eagle Eye shrieked, tugging on Josho's shoulder.

The two stallions turned and ran. The forest and the tank and the thunder of a sundered continent all fell on top of them.

Glimmer Skipper Spitter

"Does striped boomer fear heights and spit?"

In the back of the wagon, Pilate lifted his head with a furrowed brow. "Huh?"

"Does striped boomer fear heights and—"

"I... uhm..." Pilate gulped. "No. I mean, well, maybe when I'm being tossed several thousand feet from a Ledomaritan zeppelin to my doom, then sure." He gave a shuddering breath. "Jury's still out on whether or not I'm dead and this is all some post mortem delusion of my firing synapses."

"Boomer would do well not to be afraid of heights."

"And sp-spit, right?"

"A'glimmer is the boomer's mind."

"Why do you ask?" Pilate gulped. "I mean, what does height have to do with anything?"

"Upon the tower of the stabby stabby horses have Floydien and boomer arrived."

"Huh?" Pialte shot up straight in the wagon, his ears twitching. "The tower? Already?" He frowned, suddenly. "Wait. What in Spark's name are we going to do with the tower?"

"Shhh! The spitters of the glimmer arrive."

"What?" Pilate whispered. Just then, the wagon came to a creaking stop. He heard the sound of grass and pine needles crunching as two sets of hooves strolled up from ahead of them.

"Well welll well... what do we have here?" uttered a stallion's voice.

"Is there a fair this deep in the forest?" chirped another in an amused voice. "Cuz you three are certainly a motley crew."

Pilate did a blind double-take. "Three?!" He was silenced by a cloven hoof placed against his lips.

"Never mind the boomer of stripes and more stripes," Floydien said. "Stabby stabby horses shall forthwith give their glimmer skipper to Floydien."

"What... in the Queen's lacy bridle is he going oin about?"

"Excuse me, mister. Would you mind repeating yourself?"

"The glimmer skipper above," the voice hissed. "Give give to Floydien Floydien."

Just then, Pilate tilted his skull. He thought he heard the tell-tale sounds of tight ropes creaking along a series of moorings high overhead.

"Pffft—What?! You mean you want our zeppelin?"

"Hahaha! Ohhhhh that's rich."

"That's the property of Queen Ledo, you moronic forest hippie!"

"Besides, your antlers would just get tangled with the steering controls."

"Stabby stabby spit-glimmers do not like the taste of Floydien's words," uttered the voice, suddenly taking on a cold, menacing tone. The air danced with static energy. "Perhaps some sugar the boomers need. Yes yes yes. Would go down like their mother's vomit."

"Hey! Watch it, creep!"

The forest snapped with the sound of a manarifle cocking. "Alright, 'fess up. What are you doing out here in the middle of nothing and what's with the zebra?"

"Ew—What's with the metal stuff all over the zebra's head? Are you three a bunch of freaks or what?!"

"Floydien has given the boomers a warning. Stay true to their names, they shall, yes yes..."

A loud hum filled the air. Pilate was taken back by how familiar it sounded. His skull and neck tingled in alternating currents.

"Whoah! What the—"

"What's th-that in your hooves?! And the heck's going on with your antlers?!"

"Floydien shall cuddle Floydien's Nancy Jane—even if he must do it through smelly boomers!" Just then, a crack of unearthly thunder rolled through the forest.

Pilate gasped, for suddenly he could see. A flash of bright, blinding light flickered through his mind, and etched in the center of it was the frozen effigies of two unicorn stallions in pure horror. As everything returned to black, he heard the resulting tumult of the energy blast. One body flew against a tree like a sandbag, littering the wagon and the path around it with leaves.

"Augh!" Pilate stammered, collapsing across the wagon and gripping his skull. "Good heavens! What...?!"

"Put down your weapon!" The other Ledomaritan shouted.

"A boomer's commands is spit as spit is spit!" Floydien's hooves swiveled against the dirt. There was another pulse of energy and—

Pilate's mind flashed once more. This time he saw the torso of the second stallion in agonized pain. As soon as the white light faded, he heard the grunting sound of the enforcer striking a bed of leaves beside the wagon.

"Nnnngh!" Pilate heaved, panting for breath. He raised a pair of hooves to his skull and felt that his metal plate was burning red hot. With a twitching expression, he rolled over and shouted, "O.A.S.I.S...." He gulped. "The sphere wasn't destroyed at all! Y-you have it!"

"The striped boomer's glimmer is most righteous," Floydien growled as the air filled once more with crackling mana. "Will carve the skies to Nancy Jane as Nancy Jane sees it."

Hissing metal doors open. The bodies of three stallions stampeded out, shouting. "Halt right there!" Manarifles lit up like fire crackers. The wagon exploded in several places.

Floydien's body could be heard rolling aside, followed by a venomous hiss, "Give Floydien the cloud skipper or spit forevermore!" Another pulse of energy hummed.

"No!" Pilate shouted, angry to the point of snarling. "The O.A.S.I.S. sphere is not a weapon—"

It was too late, for Pilate's mind burned with burning white plasma. He envisioned himself flying like a missile straight towards the base of an open tower. Three stallions shrieked and dove to the side right as the brightness reached a boiling point. His ears popped, and he was reeling in the darkness to the sound of settling thunder.

"Pizz fah wizz!" Floydien exclaimed. "Boomers are like potatoes. Nopony wants to touch them when they're hot. Yes?" The air rang from the sound of cloven hooves cradling a metal sphere. "Yes yesssss... "

"Mmmmf..." Pilate sat back up, shaking his head. "What... why... wh-why are you doing all this?!" He fought the fog of a migraine. "Just for a zeppelin? All I want is to find my beloved! I'm not out to hurt ponies!"

"Good thing Floydien does the hurting for boomer's stripes and non-hurting, yes yes?"

"Blast it, I need explanations!" Pilate barked. "Where are we going?! Why are you tossing around enforcers?! And is there really a third pony with us—" His breath left him at the touch of four tiny paws perched on his backside. "Gaaah!"

"Some boomers have bushy tails and some do not." A cloven hoof reached in and the set of paws climbed off of Pilate to mount the limb. "Less spit and more spirit, boomer. We have a skipper to fly to Nancy Jane." Then hoof then tugged at Pilate's forelimbs.

"Whoah!" He grunted as he fell like a dead weight out of the wagon.

By and By

"Crud crud crud cruddy crud crud!" Eagle Eye spat.

"Less crudding and more running!" Josho shouted, though his voice was scarcely discernible over the sound of trees, rocks, and crystal shards exploding all around them. The tank treads of the Killas' enormous transport was bearing down on the two unicorns, and it wasn't giving the local wildlife any mercy.

"Come on!" Eagle Eye shrieked, hopping over a fallen log and struggling to keep within rhythm to the larger stallion that he was bound to. "Port us again!"

"The fuzz?!"

"Y'know! Teleport us! You can do it!" the lavender pony stammered.

"Nnnngh!" Josho grunted, concentrating. His horn flickered, flickered again, then pulsed.

With a flash of light, the two fugitive soldiers disappeared and rematerialized... only ten meters forward.

"Oh for the love of mare sweat!" Josho hissed.

"Wh-what's the deal?!" Eagle's whimpering voice rang beneath the rising tumult as they both continued sprinting. "You call that a teleport?!"

"Something in our manacles is screwing with my horn!" Josho snarled. "I feel like my leylines are all busted up!"

"You're kidding me!" Eagle Eye gasped—only to be struck in the head with a falling pinecone. "Owie! S-so you can only jump us a few feet?!"

"Why the heck else didn't I try it all those times before, huh?!"

"I dunno!" Eagle Eye panted, hopping over a rolling boulder. "I just thought you were fat!"

"Your nose will be fat if you say that one more time—"

"Look out!" Eagle Eye shrieked, for a giant cedar tree was falling straight towards them, shaken off its roots by the heavy tremors.

"Uhhh-Uhhh..." Josho sweated profusely.

Eagle jumped into the bigger stallion, practically clinging to him. "Do something!" his voice cracked.

"Sonuva—" Josho's face tensed as if he was giving birth. His horn pulsed, and the two stallions rematerialized... a few feet backwards. "Whoops. Wrong direction."

"Aaaaaaah!" Eagle Eye flailed beneath the oncoming rush of the tank treads.

Josho's eyes darted up. He caught notches in the hulking vehicle's front end for tying on drilling equipment. "There! Grab ahold!"

Eagle Eye's quick reflexes responded. He jumped straight up and crasped the crook of his hooves within the notch. Josho did the same thing on his end of the tire treads. Soon, both unicorns were clinging to the front right side of the massive vehicle, their dangling tail hairs curling away so as not to get caught up in the treads.

"Now what?!" Eagle Eye murmured.

Josho's forelimbs quivered from the effort of holding his rotund body up. "Now... uhhhm... I think of something."

"Pffft. So we hang here forever?"

"Oh shut up!" Josho howled over the sounds of trees falling on either side of them. "Like you're of much help, my little pipsqueak!"

"Nnngh!" Eagle Eye grunted as a swath of branches swatted his side. "I can think of a thousand different ways we might have gotten out of that situation instead of with busting heads!"

"Actually, I think we exploded one or two heads."

"Same difference!"

"Why should you care?! You should be thanking me!" Josho spat. "Minutes ago, you were limp as a noodle. Now you can move like your flank is on fire!"

"That's because we're away from the crystals!"

"And who do you have to thank for that?"

"Wait a second..." Eagle Eye squinted, glancing around. "Why are we still moving?"

"Huh?"

"I said, why are we still moving?!"

"What?!"

Eagle barked, "The tank!" He slapped the metal hull with a dull ring while snarling above the noise. "It hasn't stopped since we stopped running!"

"Yeah, so?!"

"So..." Eagle Eye gulped. "I don't think it's actually chasing us. Do you?"

Josho blinked. He tilted his bearded face up towards the cockpit of the large vehicle. There was no way to spot the canine pilots from that angle. "Well..." He glanced over at the lavender unicorn. "There's only one way to find out." His horn started to glow.

Eagle Eye's gaze went thin. "Just what are you—" A bright light flashed. "—doing? Gah!" He fell, suddenly not clinging to anything but air. He landed on a pale boulder nestled in a crook of fallen branches. Josho stood above him, panting for breath as he watched the full body of the Killas' mining tank surge by.

"Heh... Never put a dog at the wheel," Josho muttered. "They do nothing but chase sticks with a vengeance."

"Th-they're probably clearing out stretches of the forest to make a highway to their quarry," Eagle Eye wheezed while stumbling up to his hooves. He lurched at the end of the manacle's purple binding. "Ungh... Why anyone would want to take a manacart out through this madness is beyond me."

"You don't have to thank me but would it kill you to turn the volume on the smartflank?"

"Yes, it just might!" Eagle Eye stood up and frowned at the haggard enforcer. "What's the next bright idea and how many more dogs are you gonna stab with my horn?!"

"You wanna know what I'm planning right now?!"

"Fill me in, you psychotic bag of jerkface!"

"I'll show you what I have in mind—" Josho snarled, raising an angry hoof.

Just then, the boulder beneath them shifted weight.

The two wobbled on their hooves. They blinked at each other. In icy motion, they tilted their gaze down to regard the huge rock.

Soil shifted. Twigs cracked. At last, the rock gave way. The two were suddenly ridiging the gigantic stone down a steep path revealed to be west of where they had avoided the tank.

"Aaaaack!" Eagle Eye clung to Josho.

"Nnnngh—For spark's sake!" Josho roared, fumbling to peel the petite pony off him. He fell on his flank as the two absurdly rode the boulder down the wooded hill. "Get off me, ya mangy dressflouncer! I gotta port us off!"

"We'regonnadieWe'regonnadieWe'regonnadie!"

"Darn it—Knock it off!" Josho bucked Eagle Eye off him and looked west. "We are not going to—" His voice collapsed in the back of his throat. He and Eagle sat up, perched on the rock as their coats took on shades of pale.

The stone was careening straight towards a steep cliff-face overlooking a three hundred foot drop, at the bottom of which were raging rapids.

"Okay," Josho droned, his eyes thin. "So maybe we are going to die."

With that, the stone launched itself off the cliff and fell murderously towards the base of the chasm below. Both stallions were sent flying—and screaming—like two ends to a shattered, violet boomerang.

Nose So Bright

"Mmmm... Spit." The sound of crashing wooden crate reverberated across the gondola. "Mmmmm... Spit." A bag of rattling tools fell overboard. "Hmmmm... More spit." This time, glass shattered.

Pilate winced, positioned on a seat of some sorts. The platform beneath him swayed, and he heard the grinding of ropes tied to a levitating dirigible directly overhead. "Uhm... Mister... uh... Mister Floydien, sir?"

"Mmmmf... The spittest of spits." Another crate smashed into the body of the Ledomaritan tower, its impact punctuated by what could best be described as a stifled cat scream. "Floydien thinks this skipper is smelling all over of stabby stabby. A nose should not know so much fail."

"Sir, if I could just—"

"Especially a red nose."

Pilate seethed, leaning blindly forward as he furrowed his brow for emphasis. "I think it would be in our best interest if you just gave me back my manasphere and let us part ways."

Just then, the sound of rummaging stopped. It became icy still, save for the distant groans of mana-throttled enforcers far down below.

Pilate could hear his breaths lingering.

After a scuffle of cloven hooves, the voice emanated from just in front of him. "Striped boomer no longer seeks his beloved?"

"Huh? N-no!" Pilate shook his head furiously. "Of course I want to go after Belle! I just think that... erm... I-I've had enough of your hospitality, and... uh... I-I should best be on my way."

"Does not trust Floydien, the boomer, no?"

"It's not that, I—"

"Has not Floydien provided boomer with glimmer and skipper and non spit?"

"You've been very helpful, but..." Pilate winced. "This isn't the kind of... erm... 'glimmer' that I'm asking for. I'm not out to cross paths wtih any enforcers and I most definitely have no intention of zapping them with O.A.S.I.S. as a weapon."

"But what a fine bane of stabby stabby it is!"

"Only because you made it that way! Look, Mr. Floydien..." Pilate sighed, gesturing with his hooves as he talked. "You and I... we... uh... we seem to have vastly differing philosophies. Obviously, you have been through a lot, and I feel for you. But, I've been through my fair share of craziness too. As much as I feel for you and your beloved, Nancy Jane, I fear that the journey you are taking me on will only get in the way of my reuniting with Bellesmith, much less finding her."

"Hmmmm... doubt the glimmer of Floydien, the striped boomer does. Is silly, yes yes? For we have stabby stabby to blame for the sparks and the groaning and the dying."

Pilate softly shook his head. "You might have the Ledomaritans to blame for what happened to you. But me?" He raised two hooves up to his metal plate. "What was done to me was a labor of love. It was made to make my life easier." He smiled softly. "And it was none other than my beloved, Belle, who fashioned me the means why which I can still see and learn in this world. Don't you understand, Mr. Floydien? I... I'm not exactly like you. My issue with the Ledomaritans is not what they've done to me, but rather what they've done to my beloved. So while you must solve your problems by taking it up with the Queen, I won't be at rest until I find the mare that I love. And I can only do that without anymore mishap. Do you understand?"

There was a period of silence. The hooves shuffled some more, and then the voice returned, "The sight that boomer gains from glimmer sphere—it will reveal beloved boomer immediately, yes?"

Pilate's ears drooped. "Well, no..."

"It will then show glimmering path to beloved, yes yes?"

Pilate gritted his teeth.

"Does the boomer even have a plan? There is much stabby stabby but there is very few paths to take through them to go through them."

Pilate sighed long and hard. "I know I am only shooting in the dark, but I have to find her on my own."

"Then perhaps two shots in the dark would suffice? Floydien can shoot in many directions, yes yes yes. Is faithful to rely on his antlers when boomer's skull is nothing but metal and darkness."

"Where are you even taking me now?"

"To the Nova that is Most Blue, home of the stabbiest this side of the east explosions."

Pilate tilted his head aside. "Blue Nova? Why... that's not far from the Northern Facility Shell talked about..."

"A network of glimmer Floydien hopes to find. It will reunite him with Nancy Jane. Smith of Belle may not be far from striped boomer."

"Right... Right... Okay..." Pilate nodded breathily. He swallowed and said, "Could you at least give me back my sphere?"

"Floydien does not want glimmer to out-boom the boomer's skull."

"Huh?"

"It will fry you at its current charge."

"Oh..."

"Fear not, Floydien insists, for Floydien is an expert pilot." The gondola swayed as the sound of swishing propellers touched the air. "Not a pun does Floydien intend."

"R-right..." Pilate nodded nervously, sitting back in his seat. "Not at all..." A quartet of paws hopped on his shoulder, and he gasped. He felt whiskers and a wriggling nose by his muzzle.

"Neither should boomer fear Simon," Floydien's voice said as the wind picked up. "Simon may be a small token of the glimmer, but a living compass is his bushy tail."

"Right... uh... gotcha..." Pilate smiled nervously and reached a hoof out to pet the rodent's head. "Nice to meet you, Simon."

A tiny pair of tesla-coils came into contact with Pilate's hoof and instantly zapped him.

"Gaaah!" Pilate reeled back, hissing as the tiny, furry body leapt off him.

"Floydien did not tell boomer it was safe to pet Simon. Yes yes?"

Pilate rubbed his hoof and shuddered. "No no..."

Horses for Courses

"This one, infernal metal mare has plagued us time and time again, stealing our loved ones and leaving our town in shreds," Tweak muttered. The setting sun glinted off him and the shiny bodies of several other crystal ponies as they gathered around the general store, putting out the last of the flames and smoke. He turned and looked at Crimson with a weak smile. "If somepony told me that this was all some elaborate April Foals' joke, I just might have the inclination to believe it."

Crimson slowly nodded, gazing at the crumpled sight of Aeterna lying against the bent flagpole to which her armor-stripped body was bound. "I must admit, I found it surprising just how swiftly she went down."

"In that, you're alone, good sir," Tweak muttered. "You unleashed the wrath of alicorns on her, I swear." His eyes narrowed. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"I watched a living rainbow do something like that while I was dangling in a metal net."

"Huh?"

"Don't bother," Crimson grumbled, leaning against the wall of a building in the center of Aurum. "I'm still reeling from all of this." He turned and glanced curiously at the farmer stallion. "Just what did she want from you and your neighbors just now?"

"The same thing she has always wanted," Tweak said. "She attacks the village every moon or so to grab one of us and haul him or her—mostly him—down south to 'Searo's Hold' or whatcrap."

"And you've not been able to stop her until just now?"

"Goddess knows we've tried." Tweak gulped. "Quite frankly, that was the closest I ever got to her myself. And it nearly cost me my neck." He sighed, his head hanging. "Not to mention a future spent with my family and foals." He turned once more to gaze at Crimson. "You have quite literally saved my life and household in one fell swoop." Tweak took a deep breath and spoke with utmost sincerity, "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, sir. You have my respect... not to mention my devotion."

Crimson patted his shoulder and said, "I don't like innocent ponies being bullied."

Tweak smiled bitterly. "I wouldn't exactly call myself innocent, but I'll just take that as protecting my whole village."

"Whatever works." Crimson hobbled forward, staring at Aeterna's limp body. He rubbed his chin with one good hoof, his face scrunched in thought.

"What's on your mind?" Tweak asked.

"You said she'd show up here every moon, right?"

"Just about. She was quite regular with her violent attacks."

"What brought her here exactly?" Crimson inquired.

"What ever brings a metal mare from point A to point Z?" Tweak shrugged. "An aircraft of sorts. Mana-powered. We barely get to see any sign of it, though, considering it arrives and takes off too swiftly and thunderously for us to intervene."

"So, you must know where it lands..."

"Everypony does!" Tweak exclaimed. "The thing sounds like it's run by a legion of cackling demons!"

"Well, it's not gonna take off again anytime soon." Crimson turned towards Tweak. "Where was it heard landing today?"

Tweak blinked. He glanced at Aeterna, then squinted back at Crimson. "Listen, friend, even if we could locate the craft, there's no possible way we could open the thing. Word is the Searonese have those things armed to the teeth, and it will kill any unarmored equine that tries in vain to open it from the outside."

"I'm quite well aware of that," Crimson said in a grumbling tone. "But that doesn't change the fact that it's here and it can stand to be elsewhere."

"Like where?" Tweak asked.

"A place where my friend has gone," Crimson remarked. Hobbling, he turned about and limped towards the edge of town. "You feel like you owe me? Then do me a favor."

"What...?"

"Summon several more stallions, and let us all meet up where the aircraft last landed."

The Real Deal

Several stallions murmured as they strolled through the underbrush of the forest's edge. Before them, glistening in the dying glow of the sunset, was a bulbous cigar of a metal manaship, its rear thrusters still glowing from the full day of flight that had brought the bounty hunter's vehicle there. Many of the Aurum residents shook in their horseshoes, giving each other nervous glances.

Crimson, however—with Tweak's shoulder to lean on—strolled forward through the high grass and bushes. Once they were both ten paces from the craft, he raised a hoof. Tweak let go and Crimson limped a few lonely steps until he stood a safe ten feet from the foreboding, slender vehicle.

"Spark alive," he grumbled. "From the way they build their flying machines, I can tell just how much they secretly miss stallions."

"Huh?" Tweak did a double-take.

"Never mind," Crimson muttered, then sighed. "Sometimes, I really do miss Zenith."

"Who?" The farm stallion stood beside him. "You've still lost me, friend."

"That's quite alright," Crimson said. "We are all lost in the shadow of Ledo, until we make our own light." He turned about. "That said, some are more gifted than others." He broke a slight smile. "Tell me, in all the times that Aeterna assaulted your humble village, did she ever attempt tackling an entire group of you?"

Tweak blinked. He looked back at the dozen fellow farmhooves and they all shrugged in crystalline complexity. "Actually, no," Tweak said, clearing his throat as he glanced back at Crimson. "We all held back for safety's sake. Besides, that metal mare was always pulling us out one at a time. Her visits rarely lasted more than a few minutes."

Crimson nodded slowly. "And that's how the likes of stallions such as Lucky Strike were taken..."

Tweak's answer was to hang his head in somber fashion.

Crimson gulped and glanced again at the ship. "Well, I think there's a more complicated reason for that."

"Oh?"

"Seems like most souls foreign to Aurum have an issue with crystal ponies in general. I don't know exactly what type of power you equines possess, but it doesn't exactly seem friendly to diamond dogs, Searonese, and even unicorns such as myself."

"It's an unpredictable world that we live in, Mr. Crimson," Tweak said. "Unicorns aren't the only creatures capable of harboring magic."

"Oh, I quite well know that," Crimson said. "The Council of Ledo has been... mmm..." He shifted uncomfortably in the grass. "...fond of tapping into the metaphysical abilities of buffalo, rams, deer, anteloupes... you name it."

"That's all rather interesting," Tweak droned, glancing behind him shiftily. "Now will you kindly tell us what we're doing out here?"

"What if the magic of crystal ponies can overwhelm more than just the bodies of metal mares?" Crimson narrowed his gaze. "What if it can affect their technology as well?"

"Huh...?"

"Mr. Tweak, I think we both know that there's more to the abduction of Aurum stallions than just big game and breeding," Crimson said in a serious tone.

The ponies behind Tweak murmured amongst themselves in contemplation of that. Tweak took a deep breath and said, "So what are you suggesting we do?"

"This morning at the breakfast table," Crimson said. "You and your family were glowing like the sun. Just what brings that about?"

"Quite frankly, Mr. Crimson, it's our natural state," Tweak said. "Crystal ponies are accustomed to stifling it. After all, Aurum gets plenty of merchants travelling through here. Not everypony who visits our town are attempting to abduct or enslave the populace."

"Could you revert back to that state right now?" Crimson asked, then motioned with his skull towards the manacraft. "Meanwhile, getting close to the metal mare's ship? Within reason, of course..."

Tweak blinked at the aircraft, then squinted at Tweak. "To what end?"

"I think we'll all find out."

Tweak glanced back at the other stallions. They muttered calmly and nodded in approval. He looked again at Crimson. "And what of you?"

Crimson gulped and found a tall tree to lean against. "I'll take my chances." He raised his right stub of a forelimb. "I-I think we both know that I've been through worse."

Tweak inhaled slowly, his crystal nostrils flaring. "Well, alright." He motioned towards the other stallions. The herd trotted forward in one accord, and soon the gathered farmhooves of Aurum were standing in a half-circle before the slender Searonese vessel. They planted their limbs firmly against the ground and took on meditative expressions. Then—like a beam of light was bouncing through them—they concentrated.

A flickering glow wafted across the forested clearing as—one by one—the crystal ponies lit up like the bulbs of a Hearth's Warming Tree. Crimson shuddered instantly, gripping to the tree for support. He watched in a dizzied haze as the phalanx of stallions pulsed in succession, their manes glittering like copper filaments heated to the burning point.

Soon, the luminescent aura was rivaling the sunset. The blades of grass swayed under sudden vibrance, as if errant sprites were shooting up from the ground. A spark of something bright—like lightning—darted across the nearby row of trees.

Crimson gasped. He flung a glance towards the manaship. In his blurry vision, he saw another spark—this time running across the body of the ship. Finally, after several more bright flashes, a whirring noise emanated from deep within. The glowing stallions stumbled back, watching in shock as a door to the side of the vessel slid open, its motorized servos making ugly noises—like a metal cat hacking up a furball.

"Alright! That's enough!" Tweak exclaimed, waving a hoof up high. "We did it! For our friend's sake, let's simmer down!"

One by one, the bodies of the crystal ponies went dull. The glow faded away, and shadows returned to the forest clearing on the fringe of the dying day. Every stallion muttered in amazement at the sight of the opened aircraft.

Crimson was struggling to walk upright, still wrought with dizziness.

"Are you okay?" Tweak asked, helping him stand up straight.

"Yes. I do believe so," Crimson murmured, stumbling for a brief moment. "Whew... the technology really doesn't stand a chance against you, does it? No wonder these 'Killas' don't want to get close to Aurum."

"I feel so utterly foolish," Tweak muttered, shaking his head. "If I had known that gathering in our purest state would have stopped Aeterna from the get-go..."

"She never gave you the chance to know," Crimson remarked, patting Tweak's shoulder. "That's the thing about oppressors. Their power is not in their weaponry or in their technology, but in their ability to intimidate. She preyed upon you in small numbers because that's all that she could afford to do. The rest was an illusion that she projected... and also depended on."

Tweak gritted his teeth while punching a nearby tree. "Nnnngh... Lucky Strike!" He sighed and hung his head. "It's all my fault." At the sound of hooves trotting against metal, he glanced aside. His eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?"

"Investigating," Crimson said, having entered the interior of the vessel. He snooped around, slowly gazing through the darklit cockpit and bounty hold. A whistle escaped his lips. "This is intricate stuff. I've seen hovercraft manufactured by the Council of Ledo with less refinement than this. The Searonese have a talent—that much can't be denied."

"Earth ponies are known for their ambition," Tweak said as he and a few other stallions gathered at the entrance to the dormant vessel. They peered nervously inside as he said, "Especially when they're bloodthirsty, violent, radical matriarchs—"

"They're all punks," Crimson muttered, leaning over the controls of the cockpit. "Even the crafty ones—like the mare that took my friend south." He thought aloud, glancing at a blinking diode located in the center of the controls. "Hmmm... The thing still has power. I'm willing to bet that there's a backup mana battery."

"And?" Tweak remarked, suddenly standing behind Crimson. "What does that mean?"

Crimson gave him a double-take. "Uhm... Simply that it'll recover from the energy you and your friends put out soon enough." He cleared his throat. "What... are you doing in here?"

"I could ask the same of you," Tweak said.

"I'm figuring out the controls of this thing so that I might activate the security override," Crimson said. "I have every intention of flying this thing south."

"I figured as much," the farm stallion said. "And what then?"

"Huh?"

"Do you plan on storming into the headquarters of the metal mares on three limbs and a prayer?" Tweak's crystal brow furrowed. "You've done far too many heroic things to end it in a single charge, no matter how glorious."

Crimson sighed. "I was fortunate to have landed in your good hospitality, but this has been my personal quest from the start."

"It's been your personal quest for a while now, but then you made the silly mistake of showing us how to stand up to the likes of Aeterna."

Crimson blinked. "What... are you getting at?"

"Would you truly wish to know?" Tweak sat back on his haunches and folded his forelimbs with a smirk. "Very well. Let me fill you in, soldier..."

Bellesmith Trots East

For Bellesmith, it had been a full, exhausting day.

It started with her trek through the forests of northern Ledomare. The initial leg of the journey didn't last long, and while it did, it amounted to nothing more than a distraught lurch through a sea of threadbare trees. The trunks of coniferous flora loomed on either side of her like gray bodies in the starlight. The burning wreckage of the enforcers' hovercraft had been left far behind, so the only sound was the stammering cadence of her own breaths. She kept her eyes forward the whole time, however, with the hazy glow of Blue Nova looming over the dark blue horizon. Sooner than she had hoped, the dim image turned blurry. She bequeathed it a fainting sigh and fell forward into a sea of leaves.

When she came to, the faint glow of morning danced along the east horizon. It woke up a fluttering sensation in her chest. Belle blinked the tiredness away from her eyes, and when she did so she saw flickers of alien landscapes, sprinkled with the color of familiarity. She envisioned marshlands, forests, lakebeds, mountains, deserts, wastelands—places she had never before scaled, and yet she had lived all of those sojourns in some phantom reality. It engergized her all the same.

Belle stood up, and it was as if an otherworldly energy was empowering her. If the world was a machine, then she could just as easily have been a part of it; she was moving with the same purpose and regularity.

It brought her down a sloping hillside and into a grand valley full of sweeping pastures. Thin dirt roads weaved their humble way north and south, lined by brown wooden fences worn with time. The highways were a welcome reprieve from the sterile rigidity that was typical of facilities constructed by the Council of Ledo. Belle even swore she saw a cottage or two bordering the paths, their stonemason chimneys brimming with smoke and filling the landscape with the happy scent of family breakfast.

Her stomach gurgled, but there was no time for delay. Something urged Belle eastward, and every time she paused to glance at the ancient tome nestled in her saddlebag, the symbol on the front cover was glowing brighter and brighter with lavender luminescence. Suddenly, sleep and hunger were elements of another world. She trotted swiftly, and still it wasn't a quick enough stride for her liking. She found herself leaping dramatically high each time she had to scale a fence or a rock or a stream. The hairs on the sides of her body rose on end, as if something deep beneath her flesh was desperate to grow feathers and send her towards the horizon even faster.

All the while, the body of Blue Nova lingered like a gray cloud above the woods, hills, and thickets before her. Looking at it stole the breath from Belle's lungs. As much as she was drawn to the place, her heart didn't rejoice at the thought of arriving there. The largest city she had ever been in was Blue Pulse, and that was barely a step up from the dense, affluent districts of Mountainfall. Large cities meant large clusters of Ledomaritan Enforcers. If she was smart—if she respected her own safety at all—then she would have ventured somewhere west and hidden herself in the farmlands north of Green Slope Province.

But she couldn't very well do that. So much had been taken from her life—far too much to dwell on—and all that she could do to preserve her sanity was to ignore it, to do that which was mad, to do that which was impulsive... much like a certain prismatic pegasus.

There were times when Belle wondered, when the quickening of her pulse caught up with her, if Rainbow Dash was alive or not. She was in as bad straits as Belle had been in—if not worse—the last time she saw her. If one of them was to die, would the other feel it? Belle didn't know—she didn't understand anything. All she could do was move, and she did so swiftly, traveling northeast through the trees and paths and villages that stretched before her.

Though she covered much ground, it was hardly a graceful journey. She stopped many times to avoid detection. It wasn't just Enforcers that she steered away from, but merchants and families and even picniccers as well. At one point, Belle hid beneath in the shadow of a river bridge, waiting as an entire line of monks passed by, their chants filling the air with melodic tonality.

They were ponies from the far north: Mint Province, she suspected. Most of the unicorns who dwelled there had a unique, zealous view of the Spark. Generations upon generations of religious Mintians believed that the Spark could only be understood through a divine experience achieved through deep meditation. Most Ledomaritans were wary of Mintian culture, mostly because the Xonans were infamous for having similar religious creeds. However, Mint Province was also a major source of ore deposits that were essential for crafting the metal used in building the Queen's numerous airships, so very little was done to upset the Mintian way of life.

For a while there, Bellesmith closely observed the monks as they passed by, catching glimpses of their shaved manes beneath the veils of their cloaks. A sigh escaped her lips as she imagined how bittersweet and peaceful existence it must have been to live so piously, so peacefully. So solitarily...

She winced and shook the thoughts before they could make her heart sink any harder. When the line of zealots passed by, she galloped out of hiding, crossed the bridge, and continued on her trek.

Most of the paths were bending sharper eastward. There was a reason for this: a solid wall of steep, craggy mountains lingered ahead. Without wings, Belle had no choice but to follow the highways. The symbol glowed a little less brightly as her angle of trotting changed, but it mattered little. Blue Nova remained in her sight, and it only became more and more majestic. Even from miles away, the levels of the city glittered in amazing clarity. The skyrises were beautiful but disjointed things, and if it weren't for the assistance of manacrystals, it was quite possible that several of the buildings would have collapsed into the lower districts below. However, the structures remained aloft, and for a good purpose too: they provided several canals and bridges through which airships could pass by and dock, providing supplies and services from all corners of the Confederacy.

It filled Belle with equal wonder and sullen thought: that a nation capable of so much beauty would also harbor so much evil. The doctor in her—the part of her that still saw things rationally and objectively—had to acknowledge the fact that a country built out of nefarious things didn't necessarily have to be populated by malevolent citizens. Every neighbor that she had ever had—from Mountainfall to Blue Shelf—were genuinely kind, honest, and well-to-do ponies. She had only ever benefited from knowing them, and she was certain that if they knew about the sorts of projects that the Council of Ledo had funded, they too would have been filled with as much horror and disgust as she had been.

A part of her even dreamed—in a fleeting breath of afternoon exhaustion—that the populace of the Confederacy might someday learn everything that she, Crimson, and Professor Garnet had discovered in their less-than-cheerful experiences with the inner workings of the Queen's system. She wondered what kind of a future that would ensure the nation, and if it would be a good one. With the Xonans constantly knocking on the eastern front, would it be a good time for such infallible truth to challenge the Confederacy's solidarity?

Belle grumbled—more than once. She wondered if Rainbow Dash's head were ever filled with this much thinking, but she knew better. No matter how many memories they shared, how much pain or loss, nothing could quite make them similar. Rainbow Dash would always be faster than the likes of Bellesmith, and the unicorn knew that it was more than wings that gave the pegasus her energy. Something empowered, something beyond this world and the realms beyond. In spite of all Belle had learned, she realized she had only ever brushed against the surface of reality. What lay beyond the lingering veil of obscurity was something too bright to look at, she imagined, and it gave an extra jump to Belle's pulse as she practically galloped into the melting shadows of a lazy sunset.

When the day had come to an end, Belle was stumbling—hobbling, actually—through a thin line of trees nestled between two tiny villages. A puttering noise sounded overhead, and she realized that she was close enough to the fringes of Blue Nova that she was within earshot of merchant zeppelins descending upon the outer walls of the city. She suspected that another ten straight hours of trotting might even bring her to the gates of the metropolis.

This didn't enthuse her as much as she thought it should have. The fact of the matter was that an entire day had gone by, during which Belle hadn't enjoyed a bite to eat or a drop of water. It didn't help that the previous two days of hectic fugitivism hadn't afforded her much nourishment as it was. She panted and stumbled with each trotting step now, and the lights flickering on in the windows of the nearby cottages streaked before her in a nauseous blur.

Belle was quickly realizing the folly in ever thinking she could make a trek comparable to Rainbow Dash's flight. Still, she would stop every now and then, taking a glance at the two tomes in her saddlebags. One: a scrapbook of familiar yet alien faces. Another: a menagerie of glowing symbols. Somewhere between the blurs—the hazy flicker of memories both true and false—she saw a haunting series of black and white stripes, and she felt like sobbing for the first time in hours.

Thankfully, something snapped her out of it. It was a scent—accompanied by a crackling noise. She snuck forward through a thick sea of underbrush. Just a few paces ahead of her, bright as a full moon, was a campfire. Several equine figures were seated around it, murmuring about one thing or another while they shared a broth of roasted potatoes. They were stallions, and they all wore dark blue uniforms with a symbol on it that Belle wasn't entirely familiar with—not that it mattered. Her eyes were locked on the kettle of food.

Her stomach growled, and she had to hug herself in a fetal position behind the bushes as she waited for the natural noise to come and go. She juggled her options, and not once did the outlook appear golden. For one, she could approach the ponies and simply ask for a civil share of the meal—but that might get her exposed to the local authorities. For another, she could play rogue and simply snatch a bite while the stallions weren't looking, but that seemed hardly a realistic prospect.

In the end, Belle relied on one question and one question alone: What would Rainbow Dash do? Almost immediately, Bell knew the answer, for it was always—never ceasingly—the single most dangerous and daring option.

And what was both amazing and sad was: she knew very well that she had very little left to lose. For once, she felt like she truly had wings.

Perhaps she was delirious. Perhaps she was dreaming. Nevertheless, Belle imagined for a moment that the wings were real, and she coiled them to her side so as not to make much noise as she waited for the stallions to look the other way... and then she crawled slowly through the underbrush and approached the camp...

Enter Stealth Mode

"Beats me what all the hubbub is about," muttered one stallion to the next. He took a sip from a levitating bowl of potato soup and glanced aside at his two companions. "But whatever it is, it's pulling away almost all of the local enforcers."

"I swear, last month, we had at least three military zeppelins parked in the city," another said. The uniformed stallion leaned forward and poured himself another helping from the kettle. His muzzle smiled in the flicker of the crackling campfire. "Now there's less than one per week. It's a breath of fresh air, if you ask me."

"I've heard rumors," the third said, polishing a spear in the crook of his hooves. "Something big is going on down south. They already sent the Steel Wing to the Sapphire Province."

"The Steel Wing?!" A stallion gasped, glancing over from his bowl. "Spark Alive! Could it be a Xonan incursion?"

"Nah, most likely a bunch of unruly metal mares acting up."

"Ungh. Why does the Queen even tolerate those rust-wombs?!"

"I know, right? They make our jobs all the harder."

"At least Madame Nightshade knows better than to hire their kind. I tell you what—if it wasn't for the Industry, I'd be back west herding antelopes out of the Cyan Crystal Valley."

"Hah! I didn't know you were employed in the Central Relocation Programs."

"Straight up!"

"I was north of Crystal Valley about ten years ago, making room for a quarry being funded by the Council of Ledo. Boy, I tell you what... bison aren't so peaceful once you tell them to skedaddle."

"At least they don't shoot blue sparks at you."

"These ones did."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Antelopes aren't the only Valley locals who got the mana treatment."

"Ugh. The Confederacy's never going to live those experiments down. I swear, the Council better get started on that non-equine draft soon or we're all screwed."

"I was almost drafted myself once."

"Oh?"

"But I was rejected. Y'know... cuz of my left front hoof and all."

"Heh. Lucky you."

"Luck has nothing to do with it. I'm just glad Nightshade Industries gave me another chance. Easiest job in the world."

"Not lately, it hasn't been."

"Meh. We'll reach our quota. Just gotta keep our eyes peeled. Not that it matters."

"Why doesn't it matter?"

"Madame Nightshade's got all that she needs as of late, hasn't she? I don't even know why we're bothering to search these villages."

"There've been a crapton of Mintian monks traveling about. Odds are they picked up hitchhikers. Who knows who might be hiding away in these buildings."

"Meh. Whatever. So long as we get a good night's sleep. I hate busting doors down when I'm half awake."

"Not even a coma could help you with that, jackass."

"Hardy har. Pass me another bowl."

"Now I know you're not gonna sleep."

"Nnnngh..."

"Heh heh heh..."

Bellesmith heard every single word, because over the past forty seconds, she had successfully snuck her way into the encampment and was within a hoof's stretch of the three stallions. She sat now—squatting behind a line of crates that bordered the campsite between the fire and a large wooden wagon. She bit her lip, her eyes glittering upon the sight of the kettle and its deliciously steaming broth. Her nostrils flared, and she looked all around her immediate vicinity.

At last, her eyes stumbled upon a large pebble. She picked it up in the crook of her hoof and—breathlessly—launched it clear across the campsite so that it clattered against an oak tree beyond the light of the fire.

Almost immediately all three stallions turned their heads. However, they didn't so much as stir from their seats.

"Hmm... you hear that?"

"Sounded heavy."

"Meh. Probably a dying squirrel."

"Yeah. Spark, I hate squirrels."

"Uh huh..." They resumed sitting and eating.

Belle hissed under her breath. She looked around again. This time, she found a length of fabric dangling out of a wooden crate right next to her. She bit her lip in thought. Then, with a flurry of hooves, she opened her saddlebag and produced Rainbow Dash's flint and tinder. Next, she yanked the cloak out of the crate. It was a tiny thing, the appropriate size for a young foal. It was also etched with numerous runic shapes, but her hungry mind barely registered it. In swift order, she produced sparks with the flint and tender and set the fabric on fire. Then, careful to not burn herself, she wrapped the smoldering material around a rock and flung it in the same direction.

It landed with a thump, although this time it set fire to a cluster of bushes.

"Hmmph..." One of the stallions hummed before gulping down some soup. "Another squirrel?"

Another uniformed unicorn glanced over. "Nah." He turned back to the meal. "Just a brushfire besides the wagon."

Silence.

All three jumped up at once. "Ah jeez!"

"Fetch the water!"

"Don't let it get to the mana crystals!"

They galloped awkwardly away, leaving the campfire and the kettle of soup completely unguarded.

Bellesmith smiled pleasantly. Desperately hungry, she rushed forward to take advantage of the moment. As she did so, an edge of the saddlebag bumped into a crate. It fell over, spilling its contents noisily. She froze and crouched low, hissing under her breath. Thankfully, the stallions were making such a commotion in the act of putting out the fire that they didn't notice her clumsiness.

Breathing with relief, she lifted the heavy crate back up with her forelimbs, hoping that it'd look less suspicious placed back where it once was. As she did so, she nearly tripped on a pile of spilled horseshoes. When she looked at it this time, her gaze lingered. The horseshoes were all foal-sized, and what's more, they had the same runes as the tiny cloak she had thoughtlessly set on fire.

For the first time in hours, she thought of Pilate—albeit it was not a melancholic thought but an educated one. At last, the nature of the runes struck a familiar part of her mind.

"Are these... Xonan...?" She fidgeted. "Where did the stallions get these?"

She had already wasted enough time. In a single breath, she bounded over to the kettle. With the crook of her hoof, she held the serving spoon and dipped it deep into the steamy broth. She opened a satchel of her saddlebag and prepared to drop in as many solid potatoes as she could—

"Hah!" A telekinetic grip yanked her away by the hoof. "What's this?! A thief?"

"Aaugh!" Bellesmith gasped as she was dragged over towards one of the three stallions. The other two were marching back from the smoldering remains of a fire that had quite easily been put out.

"I knew something was up!" the uniformed pony grumbled, frowning at her. "By the Queen, I hate these parts. It's worse than the lower streets of the city."

"Where in the heck did she come from?" Another remarked, squinting at the sight. "I swear, we're not on our game these days—" He suddenly gasped. "Holy crud."

"What?" The other turned to frown on him.

"What do you think? Look at her horn!"

"What about it?" The stallion who was gripping her turned again. His eyes reflected the stub in the center of her crown, and his jaw dropped. "No way..."

"You kidding me, right?" Another trotted over and sized Belle up and down. "Could she have escaped from Madame Nightshade's place?"

"Nah, it's gotta be a coincidence," the one stallion holding her said, his eyes nevertheless squinting. "Besides, she's too old." He leaned forward. "Just where the heck do you come from, lady?"

Belle was biting her lip. She glanced at the stallions.

She stared at her.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. For a brief moment, she saw blurring pastures and mountaintops, as if she was flying. She decided to with the flow... and promptly headbutted the unicorn in front of her.

"Aaaaugh! Sonova..."

Exit Stealth Mode

Bellesmith had free control of her limbs for the space of two seconds. She took advantage of it.

"Nnngh!" In a single bound, she hopped over the kettle of hot potato soup.

"Ughh—Grab her, dang it!" stammered the stallion who was still reeling from her headbutt. His two companions gave chase.

She planted her front hooves against the ground and kicked the kettle with her rear limbs. Hot broth splashed all over the uniformed unicorns' hooves, singeing them. They winced and hobbled in pain.

Belle galloped breathlessly towards the edge of the camp.

Frowning, the first stallion tilted his horn forward.

A tree branch above Belle snapped loose and fell down weightedly. The length of it landed across her flank.

"Augh!" she shrieked as she was flung to the ground. Pain rocketed through her figure. She felt the twigs and leaves of the offending structure getting tangled with Princess Luna's saddlebag. Try as she might to summon some extra energy, she inevitably fell limp beneath the weight of the branch.

Three sets of hoofsteps trotted over towards where she was. Magic kissed the air as the branch was lifted from her back. No sooner was she free then two stallions lunged down and restrained her physically. She grunted and struggled in vain as they forced her into a standing position.

"Crazy mare..." The stallion with a whelt on his forehead muttered as he paced before her. He squinted through the hazy light of the campfire and said, "She's got less muscle on her than my baby sister. Where the heck did she learn moves like that?"

"She looks too soft to be a vagabond to me," said one of the ponies gripping her. He glanced at her cutie mark. "Hmmm... maybe a writer down on her luck?"

"That's some bad luck," chuckled the other one. "What should we do with her? This isn't exactly covered by Nightshade protocol."

"My left eye, it's not," the stallion in front of her grumbled. "Technically speaking, she did try stealing the Industry's property."

"What, the potatoes? You really think that's gonna work if she goes and complains to enforcers?"

"Please, just let me go," Belle managed to murmur. "All I wanted was some food. I'm sorry..."

"Would it have killed you to ask for it, lady?"

Bell glared at the stallion in front of her. "Something tells me you're not exactly the gracious type..."

He blinked at that.

"Pssst... Hey..." One of the other two motioned with his head towards the crates of items packed around the campsite. "Check it out..." A box was stacked up in a hectic fashion atop another crate, and several horseshoes with runic symbols had fallen loose.

The one stallion glanced at it, then at his companions. After sharing a knowing look, he took a deep breath and spoke aloud, "Ma'am, I do believe, for your own good, we should bring you back with us to the city..."

Belle's eyes went wide. "Huh? Wh-what?"

"You're obviously in need of shelter and nourishment. Trust me." His eyes took on an icy glare. "Nightshade Industries will know how to take care of you."

"I am—mmf!" Belle jerked at the grip of the stallions. "N-not about to go with you anywhere!"

"I'm sorry, but I think we both know it's too late for you to have a choice." The stallion closed the distance between them, preparing to strike his hoof across the top of her skull.

She bit her lip, awaiting the inevitable blow.

Just then, the light from the campfire went out.

"Whoah!" one the stallions gripping Belle turned and gasped. "What gives?"

The air rang with metal as the other unicorn lifted his spear from across the camp. "Crud! She wasn't alone!"

"Why the heck would she be sent in, then?"

"Why else?! To get us all bunched up together and—" The stallion to Belle's right was silenced as a lithe body plowed him hard into the side of the company's wagon.

She gasped and crouched down low, covering her head.

The other stallion turned and jabbed his spear over her. Something in the shadows gripped his lance and yanked him forward. His chin flew straight into a waiting hoof. Before he could spit out his own teeth, a pair of forelimbs gripped him hard and body-slammed the uniformed pony into the smoldering ashes that remained of the campsite.

Belle watched as the last stallion standing pulled out a small blade and held it in his magic grip. He panted and glanced every which way in the starlight. Everything was horror and the sound of crickets. Just then, he heard the shuffling sound of one of his partners' spears being picked up. He spun with a shout, swinging hard with his blade.

It was met with the end of a lance. Sparks flew, illuminating a mustached muzzle. Once it was dark again, the invasive shadow flew forward, knocking the stallion off his hooves and slamming him hard through a pile of crates. The air filled with the sound of the unicorn's muffled cries, followed by several heavy blows to the cranium. Then, with a moan, the pony was out cold.

A few more seconds dripped by...

With a deep breath, the attacker stood up above the pile of unconscious stallions. His body shone with multiple scrapes and bruises in the starlight. After catching his nerves, he spun and murmured into the air, "Belle?" He gulped and repeated, "Miss Bellesmith?"

He was answered with the crunching sound of the mare's hooves trotting angrily away through the underbrush.

"Bellesmith!" he hissed, as if the stallions could somehow be woken from their beating. In an awkward shuffle, he bounded after her, following her deep into a cluster of trees. "Bellesmith, will you please stop for one second—?!"

"Go away, Mr. Phoenix," she grumbled, marching north as swiftly as her temper and frustration could take her.

"I can't go away! You know that!"

"I don't know anything," she muttered. "I don't care about anything."

"That's not true!" he stammered, hobbling to catch up with her. "You care about yourself, don't you? You care about whatever this journey is that you're on—"

She spun and flashed a furious glare in the starlight. "Have you been following me all this time?"

He rebounded from her expression. Gulping, he nodded and said, "Yes... At a distance."

"Nnnngh..." She face-hoofed.

"Look, it's dangerous out here..."

"You think I don't know that...?"

"No!" He briefly frowned. "No, I think you don't. Or else, if you do, then you've got some serious, suicidal complex and it's only going to end with you losing your head and—"

"Good Bye, Mr. Phoenix," she grunted and turned around again.

"Hey!" He stomped his hooves. "You're welcome, by the way!" His teeth grit. "So maybe I am the scum of the earth, but would it kill you to sit back and think for once?! This is twice now that you could have been either Ledomaritan property or food for worms in the ground!"

"If you think... for one second..." She paused to spit back at him. "For one measely moment of my life that I actually owe you anything—"

"Not a damn thing!" he shouted. As the echoed died out against the tree trunks, he panted for breath, swallowed, and said, "And no matter how much I owe you and my fellow soldiers and myself, I'm never gonna win it all back. Not after the damage done. I know that!" Phoenix shuddered as he fell back on his haunches, his gaze falling towards the forest floor. "Just as I know that there's no way I'll ever get back to Franzington at this rate... and... and see my family again... and live a life of peace where I don't have to worry about looking over my shoulder the whole time." He ran a hoof over his head and grumbled on, "Funny, after all the stuff I did in fear of myself and that one goal... I have no chance of ever getting it..."

Belle stood still in the night air. She said nothing; she merely looked at him.

"Look, you don't have to like me or the fact that I'm around, but the fact is you're in a great deal of danger," Phoenix said. "And though I may be a terrible soldier or a terrible pony in general, that doesn't change the fact that you're out here all alone with the entire Confederacy looking for the likes of you and it's not right!" He gazed up with melancholic eyes. "I know that helping you out won't redeem me, but that doesn't change the fact that protection is what you deserve."

"I'm not going to Franzington, Phoenix."

"I don't care," he blurted.

She leaned back, blinking at that.

"Don't you get it?" He stood up and slowly trotted towards her. "I know you're not going there... and... y'know... that's okay..." He smiled painfully. "You're on your own little journey. And after all that..." He froze in place, wincing heavily. After a sigh, he eventually continued, "After all that's happened, the least I can do is make sure you get as far as you want to go. Never mind me. Really."

She squinted at him. "How do I know you just won't try to sell me out again?"

He gazed at her with jaded eyes. "What are either of us worth at this point?"

The air above them was dead silent. A full minute passed, and Phoenix was starting to shift uncomfortably. At the sound of crunching hoofsteps he looked up—then spun around.

Belle was marching back towards the campsite where all of the supplies lingered under darkness.

"Ms. Bellesmith...?" Phoenix stammered.

"They likely have food, water, and provisions for long travel here. Would be a shame to let them keep it all for whatever ill-purpose they had in mind."

Phoenix cocked his head aside, his ears twitching.

"...you going to make yourself useful or not?"

The faintest of smiles crossed his lips. The starlight caught a hint of moisture in his eyes, but it was all too quickly dried as he shot up to his hooves and practically galloped over to assist her.

Lonely Hearts' Club

The sun had risen over the eastern horizon, but it took at least three hours before the landscape could see the light of it. This was because the looming spires of Blue Nova cast a grand shadow over the outlying province, darkening the towns and villages and merchant hubs that clustered around the highways leading into the metropolis.

The air here was buzzing constantly, filled with creaking of wagons, the humming of manacarts, and the continuous chatter of dozens upon hundreds of ponies standing by the wayside, bartering, gossiping, and talking about all things from the Queen to the war to the rumors from the south.

On every other town square of the surrounding villages, an identical wanted sign lingered, showing a rough, prismatic sketch of a pony with wings. For the most part, the locals ignored it—some of them going so far as to scoff at it. Instead, they busied themselves with transporting goods from one end of the province to the other, running some unofficial race with the zeppelins that puttered and drifted overhead.

The only signature of warmth and hospitality to be seen was in the occasional pair of ponies who would trot through the suburban landscape. Beloved couples walked side by side, some sharing smiles, others sharing the tasks for the day. They operated as one, and not once did they forsake a chance to nuzzle each other and express their effections. Those who weren't paired up were usually lonesome souls, a great deal of them nonequine, who were merely passing through from distant corners of the grand Confederacy.

Through this mixed soup of culture, another pair of ponies trotted slowly. One had a midnight blue saddlebag and a bulging satchel of belongings clinging to her flank. The other—a tall, mustached stallion—was packed to the brim. Though his muscles could handle the load, he glanced left and right, nervously eyeing all of the locals as the two ponies made their way slowly towards the distant gates of Blue Nova.

"They... They don't seem to be paying us much attention," Phoenix murmured under his breath.

"I'm not about to complain," Bellesmith muttered. "This certainly beats sneaking off road, avoiding sight."

"But... what's the deal, I wonder? We're obviously strangers. We're obviously from out of town."

"Shhh..." Belle gulped and glanced down the adjacent alleyways that they were passing. "Don't press it."

He gazed at several pairs of ponies lingering in front of market bazaars. He suddenly remarked, "Could it be that we both look like... like..." He bit his lip. "Well, you know."

Belle said nothing.

He gulped. "I don't suppose that—if push comes to shove—we'll have to blend in somehow—?"

"Let's not even think of that unless the opportunity forces it to happen," she grunted.

He nodded fervently. "Right. Right. I'm sorry I even said anything."

"No. No, you're..." She sighed. "You're thinking. And thinking is good. I feel like I haven't done much of that lately."

"Huh?" he glanced aside at her.

"I've sort of been flying by the seat of my saddle, as t'were."

"Uhm..." Phoenix blinked a few times. He winced and whispered, "You mean that you don't have a plan?"

"I have a plan!" she hissed back, then stared straight ahead. "Only, it's not exactly my plan."

"Then... uhm... whose is it?"

She shook the midnight blue saddlebag. "In here is a tome that Rainbow Dash picked up from an age-old pegasus skeleton west of Foxtaur."

"No kidding?" Phoenix remarked as the two paused to let a wagon or two pass through the bustling intersection in front of them. "A pegasus' remains?"

Bellesmith nodded. "Since you and I landed from the crashed hovercraft, it's been glowing with a magical effluence."

"What does that mean?" Phoenix gulped. "It's h-haunted?"

"No. What it means..." Belle winced, then shrugged it off as she and Phoenix continued trotting again. "What I think it means is that I should be heading in a particular direction. When I position myself due east from here, the tome's runes glow even brighter."

"Meaing?"

"I'm following where it takes me," Belle said. "It wouldn't be easy to explain, but I think it has something to do with what's brought Rainbow Dash out this far. And at this rate, the closer I can get to something that relates to her, the better."

"Wait..." Phoenix stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. "Due east from here?! But... th-that will lead us straight into—"

"Blue Nova," Belle said with a nod. She trotted ahead, undaunted. "I don't know how or why, but there's something in that city that the tome is leading me to."

"You can't be serious!" Phoenix squawked. He galloped to catch up with her. "That place has got to be swarming with Enforcers! Plus, those guys we beat up—"

"That YOU beat up..."

"The guys that I beat up obviously hailed from there. That's not one—but two groups of ponies who will want to see us dead! And at least half of them will be looking for us in particular!"

"Look..." Belle turned to glare at him. "Did you or did you not promise to help me wherever I happen to be going?"

"Well—Yes! Of course! But... b-but..."

She stared at him, deadpan.

He blinked, ultimately sighing. Gazing ahead, he muttered as they came within the shadow of the grand city's walls. "Alright, but if we really gotta do this, we can't go about it in a hurry. We gotta be slow and careful, not to mention stealthy. I don't know if you've ever been in a big city like this before, but the security is tight as heck."

"How so?"

Phoenix stopped in his tracks and pointed towards the massive city gates. "Take a gander."

Belle stopped where she stood and squinted. "I... I-I'm sorry, Phoenix. But I'm no Eagle Eye."

"Heh, who is?" He smirked slightly and gestured at the scene. "They have enforcers and city militia parked at the entrance at all times. Anypony entering or exiting the city is subject to a thorough search. It would be the same if we entered the upper spires by zeppelin. If you wanna do business in the Queen's cities, then you gotta fly by her rules, no matter how ridiculous."

Belle's gaze pivoted towards the south, following a mass of ponies as they trotted towards the gate. "You're saying that they check everypony?"

"Right..."

"Without exception?"

Phoenix opened his mouth, but paused. "Well..." He scratched his mustache in thought, gazing skyward. "If you were part of a scheduled visit that was planned well in advance, or part of a Confederate province that received special consolation—"

"Like Mintian monks?"

"Huh?"

Belle tugged on his shoulder, then pointed towards the highway leading up to the gates. Phoenix glanced over, and he saw what she saw: a line of thickly robed equines marching softly in unison towards the western entrance of the epically grand city.

"Well..." Phoenix thought aloud. "We've got the sort of clothing that just might blend in. But that's still not good enough."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, you and I don't exactly look pious enough, now do we?"

Belle took a deep breath. Without hesitation, she pivoted about and reached for some of the satchels on his back. "Quick, what's the color of the bag you put the stallions' personal effects in?"

"Er... uhm..." Phoenix leaned awkwardly to help her reach the belongings. "The orange sack, up top." He cleared his throat. "Why do you ask?"

"One of them had a collections of razors, did he not?"

"Yeah...?"

Belle sighed. "I think we're both going to need your delicate telekinesis..."

A Mare's Path

A whistle blew, and the gates to Blue Nova stretched wider. While zeppelins and hovercraft puttered overhead, the guards lining the entrance stepped back and motioned towards the heart of the city. They watched with lethargic eyes as a wave of ponies—all robed—shuffled their way into the western districts in one accord. One by one, they fell under the shadow of the upper spires, their brown robes hiding any expressions or emotions.

Merchants drawing wagons paused at intersections to allow the procession to pass by. Relatively affluent citizens hovered at street corners, gazing at the Mintian monks and muttering gossip with one another.

Eventually, the pious parade passed into the lower districts, where the shadows were the thickest. Pass impoverished back alleys and heaps of squalor, they trotted, making their way towards a humble, concrete monastery nestled within the foundation of a far taller building above.

As they turned around a final corner, a pair of monks at the rear of the procession suddenly darted out of line. They hurried into an adjacent alleyway, blending into the darkness within.

After waiting for several seconds, the smaller of the two monks lowered her hood to get a good view. Bellesmith's ears twitched, for they were free of the weight of hair. In fact, the mare's entire mane was completely gone. Her golden coat shone throughout, and it made her look smaller somehow, more frail. She bit her lip and gazed upon the streets beyond, waiting for the last of the Mintian visitors to trot out of sight.

"That was a little too easy," Belle muttered.

"Nnngh... Speak for yourelf."

She looked over his shoulder.

"Gaagh..." Phoenix hissed, perpetually scratching his upper lip and muzzle. "This is why I never, ever shave..."

"Stop touching it," she muttered. "It'll go away, I'm sure."

"Pffft... And what would you know about facial hair, huh?"

"Because whenever Pilate shaved, he'd...." Her voice trailed off. She cleared her throat and muttered, "It'll go away. Trust me."

He blinked at her, adjusting the hood over his own bald skull. "So, what now? We can't pretend to be monks forever. They're gonna wonder why we broke free of the group."

"It'll have to last for as long as we need it to." Bellesmith fumbled under her robe and pulled the old tome out from her saddlebag. A lavender glow illuminated her and the stallion's faces. "What we're looking for can't be that far away."

"And just what are we looking for?"

Belle was silent.

Phoenix sighed, yet managed a fragile smile. "Look, I don't understand any of this, but let's not try to do anything too brash, okay?"

"You mean besides chopping our manes off...?"

"I mean, let's try not to stick our heads too far into where they don't belong. And when it comes time to do just that..." His eyes narrowed. "Let me stick my head in first. That way, if it was the wrong decision, you can still run away and have a second chance."

She turned and glanced up at him.

He stammered, "D-deal?"

"Phoenix, you do realize, that I've no clue if you and I will ever make it out of this city..."

Phoenix's eyes briefly fell to the floor. He took a breath and said, "Yeah, well, at least you can last longer. Okay?"

She blinked at him, then slowly nodded. "Okay." Pivoting about, she glanced at the tome, waved it back and forth, then made a decision. "Northeast of here."

"You sure?"

"No. But let's move anyways."

And from out of the shadows and into more shadows, they did.

Roarke Gives Hope

"Mmmmf..." Rainbow Dash's eyelids stirred. Her mouth winced as she squirmed on a metal table under pale lamplight. "Nnnngh... where... how...?"

"Shhhh..." Imre's scarlet hoof steadied the pegasus as she trotted around the center of the infirmary within Searo's Hold. "Please don't move. You have a gazillion stitches and I'm already enough in the red without having to steal a gazillion more from the metal mares' supply cabinet."

"How..." Rainbow Dash gulped dryly. "How long was I under?"

"Around eighteen hours," Imre murmured, glancing over a clipboard. "Now I have a question for you. Who in the hay is 'Gold Petals?'"

"Nnnnngh—Darn it!" Rainbow Dash sat up, snarling. "I am getting really sick and tired of falling unconscious around other ponies—"

"Uh uh uh uh—" Imre shook a hoof and gestured to where Rainbow Dash was sitting. "No sudden movements. You're a masterpiece, and it would be a shame to ruin you." She stirred. "Well, actually, what I did on your wing is a masterpiece. The rest of you is just damn weird."

"Huh? What d-did you do to..." Rainbow Dash glanced at her left side. "...my wing." The appendage was bundled up in an intricate array of bandages. Tiny tourniquets braced the bones at the extremity, and several of the strings were actually glowing. "Whoah. What in the...?" She reached a hoof towards it.

Imre instantly batted it away. "No touching!" She frowned. "Sapphiric string is most delicate, but healing."

"'Sapphiric string?' Pffft! Now I know you're just making crap up."

"Judge all you like. But its magical properties is healing you a heck of a lot faster than conventional... mmmrrmm... 'wing medicine.'" Imre shrugged, then pointed at Rainbow Dash's flank. "Plus, you may be happy with the side effects."

"For real?" Rainbow Dash glanced at her rear, then sputtered with joy to see the tiniest stub of prismatic tail hair growing back. "Oh, for real!" Her voice cracked with a jubilant chuckle.

"Hmmph..." Imre strolled over towards a table on the far side. "You're welcome."

"Yeesh... And here I thought you were gonna steal one of my kidneys or something while I was under."

"Who said I didn't?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth. Her ruby eyes darted left and right. Her brow then furrowed as she uttered, "Where's the nearest exit?"

"I wouldn't think of it if I were you."

"But you're not me."

"Thank the Spark. If I had that many colors, the nearest bounty hunter would gut me to pour out the fruit."

"For real, Doc... Doc..."

"Just call me 'Imre.'"

"Imre, I gotta get out of here." Rainbow Dash hopped down from the table, wincing. She shuffled towards the furthest door. "I gotta go out there and find my friends."

"And just how do you expect to do that?" Imre spun about with a brown-eyed glare. "Especially on your own?"

"I... will... erm..." Rainbow Dash fidgeted in the middle of the infirmary. "Trot swiftly?"

"You can't fly anytime soon."

"How much is 'soon?'"

"Not even remotely close to now." Imre swiveled about. "Which is why I'm making some alterations to the suit you were given."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "What kind of alterations?"

"Don't worry. I know you're not exactly Searo material," Imre grunted. "You're small, light-weight, you have an enchanted collar around your neck, you lack a mana-core inside your gut, have I mentioned that your small?"

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and trotted closer to her. "Just get to the point already."

"I haven't endeavored to replace any of your body parts with cybernetic enhancements," Imre said as she fiddled with two halves of a suit of armor. "But I think I've prepared a few things that will help you for when Roarke gets you out of here." She sighed, then muttered, "Blessed Spark, I do hope she's planning on dragging your flank out of here."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because her solution to everything involves dragging ponies to this place."

"Yeah, I can see that," Rainbow Dash said with a nod. She leaned over Imre's shoulder to look at what she was doing. "But, bounty hunter's gonna bounty, right?"

Imre quietly and slowly pushed Rainbow back before saying, "Yes and no. Roarke isn't your typical metal mare, which is exactly what brings her so much attention around here."

"Seems like with you Searonese, notoriety is a plus."

"I am not Searonese!" Imre growled, turning from her metalwork to glare at Rainbow. Her horn strobed with a touch of anger. "You would do well to remember that."

Rainbow Dash winced, glancing down at the blood-stained tile floor. "Sorry..."

"Hmmph..." Imre returned to her tinkering. "Well, at least you're modest."

"To a degree." Rainbow Dash trotted around, gazing at the instruments and tools hanging along the walls of the place. "So, like, Roarke is big stuff around here, huh?"

"I said she got a lot of attention. I didn't say she was big."

Rainbow turned around, squinting. "Is there a difference?"

"Being popular in Searo's Hold also means having a bullseye on your muzzle," Imre said, slapping a few metal panels together. "If Roarke knew better, she would have stayed out in the open countryside, rounding up petty thugs and Xonan dissidents in the Confederate Territory north of here. Instead..." Imre sighed long and hard. "She hauls your flank here, bringing you to the enslaved medic without any of the other metal mares knowing. Trying to pass you off as a half-blade in training..."

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash smirked awkwardly. "Just what's up with that lately? All I ever did was beat her to a friggin' pulp."

Imre turned and glanced at her. "Is that so?"

"Uhhhh... yeah?"

Imre swiveled back to her work. "Curious."

"In what way?"

Imre shrugged as she continued tinkering. "I didn't beat the crap out of her, and she did the same for me."

Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side. "She brought you here herself?"

"Mmmmhmmmm."

"You must really hate her, then."

"I'm a little too preoccupied with managing this infirmary to do so," Imre muttered. "Besides..."

"Yeah?"

"If it was any other metal mare who brought me back, I'd probably be dead by now."

"Dead? What for?"

"I'm no earth pony. And I'm certainly no Searonese one." Imre's jaw clenched as she hesitated to say, "As much as it bugs me to admit it, Roarke went out of her way to keep me alive."

Rainbow Dash gazed beyond the walls. She thought out loud, "But... but that's not what a bounty hunter would do." She blinked towards Imre. "I mean, a bounty hunter who actually cares about getting props from all her buddies, right?"

"Roarke is a complicated train wreck of a mare," Imre said. "I love her and hate her. I envy you, in a way."

"Huh? What for?"

"Cuz all you do is hate her."

"Ha ha ha ha!" Rainbow Dash laughed. Suddenly, she froze in place. She blinked a few times before saying, "Huh... funny..."

"Hmmm?"

Rainbow gulped. "Just why has she done all of this stuff for me? She knows that I hate her. All she's done so far is throw my friends and I for a loop."

"And dragged your body away from certain peril, I'm guessing."

"Well..." Rainbow bit her lip and ran a hoof through her mane. "She did kinda/sorta rescue me from the Ledomaritans."

"Just like she dragged me away from the Xonans."

Rainbow glanced at her. "But you got yourself into that mess, right? I mean... I did hear that correctly before I went under, I thought."

Imre turned and icily stared at Rainbow. "Did you do no less the same with the forces of Ledo?"

Rainbow Dash gazed blankly back.

"It matters little," Imre muttered. "If it pleases Roarke for me to be here, I'll be here. If it pleases her to get you fixed and suited up, I'll get you fixed and suited up. Best not to make a big deal out of things."

"We can ask her what her plans are when she comes back," Rainbow Dash muttered. "Celestia knows, I wanna be informed."

"That's assuming she's going to come back."

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash performed a double-take. "What's that mean? Is she going off into battle or something?"

"Hmmph..." Imre's lips curved sadistically. "She should be so fortunate at the moment..."

Luck Be A

Twin guards in metal armor slapped their spears against the ground. A humongous door to the innermost chamber of Searo's Hold opened, casting torchlight over Roarke's helmet. A grand throneroom stretched before her, flanked by flickering lamps and several feasting tables where the most honorable of mares sat in muttering conversation.

Not wasting time, Roarke shuffled forward, one black horseshoe at a time. The light of the hall glinted off her polished helmet. There was a wheezing, sputtering noise. Roarke glanced to her left.

Two guards were carrying a stretcher in the opposite direction. As they shuffled past her, Roarke apatheticaly observed the spasming body of a frail stallion. His shaved scalp was covered in lesions, and several toxic puddles of green mucuous dribbled out of his orifices as he fitfully died along the way to the throne room's entrance.

Taking a deep breath, Roarke steeled herself for what lay ahead. An even louder wheezing noise greeted her as she came to a stop before a series of steps.

Sitting—more like sprawled out—atop the throne was a lanky, emaciated mare. Her limbs were bone thin, covered in pale, leprotic flesh with sparse patches of hair. The bony joints were hinged together with metal ribs that made her look far longer and slender than the average equine. When Roarke's hoofsteps echoed across the end of the room, the mare raised her head. Her gangly limbs shifted, like a giant wolf spider crawling out of a tight crevice. Seated on the steps on either side of the throne were no less than three stallions in progressive states of diseased health. They trembled at the end of their chained leashes.

"Hchhhhhtt—A schhhhild of sssssShearo returnsssssh to the womb," said the voice of the once-pony thing. Her skull had lost all of its mane, save for a symmetrical pair of locks that dangled from a bald cap of flaking flesh. A mask of dull black metal covered her entire muzzle, and her cranium seemed to dip and sway from the weight of the breathing apparatus as she struggled to talk with the authority that the room gave her. "Roarke. A full blade and a kkkkkcapable ssssshhpear. Hchhhhtt—Have you kkkkkcome to sssssshpill blood or replassssche it?"

Roarke bowed low. "Lady Pestiferous, honorable, bloodiest Top Spear of Goddess Searo..." She stood back up and exposed her face through the outer plates of her helmet. "I come to spill, not to replace."

"Hchhhhtttt..." Pestiferous nodded slowly. She gestured forward with a hoof latched onto the many chained stallions. "Then sssssssshhpill it, blood daughter."

A guard was already by her side. With a metal ringing noise, she presented a ceremonial blade lying across a shallow granite basin.

Roarke tooke one look at it. Her nostrils flared, but nevertheless she swiftly grabbed the dagger in the crook of her hoof. With a single mana-spark, she exposed the armor of her left forelarm, exposing countless horizontal scars. In a single swipe, she added a fresh cut to the skin marks, barely flinching as she dropped a liberal amount of crimson life fluid into the basin.

Once she was done, the guard retrieved the dagger. She sat back on her haunches and lifted the stained blade in one hoof and the basin in the other.

"Blood for Searo!" shouted many of the equines in the room. They raised their drinks, indulged, and returned to their various, casual conversations.

Roarke stood before the throne once more. As she covered her forelimb back up, she spoke, "I was summoned, Top Spear?"

"We are all ssssssshummoned," Postiferous hissed to say, her frail skull bobbing as she gestured with a metal-braced limb. "Sssssshome for ten yearssssssssh..." She pointed at herself. "Othersssssh for two hundred—Hckkkshhttt..." She coughed, wheezed, but nonetheless maintained a dignified pose. "Sssssshearo knowssssh no bottom to the basssssshin."

"But not all become the bloodiest, my Lady," Roarke said. "I, for one, have been busy getting rich."

"Isssssssh thisssssh an admissssssshion of backsssssshliding?"

Roarke gaze steadily at her. "I admit to doing nothing but letting my mind speark first and my spear second. Unlike other daughters of blood..." She glared at the elder mares seated at the various tables. "...my aim is true with both weapons."

Several Searonese ponies glared at her. A few others gave lewd gestures in her direction.

"Ahhhh... Hckkktt—Roarke, the Mosssssht Rare. That issssssh what they call you thessssshe dayssssssh, daughter..."

"What most ponies call a 'rarity,' I call 'skill.'" Roarke's eye-lenses pistoned outward as her jaw grew tight. "Searo rules the bloodspace, but the world speaks in bits. There are kingdoms out there who won't understand the spear as much as they'll understand the profit of the bounty that's claimed by it."

"Issssssh that why you have been in Ledo'ssssh bastardlandssssh for shhhhho long?"

"The Confederacy promises large hunting grounds," Roarke said. "Where most metal mares see vastness and emptiness, I see chances to bloody my spear."

"She means chances to prove her lunacy!" shouted a mare in the background.

"Another wild goose chase for Roarke the Most Rare!" Another guffawed. "Caught any feathers in your search for winged monsters, dull-blade?! Hah hah hah!"

The chamber filled with heavy laughter.

Roarke tilted back, her lenses retracting. After a deep breath, she lisped towards the Lady. "With your permission, Top Spear...?"

"Sssssschhhertainly..."

A side panel in Roarke's armor flew open. With a muffled shout, she spun about and lashed a chain of metal towards the tables. The cord spun around the neck of the last mare who spoke, ensnaring her. With a single yank, she was thrown from the table of crashing drinks and helmets and dragged to Roarke's side. Roarke gripped her skull in two hooves and slammed the sputtering mare's face repeatedly against the base of Lady Pestiferous' stairs until blood and teeth dribbled down the bottom step.

The stallions squirmed above the violent display, their chains rattling.

After the twelfth concussion-inducing pummel, Roarke hissed into the ear of the twitching victim. "You insult me one more time in the presence of Lady Pestiferous, and I'll gut you deep and turn you inside out. Then they'll have to chain you like the proper stallion you'll have become!" With a snarl, she bucked the mare hard in the ribs, forcing her to roll away in her armor until she formed a coughing, wheezing pile across the floor.

"Hmmmm..." Lady Pestiferous slapped her hoofrest several times in a meager show of applaused. The room was quiet, save for her labored words, "There isssssh sssshtill a beassssht inssssshide you when the moment callsssssh. High Sshhhhhpear Terra issssssh wisssshe to hold you in sssssshuch high regard..."

"High Spear Terra is a waste of muscle and teeth who should have been fed to the eagles when she was still a fetus," Roarke grunted, though there was a programmed nonchalance to the metallic ring in her voice. She attempted to mask it with a deeper voice a she said, "If the blood of Searo called for it, I could impale her in an instant. Searo knows there are droves of Xonans who would give ample bounty for such a dumb mountain of a pony."

"Sssssshe would be pleasssshed to hear sssssshuch insulthhhh..." Pestiferous wheezed, hacked, and ultimately said, "But sssshadly shhhhhe isssssssh away on a grand hunt."

"Yes." Roarke nodded. "To Aurum, crystal pony country, where Aeterna scrapes the land for meat."

"There isssssh more than what mere shhhhcraping will yield," Pestiferous said. "There issssssh shhhhhomething brighter and deeper than blood..."

Roarke's head twitched. She glanced at the several silent drinking tables, then back at the throne. "Lady Pestiferous, are you feeling well?"

"You would do well to lend an ear, Top Shhhhhhpear..."

"Lady, do forgive me for saying so, but you are mistaken. I am just a High Blade. You and you alone are Top Spear."

"Hchkkkkt..." Pestiferous shook her head slowly. "No, Roarke Mosssssht Rare.... Not for long."

Roarke tilted her head at an angle. She gulped and muttered, "Why do I get the feeling you wouldn't have asked for this meeting if Terra was around...?"

You Going Somewhere?

"So, what you're saying..." Rainbow Dash leaned against a medical table as she continued a quiet conversation. "...is that Roarke is kind of a big deal..." She fidgeted, her blue brow furrowed. "...but she's not?"

"She certainly has taken her sweet time in getting into as high a position as she now occupies," Imre replied, slapping together the mechanical parts to an intensely complicated helmet. "She's a good fighter and a bringer of bounties, but more than anything—she knows how to use her head. That's why she's still alive while so many other bloodthirsty metal mares have died... horrifically."

"You sure about that?"

"Of course I am. I've had to harvest their friggin' organs."

"No no..." Rainbow Dash shook her head, wincing from her bandaged left wing. "I mean about Roarke being smart and all."

"You have any evidence to tell me she isn't very clever?"

"Well..." Rainbow Dash smirked. "She did go up against me."

"Intelligence is hard to measured when it's scaled up against the unknown."

"Yeah, well, she certainly did have a lot of tricks up her sleeve," Rainbow Dash muttered as she began pacing around the sealed off infirmary. "The biggest of which was ensnaring all of my pals."

Imre glanced over from her telekinetically-assisted hoofwork. "Hmm?"

"She used my closest companions as bait to lure me into a fight."

"Metal mares will do what they can to get the job done."

"Yeah, well, if she fits the bill so nicely..." Rainbow Dash squinted over. "Why'd she go out on a limb to bring you back from the territory of these Xonan dudes?" She gulped. "And why'd she bring me here to get all bandaged up?"

"Maybe she thinks it'll serve her own purposes in the end."

"That's a real flank-over-elbow way of getting something like that done."

"Look, I don't know, alright?!" Imre growled, glaring at her. "I'm not the expert on everything Roarke!"

"Why not?!"

"I'm not her friend..."

"Aren't you?" Rainbow Dash uttered with a smirk.

Imre was silent.

"I mean, you're a unicorn," Rainbow Dash continued, shrugging. "Seems like you and I are supposed to be lower than dirt to these bounty hunters, and yet you both chat it up like you're meeting here on a weekly basis to go bowling."

"She and I are not friends.... it's... it's..." Imre sighed. "It's complicated."

Rainbow Dash blinked. She trotted over by the medic's side. "Just what were you doing in so far east to begin with?"

"Hmmm?"

"In 'Xonan Country' or what have you. Were you kidnapped or something?"

"No. I went there on my own."

Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "You defected from Ledomare?"

"No, I was..." Imre sighed. "I was wandering..."

"Into friggin' enemy territory?!"

"Look... You're a winged horse!" She scoffed at Rainbow. "And you don't see me asking about where you came from!"

"I've traveled a long way from home, but at least I knew to expect the unexpected! You were born in the Confederacy, right?"

"Mmmm... yes..."

"Then surely you must have known that you were trotting into some bad news!"

"It didn't matter much."

"Why?" Rainbow Dash blinked. "Were you trying to get away from something?"

Imre opened her mouth. She lingered, then said in a cold tone, "Something like that, yes."

"You think you're better off now?" Rainbow droned, then gestured towards the cold, brightly-lit walls surrounding them. "And right here?"

"It doesn't matter..."

"Sure it does!" Rainbow Dash barked. "It's your life! You obviously do a lot of snazzy stuff here! You should be proud of yourself and all that jazz!"

"Look, will you just can it?!" Imre turned and glared at her. "Sheesh, what's your deal? You're worse than... Roarke..."

The two mares hung in silence. They avoided each other's gaze.

Eventually, it was Rainbow Dash who spoke. "So... uh... She's been summoned by a really important metal mare. That means she's moving on up, right?"

"I doubt it."

"Oh?"

Imre slowly shook her head, returning to the helmet assemblage. "If she wanted to move on all the way up, she would have done so ages ago."

"Wouldn't the mares just force it upon her if that's what they wanted?"

"I'm not sure they know what they want," Imre said. "Lady Pestiferous wants one thing. The top blades want something else..."

"And what about Roarke?" Rainbow asked. "What does she want?"

Imre sighed. "I think she wants the same thing you and I apparently want." She turned around with a dull gaze. "She wants to get away from something..."

Can't Skip Cutscenes

"Timesssssssh are changing, young Roarke," Lady Pestiferous said. She gestured towards herself with an elongated, trembling limb. "Hckkkktt... My good health is gradually leaving me."

Roarke's lenses remained still within her skull. "Please, say it isn't so," she droned.

"Sssssshadly, it isssssh," Pestiferous replied. "Even a Top Shhhhhpear getsssssh dull with age." She looped her end of the chain on a hook of rusted metal. The stallions at the foot of her throne exhaled with mute relief. "The time will come when another will be called to fill the bloodshhhhhcape left by Sshhhearo."

With a deep breath, Roarke uttered with a nod, "And so you have considered two choices."

"Have I, now?" Pestiferous' mucousy eyes narrowed on the armored mare below her. "And jusssssht who might those be?"

"High Blade Terra, for one," Roarke said. She fidgeted slightly, and it was in a sullen tone that she added, "Myself, for another."

"You sshhhhhpeak with such remorssssshe, young daughter," Lady Pestiferous remarked. After a hacking wheeze, she uttered, "Ishhh it that the warrior has died insssssshide you? Hckkkkt!"

"There is nothing left to kill," Roarke retorted. Her jaw was firm as she said, "I have much blood left to be shed."

"And yet you do not leap upon coming to thissssssh epiphany? Were you not insulting Terra just a few ssssssshecondssssh ago? Ssssshurely you know that you both are just as much competitorssssssh as you are comradessssh."

"I do know that, my Lady," Roarke remarked, her voice undulating under the hint of a growl. "I also know that if Terra were here in my place, she would promise all sorts of ways to murder me in my sleep in order to prove herself to you."

"And do you not wish to prove yourssssshelf as well, Roarke most rare?"

Roarke said, "If you ask that I provide some sort of evidence that I am capable for the task, I would like to think that my years of bounty hunting and survivalism have more than proven that."

"Hckkk-Snkkkk!" Pestiferous coughed again, only this time there was something melodic to the wretched noise, almost as if her aching thoughts were poured into the gesture. When she spoke next, it was as if a roll of thunder was pouring out from behind a cloud of muffled laughter. "How interessssshting a warrior you are, daughter Roarke. You are so busy bloodying the proverbial sshhhhpear that I wonder if you sssshimply want to avoid cutting with it altogether."

"My Lady, what you are proposing would mean a dramatic change to me, Searo's Hold, and everything," Roarke said, bowing low. "My restraint is simply a means of my expressing caution."

"Yes, but it is entirely possible to be too cautioussssssh. For too long have the daughterssssh and ssssshisters of Ssssshearo held themselves at bay. There will come a time, before my death or after, when the sssshhhpear must be bloodied beyond the boundariesssssh that contain us, or else Sssshearo's glory might be ssssshtifled indefinitely. Hckkk!"

Roarke gazed up at her, her lips pursed. "What... do you mean by that, my Lady?"

"What I sssssshheek is not just a sssshhhuccessor, but a revolutionary. Sssssshhomepony who will show the world just what is the truth wrath of Ssssshhhearo, so that the bloodscape ssssshall not falter."

Roarke shifted uncomfortably, glancing left and right across the hall. "And... what exactly do you have in mind?"

"There issssssh sssshhomething you possesssssshhh that High Blade Terra does not," Pestiferous said, her eyes narrowing above her mask. "And that is an entire life's worth of accumulated knowledge on the batardlandssssssh of Ledo."

Roarke's lenses retracted as her jaw dropped. "You... you wish to invade?"

Lady Pestiferous wheezed. She slapped her hoof against her throne. A few seconds later, a resounding hiss emanated from behind. A large door opened to a circular platform behind where she was seated.

"Come with me, child," Pestiferous said. Like an enormous crustacean, her spindly limbs picked her up from the throne and carried her across the way. "There isssssshh a test that must be endured."

"A test?" Roarke stammered, suddenly breathless. She glanced nervously at the chamber behind the throne. "My Lady, if you would have me fight somepony for your honor—"

"Ssssssshhheriously, young daughter..." Pestiferous paused to squint at the warrior. "Who sssshhaid anything about you fighting?"

Secret Black Pegasus

The doors to the infirmary echoed with a resounding thud.

Rainbow Dash gasped and spun around.

"Hey! Puny servant!" A mare's voice roared from the other side of the entrance. "Why's this door closed, runt?!"

"We're in need of new leg joints here and we haven't got time to waste!" shouted another.

"Ah jeez..." Rainbow Dash hissed through clenched teeth. "They sound mad."

"When are they not?" Imre muttered. Clearing her throat, she turned from her hard work and spoke loudly to the walls of the place. "I am sterilizing my utensils! I didn't want any of you armor-rattling vessels of filth stampeding in here and ruining my work!"

"Let us in this minute or we'll ruin your face!" the voice shouted. "We demand parts fixed!"

"Whelp, that was fun while it lasted." Imre slapped the helmet together and thrust it into Rainbow Dash's hooves. "Put this on." She trotted over to a metal grated panel and began prying it open with telekinesis. "There's a somewhat secret passageway here that will take you out into a hallway that runs parallel to the main chamber."

"Wait wait wait!" Rainbow frowned, waving her forelimbs as the entrance door pounded and pounded from the other side. "I can't leave you alone with those jerkfaces! They might beat you to a pulp!"

"No, I'm too valuable to them," Imre calmly droned. "They've relied on me for the past few years to lick their wounds clean. The last thing a warrior is ever going to admit to is weakness. That's why I'm still around." She finally yanked the grate open and motioned towards the thin crawlspace beyond. "You, on the other hoof..." Imre glared. "...would only be a challenge to them, with—measuring your most basic armor and their advanced weapons—will likely end with you becoming the new seatcushion for their manaship cockpits."

Rainbow Dash blinked. She raised the helmet over her mane. "Yeah, I think I'm going now."

"Don't worry about me," Imre said. "I know how to look out for myself. I've survived stuff worse than Xonans and Searonese combined."

"Mmmmf—Wh-What could be worse than those two?!" Rainbow's voice echoed through the helmet.

Imre sighed long and hard, her brown eyes cold and distant. "You don't want to know."

"Gah!" Rainbow Dash suddenly floundered in her armor, tossing her head back and forth. "What the crap are these things st-sticking into my muzzle?"

Imre had to speak over the loud pounding of the door. "I had to fashion basic training armor for you. It's the same kind of stuff a young Searonese filly uses before she can harness the power of her manacore. There are five levers positioned in front of your mouth. They control the rocket thrusters built into your suit."

"The rocket-what now?!"

"The ones on the left control horizontal pitch. The ones in the middle control vertical. The centermost lever is thrust—"

"Now hold on a dang second!" Rainbow's voice cracked as her helmet rattled around. "This is waaaaaaaay too much info. Centermost... does... thrust—"

Her head tilted forward, and almost instantly her suit opened up four panels burning with hot orange flame. She was propelled forward into the claustrophobic chamber with a warbling shriek.

"Yaaaaa-aaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaahh!"

Imre gazed lethargically after her, wincing only from the sound of an epic thud as it rang throughout the entire infirmary's foundation. "Ehhh... she'll be fine." That said, she calmly shut the metal grate, swiveled around, and trotted towards the entrance to let the two patients in.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was scrambling to yank her skull out of the deep dent her helmet had made with the back end of the passageway's wall. She collapsed on her side, wincing from her freshly mended, still-bandaged wing beneath all the armor.

"Unnngh... I think I felt b-better in one of Rarity's stupid frilly corsets." She stood up straight, shook the cobwebs out, and paused for a few seconds. "The hay am I saying?"

With an echoing groan, she clanged-clanged-clanged forward in her dark black armor, navigating the winding, dimly-lit shaft. Every now and then, she'd stumble through a stretch of passageway lit intermittently by revolving fan from beyond a vent. The stone and metal bowels of Searo's Hold rumbled all around her as she pressed on.

"Cave is still a cave," Rainbow Dash muttered. "I don't care how many moving parts it has—" A stretch of metal paneling fell out from underneath her. "—oh Luna poop!"

Rainbow Dash collapsed into a concrete chamber framed by jagged arches. When she landed, it was with a thunderous crash, followed by several lengths of metal filament.

"Nnngh..." She stumbled to her hooves, wincing all over. She had to raise her forelimbs up and twist her helmet to the side so that she could see straight through the glossy visor. "The heck am I supposed to go?!" She looked down the far end of the hallway. "There's gotta be a way to get out of here and get back to finding Belle and Pilate. I guess I could fly in this darn thing, but for how long?"

She heard a shuffle of hooves behind her.

Rainbow Dash gasped. Without hesitation, she spun and flung a metal hoof. "Nnnngh!" Her limb slammed across an unarmored face. "Haaugh! Blood for Searo—" She froze in place, blinking beneath her helmet. "—oh?"

"Mmmmf..." A stallion winced, lying sideways on the floor, still reeling from her blow. He wasn't just any normal male pony, but one with polished, shiny, almost reflective skin. In fact, it didn't even look like skin.

"What... the...?" Rainbow murmured.

"Hey!"

Rainbow's gaze followed a lease around the crystalline equine's neck and towards a quartermaster. The tall mare opened the panels of her helmet to glare down at Rainbow. "What's the big idea, runt?! You'll damage Searo's resources!"

"Re... sources?" Rainbow Dash muttered. She could only stumble back as the mare dragged the breathless stallion to his hooves and escorted him even further down the corridor. Rainbow felt her heart beat increasing, and she grinded her hooves against the floor. "That's it. I've seen enough. I wonder how these mares would like a leash shoved down their throats...?" She made to gallop after the slave-keeper, when a metal hoof held her in place. She spun around. "Huh?"

Three mares towered over her, their helmets reflecting her petite body in their presence.

"Are you Roarke the Most Rare's half-blade?!"

"I dunno, am I?" Rainbow Dash received a mighty punch across the helmet. She smacked into a wall, groaned, and rubbed her skull through the metal. "For Celestia's sake! Learn a new tune already!"

"Are you or are you not Roarke's apprentice?!" The mares growled once more.

"Yeah? What about it?!"

"You are to come with us..."

"Huh? What for?"

"Let's just say your skills and honor are about to be put to the test, runt."

"Oh really?" Rainbow Dash braced her hooves against the floor. "What if I've got things to do, huh?!"

The centermost metal mare loomed ominously. "It would be wise not to cross us..."

"You and whose army?!"

Six sets of crimson-red miniature rockets graced the air, along with three tasers, two mana cannons, a tail-whip, and a chain-saw.

"...yeah, that's a pretty nifty army." Rainbow Dash gulped and raised her hooves. She was yanked off towards the opposite end of the corridor, emitting a sound that may or may not have sounded like a yellow pegasus with butterflies on her flank.

A Heinous Contrivance

"Easy... Easy...!" Captain Filta shouted. His usual prim and proper self was sweaty and disheveled from hours upon hours of hooves-on work. He stood within the ruins of Foxtaur, his body shadowed by the behemoth of wood and metal being slowly lifted up above him. "Bring more lift to the port side! She's starting to lean!"

It was a complicated process. Several unicorns on the ground as well as in the air on hovering dirigibles were working together to lift the Steel Wing. Its brown hull was patched together in various places by steel and oak salvaged from the unburnt recesses of Foxtaur. Metal cranes and hovercrystals were positioned in strategic places to make the entire operation possible. As the Steel Wing was lifted back into a steady position, several unicorns on a low-hovering manacraft drew in closer to telekinetically attach the remaining pieces of the airship together.

"That's more like it!" Filta shouted. He straightened his mane and uttered, "Make sure all of the tertiary support beams are in place before attaching the last few lines!"

Shell marched up to his side, his body likewise marred by several hours' worth of sweat and strain. "Magnificent work, Captain."

"I'm only sorry this hasn't transpired more swiftly, sir," Filta murmured, carefully eyeing his stallions at work above them. "I know we still have our target to pursue and—"

"Assuming she even acquired the strength to defeat her captor, it's far too late to expect that we would be able to catch up with the specimen," Shell calmly said. "I must reiterate: our power lies in the possession we have over her dear friend up north. If the target breaks free and attempts to rescue Dr. Bellesmith, we must be in a position to block such a path—which we currently still afford to do." He gestured towards the ship. "Above all else, make sure that no harm comes to your crew, Captain. We need them in one piece as much as we need the Steel Wing."

"Aye, sir. And thank you, sir."

"Don't forget that it's the safety of our entire Confederacy that we are... endeavoring... to..." Shell's speech wore off. His eye narrowed towards the northern horizon.

Filta glanced at him, then pivoted to look north. A trio of managliders were sailing towards the sight. Several nearby enforcers swiveled on mounted turrets to fire upon the intruders—until their colors showed in the morning light. They lowered their cannons and signaled to the other stallions on the ground.

While the Steel Wing was being lifted slowly into the air, the three managliders made a soft landing along a stretch of cleared, smouldering forest. Filta and Shell marched up as the first of many pilots hopped out.

"Sir!" stammered a pale-coated unicorn with a sandy brown mane. He removed his helmet and saluted. "Enforcer Evans of the Central Patrol Squad, reporting!"

"At ease," Shell muttered, hobbling on the weight of his metal cast. He squinted at the gliders, then at the relatively jittery Evans. "Ledomaritan Lightningcraft," he remarked. "Only the Council of Ledo is authorized to grant use of such speedy vehicles."

Filta glanced nervously at Shell, then at the stripped communications core of the Steel Wing that was being used as a mana battery for the operation at hoof. Clearing his throat, the Captain spoke to the young enforcer. "Is there a reason for your... timely visit, enforcer?"

Evans took a deep breath and said, "We came, as ordered, to deliver an update from the Northern Facility, sir. In light of recent events, we felt it was best to take the fastest craft available."

Shell raised an eyebrow. "Yes...?"

Evans bit his lip before uttering, "There is no report, sir."

Shell was silent.

Filta squinted. "How do you mean?"

"Quite simply that the hovercraft carrying Dr. Bellesmith and the Franzington deserter never arrived at the Northern Facility. They are unaccounted for, sir."

Shell took a deep breath. His front hooves started digging slowly, slowly into the burnt soil beneath him.

Evans saw it. He glanced up and added, "We've conducted a thorough search of the forests south of the Facility. One patrol said they thought they saw a column of smoke. They've since gone there to conduct a further investigation, but there's been no updates since."

"Could it be possible..." Filta turned to Shell and breathily remarked, "...that the target has already broken free of her Searonese captor and intercepted the prison craft?"

Evans interjected with, "It's estimated that if the hovercraft indeed went down, it must have transpired sometime in the first twenty-four hours of their departure."

"No..." Shell shook his head, gazing beyond the Steel Wing in thought. "It... it must be something else... something we didn't calculate..."

"But what?" Filta remarked.

"There is more, sir," Evans said.

"More?" Filta asked.

"We would have arrived here sooner with the news, but we had to make one stop along the way. We discovered that an observation tower within the central forests that had been subject to a magical attack."

"Xonans?" Filta remarked.

Evans shook his head. "No member of the attacking party were Xonans, at least according to the testimony of the enforcers we found injured at the scene. Most of the stallions had suffered memory loss, suggesting close contact with an item capable of leyline entanglement."

"Leyline... entanglement?" Shell remarked.

"One of them—the head enforcer of the tower—did remember one key detail. We thought it may be of interest to you." Evans leaned forward and said, "One member of the attacking party was a zebra. A zebra with snow-white eyes."

Filta's jaw hung open. He pivoted towards Shell.

Shell took a deep breath. After a flaring of his nostrils, he eventually said, "Each Ledomaritan observation tower is equipped with a zeppelin. Did the stallions give pursuit?"

"No. As a matter of fact, sir, the zeppelin was hijacked."

"Hijacked...?"

"We conducted a mana-screening of the area. We had arrived too late to detect the core of the dirigible, but we think we did manage to trace the direction in which the magical weapon was taken."

"And where did it lead?"

"North, sir. Towards Blue Nova."

Filta and Shell exchanged glances.

Evans continued, "We sent one glider on a potential intercept course. The rest of us had to come here as swiftly as we could to deliver the news from the Northern Facility... or lack thereof."

"If her spouse somehow managed to survive his untimely demise..." Filta spoke aloud to his superior. "Then could that have a connection to the Doctor's whereabouts?"

"There's no way to tell," Shell said in a firm tone. "All we know is that we're missing far too many pieces of the puzzle, and we can't afford to let this one link dissolve." He marched a few steps towards the gliders. "Enforcer. Tell me. Is there enough energy inside these for a return trip?"

"Absolutely, sir. But we were told that you had business along the border of Searo and—"

"This new development takes precedent," Shell said. He turned towards Filta. "Captain, continue raising the Steel Wing. Once you have succeeded, have our sister ships form a blockade along the edge of Foxtaur and the Sapphire Plains. If there's any sign of the target, pursue it, and send a messenger up north to the central observation posts so that they might communicate the sighting with the Confederate Patrol."

"Sir..." Filta narrowed his gaze. "Are you... going somewhere?"

"I can no longer afford to function from long distance," Shell said, already strolling towards the gliders. "If there's any hope of catching Bellesmith's mate, I must intercept him myself. We can't allow him to reach Blue Nova, or else it will be next to impossible to find him." He glanced over his shoulder. "We can't afford to lose our leverage against the target. You're in command of the Steel Wing until we reunite."

"Aye, sir."

"Enforcer Evans?"

"Y-yes, sir?" Evans remarked, his face awash with nervousness and confusion.

"You ride with me," Shell said, mounting the middlemost glider. "I will depend on your knowledge of the central wilderness."

"Is this a matter of national security?"

"You're about to find out." Shell strapped on a helmet. "Congratulations, Enforcer. You've been drafted into a higher calling."

Blood Blood Blood

"Nnnngh!" Rainbow Dash winced, her left side being tugged a little harder than her right as she was dragged along a dark, dark corridor. "Easy, there! How can all of my snazziness be put to the test if there's nothing left to be tested!"

"Hmmff..." One of the three metal mares grunted as they strolled down granite steps and approached a long, curved hallway.. "You speak as if there's anything to begin with!"

Rainbow frowned. "Yeah, like you're something special—" She received a swift slap to the helmet. "Gaah! Quit it!"

"What a whiny runt you are!" another mare hissed. A deep rumbling noise was pulsing through the walls of the place as they pulled Rainbow Dash towards an array of doors facing the inner side of the curve hall. "What Roarke ever saw in you, I can't fathom!"

"And we never will!" One of the metal mares said, followed with a metallic guffaw.

Rainbow Dash blinked under her helmets. "The hay are you going on about?! What do you have against Roarke anyways?" She shuddered, then said, "Well, I suppose one would have to get in line..."

"She's nothing. You are nothing!" One mare lifted Rainbow Dash up by the shoulders as she hissed through her helmet. "The daughters of Searo have been playing games for far too long! It's high time we had a leader who isn't cowardly or infirmed or dulled by the pretense of diplomacy! Roarke bleeds out tonight, and it starts with her apprentice's blood! Your blood!"

"Uhhh..." Rainbow Dash fidgeted as the iron door slid open behind her. The air filled with the rank smell of raw meat and equine refuse. "Is it too late to confess that I kind of hate Roarke too?"

"You had better pray to the murderous spirit of Searo for an ounce of strength, you insipid flea!"

Rainbow Dash's hooves dangled as she said, "Er... so is that a 'no' or..."

She was bucked mercilessly into the chamber.

"Ooof!"

The mares slammed the door shut and chuckled amongst themselves. "Glory to the High Blade! We will all bathe in your pulp tonight!" Their insidious laughter was drowned out by the sound of a rusted, metal panel sliding down over the doorframe, completely sealing off the room from the hallway that Rainbow had entered from.

"Unnngh..." Rainbow Dash stood up, wincing in her metal armor. "Friggin' battletanks with hooves, I swear to Celestia..." She slowly pivoted about. "I almost wish now that I had hung out more with Gilda—Whoah!" she did a double-take at her surroundings.

The cramped cell was utterly filthy. The ground shook from an incessant chant of hundreds upon hundreds of ravenous voices outside. The noise appeared not to affect the occupants: about five ponies total were sharing the chamber with Rainbow Dash, and they all looked horribly emaciated, weak, even starving. Three were stallions in progressively leprotic states of bodily decay. One was a diamond dog with his bruised face buried helplessly in his paws. Finally, in the corner, was a young mare in a rattling set of apprentice armor. She held a helmet in her hooves and was trying her best not to sob.

"Blessed Searo, please forgive me," she muttered. "I tried to be strong. I tried so hard. Bloody my spear for glory, oh goddess. Bloody my spear so that I m-may be honorable in your sight..."

Rainbow Dash grimaced, gazing at the twitching stallions, the spasming canine, and the sobbing mare.

"Yeesh... This... This is..." She gulped, her ears twitching to the chanting sound. Her eyes traveled past the mare as she found a series of thin, barred grates acting as a window to a torch-lit chamber beyond. "Somehow I doubt this is a Wonderbolts show."

The diamond dog whimpered while the mare continued to rock back and forth and chant.

"Hey, uhm..." Rainbow Dash stepped over the suffering stallions and tapped the young mare on the shoulder. "Sorry to bother your moment of intense existential crisis, but can you tell me what's going on here?"

The mare merely murmured forth, "Blessed Searo, forgive me and give me strength. I will k-kill for you. I will bleed for you. Just let m-me live. Let me live so th-that I may impress m-my mentor, pl-please!" She sobbed into her forelimbs.

Rainbow Dash gulped. "Oooookay." She trotted nervously towards the barred window, her helmeted eyes squinting in the slitted bands of light.

As she approached, the chanting became more and more distinct. One word and one word alone was being shouted by multiple Searonese, all in one accord, all in one spirit.

"Blood... Blood... Blood... Blood... Blood!"

Mother, May I?

A deep, bass hum filled the hollow of the circular platform as Lady Pestiferous and Roarke road the cylinder to the top. High above them, an open chamber flickered with torchlight, and a loud, booming chant echoed in greater and greater clarity.

"Tell me, Roarke mosssssshht Rare," spoke Pestiferous. "Do you remember the ssssshound of your mother's voice?"

Roarke's ears drooped instantly beneath her helmet. Nevertheless, she maintained serious airs, standing up straight as she spoke firmly, "My mother is as dead to me as every husk full of blood that I have hunted down in these lands."

"Ssssshhhpoken like a true warrior," Pestiferous hissed. "Full of pomp and cold-heartednessssshhh."

Roarke's lenses rotated out. "My Lady...?"

"I remember my mother," the masked matriarch said. She bowed on bony, arachnid limbs as her mucousy eyes squinted into the gathering torchlight. "Two hundred yearsssssshh ago, like a chiseled face at the top of a deep well, glissssshtening in firelight. She was swift, bold, adventurous. She would have been proud to see me reach top sssssshpear."

"With all due respect, My Lady..." Roarke fidgeted. "I really don't think you should be talking about—"

"And why not?" She turned to stare down Roarke. "Hckkkt! I gave her a proud ending. As did mosssssssht of us. The only way her glory ended was because I made it end. As did Terra with her mother."

Roarke's nostrils flared as she glanced down at the platform lifting them up towards the ceiling. "You were honorable, respectful warriors."

"Not all daughterssssssh of Searo are capable of ripping apart the meat that stands between them and the goddessssshhh." Pestiferous' eyes narrowed above her mask. "Has this alwayssssshhh bothered you, child?"

"I did not dwell upon it," Roarke said in a muttering tone. "For all my young life as a half-blade, I was perceived as a spineless runt, a weakling for not having the chance to do what you and Terra had done. I was told I would never make it to being a high blade."

"What empowered you, then?"

Roarke took a deep breath and grunted, "The hunt. Chasing my own regrets had no purpose. All I needed was bounties and blood. I've kept my life one of firm, unwavering action."

"And yet, there's a part of you that's misssssshhhing, a part that makes what comesssssh next so challening..."

Roarke glanced up at her as the cylinder reached the top chamber. "My Lady?"

Pestiferous' joints glistened in the torchlight as she had to hiss above the heavy chants wafting in from the short corridor ahead of them. "If you had the opportunity to do that which wasssssh never given to you as a half-blade, would you leap upon it?"

Roarke opened her mouth, hesitated, and ultimately said, "I don't see how it would help me at all—"

"Don't you?" Pestiferous glanced back at her as she strode on quivering, spindle limbs down the corridor. The chanting grew louder and louder. "Over the passssssht two centuries, twelve of my daughtersssssh tried to become top blade through me. All of them failed. I am not ashamed to say this. I still keep the rusted daggerssssssh stained with their blood in my bedchamber."

"I'm afraid that I do not have any daughters to challenge me, My Lady."

"And yet, on occasion, Ssssshearo—in all her glory—gives us preciousssssssh distractions." Pestiferous emerged with Roarke onto a balcony overlooking a grand, circular arena carved into the heart of the mountain. Surrounding the steep walls of the killing floor, hundreds of metal mares stood upon the steps, chanting one word and one word alone, over and over again. "And now, we ssssshall see the degree to which those distractionssssssh weigh on you, and I will know if you are indeed fit to challenge her."

"Challenge who?" Roarke asked.

"Why, Roarke most Rare," chanted a deep, deep voice behind her. "I thought you were alive because you were the smartest of us all?"

Roarke's hair rose beneath her armor. She slowly turned around, her lenses extending like daggers. "Terra..."

A large, behemoth of a mare sat on the balcony to the left of Pestiferous. She smirked down at the smaller bounty hunter. "Are you ready for a fine show, old friend?"

"I thought you were out on the hunt—" Roarke began, but stopped in mid sentence. Her lenses drew back as her lips pursed open. Slowly, she swiveled to face Pestiferous. "What is this? What is going on?"

"You're a patient one, Roarke," Pestiferous hissed as she sat down slowly in the biggest seat on the balcony. Gesturing with a spidery hand towards the arena, she silenced the chanting crowds and growled, "Have a sssssssheat, and watch the last of the ashes burn away."

Very Bad Feeling

Rainbow Dash heard a rattling noise, only to realize that it was her own armor. She gnashed her teeth beneath her helmet, turning her gaze away from the grated bars that lined the edge of the miserable cell.

"Okay... Think... Think... This is totally not what it looks like." She heard the sobbing of the half-blade and the whimpers of the diamond dog. "Only, it totally is. Uhm..."

Her metal-plated hooves tapped rhythmically across the floor. She spun around and hissed at the distraught apprentice.

"Hey! You there! What do they have us here for?"

"Give me strength, Searo," the mare continued to stammer. "I will spill much blood. Much blood for you. Just have me live..."

"Nnnngh—Darn it!" Rainbow Dash pivoted, trotted over the emaciated stallions, and shook the diamond dog's shoulder. "Hey! Fido! You know anything about all of this?"

The dog's hair arched up as he batted Rainbow's hoof away and snarled.

Rainbow stumbled back, her armored plates clanking against one another. "Blessed Luna. This is why I hate furry things."

Just then, there was a loud hum.

Rainbow Dash turned around... then tilted her head up. She followed the swinging body of the cell door with her helmeted gaze. Bright torchlight bled into the room, followed by the echoing noise of the chanting onlookers in full force. Then, with a loud clang that shook every soul in the tiny enclosure, the door locked into place above them. They were exposed to the blood-stained body of the arena beyond.

Rainbow Dash glanced left and right. "So... uhm... what do we—?"

A loud hiss emanated from behind.

Rainbow spun about. She gasped.

A metal plate had lowered over the wall bearing the door she was thrown in through. Powered by mana and hydraulics, the solid sheet of metal slid completely across the enclosure, effectively sweeping out the bodies of the stallions, the diamond dog, and the two mares who were huddled inside.

"Whoah whoah whoah—Wait!" Rainbow stammered, falling clumsily on her side. She rolled like a pill bug out into the arena, sealed off as the hydraulic wall slid completely out and fused with the cylindrical wall surrounding the place.

With a grunt, Rainbow jumped back up to her hooves, accompanied by the shivering bodies of her hapless companions. She saw rows upon rows of glaring, shouting, angry-faced Searonese mares, seated above a ring of elevated blue luminescence positioned over thirty feet above the floor of the arena.

"Alright..." Rainbow muttered, trotting in circles as she got a view of the resonating, torchlit deathscape. "Things have just galloped on into freakytown."

Just then, her ears twitched, for she heard several hissing noises from the far end opposite to where she stood. She turned to look, and her jaw dropped.

Two more enclosures were being exposed to the arena. Outside of each of them, the half-hearted bodies of stallions, diamond dogs, anteloupes, and other vagabonds of Searonese society had been shoved out. But what took Rainbow Dash's breath away was a sight directly across from her.

"Imre...?"

Her eyes immediately caught Rainbow Dash's helmet from afar. She wasn't terrified, but she certainly wasn't enjoying herself. A perpetual grimace hung off her features, and she was trying in vain to resuscitate a sickly half-blade that had collapsed in her midst.

Rainbow's voice murmured through her helmet. "What in the heck is going on here?" She made to gallop across the arena when a circular fountain of mist billowed up from the ground before her. "Gaah!" She stumbled back, wincing from the heat, squinting into the unnatural fog.

Overhead, her voice amplified by resonating sound stones, the pale and nightmarish figure of Lady Pestiferous gestured towards the crowd with a metal-reinforced forelimb. "Behold, fellow daughters and shhhhhisters of the goddesssssssh most bloodied, we gather to witnessssssh the weak and frail meet their end like they could never meet their glory, in feeble-hearted desssssshperation!" Sparks danced from the top blade's mask as she hissed and shouted, "In one land and in one land alone isssssssh there no toleration for that which issssssh pathetic! Feassssssht your eyes on the poetry of death, and relish the blood given to Ssssshearo this day!"

"Blood for Searo!"

"Blood for Searo!

"Blood for Searo!"

Rainbow Dash leaned forward. As the steam parted, she made out a pair of lenses high above, belonging to a figure seated besides Lady Pestiferous and High Blade Terra. Roarke's body stood icy-still in the glistening kiss of the nearby torchlight.

"Oh no she didn't..." Rainbow Dash dragged a hoof across the floor. She could no longer hear herself from the bloodthirsty shouts emanating all around her. "This is for all of those suplexes, isn't it? Why that jerk-faced, thimble-eyed—"

A loud roar filled the arena.

Rainbow Dash blinked. She looked straight ahead.

In the very center of the arena, a circular platform had lifted, exposing several notches within which green vapor poured loose. Marching thickly out of the enclosures from all sides—their eyes shimmering with emerald fury—were no less than six timberwolves. They looked upon the tasty morsels of meat and howled in ravenous hunger.

Rainbow Dash gulped, backtrotting towards her group. "I've got a..."

Tooth and Nail

"..about this."

Gulping, Rainbow Dash backtrotted away from the half-dozen pack of glowing timberwolves. Menacing as the creatures were, the loud roar coming from the ring of onlooking metal mares drew them further into the center. They reared their heads and snarled, their emerald eyeslits glaring around the lengths of the arena.

With a resounding hiss, the center platform of enclosures that brought them up to the surface slowly lowered. The arena was now an even playing field for bloodspilling.

"Alright... alright..."

Rainbow Dash darted her helmeted head left and right, surveying her immediate environment. She tossed several glances over the wooden craniums of the centrally located monstrosities. Across the way, Imre stood beside her fellow victims: veritable morsels of meat waiting to be plucked.

With a rattling shuffle, Rainbow found herself standing once more amid her five fellow, trembling cohorts. "Okay, everypony," she spoke loosely. "Just stay still and be cool. No sudden movements, and we just might be able to figure a way out of this." She bit her lip beneath her helmet, staring once more at Imre's distant figure. "Step one: get Imre. Step two: avoid being mangled to death by hungry wooden death puppies." She gulped, and her brow furrowed. "Step three: kick Roarke's rusted flank from here to Neighvana."

Beside her, the one half-blade was starting to chant louder and louder. "Must pr-prove myself... must prove myself..." She gulped. "Must honor myself before the g-goddess..."

Rainbow hissed aside at her. "Look, will ya knock it off? We gotta be quiet or else—"

"My m-mentor will have me back!" the pony gasped, her eyes wide and her face brimming with sweat. Her hooves grinded against the rocky floor. "I c-can still prove myself!"

"No bright ideas!" Rainbow grunted, reaching out for her. "The only reason we're both here is because we're not wanted—"

"Blood for Searo..." The half-blade charged frantically ahead, screaming. "Blood for Searo!"

"No!" Rainbow Dash flung herself forward, but it was too late. The mare was yards ahead. "You idiot! Don't—"

"Nnnngh!" The mare was barely within twenty feet of the monsters when the timberwolves were already pouncing on her. The center of the arena was awash in screams and entrails.

Rainbow winced, squinting away from the nightmarish scene.

All six timber wolves gathered in a tight circle, their teeth digging into the succulent meat. It didn't last for very long. The first of many beasts raised its dripping muzzle from the feast. Its eyes narrowed on Rainbow's group as a prolonged growl escaped its mouth.

"Ah jeez," Rainbow whispered. "With a capital 'J'..."

Howling, the monster scraped at the ground and charged her. Two of its siblings mindlessly joined its full-speed sprint. Soon, the weight of three metaphysical blood beasts were bearing down on the pegasus.

Rainbow glanced at her shrieking group of companions. With a jolt of energy, she began running in the opposite direction, albeit slightly angled towards the creatures. As a result, they took immediate notice of her and her alone, and all three of them altered their course. She now found her vision being clouded by all three shadows. Holding her breath, she dove straight forward, sliding across the ground.

The timberwolves landed near the wall of the arena. Swiveling around, they howled and barked in fury.

Rainbow Dash jumped back to her hooves—but stumbled in the process. "Augh!" She winced, feeling a sharp pain rocketing through her left side. "Nnngh... st-still... sore..."

Her helmet echoed with the noise of her pursuers on the rebound. With no time to ache, she backflip and blindly planted her hooves down.

Luckily, her instincts prevailed; she landed on the neck of a charging timberwolf. Without hesitation, she jumped again, trying to distance herself even more from the group she had arrived with. For her noble efforts, she was awarded with a hard paw smacked across her amor. Thankfully, she took the blow on her right side, and rolled harmlessly towards the side.

"Unngh!" With a clatter, Rainbow came to an awkward stop. She stood up, and now her helmet was reflecting six sets of glowing eyes charging at her instead of just three. "Alright, you mangy mudsticks!" she snarled, then nipped at the levers inside her helmet. "You wanna play rough?! Well eat my dust—" She tugged on a knob, and her thrusters shot her in reverse. "Gaaaah!"

The image of the charging timberwolves shrunk as she scooted backwards at the speed of sound. Soon, she was slamming against the edge of the arena, much to the insane laughter of the attending metal mares.

"Frig!" Rainbow grunted. Once her lungs had refilled, she wheezed and tongued the many levers jutting into her muzzle. "Mmmmf—Which of you stupid corncobs is the one that makes me kick AAAAAAH!" She shrieked as, with one tug, she found herself rocketing forward like a missile.

The timberwolves' eyes flared for a brief second. They parted ways, making room for her to fly through the hideous pack.

"Guhhhh!" Rainbow squealed. The opposite end of the arena rapidly approached. Already she could see Imre and the other samples of wolf fodder leaping to the side. "Come on—ya crud bucket!" she shouted and started pulling on the various knobs at random. "Mmmmf—Whoah!"

Soon, Rainbow Dash was zig-zagging through the air like a winged serpent. The Searonese laughed uproariously at her plight. All the while, the six timberwolves bit and nipped at the air in a desperate attempt to cleave her in two. One actually succeeded to headbutt her armor in mid-flight. With a gasp, Rainbow Dash soared down towards the earth. Spinning until she faced the ceiling, she pulled at her controls and escaped a full-on impact with the ground by mere centimeters.

With twitching eyes, she looked up and saw herself flying directly into the pack of monsters. They leapt at her all at once. Breathlessly, she tugged on the middle-most lever, accelerating her flight. With spiraling finesse, she pulled up and burst through the mess of reaching limbs, forcing the timberwolves to collide into one another with a scattering spray of branches and twigs.

Mixed cheers and hollers emanated from the crowd. Rainbow's vaporous trail burned its away around the arena at spectator level.

Watching from beside Pestiferous' seat, Roarke gazed with slowly rotating lenses. There was a glistening sheen to her brown coat.

"What's the matter, sister?" Spoke a booming voice from beside her.

Roarke's ears drooped from beneath her helmet. She barely flinched as Terra leaned in with her massive grin.

"You seem rather tense! You're well known for your wisdom, not your anxiety!"

"I am not anxious," Roarke droned.

"Is that so?" Terra's meaty face grinned. She glanced aside.

Roarke followed her gaze, noticing how tightly her hooves were gripping the balcony's edge. She rested her forelimbs by her side and muttered, "What is the meaning of this, Terra? We've hunted and fought side by side for so long. What is this all supposed to prove?"

"Why, whatever do you mean by that?"

"You know exactly what I mean," Roarke said, controlling her involuntary twitches as her sight fell on Imre down below. "If this is something between you and me and the Top Spear—"

"When it comes to Top Spear, everything about us is concerned," Terra spat, an iron frown burning to the surface of her face. "I've known this day would come for years now. Did you?"

"I figured we'd be dead by then," Roarke said.

"Not everypony is as lucky as Pestiferous," Terra said. "Nor as short-sighted as you."

"You call me short-sighted?" Roarke droned, then gestured into the noisy arena. "I'm not the one who put lightning incarnate into a deathmatch just to ruin our Lady's expectations."

Terra blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Just watch, genius."

Terra swiveled to gaze upon the scene.

By now, Rainbow Dash was starting to fly evenly. She panted into the controls that she was learning, but nevertheless formed a smile. "Ahhhh yeah! Just took a little bit of fiddling around, is all! A mare could get used to—"

A leaping timberwolf smacked her, throwing her off balance. With a shriek, Rainbow Dash spiraled as her thrusters flung her once more towards the ground. With a grunt, she cut her engines before she could turn into paste. After several clumsy somersaults, she landed upside down against a wall.

"Mmmmf... Yeah, buck this." With a gasp, she kipped up to her hooves, took a galloping start, and flew over the frustrated timberwolves. Both the audience and the trembling victims watched as she made a burning beeline for Imre, snatching up the unsuspecting unicorn with a yelp.

"Wh-what do you think you're doing?!" Imre shouted.

"Blowing this bridle stand!" Rainbow Dash howled into the thunder of her rocket engines. She soared towards the back of the arena, her helmeted gaze locked on a stone hallway in the distance. "I'll drop you off and come back for as many as these poor saps as I can find—"

"No, don't!" Imre exclaimed, thrashing in her grasp.

"Luck, just 'cuz you and your captors are cool with slaughtering innocents doesn't mean I can stand for—"

"No, I mean you can't! The mana-field—"

"Mana-what?" Rainbow Dash was answered by a huge splash of blue energy. Sure enough, as soon as she flew beyond the edge of the ring, a nebulous field of light splashed to life. Flexing like an elastic band, the field flung her and Imre off in separate directions. "Unngh!" Rainbow Dash landed on her side and positively yelped from the pain shooting through her tender left wing. "Darn it! I'd give my left front hoof to be fighting normal, stupid minotaurs again..."

There was a loud shout from behind. Rainbow Dash turned around just in time to see Imre falling on her flank... and curling into a shivering ball as two timberwolves pounced on her at once.

The Physical Challenge

There was a frightening pause in the audience's bloodlusting chant. Imre knew this because her ears—as well as her entire head—hadn't been gobbled up. Breathless, she looked up with bright eyes.

The two timberwolves were thrashing at the air, their chests at forty-five degree leans over Imre's form. The figure of an armored pegasus was perched above her with forelimbs outstretched.

"Hnnnnngh!" Rainbow Dash hissed and buckled under the armor. Just as the unearthly canines started snapping at her instead of the unicorn, she thrusted upward with her rocket packs. The aerial shove knocked the two beasts back. Rainbow Dash cut her engines, came down, grabbed Imre, and fired the thrusters again—just in time to avoid the snapping jaws of the other four wolves.

"Spark alive!" Imre gasped. "How are you so strong?!"

"It's... your... armor..." Rainbow Dash stammered, breathless.

"The stuff is meant to protect you, not make you a manticore's half-sibling!"

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash shouted through her helmet. "I do what I've got!" She heard a feral roar behind her back, followed by several screams. Hovering to a stop, she pivoted about with Imre in her grasp.

The timberwolves had given up on the pegasus and were prowling their way towards a helpless group of ill-fed stallions.

"Hey..." Rainbow dropped Imre to her hooves. "Wait here!"

"Oof!" Imre stumbled, then snapped out of it. "What?! You can't be serious!"

"The morons here are chanting 'blood!'" Rainbow Dash rocketed towards the helpless group. "I'm not about to give them any satisfaction!"

"They're all dead anyways!" Imre shouted after her from the safer end of the arena. "No metal mare would waste her time with that lot!"

"Which is exactly why I gotta do the exact opposite!" Rainbow Dash howled back. She gained altitude, spun about, and allowed gravity to take her the rest of the way. "Hey! Ya mutts wanna play 'fetch the stick?!'"

Confused, half of the timberwolves glanced up at the metal object plummeting towards them.

Rainbow Dash spun so that her rear hooves were dropping first. "Well then, gimme some sticks!"

The air exploded from the resulting concussion. Even Imre, on the other side of the arena, had to struggle for balance as a vaporous wave of thunder rolled her way. When she came to, she saw that one of the timberwolves hat completely exploded. Out from the pile of glowing branches, a body emerged.

"Raaaaugh!" Rainbow Dash flew out of the monster's smoking remains. Dusting herself off, she quipped, "Hah! How's that for a trip to the vet—?"

Another canine's jaws clamped over her and shoved her against the wall.

"Ummmff!" She hissed as sparks danced through her helmet. "For Celestia's sake! You gotta at least let me say them all!" She brought both hooves up and slammed them repeatedly over the creature's wooden muzzle. "Nnnngh! Hnnngh! Rghhh!" A crack formed across several branches. Taking a huge breath, she angled her helmet just right and headbutted the timberwolf's cranium.

His skull split down the middle. As the pressure on his jaws released, Rainbow Dash bucked her way completely out of his mouth, reducing his cranium to splinters. No sooner was she hovering free when two more wolves lunged at her at once. She backflipped, perched on the snout of one creature, and activated all thrusters at the same time. Through sheer engine power, she was able to propel it into the body of its headless comrade. Both wolves exploded in a shower of branches, filling the air with emerald magic and fury.

Backflipping from the mess, Rainbow Dash slid to a stop beside the cluster of ponies.

"Whoah..." A stallion wheezed, struggling to get up.

"Good heavens!" another managed, gazing at her with wide eyes. "You are... astounding!"

"Darn it!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "It never fails—OOF!" She shrieked as she was planted up against a wall by a massive wooden claw. "Does it ever g-get easier?" she wheezed. Her visor reflected a set of jaws flying at her. She flung her metal-laced hooves forward to hold the creature's teeth at bay. "Nnnnngh... I n-need to have a sit d-down with irony and.... nnngh... h-have a talk!"

The crowd started cheering again. Rainbow Dash immediately had to find out why. She glanced over the creature's shoulders and saw—past the bodies of the other two timberwolves—the remains of their three companions slowly morphing back together again.

"Ah jeez..." Rainbow Dash winced, her muscles quivering under the pressure of the large canine's jaws. "Th-they're just gonna fart themselves back together! Nnngh!" Her strength failed her, and the creature's teeth came within inches of closing around her helmet. "Gotta take them all out after dealing with Dire Winona here..."

Just then, she heard a loud howl. She glanced up in time to see a leaping body blotting out the torchlight above. In carnivorous frenzy, the diamond dog from earlier leapt onto the back of the timberwolf. With a snarl, he mounted the large creature and bit through one of its glowing eyes. Wish an echoing shriek of pain, the wooden monstrosity backed off from Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash immediately shot up with a burst of rocket power. She avoided the paw-swipes of the other wolves and flew in a low orbit of the mounted pack leader. "Hey!" She grinned sweatily beneath her helmet. "At least one of them's still mare's best friend!" She whistled shrilly. "Quick, Fido! Bounce off!"

The diamond dog flashed her a look, then immediately leapt off. Rainbow Dash came in low, sweeping out the large monster's legs and reducing it to shredded bits. The arena roared with mixed cheers and shouts of anger as the merciless beasts' number was reduced to two.

On the far end, Imre had gathered several of the stallions, anteloupes, and other equines. Minutes had passed, and the victims weren't dead, and this gave them enough energy to limp over behind the waving unicorn.

"Rainbow! The rockets!"

Rainbow swiveled about from where she hovered above the two remaining timber wolves. "Uh, yeah. They're wicked sick! Thanks!" She dodged a pair of snapping jaws and hissed, "What about them?"

"You wanna prevent the wolves from reforming?!" Imre pointed across floor towards where the branches were starting to levitate. "Then burn those jerks to ashes!

Rainbow glanced over, then looked at her rockets. She smiled. "Cool beans!" A paw slammed hard across her. "Gah!" She bounced along the floor, scraping a tiny ravine in the stone. Wincing, she got up and growled, "Fido, distract them!"

The two charging timberwolves had to stop as soon as the diamond dog pounced on one of their ankles and started biting with a vengeance. One tried flicking him off and the other tried biting him in half, but he was swiftly scurrying his way around their limbs.

In the meantime, Rainbow Dash had flown over into the center of the cyclonic mess of floating branches.

"Come onnnnn... Gimme a good one. Gimme a good one. Throw me a friggin' bone here—Ha!" She grabbed a thick branch from the center with several twigs sticking out the end. "Ugh, what is supposed to be? A wooden kidney? Oh well..." She shoved it behind several of her rocket thrusters. "It's barbecue now!"

She fired half of her thrusters, spinning in a literal circle as she took the time to roast a billowing blaze to life at the end of the branch. When she finally hovered to a stop, she weaved and wobbled dizzily in mid-air.

"Whoahhh...Nnngh—Brrrbrrr..." Shaking the cobwebs out of her helmet, Rainbow held the burning bush of a bludgeon in front of her and charged the two monsters across the way. "Hot lunch! Coming right up!"

The diamond dog turned to see her. With a gasp, he leapt out of the way. Stupidly, one of the timberwolves lunged forth to bite him, only to swallow the burning mess straight down its throat. Its bright eyes flickered with emerald fear, but the diamond dog had leapt back onto its skull and forced its mouth shut before it could jerk away.

"Ahhhhhh yeah!" Rainbow Dash grinned devilishly as she shoved the fiery brand even deeper down the creature's gizzard. "Might cause heartburn, ya demon butt sniffer!"

As the canine turned to ash from the inside out, the second unexpectedly pounced over its sibling and charged straight into Rainbow.

"Whoah—!" Her armor let loose a metallic ring as upper body was swallowed entirely. She felt herself being lifted up towards the ceiling in the monster's jaws as her rear hooves dangled in the open. "Gggggghhhh..." She saw nothing but vaporous green smoke and saliva outside her helmet's visor. "Ughhh... impending horrible death or rancid breath?" She answered herself by firing all thrusters at once. "Physical challenge, crudface! Nnnnnnghhh!"

The small cavity of the creature's mouth heated up around her. Its wooden teeth and gums caught aflame, and all that was keeping her from roasting in an oral oven was the armor Imre had slapped together for her. Not only was the whimpering monster's skull catching fire, but she was shoving it clear across the arena. When she finally snapped loose in a spray of ashen branches, she flung its smoldering body into the heap of coalescing branches. Everything burst into flames like a douse of napalm, and soon the enemy was nothing but a miniature forest fire adding soot to the walls of the place.

Rainbow Dash hovered about in a serpentine fashion. Then, with a moan, she fell limply in the center of the arena. Imre, the diamond dog, and several of the other equines rushed over.

Up above, Roarke icily pivoted her head to stare at Terra.

Terra's jaw was clenching and unclenching in mixed confusion and frustration. She avoided the gaze of the metal mare who was a quarter of her size.

Lady Pestiferous, however, took a deep, wheezing breath and signaled towards a guard pony to her right. The mare nodded back and spoke into a sound stone.

Roarke caught it from the corner of her lensed vision. She glanced at the Lady with a look of shock.

Pestiferous said nothing. Her mucousy eyes narrowed on the arena.

Down below, Imre lifted Rainbow's limp body. The diamond dog hopped over, chewing on a burning branch and looking worried.

"Come on... not now, ya stupid bird pony!" Imre slapped Rainbow's helmet several times. "We need you!"

"I... I don't get it..." A stallion stammered. "Is she dead?"

"No..." Imre sighed long and hard. "I think the idiot has fallen unconscious—"

"Psyche!" Rainbow Dash shot up with a shout.

"Gaah!" Imre jerked back. Frowning, she shoved her so that she fell on her left side. "You're asinine!"

"Owwwww-owowowow—Snkkkt—heheheh!" Rainbow Dash trembled to get back up on all four hooves. "Still not right, but close enough." She tilted her helmeted head up towards the crowd. "Ya hear that, ya lousy, overhoof, bitball pitchers?! It'll take a lot more than a bunch of walking, growling wooden benches to take on the likes... of... me..."

She and everypony around her fell dead quiet as the centermost circle of the arena slid open. The air above filled with bright violet luminescence, followed by a hideous growling. Cranking motors rumbled beneath the floor as a giant platform rotated up, and seated upon it—towering in effluent might above every equine in attendance—was a hulking beast glittering from muzzle to tail with twinkling, cosmic wrath.

"Hckkk! Behold!" Pestiferous shouted above the awestruck crowd. "The ultimate tessssshht for the ultimate bloodletter! A daughter of the starsssshhh for the daughtersssssh of Ssssshearo!"

Several chains snapped loose as—with thudding paws—the Ursa Major spun around. Urged on by pain and anger, it growled loudly toward the far ends of the arena and the crowd beyond. Its razor-sharp teeth perfectly reflected Rainbow's limp figure as it stared her and her group down with a crested brow furrowed.

Imre's eyes were twitching. The diamond dog dropped the stick from its mouth while several stallions suddenly smelled their own urine.

"Huh..." Rainbow cocked her helmeted head to the side. "So that's why Twilight didn't want us to know." Gulping, she glanced over her armored shoulder and stammered, "Does anypony know a lullaby?"

Then all sound was swallowed by the Ursa's charging roar.

Right to Bear

"Scatter!" Rainbow shouted, though she was the only one to hear it. Nevertheless, her terrified cohorts were already doing the smart thing and scrambling out of the path of the incoming Ursa. The massive bear only needed to make three earth-shattering bounds, and already it was plowing its weight into the side of the arena.

With a grunting breath, Rainbow shot up, avoiding the smashing impact of the monster's girth against the wall by mere feet. She twirled about, skimmed the surface of the force field, and rocketed towards the far end of the arena. A swinging paw followed her, its six feet claws scraping against the sparkling streams of mana that guarded the cheering onlookers.

Rainbow's teeth clenched hard over the levers she was using inside her helmet to steer the rocket jets. She could feel the sparks from the distorted energy field bouncing off the Ursa's clawswipe and arching towards her metal suit. Suddenly, she was flying faster, as if the energy surge was causing her thrusters to burn with far greater fury.

She was far too busy trying to survive to bother with dwelling on the matter. Instead, she dove low, which was a fortuitous thing, for it helped her dodge a second swing of the giant bear's other limb. Angling about, Rainbow found very few spaces left to fly in the arena; most of the massive chamber was filled by the looming body of the huge beast that Pestiferous had unleashed.

So, with few other options available to her, Rainbow resorted to flying blazing loops around the snarling creature. "Darn it darn it darn it!" she hissed several times as her teeth gnashed against the instruments. "I need space! I need—"

With a startling show of intelligence, the Ursa next smashed both paws into the forcefield ahead of Rainbow Dash, anticipating her approach vector.

Gasping, Rainbow jerked to the side, flew towards the Ursa's chest, squeezed out of reach of an enormous bear hug, and rocketed towards the thing's chin.

"Nnnnngh!" Rainbow spun and bucked it hard across the mouth. "Take that—Gaaah!" To her surprise, she flew straight through the monster's cranium, her body pinballing stupidly across the lofty ceiling above. "Guhh! What the buck?!"

"You idiot!" Imre shouted from where she was ushering several pale-stricken equines along the outer rim of the arena below. "It's a giant creature comprised of cosmic effluence!"

"Tell me the part that isn't lame!" Rainbow shouted, having to cut her breath short as she dodged a wave of claws flying past her and into the ceiling.

Imre and other ponies stumbled as the entire arena shook from the Ursa's wrath. "She's only corporeal when she wants to be! The sole part of an Ursa's body that's c-constantly solid is the starry crest on her forehead!"

"So what, then?!" Rainbow shouted as she circled overhead, weaving and diving around the bear's snapping jaws. "I've never been all that good with precision! Besides, it's not like you built torpedoes into this thing I'm wearing!"

"It was not my job to arm you!" Imre hissed.

"Nnngh!" Rainbow flew suicidally between the Ursa's legs and flew out from underneath an epic butt stomp. "Tell me, for real! Is there some sort of weapon I can use against this giant piece of bear crap?!"

"How the heck should I know?!"

"You're the smart one!"

"No, I'm the dumbflank who got herself stuck here in this mess with you—Gaaah!" Imre shouted as the monster suddenly bore down on her, attracted by her shrieking voice. It roared with foul breath and prepared to cleave her in two with its claws.

Rainbow Dash hovered to a stop, glancing everywhere frantically. She saw the smoldering pile of timberwolf remains. In half a second, she was diving through the mess, sweeping up as many burning branches as she could.

"Nnnngh—Hey! Bright eyes!"

The bear's sparkling ears twitched. It turned its fanged head around to glare at the rocketing pegasus.

"Choke on this!" Shouting, Rainbow flung the burning wreckage into the Ursa's face. Every sizzling twig bounced ineffectually off the beast's muzzle. Rainbow hovered in place, sweating beneath her helmet. "Yeah, that's about as best as it could have gone—"

Her vision filled with a starry crest as the Ursa viciously headbutted her.

"Ooof!" With a raspy cry, Rainbow flew hard into the opposite end of the arena. She collapsed against the wall, slumping to the ground in her rattling armor. Before she could get up, a set of claws flew down at her and pinned her to the rocky barrier behind. "Gaaah!" she gasped, struggling to pry herself free from the massive claws on either side of her. "I c-could totally use one of those 'dough sexy machines' that Twilight used to c-complain about right about now!"

The Ursa lowered its snout, growling at Rainbow. Just as it opened its drooling mouth to swallow her torso whole, a familiar diamond dog leapt onto the creature's claws and perched there protectively in front of Rainbow, giving the huge bear an angry growl.

The monster merely blinked, then opened its jaws wide as it roared louder than a crashing meteorite.

The diamond dog blinked. Its ears drooped as it ran away, yipping with its tail between its legs.

Rainbow watched it. With a sigh, her helmet swiveled back to gaze at her doom. "Yeah, see, this is why I like cats more..."

And then, with a mighty lunge, the Ursa swallowed Rainbow Dash whole, much to the cheering of the metal mares beyond.

Smarter Than Average

"This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the 'b-being eaten' part!" was all Rainbow Dash could grunt as she thrashed against the sparkling tongues and gums of the giant bear's effluent mouth. "Nnnngh! Seriously, what the frig?! Am I just that delicious?! Gaah!"

Rainbow shrieked as the pressure of the jaws increased all around her. She heard her armor buckling in the extremities. An exposed thruster engine or two began to hiss.

"Yeah, uh, no." Frowning, she gripped all five of her helmet's levers at once. "Mmmmf—Taste the rainbow on your own time, buttface!"

Her rockets burned, polishing the insides of the Ursa's mouth with raw flame. The monster merely growled all around her, but kept biting down.

"Oh really?" Rainbow Dash bucked the tongue, swiveled about, and aimed herself past the uvula. "If you want it that badly, then down the hatch!" She kicked loose from the mouth's grip and soared straight down the Ursa's throat. As she did so, there was a flash of light—accompanied by a painful growl. Soon, the glittering purple essence of the immense bear peeled away like a veil, and Rainbow saw nothing but arena floor. "Whoah!" She pulled up, skidding along the rocky ground until she collapsed in front of Imre and others. Her armor was coated from head to tail-less rear with copious saliva. "Unnngh..."

"Jeez!" Imre gasped, her voice a hoarse titter beneath the rising tumult of the bloodthirsty audience above. "That was pretty clever!"

"I feel like cr-crap..." Rainbow stammered as she stirred back onto all fours. "Literally..."

"Actually, by making the bear gag, I think you just forced her to become incorporeal, which allowed you to fly through."

"Really?" Rainbow tilted her helmet up to glance at the unicorn. "Cuz I was hoping that I had..." She paused, blinking against her visor. "Wait, what am I saying?"

The arena shook from the menacing roar of the Ursa as it once more turned around, its eyes flashing red with anger.

"Gotta distract it..." Rainbow wheezed.

Imre helped her up with a glowing red horn. "Yeah, and for h-how long until your fuel runs out and she eats us all anyways?!"

"There's gotta be something I can use against it!" Rainbow shouted as the creature's shadow crossed over the trembling group. She backed up against Imre and the others, sweating. "How about your magic?"

"I'm a doctor, not a big game hunter!"

The Ursa leaned forward, howling its hot breath straight into the puny group.

"Awwwwwww buck me right up the—" Rainbow Dash glanced aside, then gasped. "There!"

"What?" Imre stammered.

"Just hold on a sec!" Rainbow soared off.

"What?!" Imre stammered even louder.

"Nnnngh!" Rainbow made a point to soar straight past the Ursa's muzzle. As a result, the bear snapped at her and her alone. Spinning expertly away from the bite, Rainbow dove towards the floor she had looked at previously. "Ah-ha!" She picked up the loose helmet that had fallen from the half-blade who was devoured earlier by the timberwolves. No sooner was she lifting it in her hooves then a lump of bloody pulp dripped out of the metal headpiece. Rainbow gulped. "Well, there goes my dreamless nights for a while."

The ground behind her pounded as the Ursa charged after her thrusters. Without a second to lose, Rainbow darted up and began flying rapid circles around the arena. The air shook from the bear's hot breaths beating at her dangling hooves. All the while, Rainbow found the strength two tilt her head towards Imre and shout as loud as she could:

"Hey! What are these suits powered on?!"

Imre stumbled to respond to that. "Huh?!"

"These friggin' eggshells that the trainees wear before they get their insides removed!" Rainbow shouted between pants and grunts as she suddenly had to dodge several angry bear swipes. "What powers it all up?!"

"An array of interlaced manaconduits that fill the inner layers of metallic weave with artificial leylines that—"

Rainbow darted past snapping teeth and hooked to the right to dodge a lacerating set of claws. "Yeah! Fine! Great! Let's cut to the chase!" She took a deep breath as she darted up and down, looping around the upper body of the enraged bear. "Can I make this thing olverload at all?! Can it friggin' explode?"

"Why the heck would you wanna make it explode?!" Imre blurted.

"Jee, I dunno!" Rainbow snarled as she kicked off the Ursa's snout, flew between her ears, and darted down the monster's back. "Take one huge guess!"

"Uhhh... Uhhhh..." Imre sweated as she and her trembling companions gazed at the daunting fight.

"Imre, help me out here, ya barn-colored egghead!" Rainbow squeaked. As the bear reached high for her, she found herself once again skimming the force field until she circled back around to the unicorn. "I noticed that my suit thruster thingies were burning faster whenever I made contact with the force field!"

"The force field?!"

"Yeah! Y'know!" Rainbow Dash hovered breathlessly in place and pointed at the edge of the arena. "The sapphiric, glowly bands of light!"

"'Sapphiric' isn't a word!"

"Seriously?!" Rainbow howled down at her as she gripped the helmet so hard it might break. "Right now of all times?!"

"Look out!" a stallion shouted. The Ursa came plowing into the side of the arena. The victims on the floor yelled in dismay and scattered everywhere.

Rainbow Dash dropped the helmet and immediately stretched her hooves out. She caught the bear's muzzle, but then the bear's muzzle caught her. Soon, she was being slammed up against the rock wall of the fighting area, her armor forming rivulets and cracks from the monster's angry pressure.

"Nnnngh..." Rainbow hissed for breath as her visor started to crack down the center. "Imre..."

"It just might work!" The unicorn levitated the helmet with her magic. "Though, to be fair, I've never done this before!" She motioned to an anteloupe, two stallions, and the diamond dog. All four rushed over and gave her a lift so that she could better reach the blue energy field with her telekinesis. "Just stay where you are!"

"Yeah, o-okay," Rainbow hissed as the bear applied more of its massive weight. Drooling in anger, the creature swiped with its paw. Rainbow somehow ducked; a huge chunk was blasted out of the wall behind her from the Ursa's claws. "Are we h-having fun yet?"

"Just hold on..." Imre grumbled as she shoved the floating helmet into the force field. Blue sparks danced around the point of contact. The metal article began to glow hotter and hotter. "Almost... Almost..."

Bearing the full brunt of its fangs, the Ursa reared its head back to strike one last time.

Rainbow blurted, "Imre—!"

"Here!" Imre spun her head and tossed the helmet. She and her cohorts tumbled to the arena floor as the metal armor piece—frothing over with blue plasma—flew towards Rainbow's forelimbs. "Do your worst!"

"My worst?" Rainbow gripped the sparkling helmet in two hooves, wincing as it melted the outer layer of her horseshoes. "Girl, I only ever do my best!"

The Ursa's jaws lunged forward.

"Rrrgh!" Rainbow brought the burning helmet down and slammed it over the starry crest of the unsuspecting beast.

The arena exploded with raw mana. Several metal mares looked away to save their eyes. Pestiferous stood up, her eyes narrowed as she hissed in alarm. Terra's jaw dropped while Roarke leaned forward on the edge of her seat, still trying to hide her trembles...

For several agonizing seconds, the killing floor was nothing but burning plasma, encompassing the entire Ursa... and its prey in turn.

Bloodying the Spear

Imre stood up on all fours, squinting into the burning mess in front of her. The other equines around her trembled as she took several pensive steps forward. At last, the cloud of burning mana cleared, revealing the hulking body of the Ursa Major lying on its belly. The creature was wheezing with labored breaths, its forehead pulsing with an aching blue light. Rivulets of glittering essence dripped down from its skull, like some celestial equivalent of blood.

The unicorn's eyes traveled all around the bear. She shuddered to see nothing but sizzling rock and smoking debris. Then, at last...

"Rainbow..."

She trotted over towards the steaming figure that was lying before the Ursa.

Just then, a hoof with a half-melted horseshoe lifted up, gesturing for her to stop.

Imre froze in her tracks, biting her lips.

With a stifled groan, Rainbow Dash stood up on wobbly limbs. Her armor was eaten away in several places by huge burn marks. Her visor had shattered, and a chattering pair of teeth could be seen through the broken mouthpiece. In one swift motion, Rainbow Dash tore the helmet off, shaking loose her mane and staring at the collapsed creature with a bruised face.

The Ursa hissed, stirred, and tried to get up.

Imre gulped. She stammered, "Rainbow—"

"Shhhh..." Rainbow's ruby eyes were firm as she trotted over to the Ursa's skull.

The bear glared at her. It started to growl, energy returning to its aching limbs.

Undaunted, Rainbow stared it in the face and raised a hoof to her pendant. Rubbing the lightning bolt, she summoned a deep crimson glow from within. Soon, the middle of the arena shone with a ruby aura.

The Ursa flinched at first. Then, after several blinks, its ears folded back. A breath of calm waxed over the creature's pained muscles, and its breaths turned into audible whimpers.

Rainbow Dash exhaled. A tender smile came to her lips. She even reached out and rubbed the top of the immense Ursa's nose.

The bloodshedding was over.

Needless to say, the metal mares above were hissing and booing as loudly as they could at this point. Imre and the other equines glanced about nervously as the audience stomped and clattered in protest.

Terra was frowning the most out of all of them. She glanced to her side. Roarke glanced up at her, and though she may not necessarily have been smiling, it made little difference to the larger mare. With a hiss, Terra popped a poleaxe loose from her armor and prepared to leap out into the arena.

A long, metal-reinforced limb held Terra at bay.

The large mare spun about, blinking.

Lady Pestiferous shared a calm glance with her. Wheezing, she stood up on long, wobbly limbs and gestured towards the guards flanking her. Two of them nodded and spoke into soundstones.

A few seconds later, a loud hiss emanated from the middle of the arena. Rainbow Dash, Imre, and the other victims stepped back as a platform opened up beneath the Ursa. With labored breaths, the enormous bear gladly crawled on shivering limbs and retreated down the lowering platform as it took it back to whatever abysmal holding area the Searonese had long built for it. As the arena floor closed behind it, Imre trotted over to Rainbow Dash.

"Not that we're gonna be alive long enough to care, but just what's your secret?" the unicorn asked her with squinting eyes. "What's the power behind that pendant of yours?"

"To be frank, I'm still figuring it out myself," Rainbow said as she adjusted the weight of the pendant around her neck. "Still, it's always around when I need it, especially when there's something more powerful than butt kicking to fix a given situation."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Rainbow gulped and said, "Loyalty."

"'Loyalty,' huh...?" Imre glanced up as a metal set of stairs unfolded down from Pestiferous' throne and landed on the arena floor. "Something tells me we could use an extra dash of that pretty soon."

Rainbow shuddered as she saw Pestiferous, Roarke, and Terra trotting down the steps. "Tell me about it." She cracked the joints in her neck and coiled her limbs. "Alright, how do you wanna do this?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhh..." Imre thoughtlessly droned.

"Whatever." Rainbow frowned as she set her sights on the three mares. "I'll take on the big one—" Right before she could spring into action, four loud thuds emanated on all sides of her. Rainbow grunted as four guards lassoed her in an instant, shoving her to the ground.

Imre gasped—only to have two more guards land and force her to her knees besides Rainbow.

Six more guards landed, circling the trembling stallion. Every remaining soul in the arena was forced to sit—including the diamond dog, who growled in defiance until a spear smacked him in the head.

"Nnngh..." Rainbow Dash hissed, struggling under the weight of the metal mares. "Celestia, I hate the kind of crud I can't skip through." A spidery metal limb grinded into the floor right in front of her. She tilted her head up, her ruby eyes reflecting Pestiferous' spindly body. "Uhm, hello there. And ew."

"Hckkkkkt... A mare of few wordssssshhh... a mare of true wordsssssh..." Pestiferous turned to glance loomingly at Roarke. "You sssssshcertain that thissssssh is your half-blade?"

Roarke avoided her gaze. A pair of lenses retracted as she opened her mouth to speak.

Imre interrupted, "Is this your way of saying 'thanks,' Roarke?" She spat. "You bring a battered pegasus to my doorstop to be patched together and then you feed us to the wolves?!"

"Shut it, runt!" Terra growled down at the unicorn. "You're in the presence of a Lady!"

"Yeah, no doubt you ate her!" Imre retorted.

"Why you—" Terra made to smashe her horn off with a meaty hoof.

"Ssssshilence, Terra," Pestiferous growled. "We all know that thissssssh is not about you..."

Terra stepped back, frowning the whole time. She stood up straight as Pestiferous raised her elongated hooves, forcing the leering, jeering crowd into silence. Pacing, the diseased mare threw her words towards Roarke.

"Ssssssshuch curiousssssh bedfellowsssh that you associate with, my little pony. Hckkkkktt—One takesssssh after your brainsssssh, and the other takesssssh after your guile." Pestiferous took a long, wheezing breath. She swiveled and glared with filmy eyes. "What a hard decision it would be to choossssssshe which of the two is the weakesssssht."

Roarke silently glanced up.

"Oh, that have you forgotten?" Pestiferous cocked her masked face aside. "That wasssssssh what this whole exerisssssshe was about, after all. While this pair of maressssssh may be fortuitousssssh, they are still a blight upon the womb of Shhhhhearo, and our goddesssssh only standsssssh to have children who will not sssssshame her. The function of a Top Ssssssshpear is to skewer and dessssstroy that which breaksssssh the mold of a perfect warrior. To fail in thisssssh regard is a weaknesssssh unto itsssshelf."

Terra smirked. She glanced over at Roarke.

Roarke said nothing, merely staring at the shivering bodies of Rainbow and Imre.

Pestiferous wheezed. She tilted her head about and motioned at a guard.

Immediately, the guard popped loose a panel in her armor and produced a manarifle. She tossed it at the Top Spear.

With ease, Pestiferous extended several tiny digits from her metal limb and grasped the rifle by its trigger. She held it out to Imre's forehead.

Imre inhale sharply, freezing.

Roarke's jaw clenched.

But nothing happened...

Pestiferous slowly tilted her head to glance at the lens-eyed mare. "Shhhho... tell me, Roarke mossssst Rare... who isssssh the weakesssssht here?" She pivoted, planting the gun against Rainbow's head. "The athlete?" She aimed it at Imre again. "Or the academic...?"

Roarke's body rose and fell with heady breaths.

"You musssssht chooooossshe..." Pestiferous said in a cold, cold tone. Her eyes narrowed above her vaporous mask. "To be a true Top Spear... to be the mare that thissssssh society needssssssh... you musssssssht make the sacrifice that you failed to do when your mother once sssssshtood in front of you..."

Imre shut her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth, glaring daggers Roarke's way.

Roarke finally tilted her head back, allowing her ringlet'd mane to flounce around her neck as she somberly said, "Kill them." She gulped. "Kill them both."

Rainbow Dash and Imre exhaled coldly.

Terra smiled.

Pick Your Poison

"And then kill Terra," Roarke suddenly added.

Terra's smile left.

"Hckkkt?" Pestiferous' mucuousy eyes blinked.

Roarke's lenses pistoned out as she craned her head back to glare at the Top Spear. "You heard me. Plug a hole in their heads, then three in Terra's." She gestured. "She's a big mare. It'll take several mana blasts to take her down."

"Terra is a mosssssht valued high blade..."

"She's also my friend." Roarke turned towards Terra, and her lips were slightly curved. "A loyal, truly-devoted, honorable friend. I've known her longer than these two weak mares combined." She pivoted once more towards Pestiferous. "What greater sacrifice do I have to offer, as a Top Spear in training, than the one warrior I have grown to love and admire after all these years."

Pestiferous wheezed, studying Roarke intently. Eventually, she muttered, "A mosssssht reasonable assssshessment." She nodded. "So be it." She twirled the manarifle and aimed at Terra—

"Now wait just one second!" Terra boomed. She turned and frowned at Roarke. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You question me?!" Roarke frowned. "The audacity!" She jabbed her metal-laced hoof into Terra's massive chest. "To think that you would challenge my rite of passage! Just what qualities do you have that would make you Top Spear?!"

"What...?!"

"I mean, that really is what this is all about, isn't it?!" Roarke shrugged. She tossed her words at Pestiferous as much as she did at Terra. "You couldn't possibly want me to ascend to the throne above you! This is not just my test! This is a test for all who qualify for the bloodiest spear!" Roarke paced calmly around the two mares kneeling at riflepoint on the ground. "And you want what's best for Searo's daughters, don't you, Terra?"

"Uhhh... of c-course I do! But—"

"Then we must weed out the weak!" Roarke shouted so that the mares in the audience above could hear. "And somepony—anypony—do tell me!" She pivoted about and smirked at Terra. "What is weaker than a mare who thinks she can get her way through intrigue... through politics..." Her lenses pistoned in and out as she hissed, "Through trying to catch her longtime sister-in-arms off-guard with the most ridiculous of conspiratorial gambles...?"

Terra grinded her hooves against the ground as she growled, "Are you actually insinuating that I would stoop so low as to—"

"Not now, you wouldn't. But when I'm on the throne?" Roarke paced back towards the huge mare. "Oh, yes, that would be the time. When Pestiferous is dead and devoured by ravens like a true warrior, and I—Roarke the most Rare—a controversial choice at best, sits in charge as Top Spear, with only a fraction of the daughters of Searo willing to support her..." She stood before Terra and hissed up at her. "That would be the best time to strike the mare who's in power... to slip the dagger in..." She spat venomously. "Like a coward."

Terra was seething. One could almost see the sparks dancing between her teeth.

"So..." Roarke pivoted about and smiled at Pestiferous. "I ask that we eliminate the weak, starting with the frailest pony of all." She pointed. "Lady Pestiferous, most bloody spear, I would be honored if you would put a hole in this bitch's head."

The mares above muttered in mixed feelings. Several shocked faces reflected each other in their wide eyes. Even the guards standing around the scene were fidgeting nervously.

Pestiferous scratched her balding scalp with a metal hoof. "Hmmmm-Hckkkktt..." She wheezed, wheezed, and said, "A most curioussssssssh situation. Thessssshe two sisters shhhhtand before me, and one mussssssht be determined assssssh the weaker..."

"And a true Top Spear knows what to do with this kind of a dilemma," Roarke said, bowing.

"Wait!" Terra shouted. She waved two metal forelimbs like a frightened filly. "Stop this craziness!"

"Shhhhhilence, Terra," Pestiferous grunted. "Roarke hassssssh shown her true colorsssh, and I rather like them." She glared at Terra. "Not a ssssssshade of yellow to be seen, unlike yoursssssh..."

"Oh come on!" Terra barked. "This was not part of the deal!"

"Deal?" Roarke raised an eyebrow. "So there's a 'deal' now..." she uttered in a sing-songy tone. "Now I'm really interested..."

"Hckkkkt! I had to know, Roarke," Pestiferous slurred. "My daysssssh are numbered, and I had to know who would carry on Sssssshearo's legacy."

"Well, now that you do, it's your challenge to decide what to do with that knowledge." Roarke stood between Rainbow Dash and Imre. "That's something I've been practicing for years in the Ledomaritan countryside, hunting to find bounties, as well as to find myself. Surely you've been there once yourself, Top Spear. My question to you, is do you still have the guts to make true with that power? Or do you trust a moronic meatbag like Terra to steer you in that direction, all for a measly show of might?"

Pestiferous' slimey eyes narrowed. She froze in thought; even her wheezing breaths had quieted.

Terra was actually sweating. She glanced nervously between Pestiferous and Roarke.

Rainbow Dash breathed heavily, her panic muted by her utter confusion. Just then, a beacon of light pulsed from the shoulderpiece of her armor. She did a double-take at it, then glanced awkwardly at Imre.

"Hey," Rainbow whispered. "What the heck does that mean?"

"That..." Imre glanced up as identical beacons flickered on the armor of every mare in attendance, from the guards to Terra and Roarke to Pestiferous herself. "That is both the absolute best and absolute worst thing that could happen right now..."

Rainbow Dash's face scrunched up. "The heck do you mean—"

The arena filled with a blaring siren as lights along the ceiling pulsed at the same frequency as the beacons in every mare's armor.

Terra jolted, bringing a hoof to her flickering shoulderpiece. "Oh, for the love of Searo..."

The air filled with metallic ringing sounds as every warrior in attendance pulled out an abundance of blades and spears.

The guards above Imre and Rainbow Dash relinquished their pressure on the mares and unsheathed swords, axes, and maces. Even Pestiferous holstered the manarifle in favor of producing an elongated blade from her metal reinforced forelimb. In fact, the only mare who didn't immediately move was Roarke.

"What in Luna's name is going on?!" Rainbow grunted, covering her aching ears. "And why's it gotta be so dang loud?!"

"I've never heard it in all the years I've been here!" Imre shouted back, likewise wincing. "An alarm like this can only mean one thing!"

"Yeah? Like what?"

Imre shivered. "Something or someone is attacking Searo's Hold!"

Here We Go

Several floors above, in the hangar stretching inside the large gaping mouth of Searo's Hold, the alarm was blaring the loudest. Metal mares ran to their stations, barking orders at one another.

Along the furthest edge of the loading platform, a mare ran between two or three parked manaships to join a guard who was looking out upon the mountainous landscape lit up by sunset.

"What is it?!" the mare shouted a she came to a scraping halt. "Why's the alarm going off?"

"There is an object approaching rapidly," replied the other mare, gazing out through a pair of binoculars being gripped in two metal-laced hooves. "It's flying faster than regulated approach speeds. That's why it set off the alarm."

"Then why not blast the vermin out of the sky?!"

"Because it's not vermin," the guard said, lowering the goggles as a dark shape loomed in view along the north horizon. "It's one of ours."

The mare looked at her. "One of our sisters is returning?"

The guard nodded. "The mana signature matches Searonese technology."

"Then why is she approaching so quickly?" The other mare's brow furrowed. "Could she be injured? Being chased?"

"I'm going to go with the injury."

"I see..." The mare smirked as she produced a blade from her forelimb. "Then I suppose we are fit to punish her for her failings."

"She could put up a good fight." The guard gestured. "See the markings on the ship?"

"What about it..."

"It's Aeterna's vessel."

"Aeterna? Pffft. She does nothing but pick on farm ponies in Aurum! She deserves to have some sense flayed into her!"

"If she could land the thing first."

Both ponies stared, their ears flicking.

The sunlight glinted off the swiftly approaching vehicle.

"Uhhh..." One of the mares blinked. "She isn't... She isn't slowing down..."

"Strange..." The guard squinted. "From the looks of it, all of her armaments are loaded—"

Just then, the air lit up with a dozen different bursts of steam. Rocketing on mana-propelled thrusters, a salvo of missiles flew into the wide entrance of the hangar. Ships exploded. Chunks of ceiling support beams fell. Fuel tanks lit up in flame. The air echoed with screams of metal mares being flung left and right.

The two mares at the edge of the platform threw themselves to the ground. Without stopping, the slender manaship throttled into the flaming passage. It landed as well as a stone could skip across a lake, grinding to a stop and knocking aside bundles of fragile loading equipment. With a spray of sparks, it finally slid to a stop, but not without firing off another spray of missiles into the far corner of the place.

Yet again, more chunks of rock fell from the inner throat of Searo's Hold. Metal mares scampered to put out the flames. All was chaos and smoke.

It was under this veil of mayhem that the side doors to Aeterna's manaship slid open.

Grunting, the two closest mares stood up and energized the lengths of their suits. Bright beams of light shimmered from their leg joints as they protruded weapons of every imaginable shape from their limbs and approached the vessel.

"Aeterna!" the guard yelled. "Explain yourself before we cut out your tongue and make it dance for us!"

With a grunt, a muscular stallion leapt out of the manaship. Landing on three limbs and a wooden crutch, Crimson glared at the two mana-powered warriors.

The mares blinked, then seethed.

"I don't know how in Searo's name you infiltrated a bounty hunter's ship, breeder, but you're going to pay with every inch of your skin."

"You'll find that I'm severely wanting of a damn," Crimson retorted. With a stomp of his hooves, he shouted to the wartorn air. "Mr. Tweak! Anytime you're ready!"

"Right..." Tweak climbed out of the ship, along with three fellow crystal ponies from Aurum, all armed with translucent manarifles. "I hate the look of this place already. Come on, boys. Light's out on this crudhole."

Then, joined as one, all four crystal ponies concentrated. A brilliant aura danced between them. Then, with a great pulse, they expelled their energy outward in all directions.

The lights above flickered and died. Parked manaships lost all power. At last, several of the surviving equipment along the fire-lit resources of the hangar fell like limp tree branches.

"Gaah—What—?!" The guard suddenly collapsed to the floor, her heavy armor spitting up sparks. "What is this sorcery?!"

"Nnnngh!" The mare beside her struggled in vain to lift her weapons. "Can't move... what...?"

The guard glanced up at the crystal ponies... and at the natural glow wafting off of them. She gulped. "Awwwwww crud."

Crimson spat and charged her. "You said it, lady." His one good forelimb flew like a mallet across her mouth full of fragile teeth.

Time to Disappear

It was a very awkward scene down in the arena. With no fighting, no chanting for blood, no wheezing speech on behalf of the Top Spear, everything had collapsed into a tittering lull, so quiet that even the buzzing hum of the manalights could be heard over the ruins of the recent melee. Metal mares exchanged wide-eyed glances while Terra and Lady Pestiferous shifted about nervously, side by side.

Up above, through the thick layers beyond the ceiling, several dull thuds could be heard, followed by an enormous, thunderous crash. Then—after a few more breathless seconds—the light flickered. Mares gasped and guards grunted in surprise. The lights flickered again, and suddenly they dimmed.

With a high-pitched whine, the ring of blue force field energy shorted out and died. Sparks flew from every door of the arena. Guards and prisoners alike had to jump aside as stone panels opened and closed beneath them. A worried tumult rose, and soon the place was still again.

The darkness spread as the manalights died one by one. Then—with a strange whurring noise—many trap doors in the floor of the arena yawned open around the edge of where the Ursa descended. A few seconds passed. A few more...

With ravenous, frenzied roars, three manticores leapt up out of their pens below the killing floor. Then four more jumped out. They looked in every direction until their hungry eyes spotted the shocked metal mares up above. Without hesitation, the beasts jumped up into the stands and pounced upon anypony they could see.

Screams returned to the arena, only this time they belonged to the armored mares as they fought off the beastly ambush. Lacerating claws exchanged blows with metal-laced hooves. Those mares who tried firing their rockets and manacannons found their armor suddenly incapable of responding to their commands. The confusion mixed with the adrenaline of the manticore charge, and soon the once-fearless warriors were battling with blind rage.

Terra gritted her teeth so hard they nearly produced sparks. "An invasion! Someone is draining our power!"

"Hckkkkt... The Grid..." Pestiferous suddenly hissed.

Rainbow Dash flung her a curious glance.

The Top Spear shook her metal-laced limbs as she stood up at her full, intimidating height. "We musssssht not let them get to the heart of the Grid! Hckkkt—Sisssshters and daughterssssh of Ssshearo!" She motioned as she bounded like an enormous, diseased giraffe towards the stands above. "Follow me! The blood we ssssshpill tonight we do for our Goddesssssh' keep!"

"Grrrgghhh... Who dares?! I'll rip out their hearts and feed it to their children!" Terra grumbled. A manticore bounded up and screamed into her face. The gigantic mare merely spun and gave the thing a right-hook to its lion face. As the beast fell, Terra closed her helmet and galloped thuddingly up the steps, weaving in and out of errant battles as she made her way to the upper levels.

Rainbow Dash gazed after them. She blinked and helped a dazed Imre up to her hooves. "Do they always just... run off like that?"

"When they smell blood, they're there," Imre muttered. She gulped and added, "Metal mares gonna metal..."

"But where does that leave us?"

"Hey! You!" A voice shouted.

Imre, Rainbow Dash, and the helpless ponies glanced over.

A guard limped towards them, bleeding from a manticore bite. She nevertheless produced a blade from her forelimb and snarled, "Your purpose in this world is over, runts!" She raised the blade to strike. "The beasts here will surely dine on your fl—"

Roarke's hoof slammed across her face. The guard spat blood and crumpled to a rusted heap on the ground.

Rainbow Dash and Imre winced.

Roarke stood evenly on the ground. She turned and looked at them.

They gazed at her.

Roarke's lenses retracted. With a deep breath, she spun, opened a side panel in her armor, and shot two rockets towards the wall of the arena. With the force field gone, the stone partition completely crumbled, revealing a lateral passageway on the other side of the clearing smoke. The floorspace of the arena between that spot and the brand new exit was presently devoid of battling metal mares and manticores.

Rainbow Dash squinted, gazing curiously from the hole to Roarke.

Roarke backtrotted away. Without saying a word, she closed her helmet, backflipped, mounted the edge of the arena with rocket thrusters, and galloped off to join the current of charging warriors.

Her eyebrow raised, Rainbow Dash stammered, "Is that her way of saying 'Bon voyage?'"

"You wanna know what I think about Roarke?" Imre shook her head and murmured, "I don't know what to think anymore."

"Good," Rainbow Dash nodded. "I'm an expert at not-thinking." She turned and shouted at the jittery group of surviving stallions and equines on the arena floor. "Everypony! We're getting out of here! If you wanna join us, then you'd better keep close! Let's make like alicorns and friggin' disappear!"

As the frantic herd of innocents charged out of the broken gap, an armored figure watched secretly from above.

Shuffling about in the shadows, Roarke resumed her flight towards the top levels of Searo's Hold. Rounding a corner, she paused to reach one hoof to a panel built into the opposite forelimb's metal plates. She pressed a pair of buttons, causing several lights to flicker across her suit, followed by a steady beeping tone.

Lock and Load

Up in the hangar, Roarke's ship lit up, beeping with the same steady tone of chirping noises. Its thrusters roared to life as the vessel began hovering by remote. While all of the parked vessels around it sparked and sputtered across the rubble-strewn domain, the lone manaship flew off on its lonesome, rocketing out of the gaping mouth of the bay.

Crimson was in the middle of colliding two armor-weighted mares' skulls together when he felt the heated whoosh of the bounty hunter's aircraft exiting speedily. He turned in mid battle, gaping at the ship as it dipped beyond view of the entrance to Searo's Hold.

"Crimson!" Tweak shouted over the cacophony of constant manafire. He ducked under the rifle blasts of his fellow crystal ponies and slid over to the three legged mercenary's side. "They keep charging from the northeast side! If we're to infiltrate the core, we need to make a detour where we won't be butting skulls with droves of metal mares!"

"One of the ships just took off!" Crimson spat, pointing out the mouth of the hangar. "But... how..."

"Better that most of them get knocked out than just a few of them!" Tweak grunted, firing a manarifle over his shoulder to cover the flank. "We've got the plenty of ways to knock out their tech! What we don't have an abundance of is time! Now do you want to find this Rainbow Dash or not?!"

"Right..." Crimson nodded, tensing his muscles as he stood up straight. "And your brother while I'm at it!"

"I'm certainly not here for the gift shop!" Tweak fired a few more shots. "You're more trained in this sort of a thing! You lead the way! I'll be right behind you!"

"What?!" Crimson flashed him a stern look. "No! It's crawling with mare monstrosities down there!"

"You say that like I'm not used to those jerkfaces."

"I'm not letting you get your neck in harm's way! It was my choice to come here!"

"And I'm the one who let you." Tweak fired again and again.

Crimson barked, "You've got a family to return to!"

Tweak flashed him a frown. "And so do you! Look, either we're doing this together like grown stallions or we're not at all!" He fired again and grunted, "Besides, I haven't a mind to leave this place unless I've left it good and crippled!" He reloaded the manarifle with a crystalline aura, wincing slightly. "Erm... no offense..."

"Right..." Crimson took a deep breath and hobbled towards a chunk of rubble. "If you wanna help, lend me your hooves. We need to move some of this rubble out of the way."

"Got it!" Tweak hurried towards Crimson side, shouting towards his fellow Aurum farmhooves. "Stay here and keep a tight perimeter!" Tweak bellowed. "So long as you keep the glow, this place is untouchable! Not once do I want to hear about any single one of you switchin' your shine off!"

"Got it, Tweak!" one of the crystal ponies shouted while focusing fire on the hallway through which the mares were staggering to charge in. "What about regarching the ship to get out of here?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it!" Tweak yelled. "More bounty hunters are coming! Knock 'em out!"

"Hnnnngh!" In the meantime, Crimson was struggling to shove a concrete boulder out of the way.

"Here, lemme help..." Tweak rushed in and pressed his glossy shoulder against the weight. "Nnnngh... all that muscle on your bones, boy, and ya can't chuck a single rock?"

"It's... a little hard..." Crimson muttered through his sweat. "...with you four lit up like friggin' candles... I'm finding it hard to breathe..."

"You can catch your wind downstairs, then," Tweak said as the two finally rolled the boulder away with a relieved gasp. "While knockin' it out of them!"

"What's with you and knocking?"

"In a few seconds, I reckon I'll give you a demonstration." Tweak dashed into the hallway and had to immediately slide on his haunches and blind-fire at a mare stumbling out of a blacksmith's hovel. "Ha!" he shouted victoriously over his collapsed foe. "Caught you with your bridle down, ya cactus humping horse slaver!"

Well, Of Course

Rainbow Dash stumbled forward in her armor, an increasingly difficult feat, due to the metal plates having broken and melted away in various places from her most recent battle. The bottom portion of her helmet had shattered loose, exposing a grimacing face as she continued galloping down the long, dark corridor that Roarke's rockets had exposed through the arena wall. As she led the procession of frantically fleeing prisoners, the concrete walls shook with the echoing thuds of several muffled explosions, emanating from the far ends of Searo's Hold.

"Okay, I've got just one question..."

"How can we commit mass suicide and avoid torture once the metal mares get ahold of us?" Imre's voice droned.

"Where the hay does this goddess-forsaken tunnel lead?!" Rainbow Dash barked, her suit rattling. "And, furthermore, can it take us and all these poor saps somewhere safe?"

"That's two questions, genius."

"Y'know, you're waaaaaay to sarcastic to afford being that literal."

"Nnnngh..." Imre grunted, marching halfway down the line of stumbling ponies. "From what I hear, there's a passageway that leads all the way down to the foot of the mountain. There, a chamber opens up to the outside world, where a huge garbage dump of all Searonese refuse collects. Beyond that, a winding path leads west into the Sapphire Ravine. Beyond that, Franzington and the Southern Lands."

Rainbow Dash blinked beneath her helmet. "Huh..."

"There. That any better?"

"You're ironic with surgical precision. I like that," Rainbow Dash grunted. "I once had a friend with the same gift, but instead of being a jaded stone of an equine being, she loved to bounce around and shove cupcakes into others' mouths."

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Girl, I'll throw you flowers if it means getting us all out of here..." Rainbow Dash droned, gazing left and right as they came upon a junction of intersecting walls. "Where in the wild world of Luna's blue-coated showerdrain do we go now?"

"You mean to find that passageway I talked about?"

"Yeah. That."

"Solution should be pretty simple," Imre said with a shrug. "Smell the air for garbage and let your hooves do the walking."

Rainbow Dash paused in her steps, halting the group entirely. She lifted her helmet just long enough to sniff the air with flaring nostrils. After a few seconds, she made an ugly face, and spoke over the thudding echoes of battle high above. "Yeah. That is totally something like roasted cat crud wafting in from the right tunnel."

"Feline excrement? It's probably the smell of uncooked manticore meat."

"Which means..."

"Your nose isn't lying to you." Imre pointed with her horn. "That's gotta be the way out of here."

"Okay, cool." Rainbow Dash motioned towards the group. "Alright, everypony! I know the trip isn't exactly gonna smell like flowers, but it's our only ticket out of here—"

"Raaaugh!" A metal mare popped out of a stone door, glaring at Rainbow Dash. "That's as far you go, you miserable pile of runts and breeders!" She flicked her shoulder. "Blood for Searo—" Nothing happened. The warrior's jaw fidgeted beneath her helmet. She flicked her armor again. "I said, Blood for Searo..." Only an ineffectual shower of sparks rained loose. "Uhmm..."

Rainbow Dash didn't waste another second. She ran forward, shot a burst of thrusters, bounced off the tunnel's left wall, and slammed both of her rear hooves across the unsuspecting mare's cranium.

"Unnngh!" The warrior fell to the ground, and her helmet flew off in the other direction, rotating to a loose clatter against the wall.

Rainbow Dash landed, panting for breath. "I'm not sure I can really stand to bump into more of these jerkfaces."

"I dunno," Imre said. "You seem to be jerking their faces just fine."

"Whatever. We gotta jet." Rainbow motioned towards the group. "This way! The coast is clear! Run towards the smell! I don't care if you wanna throw up—freedom is this way and downstairs!"

The diamond dog, anteloupes, stallions, and various other innocent prisoners shuffled quickly by her. She was about to run alongside them, when she noticed one body in particular not moving. "Huh?" Glancing back, Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "Imre? What the crap! Move it or lose it, girl!"

"You're obviously a natural-born leader, Rainbow Dash," Imre droned. She wasn't running. As a matter of fact, she was plopping her flanks down onto the ground beside the fallen metal mare. With a sullen sigh, she said, "You'll take care of them just fine on your own."

"Who gives a crap about all of them?"

"Uhhh... you do?"

Rainbow winced. "Okay. Yeah. Sure. Fine. But you too, girl! Now move it!"

"What's the point?"

"What's the—Snkkkt!" Rainbow Dash hissed and loomed over the unicorn, growling. "Oh no, don't you do this stupid crud! Not now! Not after all the junk I went through to get you out of that darn arena, safe and sound!"

"That was different," Imre muttered. "You were in danger too. Now... you've got a handle of the situation."

"How?!" Rainbow gestured all around as dust and debris fell down the walls from the resounding thuds through the Hold. "How does this count as having a handle on anything?! Uh uh, girl, you're coming with me whether you like it or—"

"I'll just be running away again," Imre droned. "Just like I've been doing all of my life, whether it be in Xonan Territory, Ledomaritan, or Searonese." She sighed and ran a hoof through a nonexistent mane. "At least here, as horrible as this place is, I had things made—"

"Until I came along, blah blah blah..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Forgive me if I've heard this disgusting kind of speech before."

"Of course it's disgusting. And, quite frankly, all of this mess began rolling downhill long before you even arrived, long before Pestiferous, Terra, and whoever felt it necessary to give Roarke a shove. I knew my days are numbered. It doesn't matter if it's here, there, or anywhere else. I'm ready to just let it happen..."

"You know..." Rainbow Dash leaned forward, raising her helmet high enough to glare at Imre with naked eyes. "A life can be lived on the run. You just gotta find the right courage—or the right ponies—to be running with."

"I don't think I can afford that, Rainbow," Imre droned above the thunderous rumbles above them. "It's far too late. There's too much that's staining my name."

Rainbow squinted. "Staining your name?! What in the hay do you mean—"

"Hey! What's going on back there?!" one of the stallions called out from far ahead. "We think we've found the passageway! Aren't you two coming?!"

"Yes we are!" Rainbow called back.

"Go ahead, Rainbow—"

"Yes... we are!" Rainbow snarled this time. "Even if I have to drag you there myself."

Imre frowned, her horn glowing red. "You're welcome to try, gorgeous—"

Just then, a huge clap of thunder exploded through the tiny chamber. Chunks of concrete fell, sending bursts of concussive energy in every direction. Imre and Rainbow Dash were knocked off their hooves. As the dust settled—as well as the ringing in their ears—they stirred and crawled up to their hooves. Rainbow Dash was the first to stand. As she helped Imre up, she glanced behind her shoulder and hissed outright. "Oh, sonuva..."

The passageway was completely blocked. Aside from a few slits of dim light, there was nothing to be seen from the other side. Rainbow Dash leaned in and shouted as loudly as she could against the cluttered debris.

"Hey! You in one piece over there?!"

After several wheezing, coughing breaths, one voice replied. "Yes! We... we're all in one piece! Where are you two?!"

"We're stuck on this side! The ceiling caved in!"

"Are you injured?"

"I'm liable to wring this emo unicorn's neck at any given moment, but otherwise, we're just peachy!" Rainbow grumbled. "Darn it!" Rainbow glared down at Imre. "You friggin' happy?"

"Do you forget who you're talking to?" Imre droned.

"I'm starting to frickin' wonder." Rainbow stomped her hooves. "Dang, dang, dang! And we were almost out of this junkhole!"

"The others may still be able to make it," Imre said, wheezing from the dust. "Not many mares patrol these recesses of the Hold. Unless a few errant warriors just happened to be milling about the trash heap in the valley outside, they should be able to gallop uninterrupted to the Sapphire Ravine."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "For real?"

"I've lived here for a long time, remember?"

"Hey!" Rainbow shouted through the debris. "Did you hear that?!"

"Yes! I-I do believe w-we did!" a frantic voice squeaked back.

"Head on down. Don't stop for nothing—not until you are out of a stone's throw of this cruddy place!"

"What about you two?!"

"Don't worry about us! We'll make do with what we've got!"

"Shouldn't we wait and try to carve you out—"

"Fat chance of that working! Besides, this whole place might collapse in on us at any second! Just go! Like I said!" Rainbow Dash hollered, backtrotting from the mess. "I'll find a way—someway—to get to you dudes on the other side! I promise!"

"Very well!" the ponies on the other side called back. "Spark be with you!" And Rainbow heard the sound of their hooves galloping away.

"Don't I friggin' know it..." Rainbow Dash swiveled around. "You." She yanked Imre up and forced the two of them into a brisk gallop. "We're moving. Now."

"Gah!" Imre grunted, painfully trying to keep up. "Where the devil to?!"

"Wherever there's a sure-fire-flight out of here."

"How do we know anything works well enough for us to fly out of this place anymore?"

"Roarke's armor works," Rainbow Dash said. "This metal junk you fitted me with works."

"Only because it has special components..."

"Like what kind of components?"

"The same thing that's been running Searo's Hold for months now," Imre said. "The same thing that these intruders—whoever they are—are likely here for."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "The heck are you going on about?"

Imre sighed. "Look, if it will get you to stop yanking me around everywhere, I'll show you." She frowned "Then you gotta promise to let me be. I've done all I could for you, now you gotta pay me the same respect."

"Girl..." Rainbow Dash muttered as she dragged the unicorn down an adjacent passageway. "...have I got a thing or two to teach you about friggin' harmony..."

Army of Two

"Raaaugh!" Crimson bucked a metal mare hard into the wall, spun, and zapped a stream of telekinetic energy into the bounty hunter's helmet.

Sputtering for breath, the metal mare slipped free of the headpiece, only to experience the less-than-heavenly sensation of the helmet slamming across her skull repeatedly.

Crimson finished the attack by launching the helmet straight into her gut. He spun around and faced the other end of the hallway junction in time to duck the swing of a metal mare brandishing a broad-axe in her teeth. She swung again and again, all the while he backtrotted towards the wall. Just as she prepared to cleave his skull in two, a beam of crystalline energy ricocheted off her spine. She stumbled forward with a cry, reeling from Tweak's shot several yards away. Crimson took a chance and dove head-on, tackling the mare hard and slamming her against the stone floor of the passage.

Standing up, Crimson kicked the axe up off the ground and gripped it in his teeth. He looked over his shoulder as three mares huddled behind an overturned pillar, sheltering themselves from Tweak's manarifle blasts. Glancing up, Crimson saw a sweeping banner, emblazoned with the impressionistic outline of the spirit of Searo. With a singular twirl, he flung the axe from his mouth, launching it ceilingward like a boomerang.

The weapon sliced through the support ropes of the banner, causing the heaping flag to flutter down and cover the three mares entirely. Grunting and growling in frustration, they flailed about, struggling to get out from underneath the banner. As soon as the first mare stuck her head out from the fabric, she swiftly wished she hadn't.

Crimson's intact forelimb flew across her cheek and collided her with a second mare. As both collapsed, the third broke free, making a run for it, only for a blast of manarifle energy to blast into the wall next to her, sending a chunk of rubble exploding into her body and propelling her hard into a nearby pillar, knocking her unconscious.

Tweak exhaled, sending a fresh recharge of crystalline energy into his translucent weapon. "Somehow, this is feeling a little too easy."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't agree," Crimson said, fighting to catch his breath. The two dashed towards the corner of the battle-strewn hallway, peering around the corner as they made their way deeper into Searo's Hold. "It's almost as if we're running into a bunch of novices."

"Heh... only you would call that last wave of beserker warriors 'novice.'"

"I mean it..." Crimson's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the next length of hallway. "Not even ten of these freakjobs combined could outmatch that bully, Aeterna. I suspect the true, elite warriors have been relocated elsewhere."

"For what purpose?" Tweak remarked, his sparkling eyes narrow as he finally recharged the core of his rifle. "An ambush?"

"Hard to say, but the sooner we figure out where our ponies are, the better."

"Where in this prison is a prison?" Tweak asked with a smirk. "Every other room looks like a detention cell to me. This Rainbow Dash could be anywhere."

"I've been in one or two facilities belonging to enemy forces before," Crimson said. The walls shook as an explosion thundered through the structure of the place. "Even the Xonans—who pretend not to care for technology—possess the need to house a security net that keeps track of everything."

"What do you mean, 'security net?'"

"I mean a monitoring station. If we relocate it, maybe we'll find out where they're keeping Rainbow Dash." He glanced over his shoulder. "And your brother."

Tweak took a deep breath. "I don't think we'll have any problem finding my brother."

"What makes you say that?"

Tweak pointed down the far end of the nearest passageway. "You see that faint, faint glow in the distance?"

Crimson's eyes narrowed. "Yes...? I do believe so."

Tweak grumbled, "Follow the lights. If these bastards are doing what I think they're doing..."

"Say no more," Crimson grumbled, charging ahead into a limping gallop. "Let's just buck heads."

"You didn't have to ask twice..." Tweak dashed speedily after him.

Itchy Trigger Hoof

"Just down this corridor," Imre said, stumbling as the bowels of Searo's Hold shook all around them. Rainbow Dash helped her up as the two galloped down the passageway, approaching a thick metal door. "The Hold has never been invaded before, so I don't think we'll run into any guards here."

"Any chance we'll find some forceps to remove the stick up your flank?" Rainbow asked.

"Not likely."

"Drat." Rainbow stood before the door, panting. "So, what's up with this? Is the thing locked?"

"There's been a power flux," Imre said. "I can feel it through my leylines: something has disrupted the energy in every metal mare's suit, as well as in the conduits channeling mana from the central core before us here."

"A little less brain noodle and a little more muscle macaroni," Rainbow said, pointing with a metal horseshoe. "How do I get the dang thing open?"

"We... will get the dang thing open," Imre said, already concentrating magic through her horn.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow beneath her helmet. "You sure you don't wanna just sit here and stew in your own bullcrap for an eternity instead?"

"Please. There's something in here that will be of interest to you, and it's only fair that I let you see it," Imre said, her meditative facing tensing even more. "At least, I think you'll give a crap."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"That's a good question. You just strike me as a pony who'll do stupid things to save the day."

"Yeah, well, nobody's perfect."

A loud clicking noise emanated from within the metal body of the door. Imre relaxed with a heavy exhale.

"Was that it?" Rainbow asked.

Imre motioned with her weary head. "Give it a go."

So, Rainbow did, shoving up against the door with her metal-reinforced forelimbs. After a few seconds of strain, the unlocked door swiveled up within its frame. Warm air jetted out. The interior was dimly lit with a red aura.

"Yeesh! Smells like an unwashed bathhouse in there!" Rainbow waved a hoof before her helmet and leaned forward. "You been in here before?"

"Personally, no. Spark be praised. I only know from what I've been told..."

"Guess it's gonna be an eye opener for us both." Rainbow Dash stepped in slowly, taking cautious glances left and right. "Ugh, I dunno if I told you this or not, but cramped underground darkly-lit rooms and I have a nasty history..."

"Hey. You asked for me to bring you here."

"I know, it's just—" Rainbow's ears perked. "Somepony's in here..."

Imre said nothing.

Rainbow strolled in. She saw a circular chamber, laced with complicated instrument panels. Knobs and levers and dials dotted the walls. Hanging above were several dangling cables that brimmed with errant sparks of electricity.

"Right... well this is translating to a whole bunch of nothing to me."

"Are there any holding chambers at all?" Imre asked, trotting up behind her.

"Huh?" Rainbow glanced over her shoulder. "You mean like cages or something?"

Imre slowly nodded.

Rainbow glanced at the walls again. She trotted along the segmented partitions, then noticed a huge lever hanging off the middle. She thought she heard a shuffling noise on the other side. With a confused mutter under her breath, she reached forward and yanked at the lever. With a loud hiss, four layers of metal walling slid down beneath the floor. The air filled with coughing, wheezing sounds. Rainbow gasped to see no less than seven stallions in the middle of collapsing within a barren compartment, their front and rear limbs bound in tight metal wires.

"Ah, jeez!" Rainbow rushed forward and helped the first of many to limp out into the much cooler, less confining chamber. "I dunno who arranged the slumber party from Tartarus, but at ease, guys! Rescue's here!"

"R-rescue...?" One stallion wheezed. He squinted at the sight of the unicorn and the armored pegasus. "I... I don't understand? You're... y-you're not Searonese, are you?"

"Spark, I hope not," Imre droned.

"Hey..." Rainbow Dash leaned forward, and she saw her reflection doing the same thing. The stallion's coat was polished like a mirror, this was because his body was composed entirely of organic crystal. "I saw you earlier! Down in the hallways near the arena! A mare was leading you somewhere..."

"I-I was being examined..." He hissed, wincing in pain as Rainbow Dash steadied him.

"Examined?"

"For potency..." He started to catch his breath, though he shuddered no less. "I was deemed to still be seventy-five percent conductive. That's why I wasn't thrown into those arena pits along with you..."

"I don't get it..." Rainbow Dash muttered. "Conductive for what?"

"You mean... you don't know?"

Rainbow Dash slowly shook her head.

The stallion looked at her, then over at Imre.

Imre gazed quietly back while helping two other stallions.

"Her..." The stallion pointed. "I've met her before..."

"Then I'm sorry for how depressing your existence must be."

"No, she's..." The stallion gulped. "She's good. She's taken care of us since we got here... as much as she can afford to. She's managed to buy us all more time out of the focus chamber..."

"Focus... chamber...?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"She found a way to take samples of our blood," another stallion said, trembling. "Apparently the metal mares can use it to do the same stuff that they use us for..."

"Wait, blood? Using you? Huh?" Rainbow Dash blinked awkwardly at the group. "Just what is going on—?" She paused, glancing over their shoulders.

A large door rested against the far end of the circular chamber. From beyond, a loud hum emanated, bleeding bits of bright light through the edges of the doorframe.

Rainbow Dash blinked, then winced at a startling thought. She spun about. "Imre. Could you help me with the door here?"

"I don't have enough energy to open the Focus Chamber," Imre said. "That would take the power of three unicorns at least."

"Well, is there another friggin' way inside it?" Rainbow asked. "If things are bad enough here, I hate to think about what it's like inside—"

Just then, all seven stallions flickered with light, as if a gold beam swam through all of them in a straight line. Their eyes widened in surprise, and yet a bizarre strength returned to their features.

Rainbow squinted at them. "Uhhh... did you guys just colletively fart or something—?"

"Hiyaaaugh!" A muscular body pounced on her from behind.

"Horsefeathers!" Rainbow grunted as she was shoved into a metal wall. She tried bucking the pony off, but the weight of him was too much. "Okay, which one of you dudes threw a sweaty boulder on me?!"

"I-I got her, Tweak!" A male voice grunted from behind. "Take the shot—"

"Nope." Rainbow fired her thrusters. The two glided across the room and slammed into the far wall. The pony atop her back took the brunt of the impact.

"Ooof!" He fell to the floor.

"Alright!" Rainbow hopped up, spun about, and ground her hooves. "Somepony just bought a one way ticket to Buckville and I'm all outta—" She froze, her jaw dropping beneath the shattered edge of her helmet. "...Crimson?"

"Mmmmf—Sp-Spark!" He sputtered, wincing as he sat up. He took one look at her and squinted. "Rainbow... Dash...?"

She grinned wide. "Holy cow!" She practically frolicked over to his fallen figure. "Crimson, it's you! It's totally you! This is the best thing that's happened in—"

A rifle blast exploded against Rainbow's helmet.

"Gaaah!" She pratfalled, her legs sticking up. "Sonuva—"

"She's a tough one, Crimson!" Tweak stood in the doorway, recharging his gun. "About half a charge should light her up!"

"Dammit, Tweak, hold your fire!"

Spread the Love

"...and after I fell into the Sapphire Ravine, I swam ashore as swiftly as I could and stole a managlider." Crimson took a breath and continued, "But it wasn't until I ran into Tweak here and his family that I got truly patched up."

"And I'm guessing it was Shell who..." Rainbow Dash winced, gulped, and cast a glance at Crimson's right stub. "Who..."

Crimson nodded slowly. He said, "To be honest, it was the least of my troubles. Phoenix's betrayal came out of nowhere. I tried to make that heartless Ledomaritan pay for what he did, but he anticipated my every move. Bellesmith and Pilate were lost because of my incompetence. Zenith... Eagle Eye..." Crimson's eyes fell from her face and marinated in the shadows around them.

Rainbow Dash shook her head and said, "Look, I know a lot of horrible stuff has happened. But you can't blame yourself. I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer at times, but all of my travels have made me a lot more aware of things. And even still I didn't see all the crud that happened from a mile away."

"It wasn't your place to," Crimson muttered. "I was responsible for your well-being, and I failed." He bit his lip and said, "Belle and Pilate: do you even know where they went off to?"

"Somewhere far north. By the time I flew to Shell's huge megaship, it was too late to track them down. I got my flank beaten up, and that's when Roarke brought me to Searo's Hold so this ice princess of a unicorn here could fix me up."

"She brought you here to be cured of your injuries?" Crimson made a face. "But... but what on earth for? None of this makes sense. When I tried chasing you—"

"Ahem."

Both Crimson and Rainbow Dash looked over.

"I'm glad that you're both making friends again," Tweak said as he knelt beside the crystal ponies while Imre tended to each, one by one. The ceiling of the metal chamber shook as another explosion rocked the Hold. "But we're about minutes away from dying horribly, and I've still yet to find my brother."

Crimson did a double-take. "Huh? You mean Lucky Strike isn't here?"

"Lucky Strike?" Rainbow Dash narrowed her gaze. "Is that a pony or a cigarette?"

"He's likely either injured or dead at this point!" Tweak barked across the room. His expression fell into a worried grimace as he said, "I came here to rescue Crimson's friend, yes. But I was also hoping I would find my—"

"What about that door behind us?" Rainbow Dash motioned.

"The ponies here mentioned something about a 'Focus Chamber,'" Imre said.

"Focus Chamber?" Crimson turned to look. "What in Spark's name for?"

"We all took turns being situated in there," one of the crystal ponies remarked. He motioned towards the door. "This stallion's brother has likely been in there the longest. The Top Spear of Searo's Hold held a conference of source and no metal mare has been down here in ages to switch us out—"

"Right, got it. How the heck do we open the door?!" Tweak grumbled. "The thing is as solid as a mountain!"

"Like this!" Rainbow Dash ran to the door and began tugging, yanking, and heaving at the base of it. "Hnnnng! Nnnnngh! Rrgghhh—Guh!" She slumped down, panting in her armor. "Okay, maybe not like that..."

"If I had more strength to my manastreams, I could unlock it and make the task easier," Imre said. "Crimson, sir, are you gifted in magic?"

"I'm not exactly a delicate unicorn—"

"I didn't ask if you could friggin' do surgery," Imre grumbled. "Have you ever lifted objects ten times your weight before?"

Crimson blinked, then nodded. "In a pinch, yes. I've done amazing things to get my soldiers and I out of the killing paths of Xonans."

"Could he open the door?" Tweak asked.

"It's worth a shot." Crimson trotted over and focused his horn at the partition. "Step aside, Rainbow..."

"Hey. Give it the golden buck."

Crimson's face tensed as his horn shimmered brighter and brighter. His magic enveloped the door, making it jostle and vibrate. However, after much effort and strain, it still wouldn't budge. "Nnnngh! No good. What the heck did they make that stuff out of?"

"Hey!" Rainbow chirped, glancing over at the eight crystal ponies—including Tweak. "What's with these guys and their glowy stuff?"

"We're channelers of mana," one of the stallions weakly said. "That's why the Searonese have been abducting us."

"Well, it's a damn shame," Tweak said, grumbling. "If I had a way, I'd tear this place to the ground—"

"One thing at a time, hawkeye." Rainbow turned to Imre. "What if—like—they were to absorb yours and Crimson's energy and then—I dunno—shoot at the door?"

Imre narrowed her eyes in thought. After a few seconds, she said, "I don't think that would work. At best, it would make the door collapse on its hinges, making it even more impossible to go through it."

"Darn..." Rainbow grunted.

"Wait..." Crimson spoke around the dull thuds of explosions through the walls. "What if—instead of channeling the magic into the door—if the ponies channeled it back into my horn?"

"To what end?" Imre asked.

"It'd give me an extra energy boost for moving the damn door."

"Could that be possible?" Tweak asked.

Imre sighed, shaking her head. "Possible, maybe. Smart? No."

"Why not?" Rainbow asked.

"It might overload the leylines in meat soldier's skull here," Imre said, pointing at Crimson. "His brain could literally turn to mush."

"Could or would?" Rainbow asked.

"Hey, I'm a doctor, not an engineer."

"Come on! You've helped us this far! Could you at least lend some sound—"

"Shhh!" Crimson hissed. He gazed into the shadows in thought. Eventually, his eyes wandered over to Tweak.

Tweak glanced back, his shiny face tensed with mixed worry and curiosity.

Crimson took a deep breath and said, "Let's give it a shot."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash spun towards him, frowning. "Dude, I just reunited with you! I'm not about to let you go all imploding cranium on me—"

"I don't remember putting this up to a vote!" Crimson suddenly growled, silencing Rainbow in a heartbeat. He swiveled on three limbs and spoke Tweak's way. "We're getting your brother out. You ready for this?"

Tweak took a deep breath and motioned the fellow crystal ponies to take position. "Boy, if you're ready to do this, I'm liable to marry you to my brother once we fetch him."

A Tangled Web

"You only need to lift the door halfway," Imre explained as she squatted before Crimson before the thick door. "Once you do, the locks will assume the door is opening naturally, and they'll go loose. The door should then glide loosely within its frame, and then even a dinky unicorn such as myself could blow on it and it'd open all the way. Got it?"

"Yes," Crimson stated, gazing firmly at the door as he nodded.

"Do you have any questions?"

"Just one," he droned. "Will this hurt?"

Imre raised an eyebrow. "Lying to you would be like trying to spit into the wind, I bet. Yeah, it'll sting something awful, assuming your synaptic pathways can handle it. But you stallions are used to pain, aren't you?"

Crimson managed the slightest hint of a smirk. "I think you've gotten the wrong idea about stallions, miss."

"I've been in this spark-forsaken Hold for too long."

"Let's amend that, shall we?" Crimson brushed her aside so that he could have full access to the door. "After I do my little living lockpick trick." He glanced to the left. "Tweak?"

"Just about charged up here, buddy," Tweak said. "Any second thoughts?"

"Second thoughts? I'm already fumbling with my fifth and sixth. Just do it already."

"Very well." Tweak turned towards the seven other stallions. "Boys? We'd better make this count."

They nodded back at him.

Tweak trotted over and stood in the center of the line of crystal ponies. "I've never been much for dazzlement, but I'll give it a shot."

"So long as you give it a shot through me." Crimson tilted his head back so that his horn pointed towards the low ceiling of the chamber like a lightning rod. "Light 'er up."

"Lighting..." Tweak closed his eyes and concentrated. A low glow swam through his body.

Rainbow Dash was figeting the entire time. She glanced between Crimson, waiting at the door, and Tweak's line of stallions. Soon, her vision was growing foggy. Dizziness overwhelmed her, but the usual shivers and convulsions that came with her chaotic affliction were nowhere to be found. This was an entirely different phenomenon, and she nearly stumbled to her belly from the intensity of it. Ironically, it was Imre who caught her, sharing a weary glance with the pegasus. Rainbow Dash could see from the look in Imre's face that she understood what was going on, but she was no less affected than Rainbow Dash. Cautiously, the two huddled in the corner of the place, watching through their dizziness as the glow from within Tweak and his fellow stallions increased gradually, like a lighthouse being lit.

Eventually, the luminescence was also accompanied by a noise. A low hum resonated throughout the place, building up like a deep bass drum being vibrated from within. The metal panels along the wall rattled. The dangling cables overhead swayed. Before Rainbow's and Imre's vision could go out, the light finally pulsed out from Tweak, spreading in two directions. The glow zapped in two directions at once, spreading through the bodies of the stallions on either side of him. Then the energy bounced back, converging within Tweak's figure, and reaching a climatic strobe as he lunged forward.

"Alley oop!" He managed to sharl as a wave of light in the shape of his body surged forward. It immediately connected to a leyline that twisted it about, shrunk it into a pinpoint beam, and channeled it directly into Crimson's horn.

When Crimson absorbed the energy beam, his body nearly fell forward. His muscles took over, however, and suddenly he was standing upright, his horn glowing brighter than the sun.

Rainbow Dash and Imre had to squint towards him to so much as see what transpired next.

With a prolonged growl, Crimson summoned the strength to tilt his horn towards the door. Webs of light swam out from his skull, covering every inch of the frame before him. The door shook, vibrated, but it didn't budge.

Tweak almost galloped towards him, but two of his stallions held him back, shouting something beneath the noise.

Sure enough, the door started glowing even brighter. With a solid jerk, it lifted straight up. Hot air wafted out, sparkling with electricity that was brimming on the other side. There was a snapping sound—like that of metal braces being shattered. The door slid all the way up with ease, followed by a web of sparks dancing between the frame.

Having seen his task done, Crimson smiled—but that expression was something covered in drool. The eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell back in a meaty slump.

The dizziness had cleared along with the light, allowing Rainbow Dash the strength to rocket over towards him. She caught his fall, embracing him like an oversized colt.

"Hey... Hey there!" She shouted, sputtered through her helmet. "Crimson! Say something, dude!"

He was mute, lying in her grasp like a limp ponnyquin.

"For real, now! Give a shout! A war cry! A belch! Darn it, speak to me!"

"I would give him time, Rainbow," Imre said, trotting over at their sides. "His horn is still hot red. I'd be surprised if he could hear anything."

"Does that mean he's just asleep?" Rainbow Dash stammered.

"Yes." Imre blinked, then shrugged. "Or that the neurons no longer have a path to run between his ears and his brain. The same could be said about the rest of his spine and his involuntary body functions—"

"Celestia on a unicycle!" Rainbow Dash frowned. "Where'd you learn your bedside manner?! At a taxadermist's?!"

"Everypony, quiet for one sec!" Tweak growled. With wide eyes, he trotted into the room beyond. Rainbow watched as the stallion's reflective coat glittered from the brilliance located within.

The Focus Chamber was a wide, circular thing, with a raised dais in the center that almost met a ring of suspended metal coming down from the ceiling. Positioned in the middle of the place, his body braced against four clasps, was an equine body glowing with otherworldly luminescence. Various wires, conduits, and coils were feeding off the energy pulsating from his body. He writhed in tiny, spasming motions, his head jerking from where it dangled perpetually.

"Bro...?" Tweak murmured, his twinkling eyes moistening slightly. With a deep breath, he funneled his features through a jagged frown, snarling, "We gotta get him down from there..."

"Don't just yank him out!" Imre shouted over the crackling electricity in the air. She and the other crystal pones trotted after Tweak, joining him along the inner fringes of the chamber. "With most of the Hold's systems on shutdown, there is no operating failsafe for if his energy output is completely severed!"

"And just how do you know so dayum much about what's being done to him?!" Tweak flashed the unicorn a frown. "Huh?! Did you put him in this thing?! Were you his keeper?"

"Tweak..." Another stallion rested his hoof on Tweak's shoulder. "Ever since the metal mares dragged us here from Aurum and abroad, she's the only one who's showed us mercy."

"She's given us medicine to ease the p-pain of the mares putting us in that thing," another added.

"She's kept samples of our blood in case we needed them later." A stallion managed a weak smile. "Hate her all you want, but I don't think she wants to be here anymore than we do."

Tweak looked at them all. He sighed, then glanced dully over at Imre. "Any truth to what they're saying?"

"For what it's worth," Imre droned. "Look. Ages ago, I made an oath, and I've stuck as true to that oath as much as I can. If you ponies, mares, stallions, pineapples, whatever want to kill each other so bad, I don't care. Do it on your own time. I like to stay away from murder as much as I can. I was born into it, and I'm totally not a huge fan." Imre shrugged. "I just patch ponies together when they're brought to me cuz that's all I'm good at. As for the blood of crystal stallions—"

"Hey, uh... as much as I like us all getting buddy buddy..." Rainbow Dash spoke as she dragged Crimson's limp body into the edge of the chamber. "What say we save the reunion until later?" She looked aside. "Tweak... hey, yo... army guy." She motioned towards the glowing figure. "What are you waiting for?"

"But I thought your unicorn friend just said—"

"First off, I'm not her friend," Imre said, summoning a distant eye-roll from Rainbow Dash. "Second, she's right."

"About what?"

"At this point, it'll take a crystal pony to remove a crystal pony in flux from the pedestal," Imre said. "Are you two really brothers?"

Tweak looked once more at the glowing figure. He shuddered and said, "Yes..."

"Then you should be most acclimated to the resulting energy discharge when he's removed."

"Meaning...?"

"Move your lazy flank and get him off the pedestal already!" Imre growled. Then, with a sigh, she said, "But do it gently..."

Tweak took a deep breath. He trotted up to the pedestal. He braced one hoof against the glowing figure, then a second. Instantly, the coursing energy passed into him as well. He grunted from the overloading sensation, but nevertheless absorbed the flow. With concentrated poise, he literally hugged the stallion, allowing the glow to pass into his own body. He yanked with one fluid motion, snapping the bonds free. Soon, both ponies were sprawling out over the floor. The entire body of Searo's Hold shuddered as if a bomg had gone off—or maybe the opposite. Whatever the case, the glow inside the chamber dissipated, casting everypony into darkness.

Rainbow Dash saw nothing. All she heard was the sound of her own breathing. "Did we do it?" she stammered, still holding onto Crimson's limp body. "Is he out?"

"Brother..." Light returned to the chamber, this time emanating from the crystal ponies within the room. Rainbow Dash looked over to see Tweak kneeling beside the spasming body of the pony that had been rescued from the focus point of the room. The stallions' glow cast a dim spotlight on the reunited pair. "Can you hear me? I've come to get you out of here."

"Tw-Tweak...?" Lucky Strike wheezed, reaching a trembling hoof up to brush against the stallion's chin. "I had a dream that you and I m-met again..." He gulped, then narrowed his weary eyes. "You were a lot taller..."

Tweak cracked a smile. Clearing his throat so that his voice was steady, he pulled Lucky up by his shoulders. "I've found some friends, brother. Some nice... s-selfless friends who were willing to help me get you out of here... to get everypony out of here..."

"I... I don't understand, Tweak." Lucky gulped and murmured, "How long was I in there? Why is it so dark?"

"Save the questions for later," Tweak said. Pivoting about, he hobbled with Lucky swiftly towards the entrance to the chamber. "We've got a manaship to catch, and tons of flanks to kick between here and—"

"Hckkkkkt!" Lady Pestiferous' masked face loomed in the stallions' way.

"Jeez!" Tweak fell back with Lucky, shielding the gasping sibling as he scooted the two of them frantically away from the looming skeleton of a mare.

Pestiferous's filmy eyes narrowed menacingly. Like a spider returning to the nest, she slithered the rest of the way through the entrance, flanked by four mares stripped to their bare, essential armor. The quartet of guards trained their spears on the herd of trembling escapees as the bloody Top Spear of Searo's Hold took center stage.

"Robbersssssh... pillagersssssh... cowardssssssh...." She coughed, shook her bald, leprotic head, and pointed a pronged hoofpiece towards the assembled group. "I ssssshent my best sssssshisters and daughterssssssh to the hangar to dispossssshe of the invassssshion. I sssssshould have known that everypony of true malice and deceit would be down here...."

"By the spark..." Tweak narrowed his eyes. "What in blazes are you?"

"The righteousssssssh mare who will be eating your bowelsssssh tonight, you insipid breeder." With a scrape of metal hoof-claws, she pointed her spindly limb to the center dais. "Put... the sssssshtallion... back..."

Tweak stood bravely before Lucky Strike, glaring up at the monstrous matriarch. "Not on your ass-backwards life." He shouted over his shoulder. "Brothers!"

All at once, the crystal ponies glowed brightly, casting their energy all about the room.

The four guard ponies reeled in dizziness, yet maintained their position.

Lady Pestiferous, however, crawled further towards the stallions, undaunted. With a swipe of her forelimb, she effortlessly snatched Tweak off the ground and held him up with an opposable metal grip around the throat.

"Tweak!" Lucky Strike weakly shouted from the floor.

"Aaauchkkt!" Tweak hissed and dangled limply from the monstrous mare's grip. "But... b-but how...?"

"What flowsssssssh through your veinsssssh empowersssssh my prostheticsssssh...." Pestiferous vaporously breathed through her mask and into his face, causing him to cough and spit up bile. "I am immune to your ssssssshpineless ploysssssh..."

"The... th-the blood of cr-crystal ponies...?" Tweak hissed, tearing. He glanced down at Imre. "You... you b-bastard..."

Imre took a deep breath, frowning. "I either did what she wanted, or risked eating my own entrails while I was alive. What would you have done?"

"The courageous thing—Haaugh!" Tweak's breath left him as Pestiferous lifted him higher to the ceiling.

"You're a talkative one—Hckkkt!" Pestiferous snarled through her mask as she prepared a sparkling blade with her other forelimb. "I think I will carve you into a toy that will do me more pleasssssshure..."

With rocketing thunder, a blue blur swooped by and snatched Tweak out of her grip.

Pestiferous' diseased eyes blinked. "Buh?" She glanced down.

Rainbow Dash landed in a skid, depositing Tweak's coughing body besides his brothers. "Heh. Never thought I'd see the day where I'd enjoy being a buzzkill."

"Daughterssssh!" Pestiferous pointed at the "half-blade." "Tear her to shreds!"

The four mares ran forward, screaming.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and placed her hooves apart. As the guards approached her, she bucked one in the chest, flipped over her, kicked the skull of another, removed her helmet, used it to repeatedly pummel the cranium of the third, bucked her aside, and rocketed into the chest of the fourth. On burning thrusters, she slammed the gasping mare into the wall, kicked her in the gut, removed the spear with her mouth, and flung backwards across the room so that it collided into the skulls of the first two mares.

In less than fifteen seconds, all of the guards were completely grounded, groaning and curling up into pained fetal positions.

Tweak blinked as Lucky Strike helped him up to his hooves. "Huh... now that's what I called 'knocking 'em out.'"

Lucky glanced aside. "I love you, brother. But I also hate you."

"Heh—"

With an enormous thud, Pestiferous' limb landed in front of the two siblings. The stallions ran aside as the Top Spear stood tall, glaring down at Rainbow Dash. "Hckkkt—Imposssssshible! The enemies' energy pulsssssshes should have paralyzed your paltry armor!" Pestiferous' sickly eyes narrowed. "Unlesssssh..."

"That's right!" Rainbow Dash smirked devilishly. "I bet you didn't count on the fact that I... that I..." She fidgeted, then muttered, "Just how am I doing this, anyway?"

"Not all of the stallions blood went to Pestiferous."

Everypony glanced over at Imre.

She took a breath and muttered, "I stashed some away. And, with the help of a persistent friend, made good use of it elsewhere."

Rainbow Dash blinked. She glanced down at her armor, her mouth agape.

"You..." Pestiferous hissed through her mask. "Snkkkkt—You are a disssssshgrace to the womb of Sssssshearo..."

Imre's lips showed the hint of a smirk. "I don't think anypony's given me a better compliment..."

"Hah!" Rainbow Dash pointed with a hoof. "Eat that with your parmesan cheese, ya overgrown mantis! Now, how about I squash you... for... good....?" She blinked awkwardly.

Pestiferous was stretching up, up, up, her body tilting at an angle so that she stood before the group like a gangly biped. "You think I haven't anticipated treachery like thisssssh?! Hckkkkt—For yearssssssh, I knew a day like thissssssh would come! I did not become Top Sssssspear through politicsssssh and pretenssssshe!" Her torso quivered as rivulets of blood poured out of her pale ribs. "Hckkkkt—I am the murderer of motherssssh... the devourer of infantssssssh. Ssssshearo's anger empowersssssh me... ssssshtrengthenssssh me.... and now... it ssssssshall transsssshform me! Hckkkkkt!" Two crimson wounds splattered open along her sides as metal prongs slipped loose. Curtains of red juice poured out from her neck, arms, and legjoints. "And now... hckkkt—All blood sssssshall be one... in the crucible of wrath! Hraaaachkkkkt!"

Her head twisted to the left with a snapping joint. The metal ringlets spread apart, and soon her cranium was lunging forth like a viperhead at the end of a titanium serpent. The same happened between her leg joints causing her limbs to bloodily extend to four times the previous length. The titanium hooves converted to three-pronged feelers, armed with sharp claws and electrical nodes. At last, a pair of crab-like appendages ripped out of her ribcages, extending forward like feelers equipped with every barbed weapon imaginable.

With streams of vapor pouring out of her mask, Pestiferous clung to the walls of the chamber like a gigantic daddy-long-legs. She easily took up a third of the room, her body a quivering spectacle of bloodied metal stalks as she hovered ravenously above Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow gave her one lasting look and sighed. "Uh, yeah. Nope." She turned around and rocketed out of the room.

"Hckkkkt—Raaaauchkkkt!" Pestiferous scrambled after her, each scurrying limb producing sparks as they scraped across the floors and walls of the place. She threaded through the exit like a black widow sliding through a crevice, and soon Rainbow Dash was leading the clattering monstrosity away from the group of breathless stallions, up through the winding corridors of Searo's Hold and into the darkness beyond.

Mare of War

Rainbow Dash didn't want to look behind her, but she did. In mid-glide, she threw a glance past her burning thrusters. The pale face of an equine monstrosity glimmered like a pale white comet surging straight towards the pegasus. Lady Pestiferous' segmented limbs clambered across the thin walls of the passageway like the ravenous legs of a centipede. When she shrieked in rage, it sounded like a wall of bats nipping at Rainbow's dangling hooves.

"Guhh!" Rainbow looked ahead in time to veer past a line of pillars. "Less looking and more escaping. Hnnng!" Biting over a throng of levers, she darted to the right. She heard the tell-tale signs of stone masonry being smashed to bits as Pestiferous lunged after her at an unstoppable pace.

"Raaauchkkkt—I will make a vomit bassssshin out of your chesssssht cavity, runt!"

"Whew!" Rainbow whistled as she darted up a line of steep marble steps, ascending through the labyrinth of Searo's Hold. "They're always so chatty once they've transformed into horrible mutant boss freakaponies. Hmmf!"

She grabbed a pillar in the crook of her armored hoof, cut her thrusters, spun ninety degrees, kicked off, and shot off in a random direction down a stone cross-junction. She heard Pestiferous crashing through the structure behind her, but a wave of bricks fell down, blocking all line of sight.

After a full minute of flying impeded through the thundering bosom of the metal mares' lair, Rainbow Dash slowed her rocketed flight to a gentle hover. She burst through the doors to a broad, torch-lit feast hall. The walls were lined with totems, mounted heads of big game, and a dented array of battered trophies. Not taking time to sight-see, Rainbow spun around, slammed the doors close, and kicked a pair of torch stands down to seal the passageway shut.

Cutting her thrusters, Rainbow Dash landed and backtrotted towards the center of the chamber. Her armor rattled as she panted to catch her breath.

"Okay... okay..." She gulped and readjusted her partially shattered helmet. "No time to panic. The good news is that I got her away from Crimson, Imre, and the rest. Maybe they'll find their way to the surface. And I..."

She spun around, blinking at the abandoned feast table.

"Horseapples, I could eat a... a... well, myself, I guess."

Shuddering, she spun once more to face the door. "Right. Not now. Gotta think. Think..." She rapped her skull several times with a metal horseshoe. "Beating her up until she gives up isn't gonna cut it. She's... like... if a cemetery and a giant scorpion had a love child." Rainbow gulped. "Plus, the crystal ponies' glowy stuff had no effect on her, thanks to Imre." She blinked a few times, then glanced down at her own suit. "If this armor is powered by the same blood juice stuff, and it's battered to heck, then maybe she has a similar weakness—?"

"Hraaaaaauchkkt!" Pestiferous' hissing voice filled the room like a hurricane wind. This may have had something to do with the fact that she had just burst up through the rocky floor directly beneath Rainbow Dash a few milliseconds prior.

"Gaaah! Jeez!" Rainbow flounced and rolled away, dodging chunks of debris. "Okay, you do not get to make anymore awesome entrances!"

"Die!" Pestiferous howled, standing up like an ivory scarecrow and tossing a slab of marble at the pegasus.

Rainbow Dash flattened her armored body to the ground. The slab flew over her, spilling sparks as it scraped across the back of her suit. She tilted her head up and saw a bladed claw from Pestiferous' torso sailing at her. With a grunt, Rainbow Dash rolled over beneath the chamber's long wooden feasting table.

"Rhkkkkt!" Pestiferous flung two of her mutated prosthetics forward.

The table was smashed into three pieces. A plank of heavy oak fell on Rainbow. Lying on her back, she braced the thick board with all four hooves. Then, gritting her teeth over the helmet's levers, she fired a burst of thrusters. Her body and her legs flew up, uppercutting Pestiferous across her masked face.

"Graaaughkt!" Pestiferous' mask rocked off center. She wheezed, hissed, and straightened the apparatus with a metal claw. Growling, she turned her left torso feeler into a buzz saw and lunged it at Rainbow.

Rainbow backflipped, landed in a slide, and dashed left-and-right to avoid the lunges. When Pestiferous stabbed too low with the saw, Rainbow clamped the weapon's limb to the ground with her hooves, held her breath, and galloped up the length of it. She jumped high, bravely clasped all fours over Pestiferous' elongated neck, and pummeled the Top Spear several times in the pale skull with her forelimbs. "Nnngh! Ghhh! Raaugh!"

"Haaaaauuchk!" Pestiferous lifted her left forelimb and clamped it over Rainbow's neck. "That wasssssh daring, my little pony, but you will have to do better than—"

Rainbow blew a pair of thrusters straight out her horseshoes.

"Aaaaugh!" Pestiferous neck bent a ridiculous forty-five degrees backwards from the blow. She let go of Rainbow.

Before she could fall to the ground, Rainbow fired half of her thrusters so that her body delivered a spinning roundhouse to Pestiferous' chest.

"Raaauchkt!" Pestiferous spun all the way around. Her twitching spine was exposed. Rainbow Dash landed, held her breath, and galloped furiously towards her—only to be blindly punched across the face by the metal mare's rear limb.

"Ooof!" Rainbow flew back, pinballed off a pillar, and slammed against a wall. A throng of jaded weapons and southern Ledomaritan heirlooms clattered across the torchlit ground around her. "Unnngh... Darn it..." She snarled, getting up on aching, wobbling limbs. "I did not fly halfway across the frickin' world to be done in by an asthmatic pony in a spider suit!"

With a banshee scream, Pestiferous protruded an antenna suddenly from her spine. Dripping with processed crystal pony blood, it pivoted around, glowed a hot green, and fired a volley of mana energy at the pegasus.

Rainbow Dash's eyes darted to her right. She saw a worn shield lying by her side. Rainbow picked it up in an instant. Her body curled up behind it as she held the object towards Pestiferous. The stream of manafire bounced and ricocheted off the buckler, filling Rainbow's ears with endless clatter. Then, as swiftly as the noise began, it ended. Rainbow bravely peaked around the edge of the disc.

Her vision filled with Pestiferous' charging form. "Yaaaauhhhckkt!" Pestiferous kicked her rear leg up, smashing the shield completely in two.

Rainbow Dash flew off like a hoofball, spinning several times. By the time she reached the far wall, however, she had gotten her bearings. She landed in a horizontal squat against the wall. Her peripheral vision caught two thick iron swords hanging on either side of her. Without a second thought, she gripped them in the crook of her hooves.

Pestiferous was thundering towards her yet again—

Summoning a snarl, Rainbow Dash activated her thrusters. She kicked off the wall, melting a brown scorch mark into the surface. Flying at the speed of screams, she barreled directly towards the Top Spear.

The mutated pony swung both forelimbs.

Rainbow Dash spun, expertly twirling through the violent attack, as well as past the two torso limbs beyond. She landed on Pestiferous chest, her snarl culminating into a beserker scream. Mercilessly, she slammed both swords—one blade after another—left and right across Pestiferous rock-hard cranium.

The leader of the metal mares reeled back from the relentless bludgeoning. Not once did Rainbow cut off her thrusters; her armored body shoved the two of them back, back, back and through a wall of the room. They smashed through the flimsy brick and mortar, their grappling bodies plunging down into the depths of a large Searonese armory below.

Sorry, Wrong Armory

Pestiferous couldn't find room to hiss; her face was full of pegasus.

The mutated mare's skull spun left and right from each blow of Rainbow's dual blades. Grunting and snarling, Rainbow Dash viciously punished her the entire time they collectively fell. Soon, they were plunging into the center of the dense armory, crashing through racks of spears, shields, and blades. Pestiferous' metal-laced body formed a crater. Rainbow's body...

She was propelled off of Pestiferous and into a backwards cannonball. Firing her thrusters, Rainbow managed to even herself out at the last second. She hovered in reverse, panting, staring at rising dust from Pestiferous' landing. After several breaths in time, there was no movement from her foe. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground with a relaxed sigh—

"Hraaaauckht!" Pestiferous lunged at Rainbow Dash, scurrying upside down across the floor like a gigantic spider crab.

Rainbow positively squeaked and raised her dull swords in front of her.

With one back-hoofk, Pestiferous shattered the blades to bits. Her metal forelimb knocked Rainbow up high.

Rainbow Dash twirled towards the ceiling. Through the corner of her vision, she caught several flickering manalights. Reaching her hoof out, she hooked her forelimb around what turned out to be a metal chandelier. Her momentum carried her in a full swing, and soon she was looping back on the light fixture. With the aid of her suit's rockets, she sailed straight back down at Pestiferous in a murderous drop-kick. "Yaaaaaaa—"

Pestiferous merely gabbed her in a pair of torso-pinchers and body-slammed Rainbow to the ground.

"Ufff!" Rainbow lost the wind from her lungs. "Figured," she sputtered, then gasped to see the sharp elbows of Pestiferous' segmented forelimbs sailing down at her. Rainbow fired her thrusters, lifted up in time to dodge the attack, and twisted in a circle, all the while maintaining a vice-like grip on Pestiferous' torso prosthetics. With a sickening snap, Rainbow successfully ripped the metal feelers from the Top Spear's armored body.

"Graaaaughkkkt!" Pestiferous stumbled backwards, her armor leaking precious crystal pony blood from deep cavities within the chestpiece.

Rainbow Dash saw it. She glanced down at the twitching pinchers in her grasp. With a grunt, she dove at Pestiferous and attempted to shove the metallic claws into the open gashes.

Pestiferous kneed Rainbow in the chest with a rising leg joint. She then gripped Rainbow by the back of her armor, suplexed her twice against the floor, and flung her—snarling—towards a pile of stacked armor along the edge of the room.

With a voice cracking yell, Rainbow Dash disappeared into the mountain of bucklers and armored plates. After a few seconds, she burst out the other side with a shield aimed directly at Pestiferous' skull.

"Hckkkt—Aaaugh!" Pestiferous stumbled back as Rainbow slammed the disc repeatedly across the metal mare's skull at the full force of her rocketing glide. The pegasus finished with a sweep of Pestiferous' lower legs. The Top Spear fell back onto the floor, writhing like an enormous cockroach. Rainbow hadn't stopped; she was busy yanking Pestiferous rear leg up, hoisting it over to her damaged chest, and jabbing the hooked end of the limb straight into the exposed bit of armor.

Pestiferous let loose a long, wailing yell into her mask. Seeing red, she slapped Rainbow off her and hoisted her antenna from the back of her neck. The manarifle mounted to the nozzle twisted, turned, and fired a steady stream of green energy at the nimble figure.

Rainbow flew wide around the room, her ears twitching at the sound of the bright emerald laser eating into the tables, walls, weapon racks, and lockers of the armory surrounding them. By the time the laser chased Rainbow's circling figure into a line of mana-cores, an enormous explosion rocked the dim interior of Searo's Hold.

"Rrrrghh!" Pestiferous stumbled up to her hooves, wheezing into the spread of dust and embers. She squinted, for a bright gray light was wafting in from the side of the room that had exploded.

Rainbow saw it too; and she gasped. A chunk of the outside world shimmered in all its liberating glory. The Top Spear had unwittingly blown a hole open in the belly of Searo's Hold. "Sweet! It was a nice party and all, paleface, but I gotta jet!" Rainbow throttled towards the hazy opening looming before her...

...at least before Pestiferous' gangly body landed with a threatening thud before her, blocking Rainbow's way. "Not today, coward!" She lifted one foot directly in Rainbow's face.

With a metallic clang, Rainbow Dash fell hard and ground into the floor. One of Pestiferous metal appendages came down on the pegasus hard, gripping her with titanic strength. Rainbow hissed and winced for breath as she was raised high before the sickly mare's looming gaze.

"All you've had on your sssssshide hasssssh been luck..." Pestiferous mucousy eyes narrowed as she grumbled. "If it weren't for poniessssssh like you, thissssssh world would know perfection. It would know the unforgiving thirsssssssht for blood..."

"Nnnngh..." Rainbow Dash's face grimace beneath her helmet. "You talk big for an oversized tick..."

"I sssssshall cleansssshe Searo's country of poniesssssh too frail to bring the goddesssssh true glory..." In one swift motion, Pestiferous yanked Rainbow's mask off, exposed her prismatic cranium, and aimed the manarifle of her antenna between the pegasus' ruby eyes. "Starting with you..."

"Heh..." Rainbow grinned devilishly in spite of her strain. "Go on. Take the shot... if you're mare enough..."

Pestiferous' eyes twitched. Nevertheless, she hissed, "A mossssssht curiousssssh runt. I will be thinking much of your wordsssssh long after I've eaten your heart." The rifle pulsed with bright emerald and fired.

Holding her breath, Rainbow Dash yanked her body backwards. She positioned herself so that the green laser flew entirely into the body of her pendant's ruby lightning bolt. The Element of Loyalty flickered all over with green, strobed, and fired the beam straight back out—this time laced with ruby energy.

"Graaa-aaauchkt!" Pestiferous shrieked, her face engulfed in righteous energy.

Rainbow's eyes flickered red-on-yellow for the briefest of moments. She overcame the dizziness in time to knock Pestiferous' limb off her body with otherworldly strength. Then, not pausing to breathe, she rocketed up to the back of Pestiferous head, mounted her shoulders, and wrestled for control of the antenna mounted manarifle. The Top Spear thrashed and roared underneath her; she fired the manarifle at random, hoping to blow a hole through the pegasus at point blank.

With a shout of her own for strength, Rainbow Dash managed to hoist the rifle so that it tilted away from her. The heavy laser carved a ravine through the floor of the armory, until it fatefully burned its way into the mana-powered helmet lying discarded on the floor. The device Imre had crafted for Rainbow overloaded, and much like the half-blade's armorpiece that Rainbow Dash had utilized in the arena, its mana conduits ruptured.

The resulting explosion blew the two ponies back, back, back, towards the light. Rainbow Dash gasped, for soon gravity was taking over. She tried to rocket away, but Pestiferous' angry limbs were getting tangled with hers. All of the sudden, the two fell out the gash of Searo's Hold in a heap of metal and flesh, plummeting towards the snow-pelted ravine that loomed far below.

Ticket to Ride

"It should be just past this corridor!" Tweak shouted, galloping as swiftly as he could up a steep line of granite steps. The glow of his body and all the crystal ponies running behind him lit up the dim corridor with shimmering luminescence. "Stay close! If we run into any bounty hunters, stand behind me and I'll reduce them to smoldering shrapnel!"

"Unngh..." Crimson stumbled once or twice, fighting a wave of dizziness as he struggled to take up the rear. "This would be a lot easier without the nausea..."

He felt a gentle tug of telekinesis. Looking to his side, he saw Imre giving him a boost as she ran alongside the group.

"It's the crystal ponies' mana interference with your horn's leylines," she droned. "You're likely to feel a great deal of dizziness and discomfort—"

"Yes, yes. I'm well acquainted with all of that, thanks." Crimson picked up the pace, hobbling up the stairs on three limbs and a splintery prosthetic. "You seem to be doing very well for yourself."

"I'm used to it. I've treated most of these ponies, remember? Still..." She glanced behind her flank in mid sprint.

Crimson looked back at her. He said, "What is it? Are we forgetting something?"

Imre shuddered. "Rainbow Dash is battling Lady Pestiferous all on her own..."

"She can handle that freak," Crimson said. "I've seen the pegasus in action. She's a tough cookie."

"You make it sound sweet that she's likely bleeding out her frickin' guts to save our flanks."

"Beneath all of the butt-kicking and the guile, you bet it's sweet. I've seen it—the way she dives after her friends..."

"Friends?"

"Look, we all have something worth getting out of here for," Crimson grunted. "Most of us, at least." He gave her a sideways glance. "You aren't... worried, are you?"

Imre stared back at him, blinked, then muttered, "Don't be ridiculous. Rainbow Dash is all that stands between us and the Top Spear of Searo's Hold."

"Hmmph..." Crimson smirked tiredly, facing ahead as he continued his gallop. "You may have been locked away in this place Spark knows how long, but your blood isn't nearly as cold as the rest of the mares."

"You wanna put that to the test—?"

"Shhhh!" Tweak hissed. "Shut your traps, everypony! We're almost there!"

As the group arrived at the top of the ascending corridor, the thunderous noise of manafire exchange and explosions lit the air. Tweak peaked out onto the hangar, his breaths coming and going in little spurts. At last, he smiled and hoarsely whispered back to the group.

"Guess what! Our posse is still there! As well as the ship! Boy, do I know how to pick the right stuff..."

"Sounds like a party out there," Crimson uttered. "How many mares have shown up?"

"I'm guessing a dozen. They're all bunched up along the south end of the hangar. My boys have them pinned down with rifle fire."

"I know the metal mares around here are meatheaded," Imre said, poking her head into the group of stallions. "But they're not exactly mindless drones. If so many of them are holed up in one spot, it only means another group is either trying to attack your friends' flank or utilize a secret weapon."

"Tweak?" Crimson looked over. "What do you think? Should we risk it?"

Tweak took a deep breath. He glanced over his shoulder at Lucky Strike leaning against another stallion. "I certainly didn't come all this way to do figure skating." He turned and looked at Crimson. "I'll run out first and draw their fire. You and Miss Sunshine there cover these stallions with your magic while they make a break for the manaship. I'll come up the rear."

Imre frowned. "I don't recall enlisting in your little battallion here."

"Yeah, and I don't remember gutting your bowels with a fork!" Tweak shouted in her face. "But everything's subject to change, now isn't it, cupcake?!"

"Hmmph..." Imre crossed her forelimbs indignantly.

"I got it, Tweak," Crimson calmly said, charging up his horn. "I'll get your stallions to safety. Now... after you..."

"Be careful, brother," Lucky Strike nervously insisted.

"I never am..." Tweak charged his manarifle, held his breath, then charged ravenously out into the open floor of the rubble-strewn hangar. "Yaaaaaaaaaaah! Eat mana, you crud sponges!" The sound of his shouts were absorbed by the utter cacophony of his rapidly firing rifle. Streams of energy ate their way across the open room, knocking several mares off their flanks and backing them even further behind the flimsy line of defense they had erected besides the distant entrance ot the place.

In the meantime, Crimson was galloping forward, positioning himself between the many stallions making a run for the crystal ponies defending Aeterna's manaship. He erected a force field of energy in time to deflect several metal mares' return volleys. At one point, his shield flickered, threatening to dissipate. In timely fashion, Imre galloped up and reinforced it with a flash of energy. Crimson sweatily smiled in gratitude, but Imre simply glared past him, gesturing for more stallions to make the crossing.

At last, Tweak's rifle burned red hot. The very barrel melted and fused shut; he had fired too many discharges within a span of thirty seconds. Cursing under his breath, he tossed the item down, swiveled about, and galloped towards the group while weaponfire exchanged back and forth over his twitching, crystalline ears.

"Alright! Let's lower our energy field and get the manaship to turn on again! I wanna get home in time for—"

Three smoking objects were suddenly lobbed over his head. He skidded to a stop, gasped, and shouted, "Bombs! Get down!"

Crimson and his fellow ponies looked up. Three large, fragmentary explosives—with fully lit, sparkling fuses—rattled to a stop between them and the escape craft. He gritted his teeth and summoned a force field just in time.

The resulting explosion made everypony's ears ring. Bits of shrapnel flew in every direction. Half of them splashed violently against Crimson's energy barrier. The other half flew murderously into Aeterna's manaship. The ship shattered in many places. At last, the manacore ruptured, and the vessel went up in a huge fireball that heated up the entire hangar.

"Nnngh—Gaah!" Crimson hissed as steam rose from his coat. He fell back, only for Imre and a crystal pony to embrace him. They slid him away from the wreckage and towards the suddenly helpless group of escapees.

Tweak, dumbfounded, spun around. He spotted a hole that had been freshly blasted only ten meters away. Standing in the fresh gap of sundered rock was Terra, along with three other mares. Though their armor and gadgetry were dormant from the crystal ponies' aura, it didn't stop them from brandishing several primitive fuse bombs and a miniature catapult mechanism.

"I'm sorry, was that your ticket out of here?" Terra's meaty face grinned within the metal brace of her helmet piece. "Well, it looks like I've found you another ticket that's faster..." Her eyes narrowed. "And bloodier."

And her fellow warriors loaded new bombs into the catapult...

Dash Ex Machina

At about that same time, or at least a few minutes earlier, Rainbow Dash was spitting out her own blood. This came at the end of a nasty tumble she made across the edge of a steep cliff covered in pebbles and frost. Quivering, she tried pulling herself up on four limbs, but ultimately slumped back down with a groan.

All the while, Lady Pestiferous lurched towards her on creaking, groaning spider legs. Her metal limbs were covered all over in scrapes and scuff marks from the joint roll down the mountainside that both mares had endured. Vapor vented from her mask and mixed streams of mana energy and crystal pony blood leaked from her battered armor.

"It hassssssssh taken every resssssshource that I have left, but I shhhhhall end you, outssssshider..." Her eyes narrowed. "And it shall be a good death."

"Frickin' wake up, Lady!" Rainbow Dash spat, snarling up at her. "You've already lost! Your body, the Hold, all of your so-called 'daughters in blood!' They're all gone!" At last, Rainbow got up on shivering limbs in the cold mountain air. "They were gone long before you went overboard with all of this vengeful, bloodlusting nonsense!"

"You think I haven't planned for my end?!" Pestiferous raised a glistening forelimb in the snowy air. "I have—Hckkkt!!—whittled away the rubbissssh and narrowed it down to the only mare capable of carrying on my legacy..."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Roarke?" Pestiferous' limb clamped over her, shoving her hard against the clifface. "Aaaugh! Nnngh... nutsauce..."

"Roarke may be a rarity..." The Top Spear leaned her frail head over, practically spitting onto the limb-locked pegasus. "But her loyalty is questionable..."

Rainbow merely twitched. "Oh r-really?"

"Ssssshearo's legacy must run on a true warrior's sssssshpirit, not the guile of a pony who reliessssssh on cunning and deception alone..."

"Deception?" Rainbow winced. "For cr-crying out loud, lady! That 'Terra' mare will backstab you the first instance she gets!"

"And after ssssssshe doessssh, she will be true to her sssssshisters and they will be true to her. Of thisssssssh, I am convinced. I have seen the roots of loyalty in her heart..."

"Th-that thing you call a heart...?" Rainbow spat. "It's really nothing but a huge, throbbing ego!" She gulped and wheezed forth, "At least Roarke would turn your daughters into something reasonable—"

"Raaaughkkt!" Pestiferous raised Rainbow high, clamping the ends of both forelimbs over her throat as the metal mare stood up on the mountainside like an enormous tree sloth. "Roarke would poissssshon the legacy of Sssssshearo with emotionsssh and pretenssssshe! What does sssssssshe posssssssshess that could possibly improve the might of my sssssshisters and daughterssssssh?!"

Dangling, Rainbow Dash nevertheless managed tos putter, "She's kind... and sh-she's generous... even when she doesn't want to be..." Rainbow's eyes rolled back, but she fought for the strength to speak some more. "You see, ya big rusted cicada, loyalty isn't everything." She glared at the Top Spear. "Especially when dealing with a huge walking turd like you..."

Pestiferous' slimy eyes narrowed. After a wheezing cough, she tightened her grip on Rainbow's neck. "Ssssssshince you are such an expert on excrement, let ussssssh see you ssssssplatter like it!" With that said, she let out a grotesque yell and flung Rainbow deep into the valley beyond the cliff.

Rainbow Dash disappeared below, her warbling cry dwindling in the snowy vacuum between mountain peaks.

The Top Spear took a deep breath, as if having relieved herself of an enormous burden. She turned to scurry back up the rocky mountainside and return to Searo's Hold. Just then, a thunderous noise rumbled through the air. Vexxed, Lady Pestiferous spun around. She had to squint in the resulting flurry of snow and frost that was being kicked into her face.

Rainbow Dash was levitating back up, though none of her limbs were moving. Then, directly beneath her, there lifted the glistening body of Roarke's manaship. The pegasus stood perched on the top of the bounty hunter's vessel as it levitated off the clifface, hovering evenly with Pestiferous' form.

The mutated mare's eyes twitched.

Rainbow Dash blinked. With a goofy blue smile, she gave a prolonged shrug.

A loud thud rolled across the mountain as Pestiferous slumped limply to her metal haunches. "Hckkkt!" Her head and torso hung in a slump. "At leasssssht it wassssshn't from a breeder in bed...."

Two massive mana cannons extended from the bow of the ship.

Rainbow Dash saluted.

Then the air filled with thunder and shrapnel.

Bleed No More

"You really think you can take us all out with those?!" Tweak snarled across the battle-torn hangar at Terra and her fellow metal mares. With a swift twitch of his crystalline forelimbs, he charged more energy into his manarifle and took aim at the bounty hunters with their supply of fuse bombs. "The next one you launch will be your last—"

"At ease, Tweak," Crimson said, touching his shoulder with a calm hoof.

Tweak blinked aside at him. "Oh, don't go soft on me now! We have them—"

"And we have ourselves flying through the roof of this damn place if a single rifle blast sets off their whole arsenal." Crimson stepped ahead of his group while Tweak, Lucky Strike, Imre, and the rest looked on. "You can't harm us. You can't even come near us." He stood in place, his eyes narrowing on the line of angry mares caught in the standoff. "Not only can we shut down any and all of your tech, but we've removed your one reliable source of power. Face it. You're crippled."

"Hah!" Terra guffawed, pointing at his crutch with a metal hoof. "That's a fine statement coming from you!" She gripped two bombs and hissed across the hangar towards him. "This is your last chance, runt. Give yourselves up, or—"

"Or what?" Crimson frowned. "You risk blowing all of us to the Spark and beyond! You know this!"

"Certainly..." Terra's wide set of teeth grinned. "And to die in the preservation of Searo's honorable Hold would be an honorable way to end..."

"You can't be serious!" Crimson scoffed. He gestured towards the shattered walls of the place. "What do you stand to gain?! Is your pride worth destroying everything you've ever worked to accomplish?"

"They... uhm..." Imre fidgeted from behind Crimson. She leaned forward and muttered, "They'll totally do it. We're all good as dead."

"Brother..." Lucky Strike looked over at Tweak. "We need to get out of here."

Tweak gulped and gave Crimson an anxious glance. "Boy, you'd best switch your diplomacy gland for your soldier's gland really dayum quick."

"Let us leave," Crimson repeated. "Allow these crystal ponies to return home and never bother them again. They were never yours to begin with, and yet you kidnapped and assaulted them like they were lower than livestock. That is not a warrior's way of life. If that's what your leader's been teaching you all this time, then no wonder she's so diseased—"

"Quiet, breeder!" Terra spat, the veins showing in her massive cranium. "Breeders, all of you!" She pivoted and pointed at Imre. "That includes you, you festering pile of ungrateful slime! Roarke was once an awesome pony! A mare who demanded respect! After lugging your pathetic flank back from the warzone, she's gone completely crazy! And now look what her pretentiousness has done! It's poisoned the glory of the Goddess Searo!"

"Don't knock it until you've tried it, princess," Imre droned.

"There is only one way out of here!" Terra lit both bombs. "And that is the way of blood!" With a yell, she spun and tossed both explosives up high.

Tweak hissed, "Crimson—!"

"On it!" Crimson grunted, already channeling magic through his horn. But it was far too late, and the explosives were descending towards the group of crystalline victims—

A pair of black metal cables flew in from the outside world, lassoed the bombs, and just as swiftly yanked them into the sunlight. They fell towards the mountainous space beyond, exploding in thunderous bursts of shrapnel. In their wake, a slender vessel glided in. A blue pegasus with prismatic mane hair stood perched on the hull of the manaship like a surfboarder.

"Rainbow Dash..." Crimson breathlessly stammered, his eyes wide.

"Yeesh," Tweak remarked. "She's even fruitier in the daylight."

Imre glanced over. "I'm sure she's glad you're so thankful..."

"What in Searo's name...?!" Terra stammered, the blood vessels in her eyeballs threatening to burst. The metal mares beside her backtrotted with uncertainty as the vessel hovered to stop along the edge of the hangar. "Impossible! What is that thing running on?!"

"Awesomeness with a side of pickles." Rainbow Dash plopped down on battered horseshoes, shaking off the bruises and scabs of battle. "But mostly awesomeness."

As if on cue, the long side door to the manaship slid open, and Roarke hovered out on roaring thrusters. She landed besides Rainbow Dash, unfolding her helmet to reveal a pair of lenses over a tight frown. "The same material that flows through our armor also laces the manacore of my vessel. Thanks to processed crystal pony blood, my tech is immune to the same power shortages that have rendered you all so useless."

"Pffft!" Terra slapped the ground with her hooves and barked, "Well, of course it does! And just how did you—oh loyal Roarke most Rare—acquire such a precious resource?!"

"The way that you and all of our other sisters didn't," Roarke retorted. "I asked." She glanced over at Imre. "I knew there might be a time when Pestiferous' latest expenditure would explode in her face, and I would need a way to cover my flank. So, I took the precautions to do just that." She glared back in Terra's direction. "Just like any sensible metal mare would."

"Fat chance!" Terra roared. "You planned this from the start, you traitor!"

"Oh, if only things were that righteously true."

"The Top Spear will see to it that you get pulled apart, tendon by tendon!" Terra spat. "Once Pestiferous knows that you kept us from murdering these cowards—"

"I doubt she'll be in the mood to do anything but feed worms," Roarke said.

The metal mares all did massive double takes. "Huh?!" Terra stammered.

"Here..." Rainbow Dash spoke up. She reached behind her and produced a large metal object. "Feast your eyes, bigshot." She tossed the item forward.

Pestiferous' blood-stained and soot-covered breathing mask rattled to a stop in front of the growing crowd of metal mares. The armor-bound warriors mutterd amidst each other in shock and dismay.

Terra's mouth hung open. She slowly shook her head, exhaling heavily. "No... This is surely a trick!"

"Like all the ones you tried pulling on us?" Roarke's lenses pistoned out as she marched slowly across the line of mares, glaring at each and every one of us. "Like a whiny younger sibling? With Pestiferous as your anchor?" She stopped to point back at Imre. "In an attempt to get at me through the ponies I've fought tooth and hoof to protect?" She swiveled and pointed back at Rainbow Dash. "Pretending that it was all just some impromptu exercise to test the might of my apprentice?" With nostrils flaring, Roarke stared directly at the line of warriors. "Well, your test failed. And my half-blade and I not only passed your stupid exam, we exceeded it. We grew beyond the boundaries of all the little ploys you tried dragging us through, and we eliminated the problem at the head."

"You..." Terra gnashed her teeth. "No, you can't be serious—"

Roarke slammed her hooves onto the ground and yelled with thunderous gusto. "I have slain the Top Spear!" She snarled like a canine to her shivering comrades of like spirit. "With the help of my Half-Blade, we cornered Lady Pestiferous when she was at her strongest, and we left her as nothing but a stain on this heartless mountain." Turning slowly, she gazed at Rainbow Dash as she quietly added, "Though she was our leader, and she once was strong, her time is now over. A new spear has been bloodied in her place."

Rainbow Dash stared back, biting her lip.

Meanwhile, a nervous commotion rose through the crowd of metal mares. The unquenchable anger had been drained from their faces as they exchanged shocked glances, murmuring with one another.

"Lady Pestiferous is dead!"

"She's truly dead!"

"Surely, she fought like a true warrior!"

"Against a High Blade and her apprentice combined!"

"The old spear is worn... a new pike is bloodied..."

"A new spear... with new blood for Searo..."

"Roarke... Roarke most Rare..."

"She is the blood-soaked spear! The Top Spear!"

"Lady Roarke, Top Spear of Searo!"

"The bloodiest spear!"

"What... What?!" Terra blinked several times. Then, with a prolonged snarl, she stomped her hooves and shouted at the group behind her. "No! No! Shut up this instant! Are you all stupid?!"

"Are you?!" Rainbow Dash remarked, summoning a surprised glance from Terra. Rainbow motioned with her head towards Roarke next to her. "You heard her! She offed that stinky spider crab you called a leader! She's the new top banana now! So, like, get her a throne and stuff. Just, y'know, clean off all the slime and crud first."

"This is outrageous!" Terra growled, pointing with a thick, metal-laced forelimb. "No conspiring coward of a pony should be allowed to become Top Spear!"

"Right." Roarke turned to stare coldly at Terra. "Which is precisely why you'll never have such a seat."

Rainbow Dash let loose a silent howl of laughter, covering her bruised mouth.

Crimson, Tweak, and the others glanced about nervously.

Terra could barely hear her own pounding heartbeat from the sound of excitedly chanting metal mares behind her. Her expression paled for a brief moment, but she fought it off by charging several trots ahead and shouting at the bounty hunter besides Rainbow. "Fine! If you're so insistent that you are now the Top Spear! Then I challenge you for the throne you so envy!"

"Pffft... as if I even want the throne." Roarke waved her off.

The hangar grew dead silent as Terra gasped yet again. "What?!"

Roarke made to walk away. "Besides, you're not even worth my breath. This wasn't my mess to begin with. You want to put the pieces of Searo's legacy back together? Do it on your own time. I need to fly somewhere... fly somewhere for a long while and think."

"Nnnngh—Always thinking! Always plotting! But when are you ever actually slaying?!" Terra snarled. "Some Top Spear you'd be! You can't even accept a challenge when it's given to you! You're a gutless, spineless coward!"

Every mare behind Terra winced.

Roarke took a deep, deep breath. She turned around, glaring.

Imre winced. "Ah, jeez..."

Crimson gave her a glance. "'Ah, jeez,' what?"

Imre said nothing. She watched as Roarke marched stormily towards Terra.

"Hey... uh..." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. "Nice speech and all, but can we get going with the whole 'fly away and think' business? Cuz I've found that to be not half as bad as it sounds—"

Roarke fiercely brushed the pegasus aside. She took a deep breath, then jerked her neck to the side. A pulse of light flickered through her armor. Then, with several successive spurts of steam, her armor peeled off, one plate at a time. Her helmet fell, followed by her shoulderblades, her spine clasps, and her flank bucklers. At last, the array of hydraulic wires popped loose from every plug running along the length of her body. She jumped out of the unfolded armor with a jingle of her mane's metal ringlets. With all of the Searonese layers of battle-sturdy alloy gone, Roarke looked bizarrely thin, almost even more petite than Rainbow Dash upon an initial glance.

The whole time, Terra and her fellow mares gawked at the display, especially as Roarke stepped into Terra's shadow, cracked her joints, and dragged a hoof along the battered hangar floor.

"Strip the armor or keep it," Roarke grunted, her lenses glinting as she glared up at the massive mare. "It will make no difference."

All of the other bounty hunters looked at Terra. After a fuming breath, Terra twisted her neck in a similar gesture. Her heavy plates of armor started falling off like the skin to a rusted blue onion. The ground shook with each layer of the stuff that collapsed.

"For the love of oats..." Tweak grumbled under his breath, holding up Lucky's weak figure. He cast a nervous glance towards the manaship. "We have no time for this—"

"Stuff it, shiny," Rainbow Dash said, suddenly standing by his side. "We so totally do have all the time for this."

Crimson watched curiously and Imre lethargically as Terra took several massive steps, looming above the far smaller equine with all of her muscular girth. She snapped the cricks in her joints and sneered at Roarke.

Roarke coiled her muscles tight. "What are you waiting for?" she deadpanned. "A kiss?"

Terra blinked. Then, with a building growl, she galloped straight for the mare. Her hoof flew... but struck nothing but floor.

This was because Roarke had jumped straight up. She bounced off Terra's forelimb, twirled, and bucked two hooves across the large pony's chin in midair.

Terra spat blood, summoning a ritualistic warcry or two from the other metal mares watching. Shaking the shock of the impact, she charged again, this time with more calculated poise. She swung several massive hooves, each time contacting nothing but hangar floor as Roarke leapt out of every blow, avoiding the chunks of concrete that flew her way.

With almost a dancing finesse, Roarke rolled to the side, somersaulted forward, galloped up Terra's ribcage, flipped, and came down with a drop kick across Terra's spine.

Terra grunted in annoyance. Her body lurched down, and in so doing her face was in the right spot to receive an uppercut from Roarke. Shaking the blow off, she lunged forward like a bear and grabbed Roarke's tiny body in a pair of massive forelimbs.

Rainbow Dash grimaced. She made to trot forward, but Imre was suddenly raising a hoof out, shaking her head. Rainbow Dash fidgeted from where she watched.

Roarke gritted her teeth as she felt the pressure of Terra's heavily muscled limbs squeezing around her. Then, with a massive spasm of her forward muscles, she slid two hooves up and slammed the opposite sides of Terra's jaw.

Terra immediately quivered all over from the surge of pain flying down her spine. As she was stunned, Roarke exhaled, contracted her chest, and slipped loosely from Terra's grasp. She rolled her back against the ground and bucked all four of her hooves against Terra's chest.

With a grunt, Terra leaned back on her rear limbs. Roarke took the opportunity to sweep one of Terra's legs out from under her. The massive pony fell to her right side, only to have her skull caught in the crook of Roarke's forelimbs and further accelerated into the ground.

Several metal mares winced. Others cheered and began a rhythmic chant for blood.

Roarke made no show of the matter. She kipped up from the body-slam, spun about, and bounced in a ready stance, glaring down at Terra.

Terra looked up at her, sweating up a storm. Soon, she broke into another frown, sliding away from Roarke.

The smaller warrior watched quietly as Terra got up and galloped towards a hunk of smoldering manaship parts.

Snarling, Terra picked up a large, sharp shard of metal. With a bloody shout, she charged Roarke from afar.

Roarke ducked the jab, side-stepped two more swings, then jumped back as Terra jabbed hard at the floor. The tip of the impromptu weapon dug into the concrete. Roarke planted her rear hooves against it, anchored it in place, and flung both hooves straight up, contacting Terra's nose. The larger pony jolted from the blow and her grip of the bludgeon loosened. In the same breath, Roarke gripped Terra's skull in two hooves and yanked back towards her. As a result, Terra's right cheek ripped down the whole length of the metallic shard.

"Aaaaugh!" Terra howled in pain, writhing on the floor as she clutched a hoof to the sudden, meaty gash in her large face.

Roarke calmly trotted over her, paused at her spine, and flung a pair of hooves down into specific spots equadistant from her vertebrae.

Terra's breath was caught on a snorting sound. Her entire body locked up in sudden paralysis. "What... what did...?"

"Pressure points," Roarke said, panting as her metal plugs glistened with sweat. "I just told a bunch of your nerves to stop working..."

"For... h-how long?"

"Doesn't matter," Roarke grunted. "This battle is over." She tossed her ringlet'd mane back and wiped the sweat from her brow. "Not like it even started to begin with."

"This... this is an outrage!" Terra spat and spat some more, twitching barely an inch from where she lay dormant against the concrete. "Undo this so that we can fight like true warriors!"

"As if trying to bludgeon me to death a minute ago was soooo honorable," Roarke said, still catching her breath as she paced around the huge, meaty mare. "But I couldn't expect you to think well enough to understand the gravity of that. Heck, I don't expect you to think at all. If you did bother to think—bother to improve yourself—maybe you'd know how to get yourself out of this predicament."

"This is unfair..." Terra hissed. "A weakling's death! Finish me off, damn you! Murder me in the spirit of Searo—"

"Murdering you would mean that you're a creature capable of housing a soul." Roarke looked up, frowning at the line of gawking mares. "And what of the rest of you?! Huh?! Are you so busy plugging metal into your guts that you forgot what it meant to have the blood you so desire to spill in the first place?! Centuries ago, when a wise and gallant mare tried to form Searomare, she was opposed by weaklings, cowards, and backstabbers! She traveled south to build an empire out of guile, grit, and gusto! But that is not what this place is today! This place has made a brothel out of Searo's grave, made idiots for the sake of some nameless, shapeless idolatry! You can't respect honor if you don't have the brain to compute it with! Pestiferous thought she could run every campaign imaginable on this pathetic, mindless zeal, and it nearly brought all of Searo's legacy to the ground! Did you know that she had plans to invade Ledomare?!"

The mares exchanged glances, muttering in mixed shock and excitement.

"She did!" Roarke shouted, pacing. "And she would have destroyed every bloodthirsty warrior in the process! Not like it mattered! She knew her days were numbered! She knew she would be dead long before we ran our resources dry on some worthless war of attrition in hopes that it might fill the vestules of our carnivorous hearts! Already, Searo's Hold has been stripped bear, surviving on living batteries in the form of crystal ponies. There was no backup plan, no fallback contingency for the inevitable massacre that Pestiferous was about to set in action!"

Swiveling, Roarke pointed a furious hoof at the prone body of Terra.

"And that miserable pile of maggot sucking flesh was stupid enough to believe not only that Pestiferous' plan was righteous for the future of all Searonese, but that she was somehow able and willing to continue it herself! Yes! That! That waste of a stud's seed right there that thought she could best me in a match that she had every muscle to win, but no brain matter!" Roarke spun and hissed at her sisters in arms yet again. "Because, after all, she is the epitome of Searonese might now. All fury and no fortitude. And just because nopony has dared to challenge the stupid status quo until now, has that actually made it right?"

Silence reigned over the crowd of warriors. Many of them hung their heads in sudden, lucid comprehension.

In the meantime, Roarke had trotted over towards the group of crystal ponies and stallions. "For years, I fought with myself, trying to deny the downhill fate of our once-glorious empire. We were mares of war, once. Now we are bounty hunters, gun runners, pillagers, common thugs. A mountain full of manatech doesn't wipe all the filth of failure away. So, in shame, I thought I could test myself... challenge myself... better myself..." She turned and looked at Rainbow Dash. "I did just that—and I didn't realize how I would become better, until I became broken in the process." With a deep breath, Roarke added, "And a wise soul told me that the most courageous thing would be to admit that I'd been weak all along..."

Rainbow Dash stared back, breathing calmly.

With a scrape of her hooves, Roarke turned to face the Searonese from afar. "Well, I'm sick and tired of being weak. I'm tired of depending on ancient ideas, instead of my own reason. Yeah, I claimed Pestiferous' head. After all the crud she put me through, can anypony blame me? Call me what you want—Top Spear, Bloodiest Spear, Lady Roarke—none of it matters anymore. I can't stand the smell of this place. All the blood is rotten. So, in the words of Goddess Searo herself..."

Roarke trotted over, swept up her armor, and looked up to glare at the crowd.

"'Screw you.'"

That said, she turned and trotted firmly towards the open door of her manaship while the phalanx of warriors watched in stunned silence.

Shuffling past Tweak and his brother, the metal mare paused to say, "If you polished breeders wanna get out of here, now's your friggin' chance. I can't promise it won't be a tight fit." Then, with a toss of her metal-laced mane, she hopped and disappeared into her vessel.

Tweak and Lucky exchanged glances. They shrugged and motioned towards the vehicle, quietly making their way inside, filing one after another.

Crimson watched as the group prepared to exit. With a breath of relief, her turned to Rainbow Dash. "We'd better move... before anypony changes their mind about us being allowed to do so..."

Rainbow nodded wearily. "Glad to know I'm not the only equine sick of this place." She turned around. "Let's blow this place like a Manehattan—" She froze in mid utterance, blinking. Turning to look over her shoulder, she groaned heavily. "Oh, for the love of Celestia. Not again."

"Is something the matter?" Crimson asked.

"Nothing I can't handle. Hop inside. This won't take long." Rainbow Dash trotted over to a sulking unicorn figure off to the side. "Now, we've been through this..."

"We most certainly have," Imre said in a dull tone, avoiding Rainbow's gaze as she slumped even further against the hangar floor. "You wanna wear my ears out? Try it in the afterlife."

"Listen—"

"No, you listen." Imre stared up at her. The usual scowl was gone, replaced by a vulnerable expression with moistening eyes. "This place may be broken, shattered, and beyond repair... but it's the only home that I deserve. There's nothing for me out there but bad memories and regret. Thanks for all you've done for me and stuff, but... you gotta let go of me..."

Rainbow Dash sighed long and hard. She looked calmly out towards the sun-kissed snowpeaks outside the hangar. "You know what? You're absolutely right. I really oughta let go of you..."

Imre shuddered and looked back towards the floor. "I'm glad we've finally come to an agreement—" Her eyes bugged and her breath flew out of her lungs after receiving a savage metal horseshoe to the chest. With a dainty groan, she fell unconscious—only for Rainbow Dash to catch her, draped over her partially armored spine.

"...afterrrrr I carry you into the friggin' ship, you crazy emo horse lady." Rainbow Dash effortlessly carried her up into the cabin of the ship, jumping lithely through the door as it slid close. "Alright, Roarke most Radical! Second star to the right and straight on 'til migraine!"

With roaring thrusters, Roarke's ship lifted up, pivoted about, and thundered away from Searo's Hold with finality. Only once its blaring engines were far away could the echo of Terra's snarling voice be heard.

"This isn't over, you smug bitch! Do you hear me?! It isn't over! I will hunt you until you're dead! Until you're dead!"

Box Car Blues

Noise and breezy mountain air rushed into the boxcar. Josho and Eagle Eye craned their necks, squinting into the bright slit of light that occupied the doorframe of the connecting car ahead of them. Josho did a double-take while Eagle raised an eyebrow.

Its orange fur billowing in the wind, a red fox jumped down and squatted before them on all fours. Its dark eyes blinked.

Eagle Eye leaned aside. "Do you see anypony?"

"Beats the hell out of me," Josho grunted. "Must be behind the pet fox."

Immediately, the animal scowled. It reared up to its hind feet, sporting a bandolier full of daggers, wrenches, and throwing stars. It took four tiny steps forward and kicked Josho hard in the knee.

"Gaaah!" the graying stallion hopped on three limbs, wincing. "Oh, come on—!" His voice left him as soon as he found himself staring at a pistol cocked between his eyes.

The fox glared, his pointed teeth showing. "Rotten hoofers gotta be smart about everything. Wanna see if that horn of yours is full of chocolate?"

"What? N-no—!" The fox kicked him in the other knee. "Nnngh!"

"Then be more quiet when we hit you," the fox hissed, leaning back against a crate of supplies.

"Uhhh..." Eagle Eye squinted. "Who's 'we?'"

As if on cue, several orange-haired companions scurried up beside the gun-toter. They snickered and chattered above the sound of the rattling train wheels. "You mean to tell us these are our latest supplies? Pffft. We'd make more money skinning them and making a bunch of rugs."

"Heck, the small one could make a velvety pillow case."

"Yeah, real threatening," Josho grumbled, waving both of his aching forelimbs. "Face it, buckos. The only reason I'm not colliding your skulls like eggshells this very moment is cuz you've got a cowardly pistol shooter aimed at us." He blinked, then glanced aside at Eagle Eye, who was feeling the texture of his lavender coat. The enforcer smacked him upside the head.

"Ow!" Eagle winced, frowing aside. "It's just that they said—"

"Can it."

"Hah. Don't they make a happy couple?!" One fox sneered at the other two. "The Killas must be slipping if they let these hoofer schmucks slip from their paws."

"Considering their brain power, I don't doubt it." The fox with the pistol leaned forward, his black nostrils flaring in the flickering sunlight passing through the windows. "So, what is it really, huh?" He pointed at the magical binding between the two stallions. "Diamond dog tinkering? Searonese tech? Doesn't look or smell like hoofer nonsense."

"Look, I was brought here by a bunch of earth ponies and a smattering of rams," Eagle Eye said. "They promised that we would get safe passage to a spot beyond Sapphire Ravine—"

All three red foxes cackled like hyenas, leaning over to slap their knees.

Eagle Eye blinked. "What the hay is so funny?!"

"They didn't promise you anything but hard work, ya overgrown pile of snot!" The fox in the center twirled his pistol and smirked. "We bought you for two strips of silver, and now we're going to make a fortune selling you along with the gun powder cache to those religious horn-zappers beyond the border!"

"Huh?!" Eagle Eye did a double-take.

"He means they're privateers, smartflank," Josho grumbled, his jaw tight. "And they're gonna sell us to a Xonan expeditionary force southeast of your friggin' home town."

"What?! That... that means the Xonans have infiltrated as far as south of Searo!" Eagle Eye grimaced. "Nopony in the Confederacy ever told my company that!"

"It wasn't your bit-sucking mercenaries' place to know how badly we were losing the war," Josho muttered. "So shut your trap and let me do the talking!"

"Hey, don't order me around!" Eagle Eye pouted. "You're not my dad!"

"I'm old enough to be."

"Oh, ick! ICK!" Eagle Eye bounced back and forth on both pairs of hooves.

"Settle down."

"You settle down—I-I mean with a mare... I-I mean with a mare far, far away from me! Like forever! Ick... ICK!"

"You don't suppose we could chop 'em in half and keep one around as a jester?" one fox asked the other.

"Which one?"

"Ha! Take your pick!"

"I prefer the one who doesn't smell so bad."

"What, you like the smell of apricot clinging to your fur?"

"Apricot?! How friggin' close did you get to these hoofers when the exchange was made?!"

"Listen..." Josho stepped forward. "If you would just let me contact my—"

The pistol-bearer kicked his knee again.

"Gaaah!" Josho hissed and stomped. "Stop... friggin'... doing that!" He took several deep breaths, then muttered with a stone cold glare. "If you would just let me contact the Ledomaritan Council, they'll pay handsomely for my return. I'm not so sure about Pink Eye here—"

"Eagle Eye."

"I'm not so sure about Prissy Peepers here, but me? I've worked alongside Prime Enforcers on intercontinental battleships. I'm... like... super important and stuff."

Eagle Eye blinked straight ahead. "...only when you're sober," he muttered.

Josho shoved him.

Eagle shoved him back.

"Enough!" The fox cocked two pistols this time, his dark eyes narrowing. "Don't pretend like you can tempt me. Hoofer bits have no worth with foxkind."

"Then how about we pay you by not blowing up your little circus railroad from the Spark-forsaken earth?!"

"Don't pretend like you can threaten me either." The fox sneered, strutting backwards towards the car's exit. "Now that you know where you're going, maybe it's time you stated praying to whatever horse god you were taught to believe in. Regardless of what those tatooed hoofers believe down south, I'm willing to bet that the next time we visit them, we'll have some fresh equine kidneys to collect." He and his buddies snickered. With a wink, he holstered his pistol, turned around, and scurried out of the box car. The door slammed shut, being triple-locked from the other side.

Both stallions stood dead still in silence, interrupted occassionally by the rattling of train rails.

"Well, I liked their tails," Eagle said.

And then Josho smacked him again.

"Daah!"

Business As Usual

The announcement from the passing zeppelin did not disrupt the spirit of Evening Jubilee. Ponies from all walks of Ledomaritan life trotted eagerly towards the center of the large city. Before an enormous spire of concrete, blue metal plates, and reflective glass, a large courtyard resided. Ponies—mostly unicorn citizens—filled the area up, standing in curved lines that faced a stage positioned on a balcony overlooking the skyscraper's central entrance. Beneath the platform were the words "Nightshade Industries" displayed in bold, glittering text. Stallion guards in blue uniforms stood, flanking the entrance as they carefully eyed each chattering equine in the crowd.

Just as Phoenix and Bellesmith shuffled up to the scene, a sharply-dressed figure was alighting the platform. Belle craned her hooded neck to get as good a view as possible.

"I don't mean to sound like a thinking, breathing saddle-sore, but the longer we stand here, the more we're gonna stand out," Phoenix mumbled beneath his breath, fidgeting. "Somehow, I don't think 'Mintian Monks' are normal participants of these proceedings—"

"Shhh!" Belle insisted, her chestnut brown eyes narrowing on the stallion on the platform up above. He approached a sound stone and spoke pleasantly, his voice being broadcasted across the busy courtyard under the melting afternoon.

"And how are you all doing this fine day?!" The unicorn's smile could be seen from a mile away, much less thirty feet.

Ponies cheered and clapped their hooves against the floor. Belle glanced aside to see couples nuzzling each other and waiting the announcement with placid smiles.

"The Spark shines on the Queen, and it shines on us!" he continued. He had a slick black mane cascading over a brown, pin-striped suit that was draped over an even browner coat. "Let Blue Nova rejoice, because there is no company more benevolent or patriotic than the Madame's very own Nightshade Industries! What has the Madame been up to, lately? Why, visiting her brother in the upper Spire, of course. Novus' health has been doing much better, the Madame claims. Why shouldn't it?! Novus was named after this fair city, after all! And when Blue Nova shines, so does the Nightshade family!"

More applause rang out.

The stallion cleared his throat and levitated a crystal panel, across which he drew a glowing pen. Smiling, he read the scrolling text aloud, "I, Sir Ordo, faithful laborer of Blue Nova's finest company, am proud to present to you the latest news from Madame Nightshade's partner in the field, Prime Enforcer Seclorum." He waited for some more cheering before he continued. "According to Seclorum, several advances have been made along the eastern front. Our noble stallions have moved the war beyond the trenches, and are finally starting to advance on the cowardly hovels of the enemy. Soon, the Queen's forces will win back the fertile land taken from those tattooed savages! The Spark Endures!"

Several ponies whistled and cheered.

"This not only means a sharp increase in trade along the eastern territories, but new flight routes to the Sapphire Valley, the Ruby Highlands, and even the skyport of Gray Smoke!"

Phoenix leaned in and whispered under the latest roar of the crowd. "This is rather pathetically scripted..."

"You think?" Belle droned, her eyes locked on the skyscraper.

"Funny how they haven't said a single word about the burning of an entire forest down south," he continued. "Or the murder and manipulation of innocent ponies." He frowned. "These equines would believe anything. This 'Ordo' guy might as well be telling them that Stratopolis has been discovered."

"Stratopolis is a myth," Belle grumbled.

"I know." Phoenix fidgeted, then squinted in her direction. "See anything you were looking for?"

"Yes..." Belle pointed forward with a cloaked hoof. "This building..."

"Looks like the Nightshade HQ. What about it?"

She gulped as the stallion up above continued speaking. "I wonder if there is some way to get inside," she murmured aloud.

About Damn Time

"Nnngh... Come on... Come on...!" She gritted her teeth, tugging and tugging on the lid to a garbage container with the full weight of her petite body. "Nnnngh... Why... won't... you... b-budge...?!"

Suddenly, her hooves slipped. She gasped, falling hard on her haunches in the center of the tight alleyway. The hood of the filly's cloak fell free, exposing her green mane and matching eyes. Her vision fogged from the crest of tears, but she dried them with a scowling expression. Frowning up at the obstinate container, she drew the cloak up over her tatooed features.

Then, with a nervous shudder, she glanced both ways down the alley. The place was empty, also still, save for the sounds of a distant Nightshade Industries announcement reverberating off the concrete walls from a distance.

Satisfied that the coast was clear, she stood up and aimed her skull forward. She took several grunting breaths, concentrating with the effort that her sudden task took Nevertheless, she relaxed, and then worming trails of light ran up through the designs etched across her face. The energy culiminated in her horn, allowing her to fire a beam of green glowing energy at the container.

The lid popped off like a lead ball out of a cannon while the air crackled with magic. She gasped with relief and clopped her hooves against the floor with a brief, joyous jig. Then, gasping sharply, as if it was a crime to be that exultant, she cleared her throat and climbed back up to the edge of the container. Digging around inside with a hoof, she fiddled through several heaps of refuse until stumbling upon a paper bag with a restaurant's name etched on the side of it.

"Blue Seat's Dining! Score!" She opened the bag. "Please be a full box of salad! Please be a full box of salad! Please—"

She was hoisted up from behind and suddenly slammed against the back wall of the place.

"Ungh!" she grunted, dangling in a strong hoof.

"Kera... the little filly that thought she could make it on her own..." An adolescent colt snarled in her face. He was joined by two other colts and a filly, just a few winters younger than him, but no less covered in the soot and rags of the lower streets. "Fancy meeting you here. You know what this place is, pipsqueak?!"

"Nnngh... Uhm..." Kera sniffed, then made a face. "Dogbreath Central?" She was slapped hard against the wall again. "Augh!"

The colt spat, "This is Hardhoof territory! We're the only ones around here who know about the dirty secret that lies beneath your robes, kid..." He knocked her hood loose, exposing her tattoos to the dim air of the falling evening. "Which means, so long as your ugly face hangs out around here, you us for protection!"

"That kind of m-makes sense!" Kera sputtered, smirking back at him. "Seeing as how you're the expert on ugly faces..."

He blinked, then raised other hoof to smash her horn in two. "Why, you—"

"Hey, check it!" One filly pulled out a paper container, displaying a box full of half-eaten noodles. "The little scamp scored something!"

"You mean she scored us something!" The colt glared back at the filly in his grasp. "Consider this payment in advanced, runt."

"No way!" she gasped, frowning. "Those are my noodles!"

"The only noodles you should be worried about are the kind I'm gonna be spilling all over the floor!" He dropped her, but continued to shake a threatening hoof. "Get it?! Cuz I'll have busted your skull open!"

The older foals around him chuckled uproariously.

Kera shook her dizziness away and frowned up at him. "Funny. How can you even lay a hoof on me when your mane is on fire?"

"Pfft, just what in the hay are you talking about, Pipsqueak—GAAAAH!" The colt jumped and thrashed in place, feeling a blaze flickering across his scalp.

Kera finished aiming a beam of magic at his skull. As rivulets of glowing energy receded from her face, she stood up and smirked at his flailing figure. "What's the matter?! Not used to being... bright?!"

"Nnnngh—Put me out! Put me out! Put me out!"

"I found something!" A filly grabbed a rusted bedpan out from a garbage container. "Stand still, boss!"

"No, not that—" The colt took the brunt of odorous yellow liquid being doused all over his face. He blinked lethartically through the dripping current of the stuff.

"Whoops..." The filly slumped, her ears folding back.

With flaring nostrils, the colt pointed at the figure of Kera who was already galloping away. "Get that little turd and crush her to bits!"

With a prolonged warcry, all of the foals charged after her.

Panting for breath, Kera dashed around a corner and galloped into the open streets of Blue Nova, billowing cloak and all.

Streets and Urchins

"And on top of that, there's news from Overseer Fatch!" Sir Ordo exclaimed, immediately receiving a bevy of cheers. "It would look like Fatch's leg of operations in the Industrial Sector have been running at one hundred and thirty-three percent efficiency! Thanks to him, Nightshade Industries will have at least another dozen zeppelins constructed by the end of this coming quarter! This should also increase trade with Gray Smoke and the lands beyond! It is nice to know that, in spite of all that the continuing war has cost us, Fatch is still intent on carrying forth the legacy of Nightshade's faithful brother, Novus."

The courtyard around Bellesmith and Phoenix filled with wild praise.

The stallion atop the balcony continued, "So, at last, this brings us to a letter written by Prime Enforcer Seclorum himself. These are his words written to his very own troops, and they might inspire the same unwavering confidence in us. Ahem. 'My beloved stallions in arms and mares of the nursing field, you have been forced to endure hardship after hardship. It may not seem so beyond the fog of war, but there is a candle burning at the end of this dimly-lit toll. More for the Queen's guile and more for our beloved's blessings must we persist in the face of great adversity. Now, more than ever, does our Confederacy stand to transform this continent into something that is once again mighty and pure...'"

Phoenix leaned in and muttered into Belle's ear. "I dunno about you, but I'm ready to leave this vomit fest..."

"Just a moment," Belle whispered back.

"Ms. Belle, there's no way we're getting inside that building from the front!" he retorted in a hoarse voice. "Even if there weren't so many damn onlookers around! If you think the security is tight out here, imagine it on the inside!"

"But that's the one place we have to go..." Belle bit her lip, gazing up, up, up at the looming skyscraper. "I just know it..."

"We... I dunno... we should leave and go strategize or something," Phoenix said, mumbling aloud. "I know you want very badly to infiltrate this place, but we have to go about it reasonably."

Belle sighed. "I know. Someway... somehow... things were a lot easier to accomplish when we had a flying, flank-kicking pegasus on our sides."

"Heh... I'll take your word for it. Now let's make like the wind—"

While they were speaking, they—as well as every other pony in that place—were blind to a panicked figure darting through the very rear of the crowd. Kera froze along the edge of the courtyard, glancing around breathlessly for a place to hide. Hooves clopped angrily behind her, followed by the angry voices of the other street foals. She cursed under her breath, clinging her hood tighter as she looked and looked and looked—

At last, she saw salvation: the one spot in open view where she could hide. Gritting her teeth, she scampered forward, darted between a dozen ponies' legs, and scurried her way directly beneath the folds of Bellesmith's brown cloak.

Belle gasped, jolting forward. She flung a glance down. "What on earth—"

"Shhh!" Phoenix looked over his shoulder. "Where did that come from?"

"Uh... Hello?" Belle parted the robe slightly and glanced down.

Kera looked up at her, shivering. Belle caught a glance of her shadowed face, of the little horn glowing at the tip. A breathy murmur escaped the timid filly, but otherwise she was still as stone, frightened out of her wits.

Belle was silent. Hear ears flicked on either side of her shaved mane. She heard the clamor of young foals scampering up from the sideline...

"Where is she?!"

"Let's murder her!"

"Rip her horn off and shove it in her eye socket!"

Belle glanced over her shoulder. After a few seconds, she leaned down and whispered, "Shhhhh..." Just like that, she closed her cloak and glanced straight ahead, pretending to be invested in the continuing oration of Sir Ordo.

Phoenix was slightly less convincing in his nonchalance. He shivered with a nervous tinge, trying not to look as the dirtied foals rushing up within a spit's distance from the two, looking around furiously for their target. The little ponies glanced at the crowd, their gaze wafting past the two "Mintians" standing in their midst. With a grumbling tone, they ran towards the far end of the courtyard, disappearing into the thin alleyways beyond.

After a few seconds, Phoenix glanced over his shoulder. He exhaled heavily through his nostrils and muttered, "Hmmm... What a quaint town, huh?"

"Are they still—?" Belle began.

Phoenix shook his head.

"Alright..." Quietly, with her voice ringing beneath the speech from the balcony, she parted her robe, looked down, and gave a soft smile. "It's okay," she said. "They're gone. You're safe—"

Without saying anything, Kera dashed straight for the opposite end of the courtyard. She fumbled once or twice to adjust the folds of her own cloak, but was swiftly out of sight, threading her way into the thin streets lying in the shadow of the skyscrapers above.

Belle blinked. "You're... welcome?"

"She didn't say a single word, did she?" Phoenix asked.

Bellesmith shook her head, her chestnut eyes fixated on the far end of the courtyard. "No. I guess she must be really traumatized." She gulped. "Or illiterate."

Phoenix glanced at Belle's cloaked figure. "Or maybe something else..."

Belle looked at him. "Huh?"

Phoenix chewed the end of his lip before eventually murmuring, "Ms. Belle, that was awfully nice what you just did for the street urchin and all, but maybe you should check your bag..."

"What?!" Bellesmith cracked an awkward smile. "Phoenix, I just saved that poor little foal's skin!"

"Still, my experiences with Ledomaritan outposts were never that pleasant..."

"Ungh, will you get over it already?!" Belle frowned as she fidgeted beneath her cloak. "I know that this place isn't Franzington, but that doesn't mean you have to condemn the entire continent north of your home as—" She froze in place, her eyes wide. "By the Spark!" She parted the folds of her cloak and gawked at Luna's Saddlebag. Both satchels were hanging wide open, large enough for a large hoof to fit into, much less two tiny ones. "She pickpocketed me!"

"I knew it..." Phoenix grumbled. "What did you lose—?"

"Guhh!" Belle hissed, her hooves dancing anxiously as she shifted left and right. "No no o no no no no!"

"What?"

"She got the books!"

"Wait, what books?!"

"Both books!" Belle sneered. "The one important to me and the one important to Rainbow—"

"Shhh!" Phoenix exclaimed. He caught sight of several neaby ponies glancing suspiciously their way. "Okay, yeah, that sucks. But let's be calm. Where'd she run off to?"

"Nnngh! I can't believe how stupid I—"

"Ms. Belle, let's work together on this."

"Uhm..." The mare shivered, turning to point. "Over there..."

"Okay, let's go. Quietly." Phoenix ushered her along through the crowd. "Together..."

Bellesmith breathed nervously. Moisture welled up in her eyes as a lump of mixed confusion and pity formed in her throat.

Not So Fundamental

Kera's scraping hooves echoed through the thin alleyway as he scampered to a stop. With a rustle of her cloak, she twirled, leaned her body up to a niche in the wall, and crawled inside the thin partition. Squatting low, she wormed her way up a concrete rain drain, scaled a segmented column of mortar, and evened out on a sharp ledge located just two and a half stories above the bottom floor of the alley.

"Whew..." She exhaled, lowering her hood so that her peach coat and hard lines were exposed to the dim light wafting down from the sunset beyond the Blue Nova spires above. "Oh, how I love killing two birds with one stone." Kera licked her lips as she fiddled through the deep pockets stitched into the insides of her cloak. "Let's she what she had on her. Yeesh, I could sure go for some bread right now—"

Two books slid loosely in her grip: one an album with green binding and the other a dusty old tome.

Kera's mouth hung open. She blinked several times, then grumbled. "A book?!" She pouted. "Nnnngh! I knew it was too heavy to be something edible!" She squatted with an indignant folding of her forelimbs. "Really! What kind of mare carries nothing but books around?! And in both sides of her saddlebag?!"

Several seconds limped by.

"Unnngh..." She sighed heavily, slumping down and hoofing through the dusty tome with bored eyes. "Whatever. I need something to make a fire with anyways." Her green eyes narrowed on the flicker of ancient runes. "Hmmmph... These words..." Her nostrils flared. "They're..."

Silence...

"Guh! Do any of these actually have pictures?" She kicked the tome aside and picked up the one with green binding. "Hey!" she beamed suddenly, her eyes filling with foalish delight as she stared at an array of colorful photographs. "This is more like it! Whew... this lady's got a bucket load of friends." Kera flipped and flipped. Her eyebrow raised. "What's the deal with the white one? Does she even know her head looks bald from an angle? Pfft... seen one unicorn you've seen..." Her voice stretched thinly. "...them all."

Kera leaned forward, her brow furrowed beneath a mess of green bangs.

In the center of one group shot, a peculiar pony stood, being nuzzled by the others. Her face was frozen in a look of disgust as she attempted in good humor to shove off the invasive reach of her companions. Her colorful mane and tail stood out like prismatic flames, but that wasn't the only thing that caught Kera's attention. Halfway between the pony's flanks and shoulders, twin wreathes of feathers shimmered in the flash photography.

"A... winged pony...?" Kera blinked several times. She leaned back from the book, as if the colors on the photograph might jump out at her. "Just like... j-just like..." She said no more words. Instead, she hummed a haunting tune to herself, something as old as she was, if not older. A chill ran through Kera; she flicked her ears, as if desperate to lose the melody that was suddenly stuck in her head.

Just then, the alleyway filled with clopping hooves.

Catching her breath, Kera slapped both books shut, slid them under her cloak, and layed down flat against the ledge's surface. Two green eyes stared down into the corridor like a parascope.

"...be anywhere by now! Oh, if I only had been more careful!"

"You can find the book even if you can't see it, r-right? Like... you have a connection?"

"It doesn't work that way, Mr. Phoenix! The book has a connection with Rainbow Dash. At least, I think so."

"Maybe we can still try to get inside the building even with it gone—"

"No!" A mare scurried into view, swiveling on her hooves with a flurry of her brown cloak. A face beneath the hood frowned at the similarly dressed stallion trotting alongside her. "I can't afford to lose that book! I've lost enough already!"

"Maybe we should consider putting the search on hold—"

"Mr. Phoenix!" the mare gasped.

"I'm just saying!" He shrugged away from her glare. "It's not gonna help us to run around with our heads cut off! I say we sit down, count our losses, and figure out a more realistic way of getting inside that building than relying completely on some magical manuscript!"

"Without that book..." Bellesmith lowered her hood, hanging her head with a sad breath. "I'm completely lost. It was... it was the closest thing I-I had to him." She bit her lip as a sorrowful spasm rose through her body. "I miss his wisdom so much. I feel so blind without him. He was able to make me see so much..."

"Hey... this is exactly what I'm talking about." Phoenix reached out to her. "The worst thing you can do right now is dwell on the bad stuff. We're here, we're alive, and we know where to go next. Book or no book, what matters is that we get our hoofing, gather enough resources, and proceed when the moment's right... and only when the moment's right."

Belle sighed, saying nothing.

"Look, I know it may not seem like much, but at least you have me." The stallion's face could be seen smiling at her from beneath his own hood. "I made you a promise, and I'm sticking to it. But you gotta be willing to stick to it yourself, alright?"

"I know, it's just..." She sighed again, shaking her head. "It's so hard. So terribly hard..."

"What is it you keep repeating and repeating? 'What would Rainbow Dash do?'"

"You're right, Mr. Phoenix. You're right."

He guided her with a hoof towards the far end of the alleyway. "Let's go. This kid's long gone. We've searched everywhere, now we gotta move on."

"I know it sounds strange... but I still feel bad for her..."

"She's a thug, Ms. Belle," the stallion grunted. "That's all she's gonna grow up to be."

"I know... and suppose that's why it's sad..."

All the while, Kera was staring at one thing and one thing alone. It was only after the two were out of earshot that she finally afforded herself the chance to murmur: "Her horn..."

A breath of wonderment escaped her lips.

"Did... did she somehow get out before the rest?"

She blinked... then smiled.

Licking her lips with devilish zeal, the filly slid the books back under her cloak, forward-flipped off the ledge, landed expertly, and scurried on silent cat feet down the avenue, trailing the two figures.

Insert Title Here

"Just where will we go?" Bellesmith thought aloud. "We have no place to stay. Little to no food. Those supplies we tried pawning gave us next to nothing..."

"This is one of those moments when I'd expect myself to think on my hooves," Phoenix said, glancing left and right as the two cloaked ponies stumbled down a wide avenue in the crimson sunset. "But Crimson only ever trained me in the art of killing." He gulped, looking down every alley they passed. "I doubt I could somehow kill our way into a hotel room..." He paused, then winced. "Or two. Two rooms, I mean."

"Let's just find an alley somewhere to hide in for the night," Belle murmured. "If we survived the open wilderness and a burning forest, I'm sure we could manage the city."

"Yes, but Foxtaur never had homeless equines marking their territory and ready to slit throats for it." Phoenix chewed on his lower lip as he glanced left and right. "I'm starting to get a lay of the land. Towards the northwest, there's a lower income district."

"You mean slums."

"There's a lower income district, and I suspect we could easily spot a place there."

"Then what if somepony tries to mug us in our sleep?" Belle asked.

Phoenix sighed and uttered, "Then I guess I'll have to clean their clocks." He gulped. "Which means not sleeping."

Belle fidgeted in mid-trot.

"I'm sorry things aren't exactly hunky-dorey on this... journey, Ms. Bellesmith. But I'm trying. I really am..."

"I... uh... I appreciate it, Mr. Phoenix," she said in a soft voice. "I really do."

"Heh... What's to appreciate?" He smirked bitterly. "In less than two days, the best I've afforded you is stale bread and pair of important books stolen."

"You've risked your life for me on more than one occasion, and credit should be given where it's due," she said. "I am thankful to have you helping me."

"Yeah, well..." He sighed, leading the trot around a streetcorner. "Don't thank me yet. After all, we—" He froze in place.

"After all, what?" Belle asked. Silence. She squinted as she passed by him. "Mr. Phoenix—?"

He shoved her back, pressing the two of them up against the edge of the street corner. She looked pensively beneath the tilt of his cloaked neck.

In the center of the courtyard, talking to a cluster of concerned citizens, were no less than six enforcers. The edges of their purple berets glistened in the sunlight. Their armored flanks held holstered tasers and mana-powered pistols.

"Oh, Spark, no..." Belle exhaled.

"It was gonna happen eventually," Phoenix muttered, trying to keep his breaths steady. "We didn't just fall out of the sky, Ms. Bellesmith. We brought down three transports and half a dozen soldiers with us." He shuddered, then gulped. "That is to say, I brought down that many..."

"Are they really, truly looking for us?" Belle remarked, whispering. "What if they're actually just looking for somepony else?"

Phoenix's eyes narrowed. From his position, he spotted a stallion in the center raising a sign and showing it to the citizens he was questioning. There was no telling whose faces were on the poster, but the citizens looked increasingly worried as the enforcers gave them an earful about the suspects.

"I don't think we should stick around long enough to find out," Phoenix mumbled. He began backtrotting. "Forget the western district. There're a bunch of industrial complexes to the northeast. We might be able to hide within the crook of a warehouse or a supply depot or—"

One of the many enforcers turned. From afar, he made eye contact with the two ponies. His brow furrowed. He called out, and every single soldier turned in a flash.

"Phoenix—!" Belle squeaked.

"Turn around. Trot." Phoenix swiveled. Firmly, he led himself and the mare in the opposite direction from which they came.

Belle panted, sweating profusely beneath the cloak as she fumbled to keep from breaking into a full, frightened gallop. The sound of clopping hooves lifted up behind them.

Phoenix struggled to keep his hood up as he fought for a visual sign of an exit. His ears twitched from the sound of scuffling hooves around the street corner behind. At last, he saw an alleyway directly to the left.

"In here..." He practically shoved himself and Belle down...

...only to face two broadly-shouldered stallions with berets glaring down at them.

Belle jumped back with a gasp. Phoenix steadied her. He looked over his flank in time to see four soldiers rushing up.

"Hold it right there in the name of the Queen—" The stallions at the rear froze in place, blinking at the other two. "Are you... questioning them?"

"Do they need to be questioned?" spoke the taller of the two stallions. Belle caught sight of a golden medallion on the center of his beret. He trotted forward and orated with the authority of a prime enforcer. "Rather far away from the Mintian monastery, aren't you two?"

Belle felt her heart stopping...

Buck the Police

The high ranking enforcer trotted around and faced Phoenix and Bellesmith evenly. His gaze narrowed from beneath his beret. "Not only are you a long way from the monastery, but isn't the scheduled time of the week for Mintian proselytizing. Tell me, are you two lost from the order?"

Belle was currently biting her lip.

Phoenix leaned forward, tightening the folds of his hood. "We were told to go out and get medicine. One of our fellow layponies is ill with equine flu," he said, thinking on the spot. "Normally, we would stay inside, but, as you can see, this is an emergency."

"Indeed..." The enforcer slowly nodded his head. "And you cleared this with your Mintiam Quorum of Fellow Disciples?"

"Yes, sir," Phoenix said, nodding furiously. "Absolutely, sir."

"Lying is a sin, son," the enforcer said, his gaze cold and steelly. "I just made that up. There is no such thing as a 'Mintiam Quorum of Fellow Disciples.'"

Phoenix winced, his teeth gritting.

Bellesmith glanced nervously across the immediate crowd of guards. The stallions stared at the two strangers with shifty eyes. The sudden tension made the air stale, cold.

The lead enforcer took a deep breath and said, "Lower your hoods."

Phoenix and Bellesmith stood dead still.

The stallion's nostrils flared. He leaned forward, and his horn glowed with a bright pulse.

Both hoods of the ponies' cloaks were fiercely yanked down. Phoenix remained unmoving, but Belle couldn't control her sudden shivers.

A few stallions murmured at the sight of Belle's shattered horn as the stallion paced before them. "Well, you have the monk look right," he murmured aloud. "But not the demeanor nor the humility. It takes a great deal of intestinal fortitude to lie directly in the face of a uniformed guard of the Queen. I wonder, have you been in conflict with the enforces of this land before?"

The two remained mute.

"Because, as fate would have it, my stallions and I are on the lookout for two fugitives last seen somewhere west of here. These aren't normal ponies, mind you, but dangerous sociopaths with blood on their hooves. If they were so foolhardy to enter a major Ledomaritan maretropolis, attempting to blend in with the local color would be ideal. Wouldn't you think?"

Phoenix avoided his gaze, even as the stallion trotted up and loomed directly in front of him.

"If you are not in the mood to use your mouth, then maybe you can use your eyes." The enforcer gestured towards another stallion. A poster with two portraits was levitated into his magical grasp. "Tell me if these faces look familiar at all to you—"

"Mom! Dad!" A pale streak shot out of nowhere. "I finally f-found you!" On scampering hooves, Kera dashed over and nuzzled her cloaked self against the two jolting ponies. "Oh, blessed Minty! I'm so sorry for running away! I'll never leave you again! I promise!"

"What in Ledo's name—?" The prime enforcer gasped at her.

"Eeeek! No!" Kera shrieked, shooting a bolt of energy and crumpling the poster in one motion. To everypony's surprise, the little filly expertly tossed it over their flanks while clinging to Phoenix and Bellesmith. "Don't you know the Church of Minty hates looking at hoof-drawn illustrations?! It's a sin in the eyes of Minty Almighty!"

"I beg your pardon, little girl." The stallion frowned heavily. "But do you know these two?!"

"How can I not know my own Mom and Dad?!" Kera stuck her tongue out from under her hood. "Pfft! Even they are super stiff about religion and all! But hey! Minty isn't all playground games!"

"I... do not know this 'Minty' of whom you speak."

"Well, duh! That's because you're a guard and you don't get around much!" Kera tilted her chin up with a haughty expression. Her green eyes shone like gemstones beneath the shadow of her hood. "No wonder you never heard about the Church of Minty!"

"I do believe you're getting that confused with the Mintian Order."

"No, that's where you're confused, mule muffin eater!" she exclaimed, her voice cracking. "The Church of Minty is a brand new thing! It broke off from the Mintian Odo—"

"Order."

"—whatever! It's a new thing! And prophets of the Great and Powerful Minty totally answer to a Quorum! I mean, where have you been?!"

The stallions huddled against the buildingside murmured among each other. The prime enforcer took a deep breath, his jawline frowning viciously. "In all of my thirty years of keeping the peace within Blue Nova, I have never once heard of this Church of Minty."

"Hey, you're not missing much, lemme tell ya!" Kera cavorted around the two widely-blinking unicorns as she spoke in a sing-songy voice. "They read scripture all day and pray all night. They're not allowed to talk to heathens—that's you—cuz they have this vow of silence thingy. You don't get to take the vow until you're age twenty. Someday I'll be taking the vow and I'll be silent as a rusted bell! Isn't that cool?"

The enforcer's voice stifled a rising growl. "It sounds positively rapturous." He raised an eyebrow and pointed at the foal. "Child, I do not know what kind of a stunt you're trying to pull—"

"No stunts! Honest, mister flank-kicker in a beret, sir!" Kera grinned wide. "I've learned my lesson! The next time I run off without a warning, who's to know if my parents might get a stern lecture from a tall graying stallion whose face looks like it ran into one too many warfront catapults!"

"Buh?"

"So, I've come back to make amends!" She parted her cloak and levitated a peculiar tome with runic symbols covering its binding. "I brought back our scripture! The Book of Minty!"

"How..." The stallion blinked, his jaw hanging open. "...how, at your age, are you able to telekinetically control things?"

"Isn't it obvious?!" Kera giggled. "I have the best, most terrific parents in the world! Even if they're boring as rocks, they still love me! Heck, they taught me everything they know!" She twirled the book in the air and made it do twirls through invisible rings. "Tadaaaa!" She made the book flip, but in so doing, her horn erupted with a burst of uncontrollable magic. Her hood fell loose, revealing her pale coat and face covered with an elaborate array of dark, silver tattoos. "Er..." She blushed through her living tapestry. "...whoops?"

The surrounding enforcers gasped. Even a few citizens saw the sight and stammered breathlessly.

"Spark alive!"

"That child!"

"Why, it's... it's..."

"One of those savages!"

"A marauder from the East!"

"Ermm..." Kera winced, glancing nervously up at Bellesmith.

Belle's teeth chattered. She looked to her side—

"Hnnngh!" Phoenix was already charging forward. In one burst of magic, he had flung the full length of his cloak over the Prime Enforcer's head.

"Gaaah!" the old guard stumbled back.

Six more whipped out sparkling tasers—

Phoenix spun, this time yanking the cloak off Belle's gasping body and flinging it over all of the stallions before they could strike with their weapons. Before they could rip through the opaque fabric, Phoenix was dashing to his side, spinning around, and bucking both of his rear hooves into the prime enforcer's flank. The guard flew into his suborninates, and soon all of them were sprawling clumsily across the concrete.

"Whoah!" Kera squeaked, her lips curved. "That was wicked cool! You gonna stomp their skulls now or what?!"

"Move... move!" Phoenix grunted, shoving the filly and Belle down the nearest alleyway.

Kera yelped, but nevertheless broke into a frenzied gallop, laughing childishly. She dropped the old tome, which Bellesmith nervously gripped in her mouth before scampering desperately after her. Phoenix took up the rear, shoving loose wooden crates and bits of debris into the middle of the path behind them as they fled down the narrow corridor.

"Don't stop for nothing!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the dim light of sunset.

"Unless we can afford tooooo!" Kera's voice wafted back. She had a spring in her step as she melodically exclaimed, "Somepony knows a shortcutttttt!"

"A what?!"

"Hehe! Come on!" Kera dashed ahead of the two with nimble speed and a devilish grin. "Follow me if you wanna smell like garbage! Heeheehee!"

Mouths of Foals

"This way!" Kera chirped in mid-scamper. She slid around a concrete corner, hung right, and galloped down a narrow corridor brimming with steam pipes and mana conduits. "Last one's a slightly less rotten egg!" The filly hopped a horizontal row of pipes stretching across a thin space lined with refuse.

"W-wait!" Bellesmith stammered. Every panting breath made her want to wretch; the stench was so bad. In an awkward jump, she cleared the pipes, then sprinted after the little foal. "Please! You're moving too fast! We're gonna lose you!" She looked behind her flank. "Mr. Phoenix?!"

"Shhh!" He slid into view, barreled after the others, and leapt over the pipes with appropriate skill Possessing stronger muscles, the stallion easily caught up with the dainty mare and nudged her into a faster trot. "No shouting! They're right behind us! They'll hear!"

"Hey, if you can't keep up, throw up!" Kera's voice sang, her voice echoing across the chilling space. She darted to the left, disappearing from view. "There's no room for sore saddles on the smell train!"

"What in the heck is she—?!" Phoenix gargled.

"Just follow her!" Bellesmith panted as they came upon the corner. "She's our only help!"

"Hey!" Kera's voice echoed. "What comes before goose?"

"Little foal, we're trying to—" Phoenix sped around the corner and immediately banged his head on two low-hanging pipes. "Aaaugh! Nnngh—"

"Duck!" Kera said from where she perched atop a bunch of crates. Giggling, she sprang off like a diver and made for a flat wall of polished stone from a looming skyscraper in front of them. "Come on! This way to Blue Belly!"

"Mmmf..." Phoenix crouched and lurched forward, rubbing his throbbing head with a hoof. "Some help..."

"Blue... Belly...?" Bellesmith murmured aloud.

The sound of scraping hooves echoed from behind.

"Go... Just go!" Phoenix hissed.

The two jumped over the crates and navigated a complicated forest of interlaced pipes. In flickering blurs, they spotted the bounding figure of Kera ahead, and they did their clumsy best to catch up with her. Ultimately, the filly ended up having to stop and wait over the course of twenty seconds for them to arrive at her location. And when they did—

"Spark alive!" Phoenix stammered, his eyes twitching. "A dead end!"

"Wh-what?" Belle exclaimed, looking every which way. The spot they had entered was a junction of three separate skyscrapers. The different buildings met together in one location, forming a curved wall and cutting the length of the alleyway at the head.

"What is this?!" Phoenix turned and snarled at the filly. "You did this on purpose?! I should have known better than to have us follow you! You want more than our books!"

"Well, duh." Kera stuck her tongue out. "Some food would be nice."

"Food?!"

"But we can totally talk about that later. Right now, it's Shinies Time!"

Belle blinked. "Shinies... Time...?"

Kera lowered her hood, once again exposing her bushy green mane. She pivoted towards a solid wall, held her breath, and concentrated. That silver tattoos along her body glowed like burning embers. Energy wafted up her body, coalesced in her room, and shot into the wall with a concentrated burst.

"It's amazing that a foal that young can pull off magic like that," Belle murmured.

"Ms. Bellesmith, now's not the time," Phoenix grumbled, looking over his shoulder. "They're coming for us and—"

A loud groan shook through the buildings. The same glow that had fluctuated through Kera was now pulsing across the granite slab. The two adults watched in awe as a door appeared, sliding up and exposing a narrow chamber within the centermost building. A dull blue glow inside the structure permeated rising mists and steam. From a distant glance, the passageway appeared to descend beyond the street-level surface.

"Ta-daaa!" Kera spun around with a grin. "What'd I tell you?! Blue Belly! Cuz it lets us go into the stomach of Blue Nova! Heehee!" She motioned with her head. "Come on, I'll show ya!"

Phoenix fidgeted, looking behind him as the pursuing enforcers grew closer. "Will it close shut behind us?"

"Uhhh... Do mules love onion rings?!" Kera motioned again. "Get your flanks in here! The smell's not so bad once you get used to it!"

"I don't think we have any other choice, Phoenix," Belle said softly.

"Story of my frickin' life." Phoenix motioned. "After you."

Cautiously, Belle stepped in. Phoenix followed, and not long after, Kera gave the wall another zap with her horn. The slab closed up behind them, just in time to shut the three off from the dead end long before the enforcers would arrive and scratch their collective horns in utter confusion.

"It's... a sewer?" Belle remarked, squinting through the steamy blue air.

"More like a maintenance hatch," Phoenix muttered. He took one sniff, regretted it, and struggled to hold his lunch in. "Nnngh... most Ledomaritan cities of this size funnel their waste and garbage through an elevated pipe system much like what we're seeing here. Each block has a mana-powered incinerator located within the largest building."

"Guess it makes sense why they'd lock a place like this up for only qualified ponies to access."

"And guess who's figured out all the locks?!" Kera tossed back at them as she innocently cavorted through the pungent fumes. "Only cuz they taught me how to pick them good!"

"Wait..." Belle narrowed her eyes. "Who taught you?"

"You've got pretty eyes," the filly suddenly said. "I bet your mane would look twice as good too."

Belle blinked at that. "Er, uhh... thanks—"

Kera shot back in a pale bolt and leaned towards the two, beaming. "My name's Kera Tin Mehjj! That's 'Kera' for short. 'Meh' if you feel like yawning."

"Uhm..." Belle shifted nervously and gave her a sisterly smile. "That's a very... uh... pretty name, Miss... Mehjj?"

"Ungh!" Kera pouted. "I just introduced myself, didn't I?"

"Right, but of course, Kera," Belle nodded. "I'm Bellesmith."

"And I wanna throw up," Phoenix exhaled, green in the face.

Belle cleared her throat. "And this is Mr. Phoenix. Thank you very much for what you did for us back there."

"That totally makes me forgivable for the stuff I did with the books, right?"

"Huh—?"

"Right!" Kera pulled the green book out from under her cloak and tossed it at Belle's hooves. "Here, save this for a time when you gotta do the opposite of throwing up!"

Belle breathed with relief as she knelt down and returned the book to Luna's satchel. "I can't believe how close I came to losing this..."

"Why's that one so important?" Phoenix asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought the older tome was necessary for finding where you need to go."

"Of course it is!" Belle said with a frown. "But it's one of my few connections to Rainbow Dash. It was special to her, and so it's special to me. Besides, the ancient book..." She lifted the tome from the saddlebag and inspected it for damage for the first time since picking it up in the alleyway. "There really isn't any way I'm going to figure this out while relying on my spirit alone. If I focus on Rainbow's memories, then maybe—just maybe—I can adopt the same intuition she has and figure out just what—"

"'Innavedr.'"

Both ponies looked towards the filly.

"What... d-did you say...?" Belle remarked, her eyes narrow.

Kera pointed up at the tome. "That's what the crummy old book says on the front, doesn't it?"

The glanced at the bell-shaped symbol, then back at Kera. "You mean... you can read this?"

"Pfft! And you can't!" Kera smirked and began trotting down the steamy corridor. "What a waste of a cutie mark, lady!"

"But... b-but what does it mean? This 'Innavedr?'"

"The hay should I know?!"

"But I thought you—"

"Look, that's what the words say! Who cares if it's gobblygook! What, did you write it?"

"Well, no—

"Less talking and more prancing! Blue Belly is nice, but everytime I think of food in this place, I feel like spitting something up that's greener than my mane!" The filly giggled as she slid down a series of grimy steps and galloped forward. "Come on! There's a way out the other side! I'll show you!"

Belle stood, breathless, cradling the book with a quizzical expression.

Phoenix trotted head, paused, and turned to glance at her. "Is everything alright, Miss Belle?"

"I... I-I just don't understand..." Belle gulped, then glanced at him. "'Innavedr?' I mean... is she making this up, or can she actually ascertain the phonetics?"

Phoenix took a deep breath and softly said, "You've seen her coat, right? Surely you know where she's from."

Belle's brow furrowed. "What does that have to do with anything?" She blinked, and her expression melted into that of concern. "And just how did she get here...?"

"Adoption? Slavery? Pony trafficking? Pick your poison. The war makes orphans of us all." Phoenix shrugged. "As for what the little scamp just said, I couldn't tell you. Legends say that the Xonan language is as ancient as their culture. They're one of the few kingdoms left in this part of the world that values religion over the state. Why else have we been butting heads with them for so long?"

Belle's eyes drifted towards the pipes lining the corridor. "I... do remember Pilate once speaking of the complicated nature of Xonan languages..." She gulped. "And... how incredibly intricate they were..."

"Hey!" Kera's voice rang from above and below. "You fart heads making out or something?! Let's hoof it!"

Phoenix rolled his eyes. He nodded at Belle. "Supposedly, she can get us out of here."

"You think you can open the doors to these maintenance hatches with your own horn?"

"Not without the knowledge the kid's apparently got."

"Then I guess we have to depend on her." Belle slid the tome away, stood up, and briskly trotted forward. "Do me a favor, Mr. Phoenix."

"Hmm?" He moved after her. "What's that?"

"When push comes to shove..." She glanced aside. "Let me and me alone talk to her."

"Heh. You say that like it's such a sacrifice."

Melts Like Butter

"First of all, if you wanna last long down here, you'll wanna lose the satchel. Especially one that looks so super shiny." Kera smirked as she hopped over a pile of rusted, metal airship parts and trotted on down a steep alleyway. "It's a miracle that you haven't had that yanked from you yet. I mean, I totally would have tried myself, but that was before I knew that you were so cool. You are cool, right?"

"Oh, m-most certainly," Bellesmith stammered, stumbling in her attempts to follow the filly on even hoofing. "You've been so kind to us, I've almost completely forgotten the... er... incident from when we first met, Miss... Kera Tin Mehjj..."

"Please. Call me Kera. It's better than what the ponies around here call me."

"And what do they call you?"

"Usually just 'hey you.' Which is okay. It's a lot prettier than 'That ugly flankhole with our bread!'"

"Er..."

"Watch your step in this next part, or you'll fall and break your neck and become rat food! And believe me, rats don't use forks. They'll eat out of your belly like a mule to a trough."

"Uhm... duly noted, Kera..."

The three equines had walked the length of the maintenance corridor in the center of "Blue Belly." Reaching the far end, Kera unlocked the passage's exit with her horn, and the rest of the trip was spent skirting the edges of a landfill until the group trotted into the northwest slums. From there, it was a haphazard trek through rubble-strewn streets and shanty towns. Misery and decrepit filth surrounded them on all sides, but Kera never once lost the spring to her step.

"So, you from the western provinces? Green Slope? Blue Valley? Wait... is there even a Blue Valley?" Kera's tattooed face twisted as she hopped over a cluttered mess of crumpled trash cans. "Maybe a West and East Blue Valley? Yeesh, you think the ponies here would get creative and start calling things 'Azure' or 'Cyan' or... or..." She blinked. "Can you make an adjective out of 'Sapphire?'"

"Uhm..."

"Oh well!" Kera bounded ahead. "If I had a house of my own, I'd name the valley around it 'Indigo!' Mmmm... Yeah! That sounds so cool. Indigo! 'I just had my life changed!' 'How's that, ma'am?' 'I saw the Indigo Pony with my very own eyes and I think I'm cured of cancer!'"

"Wherever she's taking us, it'd better have good acoustics with a mouth like that," Phoenix grumbled.

"Mr. Phoenix..." Belle sighed.

The stallion shrugged.

"Hope the smell doesn't bother you guys!" Kera said, glancing over her shoulder as they passed burning oil drums and shacks with aluminum rooftops. "It only means that you're alive! Yup. They say that when you die, the first thing to go is your nose. Then your spirit sort of just floats up through your nostrils to join with the Spark."

"That wasn't in any religious tome I ever read," Belle said, stifling a smirk.

"Pfft! That's 'cuz bibles should have more pictures!"

"Kera, if you don't mind my asking," Belle uttered, "Where are you taking us?"

"Duh. Where the smell and the safety is at its best... and worst. Either way, you'll have less ponies with sparkly sticks trying to impale you."

"And..." Belle's chestnut eyes narrowed as she leaned forward to test the waters. "Your parents know where you are?"

"The hay should I know? They're way the heck east of here."

Belle gulped and muttered, "In Xona?"

"Hmm?" Kera glanced back again. "Oh. Pffft. What the crap would I know about that place? Do I look and sound like a 'horrrrrrrrrible religioussssss savvvvvage' to you?" The filly ended her speech with a giggle.

"Actually, I'd say you sound downright intelligent." Bellesmith smiled. "But, I thought you said that your parents—"

"—are in some village far away. And, no, they didn't give birth to me."

"Then, you are adopted?" Belle's golden brow furrowed. "Then, pray tell, what are you doing here?"

"Jeesh, what's with all the questions? Am I being interviewed for something?"

"Well, I'm simply curious as to why—"

"Besides, don't you know?" Kera stopped in front of a grooved wall at the bottom of a looming skyscraper facing the slums. She pointed up at Belle. "You were brought here too!"

Belle did a double-take. "Brought... here...?"

"Yeah..." Kera's green eyes narrowed as she pointed harder. "Weren't you?"

"I..." Belle slowly shook her head. "I-I don't understand..."

"Miss Belle..." Phoenix leaned in. "She's pointing at your horn."

Belle blinked at him. She brought a hoof up and felt the contours of her stub. "Uhm... I... I don't see how you could think that—"

"Whatever." Kera shrugged. "You're way older than me, which means that if you had business with Nightshade, that's between you and her."

"Wait, Madame Nightshade?" Belle leaned forward. "What do you know about her?"

"Only that she's full of manure and smells worst than this place."

"Uhhh..."

"Only, she has a really good way of hiding it."

"Kera, did Nightshade Industries have anything to do with—"

"Do you like grasshoppers?!" Kera asked, her eyes twitching.

Belle grimaced. "I... beg your pardon?"

"I've heard stories of how ponies out west beyond the wastes eat meat and stuff. Same thing with Searonese metal mares. I'm not sure if grasshoppers count as 'meat,' but they can certainly fill you up, so long as you get past the crunchy noises and globs of puss rolling between your lips. Still, they're all over the slums when it rains, and it's a lot easier to get your fill with them than with bread. I've got a whole box in my place! Wanna give it a taste?"

"I... er...." Bellesmith was at a lost for words.

Phoenix leaned in. "Your help has been appreciated, little missy, but we lost the enforcers long ago. I think we should be on our way now."

"Phoenix!" Belle hissed at him. "We can't just leave her?"

"Why not?" Phoenix shrugged. "She seems to be handling herself well enough!"

"You heard her! She knows something that we don't about Nightshade Industries! The ponies who own that building which the tome points to!"

"Miss Bellesmith, we don't even know if she's telling us the truth..."

"She's only been trying to help us! Can't you see that she's lonely and—?"

"Must you forget that she robbed you the first chance she got? She's a street urchin, Miss Bellesmith. She'll say whatever is convenient in order to—"

"Have you tried kissing?" Kera asked, suddenly within a breath's distance from the two.

The adults jumped back, gawking at her.

"Huh?"

"I watch 'beloveds' all the time," Kera said, her green eyes darting back and forth curiously. "They get into arguments in the middle of the street, but all that it takes to stop the fight is a kiss. So why not get it over with so we can trot on?"

"What?! I... We..." Belle tried to hold her lunch in. "Most certainly not!"

"Girl, you've got the wrong idea..." Phoenix waved a calm hoof.

"I would rather leap off a cliff then bring my muzzle anywhere near his!" Belle's voice cracked.

"Yes, she has a point—" Phoenix gave her a double-take. "Whoah, now wait a second—"

"Heeheehee... You're both silly." Kera stuck her tongue out. "Why'd you lose your manes anyway? Got tired of sharing fleas in bed?"

"Ungh!" Belle turned, frowning towards the shadows. "We do not sleep together!"

"Now you gone and done it," Phoenix sighed, gazing tiredly at the little foal. "You realize how long it takes for me to give this mare a pep-talk."

Kera cocked her head aside, squinting. "So... you're not about to kick my teeth in or anything?"

Phoenix's jaw fell. "Huh?"

"Or slam me against the concrete or try to break my ribs?"

Belle flashed her a shocked look. "Definitely not! What would give you that idea?"

Kera shrugged. "Most ponies from these streets... they'd have tried smashing my horn into dust by now. But you guys haven't." She grinned wide. "So that's how I know your cool!" Holding her breath, she turned towards the wall and powered energy into her horn. The groove within the concrete surface of the building widened, allowing for ponies to slide into a thin niche that—just seconds ago—was only large enough to allow the filly to slide through. "Come on!" She motioned and trotted briskly into the corridor. "It's brighter than you think in this city at night! If you really wanna hide from those beret buzzards, you're better off inside this cubby hole with me! Hurry! Grasshoppers await!"

Belle was still fuming, attempting to breathe evenly. "She certainly has a wild imagination."

"Perhaps..." Phoenix smirked at her as he passed on. "But I'm actually starting to like her."

She stood at the rear of the procession for a few seconds before tossing her hooves and trudging after them as the concrete wall panels slid shut behind her. "I'd give anything for Rainbow Dash to have memories of dealing with foals that didn't involve copious amounts of half-conscious bragging..."

Easy, You Two

"Well, could you at least teleport us out of here?!"

"For the millionth friggin' time!" Josho growled across the rattling box car as starlight began glistening through the barred windows of the train. "I can't do crap! These scum-suckin' wolves have some sort of crystal or diode emitting a field that cancels out complex magic!"

"They're foxes, not wolves," Eagle Eye said.

"Nnnngh—Why don't you take one as a pet since you're such a spark-dayum expert!" Josho growled. He turned and resumed stabbing at a flimsy wooden panel with a metal cross-beam that he had picked up from a corner of the car's cluttered interior. "The least you could do is try and help me get out of this express trip to crudville!"

"By doing what?" Eagle Eye frowned, having to crowd behind the older stallion's back while Josho hammered away at the panel. "Burrowing a hole through the wall?! As soon as we jump out, we'll be ground to a paste against the mountainside!"

"You're making it sound really, really appealing..."

"And even if we survive, we're further south now than we were before! At this rate, we'll be attacked by a rampaging squadron of flying Searonese mares, much less Xonan invaders!"

"Hey, if you're such a sissy that you'd rather wait here and let the ferrets have their way with you, be my guest!"

"They're foxes—"

"Nnngh!" Josho stood up, levitating the pointed end of the metal bludgeon against Josho's neck. "You're just begging to eat this and crap out bullets, aren't you?!"

Eagle Eye frowned. "Must you solve everything with unmitigated violence?"

"I've a good mind to solve your face with it!"

"What we need to do right now is stay calm and wait things out!" Eagle Eye motioned out the dim, barred windows. "Eventually, this ride will come to a stop, and they'll try selling us off to Xonans! The opportunity to escape will be then! Not now!"

"Since when were you an expert on jumping off a train?!" Josho's eyes narrowed. "You're a gutless wimp. A coward. You would have had a perfect life designing purses and lacy saddles, but instead you chose to become a soldier, not realizing that you couldn't accessorize worth crud once your sword got blood red!"

"I became a mercenary because it was Franzington tradition!" Eagle Eye retorted, glaring up at the larger stallion. "My father, my family, and my neighbors had no expectations of me—but I defied the odds and became an honorable defender of the very land that you were born in! Just why did you become a soldier, Mr. Beer Gut?! Was it because spilling blood gave you jollies, or was it for the free alcohol pried from the innocent hooves of slain Xonan citizens?!"

"That's it!" Josho spun and bucked Eagle Eye across the face.

"Ooof!" Eagle landed on his back. Through dizzied vision, he squinted up to see Josho breaking the metal beam over two of his knees. Suddenly, the larger stallion was planting his weight against Eagle Eye's belly and pressing the sharp end of the shattered bludgeon to the lavender unicorn's limb, just above the magical manacle. "What in Sp-Spark's name are you doing?!"

"I've had about all I can take of your mouth spewing all sorts of dung and roses! I'm cutting the fertilizer at the head by cutting you off at the elbow!"

"You wouldn't dare..."

"You're confusing me with some stallion who gives a crap!" Josho raised the sharp spear up. "Try not to scream so loud. My eardrums need to stay intact if I want the balance to climb my way off this train."

"Nnngh!" With a surprising burst of strength, Eagle Eye flung his lower hooves up in a reverse-somersault, successfully uppercutting Josho across the chin.

Josho stumbled back, jerking to a stop on the end of his hoofcuff's binding. "Gaagh..." He spat blood and glared at Eagle Eye. "How'd you learn to do that?!"

"The hay do you care?!" Eagle Eye hissed back at him. The adrenalized pair squared off in the center of the rattling train car. "I can do a lot more than you'd ever bother to guess! But why should that matter, huh?! You're dead set on cutting me loose like a lizard's tail!"

"At least a lizard wouldn't pout and whine while shedding its skin..."

"See, there you go again!" Eagle Eye's voice cracked. "If you've hated me so much, why did you even bother saving my life on the cliff besides Foxtaur to begin with?!"

"That's something I think about every damn hour of every damn day!"

"I wanted so hard to believe that there was something good about you!" Eagle Eye exclaimed. "Something righteous! Something wholesome! But you're really just nothing but a huge lardy pile of regrets and beard!"

"You forgot 'salt,'" Josho said, pointing with the spear. "Cuz you certainly seem to be swimming in it right now."

"Nnngh—Shut up!" Eagle Eye stomped his hooves. "You really wanna do this?! Give me the metal so I can cut your leg off! You need it less than I do! Heck, a three-legged stallion would teeter around less than you on a sober day!"

"Even drunk with three legs, I'll have more friends and family who'll love me than you, filly fru fru pants!"

"That's it!" Eagle Eye charged forward. "Raaaugh!"

"Ooof!" Josho took the spearing lunge to the chest. The stallions rolled across the box car, exchanging hoof-punches and headbutts. Eventually, Josho grunted and kicked Eagle Eye off of him.

The petite unicorn flew through a wooden crate, smashing it into splinters and stumbling to the side.

Josho ran along the length of the purple energy binding them. He gripped the metal shard in his mouth and prepared to lunge it through Eagle Eye's ribcage.

Just then, Eagle burst out of the fresh pile of debris. The crate had been full of kitchen utensils, and he was employing his telekinesis in lifting a pot lid and a rolling pin. When Josho ended his charge, Eagle blocked with the improvised shield and slammed the sword-like lid across the stallion's face.

"Skkkt!" Josho hissed bloodily. He took a second rolling pin to the face, but ducked in time to avoid the pot lid flying towards his skull like as pinning disc. Snarling, he fired a shot of magic at Eagle Eye's hooves.

"Whoah!" Eagle Eye gasped as he was flung towards the ceiling. "Unngh!" He slammed against the insides of the box car repeatedly from Josho's merciless grip. At one point, he twirled and flung the rolling pin down like a missile.

It ricocheted off of Josho's horn, forcing him to stumble back. "Ow ow ow ow—Dang it!"

Eagle Eye landed, spun, hoof-planted on his upper limbs, and bucked Josho upside the chin with his lower hooves.

"Gaaah!" Josho fell back and crashed through a wooden desk, filling the air with a blizzard of shredded papers.

"Nnnnnnngh!" Eagle Eye charged furiously across the box car towards him.

Josho pivoted and kicked a rolling chair at the unicorn.

"Aaaackies!" Eagle Eye tripped clumsily over the object, landing in Josho's gripping forelimbs.

With a snarl, Josho body slammed Eagle into the ground once... twice... and pressed his weight down on top of him. "Heh... nice try, but you fight like a friggin' mare..."

Eagle Eye grunted. "Speak for yourself." And he reverse-kicked two hooves murderously hard in between Josho's lower legs.

"Snkkkt-Yeaaaaaaaugh!" Josho fell down like a slab of meat, spasming in agony.

Eagle Eye tried standing up—but ultimately stumbled down as well.

Both stallions sat on the rubble-strewn floor of the rattling box car, serenaded by the sounds of their pained breaths. Eventually, it was Eagle Eye who pulled himself successfully up. He trotted over towards where the metal shard had been dropped by Josho.

Josho had finally managed to lose the tears of pain from his eyes. Uncrossing his lower legs, he rolled onto his back and looked up... only to have a sharp chunk of metal pressed up against his throat. His eyes twitched in terror.

Eagle Eye glared down at him, levitating the dangerous object up against the stallion's jugular. "It would be so easy... so dang easy to just skewer you like a fish and end my troubles right here and now," he sneered. After a shuddering breath, though, he added, "But then a whole wave of new troubles would begin. Believe it or not, I'm a soldier. And, like a soldier, I do my best when I'm following orders. There's nothing in life that I hate more than being alone. Back home, in Franzington?" He winced, but ultimately stammered, "I was more alone than ever. So, I joined Crimson's company, and I had purpose. But Crimson is... is d-dead now, and so is every pony I ever cared for. What am I to do with my purpose, then? Let it j-just go to waste?"

Josho gazed up at him. Silent. Sober.

"I don't want this..." Eagle Eye murmured, his eyes close to tears. "I never asked for any of it. I just... nnngh... I just want to get out of here. I want to run away from all this war and headache and heartache and... and find the home that's waiting for me, so I won't be alone anymore! And I'm not gonna get any of that done if one of us bites the dust!"

Clenching his eyes shut, the petite stallion snarled and spun about.

"So, no more of this stupid nonsense! If you wanted a stallion to kill, you should have been bound to somepony else!" He flung the metal shard at the nearest window. "Raaaugh!"

There was a loud crack, echoing throughout the box car.

Josho sat up with a gasp.

Eagle Eye froze in place, twitching.

The rusted bars to the window had shattered from the shard's impact. The metal pipes dangled, dangled, then fell free, exposing a flimsy pane of glass that was all that stood between the box car's interior and freedom.

Eagle Eye blinked. He glanced down at Josho.

Josho glanced up at Eagle Eye.

After a few seconds of silence, Josho hopped up and tossed a chair through the window, smashing it. With cold mountain air wafting in, he and Eagle Eye fought and scrambled for room to wriggle out of the confining train car.

"Move it! I'm going first!"

"No, me!"

"I'm stronger! I'll climb to the roof faster!"

"You're fat! I'd be surprised if you'd even fit through the thing!"

Clak a Clak

With much effort, grunting, and more grunting, Josho was the first to wriggle his way through the side window of the box car. He gritted his teeth into the whipping mountain winds, his eyes full of tears and stars. The train was speeding south in a steady blur. A steep stope loomed towards the left, meanwhile a solid line of trees whizzed by on the right, and beyond them were the craggy ridges of a looming mountain. The ground below moved by so quickly that the stallion was certain that a single wad of his own spit would lop off twenty full feet of grass.

"Friggin' perfect..." Grunting some more, he twirled about and slapped both forelimbs straight up. Gripping the edge of the box car's roof, he pulled himself up. He was aware of a repetitive thumping noise from down below, but he ignored it as he struggled to position himself upright. At last, once the window was free, Eagle Eye's body lunged out the window beneath him, tethered magically to Josho's forelimb.

"D-did you have to be so quick about it?!" Eagle spattered, rubbing a spot on his forelimb. "Careful, or else you might—Gaah!" He nearly plunged off the edge of the train.

"Less whining and more train surfing!" Josho viciously yanked skyward with his forelimbs. Along the length of the magical purple band, Eagle was lifted out of the train and onto the rattling rooftop besides the obese stallion.

"Ooomf!" Eagle Eye flailed about like a lavender cockroach. "Jeez! I'm a living thing, y'know!"

"Try not to remind me!" Josho hissed into the biting air. He flashed a look left and right, glancing at both ends of the train. "This is nuts!" he growled into the wind. "The damn thing's moving too quickly to jump out!"

"You mean with our bones intact, right? Cuz I'm all for taking the plunge at this point."

"Don't be a drama queen, drama queen. We gotta slow this thing down if we wanna get off safely."

"So... what then?" Eagle Eye tried standing up. He tumbled and leaned weakly against Josho's figure. "We... we t-take over the engine?"

"If we had a full battallion, sure. But we don't." Josho took a deep breath. "It'd be more sensible if we detached this box car. Once it's separated from the rest of the train, it should slow down to a safe speed on its own."

"What about the magic suppression field?"

"If we combine our telekinesis, we should manage to unlock the couplers!" Josho motioned with his head and crawled against the rushing air, inching towards the front of the train. "Come on! Keep low! Whatever happens, just promise not to shriek like a filly—"

"Ah-ha!" A fox wearing goggles suddenly flipped up and landed on the edge of the box car before them.

"Giyaaaa!" Eagle Eye clung to Josho.

"Nnnngh—What did I just—?!"

With a clicking sound, the fox crouched low and produced a revolver. "I knew something was up! You think we didn't have the windows of each car rigged, ya stupid hoofers?!"

Josho sighed with a slump of his shoulders. "One of these days, why can't we just be foalnapped by a bunch of talking tortoises?"

"You're needed for a very important trade. We're not about to let down the Xonan magistrate." The fox motioned with his free hand towards the box-car below. "Back into your hold, horsies, before I have to put my foot down."

"Way ahead of you." Frowning, Josho raised both forelimbs.

Eagle Eye blinked. "What are you doing—?"

"Rrrrgh!" Josho slammed both hooves into the wooden rooftop of the rattling box car below. A long plank beneath him collapsed, and the opposite end flew straight up, uppercutting the fox across his furry orange jaw.

"Glllggrkt!" The creature teetered back. He lost grip of his gun.

The revolver flew along with the air, sailing like a silver comet past Eagle Eye's head. He turned to gawk at it—then yelped as he was suddenly dragged forward.

"Haaaaaaugh!" Josho charged like an angry bull. When he reached the fox, he speared him viciously in the chest. The two went flying over the space between compartments, landing on the next car ahead. "Nnngh!" Applying his heavy weight over the fox, he started pummeling the creature mercilessly.

In the meantime, Eagle Eye dangled on the edge of the second-to-last car, above the rattling couplers. He hissed through clenched teeth as he attempted climbing up to join his violent companion. Just then, he heard rattling of paws on the other side of the door in front of him. He gasped.

"Rrrrgh!" Josho bit onto the fox's ear and tossed him—shrieking—into the open countryside towards the left of the speeding train. "Hah! Trade in Hell, fur freak!"

"Th-they're coming!" Eagle Eye stammered from down below. "I can hear them—"

"All the frickin' world's a stage." Josho held his breath and used all his strength to drag Eagle Eye up onto the roof of the second car.

As soon as Eagle landed, he used his telekinesis to give Josho a boost. Scrambling onto their hooves, they sprinted towards the engine of the train four cars ahead. They could hear the door behind and below them opening wide, followed by the shouting gasps of the foxes climbing up in pursuit.

"Did you grab the jerk's gun?!" Josho asked.

"No! I was too busy being dragged into the next century!"

"Well, if that isn't your life's story!"

Josho's voice was cut off by loud blasts ringing through the air. Bullets whizzed by them, ricocheting off the wooden rooftops of the train cars. Two foxes charged after the two, crouching and firing at random intervals. At one point, they took extra care to aim.

Just then, the train hit a curve. Wheels grinded and shrieked, showering sparks across the rails below. The last few pistol rounds flew way off course, allowing Josho and Eagle Eye an open opportunity to jump onto the next car. Eagle landed with no problem whatsoever. Josho....

"Gaaah!" He shrieked, the sound of his voice enveloped by a crunching noise. His two lower limbs had smashed deep into the body of the train's roof. He fought and struggled to get free, but his body had sunk too deep. "Oh, for crying out loud..."

"The idiot's stuck!" one of the foxes shouted into the air, grinning as he paused to reload his pistol. "How awesome is that?"

"Shut up!" grunted a fox with an eyepatch. "Don't you see where they are?!"

"Uhhh..."

The one-eyed fox aimed with his pistol. "Don't let them get to the merchandise!" He fired.

Bullet bounced off the wooden surface just inches from Josho's flank.

"Augh!" Josho flinched, gritting his teeth. "Sonuva..."

"Nnnngh!" Eagle Eye tugged and tugged, using both his forelimbs and his magic. "Stop... being... so... fat...!"

"I've had nothing to eat but your sugar and spice in both ears for three days!"

"Will you shut up with that—?!" Eagle let out a shriek as a bullet whizzed by him.

"Wish this damn train would stop turning—" The eyepatched fox grumbled.

"Step aside, deadeye." The other finished reloading and aimed his weapon with a piercing gaze. "I got this."

Eagle Eye panted for breath. He glanced over his shoulder, spotting a tree hanging low over the blurring train. He aimed his horn, and his face tensed up as he summoned a desperate burst of magic. Two branches snapped loose, grazed the two ponies' skulls, and bounced murderously towards the foxes.

"Look out!" the one with the eyepatched rolled aside.

"Gaaaah—!" The other privateer's voice left him as soon as his throat did... and his whole head for that matter. What was left of his torso toppeled bloodily to the side.

Pale-faced, the other creature looked up, snarled, and tossed his pistol aside. Unsheathing a glistening dagger, he skittered-skittered-skittered across the train top with a warcry.

Eagle Eye braced himself, using his telekinesis at the last second to hold the fox's dagger back. That didn't stop the creature from plunging into him with pure bloodlust. The two wrestled and tumbled across the box-car as the wind kicked at their thrashing bodies.

"Buck him!" Josho grunted, still struggling to pull himself loose. "Just buck him already!"

"What... does... it look like—?!" Eagle Eye gasped as the fox got the upper hand.

"Nnnngh!" The fox snarled and plunged the dagger down towards Eagle's neck.

At the last second, the mercenary fired a blast of magic. The fox's eyepatch swiveled to cover his one good eye.

"Daah!" The fox lurched.

Metal rang in the air as the dagger landed just an inch away from Eagle's ear. With a grunt, he kicked his legs straight up.

The fox's body flailed as he fell back the full length of a train car in the wind. He landed, tumbled, and rolled back into the space between compartments, where he dangled awkwardly.

Eagle Eye stood up, panting for breath. With his horn, he pulled and pulled at the dagger until it flew out from the traintop and levitated in his grasp. Swallowing, he glanced down at Josho.

Josho stared up at him.

Eagle Eye blinked. He glanced at Josho's predicament, then at the shiny blade in his grasp.

Josho gulped.

The young stallion's brow furrowed. With a frown, he stabbed down at the enforcer.

Josho flinched, only to feel a spray of wooden chips across his face. He opened his twitching eyes to see the unicorn digging and peeling away at the hole that had ensnared the obese pony's body.

"Don't know what this 'special merchandise' is that they were talking about beneath us, but it'd be a shame to have your fat flank smash through it," Eagle Eye grunted. "Once I get you out, we're taking over the engine. You hear me?"

Josho nodded slowly, his dry mouth agape. "Yeah. Hear you loud and clear, kid."

"Always wanted to ride a train. Never thought I'd have to take one over at knife-point."

"I think you're tearing away too much, kid. Kid?! Darn it, stop!"

"Whoah!" It was too late, Eagle Eye pulled one plank too many. The hole collapsed wider, and both stallions went plunging into the pitch dark of the box car below.

Screw the Air

"Uhhhh... Uhhhhhhh..." Eagle Eye whimpered as he dangled and dangled some more. He gazed down and gulped at the distant treetops of jagged pines looming below the managlider in naked starlight. "Uhhhhhhhh..."

"Will ya flippin' settle down?!" Josho grumbled, coasting the craft northwest over mountaintops. "Last time I piloted a managlider sober was before the Eastern Valley Campaign. I bet you were too busy sucking on your tail and crapping onto your mother's backside."

"Th-This would be a lot easier for the b-both of us if I wasn't hanging off the side like a loose anchor!" Eagle Eye exclaimed.

"Like Hell I'm gonna share this seat with you!" Josho grunted. "I don't take kindly to the position we would need to be in. Just rest your flank; the trouble is behind us now—"

At that precise moment, a cluster of pine trees exploded beneath them. Chunks of wood, burning pine cones, and a screaming squirrel or two flew past them in the starlight.

"Huh..." Josho glanced back and spotted three glinting objects roaring after them with blue manalight. "Oh, for the love of backsweat!"

"What?! What?!"

"Screw it." Josho reached down with a single hoof and yanked Eagle Eye up by his bound forelimb. "Better do this the dirty way or else it's the dead way!"

"Ooomf!" Eagle Eye grunted, straddling the cramped seat of the managlider in front of the enforcer. "Guh..." He frowned. "The heck do you mean by—" His irises shrunk as he realized that he wasn't straddling the seat so much as he was straddling— "Oh my..."

"No ideas, or else you're gonna have no brain mush!" Josho hissed directly into Eagle Eye's muzzle, as the two stallions had little to no other luxury for mounting the craft. He leaned over Eagle Eye's blanching face and adjusted the control instruments, now with full access. "Keep an eye on our six!"

"On our 'six,' got it—Aaaack!" Eagle Eye clung to Josho, trembling, as the enforcer accelerated over the forested hills, all the while bobbing and weaving to avoid the foxes' energy blasts. The dark night lit up with blue mana as the pursuing vessels took multiple shots at their target. With the sound of screaming engines, Josho plunged their managlider down so that they were soaring along the lines of multiple trees, attempting in desperation to throw off their enemies.

"They're still on us!" Eagle Eye shouted, pivoting his muzzle so that he wasn't screaming directly into Josho's ear. "One of them is closing in fast!"

"Stupid... friggin' Grey Smoke tech..."

"Huh?!"

"These mana-gliders have 'Grey Smoke' written all over them!" Josho grunted over the whipping winds and explosions of mana blasts. "Grey Smoke ponies are good at making speedy vehicles, but they never build any damn rear-turrets into their craft! What the foxes thought they'd get for selling these to the Xonans is beyond me! Give me a heaping helping of Nightshade Industrial tech any day!"

"Thanks for the schoolroom lecture!" Eagle Eye frowned. "Uh... the foxes?"

"Get ready to lend me that shnazzy horn of yours!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Telekinesis, ya fruit badger!" Josho twisted the controls and extended two turrets from the managlider's front. "I'm gonna give you something to lob at them!"

"Oh jeez... oh jeez oh jeez oh jeezz—"

"Heads up!" Josho fired into a line of trees directly in front of them. Burning chunks of wood flew high into the stars, sailing straight at them.

Clinging to Josho, Eagle thrusted his neck forward and aimed his horn into the smoldering cloud of debris. He caught over a dozen shards of wood, carrying them with the craft as Josho lifted them both into a steady climb.

Blue streaks of mana surged violently close to their ascending forms.

"Anyday now, kid!" Josho grunted.

"Nnngh!" Eagle jerked his head beyond Josho's shoulder. One by one, he flung the burning wreckage at the pursuers, pelting their crafts like a rebel flinging molotov cocktails.

For the most part, the foxes swerved left and right to avoid the materials altogether. One or two chunks of ashen mess ricocheted off the vehicles' silver bodies, but it had no effect.

"Nothing's helping!" Eagle Eye exclaimed.

"Kid...?" Josho cracked the joints in his neck and yerked at the controls. "Get ready to fling all of the junk at once."

"Huh—Whoah!" Eagle Eye pressed hard into Josho's chest as the managlider soared skyward. Josho flipped the craft about and twirled it in the opposite direction, sailing straight towards the three foxes. Before the vehicles could swerve out of the way, Eagle Eye got the drop on them by tossing all that was left of his telekinetic debris. Two of the pursuers dodged, but one of them took a face-full of the smoldering bricabrac. Blinded, her failed to swerve out of Josho's line of sight.

"Eat the Queen's wrath!" Josho hollered maniacally, his hooves slapping over the trigger mechanisms. Bright blue streams of energy flew into the one pilot's craft and ruptured the manacore from the inside. A huge ball of fire erupted in the air, laced with screams and fox fur. Josho flew underneath it, barely falling past the spreading bits of shrapnel. "Hah!" Josho yelled again, pulling the craft up in a spiraling path that banked them once more towards the northwest. "Best fox hunt I've ever been on!"

"'Eat the Queen's wrath?!'" Eagle Eye stammered.

"Oh, don't you friggin' start..."

"I'm just saying, before he died, he likely only heard 'Eat the Queen.'"

"Look, we killed the bastard, okay?"

"Wouldn't Ledo be ticked off to think that you implied—?"

"What will it take to get you to shut up?!" Josho's frown left him as two explosions of blue flak erupted on either side of them.

Eagle Eye buried his face in Josho's chest. "Get th-them off our tail, pleeeeease!" he yelled into the obese pony's graying coat.

"Oh, buck this all to Hell." Josho yanked back at the controls.

The two stallions' manes blew like windsocks as they climbed, climbed, climbed up towards the starlit zenith. Flying straight skyward, Josho sought to outfly the two remaining pursuers. The foxes proved too resilient—or too pissed off—to let the ponies go. They spun and twirled to dodge streaming sprays of blue mana, but soon that was the least of their problems. The air grew thin, frigid, and frosty. The engine strained and the manathrusters began to sputter.

"Come on... Come on..." Josho jerked and jerked at the controls.

"We're stalling!" Eagle Eye trembled to say.

"They c-can't possibly follow us this high—"

"Look, I know enough about airflight to tell you that at this rate, we're gonna—"

For a split second, there was no gravity, and then the managlider plunged straight back. If the two stallions could scream, they would hear their voices sailing behind them. Instead, they heard the sputtering of two more engines, and realized that theirs wasn't the only vehicle that had stalled. As the clouds passed and cleared, they looked on either side of them to see the foxes' gliders falling like identical stones, plummeting towards the rock-hard mountains below.

"Pull us out of this!" Eagle Eye grunted. "Pull us up!"

"What does it look like I'm trying to—"

"Haaah!" One of the foxes pivoted his craft about in free-fall. His lopside turrets spun around, firing madly in a blue stream.

Eagle Eye and Josho concentrated, summoning a bubble of telekinesis directly in front of them. Two or three shots that could have connected with their bodies were instead deflected.

Stupidly, the fox pilot didn't relinguish the grip of his trigger mechanisms in time to avoid shooting past the stallions, and straight into his partner's craft on the other side. The other creature's screams joined the thunderous eruption of his vehicle as the managlider exploded with a hellish burst. The concussion of the blast sent Josho's and Eagle's craft falling sideways until they collided with the last pursuer.

"Guhh!" Eagle Eye jerked and fell loose. He dangled briefly from Josho's manacled forelimb until he got tangled up in the piloting instruments of the enemy glider. The fox gripped his lower body and pulled out a revolver, aiming it at Josho's skull. "Look out—" Eagle Eye shrieked above the whipping winds.

Josho jerked hard on the controls. He tried breaking loose from the other falling craft, but the gliders' wings were locked together, so that instead of soaring towards safety, the two vehicles spun in an awkward circle. They continued falling, all the while the fox throwing off each of the fox's pot shots. Eagle Eye tried kicking him, but the fox held him back with a stiff leg while jerking in the opposite direction at his controls. This caused the falling vehicles to stop spinning. Grinning wickedly, the creature aimed directly at Josho's heart.

Josho's peripheral vision filled with the rising spires of pine trees. They were just seconds from plunging into the earth. Without a second thought, he flung a beam of telekinesis from his horn and into the barrel of the fox's revolver.

When the fox pulled the trigger, the bullet had nowhere to go. His gun exploded in his grip, taking his furred hand with it. "Gyaaaaugh!" the fox fell back against his seat, clutching the bloodied stub.

Eagle Eye bucked off the glider, knocking it loose so that the vehicle's wings untangled with the stallions. With a desperate lunge, Eagle jumped through the air.

Josho caught him. Slumping back in the seat, he pulled hard on the machine's instruments. The managlider barrel-rolled away from the enemy craft, fired its thrusters, and thundered off just as the pursuer met an explosive end. The air whizzed and whistled from flying shrapnel. Two chunks of metal flew into the belly of the ponies' vehicle, filling the air with the smell of raw mana.

"Wh-what's that?!" Eagle Eye breathlessly stammered.

"We've taken a hit!" Josho growled over his face, struggling to grip the controls easily and hold the smaller stallion at the same time. "I can't hold altitude!"

"Slow us down!"

"If I wanted to, don't you think I would have done that by—" Josho's face paled. "Oh buffalo biscuits."

"What? What?!"

"Hold on!" Josho yanked back, back, back at the controls, almost to the breaking point. Eagle Eye turned to look over his shoulder at the hazard in question. A sharp promontory loomed in front of them, barely a sneeze away from smashing them to bits.

Both ponies let loose a prolonged scream as the engine went out. Two lasting spurts of thruster energy was all it took, and the two miraculously cleared the cliff face. That didn't stop them, however, from ricocheting off two pine trees and grinding several feet through the soft earth. The managlider hit a boulder at the end of its drag, and the two ponies' bodies were launched—flailing—into the jagged forest beyond.

Then all was silent.

By Invitation Only

It was a deep bass tone, almost similar to a fog horn, that made Pilate sit up with a gasp. On numb hooves, he trotted briskly across the tight space of the zeppelin's gondola. He leaned up against the edge of the vessel's railing, piercing the high winds of night with his muzzle. Once again, sounding out from the darkness, there was another heavy, blaring noise. It was soon accompanied by other sounds, a smattering of various bedlam, including grinding gears, whirring pistons, and the muttering of multiple workers.

"A factory..." Pilate gulped. "Mr. Floydien?" He turned, pivoting his head towards where he knew the one creature steering the vessel was situated. "Mr. Floydien, I believe we're approaching a city!"

"A city it would be called if it ran less like the stabbiest of zoos," grunted his companion's voice in response. "Here there is nothing but groaning and Blueing and Novaing. That is a prison that only pretends to be a city."

"Blue Nova..." Pilate murmured to himself. He felt Simon scampering past him with a swish of his bushy tail, but that didn't stop the zebra from tilting his twitching ears towards the wind and listening for even more clamoring noises. "Grinding gears. Steam vents. Laborers..." The stallion gritted his teeth. "By the Spark! I know! The city has a famous industrial sector along its northeast side!" He blinked, then tilted his head towards his companion. "But, Mr. Floydien, what would you want from the elevated factories of this maretropolis?"

"Stabby stabby horses think they can fill metal and fake bone with the glimmer after they have stolen it from membrane and real bone. Cover it with spit, they will, if only to hide the facts that they hide the fillies and the beloveds from families."

"Hide the fillies and beloveds..." Pilate's ears folded back. "Could... could your Nancy Jane be here?"

"There is no where else for the stabby stabby to have taken her. She awaits the glimmer from all sides, glimmer that is not hers nor should ever be." Floydien paused, suppressing a growl. When he spoke again, it was almost as if he was channeling a different, darker voice. "What comes next will need more sparks than striped boomer or Simon can provide."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Nancy Jane cannot be saved so easily. All the spit in the world cannot change this. Floydien knows. Floydien has always known."

"At least let me help you in some fashion!" Pilate had to shout. The noise of factory work was building up and up in the air around them. He smelled pungent fumes of smoke. Somehow, he didn't doubt that if he stretched a hoof out beyond the edge of the deck, he might touch the smokestacks as they passed by. "The O.A.S.I.S. sphere could help us track Nancy Jane down! Then, once we've got her, we'll search for Belle, right?"

"Striped boomer's glimmer sphere has served its purpose." Floydien was strangely quiet, almost sullen. "The spark is nearly drained from it. Floydien does not think the ball will do what the ball will do for much longer."

"Then... uh... g-give it another charge!" Pilate exclaimed, leaning forward. Four sets of paws landed on his shoulder. He ignored Simon's twitching figure and continued speaking. "You can do that, right? Give the sphere... uh... more glimmer?"

"It is too late for the spark to help us in the realm of the stabby stabby."

"Why do you say that?!" Pilate frowned. "What's changed, Mr. Floydien? Why can't we grab Nancy Jane and go after my beloved—?" He gasped upon feeling a very familiar sphere of metal thrusted into his forelimbs. "Ooof!"

"Because the horse horse is upon us, and ready to behead the unbeheaded, they are. Floydien's fate was determined by utmost glimmer. But striped boomer? No no no. Live another day, he should."

"I... I don't get it..." Pilate quietly raised the sphere to the choker around his neck and attached it. "What in spark's name are you talking about—?" He gasped, for he could sense beyond the edge of the small, puttering zeppelin. Three heavy bodies were flying up, up, up towards the craft, and they were full of bodies armed with rods of brimming energy: undoubtedly tasers. "Well, that's rather unpleasant..."

"The paws of Simon are upon striped boomer, yes yes?"

Pilate suddenly winced, feeling a pulse of energy overcoming the sensory field of the O.A.S.I.S. sphere. He realized that it was emanating from the rodent perched upon his shoulder. "Uhh... yes? Yes they are?"

"Allow him to be your guide. Floydien goes after Nancy Jane, for Floydien can help striped boomer no further."

"Please. I beg you. Tell me what's happening! Tell me what they want with—!"

Just then, a speaker crackled loudly. Sound stones hummed to life, resonating with an angry stallion's voice as the three Ledomaritan vessels flew up and surrounded the tiny zeppelin.

"Halt! Bring your engines to a stop! You are trespassing on Nightshade Industries' property! Explain yourselves!"

Simon barked with a shrill, mouse-like voice.

Meanwhile, Pilate stammered into the winds. "Nightshade... Industries...?"

The smoke in the air had become positively smoldering.

By Invasion Only

"An explanation or more glimmer?" Floydien's voice shouted back towards the hovering vessel. "Stabby stabby yourselves before you mix up what you want with what you give!"

The sound stones crackled as the voice on the other end of the megaphone growled, "What in Spark's name is this creature going on about?!" Several Ledomaritan voices argued hushedly with one another. "I don't know who you think you are, but you are violating airspace above a Nightshade Industrial Facility! Bring your airship about and—"

"Floydien comes for Nancy Jane, because the Madame of Night and Shading took her away from Floydien! A fair exchange, it was not. I never asked for glimmer. I never asked for the eyes and the nights of stars and crackles!"

"Friggin' maniac, I swear to—" The megaphone cut off as more hushed voices grumbled and muttered. "I don't care where you think he's from! He's obviously a vagabond and a lunatic—"

"Bite the stabby stabby horses' tongues!" Floydien snarled. The air filled with static energy, raising the hair along Pilate's coat. "Only Floydien gets to speak about Floydien in the third pony!"

And, just like that, a loud crack of thunder rolled. The air heated up, then tingled with electricity as the voices across the way yelped. The patrol ship's engines veered and sputtered.

"Holy crap!"

"What did he just launch from his friggin' antlers?!"

"I don't care! Shoot it! Shoot it!"

"You cannot shoot what you cannot spit at!" Floydien's hooves clamored across the swaying gondola. The air whistled as another blast went off. "Boomers be boomed! For Nancy Jane!"

Screams and howls of peril echoed. Smoke billowed left and right across Pilate's muzzle. He concentrated, and yet all he could sense were residual pulses of runic mana emanating from a tiny source on his shoulder: Simon. With each sparkle of mysterious energy from the rodent's crown, the zebra's sphere felt in every direction at once. He sensed the body of their dirigible weaving, smokestabs looming below, and a metallic vessel dead ahead, careening in a sharp turn as bodies clashed and collided with one another. Hooves flailed, and horns crossed with strange branches brimming with energy.

"Floydien shall pour out all the spit until you give her back!" The voice roared in the middle of the maelstrom. Grunting, cussing ponies drowned him out, not before he could get a shot out. The air crackled with thunder yet again. Pilate went doubly blind as burning tendrils of energy ribboned across the O.A.S.I.S. field. There was a burst of hot air, followed by the ghostly whistle of leaking steam. Their airship had been struck.

"Gaaah!" Pilate fell to the side, banging against the railing. He winced, tilting his head up. He felt Simon a dozen feet away, and O.A.S.I.S.'s energy jumped to it, pulsing, revealing the body of a spinning zeppelin that was deflating, falling, tilting at thirty degrees... forty-five degrees... sixty...

Pilate tried climbing up the side of the drifting, plummeting ship, but several ropes snapped loose from the dirigible above. He screamed, falling through space. He flung a hoof up and caught the rudder of the airship before he could fall to an incalculably long drop. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to pull himself back up. The aircraft had fallen into a spiral; he could feel his lower body dangling like the tail to a shredded kite.

"Nnnngh... guh... Floydien!" he shouted, feeling his hoof slipping. "Mr. Floydien! Augh!" He couldn't yell hard enough. The battle was looming high above. The sound of churning smokestacks boiled all around him. He could feel hot ash pelting him from all sides. "Simon?! Somepony, please! I-I'm falling!"

Just then, the entire airship jolted. Through a sheer miracle alone, he remained clinging to the edge of the craft. He heard a loud grinding sound of the wooden vehicle scraping against the edge of a factory's spire as he lost more and more altitude.

Panting, Pilate pivoted around. The blood was rushing away from his limb. His twitching ears pounded as he sought for a sign of Simon. O.A.S.I.S. was deader than stone, and the darkness beyond the bedlam was for once overwhelming.

"Belle..." Pilate stammered as he finally lost his grip. A last breath. "I love you..."

The zebra plummeted. He flipped three times. He sailed liked a rock towards some unseen abyss. His eyes teared and his breath hyperventilated. Then, suddenly, he realized that a good ten seconds had passed. Twenty seconds. Thirty.

He couldn't possibly have been so high that the drop would have taken a minute to consume him. What was more...

"The w-wind..." He spoke out loud, shivering in midair. "What the devil?!" He could hear Floydien's voice in the distance. If he was still within earshot of his former companion, then that would mean—"I'm... n-not falling?"

As if in answer, a shrill voice chriped from his shoulder Pilate felt a pulse of energy through O.A.S.I.S, streaking through a tiny rodent's body and illuminating a field of floating objects around him... and along with him. Chunks of broken zeppelin matter were levitating in the air besides his flailing form.

"S-Simon!" Pilate gasped. "Simon, you're... y-you're telekinetic...?"

Another chirp. When O.A.S.I.S. pulsed again, the energy was a great deal more concentrated, highlighting the rodent's tail, body, and crown. Pilate experienced a ghostly sensation, as if he was both looking at the squirrel and existing as the squirrel at the same time. In that blink of otherworldly senses, he felt a pair of sparkling tesla coils atop the rodent's cranium.

"Fascinating," the zebra quipped.

Up above, another crack of magical thunder rolled. It was accompanied by the tell-tale sign of a dirigible completely exploding. Hot air surged everywhere at once, followed by the horrific whistling of a heavy weight throttling towards them.

"Simon, Floydien said you would be my guide—now would be a good time to start!" Pilate sputtered.

As if gripped in a magical set of teeth, the two souls were yanked downward and away from the hurdling body of their former aircraft. Pilate's breath left him as his hooves made contact with a sheet of glass. He slid down an angled cliff of windowpanes, his body rolling and stumbling like a giant ponyquin. Below him, a terrible shattering sound resonated. He realized that what was left of the miniature zeppelin had collapsed through the glass ceiling of some sort of tall building. Pilate felt himself sliding towards a yawning hole.

"Simon! The building! We're going to—"

Instead of stopping, the zebra's body accelerated. He felt a magical push—filled with static electricity and resolve. Yelping, Pilate plunged past a cloud of broken glass. His skin stung in several places, then was soothed by the first taste of air conditioning in months. Two loud noises filled his ears: the rumble of a collapsing zeppelin hitting the lower floors, and an annoying siren blaring through the shattered interior of the place.

Before he could make sense out of all of the sounds, he felt his hooves touching down onto a tile floor. He reached out, and his hoof graced a railing, something expensive and polished.

"Solid oak... varnished..." Pilate's ears twitched. "An office complex?" He gulped. "Nightshade Industries. We're deep in the center of Nightshade's manufacturing division in Blue Nova..." He shuddered and flinched from several shards of glass still falling from above. "Then... th-then that must mean..."

Four paws landed squarely on his flank.

"Gah!" He breathed easier. "Oh, Simon! Simon, thank you for saving me." He gulped. "Listen, I don't know if you can understand me any better than Floydien. You're obviously... not a normal squirrel. But, if you can, then—"

Two paws pulled and tugged on Pilate's ears. The zebra winced, then froze in place as another pulse of energy connected O.A.S.I.S. with the rodent. He could feel the little creature's paws pointing towards the far end of a long bridge stretching across the lofty lobby. The sound of sliding doors and galloping hooves became clear through the mayhem of the settling crash.

"Blessed Spark..." Pilate gulped and nodded vehemently. "You're right. We must hide. No sense in letting what happened to Floydien... h-happen to us..."

Simon tugged the zebra's ears in one particular direction. Taking a gamble, Pilate galloped that way, waited for another pulse of energy, and navigated his way into a series of utility closets.

Yup Yup Yup

A sickly crunch echoed across the tiny concrete niche.

"Mmmfh...mrrmmff..." Kera chewed and chewed, squatting over a tin case full of legless grasshoppers. "Y'all want some? Mmmf! They got some sun so they're extra crispy!"

Phoenix smiled nervously and said, "I... do believe we are fine, Miss Meh."

"It's Mehjj!" The filly frowned. "What, are you deaf?"

"Uhhh..."

"And didn't I tell you to call me 'Kera?'"

"Hey, did you...?" Bellesmith spoke up, blinking. "Uhm..." The adult mare was standing by the alcove's edge, gazing directly out upon the mana-lit street at fetlock-level. A thin space afforded her a glance at Blue Nova's mightier spires in the distance. "Did you ponies hear something?"

Kera took another crunching bite. Phoenix glanced over at the foal before returning a thin-eyed gaze at Belle. "Nothing unusual for a hole in the ground like this."

"Mmmf—Hey!" Kera glanced up, frowning. She spat out a segmented leg and barked, "You want I should make a hole in your face!"

"I seriously doubt you could, kid."

"Older colts have lost their teeth for saying much less!"

Belle blinked. "Is there a storm passing through? I heard thunder... or something like it..."

"Ms. Belle...?"

"Nothing. I'm just..." Belle sighed and ran a hoof through nonexistent bangs. "I'm tired. So very tired."

"Well, why didn't ya say so?!" Kera used a beam of telekinesis to fling a moth-eaten canvas blanket in the mare's direction. "Roll up and catch yourself some z's, lady! There's no rent in this hotel! Ha!"

Belle took the blanket graciously. She paused, however, and leaned forward to squint at the fabric. She spotted several bulbous pale things crawling up and down the material.

"It's best to let some of the ticks suck your blood," Kera said from the other end of the infested blanket. "They'll make for a finer breakfast in the morning."

Belle shuddered and immediately rolled the thing up. "I do believe I have some strength in me to last a while longer." She slide the item out of sight. "Thanks anyways."

Kera shrugged. "Your loss." She bit into another grasshopper, dusted her hooves off, and closed the tin case. "Better get used to your new lap of luxury. Things don't get shiny on their own. You gotta work to make 'em bright, if ya know what I'm saying."

Belle exchanged quiet glances with Phoenix before clearing her throat. "Ahem. Kera, I... I have to ask you—"

"No, I haven't."

Belle blinked. "'No, you haven't' what?"

"Ever murdered a pony," Kera said.

Even Phoenix blanched at that. "The heck made you think she was gonna ask that, kid?"

"Because my magic is so awesome, I'm suprised y'all think I haven't summoned a meteor onto this whole town by now!"

"Would you want to?!" Belle remarked, suppressing a smile.

"If it'd get me bits, I'd smash anything!" Kera slapped a hoof against her pale chest. "What, you think I haven't got it in me?! Just you wait and see! Why, just last Friday, I summoned a flame giraffe!"

"A flame giraffe..." Phoenix droned.

"Yuppers!"

"I do not think you have it in your capacity to summon a flame giraffe," Belle said with a subtle grin.

"Bite your tongue! You check this out!" Kera leaned forward, tensing her face. "Nnnngh! Hhhhhhhnnngh!" Her tattoos glowed and sparkled from top to bottom. The tip of her horn shimmered with blue light, then went dim. "Ummf!" She collapsed onto her chest, panting. "Ungh... okay, so maybe there won't be a flame giraffe today." She gulped. "But I think I just went to the bathroom inside myself." She glanced up with a nervous expression. "Is that possible?"

"It never happened to me, Kera."

"Pffft. Whatever." Kera sat up and rubbed her petite little chin. "Maybe I dreamed about summoning a flame giraffe. I did eat a lot of rhinoceros beetles that evening..."

Meanwhile, Belle quietly turned her head to gaze at the child's flank. A mess of cyclical tattoos strategically covered the filly's coat where a cutie mark might appear. Under the dim shadow of night, it was too hard to see much of anything as it was.

"Kera, were you... I mean..." Belle took a deep breath and managed to say, "Were you ever inside the Nightshade Industries skyscraper?"

"We both were, weren't we?"

"No, darling. We weren't," Belle remarked in a gentle voice. "I mean to say that I wasn't. Nor was Mr. Phoenix here. This is our first time in Blue Nova ever."

Kera stared awkwardly at Belle, her head tilted to the side, her mouth hanging slightly open.

"Does this surprise you?" Belle remarked.

Kera's eyes squinted even harder than they previously were. "Nopony's ever called me 'darling' before."

Belle blinked.

"Well, not here, at least..." Kera unrolled the infested blanket and laid it out across the ground. "And certainly not at Madame Nutshade's place."

"What were you doing there, if I may ask?"

"Pffft. Saving my horn, for one!"

"Saving your horn?" Belle paused. She felt the stub at the end of her forehead with a soft hoof. Biting her lip, she hesitantly asked, "Were they... doing things to your body?"

"Ha! You kidding?" Kera grinned. "I was too fast for them! My parents didn't hold me back! Where I came from, I could toss stones over rooftops without lifting a single stupid hoof!"

"And summon flame giraffes," Phoenix added.

"You shut your face!" Kera squeaked, frowning. "I've gotten more powerful since then! I bet I could tosses houses over stones—or maybe into you!"

"Sounds like a good time."

"Phoenix..." Belle glared aside.

"What?" Phoenix shrugged, smirking. "I genuinely wanna see her do something like that. The kid's got a lot of spunk."

"Nah, no boring, cruddy building could ever hold me," Kera said. Stifling a yawn, she spun in three circles then squatted down on the blanket. "I bolted out of that place as quickly as I could. If the others couldn't make it—pffft—that's cuz they weren't strong enough."

Belle did a double-take. "Wait... there are others?"

"Yup. Well, at least I'm guessing. They weren't talking to me much at the time. I went back once or twice to see if they wanted to leave too, but it was too late. They didn't wanna leave. But, heck, I wouldn't wanna leave if my horn got lopped off too."

Belle covered her mouth with a hoof. "Foals... g-getting their hooves dismembered?"

"Nah. It's not that bad!" Kera smiled with tired eyes and pointed up at Belle's forehead. "After all, you still get around, right?"

Belle let loose a shuddering sigh. "Kera, ever since I suffered this injury, I've been incapable of performing the rudimentary magic spells of a unicorn. I can't even lift the blanket you offered me earlier."

"Something tells me you wouldn't touch it anyways," Kera said, giggling.

"That's not the point—"

"Wait a second." Phoenix trotted into the center of the conversation. "Kera, did you say that you went back to the building with the foals?" He narrowed his gaze. "After you had gotten out the first time?"

"Yup yup yup."

"How?"

"Ungh..." Kera rolled her eyes and stood up halfway. "Same way I got you two sad-sacks into Blue Belly, of course!"

"Your magic?"

"I know the security mechanisms of these lousy walls inside and out! Heck, you think I always wanted to eat grasshoppers? For the first week, I fed myself by sneaking into the back of a restaurant two blocks down! They couldn't stop me from entering, so they just moved the food storage to the other side of the building! Pfft... lousy cheaters..."

Phoenix glanced aside at Bellesmith. "She can get into the building."

"Yes, and?" Belle returned the look.

Phoenix merely raised one eyebrow.

Belle's face took on a twisted expression. "Certainly not! Who knows what's being done to these poor foals in that place! We're not bringing Kera anywhere near there!"

"But what if there's a connection to Rainbow Dash?" Phoenix asked.

"How on earth could there possibly be a connection to—"

"'Rainbow Dash...'" Kera spoke up. "Is that her name?"

"Whose name?"

Kera pointed at the satchel hanging off of Belle's flanks. "The colorful pony in the photographs you got in that ugly green book."

Belle nervously ran a hoof along the top of Luna's container. She gulped. "You... you looked at it?"

"Pffft. I stole it, didn't I? Not like I was gonna marry it..."

"There's a pony I know named Rainbow Dash and... well..." Belle sighed. "She and I got lost, and I'm trying to find a way to get in touch with her again. And right now, I have nothing to go on. All I know is that there's something inside the Nightshade Building that may shed more light on... on... unngh..." Belle face-hoofed, stifling a moan. "It's very complicated, you see..."

"So, you know winged ponies?" Kera asked.

When Belle didn't answer, Phoenix answered for her. "Ahem. Just one, really..."

"Cuz I've always wondered..." Kera gestured why speaking. "If Nightshade is so interested in winged ponies, why bring over a bunch of 'magical savages' from the east instead?"

"Nightshade knows something about pegasi?" Phoenix asked, then did a double-take as he heard himself exclaiming, "Wait, all of the kids are frickin' Xonans?!"

"No, we're not fricking any Xonans. We are Xonans, ya dumbflake!" Kera gawked at Belle. "Where'd you get this guy?"

"He's got a couple of good questions..."

"Ungh... Ya know what?" Kera smirked. "If you're dying so much to know, how about I just take you there tomorrow? Maybe you'll make hooves or tails out of it. I know I can't! None of the other kids know crap either, but—hey—they've been doing the study lessons a lot more than I ever did by now. Maybe they know a thing or two after all."

"Study lessons...?" Phoenix repeated out loud.

"Kera, it's..." Belle sighed. "This is all too much to take in! We can't possibly get you involved anymore than you are!"

"Oh come on!" Kera beamed, her eyes wide. "It'll be totally fun!" her voice cracked and her mouth froze in a sunny grin. Then, in the space of three milliseconds, her body kerplunked on the blanketed ground, instantly snoring. "Znnnnkkkt—chkkkt—chuuu..."

Phoenix blinked. He turned towards Belle.

She sighed and sat back, folding her forelimbs and shivering.

Quietly, the stallion trotted over. His voice echoed within their end of the claustrophobic alcove. "Miss Belle, our options are limited."

"It's just... It's just all so wrong..." She sniffled. "This Confederacy... this horrible country..." She gulped, her eyes growing teary. "What did I ever see in it?"

"You were raised in it," Phoenix said. "Second to family, the hardest thing to tear apart is your home, even when you know you deserve better."

Belle nodded, but sighed again. "I think I'm beginning to understand the beauty in what Rainbow Dash had for a while there. Her only home was herself. Pilate and I? We were a part of that home, and it was so... j-just so righteous..."

Phoenix stared and said nothing.

Belle rubbed her face dry. "I want to go home, Phoenix. I don't know where it is, and I doubt I'll ever find it, but I think just going someplace—anyplace—and not looking back is gonna be a great deal more wholesome than anything else I've had in my life."

Phoenix nodded and said, "Be very careful with that desire, Ms. Belle. The desire to find your way home can... c-can make you do some really wild things."

She glanced pointedly at him.

He winced slightly. Shaking his head, the stallion said, "This kid... think about what she's giving us the opportunity to do. Find out more about Rainbow Dash? Sir... but she's got a problem of her own..."

Belle gulped. "She doesn't seem particularly troubled by it."

"That's what makes it a problem," Phoenix said. "Look, I'm no hero, and I can't pretend to be righteous about anything anymore. But..." He bit the edge of his lip before uttering, "I don't think we're in this just for ourselves anymore."

Belle turned. She looked at Kera's quietly sleeping figure. Her tattooes were garish, her mane was a tangled green mess, and her blanket was covered in parasites. But she looked far more graceful than anything that city had yet offered.

"No, Mr. Phoenix, we're not in this for ourselves," Belle murmured. She stood up straight as her brow furrowed. "And I doubt Rainbow Dash was anymore, either."

Zebra and Squirrel

Like sheets of rain, rolling on into the night, Pilate sensed the walls, platforms, bridges, and balconies of the building around him. The source of these sensory pulses was constantly shifting, as Simon couldn't find a single spot to stay seated for too long a period of time.

"You may want to settle down," the zebra calmly said, feeling the fluff of the squirrel's bushy tail brush past his legs as the thing scampered across the floor of the cramped closet. "They obviously don't know where we are. Moving around is only going to make it easier for them to find us."

Tiny claws scraped across the floor. Pilate sensed the creature facing him; he heard its angry chatters as it purposefully aimed its head towards sealed entrance of the closet. When O.A.S.I.S.'s charge was next summoned, if flowered out of the squirrel's skull, realing equine bodies scavenging through the fallen intestines of a battered zeppelin several stories below, their frames illuminated like monochromatic bars in a field a mist.

"See? They're preoccupied with that mess that your buddy Floydien made." With a sigh, Pilate tilted his muzzle towards the ceiling. "Now, if only I knew what the whole point of this craziness was from the get go..."

As Pilate meditated, he felt tendrils of energy coalescing around the sphere of O.A.S.I.S. For the first time since being tossed from the Steel Wing, he was starting to regain control of his mana-powered crutch. He fould feel the contours of the room stretching around him, as well as the several bits of clutter tossed about by shifty hooves. Every now and then, a bunch of unicorns carrying weighted containers would trot past the entrance to the closet. Where they were headed, Pilate had no clue. Only Simon's magically imbued skull provided the necessary buffer to "see" any further.

"He must have known that Nancy Jane would be in here somewhere," Pilate said aloud. "Why else would he fly all the way to Blue Nova... to this building in particular?"

Simon barked and barked indecipherably.

Pilate sighed. "This is obviously not a factory building. It's an office complex of sorts. Nightshade Industries' hall of clerks and central management, undoubtedly. What kind of a place is that to hold somepony's beloved?" He gulped. "Or whatever Floydien is..."

Just then, Simon ran up Pilate's forelimbs and perched on the zebra's muzzle.

"Unngh... Seriously, Simon. You've been very helpful and all but—skkkt—I really wish you wouldn't constantly do that—"

But the squirredl tugged on Pilate's ears and forced him to face the direction opposite from the closet door.

"Huh? What? What is it?"

The squirrel chirped and pointed.

Pilate took a deep breath. He opened a channel of runic energy through his skull plate, allowing it to flow into the O.A.S.I.S. sphere. Simon then passed the field along through the wall, branching out into a part of the building that Pilate hadn't "explored" before.

"Huh? Are you... are you 'getting this' too—Augh!" Pilate winced, for a sudden spark was surging through him. "Easy! Easy, Simon! I don't have the same sparklers plugged into my skull that... you... do..."

Pilate blinked, something he hadn't done in a long time, for he felt as if he had actually got his sight back. This latest ribboning of mana was revealing just so much to him. With Simon's help, he sensed a connecting bridge to a factory building. And inside that building, about two levels up, there was a series of large compartments. The only moving bodies inside them were loneseome equines, hobbling around various equipment, and their hooves were bound in separate pieces of iron.

"What... is that...?" Pilate murmured aloud as everything returned once more to utter darkness. His metal brow furrowed. "A brig? A prison compartment? But why—" He cut himself off with a gasp. "Nancy Jane!"

Simon barked and tugged at his ears.

Pilate shook him off. "I don't care if it's dangerous! Floydien brought us here for a reason. If we free his beloved, then maybe he will actually repay me and help me find Bellesmith!" He winced suddenly. "If he's still alive. Oh, who am I kidding..."

Simon perched on Pilate's front left hoof and waited patiently.

After a deep breath, Pilate said, "Neither of us have any answers, but those ponies in the next building might. Besides..." He bit his lip. "I don't think there's another soul with the power to free them like we do... er... well... like you do, Simon."

The creature's little tail shook.

Pilate squatted low and spoke towards the rodent's sparkling head. "I'm going to need you to be my ears and ears, fella. When we get to the ponies over there, I'll do the talking. I think this is what Floydien would have us do. Wouldn't you think?"

The squirrel shrugged its shoulders.

Pilate sensed it, then nodded. "Right, well... unless we plan on living the rest of our lives out as brooms, we're serving no purpose here. Let's move."

Carefully, very carefully, Pilate used Simon's senses to peer beyond the door. When the upper floors were empty, he peeled his way out of the closet, clung to the wall, and scurried over towards the far end of the building, accompanied by a bushy-tailed comrade in arms.

Crashes to Crashes

The golden rays of dawn shone off the scattered bits of managlider debris like sunrise over a dewy field. In languid motions, Eagle Eye and Josho shuffled through the mess, orbiting the main chunk of the dormant vehicle as they scavenged for whatever could be utilized as tools or weapons for the long journey ahead.

"What matters is that we're alive," Josho grumbled, limping from a fresh bruise to his lower body. "We can whine and moan all we want about being tossed around like living coconut baskets, but at least we have our wits about us."

"I can't imagine we're really out of the privateers' hair that easily," Eagle Eye muttered. A few seconds ticked by, and he blinked awkwardly in the older stallion's direction. "'Living coconut baskets?'"

"Look, I'm running on low fumes here. I haven't eaten. I haven't slept. Unngh! Burping Spark on a tricycle—I can't remember the last time it was that I had a friggin' drink..."

"Yeah, well, who's whining and moaning now?" Eagle Eye smiled bitterly. On the length of his binding to Josho, he tilted about and telekinetically lifted several shards of metal into a canvas bag hanging off his flank. "We shouldn't hang out here too much longer, now that it's dawn. Who knows when they'll send out their first patrol?"

"Who's 'they?'"

"The foxes, of course."

"Look, kid." Josho frowned at him. "They're done with us! They gotta be!"

"Were they done with us earlier?!" Eagle returned the sour expression. "When they sent three of their dudes to try and intercept us in the air?!"

"There's something to be said about the ego of creatures evolved enough to tote guns," Josho grumbled. "But don't dwell on it too much. I'm pretty sure we deflated that ego with a vengeance."

Eagle Eye sighed, picking up more pieces of metal and supplies. "Still, it just doesn't seem like a good idea to hang out here in the open any longer. Ever since we landed, one thing or another has been trying to kill us. The last thing we need to do is stay put."

"Will ya give it a rest, already?" Josho crawled over to the main chunk of the fallen managlider. He eyed a compartment and tried tugging at it with his magic. When that didn't work, he spat on his hooves and resorted to pulling at the lid the hard way. "Nnngh! We've... made... some fantastic progress! You gotta admit!"

"Do I have to?" Eagle Eye turned around with a furrowed brow. He motioned with his horn towards the air. "You smell that?"

"Yeah. Smells like your fruity breath."

"Come on!" Eagle stamped his hoof like a pouty little filly. "For real! Do you smell that acrid stench in the air?"

"Mmmm..." Josho continued tugging at the lid. "Maybe?"

"It's burnt forest, Einstallion!" Eagle Eye turned around, glaring at the charred horizon. "I know that smell! It's Foxtaur..."

"Pffft. Oh please... I could be any ol' forest..."

"We went north, went south again, then went west!" Eagle Eye moaned, plopping down on his haunches. "I'm telling you, we're in Foxtaur! We're back where this whole mess started."

All that could be heard from Josho's side was grunting and panting as he struggled with the metal lid.

"I always told myself that I would follow Crimson and the other stallions to the bitter end," Eagle Eye said. He brushed a shaky hoof through his mane and sighed. "And yet, each day that I spend alive, running in circles to boot, I feel like a coward... like I'm a diservice to their memory..." He fought tears as he sniffled to say, "I just wish there was a way that I didn't have to remember everything. That I could just shut down and restart myself anew—"

The metal compartment flew open, followed by Josho's yelling voice. "Aaaaaaaah-haaaaa!"

Eagle Eye shrieked, hopping up and dancing on squirmy hooves. "What what what what?!"

The bearded stallion was grinning a crescent moon, his eyes wide and bulging with rapture. "Son, we just hit the jackpot! Eh heh heh heh heh heh..." He threw the metal lid away and reached deep into the hidden compartment within the managlider. When his hooves came back out, they were cradling a wooden box full of six tall whiskey bottles. "Not a single crack in 'em! Hah! Do you believe in miracles?! Cuz now I friggin' do!"

Eagle Eye's gaze became a phalanx of violet daggers. "You have got to be joking..."

"You joke all you want! I'm going to Happyland!" Josho pulled one bottle out, zapped the cork off with his horn, and took a swig. Three and a half seconds later, he gulped, then exhaled a raspy warcry. "Fuuuuuuuuu-nahhhhhhhhhhh... hckkkkt—Yeahhhhh..." He leaned back, hugging the bottle to his pudgy self like it was an infant. "Queen's bridle, that stuff is loaded!"

"Thank you very kindly, Mr. Josho, for getting me better acquainted with your more handsome qualities," Eagle Eye droned.

"Hnkkkkt—Whew!" Josho gulped, stifled a belch, and smirked blearily in Eagle's direction. "Care to put the money where your fruit is?"

"Excuse me?!"

Josho floated the bottle over towards him, giving it a little shake. "Pour something down the hatch that won't come back up as flowers and rainbows for once!" He hiccuped, then smiled. "You're a soldier or ain't ya? We both know we could be dead tomorrow."

"Absolutely not!" Eagle Eye folded his forelimbs and lifted his lavender chin. "I'm not even going to humor the idea."

"Awwwwww... come on!" Josho smirked. "You said we're back in Foxtaur, didn't ya? Life sucks. Drink it up before it brings you down."

"I'm not a shameless floozy like you."

"Oh, please, kid. You wound me. Look, this is—whatdoyoucallit—a 'kind gesture' from soldier to soldier. Beneath all of that glitter, I'm sure there's a stallion who can respect that."

"I'd rather respect myself first!" Eagle Eye leaned forward and frowned at him. "The last thing I ever want to do, Mr. Josho, is get drunk anywhere near your or your beard..."

Where's the Rum?

"Ba da da da da daaaaaaaa-Because the world ends todaaaaaaaaay when the hoards have their waaaaaaaaaaaaaay..." Josho sang. Eagle Eye sang... and danced. There were four bottles between them, two empty, two sloshing around in the crooks of separate hooves. "So the Queen's crewwwwwwwwww must go marching onnnnnnnnn—Ba da da da dum dum dum!"

"De dum!" Josho insisted.

"De dum dum!" Eagle Eye retunred with a pirouette.

"De dum dum dum, you dum dum!" Josho growled.

"Snkkkkt—Eee hee hee hee hee!" Josho's spin went out of control. He collided with Josho, and soon both bound stallions were slumped with their backs against the metal husk of the managlider. The air tasted of fermented burps and rust while they allowed their inebriated chuckles to carry them into bleary-eyed tranquility.

"Whewwwww..." Josho swirled his whiskey and took another sip. "Mmmm... Nice ballerina spins there, kiddo."

"Thanks—HIC!" Eagle Eye teetered left and right, his beautiful mane a tangled mess. "I-I used to practice at—HIC—home when my dad thought I was fixing the farming equipment."

"I always thought you'd rotate..." Josho fought a wave of vomit, swallowed it down, and pointed. "...but only when you were sitting in somepony's lap."

"HA!" Eagle Eye heaved, leaning forward and giggling with euphoria. "Eee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"

Josho's eyes blinked heavily. "Anypony ever told you that you sound like a donkey that's sucked on a heapin' load of helium?"

"Anypony ever told you that you're—HIC—ugly as sin?"

"Everyday. Hell, even my ex-wife did."

"Oh really? HIC! Why'd you stay with her so long?"

"Because I AM so long!"

"HA!" Eagle Eye tried shoving Josho's shoulder but slumped over in the grass instead. His next few giggles were muffled. He lifted a dirty muzzle in time to slur, "You've yet to prove it!"

"Not in front of you, k-kid!" Josho grinned wickedly. "I'd rather be eviscerated by a Xonan death squad!"

"While set on fire!"

"That's a damn fine way to go!" Josho sipped again and leaned back, sighing. "Unnngh... you know, when I first woke up with you coupled to me, I thought you were gay."

"Now there's a word I haven't heard in a while..."

"What, 'gay?'"

Eagle Eye hiccuped. "'Coupled!'"

"Heh! Yeah, don't I know it." Josho turned and smirked at the lavender unicorn. "But, seriously, kid. You are really, really, really, really gay."

"That's four 'really's.'" Eagle Eye said pointing with all four hooves. He nearly dropped the whiskey bottle, but saved it with a beam of telekinesis. "You'd better get yourself checked!"

"Ungh! Why?! I'm an honorable old soldier! You wouldn't take advantage of me, would ya, ya drunken fruit dispenser?!"

"I'm not drunk..." Eagle Eye stumbled up, teetering, and lurched back towards his seat besides the managlider. "Nor a disentangler of fru-fru-fru-fruit!"

"Snkkkt! You sure sound like you're both!"

"You know what I am?" Eagle Eye grinned with rosy cheeks, sitting down next to Josho again. "I'm homeless, that's what I am."

"No no no no no... You're not homeless!" Josho took another sip, then chuckle. "However, you did get the first syllable right. Eh heh heh heh—"

"No, for real!" Eagle Eye slurred, staring into his whiskey bottle. "Homeless means I don't have a home. It means I don't have a family. At least... not the—HIC—family I thought I had. So what if I'm me? I can't not be me, y'know?"

"Err..."

"My dad gets sick of seeing me be me... so he'd rather see me go away... see me get killed in some stupid war..." Eagle Eye's grin melted into something more exhausted, more bitter. "Is that what it means to be a father?" He gulped. "To make sure your kids meet an end that's way more spectacular than yours?"

"I wouldn't know, kid..." Josho sighed, gazing up at the clear blue sky. "My dad died before I was old enough to carry a manarifle."

"The war?"

"Mmmm... next best thing..." Josho's eyes were thin, steely. "Xonan incursion."

"So... that... explains it..."

"Explains what?" Josho smirked aside at the once-dainty pony. "An unruly is an unruly animal, and needs to be put down. I don't care what Xonans may have done or plan to do. They're the enemy. It's as simple as that..."

"Heh..." Eagle Eye toasted with his bottle held high. "Is that why you love doing this so much?"

"Doing what?"

"Getting sloshed, you big fat idiot!" Eagle Eye took a mighty sip. He shuddered as soon as the gulps ended and slumped even further into the soil. "Mmmmmmfff... now I know why Crimson always told us not to get—HIC—hammered. This is nice and all... but it's the pits all the same..."

Josho blinked at him. He looked at the stallion's disheveled mane, then back at his face. "You were gonna stab me, weren't you?"

"Hmmm..." Eagle Eye glanced tiredly over. He frowned. "Don't you be coming onto me, old horse..."

"No, I mean earlier on the train..." Josho pointed towards the air. "With the foxes and the boxes and the cars... the foxes in box cars..."

"Ehhhh..." Eagle Eye shrugged, cradling his bottle in two frail hooves. "I dunno..."

"You were, weren't ya?" Josho smiled. "It's alright! I probably would have considered the same thing if you were falling through the train and I was standing on top of you instead."

"I couldn't do it..."

"Why not? Maybe if one of us died, the manacles would turn off and crud!"

"No no no no no..." Eagle Eye sighed. "I... just don't like killing..."

"Pfft! Bite your tongue! You do it all the time!"

"Because I have to..."

"So? You joined the army—"

"Doesn't mean I have to like it!" Eagle Eye suddenly growled with draconian resolve. It even made Josho shudder. Looking over, the petite unicorn frowned venomously. "I became a fighting member of the Blades Guild because I thought I could prove something! Instead, all that happened was me falling apart. And it didn't take all that nonsense at Foxtaur to do it, y'know. Those Xonans? The ones you seem to not care about? They might be savage animals, but their screams sound a lot like yours and mine, don't you think?"

Josho stopped teetering long enough to blink back and say, "I never gave it much mind—"

"No, you didn't, did you?!" Eagle Eye frowned, though he was growling into the shadows between them. "You only thought of yourself! Of proving something! Of getting away from the past! Of becoming something your... nnngh... your f-father never was!" He flung the bottle down into the ground. It didn't shatter. Eagle Eye stared blankly at it, then switched gears completely with a high-pitched giggle. "Heeheeheeheeheee..." He pointed at the intact bottle. "Look at that! I can't even smash bottles when I want to!"

Josho's nostrils flared. He shrugged. "Face it, kid. You were never built for this kind of stuff. Drinking and killing—"

"What, and you were?!" Eagle Eye's giggles gradually morphed into painful hyperventilation. "Did it... d-did it ever occur to you th-that a stallion's worth is not measure in the number of bodies he kills... but the number of souls he saves?"

Josho opened his mouth, but found nothing coming out. He glanced with a sudden stupor at the half-empty bottle in his grasp.

By this time, tears had welled up in the younger unicorn's eyes. Eagle hugged himself and started to tremble. "All I've been making since the get-go have been mistakes... and what's the price for discovering h-how pathetic I am?" He gulped, sniffled, and stammered, "Ponies have died. Left and right. Ponies I didn't even know. And for what? I have no home here. I have no home anywhere. All I have for myself is a hole built out of shame and regret. So much killing... and not a single bit of saving..." He covered his face and wept. "Crimson is gone. Phoenix... Zenith... so many lonely families... so many lost children..."

"Look, kid, I know it sucks," Josho grumbled. "But you gotta pull it together. I mean..." He placed the bottle down with a shaky hoof and smiled awkwardly in the stallion's direction. "You'll live through this. You'll be a better stallion than your dad ever was..."

"And just what will I-I become...?" Eagle Eye gazed up at him, his face streaming with tears. "Wh-what have you become?" He gulped. "And are you happy with it? Proud, even?"

Once more, Josho was silent. A pale sheen had fallen over his unshaven features. He realized that his hoof was still trembling.

Eagle Eye grimaced, then avoided the older pony's gaze by covering his face with his hooves once more. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry. I just... I-I just want a place to be safe... to be clean... to be happy..." He gulped. "I want a place where there's a pony for me to come home to... and t-talk of all the joys of the day... and none of this ugly nonsense... it's just so very ugly..."

Josho sighed. He didn't realize he was doing it until he felt the trembling weight of Eagle Eye against him, but he had stretched a forelimb over to engulf the tender pony in a side-hug. "You'll find that home, kid. You're not like me, ya hear? You're... you're the kind of pony who deserves the good stuff."

Eagle's sobs were quiet salvos of tears, muffled in the coarse coat of Josho's shoulder. His weeping carried him into fitful slumber. All the while, Josho gazed heavenward. With each deep breath he took, the sky above him became foggier and foggier, though there wasn't a cloud to be seen.

Buy a Farm

"Hey Pa!" Nexx scampered up the hill, his tiny body glistening in the morning sun. He smiled and pointed behind him as Roque bounded up the gemstone-laden farm, riding on the back of a happily salivating diamond dog. "Look it, Pa! He gives doggy rides! Can we keep him? Huh? Huh?"

"He's a diamond dog, not a puppy!" Tweak growled from where he stood at the top of the hill. Several other residents of Aurum stood beside him, staring into the southern horizon. "Besides, even if he wasn't a sentient—albeit stupid creature—he's been through enough as it is at Searo's Hold without having to carry around crystal skull'd slackers. Get back to your chores, boys. Your Ma and I need all the help we can get right now."

"Awwwwww..." Nexx kicked at the ground while his older brother dismounted from the blankly staring creature. "I told you he'd say 'no.'"

"Pffft! What do you know? When you first saw him show up here, you thought he was a manticore!"

"Manticores are big and hairy, right?"

"Yeah, but they have giant scorpion tails that shoot lasers."

"Shoot lasers?! Tell me more!"

As the two colts scampered back towards the cabin, Lucky Strike hobbled over to Tweak's side. "You should let them have some fun, brother." Lucky smirked, facing the southern sky along with the other crystal stallions. "After all, now is a time for celebration."

"Things are far too friggin' hairy for anypony to celebrate," Tweak said, grumbling. "We done just made ourselves a rattled hornet's nest full of angry metal mares overnight."

"Granted, the 'metal' part doesn't exactly work," Lucky Strike replied. "And of the Searonese chumps who are still alive, I seriously doubt we're the ones they're pissed off at."

"Doesn't mean they're not gonna take their frustrations out on us."

"How?!" Lucky's eyes narrowed. "We know their weakness, now. As soon as any of them shows their helmeted faces, we'll just shine on until the cows come home. Even if they resort to usin' something other than their tech, they'll be too dizzy to gallop in a straight line."

"If only it was that easy..."

"But it is that easy! Listen, Tweak..." Lucky Strike pivoted to face him directly. "This new friend of yours—this Crimson? He's a good stallion. He brings out the best in you. But that doesn't mean you have to stay in full on kick-flank mode!"

"Lucky..."

"Are you the best militia pony this province has ever seen? Heck yeah!" Lucky smiled. "But you're also a family stallion. And I did not go through a living nightmare back at the Hold just to come back and see you go Prime Enforcer on me."

Tweak sighed long and hard. He turned to glare at his brother. "Don't you ever make that sort of a Spark-forsaken comparison."

"Don't you ever make me have to," Tweak said with a smirk. "You done saved the day, brother. You saved me..." He planted a crystalline hoof on the pony's shoulder. "This is a time for celebration."

"I'll celebrate once I know all our work here is done."

"Don't make me kick your flank."

"Pffft!" Tweak finally smiled—a glaring sort of expression. "You could never kick my flank."

"I could be a huge pain in the butt."

"You already are. I reckon I should have kept you back in that glowy chamber of death thingy."

"And be spared your cold, rigid personality? What a horrible idea..."

"Shhh..." Tweak motioned towards the horizon. "This is it. They're coming."

"Well, that was quick."

Tweak trotted a few steps forward. "Alright, everypony!" he shouted into the rising winds as something loud throttled over the nearest treeline. "Step back! Give 'em room to land, and be ready to lend a hoof! If they're not wounded, a lot of the arriving ponies will be weak! And try not to shine so much around them! You'll get less vomit on your coat that way!"

As he spoke, the glistening body of Roarke's manaship roared into view. Its outer hull reflected the bodies of the many crystal stallions as they stepped aside and gave the craft space to land. The ship hovered low, then touched down into an open space of farmland between sapphire shards.

The engines hissed to a stop. Then, with a buzz of manacircuitry, the door along its side slid open. Crimson and Rainbow Dash poked their heads out, making eye contact with Tweak. Hopping down, Rainbow Dash turned and motioned up towards the inside of the vessel.

"Whelp, journey's over!" she said. "Welcome to Aurum, everypony! It may not exactly be the land of milk and honey, but it's got plenty of cool glowy equines and mares who can bake waffles like a boss! Come on out and have a look-see!"

One by one, with the help of Crimson and several crystal ponies, a group of trembling equines were safely removed from the ship. Most of them were stallions—emaciated unicorns and earth ponies who still staggered from Searonese branding. Their eyes lit up as they saw the bright countryside, along with the amicable crystal residents offering to escort them towards a nearby barn where several beds and tables of food were laid out. While the newcomers were given aid, Crimson jumped down besides Rainbow Dash, though he stumbled on the flimsy crutch that stood for his missing leg.

Tweak helped him stand upright, closing the distance between the group.

"Thank you," Crimson stammered, standing up as straight as he could. "Not sure I'll ever get used to that."

"You seem to be getting used to it something proper, all things considered," Tweak remarked.

"Is that the last of them?" Lucky Strike asked.

"Yup." Rainbow Dash nodded. She was only wearing two slabs of armor, one to cover her injured wing and the other to act as counterbalance on the other side. "That covers all of the ponies that escaped the arena through the Searonese garbage pass."

"Does that explain why they smell like rotten bananas and cat urine?" Lucky remarked with a scrunched face.

"No, brother, I'm pretty sure that's just your nose getting reacquainted with livestock after months spent in the center of a supernova," Tweak muttered. He motioned towards the manaship. "And y'all weren't followed?"

"If you're wondering if that 'Terra' pony sought to exact her revenge, the answer is 'no,'" Crimson replied. "Most likely, the Searonese are still licking their wounds. And with their Top Spear dead and their fortress' power source completely gone... well..."

Lucky smiled and nodded. "We get it. We were their crutch, and now they haven't a leg to stand on—"

Tweak slapped Lucky upside the head, producing a sound that resembled pebbles rattling across a tin roof. He sighed. "Forgive my idiot brother for being an idiot. He doesn't know a good soldier when he sees one."

"Nnngh... cuz I've only ever had you to stare at all my life."

Pebbles hit a tin roof again.

"Ow!"

"You guys sure that this is okay?" Rainbow Dash leaned forward. "I mean, this whole bit with these ponies moving into Aurum—"

"Hey..." Tweak managed a subtle grin. "These honest souls need a home, and what better way than to give them a chance at making an honest living? Besides, the way I see it, the more non-Searonese ponies we have around here, the better."

"You could form a new militia," Crimson said with a nod. "It would certainly help you in fending off the Killas if they ever show up again."

"Yeah, what was up with them anyways?" Rainbow Dash squinted. "It seems a bit odd that both the Searonese AND a bunch of unruly diamond dogs would choose to pick on you at the same time."

"What matters is that they ain't pickin' on us anymore," Tweak grumbled. "Soon as word goes out that we busted the skulls of a bunch of metal mares, nothing's gonna bother messing with Aurum."

"You forget, brother," Lucky remarked. "It wasn't all us." He pointed at Rainbow Dash. "We owe our thanks to the courage of others."

"Hey, we only did it 'cuz we knew you guys needed a break," Rainbow said. She gulped. "Mostly." She turned. Crimson turned. Everypony turned to look at the manaship.

Powering down the cockpit, Roarke stepped out. She froze in place, staring down at the many heads facing her. Then, with a flaring of her nostrils, she silently closed her helmet, jumped down, and marched coldly towards a far corner of the farm.

Slowly, the group swiveled to face each other yet again.

"She still not speakin'?" Tweak murmured, glaring aside at the figure as she grew distant.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Not a word. She's been like this ever since we took off from the Searonese hangar in the first place."

"I don't take kindly to metal mares struttin' around my land," Tweak muttered. "Doesn't matter how helpful she's been."

"It hasn't exactly been easy for her," Rainbow Dash said.

"And how do you reckon you know that?"

She frowned. "What if you were the one who butted heads with your entire culture, murdered your civilization's leader, and then helped a bunch of enemies escape your home?"

"Doesn't change the fact that she walked the walk and talked the talk along with them murderous bucketheads for years."

"Tweak, she did help us go back and save all the ponies Rainbow had freed from the Searonese death arena," Crimson said. "If she was truly as evil as you say, then wouldn't she have dropped the act by now?"

"You're one to talk!" Tweak exclaimed. "Ain't she the mare who strung up you and your soldiers when you were hiding out in Foxtongue?!"

"Foxtaur." Crimson sighed. "And if there's anything I've learned from my long years of being a mercenary, it's that any soul can change." He clenched his jaw straight. "Any soul."

"Besides, she's always had a mouth on her," Rainbow Dash said. "For the last few hours, as we made these trips to get the ponies, she's been dead silent."

"And you can totally gauge her personality?" Tweak asked. "How long have you known her, anyways?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but hesitated. Staring down at the ground, she muttered, "Look, I don't know exactly why she's done the things that she's done, but I do know this: days ago, she tried to take me down—like—for a bounty. I whooped her butt... and then I even saved her life. I'm getting the feeling that something like that has never happened for Roarke before. And, not only that, but she was waiting to see that kindness could come from the most badflank places that this world had to offer."

"That's awful deep-like, coming from a pony who solves things by smashing into them."

Rainbow frowned. "Okay, y'know what?! Yeah, I've bashed in the heads of a lot of things in my day. But that doesn't mean I have to like it!"

"Uhhh, I'm pretty sure that you do—"

"HALF the time!" Rainbow's voice cracked. She calmed down a bit and spoke in a softer voice. "There was a day and age—y'know—when that just wouldn't fly. And it was okay, 'cuz nopony needed it. I lived someplace where the only thing that mattered was friendship, and violence was totally not the answer." She gulped hard, then said, "I've flown quite a long distance from there, and during that time I've run into a lot of problems and ugly stuff that could only be dealt with the hard way, the brutal way. And you know what I discovered on the other side of all of it? That friendship STILL was the most important thing. I just had to... I dunno... shove all the ugly bits out of the way to earn it again."

Silence reigned while Rainbow Dash kicked at a loose gemstone or two across the dusty earth.

"I think... I-I hope that it's the same thing with Roarke. I think she knows what's precious in this world. I think she's always known; she just hasn't had something or someone to show her the light until now. Honestly, if I had my way, I'd spread the awesomeness to everypony. I just... well... I-I just don't have the time." She gulped. "And I've still got some friends of my own to find." She looked fixedly at the two crystal brothers. "Isn't that what it always comes down to? Finding those you care about? Even if you have to discover them?"

"Maybe for you... and maybe for me and my brother here..." Tweak's eyes narrowed. "But for Roarke?"

Rainbow Dash had nothing left to say at that.

Lucky suddenly spoke up. "How're you holding up, Ms. Dash?"

"Hmm? Oh..." Rainbow Dash smiled and shrugged. "Y'know. Couldn't be more radical."

"So does the tail match the mane?"

"Lucky..." Tweak grumbled.

"For real! Lookit..." Lucky pointed at Rainbow's posterior where a short length of prismatic hair was now dangling. "I swear, that thing was half the length just twelve hours ago!"

"He does have a point, Ms. Dash," Crimson said. "Do all pegasi grow hair back magically?"

"Uhhh... no." Rainbow Dash glanced behind her. "Usually all we're good for is growing a spine when manure hits the fan."

"Could it... uh... be related to your pendant and—"

"Come to think of it, I believe it's because of the stuff that's wrapped around my wing."

"Oh?"

"Right. Whatsitcalled—the 'sapphiric string?'" Suddenly, Rainbow's ruby eyes shrank to pinpricks. She gulped. "By the way, that reminds me." She tilted about and glanced at Tweak. "Uh... would you happen to know where... uhhh... where I might find—?"

"Way ahead of ya." Tweak motioned towards the nearby barn. "In there. You can't miss her."

"So, she... woke up?"

"Was settin' up triage last time I checked. Makin' herself more than useful."

Rainbow gulped. "Got it." She swiveled about and trotted solidly towards the barn. "Which means she can totally chew my ears off..."

Dash No Harm

Rainbow Dash's hooves scraped across the pebble-strewn floor as she trotted into the open barn. Instead of bales of hay, there rested bundled stacks of sapphire shards, as well as canvas bags full of crystalline filaments. Stretched across the floor beneath soft lanternlight was a series of cots—over a dozen total, and they housed weak and malnourished equines in various states of recovery.. Two crystal stallions, three glowing mares, and a unicorn filed from patient to patient. Rainbow Dash made straightway for the lattermost pony.

As she drew closer, she heard Imre's voice speaking in a soft tone. "You have a kidney infection, but nothing I can't fix. The ponies of this town have some remarkable medicinal herbs, which is pretty snazzy for a bunch of walking lightbulbs." Imre finished tipping a wooden bowl full of steamy broth into the equine's mouth. After he helped the pony swallow, she set the bowl aside and placed a wet washcloth on his forehead. "What's important is that you rest. I'm educated in taking care of ponies, not basketcases."

"It's... it's incredible..." The stallion sputted and wheezed. His eyes were heavy, and yet a tranquil smile hung off his weary features. "The ponies here... they're all so nice..."

"Yeah, well, you're no longer in smack-and-gruntville," Imre droned. "The most these ponies care about is digging up rubies, not the guts of stallions or—well—other stuff that stallions have to offer. You'll be safe here, buddy."

"Thank you so much..." He murmured, falling into blissful slumber as the medicine took effect. "You are... you are an angel..." The pony was silent.

Imre took a deep breath. Wincing, she stood up—only to bump into a colorful figure to her side.

"Now, how's that for some flattery?" Rainbow Dash remarked with a grin.

Imre blinked at her. Swiveling about like a gliding ice sculptor, she made for the far end of the line of cots.

Rainbow's blue brow furrowed. Rolling her eyes, she sighed and trotted after the unicorn. "Okay, look at it this way. You're a skilled healer, way more skilled then these crystal huffers here. Erm..." She smiled nervously aside. "No offense."

The other mares and stallions waved back and merely chuckled.

"Still, the farmers' good spirit alone isn't enough to cure everything." Rainbow Dash skipped a hoof or two to catch up with Imre's movements. "If I didn't force you to come along like I did, I'm pretty sure a lot of these recovering ponies here would be dealing with more than infected kidneys. Or else, they wouldn't be dealing with anything at all, cuz—y'know—they'd be dead."

Imre reached a table full of supplies and fished around for fresh wash cloths.

Rainbow sighed, her one good wing deflating under her slab of armor. "Really?! Is this really how things are gonna be from now on?! You don't need to thank me, y'know, but the least you can do is say 'hello.'"

"I have a limp now, thanks to you."

Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "Huh?

"From punching me in the chest," Imre clarified without looking. "If you really wanted to knock the wind out of my lungs with your hoof, you should have aimed at my ribcage. What did you think I was, a simian?"

"Err..."

"Now I have to deal with what could very well be an incurable sprang of the left subclavian muscle—"

"Hey! Believe me!" Rainbow momentarily frowned. "I was this close to smacking you in the muscle you use the most!"

"Lemme guess, my mouth?"

"If you hadn't switched it with the opposite end of your body at the time, then totally!"

Imre sighed long and hard. "Look, I have work to do..."

"Imre..."

"You brought me here, so I might as well make the best out of it—"

Rainbow Dash stretched a hoof out and rested it on the unicorn's shoulder. "You're doing more than enough. These ponies are gonna live longer lives 'cuz of you."

"Pffft. You're the one who brought 'em here."

"Because of you." Rainbow Dash's eyes glared heavily. "It was you who helped me lead them to a place where they could flee all the crap that went down in Searo's Hold."

Imre stared blankly at her. "Really? Cuz I recall myself being the one who—"

"Yeah yeah yeah—before you went psycho on me. That's besides the point!" Rainbow smiled hopefully. "Why are you such a friggin' puzzle, girl? I mean, look at you! You're—like—a machine of good will and stuff! You were made to help other ponies feel better! Why's it that you gotta have such a huge flaw?"

"You mean my acquaintance with Roarke?"

"Sure, why not? Ahem." Rainbow leaned forward. "I'm talking about your stupid tendency to throw yourself into the proverbial woodchipper as if your life doesn't matter! But it does, Imre! You've just been spat in the face so often by so many pigheaded metal mares that you've... I dunno... started believing in all of their lies or something!"

"If only it were that simple..."

"What is it, Imre?" Rainbow forced the unicorn to face her directly. "Spit it out, girl! Right here. Right now. What's so terrible... so horrible... so oh-my-goddess-gag-me bad about your past that you can't stand to face it... to face a new life and a new chance at freedom?"

Imre glared as she said, "You're not gonna let it rest, are ya?"

Rainbow smiled proudly. "Element of Loyalty, personified."

"More like Element of Pain-in-the-Flank."

"Whatever. Dictionaries are for losers. Talk to me."

Imre's nostrils flared. She stared towards the ground and muttered, "Let's just say that... I-I have family issues..."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Is that it?"

Imre snarled, "What the heck did you want?! A long, dramatic tail about being cursed by the moon or something?"

"Er..."

"Once a month, my neck grows twenty inches, and I run into the forest to eat squirrels out of their nests."

"Oh come on..."

"They call it the 'Curse of the Rodenting.'"

"What I meant, Imre, is that we all have family issues, one way or another—"

"Even you?"

Rainbow Dash froze in mid-speech. She shrugged. "Sometimes... uhm... 'family issues' includes a... er... lack of a family..."

"Pffft. Right..." Imre turned around.

"What I was trying to get at..." Rainbow Dash stepped in her way. "...is that you may think you're alone, but you really don't have to be, y'know? Is it really so bad to try something new? Something that might... I dunno... give you something to hammer away those issues?"

Imre's ears drooped slightly. "Like what?"

"Friendship!"

"Snkkkt-HAH! Haha—ahem..." Imre cleared her throat and leaned back against a wooden post. Quick as lightning, she was deadpan again. "You don't say..."

Rainbow Dash stared, her mouth agape.

Imre raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I dunno... that's, like... the first time I heard you laugh. Ever."

"Hmmm..." Imre stared down at the floor. "Don't get used to it."

"Imre, you can hate me all you want. I don't care. If it helps you move along with stuff, then good." Rainbow stared at her evenly. "But at least you'd be moving somewhere."

"Don't I know it..." Imre stared back, her eyes laced with lethargy. "One way or another, I'm always running away from something. We've been over this."

"I'm starting to discover that the marathon is a bit less freaky when you've got other ponies to share the jog with," Rainbow Dash said. "It's like an astronomical Running of the Leaves. You just lean on..." She paused in mid-speech, her eyes lost in the distance as a painful grimace ran through her features.

Imre cocked her head curiously at that.

Rainbow cleared her throat and resumed. "You j-just lean on each other, and you work out a way to the finishing line. Soon, you'll stop thinking about the destination, and dwell only on the race itself."

Imre's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure of that?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but she lingered. Her ears drooped suddenly to match Imre's. "No," she said.

"Really..."

"But..." Rainbow gazed back up with a soft smile. "I'm willing to try it out. Cuz... I have faith, y'know? So much faith that I'm willing to risk my very own neck to find my friends up north."

Imre groaned. "You're still obsessed with them, huh?"

"Dang straight." Rainbow sat back on her haunches. "Cuz I believe—no..." She took a breath. "I know that they will help me get through this journey I'm on, and I wanna get them through theirs. I have faith in them, Imre. And... darn it all..." Her features once more took on a chiseled frown. "I have faith in you too. You may be stubborn, dry, and annoying... but beneath it all is a good pony who deserves another chance at life. I really, really want to help you, just like you want to help others. Now, don't you dare deny that we got something in common there."

The unicorn stood silent, her breaths even, contemplative.

"So... talk to me, girl." Rainbow Dash leaned her head to the side. "What do you think?"

Imre took a breath and trotted past her. "I think you need to pick another spot to sit."

Rainbow blinked. "Huh?" She turned, and in so doing heard a rattling sound. Glancing down, she saw that she had blindly plopped down upon a pile of unwashed rags and bedpans. "Oh, sonuva—"

Somewhat Relevant Things

"Uhh..." Phoenix craned his neck to better see the spry young filly at the front of the group. "You sure that this is a shortcut, kid? At this rate, we're never gonna get there."

"I promised I'd get you inside the Nightshade place!" Kera squeaked as she led the mercenary and the mare through steamy, the morning-lit urban canals of Blue Nova. "I didn't say it'd be short!"

"But I swear that we've gone in circles, twice."

"Not everything is all cookie cutter and cute in these streets!" Kera said. "If we wanna get to Nightshade Industries, we gotta cut our way past the front courtyard, ya smell me?"

Belle smiled from the center of the group as she said, "Just trust her, Mr. Phoenix."

"Yeah, trust her, Mr. Phoenix!" Kera chirped, then giggled. "I swear, for a bounty hunter, you're super stiff!"

Phoenix growned. "I am not a bounty hunter! I am a mercenary!"

"You get paid for swinging swords, hammers, and other relevant heavy metals, right?"

"Er..."

"Cuz it all sounds the same to me! Heeheehee!"

Phoenix sighed, his breath fogging against fractured glass windows as they passed an abandoned storefront. "Can't we just go up from the sewers or something?"

"Nuh uh. The Nightshade building ain't attached to the lower passageways like all the others," Kera said. "This place has only two ways to enter, and that's either ground level or by zeppelin at the upper balconies."

"This Nightshade pony must be very powerful to afford such special privileges here in Blue Nova," Belle remarked.

"Eh, she knows how to get what she wants. That much is true." Kera hopped over a mound of garbage and made for a straightaway that led towards an open courtyard several dozen feet ahead. "Metal. Manacores. Ponies."

"Ponies?" Phoenix repeated, blinking wide.

"Pfft! It wasn't a stork that brought me here!" Kera said with a devilish grin.

Belle squinted. "Kera, where did you say that you were from again?"

"Eh... east of here."

"East of the warfront..." Phoenix leaned in. "Right?"

"Nah. Not that far. The ponies who raised me didn't have tattoos like me. They're boring."

"I don't believe you ever told us the name of the place where you were raised," Belle said.

"That's because it's called 'Lerris!' And it's boring!"

"Did the ponies who raised you have a part to play in having you come to Blue Nova?"

"No! 'Cuz they were boring!" Kera turned back with a frown. "Seriously, what's with all the stupid questions? Jeez!"

"I'm sorry, Kera. It's just... well..." Belle shrugged. "We're concerned about you, is all. You're... well... you're not exactly a common sight in this part of the world."

"Just the way I like it!" Kera turned her chin up and trotted proudly toward their destination. "And, for real, stuff it with the questions! You don't see me asking you a bunch of crud left and right!"

"I wouldn't mind if you did."

"Oh yeah? How'd you get your horn all stubby?"

Phoenix glanced between Belle and Kera.

"Well, if you must know, it happened seven years ago," Belle said.

Kera blinked. She glanced over her shoulder. "Really?"

"Indeed."

"You... didn't have it lopped off when you were a filly?!"

"Spark, no!" Belle grimaced. "What would you make you suspect that?"

Kera shrugged. "You seem so cool with it."

"I really don't have much of a choice."

"So many ponies in this city make a big deal about magic. I mean, I know a lot of tricks. They're cool tricks. But if I lost my ability to make things float n'stuff, I'd find another way to get on top of things. It's 'cuz of how together I am and stuff. Ya dig?"

Belle stifled a giggle and nodded. "You almost remind me of somepony else I know."

"Ew, now I know you're just making that up."

"Why's that?"

"'Cuz I'm the one and only! That's why!"

"You'll get no argument from me," Phoenix grumbled. Belle shushed him.

"So, what broke it, huh?"

Belle glanced back at Kera. "Huh?"

"Your horn. What snapped it off?"

The mare winced slightly, but ultimately said, "There... was a zeppelin that crashed near the university in Mountainfall, where I was earning my doctorate in science."

"Oh?"

"I was one of the first ponies at the scene of the accident. I was no firefighter, but the aircraft was burning and... and there were ponies inside who needed help. Me and four other equines used our magic to tear open a part of the ship's hull so we could rush in and grab as many bodies as we could."

"Well, sounds like you handled it just fine!"

"I did..." Belle sighed. "Until my third trip in. A part of the ship collapsed. I was underneath it and... well..." She smiled painfully. "When I awoke, I wasn't the same."

"Wow..." Kera muttered, blinking ahead of her trot. "That had to have sucked."

Phoenix suddenly snickered. He quickly forced himself into a straight face and waved an apologetic hoof towards Belle. "My apologies. I didn't expect that..."

"It's quite alright, Mr. Phoenix." Belle turned towards Kera again. "As a matter of fact, my recovery went well. It so happened that I shared a room in the Mountainfall hospital with one of the survivors of the crash. He was a lot worse off than I was, but I was too busy being mesmerized by his intelligence and sincerity to even begin pitying him. Even though I was released earlier, I stuck around to help him with his physical therapy. I even made it my personal project at the university to design for him a neurological device that could help him navigate his surroundings better."

"Well, hey. That's pretty cool. So you're something of a smart pony, eh?"

"So others have told me."

"Heeheehee... and yet here you are in the street with no diploma and no mane." Kera smirked goofily. "I wonder what he'd say if he saw you now."

Belle opened her mouth, but said nothing. She swallowed a lump down her throat as her trot became a slow, scuffling thing. "He... he wouldn't have much to say... not now... not ever..."

"Yeah? Why not?"

"Because... because I lost him, Kera..."

Kera glanced back. "Huh? Lost him?"

Belle didn't reply. Phoenix was dead silent.

Kera stared at the two with a furrowed brow. Suddenly, her ears twitched. She flung a glance ahead, towards the courtyard looming beyond the narrow alleyway. "Wuh oh. Now that's a big crowd."

"Hmmm?" Phoenix suddenly galloped ahead so he could stand protectively at the front of the group. "A little too early in the day to be natural."

"Can you hear what th-they're saying?" Belle asked.

"I... I'm not sure..." Phoenix leaned in. "They're all gathered in front of Nightshade Industries..." After a few seconds, he blinked, then glanced back at the two with a pale expression. "I think... something has happened..."

Do Not Panic

When the three ponies emerged upon the courtyard, a familiar sight had alighted the balcony. Making a great deal of fuss to straighten his dress shirt, Sir Ordo stood before the lower entrance to the Nightshade Industries' skyscraper. His frazzled face summoned a smile in the morning light while he waved two reassuring hooves before the dozens upon hundreds of worried citizens.

"Undoubtedly you have all heard about the incident that has transpired in the industrial sector along the northeast side of town," the stallion said. "On behalf of Nightshade Industries, I must assure you that no lives have been lost. What is more, the damage sustained has been minimal. Nightshade's assets remain intact, and though there has been a momentary delay, factory production on zeppelins shall continue like normal in a matter of hours."

Phoenix stammered, "Incident in the industrial sector...?"

"I thought I heard something last night," Bellesmith murmured.

"Shhh!" Kera snuck ahead of the group, tugging her hood tighter over her petite self. "Come on, guys! This way!" she whispered. "We're not here to check in the blabber-muzzling!"

As they crept acround the perimeter, several citizens shouted with concerned breaths.

"Are we being attacked?!"

"Is this the Eastern savages?!"

"What's the Council of Ledo going to do to investigate?!"

"As you well know, fellow citizens of Blue Nova, Nightshade Industries cannot answer for the Council of Ledo. But, if Her Majesty's soldiers desire to examine the extent of the damage caused by last night's incident, then our company shall comply with any and all of their—"

Sir Ordo's speech was cut short. A loud buzzing filled the air, followed by the gasping murmurs of several ponies in attendance. Several heads tilted up.

"Shhh! Phoenix! Kera! Wait!" Belle anchored the two just as they were halfway towards the side alley. She pointed up with a golden hoof. "Look..."

"Huh?" Phoenix remarked.

"Oh brother..." was all Kera said, accompanied by the rolling of her eyes.

A mana-driven hovercraft was descending like a gray cloud. Unlike many of the enforcers' zeppelins that Bellesmith had encountered down south, this vehicle was lined with intricate bands of golden reinforcement. Floral designs and sparkling sprites illustrated the hull. As it puttered down to an even levitation with the balcony, a wooden plank extended. A procession of ponies trotted down, wearing blue uniforms. In the center of the group was a middle-aged mare. She was clad in purple velvets and her features were obscured from the shadows produced by a broad, blue sunhat.

"Hmmm..." Phoenix murmured aloud. "I think we all know who this is..."

Belle watched, squinting with curiosity.

At one sight of the mare, Sir Ordo gasped and made a great deal of effort to bow. He trotted backwards, giving the pony room to approach the balcony's edge. Tilting the brim of her hat up, the mare exposed a pair of indigo eyes. When she spoke, it was with a surprisingly deep voice, resonating with pride and conviction.

"Last night, at about zero four hundred hours, a small zeppelin crashed into the Nightshade Industries Offices for Blue Nova Facilitation and Manufacturing. As it was well before sunrise, and during a lull in managerial proceedings, there were no ponies located at the crash site to have been hurt. There were, however, half-a-dozen guards who suffered minor injuries while attempting unsuccessfully to guide the incoming zeppelin outside of a collision course. Their actions were brave and valiant, and they are currently situated at a Nighsthade health facility, swiftly mending from their wounds."

The mare's eyes calmly swept over the crowd as she spoke boldly into the morning wind.

"I have sent Overseer Fatch to take charge of the investigation of this unexpected incident. Rest assured, this is not some incursion on behalf of Xonan sympathizers. Blue Nova's security is beyond exceptional, and there hasn't been an act of terrorism in this city for over three decades. This has been nothing more than a mere miscalculation of aerial navigation, as we have estimated thus far. Granted, a thorough investigation will explain things more succinctly, but you have my word that I shall alert the entire city of the developments as swiftly as they occur."

She began pacing around the far edge of the balcony, taking liquid step after another, her eyes trained on the crowd who had been once again mesmerized by her graceful presence.

"Our Company seeks perfection, but it is far fromit. With so many resources being transported from location to location, it is inevitable that some mishap may occur. To that extent, I have made sure that everypony trained under the guidelines of our enterprise is capable of handling a situation such as this. As the last few hours have proven, they are more than prepared for any task presented them, no matter how dramatically. This same spirit of readiness and protection extends beyond the limits of our company, but into the community of Blue Nova, and the livelihood of all good Ledomaritans at large."

A murmur of appreciation rolled through the crowd, followed by several hooves clattering over the concrete. Belle and the other two slid their way towards the adjacent alleyway while Nightshade continued:

"I come here, not to rest from a long morning of overseeing the initial repairs of the zeppelin crash, but in order to check on my dear brother, Novus, in the upper Spire. For—like with all of our fellow citizens—I believe that family must come first. And all of you who work and live here in Blue Nova: you are all my family, and I care for each and every one of you individually as if you were my very own siblings, just like my brave, brave Novus."

"She certainly talks pretty," Phoenix droned.

"You guys done gawking or what?" Kera motioned down the dark passage. "Let's go before somepony sees you who recognizes your bald heads!"

"She's right. Let's make like kittens and get lost." Phoenix galloped down the corridor after Kera.

Bellesmith stood in place, staring curiously at Nightshade, her waving hoof, her blue sun hat...

"Psst! Ms. Belle!"

"Ahem... c-coming..." And she disappeared.

Meanwhile, Nightshade spoke a few last words: "As for zeppelin production, we should be getting back on track in less than an hour, actually. All depends on the faithful work of our beloved Overseer Fatch..."

This Oughta Work

Pilate would have had a better time holding his breath if he wasn't so tired, not to mention frustrated. The zebra had spent the last several hours sneaking his way from one building to the next, taking a bridge connected between a pair of Blue Nova spires at what Simon helped him discover was the twenty-fifth story. It was not a smooth transition; two-thirds of the journey was spent hiding in alcoves along the main corridors, avoiding the eyesight of guards and salvage workers rushing to the sight of the zeppelin crash in the office complex.

With a groan, Pilate crouched against the locked door to a utility closet. He craned his ear against the frame, feeling the twitch of Simon's bushy tail against his shoulder.

With each pulse of O.A.S.I.S. through the squirrel's buffer, he sensed a pair of guards situated in front of the door to his destination, located several yards down the immediate hallway. The stallions' muffled voices came to him with half the clarity as their bodies were illuminated by his manasphere, but he concentrated in order to make out their conversation as well as we could.

"...—for another hour, at least..."

"You've got to be kidding... —I'm starving! When will... —that is why we're keeping him, right? Otherwise, he's worthless, compared to the other two."

"... —not up to us. The pressure's on Fatch. Nightshade will... —if he doesn't get to the bottom... —not like ...—to our knees already with setbacks."

"When's Seclorum expecting Nightshade to... —him and his armada?"

"That's just it. Fatch can't be expected... —with the power source, or else... —left cold in the field, surrounded by Xonans and... —to the machine level."

"Brrrr. It chills me just thinking about it."

"But... —the possibilities! Unlimited... —better than coal or even mana!"

"What in Spark's name could be better than mana?"

"... —why you're just a grunt."

"Doesn't that...?"

"Oh shut up."

"Hahahahaha... Whoops..."

"What... —being paged?

"Yeah. ...—us to take him from the commisary."

"Ugh. Is this what our jobs have been reduced to?"

"You'd rather... —the zeppelin?"

"Hell no. But anything beats babysitting these two. Let's jet."

"After you."

Pilate held his breath. He sensed the two guards marching towards an elevator. They waited for the car, murmuring further towards each other. They were too far away for him to hear anything. Once they descended, he counted thirty mental seconds, then opened the door. Poking his head out, he allowed the O.A.S.I.S. sphere to fly high.

"Pssst. Simon. Give it the gas."

A chattering voice enthusiastically replied. Pilate felt a pulse of information ripping through his metal plate. He "saw" in every direction at once, and in that very splash he sensed the door where the guards had been standing for the past hour. Rushing over, he waited for another pulse before concentrating on the mechanisms.

"Hmmm... how quaint..."

The thing was rigged like a bank safe, with at least three spinning locks fastened to its structure.

"Whatever... or whoever is in here, they sure don't want them receiving any visitors."

Concentrating, Pilate gestured towards the rodent on his shoulder once more. Another pulse: he felt two bodies in the room, along with several tables full of metal scrap, a standing board of sorts, three lonely cots, a lavatory, and a thin sheet stretched out against the far end of the compartment.

"Hold on a second..." Pilate's metal brow furrowed. "That's no normal wall..."

He waited on Simon to give him another "glance." This time, he concentrated on the wall, on its thinness, on its smooth texture.

"That's not a wall," he muttered. "It's a window." He rubbed his chin in thought. "Which means..."

Pricking his ears about, he heard nothing, save for the pitch of his and Simon's breaths. Shuffling, he bounded towards the next room and tried the lock. It opened easily, and he slithered his way inside. The air there was warm, and he sensed Simon shading his furry face.

"I'm guessing the sun's up," Pilate said, closing the door behind him and creeping forward with an even pace. "And I'm also guessing there's a window here all the same." He stretched his hoof forward and felt the cool kiss of glass. Running it along the surface, he found the frame, then felt it with O.A.S.I.S. With the aid of Simon, he discovered a latch. He struggled with it, but it wouldn't budge. "Blast it, come on..." Using his teeth, the zebra blindly unlocked the window. He pushed it open. A heavy gust of wind flew into the room. Pilate heard tables knocking over and scraps of paper flying towards the far corners of the place. "Whoah! Whew... that's certainly a wake-up call."

Gulping, Pilate squatted down before the window and snaked his forelimb out like the trunk of an elephant. He felt around the outside of the window, reaching a far as he could without putting himself in danger.

"Great... no ledge," he grumbled. "Well, I'm not sure what I was even thinking." He sighed, then pivoted about towards the center of the wind-swept room. "I seriously doubt there's a way to get to the two through the wall—"

Just then, Simon started chattering madly.

Pilate flinched. "Huh? What?! What is it?"

Simon tugged and tugged on the zebra's fetlocks.

"I... I'm sorry, friend. I think the communication divide is just far too great at this point."

The squirrel barked, then stood still. Pilate heard several electrical sparks snapping. Then O.A.S.I.S. went into overdrive. Instead of a single pulse, the zebra felt a lengthy, continuous stream of data filtering through his head. While he felt this, he could sense the rodent telekinetically lifting several objects in the room at once, then lowering them. Just as the sensory field faded, Simon pointed out the window, then at the zebra.

Pilate followed the gesture, tilting towards the source of the high winds. He stood in a space of blank thought, then felt his jaw dropping. "Oh goodness, no..."

Simon kicked him.

"Gah!" He stumbled and sighed. "Nnngh... Nancy Jane, I do hope you love your beloved as much as I love mine." Trying to shake loose the shivers, he allowed Simon to mount his shoulders as he approached the window. "You can levitate a body and open windows at the same time, right?"

The squirrely marely barked twice in sequence.

"I don't find that very reassuring..."

More the Merrier

There were two voices in the room: a mare's voice and a stallion's voice.

"Then how are we going to maintain equilibrium with all of the runic differentiation?" he said.

"That's the funny thing about equilibrium, you silly goose! It's gonna wanna equilibriumize itself and stuff!" she said.

"This is serious! If we don't design a functioning prototype, it might blow up in their faces! And then it'll blow up in our faces!" he said.

"Bzzzzt! Wrong! If we just reinforce the crystalline circumference with notched rings of manastone, then the container will go VROMMMM instead of KABLOOOEY!" she said.

"So, wait, are you trying to suggest that we create a purposefully destructible barrier in order to off-set the differentiation?"

"Well, of course, Clarkaroo! The energy ain't natural! Heck, I don't think it even belongs to this world! If you could call it the 'world' anymore. 'World diet?' 'World lite?'"

"I still think the problem with the last few prototypes has been a severe lack of reinforcement."

"And yet we keep bundling the ring with thicker and thicker metal stuff, only for it to break everytime! We gotta think outside the box, Clark! We gotta take a stand for forward thinking and say we're not afraid of skinny dipping."

"But, Props—"

"Heehee... skinny dipping gives me goosebumps..."

"AHEM... Props, they're going to buy this. You realize that, yes? They're going to think that we're delaying while we try to find a way to escape our capture."

'But I thought we WERE delaying while we tried to find a way to escape our capture."

"Er, well, yes. But that's just a background plan."

"But Ebon said—"

"I don't care what Ebon said. He's just one pony. One pony on the outside can't do any more than what you and I can do from inside here."

"Then how come there's some crazy tapping on the window?"

"Er—What? Props, what's that got to do with anything?"

"I dunno. Oh! There's totally some crazy tapping on the window!"

"Huh? What in Spark's name..."

The two bodies pivoted towards the far end of the room.

Pilate could barely feel them, for he was too focused on slapping his hooves across the window to the breaking point. "Hckkkt—Could you... open th-this... please...?" He hissed and sputtered, sweating bullets. He felt his hooves flailing in the open window. The furry figure on his shoulder was starting to spasm and buckle. "He c-can't hold us up for much longer!"

"Props, is it my lack of sleep, or is there a floating zebra outside our window?"

"Oooh! I know this one, Clark! Uhm... but wait, didn't you forget the part about him being red all over?"

Pilate slapped the glass even harder.

"Oh, for the love of science—Hold on!" The stallion's body rushed forward and undid the window latches. With a gust of air, Pilate flew in. He and Simon sprawled across the floor of the room, panting and wheezing for breath.

"Nnngh... Th-thank you..." Pilate stammered, struggling to stand up straight. "I don't think we could have lasted another minute..."

"Omigoshomigoshomigosh!" the mare shook and quivered. Suddenly, she bounded over. "A gray squirrel! Huggy huggy!" In a pulse from his manasphere, Pilate sensed the pony yanking a surprised Simon off the floor and nuzzling him dear. "Heeeeeee..." she squeed.

"Er... yes, well..." The stallion's eloquent voice drew nearer as he helped Pilate up to his feet. "This is a rather remarkable encounter, though I'm at a loss as to whether or not to call it fortuitous."

"That certainly makes the two of us." Pilate stood up, teetering slightly. "Please forgive me for the dramatic entrance—"

"'Dramatic,' I can most certainly handle," the stallion said, reaching forward and brushing Pilate's coat off. "'Fantastical,' however, is a new flavor for one such as me. Ahem. Dare I ask HOW you managed to do what you just did, good sir?"

"I'm still learning the ropes myself." Pilate sensed Simon's shivering body with the next manapulse. He turned towards the mare. "Please, be gentle with him. He's not as strong on the inside as he is on the outside."

"Awwwww... but he's such an adorable metaphysical monkey-face!" The mare's voice cooed. "I especially love the Neihkola Tesla conductors sticking out of his itty bitty skull! Very rocketpony!"

"Do forgive her enthusiasm," the stallion said. "She's more acquainted with grease and far less with etiquette—"

"First thing's first." Pilate leaned forward, his metal brow furrowed. "Nancy Jane."

"Nancy who, sir?"

"Is Nancy Jane here?" Pilate took a strong breath. "The beloved to Floydien?"

"Uhm... I do apologize, my good fellow, but there is no pony by that monicker here."

"Though I've been known to have a 'Fancy Mane' from time to time! Hee hee hee!" The mare gasped. "Say! What if I called myself 'Nancy Jane' from now on?! Maybe they'd let me out to do fashion shows!"

"I seriously doubt that, Props."

"Awwww..."

Pilate sighed, running a hoof through his mane. "Then where could she be...?"

"I've done a great deal of observation since arriving here," the stallion said. "There are only three prisoners housed in this area of Nightshade Industries. I mean, I wouldn't know what else to call this besides 'imprisonment.' We most certainly aren't here by choice."

"I dunno! I'm starting to like it!" she said.

The stallion groaned. "Well, most of us with the faculty to care..."

"Who... uh..." Pilate shifted nervously. "Who exactly are you?"

"Do forgive my ill manners." The stallion extended a hoof. "My name is Clark. Jasper Clark. It's a northern name."

"Er... yes..." Pilate shook his hoof. "I'll take your word for it."

"I'm an engineering physicist, graduated from the Central Confederate Academy of Technological Sciences. And the bubbly one who's embracing your odd rodent friend over there is a pony whom we like to call 'Props.'"

"Props?"

"Mostly because she has innate knowledge of machinery and an unhealthy love for it all the same."

"Oh, you haven't lived until you've cuddled with a wrench!" she chirped.

Pilate tried his best not to wince. "How... quaint. Uhm... my name is Pilate. I'm familiar with the Central Confederate Academy, but I was never transferred there. I... uh... suffered a terrible accident halfway through earning my doctorate."

"Oh?" Clark remarked. "What were you studying?"

"History and ancient linguistics."

"Ah. I do appreciate a good historian." Clark cleared his throat and leaned forward. "Might I ask what a history buff is doing levitating around the upper spire of an industrial complex?"

"It's a long story... too long a story to tell before the two guards who were just outside the door return. I came here looking for an equine named 'Nancy Jane.' Her beloved brought me here. He's a bizarre character named Floydien, and I think he may have suffered some... experience at the hooves of Nightshade Industries. All I know is that he crashed a zeppelin into the building bridged to this one several hours ago, and now I'm on my own with his little companion here..."

"So that's the reason for the thunderous explosion that shook us through to our fetlocks last night!" Clark exclaimed. "And here I thought that the Council of Ledo had finally intervened."

"The Council of Ledo?" Pilate swiveled to face him evenly. "Intervened? What for?"

"Oh, well... hmmm..." Clark's body leaned back on its haunches. "I do suppose that Nightshade would be resourceful enough to cover her corporation's tracks. It helps that she has Seclorum in the field..."

"Huh? Seclorum?"

"Say..." The mare had trotted over by then on silent cat feet, startling Pilate. "What's with your eyes, Mr. Zebra? They look like they're filled with the stuff I cough up after sniffing too much mana exhaust."

"Oh... uhm... yes, about that..."

"Are..." Clark's head pivoted. "Are you blind, Mr. Pilate?"

"For the most part," Pilate replied with a nervous smile. He felt four paws scampering across his body as Simon perched on the zebra's shoulder that was furthest from Props. "It's not quite what you think, though. I have this runic plate affixed to my neurological system and it channels mana to—"

"Good heavens!" Clark gasped, his head tilted to the device attached to Pilate's throat. "Is that what I think it is?!"

"Ooooh!" Props gasped, suddenly poking the sphere. "A floaty ball thingy!"

"Don't be so brutish, Props! Can't you see it's an Optical and Spatial Integration System?!"

"Yeah! A floaty ball thingy that makes blind ponies see!"

Jasper Clark groaned, but nevertheless tilted about to face Pilate once again. "I've heard of the device, but I've never seen it up close."

"You mean you're familiar with the functions of O.A.S.I.S.?" Pilate asked.

"Yes. I happen to be an avid fan of all of Dr. Bellesmith's works, and I've had the fortune of reading her theses extensively."

Pilate nearly jumped out of his coat. "You... you kn-know Bellesmith?"

"Oh, please. What good physicist hasn't heard of her studies? She's the subject of many enthusiastic forums back at the Academy."

"She's also my beloved!" Pilate stammered. "I'm trying to find her!"

"Really?" Clark remarked.

"I thought you were looking for the Nanciest of Janes!"

"Her too!" Pilate grumbled, then faced Clark again. "I've been separated from my beloved. If this is Blue Nova, then she must be located west of here in a Northern Ledomaritan Enforcers' Facility!"

"But... but you have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Pilate. How could you be the beloved of a deceased professor?"

Pilate felt his blood turn to ice. "D-deceased?"

"Yes. Bellesmith is famous for both her writings as well as her tragic end."

"Where? How? When?"

"In the zeppelin crash outside of Mountainfall, of course."

Pilate's face tilted towards the floor. He murmured aloud. "Zeppelin crash... Mountainfall..." Slowly, he slumped down to his haunches. "Blessed Spark, they... th-they faked it..." His brow furrowed in utmost confusion. "Why would they fake it?"

"You mean she's alive?"

Pilate took a deep breath. Ultimately, he bore a bitter smile. "Oh, most definitely. And I am the lucky soul to be her betrothed. Ahem..." He shook the quivering tone in his voice and stood up again. "We were located to a facility called Blue Shelf not long after the accident that took my eyesight and... her horn..."

"Awwwwww..." Pilate could practically feel the mare's sad-face through the O.A.S.I.S. field. "She got her pointy-head de-pointed? That's totally crudtastic..."

"We managed, in spite of it all," Pilate said. "In Blue Shelf, there wasn't much else we could do but get used to our circumstances."

"'Blue Shelf...'" Clark murmured aloud. "I can't say that I've heard of it..."

"I doubt you would have," Pilate said. "Nightshade isn't the only organization capable of notorious acts. They undoubtedly kept the entire facility secret from the public. And if it's true that they faked my beloved's death, then that means—"

"Shhhh!" Props hissed suddenly. "The stonefaces are returning?"

"Stone... faces...?" Pilate murmured.

"She means guards!" Clark grunted. "I learned long, long ago not to distrust Props' hearing!"

"Quick! We gotta hide him!" Props squeaked. "Someplace that isn't colorful!"

"Behind the tool chests!" Clark said, already shoving the zebra. "Quickly!'

"But there's nothing to cover him—"

"They won't march in that far! They never do!"

"Yeah! What's up with that?! It's like they think we've got the mumps! Those dumps!"

"Shhh!" Clark whispered in Pilate's ears. "Stay absolutely still, and try and get your squirrel friend to cease chatting."

"But—" Pilate started.

"Please, sir. Trust us. So far, we're more than inclined to trust you. And that doesn't come easily in a place such as this."

As the stallion spoke, the door to the room could be heard unlatching. With a loud hiss, three bodies drifted in. One was being lifted telekinetically by the other two, and in a matter of seconds, he was being tossed into the center of the place.

"Oooof!" the voice of a young stallion grunted. "Unnngh... okay, for real, you two..." The lithe figure stepped up, brushed himself off, and turned around. "Is this because of the golden hay alfredo? It's not my fault that the supply didn't provide me with Mintian spices this time."

"Don't pretend you get to bark stuff at us, buddy," said one of the guards as the two backtrotted with rifles trained. "We'll haul you out of here once we need you again."

"You mean once you're hungry enough to forsake corporate rations again."

"Oh buck off." And the door sealed behind them with a hiss.

The newcomer sighed. "I swear, it'd be so easy... SO easy to poison them."

"Then why don't you, good friend?" Clark asked.

"I dunno. I'm holding out for the slim chance I can shove a fork someplace where the sun doesn't shine."

"Heeheehee! Everypony knows you couldn't be that much of a meany-meany head, Ebon."

"Yeah, well, don't tempt me, Props." The stallion pivoted about. "So, what'd I miss while I was gone tossing noodles? Were you two kind enough to design something that won't explode this time—?" He froze suddenly, his nostrils sniffing the air. "Uhhh... guys? Why's it smell like desert and saddle sweat all of the sudden?"

Pilate stood up, frowning. "I most certainly wasn't born in a desert!"

"Whoah! Okay... who invited the talking optical illusion?! And... uh... is that squirrel with bulbs sticking out of its head?"

"Neighola Tesla Coils!" Props beamed.

"Yeah. Whatever. Uhm... what the buck?"

"Ebon, meet Pilate," Clark said, his body gesturing between the two. "Mr. Pilate, this is Ebon Mane."

"Ebon Mane..." Pilate leaned his head to the side. "Is it just me, or does that sound familiar?"

"Goddess, I hope not," the stallion muttered.

"Pilate's a blind zebra!" Props exclaimed. "Only, his superpower is that he's not blind!"

"Uhhh... sure?"

Pilate let loose a flighty chuckle. "That's actually the best way to simply things."

"He's come looking for somepony's beloved," Clark said. "An equine by the name of 'Nancy Jane.' Does it ring a bell?"

"Hey, uh, I once worked at a diner called the 'Antsy Crane' way east in Gray Smoke, but that's all I can give ya!"

"Mmmmmm—they served jelly filled cobblers!" Props said. "I used to buy them by the bucketload just to grease the outer exhaust engines of the western platform thrusters!"

"I take it you've become well-acquainted with my friends here, Mr. Pilate," Ebon said in a pleasant voice.

"More or less. What's your role here, Mr. Mane?"

"Please, just call me 'Ebon.'"

"Are you a physicist... an engineer... a scientist?"

"Er... eheheh... no, not really."

"Oh? What are you, then?"

"I'm... uh..." Ebon's body shifted from one hoof to another. A pulse from O.A.S.I.S. revealed no horns, no wings; only a bashful smile. "I'm just a cook..."

Talking Ponies Syndrome

"So... uh..." Ebon Mane leaned towards Pilate. "Are you really blind?"

"Yes. Most assuredly." The zebra turned in the general direction of Props' and Jasper Clark's bodies. "Could somepony explain to me what you three are doing here?"

"I was attending a conference at Gray Smoke—" Clark began.

"The most clouderiffic cloud city there ever is!" Props added with a giggle.

"...right. Ahem. There was a symposium for like-minded physicists to gather around and talk about the latest technological advances this side of the war front. I was supposed to give a formal address on the potential profit in utilizing hyper-accelerated mana streams in Ledomaritan freight shipping—"

"Come on, Jasper," Ebon droned. "Don't talk him deaf. He's got enough to worry about as it is."

Props giggled.

With a groaning voice, Clark said, "Long story short, I was accosted by unicorns attempting to pass themselves off as Gray Smoke merchants. They hauled me onto a ship, where I met Props and Ebon Mane here."

"I was knee-deep in a tangled auxiliary engine gear array!" Props cooed. "When they grabbed me, I was so sad that I couldn't get my work done! But then they gave me even better work here!"

"Needless to say, Props, not all of us are thrilled to be here against our will."

"Pffft! Don't be such a grumparoo, Clarkaroo! I see your ears twitching with excitement whenever you look at the energy readings they send us! Either you're making love to physics in your head, or somepony's giving you a tummy rub! And since I learned my lesson on the first day, I think we all know what the real reason—"

"AHEM... And Ebon here..."

"I... uh..." The younger stallion chuckled. "I was making a delivery of soup cans and flour to Props' ship when she was taken, so they took me too."

"Yeah!" Props' hooves could be heard bounding over towards where Ebon stood. "Me and Ebony go way back in Gray Smoke! Why, we're practically identical twins! Except I'm an innie while he has an outie—heeheehee—if you catch my drift."

Pilate nodded. "I take it that you all have—"

"My gray smoky drift! Heehee!"

Pilate smiled nervously, cleared his throat, and continued. "I take it that you all have been brought here to do something specifically?"

"Affirmative," Clark's voice replied. Through Simon's pulse, Pilate momentarily caught his head nodding. "My mental skills and Props' expertise have certainly been put to the test. And as for Ebon..."

"He's been keeping us in good favor with the guards by keeping their bellies full!" Props exclaimed. "Isn't that right, ya slick-maned rascal?"

"It's certainly better than execution," Ebon said with a shuddering breath.

Pilate grimaced. "Blessed Spark! Is it really that bad of a situation?"

"Nightshade Industries means business, but they're not enforcer material. Er... if you catch my drift."

"Believe it or not, I do," Pilate said with a nod.

"I wasn't always making food in the mess for them. When I was first dragged here, I was expected to be nothing but a normal prisoner—just to shit down and keep his mouth shut. But I... eheh... have a way of persuading ponies. I won their confidence, and now I'm serving tons of stallions everyday. Serving food, that is..."

"Uh huh..."

"I've managed to hear bits and pieces of gossip here and there. It seems that most if not all the guards of this place are in on what's going on, which is kind of remarkable, considering how little the public knows about it."

"Knows about what?" Pilate asked.

"Well, it appears as though Madame Nightshade is expecting to send a vessel east to the battlefront," Ebon Mane said. "This isn't out of the ordinary. Nightshade Industries supplies the Ledomaritan forces along the eastern front all the time. Only, what's strange about this occasion is that they didn't want to use a vessel from their own stock. Typical Nightshade freight zeppelins are typically slow, and they didn't want to construct something to Ledomaritan military specifications, or else the Enforcers might catch on."

"Catch on to what?"

"That they need a glider for this delivery—a very fast, swift vessel that could outfly both Xonan and Searonese aircraft."

"So..." Pilate pivoted over towards the others. "They're having Mr. Clark and Ms. Props here construct a newer, faster, secret aircraft?"

"Hardly," Clark said. "Rather, they're having us augment a preexisting craft."

"Oh?"

"From what I overheard from the guards," Ebon explained, "Several vessels have been seized by Nightshade's security, all for bogus reasons, mind you. I'm guessing that they were looking for a ship privately built that—with a few modifications—could be made to do the swift delivery that's needed."

Props spoke in: "Cuz if they requisitioned the nuts and bolts to build one from scratch, the Big Whigs at Ledo would notice and start sniffing Nightshade's whigs!"

"And a few months ago, they found a vessel fast enough to work," Clark added. "That's what Props and I are here for."

"We're building a cage!" Props sing-songed.

"A cage for what?" Pilate's brow furrowed. "This... delivery? Is it alive?"

"Quite frankly, we don't know what it is. Some sort of vibrant, out-of-this world energy signature. I'm not sure how the company got their hooves on it, but it's the most amazing thing I've ever read about. No pony in the Company is gifted with containing this sort of unknown element. Pffft—it's most certainly thrown us for a loop! But, think tanks do as think tanks are, and we've almost come upon a solution."

"They're certainly barking up our tree trunks enough to make us get the job done!"

Pilate trotted forward. "And this... energy is going to be taken east? What—is it a weapon?"

"Nopony's saying," Ebon explained. "But a few stallions outside of this room have dropped the name of Prime Enforcer Seclorum."

Pilate rubbed his chin in thought. "Prime Enforcer Seclorum... Prime Enforcer Seclorum..."

"It would seem that he and Madame Nightshade have history with one another," Clark said. "I do believe her less-than-fortunate brother served under him in the war."

"The name sounds vaguely familiar." Pilate lifted his head. "I would very much like to help you three get out of here, as impossible as that may sound."

"Hey..." Ebon's body shrugged. "You're a zebra with a metal forehead who floated here with a magical squirrel. You're the best thing to come this way since I talked the mess hall into scrounging up butter garlic and cinnamon."

Pilate talked past Props' giggles. "But, first and foremost, would you be so kind as to let me see the blueprints of this... 'cage' that you are working on?"

"Most certainly. Although..." Clark's body shifted. "Can a pony like you actually read it?"

Pilate smiled gently. "I'm most certain I can."

Call the Elevator

Down in the streets of Blue Nova, three bodies hugged the walls of an alley as they snuck along the circumference of the Nightshade Industries skyscraper. The place was delightfully abandoned, with nary a bum or a vagabond to be had. Bellesmith and Phoenix could easily have galloped down the barren length of the corridor. They almost did—only Kera suddenly stopped, turning to face a blank wall of the looming spire.

"Huh?" Phoenix squinted. "Kid, why are you stopping?"

"Because this is the way in, ya yahoo!" Kera squeaked.

Phoenix smirked. "What, this barren wall? I think your memory's playing tricks on you."

"Pffft! I'll show you tricks!" Kera gritted her teeth. Bands of blue and silver illumination rippled beneath her cloak. The tattoos along her face sparkled. "Nnnngh..." After a final flicker to her horn, a beam of magic surged into the body of the building. Glowing lines wafted across the surface, forming the frame of a door. Then, with a hiss of compressed air, a thin chamber opened up to the three.

Phoenix grimaced, his ears drooping. Belle trotted past him with a smirk. "Oh ye of little spunk," she said.

"Okay, look, I'm sorry that I'm not immediately impressed by the Mare Sue here!" Phoenix balked. "I'll try to be less of a flankhole from now on..."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Kera said as she trotted gaily into the building. Bellesmith giggled and motioned Phoenix along.

The stallion grumbled, ultimately lurching after the two ponies.

Inside, the ponies found themselves surrounded by concrete girders and shelves upon shelves of maintenance equipment.

"It's so... so..." Belle stammered.

"Boring, right?" Kera remarked, leading the way ahead through the shadows.

"I was going to say 'clean,'" the mare stated. "It's so strange to walk into this from a world of rubbish and neglect."

"Nightshade grooms herself inside and out," Kera said. "I guess all ponies want to feel good about looking good. Y'know?"

"Sure... sure..." Phoenix nodded, shifting about uncomfortably. "Where are we off to now?"

"We would very much like to ascend the tower, Kera," Belle said. She paused to glance inside one of her saddlebags, spotting the glow of the runic tome housed within. "The place where you saw these symbols... where the other foals are..."

"What about it?"

"Could you take us there?"

Kera squinted back at the two. "Really? You guys sure that's where you wanna go?"

"Why, don't you remember how to get there?" Phoenix remarked.

"Mr. Phoenix..." Belle whispered.

Phoenix ignored it. "You said you came back multiple times without being seen." His eyes narrowed. "Prove it."

Belle bit her lip.

Kera frowned. "Think I'm full of hot air, huh? I'll show you!" she hoarsely exclaimed before scampering towards a door. "I'll show you! This way!"

Phoenix leaned in to Belle. "I'm quite certain she will take us now."

"Mr. Phoenix, I want to stay in her good favor."

"For what purpose?"

Bellesmith whispered back, "She's just a foal. I'm convinced she needs us more than we need her."

"You may wish to make up your mind about who you care about the most," Phoenix remarked. "Kera or Rainbow Dash? Because so far we are surviving on luck alone. We may find ourselves swiftly lacking the luxury of choice."

All Belle did was sigh.

Kera hissed from far ahead, motioning the other two ponies ahead. She darted out into the immediate hallway and the other two followed.

Belle had long forgotten what air-conditioning felt like. Her coat formed goosebumps as she found herself slowly navigating a long corridor with smooth, reflective granite tile and many many doors. At regularly spaced intervals, glittering light fixtures hung from the polished ceiling, casting an amber brilliance about the place.

"Yeesh..." Phoenix whispered, glancing nervously over his shoulder down the empty lengths of the majestic hallway. Every now and then, there was the hint of clattering hooves, but no immediate sign of Nightshade employees. "Not even the largest Franzington embassy in southeast Ledomare was as decked up as this place. I wonder just how much money the ponies of the Confederacy have to throw around."

"Enough to keep the dust out," Belle said. She looked ahead. "Kera, darling, where to... now?"

The foal had stopped in front of one of three elevator doors. The frame had no hint of controls of any sort attached to it.

"Through here," the child murmured.

"I don't think that's accessible," Phoenix said. "At least not to non employees."

"I'll make it accessible." Kera leaned forward. "Just like I always have."

"Phoenix?" Belle trotted into the tight trio. "You're magically gifted. Couldn't you—"

"I'd only be breaking stuff from the inside out," he grumbled. "I obviously don't know this tech like she does. It's pretty nifty."

"I'll pretend that's his way of saying that he likes me," Kera muttered in mid-concentration.

Belle elbowed Phoenix. The stallion rubbed his side and glared at Belle. Belle smirked.

At last, the door opened briskly, revealing the dimly-lit interior of a service elevator car. "There. It's one of Madame Nightsucker's private elevators. It should take us to where you wanna go."

"Wonderful," Belle said as Phoenix marched in to check the interior out. "We should go about this quickly. There's no telling how thick the security may be."

"Actually, I'm getting the feeling that Nightshade's forces aren't here. This place is barren," Phoenix thought aloud from the elevator. After a thorough sweep, he gave Belle a reassuring smile. "Seems like the guards were sent to the location of the zeppelin crash in the northeast industrial sector. This may be the chance we need."

"To do what?"

"Erm... I thought you had that covered, Ms. Bellesmith."

Belle blushed slightly. "Right." She made for the elevator. "Right. Well, let's go—" She froze suddenly, noticing a body frozen in place to her side. "Kera...?"

The foal stood still, her tiny hooves fidgeting against the polished floor.

"Kera..." Belle knelt down. "Is everything okay?"

"Do you really... really wanna go up there?" the filly murmured, avoiding Belle's chestnut eyes. "I mean, really?"

"There's a mystery about this place that I must figure out," Belle said. "Also, I am very much concerned about your friends."

"They're not my friends," Kera said bitterly. "None of them can do the tricks that I can do, and they haven't bothered with escaping. They're cowards is what they are..."

Belle glanced over flank at the elevator. She turned and looked back at Kera. "Are you afraid to go back there?"

Kera did a double-take. Her frown was venomous as she slapped her hooves down. "I am so NOT afraid! I'm doing you a favore here, remember?"

But Belle softly smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Kera, it's okay. If worse comes to worse, I'll protect you."

"Pfffft!" Kera smiled goofily. "You? Protect me?" She gawked at the mare. "But you're so... so... soft!"

"Nevertheless, I will keep you safe," Belle said. "I promise you this."

"Hmmph..." Kera brushed Belle's shoulder off. "You two are worthless. I've got way better things to do than waste my time with a pair of bumbling adults."

Belle raised an eyebrow. "Then why did you come to us in the first place?"

Kera was dead silent.

Belle smiled. "It wasn't just to give us my books back, was it?"

"Pssst! Hey! Can the soap opera wait?" Phoenix hissed from the elevator car. "Do your girl-talk somewhere else than in an open hallway inside a megamare's skyscraper!"

Belle bit her lip. Kera brushed past her.

"He's right. Let's do this crud."

Belle let out a deep breath, scurried into the elevator, and watched as the doors closed silently behind her.

Shift and Shaft

When the elevator door finally opened, the hallway outside looked exactly the same. For a moment, Belle and Phoenix stood dead-still, their faces awash with complexion.

"This... but... did we...?" Bellesmith stammered.

"Something must be wrong," Phoenix said, staring at the familiar polished granite and shiny walls of the place. "Maybe it returned to the first floor—?"

"We're way up high," Kera said, trotting out, undaunted.

"Kera!" Belle hissed. "But we're—"

"Trust me," the child said in a dull tone, gazing lethargically back at the two adults. "We're something like thirty stories up right now, easily. This is the only place this particular elevator goes, and it's how I've gotten out and gotten back in more than once."

Phoenix bit on his lip and gave Belle an awkward glance.

Belle simply nodded and took the first step out to follow Kera.

Phoenix shuddered. Trotting in a jittery fashion, he glanced down both ends of the long hallway. "I just can't for the life of me believe that they furnish every friggin' level to look this nice."

"Believe it," Kera muttered. "If there's anything Lady Nighty-Night is good for, it's looking pretty." She turned around. "So... uh... where to?"

"You've been here before," Phoenix whispered, still gazing all about with the anxiety of a sleepless guard dog. "Care to tell us where we can and can't go?"

"Uhhhh, no?" Kera stuck her tongue out. "It was you guys' bright idea to come here, poopy heads!"

"Now if you would just—"

"Phoenix, relax," Belle calmly said. She was already pulling out the ancient tome from her saddlebag. The lavender light was practically blinding at this point. She had to squint as she tilted the item around, judging the extent of its brilliance. "We are definitely close to the source."

"And just what is that source?!"

"Whatever it is, it's over in that direction," Belle said, motioning with her stub of a horn. "Somewhere at the end of that long hallway."

"And so's the ward," Kera said.

"What ward?" Phoenix asked.

"Where all my lame friends are hanging out!" Kera said with a venomous grin tossed over her flank. "Well, they used to be my lame friends. Now they're just lame. But, hey! That's their fault for not blowing this popsicle stand the first second that they—"

Just then, the elevator door behind them hissed shut. After a mana-powered "ding!" the three were subjected to a vibrating hum that practically resonated throughout the invisible spine of the skyscraper.

Belle gasped. "What... what is—"

"Awwwww fudge nuggets," Kera muttered with a pouty face. "Not again."

Phoenix flashed her a grimacing expression. "What's happening again?!"

"Remember what I said earlier about this elevator only having to travel between the first floor and here?"

"Yes...?"

"Well, Madame Night-Stain has an office on this floor and... well..."

The elevator stopped humming. Was silent. And began humming again. The vibrating sound drew closer and closer.

"Crud!" Phoenix hissed, looking left and right. "We gotta move!"

"How many ponies usually accompany this mare on these meetings?" Belle stammered.

"Oh, I dunno... a dozen or so?"

As Belle's breath left her, Phoenix was galloping back and forth between the sides of the hallway. "Quick! Kid! Pick a door and get us on the other side with that fancy lockpicking magic of yours!"

"Pffftttchyaa!" Kera quacked. "You got a few minutes you could spare?"

"Huh?!" Phoenix did a double take.

"The doors up here are sealed super-tight with some security lock mumbo jumbo. They take me agesssss to open!"

"Well, why didn't you say so beforehand?!" Phoenix grumbled.

"You dum-dums didn't ask!"

"Nnngh!" Phoenix stomped his hooves and looked around. "Think think think think..."

"Mr. Phoenix..." Bellesmith squeaked. "The elevator is coming."

"I usually hide in a potted plant," Kera said. "But they removed them after last time." She smiled with a slight blush. "I had to make sissy really bad..."

"Wait... wait!" Phoenix stared up. "Now that is different!"

"Huh?" Belle glanced his way.

Phoenix pointed up at the ceiling that was devoid of amber-glowing light fixtures. "The ceiling is much lower than in the lobby. What's more, there's paneling."

"Which means—Gah!" Belle jumped back as a metal grate fell right in front of her.

"It'll be a tight squeeze, but we should be able to fit!" Phoenix turned from the open A/C unit to the petite foal. "Hold your breath, kid."

"What for—ayyyy gi gi gi gi!" Kera's voice cracked and her hooves flailed. She found herself spinning upwards like a badly punted hoofball. In a blink, Phoenix had telekinetically hoisted her up into the echoing metal shaft.

"There. That's one." Phoenix swiveled to face Belle.

"Mr. Phoenix, you don't seriously think that—?" Belle's breath left her as she too was being lifted up, albeit much more slowly.

"Yes... I... do... th-think..." Phoenix hissed, his entire face tensing as he lifted her ceilingward by sheer magic. "Nnnngh—Spark! Eat any g-good books lately?!"

"Phoenix! Careful!" Belle uttered from mid-air. "You'll pop a blood vessel in your brain!"

"Wouldn't that be horrible?" Kera stifled a giggle as she reached her hooves down. "Grab ahold, Belle!"

Upon hearing the child say her name so casually, the mare glanced up. She bit her lip and stretched... stretched her hooves up. Kera steadied her forelimbs as Belle clamped onto the edge of the air conditioning shaft and dangled. All it took now was a brief, telekinetic shove from Phoenix's end and she was sliding into the thin passage right after Kera.

The elevator stopped humming.

"Hurry, Mr. Phoenix!" Belle chirped desperately from above.

The stallion grimaced. Already covered in sweat, he flexed his limbs, took a breath, and leapt straight up. His horn strobed across the reflective surfaces of the room as he gave his own body a telekinetic bounce. For half-a-second, he flew. His hooves clamored loudly over the edge of the shaft's entrance. Belle and Kera grunted as they pulled at his forelimbs, sliding the breathless stallion up and into the claustrophobic passage.

A dinging sound echoed above the door.

Phoenix scrunched tight, spun around, and aimed his horn down from the shaft.

The metal vent grate flew up like a kite, just as the elevator opened, pouring out several busily trotting and chatting bodies. Phoenix quietly fastened the lid in place. The three hung silent and gazed down in time to see a familiar dark-blue sunhat passing beneath them.

"Sir Ordo, I want you attending to the ring team. Overseer Fatch has his hooves full with cleaning up the zeppelin debacle at the Facilitation building in the northeast."

"Do you not want my expert advice in discussing this matter, Madame?"

"Not this time, Ordo. I want you working on the project. They know and trust you best, after all."

"As you wish, Madame. I'll go right away."

"The rest of you, come with me. This meeting will be brief, but it's important. I do believe somepony is onto us."

"Who, pray tell?!" One of the many ponies stammered, his voice echoing across the hallway beneath the a/c unit. "The Council of Ledo? Xonan saboteurs?"

"We'll discuss it once we're all assembled. Somepony get word out that I'm about to visit Novus."

"But Madame—"

"Send word. That's an order."

"Yes, ma'am..."

Belle and Phoenix exchanged quiet glances.

"Ugh..." Kera grunted. "I swear, she always sounds like a hippopotamus trying to read poetry." Kera started scoot-scoot-scooting down the shaft. She paused and glanced over her shoulder. "You two melon fudges wanna get somewhere or not? Follow my tattoos to happiness!"

Shinra McClane Darpa

"Whew!" Kera gasped, her body thumping across the aluminum interior of the a/c shaft. "This is worse than when I was funneled down the Xonan birth canals!"

Belle gasped from where she crawled directly behind her. "Xonans shove their foals down metal chutes?!"

"Nah." Kera giggled. "I just wanted to get your reaction. Snkkkt-heeheehee..."

"Nnnngh..." Belle frowned. "Kera..."

"Ladies..." Phoenix coughed from behind the two. "A little less chatting a little more shuffling?"

"I don't even know where this darn thing goes," Kera mumbled.

"What?" Phoenix balked. "But I thought you knew the place!"

"Oh, yeah! I totally know the elevator and the hallways!" Kera flung a frown back as she shuffled over a grated vent. "But that all went flank over elbow the very moment you threw us up here, Einstallion!"

"Hey, I was only trying to—!"

"Shhh!" Belle insisted. "Everypony! Quiet!"

"What is it, Miss Bellesmith?" Phoenix whispered.

Wincing, Belle silently pointed straight ahead.

Kera glanced down and immediately grimaced, for she was perched right over the air vent looking into a brightly-lit meeting room. The heads and flanks of several business ponies could be seen sitting down at a long table with Nightshade positioned at the head.

"Alright, ladies and gentlecolts," Nightshade spoke with authoritative presence. "Let us cut to the quick..." Everypony below hushed as she stole the entire room's attention.

"Kera... be absolutely silent," Belle murmured, practically mouthed. She turned and looked back at Phoenix. "Can... we... double back...?"

Phoenix shook his head and mouthed, "I checked."

Belle bit her lip. Looking forward, she motioned Kera along with a gentle hoof.

Trembling, Kera suddenly showed her foalish qualities. Gulping, she inched herself forward, sliding along her chest like an inchworm. Bellesmith and Phoenix followed swiftly behind, struggling not to make a sound or else alert the bodies below.

Down below, the meeting continued, seemingly ignorant of the rogue trio shuffling above.

"The zeppelin that crashed into our facility was one of ours—in that it was constructed at one of our shipyards," Nightshade's voice said. "It's a small transport skiff: gas powered with support manathrusters."

"Commercial, Industrial, or Military?" an executive asked.

"Military." Voices muttered in the room below as Nightshade continued. "The craft was undoubtedly used as a miniature freight transport. Perhaps for relocating troops in small numbers."

"Was it... was it hijacked?"

"That is what Overseer Fatch and the security detachment are trying to determine. Right now, the eyewitness accounts are mixed. Some of the intervening guards say that there was only one equine present during the assault. Others are saying that there were two."

"Wait, it was an assault?"

"That appears to be the case. The zeppelin didn't immediately crash into the facility. Much rather, it idled up to the building, waited for a patrol skiff to show up, upon which there was... an attack of sorts. Metaphysical."

"Metaphysical?"

"The perpetrator displayed amazing mana-conductive capabilities. Our guards were quite literally attacked with magical thunderbolts emanating from the individual's crown."

"Was it natural? Or something augmented?"

"Fatch so far is suspecting an augment."

"Then that means..."

"Yes. This could very well be aftermath from the breakout at the Deep Ridge facility."

"Deep Ridge... it's hard to believe that any of the subjects would have survived a trek for this long," an executive uttered. "What exactly brought the equine here?"

"And why?"

Nightshade's voice sighed as the group above passed over another grate. "So far, the subject hasn't responded much to interrogation. He is proving to be... difficult, to say the least. I've authorized Fatch to incorporate more emphatic forms of communication." Her body leaned forward over the edge of the table. "But we have reason to believe that the subject was acquired from one of the airship possessions."

"You mean for the transport east?!" a stallion barked. "The timing is uncanny!"

Another executive spoke up. "There has to be another angle to this besides one vengeful equine. Perhaps this is all a plot."

"A plot by who?"

"Why, the Council of Ledo, of course! They're onto us! They can't send Enforcers in without proper search warrants, so they're trying to interefere the roundabout way!"

"Now, we have no proof of that. We need to continue as scheduled. We're behind on the project enough as it is."

"But if it's actually them, and they discovered and made allies with the survivors of Deep Ridge—"

"Gentlecolts, please..." Nightshade raised a hoof as she silenced the crowd. "What matters right now is that the ring team is properly equipped to finish with their channeling. Hopefully, the think tank in our northeast branch will have provided us proper housing for the energy beacon."

"Were they affected at all by the zeppelin incident with the Deep Ridge survivor?"

"No, thankfully. They are still in one piece. I wish I didn't have to rely on them, but—as you all well know—this damned war has consumed the best of our brightest minds. And on that note..." She shuffled out from the table and trotted towards the far end of the room where a door lay waiting. "I must go visit Novus."

"Your brother? With all due respect, Madame!" An executive sat up, exclaiming, "We're in a crisis right now! Things are going down to the wire enough as it is with the ring team and the project. If we're expected to deliver this beacon back east, then how can we accomplish it with you distracted—"

"This is not a distraction!" Nightshade suddenly thundered, shaking the walls and the ceiling of the place. Even the metal walls of the air vents shook around the three ponies, making them freeze in fear. "The beacon is the distraction!" she shot daggers at her subordinate with hard blue eyes beneath her sun hat. "My brother has given more than anyone else in this corporation... in this family! If you respect me, then you will respect him, for it is in honor of his indomitable spirit that this project was ever first engaged!"

The executive in question melted from her glare. "Yes, M-Madame," he stammered in a wilted manner. "I am sorry for questioning you."

"And you have my pardon," she said, her voice calm yet still resolute. "Remember, what we do here is for our future, and for the future of all ponies. Sir Ordo is seeing to the ring team. I want you to prepare two messages. One for the citizens of Blue Nova, to keep their minds at ease. And another for Seclorum..."

"Prime Enforcer Seclorum?" a pony spoke up. "What do you wish us to tell him?"

"What else?" Nightshade took a deep breath, turned around, and opened the sliding door to the next room. "That we are delivering him the bane of Xonans that he's always asked for..."

As the room quieted down below, Phoenix and Belle exchanged curious glances. Kera shuffled ahead, and they both swiftly squirmed to catch up.

Tell Don't Show

The door closed behind Madame Nightshade, and she was surrounded by the sounds and scents of nature. Blinking, she squinted into an emerald glade. Leaves danced on luscious branches overhead, breaking the bands of light shimmering down. Birds darted left and right, their singing voices echoing across the banks of the forest.

Ahead of her, about twenty feet away, stood a pedestal with a glowing crystal. Just beyond the pedestal was a soft bed of flowers. A frail body lay limply there, his soft, slumbering expression aimed towards the heavens beyond the rustling leaves.

With a deep breath, Nightshade trotted forward. Butterflies and aphids scattered from her approaching hooves. The branches on either side of her swayed, although there was no wind.

When she finally reached the bed, her pace slowed. There was a rhythmic chirping noise, out of sync with the rest of the songbirds flutterying about. Nightshade came to a stop before the pedestal. She raised her hoof—but hesitated, fumbling instead with her sunhat.

Finally, weathering a deep sigh, she reached the hoof forward and twisted the glowing crystal atop the pedestal.

Like a dissolving bowl of colored water, the forest disappeared. The trees and birds and emerald grass faded away. As the crystal dimmed, an overhead light pulsed brightly, illuminating a gray room laced with monitoring equipment, most of which was bunched around the section before her. The bed of flowers was gone, and instead her brother lay on a med table, his body fused to several wires and bits of tubing. Both of his rear legs ended in casted stubs, and his nostrils were affixed to a breathing apparatus.

The rhythmic chirping persisted—a cold and mechanical tone of the monitoring equipment.

Slowly, with feminine grace, Nightshade knelt down beside her brother. She reached a hoof up and brushed the threadbare bangs that clung to what remained of a severely scalded scap. His ear was missing, though she had gone through great lengths and much expense to graft him a cosmetic one.

Several medals rested on a table beside him. But she ignored them, choosing instead to speak to his slumbering figure.

"We both know I cannot lie to you," she murmured. "I can lie to everypony else in this world, but not you." She gulped. "We've had a few... setbacks. The think tank is dragging their hooves. I know it. If I was a crueler pony, I would have made that useless cook who's attached to them disappear. Spark knows we could use less distractions especially at this point in time."

She bit her lip and tilted her head away, as if needing to avoid his gaze.

"Then... th-there was a zeppelin that crashed into the building next to where the think tank is being housed. I don't think the perpetrators involved knew who was located where and why, but this is quite likely the first of many signs that the debacle at Deep Ridge is coming back to haunt me. I don't know what I was thinking when I started those experiments..."

Nightshade winced. She bravely turned and looked back at him.

"That's not true, Novus. I knew what I was thinking. I only wish it had proven more fruitful... fruitful for you... fruitful for both of us..."

She reached out and gently grasped his one good hoof in both of hers. The limb was frighteningly light to the touch.

"It's my fault that you are like this. I should have done more to talk you out of joining the fight. But that's not where I failed you, and besides... I'm proud of the courage you have shown..."

She shuddered and steadied her voice as she nuzzled his forelimb lovingly.

"No, my failure is for h-having funded this war to begin with. I... I should have held back... and instead invested in scholars and experts in the sciences before that dayum Queen and her Council gobbled them all up to Spark-knows-where. Maybe then I would have already found the technology to cure you... and to bring you back to me..."

Her jaw clenched as a tear rolled down her cheek to touch his hoof.

"But soon, it will no longer matter. This blasted war will be over, and I'll no longer be bound to Ledo for fear of our employees' lives. Just as soon as I give Seclorum his gift..."

She smiled. It was something more than painful, something more than bitter. It was downright carnivorous.

"...this will all be over, and I will finally have the resources to do what's right in this Confederacy..."

In Orderly Fashion

"Ugh! For real! Why do they need so much... vent?!" Kera frowned as she sweated and scooted ahead of the group. "Are they planning on having a hurricane whisk through here or something?!"

"Considering how secret this part of the building is, it's likely that they need extra resources just to manage it," Bellesmith said, her voice echoing across the cramped compartment. "Kera, darling, do you see another room up ahead?"

"If I did, don't you think I would have—GAAAH!" Kera fell like an anvil.

"Kera!" Bellesmith gasped, her chestnut eyes wide.

Phoenix slid around the corner behind her. "Ms. Bellesmith, what is it?"

"It's Kera!" Belle hissed back. "She fell!" Sliding forward, the mare hurried towards the freshly missing piece of aluminum paneling. "Oh blessed Spark!" She peered down. "Kera...?" She murmured. "Kera?!" she exclaimed louder.

It was a twelve foot drop, easily. Belle saw a tile floor, along with the piece of paneling lying loosely against the wall. There was no sign of the foal.

"Where is she?" Phoenix asked, shuffling up to Belle's flank.

The mare gulped. "I-I don't know!" Her lips quivered. "She had to have landed somewhere down there, but I don't see any—"

"Hey guys!" Kera's voice chirped with natural ease. "Come on down! You gotta check this out!"

"Kera?!" Belle leaned towards the hole. "Oh, thank goodness! Are you alright?"

"Pffft! Of course I am! What are you waiting for, slowpokes? Come down?"

She clenched her jaw, took a deep breath, and gazed back at Phoenix. "Would you mind...?"

"I got you..." He was already tilting his horn forward, casting an aura of magic over her figure.

Aided by telekinesis, Belle slowly slithered through the hole and levitated down onto the floor of the room below. Immediately, she swiveled about, peering along the walls of the well-furnished place. "Kera? Where—"

"Ta-daaaaa!" The tattooed filly side-trotted into view with a purple sunhat fitted loosely over her crown. Stifling a giggle, the foal bounce and said, "She keeps spares around! They smell like the inside of your saddlebag!"

"Oh... uh... I see. How quaint..." Belle glanced up. "Where in blazes are we?"

"I dunno, but I found some stuff to eat!" Kera waddled over to a pantry and pulled out a bag of fried oats. She ripped it open and took in a mouthful. "Mmmmm! Mmmff—Not as good as grasshoppers... mmmf... b-but it's got a nice texture to it..."

"Kera, I know that you're terribly hungry, darling, but try not to leave a mess. There's no telling who may be searching for signs of intrusion..."

As Bellesmith spoke, Phoenix hopped down effortlessly beside her. As he floated the A/C panel back up into place, he asked, "So where are we? Feels almost like a hotel."

"It's definitely a lobby of sorts," Bellesmith said with a nod. "Perhaps a place to treat guests?"

"I suppose I'd best get a lay of the land outside," Phoenix said as he trotted towards a door right behind them.

"Mmmmf—!" Kera swiftly gulped whatever she was munching on, took a deep breath, and shouted, "No! Not that door! It leads back to the offices n'stuff! Trust me!"

Phoenix doubled back, wincing. "Well, so much for backtracking."

"She hasn't let us down thus far..." Belle turned around. "How 'bout it, Kera. Do you know exactly what this place—" She blinked blankly. "...Kera?"

The foalish figure was galloping giddily down a narrow corridor at the far end of the room.

"Honestly..." Belle frowned and chased after the child. "I have the good mind to put a bell on her."

Phoenix scratched his shaved head and shrugged. "Could we settle for a noose instead?"

"Kera!" Belle's voice echoed as she threaded her way down the dark hallway. At last, she followed the filly through a doorway and into an even darker chamber. "Kera, honey, please!" She held the filly in place with a hoof to her shoulder. "You mustn't run away like that! Not while we're in such a strange place."

"What's so strange about it?" Kera frowned and batted Belle's hoof away. "I've been here before..." She shifted nervously. "Erm... I-I think..."

"Still, there're ponies of Nightshade Industries about who would like nothing more than to put us in cuffs if they found us snooping around their—"

"Pfft! Just what is your deal, anyway?" Kera barked, folding her forelimbs indignantly. "You act as if I'm a weak idiot or something! I can totally look after myself, y'know!"

Just then, a spotlight fell on them.

"Aaaackies!" Kera clung to Belle's front fetlocks, shivering.

Belle held her close and glanced up, eyes wide. As her vision adjusted, her face switched from panicked to confused.

With the sound of galloping hooves, Phoenix rushed into the chamber. "What is it?!" He skidded to a stop, blinking wide. "I... uh... huh."

The walls of the room were richly adorned with satin velvet curtains. Pale marble pedestals lit up one by one as programmed lights illuminated the polished busts of equine figures resting on top.

With a hissing noise, the door behind Phoenix slid shut. He and Belle jolted, nervous and confused. Then, for better or for worse, a record of soothing parade music crackled to life, bombastic and triumphant, echoing across the lush air of the place.

With the recording came the voice of an aged stallion, speaking to them like a happy ghost from beyond the dust that danced in the spotlights. "In the beginning, there was an idea, and possessing that idea was a family—the Night Clan. The Night Ponies' brilliant idea was to accumulate all scientific progress and condense it into one common project, a singular social function that ponies from all corners of the continent could come together and bring their contributions to. This started as an experiment, but soon turned into a marketable expenditure. The Night family formed friends and allies, and with such connections came trade, and with trade came commerce. Soon, the epic company that would become Nightshade Industries was born."

Slowly, a door at the end of the slender chamber opened to yet another compartment.

"It's..." Belle fidgeted. "...It's a presentation?"

"Nnngh..." Phoenix rested back from shoving his weight against the door that had shut. "I've tried all I can; there's no opening the door behind us."

"Our entrance most likely tripped the system off. I suppose we're meant to pass on through."

"Then let's. I don't like spotlights of any kind," Phoenix said.

Quietly, awkwardly, the three shuffled forward. Once they entered the next chamber, the room lit up, this time revealing a gallery of photographs, blueprints, illustrations, and models. The images of wheel carts, windmills, conveyor belts, production factories, mana batteries, hovercraft, zeppelins, and floating skyscrapers appeared before them in chronological order.

Up above, the music and the recorded voice continued: Named after the family company's patriarchal grandfather, Sir Nightshade of Blue Knoll, Nightshade Industries has had a long, two hundred year history of advancing technology for the benefit of all ponies who dwell upon this continent. Nightshade has provided means of agricultural industrialization, advances in transportation, and supplies for the medical industry to all equine races within the Confederacy and beyond. When war came to the landscape, Nightshade became the central source for weaponized flight and mana-powered engineering, giving might to the Queen's arsenal in fighting off the foreign aggressors."

Phoenix had to keep himself from grumbling. "Not sure I'm willing to invest in all of this crap. I've seen how things work behind the scenes."

"We all have, Mr. Phoenix," Belle said as another door opened up in front of them.

"Uhm... B-Belle...?" Kera murmured, her voice wavering slightly. "I really don't like it in here. Can we hurry up?"

Belle blinked at her. She nodded, ushering the child closer to her hooves. "Right. Let's see how quickly we can get these doors to open."

The three trotted briskly ahead. In the next chamber, there was a delay to the spotlights appearing. Even the music needed a few seconds to pick up, crackling and distorting as it did so.

"I don't get it..." Phoenix muttered, gazing around through the darkness for the next door. "What's the big-flank history lesson here?"

Finally, the light flashed on, illuminating a metal sheet along the wall behind him.

"But Nightshade Industries is not just a producer of mana-engines and weapons. The company is renown for its compassion, and has sought to help out ponies in need, both within our borders... and beyond..."

With a gratingly loud rattle, the metal panel rolled up. A brightly lit room lay beyond a sheeth of glass, and it was bustling with activity.

"Jeez!" Phoenix ducked instantly, flattening himself up against the wall so as not to be seen.

Belle was to slow to dash out of view. Standing still, blinking, she realized she didn't need to. She crept with Kera up to the sheet of glass, pressing her hoof against it. "Mr. Phoenix? I... I think that it's a two-way mirror..."

"Y-you're certain?" the frazzled veteran asked.

She slowly nodded. "These... were not uncommon in Blue Shelf."

Slowly, Phoenix stood back up, and he saw what Kera and Bellesmith were staring at.

It was a large room, a library of sorts. Books and desks and study equipment lay everywhere. But what was most noticeable were the ponies who populated it. Fillies and colts—none over the age of ten winters—sat in various huddles. They perused tomes, wrotes notes with pens held in the crooks of their hooves, and conversed about one matter of research or another. There was a strangely organized structure to how the young souls went about their business. The three could just as easily have been gazing in on an adult office space.

What's more, every single child was covered from head to hooves in complex, ritualistic tattoos.

"By the Spark..." Belle murmured.

"Xonan children, the orphans of war. Outside these protective walls of Nightshade Industries, they are misunderstood, ostracized, even persecuted. Here, within the Madame's protective hold, they are given a second chance. They have all of the Confederacy's knowledge at their disposal, and more than enough tools to begin a new life, provided the forthcoming political climate shall allow them the same grace as can only be found here within the heart of Blue Nova."

"...and there's Hara Gunn Fuutle and Vaanz Reen Guster and Tressa Rejj Fleen and Oorono Tan Slyte..." Kera muttered, pointing across the many-many marked faces beyond the glass.

Belle gave her a double-take. "You mean you know each of those ponies?"

"Pffffftchyaaa! I used to fight a bunch of them over lunch!"

"Then that means..." Phoenix muttered.

"Maybe you guys can see why I bailed out of this stupid joint," Kera grunted and trotted away from the glass. "Totally boredom-city..."

Belle and Phoenix exchanged glances. Just then, there was a sudden movement in the room they were observing. The recording regailed them about Madame Nightshade's experiments in social integration, but they weren't paying it any attention. Instead, they watched as every foal immediately stopped what they were doing and stood at attention. Sir Ordo stood at the end of the group, dressed in his fine threads. He bore a serious expression on his face as he spoke firmly to everypony in attendance.

In one accord, the fillies and colts nodded. They marched into single-file, alternating boys with girls, and trotted smoothely out of the room and into an adjacent chamber, leaving their books and study tools neatly behind. There were no emotive expressions on their faces, just the cold glaze of routine and determination.

"Where... in Spark's name are they going...?" Belle asked.

"I'm not sure I'm inclined to find out," Phoenix stammered.

Belle gave him a glaring look. "Mr. Phoenix, you've shown immeasurable compassion to me. Is there none that you can spare these children? They're obviously not meant to be here..."

"And we are?" Phoenix flashed her an incredulous look. "Ms. Bellesmith, what do they have in connection to Rainbow Dash? To whatever is drawing you here? Do we even have a measure on that at this point?"

Belle bit her lip. She tilted her head down to open her saddlebag and check on the ancient tome—

"Hey! Lazy-flanks!" Kera called from the next chamber. "The door is open! You coming or what?"

Phoenix glanced at Belle, motioned with his shaved head, and trotted forward. Belle followed, pensively looking behind her at the sheet of glass and the empty room beyond.

Chalk It Up

Pilate's ears rang from the sound of a chalkboard being slid across the room.

"Here we have our latest design for the... "cage," as we are apt to call it," Jasper Clark said. "Though, it's not so much a cage as it is a container..."

"And it's not so much a container as it is the golden nugget of a rumble-tumble magic machine!" Props' voice chirped.

"I see..." Pilate said. "Or, more appropriately, I am about to see..."

"Is this for real?" Ebon Mane could be heard saying. Pilate sensed him and the other two ponies bunching together from another one of the pulses emanating from Simon's position. "That metal ball thingy is going to help you read what my buddies here have been working on?"

"It's not nearly as user-friendly as it sound," Pilate said, all the while loosening his O.A.S.I.S. sphere and levitating it towards the chalkboard. "It helps to concentrate and have a mimetic memory, both of which I excel at."

"Er... does that mean that we all gotta shut our traps?" Ebon asked.

"So long as you don't blast music into my ears or ask me to dance..." Pilate's metal brow furrowed as he activated the manasphere, flashing a wide beam against the chalkboard and sweeping across. "...I should be fine..."

"Ooooh! Lookie! Lookie! He's got his own headlights!"

"Those are runes, Props. They're obviously facilitating the channeling of magic without the aid of physical mana conduits." Clark's voice was droning. "I mean, just what have you been working with all this time?"

"I just never expected to see them on a living, breathing, ear-twitching pony!"

"I, for one, have never seen them in action," Ebon Mane said, and his smile could practically be felt through his voice. "Though, I'm rather envious. I've heard of chefs from clear across the Confederacy who have used rune spells to heat up stroganoffs and omelettes... like... perfectly."

"Awwww! Well, Ebony, I betcha you could have saved up for some runes and made us an omelette in Gray Smoke!"

"Props, what good would runes be without a horn? I don't have one, remember?"

"Not on your head at least. Snkkkt-Heeheehee!"

"Ungh... Just what did you eat in Gray Smoke before I found you? Engine grease and dead pigeons?"

"Enough!" Clark grumbled. "The both of you! Can't you see that he needs to concentrate in order to evaluate our—"

"My stars..." Pilate murmured, his jaw dropping. "This... this is uncanny..."

"Ahem..." Clark's hooves clopped closer as he shuffled towards the zebra. "It's our latest prototype, mind you. The first three failed because the metal container wasn't strong enough to contain the energy source. The purpose, you see, is to keep the energy intact while at the same time using it to power the zeppelin in its trip. The sheer amount of propulsion that the vessel will receive is beyond average—"

"I have seen these runes before..." Pilate pointed blindly to where he had sensed a series of symbols built around the circumference of a solid ring. "Do you know what their purpose is?"

Clark sighed and said, "Blasted if we did. We don't know their names or their meaning, only that they are bound to the energy and the engery is somehow bound to them all the same."

"It's like a whole heapin' mana family!" Props exclaimed.

"But..." Ebon shuffled closer. "How could you have seen any of these runes before? They're top secret information kept by Nightshade and her guards!"

"In my travels," Pilate murmured. "I have stumbled upon them." He pointed at a pair of emblems. "This is Austraeoh." He pointed to the next couple. "This is Eljunbyro..." At last, he pointed at a singular emblem that almost looked like a vase or a dumbbell. "This... I have seen from a book pried from the dead hooves of a centuries-old pegasus, lost within the bowels of an abandoned cave..."

"Oooooooh..." Props cooed.

"A... pegasus...?" Ebon stammered.

"He means a fabled flying pony," Clark remarked. "Although... coming from him, I trust it is not so fabled..."

"What in Spark's name could Nightshade need or want with these runes?" Pilate swept the beam of O.A.S.I.S. across the chalkboard again, sensing the symbols in their entirety. Altogether—in singulars or in pairs—there were twelve runes total. "What's more, how did she stumble upon—?"

Just then, the building shook and the windows rattled. Simon chattered in mixed anger and fear, and in the next pulse from O.A.S.I.S., Pilate sensed half-a-dozen metal bodies surging past the floor they were on and heading south towards the zeppelin crash site.

"Ungh!" Ebon's voice grunted. "I really, realy hate it when they do that!"

"You'd think they'd have better sense around their own property," Clark grumbled.

"Those... didn't sound like the same aircraft that Nightshade uses," Pilate said. "The noise of the manathrusters is different."

"Yeah! He's right!" Props exclaimed. "The engines sound way cleaner and fresh! Like they were manufactured within the last year!"

"What, pray tell, are you trying to tell us?" Clark said.

Pilate couldn't help but shiver. "I think... uhm... I think that I should be trying to get you three out now, sooner than later..."

Explaining To Do

Overseer Fatch was not in a good mood. Angry lines crossed the dark brown features of his muzzle as he marched down a rubble-strewn hallway of the Nightshade Facility, flanked by subordinates.

"Overseer, the Madame is asking for another update. She says that the ring team is getting close to a breakthrough, and she wants an update on the think tank. Are they any closer to completing their augmentation of the airship?"

"Does that lady expect me to be in four places at once?!" Fatch growled. "I love the Madame with all my heart, but this tears it! I'm having to manage a hangar full of multiple hoverships AND facilitate the requisition of runic metal AND clean up a Spark-forsaken zeppelin crash ALL on top of babysitting a bunch of ponies who shouldn't even be here to begin with!"

"Overseer, you know how much this project means to—"

"Well, it's certainly taking its toll on me!" Fatch grumbled. "I know Madame Nightshade has her glorious 'vision of the future' that she wishes to achieve, but at what cost?!" He stopped before a pair of double doors leading to the most damaged section of the building. "There are just too many fissures in the whole plan, and I fear we've burned all the bridges that we need in case we have to backtrack!"

"My apologies, Overseer. But I am just a messenger."

Fatch sighed, running a hoof through his frazzled gray mane. "I know. I know. Believe me, son, I completely envy you. I'm starting to think that—in this company—it's better to be a leg than a head." He pressed a button before him.

The double doors swished open, and Shell's scarred face turned to stare at him.

Fatch and his closest workers jolted, their expressions paling.

Shell quietly gazed at them. Behind him, three hovering managliders could be seen levitating beyond the open gash in the glass windows of the crash site. Many of the Nightshade workers who were cleaning up the mess did so now with a degree of sluggishness and anxiety, constantly casting glances over their shoulders as the uniformed stallion pivoted about and marched icily towards Fatch.

"Greetings, my little ponies. I am Prime Enforcer Shell of the Ledomaritan Defense Initiative." He scuffled to a stop, blinked, and said, "Quite the hole you have here."

Fatch gulped. "Erm... yes. Yes, we... erm... we had a zeppelin veer off course and collide with our facility here. We've been spending the past twelve hours in... erm... assessing the damage."

"I trust nopony was hurt...?"

"Believe it or not, we were well prepared for this, sir," Fatch said. He cleared his throat and extended a hoof with a trembling smile. "My name is Overseer Fatch. I manage the industrial sector of Nightshade Industries. I work directly under Sir Ordo of the Domestic Division and—"

"Mr. Fatch, how does a two-ton zeppelin with Ledomaritan registration and slow manathrusters get past the local security grid and still manage to crash into one of Nightshade Industries' most important structures?"

"Erm... well, Enforcer, sir, believe it or not—collisions are quite common in a city like Blue Nova—"

"Except that they're not," Shell droned. "I'm familiar with the statistics of every major city, Mr. Fatch. Blue Nova hasn't had an airship crash in nearly twenty-two years, and that was an incident involving inclement weather. Now, don't pretend that Nightshade Industries is not in possession of exceptional security detachments. I had to speak with no less than three patrols along the way here."

"Your knowledge of Blue Nova's history is exceptional, Enforcer," Fatch said, his expression bordering that of a frown. "Though I am tempted to question the authority with which you've presented yourself here."

"National security," Shell said. "The zeppelin that crashed here was hijacked by two fugitives who are a threat to the Council of Ledo and the Confederacy abroad."

Fatch squinted. "And you know this... how?"

Shell's horn glowed. From behind his back, he levitated a shattered shard of the crashed vehicle's hull. A numerical inscription was on its side. "This registry matches that of an airship which, just days ago, was tethered to a Ledomaritan military observation post located over a hundred miles south of here. Seeing that Nightshade Industries is the generous organization that creates these vehicles, I'm quite certain you of all ponies would agree that vehicle registries simply aren't duplicated."

"That... that..." Fatch glanced between the shard and Shell. He frowned. "How on earth did you acquire that? It was being held aside for a company investigation!"

"I make it my business to ascertain the truth behind recent calamities, especially when enemies of the state are involved."

"Enemies of the st-state...?"

"It was two suspects who hijacked the craft," Shell said. "One in possesson of a manasphere, and the other capable of wielding exceptional magic. Utilizing great force, they were capable of single-hoofedly leveling an entire company of soldiers to the floor and taking the zeppelin as their own. If they are here—if they are on the loose in Blue Nova—then they are a great danger to the city, the citizens... and to you."

Fatch held his breath. He glanced aside. His subordinates looked timidly back. Clearing his throat, Overseer Fatch glanced back at Shell. "Negative," he said. "There were no suspects to be found in the zeppelin ruins. At least, not yet. Unless our investigation turns up something significant, it would seem as if the crashing zeppelin was a derelict when it got here... sir."

Shell's one good eye narowed. "Is that a fact?"

"I've already submitted my report to Madame Nightshade."

"Well, you may wish to submit another one." Shell stepped back. "Evans?"

The Nightshade workers watched as a pale enforcer with sandy brown hair marched up. The somewhat frazzled soldier did his best to maintain composure as he telekinetically dragged a body over and dumped it before the group.

"Unnnngh..." the pony groaned. He was a stallion, dressed in the blue colors of a Nightshade security detachment. Only... his uniform was tattered in several places and his body freshly bruised. "Pfftt... snkt... Overseer F-Fatch...?"

"What... How..." Fatch grimaced, his face paling. "What in spark's name is the meaning of this?! What have you done to one of my guards?"

"He did it to himself," Shell droned. "The moment he resisted telling us the truth was the very moment he allied himself with the fugitives that I am tasked with finding. All it took was a little bit of persuasion, and he realized it was in his best interest to stop lying to me."

"A zebra..." The guard sputtered, curling up into a fetal position. "It was a zebra and s-some creature with antlers. I'm so sorry, Overseer. I'm so sorry... b-but the zebra survived..."

"A zebra, how interesting," Shell said, stepping over the spasming body of the guard to approach Fatch. "Did you know that I made no mention of a striped equine when I spoke with this gentlecolt? And yet he volunteered the information—not only gladly, but specifically. As it would so happen, there is a zebra with a manasphere who is currently in the Council of Ledo's top five most wanted list. He has connections with forces that are capable of knocking entire zeppelins out of the sky. Do you realize what this means?"

Fatch was dead silent.

Shell loomed before him. "Overseer, your dedication to the executives of Nightshade Industries is admirable. But the secrets you are attempting to harbor threaten the very existence of everything we hold dear. It would behoove you to cooperate with us just like your... employee here realized it was wise to do."

After a few seconds of contemplation, Fatch calmly said, "I cannot confirm nor deny the presence of a zebra fugitive on this property."

Evans flashed a look at Shell.

Shell was silent as a statue for a while. Eventually, he nodded. "Very well." Swiveling, he faced his subordinate and said, "Enforcer Evans, send messengers to the southern armada. Have Captain Filta pilot the Steel Wing and two other zeppelins towards this location. While you're at it, set up a level one security screen with the local detachments of the Ledomaritan Defense Force."

"Aye, Prime Enforcer, sir!" Evans scampered away.

Fatch's jaw dropped. "What...?! You're sending a battleship here to Blue Nova?!"

"Affirmative," Shell droned. "Quite frankly, there is no alternative measure. This target must be acquired at all cost. It is part of a grand operation whose success may actually dictate the fate of Ledomare's military contingency."

"How can you do this?!" Fatch sputtered. "You have no right to tread all over our property with—"

"If you care so much about Nightshade's operations here, then perhaps your own actions are what deserve to be analyzed," Shell said, his voice reaching a heated, growling pitch all of the sudden. His one eye twitched as he bore down on Fatch. "By keeping these secrets, you are inadvertently protecting the one link to Ledomare's single greatest enemy aside from the Xonans. I am talking about a fugitive so strong, so single-hoofedly powerful, that when she discovers who is here, it will be she who arrives here with the anger of a million marching soldiers, and it will be up to her discretion whether this city stands or gets razed to the ground. Would you like to take personal responsibility for that?!"

Fatch stumbled back, his lips quivering in horror.

Shell breathed calmly as he said, "Now, would you kindly tell me the true fate of these two fugitives who crashed the zeppelin here...?"

Written While Asleep

"What's he doing now, Ebony?"

"Uhh... I think he's doing... uhm... some sort of scan with that floaty ball of his."

"You mean he's looking through the walls and stuff?"

"I guess so, Props."

"Hey. Ebony."

"What?"

"Do you think he could see through us?"

"I... uhm... I-I wouldn't know..."

"Would he know what I had for breakfast this morning?"

"Why would you second-guess what you had for breakfast this morning? For goodness' sake, I made it for you!"

"I know! That's why I want him to take a look at it!"

"Unngh... Props..."

"Heeheeheee..."

"Silence, you two. Can't you see he's trying to ascertain who's visiting the building?" A series of hoofsteps came closer then stopped right behind Pilate. "Though, I don't suppose you intend to leave us in the dark. Erm... that... what I mean was... oh dear..."

"Yeah, way to go, Clark."

"Shhh! He's concentrating!"

"You be quiet! You're the one next to him!"

Pilate's forehead tensed as he clenched his eyes tighter, as if allowing him to "see" through the fields of O.A.S.I.S. better. With the aid of Simon's energy beacon, he felt through the floors, the walls, and the connecting bridge between buildings. He then felt several waves of reverberation. The air around the buildings was echoing with noise and sound particles. Judging from the turbulence, manacraft had to have been levitating nearby.

Instead, Pilate ignored them, sensing along the fringes of the field being bent by Simon. At last, he felt a shuffle of hooves belonging to a tall, gaut figure. The equine shuffled about, and a metal hoof scraped against tile floor. One eye flickered left and right within its socket.

Bellesmith's voice screamed in his ear. He was falling and falling, the wind kicking at his helpless body.

"Nnnngh!" Pilate fell back on his haunches, surprised to make contact with a plain stretch of harmless floor. "Blessed Sp-Spark!" he stammered, his blind eyes flickering wide. "Not him!"

Clark's hooves lifted him gently up. "What is it, fellow? Who are you so frightened by?"

"What I said earlier about leaving to find a way out of here?" Pilate limply swiveled towards the group. "Forget it."

"Forget it?!" Ebon Mane's voice remarked.

Pilate's jaws tensed. "I need to get you out of here now. Everypony needs to leave this very room!"

"Er... I appreciate your enthusiasm, good sir," Clark remarked. "But leaving—and most especially being caught in the act of leaving—is a sure-fire way for us to get executed. I think we're safest in here, so long as we hide any trace of your having—"

"You don't understand!" Pilate hissed. "You are no longer in the hooves of Nightshade now! This party that's arrived—I have sensed the body of one of them before! I could recognize him anywhere!"

"And with the help of your... erm... augmented rodent companion—"

"Look, I know it is him, alright?!" Pilate frowned. "And when he finds us, and he finds out how much we all know about the runes, he will torture us until we are no longer of any use to him! Or else he'll outright kill us!"

"Just what's the big deal with these runes anyway?" Ebon Mane remarked. "Why couldn't we have been building a super secret salad recipe instead?!"

"If this kindly, intelligent, striped savior of ours believes we're in immediate danger, I'm inclined to agree with him."

"Thank you, Mr. Clark," Pilate said. "But now we need to get out of here, find my companion Floydien, and then—"

"Woah woah woah woah woah..." Ebon clopped closer, his face leering through the blindness at Pilate. "We gotta find who?!"

"I made a promise to him that I would help him find his beloved."

"Mr. Pilate, that is very noble of you, but certainly we have enough problems of our own—"

"He is the sole reason why I am here and giving you an opportunity to escape!" Pilate nearly shouted. "You don't owe me! You owe him!"

"How... exactly?"

Pilate's ears drooped as he droned, "He gave me the squirrel."

"Ah. I see." Pilate could practically hear the blinking of Jasper Clark's eyes. "Very well then. Props? You're on squirrel duty. How is the little chap?"

"Uhhhh..." The mare's voice wavered from where her body was squatting. "Is it a bad thing when he's lying on his back and his legs are in the air?"

"Simon!" Pilate gasped, galloping over towards the spot in the room. "How is he?! What happened?"

"Whoah there, stripey-wipey!" Props' hoof held him back. "Careful or you'll trample the poor guy! I think that last bit of telekinetiwhatsithooey put a strain on him! He's okay! He just pooped his nuts out is all!"

"Well, we need to wake him!" Ebon exclaimed. "And fast! 'Cuz something tells me he's our only lift out of here!"

"Unless I can utilize the O.A.S.I.S. sphere in getting us out of here faster..." Pilate remarked.

"And how, good fellow, do you intend to do that?"

Pilate sat back on his haunches, rubbing his chin in thought. Suddenly, he brightened, and he tossed his voice towards the waiting three. "Tell me, how often do the ponies who run this place wash the windows."

He received a collective "Huh?!" from all in attendance.

Closet of Hypocrisy

"...and here we have Madame Nightshade's vision for the future: cities that run off of steam, independent of mana. As a proponent of technological innovation and energy conservation, Nightshade Industries has led the charge into hitherto unexplored territories."

As Kera, Bellesmith, and Phoenix shuffled deeper into the presentation, they marched straight through a model city complete with puffing smokestacks and rotating model zeppelins. Deep blue and violet spotlights illuminated the tiny scale skyscrapers and spires flanking them as the ponies made for the far end of the exhibit.

Above, the speaker continued to crackle against a musical backdrop of jubilant fanfare:

"As the Confenderacy's reserves of mana crystals run low, it will be up to pioneers such as Madame Nightshade to pave the way for our children and our children's children's future. Envision, if you will, a society that runs on steam powered machina, with moisture fueled from the grand, untapped Alabaster Mountains to the north. Magic would still have its place in the community, but it would be reserved for the finer things in life, such as healthcare, music, family interaction and the arts. With the latest advances in steam refinement, Nightshade hopes to maintain a Ledomaritan culture where the family ritual can be fully realized, with autonomous machinery providing for our every need, independent of mana recharge."

"Steam powered cities...?" Phoenix made a sense. "Now that's a laugh." He turned and cast Belle a tired smile. "Seems an awful lot like backtracking, to me."

"How do you mean?" Belle asked as Kera skipped ahead of the two of them.

"Well..." Phoenix shrugged as he ducked a model steamship floating over his skull. "Mana-powered machinery, transportation, and industry is a great deal more efficient than steam-based tech."

"That's something that stands to be fiercely debated."

"'Debated,' my flank! You think the Confederacy is capable of altering their entire industrial output? At a time like this?"

Belle shrugged. "Nightshade seems to think it's a good idea."

"And she'd be shooting herself in the hoof! A company as big as Nightshade Industries couldn't afford to push Ledomare in that direction. The military wouldn't have it, and I'm pretty sure the Council would brand Nightshade's corporation as traitorous!"

"Since when did you care so much about the ponies who run this place?"

"Well... I-I don't! But forgive me for still being a soldier beneath all of this lameness, Ms. Belle," Phoenix stammered. "The Xonans would practically eat Ledomare to bits if they tried switching their machinery to steam, especially with the arms race as hot as it is right now."

"Makes you think..." Belle murmured without thinking. "...that the only way for Nightshade to make such a thing work would be if the war ended overnight."

Phoenix scuffled to a stop. He turned back to look at the mare with a pale expression.

She was biting her lip, staring back at him.

He exhaled through his nostrils. "I hate to see any country fall to a foreign aggressor, no matter how full of jerks it may be..."

"Is that what think is at stake here with Nightshade Industries?"

"Quite frankly, Ms. Belle, I don't know what to think," he grumbled while looking ahead. "I wanna get through this dayum sideshow—is what I want to do."

"Well, if you wanna get out, then stop yapping and get over here!" Kera's voice squeaked.

Belle blinked. She stretched her neck to peer over the many miniature buildings and props. "Kera? Where are you, darling?"

"Over here." A tiny, pale hoof wafed from between to tiny factories. "And stop calling me 'darling!'"

Belle winced. With a sheepish breath trot, she approached a black wall where the foal stood. "What is it, Kera?"

"It's a way out of here," Kera said.

"Uhm..." Phoenix shuffled up, blinking. "It's a wall."

Kera spun and kicked him in the fetlock. "I know it's a wall, dummy! There's also a secret passageway on the other side!"

"Well, I know better than to doubt your little horn, kid." Phoenix stood perfectly still... and then suddenly rubbed his fetlock with a frown. "And... ow, by the way."

"Why would a passageway be here of all places?" Belle asked.

"Beats me. But do you guys really wanna trudge through the rest of this stupid thing?" the filly remarked.

Belle sighed and smiled tiredly. "Well, do you suppose you can open it?"

"Lady, I was born to open crud like this." Kera smirked proudly, her horn and tattoos already glowing with blue and silver lines. "I hid around in compartments like this a few days before I finally made it to the building's lobby and—beyond that—freedom!"

"I suspect it's a mantenance passage," Belle thought aloud, glancing at the wall as the presentation's audio crackled in the background.

"Nah. It's something different," Kera said, her face sweating in concentration. "I... can feel it..."

"How so?"

Kera's expression brightened. "See for yourself!" Just then, the wall slid open in two ways, revealing a thin corridor with metal grated floors, all illuminated in a dull blue aura. "Tadaaaa!"

"That... doesn't look like any mantenance hallway that I've ever seen," Phoenix muttered. His nostrils flared. "I smell mana exhaust."

Belle raised an eyebrow. "Have we stumbled upon the Closet of Hypocrisy?"

"I seriously wouldn't doubt it." Phoenix stepped ahead. "Ms. Belle, kiddo, I hope you don't mind if I lead the way this time..."

"Hey..." Kera gestured with a hoof. "After you, big boy."

"Unnngh—Spark..." Phoenix shuddered as he marched before the two other ponies. "Please don't ever say that again."

Kera giggled. She trotted gaily ahead while casting Belle a wry smirk. "Seriously, what do you see in the stallion?"

Belle sighed. "Nnngh... his big head dives in front of things for me."

"I heard that."

"I know you did, Mr. Phoenix."

The door closed behind them. All three were cast in the dim blue light. It did little to illuminate their paths, and they had to march slowly so as not to stumble into a partition or a sudden step. Eventually, the narrow corridor opened up. Phoenix stepped out first, and he whistled in amazement.

"What?" Belle craned her neck. "What is it?"

"Hypocrisy indeed..." His voice said from up front. "Now I know that they're not wanting to abandon mana tech whatsoever."

"How do you mean?" Belle finally emerged with Kera. She squinted to see a cramped office lit up by various blue lamps that hung over a dozen desks and whiteboards cluttered with innumerable paper files.

Phoenix turned, floating a clipboard over for Bellesmith to see. "Take a look for yourself."

Belle sat back on her haunches. Her body shivered from the cold kiss of metal grating against her coat as she cradled the clipboard between two hooves. She flipped through the pages, staring at health reports and data logs. Every other page featured a detailed illustration of a completely different equine, quadruped, or animal.

"'Mana-conductive neurological restructuring...'" Belle murmured aloud. She flipped a page. "'Inner-alicornia transplantive reconstruction...'" She flipped again. "'Synaptic enchantment and unimatrix junctioning...'"

"Make any sense to you, 'Doctor' Bellesmith?"

She grimaced. "Unfortunately, yes..." She gulped. "These schematics are detailing the... injection of mana conduits into living tissue..."

"So, basically, experiments," Phoenix muttered with a cold gaze. "Typical, Ledomaritan experiments..."

Belle fidgeted. "But... but I don't think this is quite the same."

"Care to humor me?"

"I-I mean that it doesn't seem like Nightshade is acting within compliance of the Council of Ledo. Not that the Council is any cleaner in their scientific 'research,' mind you... but..."

"See any ponies in that list?" Phoenix muttered, meanwhile rummaging through a pile of similar notes left on a work desk.

Belle flipped through the clipboard once more. "I see buffalo... rams... giraffes... squirrels... even falcons... but no. No ponies or unicorns."

"I'm not seeing any here either," Phoenix said. With a groaning breath, he said, "I think I'm starting to understand Nightshade's real vision of a mana-less future. It's only the ponies who don't have to use magic for labor." He swiveled to face Belle. "As for the... minorities of the Confederacy..."

Belle's brow furrowed. Her tone was an icy one. "I've seen this sort of thing before." She got up and trotted in a swift stride past Phoenix and Kera. She picked an architectural schematic off the wall.

"What is it?" Kera asked, her face scrunched up. "That evil-sounding place that all the suited ponies were talking about earlier?"

"Yes..." Belle said with a nod. "This is indeed labeled 'Ridge Side Research Facility.' I suspect most if not all of these documents pertain to Nightshade's experiments there. But this..." She clenched her teeth as she picked up another layout. "This says something else."

Phoenix craned to look. "And what's that?"

She gulped. "Blue Shelf."

Connecting the Dots

"Blue Shelf?" Phoenix stammered while pacing about the room. "Isn't that the place where you were before you met up with Miss Dash?"

"It's a very long story, and I know I've only told you some of it," Bellesmith said, rummaging through the notes and files spread across the tables. "Basically, the Council of Ledo was running a secret operation deep underground..."

"Where... one of those doors to the 'machine world' was, right...?"

"Good memory."

"Machine world?" Kera made a face. She was sitting atop a stool, looking at transparent sheets hung up before a lit board, depicting multiple quadrupeds in various states of augmentation. "You mean like a factory or something?"

"Er, no, Kera," Belle said, fidgeting. "More like a gigantic foundation comprised of ancient machinery that comprises the bowels of the unknown world."

"Cooooool..." Kera grinned wide. "What I wouldn't give to dig my horn into that!"

"But what connection could Nightshade Industries have had with Blue Shelf?" Phoenix asked. "The Council of Ledo was after something secret, right?"

"They wanted to open the door into the machine levels," Belle said. "Enforcer Shell was spearheading the operation for him. But they couldn't get the door to open. But they found the body of Rainbow Dash—a pegasus—and somehow presumed she may have been capable of opening the door. But she was terribly injured, not to mention mutated by her curse. So they sealed her up in a coffin of chaos metal and attached her to sphere sequencing technology, of which I was a reluctant participant."

"Sphere... sequencing... technology...?"

Belle sighed and said, "It's the means by which living unicorns can junction their synaptic pathways with those of other ponies—living or dead—so that we might re-experience their memories."

"Pffft!" Kera stuck her tongue out, rocking back and forth on her stool. "That's not real!"

"It was real enough," Belle said. "I became one with Rainbow Dash's consciousness on several occasions. They thought that I might be a means of opening the door for the Council. Instead, I went about waking up Rainbow Dash, and she single-hoofedly brought us this far east."

"What became of Blue Shelf?" Phoenix asked.

Belle gulped. "Razed to the ground. The activation of the machine world beneath it—courtesy of Rainbow Dash—destroyed most if not all the complex. Thankfully, though, we were able to get many of the enslaved ponies out of there..."

"Enslaved ponies...?" Kera remarked, blinking.

"Yes," Belle said with a nod. "When the ponies, rams, gazelles, and other creatures who worked there outlived their usefulness, they were forced to work the tunnels that were carved in excavating the door to the machine realm."

"What became of them?" Phoenix asked.

"They fled west on riverboats... presumably to safety..." Belle sighed. "Rainbow Dash had agreed to safely escort myself and..." She grimaced, then relaxed. "Anyways, Rainbow Dash had agreed to protect us. But then... y'know... Foxtaur h-happened..."

Phoenix hung his head guiltily.

"So... you ran into this kind of junk before?" Kera asked.

"A lot of it is familiar," Belle said. "Experimentations on citizens... secretive bureaucracy...."

"But why the connection to Blue Shelf?" Phoenix nervously asked.

"The name is highly confidential, and yet it's written right here!" Belle exclaimed, shaking the papers around. "I mean, it makes sense that Nightshade would have potentially built the materials that the Ledomaritan Military installed underground in Blue Shelf, but I can't imagine the Council having unveiled the truth behind what they were using the technology for, much less to any of the big corporations located in Blue Nova."

"What if..." Phoenix murmured, hoofing through a pile of files atop a desk. "...there was a spy seeded within Blue Shelf, working for Nightshade the whole time?"

Belle flashed him a look. "Huh?"

Phoenix hoofed her a stack of missives. "Does a name on this look familiar?"

Belle shifted through the sheets in her grasp. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Blessed Spark, no..."

"What?" Kera leaned forward on her stool. "What is it?"

Belle ran a hoof over her mouth as she shuddered. "It's... it's a series of letters... all received here, at Nightshade's headquarters."

"Who's the sender?" Phoenix asked.

Belle gulped and stated, "Professor Glaze Garnet." She gazed up, her mouth hanging open in thought. "Professor Garnet... all the while, he was in duplicity with Nightshade Industries." She bit her lip. "No wonder he didn't struggle when Enforcer Shell had him thrown into the mines with the other slaves. He accepted his fate, because to confess his connections to Nightshade, he would have suffered a far greater punishment at the hooves of the enforcers..."

"What ever happened to him?"

"He went west with the other laborers on board those river boats..."

"You mean Rainbow Dash set him free?"

"We did..." Bellesmith muttered. "Colletively..."

"Well, good for that guy, then! He gets to live long and make spy babies! Heeheehee—" Kera leaned back too far on her stool. "Whoah!" She fell through an exploding stack of papers atop a desk.

The adults winced. Phoenix learned in and said, "What would have motivated a pony like Garnet to work for Nightshade while surrounded by soldiers and those loyal to the Council?"

"I... I'm not sure." Belle shrugged. "It could have been anything. Money? Family insurance? Exploitation?"

"Maybe his role was simply to relay information?"

"He was very meticulous. He could have supplied Nightshade with anything they wanted to know about their technology," she said. "About where it was being situated... about how it was being used..."

"Maybe enough information to duplicate Blue Shelf elsewhere?" Phoenix asked.

Belle flashed him a numb look. She blinked and said, "Deep Ridge. Could it be..."

"A copy of what the Council did?"

"But to what end?" Belle remarked. "What would Nightshade want that the Council already had?"

Phoenix's brow furrowed. He gazed left and right across the metal grated platform, the pointed straight through the porous material. "Or what if it's something that Nightshade already had...?"

"Hmmm?" Belle turned around and glanced straight through the floor. Her eyes blinked, then squinted. Slowly, she shuffled out of the office and what turned out to be a two-story, cylindrical chamber surrounded by metal catwalks and platforms.

"What is it now?" Kera stammered, burrowing her petite way out of a hill of sheets. Phoenix helped her down as the two of them followed Belle's sluggish gait. "Unngh! This better get unboring pretty soon!"

"Shhh..." Phoenix muttered. "Not now, kid..."

Belle was walking down a curved set of metal stairs. She eventually landed on the dimly-lit bottom floor of the round chamber. Several coils of wires ran from the walls and into a central dome located in the center. A deep hum came out of the sphere that was encased in black metal. But her interest was piqued by something else. Trotting forward, she approached six containers of silver metal.

"Is... is that...?" Phoenix mumbled.

Belle nodded. "Chaos metal." She shivered. "The first day I stumbled upon the substance is engrained in my memory. I still see the blood in my sleep..."

"Blood?" Kera gasped. "Coooooooooool—Mmmf!" The stallion's hoof was planted over her mouth.

"Then..." Phoenix craned his neck. "What's inside...?"

Belle looked right... then left. She saw a level resting on a metal instrument panel. Without hesitating, she pulled on it. A loud grinding noise filled the room as the front halves to each of the six silver containers rolled up. Amber light filled the room from the objects' interiors. A collective gasp escaped everypony's lips.

Inside all six containers housed a skeleton. A pony skeleton. A pony skeleton with wings.

"By the spark..." Phoenix stammered. "They're all... like Rainbow Dash..."

Belle winced as she said, "They were..." She gulped. "A long time ago."

"How long?"

Belle had no answer.

"Then..." Phoenix spun about and looked at the great black dome. "This...?"

Belle turned as well. She followed the cables that were fused to the containers that housed the winged skeletons. Half of them ran into the floor, but the other half were coiled into the central dome. Pausing, she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the ancient tome. The symbol on the cover lit up, but only when it pointed straight at the black metal sphere. She waved it around a few times just to be sure.

"This is it..." Belle murmured.

"This is what?" Phoenix asked.

Belle circled the dome until she found another instrument panel. With two tugging hooves, she pulled a lever. The air filled up with ruby light as the dome opened like a black metal flower. A flickering sound lit the room, for in the center of the chamber—housed in a gyroscopic cage of curved silver beams—was a dancing plume of unearthly red flame.

Belle gulped. "The fuel of the machine," she said.

Silence.

The two adults stood in petrified awe.

"Borrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiing," Kera sing-songed.

Enter the Belle

"This..." Belle murmured breathlessly as she trotted around the billowing magic flame in the center of the chamber. "This is... this is definitely it..."

"Definitely what, exactly?" Phoenix asked.

"The thing that the runes inside the tome are responding to," she said. "Pilate and I were speculating that some ancient society of winged ponies may have had some connection to the symbols and what they mean to the machine realm..." She pivoted to glance at the six skeletons once again. "But these remains... I... I don't know where to even begin..."

"I hate to break it to you, Ms. Bellesmith," Phoenix said, "But we're not exactly underground."

She glanced at him with a light frown. "I am quite aware of that, Mr. Phoenix." She tunred towards the flame again. "But this still got here... some way or another..."

"How can you carry flame?" Kera's voice squeaked as the walked up to a skeleton and tapped at the dusty bone structure. "And just what's burning, anyways?"

"This isn't a normal elemental occurrence," Belle said. "It belongs to something older than recorded history... than most civilizations... maybe even time itself." She shuffled to a stop, blinking hard. "Whitemane said that the alicorns discovered this realm, floating in the ether, surrounded by chaos. Did they discover the flame to? Or did they impart it?"

"Huh?" Phoenix leaned in, squinting. "Whitemane?"

"Nnngh..." Bellesmith ran a hoof over her face. "I'm sorry. Sometimes it's hard to tell which memories belong to me and which belong to Rainbow Dash's..."

"And what would Rainbow Dash know about the symbols?"

Something akin to a dry chuckle escaped the mare's lips. "Absolutely nothing..."

"Well, that isn't of much help."

"Yes, well, Rainbow Dash helps in every other way," she said with a sigh. "As a matter of fact, she excels."

"Ms. Bellesmith..." Phoenix strolled over until he stood next to the mare. He spoke softly, "You came her with a specific goal in mind—to get better acquainted with Rainbow Dash, maybe even to find her. But this... this flame... these symbols..." His brow furrowed. "You mean to say that she's clueless about them?"

"It doesn't seem to be any concern of hers if they mean anything or not."

"Then how are we going to use this to find her? Is it... uh... a beacon of some sort?"

"I don't know—I don't know!" Belle paced around the burning red flame, groaning. "But now that we're here, and we're seeing what's going on, we have it in our hooves to do something about it!"

"Do what, exactly?!" Phoenix shrugged at her. "Ms. Bellesmith, we're only two ponies!"

"Three..." Kera growled.

Phoenix rolled his eyes. "Two and a half." The filly raspberried at him but he ignored it. "It is not our place nor our capability for... what, putting this flame back where it belongs?! And where exactly is that?"

"Mr. Phoenix, all I know is that Enforcer Shell of the Ledomaritan military killed many ponies and practically moved mountains in order to get at this stuff. He failed, and yet here we have an equally nefarious organization that somehow already has its hooves on the flame, and who knows what they're capable of doing?!"

"Ms. Bellesmith—"

"When Rainbow Dash touched one single flame in the heart of the machine, it was enough to dispel magic in a huge area, not to mention demolish any structure—natural or pony-made—that existed directly above the machine's location. This is power that simply does not belong to us!"

"And just what part does Rainbow Dash play in it?"

"She's all about equilibrium.. balance... prosperity..." Belle spun about. "For some reason or another, she's been given the authority by the powers that be to make use out of the flame. It's her calling in life... her destiny..."

"Then what are you doing here?!"

"Because it's part of my destiny too!" Belle exclaimed. "She's Austraeoh. I'm Eljunbyro! We're linked!"

"You're certain of this?" Phoenix gestured dramatically. "Cuz none of it makes sense!"

"I didn't promise you that I had an explanation, Phoenix."

The stallion closed his eyes.

Kera glanced curiously between the two.

Slowly, Phoenix breathed and said, "Ms. Bellesmith, I promised that I would help you in any endeavor. And I am not about to break that."

"Good..."

"Though this all seems crazy to me, it is my job to help you see it to the end..."

"I very much appreciate that—"

"But think about this..." His eyes reopened. "You're so concerned with destiny—with this magical world that's somehow governing your life—and yet, what if you're wrong? What if you're not this... this 'Eljunbyro?' What if Rainbow Dash is meant to go on without you?"

Belle shook her head. "I don't buy that for one second. I've seen visions, Phoenix. I've been to places that I can't understand. I know the part that I have to play."

Phoenix bit his lip before hesitantly adding, "Were you the only one who qualified as 'Eljunbyro?'"

Belle froze in place, staring into the deep shadows surrounding them.

"What I'm trying to say... Belle..." He took a few steps closer. "Your loyalty is admirable... but think about what this is going to cost you. You're deep enough in it. You could be living a happy, prosperous life. You sure you want... you need to get it entangled in all of this mess still?"

She icily turned to glare at him. "You're certain you're not just speaking for your own life, Mr. Phoenix?"

He bore a long face. "We both know that I'm a coward, Belle. But..." His nostrils flared. "We also both know how little I have to live for... at th-this point..."

She chewed on her lip. Slowly, she looked away from him. Seconds ticked by. A minute. Thoughtfully, she tilted her vision towards the flame. Her brow furrowed, and she eventually muttered, "Funny..."

Phoenix cocked his head curiously to the side.

"The flame..." She pointed. "The only times I've ever seen it... or... well... the only times Rainbow Dash has ever seen it was inside the machine world."

"And?"

"It was much smaller than this," Belle murmured. Her eyes squinted. "Way smaller, as a matter of fact. This flame right here is like a bonfire compared to the energy she's run into before."

Phoenix took a sweeping glance at the skeletons surrounding them. "What about these... uh... guys? Could they be affecting the flame?"

"They could be girl bones too, y'know," Kera said.

Belle spoke over her. "I don't know. I mean, they could be connected. If these peagasi were—say—enchanted by the same power that stoked the fire..."

Silence.

Phoenix leaned in. "And...?"

"Unngh..." Belle face-hoofed. "This was always Pilate's department. I was never good with hypothetical calculations. I need cold, hard facts! Statistics!"

"How about wires?" Kera muttered.

Both adults glanced at her. "Huh?"

Kera pointed at the cables running from the six containers and through the metal floor. "Where do those wire thingies go? Has anypony bothered to guess?"

Belle squinted at the curious loops and coils of fibers being threaded down through holes in the metal floor.

"She may have a point, Ms. Bellesmith," Phoenix said with a stifled smirk. "We neglected to take into account the wire thingies."

"Hahahaha..." Kera glared up at Phoenix. "That's funny. Hey, knock knock."

"Who's there?"

Kera kicked Phoenix in the fetlock.

"Gah!" Phoenix stumbled back. "For Spark's sake! Quit doing that—!"

"Shhh!" Belle raised a hoof, her ears twitching atop her craned head. "Do you ponies hear that?"

Kera and the stallion froze. After a few seconds, Phoenix muttered, "You mean something other than the flicker of magic flame, the hum of cold black machinery, or the rattle of prehistoric pegasus bones?"

"I mean it. Down below..." Belle tilted her muzzle earthward. "I hear manaconduits buzzing and machinery moving."

"You mean there's another room below us?" Phoenix thought out loud. He pointed at the opened dome. "Below the flame?"

"Eh..." Kera waved a bored hoof. "It's probably the ring team junctioning chamber that Nightshade was prepping us all for."

Both adults glanced at her, wide-eyed.

Kera blinked back. "What?" She shrugged. "I hated that place. If you wanna go there, be my guest! Pfft! But do it alone!"

Belle looked at Phoenix. Phoenix looked at Belle. Swiftly, the mare trotted towards the wall along the edge of the cylindrical chamber. She hugged the side until she came upon a metal barricade. Looking around, she found a lever, and pulled it with her hoof. The barricade slid open, revealing a second door. She pressed a switch to open it, and was immediately blasted with a wave of cool air. Glancing back, she made eye contact with Phoenix. The mercenary marched swiftly after her. Sighing, a bored Kera stumbled after the group.

Side by side, Phoenix and Belle crept down a curved stairwell. As it wrapped around and descended towards a level beneath the flame chamber, they slowed their steps, graduating into a slithering crouch. They came upon a round room—much smaller than the chamber above—and decorated with far more luxurious and presentable furnishing. Peeking around the corner, the two watched as several bodies wandered to a ring of plush, reclined seats in the center of the place.

A dozen foals—the fillies and colts that the group had seen through the two-way mirror earlier—had gathered in the middle of the room. In swift order, they each rushed to an assigned seat. A stallion overlooked them, none other than Sir Ordo. He whistled and gestured, making sure they all got situated quickly and obediently. Once they were seated, he smiled and spoke in a melodic tone.

"Very well done, children. You have made the Madame very proud. You shall be rewarded for your punctuality after the session is over."

"Is..." One filly trembled to speak. "Is the M-Madame going to be w-with us, Sir Ordo?"

"Now now now..." He chided her with a click of his tongue. "No speaking out of order, Niija. Save your breath for the dreamworld. Speak once you have found your place within the ring." He finished one last lap around the chairs and clapped his hooves. "Alright now, children. Caps off."

With lethargic motions, the Xonan foals reached their hooves up beyond their tattooed faces and gripped their horns. The tips came off with the slightest tug, and each of them deposited the fake prosthetic onto a tray situated beside each of their chairs.

Phoenix flashed Belle a look. The mare's mouth hung open. Without thinking, she raised her forelimb and touched the stub on her own forehead.

"Good children. Close your eyes. Rest easy. Do the Madame's bidding, because the Madame cares for each and every one of you." That said, Sir Ordo shuffled over to an edge of the dimly lit room. With his hooves gripping the controls of a console, he pulled two levers and twisted a dial. A hissing gust of exhaust billowed through the room.

Belle and Phoenix looked up to see a cylinder of metal descending from the ceiling above. The outer edge of this protruded twelve mechanical arms which lowered and hovered above each of the twelve different foals. Then, with precise movements, the arms lowered tiny metallic cones over the waiting horn-stubs of the Xonan children. Wires sparked to life, running up the arms and into the cylinder that hung over the dozen chairs. As soon as the machinery brimmed with mana, the twelve bodies relaxed. The foals went into a trance-like state, their eyelids fluttering and their limbs lying limp by their sides.

The two hidden ponies watched as Ordo walked one last time around the group. Satisfied that they were all unconscious, he smiled to himself and made for a lone door. It slid open, revealing a brightly lit manastation positioned adjacent to the chamber. The door cloesd behind him, and he was gone.

After a few seconds, Phoenix trotted out. He snuck towards the door and placed his head towards it. His horn glowed, and his brow concentrated in thought. He turned back towards Belle. "It's a small room, but I don't think he's in there. He must have trotted off to another location altogether, Ms Bellesmith." He paused, blinking. "Belle?" He turned to look at her.

She stood before the ring of chairs where the foals were reclined. Her pale expression hung in shock.

"What is it?" Phoenix scurried back towards her. "Do you know what the heck they're doing?"

"They... they had their horns removed..." Belle murmured. "All of them." She gulped. "They're just like me now. They're prime for sequencing." She looked up at the machine. "This is a sphere sequencing chamber... just like the one back at Blue Shelf, only it's far more complicated. More advanced." She gritted her teeth. "Instead of relying on one sequencer, she's utilizing many. These children are acting as a bank... a mana server... and they're all linked in..."

Phoenix made a face. "Linked in to what?"

"What else?" She gazed up to see several cables running down from the ceiling and into the cylinder that hung over the foals, its arms connected to their stubbed horns. "It's all starting to make sense now. But... but to think that they took these children... these poor, poor Xonan foals and lopped off their—" She blinked, then stammered. "Kera?" She looked all around. "K-Kera?"

"Belle..." Phoenix was pointing at the stairwell from which they came.

Belle spun around. She looked to see a pale figure huddled against the far end of the stairwell, hugging herself and shivering. As silently as she could manage, she galloped over and knelt before the foal. "Kera. Kera, look at me..."

"It's a stupid room," the foal muttered, her face taut and frowning in spite of her shivers. "Nothing but boring stuff happens here."

"Kera..."

"Nnngh..." Kera looked away, avoiding Belle's gaze. "I have better things to do... more exciting things to do. I dunno why I even brought you two dumbbells here in the first place..."

"Look at me..." Belle tilted Kera's chin so that the child could look at her. "What's happening here is awful. Truly awful. And it's okay to feel scared. But you know what?" She smiled. "To have made it out of here with your horn intact is a sign of true courage... not to mention tenacity. You're a very brave pony, Kera. You don't have to prove that anymore than you already have..."

"What do you care?" Kera frowned at her. "All you want to do is find some... stupid flame to a bunch of dead winged ponies."

"There's a lot more at stake here than just you and me, Kera..." Belle gulped. "Even more than your friends here..."

"Pfft. They're not my friends. They're weak..."

"Now why do I not believe that for one second?"

Kera bit her lip. She took a few seconds to glance at the ponies in the chairs, and her eyes watered. Clearing her throat, she looked away. With a clenched jaw, she nevertheless managed to grunt, "I really don't want to be here any longer than we have to."

Belle took a deep breath. She turned around and looked at the machines, then back at Kera. "I'm sorry, Kera, but we can't leave right now. Not yet..."

Kera looked up. "Wh-why not?"

Belle stood and said, "Because I have to be a courageous pony too." She trotted along the edge of the wall.

Phoenix was in the process of opening the door and checking the nextdoor room. He saw instrument panels, seats, and intercom systems—but no sign of Sir Ordo or any other pony. At the sound of Bellesmith's rummaging footsteps, he glanced back with a confused expression. "What are you doing?"

"Is the coast clear?"

"Uh... yeah..."

"Think you can keep it that way?"

"It looks like there's a door that I can lock from the outside, sure. But anypony with a lick of sense is gonna know something's fishy in here if they come back and can't get through..." He stopped in mid-speech to squint at her. "Ms. Bellesmith? What are you looking for?"

"Never mind." She pulled at the edge of the room. "I found it." A piece of the wall slid out, then unfolded again to form a very rough cot. She reached in and pulled loose a series of wires with a tiny metallic cone attached to the end. "Blue Shelf had lots of these. Seems like Professor Garnet shared the best of the best with Nightshade after all."

"What is it?"

"A tertiary access point. It was used to facilitate the junctioning process for novices." She gestured overhead at a wire that ran up the wall, dangled across the ceiling, and fed into the side of the hanging metal cylinder. "As you can see, it should grant me direct access. I just may need to bypass a few spheres from within—"

"Oh for the love of Spark..." Phoenix slumped limply against the doorframe. "You've gotta be joking!"

"You're going to connect with them?" Kera asked, bounding up.

"Yes, Kera," Belle nodded as she slid onto the cot. "I'm going to sequence."

"Ms. Bellesmith!" Phoenix sputtered. "That's... But that's just—"

"Cool!" Kera grinned wide. She hopped. "Can I help?"

"As a matter of fact, you can." Belle said, nodding towards her as she hoofed her the cables. "Use your wonderful telekinesis to attach these to my horn. And you see that dial to my left?"

"Uhhhh... yeah?"

"Pull the two levers beside it and turn the adjacent dial about ninety degrees to the left. Do you know what I mean by ninety degrees—"

"Pfft. Please. I'm a foal, not a bag of bricks."

"Alright then..." Belle chuckled.

"This is no laughing matter!" Phoenix hissed at her. "Who knows how much that thing can scramble your brain!"

"Mr. Phoenix, I know that you've made me a promise, and I respect that." She looked at him from where she was lying back. Kera telekinetically attached the wires to her horn-stub before trotting over to the controls. "But there are some places where you simply can't follow me. What we need the most now is answers, and this is the best option we have for getting them."

"I can't just let you kill yourself!"

"Good. Then don't." Bellesmith pointed at the adjacent office. "Guard that room. Seal it up. Pull whatever switches you have to pull. If any of Nightshade's cronies arrive, wake me up."

"And just how the heck do we do that?"

Bellesmith turned towards Kera. "Turn the dial slowly back to it's starting point, then push the left lever... then the right."

"That it?" Kera asked, green eyes bright.

"Well... that will get me unsequenced. The next thing is to wake me up."

"And how should I wake you?"

Belle smiled. "Quietly, preferably. I mean, how do you like waking up?"

Kera smiled back. "I'll have him kiss you awake," she said, pointing with a giggle.

"I've never hit a foal," Bellesmith muttered. "But there's always a first."

"That makes the two of us," Phoenix muttered. "Ms. Bellesmith, if this doesn't work—"

"Get yourself and Kera to safety," Bellesmith said, firmly glaring in the stallion's direction. "If I can't get any secrets out, then there's no reason for you two to stay in."

Phoenix bit his lip, but eventually nodded. "Alright. Just... Just don't do anything crazy in dreamland or whatever."

"I'll try my best." Belle turned towards Kera. She nodded.

Kera gulped, then put on her best smile as she pulled at the levers. "Nighty night!"

Belle's eyes rolled back. She gasped. All was light, then stars...

Then black.

Wind to Wings

So dark. So very dark.

And cold.

I could hear my own breathing. I wasn't sure why it frightened me at first.

But then I realized, as I had always realized, I was myself, and yet I was not.

Those hooves were mine, and yet they were not.

Everything was energy; everything was borrowed. The circle was a line and the line was a circle.

When I started to understand it, I began to shiver less.

But that didn't stop everything from feeling so cold.

When I first heard the voice, it was like a whisper. I had it confused with my own heartbeat. I heard it rising in volume, high-pitched, teetering on the edge of a tender breath.

"Nmmbiuliseth restul mellusuthien kuln meseludrusul innavedr rezolluth."

I fumbled in the darkness. I craned my neck, and realized that the voice was ahead of me. Nopony could be here unless they wanted to be here. And what they want was what they thought and what they thought was what they lived.

I thrust my hooves forward. I felt nothing.

I took a deep breath. I meditated.

I thrust my hooves forward again. I felt a matchbox.

Exhaling with relief, I took a match out and lit it. An amber blanket settled across the room, falling dimly across the plain white floor and walls.

I saw a colt sitting before me, his little body squatting in the middle of a glade of green grass spread around his side of the room. With gently glowing telekinesis, he plucked emerald blades out from the ground and tied them around each other like the fibers of ropes. At last, he set them ablaze, and layed the charred bits down in the shape of hauntingly familiar symbols.

He did not stop talking, not for one second.

"Hasuulun membraat li nulsun austraeoh rezzun thriesiul eljunbyro sajaalsun miul."

I blinked at him. I spoke aloud, "Austraeoh..."

The colt froze. Slowly, his head tilted up to meet my gaze. His face was covered in an intricate web of interconnected tattoos. Cold blue eyes reflected a golden mare with an intact horn. In a blink, she was replaced with stars.

I gulped and said, "I am Eljunbyro..."

He stared at me. Slowly, he shook his head. "No. You are not."

I felt my heart falling.

But then he said, "Not on your own, you're not."

I felt a lump forming in my throat as I said, "I am alone."

"The children are all lonely... for they are not whole." He continued manipulating blades of grass between us in the darkness. "Messul jaazaat diul mennoressu kun. Without wings, they spread. Messul drun diul harazzahm siel. Without a sea, they drifted. Messul carranar diul kuhleema drae. Without purpose, they died."

"Please..." I struggled to breathe. The air was growing colder, thinner. I felt like he might drift away from me at any second. "I don't have much time. I need to understand what this mana bank is here to discover. What is the purpose of the sequencing?"

"The dying is the knowing is the winning is the losing," the colt said. "That which was shattered remains broken in order to desire that which was whole. Without desire, there is no wind. Without wind, there is no energy. Without energy, there is no spark..."

"But there is a spark!" I heard myself exclaim. I leaned forward, slapping my hooves across the ground. "Austraeoh! She exists! She flies east with the power of the wind!"

The air rattled. With a wave of my own breath, the grass in front of him morphed into hundreds of matchsticks. The colt lowered his tattooed face. He glanced at the many wooden firestarters, then over at my matchstick box. At last, his eyes returned to me, twice as starry in the amber light.

"Eljunbyro..." he murmured.

I nodded, gulping. "Rebirthing endurance... that is my purpose..."

He stared at me. His intricately stenciled brow furrowed as he said, "Your purpose is to die, and to make whole that which was shattered. That is the purpose of all."

I narrowed my gaze at him. "What is it?" I leaned forward even more. "What was it that was whole?"

"The question... and the answer..." He stood up slowly. "The answer... and the question..."

I watched as he rose above me in the blackness. "Do you know what either of them is?"

"I only know one thing," the colt said. "The beauty and magnificence of the ring. It must be assembled."

I shook my head slowly. "The... ring... wh-what?" My face grimaced. "Who's assembling what?"

"It assembles itself. It is we who do not see. She tasks us with the seeing. She is neither concerned with the dying or the knowing. All must be seeing, or else we will have no other purpose for our eyes."

"Who is she?" I asked.

"The only one whom we can afford to fear in this place." His eyes became hard daggers. "What is it that you fear?"

I gazed at him. I felt my jaw quivering as a tear rolled down my cheek. "That I-I might somehow forget him by the time I join him..."

"Then you are no longer eljunbyro," he said, pivoting towards a pale wall that was suddenly there. "You have evolved beyond the pulpit of the spark and have become one of its many vessels."

"But... But I don't understand?" I stood up and marched over dissolving matchsticks to approach him. "What am I now becoming?"

"It is not you alone." He tilted his muzzle down towards his shoulder. With tiny teeth, he bit onto his coat, then started peeling the tattoo off his skin. "You are part of the whole, the whole that becomes one." With the grace of a maid tossing laundry to the wind, he pulled the tattoos completely off his face and flung it forward like a spider's web until it clung to the pale wall before him. "You and many like you are bringing wind to the spark's wings."

I stared at him, dumbfounded. I jolted upon hearing the sound of ice cracking.

The tattoos on the wall had formed into deep fissures. He raised a hoof and looked over his shoulder at me. "Innavedr," he explained.

Then his hoof struck the wall.

The black world exploded, and a wave of water flew past him, engulfing me. I gasped and gargled for breath as I found myself spinning weightlessly through the fathoms. I heard the muffled sounds of giggling foals beyond the frigid depths.

Then, as my lungs felt like bursting, I saw a patch of lavender light, brimming with stars. In desperation, I kicked at the currents and swam towards it. The laughter became deafenning, and to my starved mind it sounded like sobs. At last, I saw buzzing dragonflies and waving cattails layering a halo of glistening sky above. Like a torpedo, I shot myself directly up and burst through the rippling surface of a shallow pond.

Just Refresh. Damn...

Just Refresh. Damn...

"Spkkkt—Guhhh!" I gasped and sputtered. I felt sopping wet bangs flinging past my horn as I thrashed at the surface of the pond. Lavender starlight glittered in my foggy peripheral vision.

I plowed through wet sand, my hooves clambering to anchor myself. Grass blades tickled my neck and forelimbs. As I crawled onto land, I heard children laughing... giggling... chanting. I rolled over and shuddered, trying to fill my lungs with air.

"Jazzuluth thriem slien. By the everlasting winds we summon you, the missings ghosts of the twelve. Haliem mussu drellen thritt. Follow the wings of your children to our hearts and minds..."

Wheezing, I rolled over to my left. What I saw made me blink.

A Xonan child—devoid of tattoos—floated through the air upon a slab of clay where he rested. Above him and to the side, another child floated, upside down. Finally, a third meditating foal levitated past the starlight. All three orbited a powdery flurry of dust in the air. I watched as the white, calcified material solidified in the form of a pegasus skeleton, blew apart, and reformed. The dust cloud brimmed with twinkling energy, resonating with the lavender aura all around us.

Lavender...

As two other foals scampered past me—giggling—I sat up in the grass besides the pond and looked to my left.

I saw nothing but purple starlight, an infinite expanse of stars, stars, and more stars.

Curious, I spun and looked to my far right.

More stars. Nebulae and gaseous clouds bathed the heavens. All that separated me from the infinite expanse was a paper-thin stretch of land.

Breathing easier, I nevertheless looked ahead of me. I saw grasslands, valleys, rivers, hilltops, and mountains—but no horizon. So I looked up... and up... and up further. My jaw dropped more and more as I saw nothing but landscape as far as my vision would allow. Eventually, I was looking straight up, and it felt as though I was floating hundreds of miles above the world and looking down. Beyond a haze of cosmic forces, I could see entire continents and oceans mingling across a narrow strip of fragile terrestria. At last, the swathing band of landscapes rolled straight around to come up from behind me.

"It's round..." I thought aloud, hearing my trembling voice squeaking between the high-pitched giggles of the foals. A gasp escaped me as I stammered, "A ring... it is a ring."

More chanting kissed my ears from afar.

Gritting my teeth, I stumbled up, pivoted around, and faced the direction of the voices. I made an assessment of the foals cavorting about this patch of soil. It took a few seconds of ascertaining all three dimensions of movement around me, but I realized that the twelve sequencers were accounted for, including the young colt who I had spoken to earlier.

I saw him standing at the edge of the pond besides two other foals in deep concentration. They tossed stones against the water with glowing horns. As droplets of liquid flew into the air, they paused and hovered to form various symbols—some recognizable, and others perfectly random—before falling back down once more into the pond's rippling surface.

"Tulunzien melethrikk balasaad austraeoh revvunaart urohringr," the colt said. "Skim like the spark and bring wholeness to the ring."

"Hey!" I scampered towards them. "Eljunbyro! Innavedr! Remember? Please! I need to speak with you!"

"Lassuun thiel odrsjot helissa austraeoh reste," a filly chanted, tossing another stone. "Through a frantic compansionship will the spark complete its journey."

I bit my lip. Then, with a bright expression, I shouted, "Kera!"

All three foals froze. The splashing water stopped floating, cascading neatly into the pond as they turned slowly around to face me. I saw their eyes reflecting the lavender starlight all around us... and beyond us.

I gulped. "You know her... you know that she got out of here..."

The colt gazed at me with jaded eyes as he said, "She does not have the power to know. She dies alone."

"But you all know something..." I trotted forward, my brow furrowed with emphasis. "And I would kindly like you to share it with me..."

Outside, Looking In

"I don't like this..." Phoenix muttered. "Not one bit."

"Shhhh!" Kera hissed, squatting on a seat besides the cot where Bellesmith was lying. "Belle's doing her thing..."

"Uhhh..." Phoenix stepped over and looked down at the mare's fluttering eyelids. "I don't think we're in any danger of waking her up just yet."

"Still, who knows if we could be disturbing her in... y'know..." Kera shrugged and pointed at the twelve foals slumbering in the center of the room. "Fartspace."

Phoenix squinted at the filly. "Do you know anything about this operation? Anything whatsoever? I mean, for real..."

"Meh," Kera meh'd. "I was barely here for a year after they dragged me over from Lerris. I was expecting zeppelin rides, soft beds, and pie. Lots and lots of pie. But as soon as they started making us hit the books, I realized it was waaaaaaay too stuffy for me." She shrugged. "Besides... y'know... no pie..."

"And did you have any idea that they'd lop the end of your horn off?!" Phoenix remarked.

"Hey. That's these lame-o's fault for not getting out when they could," Kera said with a frown. "It's their loss. Not mine."

Phoenix leaned back against a wall as he said, "So is that the Xonan way of looking at things? Survival of the wittiest?"

"You're guess is as good as mine, dude," Kera muttered, stifling a yawn. "I barely remember the ponies gave birth to me. I just remember lots of farming and staring at grass and wishing my life became funner."

"Don't you mean 'more fun?'"

"Don't you mean to soak your stinky head in a toilet?"

"It just boggles my mind that everypony is so clueless about... everything," Phoenix muttered. "I mean, what's really going on here? Which came first, Blue Shelf or Deep Ridge? Council of Ledo or Nightshade Industries?"

"Unnngh... dude..." Kera stifled another yawn, blinking her eyes heavily as she nearly collapsed over Belle. "For real, quit it! You're making me wanna hibernate for a century."

Phoenix managed a slight smirk. "Have you ever really—truly—gotten to a point in your puny life where you've stopped being bored of stuff?"

Kera smirked up at him. "Well, I met you two. Didn't I?"

"Not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not, kid."

"Your eyes are the color of poop."

"Yeah, thanks." Suddenly, Phoenix jolted. He spun around with his horn glowing. "Awww crap."

"No, I said the color of—"

"Stay where you are." He dashed briskly through the door to the adjacent operations room.

Kera jolted in place, her green eyes wide. "What is it?" She hopped up and scampered to the door frame. "Is somepony coming?"

"I sensed a surge of mana through the floor here," Phoenix said as he scurried about the interior of the room full of consoles and monitoring equipment. "I think an elevator has arrived."

"Ah jeez. That can only be carrying buttsniffers."

"If I could just figure out the security locks..." Phoenix narrowed his eyes on the door leading out to the immediate highway.

"Huh?! H-hurry!" Kera squeaked. "Don't let the buttsniffers get in here!"

"Nnngh... This is only gonna delay the inevitable," Phoenix said as he rotated a few switches with his telekinesis. The door locked triply from his side, securely sealing off the hallway beyond. "Spark alive, I hope Belle gets her job over with so that we can all get out of here."

Kera fidgeted in the doorway to the operations room. "Maybe we should wake her?"

Phoenix glanced back at her. "What, you scared, kid?"

Kera frowned. "I just know a time to split when I see it."

"We gotta have faith in her."

"Why?"

Phoenix sighed. "Because I once made the mistake of not trusting her or her friend... and it ruined things for all of us..."

Meanwhile...

On the other side of the locked door...

Sir Ordo returned, levitating a clipboard of files in his magical grasp. His hooves clopped against the cold tile as he leisurely made his way for the barricade at the end of the long hall. At last, he approached the door—but bumped stupidly into it.

"Ooof!"

The well-dressed stallion dropped his clipboard. Blinking at the door, he furrowed his brow.

"What in blazes...?"

He pivoted to the side and manually pressed the console next to the door.

There was a buzzing noise, but the frame refused to slide open.

He blinked. Fidgeting, he tried the console again.

Nothing.

Bulbs of sweat started to form along his forehead.

"Hide me away in the Queen's dusty womb... this is not good.."

Scurrying on panicked hooves, he rushed towards an intercom system. He tapped the edge of his horn against a soundstone. The gem glowed to life as he found the breath to speak.

"I need engineers to the Ring Operations Floor immediately." He paused, then added, "Bring a security team as well... this is urgent..."

A False Spark

"It is broken but wants to become whole again!" a filly giggled as she cartwheeled past the pondwater, being chased by another foal.

"What?" I asked, spinning to address the children all around me. "Do you mean this... this ring?"

"The world," explained a meditative colt.

I turned to stare at him. "What about the world?"

"The ring is the world," he said.

I blinked. "Huh?"

"The world that is greater than the world," he clarified. With a grunt, he tossed a pebble into the pond water. Droplets raised, then took on the form of a pegasus skeleton. "They knew something about it. They reveled in it. She wants us to know what they knew... but is difficult, for the spark that you speak of has been missing..."

"Again, who is 'she?'" I asked. A breath of understanding wafted through my lungs. "Madame Nightshade?"

A chill ran through all twelve of the foal spirits. Those who were scampering around and playing games immediately skidded to a stop.

The colt kept levitating the globules of water in the form of pegasus bones. "Deep in the earth were they found. Telethusilien raazan mesul urohringr fensen nelrusalemmehm." As he chanted, he levitated several blades of grass and criss-crossed them to form a dozen symbols. These symbols then converged on the watery skeleton and covered it like a sheet of green skin. In a flash, the body took on the form of a naked pegasus with an emerald coat. "By the sovereignty of the ring were they given charge of the skies." He and the other foals watched as the equine effigy flew loops through the lavender starlight above them. "Jemmunen vabrakren halsuth vielunu austraeoh harracranten sedraystiul. But the breaking of the ring also shattered the heavens, and the spark lay dormant for eons..."

I flinched as the effigy suddenly exploded, falling in a curtain of splashing watr and fluttering grass. Turning, I looked into the center of the gathered foals. "But it's back," I said. "Austraeoh! The spark is back! She has a name! Rainbow Dash! She's on a mission to reach the Midnight Armory on the dark side of the world!"

The children gazed at me as a swarm possessed.

I narrowed my eyes. "Haven't you heard of the Midnight Amory? Wouldn't... w-wouldn't that be what Madame Nightshade is after?"

"She who would wish to know more than what is known is she who brought us their bodies," a filly said. "She seeks the spark and the spark alone... even though it is a false spark..."

"A false... spark..." I murmured. Leaning back, I thought about the room Phoenix, Kera, and I had discovered above the sequencing chamber. "The flame. She... Madame Nightshade is enlarging it." I gazed up at the nebulous world hovering around me. "Somehow, this place, this sequencing, drawn out from the six pegasi's remains... it is simulating the spark..." I gulped. "This is wrong..."

"Once we have finished finding the ring's outline, she will bring her spark back to the place where the bodies were found," another filly said. "Malassen virender hussun cul urohingr. She wishes to breathe life back into the sliver of the ring."

"She's... she's going to carry the flame away somewhere?!" I thought out loud, and I was already starting to feel myself hyperventilate. "Oh, good heavens... she found a piece of the machine world, but it isn't here in Blue Nova." I gulped. "East of here... Enforcer Seclorum..." I grimaced. "They're going to return the flame to where they found it... but why...?"

"All that exists is all that wishes to become whole," a colt said from the pond's side. "This is the purpose of the living and the dying."

I gawked at him. "Then... what purpose does the Midnight Armory have? That's austraeoh's—... I mean Rainbow Dash's goal! Harmony!" I gulped. "Is she... she misguided?"

"The spark lives and dies for the same purpose, whether or not she knows it," another child said. "She does not know that she knows the truth."

"She would not bring energy to this sliver of the ring otherwise," a colt added. "Austraeoh harathien niul senmar threen. The spark shimmers in a wind that is older than the stars."

I gazed towards the lavender starlight past the curved world above, before, and behind me. "The alicorns built the Midnight Armory. But they came later... much much later..." I bit my lip. "Could... could the pegasi be older than the alicorns?" I stared down at the natural earth clinging to the otherworldly ring. "Then... then that means the thing that empowers Rainbow Dash could be older than harmony itself..."

"The spark must traverse both darkness and light if she is to shine," one of the foals said. "This is what the spirit of the six bodies have told us."

I lifted my face up towards them. "Please. I need to know more about these six..." I stepped eagerly towards the group of childen. "I need to know what brought them here... what part this world has to play in the ring."

The children fidgeted for once, showing a sudden quiver of reluctance.

"What... what is it...?"

"We thought you were working with her at first," a colt said. "But now, we realize differently. You are loyal to the pursuit of truth; you have breathed of the spark's wind."

"I am not in league with Madame Nightshade," I said with a reassuring smile. "Please... I wish to know more. I... I-I want to help my friend..." I gulped. "And I want to help this world."

A filly sniffled, the image of her body phasing in and out of the sequence like a broken projection. A few more Xonan foals beside her fluctuated the same way. "She might get angry with us," she whimpered. "And send us to a place wh-where there are no stars..."

I placed a hoof on her and another child's shoulder as I said, "Let me be the one to worry about Nightshade." I swallowed. "Now... show me the six..."

Master Control Pony

Madame Nightshade's breaths came out in shuddering spurts as she knelt quietly besides Novus' bedside. A pair of soundstones flanking the health monitors played a gentle symphony, recorded years ago. It crackled with antique static, causing the mare's ears to twitch every now and then.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened. A frenzied stallion in a disheveled suit leaned through the doorway. "Uhm... M-Madame Nightshade? Ma'am? Uhm..." Sir Ordo gulped and put on a fractured smile. "We have... uh... something of a pr-problem..."

She looked up, her eyes moist. Rubbing her lids dry, she cleared her throat and stood from Novus' side. "Ordo, I have told you on several occasions..." She swiveled about with an icy frown. "Unless it is a moment of dire emergency, I am not to be disturbed while visiting my brother while he's still—"

"It's the sequencing room, ma'am," Ordo blurted. "It's sealed off. I've... uh... I've ordered a security detachment and an engineering team to try and bypass the outer door." He gulped. "We... uh... we have reason to believe that the ring team has been compromised."

Nightshade stared at him, her eyes steely from beneath the brim of her sunhat. At last, she firmly uttered, "Show me."

After minutes of traversing hallways and offices, Ordo led his superior to the end of the corridor where a busy cluster of ponies were gathered. They were engaged in an intricate operation, taking the wall apart and needling through the crystal mana conduits located within. Stallions and mares in uniforms droned orders to one another as they collectively struggled to open the door from the outside.

"I had to leave briefly in order to gather some files sent in from the think tank. Uhm..." Ordo shifted his weight from his left limbs to his right as he stood nervously besides the mare. "As you well know, we're just two symbols away—possibly three—from ascertaining the last bits of the seal for the zeppelin's energy core. The last I checked on the foals, all twelve of them were dreaming away with the machine operating at peak efficiency."

Nightshade sighed through her nostrils. "Whoever's in there, somepony must have infiltrated from the opposite end of the laboratory."

"But how?!" Ordo made a face. "Madame, there's only two ways to get on this floor! One is the elevator and the other is through a balcony hatch that's sealed from the inside! If I had been given a security team to watch the foals in sequencing from the get-go, then perhaps I could have—"

"A team of stallions and mares with weapons is the last thing the Xonan children need to see," Madame Nightshade droned. "They need to be focused on the sequencing, nothing else. Besides... I only want them to fear one thing."

"Right... uhm... b-but of course, Madame..." Ordo shivered. "I'm sorry, Madame. This is all my fault. If I hadn't been multitasking, then I could have—"

"You have always been loyal to me, Ordo. Do not prepare yourself for the gallows just yet." Pivoting, Madame looked towards the next two doorways. "Is there any sign that the sequencing has been terminated?"

"Uhhh... no, ma'am. Myself and the guards sense all twelve of them inside, still slumbering."

"Right..." Madame marched up to one of the twin doors and pulled open a panel. Using her hoof, she inputted a code, and then the door slid open to reveal an infirmary. Lights flickered to life, casting a pale sheen to the white, white interior. "Tell security to send another team, then shut down all elevators. I don't want them to escape the same way they may have come up."

"Who might 'they' be, Madame?" Ordo asked, nervously stumbling after her. "The Council of Ledo? Xonan agents?"

"I intend to find that out," Nightshade said. She pulled a lever, and a compartment in the wall slid open, revealing a bed with sequencing wires attached to it. "Keep trying to open the door, although I would suspect that I will get to them first."

"And... And what of the foals?" Ordo asked.

Nightshade took off her sunhat, revealing a stubby horn. "They will follow my orders," she said, attaching the first of many wires to her head as she slid onto the bed. "They always do..."

The Big Picture

A colt stepped forward from the group, looking up at me with eyes like mirrors to the stars beyond. I saw my image eclipsed by the enormity of his pupils, and I wondered if I had the strength to see what he—what all of them had been programmed to see.

"If it is your wish to witness... then it is your wish to know," he said. "As it is your wish to live and die... to die and live... to become whole by becoming apart."

"I was placed in this world to assist in acquiring this knowledge," I said. "I know it. I'm convinced of it now."

"Hemennujusen krellumtiel gruxan eljunbyro balakuk hajan," a filly chanted, drawing my attention. "With shattered eyes would she who is only a part of endurance's rebirth attempt this venture."

I closed my eyes to the sequencing of stars, feeling a wave of cold slice through me like a blizzard. When I looked at them again, my mind's eyes were leaking. I spoke past the pain to say, "Then allow m-me to come together again, in the only way I can afford..."

"Mensunjin resukuktiel hrassul, eljunbyro," said one of the colts as all twelve children formed a circle around the miniature pond. "You far more brave than us, eljunbyro. There must be great fear in you to make a stranger pierce this deep into the ether."

I softly said, "Love has its place in fate as well."

They had no response to this. Instead, they narrowed their eyes, staring into a fixed point above the pond. I felt the universe spinning around me. Through my peripheral vision, I caught the stars rotating at an alarming rate. The lavender glow heated up, so that an orange aura shimmered beyond the furthest reaches of the ring's curved horizon.

A chant emanated from the mouths of the twelve foals, high-pitched yet resonating like drums of dead skin: "Morru bessu varankai urohingr. Morru bessu varankai urohingr..."

I stood before them, my eyes so affixed to their ritual, that I barely noticed the otherworldly event transpiring in front of me. Without a single splash, the surface of the lake lifted up and rotated like an enormous coin. I watched as the rippling surface faced down towards a flat space of pure stone. Undulating liquid brimmed along the edge of the body, trickling upwards towards the stars in a misty haze. Between the twelve sequencers, the upside-down pond lifted a good meter and a half off the ground.

"Rise," one of them said, her voice reverberating across the liquid portal. "Take wing as they did... as they all did... in the world before worlds."

I gazed at her, at all of them. Nervously, I trotted forward, my ears flicking as I trotted through the drizzling mist. At last, I stood beneath the pond. My head tilted up, and all I saw beyond was a copper haze past the quivering veil. I reached up. I stood up my hind quarters and stretched, pushing one hoof through the pond and then the other. I was just starting to feel my way into the miasma when the basin plunged towards me... only I plunged towards it.

I was swimming, falling up, roaring through the waters like a torpedo. I felt the urge to scream, so I did. My lungs didn't drown. The currents had turned to air, rippling through my mane as I rocketed down a tunnel of nebulae, a birth canal of stars and cosmic dust. Then, within the center of a swirling haze of glittering light, I saw ruby red flame. My body roasted as I plunged through it. The urge to scream came and went, for in a blink I was on the other side. My ears rang with the clicks of sprockets and the grinding of gears. I spun around in my flight, gasping at an array of intestinal machinery. The ruby light of the flame permeated every crevice of the engine, and beyond the levers and conveyors I saw bodies moving, darting left and right on bright, lively wings. Then, there was a flash, invigorating and warm. There were crevices in the ceiling, for they were letting the light in.

They were everywhere; some of them danced around me like breathing, laughing comets. Together we plunged through the machine layer and into the fragrant air of the world. I saw plains of golden metal and platinum sediment. A heavenly paradise rolled beneath me, covered from horizon to horizon with magnificent cities of polished silver, with misty havens floating in the sky like weightless marble metropolises.

A squadron of wing ponies surged past me, their bodies clad in armor that flickered with unbridled energy. I twirled in an attempt to gaze after them. From where I floated, I saw their bodies disappearing into the purple haze of the universe beyond. Dangling in the cosmos, several enormous bodies floated: humongous strips of land, so large that they possessed gravity as much as they possessed life. I saw green continents and blue oceans brimming on either sides of the flat planes. They collectively floated towards our world, eleven in all. At first, I feared that we would crash, but then—like obedient foals—the flat worlds floated into place.

The air sang with bellicose glory, and I saw the horizons east and west of me bending. The floating cities and the glittering palaces shifted to accomodate an incalculable shift in topography. Soon, the world was no longer flat, for it had bent into a gracious curve. When I gazed towards the heavens, I realized that the other realms were doing this too.

Soon, I was bulleting towards them. My ears rang with metallic glory as I skimmed over the curved pieces joining loudly with one another. Soon, the twelve strips had become one, forming a singular ring of curved worlds, bathed in endless cosmos. Past the layer where I had started, I soared over world after world, each with a uniquely varying geography, a blissfully heterogenous biodome.

Gone were the pegasi that had made my heart sing, and in their place were creatures no less wonderous, living in tranquility and mutual piece, each occupying a different part of the ring in the pursuit of truth and serenity. I saw them in their habitats, building cities, growing farms. Some of them crawled on all fours... on all sixes and eights. Some swam in oceans, others stood bipedally and made song. A cornucopia of worlds, species, and civilizations greeted me, an entire ring spinning and brimming with twelve variations of life.

Everything was whole. Everything was as it should be.

And then... everything shattered. I felt an alarming sound in my ear, like the high-pitched squeal of terrified children. The ring reeled, and explosions went off at every continental coupling.

"What?!" I shrieked into the sudden abyss where I was being flung. "What is it, children?! What's happening?"

I heard nothing, for the shouts were muffled. The ring vanished under a great blue shadow. Water collected suddenly around my ears, and the air that I was breathing turned once more to pondwater. I gasped and gargled... then sank into the depths of that shadow, feeling her wrath and coldness enveloping me like a shroud...

Never Too Late

Phoenix squinted his eyes. He could seem a warm glow emanating through the door to the hallway beyond the adjacent control room. From the sound of buzzing and hissing manabeams, he guessed that the ponies outside were attempting to torch their way in.

"Hooo boy..." He gritted his teeth and shuffled backwards towards the sequencing room. "I think naptime is over—"

"Mister Phoenix! M-Mister Phoenix!" Kera's voice shouted. It was uncharacteristically panicky, which is what made him gallop back through the door frame so that he slid to a stop besides Bellesmith on her bench. "What is it?!"

"Something's wrong!" Kera stammered. She gulped and pointed at the fitful spasms running through the mare's prone body. "She's shaking all over and stuff!"

Phoenix blanched, but nonetheless he composed himself in time to utter, "Wake her up! You remember how to do that, right!"

Trembling, Kera reached up to the instrument dial and turned it back ninety degrees. She pushed the left lever and then the right. Sparks shimmered at the end of the wires attached to Belle's horn stub, but nothing happened. She continued quivering in bed, shaking from muzzle to hoof.

"What's the matter?" Phoenix stammered. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"I-I don't know!" Kera gasped. "I did what she told me to!" Biting her lip, the foal reached for the wire at the end of the mare's horn.

"Wait, don't—!" Phoenix tried to grab her.

With a jolt of electricity, Kera was knocked back from the coupling. "Owiee!" She frowned. "Who the heck built this thing to be a jerk to ponies?"

"This doesn't make sense..." Phoenix thought aloud, flashing worried looks back and forth between Belle and the door being torched one room away. "She made it clear that she was used to doing this sort of thing. What could possibly keep her in there even when the system's made to wake her up?"

"I dunno. Maybe there's something inside that doesn't want her to leave?"

Phoenix flashed the twelve slumbering foals a look. "Could it be them?" He dashed about the circumference of the round room. "Help me find the controls to wake them up!"

"It can't be them!" Kera exclaimed, waddling after the stallion. "It's not them who's in charge of turning on or shutting down the program!"

Phoenix flashed her a scrutinous look. "How would you know?"

"I was around long enough to be prepped for this crap!" Kera said, pointing at the machine. "The foals aren't the ones running the show! Madame Nightshade is!"

Phoenix blinked. Slowly, he looked towards the brightly lit control room adjacent to the chamber. "She's... connected to it, somehow.... from the outside..."

"And she's not letting Belle go!" Kera said, her voice cracking with panic.

Phoenix took a deep breath. He wandered over to Belle's side, planting his hooves on her shoulders. He hesitated before giving her a shake, his teeth biting his lower lips. "If I force her out of it... what kind of damage could it do to her mind?"

"It can't be good, that's for sure!" Kera winced. "She's gotta wake up on her own and stuff!"

The door from beyond the control room pounded. The air hissed as heat started to vent through the crack made by the ponies' torch. Phoenix stood still for a while. He closed his eyes, finding something to meditate on beyond the thunderous noise of the Nightshade industrialists fighting to break in.

"Mister Phoenix, she's in big trouble!" Kera squirmed anxiously. "What are we gonna do?"

Phoenix opened his eyes. "You're going to wake her up."

"But... b-but I don't know how!"

"Keep trying until you find a way." Phoenix looked all around. He found a utility closet and he yanked it open. With magic, he levitated loose a metal bar and cracked it in half. Two brittle shards orbited his glowing horn as he marched firmly towards the control room. "Then, once she's back, tell her to get out of this place."

"Huh?"

"And you see this lever here?" He pointed at a panel besides the door. "Pull it and twist it to the right. I know you've got strong enough magic to do it without touching the thing, kid. Make sure this door is good and locked once I've closed it."

"Wait a second..."

"Whatever you do, don't waste a single second after she's awake."

"Where are you going to be, huh?!" She scampered up to the doorframe, gazing up at him with sparkling green eyes. "Aren't you coming too?"

"It's cute that you pretend to be worried about me, scamp," Phoenix said, shoving several pieces of furniture against the pounding door on the far side. "But keep your concerns fixated on Belle. She's a resourceful mare. She won't slow you down... not too much..."

"Pfft! Worried, smorried!" Kera nevertheless trembled as she said, "If you try to take on Nightshade's guards, you're dead!"

Phoenix turned. He smiled at her. "I was dead long before I met you, kid." He gestured towards Belle on the other side. "Makes sure she lives to see her friend again. It was my promise to her. Now its yours too."

"But... I... I..."

"Can you keep that promise, Kera?!" he snapped.

She stumbled back from how sharply he said his name. Her lips trembled as she said, "Yes... I-I promise to keep it..."

"It's never too late to make something of yourself," the stallion said, and slammed the door shut between them.

Kera immediately locked it with a twist of the lever. She shivered even more, feeling every jolt of the door pounding through the foundation of the adjacent room. Pivoting about the dark chamber, she stared forlornly at Belle's twitching form.

The Little Picture

"Children!" I shouted, and that was when I realized I could breathe again. The pond water had evaporated, and I was treading through waves of tempestuous currents being broken up against a jagged cliff. "Nnnngh—Foals! What's wrong?! Why is the vision br-breaking?!"

I clenched my teeth as a burst of water shot me into the air. I landed hard and tumbled to a stop atop a bluff of polished marble.

"Nnngh... guh...!" I sat up, wincing. Through tearful vision, I saw a burning sky of melted stars. Comets and meteorites coalescedinto liquid fire, and the grand ocean that lapped up against it boiled with fury. Steam wafted in my direction, and it took shape like an immense promontory of gray rock. Eons ripped by in a second, and that shape morphed into the form of a gigantic equine shadow.

I stared up at it, gaping. I could feel the foals' trembling bodies through my bloodstream. Their echoing sobs rang all around me. Suddenly, the waters receded, and their bodies surfaced all around the plateau upon which I sat. The children were bowing, facing the herculean shadow with their sobs and shivers.

"Please... Please... Madame, forgive usssss!"

"Be merciful, Madame!"

"We're sorry to have angered you! We only wanted to help the eljunbyro..."

"Eljunbyro is a word," uttered a booming voice. I watched, breathless, as the looming shadow bore on midnight-blue eyes, glowing with otherworldly wrath. "I charged you with finding words, and the symbols thereof, not to befriend other seekers."

"B-But she is a component of the ring!" a colt stammered, pointing at me lofty figure. "She is half of the endurance that was reborn!"

"Reborn...?" The shadow mare tilted like a collapsing continent towards my body. With each breath of thunder, the world crumbled beneath and behind me. "How can a pony be reborn if she hasn't died, yet?"

"I don't know who or what you think you are!" I shouted, standing bravely up against the rising bedlam. "But you do not have the right to run these foals' minds into the ground!" I felt like a cricket sounding off into a wave of dynamite blasts, but I nevertheless shouted, "Do you hear me?! These children do not belong to a ring, a symbol, or even to you! Let them go!"

"My children fear me because they respect me..." The cloud's glowing eyes narrowed as twin forelimbs spread out from her like a pair of cyclones. "They know that the journey ahead of me is mine as well, and it is a righteous one. I have freed them from the shackles of war and hatred."

"You have given them prison and called it paradise!" I shouted. "I don't care how big the past is! You have no right to trample these small, innocent lives!"

"If you are indeed eljunbyro, then you should know that pain endures the most in this world," the figure said. Her two limbs billowed in my direction. "Let us see if you are righteous enough to live up to your so-called name..."

Then, with a flash of her eyes, she pierced my gaze. Her forelimbs opened up, and a million miles of war torn trenches soared at me. I flew through splinters, barbed wire, and the fragmented hulls of zeppelins. Unicorn stallions—some tattooed and others not—fought past me, flinging their weapons with animalistic grunts. Shell fragments went off beneath my belly and limbs. My gut opened up in a dozen places, and I tasted vomit while smelling the scent of my own breakfast spilling out of me.

I rolled over into a ditch beside two dismembered soldiers. Ash and shrapnel pelted the mud beneath a flickering sky. I heard another shell falling, whining with a high-pitched howl. Only after twenty of seconds of torment when the shell didn't land did I realize the howl was coming from me. I glanced down at my lower body and immediately wished that I didn't. I couldn't tell where the mud began and my bowels ended. I flung my helmet off and clutched for the shoulder of the nearest medic to me. A soldier's blank stare flew past my eyes, then rotated one hundred and eighty degrees as his decapitated head rolled down into the trench. Up above, a Ledomaritan zeppelin was on fire, being impounded by Xonan manapults. With splashes of death-hot blue, the hulking vehicle tilted to its side and drifted into the earth, sending waves of soil and mangled bodies flying sky high until they became one with the endless flak.

A numbness crept up my limbs, and it was almost more frightening than the stabbing pain. I tried crawling some place, but something beyond my guts was anchoring me to the world. I craned my head back, my pointed horn digging into the ground as I screamed and screamed on top of my screams. I wanted to go home. I wanted to wake up from this. I called for the only name I could comprehend, the name of my sister. I didn't even realize I had a sister. Between the flashes of pain that ricocheted through my undying eyes, I saw her loving face, and I imagined it caressing me, chasing the buzzing of flies and bullets away.

"Nnnngh—Nighty! Nighttttty! Guhhh—haaaaaaaaugh! Nightyyyy!"

Scamp a Scamp

"Nightyyyyy!" Bellesmith shouted, howling as her forelimbs flung numbly through her slumber and clutched at her intact belly. "Nnnng—Nightyyyy, help meeeee!"

Kera panted... hyperventilated. She tried shaking Belle... yanking vigorously at her shoulder and neck.

"Belle! Belle, wake up! She's... She's gotten to you! She's tricking you!"

"Nnngnh—guhhh—Aaaaghhh!" Belle's head tossed left and right, her voice shouting in an uncharacteristically low tone.

Kera gulped, her green eyes blinking. She flashed a look at the foals.

The twelve little ponies trembled in their seats, streams of tears quietly trickling down their sleeping faces.

Biting her lip, Kera flashed a look up. See spotted several of the wires running up into the ceiling above.

With a determined breath, she turned towards Belle. "I'll be right back! Don't you crap out on me!" Scampering, she dashed towards the stairwell leading up to the flame room. In so doing, she paused only once... and that was to cast a forlorn glance at the door to the adjacent control room...

Faces of Phoenix

The grinding noise hit a fever pitch, and at last the door to the control room snapped open. After a falling shower of sparks, three armored stallions trotted briskly into the room, hovering managuns trained alongside their squinting faces. Their glowing horns bathed the small compartment in shimmering color as they swept their weapons left and right.

It was empty.

The lead stallion in Nightshade colors glanced all about the corners. He took a deep breath and lowered his weapon. "Clear."

Two more guards trotted in, followed by Sir Ordo and an engineer or two. The ponies looked about the room in dumb silence.

"I... I do not understand," Sir Ordo stammered. "If there's nopony inside here, then where..."

"Sir!" One of the guards called out as he fiddled with the closed door on the other side. "It's locked!"

"No doubt they're using this place as a buffer to block us from the chamber with the ring team," said the lead guard. He turned around. "You're certain that you didn't see a single soul?"

"No!" Ordo exclaimed, frowning. "Where in Spark's name could they even have come from?! This place is supposed to be sealed tight from the rest of the building—"

The guard was too busy glancing up above Ordo's head. He gasped. "Get down—!" He tried raising his gun.

A blast of telekinesis flew across the room, knocking the first three guards to the floor.

Ordo spun around and gasped. Phoenix's body was purched on the the top of the open doorframe. With a snarling breath, the maneless mercenary leapt down and bucked Ordo hard across the chest.

"Ooof!" Ordo flew across the room and collapsed through a chair.

Two guards to Phoenix's left charged him.

He spun, twirling his levitating metal pipes across one face and uppercutting a second. Grunting, he heaved one body over his shoulder and launched him hard into the wall, shaking the foundation of the room.

The first three guards got back up, and the lead stallion charged across the room with a roar. He plowed into Phoenix, sending the two of them slamming against an instrument panel. The guard got the upper hoof on the Franzington soldier and unsheathed a sparkling taser to slam into his skull. Phoenix brought a hoof up between the guard's gut, then headbutted him viciously while he was reeling.

The other two stood up with managuns trained. They aimed, squinting to hit Phoenix's figure from afar.

Phoenix spun the lead guard's body around and hugged him from behind like a living shield. He shuffled sideways, tossing his metal bludgeons one at a time—followed by the stallion's taser—at the guards.

They ducked and dodged the projectiles. They stood up straight once more, aiming their guns—then collectively gasped as the stallion's body was flung mercilessly at them. All three collapsed like sacks of meat against the sealed door of the room.

Phoenix exhaled heavily, drenched in sweat. He spun around, only to receive the massive left hook of an angry pony's hoof. The other two guards had gotten up, and they were joined by the Nightshade engineering crew, forming a violent pile atop Phoenix's struggling body.

"Get him! Get him!" Ordo grunted, spitting blood as he cowered behind the fragments of a chair. "Knock his teeth out!"

Know Belle Fu

"Nnngh... fuuuu... fuuu-nnnghhhh..." I hugged myself, quivering all over. I heard her hoofsteps shuffling through the mud, only it wasn't mud. My ears were dancing with the rhythmic chirps of a health monitoring station.

I looked up, and I saw my mangled body lying in bed. Only it wasn't my body. I wasn't a stallion... a soldier... a martyr...

What was I?

Then I saw her face. She had eyes like demonic pools of blue beyond the fabric of nightmares. And I realized finally what I was.

I was helpless.

"You infiltrated my home..." The mare said. Ripples of magic emanated from her figure, flying into me, into my entrails, into my soul. "You accosted the components of my experiment..." Her eyes narrowed like sapphiric daggers. "Why?"

"Unnngh!" I yelped, feeling my body melting into the floor. I planted my front hooves against the tile to keep from sinking, and I felt like I was swimming through a sea of briars. "Unnff... I... I-I wanted to know... t-to know more..."

"You seem to have many answers," she said. She was towering over me at this point. "What could I possibly give you... besides a swift end to your stubborn mind."

"What you do here..." I said, snarling up at her. "What you do to these foals..." I gulped as I felt my lower body merging with the black, thoughtless void that surrounded us like ravenous limbo. "It is wrong. I don't care how rich or ancient the past is that you wish to excavate..."

"I am not a historian," Nightshade said. "I am a revolutionary. What I am building is a utopia, free from this war, free from pain..."

"Like the pain... of y-your brother?" I spat, staring at the effigy lying upon the cloud that was drifting peacefully away from us both. "What kind of a sibling would steal his last waking memory... and use it as a weapon?"

Her piercing eyes melted briefly. "The kind who wants the end to all weapons... and pain..." Her deep breath added to the vacuum of the nebulous mindscape. "Even if she must die as the last monster of a wasteful era..."

"I... I don't understand..." I hissed, my eyes tearing as I felt my chin sinking into the puddle that my conscious was becoming against the floor. "What could you possibly accomplish? Are you trying to rebuild some... s-some ring? An arcane world?"

"You cannot rebuild the world. It is far too shattered. I only wish to reinvent. To repeat history is to repeat pain. My brother and I... have given up far too much to let that happen." She lowered her muzzle and hissed at me. "What have you given up?"

I glared at her. My words came out like glaciers in a river of death. "Do not talk to me about sacrifice." I felt my vision dancing to yellow and red and back as a fit of anger made my voice crack. "The closest you'll come to loyalty is a bad case of indigestion."

"You won't be around to test such a stab," Nightshade said. "You have a rich, eloquent consciousness." Her horn glowed as my vision fogged up from the floor washing up around my head. "I'll enjoy wearing it from time to time..."

I gasped. I thrashed. I sputtered.

Then as the waves of blackness almost overtook me... there was a spark from the deepest pits. The room shattered, and I felt my body blossoming back into the fabric of the dreamscape once again. I was flailing, enraptured to see my own limbs again. What's more, I was falling... flying... sailing away from the room and the darkness and the ring and her surprised blue eyes.

"You'll have to get used to your own skin, lady!" I shouted in some far-off voice. A devilish grin washed across my features and disappeared just as quickly. "Unless you are giving wind to her wings, you're not going to invent a single blasted thing!"

She shouted something, but I was blissfully out of earshot. Blood rushed into my head, followed by a blinding, cleansing flash of light.

Some Time Out

Nightshade's eyes fluttered open. Calmly, she sat up on her cot inside the pale-white infirmary. As the blood rushed back to her ears, she heard the struggled of multiple pony bodies through the nearest wall.

Swiftly, she kicked off the table—stumbling only slightly—and trotted a brisk path into the hallway outside. Once there, all she had to do was raise her voice once, and two dozen workers parted ways, allowing her unimpeded access to the operations room.

Inside, the room resonated with moans and grunts of pain. A pile of angry stallions had formed on a writhing figure, and were kicking the poor unicorn's body to a bruised pile of meat.

"Enough..." Nightshade calmly said.

There were two more lingering hoof-bucks, and the combination of guards and engineers stood up from Phoenix's agonized body. The stallion rolled over, sputtering and coughing up blood as his entire frame quivered.

Nightshade gazed down at him, then over at a pair of stallions squatting beside the far door. "The sequencing room. How long until you can make it through?"

"Just a few seconds, madame!" one engineer said over the blaring of a manatorch. "That intruder gave us quite the show when we first stomped in here—"

"I don't need a play by play. Just open the door to the foals, thank you."

"Madame..." Sir Ordo stumbled over, wincing as he covered a fresh whelt on his shoulder. "Whoever this stallion is, he's well-trained. Heck, he could even have military experience! I haven't seen moves like that since the last time the company made a trip to the weapons testing facility south of the capitol—"

"What matters is that he has been subdued," the mare said calmly. "Unless you have something pertinent to update me with, Ordo, I would prefer you leave the situation to the engineers."

"Right, madame. Of course, madame." The stallion nevertheless flung a nervous glance towards the tip of her horn. "Who... who was it, madame? Who or what did you see in there?"

Nightshade didn't reply. With steely eyes, she spoke towards the pair of engineers. "How's the progress..."

"Aaaaaaand... done!" The stallions stepped back. After a final flash from the torch, the door slid open.

Madame Nightshade glanced aside at her guards. She nodded.

Those who were well enough after the recent fight to stand nodded back. With managuns trained, they slithered into the dark chamber, one after another. A few seconds passed by, and yet there were no sounds from the far end, save for the sniffling of foals.

"They... they're still there...?" Ordo thought aloud.

Madame Nightshade marched into the room.

"Madame! Please! It m-might not be safe—"

She entered nonetheless. With squinting eyes, she swept her gaze across the room. She saw dangling wires along the wall, including a cot that had been stretched out.

The mare's brow furrowed in thought. Swiftly, Ordo brushed past her and attended to the foals. The children stood up from their chairs, one by one, overcome with tears.

"They're all here..." Ordo exclaimed with a gasp of relief. "Everyone of them is accounted for!"

"I don't think they're what the intruders wanted," Nightshade said.

"So there was more than the stallion?"

"One more." She jolted in place. "No... two more. She was protecting somepony..."

"Huh? Who?"

Nightshade's nostrils flared. "I need answers..." She pivoted to face a guard by her side. "Take him into the infirmary," she said, pointing into the operations room. "Make sure he stays conscious. Keep four guards on him at all times."

"Yes, madame."

"Madame!" One of the front guards exclaimed from the stairwell. "It's a mess upstairs! Somepony must have made access!"

She nodded and said, "Explore every inch of the upper floor. There's only one way out."

The guards shouted commands to one another and scurried up in a series of armored blurs. In the opposite direction, a living wave of fumbling life crawled. One by one, the foals gathered around Madame Nightshade's legs, bowing and nuzzling her in foalish ritual.

"We're s-so sorry, Madame..." They sobbed.

"We d-didn't mean to make you angry!"

"Please... Please forgive us..."

"We're so sorry for what we did..."

"Do not worry, my foals," she said in a neutral tone, brushing their tattooed faces, one at a time as they huddled beside her. She rested her forelimbs protectively on a shoulder or two as she gazed towards the stairwell. "It was not your fault. And even if it was, you have the madame's forgiveness..."

Falling With Style

Bellesmith panted, stumbling to keep up with Kera. The foal galloped ahead, scaling a tight flight of stairs leading towards a dark alcove above the conjoined laboratory chambers.

"They're gonna come after us! I know it!" Kera squeaked, her voice betraying a deep shudder of urgency. "I think there's a way out up here! Come on, Belle!"

The mare did her best to obey, but more than once she collapsed, leaning on the stairs' edges to catch her breath. She gritted her teeth and stared into the metal grating beneath her. Horrifying images flickered across her vision, and all of them colored like Nightshade's icy pupils. Belle felt a wave of cold stab through her gut, and she feared closing her eyes or else she might find herself someplace else when she opened them.

"Pilate... Pilate..." She whimpered breathily. "No matter how hard I pursue the truth, I-I keep losing ponies around me..." She brought a hoof up to her head and was almost surprised not to feel colorful bangs of hair. "Maybe... maybe that's why she simply kept flying..."

"Belle..."

She looked up.

The foal stood on a few higher steps, her eyes even with the mare's. "Why you clutching your belly like that?"

Belle glanced down, realizing that one forelimb was pressed to her abdomen. "I... I felt as though..." She winced. "Her brother must have lived through it. How could a pony survive?"

"I can't have you going nuts on me now!" Kera growled, pointing above with a petite hoof. "Look! I found a door!"

Looking up, Belle saw a tiny panel with a metal valve. Gently brushing Kera aside, she climbed up the last lengths of steps and gripped the circular piece tightly. With dainty muscles quivering, she eventually managed to twist the valve into the unlocked position. Giving the panel a good shove, she flooded the stairwell with noonday sunlight.

A jet of cool air followed immediately afterwards. Kera almost fell back with a shriek, only for Belle to steady her with a rear limb. Both ponies gazed out into the azure sky above Blue Nova. Tall buildings hovered on manafields while zeppelins puttered above and below. Compared to the grim interior of the Nightshade Industries headquarters, the world looked fantastically alive, albeit no less frightening.

"I don't suppose there's some stairs on the outside of this building as well."

"I wouldn't suspect as much," Bellesmith said, squinting into the high winds. "Spark alive... beyond a meager platform, it simply drops."

"Well... uh... maybe we could double back and hide in one of the alcoves or—"

The air of the claustrophobic stairwell behind them echoed with the sound of heavy, metal-laced hoofsteps. They spun around, seeing the hint of bobbing sources of light as a detachment of armed guards closed the distance behind them.

"Forget it... forget it!" Kera squeaked, then dashed out into the blistery winds. "Last one out is a rotten egg!"

"Kera, wait!" Belle yanked the filly back by the tail.

Kera fought and struggled. "Belle!" She frowned. "We gotta leave—"

"Let me go first!" Belle said. Gulping, she took one nervous step, then another. Inching her way, she fully exited onto the edge of the building. Kera's estimation was right: it'd take just half a gallop and suddenly the two of them would be sliding down the curved summit of the Nightshade Industries building, being plunged to a gooey death far below. "Dash, how do you handle the heights? Honestly..."

"Belle!" Kera squeaked again, dancing nervously in place within the doorframe. "They're coming! I-I can hear them!"

Belle bit her lip. She looked all around for an object to climb or a place to hide. There was no luck. They could just as well have ascended the peak of a jutting promontary. No exit existed. None except...

"Madame Nightshade gives the fine citizens of Blue Nova her well wishes!"

Bellesmith blinked. Craning her neck, she looked down to see the body of Nightshade's aircraft floating between the skyscrapers, levitating a dozen stories below their position.

The speakers affixed to the bulbous blue zeppelin continued broadcasting its felicitous propaganda. "This saturday, the Madame visits Lofty Park to address city beautification legislation!"

"Belle...?"

The mare's brow furrowed. With a determined expression, she spun around and kicked the panel to the interior shut.

Kera gasped, jumping and clinging to Belle's side in the high winds.

"Can you lock it from the outside?!" Belle asked.

"Uh... I-I think so!"

"Do it!"

Kera clenched her teeth, leaning her tattooed faced forward. With several shimmering pulses from her horn, she manipulated the valve through the thick metal. With a squeaking and grinding noise, her task was complete.

"Now what?" Kera spun, then blinked. "Belle?"

She was squatting down, unpacking everything from her right saddlebag. She took the contents of Princess Luna's satchel out and repositioned them so that they stuffed the left pouch.

"What are you doing?"

Belle stood up and aimed the empty pouch towards Kera. "Get inside."

"Huh?!" Kera made a face, stepping back a bit. "What for?"

"You're small enough," Belle said. "Don't pretend to tell me that you can't fit."

"Look, lady. I'm not your purse freshener! We've got a bunch of nasty dudes climbing up to rip us new ones, and all you can do is ask me to—"

"I'm not asking!" Belle growled, her voice cracking as she said, "I am telling you, young lady! Get inside this pouch! Now!"

Kera's ears drooped. With sudden shivers, she shuffled over and slid into Luna's satchel. "Yes, Belle. S-sorry, Belle."

Belle used her teeth to fasten the right saddlebag tight, making sure Kera was nice and secure. "Can you breathe alright?"

"I hope so..."

"Okay. I need you to trust me, Kera."

"What for—?" Kera blinked, then gasped as she saw the direction Belle was facing. "Ohhhhh crudmuffins..."

"I promise you... I will get us out of here..."

"This is such a bad idea..." Kera clenched her eyes shut and shivered against Belle's side. "This is such a bad bad bad bad bad—"

The door pounded and pounded from behind them. The air whistled as the zeppelin threaded its way through the skyscrapers below. Belle took the deepest breath of her life.

"—bad bad bad bad bad bad—"

The hinges of the door broke. She heard the tell-tale creak of the stallions bursting out into the open world, their managuns crackling in the windy air.

Belle's chestnut eyes caught a ruby glint of sunlight as she bolted forward. "Here we go!"

Kera's chant turned into a high-pitched squeal. This formed the cacophonous soundtrack to Bellesmith's plunge. It only took one leap, but soon the mare was gliding down the curved summit of the building. Glass panels and window panes blurred underneath, thumping against Belle's gliding hooves as she guided the two like a living sled towards the urbanscape below at a forty-five degree plummet.

By the time the shadows of looming skyscrapers blocked out the sunlight around them, the zeppelin's smoke rose within breathing distance. It was here that the sloped summit to the Nightshade building cut off completely, and Belle's weight was sent rocketing off the flat edge. She angled her body with the ease of an equine that was supposed to have wings. The wind beat against her eyelids, forcing her to blink once or twice. In those shutter frames of darkness, she saw mountains and valleys, the memories of a daredevilish ghost that was both her fuel and her foil.

Kera shrieked agian.

Belle's eyes twitched, and she saw the body of the zeppelin flying into her vision. She twisted her body at an angle. Her left legs struck first, followed by her right limbs a millisecond later. Grinding to the side, she slid down the curved body of the dirigible. She slid too much, and she collapsed, throwing her weight against the side of her that wasn't full of foal.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" Kera shrieked, her voice echoing off the sheets of glass suddenly reflecting the two as they hurled towards the buildingside across the way. This was when Belle realized they were about to slide completely off the zeppelin's side. She thrashed about just as they plummet into the open air. Thrusting her head forward, she clamped her teeth over a support cable of the dirigible, anchoring the two in place. They dangled for a fwe breathless seconds—that is, until the cable snapped.

Yet again, Kera gasped, punctuating the perilous swing as both ponies fell the length of the cable and swung haphazardly through the upper air of the city street. At the end of the cable's throw, Belle's teeth failed her. She lost her grip, and the pair fell three stories, only to collapse through the awning of a tenth story balcony.

"Ooomf!" Belle gasped as the two rolled off. Thinking fast, she thrust her forelimbs forward, caught the edge of the awning, and swung the two onto the body of the balcony. They collapsed through a wooden table, sending splinters and chunks of wood flying across the platform, but they managed to land with their limbs intact.

One on level flooring, Belle slumped to her haunches, panting profusefly.

"Woooohoooo!" Kera suddenly cheered, reaching from her midnight pouch to hug Belle's neck and nuzzle her dearly. "That was the absolute best idea ever! Heeeee! Belle, you're amazing!"

Belle gulped. "Wrong... A-word..." she stammered.

"Huh?"

The mare shook her head. "Nevermind. We gotta get away before anypony in the skyscraper or the airship sees us."

"Belle, look!" Kera pointed to a part of the building adjacent to the apartment balcony. Belle saw a fire escape leading towards the lower street.

"Spark be praised!" Belle stood up and galloped without hesitation. "Time to disappear!"

By Whose Authority

"Overseer!" A uniformed employee of Nightshade Industries ran across the bridge between the two facility buildings in northeast Blue Nova. "Overseer Fatch! I've been looking all over for you! There's urgent news from the Madame!"

"Unnngh..." The frazzled stallion ran a hoof over his face and spun from a tight cluster of advisors. "What could it possibly be now?!" He frowned. "It's crazy enough as it is with all of these Ledomaritan Enforcers breathing down my neck."

"She needs you to relocate the Think Tank immediately!" the messenger exclaimed. "There's been a security compromise at HQ."

"And there isn't here?!" Fatch leaned forward, teeth gritting. "Has any of my urgent memos gotten to the Madame?! I do hope she realizes I have my legs full of this unsightly 'Shell' character—"

"All I know is that there's been a security breach at the Madame's building and she needs the Think Tank moved right away!"

"Spark alive. It's a conspiracy, I swear..."

"Should I take a team into the basement levels, sir?"

Fatch blinked awkwardly in the noonday sunlight. "The basement levels?! What for?"

"To prepare the Think Tank for relocation."

"Uhhh... no..." Fatch's eyes narrowed. "They're across the way in the Supplies Department building."

The messenger blinked, then broke into a cold sweat. "I... did not see them when I went by, sir..."

Fatch's mouth opened... but hung there. His facial muscles twitched, dragging his gaze towards the entrance to the building on the far end of the bridge. He broke into a trot... and then into a gallop... and at last into a sprint. His nervous associates sped swiftly after him.

He burst through a door, turned around two hallways, and came upon the long corridor where a security detachment had gathered before the room in question.

"Overseer, s-sir!" One guard gulped, his armor rattling as he struggled to salute. "I-I was just about to update you! It appears as if we have a development—"

"Let me see..."

"We had guards here stationed the entire time and we can't fathom how they could have—"

"Let me see!"

The guards opened the door with their magic. Fatch immediately dashed in... only to skid to a stop. His face paled as he looked at the empty lengths of the room. A gust of wind blew at his face, for the doors were wide open, exposing the interior to the brilliant sky above the skyscrapers of Blue Nova.

"It... but... how...?"

"It's j-just like I said, sir..." The messenger's voice could be heard, panting from the corridor behind. "I thought they were supposed to be stationed here. I don't understand—"

"Weren't they being checked?! Weren't they being examined regularly?!" Gnashing his teeth, Fatch spun around. "I want to know who is responsible for—"

Shell stood in the doorway, his body flanked by dead silent ponies. Enforcer Evans and a few other soldiers trotted up to his side, gazing neutrally into the room. In the utter silence that followed, Shell's hoofsteps were like hammer drops. He paced past Fatch's numb body and looked at the open windows.

After a few seconds, he slowly and icily pivoted towards the chalkboard positioned along the side of the room.

Fatch bit his lip, shifting nervously.

Shell shuffled closer towards the board, his one eye tracing the runic symbols and dimensions of the illustrated zeppelin. He eventually opened his lips with, "This is not typical Nigthshade design..."

Fatch said nothing.

"But I do recognize some of this..." Shell brought his hoof up and tapped the runes. "I see it in my sleep, just as I hear the dying screams of my fallen comrades." He glanced at the powdery chalk brushed off his hoof. His nostrils flared as he turned towards Fatch directly. "I take it you had ponies who were important to you... and now they are gone. I don't suppose they were imprisoned here against their will... were they?"

At last, Fatch gulped hard and said, "If you would like to conduct an investigation, I can orchestrate a meeting between you and my chief executives—"

"My good sir, there has been an investigation going on before I even came by here, and now with all of the elements adding up, I see far too much to blame it all on mere coincidence." Shell gestured towards Evans, and the young Enforcer nodded back before directing commands to his armored companions. "Rest assured, if there is a search to be made of these 'renegade' ponies who once dwelled in this room, it is no longer up to you to manage it."

"Wh-what?!" Fatch remarked breathily.

"The security of Ledomare at stake," Shell said. "I have already rounded up several local companies of the Ledomaritan Defense Force to form a perimeter around this property, though we would be most fortunate if your industry's ineptitude in its own detainment hasn't already cost us the whereabouts of this nation's biggest potential enemies." He threw his voice towards the corridor. "Evans, send another message to Filta's armada. I want the Steel Wing en route to Blue Nova immediately."

"Aye, sir."

"Wait a second!" Fatch growled. "You can't just... j-just seize our property! This belongs to Nightshade Industries! Just on whose authority are you doing this!"

Shell turned slowly and stared down Fatch. In his one eye, the Overseer buckled down, trembling.

The Great Escape

"Dear Props, some expedience would be fortuitous at the moment," said Clark's voice.

"I'll only make a mistake if I go faster, Jasper, master!" Props cooed over the sound of mechanical clinking.

"Give her space to breathe, Mr. Clark," Pilate said. Nervously, he tilted his head around and gave the rooftoop a sweep with the O.A.S.I.S. sphere. Windswept metal stretched for several meters before coming to a sharp edge where a window washing platform rested, having been fully retracted to the building's summit. "It's only a matter of time before they figure out how we escaped their hold."

"That was some sharp thinking on your behalf, Mr. Pilate!" Ebon Mane cheerfully exclaimed from the zebra's right. "All these months of indentured servitude in the kitchen! Whew! I'm telling you... we could have used the zebra-and-squirrel connection way sooner."

Clark's voice drifted in. "I don't suppose the rodent's telekinesis could also be utilized in dragging a zeppelin here from one of the adjacent building's landing pads?"

Simon perched on Pilate's shoulder and squeaked wearily.

"I... don't think he's quite that godly, Mr. Clark," Pilate said with a nervous smile. "Besides, it would do us all good if the fellow rested a bit."

"Hey... he deserves it!" Ebon exclaimed.

"Got it!" Props suddenly sing-songed, followed by the sound of swishing metal panels. "Roll in, everypony! Keep your legs and other legs inside at all times!"

"Props..." Ebon groaned as she trotted forward. "I don't even."

"Me neither!" she giggle-snorted. "Small world, huh?!"

"Is this what I think it is?" Pilate remarked.

"Indeed," Clark said, ushering the zebra into a claustrophobic, acoustic chamber. "The elevator should take us to every level of this building, including the basement corridors."

"Wait..." Pilate raised an eyebrow as the doors closed behind them. He couldn't stop bumping elbows with the other equines inside the car. "Basement corridors? But I thought—"

"Nightshade Industries claims that they don't have underground chambers leading to other compartments," Ebon said. "But it's a complete falsehood. I know, cuz I've been sent there a few times to collect cooking supplies."

"Evidently, Madame Nightshade has been busy constructing an intricate web of labyrinthine passageways for various purposes," Clark said. "Most of them lead east to a grand hangar hidden beneath the landscape beyond Blue Nova."

"A hangar...?" Pilate murmured.

"And a perfect escape route!" Props cheered while fiddling with the elevator controls. "Well, almost perfect. If I built an escape route, it'd be lined with plates of grilled cheese."

Ebon Mane moaned. "Don't you even start..."

"You know you love it, Ebony!"

"Wait!" Pilate grunted. "We can't escape! Not yet!"

"I beg your pardon?" Clark remarked. "Am I wrong to assume that you had given us a way out of this predicament?"

"Well, of course! But I'm indebted to some... body..." Pilate cleared his throat. "Floydien, the gentlecolt who brought me here. There's no telling what may have happened to him! And I still haven't found his beloved, Nancy Jane..."

"To my knowledge, we're the only ones that have been held here against our will," Clark said.

"Yeah!" Props chirped. "Besides, it's not like they would have him held up in their security brig or nothin'!"

Simon barked.

"Huh?" Pilate gasped. "There's a security detainment center here?"

"Well, somewhere in the building!" Props said. "Past where they keep all the pew-pew death sticks and stuff."

"That sounds like the perfect spot to keep a prisoner for questioning," Pilate said. He turned towards Clark. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Nyeaauuuuughhhhhmmmnnnghhhh..."

Pilate's metal brow furrowed. "That does not sound very affirmative."

"There is no telling how many guards are located in this facility, much less how many of them are presently searching the grounds in an attempt to find us."

"Oh come on, Clark!" Ebon Mane's voice rang. "This guy's gone out on a limb to get us out of that annoying room! The least we can do is repay him!"

"And get us all back in the clutches of Nightshade's lackeys?! I am a stallion who believes in honor and repayment, but I'm not entirely sure this is exactly feasible..."

Simon barked again, this time giving an extended monologue of angry squeaks. Sparks crackled in the air and the entire elevator car shook.

"Whoah!" Props giggled. "Nuts to that action! Hah! Get it?!"

"I'm a sensible pony," Pilate said, holding back a smirk. "But I cannot say the same of my gifted, telekinetic friend here."

"Alright... alright!!" Clark grunted. "We will endeavor to get your... eccentric friend freed!"

The elevator car stopped shaking.

"Glad we could come to an agreement," Pilate said.

"But we cannot do it through any simple means! This building is just too well protected! We need to come up with a plan..."

"Things would be a lot simpler if we could just get past all of the security," Ebon said.

"I don't suppose there's any single floor that would be safe," Pilate said.

"No. Plus, with these enforcers you're talking about, we haven't much time to waste here anymore."

"Wait! I know!" Props gasped. "Every Nightshade building is powered by a crystal core located at the base of the structure, so that it can connect via mana conduits through the super-duper-secret basement corridors that are built!"

"Yes..." Clark leaned in. "And...?"

"Well, get me to one of those cores and I bet your bottom buttcheek I can knock it out! (Squee!) And that'll knock out the lights so that none of the guards will see us to knock out our brains!"

"That sounds..." Clark's breath paused for a gulp. "...ridiculously convoluted."

"But it could work," Ebon Mane said. "Our striped friend here can see in the dark... more or less..."

"You mean to suggest that I attempt to get Floydien out of the brig in pitch blackness?"

"Seems like the more likely scenario," Clark said. "I suspect we will have to split into teams for this..."

"Oooh! Oooh!" Props hopped up and down in the elevator car. "I get the crystal core!"

"That much is obvious, milady. But which of us should accompany Pilate?"

After a moment of silence, Ebon spoke up. "I'll go with him. Between him, me, and the squirrel... we'll drag that poor fella out of the hole he's in."

"Then I suppose I'll assist Props," Clark said. "She may need help in powering down the core without blowing things up... like she's apt to do."

"Hehehe! I'm half deaf in one ear!"

"And then we can proceed through the corridor to the hangar compartment."

"What for?" Pilate asked.

"Pffft! Duh!" Props' voice squawked. "Cuz somewhere east of here and underground is the fastest skiff in the air!"

"I'm afraid I don't follow..."

Clark stepped in. "What Props in her poetic tone is trying to convey is that Nightshade Industries—in their infinite wisdom—gave us the detailed schematics of the fastest airship in their possession."

"You mean the one you were charged with building the 'cage' for...?"

"And even without that magical energy source, the thing is still faster than most Ledomaritan gliders!" Ebon said. "We've always figured that if we had a chance to get out of here, we'd have our best chances on that airship!"

"Spark knows we've studied it enough," Clark said. "Once we've got your friend, we should rendezvous at the basement level, trek east, and make a swift exit on our ride."

"And then it's home to Gray Smoke!" Props cheered.

"Well... I do suppose it would only be fitting to help Pilate find his beloved," Clark said.

"I'm all for that," Ebon uttered.

"Then it's a plan?" Pilate stammered, his lungs short and excited.

"Absolutely." Clark turned towards the mare. "Props? Can you get this elevator moving?"

"Uh ohhhhh... sorry, everypony, but it's out of order."

"What?!"

"HA! Heeheehee—I had you going, didn't I? Heehee!" The compartment hummed as the car began its gliding descent. "Down we gooooo—"

"Props..." Ebony groaned. "One of these days, I'm going to replace your mane with grass and feed you to a herd of sheep."

"Oh please! Then you'd drive me sheer crazy! Heeheehee!"

"Maybe this is too late for a change to the game plan, but can we just put her in Floydien's place instead?"

Safety Not Guaranteed

Bellesmith was a heaving wreck by the time she collapsed inside the concrete niche. She slumped up against a gray wall, her haggard face lost in the shadows as she stared wide-eyed into nothingness.

Behind her, Kera—no less frantic—telekinetically shut the enclosure, blocking the entrance to her hiding place. A gust of hot air blew in from the bright world beyond the granite slite above them. She exhaled heavily, as if throwing loose the weight of the world through her lungs, and trotted slowly about to face the older mare.

"So long as we don't show our faces for a while, we'll be okay here. Trust me. I've waited out worst crap before." After saying that, the filly immediately winced. "Erm... well, maybe not crap this bad. But it can't be that terrible, right? I mean... we've got plenty of grasshoppers!" She smiled jubilantly.

Belle did not so much as look at her. The mare slid down to her knees, practically curling up in the far corner.

Kera blinked. She did not frown and she did not scowl; a worried fidget ran through her body as she shuffled towards the adult's side. "We... uhm... we could maybe try looking for clues about your friend elsewhere, y'know. I mean... you got enough from the dreamworld to go on for a while, right? That was the whole point in going to that place, wasn't it?"

Belle bit her lip.

Nervously, Kera lowered her hood, shaking loose her bushy green mane. "Bellesmith... come on... say something. I don't care if it's stupid or dainty. You're freaking me out with this silence and stuff."

"I... I saw a world..." Belle eventually murmured. "A world older than our own... a world built by many creatures for many creatures. I felt so small... so tiny... and she... she corrupted it... she attacked me with thoughts that weren't hers..." Weathering a wretching expression, Belle clutched her belly and whispered, "So much horror... and pain." She gulped. "What is she wanting to accomplish? What can she do with the world's flame when it's not hers? I'm so powerless. So very powerless... and now Phoenix... Phoenix..."

Kera's brow furrowed. She courageously attempted smiling as she said, "Look, hey... I think it's no secret that the dude wasn't exactly trying to stay alive forever."

Belle winced.

Kera rolled her eyes, smacking herself in the head. After a while, she sighed and said, "Come on, Belle. We're alive. You got us out of that place and you did so in the most badflank way possible! Shouldn't we—like—run with that?"

"It never fails, Kera," Belle murmured, looking at her own hooves as if they were emaciated gold stalks. "I... I see so much good that needs to be done, but when I try to do them... when I-I try to be as strong as Rainbow Dash..." She gulped. "I fail. I fail, and I-I lose ponies I care for..."

Kera snorted, stifling a giggle as she trotted to Belle's side. "Well, I'm still around. What am I, glue?"

Belle broke into a smile. She pivoted around, gazing lovingly at the filly. She caressed the petite pony's chin with a hoof, but halfway through the gesture her smile faded. "I can't put you through any more of this, Kera..."

"Huh?" Kera gripped the mare's forelimb. "What do you mean, Belle?"

"It's so dangerous as it is..." Belle gasped as she heard sirens in the distance, as well as the distant marching of ponies' hooves in the streets of Blue Nova. Her lips quivered. "I... I need to do this alone."

"Do what alone?"

"I don't know. Anything. Everything. I meant to do my search on my own... and look what's happened." She rubbed a hoof over her face. "I'm not strong enough to protect anypony. How c-can I even protect myself?" A final breath whimpered out of her. "Pilate... m-my beloved..."

Kera's green eyes rounded. After a few seconds she held her breath, leaned in, and nuzzled the mare closely. "I'll protect you, Belle. Does that sound okay?"

Belle shuddered. She looked over at her. A delicate smile crossed her face.

"Hmmm?" Kera smiled back up at the mare. "I'll keep you safe. I promise."

"Yeah..." Belle stroked a hoof over the child's mane. "Yeah, okay..." She tried smiling, but her face collapsed... as did the rest of her body. She buckled over, and her only recourse was to sweep Kera in a gentle hug.

The scampy street urchin didn't protest, and that's what finally dissolved the moment. Belle wept quietly, holding Kera close... holding somepony... anypony close, as the two of them rocked gently in the sanctum of that dark, dark place, away from all the noise and mayhem of Ledomare.

Point Well Taken

The door to the infirmary swished open, and several armed guards turned to look. Many of their eyes lit up at the sight before them.

"Madame..." An older stallion in a blue uniform marched up. "He's a dangerous, well-trained pony who fractured the limbs of three of my officers." He held a hoof forward. "Please, for your own safety, I suggest you keep your distance—"

"No doubt you dealt him as much pain if not even more so by the time the door was opened the sequencing chamber," Nightshade calmly said. "Please allow me to see him. I have business to attend to."

The guard glanced behind Nightshade. Sir Ordo stood next to two intimidatingly large stallions decked out in surgical gear. With a nervous shudder, the guard stepped back. "As you wish..."

The thick group of ponies parted ways, revealing a bruised and shackled Phoenix squatting on the edge of a medicable table. He heaved in pain, his lungs whistling as blood dribbled out of his muzzle. Through a swollen eye, he glanced tiredly up at the corporate owner.

Nightsahde took a few steps forward. Calmly, she spoke over her shoulder, her eyes trained on the Franzington mercenary. "You've interrogated him?"

"Quite thoroughly, Madame."

"And have you learned anything?"

The guard cleared his throat and said, "No, ma'am. He's keeping silent."

Nightshade slowly, slowly nodded. She kept staring at Phoenix.

Phoenix didn't break his gaze either. Whatever expression he could afford beneath the fresh sea of whelts was utterly placid.

Nightshade gestured towards the two stallions in white. They nodded and trotted across the infirmary. The guards made room for them as they stood ominously behind Phoenix's figure.

The mercenary took a deep, shruddering breath. He wheezed once, but otherwise remained sitting as still as he could muster, gazing intently at Nightshade.

The mare paced before him. "Your friends escaped the building. Successfully, I might add. Oh, we know you have more than one companion. Just how many—we're not sure. What we do know is that they're very fortunate to have escaped the premises... for precisely the same reason that you have not been. I wonder... are they your family?"

Phoenix was silent.

She paused, squinting at him. "Because if you're doing this to protect family... then I can understand." She swallowed. "But it does not change the fact that what is at stake here is worth more than your life, their lives, or even my life. This country—this continent is going the way of a dying spark, and there are very few ponies with the resources and the knowledge to do something about it. Now, the Council of Ledo... they have the tools and they most definitely have the materials to pull us out of this devastating war, but they refuse. So... who then can step up to the call? Who can transform this country into something that's fertile... something capable of growing instead of giving into the ashes of all of our past mistakes? Hmm? Is it you? Is it who you work for?"

Phoenix broke his gaze with her, choosing instead to stare at the ground.

Nightshade's eyes narrowed. "I have discovered secrets... secrets that would flip this entire society up on its head. Secrets that would change the perception of everypony, leading to the collapse of fundamental philosophy and modern idealism. And yet, I have chosen to be empowered by this knowledge, and to use what I know to make a difference. It's not too late to transform this nation into something that is prosperous once again, for I have it within my ability to stop this war."

Slowly, with icy silence, she shuffled towards him.

At last she spoke, "What would you... or anypony in league with you hope to accomplish by stealing that knowlege? Is it for bits? For blood? For glory?" Her lips tensed as she added, "What is it you care for so much that you would sneak so far into this forbidden place?"

Phoenix tilted his head up. He took a long, wheezing breath before sputtering, "For a mare who wants what's best for this kingdom, you've g-got a funny way of sh-showing it..." At the end of that, he spat a wad of bloody saliva onto the tile before her.

Nightshade's eyes traveled down, then lifted back up towards him. Her brow furrowed, but before she could say anything—

"Madame!" With bumbling commotion, a messenger pony sweatily dashed into the room, squeezing past a few guards. "Madame Nightshade! Urgent news from the industrial center!"

Nightshade swiveled about. "What is it?"

The pony winced before stammering, "It's Overseer Fatch. He's been detained, and the whole sector is on lockdown."

"Lockdown?!" Nightshade gnashed her teeth. "By whom?"

"Enforcers, Madame. There's an entire blockade formed at the bottom and at the top of the buildings. Both zeppelin and hoof traffic have been blocked off. Word is that more of the Queen's soldiers are being assembled on the northeast side of Blue Nova. I've been sent to warn you, in case any Enforcers come here next..."

Sir Ordo began shivering. "The Council of Ledo..." He gulped. "It's all a conspiracy! They're onto us!"

Nightshade was silent. She spun back around and glared at Phoenix. "Who do you work for, really?"

Phoenix said nothing this time.

Nightshade's nostrils flared. "Very well. If I can't get the truth from your mouth, I will from your mind. Sir Ordo?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Prepare the table." After a breath, she spoke without looking to the two heavy-set stallions. "Gentlecolts... prepare him."

Phoenix blinked—only to have two telekinetic fields thrust him forward. He was slammed chest-first against the bed. Two pairs of forelimbs held him in place with an iron-grip before he could even try breaking free. Then, quicker than a heartbeat, an electrified hatchet flew across his skull. With a hideous whack, the end of Phoenix's horn shattered completely.

"Gaaaa-hauuugh!" the stallion shrieked. His face tensed to the breaking point as his eyes turned red and blood trickled out of his ears. "Grrnngh—mmmmmfff-haaaugh!" He writhed and twisted in the ponies' grasp, powerless to stop them from applying a series of cables and electrodes to his sparkling stub. The sequencing device only magnified the waves of pain coursing through him. "Mmmmmmnnnghhhh..." He hissed before sobbing openly into the infirmary bed.

"Keep his vitals steady for as long as I am sequenced," Nightshade said unemotionally as she laid down, affixing cables to her stub. "Sir Ordo?"

The stallion stood, squirming, staring at Phoenix's tortured figure.

Nightshade spoke sharper. "Ordo..."

The stallion looked over with a jerk.

Her eyes were still as stone. "Your assistance, if I could."

"Yes... Y-yes, but of course, Madame Nightshade." He trotted briskly over.

"Much appreciated." She fully reclined, shutting her eyes as Ordo activated the apparatus. "Do not worry about the Council. Sooner or later, I will have answers."

A Convenient Inconvenience

Josho's eyes were the first to open. He squinted, his bloodshot cornea squinting against the noonday sun. He winced openly, running a hoof over his skull. Stirring besides the fallen managlider against which he was reclined, the obese stallion stretched his crackling joints. He looked at his right forelimb, seeing a tall empty bottle held in the crook of his hoof. With a sigh, he glanced at his left side—then did a double-take.

Eagle Eye was curled up against him, his soft head resting innocently across the larger stallion's midsection. His lavender body rose and fell with tiny breaths.

Josho blinked. At last, he groaned, rolling his eyes. He positioned himself to shove the petite pony off him, but ultimately hesitated. After a few seconds, he sighed, lying back against the metal vehicle once more. He blew out the edge of lips and glanced across the empty countryside.

Only it wasn't empty anymore; several equine shadows stood before him.

"Crap biscuits!" Josho grunted, hopping up to his hooves in a flash. He raised the bottle like a weapon and swung it around with a glowing horn. In the meantime, Eagle Eye dangled from his forelimb, snorting awake.

"Huh?! What?! Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez!" Eagle Eye shrieked as his hooves flailed.

"Silence, kid!" Josho snarled. "I got these mana-huffing tattoo fetishists—"

With a flash of blue light, an entire phalanx of manarifles stared the enforcer down. The first of several soldiers marched forward. Stepping out of the shine of the bright day's glare, he turned out to be wearing a purple beret. "At ease," he said. "We're not Xonans." The stallion's eyebrow raised. "We would, however, like to know what you two are doing out here with this abandoned hovercraft."

Josho blinked. He dropped the bottle and snickered awkwardly. "Yes... well... you see..." He thrusted his limbs down, forcing Eagle Eye to balance himself on all fours. "There were... uhm... foxes. Tons of suicidal foxes and..."

"Did they bind you two together?" The officer asked.

Josho shook his head. "Oh, no. That was the Killas."

"Killas...?"

"Diamond dogs enslaving stallions to harvest giant sapphires out of the earth."

The soldiers exchanged glances.

Josho sighed. "Look. My Registy Number is Seven Two Zero Five Nine Eight Six Alpha Zed. If you review your unit's fancy smancy records, you'll find that I'm a Prime Enforcer in the service of Her Majesty—"

"Josho?" Another soldier marched up. "Enforcer Josho?"

Josho blinked at the stallion. "Yeah...?"

The first officer spoke with a suspicious glare. "Are you Prime Enforcer Josho of Blue Slope?"

Eagle Eye glanced at the older stallion. Eventually, the pony murmured, "Maaaaaaaaybe... Depends. Am I wanted dead or deader?"

"You were presumed dead, sir!" the other soldier exclaimed. "Prime Enforcer Shell confirmed it."

"Did he, now...?"

"We had prepared a letter to be sent home to your next of kin and everything."

"Ha!" Josho smirked. "Fat chance! My next of kin ran off to Spark knows where years ago, and she took my libido with her." A beat. He cleared his throat. "That is to say, I'm relieved to say that I'm alive... somewhat."

"Fortunate for you that we were ordered to head north to Blue Nova," the first soldier said. "Otherwise, we would never have passed by this corner of Foxtaur."

"How... do you mean...?" Josho stammered. He heard Eagle Eye gasp. Looking up, Josho spotted an enormous shadow jutting across the bright sky.

The Steel Wing loomed immensely overhead, its hull patched up in over a dozen places. It flew as gracefully as it ever did before, and several smaller aircraft were darting around it as they performed a sweep of the area.

"We thought that you could possibly have been one of the missing crewponies," the first soldier said. "Now that we know it's you, it would be best that we brought you aboard and went on our way. Captain Filta has afforded enough setbacks as it is, and there is no more time to waste."

Josho bit his lip. He glanced over at Eagle Eye.

The petite stallion glanced back. With a sigh, he hung his head with folded ears.

"Is there something wrong, Enforcer?" one of the stallions asked.

Josho looked back. "Er, no. Well... aside from... eheh..." He raised the hoof that was affixed to Eagle Eye.

The first soldier squinted at it. "Primitive. We should be able to get it off you easily." He turned and nodded towards the lavender unicorn. "Who is this? One of the bandits from the forest?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"Well, we don't have much time." The soldier turned to his fellow compatriots. "Take care of him, ponies."

All of the guns cocked and aimed at Eagle Eye.

He clenched his eyes shut and winced.

"Whoah!" Josho jumped in front of the glowing barrels, waving a forelimb.

"Hold!" The soldier turned towards the heavyset equine. "Sir...?"

Josho gulped and said, "He's... uhm... important to the investigation. I mean, Shell's still wanting to nab that rainbow fart of a pegasus, isn't he?"

The soldier squinted. "In what way can this traitor assist the search?"

"Up your flank and spinning around with porcupines on his head! That's how!" Josho leaned in and growled into the soldier's face. "I may not have my uniform, shorty, but I outrank you from here to your mother's saddle squeegee! We're bringing him on board with me, or should I explain to Shell why you let a key component of his mission go to waste?!"

The soldier leaned back, blinking awkwardly. With a sigh, he motioned towards the distance. A hovercraft lifted up that had been parked besides a dense line of thickets. "Very well. We'll deal with your manacles on the way to Blue Nova. I'm certain Captain Filta would like to hear all about your recent exploits."

"Yeah, he'd better be sporting a leather couch, the cat huffer..." Josho grunted as the soldiers led him and Eagle Eye towards the transport. In the shadow of the Steel Wing, the stallion gulped and glanced aside at his bound companion.

Eagle Eye trotted forward, a sad expression hanging beneath his slumped gait.

With a grumbling breath, Josho gazed ahead. "Should never have shared the friggin' bottle. It went dry too dayum fast..."

The Loathe Boat

A sparkling mana torch ate and ate away at the purple links of the cuffs. At last, the energy field binding them together shorted out. Josho's and Eagle Eye's legcuffs fell, rattling loudly atop the Steel Wing's deck. Captain Filta's hooves shuffled to a stop beside them.

"Prime Enforcer Shell has personally taken on a mission to scout out Blue Nova ahead of us."

Josho looked up, rubbing his aching forelimb from where the metal had been rubbing into it for hours on end.

"Has he now? The one eyed bugger..."

"Indeed..." The captain nodded with a furrowed brow. "We're presently en route to join him there at the maretropolitan city. It would appear that Nightshade Industries may be harboring fugitives... not to mention dire secrets."

"Dire secrets, you say..." Josho gulped.

He watched as two crew members took the handcuffs and manatorch, trotting towards a compartment below the northbound airship's deck. As his head turned, he caught sight of Eagle Eye seated beside him. The petite unicorn was forced to stretched his forelimbs out, allowing two enforcers to re-bind the legs that had just recently been relieved of the Killas' manacles.

Josho clenched his jaw. He fidgeted before saying, "But what about that pegasus? Y'know, the rainbow jackass that started this whole glittery parade?" He looked up at Filta again, squinting in the sunlight. "Aren't we trying to find her?"

"She's proven time and time again to be far too elusive for normal capture."

"You can say that again, air legs." Josho stood up, winced, and smirked awkwardly. "No offense."

Filta merely sighed.

Josho paced, stretching his unbound forelimbs. "So, what then? We're chasing after bright paint buckets and hanging them from the ship's bow in hopes they'd attract her out from hiding?"

"This is why I do so hate giving you briefings, Mr. Josho. You're rarely ever sober."

"Prime Enforcer Josho, bucko. And I'm not even remotely drunk."

"Then why is it that you were found with this traitor clinging to you?" Filta raised an eyebrow. "There's not a Spark's chance he would have overpowered you. Obviously you kept him alive."

"Of course I did..." Josho said, his tone sharp and to the point. He looked at Filta with a perpetual glare. "He's a prisoner of war. His fate is up to the Council, not the whim of one Enforcer..." He stifled a burp and waved his forelimb around. "No matter how pissed off he may have gotten at the little grape stain from time to time."

"It's refreshing to see you function by protocol for once," Filta said in a neutral voice. "Even if it's the wrong one."

"The flippin' heck are you going on about?"

"Shell has made it clear, time and time again, that the danger these renegades pose is not to be tolerated." Filta motioned in the direction of Eagle Eye. "The target is to be acquired at all costs, otherwise any and all of her allies' lives are forfeit."

Josho slowly, slowly nodded. "Right. Well... I guess I was off my A-game."

"It matters little. Your contributions, however meager, will be of aid to our search, I'm sure."

"Hey..." Josho smirked bitterly. "I'm not dead. That's gotta count for more than 'meager,' don't you think?"

"Shell's plan continues, undaunted, with or without the part that you have played."

"Yeah, well, it was Shell who personally decided to toss me into a canyon to my not-so-sexy death," Josho grumbled. "Or did he neglect to mention that?"

Filta turned to stare at Josho evenly. "Did you give him a reason to?"

Josho blinked. "Pffft... Did I?" He almost chuckled, but then blinked. Slowly, he pivoted his head aside.

Over a dozen crew ponies had stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

Biting his lip, Josho turned back to Filta, only to see that the Captain's emotionless expression had not changed.

"Ahem..." Josho shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "I... uh... I was really close to the target, and there was this horrible scuffle on the cliff side." He winced, avoiding the Captain's gaze. "I guess, in all of the craziness, I... I-I must have... uh... mistakenly thought that the Prime Enforcer had tossed me into the ravine deliberately..."

Eagle Eye glanced over, his lips pursed as his ears twitched upon hearing that.

Filta took a breath before saying, "Well, we all make mistakes. Some more than others. Alas, a day that one less soldier is dead is always a good one. I suspect you'll want to get some rest in your cabin?"

"You can friggin' say that again..." Josho wearily rubbed his temple.

"Right. I do suggest we converse later once you're well-rested." Filta paced across the deck towards the port side. "We'll need every available hoof at the battlestations. If Shell indeed finds the zebra hiding in Blue Nova, then we're only bound to summon the target by whatever bizarre energy binds her to such a companion."

Eagle Eye gasped, his purple eyes twitching. "Zebra...?"

"Wait..." Josho squinted. "Huh?"

"Hmmm?" Filta turned calmly about. "Oh, my apologies..." He sighed before saying, "It's come to our attention that the blind zebra companion who was with the target has survived his last encounter with the Steel Wing. He was last seen with another fugitive, in flight to Blue Nova, along with his manatechnology. That's why Shell went to investigate. Once we've acquired the suspect, we'll begin our search west for his beloved and mercenary last seen due west—"

Josho barked, "Yeesh, you melon fudges have been dropping suspects left and right! What gives?"

But Eagle Eye was jumping up, shouting, "Pilate's alive?! And Belle?!" He seethed through clenched teeth. "No! You leave them alone! Haven't you done enough?!" Two stallions gripped him from behind. "Nnngh!" He shook and struggled. "Don't hurt them!"

"Soldiers..." Filta grunted aside.

A stallion trotted up and slammed his hoof hard in Eagle Eye's chest.

"Ooommmf!" Eagle Eye wheezed, slumping over with tearing eyes.

"Hey!" Josho grunted. "That's enough!"

Filta stepped closer to the obese stallion. "Are you... speaking to the traitor or to my crew, Prime Enforcer?"

Josho sweated, saying nothing.

As Eagle Eye was hauled downstairs towards teh bridge, he hissed and sobbed, "Josho! Please! Don't let them do this! Don't let them get Belle and her beloved! They'll torture them! Josho—" His voice was cut off as he was flung into the shadows below deck.

Josho stood, panting heavily.

"You've been through a lot, Josho," Filta said, daring to rest a hoof on the burly pony's shoulder. "Get some sleep. Clear your mind. If nothing else, I'm going to need your experience to lend Shell some aid." He trotted towards the bow of the ship.

"My... experience..." Josho gulped, standing alone as the whipping winds of the high altitude kicked at his graying mane. "Right... for what it's worth..."

Metal to Move

Rainbow Dash winced. She watched as her blue wings flexed in and out, slowly, feathers spreading with tender movements. "I can kind of... erm..." She gulped and looked across the barn at Imre. "I can kind of move them. Just a little pit. The pain's gone and stuff."

"Yes, but is the numbness?" Imre asked while reaching down towards a cot several feet away.

"Uhhhh... No?"

"Then you're not ready for flight."

"Unnngh!" Rainbow Dash sagged upon the cot where she sat. "Come on! I gotta take to the air! How long do I seriously gotta make love to the levers inside this stinkin' armor?!"

"Until the sapphiric string finishes its job," the unicorn droned as she helped a dazed Crimson into a sitting position atop his cot. "You should be lucky it's working so fast. Your body is handling the magic well."

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash glanced at her posterior. Her tail had grown long enough that she could flick the colorful lengths of it with little effort. "I guess I should stop griping and moaning." She gulped and turned back. "But it's been two days! The longer I stay here, the longer I put off looking for my friends and—"

"One thing at a time," Imre droned, holding Crimson's shoulders steady as she looked the muscular stallion in the face. "How are you feeling?"

"Nnnngh..." Crimson's bass voice rang off the wooden beams of the barn above them. "Like I just rolled around in a sea of glue."

"Cute. How about your legs?"

"How... l-long was I under, Doc?"

"Focus, Mr. Crimson. How do your legs feel?"

"They... feel... fine..." Crimson rubbed his face, blinked, then gawked at the mare. "All... four of them..."

Imre simply stared back at him.

"What in Spark's name...?" Crimson gazed at his forelimb. His eyes bounced back the reflective glint of a cylindrical metal prosthetic, jointed at the middle. "Hooo boy..." He squinted. "It actually fits!"

"What?" Imre raised an eyebrow. "Do you seriously think I was going to attach toothpicks to you?"

"Still..." Crimson pivoted the blue and silver limb before his gaze, examining it from several angles. "It's a bit... erm... thinner than I thought it was going to be..."

"Well, sorry," Imre grunted. "But I'm not used to attaching stuff to muscular stallion limbs."

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash grinned as she reattached her armor over her wings. "She's just used to replacing the tree-trunks of thick-necked mares."

Imre rolled her eyes and glared over her shoulder. "Must you?"

"With extra mustard," Rainbow Dash proudly chirped.

"I think I can almost... almost..." Crimson eased forward, hissing as his muscles coiled.

"Easy... take it slow," Imre said.

"I... I can feel it!" Crimson exclaimed as he stood evenly on four limbs once more. "How is that even possible? I mean, I've... uh... I've heard stories of 'phantom senses...'"

"Pretend that it's tapping into that, but in a good way," Imre said. "I've attuned a crystal core built into the limb to operate off the manastreams coming from your horn's leylines."

"Luna Poop..." Rainbow Dash grunted, slipping her leg armor on. "Just hearing that made my brain turn to paste."

"In laypony terms," Imre continued saying to Crimson, "It's responding to your unicorn horn to power up and operate the limb, instead of the usual manacore that Searonese ponies use to replace their hearts. Do me a favor."

"Huh?" Crimson shifted on his weight and looked at Imre. "Sure. What...?"

"Think about smashing something."

"Uhm... alright..."

"And do it..." Imre pointed at a nearby bale of hay. "Preferrably to something that the crystal farmers around here won't miss."

"Very well then." Crimson took a deep breath. His brow furrowed.

Just then, a high-pitched whine filled the air.

Rainbow Dash shuddered. "What's that? Sounds like a swarm of bees who really gotta go to the bathroom bad..."

"Wait for it..." A glow shone across Imre's face as her lips curved slightly. "Ah... there we go." She pointed down at Crimson's prosthetic. "Working like a charm."

Crimson squinted at his own limb. A deep blue glow shimmered through the glossy, metallic body. "Is it... vibrating?"

"It's building up a sonic charge. Now..." Imre pointed towards the bale of hay again. "Smash."

"Right..." Crimson bit his lip and coiled his muscles. "Smashing." He lightly tapped the prosthetic to the cluster of straw.

The sound of cannonfire echoed across the barn, causing many patients to sit up and gasp. Volunteer nurses glanced over, wide eyed. Before them, a huge plume of hay fell slowly in an orange cloud. Where Crimson's limb now rested—no longer vibrating—a veritably deep crater had formed in the foundation of the barn.

Crimson blinked. "Well... uhm..." He cracked an awkward smile. "I suppose I'll no longer lose hoof wrestling contests."

"Hmmm... I must have set it too high," Imre said, rubbing her chin.

Crimson gazed at her, wide-eyed. "You can adjust the settings?"

"You can do many things with it. Considering your field of... erm... work, Mr. Crimson, I felt you would benefit from it far more than the other infirmed ponies in Aurum's care." She pivoted about. "Forgive me if it seems a tad bit dramatic. I only had the tools from the airship to use, and there's no piece of Searonese tech that doesn't in some way double as a weapon."

Rainbow Dash leaned in. "I don't suppose there's a way I can replace my tail while it's still growing?"

Imre glared. "No. There isn't."

"Awwwww... Not even a cider dispenser?"

"Don't you already have one there?"

"Hah hah hah hah—" Rainbow Dash went cross-eyed in mid cackle. "Wait. Ew."

With a loud squeak, the barn door opened, casting light into the room. Tweak stood in the frame, panting, hovering a manarifle over his shoulder. "What in tarnation was that thunder and crap all about?!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Tweak Farmer Dude Guy!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, waving.

"My apologies, Tweak," Crimson said, proudly waving the new prosthetic in question. "Just testing Dr. Imre's fantastic gift here. We... may have put a dent in the barn's foundation, but nopony's hurt."

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash smiled. "We were basically just cyber clopping."

"That's it." Imre stood up and made for the exit. "I need a break..."

"Oh come on! You're a doctor!" Rainbow Dash grinned after her. "I'm sure you've heard and told worse jokes!"

"I couldn't afford to when I had the Searonese breathing down my back." Imre paused at the exit besides Tweak to look back. "Installing a rocket-launching fetlock backwards? Instant death..."

"Heh... Check out Princess Cynicism." Rainbow Dash smirked at Crimson while pointing Imre's way. "I bet a day hasn't ever gone by where she's failed to roll her eyes at the world."

"Actually, I missed a day once."

"LIES."

"Ahem..." Tweak trotted into the barn as Imre exited. "Now that y'all are all sorted out... erm... of a sort—"

"Right..." Rainbow Dash hopped up in full armor. "How are you feeling, Crimson? Like... really feeling?"

Crimson looked at Rainbow Dash, at his new limb, at the crater, then back at Rainbow Dash. "I'd say pretty swell."

"Good. 'Cuz now we gotta get our flanks up north! Well... uhm... presuming you're still along for the ride."

"You know that I am," Crimson said, pivoting dizzily to face both her and Tweak. "But what about you? We've been over this. I can't fly, and even if you did go ahead of me—"

"I've got this clunky armor with its rockets and stuff, remember?"

"Yes, but Imre has told us time and time again that the fuel would run out before you're a fraction of the way there."

"Nnnngh..." Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Well, then, we'll gallop north on hoof if we have to!"

"To where exactly?" Crimson's face was long and defeated. "Rainbow, we don't even know where to look."

"So you're saying we should do nothing?"

"No, I'm saying we should find a way to get information," Crimson said. "To figure out where Belle and Pilate's been taken, we need the right tools, the right tech..."

"The right tongue," Tweak muttered.

Both ponies glanced awkwardly at him.

"Buh?" Rainbow Dash spat.

Tweak sighed and said, "What I mean is, you ponies have been to many places and survived many scrapes. Maybe there's a way you can talk some party around these here parts into giving you the flight you need to get where you need to go."

"I... uh... I kind of have selective friends for a reason, shiny," Rainbow Dash said with a nervous smile. "Since I hit dragon country, every living thing I've seen has wanted me dead or mounted or both. I doubt I can make allies all willy-nilly. On top of all that, I'm—like—a gazillion miles from my home."

"As you well know, I'm too far from Franzington to request help from the Blades Guild," Crimson said. "As if they'd afford any help in the first place. My province may not be part of the Confederacy, but they're in no position to piss off Ledomare."

"I figured you were a prime example," Tweak said. "No offense, pal. But once you get home, don't you wanna make yourself hidden?"

Crimson winced. "I don't know if Ledomare can afford to hold a grudge against a single mercenary. But... yes... I-I would most definitely want to take my family somewhere safe and unpopulated. There's a place down south of the old fields that's perfect for expansion..."

"Y'know, Crimson, for real..." Rainbow Dash looked at him with a kindly expression. "You've taken the brunt of cruddy things enough, especially since I showed up. If you wanna split for your hometown, I really can't force you to tag along."

"Rainbow Dash, you know I hate talking in circles..." The stallion facehoofed, only to wince at the cold taste of metal. "Ahem... I have a code that I go by, and I'm committed to assuring the safety of your friends as much as you."

"It's just a matter of time before my wings are all better, then I can fly where I need to go, no problem."

"And exactly where do you need to go?" Tweak asked. "Alone or together?" He sighed and sat back on his haunches. "If you ask me, y'all got the grit, but not the gumption."

"There were... like... tons of managliders that bit the dust in Foxtaur," Rainbow Dash muttered out loud. She looked at the stallions. "Maybe Crimson and I can head west, steal one of those stupid things, and see if it can still fly?"

"No..." Crimson shook his head. "The enforcers are too meticulous to leave those things flying around."

"You sure? You flew to Aurum in one."

"That's because I didn't waste any time, Rainbow. If I had stayed in the ravine any longer, I'm quite certain a cleanup crew from the Steel Wing's armada would have found me."

"Well, darn it! Just what are we going to do?!" Rainbow Dash grumbled. After a few sullen breaths, she smiled tiredly in Tweak's direction. "I don't suppose you have a zeppelin hidden in one of your crystal barns or something?"

"If I did, I would have rained gemstone death upon those mangy canines nippin' at our flanks months ago," Tweak said. "If you ask me, you ponies have the perfect mode of transportation resting right under your muzzles."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "How do you mean?"

"Brother! Brother!" Lucky Strike's voice sounded out from behind. All three turned to see the stallion standing in the barn's doorway. "Oh, hey, you guys are already together. Sweet." He motioned out towards the farmland beyond. "Come on out. We're having a meeting."

"What kind of a meeting?" Tweak asked.

Lucky smirked. "Guess who finally decided to talk?"

"Who?" Crimson asked.

Rainbow Dash squinted. She glanced downwards in thought, the tilted her gaze up with drooped ears. "Roarke..."

Roarke Most Righteous

"So my vessel has about seventy-five percent of its energy reserves left," Roarke said, her helmet open as her lensed eyes glittered in the afternoon sun over Aurum. "Normally I would recharge the crud, but with Searo's Hold having gone the way of the proverbial sea serpent, I really can't do that, now can I? So, my options are to either fly to a province outside of Ledomare with the energy available to fuel up my ship, or run the damn thing into dust because any mare with a drop of blood still running through her veins probably won't stop at anything to see me and my aircraft reduced to scrap anyways. Now, even though my fuel is low, I still have a full arsenal of weapons that can take on just about any mid-range Ledomaritan zeppelin, not to mention an entire face of a military fortification. I can't promise that the ship can survive a prolonged slugout with a juggernaut, but it is perfect for hit and run attacks, which could be just what is needed to raid any given place upon this continent and make like the wind. As for transporation, as you well know, the ship is capable of carrying many passengers—even up two twenty ponies at a time—"

"Roarke..."

"So, depending on how many individuals we are dealing with, we may or may not be able to do this in one go..."

"Roarke."

"Though I insist that you all allow me to pilot the vessel and nopony else, because I swear to Searo I will knock somepony's skull off if they so much as try to touch the controls and—"

"Hey! Robot lady!" Tweak shouted.

The bounty hunter froze. She stopped pacing and turned to look.

Tweak, Lucky Strike, Rainbow Dash, Crimson, and a dozen other Aurumites all stood, gawking at her.

Tweak said, "What in the heck are you babbling about?"

Roarke frowned, her jaw clenched. However, she relaxed, sighed, and lowered her head. "I wish to assist you in the rescue of Rainbow Dash's friends."

The ponies exchanged glances. At last, Tweak spoke, "And for how much money, ya bucket huffer?"

"Shhh!" Lucky Strike hissed at his brother. "Tweak!"

"I can't be the only one thinking about it!" Tweak frowned, pointing at the armored mare. "She's a frickin' bounty hunter! When has she ever done stuff for free?!"

"Uhhhh..." Lucky's crystal eyes were narrow. "When she helped me and about three dozen sick ponies escape Searo's Hold?"

"That ain't the point!" Tweak grumbled. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but she got a whole bunch of us into that mess to begin with when she stuck her hooves into Rainbow Dash's party days ago!"

"Roarke, for real..." Rainbow Dash trotted forward from the group and approached her. "I helped you. You helped me. Aren't we square?"

Roarke's lenses pistoned out as she frowned at Rainbow Dash. "If you would rather reject my offer than just say it."

"Huh? Pffft..." Rainbow waved a hoof and rolled her eyes. "Believe me, I'm totally on board whatever plan you're having. Besides, I can trust you."

"Like heck she can—" Tweak began, only for Crimson to urge him to silence with a metal hoof.

"Ahem..." Rainbow turned back to Roarke and spoke gently this time. "I can trust you, Roarke. You know why? Because nopony goes against everything she believes in and ditches her kin and country just for kicks. I think you believe in being good, and doing awesome things. And I don't know what's awesomer and... uhm... gooder than getting my friends out of their jam right now."

Roarke cocked her head aside. "And did you leave your own country just for kicks?"

Rainbow Dash blinked. She frowned. "No. That's not the point—"

"You seem to have it all right, Rainbow," Roarke said. "There's a big world out there, a big friggin' ugly world. And if there's a silver lining to it, it's certainly not here. I wanna fly far, far away, just like you. The thing is, no matter how far I have to go to find a place worth starting over in, I can't see myself doing it with any sort of peace of mind."

"Why not?" Rainbow smirked as she shrugged. "You've kicked the flank of every pony that could have wanted you dead, right?"

"It's not as simple as that," Roarke grumbled. "Look, accept my offer or not. If I have to go it alone right away, then I'm sure I'll make do." She sighed. "I have enough regrets as it is, and I didn't think they would sting like they do."

"What, regrets?"

Roarke said nothing.

Rainbow Dash smirked. "Fancy that. Somewhere in that body of yours, beyond all the mana-cores and steam vents and machinery, there's still room for a conscience, huh?"

"Don't rub it in..."

"The question remains..." Crimson trotted forward. "You have a lot of fantastic gadgetry at your hooves, Roarke. But..." His eyes narrowed. "Where will we even go to look?"

"Right..." Tweak grumbled. "Even the fastest glider in the world couldn't narrow down where these ponies in question are being held."

"Funny thing, that..." Roarke motioned with her ringlet'd mane and trotted towards where her vessel was parked. "Follow me. I think I have just the thing..."

Nothing To It

Eagle Eye sat, slumped against the dimly lit wooden boards that formed the foundation of the Steel Wing's brig. As the zeppelin veered along its course, his violet hair swayed across his lavender head.

There was a shuffling sound, like a badly coordinated dancer stumbling through the darkness. After a few seconds, a canteen rolled through the bars of the brig and rested against one of Eagle's splayed hooves. He glanced unemotionally at it, then tilted his lethargic gaze to the figure beyond the bars.

"There, kid..." Josho grunted, leaning against the bars. "It took some shoving ponies around with my horseshoes up their nostrils, but I was able to get you some decent spring water." He shrugged. "And not, y'know, the crud they usually dog bowl prisoners in this place. Figured you might wanna pour something down your throat that isn't whiskey, for a change. Especially considering how much the latter tears about your insides something fierce."

Eagle Eye looked back down at the floor. His shoulders slumped.

Josho grumbled. "Look, will you just take the friggin' canteen? All things considered, there really aren't a lot of ponies on board this ship who'll do you a favor. The least you can do is remain hydrated."

At last, the lavender unicorn muttered, "It doesn't matter."

"Don't start leaking on me again, fruit salad," Josho uttered. He glared through the bars as he said, "It's not half as sucky as you might think. You're a potential witness here—and that means you can still be of use to Ledo. There's no reason the enforcers have to lay a single hoof on you. Why, if you play your cards right, you might even be able to return home."

"You mean if I somehow do all I can to betray my friends," Eagle droned. "Like Zenith did."

Josho blinked. "Like who?"

Eagle flashed him a frown. "See?! You don't even know who is who! You don't even care!"

"I know that you got a chance for freedom so long as I can put in a good word for ya," Josho retorted. "Face it, kid. You were never much of a fighter to begin with. What have you got to defend? All your family is far away, down south, and—"

"Josho, all my family would rather have me dead. The only ponies I ever cared about were scattered like leaves the very moment you and your precious enforcer buddies decided to dispense justice in the middle of Foxtaur."

Josho's nostrils flared. "Look, kid. You saved my neck quite a few times back there. Heck, on board the train? You could have spilled my oily, greasy guts, and yet you didn't. Don't you see?" He sighed and slumped against the bars. "I'm trying to give you a second chance too."

"A second chance at what? You call this grace?" Eagle's eyes grew misty as he snarled a the walls of the brig. "Somewhere... up north... Belle and Pilate are on the run. Shell and Filta and every pony with something to prove to Ledo are chomping at the bit to nab them." He looked up, a tear or two trickling down his bright cheeks. "And when they do, Josho, they're going to shackle them, interrogate them, torture them, and kill them. And th-there is nothing I can do about it..."

Josho was silent.

Choking on a sob, Eagle bowed his head and curled his manacled hooves to his face. "If all I have to look forward to is knowing that for the rest of my life... then I-I think d-death is the best thing I can p-possibly look forward to..."

Josho opened his mouth, but lingered. He lingered for too long, and in a weighty shuffle he lurched away from the brig, trotting his lonesome way up the steps and onto the main deck of the Steel Wing. A brisk wind kicked at his graying mane as crew ponies dashed left and right, minding their various stations.

As Josho approached a cabin on the far end, he passed under the shadow of Captain Filta and a pair of officers looking over a map from an upper platform.

"Enforcer Josho..." Filta said from above. "Getting some of that rest I suggested? Good. We will need all the help we can get in tracking down these vile enemies of the state."

"Right..." Josho grumbled without looking. "Better hang 'em up by their kidneys."

"Hmmph..." Filta's lips curved as he gazed at a map floating before him. "The Council will decide, whatever the case." The officers beside him chuckled.

Josho said nothing. He opened his quarters and lurched inside. The wooden framework of the zeppelin creaked and groaned all around him. He marched past his bed and made for a cabinet. Opening it, he produced a tall bottle with sloshing tan liquid. He trotted over and sat on the edge of the bed. His horn glowed as he fumbled and fumbled with the cork.

Then, suddenly, his horn lost its glow. He blinked, and his hooves went slack. The bottle fell to the floor, rattled, and rolled towards the far wall as the Steel Wing made a veering turn.

Josho's breaths came heavier and heavier. He gnashed his teeth and ran a hoof over his face, hissing through tight lips.

"Friggin' bleeding heart, I swear..."

He pulled at his mane and groaned.

"Bleeding heart. Nothing to it. Nothing to it. Nothing..."

A Pin Drop

With a mechanical whirr, an aluminum panel rotated down from the left hoof side of Roarke's cockpit. She slapped her forelimb against a knob, and a sheathe of metal retracted, revealing a rectangular pool of vertically placed brass needles.

Turning around, the bounty hunter spoke over her armored shoulder. "This is my main navigation conduit. I use it to scale the landscape from here to the western desolation."

"So, it's a map?" Crimson remarked.

Tweak grumbled, "Looks like a rusted cooking sheet."

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and stepped closer to Roarke's seat in the cockpit. "Uhm, Roarke? Is there any reason you've brought us here to... look at a rusted cooking sheet?"

Roarke's nostrils flared. Without looking, she slapped a lever. With a shower of sparks, the console came to life, and each individual brass needle lifted up in a rattling pattern, creating a scale three-dimensional mockup of Aurum, the adjacent ravine, and the rigid topography of Sapphire Valley beyond.

Tweak whistled. "I wouldn't mind baking some bread on that..."

"It zooms out as well," Roarke said. She rotated a handle, and the needles shrunk as the mountains became smaller. The rough splotch of Foxtaur appeared to the northwest, across the ravine. "What's more, I can triangulate various signals. For example, those flea-ridden Killas you crystal farmers are so bent out of shape about?" She entered in a few figures on an aluminum keypad. Several needles clustered to the east of the Aurum settlement burned, their brown tips turning to hot orange as they moved ever so slightly, inching back and forth within a cluster. "There they are, a lot closer than you probably thought they were."

"Sonuvagun..." Tweak grumbled.

"You might wanna spread your glow a little bit more so you can drive them off before they think of anything in the next week or so." She entered in another figure. The "Killas" faded, and instead needles began glowing in orange pinstreaks that floated across the landscape at random. "Here, we have zeppelins, all bearing the Ledomaritan signature." She flipped a switch and one wayward pinstreak could be seen streaking towards the south. "Xonan signature..."

"You can pick up on Xonans?!" Crimson stammered, his jaw agape. "Th-there're Xonans south of Aurum?!"

"Three-legs, there are Xonans everywhere," Roarke droned, her lenses pistoning out as she gestured at the map. "The only reason they haven't dropped the hammer on you or your Ledomaritan neighbors is that they're too busy trying to reclaim their lands in east. Good luck with that, by the way."

Crimson grumbled, "It's hardly my war anymore..."

"At least you're not a sore loser."

"Huh? But I didn't say that—!"

"Anyways..." Roarke slapped the machine and forced it to zoom out at a dramatic rate. Aurum, Foxtaur, and Green Slope became tiny specks bordering the south end of a massive valley with mountains running east and west along the northern edge. "The reason why I brought you here is to show you this. When I did my flyby's of Foxtaur after..." She took a shuddering breath. "...I was severely beaten."

"You weren't beaten, girl," Rainbow Dash said. "You were owned!" She spat.

"After I was beaten, I performed a scan of forest. Since it was catching fire, I knew that I would lose track of everypony I ran into. I had no sure-fire way of tracking Rainbow Dash, but I knew one thing: she had a zebra with a rune-charged manasphere in her possession. Now, runic energy isn't easy to come by, especially with such a strong, isolated energy signature. So, I scanned for it, and then I programmed a frequency for it. Lo and behold..." Roarke fumbled with the keypad and struck a button. The map of raised pins remained the same.

"Nothing happened," Rainbow Dash droned.

"You think?" Roarke grumbled. "But, if I trace the system's memory..." She rolled a lever back. A hot streak of energy suddenly formed along the northern face of Foxtaur."

The other ponies murmured.

"So... it's like a log," Crimson said, thinking aloud. "You can see where Pilate has been?"

"Not the zebra," Roarke said, raising a hoof. "Just the manasphere. For all we know, the zebra could be dead meat by now."

"Don't say that," Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I can forgive most of the cow cookies that roll out of your mouth, but don't ever say that."

"The soul-seller has a point, Miss Dash," Tweak said with a bland expression. "It's been days since all the crap you went through. We know you care about your friends, but what are the odds that Queen Ledo and her 'infinite mercy' actually spared them?"

"Please, Tweak..." Crimson sighed. "We could use some hope to go on here..."

"I'm just trying to be realistic!"

"No way..." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Those bums wanted me. And they totally nabbed my friends and shipped them off to Celestia-knows-where all because of me! So long as I'm not around, they're gonna keep Belle and Pilate around! It's how they want to bait me and stuff!"

"Belle is the mare, right?" Roarke remarked. "The weakling with a coat the color of urine?"

Rainbow turned to glare at her. "Yes. Bellesmith. Pilate's beloved."

"If she was taken away, I very much doubt the zebra was taken with her."

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash blinked. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Namely this." Roarke rotated a lever. One burning pin rested to the north edge of Foxtaur. "This is where the manasphere was located at the precise moment I swooped past the Steel Wing to pick you up."

Rainbow's jaw dropped.

"It's..." Crimson stammered. "It's right there!" He turned towards Rainbow Dash. "Was Pilate there when you butted heads with the Prime Enforcer?"

"No friggin' way!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked. "They were taken away! Someplace up north!"

"You saw them fly off?" Tweak asked?"

"No! But Shell said—" Rainbow Dash froze. Slowly, her teeth grit together, nearly cracking. "Why, that cat huffing... snot slurping... plot pancake!"

"Whew!" Tweak smirked at Crimson. "I gotta use that last one on Lucky."

Crimson turned towards Roarke. "Move the log forward a bit in time. Can you do that?"

Silently, Roarke complied, rotating the lever until the hot pinstreak moved. It took a slow northerly course, winding east and west as it approached the edge of Foxtaur.

Rainbow Dash leaned in. "Uhm... m-maybe Pilate was on the Steel Wing? Could it have been carrying him away? That ship isn't exactly fast."

"Maybe if you cross-referenced with where the Ledomaritan zeppelins were at the time?" Crimson uttered.

Roarke entered a figure in the keypad. Several bright orange spots smoked to life, and none of them were anywhere near the original signature.

"Unless Pilate's manasphere can roll around on its own volition..." Crimson began.

Rainbow Dash said, "He somehow got away and trotted north." She gulped. "Or was carried north."

"Then what about Belle?" Crimson asked. "If Shell lied to you, then what could have happened to her? We're totally in the dark!"

"Maybe..." Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin. "If we can find Pilate, then maybe he will know. He had to have been with her on the Steel Wing at some point." She slapped a metal bulkhead. "Yeah! If we just find Pilate, then we can find my other friend as well!" She turned towards Roarke. "Move it even further in time!"

Roarke shrugged and rotated the lever.

The manasphere's signal blipped north, blipped north again, and went cold. The needles turned utterly cold and blank.

Rainbow Dash's eyebrow raised. She turned towards the metal mare. "I-I don't get it. What happened to him?"

"I wouldn't be able to say," Roarke droned. "What I can tell you is that his sphere's signal escaped the range of my vessel."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Rainbow Dash's hooves danced in place as she stared breathlessly at everypony. "Let's go after him, already!"

"Rainbow, that was days ago," Crimson said. "We can't just 'go after him.'" He turned towards Roarke. "If we flew with this tracking device on, we could perform an aerial sweep of the continent, couldn't we?"

"Most definitely," Roarke said with a nod. "Though, I'm not sure I have enough energy reserves to afford it. Covering Ledomare is no easy task."

"Perhaps if y'all just focused on an area up north," Tweak suggested. "That seems to be where you're convinced the enforcers would have taken her friends."

"But we wouldn't know that for certain!" Crimson exclaimed. "Rainbow Dash, I want to believe that this will be a simple task, but we need to know more!"

"But we do know more!" Rainbow Dash cackled. "They're somewhere north in the mountains!"

"You only think that because Shell told you that! But he was lying! Even if there really was a facility in the north, how would we know where to search for it?"

A voice rang coldly from the ship's entrance, "Because it's located in the heart of the Ivory Mountains, in a hidden excavation known by the Ledomaritan military as Pale Shelf."

Everypony turned to look, except for Roarke.

Imre stood in the doorway, her face long.

The ponies exchanged glances. At last, Rainbow Dash trotted forward. "How do you know that, Doc?"

"Because..." Imre fidgeted. She looked at Roarke, sighed, and looked back at the others. "Because before I was a prisoner of the Searonese, I was a prisoner of the Ledomaritans." She gulped. "There are ponies, held against their will. Pale Shelf is where you'll likely find your friends."

"Do you..." Crimson narrowed his eyes. "Do you know how we could get there?"

"Maybe..." Imre looked over at Rainbow as she ultimately muttered, "It would be a lot easier if... if I-I just took you there..."

Rock the Posse

"A ship like Roarke's could easily slip past its outer defenses," Imre said. In the last few minutes, she had crossed the length of the cockpit so that she was now standing by the seat, gesturing at the three-dimensional slice of map. Her hoof pointed at a crevice in the middle of tall mountain peaks. "Landing, however, would be a different matter. There's an outer entrance and a secondary entrance at the end of a long ravine, too small for any transports. Prisoners who are taken to Pale Shelf are dropped off and then escorted in hoofcuffs to the inner doors of the facility."

"And just what kind of a facility is this?" Crimson asked.

Imre fidgeted. "The kind where laborers of the Council of Ledo show no regard for equine life." She turned and glanced at Rainbow Dash. "There are many like it throughout the kingdom, including 'Blue Shelf' to the west, where your friends are apparently from."

Rainbow Dash was silent.

"How in spark's name did you ever end up in a place like that?" Crimson stammered, squinting. "Much less get out in one piece?"

"Look, I told you what I know because I'd like to help you! Not give you my damn autobiography!" Imre snapped.

"I meant no offense," Crimson said. "I simply was curious how—"

"Keep your curiosity to yourself," Imre muttered, turning to look lethargically at the map. "I'm taking a lot of risks by going back to that place."

"And just why are you going back?" Tweak asked.

"Because if your friends are indeed there—or at least one of them—then you're going to need me." She blinked and clarified in a colder tone, "You're going to need a surgeon."

Rainbow Dash bit her lip as the coat hairs on the back of her neck rose on end.

"Imre..." Roarke spoke in a metallic drone. "You've been yanked around enough as it is. There's no need for you to go back to—"

"You and I have never had much of a sympathetic relationship, Roarke. Don't start now. It doesn't suit you." Imre swiveled and trotted for the exit of the manaship. "Seems like it's been my place to prove myself lately. Well, it's never too late for the old college try."

"You sure of this?" Crimson asked.

"No." Imre hopped out of the vessel. "I'll go grab my instruments and things. I'll likely need them."

Rainbow Dash watched as she trotted away. In the meantime, Tweak shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, then, I suspect we're going to need lots of manarifles for if this is gonna turn into an actual mission on hoof."

"Yes, that would be essential to—" Crimson did a double-take. "Excuse me?!"

"What?" Tweak's reflective brow furrowed. "You mean you'd rather use pea-shooters?"

"Did you just imply that you were going with us?"

"Damn straight I am."

"Out of the question!" Crimson grumbled, accidentally vibrating the energy in his new prosthetic. He canceled the sonic frequency and learned forward to say, "Tweak, this is not something for you to risk your skin over!"

"First off, it's crystal, not skin."

"You can still bleed—!"

"And second, I owe you, fella." Tweak somehow glared and smirked at the same time. "I owe you big time. You brought me back my brother, my friends, and my peace of mind. Consider me enlisted."

"Dammit, Tweak! You have a family!"

"So do you."

"But... that's... nnngh..." Crimson shook his muzzle, grumbling. "That's not the point!"

"Isn't it, though?" Tweak raised an eyebrow. "When I'm old and falling to shards, I want my foals and my grandfoals to know that I repaid honor where it was due."

"But—"

"And I would be plum blessed to think of your grandchildren and mine sharing such trust and respect into the far off future."

Crimson opened his mouth, but lingered. The muscular stallion leaned back, exhaling in thought. "Our... grandchildren..."

"Think about it. Franzington and Aurum..." Tweak's lips curved. "Joined by an integrity that is unknown north, south, and east of us. Reckon it's been a long time since this continent has had it's fair share of heroes."

Slowly, Crimson nodded. "Yeah..." He turned and gazed at Rainbow Dash, and his smile widened. "Yeah, I suppose it has been a long time..."

"Right... uhm..." Rainbow Dash cracked a smile. "The more the merrier! Uhhh... bee arr bee." She jumped out of the manaship.

Roarke watched silently, her eye-lenses retracting as she pivoted towards her instruments.

Outside, Rainbow Dash galloped briskly, catching up with the unicorn mare. "Hey! Imre! Hold up, will ya?"

Imre grumbled and turned around. "For once, I thought I had chosen to do something you'd approve of. What have you come to gripe about now?"

"No griping! I think that what you're doing is really cool!" Rainbow Dash said. "I just wanna know one thing—"

"I'm only doing it for your friends, okay?" Imre sighed. "Maybe it was treating all these ponies here in Aurum. Maybe it was listening to you go on and on about friendship and journeys and crap. Maybe I'm just sick of having my ears stuffed with warm fuzzies. But I know that I can do this. I can help you. And maybe, just maybe, I can get ponies like you and Roarke off my back—"

"You lied back there, didn't you?" Rainbow Dash asked. "You were never a prisoner at Pale Shelf."

Imre glared. "Who died and made you the Queen of Honesty?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, lingered, and eventually uttered in a dry voice, "It takes one to know one."

Imre was silent.

"Well?"

Slowly, the unicorn bowed her buzzed head. With a sigh, she muttered, "You're right. I wasn't a prisoner." She bit her lip, then eventually said, "I worked there."

Rainbow Dash leaned forward. "You were employed by the Council of Ledo?"

Imre winced at the notion.

Rainbow's face twisted briefly. She cleared her throat and said, "Well... uhm... the Council is... the Council is pretty messed up. I wouldn't hold it past them from forcing a doctor like you to use her medical skills for stuff she never wanted to—"

"You don't get it, I chose to work there," Imre said, her frown returning to her face. "And I was never a doctor. I was a butcher."

"Pfft! Please. Don't be hard on yourself again—"

"I am not!" Imre shrieked, making Rainbow jolt. "Don't you get it?! There's a reason why I could take Searonese guts apart and not bat an eye!" She leaned back, panting slightly, but then rediscovered her usual composure. "I was knee-deep in the stuff. I was totally involved and... and..." Her voice trailed off, as did her eyes.

Rainbow stared at her, trying not to grimace. "But... you regret it all... don't you?" She exhaled, nodding slowly with understanding. "And that's what you're now living with."

"At first, I believed that I was doing what was best for my country, that I was helping with the Confederacy's research." Imre swallowed hard, her voice taking on a shaky quality. "I-I was raised in the military by my parents. I was proud, and I wanted to make them proud. So, I went to a military academy, excelling in science and biology. When I was transferred to the mountains up north, I didn't ask any questions. I was willing to go wherever the Council sent me, because the Queen's honor was all that mattered."

"What changed?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Imre squinted curiously at her.

Rainbow shrugged with an awkward smile. "You're standing here, aren't you?! You're not in a uniform! You're not wearing one of their goddess-awful berets! You're healing ponies you've never known before and you're helping me find my friends! Obviously you changed..."

"Something... s-something happened in my life..." Imre stifled a whimper. "I thought I had gotten used to all of the ugliness I was dealing with. What I didn't realize was that I was simply blind to it. It took something devastating to rip the wind out from my sails, to make me see how cold I was becoming. Just like..." She lingered.

Rainbow listened patiently.

Imre took a firm breath, frowning again. "It didn't matter. All that's important is that I left. I fled east. I didn't want to defect to the Xonans, but I knew that the only way... the only guaranteed way to get someplace where the Council couldn't reach me was to put their greatest enemy between me and them. As you can guess, I failed, and it wasn't until Roarke bailed me out that I was able to escape their capture. Y'know, it doesn't matter if you're made of flesh or metal, or if you've got fur or tattoos; somewhere deep down inside, you're ugly, and you gotta learn to face it."

"I can help you, y'know," Rainbow Dash said with a tranquil smile. "Just like you're helping my friends. I can help you get to that place... far far away from the Council and all of this craziness."

Imre gazed up at her, and for the first time since Rainbow Dash knew the mare, her face bore a pained expression. "Why? After what I've just told you... why would you do something like that for me?"

"'Cuz I also had to come to terms with my ugliness," Rainbow Dash said, tapping the ruby lightning bolt around her neck. "But the last step isn't learning to face it." She leaned forward and rested a daring hoof on the mare's shoulder. "But learning to live with it. And that's not nearly as easy to do by yourself as you might think."

Imre exhaled heavily, as if a deep weight was released from her insides.

"You wanna give it a try? Hmm?"

Imre gulped. "Y-yes," she said, sniffling.

"Hey... no more sap, now...huh?" Rainbow Dash patted her shoulder and led her towards the barn. "Lemme help you get your healing stuff. This isn't a time to mope, girlfriend. Roarke's on our side. We can track Pilate. We even have Tweak the army guy is in on this crap." She giggled and her voice cracked, "This is gonna rock!"

A Good Stallion

Eagle Eye was really neither asleep nor awake. He stared perpetually into a dank corner of his cell as the body of the Steel Wing tilted and swayed around him. He flared his nostrils against the dark recesses, fighting back another hour of relentless tears.

At last, a thumping sound echoed from across the brig. He gave a lethargic glance, his dull face framed by a frazzled mane. He squinted as a flicker of light spread across his cell and then spread even wider as it was accompanied by the rattling sound of the brig's gate opening.

As Eagle's vision came into focus, he saw two crew members standing, their horned heads silhouetted against the light of the day wafting in from the deck above.

"On your hooves, mercenary," one stallion grunted. "You're needed for official business."

"Nnngh..." Eagle Eye stirred, his limbs weak and raw from lying against the hardwood floor. "Official... b-business...?" he nervously stammered.

"We said get up!" One stallion yanked him out of the cell with a burst of telekinesis. Eagle Eye stifled a whimper, almost tripping on the chains around his limbs. He tried walking, only to stumble in a third stallion's thick chest. The pony steadied him with strong arms. Eagle Eye looked up, blinked, then blinked once more... this time with a gasp. "J-Josho...?"

"Hmmph..." Josho grunted, his brow furrowed. "That's Prime Enforcer Josho to you, traitor." Fiercely, the obese stallion spun Eagle Around and shoved him towards the stairs leading onto the main deck. "Trot evenly, and do not talk. Rights are not granted to deserters."

Eagle Eye winced, his face stretching with pain and confusion. Limply, he trotted up the stairs, being urged on every few seconds by Josho's brutish shoves. Two other stallions accompanied the procession as they emerged upon the top deck, beset with wind and the chill of high altitude.

Among the many crew ponies milling about, one officer stood at the edge of the deck, near a loading platform where a large managlider rested, equipped with a mounted turret. He scribbled a few things onto a clipboard and swiveled about to face the group approaching him across the Steel Wing.

"Can I help you, Enforcer?"

"Yes," Josho said with a nod, firmly holding Eagle in place. "I've been ordered by Prime Enforcer Shell to take this prisoner west to the military base located at the north of Green Slope."

"Hmmm... is that so...?" The crew pony glanced over his files. "I didn't receive a vehicle requisition form."

Josho sighed. "Look, it's not my fault if Captain Filta is behind on his duties. He's your superior, soldier. If you like, go and run the requisition by him personally."

"I am not to leave my post, sir."

"And I am not supposed to cave your friggin' head in with a cannonball!" Josho snarled. "This ship's been blown to crap and pieced back together by the corn kernels! We're flying by the varnish of our saddles, trying to track down a menace to the Confederacy, and you've got the gall to preach to me about protocol?!"

"Uh... I-I'm sorry, sir. I'm only doing my duty—"

"And I'm not?!" Josho pointed at the far end of the Steel Wing where Captain Filta stood, talking to a pair of subordinates. "Go and talk to the Captain and get the friggin' form so I can take this fruity yahoo where Prime Enforcer Scarface wants me to! Or would you like to be the one to explain to Shell personally why you had to piss him off?!"

"Right. No. I mean yes. I mean..." The officer fumbled, dropped his clipboat, picked it up again, and shuffled off swiftly. "Sir, yes, sir! Right away, sir!"

Eagle Eye gawked at the sight of the stallion as he floundered away. He yelped as he felt a heavy shove from behind.

"We ain't got time to waste," Josho grumbled, all but tossing Eagle Eye's frail body into the rear seat of the manacraft, within the gun turret. "Might as well get situated so we can get our job done faster for Shell once that penpusher comes back."

"Uhm... sir?" One of the two guards besides Josho reached forward. "What are you doing?"

"At ease, gentlecolts," Josho grumbled, stumbling onto the piloting seat of the vehicle and straddling it. "And I do emphasize the 'gentle' part."

"Enforcer Josho?" The other reached telekinetically for his manarifle. "We can't let you do that."

"Do what?"

"Whatever... it is that you're doing."

"What are you doing?"

"Uhm... J-Josho?" Eagle Eye meekly stammered. He winced as he saw Filta angrily marching across the deck alongside the frazzled clerk.

"Enforcer Josho!" Filta's frown could cut diamonds. A veritable legion of crew ponies clustered around him, forming a phalanx that faced the obese stallion in question. "What in the Queen's name do you think you're doing?!"

"Yeah, uhm, sit on it." Josho slapped the controls forward.

"Aaack!" Eagle shrieked as the mana vehicle suddenly plunged off the edge of the Steel Wing. He clung to the frame of his seat for dear life. "Sp-Spark alive...!"

"Whoops!" Josho wheezed, struggling with the controls. "Damn thing doesn't accelerate as much as I thought it would!" At last, he gained momentum, and the craft veered itself upright. "Ah, there we go. Easy as bean pie—Whoa damn!" He gasped as manashots from rifles streamed past them.

Up above, along the edge of the Steel Wing's deck, a line of ponies with rifles were taking aim, firing at the command of Filta's bombastic shouts.

Eagle Eye panted, ducking as blue streams surged past them. Eventually, Josho sped the managlider west, and the two-seated aircraft easily outflew the range of the rifle blasts. Sitting up straight, Eagle Eye ran a pair of cuffed hooves through his wind-swept mane, trying to calm himself.

"Heh..." Josho smirked as he gripped tight to the controls. "That was a bit easier than expected. Now just to deal with the whole fugitive-from-Queen-and-country-for-the-rest-of-my-life part."

"Are you crazy?!" Eagle Eye sputtered. He flung a glance behind as the Steel Wing swiveled broadly about until its port side faced the fleeing pair. "They'll still blow us out of the sky! They've got cannons!"

"You think I don't know that?" Josho grumbled.

Eagle Eye blinked. With a gaping expression, he squinted back at the Steel Wing.

There was synchronized flash from all of the massive zeppelin's cannons. Eagle Eye's heart skipped a beat. However, before the thunderous salvo could even reach them, a series of explosions rocked across the battleship's hull as each and every one of the cannons backfired. The large craft decelerated and hovered in place to assess the damage.

Josho grinned. "You think Captain Filta knows that?"

Eagle Eye started breathing easier. He gestured once more to smooth his windswept bangs, but all he could do was fumble with his bindings.

"Here..." The glider slowed as Josho put the thing on autopilot, then twisted about to bring a pair of keys to the hoofcuffs. "Lemme take care of that, kiddo."

The lavender unicorn relaxed as his hooves stretched free. Nevertheless, a slight shiver persisted as he leaned forward and spoke above the whipping winds. "Why... j-just why are you doing this?! Don't you know what this means to your career? To your well-being?"

"Hmmph... Like you're one to talk, ya friggin' model," Josho belched. "Face it." He gripped the controls and angled them sharper west, cutting through clouds and pockets of wind. "I'm too old to get any higher in rank and way too fat to woo the ladies over trivial bullcrap. If I'm gonna live out a miserable life, I might as well do it someplace where the ponies I'm working for aren't threatening to heave me off cliffsides. There's an awful lot of that going around these days. It doesn't make for a good retirement plan."

"Then that's what this is all about?" Eagle Eye exclaimed. "Giving up?"

"Look, they sure as Hell ain't giving me no second chance," Josho said in a deep tone. "I'm getting off this parade while I still can afford to. Might as well bring you along. After all..." Josho's nostrils flared as he stared straight ahead. "You're the only pony in history who's ever given me a second chance."

Eagle Eye stared at him. He took a deep breath. "Josho, I... I-I don't know what to say..."

"If you're gonna gush, save it for when I drop you off."

"Dr-drop me off?"

"First stop, Franzington. Second stop?" The stallion shrugged. "I dunno. Whiskeyton. It's a large world; there's gotta be a province named that somewhere."

"You're... you're going to take me back to my home country?" Eagle Eye's expression froze in a grimace. At last, after a few quivering shakes, he barked, "No! North! Take us north!"

"Buh?" Josho nearly slipped his grip of the controls.

"You heard what Filta said earlier!" Eagle Eye practically leaned out of his gunner's seat entirely. "Pilate's somewhere in Blue Nova and Shell's just inches away from nabbing him! What's more, Belle's somewhere up north, needing to be rescued! We can't just leave Rainbow Dash's friends in peril like that!"

"Kid, I could leave you like a urine stain against the clouds if I wanted."

"You said I gave you a second chance?! What about their chance, huh?! They're good ponies stuck in the middle of a country that wants to see them dead and for all we know we're the only ones with the actual power to save them!" At the end of his outburst, Eagle Eye hissed and shoved on Josho's flank. "Now bring us north!" his voice cracked with urgency.

"Whoah—Jeez!" Josho struggled to keep the veering aircraft upright. He turned and glared back at Eagle Eye. "Don't you know better than to look a gift drunkard in the mouth?!"

"Ponies need us, Josho." Eagle frowned. "There's no going home for me. Not anymore. Not until I make one for myself and for these ponies too."

Josho's frown slowly melted with a lethargic sigh. "You ain't gonna clam up about this, are ya, ya fruit basket?"

Eagle Eye slowly shook his head. "Either take us north to Blue Nova or drop me off down below so I'll make the journey myself on hoof."

Josho clenched his jaw. Rolling his bleary eyes, he sighed and gently angled the craft to the right, heading towards misty mountains rolling in the distance. "Somehow, I'm gonna regret this..."

"Are you, Josho?" Eagle Eye relaxed in the backseat. "Are you really?"

"Hmmph... I suppose you are the expert on desertion. Maybe you can teach me a trick or two along the way to our inevitable deaths."

"No..." Eagle Eye smiled. "But I bet I've taught you something about friendship."

"Yeah, no more of that," Josho grumbled. "I'm pretty sure I smuggled out a stallion, not a turd of pretentious morality."

"Hmmmmm..." Eagle Eye leaned against the gunner's dashboard, smiling rosily. "You're a good stallion, Josho, even if it is hidden beneath all that fat and fuzz."

"I think it was a bad friggin' idea putting you in the seat directly behind me."

And Eagle Eye giggled into the winds.

You Shove Off

From a distance, Tweak could be seen nuzzling his wife. He squatted down low before his farmhouse to have a word or two with Roque and Nexx, who were both doing their best not to look teary-eyed. Lucky Strike stood nearby, smiling, and when it was his turn to share some words with his brother, he bore a constant expression of pride.

"I've only known him for a few days," Crimson muttered. He and Rainbow Dash stood besides the hull of Roarke's manaship, glistening in the Aurum sunset. "And yet, I feel so indebted and responsible at the same time." The stallion gulped. "If this adventure somehow kills him, I think I'll feel as bad if not worse than when I lost Eagle Eye and Phoenix."

Rainbow Dash's eyes darted towards him. "You still give a crap about Phoenix?"

"I'm not proud of what he and Zenith did," Crimson muttered. His gaze fell to the farmland before them. "But... I'm also not proud of how things came about for them to feel like they had to do what they did." He sighed. "I should have been less stubborn... more receptive to their concerns. I had a responsibility to get them home, and look what became of it..."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Sometimes, dude, you just can't make up for how stubborn ponies can be." She glanced at the manaship behind them. "Whether they're going out of their way to help ya or harm ya."

"I seem to have a lot of stubborn ponies in my life," Crimson said.

"Yeah, well, the longer you live and the more places you go, the more you'll find ponies who wanna be your friend and do awesome things for you."

Crimson squinted quizzically at her. "And what about the droves of strangers who want to kill you?"

"Yeah, well, hate is like an inside-out version of love."

"Oh really..."

"Totally! So, like, the more ponies hate you, the more it means you must be doing something right... er... s-somewhere!"

"Heheh..." Crimson patted Rainbow with a metal limb, unwittingly knocking her off balance. "You're an honest, brave soul, Rainbow. You could use a bit of help in the logic department, but I love you all the same."

Rainbow winced, rubbing her armored shoulder. "I'm not gonna argue with a pony with that much muscle."

"You should see my family back in Franzington," Crimson said with a smile. "Between myself and my siblings and my cousins, we could all lift a battlecruiser on our backs."

"If I needed to take the Steel Wing as a souvenir to the edge of the world, then I just might call you guys up."

At last, Tweak trotted up. "Well..." He said breathily. "That was nifty."

"You've said all you've needed to say, friend?" Crimson asked.

"Yup. Let's get the hell out of here," Tweak muttered. He trotted up into the manaship where Imre and Roarke could be seen packing in the last of their equipment. "Quick, before I change my mind about certain chaos and near suicide."

"You said you were doing it because of honor," Crimson said, climbing after him.

"Yes, well, honor needs to get out more... see some sunlight. Come on, let's friggin' go already."

Roarke's nostrils flared as she pivoted her lensed eyes towards Rainbow Dash. "Is he going to be like this the entire trip?"

"You're asking the wrong pony." She stepped into the manaship and stood in place as the door closed slowly behind her. "Just get him to do push-ups the whole way and I'm sure his tongue will go limp."

"Among other things," Imre grunted.

"The heck does that mean?!" Tweak grumbled.

Crimson's laughter was the last thing to be heard, and then the vessel sealed up tight. Several crystal ponies waved from below as the glistening airship lifted up into the sky, pivoted north, and rocketed into the clouds. The noise from its burning thrusters echoed across the nearby canyon. On the other side, a dozen figures squatted, their shadowed limbs clad in thick strips of armor.

"They're leaving... they're actually leaving..."

"What a motley crew of creeps. What do they actually hope to accomplish?"

"If they're heading north, then that'll take them deeper into the womb of Ledo."

"It must be a ruse... something to throw us off..."

"Well, High Blade? What do you make of it?"

One pony in particular stood on an outcropping, her thick limbs blotting out the immediate sunlight. With a deep, grumbling breath, Terra turned and frowned at the metal mares below her. "It matters little where the runt is taking her new friends. They're out of range of the Searo-forsaken farm. We can finally take them down."

"I don't get it, Terra," another mare said, her face scrunched up in thought. "Why don't we just level this land full of weaklings to the ground in retribution for Searo's Hold?!"

"Because we can't!" Terra snarled, marching through the tight group. "You've seen what the crystal ponies can do en masse. They'll reduce us to shambling idiots and pick us off, one by one. It would be utter stupidity to attack any place within Aurum."

"Oh yeah?" The mare leaned forward, growling. "Or perhaps you are too cowardly to strike!"

Before any of the fellow warriors could gasp, Terra spun about, erected a pulse cannon from her shoulder, and shot it into the belligerent pony's face.

With a sickening pop, the mare's body evaporated, leading a smoking husk of armor that fell down, dribbling loose meat like a steamed crab shell.

The other mares stumbled back, wincing.

Terra spat, "Or perhaps you are too dead to piss me off again!" She looked up at the remaining warriors. "If you wish to be a coward, to be an idiot, to be a runt..." She pointed at the smoking armor. "Then join her... or else join any of the weak-minded secessionists who are carving Searo's Hold up like moldy cheese!" She stamped her hooves down. "But you mares have decided to join me! And I will restore our honor! And the first step..." She pointed towards the northern horizon. "...is to hunt down that traitor, Roarke, and drag her back to our halls by her entrails. Only then will we restore the glory that's been stripped from our Goddess' legacy. Do you understand me?!"

The mares all grunted in obedience.

"Very well then..." Terra spun about and marched towards one of three manaships hidden in the forest. "We take to the air. And then, when Roarke least expects it... we take her head." Her helmet closed around her meaty face. "And then the hearts of her puny companions..."

Filling an Elevator

"Uhhhhhh... whoopsy..." Props' voice echoed across the elevator car.

"Whoopsy?!" Ebon Mane's voice returned, positioned right next to Pilate inside the cramped enclosure. The air was stifling hot, and thudding vibrations could be felt reverberating up and down the shaft. "What do you mean, Propsy?! What's going on?"

"Oh, no biggie!" She chirped back through the sound stone installed above the instrument panel of the car. "I just gotta turn the thing with the thing and... uhhhh... whoooooopssssy..."

"That isn't very reassuring," Pilate muttered. Simon chirped across his shoulder in agreement.

"Props!" Ebon growled, his hoof pressing harder to the panel below the enchanted crystal. "We've been sitting in this stupid car for nearly three hours. Now, we dropped you and Jasper off at the core so you could open us a way to the security brig. What the hay is going on?"

"Well, it's just that this place is so much bigger than a steam engine and they have all their conduits going flank over uvula and... oh! Hey! I think I found the manastream generator—oh wait no. No, that's not it...""

Ebon's voice growled. "Props..."

"Whoooooooooopsyyyy..."

"Nnngh! Enough with this whoopsy crap! There's no telling if Floydien is still alive or not! Just tell us what we gotta do or this whole thing's a bust!"

"Ahem... Ebon, good fellow..." Clark's voice spoke up over the sound stone. "I believe what Props is eloquently trying to tell us is that she's bitten onto more than she can chew."

"Yeah, Jasper. We got that the first time."

"It has nothing to do with the munchies!" Props' voice cracked. "It's just that I can't tell what floor the sub-leyline-relay is! If I could overload that, then all of the tertiary bypasses would kick the bucket and I would have full control of the tower from here! Including all of Overseer Fatch's flank-fuggly gizmos!"

"Well, you obviously are bumping into a proverbial brick wall, so if you could kindly hoist us back down to the bottom floor so we could regrup in the central core and come up with a better plan—"

Pilate reached up and gently shoved Ebon away from the sound stone. "Ahem, Miss Props?"

"That's my name! Don't wear it out!

"If you could kindly describe to me—"

"Cuz I'd look horrible in vertical stripes!"

"Um... please describe to me—"

"Heeheehee—!"

"The relay!" Pilate grunted, nearly shaking Simon off his backside. "The sub... leyline relay... Could you describe it?"

"Well, it's reinforced with syntho-alicornia microfilaments spun around four auxiliary nodes framed equadistantly from a rotating piston core—"

"The shape, Miss Props. Could you describe the dimensions of this device?"

"OH! Uhm... sort of like a big fat doughnut surrounded by four smaller doughnuts, and all of them covered in bright, electrical sprinkles."

Jasper's voice lifted in the background. "Riveting. You should go into teaching geometry courses, my dear."

"Mmmmm... I love sprinkles..."

Ebon emitted a breathy sigh. "This was a bad idea. I probably should have stayed with Props. I always seem to help her concentrate better." Silence. His body pivoted towards Pilate. "Mr. Pilate...?"

The zebra was too busy concentrated. Using Simon's energy funneled through the O.A.S.I.S. sphere, he felt beyond the elevator doors, the hallway beyond, and the foundation of the building through and through. At last, his heart skipped a beat as he said, "Four stories below us, Miss Props! About forty meters from the building's north face!"

After a momentary pause, the soundstone crackled, "Ohhhhh! Right by the employee break room! Wowsers bowsers, the Nightshade ponies are some sneaky Mcsneaksneaks!"

"Yes, indeed. Can you access our floor now?"

"Yup yup yup! Just gotta make the relay short circuit!" A frightening hiss of pent-up energy shorted out around the elevator car. "Aaaaand done! Hehehe! That wasn't so bad—Oh... uhm... whoopsy..."

Ebon groaned. "What now?"

"You guys might kinda sorta wanna hop out of that elevator car around about now..."

"Huh?" Just then, the sound of groaning metal cables drowned out Ebon's voice.

"Jump you fools!" Clark's voice crackled, growing louder as he must have shoved the downstairs soundstone closer to his muzzle. "Jump out of there as if your bridles are on fire!"

"Crudmuffins!" Ebon shouted.

Simon let loose a high-pitched bark. Metal bent loudly, indicating the doors were ripped off their hinges. A gust of cool air filtered in from the hallway beyond as the car began to jolt and drop.

"Nnngh!" Pilate was already thrusting forward. He rolled out of the elevator, spun around, and reached his hooves back just in time to hoist Ebon along with him. The screaming sound of a falling elevator echoed up from the shaft below. Both stallions fell on the floor, panting, while Simon scampered on ahead of them.

"Correct me if I-I'm mistaken..." Pilate stammered before gulping. "But you're actually going to let that mare fly the vessel in the hangar?"

"At this point, I'm not sure I'll let her fly a fart..." Ebon stood, helped Pilate up, and galloped with him down the hallway. "Quick! Before Fatch's goons find us! Or worse!"

Pitch Black Poni

"Simon!" Pilate hissed as he galloped around the hallway corner as smoothely as he could. The sound of his own hooves clopping against the tile floor echoed in his ears as he waited between pulses of O.A.S.I.S. to judge the direction of the group's sprint. "Simon, please, don't go that far ahead!"

"I don't get it..." Ebon Mane panted as he fumbled to keep up with the blind stallion. "Where in the fuzz... does the lil' guy think he's going?"

"I feel the frequency in his sensory nodes increasing," Pilate attempted to explain in mid-gallop. "It's almost like a magnetic pulse attracting the energy coursing inside him."

"Attracting him?" Ebon wheezed. "Towards what?"

"I would venture to guess Floydien."

"Well... that's perfect..." Ebon heaved and panted.

"You doing alright back there?" Pilate asked as they rounded another corner.

"Oh, me? Sure... but..." Ebon gulped and muttered, "How come you're n-not out of br-breath?"

"I've been running a lot over the past few weeks."

"Well, that explains it..."

"Simon!" Pilate hissed again, his legs struggling to keep up. "Perhaps Floydien is in trouble. Maybe that's why he's in such a hurry."

"Well... it's nice to know... the fella's so concerned for the guy..."

The two rounded another corner, and three bodies stood directly in front of them.

"Freeze!" shouted an angry stallion's voice.

Pilate skidded to a stop, wincing. O.A.S.I.S. flickered wildly, casting an echo of Ebon slumping down beside the zebra.

"Uhm..." Ebon stammered, "Think the squirrel with mad telekinesis will be concerned for us?"

"Not another step!" The stallion in the center reached for an enchanted object on his shoulder. "This is Squad Three. We found two galloping stallions on the fifteenth floor..."

Pilate's metal brow furrowed. He sensed electrified weapons hanging off the stallions' sides, as well as flat articles atop their skulls.

"Enforcers," he whispered.

Ebon's body fidgeted beside him. "How could you tell?"

"Do any of Nightshade's ponies wear berets?"

"Sadly, no..."

"Silence, the both of you! This property now falls under the jurisdiction of the Council of Ledo! Please explain your presence here immediately—" A crackling noise lit the air. All three stallions froze in place, squirming.

"Uhhh..." Pilate quivered. "What just happened?"

"The lights went out!" Ebon hissed.

"Props..." Pilate murmured.

"Quick!" Ebon charged forward. "Get 'em!"

"Mr. Mane!" Pilate's voice squeaked. As he jolted, he felt the streaking echo of Ebon's body hurling itself violently into the two stallions to the right. Their bodies became an incoherent blob of tangled limbs. The stallion to the left pivoted, unleashing his taser.

Gritting his teeth, Pilate charged bravely forward. He rammed his shoulder hard into the stallion.

With a grunt, the pony pivoted and easily shoved the zebra back with unicorn magic.

Pilate reeled backwards, almost collapsing of his rear legs. Suddenly, the stallion was grabbing him, trying to wrestle the zebra down with his forelimbs. The two struggled for a few seconds, until the enforcer resorted to telekinetically lifting his taser, preparing to stab it against Pilate's face. On impulse, Pilate spontaneously flung his skull forward, headbutting the stallion with his runic plate. The metal brow collided hard with the stallion's horn, sending a wave of pain down the unicorn's nervous system.

With a grunt, Pilate bucked the writhing pony off him. He spun, panting. "Ebon! Don't worry! I'll... help you...?" He froze in place, his brow furrowed.

Two bodies were lying on the floor. One stood above them, dusting his hooves off. He had no horn. "What?" Ebon said breathily, nodding his head. "Looks like we did good."

"How...?" Pilate pointed as his thoughts dripped off the edge of his tongue. "What business does a cook have in possessing such good combat knowledge?"

"Trust me," Ebon grunted as he kicked one enforcer in the gut and trotted over his wheezing figure. "Years of working in the restaurant business, and you'd be ready to buck punks too."

A shrill barking sound rang down the hallway. Both ponies turned, their ears pricked to the squirrel's voice.

"I do believe he has found a way to our destination," Pilate said.

"Good. Uhm..." Ebon shifted nervously. "You mind leading a blind pony around?"

Pilate smiled and drifted closer to the stallion. "Stay by my side, friend. I'll guide us through the darkness."

"Much appreciated..."

"I'll leave the flank-kicking and cooking to you."

"Both will do..."

They trotted around the corner, joining Simon as the squirrel led them towards the far end of a narrow corridor.

No No No

Ebon Mane's labored breaths came to a wheezing stop just as the two stallions' hooves did. Pilate stood before a panel in the wall, against the foundation of which Simon stood, clawing against the metal surface with his pointed paws. The rodent let out several sharp chirps and tilted its head up at the zebra.

"I think this may be it," Pilate murmured.

"Where th-they're keeping Floydien?" Ebon asked. He gulped and stammered, "I'd try opening the door if I could see something."

"Well, why don't you try the hooflatch to the right, ya dolt colt?!"

"Gaaaa!" Ebon jumped back, nearly plowing over Pilate. "Fuuuuuu—oh, for the love of oats, it's you, Props."

Energy emanated from a sound stone embedded just to the side of the doorframe. "Heehee! Hiya! Call me Bernice the Building! I wanna be your friend!"

"Props, save it. We're right in front of the brig and we gotta get through. Can you—I dunno—open the door locks or something?"

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaybe..."

Ebon's voice took on the hint of a gowling turn. "Propsyyyy..."

"You gotta clasp the hooflatch so I can get access to the door! Don't ask why, it's sort of a mana translocation alley-oop thingy."

"Yes, well, I'm blind as a bat," Ebon muttered. His head pivoted aside. "Pilate?"

"Right here, Mr. Mane," Pilate said, on the other side of the stallion and making him jump. He reached forward to where he sensed the lever within the metal frame. "I do believe I have this."

"Props, can we expect any ponies on the other side?"

"Jee, I hope not. That would really stink. Ready?"

Pilate sighed and put on an awkward smile. "As ever..."

"Whatever's on the other side, I'll handle it," Ebon said. "You just stay here by the door."

"Whatever you say, Sir Cook." Pilate pulled at the hooflatch. "Alright! We got it on our end!"

"Now's as good a time as ever, Propsy!" Ebon exclaimed.

"Yupper-doodle-loo!" As the sound stone echoed those syllables, a mechanical whirring could be heard through the frame. After ten seconds, the door panel opened to even thicker darkness.

Ebon leaned back and forth, stirring nervously. Even Simon was still as stone. After about twenty seconds, Ebon turned towards Pilate. "You sense anything?"

"Uhm..." Pilate began.

"Who goes there?!" A voice shouted in mix anger and fright from several feet in front of them. "Identify yourselves!"

"We're... uh... we're from... uhm... Team Yellow! Yeah!" Ebon Mane strolled forward. "What's up, guys? Fatch sent us to check up on—"

The air sang with mana fire. Pilate winced and Ebon dove straight back out the frame in a sweating heap.

"They've got guns!" he hissed. "Lots and lots of guns! Simon!"

With a psychotic squeal, the rodent bounded in. Pilate sensed the streaking flurry of his tail, then nothing. Soon after, the sound of unloading rifles was replaced by the grunts and groans of guards. An armored body flew out of the doorframe, landing in a tangled heap against the far end of the hallway.

Ebon shouted, "The lil' guy needs our help!"

Pilate grimaced. "Really?"

"For freedom and salad mixes!" Ebon then charged into the room, carrying a fitful battlecry.

"Mr. Mane! Just—nnngh!" Pilate rushed in after him. The room opened up, and O.A.S.I.S. nearly shorted out from all of the information. Benches were spinning. Mana crystal lockboxes were shattering. Bodies were flying back and forth. Pilate felt an instant migraine, and instead of joining the fight he threw himself against a series of metal bars, leaning on it for support. As he tried to gather his wits, a series of cloven hooves reached out, slithered past the bars, and began ringing his neck. "Grkkkk!"

"Not so easy to glimmer in the dark, is it, boomer most stabby?! Floydien thinks boomer thirsts for bubbling cauldron of pain ocean!"

"Nnnnght... M-Mister... Fl-Floydien..." Pilate hissed for air as he felt sharp bands of pain ricocheting through O.A.S.I.S. "It's... it's..."

A gasp came from beyond the bars. "Striped boomer! But of course!"

The cloven hooves let go of Pilate immediately. The zebra fell, slumped against the bars. As the noise of the fight dwindled behind him, he stood up slowly, rubbing his aching throat. "How... did you know it was me?"

"Only the boomer with stripes would try to say 'Mister' while Floydien chokes him, yes yessss?"

"Oh... uhm... indubitably..." Pilate turned around, doing his best to scan across the darkness. "Simon? Ebon?"

"Floydien knows Simon, by his name as much by his glimmer." The voice came closer to the bars. "What boomer is this that answers to Ebon?"

"A friend. One of many. I found them in this building, but I didn't find Nancy Jane—Ebon?!" Pilate called out.

"Striped boomer is blind! Of course Nancy Jane isn't here! Would be a stupid decision, yes yes yes?"

"What do you mean? Just wait a minute..." Pilate shuffled across the room. "Ebon?" He sensed nothing but fallen, unconscious bodies. He scanned each of them, one at a time. "Ebon, are... are you okay?"

"Y-yes, Mr. Pilate. I'm... whew... I-I'm fine..."

Pilate gasped. He spun around, finally sensing the cook. The pony's body threaded through the darkness like a blooming flower. He had a hoof rested over his crown as his body came more clearly into focus.

"Still, though, that was one heck of a fight..."

"You're in one piece!" Pilate exclaimed, rushing over to him.

"Yes... regretfully... ugh..."

"You... you disappeared for a second there..."

"Hearing that from a bl-blind zebra makes me wanna laugh and wince all at once..."

"Are you sure that you're not hurt?"

"No, but nothing's broken. I assure you. Now where's Floydien—Whoah!" Ebon's body flailed as bushy-tailed thing scurried past his limbs.

Pilate sensed Simon scurrying through the bar and perching atop a tall figure's head. It leaned in and nuzzled the creature.

"Ah. Simon. The dust of stabby-stabby you're not. How quaint."

"Whoah... uh... hi there," Ebon suddenly stammered, facing the cell. "Floydien, I presume?"

Pilate turned towards the stallion. "You can see him?"

"Hard not to. He's kind of glowy... and pointy..."

"Floydien..." Pilate turned towards the cell. "We came to get you out. But tell me—what's this you know about Nancy Jane?"

"Glimmer thieving boomers said it all. Floydien spent all night interrogating them. Floydien knows where Nancy Jane is."

"Wait... you interrogated them?" Ebon leaned forward. "But... uh... you're the one who's behind bars."

"All better for the stabby stabby. They could have gotten hurt."

"...." Ebon turned towards Pilate. "Well, I'm sure he makes sense... to somepony."

"Floydien, where is Nancy Jane?"

"East of here, Nancy Jane lies, in giant contraption cavern most smoky where stabby stabby hide the air ships from Floydien and whose who are not Floydien, yes?"

"Huh?" Ebon slurred.

"The hangar..." Pilate murmured. "I-I think he's talking about the hangar!" He turned towards Ebon. "With all the zeppelins?"

"Hah!" Ebon's muzzle contorted, suggesting he was smiling. "Well, that's convenient!"

Simon barked, startled, as Floydien rattled against the bars. "It is most definitely not convenient for Floydien or Floydien's Nancy Jane! Severely criticize your!"

"Okay! Okay!" Ebon backed up, waving a horn. "Just stay calm, branches. We're gonna help out Nancy Jane too!"

Silence reigned, until Floydien finally muttered, "Nancy Jane is to be given back to Floydien, yes yes yes?"

"Most assuredly," Pilate said with a smile. "And then, once all seven of us are together—"

"Seven?" Ebon asked.

"Simon."

"Oh, right."

"Ahem... once the seven of us are together, we shall find a way out of here, and then we can go after my beloved."

Floydien teetered left and right, then ultimately bounced, "Splendid! A bevy of boomers who mustn't eat Floydien's glimmer! Yes yes? Best to be stepping away from the metal metal."

"Huh? Why?"

The air filled with a high pitched whine. "So that boomers don't eat Simon's glimmer either. Simon?"

Pilate gasped and shoved himself and Ebon to the ground. "Get down!"

With a loud blow, the doors to the cell blew off, filling the room with dust and chunks of metallic debris. The bars rang as they collapsed, and Floydied trotted majestically through.

"Hurry, boomers! There is no getting off the train that the boomers are on or else they would not be on the train, now would the boomers?"

Progressing Like Molasses

"Bah! The floor is a carpet of horse horse! The darkness is no friendly domain to Floydien's friendship!"

"Just step carefully and... uhm..." Ebon's voice muttered nervously. "...aim your antlers in front of you. That way you won't trip."

"Spit all over this! Spit says Floydien!"

"Er... yeah..." Ebon's body trotted over to join Pilate within the doorframe to the outer hallway. "So, is the coast clear?"

"Clear, yes, but the storm's hardly over." Pilate aimed O.A.S.I.S. down either side of the corridor. "There's no way we can make this much noise and chaos and incur some kind of reaction, no matter how dark it may be."

"Right, and between the enforcers and Nightshade's cronies..."

"We'd better get moving."

"Yes," Ebon said. "But where?"

"Well, the elevator shaft totally got the shaft!" Props' voice sang.

"Gaaaah! Nnnngh—Darn it!" Ebon turned and frowned towards the soundstone outside the room. "Every flippin' time!"

"Wait, what's this about the elevator, Miss Props?"

"Well, when the elevator went whoopsy it took a big dumpsy."

"Eh?"

Clark's voice rose in clarity. "Excuse me, gentlecolts. In her usual eloquence, Props is trying to tell you that the collapse of the elevator car blocked the planned route of your escape."

"Well, that's not good!" Ebon exclaimed as Simon and Floydien emerged into the hallway beside them. "There's no other way down into the basement 'cuz the ponies here at Nightshade Industries want the tunnel to the hangar kept secret!"

"What if we tried climbing down the shaft?" Pilate asked.

"Mr. Pilate, that's a charming idea," Clark's voice said. "But we are talking about over fifteen floors of climbing through questionable wreckage with very little time on our hooves."

"Yeah!" Props rang forth. "The ponies up there want you deader than possums! Y'know... like the dead kind?"

"Well, we can't very well just sit here to think," Pilate muttered.

"Pilate, think about it, can we really fit Floydien's antlers through the elevator shaft, much less two stallions and a squirrel? All at once?"

"Too many voices and too few boomers!" Floydien grunted. "What complication spits in pony heads? Trouble with reaching Nancy Jane?"

"No, Mr. Floydien, do not worry," Pilate insisted, waving his hooves towards the large figure. "We simply need to... come up with an alternative route!"

"And fast!" Ebon breathily insisted.

"The path to shines is dark. Brighten it with glimmer, Floydien thinks, yes yes?"

"Huh?" Ebon stammered.

"Who's that speaking? Sounds sexy!

Ebon turned to the sound stone. "Props, hang on." He turned back to the rescued prisoner. "Floydien, I don't know what you have in mind, but we gotta do this quietly."

"Is too late for whispering boomers in the neck of stabby stabby. Glimmer in life or glimmer in death. Only one leads to Nancy Jane and boomer freedom forever flying."

"Look, we want to get to your beloved! But you have to trust us!"

"I think we should move," Pilate grumbled, then trotted up against the sound stone. "Miss Props?!"

"Mareshi mareshi!"

"We're going to need help finding a way to reach you and Mr. Clark, underground. Are there any other sound stones on this floor?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh... nope. Oh, wait! Erm... Oh, right. Never mind. There's no quantity less than zero. Too bad, cuz I'd love to fly negative two hundred feet per second! Heeheee!"

Ebon Mane sighed. "Guess we're on our own."

"Not necessarily." Pilate grunted and started kicking and bucking at the sound stone.

"What are you doing?" Ebon asked.

"Taking... Props... With us...!" With one last buck, the zebra snapped the sound stone loose. He sacanned the floor beneath with him with O.A.S.I.S., found the shard, then slipped it between his coat and his choker. "Alright. I suppose we'll have to test the range on this thing."

"Heeeeee! I'm a zebra accessory!"

"Do not wander off too far, my little ponies," Clark's voice said. "We are endeavoring to reach the same destination, after all..."

"Duly noted." Pilate spun around. "Ebon? Floydien?"

"Jeez, that's bright!" Ebon wheezed.

"Huh? What is—?" Pilate's gasped in mid speech, for he lost all "vision" whatsoever. A tremendous power surge was bursting from O.A.S.I.S.

In the background, both stallions could hear Floydien shouting. "Stabbicrabs! The salad and the croutons of filth be eating with you!" At the end of his warcry, a thunderous salvo crackled across the hallway. Pilate went dizzy as he felt his senses flying along with a beam of mana, sailing into a thick line of uniformed stallions holding tasers and flashlights. Their bodies went sprawling to the ground, and so did Pilate's, several yards back.

"Augh!" He trembled before feeling Ebon's hooves helping him back up. "By the Spark, Mr. Floydien! You know how I feel about you using my manasphere as a junction for your weapon!"

"But the sanctity of Floydien and Nancy Jane have they out-glimmered—!"

"And you're angry! Yes! I understand! But I will not be an accessory to killing!" Pilate snarled, the runes on his metal brow flickering. "If they must be dispensed with, then have Simon throttle them into unconsciousness, for all that I care!"

"Most shining idea of bright bright has striped boomer given Floydien!" Floydien's body came into focus, flinging a hoof towards the distant, recuperating guards. "Simon! Serve unto stabby stabby the meal of righteous righteousing!"

"No—Wait!" Pilate hissed, wincing. "I didn't mean..."

With a shrill bark, the rodent bounded down the hall, dodged shots from mana rifles, and jumped to perform a telekinetic burst from mid-air. The building groaned from bent and broken steel as a wave of destruction swam towards the shrieking ponies. They ran backwards, scrambling to flee the unworldly creature.

"Run! Run as far as stabby stabby cares to gallop!" Floydien's hooves clamored after them. "Simon is on your plot like summer rot!"

"Good heavens..." Pilate's ears drooped.

"Uhm..." Ebon's jaw curved in a grin as he helped the other stallion hobble down the hall after them. "I wouldn't want to be on the fragrant end of this tall can of oats you've just opened, buddy..."

"I fear I have made a grave mistake," Pilate slurred as they rounded the shattered corner.

"Heehee! Hey guys! What's this I hear about 'plot rot?!' Sounds like you're all having a party!"

Don't Believe It

"Mr. Floydien!" Pilate panted as he and Ebon Mane galloped after the echoing noise. "You must calm down! Please!"

"Stabby stabby horses locked away Nancy Jane!" The voice cackled from far ahead. Simon's barks could be heard like a staccato beat between blasts of rumbling telekinesis. "Filled her full of spitful glimmer, they did!" The hallway shook, causing Pilate and Ebon to stumble in mid-sprint. "Little grace is there to give when so little has been asked for, yes yes?"

"No no!" Ebon grunted, then pivoted his head towards Pilate. "Can't you talk any sense into him?!"

"Alas, I've been trying to do that for days on end," Pilate grumbled. "I knew that all of his anger and... uhm... zaniness were building up to something." He winced as O.A.S.I.S. fluctuated from another wave of distorting mana "I suppose this is it."

"He's going to summon all of Blue Nova with this racket!" Ebon grumbled. "What I wouldn't give to stuff an apple in his mouth and call it a day!"

"Don't be so quick to dismiss him, Mr. Mane. He very well may be able to help us out of this place."

"How?! By tearing it to dust?!"

"Hey boysies!"" Props' voice dripped from the enchanted shard nestled within Pilate's choker. "If you're not too busy tearing stuff apart, you're getting a teensy-weensy bit close to the north edge of the building!"

"Would you mind explaining how you know this, Miss Props?"

"A sound stone is good for sounding off more than just sound... soundly!"

"Then that means we're nearding the edge of the floor," Pilate thought aloud.

Ebon stammered, "P-perhaps there's a fire escape that leads all the way down!"

"Mr. Floydien!" Pilate shouted above the noise as they rounded another corner. "We need to get out of this building and find a way to regroup with the others!"

"Our fallen pieces will be picked up just as soon as Floydien takes apart theirs!" the voice growled back. "Forthwith, bushy bushy! Turn their glimmer inside out and pull the trigger in them there!"

Simon squeaked in obedience. The air crackled with hot magic.

Gritting his teeth, Pilate shouted, "I know what's wrong with Nancy Jane!"

The crackling stopped. Floydien's body pivoted around, and a little rodent was perched on his cranium.

"Your beloved..." Pilate gulped and said, "I know what they did to her."

Ebon turned towards him. "You do?" The zebra stomped on his hoof. "Owch!"

"And I'll do whatever is in my power to help you get her back to normal if you just help us get out of here," Pilate said calmly as the dust settled. "We can't get anywhere closer to Nancy Jane by running around up in here, taking our wrath out on Nightshade's cronies. Even if we do strike a lot of them down, sooner than later they'll outnumber us. We'll be in even greater trouble with the Council of Ledo, for they have sent their enforcers after us as well."

"Hmmm... much stabbing to be had with the glimmer stealers."

"And you're not one to stab, are you, Mr. Floydien?"

Silence.

Ebon trembled, biting his lip as his head turned from the zebra to face Floydien.

At last, the figure said, "No, most certainly Floydien does not wish to have 'stabbing' on his head of stone."

"Good..." Pilate said, exhaling heavily. "Now, let us find a way out of this place before—"

"Left! Left! Zebra town!" Props' voice echoed. "That wall beside you is edge of the floor!"

"What spits the voice of horse horse?"

Ebon explained, "Props, downstairs, is telling us that we're right along the north side of the building."

"Sun brights!" Floydien victoriously exclaimed, then pivoted towards the wall in question. "Simon, the honor is bound to you to be done!"

Simon barked. Simon thrusted. Simon flickered.

The ponies nearly fell off their hooves as a veritable cannonblast exploded in between them. Pilate felt the warmth of sunlight gracing his striped features.

"Son of a baker's wife, that squirrel packs a whallop!" Ebon exclaimed. "Oh jeez... this is a long way up..."

Pilate shouted above the sound of whipping winds "My manasphere is going haywire! Can somepony please explain what's going on?"

"Bah! So much wind and blowingness!" Floydien grumbled. "It beckons for us to hop down, Simon, yes yes yes? Facilitate, glimmer bushy bushy, if Simon will!"

With a rodent squeal, something blocked off the air flow. Pilate sensed a slab of metal and reinforced steel floating horizontally before the huge gash in the building's wall.

"What in Spark's name...?" Pilate gasped.

"Hop to the hop! Hoppingly!" Floydien bounded forward.

"Ah jeez... Ah jeez..." Ebon gulped audibly before gripping Pilate by the shoulders. "You're gonna wanna hang on tight."

"Wait wait wait!" Pilate flenched, his teeth showing. "J-just what are we about to d-do?!"

"For once, just be really flippin' glad that you're blind."

That said, Ebon hoisted the two of them forward. Pilate let loose a brief shriek, then froze as his hooves landed on something, wobbled, then stood firmly. O.A.S.I.S. echoed the sensation of a crouched rodent on the edge of the slab, leaning his sparkling head forward. In swift order, the slab levitated away from the building, and descended with more or less grace through a nebulous maze of looming skyscrapers.

"Props!" Ebon shouted over the whipping winds. "You there?"

"Gosh, I hope so!"

"Then listen up! We got a little update for ya! Uhhhhh... though I'm n-not sure you're gonna believe it..."

Better Believe It

"No friggin' way," Enforcer Evans stammered.

Shell turned, squinting at him with one good eye. "I beg your pardon, soldier?"

"Ahem..." Evans pointed down from the bridge between the two Nightshade towers in the industrial district. "I-I mean, no friggin' way, sir."

The Prime Enforcer hobbled up to the edge of the bridge. Leaning his weight on his metal cast, he peered over. So did several other soldiers and enforcers who were accompanying them in their search.

Muttering voices of shock filled the air, for a literal chunk of steel was floating down towards the smog-filled alleyways of Blue Nova's industrial district below. The object arced around the body of the northernmost of the two Nightshade Towers, hailing from somewhere on the fifteenth floor. The light was growing hazy from the setting sun, but even from such a long distance, the enforcers could at least make out a trio of quadrupeds positioned atop the floating platform, magically "surfing" it to the pavement paths below.

At that moment, a group of armored stallions trotted in from the norther building with Overseer Fatch in their midst. "Prime Enforcer Shell, sir, there's been manabursts reported on the fifteenth floor. We sent a team to investigate the blackout and—"

"Silence!" Shell growled, leaning heavily over the railing, almost to the point of teetering over. His eye squinted.

Before the platform disappeared, he made out the colors of the three bodies. One was large with brown fur. Another was petite with a burgundy coat. The third...

"Stripes..." Shell exhaled. His muscles tightened as he galloped towards the southern building. "Evans! Call in the managliders! Target is located forty-five degrees, north by northwest! Ground level!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Order all of our backup forces to the streets of the industrial district! Dr. Bellesmith's spouse has been spotted!"

Evans started shouting commands into a shoulder-mounted sound stone as he and several other stallions galloped briskly after Shell.

In the meantime, Fatch stood between Ledomaritan guards, his ears drooped and his limbs trembling.

Another Bad Feeling

With a gasp, Pilate jumped onto the street's floor, nearly tripping off the platform of shattered steel as it landed. Ebon steadied him and forced the two into a swift gallop, following the body of Floydien and his little furry companion.

"Mr. Floydien! Wh-where'd you go?!"

"Around the street corner," Pilate muttered between panting breaths. The noises of the city overwhelmed his twitching ears. "I can sense him... barely..."

"Gosh dang it... we gotta put bells on his flank or something. Floydien!" Ebon swung himself and Pilate around the street corner and shouted, "We gotta stay together—Whoacrap!" He forced himself and Pilate to duck as the splintery frame of a merchant vendor crashed off the wall just inches above them.

"The next stabby stabby who makes ugly ugly at Floydien will get to digest concrete!" Floydien hissed. Bodies of frightened citizens ran off in every direction. "This far from glimmer hole Floydien has not crawled to become an attraction of sideways showing!"

"Floydien! Rein in Simon, will ya?!" Ebon shouted. "Between you and the little nut-grabber, this place is going to fall apart!"

"Good for those who stand with those! Let them dissolve in the spit!"

"Nancy Jane, Floydien!" Pilate suddenly grunted. "Nancy Jane!"

Floydien jolted, flinched, then sighed. "Simon, it bring great benefit to Floydien and boomer friends if you brought great holes to the sewer."

"Huh?!" Ebon Mane stammered.

"I believe he's aware of the underground chambers beneath this maretropolis," Pilate said.

"Yeah, but Props and Clark are blocks away from us by now... in a concealed corridor of all places! How in the heck are we gonna get to them?!"

"Between Simon, Floydien, my manasphere, and Props' assistance, I'm quite certain we can come up with... a.... solution..." Pilate's words trailed off.

Ebon pivoted towards him, worrisomely. "What is it?"

Pilate gulped. "Whatever we do, we need to do it now." O.A.S.I.S. fluctured faster and faster, causing the zebra to wince from aching pulses to the skull. "Nnnng... Floydien! Please... we must make haste...!"

"I don't get it... What's..." Ebon tilted his head up, gasping.

Pilate spoke through a grimace. "No doubt you see the enforcers descending upon us..."

"Floydien! Move! Hurry! Start blasting holes and such!"

"The such that you desire is up to Simon and such!" Floydien growled back. "Fear not, boomers, for I do believe we have struck ourselves a marehole!"

"A what?!"

"Mixed spit. Floydien apologizes. Forwith, Simon of thunder paws!"

There were three long barks... and then...

The buildingfronts rang with thunder. Several plates of glass cracked and shattered from the enormous wave of noise. As the chaos cleared, Pilate sensed a gaping hole in the street, leading to a hollow passage about thirty feet below. It was large enough for three equines to slip through.

"Well, that works..." Ebon gulped. "Doesn't it?"

"Floydien's antlers would prefer otherwise, but if it suits boomers, it suits Floydien." Simon's body scurried down the hole, meanwhile Floydien gestured with a cloven hoof. "Hurry! Striped one and sailor one!"

Pilate looked confused as Ebon led him to the hole. "'Sailor' one?"

A groaning voice replied. "You obviously can't see my cutie mark."

"Er..."

"It's a long story. Hop to it!" Ebon bucked Pilate in the flank.

"Gaaah!" Pilate fell, twirled, toppeled, and landed in a splashing bath of sewer water. He bobbed up to the surface, sputtering and wincing. He heard a falling shout, then felt the body of Ebon crashing beside him. Simon chirped, clinging to the curved corridor's wall beside them. "Sppkkt... mmmffgh... Fl-Floydien!" Pilate tilted his head up and shouted up the vertical shaft made by Simon's telekinesis. "Hurry down! Quick!"

"Floydien will do better than that! Floydien will make the hole stab-proof as Floydien descends!"

"Sure! Whatever! Just come on down!" Ebon yelled.

"Eeeyugh! It stinks down there!" Props' voice said.

"Yes, well, desperate times call for desperate—" Pilate stopped, and both he and Ebon paused to gawk at the sound stone pinned beneath his choker.

Like Pony Spirit

"Sir! Subjects spotted!" shouted the helmeted wingpony to Shell's left.

Shell accelerated his glider, diving towards the fresh hole blasted open in the middle of the street. As he descended upon the site, a brown figure could be seen leaping down.

"They're headed underground..."

"Sir, if they gain access to Blue Nova's old sewer system—"

"Fire a gas grenade!" Shell shouted.

The managlider to his right obeyed, and a screaming missile flew ahead of them on a burst of mana. It flew straight towards the hole, its thrusters preparing to guide the weapon down.

Just then, the air above the wrecked street tingled with magical energy. A beam of light shot up from below, and chunks of rock exploded through the surface of the street, covering up the ragged passageway like an old wound.

Shell's good eye twitched.

The missile struck pure asphalt, exploding in a gaseous plume of dark green smoke.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Shell shouted, already pulling up on his controls. Him and the managlider to his left successfully flew over the cloud. The wingponies to his right were less lucky. In the middle of veering, their craft scraped a pair of roadsigns, and they plunged into a rattling stop atop the pavement, spitting sparks and fragments of burning metal across the sidewalk.

Up above, an entire backup squadron of Ledomaritan hovercraft screeched to a halt. Shell pulled his vehicle up into a hover and gazed down at the scene. In one swift movement, he pulled out a gas mask and unbuckled his harness. Diving, the stallion fell five full stories, landing in a cushioning blast of telekinesis. The gas parted around him as he caught his bearings, and galloped straight into the thick of the cloud. He went straight past the mess in the street and rushed to the collapsed managliders. Two enforcers were sprawled over the sidewalk, wheezing and coughing violently. With a tug of mana, Shell swiftly levitated the pair and pulled them back out of the hazy mess.

By the time he emerged, a trio of larger escort ships were hovering down, using their thrusters to blow away the effects of the gas grenade. A pair of soldiers descended down on ropes and quickly tended to the oxygen-starved wingponies.

This left Shell standing, peeling off his gas mask as he flung a hardened glare to the hole that had been blocked off just seconds before they could arrive.

Another soldier trotted up, panting for breath. "Sir! No sign of any of the suspects in the adjacent streets! They must have all descended into the old city's sewers!"

Shell took a deep breath and said, "Yes, they most certainly have."

"What are our instructions now, sir?"

"Now..." Shell flung his gas mask down and spun to face his fellow soldiers. "We dig. Send a message to Prime Enforcer Evans! We need to confiscate the nearest factory's supply of mana drills! Immediately!"

Remember These Ponies

A cold breath vented out of the breathing slits of Roarke's glossy black helmet. Her head leaned back as she groaned towards the array of green countryside vistas rolling just beyond the manaship's bow. The setting sun reduced them all to a uniform red blur.

"Unnngh... Ledomare... Why, oh why, Ledomare...?" She glanced briefly over her shoulder. "Your Confederacy sucks, you know. It's so boring."

"It's not my Confederacy," Crimson said in a growling tone. "If you're so bored, why don't you put it on autopilot? This ship does have autopilot, doesn't it?"

"With two stallions like you within a spit's distance?" Roarke face forward again. "I don't think so..."

"Heh..." Tweak chuckled where he sat across from Crimson atop a supply cart. "I don't care how much you're helping us, Roarke. You're still a paranoid, materialist metal mare beneath all this sudden benevolence."

"And you're still a living, breathing pony," she grunted. "Though that too could change."

"You're welcome to give it a try."

"Please..." Crimson sighed. He leaned over, polishing and examining the metal limb attached to his body. "Let's just try to focus on what matters."

"It'd help if we knew more about where we were headed."

"Imre explained it all to us earlier," Crimson said. "We'll approach Pale Shelf, eliminate the perimeter defense, then touch down so that we can infiltrate the facility on hoof—"

"And what comes after that? Hmmm?" Tweak frowned. "I know I may have shown off a bit inside the Searonese vomit trough that they called a home, but I'm usually not all that good at thinking on the drop of a bit."

"Imre will give us a layout to follow so that we'll know where we're going," Crimson said, smiling. "I'm sure of it."

"Or maybe she'll just lead us into a trap."

Crimson raised an eyebrow. "Do you not trust her?"

"T'ain't that, Crimson. It's just been... so long since she was last there, ya reckon? There may be tons of crap that's changed... things she can't foresee. It's only natural."

"You seem to forget that we have a living rainbow of pure carnage with us," Crimson said with a soft smile. "Not to mention a mare that can shoot missiles from her flank."

"And what are we? Crystal gravel?"

"I'm just saying, you're in a good group... a flank-kicking group. I'm sure whatever obstacle we run across, we'll more than manage well."

"Shucks..." Tweak leaned back, grinning nonchalantly. "You certainly turned optimistic over the past few hours."

Crimson shrugged. "I'm proud to be part of a rescue operation. Besides, Rainbow Dash's enthusiasm is infectious."

"When she ain't liftin' a wall between her and us, ya mean?"

"Huh...?"

"I can read ponies, y'know," Tweak said. "And that Rainbow? She's one-fourth spunk and three-fourths pure mystery."

Crimson's nostrils flared as he nodded. "Yes. I'm aware of this..."

"And yet you choose to hold stock in this?"

"Her actions speak louder than her words..." Crimson smirked. "Assuming she even has words to give."

"And yer a sucker for hard luck martyrs with a heart of gold." Tweak winked. "I got it."

"Heheheh... come on, now," Crimson chuckled. "I have a wife."

"Pffft—I wasn't tryin' to tease ya there, pal..."

"But you're right, I do respect ponies with a lot to prove. Rainbow Dash falls into that category." He paused, taking a deep breath. "So did so many of my fellow soldiers..."

Tweak said nothing.

Crimson's gaze was distant, hazy. He let his eyes fall towards the metal floor of the gliding manaship. "So many good stallions with so many firm dreams. They were ponies of integrity, and they all believed in something... even the ones who made foolish mistakes..." He gulped. "I taught them to fight, to defend, and to perservere. It was never my intent to... to teach them to become martyrs... especially when they had so many families to return home to..."

"The way I hear it, ya would have come back with a hoofful of them," Tweak said. "If it weren't for a snake in the grass."

Crimson exhaled out the side of his mouth as she shrugged. "Zenith's sin was my own. I could have listened to his concerns more... could have shown him how much I cared about his opinions."

"He didn't respect you. That's what ended him." Tweak's eyes narrowed. "Not anythang you ever did or didn't do."

"Your faith in me is charming, Tweak, but—"

"But what? Don'tcha dare say 'foolhardy,'" Tweak said, pointing at him. "I'm on this here mission because I believe in it, just as I believe in you. Now, that's something that I chose to do, because of the stake I hold in honor and all. If something happens to me, ya can't be blamed. But I doubt it'll even come to that. We're just too badflank to let the world continue trotting without us."

"Heh... I'll agree with that last part at least..."

Tweak fidgeted briefly, then leaned forward. "Ya really should think about it, Crimson."

"Think about what?"

"Movin' yer family over to Aurum."

Crimson blinked. "Since when were we talking about this again?"

"Why not?" Tweak said. "You hate Ledomare. I hate Ledomare. Between the two of us, we could probably take on the Queen and her whole army if we wanted to..."

"Heheheh... uhhhh... I don't know about that, Tweak."

"Hmmm... but in all seriousness, this continent is gonna go through changes. The way I see it, Rainbow Dash is... is like a beacon of some sorts. She's a sign of things to come. There ain't no more sitting on our flanks, twiddling our hooves, pretendin' that the Confederacy ain't up to no good, or that the Xonans won't be knockin' on our doors, or that the Searonese will stay down forever. We have to make bastion of our own. We can't be relyin' on the politics and guns of others to do the job of protecting this land for us."

"What are you suggesting...?" Crimson squinted curiously at him. "We form... a nation?."

"I reckon a barn raising or two would be a good start, but we could work on continental domination later."

"Ungh, Tweak..."

"Hear me out!" Tweak gestured. "You and your Blades Guild is a bunch of butt kicking warriors. Once you return home, you round up a whole bunch'o'them, and you ask how many of them would like to brush elbows with crystal kin. Then, together, your families and mine can bridge the gap between Aurum and Freshington!"

"Franzington."

"Whatever. We'll get things started all new and fresh-like is what I'm getting at. There'll be no more slavery, no more abducting stallions, no more experiments on non-ponies. It'll be a free land, cuz it'll be our land, and we'll make sure that safety and happiness is priority number one, ya feel me?"

Crimson sighed. "I think it sounds too good to be true."

"And I think you've been fightin' for so long that you've forgotten what it means to be at peace."

Crimson looked at Tweak.

Tweak smiled back. "Pffft... Heck, boy, it's just a proposal. But, for what it's worth..." He placed a crystal hoof over his heart. "I'd be honored... plum honored to start a new life, a new country, with you. Your family and mine... settin' things straight. Dayum, it'd be plum magical."

Slowly, Crimson smiled. "You know, it doesn't sound half that bad."

"Let's say after we get Rainbow Dash's friends out of the muck that they're in, we reunite with our kin and arrange a long, detailed talk about it, huh?"

"Yes... Yes, I do believe I'd like that," Crimson said. "You're a magnificent stallion, Tweak. I think this could be the start of something spectacular."

"Unnnngh..." Roarke grumbled. "I think I need to vomit." She slapped a few controls, and a yellow light flickered across the cockpit. "I'm puttin' it on autopilot for a while."

Tweak looked up as the bounty hunter trotted away from her seat. "But I thought you didn't trust us around the controls."

"I seriously doubt you want what remains of your hooves chopped off," she muttered under her helmet.

"Yer welcome to try, sassafras."

"Trying will cost you your fetlocks, and what will become of your modeling career?"

Crimson snorted a laugh.

Tweak frowned. "T'ain't nothin' funny about her threatenin' me whatsoever!" He blinked, then gazed closely at the ends of his hooves. "They aren't that pretty, are they?"

"Heheheh... whew... you're asking the wrong Blades Guild member."

In the back of the ship, Roarke collapsed her helmet, exposing her bare face and lensed eyes as she grabbed a canteen hanging from a metal wrack. She took a sip of water before noticing a quivering image in her peripheral. She glanced over. "Heya, Imre."

A beat.

Roarke did a double-take, her lenses pistoning out as she gawked at the sight. "What in Searo's name is her problem?"

"I'm... uhm..." Imre fidgeted from where she sat on folded legs besides a shivering pegasus. "I'm not entirely sure..." Worriedly, she glanced over and tried steadying Rainbow's trembling shoulders.

"What do you mean 'not entirely sure?'" Roarke hung up the cantene and dropped down by the prismatic pony's side. "Are you a skilled doctor or aren't you?"

"I can only judge so much from her obvious symptoms..." Imre frowned. "And she isn't exactly telling me much."

"I'm... I-I'm fine..." Rainbow Dash hissed as her face scrunched up in dizzying pain. She folded her forelimbs in front of her muzzle and clenched her teeth to keep them from rattling. "It... it'll p-pass. It's j-j-just been a while..."

"Been a while?!" Roarke's teeth showed in a menacing snarl. "You mean this sort of crud has happened to you before?"

"Look, I'll b-b-be fine, alright?!" Rainbow Dash paused to hyperventilate, gulped, and spoke again, "Nopony pokes you, asking to kn-know what your real eyecolor is! So lay off!"

"This isn't natural, Rainbow Dash," Imre said in a remarkably soothing voice. "You are obviously experiencing some sort of trauma to your nervous system. If you could just drop the charade and tell us what you're feeling, then perhaps I may be able to—"

"Look, I'm gl-glad that we've dropped the veil in s-so many ways as of late, but th-there's nothing for you to kn-know because there's no c-curing it!"

"How can you say that?"

"Because it's true, okay?!" Rainbow Dash panted, her shivers fading as she started to breathe easier. Her eyes closed beneath a sweaty brow as she said, "I need... you g-girls to keep it together, especially now. My friends need my help. That's the most important thing."

"And what of you?" Roarke asked. "Are you not important?"

With a dry chuckle, Rainbow Dash smiled, reopening her eyes to gaze lazily at the metal mare. "Y'know, at the risk of sounding sappy, you're kind of sweet when you drop the 'angsty bounty hunter' act."

Roarke's brow furrowed. With a frown, she stood up and trotted away. "Pfft. Fine. Shiver to death, for all I care." Her hooves made heavy clops as she trudged back towards the front of the ship.

Imre gazed at her with a bored expression. She turned to look back at Rainbow Dash. "She thinks the world of you, y'know."

"Yeah... Celestia knows why..."

Imre was still, but eventually blurted, "I can think of a reason or two."

"Good. Keep them to yourself,"Rainbow Dash muttered. "I only want to hear ponies' praise when it makes sense."

Imre's lips curved slightly. "You're a strong pegasus, Rainbow Dash."

"Takes one to know one." Gulping, Rainbow Dash looked up at the unicorn. "Y'know, I feel like I've been asking a lot from you as of late."

"Yes. You have."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, but continued. "I need to ask you one more thing..."

"Rainbow, unless you tell me more about this... affliction of yours, I'm not sure I can do much of anything—"

"It's not about that. Nothing can fix that." Rainbow sat up. "Roarke seems to trust you, so if there's anypony who can motivate her once I'm gone, it's you."

Imre's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'once you're gone?'"

"Just listen, okay?" Rainbow Dash pointed. "I plan to stick through this whole silly adventure to the end. I just dunno if... uhm... my end will be the same as everypony else's end." She leaned forward with a piercing expression. "If something happens to me, and my friends are still stuck in this goddess-forsaken country, I want you to make sure that Roarke gets them out of Queen Ledo's hairy reach."

Imre blinked. "And what makes you think she'll willingly do that?"

"Jee, I dunno! Tell her to harvest my organs or something! I don't care! It'll be... like... her final contract, then she can go live her life elsewhere, far away from Searonese influence. She can take you with her as well and stuff."

Imre was silent.

"I... I just want to know that my friends are okay," Rainbow Dash said, her voice cracking. "If I go away somewhere... if I fall asleep and don't wake up..." She smiled peacefully into the shadows of the cabin. "Then that'll be okay. It'll all be okay so long as I know my friends aren't suffering anymore. You get me?"

After a few seconds, Imre gazed into Rainbow's eyes and nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Needs Exit Music

"Somepony..." Bellesmith's lips murmured breathily into the cold night air. She lay with her eyes shut and her body curled in a soft heap against the furthest corner of the concrete alcove. "Somepony tell me..." Her hooves squirmed as her lungs expanded and contracted. "...what's going on?" She hissed through her teeth while her golden brow furrowed. "Blessed Spark, I'm dying..."

The building above them groaned. Concrete slabs slid apart, pouring starlight onto the mare's sleeping figure. With a blue pulse of light, a petite figure rushed into the niche, her hooves forming a cacophonous pitter-patter against the mildew stained floor of the hiding spot.

"Belle! Belle!" Kera stammered, leaning over the mare and speaking hoarsely, "Crud has hit the fan! We gotta move! We gotta move now!"

"Nnngh... I-I'm going someplace," Belle whimpered, her body curling into a tighter fetal position. "I-I don't know where!"

"Belle, wake up!"

"The singing! It's d-deafening!"

"Belle, you're dreaming!" Kera reached in and viciously shook her shoulder. "Wake up!"

Belle winced. Her chestnut brown eyes fluttered open. She gazed in confusion at the starlight wafting in all around them. "You... you opened the hiding place..."

"Yes!" Kera nodded, her glowing horn waving around. "I know!"

"But... but why?"

"Look, it's my fault! I went out to find some grub for breakfast 'cuz I couldn't sleep, right?"

"Er..."

"Right, and I-I think I may have accidentally let an enforcer or two see me. Whatever. It's all bad news, Belle! We gotta get out!"

"Wait... wait..." Belle sat up, rubbing a hoof over her shaved mane. "I... I don't understand..."

'What part did you not flippin' understand?!" Kera exclaimed, motioning emphatically out the exposed air of the alcove. "There are enforcers all over the streets of Blue Nova, looking for a 'mare with a shaved mane and a strange book!'"

"Huh?!" Belle stood up, her eyes gaining strength as the shock of the moment gradually woke her. "But... but how?! The last time we ever ran into enforcers was the day before yesterday, and they barely got a good look at us!"

"Look, I don't know how it happened, but there are wanted posters and crap all over town with your face on it!" Kera exclaimed, her voice squeaking in fitful breaths. "Whatever cover we may have had; it's blown! We gotta make like the wind, girl!"

"I-I think we should stay right here where it's safe from other ponies' eyes—"

"That's what I'm trying t tell you, Belle! I was listening in on a pack of these beret-wearing bozos and they spotted me! I tried running away, but I think they saw me! They'll not stop searching these slums until they've found us! You know that!"

"This... this is all happening so fast..." Belle gazed out the alcove, her coat sweating profusely. "How'd they even connect you with me?"

"There are posters with m-my face as well," Kera said, her head hanging in shame. "I bet it was Nightshade. She must have gotten pictures of us while we were in her tower and gave them to the enforcers."

"They... they must be investigating her," Belle thought aloud.

"Anyways, we gotta move, Belle! I'm not kidding!" Kera tugged and tugged on Belle's forelimb. "Please! I don't want them to put me back in Nightshade's tower!"

"Right... right... let me just... let me just grab my things..." Belle trotted over to her saddlebag. She paused, reeling dizzily. "Nnnngh..." She rubbed her head and grumbled, "I think I-I'm coming down with something..."

"Belllllle!" Kera stammered, hopping worriedly up and down before the exit. "Come onnnnn! We gotta move!"

"Right, Kera... I'm coming..." Bellesmith shuddered as she slid on Princess Luna's satchel and fastened it around her figure. She reexamined the pockets to make sure the old tome and the rest of Rainbow Dash's things were still there. She wasn't disappointed. "I'm coming, alright?" She briskly trotted over to Kera's side. "There's no reason to be scared..."

Without warning, Kera clung to Belle's forelimb, trembling, burying her face in the mare's shoulder.

Belle blinked. Her mouth fell agape as she brushed a hoof over the foal's bushy mane. "By the Spark, you really are frightened, aren't you?"

"Please..." Kera stifled a whimper, clinging tighter to the adult pony. "I just don't want to go back. I've seen what it's like, and I don't wanna go. I don't wanna..."

Belle smiled softly. She leaned in and nuzzled Kera. "Don't worry. Just stay next to me. We'll get out of here and find a place to hide."

Kera sniffled. She gazed up at Belle, the starlight glinting off her moist eyes. "But what if we don't?"

"We will," Belle insisted. "I promise you. Just stay close, and keep within the shadows." Belle turned to face the exit from the alcove. Her heart skipped coldly upon hearing the shuffle of hooves beyond the nearby alleyways, followed by distant shouts. "Your horn ready to open stuff?"

"Y-yes, Belle. I'm ready..."

"Good." Clenching her jaw, Belle galloped straight out into the moonlight of Blue Nova. "Let's make like the wind."

What Destiny Requires

Dawn light glinted off the sloping, water-slick spires of Blue Nova as Bellesmith peered into a broad alley. Slowly, pursing her lips in a pensive fashion, she gazed north towards an open courtyard. She saw a distant flicker of equine shadows, followed by the unmistakable clopping of enforcers' metal horseshoes.

Kera walked straight past her and into the side-street.

Hissing under her breath, Belle shot a hoof out and dragged the filly back. She held Kera closely as she continued gazing at the courtyard beyond. Once the shuffling shadows had dissipated, she relaxed, then let go of her grip on the foal. Motioning with her head, the mare trotted briskly down the opposite end of the alley, moving towards where the shadows of the high scaling walls were thicker.

Two or three full minutes into the trot, Kera spoke up, "Belle, how long do we—?"

"Shhh!" Belle insisted.

Kera bowed her head. With ears drooped beneath her little cloak's hood, she trotted closer to the older pony. Once within intimate earshot, she whispered, "How long do we plan on trotting around in circles?"

"I'm trying to get us away from the enforcers..."

"But they've been wandering around like this nonstop for hours. Don't they know when to quit?"

"I don't know if I've clearly emphasized how much they want to capture me," Belle said. "I mean to them as much as Queen and country... perhaps more so..."

"What for?" Kera made a tattooed scrunchy face. "Cuz you're the world's leading expert on old dusty books and rainbow ponies?"

"Rainbow Dash is more than just a mare with a really dazzling mane," Belle said. She paused to scope out an adjacent alleyway, then motioned Kera after her as she trotted into the narrow corridor. "She's a... a spark..."

"A spark?"

"She has so much that she can bring this world."

"In what way?"

"I... I can't really say, Kera..."

"Why not?"

Bellesmith sighed, pausing in a patch of puddle-strewn granite work. "Because I don't quite understand all of it. I feel it, Kera. Rainbow Dash and I have had a very special connection. I... I experienced her memories... just like I experienced the memories of Nightshade and her brother..."

"You mean in that sequencing crud?"

Belle nodded. "Only, when I was made to tap into Rainbow's mind, I was given... visions..."

"Visions?" Kera waddled around Bellesmith, staring up at her with wide green eyes. "What kind of visions?"

"There's something special about the mare, Kera," Belle said, walking past her and guiding the two of them down a curved alley towards the western edge of the city. The smell of garbage and the trickling of loose moisture seeped out of every stained corner. "She has a destiny... a very special destiny in store for her... and I'm convinced that it's tied with the fate of this world... the fate of all of us..."

"Like... how?"

"Kera..." Belle sighed, gazing with a weary smile at the filly. "What's with all the questions?"

"I just wanna know about this mare you seem so willing to give up your life for."

"I'm not giving up my life, Kera. I just... need answers."

"Well, so do I!" Kera jumped ahead of her, splashing through a puddle or two. "You wanna go through with this all the way! Well, so do I!"

"Shhh... Kera!" Belle pulled the filly closer with her towards a crook of delapidated wooden crates. "Don't make so much noise..."

"I'm sorry," the filly muttered, hanging her head. "You just seem so... sad all the time, and I felt that if I got you to talk more, then you might not have to be so sad."

Belle blinked at her. She smiled as she leaned in to nuzzle the filly. "That's awfully sweet of you, Kera. But, we're kind of in a bind right now, and I really need to get us out of here."

"Where, exactly?"

"I don't know," Belle said, sighing. She ushered the two of them out from behind the crates and towards the far end of the bending corridor. "Maybe deeper into the slums. Maybe behind the Mintian Cathedral. If I could, I'd get us out of Blue Nova entirely, but I'm willing to bet that the forces of Ledo have erected a barricade of sorts at the exits."

"You sure you can't tell me more about Rainbow Dash now?"

"No, Kera. Right now, my main priority is..." Belle blinked. "Is..." Belle teetered. "Unngh..." She almost fell over, steadying herself at the last second with a hoof planted against a granite wall.

"Belle!" Kera trotted up and planted both hooves on the mare's side. "Are you okay? Talk to me..."

"I... I feel..." Belle winced, gritting her teeth. "Like my head is splitting open."

"What, like a migraine?"

"I... I don't know..." Belle shook her head, blinking her vision back into focus as the pain cleared like a warm fog. "Maybe I took one too many bumps as we escaped Nightshade's building."

"I told you to eat the grasshoppers last night."

"Kera, would we... nngh... n-not talk about the grasshoppers right now?"

Just then, Kera's green eyes flew wide. She spun around, shivering. "Oh crud! Belle! Listen!"

"Huh?" Belle's golden brow furrowed. "I don't hear anything—" She froze, her heart stopping. In the distance, rising like water rapids, was the unmistakable roar of echoing hooves. "Oh blessed Spark..."

"It sounds like a whole lotta them!" Kera squeaked. Trembling, she clung to Belle's right forelimb, gazing fearfully down the back end of the corridor. "They're gonna tear us apart!"

"Not if we move. And swiftly." Belle suddenly lifted Kera.

The filly gasped, clutching the older pony's backside in surprise.

"Hold tight!" Belle said. With a burst of speed, she galloped the two of them down the alleyway, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the echoing hoofsteps in pursuit. She came upon a junction of alleyways, and she immediately hung a left. Hints of sunlight flickered like a pale strobe through the breaks in the looming skyscrapers above.

"Belle!" Kera gasped. "They're getting louder!" She gripped tighter to the adult pony's shoulders. "I think they're getting closer!"

"Not getting closer... growing more numerous." Belle skidded to a stop and spun around. "There are more of them ahead! Hold on!"

Kera gritted her teeth as the wind beat the hood of her cloak back. Belle bounded back to the junction and turned left again, this time taking them towards the north edge of the city. Despite her efforts, the hoofsteps grew louder and louder. It sounded as if bodies were barreling down every intersecting passage.

"We're surrounded!" Kera's voice cracked.

"But we're not found!" Belle gritted her teeth, looked around, then finally found an abandoned wagon lying besides a ring of barrels. Holding her breath, she ran, slid, and positioned the two of them beneath the wooden chassis of the vehicle. Belle had to hug Kera tight to settle the filly's uncontrollable trembles. "Shhhh... stay still..." The two squatted low to the mildew-covered floor.

The street shook and shook. At first, the shadows rolled through like dark feathers scratching the pale blue surfaces of the building nooks. Then, like a tornado, the bodies of over three dozen stallions blew through, their stampeding hooves and shifting armor filling the place with thunderous echoes. An officer at the rear shouted and barked orders, directing the beret-wearing soldiers towards the north edge of town.

Kera's eyes went moist. One stallion brushed against the edge of the wagon as he galloped by, causing the wooden frame to rattle overhead. With a stifled whimper, Kera buried her face into Belle's side.

Belle noticed it. As gently as she could, she stroked the filly's mane, holding her close to her side, not once taking her firm chestnut eyes off the noisy street.

Finally, the last line of galloping enforcers surged in and out of view. The street went quiet, although an eerie hush lingered in the distance. After five full minutes, Belle dragged her hooves to exit from underneath the wagon.

She felt a tug at her side. Turning around, Belle saw Kera gripping her rear leg, shaking her head furiously. Soothingly, Belle patted the filly's forelimbs until she let go. Unimpeded, the mare stepped out, craning her neck to make sure that the coast was clear.

The alleyway was completely empty. Even the distant thunder of stampeding hooves had dissolved.

Exhaling heavily, Belle ducked low and motioned for Kera to crawl out. The filly did so, though her trembles made the effort difficult at best. In the end, Belle sat on her haunches and picked the foal up in her forelimbs, steadying her on her hooves.

"It's okay, Kera. See?" Belle smiled. "All it takes is a little patience and caution—"

Kera yelped, covering her mouth. The filly's wide eyes reflected a gray figure behind Belle's shoulder.

The mare spun around, and she nearly collapsed in a deep sweat.

His cold eye narrowed, and the lines around his facial scar furrowed. "Patience and caution aren't enough to protect what you value," Shell said. Several ropes dangled behind him, and four more uniformed officers slid down from a hovercraft hovering above the nearby rooftops. They trained their manarifles on the mare as Shell took a quiet step forward. "Or don't you already know that, my good doctor?"

What Destiny Takes

Prime Enforcer Shell stepped closer. He stood before Belle, staring the mare down. His eye traveled over her shaved mane, across her midnight satchel, and finally on the sight of the hyperventilating little foal beside her.

"You certainly are taking up interesting company," he said in a dull tone. "What became of the coward from Franzington? Did the managlider crash end him?"

Belle stood stock still, saying nothing.

Shell exhaled quietly before saying, "No matter. We will find him eventually. Even if it's just a corpse, all traitors belong to me." He turned towards two of his heavily armored soldiers. "Signal the search team. We finally found our target."

"Aye, sir." The nearest officer pivoted to speak into a sound-stone located in his shoulderpad. "Tertiary Target has been found. Repeat. Tertiary Target has been found. Groups Beta and Ceti rendezvous in the northwest warehousing district."

"Confirmed. Heading towards your location."

"How..." Belle tried backtrotting, only to bump into a strong stallion's chest. "H-how did you—?"

"My good Doctor, please..." Shell sighed as he turned to glare at her. "How many times do I have to prove to you that, when the safety of Ledomare is at stake, I always get what is requested of me? The only reason we're both here is because of the manic, suicidal actions of a single stallion whose strength I had sorely underestimated in a moment of pure triumph. I shall not make that mistake again. You will be escorted to the Steel Wing, just south of Blue Nova, where you will join the experimental pony in incarceration."

"You..." Belle's chestnut eyes twitched. "You... c-captured Rainbow Dash?"

"She was on her way north, presumably to perform some foolish raid on the Northern Facility." Shell's features passed through the sun's glare as he paced icily around her. "The Steel Wing intercepted her just hours ago. According to Captain Filta, she put up quite a fight. I almost wish I was there to see her wings torn off by cannonfire." His hooves scuffed to a stop. "Alas, we can't be everywhere at once. Duty comes before celebration, after all. But I wouldn't expect you to understand that. You know nothing beyond your own selfish cowardice, Dr. Bellesmith, and look at what it's cost you. First a beloved... and now a friend..."

Belle's features paled. With her mouth agape, she hung her head towards the dank floor of the alleyway. She sensed Shell leaning in close enough to feel his breath on her cheek.

"Why did you come here, Doctor? What brought you to this city?"

The mare bit her lip. She began to shake uncontrollably.

"Why didn't you flee west? Or east?" With a cold hoof, Shell yanked Belle's gasping face to stare into his scowl. "I want to know what brought you to this place in particular." His eye traveled down to her satchel, then back up to her face. "Was it a secret that the experimental pony imparted you? She hasn't talked since she was reeled on board the Steel Wing, battered and broken like the shredded meat I'm going to make of you if you keep up this infernal charade any longer."

Belle gritted her teeth; she was powerless to stop the tear or two from trickling out of her eyes.

Shell brought his hoof down. He leaned back, exhaled, and looked aside at Kera. His eye darted back to Belle. "I can see that this is going to be difficult, as always." He motioned to a nearby guard, then pointed at the little filly. "You should have thought of that before you brought a child into the mix."

Belle stammered. "Wh-what?"

"Nopony in her right mind would care for a common street urchin," Shell said while a meaty soldier stomped over towards the tattooed foal. "The screams of this country's starving filth continue undaunted every evening. Tonight, I suspect, will be no different."

"Belle, I-I'm scared..." Kera backtrotted in the shadow of the guard.

"You wouldn't d-dare!" Belle exclaimed.

"For Queen Ledo, without hesitation," Shell practically snarled. His eye became a knifepoint. "The question is, would you?"

"Belle!" Kera gasped, then shrieked in pain as the guard bent her forelimb at a rough angle.

"No!" Belle shouted. She jerked forward, only to be restrained in the hooves of two heavy guards behind her. "For Spark's sake, don't do this!"

"You have the power to do that which needs to be done, Doctor!" Shell's voice resonated like a brass cymbal across the crooked alleyway. Drops of water and stabs of light christened the crowded niche as his shadow sliced across the mare's wretching face. "You always have! Tell me what secrets the winged pony exposed you to! Without them, I won't be able to continue the experiment!"

"I... I..."

"Augh!" Kera shrieked again, doubling over in agony as the soldier applied pressure on her fragile little shoulder.

Belle gnashed her teeth. A wave of pain washed through her head, and she clenched her aching eyes shut. In her dizziness, she envisioned an unmarked grave the size of hers and Kera's bodies combined. The world spun into the ether without them, neither a slice nor a circle, and it was powered darkly by a mutated pegasus cocooned in Ledomaritan silver. She tried to breathe, to squeak, to scream, but nothing came out. She remained still, tearful, mute. Loyal.

Just then, Kera made a new sound—an angry grunt. "Nnngh!"

"Gaaah!" the stallion breathed in shock.

Belle's moist eyes flew open. In the first blink, she saw Kera miraculously slipping free from the heavy-set guard. Snarling, the filly spun and flared her Xonan horn at the stallion.

With a blast of bright blue mana, the soldier was knocked back so that he collided with one of the two holding Belle from behind.

Kera broke into a brisk gallop, making for the far end of the corridor.

"Kera!" Belle shrieked. "Don't—"

"End the runner," Shell droned.

Belle heard a manarifle cocking beside her left ear. Gritting her teeth, she bucked her rear limbs blindly.

"Ooof!" The guard fell back, firing awkwardly skyward.

The hovercraft above veered away in time to dodge the blast. A chunk of granite was blown out of the building's wall, and it rained a thick stream of pebbles down onto the scene.

Belle galloped forward, knocked aside the first stallion trying to get up, and ran around the bend right as the rain of stones fell between her and the tight group of enforcers. Several manablasts ripped through the air behind her, but missed by a hair on either side of her kicking limbs. Shell shouted something, but the mare was beyond earshot, hearing nothing but the rush of blood through her skull.

The world bobbed and weaved. Twenty paces ahead of her, like a flicker of pale candlelight, Kera could be seen rounding a corner.

"Kera!" Belle shouted, galloping faster. She felt the echo of angry soldiers' hooves vibrating through her bones and teeth. "Kera, it's me! Wait for me!"

"I-I don't want to g-go back!" Kera's voice was a distant rattle of fractured bells. "I won't let them!"

"Kera, please!" Belle rounded corner after corner. Panting. Aching. The world rumbled behind her, laced with manashots and hovercraft jets. An entire continent of murderous militants caved in all over her. "Slow d-down a little! Don't leave me! Please!"

"Belle! I... I found a way!" Kera's voice was cold, muffled. Belle rounded one last bend, and there she saw the filly at the far end of a straightaway, facing a concrete wall with glowing blue seams. She pressed her tiny self up to the structure and tilted her shimmering horn forward. "There's a passage here! Like the others! I-I can open it!"

"Kera..." Belle looked behind her in mid-gallop. The long, looming shadows of their pursuers slithered around the edge of the dead end. "Kera, please! Hurry!"

"Just a second! I'll get us through!"

"Kera, there's no time—" Belle tripped over a mound of garbage. "Aaaugh!" She fell flat on her chest, sliding through a splashing puddle. "Mmmnngh... Unngh..." Dizzy, she struggled on bruised limbs to get up. A glass bottle in front of her rotated to a stop, and as it did so, it reflected the pale image of a one-eyed enforcer.

"It's okay!" Kera shouted as the door before her slid open. Blue light and cold air blew on the foal's figure like a heavenly kiss. "We're free!"

The reflection in the bottle held a hoof out. Another soldier passed Shell a manarifle. He squatted. He aimed. A flash of blue.

Belle sputtered, "Kera! Get down—" Her voice was swallowed by a stream of burning magic streaking past her ear.

The filly didn't answer. At first, she didn't even move. Finally, after the crackling in the air had dissolved, she shuffled around. The expression on her tattooed face was almost apologetic, until the shock wore out. Kera gargled up blood, as red and rich as the fountain springing forth from her little belly. She joined the puddles in a doll-like flop, lying stiller than stones.

With fitful, spastic breaths, Belle crawled towards her. She flopped and collapsed twice, but nonetheless continued her numb scurry through the refuse until she squatted by the tiny shell of a foal. She reached down, her hoof brushing through those bushy green bangs until she felt the warmth seeping away from the soft pale coat beneath. Kera's eyes gazed forever into the misery and detritus between them. There was no magic left to be found in all that gloss.

Someway, somehow, Belle must have seen where it vanished to, and it ripped the breath out of her in a choking sob. She curled over, wrapping her forelimbs around Kera's limp head and neck, cradling the foal to her golden body as her lungs expanded once more, only to launch wail after wail, ricocheting off the cold walls of the street like hollow bones. No matter how closely she cuddled the filly, the warmth would not return. It drifted away in her tears, like so much hope and color, until even the stripes receded as well, being flung overboard with everything that the mare had ever believed in.

And before she could sob the loss of that too, strong hooves yanked her back, fastening the mare's hooves in shackles. She shrieked and struggled, fitfully scraping at the dirtied floor as Shell and his enforcers dragged the mare away from the wall, where Kera's body lay like a rag of meat, one with the garbage of Blue Nova.

Price of Loyalty

Bellesmith had no more tears left to shed. She stood like a statue, hollow and emotionless, as the manacraft carried her up to a large Ledomaritan zepplin hovering south of the heights of Blue Nova. The midday sun glinted off the sleek craft as it levitated to a stop and then floated up against the zeppelin's loading dock. Crew ponies from either ship whistled and gestured to one another, tossing rops and affixing wooden fasteners. At last, a gate between the two vessels opened, and the guards standing tall on either side of Belle urged her forward.

She obeyed, numbly, trotting in a liquid lurch. Several crew ponies paused in their work as their eyes remained locked on the mane-less mare. No words were said, not even a bitter taunt. Once or twice, somepony may have coughed, but it was otherwise silent as the pony was led towards a cabin below the deck of the zeppelin's swaying gondola.

Belle was led into a dark room, lit dimly by a pair of lanterns hanging in the opposite ends of the storage space. The smell of dust and aged wood tickled her nose. She was led to a chair and forced to sit down with her back against the wall. From there, she watched as Shell eventually entered, his every hoofstep a prolonged, creaking thing. All the while, he kept his one eye trained on her, even as he side-stepped over towards a table and layed down Princess Luna's midnight satchel.

After a minute, Shell stopped. He broke his sight of Belle to turn and nod towards his subordinates. The guards saluted and marched out of the room, closing the door creakily behind them.

Shell and Bellesmith were alone.

With a shuffle of his four natural limbs, Shell trotted over to the table. In almost gentle fashion, he unlatched the satchel and started lifting the contents out: a brush, a pair of goggles, shredded remnants of a blanket, a green book.

He paused on the green book. He glanced at Belle.

Belle's gaze fell towards the floor. She stared into nothingness, sitting absolutely still.

Shell flipped the book open. In the flicker of the distant lanterns, he turned one page after another. His jaw clenched and unclenched; otherwise he had very little reaction to the multiple photos of Ledomare's target and her past friends.

Slowly, with slightly less grace, he dropped the book to the table with a thud. He reached into the satchel again with his telekinesis and pulled out the old tome with the ancient symbols on it. He raised it up, slowly twirled it around, then looked at Belle again.

Belle's head kept hanging.

Shell trotted over, opened the book wide, and slapped it down below the mare. "Eljunbyro," he said.

Finally, Belle's body twitched. Slowly, with quivers, her face tilted back up.

Shell leaned forward. "That's what you're supposedly called, is it not?"

The mare said nothing, though her lips pursed in awe.

"Hmmm... Don't look so confused. Not all ponies who serve the Queen are idiots." He paced around until he stood behind her. "Burning down Foxtaur claimed the fortress, but it didn't claim the ruins. We found the remains of that delapidated keep where you and the turncoats cowardly hid from the Steel Wing. We saw the abundance of symbols. Believe it or not, we had scholars to assist us in some much-needed research. 'Eljunbyro: endurance reborn.' Curious that an esteemed professor of physics and mananeurological integration would be so enamored with ancient religious prophecy and nonsense."

Belle bit her lip.

Shell leaned in. "Or was that the beloved's parting gift to you? A wild theory that you clung to with more hope than sense?"

Silence.

Shell's brow furrowed. He stifled a groan of frustration as he trotted to the far end of the room. Belle watched as he opened a closet, pulling out a metal dais. He levitated it over to the table beside Bellesmith and placed it down. Then, after sharing a firm glance, he retrieved a glowing sound stone from his pocket, placed it above the dais, and activated the pedestal. The crystal shard glowed, then spun around as a recorded sound crackled to life across the shadowed space of the cabin.

"Nnnngh... aaugh... ghhh—please! Please, I d-don't friggin' know anything!" The voice sputtered, as if gargling something more than spit and her tongue. Belle shuddered; it was Rainbow Dash's voice. "I j-just wanted to save my friend! I don't know anything about th-this stupid m-machine world! Nnnngh—Gaah! C-Celestia! Stop cutting me! St-stop cutting me, pl-please!"

Belle could barely hear from the sound of the sob running up her throat. She covered her mouth with a pair of hooves as the screams grew louder and more sopping wet.

At last, Shell snatched the sound stone in the crook of his hoof, silencing the recording altogether. He leaned in and hoarsely uttered, "She's still alive, though that isn't saying much. Wings or no wings, she was in far worse condition when I first found her, lying tattered in a wooden hut at Aridstone. Do you know what it is that brought her back? It wasn't you. It wasn't that zebra. It certainly wasn't ancient prophecy or religion. It was me. I provided the metals that nourished her back to health. She owed her life to me, for she became Ledomaritan property. And she can owe her life to me again. Spark knows, she owes her life to you."

Belle sniffled, tilting her face to look at Shell directly.

He glared at her as he said, "Tell me what brought you to Blue Nova. Tell me what you were looking for in Nightshade's city. Work with me... be compliant... and I will see that her suffering on board the Steel Wing ends."

Belle started panting in cold breaths. She gazed with twitching eyes at the sound stone in Shell's grip.

The stallion paced around her. As the silence persisted, her grumbled, "Why do you do this, Doctor Bellesmith? Is there even a goal in mind? Do you even have a future? The ponies that you meet most certainly don't. Your beloved... a company full of Franzington mercenaries... and now a little filly..."

Belle clenched her eyes shut, gnashing her teeth.

Shell stood behind her, placing a pair of firm hooves on her shoulders. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Do you see now the price of loyalty? All I want to do is to set your priorities straight. Believe me; it will be the best for you as well as it will be the best for Ledomare."

Seething, Belle finally opened her eyes. She snarled, "Do you want to know the price of loyalty?"

Shell's grip of her shoulders lessened as he awaited an answer.

She gave it. "Let me show you." With a snarl, she hopped off the chair and bucked it straight into the stallion's gut.

Shell fell back like a sack of potatoes. He struggled to get up.

Belle flew forward, brushing past the table. She paused, reached into Luna's satchel, and pulled out the hatchet. Spinning around, she launched it with a grunt at the stallion.

Shell stood up, but swiftly ducked the bladed weapon. It spun towards the corner of the cabin, knocking a lantern loose and catching half of the room on fire. Shell cursed under his breath and launched a blast of telekinesis to put out hte flames. When he turned to look over his shoulder...

Belle was gone.

When Nothing's Left

Belle burst out onto the deck of the zeppelin's gondola. Panting, she glanced left and right.

An array of startled crew ponies turned to look at her.

Hissing through her teeth, she darted immediately to her left and bolted up a wooden flight of stairs towards the upper deck.

"The suspect is loose!" somepony's voice shouted. It could have been Shell; it could have been the wind.

Belle ran before the thoughts could drag her down. She saw a wide-eyed stallion disentangling himself from a support rope to swing a hoof at her. Empowered by speed and fright, she slammed her shoulder hard into him, knocking the grunting crew pony onto his flank. Bodies bounded towards her in her peripheral vision. She darted past the ship's steering, hopped over a line of supply crates, and slipped past two meaty enforcers lunging at her shaved tail.

A bright flash of light entreated the mare like a soft sunrise. Without hesitation, she bounded towards it, only to find nothing but air. With a shriek, Bellesmith found herself plunging over the railing of the ship's deck. She slid down the sloped hull of the swaying gondola, bounced over a cannon latch or two, before plummeted towards a wooden support beam. Beyond the frame, an emerald patchwork of farmland loomed hundreds of feet below, pock-marked with glittering lakes and streams.

Bellesmith stifled a shriek as she flattened her body back and spread her rear legs. Her hooves came to a stop against the wooden seam of the gondola's frame. It was all that was keeping her from plunging into the merciless winds. She clung to the hull, hyperventilating, her golden face pelted constantly by the cold air currents.

Above and behind her, bodies scurried through the ship. She tilted her head up, and she saw several stallions gazing down, some frowning, others shocked. The entire crew of the zeppelin gawked at her predicament, and it wasn't until Shell's frazzled face appeared that any of them dared to say anything.

"Doctor Bellesmith!" Shell shouted. "Do not make this difficult! If you simply comply with the wishes of the Council, then I still have it within my power to grant you clemency!"

His horn glowed as he extended a field of telekinesis. Belle didn't budge. He hissed in frustration before muttering a few words towards the soldiers on either side of him. The stallions nodded, then galloped down towards the lower decks. Belle could hear them rumbling through the hull directly behind her.

"Do you understand me?!" Shell exclaimed. "The target's failed is sealed! It was before your life ever got complicated by being associated with her! I can still restore your future! Don't allow loyalty to a pitiful fugitive be the sole reason for destroying your reputation!"

Belle kept panting heavily through chapped lips. Her ears twitched. She looked left and right to see that the nearest cannon latches were opening. Stallions' heads poked out, their horns aimed at her as they started to glow.

"Make the wise choice, doctor! You're a scientist! Look at this objectively!"

Belle seethed and seethed. Then, her trembles ended. She closed her eyes, blinding herself to the chaos and lights like a certain beloved once did.

"It's too late for that now," she murmured. A tear appeared on her lashes, blown immediately to mist by the winds. "All I care for is gone. It's too late for anything..."

Shell's voice was already snarling. "Don't you do it—"

Belle did. With hooves spread and her head tilted up, she tipped forward and allowed gravity to take its course.

All grace ended right then. When the mare fell, it was in rapid, twirling motions, sending her flailing and flopping like a branch falling from the world's tallest tree. She tried calming her mind, but no snapshots of her previous life came to her. Instead, she saw shadows, like photo negatives that had been exposed too long, and they all tickled her nose with the smell of sterile electricity and mana steam.

And then, all breath left her. Belle's lungs heaved and buckled, as if she was sailing like a torpedo somewhere underwater. Gravity shifted, and she was certain she was no longer falling—but instead rising, propelled to the zenith of all existence at the speed of light.

It was at that moment that Belle opened her eyes.

The world was gone, only it wasn't. The elements that constituted reality had shattered apart, so that they flew about in whiter-than-white circles, pale spheres that rolled and thundered around her.

Belle tried to scream into the madness, but she found herself whispering like a doormouse instead. "Somepony... tell me what's going on! Blessed Sp-Spark! I'm dying!"

The world ripped apart even more, rippling in the shape and sound of a gentle voice, made bellicose by the sundering dimensions. "You are not dying, Bellesmith. You've accessed a random sphere.

Belle panted and panted. She looked to her left and saw the stars melting into the nether, being swallowed up in utter blackness. There was one last flicker of lavender, like a dying sob, and then it was all emptiness.

"Just relax, Bellesmith."

"I'm going someplace! I don't know where!" Belle tried to shriek. As the blackness overtook her, she felt her head splitting from the top down, as though an axe made out of pure sound was slicing through the top of her skull. "The singing! It's deafening!"

"We're pulling you out. Just stay calm, darling!" Out of the blackness, a single spark pulsed, all-powerful and all-encompassing. Belle rose and fell into it all at once, until the spark consumed her. "Just stay calm!"

"Nnnnngh..." Belle flinched against the brightness, outright sobbing the words out. "Twists and t-turns are my master plan. Nnnngh... f-find the elements back where you b-began—"

"Blessed Spark... Bellesmith! Listen to my voice! You must stay focused! You must stay—"

These Chestnut Eyes

"—focused!" His mustached face said, leaning directly in her face.

"Aaaaah!" Bellesmith shot up, her brown eyes wide and brimming with tears. Her horn glowed brighter than the sun. The cap over the end of it was smoking. The arcane wires fused to the metal piece were burning red. "Mmmmff—Aaaugh! Beloved! I w-want to see him! Blessed Spark! Blessed Spark, save m-me!" She jerked in fitful spasms.

With a worried expression, the stallion gripped her hard to the bed with his graying limbs. He turned and shouted at ponies working instruments along the pale edges of the tight room. "I thought you pulled her out!"

"We finally did!" one of two ponies garbed in white exclaimed. They rushed across the dimly lit chamber and huddled around her. "Her leylines are still fused!"

"Even still? Apply more buffers to the sphere divide!" The stallion exclaimed, passing beneath an illuminated sheet of glass. "We must get her out more slowly than this!"

"It's too late! She's cut off from the sequence—"

"Wait!" A pony in the back, a unicorn mare, looked up from an instrumental panel. She gasped with a victorious grin. "I've got it! All connections severed... now!"

The pulsating light at the end of Bellesmith's forehead finally dimmed. She fell back into a cushioned bed, panting, sweating from head to hoof.

Breathing easier, the ponies trotted back to their stations, powering the machine down. The mustached stallion knelt by Belle's bedside. "Well done, Felicity. You just saved the mare's life..."

The unicorn trotted over from the back, exhaling with similar relief. "I can't believe how close that was..."

"Did you figure out the cause of all this?"

"It looks as though there was a mana feedback loop interfering from the start. It's likely she got stuck in that, which is why all of the sequencing spheres got tangled up." Felicity stood by the bed, smiling down at the recuperating pony. "Those last two times we tried pulling her out were just echoes of her magical signature, and not her real consciousness."

"By the Queen's mane... we almost lost her..."

"Lost... m-me...?" Bellesmith panted, her eyes gradually widening. She brought a hoof up to her steaming horn, only to feel a fountain of full, rich mane hair. Her face grimaced, and she looked down to see that her tail hairs were likewise intact. "But... it... what...?"

"Bellesmith, darling, try and relax," the stallion leaned in, gently squeezing her shoulder. "There was... an error in the apparatus, we had to try several times to reel you back to the surface, as t'were. Felicity here proved priceless in her assistance. We had to interrupt her off-time with Placid to come here and save the day."

"Oh, don't pin this all on me," Felicity said with a chuckle. "The Doctor here had a part to play in this. According to my readings, she actually terminated the sequence from within."

"Terminated from within?!" The stallion gaped at her. "You... you don't mean to suggest that she resorted to—?"

"Please, I... I don't understand..." Belle seethed, sitting up straight... only to fall back down from how numb her limbs felt. "Unngh... I was... on the zeppelin. And... and Prime Enforcer Shell had tortured Rainbow Dash... to learn more about the machine world..."

"Rainbow... Dash...?" Felicity raised an eyebrow.

"Prime Enforcer Shell?" The stallion blinked. Smiling nervously, he reached forward and patted the mare's hooves. "Belle, darling, I think now's a good time for us to take you to the infirmary—"

"I'm not sick! I... I was falling... and..." Belle turned towards him, then froze, squinting. "Dalton...?"

"Yes, Belle..." He gave a mustached smile, nodding. "That's right. What else can you remember?"

"I..." Belle's golden face slowly, slowly relaxed, as the hard lines melted with the cold sweat running down her brow. "The sequencing spheres... the experiment..." She blinked. "Blue Shelf?"

"That's incredible," Felicity said, gazing at Dalton with a shocked smile. "And after all that she went through! If you don't call that a good sign, I don't know what is!"

"Good sign? Huh?" Belle successfully sat up, albeit on quivering limbs. "I don't understand. What's going on...?"

"You were going under for another routine sequencing this morning," Dalton said. "But you got caught in a feedback loop. If what Doctor Felicity here says is true, then you were just one or two sphere-streams from losing consciousness forever. We spent a great deal of time and effort trying to get you back out."

"Out... out of what?" Belle gawked at the machinery looming above and around her. She fluffed her mane again and stammered, "How... how long was I under?"

"About twelve hours, darling."

Belle's jaw hung open. She exhaled.

"What...?"

Where You Began

"Response."

Belle gulped, trying to stifle her shivers from where she sat in a tiny chair across the office. "Uhm... Mino... Minotaurs..."

Professor Garnet calmly zapped the tablet floating above his desk with his horn. "Exhibit..." The monochromatic image morphed from that of a valve to an aqueduct. "Response?"

Bellesmith bit her lip. She looked up, and the painted blue eyes of Queen Ledo glared back at her in the gray light of the underground room. "Dr-dragons..."

"Exhibit." Garnet's tablet displayed a broad-rimmed hat. "Response?"

The mare stifled a whimper. "Apples..."

"Exhibit." A campfire. "Response?"

"Foxtaur..."

A gas mask.

"Enforcers."

A hoofball.

"Awesomeness."

A suit of armor.

"Searo."

A hoofprint enveloping a solar crest.

Belle froze. Her mouth hung open before finally stammering, "Austraeoh..."

Garnet raised an eyebrow beneath his blond mane. He turned to look at the glass panel. "Hmmm..." He turned back to smile at her. "It would seem as though we are making progress."

The mare gulped. "Pr-progress...?"

"Yes..." Garnet levitated the plate towards him as he scribbled with a mana-charged pen across the glossy surface. "None of the other lab technicians got nearly as much out of sequencing as you. I daresay, it would seem as though Dr. Felicity is quite envious, though her jealousy is hidden by her legitimate relief at your having survived that most recent ordeal."

"Professor, I... I don't understand..." Belle hissed in pain as she rubbed a hoof across her forehead. A fountain of brown mane hair cascaded over her twitching gaze. "I'm still reeling. It's like there are stars exploding right before my eyes..."

"You were under for quite a long, long time, Doctor. I promise you that you'll get your chance to rest. I just needed to get some feedback before you got too disconnected from the memories you've experienced."

"That's not it." Belle gulped, standing up from the chair. She wobbled dizzily, but nevertheless maintained her composure. "I... I experienced something that was real! It... it couldn't all have been the product of the test subject that I was sequencing with!"

"Oh, most certainly not." Garnet stopped writing long enough to stare at her. "From all of the data we've gathered previously, the subject's spheres tell a long and harrowing tale about a culture of winged pegasi that once ruled the landscape here, hundreds if not thousands of years ago, long before the Confederacy was ever founded under a matriarch." He pointed with his pen. "The moment you got caught in a repetitious energy loop, your consciousness was disconnected from the subject's spheres. You were tossed left and right across a nebulous dreamscape, and your mind did its damn best to make sense of the gaps of comprehension. Thankfully..." He chuckled as he said, "Your creative intellect and sheer intelligence allowed you to perservere, albeit colorfully. I truly cannot imagine the sheer volume of information you were undoubtedly dealing with each passing second."

"I..." Belle gritted her teeth, starting to pace in a limping fashion. "I couldn't have thought all of that up! It's just not possible!"

"Couldn't you?" Garnet leaned back and planted his hooves together. "Mr. Dalton informed me of some of the things you were rambling about as you were dragged out of the sequencing room. A machine world? A ring of interconnected planes? A Sun Goddess and a Moon Goddess having sent a rainbow colored avatar to ignite the spark of all reality?"

"Rainbow Dash is the subject!" Bellesmith exclaimed, her voice cracking. "She's the one I've been sequencing with!"

"Dr. Bellesmith, you've been sequencing with the remnants of a past long gone," the stallion said. "There has never been a record of the subject's name in any of the previous sphere-sequences." He raised an eyebrow again. "Are you telling me that you've discovered the identity of this pony? You were certainly under long enough to acquire such data."

"I'm not joking!" Belle growled. "Her name is Rainbow Dash! I met her! I saved her! I even ran the Running of the Leaves with Applejack... that is... I mean..." Belle shuddered, running a hoof over her face. "She ran the Running of the Leaves...in Equestria.... that is, I saw that... when I was her... before I met her..."

Garnet slowly, slowly nodded. "I see. 'Equestria...' as in 'equine?' As in a place indicative of ponydom?"

"Yes. Far across the world. Where... Where..." Belle sighed as she slumped to her haunches. "Where two alicorn deities control the movement of the sun and moon."

"I do presume you are hearing yourself, Doctor."

Bellesmith looked up to frown at him. "I am in control of my faculties."

"For the moment, perhaps. But it is not impossible to experience residual aftereffects of sequencing, especially when it's been as prolonged as what you just went through."

"I-I know what I saw and f-felt," Bellesmith grumbled.

"And you saw and felt what the sequencing machine made you experience," Garnet said. "And when you got disconnected from the spheres, the effects of sequencing fed off your unbridled imagination, causing you to experience what amounted to a very visceral dream. The only problem: it wasn't entirely lucid, up until the last moment, that is."

Belle looked up at him with a grimacing expression. "What do you mean?"

Garnet blinked in surprise. "Why..." He gestured. "When you 'terminated' the program from the inside. Dr. Felicity explained it to me."

"'Terminated...'" Belle gulped, gazing into the gray haze of the room. "I was on board the zeppelin. Shell had captured me. I... I jumped off..." Belle exhaled shudderingly as she pulled at her mane. "Blessed spark, I jumped. I... k-killed myself. How c-could I ever have let things come to that...?"

"Your mind was confused. It was only natural to feel despair. However..." Garnet leaned forward again. "I do not think the explanation is quite that simple, nor as somber. Hence, my lucidity hypothesis."

Belle looked tiredly at him.

Garnet smiled. "Even if you were lost to the whim of your imagination, the mind of a scientist was still there. You knew deep down that the dream wouldn't finish itself, so you chose a way out purposefully. You broke the narrative, and Felicity was able to cast you a line back to dry shore, as t'were. And now you're here, Dr. Bellesmith." He gestured towards the lengths of the room. "Back to reality."

"Back... to reality..." Belle gulped, gazing around the concrete chamber. "Back to where it all began... twists and turns... are his master plan..."

Garnet raised an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"

She spun him a frowning look. "You're a spy! You're in league with an outside party! You're sharing top secret information about Blue Shelf so that others can build an identical facility in a place called Deep Ridge!"

Garnet tongued the edge of his mouth as he tapped his pen against the desktop. "Uh huh... uh yeah." He placed the pen down and leaned back with a soft smirk. "Mr. Dalton mentioned you saying some... less than favorable things about me."

Belle's brow furrowed. "You mean, after I-I was pulled out of sequencing? I don't remember—"

"No, I mean before, Doctor," Garnet said, his face taking on a deadpan expression. "Before you even attached yourself to the apparatus, you had confided in Dalton some misgivings about my position here at Blue Shelf."

Belle hung her head, her lips pursed in thought.

"Now, don't worry. I perfectly understand why. Also, I hope you don't get angry at Mr. Dalton for sharing. He only told me because he cares a lot about you, and he felt that I was being a bit too demanding. And you know what? He was right." Garnet picked his panel up and started writing across it again with the manapen while talking. "The Council of Ledo requests a lot from me, and as a result I require much from my associates. It's been very stressful working here as of late. Undoubtedly, when your mind was cast off from the subject's sphere, your beleaguered consciousness manifested some... mmm... unpleasant scenario in which I took part. I doubt I was the only one."

"Huh...?"

"I took psychiatry in my day, Doctor." Garnet looked up with knowing eyes. "I'm certainly not oblivious to every jolt and cringe your body has displayed when I so much as mention the Council of Ledo or its military defense force. Tell me..." He leaned over his pad to say, "Who exactly is this 'Prime Enforcer Shell?'"

Belle immediately gritted her teeth, holding back a seething breath.

Garnet nodded. "See? That's exactly what I'm talking about." He slashed and dotted across the pad some more. "I did a thorough search for 'Enforcer Shell' before we conducted this examination. I'm sorry to say that I haven't come up with a single matching reference."

"He's... he's a veteran soldier," Belle stammered. "He's fought along the Southeast Xonan front! He's—"

"I'm sorry. Did you say 'Southeast Xonan' front?"

Belle blinked at him. "Yes. Of course. Why?" She narrowed her eyes. "Has the front moved since I went under sequencing?"

Garnet smiled awkwardly. "I can't say that it's gone anywhere, Doctor Bellesmith, seeing as the Confederacy has been on non-agressive terms with them since the peace treaty thirty years ago."

Belle gawked. She cringed, cringed harder, and stomped her hooves. "This makes no sense!"

"No, it simply doesn't make sense... yet."

"Unacceptable!" Belle shouted, her voice reverberating across the room's concrete foundation. "The war never ended! It's been consuming hundreds upon thousands of lives, and it's made the Council of Ledo so desperate and so heartless that they've resorted to gross experimentation and genocide!"

"Since when was this some terrible military state, Doctor?" Garnet gestured all around. "Do you see any guards around here?"

"No, but—!" Belle froze, panting. She gulped then slowly turned around, gazing at the emptiness between her and the door, dwelling upon the emptiness in the halls outside. "No, but, that doesn't mean... doesn't mean..."

"You've been stressed, frustrated, and exhausted, Doctor," Garnet said. "The undeniable proof of a good albeit overworked researcher. I think it's rather obvious that you carried your feelings of ennui and aggravation over with you into the dreamscape. If you had remained anchored to the subject's spheres, then we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. All things considered, we should be counting our blessings. You're pretty lucky."

"Lucky?!" Belle snarled again. "The only reason you ever chose me to be sequenced to that damned machine is because of my shattered horn!"

Garnet sighed long and hard. "And thus we fall back to my statement earlier about residual after-effects." That said, he flung the glass tablet at her viciously

Belle stifled a shriek, flinching. After a few seconds, she squinted her eyes back open. She marveled at the sight of the tablet... floating in front of her. The aura sparkled with golden beams of light, as familiar as the sound of her own breaths.

"How can I expect you to be rational about anything when you can't even remember what you trotted in through my very door with?"

Belle nervously reached a hoof up, this time bringing it past her mane. She felt the sharp, shimmering tip of her own horn. With remarkable ease, she thought, and the tablet rotated and levitated at her command. "By the spark. It's as if... as if it never came off..."

"That's because it never did." Garnet glanced at her crookedly. "And, if I may ask, how would it being broken somehow affect your ability to sequence?"

"Because... it..." Belle exhaled slowly, gripping the tablet in two natural hooves. "I can't explain it anymore..."

"That's because you don't have the need to, Doctor," Garnet said. "You only ever did once, and that was in a phantom past, something you delusionally conjured up within sequencing." He smiled. "Please, don't be ashamed of yourself. It's not everyday that somepony lives the thoughts of several lifetimes in the span of twelve hours."

"Several... lifetimes...?" Belle glanced up.

"Why, just like any dream, Doctor, you only remember that which lingered beneath the surface of consciousness as you were brought to the realm of waking." He shook his head. "No, I daresay you experienced a great deal more. Thankfully, your mind has only chosen to remember bits and pieces, creating a most fantastical mosaic. If it tried to encompass the entire scenario you underwent, I fear there'd not be enough room in your mind, no matter how much of a genius you are."

Belle trotted forward and placed the tablet down on Garnet's desk. She took several heavy breaths, then looked at him. "You're right. I am a scientist." Her nostrils flared. "And as a scientist, I require facts."

"How can I help you analyze them fully, Doctor?"

"Show me Rainbow Dash."

"I beg your pardon?"

She growled, her anger returning. "Show me the subject I was sequenced to!"

Garnet blinked at her. After a simple shrug, he stood up. "Very well." A smile. "Department Blue it is." He reached a hoof out to her, like a gentlecolt. "This way, Doctor..."

Twists and Turns

The door to Department Blue's Alpha Storage slid open with a hiss of mana. His horn glowing, Garnet casually strolled in. A broad, dark chamber of metal stretched before him like an artificial cave.

"Blue Shelf is nestled within a mountain ripe with mana-conductive crystals, which is what makes a subterranean facility like this so perfect for the magical preservation of sensitive materials and artifacts." Garnet chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Of course, there's no need for me to tell you this, is there, Doctor?"

Silence.

Garnet turned around. "Doctor?"

Gulping, Bellesmith stuck her head in through the door. She trembled as she looked left and right across the dark interior.

"Is... something the matter?"

"Where...?" Belle glanced at the floor, her eyes wide as she surveyed the penumbra of light piercing through the darkness. "Where is all the blood? The bodies?"

"Good Doctor, whatever are you rambling about?" Garnet maintained a nonchalant grin. "I don't know what the sequencing has made your poor mind come up with, but there is certainly no blood here. This chamber is as sterile as they come, which is rather important, considering the nature of the sequencing subjects. As for the bodies, however..." He turned and fired a beam of mana at an overhanging crystal.

The place lit up like noonday.

Bellesmith shrieked, covering her face with her hooves. At the murmuring insistence of Garnet, however, she parted her forelimbs and gawked at the scene.

The entire room was filled with white metal sarcophaguses, all standing up like a forest of cocoons. Each one hung from a vertical metal track that led to a sealed hatch positioned in the ceiling.

"There... there are..." Belle spoke aloud, breathily, as she trotted through the mesmerizing scene. "There are dozens! But... th-that's impossible! There should only be one!"

"That would... be quite impossible, Doctor," Garnet said, leading her gradually towards the center of the chamber and past the initial line of containers. "These samples are hundreds upon hundreds of years old. A single one of them isn't intact enough for us to draw information through intimate sequencing. That is why we have to use all of them as an energy matrix, a server of multiple, like sources. It was assumed that they all mutually shared the same memories, and this was discovered to be true after ponies like you and Dr. Felicity first took their leaps into their preserved afterthoughts."

"Mutually shared... memories?"

"We discovered them all at the same site, after all," Garnet said. "Aridstone."

"Aridstone?!" Belle stammered. "I was there?"

"Yes indeed. Mmmm... I suppose you'll remember it soon enough..." Garnet trotted to a stop in front of one particular sarcophagus. "Once your mind calms down." He turned towards the container. "Ah, here we are. Subject #1491." He manipulated the latch and swung the panels to the front of the sarcophagus open.

"No!" Belle swung a hoof out, gasping. "Wait!"

"For what?" He turned back at her as the sarcophagus revealed the petrified remains of a pegasus, its bones and wing spokes coiled within elastic twine. The skeleton hung within the confines of the container, its flesh reduced to paper-thin flakes of ash. "I very much doubt she or he is in the condition to leap for your throat, Doctor Bellesmith." He turned towards the body once again as he spoke. "This figure is the most intact compared to all the rest. That's why we focused all of our sequencing on its spheres, using the others as a bridge. Sequencing with the subject means navigating the combined memories of dozens of extinct flying ponies, ultimately falling upon the recorded experiences of this particular pegasus in question. It takes a genius mind to do battle with so many conflicting and criss-crossing visions, a genius mind like yours."

"There's... there's so much here that doesn't make sense..." Bellesmith murmured. A pit formed in her throat, and she almost trotted up to rest a hoof against the subject's skull, to search for remnants of a spectral mane. "Why would they be in Aridstone? Did the dragons of Silvadel chase them there? Where did you get all of this chaos metal?"

Garnet closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to smile calmly at her. "Doctor Bellesmith, I know of no... 'dragons of Silvadel' or 'chaos metal.' You asked me to show you evidence, and here it is. However, something tells me that evidence alone will not suffice in this situation. What we both need is for you to relax and allow your mind to adjust to reality. I'm starting to believe that such cannot happen here."

"But... But there's so much to—"

"I'm putting you on an indefinite vacation, Doctor," Garnet said. He closed the sarcophagus in front of them as he gestured her towards the exit of the chamber. "Yes, I'm sure, the Doctor Bellesmith that I know would be flabbergasted at me too. But, it's never too late for associates like the two of us to begin on the right hoof. Hmm?"

"I... I..."

"That's an order, Doctor."

The Cave's Shadow

Bellesmith sat on her haunches, her forelimbs curled up to her chest as she stared at a dense wall of partially chiseled rock. A lone manatorch was all that illuminated that particular niche, a spot within the subterranean reaches of Blue Shelf where the concrete corridors stopped dead against craggy earth. Her breaths were long, even, and melancholy. A perpetual curve alighted the mare's vulnerable eyes, glistening in the manalight.

From behind, Dalton shuffled up, his gray features forming a slight sheen from the nearby torch. He took one look at Bellesmith, mustered up his strength, and quietly approached her. "You know, two days ago, Professor Garnet told me that you 'needed time to think.' I didn't expect that meant seeing you here, brooding by your lonesome within Black Level, like it was a cemetery."

Belle didn't look at him. After a slight shiver, she said, "There were hundreds of slaves in this place, Dalton, droves of rams, buffalo, deer, and mules. Between here and the door to the machine world, they labored in sweaty huddles, banging away at rock and starving by the dozens. Garnet was here. Felicity and Placid were here. The place reeked of spilled blood and smoke. I can still smell the decay; I can still hear the pained moans and the banging of metal pickaxes."

Dalton trotted over and quietly sat down beside her. "Black Level... was named glibly because when the Ledomaritans who built this place dug their way to this part of the mountain, they deemed the rock ahead to be too unstable, and thus it was not worth risking the lives of the Council's workers to trudge ahead. We've since not had the funding to patch this area up with concrete. So, to keep it off limits, we've entitled it 'Black Level.'" His mustached muzzle smiled. "Perhaps it was a silly attempt to make the place sound somewhat foreboding. Spark knows what that must have done to your imagination."

"And just k-kind of an imagination is that, Dalton?" Belle finally looked at him with a grimacing expression. "I have never dealt with hardships before I met Professor Garnet and—" She winced even harder, sighed, and ran a hoof over her face. "I have never dealt with hardships before." She gulped. "True, I never got along too well with my family, and the zeppelin crash at Mountfainfall changed a lot of things, but I've always had an easy lot in life. No pain. No suffering."

"Agony is relative, as far as I'm concerned," Dalton said with a consoling smile. "The scientist within you is aware of your well-to-do lot in life. It takes a great deal more to convince your heart of that as well."

"Where was the scientist when I was sequencing? Huh?" Belle frowned. "Being a fugitive on the run?! Befriending slaves, turncoats, and traitors?! Being chased and pursued as property?! How could I have dreamed all those things up?!"

Dalton nodded as he breathily said, "Your dreamscape did have... a lot of common themes; that's for certain. Perhaps you are a great deal more cynical than you wish to believe, darling."

"In what way?"

"Well, now, we all know that the Confederacy isn't perfect. Ponies like Garnet will hang posters of the Queen left and right, but that doesn't wipe the slate clean, now does it? Hmm?" He smiled wearily. "Non-pony citizens have dealt with prejudice and unequal representation for years. Decades, even. It's very difficult for... say... a ram or a mule to get a high paying job in service to Her Majesty. These rules aren't written anywhere, but no single citizen of Ledomare can grow up and somehow deny it without turning red in the face. For some, they simply choose to ignore it. For others—those with a caring, compassionate heart—they struggle with the guilt and the confusion that comes with acknowledging life's imbalance."

Belle stared into the craggy, black wall. "I... I-I can't say that I have ever... been at peace with the things I have learned about Ledomare..."

"And in your dreams, when you were cast loose from the spheres of the subject, you had no predominating consciousness to control what you felt or perceived," Dalton said. "You were a victim to your desires and fears, darling. Things came at you and you had no ability to guard against them."

"How... w-would I possibly desire such terrible things to happen to such innocent equines?" Belle murmured, her voice wavering a bit. She sniffed and rubbed a hoof across her golden cheek. "It frightens me to think that my mind has the ability to create such... such darkness..."

"I do not believe desire has anything to do with it, Belle," Dalton said. "If I recall from your sequencing accounts, however frantically relayed, you were quite often the subject of intense persecution and punishment at the hooves of those more powerful and more entitled than you. If nothing else, I would venture to guess that your guilt and misgivings in real life produced a relatively... masochistic experience within the fantasy."

"You mean..." Belle's lip quivered. "I was p-punishing myself?"

"Think of it as a way of desperately trying to empathize with those you've otherwise only read about or heard about," he said.

She hung her head, frozen in thought. After a while, she eventually said, "And those visions I had... of Rainbow Dash... of her life..." She bit her lip. "So much suffering. So much loneliness. Did... did I create those too?"

"Darkness is something that's found in all of us, even if what we most desire is the spark of life. Tell me, was this 'Rainbow Dash' character somepony who embodied cruelty? Was she a spreader of the darkness?"

Belle looked at him and emphatically shook her head.

Dalton smiled. "Seems like, in spite of all your vision's nightmarish qualities, you still held onto hope. That's quite nice to think about, isn't it?"

"Rainbow Dash... always peservered... in spite of all adversity..."

"Much like yourself, I would venture to guess."

Belle ran a hoof over her bangs and sighed. "I couldn't ever be compared to that mare..."

"But that didn't stop you from taking her place from time to time," Dalton said. "And, being most familiar with your own work, your mind used the nature of our scientific practices here in Blue Shelf to create that bridge between you and the model mare you always wanted to be. Eliminate that bridge, and what do you have? One pony, split into two different beings, unaware that she has the strength and potential to be both identities at once. If only you could embrace that other side..."

"Maybe..." Belle gulped. "Maybe I kind of did..."

"Maybe indeed," Dalton said, nodding.

Belle sighed. She gazed into the black rock and muttered, "Is it... is it that I've been depressed? That I've been so gloomy for so long?"

"What makes you say that, darling?"

"Because... I-I just can't get over how..." She shrugged her shoulders. "How wonderfully tranquil Blue Shelf actually is. I feel like I was gone for weeks, and all that time I was exposed to so much evil and cruelty within the heart of Ledomare." She turned and gazed up at Dalton. "I even... I even dreamed that Mildred was dead and that they had your grandfoals held hostage..."

Dalton's smile left him slightly. Nevertheless, he breathed evenly as he said, "I am pleased to assure you that my grandfoals are safe. As for Mildred, my beloved, well... she did indeed pass away several years ago."

Belle's lips pursed. "Oh, Dalton. I'm... I-I'm so sorry..."

He waved a hoof gently. "Now now, nothing to be sorry about. You've been through a lot. Undoubtedly you forgot that I told you shortly before your last sequencing."

"No, I... I remembered it," she said gently, looking back at the walls of Black Level. "Perhaps I didn't want to, which is why my mind weaved a bizarre tale around it, but I remembered..."

"Listen to me, Bellesmith." Dalton placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Life may be a lot better in the real world than it was in your delusional state, but it is still not perfect. There are many roads that need to be paved... many barricades that need to be erected against what's ugly and dangerous on this continent. We may not have established Her Majesty's utopia yet, but we are working on it, like good and honest souls. If there's anything that your visions have taught me—and I hope they can reinforce the truth in you as well—it's that you are more than willing to pursue happiness in all its forms, and that makes you the most benevolent kind of citizen this land could ask for. You should be proud of what this experience has taught you, and not be overwrought with confusion and dismay."

"But... it's just so hard..." Belle gripped her head in two hooves and seethed. "There's so much... so very much to comprehend..."

"Well, if you must know, I came here to deliver a message," Dalton said. "Garnet has made true to his promise for giving you a reprieve. He'd like you to venture to the surface for no less than two weeks."

"Two... weeks...?"

"Go, Bellesmith," Dalton said. "Collect yourself, darling. Take time to meditate, to relax. And, most of all, spend some quality time with Pilate."

Belle froze. Slowly, her head tilted up, and her eyes moistened. "B-Beloved...?"

Return To Harmony

Huge concrete doors opened to the surface of Blue Shelf. Bellesmith stuck her head out of the grand elevator car, biting her lip as a gust of cool mountain wind blew at her brown locks. Tightening a plain gray satchel around her flanks, she trotted forward, squinting into the bright sunlight streaming across a crystal blue sky.

Birds chirped and dipped low, flitting from tree to tree. The smell of pine and melting sap lingered in the air. At a distance, Belle could see zeppelins puttering. They numbered in the dozens, carrying freight along open trade routes in the free air.

"Have a safe trip home, ma'am."

Belle jumped, stifling a high pitched yelp. She glanced to her right, trembling.

A unicorn in a working jersey smirked, nodded his horn at her, and resumed transporting mana crystals from one building to another. Flanking the tall zeppelin tower at the summit of Blue Shelf was a series of wooden huts. Engineers and couriers flocked from building to building, while several of them hung about in tight clusters, spending the time in felicitous conversation. There was not a single beret to be seen.

Bellesmith fidgeted. The wind blew her bangs before her eyes. She raised a hoof to move the strands, but paused. She then lowered her limb. Concentrating with extra zeal, Belle telekinetically parted her bangs, allowing herself an unobstructed view of the mountain paradise. She took a deep breath, as if preparing for a deep dive, and strolled forward into the sun-kissed slopes leading into the pine forest.

As she trotted down the path, her hooves kicking up mulch and gravel, she passed by two wagons. One was full of freshly chopped logs, with a stallion hoofing out firewood to the locals, one hut at a time. Another was full of crystals bound for the facility, their energy brimming and waiting to be tapped.

Belle heard a sound to her right. She turned to look.

A manticore burst through the foliage and came upon her.

"Gaaah!" Belle shrunk away, covering her head. As the seconds bled by, her body wasn't ripped in half. Instead, she heard a soft, urgent clicking voice.

"Tchh. Tchh. Whoah there, Peach Fangs. This ain't the way."

Belle looked up to see a mare in forest-colored gear mounted on the back of the beast. Affixed to a burlap saddle, she telekinetically yanked at a pair of reins and urged the creature back into the underbrush, joining three more manticores being similarly guided by ponies to drag lumber and supplies towards an nearby mill. Beyond them, the forest line loomed clear and naked, without a single manafence to bar them.

With a dry gulp, Belle returned to the mountain path, quickening her pace. Soon, she was passing under the shade of hanging pine needles. The air rustled with swaying limbs in the refreshing, afternoon breeze. Squirrels foraged besides the road, hopping fearlessly close to where Belle's hooves and the tracks of countless others had tread.

Nervously, Belle glanced ahead. The village loomed, and it was twice as busy as she remembered it. Instead of barren streets and dilapidated building fronts, the place was ripe with equine life. Ponies and other quadrupeds milled about, trading goods, pushing garden wagons, sharing stories, and filling the air with mirth and laughter. As the scientist approached the heart of town, her figure was reflected in many a pair of eyes. Smiling faces and eager expressions were in abundance.

She didn't smile back. Her shivers doubled with each glance she took to either side of her. Belle took one look at the front of the library, and a pair of buffalo stood at a distance, a male and a female. The two beloveds waved politely at her.

Shuddering, Belle skirted pass a rickety wagon and a line of laborers. She came upon the central office, but grimaced at how long the line was outside the entrance. She fumbled with the crystal identification shard that was located in the front pocket of her satchel.

"Bellesmith!" A chipper voice exploded in her ear. "As I live and breathe!"

"Nnngh!" she gasped, dropping her shard entirely. She turned to see Baxter grinning in her face.

"Long time no see!" he sing-songed, waving a cloven hoof. "Wow, they really kept you down there for ages, huh? At this rate, I figured you were gonna sprout roots and stay down there for good!"

"I... uhm... I am having... that is..." Belle bit her lip, grunting as her forelimbs tugged at the stubborn shard stuck in the mud. "I was having tr-trouble... and I... I-I..."

"Here, allow me." Baxter's antler's glowed. With a single tug, he easily plucked the stone loose and floated it over to Belle. "You're getting rusty, Doctor," he said with a smirk. "Another day of sequencing, and you won't even be able to open doors with that horn of yours!"

"I... I can't... erm..." Belle fitfully looked over her shoulder. The line into the office looked even thicker. She was starting to sweat profusely. "There's no time for... f-for talking..."

"Oh come on! You gotta give me at least a little gab!" Baxter said, almost hopping in place. "Is the project going along smoothely? Figured anything out about the ancient ponies who ran this country before us?"

"You..." Belle stammered. "You know?"

Baxter raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I? Pffft... not like this place is top secret or nothing..."

"Uhm... Baxter, darling?" Kenna trotted up, carrying a basket of flowers atop her hindquarters. "Perhaps you should tone it down a bit? Can't you see Belle's exhausted?"

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Baxter smirked in Belle's direction. "You okay, girl? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I... I..." Belle looked at Baxter, at Kenna, then at Baxter again. "I-I gotta go!" She galloped off, almost dropping the shard again.

"Whoah!" Baxter gasped. "What's the hurry, Doc?"

Belle panted and panted. As he passed by the general store, two ponies were trotting out.

"And for the last time, I'm not allergic to peanuts," Placid said in a dull groan. "If I was, I'm quite certain I would have perished from all of our visits to your cousin's for Spark's Forging every year."

"Would it kill you to be a little bit careful, at least?" Felicity grumbled. "We don't want a repeat of last month with you and the Hayseed Supreme."

"You do realize that was an isolated incident, and you had talked me into drinking copious amounts of cider at the time—" Placid turned, and it was then that he saw Belle. "Oh, good doctor! You have returned to us!"

"I knew she'd come around eventually!" Felicity said with a smug grin. She then blinked awkwardly. "Uhm, Doctor?" Felicity pointed back at the office. "Aren't you going to check yourself back in?"

"No t-time!" Belle simply scampered past them. "I have to go!"

"No time? Is she daft?" Placid muttered.

Felicity placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Leave her be. She's been through a lot. Delusional paranoia is difficult to shake off."

At that, Belle glanced back—only to blindly bump into something. She grunted breathily, stumbling backwards. When her vision cleared, an angry, wooly face was glaring up at her from beyond a gnarled pair of horns.

"You ever heard of trotting lanes, princess?" Grinder venomously spat. He grinded his hooves, pulling a rusted wagon full of bricks. "I'm not that kind of ram. Go to the west side of town and bump into a stallion who gives a flaming turd, why don'tcha?"

Belle squeaked forth a tiny whimper. She bent her head forward and outright sprinted into the forest. She heard the worried voices of Felicity and Placid behind her in the distance. They soon faded between the tree trunks, like hushed wind between the pines.

After scaling clumps of pine needles and mounds of fallen tree limbs, she made her way onto an open path again. She followed its winding course uphill, veering left and right to avoid tree stumps and collapsed logs. At last, she came upon a brightly-lit avenue, flanked by log cabins.

She heard something here, something that had never rang through that lonesome mountain air before. It almost resembled the mewling of kittens, until Belle's sluggish canter brought her upon the edge of it, and then she was hearing laughter and cackles and giggles. She froze as soon as two of the bodies rushed past her, chasing each other on short, waddling limbs.

A little filly laughed, running circles around Belle until she hid behind one of the mare's limbs, hiding from a colt who was playfully chasing her. The colt jerked left and right, trying to coax her out from behind the scientist. At last, the filly made a run for it, joining her friends who had made a fort out of twigs on the crest of a hill along the forest's edge. When the colt came within range, the fillies on the other side stood up and telekinetically tossed water balloons with tiny glowing horns. The colt shrieked and ran off, giggling.

Breathless, Belle looked away from this scene and gawked at the houses. Every other log cabin was dotted with children, some of them playing, others standing and chatting on the front stoops to their homes. Mothers and fathers hovered all about, tending to lawnwork, sweeping the walkways clean, and beautifying the gardens.

Belle fought the urge to hyperventilate. She strolled ahead, slowly this time, making for the familiar brown shape that was her home. As she did so, a mare trotted in the opposite direction, smiling as she hummed a happy tune in the sunlit air. A filly sat in one of the pockets of her saddlebag. The youngster waved at the scientist with a bright smile.

"Hello, Doctor Belle!"

Belle winced, but nevertheless waved back. A pair of colts trotted past her, dragging fishing equipment.

"Hey there, Belle!"

"Nice afternoon, Belle!"

Belle hushedly nodded. Her limbs were numb as rubber at this point. With a few more steps, she came upon the springy grass of her cabin's front lawn. Turning right, she hurried up the path and planted her hooves against the front door handle. Pausing, she turned and flashed a twitchy look over her shoulder.

Across the street, two mares sat, gossiping. Beside them, a pair of very young fillies sat, playing with horse dolls. One of them giggled, her voice sounding like bells in the forest air. She had a mane of bushy emerald. Slowly, like a rotating gravestone, her plump little smile pivoted towards the scientist.

With a burst of magic, Belle flung the door open, launched herself inside, and slammed the thing shut behind her. She slumped against the cabin's frame, breathing in and out, in and out, in and out. In one movement, she stripped of her saddlebag and brought a pair of hooves over her eyes. The mare's teeth clenched and unclenched.

All was silence. Until....

"Belle? Darling, is that you?"

The first breath to come out of Belle was like a knife being ripped from her chest. When she opened her eyes, they were already glossing over. Her breaths slowed as she gradually lurched from the front area and into the kitchen. Hanging a left, she peered around and into the reading room.

The cabin's library was full of color, all muted, painted with every binder and book cover imaginable. And in the center of it all, like a monocrhomatic nucleus, he sat with his stripes, bright and lively, as if he was absorbing everything that the colors had to give and passing them back out in like turn. He didn't look back; he didn't so much as stir as his hovering manasphere flew circles above three open tomes lying across a thick oak desk. A pair of fuzzy ears twitched, and then a voice came—his voice.

"You'll never believe this, beloved. Did you know that Xonan infants are marked with ink stencils less than three weeks after foaling? It would appear that the application of cultural tattoos is committed far earlier than popular culture is apt to believe, that is, if I'm to take any of these old manuscripts seriously. They were written by a quorum of ponies who graduated at Blue Valley University. I never held much respect for Blue Valley, and that's not simply because Mountainfall rivaled them in every intellectual field."

Belle draped herself against the edge of the room. Her hair hung in tattered brown streams around a fragile smile aimed at the library's center. Every subsequent breath tore at her lungs, so that she couldn't help but emit a shudder or two.

Pilate heard them. Of course he heard them. Those ears of his twitched, and soon he was turning around, tilting his head aside like a curious sparrow perched on a low-hanging tree branch. "Belle?" he murmured into the air. His ears twitched again, and he turned completely around. "Beloved? Is everything alright?"

Belle trotted. Belle bounded. Belle threw her forelimbs around Pilate, nuzzling his neck and chin deeply, sobbing into his black and white coat.

His face stretched in shock and confusion. A pair of gray eyes searched the ceiling aimlessly as he stroked her back and murmured, "Why, what is it, Belle?! You're back! Isn't that a good thing?" He gulped as he felt her shudders harder and harder. "Belle, honey, what's wrong?"

She hiccuped on a sob, smiling as tears streamed from her clenched eyelids. She murmured rapturously into his scent, "I had a bad dream..."

A Homely Feeling

“A machine world...?” Pilate stammered. His metal brow furrowed as he turned towards her from where they both sat on a sofa in the study room. “You mean everything you ever went through in the dream had to do with some sort of... primordial terrestrial state of existence?”

“It was the common threme throughout,” Bellesmith said. She fluffed her mane and leaned comfortably against him as she sighed into the shadows of the homely cabin. “Everything we ever went through, every secret we struggled to keep, even the very nature of Blue Shelf's experiment itself: it all had to do with this world that existed before time, maintained by a culture that only flying ponies knew anything about, and the only clues to be found were in the archaeological remnants they had to bequeath us.”

“And this... Rainbow Dust...”

“Dash.”

“Sorry.”

“It's alright, beloved.”

“Ahem...” Pilate wrapped a soothing forelimb around her as he spoke, “This Rainbow Dash was one of the flying ponies? A pegasi, as t'were?”

“Mmmm... No. Not exactly.”

“But I thought you said—”

“She could fly, yes. But she was a completely different pony altogether, a pony of her own.” Belle managed a slight chuckle. Her lips curved as she leaned closer to Pilate, inhaling the zebra's scent. In a relaxed tone, she continued, “She came from a world far away, called Equestria.”

“Equestria, eh? Not exactly that creative, darling.”

This time, Belle giggled without hesitation. “Yes, well, between disc worlds and zeppelin bombardments and chaos antlers, I suppose my imagination had to run dry at some point.”

“Chaos antlers?”

“Well, you would know.” Belle winced. “On second thought, you wouldn't know. You weren't there... and yet you were. Unnngh...” She clenched her eyes shut and ran a hoof over her aching head. “Blessed Spark, it's all too much...”

“You've shown incredible strength for withstanding the psychological pressures and mental exertion that you did, Belle,” Pilate said, squeezing her shoulder. “I know it may not be something you would wish to dwell on at the moment, but I'm very happy that you pulled through it as you did. As a matter of fact, I'm proud.”

“Proud?” Belle relaxed again with a nervous chuckle. “Why proud? You've got yourself a frazzled basketcase of a mare to share the house with.”

“Hmmm... perhaps for a little while. I'm not one to complain; basketcases are good for storing things in.”

“Pilate...”

“I'm just happy that Professor Garnet was kind and thoughtful enough to give you some time off. I wonder if your friend Mr. Dalton talked him into it.”

“No, it was all Garnet's doing,” Belle said. “Don't be so quick to judge him harshly, Pilate.”

The zebra's jaw tensed slightly. “Well, he does seem intent on keeping you down in that dank dungeon from time to time.”

“It's not a dungeon!” Belle snapped. She paused, then sighed, draping herself against him again. “I'm sorry, Pilate. I know none of this has been too easy on you...”

“I make do the best I can, beloved. But you know as well as I do that this is not a happy home unless you're in it.”

“Which makes me so glad to be back, my love,” she murmured, tracing lazy lines across his black and white stripes. “Though, it's... well...”

“Hmmm? What, Belle?”

“It's just surreal. That's all.” Her lips curved as she nuzzled him again. “I was so lost... so confused between one sphere or another... my mind drafting up all of these wild ideas. And yet, I wasn't alone. You were there.”

“Was I, now?”

“Mmmmhmmm.”

“That's rather odd, considering that I seem to have been here the whole time.”

“You know what I mean...”

“No, darling, what do you mean?”

“You... or at least a version of you was there...”

“Hah!” Pilate's lips curved. “You mean to say a phantom version of myself accompanied you on your dreamscape? Now, that's rather interesting.” He paused, rubbing his muzzle in thought. “Was this other 'me' blind?”

Belle opened her mouth, hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, Pilate. I... don't think I could have imagined somepony different. It just wouldn't have been you.”

“Nothing to feel apologetic for, beloved. This isn't an interrogation of sorts.”

“Oh, I know. It's just... everything that I envisioned was so very different from this world. So much... darker...”

“Well, then, I suppose it's only fitting I would have remained blind.”

“That's not what I meant. I guess I just find it surprising how familiar you were. There was... nothing wrong about you at all. You were there all the time to help me, to support me.”

“Hmmmm... good to know I'm a good mate to you,” he said with a smug grin. “In this dimension and the nebulous realms beyond.”

“I'm serious, Pilate. You... you mean so much to me. You're the anchor of my life.”

“That would imply that you're cast to sea somewhere.”

She shoved him playfully. “Will you just let me compliment you, already?!”

“Heheh... alright.”

She leaned against him, her voice very childish as she breathed against his ears. “I don't know where I would be without you, beloved. In this world and the next, I would be utterly lost. You were by my side the whole time, and I don't think I would have stayed sane in that delusion if it weren't for even the faintest semblance of you.”

“I stuck by your side the whole time?”

“Well, you were with me until—” Belle grimaced, her smile dissolving altogether. A pale sheen rolled across her golden coat, and she had to clear her throat before saying, “Yes. The entire time. I was unbelievably lucky.”

“How remarkable...”

“My mind even invented a theme to excuse it,” she said with an amused smile. “We were both 'Eljunbyro.'”

“I beg your pardon?”

“An ancient symbol. The Xonans could read it, though it wasn't in Xonan. It was written by ponies older than Xonan civilization or Ledomaritan or even the ancient caribou who once dwelled upon this continent.”

“I assume you're bringing up the flying ponies again.”

“That's right.”

“What in spark's name would a unicorn and a zebra have in common with such a precursor civilization?”

“Well, it had to do with our mutual friendship with Rainbow Dash. We were there for her when the pegasus needed us, for her journey was something that would restore the spark that was long lost to this world.”

“How very interesting... and did she have a name too?”

“Heh, as a matter of fact, she did. She was 'Austraeoh,' the destined pony, bound towards a perpetual flight eastward.”

“To what end, I wonder?”

“Well, to fly beyond the end, really. There was a spot on the dark side of the world, where the sun doesn't shine, and she was destined to fly there. At least, this was true, according to the knowledge she brought with her from Equestria, supported by Whitemane—erm...”

“Who?”

“An ancient alicorn. It's a long story.”

“Sounds like a riveting one; we're bringing alicorns into it now?”

“Ungh... I don't even know where to begin...” She rubbed two forelimbs over her face as she groaned. “I feel like everything is coming forth inside out. Shouldn't I be forgetting all of this? Just... taking all of Rainbow Dash and Austraeoh and Enforcer Shell business and shoving it out of my mind? Letting it all rest?”

“However you decide to recuperate is fine by me, beloved,” Pilate said. “I was only curious...”

“And I would love to share, beloved, it's just that...” Belle quietly sighed. “I don't know. I feel limp as a noodle... and numb. I think I would do well to have a bite to eat...”

“I know...” Pilate sat up straight, his ears pointing straight up. “How about I make you some supper? I do believe I have the fixings for a scrumptious fruit salad.”

“Don't you bother, beloved.” Belle patted his forelimb and stood up from the sofa. “I'll do it.”

His brow furrowed. “Buh?”

“No need for you to wait on me fetlock and hoof,” the pony said as she trotted into the kitchen. “I didn't come back here to burden you, after all. I'll prepare something myself.”

“You're very thoughtful, darling,” he said with a smirk, standing up after her. “But please, you should allow me. I'm blind, not crippled.”

“Nonsense. Besides, it would do me some good to get used to the house,” she said, fumbling for plates and dishes. She pulled a fruit basket off a hanging hook and began sifling through the contents within. “There's no better way to get the mind back together than getting reacquainted with one's homely surroundings.”

“There is some truth to be said in that,” Pilate remarked with a nod. He trotted to a stop and leaned against the frame that led into the next room. “I find it curious that you were so quick to leave your house in the dream.”

“Heh, yes, well...” Belle deposited bananas, clusters of grapes, and a few pairs into a bowl. “Garnet's of the opinion that I had several secret reservations about the Ledomaritan experiment as a whole, and that I kept all of them suppressed within the darker recesses of my mind. It would explain why I created such a negative portrait of the Council and their tasks here in Blue Shelf.”

“All of this darkness seems like an intensely prevalent theme,” Pilate said.

“Yeah...” Belle's brow furrowed as she reached into the fruit basket again. “Your point?”

“I wonder if there was a divine, mental purpose for your attempt to reach the dark side of the world.”

“I never said it was my purpose to get there, Pilate. But, rather, that it was Rainbow Dash's.”

“Austraeoh?”

“Right.”

“But, wasn't Eljunbyro tied to Austraeoh?” He gazed at her quietly, intently. “Just how far would we have gone, if Rainbow Dash had wanted to take us? Wouldn't we have known it was dangerous? Wouldn't all of the things you learned about this 'machine world' have scared you off?”

Belle was silent.

Pilate gulped and asked, “I just wonder what that says about us, Belle... about you... about how much you're willing to give up for a stranger.” His jaw clenched as he said, “Unless, of course, there was something about her that you knew—beyond the shadow of a doubt—was more important than anything else...”

Belle continued to be silent. She stared intently into a piece of fruit resting within the crook of both of her hooves.

“Bellesmith?”

Her gaping expression reflected off its smooth, green skin. The world jolted from each riveting heartbeat that throbbed through her eyes.

“Beloved...?”

The Love Factor

Bellesmith shivered, overcome with a numb wave of horror. When she spoke, it was as if a fragile part of herself was crumbling, and the pitiful sound of it came out instead of a voice.

“Her eyes weren't green,” she whimpered, turning the apple over in her hoof. She buckled, sniffled, and held the precious little fruit against her moist cheek. “Spark, help me. I... I c-can still smell her hair.” She gnashed her teeth. “Nnngh... sawdust... vanilla... a touch of cinnammon. She never knew. Oh Spark, she never knew... she never knew she never knew she never knew...”

Pilate's voice was a knife thrown from a mile behind her. “Bellesmith? Who are you talking about?”

The next sob that Belle choked on was mammoth. She nearly collapsed on her haunches, but instead leaned against the kitchen counter, trying to catch her breaths.

“Belle, darling, do you need to lie down? You're starting to frighten me...”

Belle seethed through her teeth. She looked at the apple through foggy eyes. Suddenly, without hesitation, she leaned in and took a bite. The moist pulp danced between her tongue and cheek. It swished around and went slimily down her throat.

“I taste...” Belle exhaled heavily, her insides feeling as hollow as they did before the bite. “...nothing.”

“Belle?”

Her face contorted in a painful wince. Rubbing her eyes dry, Bellesmith turned around. She gazed at Pilate.

Pilate gazed past her from afar, his mouth hanging open in confusion.

She wasn't confused. “Pilate...” Slowly, her cheeks curved. She stepped towards him with the grace of a sleeping dancer. “Pilate, my beloved...”

He trembled slightly as she approached, like a mirror's edge buckling under a heavy weight.

She brought a hoof up to his monochromatic muzzle, stroking it endearingly. “You are my one and only stallion, my precious mate, my beloved—granted by the brilliance of the Spark. And I love you more than I love life itself.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She inhaled sharply and murmured, “But you died, Pilate. I watched you plummet to your death. And as much as I don't want that to be, I can't deny the truth.”

“Belle...” His voice vibrated against her forelimb before he gripped it with a tender hoof. His breath came out in quivering vapors. “I don't understand. How could I be dead if I'm here?”

“But you're not.” She gulped heavily as she shook her head. Two more tears fell. “You're not, beloved. And...” She hissed through her teeth. “I have to move on.”

“What... what do you m-mean?”

She stepped back from him, steeling herself with icy resolve. “I mean that you've done well, not just now, but on several occasions. But you've gone too far, and there's no going further than this.”

Pilate leaned his head to the side, locked in confusion. Soon, the black and white stripes of his visage matched the dull shadows of the room.

A growl rose from the back of Belle's throat. “It's over, Nightshade. Whatever you were hoping to drag from me, you can just give it up. This whole exercise is pointless.”

Pilate remained perfectly still, but the rest of the room didn't. Marching out from the contours of the wall, painted with the same shadows that were always there to begin with, Nightshade glared at the mare, her nostrils fuming.

“Very well,” she muttered. A pair of purple eyes glowed with otherworldly brilliance, melting the shadows around Pilate to dust. “I was kind enough to give you love. Now, I shall give you pain.”

With that said, she yanked Pilate up by his mane, spun around in one motion, and flung him clear off the edge of the Steel Wing.

“No!” Belle shouted, for she was plunging after him, plummeting, sailing into the burning fields of Foxtaur below. She screamed helplessly as Pilate splattered across a plateau of stones beneath her, exploding into a field of bubbling crimson.

Not long after, she splashed after him. Her face was drenched in blood and bile. Breathless, Belle rocketed through the scarlet currents, ripping through waves of muscle and sinew like a serrated torpedo. She swam through miles of soft organs, crunched through broken bone and cartilidge, and then finally emerged on the other side, bursting like a splinter through the skin. She writhed like a leech, her mane and horn dripping with entrails. Looking left and right, she saw fields of black and white stripes, occasionally punctuated by shattered bone and loose teeth.

The sun blacked out over the death fields of soaked hair.

She looked up, sputtering up vomit and zebra blood. The sky was full of bodies, and all of them shaped like her love.

A long, wailing scream escaped her lips as they all fell on top of her, crushing and pulverizing themselves into a pulp on top of the mare, until she was drowning in every ounce of her beloved.

The Awesome Factor

“Haaaaaaughkkkt—nnnghh-Nnnngh! Beloved! Belovvvvvveddddd!”

Bodies exploded left and right, ribboning outward in peeled leaves of black and white coats. Bellesmith crawled through the blood-hot filth of it all, sobbing as the world thudded around her. Pilate fell repeatedly, bursting into dark ink and nightmare song on either side of the mare's twitching ears. She clutched her head and spun skyward, only to have his body fall from the Steel Wing again, exploding atop of her, filling her gaping mouth with screams and entrails.

“Hnnghlllgh—Sppkktk-Mmmmffbeloveddddd...” She spun around and crawled pathetically over the bloodsoaked fields of black and white fur. Every time she caught a glance of the spiraling sky, more and more bodies fell, pelting her with dead and dying memories, and all of them clinging to her shivering flesh like broken glass.

All the while, a dark sihlouette stood. The visage of Madame Nightshade loomed above Belle like a monolith. Her frail coat and fine silks were utterly unblemished, untouched by the scarlet holocaust raining down all around her. She stared at the bawling unicorn with an unemotional expression. As Belle crawled closer, she flared her nostrils and spoke with the voice of a million thunders.

“No more charades. No more coaxing. You are going to tell me all you know about Austraeoh, Eljunbyro, and Innavedr, and you are going to tell me now.”

“I... I-I can't...” Belle crawled. Belle sobbed. Belle drowned in Pilate's juices, writhing and twitching all over. “I w-won't!” She reached a hoof up, floundering at the edges of Nightshade's fetlocks, entreating her. Begging. “Please... stop this... end this...” She whimpered pitifully, gargling up zebra blood. “It hurts... it hurts so m-much... please... please!”

Nightshade's voice rang like cold metal. “The only way to stop this is to give me what I want.”

“The... the machine world...?” She hissed and wheezed, trying to find space to breathe through all of the blood and organs splashing around her from the falling bodies. “I... c-can't let you have it...”

“My little pony, I already have it,” Nightshade droned. “However, I am on a quest to learn how to use it. I need you to tell me, for the sake of this Confederacy, for the sake of the world.”

“Guhhh... mmmfff... c-can't...” Belle clutched her head and sobbed. “I can't I can't I can't I can't...”

Clenching her jaw, Nightshade finally bent over and made contact with the mare, but only to snap off her horn. As she did so, a pent-up blast of air evacuated from the unicorn's skull, and it carried with it the sound of screams and torment.

Belle howled in pain, clutching her skull and curling up into a fetal position. All of the earth brown mane peeled off her skull, so that her body once more became the emaciated, starving fugitive who had struggled to gallop her way through the streets of Blue Nova. As her blood-stained features tensed and untensed, Belle realized that not all the screams sounded like her own. The last of the air and blood evacuated her skull, and she suddenly registered the agonized tones.

“Phoenix!” The mare thrashed and sputtered, wide-eyed against the mists of blood. “He's... he's...”

“Still alive? That's putting it lightly,” Nightshade muttered. She grinded up what was left of Bellesmith's horn in the crook of her immaculate hoof. “The soldier's memories told me where to find you, so his flesh won't be around for long. It'd be easy to slit his throat and end it all in the real world. But since you're not making it easy for me, then why should I make it easy for him?” She released her grip of the horn, allowing the golden dust filaments to fly like pollen over the fields of black and white fur. “I'll trounce upon the mountains of his mind with the force of ten million psionic tidal waves. I'll ravage his brain, slowly, synapse after synapse, until meat pours out his eye sockets.” She gazed down at him, her eyes strobing purple like unfiltered manastreams. “You may not care much about yourself, doctor, and you may no longer have a beloved to cherish, but I assure you... I will carve the name of your cowardice the mercenary's heart, and I'll make his last sentient thought one of intense scathing hatred for the foolish mare who brought him to such a sickening fate.”

Belle panted and panted. Hugging herself, she gazed beyond the blood soaked zebra skin.

Twelve shadows gazed back, their tiny features obscured beyond the desolation of that threnody in motion.

“You!” Belle sputtered, reaching a hoof out through the bloody waterfalls as more bodies exploded around her. “You don't have to do what she says! She's only p-powerful because you let her be!” Sinewy chunks of zebra flesh splattered over her body. She writhed, swollowed down her vomit, and shouted towards the dimming horizon. “She can't hurt you if she has to use you! Can't you see! Help me, please! I beg you!”

One by one, the foalish figures bowed. They disappeared, like stars vanishing on the hazy curve of a black and white ocean.

“No! Come b-back!” She shrieked as she tried crawling after them, only to slip upon the puddles of scarlet. “She knows nothing of Austraeoh! She would only hurt her if she had her! Don't trust her! Trust me! Please!”

Nightshade's shadow rose up, solidifying into the Madame herself. “They will not listen to you,” the pony growled, looming like a black cloud over the mare. “They are a server, a database, a means to an end.” The tip of her ethereal horn glowed with violent purple light. “They learned long ago that my will is righteous, and my wrath is impenetrable.” As she spoke, a lance materialized out the end of her horn. She brought two hooves up, grabbed the spear, and hoisted it over her head. “And in this domain, that's the least I can say about your consciousness.”

With that, she thrusted the blade deep into Belle's gut. The mare's body contorted, tossing her bald, hornless head back as bolts of unbridled mana coursed through her golden body. Her belly undulated, and soon ropes of blood slithered up the staff, coalescing just inches from where Nightshade gripped it.

“I will drain you of all the truth that your life energy has to give me,” Nightshade snarled, her silken features shimmering against the blood and lightning. She leaned against the spear, applying more and more force on the penetrating weapon. “Give in, doctor. You are weak. You are alone. You cannot win this.”

“I...” Belle hissed, her eyes clenched as she shook her head left and right. “I... I am not alone... and... I will not lose...” She hissed and growled, her voice cracking, “I-I hate to lose!”

Nightshade's face contorted into a furious frown. “For Spark's sake, don't you see what you're doing to yourself?! Give up the fight! Give up this pointless chase! Don't you care for your well-being whatsoever?! You're being foolish... idiotic... asenine!”

“Wr-wrong...” Belle looked up at the unicorn. She gave a lasting hiss, and then my eyes opened, sharp and angry and red. “Wrong A-word...” A pair of blue wings burst out of my side.

Nightshade's whole body flinched. She was about to do more than that.

I gripped the spear in two hooves and shoved her off. With a single grunt, I bounced up into the air, hovering on sapphiric feathers. I yanked the pitiful weapon over my knee; it exploded into dust that then swarmed around my neck, coalescing into a golden pendant.

Nightshade stumbled backwards, her lips quivering. At last, she sputtered, “Doctor Bellesmith—”

”Raaaaaaaaaaaugh!” I plowed into her with a blue blur. Together, we bore a ravine through the black and white fields, sprouting flowers and grass and pond water on either side. Rain clouds spread overhead as I straddled her chest, tossing a prismatic mane back.

“Ding Dong isn't here, ya melon fudge,” I snarled, then shoved two of my hooves into her chest cavity. “And neither is your heart! Nnnngh!”

I ripped the mare's belly in half. As she screamed, a comet of guts roped its way towards the heavens, every square inch of it was covered with a wounded soldier's howling face. As Nightshade's screams turned into Novus' bellows, she writhed and thrashed in vain attempts to get away.

There was no getting away. I'd tried it myself.

“Yaaaaugh!” With a banshee scream, I picked her up and flung her across the muddy trenches. Bombshells and shrapnel exploded left and right as Xonan and Ledomaritan airships battled overhead.

Nightshade fell knee-deep into the mud and muck, struggling to close her chest up, but none of it could silence her brother's screams, nor mine.

I flew at her, swinging a right hoof. It connected hard, causing her to spit blood and mana-thought into the nebulous hellscape. I followed it with a left swing and a kneed to the chest. Each meaty impact caused the universe to shake and quiver. Zeppelins fell to the earth, burning in bright orange plumes. A wave of hot soot and gunpowder swarmed past us, through us, burning our skin. Nightshade whimpered. I only laughed.

“You thought... you th-thought you c-could actually use your own friends and family's pain against Belle?!” I smashed her through a wooden trench full of clattering weaponry and then lifted her by the neck. My wings engulfed us in a dark, dark embrace. “You're lamer than a pile of dead snakes, lady. If you don't get the point, then why have one?” Without wasting a second, I thrusted my head forward and bit over her horn. I twisted my teeth, and with a sickening crack, her skull split open, leaking the sound of her brother's wails by tenfold.

“Aaaaaaugh!” Nightshade stumbled back, hugging herself and quivering all over. Her head tossed to the side, melted, and then another protruded out her shoulders to replace it, likewise screaming. She pinwheeled through howling mouth after mouth as her body fogged over and flickered inside out like a candle in a baby's sob. “No! Spark alive! Disconnect! Disconnect—”

“Uh uh!” I reached into the faded after-image and yanked a solid, gasping mare out from the cloud. “No siree! Not that easy!” With a snarl, I swung us both around and flew us towards the edge of the trench. “This dance ain't over!”

We burst through the bloodied mud with a shatter of glass, plunging into sunlight over the streets of Blue Nova. Nightshade gasped and struggled to disentangle herself from me, but I wrestled for control of her body, ultimately swinging her like a mace from her tail.

“Fore!” I howled, chuckling like a demon. I flung her into the first thing I could see, a hulking aircraft with her name on it.

Nightshade flew through it like a missile shattering the streets below with manastones and burning lumber. When she landed on the ground, her body skipped like a stone against a pool of crystal blue water. She bounced, flailed, and landed in a patch of dry grass, surrounded by the burning woods of Foxtaur. The mare stood up, wincing all over, only to find herself devoured by my shrinking shadow.

“Haaaaaaugh!” I landed on her with a vicious drop-kick, plowing her through a fresh ravine of sundered earth and burning wood.

With a burst of mana-thought, she shoved me off of her, then materialized a pair of shiny scimitars from the plasma-spilling gash in her skull. Seething, she tried swinging the weapons at me. She tried.

All I saw was my devilish grin in the swishing metal. I juked to the left, to the right, and pirouetted until I was standing behind her. Gripping her belly, I roared and suplexed the two of us through a Searonese manaship. Metal and flame consumed us, all blurring into confused streaks of melting continents. Through the mess, I found her, repeatedly punching and pummeling her frame as I shoved the two of us towards a bright sun that was melting its way into the horizon. When I spoke, my voice was reverberating off the rocky precipices of Green Slope, then the concrete corridors of Blue Shift, and finally the wooden huts of Aridstone.

“You want pain?!” I snarled into her face, gripping her gaping skull until her jaw buckled under my hooves. “I will give you pain!” With a furious grunt, I tossed her like a rag doll onto the cave floor.

Nightshade rolled and rolled until she came to a bruised stop. She shuddered all over and tried to get up, only to have a huge and jagged dragonclaw sail down, puncturing her lower legs. “Aaaaugh!”

But Axan wasn't through. Lifting the mare's body, the dragon queen slammed her repeatedly against the walls and rockfaces of the place. Nightshade sputtered, leaking tears and blood into the dreamscape, so that they fell down on me, cold and useless, like snowflakes.

“Pain is more than a tool! It's fuel! Something you live with... something you learn from! And once you make friends, you learn to turn it into something else, something righteous! But you wouldn't know anything about righteousness, would you?!” I snarled up at her as I trotted over the mountain of Axan's gold. “How does it feel, Nightshade?! How does it feel to be nothing but pain?! You know, you could have moved on after your brother. You could have brought good to the world! But what's good about this?! What's good about any of this?!”

“You... You...” Nightshade wheezed and whimpered in the grip of Axan, flailing over me. “You are a m-monster... pl-plain and simple!” She shrieked as another claw pierced into her psionic self. “Nnnnngh—I only wanted to understand you... s-so that I could kn-know how to master your p-power for good!”

“But you were already using it!” I shouted, flying up to her on angry blue wings. “And ponies who use power without knowing a thing about it are totally uncool! You're as bad as Shell!” I kicked Axan's wrist away and caught Nightshade's ragged body before it could fall towards the Silvadelian rock below. “You want to know about monsters? Let me take you to where monsters are born.”

With a single flap of my wings, we flew into the ceiling and burst out of the burnt wasteland. Burning our way west, we scaled the desert, crossed the ravine, threaded our way through Darkstinians skyscrapers, and smashed through the looming body of Verdestone. As the gray dust and the white feathers of Whitemane cleared, we were blurring over mountains, swamps, more mountains, and forests. At last, when the color green couldn't bend anymore, it shrank, along with all the other colors, pooling into a warm and glistening navel in the center of everything.

That's where I dropped Nightshade. And that's where Nightshade stood up. And that's where she turned around just in time to get a face full of Twilight Sparkle.

With a shriek, the unicorn exploded, along with her crown. The dust of her body flew into Nightshade's space, filling her lungs and chasing out the screams. The mare stumbled up, struggling between chokes and sobs, only for Fluttershy's and Pinkie's ashes to rain on her. She fell over, rolled into a Ponyvillean lamppost, and hugged herself as Rarity's imploding screams added to the mix, bathing her.

“No... pl-please, no. Stop it. Just stop it all...”

I fell down, forming a grand crater in the middle of the tragedy. “You stop it!” I marched towards her on iron hooves. “You started this mess, so end it yourself!” I yanked her up by the neck, spun her around, and forced her to look up at the floating body of a sun-kissed farm mare. “Wake Belle up! Bring her out!”

Nightshade shivered and shook, her bright, teary eyes plastered on Applejack. “I... w-won't let her get away w-with what she knows... with wh-what she has yet to tell me—”

“Wake her!” I howled into her ear. Applejack's sobs filled the air, as did her flesh, dissolving in a dusty white ring around us, carrying the sobs of four hundred dawns, and all of them filled with wind and emptiness. “Wake her or I'll keep you here forever!”

“No... No...” Nightshade sobbed as the ashes surrounded us, closing in like a cocoon. The dizziness sprang forth from her with each cry. “This world needs me! This world needs the truth!”

“You c-can't be honest without harmony! Now wake her!” I suddenly reeled, almost losing my grip of the mare's dreamself. I panted, gazing off into the lengths of Ponyville beyond the ashes.

They stood in a line. Looking at me, their little mouths agape. All twelve of them stood speechless beyond the veil, losing their grip of the manastream just as they were losing their grip of their own fear.

“Wake her...” I snarled at them. I hissed as my eyes flickered to red on yellow. “Wake her up. Now.” Pain shot through me. I groaned and twitched as a horn burst out of one side of my head, and an antler out the other. When I spoke, it was with demonic resonance, growing as swiftly as the fur and claws did from my serpentine body. “Please. You've seen her nightmares. Snkkkt...” I growled at them through a sprouting fang. “You. Don't. Want. Mine.”

The twelve foals exchanged glances. They drew away, dissappearing beyond the whiteness. Soon, the world disappeared along with them. There was a flash of lavender, then all was gone. Nightshade and I were hugging, yet drifting away, lost in Applejack's ashes, like foals squinting into the glint of a blooming sunrise.

Then silence.

Dash of Anger

Bellesmith gasped. Bellesmith sputtered. Her eyes opened, brimming with tears. Something foggy was scratching at her ears: a sound, an echo, a voice. Voices. Bodies were shifting towards her right. Everything was dark and cold.

She sat up, her every muscle electrified. She brought a hoof up to her horn-stub; it was smoking. A cable dangled, affixed to her cranium. She plucked it loose with a shower of sparks.

The burst of light illuminated black metal bulkheads with iron rivets surrounding her like a golem's stomach. The world teetered as the voices to her right came into clarity.

Belle glanced aside. She was sitting atop a metal slab, and across the way lay Nightshade, writhing in the throes of tortured sleep. Two ponies in company uniforms hovered over her, fiddling with the instrument panel of the sequencing machine looming over her mattress.

“She's going into shock again!”

“Bring her out!”

“I'm trying! She's locked between spheres and—Wait!”

“What is it?”

“I think she's coming to, finally!”

Belle bit her lip. She looked straight ahead.

A metal door with a valve lingered before her. Something was pounding and scraping against the other side, filling noisy reverberations through the metal room.

Belle looked to her left.

A bright chamber—sealed off by a sheet of metal reinforced glass—showed all twelve Xonan foals sitting in their respective chairs, their skulls hooked up to glowing gables.

Belle spun on the bed and looked behind her. She saw a table with Princess Luna's saddlebag lying open, its contents spread out across the metallic surface. Affixed to the wall, above the table, were two metal fire extinguishers.

She glanced at the two soldiers; their backs were facing her. She slowly slithered off the bed and over towards the wall where her things lay.

“Careful! We have to prevent a rapid disconnect!”

“What's causing it? I didn't bring her up. Did you?”

Belle grabbed one of the fire extinguishers. On silent hooves, she trotted over towards the pair of uniformed ponies.

“The server is still functioning. The twelve are still sequenced.”

“Then how did she come out of sequence... unless...”

One of them turned around—

“Nnnngh!” Belle swung the fire extinguisher with the force of both forelimbs.

The stallion swung from the impact. A pair of loose teeth rattled across the floor. The second charged at Belle. She spun, dodged his blow, and slammed the extinguisher so hard over his spine that the nozzle broke off, filling the room with a bright white mist.

The window to the room with the twelve foals fogged up. A door beside it opened, and a stallion's body came bursting through.

“Madame?! What's going on in here!? Are you alright?” A bright taser lit the room like a floating buoy. “Madame Nightshade?”

A golden body stalked him from the shadowed corner of the room. With a rasping shriek, Belle launched herself at the figure, attacking it like a chaos creature in mountain mists. She grabbed onto his neck and held on for dear life. Startled, he thrashed and bucked to get her off. Belle's eyes twitched, as if touched with a ruby shine, and she dragged her hooves against the floor just enough to get traction. Then, with an animalistic growl, she body-slammed him through the sequencing bed like a meaty minotaur through a pile of lumber.

The stallion rolled to the side, lying unconscious besides the other two ponies. As the extinguisher expelled the last of its contents, the cold gases faded, just in time for Nightshade's eyes to flutter open.

With a pained wince, she hugged herself, as if making sure her body was intact. She sat up, hyperventilating, eventually calming as the shadows of the room enfolded her with a familiar embrace. Gulping, she blinked, then scanned the interior of the room.

She saw the fogged glass, a shattered table, her unconscious guards, and then a snarling golden muzzle flying into her face.

Bellesmith headbutted her savagely.

Nightshade flew back against the bulkhead, rattled, and rolled off the mattress. She teetered on the side, painfully dangling from the sequencing cable's attachment to her horn stub.

Belle ripped the cable off, then hoisted the gasping mare up in a merciless headlock. All Nightshade could manage was a guttural squeak as she struggled for breath.

This didn't stop Belle from growling into her ear, “Yes, this is real.” Her voice cracked, “It's as real as you've made it, and as real as you're going to end it.”

“How... h-how did you...?”

Belle yanked Nightshade out of her words and snarled, “Where... am... I?”

Dash of Restraint

"The sequencing... snkkt..." Nightshade hissed, struggling in the golden forelimbs wrapped about her head and neck. "It's... it's polluted your consciousness, Doctor. You resisted the spheres so stubbornly and for so long; you are suffering from rapid disconnect."

"Quiet!" Bellesmith growled into the mare's ears. She shoved Nightshade up against a wall and growled into her ears, "The only suffering that's been inflicted has all been on account of you! You abducted me! You tortured my mind!"

"I... was willing... to facilitate... a seperate peace, f-for information!"

"You're a sadist!" Belle shrieked. "When did you do it, huh?! When did you kidnap me?! Was it after I fled the facility?! It was when I fell asleep in the alleys, wasn't it?!"

"You had to be found. I couldn't afford to let you leave Blue Nova," Nightshade grunted, still writhing in the frenzied mare's grasp. Her voice reverberated off the metal walls of the room. "The knowledge I seek is too precious. More than you. More than that mercenary—"

"Where is he?!" Belle bent Nightshade's back at a painful angle, causing the mare to wince. "Where do you have Phoenix?! Is he alive somewhere?! Or was that just another lie you fed me in the sequence?!"

"His role in all of this is done..." Nightshade sneered, her face covered in sweat. "All of our lives are forfeit if the experiment doesn't fall through!"

"Why?! What is so Spark-forsaken important that you would do such horrible things to innocent ponies?!"

"You broke into my lab, pilfered through company documents, infiltrated the server, disturbed my foals—"

"You stole children from their parents, persecuted non-pony citizens, built a built a death mill in the depths of Deep Ridge!"

"My purpose is to bring rebirth to this continent!" Nightshade sputtered. "Just as it is your will to bring wind back to the wings of Austraeoh!"

"And that sanctifies using your brother's tortured memory like butchered meat?!"

"Nnnngh—!" With a sudden show of force, Nightshade furiously bucked Belle off of her. The mare stumbled back, only to receive a swift kick to the chest. Grunting, she rolled to the floor.

By the time she looked up, Nightshade had flung a secret panel open beneath her sequencing bed and produced a mana-powered taser. She raised the thing threateningly to Belle's muzzle.

"How dare you..." Nightshade sneered down at her. Both ponies squared off, glaring, with the taser's electric blue dance reflecting off their identical horn-stubs. "Novus is no mere tool; he is a tragedy, the one sacred soul I cannot save. His memory is apart from his body, forever separated by a horrible schism that should never have been. When his military detachment blew open a piece of the earth, the glory of this hidden world was exposed to the battlefield, but Novus was in no position to grace such beauty. He was battered, broken, and thrown apart into a hundred pieces. What lies in the infirmary of my building is simply a vessel for the life I hope to return to him, to return to all of us. It is the very same life that has been denied for decades by this insufferable war!"

"The red flame... that's in your building..." Belle murmured aloud. Her anger drained as her face stretched in shock. "By the Spark, you f-found it! When the Ledomaritan army shelled a part of the battlefield, the machine world must have somehow opened up and exposed the flame to ponydom." She gulped and muttered, "You found it, and you brought it here... like just another laboratory experiment..."

"The experiment is a means to salvation," Nightshade said, pressing Belle back by aiming the taser to her throat. "By understanding more about it, by harnessing the power held within, I can return it back east to the exposed chamber of the machine world—completely renewed—and we can bring back a glory that predated time, that predated suffering, and that predated war."

"And Prime Enforcer Seclorum..." Belle's brow furrowed as she backed up against a door. Rhythmic knocking sounds rattled from the other side, but she kept her sight set on the pony pressing a taser to her throat. "What part does he play in this? He brought you the flame, didn't he?" She frowned hard. "Does he even know that you're using abducted children to tap into the secrets of the flame?"

"Up until now, it's all I've had to rely on," Nightshade said. "But then you came along, Doctor. You're more important in this search for truth than a hundred dead pegasi. You've met a living, breathing protector of the flame. Wherever she is, there's enough of her imprint—the spirit of Austraeoh—that exists inside of you. You're not just Eljunbyro. Don't you see? You're an emissary for the truth of the old world to make itself manifest in the new one!"

"You and I are just broken fragments of something far too powerful and important for us alone," Belle said. "Rainbow Dash is the mare that matters. She is the one who can bring the spark back to this world! Not us!"

"But you're wrong, doctor!" Nightshade insisted, her face awash with sweat and sincerity. "It's up to us to make a difference! We can't keep sitting on our flanks, waiting uselessly for epic heroes to come and save this world! Our fate is in our own hooves! If we want to save the world, we must do it on our own! With the tools that are given us! With the crimes of war stacking up so high that soon we may never be able to redeem ourselves!"

Belle replied, "You cannot perform crimes without becoming a criminal. You're worse than any bloodlusting Enforcer I've ever met. You do horrible things and excuse it as righteousness, constantly blaming a supposedly worse evil as if it can pardon your atrocities. Your ignorance has blinded you, Nightshade, and it will damn you in the end."

A tear rolled down Nightshade's cheek. "I've lost my family, Doctor; I am already damned." She sniffled, but then bore a resolute frown. "But if I must soak in that curse, then I shall, and see to it that the world and its future is blessed."

"But how?!" Belle slowly stood up, wary of the taser matching her body. Her eyes darted between the sparkling weapon and the wielder's vulnerable face. "How can what you're doing to the flame possibly do any good?"

"That's where I need your help, Doctor," Nightshade said. "Please, do not resist me anymore. Do not fight me, nor what I have to do. Allow me to show you what I have learned about the old world, and the other machine worlds that were once joined with it. With so much war and wasteland ripping Ledomare asunder, it's up to ponies like us to find paradise, and that all starts with the flame."

Belle glanced at the table where the ancient tome lay. She looked back at Nightshade. "What makes you think, after all that has happened, that I would actually be foolish enough to assist you?"

Nightshade's tone was cold as she said, "I am not the only pony who has lost family, Doctor. I suspect that you are damned too."

The hairs on the back of Belle's neck stood on end. Her eyes instantly moistened as she thought of his wailing cry, falling into the distance.

"There is no peace for us," Nightshade said. "No paradise. We can only give what we can to the world, even if it means giving up ourselves."

Belle gasped to let loose the lump in her throat. She ran a hoof over her face and stared down into the shadows of the room.

"The Spark has always been missing, and it is up to us to do something about it." Nightshade leaned her head to the side as she started lowering the taser. "Tell me, Doctor, would you be willing to finally bring glory back to this world?"

All Right, Now

“You're right,” Bellesmith murmured.

Nightshade exhaled, the tension melting from her shoulders as she lowered her taser.

Leaning against the wall, Belle shuddered. With a bow of her head, she said, “This world is dying. You don't need sequencing to realize this. You don't even need a piece of the machine realm's flame.” She gnashed her teeth, then continued speaking. “The Ancients knew about this. Axan and her sisters... they had foreseen the end coming. Something older than time, older than dragons is draining the lustre from this world. Sooner than we'd imagine it, maybe in this lifetime, maybe in the next, all flame shall be extinguished. There'll be nothing left to rekindle the Spark of this place. We'll be a adrift like ants clinging to a cold gravestone, floating through infinite chaos.” She looked up with sad eyes. “This world needs a solution, and it needs it now.”

With a nod, Nightshade trotted forward and said. “I am glad that we are for once in agreement over—”

Belle spun and bucked her upside the chin. The Madame and her taser went flying in opposite directions. After smacking against an instrument panel, Nightshade stood up, winced, and glared in the mare's direction.

With two heavy hooves, Belle snapped the taser down the middle. Her face growled into the blue aura of the exposed manafield. “But that solution will never come to pass by the hooves of a demented cretin such as you! Rainbow Dash is the only cure for this world! You?! You're just another sick pony, like Shell, like Queen Ledo! Clouded by your own fever!”

Struggling, Nightshade eventually rolled up to her hooves. She leaned against a door behind her, seething at Belle. “You know, for a doctor, you're not very smart.”

“And for a mare you're not very pretty.”

“You're putting all of your faith in an unpredictable winged pony who's done nothing but bring you unpredictability and unrest!” Nightshade exclaimed, shouting finally. “Do you even know the sheer weight of that faith?! All of the dangers that you are overlooking?! All of the precious things you are giving up?!”

“You are obviously a very gifted pony, Madame,” Belle said. “It's a shame that you had to channel that through your personal sorrow. You'll never understand loyalty like Rainbow Dash; you're still stuck in remorse.”

“How dare you!” Nightshade stomped her hooves. Veins showed in her temple as she howled, “I love my brother! If I could give up everything to undo what has been done to him, I would! In a heartbeat! What has your precious Austraeoh given up that makes her that much more righteous?!”

With a swishing sound, the door to the lit room beyond the glass slid open. Nightshade spun around, and almost immediately the rage in her face left. Catching her breath, she slicked her mane back and murmured, “My foals. You've arrived just in time.”

Twelve Xonan fillies and colts stood in the doorway, peering into the tight metal room. They looked at the unconscious stallions, then at Bellesmith, then at Nightshade.

“You were yelling, Madame Nightshade...”

“This intruder, Bellesmith, almost got control of me,” Nightshade said. “But everything is all right. Now that you are here, I need you to help me keep her from running off—”

“You are as ugly outside of the spheres as you are within,” spoke the oldest colt, his mouth hanging open in utter shock. “You are... so angry...” His eyes narrowed around his tattooed face. “And yet weak...”

Nightshade blinked, leaning back as if blown by a random wind.

Frantically, Belle spoke up. “She's used you! All this time, children, she's used you to get the information that she wants! She's powerless, don't you see that?!” Belle twitched, then blurted, “Didn't you see what I... wh-what Rainbow Dash was capable of doing to her?”

“You...” A filly trotted up, gazing across the way at Belle. “You are indeed Eljunbyro.”

“Even incomplete, you are still important,” added another.

“The Austraeoh knows you,” said a colt. “You are her friend, her ally.” He looked up at Nightshade. “”And you would hurt her?”

Nightshade frowned. Dragging her hoof in a threatening manner, she pointed with the other one towards the room behind the youths. “Get back into the sequencing chamber! I want all of you meditating within the spheres! Do I make myself clear?!”

“You... are threatening Eljunbyro...” The oldest colt marched forward. The other foals joined him in an icy trot. “You are threatening the world.” He snarled, his face patterns adding to the menace of his ire. “You are threatening us!”

Nightshade trotted backwards, her face bouncing between shock and anger “What are you doing?! Stay back! I mean it!” She growled. “I will not tolerate this insubordination! Do you understand?! I found you. I gave you a home. I gave you a life—”

“We never asked to be found!” a filly's voice cracked.

“You took our parents away!” sobbed another.

“We hate you!”

“Why did you do this?!”

“You're a bad, bad mare!”

“Give us our families back!”

“Give us back our horns!”

“We want to go home!”

It happened swifter than an avalance; all twelve foals converged on the mare, tripping her to the metal floor and kicking, punching, and bucking her from all sides. Nightshade shrieked and curled up into a fetal position, covering her head with a pair of forelimbs as she shouted in vain to drown out their angry cries.

All the while, Bellesmith stood stock still. Panting, she watched as the foals converged on their mother-turned-oppressor. She winced several times, turning her face to eye the open door that now loomed across the way. Turning her back to Nightshade, she made a path for the table covered in Luna's satchel and Rainbow Dash's various belongings.

She froze, however, her limbs twitching with each distressed cry that came from Nightshade's throat. After a few seconds, Belle sighed heavily, turned around, and galloped deep into the thick melee.

“Foals! Foals! Stop it! Stop it this instant!” She managed to peel the angry children off of Nightshade. Already, the mare had a few whelts on her face, and she was coughing up blood. Nevertheless, Belle stood above her, facing the bewildered Xonans with a fierce frown. “I know you're angry! And it's okay to be angry! This pony has done horrible, terrible things to you and your family! But you mustn't tear her limb from limb!”

“Why not?!” a filly shouted, pointing at her forehead. “She tore enough from us, hasn't she?!”

”Yeah!” several of them chanted at once.

Belle said, “Countless ponies in the Confederacy have done horrible things to me, including having ripped off my horn. And you know what? In the end, I only want to save them, just like I want to save this entire world.”

“But why?!” the oldest colt grumbled. “This isn't even our world!”

“Because I know Austraeoh, and she only hurts other ponies when she needs to protect her friends! She knows she's going to die, she knows she's outmatched by her enemies, and she knows this world isn't hers. But that doesn't stop her from going out of her way to make something better out of it all!”

“She said it was our duty to shed light on Austraeoh,” a filly said. She pointed at Nightshade. “She said that we'd all meet her someday!”

“The most important thing about Rainbow Dash is learning to be like her,” Belle said. “And that means being courageous, being strong, and being selfless. Once you know in your heart that you've embodied all of these things, then you can count yourself as righteous, but you won't have to, because you'll be too busy doing what is right!” She pointed at Nightshade's bruises as the mare sputtered and wheezed. “Tell me, what's right about treating her like a sack of meat?! Do you endeavor to be like Austraeoh? Or would you want to become like Nightshade?”

The foals doubled back on that. They exchanged glances for a few seconds before collectively hanging their heads.

“Please...” Bellesmith leaned forward, placing her hoof on the shoulder of the nearest child. “I need to get out of here. I need to find freedom. But I need more than that too; I need to free you as well. You don't belong here, with all of the violence, with all of the suffering.”

A colt walked up and tugged on Belle's forelimb. “You'll really do that? For us?”

Belle blinked, then smiled gently. “Yes. I will get you all out of here. I promise.”

“But, you are Eljunbyro... the ally to Austraeoh,” the oldest colt said. “You're not supposed to know us.”

“I don't care,” Belle grunted. “I'm getting you out. Is that understood?”

The foals exchanged glances. A few of them collectively smiled as a filly said, “You really do have a piece of her spirit inside you...”

Belle leaned back, smiling briefly. “She is rather infectious. Now, we must find a way out of...” She made a face, glancing around. “Where are we, anyway?”

“You're going to bring your friend too, right?”

Belle flashed the children a look. “Buh?”

They pointed towards the sealed door on the other side of the room. “The one they brought you here with when you were unconscious.”

A spasm ran through the mare's eyes. Slowly, she swiveled around, stepped over Nightshade's body, and trotted towards the door. Then that trot turned into a canter and finally a gallop as she reached the panel and slapped her hoof over the button beside it.

With a loud buzz, the door slid up, revealing a pale filly with dense green hair and an even denser frown. “Finally! Took you friggin' forever, Belle!” Kera grunted. “It smells like manadust and legsweat in here!”

“You... You...” Belle stammered, her chestnut eyes flicking between the child and the tiny closet she had been stuck in. “You're alive?!”

“Pffft! Of course I am!” Kera grumbled. “Would it have killed ya to have woken up earlier?! I almost had a good mind to break out and kick flank myself!”

“You mean...” Belle leaned over, her mouth agape. “Y-you're not afraid... or scared in anyway?”

“Hell no! What's gotten all that rot in your plot, girl?! I think you've been sequencing too long—Whoah!”

Belle had scooped Kera up into a hug, a very tight, deep, nuzzling sort of hug. She buried her grinning face into the filly's fuzzy chest as her words dripped out as copiously as her tears. “Oh, Kera. I love you. I love you so much.”

“Unnnnnnnngh... Belllllllle...”

“I don't care if it's sappy!” Belle sniffled and parted the hug only to nuzzle the filly's cheek and say, “You're alive. You're alive and... and...” She choked on a sob, her smile widening even more. “It's okay. Everything is g-going to be okay. I'm going to get us out of here, you hear me? You and all the rest of these children. There's nothing that can stop us anymore.”

“Yeah, uh, good luck with that, Belle.”

“'Ding Dong.'”

“Huh?”

Belle could only giggle like a mare possessed.

“Can you stop hugging me now?” Kera looked over her shoulder. “Whoah! Look at the beaten bodies!” she gasped. “Cool!”

Work It Out

Madame Nightshade let loose a groggy breath, her aching head teetering back and forth against the wall. Bellesmith squatted in front of her, using the last shredded length of sequencing manawire to tie the bruised mare's hooves to the metal crossbeams running along the sides of that room. Once she was fairly secured, along with the unconscious stallions on either side of her, Belle stood up and exhaled heavily.

“Alright. She's out of the picture. Now, we just have to get out of here.”

“We can't just waltz out of here like it's nopony's business!” Kera exclaimed, waving a hoof about dramatically for emphasis. “The place is crawling with goons! Smelly goons! And those are the worse kind of goons!”

“Kera, between you and me, we have what it takes to make our way out of here.”

“Pffft! No duh!” Kera bit her lip, flashed the foals a look, and leaned in towards Belle. “But do you really expect us to kick butt, make an escape, and somehow haul these dirtbags out of here?”

Belle frowned. “They're not dirtbags! They're young foals, displaced from their way of life. Just like you!”

“They're weirdoes, Belle! They don't even have their horns intact!”

“Am I a weirdo then too?” Belle smirked wryly. “Am I not worth rescuing out of this place?”

Kera squirmed where she stood, avoiding the mare's gaze. “No, but...”

“If circumstances were different, even by the slightest, you'd be in the same condition as us. Would that make you any less special?”

Kera frowned. “Heck, no! Cuz I wouldn't have been stupid enough to let anypony chop off my horn!”

“Kera...”

“I only got carried out of Lerris cuz my foster parents were too cowardly to raise a hoof!”

“Kera, look at me.” Belle knelt down before the foal until they were at eye level. “I know you've had to be tough to survive on the streets. But that's not all there is to you.”

“Sure it is—”

“You're a smart pony. A gifted pony. And I believe, under all of that rough exterior, you are also a kind pony. Why else would you have taken the time and energy to help me when I most needed it?”

“Mmmm...” Kera kicked her hooves against the ground, staring off into a distant shadow of the place.

Belle cocked her head to the side. “Well?”

“Cuz you're too weak to make it on your own!” Kera barked at Belle. “You need me, you dainty piece of hayseed!”

Belle giggled, She placed a gentle hoof on Kera's shoulder. “That's good enough, Kera. I'm sure I can read between the lines.”

Kera glared at her. “You're not going to hug me again, are you?”

“Nope. Not right now.” Belle stood back up. “There's no time. We have to get out of here.”

“And how do you expect to do that—?”

“I'm getting you and the foals out, and then I'm going to save Phoenix.”

Kera did a double-take, her green eyes widening to the bursting point. “What?!”

“They still have him in Nightshade's tower,” Belle said, marching across the room and entering the brightly-lid alcove where the foals had been sequenced. She placed her hoof on the door's valve handle and prepared to twist it. “I need to get him out.”

“But Belle!” Kera waddled frantically after her, making all the foals shift nervously. “Why?!”

“Because if he stays there too much longer, he might die.”

“No, what I mean is... is...” Kera squeezed her way in and stood between Belle and the door. “What do you owe the guy?! Didn't he, like, do something really bad to you and stuff?”

Belle took a deep breath. “It doesn't matter—”

“Of course it does, you melon fudge!” Kera squawked. “You don't owe the stallion anything!” She pointed into the other sequencing room. “You don't owe these kids anything! They're pretty must strangers to us!”

“You and I were strangers to each other too.”

“You know what I mean...”

“Kera, you're still young—”

“Ugh!” Kera rolled her green eyes. “I friggin' hate the 'I'm older than you' routine!”

“Kera...”

“My parents used it all the time.”

“Please...” Belle leaned down. “I can't even begin to explain to you the power of loyalty. Even still, I think a part of you understands it. You just don't know it quite yet.”

“Pffft. Yeah, whatever.”

“Now, would you kindly mind stepping out of the way? I need to get a good look of what's outside.”

“You may wish to put on something warm,” said one of the foals innocently.

Belle glanced behind her shoulder. “Uhm... what for?”

“The wind has that effect on some ponies,” another said.

Belle blinked. She exchanged glances with Kera. Then, with silent resolve, she twisted and twisted the valve until the door open with a creak. Instantly, a burst of air was sucked out of the room. Then, everything settled as Belle squinted against the bright light and pushed the door panel opened. She was immediately greated with rolling mountains and wispy white clouds stretching before her. A blue sky bent and buckled beyond the metal railing of a iron-wrought deck.

“Her zeppelin...” Belle gulped. “We're on Nightshade Industries' airship.”

“Now, do you wanna go all suicidal?”

Belle was silent, then smiled down at Kera. “It will be alright, Kera.”

“But we're flank-knows-where and there're guards all around and there's no guessing where Blue Nova's—”

“Kera...” Belle smiled. “It will be alright.”

The foal trembled, though her fear was very brief, very subtle, very real. It passed between the words that Belle had to give her.

“Just trust me...” Belle said, her face warm and tranquil. “Everything is going to work out.”

Kera's eyes thinned. “You're either stupidly insane or stupidly fearless.”

“Let's settle for 'awesome,' shall we?” Belle stuck her head out again, took a deep breath, and bolted forward. “Okay! Stay behind me! Come on!”

In a swift train, all fourteen bodies galloped out and into the windy world outside.

I Know, Right?

“Dare I ask, what's the purpose of the silver finish?” Crimson asked.

From across the veering cabin, Tweak smirked while polishing his pistol. He held the shiny white stock of the crystal-powered weapon in the crook of his hoof and said, “Family heirloom. My great granddad used it to fend off Searonese bandits back in the Great Sapphire War.”

Crimson raised an eyebrow. “Was there really such a conflict?”

“Feh. No. But that's what they should have called it, instead of the South Aurum Searonese Incursion. It's the damned Ledomaritans that get to write the history books around here. We just harvest the crystals they need to power up the Spark-forsaken printing presses that make 'em.”

“Still, it is a very nice gun.”

“Damn straight it is.” Tweak clicked loose a hoofbrace from the weapon's left side. “Practical, too.” He slid the metallic ring over his right forelimb, so that he could hold the barrel out at leg's length. “Fits right around the leg, so you can come out of a full speed gallop and wield it when running into a fray.”

“What's the firing mechanism?”

“Same as any weapon. It was built by unicorns, you know, only custom fit to channel crystal energy from a bearer such as myself...” Tweak glanced up with a wag of his shiny eyebrows. “Or like my grandpappy. There's an old family tale about how he once fired a full clip into a hydra's chest. He did it in less than two seconds; didn't even have to reload. Damn near died from all of the energy output, but it worked. The hydra's heart exploded from the inside. Heh... for two generations, the family crafted harvesting equipment from the pathetic creature's orange scales.”

“That would explain a few things I saw on the farm,” Crimson said with a nod. He gripped a bulkhead with a metal limb as the bounty hunter's ship bobbed through a burst of turbulence. “You ever taken it into action?”

“Tried to frighten off a few metal mares with it,” Tweak said with a sigh, sliding the pistol off his hoof and clicking the brace back into the stock. “Didn't work much. Those body thiefs only ever responded to long ranged rifles anyways. It's a crying shame my grandpa isn't around still. Spark knows, he could have shot the nose off of a Killa from the far side of the village. Who knows how many holes he could have put into the metal mares. Now there was a stallion who knew how to make use of something that was built for perfection.”

A voice groaned from across the cabin. “Mares, stallions. You're all the same.”

Both ponies glanced over.

“Hmmm?” Crimson blinked.

Imre looked up from where she was preparing a field med kit. “Always so obsessed with weapons. So what if you abort the egg sack of a black widow at a million hoofball fields or whatcrap. I swear, does anypony these days not think about killing?”

“We're about to go into a dangerous situation,” Crimson said with a furrowed brow. “It helps to be prepared.”

“Spoken like a true soldier,” Imre grumbled. “Killing is like punching a clock, isn't it?”

Before Crimson could respond, Tweak loomed over her. “Now, that isn't exactly fair! You know how much he's stuck his head out for weak lil' sissies like you?! He's lost his best friends trying to fight for what he believes in!”

Crimson sighed, waving a metal hoof. “Tweak, please...”

“Nah, I ain't finished!” Tweak frowned at the mare. “Just what have you done to prepare for out little shindig in Pale Shelf! You're guiding us through there, Miss Commando! Or have you forgotten?”

“As a matter of fact, I haven't forgotten.” She zipped up a saddlebag full of supplies and hoisted them over her flanks. “And I am preparing... preparing for all of the bodies you're gonna drop between here and rescuing two of Rainbow Dash's best friends.”

“Belle and Pilate have been taken against their will,” Crimson said quietly yet firmly. “The enforcers of Ledo have proven time and time again that they do not listen to reason, nor are they capable of grace. We have no other choice but to rescue the beloveds by any force necessary.”

“But is it absolutely necessary?” Imre asked in a droning tone. “Couldn't somepony, I dunno, use a weapon by not using it for once in this world?”

Tweak stared at her as if she was made of clouds. “Were ya born yesterday, girl? Do you even hear yourself?”

Imre sighed, rubbing a hoof over her short mane. “I... I don't know. I guess I just wish things would stop repeating themselves.”

“Repeating themselves?”

“Where I come from. The way I was raised. I... I...” Imre bit her lip, staring towards the cockpit.

Around that time, Rainbow Dash trotted up. “Whew... I think the dizzy spells are over with for the time...” She shook her colorful head and squinted at the trio. “What's going on? Having chit-chat?”

“Nnnngh...” Tweak turned around and trotted loathesomely towards his seat. “I wouldn't mind myself having a barbecue. Dumb mare over roasted flames.”

Rainbow Dash blinked at him. She turned to gawk at Crimson. “Is it the crystal ponies' time of month?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Crimson shrugged with a smirk.

“Once every four weeks, they form synchronized cracks and jab into ponies' fetlocks?”

“What the Hell?!” Roarke suddenly barked from the cockpit.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know. Not my best quip—but I was just doing the vomit tango back there! Cut me some slack—”

“No, it's not that.” Roarke slowed the vehicle as she brought up the copper map of raised needles. “I'm detecting something.”

“Something?!” Rainbow Dash galloped towards the front, immediately followed by a breathless Crimson. “Like a black and white and blind all over something?”

“Pretty damn much.” Roarke rotated a valve and slapped a crystal diode. A series of pins raised up, fluctuating with burning ends, and they were positioned northeast of where the speedy craft currently was. “There be your favorite zebra,” the metal mare said through her helmet. “Or, presumably, his mana sphere. Here's hoping it's still attached to his head.”

“But that... that...” Rainbow Dash's jaw hung open.

“It most definitely is not Pale Shelf,” Imre said, trotting up.

“Then... what in the heck is it?” Tweak asked, craning his head to see from a distance.

“It's a city,” Rainbow Dash said, then squinted. “At least I think it is, unless all those big pins are trying to suggest that Pilate and Belle ended up in a forest of flu shots.”

“The only city in this area of the Confederacy is Blue Nova,” Crimson said. “A major shipping port, zeppelin manufacturing center, and also the headquarters for Nightshade Industries, if I'm not mistaken.”

“Blue Nova?” Rainbow Dash made a grimacing expression. “Sounds like a stallion who stole a kiss from me at Flight Camp.”

Imre glanced at her. “Stole a kiss from you?”

“Yeah. They all called him 'Blue Nose' for two months straight after that.” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and leaned in. “Is this—like—current? Is this totally where Pilate is?”

“Most definitely,” Roarke said. “Or, like I said, the O.A.S.I.S. sphere that's ordinarily fused to his nervous system and runic skull plate.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Crimson.

The stallion glanced back, patient.

With a deep breath, Rainbow Dash nodded and said, “Then we're totally going there. Let's hope his stripes are still attached too, ya dig?”

“Oh, I dig.” Tweak smirked. “A friendly little romp through a stuffed-up city. Whew! The day just keeps getting better and better.”

Imre glared at him. “You're impossible.”

“And your head looks like a hoofbrush.”

“Shhhh!” Rainbow Dash hissed. “Knock it off until you get to knock bad ponies' blocks off! It's time to do less saving and a lot less suck!” She tapped Roarke's shoulderplates. “You mind doing the honors?”

“Hey...” The bounty hunter shrugged and veered to the right, angling the craft northeast. “It's only my airship and your best friends.”

“Remind me to give you a lecture about guilt trips later.”

“You suck at lectures. I like it more when you kick flank.”

“Yeah, I know, right?”

Please, Stay Foggy

“Belle?!” Kera grunted, shoving her squinting face into the high winds that whipped around Nightshade's airship. She and the twelve foals clung to the deck's port side railing as they trudged towards the bow. “Slow down! This is getting really hairy!”

“No can do, Kera!” Bellesmith shouted from up ahead. Panting, she galloped several feet, peered over the railing, then galloped several more feet ahead to repeat the motion. “I need to find us a way down!”

“If you're looking for the bridge, aren't they—like—at the very front of these things?” Kera frowned. “I dunno! I'm a kid, not a sky pirate!”

“I'm not looking to take control of this ship!” Belle shouted back over the gale.

“Huh?! Then what?!”

Belle peered over the railing one last time. She shouted with a victorious smile, “There!” She pointed down along the port side. “Our way out!”

“Where?” Kera paused along with the foals to glance down. She grimaced at the sight of a twenty-five foot long hovercraft, rigged with manathrusters and built out of flimsy metal plates. The vehicle was affixed to the zeppelin's hull and bore the same striking indigo colors. “For crying out loud, Belle! You can barely fit five ponies in that thing, much less fifteen!”

“It's a good thing I'll be fitting foals and not adults, then!” Belle said with a psychotic grin.

“Did you break something else in your head other than your horn?!”

“She's right, though,” said a filly next to Kera. “We all rode in on a similar craft to assist Madame Nightshade.”

Kera raspberried at her. “Who told you that you could talk?!” She turned and waved her hoof dramatically at Bellesmith. “Do you even know how to fly?!”

“Why not?! I've flown over tons of mountains and forests!”

“Huh?”

“Er... I mean... I'm pr-pretty sure I can manage!”

“Belllllllllllllllle? You're not serious about this, are you?”

“About as serious as I've ever been!” Belle motioned the group down a curved metal staircase towards the deck level where the “liferaft” was attached. “Come quickly! We need to take off before any of Nightshade's cronies catch wind of our absence. Even though it's windy enough as it is!” She giggled.

With a wincing expression, Kera said, “Belle, for real, can you just chillax for a moment and make sure your braind noodle is firmly tucked away just right—?”

Just then, a voice reverberated off the metal bulkheads of the descending corridor. “Everypony! Stop where you are!” Two uniformed stallions rushed up to the base of the stairs, wielding manarifles. “What do you think you're doing outside of the sequencing chamber?! Where's Nightshade—”

With a grunt, Belle jumped up and spread her legs apart. The mare's hooves planted on the rails on either side of the stairs. In swift order, she glided down, descending upon the two stallions like a frowning bobsled.

They were too busy gawking at the beautiful stupidity of the moment that they neglected to fire a shot until she was within spitting distance. She ducked a blast, cartwheeled off the end of the railings, and threw her flank into the chest of one guard. She slammed him down, “sat” on him, then used her lower limbs to flip the front hooves out from underneath the second guard. As he pratfalled, Bellesmith then reverse-somersaulted, bit onto the first stallion's tale, and spun around with her entire weight thrown through her neck.

“Nnnnnnnnnngh!” her voice cracked as she flung the stallion by his tail straight into the wall. “Yaaaaaugh!”

“Ooof!” He fell down hard, out for the count.

The other guard stood up, only to receive a buck to the face, followed by a headbutt to the chest. He dropped his manarifle, which Belle promptly picked up and slammed across his cheek, showering the wall behind him with bloodied saliva.

The hallway became silent, save for the subtle groans of the two guards.

Seething, panting, Belle dropped the rifle and turned towards a silently stunned Kera. She blinked, then gave a devilish smirk. “Did you happen to bring any grasshoppers with you?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

“Ah well. Let's make like a Fluttershy and leaf!” Belle galloped adventurously down the hall.

“Y'know, Belle, forget everything I just said,” Kera said with a smile as she and the other foals took up the rear. “Just be sure that if I ever meet this 'Rainbow Dash' friend of yours, I'll be wearing a helmet. 'Cuz what I'm seeing right here is dangerously badflank.”

“Well, it is my middle name, after all... I mean hers... I mean...” Belle winced, ultimately shaking her head as she rounded a corner. “Let's not talk until all the fog has cleared, okay?”

“Please, stay foggy.”

“Please be the docking station. Please be the docking station. Please please please please—” Belle reached a clearly marked door and spotted the hovercraft moored to the other side. “Woohoo! That was easier than I thought!” She motioned to the foals. “Hop on in, kids!” She pulled a lever, causing the door to the vehicle to open like a catseye aperture. “Guess we'll have to see if I'm as good in the air as I am in tight corridors!”

As they passed her, one by one, some paused to smile at the mare. A filly said, “Can you teach us some of those special moves you know?”

“Sorry. I'm an apprentice, not the master.” Belle smiled. “Step carefully. It might be a tight fit, but we're gonna get out of here.”

“But what if Nightshade's zeppelin tries to chase us?” a colt paused to ask.

“I'm sure we can totally outrun her, kid.”

“But they have cannons on this thing.”

“I'll... uhm...” Belle fidgeted, sweating as the adrenaline ran its course through her twitching body. “I'll find us a mountain to hide behind.”

“You seem used to thinking quickly on your hooves, Eljunbyro.”

“I've learned from the best.” Belle blinked. Belle frowned. “Where's Kera?!” She looked all around, panic flickering across her golden face. “Kera?! Oh blessed spark, where did she—?!”

“I'm here! I'm here!” Kera's panting voice rounded the corner, followed by her body. The filly's horn was glowing brightly through her bushy green mane. “So sorry about that. Took a detour.”

“This is not the time to use the little fillies room!”

“No, it wasn't that, ya melon fudge!” Kera grunted. “We just passed by the engine room! Nopony was guarding it, so I severed most of the sensitive manaconduits just like we had planned!”

Belle did a double-take. “You what?!”

Kera's emerald eyes blinked. “Wait, you mean that wasn't part of the plan?”

Belle slowly shook her head.

“Whoops!” Kera smiled as a bulb of sweat ran down her tattooed face. “Well, uhhh, I totally severed the sensitive manaconduits powering this ship's thrusters!”

The entire zeppelin buckled. A groaning noise ran through the bulkheads as several lights flickered. The sound of panicked voices picked up in the distance.

“That's cool, r-right?” Kera squeaked.

“Go!” Belle shouted, tossing the little foal through the doorway.

“Whoah!” Kera rolled like a hoofball and bumped into the bulkhead besides the huddled kids. “Ooof!”

Belle stepped halfway into the vehicle. She paused, glancing back at the inside of the zeppelin as everything began to teeter and spark. She shook her head, chuckled breathily, and slid the door shut behind her.

Less than two minutes later, as the entire zeppelin began dropping slowly in altitude, the vehicle strapped to the portside detached with a blast of sparks. Its thrusters roared to life, and Belle spun the vehicle around until it was pointed south. Desperate to get away, the thing pulled into a steep climb, rocketing loudly away from the scene of the zeppelin's demise.

Behind the escaping craft, Nightshade's airship slowly descended like an indigo storm cloud. Bursts of mana-filled clouds erupted briefly from bow to stern, but then the ship fell silent like a giant sardine can as it grinded against the mountainside, coming to a precarious stop along the edge of a sharp cliff. As the minutes bled into hours, ponies would crawl out of the craft and work desperately to salvage the ship's dead engines.

Bellesmith and the foals, however, would be miles upon miles away.

Ebony and Irony

“Smells like the boomerist of spit down here it does.” Floydien's grunting voice echoed across the narrow sewer corridor, punctuated by the splashing of cloven hooves through fetlock-deep sludge. His pointy skull turned around to look back at the two trailing stallions in mid-trot. “Striped boomer's stripes should turn green soon, yes yes yes?”

“You're one to complain about this!” Ebon Mane grunted as he guided himself and Pilate along. “If you hadn't gone ballistic on every uniformed pony in sight—enforcer or Nightshade flank-kisser notwithstanding—then we would have been in better sorts!”

“It is not a complaint that Floydien launches, sailboat boomer, but felicitous spit to drive off the stench. Simon's vomit begs to up the chuck.” Almost as if on cue, a high-pitched wretching sound could be heard. “Now there's a good nut nut.”

“Mr. Pilate,” Ebon Mane muttered into the zebra's ears. “I don't enjoy being a complaining worrywort anymore than the next handsome stallion.”

“Who does, friend?”

“But we've been trudging through these sewers for hours, and I dare to say it's all because we're following this antler-case when instead we should be using our proper instincts.”

“Floydien has...” Pilate shifted in mid canter. “How should I put it?”

“Humor me.”

“He possesses an inexplicable, innate sense of... sense.”

“Easy for you to say. You've depended blindly on him for days. But, like, didn't he nearly toss you off an airship and into the heart of Blue Nova?”

“Ah, but that was the direct result of Nightshade's guards confronting us. Besides, he did give me Simon, and if it wasn't for the rodent's assistance, I wouldn't have found you and the rest of the think tank anyways.”

“We still haven't found them! Propsy and Jasper are goddess-knows where about now!”

“But we're getting closer...” Pilate stetched his neck as O.A.S.I.S. flickered. “Aren't we, Simon?”

A nauseous bark was all that returned. It was accompanied by a pulse of telekinesis that magnified Pilate's “vision,” revealing a thin corridor running due east just three wall lengths away.

“I do believe we're approaching a junction!” Pilate's voice sounded off against the walls of the sewer. “Ebon, if you will...”

“Huh?”

“I can't very well guide us to where we're headed and utilize a sound stone simultaneously.”

“Oh, right. S-sorry.” Ebon's hoof reached under Pilate's choker and grabbed the enchanted shard. “And here I thought you were a genius zebra capable of doing everything intelligent thing imaginable.”

“I'm rather sorry to disappoint,” Pilate said with a firm grin. “Besides, you're the best at speaking with your good friend Props.”

“What, does she scare you?”

“I can only handle so much giddiness, to be honest.”

“That's funny, coming from somepony who's had nothing but this pointy dude's mania to deal with for a spell.”

“Is there a particular reason why you're so hard on Floydien?”

“Well, yes. I mean no. I mean...” Ebon sighed, then spoke in a more hushed tone. “It's got nothing to do with how big he is or how freakish he looks or how scary those antlers are...”

“I understand completely,” Pilate droned, blinking blindly. “Then what, pray tell, is it?”

“I dunno. When he talks, it's as if it's coming out of a hollow shell. He talks all the time about his 'beloved' Nancy Jane, but I'm beginning to wonder if he's even capable of love. I don't mean that in a cruel way. It's just that... I-I have a sort of gift for sensing things. You could ask Propsy or Jasper. And, like, with Floydien... I don't even sense anything at all.”

Pilate cocked his head curiously to the side. “Just what kind of a 'sense' is this anyways?”

Ebon sighed, more heavily this time. “Never mind. All of this running around in muck is getting to me. Plus, there're the enforcers and their constant drilling and this frightful hangar that we're all headed to.”

“It's just a hangar.”

“Yes, but one that's hidden beneath the earth for a reason! For all we know, Mr. Pilate, it's likely crawling all over with Nightshade's guards and—”

“All of the spit enters Floydien's ears, blessed boomers,” spoke the gruff voice from up ahead. “Is a most rancid pool. Yes yes yes.”

“Look, we're just freaked out, okay?!” Ebon called forth.

“I think I'm doing rather fine,” Pilate said.

“Okay. I'm freaked out! I'm sorry. Things are just... a little freaky.”

“Perhaps sailboat boomer would do better sharing freakiness with glimmer spitters who would want to skin his freakiness and make a pelt with it, no?”

“What in the friggin' heck is that supposed to—?”

Pilate cleared his throat. “Mr. Mane, the sound stone, if you would.”

“Oh, right. My bad.”

“No problem.” Pilate smiled. “Perhaps a word or two with Ms. Props would cheer me up.”

“Yeah. It usually does.” Ebon raised the shard to his muzzle. “Uhm... Hello? Propsy? Jasper? You got an update for us or—?”

A loud belch echoed magically across the corridor. Pilate made a face while Simon wretched again.

“Uhm... Propsy?” Ebon squeaked.

“Heehee! That was the loudest one yet! I'm totally owning you in this contest, Jasper! Would you at least participate?”

”For the last bloody time, I am not an expert on belching, nor would it ever dawn on me that I would desire such.”

”But there you have it! Dawn is the best time for burping! Just pretend you're guzzling some milk and channel forth your inner acid reflux!”

“Props?! Yo, Propsy!”

”Then again, all acid reflux is 'inner,' I guess. Unless you have a hole in your chest. Hey! Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Prowse and the time he fell into a bathtub full of rusty screws?”

”Oh, for the love of fine wine...”

”You see, he was drunk at the Gray Smoke floating junkyard and his buddies were all telling him to do backflip. Well, as you can guess, he belly-flopped, and that's why he has to eat oatmeal through a tube... or maybe he squirts it out of the tube. I forget. Hey, what's that 'C' word that rhymes with 'gastrostomy?'”

”Props!”

”But soft! What voice through younder sound stone breaks wind?!”

“It's Ebon Mane, you fuzzhead!”

”Ebonnnny! Did you hear that last belch?! What would you rate it out of a ten? And don't say 'five' cuz that would be a cop-out!”

”Ebon, good fellow, please tell us that you have an update.”

“Actually, Pilate asked me to call you both up so we can get one ourselves.”

”Well, aside from being regailed with all of Ms. Props' bodily functions, I'd venture to guess that we're halfway down the corridor that leads to our destination.”

”Jasper is right on the rooter, Ebony! Nightshade must have gotten really bored digging this tunnel out, so she totally labeled it with a bunch of numbers, all getting smaller from the industrial district to where the hangar's located. It said so on the blueprints when we were in the central power station of the building! Isn't that neato keano?”

“What number are you at?”

”Sixy-two! That's the age my Uncle Prowse got his liver removed! Did I ever tell you about his drinking problem—”

“Yes, yes. Thank you, Props.” He turned towards Pilate. “Do you sense their bodies at all in the corridor?”

Pilate shook his head. “Negative. It's all empty, from what O.A.S.I.S. can tell me.”

”Mr. Pilate, if I may be so bold,” spoke Clark's voice through the sound stone. ”But as it is that you and your companions fought your way ever so brutishly through the streets while Ms. Props and I had nothing to block our underground traversal, I would venture to guess that that part of the corridor you're sensing is a spot where we've previously been. We are likely way ahead of you at this point.”

“That would make a great deal of sense,” Pilate said.

“Then all we gotta do is burst our way through and catch up!” Ebon chirped, his mouth forming a grin. “That way we can beat the enforcers trying to drill their way down and reach the hangar in no time!”

“Sound plan is sound,” Floydien said, his antlers suddenly brimming with energy. “Lend your paws, Simon. Time to make even more sound.”

“No, Mr. Floydien! Wait!” Ebon extended a hoof.

A wave of muck and mud flew into the two stallion's faces from the resulting explosion. When the splashing water settled, the ponies wheezed and sputtered. O.A.S.I.S. flickered, and when it came back to clarity, a huge gaping hole led from one corridor into the next.

“Is there a reason why boomer stand there with spit in their faces?” Floydien grumbled and ducked down low so that he and Simon could spelunk into the even narrower corridor adjacent to the sewer. “Speed requires us; Nancy Jane awaits!”

“Mr. Floydien...” Pilate grumbled. “We had talked about this...”

“And Floydien had heard. Now hear Floydien: those glimmer drills of the stabby-stabs seek to expose Floydien and boomers. Floydien must not allow that.”

“Why, because you're tasting fear for the first time?!” Ebon balked.

“No...” The voice hesitated, then hoarsely produced, “Because boomers are closest thing Floydien has to friends.”

He proceeded into the tunnel on his own. Ebon Mane and Pilate stood in warm silence.

”Wow!” Props' voice sang through the stone. ”That was some belch! Can we meet this Floydien guy soon?! Huh?! Huh?!”

“Uhm... that depends...” Pilate murmured as he and Ebon Mane ducked through the dusty hole. “Mr. Mane, can you see a number on the wall?”

“Shine your manasphere over in this direction.”

“Like this?”

“Yup! Perfect!”

“What do you see?”

“I see... a spray painted number eighty! Ha!”

“Then we can't be that far behind the others!”

“You hear that, Propsy?!” Ebon shouted, his voice echoing over charing hoofsteps as he and Pilate galloped ahead to join Floydien and Simon. “We're not that far behind! Wait for us, will ya?”

”Woohoo! Bring the burps and the antlers and let's make some magic!”

Know the Drill

“We're making headway, sir!” shouted an enforcer over the deafening buzz of iron-wrought mana drills. The rigged devices hung in a tight circle, nestled within an abandoned intersection of Blue Nova's industrial district. Uniformed stallions telekinetically controlled the devices, guiding their rotating blades through the steaming concrete as they gradually bore through to the chambers below. “According to the old city schematics, we should be breaking through to a junction of underground aqueducts. The targets are bound to be in one of the adjacent corridors!”

“Well done, lieutenant!” Shell shouted back. He stood on the sidewalk, gazing past the manadrills to where a line of curious citizens had been forced to stand at a cautious distance. They craned their necks and watched with mute curiosity. “When you get a chance, see if you can get your subordinates to extend the perimeter by another block. I don't appreciate how close the locals are being allowed to congregate around our work here.”

“I will do the best I can with the forces available to me, sir!” the pony shouted back. “We're stretched really thin as it is!”

“That's because I need the blockade to remain in the air around Blue Nova!” Shell exclaimed as he paced around the loud drills. “We need to keep a good eye on who's going in and who's coming out of the maretropolis!”

“A suggestion, sir...” The pony spoke up. “If we could simply make contact with the Council of Ledo, they could send us reinforcements and order an early curfew for all of the citizens of this city!”

“No!” Shell growled, his scarred face grimacing. “Out of the question! You would do well to stick with the task given to you and that alone, soldier!”

The lieutenant blinked, but ultimately saluted with a deadpan expression. “Sir, yes, sir! Understood, s-sir...”

Just then, the air roared from the sound of a hovercraft lowering. Shell and multiple other enforcers glanced up.

Enforcer Evans dismounted from a glider and galloped up towards him. He saluted and breathlessly exclaimed, “Prime Enforcer Shell, sir! There's been a discovery east of here!”

Shell's one good eye narrowed. “What kind of discovery...?”

“Multiple wingponies have been orbiting the city perimeter, scanning the landscape for any sign of traffic coming in or out, just like you commanded, sir,” Evans said. “Due east, a noticeably strange detail was found about two miles out.”

“Was it our target?” Shell exclaimed. “Has the pegasus returned?”

“Sadly no, sir, but we did notice an artificial structure cleverly hidden within the eastern slope of a grassy knoll.” Evan's brow furrowed as he said, “It appears to be a door of sorts, sir. A very large door, like something befitting an enormous compartment. In fact, I had multiple enforcers scan the local topography. There appears to be a sizably large underground chamber situated due east, directly beneath this sealed structure.”

Shell took a deep breath. He exchanged glances with the lieutenant, then squinted at Evans again. “Did anypony try opening this entrance?”

“We had no luck, sir. The structure is incredibly thick, like the bulwark to a Xonan hideout.”

“Blessed spark!” the lieutenant gasped. “You don't mean to suggest—”

“Please ignore the enforcer's hyperbole, lieutenant,” Shell droned, waving a metal cast. “I suspect the truth is far more predictable. There is something very, very unsettling about this city, and I suspect Nightshade is at the very heart of it.”

“About Nightshade, sir,” Evans said. “Many of our fellow enforcers have tried contacting her, as you requested. There's been no response. Furthermore, a guard or two in her employ spoke of her airship having left the vicinity of Blue Nova nearly twelve hours ago.”

Shell's brow furrowed. “And this somehow managed to slip past our blockade?!”

“We've been trying to get a firm count of the zeppelins still moored within the city limits to verify whether or not this claim is true,” said Evans.

“This is what I mean!” the lieutenant exclaimed. “If we simply had more reinforcements, then I truly believe something like this wouldn't happen!”

“Enough!” Shell growled. “We are not approaching the Council! We are alone in this hunt! We always have been! The target and her companions are my responsibility! If this wasn't the case, the powers that be in Ledo's upper echelon would not have tasked me with ensuring the Confederacy's security!”

Just then, an explosion of steam and dust lit up within the center of the multiple manadrills. Enforcers lifted the machines as they shouted over the bedlam. “We've broken through! We've broken through!”

“The old city sewers are accessible, sir!”

Shell nodded slowly, then peered over at Evans. “Enforcer, here are your orders.” He pointed. “You are to take to the skies and collect a contingent of our largest zeppelins. Position them east while ordering the managlider squadrons to maintain their patrol along the north, west, and south ends of Blue Nova. Then, once you have your armada in position, lay siege to this... 'entrance,' until you have exposed the chamber within. Investigate, and keep me updated the whole time via sound stones. If you meet any resistance whatsoever from the interior to this hidden domain, I want you to answer them with all of the ordinance at your disposal. Do I make myself clear?”

“Sir...” The lieutenant gawked at that last order. “But... wh-what if it's just citizens or factory workers down there?”

Shell glared past him and spoke closely to Evans. “Do I make myself clear?”

Evans gulped and nodeed. “Perfectly, sir. I shall execute your orders as commanded.”

“As well as you should.” Shell trotted coldly past the lieutenant, causing the stallion to shudder. “I'm counting on you, enforcer. If Nightshade is indeed keeping a secret base down there, we mustn't allow her to stage a hasty retreat from this city, not until she has answered for her illicit activities.”

“Sir, could...” Evans shifted where he stood. “Could the sewers somehow be connected to this chamber we've discovered? Could that be where the zebra with the manasphere has gone?”

“That's what I intend to find out.” Shell levitated a pair of manarifles and loaded them with crystal ammo. A company of soldiers flocked around him and the fresh holes made in the street. “Form your blockade. Mind the door. If worse comes to worse, I'll at least be flushing our targets towards you.” He strapped the weapons to his uniform and motioned the ponies to follow him. “One way or another, our targets shall discover that there is no escape. Now, let's move.”

Shell dropped down into the corridors below, and several armed soldiers followed with him.

Just In Luck

“Belle, what do you think you're doing?”

The mare glanced over at her, then at the controls of the airship that she was operating. “I'm adjusting our course so that we can head southeast.”

“Uhhh...” Kera blinked. “That's in the direction of Blue Nova.”

Belle smiled awkwardly. “I'm well aware of that, Kera.” She gestured towards the rear of the cabin where twelve foals were scrunched together, some of them asleep from exhaustion and stress. “From what they all told me, it's safe to bet that we were positioned northwest of the maretropolis when we escaped Nightshade's zeppelin.”

“No, what I mean is, why in the blue balls are we going to Ball Nova. Er, I mean Nova Balls. I mean—”

“Maybe you should get some shuteye yourself, Kera.”

The filly stomped her hooves. “I don't need sleep!” her voice cracked. “I need to know that you're not going to fly us into a brick wall or an army barricade or a mountain full of evil mana golem experiments or somecrap!”

“I think I've proven to us all that my flight skills aren't that bad.”

“Bellesmith, I know it's hard to believe, but I'm actually serious...” Kera trotted over, her tattooed face round with concern as she brushed a hoof across the mare's fetlock. “You're starting to freak me out.”

“In what way?”

“Ever since you woke up from what that Nightsux lady did to your head, you've been... been...”

Belle raised an eyebrow. “Awesome?”

“Yeah.” Kera grimaced. “And I'm not used to you being awesome.”

Belle shrugged and looked forward out of the cockpit. “I'll try to take that as a compliment.”

“For real, though. Are you okay? You sure you're right in the head?”

“I've never felt better, if that's what you'd like to know.”

“You sure?”

“Kera...” Belle chuckled and ruffled the pony's mane. “What did I talk to you about earlier?”

“You mean about risking all of our puny necks by going after a stallion whom you don't owe a single darn thing?”

“I told you that everything is going to be alright,” Belle said. “And it is.”

Kera sat back on her haunches and foled her forelimbs in a pout. “And just how can you promise me that?”

“Because I didn't know before what I know now.”

“Which is...?”

Belle clung tighter to the controls as she glided the vessel over forests, valleys, and mountains that may or may not have been purple in color. “All my life, this Confederacy has done things to intimidate and frighten me. At first, I was blind to it. Then I met Rainbow Dash, and I was terrified by it. And now, I have shared her breath, her memories, and her spirit. And you know what?” Belle smiled. “Nothing frightens me anymore.”

“You're sure of that?”

“Heh. Kera, young or old, if you're one hundred percent certain of something, that means you're no longer living.”

“I just don't think Phoenix deserves a second chance as much as you think he does.”

“It isn't all about Phoenix,” Belle said. She glanced over her shoulder at the foals, then back at her flight pattern. “If I can get inside Nightshade's tower one more time, I can find out where their parents are being held.”

“You think we can actually save all of them too?”

“I'm willing. How about you?”

“Erm...”

“Be honest.”

“I don't think this is the best idea,” Kera muttered. “We've risked so much as it is.”

“Ah... Now, you see?” Belle pointed at her. “Nopony can be completely fearless. Not even you.”

Kera squinted up at her. “And yourself...?”

“I may no longer be scared, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid.”

Kera couldn't help it; she giggled.

Belle smiled wider. “Huh?”

“You're crazy. You really, really are crazy.”

“I'm free, Kera. I was born free, as were you and each of these children. I'm saving Phoenix because he doesn't deserve to be punished for doing something righteous. None of us do. Think about it, in the whole of Ledomare, are there any other ponies in the position to do what you and I and these foals are about to do?”

“Meh.”

Belle sighed. “How did I know that you were going to say that?” She shrugged. “Very well. All I'm going to ask of you is to mind the ship for a while.”

“Mind... the ship...?”

“For when I go into the tower to get Phoenix out.”

Kera nearly vomited in disbelief. “You're going to march into Nightshade's building alone?!”

“Well, I certainly wasn't going to bring along a marching band.”

“I don't care how awesome you are! That's suicide, Belle!”

“I am not committing suicide, Kera.”

“And just how do you know that?”

Belle carried a distant look on her face as she murmured, “Because somewhere, in a dream that hurt more than reality, I tried it. And it brought me nothing.” She gulped hard, her eyes moistening. “I have a chance to do something that my beloved will never have. I'm not going to waste it.” She gazed down at the foal. “And I am not about to waste you. Once we find a way into the city, we'll stop at the tower. I'll leave the ship to you. If things get too dangerous, you'll have the means to get out and bring these fillies with you.”

“What if they come after us?”

“They won't.” Belle smiled. “They want me, not you. That goes for the enforcers as well. Besides...” She gritted her teeth as she said with a slice of menace, “It will never get so bad that they'll come after you. I'll make them hurt before it ever gets that far.”

Kera shivered slightly as she said, “Somehow, I-I kind of believe you.”

“As long as someone does.” Belle suddenly blinked, for she felt a warm cheek nuzzling her hoof. She glanced down.

Kera was hugging her. As if feeling the touch of Belle's eyes, she grunted, “This is just a one-time thing, okay? For luck.”

“Right...” Belle smiled and ruffled her mane before accelerating the vehicle further southeast. “Luck.”

Break On Through

“Hmmmm...” Roarke droned under her mask.

Rainbow Dash leaned into the bounty hunter's cockpit, her ruby eyes bright beneath an open helmet. “'Hmmmm' what?!”

“It frightens me whenever Roarke gets thoughtful,” Imre said in a dull tone. “It's like an orphanage is exploding somewhere and she's figuring out what to do with the building's leftover foundation.”

“Why would you care about dying foals, hack job?” Tweak asked.

Imre glared at him. “Don't you have a bunch of crystals somewhere to huff?”

“I would if you'd stop sticking your horn up my butt.”

“Then try moving your butt away from your face.”

“Ponies! Please!” Crimson grunted. He muscled his way towards the cockpit and said, “What is it, Roarke? Trouble in our destination?”

Roarke tapped the edge of her helmet with a metal-laced hoof. “Hmmmm...”

“For Celestia's sake!” Rainbow's voice cracked as she tossed her forelimbs. “Stop preparing for the national anthem and just tell us what's up!”

“There's definitely a blockade surrounding Blue Nova,” Roarke said. “I can sense hundred of managliders circling the city from here.”

“Well, that's to be expected,” Crimson said, bracing himself against a bulkhead of the speeding, swaying vehicle. “We are in a state of war, after all.”

“I know a thing or two about Ledomaritan security tactics,” Imre said in a dull yet antsy voice. “Even when the Xonans are knocking on the front door, this level of activity is pretty... well... stupid.”

“Huh?” Tweak remarked.

“I've flown into Blue Nova on countless occasions,” Roarke tossed in. She pointed at the beeping light on her console. “I've never witnessed this kind of crap. It's like a rattled hornet's nest there.”

“So?!” Tweak growled. “Whip out the bug killer and let's get to work!”

Imre cast him a bored glance. “You just want nothing more than to use that gun of yours. Don't you?”

“Well, I'd use your face if I didn't know it'd shatter on impact.”

“Do they know we're coming?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“They will soon,” Roarke said. “I have a fast vessel, and it's heavily armed. But no single Searonese manacraft is armed to take on an entire armada.” She sighed, leaning back in her chair. “Besides, the battery reserves are low, and I very seriously doubt that there'll be ponies in Blue Nova willing to resupply a metal mare, two fugitives, and a translucent sapphire farmer.”

“I can't tell if that's an insult or not but I don't like it anyways,” Tweak grumbled.

“What could have gotten them so freaked out?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Perhaps there's been a Xonan incursion while we've been on the run?” Crimson remarked.

“Roarke, is the zebra's manasphere still located in the city?” Imre asked.

Roarke glanced back at the mare, then swiveled back to her instruments. She twirled a valve, produced the map of burning pens, and zeroed in on the eastern district of the city. “Hmmmm...”

“Oh come on!” Rainbow Dash growled.

“At least she's consistent,” Tweak said with a smirk.

“What is it now?!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward with a frown.

“It's located deep underground,” Roarke thought aloud. “Heading due east.”

“Why in the heck would Pilate be underground?!” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It could that he's being held in one of Ledo's many, many facilities?” Crimson proposed.

Imre shook her head. “No. There's no facility within the body of Blue Nova, and I very seriously doubt they would have somehow built one during the time I've been in Xonan and Searonese company.” She looked at the others. “Something wicked crazy has gone down in this town, and I'm guessing Rainbow's buddy is fleeing from it.”

“But, like, is he alone?” Rainbow Dash's face stretched with concern. She gnawed on her lip and fidgeted in her armor. “It can't be pleasant wandering enemy territory blind.”

“I thought his manasphere was capable of giving him an alternative form of 'sight,'” Imre remarked.

“Still, it sucks. Where is he anyways? The sewers?”

“I don't know of any sewers that run that deep,” Crimson said, pointing at the map.

“This is a Ledomaritan city we're talking about,” Tweak muttered. “Filth runs deep.”

“For once, he has a point,” Roarke said. “It's worth investigating, if nothing else.”

“But what of the blockade?” Crimson asked.

“What of them?” Roarke pointed towards a glowing panel on her dashboard. “I think we're about to have that question answered.”

“Huh?” Tweak blinked.

Just then, an array of soundstones crackled to life across the instruments.

“Hooo boy,” Imre's ears drooped.

”Scrkkkt—Incoming manaship. You are approaching a security zone. Slow down your vessel and identify yourself—Snkkkt.”

The ponies exchanged fitful glances.

“This won't end well,” Crimson uttered bluntly.

“Reckon now would be a good time for some fancy spitballin'?” Tweak remarked.

“You can keep your spit as well as your balls,” Imre droned. “I say we turn around, ascend to a higher altitude, and approach from the middle of the city.”

“What's that gonna solve?!” Tweak grumbled.

Roarke spoke. “If there's been an incident in a Ledomaritan city, then undoubtedly they will be in possession of anti-air artillery. We'll be in supreme danger of being shot to burning ribbons if we try a steep descent.”

“And what of up close, huh?!” Imre asked.

Roarke shrugged. “I'm quite confident I could evade their targeting.”

“Are you, now?”

“I wouldn't be able to do it forever, mind you,” Roarke said. She gestured towards a metal rig at the rear of the cabin. “And it would help to have another pony mind the gun turrets so I could shake of the dozens of potential bogeys I'll undoubtedly attract.”

“So, what you're saying, basically, is that you can provide one hell of a huge distraction?” Tweak remarked.

Roarke nodded. “I'd provide more, but this is hardly an even playing field.” She pointed at the map. “See those shapes to the far east? Those are A-Class Ledomaritan battlecruisers. The same sort of things that razed Foxtaur to the ground. I might be able to survive a single swift flyby, like how I nabbed Rainbow Dash, but they'd definitely get me on the second or third glide. The element of surprise would be gone, after all.”

“And here I was thinkin' this was some sort of super ship you were flyin'!” Tweak said with a grin.

“Oh, it's a good ship, but still tinfoil compared to Ledomaritan shelling.” She pointed at her head. “It's what's in here that's 'super.'”

“At least she's flippin' modest.”

“Why are all of those battleships located to the east?” Crimson asked. “They seem to be congregating even thicker.”

“Not to mention that Pilate's heading towards them,” Rainbow Dash added, trembling slightly.

“That's not really my damn concern,” Roarke grumbled. “If we're going to do anything, we'd better do it quick. We've gone on for nearly two minutes without a response. Knowing Ledomaritans, they're going to start firing on us, thinking we only understand Xonan language or some other crud.”

“So long as you don't approach the battlecruisers, you think you can last against the managliders?” Crimson asked.

“If I have to.” Roarke looked at everypony as one. “Are we going to come up with a damn plan or what?!”

“I thought you were the brains of this outfit!”

“I lost that when I gave my entire culture the proverbial middle fetlock,” Roarke growled. “Now, let's come up with something before I lose my patience. I've already lost enough fuel for this thing.”

“If the best you can do is distract the blockade...” Rainbow Dash thought aloud. “...then we could... sp-split up!”

“Ew, really?” Tweak made a face.

“Yeah! Totally!” Rainbow Dash pointed. “Half of us shake off the managliders, the other half go in and find Pilate.”

“Go in where?”

“The sewers. The basement. The dungeons—whatever the McFuzz this place is hiding!” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Maybe you don't know me, but mark my words: a cave is a cave is a cave.”

Tweak sat back, rubbing his shiny forehead. “Aye yai yai...”

“'Middle... fetlock...'” Imre was busy repeating under her breath.

“I'm not sure we can afford to split our party up anymore than it already is,” Crimson said.

“Oh, and Pilate can afford to flounce around on his lonesome in some Luna-forsaken labyrinthe?!” Rainbow Dash frowned. “We've gotten as far as we have by taking risks! This is just another one we gotta do if we wanna see Pilate out of this mess! And Belle out of hers!”

”Snkkkt—Approaching vessel. This is the Ledomaritan Defense Force. Slow down your vehicle and prepare to be searched. This is your final warning.”

“They friggin' serious?” Tweak remarked, squinting out the cockpit window.

A line of silver, glinting vessels could be seen from afar, forming a straight line against the hazy gray splotch that was Blue Nova against the horizon.

“It's now or never,” Roarke droned. “Are we gonna give them the run for their bits?”

“Hold up.” Rainbow Dash leaned forward. “Lemme try something.” She cleared her throat and spoke into a cold metal nozzle. “Uh... Ledomaritan Vessels! This is... uh... the South Medical Detachment of... erm... Blue... Bush! Yes, Blue Bush! We have wounded soldiers on board. Please allow us safe passage to the city hospital!”

“Uhm... Rainbow Dash?” Imre fidgeted.

Roarke pointed at the nozzle beneath Rainbow's mouth. “That's the primary weapon discharge trigger.”

The pegasus blinked. She looked at the nozzle, at the distant line of ships, then sighed. “I'd give a friggin' fortune to fly without a single scrap of metal between me and the clouds. I swear...” She followed Roarke's directions to a microphone and spoke into it. “Ahem. Ledomaritan... uh... Vessels! This is—”

”Scrkkkt—Come to a full stop! Now! You are about to be boarded!”

The other ponies winced.

Rainbow Dash looked at them, bit her lip, and leaned into the mic once more. “Ahem... Uhhh... ScrkkkkKKKkkk! I can't—SNnkkkt—make out your—SCRKKK—words! Snnnkkkt—You're breaking up! Could you—snkkkkt—pull that soundstone—snkkkt—out of your flank, please?! Uhm... Over.”

Imre looked at Tweak. “I didn't know it was possible to make those sounds with your mouth.”

“Don't pretend you're not an expert on using your mouth.”

“At least I didn't have livestock in Searo's Hold.”

“Ha. Funny.”

”Come to a full stop or we will fire.” Was all the returning transmission said.

“Uhhhh...” Rainbow Dash sweated. “Uhhhhh...” Rainbow Dash gulped. She looked at Roarke. “Which one is the throttle?”

Roarke pointed without thinking. “This right here—”

Rainbow Dash slammed the lever at full tilt. Everypony in the cockpit lunged as the ship burned forward, streaking past the managliders like they were the edge of a crescent moon. The air heated up with burning engines, and soon every single vessel of the blockade tore after the manaship in angry pusuit.

“By Searo's womb!” Roarke hissed through her helmet, knocking Rainbow's hoof off the throttle so she could regain control of the ship. “You'll blow our engines out!”

“Nice of you for taking the hint!” Rainbow growled.

“Are you out of your sapphire chipping mind?!” Tweak cackled.

“Look. We're doing this, okay?” Rainbow Dash gazed at the other ponies breathlessly. “I know it's not comfortable; I know it sucks, but I find that the best things in life come when you don't think but simply do.”

“It's not like we had many options anyway,” Crimson said, flinching as streams of manaburst flew past the cockpit window. “This is it, my little ponies. There's no turning back.”

“Nnnngh...” Tweak sat back, twirling his gun. “I didn't sign up for this crap.”

Imre gave him a side glance. “Actually, you did.”

Tweak blinked. “Oh, right.” A pause. “Damn.”

Lock Pony Foils

“Well, this is a stinky pile of crud.”

Eagle Eye leaned over Josho's shoulder from where he sat in the managlider's gunner's seat. “Care to be a tad bit more specific?”

Josho pointed towards the hazy splotch of urbanity along the northern horizon. “There's a blockade surrounding the city. Looks like Filta's armada that broke off from Foxtaur.”

“What in spark's name are they all doing up here?” Eagle Eye squeaked.

“What in the Queen's left ovary are we doing here, kid?”

Eagle Eye blinked. He gazed down at the passing landscape in thought, then winced. “Pilate...”

“From the looks of it, that zebra that you have a crush on is generating a lot of flak.”

“I so do not have a crush on him!” Eagle Eye frowned. “I just want to get him safely to his beloved. You know that.”

“Hard not to,” Josho grumbled. “It's all you've been friggin' yapping on about for the past twelve hours.”

Eagle Eye's lavender ears drooped. “Erm... s-sorry,” he muttered with an embarrassed smile.

“Nothing to be sorry about, kiddo. I know you're genuinely concerned about the striped yahoo... for whatever reason...”

“And what about you, huh?” Eagle Eye glanced curiously at the obese stallion. “Are you still doing all of this just because you're fed up with the Confederacy?”

Josho let loose a long, lingering growl. “Think of it this way: I've been long overdue for a vacation.”

Eagle smiled. “You know, that vacation could last forever, so long as you have ponies to spend it with.”

“That's the lamest sort of come-on I've ever heard.”

Eagle Eye giggled. “I like this you, even if it's still a fat and slobbering 'you.'”

“Jee, thanks.”

With a sigh, Eagle gazed towards the zeppelins dotting the horizon. “Still, what are gonna do about all of these airships?”

“We could fart in their direction and hope that the warm air carries them to Xona.”

“Seriously, Josho...”

“Honestly, it looks like most of them are gathered to the east,” the stallion said. “So, like, if we take a more westerly approach, we could dismount from this thing and start a sweeping search from the street. Not sure what one and a half stallions in the middle of a huge maretropolis can hope to accomplish, though...”

“Pilate's got that mana thingy attached to his neck. Maybe we can find a way to look that up!”

“I'm a soldier, not a radar antenna.”

“I was just saying that—”

“Shhh!” Josho grunted suddenly, decelerating the vehicle. “Shut your strudel-hole!”

Eagle Eye scrunched up behind him, trembling. “What is it?” he whispered.

“Something's going down,” the stallion muttered. “I think... I think there's an air battle happening.”

“An air battle?”

“Buck me.” Josho's face contorted as he looked at his instrument panel. “It's straight ahead of us, over the city. What in the name of lacy bridles is going on with this lame-ass country?!”

“You tell me. You've fought for it.”

“So have you, kid.”

“But you have, longer.” Eagle Eye blinked. “And fatter.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap.” Josho's instruments blinked and beeped.

“What is it?” Eagle Eye next shrieked as several silver shapes soared past them from the south. An entire squadron of managliders was ripping its way north, northwest, towards a cluster of dense aircraft along the upper spires of Blue Nova.

“They're really in a hurry!” Josho shouted as he struggled to stabilize the vessel. “Like their plots are on fire or something!”

“Could you, for once, make an expletive that doesn't involve fire and body parts?!”

“I thought it'd be familiar territory for you!” Josho then reacted to a flickering sound stone to the top left of his instrument panel. “Wuh oh. Uhm...”

“Uhhhh...”

“I gotta take... this?” Josho zapped the sound stone with his horn. “Uhm... This is... uh... Managlider X, reporting.”

”Scrkkk! What are you doing out of formation?! We need all the help we can in engaging the intruder!”

Eagle Eye whispered with wide violet eyes. “They must think we are p-part of the blockade!”

Josho bit his lip, then spoke into the sound stone. “I am... uhm... transporting a blushing bride to her wedding in the... uh... a-azure district.”

Eagle Eye frowned. “Hey!”

“It's very important!” Josho continued. “Daughter of a major military general and all!”

”No excuses! All forces are required to engage the enemy! Rejoin formation or else!”

As if on cue, the air shook with heavy thunder. Both stallions blinked, then glanced behind them. Another squadron was flying in from patrol, heading straight towards them. The centermost aircraft's cannons heated up with precaution.

“Crud on a bitch biscuit!” Josho hissed, then gripped the controls in the crooks of his hooves. He accelerated the craft in time to fall into formation with the others. “Uhm... Copy that! The bride just f-fainted anyways! I'll drop her off once we're closer to the city!”

Whether the voice on the other end heard that or not, it mattered little. He spoke with almost robotic urgency. ”Bogey headed towards southwest wall! All vessels, prepare to intercept! Let's see if we can drive them towards the east blockade! Scrkkk!”

“Well, this isn't good!” Eagle Eye stammered. “Who in their right mind would be attacking this city?!”

“Just what are we doing here?!” Josho grumbled. “This certainly isn't a game of pool we've come to toss cigarettes at!”

“Still, we need to get out of this situation.”

“Heh. You mean fly out of formation now that they've all seen us?” Josho glanced side to side at the various managliders they were now a part of. “They'll shoot us out of the sky faster than a plagued sparrow.”

“But this isn't helping us at all in finding Pilate!”

“Kid, I wasn't born yesterday. I'm doing this right here to save our skin. If you wanna hop out at random, be my guest.”

Eagle Eye shuddered, sitting deep in his seat as he clung nervously to the gun turret. “At least find us a safer altitude f-first...”

“What we need is a plan. Whoever this 'bogey' is, they've stirred up the hornet's nest pretty bad.”

“You don't...” Eagle Eye fidgeted. “You don't think that they're related, do you?”

“Hell, we've had so much irony lately, what's another pile of crap atop the dunghill?”

“Seriously. I think you need to see a shrink about that...”

Blue Nova Con

“Are we having fun yet?” Tweak growled.

The manaship buckled from bursts of flak going off on either side of its hull. Roarke twisted left at the controls, banking the ship sharply northwest as it approached the outer walls of Blue Nova. No less than thirty managliders were pursuing the glistening aircraft, several of them firing random bursts of mana-propelled explosives.

“This isn't even the thick of it!” Roarke hissed through clenched teeth. The ship rattled again as one explosive after another went off in close proximity. “They'll likely bring more vessels from other ends of the maretropolis to contend with us!”

“Maybe if we take them off into the mountains—?!” Crimson began.

“No!” Roarke shouted, yanking the controls right as she barreled straight for the city now. “They'll blow us to bits before we even reach there! Our best bet is to fly right into Blue Nova!”

“You're joking, right?” Tweak remarked.

“Hardly,” Roarke said, sweat dripping out from beneath her helmet. “They'll be less inclined to launch a barrage of weapons at us while we're flying alongside Ledomaritan buildingsides!”

“It's going to take some expert flying to keep us from becoming sidewalk stroganoff!” Tweak said.

“If you had your doubts, you shouldn't have hopped on board to begin with!”

Imre interjected, “She knows what she's doing. This manaship can last against all of those gliders for a long time!”

Tweak squinted as he said, “You say that as if she's been chased by thirty-plus interceptors on a given afternoon before.”

“It's bizarre what kind of crazy things a Searonese pony can do before breakfast,” Imre droned. “I should know. I've had to surgically remove many of those breakfasts.”

“Any sign of Pilate?!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “We should be closer to him now!”

“Nopony asked me to shake off an entire armada and perform a local scan at the same time!” Roarke growled. For the briefest of seconds, she flung her left hoof out and slapped a console to life. “There! Take a look for yourself, bright eyes!”

Rainbow Dash leaned in, a difficult task with how much the ship was veering left and right. “He's still down there in those cruddy underground chambers. Ungh! If only there was some way of getting to him!”

“This ship's shaped kind of like a drill!” Tweak exclaimed. “Who's for a nosedive?”

“Not... Funny...” Roarked hissed as she twisted the ship to avoid a hurtling missile.

Rainbow and the others veered with the movement. As the ship evened out, she spotted something on the map of raised pins and gasped. “Whoah! What's that thing?!”

“What thing?!” Imre exclaimed, shivering amidst the bedlam.

“That thing right there...” Rainbow pointed at the effigy of the city's southern wall, or more specifically a ridge of sunken landscape looming beneath it. “See how it's poking out into the ravine?”

Crimson leaned beside her, squinting. “It almost looks like a drainage pipe of some sorts.”

“For a sewer, right?” Rainbow Dash gawked at the others. “Am I right?!”

“I don't think that's too much of a stretch,” Crimson said. “Does it lead to the signal of Pilate's manasphere?”

Rainbow Dash reached in and rotated alternate valves, making the map slide, zoom in, and focus on the pulsating signal in question. “It totally does! Ha HA!” She grinned from ear to ear. “That's it! That's a way to get to Pilate!”

“Mind speaking your thoughts out loud so that the rest of us can hear 'em?” Tweak remarked.

“Especially the ponies keeping us barely alive,” Roarke said with a wincing expression beneath her helmet. Two explosives rang on the sides of the hull and she threaded the swift manaship through the burning clouds.

“We split up like we plan to,” Rainbow Dash said. “Only, instead of combing the city, we go into the sewers! I can carry only two ponies without losing my flight speed. So, who's with me?”

“Uhhhhh—” Imre began.

“Good! You're perfect for the job!” Rainbow Dash yanked her closer.

Imre flinched. “Huh?!”

“There's no telling if Pilate may be injured or some crap!” Rainbow's voice cracked. “We'll need your expertise. Plus, you and I have a history of walking through dank corridors!”

“Er...”

“Odds are we aren't the only ones who have picked up on Pilate's manasphere!” Crimson shouted over the sound of the screaming gliders outside. “There's likely going to be plenty of resistance down there!”

“You mean a ton of heads to shoot?!” Tweak cocked his silver gun and smirked. “Sign me up!”

“Are you volunteering?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Damn straight. Let's fetch ourselves a zebra already.”

“Woohoo!” Rainbow Dash fished her metal-laced hooves along the walls. “Lemme just grab some sound stones so we can all yell at each other some more! Only this time from long distance!”

“Uhm... er...” Imre shifted nervously.

“Yes?”

Imre sighed and shook her head. “Never mind. Nopony lives forever.”

“Just stick by my side, girl!” Rainbow Dash said with a devilish smirk as she tossed everypony an enchanted white shard. “You'll live so long, your horn will grow through the stratosphere by the time you retire!”

“I wouldn't mind living a little longer myself,” Roarke bitterly spat while flailing a hoof behind her. “Whoever's staying behind! Get your flank on the gun turret!”

“I suppose that's me,” Crimson said, rushing to the station in question. With a mechanical whirr, a rotating framework of metal instruments lowered from the ceiling. He stood up on his hindquarters and braced his upper limbs against the controls. “Tweak, you keep those ladies safe, you understand?”

“What, did I turn into a scrub on you overnight, boy?!”

“Scrub or deadeye, he's simply going to be helping me as I do all the flank-kicking!” Rainbow Dash shouted, approaching the manaship's door panel. “Hopefully this won't take forever. I'll try and find us a place for you dudes to swoop down and pick us up!”

“First thing's first!” Roarke shouted back. “We need cover fire or else the managliders will see every single move we make!”

“Copy that,” Crimson said with a nod. His face lit up from the targeting panel lighting up in front of him. “I'll see how many of them I can shake out of line of sight!”

“For what purpose?” Imre asked.

“We can't have them seeing us dropping you three off!” Roarke exclaimed. “This is what you get for all those damned days stuck inside the infirmary!”

“Well, excuse me for living.” Imre glanced lethargically at the others. “Still, they're gonna know something's fishy as long as we're opening the manaship's door.”

“That's why we gotta do something super crazy to distract them!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Way ahead of you!” Roarked yanked back at the controls. The entire ship throttled upwards, soaring towards the sky.

Tweak had to grip onto a bulkhead to keep from flying towards the rear of the cabin. “What in the perfumed Hell are you doin' now, lady?!”

“Are they still on our six?!” Roarke managed in the middle of the violent ascent.

Crimson nodded from where he minded the turret. “Yes! At least half of them are climbing to match our altitude!”

“Begin firing at them!” Roarke shouted. “I don't care if you land hits or not. I'm gonna pull us back down, and once we skim the ground's surface, that's when you jump out and do your stuff!”

“Right!” Rainbow Dash nodded viciously, unfazed by the veering motions of the ship. “I'd wish you luck, but I'm pretty sure you'd just chew it up and spit out bullets.”

“And you'd just prove to us both that you have a goldfish memory.” Roarke flung the controls in the opposite direction. Every weighted thing inside the ship shifted as she performed a massive dive. “I'm not hearing any manablasts...!”

“On it!” Crimson gritted his teeth as he twisted the handle of his instruments over and over again. The ship shook with each massive blast being launched behind them. The pursuing manaships parted ways, veering off a bit from pursuit.

“We're almost at sea level...” Roarke shouted over the noise and inertia. “Three hundred meters... two hundred and fifty...”

“Maybe now is a bad time to mention that I have a certain phobia concerning sewers,” Imre whimpered.

“I'll give you my bucket to throw up in later!” Rainbow Dash scooped the mare and Tweak under separate forelimbs. “Roarke...?”

“One hundred meters... fifty...” Roarke tossed her a look. “Now!”

Rainbow Dash kicked at a panel. The door flew open, causing hurricane winds to billow into the tight cabin.

“Whew!” Tweak shouted above the tumult. “Okay, this is a little bit crazy!”

“I know, right?!” Rainbow Dash plunged the three of them out. “Hope you can stomach 'fearless' too!”

Imre shrieked. Tweak hollered. All the while, Rainbow Dash spun, glided, and fired her suit's thrusters. The three ponies skirted north along the ravine, avoiding line of sight with the sky as much as possible. As they approached the drainage pipe along the south end of the city walls, Roarke's manaship roared back towards the clouds. Dozens of managliders screamed after it in angry pursuit.

Most of them, at least...

Towards the southeast, one glider in particular was decelerating, stealthily breaking out of formation. From their seats in the open vessel, Josho and Eagle Eye gawked at the climbing manaship from afar.

“Now that's something ya don't see everyday,” Josho droned. “What business does a metal mare have causing such a ruckus in Blue Nova?”

“That's...” Eagle Eye murmured breathily. “That's a Searonese ship...”

“Congratulations, Captain Obvious. You're moving on up in the fruit aisle.” Josho scanned the nearby skies as he courageously veered the ship eastward. “I don't think anypony has noticed us breaking formation. If I find a place beyond the walls of this town, I just may be able to park us and—”

“Wait!” Eagle Eye stood up and pointed at the distant glow of the manaship. “I know that vessel!”

“Kid, how on earth could you—”

“It's her ship! Hers!” Eagle Eye's violet eyes quivered. “Roarke...”

“Who?”

“Roarke!”

“What's a 'roarke?' I suck at chess...”

“She was the metal mare who attacked me, Crimson, and the rest in Foxtaur! Rainbow Dash gave her a beating she wouldn't forget! How could she be here all of the sudden?!”

“Listen—It's a Searonese ship. They all look the same.”

“I'm telling you, I've seen it before! More than once!”

“More than once?”

“I could have sworn...” Eagle Eye tapped his chin in thought. “After you and I teleported across the Sapphire Ravine, I saw it. Or at least I heard it. Almost as if... if...” He scanned the immediate landscape. As the screams of managlider engines grew distant, he caught sight of something immediately north of them. “Whoah! What's that?”

“Huh?” Josho tried to follow his line of sight. “Kid, I ain't seein' nothin'.”

“That's because I happen to be living up to my namesake!” Eagle Eye pointed. “When the manaship took that last dive just now, I think it deposited something!”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I'm seeing three figures flying towards the walls of the city. Is... is that a tunnel?”

“Er...”

“Quick! Fly us closer!”

“Look, I pulled every trick out of my book to get us out of formation without being seen—”

“Just for a bit! Come on! Please?!”

Josho sighed, then throttled the aircraft ahead. They approached what looked to be a large drainage pipe from a distance. At this point, even Josho could see three figures settling down. One by one, they filed through the thickly spaced bars of the sewage-spewing tube. The last figure to trot through was suited in metal, and there was a brief flash of color as her head caught a glint of sunlight.

“By the Spark...” Eagle Eye gasped, but then his gaping expression turned into that of pure joy. “It's her! It totally is!”

“No friggin' way...”

“Rainbow Dash!” Eagle squee'd, then shook Josho's broad shoulders from behind. “Rainbow! Rainbow! Rainbow!”

“Gah!” Josho shook the petite unicorn off. “Cut it off with the nightmare fuel! Are you seriously expecting me to believe that we've somehow run into the pegasus that all of Ledomare is bent out of shape about?!”

“She's as resourceful as she is awesome!” Eagle exclaimed. “No doubt she found out about Pilate and Belle just like we did, and it brought her here!”

“Who were those other ponies with her, then?”

“I dunno, but we're going to find out.”

“What do you mean we're going to find out?”

Eagle Eye flipped a compartment open and rummaged through the materials within. “Don't you see, ya big sack of beer battered potatoes?! This is our chance! If we cross the bridge and shake hooves with Rainbow Dash, then we'll find the others in a snap! I just know it!”

“Uh uh. This is way too much of a friggin' gamble, kid.”

“This coming from the stallion who just threw his career in the trash to smuggle me off the Steel Wing!” Eagle Eye finally produced a pair of tasers along with a leather strap. He fitted them to his upper body, holstering the weapons as he gazed aside at the obese unicorn. “What's the matter, Josho? You run out of steam?”

“I barely had any to spurt to begin with,” Josho grumbled, then pointed a vicious hoof. “And don't even kid about that.”

Eagle Eye giggled. “What's to kid? You've done so much for me and... and...” He blinked, his eyes sparkling slightly. “This is it, isn't it?” He gulped. “You gotta go on your own path, huh?”

Josho sighed, gazing up at the sky beyond the distant blasts of an accelerating airbattle. “I've risked my neck enough times for stuff I don't believe in.”

“Funny, I thought you just ran out of stuff you thought you did believe in.”

“The only true thing about that statement is that I'm 'running out.'” Josho's features went slack as he leaned against the managlider's controls. “I'm glad you're catching up to your friends, kid. But they're your friends, not mine. I gotta find myself a new place to get drunk and doze off, and this sure as heck ain't it. I've had all I could take of craziness.”

Eagle Eye smiled, sniffling slightly. “I wish I could... c-could somehow repay you for everything. I seriously mean that.”

“Ugh... Here...” Josho lowered the managlider at the base of the ravine, south of the drain pipe. “Lemme let you off before you get a chance to.”

“Heeheehee... I mean it, Josho.” Eagle Eye placed a hoof on his shoulder. “In another place, in another time, I would love to have been able to call you—”

Josho shook an angry hoof at him. “The very second you propose to me, you'll lose your teeth.”

Eagle Eye blinked. “I was gonna say 'my dad...'”

The stallion blinked, all the menace draining out of his face as his eyes drifted limply along the craggy landscape. He shook out of it as soon as the managlider collided gracelessly against the ground.

“Whoops! Heheh...” Eagle Eye winked. “Better work on that.”

“Yeah... I got... a lot of kinks to iron out.”

“You're more resourceful than you give yourself credit,” Eagle Eye said. “I know you'll do just fine.” He fidgeted for a second or two, then leaned in, giving the stallion a soft nuzzle. “Take care of yourself. Don't die or something stupid like that.”

“Yeah... uh... you too...” Josho said, not flinching in the least.

He did a double-take, realizing suddenly that he was alone. He turned his head to see Eagle Eye galloping up the incline towards the sewage drain, his dual tasers in tow. After a long breath, Josho brought a hoof up to his cheek, feeling the trailing warmth. When he elevated the managlider, it was a relatively limp gesture, climbing slowly as he gazed towards the ensuing airbattle over the spires of Blue Nova. His face took a while to harden back into a surly frown.

“Hmpph... They're all gonna end up in ashes.” He pulled aside at the controls and veered the vessel along a southerly course. “Don't know what adventurers see in such a stupid lifestyle. I'm out.”

As Josho's managlider flew far away from the scene, Roarke's manaship was a great deal less lucky.

With screaming thrusters, the metal mare's ship swam tight corners around buildings, dipping over and under floating skyscrapers and ripping through banners advertising Nightshade Industries. As blasts flew back and forth between the bounty hunter's aircraft and its pursuers, citizens in the streets below ran in a panic. Beloveds clung to each other as bits of debris rained down from above. Ledomaritan enforcers forced the crowds to disperse, helping them as they galloped for cover.

In one particular courtyard, flanked by stallions firing manarifles up at the darting ship, a uniformed pony knelt and shouted into a soundstone. “Prime Enforcer Shell! Do you copy?! It's utter pandemonium up here! A Searonese vessel has arrived out of nowhere and it's wreaking havoc on the skyline! Our pursuing forces aren't slowing it down any! Should I send an order to Evans' eastern blockade or what?!”

Into the Drink

“That's a negative, soldier!” Shell said into a shoulder-mounted sound stone while trotting firmly down a wide, bricklaid corridor. A dozen officers marched after him, their hooves trudging collectively through the sludge and muck of the sewer around them. “I need Evans and his armada to remain east of the hangar doors we've just discovered.”

”This Searonese craft is really giving us a run for the money, sir!”

“Does the pilot have any backup?”

”N-no, sir.”

“It is just one craft and you have many,” Shell said. “Obviously this is an attempt to distract our forces. We cannot allow that to happen.”

”Orders, sir?”

“Tell the managliders not to hug the ship's tail like ducklings. There's no need for excessive force, especially with citizens present.” The sound of rushing water echoed off the walls in a deep hiss as Shell and his company rounded a junction in the brickwork, coming out onto a series of ledges situated above a three-story drop into a basin. Unnatural waterfalls cascaded on either side of him. “I don't want any repeats of Foxtaur. Have our ships draw back, form a line, and shoot the intruder out of the sky.”

”And what if we discover more, sir? What if this is the first sign of a Searonese invasion?”

“That's highly doubtful, but it matters little,” Shell said, trudging around a ledge. “Keep your eye on your current situation and deal with it accordingly. There's no need to get unnecessarily obsessed with one single target—” Shell bumped straight into Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash blinked.

Shell twitched, his one eye focusing.

The pegasus gawked.

Tweak and Imre gasped while the soldiers flinched.

One second of silence. Two...

”Is that all, sir?” the sound stone warbled.

Shell gnashed his teeth and reached for a taser.

“Nnnnngh!” Rainbow Dash plowed straight into him. The two went sailing past the soldiers in a gray and blue blur, slamming hard into a brick wall and bouncing off so that they splashed into the basin three stories below. As the sound of Shell's rattling tasers echoed across the sewer walls, it was replaced with the metallic ring of every soldier in that place unholstering and cocking their manarifles.

“Let 'em have it!”

“Drop 'em!”

Tweak let out a yell for good measure, shoving Imre back as he trotted backwards with his pistol outstretched. He fired broad swaths of bright blue energy, forcing the soldiers to drop prone to the muck or duck behind outcroppings of brick. Imre trembled as Tweak shoved the two of them into the middle of an underground aqueduct, choosing a vertical pillar to hide behind as a frothing wave of hot manafire sailed after them.

Both ponies flattened their backs to the pillar, panting as hot streaks of energy surged by, eating away at the brick and mortar that made up their flimsy barricade.

“I hate to say it, but it looks like your feathered friend is showing her true colors!” Tweak reloaded his gun after having already expelled its entire clip. “I know she's after savin' her buddies and all, but d-did she really need to ditch us?!”

“I think...” Imre trembled with sudden shivers. “I-I think she's doing us a f-favor...”

“By taking out one measly stallion?!” Tweak crackled, slapping his silver pistol back into working order. “I know she's capable of more than that!”

“I... uh...” Imre clung to the wall, flinching as bolts of mana landed closely around the two of them. “I think sh-she's doing us a favor...”

“Just who in the blue blazes was that one-eyed creep anyways?!”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Uh huh. Well, I ain't here for no guessing game.” Tweak slid the pistol through the brace of one hoof and gripped the rifle with the crook of his other forelimb. “If these sewer suckers here want their skulls evacuated of their brains so badly, then I'm happy to oblige!” That said, he flung around the corner with a hollering breath. “Ya hear that, city slickers?! Tweak the crystal guy ain't going down without a fight!”

Two stallions fell down, clutching their bleeding chests and shoulders in pain. Several of their comrades dragged them away while the other half returned fire, their aim thrown off as they flinched from Tweak's wild, dominating blasts.

“Yeah! Yeah! You'd better run, saddle stains!” Tweak snarled, firing wider and wider bursts as he channeled his own energy into the weaponry. “Not so easy doing the Queen's dirty work when you're staring down the barrel of death, huh?!”

Meanwhile, Imre trembled, huddled against the pillar to Tweak's side. She gazed down with wide eyes into the deep basin below.

Far away from the firefight, a deep current of congealed sewer water bubbled beneath several bricklaid pillars and aqueduct supports. After a prolonged period of silence, a single pony burst out from the depths. With a gasp and several sputters, Shell waded across the surface, his sopping gray mane devoid of his beret. He tried paddling towards a platform of mildew-stained brick, an effort made difficult by the fact that one forelimb was weighed down by a metal cast.

Just then, a sky-blue torpedo surged through the waters and straight towards him.

Shell spun around, his one eye widening. He gritted his teeth and summoned a bright pulse into his horn.

It was just in time, too, for Rainbow Dash shot out of the muck with a rising uppercut. Shell took the brunt of the blow with a telekinetic shield, but it nevertheless knocked him back like a hoofball, so that he landed like a wet sack of meat against a wall far across dry brick.

“Ooof!”

“You!” Rainbow Dash spat and sputtered, leaping out of the depths so that she landed on the edge of the platform across from him. “You simply don't know when to quit, do you?!”

“A sentiment...” Shell stood up, wincing only slightly. “Nnngh... th-that we both seem to share.” He cracked the joints in his neck before glaring at her. “Albeit, one with a great deal less intelligence than the other.”

In one motion, Rainbow Dash took off from the ground and surged towards him with both hooves outstretched. “Smart your way through my hooves, boot-licker!” She grunted as she was suddenly levitating to a stop in mid-air.

Shell stood a few inches from her, calmly forcing her to a stand-still with his horn. “Old habits are hard to break, I see—”

His face became the receiving end of a pair of burning hoof-thrusters. As Shell ragdolled away, Rainbow cut her engines and landed expertly in her Searonese armor. “No, some ponies just can't learn new tricks! Haaaaugh!” She galloped straight at him.

Shell stood up, then immediately ducked a hoof-swing. He backed up from her violent advances, side-stepped, then flung her against the wall with a telekinetic burst.

Rainbow Dash grunted as she slammed face-forward against a wall. Before she could trot away, Shell rushed up and held her from behind, shoving her muzzle harder against the brick. She writhed and struggled for a few seconds, before biting onto the controls sticking out of the neck of her armor. With a flare of thrusters, she shot the two of them up all three stories. Her armor spat spikes as it grinded along the brickwork, but the reward was Shell's skull and horn colliding heavily with the bottom of an aqueduct above.

Hissing in pain, Shell fell back.

Rainbow Dash flipped about, kicked off the aqueduct, and soared towards him. With a flicker of magic, Shell was ready, and the two fell diagonally together like a conjoined comet, exchanging kicks, bucks, punches, swings, and finally a headbutt.

With a hideous splash, both bodies went plunging into the sewage yet again. All was silent, save for the distant thunder of Tweak's firefight with the Ledomaritans.

At last, Rainbow Dash emerged from the depths, gasping and sputtering. She tried firing her thrusters, but mere bubbles flew to the surface of the pool around her. She cursed under her breath and waded towards a stretch of brick to stand on dry ground again.

Just then, a gray figure burst out of the water behind her and threw a pair of forelimbs around her neck.

Rainbow Dash gasped, her throat being squeezed shut by a slick metal leg-brace being pressed tightly against her skin. She wheezed and thrashed about.

Shell's face was as still as stone. He took a deep, deep breath, then suplexed Rainbow Dash into the sludge behind him. The two plunged again, writhing and wrestling through the muck. When they emerged yet again, Shell still had the upper hoof. He waded backwards until his rear hooves were perched steadily on dry ground. From there, he combined his upper muscles and telekinesis to keep Rainbow's skull below the waves of soiled water.

Rainbow Dash struggled and fought under his grip, but try as she might, she couldn't raise her shoulders above the depths. Her rear hooves and regrown tail lashed about the surface like a throng of panicked snakes, but her head did nothing but spit forth a cacophonous array of muffled bubbles.

Shell's brow twitched slightly above his scarred face, but otherwise he was calm and quiet, allowing his breaths to even out in steady salvos as he accepted this bizarrely tranquil moment.

And eventually, Rainbow Dash did too, her limbs and tail going limp as all struggles gradually ceased, and her body sank deep into the depths beneath Shell's quiet, steel grip.

Fancy Meeting You

“Just what we need,” Roarke grunted as she jerked the controls to her manaship aside. The aircraft veered thunderously between the thin spaces of a pair of skyscrapers, forcing a dozen managliders to break out of formation to avoid being pulverized.

As the metal mare's ship regained altitude, twin squadrons of Ledomaritan defenders rushed in from opposite directions.

“Incoming!” Roarke shouted.

In the back, Crimson spun, gripping the turret hard as he fired shot after deafening shot into the fray. “They're coming from both sides! I can't cover us with one turret!”

“I'll make things simpler!” Roarke twirled the controls, sending the ship into a climbing spiral so that it hugged the adjoining faces of two buildings. The gliders had no choice but to rush in from one angle, and Crimson unloaded a fresh volley of manablasts into their midst. Two or three ships were caught along their wings. Smoking, they broke out of formation as the rest pulled up, firing red hot streams of energy in a relentless salvo.

The vessel shook from the proximity of the multiple explosions. Crimson grunted, “They're not pulling off! I can't shake them! I swear, they've gotten better at this than they were at Foxtaur!”

“Or maybe you've gotten worse!” Roarke spat as she threaded the two between a floating zeppelin and a rooftop.

Crimson hung off the turret by a metal hoof as he shook his other towards the cockpit. “Or maybe if you didn't fly the ship like we were in a snowstorm, I might get a shot off!”

“If I stay still for one second, we're deader than Searo's ovaries—” The mare's voice trailed off as her helmet reflected a blue sky. “Huh...”

“What?!” Crimson returned to the turret, swinging his targeting scope around. “What is it?”

“They're backing off...” Roarke squirmed in her seat. “That means...”

Crimson shouted, “Anti-air barrage!”

“I'm taking us down!”

“Hurry—” Crimson was shaken out of his exclamation. The whole ship rattled as black blasts of flak erupted on either side of them.

Roarke growled for good measure, spiraling the ship madly through the hailstorm of shrapnel and manaclouds. She encountered one explosion too many, and a bright shard of burning metal flew off the vessel's hull. The cabin filled with flashing red lights, complete with a stupidly annoying siren.

“We're hit!” Crimson gasped.

“You think?!” Roarke's metal-laced hooves flew over the instruments at a mile per minute. The ship evened out as she unfolded her helmet to shout clearly through a naked mouth. “I'm going to have to reinforce the hull with a manashard or else this thing will fly apart!”

“What...?!” Crimson gawked at her. “We'll be sitting ducks!”

“Well, then...” Roarke hissed at him as she crawled over with a glowing tool to patch up a sparkling panel. “I guess we're going to have to rely on a competent deadeye, huh?!”

Crimson blinked. Sweating, his gritted his teeth and spun the turret around. His view scope filled to the brim with incoming managliders. “Spark, spare me.” A snarling sound came from deep in his throat, rising in pitch as he fired at every incoming hint of rocketing silver he could find. Several aircraft veered to avoid his blast as he unleashed the manaship's punishment on the defenders. “They keep dodging!” he exclaimed. “What I wouldn't give for infantry to just gallop forward and punch!”

“Complain less; kill more,” Roarke said in mid-tinkering.

“Come on... Come on...” Crimson gnashed his teeth, his eyes wide as he attempted to accommodate for the enemy movements. He managed to force one to retreat and caused another ship's engine to smoke. “They're all dodging—except for the ones in the very back!”

Roarke paused and shouted, “Are their engines giving off an aquamarine glow?!”

“Yes! Why?”

“Shoot them first!” Roarke barked. “Their thrusters are compensating for a heavy payload! They won't dodge as easily!”

Crimson twirled his grip of the controls, zeroed in on the ships in question, and fired a blast towards each of their engines. The front vessels veered off, but the blast flew true, sailing into the metal hulls of the gliders towards the rear. Stallions jumped free, screaming, in anticipation of the inevitable. The sky lit up as bright plumes of orange erupted from the impacted ordinances. Several ships were knocked out of the sky while those who weren't struck by the blast wave flew off to avoid the debris.

Crimson exhaled heavily, spinning about on the turret to find more bogies. “Good to know.”

“I've had my fair share of jerks in the air,” Roarke droned as she finished her work and crawled back to her seat. The vessel re-accelerated, zooming over rooftops before the managliders could close in again. “Ledomaritans may be skilled, but their predictable.”

“If I ever have to take on an entire armada, I'll just call you—” Crimson spoke too soon, for as soon as they rounded another skyscraper, a swath of metal gliders was flying straight into them. “Hello!”

“Oh, for blood's sake!” Roarke hissed and tried steering clear. In spiraling through the mess, she unavoidably clipped the wing of a glider. The vessel burned its way towards the streets below, its occupants howling in terror. Meanwhile, the metal mare's manaship pulled into a wicked spin.

“Anytime you wanna pull out is fine by me!” Crimson shouted above the chaos.

“I... can't...” Roarke stammered. “A chunk of their ship is stuck in our thrusters!”

“You mean we're stuck in this sp-spin?!”

“I'm afraid so...”

“I can't very easily shoot the enemy when the world's doing pirouettes!”

“Then get out and piss on 'em!” Roarke grumbled. “There isn't much else I can do here!”

Crimson's face paled. “I think that makes the two of us.”

“Huh?”

“From up high!” Crimson tried pointing out the spinning cockpit. “They've spotted us!”

“Nnngh!” Roarke jerked and jerked at the thrusters, trying to shake the chunk of metal loose. She looked up, drops of sweat running down past her lensed eyes.

After three more spins, they caught a good look at a full formation diving towards them, their cannons brightening upon the crest of an incoming bombardment.

“Well...” Roarke sighed against the sparkling consoles. “So much for a free life...”

Right as the vessels fired, a silver streak came in through the cockpit's peripheral. On throttling engines, a rogue managlider flew into the fray and blasted two aircraft to bits in one shot. Before the others could veer off, the attacker flew dangerously close to another pair, causing them to steer clumsily into a building side, ultimately grinding to a smoldering halt against the courtyards below.

Crimson and Roarke watched in stun silence.

Outside, the managlider flipped up, twirled about, and came for another pass towards the surprised squadron. As the aircraft fired more rounds of streaming mana, the blue energy lit up Josho's stubbled muzzle.

“If nature wanted ponies to fly it never would have robbed me of alcohol!” he sneered, sailing straight towards the larger craft, firing at their cockpits.

The stallions on board waved dramatically before realizing there was no way of reasoning with this rogue. They twisted their turrets about to return fire, but Josho's shots burned through the throttling vehicles. Several more managliders twirled towards the earth while Josho pulled up in time to avoid slamming into a sheet of granite. He flew up and under floating building sections, trying to find more parts of the battle to join.

“Who else wants a face full of death farts?! Huh?! I'm bored enough!”

He heard a cracking noise. Glancing past his six, he saw the manaship finally shaking the shard of metal loose. With its thrusters evening out, the slender vessel pulled out of its spin and gained altitude, flying harmlessly over a distant row of buildings.

“Hmmm...” Josho smirked to himself and faced forward again. “Good for those yucks—Oh crud monkeys!”

Three managliders twirled straight towards him, firing from multiple angles.

He tried pulling up, but ultimately absorbed several shots to the belly of his craft. A chunk of his wing exploded, and he spiraled in the middle of his climb, flipping upside down and almost stalling. Bits of shrapnel and flame flew past his screaming muzzle. Somehow, the obese stallion managed to pull himself upright, though he could already hear the dooming sound of his engines winding down. His vessel decelerated, its nose begging to tip heavily towards the distant streets below.

“Yeah, well...” He grunted, kicking at the craft several times with his hoof. “This ain't sexy at all.”

Another chunk of the wing exploded. He shielded himself, grunting. Through the smoke and haze, he heard a whining sound. Looking up, he saw two of the managliders coming about, fixating entirely on him. They dove at an alarming rate, the turret gunners in the back zeroing in on his slowed down figure.

Josho's nostrils flared. “Well then, ya wind huffers...” The air crackled around his growing horn as bolts of electricity flew between his teeth. “Ya wanna get far in life?!” With a growl, he thrusted forward and galloped clear off the nose of his managlider.

The incoming vessels fired, but their blasts went through thin-air as Josho completed his spell, teleporting fifty feet and landing in the middle of one aircraft's cockpit.

“Then get high on death!” He growled, tossing the gunner clear off his seat so that he fell to a screaming death.

The pilot spun with a manapistol, only to receive a smashing hoof to the chin. He spat up blood and tooth enamel while Josho reached past him, grabbed his controls, and flew the managlider sideways into its wingpony.

The stallions on board gasped and shouted.

“Hnnngh!” Josho locked both wings together and forced both vessels to sail into the stalling body of his own aircraft. Before the explosive impact, he dove clear off the side, hurtling away from the mess as swiftly as gravity could claim him. As the wind dragged tears from his face, he closed his eyes to the deadly pavement below. “Mmmf... c-could have b-been worse...”

Josho's body flew towards the courtyard, then lifted up.

He felt his blood surging towards his front. His eyes opened, and he gasped to see the world shrinking below him. As the feeling came back to his limbs, he glanced back and saw several black cables wrapped around his body. Upon making this discovery, he felt himself being hoisted like a yo-yo into the body of an open manaship towing him from several dozen feet up.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah—!”

The side door to the ship opened in time for him to fly into the thing like a reeled-in fish. He slammed against a bulkhead and rolled onto the ground.

“We got him!” Roarke shouted, her hoof releasing a lever so that the cables unhooked from the stallion and retracted back outside. “Searo, he's a fat one!”

“He seems to be in one piece!” Crimson shouted as Roarke brought the manaship around, skirting over rooftops as the Ledomaritan forces attempted to regroup in the distance. “Hey!” Crimson shouted as he knelt besides the unicorn. “Hey, you're not dead! Now tell us why you saved our skin back there!”

“Aaaaaaaaa-aaaah!” Josho thrashed and shouted.

“For Spark's sake!” Crimson shook and shook him. “We didn't bring you here to kill you!”

“Aaaaaa—Damn it, pony!” Josho snarled up at him. “Could you have yanked me around any harder?! I'm surprised my balls didn't fly off—” He blinked. “Hey, I know you.”

Crimson's eyes flew wide as saucers. “You...”

“Erm...” Josho smirked nervously. “Those are some... thick muscles you got there, buddy—”

Crimson slammed the stallion's shoulders up against the doorframe so that his hairy head hung precariously out into the yawning vistas of Blue Nova. “I'll kill you! I swear!”

Roarke flashed a look behind. “Buh?”

“But... snkkt...” Josho hissed. “You said—”

“I don't care! You were there at the ambush in Foxtaur!” Crimson spat, shouting above the whipping wind. “You tore my party to shreds and sold out Rainbow Dash to Ledomaritan butchers!”

“Yeah, about the butchery part... uhm...” Josho sputtered, waving his hooves helplessly beneath Crimson's glowing metal prosthetic. “I'm more of a drinking stallion than an eating one—Gah!” He dangled outside the vessel from Crimson's merciless grip.

“You're nothing but a stain against this Spark-forsaken land!” the stallion roared.

“I wouldn't be so quick to drop him!” Roarke shouted as she struggled to avoid errant manablasts. “We might need him!”

Crimson gawked at her. “Seriously?!”

Roarke shrugged. “I dunno, maybe.”

“Eagle... Eye...” Josho whispered.

Crimson flung him a shocked look. “What d-did you just say...?”

“Scrawny thing... looks and feels like l-lavender silk... n-not that I looked at him m-much... or felt him... I'm... snkkt... n-not that kind of a stallion. I only swingin' I do is th-through saloon doors!”

Crimson lifted him and slammed him against an inner bulkhead of the ship. “If you harmed a single hair of his mane, I swear to all that is holy, I'll turn you inside out from your plot to your fat hairy head!”

“I-I wouldn't th-think of it...” Josho wheezed. “He actually saved me. Several times. I owe him more favors than I owe certain generals... especially certain generals that would leave me for dead.” He gulped. “Also... ew...” His face grimaced.

“You're making this up...” Crimson's brow furrowed viciously. “You're making this all up—”

“More than anything in this world, the kid wants to make his Pops happy. But that ain't happenin'. So he joined the war. That's where he met you, and though he may have had the hots for you from time to time, he really just needs that father figure in his life, somepony he can make proud of.” Josho took an even breath and said, “Now, if I was any other Ledomaritan pighead, would I have let him stay alive long enough to spit that out?”

Crimson blinked, the features in his face loosening as he stammered for something to say.

“Hey!” Roarke shouted back. “Ya meatheaded breeders! Could you kill each other later?!” She veered the ship more dramatically to avoid the incoming onslaught. “We still got a bunch of buzzards to shoo off and we've yet to hear a word from Rainbow Dash!”

Crimson let go of Josho, fuming. “Don't think for one second this is over.”

“Yeah, I got the point, mule muscle...” Josho stumbled loosely for balance. “You got a gun for me to use?”

“If you think for one second that I'm going to let you put your hoof to a rifle—”

Roarke reached up, grabbed a gun, and tossed it blindly. “Here ya go! Now earn your keep!”

“That's what I'm talking about!” Josho cocked the weapon, levitating it with his horn as he trotted past Crimson at his turret station. “Since I'm a live for a little bit longer, let's see if I can make these morons be alive for a little less longer.” He aimed out the open door. “Hey! It's raining burning manure, ya Queen-sniffers!” One shot went off, and to even his own surprise, a managlider banked to the right and exploded into a floating advertisement. Josho's stubbled face lit up. “H-hey heyyyy! Ha ha ha! Show biz! Didja see that...?!”

Rainbow Versus Shell

A glowing sound stone bobbed across the surface of the bubbling sewage. “Put that in your horns and shake it, ya smelly rainsticks!” the shard broadcasted.

With his hooves thrust deep into the muck, Shell did a double-take towards the enchanted item. He squinted as his lips slurred. “Enforcer Josho...?”

Just then, the liquid glowed bright red from below.

Shell glanced down. He gasped and flew back against the brickwork as the sewage exploded before him.

Rising up on thrusting horseshoes, Rainbow Dash emerged from the depths, every inch of her armor covered in loose slime. Her pendant's shimmering lightning bolt reflected a vicious frown.

“You're going to have to try harder than that, jerksauce.”

Shell angled his horn forward. “Very well, then.” With a hiss of raw magic, he slid over two dozen loose bricks out from the walls of the chamber and formed them into a solid missile overhead.

Rainbow's eyes darted from the stallion to the projectile. She flinched—

Shell flung the chunk of wall at her figure.

With thrusters burning, Rainbow shot along the interior of the sewers, skirting under and over the support columns of looming, decrepit aqueducts. As Shell's telekinesis throttled after her, the bricks collected more and more debris until a veritable serpent of sludge and mortar was ravenously chasing after his target.

Rainbow Dash at last backflipped over a low hanging arch of stone. Shell's missile flew messily into it, sending shards of cracked brick flying everywhere. Going against the flow, Rainbow Dash soared in the opposite direction, flipping and twirling around every loose missile that crossed her path back to her opponent.

Shell increased the volume of his bombardment, flinging chunks of congealed plaster and petrified mud. Rainbow vaulted and kicked off them as if they were gymnastic podiums and flew at Shell with a vicious dropkick. “Yaaaaaugh!”

Calmly, Shell's horn flickered, and he caused the last chunk of debris to fly backwards into the pegasus' flank.

“Gaaah!” Rainbow flew towards him.

The stallion lifted his hoof, calmly caught her belly with a strong forelimb, and ruthlessly slammed her spine down with a full-on body press. He leered over her, raising his metal prosthetic to beat her skull in senseless.

She thrusted her head back, allowing his face to get a full view of her pendant as it strobed. The ruby light stabbed into his one eye.

“Aaaugh!” Shell stumbled back.

Rainbow Dash kipped up, somersaulted, and flew all four hooves violently towards him.

He caught sight of her and flashed his horn, gritting his teeth with the effort it took to halt her body in motion. She levitated motionlessly just inches from his face. As he reached physically for his taser, she ignited her horseshoe thrusters, erupting all four of them straight into his muzzle.

“Nnnngh!” Shell's mane caught fire. He stumbled around, gripping his singed face.

With his back to her, Rainbow Dash plowed into him, knocking the two of through like stones across a festering pond. He wrangled out of her grip in mid-air and tried to block her punches with a telekinetic shield. She thrusted a hoof through, wrapping it around his gray neck and throwing his balance off. As a result, the two spun into the drink, shot through the filth like a torpedo, and came bursting out the other side with a foul splash.

The two slammed onto a dry platform of dust-laden bricks. Grunting from the impact, they rolled apart, coming to a stop in separate heaps. Rainbow Dash stood up on quivering hooves. Shell stood, collapsed, and pulled himself by a flickering metal prosthetic.

Squaring off from several meters' distance, the two took the time to catch their breath and allow the pain of the moment to settle.

Naturally, Rainbow Dash shouted something first. “Where are they?!” She seethed and spat. “You know where my friends are! You must! Why else would you be here?!”

“I'm here to collect what was never yours to begin with,” Shell leered.

“Will you can it with the holier-than-thou garbage?!” Rainbow Dash hissed. “We both know how this ends! You lose! You always lose! It never ends up with you getting the upper hoof!”

“I am going to give you one last chance to cooperate or I'll be forced to enlist your skills beyond the sarcophagus,” Shell grumbled.

“Listen to you! You're like a broken record! And both sides is a lame cover of 'Candle in the Whinny!'” Rainbow Dash grinded her hooves and roared, “How can an idiot like you be so dead-set on the same thing after losing so many battles?!”

“I have my eye on the war itself. I count everything between me and my goal a victory,” Shell said. “All that's ever meant anything to you is miles away and irreplaceable.” His eye narrowed. “You're so-called friends are simply a distraction to the fact that there's nothing left for you to win.”

“Shut up!” Rainbow hissed and galloped towards him with a vicious hoof-swing.

Shell side-trotted it, spun around, and grabbed her from behind. “Until you accept the fact that you're a lost cause unto yourself, you won't be useful to anypony.” He aimed his horn at her, encasing her in a telekinetic bubble. “Stop being loyal to nothing and give in!”

“Nnnnnnghh-Raaaaaugh!” Rainbow flung her hooves forward and expelled her horseshoes' flame to the breaking point.

The two of them slid back, back, back, and exploded through a wall of brick, showering dust and stone all over a sloshing cavern beyond. Their bodies were lost to the filth, masked over by the thunderous sounds of a tumultuous gunfight escalating overhead.

Dynamic Canter System

“You want your fortune read, dipstains?!” Tweak shouted, firing a rapid volley of manablasts at the corner behind which a thick group of enforcers huddled. “You're all deader than a Sunday afternoon!” He blasted his rifle until the core emptied. “You doubt me?! Come look into my crystal balls, flankfaces!”

Pieces of the sewer chipped away. Chunks of rock flew from the impacted wall as hot steam floated across the sceen. However, as soon as Tweak's intimidating onslaught was finished, three enforcers poked their horns out, levitating mana guns that shot back with equal vigor.

Tweak flew himself behind a pillar of the aqueduct upon which he was perched, hissing through is teeth as the enemies' projectiles ricocheted off the partition behind him. “Darn it. I suck at motivation speeches...” Panting, he looked at his remaining clips and a pale expression washed over his face. “Shoot. Running thin.” Fidgeting, he tossed a sweaty glance at the trembling figure beside him. “Imre! Imre, I could use a hoof!”

She hugged herself, teeth chattering as she gazed—horrified—into a blank space.

“Hey!” Tweak kicked her lightly with his lower hooves while reloading his weapons with his forelimbs. “Sunshine! Snap out of it!”

Imre's eyes twitched. She flinched as a manablast streaked closely past her shaved head and she gave Tweak a nervous glance. “Huh...?”

“I need you to stay with me, girl,” Tweak muttered, sliding the pistol off his hoof brace. “In body and in spirit!” He glanced firmly at her. “You think you can do that?”

“I... I...” Imre shuddered, giving a forlorn glance towards the depths of the muck below the aqueduct. “Rainbow Dash's battling...” She gulped. “Battling that enforcer just now...”

“She can take care of herself!” Tweak shouted. “Odds are, he's some super mega death pony or something. That's not our concern!” He wheezed as a chunk of stone was blasted out of the stone beside his head. “These yuckle-chucks, however, are our concern! And I need your help in taking them out!” He handed the pistol out at her, freshly reloaded.

Imre looked at him, at the gun, and back at his face with a frown. “If you think I'm actually going to put a hole through another pony's head—”

“I don't know if you've noticed, princess, but they ain't hesitating to do the very same dayum thing to you!” Tweak shouted. More shots ricocheted around them, and he barked, “Look, I know you're all about saving ponies' lives and all, but there ain't no simple way for us to get out of this bind! If you don't want to kill anypony, fine! Leave the dirty work to me! I just need some cover!”

“Some... cover...”

“You betcha!” He finally thrusted the silver metal weapon into her grasp. “I'm gonna flank them from the far side. If I just trot out there all hunky-dory-like, I'll be reduced to cheese!”

“What kind of cheese?!”

“T'ain't important!” Tweak snarled. He cocked his rifle and motioned beyond the pillar with his head. “Just give them something to freak out about while I rush in from the side! They won't know how bad of a shot you are, or what kind of a stick in the mud, for that matter!”

“Right...” Imre shuddered, reluctantly sliding the pistol's brace around her hoof. Her horn glowed in little burst of energy. “Just give you cover...”

“And, y'know, keeping me from dyin' would be a plus, too.” Tweak managed a firm smile in spite of all the bulletholes forming around him. “I've got some kids to get back home to smacking around, ya feel me?”

“How...” Imre flinched again. “How c-can you be so calm in the middle of all this?”

“That's a darn good question. What say we stay alive so we can chew the fat about it! Huh?! Can ya do that?”

“You mean stay alive?” Imre fidgeted, glancing down at the muck again. “Yeah. Yeah, why not?”

“Thattagirl! Here's an extra clip!” He tossed her another cylinder of bright crystal and flexed his limbs, readying for a sprint. “Be sure to aim at them and not me!”

“Yeah. Okay. I think I can do that.”

“You'd darn well better. Aaaaaaaaaand...” Tweak clenched his eyes shut, seethed, then reopened them—bright and veiny and alive. “Now!”

“Nnnnnghhh!” Imre spun around the corner, firing several loud shots.

The enforcers flinched and ducked behind their shattered corner. As Imre's blasts landed around them, they shouted muffled words of frustration at one another.

“You going or—?!” Imre grunted.

Tweak was already sprinting along the slender aqueduct. “Ain'tnothinglikecountryairinthespring. Ain'tnothinglikecountryairinthespring. Ain'tnothing...”

Imre glanced at him, then back at the corner. Two enforcers exposed themselves, aiming rifles. She was firing before she thought about it. One of her blasts landed dangerously close to one of the soldiers, and he hid back behind his respective corner.

Tweak jumped onto an adjacent bridge, scaled it towards a ledge above the sewer, then hopped up to climb another.

Imre was reloading the stallion's pistol at this point. She looked up above the silver bits of metal and hissed, “What in the name of all that's holy...?!”

Tweak mounted the ledge, skittered over it, held his breath, and dropped down to the left side of the guards as they poked out again.

“Happy new year!” He fired an entire salvo into the group. The air behind the distant partition of brickwork went red with a bright wet mist. Five violent seconds into the act, Tweak rolled out of way, avoided a stream of returning manashots, and galloped his way towards a chunk of marble to hide behind. As he did so, an injured enforcer rolled out from beyond the corner and aimed a bloody rifle at his back.

Imre blinked, her ears flinching from the thunder echoing out the barrel of the pistol in her grasp. She gasped to see the enforcer's body falling slap, a huge hole in his chest. He flopped and fell down into the drink like the wet heap of meat that he was. The mare's blood went cold as her normally dull eyes grew moist.

She was vaguely aware of the panting, thankful glance of Tweak from afar. There was a splashing sound, and then the air lit up with more bullets and shrieks. She slumped down tight and crouched behind the pillar as Tweak and the enforcers exchanged more blasts from afar. All the while, she couldn't help but tremble and stare down into the depths below.

Be So Lucky

Rainbow Dash's head shot up out of the water, gasping for breath. Her armor rattled soggily as she frantically glanced left and right across the cavernous hollow where she had suddenly found herself in.

In the distance, the sound of Tweak and Imre's firefight continued, stabbing at the pegasus' ears. She looked every which way, but couldn't find the exit... or a sign of her foe.

“Where in Celestia's name...?!” She looked everywhere with panting breath. Seething, she galloped forward, trying to find an exit or some other way back to the aqueducts that had stretched overhead before. All she found was a widely stretching wall of curved earth and stacked granite.

Rainbow Dash paused, squinting at the tall wall looming above her.

The pony's shadows were dancing wildly from some ethereal light source. Suddenly, her shadows shrank with wicked speed. She heard several splashes.

Rainbow Dash spun around.

Shell was charging her with a glowing horn. “Nnnnngh!” The air between them exploded with violent telekinesis.

“Aaagh!” Rainbow Dash flew back, slamming hard against the wall. Before she could fly away, Shell slid up to her, planting his hooves hard into the muck from the distance of six meters. He thrusted his horn forward, pummeling the mare with a wide, swirling vortex of vaporous magical energy.

Rainbow hissed for breath as she was planted hard against the granite behind her. The pony's limbs stretched out and her armor buckled from the steady, pressing punishment.

Shell hissed, covered in sweat and filth as he forced the telekinetic waves harder and harder against her. “I have spent fortunes... wasted ammunition... and lost the lives of countless stallions... all to put you back in your cage.” He spat through a snarling muzzle. “And all you can think about is two measly traitors to the Confederacy?!”

Rainbow struggled to whimper, “H-has anypony t-told you that you're ugly when y-you're angry?!” She was answered with a heavier press of the telekinesis. The wall behind her cracked while many similar fractures formed in her armor, causing her flesh and muscles to twitch in pain.

“There is nothing here that belongs to you!” Shell shouted. “You weren't born here! You never had a reason to sign off your fealty to the continent in blood! You're an alien, a splinter, a disease and a pest!” His horn glowed brighter as he stabbed a knife of telekinesis towards the middle of her pendant. “For once, I am going to drive out whatever equine spirit dwells inside of you. If all that remains of the experiment is a husk, at least it'll be one that obeys Ledo—!”

A lavender figure blurred in, stabbing hard into Shell's flank with a pair of sparkling tasers.

“Aaaaaugh!” Shell yelled to the ceiling. His horn flickered, and the telekinetic cloud between him and Rainbow Dash exploded. Water splashed a hundred feet high while chunks of granite flew left and right. Rainbow Dash slumped forward in the sloshing currents while Shell hobbled backwards, his uniform sizzling from head to hooves.

Eagle Eye, panting, twirled both tasers with a grunt and prepared to stab again. A veritable whip of telekinesis spun three times around his neck. His violet eyes widened, tearing, as he was lifted up in an angry grip.

Shell stared up at him, his one eye wider than a harvest moon. Blood dribbled coldly down the scar on the other side of his face. “I don't know who you think you are, but you've just cost yourself your skin.” He twirled one of the two tasers around and began a deep incision to the right of Eagle Eye's chest.

The stallion squealed in pain, thrashing his neck back.

Rainbow Dash's face flew up. With a single burst of thrusters, she gritted her teeth and shot across the arena, her hooves boiling the water underneath. She came up from beneath Shell with a rising uppercut.

The stallion flew back in a spray of water and blood. Eagle Eye slumped backwards from the exchange, but Rainbow Dash wasn't done. She jumped up, grabbed Shell's body in two hooves, spun six times, and flung the enforcer mercilessly into the wall, where an impression had been made where he was previously torturing her.

He slumped down, shuddering all over. A bright crack had formed in his mana-powered cast, and he winced from it as he tried to stand up—

“Haaaaaugh!” Rainbow Dash flew into him with a massive drop kick. The air vaporously exploded around them from the impact. Time slowed down, all the while Rainbow's lower hooves shoved Shell through the breaking brick like a hammer would drive a nail through a wall. His cast shattered completely, and as the structure behind him gave way, it exposed a body of water beyond. Soon, a gasping and sputtering Shell was shoved into the cavity of a water main behind him. A deluge exploded past his flailing limbs, rocketing into the cavern until it overtook Rainbow Dash herself.

Time resumed, slamming into her along with the monsoon of liquid. Rainbow Dash flailed, spinning several times over in her water-logged armor. She nevertheless found her balance and rocketed towards the top of the flood, which was rising rapidly with each passing second. Panting, she looked all around, her ruby eyes squinting into the depths. She saw a hint of lavender. Taking a deep, deep breath, she dove down into the depths.

Five seconds passed. Ten...

With a splash, Rainbow Dash lifted up out of the pool with a soaked stallion in her grasp. She hovered up and landed on a dry ledge, dangling the petite pony in her grasp.

“No freakin' way...!” She stammered. “Eagle Eye?! EE!”

“Unnngh...” He coughed and spat up water.

She shook him. “Say something! Talk to me!”

He looked up at her with a sad face. “I sm-smell horrible...”

“Ha! Kickflank! It totally is you!” She gave him a vicious side hug, ruffling his silken mane with the other hoof. “Way to drop in out of friggin' nowhere and save my skin, pal!”

“Ow ow ow ow ow...” He winced. “Your armor's poking me.”

“Seriously, though...” She planted him down in front of her. “How'd the hay did you get here?! I thought you were dead!”

“If 'dead' counts as 'being attached to the hip of a big, fat, slobbering oaf with a golden heart,' then sure.”

“Buh?”

“Never mind,” Eagle Eye muttered, wincing from the bloody laceration below his shoulder. “Ungh... it's a long story.” He gulped and looked up at her. “What was that ship I saw above the heights of Blue Nova earlier? Is Roarke here?”

“Yes, she's with Crimson, distracting the baddies while the rest of us—”

“Crimson?!” Eagle Eye's body leaned forward at a forty-five degree angle, weighted by a painfully grinning face. “He's alive?!” he gasped. His eyes instantly welled up with tears. “Oh blessed blessed blessed blessed Spark!” He sniffled and smiled deliriously. “That's so amazing and wonderful and spectacular and—Whoah!” His body slipped away from the rising waters lapping over the surface of the platform.

Rainbow Dash hovered up and grabbed him before the drink could sweep them away. “Erm... let's save the tears of joy for later. We gotta rendezvous with Tweak and Imre in the upper part of the sewer.”

“Uhm...” Eagle squirmed in her grasp as they flew around, looking for an exit. “Who and who, now?”

“You're not the only pony with a long story. Here!” Rainbow Dash shot them towards an exit before the rising waters could drown them inside. “This way!”

Eagle Eye cast a nervous glance back. “I don't suppose that creep is really dead, huh?”

Rainbow grumbled, “The world should be so lucky...”

And together, they were gone.

Party All Day

“Darn it! Darn it! Darn it!” Tweak shrieked; Tweak flailed. He scampered across a battered bridge as manabullets exploded across the brickwork behind him. “Who told you idiots you could shoot back?!”

Enforcers shouted to one another as they took aim at his crystalline hide. The already smokey air filled with a haze of manadust as he dove desperately behind a rock partition, fumbling for his manarifle.

Imre shot around the corner of stone where she hid and fired two blasts with the silver pistol. Upon the third trigger squeeze, nothing happened. With a sweatstained face, she shrieked, “Tweak, I'm out!”

“So am I, darlin'!” Tweak grumbled across the gun fight. “No need to announce it to the world!”

“We have to get out of here!” Imre exclaimed. “Friggin' find Rainbow Dash, grab her, and go!”

“Go where?!” Tweak hissed as two close shots landed close to his shiny ears. He ducked even lower, pressing the empty rifle to his chest and growling. “Arrrrggghghhhh! Yet another day dipping into that stupid Ledomaritan nonsense crap contrived Council bullcrap... frick... farts balls stuff!”

Imre flashed him a crooked glance. “Huh?!”

“Just tired of stupid ponies doing stupid things!” Tweak hollered, ready to wield the rifle like a club. “Ya hear that?! One of y'all clop on over here so I can hit ya where the Spark split ya!”

“Tweak, please...” Imre gestured towards him, flinching as another blast landed between them. “We both know that fighting isn't my thing, but listen to me! I need you to stick around! We'll get nowhere if we lose our heads like this!”

“Well, what do you expect to happen?!” Tweak roared at her while manabullets whizzed by. “Fate ain't gonna drop an angel of vengeance into our laps!” Just then, a blue blur streaked by, depositing a lavender shadow like a velvet payload.

“Ooof!” Eagle Eye grunted, reeling dizzily on his haunches.

“Gah!” Tweak flew back, blinking at the unicorn suddenly straddling his shiny belly. “Uhmm...” His facial muscles twitched. “Can I help you, lady?”

“Look!” Imre shouted, pointing overhead. Both stallions looked to see Rainbow Dash descending on the party of Ledomaritan soldiers like a righteous lightning bolt of color. In a flurry of limbs and metal armor, several of them were launched out, screaming until they splashed into the murky depths of the sewer below. Those who weren't dead or beaten senselessly stood up and galloped away, firing potshots at the heavily armored pegasus in their cowardly flight.

“You'd better run!” Rainbow Dash seethed, dodging half the blasts and deflecting the other half with her battered metal plates. “I'll give you a head start before knocking your sorry skulls in, you yellow-bellied wastes of... of...” She blinked, glanced behind her at the group of allies, and sighed. “Shoot. Who am I kidding?” With a flick of a grown tail, she turned around and galloped back to the group. “Sorry I was gone for so long. I had an emergency case of Shell shock. Literally.”

“Was that the fella y'all were talkin' about left and right?” Tweak asked. “Prime Enforcer Shell?”

“I'm afraid so,” Rainbow Dash said, her head hung.

“You totally cleaned his clock, though, right?” Tweak asked.

“Uhm... I... m-might have?” Rainbow Dash smiled nervously.

“Huh?!” Tweak thrashed from underneath Eagle Eye. “Then why the friggin' heck were you gone for so long, vomit stain?!”

“Uhm... eh heh...” Eagle Eye blushed.

“Oh, I'm sorry, Miss...” Tweak grabbed the unicorn's dainty hoof in his and gently helped him up before standing himself. “Eheh... I wasn't tryin' to prolong nothing. I'll have you know I'm a happily married stallion.”

Eagle Eye nodded and spoke clearly, “I'm quite sure. Thanks for helping me up, Mister—”

“Whoah!” Tweak flinched away from him. “Yeah! Yeah! Sure am h-happily married! To a mare! Married to a mare!” He coughed and wheezed. “Rainbow, would ya mind introducing us to your friend here?”

“Tweak... Eagle Eye. Eagle Eye... Tweak. Imre—” She turned to look at her companion and froze.

Imre sat in a slump, shuddering, covering her face with a pair of shaky hooves.

“Imre?” Rainbow Dash blinked. She shook off the last few droplets of sewer water and trotted over. “What's happening, girl? Talk to me...”

“Sorry to interrupt this here reunion and all, but... uhm...” Tweak pointed towards the far end of the aqueduct's bridge. “I'm gonna go and... uh... collect bullets... over there... as I think about my wife... whom I'm happily in love with...” He trotted briskly away. “Who happens to be a mare.”

Eagle Eye shuddered, trying in futility to straighten his mane. “I see you've made some... high-strung friends since we split up, Rainbow Dash.” He blinked, then glanced aside. “Rainbow Dash?”

The pegasus was kneeling besides Imre, trying to move her hooves apart from covering her face. “Hey. Hey, look at me.”

Imre shuddered, eventually opening her moist eyes, reflecting Rainbow's smiling muzzle.

“You've been through a lot of tough crud, Imre,” Rainbow said as gently as she could manage with the adrenaline still flowing through her. “But that doesn't mean you're invincible, y'know?”

“I know, it's just that... that...” She gazed with a sickly expression at the pistol in her grasp. Her hooves began to shake again.

“Look, Imre, I'm sorry...” Rainbow Dash scooted closer to the pony, placing a hoof on her shoulders. “I dragged you into this, just like I dragged Eagle Eye here into this...”

“Uhhh...” Eagle Eye nervously smiled and waved. “Hi there.”

Imre's lips quivered as she nevertheless managed a polite, “H-hello.”

“And...” Rainbow Dash seethed, hung her head, and muttered, “Just like I dragged Bellesmith and Pilate into all of this...”

Imre glanced curiously at Rainbow.

“I... I-I dunno what it is about me that drags the ugliness out of the world. It seems like everywhere I go, there are bad things happening, and some way or another I end up butting heads with them.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I can't pretend to be a beacon of harmony or whatcrap. Quite the opposite: I'm full of so much chaos that it hurts. But...” She looked up, her jaws clenched tight. “That doesn't change the fact that bad stuff is bad stuff, and you just... c-can't avoid all of the horrible things in this world forever, whether you're flying around it or staying in place. One way or another, you gotta face what this continent has in store.”

Imre gulped and said, “You mean I gotta face up to my sins.”

Rainbow Dash winced. “Look, I didn't say that—”

“You didn't have to,” Imre said, hugging the gun to her chest suddenly. “I'm not as weak as you think I am, Rainbow. I've... I-I've taken lives before. This isn't about that...”

Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. “Then what is this about?”

“It's... it's about...” Imre glanced dully down at the murky waves below. She let loose a heavy sigh. “Forget it. You wouldn't understand.”

“Like heck I wouldn't!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She shook Imre's shoulder. “You're my friend, and I care about your well-being!”

Imre's eyes narrowed. “You've barely known me for a few days. How could you say that?”

Rainbow blinked. She shrugged, then smiled with a flighty chuckle. “Because I can...”

Imre stared back. After a few breaths, her lips curved ever so slightly. “I think I finally see it.”

“See what?”

“What Roarke sees...”

Rainbow Dash's face scrunched up. “Huh?”

“Never mind...” Imre stood up on wobbly legs. “We've wasted enough time here. You brought me along for a reason. If Pilate is injured, then it's up to me to make sure he gets better.” She slid the pistol back along her right hoof and stood tall. “I promise you, Rainbow, that I won't lose my nerves like that again.”

“Good,” Tweak said, marching back. “Cuz crud is rattled enough as it is.” He stood and looked squarely at the group. “I've got us a bunch of ammo for the run. Shall we, ladies...” He turned and nodded at Eagle Eye. “...and you?”

Eagle Eye gave him a lasting glare before turning towards the rest. “Before I came here, I overhead Captain Filta of the Steel Wing talking about how Pilate was expected to be in Blue Nova.” He tilted his head up to stare into Rainbow's face with bright, violet eyes. “Is it true that you've tracked him down?!”

“And how!” Rainbow Dash smirked devilishly. “There should be a corridor adjacent to these sewers somewhere. Once we enter the place, he shouldn't be that far off.”

“And then we'll go rescue Belle, right?”

“Huh?” Tweak gave him a double-take.

Eagle Eye gulped and said, “B-Belle. She's around here too.”

Rainbow Dash gasped. “In Blue Nova?!”

“Well... erm... m-maybe not in this city, per se... but somewhere west of here. I heard the enforcers on the Steel Wing talking about that too. Shell had taken an expedition to track down Pilate, and they were gonna use him somehow to reel in you... th-then Belle...”

Rainbow Dash was breathing heavily, pacing about in a tight circle. “How on earth could she have gotten away from capture...?!” She gave Eagle Eye a sharp squint. “That's what you overheard, right?”

Eagle Eye shrugged. “Why else would they be looking for her?”

“This is uncanny,” Imre thought aloud. “She might not even be in Pale Shelf whatsoever!”

“One thing before the other, folks,” Tweak said, waving his rifle around. “Let's go find ourselves a zebra and work on the rest as it comes. Sound good?”

“Yup. Totally.” Rainbow Dash ignited her thrusters and levitated across the sewer chamber. “I'll go scout out the area first! Follow me at a distance! I don't want us repeating any more crud like what just happened!”

“Right. Let's get a move on!” Tweak motioned at the other two. “Hop to it, maggots! That means you, feather flanks!”

“Ungh...” Eagle Eye shook his head dizzily, nevertheless galloping alongside Tweak. “Why am I feeling so groggy whenever I get close to you?”

“Yeah, that'll happen...”

Imre lingered at the rear of the group. She paused, gave the battle-scarred scene one last look, then sighed. Tightening the grip of the pistol's hoof-brace around her forelimb, she swiftly trotted after the rest, taking up the party's rear.

Party All Night

“I don't... suppose... it's worth asking...” Eagle Eye panted in mid-sprint. “Where... exactly... we're going...?”

“Land's sakes, boy!” Tweak uttered from halfway ahead of him. All three ponies followed the darting figure of Rainbow Dash down a long, narrow corridor laced with glowing blue leylines. “You always this out of breath?! Fancy one of us carryin' you?”

Eagle Eye frowned sweatily. “I haven't eaten or slept a lot lately...” He glanced aside at the spray-painted numbers that they passed. “Anypony mind answering my question?”

“Beats me where we're headed!” Rainbow Dash's voice cracked from far ahead. “So long as Pilate's there, then we're gold! According to Roarke's manaship sensor thingy, he should be somewhere ahead of us!”

“But is this a dead-end or...?” Eagle Eye began.

“The numbers seem to be counting down,” Imre droned as they passed the number “06” and “05” and eventually “04.” “Whatever is down here, we're about to stumble into it.”

“Hey paint bucket!” Tweak called ahead to the armored pegasus. “You see anything?!”

“I... I...” Rainbow Dash's eyes squinted. Up ahead, beyond the haze of blue lights, the corridor opened up into a large chamber. “I think there's a chamber up ahead!”

“What kind of a chamber?!”

“Look, I dunno! You guys slow down some and let me scout it out!”

“Don't go too far ahead, Rainbow!” Imre exclaimed.

“Holler if you need anything, Missy!” Tweak threw in.

Rainbow Dash kicked her thrusters into a hotter burn and rocketed ahead. The thin space of the corridor echoed with her momentum as she roared past the last few numbers and into the open space beyond. The air was cooler here, and as Rainbow Dash lifted into a gentle hover, she heard the hum of fans directly overhead. She gazed up and saw several enormous grates, beyond which metal blades spun, channeling ventilated air down from the surface world.

“Whew-wee...” She blinked, her mouth dropping open. “This place was definitely built to last.” She saw a glint of yellow light, and she looked ahead. An extremely large door of reflective metal hung before her, bolted into the concrete foundation in several places. “What do they got in there? Cerberus?”

There was a clatter of hooves to her left.

“What in blazes' name is that rumbling noise?”

“Somepony has followed us...”

“Who?! Who?!”

“My word...”

Rainbow Dash spun, and her blood ran cold.

Four ponies were staring up at her, struggling to hack into a mana conduit of sorts. With bright eyes, three of them froze in fright. One wasn't even bothering to tilt his head up. A hovering sphere rotated around his haggard features, illuminating every black and white band of his coat.

A sharp breath left the pegasus' mouth. “P-Pilate...?”

He gasped in like turn, aiming O.A.S.I.S. in her general direction. “Rainbow Dash?!”

“Oh, Stripesey!” Rainbow smiled wide. With forelimbs outstretched, she soared loudly down at him. “Boy am I glad to see you—”

“Hnnnngh!” A large brown figure charged in from the side, slamming Rainbow's armored body with a forest of antlers.

“Oooof!” Rainbow Dash flew to the side, pinballed off a concrete wall, and somehow uprighted herself just in time to come to a gliding stop with smoking horseshoes. Bruised and rattled, she looked up, frowning. “What in the tap-dancing heck just hit me?! A Hearth's Warming Tree?!”

Her eyes scanned across the four frightened ponies, the corridor, a seven hundred pound elk, and the reflective metal door.

“Where are you?! Show yourself!”

“The vomit bucket's face is covered with spit to have attacked Floydien's friends and not smelled the spit!”

Rainbow's ruby eyes went crosseyed. Her gaze snapped back to the elk. “Buh?”

With crooked red eyes, the earth-colored creature grind his cloven hooves and aimed its sharp antlers forward. “Back to the light and the splitting with your spitting, yes yes?!”

“Floydien!” Pilate outstretched a limb. “No!”

“I dunno who you are, but I'm sure you can get punched just like everything else in this world!” Rainbow Dash shot forward like a bullet. “Haaaugh!”

“Rainbow Dash! Please! Stop—”

“Bend backwards, boomer!” Floydien shouted, his voice distorting beyond a wave of mana as his antlers grew brighter than the sun.

Rainbow Dash's hooves thrashed as she tried in futility to brake in mid-air. “Whoah whoah whoah whoah—What?!”

The antlers produced a sphere of psionic energy that flew straight at her, knocking her armored body back like a pummeled hoofball.

“Ooof!” She slammed into a nearby wall, wincing and spitting up blood and smoke. “I did not fly eight thousand miles to become a hackey-sack for Sparky the Wonder Deer!”

“Boomer puts her stab where her mouth is, yes yes?!”

“No no, ya diabetic reintard!” Rainbow Dash vaulted forward, flipped, and flew diagonally at the creature. “Hiyaaaaugh!”

Her hooves flew violently across Floydien's muzzle. Floydien sneered and flung a burning swath of antlers at her figure. She backflipped, hooked a limb around the one part of his branches that wasn't burning, and swung so that her lower hooves smacked his front legs in the knees.

“Ooof!” Floydien slammed down, belly-first. Rainbow Dash immediately mounted his back, holding his massive neck in an angry legbar. “Nnnngh! Let go of Floydien's neck! That is Floydien's favorite neck!” His red eyes twitched and glowed as pulse after pulse of psionic energy bounced off the walls.

The ponies ducked low, flinching, as Pilate screamed into the melee. “Please! You both have it wrong! We're all on the same side!”

“Striped... boomer... is m-mistaken!” Floydien hissed and struggled.

“Wanna explain why Hairy McHookHead threw a glowing death loogey at me?!” Rainbow Dash grunted, trying to cut off the oxygen in the elk's skull. Just then, her body tingled with telekinetic energy. “Oh Celestia, please tell me he doesn't have magic farts too—Gaaah!” She shrieked as her entire body floated upside down over the scene.

A little brown rodent mounted Floydien's panting body. It was a gray squirrel with hollow black eyes and a sparkling teslacoil poking out of each end of his skull. With an angry shriek, it levitated Rainbow Dash higher and higher.

Rainbow blinked at the thing, then droned in Pilate's direction. “Okay. Who ordered the Nightmare Fuel Army? Was it you, Pilate?”

“I... uhm...” The zebra winced then waved his forelimbs. “Everypony, just calm down. Please, we're all in this together—”

“Freeze where you are!” Tweak shouted, rushing into the room with his rifle trained. Eagle Eye posed beside him with sparkling tasers, as did Imre with a pistol nervously raised. “Let go of Rainbow Dash before we put you through of holes—” He blinked.

A twitching, electrical squirrel levitated Rainbow Dash upside down above a wheezing elk whose glowing antlers illuminated three ponies huddled behind a blind zebra with a floating manasphere.

Tweak blinked again, then lowered his rifle entirely. “Shucks... I plum don't know where to start...”

“Heehee!” A brightly-coated mare fell back on her haunches, slapping her knees and giggling. “He said 'plum!'”

“Ahem...” A stallion trotted forward, his gray coat reflecting the shimmer of the squirrel's telekinesis. “I think this situation calls for some delicacy.” He turned to smile at Tweak's group, his brown eyes calm beneath a thin black mustache and goatee. “Hello, my fine crystal fellow.” He extended a hoof. “I am Jasper Clark. It's a northern name.”

“Right...” Tweak awkwardly shook it. “As opposed to a southern name?”

“I knew you would understand,” Clark said with a smile.

Tweak stared at him blankly.

“Ahem, never mind then.” Clark gestured towards his cutie mark of a ruler and a compass. “I'm a graduate from the Central Confederate Academy of Technological Sciences. The fine madame in our midst is Props. We were both... erm... 'acquired' against our will by Nightshade Industries to design the energy core to a zeppelin, and this fine fellow by the name of Ebon Mane, a fine cook, was captured along with us. Now, beyond this door, there is a large hangar full of zeppelins, all appropriated illicitly by Nightshade and the forces at her disposal. Thanks to the assistance of Mr. Pilate here—whom, no doubt, you have come here to find—we broke free from our imprisonment within the upper spires of Blue Nova's northern industrial district. Along the way, we gladly received the generous albeit explosive assistance of Mr. Floydien, the elk whom your friend tried choking, and his rodent companion, curiously named 'Simon.' I do believe Mr. Pilate would be better at relating to them...”

“Rainbow Dash, please, just try and calm down,” Pilate said.

“It's a little hard to be either pissed or pacified when I'm not even able to control my own body...” the mare grumbled.

Pilate moved his face in the squirrel's general direction. “Simon?”

With a sigh, the squirrel lowered his telekinetic field.

Rainbow Dash breathed with relief. “That's much better—Whoah!” She fell down to the concrete floor with a thud.

Pilate winced, but nevertheless trotted forward to help Rainbow up. “Shortly after I was tossed from Enforcer Shell's vessel, I landed in the good grace of Floydien.”

“Nnngh... the stripes and the glimmer become us all now, yes yes?” the elk muttered while struggling to get up.

Gulping, Pilate smiled nervously and said, “He's... a rather eccentric fellow, but it's thanks to him that I'm here to begin with.”

“I don't get it...” Rainbow Dash murmured, still trying to catch her breath. “Why'd you even come here to begin with?”

“Nancy Jane awaits Floydien!” The elk stood up, only to slam his hooves down angrily into the ground. One red eye twitched bigger than the other. “Enough time has been wasted on spit as it is!”

“He... has a beloved here,” Pilate said. “He wanted to do battle with the Nightshade security guards responsible for... erm... holding her hostage.”

“We were just in the middle of trying to hack our way through the door when you flew in.” The burgundy stallion trotted up, bearing a calm face and soft brown eyes. “Props and Clark were just about to make some headway, but then... well... this turned into a royal rumble.”

Rainbow Dash squinted at him and his sailboat cutie mark. “And you are...?”

“Ahem... Ebon Mane...” He smiled awkwardly. “The cook.”

“Can you make a Summer Cider Alfredo?”

“Erm... I'm afraid not.”

“Then shut up.” Rainbow looked back at Pilate. “You mean to tell me that you guys sneaked your way into this underground place all on your own?”

“We had very little choice,” Pilate said. “The city is filled to the brim with Ledomaritan soldiers, and without warning!”

“Something tells me that they caught wind of you being here and went nuts,” Rainbow Dash said. She slumped back on her haunches and sighed. “As usual...”

“And... uhm...” Pilate shivered. “I-I have reason to believe that Shell may be here, Rainbow.”

“Yeah. Uh huh. I just kicked his flank.”

Pilate did a blind double-take. “You... y-you did?”

“Yup.”

“Dare I ask what became of him?”

“I think I killed him.”

Eagle Eye cleared his throat.

Rainbow Dash's ears drooped as she muttered without looking, “...again.”

Pilate shrugged that off and said, “Well, just what brought you to Blue Nova?”

“I was looking for you!” Rainbow Dash pointed wildly. “We were all looking for you! Crimson and Roarke are out there, blasting the heck out of managliders! We don't have much time before they—”

“Wait...” Pilate's metal brow scrunched in confusion. “Roarke?”

“Uhm... er... yeah...”

“You have enlisted the help of that metal mare?”

“Totally. Why, does that freak you out?”

“Well, I... tr-trust your judgment, Rainbow Dash. It's just that...”

“Yeah...?”

“Can... Can you really trust her? I mean, those of Searonese standing?”

“Celestia, I hope so...” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “I only—like—had the most stupid battle arena adventure trying to win her over.”

“Really...?”

“Yeah. There were explosions, Ursa Majors, and giant leprotic spider mares. It was actually kind of cool.”

“Floydien is intrigued...”

Rainbow Dash frowned at the elk. “Nobody told you to talk, pointy!”

“Seems like you went through a heck of a lot of heck to save our special little Pilate-poo!” chirped a happy voice.

Rainbow Dash glared past Clark and Ebon. “Yes! And we're getting nothing good accomplished by just sitting here on our—Hello!” Rainbow's jaw dropped.

A lithe, peach-coated mare with sparkling blue eyes and a flowing blonde mane grinned with teeth that sparkled crystal-clean in the manalight. “Pizz fah wizz! Your mane looks like a Model B Xonan Battlecruiser Engine exploded all over a cloud!” Props giggled with the sound of happy bells, her cutie mark of two steam handles wriggling with an added bounce beneath a bandolier stuffed with various tinkering tools. “I bet it smells just like Eastern Jet Extract too!”

“Uhhhhh...” Rainbow gulped and immediately looked the other way with flushed cheeks. “Uhhh... yeah, sure...” She fidgeted. “Smells like lots and lots of jets. Ahem.”

“Well, we can attempt getting this door open,” Jasper Clark said.

“What would that accomplish?” Imre asked.

“Nancy Jane waits for Floydien and Floydien's friends,” the elk grunted. “Also bright blue freedom beyond glimmer spit.”

“Ehhh...?” Rainbow looked towards Pilate with a twisted expression.

“We're attempting to spring an escape from the hangar,” Pilate said. “There should be plenty of zeppelins to choose from.”

“We could get your other friends to rendezvous with us here!” Ebon said.

“First thing's first!” Props frowned towards the door with a toss of her golden mane. “We gotta get that meanie-weanie metal unstuck from its stickiness!”

“Well, you've got a magical god-squirrel,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at the twitching rodent in question. “Shouldn't that get you a leg up?”

“We were hoping not to resort to brute force unless we absolutely had to,” Clark said with a dull expression. “There is no telling what's on the other side.”

“O.A.S.I.S. has already sensed multiple bodies,” Pilate said. “I'm certain that whatever hold Nightshade has had on this hangar, she's not going to let go of it easily.”

“Well, alrighty then!” Tweak pumped his rifle. “Throw the damn door open and let me at 'em! She can't very well hold onto something when her leg's shot off!”

Ebon Mane groaned. “Please don't tell me we're just going to be answering violence with violence...”

“Look, if you don't like the smell of the train,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, “Then feel free to jump off!”

Ebon frowned. “I just think this would be a lot better for everypony if we could find a solution peacefully...”

“Peacefully?!” Rainbow Dash did a double-take. “Just how long have you been locked up, salt-shaker?! My buddies and I here had to break through a mile-thick blockade of every hot headed Ledomaritan this side of the warfront! I want a perfect world as much as you do, but Shell's army isn't letting us out of this city easily!”

“Every spit glimmers the same,” Floydien grunted.

Rainbow squinted his way. “The hay is that supposed to mean...”

“Rainbow...” Pilate rested a hoof gently on her shoulder. “I am immeasurably happy that you came here to save me. But please, listen to my friends. They're more than just fugitives in arms, they're a think tank... and a source of good counsel. I'm certain, with our collective mind and spirit, we can think of a way out of here that involves as few fireworks as possible.”

“Pilate—”

“Just give them a chance.”

“Nnngh... Yeah, okay...” Rainbow Dash leaned back on her haunches with folded arms. “We just can't take forever, y'know? As soon as we spring you out of here and reunite with Roarke, we gotta head west and find Belle—”

Pilate gasped, his jaw agape. “You...” He gulped. “You kn-know where Belle is?”

Rainbow Dash blinked. She scratched the back of her neck above the armor and smiled nervously. “Yeah... uhm... Eagle Eye has reason to believe she's alive and well, and out of enforcer custody. If we search west of here, I'm sure that we'll find her...”

“And... Eagle Eye is alive as well...?” Pilate gazed into nothingness with a slowly evolving smile. “You... Crimson... Eagle Eye...” The zebra inhaled sharply, and his gray eyes watered. “Bellesmith. Oh, Bellesmith, my love...” He ran a hoof over his weary head and glowing plate. “I've been so caught up... so stressed.” He seethed. “Oh, blessed Spark, thank you... th-thank you...”

Rainbow Dash smiled awkwardly. She reached a hoof forward to hug him, but Ebon Mane had already beaten her to it.

“Oh, Pilate... I'm so glad for you,” Ebon said. Clark trotted up and placed a hoof on the quivering zebra's shoulder.

“Looks like your good deeds are being repaid, good friend. We'll have you with your beloved sooner than you know it.”

“Yaaaay!” Props slid in, hugging all three of them into a warm embrace. “Everypony is beloved! Heeeheeehee!”

Pilate chuckled helplessly. Simon barked and alighted one shoulder after another across the felicitous scene.

Rainbow Dash blinked, her smile fading slightly as she saw Pilate surrounded by so many kindly souls. She fidgeted in her armor, hanging her head—along with the confused expression plastered across it.

Imre saw it from afar. She cleared her throat and trotted forward. “I suppose... uhhh... you might want to know who the rest of us are. For—like—simplicity's sake.” She pointed at herself. “I'm Imre, and... well... I guess all you need to know is that I'm an expert medic at patching ponies up.” Silence. She groaned and rolled her eyes. “For Pete's sake, why am I even here...?”

“The name's Tweak,” the crystal pony said proudly, leaning on his rifle. “And I think I'm warmin' up to this crew already.” He turned aside and slapped Eagle Eye upside the horn.

“Dah! Jeez! I get it!” Eagle Eye trotted forward, still trying to smooth out his mane. “Uhm... and I'm Eagle Eye, from... er... Franzington...”

“Eagle Eye?” Clark glanced over. “Franzington? Why, that's home to many a mercenary guild.”

“Yes, and that's a whole thing I really don't want to get into at the moment—”

A blonde blur soared forward, gazing straight into Eagle's face. “Wait! Say your name again!” Props bounced. “Say it! Say it! Say it!”

“Uhm... Eagle Eye?”

“That's a colt's name!”

“Uh... yes?”

“Oh. My. Goddess.” Props scooped him up into a crushing hug. “You. Are. The. Most. Beautiful. Stallion!”

“Snkkkkt—Spkkkt!” Eagle Eye flailed a hoof loose towards the other end of the chamber. “Somepony... anypony...” he wheezed. “I'm dr-drowning in blondeness!”

“Ahem...” Rainbow Dash turned around, trotting her red-face away. “You're on your own, handsome.”

“Pretty... please...?”

Ebon chuckled, patting Pilate's back as he shuffled over. “Okay, Propsy. Put the pretty pony down.”

“Awwwwwwwww... but I dun wanna, Ebonnnnnny...”

“Propsy. You want nothing but asparagus for a week once we're back in Gray Smoke?”

“Eeeps!” Eagle Eye gasped as she dropped him like a bad habit. “Oh no! D-Do you think I broke him?”

“I doubt it. Looks like he can bounce.”

“Heeheehee!”

“Room... is... sp-spinning...”

“Nnngh... What spithole has Floydien fallen into...?”

Mary Suit Yourself

”Hey! Roarke! Did you get any of that?! We found Pilate at this huge door to zeppelinville and we're gonna try forcing it open so we can make an escape. How are you holding up?!”

Roarke snarled into her cockpit's sound stone. “I'll let you know once we're done buckling apart at the Searo-damn seams, Rainbow Dash!” She grunted as a bolt of mana struck close to the hull. “For the love of napalm...” She spun and yelled back at the cabin in mid-steer. “What are you breeders doing?! Close the door already?!”

“It's stuck open!” Crimson shouted above the whipping winds. He twisted and spun at the turret, causing a managlider to explode with a froth of flame that spat into the edges of the open manaship. “Gah! I'd gladly force it shut, but without me mining the turret, we might get a missile up our tailpipe in the process!”

“Hey! Is that the target's real name?!” Josho shouted while reloading a rifle with telekinesis. “Rainbow Dash?!”

“I'm afraid so...”

“Hah!” Josho aimed out the door, squinting. “And I thought Eagle Eye was a bucket of fruit!”

“I can still kick you out into the streets, y'know,” Crimson growled.

“What?! And cut the party short?! Buck that!” Josho fired, causing an explosion to go off in a managlider. The screaming aircraft veered off the ship's starboard side, exploding into an abandoned bazaar several stories below. “Woo baby! Is it hot in here or is just their corpses?!”

Just then, a wayward hovercraft shot dangerously close by. The entire ship wobbled, with Josho nearly falling straight out while Roarke fumbled for controls.

“What in the Hell was that?!” Roarke shouted.

“I'm sorry! I-I didn't see them!” Crimson exclaimed. He spun with the turret, squinting curiously. “Whoever it is, they're moving slow, away from us.”

“Lousy time for a Sunday drive!” Josho exclaimed while firing out the windy door.

“Just focus fire on the ones who are attacking us!” Roarke exclaimed, spinning the aircraft around as several bogies clung to its tail. “We're juggling enough without having to worry about every stupid citizen flying in our path! Hang tight!”

The manaship shot westward in a dramatic climb, roaring over skyscraper rooftops. A thick stream of Ledomaritan fighters flew after them in tight pursuit.

To the east, all on its own, the violet manacraft that nearly collided with them chugged along, cruising towards the scaling heights of Nightshade Industries Headquarters.

Inside the craft, Bellesmith released the controls, bringing the ship to a slow hover. “Whew! That was... something else. I have no clue what's gotten everypony so riled up in this town...”

“Maybe news of Nightshade's lameness got through to the enforcers?” Kera remarked.

“I couldn't pretend to guess, but that ship looked like a Searonese vessel.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure,” Belle said as she nodded and trotted away from the cockpit. “Maybe it was a bounty hunting mission gone wrong. I dunno, but it's the best red herring we could have asked for. The last thing we need is to draw attention.”

“Red... herring...?”

“Heh... I'll explain once I get back,” Belle said, reaching into a trunk full of Nightshade tools and weaponry. “For the time being, I've got a stallion to save...”

The Xonan children fidgeted, murmuring worriedly.

“Ms. Bellesmith, how long are you going to be gone?”

“Please, don't leave us!”

“We don't want Nightshade to find us again...”

“She won't...” Belle said, strapping one rifle, two rifles, three manarifles over her flank. She attached as many chunks of crystal ammo as she could to Luna's midnight saddlebag, pulling on the straps to make sure the satchel clung to her tight. “She won't touch a single hair of your manes ever again. I promise.”

“But Belle...” Kera trotted up to her, biting her own lip. “What if—”

“You're going to be safe,” Belle said with a smile, gently brushing the side of the filly's face. “You have my word...”

Kera gulped. She glanced back at the other foals, then leaned in towards Belle. “What about you?” she whispered. “What if you don't come back? What if I'm stuck with them.”

“It won't come to that, Kera. Phoenix and I...” Belle's words trailed off.

Kera's green eyes were soft and vulnerable.

With a deep breath, Belle said, “Okay, you saw how I flew us here the whole way, right?”

“Mmmhmmm.”

Belle gently guided Kera over to the controls. “Keep...” She motioned while explaining. “...the ship close to the building. Don't move it, no matter how close those managliders swing by.”

“But... they might fire on us and stuff!”

“Not if you stay here. It'll look like you're a normal Nightshade company ship, moored to the skyscraper.”

“What if they're after us and not that bounty hunter ship?”

“I seriously doubt that. Ledomaritans operate with a one-track mind. Now...” Belle opened a door to the window world beyond. The sun-glistening summit to Nightshade Industries loomed within view. “If for some Spark-forsaken reason somepony does give you trouble.” She patted a pair of red triggers fixed to the back end of the piloting instruments. “You give them trouble back, okay?”

Kera's tattooed brow furrowed. “Wh-what kind of trouble?”

“From what I can tell, it's two megacrystals affixed to a central arcane cannon. As airship's go, it should be good enough to blow off the wing of someone flying at you head on.”

“Coooool!” the filly gasped, lunging forward.

“Kera.” Bellesmith briefly frowned. “Only... if you're attacked first.”

Kera gazed up at her. “And what if you're not back in twenty minutes?”

Belle took a deep breath before leaning in to nuzzle the girl. Ultimately, she whispered into her ear, “Then you wait for the gliders to soar out of range, and you fly south of here, at regular speed. Once you're past city limit, speed off, and make for a place that I indicated on the map.”

Kera made a face as she attempted to read the hoofwriting. “Franzy... Ten...?”

“There are trustworthy ponies there. Heh... I know it's hard to believe... but they will take care of you...”

“But I don't want them to take care of me!” Kera stomped her hoof. “I... I-I want you t-to, Belle...”

Belle stared at her, blinked, and smiled. “Thanks for incentive.” She saluted with a daredevilish smirk and jumped out the door.

The fillies and colts gasped, ultimately peering out the ship to look. They breathed with relief as they saw the mare galloping across the rooftop of Nightshade Industries, approaching the small niche where a metal hatch lie in wait.

Belle struggled and strained to the get the door open. One ear was full of whistling wind while the other ached from the sound of the screaming air battle. At last, she leaned back, stifled a growl, and aimed a rifle point blank at the door lock. With a loud blast, she knocked the panel loose and swung the hatch open with her hoof.

“Whelp, they'd better be ready for a whole lotta friendship...” Belle hopped in, slid down the stair banisters, and landed on the floor beyond in a deep squat. The hatch slammed shut above her, filling the place with a bass, resonating echo as she glanced up, her hard brown eyes glinting against the darkness. Then, with the sleek shuffle of a phantom pegasus, she crept forward, manarifles in tow.

Great Wide Somewhere

The crimson light glinted off Belle's chestnut eyes like a pair of amber meteors. She peered left, peered right, then trotted slowly into the metal-laced room. In the center of the hidden chamber, surrounded by the ashen dust of dead pegasi, the red flame continued to billow and flicker atop the central dais. As she shuffled by it, she shuddered, as if something had brushed past her. Swiveling around, she squinted into the shadows surrounding the oddly built room.

Despite how much the shadows danced from the otherworldly flame, Belle realized that there was no other pony to be seen. She narrowed her eyes, feeling the weight of the rifles holstered around her flanks. The mare gave Luna's satchel a shake. Nothing happened, and for some reason, that perplexed Belle more than anything.

The pony bit her lips. She glanced into the flames, holding her breath, as if waiting for something to happen. All was silent and still.

Sighing, Belle pressed on, descending the metal staircase into the sequencing room below. Across the circle of seats, beyond the hanging equipment, the pony saw the tell tale signs of a horrendous scuffle in the room beyond. She passed through a series of battered door hinges, glancing around at tattered shreds of instrument paneling lying across the floor. Her heart skipped a beat upon glancing at an obvious streak of dried blood.

Exhaling heavily, she crept through the room and approached the hallway beyond. Before a single limb drifted into the light outside, she shrank back and slapped her back against a wall. Holding her breath, she listened as two bodies trotted briskly by, engulfed in a tense conversation.

“...how many times I try, I can't get through to Madame Nightshade!”

“Keep trying! It's like the Spark itself has forsaken this city! It's just a matter of time before Ledomaritans or Searonese rain this building down onto the streets below!”

“The Searonese are involved?! What in the Queen's name is going on here?!”

“We have enough to worry about! According to Sir Ordo, a zeppelin full of enforcers was seen heading towards the northwest passage.”

“Good heavens. If Madame Nightshade doesn't return her airship in time—”

“That's why you have to get in contact with her immediately! To warn her! The enforcers are out for blood, and with our lower offices having lost communication with Fatch...”

“I'll get right on it. I suggest we evacuate the facility here like we did in Deep Ridge.”

“We can't do that without the Madame's approval. Besides, Deep Ridge has been nothing but a festering scum hole since...” Just then, both ponies froze in place. They spun about, squinting curiously into the shadows. “Funny...”

“Did you hear that just now?”

Belle clenched her eyes shut. She took several deep breath, pressing her stubby horn tightly against a manarifle.

“Is... that a pony?”

“What in Spark's name...?”

“Nnnnn-Gaaah!” Belle dove out, slid into the middle of the hallway, and aimed the rifle at both of them.

The stallions flinched, their eyes wide with fear. They were simply office workers, even clad in neatly pressed suits.

Belle's vision tensed. With a shudder, she seethed, and aimed at the ceiling directly above them. She let loose one shot... two...

Both manablasts flew into the ceiling, sending several panels and beams of reinforcement falling down. The two hapless ponies collapsed, their bodies weighed down by the clumps of dusty bric a brac on top of them. One, however, tried wiggling free, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Belle held her breath, galloped over, and slammed him upside the head with the butt of her rifle.

He fell in a dazed slump while the other pony, far more encumbered by the debris, began shivering in fright. “Oh blessed Spark, no...—Guh!” He found himself staring face to face with a very angry mare.

“Phoenix...” Belle hissed, trying her best to sound menacing. The steaming barrel of the rifle between them was enough to do the task. “The shaved stallion mercenary. Where is he?”

The pony quivered. “H-he was a mercenary?!”

Belle shoved the end of the gun against the stallion's shoulder, smoldering his skin. “Where?! I know he's in here! Tell me where!”

“Gaaaah!” the pony flinched, his nostrils flaring at the smell of his own burnt flesh. “Two hallways d-down! The storage room! We m-moved him there twelve hours ago from the infirmary!”

“Is he alive?!” Belle yanked the stallion by the horn. “If Madame Nightshade hurt him...”

“He's... he's alive,” the stallion hissed. “Alive, but hornless. That's the only way she could have... could have...” His eyes trailed.

Belle blinked. She turned and looked behind the both of them.

Two guards were rounding the corner, sharing a tense conversation. Upon seeing Belle, they froze.

“Ah jeez.” Belle winced.

“Help!” the stallion shouted. “She's crazy! Shoot her! Shoot her!”

Belle grunted and kneed him hard in the chest, forcing the oxygen out of his lungs. The hallway immediately exploded around her from manafire. She wasn't sure how the unicorns unholstered their weapons in such a short span of time, but she wasn't about to dwell on it. In a blink, she dove to her side, ducked the blasts, and returned fire with a half-dozen rounds.

Both stallions parted ways, each ducking behind a door and using the frames for cover. They shot around from where they hid, filling the hall with mana and shrapnel.

Belle scampered up, her hooves skidding across the tile as she bolted suicidally against the fire. She dove forward and slid on her knees, hoisting the rifle up to fire two bold shots.

One frame exploded, forcing the stallion to out of the way of falling debris. His partner threw himself into open view, albeit with a rifle firing wildly.

Two blasts streaked by Belle, but one grazed her right rear leg. “Aaaugh!” she shouted, feeling the trickle of warm blood down her leg. Fuming, her eyes twitched with daredevilish vigor. She reached back, grabbed a spare rifle by its holster, and spun completely around. With an anguished shriek, she flung the weapon like a club down the hallway.

Both stallions stood up, gawking at the flung rifle.

Meanwhile, Belle came around from her swing, falling back and using her forelimbs to fire a well-aimed shot. The blast flew down the hall and impacted the center of the rifle before it touched the ground. As a result, both ends of the weapon ribboned outward, spraying the pair of guards with metal shards.

“Gaaah!” One stumbled forward, his left leg bleeding profusely. His gun was shot of his telekinetic grip by a streak of mana. Gasping, he looked up, only to receive a rifle butt to the face.

Belle tore through him and galloped briskly towards the second guard.

He shot several blasts.

Belle jumped the first two, landed, and flattened her body to squeeze past the rest. When she reached the guard, it was in a sliding buck, knocking his flank out from underneath him. As he landed, she pounced on him, trying to smack him unconscious. He levitated his rifled sideways between them, struggling to shove her off. The two tumbled and rolled, ultimately ending with the guard kicking Belle off him.

She flew across the hallway, landed on her back, and slid into a door frame.

Snarling, he spat loose blood and aimed at her prone figure.

Breathless, Belle kicked her legs up, caught the door handle, and slammed the thing shut with her rear hooves.

The stallion fired madly into the barricade between them, filling it with holes and melting the hinges off. As soon as he did so, Belle kicked the door from her end, sending it flying like an oaken shield into the stallion's face.

“Ooof!” He fell back, wincing in pain. Sitting up, he felt around for his rifle. Suddenly, it lifted up and out of his reach. With a quivering expression, he looked up.

“Nnngh!” Belle uppercutted him fiercely across the jaw, sending his body ragdolling to a stop besides his writhing companion.

All was silent yet again. With a heavy breath, Belle slumped, reaching back to feel the scalding burn wound above her rear leg. She winced, but was no worse for wear. Shaking the kinks out of her sweaty body, she pivoted towards the far end of the hallway and galloped, dauntless, towards her destination.

Cracks and Fissures

He trotted out of the woods, his breath awash with the scents of autumn. His eyes narrowed as he drank in the melting hues of sunset across the golden country. In a straight line, he trotted forward, approaching the heart of a quiet village lying in the emerald valley. Ponies shuffled from store to store on either side of him. Not a single one dared to lift their head and gaze into his face.

He rounded Main Street, taking a right and hiking down a winding gravel road that led towards a grassy knoll full of two story houses. Fresh flowers hung out of every windowsill, dancing in the breeze. As he trotted up the hillside, the setting sun glinted off his polished metals. Several ponies who were lazing on their front patios took sight of him and ended their conversations, trotting briskly into their separate buildings.

At last, he went around a familiar bend around a familiar oak tree. A cottage loomed before him, hanging in the shadow of a mountain that loomed beyond. There was a break in the heavens, and a swath of light illuminated the bright mane of a filly playing in the front yard. She took one look at him, gasped, and waddled up to the edge of the road.

“Daddy! Daddy!” She pounced on him, instantly knocking off his beret as she nuzzled his neck. “You're home! You were gone so long! I knew you'd come back!”

“I had to return,” he said. As if catching how dull and lifeless his voice was, he cleared his throat and knelt down to caress her cheek. “Of course I came back, darling. Our kingdom is... built around the home, after all.”

“Did you have any new adventures lately, Daddy?!” She asked with bright eyes. “Huh?”

“I...” He bit his lip. “Not this time, honey...”

“Awwww... You mean none? How boring!”

“I'll... uhm...” He tried to smile, but all he could do was wince. “I have to pry my memory. I'm sure I'll come up with some tales... to... tell...” He looked up.

A mare with a golden coat stood quiet and emotionless in the doorframe.

His nostrils flared as every limb locked up.

The filly glanced back and forth. Her mouth pursed open. “Are you and Mommy mad at each other?”

He unclenched his jaw just enough to say, “Go play with the neighbors, sweetheart.” His horn flickered once, and he felt the shape of the military orders bundled in his vest pocket. “Your mother and I have a long, long talk ahead of us...”

“Daddy?”

He trotted forward.

“Daddy...?”

He clenched his teeth.

The mare in the doorway crept back into the shadows. “Beloved, just promise me, that when this is over...” A voice echoed out. It was accompanied by a puddle of blood, running down the doorsteps and into the garden. “You won't do to her what you've done to me."

He stood in place, hyperventilating. One eye clenched shut, and he spun around to look.

A wave of water rushed in from behind, slamming his body awake.

Shell gasped as he was dragged against a wall of brick. He kicked against the currents, thrashing and bobbing for air. At last, the rest of his senses kicked in, and beyond the exploding pain he found the will to illuminate his horn. He saw bubbles and more bubbles, but his trained eye followed the direction they were going. He paddled after them, eventually bursting through the surface of the raging stream with a gasping breath.

Shivering from the freezing currents, Shell looked every which way. He was swiftly blurring down a dark tunnel. The walls all around him were fashioned out of decrepit brick: very likely the construction from Blue Nova's olden days. The stallion tested his own knowledge of vintage Ledomaritan architecture, and he kicked along with the currents, keeping his gaze focused to his left.

Sure enough, after forty feet, he came upon a series of stone ridges leading up to a partition that jutted up and away from the currents. At the top of this niche was a stone door. The difficulty in opening it was a faint concept to him; all that mattered was getting there.

Splitting the rapids with bursts of telekinesis, the enforcer managed to steer himself towards his target. When he reached it, he lunged up with both forelimbs, forgetting at the last second that his cast had shattered.

“Aaaaaugh!” he yelped out loud, his face muscles clenching from the stabbing pain in his broken limb. “Nnnngh—Sp-Spark!” After a few heaving breaths, he finally threw himself up onto the topmost stone peak of the platform, rolling over until he rested on his back, cradling his battered hoof.

He lay there for a great deal longer than he would have wished, his body awash in enough sweat and slime that it excused what happened next.

He brought his good forelimb over his scarred face, seething, clenching his teeth together so that a single squeak couldn't escape. After several vomitous seconds, he fought back the sobs, and the hauntingly warm voices disappeared with them. When he brought his forelimb down, his face was yet again the utter definition of icy.

He stood up, hobbled about, and trained his horn on the door. Halfway through opening it, Shell whipped out his sound stone, shook it until it glowed, and spoke firmly into the shard.

“This is Prime Enforcer Shell. I am alive. I need an update on the situation...”

A High Wind

“You're a quiet pony,” he said.

Imre looked up, blinking. “Huh?”

Eagle Eye managed a nervous smile, his ears folding back. “Sorry. I... uhm... I tend to think out loud a lot, especially when things are getting tense.”

“I promise you it will only sting for a moment,” the mare droned, all the while finishing the application of a bandage to Eagle's wounded chest. “I'll never understand how stallions can be such ravenous soldiers and big babies all at once.”

“Oh, I... uh... I can deal with pain, believe me,” Eagle Eye said. “I'm not a big fan of it, but it's something I had to deal with.”

“Join the friggin' club,” Imre said.

“Yeah, about that...” He smiled hopefully. “Everything isn't all that bad once you get to talk to ponies about it.”

She stared off across the chamber. Clark, Tweak, and Props crowded around the manaconduit, operating in close synchronization. Rainbow Dash stood beside Ebon and Pilate, chatting. Towards the far end, Floydien paced about with Simon perched on his antlers.

“I have nothing to talk about,” Imre said in a dull tone. “Even when I've tried, it's only made things awkward.”

“For who? Ponies like Rainbow Dash?” Eagle Eye leaned his head aside. “I find that hard to believe. Looks like she and Mr. Tweak are ready to lay their lives down for you.”

Imre blinked pointedly at the stallion.

His lips curved as he said, “Sometimes, the only pony who makes things tough for yourself... is yourself.” He gulped and stammered, “I-I've lived with a great deal of craziness myself, constantly ashamed of things, doubting where I stand in life. It wasn't until recently that I realized that the stuff that hurt me the most did so because I was too afraid to let it change for the better. When all of this nastiness is over with, I plan on going someplace.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Where?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe someplace where Rainbow Dash is going.” He chuckled. “Maybe someplace further. I wanna find a new home where I can meet new ponies and... heck... maybe start a new family of my own.”

“You really think it's just that easy?” Imre frowned. “That simple to take off to Spark-knows-where and begin a new life?”

Slowly, he shook his head. “No. No, I don't believe that at all.” His lavender brow furrowed. “But that doesn't make it any less worth it. It's really that precious enough to risk everything for.”

Imre glanced back at the colorful pegasus across the way, then hug her head. “What is it that she has that none of us have, anyways?”

Eagle Eye glanced at Rainbow Dash. After a few seconds, he looked back at Imre and said, “Harmony, I guess. Beneath all of the roughness, beyond all of the explosions, that's what she's all about.” He smiled. “And I find that inspiring. I bet it could inspire you just as much as it's inspired your friend Roarke.”

“What Roarke has...” Imre muttered with a dry chuckle. “It sure isn't inspiration...”

Eagle Eye raised an eyebrow at that.

Just then, a bright spark emanated from the manaconduit where several members of the party were hubbled.

“Woohoo!” Props hopped in place. “Bob from Bottles! We got it!”

“Huh?!” Rainbow Dash spun around with a flurrying mane. “You got what?! What is it that we got?!”

“Do calm down, madame,” Clark said as the group gravitated towards them. “We shall endeavor to explain. Ahem. It would appear that your friend here—”

“We can use Tweak the Crystal Guy to Shiny-Jack the Mana-Jack!” Props chirped, causing Clark to moan and facehoof. “He's like a living manabattery, after all.”

“Whoah whoah whoah...” Rainbow Dash winced in her rattling armor. “Is that really a good idea? I dunno if the dude's told you, but Crimson and I went through Tartarus just to release his brother a bunch of other villagers whom the Searonese were doing the same dirty thing to.”

“This girl speaks crazy, but she's full of more than blonde hairs!” Tweak exclaimed with a smug grin. “Ain't like they're usin' me as a magical battering ram or nothin'. All I need to do is channel a bit of energy into these here manawires and supposedly it'll override the security locks on the door!”

“It's...” Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed. “It's that simple?”

“Feasibly, yes,” Pilate thought out loud, drawing looks from the group. “Crystal ponies have been known to survive lightning strikes without suffering major damage. There's barely enough energy coursing through that conduit to switch on a toaster. I do believe our friend from Aurum here can help us bypass the locks.”

“Hmmph...” Floydien folded his forelimbs. “Always comes down to the glimmer glimmer, yes yes?”

“See?” Tweak pointed. “Even the moose agrees.”

“Floydien is most certainly handsomer than coat-rack boomers.”

“Sure. Whatever.” Tweak twirled towards the others. “Let's do this before I get back my sense of pride.”

“We're sure this won't hurt him?” Ebon asked. He pointed at the door. “I need we need to get through and all, but...”

“I'll be around, just in case,” Imre said, trotting towards the thick of the group. “You guys can only be so suicidal on my watch.”

“Certainly puts a spring in my step!” Rainbow Dash said with a grin. “Okay, Tweak... Props... do your... uhm... sciency stuff.”

“Righterooni—”

“Wait...” Eagle Eye spoke up, shifting where he stood. “What about all the baddies on the other side?” He gulped. “I... uh... understood that there would be baddies?”

Simon chirped innocuously.

Pilate tilted his head about while O.A.S.I.S. flickered. “Eagle Eye has a point. I think that whoever's on the other side—they know that we're here. I'm sensing at least two dozen bodies in close proximity, just beyond the door.”

“Sounds like a regular party,” Ebon droned.

“Right...” Rainbow Dash cracked her joints as she faced the door with tight limbs. “I know how this works...”

“Re-stabbing of the stabby stabby shall commence,” Floydien grunted.

“No!” Rainbow Dash flashed him a frown. “We can clean these dudes' clocks, but let's not bash their brains in with those lightning antlers of yours!”

“Why not?! Boomer of color has done it before.”

She managed to speak past her wincing expression. “But this isn't the same! I know without a shadow of a doubt that we're more than a match for them. I'm used to being an underdog, but I'm not about to squash ants like a big bully, just because we've got a lot of friggin' firepower on our sides! Certainly your skull isn't that jumbled that you can't understand that!”

“Floydien understands what Floydien understands, and believes what Floydien believes.” The elk's red eyes twitched. “But what of the stabby horse horse?! What do they believe or understand beyond the imprisonment of Nancy Jane?!”

Before Rainbow could respond, Pilate stepped up. “Floydien,” he said. “I think both you and I know that what happens today is no longer going to be determined by the evil party in question. Our group has gotten too big and too complicated to warrant irresponsibility.”

The brown hairs on the back of Floydien's neck bristled under Simon. “Nnnngh! Too much cloud and spit! What is it that striped boomer wants from Floydien?”

Pilate smiled gently as he said, “Restraint... and respect.” He trotted up and calmly patted the quadruped's shoulder. “I think it's something you've mastered incredibly.”

Floydien's nostrils flared. He flashed his antlers towards the far wall. “Hmmph... Floydien isn't a fan of the complicated path. It slows the glimmer, no?” He exhaled. “But if it helps Floydien's friends, then Nancy Jane will understand the delay.”

“Yes, my friend. I am sure of it...”

“We done yapping?” Tweak muttered, stifling a yawn. “I ain't gettin' any brighter here!”

“He's right!” Props sing-songed. “Only a precise crystal pony down the manaconduit will set off a chain reaction!”

“Ugh... can we just get this over with?” Imre droned.

“Do that voodoo that you do!” Rainbow Dash said, facing the door. “The rest of us, be prepared...”

“Oh jeez...” Eagle Eye winced, levitating both tasers as he stood beside Rainbow Dash. “Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez...”

Imre felt the silver shape of her pistol while Floydien growled at the door like a giant, horned canine.

Tweak raised both translucent hooves towards the conduit. His glowing body illuminated the figures of Clark and Props as they adjusted a pair of diodes with metal tools. Suddenly, a beam of light coursed through Tweak's figure, causing the manastones above the chamber to flicker. The ventilation fans quit, turned on, then quit again. Finally, a shower of sparks ran across the ceiling, and something deep within the door hummed like bottled thunder.

“There it goes!” Props shouted above the noise.

With a heavy whirr, the doors slid open. A wave of cool air flew in, as if a giant was blowing into the chamber. Dozens of bodies flinched, spun, and flinched again. Manarifles and metal clubs kissed the light.

“Everypony!” Rainbow Dash hovered up and prepared to launch an attack. “Go for cover! I'm gonna knock out as many as I can—”

“Stop! Stop!” Ebon Mane suddenly shouted. “Don't!”

Rainbow Dash spun in mid-air. “Huh?”

The stallion pointed, breathless. “Can't you hear them?!”

Just then, the sound of the opening doors dwindled, and in its place came the voice of a pony in the center of the huge crowd. “...surrender! We surrender!” The air rang with dozens of weapons being tossed onto the ground in front of the ponies. Several stallions and mares—all dressed in sweat-stained Nightshade uniforms—stood on slack haunches before the group. Behind them, stretching for hundreds of feet, was an enormous chamber, like three sports arenas dug against each other, and numerous zeppelins of every conceivable shape and model clung to a complicated array of platforms and metal lattices bridging between them. Rainbow Dash couldn't find to gawk at the dormant fleet, for a pony with frightened eyes had galloped up to her, tossing his arms up with emphasis. “We surrender! Please, don't hurt us! We give up!”

“Uhhhh...” Rainbow Dash's face contorted. “The fuzz is going on here...?”

“They're absolutely terrified,” Ebon Mane said as he trotted forward. “Can't you feel it?”

“Can you?!”

He said nothing.

“Whatever you're here for, you can have it!” One of the workers stammered, sweating bullets. “We give up! It's not worth protecting anymore! It's not worth this!”

“Am I hearin' this right?” Tweak said in a slightly groggy tone. He and Clark and Props trotted up to the line of ponies facing into the giant hangar. “They're just rollin' over for us?”

“My good pony, do elaborate, if you will,” Clark's voice rang with eloquence. “What is it that you are giving up?”

“The projects!” A mare in the middle of the crowd hysterically exclaimed. “The experiments!”

“Care to be a bit more specific?” Rainbow Dash groaned.

“Any and all of the zeppelins! They're yours!” A stallion bowed low, shivering. “Please! Take them! Any of them! We have nothing against pirates!”

“Pirates?!” Eagle Eye stammered. He glanced with a retching expression at Rainbow Dash. “Is that what they think we are?”

“All of Nightshade Industries is crumbling...” An older stallion said with a weary breath. “We were promised money to feed our families... security to protect our beloveds. But we didn't expect it to come to this...”

“Ledomaritan Enforcers...” A mare shuddered. “And now Searonese bounty hunters? We're risking too much. We don't want our families sold to these soulless ponies!”

“Searonese bounty hunters?!” Props' blue eyes blinked. She then smiled. “Oh! Heehee! I think she's talking about Rainbow's friend with the one measly ship and—Mmmmf!”

Tweak looked over from where he had stuffed his hoof into the mare's mouth. “Pssssst!” he hissed at Rainbow Dash, then waggled his eyebrows.

Rainbow nodded, then turned to frown at the group. “You're right! All ponies who work under Nightshade is in danger! Blue Nova is overrun!”

All of the ponies quivered and moaned with fear.

“Rainbow Dash...” Imre started to drone.

“But!” Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof. Her ears twitched in alternating flicks as she thought hard, then blurted, “You did the right thing by... uh... surrendering to us! There's no need for anypony to get hurt! We just want to grab ourselves a zeppelin and get out of here!”

“And find Nancy Jane,” Ebon Mane added.

“You want to get out of here?!” a mare exclaimed. “That's not going to be easy! We're trapped!”

“Can't you open the doors to this... uhm... hidden base thingy?” Eagle Eye asked.

“We would, but... but...”

“It's a bombardment,” Pilate said in a distant voice.

Rainbow Dash looked at him. “Huh?”

“Shhhh...” Pilate's metal rune-cap flickered as he pointed towards the air. “Wait for it...”

Everything was silent, and then thunder rolled, bouncing off of every metal rafter and rattling lattice that spanned the enormous place. Dust and sediment rained down from hundreds of feet above as every Nightshade worker shuddered in fear.

“Ledomaritan shelling, no doubt,” Pilate added.

“They've been firing volleys at the entrance for the last half-an-hour,” a stallion said. “If we open those doors, the first pony who tries to fly out of there will be toast!”

“And there's word of enforcers infiltrating the old sewers and underground passageways,” another pony said. “All of the buildings on Nightshade's property above ground has been seized already! All that's left is here and the headquarters, and even still so many have fled!”

“We have families to protect in this city and beyond,” another added. “We can't afford to be captured! They'd be compromised too!”

Rainbow Dash leaned back on her haunches. She tapped her chin while her head swam through painful expressions of deep thought.

Tweak trotted up. “Rainbow? What are you ganderin' about?”

“We wanna get out of here...” Rainbow pointed at the trembling crowd. “They wanna get out of here. I just wonder if there's a way to make everything work for everypony...”

“It's rather difficult to see how,” Clark remarked, gesturing wildly to the far end of the hangar as another roll of thunder boomed from the shelling outside. “This city's about to crumble enough as it is. Now may not exactly be an opportune time for us to escape with our coats intact.”

“Nothing was gonna stop us before,” Rainbow Dash said. “Why should it be any different now?”

“In all seriousness, we have to think rationally about this predicament.”

“And I am being serious!” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “I'm being serious for us! For Belle, who still needs to be rescued! For... for... Knickerbocker or whoever the heck the elk has a deer-crush for.”

“Speaking of which...” Ebon Mane glanced wildly around.

“Where'd he go?” Props gasped. “It's suddenly less handsome in here!”

“Uh... guys?” Imre pointed.

Rainbow Dash turned to look. She gasped at the sight of a familiar brown quadruped galloping loudly down the hangar and up a steep incline of metal lattices. “Antlers on the run! Darn it, I knew I couldn't keep my eye off him!”

“Rainbow, just be calm!” Pilate shuffled past him. “I can talk some sense into him!”

“Can you really?”

“He's not as far-gone as you th-think! Augh!” The zebra tripped on a loose piece of metal. “Blast it... Ebon? Would you mind, good sir?”

Ebon Mane trotted up and gave him a shoulder to lean on. “I'm right here. Let's go.”

“I'm with ya guys.” Rainbow Dash flew along with the two as they darted after the elk. “The rest of you, try to get a head count! See if they've got weapons or medical supplies here! We'll need every ounce we can get!”

“Every ounce for what?!” Tweak shouted back.

“Just humor me!” Rainbow Dash bobbed and weaved around zeppelins and support struts, zeroing in on the elk and the two stallions catching up with him. Simon chirped excitedly from where the rodent rode Floydien's antlers like a lookout sentry. “Hey!” Rainbow shouted at the bizarre sight. “Hold up! No need to go biserk on us!”

“Nancy Jane is here!” Floydien stammered, breathlessly throwing himself forward as he scaled a metal bridge several stories up. “Floydien can smell her! Can feel her glossy contours through the metal mess! Yes yes yes!”

“I'm sure she's fine! It doesn't look like these pansies here would harm a fly!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Just slow down and we'll help you find your beloved moose!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Pilate spoke calmly from below. “She's not a moose.”

“Pfft! Fine! Elk! Caribou! Whatever—”

“No, that's not what I mean,” the zebra interrupted. “Look...”

“Huh?” Ebon Mane muttered as he, Pilate, and the armored pegasus came to a lingering stop.

“Yes yes yessssss...” Floydien's muscles grew lip as a drunken smile rolled across his lips. He leaned forward and nuzzled the rust-red hull of a two and a half-story tall barge. Moored to a pair of docking clamps, the airship glowed with otherworldly effluence, making it a great deal more astounding than the rickety wooden or brittle metal facsimiles of airships stationed around it. “After a sizable spell, beloved Floydien returns to beloved Nancy Jane. A little more spark and a little less spit, but still the same vanquisher of boomers. Yes yes? Floydien thanks and loves Nancy Jane for keeping her heart warm for Floydien. Among other things.” Floydien giggle-snorted in an awkward fashion.

“I...” Rainbow Dash gawked at the airship, shaped like a bullet carved in half down the top. “I... uh...” She glanced at a giant shard of red crystal—the size of a small whale—that hovered above the open deck of the craft, braced by four metal rings of various diameters that rigged the horizontal chunk of rock in place. “I don't get it...”

“What's not to get?!” Props beamed, her blue eyes sparkling at she stood with the group. “It's a East Arcane Void-Skipper! The most ziffy of zeppelins there is!”

Rainbow Dash jolted in mid-air. “Gah! How'd you get here so fast?”

Props smiled. “I swung!”

“Uhhh...” Rainbow Dash blinked. “Okay...”

“Powered by pure enchanted skystone!” Props cooed as she trotted along the craft, running a delicate peach hoof across it. “Only known to fall in special places along the north and south edges of the world! Hee hee! It's like the thing runs on outer space itself! How'd you find such a neato-keano craft, Mr. Handsomeness?”

“Floydien did not find Nancy Jane!” the elk grunted, then turned to caress the hull some more. “Nancy Jane found Floydien... yes yes yessssss, she did, even if Floydien had to carve his way through frozen chunklands to find her. A more beautiful beloved there never was and never will be. Floydien protects her, so that only Floydien knows her name...”

“What...?” Ebon Mane asked.

“Right here...” Pilate pointed at a piece of the hull that his manasphere had just finished scanning. “I do believe this is the vessel that the think tank was working on. It matches the dimensions to a T.”

Ebon squinted at the words across the hull. “'The Noble Jury?!'” He gawked at Floydien. “Who in the heck calls their ship 'The Noble Jury?'”

“'Jurisprudence' was taken!” Floydien snapped. He spun about and jumped onto the deck with Simon in tow. “Be the hush hush around Nancy Jane! She doesn't like being stripped by your eyes. Names are like lengths of silk, and she's danced behind many a veil in her day! Now, Floydien returns to help her sing again!” His voice echoed from beyond the hull. “Yes! Be jubilant, fair maiden! Serenade Floydien's friends, if Nancy Jane has the spit! No?!”

The rest of the ponies looked at each other, lost between shrugs and smiles.

Casting Phoenix Down

Sir Ordo was panicking. He tripped over every other step as he galloped like a wild stallion through the secret upper levels of the Nightshade HQ building.

“Fatch hasn't communicated in hours... We can't get through to the Madame... Enforcers are filling the streets... A horrible air battle is erupting outside our windows... and now...” He seethed. “I hear about gunshots in our very own hallways?!”

“Sir...” One of two stallions struggled to gallop in pace with him. “Sir, we need to get out of here!”

“What?!” Ordo allowed a strand or two of his mane to spill loose as he frowned back at the pony in question. “Abandoned our posts?! When Nightshade needs us the most?! I'd much rather chop off my own tail!”

“Sir, you speak of this as if we're soldiers!” the stallion stood his ground, frowning ahead at the two as they sped on. “We're not! I've got a family at home, and I'm leaving to go protect them before we're overrun with enforcers!”

“Fine!” Ordo snarled into the air. “Nightshade has only provided for your every financial need for the past decade! If you want to show your true cowardice, I won't stop you!”

“Sir Ordo...” The other stallion murmured.

“Just don't come crawling back, expecting to be blessed!” Ordo grunted, trotting even faster. “You there! Come along! We're snuffing out whatever craziness is happening upstairs! Nopony's taking this tower if I have anything to do with it!”

The first stallion ran back towards the nearest elevator, leaving the second fidgeting awkwardly in the center of the hallway. Finally, after an aggravated groaning sound, he turned around and ran after Ordo. “Sir! Wait up!”

As the hallway emptied and silence fell, a ceiling panel above slid open. Like a slinking golden spider, Belle dropped down. She shifted the weight of the rifles over her bruised body, gazing left and right across either end of the corridor. Once the coast was clear, she shuffled ahead, her hooves steady and swift.

At last, she stumbled upon a door labeled “Maintenance Chamber 27-B.” She leaned forward, pressing her ear against it. A low hum emanated from the other side. Clenching her jaw, she fiddled with the knob, grunting in frustration to find it locked tight.

Several seconds into this struggle, the air within the hallway shifted. A door had opened across the way, and one of two ponies gasped, “You there! Freeze!”

Belle spun, lifted a rifle, and fired.

In less than a second, a stallion had his taser knocked out of his outstretched hoof. He and his partner gawked at the smoke rising off his burnt forelimb. Snarling, he fumbled and reached for a sound stone.

Unfazed, Belle fired again. Her blast shot into the sound stone, exploding it in the stallion's grasp. The black knocked him back, so that her ricocheted off the doorframe and fell cold to the floor of the room beyond.

Belle's eyes icily turned to the second guard.

The guard gazed at her, trembled, and gulped. He pulled his taser stick out, smiled awkwardly with a shrug, and then zapped himself in the neck. “Ghkkkkt...!” His eyes rolled back as he fell blissfully unconcious.

Belle stood there, rifle outstretched. She blinked, then returned quietly to the door. After fumbling for a few more seconds, she grumbled, stepped back, and aimed the rifle at the knob. Shielding her face with one forelimb, she fired. The knob flew off with a splash of sparks and the door swung open.

Briskly, Bellesmith trotted in, gazing around the dimly-lit rows upon rows of metal racks. “Phoenix...?” She galloped down the aisles, hissing. “Psssst! Phoenix! Phoenix, where are you?”

The humming sound intensified. Belle decided to trot towards it. As she did so, she found a figure strapped to the instrument panel of a large manaconduit station.

“Phoenix!”

His head dangled loosely from where he hung off a loose length of chains. His forehead was saturated with caked blood, all stained brown around his shattered horn and draping down past his ears. He stirred slightly, his lips moving, pronouncing nothing.

“Phoenix! Speak to me!” Belle shuffled up to him, giving the stallion a firm shake. “It's me! Bellesmith! I've come to get you out of here!”

“Nnngh... don't...” He whimpered dryly, his mouth and tongue swollen. “Don't... know... stop... stop the sparks... the flame...”

Belle grimaced, but nevertheless reached into her saddlebag for a pair of miniature rods. She burned away at his chains, steadying his body with her flank. “Just hang in there. I'm cutting you free. You've spent long enough in this place.”

“Mmmf... B-Belle...?”

“Yes, Phoenix, it's Belle. Now, relax as I—”

The stallion's eyes flew wide. He gasped heavily, the bloodied wrinkles in his brow creasing. “Belle! No!” He thrashed and rattled on the end of his chains. “Won't tell you! Won't tell you a thing! Leave her alone! Leave us all alone!”

“Phoenix! Phoenix!” Belle dropped the cutters and gripped his shoulders tight. “I'm here! It's me!”

“Not... not...” He shuddered, his pupils quivering. “Not real. Not Belle. Not Crimson. Not my family...” He shook his head, clenching his eyes shut. “Nnngh... Stop shoving the light in. No more... nngh... reflections. Thoughts and reflections of thoughts.” He hiccuped, hissing through clenched teeth. “Get out of my head... get out of my head with your flame and sparks...”

“Phoenix, you are not sequencing!” Belle said firmly, frowning into his face. “This is real, and I have a bunch of real foals waiting for me in a hovercraft just outside the HQ. We gotta get to them, and we gotta get out of this cursed town. But I'm going to need you to cooperate with me.”

Phoenix hyperventilated. Nevertheless, he swallowed and stammered, “Get... out of h-here...?”

“Yes, Phoenix. Together.”

“You...” His brow furrowed as he breathed his thoughts aloud, “You're afraid...”

Belle shuddered, returning to the cutters. “Yes, Phoenix. I am always afraid. But that doesn't change the fact that you don't belong here.” She burned away at his bindings. “That's the secret that Rainbow Dash knows, I think. It's simply... keeping it all secret, and running past what's held you back.”

Phoenix blinked several times. He muttered, “That's not s-something Nightshade could create...” His lips quivered. “You're... always so afraid, Ms. Bellesmith. So afraid... so sincere...”

“Yes, well, we can talk about that later...”

“I... I don't understand...”

“I'll explain once we get into the hovercraft.” Belle finally tore the chains loose. Phoenix slumped down like a sack of meat, and she did her best to hold him up. “Nnnngh...! Ungh... You think you can walk?”

“I... I-I can...”

“Good, come with me...”

“But... where were... where were you?” He gulped and leaned limply against her side. “Oh, Bellesmith, they burned me... they b-burned me alive from the inside out. Did they find you? Did I tell them too much?”

“It's okay, Phoenix...” Belle said, dragging him along the lengths of the cold chamber. “Yes, they found me and Kera. They took us far away in their airship and began doing to me what they did to you, but I fought them back. I fought them back, and now we're getting away from it all. Everything is going to be okay. I promise you.”

“Ms. Bellesmith, that's... that's...”

“I know it's all hard to believe. I'm trying not to dwell too much on it myself. But, I assure you, as wild as this is, you're not sequencing.”

“Wait!” He shoved at her so that the two could stare evenly at a nervous distance. “You... You got away... you were miles away...” He gulped. “And yet... y-you came back for me?”

“Yes. Phoenix. Please, we need to go now.”

“But... you... you...” His face melted. He hung his muzzle towards the floor as the first of several tears fell from his eyes. “I don't understand... I-I just don't understand...” He sniffled, his shoulders shaking. “After all th-that I've done... you came back? You came b-back for me?”

“Yes.”

“I... I don't...” He sobbed, his voice becoming more and more indistinguishable as his body lost to gravity. “Don't... d-deserve... all the things... blessed spark, I've done n-nothing to d-deserve...”

“Phoenix, look at me.” Belle tilted his face up. She smiled placidly into his breakdown. “It doesn't matter. You don't belong here. None of us belong here, and I am getting you home. You hear me?”

He took a few even breaths, his shudders melting away. “Yes, Ms. Bellesmith. I... I hear you...” He sniffled and a pained smile crossed his lips. “I-I hear you loud and cl-clear...” His next sob broke through grinning teeth.

She smiled back. “Good. Now... I know you've been through a lot, Phoenix, but I need you to be strong now. We've got a lot of ways to climb.” She reached for the door ahead of them. “Most of the guards appear to be fleeing home. Not a bad idea, if you think about it.”

“Heh... n-not at all, Ms. Bellesmith.”

She opened the battered door. “Let's just try and do this as quietly as—”

As hallway loomed, three guards were standing in a tight circle, examining the unconscious bodies. As soon as the door opened, they spun about and gasped. “The intruder!” One stallion cocked his manarifle and aimed it straight at Phoenix's forehead. “Quick! Finish them both—”

Phoenix tearfully gasped as the manabullet flew towards his skull.

“Nnngh!” Belle kicked the door shut in a flash. The bullet deflected so that it flew over the stallion's shattered horn. Heaving Phoenix's body around, she bucked at the shattered doorknob, kicking a hole open in the wooden panel. She aimed through this with one of her manarifles and fired several blind shots.

One stallion groaned in pain. The other two's hooves galloped off in a flurry.

“Bellesmith! How did...” Phoenix sprawled on the ground after she dropped him. “Whoah...”

“Haaugh!” Belle rammed through the door, knocking the thing off its hinges. A bleeding stallion lay on the floor while the other two ran around a corner. They shouted loudly into their soundstones, and from a distance came several more guards, all of them looking positively ticked off. They formed a line around a distant corner of intersecting hallways and aimed their weapons at Belle.

The mare fumed. She heard a moaning sound as the shot guard on the ground reached for his taser. With a grunt, she kicked him upside the horn, then reached into the maintenance corridor for Phoenix. “Let's go!” The stallion gasped as she dragged him along, galloping madly away from a streaking barrage of manabolts. “Go go go go go!”

“By the sp-spark!” Phoenix rasped, eventually galloping in a lurch along with her. Together, the fugitives darted around a corner pock-marked by manabullets. Shouting commands to one another, the Nightshade security gave pursuit, filling the hallways with a cacophony of galloping hooves.

A Little Nuts

“OoOoOoOoOoh...” Props cooed as she trotted across the widely-stretched upper deck of the airship, directly beneath the red crystal shard encased in metal rings. She brought her hoof up to stroke one of the vertical metal support struts built into the center of the craft. “I love the Noble Jury! And I think it's just because the Noble Jury loves me!”

“Don't be silly, Propsy,” Ebon Mane murmured as he looked at a stairwell leading down towards the lower decks about halfway towards the ship's stern. “You're a pretty pony, but an inanimate airship isn't capable of feeling anything. You can have my word on that.”

“Sailboat pony's word is the spittiest of spit!” Floydien grunted from up ahead. Pilate and Rainbow Dash observed as he trotted towards a structure on the edge of the deck, closest to the bow. A series of double doors awaited him. “Nancy Jane loves all boomers who can respect her and the air that serves as the arena of her respect!” With one zap, he opened the wide doors, revealing an elaborate cockpit facing east towards the doors of the immense hangar. A window wrapped majestically around the control console. Two vertical shafts led up from the lower decks, but they looked too small for the elk in question. The others watched as Floydien marched straight up to the console and gave his antlers a flick. A bolt of energy flew into the consoles, and they instantly lit up, responding to his magical touch. With a whurring sound, a compartment opened in the deck and a broad seat lifted up, shaped perfectly for Floydien's haunches. He reclined, letting out a heavy breath, as if relaxing for the first time in months. “Ahhhhh, blessed Nancy Jane. Your hug is like being swallowed by the heaven glimmers, yes yes.” With careful pulses of energy emitting from his horn, he activated the ship's systems one by one.

The ponies turned—flinching slightly—as the rings above them started to rotate around the red crystal. The long crimson shard fluctuated from within, swirling with effluent energy sparked by Floydien's controls. As Simon scurried down into one of the crawlspaces, Props trotted briskly towards the uppermost cockpit, speaking from behind the elk's shoulder.

“You can directly control the enchanted skystone with pure psionic thought?!” Props fanned herself. “Yeesh, elk guy! You just get handsomer all the time!”

“Skystone is but a piece of Nancy Jane's magnificent glimmer,” Floydien said. “Yes yes, true essence of her power stems from beloved's womb.”

“Yeesh, this is either too good to be true or too wacky to be real,” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“I would imagine a zeppelin of this sort of manufacturing would be a swift vessel indeed,” Pilate remarked. “But could it last the shelling outside to outfly the Ledomaritan armada?”

“I'm gonna go check out Nancy Jane's womb!” Props sang as she shimmied down one of the chutes.

“Propsy!” Ebon Mane groaned. He galloped after her, crawling nervously down the opposite shaft. “Propsy, wait! For crying out loud...”

“I need to figure out what we're dealing with,” Rainbow Dash said over the sound of rolling thunder. The entire hangar shook around them as she approached one of the chutes. “Make sure Mr. Moosealot doesn't take off at random or something.”

“I will... stick by his side,” Pilate said with an awkward smile.

“Hmmph...” Floydien glanced over his many instruments while muttering out the side of his muzzle. “Striped boomer's painterly friend thinks Floydien is full of spit.”

“She... is fiercely defensive when it comes to her friends, and a great deal is riding on what happens next,” Pilate said. “You and your airship could be of a great deal of help to us, Mr. Floydien.”

“Perhaps for too long has she been assaulted by the stabby stabby,” the elk grunted. He barely had room to tilt his head left or right, on account of the antlers sandwiched within the cockpit. “Is hard to trust somepony beyond the glare in their eye.”

“I think she's managed well, all things considered,” Pilate said. “Same goes for most of us in our merry little party.” His lips curved. “Yourself included. If we weren't cut from the same cloth, I'd have a great deal less hope about this situation.”

“Nnngh... Your tongue sparks for the heavens with far too much eager-eager,” Floydien said. “But it sparkles, yes yes. Nancy Jane is happy to have you in her embrace.”

“And the others...?”

“One boomer at a time.”

Pilate chuckled.

Meanwhile, down below, Rainbow Dash was slowly climbing down the thin vertical chute, a difficult task in all of her rattling armor. Her ears twitched, listening for the other two ponies who had descended before her. As she descended the first level, she looked towards the bow to see an enclosed chamber about the same cramped size as the cockpit, covered all over with even more densely packed instrument panels. She looked over her shoulder to see a long, thin hallway piercing through several bulkheads. Several doors on both the starboard and port side of the vessel opened to tiny rooms, and several trots down the corridors opened up to larger compartments, but it was too dim to make out any details at that distance.

Crawling down, Rainbow Dash came upon the lower decks as the chute ended. A swath of light ran across her face. She squinted towards the bow, seeing a small and cozy observation room, with hammocks hung from the bulkheads, swaying before a bulbous bubble of a window that looked out upon the depths of the hangar outside the Noble Jury. In one of these netted beds, Simon had found a cushion of rags to lie down in. He curled into the fabric, his tail twitching against the tesla-coils fitted into his skull. The rodent's eyes shut to the crazy world as more waves of thunder echoed from the shelling outside. The hammocks swayed, and Rainbow Dash felt herself teetering backwards towards the ship's stern.

Turning around completely, Rainbow Dash trotted nervously down the long thin corridor of the bottom deck. The walls felt immensely cramped and claustrophobic, and it made the pegasus feel anxious in a way she hadn't experienced in a long time. She couldn't fathom how an elk with such immense antlers could navigate his own vessel with the corridors being this small. Nevertheless, the voices of ponies drove her forward, and she followed the sound with eager swiftness.

The corridor didn't go on for too long, as it turned out. Just beyond the observation room was a slightly larger chamber furnished with desks and lined with shelves fitted with dozens upon dozens of books. Maps hung along the few spare walls that weren't obstructed by tool-racks or cartography equipment.

“Yeah, I think I know where Pilate's gonna feel at home,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself, quickening her pace. The chamber in front of her was sealed off by a door with a valve, but that door was hanging loosely open. She swung it the rest of the way with a squeaking noise. A bright room lingered beyond, this one brighter than the rest of the chambers that she had seen throughout the ship, not to mention larger.

“—but that's where you're wrong, Ebony! This room is almost entirely intact, as well as most of the instruments! Heeheee! Oooooh, it's so beautiful!” Props was spinning around the room, her blonde mane flouncing as she cooed at an elaborate engine stretching from floor to ceiling in the middle of the chamber. A metal ring had been constructed just to the side of the engine, closer to the stern, but there was nothing within the incomplete cylinder. Nevertheless, several cables swam from the ring and into the body of the engine, as if the cylinder was acting as a sort of auxiliary energy source, though there was nothing there. “Don't you love it?! Don't you love Nancy Jane's womb?!”

“Yeesh, stop calling it that, Propsy!” Ebon Mane groaned, face-hoofing as he stood besides a steaming instrument panel along the port side. “I mean—isn't it obvious to you that Nightshade's goons went all over this place, butchering things left and right? I mean, look! This is the beta version of the energy core that you and Clark were designing! What if they messed with... I dunno... the wires or something? This thing could explode as soon as Floydien launches it, for all we know!”

“Impossibruuuu!” Props hopped around, her blue eyes sparkling at the many consoles. “They gave us detailed schematics of this room and this room alone! It's just like they described it! Nothing vital has been exposed! They wanted to fly this thing back to the front, after all! Why would they want to make it inoperable?”

“I... I don't know...” Ebon folded his forelimbs with a sigh. “It's just that the entirety of Nightshade Industries hasn't struck me as very... mmm... confident.”

“You could say that again...” Rainbow Dash trotted up and gingerly patted the engine with an armored hoof. “I've come across several bad guys during my travels, and most of them were—well—a great deal more organized than this whole 'Nightshade' business.” She glanced at the others with a bitter smirk. “Just goes to show that you can't toss your bits at just anything and expect it to work.”

“Oh, this ship works alright!” Props sang. “And I caaaaaaaan't waaaaaaaaait to flyyyyyyyy itttttt!”

“Pffft. Ohhhhh Propsy...” Ebon Mane smiled, his teeth showing. “Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself? What makes you think Floydien would even share his 'beloved Nancy Jane' with you? He doesn't seem to be all that trusting of strangers.”

“He seems to cherish everypony whom Mr. Pilate has come into contact with?”

“Yeah, well, I just think you've fallen head over heels with this zeppelin.”

“But... it's... so... sparkly!” Props leaned over and nuzzled the engine until it burned her cheek red with a puff of steam. “Mmmm... skystone energy amplifiers are practically humming with ethereal combustion! I could just soak in it! Heeheehee!”

“Ahem...” Rainbow Dash pivoted until Props was completely out of her line of sight. “I think we need to... uh...” She adjusted the collar of her armor as the redness left her muzzle. “Go... round up the others n'stuff?”

Ebon gritted his teeth as the ship rocked from intense shelling beyond the hangar. “It'd also be pretty swell if we thought ourselves a way out of here.”

“Look, I'm working on it, sailboater.”

“Ugh... not you too...”

“Cheer up, Ebony!” Props chirped as she trotted around the engine some more. “We've got ourselves some smexxy wings here! That's a good thing, right?”

“You're just delirious...”

“To each their own, dolt colt! You'd be delirious too if you found the engine room of your dreams!”

“Thankfully, I'm not wooed by skystone... auxiliary... spark wires... or whatever...”

“Well, I did pass by a pretty nifty kitchen on the upper level before coming here.”

Ebony's pupils shrunk as his ears flattened. “A kitchen...?”

“Yup!”

“This... this airship has a kitchen?”

“Yup yup! And a mess hall—”

Ebon was charging the open door to the ship's stern in a burgundy blur. “Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez! I gotta see this!”

“H-hey!” Rainbow Dash gawked at him, stretching a hoof out. “Don't run off! Now's not a time for us to split off like foals at a playground!”

“Oh, relax, girrrrl!” Props winked at her. “Take a seat! We can relax with the engine and the steam and the sweat!”

“Uhh... yeah, no.” Rainbow Dash glided towards the door. “Ebon! Dude, wait up!” She found herself in a stairwell, judging that it must have led up to where she saw the entrance at the ship's top deck earlier. Climbing up a level, she looked towards the bow, and immediately saw a small, metal-laced chamber where Ebon Mane stood in the center of many shelves, freezers, sinks, cutting boards, and basins. “Look, I'm glad you guys have found your dream come true, but we gotta work together on this and—”

“It's... so... organized...” Ebon murmured ecstatically as he opened a cabinet and nearly squealed. “There's even a shelf full of seasoning! Oh jeez, I could make banquets in here!”

“Hey!” Rainbow frowned. “Eggshell!”

“Ebony.”

“Whatever. Can we get our head in the game, please?! I'd try and convince Props, but...”

“Right...” Ebon snapped out of it, nodding furiously. “We're in a bit of a pickle, and we have to...” His voice trailed off as his head drifted about. “Relish. I could make relish and garnish for a salad...”

“Grrrrr...”

“Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry... Let's, uh...” Ebon galloped past Rainbow Dash and trotted up the stairwell. “Let's get back into action... or something...”

Exhaling, the pegasus followed him, pausing as she stared through a slitted door into what looked to be a two-story cargo hold at the very rear of the ship. Several platforms held numerous crates full of unseen materials. Climbing up the rest of the way, Rainbow Dash emerged with Ebon upon the top deck. By that time, the rest of the group had arrived.

“Whew...” Tweak wiped his crystalline brow as he leaned back on a rifle. “Certainly pretty fancy, even if the idiot who built it put up a giant shard of red crap instead of a dirigible.”

“Actually... uhm... I think this ship is powered by the thing,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing to the large horizontal chunk of ruby that shadowed them all. “According to Props, it means that this is a really fast vessel.”

“Just where is Miss Props anyways?” Clark asked.

“She's dancing around in Nancy Jane's womb,” Ebon droned.

“Huh?!” Eagle Eye made a face.

Ebon sighed. “Long story...”

“Nancy Jane's the ship,” Rainbow Dash explained. “'The Noble Jury.'”

“How original,” Imre droned. “By the way, the ponies who are stuck here are still totally flipping out.”

“They have every reason to,” Tweak said. Another shell landed outside, jostling everypony on their hooves. “Ya hear that? Whatever shell is protecting this place, it ain't lastin' for long. I'd say it's just a matter of time before the doors blow open and hellfire rains down on us.”

“Do not forget the forces rushing in from behind,” Clark spoke up. “I seriously doubt the enforcers have finished their pursuit through the old sewers.”

“Maybe we could seal the entrance to this place behind us?!” Eagle Eye stammered. “That could hold them back!”

“And then what?” Tweak glared across the way. “We just sit our flanks here and hold out for eternity? Ya know that ain't happening. Besides...” He folded his forelimbs. “I came here to rescue ponies, not do a last stand. Don't forget that some of us have a family to return home to.”

“We haven't forgotten...” Imre droned. “Relax.”

“Well, don't act like you've forgotten either!”

“I haven't. I'm just saying—”

“What are you saying?! Give us one positive thing that you've contributed since we fell down here, girl!”

“Guys... Come on!” Rainbow Dash's voice cracked. “The last thing that'll help right now is us chewing each other's heads off. Don't forget, that Belle's out there somewhere, and she needs us. Same with Roarke and Crimson. Same with all these ponies stuck down here...”

“What exactly do these folks deserve?” Tweak frowned. “They were in cahoots with the ponies who held Clark, Props, and Ebon against their wishes!”

“They have families to return home to as well, Tweak,” Imre said in a growling tone. “You're not the only one with something to protect.”

“She has a point,” Clark spoke up before Tweak could retort. “While I have not been altogether pleased with the way things have gone, I do not wish these ponies personal harm. They are as much victims of circumstance as we are.”

“Then what do we plan to do?!” Tweak shrugged. “It's not like we can fit them all on this here ship and take off!”

“Most certainly not,” Floydien grumbled, suddenly trotting forward from the cockpit with Pilate in tow. “Boomers surround us who are still the stabby stabby, and not in a spit's chance will they fly off on Nancy Jane's majestic wings.”

“We have to do something for them, at least!” Eagle Eye said. He smiled gently while uttering, “Besides, maybe they could help us in the process!”

“Help us?!” Tweak's brow furrowed. “Help us, how?”

“Hey... uhm...” Rainbow Dash hovered up on puttering thrusters. She stared around at the many, many zeppelins. “Have any of you... uh... ever witnessed a Great Dragon Migration?”

“A what?” Ebon asked.

Clark shrugged. “I can't say that I have...”

Pilate smiled. “I think I know where Rainbow Dash is going with this.”

“Care to share it with us, then?” Tweak remarked.

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Heheh... oh, this is gonna be good.” Rocketing towards the far end of the hangar, she shouted back. “I'm gonna round up the rest of the ponies! I have a plan, and it's really stupid!”

“Why so stupid?!” Ebon called back.

“Because that's how I know it'll work!”

Ebon spun back towards the group with a frazzled expression. “She's awesome... but a little nuts.”

Pilate nodded. “Welcome to the club.”

Flighty and Furious

With loud, booming salvos, the armada of Ledomaritan zeppelins fired at the hill of earth sloping east from the walls of Blue Nova. There were three large warships in the center, flanked by a dozen miniature aircraft, and the largest cannons were repeatedly and mercilessly pummeling the suspiciously misshapen earth from afar.

On the deck of the centermost ship, Enforcer Evans stood, squinting into the flying waves of debris. A setting sun spilled golden beams through the scattered dust as deeper and deeper craters were carved out of the ground.

“We've been going at this for nearly forty-five minutes!” another enforcer shouted above the blaring cannons. “How long are we going to be at it?!”

“Until we expose the hidden chamber built underneath!”

“And what if there's nothing to be found?!”

“This is Prime Enforcer Shell's order, not mine.” Evans icily stared over at his cohort. “Would you be the first to break his command?”

The stallion said nothing.

“Keep firing!” Evans shouted, facing forward again.

Not long after, a pair of stallions galloped up from the ship's lower decks. “Sir! Sir, we've detected movement!”

Evans spun about, his mouth pursed. “From within the area of fire?”

A stallion nodded and exclaimed, “Something's opening up! Like a structure of some sorts!”

Evans exchanged glances with the soldier next to him. He waved wildly to the enforcers nearby. “Cease fire! Cease fire!”

Several officers amplified the command, shouting the order across the deck. Stallions with flags and flares passed the signal along to the flanking battlecruisers. After continuous rounds of cacophonous thunder, the noise and shelling finally stopped. Everypony craned their necks from where they were station, gawking at the sight below.

Through the clearing dust, a rustic brown interior of multi-layered metal appeared. The sunlight edged over the crest of the two massively opening doors, pouring into the grand hollow with the grace of melting ice.

“I don't get it...” An enforcer murmured into Evans' ringing ears. “Why open the doors? Why now?”

“Hopefully, they are wanting to surrender to an immediate inspection,” Evans said calmly. “Otherwise, they would be subject to... immediate... t-termination...” The enforcer's brow furrowed.

Something was shifting through the mouth of the immense hangar. Several thick shapes rose out of the ashen dark like dragon heads. A worried murmur washed over the ship from every confused enforcer in attendance.

Evans fidgeted nervously. He hissed towards a subordinate. “Give me those binoculars!” Levitating the item in question to his brow, he stared out towards the sundered hilltop. As the site came into focus, he saw one zeppelin emerging... followed by two... then four and eight and sixteen and thirty-two...

“Sir, what is it?”

Evans opened his mouth, lingered, then ultimately sputtered, “Transports. Transports are... uhm... exiting the interior.”

The enforcers exchanged glances, then trotted closer to the commander. “How many, sir?”

Evans gulped and lowered the binoculars. “Well over a hundred...”

Several jaws dropped.

“They... they're civilians?”

“I cannot tell! They... they bear no flags!”

“They can't all be civilians!”

“Was it not Prime Enforcer Shell's command that no subjects be allowed to escape the target zone?”

“Yes... but...”

“We have to inspect them!”

“With what?!” Evans growled. He and the other stallions shared collectively blank stares. They looked back at their paltry escort, numbering no more than twelve ships. Then, with pensive breaths, they gazed back as eighty... one hundred... one hundred and twenty zeppelins slowly drifted out of the hangar's mouth.

Far away, beyond the dense cloud of hovering airships, within the bowels of Nightshade's once-concealed chamber, a pair of ponies stood within in a lofty control chamber above the humongous interior doorframe. They locked the doors in place and gave Rainbow Dash a signal. She saluted back, then hovered down, hooking each Nightshade employee under a separate forelimb. Then, holding her breath, she fired her thrusters, flying the three of them towards one of several airships towards the rear of the unmoored fleet.

As the pegasus flew, she and the employees glanced on either side of them. One by one, the leftover zeppelins were being detached from their docking stations. As the ships drifted off, guided by an accelerating autopilot, a pony or two jumped off of each, landing on the metal bridges of the hangar and running towards the rear of the interior. They saluted Rainbow Dash in mid gallop and made for a few airships that were remaining stationary. There, the workers and engineers combined to form the skeleton crews of over two dozen airships. They communicated with each other via soundstones and dramatic hoof signals.

Rainbow Dash lightly placed the two ponies with her atop a miniature airship's deck. They nodded with thankful expressions before rushing to detach the vessel from their respective mooring clamps. Soon, at the rear of the massive surge of exiting vehicles, a second squadron formed, and each of these—unlike the bulk at the front—were actually manned by ponies of various crew complements. While Rainbow Dash observed the group as a whole, she twirled about on her suit's thrusters and faced the majestically hovering sight of the Noble Jury towards the roof of the hangar.

“Okay, guys... that should be most of them!” Rainbow Dash said. “Nopony's fired yet, so that should give everyone space to make an exit.”

”This isn't going to work...” Imre's voice droned.

Rainbow frowned at the sound stone. “Girl, for the last time—”

”Will you let me finish?” Imre barked. ”Unless we get some of these ships to fly into the enemy's faces, they're still going to blow every one of us out of the skies.”

”None of us can fly, Miss Dash,” Clark's voice said. “And as much as we'd like to soar our way into the thick of things and give the fleet a little push, as t'were...”

“No, I get it,” Rainbow said with a nod. “Floydien's 'beloved' has huge flanks. You all would be sitting ducks!”

”Snkkkt—Floydien heard that, vomit boomer! You apologize this instance or—”

”Scrkkk—Rainbow, it's Pilate. I hate to ask any more from you than what's already been requested...”

“Look, Pilate, we're in this together. Well, most of us, at least.” She fidgeted as she glanced down at the squadron of civilian vessels piloted by the Nightshade group. “I'll give everypony the cover that they need! Wait for my signal, okay?”

”Whatever you do, Rainbow, don't fly too close to that armada. You're just as fragile as the rest of us, you know...”

“Zebra, please. Don't insult me.” Smirking, Rainbow Dash lowered the soundstone and twirled to face the Nightshade employees. “All right!” she shouted above the sound of her own thrusters. “Here's what is going to happen! I'm going to fly out there and accelerate a bunch of the airborne ships so that they catch the armada's attention!” She gestured out the huge yawning doors and into the sunlight. “Trust me, I know a thing or two about Ledomaritan enforcers! Sooner than you think, they'll start firing, and the air's gonna be full of flak and fire and stuff! It's gonna be dangerous flying, so I want your best pilots at the helm of each ship! We're not out of the woods yet!”

She held a separate shard up in her hoof.

“I'm listening in on the same frequency as your sound stones! You need to keep to the rear and let the rest of the ships absorb the damage! But if any of you get hit, or if you find yourselves in a pinch, then give me a shout! Trust me! I'm pretty darn fast! I'll get you out of any jam that might happen! But once you fly off, you're on your own! Get out of this city, this province, this state—whatever! Just get out of view of the enforcers! Then, once the heat's died down, return to Blue Nova! Return to your families! So long as they don't see your faces in these ships, they don't know that you're involved!”

With collective breaths of relief and steely determination, the many mares and stallions nodded in one accord.

“Alright! Wait for my signal! Best of luck to each and every one of you! You're helping us as much as we're helping you!”

With a salute, Rainbow Dash flew up and past the Noble Jury. She gave the cockpit a wave, and an elk inside nodded back, his antlers sparkling through the glass windshield. A zebra and a unicorn backtrotted as Floydien leaned forward, channeling energy into the control consoles of the majestic vessel. The skystone above the craft flashed a brighter crimson. With rivuleting waves of mana, the ship hovered away from the docking clamps, filling the bowels of Nightshade's hideout with a high-pitched rumble.

Rainbow Dash accelerated her thrusters, rocketing herself out of the mouth of the hangar like a lone missile. She gritted her teeth against the biting wind, twirling left and right around the bodies of multiple, multiple airships. Once she was closer towards the front of the densely drifting cloud of ships, she touched down on one airship, trotted into its cockpit, and shoved the instrument throttles forward. With a steady hum, the ship puttered faster, accelerating towards the Ledomaritan armada. As this happened, Rainbow Dash immediately jumped ship and flew to the next closest dirigible. She landed, throttled it forward, and hopped to the next one without wasting anytime.

In swift order, Rainbow Dash forced no less than twenty airships to accelerate at full-speed. They cruised like metal mountains towards the center three warships of the military blockade.

On board the lead ship, Evans started to tremble. Bulbs of sweat ran down his temple as he looked across the line of advancing ships.

“Sir, they're...” An officer looked nervously towards him. “They're accelerating towards us... and fast...”

“They're coming at ramming speed!” another enforcer exclaimed. “They're not stopping!”

“Give me the amplification stone,” Evans said, motioning with his hoof.

A fellow enforcer levitated the shard in question towards him.

Evans spoke into the glowing rock, broadcasting his voice loudly through the air. “Attention, civilians vessels! Halt your advance at once and prepare to be boarded!” Evans winced, even as the words came boldly out of his mouth. ”This area is off limits to non-military flight, and every unauthorized ship from this hangar is under official investigation. Stop or you will be fired upon!”

The ships did not halt. As a matter of fact, twice as many were accelerating than just seconds before. A tiny prismatic figure was darting between the ships in the middle, but Evans was too encumbered by the moment to notice.

“Sir, they're... uh... they're not stopping...”

Evans stammered and spat, ”This is your last warning! Stop your advance, or by the power invested in m-me by the Council of Ledo, you will b-be fired... upon...”

The ships came faster and faster. The air whistled from their sharp ascent, tickling the ears of the frightened enforcers upon the battlecruisers' decks.

“Enforcer Evans...?”

Evans gnashed his teeth and threw the shard down. He murmured aside to his fellow officers. “Open fire...”

“On wh-which ones, sir?”

Evans spastically shout. “All of them!”

The enforcers blinked at each other. They looked down the deck.

The gunners glanced back. Then, almost flinching as one, they spun the turrets about, loaded their shells, and fired.

The air filled with thunderous crashes once again as the cannons unleashed their fury on the front line of airships. Several of them shattered, and several more exploded.

Rainbow Dash found herself having to kick away from an exploding zeppelin underneath her. “Whoah! Haaaa-ha ha ha ha!” She smirked devilishly as she twirled about on roaring thrusters and rocketed towards another line of slowly drifting ships. She shouted into both soundstones. “Come on in, boys and girls! The water's fine!”

As she accelerated against the flow of airships, the air behind her filled with fire and shrapnel.

The first round of shelling ended, and as the battlecruisers reloaded, the unmanned civilian ships continued hurtling towards the armada on a suicide path. Their numbers were barely whittled down, and soon they were flocking over the vessels on all sides.

“Pull us back...” Evans murmured at first. He spun about and shouted at the top of his lungs. “Hard to stern! Get us out of their path!”

Bells rang and stallions ran—panicked—from station to station as the massive ships tried swinging out of the way. The smaller escort vessels drifted in, albeit in awkward and ill-timed clusters. They tried intercepting the speeding ships, but were largely unsuccessful. Several of the airships brushed up against the battlercuiser's hulls, scraping at the metal surfaces and knocking several soldiers off their hooves. The air filled with noise and panic, and in the midst of it all, the armada stupidly fired a second salvo, sending even more waves of burning metal flying into the air and adding to the chaos.

The Iron Pony

Inside the Noble Jury, a swath of light rolled across the cockpit as the airship in question slowly exited the mouth of the hangar. The loud engines of all of the Nightshade ships rattled through the tight metal bulkheads. Clark leaned forward, peaking out the port and starboard edges of the curved windshield to see the manned airships veering off.

“Looks as though they are already making a break for it!”

“Easy, brain boomer...” Floydien forced Clark to trot back with a brush of his antler. “Swim by glimmer currents in separate ways, we must.” He fired more beams of energy into the cockpit, his brow furrowing and unfurrowing as he guided the skystone powered vessel by mental command. “Let them live by their own spit. They've burrowed themselves deep enough in the muck as it is. Boomers should be lucky to boom another day.”

“Then when will be our time to depart?” Clark asked.

“One thing at a time,” Pilate muttered, squirming pensively where he stood. “Rainbow Dash is still out there.”

“I cannot say that I am a firm believer in her plan, but it seems to be working.” Clark gulped. “So long as she doesn't hurt herself unnecessarily in the progress.”

“That makes the two of us.”

“Floydien isn't sure whether or not Floydien wants to be third...”

“Hmmm...” Pilate raised a soundstone to his lips. “Better check up on how the ship's functioning.”

“Nancy Jane dances without mishap!” Floydien growled. He barely had room to turn his head and glare at the zebra. “What is this that striped boomer insists?”

“Just making sure everything goes off without a hitch, Mr. Floydien. We've talked about this.”

“Hmmmph. Fine... speak to blonde blonde in the womb of my beloved.”

“Props? Are you there?”

”Oh... my... gosh... it's so sparkly in here I could poop kittens!”

“Miss Props...”

”Ahem. Sorry, Mr. Zebra. Everything is fine and dandy in the engine room! I would have killed to see skystone conduits this magnificent, but I doubt they have many engine rooms in prison... or prisons in the sky in general.”

“So, everything is operating efficiently, then?”

”They tried making a jail in Grey Smoke once, but the imports for soap started getting gobbled up for some reason...”

”Propsy, just answer the stallion.”

”Why, Ebony?! I'm too busy being awestruck by this perfectly running engine to answer anypony!”

”Hey, uh, Mr. Pilate? Ebon Mane here. Does that answer your question?”

Floydien grumbled, “It didn't need to be asked from the first spit! Nancy Jane is no hussy!”

Pilate and Clark exchanged shrugs. “Copy that, Ebony... er, I mean Mr. Mane. Nice to know things are good on your end.”

”How's it all look from the cockpit?”

One of the many unmanned zeppelins blew up several leagues ahead. It caught flame, falling into its nearest airships and crashing with them towards the earth below.

Clark and Pilate winced as more shells exploded on either side of them.

“It's not exactly a walk in the park,” Pilate murmured into the sound stone.

“Too much glimmer in the hooves of the air stabby!” Floydien grunted.

“Huh?” Clark remarked.

“The shelling is too much,” Pilate explained. “If we had an opportunity to fly away from the main group, I almost fear that it has passed.”

“Perhaps Miss Dash need only to propel more vessels into their line of fire?” Clark squinted. “It seems as if at least one of the battlecruisers has moved off course.”

“I'll get Rainbow Dash's attention and ask if she could do just that—”

Just then, an errant shell whizzed past the Noble Jury. The stallions inside gasped as it erupted into an airship's side just west of them. As the air heated up, three bodies galloped up from the top deck, poking their heads into the rear of the cockpit.

“Bad news!” Eagle Eye exclaimed. “One of our 'buddies' have been it!”

“There must be at least three ponies inside,” Imre exclaimed breathlessly.

“Better send help!” Tweak called from where he gawked over the side at the smoking, plunging aircraft. “It's goin' down fast!”

Pilate raised the soundstone to his lips. “Rainbow Dash, did you hear that?”

“On it!” No sooner had her cracking voice responded when a swift thunder of roaring thrusters zoomed by the Noble Jury.

“There she goes!” Eagle Eye cheered.

“She'd better hury...” Imre said in a dull tone, her hooves squirming.

Plummeting past the empty airships and sailing past the wake of the Noble Jury's engines, Rainbow Dash made for the burning craft. Three equine figures could be seen clambering over the only upright edge of the teetering vessel.

“Don't you fret!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she hovered over them and scooped two with her forelimbs. “I've got ya!” She spun and offered her armored shoulders to the last pony. “Climb on and don't let go!”

The ponies obliged. Just as the ship began breaking apart, Rainbow Dash lifted up, kicking away from the ship just seconds before it shattered. She made for one of the silver zeppelins above where she knew there'd be pilots. Halfway through the ascent, however, another ship blew up from a wave of cannonfire. She heard shrieking voices and looked to her left to see two ponies plunging with their ship.

“Luna poop!” Grunting, Rainbow Dash looked left and right. She found a tiny skiff and darted towards it. “Sorry! Temporary measure! Let go!” She dropped two gasping ponies onto the petite deck. But as the stallion on her back began to climb off, she squealed, “No! You stay on! I'll need as many hooves as I can get!” Without a choice, the stallion clung tightly as she dove down. “I'll be back for you two! Don't worry!”

Rocketing earthward, twirling to dodge bits and pieces of burning shrapnel, Rainbow caught up with the falling ship. Just seconds before she arrived, however, the two ponies lost their hoofing and fell loose from the aircraft.

“Crud! Don't worry! We're gonna get you!” Rainbow Dash zoomed towards one and grasped her in four forelimbs. She aimed one forelimb out and used it to propel herself backwards in fall until she lined up with the last pony. “Hey you!” she shouted over her shoulder. “Give her a hoof! Come on!”

The stallion gritted his teeth, reaching towards the flailing pony. The pony reached back to him. The ground flew up towards the group like an ocean of stone.

“Come on... just a little bit more...”

Their hooves met each other and clasped tight. Soon, all three ponies were hugging Rainbow tight.

“Boo-ya! Now keep a firm grip!”

Rainbow Dash held the first pony in her forelimbs while kicking her rear hooves down. The armor fired off past her fetlocks, and she beat the pull of gravity just seconds before the falling zeppelin beneath her exploded in a spray of fire and jagged shards. Soaring skyward, she found a medium-sized airship and dropped the three ecstatic ponies off in the welcoming limbs of their cheering companions. After adding to the crew complement, she darted back to the skiff where she had left the two ponies.

“Toldja I'd be back!” She grabbed them without stopping for a breath. In swooping motions, she dodged cannonfire and deposited the two atop an airship on the other side where two other ponies were minding the controls. “Okay, I gotta do something wickedly awesome to steal the guys' attention! “ She whipped out her sound stone and shouted, “Ya hear that?! No more ponies try making a run for it until I tell you to!”

”Snkkkt—Rainbow, this is Pilate. Just what do you have in mind?”

“The one thing I'm good at using my mind for...” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and charged the three encumbered battlecruisers from afar. “...a battering ram...”

The Torch Bearer

Manabullets impacted all across the wall as Bellesmith skidded around it, dragging Phoenix in tow. A daring pony, she may have been, but her muscles weren't built for this sort of an ordeal. She sweated and heaved to the breaking point, trudging the two of them down the final stretch until they broke into a solid canter. Sooner than later, they made it to the last junction before the sequencing room. Trotting through the broken doorframe, Belle threw the two of them inside just as a solid array of mana surged through from the uniformed stallions who had made it to the straightaway behind them.

Tumbling across the floor, Belle holstered a rifle and fired violently at the doorframe. After several successive blasts, she caused the door to bend and crumble. As the sound of hoofsteps grew louder, she reloaded, cocked the weapon, and fired several more rounds.

At last, the doorframe collapsed, taking a chunk of the hallway along with it. The far end of the compartment caved in, forming a solid wall of metal mesh and hard plaster.

As the smoke cleared, Belle stood up, checking her last two rifles and ammo. She cursed under her breath. “No spare bullets left. All I have is half a clip...”

Gnashing her teeth, she stood up and hoisted Phoenix to his hooves. The collapsed rubble pounded from the far end as the stallions struggled to telekinetically heave their way through.

“Come on, soldier,” Belle managed to say. “Just a little further...”

Phoenix shuddered, his moist eyes gazing at the broken furniture and bloodstained walls. “I h-hate this room,” he said in a foalish whimper.

“It's okay, Phoenix,” Belle panted. Her energy was still bubbling, but her body was struggling to keep up with it. “It's all going to be okay.” Wheezing, she pulled him along through the dimly-lit sequencing room, past the circle of seats and the equipment hanging above them. “We're almost out of this mess. They won't be able to harm us anymore.”

“Won't they chase us down?” Phoenix remarked. “Won't they hunt us d-down until we're good and dead?”

“They seem to have a lot more on their plates at the moment,” Belle said. “The place is crawling with enforcers.”

“Enforcers?!” Phoenix only trembled more as the two trotted up the black metal stairwell. “Since when?”

“It happened while we were gone,” Belle remarked. “Kera and I, that is. When we came back, we saw managliders everywhere. They were battling a Searonese ship.”

“Searonese?!” Phoenix flinched as the stallions hammered against the barricade far below and behind them. Nevertheless, he did his best to crawl in pace with Belle. “What in spark's name is going on in this city?”

“If you ask me, I'd say Nightshade's little emperor is collapsing in on itself.”

“You think the Madame would escape to safety.”

“Yeah, tough luck with that. Kera and I crashed her precious airship in the mountains north of here.”

“You... cr-crashed her airship?” Phoenix stammered. He gulped and said, “Jeez, Belle. If you ever thought of joining the Blades Guild...”

“Let's not dwell on that quite yet.” As the guards pounded through the barricade, Belle emerged with Phoenix onto the floor with the redflame. She looked all around, looking for something to slow the advance of their pursuers. At last, she gave the stairwell a solid glare. Trotting over to a wall, she leaned the stallion against a wall. “Wait here, and look away from the stairwell...”

“What are you doing now...?”

“Anything I can to stop them,” she grunted. Cocking the gun, she pulled the trigger but did not release. The energy weapon glowed louder and louder, and a vicious humming noise filled the air.

Phoenix gasped, “It sounds like it's going to overload!”

“That's the idea!” Once the weapon was too hot to handle, Belle tossed the entire thing halfway down the stairwell with a rattling noise. “Get down!” She dove with Phoenix towards the floor.

The weapon blew up, and it took a good chunk of the stairwell with it. The metal steps collapsed on each other, forming a dense web of tangled bars and grating. It was just in time too, for she could hear the barricade of the junction room giving way, followed by the angry shouts of frustrated Nightshade workers.

“Okay, Belle... bonus points for ingenuity,” Phoenix said as she helped him up again. He winced from his aching skull and murmured, “Can we please high-tail it out of here?”

“Not quite yet...”

Phoenix's face went pale. “Not y-yet?!” He gawked at Belle as she galloped immediately into the offices flanking the flame compartment. “Belle, isn't Kera and the foals waiting for us?! They need us as much as we need them!”

“This is about them!” Belle said, immediately diving into desk after desk of piled-high paperwork. “I need to know where their families are being situated!”

“You think Nightshade is seriously going to leave that crud lying around for anypony to peruse?!” Phoenix hobbled until he could afford a weak lean against the doorframe to the offices. “This isn't the first time you and I have raided this place, y'know...”

“Yes, but Nightshade hasn't entirely shown herself to be the most careful of do-badders,” Belle said as she rummaged and rummaged and rummaged some more. “Her entire plot with the sequencing—if you can call it much of one—is so full of holes that it isn't even funny. No wonder this entire town is collapsing from the inside out.”

“Such a waste...” Phoenix shook his head, sighing. “These Ledomaritans have so much potential, so many resources... and it's all just a stupid tragedy in the end...”

“Not if I can help it,” Belle said. She froze, suddenly, then turned to face a bulletin board located on the far end of the office. Bounding a few steps, she rushed up to a hanging display of blueprints, complete with floor schematics and intricately labeled architecture. “Come on... come on... please let my hunch be right...”

He squinted at her. “What hunch?”

“Yes!” her voice cracked. She almost did a backflip, but suddenly flailed, remembering she didn't have wings. With a twirl, the golden mare beamed while waving the documents around. “It's Deep Ridge! The Xonan families and Ledomaritan Foster parents are being held in Deep Ridge!”

Phoenix blinked. “And just where is that, pray tell?”

“Only seventy miles to the southwest, along the edge of the Azure Canyon! It details an underground detainment camp for the families of the foals who were 'borrowed' for Nightshade's experiment!”

“That m-must make them neighbors to all the cr-creatures that the company experimented on...” Phoenix winced. “You think they'd still be there? I mean, with what's going down in Blue Nova...”

“It's worth a shot, Phoenix...” Belle tucked the blueprint tightly away in Luna's satchel. “We could make it there in a day by zeppelin—even less time if we hurry!”

“Bellesmith, about all this—”

“Phoenix, I know what you're about to say.” Belle sighed. “But we have to do this. The foals don't deserve to have their families taken from them, especially so early in their lives. They didn't ask for their horns to be broken off, and neither did you—”

“Belle...” Phoenix smiled warily. “You don't understand.” He leaned forward with an earnest expression. “I am with you on this. I mean it. I will follow you all the way, even if it means to our death.” He shuddered as he said, “And, in my case, that... th-that isn't really that far off a possibility...”

Belle blinked. She smiled and trotted over to him, giving the stallion a dear hug. “I did not come here just to have you die. You're getting your second lease on life, Phoenix. You're gonna see your family just as much as the foals will see theirs.”

He blinked his tears away in time to remark, “How can you say that, Belle? The odds are stacked against us. Getting out of all this alive? It's... it's impossible...”

She leaned back and glared at him with a devilish smirk. “And just what's wrong with doing the impossible?”

He said nothing.

Below, a crumbling noise echoed through the building frame. The barricade was being broken through. Before the sound of stallions' hooves echoed, Belle tugged on Phoenix's forelimbs and led him back into the main chamber.

“Come on, we have to go.”

“My sentiments exactly,” he said, hobbling with her. Suddenly, he bumped into her side. He nearly fell, instead gasping, “What is it now?”

She stood still, staring up at the billowing red flame.

“Belle...?”

“This fire...” She pursed her lips. “It doesn't belong here either.”

“I... uh... I very much doubt that you'll find the flame's parents, Belle.”

“No, you don't understand...” She trotted up to the ring of metal, gazing up at the billowing ruby energy. “This was whisked out of the heart of the earth, out of the machine world. It powers up something that we can't understand.”

“Well, no wonder Nightshade couldn't get her act together,” Phoenix said. “She was dealing with something she couldn't understand, no matter how many brains of foals she threw at the thing.”

“But it's still dangerous!” Belle exclaimed, throwing a serious face over her shoulder. “What if the enforcers tear this place to shreds and find this thing hidden up here? If it falls into their hooves, it would be just as bad as if we rewound time and allowed Prime Enforcer Shell to get the red flame deep beneath Blue Shelf!”

“What's done is done, Belle,” Phoenix said. He twitched at the sound of guards hammering away at the collapsed stairwell just a few feet from them. “And Nightshade is completely done for! Maybe you can somehow do the impossible by saving me, the foals, and our families. But this red flame is beyond us!”

“But... it is not beyond Rainbow Dash...” Belle gazed down at the metal ring that acted as the dais for the levitating flame. She squinted at the incomplete number of runes being lit up by the dancing ruby light. “Hmm... I wonder...”

“What?” Phoenix trembled harder and harder as the guards dug their way up from downstairs. “Wonder wh-what, Belle?”

She reached back and opened Luna's satchel. With gentle hooves, she took out the ancient tome that had been discovered ages ago in the possession of the pegasus skeleton. Opening it up, she flipped through the faded pages, gawking at every symbol and rune that passed her by. As with every previous perusal, twelve runes in particular showed up more than the others. She simply didn't have a reason to notice it until now... now that she had dipped her mind through the mental construct that Nightshade's foals had constructed.

“I wonder...” She looked up at the flame once more. “If perhaps the only thing Nightshade has been missing all this time... was the right kind of torch?”

“Belle...?”

“Stand back, Phoenix...” Belle sat on her haunches and held the open book in two hooves. She pushed it up, up, up towards the flame like an offering. “I'm not entirely sure what is going to happen—”

Something happened, and it happened violently. With bolts of crimson lightning, the flame dissolved, then flew into the tome like a ruby missile. The book took on a fiery glow, its many runes lit up like stars. The force of the absorption knocked Belle back by twenty feet.

“Bellesmith!” Phoenix gasped, wide-eyed.

“Ungh!” Belle landed with her flank against the wall. In her trembling hooves, she held the book, and it pulsed with otherworldly energy, possessing every ounce of the billowing flame's aura.

Wind Finds Wings

“Alright, you ugly bunch of melon fudges...”

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth as she shot like a bullet towards the armada of Ledomaritan ships currently encumbered by the unmanned zeppelins swarming into them.

She smirked viciously. “Time to give you a distraction you'll never forget—”

She didn't finish her sentence. She suddenly didn't have the energy to finish her breath. The pegasus' entire body went slack as an uncomfortable wave of numbness flew through her like a tsunami from behind.

At last, she sputtered, fell, and collapsed across the hull of a tiny dirigible. The pony's armored weight threw the thing off balance, so that it veered to the left, falling into an awkward spin before the hungry cannons of the three big battlecruisers.

“Unngh!” Rainbow Dash grunted, gripping ahold of the ship and hanging on at the last second. “Gah... nnngh... oh for Pete's sake...” She fought to keep her eyes from rolling back. “Not now... please, Celestia, not now. I can't...”

With a gasp, her face contorted with surprise. Sweat ran down her brow as she gulped.

“Wait... this isn't the same... this is d-different! What the...?”

Slowly, still hanging onto the ship with numb hooves, she turned to look towards the west.

Rainbow had to squint at first. It felt like a star was exploding from the heart of Blue Nova. Then, as the seconds throbbed by like veins in the corners of the mare's eyes, the city skyline once more became clear, for the light had focused to a tiny, pulsing speck, a lavender light emanating brightly from somewhere in the heart of the maretropolis.

“What...?” Rainbow Dash gawked. “Huh...?”

It was difficult to keep from passing out, but from where Rainbow clung to the spinning ship, she guessed that the light was coming from one of the many skyscrapers, and a top floor at that.

“I don't get it...” She seethed, quivering from head to hoof. “Feels... f-feels like...” A shuddering breath. “Eljunbyro...”

Her moist eyes went wide.

“...Belle.”

The Game's Ahoof

From the upper deck of the Noble Jury, Eagle peered over the railing's edge. His expert eyes narrowed—then promptly widened upon seeing the spiraling airship up above where Rainbow Dash was currently stranded. “Oh no...”

Wincing, he spun and galloped to the cockpit. Curious, Imre and Tweak followed him.

Bursting through the open doorframe, Eagle leaned against the back of Floydien's seat and exclaimed, “Rainbow's in trouble! She's stranded up there!”

Clark spun to face her. “Stranded?”

“You're certain of this?” Tweak asked.

“Eagle Eye's sight is not to be questioned,” Pilate remarked. He tilted his head in the stallion's direction. “Where was she, exactly?”

“A lone skiff, elevated above the rest at about ten o'clock high!” Eagle Eye pointed out the cockpit window. “If you bring the ship hard to port, you'll see it too!”

“Nancy Jane isn't about to exposed herself to the stabby stabby!” Floydien grunted. “Our cover is flimsy enough as it is! An exit from this mess, Floydien must help Nancy Jane find!”

“Mr. Pilate, you're in contact with the adventurer, yes?”

Pilate spoke into his soundstone. “Rainbow Dash, this is Pilate. Are you okay? Eagle Eye says you're stranded.” Silence. His striped muzzle contorted in concern. “Rainbow Dash, please respond! You're in the enemy's open line of fire!”

The airwaves were still silent.

“This is not good,” Eagle Eye murmured, fidgeting. “If she goes down...”

“Maybe she's having another one of her dizzy spells,” Imre droned.

Pilate's ears twitched at that. “You know about that?”

“You're not the only stranger she's forced to open up, you know.”

“Can't we fly towards her and save her?!” Eagle Eye asked.

“Floydien's got a point,” Clark said with a nervous twitch. “Right now, we have the other ships masking us. If we expose ourselves to save her, we may ruin our chance to fly off unnoticed.”

“Well, screw that plan!” Eagle Eye stomped his hooves. “Rainbow Dash needs our help!”

“Nopony's suggesting we abandon the lady. So simmer down.” Tweak trotted in and spoke. “Could we get one of the Nightshade ships to save her?”

“They're in even less of a condition to expose themselves than the Noble Jury,” Pilate said. “Rainbow Dash was heading towards the three battlecruisers to give us a distraction. Now, we're all sitting ducks.”

“And once they blow up the rest of this 'fleet' around us...” Tweak spoke aloud.

“Floydien needs a decision soon!” The elk grunted as flak exploded not that far from the hull. “Nancy Jane's sky stone isn't made of steel, boomers...”

“Roarke...” Imre said.

Clark glanced over. “I beg your pardon?”

“Roarke. Let's call Roarke in.”

“That'll blow our cover completely!” Tweak grunted. “Besides, it's suicide! She's better off flying to meet us in a rendezvous elsewhere!”

“Imre, we appreciate the thought,” Pilate said. “But your good friend has put herself in danger with Blue Nova's defenses enough as it is—”

Imre practically shoved her horn in the zebra's face. “In Roarke's case, there is no such thing as suicide! I'm telling you, if there's a pony in our party who's qualified to do a tough task, it's her! She will gladly save Rainbow's life, and all our necks in the process!”

The cockpit was silent.

Pilate shuddered, smiling bashfully. “Who am I to question such wisdom and intuition—?”

“Ungh! Just give me the damn stone!” Imre grabbed the communicator and spoke into its glowing surface. “Roarke. Roarke, this is Imre. Answer me.”

Far to the west, beyond the eastern walls of the city, beyond the billowing smokestacks of the industrial district, beyond the gardens and courtyards of downtown Blue Nova, Roarke's manaship spun and twirled between skyscrapers. Many of the gliders that were chasing her had put a great deal of distance between them, perhaps out of caution or maybe out of fear.

“Yup! I think they've pissed themselves!” Josho shouted into the winds rushing through the open window. “Can we call it a victory now?!”

“The forces of Ledo do not give up easily,” Crimson muttered, hanging off the metal grips of the gun turret. “They'll regroup and attempt to overwhelm us with vast numbers.”

“Damn! And here I thought there'd be a surplus of drinks since I ditched their lame-ass ranks!”

Crimson glared at him. “Why haven't I bucked you out of the ship yet?”

“You're welcome to try, muscle mass.”

“That's it!” Roarke shouted from the cockpit. “The next time I hear so much as a growl from you two breeders, I'm slitting your bellies and tying you together by your entrails—”

”Snkkt—Cute stuff, Roarke,” Imre's voice droned through the glowing console. ”But we have something of a situation here.”

“And I don't?” Roarke grunted as she veered the ship around, scaling the body of a skyscraper. “I'm running out of fuel and energy in the manaconduits. Our gun turret is nearly dry and there're still a crap ton of angry fighters on our tail. Have I mentioned that my priceless ship is shot to hell and spitting smoke?!”

”Roarke...”

“Aren't we supposed to be meeting somewhere?! I need to tell Rainbow Dash face to face that she owes me a perfectly good manaship—”

”She's collapsed, Roarke.”

Roarke's eye lenses shrank within their frames.

”She's lying dormant on a runaway hovercraft and is just a few seconds away from being blown to ashes by huge battlecruisers. We needed her for a distraction to get out of here, but she hasn't responded. Everything is going to go to crap as soon as she bites the dust.

Roarke's jaw clenched tightly and she began shaking.

”Roarke, please. Don't make me beg you, girl. We need—”

With a hiss of red steam, the metal mare's helmet snapped shut. Her projected voice grunted, “We're going in!” She jerked at the controls.

Josho twirled around. “We're going where—Gaaah!” His body flailed as the entire ship swung violently east. If it weren't for Crimson's outstretched hoof catching him, the obese unicorn would have fallen out the open door. Both stallions clung to the bulkheads of the cabin and watched as Roarke throttled the ship east at a speed so monumental that it caused vaporous bubbles of air to burst one after another in a straight line.

“I barely heard any of that!” Crimson shouted, squinting into the wind and g-forces. “What's wrong?! What's happened to Rainbow Dash?!”

“Nothing...” Roarke rocketed the ship past the final line of skyscrapers. “At least not on my watch.” Past the east wall of Blue Nova, a dense swarm of hovercraft could be seen clustered around three humongous warships. The Ledomaritan forces fired blindly into the madness, whittling the crowd away, one smoldering hull at a time. “Looks like they're trying to overwhelm them.”

“How'd they expect to get away?!” Josho grunted, struggling to see through the cockpit windows. “They'll kill themselves!”

“Not without effective misdirection,” Crimson said. “I'm guessing that's what Rainbow had in mind.”

“Looks like we're the distraction now, boys,” Roarke muttered. Her helmet tilted left and right. “If only we can find her first.”

Josho pointed. “Ask one of them morons where she's at!”

“Imre!” Roarke spoke into the console. “Which airship is Rainbow Dash lying on—” A chunk of the manaship's hull exploded. “Gaaah!”

“Jeez!” Josho reeled.

Crimson fell down to the floor. As flames and smoke spat out of a console above him, three dark shapes approached from the south. He looked straight out the door, his eyes wide. “Blessed Spark...”

“What is it?!” Josho grunted as another manablast ricocheted off the beat-up manaship. “Ungh... The managaliders?!”

“Worse...” Crimson peered his head towards the cockpit as the three shapes grew closer. “Roarke! I think your sisters are here!”

Roarke flashed a look through the starboard side of the cockpit window. “Oh, for Goddess' sake...”

Hundreds of meters south, speeding towards the air battle with screaming precision, three Searonese manaships zoomed towards one vessel out of the dozens upon dozens still left in the air. Inside the centermost ship, leaning forward across the cockpit with both hooves on the throttle, Terra grinned from ear to meaty ear.

“Roarke Most Rare...” Terra licked her dry muzzle and hissed, “That's what they'll call you for centuries, because that's how I'm going to serve your flesh in the halls of my sisters...”

The massive mare tilted her head back and shouted to the other bounty hunters at their stations.

“Arm the weapons! Lock on Roarke's ship! Destroy everything else around her! The skies belong to us!”

“Yes, Bloodiest Spear!”

“As you command it!”

“Blood for Searo...” Terra grunted as the ship accelerated to the breaking point.

All three vessels pierced into the air battle like metal comets, serenaded by the war cries of the violent souls within, lusting for carnage.

“Blood for Searo!”

Belle's Book Club

"Belle!" Phoenix crawled across the metal room, wincing. "Bellesmith, speak to me!"

The mare winced, sitting up with the smoking tome in her grasp. "Yeowch..."

"Stop holding it!" Phoenix exclaimed, waving his forelimb about for emphasis. "It'll burn you!"

"Actually, uhm..." Belle stared down at the glowing book. "I can't even feel a thing."

"Oh jeez, d-did it paralyze you or something?"

"No, I mean, it's not hot at all..." Belle flipped the pages. Every rune within pulsed brightly, their fine lines like black cables aflame with rolling energy. "It's almost as if this book was written to house more than knowledge..."

"The hay do you mean?!"

"I... I think this was once a vessel, Phoenix," Belle thought aloud. "This must have been a container of sorts, used by ancient pegasi to protect the flame of the machine world. If that's true, then there was once... an organization... or a cabal that was entrusted with access to the subterranean chambers." Her lips pursed as the warmth of realization crossed her face. "That body that Rainbow Dash found in the cave must have been among them. Those skeletons that Nightshade had extracted—they must also belong to the group."

"I... I frankly don't understand it when you get into all of this ancient stuff, Belle..."

"That's quite fine, Phoenix," Belle said. She chuckled breathily before adding, "I don't think the knowledge was meant to be discovered easily. But it fell into the hooves of Rainbow Dash... Austraeoh... and now Eljunbyro..." She smiled. "You know what this means?"

"That... that you're d-destined to get it back to Rainbow?"

Belle's grin widened. "Exactly!"

Phoenix scratched his head beneath the stub of a horn. "But, if that means you're still destined to be Eljunbyro..." He furrowed his brow. "...shouldn't the other half of the equation still be involved?"

Belle's smile left. "Pilate..." A tear rolled down her golden cheek. "By the Spark, could he actually be—?"

The collapsed stairwell shifted from a telekinetic blow. Light shimmered as angry voices carved their way up onto the floor.

Phoenix gritted his teeth. "Belle..."

"Right..." Belle pocketed the glowing book within her satchel and hoisted Phoenix to his hooves. "The time for speculation is over. We got you, we got the location of Deep Ridge, and we got the flame." She spun around with him to face the ascending corridor and the exit beyond. "All we need to get now is—" Her pupils shrunk. "—fudge."

Sir Ordo and a line of angry guards stood before them, blocking their way with several manarifles raised.

"How..." Belle stammered, shuffling backwards. "How in Spark's name did they get up here...?"

Phoenix gulped, then leaned in towards her ear to whisper, "Remember that 'secret' path we first took to get in here to begin with?"

"Oh, yeah..." Belle winced with drooping ears. "Right..."

"You..." Ordo grumbled as he trotted icily towards the pair. "I should have expected no less..."

As he came closer, the stairwell to his side finally gave way. A second group of breathless Nightshade employees climbed up and formed a phalanx, training all of their weapons on the mare and the injured mercenary.

"This entire city is dissolving out from under us," Ordo grumbled. His eyes narrowed. "Enforcers are everywhere. Searonese are slipping in through the cracks. And now there's no word from Nightshade. Weren't you her captive?"

"I... I..." Belle bit her lip.

Suddenly, Ordo froze, and his eyes widened. "The... the flame!" His voice cracked as he pointed a trembling hoof at the empty metal dais. "Where did the flame go?! It's gone!"

"Uhm... sir?" A fellow guard motioned with his horn.

Ordo's twitching eyes followed the line of sight, and he noticed the glowing tome in Luna's midnight satchel. The ruby color of the light was undeniably familiar.

"How in Spark's name did you get that?!" Ordo stammered. His teeth grinded together as he stomped a hoof. "You stole the knowledge from Nightshade, didn't you?! She couldn't paralyze you the first time you fought in the sequencing spheres, and now you're here and she's not! What did you do to her?!"

"Nothing that she didn't bring upon herself," Belle said in a steely voice that even made Phoenix tremble.

"Just what are you?!" Ordo hollered. "A thief?! A renegade?! A spy sent from the Council of Ledo?!" He stomped his hooves again. "I don't care who you answer to! Do you have any idea what you've brought upon us today?! Upon this city?! Upon the whole Confederacy?!" Veins showed in the stallin's neck as he spat, "The Madame was going to bring about change! World peace! Technological and societal innovation! What good are you going to this world?! Huh?!"

"It's not her world," Belle droned. "It's not even yours or mine..."

"Well, you'd better get used to the world!" Ordo squealed. The guards on either side of him cocked their weapons as he pointed an angry hoof. "Because you're both about to spend eternity buried six feet under it! I hope you've made your peace with the Spark because today was the last day you drew breath—"

The wall behind the guards exploded. Bodies went flying—and shrieking—as fire and daylight poured into the black chamber.

Phoenix and Belle ducked for cover from the flying debris.

With a thunderous motor roar, a violet hovercraft flew closer to the fresh hole, pivoted about, and fired a second volley at the second phalanx of guards.

"Gaaaah!" The uniformed ponies dove wildly as chunks of metal and mortar fell on their groaning bodies.

As the dust cleared, Phoenix and Belle squinted into the light.

The door to the side of the hovercraft opened with a hiss. Kera stuck her little tattooed head out, her green eyes reflecting the fresh steam pouring off the vehicle's cannons. "Whew! Sorry, I got impatient. I bet I interrupted a really lame monologue, didn't I?"

"Kera!" Belle squeaked with the most jubilant of grins. "I could nuzzle you forever!"

Frowning, Kera slapped a console inside the ship. The red-hot cannons whirred as they pivoted towards the mare.

"Eeep! Okay, m-maybe a 'thank you' will do..."

"Just get the crap on board!" Kera motioned with her hoof as she drew the airship closer to the shattered wall. "These fillies and colts are about peeing themselves with worry over you!"

"Jee..." Belle smiled, helping Phoenix as the two limped over towards the open hovercraft. "We wouldn't want to worry them now would we?"

"Yeah, yeah. Move it or lose it. This city's giving me a headache." She gave Phoenix a telekinetic boost with her gifted horn. "Hey, Mr. Phoenix. You look like crap."

"Ungh..." Phoenix slumped down besides the wide-eyed children. "Nice to see you too, Kera." He waved limply at the foals. "Hello."

"H-hi."

"Good afternoon."

"Nice to meet you."

"So, didja find what you were looking for?" Kera asked.

"Nnngh!" Belle grunted as she swung the hovercraft door shut. "Yes." She dumped the satchel down at Kera's hooves. "And more."

Kera picked up the glowing book. Her eyes sparkled with the reflection of each rune. "Oooooooooh... I could totally hunt grasshoppers at night with this thing..."

"First thing's first..." Belle climbed her way into the cockpit. "We're going south to Deep Ridge."

Kera winced at that. "Ew. What the heck for?"

"Because that's where the foals' families are," the mare said, swinging the ship around until the sunset was to its starboard side. The rooftops and spires of Blue Nova burned and billowed smoke from several places. "And after that... freedom..."

"You sure about that?"

Belle glanced back at the foals, at Kera, and then at Phoenix. "Yeah..." She smiled devilishly and pushed the throttle forward. "Pretty sure."

With a steady putter of its modest engines, the violet hovercraft cruised its way south... and away from the battle-scarred maretropolis.

Playing Their Part

“Bring it on!” Josho hung out the side of the manaship, waving his rifle and shaking a hoof. “You inside out robot uterus mules—Gah!” He flailed as the ship veered wildly. Crimson snaked in from behind and steadied him as their vessel took a sharp turn, banking around airship after airship that exploded as the Searonese weaponfire flew into them.

“Do not... taunt... the high blades!” Roarke grunted, pulling hard against the controls.

“Fat load of good your advice is, lady lumps!” Josho spat over his shoulder as the world outside spun with explosions. “Bet you twenty bloodsoaked bits that they're only here because of your rusted ass!”

“Will you put a sock in it?!” Crimson growled. “Turning on each other is not going to make them go away any more swiftly! We still gotta get to Rainbow Dash and the others!”

“And how do you expect to do that?!” Josho yelled. The manafire streaked closer, forcing Roarke to thread her way narrowly through flammable hovercraft. “The skies aren't exactly friendly places to park our flanks anywhere at the moment!”

“Just give me a moment to shake them...” Roarke grunted as the ship shook and jolted from weaponfire. “Ungh!”

“Roarke, be reasonable!” Crimson shouted. “There's no way in the spark's green earth that you'll just shake them off! You can't keep running forever! There's a fight that's gotta happen!”

Roarke's lense-eyes pistoned out. “For some of us, maybe...” She jerked the controls hard to the side.

Josho's brow furrowed. “What did she mean by that—Whoah!”

“Aaaaugh!” Crimson and Josho found themselves flying into infinite space. The manaship had spun upside completely, and the two helpless stallions plunged out the open door. “Roarrrrrrke—Oof!” Crimson and Josho flinched, for they had landed on a flimsy wooden hull on either side of a twitching, prismatic body. They sat up, realizing that Roarke had just deposited them on Rainbow's out-of-control hovercraft with insanely swift precision.

The glistening manaship continued banking around the dense swarm of ships. The three Searonese vessels continued their sharp pursuit without faltering.

“She... sh-she ditched us!” Josho sweatily exclaimed. “And the last time I had wings of my one was n-never!”

“Don't you get it, idiot?!” Crimson stood up, rocking the ship slightly. “She just saved our hides! Heck, she may have saved all our hides!” He rushed over and shook Rainbow's limp figure. “Rainbow! Rainbow Dash!”

“Unnngh... B-Belle... Eljunbyro...”

“Rainbow Dash, you have to get up! We're going to be toast any second—!”

Rainbow's eyes flashed wide as she flinched, gripping two hooves tightly to Crimson's metal prosthetic. “I sensed her! By Celestia's mane, sh-she's alive! And she's nearby!”

“Wonderful,” Josho grumbled, pensively eying the close proximity of the three hulking battlecruisers. “The dizziness is strong with this one.”

“Rainbow Dash, what are you talking about?! Remember Pilate? Imre? Tweak and the others? We got to get them out of here!” Crimson said.

“Nnngh...” Rainbow Dash stood up, leaning left and right as she fought off the fogginess. “Something... turned on inside Blue Nova, Crimson.”

“What do you mean 'turned on?'”

“Now's a really suicidal time to get one's wingtips wet,” Josho said, receiving a metal hoof to the chest. “Ow!”

“Who's this loser?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Somepony who's about to lose the skull his body craps in.” Crimson grumbled as he turned back to Rainbow. “Rainbow, I think your illness has overtaken you again. You're speaking nonsense—”

“No, it's d-different this time!”

“Rainbow Dash—”

“Look, I know what it looks like, but I swear! It's completely different this time!” Rainbow Dash pointed west/southwest. “Something popped up in Blue Nova, and it felt just like a flame from inside the machine world! But that's not all! I feel as if... as if it was somehow talking to me. I feel it in my gut! In... in m-my heart!” her voice cracked.

“You're gonna feel it in the burning stubs of your forelimbs once they blow us sky high!” Josho growled. He pointed at the trio of warships. “Or did you not notice the big friggin' cannon wielders ready to destroy every sexy atom of our bodies?!”

“Rainbow Dash, there's so much relying on you and what you do this very moment!” Crimson exclaimed. “Now, are you sure about what you're sensing?! I mean... you know what this could mean, right?!”

Rainbow nodded fervently. “The flame is moving south of here!” she shouted above the high winds as flak exploded and Searonese engines throttled in the distance. “I don't know why, but I think Belle was in the city and she's heading further away! I can sense her and what she's got like a lavender candle growing fainter and fainter!”

“I'd love to go and investigate that, Rainbow, but we can't really afford to do so right now!” Crimson flinched as cannon-shells whizzed by. “For spark's sake! Will you look around you?! This plan is collapsing like a house of cards, and Roarke is putting her metal body on the line so that we can help you pull off your next trick!”

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. “That... that was her, just now?!”

“She has friends in high places!” Josho exclaimed. “And they're all trying to dive bomb us!”

Rainbow blinked, then frowned. “Terra... Dang it all!” She looked at the chasing manaships, at the armada, and then at the distant cluster of ships hovering below. “Crud!” She stomped her metal hooves repeatedly. “Crud crud crud crud crud crud!”

“Rainbow, I have to ask you...” Crimson gritted his teeth. “What's next?”

“Uhm...” Josho gulped and glanced at the others as explosions went off closer. “Flee, maybe?”

Rainbow took a deep breath. “I still have a job to do. Roarke's doing her part, and now we gotta do ours. Regardless of whether or not that's really Belle, I know that Pilate's here and we gotta get him and the others away to safety!”

“Then what do you propose?!” Crimson asked. An airship less than forty yards away exploded. He flinched, ducking bits of shrapnel. “You'd better make it quick!”

Rainbow Dash spun around, then motioned to the tiny ship's cockpit. “Any of you good at... y'know... yanking a joystick around?!”

At that precise moment, several hundred meters ahead...

A modicum of order was returning to the battlecruisers. The soldiers on deck grew less and less frenzied as their escort ships drew away the incoming vessels, discovering that most if not all of them were abandoned.

“They're all empty, sir!” Said one officer behind Evans back. “Every single one of them! We've yet to find a single manned vessel!”

“And what of the Searonese interceptors?” Evans asked, pointing at the silver shapes streaking through the dense cloud of airships. “Are they quite so empty?”

“We have no information on that, sir. Should we send the escort ships into the cluster to investigate?”

“Are you kidding?! Those metal mares would blow them out of the sky!” Evans shook his head and turned towards the bow. “Arm all cannons, destroy every vessel in sight! There's something hiding within the core of all this, and intend to look at it face to—”

“The marines are here!” Josho's fat face grinned as it levitated over the ship's side, followed by a hot red manarifle. He fired blindly into the crowd, sending several gasping bodies smoking to the deck.

Evans let loose a shriek that was far too high pitched for his own good. Many fellow officers whipped out their pistols and returned fire, only for their bullets to ricochet off the thick body of a tiny hovercraft. As it roared over the deck, brushing against the wooden railing, three bodies leapt down and engaged the enforcers with merciless force.

“Raaaaugh!” Crimson came down, his metal forelimb whining as it let loose a sonic burst. Bodies spread left and right like butter, carving him a path that he galloped down, headbutting a witless group of flustered soldiers.

“Woooo boy!” Josho squatted, squinting as he fired shot after shot that ricocheted off the horns of nearly half-a-dozen equines in the span of five seconds. “Now this is what I call a stupid plan!”

“Try not to focus too much on the stupid part!” Rainbow Dash landed, grinded her hooves, and fired her thrusters. “That's my job!” The deck burned as she throttled forward, aimed her forehead like a battering ram, and slammed directly into Evans' chest. “Yaaaaaugh!”

The battlecruiser's crew was lost in the bedlam. The other two pivoted about so that the stallions on board could lend assistance to the beleaguered vessel. As the Searonese ships screamed in the distance, all was chaos and confusion.

The Noble Jury had received its “distraction.”

Honor Most Bloody

“Did you all see that just now?!” Eagle Eye's voice called from mid-deck.

Inside the cockpit of the Noble Jury, several ponies leaned forward.

The centermost battlecruiser of the Ledomaritan line was drifting sideways. Several escort ships were rushing in, densely swarming around the vessel in question.

“Seems like they have a problem,” Imre said.

“It's a huge battle!” Imre said. “On board their very own ship!”

“Only Rainbow Dash could cause a commotion of that sorts,” Pilate said with a nervous twitch.

“Nancy Jane is no longer safe here,” Floydien grumbled. “Away from the glimmer we must fly, swiftly!”

“I'm inclined to agree with the kindly elk,” Clark said. “Now's our chance.”

“But what about Rainbow Dash?!” Imre exclaimed. “She hasn't even given us a signal!”

“Look!” Eagle Eye shouted.

Everypony glanced in time to see a prismatic streaking lifting off the battlecruiser, weaving to the side, and literally flying through one of the escorts. The bodies of shrieking soldiers fell to the grasslands below as the multicolored pegasus darted around, avoiding cannonfire.

“Reckon that's a good enough signal for you?” Tweak remarked.

“Quite.” Clark gulped and turned towards Pilate. “If you would do the honors...”

Pilate spoke into his sound stone. “Everypony! Rainbow Dash has engaged the enemy! This is our one and only chance! Break out of formation and head towards safety! Put as much distance between yourself and Blue Nova as possible!”

“Fly, boomers! Fly!” Floydien shouted above the sound of cannonfire.

“Did they get the signal?!” Imre asked.

“They'd better,” Tweak grumbled. “Or those idiots have gravel in their ears.”

“I see them!” Eagle Eye called out. “They're moving out! All of the ponies!”

Imre and Tweak glanced over the deck in time to see several airships flying north, south, and west, breaking away completely from the thick cluster of vessels. As shells went off and exploded with shrapnel all around them, no errant cannonball flew purposefully towards any one of the many ships.

“The Ledomaritans aren't firing at them!” Eagle Eye shouted. “They're gonna be safe!”

“Heh...” Tweak folded his shiny forelimbs. “For now.”

“Time that we make like time and crumble!” Floydien's horns flickered as he steered the heavy skystone ship aside. “Yes yes yes...”

“But wait wait!” Imre waved a hoof, suddenly breathless. “What about Roarke?! Where is she?!”

“Never mind that metal murderer!” Eagle Eye squeaked. “Where's Crimson?!” He shrieked as a gray streak roared violently past the port side of the Noble Jury. Then, just as swiftly, three more ships burned by, shaking the air with furious turbulence.

“What in the sapphire-huffing heck was that?!” Tweak growled.

“Sounded like Searonese manaships,” Pilate remarked.

“That's because that's what they are!” Imre said, frowning. “Terra and her friggin' cronies are here! Damn it!” She stomped her hooves. “I thought we were nearly out of this!”

“I don't suppose there's any way we can help her...” Clark muttered.

“Not unless you got a spare Rainbow Dash in your pocket!” Eagle Eye exclaimed. “We're screwed as soon as one of those metal mares see us! They could blow us out of the sky in a blink!”

“Ungh, so many boomers and not enough muscle,” Floydien yanked Pilate towards him so he could growl into the gasping zebra's sound stone. “Blonde thing! How goes it in the womb of my beloved?!”

”Why, hey there! Glad you remembered us, handsome!”

”Propsy here thinks she's got the manaconduits cleared for energy transference.

”I don't think, silly Ebony! I know! Ready when you are, Captain! Just shove those antlers into Nancy cuz she's ready to pur!”

“Crawling ant martyrs,” Floydien uttered out the side of his muzzle. “Does their spit have to be so armpitty?”

“Y-you're asking the wrong stallion—Gah!” Pilate yelped as Floydien dropped him.

“Horses for hiccups!” The elk frowned as he gripped the dashboard and brought the ship into a steady climb. “If your boomer of the metal bits is so damnably worth the shimmering spits then let us give her room to bring forth the flame flame!” That said, the elk forced the Noble Jury into higher altitude, throwing most of the ponies off their hooves with gasping cries.

Meanwhile, Roarke's manaship streaked below, weaving its way once more through the spreading ocean of empty hovercraft. All the while, a nonstop barrage of mana blasts streaked after her.

“Nnnngh!” Sweating through the edges of her helmet, she jerked the controls to the side, whirling her ship into a spiral just as a pair of Searonese weapon discharges hit the hull. The vessel's cyclonic movement shook most the heat off, but the engines suffered for it, and the three pursuing aircraft pulled in closer.

Roarke flashed a look to her right. She slapped a button, and a rear facing mirror popped out the edge of her cockpit's windshield. Briefly, she saw all three metal mare ships in hideous clarity.

“Hmmph...” Roarke's voice hissed through the breathing slits with a fountain of red mist. “You picked a terribly lame place to draw your last breath.”

She was answered with a manablast to her starboard side. The mirror flew off, and she grunted as sparks spilled loosely from the console. Hooking her right forelimb around a release lever, she pulled the ship into a left turn and skimmed over the hulls of three, four, five separate zeppelins. Once passing a sixth one, she yanked to the right, all the while pulling the lever.

The ship shook as the vessel's elastic cables shot out of the starboard side. They hooked into the hull of the nearest dirigible, anchoring Roarke into place. She sling-shotted swiftly around the vessel like a tetherball. As it came around, the three Searonese ships had already passed by.

“Hnngh!” Roarke grunted as she pulled against at the lever. The cables detached and retracted. Her ship angled out, and now she was immediately behind Terra's squadron. Her body leaned forward, and with an icy breath she triggered her forward facing cannons. “If you worship the Goddess so much, you can go service her personally...”

It took about six blasts, but at last she made the engines to the rightmost craft explode. The ship veered, wobbled, and ultimately fell into a grim descent.

From Terra's leading craft, the mares inside could see the wingponies' horrid fate.

“Our sisters!”

“Damn that Roarke!”

“She's killing her own flesh and muscle!”

“Silence!” Terra roared, motioning with her hoof for the pilots to bring the vessel around. “They are not defeated yet! We can still rescue them before they succumb to weakness!”

“Look!” A mare shouted from her station. “They are recovering!”

The damaged ship started pulling up again, its engines puttering back to life.

Terra grinned from ear to ear. “Searo be praised! There's still spirit in my cause yet—!”

Out of nowhere, Roarke's manaship flew over the ailing vessel, decelerated, and flew straight down. The rogue mare's aircraft slammed into the top of the Searonese craft, shaking the last bit of life out of its engines. The thing plummeted like a bag of dynamite, exploding into solid earth down below.

As Terra gasped, everypony inside flinched, for Roarke's vessel next pulled up, spun to the right, and cut clear across Terra's bow. The two ships nearly collided, causing time to slow down before Terra's twitching eyes.

During those few oozing seconds, Roarke's ship spun about so that the gaping door in its starboard side faced the cockpit, and Terra in turn. In perfect timing, Roarke had pivoted her seat to face Terra. Her helmet had opened, and she brought a hoof down to her crotch before blowing a kiss with the same forelimb. Terra made out the motion of Roarke's helmet closing before she could see nothing but engine exhaust.

Time resumed with a roar of thrusters, and Terra's entire ship shook from Roarke's vessel thundering back into the vehicular carnage beyond.

“Unngh!” Terra flew forward in her seat, jostled. Slowly, she tilted her frowning gaze up. The edges of her open helmet buckled from her heaving muscles as she spat, “Gut that bitch like an albatross!”

“Aye, bloodiest spear!”

“Blood for Searo—”

“Just bucking do it!” Terra's voice cracked as she slammed a hoof across the nearest console. A random zeppelin blew up from manablasters in front of them as they spun about to give chase.

And a chase, Roarke gave them. She bobbed and weaved her way through a swarm of airships, dodging cannonblasts with a hair's grace. As the seconds burned by, she found herself running out of cover, for the unmanned ships were spreading further and further apart. At last, as she attempted to accelerate down a solid stretch of air, one of the two metal mare ships hit her broadly across the port side.

“Aaaugh!” She flew against the cockpit, wincing. The alarm of her ship was blaring, and the entire hunk of metal was falling skyward with a hiss of pierced motors. She wrapped her hooves around the controls and pulled them back, stressing the instruments to the breaking point. She dipped low, grazed twenty serpentine feet of topsoil, and finally pulled up with a spray of earth.

Terra's and her partner's ships drew closer, firing denser and denser streams of mana. At this point, every other shot was grazing Roarke's hull, knocking away more and more plates of silver armor. The consoles around the mare flickered as one station after another lost power.

“For blood's sake, I was hoping this would suck just a little bit less...” She panted and panted. At one point, she froze in place. Time paused again, this time for her. She gazed out the edge of her cockpit window, spotting the battlecruisers and the Ledomaritan escorts dealing with a prismatic streak buzzing between them.

She breathed and breathed. A cold shudder ran through her body, a lasting shake.

Then, with steely poise, she grabbed the controls once more and yanked upwards harshly. Time resumed, dragging gravity along with it. Roarke's whole body pressed to her seat as she twirled her entire ship into a massive vertical loop.

The vessels belonging to Terra and wingponies split apart, swung opposite arcs, and came back together in time to meet Roarke as her ship leveled out. The three ships were now screaming towards each other at incalculable speeds, zooming along a clear strip of air between drifting zeppelins.

Roarke pushed the throttles forward all the way. Her ship rattled straight through the bulkheads as the engines spat out the last of their fuel. Then, with a single jerk, she hooked both forelimbs around opposite release levers and shot every single elastic cord out at once. Metal threads exploded from Roarke's ship like an onyx spiderweb. At least half of them embedded into the hulls of dirigibles all around. Roarke's vessel was flying so furiously fast that it actually dragged the tiny aircraft along. Soon, the manaship was hurling towards the two Searonese bogies, carrying a dense cluster of weighted metal and wood along with it.

On board Terra's ship, the would-be Top Spear drew back in her seat, sweating. “What in the Hell does she think she's doing?”

“Terra, she's coming in fast!”

“We can't shoot all of that junk down as well!”

“That crazy maniac—” Terra turned and shouted to her subordinates. “Evasive maneuvers!”

Inside her cockpit, Roarke let out the mother of all screams. “Rrrrrghh-Haaaaugh!” She spun the ship completely around. Panels flew off and chunks of the hull were ripped off of their frames. The weight of the multiple, tethered vessels was too much, and they all flew off in a dense spray, like a swarm of angry missiles, reducing what was left of Roarke's ship to a wireframe mess of exploding consoles and burning metal.

The two rogue ships tried veering off, but the cluster of projectiles was just too dense. Terra's ship was pelted all over before pinballing off two wooden zeppelins, tearing them to shreds as it flew—burning and smoldering—in a random, skyward direction. The other ship smashed through a tossed vessel, rendering itself to a burning husk. The mangled bodies of armored mares fell like spilled entrails as the ship began a nightmarish plunge into the Ledomaritan countryside.

As for Roarke's ship...

Imre gasped. Her moist eyes reflected something that resembled a burning comet, spiraling into the dust of the crashing airships far below. She leaned back from where she sat on the edge of the Noble Jury's deck, holding a pair of hooves over her mouth.

Tweak clenched his jaw, his eyes darting left and right as he contemplated the violent scene.

Biting his lip, Eagle Eye trotted over to Imre's side. He fidgeted at the last second, but ultimately rested a hoof on her shoulder—only to have it brushed off.

In a cold trot, Imre shuffled towards the ship's stern. She lingered there, alone, hugging herself amidst the high winds of the airship's ascent.

Eagle Eye turned and gazed helplessly towards the open cockpit.

Clark hung his head while Floydien continued flying the ship. Pilate's metal brow stretched over a woesome expression. He tilted his head up with a flicker of O.A.S.I.S.

The sounds of battle resumed, and Eagle aimed his twitching eyes towards the three battlecruisers. “Wh-what about Rainbow Dash?”

Something Something Brink

“Haaaaaugh!” Rainbow Dash barreled her way through a line of soldiers, knocking them against the deck of the battleship. Any exposed part of her blue body was covered in soot and sweat as she looked over her shoulder at the others. “We having fun yet?!”

Crimson came smashing down from a high jump, slamming his metal prosthetic with sonic reverberation. A wave of energy flew at the soldiers, shoving them down onto the lower deck. “You know wh-what?! This is surprisingly easy! Haugh!” He telekinetically tossed a mess of splinters at a group trying to flank him.

All the while, Josho crouched behind a mast, clutching a rifle to his chest as shots whizzed all around him. “Yeah!” he wheezed. “Real easy!”

“Hold on, Mr. Slobberknocker!” Rainbow Dash dove low. “I got them!” With waving forelimbs, she burned her thrusters in the faces of the opposition. The enforcers flinched with their rifles, allowing Rainbow an opportunity to dip in and pummel half of them with her quick hooves.

One of Evans' fellow officers galloped up on a higher platform and fired with a floating pistol.

Rainbow Dash dodged the shots, frowning. “When will these morons run out of bullets already?!” She dove up at him to take the pony out... but fell flat on her belly. “Unnf!”

“What is it?!” Josho shouted over the sound of his return fire. “Now's not an opportune time to go 'Unnf!'”

“My... m-my thrusters!” Rainbow's voice cracked. She was wide-eyed. “They're running out of juice!”

The officer took this opportunity to aim at her forehead. A wooden beam floated into the back of his skull. As he reeled, Crimson came in from the charge, knocking him hard into a nearby railing. Panting, the stallion gazed down at Rainbow. “You alright?!”

“I... I don't know...” Rainbow stood up in the middle of the chaos. All the while, her suit puttered and hissed from several places. “This outfit's been through the wringer. I think it might be starting to go 'kerplunk' on me.”

“Then un-kerplunk it!” Josho shouted, firing at a line of soldiers cowering behind wooden crates. “We need to get off this stupid piece of driftwood somehow!”

“You think I don't know that?!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she galloped on her hooves and dove into the body of an enforcer trying to sneak in from the side. “Nnngh!” She headbutted him and bucked his body down onto a lower deck. “The Noble Jury needs us! And so does Belle!”

“Look, girl, all we know is that you're hallucinating a lavender turd from beyond the walls of the world!” Josho said while reloading his gun. “Let's focus on the task at hoof!”

“I don't remember asking a walrus to lecture me on saving the day!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“You wanna see some tusks?!” Josho growled. “Crawl over here and pucker up, sunshine!”

“Everypony, be quiet!” Crimson shouted with the authoritative voice of a commanding officer. He pointed across the stunned silence. “Look!”

Josho and Rainbow Dash craned their necks to see a solid cluster of enforcers running away from their end of the top decks.

“They're fleeing,” Josho said, panting. He stood up and cracked the joints beneath his fat. “Serves them right.”

Rainbow Dash squinted. “I've dished out worth punishment than this and it didn't stop them before.”

“Then tell us, Einstallion. What are they running from—?”

The deck exploded in two places... then two more. Chunks of metal and wood flew up towards the balloon from which the battleship was floating. While dodging the raining debris, the three looked northwest to see a burning object screaming down towards them.

Inside the ship—or what was left of it—Terra squatted at the controls. The dead and mangled bodies of metal mares were slumped on either side of her. As blood ran down her face, she sneered through the carnage and sped the vessel on a suicide run towards the battlecruisers.

“All m-must die...” She grinned psychotically, her frenzied eyes reflecting the rainbow-colored shape in the middle of the mess. “No other colors, blessed Searo... Snktttt-heheheheh...” She coughed and wheezed into the smoke. “Only red...”

Down below, Josho let out a wild yell and unloaded an entire rifle clip at the incoming craft. Every round simply bounced off the nose of the dive-bombing vessel.

“It's no use!” Crimson stammered, crouching behind a stack of crates. “Whoever or whatever it is, I don't think they plan to survive this charge any more than us!”

“Could you give me a boost?!” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at Crimson's horn. “Maybe I can... uh... glide into the ship and stop her!”

“You said yourself that your suit is failing!”

More manashots landed all around them. The battlecruiser to their starboard side got hit in the armory, exploding in a huge burst of flames. The entire deck heated up as Rainbow Dash shouted, “What other choice do we have?!”

“I'd drop everything and make passionate love to the nearest mare right now if I could find one!” Josho shouted.

“Yes, well, good luck finding a—Hey!” Rainbow Dash snarled.

“Blessed Spark—!” was all Crimson could be heard saying, for the air was suddenly awash with the noise of Terra's burning ship, inbound.

And then, just seconds before it could fly into the battlecruiser's hull like a missile, a second burning manaship swerved up. The hollow, decrepit thing fired its last engines, spun around like a slingshot, and slammed Terra's ship in the side. The collision the two made was downright musical to the beleaguered ponies' ears. They were almost too dazed to see the red and black figure darting out of the ship at the last second.

Alas, both vessels—spinning like conjoined comets—flew off to the right and slammed into the already-burning wreckage of the collapsing battlecruiser beyond starboard. What was left of the massive ship was reduced to melting splinters, and the whole thing rained fire and ash onto the Ledomaritan countryside below.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Josho, and Crimson flinched as the red and black figure skidded to a stop between them.

“Nnnngh...” Roarke braced herself, every square inch of her armor steaming with fire and ash. “Mmmf... Yeah, that's more like it.”

“Roarke!” Rainbow Dash chirped with a smile.

“Buck me sideways!” Josho grinned. “I could kiss you, girl!” He blinked, then looked aside at Crimson as he pointed at the bounty hunter. “She's a mare too, r-right?”

“You're alive!” Rainbow Dash galloped up, breathless. “That's so cool!”

Roarke opened her helmet and stared back with emotionless eye-lenses. “You owe me a new manaship.”

An artery in Rainbow's temple pulsed. “Nice to see you too, gearhead.”

“I see we've saved the day by tearing it a new flankhole,” Roarke said.

“I wouldn't exactly put it that way,” Crimson said. “We really need to get off this thing.”

Roarke shrugged. “Why not just take it over? We seem to be more than a match for these losers.”

“Uhm...” Josho pointed towards the stern.

Roarke and the others looked. Over a hundred soldiers were lined up, all with rifles. Those who couldn't carry weapons were sliding over no less than four cannons, and all of them armed with exploding ammo.

“You know what?” Roarke tilted her head towards the others. “Who needs a battlecruiser? Battlecruisers suck.”

“We have a ride already.”

“Yeah? Where is it?”

”Scrkkk! Rainbow! Rainbow, come in! Are you alright?!”

Rainbow floundered before finally speaking into her sound stone. “We're here, Pilate! Though we're about to become mana sponges! They have enough guns here to light up the night's sky!”

“Then get on the Noble Jury!” The zebra's voice was accompanied by the distant rumble of the vessel in question. Its sleek red body shot across the sun's glow as it roared south of the group. ”Floydien says that he can only afford one pass if he's to outrun what's left of the armada!”

“Nopony needs to ask me twice.” Roarke closed her helmet and grasped Crimson.

“Whoah whoah whoah!” Crimson gasped. “What about Rainbow Dash?!”

“I guess I'll have to make trips then.” She yanked the stallion off his hooves and flew south towards the rumbling body of Floydien's airship. “I'd suggest using fatso as a shield, Rainbow.”

“Are you kidding?!” Rainbow Dash shouted back as the first of several hundred shots landed around them. She and Josho flinched behind a gradually dissolving stack of crates. “We'll never last that long! And we still got Belle to catch up with!”

”Scrkkkk—Did you just say... 'Belle?'”

“A little busy here, Pilate...”

”But—”

“Look, I'll fill you in when I'm not being filled in by manabullets myself!”

“Ahem...” Josho not-so-gracefully gave Rainbow a hug from behind. “You may want to try holding your lunch in.”

“Huh?” With a wincing expression, Rainbow gawked at his brightly glowing horn. “What are you doing?!”

“Believe me, if I was trying to make a pass at you, I would have done a suplex by now...” He held his breath, clenched his teeth, and...

The two ponies disappeared. Seconds later, the gunfire burst through the crates, eating up the space where they would have been positioned.

Stallions galloped across the carnage, assisting the bodies of their fallen comrades as they stirred and moaned from the rogue equines' punishment. Among them was Evans, being helped up by a fellow enforcer's forelimb. He stood up, limping towards the edge of the ship as he squinted towards the southern horizon.

He saw a flash of light, almost too otherworldly to be real. Then, in an even more enchanting show of whimsy, two bodies materialized hundreds of meters away, only to fall and land atop the deck of a red ship powered by a large red shard. With a glint of reflected light, the vessel pivoted about and shot southeast, carving a shadow against the horizon opposite of the sunset.

Evans exhaled heavily. He turned and looked past the starboard side at the plume of dense smoke rising from the fallen body of the battlecruiser's ill-fated sister ship. During this moment of quiet reflection, a pony trotted up with a grave expression on his face.

“Uhm... Enforcer Evans, sir? It's Prime Enforcer Shell.” He raised a glowing soundstone. “We finally got in contact with him, and... h-he's wanting an update, sir.”

Evans blinked. He looked down over the railing, spotting fields of burning wreckage and flames. It all looked so far away... and yet so inviting.

On the Prize

Evening fell, casting a cold glaze over Shell's eye as he stared across the rubble-strewn street. Under the last glint of sunlight, enforcers and citizens alike wandered around, trying to salvage whatever valuables they could from the wreckage. On several city blocks of Blue Nova, ponies battled blazes, their bodies forming shadows against red-orange spotlights.

Evans had been standing in front of the Prime Enforcer Shell for the better part of three minutes before he finally had the nerve to speak. When he talked, the soldier still didn't look up. “The good news is that there were actually fifty survivors from the Blue Skimmer when it fell. Several stallions had taken to escape craft before the Searonese ships flew into them. As for the dead... well... I've already orchestrated a division of messengers to prepare discreet letters to their families.”

Shell took a deep breath. His exposed and battered forelimb hung in a sling. He allowed his gaze to wander across the block, past sundered bits of concrete and burning shapes.

Evans gulped and said, “However, no amount of careful salvage or careful work will change the fact that... th-that I failed in my duties, sir.” Despite his shivers, he stood straight and tall, speaking as firmly as he could muster. “I had hoped to have done more with my first command of an armada to make the forces of Ledo proud, and I failed to accomplish a single task. I... I-I allowed countless suspects to escape, and I lost many brave souls in the process.”

Shell's eye wandered towards a weary soldier who was shuffling limply across the sidewalk. He was a decorated enforcer, but it was hard to tell from his uniform rippling in tatters off his frame. He trotted listlessly across the wreckage of the Blue Nova junction, his eyes searching feverishly for something...

“Sir? Sir, I can understand your anger and resentment right now. But I need to know what's to be done next. I accept whatever punishment y-you have to give me, sir. However, at the same time, I am obligated by duty to inform you that there is a message to be delivered. The... uh... the Council of Ledo has apparently been trying to contact you over the past seventy-two hours. I just received a letter from them shortly after the destruction and salvaging of the Blue Skimmer. They're asking that you report to them immediately, either via manacommunication or directly in the Queen's Capital.”

Shell blinked. He watched as two tiny forms waddled out into the street. At first sight of the wandering soldier, the foals gasped and ran directly towards him. The soldier, once haggard and dazed, instantly brightened upon seeing them. He ran over, fell to his knees, and scooped both children up with one forelimb. The young unicorns cried with joy, nuzzling their father as he hid his tearful face into their soft shoulders.

A deep shudder ran through Shell's body, and his brow relaxed around a moist eye.

“Sir?” Evans fidgeted... then fidgeted some more. “Sir, please, I... I need guidance here. You've never failed to command me ever...”

In one blink, Shell lost sight of the father and his foals. “There is only one victory,” he suddenly said in a metallic voice. With a wince, he slowly got up and stood on three legs. “Even if we haven't reached it yet, it doesn't make it any less special.”

Evans winced. “But... sir! The city is burning! Hundreds have died! The Blue Skimmer—”

“Were all necessary casualties in the pursuit of justice.” Shell frowned at Evans. “Are you questioning my judgment, Evans?”

The younger stallion hung his head. “No, Prime Enforcer—”

“Good. Because that and only that would be your first true failure. You functioned professionally at the battle over the hangar. I have no doubt more lives would have perished if you hadn't done your best to evade the trap they had sprung.”

“But... but the target—”

“There's a reason why this city blew up from underneath us. Just an hour ago, I was informed by our central security detachment that there's a sequencing chamber inside Nightshade HQ.”

“We...” Evans' face grimaced. “We infiltrated Nightshade's Headquarters? In the middle of a warzone?”

“From what we had discovered in the Industrial District, there was no other choice. She was suspected of dabbling in affairs that risked Confederate security, and that suspicion was right.”

“So...” Evans' shoulders slouched with a heavy exhale as he shrugged. “What now?! I mean, I-I'm sorry, sir! I'm doing the best I can, but no protocol has ever prepared me for all of this chaos and... and—”

Shell placed his good hoof on the soldier's shoulder. “At ease, Evans. It is my own fault for not preparing you better for this. I have had my eye on the prize for a long time.”

“I absolutely will serve you with the best of my abilities, sir. But... b-but perhaps a more veteran officer would be better at—”

“No, Evans,” Shell said firmly. “I trust you. That's what really matters in all of this.”

Evans bit his lip but ultimately uttered, “And what of the Council of Ledo's trust?”

Shell took a deep breath. “I'll deal with that when it is necessary, not when it is convenient.”

“Sir!” An enforcer galloped up, his beret covered in soot. Several other soldiers accompanied him as he stood and saluted before Shell. “Sir, there's news from the northwest patrol! We found her, sir!”

“Found who?”

“Nightshade!” he said. “Her zeppelin had crashed into the mountainside. The entire crew survived. We have them all detained, sir!”

Shell's eye narrowed. “Did she put up any resistance?”

“None, sir. And get this...” The enforcer leaned forward with a bright expression. “Her zeppelin had a sequencing chamber too!”

Evans' lips pursed. He looked towards Shell.

Shell, however, was gazing across the street. The father and his foals could not be found.

With a deep breath, he turned towards the officer and spoke in a deep voice. “Bring Nightshade here... and take her to her headquarters. I shall meet her there.”

“Sir...?”

Shell limped off, his face becoming one with the shadows. “I think we've landed on something that's bigger than the Battle of Blue Nova.”

Room for Briefing

Imre's hooves ran slowly over the polished finish of the pistol in her grasp. She took a deep breath, her eyelids fluttering in the high winds across the Noble Jury's top deck. Night had fallen, and it gave her eyes a twinkle that betrayed her jaded demeanor.

"Gettin' used to the feeling of it, aren't ya?"

Blinking, Imre glanced up. "Hmmm?"

Tweak squatted next to her with their backs to the frame of the ship's cockpit. "A gun's a mighty nasty thing, and yet it's often all that stands between you and losing your skull. At one second, you might detest the thought of carrying it something fierce, but then you suddenly find yourself turning around and appreciating it simply for being around, like that one pleasant weight that always sticks with you."

Imre's nostrils exhaled. "I know a thing or two about having a weight that sticks with me." She gave the pistol a disdainful look. "And for the life of me, I can't count how many times I've had to patch up metal mares who got wounded over something as stupid as this."

"Yeah, well..." Tweak gestured. "You did good back there, y'know?"

"Pffft..." Imre grumbled. "I nearly blanked out on you. When you needed me the most, I was—at best—a whining, slobbering infant."

"Ain't your fault to be fretting about," Tweak said. "I reckon there's a big difference between seeing guts from another fight and then seeing guts that you yourself spilled out. Once a doctor, always a doctor, huh?" He gulped and uttered, "I'm sorry for not realizing that sooner. If I had my head in the right place instead of being so gung-ho about kicking flank, maybe I could have been a better shoulder to lean on."

Imre gazed aside at him. She fidgeted, then ultimately mumbled, "Thank you... f-for saying that. It means a lot..."

"Something tells me you're not used to ponies apologizing to you."

"I'm not used to a lot of things," Imre mumbled. She heard a sound and glanced up to her right.

Eagle Eye stood along the starboard side of the ship, fidgeting with the tight bandages wrapped around his chest. "I'm glad Imre patched me up and everything, but I swear, I'm going to suffocate at this rate!"

"Just breathe calmly," Crimson insisted. He leaned on his prosthetic limb while gesturing towards the dainty stallion. "Remember what I told you on those days in the battlefield. Take steady breaths and keep your eyes forward."

"What's to keep my eyes on?! Everything's flown apart! We've ticked off an entire city and an armada full of angry Ledomaritans! How are we gonna find Bellesmith at this rate?!"

"Through teamwork and careful planning! It's not the time to give up hope!"

"Who's giving up hope, Crimson?! Hope is all I've had to go by for days now!"

"Eagle Eye..."

"That and the unwitting assistance of a fat unicorn who wouldn't know what sobriety meant if it galloped up and bit him in his big fat blubbery flank!"

"Eagle..." Crimson placed a hoof gently on the stallion's shoulder. "You've been through a lot, seen a lot, and done a lot. Most soldiers would have cracked by now, but you're still on four solid hooves."

"I'm lucky—that's what I am! It's Belle who... wh-who..."

"Eagle Eye," Crimson said with a calm smile. "Just be yourself."

Eagle stomped his hoof. "But I am myself, darn it! I'm trying to stay... tr-trying to stay f-focused on what's right here and... and..." He twitched a few times. At last, his face contorted as tears sprang from his eyes. He covered his face, only to have the warm embrace of Crimson enfold around him. He surrendered into the hug, sobbing quietly into the stallion's chest.

"At ease, soldier," Crimson said, patting the petite pony's back. "You've grown beyond the talents that I've taught you. You're alive now because you're strong and resourceful, and I couldn't be more proud of you than I am right now."

Eagle fought back a snob. "You h-have no idea h-how glad I am to hear you s-say that, sir..."

"Shhhh... I am your friend, Eagle Eye, and I'm glad you made it through all this safely."

"Just... j-just so glad that y-you're alive..." Eagle Eye sniffled. "It was so hard. I was s-so devastated..."

"It's okay, Eagle. One way or another, everything is going to end up okay..." Crimson calmly gazed over the quivering stallion's shoulder.

Closer towards the stern, Josho slouched against the railing. He had been quietly gazing at the whole scene. Upon Crimson's stare, he cleared his throat, shrugged his shoulders, and pivoted towards the opposite end of the ship.

Crimson's gaze lingered on the ex-enforcer as he continue to solace the small mercenary in his grasp.

With a shuddering breath, Imre wrenched her eyes from the scene and passed the silver object on to Tweak.

Tweak glanced over. "Hmmm?"

"I do believe this belongs to you," Imre droned. "Family heirloom and all that."

Tweak looked at it, at her, then towards the ship's stern. "Hmmmm..." As the sound of loudly chattering voices rose up, he shoved the mare's hoof back, returning the weapon to her grasp. "I'd hold onto it a little longer if I was you."

Imre raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"Something tells me we ain't quite out of the woods yet," the crystal pony muttered as he stood up. Josho shuffled about and Crimson and Eagle Eye looked over as Rainbow Dash marched angrily up the steps, followed by Clark, Props, and Ebon Mane.

"I'm telling you, we've got to get the engine working at full speed and pronto!" Rainbow's voice cracked as her armor rattled in the starlight. "The longer we hover around here in the night's sky, the greater a chance we risk of losing track of Belle!"

"I do terribly hate to be rude, but this sudden vision of yours completely boggles my mind!" Clark exclaimed. "How can you be so certain that your mare friend is still around, much less in the direction pointed out by this... 'lavender vision' of yours?!"

"Okay, for one, she's not just my mare friend..." Rainbow Dash spun and snarled in the pony's mustached face. "She's Pilate's beloved! Y'know... the zebra with the stripes and the guts that rescued your sorry flanks from Nightshade's fortress within a fortress?!"

"In n-no way are w-we attempting to come across as ungrateful!" Clark stammered. He gulped and gestured towards the other members of the think tank. "It's simply that this vessel doesn't have a great deal of power left to it, and if we don't conserve the energy correctly, we might stay adrift permanently!"

"What the McFuzz are you talking about?!" Rainbow Dash scoffed. She gestured towards the dimly glowing chunk of red crystal affixed overhead. "I thought this thing was running off of magical skyfarts or somecrap!"

"It's a Crimson Endothermic Mana-Conductive Skystone—" Props merrily began.

"Right! Skyfarts! So what's up with us suddenly at risk of going 'adrift?'"

"Ahem..." Ebon Mane stuck his muzzle in. "Before Propsy slathers your ears with her cute attempt at an explanation or Clark uses too many polysyllabic words to convey the same thing, allow me to put it in laymare's terms." He pointed down at the deck. "You saw that big ring of metal attached to the engine core, right?"

"Chtyeaaah..." Rainbow Dash nodded.

"Well, that wasn't originally there," Ebon said. "Overseer Fatch and the other mana-dabbling sociopaths back at Nightshade's place had forced us to construct it. Well, when I say 'us,' I really mean Clark and Propsy here—"

Rainbow Dash stomped her metal horseshoes. "Darn it, I thought you were gonna keep this simple!"

"Right..." Ebon gulped and continued, "The plan was to build a series of runes that would contain an energy source. This... erhm... auxiliary energy node would then be wired into the main engine."

Props bounced and said, "But because there was nothing placed there by the time we shipnabbed Nancy Jane, the engine is re-routed to tap into nothingness! And Nancy Jane has been tweaked too much to know the difference between an energy source that's there and one that isn't there!"

"Stop... calling it that pathetically fictitious name," Clark muttered aside.

"Why?! It suits it!"

"It's a title of misguided affection, coined by an elk with more sparkles than brains."

"Hey!" Props frowned. "There's nothing wrong with sparkles!"

"Fine, then!" Rainbow Dash growled, shaking the Think Tank out of their conversation. "Then let's find an energy source to pop into that rune-ring thingy and power us up to go and save Belle!"

"I'm afraid it's not quite that simple, my little pony," Clark said. "We never quite got around to finishing the design. As marvelous as this ship is, it can't fully operate off of the skystone because it's been programmed to think that it needs another energy source."

"Just what kind of friggin' energy are we talking about here?!" Rainbow remarked.

"Ruby flame, Rainbow," Pilate's calm voice said. She and the other ponies turned to see him and Floydien trotting out of the cockpit. A gray squirel with a sparkling skull perched on the elk's antlers as Pilate stepped into the center of the conversation. "Not just any ruby flame, but the same energy of the machine world, the energy that you're so familiar with."

"That's crazy! How could it even have gotten to Blue Nova to begin with?!" Frowning, Rainbow Dash pivoted her head towards Floydien. "And you! Aren't you supposed to be piloting this hunk-o-junk?"

"Nancy Jane is a proper lady who flies herself." Floydien's red eyes stopped twitching in time to narrow menacingly. "And paint bucket boomer would do well to not insult her fume fumes as she does so, yes?"

"Rainbow Dash, I don't know exactly how Nightshade and her cronies got ahold of the red flame, but it's the only thing that would make sense, given the nature of the apparatus that Clark and Props were charged with constructing," Pilate said. The runes on his skull plate flickered as he waved a hoof towards the mare. "Your arrival and our escape prevented the complete construction of this energy core that you're hearing about. But, even if it was completely finished, none of it would matter until the energy was supplied."

"The red flame, don'tcha mean?"

"Precisely. Until we either find that flame or something like it, or else deconstruct the energy port, then this ship of Floydien's—as marvelous as it may be—will inevitably run itself dry."

"And Nancy Jane cannot afford to allow herself to fall within the dirty glimmer of the stabby stabby!" Floydien said, his muzzle tight and frowning. "Floydien doesn't know about the feelings of paint bucketry, but would be best not to fall into their machine gears and spit tears yet again, especially after so much fire and screams and burning fur. Yes yes yes?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to retort, but was at a loss for words. She shook, quivered, then sighed. Relaxing as best as she could, she turned towards Pilate with a sympathetic expression. "Pilate, I know that the cards are stacked up against us, but... but this is Belle that we're talking about here!"

Pilate sighed long and hard. "Yes, Rainbow. I... I am aware of that..."

"We all know that she was somewhere north or west of Blue Nova..." Rainbow looked across the way. "R-right?"

Eagle Eye bit his lip and glanced over at Josho.

"Erhm..." Josho fidgeted on his fat fetlocks. "Captain Filta had made it clear that the zebra's sweetheart had landed somewhere west of Blue Nova, south of Pale Shelf. Apparently she was in total kickass mode, cuz three whole managliders full of enforcers had crashed and burned. And, though their charred bodies were found, nothing was discovered of the mare..." Josho's brow furrowed. "Or the sniveling coward of a soldier who was shackled with her, for that matter."

Eagle Eye gasped, his violet eyes wide. "Phoenix...?"

Crimson took a deep breath and said nothing.

"So, right..." Rainbow Dash swiveled about. "So she escaped capture! She had to have ended up in the wilderness west of Blue Nova! That was—like—days ago! She could totally have made it into Blue Nova in that time!"

"To do what?" Tweak asked.

"To... To... I dunno!" Rainbow Dash shrugged wildly. "To have found the ruby flame that Pilate's talking about and... uh... 'switched it on' or something!"

"You do hear yourself, right?" Tweak grumbled. "Perhaps you'll realize how crazy stupid that sounds."

Rainbow Dash skidded over and snarled in his face, "About as crazy stupid as a pony made of crystal upchucking his lunch from a gut punch!"

"Ungh, girl, please..."

"Whoah, hey..." Imre stood up between Rainbow and Tweak. "Let's not jump at each other's jugulars. Remember, I'm just one medic. I can only patch up one idiot at a time."

"Just where would this ruby flame be anyways?" Eagle Eye spoke aloud. "I mean... b-before it would have been 'activated' or whatever."

Pilate stirred as he said, "I trust that Nightshade would have kept it locked away someplace secure."

"Her headquarters," Clark said.

Rainbow Dash turned towards him. "And where is that at?"

"West of where we were located," the mustached stallion replied. "Nightshade's headquarters is located far away from the industrial district... or at least it was."

"What do you mean...?"

"Well, there's no telling exactly what damage the Battle of Blue Nova did to that skyscraper, much less the rest of the city as a whole..."

"Who cares about the friggin' city?!" Rainbow Dash frowned. "Could Belle have gotten to this ruby flame?"

"Why are you so insistent that it was Belle who got ahold of it?" Crimson said, his eyes darting between Pilate and the pegasus. "I thought only you were the one capable of doing anything with the stuff found in the machine world. After all, you're the... 'Austranium,' right?"

"Austraeoh." Pilate corrected, staring into nothingness while O.A.S.I.S. flickered. "And, if we're to take stock in the prophetic materials we've pilfered from petrified pegasus remains and ancient hieroglyphs—"

"Pilate and Belle are 'Eljunbyro,'" Rainbow Dash said. "They're—like—the source of what brought me back from the dead. Literally. Never mind the chaos metal coffin or the horribad experiments that Ledomare did on me underneath Blue Shelf..." The pegasus paused to shudder, then continued, "It's all because of Pilate and Belle that I got a second wind. They were—uhh—the 'rebirth of my endurance' or somecrap."

Pilate's ears twitched as his head perked up. "Remarkable. I didn't even think you were capable of remembering that."

"Remembering what?"

"Unngh..." Tweak rubbed his head. "Look, I don't take too much stock in all of this hocus pocus 'destiny' talk. Somepony, please, answer me this question: can or can't Pilate's beloved do anything with this fancy schmancy ruby flame stuff?"

Pilate took a deep breath and said, "As Eljunbyro, Belle and I assured that Rainbow Dash—Austraeoh—would continue her journey to the opposite end of the world, where the Midnight Armory waits."

"Uhhhhh..."

"Hypothetically, because of Bellesmith's deep involvement with Rainbow Dash and her memories, then it's possible that she might be granted some of the... erm... 'powers' of Austraeoh, but..."

"Well, here's a question," Imre said. "Is there any other pony who would possess the ability to do something to the red flame like Rainbow Dash here? Or Bellesmith for that matter?"

The Noble Jury was silent.

"Hmmph... the stabby stabs brought the otherwordly glimmer to the Nova most Blue to begin with." Floydien made a face. "Beyond the fancy spit have they shown their powers, yes yes?"

"When Nightshade captured us, we were tasked specifically with utilizing a certain set of runes in making the ship's auxiliary energy core," Clark said. "It stands within reason to say that Nightshade may have utilized those same runes to transport this flame."

"And I overheard stallions within the company talking about a horrible battle in the east where the energy was discovered," Ebon said. "For all its pizazz, the Nightshade Security isn't quite so tight-lipped. As a prisoner and a cook, I heard lots of stuff being spewed back and forth." He smiled awkwardly. "It's kind of pathetic when you think how badly the Madame depended on Clark and Propsy here for stuff she didn't entirely understand."

"The machine world is a very ancient, very sturdy realm," Pilate said, thinking aloud. "Still, it is not impossible to imagine it bursting open from enough duress. Possibly, just possibly, the flame was exposed from an exchange of weapons between Ledomaritans and Xonans."

"They could have scooped the flame up with the crud found inside the machine world and brought it to Blue Nova," Rainbow Dash added, her ruby eyes darting left and right. "And then Belle could have stumbled upon it..."

"But how?" Tweak's face was awash with confusion. "If it was held in one of Nightshade's big'n'tall buildings, then what would have possessed her to take a gander inside? Wouldn't that be the last place a self-respectin' fugitive would want to trot?"

"Look, I dunno!" Rainbow Dash barked. "Maybe somepony talked! You heard Ebon Hawk just now!"

"Mane."

"Whatever! Nightshade's company is loose-lipped, so maybe Belle found out that way and took the next step!"

"Is this mare even that brave?" Josho belched.

Rainbow Dash glared daggers at him. "Don't. Just don't." Her brow suddenly furrowed. "Look, I don't even know who the frig you are! What are you even doing here, rotundo?!"

Josho shrugged. "I'm just hanging out until drinks are served." A horseshoe ricocheted teleknetically off his head. "Ow!" Frowning, the stallion looked over.

Eagle Eye lowered his hoof and turned towards Rainbow Dash. "Maybe somepony told Belle where the flame was?"

"Or something," Pilate murmured.

Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "Huh?"

Pilate rubbed his chin. "I'm just thinking... Would Shell and his fellow soldiers have stripped Belle of her possessions while attempting to escort her north to Pale Shelf?"

"Not if they thought she was incapable of resisting her imprisonment," Imre blurted. Everypony looked at her, and her ears instantly folded back. "Uhm..." She looked nervously at Rainbow Dash, gulped, and said, "I mean... that's from what I-I've heard of Ledomaritan capture..."

Josho grumbled, "I didn't her nothin' from Filta about any of the lady's belongings being found around the gliders' crash site, burned or unburnt."

"Why?" Tweak asked. "Just what would Pilate's beloved have on her?"

Rainbow Dash blinked, blinked again, then gasped. "Princess Luna's saddlebag! I forgot!" She gawked at the others. "She totally had my stuff with her at the time that... that..."

"...Zenith betrayed us all," Crimson finished. He leaned on his metal limb as he spoke solidly, "You had all discovered something shortly before running into us at Foxtaur, didn't you?"

"Yeah yeah yeah... that... uhh..." Rainbow clopped her hoof against the deck several times, thinking hard. "That book, r-right? The ancient book full of symbols n'stuff?"

"I found many of those same symbols along a wall inside the temple ruins of Foxtaur," Pilate said. "Granted, I didn't have enough time nor sanity to study them all, but I instantly recognized the same runes and symbols in the blueprints that Clark and Company were working on."

"Seems as though Nightshade stumbled upon the same information that you and your beloved did, more or less," Clark remarked. "Tell me, could Bellesmith have employed this knowledge somehow in acquiring the flame?"

"I... I cannot say for sure..." Pilate tilted his head up, an ounce of warmth showing along the black-and-white edges of his face. "But, if any mare was resourceful enough to come upon a solution..." He smiled tenderly. "M-my beloved most certainly would qualify..."

"Look, here's all I know about the machine world stuff. Like, for legit..." Rainbow Dash gestured for everypony's attention as she spoke from the center of the top deck. "When I get close to one of these—uhh—flame beacon thingies, I can sense it. It's like, no matter how much earth and crud is in the way, I can see the light of the fire from afar. It takes on this..." She shuddered slightly. "Th-this bright lavender shade. It's really freaky, and I can't explain it much, but I'm—like—compelled to find the stuff and make contact. And everytime I do, good stuff happens. Well, maybe not so much good stuff, but definitely important stuff. At least, that's what she made it sound like."

"Huh?" Eagle Eye blinked. "Who's 'she?'"

"Er... Whitemane."

"Who?"

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Long story. But, basically it's like this. Before, when I've traced the source of these lavender lights, it's done several things. It's helped me save a mountain full of ponies from a bunch of chaos monsters. It's helped me light up a city full of head-butting, crazy-talking unicorns so that they'd stop butchering foals plus each other. And it also totally leveled Blue Shelf to the ground. Good riddance, amiright?"

"Erm..." Pilate was at a loss for words.

"Anyways, I've never ignored it when this beacon thingy went off, and on every occasion it's only done me and the ponies around me good... or else dealt the bad ponies some super righteous judgment, ya dig?" Rainbow Dash produced a devilish smirk. "Well, guess what?! It's happening again. And right now, the only thing that needs to be done is finding Belle. I can't explain it, and I won't even try. But all that matters right now is getting to that light..."

She then swiveled around, snarling viciously at a certain elk.

"But that isn't happening unless we swing this flying sepository around and friggin' track that lavender light down!"

"Nothing to the spit!" Floydien grunted back. Simon clung for dear life as the elk's horns shook with each exclamation. "Floydien went through the glimmerest of glimmers to rescue Nancy Jane from stabby stabs! Now the sky vomit with wings wishes to undermine all that has been overmined?! Paint bucket pony can sleep with her spit and call it 'mistress,' but Floydien and Floydien's beloved are done with not being done with things!"

"But this is Bellesmith's life we're talking about here!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Assuming she is legitimately to the southwest of us, then the venture alone will sap this ship dry," Clark nervously uttered.

Props shrugged with a sad expression. "Not even a mountain of skystone will be enough to give us bounce once the rerouted manaconduits have been run dry!"

"Does it look like I give a crap?!" Rainbow Dash roared. "Don't forget whose bright idea it was that saved all our hides when we needed to spring loose from that hangar!"

"Oh, terrific..." Imre rolled her eyes. "Because laying on the guilt trip always works in situations like this..."

"And don't you friggin' start!" Rainbow Dash stuck a hoof into the mare's chest. "Of all the times to get stupidly pessimistic, this is the absolute worse! I swear, if none of you guys are gonna help me, then I'll fly west and save the skin of Pilate's beloved myself!"

"How do you expect to do that?!" Imre retorted. "Rainbow Dash, look at you! That suit I gave you is completely busted! The thrusters no longer work!"

"You can fix it, right?"

"I could fix it! Maybe if I had the tools back at Searo's Hold! But you and Tweak blew that place up, remember?!"

"Oh, like it wasn't asking for it for just being called 'Searo's Hold,' much less for all the cruddy psychopaths estrogenning it up in the place!"

"Rainbow Dash, not to knock the air out from underneath your wings—" Crimson began.

"But what?!" Rainbow's frown swiveled to face him.

For all his might and muscle, the stallion quivered. "This... isn't all about just you... or just Belle for that matter."

"Huh?"

"Well, look at us, Rainbow!" Crimson gestured towards the whole group. "Look at everypony! I want to save Belle as much as you or Pilate—"

"Don't even pretend to joke about—"

"But it's bigger than just the three of you now! It was bigger than just the three of you in Foxtaur!" Crimson sighed and waved his hoof as he said, "Does Belle need to be found? Absolutely. Whether it involves this flame or not, that remains to be seen. But before we do anything brash, let's not completely dash this group of ponies to the side. We all went through Hell to get to where we are now, and it'd be a shame to put all of that at risk."

"Oh come on! You're a soldier!" Rainbow Dash pointed at him and Eagle Eye. "Do I even need to tell you to grow a spine?!"

Crimson frowned. "No. You don't. And I'll have you know that I've lost many dear companions—most of the time unecessarily—because I was too focused on one thing when instead I could have been doing all I could to save the entire group."

"Then we can do both!" Rainbow Dash squeaked. "We can save Belle and our own skin!"

"How?!" Tweak shrugged. "I can only carry so many guns!"

"Or metal," Crimson droned, rubbing a hoof over his limb.

Silence.

"It would help to use ones brains too, y'know," a voice drained above.

Everypony blinked, then glanced up.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash hummed.

Roarke sighed from where she was perched the whole time across a support strut of the crimson skystone. "Oh, it's just me... still manashipless..."

Rainbow Dash winced. "Yeah, uh... about that—"

"One thing at a time, I know." Roarke's eye-lenses pistoned out as she glared down at the group. "Our problem is that the Noble Jury's engine is screwed by no-good Nightshade dabbling. No matter how much skystone there is to suck reserves from, the manaconduits aren't going to do crap until we get it the energy source that the auxiliary channel was built for. Now, it so happens that Rainbow's homing pigeon brain is wired to pick up where that particular energy source is located."

"Yeah, and?" Ebon Mane leaned forward.

"Unnngh..." Roarke face-hoofed. "I swear to Searo, I'm surrounded by bitches and breeders." She rolled over, fired her thrusters, and hovered slowly to the deck in the middle of the group. "Look, fillies and colts, it's simple. We follow Rainbow's lavender light. If nothing else, it's gotta be ruby flame. We take some of that sweet nectar, shove it into the... ahem... 'womb' of Nancy Jane here. Boom. Voila. We have ourselves the energy we need to keep this metal monstrosity afloat."

"But what about Belle—?" Rainbow began, only to have a metal hoof shoved against her lips.

"One track minds aside..." Roarke turned and gazed at the rest. "We can worry about that later. Because even if we spend the rest of eternity moping around here through the clouds, the ship's gonna run out of juice. That much is assured. The only solution is what Rainbow is unwittingly helping us all find."

"B-but—!" Rainbow tried to interject.

"So..." Roarke paced across the group. "We friggin' get that sweet stuff and reboot the engine. Then, once we're riding the high of such a... hrmmm... wicked plunder, we can work on getting this spectacularly priceless mare who for some reason decided to hook herself up with Frankenzebra's monster."

"Your speech is... oddly fitting, Ms. Roarke," Pilate muttered out the side of his mouth.

"If I wanted to be graded, I would have done a backflip." Roarke shrugged. "And... I dunno, maybe kicked that load of blubber over there off the side while I was at it."

"Aaaaand we come full circle," Josho said with a groan.

"It certainly sounds like a viable plan to me," Clark said, nodding. He glanced aside at Props. "What do you think?"

"She has cool, shiny lenses! Heeheehee!"

"Propsy..." Ebon groaned.

"Oh! Uhm... Right!" Props tossed her blonde-blonde bangs back and smiled. "If we can get the ruby flame, then I can do the rest! The ship would be flying at its full potential!"

"Which means...?" Rainbow Dash leaned forward.

"Nancy Jane can outrun any and all manner of sky glimmer," Floydien muttered, then stomped his hooves. "But it's out of the question, Floydien says!"

Rainbow's ears drooped. "What do you mean by that?!"

"This may be the only way we can get this ship to function, ya crazy moose!" Imre grunted. "And don't you give a crap about Rainbow's friend?"

"Yeah!" Eagle Eye leaned forward. "It sounds like a win-win scenario! So what's the problem?!"

"Problems seep out of every corner like bulleted rain balloon!" Floydien frowned viciously. "Nnnngh... Enough of this spitting and spit-drinking! Floydien and Nancy Jane need freedom more than flight! With the time allotted us, we should pay back time by throwing it behind us! And the rest of this continent as well! That means east, not southwest, you prattling wastes of boomer boom!"

"You're one to talk about repayment..." Rainbow Dash growled.

"Rainbow..." Pilate tried to place a hoof on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off, angrily marching towards the elk. "You were sprung out of jail. You got your ship back. All of it thanks to ponies like me, Pilate, and Roarke. And what do you do?! You wanna run away like a coward?!"

"Flying and running are two different shades of glimmer," Floydien said. "Besides, paint bucket boomer is no stranger to flying east, yes yes yes?"

"Only when it suits me! And right now, it totally friggin' doesn't!"

"Pffft. Spare Floydien the inside out spitside out—"

"Maybe ages ago, it was all about flying away from crap! But it's a bit too late for that now, huh?!" Rainbow gestured. "It's like what Crimson said! Things are way, way biggger now! If I wanted to fly away from this... like really wanted to fly away from all this crap, I would have done so days ago! Heck, weeks ago! I wouldn't have bothered with a bigflank city or a mountain full of angry mares or a bunch of turncoats in a burning forest or—heck—Eljunbyro to begin with! So I was woken from my sleep, turned inside out by experiments, and two ponies really needed my help. So what?! I didn't know Belle or Pilate at the time! I didn't know a single dang thing about enforcers or sequencing or the Council of Ledo! What did I possibly owe them?! I'd been fleeing east for months and the one time I stopped to give more than I was capable of earning back, I had my body torn to bits by the mother of all dragons! Literally! So what was stopping me from kissing Ledomare and all this garbage goodbye and flying off on my lonesome like I had always done?!"

"Perhaps sky vomit boomer was bored..."

"Or perhaps I realized that there was no point in flying if I didn't have some good wind beneath my wings!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked. She hyperventilated between outburts, "You can run forever from something, but eventually that pain and panic runs dry! It turns into ice in the veins and becomes useless! And y'know what?! I'm totally running dry, flying blind, so long as the only thing that fuels me on is all the crap I left behind to begin with! But that's all different now! I've got... I-I've got this new wind, y'know?! And there simply isn't any other way to fly right! If I tried something different, I'd fool myself!"

"Hmmph..." Floydien leaned down and hissed into her face. "Or perhaps boomer is fool to think that wind will last forever—"

Whether or not he meant to finish that sentence, it no longer mattered, for both of Rainbow's forelimbs had swung viciously across his muzzle. The elk fell back in a clumsy mess of limbs and antlers. Simon fell—sprawled out across the ground—chattering in shock as Rainbow Dash ran over him, preparing to strike Floydien again.

"If there's anything I can't stand, it's somepony with a bunch of power and absolutely zero nerve to use it in the right place!" Rainbow spat. Crimson and Tweak rushed in and restrained her before she could get a second hit in, but it didn't stop her from thrashing angrily in their hold. "Nnnngh! You wanna try livin' off that cowardice of yours, big guy?! Just try! You'll run out of juice faster than your precious 'Nancy Jane!' Honest to Celestia truth, ya lousy waste of fur!"

"I think the big lug got the point there, champ," Tweak grunted.

"Let's not make this situation any crazier than it already is," Crimson breathily insisted.

"The only thing crazy is Floydien for thinking there was an ounce of respectable boomer in the paint bucket!" Floydien blurted, his muzzle bleeding as he sat up with a frown. "If she thinks the glimmer flame is so important, then let her make love to it like a good spit-sucker—" Floydien fell silent as a shadow fell over him.

Pilate tilted his head down, "staring" at the elk as best as he could. "Dear friend, is finding Nancy Jane safe and sound the only good thing that's happened to you all this time?"

Floydien took several deep breaths, his lips hanging open.

Pilate squatted down so that he was at an even level with the elk. His lips curved slightly. "The Floydien who found me... whose rodent friend inadvertently caught me after I was tossed from the Steel Wing... now that was an elk who would have torn Rainbow Dash apart within seconds after striking you. Where is that violent wretch now? Where is that brash and unpredictable science experiment who tore apart a tower full of enforcers and launched hellfire on the industrial district of Blue Nova?"

Floydien blinked. "Does... d-does striped boomer desire Floydien to unleash the glimmer glimmer...?"

"Mr. Floydien..." Pilate reached forward, fumbling a bit before finally resting a hoof on Floydien's shoulder. "You've found Nancy Jane. You are a free creature. What is it that would truly give you fulfillment?"

"But the ful of the filling of ments has already transpired..."

"If that was the case, then you would have no need for us 'boomers,' now would you?" Pilate cocked his head to the side. "Then just why haven't you tossed us from your majestic ship already?"

Floydien fumbled for words. His muzzle took on a strange, vulnerable shape. A dimness washed over his red eyes as he gazed towards the deck. "Floydien is used to boomers. Floydien is... not used to friends."

Simon barked.

Floydien winced. "Friends plus Simon..."

The squirrel nuzzled Floydien's bruised face, his tail relaxing.

"Do you know why I went through all the trouble to get you out of Nightshade's brig, Mr. Floydien?" Pilate asked.

"To... to get help from Nancy Jane? A path through the clouds?"

"We had hundreds of zeppelins at our disposal, Mr. Floydien. As marvelous as the Noble Jury is, I have no doubt that Rainbow Dash and the rest of us would have made our exit in some fashion or another." Pilate slowly shook his head. "No... the truth is, you had done so much to spare my life and to help me out when you had so much wrath and anger pent up from the things the ponies of this land had done to you. You know what that told me? That as much of you is full of 'glimmer' and 'spit,' there's a piece of you that still understands what it means to cherish somepony... to value a friend. That was the piece of you, Mr. Floydien, that I believed in... that made me want to save you when, sad as it is to admit, many of my companions—both new and old—were too dubious to support my cause without at least some minor reservations."

"Or major," Clark muttered aside to Props while Ebon winced.

Props giggled. "I love bears!"

"I wanted to preserve the part of you that was growing, that was blossoming, as I had once witnessed in another friend of mine," Pilate said, smiling tenderly. "Rainbow Dash."

The pegasus blinked awkwardly as Tweak and Crimson calmly let go of her panting form.

"She too was a confused and—let's face it—misguided pony when my beloved and I found her," Pilate said. "Vexxed by both pain and anger, she was an uncontrollable, borderline-psychopathic weapon who was not to be trifled with. But we gave her the benefit of a doubt, and in time, Austraeoh paid us back. We are alive now—for better or for worse—due to her earnest bravery. She had her own issues, her own resolved and unresolved goals, and yet she went out of her way to help two lowly Ledomaritans find security and happiness. This was not because we had tricked her into becoming our ally. Nor did we coerce her in any way."

"Floydien doesn't..." The elk winced, his features soft and twitching. "Floydien doesn't know if he h-has the power to help striped boomer..." He gulped. "Or striped boomer's beloved..."

"You think Rainbow Dash did?" Pilate chuckled, then sighed. "I'm a learned zebra who values knowledge and intelligence over anything else." He tilted his head in Roarke's direction. "And I'm sure there are other ponies who can relate to this... but..." He smiled. "Sometimes you gotta toss reason to the wind and let loyalty do the rest. Destiny and prophecy aside, it works best when it's natural, almost like gravity..."

Roarke said nothing. Imre leaned in, noticing the degree to which the metal mare was avoiding Rainbow's gaze.

Floydien broke the moment with a groaning sound. "Buckets of spit... absolute buckets..." Sighing, he stood up on wobbling hooves. "Nancy Jane would do well to avoid a glimmer-less grave amidst the mountains, yes yes?"

Pilate's clear eyes moistened as he spoke into the winds, "And Belle would want no less herself, I'm sure..."

"Hmmph... then shrink the mountains between us, we must..." Floydien stomped towards the cockpit. "But in the womb of Nancy Jane there are ways to make the glimmer be full of more glimmer and longer."

"Wait..." Rainbow Dash smacked her head a few times and spat, "Does this mean you're gonna help us or not?! Celestia, I'm so confused..."

"Then remain full of spit!" Floydien barked back. "You say Belle of Smith is southwest of us, yes yes?"

"Uhm... double yes back at ya..."

"There is only one place worthy of flame or boomers who would seek to stabby stabby the flame there..." Floydien's jaw went tight. "The Deepest of Ridges."

Simon let out a wavering chirp as he hugged his own tail with a shudder.

Imre gulped, then turned towards the others. "I've... never heard of such a place."

"Probably because it isn't something enforcers know about either," Roarke said. She turned towards the cockpit where the elk opened a hatch towards the lower decks. "I take it you've been to this place before."

"Can we expect a lot of resistance?" Crimson asked.

"Much time and spit has gone by. It remains to be seen," Floydien mumbled. "Only for Floydien's friends does Floydien do this."

"I imagine the possibility of getting the Noble Jury all fueled up is a plus too," Ebon said with a knowing smirk.

"Go eat your sail boat, spry boomer."

"Wait..." Rainbow Dash leaned forward. "I'm glad that you're suddenly on board and all, but... uhm..."

"What?!"

"How are you going to go downstairs with... uhm... y'know..." Rainbow charaded a pair of horns out the edges of her head.

"Feh. Same way Floydien always does." That said, the elk unabashedly reached up with his cloven hooves and plucked the antlers off with a flash of sparks. His eyes dulled to a normal brown as he "hooked" the things into place above the cockpit like a mantlepiece. Streams of energy continued bouncing between the horns and the diodes of the crystal panel. "Nancy Jane flies herself, but with an ounce of encouragement, yes yes? Mmmph... maybe two ounces." At last, he slid down the crawlspace with remarkable speed. "Zoop!"

Clark blinked. "Well, I most certainly wasn't expecting that."

"Did you graduate from the University of Obviousness?" Ebon droned, then motioned at the blonde beside him. "Come on, Propsy. Let's cook ourselves a super-womb."

"Oh. My. Gosh!" Props squealed as she scurried downstairs after the stallion. "Does he ever get any more handsome?!"

"You've got more room now to ask him, if that's any consolation."

"Oh, I'll nibble on plenty of consolation! Heehee!"

As the engineering crew disappeared down below, Rainbow Dash pivoted about to look at the rest. She smiled nervously and dug at the wooden deck. "Whelp, I can't believe I'd ever hear myself say this, but... I'm super jazzed about heading west!"

"I know, right!" Eagle Eye squealed and spontaneously hugged Crimson. "We're gonna totally save Belle!"

"One miracle at a time," Tweak said, then glanced aside at Pilate. "All things considered."

"Duly noted." Pilate took a deep breath. "Rainbow, I... I don't know if I'll ever run out of reasons to thank you—"

"Save it," the pegasus muttered. "You totally earned your stripes this time. I knew there was no way I'd talk that elk into—"

"You do realize that once this is all said and done, we'll have an entire continent to cross," Pilate interrupted. "I'm thankful to you for many things, Rainbow Dash. But I meant everything I siad to Floydien as well. I owe him too. And I would very much like to see to his journey as much as yours."

Rainbow Dash squinted. "What do you mean?"

Pilate fidgeted, then said, "Well, I think it's beyond obvious by this point that you, myself, and Belle aren't the only ones needing safe passage from this unforgiving landscape."

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to respond, but paused. She turned around, her gaze washing across the faces of Eagle Eye, Roarke, Crimson, Imre, Tweak, and eventually Josho.

"Don't look at me," the fat stallion said with a shrug. "I've been doing all I can to keep my farts in the whole time."

Rainbow Dash winced, then turned back to Pilate. "We have a lot of stuff to talk about." She cleared her throat. "After we find Belle."

"Uhm... agreed."

Weight to Bear

The skull was cold and brittle in his grasp, and yet as firmly as Shell clutched it between two hooves, he made sure it did not break. He turned and pivoted the thing about in the manalight of the sequencing room, his one eye narrowing. At last, he found himself staring—more like being absorbed—into the dark hollow set within the center of the equine skull.

Several seconds passed, during which the Prime Enforcer breathed calmly.

He heard hoofsteps clanking over the debris-riddled floor. With a twitch of the eye, he sat up straight, placing the hoof down beside the rest of the mangled pegasus skeleton. He leaned against the table full of scattered notes, journals, and logs next to him.

Through the brightly-lit junction room, Evans and two other enforcers led the disheveled figure of a mare at taser-point. Nightshade's mane was a frazzled mess, and most of it hung like a mat over her bruised forehead. Her gown was in tatters, and she trotted with a limp barely afforded her by the metal binds on both her front and rear limbs.

Feeling a prod from Evans, Nightshade shuffled to a stop just two meters from Shell. "Tilt your face up," he said. "Look at the Prime Enforcer when he's speaks to you."

Nigthshade stood still in silence.

Evans fidgeted. He glanced at Shell, then back at Nightshade. With a growl, he lifted his taser to strike, "I said—"

"That'll be all, Evans," Shell said. He calmly waved a hoof. "Leave us."

Evans did a double-take. His lips pursed, but he said nothing. He took one glance at the ancient pegasus bones, shuddered, and motioned towards the other two guards. The three trotted firmly out of the circular room, leaving Shell and Nightshade alone with the seats that several tattooed foals once filled.

The silence that followed was horrendous. And yet, as much as Nightshade struggled to keep her composure, the only sound she could hear was her own labored breaths. No sound came from Shell whatsoever, as if he was one with the cold steel bulkheads of the place.

At last, Shell stood up from the table and shuffled a few steps over. His injured forelimb was in a wooden splint, but it did little to hide what had to have been a permanent limp at this point. "I just finished reading a fraction of the volumes that were found in the offices here. It's all rather fascinating: a machine world, an otherwordly flame, a race of flying ponies entrusted with a power outside this continent's domain. I'd be surprised... if only I didn't know about it all already. What differs between you and me is that I didn't sacrifice this Confederacy's security in the acquisition of such information. But you... a marketeer, a veritable accountant trying to bear the fangs of a wolf? You've certainly done your due diligence for coin and country. Tell me, how will you balance the payroll now that so many of your trusted employees have perished in their unswerving devotion to your insufferable name?"

"I refuse to answer any and all questions asked of me. And I will refuse to make any statements," Nightshade muttered, her face fixed to the floor. "Until I have been appointed a solicitor in these proceedings, as granted to me and every citizen by the Council of Ledo—"

With a clatter, a pegasus skeleton rolled to a stop beneath her gaze. Before she could blink, Shell's good hoof fell over it, smashing the thing to calcified bits with a sickening crack.

Nightshade's mouth hung open. She looked up, trembling with a vulnerable expression.

Shell leaned in, his good eye calm as a thundercloud. "A corpse's only right is to be buried with a stone, with I have yet to decide whether or not I shall gracefully provide." His gaze narrowed. "You sacrificed any and all rights of citizenship the very moment you betrayed the privileges granted you, by committing acts of treason beneath the nose of the Council of Ledo."

Nightshade merely frowned.

"You imprisoned innocent ponies against their will, ensnared non-equines for the purpose of torture and experimentation, and seized the property of countless pilots for the sake of transporting illicit materials towards an active battleground."

At last, Nightshade snarled," Name one of those things that you in all of your infinite grace hasn't already done."

"My grace has nothing to do with it," Shell coolly responded. "I function by the pardon of the Council of Ledo."

"I know for a fact that the Council would never condone the things that you have done," Nightshade grumbled. "They would not sanction the collateral damage that has been caused to Blue Nova... the unwarranted seizure you have committed against my Corporation and its members—"

"When the very security of the Confederacy is at stake?" Shell raised an eyebrow. "When the one hope we have of defeating our immortal enemy rears its golden head? You're right to believe that I have... sacrificed my personal code of ethics to get the task done, so long as it is a righteous task."

"Only a narrow-minded machine would think in such linear fashion."

"And only a self-destructive psychopath would think in many." He reached a hoof up, pulling her violet bangs to the side. His eye reflected the stub of her horn. "Hmmm. Just as I thought. Tell me, if you're so quick to mutilate yourself, is there any flesh and blood—personal or otherwise—that you would not exploit to accomplish what you think to be the final solution?"

Nightshade bit her lip. She gazed towards the seats in the center of the room.

Shell gazed at her. He let go of her hair and began pacing over the shattered pegasus skeletons across the room. "For far too long have I walked over the dust and charred flesh of my fallen comrades, powerless to do anything about it. And then I was given a chance to make something good of the tools and talents I still have available to me. With one experiment, in one fell swoop, I could turn this war over on its head. I could bring an end to the misery, and Ledomare could enjoy a glory it hasn't experienced in nearly five hundred years."

"This war will never end," Nightshade muttered. "Not so long as there are bloodlusting wretches like you at the helm."

Shell turned and gestured towards the wrecked room around them. "And yet, you could somehow bring an end to the conflict?"

"A change, yes."

"By wielding ruby flame in such a way that you could cancel out all mana and reinvent the technology of our culture with steam?" Upon Nightshade's surprised glance, Shell waved and trotted over. "Oh, I've read your schematics... your awe-inspiring plan for a 'new tomorrow.' You wouldn't live to see it, of course, but the 'future generations' of Blue Nova beloveds would be the ones to pioneer your utopian dream. It's rather idyllic, don't you think? There's only one problem..." He stopped a cold inch or two before her and slurred, "You cannot build dreams without bloodshed, and right now you're wide awake and drowning in it." He slowly shook his head. "Did you not once think about this? Did it never ever once cross your feeble, sheltered mind?"

"I had every eventuality planned for," Nightshade grunted. "I had prepared for every situation! For Xonan incursion! For interference from the Council!"

"But..." Shell leaned back against the table across from her. "...what of the unthinkable? The winged or golden or sequencing unthinkable?"

Nightshade shivered, avoiding his gaze.

Shell's eye narrowed. "I've met her before, you know. Doctor Bellesmith, I mean. She's in league with this nation's most dangerous enemy. And yet, after what she's evidently taken from you, after how she outright crippled your entire empire, I'm starting to believe that she is the true nemesis after all. You met her. You thought you could control her. And, in the end, despite all of your efforts, she's left you lame and powerless. What's more..." His jawlines grew harder. "...by robbing you, she's robbed me of what I need most right now."

"If you think I'm going to help you at all..." Nightshade growled. "If you think I'm going to tell you anything about the flame or Old World—"

"In time, Ms. Nightshade, you will tell me what I need to know. That will be a time when you'll find yourself having to decide what you like preserving more: your knowledge... or your skin."

The mare was dead silent, her pupils shrinking.

"However..." Shell paced towards her again. "That is not this time." He shuffled until he stood behind her. His voice touched her ears like snake's breath. "This time... right now... I want to know where she took the ruby flame. If I have that—and if I have her—then I can bring my search to a halt, and maybe we won't quite have so many conversations in the future like we are having now."

"I don't know where she went..."

"Don't you?" Shell pivoted to face her. "You know, in all of my career, with all of the sacrifices that I have had to make for this country..." He paused, then punctuated the air with a scrape of his hooves across the metal floor. "Never once did I stoop so low as to touch the bodies of children... much less mutilating them."

Nightshade's shivers intensified. She gulped and said, "They were lost vagabonds. I saved them. I helped them—"

"And they have the rest of their lives stripped of magic, thanks to your 'loving embrace.'" Shell trotted firmly around so that he frowned at her again. "Xonan or not, I cannot and shall not stand for the utter descecration of foalhood. It takes a great deal of guile to be a torturer, but even more courage to be a parent, and I'm afraid, Ms. Nightshade, that you do not have the stomach for either, so you should be eternally grateful for the fact that I have not gutted your abdomen upon the very first second you graced me with your putrid sight." He pointed viciously at her. "Now in all of my searches, I have found descriptions of a nefariously secret place named Deep Ridge. It is where the parents of these foals are located. I have all the information I could desire about it, except for one thing: the location, which is suspiciously missing."

"Why would you care to know about such a place?"

"Because I have every reason to believe that Dr. Bellesmith is headed there with the red flame. The one thing she and I have in common over you is that we actually think about the consequences of our actions." He hissed, "And you're going to tell me where this 'Deep Ridge' place, Ms. Nightshade, or I promise you... there will be consequences."

Nightshade looked at Shell.

Shell gazed back at her, silent, waiting.

She swallowed. She took a deep breath. "The red flame will not be yours." She turned her nose up. "I know a thing or two about Dr. Bellesmith too, Prime Enforcer, more than you know, as a matter of fact. I've shared my mind with hers, and I know—though she has robbed me blind and ruined all my dreams—I know... that you can be trusted only as far as you can toss the corpses made by your blind crusade. And I refuse to make any more of them."

He answered far more swiftly than she had expected. "Do you, now?"

She gawked at him.

His horn glowed. A taser slid out of his satchel.

Her eyes flew towards it. She gritted her teeth.

With a whistle of air, he swung the bludgeon.

She flinched... but did not feel the sting of electrocution. Instead, Nightshade's ears twitched from the sound of ringing metal.

Shell was rhythmically knocking the bulkhead beside him. After a few seconds, the sound was anwered. Hoofsteps arose from the Junctioning room adjacent to the sequencing chamber. After a clamor of limbs, two stallions in binds were tossed down onto the ground between Shell and Nightshade.

"Ooof!" Sir Ordo winced, his clothes reduced to tattered rags.

"Unngh!" Overseer hissed in pain, his body covered from head to hoof in deep whelts and bruises. He looked up at Nightshade, his face awash with tears. He instantly gasped. "Milady!"

"Madame Nightshade! Th-they got you too!" Ordo stammered. "I'm so sorry! I don't know who talked! I promise that—"

Shell kicked the stallion hard in the kidneys. Ordo doubled over, wheezing in pain, while Shell paced around them.

"Stop it!" Nightshade shrieked. The two guards who had marched in held her telekinetically in place. "Don't hurt them anymore—"

"You are sadly mistaken, Ms. Nightshade," Shell coolly said, turning towards her. "I am not the one bringing them pain. You brought this upon them, just as you brought this upon every stallion and mare in your employ. The moment you decided to construct this conspiratorial plot to subvert the war effort, you signed your fates. The question I have is... did you prepare for it? Did you prepare for the consequences of your actions?"

"I... I—I—"

"It takes more than intelligence and charisma to lead an army to victory, Nightshade. And call it what you want, but that's what you have here: an army, as shadowed as it is duplicitous. A true leader knows when to get her hooves dirty, much like a parent. Raise your children right, and they'll be prosperous. Raise them irresponsibly, and they fall to ruin. Well, you're about to witness how much an instrument you are of your own ruination, Madame. You're about to answer for the fate of your corporation... for your children..."

"I don't understand!" she stammered. "What—" She flinched with a stifled shriek.

Shell was aiming the barrel of a pistol straight into her face. He droned, "I have it within my power execute all ponies deamed traitorous by the Council of Ledo. But, as I do believe we have just illustrated, the responsibility now falls to you. So, in this... learning exercise, I am going to hoof the choice over to you."

"The... ch-choice...?" Nightshade blinked. A weight fell from her forelimbs as Shell telekinetically undid the bonds. She gasped as the gun was twirled around and levitated into her hooves.

Shell was suddenly standing behind her, forcing her to stand, bracing her weight up against him as she pivoted her towards the two stallions.

"A choice... much like a bullet..." He spoke as he held her from behind. "...is something that only comes once. And I have given you a choice to make here, Ms. Nightshade, much like I have given you one bullet. On the count of three, you're going to end one of these stallions' lives."

Ordo and Fatch twitched with frightful spasms, their eyes wide and horrified.

Nightshade choked, "You monster... you c-can't possibly expect me to—"

Shell gripped her tighter. "I may have given you one bullet, but I have given each of my soldiers throughout this building a hundred. Now, tell me, how many employees are still being held here?"

Nightshade's mouth hung open as her heart beat through her chest.

Shell leaned in, his voice cold and steely in her ear. "Do you feel it now? The weight of consequences? Your dreams have crumbled. Only now are you about to smell the blood that you have sown. However..." He swallowed and spoke even more quietly, "I can lift all of that weight from you... that weight that you never prepared yourself for... if you just tell me what I need to know. If you just tell me where Deep Ridge is. The rest we can work out later."

Nightshade's eyes glossed over. She stood still and pale, and yet even still... she shook her head, stifling back a whimper.

The stallions looked at her in disbelif.

Shell took a deep breath. He stood back, standing behind Nightshade, holding her shoulders in place with an aura of telekinesis. "One..." He counted.

"Milady," Ordo whimpered. "Please... pl-please tell him!"

"It's not worth th-this!" Fatch stammered. "My family... I-I still have to provide for my beloved and our children!"

"After all I-I've done for you!"

"Two..." Shell's voice hissed.

Nightshade bit her lip. Tears flowed down her once-majestic face. With a squeaking sound, she raised the gun, tilted it, and pivoted it towards Overseer Fatch.

Ordo exhaled in cold relief.

Fatch was full of shivers and gasps. "M-Madame...!"

"...Three."

Nightshade sniffled, then whispered, "I-I'm so sorry, Overseer..." She shook. She shuddered. She pulled the trigger.

Fatch flinched.

The gun clicked.

Ordo did a double-take.

Slowly, Fatch's sobbing body slouched down against the metal.

Nightshade's wide eyes reflected the gun. She tilted it towards the ground and pulled the trigger a few more times. Once more, a rhythmic clicking filled the air. With a ghostly silent shuffle, Shell walked over. He brushed his muzzle against her earlobe as he whispered, "You... are not ready for the weight."

The Prime Enforcer pulled out another pistol. He cocked it, spun, and fired two shots ahead of them.

The room thundered once... twice. The noise was followed by a pair of wet thumps.

Nightshade fell back on her haunches, breathless. A warm spray of blood dribbled down her wide-eyed face. The empty gun fell from her spasming hooves as she rocked back and forth with dry heaves.

Slowly, Shell's face swiveled back to face her. A drop or two of blood leaked off his horn as he looked the mare in the eyes, deadpan. "Don't you have a brother?"

Nightshade's face jerked towards him. A tear ran down the only dry part left on her cheek.

A Coming Together

"Is... uhm..." Kera bit her lip as she peered over Bellesmith's shoulder. "Is that it?"

Belle leaned forward in the cockpit, her chestnut brown eyes squinting. She took a solid glance at the blueprints stretched across the small airship's instrument panels. Then, with a curious breath, she tilted the nose of the aircraft down, bringing the vessel into a sharper descent. A deep rocky ravine lingered below, forming a jagged curve southeast, connecting one arid valley with another on either side of a steep brown plateau.

Built upon a jutting cliff overlooking this thin canyon was a bunker of gray concrete nestled against a cluster of rocks. The entrance mimicked the grandeur of Blue Shelf, but most definitely not its professional ornateness.

"For a ridge, it's not very 'deep,'" Phoenix wheezed from where he slumped against the bulkheads besides the foals. "Perhaps this is just... nnngh... a waystation of some sort?"

Belle slowly shook her head. "No. This is the only place within sight, and it matches the coordinates on the map."

"Maybe all the super crazy evil stuff is underground," Kera muttered. She scrunched up her tattooed face as she said, "I don't think it's worth it, Belle. Whatever's down there, I don't think anypony—much less Nightshade—wanted us to find the crap."

"Kera!" Belle whispered hoarsely. She took one glance at the foals sitting in the back of the airship, all gazing out the portholes with tense, eager eyes. "We did not come all this way just to chicken out..."

"I-I'm not chickening out!" Kera's voice squeaked. "I just think..."

"Yes?"

Kera sighed, folding her forelimbs. "That th-this may be a big fat waste of our time..."

"Enough has been wasted as it is," Belle muttered. "Time is all we have left to save."

"But what if there's absolutely nothing down there?"

"Then we'll move on..."

"Move on to what?!" Kera shrugged, pointing at the glowing tome in the satchel hanging off of Bellesmith's flank. "You got that big shiny book thing! I bet you could take us somewhere so we can get rich off it!"

Belle sighed as she slowed the ship towards a gentle hover. "Kera..."

"We c-could live like queens!" She gestured towards the injured mercenary with her head. "Even Mr. Phoenix, once he grows his hair long!"

Belle produced the landing struts and anchored the vessel to the rock. Once she cut off the engine, she swiveled around in her seat and gently grasped the foal by her shoulders. "Whatever I do find down there, I promise you..." She smiled. "I won't be ditching you for anything. Even if all we have to look forward to is a life on the run."

Kera frowned, although her hooves squirmed silently. "I'm not scared, y'know..."

"Oh, of course not..."

"I just don't want you going soft on me..." Kera bit her lip. "Or stupid..."

Belle leaned forward, her eyes imploring. "Which one of those things do you hate more?"

Kera said nothing.

Belle stroked the filly's mane back. "I'm going to be alright, Kera. Everything is going to be alright. I'm bringing us all here because it has to be done. Just like getting you a better, cleaner, healthier life has to be done. Ya hear me?"

"Mmmmff... sure, I hear you..."

"Maybe we can even do something about straightening your hair out," Belle said with a slight giggle.

Kera fidgeted. "Okay," she eventually muttered.

Bellesmith bliked, for she hadn't expected that.

Kera said nothing in response. Without a word, she leaned in and gave Belle's hoof a gentle nuzzle.

A few seconds passed, and Belle smiled warmly. Patting Kera on the shoulder, she stood up and trotted towards the middle of the parked vessel. "Alright. I'm going out there..."

"Nngh..." Phoenix stood up. "Me too."

"Mr. Phoenix, please..." Belle sighed, shaking her head. "You're in no condition—"

"As long as I'm friggin' alive, you bet I'm in a condition to ensure your s-safety!" He pulled a rifle up out of a chest and cocked it. He tried not to wince from his freshly shattered horn as he gazed at her with thin eyes. "Just because my magic bit the dust doesn't mean my promise did."

"You've lived up entirely to your end of the bargain," she said. "I assure you—"

"There wasn't no bargain," he hissed. "There was a pr-promise." He gulped dryly and added, "Besides. Somepony's gotta make sure you get back to this airship and these kids without mishap. I sure as heck can't fly anything right now."

Belle opened her mouth to argue, but lingered. Eventually, her nostrils flared, and she said, "Very well. Just allow me to take the lead."

"Yeah..." Phoenix smiled wearily as Belle strapped a rifle over her flank. "I can do that."

"Hmmmph..." Kera sat down with folded forelimbs. "You'd be better off sneaking me into Deep Ridge inside your satchel. I'd clobber more baddies with my magic than he could with a gun."

"Cute... but 'cute' doesn't make hero material," Phoenix said, patting her head.

She batted his hoof away with a growl. "What do you know?"

"Okay, maybe there's one exception," Phoenix muttered. "Eagle Eye."

"Who?" Kera squinted.

"Heh... I'll tell you about her... er... him later."

"No you won't."

"Jeez. Thanks for the vote of confidence, kid!"

"I mean that you've gotta have a terrible memory now that half of your head's all busted!"

"Why you dirty little scamp—"

"Shhh!" Belle hissed, her hoof on the release latch for the hovercraft's exit. She gulped and said in a steely voice, "We're going in."

Phoenix nodded, tightening his grip of the rifle in his hooves.

Belle's head turned towards the foals. "Do not move a single inch from this vehicle unless I tell you to. Understand?"

They all nodded fervently.

"Yes, Belle."

"Yes, Miss Bellesmith."

"Th-thank you for everything, M-Miss Bellesmith."

She turned towards the door. She hung her head. One breath... two... three...

Gritting her teeth, she unlatched the exit. The door swung open, and her face was instantly pelted with dust and grit. An arid wind howled its way into the open cabin of the airship, and it actually took some effort to shove the door against the gale. At last, the exit was opened all the way. Belle trotted out, squatting low as she swung the barrel of her rifle around. Beyond the glow of the book in her satchel, all could she could see was sand and haze.

"Perhaps we should leave that thing inside the craft?" Phoenix asked, limping behind Belle as he pointed at the satchel. "If you don't mind me saying so, you're lit up like a Xonan signal flare."

"I don't want to risk anything," she murmured against the hot breeze.

"Like what?"

"I only know so much about the flame," she said. "The foals probably know more, sure, but it is not their place to carry something like this."

Phoenix gulped and muttered, "This is an 'Austraeoh' thing, isn't it?"

"I guess you could say that," Belle murmured, still trying to spot the entrance to Deep Ridge beyond the wind and grit. "I guess you could say I'm totally bonkers too..."

Phoenix smiled, shrugging. "I was gonna say 'courageous.'"

"Yeah, well, I learn from the best."

"And the worst?"

"Same difference."

"Right..."

Suddenly, their bodies formed long shadows against the dark rock. They spun about, looking behind them and past the parked body of the airship. It was morning, and the sun was just now rising in the east, bleeding brightly over the summits of jagged mountains lining the far edge of the arid valley beyond the plateau.

As if the light had a melting power all on its own, it flung golden daggers through the sandstorm, seemingly clearing it within a matter of seconds. Belle and Phoenix knew better, of course, but they were too thrown off by the subtle spectacle of the moment, as well as a dark, cloaked shape that stood out starkly against the mouth of the concrete structure to the west.

"Bellesmith!" Phoenix hissed as he crouched low. "Get down! They've spotted us!"

Belle winced as she squatted next to him. "Who's spotted us?!"

"The enemy!" Phoenix pointed. "Either it's one of Nightshade's cronies or enforcers who have infiltrated the place!"

The mare's brow furrowed. "If either was true, then how come they haven't tried shooting our heads off by now?"

Phoenix opened his mouth, but had nothing to say. He shuddered, breathless, gazing along with Belle at the cloaked figure by the facility's exit.

The pony was jumping up and down, waving a forelimb wildly. They heard a voice shouting through the wind currents, approaching them, entreating them.

Belle's lips pursed. After a few seconds, she glanced aside and murmured, "Put our weapons down."

Phoenix grimaced. "Are you nuts?"

"Aren't we beyond that by now?" Belle forcibly shoved his grip of his weapon down. "Just do as I say!"

"Spark, help us all," Phoenix muttered.

As soon as the two ponies relinquished their weapons, the figure stopped waving. He craned his neck, gazing at them curiously from afar. Suddenly, he turned and whistled into the cavity of the concrete entrance behind him. Swiveling again, he trotted briskly towards the two, his cloak billowing in the breeze. As he came closer, the entrance past his bouncing figure filled with even more equine shapes, all clad in flowing cloaks as they gazed quietly and nervously upon the scene.

Belle stared at the bunker for a little too long, so it was with a startled jump that she noticed the stallion's intricate web of tattoos sketched all across his flesh when he finally came up to a stop.

Breathless, a thin and emaciated Xonan leaned forward. He lowered the hood of his ragged cloak as he panted for breath. "You... y-you are civillian, no?" His accent was as thick as his mane, a tangle of hair made even messier by weeks of dust, sweat, and neglect. "Civillian with... civillian airship?"

"I am..." Bellesmith blinked. She stood up tall. "I am a professor of physics and neurological research from the University of Mountainfall."

The stallion blinked at that. He glanced at the guns in their possession, and his horn glowed with a brief wave of panic. The swirling lines across his coat likewise shimmered.

"And I-I came here because I was curious!" Belle blurted, dropping her rifle completely to the ground. "And... and s-so has he!" She leaned over and kicked Phoenix's gun to the dirt with a grunt. "He's with me. We both wanted to know." Her chestnut eyes narrowed, both curious and sincere. "Who is left here? Who is in Deep Ridge?"

The stallion was panting at this point. His jaw twitched before he eventually said, "You... You not with the Lady Nightshade? The Madame of Industries?"

"No, sir," Phoenix shook his head. "We are not..."

"We came because..." Belle fumbled a bit for words, then said, "Because we were concerned. We heard about this place, about what was done to ponies here, and we were... worried about you..."

The stallion squinted at both of them. At last, his weary eyes rested on their identical, stubbed horns. His muscles relaxed almost instantly. "The Madame has broken you too, yes?"

Belle took a deep breath. She slowly shook her head. "Trust me, sir. We are not broken. We came to get you out."

Phoenix glanced at her, then cautiously back at the stallion.

The Xonan's eyes were glossy by this point. As the first of several tears sprang loose, he wheezed through a bitter smile. "We thought... only us. Yes? Only us with the pain of Nightshade. But others..." He pointed with a quivering forelimb. "Others hurt... but not hurt..." He gulped. "And yet, came to help us?"

Belle's golden body stood solidly against the rising sun. "Yes. We only want to help."

A voice cried from the distance. The stallion turned around. By this point, no more than thirty-five bodies had emerged from the structure. He waved at them all, shouting back in a melodic tongue, before turning to look back at the two ponies. He dried his cheek, regained some composure, and stammered, "We are... ehh... all that you see here, yes?" He sniffled and pointed back at the group. "Not just stallions, but mares and foals. We... we left here, yes? All of Nightshade's ponies: gone. Talking things that aren't ponies: gone. Nothing but... erm... quiet machines and smell of dead prisoners, yes?"

Belle tried not to wince at that. "I see..." She nodded.

"Food also gone. And water. We fearful that we die like sparkling animals. We become the smell too." The stallion shuddered, his horn flickering again. "We see your ship. Safe civillian ship. We have hope, yes? Perhaps also food and water?"

Belle chewed on her lip. She looked at Phoenix.

Phoenix looked back.

After a deep breath, Belle smiled. "No. No food and water, I'm sorry." She turned to gaze softly back at the stallion. "But... uhm... we did bring something else..."

The stallion's brow furrowed at that in confusion.

The mare cleared her throat. She trotted aside and called out to the ship. After a few seconds, the first of several small, tattooed faces poked out of the hollow of the vessel. One by one, the fillies and colts trotted out, shuffling across the dirt and grit of the arid plateau. Eventually, they formed a line, gazing nervously towards the cloaked figures gathered around the entrance to Deep Ridge.

The one stallion squinted at the lot of them... until his eyes reflected a colt's face. The next breath that came out of him was a tender squeak. "Jaatso?" He gulped. "Jaatso Mell Siezeen?"

The colt in question limped forward, his jaw dropped. He stammered, "Papa...?"

The stallion's face absolutely melted. He threw his cloak off and slid foward, collapsing before the foal. "Hamaat thriul sezaan Jaatso! Jaatso thiulen savaluus!" He swept the colt up in a tender hug, nuzzling him with a tear-stained smile. "Diul thriemen! D-diul thriemen..."

"Mmmm..." The colt's face scrunched up with a sob, a sob that he buried in his father's intricately drawn coat. "Papa..." His voice was a muffled wail against the stallion's forelimbs as he shivered in his embrace. "Papa talmasaat lesiul m-messen vrie..."

Belle was too busy staring at the scene to hear the galloping hoofsteps racing from the bunker. A mare and a teenage filly dashed over and fell on their knees besides the stallion. "Jaatso! Diul thiemen niul hassa gliem!" The mother's head dove in, almost knocking the father aside as she nuzzled the foal with tears and giggles. The father chuckled and scooped his sobbing daughter as the family reunited there in the dust.

The cries doubled... and tripled. Every surviving pony from Deep Ridge rushed forward. They didn't have to gallop all the way, for in one tiny burst after another the foals ran forward, meeting them in the center of the plateau. They embraced, they sobbed, they laughed. Fathers kissed their daughters' foreheads. Mothers examined their sons' sparkling eyes. All of Nightshade's torment and regiment vanished in an instant, replaced instead by the song of an exotic, honeyed tongue that brought blossoming resonance to that arid landscape.

Phoenix's mouth hung agape. He looked at all of the Xonans around them, their tattoos and cloaks forming a rustic mosaic against the otherwise dead world. He cast a nervous glance at the managun lying a few steps away, a very familiar weapon, and a part of him shuddered straight to the bone.

In the meantime, Belle was a tearful mess. She sniffled, cracking smile after smile as she witnessed the reunion all around her. The rising sun's warmth spread over her figure, and a part of her—the part whose voice was cracking with sighs and chuckles—forced her to turn around, to face east.

The morning glow blinded her temporarily, but she followed its platinum bands, noticing a bleak shadow against it all. She blinked, and the tiny figure came into clarity. Unlike the other fillies and colts, she was not in the arms of a parent or an older sibling. Instead, she sat upon the edge of the ridge, overlooking the steep, steep canyon below.

Belle blinked. Fidgeting, she trotted over towards Kera's side...

Promises to Keep

Kera was frowning, hugging her legs to her chest as she sat upon the precipice of the plateau.

Belle sat down beside her, her lips pursed in concern. After a few seconds, she spoke above the happy sobs of the reuniting families behind her. "Kera. Kera, darling... what are you doing here all alone?"

"Pffft... What does it look like I'm doing?" the tattooed filly grunted. Her brow hardened even more while her nostrils flared. She didn't give Belle the benefit of a solid glance. "I'm always alone. I only got used to it for a reason."

Belle blinked. She turned and looked back at the enraptured Xonans. She held her breath, clenched her eyes shut, and gulped. "Kera..." She reopened her moist eyes, staring straight at the foal. "They have to still be alive. They're... they're back in Lerris..."

"Meh..."

"They have to be!" Bellesmith smiled, though it was a fragile thing. "I just know it—"

"Pfft! What do you know?" Kera flashed her a snarling frown. "I mean really! You and your broken horn and your stupid Rainbow Dash and your stupid Eljunbyro..."

Belle looked hurt. "Kera..."

"You're older. You have friends. It's all okay for you." Kera sighed, hugging her limbs tighter. "Fine. Whatever. I don't want what you have anyways."

"You can't give up hope, Kera. We'll find them yet. I promise you..."

"Hmmph... Shoulda left me to starve off of grasshoppers in the street of that dumbflank city..."

"Oh, Kera..."

The filly sniffled, rubbing a forelimb across her hard, frowning features. "Shoulda just left me on my own. I was fine on my own. Even in Lerris when... when..."

"How did they die, Kera?"

The filly's face blanched, her eyes instantly wet, like she was staring into a basin of fire.

Belle stared at her quietly.

Kera let out a whimpering noise... then a second. "They... they fought Nightshade's ponies when they came to take me away. They attacked them... with angry words and farm tools." She sniffled. "They thought they were brave." She frowned again as a tear trickled down her cheek. "They were stupid. Only adopted me for two years, and they th-thought I was something worth fighting for. Friggin' idiots. Friggin'... dead as brick idiots..."

"Kera..." Belle exhaled, brushing a hoof through her mane. "Darling..."

"Stop calling me th-that!" Kera's voice cracked as she stood up and shouted at Belle. "You're just as bad as them! You think you're brave, but you're just stupid! What are you gonna do with that book, huh, Belle?! What are you going to do with me?! You're just going to die like the rest of the idiots!"

Belle stood up as well. "I'm not going to die on you, Kera."

"Oh yeah?! Why not?!"

"Because I love you!" Belle said, stifling her own sobs as she frowned back at the pony. "And, by the Spark, I'm not about to give up on you! You deserve better than to be angry and afraid all your life!"

"I'm not afraid! I'm... I'm..." Kera glanced at the other children, and something inside her broke. She began hyperventilating, teetering precariously close to the canyon's edge.

Belle caught her, sweeping her up in a dear hug.

Kera hiccuped on a sob, burying her face in Belle's golden coat. "Why d-do I trust you? You're totally g-gonna die on me! I'm so stupid... so stupid in believing..."

"Shhhh..." Belle stroked her bushy mane and nuzzled her dearly. "It's okay to be scared. I'm scared too, but it's not going to stop me from enjoying life, and enjoying the chance I have at giving you something that you deserve."

Kera sobbed, clenching her eyes shut as she clutched Belle's coat tighter. "Please... don't die on me. Promise me that you won't, ya stupid... stupid mare..."

Belle smiled, a tear running down her cheek. "I promise. I'll do everything in my power not to leave you alone ever again. Do you hear me?"

Kera whimpered, shaking her head. "I... I-I don't know if I can even believe you. I don't know if I can even believe anything anymore..."

"I was there once before, Kera," Belle said. "And then something came into my life... that changed everything."

Kera sniffled and murmured, "Rainbow Dash?"

Belle giggled. She caressed the foal as she said, "A spark, Kera. And everything else afterwards was just..." She gazed up towards the golden sky, squinting at a flickering object. "...magical."

Kera took a deep breath. Her shivers ceased in time for her to lean back and gaze at the concern plastered across the mare's face. "Belle?" She wiped her cheek, sniffled, and asked, "What is it?"

"I..." Belle's chestnut eyes narrowed as the object grew nearer. "I-I think we've been followed."

"Incoming!" Phoenix shouted, picking up his rifle and dashing across the plateau as the Xonan families around him chattered in bilingual panic. "Bogey incoming from the northeast! Everypony get down!"

All Together Now

"B-Belle?" Kera stammered.

"Get behind me, Kera..." Bellesmith uttered, reaching across the windswept plateau for her rifle.

"But, Belle!" The foal gulped, her horn flickering. "My magic! I'm sensing—"

"Just lay low!" Belle exclaimed. She glanced across the way. "Mr. Phoenix!"

He was already ushering the frightened family members to hide behind a cleft of rock. Cocking his rifle, he crouched low and aimed it over the craggy earth. The loud vessel hovered down, hissing with steam and mana. "Let them come to us!" he exclaimed as the thing landed. "If there're too many of them, I'll distract the group from the flank! You and the families will run to the entrance to Deep Ridge and hold out from there!"

"I can't afford to let you sacrifice yourself—"

"No time to argue!" he grunted, squinting down the line of his rifle's sight. Take care of Kera and the foals! You've got it in you to do that and more!"

Belle gritted her teeth and crawled across the stone and dust, dragging her rifle along with her. The air lit up with a crimson aura that fought back the golden glow of the blossoming day. As she paused besides a large stone, she took a breath, heaved the rifle through a crook in the rock, and aimed at the top deck of the vessel. Her face twitched in awe, for it was unlike any airship she had seen before. Instead of a dirigible, the airship was powered by a large chunk of red matter. The rigid substance dimmed as a metal grated door in the stern opened, revealing an intricate, two-level hangar. Several bodies stood, and they descended swiftly onto the plateau.

"This is it!" Phoenix hissed from several feet away. "Make every shot count."

"Spark, help us." Belle stifled a whimper and touched the edge of her hoof to the weapon's triggering mechanism.

A soft hoof pressed against her shoulder. "Belle... please." Kera leaned in, speaking calmly, "It's okay."

"Huh?" Belle cast a nervous glance back. "How do you know?"

Kera smiled. She pointed forward.

Belle followed her hoof, and a sharp breath left her.

With a flurry of colors, Rainbow Dash landed in the middle of the plateau. She was covered from shoulder to hooves in thick plates of battered armor. Also, her tail appeared to be shorter. The only thing that wasn't different were her colors. Each shiny band was as bright and awesome as ever, and it brought brilliance to that dusty cliff as much as it brought breathless cheer to Belle's skipping heart.

Behind her, a strange mare and an even stranger stallion made out of crystal trotted up. They were followed by two equines that Belle actually did know, a stallion with soft features and a demure gait, and then a muscular specimen with a metal cast that stole a gasp from her lungs.

"Stop!" Phoenix shouted. "That's as far as you go!" He was a sneeze away from pulling the trigger. "One more step, and I'll..." His ears drooped on either side of his shaved head. With a dropped jaw, he stood up, leaning on the rifle like it was a cane.

Eagle Eye, naturally, saw him first. He let loose something between a squeal and a yelp. Crimson instantly looked over, when his eyes locked with Phoenix's, he froze.

Phoenix blearily blinked. He glanced aside at Belle, who had emerged from behind the rock. When he looked back, the thick shadow of his former captain had covered him. The battered stallion shuddered, dropping his rifle and collapsing completely.

Eagle Eye rushed forward to catch him—but froze. Biting his lip, he pensively looked up at Crimson, who hadn't finished trudging thunderously forward.

"Nnnngh..." Phoenix winced as he stood up straight. His shattered horn broke the sunlight beaming past him. He stretched his legs out, standing at attention. He almost saluted, but something in the glint of Crimson's eyes made him weak, so that his forelimb fell just as swiftly as it had tried to rise.

Crimson glared at him. With flaring nostrils, he looked at the frightened and confused families, clinging to their children upon the fringes of their tender reunion. His head pivoted to the other side, and he saw Belle standing—alive and whole—next to Kera. At last, he leaned forward, staring into Phoenix's face. "Did you have a hoof in this?"

"I..." Phoenix's lips trembled. He gulped. "I... I helped as much as I could. It was... was all Belle." He avoided the stallion's gaze as his shivers increased. "I just followed her lead. She... saved me... multiple times..."

Crimson gazed fixedly at the mercenary's shattered horn. His shoulders rested slightly as he muttered, "Did she, now...?"

"Crimson..." Phoenix seethed through clenched teeth. "Sir, I... I'm sorry. I... I'm so sorry for everything." He stumbled on his legs. "I can't... I can't even—"

Crimson's forelimbs reached foward. He embraced the stallion dearly, his muscular grasp as soft as an autumn cloud. "At ease, soldier," he said in a quiet yet firm tone. "Let's go home..."

Phoenix inhaled. His eyes moistened, and he wept like a foal into Crimson's hug. "Aye, sir... I c-can do that..." He covered his quivering face as he hissed, "I c-can totally d-do that..."

Crimson smiled tenderly, giving him a light pat on the shoulder.

Eagle Eye sniffled. He trotted in with a tearful expression and nuzzled Phoenix while the Xonans looked on.

Belle watched this all with a gaping expression. She pivoted her head aside, spotting more ponies emerging from the airship: a blonde mare, a burgundy stallion with a pleasant demeanor, a mustached gentlecolt, an obese stallion—

With a rush of air, a rainbow landed in front of her.

Gasping, Belle nearly fell back.

Rainbow looked shocked—almost hurt—by the mare's timid reaction. She gulped and pointed at herself with a rattling horseshoe. "Dashie...!"

Kera looked at Rainbow, then up at Belle.

Belle sniffled, then pointed at herself with a cracking smile. "Ding Dong...!"

Kera's face scrunched up. She looked back at Rainbow.

Rainbow was biting her lip. "Belle. I..." She stepped forward, but suddenly froze, her smile fading.

Curious, Belle squinted at her.

Rainbow slowly, slowly shook her head. Her smile came back—softer this time—as she stepped back and gestured towards a shadow lurching against the sunlight behind her.

Belle looked up. She saw runes. She saw stripes. She saw twitching ears.

A gasp lit the air. The mare spun around, clutching opposite sides of her face as a cold sweat ran over her body.

Rainbow stammered, "B-Belle?"

Kera trotted up, looking concerned into the mare's golden face. "Belle? Belle, what's wrong—?"

"Th-this isn't real...!" Bellesmith squeaked, her eyes moistening as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. "I'm... I'm sequencing again, Kera! Oh blessed Spark!" She clenched her eyes shut as her lips whimpered over and over again. "Pull me out of the spheres! Nnngh... please. Pullmeout! Pullmeout! Pullmeout!"

"Belle..." Kera rose up on her rear legs and shook Belle's skull as hard as she could. "Belle!" Her tattooed face frowned. "Get up and turn around, you fraidy-fart! This is as real as I could kick you!"

"K-kick me?"

Kera gave her a swift buck in the knee.

"Ow ow ow..." Belle spun about, wincing. She heard a voice cracking with a giggle. She looked aside.

Rainbow Dash was smiling, her face crystal clear as a spring sky. She wagged her ruby eyes forward.

Belle followed the gaze, until she made visual contact with somepony who couldn't.

"B-Belle...?" Pilate stammered, trotting ahead, lurching ahead, limping ahead. O.A.S.I.S. flickered madly as he swung a hoof forward left and right with increasing desperation. "Bellesmith? Please... pl-please, I hope... I-I know that... that..."

Belle reached a hoof forward. She froze in mid-stretch, biting her lip. She brought the hoof back, took a breath, and exhaled, "Beloved."

The zebra froze. His gray eyes instantly watered. With twitching ears, he turned about, then trained his muzzle instinctively towards the source of that heavenly sound.

Belle stifled a whimper. She shuffled forward, then leaned back on her haunches with both forelimbs outstretched. "I'm here, my beloved."

Pilate's metal brow relaxed. His ears drooped as he gritted his teeth. A circle of friends and strangers watched as he took one step across the plateau, followed by three jerky trots, then at last a full gallop. He flew blindly into her embrace, and she caught him. As instantly as they made contact, he ran his hooves up across her neck, her face, her shattered horn. He jolted slightly upon feeling the shaved mane, but then his hooves returned to her lips, which were curved at the moment. She cracked forth a giggle, and he responded with gasp—a short one—for he instantly planted his muzzle over hers. The two nearly toppled over from the passionate kiss. When they broke for a breath, he allowed her to curl against him, nuzzling the fuzzy underside of his chin with a blushing, tear-stained cheek.

"Somehow, I knew..." Bellesmith squeaked between hyperventilating sobs. She tried to articulate the words beyond her smiling lips. It was a nigh impossible task. "Somehow. All th-this time. Something k-kept my heart going. I... I c-can't explain it..." She hiccuped and chirped, "I love you. I love you forever and always..."

"I know, beloved..." Pilate whispered, tears running down his cheek to christen her in their embrace. "Oh blessed spark, I know..."

"I... I-I don't know what to s-say... I just... I just..."

"Say anything," Pilate said with a shudder. "Ramble. Sing. Cry. I just want to hear you." He kissed her forehead repeatedly while stroking circles along her neck and shoulders. "Please. Say anything. Do anything. I love you, Belle. I love you so much..."

"I... I..." Belle gulped and squeaked forth, "I-I cut my mane. I'm sorry..."

"Snkkkt—Heh heh heh..." He sniffled and nuzzled her even more dearly. "I don't care."

Belle giggled hysterically, falling limp in his grasp as both ponies fell to their knees, leaning their chins over each other's shoulders as their trembles dissolved into one shared breath of warmth.

From a distance, Props could be heard wailing like a stupid infant. Josho tried not to roll his eyes. Ebon wiped his cheek dry as he smiled at the scene.

All the while, Rainbow Dash stood rather awkwardly, clasping a hoof before her tight blue muzzle. She hadn't realized it, but she was holding her breath in like a stuffed balloon. When she finally inhaled, she was somehow surprised that she hadn't knocked her two best friends off their hooves. The edge of her sight turned fuzzy, then returned to focus. She saw a shiny figure in peripheral vision, so she looked over.

Roarke's helmeted face turned, as if she was staring at the reunited couple the entire time.

Rainbow blinked. She gazed beyond Tweak, Imre, Crimson and his fellow soldiers. She stared once more at Pilate and Belle, and her smile turned rosy yet again. She took a few trots forward, reaching a hoof up—

The entrance to Deep Ridge exploded.

Everypony's ears pops from the blast wave of shrapnel and fire erupting over their heads.

Kera shrieked, spinning to see chunks of the bunker flying every which way.

"Warship!" Eagle Eye shouted suddenly, pointing towards a brown spot on the horizon, flickering. "From the north! It's shelling us—"

A chunk of earth exploded right beside the Noble Jury, pelting the ship all over with pebbles and burning rock as the airship wobbled. A barking squirrel echoed over the cussing voice of a startled elk.

Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide. She turned to shout at everypony—when a shell landed right in front of her. "Aaaugh!" She flew back, half of her armor sparkling like fireworks. Somewhere in the distance, Belle and Pilate's voices were shrieking. She looked aside through a rain of dirt to see them rolling across the plateau, assaulted by an avalanche of mortar, and then the pegasus couldn't see anything from the falling ash in between.

Some Proper Ordinance

The Steel Wing carved a cold path through the mists, bearing down on the fragile site of Deep Ridge along the north edge of the ravine. There were five craters already carved into the plateau, and yet the Ledomaritan warship kept firing, with smoking mana cannons unleashing blast after blast upon the frightened equine shapes far below.

"Good job getting the cannons repaired in time, Captain," Shell's voice rang as metallically as the engines around him.

Filta glanced aside. Clearing his throat, he adjusted his uniform and stood tall and resolute besides the Prime Enforcer and Evans. "If I had known you were going to order me to attack a location such as this, I would have adjusted course sooner to make better time."

"Yes, well..." Shell glanced behind him at the middle of the deck. "I've been forced to make adjustments of my own lately."

Shackled in chains and surrounded by guards, Madame Nightshade shuddered. Her haggard face tilted up, bearing a ghostly pale expression. Her lips pursed, but there were no words to give. She had donated Shell enough as it was.

"I can see that," Filta said in the meantime. He had to raise his voice above the endless assault of cannons. "I trust you know what you're doing here..."

"And I trust you to know better than to question my judgment by now."

Filta had to bite his tongue. He stared ahead as the carnage ensued.

Evans couldn't help but stammer, "Sir, at the rate at which you're firing, all of the suspects will be dead in minutes!" He pointed with a fidgeting hoof. "Shouldn't we give them a small spell to offer up a surrender?"

"I only want one of them to surrender, Evans," Shell said coolly. He gestured towards one of the many guards, and they hoofed him a large, glowing soundstone. "And she knows as much as I do that she's bound to outlast her so called 'friends' no matter who's tossing the ordinance."

Clearing his throat, he spoke firmly into the enchanted shard, amplifying his voice thunderously across the plateau, so that it even boomed louder than the shelling.

"The one called Rainbow Dash! I order you to surrender yourself and only yourself immediately!" His eye narrowed along with the hardening lines of his face. "I will not cease bombarding this entire mountaintop until you land all four of your hooves on board this vessel..."

Ashes to Ashes

"...and give yourself up to the Queen's forces like the piece of property that you are!"

With a grunt, Rainbow Dash kicked a pile of stones off her. Her armor was starting to peel off, and she tripped over a broken horseshoe as she stumbled back onto the crater-strewn landscape. It was hard to see through all the fresh smoke and flames.

"Belle?! Pilate?! Crimson?!" She coughed and wheezed as another shell landed uncomfortably close, flinging a heated curtain of wind towards her flinching body. "Unnngh... R-Roarke!" she stammered. "M-my suit's busted! I need you to fly some of my friends away and—" Another shell exploded a chunk of rock to her left, flinging her to her bruised chest. "Ooof!"

All the while, Shell's voice rang menacingly over the whistling bombs.

"You and you alone have the power to stop this, just as I have the power to end the life of every mortal creature on that hill! You want to save those you care about?! Then give up, for you cannot save yourself and them in the process!"

A chunk of Deep Ridge's inner bowels landed in the middle of the group with a thud, as if to punctuate the hellish declaration. Scooting backwards on his fat flanks, Josho telekinetically helped Ebon and Props back up to their hooves while shouting, "There's no mistaking it! That's Shell alright! Never heard the guy sound that pissed!"

Crouching several feet away and shaking the dirt off her, Imre sat up, gasping. With wide eyes, she peered at Josho, then up at the menacing flicker of the Steel Wing up in the north sky. "Buck me sideways..."

"Crimson!" Tweak rushed over, helping a stunned Imre to her hooves. He motioned with his reflective hoof. "This ain't crap that we can shoot at! Let's get all these tattooed tourists onto the Noble Jury and make like the wind—"

"Incoming!" Clark shouted as he was already rushing the cloaked civillians towards Floydien's airship. "Everypony, down!" He and the nearby Xonans gasped.

"Tweak!" Imre squeaked.

The crystal stallion turned—then caught a wall of burning shrapnel as the shell exploded before them. He flew back, his body smoking. "Nnnngh-Aaaaaaugh! Crap! Crapppp!" His face winced tightly as he clutched a leaking crack gouged deep in his right rear leg. "Nnnngh! Crud biscuits, it hurts! Friggin' pig headed death pissers! Gaaaugh!"

With a pale expression, Imre scurried over him. She fumbled through her satchel of things, knocking the pistol around a few times as she finally produced her first aid kit, immediately going to work on his profusely bleeding injury. "Damn crystal skin, this is gonna be tough..."

"Love your bedside bullcrap already, girl..." Tweak hissed.

"Rainbow Dash!" Imre craned her neck to shout over the bombing. "I need help here! Tweak's hurt bad! Where's Pilate?!"

"I... I can't see..." Rainbow Dash spun about, her ruby eyes squinting. "Oh, Celestia, please. I'm sorry for everything, j-just help me. I don't care how—" She gasped. "There! Guys! Hey, guys!"

A little foal was telekinetically lifting rock after rock off a pair of bodies buried in the rubble. With tiny grunts, the Xonan youngster uncovered enough weight that the two ponies could move. Before she could call out their names, a whistling sound sailed down from overhead.

Kera looked up, the tears on her face reflecting the orange flames of the incoming ordinance.

Wincing, Belle looked up. She saw it, then thrashed her hooves over Pilate's body, shoving Kera back by several meters.

"Ooof!" Kera landed with a grunt. The shell landed two seconds later.

The plateau split down the center. Huge chunks of rock fell loose into the deathly deep canyon below. Among them were—

"Aaugh!" Pilate yelped as he, Belle, and the rock they were on plunged into dust and darkness.

"Belle!" Kera shrieked, though her voice was outmatched by Rainbow Dash's warbling shriek.

"N-no!"

Lives We're Given

Belle and Pilate disappeared into the darkness.

Kera took a deep breath, her shivering little body weathering a humongous sob coming from a mile away. Before she could so much as whimper, a blue body blurred past her. The air split apart with a crackle of thunder not related to any gun or shell. With tearful green eyes, Kera watched as Rainbow Dash galloped clear off the edge—rattling armor and all.

The hot dusty air swhistled past Rainbow's ears as she plummeted like a rock. Her ruby eyes quivered, looking for spots of brightness against the grit and sediment. Far ahead, at twenty meters and plunging, were two equine shapes amidst the nightmarish debris. Belle's and Pilate's bodies twirled, outflying screams and the bubbling of their own blood. The great gray gash of the canyon floor lingered cold and hard beneath them.

A tear or two squeezed out of the edges of Rainbow's eyes, only to be knifed away by wind and gravity. In a twitch, she saw six exploding columns of ash, bathing an emerald landscape with a ghostly halo. Something beastly inside of her snarled, and she writhed through her descent like a serpent.

Waves of energy rivulted up her armored body. One panel of metal flew off... then two... then three.

At last, her ears took in the sound of helpless sobs as her plummeting body caught up with her best friends' screams. She growled back, flexing her muscles, bursting through the metal and madness like a monster coming out of its coffin, or a bright beam of light emerging from the east horizon.

The legpieces of her armor came off, followed by the portions wrapped around her flank. Then, with a glorious crack, Rainbow's breastplate shattered down the middle, parting ways as a pair of healthy blue wings shot out on either side of her. The feathers lit the whole canyon up as they caught air and then the sunlight that warmed it. Without a second thought, Rainbow angled her wings diagonally, pulling her body into a downward smile. She ripped through the air like a drill, emerged through a bursting pocket of air, and spread her wings out once more as soon as she finally caught up to Pilate's and Belle's body.

There was less than ten meters left to scream at that point. Rainbow Dash's yell dominated the canyon's acoustics, for she had hoisted her limbs around the pair and yanked them up just seconds before they could burst like bloody bags against the gray stone. The air deep within the ravine popped several times from the resulting rain of pebbles, stones, and broken armor bits. Dust rose, filling the belly of earth with bursting brown fog. The three ponies flew into this, disappeared, and then exploded out the other end with a rainbow streak. With her Loyalty pendant glistening in the sunrise, Rainbow glided the two away from the avalanche above... then promptly grinded into the earth.

"Unnngh!" Rainbow slammed into the ground and rolled several times to a dizzied stop.

In the meantime, Belle and Pilate rolled a little further.

"Aaaaugh!" Pilate grunted before lying on his back and panting for breath.

"Mmmf..." Belle winced, stood up, and winced some more. She flexed her muscles, breathless at the prospect of being alive. She threw Rainbow Dash a look of awe, than wrenched her eyes off to gasp at Pilate. "Beloved!" She scurried over and swept him into a hug. "Oh Spark, I love you! Thank goodness..." She sobbed as she pressed his face to hers, trying to contain her hyperventilating breaths. "Thank goodness thank goodness thank goodness..."

He hugged her back, tightly. With a shudder, he tilted his frazzled face over her shoulder and stammered, "Rainbow! Did... did she..."

"Rainbow, bless your loyal heart..." Belle sniffled. With tearful eyes, she looked behind and smiled. "If it wasn't for you, darling, we would have—" Her chestnut gaze twitched. "Rainbow!"

Rainbow's face was drenched in tears. She clenched her teeth as she writhed on the ground, overwhelmed with hideous shivers. "Nnnngh... g-g-guh... g-gotta get you out..." Her voice was a tiny tremble against the shells and exploding chunks of rock high above. "Can't... m-move..."

"Spark, spare us..." Belle scrambled to her hooves, resorting to a shuffling slide as she crouched above Rainbow's spasming body. "Your armor! It's gone!"

"Gaaah...!" Rainbow only thrashed harder as soon as Belle touched her.

"Oh no! Y-you're hurt!" Belle fought back a sob. "You must have shattered something in that fall!"

"Not... br-broken..." Rainbow hissed.

Belle blinked in confusion, numb to the explosions overhead. "Huh?"

"Bellesmith..." Pilate stood up on teetering hooves. "O.A.S.I.S. is going haywire. Something isn't right here."

"But... But I don't understand!" Belle spun around. "Rainbow Dash is—"

The blind zebra pointed a hoof at Belle's figure. "Beloved. That object that you're carrying..."

"Huh?" Belle's jaw fell.

"My manasphere can't penetrate it. What is it?"

Belle blinked. She looked down at her satchel. The tome of runes was glowing like a second sun. She gasped, ripped it out of her bag, and tossed it at Pilate.

He caught it awkwardly, falling back on his haunches. "It's..." His blind eyes twitched against nothingness as he felt the contours of the enchanted binding with his hooves. "It's the book! But... it's changed somehow..."

"It absorbed a plume of ruby flame." Belle gulped. "The same sort of thing that we had seen in the Underworld. Madame Nightshade of Nightshade industries had it somehow."

"So, you did find some flame..." Pilate thought aloud. "This is what Nightshade was trying to control..."

"And it's messing with Rainbow's body somehow!" Belle leaned in, brushing Rainbow's bangs across her sweating forehead as she closely examined the ruby pendant. The lightning bolt was fluctuating wildly. "Rainbow! Can you hear me?! Is it worse than the dizzy spells?!"

All Rainbow could do was whimper in response. Her limbs curled around Belle's forelimb like a feverish foal.

Belle bit her lip. She turned around. "We have to get that thing away from her—" Roarke's four hooves landed with a thud between her and Pilate. "Augh!"

Roarke retracted her helmet, tilted about, and stared down at Belle with whirring lenses.

Belle shivered in place, clinging to Rainbow Dash.

Roarke's brow furrowed. "What's her problem?!"

"We're quite fine, Ms. Roarke, thank you..." Pilate shuffled forward and gestured. "Belle indeed has the ruby flame. It's having the same effect on Rainbow as it did back at the Battle of Blue Nova."

More explosions rocked overhead. Roarke grunted, "You don't say." She gripped Rainbow Dash's shoulders. "I'm getting her out of here."

"What?!" Belle shrieked, reaching for Roarke's forelimb. "You can't just—"

"Don't worry, she's on our side, beloved!" Pilate exclaimed. "You will get Rainbow Dash to safety, won't you?"

"That's a relative statement. Everything up there is getting shelled to Searo's bones, including our getaway ship."

"Then just carry her somewhere and we'll—"

"Nnngh... No..." Rainbow Dash suddenly burst with furious strength. "No!" She pushed back against Roarke's forelimbs. "You g-get them outta here! You get th-them to the N-Noble Jury, stat!"

"Rainbow..." Roarke hissed. "I'm not about to let you die of lame dizziness down here—"

Rainbow yanked on Roarke's muzzle so that her sweaty face stared the metal mare down. "You... will... get them... to safety..." Something pulsed red on yellow across her eyes. "Or I will feed you your teeth, one by one right, right in the place where you pee..."

Roarke actually flinched, if only for the demonic tone of the pegasus' voice. Nevertheless, she frowned. "You're absolutely crazy! You realize how much the rest of us need you—?"

"I don't g-give a flying feather!" Rainbow wheezed. Her eyes rolled back from another dizzy spell as she fell back into the dirt. She felt the vibrations of endless shelling through the ravine's belly. "Without th-them alive, I am nothing..." She writhed from the waves of lavender energy wafting off the tome. "Without y-you... w-without you guys..." She stifled a sob as she hugged herself and curled over in the dust. "Nothing... j-just nothing..."

Roarke's face took on an uncharacteristic look of pain. She sweated more and more profusely as she tossed glance after glance at the couple, then back at Rainbow. "I'll come back for you!"

"Whatever... just..." Rainbow gulped and hissed, "Get them to safety. I... I'm c-counting on you now, Roarke... to save my friends..." She made one last bit of eye contact. "Do you understand...?"

Roarke opened her mouth to say something. She gnashed her teeth, spun around, and galloped towards the pair. "Okay. Let's go."

"Rainbow, just stay where you' are!" Belle shouted as Roarke grabbed her and Pilate. "We're going to get through this! It'll be okay!"

Pilate gasped as he felt a tug on the glowing book in his grasp. "What are you doing—?!"

"Getting rid of this damn thing!" Roarke grunted, tugging some more. "If it's hurting Rainbow Dash—"

"We can't afford to leave it here either!" Belle exclaimed. "If the Ledomaritans get it..."

"Nnnnngh..." Roarke's hairs rose beneath her armor. After stomping her hooves, she slid her helmet shut. "Buck it..." With one swift move, she hoisted her forelimbs around Belle and Pilate and fired her rear legs' thrusters. The metal mare shot up and up the walls of the steep canyon. The frazzled couple gazed down. Rainbow shrank like a bright blue pinprick across Belle's chestnut eyes. The mare sobbed once, tilting her face skyward as Roarke flew the two of them back to even level with the plateau.

Hot, ashen air pelted them instantly. There were twice as many craters now as the Steel Wing loomed barely a hundred meters above the ruins of Deep Ridge. The last of several Xonan families were just then running up the dangling ramp that led into the rear hangar of the Noble Jury. The ship could barely stay aloft, having to resort to a deadly drift as it skimmed the bomb-strewn surface of the world. Shells exploded on either side of the craft, pelting the skystone propulsion with damaging shards of rock.

"Glimmering stabby-stabs are the stabbiest!" Floyd could be heard, shouting above the maelstrom. As he fumbled with the controls of the ship's cockpit, he yelled over his shoulder, "Nancy Jane does not like this and Floydien is inclined to share with her spit! We must fly out of here!"

"No!" Clark hollered, helping panicked Xonans downstairs into the lower decks. "We still have to pick up the others! We can't leave without them!"

"Tweak's been injured!" Props yelped as she scurried across the deck, dropping a crate of tools as another explosion reverberated off the port side. "He's got a crack in him! A bigger crack than usual!"

"What about Nancy Jane's broken heart?!" Floydien roared, waving a cloven hoof. "She can't fly on account of all this glimmer! Must re-shine the rock shine or else fall in forever flameever!"

"Oooh! I can do that!" Props' charming voice flew across a chorus of sobs and wails. "I can totally reshine stuff! Especially when they clank-a-clank, you handsome antler dude!"

"Then into the bowels of my beloved with you!" Floydien gave her a swift kick in the flank. Props fell with a mixed giggle-shriek as the elk spun around. "Where are my motherless boomers already?!" His red eyes shrank as a bright orange shell hurled violently towards the fragile hull of the Noble Jury. "Ohhhhh no no no..."

"Incoming!" Clark shouted, using his body to cover a frightened Xonan foal or two.

Everypony on board the ship flinched as the piece of ordinance overtook them. Just then, a little fuzzy body ran up the deck railing, stood his ground with a flailing tail, and stretched two paws out against the fire and flame. With tesla coils brimming, Simon let loose a hellish squeal. Ribbons of sparkling telekinesis billowed across the vessel's portside, taking the brunt of the shell and then bouncing it off. A hole was blasted in the earth. The Noble Jury teetered left and right, but settled in a dull hover, no worse for wear.

With a high-pitched groan, Simon gave into a migraine, falling back onto the deck with an unconscious plop.

Floydien shuddered, pivoting the vessel around in a desperate attempt to hover out of range from the Steel Wing's bombardment. "More nuts for the nut god, Floydien thinks..."

Meanwhile, Clark ran towards the railing's edge, shouting above the chaos. "Come on! Noble Jurists, we are leaving!"

Imre heard this, though she was too busy crushing a glowing red gem and pouring its dust over Tweak's fractured leg. The stallion hissed in pain, but Imre didn't stop, instead spilling more of the liberal sediment over his wound. Once finished, she pulled a bandage out from her satchel and wrapped it several times around his leg and flank. As she did so, an intimidating voice echoed loudly over the bombardment above.

"By the power invested in me by the Council of Ledo, your lives are all forfeit. Give up Rainbow Dash. Give up the target, and you shall be spared."

Imre froze still, staring into space as her hoof dangled on a length of gauze.

"Imre..." Ebon leaned over Tweak's writhing body. "Imre!" He whistled. "Yoohoo! Stay with us, girl..."

Imre snapped out of it, shuddering. "Right... Uhm..." She finished wrapping the bandage around his leg. "We gotta get him to the ship."

"And fast!" Crimson shouted. He and Eagle Eye and Josho were levitating a flimsy barricade of rocks to shelter the medical operation from the blasts. "I honestly think they've been holding back!"

"And the Noble Jury...?"

"Still intact!" Eagle's voice cracked. He gulped. "But not for long."

"Where the heck did that water color catastrophe go?!" Josho shouted. "We could certainly use her wings now!"

Imre looked up right as Roarke streaked overhead. The metal mare only had two ponies in her grasp, and it summoned a nervous twitch from the medic. Imre looked at Tweak's agonized body, at the Noble Jury struggling and puttering to lift itself through the barrage, and finally at the Steel Wing lingering above.

"Wait! What about Rainbow Dash?!" Kera suddenly galloped up from the canyon's side, breathless. "Why isn't she saving Rainbow Dash?!"

"What the heck is one of them still doing out here?!" Crimson shouted. "We gotta get on board the ship—"

"No!" Kera stomped her hooves, trying to frown past the onset of sobs. "Rainbow Dash is Belle's friend! We can't just leave her! This is all about her, isn't it?! This is—"

A stallion hoisted Kera up from behind. "It's okay, Crimson," Phoenix said, already galloping on three limping legs. "I-I got this..."

"Nnngh... Let me go!" Kera cried as she was carried towards the dangling hangar entrance of the Noble Jury. "Somepony's gotta save Rainbow Dash!"

The words echoed in Imre's ears. She took a deep breath. Seething, she suddenly shoved her medical bag into Ebon's grasp.

The stallion flinched, looking up from Tweak's body. "Huh? Why are you giving me this?"

"I need you to take care of my stuff for a while," Imre said. "The enchanted filament should mend his crystal wound. But if he doesn't show signs of recovery..." She pointed into the bag. "Crush these red shards and spread them around the edges of the fracture. Get Mr. Crimson to apply some unicorn magic. Or maybe Fatso or Princess Squeaky-Saddles over there."

"Hey!" Josho and Eagle Eye simultaneously blurted from their barricade, only to share a nervous glance.

"But... But what about you?!" Ebon asked over a nearby explosion. He winced.

Imre didn't. "I... I need to hold out here and make sure Rainbow Dash is okay!" she exclaimed.

"Are you nuts?!" Josho grunted. "For all we know, she's a rainbow loogey at the bottom of that canyon now!"

Imre didn't bother wrestling with Josho, instead yanking Ebon down by his neck. "Tweak is going to die unless you get him out of here now! You understand?"

Ebon gulped. "L-loud and clear!" He gazed over his shoulder. "Boys?"

"You're getting no argument from me!" Crimson slammed several rocks down in a line to form impromptu cover. He rushed over and lifted Tweak's rear half. "Mr. Josho...?"

"Yeah, I'll get his hick-end..." Josho levitated Tweak's skull, and the two stallions hoisted him briskly towards the Noble Jury while Ebon Mane and Eagle Eye ran along his side. "Don't worry, pal. You're no longer gonna be in danger... just in slightly more danger..."

"Nnngh... Crimson..." Tweak wheezed, stretching a hoof out as he was carried along. "Be a good stallion... mmmfff... and look after m-my boys after I've croaked..."

"Nothing to it, buddy," Crimson grunted. "You're going to snuggle their smelly flanks when all of this is said and done. That's a promise."

"Awwwwwww poop..."

As the four stallions carred the crystal pony away, Imre lingered in the middle of the field of craters. She looked out of the corner of her eye to see the Steel Wing shifting about, heading towards the Noble Jury as it aimed its bombardment at the ponies in question. She was about to turn and gallop away when a dark shadow crossed her.

"Imre!" Roarke shouted from above. With a roar of thrusters, she cut her glide short of the ravine and landed in a slide before the medic. "What in goddess' name are you doing?!"

"Go save Rainbow Dash, Roarke," Imre droned. "That kid she was with is right. This is all about her. Everything that's been fought for will be utter garbage if you don't save her."

"I don't know what's gotten into your lame-brain head..." An explosion pelted them both with pebbles. Flinching, Roarke growled and opened her helmet to spit at the mare, "But I'm not about to let you do any last-second heroics!"

"Why not? You're rather cavalier right now."

"Imre, I'm not about to argue with you..."

"You're right." Imre frowned. "You're not."

"Dammit, Imre! What's gotten into you?! I don't have time for this—"

"Surely you heard it!" Imre shouted. She leaned forward with a scowl. "Surely you heard that voice!"

Roarke's brow furrowed.

Imre simply stared at her.

After a few rumbling seconds, Roarke's features paled. Her lips hung open. "No way..." She gulped dryly. "By Searo's blood..."

"I have to go, Roarke." Imre trotted past her, making a line for the petite Nightshade airship that Belle and Phoenix had piloted there. "I have to do this."

"No! Dammit, Imre! Come with me!" Roarke exclaimed.

Imre paused. She slowly turned around and gazed tiredly at Roarke.

Roarke winced. "With us..." she stammered. "Pl-please... don't... don't leave..."

For once, Imre smiled without being asked to. It was a bittersweet, delicate thing. "You've always had the mind of a warrior, Roarke." She shook her head. "But not the heart. I think that's your problem in a nutshell."

Roarke shuddered as a soft voice escaped her lips, "And what's your problem?"

"Something for the first time in my life, I'm going to fix." Imre pointed as her face took on a heavy frown. "And you have your own task to do."

"I thought... th-that I could fix you..."

"You did, Roarke. And so did Rainbow Dash. And now... she needs somepony to fix her... to keep her and her friends' journey alive. I'm not the only pony around here who can heal, y'know."

"But.... but Imre—"

"Don't fight me on this, Roarke." Imre's voice lingered, but she ultimately got around to saying, "We both know that it's all about Rainbow now."

Roarke's lenses pistoned inward. She weathered a savage lump in her throat.

Imre's hoof brushed against something. The mare looked down. It was one of the brown cloaks, discarded by fleeing Xonans. "Go, Roarke..." She picked the fabric up and hoisted it around herself like a shawl. "You've got a new life to live, as does Rainbow. Maybe you two will be right at home with flying far, far away. But me?" She trotted swiftly towards the airship. "I know where my home is..."

Something ripped through Roarke's chest as she watched the mare go. She had all the thrusters, weapons, and snares at her disposal, but even as she leaned forward she couldn't move a single inch. Imre's last words hammered into her ears, and she cringed from the inside out. Her body buckled, and her face took on a vicious frown.

Shuffling around, Roarke galloped towards the canyon's edges. She fired her thrusters and dove out of sight, descending towards a fallen rainbow.

Meanwhile, the air shook even louder as the violet airship beyond the craters lifted up, pivoted about, and cruised towards the source of the monumental shelling.

The Noble Jury

"Graaaaugh!" Floydien shouted from the cockpit as an explosion rocked off the bow. Cracks formed in the cockpit window, showering his antlers with glass. "Nnnngh! Stop it, glimmer boomers! My beloved's beautiful face!"

A striped body stumbled into the cockpit, leaning against the weight of Belle. "Mr. Floydien!" Pilate wheezed for breath as Crimson and Eagle Eye rushed in to join them. "Can you get this ship off the ground?!"

"There is no ground left for Floydien to spit at!" The elk turned his head as best as he could to yell at the zebra. "Perhaps striped boomer should have thought about metal death tosser up above first?! Paint bucket could slam stabby ship in two, yes yes yes?"

"Rainbow Dash is incapacitated!" Bellesmith exclaimed. "Roarke's flying back to get her—" She suddenly did a double-take, noticing the nature of the pilot for the first time. "Whoah... uhm... hello there."

"Greetings, chest nut nut," Floydien sneered over the turbulence.

"What's going on?!" Eagle Eye stammered. "What's wrong with Rainbow Dash?!"

Phoenix suddenly rushed into the room with Kera in tow. "It's the book, isn't it, Miss Bellesmith?" He let go of Kera who immediately scampered over to Belle's side. "It's having an effect on Austraeoh!"

Belle crouched down to nuzzle Kera close as she spoke, "Yes. I think the ruby flame is overwhelming her."

"Then let's get rid of it!" Eagle Eye exclaimed. "We don't want Rainbow to be in pain because of that stupid thing!"

The ship rocked from a shell bouncing off its stern and exploding into the plateau below. Belle comforted Kera while uttering, "It'd be just as bad to risk handing the flame over to Shell and his forces!"

"Then what are we going to do?!" Phoenix shouted. "We're sitting ducks here and that psychopath in the Steel Wing knows it!" He flinched as the ship rocked again. "The only reason he hasn't totally creamed us by now is because he wants us to give up the pegasus!"

"Who needs a paint bucket anyway," Floydien grumbled.

Eagle Eye squeaked bitterly, "Don't you even pretend."

"The cylinder..." Pilate thought aloud, rubbing a hoof across the flickering manasphere hanging off his choker. "It runs on runes... but we have all the runes, don't we...?"

Bellesmith glanced over, both confused and curious. "Beloved...?"

Pilate re-gripped the glowing book. "I need to get this to the engineering bay! Immediately! Where is Miss Props?"

"You mean the gorgeous, blonde pony?" Eagle Eye asked.

Pilate "stared" at him...

Eagle Eye winced. "Right... let's go..." He gripped Pilate's shoulder and led the zebra across the deck.

"Pilate! What are you—?" Belle moved to follow him, but a close blast knocked her back on her haunches. Kera shrieked, panicked beyond discernible words. Belle simply squatted there, holding her close, all the while her eyes were locked on the air outside the cockpit.

Eagle Eye and Pilate galloped a serpentine path across the deck, their bodies pelted by burning bits of debris. They shuffled past Crimson and Josho who were crouching beside Tweak along with Ebon. "Where you headed?!" Crimson shouted.

"Engineering!" Eagle Eye cried back, coughing up dust and ash as the Steel Wing roared overhead. "Pilate's got a brilliant plan... I-I hope!"

"This I gotta see. Josho?"

"Right, right..." Josho grumbled. "Nurse's duty..."

"Look after Tweak!" Crimson hollered as he opened the door to the stairwell, helping Pilate and Eagle Eye trot downstairs.

"Nnnngh... flippin' Killas in their pretty pink princess tutu's..." Tweak slurred, his crystal eyes rolling back.

"The buck...?!" Josho's face twisted.

Ebon gulped and smiled nervously. "I think that means Imre's medicine is working."

"Sure, whatever." Josho stifled a belch and glanced over at Ebon's flank. "Nice sailboat, by the way."

The stallion sighed. Just then, his ears twitched from a whistling shell. With a pale expression, he looked upwards. "Uh oh..."

"Oh for the love of lacy bridles..." Josho growled and covered his horn. "This is the big one!"

"Simon!" Ebon hollered as the stallions' shadows were casted lengthily from the onset of a burning plume. "Where is that miracle rodent?!"

Both ponies looked over to see the squirrel lying flat on his back, his tail twitching in fitful slumber.

"Well..." Ebon gulped. "Nuts." Josho swapped him over the head. "Ow! Jeez! Come on, we're about to die!"

"I don't care." But then Josho's features slouched as he gazed worriedly into the face of death.

"Belle, I-I'm scared..." Kera whimpered, burying her face into Bellesmith's coat.

"Shhhh..." Belle gulped as she closed her tearing eyes to the plummeting cannonfire. "Close your eyes."

The temperature on board the Noble Jury heated up. Just as the air over the deck began to sizzle, a glint of metal darted through.

Roarke dropped Rainbow Dash's groaning body onto the ship, twired about, and fired a full payload of missles at the incoming salvo. She yelled with the effort, unleashing full Searonese wrath. The projectiles intercepting the ordinance in mid-air, causing a huge explosion to consume the immediate sky. The Noble Jury was spared, but the sheer force of the blast sent the vessel reeling. Roarke flew back, landing in a pained slide across the hull as Floydien struggled with the controls.

At last, the ship tilted towards its starboard side, grinding to a noisy stop at the edge of the canyon and lingering there. The light within the skystone dimmed, and Floydien sent a flurry of sparks into the cockpit controls in a desperate bid to salvage the craft. It refused to budge.

"This is it.." Phoenix stood up, panting for breath as he loomed above Belle and Kera. "We're all dust..." He clenched his eyes shut, seething. "Mother... father... I'm so sorry..."

As Belle comforted the sobbing foal, she looked up with frightened eyes. Her vision of the morning sky faded in and out. As it came into clarity, she saw a bright violet shape ascending across the horizon, puttering its slow and patient way towards the Steel Wing.

With a furrowed brow, she looked down at the deck.

Rainbow Dash was lying in open sight, right beside the recovering body of Roarke.

With pursed lips, Belle curiously flung her gaze back skyward, at the familiar airship rising to meet their doom.

Bringing Her In

Captain Filta was unfazed by the constant shelling. However, one thing did make him flinch. His brow furrowed as he squinted at the sky above the rising smoke of the pelted world.

"Curious..."

"Hmm?" Shell hummed as if he was in mid slumber throughout the whole bombardment. "Do you see the suspect?"

"No, but... I see something else."

"Would you care to be more specific, Captain?"

"A civillian ship, a bogey, heading straight for us," Captain pointed. "And at a surprisingly slow speed too."

"I also see it!" Evans exclaimed, pointing over the smoke of firing cannons. "Judging by the colors, it looks like one of Nightshade's aircraft."

The mare in question stirred in her shackles behind the enforcers.

Shell's nostrils flared. "I stand corrected, Captain Filta. That is indeed curious." He gazed aside at Evans. "I regret to admit that my eyesight isn't what it used to be. Does it appear to be carrying any weapons?"

"I... I'm afraid I can't tell from here."

"Hmmmph..." Shell gazed ahead once more, squinting at the incoming violet object. "Perhaps they have gotten smart and are delivering the target to us."

"I don't understand..." Evans gazed aside. "Wouldn't she just fly herself?? She's always been the type to meet our forces head on, from what I understand."

"Unless we finally got to the traitors down below," Filta remarked. "And they ganged up on her to force a surrender."

"Only one way to find out." Prime Enforcer Shell turned and gestured towards a nearby guard. The Ledomaritan trotted across the thunderous deck and hoofed him a spyglass.

"I just can't get over how slow its approach is," Evans said, his young breath chuckling. "Are they trying to pull off some form of intimidation?"

"They would know better at this point." That said, Shell stared through the spyglass.

The ship was in far better shape than the Noble Jury, though that wasn't saying much. Its hull was blemished and scuffed up in several places. The vehicle appeared to be running on low, which at first was a possible explanation for its slow speed. But then, as if somehow sensing that it was being observed, the craft stalled completely in midair. Try as he might, the best Shell could discern was a shuffling figure from beyond the translucent windshield.

"Shall we fire upon it, sir?" Filta asked.

"Standby..." Shell muttered, his one eye squinting harder.

Before his gaze, the vessel tilted about until its starboard side faced the Steel Wing. The hatch with Nightshade's colors slid open with a hiss. A figure could be seen inside, clad in a dark brown cloak.

"Uhm... sir...?" Evans spoke up.

The figure leaned out into the doorframe. With two hooves, she lowered the hood of her cloak. Imre stared directly at the warship with stone-hard eyes.

Shell's gaze faltered. He nearly dropped the spyglass as his entire breath left him. He lowered the spyglass, just as bulbs of sweat ran down his pale face.

Evans saw it, and he blanched in reflection of the mortified look of fear.

"Sir, the vessel will soon be blocking our line of fire," Filta said. "Give me the word, and I'll blast it out of the air."

Shell's mouth hung open. A brisk wind kicked at his graying features.

Filta took a breath. He turned towards the enforcers minding the cannons and prepared to give them a signal.

"No..."

Filta froze. He raised an eyebrow in Shell's direction.

The Prime Enforcer gulped dryly before murmuring, "Cease fire."

Evans blinked.

Filta pivoted about, his face wracked with confusion. "I beg your pardon, sir?"

"Cease all fire..." Shell murmured once again. "That's an order..."

"Sir, the target is within sight! They have her!" Filta frowned and pointed, "If we just focus fire now on the twin vessels, they'll have no choice but to—"

Shell spun, his one eye burning like an angry beacon. "I said cease fire!" He bellowed, and his horn pulsed forth a cloud of telekinesis.

Filta and Evans fell on their haunches. Several enforces lost their balance as the whole Steel Wing rocked, then settled.

Nightshade stared, dumbfounded at the scene.

Shell seethed and seethed, the vessels along his temple throbbing as he took one icy step towards Filta.

That was all the Captain needed. Clearing his throat, he stood up, adjusted his uniform, and ordered, "Cease fire! Call cannons! Cease fire immediately!"

One by one, the thunderous booms in the sky dwindled. Evans gawked with disbelief as Shell galloped towards the bow of the ship like a frightened foal. He squinted once more at the hovership.

Imre watched as the cannons ceased firing. Through the settling plumes of smoke, she let out a deep breath, and slumped back in her seat within the vessel's doorframe.

Shell gulped and spoke in a droning tone, "Bring her in... nice and slow..."

Like the Wind

"My word..." Clark stammered, sweating from where he stood in the far end of the steaming engine room. "A glowing book!"

"Are we in a library now?!" Props stammered from where she hung upside down from cracked pipes amidst a dangling assortment of tools. "If so, can I stop banging my head against Nancy Jane's womb as if our lives depend on it?"

"It's depending on something else now," Pilate said, trotting forward as Crimson and Eagle Eye led him to the metal ring fastened to the ship's central engine core. "Unless I'm wrong about this, I think I might have given Floydien's ship the key to evading this bombardment."

"Speaking of which..." Eagle Eye gulped as he eyed the rooftop and bulwarks of the place. In the room beyond, several Xonans peered in, chattering nervously. "You feel that? It's stopped!"

"Not about to count our blessings yet," Crimson grunted. "Pilate?"

"Wait a second..." Clark trotted up, gasping at the glowing tome in the zebra's grasp. "Is that... enchanted by what I think it's enchanted with?"

"Indeed," Pilate said with a nod. "I know it sounds strange, but I believe this book was built for a purpose."

"The runes..." Clark gawked at the pages as Pilate flipped them before the metal ring. "It... it has all of them! All the ones Nightshade was trying to find!"

"Oooh! Oooh!" Props flailed from the manaconduits she was clinging to. "Hook the thingy into the thingy so that the runies can do their thingies too!"

"No way..." Eagle Eye made a face. "It couldn't possibly be that simple!"

"I do believe we're about to find out," Pilate said. "Mr. Clark?"

"I'll lend a hoof." Clark leaned in, helping the zebra guide the book towards the center of the ring. "Miss Props! Get ready to stabilize those cables! We don't want the engine to overload!"

"Yepperoonies!" Props banged away at a junction box with her wrench. "Just deposit the book in the slot! Heehee!"

"This is crazy..." Eagle Eye stammered. "So very crazy..."

Crimson smirked as he patted the petite stallion's shoulder. "Don't you mean 'stupid?'"

Eagle looked at him with sparkling eyes. "So you mean it'll work?"

"Annnnnnd..." Clark licked his lips, but was greeted with silence. "Nothing's happening."

"Wait for it..." Pilate said through gritted teeth. Just then, the O.A.S.I.S. sphere flickered brightly. The rune on his head steamed and he fell back into Crimson's grip.

In the meantime, the book lit up even brighter. The ring beneath it glowed a shimmering lavender, and a translucent field came to life, forming hard lines in the shape of a metallic dais. The book "rested" on this podium, its pages splayed open with sparkling runes. Lavender light coursed through the manawires and billowed into the body of the engine.

"Propsy—!" Clark yelped.

"Got it!" Props grinned wide, adjusting diodes and levers at a blurrying rate. Under her supervision, energy was briskly distributed throughout every component of the vessel's core. "We're a go-go, do-dos! Heehee!"

Up above on the deck, Ebon Mane was gawking at the sky. "The shelling? How... wh-why did it stop?"

"Uhhh... Never mind that," Josho muttered, pointing directly above.

"Hmmmmm... pretty shinies," Tweak slurred, his eyes reflecting a pulse of lavender.

The entire skystone above the Noble Jury fluctuated, undergoing a deep battle of crimson and violet bands.

"Bellesmith," Phoenix breathed aloud, staring up at the phenomenon with a dropped jaw. "You have to see this."

"What? Did the shelling stop?"

"It's... it's something more..."

Belle put Kera down and patted the sniffling foal's head. She trotted limply out and stood beside Phoenix, staring at the pulsating light with a mesmerized expression. As the crimson glow was chased away in favor of a lavender aura, Belle looked towards Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus curled up into a fetal position, groaning as waves of energy washed over her. The pendant around her neck fluctuated, resonating in sequence with the skystone above.

Wincing, Bellesmith galloped over to her side. "Rainbow! Rainbow, can you hear me?"

"I... I-I can..." Rainbow slurred.

"This... This was a bad idea!" Belle whimpered. "We need to get you off this ship! It isn't safe for you..."

"No, it's..." Rainbow's lips curved as she leaned over to nuzzle Belle lightly. "It's... it's clearing up. Just... so tired..." A tear trickled down her cheek. "I'll water the orchards later, AJ. Gotta... h-help Pinkie and Fluttershy set up Spike's paty..." She clung to one of Belle's forelimbs as exhaustion and weariness set in. "Won't... won't leave anypony hanging..."

Belle quietly stroked the pony's mane. She bit her lip, her face stretched between concern and confusion. Her ears twitched to take in the eerie silence, and suddenly she gasped. She looked up at Roarke. "That pony who was here with us..." She narrowed her eyes. "The medic. Where is she?"

Roarke didn't look back at her. Her shoulders slumped as she merely sighed.

Belle blinked. She gazed up at the dormant Steel Wing. "I... I don't understand..."

Just then, the entire Noble Jury jostled.

"Ungh!" Belle flinched.

With a stupified bark, Simon jolted awake. His tesla coils flickered, and then the rodent scurried randomly across the deck as the ship evened out.

Inside the cockpit, Floydien's face was awash with confusion. "What in the spittest circle of crud?!"

"Did you do that?" Phoenix asked.

"Snnnkkt! Hey-ya, handsome! Mr. Stripes just deus'd your machina! You should totally be able to give your beloved a whirl-a-twirl now!"

"Floydien doesn't understand!" the elk growled, staring disdainfully at the fresh aura wafting over his controls. "Floydien detests the color pink!"

"It's lavender, tree branch head!"

"Same spit is same!"

"Oh, will you just get us out of here already?! You feel it moving, don't ya?"

Phoenix leaned in past the echoing sound stone. "What does she mean? Why are we afloat?"

"If Floydien understood Nancy Jane these days then Floydien would sleep more..."

In the meantime, Kera had slithered in through the group and placed her hoof upon a particularly bright throttle. "Uhm... hey..." She sniffled one last time as her tattooed brow furrowed. "What does this thingy do?"

As soon as she gave the lever a push, the skytone above the Noble Jury fluctated even more. A high pitch whine tore through the craft, and the vessel accelerated forward at a maddening rate. It only only exited the range of the Steel Wing, it cleared the entire plateau in less than thirty seconds. The bulkheads and hull rivets rattled to the breaking point, causing Phoenix to grab ahold of Kera while Josho and Ebon struggled to keep Tweak—and themselves—from flying overboard.

The one sole sound was Floydien's prolonged scream, until he caught ahold of the lever and pulled it down, decelerating to the vessel to a manageable—but still alarmingly fast velocity. "Spit spit spit... Nancy Jane!" His face paled. "What did b-beloved eat?!"

All the while, Belle clung to Rainbow Dash's unconscious form. She panted, gazing back at the Steel Wing—now a hazy speck against the western horizon. She was too frazzled to be relieved, and she gazed over at the metal mare as the ship cruised at a steady pace, breaking the clouds.

"Uhm... Miss Roarke?"

The metal mare said nothing.

"I don't understand. How... wh-what just happened?"

Roarke finally looked at her, and the edges of her lenses contained a hint of moisture. With strategic timing, she closed her helmet and muttered in a cold, metallic voice:

"She went back home."

And the bounty hunter lonesomely trotted towards the far end of the deck while Rainbow Dash slept in Belle's embrace.

The Last Beloveds

Hours later, Captain Filta spun around from the Steel Wing's bow. "I do not understand..." He trotted furiously foward, snarling. "I have endured the unpredictability of your orders because of the faith that I have in your legacy, sir. Even as the Council of Ledo showed their disdain, I remained loyal to you, in the face of absolute carnage and utter adversity, no less!"

Evans stood besides Shell as the Prime Enforcer stared across the ruins of Deep Ridge. "He has his reasons, Captain," the young officer stammered. "You know that—"

"I know that his 'reasons' have cost me the lives of several of my own soldiers!" Filta growled. "And what has it cost his pride?! Huh?!"

"I really don't think we can afford to allow this sort of disorder to hound us—"

"What is there to afford?!" Filta yelled, causing nearby members of the crew to flinch. "For that matter, what is there to lose?!" He pointed at Shell's back. "It was his task to bring in the suspect! A task so dire that he turned it into an insufferable crusade! I gave him my resources, my patience, and my loyalty—but now that he's let the target go upon the very precipice of triumph, I no longer have the strength to retain any of those qualities!"

"Captain, please. Think about what you're saying—"

"No, you think, enforcer! You were not there at Foxtaur! You did not see a hundred soldiers fall to their death, and him not even bat his one eye!" Filta roared directly at Shell. "It matters little to me what you experience you have or don't have! The moment you start losing grip of your sanity is the moment I have to reevaluate my devotion! And, if you ask me, I should have been the better stallion and made this epiphany days ago!"

Shell didn't look his way. He simply stared out into the desolation and scars of battle. He took a deep breath of the ashen air and relaxed.

Evans fidgeted before saying, "Perhaps he just needs time to reflect and come around with a better strategy. He was lenient on me for the f-failure at Blue Nova. Can't we extend the same grace to him?"

"Enforcer Evans, the only reason he extended any grace at all to you is because you still serve him as a prattling young victim of naivete!" Filta stomped his hooves again. "If he was smart, he'd make contact once more with the Council and ask for much-needed back up!"

The air was ghostly still, even in the high altitude winds.

"Well, Enforcer?!" Filta folded his uniformed forelimbs, frowning. "What will it be?"

Shell tilted his head up against the noonday sky. Slowly, he turned around, his hooves scuffling across the deck. His dull gaze swiveled across Filta.

Filta stared back.

Shell marched towards him.

Filta blinked. A tremble or two wracked his figure.

Shell trotted forward, paused, stared at Filta... and brushed past him.

Filta exhaled as soon as the Prime Enforcer was gone. With a sweating expression, he brushed his mane back, shaking from the inside out.

Every stallion watched in quiet silence as Shell trotted lonesomely towards the cabin doors towards the ship's stern. He brought his hooves to the frame, but paused. With a lethargic expression, he looked aside.

Nightshade sat between several guards, shackled with heavy manacles. Her gaze lifted, and for once it was colder than her captor's.

Shell swallowed. With a melancholic breath, he opened the cabin, shuffled inside, and closed the thick oaken doors behind him.

Darkness covered him. But he wasn't alone. The shadows extended over a soft figure seated at a wooden table, bathed in the faintest hint of candle light. The flickering aura painted the edges of Imre's coat a soft amber from where it was exposed beyond the cloak.

Shell stared, breathing slowly. With only one eye, the shadows faded in and out before him with each dance of the candle, so that her coat almost looked gold.

He flinched, gritting his teeth. It took a mountain of determination, but he was at last able to stand up straight. With a deep breath, he trotted forward and stood before the mare. At that point, nothing happened. Silence huddled between them like a continent, and all of it lit wit rampant flame.

The candle almost died, but Imre's breath fed it life.

"You... you have a big ship."

Shell said nothing.

Imre's eyes twitched. She sighed and loosened the hood of the cloak around her shoulders slightly. She stared into the flames, her face as distant and lost as ever.

Eventually, she again uttered, "I guess it makes sense that they would give you something like this. Not just the command, but... all the guns. All of the bombastic, Ledomaritan flare." She breathed out the side of her lips, then muttered, "You could never settle for less."

Shell stared at the floor.

She glanced up at him with a soft expression. Gulping, she pointed. "I... uh... I can't help but notice your... I mean..."

Shell's brow furrowed slightly, but then he brought a hoof to the scarred half of his face.

Imre grimaced. She fidgeted a bit before saying. "I could have... y'know..." She shrugged and gestured at him again. "I could have fixed that... if I had stayed around. I am... I-I'm a good healer, you know." She nodded slowly, clenching her jaw shut. "I've healed more ponies than I can count. I think that was my talent all along... really..."

Somehow, the jitters finally left Shell. He removed his hoof from his face and stared across the table, gazing over Imre's horn. "But you did not stay around," he muttered coldly. "And I, for a fact, know what you're good at."

Imre slowly, slowly closed her eyes. She clenched the edge of the table as her body tensed and untensed slowly.

"That's why we gave you so much," Shell said. He was beginning to pace, beginning to talk, his voice groaning metallically against the bulkheads of the cabin. "That's why we put so much faith in you, that you could stay true to your talent... and that you could stay true to your loyalty to this Confederacy... and it's secrets."

Imre was shaking her head by this point, and a pitiful snicker was escaping her lips. "You know..." She waved a hoof, her grin turning wider... bitter. "I had dreams—nightmares, really—that this day would come. And I imagined you saying a lot of bullcrap to me." She suddenly frowned as a steaming breath escaped her nostrils. "But the last thing... the absolute last thing that I expected from you was the audacity that you could actually speak for her."

"Of course I can," Shell said. "I loved her."

"Oh really?!" Imre hissed. "Enough to kill her?! To gut her on the table like..." She held back her vomit in order to add, "Like so m-many of the citizens you sent m-me?!"

Shell's hooves scuffed the floor as he came to a stop, glaring over at the mare. "I ended her life... and her pain... because I loved her..."

Imre literally snorted, shaking her head towards the floor. "I look at you and I can't imagine anything inside that husk being capable of love... ever."

Shell took two bold steps and telekinetically swiveled the wooden chair so that the gasping mare could look him in the scarred face. "And it was that same love that spared you from having to die when I saw you taking on the same qualities as her..." His one eye narrowed. "Casting the same fear and doubt... upsetting the politics of Pale Shelf... threatening to spill our secrets at every turn."

Imre balked at him, her face looking positively nauseous. "You... spared me?" With a rising growl, she leaned forward and stared him down. "I left you! I left you and this country and I threw myself at the hooves of the Xonans so that they might have the guts to do to me what you couldn't, and yet you could somehow do for Mother..." She bit her lip before spitting, "She's the luckiest of us all. She doesn't have to see what you've become."

Shell leaned back, trying to contain his heaving breaths. "She would have been proud of me."

"Oh! Really?!" Imre howled. "Prime Enforcer Shell! The living machine of destruction! Preserving beloveds by tearing them apart! Yes, she would have gladly applauded the lengths you have gone to defend the Queen's glorious Confederacy!"

"I am the sword of Her Majesty, defending us against utter annihilation. I cannot expect you to understand that. But I can expect you to know one thing." Shell stopped pacing to face her with a frown. "The one reason you lived long enough to reach Xonan territory, much less end up sitting here in this ship's hold, is because I allowed it." He sighed and said, "And that is because I've remained loyal to a commitment... a promise that I made... above all else that I serve and protect."

"And what's that?"

"I promised your mother... th-that I would not do the same to you as was done to her," Shell said as solidly as he could. He still had to keep from choking at the end of it. "It goes against all of my convictions... but I am willing to risk everything I stand for to... to assure that this promise remains unbroken." His face winced slightly, but returned to icy solemnity.

Imre watched with quivering eyes. Her face grew long as she said, "And here I thought that nothing could hurt you..." She gulped. "And yet... it pains you to do this, doesn't it? To spare your own daughter?"

Shell's breathing quickened. He looked away from the candle, towards the shadows.

Imre stood up from the chair. "With every fiber of your being, you feel one urge... and one urge alone..." She muttered as she stepped forward, "You want to tear me apart... to gut me... to kill me for information. For what? To get at Rainbow Dash? To push back the Xonans? Father, the war will always be going on. What matters now—what always matters—is what you've been protecting... or at least what you used to protect. But... that's all gone now, isn't it? It faded away just as Mother's breath did." She choked on a sob and whimpered, "Can't you talk to me... and keep me alive... because you love me?"

Shell said nothing.

"And I mean... truly... truly love me? Not... s-something that's excused through diction or protocol or strategy, for Spark's sake! But the love of a father for his daughter..." Her ears drooped as she sniffled. "The love that we used to have... like the home that we used to have... with Mother...?"

Shell took a deep breath. "All that matters is wiping the forces of destruction from this landscape," Shell said. "Such luxuries can later be divvied up by the citizens of this land..."

"And just what are you then? Huh?!"

Shell's eye glistened upon the edges of the candlight. "Somepony who doesn't have that luxury..."

"But it's still out there!" Imre shouted. Tears were falling down her face now as she gestured across the firelight. "I've seen it! I've seen beloveds seeking each other out beyond all barricades! I've seen a monster—a vagabond—become tame with the spirit of devotion! I... I..." She hissed in pain as she whimpered, "I've seen such light... so many colors... such joy." She smiled bitterly. "A spirit that is loyal to one thing and one thing only: prosperity."

"If you refer to the target, with whom you've obviously become acquainted..." Shell turned to glance at her with a dry expression. "Give her enough time and torment, and she too will become the target of your lofty disdain."

"I don't believe that for a damn second," Imre growled. "You think that Rainbow Dash is just... j-just another cog in your machine?! As cold and hopeless and lifeless as you?! Well, you're wrong!" Imre stamped her hoof. "Because although she's not perfect, she knows that loyalty is but an element of all the things that make us whole! She has friends and she's not afraid to make sacrifices to keep them!"

"You think I haven't made sacrifices?"

"I think you've made massacres, Father," Imre said quietly. "And you've masked the gravity of those mistakes with a fine layer of arrogance and zeal. But Rainbow Dash? She lives with her mistakes. She processes them. She shares the pain equally with her friends, so they can help her as much as she wishes to help them! She's healthy, and for the longest time I despised her for it, because I realized with each passing minute how much more wonderful it would be to live like her. But instead... I... I was becoming cold, heartless, a metal blade to sew flesh open and shut and nothing more." She gulped. "Sterile."

"Being with her has simply polluted you," Shell said, glaring hard at the mare. "The equine is a monster at heart, a force of chaos that hast to be tamed and tempered to serve a higher purpose."

"You can't weaponize harmony, Father"

"And yet, you can achieve the same purpose, given enough time and resources—"

"Oh, like you've been doing?! And for how long?"

Shell growled. "The target has been a constant thorn in my side and—"

"You can't blame her forever!" Imre shouted. "At some point, you're going to look back at all of this and realize that the only reason your happiness and the tranquility of your fellow ponies is unsalvageable is because you and you alone have made it that way!"

"There is nothing left to salvage when this kingdom teeters upon the brink everyday."

"Who cares about the country, Father?!" Imre stamped her hoof. "I don't! I could care less about this stupid nation and what it's robbed from souls like you and me!"

"Then what is it that you think that you desire, Imre?"

She inhaled and exhaled in shallow breaths. Swallowing a lump down her throat, she trotted forward and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I want to be your daughter again," she whimpered. "I want us to ditch this war... this carnage... this insanity. I w-want you to give up the chase so I can give up the guilt and we can just... just be happy again, like a family should be... like we used to be..."

Shell merely stared at the contact her hoof made with his coat.

"Please..." She stammered. "It is not too late, Father..."

Shell looked at her eyes.

She smiled painfully. "It is not too late to begin again. No matter the mistakes made or the things that have been lost. We can find harmony. We can leave this nightmare behind and... and go home..."

Shell raised a hoof to her chin, giving it the littlest of strokes.

Imre's breath left her.

But then, like clockwork, his arm moved down and brushed her hoof off of his shoulder. "So long as the target remains at large, I do not have a home worth going back to..."

Imre's features melted. She trotted backwards from him, her face awash in tears.

Shell looked into the shadows once more. "I will live up to your mother's request, but... you are still an enemy of the state. I can protect you, even in spite of your abandonment of Pale Shelf years ago. It will cost me, but even from the front I can provide... resources to see to your asylum."

"Father, please..." Her voice wavered as she pleaded with him. "I'm begging you. Don't do this. Don't spiral down further. I know you must think that I hate you..." She hissed a little as she toyed with the folds of her robe. "And... yes... I have tr-tried so long to hurt you. But... Now I don't know anything anymore. I don't know what's underneath that exterior anymore... if there's anything left at all. Please..." She fought back a sob, "Speak to me. Speak to your daughter. Maybe... m-maybe something in there will remember what I'm talking about. Maybe he'll want to go back there with her..."

Shell didn't even look at her. "I can't. The matter is over, Imre. I've... delayed my pursuit long enough, and now it is time that I get back on track..."

She trotted backwards, stiffly now, and slumped into the chair. All the tears were gone, as well as the warmth in her voice. She droned into the candlelight as it faded before her. "Then, that's it, then? You're just going to chase her into the night? Even if it ends you?"

Shell shook his head. "Nothing will end until I have her seized. It's..." He took a heavy breath. "It's my burden to bear, Imre."

"Then it is a lonely burden." A shuffling sound. "I do not envy you."

Shell's eye fell to the floor of the cabin. "As... well as you shouldn't, Imre—"

A clap of thunder roared between the walls, magnified by a rush of blood to Shell's eardrums. He crouched, the very basic instinct of a soldier. Blinking into the wooden finish, he felt his chest, then his flank. Then he felt his heart, for it had just ran cold.

Breathless, he twisted around, then swiveled around. His eye widened.

The candlelight had blown out from the blast, its smoke joining a fume of another kind towards the ceiling. Through the darkness, Shell spot a limp leg lying on the edge of the chair.

Pale-faced, Shell trotted over. He spotted the cloak—loose on the floor—wrinkled then crumpled then soaked in blood.

"Imre...?"

A breath shot out of him. A second, sparked by the glint of silver as he spotted the pistol lying besides the pool.

"Imre...!"

He swooped down, grasping her shoulders. When he lifted her, only part of her head lifted up. The smell from within was pungent, and it brought a flash of gold before him, as if he could see with both eyes again. The yard. The cottage. The sunlit mane and a pair of chapped lips encrusted with blood, murmuring, pleading.

"Imre!" He wheezed, then wailed. Her name had mutated in his mouth, churned to a pulp by gnashing teeth as he clutched what was left of her, nuzzling the soft-as-snow coat to his cheek as the stallion that was left inside him melted instead. Shell sobbed for the first time in over a decade, and it was a horrendous thing, louder and hotter than any cannonshot, wavering in octaves that he had never produced in all the years that had scarred him.

He huddled there in the darkness for hours, cocooned in his own sobs, a beloved alone.

Goodbye, Farewell, Amen

"Well, this certainly will take care of the issue of harvesting the south fields," Lucky Strike said, his face positively glowing in the Aurum afternoon sun. "Provided, y'know, we don't make them all faint from vomit."

"Don't be an idiot, idiot," Tweak grumbled from where he sat on his cabin porch with his rear leg in a cast. "The south field is far enough from main street that they can till the earth and not be affected by our glowy glow..."

Lucky Strike raised an eyebrow. "'Glowy glow?'"

"Ungh..." Tweak ran a hoof over his forehead, wincing. "Sorry, brother. Blame the meds... or maybe the crazy elk with lightning brambles." He cleared his throat and smiled across the porch at the group of tattooed unicorns standing before him and his brother. "Forgive my fogginess. How long have we been here? Two days, ya reckon? We did talk this over, didn't we?"

A Xonan mare stood ahead of the group. She nodded with a smile before saying, "Yes. Most grateful. Most grateful for the offer. Not easy is it to give up land."

"What's to give up?" Tweak's face twisted slightly. "All of the sapphire reserves thin out nearly fifty meters north of the plot. We'd be wasting time trying to search the ground for more nodes. Besides, nopony owns the soil there, and I'm just sure unicorns like you could easily sow something with enough time and effort."

"We... ehhh..." A Xonan stallion searched for the words. He spun a hoof in the air, then brightened as a sentence came to him, "We come from harvesting tradition? Yes? Farmers, most of us."

"Figures that Nightshade would have picked on y'all then," Tweak said. "Well, t'ain't happening no more. We're gonna help you guys—and gals—get a new start in life. Y'all deserve it, for what your kids went through if nothing else."

"So long as we crystal ponies are here, no Killas or Searonese are gonna try invading Aurum," Lucky Strike said with a pleasant grin. "We have... uhh... a 'secret weapon' that'll keep them away in case they try to raid us."

"Yeah!" Tweak grinned. The 'glowy glow!'"

Lucky Streak snorted a laugh.

"With our magic, much crops and food to you," a mare said in an earnest breath. She folded her hooves together. "A promise!"

"Hey! We're in this thing together!" Lucky Strike exclaimed.

"Darn tootin'," Tweak remarked, pointing at the group. "Y'all ain't slaves no more. Consider yourselves neighbors. Our new... tattooed... superpowered neighbors. Ahem..."

"We're in this together!" Lucky said. "And we'll be helping each other! That's the way it should be, y'know?"

"Reckon we can teach Ledomare by example in due time," Tweak added. "Besides, it's not just us alone. We're gonna be having some fine help. Professor Cluck—"

"Clark." Lucky Strike hissed.

"Whatever," Tweak shrugged. "The smart dude with a mustache and gentlecolt speak. He says he's gonna hang around to help us get this shindig working. Apparently he has a history in real estate. That's a talent that's sorely needed around here."

"Yeah, why did we build right next to a big, gaping ravine anyways?" Lucky Strike muttered.

"Beats the Hell out of me," Tweak shrugged. "You seen one ravine, you seen them all, yes?"

The Xonans collectively chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"You... uhhh... sure the Night Shades will not come after us?" a stallion asked. "They had us in Deepest Ridge for big reasons..."

"Trust me," Tweak said, "Nightshade is history. If we've got anypony to worry about, it's the enforcers, but I seriously doubt they have a friggin' clue where we all are."

"Heck, Aurum wasn't even a place on the map until Searo's Hold collapsed!" Lucky Strike said with a proud smirk.

"Seriously, though, I think we'll be well defended." Tweak glanced over towards a muscular shadow. "Isn't that right, buddy?"

Crimson trotted across the porch with a nod. "That's right. Right after I come back from Franzington, you're gonna be seeing a lot more ponies around here... especially ones who know how to fight."

Lucky Strike raised an eyebrow. "You're convinced you can talk so many families into relocating?" He leaned his head aside. "Besides yours, I mean."

Crimson chuckled dryly. "If I know my wife and siblings, they'll be looking for an excuse to not lend our children and our grand-grandchildren to fight for the Confederacy anymore. We were always born as fighters, but never as servants."

Tweak whistled shrilly. "So much for tradition, hmm?"

Crimson's face took on a slightly dull color. "I'm a turncoat, a deserter, and—in some circles—even a traitor. The one thing I have to excuse the lives that have been lost in following me away from the front is that we were never ever fighting for a just cause in the first place. We were working for a machine that valued life as much as it valued scrap metal. You believe in a system like that, and it's far too easy to accept massacres as the common cold." He gazed up at the group before him. "I want to help build a society that has a firm grip on its integrity before learning to grip a sword. It may be too late to save many of my fellow soldiers—or even the Confederacy as a whole—but I can at least do something for the future of the continent, and it's right here in Aurum." He smiled at last, bearing a very calm breath. "I'll have you know that there are many ponies in Franzington who feel the same way. They simply haven't had the motivation to make a change."

"Until now..." Lucky Strike remarked.

Crimson nodded. "Exactly."

"I'd go there along with you, son," Tweak said. He sighed, gesturing towards his reclined body. "But, as you can see, I'm not exactly all that I'm... erm... cracked up to be..."

"Who's this magical space elk again?" Lucky Strike whispered. Tweak kicked him with his one good leg. "Ow!"

"Oh no." Crimson shook his head. "You're not going anywhere. You've gone on dangerous, selfless quests enough as it is." He pointed a muscular forelimb. "You're staying here with your wife and kids, good sir. Don't you worry. Our families will get to meet soon enough."

"Dayum well better," Tweak grunted. "I need to know if anypony in your household cooks better than in mine."

Several Xonans chuckled, as did Lucky.

"Don't you be yuckin' it up!" Tweak growled. "If I'm the one who's busted up, guess who's gonna be sampling Franzington cuisine in my place?!"

"Hey, I look forward to it," Lucky Strike said with a smile, winking aside at Crimson. "Why else do you think I volunteered?"

"Assuming everything goes smoothely, I'm afraid that we won't be bringing all of our family members and farming tools in one single trip," Crimson said with an apologetic face. "As enthusiastic as I am for the venture, it's going to take a while to make the move happen."

"Who the heck do you think you're talking to?!" Tweak grunted. "I know that, son! Pioneering was born in my blood! I'll be sure to lend a hoof to anypony with a Blades Guild seal on their vest once they get here!"

"And we'll be grateful for it," Crimson said with a nod. "Just think, Tweak. We're building a new union here, the promising future that I had always dreamt of for my family and our descendants."

"Ngggh. We get it. Just don't expect the honeymoon to last forever."

Crimson chuckled and trotted off. "I'd better go check up on the others," he said. "Floydien should be done with his latest engine tests by now."

"Shucks, is that why it's quiet enough to hear a mouse fart?"

"Sure, why not." Crimson trotted towards the far end of the field. The body of the Noble Jury loomed above the edge of the canyon, its levitating skystone fluctuating with alternating bands of red and lavender. He smiled to himself, enjoying the fresh breeze blowing over the sapphire fields. He blinked, noticing a figure to his left.

Phoenix was leaning against a chunk of blue minerals. When Crimson arrived, the horn-less unicorn stood up straight, took a breath, and spoke. "So, the Xonans are staying after all?"

"Yes," Crimson replied with a nod as he walked by. "There's a field just perfect for them south of here. It didn't really take much convincing to get them to stick around."

Phoenix nodded wearily. "They seem like really agreeable ponies, not to mention pleasant."

"Very true," Crimson said, then squinted at the stallion. "You could have been a part of the meeting, you know."

Phoenix sighed, limping to keep up with his commanding officer. "I didn't think it was my place..."

"Why not?"

Phoenix grimaced slightly, avoiding Crimson's expression as the two trotted side by side. "Do I need to spell it out for you?"

"Phoenix, from everything Bellesmith has told me, you've been nothing but an exemplary body guard, going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that she survived her journey through Blue Nova."

"I am also the reason for why this whole mess started to begin with," Phoenix muttered.

"Mmm... only part of the reason..."

Phoenix sighed. "Crimson, don't complicate the issue..."

"I could ask the same of you." Crimson stopped Phoenix in his tracks and swiveled to face him. "Look at me." His brow furrowed as he stared into the stallion's eyes. "I've fought with you, yelled with you, and sobbed with you. I'll maintain that through thick and thin, you've had every reason to see me as your commanding officer and nothing else. But as for me? I've been happy to have you as my fellow soldier. In my heart, though, I consider you and every stallion I've ever served with as brothers. And brothers forgive, Phoenix." He smiled as he spoke softly, "I don't think you need me to convince you that there are far worse enemies out there to contend with than you or me."

Phoenix bit his lip. His eyes moistened slightly as he eventually said, "I almost wish Zenith was still alive. I think... I-I think that if he saw this side of you, he'd never have made the mistake that he did..."

Crimson's smile faded a bit. After a breath, he said, "He's not the only one who's made mistakes." Resting a hoof on the stallion's shoulder, he added, "Let's see what we can do for the ponies who are still alive to reap the benefits of our actions."

"Aye, sir." Phoenix grinned nervously. "And... if it's alright with you, I-I would very much like to move here to Aurum with you. Uhm... provided my family is along for the journey, of course."

"Hmmm... Perhaps..." Crimson gazed at him with thin eyes. "On one condition."

"And what is it?"

Crimson playfully "punched" Phoenix in the muzzle. "See what you can do about growing that mustache back, then we'll talk."

Phoenix blinked awkwardly, until he heard Crimson's good-natured chuckle. "Eh... eheheheh..." He smiled with rosy cheeks. "I... d-don't know if it will make up for the huge gap in my skull now."

"Hmmm... grow a beard, then."

"Agreed."

Both stallions trotted off into the distance. Meanwhile. a pair of crystal colts gawked at several tattooed foals gathered around the dilapidated chunks of a Ledomaritan managlider.

"What?!" Roque gasped, his eyes wide as a beam of glowing light unconsciously rolled through his figure. "You've never ridden on the back of a friendly diamond dog?!"

"Uhm..." A hornless filly teetered away from him as if he was diseased. "No... d-do I want to?"

"It's only the coolest way to travel!" Nexx added in, hopping besides his brother. "Especially when you have no magic to move around on your own!"

Roque hissed, "Nexx! Come on..." He smacked the other's skull and pointed at the Xonan foals' foreheads.

"Whoops..." Roque's glossy ears drooped. "My bad..."

"It's fine," the filly said with a smile.

A tattooed colt trotted up from the group. "Have you ever traversed an integrated ring system of artificial geological structures conjoined and suspended within a chaotic pocket of cosmic space?"

"Buh?" Roque and Nexx buh'd.

The foals squirmed, glancing nervously at one another. One of the dozen finally said, "Perhaps it is best that you... sh-show us this diamond dog."

Roque blinked, blinked again. "Awesome!" he said with an exploding smile, waddling away, followed by his brother. "You're gonna love this place! Aurum is the bomb!"

"Only it doesn't explode like that evil place in the north!"

"Okay, so it's more like a bunch of fire crackers than a bomb."

"Even if our Pa doesn't let us play with fire crackers... uh..."

"Anyways! We're gonna have so much fun! Hehe! Come on!"

The foals shrugged, then followed the two colts in a parade of smiles and giggles.

Squatting on a chunk of sapphires and looking none-to-enthusiastic was Kera. Her green eyes reflected the prancing line of youngsters. Then, in a blink, they disappeared, replaced by a glazed look as the filly groaned and rolled over to face the sky.

"What a bunch of nopoopies..."

"I beg your pardon?" a female voice uttered.

Kera rolled her eyes. She sat up with a sigh. "It means they're bunch of noponies," she muttered. "Also, full of poop. Mostly it's about the poop."

"Now now, that's not a very good attitude to be having, Kera," Bellesmith said with a hard-lined smile. The slightest fringe of silk-brown fuzz had collected across her crown, and her chestnut eyes lit up in the afternoon sunlight. "They've been through as much as you, if not more so. They could use a friendly face in a time like this."

"Seems like they've got enough friendly faces as it is," Kera grumbled, gazing across the field as one of two colts awoke a shrieking canine by hopping on its backside. "By 'friendly,' of course, I mean 'stupid.'"

Belle chuckled before kneeling to be at even level with the reclined filly. "In light of recent events, I can't blame you for being less then enthused, Kera."

"Meh..."

"But you're not going to have a whole lot more time to spend with them, so it may be a good idea to part with them on good terms while you still have the opportunity."

"Double meh..." Suddenly, though, Kera did a double-take. She turned and squinted curiously at the mare. "Wait... what do you mean?"

"Well..." Belle tried to hide her blushing grin, fidgeting as her eyes darted from side to side.

"I'm... leaving...?"

Belle's teeth showed in her smile.

The foal's green eyes opened wider. "We're leaving?"

A black and white figure trotted up. "Well, I would hope so!" Pilate said in a chipper voice, smiling into the horizon. "Otherwise, I have no idea what Bellesmith and I spent the past three hours talking about—" He bumped clumsily into the crystal chunks Kera was squatting on. "Gah!"

Belle winced and pushed him back half a step. "Watch it, beloved."

The zebra's ears folded as he let loose a groaning sigh. "One of these days, I swear, I just want to make one smoothe entrance."

"It's a-alright, darling," Belle said, stifling a giggle. Failing.

"I don't get it..." Kera sat up, breathless. "What's going on here?"

"Well, Pilate and I had a long discussion."

"Uh huh..."

"We know that you really don't want to stay around here in Aurum..."

"Just as much as I'd like to stick my plot into boiling water." Kera's eyes narrowed. "Get to the point already!" she squealed.

"We've decided to take responsiblity for you," Pilate said. "That includes keeping you in our charge, finding you a home far away from here, and protecting you throughout such a trip that such would entail."

"Like..." Kera's voice cracked as she leaned forward on the tipping-ends of her hooves. "Like all the way to the dark side of the world?! Where Rainbow Dash is headed?!"

"Mmmm... At least as far as Lerris," Bellesmith said.

Kera leaned back, pouting. "Oh..."

"Kera..." Belle trotted forward, tilting the filly's tattooed chin back up. "I love Rainbow Dash. I really do. I have no doubt that Pilate and I would follow her to the bitter end, even if we could afford to venture to the edge of the world where she's headed. But, I can't imagine flying another mile... or even trotting a single step... without having you by my side."

"Uh oh..." Kera winced. "Is this where you're about to get mushy?"

Belle giggled, her eyes briefly moist. "I do love you, my little pony. And I would be happy... and h-honored to help find you a place where you deserve to grow up with safety and satisfaction."

"And I would be happy to help a filly that has brought so much joy to my beloved," Pilate said, wrapping a forelimb around Belle's shoulder.

Kera blinked at the two. "So..." She squinted. "Does this—like—mean that you two are my parents now?"

Belle and Pilate tilted their heads toward each other.

"Think of us as..." Pilate tongued the inside of his lips. "...adventure guardians."

"Huh..." Kera smirked slightly. "Yeah, I could totally dig that."

"Then you... are okay with this?" Belle asked, squirming slightly.

"Ugh..." Kera rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright already, Belle. Yes. I'm saying yes."

With an audible squee, Belle leaned in and nuzzled the child. "You won't regret this! We will take good care of you. We promise!"

Kera chuckled and tried to hide the rosiness in her cheeks. "Just promise not to brush my hair out anymore."

"No promises," Belle blurted, gazing guiltily towards the floor.

Kera tilted her head towards the stallion. "So, Mr. Pluto—"

"Pilate."

"Are you actually blind?"

"Yes, ma'am. Indeed, that I am."

She bit her lip. "So, like... do you know that you're a zebra?"

Belle winced horribly at that.

Pilate stared deadpan into the proverbial abyss. "Ahem... yes," he eventually uttered. "I do, as a matter of fact, know that I am a zebra."

"Okay. Cool. Just making sure we're all on the same page." Licking her lips mischievously, Kera hopped off her platform and scampered away. "Speaking of which, I've got a good few to flip with these guys before I say goodbye to them!"

"Be careful, Kera!" Bellesmith exclaimed, waving a hoof. "Play safe with them!"

"Pfft! Please! I'm the only one with a horn! They're the ones who'd need to be careful!"

"That's what I meant!" Belle half-shrieked. She sighed, leaning against Pilate's rigid figure. "Beloved, do you think we're making the right decision?" She gulped. "For her, I mean."

Pilate took a deep breath. "Well, by staying with us, and by taking a proverbial seat on board Floydien's Noble Jury, she is essentially signing up for a life of danger, destruction, and chaos at every turn."

"I know..." Belle said in a worrisome tone.

A beat.

"But, at least she won't be living on a farm," Pilate added.

Belle nodded fervently. "Agreed."

"Speaking of farms..." Pilate turned towards her and gave her a playful nuzzle. "You've been cultivating some remarkable knowledge of your own, beloved. I would very much like to know more about this 'cosmic ring' that you stumbled upon in your sequencing."

"Unngh..." Belle sighed, running a hoof tiredly through a mane that wasn't there. "Please, beloved. One thing at a time..."

Pilate winced. "I apologize, Belle. I certainly didn't mean to dig up a painful memory—"

"No, it's not that. I would love telling you what I learned. No doubt you would have much wisdom to shed on the topic."

"It'll be a little bit difficult," he said with a smirk as the two trotted across the lively field full of crystal shards. "Seeing as the only lexicon at my disposal is serving as some sort of fantastical energy core to a magical elk's ship."

Belle bit her lip. "I apologize..."

"Please, no need." Pilate nuzzled her again, leaning on her soft weight. "I'd rather distance that from my mind for the time being."

"Exactly..." Belle shuddered slightly as she said, "We've just been through so much, most of it because of Nightshade and her obsession over the ancient pegasi and their runes..." She gazed towards the floating image of the Noble Jury up ahead. "I'd rather focus on something that matters right now, like the fact that we're safe, that we have friends..."

"They certainly are a merry bunch of ponies, aren't they?" Pilate said with a smirk. "Not to mention eccletic."

"I'm a little wary of the fat one," Belle muttered.

"Who, Floydien? Our friendly pilot?"

"No, the other one."

"Hmmm? Oh. Josho, our friendly enforcer..."

"Yes. Do you think we can trust him?"

"Do you think we can trust Roarke, for that matter?"

"But Roarke has evidently sacrificed so much..."

"Josho has as well, from what I heard."

"Who told you this?"

"Eagle Eye," Pilate explained. "And he also assures us that he'll keep the stallion under his watch at all times."

"Wait!" Belle turned and gawked at Pilate. "Do you mean to say that... th-that Eagle Eye is coming along with us too?"

"Why, yes," Pilate said with a smile. "Didn't you know that?"

"No! I mean... that's great! It's just that..."

"Hmm?"

"Well, I figured that he wanted to get home to Franzington as much as Phoenix and Crimson..."

"Evidently he wants to find a home for himself beyond the limits of this continent."

"Come to think of it..." Belle tapped her chin in thought. "He did have a few less-than-pleasant things to share with me about his household once." She gulped. "And his father..."

"I do suppose," Pilate said with a nod. "He's a remarkable stallion with an inspiring spirit. I have no doubt that opportunity waits for him. I just hope he finds out where."

"I agree." Belle smiled. "And in the meantime, I'll have a pony besides Kera whose mane I can brush!"

"Hrmmm..." Pilate's jaw clenched and unclenched. "Don't push it..."

"Oh, beloved..." Belle giggled, nuzzling him dearly. "Don't let your stripes turn green! We've been over this..."

"I approve of his expert sight, if nothing else," the stallion said. "I do hope it counts for something."

"It does, darling. It does."

"I hear voices," Pilate muttered. "Are we nearing the Noble Jury?"

"Mmmhmm. And how..."

As the couple approached the ship, several ponies could be seen shoving a pile of crates out of the open cargo bay in the stern.

"Nnnngh!" Props grunted, then dusted her hooves off before flipping her sweat-slick mane back. "Whew! That's the last of the building tools that Mr. Handsome Horns was willing to provide! I dunno about you all, but I'm all boxed out!" Her eyes took on a sad glint. "You sure you won't be hanging ten on the eastward lavender wave with us, Jasper Wasper?"

Clark chuckled, shaking his head as he stood in the ship's shadow. "I am a gentlecolt of many talents. Navigation is sadly not one of them." He nodded towards the arriving couple. "For that, I suppose I should leave you in the capable hooves of Mr. Pilate. He is, after all, the continent's foremost renaissance zebra."

"I will miss hearing your genteel voice, Mr. Clark," Pilate said with a return nod. "May I ask what your plans are?"

"Yeah!" Ebon Mane panted as he shoved a box full of tools against another. "How the heck do you plan on making your way back west to the University?"

"Like anypony would..." Josho said, heaving two boxes down and leaning against it. "Ulpp!" He stifled a belch and muttered, "He'll hitchhike the death barges and hope a metal mare doesn't gut him."

"Actually, showing my face west of the Sapphire Ravine would not be opportune," Clark remarked. "At least, not at the moment. There's no telling whether or not I am an enemy of Her Majesty, after all." He bowed with a smile and said, "No, I'd much rather go where I am needed."

"Awwwww..." Props vaulted herself over the wooden stack and gave Clark a squishy, sweaty hug. "But what if we need your mustache?" She pouted. "Huhhhh?"

"Eheheh..." Clark gently patted her shoulder and forced her to let go. "I'm flattered. Really. But I'm needed a lot more here."

"Why's that?" Josho's face scrunched up. "You're rather thin for a doorstop."

"Perhaps, but I've got a great deal of experience in architecture as well as engineering. I can help these Xonans build homes that will last against any storm, be it natural or artificial. These ponies have gone through too much to suffer from anything unnecessarily trite now."

"Well, we think that's very nice of you, Mr. Clark," Bellesmith said. "And we will miss having your sensibility around to keep us sane."

"Why, thank you, Doctor Bellesmith. I don't think I've ever received a better compliment." Clark smiled. "Especially from somepony as esteemed as you."

In the meantime, Props had pivoted about to give Ebon Mane a sweaty embrace, nuzzling him. "Mmmmmm..."

"Gaaah!" Ebon wheezed for breath. "Propsy?! Why are you h-hugging me! I'm not leaving!"

"But you're so burgundyyyyyyy..."

Clark chuckled and said, "I trust that you two will be heading back to Gray Smoke."

"And how!" Props suddenly gasped, dropping Ebon like a sack of potatoes. "And we'll be sure to use our powers of pretty pony persuasion to get the engineers there to resupply Mr. Handsome Horns with all the special bits that Nancy Jane's womb could ever ask for!"

"Nnngh..." Ebon Mane struggled to stand back up. "B-But what makes you so sure that th-they'll be willing to assist us?"

"That's where you come in, Ebony!" Props ruffled his mane. "You're the 'pretty' part!"

"Derr..."

"Besides, I'll be using my lean-mean-wrenching-machine skills to make sure Nancy Jane's womb stays clean the entiiiiire way!" Props sang, charading dramatically with her hooves. "She deserves no better, ya think?"

"And... uh..." Ebon shrugged. "You ponies could definitely use a cook along for the ride. Besides, I wouldn't mind practicing my skills before I get to return to my workplace in Gray Smoke, assuming it's still open."

"It'd better be!" Props frowned. "Their Cloudy Bay Biscuits are to die for!"

"Unnngh..." Josho rubbed his plentiful, rumbling belly. "Stop torturing me, ya melon fudges..."

"What is with all of this spit of biscuits and wombs and dying?!" A voice shouted from above. "Are the boxes of clank-clank out of my beloved's behind yet?!"

"You can bet we de-grindered her hinder, Floyd-Boy!" Props called back. She giggled and smiled at the others. "He's so dayum hot. Reminds me of this one time my Uncle Prowse stepped out of the stallions' jecuzzi wearing nothing but these torn, wrinkly coveralls—"

Ebon Mane reached a hoof over Props' muzzle. "Ahem..." He smiled awkwardly up at the top deck of the Noble Jury looming above them all. "You doing okay up there, Mr. Floydien? It's a beautiful day! Why don't you come down and stretch your air-legs a little?!"

"The only creature that can stretch Floydien's hoofers is the one whom Floydien bent his antlers backwards to save!" The elk flashed a frown over the side of the railing. "Treat Nancy Jane nicely and she will return the favor!"

"And we did our job!" Ebon chuckled, shrugging his limbs dramatically. "We cleared all the junk out of the hangar! The Xonans and the crystal ponies are bound to find stuff useful here for their house-making!"

"Oh..." Floydien blinked, fidgeted, and blurted, "Then why all the spit?"

"We are simply saying our good-byes and paying our respects," Pilate said. "You're welcome to join us, Mr. Floydien. You're the reason we are all here, after all."

The elk made a literal buzzing sound before croaking, "Mouths within mouths! That's all the boomers are! Floydien wouldn't have shot a single spark west if it wasn't for paint bucketeering. No no no."

"Don't pretend that you're not being super gracious to us, Mr. Floydien," Belle said, smiling warmly. "By giving us this ride, you're helping more than just Rainbow Dash, you're helping us all get as far away from the Council of Ledo as possible."

"Most certainly," Clark added with a nod. "One simply doesn't do that without a smidgeon of kindness to motivate him."

"Don't be so glimmer-glimmed!" Floydien spat. "Mother Queen of stabby staby is an enemy to Floydien. And enemies to the queening are friendlying to Nancy Jane."

"I can only wonder if you have a goal in mind," Clark uttered.

Floydien's red eyes twitched. "A... goal... f-for Floydien?"

"Well, I certainly didn't mean to imply a goal for banana splits."

Floydien fidgeted, his antlers sparkling in the wind. With a chirping sound, a certain gray squirrel landed on the railing of the Noble Jury beside him, its tail twitching. Floydien gave Simon a dull glance, then spoke aside. "Floydien would... like to see boomers find their own homes. After all, Floydien already has one with Floydien's beloved."

"Awwww..." Belle smiled. "I think that's a very sweet way of looking at this journey."

"Not an invitation to fill Nancy Jane with spit!" He shot his head forward, making Simon bark in surprise. "And tell paint bucket that the bright boomer has the skies, but she does not own Floydien's beloved! Yes yes yes?"

"Erm... no no no, sir..."

"Affirmativing..." Floydien backtrotted and made for the unseen cockpit. "Now to hang antlers up to dry. Nnngh... Glimmer squeak never stops to leak. Yes yes..."

"Yeahhhhh..." Josho grunted, kicking at the dirt below him. "I'm going to fit right in with that."

"Uhm, if I may ask, Mr. Josho..." Belle fidgeted as Pilate tilted his muzzle towards her, but she continued anyways. "Do you have a destination in mind?"

"Wherever you bleeding hearts decide to kick me off, I bet."

Belle winced. "I didn't mean that—"

"No no... of course not..." Josho leaned back and scratched his neckbeard. "You gotta give me some space. I'm not used to being sober for this long."

"I... see..."

"Heh... maybe it's why I've made so many dayum crazy decisions lately." Josho smiled bitterly. "I had hoped I would have lost some weight before becoming an enemy of the state. I bet they need a billboard to show off my mug."

"Is it true that you nearly killed yourself in the battle against the managliders?" Ebon asked. "Before Crimson and Roarke grabbed you, I mean."

"Is that what I did? Shucks. I took so many of those mana-huffing buggers down that I didn't notice."

"Err..." Ebon squirmed.

"Look..." Josho sighed. "I can already tell that you're already uncomfortable with me." He waved a hoof. "I'm sure I can make do on my own, though it'll be a lot less sexy. Last time I slept in a forest on my lonesome was during R&R against a Xonan incursion of the Northern Straits." He winced slightly. "Boy, did those trees burn down in a blink."

The stallion froze there, his face wrenched in paleness and pain. It took him a few seconds to gather his breath, and it produced a wavering voice.

"I... I-I suppose I've got a lot on my hooves," Josho muttered in a low tone. "What, with all these crappy thoughts floating back up to me..."

Ebon took a deep breath and said, "We can help you with them... y'know. We can help you find a new life... not to mention peace with yourself." He smiled hopefully. "Since, I think it's obvious to everypony that that's what you want."

Josho squinted one eye towards him. "So, you mean it? You'd help me with the floaters?"

"Erm..."

"Heh... You're alright, sailboat..." Josho reached over and viciously slapped the back of the yelping stallion's back. "Even if your cutie mark is fruitier than Mr. Lavender Licks over there," he said, smiling towards the image of Crimson and Eagle Eye beyond a hill.

"Thanks..." Ebon Mane wheezed. "Don't mention it..." Props giggled beside him.

Several feet away, standing near the edge of the farmland's ravine, Crimson stood tall, his shadow casted partially over Eagle Eye's petite figure. Phoenix stood upon the fringes of the conversation.

"So..." Crimson fidgeted slightly. There was a vulnerable softness to his usually-chiseled brow. "You are sure about this? After all we've been through?"

"Uhm..." Eagle Eye smiled down at the ground as his hooves kneaded the earth. "I'd like to see it as being sure of it because of all that we've been through." He tilted his head up. "And because of all that you've taught me."

"I only wanted you to survive, EE," Crimson said. "So that if I died before my time, you would be able to—"

"Crimson..." Eagle Eye only had to gaze up at him. His smile leaned upon the precipice of melting.

Crimson gazed at him. He took a deep breath then spoke tightly, "I don't think I can sleep well at night knowing that you're out here alone somewhere..."

"Hmmm..." Eagle Eye brushed a hoof through his own mane. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what spouses are for?"

Crimson broke into a chuckle, shaking his head. "Eagle Eye, you know what I mean..."

"Of course I do." The stallion took a long, shuddering breath. "And... uhm... I-I hope you know wh-what I mean too..." He sniffled, the first tear running pitifully down his cheek as he fought for control of his quivering lips. "When I say... wh-when I say that I love you..."

Crimson slowly, slowly nodded. "EE, I understand completely—"

"No..." Eagle Eye squeaked, shaking his head. "No, you don't. I..." He gritted his teeth, clenched his eyes shut, and simply fell forward.

Crimson's forelimb caught him. It was just what Eagle Eye expected, and that's what tore the first sob from him.

"I love you, Crimson," Eagle Eye whimpered, his tender voice muffled by the stallion's muscular chest. "Y-you're my family, my hope, my everything. If it weren't for you, I'd never find a way t-to be strong all this time... to believe in myself..."

"But you are strong, EE," Crimson said, gently patting his back. "You're stronger than most stallions I know..."

A chuckle or two broke through Eagle Eye's weeping. He leaned back, drying his face with a hoof as he said, "That's cute, Crimson. But if it were true, then this wouldn't be happening." He gulped and murmured, "I need to do this. I need to go someplace and... and f-find that strength that truly belongs to me, that will make me the kind of pony I have always wanted to be. So that when the time comes that I can call myself 'strong,' I'll be home, and it'll be a place where I can share that confidence—and that love—with a pony whom I can inspire as much as you have blessed me. Because..." He choked on a final sob, then stood at a resolute height. "...it's not waiting for me in Franzington."

"But maybe it is, EE," Crimson said in a soft tone. "Maybe... maybe things will change. Maybe after all that we've been through... all that you've been through, your father and the rest of the household will actually think with their hearts for once."

Eagle Eye shook his head. "The only change you can be assured of is the type you make for yourself. And if my father did have a heart, I wouldn't have nearly gotten myself killed in the first place." He smiled at the two stallions collectively. "Maybe it's different for the two of you, but... you see... that's life: dealing with differences."

Phoenix smiled bitterly. "And you're sure tailing Rainbow Dash is gonna cinch it all for ya?" He gestured towards the eastern horizon with his horn. "She's certainly different enough."

Eagle Eye giggled, drying the last of his tears with a forelimb. "There's something I'll always admire about Rainbow Dash, even if she's sometimes a Ledomaritan-wrecking monster."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup." Eagle Eye nodded. "Above all, she's loyal to herself, and the rest just..." He shrugged. "Happens harmoniously. Well... eventually."

"Right..." Phoenix said. He sighed, his eyes thin and his ears folding slightly. "Egads, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm totally gonna miss ya, princess."

"You should have tried romancing me when you had the mustache."

"You kidding?!" Phoenix scoffed. "With a muzzle as ticklish as yours?!"

"Heeheehee..." Suddenly, Eagle Eye went ghostly white. "Wait. Howdoyouknowthat?"

"Erm..."

Belle and Pilate trotted over. "Oh... we apologize. Are we interrupting anything?"

"No! Not at all!" Phoenix said with a bright smile.

"My flank, they're not!" Eagle Eye glanced at the beloveds. "One second..." He then spun and flew forward into Phoenix's forelimbs.

"Gaaah! Oh for the love of the Spark—!" Phoenix wheezed.

"This is the nuzzle of the centuryyyy!" Eagle Eye cooed, rubbing his cheek raw against the other stallion's.

"Oh come on!" Phoenix grumbled. "If I only had a horn—Why didn't you just smother Crimson! He's the one whose lap you wanted to jump over a dozen campaigns!"

"Yeah, but he's married!"

"Argh! You're so stupid!"

"Heeheehee... I knowwww..."

While Belle giggled, Pilate trotted forward and tilted his head around. He eventually froze, then faced Crimson directly. "Crimson?"

"How'd you know I was standing here?"

The zebra smiled. "I can smell 'resilience' from a mile away."

Crimson smiled. "I'm having a hard time believing that I won't be seeing the two of you ever again."

"Why?" Pilate winced slightly. "Because... we have certainly cost you a lot, haven't we?"

Crimson's nostrils flared. He gave a good look around the farm, towards Tweak and Lucky Strike chatting amicably with the Xonans, towards the happy ponies gathered around the Noble Jury, then towards Phoenix laughing as he finally disentangled from an inarticulately happy Eagle Eye.

"Crimson...?"

"No, Pilate." Crimson shook his head. "You haven't cost us anything at all." He added in a soft tone, "As a matter of fact, quite the opposite."

Pilate exhaled as if a heavy weight was lifted from his shoulders.

Crimson saw it. He decided to clear his throat and say, "So... dare I ask what your next destination is?"

Pilate shrugged. "East."

Crimson raised an eyebrow. "Just that? 'East?'"

"It works for Rainbow Dash."

"Indeed." Crimson took a cautious step forward, casting a weary glance towards Belle and Eagle Eye. "But does everything that work for Rainbow Dash necessarily work for you?"

"It has so far, hasn't it?"

"In a roundabout fashion, I'm certain. But let's be honest here, Pilate." Crimson's face was neither sad nor cheerful. "With her constant fainting spells, with her impulsive tendency for wanton destruction, and with her habit of making the right friends in all the wrong places, do you truly, truly believe that she will make it to this 'Midnight Armory' on the dark side of the world?"

Pilate was silent for a while, before eventually uttering, "Austraeoh is larger than life, to say the least. She's destined for something grander than any of us can estimate, herself included. I have every reason to believe that she will reach her destination, but not by the power of sheer prophecy alone."

"Then what?"

Pilate smiled. "Why, her awesomeness, of course."

Crimson shared a chuckle with the zebra. After a few seconds, both grew silent, and the muscular stallion uttered, "And how long do you think you, Belle, and the Xonan foal will be able to follow her?"

Pilate opened his mouth, but lingered. His face took on a grayer tone as he eventually said, "As far as she is willing to take us."

Crimson somberly nodded.

A few steps away, a golden hoof tapped Phoenix on the shoulder. The stallion turned from sharing a last joke with Eagle Eye to blink at Belle.

"Hey, you."

Phoenix gulped and nodded. "'Hey' back..."

Bellesmith gazed at the floor as she said, "I... wanted to thank you before it was too late."

Phoenix shrugged. "For what?"

Bellesmith's eyebrows were flatter than the ravine's cliff. "Really...?"

Wincing, Phoenix blurted, "Bellesmith, all I did... I did because I owed you more than I could ever pretend to make up..."

Her sad eyes wandered above his brow. "And don't you believe you've earned your keep, Mr. Phoenix?"

He sighed and ultimately said, "Zenith is dead. Crimson lost his leg. And now Eagle Eye is going away." His gaze hung towards the floor. "I know that there have been a lot of good changes too, but I don't like how they all came about."

Belle reached forward and tilted his gaze up. When their eyes met, she said, "I want to thank you for reuniting me with my beloved."

Phoenix's face was wrenched with confusion. "But... h-how?!" He gulped. "It was Mr. Floydien and Simon who kept your mate alive..."

"And you kept me alive so that I may someday reunite with him," she said with glossy eyes.

"Ms. Bellesmith..."

"Shh... I mean it." Belle smiled deeply. "Pilate's not the only one who almost died."

Phoenix stared at her.

"So many times... I felt like giving up. I felt like just rolling over and letting fate pulverize me into the ground. And then... when sequencing in Nightshade's mana-driven trap, I finally gave into that despair. Praise the Spark that it was just a simulation, but I had finally given up all hope. And I realize now—now that I walk in the joy of the real world—that it wasn't just because I felt that my beloved was dead, but I was tricked into believing that you were as good as dead too."

"Belle..."

"And I knew that my last bulwark of strength was gone, and not even Rainbow Dash was in a place to save me."

Phoenix grasped her hooves in his. "You are the source of your own strength. Please, understand... I never saved you. I only ever assisted you."

"But if it weren't for your steadfastness and your sacrifice—"

"I think I've finally found a fault in you, Ms. Bellesmith," Phoenix said with a painful smirk. "You're far too humble. I think it's what allowed you to get caught underhoof by the Council back in Blue Shelf to begin with."

Belle blinked at that, as if stunned by the sudden implication.

"Look, I can't pretend to make any affirmative statements about your life. I can only make observations. And you know what I've observed?" Phoenix released her hooves and stood before her with a smile. "Rainbow Dash... Pilate... Kera... they would all be nothing if it weren't for you to keep the whole picture blending together. You do more than sequence spheres, Ms. Bellesmith. You bridge the gap between ponies. You're Eljunbyro after all. Well..." He nodded towards Pilate. "Half of it, at least."

Slowly, Belle blinked. She sniffled and said, "I'm very glad you got to live to see your family again, Mr. Phoenix."

He nodded back. "And I'm happy to see that you lived to... make yours..."

At that, Belle turned over her shoulder and smiled at the sight of Kera playing with a bunch of foals, giggling mischievously as she wrestled Roque and Nexx to the ground. "Yeah... heehee... imagine that..."

"Hey, uhm..." Eagle Eye spoke up suddenly, trotting circles in the middle of the group. "I hate to be Captain Obvious here... but..." He fidgeted. "Has anypony seen where Rainbow Dash went...?"

Losers and Winners

Roarke sat with her back to the east, facing the sunset. The reddening bands casted bright glints off the edges of her brass lenses. As her mane's ringlets clattered in the breeze, a sigh escaped her nostrils. Gone was the tightness in her usually-helmeted face. Everything was soft, sad, and silent.

"You'll go blind staring into it," a voice cracked from above her with a flap of wings.

And just like that, Roarke's jaw tightened immediately. "The sun doesn't mean the same to you as it does to me, genius."

"Still..." Rainbow Dash touched down. "No reason to hurt yourself."

"I'm fine..." Roarke grumbled. "Everypony's fine. There's nothing to hurt."

"There always is, y'know."

"Always what?"

"Something to hurt."

"Pfft. That your friggin' motto or something?"

"Actually, it's the total opposite," Rainbow Dash said. "But I never believed it for the longest time."

"Heh. So you admit it. You're a softie."

"The same softie who beat you to a pulp in the middle of a bombarded forest."

"Ungh... Don't remind me."

"Do I even have to?"

Roarke's ears twitched. "Hrmmmff..." She tightened her folded hooves beneath her armored body. "I'm not exactly 'talkative' material right now."

"Now, I don't believe that for a second."

"Why's that?" Roarke grunted.

"Because you haven't told me to buzz off yet," Rainbow Dash said. "Or flown away."

The metal mare was silent.

Rainbow Dash sighed and squatted down beside her. "The Xonans and the Aurumites have... uh... talked the 'talk.' On top of that, everything's all packed up inside the Noble Jury."

"Everypony's rip-roarin' and ready to go, huh?" Roarke droned.

"Uh... yeah. Pretty much."

"Good for you," she muttered. "You should ditch this place for all it's worth."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Who are you mad at the most, me or yourself?"

"For what?"

"For saving my sorry flank back there in the canyon three days ago."

"Why do you ask?"

Rainbow Dash shuddered. "Because you're starting to sound exactly like her."

Roarke winced. She hung her head, gazing into the sparse grass along the cliffside.

Rainbow Dash said nothing for a while.

The two sat there, staring at the melting horizon, as if it told the tale of all the battles and carnage that had ever burned in the fields beyond the ravine: a continent full of facist lunatics and ignorant souls.

"I used to hate this..." the pegasus eventually muttered.

"What, the silence?"

"No." Rainbow Dash leaned her muzzle down over her crossed limbs. The tips of her hooves toyed lightly with her ruby lightning pendant. "The sunset."

"Pfft. What's the difference between it and the sunrise?" Roarke glanced towards her. "Aside from you wanting to hurl yourself like a stupid missile towards one of them?"

"Because the sunset was something that I always—like—attached to the past... to a pony I was once dense enough to hate..." Rainbow sighed again. "It was all about regret and guilt too, I guess. The day goes dark, and it's like all the awesomeness is sucked out of the sky. I know lots of ponies where I grew up who would spout all sorts of pretty poetry and junk about how nifty the night would be. Aside from one spectacular princess, I can't think of anything about the night that I appreciate, cuz it feels like the day has lost in the end, y'know?" She gulped. "There's nothing I hate more than losing..."

"Really?" Roarke droned. "Why does that not surprise me?"

"I think you're a pony who hates losing too." Rainbow Dash threw her a thin smile. "So, like, it pains me to see you sitting here all lonesome and stiff and crap."

"Well, then, what in Searo's uterus are you doing here, then?"

"Because you know how much that glowy book thing is giving me a migraine," Rainbow Dash grumbled. "Really, I swear, they'd better fix that crap or this is gonna be a very short trip..."

"For real, Rainbow..."

Rainbow Dash fidgeted with her pendant, sighed, and let it go. "Because... I-I wanna know if you're coming with or not..."

Roarke glanced at her. "With you, you mean...?" Her lenses pistoned slowly in and out. "On board the Noble Jury..."

"Uhhh... yeah." Rainbow Dash gulped. "I think you could use our help as much you need ours."

"Is that all?"

"And... I think you could stand to win something in your life for a change."

Roarke's face was flat. With a cold exhale, she glanced towards the setting sun again. "Ever since you kicked my flank in Foxtaur..."

"Er... yeah...?"

"I've been banged up. I've had my manaship destroyed. I've lost money, metal, and a shot at the local matriarchy. I've gone rogue from the only ponies who respected me and become an enemy to the only ponies who were willing to pay for me."

"Eh..." Rainbow Dash's whole face winced. "Eheheh... uh huh..."

"So, you tell me, Miss Equestria..." Roarke glared at her, or at least as much as could be afforded by a scowl over her lenses. "How exactly is hanging out with you winning?"

"Would you... uh... rather be where you were before?"

Roarke was silent.

"With, y'know, metal 'sisters' at every corner, waiting to stab you in the back? Or at least throw you under Lady Porcupine's bus?"

"'Pestiferous.'"

"Whatever. Skull Face the Re-Ovaring. She got what she deserved in the end. Now how about you?"

"I just want some peace and quiet to think..."

"I'm sure we can give you that!" Rainbow Dash said with a bright smile. "While we're crossing a lake or sea, we're bound to hit some quiet spots!"

"Listen, why are you bugging me so hard about this?!" Roarke growled. "Why am I so important to heave along on your quest into oblivion?"

Rainbow Dash's ears folded back. Her lips quivered, and she gulped hard before saying, "Because... I-I need to know that... th-that I did everything that I could to save the lives of the ponies I care about." She shuddered before saying breathily, "And I don't think I've exactly done that..."

Roarke gazed quietly past the clifface.

Rainbow had to keep from whimpering. "Tell me... did she at least know what she was doing? Did she actually expect to... to talk some sense into him?"

Roarke droned, "Are we being bombarded by Ledomaritan ordinance this very second?"

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Uh... no?"

"Well, there you have it," Roarke said glibly. "She talked some sense into him."

"But this is Shell that we're talking about!" Rainbow Dash stood up and started pacing. "He's nuts! A hardcase! A psychopath!"

"Rainbow..."

"I don't think even his own daughter would have talked him out of trying to burn this whole continent down! It doesn't make any sense..."

"Could you at least sit still? You're rattling me straight through to my rivets—"

"Did you know?!" Rainbow Dash flashed her a frown. "At least tell me that!" She stomped a hoof. "Did you friggin' know that they were related?"

Roarke actually leaned away from her as she stammered, "I-I... I knew things, Rainbow... at least as much as she was willing to tell me."

Rainbow stood there, fuming at nopony in particular except maybe herself.

Roarke then said, "But I also knew that dragging Imre out of the Xonan lion's den wasn't going to do jack when I first met her. She was a pony who couldn't be saved, unless she so chose it herself. So, I gave her another opportunity to step up to plate. I brought her to Searo's Hold. And—well—you know the rest. She simply settled for what she had. I could have hoisted her to the burning rims of the north or south, and still she wouldn't have changed a single thing about herself... about her regret over the past."

"Is that what she finally did, then?" Rainbow Dash asked with a vulnerable voice. "Did Imre change... like... for us?"

Roarke opened her mouth... but lingered.

Rainbow stood before her, breathless.

Eventually, Roarke blurted, "Yes. I... I think she finally changed, Rainbow."

The pegasus' feathers drooped. She exhaled heavily, plopping down on her haunches. "I really do hope so. I've never known a pony so stubborn. All I wanted was for her to break the ice around herself and just be happy, y'know? She's so talented... so gifted..."

"Yes. I... I'm sure she'll be in a better place now..." Roarke gulped, staring into the horizon. "Thanks to you."

"It's not too late for you either, Roarke," Rainbow Dash said with a smile. "I mean, after Searo's Hold imploded and all, you were wanting to get away from it all, weren't you? Well... why don't you let us do that for you? Hitch a ride with us. I'm sure there'll be plenty of pit stops along the way to... er.... 'oil' a metal mare like you up."

To this, Roarke leaned back, rubbing the hydraulic ports along her chin with a metal hoof. "Hmmm..."

"'Hmmmmmm' what?"

"Well, you've got a bunch of floozies in your party," she droned. "Not to mention one or two who are simply vain nerds waiting to be smacked silly."

Rainbow sighed. "Uh huh..."

"And you do owe me a very expensive and very hard to build manaship."

Rainbow sighed even harder. "Uh huh..."

"But, then again, with you on board..." Roarke shrugged, facing the burning horizon again. "It's gonna be a crowded ship."

The pegasus squinted at that. "The fuzz do you mean by that?"

"You think a crowd that small could handle two flank kicking ponies like us?"

Rainbow Dash smirked. "You think tey'd have a choice?"

"Heh..." Roarke actually chuckled. "For once, I like your attitude."

"So come onnnnn..." Rainbow hopped up and down, her tail flicking. "What's the hold up? Say you're gonna come with?"

"I... I can't friggin' give you an answer that quickly," Roarke said.

"Ungh! Why not?"

"Because..." Roarke's nostrils flared. "All the smart things I ever did, all the stuff that made me 'Roarke Most Rare,' I did on my own."

"So...?"

"So, it stands to reason that maybe my path should remain just as solitary."

"Girl, buck reason!"

"Buh?"

"No, buck!" Rainbow Dash kicked at the air while smirking. "Like the stuff you do to Ledomaritan buttheads who need to know their place! Or underground monsters who wanna munch on you for a snack! Or rows upon rows of boring apple trees that need to..." She winced as she allowed the words to trail off. She slowly plopped her rear legs to the ground and sighed.

Roarke raised an eyebrow at that.

"Look..." Rainbow Dash glanced sadly at Roarke. "There was a time when I thought I was too cool for friendship. I just wanted to be my own mare... to be a legend... to be awesome." She gulped. "But then I realized that there was no point in being so wickedly cool if there weren't any ponies around to witness and say how true it was. So, like, I allowed myself to make friends—as many as I could comfortably afford at the time. Heh... Boy, did I get addicted to being buddy buddy with other equines..."

Roarke gazed at her. "It didn't last forever, did it?" she murmured.

Rainbow Dash blinked, her face taking on a painful twitch. "It... it didn't, no..." Expressions of confusion and shock conflicted with one another. "Funny... How long have I been flying around like an idiot for? Eight months? Nine? I was out for most of them, but still, it feels like forever." She glanced wistfully towards the west, her eyes melting with the sunset. "I... I only knew the gals for barely a year. I mean... that's only how long the bunch of us really, truly hung out."

Roarke glanced at the sunset, then back at Rainbow Dash.

"Crazy..." Rainbow Dash's whole body sagged as she bowed towards the dying light. "I wonder if it'll feel weirder as time goes by, if I actually get to live that long." She gulped. "And yet, those twelve months were the most important days of my life. And... and th-they're all gone now..."

A shadow crossed over her. Rainbow Dash looked up towards the sunset.

Roarke was standing in the way. "How do you measure time, exactly? What's awesome is awesome. If your old friends were still around, I'm sure they would proud of you."

Rainbow blinked. A tiny smile blossomed, accompanied by a light flutter of wings. "Yeah... h-hey, yeah. No doubt about it!" She clenched her eyes with an ecstatic grin. After a blink, she opened her crossed-eyes, then squinted at Roarke. "Wait, did you just totally say something nice to me?"

Roarke lurched back as if being dealt a punch to the muzzle. "Uhhmm..." In the penumbra of the broken sunset, her brown cheeks looked slightly rosy.

"There she is!" Kera's voice rasped over the eastern slope of the hilltop. The little foal hopped up and down as a lavender shape limped up to join her. "I toldja! I toldja she was up here!"

"Wow..." Eagle Eye blinked, followed shortly by Bellesmith leading Pilate. "You were right!"

"Heh! And everypony thought you had the good eyesight!"

"Well, you obviously have the most fabulous mane, so it balances out."

"Heeheehee—Yeah—Hey!." Kera frowned and kicked his fetlock.

Eagle Eye barely jolted. "Sorry, girl, but you gotta try harder. I'm too strong for that." He smiled... then smiled some more. With a belated twitch, the corner of his eyes watered.

"Ha!" Kera pointed and prepared to kick again.

"Kera, darling..." Bellesmith patted her outstretched leg as she and Pilate trotted by. "No kicking the cute ponies."

"Awwwwww."

Eagle Eye raspberried at her, only to receive a flung clump of grass. "Gaskkkh! Pllbfft! Plffbbt!" Kera chuckled again.

"Rainbow Dash?" Pilate spoke into the advent of twilight.

"Right here, Stripsey."

"Haven't we grown past that, Rainbow? Seriously..."

"Seriously, Pilate! Seriously!" Rainbow Dash reached over and ruffled his mohawk. "You're the most serious zebra that I know! At least you don't rhyme. Ha!"

"I... give up..." Pilate shrugged.

Belle did a double-take. "My stars! I think that's a first from you, beloved!"

"Eh..." Pilate smiled crookedly. "Show biz."

"Did you both climb Mount Awesome to bequeath me something important?" Rainbow asked.

"Ebon Mane has prepared a traditional Xonan meal for the families, and we thought you might want to join us for our last dinner in Aurum."

"How... uh... how did he get the makings for something Xonan?."

"Oh... he improvised," Bellesmith said with a smile. Then her ears went flat. "With a buckload of crystalline nuggets."

"Ah, I guess Tweak is taking the first bite."

"You're welcome to come take the last." Belle pointed at the pegasus' belly. "With how fast your wings were first to recuperate, there's no telling what kind of an effect it could have had on your metabolism."

"Whoah whoah whoah!" Rainbow Dash waved her forelimbs. "Watch where you point your hoof, Dr. Mom! You're supposed to be mothering that tattooed little shrimp over there! Not me!"

"Very funny, Rainbow Dash," Kera grunted.

"I know." Rainbow rolled her ruby eyes. "Shrimps with tattooes. They'd sooooo go for body piercings instead!"

Kera giggled.

"She likes your sense of humor," Pilate droned.

"Yes." Eagle Eye smiled. "Spark help us all."

"Well, somepony's gotta!" Rainbow Dash trotted into the middle of the group. "Celestia knows I don't!"

"Hahahaha... awwww..." Bellesmith leaned in and nuzzled the pegasus. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Rainbow. We're your friends."

"Heheheh... Yup. Yes, I know..."

As the group chuckled and gathered around the sapphiric sight in the middle of them, Roarke stood on the fringes, staring. Her mouth hung agape as she tilted her face to the side with a thoughtful expression.

At last, just as her tongue was starting to dry up, she swallowed and said, "Yes."

Rainbow Dash turned around as the rest of the group went silent. The horizon behind them was as dark as charcoal, but was just now starting to brim with stars. It was enough that the night felt lit up by Rainbow's mane alone.

"Whazzat?" the pegasus in question muttered.

Roarke took a deep breath. "I said 'yes,' ya smoke-brained Noble Jurists. I'm willing to join your little trek."

Pilate tilted towards Belle with a curious expression. Belle shrugged.

"Well, Luna poop..." Rainbow shrugged. "Sounds fine by me. After all, you can never have too many warriors in the party."

With a wave of the hoof, she motioned Roarke along. The metal mare hesitated at first, but ultimately stumbled down along with the group, heading towards an assortment of gathered tables between the farm house and the Noble Jury below. All the while, Kera hopped and hopped, telekinetically toying with the ringlets of Roarke's mane while Eagle Eye let loose a good-natured giggle.

"This calls for an awesome story... y'know... to celebrate?" Rainbow Dash brought a hoof around Belle's shoulder as she happily thundered, "Did I ever tell you guys about these really, really stupid minotaurs...?"

Toward the Sun

It was after darkness fell that the hovercraft arrived. Like a lone raven, it spun darkly against the ebony sky, then hovered up to the massive deck of the Steel Wing. Two enforcers in messenger vests trotted out, glaring evenly across the startled crew.

Captain Filta was ready to meet them. He marched up, standing tall and proud in his uniform. The pair of stallions addressed him, and he responded with a nod. One produced a holopad from his satchel. With a wave of a manastone, the circle of equine faces floated above the pad, glaring with disapproval. Triple sound stones broadcasted a terse message, and the light show was over just as swiftly as it had begun. Filta's features paled, but eventually straightened back out in an irreversible show of anger and frustration.

All of this, Enforcer Evans watched from afar. He craned his neck, gazing with pursed lips at the distant exchange. As soon as Filta swiveled around, his heart skipped a beat. However, the angry captain wasn't marching towards him. Instead, he made a bee-line towards the rear cabin doors of the ship, tailed shortly by the twin messengers.

Once Filta reached the nightlit entrance to the cabin, he banged his hoof repeatedly against it. "Shell?! This is Filta! Open up! The Council of Ledo has a message for you!"

Silence.

Every stallion on board the deck stirred nervously.

Fuming, Filta turned around. The crew members flinched, nervously returning to duty.

At last, Filta motioned towards the messengers. The two stallions approached the door. With both of their horns glowing, they forced the handles to unlock from the outside. Then, with identical precision, they flung the chamber open.

Filta marched in before them, and the stallions followed. The cabin's interior was dark, with a rustic stench filling the air. All three ponies waved their hooves before their muzzles.

"Nnngh... what in Queen's name...?"

"Shhh. Be silent and light the room up," Filta commanded.

Both stallions complied, their horns casting a cold, pale luminescence over the wooden contours of the room.

Their combined aura swam over a wooden table, a snuffed candle, and a chair that had been knocked over. At last, they caught the glint of gray coat hair. A body was huddled in the center of the room, rocking gently back and forth.

One messenger whispered something hoarsely under his breath. He silenced himself as soon as Filta took a thunderous step forward. "The Council of Ledo has spoken, Enforcer. It's over." He motioned firmly towards the stallion at his left.

"Ahem..." The uniformed messenger held up the holopad. "Prime Enforcer Shell of the Ledomaritan Defense Forse?"

All was silence and shadow, until a whispery sound rustled back, "Yes. This is Shell."

"Official as of seventy hours prior to this message's delivery, the Council of Ledo has found it in their wisdom to strip you of all command in the Experiment Extraction Campaign, the reasons being attributed to 'excessive delay, refusal to communicate with higher authorities, extreme loss of military personell, and inexcusable levels of collateral damage within and around the metropolitan district of Blue Nova.' You are to report to the Council within the Queen's Capital City in under thirty-six hours by any transportation necessary, or else both your life and position will be forfeit, and you shall be punishable by court martial, leading to imprisonment or even public execution."

Shell said nothing.

"Is the nature of this message clear to you, Prime Enforcer Shell?" the messenger asked, frowning.

"Did you hear him, Shell?!" Filta growled. "It's over! This mad-capped expedition has come to a halt!"

At last, something spoke from beyond the paleness. "My expedition... halted?" Shell's shoulders heaved, and a hissing voice came loose in two octaves at once. "That is not remotely possible." He turned around and looked up, half of his face caked in blood and tears. "I haven't gotten the target yet..."

"By the Sp-Spark!" one of the messengers jumped back, immediately reaching for his pistol.

Filta grimaced, his eyes narrowing. "Good heavens, soldier..." His eyes fell towards a lump of flesh on the floor. "What... what happened to her...?"

"She..." Shell's one eye twitched, and the rest of his face followed with it. "She wanted to go home..." Like a golem thawing from the ice, he rose up and trotted towards them in spasming little jerks. "So, she did. But I can't..." He shook his head, several strands of gray hair falling loose, dribbling blood onto the floor. "Not yet. It's flying away too fast. Just... just need to carve a door through it..." He raised a limp, broken forelimb into the silver light. "Like... a hole into the sky. That's why it's always been evading me, you see? It's... magic. Chaos. Demon magic."

"St-stay back!" the stallion with the gun stammered. "You've been ordered to st-stand down, sir! So do it!" he squeaked.

Shell's bloodied face tilted towards Filta.

Filta blinked. With a glowing horn, he slowly unsheathed his rapier.

The stains on Shell's muzzle cracked darkly as he flashed a frown. "She's home!" he bellowed, and his horn erupted like a cannon. Every loose object in the room flew forward. "You will not take her from me!."

Filta yelled, flinging a rapier into the madness. The soldiers beside him fired blindly. It was too late, for Shell was soon upon them with the gravity of a hundred screams.

Outside, a wave of noise rolled across the deck. Every stallion gasped and stopped what they were doing, swiveling to face the rattling cabin doors. Among them was Evans. The Enforcer held a hoof up, keeping everypony at bay. With a nervous shuffle, he galloped forward, stopping just ten feet before the door. The noise had ended as violently as it had begun. The silence to follow was frigid, penetrating.

With a gulp, Evans made to open the door, only for Shell to burst through, bloodsoaked and hyperventilating.

Several gasps flew across the deck. Stallions and crew members alike gawked at the Prime Enforcer.

He looked past them all, one twitching eye slicing across the east horizon like a determined falcon.

"Sir... what on earth—?" Evans reached for him.

Shell shoved his way past the stallion. He fell to his bloody knees, gulped, and wheezed forth, "Betrayers..." He gritted his teeth, heathed. "Snkkkt... they... th-they sought to assassinate me..." He raised a pair of hooves, laden with raiper wounds. "Nnnngh... the Xonans... yes..." He flashed his frenzied eye at the speechless ponies. "They h-have infiltrated the highest order of our Confederacy! The Council..." He choked on vomit, swallowed, and grunted, "The Council of Ledo is compromised... and th-they sent your captain... your captain and those..." He spun and pointed a quivering hoof into the cabin. "... those cowards to assassinate me." He seethed several times before resting his face into his bloodied hoof. "...and my daughter... they... they k-killed my Imre..."

Evans blinked. He turned towards the cabin and shone his horn in. Several more stallions looked in, and each of them gasped upon seeing the bodies of the messenger, the Captain, another messenger, and at last Imre's body... a dozen feet from where her horn lay across the ramshackle room.

"By the Spark..."

"Have you ever seen such a massacre?"

"In the Queen's name! What do we do?"

"Do?!" Shell hissed. He spoke while sucking in breath, "What do we do?!" He shot up on wobbling hooves, then spun about with an icy frown. For once, his breath had collected, and the old menace was again filling his lungs like a fine wine. "We do what it is in our powers to do... for this Confederacy that's betrayed by spies and turncoats on every side." He tilted his shimmering horn up. "We chase down that pegasus... that winged abomination! And we shut down this Xonan plot from the inside out! Don't you see?! They tr-tried to stab us in the heart, and they failed!" He stamped his hooves. "By my daughter's broken body... will we stand for this?! Will we accept defeat at this... th-this atrocity?!"

The stallions shared stunned glances.

Evans glanced once more into the bloody cabin, shivering.

"Enforcer Evans..."

The stallion jerked about, his eyes shrinking to pinpricks.

Shell loomed above him like a crimson totem in the moonlight. "Do I have your allegiance... your sworn devotion to serve me until we and we alone have eliminated this dire threat and brought glory to all of our brothers and sisters?"

Evans shook, shivered, then nodded with moist eyes. "You have it, Prime Enforcer." He gulped. "Your cause is mine to serve until the bitter end..."

"The bitter end..." Shell's nostrils flared. He slowly, coolly wiped the blood and muck from his face and flung it to the deck. His eye rose towards the stars as he snarled. "There will be an end, my brothers. But it won't be bitter. No... it will be righteous."

One by one, the stallions on board—just seconds ago frazzled and nerve-wracked—collectively stood at attention, their faces hardened like the thick hull surrounding them.

Shell marched ahead of the group, shouting left and right to the crew members. "Arm the cannons! Bring us about and plot a course..." He stood before the bow, his eye brighter than the stars, and just as far away. "Due east, nonstop! All power toward the rising sun!" He hissed quietly now, through his teeth. "For one of these mornings, blessed Imre, it'll light her death for you..."

Von Eagle's Express

Josho's lips stirred. His facial muscles creased, as if coming to life for the first time in a century. He turned over on a swaying wooden floor as his ears twitched from the sound of rhythmic clack-a-clacking noises. A small dish of water was moved towards his muzzle and tilted into his mouth. Automatically, his lips pursed, and he took a small sip of the cool liquid.

Then, after a couple of seconds, his brow furrowed.

"Wait a second... nopony is ever th-this nice to me..."

His bleary eyes opened.

Eagle Eye sighed, his mane in a mess as he gazed tiredly down at the larger, older stallion. "You ever think there's a reason for that?"

Josho blinked. His muscles coiled to spring.

"Wait!" Eagle Eye waved one hoof wildly. "You're attached to me, remember—?"

Josho shot up, yanking the smaller unicorn with him. The dish of water clattered across the wooden floor, splashing wildly. Josho looked around, his nostrils flaring. He saw stacks of wooden boxes, lengths of cargo netting, mountains of metal toolboxes, and rows upon rows of cabinets. Everything was swaying and rattling around him and his unwitting companion in that claustrophobic space.

"...and there goes my chance to wet my own whistle," Eagle Eye muttered, struggling to step back up.

"I'm alive," Josho grunted. "Why am I alive?" He blinked. "And with you?"

"Well, there was the cliffside—"

"The boulder," Josho uttered spastically. "We were riding that giant rock like a working mare out of Blue Garden."

"Uhhhhhh... well maybe one of us was." Eagle Eye cleared his throat. "And then we fell into the river—"

"And then we died," Josho droned. "We should have died." He grumbled. "Why aren't I deader than a yardstick stuck in a latrine?"

"Look, I'm getting to that, you oversized bear rug!" Eagle Eye grunted, stamping his hoof. With a sigh, he ran a forelimb across his tattered bangs and said, "So, we hit the river, and you plunged in deep... erm, into the river, that is..."

"Do you really have to be the one explaining this—?"

"And, like, I was totally fine and stuff. But you were one big dumb object, and I nearly drowned trying to keep us both afloat. So..." Eagle Eye gestured with his petite hooves. "I paddled us both to shore—"

"You... swam us both to shore?!" Josho narrowed his eyes. "You, Miss Lightweight McNuzzlesomepony?"

"Look, don't give me flak about it!" Eagle Eye grumbled. "It was really, really hard! Not to mention smelly!"

"Smelly...?"

"I swear, you couldn't dry out in the sun fast enough. Sitting next to you felt like sharing a sauna with a wet moose and a bucket of dead sardines. So, anyway, I started a fire and tried doing smoke signals to attract attention. I didn't have much in the way of flammable kindling, so... I kinda sorta used some of your mane..."

"Wait, huh?!" Josho ran a hoof up to his head. Half of his scalp was missing, and the other half hung over his horn like a horrible, gray combover. "Gah! Why, you dirty little honeymoon stain—!"

"So, yeah, that got the fire realllllly smokey. Eheheh..." Eagle Eye smiled nervously. "And, someone came. A lot faster than I had expected. But, they weren't exactly ponies. I asked them if they could break our bonds, but they... uh... didn't seem interested in that."

"What do you mean they didn't seem interested in—?"

"Still, they had a ticket out of here. First, it was by wagon. Then, it was a supply cart. Then they took us to this station, and... erm... well, they had room in this boxcar at the rear of the line..."

"Boxcar?" Josho blinked. "Wait, do you mean...?" He turned around, then galloped towards a sheet of glass above several cabinets.

"Gaaah!" Eagle Eye shrieked, flailing on the end of his anchor to the older stallion.

Josho propped himself up on his rear hooves and squinted out the window. He saw passing pine trees, along with distant hints of towering sapphire shards. The air was turning a misty gray with the hint of prevailing snow. The atmosphere was thin.

"Hey, uh, fruit kennel..."

"Do I really... really have to reply to th-that?"

"Why are we in a train?"

"Cuz that's where they put us after the wagon ride and—"

"Why are we in the mountains?"

"We've been on this track for quite a while, but—"

Josho took a careful measure of the sky. He squinted, then turned to glare at Eagle Eye. "And why are we going south?!" he hissed.

"Oh, is that we're heading?" Eagle Eye smiled nervously. "Uhhhh... that might explain why I've heard so many birds crying outside—"

"Nnnngh..." Josho slumped back down and facehoofed. "I never thought I'd have to kill a living, breathing femcolt while sober."

"Hey!" Eagle Eye frowned. "I did the best I could to keep us in one piece! I could totally have ditched your big, fat body on the shores of that river if I wanted to!"

"Oh yeah?!" Josho growled, raising his left hoof and pointing at the purple-glowing manacle. "With what?!"

Eagle Eye gulped and shrugged. "There were... lots of sticks, y'know?"

"Unnngh..."

"Oh, and rocks. Lots of those. I considered tossing a few of them into a forest, figuring it would summon a cougar or—"

"You do realize we're traveling even further away from—"

"From what?!" Eagle Eye narrowed his eyes. "One of your expeditions?"

"Anything! Civilization!" Josho gestured wildly while talking. "Any group of living, sentient things that aren't metal cocooned freak mares or bipedal canine fartbags!"

"Poetry aside, I'm not clueless." Eagle Eye folded his forelimbs. "All you really wanna do is find a Ledomaritan encampment and turn us both in!"

"Way to get a friggin' clue, ya overcooked kettle of pink kumquats!" Josho snarled at him. "Of course I wanna get back to my unit, turn you in, and find a tall bottle of joy water! But you just couldn't have that, could you?"

"Can you blame me?"

"Honey, I could break your head over a bar counter if I knew it'd leak more than bullcrap! Just who have we landed with, huh?!"

"Well..." Eagle Eye fidgeted. "Uhm..."

"And just how could they possibly have been a better choice than a company of my fellow stallions of war—?"

Just then, there was a rattling sound above the rhythmic rocking of the train.

Josho and Eagle Eye turned, watching as something unlocked the door to the next compartment ahead...

Food for Thought

Sunlight glistened off the polished, curved towers of Blue Nova.

Several skyscrapers hovered above others, being levitated by glimmering rows of strategically placed mana crystals. Beneath these super structures, bridges, walkways, and even more buildings loomed in the shadows of the upper spires. The entire city possessed a deep blue luminescence, even in the lower avenues and concrete ravines populated by the Ledomaritan denizens of the metropolis.

Down in the back alleyways of the bustling city, ponies trotted back and forth: most of them in pairs, reuniting with friendly nuzzles as they went about discussing the business that had been concluded for the day. The afternoon was a long and restful thing in the city hubs of the Confederacy, and it was no less enjoyed here.

As a result, the streets emptied as most ponies retired to their lofty apartment balconies or the patios of nearby eating establishments. The putter and hum of airships rolled overhead with less frequency, mooring to various docking stations located along a vertical spindle built in the center of the city's northeast industrial district.

Deep within the darkest pockets of the urban expanse, as the motions of the day dwindled to a low hush, a mare sat with her flank against the concrete wall of a thin niche, curled up in a brown cloak. She raised a book in her yellow hooves, tilting it to the left and the right. As it faced northeast of her location, a symbol emblazoned across the front binding shimmered with lavender energy, illuminating a deadpan face with a shaved mane.

Bellesmith sighed slowly through her nostrils. Her forelimbs lingered where they held the book towards the mysterious source of its illumination. Groaning, she lowered the tome and gazed up at the incalculably huge skyscraper looming front of her.

"Where are you...?" she muttered aloud. After a gulp, Belle hoarsely added, "What are you? And just what are you doing here?"

The mare wasn't afforded the silence to entertain this question. A sharp scuffle echoed down the tiny niche from her left.

She jolted, pulling her cloak tight and squinting through the shadows.

A tall figure trotted towards her, his cloaked body silhouetted against the light from the adjacent courtyard behind him. "Relax," the stallion whispered. "It's just me."

Belle exhaled long and hard. She sat back on her haunches within the cramped niche and lowered her cloak's hood a bit. "Crimson taught you well in the stealth department."

"The Xonans had crystal motion sensors lining the trenches where we initially fought," Phoenix said as he trotted over to her side, squatting down and fumbling for something within the confines of his cloak. "Being quiet and soft-hoofed was the name of the game. It certainly helped us in Foxtaur... well... for a while, that is."

Belle shuddered. "Yeah..." Quietly, she slid the tome away into Princess Luna's saddlebags. With a gulp, she asked, "So, did you get any more information?"

"I got something better than information," Phoenix said. "Well, for the moment, at least." He finally pulled his hooves out from his cloak, revealing two loaves of bread.

Belle's brown eyes twitched, reflecting the tender dough. She glanced aside. "How...?" She bit her lip. "You didn't show your face by begging, did you—?"

"Heck, no. I know I'm pretty low right now, but I'm not subterranean." He gave her a goofy grin.

She merely stared at him.

"That... uhm..." He waved his hoof between them. "That was a joke."

"It was not a very good one."

"Yeah, I know." He cleared his throat and shifted the loaves of bread in two hooves. "I.. uh... swiped these from a table of an outdoor restaurant about three blocks away when the waiter wasn't looking. This appears to be the 'happy hour' of Blue Nova. Everypony with a bit bag is going out to eat somewhere. I wonder if it's a holiday or something."

"No..." Belle shook her head. "It's Evening Jubilee."

"Evening what?"

"The daily hour for beloveds to dine and share their experiences of the day—" Belle squinted at him. "Did you ever spend time in a Ledomaritan city before?"

Phoenix shook his head. "Just because I tried to defend this place didn't mean I bumped elbows with the local color."

"Well, the sun shines differently on every city. The color's always different." Belle gazed silently at the bread. "In Mountainfall, we had group dinners outside of the university..."

"I... uh..." Phoenix shrugged. "I had something similar to it. Back in Franzington, I mean. Family always ate together at sundown. Family's a big deal... uh... back home."

"Yes..." Belle nodded, avoiding his gaze. "I suppose that makes sense."

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Phoenix said, "Well, I may not be able to celebrate my dinner, and you may not be able to celebrate yours. But..." He held the bread forward. "Would you do me the honor of feeding your body something anyways? It's been an awful long time since you ate last, Ms. Bellesmith."

She managed a weak smile. "I appreciate it, Phoenix." She graciously took some of the bread from him and lowered her robe some so her forelimbs could have more freedom to move. "It means a lot that you'd go so far to get this for us."

"Well, there's really no other way to go about doing it," he said, instantly taking advantage of the moment by chewing a mouthful of the slightly stale meal. "Mmmmf... it's not like... mmmf..." He gulped. "Not like I can just walk up to any storefront and start asking for directions." He took another hungry bite. "After all... mmmf... we're starved Mintian vagabonds."

"I've never known a monk to be a 'vagabond,'" Belle said, gazing dully at her morsel. "But, I do suppose you and I are humble enough to pass as the real deal, so long as we don't speak to the locals... unless we absolutely have to, of course."

Phoenix munched, pointed, and swallowed before saying, "Would ya eat? We're gonna need your strength too, ya know."

"If we got in a fight, I don't think I'd be of much help."

"I mean for that brain of yours!" Phoenix hoarsely exclaimed. "I mean, you have been figuring out where we're supposed to go next." He blinked. "Haven't you?"

Belle didn't reply. Instead, she chose precisely that moment to take a hearty beat. She chewed for the better part of a moment before gulping daintily and saying, "I'd get us going this very second if I wasn't so terribly confused."

"Confused?" He eased down on his haunches and sat perpendicular to the mare within the cramped niche. "In what way?"

"We've trotted and trotted for circles," Bellesmith muttered, gazing down at her saddlebag where the tome reted. "And I can't figure out what's making the rune light up."

"Well, whatever it is, it's here in Blue Nova, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, I know that," Belle said, her voice gravely for a moment. She squinted into the shadows as she thought aloud, "But it's almost as if the source is somewhere above us..."

Phoenix's mouth hung open, but he lingered before taking another bite. He leaned forward, his eyes narrow. "Come again?"

"That's precisely what vexxes me too," Belle said. "The only sort of thing that has ever caused runes like this to glow is the same ancient energy that appears to empower Rainbow Dash. But, from what she's told me and from what she's seen, that sort of thing has only ever been located beneath the earth's crust."

"In those... erm..." Phoenix blinked. "...machine rooms, right? Isn't that h-how you explained it to me?"

"I don't think I have the authority to explain it," Belle remarked. "I don't think even Rainbow Dash could! Whatever these runes are connected to, it's something older than time."

"Yeah, and...?"

"If I didn't know better..." Belle tilted her head up towards the immense tower looming over them both. "I'd say the book was telling me that something just as equally important is located inside this building right here."

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. He glanced numbly up at the skyscraper. "This building right here?"

"Right."

"Why this building?"

"Over the past twenty-four hours, as we've walked around it, the book appears to light up only when I point in its general direction."

"Huh..." Phoenix rubbed a nonexistent mustache in thought. "Interesting that it'd be this structure."

"What?" Belle turned to squint at him. "Why's that so interesting—?

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, but just then his ears twitched. So did Belle's, as both ponies heard bombastic music playing. It was as if an entire symphony had been dropped down on their heads, spilling down each end of the slender niche within which they were huddled. Looking up, the two saw the air splitting from the dark shadow of a low-flying zeppeling idling overhead. Hints of blue banners and glowing purple manalight streaked by, and several large speakers were blaring, broadcasting the anthem, followed by the crackling capture of an announcer's voice.

"That's right! Workers and travelers! Beloveds and families! Nightshade Industries invites all good subjects of Ledo to attend today's weekly presentation at the Blue Nova Court! The Madame's trusted clerk, Sir Ordo will be there with some exciting news from the front! As well as the month's latest stock report! Don't keep the faithful Ordo waiting! Be there, beloveds, and may the Spark enrich everypony this fine evening!"

Bellesmith blinked, staring up into the shadow of the passing zeppeling high above. "Nightshade Industries..." She bit her lip, her eyes seeing a campfire in each blinking motion of her lids.

"I was just about to tell you, this building right here—the one you're talking about in particular? I've seen tons of ponies marching in and out of it during my walks as I've tried to gather info of this place." Phoenix fidgeted as he said, "I dunno who Ordo is, but they keep talking about this 'Nightshade' lady. Come to think of it, the name is pretty familiar. A lot of our Ledomaritan stallions-in-arms had the name showing up on their regularly issued gear. Like... horseshoes, hygiene products, rations and the like. Boy, I tell you... we Blades Guilders felt pretty envious from time to time..."

Belle reached a hoof up. She felt her stubby horn, her ears ringing with the words of blue-uniformed guards, barely a day and a half old. She frowned, then jumped up to her hooves.

Phoenix blinked up at her. "Erm... are we going somewhere?"

"I believe we are," she said, adjusting her cloak as she made for the far end of the alley. "Something tells me we're late for a presentation at Blue Nova Court..."

"But... But..." Phoenix scrambled awkwardly after her. "The br-bread...!"

Good Morning Already

The morning sun's rays glittered off the alabaster skyrises like gravestones. Below the looming spires of the sepulcher-gray city, unicorns and earth ponies from all trots of life wandered the wide open courtyards, carrying on with various means of business between the majestic, circular walls of the spacious metropolis.

Most of the equines trotted in pairs, with loving couples pausing at street corners to nuzzle each other and exchange warm wishes before splitting up and heading off to their individual occupations. Strolling slowly through the bustling crowd, mules, rams, and other work ponies carried carts full of mana crystals and other sensitive wares from one destination to another.

Every now and then, a thick line of unicorn soldiers—each bearing an identical uniform and a purple beret—marched as one through the crowd, carrying swords brimming with electrical energy. High above them, zeppelins and swift aircraft gliding on filtered mana darted between the towers. The city's height was a spectacle all on its own, with cylindrical skyscrapers literally hovering above the lower buildings via interconnecting concrete bridges supported by propulsive, magical crystals.

Banners fluttered from where they hung between sapphiric buildings and pale spires. The ornate profile of an elderly mare loomed in dozens of places and across several walls above the ponies' heads. Her glinting, regal crown was almost as sharp as her glare, and beneath her—repeated in bold text—were the impressionistically enscribed words: "Honor Queen Ledo – Patron Matriarch of Blue Nova."

The air turned gold as the rising sun of dawn swam its way over the urban vistas. All was the continuous murmur of city life, interrupted every now and then by the roar of mana-powered ships of war rocketing eastward towards the enemy front. While adults trotted in and out of granite buildings, engaged in bickering sales or casual conversation, a tiny cloaked figure galloped through the criss-crossing crowd.

A little foal darted left and right around the routinely strolling bodies of ponies. She squeezed under a hovering blue cart, leapt over a gutter full of garden water, and ran down a narrow cobblestone alley echoing from puttering airships high above.

Threading her way across the city, she headed towards the lower districts, leagues away from the highest skyscrapers. A rancid smell filled the streets, accompanied by the noise of endlessly squawking fowl. With a panting breath, the filly drew her cloak tighter, approached a tiny crack in a wall, then sild her way through.

She came out the other side, crawling through muck. Without the least bit of hesistance, she dashed over towards a pile of refuse and gazed cautiously around the side of it.

Stretching out before the tiny foal was an immense courtyard that had been reduced to a smoldering landfill. Heaps of garbage burned, churning smoke and ash into the air. Lining the edges of the concrete partitions were several metal doors built into the ground. As the foal watched, several large crystal-operated machines were busily shoving chunks of debris into open chutes, out from which the tell-tale breaths of an underground furnace billowed with fury.

The foal shivered for a few moments. A tiny mouth bit its lip—then gasped in surprised as the hooded filly glanced up towards the sound of a rumbling engine.

A grimy, rusted zeppelin was hovering down, its mana-generators struggling to keep the heavy dirigible aloft. The flocking birds clambered all around the vessel, poking and clawing at its hull. A loud, bass horn emanated across the wastelands. The soot-stained operators of the machines rolled out of the way as a pair of bay doors at the base of the transport craft opened up. A fresh mountain of rank garbage sloshed over the center of the landfill, piling the gunk high for eventual incineration. The birds immediately flew down and perched on the mess, pecking everywhere their beaks would let them.

The filly gulped, glanced over her shoulder, then made a courageous run for it. Panting, she galloped through ravines of steaming garbage. The morning light glinted through the smelly haze—like a hue of alien gold touching the miniature wasteland in the heart of the city. She kept low and waded through the sea of filth, jumping every now and then with the grace of a dolphin, her nimble little hooves careful not to land in the wrong spots or else she might sink.

Soon, with fluidic finesse, she sped her way to the side of the mountain of junk. She reached into her cloak and produced a small club which she gripped in her mouth. Unabashedly, she slapped at the first few birds perched on the wall of gunk. After receiving a few merciless smacks, the gulls flapped away, unwilling to test the pony's wrath.

With a victorious breath, she slid the club back and dug into the mess, elbow deep. A few bangs of frazzled emerald hair dipped out of her hood, but she slid the fibers back—almost detesting the touch of her own mane more than the festering garbage she was shifting through.

From the other side of the fresh hill, she heard the sound of trotting hooves and bickering young voices just a few years past her age.

Suddenly hyperventilating, she dug and tore through the trash with greater vigor. She tossed aside glass bottles, spent mana cartridges, food dishes, and various disposable tools of pony hygiene. At last, a victorious breath escaped her.

There was a paper bag, partially folded up and only barely soiled. Frantically, she ripped the thing open and shifted a hoof through it.

The hoofsteps of strangers came closer, their voices growling. "Kera?! Kera, is that you?! Ungh!" They were galloping now, casting menacing shadows in the scant rays of golden light. "I swear by the Spark! If you beat us to the good stuff again, we're gonna send your motherless flank back where you came from!"

She pulled out a steak bone, a bent fork, a drink container and—

A pair of green eyes lit up from beneath the hood.

With two tiny hooves, she pulled loose a red apple, and it was miraculously whole. The shine of the fruit literally brought a crimson glow to the landfill. A bright smile reflected off the surface, along with several swirly lines across foalish dimples.

"Do you hear that? Breathing!"

"Kera! It is her!"

"What's she have in her hooves?! Queen's nipples—Get her!"

Stifling a yelp, the foal clasped the apple between two sets of teeth and galloped away. Sticks, bricks, and tiny rocks landed all around her as the youthful shadows dashed around the corner, making chase.

She was too fast for them, darting in and around abandoned garbage haulers and discarded mana engines. As the cluster of street urchins coalesced into a thundering herd, she was already squeezing herself beneath the crack in the wall and emerging victoriously on the other side.

Pulling the apple out of her mouth, Kera held the round fruit, smiling with each pant that billowed out of her lips. Then, with a sudden jerk, she glanced both ways down the street, tore down an alleyway, and ran for four blocks.

Eventually, she came to a tight corridor located in the crook of several looming skyscrapers. The roar of mana engines thundered down the concrete ravine, making her ears twitch as she squirmed through a tight slit and approached a shantytown made out of densely populated lean-tos and delapidated shacks. Here, the bowels of the city consisted of non unicorns: earth ponies and gazelles and rams who stumbled from hovel to hovel, their faces blending with the miserable shadows of the place. Equines coughed and beggars murmured unintelligibly as Kera sprinted past all of them, squeezing her way into yet another tunnel through which only a foal of her size could fit.

She climbed up a rusted rain spout and slithered her way towards a winding alcove hugging the base of a gigantic spire. Here, no adult pony could reach, much less see from the upper streets. Still, a sliver of golden dawnlight managed to waft through, illuminating a series of cushions and a ragged blanket, along with a metal locker full of meager knick-knacks.

With one lasting breath, Kera plopped down on the moth-eaten pillows, shaking loose the smells and sweat of the morning. She cradled the still-ripe fruit to herself, even going so far as to nuzzle it with a smiling cheek.

"Mmmmm..." She slid her hood back, revealing a peach coat beset with several jagged, swirling patterns—seemingly etched into her skin. A tiny horn glowed at the tip, illuminating her tangled mess of emerald hair and shimmering green eyes. Sighing into the morning, she sniffed the fruit one last time and actually giggled. "This is a good morning already..."

That said, Kera hummed to herself and leaned in, taking the first succulent bite of food in days.

Queen and Country

In a slow exhale, he gazed at the table full of sharp instruments, until the spark had finally died from his eyes. His horn glowed, showing a beam of pale blue light across the tiny, cramped room. He picked up a scalpel from the nearest tray, the only blade that wasn't stained, and his voice reverberated in a lukewarm tone across the rusted domain.

"We are done," he said. "I have all we need to know. I shall..." He lingered slightly, his mouth hanging open as a pained expression flashed through him, then cleared like a winter's cloud. Finally, he finished with, "I shall end it for you now."

A sputtering voice murmured hoarsely from behind. "Beloved..."

He swiveled around, his hooves dragging through a crimson puddle as he gazed upon her.

She laid on a rusted table beneath a single bulb of cold mana-light. The only part of her still sealed had a coat as smooth as golden silk. When she looked at him, the tears outran the blood.

"Just pr-promise me... that wh-when this is over..." She choked and hissed, "You w-won't do to her what you've done to me."

Better Than Boats

Two other foxes had clambered out of the box car behind the two stallions by the time the ponies had fallen down into the body of the train beyond view. "What the crap is going on?! We thought you had this handled!"

"And I almost d-did!" The one fox ahead of them rearranged his eyepatch and started scampering towards the train car with a hole in its top. "The frickin' hoofers knocked me around like a ragdoll and then plunged into the next compartment!"

"Jeez!" One of the two foxes grunted as he ran alongside his partner. "You let them inside with the merchandise?! You idiot!" He panted into the wind above the train. "What if they—?!"

"Oh please..." The three creatures stood on the edge of the neighboring car, glaring into the hole with their weapons drawn. "As if these grass-eating yuckjobs have the brightest idea how to pilot them—"

The car in front of them exploded. The whole train wobbled on its tracks. All three foxes fell on their orange tails under a spray of wooden shingles as a shiny metal vehicle throttled up into the air, hovering on bright blue mana thrusters.

"Hah!" Josho snarled, his hairy muzzle grinning from ear to ear as he tightened his hooved grip of the sleek managlider's controls. "If the Spark wanted foxes to fly, it would have given birth to them with bottlerockets shoved up their butts!"

"H-hey!" Eagle Eye flailed, dangling off the side along the length of his magical binding. "I'm coming loose!"

"Tell me something I haven't figured out on my own."

"The merchandise!" the fox with the eyepatch sputtered to say.

"See ya later, sh—Gaaah!" Josho howled as he incidentally fired the thrusters too hard. He spun around, barely avoiding the mountain's edge by a hair, and pulled up in time to soar over its jagged peaks. "Right. Let's just make more distance and less quips."

In a burst of thunderous energy, Josho rocketed himself and Eagle Eye northwest over the rugged landscape.

The foxes snarled and hissed in anger. One of them leapt down into the shattered body of the box car and mounted one of three identical gliders.

"What are you doing?!" another spat.

"What does it look like?!" Lifting on the hovercraft, the pilot frowned at the others. "You think we can afford to let them get away with all that junk?! That's a lot of silver!"

"Youre mom's a lot of silver."

"Dammit! Just fly with me!"

Given the Kick

"Nnnngh!"

Up above, in the flame chamber, Kera telekinetically pulled the last of the six skeletons out from their chambers. The petrified pegasus bones flew across the metal grating, scattering everywhere. As a direct result, sparks danced along the fluctuating mana conduits. The ruby flame, cut off from half of its energy source, spun and billowed with chaotic abandon. Kera paid it no mind. Instead, she scampered briskly down the winding stairwell.

Galloping on petite legs into the sequencing chamber, she saw Belle sitting up in her cot, rubbing her head and wincing quite lucidly.

"Belle!" Kera dashed over to her. "You're awake! You're awake!" She paused at the mare's bedside, wincing. "Aren't you?"

"Yes, Kera. I'm back..." Bellesmith shuddered, removing the wires from her stub and fluffing a mane that wasn't there. "Wish my migraine wasn't..."

"Well, good! Cuz we gotta get out of here!"

"Nightshade. I think she... she..."

"Come on, Belle!" Kera tugged and tugged on the mare's front limbs. "We gotta go! They're coming soon!"

"Huh? Who is?"

"Nightshade's cronies! Now move! We gotta split like a mule's butt!"

"I don't get it..." Belle spun around, and progressively her eyes widened. "Phoenix..." She gulped. "Spark alive! Where is Phoenix?"

"He's holding them off! He's helping us!"

"No... he... he c-can't just let them have him!" Belle stammered, stumbling dizzily up to her hooves as she gawked at the door to the operation room. "Nightshade tortured me in the spheres. Heaven only knows what they'll d-do to him..."

"We can write a song about him later! Come on!" Kera dashed towards the stairwell. "I mean it, Belle! We're totally crapped if we stay here!"

Belle stumbled after her, still wincing as she rubbed her head. She heard the stirring bodies of sniffling, emotionally distraught foals in the center of the room. "The children. They... they're going to face her wrath..."

"I'm sure they're used to it! Come on!" Kera scampered back to Belle and telekinetically tugged on the front half of the mare's body. "We can save ourselves! Let's not ruin that!"

Belle grimaced, her eyes moist as she trotted limply after the foal. As she ascended the stairwell, she paused, gave the door to the operations room one last look, then finally disappeared.

Sad Ocean Blue

She gasped at first, but soon melted. Of course she melted.

I kissed her harder, and yet softer. She was more beautiful than the sunrise. I wanted to tell her that. I wanted to tell somepony that. The world was big and strange, and yet so empty. Her warm shivers filled it for a blissful moment.

I stroked her cheeks, then leaned in to nuzzle her. I felt that something was going to come out of the next breath, something that would anchor me there, anchor me to her. I wouldn't have to fly anymore. I wouldn't have to run away. I could just rest. Rest, love, and die.

But then she opened her eyes... her damnably beautiful ocean blue eyes.

And all my insides instantly turned to dust. Just like them.

“R-Rainbow...?” Gold Petals stammered.

Darn it. Not here. Not now. I might explode.

“I'm... I'm sorry...”

She was already starting to sob. “Wh-why?”

I... I can't stay here...” The world spun. I spun. Everything was dizzy, but it wasn't the curse. I couldn't have been that lucky to blame it on that. “I c-can't stay anywhere.”

And it was true, just as her whimpering breath was true, just as every horrible thing I'd ever done was true.

I flew away.

I flew away, because I was a monster, and there'll never again be a chance to have nice, awesome things.

Never.