Chapter Five
A Tight Squeeze
In which Twilight makes several poor decisions
while not in full possession of her faculties,
and takes a rather large risk based solely on a tenuous connection
between appearance and appellation.
May 3rd, 1014, Afternoon
Onboard Nebula, approaching and within
the Dragon's Teeth range
"No!" I yelled, "No shooting!"
Rainbow Dash stopped trying to fit a quarrel into the crossbow and stared at me in disbelief. "Twilight, if they catch us, they're going to kill us!"
The energy it took to stomp my hoof on the deck made my head swim. "Unless you can take out an entire airship with that thing, put it down! Those zebras aren't bad ponies. They're just defending their sultan against pirates... well, defending his property, anyway. We're in this mess because we're trying to save lives."
"An' we're gonna fail at that in a right unpleasant way, if'n they catch us," Applejack shot back.
Rainbow glared at me and dropped the quarrel into the slot on the top of the crossbow. Then she raised the stock to her cheek, squinted along it, and fired.
"Rainbow!"
She scowled at me and jerked her head toward the closest airship. I turned to look and saw that she'd hit its steering fin. She had used one of those quarrels with the crescent-shaped cutting heads, and the fabric panel between two of the fin's spines had been sliced apart from end to end.
"Right. Sorry. Uhmn... please continue."
I was exhausted and not thinking clearly. Far from helping the situation, I was actively detracting from our defense. I'd have done better to just collapse against the stern rail and provide some cover or….
"Ket!"
"Yesh, Capt'n?" the changeling hissed around the grip of the short serrated blade in her mouth.
"Go to my cabin and get the small black box that's in the locked cabinet over my bunk." I pulled the cabinet's key out of my vest and dropped my head to let the chain slide off of my neck.
"The one you told me never to touch under any circumstances?"
"That's the one. Hurry."
She sheathed her blade, scooped up the key, and vaulted over the quarterdeck rail to the waist of the ship.
In under a minute, Rainbow Dash managed to shred most of the nearest pursuer's forward steering fin on her starboard side. The ship's crew had shifted her course to protect that side, but were slowing because of the damage. I was impressed.
Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who was impressed. The attack ship's captain had taken Dash's actions personally and had launched a squad of four pegasi, armed with bows, to get rid of the threat to his vessel. They climbed as they raced toward Nebula, to make it hard for us to return fire, and when they'd gotten within range, they began doing their best to turn Rainbow Dash into a pin cushion.
Believe it or not, Rainbow was fast enough to dodge arrows. If they came one at a time, that is. The third arrow cut through her left wing, missing the flesh, but chopping at least a half-dozen of her primary flight feathers in half. Rarity cut the fourth arrow from the air before it could lodge in Dash's chest.
"Git under cover, ya idjit!" Applejack yelled at Dash. "It's you they're shootin' for!"
"Hide? Are you kidding? I'm..." Another volley arrived, one crescent-headed arrow thudding into the deck between Rainbow's forehooves, and another clipping even more feathers from her ruined wing. "Yikes!" Her sense of self-preservation finally kicked in and she dove behind the binnacle.
One of the archers unwisely got within the range of Rarity's magic, and paid the price. She wasn't magically strong enough to pull a pony out of the air, but she didn't need to be. The first four primary feathers on the archer's left wing glowed briefly and snapped in half. Without his main flight feathers, the pegasus couldn't stay in the air. He had enough control and lift to flounder to a soft landing, but our enemies had been reduced by one.
The others back-winged and shot another volley. Rarity cut another arrow out of the air and the feathers of the severed end smacked me across the nose. Chestnut, a crewpony who had been helping rig anti-boarding netting, cried out and I glanced at him to see a long shallow cut along his ribs, just beginning to bleed.
"I'm sorry, but I'm tired of pussy-footing around with these ruffians," Rarity said, sliding her blades back into their sheathes. The remaining archers were out of her magical range, but where her levitation left off, physics took over. She neatly flung a belaying pin straight into the forehead of one of the pegasi with enough force to knock him cold.
One of his companions dropped his bow and dove to catch the unconscious pony, leaving only one other, who hurriedly retreated to his ship.
The damaged airship slipped further behind and yawed to one side to allow the untouched third vessel to come alongside of her. There was movement on deck, and the captains held a shouted conversation that we couldn't quite make out. The pegasi from the crippled ship took to the air and moved to flanking positions high and on each side of us. They were carrying long sections of what appeared to be iron chain with many hooks attached. Evidently they had a way to deal with magically strong opponents. That was definitely not good.
"Capt'n?"
Khaatarrekket stood on my left, holding the little box from my cabin in her mouth. She could have levitated it, but was being understandably cautious with the little don't-ever-touch-it item.
I nodded to the deck and Ket set it down. This presented me with another problem, as the box was magically locked and protected. The mechanism of the lock was an intricate matrix of thaumic nodes based on prime numbers that would be impossible to figure out for a unicorn without the key value and a knowledge of higher mathematics, but which I could calculate and manipulate in my sleep. It just needed a touch of magic. Magic which I didn't have at the moment.
"Mr. Fairlead!" I shouted over the quarterdeck rail.
My first mate looked up from the main deck, where he was levitating the heavy booms for the anti-boarding netting into place. "Captain?"
He was a strong stallion with strong magic. He had proved himself to be a dependable and unflappable officer. And I still hesitated to ask him for what I needed.
"Captain?"
"I—" I leaned over the rail and lowered my voice. Fairlead took the hint and moved to just below me. "I'm going to ask you for something. Ask, Mr. Fairlead. This is not an order, and if you refuse I will understand completely."
He nodded briefly. "Aye, Captain."
I took a deep breath. "I need to take your magic for just a little while. You weren't in Equestria when Tirek went on his rampage, so you don't know what it's like, but I assure you, it isn't pleasant."
His eyes widened and he took a half-step backwards. "You can do that, ma'am?"
I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded.
He glanced astern to where the attack ship was closing fast, his mouth went tight, and then he gave a nod of his own.
It was ugly. There are some things that should never be done, and I felt a deep uneasiness as I watched the color fade from Fairlead 's eyes and the cutie mark fade from his thigh. But it was something that had to be done.
I unlocked the box as quickly as I could and then slipped the talisman over my head. I shuddered with the sudden rush of magical power, then vaulted over the quarterdeck rail and dropped to the main deck beside the slumped form of my first mate. I held up his muzzle with a hoof and breathed out his power. I waited until he had scrambled to his hooves, while trying to avoid looking at his horrified expression, and then returned to the quarterdeck.
The enemy pegasi were out of sight above Nebula's envelope, but with my new magical strength, it was easy to detect them. They were far to each side and gaining altitude in an effort to make sure they were out of telekinesis range before they unleashed whatever nasty tactic they were up to.
Well, they weren't out of my range! I duplicated Rarity's little trick on a grander scale. The first thing the rest of the crew knew of it were the surprised and anguished cries of the enemy pegasi. Next, they saw the long hooked chains dropping to either side of us, followed seconds later by cursing and screaming ponies thrashing useless wings as they shed gear and floundered in the grip of remorseless gravity.
I spared a moment to laugh at the sight, then turned my attention to the airships. "Now..." I could feel myself grinning as I walked to the stern rail. Crewponies hurriedly got out of my way.
The first bolt of magic hit the airship with the crippled fin. I'd aimed it to take out the forward gas cell just above the long blade at the bow, but the skin of the envelope lit up and crackled, dispersing the energy of the shot. It seemed the zebra sultan could afford talented magical artificers... for his military, at least.
"Oh, it's going to be like that, is it?" I snarled. I fired three more blasts in quick succession. Each hit and dispersed, but I could sense the energy retained by the fine enchanted mesh that covered the ship's outer skin. A dozen or so more shots would be enough to heat it to the point where it would fail or set fire to the fabric it was supposed to protect.
"If you want to burn, so be it!" I flung five more blasts into the ship's defenses before a hoof slammed into my chest.
"Just what in tarnation are you doin', Twilight?"
I looked down. Applejack had a hoof planted solidly on my chest. I raised a leg to slap it away and then paused. The enemy ship was smoldering and turning away, frantically maneuvering to escape. If it had caught fire, everypony aboard that wasn't able to fly would have died horribly.
"I—" Oh sweet Celestia, what had I been doing? Fighting the enemy. Destroying the ponies that would have killed me and my friends without a thought. They deserved to die! Who would mourn the loss of mere peasants? Who cared for such lowly….
The hoof caught me across the face, and Applejack shoved her muzzle right against mine. "Twilight! What's wrong with you?" Her voice was angry but there was a tremble in it, and I realized with horror that my friend was afraid of me.
I frantically glanced around and saw that I was the center of a circle of terrified ponies. Before I could think, before my thoughts could turn back to the cold, remorseless track they wanted to follow, I lowered my head and scraped the talisman off of my neck with a hoof.
I dropped like a wind-broken tree branch. I couldn't even turn my head but I heard AJ snapping out orders.
"No! Don't touch that cussed thing! Any of y'all got a stick or... yeah a marling spike will do. Just scoop it up and drop it back in that there box. Be careful!"
A moment later I felt a nudge at my ribs. "Twi, can you git up?"
"No," I gasped weakly, "too stupid to stand."
Strong hooves circled my barrel and I was dragged behind the binnacle and dropped next to Rainbow Dash. "You just rest, Twilight. We'll take care of it."
Dash started to get up but I asked her to stay. "You can't do anything... until they board us. If you could... keep me filled in on what's happening, I'd appreciate it," I wheezed.
She sighed but said, "Sure, Twilight," and looked sternward. "The last one is coming up fast. Couple of unicorns are doing something with her engines. I think they're gonna ram us. Try to stick us with that long blade mounted at the bow, y'know? There's zebras on deck with little catapults... loading them with pots of green, steamy gunk. This doesn't look good, Twi. You sure you don't have any umph left?"
I didn't have enough "umph" to turn my head. All I could see were the onrushing peaks of the Dragon's Teeth. We were nearly there, and it was amazing how much the mountains looked like actual fangs. In fact, they looked exactly like dragon dentition. Exactly.
"Fluttershy!" I gasped out.
"Umn... kinda busy now, Twilight."
"This... is important," I took as deep a breath as I could and tried to get my instructions all out in one rush. "Once we clear that first peak to starboard, turn us hard right and keep as much speed as you can. You'll have about two furlongs of narrow canyon and then you'll need to take a hard left just opposite the jagged outcrop that will be to your right. You won't see it, but there's an opening there."
"How do you know that?" Rainbow Dash put in. It was good timing on her part, because it gave me time to get my breath back.
I grinned. "Spike sleeps with his mouth open." Before she could ask the obvious question, I continued to Fluttershy. "After you make that turn you'll have half a furlong to get us another five hundred feet of altitude, or we'll smack into a sheer cliff. Hopefully, the zebras won't be as good at piloting as you are."
"Are you sure?"
I wasn't. The shape and the name of the mountains could have been sheer coincidence. But I didn't believe in coincidences of that magnitude. And there was nothing left that would help us unless I wanted to risk going full Nightmare Twilight. And I didn't... not even if my friends would let me. "Absolutely sure," I said.
"Oh. Okay." Fluttershy swallowed and then bellowed out, "Everypony hang on to something!"
Applejack heard her and repeated the command loudly enough that the crew could hear it. Then things got exciting.
Rainbow Dash hooked one foreleg through the railing and grabbed me around the barrel with the other. We slid a bit as Nebula heeled over before her hull swung with the first turn, but Dash's grip kept us more or less in one place.
There was some quiet but heartfelt swearing from the crew as our port lateral fin scraped the granite, but it turned to cheers as they saw the wild yaw of the pursuing ship as she tried to keep up with us.
"She's not going to make it!" shouted one over-eager crewpony. He was almost right.
The attack ship scraped the mountainside with her port elevator in almost the same place we had hit, then over-compensated and rammed the long blade on her nose into the opposite side of the canyon.
A cheer went up from Nebula's crew, but it trailed off when the whole blade structure dropped off of the attacker's nose cone, and the ship swung back on course once again. The blade had been built to be easily discarded if it was damaged... or wedged in an enemy vessel, I supposed.
They closed fast and arrows began arcing toward us. Then one of the catapults fired. If Fairlead hadn't deflected it with his magic, the smoldering pot of burning green goo would have burst on the quarterdeck. When it hit the granite below us, there was a violent hissing and black oily smoke billowed up into the air. Five more catapults readied their shots, looking to overwhelm our ability to deflect them.
I had just managed to raise my head to see how far we had to go until the blind canyon when Fluttershy yelled for everypony to hang on again. I was half rolled over by the inertia of the maneuver, and cracked my horn and the side of my head against the binnacle.
By the time my head cleared, we were in the shadow of the narrow walls of rock and there were unpleasant scraping and grinding noises coming from all around me. But the sounds from aft of us were worse. We were close enough to hear the cursing of the zebra officers, the dreadful prolonged crackling of skeletal spars, and the sharp hiss of tearing fabric as their ship slammed the side of her envelope against the jagged rocks.
We'd done it! Our last pursuer was too damaged to continue the chase. I had about a second to start to relax when the pony on watch in the bow screamed, "M-mountain! Mountain dead ahead!"
The dead end of the canyon was a bit closer than my rough estimate predicted. Okay, a lot closer.
Fluttershy screamed. It was a weird, quiet sort of scream; a high, nearly ultrasonic eeeeeeeeeeeee of terror that went on and on. Fortunately, Fluttershy could scream and fly at the same time. Her hooves flew over the ballast controls in a yellow blur and then pounded down on the big release levers.
There was a hollow boom as all six emergency dump valves slammed open and then the roar of tons of water falling into open air. Then Nebula's deck leaped upward and I slipped and hit my horn hard against the quartedeck rail. There was an ugly cracking sound and everything went black.
= = =
=
Loved how Twilight and Rainbow are now ponifying even the enemy ships, they've really gotten into their roles .
Is it bad that i saw the title and immediately thought Twilight was going to pass out and have a Luna dream sequence?
It will be interesting to see where this adventure goes as her friends had mostly side roles in the previous stories and now have a chance to sit center stage.
WOW! Didn’t think that Twi would be willing to resort to using Tirek's old trick...
6567675
Yes, it's bad. Very bad.
data.whicdn.com/images/64187172/large.jpg
So, why is the amulet (without Nightmare's active sapience) so much more corrupting than the actual Nightmare (with all of its sapience) when Twilight ate her last story? The way Twilight described Nightmare's magic last chapter painted the magic as being a little unruly, not something that heavily affects your mind in ten seconds flat.
6568402
You'll find out.
Using malevolent magical artifacts for a power rush never, ever, ever ends well.
6568402
The amulet wasn't Nightmare's power. It was the Red Queen's. It's...a wee bit more potent.
6568650
While it's possible that the the talisman in this chapter is the Alicorn Amulet, I think it being the nightmare magic talisman is more likely, given just how dangerous Twilight knows the Alicorn Amulet is. Even if she brought the alicorn amulet along just in case (which using even as a last resort is ridiculously dangerous), why wouldn't she use the nightmare magic talisman first, given that she has experience in using its magic? I find it unlikely that said talisman has been destroyed or something after being just introduced.
Is it me, or does Twilight seem a tad too weak for an all-powerful alicorn?
Also wow, yeah, I can totally see Twilight just learning how to suck magic like Tirek...
6569208
Twilight apparently learned Dark Magic from watching Celestia blast some at a crystal. Once. She actually experienced magic eating when Tirek took her magic. Not really that surprising that she figured out how to replicate it.
6569404
Yeah, my comment is a bit too ambiguous about that... but what I meant to say is that I could totally see Twilight in canon doing just that.
Hmm...
6569404
Twilight says that Celestia taught her dark magic, and if she's talking about the scene we saw, that's really stretching the meaning of "taught". It's possible there were lessons offscreen.
6570285
I just like the thought of Twilight literally picking up new spells unintentionally just by seeing them.
6570285
Well, in canon, Twilight definitely picked up how to use Dark Magic just by seeing Celestia do it once. She also witnessed the power stealing/giving trick at least twice, so it's not a stretch to imaging she could have learned that from observation as well. Celestia may or may not have given lessons to Twilight in Dark Magic, but she would have been wise to do so, because Twi would have certainly practiced/experimented on her own.
6570748
Nothing in the episode said that Twilight hadn't had lessons on dark magic before Celestia telling her about the Crystal Empire. Her surprised look can be chalked up to a number of possible things other than her not knowing about dark magic, like her never having seen Celestia use it before, for example.
She might have picked it up just from watching Celestia in this fic's continuity, but in the show it's ambiguous.
6570951
True, but relying on complex and hidden activities isn't very defensible. I'll go with Occam's razor on this one, particularly as the most likely choice doesn't require unprovable head-canon: What was shown in the episode is actually what happened.
6571254
In this case, Twilight's statement that Celestia "taught" her implies the existence of said hidden events, though. If there weren't any offscreen events, then either Twilight lied for no reason, or she stretched the meaning of the word "taught" ridiculously far.
Personally, I would judge the two possibilities to be of similar simplicity under Occam's Razor.
"No... not more powerful. Quicker... easier... more seductive." ... "Once you start down the Dark Path... forever will it dominate your destiny." -- Master Yoda
"Understand that I would use this in the desire to do good but, through me, it would wield a power too terrible to imagine." -- Gandalf the Grey
I think that Twilight is experiencing the reality of those words.
6572760 Yes! You get it. Intelligence and wisdom are two very different things.
6574989
I love that song, and the pony vid that goes with it! By an amazing coincidence, there is a song that may show up in the story later on: The Last Equestrian Pirate.
6569208 I agree. Considering that she causally destroyed the entire changeling hive in book one it seems kind of strange that she runs out of power against a few zebras.
Also should I be worried about that dragons mouth big enough to fly an airship between the teeth?
6572760
“And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”
6577112
You write a fantastic Twi and especially your take on the mechanisms of magic I really like. Can't get enough of this series and best Twiluna adventure fic narrowly edging the Hard Reset trilogy ( though that is only loosely Twiluna). Don't stop! Out of curiosity, what's your favourite Twiluna fic, iisaw?
6577805
Thank you very much!
My favorite Twiluna? I love the Hard Reset trilogy, too, but I think my top favorite would have to be Apotheosis, followed closely by Observatory Hill. Others that are on my Favorites shelf are Sharing the Night, Common Sky, and Romance Reports, though that last one never quite went full Twiluna, which is a shame.
Any really good ones I've missed?
Damn, they got away.
Yeah, great idea, let the highly unstable and very dangerous Alicorn bump around the world unsupervised.
Alright back to the action. Tight Squeeze seems apparent, trying to make it through the mountains. Now next question why here? What is going to be special about this mission we need to focus on this? Or is it just a good jumping on point and the real issues will pop up after they get done with it?
So tightly does something potentially stupid while stressed out and tired. AKA the reason about 60% of her stupid ideas end up coming into play. How bad is she screwing things over with these bad ideas? (Okay not harping on these in general, but these are the kind I dislike the most, ones that are clearly meant to build tension and make us instantly start wondering what is going to go wrong, how bad will this be.... mostly because it plays hell with my anxiety issues.)
Bad idea one, go to easy on the ponies out to bring you down? Also, they have guns now?
A crossbow, and Dash actually makes sense here. How screwed up is shit she is the more reasonable one?
Again why is she so exhausted and weak?
Listen to AJ, how screwed will this all be if they catch you and find out who you are?
Ohhh good shot, and yes you can use those for non-lethal things to help slow stuff down.
At least you know it, to bad you aren't likely to do anything about it.
Time to tap into the power of the Nightmare? okay so making her so weak was an excuse to have her do this, but.. again it feels forced that she is this exhausted so easily after doing so little.
Oh I believe it.
Yeah time to get to cover.
Ohhh very clever. Once again.... are you all sure you aren't channeling the Spirit of Littlepip?
Not sure I get it, toss the chains at them? How would they not just catch them and toss them back?
Let's hope one of your crew is as big a nerd as you are and also a unicorn.
Or option B, this is assuming the whole "Broken Horn" bit from last time was just metaphorical regarding her being burnt out and not actual horn damage.
Whoa shit, ummm Twi, I assumed it was something a bit less... extreme.... just tossing around using THAT so often.... yeah you really are sliding down a slippery slope of self justification for actions that seem good, but really are.. kind of not. At least not as good as you think they are.
And yet you are going to do it anyway. At least she feels bad about it.... for now.
Just keep telling yourself that. It'll get easier and easier every time. And yes I get how desperate they are and yet, the fact they are IN this predicament in the first place is on her. And she'll ignore this. And this time it might BE the only way, but she'll find it easier next time to do the same. Again, as with the whole "Ignoring her responsibility" it is not a matter of this one case being bad, but I can already see the pattern forming to this leading somewhere very bad very easily.
I'm curious what that is, how do they plan to keep anything they throw from being tossed back? Also, Twilight, how the buck are you going to hide a freaking ALICORN is the dread pirate Blackmane when you are flying around and using magic on them?
Oh, she isn't flying... huh, why the buck did I think she was?
She went back to "Nightmare Twilight" form?
Yeah going a bit extreme after the whole "No shooting them" thing. You just had to tap into dark magic again didn't you. At least your friends are around to reign you in.
And of course it's AJ
Making yet another very very bad decision.
Well, seems her new artifact is a might bit corrupting. But, why? When the power itself when she held it in her wasn't... or was it? Or this an effect of channeling it in her state of mind? Or, something else at work?
Oh where do we even start? This could take awhile.......
*on while later*
.... and don't even get me started on her quesadillaphobia.....
At least you realize it, now LEARN FROM IT! How many times do you need to get hopped up on dark magic till you get the hint!?
And here is her being stupid by confusing appearance with reality. Why are they listening to her at this point? it's clear she is not thinking right.
......... Oh sweet Celestia's blazing mareheat Twilight! Please tell me the rest of them are smart enough realize she's talking non sense.
YA THINK!!!!!
... that's it Twilight, I'm all out of facehooves, you have used up all the facehooves with this idea.
Still curious why it's affecting her this way now when it didn't before.
Great more blows to the head, that's ALL she needs right now.
HOW THE BUCK DID THAT WORK!? I mean not fully but, how the buck did she get even THAT lucky!?
Hopefully that will knock some sense into you when you wake up. And stay down till it does.
Well once again, yeah you do action SO good. And, nothing else that I haven't commented on already. Why is Twi this weak, and why did the Nightmare Power overwhelm her like that this time? Is she going to learn anything from this, or is this the start of her slide into near supervillony out of misplaced feelings of her having good reasons for it? And how does the skipping back and forth tie into this?
Gah, so much cool world building and awesome action scenes.
I'm not sure how much I like the "synopses" at the start of each chapter. I'm finding they weaken the suspense a bit. I'll try a couple chapters without reading them.
Dash being fast enough to dodge arrows (assuming they don't come in mass)? I really like that.
Rarity continues to be my favorite in this.
Twilight knows scary things.
Yeah, let's avoid that box in the future unless absolutely necessary. Thank goodness for Applejack.
That's one big dragon mouth. Also, I'm kind of wondering where the rest of the dragon is, and if this is going to be like Sharing the Night's dragon world-building (pun intended).
Heh.
This. Is. AWESOME!
uh oh, "this is no cave"...
6577956
- MLP: FiM
- Romance
- Sci-Fi
- Slice of Life
In a steampunk reimagining of the universe, Twilight Sparkle finds perhaps the one pony as lonely as she is. It's rather unfortunate that they're on the moon.Hopefully, Twilight did not get horn/brain-damage.
Couldn't get around to reading yesterday. Things were afoot! And tomorrow is D&D; not exactly a good week for fanficcing it seems. But I'll do what I can!
lol
Oh Jesus, I didn't expect that. At least it was quick.
Man, first Tirek SUCC, and now the Alicorn Amulet. Poor girl needs a break.
Okay dang, wow she needs a break, a hug, a doctor, some tea, and maybe some chocolate.
I loved Twilight's quick thinking with dragon teeth and the mountain formation. A bit of a longshot, but it's the kind of bullshit longshot that you can't help but love because of a character's quick thinking!
The chapter In which Twilight gets brain damage
9429513
That was an excellent read. One of these days I'm going to have an in-house library with at least two or three shelves dedicated to pony fics (if not an entire bookcase )