A Tad Bit Zealous
When Rainbow’s eyes stopped rolling back, she saw nothing but glittering shards. A stab of sunlight glistened between her and the multiple projectiles, and she instinctively curled her body into a ball. Only by doing so did she realize just how terribly her body ached. Several cuts and bruises had formed along her upper body and shoulders. She sucked her breath in, weathering the throbbing pain as she attempted to ascertain where gravity was taking her.
A metal platform answered her all too swiftly. With a thud, she collapsed hard and rolled towards the edge of an aluminum ledge. Glass settled in a splash around her, ultimately rattling over the edge and falling forever into a hazy brown vista below. She gasped, picking herself just inches away from plummeting into the lower troposphere beneath Gray Smoke.
She heard a startled cry from within the bowels of the floating city. With a gasp, she spun to face the window frame to the shattered glass. Three figures could be seen with the zebra in their grasp, throttling upwards towards the higher platforms in columns of steam.
Snarling, Rainbow spat blood loose, flexed her wings, and took off. She was barely a millisecond in her ascent when two bodies flew into her side.
“Ooof!” She found herself entangled in the two zealots, their leather-clad limbs seeking to overpower her.
“Stand down, harbinger!”
“Listen to the wisdom of Eljunbyro, harbinger!”
“Friggin’ let go of me, ya pigskinned salamanders!” her voice cracked as she wrestled with them in midair. No matter how many times she flapped her wings, their thrusts of steam compensated for the wind resistance and overpowered her. She found herself being torn further and further away from Pilate’s trajectory.
“You must complete the journey!” one of the two figures chanted.
“Grrrrrghhh…” Rainbow Dash seethed through her teeth. “You’ve got a trip of your own to make, pal!” Using her teeth, she clamped onto a hydraulic coil built into one of the ponies’ suits and pulled viciously. Mist spurted out in every direction as the equine’s suit lost its thrust. As the stallion scrambled to fix it, Rainbow Dash headbutted him, then gave him a savage buck with both rear legs.
“Yaaaaugh!” He fell back, twirled, and slammed so hard into the side of a floating platform that his armored body formed a loose crater. His dizzied body was cratered as two more ponies flew up to intercept the fight.
Rainbow Dash hooked her right wing out and twirled, spinning the weight of the other pony clinging to her. With a prolonged yell, she twirled three times and flung the leathery body into the two ascending figures. Both collided with the rattling of limbs. They fell for several hundred feet before regaining their instruments and performing a sharp ascent once more.
By that time, Rainbow Dash was already rocketing skyward, her eyes locked on Pilate and the three ponies who were holding him. They must have sensed her frenzied pursuit, for they bobbed and weaved around the lateral support struts and giant rotating fans that lined the edges of the massive platforms. Rainbow Dash’s agility came to good use; she was twirling over and around moving structures, blazing through smoldering smoke stacks and closing in on her targets at five meters per second.
“I’m not gonna ask you a third time!” Rainbow Dash yelled into the winds howling around Gray Smoke’s exterior. She raised two heavy forelimbs. “Give me back my--”
Khao’s body slammed into her like a missile.
Rainbow Dash veered off course, twirled like a loose comet, and grinded to a stop against a sloped ledge of metal plates. “--horseapples!” She rubbed her aching limbs, sitting up as Khao came to a steam powered hover in front of her.
Khao’s amber eyes calmly peered out from beneath her billowing hood. “We’ve had eons to prepare for this moment, Harbinger.” Four ponies touched down on the ledge between her and Rainbow Dash. They retracted their leather gliders and aimed dart guns. “Tell me, are you prepared to make the necessary sacrifice yourself?”
Rainbow hissed. “Go choke on a whale!”
“Hmmph…” Khao’s jaw tightened. “Then you do not deserve the Relic.” She backflipped, extended her glider wings, and rocketed skyward on a column of steam.
Rainbow Dash hissed. She jumped up on four hooves. Four darts landed within centimeters of where her limbs were. She froze in place, glaring at the quartet.
“Please, Austraeoh,” one of the thugs said. “Don’t make us do this. The Harbinger must make this decision on her own.”
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say something. She heard a sharp whistling sound. Before she could so much as blink--
Smash! Roarke landed through the body of one pony. His limbs twitched with the sickening crackle of bones.
The other three spun, gasped, and fired their darts at the Searonese mare. With an innocuous splash of sparks, the needles merely bounced off the bounty hunter’s metal armor.
Roarke pivoted her helmet at them. “Cute.” With a clattering sound, six panels opened in her armor, each launching a missile straight back at them.
The thugs shrieked, bailing from the ledge for dear life. The metal plates exploded beneath them, tossing their singed bodies into the wild blue yonder.
Rainbow Dash coughed from the smoke and haze as she stood up on wobbly limbs. Roarke pulled her out of the path of the fumes with a metal hoof. “Seriously…” Roarke droned through the red flicker of her helmet. “When will you stop being so damn popular?”
“The Noble Jury…!” Rainbow hissed. “It’s under attack!”
Roarke locked gaze with Rainbow.
“They’re after the Relic!” Rainbow wheezed, rubbing her aching shoulder. “They think I’m sort of prophesied goddess pony thingy!”
“Then they truly are idiots.” Roarke’s thruster engines burned. “We have to head back--”
“No! Not yet!” Rainbow Dash was already taking off. “Pilate! He needs us!”
Roarke glanced up, eying the squadron of steam-powered equines taking off with the zebra. With a sigh, she rocketed up and joined Rainbow in vengeful formation. “Breeder lover…”
A dock worker trotted along the edge of the hangar platform, carrying a box of tools on his flank. He froze in place, his face scrunching up. Turning, he cast a look at the Noble Jury, gasping at all the cloaked bodies. “Whoah! What the hay?!” He dropped his tools and ran to the edge of the platform, frowning. “What is going on here--” A dart flew up and into his neck. “--grrkk!” His eyes rolled back, and he fell to the floor, twitching.
Meanwhile, Kera watched with wide, emerald eyes. A single figure held her in place, a forelimb pressed over her mouth, muffling the foal’s frantic attempts to shout as the other thugs rolled Floydien’s and Simon’s bodies into the cockpit. No less than fifteen cloaked ponies galloped across the top deck of the Noble Jury. With careful precision, the zealots fashioned together a metal cage in the center, each equine contributing with his or her personal pieces to the bizarre, engineering puzzle.
Once the object was successfully constructed, four of them gathered about, using metal-reinforced limbs to carry it down the stairwell along the stern of the ship.
They crawled down the steps until they were at the bottommost level.
“Careful with that!” one exclaimed. “Khao wants us to be swift, but we cannot damage the Relic!”
“Everypony remain calm,” another said as he fumbled with the door. “The Harbinger, at last, is here. This a moment of… nnngh… glory…”
“What is it?” another asked, craning his neck to look over the cage.
“The door to their engineering compartment,” he stammered. “It’s locked from the inside.” He fumbled some more with the controls. “It’s almost as if--”
The door suddenly swished open, and a triple-barrel rifle poked through. Thunder rolled, and the foremost pony flew back along with half of his brain matter.
The other three gasped, dropping the cage.
Josho stood, frowning, with the smoking weapon levitating in his grasp. “I cleaned my gun.”
The trio unsheathed their daggers at once. “For the Harbinger!” they yelled.
The obese stallion spat back. “For the Hell of it!” He aimed the gun straight into the charging fray. “Come onnnn!”
And the Engineering compartment erupted in sparks and manafire.
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Hell, yeah! Don't fuck with the Jury, son!
Back's still hurt, but dammit if we ain't gonna do twenty pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Welp. I guess that killed any chance of making peace with them. Yet somehow, I don't really mind. Funny how that works.
So called him blasting a head off. I even got the body part right this time.
The Eljun Bureau really needs to calm down.
~bass
Jeeze, death! In the past, Rainbow has almost always dealt with her enemies by non-lethal means, occasionally bordering on cartoonish. At worst, she'd indirectly cause off-screen deaths.
Yeah... Roarke and Josho have a slightly different style.
Roarke to the rescue.
Fuck em' up, Josho!
3272040 Dash is Equestrian. Cultural differences.
~bass
Ironically, that's actually true in some ways.
Also, got to give it to those people: considering how their object of worship (plus entourage) already killed about half a dozen of their own, they're still pretty damn certain that they're doing the right thing anyway.
3272026 Oh come on, foretelling exploding heads in Austraeoh is like foretelling yesterday's lunch.
MORE HEAD SPLOSIONS?!
YAY!
"Breeder" and "breeder lover" seem like the Searonese equivalent of "bitch" and "son of a bitch". Neat.
3272040
Well, guns are not exactly new here, and I recall Josho's portions having quite a bit of gore in Innavedr.
Dash... You need to learn situational awareness. This is not the first time Khao's blindsided you. You're the fastest pony in the world and the only one here who is naturally suited to aerobatics and aerial combat, they should not be getting the drop on you. For once, please try using your peripheral vision!
Shit's hitting the fan.
Funny really. But now I'm starting to like Josho's character more and more as he goes on. Still waiting for Kera to power up like a bat out of mana-hell though.
Never have I been this proud of Josho.
Damn me to the Unsung Realm if this isn't one of the best one-liners I've ever read. Thanks to you, I need to explain why I have iced tea stains on my bedsheets. Again.
Lol, I wonder what would "The Harbinger" think? =P
3272622
and that is probably one of the best battle cries.
This brings to mind the quote that defined the video clip that brought me into FiM.
Hell, Its about time.
Heh, that's a hell of a one liner.
Oh god, Josho is so badass.
3272275
I think its something like when Kakashi used his first Chidori. High speed appears to give this RD tunnel vision. Anybody willing to donate a Sharingan?
3272221 Imre... 'Nuff said
R.I.P My namesake, R.I.P.
I think I literally squee'd a little when Roarke showed up. And badass Josho is always pretty sexy.
Gray Smoke was nice and all, but I think it's time they blow that joint. And then they can have two groups of maniacs tailing them. Maybe Shell and Khao will just kill each other off and say Rainbow & Co. the trouble.
Josho could use some bubble gum right now because daaaaaaannnnngggggg
Josho is becoming the bad ass he always should have been.
That one liner was one of your best. Holy Shit, the sheer level of badassery would make the likes of Bruce Willis nod in approval.
Glad to see the fear of Searo get put into the Eljun Bureau.
3272769
FOR PONY!
But really, I think Josho's is better
3275568
what? you can't use that as your battle cry.
3275574
Why not?
Josho has one.
3274837 A Vet that's "too old for this shit" ... ... ... ...yep.
3272516 What if Simon and Kera worked together a wierd magic thing?
3272032 Odrsjot might be something along the lines of "The believers led astray by hubris and time" or some fitting thing to tie in all of these Story names
"For the hell of it!"
...
I like this battlecry.
Damn, I am loving Josho right now!
All my yes!
Not even when Phoenix killed the guys in the transport was I happy to see gore, but now it's justified. These guys are messed up.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Alright, good. Noble Jury's not going down without a fight! I think Josho's the only one left, though...He's got to get Floydien his antlers. That should stop those hooded nuts. Also, why do I get the feeling that Shell will show up at the worst possible moment of this fight...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
3309790
because he probably will
FUCK YEAH!
And now we see just how badass Josho is with a gun...
Oh gratuitous violence heralded by witty one-liners, how I have missed thee!
Josho and Roarke are fabulous. Headshots for everyone! I would've said body shots for Rorake, seeing as how she kinda eviscerated her guy by plowing through his spinal column hooves first, but that tends to carry a slightly different connotation...
Well, the fight's been evened out some now. Let's see Khao (which I pronounce as "cow" in my head - its strangely fitting considering the general amount of intelligence that seems to drive her thought processes) handle the proper Eljunbyro and Co. now that her element of surprise (no, not Pinkie) has run its course.
Onward!
Go Josho and Roarke!
Also, you know they're dead when their head explodes.
-Spirit
It's like the Alamo, except with ponies.
This is kinda sad. Roarke and Josho straight-up murdering these guys who're trying to save the world and stuff.
Sad, but pretty awesome.
5261401 I'm afraid that I will have to disagree with you on this occasion. The Paintbucket Apretiation Cult (or PAC) are crazed zelots that are willing to kill everyone that Rainbow has become friends with in the hope that in doing so she would no longer have anything to 'distract' her, and that she would meekly go along with their asinine plans. Roarke, feel free to kill as many as you please
Haha, you go, Josho! Give them a run for their dumb, cloaked asses!
Hell yeah they dead. Now go get some more of the pretentious lunatics!
She's made her decision, so why do you keep attacking her?
6185563 Because, to them, it's the wrong choice.
Josho and Roarke making a good showing though.
Wasn't "Harbinger" the name given to Master Chief?
...RAINBOW CONFIRMED AS SPARTAN
6811698 nah, he was the demon. The harbinger was like, mass effect or something.
The people who stopped reading because books 2 and 3 were too stationary sure are getting annihilated, aren't they?
I suddenly remember who these obnoxious squirts remind me off: Those awful Gollum-like servants following Glory in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
They need to die.