Silver Raindrops sat on a barrel and smelled the wind as it rushed past. She recalled Comet once saying that winds from the south always smelled of smoke to her, even though there was no way that was possible. Now, so far to the south and surrounded by dragons in any direction, the slender pegasus was smelling it too. But something else lingered on the wind as well, something full of vigor and power. She could not put her hoof on it, but it enticed and scared her at the same time.
The two chiropteqi, Lily, the twins, and Clear Morning arrived with bowls of steaming potatoes, cheese, and tossed vegetables. Moon Fang passed Rain her bowl before taking a seat. "Thanks for holding the spot, Stuffshirt. Can you believe how crowded this tub is now?"
"Awful," Sun Ray said.
"Dreadful," Moon Beam added. Comet glanced at them curiously, but her potatoes were too good to let her attention slip away.
"It's crowded, but the CAG rotations are spread far and wide," Clear Morning said. "The extra sleep is nice."
"Hear hear," the twins said through mouths full of food. Rain was inclined to agree -- anything that relieved even a little stress was a welcome development. "Though you know what would really make my day?" Moon Beam said.
"If Clear Morning finally yielded to your advances?" Lily stuck out her tongue. Rain coughed.
"Well, that too." The twins shot the stallion a coy grin. He sighed. The armor was wearing thin, they were sure. "But no, I was going to say, if we got some fresh cider. It's a good thing the roost had a deep water well, or we'd be in trouble soon."
"'s not stopping them from cutting our showers," Lily grumbled.
"As if you ever make good use of a shower, Jitterbug," Rain said with a chortle.
Lily gasped and put a hoof to her chest. "I do so shower! I may not have a dozen bottles of conditioner stashed away like some ponies, but I do make sure I'm clean as a whistle every morning."
"Loud as a whistle, you mean." Moon Fang's toothy grin was only distressing to some of the newbie company by then. Rain watched the playful jabs go back and forth, contributing some herself and taking as many, and she smiled to herself. The twins still held a sheepish smile for her whenever their gazes crossed, but their enthusiasm was returning. The bags under Comet's eyes were not as pronounced as before, which seemed to lift a weight off of Lily's shoulders. Somehow, they were getting each other through.
Moon Fang was a bit of a mystery to the brick red filly. Their shared a connection through Comet, but they had never spent much time together themselves. What little she had noticed of him, he seemed to be holding strong despite everything that had happened. If that really was the case, Rain hardly minded, but the problems that hid under the surface were the ones she was watching the most for. A lull in the conversation provided the chance for a feeler.
"So, Moon Fang, how is your new squad leader doing?"
"Wren Song?" Moon Fang pondered while he chewed his food. "She's good. She really knows what she's doing. I think she's just stressed, but I can't blame her for that, y'know?" Who could? "Why, you see something?"
"No, just keeping my ears up." Well that accomplished nothing. Maybe Fang really was just a tough nut. Comet’s curious stare made Rain give up the chase. If he was fine, he was fine. She sniffed the air absently; the scent still lingered. “Say, did you hear what happened over on the Starfall?”
“No, what?” The twins jumped on gossip like flies on stink.
“Apparently, somepony stowed a violin down in the cargo hold ages ago. They just found it while they were moving things around this afternoon, and nopony is claiming it.”
“What if it’s haunted?” Sun Ray raised her hooves and let out a silly wail at her sister.
“What if it’s cursed?” Moon Beam did the same.
Clear Morning groaned. “I would throw you both overboard if you couldn’t just fly right back up.” Sun Ray bumped up against her squadmate and nuzzled him.
“Oh, Morning, you love us. Why don’t you just admit it?”
“Never.” The stallion pushed the yellow twin away to find the blue twin doing the same from the other side. “Help me.”
“We had to deal with them for all of Basic, Morning.” Comet sipped her cider. “They’re your responsibility now.” The others nodded in agreement. Clear Morning snorted.
“When looking for the twins, just follow the sounds of exasperation.” Willow Wisp ambled up to the group, his bowl balancing on his back. “I swear, I had to wrestle my way out of the galley. I think somepony chipped one of my teeth. Silver, are my teeth ok?” The lemon yellow colt opened his mouth, and when Rain leaned in to inspect his chompers, he stole a quick kiss on the bridge of her nose. She pulled back with a blush and an undignified squeak.
“Well, your brain seems to have turned to mush, but that’s from something else, Cheerleader.” Moon Fang made room for him. “How you doing?”
“Good, actually.” Willow paused to grab a bite of food. “I guess I’m just glad to be in the air again. This whole thing of waiting around after each fight is stifling.”
“I can’t imagine fighting day after day without end, though,” Rain said. “We would be falling out of the air from exhaustion after not too long.”
“Well maybe if Dodge sent some more ponies instead of bunching up like we saw,” Comet said. “There must have been thousands there, and how many do we have?”
“Less than five hundred pegasi, and… I don’t know, two thousand ground?” Clear Morning, like the rest of them, spent very little time with the ground battalions. If it weren’t for the airship crews, it was likely that the only ponies they would talk with for the whole war would be winged.
“Whatever, guys,” Lily said over the brim of her mug, “if they’re too chicken to actually join the fight, then we don’t need them. As long as they hold The Line there, let ‘em rot.” The twins toasted the sentiment. Comet sipped her cider in silence. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Willow grow pensive. His nose perked into the air like a hound.
“Hey, do you guys smell something?” He sniffed the wind. “The air’s odd tonight.”
“You smell it too?” Rain stood up. “It’s been bothering me for the past hour.” Now all of them were sniffing.
“Smells… damp.” Moon Fang shrugged. “There’s probably some Autumn shower blowing through nearby.”
“It’s not just wet,” Lily said, “there’s something else. Something… metallic?”
“That doesn’t make any sense, Lily,” Comet replied.
“It doesn’t, but she’s right.” The sorbet chiroptequus scanned the horizon. Even for his night eyes, it was too dark to see more than a couple miles. The smell suddenly strengthened as a wind buffeted the fleet. The deck lurched beneath their feet.
“That’s not a shower,” the twins said. As if on queue, one of the unicorn lookouts rushed to the captain's cabin to report the strange weather. It began with only a few ponies rushing about, then more as word got around. Captain Candescence strode from her cabin, the crewmember and her first mate tailing her. Night Light appeared with his crew, their dinners abandoned in the galley. Scores of eyes stared out into the darkness, searching silently for the source of the disturbance.
Silver looked amongst her friends. Much like earth ponies had an affinity with the earth, and unicorns with the ambient powers of the world, winged ponies possessed an intimate connection to the skies. Tiny changes in air pressure, temperature, wind speed, and odor were easily spotted to a pegasus when other ponies would not even suspect. Like dogs, every pegasus on board was sniffing the air, their ears flitting about as they listened to the wind.
Lily was the first to sense it. When the first low, distant, nearly expended roll of thunder caressed her ears, she shivered. "Thunderstorm," the little pink filly called out. The pegasi all looked to each other. The smell of ionized air, the sudden gusts of wind, the subtle hum on the wind - everything added up.
"Do you have a bearing?" Captain Candescence frowned. Willow Wisp opened his wings just in time to catch a gust of wind. He staggered as the ship was once again knocked about.
"Straight on, Ma'am." Willow regained his balance. "We're heading right for it, but it's heading north. If we adjust our heading south by southeast, we should skirt the edge and come away unharmed."
"Should?"
"Ma'am, with respect," Moon Fang cut in, "Lancer Shimmer and I can barely see anything out there. Without a proper visual assessment, we won't know exactly where the storm is until we're within its influence." The captain mulled over his words for a moment before nodding.
"Very well, airponies. Helmspony," she called to the rear, "alter our course, bearing One-Six-Eight, maintain altitude. Signal the other ships, and somepony get word down to the ground forces." With the word given, those who had a job to get to struck up a hearty pace, while those who were relieved no battle was to be fought went to find their forgotten dinners. The pegasi returned to their circle, equally relieved but still on edge. A pegasus's blood was wary of thunder.
Rainbow Blaze found them a short while later. "Evening, kids. That was a good call on the storm." He sat in their circle and watched them in the lantern light. "Nimbus, how'd you catch that so quickly?"
"My parents are both weatherponies for Cloudsdale. They would show me around the factories as soon as I could barely fly." Lily blushed -- Rain was not aware she was even capable of it. "I've always had a thing for the powerful weather patterns: blizzards, gales, and tornadoes. But thunder was always one of my favorites." The pink filly shrugged. "I just know the signs, I guess."
"Well, I'm glad you did. It's the little skills, crap like that, that make ponies invaluable." Rainbow smiled at his gathered flock. His gaze drifted skyward, and his smile failed. "Not many nights it's this dark. Shimmer, Fang, you two really can't see anything?"
Comet shook her head. "We can see the ponies down on the ground near their lanterns, but otherwise, it's pitch black out there."
"Is it cloud cover, you think?" Moon Fang scanned the sky for trace stars.
"Maybe, but I doubt it. We're high enough that we should be able to see the clouds, at least." Rain scanned the sky as well. Not a star was to be found. "It's very odd."
"Oh, it's odd." Lily covered her mouth in dramatized shock. "Well then, we might be in for a bit of a-" The ship rocked as it's forward momentum sloughed away. On either side, the Dauntless and the Ranger slowed to a stop. Comet hopped up and peered over the edge. Far below, the lanterns were still directly below them; the ground forces had stopped as well.
"Why are we stopping?" Moon Beam said. "I thought the plan was to skirt the storm."
"Maybe the colonel thought otherwise," Sun Ray said.
"The ships could do something like that, but the ground forces are a lot less mobile," Rainbow said. "He probably wants to let the storm scurry past before we all press on." The twins snorted, but did not object.
"So for now, we're stuck here..." Comet looked amongst the group. "Where is here, exactly?"
"The asscrack between nowhere and nothing." Lily ignored Rain's tutting. "If this area even has a name, nopony can see well enough to find a landmark."
"Last I was told," Rainbow pulled out his map and laid it in the center of the circle, "We're headed in this direction. We've been traveling for five days at yay speed, so... By my guess, we're right around here." The circle he made with his hoof put them just outside a maze of narrow canyons that stretched for miles. "Makes sense that Redwood doesn't want to try crossing that in the dark."
"That would be a nightmare," Willow muttered. "Can you imagine getting separated down there? They'd never find you." Rain nodded in agreement. The ships could float over the top of the whole mess without a care, but the ponies on the ground could only press through and hope to get their bearings on the other side.
The brick red filly wrapped her wings around herself to stave off the winds. While her eyes were with everypony else's, scanning the map, her mind was on the empty sky above. Something was odd about this night, and she could not place her hoof on it.
~*~
The inky blackness that seemed to leak through the windows compelled Firefly to light a few extra candles. Even then, they seemed somehow less effective. She frowned, but she did not stop pouring over her maps. Ardent sat across from her, two of her squad leaders on either side, waiting for the company captain to give them something to do.
"Ardent, we've padded Apex with our best fliers for a reason," Firefly finally said. "Do you know what that reason is?"
"Ma'am, so that we can trust Apex to do anything that is needed, Ma'am." Her squad leaders' chests swelled with checked pride.
"Exactly. And what I need of you now is hardly difficult, but potentially dangerous."
"Say the word, boss. We'll make it happen." Snowdrift saluted sharply.
Firefly smirked. "Easy, Snowball. You might not be so eager in a second." The fuschia mare walked over to the wall and pulled a lantern from its hook. "A standard patrol's lantern is visible on a clear night up to six miles away. On a cloudy night, it should still be visible up to two miles away." She set the lantern down in front of the five ponies. "I want somepony from Apex to fly straight out from the Dauntless for two miles, turn around, and fly home."
"...Ma'am?"
"We're flying blind out here, ponies, and I want to know why." Firefly paced back to her original spot. "We'll start with what we know. Find out our visibility. Send one wing, and the rest of the squad watches from the deck. As soon as they're back, report to me. Any questions?"
"No, Ma'am," all five ponies replied.
"Very good. Get to it." The ponies saluted and made their way out. Snowdrift carried the lantern between his teeth. Firefly sat at her table and glowered at the scrolls in front of her. Something on the air smelled foul.
~*~
Half of Cyclone Company watched two of their own depart from the Dauntless and sail out into the night. A soft rain had begun to fall, bringing out the subtle scents of the woodwork and sunbaked earth far below. The twinkling light of their patrol lantern shone as they disappeared into the distance, a lonesome star in what should be an endless, sparkling sea of them. Comet was counting subconsciously under her breath, each second accompanied by a tick from her contraption. The winds continued to rock the airships, albeit a bit more roughly than they had at dinner.
One could hear the collective breath of the watching ponies catch in their throats when the lantern began to dim far earlier than it should have. At just over a mile, the light began to vanish. By by one and a quarter, it was gone entirely. With three quarters of a mile each way to go, all they could do was scan the inky blackness for the first sign of the wing’s return.
“Why wouldn’t we be able to see the whole trip?” Moon Fang whispered. “Lanterns never fail under two miles.”
“Maybe it went out?” The twins offered meekly.
“If it had gone out, they would have come back,” Sparky Bolts replied. Comet bit her lip. She had a notion, but it was a long shot, especially given their experience with dragons so far. She turned to make for the Dauntless, only to find Firefly a few ponies down from her. The fuschia mare was in a hushed conversation with Rainbow Blaze -- apparently she had decided not to wait for a report. Forcing the lump in her throat down, Comet approached the pair.
“Sirs,” Comet saluted, “I have a theory, if you’d like to hear it.”
“Can’t be worse than ‘giant cloud of smoke,’” Firefly huffed. “Whatcha got, kid?”
“...Sparklefangs.” The senior officers glanced at each other. Comet continued, “I had nearly forgotten about them, given that we’ve never seen one in combat. They’re a category of dragon, notable for their ability to use magic. It’s possible a sparklefang is responsible for this shroud.”
“A darkness shroud?” Rainbow Blaze stroked his chin. “Is such a thing even possible?”
“A Shadow Shroud is a high level illusion,” Night Light cut in, “but some unicorns are capable of it. With how long we would’ve been under the effect, though, I can’t imagine the amount of power expended to maintain it.” He glanced at the three pegasi gathered around him. “Apologies, sirs. I heard you mention magic and got curious.”
“Well we know it’s a real thing, at least.” Firefly glanced over the bow of the ship. The first distant sign of the scout wing flickered back into existence. “Blaze, I want our ships pulled low to the ground. This wind is only getting worse, and if something is bothering to cast such a large spell over the area, I don’t want to find it on their terms.” The pegasus saluted and departed. “Shimmer, you may be right about the dragons. But it doesn’t really matter, since I’m not planning for us to go after them.” The chiroptequus nodded. “That said, I want everypony ready for action. Everypony suited up, everypony on deck. Got it?”
“Aye, Ma'am,” Comet saluted, “shall I give the order?”
“Order’s given. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Firefly spread her wings, “I left my own suit on the other ship.” And she was gone in a flash of blue and pink.
“Probably best if we’re ready for action too,” Night Light said. “I’d best go tell the captain.” Comet saw him off with a quiet nod. The filly spread the word, then retrieved her own helmet from the box she’d left it sitting on. Her golden helmet shone delicately in the lantern light, a thin coat of drizzle causing it to sparkle. Normally, she wore the dented thing as little as possible, but the knowledge that she might need it before the night was done made the plated headwear somehow comforting. With every pony of every company shuffling into their armor, there was naught for her to do but spin her contraption and shine her sabres. If only her damned hooves would stop shaking.
“Having trouble there, kid?” Rainbow Blaze sat down across from the filly, watching her work through the lantern light.
“I’m alright, sir.”
“I’d be inclined to believe you if you didn’t still have sleep draught working its way out of your system.” He frowned and leaned against a barrel. “The kind you took can take two weeks to fully leave.” They sat in silence for a time, Comet too ashamed to continue fumbling at work, Rainbow too pensive to do anything but wait for her response. “...Faust damn it, Shimmer, I told you. I bucking told you we get through this together, and instead you lock up your problems so tight, Nimbus had to literally wrestle them out of you.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” Comet tried to find something for her hooves to do, but before she could, they slammed her sabres against the deck. “Everypony was just so worn down. I couldn’t add my own weight to that, so I tried to handle it on my own. It was stupid, and I couldn’t… and now my own squad doesn’t trust me.”
“You mean with the scouts returning?” Comet nodded. “Shimmer, that engagement went perfect. No casualties, every enemy dead in under two minutes, and all the scouts we could help survived. Star… Airpony Stargaze died unnecessarily. I wish I could say it was for something, but it wasn’t. We deployed too many wings, he got caught in a bad spot, and that was it. Song didn’t want you getting caught the same way, with no wingpony and no room, and getting killed for nothing. You have their trust, Shimmer, you need to trust them. Understand?”
“I do.” The filly hazarded a glance at her superior officer. “Are you mad, sir?”
Rainbow sighed. He was too young to have a kid. “No. Disappointed, but not mad.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “But I know you’ll do better.” Her nod was more enthusiastic. “We’ve wound up with a good group of ponies, kid. You’d be a damned idiot to not put your faith in them-”
The ship shook violently, throwing ponies about like bits of colored paper. Before anypony knew it, they were moving, nearly colliding with the Dauntless before the winds yanked them apart again. The rain increased from a soft drizzle to a freezing deluge. Fat drops of water blew against the ponies like flecks of ice, striking them hard and chilling their fur awfully. Comet’s first instinct was to get airborne and collect her bearings, but if she jumped off of the deck, she might not find it again. The wind was knocking about anything that was not tied down, including the hapless crew still on deck. Rainbow Blaze buried the hook of his glaive in the wood and grabbed on to the indigo filly. Prone against the deck, the two ponies hung on as the wind threatened to rip them away into the blackness.
“Are we in the storm?” Comet shouted at Rainbow, though her words barely reached him.
“We can’t be, it should still be miles away!” The cobalt pegasus looked around to see who of his company were pinned like they were. Some, he knew, were below deck getting their gear on, but twenty or so pegasi were holding on for dear life, as well as twice as many unicorns and earth ponies.
Moon Fang, flattened against the railing, chanced a look over the side of the ship. Far below and behind, the lights of Colonel Redwood’s ground camp faded into nothing. At this distance, he could not tell if they were being thrown around on the ground as bad as they were in the air, but it was beyond his power to do anything about it. He tried to shout to the nearest pony, but the howling wind stole his words away. A crack of lightning cut the blackness for a split second, illuminating clouds on all sides.
A second bolt of lightning cut through the darkness at a greater distance, then another and another. They were, without a doubt, deep in the thunderstorm now. How could a storm sneak up on them? He felt the deck vibrate behind him, and looked over his shoulder. Willow Wisp and Silver Raindrops were holding tight to each other, alternating their hooks to pull themselves along the deck towards him. He thought for a second to wave them over, but a particularly violent rocking of the ship forced him to wrap around his rail with even more desperation. A bolt of lightning whipped out of the chaos and struck the Adamant. One of its sail riggings exploded, glowing shards of wood flying out and striking the side of the ship before vanishing into the wind and rain.
The Adamant seemed to do a flip, spinning and tossing ponies like leaves, and as fast as it came, the storm began to settle, though the rain went nowhere. Lightning flashed about them, illuminating the opening in the storm they had stumbled into. Captured in the harsh, eerie light of the storm, the sight the ponies beheld froze their blood solid.
Dragons, dozens or hundreds of them, flew in massive flights hundreds of yards across. Against the harsh light, their colors were indistinguishable, making way for ghostly silhouettes against the glowing clouds. Every kind of dragon Cyclone Company had seen, and many they had not, rode the stormy current with long, lazy flaps of their wings, seemingly oblivious to the squall that raged around them.
In the center of their flight, six massive broadwings flew around a single dragon, long chains connecting them to the scaled creature. To say this behemoth made the broadwings look small was a sad understatement. Comet Shimmer was quite certain a new word would need to be created to describe the scale of this incredible beast. Against the harsh light, its scales shone like diamonds, casting shimmering light wherever deep gashes had not marred its hide. Each wing was as big across as the length of the Adamant twice over, and its tail longer still. But what drew the filly’s eye was the constant flux of ethereal discharge visible along a series of spines running down its back. Though more chaotic, the aura was easily comparable to those of her unicorn comrades, which meant only one thing.
“Sparklefang…” With the wind calming, Rainbow Blaze made out the filly’s stunned murmur. Given the majesty of the creature, he was quite sure he had never seen another in the months he had been fighting. How they were supposed to do anything to such an incredible monster, he had no idea. He cautiously got to his hooves, then helped Comet to hers. Around them, other ponies were caught between finding their feet and watching the draconic display with equal parts awe and horror.
And then one of the dragon formations saw them.
With a screech that brought them all back to the present, the V shaped dragon wing banked and descended on the roughed up fleet of airships. Like a wave crashing down, more and more dragons angled towards the hapless ponies and moved to attack.
“Crescent Platoon,” Rainbow Blaze shouted, “find your wingponies! Emergency launch, all hooves!” Comet shoved her sabres into her boots and looked around frantically. Lily bolted out of the stairwell onto the deck, eyes ablaze and wings twitching with anticipation. The sight of an untold number of large, scaled, razor fanged, angry dragons extinguished her enthusiasm in a microsecond. Comet hurried over and caught her attention before her nerves failed as well. The pink filly steadied her breathing and gave Comet a weak, shaky nod. Freezing rain poured off their helmets and their backs, pooling on the deck and making their footing even more precarious.
“Lily,” Comet said, her voice on the verge of cracking, “I’ll be right with you, so don’t leave me, ok?”
“Right… Right, stick together.” Lily shook her head, forcing adrenaline through her veins. “Stay close, watch each other’s backs. You ready, Egghead?”
Comet looked up at the hell that they had blundered into. “...No.” The two of them made their way to Crescent Platoon’s circle.
“What’s the plan, sir?” Dewbead shouted over the storm.
“We don’t have one, Lancer. If we try and break through the wall of the storm, we’ll get tossed around like garbage. I don’t think the ship can handle more of that.” Rainbow Blaze looked up. There wasn’t much time left before the dragons would be right on top of them. “This storm isn’t natural. Night Light,” he called to the unicorn, “what do you make of that sparklefang up there?”
The unicorn broke off from his team and looked up. “Well, whatever magic it’s using, it’s constant. I’d guess it’s the one causing the shadow shroud, maintaining this weather pattern, or both.”
“Nothing has that much magic,” one of Night Light’s teammates said.
“I’d wager it does,” the blue unicorn replied, “and judging by those chains, it’s not doing it by it’s own volition.”
“So if we free the sparklefang-”
“It might break up the storm.” Rainbow Blaze clenched his jaw. “Then that’s our target.”
“Blaze, what about the other platoons?” Fir Bough said. “We’re just two, and not well crewed at that.”
“We don’t have the bucking time-” Rainbow snorted, “right, fine. Squad Two, split up, get over to the other ships, and spread the word." They were already gone. "The rest of you, first priority is to break up their assault. Once you’re clear of their lines, we reconvene and make for the sparklefang. Those six broadwings holding it are our targets. Any questions?” For a group of ponies, all of them soaked and ready to shit themselves in terror, they were amazingly resolute in their silence. “Then I’ll see you on the other side.
“Crescent Platoon, Dawn Platoon, all wings launch!” As they leaped into the endless darkness, featureless space punctuated by moments of blinding light and filled with icy rain, a sickening realization entered Comet’s mind: for the first time, they were likely outnumbered.
The instant they cleared the side of the ship, the wind and rain was free to bombard them from all directions, whipping them about and threatening to rip their formations to shreds. Through spinning vision, she saw dozens of ponies airborne, every pegasus of every company deployed in a desperate attempt to hold off the dragons.
Comet righted herself in the turbulent storm and realigned herself with Lily Nimbus. Her squad held together, Squad Three was just ahead of them, and Firefly was leading a squad twenty yards above. Moonlight Company was scattered throughout Cyclone and Downpour, though she was almost sure fear alone would strike most of them dead. She saw Wren Song give the five of them a look, then nodded at the sparklefang and the multitude of dragons between it and them. Squad Four fell into a tight V formation, helping each other to rebuff the the storm and plow towards their opponents.
One of the squads from Blizzard Platoon was first to contact the dragon lines. They ducked and wove through the first of the scaled monsters, and disappeared into the chaos. Crescent’s Squad Three was close behind them. Firefoot looped over the tail swipe of one dragon directly into another’s maw. Before anypony could register his death, the lizards were a split second away. Comet rolled, dropping below a dragon’s bite and leaving a long, dark red gash across its jaw line. Lily rolled back in from above, retaking her position directly in front of the filly. Instinct told Comet to double back and make a lethal strike against the target she had already marked. Her orders told her to press on.
The broadwing closing in from their right, gullet glowing an angry orange, also helped keep her forward. Her squad arced for the ceiling, climbing as fast as they could as the broadwing let loose his fiery payload. Sparky Bolts escaped with a scorched tail. The three ponies behind him were not so lucky. The squad rolled around a charging glimmerback, cutting deep into its neck and wings and securing the kill before pressing on. Two more dragons closed in from above before being cut to pieces by a squad from behind. Everywhere Comet looked, more dragons were crashing down on them. Successful strikes were circumstantial, surviving was the only real goal. How many squads had made it as far as they had, she could not say. She only risked a glance to her periphery long enough to confirm she was not about to die.
Ahead, Lily Nimbus gave a quick ruffle in her wake before banking down and left hard. Comet followed her down, rolling to match the dive, and the two of them evaded a broadwing barreling at the airships far behind them. If they cut it along the way, no one noticed. Ahead, a glimmerback with telltale spines arched its back at a squad that had appeared off to their right. A bolt of lightning arced out of the sky, rebounded through the dragon’s spines, and lanced out at the pegasi. Four of them went up in balls of bright light and smoke. Wren led the squad over to collect the remaining three, but the dragons had noticed the wounded prey.
The lead mare ruffled her wings very specifically. In perfect synchrony, the squad split by wings: Wren Song and Dewbead flew high, Comet and Lily banked left, and Moon Fang and Sparky Bolts banked right. They lashed out at the dragons nearest to their comrades, cutting deep and viciously where possible, before closing in around the three pegasi and pressing on. Between the raging storm and the fried nerves, Comet had no notion of how far they had flown or how far they had to go still. But looking out ahead of them, she could not help be be sure that every dragon in a hundred miles had come to fight.
Black spears flew through the maelstrom, catching lightning and dragons alike as they fired wantonly into the battle. The airships were hardly leaving fate to their combat wings, opting instead to hit anything they could. With so many targets, all they ballista teams really had to do was reload, close their eyes, and fire. With the fleet’s port side to the wall of the storm, the unicorn teams were able to double up. One team was responsible for shielding their vessel, while the other team would blast any scaly monster that wandered too close with a beam of concentrated magic. For a split second, Night Light actually felt like they stood a chance.
Then he would see how many they had left to go.
He had worn himself down to near permanent injury once before. He would be lucky if he didn’t magic himself to death this night. “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t,” the unicorn muttered bitterly. “Don’t wait up, Velvet.” His extremities were already going number between the exertion and the freezing rain. It would be a miracle if he made it another five minutes.
Out in the chaos, Rainbow Blaze was stalling. Half of his platoon was missing, and the half he still had was gaining ground in inches. Every chance to advance was swallowed up by another dragon, and he had no idea where they were all coming from. The cobalt pegasus vaulted over a charging glimmerback, burying his glaive in its spine and getting dragged along for a split second. He wanted to take his remaining ponies and try to fly up and over the battle, but there was no ceiling to get above. The dragons just kept going forever. Their only chance was forward.
So when Rainbow saw Firefly lead a bladed, spinning column of ponies straight up the center of the dragon’s charge, he and his wings were right in with her. Such a large collection of ponies, however, drew the attention of a great many dragons, and it only took one hungry broadwing to fly through the formation and nearly cut it in half. The ponies swarmed around the offending drake, stabbing and cutting its face to ribbons before doing what they could to rebuild, but they were down a few heads and only losing more.
Across the column, Willow Wisp, Silver Raindrops, and the twins were turning tandem dragon slaying into an art. Drakes were skewered through the neck with such precision that their glaives struck each other. Easterly View and Vertigo were right behind the synchronized pair, but a gust of air sent the stallion high and wide, singling him out for a glimmerback’s lightning strike. He seized in their air, twisting like a puppet, before his smoking remains disappeared into the cloudy darkness. Easterly View barely had time to realize she was alone before a glimmerback nearly took her wing off. She banked away just in time, losing only a couple feathers, and rolled over and gave the drake something to remember her by, before rushing ahead to join with Billow Blast and Stratus Drifter.
On the far side of Tartarus, Comet’s squad wove through the dragons with what could only be described as a death wish. The rain stung her eyes, the wind deafened her and threatened to break her flight path, and everything was happening faster than she was able to comprehend. All she could do was leave things to instinct and hope she was right. Lily was still with her, and they were still with their squad. As they looped around another glimmerback, leaving long gashes in its back and belly, an impossible sight opened up before them.
There were no more dragons between them and the seven at the nexus of the storm.
Comet was not sure if all sound had actually abandoned the world, or if it was just in her head, but with their goal so close in front of them, she hardly cared. How they were supposed to take down six broadwings with only nine of them? They would have to figure out when they got there. They were still climbing, but somehow, it felt like they were falling, gaining speed as they neared their target.
The forward left broadwing noticed the nine ponies closing in on it and turned to look at them. Perhaps because it was because it was hefting a very large chain, or perhaps it could not believe any of the equine fliers had broken through the lines, but it did all but nothing as they crashed into its face, stabbing and slicing at anything soft. Frantically, it flailed its head, trying to dislodge the attackers, but the monster had already been blinded and stabbed repeatedly in the neck. Its strength failing, the chain slipped from its grasp.
Wren signaled her squad to come around and take on the next one in the pack. Moon Fang and Sparky Bolts jumped away from the drake’s scaled scalp and joined up behind their squad leader. A shadow wove through their periphery. Moon Fang turned to track it, and the shadow was looking back at him. A glimmerback, one of the inky black, eel type that had snuck up on them before the mesa, eyed him curiously. A flash of green crossed its eyes, seeming to change them, but in an instant the mirage was gone. It sprang forward like a viper and embedded its fangs deep in his neck and side. Moon Fang’s cry of pain was weak and strained. Before the dragon could revel in its victory, Sparky Bolts skewered it through the neck. He wrenched his glaive inside the dragon’s throat, forcing its jaw open and releasing his wingpony.
Moon Fang did not take to the air.
Sparky Bolts ducked underneath the falling pony and caught him. With a sky full of dragons between them and the ship, the only surface he could dare to land on was the sparklefang’s colossal back. He only hoped that, with so much surface, the dragon would not notice two tiny ponies hiding out between his wings.
The scene, brief as it was, was too surreal for Comet to properly comprehend, and since the mission was still very clear and very much at hoof, that was what she focused on. But as they flew to the next dragon, a lump formed in her throat and kept pulling her towards the sparklefang. Something was wrong, she knew, something was so terribly wrong and she did not have a lot of time to try to fix it.
As she and Lily set up to go at the second broadwing, the lump unfurled into a warcry. The filly banked up, abandoning her wingpony to slash the dragon’s eye open. Metal clashed with bone as her sabre crossed its sclerotic ring, but she got the desired effect. A sharp twist sent her down the snout, leaving gashes in her wake. As she split its left nostril and soared out in front, the acrid smell of acid filled her nostrils. Opting for action, she dove out of the way of a corrosive shower, losing a few tail hairs in the process. Before she could come back around, Wren and Dewbead had scissored the drake’s throat with their weapons, nearly crashing into each other to leave a long gash across its neck. Acid poured from the protected passageway, corroding the dragon’s own flesh and compounding the damage.
The second chain was dropped, but four remained. Glancing back at the battle behind them, the four ponies saw that things had taken a turn for the worse. The dragons were swarming around the airships, spitting acid and fire everywhere, sometimes hitting each other in the crossfire. Arcs of lightning erupted from the cloud walls and rebounded at their draconic masters’ wills, blowing sails and ballistae apart. Another couple squads had managed to break through the scaled, leathery hell and were engaging the dragons in the rear. The third shackling broadwing had fallen, and the next was soon to.
Wren flew in front of her seven ponies and directed them to the broadwing on the target’s left. The large beast had seen them coming, and as they rounded the sparklefang, it loosed a narrow, forceful jet of flame at them. Their formation blew apart in the last second, six of them flying in different directions to avoid the blast. One of the ponies was too slow, and his back half was caught in the column. He was dragged into the fiery wake and vanished without a sound. The broadwing released its chain and moved to engage the equine soldiers. A second blast of fire churned in its gut.
With the formation already broken, Wren’s squad wove around the dragon like angry bees, never drifting close enough to each other to give their foe a target to burn. But its scales were broad and thick, and its leathery wings did not cut as easily as others that the ponies had encountered. Comet clenched her teeth as she came out of another fruitless pass. Nothing hurt this thing, nothing they could do at least. But if they did not stop this dragon, the sparklefang would not be free to-
Against all logic, Comet stopped and stared out at the colossal sparklefang. Only one chain still held it to its path, and yet it continued to lazily fly forward as if in a daze. The broadwings meant nothing to it, not now. It could easily break free of its bonds, perhaps it always could, yet it was choosing not to. Was it aware of the battle and apathetic to the suffering of its comrades? The broadwing’s death would not win them anything, but it might cost them everything to continue fighting it.
The fleet’s remaining time could be measured in minutes, if not seconds. One of the ships was badly listing, a few of its support cables cut along one side. Another was on fire, burning despite the deluge. Holes of various origin peppered their sides. The number of magical countermeasures was diminishing. And where the rest of their winged comrades were, she dared not imagine. So based on fear, suspicion, and not an ounce of fact, Comet screamed for her wingpony.
Lily’s ears perked up at the sound of Comet’s voice. She spun in midair, stabilizing into a hover and found the pony above her, a dark speck in the dark storm. Once Comet had her attention, the filly zipped off towards the sparklefang’s head. Cursing loudly, Lily took up pursuit. She caught up with her wingpony as they passed by the dragon’s jaw bone. By her reckoning, it was still a ship’s length to the creature’s nose, but if she wasn’t already exhausted, she wasn’t going to be.
The two ponies drifted out in front of the titanic lizard, easily in its field of view, but it did not even regard them. Its outer eyelids were open, but the milky inner lids were shut tight over its eyes. A swirling green mist drifted over the webbed skin, weaving in and out like thread. Underneath, the eyes sat unmoving, completely unfocused. Never mind asleep, the dragon seemed utterly comatose to the two fillies.
“Now what?” Lily shouted to her friend. The look of terror Comet gave her said everything. The pink filly dove down and gave a quick slash across the dragon’s nose, but it did not even come close to responding. At least the scaled surface was safe to land on. The ponies crouched low to the dragon’s nose, ducking to keep from being pulled by the wind.
“There’s no one home in this bucking thing, Comet,” Lily shouted, “we gotta do something!”
“Like what? This was the plan! This was the only plan!” Panic gripped Comet’s heart. Everypony was going to die. The storm would continue, the fleet would be lost with all hooves, and when the dragons reached wherever they were going, everypony there would die too. All of her friends were going to die. She was going to die. This was their response to the strike forces. And it was working.
“Comet,” Lily shook her, “Comet stay with me, c’mon! ...Comet, look!” The indigo filly followed her hoof up to the dragon’s crown. Sparky Bolts was crawling his way over the beast’s brow, Moon Fang draped over his back. The two fillies took off and sped over to their squadmates. Sparky collapsed as they drew near -- the weight of his wingpony, combined with the elements and the fatigue of their charge, had taken everything out of him.
But if Sparky Bolts was in bad shape, Moon Fang was on the way out. A dozen punctures marred his flesh and wings on either side, each of them oozing blood thick and free. His armor had only served to lessen the severity of most of them, and his breathing was shallow and labored. Comet frantically scanned him, looking for something to stop the bleeding with, but there was nothing. Her pleading eyes met Sparky’s and Lily’s, but they had nothing for her.
With a wracked, broken voice, Comet shouted, “I need his spear.” Sparky stared at her, but realization hit him after a moment. He carefully unbuckled Moon Fang’s glaive and passed it to the filly. Comet took it with her wing and paused long enough to say, “Look after him,” before she was bounding up the dragon’s head.
At the highest point she could reach, Comet ripped her sabres off and grabbed the glaive. She hoisted the weapon above her head and drove it into the dragon’s scalp. The sharp tip met with hard scale, and again and again she drove the spear in until it had made a moderate hole. Half satisfied and half desperate, she turned the glaive over and thrust it in, pointing the metal fitting skyward. Comet gave it a experimental kick, and when it did not budge, she grabbed her sabres and booked it back down to her comrades.
She was halfway down the bridge of the dragon’s nose when a bolt of lightning struck the embedded glaive. The electricity lanced through the weapon, obliterating it, and spread across the dragon’s skin. Comet felt every hair on her body rise, her muscles spasmed, and she tumbled the rest of the way as her legs seized.
It could only have been seconds that she had lost between when the strike occurred and when she rolled over to find Lily yelling at her. Comet shook her head and clumsily rose to her spasming hooves. Like lightning, the situation rushed back to her, and the two of them raced over to where Sparky was holding vigil over Fang. The sorbet colt’s coat was pale, save for where the blood matted it dark, but the strike had neither helped nor harmed him. Comet could only stand to look at it for a moment before she turned to face the sparklefang.
The green mist that had woven its way through the dragon’s eyelids had vanished. Slowly, the lids retracted, and the two massive eyes, each bigger than she was, adjusted to the world. They swiveled left, then right, above and below, and Comet felt the head shift with each direction.
“Hey!” the indigo filly hollered. The dragon’s attention turned entirely to her. She watched the slitted pupils focus in on her, locked with her own. She was quite sure she was wetting herself, but it was impossible to tell in the storm, or so she told herself. Those eyes, so incredibly deep, threatened to shatter her resolve and send her running home in tears. But her fear, her fear for Moon Fang, for her friends, for her fleet, for her home, forced from the bottom of her being, “Stop this storm, you giant, ugly, moronic lizard!”
All sound was sucked from the world in the wake of her voice. The wind stopped, the rain stopped, the fighting stopped, everything stopped. Comet watched those massive eyes for an answer, desperate for something. She first noticed the flickers of white that danced across the irises, building in count and brightness. Before she could comprehend their meaning, the dragon opened its maw and roared. It was as if all the sound that had vanished, he had been holding in for a single sonic blast. White light danced across its back, out to its wingtips, and out into the pregnant clouds.
Like a bubble popping, the magical field holding the storm at bay undid itself. The furious maelstrom came crashing in, a wall of sound collapsing down with it. The raging wind and freezing rain snared dragon and pony alike, and tossed them like shredded leaves. Comet raced back to her friends and clutched them tight. She felt Lily’s legs around her neck, hers around Moon Fang’s, Sparky’s around all three of them. Wren Song and Dewbead appeared with the two pegasi they’d saved, joining the huddled bundle as the storm caved in around them. In the blinding darkness and deafening noise, the filly knew that no matter how tight they held to each other, they would never keep together. The storm would rip them away, and the darkness would swallow them all. She closed her eyes. If this was it, she’d rather die with them by her side.
The glimmering sound of magic caressed her ears, but before she could open her eyes, the storm buffeted them from the dragon’s nose. Into the air they flew, tossed about like a beachball, but they held together. Comet opened her eyes. A pale, shimmering orb clung tightly to them, holding them in and keeping the storm at bay. A multitude of shimmering orbs were scattered throughout the storm, but the pounding winds did not seem to have any sway on them. Squinting, the filly made the larger orbs out to be around the airships. Only three remained, haloed by dozens of small orbs that, she could only hope, contained ponies.
Not so protected, the dragons were being tossed about with reckless abandon. They would crash into each other, flying apart like ragdolls only to crash into others, before being lost in the murky squall. Where the sparklefang had gone, it was impossible to say, but as the storm finally spent itself, not a single drake was to be seen. The clouds began to break, revealing a deep, blue, shimmering sky spreading out across a cool desert. As the winds died down, the protective bubble disintegrated, allowing the ponies to fly freely.
Their relief was short lived. a strangled, wet gasp left Moon Fang’s throat, and Comet’s panic returned anew.
“Get him back to the ship, now!” Wren Song commanded. Sparky and Dewbead carried him between them as they sped back with all haste. As they got close, they found other ponies coming in for a landing as well. Some, many, were wounded, and far fewer were returning than had jumped. Comet thought she heard somepony calling their names, but they could wait. As they set Moon Fang down on the deck of the Adamant, Comet ripped her helmet off and put an ear to the colt’s chest.
“Medic!” she screamed, her voice breaking. “We need a medic here!” Lily and the two rescues raced off to find somepony that could help while Comet cradled Fang’s head in her lap. His eyes opened, barely, and he looked up at her. He looked so tired, so very tired, but he still smiled when he saw her.
“Did… we win?” A small dribble of blood accompanied his words. “Ship’s… out of danger?”
She choked back a sob. “We did. We’re safe, everypony is safe. We did it, Fang.”
“Yay…” He gurgled pathetically. “I think I’m… gonna rest for a bit, if that’s ok.”
“It’s not ok, Fang.” Comet shook him lightly. The others returned, a medic hot on their fetlocks. He slid into a crouch beside the colt, examining the wounds carefully. The unicorn set to work on the blood, snapping at the others to get him this or that from his kit. “You need to stay awake. Stay with me, Moon Fang. We need you here.”
“Sorry, Comet, I think… I’m tapped out, here.” She couldn’t hold back from crying anymore. Tears rolled off her nose and onto his face. Slowly, weakly, he reached up and cupped her cheek. She didn’t resist in the slightest when he pulled her down, brought her lips to his, held her, kissed her long and slow and full of life and passion. She couldn’t stop crying, but he didn’t seem to notice. He pulled away, just an inch, just far enough to whisper, “Had to, at least once.”
She leaned in and gave him one more. She felt him slip away. She shook him once, twice, kissed him again. He did not respond. Comet coughed on her sobs, held him close, and cried. Around her, the rest of the squad stood huddled together, completely at a loss. Ponies were still coming in to land, but it was already clear their night would not be getting any better.
The stars danced.
The air was perfectly still.