"You mean to say that they have been following us all this time?!" Belle stammered.
"Aye," Crimson nodded. He, Belle, Pilate, and Zenith stood on the high wooden platform along the roof of Foxtaur's forest canopy. They gazed west towards the looming gray shape of the Steel Wing as it pressed ever eastward. "It has been approaching quite swiftly, until now."
"You mean it's slowed down?" Belle asked.
"Well, duh!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She was hovering besides the four ponies as she pointed towards the distant battlecruiser. "We just cut them off from listening in on us all this time, didn't we?"
"It's possible to assume that they're stopping to catch their bearings," Crimson said, stroking his chin in thought. "We may just have bought you three some time to make a run for it."
"A run for it where?" Pilate turned his head towards the lead mercenary. "So long as they know that we're in this forest, they'll stop at nothing to find us! They'll comb this place from tree to tree, for sure."
"All the more reason for you three to make some headway," Crimson said. "Personally, I suggest taking an erratic course to the southeast—away from the edge of Foxtaur that borders Blue Nova."
"Southeast?"
"Eagle Eye knows the path. He and Phoenix can guide you."
"Yeesh. I gotta ask." Zenith smirked. "What did you guys do to be on the Ledomaritan Armada's hit list?"
"Zenith, that is none of our business," Crimson groaned.
"Seriously, though! They must have done something wickedly epic!"
"And we didn't?" Crimson frowned at him. "If I've learned anything from my experience with Ledomare, it's not to judge ponies so heatedly."
"Yeah! Besides..." Rainbow Dash hovered over their heads. "If anything, we're guilty of being too friggin' awesome!"
"Look, lady!" Zenith waved his hoof, hissing through his teeth. "Will you get down? We brought you up here to take a look at your enemy, not fling your colors around!"
"Please, Rainbow," Belle pleaded, shivering slightly. "Let's not risk—"
"What?!" Rainbow shrugged, her back to the faraway speck of an airship. "We broke the link, didn't we? Besides, unless those saps have a dozen of their own Eagle Eyes, there's no way in heck they can see us—"
There were two bright flashes of light along the starboard side of the vessel.
Crimson and Zenith froze in place. Belle bit her lip.
Pilate's ears twitched like mad. "Uhm..." The zebra fidgeted. "Does anypony else hear that whistling noise...?"
A patch of forest exploded two leagues to the north.
Everyone gasped. Rainbow spun, her blue wings blurring.
A second shell impacted the forest floor less than two hundred meters away. A crack of thunder roared over Foxtaur, littering the air with twigs and soil.
"Gaaugh!" Zenith shouted. The entire platform rocked from the wobbling length of the tree beneath it. He and Crimson clung desperately to the railing of the outlook. "Somehow, I don't think they're shooting for pheasants!"
"I don't get it!" Belle shrieked, clutching Pilate as she and her beloved collapsed across the wooden floorboards. "How could they know where we are?"
"Looks like they're guessing!" Zenith growled. "With artillery shells!"
"We gotta get you guys down from this thing!" Rainbow shouted.
There was another series of bright flashhes: four this time.
"Here come more rounds!" Crimson yelled. "Everypony! Get on the lift—"
The forest around them exploded. One shell hit a cluster of trees several yards south, and it sent a huge chunk of wooden splinters flying the group's way. Shrapnel pierced the middle of the large tree atop which they were perched. With several crunching, groaning noises, the entire trunk began to teeter over.
"Belle!" Pilate shouted, reaching for her.
"Gaaah!" She was slipping, falling along with the rest of the lopsided platform as the tree broke its way through leaves and branches and ropelines.
Zenith was holding on by a single hoof. Crimson was already jumping to avoid being skewered by an adjacent tree's branches. Rainbow Dash—
"Just hang on!" She dove into the collapsing mess of wood and greenery as even more shells from afar randomly littered the natural environment.
Aie Aie Aie!
This does not look good for our crew.
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Well, new chapter. I will now propose my master plan to all of you. I'm planning some Austraeoh theme music. I have to write an original piece for a school thing, so i decided what's more original than Austraeoh. Tell me what you all think.
In other news:
Shell: BURN THE FOREST TO THE GROUND UNTIL YOU FIND THEM!!!!!!!!
Crew: YES SIR!! FIRE THE CANNONS!!!
Walking their fire eh
Do a sonic rainboom, Rainbow. Dooooo iiit.
When did they get to the tree fort?
2043640 Between chapters, while the steel wing was going right then left then west then east before admitting they lost RD before firing all cannons.
When in doubt, guess with artillery. In general, when in doubt, artillery. Never fails.
Also, in light of recent announcements, I'm making Austraeoh/Eljunbyro my new official headcanon. If Hasbro wants to take a leap of faith, they can do it after I've jumped ship.
2043568 Yes.
I also have a YouTube playlist dedicated to Austreouh on my channel.
2043640 Magic mother-bucker!!!
Shell has to scream FIRE EVERYTHING at some point in the near future.
Dear Celestia, I hate you for that amazing cliffhanger.
Firestorm - Sabaton
ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit
One can only tempt fate so many times before fate bites back, no matter how much faith one has. The important thing is to not panic, keep a clear head, and maneuver your way out.
Someone's going to die. I can just feel it.
2043816 Agreed
This is Australia...
2043564
I mean, that really got out of hand fast.
I guess you could say that this chapter...
....dropped a bombshell.
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Reminds me of a time back in 'Nam...
2043568
Do it. Please do it.
2044088 keep calm and maneuver East?
oh shi---
You know who I miss? Roarke. She seemed awesome and I can't help but wonder when she will enter the scene.
Also, you sank my treehouse!
I'm surprised Shell didn't torch the forest.
I didn't know forests could explode.
Must be some interesting stuff in those shots...
2044088
And whatever you do, don't forget your towel.
It is practically invaluable to the galactic hitchhiker!
the bad thing about using explosive rounds is the body will be too mutilated to confirm your target.
shell and filta should know this.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So it looks like the battle began earlier than I expected. After all of the comedy(, which wasn't a bad thing,) of the previous chapters, it's cool to see a serious action scene coming up. But I find it surprising that Shell is rolling the dice and just shooting everything here. I don't know, it just seems kind of out of character for him. These are my thoughts so far.
MASH
You have to have a LOT of missiles to be able to guess with them.
Or have a pretty good guess, to the extent of an estimate.
Or they plan to flush em out by removing their cover....
Buck.
Onwards!
Almost only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades, but I believe artillery also makes the list. Time to move, now.
Aaaand now Shell's pulling an Ozai. I would worry about the countless creatures being consumed in forest fires, but considering that giant centipedes and Ursa Majors are among the main occupants I'm not too concerned. One good thing about being super behind in chapters? No more cliffhangers! Onward!
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Well, if you're gotta guess, guess big.
WELL SHIT. HONEYTIGER SEEMS TO HAVE GOTTEN EXITED ABOUT SOME EXPLOSIONS.
2276057 Who is HoneyTiger?
3529032 Honeytiger is Love. Honeytiger is Life.
Uh oh. Gallop! Gallop now! You've got to get out of there! Also, it seems OOC for Shell to just be randomly firing shells.
...
Heh.
Shells.
Sorry! Please don't kill me!
...
Anywho, if he keeps doing this, he'll run out.
E5!
You've sunk my Rainbow Dash!
Well shit. They've gone and done it now.
4308414 lol
Like horseshoes, but just that much more entertaining.
The enforcers have voted to be part-time loggers.
Close only counts in horseshoes and
hand grenadesartillery shells.It looks like Green Day was wrong, close does not almost really matter in horseshoes and hand grenades, it looks like mortars are good enough.
So yeah, now a tree collapsed, and Belle is fearing for her life. Let’s hope Rainbow Dash can save her.