Late into the evening the assorted creatures continued frantic preparations for battle: locking down everything that could be locked down, unloading all non-essential equipment and shoring up every bit of structure. They could not afford to waste any time: it was only a matter of time before a pirate scout copter spotted the new ships docked at Triskelion Mine. Thus in the early hours of the following morning, five airships set out into the darkness, heading south towards their date with destiny.
Two hours later the first rays of dawn glinted on the thick steel armour of the shark frigate. The Leverage was hanging in the air roughly twenty kilometres west of the so-called 'Isle of Misery', the ship's silhouette masked by a nearby cluster of floating islets. The ornate Fellissian war galley was hovering nearby, with felines of all kinds waiting restlessly on the deck. The shark captain's eyes were on his chronometer; the advance force should be going in now. They'd give them fifteen minutes to engage, then begin their own dash towards the target, hopefully running right into the fliers and their pursuers.
On the Fortuitous, Summer Sphinx paced up and down the deck, or at least her avatar did: the Oracle statue itself was stowed in the hold below. She'd spent the flight out getting in some final practice at creating flying golems, trying to work out any kinks in the process. Pegasi, griffons, sphinxes... trying to gauge her limit for simultaneous control, she'd peaked at a dozen active units.
Summer smiled as she watched the latest batch bank, dive and bob in the airspace around the ship. So far all her practice had been theoretical: this would be the first time taking her ceramic creations into combat. She could only hope they'd be everything she'd bragged them up to be.
Twenty kilometres to the north west, a large and unusually substantial cloud had been slowly drifting closer to the pirate's island for the last hours. Nestled within were the bulky EAS Harmony and the smaller, sharper form of the Exocosus, engines barely ticking over. The pony's commandeered copter hung lifeless, suspended below the larger airship on ropes, ready to spring into life when battle was joined. A few pegasi darted around the ships, shoring up the concealing cloud and generating an artificial breeze to move it along with the ships.
Set Sail flew ahead of the ship, on the edge of the cloud bank, straining her eyes to make out the pirate's island. The dawn light had transformed it from a dark shadow in the distance to a very real and formidable fortress. The enormous castle sprawled over most of the central island. Reaching out from that like a spider's web were enormous chains of unknown metal, hanging in great arcs and connecting to many smaller islands spaced around the core. Surrounding them were the hundreds of tiny islets that she knew could draw in a flier and trap them, leaving them at the mercy of the drow.
It terribly unnerved her, as she gently coaxed the clouds around her to flow along with the ships, that these pirates had some power capable of pulling a pegasus out of the air. She had never felt it, which made her even more wary of yet another thing about this blasted land that could take the skies away from her.
That was why they were all flying with a rope around their barrels, in case the lead ponies got caught in the pull of the traps. Her crew were fanned out behind her, at different angles from the ship so as not to get tangled - though if it came to it, they all had their mouth knives ready to cut the lines loose. Of course the safety lines wouldn't help if the ship itself got pulled in, and... this was as far as they could go without risking that. From here, it was up to Azure and her team.
Meanwhile Nutmeg Inferno scampered between the fishy operators of the railguns, trying to ensure they knew about safe firing rate and the barrel heat, and how to leap to safety if the ramshackle devices sought fit to explode. The red-ruffed kirin made sure to assure the nice gilmen that they would be plenty of warning before that happened. She'd managed to throw together another two of the flywheel-charged mass accelerators as well: they were primed and ready to take down any enemy fliers, boarders, or even copters should they get close. Finally the dynamite guns sat ready to deliver punishing blows to the enemy warship, though she wished they'd been time for more test runs...
On the deck of the great airship, shrouded in mist through which the glow of dawn was just beginning to filter in, the strike team was assembled. The newly-turned pegasus, the griffon hen with Nutmeg's makeshift cannon strapped to her back, the grey hippogriff stallion and the fire-feathered avian dragon: all of them had been to the cursed place before, and despite the danger they were all looking forward to putting the place out of commission.
Azure Feather inspected her unit and gave a nod of approval. Reef Skimmer and Grenelda, two of her most battle-hardened allies, that had already proven their worth in combat several times over. Then there was Sunburn: since she'd first laid eyes on him she'd dreamed of sharing a battlefield with him, fighting with him at her side... but now wasn't the time to get emotional.
Here was supernatural power and kirin technology that far outclassed the abilities of her old unit, yet she knew they must not get overconfident. Sure, they might as well be unstoppable if she was still facing a raiding dragon or a few greedy diamond dogs, but this place had dangers like nothing she'd seen back in Equestria. Total focus was the only way they were getting out of this without casualties.
"And... 07:45... mark!" said Winter Hope, the unicorn looking up from his pocket watch.
"That's it then," Azure acknowledged. Their allies would soon begin advancing towards the island; they had to go now, or abandon Summer and the others to a one-sided encounter and a likely gruesome fate. "Strike Team... begin operation." Azure sprang into the air and took the lead, flying straight for the target at her best sustained speed. She knew time was of the essence: the quicker they got those towers down, the better the chances of success for the overall operation.
Grenelda was not far behind, her larger wings whipping the mist into whorls as she flapped hard after Azure. Reef Skimmer nodded, reared up and leapt off the deck, diving steeply for a few seconds as his shape rippled and expanded into his roc form. Sunburn just stood on the deck watching the others take to the sky, then spread his wings and in a dramatic flash of flame he teleported to catch up, flying in formation right behind Azure. A few seconds later the four flyers burst out of the cloud and into clear air, streaking toward the pirate base.
Cloud Cutter just watched them go, from her position on the deck of the Second Chance. The converted drow copter was unpowered, hanging from a rope sling below the belly of the Harmony, concealed along with its mothership in the artificial cloud. She hated being alone on the little craft, but it was a necessary precaution given that she was lit up like a firefly with unnatural purple energy. This way if she did lose control and release it early, at least she wouldn't kill every living being on the deck.
She'd insisted on being the one to keep watch on the strike team, and give the signal for the airships to break cover. Her flash should be bright enough for the others to see even inside the cloud; in truth, she'd just been desperate to find a non-fatal use for the thing. Then Gustus and Static Signal could fly down to the copter and cut it free, the pegasus flying and the griffon working its single, but grimly effective 'Puckle gun'. As for her... she fidgeted unsurely with her wing blades. Cloud Cutter didn’t doubt she would swiftly end some creature’s life with them today, but she wished that she didn't have to.
Azure Feather led them straight towards the closest mid-sized island, at the limit of the web of chains. She quickly spotted the flimsy latticework of the transmission tower at its summit, and eyed the surrounding cloud of islets warily. Each was topped by a crystal dish with its shallow pool of water, and she well remembered being trapped in one. It took only a few minutes to cross the distance, before she once again felt a tug on her body. Feeling the strange sensation of skidding sideways through the air as the trap began to draw her in, the pegasus instinctively summoned a breeze to help her fight the pull; to little effect.
Grenelda was feeling the same thing, even as she eyed up the Hand of Eon like a hawk searching for prey. The griffon cocked a quick side-eye at Azure's frantic struggles; for her part she was content to let the gravitational pull draw her in. The big elemental gun strapped to her back was warmed up and ready, so it just meant she'd be in position to shoot sooner. "Alriiight. Time to start taking pot shots? Azure?"
Azure struggled to keep her composure. "Yeah. Alight, let's get to it. Remember: ignore the traps and the chains, focus on the towers - that's the weak point, bring that down and this whole sector's useless to the drow." She'd said this five times over in the briefing - she didn't really think the griffon would forget, it was just that being dragged out of the air like this was... yeah.
Grenelda just opened her beak wide in a griffon grin. Then with a quick twist of her wings she'd slewed around to zero in on her target. Her claws gripped the stabilising handles of her back-mounted cannon, squeezing the lever that set the flywheel spinning and elemental Fire energy surging into its chamber. "Got it! Fucking shit up in... now!" A flick of the trigger and BANG! The device was gyroscopically stabilised, but her whole body was still kicked back by the recoil as it spat out its payload (and a shower of sparks for good measure).
The projectile punched a hole through one of the metallic structures ringing the top of the tower, causing several pieces to spall off from the shock. The pull on their bodies began to fluctuate, setting Azure's teeth chattering. With the grip of the trap weakened, Reef Skimmer went full on attack. The giant grey eagle blasted streams of water from his tentacle-feet, the sudden thrust breaking him free from the Hand's grip.
The transformed hippogriff rocketed forward and smashed into the transmission tower, leaving half of the metal latticework embedded in his gelatinous body and the rest flying in every direction. The unseen force disappeared, creating a bubble of safe air; yet that was just the first of a dozen towers (assuming the one Azure had destroyed on her previous visit had been repaired). Reef landed heavily on the island below, flattening numerous bushes. "Effective if rather painful!" he cawed, "no need to wait, one will catch up!" Then he set to removing the larger sections of metal with his beak, leaving blue patches in his feathers.
Grenelda erupted into shrill whoops and gleeful, malicious cackles. "Take that, you stupid gravity trap! There's plenty more where that one came from!" Confident now that they could deal with this nuisance, she stretched her wings and tugged on the straps of her harness, pulling the cannon back into the most comfortable position. The action cycled with a click, chambering a round ready for the next tower. She just hoped it didn't jam, but... if it came to it, the bottles of magical soda were clinking together in her satchel, and she was just waiting for an excuse to use 'em.
Reassured that the others were able to handle the task, Sunburn wheeled around and split off, heading for one of the towers closer to the central island. His trajectory began to curve down as he got within range of a fresh array of gravity traps, but then with a string of firey flashes the phoenix-dragon had teleported all the way to the power transmission tower. He immediately set about melting it into slag, hovering nearby and unleashing a continuous stream of fire from his beak.
Azure smiled for a moment, but knew better. As fun as that was to watch, and as skilled as her unit was... "Yeah, we have to keep moving - this is bound to get their attention, so we've got a few minutes at best before we're facing full on air-to-air combat. Sunburn, uh..." The dragon was already doing his thing, very effectively it seemed. "Reef... catch up when you can. Grenelda, let's go..." Even if they couldn't get every tower, the more traps that were downed, the better.
A minute of powerful flapping and Azure was ready to give the next tower a dose of her own power. Wings glowed green and then air blades were streaking out, cutting into the weak points of the structure. Sparks flew and the surrounding traps began to malfunction, buffeting Azure hard enough to send her next volley wide. She skidded into a sideslip, heading straight for one of the gravity traps while her wings fought for purchase on the air.
A crash landing seemed inevitable, but then a blazing projectile streaked past her and shattered the dish of the trap into crystalline shards. Grenelda came swooping in with a smirk on her beak, cawing out: "I think we better take these out together - they can really suck you in something fierce, even if you know it's coming!"
"You're not kidding... damn it." Azure cursed herself for her clumsiness, but again - no time for that right now. She needed to remember her origins, what she'd been fighting for in the guard: Equestria. Friendship. Teamwork. All that... yeah, yeah. "Not going to make the same mistake twice..." she muttered, drawing up to a steady hover and flushing magical power into her pinions again.
She loosed another flurry of shimmering projectiles from her pinions, and with no anomalous gravity to mess up her aim they flew true. The elemental blades pinged and cracked into the tower, warping and splitting metal with every strike. Broken pieces clattered and sparked to the ground before the entire structure came crashing down into ruin, rendering another swathe of gravity traps non-functional.
"Gotta take down at least two more, to give the ships a clear approach!" Azure called out. "With me Grenelda... we make a good team!" The blue pegasus headed almost directly south, aiming for the tower closest to the enemy base. Take that down, she thought, and then they could clear out before the drow were fully mobilised. The pegasus strained her wings to the limit, in her haste taking a line dangerously close to the central island. Grenelda trailed behind, the bigger griffon burdened by the weight of Nutmeg's improvised weapon.
The enemy base was a massive fortification, ranks of walls and towers and keeps, scarred and half-ruined by uncounted battles. As she drew close Azure could make out the little dots of drow scurrying around, no doubt rousing troops and readying weapons. The buzz of rotors filled the air: one, two, then three of Second Chance's siblings were rising into the air. The menacing shape of the enemy cruiser was there as well, sheltered within the walls but no doubt soon to sally forth.
Grenelda quirked a brow at all the activity in the Drow fortifications on the main island; sure they'd taken down a copter before, but this time the drow would be out for blood, not slaves. Those clunky old cannons were probably out of range, but who knew what the enemy casters were capable of.
"We still goin' for it, Azure?" she shouted to the pegasus, struggling to keep up with the pony's superior speed while carrying the heavy weapon on her back. "Do we have enough time?" Those copters were fixing to make this an all-out brawl, and she needed to be ready for it.
Azure's wings were already glowing bluish-green with elemental power as she prepared her assault on the fourth tower. "We have to knock at least this one down." Hopefully Sunburn would have enough in the tank to knock out the fifth and last one... she hated relying on one fighter, no matter how much of a star he was, but she had little choice. By the time they'd got this one down, Reef should be catching up; they could regroup with Sunburn and retreat together.
Indeed keen eyes of the phoenix-dragon had spotted the two flapping dots across the kilometres of intervening air. The Skylander apparently agreed with Azure's assessment; the firey shape rose up from the tower he'd just slagged and headed towards the final target in the mission plan.
Azure's air blades sleeted into the metal latticework, smashing components and triggering malfunctions as before. "Come on, Grenelda... one more blast!" Azure yelled, as waves of uncontrolled gravity tried to yank her in every direction at once. "Take this down and we're out... we're doing a hell of a job here but we're no match for that cruiser!" Again she was struggling and tumbling, instinctively summoning the power of Air to push back against the traps.
"One more shot? You got it!" Grenelda cancelled out the turbulence by the simple tactic of flying straight at the nearest trap, feeling the rush of adrenaline as she risked everything on a single move. Seconds before impact, she flicked her wings, slewing the cannon around so the sights would pass over the tower. The timing had to be just right... BANG. Another fiery shot blazed out of the weapon and slammed into the tower, ripping the heart out of the mechanism.
A final dusting of air blades from Azure crackled into the tower and beat it down into scrap, but the destruction took precious time. Two of the twin-rotor copters headed straight for the Equestrians, flying in formation to cover each other with their bow guns, while the third looped north to investigate the other damage. A grey winged shape rose to meet it, presumably Reef Skimmer. Within the fortress a deep drone resonated between the ancient walls, engines chugging into life as the drow cruiser prepared to launch.
Azure Feather was pleased with their progress, but they were running out of time to make a clean getaway. Hovering here until they could regroup and retreat together was off the table; she could only hope Sunburn and Reef would be alright. It was time for phase two of the plan: they were now the bait for a trap of their own, one that would snap shut on these stupid drow. All they had to do was fly fast enough to avoid getting hit, but slow enough that the bipeds would keep up the chase. She could only imagine their rage at the destruction of their precious traps; all the better, if it blinded them to the danger ahead.
She could see the Leverage and Fortuitous heading their way, still dots in the distance but growing steadily larger. Azure gestured for Grenelda to take the lead; she'd distract the copter if she had to, cover for Reef and Sunburn. The hippogriff and the dragon were still out there, and Azure wasn't going to leave an ally behind.
Grenelda looked like she was lining up a shot at one of the copters, but she saw Azure's signal and broke off, spreading her wings wide to bank around and head away from the enemy island. The griffon peered back over her shoulder to check the position of her ally and the pursuing aircraft. "Damnit: I was about to take that one out, Azure! Not gonna disobey your orders though... hope they fall for this!"
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer was flying straight at the third copter, propelled by his water jets to speeds he'd never been able to reach with wings alone. Faced with an unrestrained thunderbird (or so they thought), the enemy pilot's nerve broke and the craft began to wheel around. But it was too late: the roc was seconds from collision. The bow gunner fired in desperation, launching an explosive tipped harpoon straight at the oncoming avian.
The shot flew straight and true, then somehow the enormous bird was just not there any more, replaced by a raging torrent that battered the copter's stern and flipped it completely over. The little craft tumbled wildly out of control as Reef blasted skyward, overflew the copter and barrelled on towards the rest of his group. He could see two more of the craft nipping at Grenelda's paws, and... yes, there was the enemy cruiser, slowly rising into view and bristling with guns. Not just that... a pair of flapping shapes the size of hippogriffs, flanking the enemy airship.
Far to the north, Cloud Cutter hovered more like a departed spirit than a pegasus, feeling the wind around her as nothing more than a breeze ruffling her fur, which was an unsettling feeling after a lifetime of being one with the skies. She was a glowing purple dot in a sea of blue and white, the only pony to be seen as the rest of the crew were still hidden in the artificial cloud, along with their ships.
It was the only way they’d be safe from her, she though, if she were just... a strangely animated corpse out here with nopony to look at her, and fear her, and shy away from her. They were already away. She wished they would stay away forever, even though they were the only thing she missed more than her weather sense. Isolation only made that loss keener.
She shook off the melancholy (at least for now) and lifted the thick brown binoculars dangling around her neck. Cloud Cutter was gratified to discover that her empty eyes could still see through them just fine. She'd verified that a week ago of course, since it would have been madness to do this unprepared. Now she watched through the familiar lenses as her friends attacked one tower after another, so far away as they risked their lives for the crew. Five targets had been on the plan; four had gone down, but the enemy copters were nearly on them and the capital ship was about to join the fight.
“Come on...” Cloud Cutter murmured, watching the strange bird-like dragon as he attacked the fifth tower, a glowing dot unleashing streams of star-hot plasma to melt and collapse the steel. She wondered if Fire felt anything like Undead; a strange light within her that forced her to love it even as it killed everything around her. Now she would finally be able to release it with not so much as a butterfly dying, a beacon for her allies.
“Yes!” Cloud Cutter declared as the last tower slumped and disintegrated, its foundations melted to slag. She watched the phoenix-dragon as he looked to Azure and the enemy copters then vanished in a flash of flame. She'd seen enough; the binoculars fell from her hooves, only their leather strap stopping them from tumbling into oblivion. She hoped the pirates weren’t looking this way - though even if they were, likely they'd be too busy now to worry about mysterious flashes - and she wasted precious seconds winging in a slow circle to make sure no creatures had approached from behind.
There was no-one; she was as alone as before. “Finally...” Cloud Cutter said, tilting her gaze to the sky, then exploding in a blinding flash of deadly eerie purple light. It was... over, and she felt somewhat more like a pony again.
The sound of engines came out of nowhere, the overlapping roars of rotary engines and the deep thrum of steam turbines. The cloud bank began to seethe and churn, as propellors spun into life and the pegasi who'd been maintaining it cast away their safety lines and returned to their ship. Then the sharp prow of the Exocosus sliced out of the cloud, turreted guns gleaming below her chin as she powered forward toward the shark island.
The EAS Harmony was second behind, streamers of condensed cloud sluicing off the great bulk of the pony ship as it abandoned its concealment and accelerated to flank speed. Below the ship the rotors of the Second Chance were beginning to turn, as Static Signal got the engines stared. In less than a minute Gustus had cut the line and the copter was flying free alongside their airship.
Cloud Cutter sighed as she adjusted course to let the Harmony pass beneath her, dropping onto the top of the balloon and digging her hooves into the netting there. A pair of gillmen in the crow's nest gave her a nervous wave, as they slewed one of Nutmeg's devices around, watching out for enemy fliers. She had to take her place in the strike force now, no doubt to cause as much chaos and death as she could manage. The Undead pegasus could only hope the drow saw reason before she had to extinguish every last one of them.
Frustration built in Azure Feather as she flew a wingspan behind the griffon. The copters were almost on top of them; she knew she could go faster, but Grenelda was weighed down by her weapons and might be tiring... in any case, she didn't want to get too far ahead of the enemy cruiser, in case it decided to give up the chase and retreat to the protective umbrella of the fortress guns. Her wings began to glow once more as she made her decision. With no further warning the pegasus spun around and took aim at the closest pursuer, aiming to give the rotors a solid dose of air blades. That should at least slow them down, if not disable the rickety aircraft entirely...
The volley of slicing energy swept over the drow copter. Many shots passed through the rotor disc without contacting, but it only took a couple of lucky strikes to cause serious damage. A sizable chunk was lopped off one blade and the rest of the port rotor instantly began to shake itself apart. The little craft skidded into a turn, trying desperately to make it back to base before it fell out of the air. That gave the rear gunner one good opportunity for a shot at Azure, loosing an explosive-tipped harpoon with a loud ka-klunk. Azure stared transfixed for a split second as the projectile rushed toward her, then the breath was knocked out of her by a sudden impact and the world dissolved into flame...
...Only to reappear a moment later as she emerged from the teleport to find herself in a feathery embrace. "You gotta fly less predictably," a beaked face above her said, then cocked to one side and added "Nice work though. One shot and they're out of it." Then Sunburn released her and they were flying free again.
Azure blinked in shock; one second she'd was cursing herself for taking stupid risks as she realised the harpoon was going to hit her, the next the blast had taken her breath away and she was sure she'd be opening her eyes in Celestia's skies... but then a flash of fiery red feathers and she was saved. That voice, like smouldering embers ready to burst back into flame... Azure shook her head, silently thanking the phoenix for saving her as she signalled the others to resume the retreat. She couldn't find the words to express herself just then, focusing instead on completing her mission.
Grenelda looked back over her shoulder, cocking a beaky grin as Azure did her magic, squawking in delight as the copter took a hit and began spiralling away. Then her face turned to horror as she saw that drow gunner lining up the shot. "Shit... Azure!" she cried out, a moment before the fiery poof. The pegasus vanished, the harpoon sailing on into space; the griffon searched frantically for- there she was, in Sunburn's grap. It took a few seconds for the hen to process that she'd literally teleported out of the way.
"Damn!" Grenelda whooped and cawed out: "Way to save the day, Sunburn! Let's keep moving and teach those drow a lesson!" Back to retreating - with luck she'll be witness to a gratuitous ship battle any moment now! The remaining copter had pulled in for an attack of its own - as if she couldn't see something that big and noisy coming. The bow gunner launched a weighted net in Grenelda's general direction, but the hen just snorted contemptuously as she side-slipped out of the way.
Seeing the fate of its twin and having got a good look at the gun the griffon was toting, the pilot seemed to think discretion was the better part of valor and turned away to buzz over to the pirate cruiser, taking up station off one flank. A fourth copter soon arrived to join it, the whole force chasing the three flyers at the best speed the Ravager could manage. Reef Skimmer caught up a few minutes later, glad to give his water jets a rest for a moment and just flap along behind the others. "I say, that was quite the-"
"Reef Skimmer!" Sunburn bellowed. "Like I just told Azure, this ain't a pleasure flight! Start jinking, now!" The hippogriff's reply was cut off by a resounding boom from far behind them, followed by a supersonic crack that assaulted their ears even as the shockwave buffeted their bodies. "Main gun!" Sunburn shouted. "Now jink!" The four of them set to banking, dipping and diving as they slowly closed the distance to the oncoming friendly airships.
On the bow of the Fortuitous, Summer Sphinx was watching closely. She flinched at the sight of that enormous gun firing on her friends. Time to give the drow something else to shoot at; at her mental command a wave of ceramic flyers launched off the Fellissian ship. Four pegasi, four griffins and four sphinxes, golems ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause - and be near-instantly replaced by her magic. She grinned proudly as she watched her 'children' fly straight past her allies, then split apart and begin to harass the enemy copters.
The drow seemed to recoil from the seemingly suicidal aggression of these new foes. Lacking fear or emotions of any kind, they threw themselves at their targets, dive-bombing the gunners and throwing themselves at the machinery. Desperately the drow fired their guns and harpoon as the decoys, wasting their ammunition and completely forgetting about the strike team. Then streams of green energy burst out of emplacements on the cruiser, hosing down the nearby airspace and shattering the golems. Summer flinched at the impact, but in less than a minute she had another wave flying out to take their place.
'Holy crap', Azure thought as she watched the decoys feed themselves into the meat grinder. Those energy guns looked vicious; she was extremely grateful that they were tearing up Summer's golems rather than one of her allies. The allied ships were less than a minute away now, like deliverance sent by Celestia herself. All she had to do was keep up the evasive maneuvers for a little longer... This mission was almost unreal, surely Princess Twilight would never send her guard on something like this... yet, all her senses were wide open, and she felt so alive. Though in truth, if Sunburn hadn't been there, she would be quite the opposite...
High in alien skies, tiny dots in a vast ocean of air rushed towards each other, trailing smoke and spitting fire. At close range the dots resolved into mighty flying ships, powered by steam, magic and mixtures of the two. The ominous bulk of the Ravager, flagship of the drow's motley fleet, drove forward through the air, flanked by a pair of copters and the flapping shapes of enslaved griffons. The mighty main gun roared again, unleashing a shell that streaked past the strike force. The target was the vanguard of the opposing force: the squad armoured shape of the Leverage, the dirt shark battlewagon. The shell tore a massive gouge in the thick steel hull before bursting in a rain of shrapnel.
Following close behind the Leverage was the Fortuitous, dozens of magical oars thrashing to push the war galley onward. There the mystics of Fellis waited with staffs aglow and chants on their lips, preparing to unleash magical ruin as soon as the enemy got in range. Sphinxes crouched on the deck, arranged protectively around their Oracle, while cats adjusted the ballistae, waiting for the word to fire.
To the north the pony airship EAS Harmony was at flank speed, intending to approach the Ravager from behind and catch the enemy in a crossfire. However an unexpected complication had entered the picture; the impossible sight of an ocean-going galleon, lined with cannon and rigged with full sail, rising from the enemy base to head after the Ravager.
The sleek silhouette of the Exocosus sped ahead of the pony ship in a thunder of supercharged rotary engines, while the repurposed copter Second Chance stayed close, ready to aid its mothership. Almost lost in all this were the tiny shapes of the strike force, still flying for the relative safety of the Fortuitous, while Summer's latest flock of ceramic golems headed the other way: straight for the Ravager. For a single second the two groups intermixed and Azure Feather was treated to the bizarre sight of empty-eyed pony and sphinx statues flying along under their own power.
Grenelda winced, giving a reflexive squawk as the Ravager's shot seemed to split the sky. The shell was nowhere near this time - seemed like they'd found something else to shoot at, but the shockwave was still impressive. She saw the flash of it striking the Leverage, then the boom arriving a few seconds later - damn that shark ship was tough! The hen was honestly surprised a shot like that hadn't split it in half. "Shit! Azure, that thing packs a real punch... huh?"
She couldn't help staring as a dozen more blank-faced ceramic flyers swept past them; seemed like Summer sure could crank those things out. The copies headed straight for the enemy capital ship, keeping the enemy gunners and forcing them to sprayed green energy wildly at the incoming targets. "Guess that's our distraction," she called to Azure, "you ready to start causing havoc?" Her side-satchel clinked; tempting her to down the contents and cut loose.
Standing on the bow of the Harmony, her mane whipped by the slipstream, Captain Set Sail stared in horror at the flying galleon. With one quick flap she was on the main deck, facing her assembled deck crew. “Change of plans!" she called out. "There's no sign of weapons fire from the island, but there's a second enemy ship, one with no balloon, but with actual sails! We gotta stop it or it might do to us what we're planning to do to the Ravager!"
"We don’t know what they can do, or what weapons they got, so let's play this safe! If we start losing ponies, retreat to the Harmony and take cover! We need as strong a current as we can make, blowing south by southwest. They’ve got some kind of magic to fly that thing, so don’t hold back! Alright, let’s go blow them out of the sky!”
The pony airship continued driving forward as a small swarm of tiny colored dots rose off of its deck. The pegasi fell behind at first, flying in circles as they picked up speed, then streaked off in the direction of the galleon. Set Sail's plan was sound, but just there wasn't enough time or space; if the Harmony was going to arrive in time to aid the others with the Ravager, she'd have to pass within range of the second enemy.
The skeleton crew on the Harmony watched with bated breath as the enemy ships grew larger in their sights. Snug inside the turret, Clashing and Brightfin peered through the targeting periscopes, while strange energies were drawn from their bodies, powering up the device. Scalesbrook and Sliptail remained ready with the railguns to take out anything that started aiming their way. The other gillfolk had harpoon guns at ready, but the galleon would reduce the Harmony to splinters before they got close enough to board.
There was a brief moment of calm as the ships came together, enough that a few ponies dared to hope the second ship would stay neutral in this fight. Then a rippling roar of cannon fire dispelled that hopeless optimism. Every creature took cover as cannonballs flew into the ship, clanging on the armor plating and and blasting away the dense cloudcrete coating the ship’s balloon.
Railguns snapped in reply, piercing holes through thick oak walls and a few unlucky cannon operators. Another volley from the galleon, and everypony in the engine room panicked as the iron wall dented in with a groan of metal, ropes snapping and timbers shattering as the cannon balls crashed into them. Clashing and Brightfin let fly with the elemental cannon, peppering the enemy and tearing holes all through their sails, but unable to penetrate the hull. Even the dynamite guns were put into action, but in the bucking rolling chaos of the battle the makeshift projectiles went wide of their target, exploding with resounding booms in the sky beyond the enemy ship.
Then what might’ve been a cannonball shot past the galleon, seeming to come out of the blue, on a vector far different from the Harmony. It was followed by another, then another, then a whole cascade of swift projectiles passing above the ship, below the ship, all around the ship. Not one of them struck true, and the drow galleon was completely unharmed, until the gale force winds in their wake snapped the ship’s mast like a twig and shredded its damaged sails to ribbons. The force of the pegasi-summoned gale dragged it southwards into an out-of-control spin, the cannons firing once more, but no longer pointed towards anything but sky.
The mismatched flock of replicas headed straight for the drow battlewagon, without dodging or flinching as the enemy weapons opened up. Streams of bright green projectiles lanced out from under the bow of the Ravager, instantly shattering two of the griffons, while the copters buzzed around expending explosive harpoons on the distraction. The ensuing shockwaves fractured most of the constructs sufficiently that they broke apart in mid-air, with only a pony and a sphinx escaping the ceramic carnage. Drow could only stare in bemusement, wondering what trick the enemy was playing on them.
Summer Sphinx subtly winced at the feedback from each of her ceramic golems shattering. It was unpleasant and sharp in its suddenness, but she could power through it. She'd been watching the fight intently, concentrating on directing her creations. While their utter lack of fear was impressive in its own way, they'd be a lot more effective at tying up the drow gunners if she could make them dodge effectively.
Focusing her magic on the deck in front of her, she drew together the elemental power of Earth, reforming golem after golem: shaping them before everycat's very eyes, bolstering the ranks until all ten sacrificed constructs had been replaced, launching off the deck to once more harass the Ravager. She ordered the surviving pegasus and sphinx up ahead to split apart, flanking left and right - each one homing in on a copter to distract its attention.
"My ceramic creations have but a shade of the finesse and durability of the real thing," Summer mused to herself out loud, "But they are forced to deal with each and every one I create, for if they do not, then they will land and cause chaos until they are." Her tail swished with pride for her new found purpose. So long has she had to fight with only her quick wits and luck - going from that to this is like becoming the general of an unending army! Speaking of which... the cats around her were probably waiting for her orders.
"Fly the Fortuitous closer! Flank the Ravager, opposite the Leverage. Get ready to attack any enemy forces who get close. We will show them Felissians fight for what's ours!" she told the crew.
"Sharks are crossing, look!" shouted a feline voice. Indeed the Leverage was turning to port, right across the path of the Fortuitous, no doubt to hide the damaged plating from the enemy. Fortunately while the Fortuitous might not be the fastest ship in the skies, the dozens of oars gave it good maneuverability. The helmscat touched a rune and all the oars on one side briefly reversed, throwing the galley to starboard and executing a crossover to bring it onto the north east quarter of the Ravager.
The sudden turn was enough to evade the next shot from the enemy's main gun, which whistled past the Leverage's propellors. Now they were getting into range of the secondaries though; one armoured turret was tracking the Fortuitous, and it let fly with a lesser but still formidable boom. The opening shot blew off the ship's figurehead, raining splinters all over the deck. Summer grit her teeth at the near miss: seemed like that big mass of wood on the bow wasn't so ornamental after all. Jokes aside, she knew they were only a lucky shot away from being blown apart by that main gun. 'Come on Azure,' she thought, 'give us a miracle...'
In truth the blue pegasus was still shaken by her near-death experience, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. The enemy was pouring on the cannon fire and the battle would be won or lost in the next few minutes. "Time for phase three," she told her team, "and it's about time we pull out the ace. Storm and fire: that should cause some havoc for the deck crew, maybe even the ship itself." It honestly sounded a lot better in her mind than when she actively said it; she really had no idea whether this would work
Grenelda's beak gaped open in joy. "So you're gonna power up your tornados with Sunburn's fire? Been dreaming of that all day." She chortled in anticipation. "Show me what you're made of, then I won't stop wailin' on em until they're falling out of the sky!"
Azure nodded slightly, looking over to her recent savior as she replied vaguely: "That... was how my idea went, yes..." She couldn't do this without Sunburn, and she hadn't exactly had time to practice it... In the distance the latest wave of ceramic duplicates were being shattered by the green energy of the anti-flier guns. Nodding grimy, Azure said: "What do you think, Sunburn? Has Summer given us an opening?"
Sunburn was hovering nearby; he'd been watching the sacrificial golems carefully, scoping out the cruiser's fields of fire. The phoenix-dragon's head jerked over to focus on Azure as he wheeled around, heading back towards the enemy ship. "Fire and storm - just like old times. Let's do it, Azure. Get the vortex going, I'll cover then add some plasma - keep things toasty for those drow. Look: more golems incoming. We can go in behind them."
"Roger that." Azure replied, wheeling around to fall in behind the golems.. Her wings began to glow again as she said: "Let's get close enough, but not too close... Likely we'll only get one shot at this, so let's make it count." The drow probably thought they were safe behind their armoured hull, that air blades were all she had; if this worked, this would be absolute art.
A grey eagle the size of an elephant flapped closer to Azure, listening in: Reef Skimmer, still in roc shape. "Time to turn the tables then? Any specific orders, commander, or shall one just improvise?" he squawked.
Azure nearly jumped out of her skin; she'd been so focused on where to place the tornado, she hadn't expected a giant bird flying up next to her. Hearing Reef's voice just got a weak chuckle. "Alright, Reef... I was thinking just cover me, but if you've got a better idea, if there's one ally I can count on to exceed expectations... it's you. I trust your instincts."
"Sunburn and I will cause as much damage as we can... your best is all I can ask for." That left the final member of her squad: "Grenelda, after what I've seen today I respect your flying more than ever... but don't follow me in. You're a bigger target than me and this tornado won't discriminate; serious risk of friendly fire. We'll hammer the big ship... but I bet the copters aren't expecting a giant, fireball-spitting gryphon, right?" Azure grinned at the thought: "Think you can take 'em?"
In reply Grenelda swished a foreclaw into her satchel, pulling out the two MagiBubble-branded soda bottles. "Easy! Let's get to work." With the flick of a talon the caps were off and the fizzing contents were pouring into her beak. She grinned over to Reef: "You wanna take one of them?"
Reef shook his head. "Those devices spraying green magic are the greater threat; made short work of Summer's creations, no doubt murderous to any flyer who gets close. One will see what one can do about that! Good luck with the copters."
"Two copters it is - good luck, Reef! Drown 'em!" Grenelda crooned between gulps.
With that, they were off. Azure flew on alone, directly into the sights of the Ravager, though she didn't have to look back to know Sunburn wasn't far behind. "Alright... now we show 'em Skylanders are still a force you don't want to mess with..." The air blades were just a warmup; this would be the heavy hitter. Wind began to whip around her as she pushed her powers to the limit, magic flowing out to shape a tornado in the sky ahead of her. Timing was crucial; she had to get this fully formed before the enemy ship hit, but not give them time to evade.
The funnel cloud of the tornado began to form directly in the path of the Ravager; the armoured ship was ten seconds away from ploughing straight into it. Unfortunately that was enough for another volley of fire from the salvaged troll cannons. On the Fortuitous, Everdream led his fellow mystics in a rapid ritual, the cat-taurs releasing their energies just in time to bring up a wall of shimmering magic, hanging in mid air off the port flank of the ship.
The enemy shell slammed into it; the construct flickered and sparked but held for now, while the shockwave rocked the ship behind. "Another hit, maybe two, is all we can deflect!" the mystic shouted to Summer, "we can only hope that will be long enough!"
"Ballistae nearly in range, Oracle!" another cat called - Wild Draw, the warrior who'd met the ponies at the pig farm. "Give me half a tick and we'll have them in our sights!"
The Leverage was not so lucky. A shot from one of the secondary cannons glanced off the forward hull with a deafening clang, but the main gun was not so easily stopped. The shell punched into the rear of the ship, exploding inside and knocking out the port engine. The shark ironclad began to lose speed, while lifting gas seeped out of the shrapnel-damaged balloon.
To the west, the second shark ship was streaking to the rescue. Firesteel had the throttles jammed wide open and was out for blood. The twin cannon slung below the nose of the sleek air yacht fired simultaneously, striking the enemy ship on the port pontoon. One shell struck the base of a propellor shaft and severed it completely, the shattered assembly falling away into the void. The other was not so lucky, the relatively light shell clanging off one of the secondary turrets, leaving only a small dent in the armour.
Sunburn wasted no time congratulating Azure; with seconds to spare he disappeared in a flash and reappeared right in the heart of the tornado, his beak open and unleashing a continuous stream of fire that was instantly sucked into the vortex. Despite his best efforts he was soon spinning out of control as well, but with another flash of teleportation he was away and clear, leaving the giant whirling column of fire right in the path of the drow ship.
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer had unleashed his water jets and blasted straight up into the sky. In no time at all he was a kilometre up and nosing over to begin a power dive straight down toward the enemy ship. The mutant hippogriff unleashed his streams of water directly downward, freefalling with the stream so as to build up a huge glob of several tonnes of water - all of which was about to strike the crow's nest of the Ravager at terminal velocity.
Gesturing at the imminent chaos as though to prove her point, Summer yelled out to the cats, "Fire everything! Now! Destroy that ship!"
For a moment, the Ravager was still the most feared warship in the eastern fringe, invincible and relentless. Then the bow pierced right into the fire-swollen cyclone, gale-force winds and intense overpressure blasting open hatches and driving white-hote plasma into every porthole and gun-barrel. The entire front section of the ship burst into flame, while the wind battered the hull and sent the ship reeling into a flat spin, destroying any hope of precision aiming. Almost simultaneously five tonnes of gravity-accelerated water crashed into the crow's nest, obliterating the blaster cannon stationed there and the gun crew along with it.
The wounded Leverage was happy to take revenge, finally in position to unleash its full and formidable broadside. A dozen shells crashed into the drow ship's starboard flank, shattering armour plate and opening more holes for the fire to get in. A second later a pair of oversized bolts tipped with glowing crystals arced through the air: ballistae shots from the Fortuitous. The magic-enhanced projectiles struck the drow's port flank and unleashed detonations of unnatural energies that twisted, rent and dissolved the ship's very structure.
In the turret of the Harmony, Clashing Gale watched the whole show through his viewing periscope. "Holy Celestia..." he muttered, "she really pulled it off! I guess this is Skylander-level tactics... wait until the pegasi back home hear about this one." He smirked over at Brightfigh: "This is it, time to heat this thing up and finnish the job! We'll be in range in five... four.. three..."
The young gillfolk chieftain nodded and squeezed the triggers. The cannon hummed to life, unleashing a continuous volley of energy balls that pummelled the stern of the burning Ravager and obliterating all hope of escape. Purple shots aged and rusted metal to dust wherever they struck, while concussive blue bolts hammered machinery to pieces. In less than a minute Clashing and Brightfin had systematically destroyed all three remaining propellor shafts.
As if that wasn't enough, from behind the slowly dissipating fire vortex a shrieking figure emerges: the griffon Grenelda, twice her usual size and blazing with the magic of the sodas swirling in her gut. Her formerly back-mounted cannon was now slung around a forelimb - though she hardly needed it to take down a flimsy drow copter. With a heavy beat of her wings she threw herself at the enemy, beak agape in a piercing warcry.
The impact was a fury of raking talons and snapping beak, lashing out and gouging at anyone and everything, her weight alone enough to crack the hull and twist the drive shafts of the doomed drow craft. Before the crew could even consider a meaningful counterattack, the griffon was gone, their bodies were torn and broken and their aircraft was reduced to a burning, disintegrating wreck.
The sole remaining drow copter made a run for it, desperately firing its rear harpoon at Grenelda as if to ward off pursuit. The native griffons that had accompanied the enemy ship lost no time in peeling away and heading back to the island, figuring that with the drow clearly on the path to destruction, it was high time to rescue their hostage chicks.
Set Sail was literally in her element as she streaked over the enemy galleon; though whether that meant the sky or the battle was a dilemma she'd wrestle with later. As she flew past she got a good look at the creatures manning the curious vessel: definitely not the slim forms of drow, these were much bigger and much heavier, thicker built than the sharks even, layers of blubber over solid muscle. Twin tusks bristed from their jaw and wide-set eyes squinted back - walruses, they looked like a weird cross between a minotaur and a walrus, dressed in piecemeal armour and brandishing muskets and cutlasses. A few of the crude firearms let fly at her crew as they passed overhead, but the pegasi were difficult targets with surprise on their side, and none of the shot came anywhere close to hitting.
The brown pegasus looped back around towards the Harmony; seeing the flapping shapes of the native griffons coming her way, she flew over to meet up with them. "Brawlruses!" the dark hen in the lead cawed, "Just what we didn't need. Crude but hard as nails and subtle as a brick to the face." She spat and growled out: "Prob'ly come to trade slaves - or for the games. We're gonna end them too, right?"
“They’re—their ship is damaged, and they’re not a threat anymore,” Set Sail told the very large and tough-looking griffon, “I saw those things... they could take three of us bare hooved! We’re not going to engage them directly. We’ll just blow them out of the way if they try to come back. It’s the Ravager we need to take out now. I was going to throw a tornado at it but uhm...” She stared into the distance, where the enemy ship had just run head-first into a roaring vortex of flame. As she watched projectiles pummelled the ship from every side, while water exploded out of the top of the balloon. “...uh... yeah. Looks like they've got it in hoof.”
She turned and called out, “Everypony! Looks like the galleon's disabled for now, so we're heading back to the Harmony. Keep an eye on it though; if it pulls some sort of... magical thingy, then we have to be ready to take it out. Let’s pull some lightning clouds together, in case they come at us again, but the Harmony took some hits and we have to make sure everypony’s alright!"
The griffon hen scowled back the pegasus: "Hey! They might already have griffs... any kinda slaves even, loaded on that thing! We can't just let 'em go!" Her eyes widened as she followed the mare's gaze to the fire tornado consuming the drow ship. "Leave 'em to stew for a bit though, yeah I could get on board with that..."