Piercing the Heavens

by Calm Wind

Chapter 126: Turbulence

MLP: FiM
Piercing the Heavens
By: Calm Wind

Chapter 126: Turbulence

---

Soarin braced himself as the very floor beneath his hooves continued to shake and vibrate vigorously. He had spread his legs out a little to keep his balance as his eyes darted between the ground and the bridge window.

Was this really happening? Was their home flying? Sure, it had to have gotten out into the mountains somehow in the first place, but he still couldn’t believe it.

He finally managed to look elsewhere to see everypony else in the room just as tense as he was as if they were all seeing it for the first time. But if the story he got about the initial takeoff was any indication, all of them were too busy wondering what the hell was going on to register that the compound had ripped from the ground and taken flight.

This time… it was part of the plan. They were really going to fly this massive thing.

Soarin’s little spat with Spitfire was pushed far into the back of his mind. Undoubtedly that was the case for Spitfire and Fleetfoot too while everypony tried to wrap their mind around the indescribable scenario they had just set in motion.

The shaking slowly died down as the retracting view of the mountains stabilized. The vibrating remained, but the Nimbus was up, and hovering. Soarin wished he could see it from the outside, he had no doubt it was a spectacle.

As the compound remained in the air, Pixie and Fairy popped up outside the bridge window from below. The two of them moved in sync, bracing their bodies against the intense gusts generated by the propellers above, keeping their wings flapping strongly to hold their position. They reached forward at the same time and tapped on the window before both turning and motioning to the left.

Nopony within the bridge reacted for a moment as the twin sisters both lifted their right eyebrow before repeating the motion. Spitfire blinked and came to her senses.

“Oh! Oh, right… Lucky, we need to correct our position to line up with our flight path. Follow their directions,” Spitfire ordered while stepping up and pointing at the synchronous twins as they kept pointing to the left.

Lucky focused on the twins, nodding as he swallowed.

“Alright… here goes…” he said as he gripped the large lever, looking it up and down at the control mechanism that was twice his height. He glanced down at the smaller throttle lever on a face-up panel to his right. He reached down, and pushed the throttle forward very slightly. Everypony in the bridge took a small backwards step as the Nimbus slowly inched forward, Pixie and Fairy pushing away from the window and continuing their motions to the left. Lucky refocused on the steering lever, shifting himself to the right and putting his shoulder into it. With a deep breath, Lucky pushed himself into the lever, causing it to tip to the left.

Faint creaking and groaning resonated throughout the Nimbus as the large rudder on the back behind the smokestacks turned and the smaller propellers began to tip slightly, causing the massive bulk to slowly turn to the left.

Pixie and Fairy kept themselves aligned with the window, swinging their arms to the left continuously as the Nimbus turned. As it rotated, Soarin looked up from the floor to see them slowly line up with their flight path. Their ‘path’ was a sight in itself. The Renegades had worked the artificial blizzard in such a unique and skillful way that they had created a literal tunnel through it, a large pipe-like path, cleared of all snowfall, but the icy gusts and clouds of mist still persisted.

Pixie and Fairy both glanced behind them as they lined up the Nimbus with the path, and then both turned and held their hooves forward, motioning for Lucky to stop.

“Stop,” Spitfire ordered.

Lucky grabbed the lever and pulled it in the opposite directions, but…

“WHOA!” Soarin yelped as the Nimbus lurched violently, lots of creaks, clanks, and pops sounding out from the structure, both faint and loud. Soarin managed to keep his hooves, but Fleetfoot was tossed to the floor along with almost everypony else, including Spitfire.

The faint echo of grunts, yelling, and swearing could be heard outside the door, echoing from the other Wonderbolts throughout the building.

Lucky, who had only stayed up because he was holding on to the lever, quickly scrambled and shifted to his right and slammed his hoof down over the compound-wide P.A. button.

“Uh, sorry about that!” he said with a nervous chuckle before releasing the button. But the moment he took his hoof off, the P.A. the speaker screeched.

“I thought I told you the lever would be more sensitive,” Rivet’s voice came through the speaker as the sound of uncomfortable groans could be heard behind his voice.

“Do you wanna fly this thing?” Lucky shot back sarcastically as he poked his nose against the microphone.

“No,” Rivet replied quickly and calmly. “Just reminding you.” The P.A. cut and Lucky grumbled to himself.

“Alright… Alright… it’s just like petting a jaguar… no sudden movements… unless necessary,” Lucky coached himself as he looked behind at the Wonderbolts getting back up.

“Relax,” Spitfire reassured him as she brushed herself off. “I wasn’t expecting perfection…” she looked past him as she trailed off to see that they were perfectly lined up. “At least we’re lined up with our path.”

They all looked forward to see Pixie and Fairy beckoning them to follow before the two turned and flew off towards the swarm of Renegades maintaining the tunnel.

“Alright Lucky, let’s take it slow,” Spitfire commanded.

Lucky nodded as he reached for the throttle again, inching it further forward.

Soarin refocused as he and the rest finally got their hoofing back, bracing himself and taking note to continuously brace himself as the Nimbus began to move a little faster. It was still moving at a snail’s pace, but slowly picking up.

While keeping his hooves firm on the floor, Soarin shuffled forward to watch as they began slowly following the Renegades. His eyes shifted to Lucky briefly as he held the lever steady, but Lucky was shaking slightly. He was focused forward, but he was undoubtedly still a little nervous. Soarin glanced back at Spitfire to see that she had noticed as well. It looked like she wanted to encourage him, maybe give some direction… but it wasn’t hard for Soarin to figure out why she hesitated. After all, she was used to giving squad orders and commands of that nature. This? Flying an airship? A whole new set of commands and orders would be required here.

Soarin looked back and around at the other ponies in the room. The Wonderbolts were all busy staring in awe out the window, and the unicorns from Rivet’s crew were all busy monitoring the several gauges and indicators that were apparently linked to the engine room or kept track of the Nimbus’ system status.

“Er…” Spitfire quietly gritted her teeth as she blinked, drawing Soarin’s attention back to her as she stepped forward and stood beside Lucky. “Hold steady… Follow the Renegades…” She looked down, but then back up quickly. “Keep us low in the tunnel, but avoid the mountains… let’s not push the speed too much until we’re out over the grasslands. For now, just get a feel for the controls again, alright?” Spitfire awkwardly issued her orders as Lucky took a deep breath and nodded, giving no verbal response.

Spitfire stepped back, looked down, and then reached for the P.A. system, hitting the comm. to Rivet.

“Rivet? How is everything holding up down there?” she asked as the Nimbus entered the tunnel. The Nimbus swayed a little back and forth as the icy gusts and mist pelted against it, but held steady on course with Lucky keeping it balanced.

“The engines are straining, making some noises they didn’t during the trials, but they are showing no signs blowing apart, so I guess that’s a plus,” Rivet replied, getting straight to the point.

“Good,” Spitfire nodded. “Keep in contact. Let us know if anything starts to go wrong. We don’t want to make any fatal mistakes.”

“Agreed, Rivet out,” Rivet quickly ended the conversation to get back to work.

Spitfire kept staring at the microphone, even though she was done speaking.

“You alright there?” Soarin spoke up from the other side of Lucky as he stepped back to get a full view of her. Spitfire blinked and looked towards him with an eyebrow raised.

“Oh, now you’re talking to me?” she said sarcastically. Soarin flattened his brow and then rolled his eyes.

“Unbelievable…” he huffed as he refocused outside.

“Sorry,” Spitfire suddenly apologized, getting Soarin to glance back at her. “Not used to giving orders like this, that’s all,” she clarified, confirming Soarin’s thoughts, but didn’t look at him. Soarin kept his eyes on her for a moment before once again turning his focus to the spectacle outside.

He let his thoughts wander for a moment, telling himself to forget about Spitfire for the time being. Don’t engage her at all. Focus on the task at hand and survival. They could argue all they wanted once they were safe in the Crystal Empire.

“Where is the map?” Spitfire spoke up again. Soarin looked over his shoulder, eventually turning his body to look as Spitfire moved to the center of the control platform and began looking around. “Somepony brought the map up here, right?”

“H…here…” Luna spoke up as she stepped up onto the platform. Soarin blinked as the singular response form Luna met his ears. Her voice seemed strangely hushed. “It’s in the corner…” Luna explained as her magic came to life, picking up a large, rolled up map that was rolling back and forth on the floor. Soarin continued to watch Luna as she floated the map over to Spitfire and unrolled it on the floor. Luna looked… nervous.

Then he remembered. Luna was about to do the wacky… signal, she mentioned, wasn’t she? Soarin recalled Luna wasn’t thrilled about it. Something about it hurting, a lot.

Soarin glanced down at the map as Spitfire and Luna flattened it out, immediately recognizing it as one of the pull down maps that they had in every first floor classroom… but never really used. It was trimmed however, cut to just show a majority of the area they were going to be traveling through. There was a fat, red line drawn in permanent marker that ran in a curved route. A big red dot marked in the northern mountains showed where they started and a big red star was drawn over the Crystal Empire with small marks in between at the borders of the grasslands, the badlands canyons, and the far west region of the northern mountains where the Empire was located.

Spitfire and Luna began to converse, but Soarin didn’t bother to listen. He already knew what the plan was. He didn’t need it drawn out for them as well. Besides, it wasn’t like he had any role in the operation anyway aside from ‘sit down and watch while the others do the work.’

And there it went again. Soarin exhaled through his nostrils and shook his head out as he stared out the window.

He failed to take his own advice he pushed earlier. Just drop it.

He decided, instead, to move forward and get a closer look outside as the Nimbus continued to putt along. The shock and awe over the fact that the compound he had lived in for years could fly had not faded, and he wasn’t sure it would. He stopped in front of the window, standing off to the side so as not to get in Lucky’s view in an open space with no controls or panels.

It was still hard to see much of anything with the mist surrounding them as they moved through the ‘blizzard tunnel’ but he could still make out faint signs of the mountains moving nearby. He leaned forwards and bent his neck down, looking up as he held himself steady against the gentle sway of the floor. He could see the edge of the massive central propeller blades turning so fast that they were barely visible.

“I can’t believe it, I really can’t,” he repeated what his brain had been saying over and over again since the moment they lifted off.

“I still don’t,” Fleetfoot’s voice came from beside him as she stepped up and also tried to see the propeller.

“Haven’t you already seen it?” Soarin asked her as he looked down at her. Fleetfoot kept looking up at the propeller for a moment before shaking her head and looking back out forward.

“I was down below in the engine room, fending off Shadowbolts and hanging on for dear life when we first got moving. This is the first time I’ve, you know, actually seen that this tub is flying,” she explained. Soarin looked forward, the two of them remaining silent as the faint chatter between Spitfire and Luna continued behind them.

“Heh,” Soarin smirked and shook his head again. “All this time we’ve been living in a giant, flying, stronghold?” He looked down at Fleetfoot as she glanced back at him. “The Wonderbolts sure have some awesome secrets. I wonder why they never passed this on to us? Why did they lock it down?”

“Who knows…” Fleetfoot shrugged as they continued to watch the Renegades outside guiding them.

“The canyons are very dense in this area,” Spitfire’s voice caught both Soarin and Fleetfoot’s attention as they heard a thing or two that had yet to be discussed among them. They both looked over their shoulder to listen in. Spitfire was pointing at a spot about halfway through the drawn route through the badlands. “This will probably be a good place for the Lunar Guard to meet up with us. They’ll be able to slip in and hide until we arrive, how does that sound?” she asked Luna as the princess stared at the location.

“That should suffice, and is actually a great idea since… well,” Luna tipped her head from side to side. “They are not very fond of daylight. The shade will help them relax while they wait.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Spitfire blinked while scratching the back of her head.

“Do not worry, they are very capable both night and day, it’s just a preference of theirs for reasons I believe are quite obvious,” Luna explained.

“Yeah, but if shade will help them wait, that’s better. No offense, Luna, but your guards tend to be a bit cranky,” Spitfire recalled.

“We know, but their shortcomings are part of their strengths. Their rough, unpredictable nature along with their loyalty to us adds a different edge to the protection they provide. Our sister may be for the more traditional, chivalrous knight types for her guard, but I felt ponies that were a little more rough around the edges would be—”

“Uh, Luna?” Spitfire cut her off as the princess suddenly rambled on and on.

“Yes?”

“You already told me this word for word yesterday… and the day before also,” she pointed out. Luna flinched, her eyes widening as she slammed her mouth shut and held her breath.

“Uh… we’re… sorry, we’re just…”

“Is this about the signal?” Spitfire asked her, he ears flopping down.

“Yes,” Luna gave in immediately. “We apologize.”

“You really are not looking forward to this, are you?” Spitfire asked as she stepped toward Luna. “I mean… I’d like to say the nice thing and suggest you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to… but we kind of already shaped our plan around it.”

Luna remained silent, looking down and taking several deep breaths. She eventually picked her head back up, a calm expression on her face with her eyes closed.

“Worry not… it is going to be very unpleasant for us, but… we are ready.” She opened her eyes, looking down at Spitfire, determined. “It is unreasonable for me to shy away from it. The Wonderbolts have shown so much bravery and grit, it’s time we did the same.”

“Luna…” Spitfire gave her a look of disapproval. She didn’t want Luna to feel obligated, but it was part of the plan. She wasn’t going to step on Luna’s hoof now that she was showing a willingness to do her part, even if it caused her some extreme discomfort.

“Since we are up and moving… we shall send the signal now. What is your travel time estimate?” Luna asked.

“Oh,” Spitfire glanced back at the map. “I can’t say… it depends on if we run into any kind of trouble. My guess would be to give them… at least three hours. That should be a nice window.”

“Very well,” Luna gave her a nod as she looked back at the map to remind herself of the exact location. “Please, give us some space.”

Soarin and Fleetfoot both turned to face Luna as Spitfire stepped back and Luna backed away from the control platform, finding a space where there were no wires along the floor. Soarin and Fleetfoot both glanced at one another briefly as Luna prepared herself.

Soarin had heard the entire explanation of Luna’s ‘signal,’ but the details were very vague aside from the fact that she apparently wasn’t very good at performing it and thus it was quite painful to do. The mere idea alone of ‘compressing’ and ‘sending’ a thought through magic just sounded weird to begin with, but as a divine alicorn, Soarin was sure Luna had knowledge of many interesting tricks of magic that he, nor any knowledgeable unicorn had ever heard of. He watched now with anticipation, as did several others around him, as Luna prepared. Apparently the technique was slightly dangerous too… that or her inexperience with it made it so, since she mentioned Celestia used it to prank her casually.

Well, they were about to find out as Luna finally stopped moving, set her hooves firmly against the slightly swaying floor of the bridge and took more deep breaths, her horn emitting a soft blue glow, just short of forming its magical aura.

She closed her eyes and tipped her head up, pointing the horn directly upward at the ceiling. The aura finally appeared around her horn, swirling gently at first before suddenly undulating and rotating faster than usual.

“Hrgn...” Luna grunted painfully, squinting her eyes tighter and gritting her teeth as her waving mane began to lift higher and float upwards. A small, blue ring of light encircled the floor around her as she opened her eyes, revealing a bright blue light shining from them, hiding her pupils and irises completely.

Soarin watched curiously, blinking in surprise when he felt his mane moving. There was a small, invisible force pushing against him. It definitely wasn’t just him either, he noticed everypony else reacting like he was. Even Lucky glanced over his shoulder for a moment.

“HNGH!!!!” Luna suddenly grunted, her legs buckling slightly as her body twitched, but she kept herself from falling. She tipped her head down for a moment but immediately forced it right back up, the light from her eyes growing stronger and the force pushing from her growing more intense.

“Luna?!” Soarin called out as he tried to step forward, but found the force keeping him in place.

“WHOA HEY!” Lucky yelled as the compound began to tip down slightly due his body being pushed forward against the lever. “Stop! I can’t…”

But before he could finish, the force shooting from Luna ceased. She opened her mouth, revealing light within her throat as well. The light slowly and calmly lifted out of her mouth and out of her eyes, swirling around her as her body stiffened and twitched. It eventually spiraled up to her horn, and wrapped around it, all collecting in a bright white ball on the tip of her horn.

The Nimbus quickly evened out as Lucky regained control, but everypony was staring in confusion and a bit of alarm at the incredibly bizarre process of Luna’s divine alicorn magic technique.

“Hnnnng…. Haaaaa….” Luna groaned and sputtered as the ball of light on her horn, about the size of a grapefruit began to pull away, but looked to be clinging to her horn as it tried. “HNNNRRGGG! AHHHH!” Luna cried out as the ball detached from her horn. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh…. Ooooooooooooo…” Luna gasped and groaned as she limply collapsed to the floor.

Soarin, Spitfire, and several others all gasped and took a step, but they all stopped and flinched as the white ball of light suddenly propelled towards the front of the bridge.

“Ah!” Soarin yelped and ducked. The ball zipped right over him… but then phased right through the forward bridge window as if it wasn’t even there. The ball of light remained visible in the mist outside for only a few seconds before it was gone from view.

“Ow…. Owwwwwwww… Ohhh…” Luna’s wailing immediately drew them all back to reality.

“Princess!” Soarin was the first to approach her as Luna tucked her limbs into her body and shook, panting and sweating with her eyes slammed shut. The rest of the lead squad and squad three all rushed forth and bent down around her to make sure she was okay. One of Luna’s hooves reached out, grabbing Soarin’s arm and squeezing it as she continued to breathe heavily in pain. Without hesitation, Soarin reached down and shimmied his hoof beneath her side, looking at the others standing around. “Hey, c’mon, help me get her up!” he demanded, nopony arguing as Air Mach immediately pushed his hooves beneath her from the other side and helped Soarin hoist her up, the rest making sure her neck was propped up as the two stallions lifted her. She was larger than Soarin, but was surprisingly light. It was more challenging to keep her body from contorting in awkward positions since he wasn’t familiar with the larger, different shape of Luna’s body.

They managed to get her in an upright, sitting position, leaning her weight against Soarin as he sat beside her. Spitfire and Fleetfoot looked her over as she pressed a hoof against her head, still breathing short, hard breaths and shaking.

“My god, Luna…” Spitfire shook her head. “When you said painful, I didn’t think you meant… THIS…”

“The Lunar Guard captain… has received… our message…” Luna forced out in between the labored breaths. “He will be… in position… with the force… in three hours… waiting for… us.”

“Are you going to be alright?” Spitfire asked out of courtesy and out of plain worry since Luna hadn’t been very clear on exactly how hard it was going to be on her. Spitfire was expecting a little dizziness that maybe a nap would fix, but with how much pain she was in now it looked more like Luna had literally ripped her own head off and banged it against the floor a few times.

“We are… incredibly dizzy…” Luna continued, her eyes still closed. “And our head… really hurts…” her voice was beginning to choke up.

“Rest,” Spitfire immediately ordered while placing her hooves gently on Luna’s shoulders. “Don’t push yourself.”

“No,” Luna painfully shook her head, nearly falling over on top of Soarin, but he quickly shifted to keep her propped up. “The pain will only last… a few minutes… just, ah, ow, oooooh ow…”

“Luna…” Spitfire began but as she trailed off, Luna shook her head again.

“This will go away… shortly,” she forced out as she reached her other hoof up to press both hooves against her head. Spitfire pulled back and bit her lip as she noticed tears beginning to squeak out from Luna’s eyes. Luna quickly brushed them away as she leaned back on Soarin. “Please… take us down… to the lobby…”

“The lobby?” Spitfire asked quizzically.

“Yes,” Luna nodded, taking a deep breath and finally opening her eyes, brushing aside another tear that managed to escape her right eye. “We want to be in the most convenient location to take flight should the need arise. Our armor is still stashed in the infirmary anyway.”

“Wait, Luna, you should stay up here with—” Spitfire stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened slightly. Soarin eyed Spitfire and tipped his head slightly, wondering why Spitfire had gone silent. He watched as Spitfire looked down, her eyes moving back and forth at the floor for a moment before she looked back up and nodded. “Alright,” she agreed. “Soarin, could you take Luna down to the lobby? She’ll be a nice trump card for our main entrance defense.”

Soarin didn’t respond for a moment, glancing at Luna to see… a smile? Her face was still full of agony and she was fighting back tears, but clearly something about Spitfire agreeing with her request to help had Luna grinning right through it.

“Alright, I’ll—WHOA!” Soarin yelped as he and everypony else suddenly stumbled, the Nimbus lurching hard, but quickly evening out.

“EEEEEEYIKES! Aye-aye-aye…” Lucky spoke up as he held the lever upright in its resting position. “Eh… sorry, this thing is a hell of a lot more sensitive than when I first flew it…”

“Watch it then, will ya?!” Blaze grumbled out loud while taking a few steps towards Lucky. Lucky bit his lip nervously, focusing forward as Blaze slowly approached. Spitfire quickly turned and glared at her half-sister as she looked primed to chastise Lucky some more. High Winds blinked sleepily and yawned as she looked between Spitfire and Blaze. After a few glances, she turned and followed behind Blaze quickly. “Seriously!” Blaze ranted as she stopped beside Lucky. “Are you sure you know how to fly this—MMMPH!” she was cut off as High Winds reached around her from her left and shoved her hoof into Blaze’s mouth. Blaze began to whine and flail angrily as High Winds pulled her back, but Winds used her free hoof to give a halfhearted salute to Spitfire to acknowledge she had caught on.

Spitfire nodded in approval towards High Winds before glancing at Soarin and Luna as Air Mach helped Luna get back upright with a hoof draped over Soarin’s shoulder.

“And, HUP! There we go!” Air Mach cheered as Luna rested against Soarin’s side.

“Thank you Air Mach,” Luna thanked him as she turned her head to look towards him. Soarin winced as Luna’s wavy mane flowed right in front of his face.

“Fear not, my princess!” Air Mach posed dramatically in several different ways, some so quickly that he almost got tangled in his cape. “I, the great Animak, am confident you will shake that headache in seconds flat!”

Luna just stared and blinked as she continued to wince and hold a hoof to her head.

“Uh… okay,” was all she managed to say before she was drawn away by blowing noises. She looked back towards Soarin to see her mane batting him in the face. “Oh, we’re sorry…” she pushed it around to the other side.

“Alright, let’s get you down.” Soarin quickly got the ball rolling once he could see again. “Just lean on me, I’ll do most of the walking.”

“Thank you…” Luna nodded, rubbing her head as she continued to quietly groan. Soarin began moving slowly, letting Luna make her own pace and not rush; plus with the way the compound was swaying, he hoped to avoid a nasty fall. As they moved, Spitfire walked past them to address Squad Three.

“Fire Streak,” Spitfire began as she stopped in front of them. “Should we run into trouble and the Renegades need our help, I want you ready to take command of our squads launching from the upper floors,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am!” Fire Streak saluted as he turned to repeat Spitfire’s orders to Misty Fly, but before he could, Spitfire grabbed his shoulder.

“But stay up here for now, I want all my top elites in one place for direct orders instead of over the comm, especially with Squad Two in shambles. Without Wave and Silver, I may have to make some unconventional choices, maybe sending Blaze or High Winds with you, leaving the other up here with us. Since I’m keeping Soarin grounded, we’ll have to fill one spot on the Lead Squad if needed, and if I send one of them with you… do you guys still remember the recruit five pony formations?” Spitfire asked. Fire Streak nodded.

“Yes, I believe we—”

“What were they again?” Lightning Streak asked while scratching his head, but Fire Streak stepped backwards and stuffed his hoof over his twin’s head, shoving it down and throwing Spitfire a fake smile.

“YES, I BELIEVE WE DO!” Fire repeated, grinding his hoof harder into Lightning’s head with each word. Spitfire lifted an eyebrow, but she wasn’t worried, Squad Three was reliable and could figure out including an extra member.

“That goes for you too, Soarin!” Spitfire called towards him right before he and Luna reached the door. Soarin paused and looked over his shoulder.

“What? The part about being put on a squad?” Soarin asked sarcastically.

“Nice try, I mean get your ass back up here after helping Luna,” she replied sharply, not appreciating his sarcasm.

Soarin grunted as Spitfire turned away and moved back towards the front. He was beginning to wonder if she was just being no nonsense or if she was deliberately trying to piss him off, both felt highly likely to him even though he knew it probably wasn’t the second. He was, after all, just frustrated with her at the moment.

“Come on, Princess…” Soarin said with annoyance in his voice, Luna not saying a word as they left the bridge.

Luna had managed to find some strength, using Soarin for the bulk of her support, but not putting her full weight into him as she took weak steps herself. Soarin made sure to take it slow, giving her time to come to her senses so the part where he had to fly her down the broken stairs would be easier.

“We apologize…” Luna suddenly spoke up as they made their way around the central propeller pillar towards where the stairs down began. Soarin shook his head, keeping his eyes forward as they kept moving, remaining quiet for a moment with nothing but the steady, clanky, hum of the main propeller whirring right beside them.

“It’s nothing, you’re not heavy,” Soarin assured her, not reading anything into her sudden apology.

“You flatter us,” Luna said with a very weak giggle. “But…” she sighed. “That’s not what we meant.” Her tone changed drastically.

“Wait, what?” Soarin stopped and shifted so he could turn his head to look up at her. Luna was looking down. Her breathing was calmer, but her eyes still squinted slightly and showing pain.

“We…” she started, but paused. “We…” she let her head hang and sighed again. “Forgive us, we should not have spoken.”

Soarin immediately furrowed his brow and exhaled loudly through his nose.

“Luna…” he didn’t even have to say anything else. She knew damn well why he was frustrated. He had let her know several times he was tired of the secrecy.

“We’re sorry…” Luna apologized again. “We—” But before she could go any further, Soarin held up a hoof and shook his head while growling.

“No, stop, forget it,” he grumbled loudly. “I don’t want to hear it. Just keep keeping your damn secrets to yourself. If it ain’t broke, why bother fixing it, right?” Soarin let loose, voicing his annoyance. He wasn’t expecting to sway Luna or guilt her, and he didn’t care if she belted in his face with her ever-so-loud megaphone vocal chords. He was just plain tired of it all.

Luna remained completely silent as Soarin shifted himself beneath her. He only looked up at her for a moment as she draped her arms over his shoulders and positioned herself on his back to keep his wings free, but she was looking away. Soarin couldn’t tell if her expression was still due to the pain or if it was some form of regret. He didn’t waste time thinking about it, assuming the first as she groaned and winced after positioning herself to be carried. Soarin released a long breath as he spread his wings and beat them strongly to lift both him and Luna up.

“Ah!” He immediately had to compensate and adjust his flight path as the Nimbus kept moving. He grunted, forcing himself to glide in a style he wasn’t used to as he kept up with the movement of the Nimbus. He hadn’t thought about that, and wasn’t sure if anypony else had either. Just because he was IN the Nimbus didn’t mean he moved with it when suspended in midair. “HRNG!” Soarin grunted as he took the last turn around the pillar, spiraling down and landing on the lobby floor with loud THUMPS as his hooves slammed down and skidded.

“Ah!” Luna yelped as the vibrations ran through Soarin and consequently her.

“Sorry about that,” Soarin apologized as he tipped himself to let her off, looking around to see several eyes in the lobby had been drawn to them by the sudden loud entrance. “Didn’t factor in the whole… you know, place moving.”

“It’s fine…” Luna’s voice was still a little distraught. “We think… we will manage,” she stated as she shimmied off Soarin’s back and supported herself with her own hooves completely. “The headache is already starting to subside.”

“Are you sure?” Soarin asked, remaining courteous even though he was rather miffed.

“Yes, we shall not trouble you further,” Luna said while avoiding eye contact, turning away and slowly moving towards the east hallway for her armor in the infirmary.

Soarin watched as Luna struggled to move, several times considering ignoring her request and helping her. But at the same time… He kind of felt like she deserved it.

The calm, sympathetic, good natured side of him was screaming at him right now, asking him how he could even think such a horrible thing, but the realistic side was fending it off with a chair.

He was becoming increasingly less and less inclined to hold Princess Luna in good graces by default. She had done lots to help him, but at the same time kept so many things from him that he felt like his head was going to explode, and not because of the magic. What’s worse, she now had Spitfire in on it, turning his own best friend, who he had trusted to always be honest and straightforward with him, into another pony that held secrets and reasons for choices from him. He had every right to know what they had discussed and why he was being held back. Obviously there was something wrong with the horn, but if they weren’t worried about something, why were they keeping it from him?

He was tired of it, all of it. His respect for Luna as one of the divine sisters was natural and he would never disregard the good things she had done for him throughout his experience with the horn, but the more she tested his trust and fanned the flames of his frustration, the more that respect began to waiver. He wasn’t about to turn on anypony, most definitely not, but this was starting to become really personal.

---

Among the ponies who had caught the sound of Soarin and Luna landing roughly was none other than Rainbow Dash. It was the first thing that managed to catch her attention. She had been staring out the lobby doors, gawking like an idiot at the site of the Nimbus not only making it up off the ground, but also moving. But when she thought she heard Soarin’s voice after the less than soft thumps and screeches of hooves, her attention was completely drawn away. She awkwardly managed to climb on Matteo’s back, surprised by the Nimbus’ movement when she tried to hover. But once she had higher ground, it only took her a moment after to spot Soarin and Luna.

Dash tipped her head to the side and blinked as she watched Luna reluctantly turn and struggle to move on her own. She immediately wondered why Soarin wasn’t helping her, and then also began to wonder why Soarin looked incredibly pissed off.

Without hesitation, she slid off and quickly gained the attention of Squall, Twister, and Matteo while pointing towards Soarin.

“I’ll be right back,” she told them, turning to leave before any of them could give her a response. “S’cuse me, pardon me.” Dash weaved her way through the squads. She would have glided, but she had just learned, as many others around were, that flying while the Nimbus was flying would take some practice.

She eventually found her way through and moved towards Soarin, trying to reach him before he could move back towards the broken stairs.

“Soarin!” she yelled his name the moment he spread his wings and rose up on his back hooves to take off. Soarin immediately closed his wings and fell back down, looking over his shoulder in surprise for a second or two, but when he saw Dash he sighed, flattened his brow, and looked away. “Soarin?” Dash said his name again as she stopped right behind him. Did he just give her a cold shoulder? “Hey, hey, what’s up?” she asked quickly while pulling her goggles down and letting them hang around her neck.

Soarin released a long sigh and shook his head out, whipping his mane back and forth as a low nicker escaped the back of his throat. Dash blinked and scrunched her face as he continued to face away.

“Soarin, what’s wrong?” she asked with a slightly demanding tone. “What’s going on with Luna?”

“I don't want to talk about her,” Soarin suddenly replied sharply. Dash flinched in surprise, but glared at his backside. It was one thing if he was being harsh while giving orders, but in any other circumstances? That would not fly with her.

“Whoa there, don’t you take frustration out on me!” she scolded him as she walked around him and tried to look him in the eye, but he kept avoiding eye contact, but the short, few views she managed to get of his face showed that he was maybe regretting it.

“Sorry,” he confirmed with a sigh as he finally turned and looked at her. He still looked angry though. “I’m just a little furious right now, no big deal,” he said sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

“Well, I’m listening,” Dash said with a pout. Soarin lifted an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Dash, I don’t want to talk about it,” Soarin repeated his stance with a snort. “And I don’t have time to, so if you’ll excuse me—”

“No.” Dash placed herself right in front of him. “You’re talking.” She poked him in the chest. Soarin scrunched his face and held his breath, puffing his cheeks out as he looked away from her. “I’m waiting,” Dash pried while tapping her hoof. Soarin released the air from his mouth, his lips puttering as the air rushed between them before he shook his head and growled.

Silver was right, Dash was totally putting him on a leash and he was letting it happen.

“It’s just more of the same… secretive, keeping-things-from-me bullshit,” Soarin explained while not looking at her and glaring into space. “Luna’s doing it again… and Spitfire’s in on it now too. I’m just fed up with it.”

“More secrets?” Dash furrowed her brow while letting her ears flop down. She glanced past Soarin down the east hallway just in time to see Luna drag herself into the infirmary. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Soarin confirmed with a loud huff. “And it’s really starting to get to me, much more than it already has. I’m starting to feel like I can’t even trust her. And I do not appreciate that Spitfire is taking part now too. She claims the horn is the reason I’m staying out of combat, but since she and Luna are clearly in cahoots about this, I don’t know if I can believe anything they say.” Soarin looked down at Dash to see her still looking down towards the infirmary, her pout even stronger.

“I don’t get why Luna’s doing this.” She shook her head. “I mean, come on. The least she can do is be transparent. What the hell do they have to keep secrets for?!”

“Just forget it, Dash,” Soarin shook his head. “I’ve been trying endlessly to get the whole truth at all times but Luna always ends up holding something back. Discord is no better… I just thought Spitfire would be the one I could count on not to put me through this.”

“Then screw them all!” Dash threw her arms up. Soarin’s eyes widened.

“What?” he tipped his head, looking for her to elaborate. Dash edged closer to him and glanced back and forth.

“Look, I’m not about to say disrespect authority or anything, but I’m tired of this! It feels like they’re misusing their rank or standing to keep important issues from us. Then claiming it has to be done for our sake? I feel like we’ve been getting that non-stop. When are we going to get answers instead of deflections?” Dash full out ranted, but in a hushed tone.

“Dash…” Soarin released a short breath, his tail flipping behind him. “Just let it go. I agree with you, but it’s pointless.”

“Does it have to be? I’m sorry, Soarin, but I’m getting to the point where being berated by Spitfire is nowhere near as bad as what could happen to you. If Spitfire is really your friend and really cares, she wouldn’t be going along with Luna’s tight lipped crap!” Dash grabbed him by the arms. “I mean it! In the end it’s all about you! Spitfire wouldn’t—”

“No, she would,” Soarin cut her off, reaching up and placing a hoof atop her head. “Look, Dash, I appreciate your concern. It’s heartwarming, always is, and I love you for it. I’m angry, very angry, but at this point I’ve exhausted all my willing efforts to pry the truth from them. I know you want to do it for my sake, but don’t go compromising your standing with Spitfire over something I’ve already tried. She’s stubborn, and while I don’t agree with what she’s doing, not one bit, she must have her reasons.”

“But Soarin…”

“I’m not caving Dash, don’t worry. Spitfire has pissed me off and if she goes any further I’m not going to stand for it. I already plan to defy her orders if I absolutely can’t afford to stay down and watch. Just don’t go trying to stick your hoof into our argument… she might bite it off.”

Dash continued to pout, but now she was mixing it with angry puppy dog eyes.

“Don’t try to give me the ‘angry/cute’ look, just let it go. We don’t have time to argue with them anyway…” Soarin trailed off, the two of them looking towards the infirmary to see Luna emerge, donning her armor. She was still walking with shaky steps, but her posture had improved and she was moving a little more smoothly. “Let’s just make sure we get to the Crystal Empire first, okay? I plan to give them a piece of my mind and break my hoof off in a few asses if I have to when we get there.” Soarin flinched as Dash suddenly lunged towards him and hugged him tightly. “Dash?” Soarin blinked in surprise as he reached around her to return the hug.

“Mrph…” Dash made a small, annoyed noise as she smushed her cheek against his chest.

“What?” Soarin chuckled as he rubbed his hoof up and down her mane.

“Mrrrrrrrph…” Dash made the same sound but held it out longer. Soarin’s ears folded back flattening his expression as he just let Dash hug him, ruffling her mane some more as she stayed latched to him. “Fine…” Dash said unenthusiastically as she slowly released him and pushed her mane back behind her.

“I know how you feel, just humor me, alright. I wanna kick their asses just as much as you for making this so frustrating,” Soarin explained as he kept his hoof on her shoulder.

“Okay…” Dash’s tone remained, immediately prompting Soarin for some way he could reassure her.

“I’ll manage for now, I mean, I have so far…” he trailed off as she looked up and glared at him. “Well, for the most part,” he added with a chuckle as she tipped her head back down and bopped the crown of her head against his chest. He smiled as she continued to be all grumpy and pouty, deciding to throw a little sarcasm in. “What could possibly go wro—”

He was cut off as the Nimbus suddenly shook. Not violently, but enough to force everypony to brace themselves.

“Yikes!” Dash yelped as she reached up and held onto Soarin. Soarin quickly slid his arm around the back of her shoulders and held onto her as the initial shaking ceased and was replaced with lighter, but continuous shaking.

“EVERYPONY HANG ON!” Spitfire’s voice came through the P.A. system. “WE ARE NEARING THE EDGE OF THE MOUNTAIN RANGE AND PUNCHING THROUGH THE THICK OF THE ARTIFICIAL BLIZZARD!”

---

Descent gave one last look back, scrunching his face as the icy winds batted at his face and pushed his mane in every direction. He turned his attention to the edge of the blizzard being held together by several Renegades. With a deep breath, Descent put his hooves to his mouth and whistled loudly.

Nearby, Blazetail and Flashwind whistled back.

With the Nimbus fast approaching the edge, Descent and the rest of the Renegades propelled themselves forward, holding their arms in front of their faces as they pushed themselves through.

The Nimbus remained on course, thick chunks of ice and snow shooting from the blizzard’s edge and breaking against the fuselage as it kept on forging forward. The propellers batted away the snow and the mist, working against the icy winds, growing closer and closer, and then picking up speed as Lucky pushed the throttle further.

The Nimbus surged against the thick outer layer of the blizzard, the smoke and flames billowing violently from the smokestacks as the bulk of the airship forced its way right into it and pushed onward. The strong forces of the artificial weather challenged the flying beast, but it overcame everything thrown at it, wading further… further… and further through the storm…

And finally shot out the other end.

The Nimbus hurled out over the outer edge of the northern mountains, reaching the edge of the grasslands in seconds, shaking off the built up ice and snow spattered about the outer frame as it flew into the clear, open air, soaring without any hindrance over the grassy plains heading southwest.

---

The shaking ceased and everypony was slowly looking up. Soarin lightened his grip around Dash as the two relaxed and looked about the lobby as most others were.

“Whoa!”

“Check it out!”

“Look at that!”

“Amazing!”

Several voices called out as the attention of nearly everypony in the room moved to the lobby doors or the nearest window. Soarin and Rainbow Dash glanced at one another for a moment before moving towards the gathering ponies, confident in their hoofing with the Nimbus now sailing smoothly. They weaved their way through the ponies crowding near the lobby doors, Dash gasping as she reached the glass doors first.

Soarin shimmied his way forward to join her, his eyes widening as he too got the view.

To say a pegasus was excited that they were flying would be an odd statement. It wasn’t so much that they were flying… it was the fact that the compound, the Nimbus, their very own home was up in the air and streaking through the sky, moving faster and faster as they found themselves free of the blizzard with the Renegades forming up beside it to begin their landing on the platform. Dash leaned forward, her nose pressing to the glass as her eyes darted about, the clouds in the blue sky rushing by the platform, the propellers, and the rest of the compound structure of the Nimbus. Soarin moved to get a closer look as she had, but then Dash suddenly pushed her hooves forward against the door bar in front of her and forced the door open. A very strong gust of wind rushed in, causing everypony near it to wince and shield themselves. But Dash moved right through the door and galloped out onto the platform through the strong gusts.

“Dash?!” Soarin’s jaw dropped in alarm as he quickly pushed forward to follow her. “DASH! What are you doing?!” he yelled. Really there wasn’t anything wrong, she just wasn’t supposed to go outside, not to mention he didn’t want the strong winds knocking her off her hooves and throwing her off the edge of the platform… but that wasn’t likely to happen, maybe he was just being overprotective.

His short-lived fears were completely pushed aside as he followed her out onto the platform, Dash holding her body strong against the intense gusts of wind as she moved and stopped in the center of the platform, far from nearing the edge of it. Soarin galloped right behind her, feeling his goggles press into his face as the wind rushed against them. He slowed down and focused at holding himself steady, his muscles flexing as he anchored his hooves and took heavy steps to stand beside her. Dash was tipping against the winds, but otherwise her focus as well as Soarin's were both quickly tuned to what was going on around them.

They were standing outside… On a clear, beautiful day… on what was once, to them, just the front walk of their home base. But their base, was up in the air and blazing a trail above the grassy, rural plains of Equestria as the strong beating vibrations of the propellers tingled the bottom of their hooves and caused cross breezes that danced around them. The wind from their flight blew in their manes as they held themselves firm, but it gave a sensation both of them were not used to: A feeling of flying when they were not actually flying. It felt a lot different, but it was exhilarating. The two of them looked from side to side up in the air as the clouds passed them by, the Renegades flying up and coming in for a landing one by one ahead of them.

“Wow…” Soarin said quietly. It was hard to hear with all the wind and the noise from the mechanical creaking and churning of the dated machinery.

“This is amazing…” Dash added loud enough for Soarin to hear as she tipped and leaned against him for extra support against the wind. She, like Fleetfoot, was also below when they took off, so it was the first real look she had gotten at the Nimbus as well.

“This may sound silly,” Soarin spoke up, placing his mouth near Dash’s ear so she could hear him among the many noises present. “But I never realized how cool it would be to fly,” he said, earning a giggle from Dash. “It’s such a different sensation… I’ve ridden on blimps before, sure, but this… with the wind in my mane…”

The two remained in place for several more seconds, despite both knowing that they weren’t supposed to be out there. But as more and more Renegades came in for a landing, including Descent, Blazetail, and Flashwind, who were all giving them strange looks, Soarin tapped Dash on the opposite shoulder.

“Come on,” he said with a smile, the little brush with something both amazing and awe inspiring helping him forget his frustrations for a moment. “Let’s get back inside, we have to be ready.”

“Alright…” Dash said with a similar smile and mindset as the two turned and slowly made their way back to the lobby doors, bracing themselves against the strong winds.

---

Soarin ended up staying down below with Dash for a little while longer, but he eventually had to get back to his post. As much as he wanted to remain with Dash, Soarin followed his orders and made his way back up to the bridge with some difficulty, once again taking into account the motion of the compound as he circled around the main propeller pole. He was already grumbling to himself when he reached the top, contemplating saying to hell with his orders and turning right back around. Dash agreed with him that there had been too much bullshit surrounding what he was and wasn’t being told and since one pony he usually relied on was now a part of it, he’d much rather be with the other who was on his side.

But he sucked it up and walked around towards the bridge. He knew that if he didn’t, he’d just get more crap from Spitfire later. Plus, now wasn’t the time to cause rank and file drama. Just like several other issues at the moment, he’d save his arguments for later. It was more important to focus on reaching the Crystal Empire. More importantly, he wanted to focus on saving Wave Chill and the Shadowbolt captives. Lives were at stake, his personal qualms could wait.

He pushed through the door, preparing himself to swallow his pride and face Spitfire, but as he moved into the bridge nopony was even close to ‘facing’ him. Anypony that wasn’t helping operate the Nimbus had their faces almost pressed against the forward windshield. And those who didn’t have a spot in between all the controls were climbing on backs to get a view. Blaze was on High Winds’ back, and… Fleetfoot was on Air Mach’s back, probably the only time she would ever willingly touch him. There was only one pony who was not fogging up the glass with their breath, but despite Spitfire standing beside Lucky, she was still leaning forward, almost on the tips of her hooves as she looked out at the grasslands moving below them and the clouds moving above.

“This is incredible…” Spitfire said to herself as Soarin approached and sat down on the other side of Lucky. Spitfire only gave him a quick glance before looking back forward. There wasn’t any ill will in the lack of acknowledgement, Soarin could tell she was distracted. “Hmmm…” she suddenly hummed. “I just wish we could see more… the wrap around window gives us a nice forward view and plenty of peripheral vision… but we have one hell of a blind spot behind us and directly to the sides.”

“Oh,” Lucky, without looking away from the controls, reached a hoof back and pointed up. “We put in a makeshift periscope actually.”

“Wait, what?” Spitfire blinked and looked up where he was pointing, but she only saw the ceiling. Lucky tipped his hoof further back and jabbed it into the air.

“It drops down from in between the speakers on the ceiling to the middle of the control platform,” he explained. “It has two different viewpoint options, one in front of the propeller and one behind.”

Soarin and Spitfire both looked up and saw where he was talking about, but Soarin looked down and lifted an eyebrow.

“Wait, if the periscope is right here, how the hell can it show us a view behind the main propeller pole?” he asked. Lucky shrugged.

“Don’t ask me, Rivet made it work with gears, tubes, mirrors, and all sorts of science stuff,” he said as he continued to focus on driving, slowly pushing the throttle little by little to keep building speed. Soarin and Spitfire glanced at one another, both deciding not to question it before Spitfire refocused on the ceiling, She spread her wings, readying to hover up and pull it down, but…

“Oh, Spitfire, wait!” Soarin reached towards her, but she already hopped up.

“Whoa!” Spitfire yelped as her momentum with the Nimbus faded and she lurched right past the periscope, running right into a passing unicorn. Soarin cringed as the two fell into a pile and tumbled to a stop. “Oh…” Spitfire shook her head out as she stood up and helped the staff member to their hooves. She turned around and walked back until she was right beneath it, looking up. “Right… motion, physics, and all that jazz…”

“I got it,” Soarin said as he glanced up and focused, his magic flickering around his horn and lighting up. Spitfire immediately looked down at him with wide eyes.

“Wait! Soarin!”

“Relax,” Soarin said with a grunt as he grimaced slightly. “This is nothing…” he said, not admitting that it actually was a little difficult. He could have easily let one of the unicorns take care of it, but with how much crap he was getting about the horn, he seized the opportunity to show he was in control. Spitfire was looking at him with disapproval, but he ignored it as he worked, a blue aura surrounding the handles of the periscope, gripping them, and slowly sliding it down. Spitfire looked up and watched as if moved towards her. But then Soarin suddenly gasped as a small pulse of magic burst outward from his horn. His grip on the periscope released, and it plummeted down, hitting Spitfire right in the face.

“OW!” Spitfire grunted as she stumbled backwards and rubbed her face. Soarin hunched over as he reached up and rubbed his forehead, faint streams of blue light rising from his eyes.

“Grgh…” he groaned quietly as he barely opened his eyes. Even though his vision had gone a little blurry, he could clearly see Spitfire glaring at him. He had no way out of this one. “Sorry…” he preemptively apologized while awaiting the inevitable chastising. But, surprisingly, she turned away.

“Hmph…” she huffed, but even though Soarin didn’t get any lip from her, he could tell the mishap didn’t help his case. He just rolled his eyes and turned away as Spitfire clasped her hooves on the periscope handles and stuck her eyes against it. “Hmmm… this must be the front view…” she thought out loud as she turned it from side to side. “How do I get the back view?”

“Just turn it all the way around, that makes something move up there in the ceiling. Again, don’t ask,” Lucky chimed in. Spitfire removed her eyes from the scope for a moment, shrugged, and put them back in as she slowly turned the scope all the way around.

“Neat,” Spitfire said nonchalantly as she turned back and forth while facing backwards. “This will be useful. And it looks like we’re in the clear for n—”

Spitfire froze in place, the periscope making a loud CREAK as it stopped with her. Soarin instantly looked over his shoulder and stared at Spitfire as her jaw dropped.

“Spitfire?” Soarin said her name as he stood up. Lucky looked over his shoulder and several of the Wonderbolts up against the windshield also turned once they heard Spitfire stop mid-sentence.

“Spitty?” Fleetfoot tried as well as she hopped off Air Mach’s back and walked up to her. “What is it?”

Spitfire closed her mouth, gritting her teeth and growling.

“Me and my BIG FAT mouth!” she suddenly remarked before ripping her eyes away from the periscope and charging towards Soarin and Fleetfoot.

“Whoa!” Soarin barely got out of the way in time as Spitfire galloped right by them, skidding to a halt in front of the of the P.A. system and slamming her hoof down against the call button to the engine room.

“RIVET!” she yelled into the microphone.

“EEEEEEYOW!” Rivet’s voice came through the speaker. “WHAT?! Careful with the P.A! Most of the speakers are literally right next to me!”

“RIVET, WE’RE BEING FOLLOWED!” Spitfire yelled into the microphone again despite Rivet’s request. “WE NEED EVERY BIT OF ENGINE POWER YOU CAN GIVE US!”

“WHAT?! Rivet yelled back through. “What you’re getting now is all it’s got!”

“Well, give us more!” Spitfire ordered before reaching over Lucky and pushing the throttle the rest of the way forward.

“Whoa! WAIT!” Lucky yelped, but he was too late.

“Yikes!” Soarin braced himself as the Nimbus lurched forward, reaching out and grabbing Fleetfoot as she shrieked and nearly tipped over backwards. While he saved her, he couldn’t do much for the rest. Everypony up against the window was on their back and swearing while sliding across the floor as the speed adjusted. The Nimbus itself tilted up as Lucky held onto the lever and consequently pulled back on it. The moment he regained control, he reached for the throttle to slow down, only to flinch as Spitfire grabbed his arm tightly.

“Hold her steady and drive!” she ordered. “I’ll keep an eye on them! Take evasive action on my command!” she yelled into the confused face of their pilot. Soarin was frantically looking back and forth at the periscope and Spitfire as the sudden chain of events unfolded.

“Spitfire!” he growled as he turned and grabbed the periscope, turning it in the direction she had it before her reaction, aiming it at four o’clock. “What the hell is—” He went dead silent the moment he looked into the scope. “Oh… Oh shit…”

It was just barely visible, a good distance away and slightly concealed in the leftover aftershocks of the dissipating artificial blizzard, but it was slowly emerging and chasing after them.

It was the Shadowbolt fortress.

The large Nimbus counterpart was tearing through the mist and snow, the propellers spinning furiously and the large crystal formations glowing brightly as it slowly emerged into the clear of the grasslands and although it was still easily a few miles behind them, it was approaching rapidly.

So much for them avoiding combat…

Soarin simply remained still for a moment as his mind raced. It was hardly the time to think about some of the mysteries that were at hoof, but based on how the fortress was lagging far behind and just now making it out of the mountains confirmed one thing for him.

If the Shadowbolts were that prepared to react to their takeoff… they would have intercepted them directly. The angle they were chasing them at suggested they were waiting right in the straight-on path to the Crystal Empire. But because the Nimbus took the curved path, now the Shadowbolts were reacting, playing catch-up instead.

Did that mean Moon was telling the truth?

The crystals sprouting on Wave were clearly meant to force them into action, the fact that they were already being chased proved that, but they clearly were traveling a path the Shadowbolts were not ready for. Where did Moon fit in all of this?! It was so confusing!

“EVERYPONY LISTEN UP!” Spitfire’s voice brought Soarin back to reality as he removed his eyes from the scope and turned around to see Spitfire screaming into the P.A. once again, this time with her hoof jammed over the cross-compound call button.

---

“Are you all unhurt?” Matteo asked as he opened his wings and let Squall, Dash, and Twister fall back out on the floor.

“Ptooey!” Dash spat out a few black feathers and let her tongue hang out, but she quickly shook her head out and looked around as everypony else, Luna included, all slowly got to their hooves and braced themselves against the sudden speed increase. She looked outside to see several of the Renegades were also getting to their hooves in surprise as they crouched down to fight the wind, the chains holding the captured Falcon to the platform creaking and clanking as inertia forced against them. “What the hell was that?!” Dash asked as she looked back and forth. Squall was looked just as confused as her and Twister was… covered head to hoof in black feathers stuck to him with what looked like tar, only his head was sticking out, still wearing the silly leather cap and red scarf.

“Did we suddenly speed up? They could have given us more warning,” Squall complained with a grunt as Dash moved past him, hoping to look for some answers, but she didn’t have to look at all.

“EVERYPONY LISTEN UP!” Spitfire’s voice blared over the P.A. system, drawing everypony’s attention up towards the speakers. “GET IN SQUAD FORMATIONS AND READY UP! THE SHADOWBOLT FORTRESS IS ON OUR SIX AND CLOSING IN! WE’RE GOING TO PUSH THE NIMBUS AS HARD AS WE CAN BUT I WANT THE SECOND AND THIRD FLOOR READY TO LAUNCH! THIS IS LIKELY TO GET HAIRY! STANDBY FOR FURTHER ORDERS! SPITFIRE OUT!”

Dash’s eyes widened as everypony immediately began scrambling and rearranging themselves into their squads for defensive positioning as Luna stepped forward and took up a position close to the doors to be the first line of defense.

“Well, that explains that…” Dash said as she swallowed, took a deep breath and turned back to her squad, who had all turned to her except for Twister, who was now featherless, but standing on his back legs on Matteo’s back, striking a heroic pose while his scarf flowed like it was blowing in the wind without wind. “Alright guys! We’re part of the defense force, but be ready for anything! Stand in plus formation with the middle spot vacated! Let’s go!”

---

“Son of a bitch! They’ve already closed most of the gap!” Spitfire yelled as she pressed her face into the periscope. Soarin kept his focus forward, sitting beside Lucky as they continued as fast as the Nimbus could take them.

“How much mobility do we have?!” Soarin asked Lucky frantically. “We’re smaller than they are! Maybe we can outmaneuver them?!”

“We only have left, right, and down mobility! Lucky replied as he gritted his teeth, visibly sweating as he held the Nimbus on course. “Without the lower main propeller, our ascending ability is very limited, at least that’s what Rivet told me! If we still had it, we might have done a flip with how hard I pulled on the lever after we sped up!”

“Just keep going!” Spitfire yelled as she rushed up to the other side of Lucky.

“I’m going, I’m going!” Lucky nervously replied as he refused to look away from the lever. “I’m just steering the thing! I can’t make it go faster!”

“WANT ME TO TRY?!” Air Mach shifted over and pressed against Spitfire. “I bet I can convince this tub to do circles around the Shadowbo—OOF!” he grunted as Spitfire immediately shoved his head down with her wing.

“If we can’t go faster then we need more from Rivet!” Spitfire yelled as she crossed and pushed past Soarin toward the P.A. But before she got there—

“FUCK! FUCK!” Blaze suddenly yelled. Spitfire, Soarin, and the rest all turned to see Blaze looking through the periscope and flapping her wings with Fleetfoot sitting right beside her, leaning away as Blaze’s wings beat up and down in her face. “THECANNONSAREGLOWINGTHECANNONSAREGLOWINGTHECANNONSAREGLOWING!” she yelled incoherent gibberish, but Fleetfoot was close enough to understand it.

“THEY’RE FIRING ON US!” Fleetfoot yelled forward towards Spitfire.

Without another moment of hesitation, Spitfire slammed her hoof down over the P.A.

“EVERYPONY HANG ON!” she yelled before turning to Lucky. “Evasive maneuvers! NOW!”

“Where?!” Lucky asked as his hooves shook against the lever.

“ANYWHERE!” Spitfire ordered, but then made a suggestion anyway. “GO LEFT!”

“EVERYPONY BRACE YOURSELVES!” Soarin yelled out as he and the rest either crouched down or held onto something.

Lucky reached down and pulled down a lever, causing several loud clanks and creaks to ring out from outside. He then stepped to the right and threw himself against the lever, pushing it all the way to the left.

The Nimbus tipped to the left, remaining on course but strafing roughly instead of turning as it lurched.

“Ah!” Soarin gasped as his hooves slipped and skidded, but he pressed them down hard to anchor himself in place. Blaze, Surprise, and Fire Streak all reached out as they slid by, grabbing onto Soarin’s body to stop themselves. Soarin spread his wings and pushed them down over the top of the three, helping to hold them in place.

Soarin’s eyes went wide as he looked out the front window just in time to see several huge beams of pink magic hurl by starboard. Bright pink flashes illuminated the bridge as the magic shot by, causing everypony to look forward with wide eyes as the beams eventually struck the ground ahead of them and erupted in large explosions.

“HRGH!” Lucky grunted as he tried to force the lever back, but his hooves slipped, causing him to tip forward and fall into the lever. The compound tipped down. And began descending rapidly. “SHOOT!” Lucky yelled as he reached forward and began yanking on the lever, but the Nimbus’ mechanisms were not cooperating. Soarin yelped as he slipped and rolled onto his side, reaching out and grabbing the side of a control panel, almost knocking the unicorn staffer that was already latched to it.

Air Mach and the Streak twins were all in much better position. They picked themselves up and galloped against the rocking of the Nimbus towards Lucky, all three of them grabbing the lever with him.

“ON THREE!” Air Mach yelled. “ONE! TWO! THREE!”

All four of them yanked hard on the lever, forcing the lever all the way back, causing a loud, straining groan from the Nimbus it began to pull up.

“HHHRRRGGGAAAAA!” the four of them yelled together as the Nimbus evened out, but not before the bottom of it brushed against the grassy plains below, causing a very rough tremor and the Nimbus to bounce back up the air, but only giving them about twenty yards of lift from the ground. Lucky, the twins and Air Mach were all thrown back from the lever as everypony else stumbled and fell, but Spitfire caught Lucky as he tumbled by her, immediately set him back on his hooves, and nudged him towards the lever. She didn’t even have to order him. He rushed forward and clutched it, regaining control.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP THERE?!” Rivet’s voice came from the P.A. Spitfire picked herself up quickly as everypony else did and grabbed the microphone.

“WORRY BOUT THE ENGINES!” she said before forcing the microphone back down into its compartment.

“Yikes, I hope Descent and the Renegades are hanging on for dear life!” Soarin commented as he pulled himself up and across the panels for support as the Nimbus continued to shake.

“They have perfectly functioning wings! They’ll manage!” Spitfire yelled in the heat of the moment.

“GAH! SPITTY!” Fleetfoot’s voice turned their attention behind them. Fleetfoot was peering through the periscope, facing backwards. “They’re moving higher! Pointing the cannons at us agai—THEY’RE FIRING!”

“LUCKY!” Spitfire yelled instantly.

“I’m on it!” he acknowledged, already moving left to shove the lever right.

---

Just as Soarin predicted, the Renegades held on for dear life, bracing themselves up against the compound, holding onto the numerous chains securing the captured Falcon, or being held by the larger, stronger members who had lowered themselves and anchored their hooves down. Bomber alone had at least twenty others hanging onto him.

The Nimbus tipped and strafed back to the right the bottom propellers on the starboard side barely a few yards off the ground as the intense blasts of wind ripped and kicked up large chunks of grass.

“RGH!” Descent grunted as his hooves continued to skid and slip on the Nimbus’ front platform. Like the other bigger, stronger Renegades, he was managing to hold himself for the most part, but the only one of them that was actually stuck in place was Bomber. It didn’t help that he had Lightning Dust hanging onto his tail with her mouth… and Starry Skies hanging off of her. He felt like his tail was going to be ripped out, but he held firm. He looked up and gasped. “AH!”

He threw his hooves up and crouched down as cannon fire from the Shadowbolt Fortress rained down from above. Two of the large blasts struck the Nimbus way at the front of the platform, causing big explosions that tossed debris into the air and threw a few Renegades nearby backwards, tumbling to a halt as other rushed to secure them.

The Nimbus rocked and tipped down as it was hit, but kept on course, moving to the right and successfully evading the rest of the incoming barrage that thundered down off the port side and bludgeoned the grasslands below.

Descent grunted as Valkyrie suddenly slid in and slammed into his side while holding onto Cannon Ball, Pixie, and Fairy. She knocked Descent right off his hooves, creating a pony-pile, but the Nimbus suddenly evened out and pushed onward, giving them a moment to all collect themselves and get on their hooves.

Descent growled as he looked up towards the bridge, just barely able to see the Shadowbolt fortress as it soared high enough to be visible in the distance.

“RENEGADES!” Descent yelled out. “IF THIS KEEPS UP WE ARE LAUNCHING!” he yelled out in frustration.

“WHAT?!” Lightning Dust reacted beside him. “YOU SAID WE WEREN’T GOING AFTER THE FORTRESS!”

“IF THIS ANCIENT PIECE OF SCRAP CAN’T OUTRUN IT, THEN WE HAVE NO CHOICE!” Descent yelled, but ground his teeth together while staring at the bridge.

Going after the fortress was definitely not his first choice, but if the Wonderbolts couldn’t improve the situation, they would have to.

---

“They’re lining up again! SHIT! SHIT!” Blaze yelled as she once again had control of the periscope, clutching the handles so tightly that they were squeaking, her back hooves creating a constant clip-clop-clip-clop against the floor as she nervously picked them up and down rapidly.

“Can we keep this up?!” Soarin asked as he held onto the control panel beside Lucky.

“I don’t know what else to do!!!” Lucky yelled as he jittered, the pressure clearly driving him nuts. Spitfire growled as she looked out the window, their destination in the canyons still too far away to see.

Soarin frantically looked to Spitfire as Lucky pushed them back left, the compound shaking again as it tipped and magic cannon fire glanced off the starboard bow, the wayward blasts shooting by, causing more bright flashes as the explosions erupted along the ground. Everypony yelped and held tight as the shaking mixed with the hard port strafe nearly knocked everypony over…again.

Spitfire looked to be at a loss and Soarin was just as stumped as her. While their altered path gave them a slight head start, the Shadowbolts were already on them and one well-placed shot away from bringing them down. And even if they did make it to the badlands… how were they going to get away from the fortress?

“HELLO?! HELLO!?” Rivet’s voice suddenly came from the comm speakers. Soarin blinked, looking at Spitfire, but she was still staring forward.

“SPITFIRE!” Soarin yelled over Lucky at her. Spitfire blinked and quickly looked to Soarin. Soarin pointed to the comm.

“HEY! ANYPONY THERE!? I HOPE SOMEPONY IS STILL DRIVING!” Rivet yelled through the speaker. Spitfire came to her senses and shifted over, pulling the microphone back out of its compartment.

“SPITFIRE HERE! PLEASE DON’T TELL ME SOMETHING BROKE!” she pleaded, pausing to brace herself as Lucky stabilized the Nimbus again.

“YOU WANTED MORE ENGINE POWER RIGHT?!” Rivet yelled, causing Spitfire’s face to light up.

“YES! YES! OH GOD PLEASE TELL ME YOU FOUND A WAY!” she pressed.

“WHY ELSE WOULD I ASK?!” Rivet shouted sarcastically. “I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG THE ENGINES CAN HANDLE IT… BUT FROM HOW MUCH WE’RE SHAKING AND BEING TOSSED AROUND, I’M ASSUMING WE NEED IT!”

“YES! WE NEED IT! DO IT!” Spitfire ordered.

“ROGER! JUST DON’T PULL BACK ON THE THROTTLE!” Rivet recommended. Lucky blinked and looked over.

“What? Why?!” he asked, his teeth almost chattering with how much he was jittering.

“JUST DON’T!” Rivet repeated. “WE’RE GOING TO TURN IT UP NOW! LEARUN! DEX! NOW!” Rivet yelled right as the comm shut off.

Before anypony could say anything else, several very loud, very painful noises groaned forth, echoing throughout the Nimbus and shouting through the ventilation shafts.

“Ah!” Soarin flinched and grabbed hold of the panel in front of him as the Nimbus suddenly began to speed up faster and faster. The screeching and groaning persisted, causing everypony to cringe, but they all heard Rivet say it would strain the engines. They just had to go with it!

---

Outside, the Shadowbolt fortress was slowly gaining on the Nimbus. It pitched upward again before tipping back down, ready to unleash another barrage of cannon fire. The timing was different, the Shadowbolts had cut their last barrage short to regain their position and ready for another right as the Nimbus ceased its lateral movement. They hoped to catch the Wonderbolts off-guard and knock them right to the ground.

The large crystals at the back of the cannons began to glow, growing brighter and brighter as its target, stopped shifting and stayed on course.

The cannons unleashed loud, ringing CLANGS as the powerful blasts of magic jettisoned from the barrels, pink rings of light erupting from the end of the muzzles as the magic shot forth. The magic beams hurled towards the Nimbus… and this time, it looked like every single one of them was going to hit its mark.

But then the Nimbus suddenly sped up, moving out of the way just in time. The cannon fire zipped past the stern of the Nimbus, barely missing as they crashed to the ground, the ensuing explosions creating shockwaves that battered the Nimbus, and actually propelled it faster.

---

“WHOA!” Soarin grunted as his grip ripped free of the panel in front of him and he found his hooves skidding across the floor. Spitfire managed to remain in place only because she was strangling the P.A. microphone, but everypony else that wasn’t expecting the extra boost found themselves sliding or falling backwards. Soarin ended up reaching out and grabbing a hold of Fire Streak’s hoof as he held himself against one of the panels off to the side of the control platform, holding Misty Fly to his body with the other. Once Fire helped him get stable, Soarin let go and pushed against the floor, shifting over to stop Lightning Streak and grab hold of Blaze as she lost her grip on the periscope. Fleetfoot, High Winds, and Air Mach were directing themselves about, sliding on their hooves and using their wings to propel themselves along as they supported and saved several unicorn staffers that were yelping and tumbling about. Surprise had latched herself to the back wall and was comically hyperventilating.

“I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON!” she yelled as she flailed her hooves before High Winds slipped and tumbled towards her, colliding with Surprise on the back wall and creating a loud SQUEAK from Surprise’s throat.

“We’re definitely moving a lot faster!” Soarin yelled out in response as he dug in his hooves and stomped forward against the incredible inertia from the speed increase. He reached Lucky and pushed his hoof against his back, helping him remain steady. “I’ve got you! Just keep steering!” Soarin assured him. Spitfire looked back towards the periscope.

“Where is the fortress?!” she yelled as Lightning Streak grabbed a hold of Blaze’s hoof and swung her around, giving her enough momentum to slide forward and grab hold of the periscope again.

“GAH! FUCK!” Blaze swore as one of her hooves slipped and she nearly lost her grip again. She forced her body forward, grabbing the handles and jamming her eyes into the scope before pivoting it all the way around. “UH…! UH…!” she mumbled loudly as she finally lined it up. “FOUND IT!” she yelled while bouncing up and down on her back hooves. “WE’RE PULLING AWAY! Er… wait… no!” she stopped bouncing. “Well… uh…”

“WELL, WHAT?!” Spitfire growled toward her half-sister. Blaze pulled her face free from the scope and glared over her shoulder at Spitfire, a clear indent of the scope eyepiece around her eyes on her suit.

“SHUDDAP FOR A SECOND WILL YA?!” Blaze hissed before pressing her face back into the scope. “Uh…! We’re… uh, never mind! It looks like we’re going the exact same speed!”

“Hell, that’s better than them closing in on us! Keep pushing it, Lucky!” Spitfire yelled as she turned back around.

“It’s not like I can do anything else!” Lucky said while wiping away sweat dripping down his brow.

“WAIT! WAIT!” Blaze suddenly yelled again. “SHIT!”

Spitfire turned back around to see Blaze had turned the periscope a little to the left.

“What?! What is it?!” she asked as Blaze flapped her wings obsessively.

“LITTLE BITCH SHIPS INCOMING!” Blaze yelled while pulling her face away from the scope.

Spitfire blinked and tipped her head but Soarin got it immediately. He turned and grabbed Spitfire by the shoulder.

“FALCONS!”

---

“MR. BONES! I WANNA GET OFF THE RIDE!” Twister yelled as he hung over Matteo’s back and continuously heaved into a paper bag that seemed to get larger with every breath he took.

Dash and Squall were hanging onto Matteo’s arms as he locked his talons into the floor, giving them a solid base to hold themselves steady as everypony else stumbled, bumbled, and tumbled throughout the lobby. They all flailed, trying to remain steady as the Nimbus continuously rocked, shook, and teetered. Luna was using her magic to try and help as many of them as she could, but she could only focus on so many targets at once.

Dash yelped and grunted, clutching Matteo’s arm tighter as she looked outside towards the Renegades. She saw some of them forced to lift off and land multiple times in desperate attempts to avoid being thrown and tossed about. She hoped none of them had been thrown off or worse, sent plummeting off the edge. If one of them happened to hit one of the lower propellers, there was no doubt such a blow could be fatal.

But then… Dash watched as several Renegades suddenly looked to the sky and began pointing. Moments later they spread their wings, took running starts and launched into the air. Was something happening outside?

Her curiosity was quickly confirmed as two large shadows passed over the outer platform and two big objects zipped by before turning about.

“Oh, great… those things again?!” Squall growled as he too noticed. Dash gasped as she let go of Matteo’s arm.

“We have to help! Come on!” Dash yelled instinctively, but Squall reached forward and grabbed her.

“HEY!” he yelled as he held her back. Dash looked back at him and glared.

“WHAT?!”

“Did you already forget our orders?!” Squall asked her as he yanked her back over to them. Dash opened her mouth to retort, but… she stopped because Squall was absolutely right. Matteo was shaking his head as well.

“We are not in a position to bend our orders this time,” he said incredibly calmly as he pointed around. “We are here for a purpose, we’d best fulfill it.”

“BLLLLUAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Twister suddenly leaned over the top of Matteo’s head and acted like he was tossing it all into a now enormous paper bag that launched away from his face when he finished, shooting erratically through the air while making a constant ppppptthhhbthbthbthbthbthbthbthbthbthbth as if it were a balloon losing all its air. The bag got smaller and smaller until it whipped back around and smacked Twister right in the face, sending him off of Matteo’s head and screaming to the floor with a loud screech.

Dash stepped aside as Twister landed with a loud THUMP right beside her, ignoring him as she gritted her teeth and stared back out towards the platform.

They braced themselves as several small tremors shook the compound, followed by three more Falcons casting shadows from overhead before diving down while being chased by a formation of Renegades.

“Grrr…” Dash slid her hoof back and forth on the floor as she held herself back. Her squad had its role to play in this operation, she had to stay focused on that. But she wasn’t the only one. Nearby, Luna was also showing signs of restraint, her eyes completely fixed on the action outside, and her legs stiff and jittering as she took deep breaths to remain calm and composed.

Dash felt powerless, but this wasn’t a case where she saw an opportunity to break rank and take a chance. There was too much at stake and too much out of their control. But if things started going to hell, or somepony she cared about was suddenly in danger, orders be damned, she was going to launch and help them. She was sure Soarin would do the same thing.

---

What was at first a smooth flight path ahead of the Nimbus had quickly turned into a hectic dogfight as the Renegades took flight and engaged the Falcons.

Descent kept his head on a swivel as he pumped his wings, barking orders and making sure he kept his forward pace up. The scenario quickly proved to be a challenge, trying to divert and throw off the Falcons while also trying to keep up with the Nimbus. The speed of the old airship had increased, but it wasn’t nearly moving fast enough to outfly a pegasus. That being said, the Renegades quickly found their endurance being pushed with the mixture of staying on course, distracting the Falcons, avoiding their cannon fire, fighting against the intense gusts of the Nimbus propellers, and avoiding crashing into the Nimbus itself all at the same time.

“Dammit!” Descent grunted as he and Starry Skies body slammed the shield of a Falcon, knocking it off its course, but bouncing off and tumbling. The two of them rounded out and looked around, but Starry pointed up.

“MORE OF THEM!” she yelled.

“What?!” Descent glanced up to see five more Falcons diving down, raising the number of the ships swarming them to ten. The Renegades were all engaged with the first five, and they were already struggling with those. Before Descent could formulate a plan, he could see the small cannons on the Falcons glowing. “EVERYPONY! ABOVE US!” he yelled while pointing up.

Only a few of the Renegades got the message in time as magic cannon fire rained down over them. Several of them getting blown right out of the sky and sent tumbling. Descent grunted as he barely dodged a blast, forcing himself to keep up his pace with the Nimbus as he formed up beside Bomber and Valkyrie passing by. He looked back and forth at the two strong ponies.

“Think you two are crazy enough to try deflecting some of these blasts?!” he asked frantically, seeing no other option with the Renegades being forced onto the defensive. Valkyrie looked at Descent with her eyes wide.

“These?! Are you nuts?!” she asked while glaring. “Those things will—”

“Okay,” Bomber cut her off, forcing himself up and turning around.

“BOMBER!” Valkyrie’s eyes went wide as she and Descent both turned and watched with surprise. Descent wasn’t expecting one of them to actually try it!

But Bomber held himself steady and glared at an oncoming Falcon as it aimed towards him. It’s cannons fired rapidly, sending multiple blasts, most of them shot right by Bomber, but he focused on one coming right at him, put his hooves together, and swung them right as the blast reached him, releasing a loud, ferocious roar as he did. His hooves collided with the blast, and after a loud CRASH, the beam splintered, most of it flying off away from Bomber, but splitting into smaller beams, some hitting him and peppering him in the face and chest while the rest scattered and struck other Renegades.

“ARGH!” Bomber grunted as he was thrown backwards by his attempt, Descent and Valkyrie rushing around to help him gain control as they continued their flight and avoided more incoming blasts.

“Bomber, are you out of your MIND?!” Valkyrie scolded him as the two supported him.

“Ow… ow…” Bomber winced as he grimaced and shook out his front hooves. “That no work… ow… hooves… hurt…”

“You’ve got balls for trying though…” Descent said as he looked up, Blazetail and Flashwind coming around while twisting out of the way of more blasts.

“Did I really just see Bomber deflect a cannon blast?!” Blazetail asked as Bomber managed to retake control of his flight.

“Big dummy tried…” Valkyrie huffed, but they were all suddenly forced apart as more blasts rained down. “WHOA!”

“Have you all noticed?!” Flashwind spoke up as they continued to move, the rest of the Renegades keeping up, but being battered continuously from above. “Why are they going after us?!”

Descent blinked and then his eyes widened as he looked over his shoulder at the Nimbus. Four of the Falcons had broken off as they were all distracted with avoiding the cannon fire. The ships were charging directly at the Nimbus!

---

“LOOK OUT!” Soarin yelled as he pointed forward.

“AH!” Lucky yelped as he reached down and pushed the strafe-lock lever back forward, unlocking the turn radius as he yanked the steering lever to the left. The Nimbus tipped and took a hard left, everypony hanging on as it banked and veered off its course, some of its momentum still pushing it forward as they tried to change the direction.

Lucky’s maneuver was just in the nick of time as the Falcons began firing, the blasts peppering the third floor of the compound building to the right of the bridge window. A few sparks erupted from the control panels on the right side of the platform, the unicorn staff members shrieking and pushing away as one of them caught fire.

“BLAZE!” Spitfire yelled as she held on, pointing at the panel. Blaze let go of the periscope and slid over to the panel waving her hooves over the flames rising from it and whisking them right off, collecting the fire in her hooves before smacking them together to snuff them out. High Winds slid right up beside her, cupping her wings and forcing them down to create a focused gust that blew out any traces of fire that Blaze missed.

“That was a close one!” Soarin said with a grimace as he looked back at Lucky. “Can you get us back on course?!”

“I think I can I just…” Lucky trailed off as he yanked on the lever, but they were still turning. “GAH! It won’t stop!” he yelled. Soarin quickly reached forward and pulled back with him, the two forcing the lever over with several loud creaks and pops coming from it as they tried. The Nimbus eventually stopped turning, but its momentum was now carrying them off course.

“Even us out! NOW!” Spitfire ordered as she pointed at the window back in the direction of their path.

“Hey! I’m doing the best I can!” Lucky yelled as he and Soarin kept trying to pull it, both of them flinching hard as a loud SNAP suddenly came from beneath the lever. Soarin, Lucky, and Spitfire all looked down and blinked, but they didn’t have time to wonder what it was.

“UH OH!” Fleetfoot suddenly chimed in from the periscope. Spitfire looked back to see Fleetfoot pull her face away from it. “WE HAVE INCOMING!” she yelled as she pointed out the window. Spitfire looked outside and pulled her goggles down.

“I was wondering where they were…” she growled.

First the Falcons… now the rest of them.

A large force of Shadowbolts was approaching from the left, the group seeming to increase in number as they approached, confirming that there were definitely some commanders among them creating clones. Soarin’s eyes moved out the window as he kept pulling on the lever, focusing on the Shadowbolts that were incoming. He paused, staring carefully at them. Was Rapidfire among them? What about Moon? Soarin couldn’t tell from their position and there were too many to pick out specific ones, especially with the commander clones doubling by the second.

With the Renegades already struggling with the Falcons, Soarin was sure that Spitfire saw no other option, just as he didn’t.

“FIRE STREAK!” Spitfire yelled as she spun around and pointed at him as he held onto both Surprise and Misty with Lightning Streak clutching a panel beside them. “I’m going to make the order for the upper floor squads to launch! Get down there and take command!”

“Yes ma’am!” Fire Streak yelled as he looked to each member of his squad and directed them to follow. They helped each other move as they made their way out of the bridge. Spitfire turned to Blaze and High Winds, who were looking at her for orders based on what she mentioned before. “High Winds! Go with them! Blaze! Stay here in case we need to handle more fires!”

Blaze and High Winds looked at each other, the two of them reaching out and tightly gripping the others shoulder briefly before High Winds separated and followed Squad Three out.

“What about us?!” Fleetfoot asked as she kept her grip on the periscope, but looked out towards the Shadowbolts closing in. Spitfire slammed her hoof to the floor.

“If it comes to it, I want you and Air Mach to fly out with the ponies in the lobby, but only if it comes to that, understand?! I want enough of us up here to back up and help out Lucky as much as we can!” Spitfire turned and lifted an eyebrow at Soarin and Lucky pulling on the lever. “Speaking of, why haven’t we turned back yet?!”

“Uh…!” Lucky looked at her nervously. “I think the lever is broken!” he yelled as their momentum began to shift, moving them in the wrong direction directly towards the Shadowbolts.

“Oh, TERRIFIC!” Spitfire growled as she stepped forward and over to the P.A. “ATTENTION!” she yelled as she addressed the entire compound. “SECOND AND THIRD FLOOR SQUADS READY UP! SQUAD THREE IS HEADING TO YOU NOW WITH ORDERS TO LAUNCH!” She barely paused for a moment before contacting Rivet. “RIVET WE HAVE A PROBLEM! THE LEVER IS BROKEN!”

“WHICH ONE?!” Rivet’s voice came through the speaker a moment later.

“THE BIG ONE!” Spitfire yelled, letting him draw his own conclusion.

“WHAT?! YOU BROKE IT ALREADY?! I TOLD LUCKY NOT TO PULL IT TOO HARD!” Rivet growled.

“We didn’t really have a choice!” Lucky yelled over Spitfire’s shoulder.

“We don’t have time to play the blame game!” Spitfire interjected. “Can you get up here and fix it?!”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Rivet replied immediately. “IF I LEAVE THE ENGINE ROOM THESE IDIOTS DOWN HERE ARE SURE TO MESS THINGS UP!”

Rivet paused, giving a moment for Spitfire and Soarin to look at each other, then back at Fleetfoot, Air Mach, and the rest. They looked forward to see they were veering way off their course, still inching to the left.

“HOLD ON! LOOK AT THE BASE OF THE LEVER FOR ME!” Rivet suddenly chimed in again. Soarin was the only one who immediately reacted, letting go of the lever and crouching down, there was a gap in the platform where the lever was anchored.

“Looking at it!” Soarin yelled towards the microphone.

“I HAD TO DO SEVERAL CRUDE PATCHWORK JOBS ON THE CABLES CONNECTING IT TO THE MECHANISMS!” Rivet explained. “THERE SHOULD BE FOUR OF THEM, FORWARD, BACKWARD, LEFT, AND RIGHT. THE CABLES ARE PLACEHOLDERS, EACH ONE HAS A ‘CONNECTING PIECE’ TO MAKE THEM EASIER TO REPLACE LATER! IS ONE OF THEM DETACHED?!”

“Uh…” Soarin’s eyes darted as he tried to make heads or tails of what he was looking at, but before he could make any solid conclusions the Nimbus shook, peppered by Falcon cannon fire. “Ah!” Soarin yelped as he lost his hoofing and slipped, falling face first and roughly bumping the horn against the lever. “ARGH!” Soarin cried out as the cracks in the horn instantly lit up and a burst of light shot out from it. Soarin’s head whipped backwards as the horn reacted, tipping him all the way over backwards as Spitfire and Lucky ducked in surprise.

“SOARIN!” Spitfire yelled out as she watched him sprawl out on the floor in shock.

“Agggghhhhhh… rggghhh…” Soarin groaned, opening his eyes as he ground his teeth together. His vision was blurred by a green light, signaling that his eyes were glowing different colors again. His ears were ringing, muffling the voices around him as he recognized the blurring outlines of Fleetfoot and Air Mach crouching down in front of him. The green blur eventually faded and his hearing returned, revealing and hearing the worried words and face of Fleetfoot as she shoved Air Mach away.

“Soarin! Soarin!” she called to him as she tried to help him up.

“I’m… argh…” Soaring grunted, feeling dizzy as he tried to sit up. He immediately looked past Fleetfoot to Spitfire, who unlike his other squadmates, was standing a few paces away and looked… terrified? She was looking at his horn, not him. Had he not been so dizzy and occupied with their situation, Soarin would have demanded to know what was going through her head.

“CAN I GET AN ANSWER HERE?!” Rivet yelled from the speaker. Spitfire shook her head out, bit her lip, and turned away from Soarin as she took his place, crouching down and looking for what Rivet was talking about. The Nimbus shook again, causing her to look up and gasping as Shadowbolt Commander Void suddenly rose up and lunged towards the bridge window, but right before he struck it, Fire Streak and Misty Fly shot in from the right and tackled him out of the air. The view out the window was now filled with Wonderbolts, Renegades, Shadowbolts, and Falcons flying everywhere in such an off the rails cacophony as the Nimbus continued to slowly turn and throw them further off course.

Spitfire had to get control of the situation before everything went to hell.

She looked back down, her eyes darting back and forth as Lucky kept trying to force the lever to no avail. After a moment, she spotted something, a dangling cable that looked like some sort of plug with lugs in it.

“I see something!” Spitfire yelled up to the microphone. “It’s a plug! Or something! Just hanging on the right side!”

“THAT’S IT!” Rivet replied. “THERE SHOULD BE A CONNECTING PIECE CLOSER TO THE LEVER! PUT THEM BACK TOGETHER AND CONTROL SHOULD BE RESTORED!”

Spitfire tipped her head further down, bracing herself as the Nimbus shook again, after pushing her head all the way to the floor she spotted exactly what Rivet was talking about.

“Lucky! Stop pulling the lever for a second!” she ordered. She reached for the base of the lever, squeezing her hoof in between the small space, hoping to Celestia that the contraption didn’t suddenly move as she did so in fear of her hoof being crushed. After a couple of attempts, she got a hold of it and gave it a yank, pulling it towards the other piece and jamming them together, the cable went taut as she let go, followed by the Nimbus making a hard lurch to the right.

“WHOA! That did it!” Spitfire yelled. “Is it working?!” she asked as Lucky pulled the lever harder to the right.

“YEP! We’re turning back!” Lucky cheered as he began moving them back on course.

“Just angle us back! Keep going! Keep going!” Spitfire yelled stumbling as the Nimbus received another peppering from the Falcons. She kept her hooves set as she moved towards Soarin, helping Fleetfoot get him on his hooves.

“I’m fine, I’M FINE!” Soarin yelled as he pushed them both off and held himself steady. “RGH!” he grunted, shaking his head out.

---

“Ah!” Dash suddenly yelped, letting go of Matteo and throwing a hoof over her heart. Squall and Matteo both instantly looked towards her.

“Dash?” Matteo asked as he reached to her to make sure she didn’t get thrown about by the motions. “What is it?!”

Dash gasped and panted, her heart racing. Her eyes widened and she looked up towards the ceiling. Did something just happen to Soarin?

“EVERYPONY LOOKOUT!” Luna suddenly yelled.

Dash’s eyes went forward quicker than she could blink. She and the rest of the Wonderbolts only had a moment to set themselves and be ready as ten Shadowbolts, including Blade, Shadow, and Void, flew side by side towards the upper lobby window. They were all encased in magic shields as they surged forward and smashed right through, shattering the glass and forcing their way into the lobby.

Luna immediately set her hooves and called forth her magic, erecting a large magic bubble that protected the Wonderbolts from the falling glass. The Shadowbolts all kept charging, throwing themselves into Luna’s shield and pushing against her magic with theirs.

“HHHRRRGGGHHHH!!!” Luna grunted, gritting her teeth as she held against them. She wasn’t sure how long she could hold them back, but her efforts were to give the Wonderbolts time to ready themselves for battle. Blade, Void, and Shadow let up as the seven other Shadowbolts continued to press. They dropped to the floor behind, their crystals encircling them and glowing brightly. Bright pink flashes erupted behind them, creating their signature clones of themselves that shot up into the air and rammed against Luna’s shield with reckless abandon. “AH!” Luna gasped and stumbled backwards as the pressure against her shield grew harder and harder as the clones piled up and pushed against it, quickly increasing the number of enemies hitting it from seven to over forty. She had regained her focus, but was still feeling the effects of her signal magic a little, she could feel her hold on the magic slipping. “BE READY!” Luna yelled to the Wonderbolts as the elite squads all stepped up around her. Dash and her squad filed in behind, setting their hooves and talons hard to the floor against the motions of the Nimbus. “HRRRAAAH!” Luna gasped and leapt backwards as her magic released.

The Wonderbolts stomped and launched, flinging themselves up as the bubble disappeared, several hard, painful collisions ensuing in midair with the Shadowbolts and clones. Locked pairs and flailing bodies were sent in random directions as their momentum faded and the motion of the Nimbus caused them to fling uncontrollably about the lobby, bouncing off the pillar in the center and off the secured furniture strewn about.

Matteo had stepped aside, catching Luna out of her backward leap, but the move got him separated from his squad as Dash and Squall stuck together, launching side by side and crashing into one of the lesser Shadowbolts. Dash tackled the stallion to the ground, the two quickly getting to their hooves and struggling before Squall shifted up and let out his signature battle cry, catching the Shadowbolt grappling with Dash in the side of the head and forcing him away. The Shadowbolt was clipped by one of the elite Wonderbolts before he could regain himself and charge back towards Dash.

Dash and Squall went back to back, their eyes darting about as ponies whisked by them and flung about. The situation was completely out of control, turning into an all-out brawl on the lobby floor with nopony able to control their flight, falling victim to the shaking and shifts of the Nimbus repeatedly.

“GRH!” Dash cringed and shuddered, clutching her chest again as she and Squall stood at the ready. She looked up towards the ceiling towards where she could feel Soarin, but the heart pang ended up being a blessing in disguise. Commander Shadow was right above them, just barely holding herself in place with the motion of the Nimbus. Her crystals were glowing, ready to fire her burst wave straight down. Dash kicked back, pushing herself into Squall and moving them out of the way as her attack streamed down and struck the floor, breaking and kicking up the floor tiles.

Dash and Squall tried to look up and find her, but Shadow was forced out of position and already sucked back into the mayhem. Instead, they were suddenly surrounded by clones of Void that popped up out pink flashes of light. While they shared Void’s imposing size, Dash and Squall were well aware of how to deal with the clones. They recalled their training with the Renegades, using their hooves to deflect the magic eye beams fired at them. Squall’s deflection technique was not as refined as Dash’s but the extra focus from adrenalin helped him deflect the beams effectively enough. Once in the clear, Dash and Squall pushed off one another, taking out the clones one by one with well-placed blows right in the center of the forehead, causing them to explode into bursts of pink energy.

But the moment they dispatched the clones, Blade and a Wonderbolt elite slammed down to the floor between them, separating Dash and Squall and forcing them into the crowd away from each other. Dash looked back and forth frantically, doing everything she could to avoid being sucker punched, but she couldn’t avoid getting bumped around like a pinball as the fighting raged around her. To top it off, when she finally got her balance, she suddenly felt like she was being tugged at, and it wasn’t the shaking or tipping of the Nimbus. Several others were being affected around her as well.

Void had planted himself in the middle of the lobby and has activated his signature Vacuum Wave, throwing everypony about even more than they were already being.

Nearby, Blade brandished his magic sword and jammed it into the ground, using it to hold on. All the Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts began trying to anchor themselves against Void’s selfish use of his magic. Dash reaching for the closest thing that she could hold onto… which happened to be Blade’s tail. The moment she latched to it though, Blade looked behind him and growled. Dash gulped and was forced to let go as Blade kicked back, Dash’s arms going up just in time to shield her face, but ultimately sending her flailing through the air right towards Void.

Dash flinched as Void locked his eyes on her, grinning while pulling his hoof back to strike as she tumbled towards him, but right before he could punch her, Dash got a lucky break. Matteo shot up from behind Void and tackled him, wrapping his arms around Void’s neck and pushing him down to the floor.

“WHAT THE—?!” Void grunted as he lost control of his magic, the vacuum effect disappearing. He tried to fight back, but Matteo’s weight proved to be more than the large Shadowbolt could handle. Despite the advantage, Matteo still had to struggle to keep him in place.

“RGH!” Matteo shifted and pulled as he tried to keep Void down, the two of them flailing about on the ground. Dash managed to turn her body around and land awkwardly on her side, sliding along the floor towards Void’s face.

“Yikes!” Dash yelped as she reached her front hooves and kicked them against the ground, trying to stop her momentum. She did manage to stop, but found herself face to face with Void, glaring at her as he gritted his teeth and continuously tried to push back against Matteo. His crystals were spread across the floor in front of him, glowing and scooting back towards him as his eyes began to glow as well. Dash gasped and began scrambling to gain traction, knowing Void was about to use his eyebeams, but there was no way she was going to move in time.

Luck was on her side again though. Twister suddenly popped up from behind Matteo, leaping over his head, his flight cap and scarf were gone, replaced by a big, fake, curly moustache and holding a big spaghetti pan in his hooves.

“IT’S SPAGHETTI TIME!” Twister yelled as he jammed the pot right over the top of Void’s head. Void’s eyebeams fired the moment after the pan was in place, causing a bright pink flash to shoot out of the pan followed by pink smoke and Void roaring out painfully. Matteo grunted and released Void as the magic jettisoned out of the pan and rushed past his arms, but Twister dropped down, sitting on Void’s neck while holding a wooden stirring spoon in each hoof. “COME AND GET IT!” Twister yelled as he began banging the spoons against the pan repeatedly.

“ARGH! AAAAAAAAUGH! STOP IT!” Void yelled as he pushed himself up and began running frantically, running into, and knocking over several other ponies as Twister rode on his neck, hooting and hollering as he continued to drum the spoons against the pot.

Dash stood up as she watched Twister make a fool of Void, but as she looked back, she already lost sight of Matteo in the carnage. Before she could try to find him though, a Wonderbolt mare suddenly slammed right into her.

“AH!” Dash yelped as she turned herself and anchored her hooves, grabbing onto the mare as she fell limp in her arms. Dash’s eyes widened as she stared down at the elite Wonderbolt, but breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the mare struggling to move. She was alive and breathing, but she was cringing and groaning in pain, her suit slashed in several places, exposing painful, bleeding cuts. Dash looked up to see Blade rushing towards her, sword balanced over his shoulder and pumping his wings to compensate only using three of his limbs to gallop. Dash quickly turned, taking a chance as she spread her wings and thrust them down, pushing her into the air. Her motion was heavily disrupted by the movement of the Nimbus and hindered by the weight of the mare in her arms, but she managed to propel them over most of the action, landing off to the side behind one of the secured couches in the lobby. Dash set the mare down gently against the couch, but then yelped as Blade’s sword jammed through the back of the couch, just barely slipping by her nose.

Determined to protect the Wonderbolt, Dash immediately leapt over the couch, springing up suddenly and surprising Blade. She rammed herself into him, knocking him off the couch and causing the two to tumble on the floor. Dash tried to get an advantage early, but Blade quickly proved to be stronger than her.

“OOF!” Dash grunted, as Blade put her on her back and pushed a hoof down over her chest. She looked up with wide eyes as he brandished his sword in the other hoof and readied to bring it down. But before he did, he looked up suddenly, removing his hoof from Dash and bringing up his sword in front of him, bracing it with both his hooves.

“HOOORYAA!” Squall hurled in from the side, unloading a heavy punch into the flat edge of the blade. Sparks flew from the magic sword’s surface as Squall ground his hoof against it, knocking Blade off of Dash and forcing him to anchor his hooves against the ground.

“Oh? It’s you…” Blade huffed as Squall growled in his face. “How’s that little souvenir on your face I so kindly gave you?”

“RRGGHHHH!!!!” Squall growled louder as he jammed his other hoof forward, Blade turning the sword to position it horizontally and block the other as well. Dash quickly rolled to her hooves and readied herself as Blade and Squall grappled, but she was forced to divert her attention as a few clones of Blade and Shadow surrounded and charged her.

“Dammit!” Dash grunted as she engaged the clones. “SQUALL!” she yelled after him, her split focus causing her to get knocked back down.

“You’ve got a lot of guts coming after me again,” Blade taunted, holding himself easily as Squall continued to push. “Or are you eager to have a matching one on the other side?”

“SHUT…” Squall pushed off and spun around, winding up and uppercut. “UP!” he yelled, throwing his hoof up beneath Blade’s chin, but Blade shifted his sword and bumped Squall’s arm with the flat edge before forcing it forward. “AH!” Squall yelped as his arm was sent flying up, completely missing and leaving him wide open. Blade slammed his sword to the ground before dragging the tip along the tiles, sparks flickering up from the ground as he dragged it along, prepared to swing it upward into Squall.

“NO!” Dash yelled as she finally dispatched the last clone going after her and leapt towards Squall, but she wasn’t going to make it in time!

Dash flinched and came to a screeching halt as a dark grey, blurry streak suddenly shot in and collided with Blade.

“GAH!” Blade grunted as he was thrown to the side, Dash rushing forward to catch Squall before he fell on his back. As she reached out and supported him, the two looked up and blinked.

“Hmph!” Descent snorted as he set his hooves into the floor and glared at Blade. Blade rolled back onto his hooves and glared right back at Descent.

Dash smiled as she looked around, seeing several Renegades rushing in through the window, using the motion of the Nimbus to double their entry speed as they surprised the Shadowbolts, throwing them about and getting several Wonderbolts out of binds.

Blade’s crystals shined as they remained attached around his hoof, his sword glowing as he readied to engage in yet another grudge match with Descent, but before either of them made any moves, Blade suddenly looked away and out the broken window. Descent lifted an eyebrow, curious, but not losing focus.

“Hmph…” Blade grunted, his sword dissipating before his three crystals floated above him, came together, and released an odd screeching noise.

Dash cringed and covered her ears as the awful sound pierced right through her head, but as she looked up and around, she noticed all of the Shadowbolts pulling back and looking towards Blade. Blade made a swift hoof motion towards the window… and without warning they all broke away, galloping back and launching themselves out the window. Even Void, who had finally managed to get Twister and the spaghetti pot off of his head, his mask ripped up, his goggles shattered, and his nose bleeding from the mishap of firing his eyebeams while his head was covered.

Descent made a brief effort to follow Blade, but he stopped, hesitating as he was unsure if the move might have been a trap. But either way, the hesitation sealed his chances of immediately catching up.

Dash and Squall stepped up beside Descent, Luna finding her way over to them as well as they all looked out the window. The Shadowbolts were pulling back and the Falcons were doing the same. The Wonderbolts and Renegades outside were all looking around in confusion as they kept up their pace with the Nimbus.

“They’re… retreating?” Dash wondered out loud. Descent exchanged worried glances with Luna before growling.

“I doubt it… Blade would never randomly retreat…” he said as he started moving back towards the lobby doors, the wind rushing through the broken hangar window brushing against his face and pushing his mane back.

Dash bit her lip as she looked to Matteo and Twister, and then to the rest of the Wonderbolts, some faring better than others as they all wondered what was happening. An eerie silence filled the room as the Nimbus continued on its path, rocking back and forth gently.

She didn’t like this…

---

“What’s going on?” Spitfire pondered aloud as she watched out the window. Behind her, Soarin was back up on his hooves, but holding a hoof to his head and panting as he also turned his attention outside.

“Are they… backing off?” Soarin asked as the Shadowbolts and Falcons suddenly dispersed and were moving aside. The Wonderbolts and Renegades outside moved with the Nimbus, remaining at the ready, but all very confused.

“DID WE SCARE ‘EM OFF?!” Air Mach grinned and pounded his chest, but Fleetfoot shook her head immediately.

“It’s never been that easy. What are they doing?” she said worriedly as she glanced between Soarin and Spitfire, ignoring Air Mach’s posing.

Everypony, including Lucky and all the unicorns went silent, only the puttering sound of the propellers and the muffled clanking and creaking of the machinery filled the room as questions swirled around their heads.

For a moment, Soarin felt like his headache from simply bumping the horn was subsiding… but as he removed his hoof and readied to shake his head out, a sudden, excruciating pain shot through his head, his eyes widening.

“GAH?!” Soarin stumbled backwards, everypony’s attention drawn to him as he stepped up onto his back hooves and pushed his front hooves against his head. “AHHH! GRRGHH AHHH!!!!!”

“SOARIN?!” Spitfire gasped as Fleetfoot and Air Mach backed away from him. She took one step towards him, but immediately halted in place as a bright yellow aura encircled Soarin’s cracked horn, sparks shooting from the base and the cracks and fizzling out as they fell to the ground. Soarin opened his eyes, revealing a bright, yellow light that completely concealed his pupils.

Soarin fell down onto his plot, but remained sitting upright as his mouth hung open. He made no more noise, whether it be a grunt or a wail, as he sat and the light shone forth. After ten seconds, the light vanished from his eyes and the aura shot back into the horn.

“GAH! Guhhhh…” Soarin lurched forward and hunched down, panting and wheezing.

While Lucky and the unicorns all had no idea what they had just seen, Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Air Mach, and Blaze had ALL seen it before.

A premonition.

Spitfire’s eyes widened as she rushed up to Soarin and supported him. Soarin held a hoof to his forehead as his eyes remained stuck open, his pupils shrunk down.

“Soarin! Was that… was that one of those visions?!” she asked frantically, remembering that every time it had happened in the past… something horrible happened very soon after.

“I… I…” Soarin blinked and shook his head as sweat ran down his face and over the side of his nose. “I couldn’t see clearly but…” he looked up and out the window for a moment, and then down at the floor. “Somepony… I saw somepony… falling! Outside!”

“Somepony falling?” Fleetfoot chimed in as she came up beside him as well. “But… who?”

“I don’t know! Soarin shook his head, but… I…”

“Uh…” Blaze’s suddenly spoke up. “Sis…?”

Everypony, save for Soarin, looked towards Blaze. She had her eyes pressed to the periscope and was looking behind them. Spitfire’s body tingled with anxiety as she heard the uncertainty in Blaze’s voice.

“Blaze… What is it?” she asked quickly, but hesitantly. Blaze remained quiet, swallowing as she moved the periscope back and forth.

“Where did the Shadowbolt Fortress go?”

---

“Oof!” Dash gasped and hunched over, her heart suddenly pumping harder again. She blinked and looked up at the ceiling. Seriously, what was going on with Soarin? She flinched and looked up to her left as Princess Luna tapped her on the shoulder.

“Rainbow Dash… are you well? Is something happening?” she asked, showing concern as Dash clutched her heart. Dash bit her lip and shook her head.

“Something is hurting Soarin… I don’t know what though…” she said as she looked up.

“Hurting him? Oh… your connection,” she said as she tipped her head, biting her lip and looking up towards the ceiling with worry. “Whatever could be—”

“WAIT!” Descent yelled, causing both of them to jump in surprise and turn to him as everypony else did. “Oh NO!” he added as he sprinted towards the lobby doors and began looking around.

“Captain Descent?!” Luna remarked as she turned and addressed him. “What is the matter?!”

“The fortress! I was so distracted by the Shadowbolts that—” he froze, stepping back as Dash and Luna looked past him, several Wonderbolts and Renegades outside all reacting, pointing, some of them turning and rushing back for the Nimbus as others began following behind them. “Oh my god…” Descent kept backing away as Squad Three, High Winds, and the rest of the Wonderbolts and Renegades frantically poured into the Nimbus in alarm.

“What are you…?” Dash trailed off as she looked outside. “Oh hell…”

---

“What do you mean ‘where did it go!?’” Spitfire freaked out as she stepped towards Blaze, everypony, including Lucky turned around and staring at them.

“As in I can’t see it out there, what the fuck did you think I meant?!” Blaze snapped back. “It’s not behind us anymore!”

“Well, FIND it!” Spitfire ordered.

“HEY! Shuddap! I’m already trying!” Blaze kept fighting back as she swept the periscope back and forth along the aft view.

“At the rate we’ve been moving, we should be at the edge of the badlands very soon, the canyons start, literally right at the border, we can’t afford to be in the dark once we start trying to navigate—”

As Spitfire went on, Blaze suddenly turned the periscope all the way around to face the view forward. The moment she had it in forward position, she froze.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Blaze shrieked, her tail sticking out straight behind her and stiffening. Spitfire immediately stopped talking and blinked towards Blaze.

“WHAT?! WHAT IS IT?!” she demanded.

“Uh… Sp-sp-sp-spitty?” Fleetfoot said with a very hard stutter.

Soarin looked up, his head still pounding, but he focused on the forward window as everypony else did, gasps resonating throughout the bridge as Spitfire slowly turned around.

Soarin could just barely see the badlands, Spitfire was right about them closing in… however, it looked like their brief change of course with their mechanical mishap… had put them in a very… very bad situation.

The Shadowbolt fortress slowly hovered down from above, putting itself right in the Nimbus’ flight path at the edge of the badlands. The Nimbus was still moving full throttle with the extra boost from Rivet in the engine room, and the Shadowbolt Fortress was right in the way… the heavy cannons on the front were already glowing brightly.

“LUCKY!” Spitfire yelled out after a moment of disbelief. “SLOW US DOWN! TURN! TURN!”

“WHAT?! BUT RIVET SAID NOT TO—!” Lucky frantically replied as he stared at the throttle.

“WE HAVE NO CHOICE! NOW!” Spitfire reached forward and forced the throttle down, prompting Lucky to throw his body against the lever and push it left again.

The Nimbus shook harder than it had so far during their flight as multiple snaps, pops, clangs, creaks, and groans sounded from within the walls and the nearby propellers. Everypony stumbled forward as the Nimbus’ speed slowed considerably and it made a hard turn, but their forward momentum kept carrying them. Yelps and shrieks came from the ponies around the bridge as sparks and pops flew from wires and panels. The steering lever groaned and strained as Lucky pushed against it, but despite their efforts, they had not managed to turn much at all, nor move themselves out of the way.

Soarin’s eyes widened in absolute alarm as he looked out the bridge window… and saw the cannons firing. He forced himself up and rushed forward, ripping Blaze off the periscope and pulling her along as he dove towards Spitfire and Fleetfoot.

“GET DOWN!” Soarin yelled out as he landed atop Spitfire and Fleetfoot, bringing all three mares down to the floor with him as Air Mach yanked Lucky free from the lever and did the same, all the unicorns hitting the floor with them.

Everypony covered their heads as the Nimbus began to violently shake, rock, and shutter, the sounds of slamming, crunching, and explosions resonating throughout the walls. Sparks flew from the machinery and wires, whipping noises cracked and strained as cables splintered and snapped.

Ceiling tiles began falling, wires spewing out from above. Two blasts struck the front window, going right through it while shattering the glass and showering it down in little bits overhead as the blasts struck the back wall, exploding and coming just short of tearing the walls down themselves.

“AAAHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Fleetfoot screamed as Soarin held her and Spitfire to the floor.

“GAH! HA!” Soarin cried out as the shards of glass from the window pelted him, a few pieces cutting through his suit and slicing his skin as more blasts shot through the window and exploded.

They began sliding as the Nimbus tipped, its starboard side pushed upward by the constant pressure. Soarin held tight to Spitfire and Fleetfoot as they tumbled, but failed to secure Blaze as she slid right out from beneath him. One of the smaller propellers outside was struck, blowing it right off of its pole and sending it whipping downward. It caught the wind, flailing as it bounced off the fuselage and angled into the broken bridge window, jamming and impaling itself into the floor right beside the steering lever and just missing Air Mach and Lucky. A couple of fires erupted as the sparking panels and mechanical pieces continued to creak, groan, and shudder.

They were being absolutely pounded… was this the end?

---

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” Dash yelled continuously as she and Squall braced themselves against Matteo.

“RRRGHH!!!!” Matteo grunted as debris fell from the ceiling, including an entire light fixture loosing from the tiles high above and smashing to pieces over his back.

“WE’VE GOT TO! ARGH! DO SOMETHING!” Descent yelled, but the shaking was so intense that he couldn’t even keep his hooves.

There was only one pony who had managed to get to her hooves and hold her ground.

Princess Luna.

She stood strong as the Nimbus was assaulted, bracing herself against the shaking and brushing off the collateral damage. She glared out the hangar window as the view of the Shadowbolt fortress remained, despite them being slightly tipped and turned. After a brief glance at all the Wonderbolts and Renegades fighting for their lives around her… she knew what she had to do.

“WE SHALL NOT… ALLOW IT!” Luna roared out as she broke into a gallop, her strong steps fighting against the unstable floor beneath her as she spread her wings and leapt into the air, launching herself out of the Nimbus and into the deadly barrage of heavy cannon fire.

“LUNA!!!!!!” Dash yelled as she watched the princess take flight, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t even stand up without being knocked right back down. Matteo was the only thing keeping her from face planting.

---

Luna pumped her large, powerful wings as hard as she could, shifting, turning, and twisting to avoid the cannon blasts nearly twice her size as they hurled and zipped by her. She already had her magic alight around her horn and was constantly pouring more and more power into it.

The first time she took on the fortress, she was fighting blind, unaware of the amount of power it possessed. She also had the crutch of trying to protect a much wider area than she needed to. This time it was different. She knew what she was up against, and had already thought about what she could do differently beforehoof. While she wasn’t confident her efforts would wholly succeed, she had to do something to help. The Wonderbolts had to meet up with the Lunar Guard and reach the Crystal Empire!

She kept flying, glancing over her shoulder once briefly to see the Nimbus. It was being pushed helplessly, the building of the compound being battered and beaten as the magic blasts chipped away at it. The sight only propelled her drive further as she came to a stop halfway between the two airships.

She fixed her eyes on the Shadowbolt fortress, growling and grinding her teeth as the glow surrounding her horn first doubled, tripled, and then quadrupled in size.

“HHHHHRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Luna whipped her head forward, pointing her horn towards the fortress. The magic exploded forth from her horn, but instead of taking the form of an attack, the beam extended only ten yards from her before it stopped in its place and instead expanded outward, turning into a giant, square shield that was about a yard thick. The shield grew and grew, larger and larger until it completely blocked the attack radius of the Shadowbolt fortress cannons.

“HRGH!!!!” Luna grunted, but held herself firm as the cannon fire slammed and smashed against her shield, but with her magic much more focused than her last attempt it held steady and she was able to keep it in place. If the Shadowbolt fortress decided to break out the main cannon, she would have a problem, but in the current situation with the Nimbus as a moving target, it seemed unlikely.

As she remained firmly positioned, she realized that her efforts were working, glancing back at the Nimbus to see it teetering, but remaining afloat, smoke trails rising up all over it.

“GO! YOU MUST… GO!” she yelled in her Royal Canterlot Voice towards the Nimbus as she grimaced and winced against the pressure.

---

“Rggghhhh…” Soarin grunted and coughed as he looked up, pain shooting through his back and sides as bits and shards of glass slid and fell off his body. Spitfire was already pushing herself up and out from beneath him, but Fleetfoot was still covering her head, shaking and whimpering.

“They… they stopped?” Spitfire said as she shook herself out and stood up. She squinted, trying to see through the smoke that had filled the room, using her wings to create gusts that blew the smoke away. Her eyes widened as she saw several small fires rising from broken machinery and panels. The P.A. panel was still in one piece as well as the steering lever, but almost everything else was broken or burning, a few pieces of equipment uprooted and knocked over. Everypony was strewn about, beaten up and bruised, but no pony looked seriously injured, save for Soarin and Air Mach who seemed to have taken the brunt of the falling glass. But even their wounds were not too serious.

Spitfire blinked and quickly looked around.

“Blaze? BLAZE?!” Spitfire looked around, unable to find her half-sister. “BLAZE?! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Soarin slowly pushed himself up as he also began looking around for Blaze, but he was unable to move and help Spitfire due to being anchored in place by Fleetfoot. She was gripping his arm as tightly as she could while shivering, her eyes shut tight as she took short, frantic breaths.

“BLAAAAAAAAAAAZE!!!!!!!!” Spitfire yelled out as she ran around the disheveled bridge, checking every single pony she could find, stopping by every unicorn that slowly found their hooves and even looking behind Air Mach as he helped Lucky stand. Spitfire’s expression became more and more devastated as she made another lap around the bridge.

“Hrg… here…”

Spitfire’s eyes widened further as she snapped her head around towards the sound of the voice. It came from one of the overturned control stations that lay flat on the floor with flames dancing out the back of it. It was tipped in a way that suggested there was something beneath it… and a yellow hoof was poking out from underneath, scraping at the ground as if trying to pull its owner out.

“BLAZE!” Spitfire yelled as she ran over. Soarin tried to go help, but he was held back again, his first step being hindered and dragging Fleetfoot. She released a cry and only tightened her grip on Soarin. Soarin looked down at her and furrowed his brow, but when he saw Air Mach get up to go help Spitfire, he decided to stay in place, and instead crouched down and rubbed his hoof on Fleetfoot’s back to assure her they were alright.

“Fleet…” Soarin said her name quietly as she continued to shiver. He looked up and watched for a moment as Spitfire and Air Mach grabbed the control station and began hoisting it up. “Fleet, we’re alive… it’s okay,” he continued to comfort her as she finally opened her eyes and looked around. Soarin moved his neck down to make eye contact with her. “We’re all good… I hope…” he said, making sure she could see him, helping her calm down. He glanced back up as Spitfire and Air Mach grunted, finally toppling the station, causing a few extra sparks to fly up, but snuffing out the fire as it fell on top of it.

“Argh…” Blaze immediately began pushing herself up, her suit ripped and torn, but otherwise, she looked alright, already moving on her own. Despite her strength still clearly being with her, Spitfire reached down and helped her up, immediately pulling her into a hug. “OW! Sis?!”

“Thank Celestia…” Spitfire said as she gritted her teeth and squeezed Blaze. Blaze was ready to protest, but when she heard the tone in her voice, she relaxed. Spitfire was legitimately worried.

“Sis… I’m fine…” Blaze said a little embarrassed, but hugged Spitfire back.

“Sorry…” Spitfire shook her head as she kept up the hug. “Just really thought I lost you for a moment…”

“Um…” Lucky suddenly chimed in. “Guys…”

Being the only pony not occupied at the moment, Air Mach was the only one to look up towards Lucky. Lucky was standing next to the steering lever and pointing out the shattered windshield. Air Mach quickly trotted over and looked out.

“Oh… DAMN!” he shouted while tipping his goggles down. “WHOA-HO! Look at her go!”

“Huh?” Soarin blinked and tipped his head. He looked back down at Fleetfoot briefly as she finally let go of him and started to stand, making sure she was alright before he turned and moved to join Air Mach. His eyes widened as he looked out.

“LUNA!” he yelled as he stared out in awe.

“Luna?!” Spitfire reacted as she slowly let go of Blaze and looked towards the window.

As Spitfire made her way over, Soarin watched with his jaw dropped as Luna held her ground against the onslaught from the Shadowbolt Fortress, Soarin was already looking at Spitfire the moment she stood beside him and gawked as well.

“We have to help her!” Soarin yelled, but Spitfire reached her hoof out and pressed it to his chest.

“WAIT!” she ordered harshly, but didn’t even look at the glare Soarin was giving her as she turned her ears to listen. “Listen!” she said while pointing out the window. Soarin watched her curiously before copying her motions. It was faint… but the familiar tone and pitch of Luna’s famed Royal Canterlot Voice could be heard.

“F…dbolts…mus…”

Soarin narrowed his eyes and listened harder.

“GO! YOU MUST… FLY! GO! NOW!” Luna’s voice reached his ears. Soarin gasped.

“No! We can’t just…” he trailed off and flinched as Spitfire growled beside him. Soarin’s eyes widened as he looked at her. “NO! Spitfire, don’t even—”

“She’s giving us an opportunity!” she said with a clear tone of regret in her voice that she was trying to suppress. “We have to move!”

“SPITFIRE!” Soarin turned to her, but Spitfire glared up at him shaking her head.

“WE DON’T HAVE TIME TO ARGUE!” she shouted, her expression distraught, emotions squeezing through, but she refused to hesitate. She stepped over to the P.A. hoping to Celestia it was still working. “RIVET! RIVET! Please tell me you’re still alive down there!” she pleaded. Seconds later, the speaker came to life. It was much scratchier, but noises of struggle, yelling, and clanging burst through the interference.

“RIVET—RGH! HERE!” Rivet’s voice blurted through, amid coughing fits. “WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?! AND DID YOU GUYS PULL DOWN THE THROTTLE LIKE I SPECIFICALLY SAID NOT TO?!”

“We did! But we’ll argue about that later!” Spitfire didn’t even give him the chance. “Damage report! I know we’re still floating, but we have a chance to get away! Can we?!”

“WE—!” Rivet paused, releasing a coughing fit. “THANKS TO WHOEVER PULLED THE THROTTLE, THE REVERSE IN STRESS ON THE ALREADY OVERCLOCKING ENGINES CAUSED HALF OF THE OLDER MACHINERY PIECES TO TEAR APART AND CATAPULT THEMSELVES ACROSS THE DAMN ENGINE ROOM! BUT WE STILL—GAH!”

Spitfire cringed as she heard what sounded like an explosion, followed by more yelling and coughing.

“BUT I CAN STILL GIVE YOU A LITTLE! I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG IT WILL LAST THOUGH!” he finished as he turned away and yelled something behind him.

Spitfire looked down, her eyes darting back and forth as she contemplated what to do. Pulling back on the throttle had a consequence, but they had no choice. The Nimbus had taken a lot of damage from the fortress, including at least one propeller destroyed that they knew of. There was no way they were making it to their Crystal Empire in this state, but they could worry about what to do after they had gotten to safety, if anything they could at least make it to their meeting location with the Lunar Guard.

“GIVE US ALL YOU CAN!” Spitfire yelled before cutting off the microphone and turning to Lucky. They waited for a moment as faint whirring and clanking began to sound out from the Nimbus. “Lucky! Let’s go!”

“Where?!” Lucky yelled back while throwing his hooves out. Spitfire pointed towards the canyons, off their course.

“Anywhere in the canyons! Just away from the fortress!” Spitfire ordered as she hit the other P.A. button. “EVERYPONY STAY PUT! REPEAT, DO NOT FLY OUT! WE’RE MAKING A BREAK FOR IT! LUNA IS GIVING US A CHANCE! AGAIN, DO NOT FLY OUT!”

Soarin kept looking out the window between Luna and back in at Spitfire. He bit his lower lip hard, nearly drawing blood as the reality of the situation was weighing heavily on his back. He wanted to save Luna, but Spitfire was right. Luna was giving them a chance that they had to take. He continued to hear Luna’s pleas for them to run and save themselves, grinding his hoof into the floor as he forced himself to stay still.

Lucky pushed forward on the throttle, the smaller level only going halfway before it got stuck and went no further. Confident that was all he was going to get, he gripped the steering level that had somehow stayed intact during the onslaught, and took control as the Nimbus began to inch forward and turn.

---

Luna glanced over her shoulder, sweat dripping down her brow from beneath her armored headpiece as she continued to pour her magic into holding the shield. She caught a glimpse of the Nimbus turning and starting to move again, which brought a smile to her wincing face. She was now confident that all she had to do was keep it up for a little longer and then she could worry about her own survival. But first things first, she had to remain steadfast and continue to push herself to the limit so the Wonderbolts could—

“Oooooooooooooooh ho ho ho ho…”

Luna’s eyes widened as the eerie, creepy laughter sounded from… somewhere. Who was it and where did it come from? It literally sounded like it came from every direction… or had she imagined it?

“Welllllllllll…” the voice, which she identified as male, spoke. It came from the right. Luna kept up her magic output, glancing to her right to search for the source of the voice, but nothing was there. “What is such a marvelous, beautiful, tantalizing princess such as yourself…” the voice came from the left this time. Luna quickly looked left, but again saw nothing. Was she really hearing things or was the constant sound of explosions as the magic cannons pelted her shield throwing her off? “Doing out here playing hero…?” the voice came from directly behind her as she felt something touch her shoulders… softly.

“Ah!” Luna yelped, shivers running down her spine as she looked as far over her shoulder as she could without redirecting her magic, but yet again… there was nothing. She no longer wondered if she was imagining it. There was definitely somepony there!

“Quite a noble sacrifice… but to what end?” Luna looked back forward and all around her, but the voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. “You think you’re making a difference, but really… it’s all for naught. You’ve tested the trust of the very ponies you seek to support… and now you’re doing ‘your part’ in hopes of earning their faith back… but can you? Are ponies really so simple? So quick to look the other way? Forget all the secrets you kept from them? You led them on quite a big lie after all… you claim it was for their own good, but you’ve done more damage than you could ever repair!” The voice changed location rapidly, almost every word coming from a different direction. “Does the name Midnight ring a bell?” the voice slithered about. Luna’s eyes widened and she gasped, but she kept her focus forward. “The Wonderbolts are no stranger to deaths in the line of duty… but I bet that’s one they could have avoided if… you know… you had been honest with them. Don’t you agree?”

“SHOW YOURSELF!” Luna yelled as she winced, holding the shield steady as the fortress continued to blast away. What was happening? This voice, it was playing mind games with her! How did it pick out something Luna had not discussed with anypony? A death that was a consequence of her choice to work in the shadows behind the Wonderbolts? “COWARD!” Luna added as the voice refused to show itself.

“Feeling a little jumpy? Are we?” the voice taunted. Luna felt something slide gently against her plot.

“AH!” she flinched, the shield buckling for a moment and bending as more cannon fire hit it, but Luna quickly glared back at the shield, causing it to harden back up.

“Oooooo, I think I might do that again, do all Alicorn princesses have such a nice, firm, shapely—”

Luna bucked her left leg backwards, but hit nothing.

“Really now. You’d think you’d take that as a compliment, OH HO HO!” the voice cackled.

“DON’T PLAY—RGH! GAMES WITH ME!” Luna began to pant as the pressure from the shield began testing her limits, this chilling distraction throwing a wrench into her focus.

“Why not?!” the voice got louder, it’s tone and pitch causing Luna to wince as the shrill vibrations began to make her ears shiver. “After all… you and the rest of you serious ponies ought to loosen up. Really now!” the voice sounded like it was getting closer. “Some of us have been stripped of purpose, cast away, given nothing to live or care for…” the voice suddenly got deeper, and was suddenly accompanied by a demonic echo. “Some of us are denied the right to be who we are… some of us are locked away… some of us are forcefully held down…” the voice grew louder and deeper. “SHUNNED… FORGOTTEN… DEPRIVED… SNUBBED… REJECTED…”

Luna began to shake. She had no control over whatever was happening. She had to put focus into the shield, leaving her defenseless against whoever or whatever was toying with her… and at any moment it could strike… what was she to do?

“WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE IS GONE… WITH NO DIRECTION TO FOLLOW…”

Luna shrieked as Ruin suddenly appeared out of thin air directly in front of her face, the lenses of his goggles were pitch black with small white dots in the middle of them. He wore a smile that seemed… too big for his own face. It only remained for an instant, the black fading from his goggles and the smile shrinking to one of normal size, but it had already shocked Luna to the point where her heart was ready to leap out of her chest.

“Then it all becomes a GAME!”

Ruin reached forward and swatted Luna’s nose.

“AH!” she yelped, her head snapping up for a moment before she looked back down. But Ruin was no longer in front of her.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!” his voice slurred from above.

Luna looked up, her eyes widening. Ruin was not only surrounded by hundreds of his small magic spheres… but he was also surrounded by twenty or more clones of himself, all of which had their eye beams primed and ready.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry so much about little old me!” Ruin cackled as his crystals orbited around him. “I mean… I’m just ONE commander…”

Luna gasped as several gusts of wind brushed against her. She looked to her left, to her right, above, and below her…

She was surrounded. Blade, Shadow, Void, and Angel had all joined Ruin, all with their crystals glowing, and each with ten or more clones hovering with them. Luna’s eyes widened further… as Moon rose up with them, taking his place among them and generating clones as well.

With her magic still focused on blocking the cannon fire and the Nimbus still struggling to move out of range…

She was trapped.

Blade lifted a hoof and pointed towards her.

“Kill her.”

Luna looked directly at Moon…

But he didn’t even flinch or hesitate.

The commanders and the clones began firing their eyebeams and launching any projectiles they could use. Angel did not use his flying blades, but it didn’t matter… The six commanders absolutely unloaded magical attacks on Luna.

“AH! AAAAAAAHHH!!!!” Luna screamed and yelped as she was struck from every angle, each impact exploding and stinging her with unbearable pain. Ruin’s spheres danced about and hit her all over, Shadow’s burst waves burned against her, and the countless eyebeams pelted her endlessly. She lost control of her hover, her wings flailing for control as the blasts pushing her around violently, impacting both upon her armor and her body. Her grip on the shield began to slip, the strength of the barrier fading as it began to buckle and dent.

“HO HO! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!” Ruin laughed maniacally as the commanders kept pushing the bombardment. Luna cried out as the attacks continued to rip and slam against her, several of her joints were going numb as the heavy impacts cut off circulation and kicked her around like a helpless leaf in the wind.

Then her magic faded…

A cannon blast from the Shadowbolt fortress punctured right through the shield, shattering it to bits before… it hit Luna dead on. The cannon beam twice her size exploded against her, the shockwaves forcing the Shadowbolts to scatter as Luna was catapulted backwards by it, her head whipping back and her helmet flying off, faint trails of blood whipping from her nose and other nasty wounds as she started tumbling through the air… and falling.

Blade quickly twirled his hoof to get the other commanders’ attention before pointing at Luna again.

They all turned their magic down… and fired.

Luna fell helplessly, her body whipping about like a ragdoll, all feeling gone, her wings rendered useless, and her conscious slipping as the Shadowbolts continued to pelt her.

She could barely think straight as she took the punishment… but one thing was clear to her…

Thousands and thousands of years... an omnipotent being of legends… She had fought her share of battles, more than she could remember off hoof… She was making the effort for the sake of the Wonderbolts whom she felt she owed much, but all it took was one moment of weakness… Letting her guard down…

The whole conflict had proven that the divine entities were not so perfect and all powerful… Their flaws and misgivings taking center stage as their choices were constantly questioned and scrutinized, their ‘divine’ magic pushed to their once never seen limits and struck down by unknown powers. And now it all culminated to this…

Luna, the Goddess of the Moon, was going to die…

---

“LUNA!” Dash yelled as she saw the entire thing happen from inside the lobby doors. She was constantly moving herself further and further to the right as the Nimbus struggled to turn, “LUUUUUUUUNNNNNAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” she yelled as she moved further away from her squad. She pushed against the door, but found it was stuck, sealed by damage it had taken. She moved to try another one, but her intentions had already been noticed.

“RAINBOW DASH!” Fire Streak yelled as he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. “Do NOT fly out there!”

“LET ME GO!” she yelled as she thrashed, but Fire held her still. “LUNA IS—!!”

“Luna is distracting them for us!” Fire said, obviously uncomfortable.

“HOW CAN YOU BE SO HEARTLESS?!” Dash barked right in his face. Fire glared angrily at her and pointed outside.

“You insult me! Do you really think I don't want to help the princess?!” he yelled right in her face, causing her to flinch. “Look out there and tell me how you would save her!”

Dash looked out, grinding her teeth as she shook. Luna was being attacked by a group of commanders and clones, the Falcons were still out there along with the rest of the Shadowbolts, and the fortress was now free of her shield. The Nimbus was just starting to move away and if they kept moving they maybe had a chance to lose them as everything was focused on Luna…

Descent walked up beside Dash, his expression completely stoic.

“Rainbow Dash… the Wonderbolts have taught me not to be so quick to give up… but I’m afraid I must agree with Fire here…” he said while closing his eyes and sighing. “Luna is giving us a chance to escape… this was her choice. It’s different than one of our own being taken against their will.” He opened his eyes and looked down at Dash. “She is making a noble sacrifice to give us a chance. If we waste it, it will all be for naught.”

Dash glanced around as she shook in Fire’s grip. Several Wonderbolts were looking out towards Luna as the Nimbus kept turning out of view. They all looked like they wanted to fly out, all watching with horror as Luna took the endless hits, but were all reluctantly holding back. Not only that, but Fire was right… the Shadowbolts had surprised them and the Wonderbolt/Renegade force had taken a beating, at least a third of them grounded after engaging in combat. Even if they tried to save her, they would be outnumbered and any attempt could not only end with some of them dead… but it could also destroy their chances of escaping into the canyons, effectively getting them all killed… right?

But… did she have to accept that?

Dash closed her eyes and looked down. She stopped shaking and took a deep breath.

The Wonderbolts were trained to handle abnormal situations… On top of Luna’s choice to use herself as a distraction, Spitfire had given an order to hold back. However, she had been giving orders on the fly in the middle of a crazy crisis scenario. Were they sound decisions? How could anypony possibly have a level head right now? Dash trusted Spitfire’s judgment as the captain… but… Based on their training and what they stood for…

Wasn’t this just another ‘abnormal situation?’

It sure as hell felt like it, so why the hell were they being so… passive?

No.

Enough.

“Fire?” Dash suddenly said as she opened her eyes. Fire lifted an eyebrow as he examined Dash’s complete change of expression from frantic to determined.

“What?”

“I’m sorry,” Dash said calmly.

“For wha—?”

Fire Streak never got to finish.

Dash punched him in the face… really hard.

“ARGH!” Fire Streak yelled as the sucker punch connected, forcing him to stumble backwards and let go as he fell against Descent. He opened his eyes after getting his balance and gasped as Dash pushed against the door in front of her and opened it. “STOP!” he yelled as he galloped towards her, but she was already out and spreading her wings. “RAINBOW DASH! STOP! THAT’S AN ORDER!” he yelled, but he came to a halt in the doorway. Watching as she took flight. “Dammit! DAMMIT!” he yelled as he squeezed the doorframe, contemplating what to do.

“Ah!” Descent suddenly yelped in surprise, causing Fire to look over his shoulder and gasp again as Squall, Matteo, and Twister all barged their way through the other lobby doors, charged along the same path behind Dash and all took flight, chasing after her.

Rainbow Dash knew she was going to regret punching a top elite captain… and if it landed her cleaning the bathrooms for a year or worse so be it… but she couldn’t believe how easily everypony dismissed trying to save Luna just because the situation seemed impossible, had they all forgotten that this was what Wonderbolts did?! It was Luna’s choice and Spitfire gave an order to hold, but handling the impossible was the calling card of the Wonderbolts… if they were going to forget who they were, she was going to do it herself!

She pumped her wings against the heavy gusts of the propellers, aiming right towards Luna as she vowed to keep going, grab her, and make it back.

Was it suicide? Maybe if she slipped up or the Shadowbolts caught her, but whatever. She could do it… she could save Luna despite the circumstances.

Hell, she was sure Silver would have done the same thing… after all, he beat the odds, fought his own body, and took a life or death chance to rescue her from Sin. Screw odds… she was going to save Luna!

---

“NO!” Soarin yelled as he rushed towards the window, watching in horror as Luna fell while being pelted by the crystal magic.

Somepony falling… the one he saw in his premonition was Luna!

“NOOOOOOO!!!!!!” he spread his wings, but Spitfire suddenly leapt on his back and forced him to the floor.

“SOARIN! WE CAN’T!” she yelled. “WE HAVE TO KEEP MOVING!”

“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!” Soarin yelled at her, but Spitfire rolled off and shook her head.

“HAVE YOU LOST YOURS?! We have to get away! Luna’s giving us a chance!” Spitfire yelled her face filled with uncertainty, but she remained firm. Soarin tried to push past her but she pushed back again.

“SHE’LL DIE!” Soarin yelled in her face, but Spitfire lunged forward and forced him backwards, his hooves screeching against the floor.

“And if we don’t keep moving SO WILL WE!” Spitfire yelled as small tears began building up in her eyes. “You think I like this choice?! You think I’m being irrational?! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES AND THINK STRAIGHT! WE—”

“UH! UH! SPITTY!!!!!” Fleetfoot suddenly yelled out, drawing both Soarin and Spitfire away from snarling at each other. Fleetfoot was pointing outside. “IT’S… RAINBOW DASH!”

Soarin and Spitfire both instantly dropped the subject, both of them blinking before Soarin shoved Spitfire aside and sprinted up to the broken windshield. He stopped next to Fleetfoot and gasped as he saw Rainbow Dash flying out… BY HERSELF.

At the very moment Soarin realized what Dash was doing, it was no longer just an argument about trying to save Luna… this was about his OWN life… Dash, for some reason, was disobeying orders and flying out towards Luna.

If Dash was killed trying to save Luna… He would die too!

Soarin immediately set his hooves and leaned back while reaching his wings forward. He lifted up his front legs to begin the motions of the Sonic Blastoff…

“GAH!” He gasped and grunted as Spitfire dropped her elbow into his back from behind, forcing him to the floor and putting him into a headlock.

“SPITTY?!” Fleetfoot shrieked as Soarin immediately began grappling with Spitfire as she struggled to hold him down, doing absolutely everything she could to not hit his horn in fear of his emotions weakening its integrity.

Soarin was clearly emotionally compromised and based on Luna’s warning, any sort of damage would destroy the horn… but now she had a dilemma… If Dash got herself killed, Soarin would die… she bit her lower lip, looking out the window and down at Soarin as she continued to keep him down, shifting her weight back and forth to constantly keep him from gaining leverage.

“SPITFIRE!” Soarin yelled. “DAMMIT SPITFIRE LET ME GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” he roared wildly in desperation. Spitfire slammed her eyes shut, finding herself forced to make yet another choice on the fly.

Dash had just put them in a much tougher situation… because she didn’t know EXACTLY would happen to Soarin if she died. She wasn’t willing to take a chance.

“LUCKY! BRING THE THROTTLE DOWN! FLEETFOOT!” Spitfire yelled as she tightened her grip on Soarin. “GO OUT THERE AND BRING HER BACK!”

“WHAT?! BUT…” Fleetfoot’s jaw dropped as she looked out.

“NOW! BEFORE SHE GETS TOO FAR AWAY! ONLY YOU CAN CATCH HER!” Spitfire yelled, turning to look at Air Mach. “AIR MACH! GO WITH HER! FLY BACKUP! GO! GO!”

“Oh… OH! OH MY GOD!” Fleetfoot yelled nervously as she turned, spread her wings and shot out the window, clearly nervous, but doing as she was told. Air Mach, remaining serious for a change, followed after her, determined to see she made it back alright.

“BLAZE! HELP ME! UGH! KEEP SOARIN DOWN!” she yelled, Blaze frantically approaching, scared and confused out of her mind as she held him down, but not knowing why.

“DASH!!!!!!!! RGH!!!!!” Soarin yelled as he growled and flailed. “DASH!!!!” he yelled again, his horn beginning to spark and flicker. An unstable, pulsating green glow began to surround his body. His muscles began to twitch and flex as he slammed his hooves to the floor. “RRRAAAAAGGHHHH!!!!” he roared as his eyes disappeared behind a green glow and he slowly began to push up, lifting Spitfire and Blaze off the floor with him.

“DAMMIT!” Spitfire cursed as she tried and tried, but even her strength was shrugged off as Soarin’s magic seemed to enhance his with an aura she had never seen before. “I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve given me no choice!” Spitfire said as she turned her head and whistled VERY loudly, three tones, in a continuous pattern.

Suddenly the doors at the back of the bridge swung open and a flustered, slightly beat up Squad Zero galloped in. They stopped and gasped as they saw Soarin not only being piled on by Spitfire and Blaze… but also glowing green.

“STOP STANDING THERE!” Spitfire yelled. “HELP US HOLD HIM!”

Without asking question, Squad Zero rushed forward, Swift, Shine, and Playbitz all slid down and grabbed a hold of Soarin’s legs, holding him still as Calm came up from behind. Calm reached over the top of Soarin and pressed the entire bulk of his body over Soarin’s back, pushing him down to the ground hard.

“GURGH!” Soarin released a sharp breath as his chest landed on the floor, knocking the wind out of his lungs as the glow around his body and eyes faded. “AH! NO! D-DASH!!!!!!” he managed to yell despite his lack of breath.

“HOLD HIM!” Spitfire yelled. She glared as the members of Squad Zero looked at her reluctantly. “DON’T FUCKING ASK ME WHY! JUST HOLD HIM!” she yelled channeling her half-sister’s language in the heat of the moment.

“Can somepony please tell me why I didn’t take the job at the local supermarket instead?!” Lucky randomly blurted out as he kept his eyes forward, anxiously gnawing on one of his hooves as he held his head against the lever.

“SHUT UP AND STANDBY!” Spitfire yelled at him furiously as she reached up, grabbed her mane with one hoof and began yanking at it as she stared after Fleetfoot and Air Mach, feeling like she was going to absolutely lose her mind if anything else decided to go wrong at the worst possible time. Even Blaze was left speechless and afraid as she glanced between Spitfire, Soarin struggling beneath Squad Zero, and Lucky, feeling absolutely powerless.

The situation had gone from out of control to indescribably off the wall.

---

Dash was scared.

Scratch that, she was absolutely terrified of the situation she put herself in, but she also refused to let that deter her or break her resolve. Princess Luna had been an incredibly important part of her life and was irreplaceable in terms of what she stood for. Losing her was NOT acceptable to her, so she was going to do it… she was going to save her, even if it meant doing it all by herself…

“Dash!” Squall’s voice made her ears stand up. She looked behind to see Squall dive in and form up beside her.

“Your orders?!” Matteo dropped in on the other side… with Twister riding on his back, once again wearing the leather helmet and red scarf.

Dash was an instant away from asking them why they followed, but really, did she have to ask? If anything, the fact that they followed showed her something… Their loyalty to her. And she knew a thing or two about loyalty. They followed their captain without hesitation, she didn’t have to question why. In truth, it motivated her even further.

Dash looked up to see some of the lesser Shadowbolts below had turned and were pointing towards them. The commanders were still focused on Luna… so they had a chance. Dash wasn’t afraid of the lower ranks.

“We have one goal!” Dash yelled as she pointed towards Luna. “Grab Luna and get back home! Get ready for evasive action! GO!” Dash yelled. They tipped down and went into a full out dive as the Shadowbolts began firing their eyebeams towards them, they dipped pitched and twisted, staying close as they pushed through the attacks with their eyes locked on target.

“RGH!” Dash grunted as they closed in. However, there was a problem. Not only had the commanders ceased their attacks on Luna and were now looking at them, but Luna was plummeting at an alarming rate. At their current speed and with them forced to dodge… were they going to make it in time?

“She’s falling too fast!” Squall yelled. “We’re not going to make it!”

“I BEG TO DIFFER!” Twister suddenly yelled out as he rode atop Matteo’s back. “TIME TO SEE HOW MUCH HORSEPOWER THIS NOT-HORSE HAS!” he yelled as he scooted up towards Matteo’s head and reached for his crest.

“What the hell are you—BRAWK!” Matteo squawked as Twister grabbed his crest feathers.

“DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” Twister yelled as he pulled the feathers back and then yanked them hard forward.

“OW! OW! WHOOOOOAAAAAA!!!!!” Matteo yelled as he suddenly accelerated three fold. Dash and Squall’s jaws dropped as Twister somehow made Matteo launch forward at a ludicrous speed, leaving them in the dust. “HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?!” Matteo demanded as he grimaced in pain, trying to look back at Twister as the wind pushed against his face so hard it was nearly pulling his feathers out.

“LESS TALK, MORE NONESENSE!” Twister yelled as he yanked on Matteo’s crest and forced him to look down at Luna.

Matteo’s eyes widened as he saw them closing in. It was going to be close… REALLY close… but at their current speed, he had a chance to catch her! He immediately ignored any questions he had about how Twister was making him fly so fast, and instead focused on the fact that he might actually catch Luna thanks to it!

Luna was falling like a rock, back first with her wings and legs dangling in the air above her.

Matteo and Twister were closing in, but the ground was approaching at an alarming rate as well.

It grew closer…

Closer…

Closer…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND… EJECT!” Twister suddenly made a motion as if he was pulling a lever before he propelled upward, off of Matteo’s back and into the air while spinning uncontrollably and laughing like a maniac.

“HHHHRNNGGG!!!!!” Matteo kept his large, powerful wings firmly outward in glide position, forcing himself against the wind resistance as he leveled out…

And caught Luna on his back less than three yards from the ground.

“AH!” he grunted tucking his arms and legs as close to his body as possible as he came dangerously close to the rocky terrain below. He pulled his neck back, cringing as he desperately tried to keep his gliding level and even. “HHHHRRRRRRRGGGGAAAAAAAA!!!!!” he roared as he bent his body and gave his wings a hard flap, propelling him back upwards with Luna on his back.

“WHOOOAAAAA!!!” Squall cheered as Matteo pulled up with Luna in tow.

“YES!” Dash cheered with him as they flew down to form up with him.

“I got her! I GOT HER!” Matteo yelled out triumphantly, nearly in disbelief that they actually managed to catch her. Dash quickly leveled out beside Matteo to check on Luna as she lied over Matteo’s back, draped on her side across his shoulders. Luna cringed and groaned the moment Dash touched her shoulder. She was alive!

“And I got her helmet!” Twister yelled as he suddenly appeared beside Dash, no longer wearing his props with Luna’s armored helmet in his hooves. Dash reached forward and pulled him back, but not before he managed to slip it back over her head. Dash just gave Twister a brief flat look before facing back forward.

“Okay! Come on guys! Let’s get her back to…” Dash’s eyes widened as she looked up, seeing the entirety of the Shadowbolt force looming above them. All the commanders, the lower ranked Shadowbolts, and the Falcons were descending upon them.

Matteo, Squall, and Twister all looked to Dash, but Dash just stared with wide eyes.

“Crap…” was all she managed to say.

They all looked back up, completely at a loss towards what to do as crystals began glowing, and cannons began powering up.

“Hm?! THERE!” Matteo suddenly turned and pointed.

Dash glanced skyward, her face lighting up the moment her eyes caught the sight.

Misty Fly came shooting out of the blue, ramming herself into Blade and knocking him right out from the groups of Shadowbolts. Behind her, the rest of the Wonderbolts and the Renegades from the lobby, even a few that were not at full strength. They caught the Shadowbolts and Falcons off guard, dive-bombing as one large collective unit.

“DASHIE!” Fleetfoot’s voice caught Dash’s ears. Dash looked to her left to see Fleetfoot shoot down from above and skillfully pump her wings, causing an air impact that halted her drop with a loud FWOOSH. Air Mach followed up behind, flying ahead of them. “COME ON! FOLLOW ME!” Fleetfoot yelled, beckoning for Dash to follow behind her. Dash nodded as Fleetfoot shot forth, leading them into the cacophony as Wonderbolts and Renegades tumbled down while grappling with the Shadowbolts.

Everything was in disarray, even the Falcons being swarmed. So Dash worked quickly. She made a few hoof motions towards Luna, getting Squall’s attention. Working together, the two grabbed Luna and shifted her so she was laying on her stomach parallel on Matteo’s back with her hooves draped over the front of his shoulder.

“LET’S GO!” she yelled, Squall, Twister, and Dash placing themselves protectively around Matteo as they surged forward, following behind Air Mach and Fleetfoot. They winced and cringed as they navigated, dodging and shifting to avoid the wild action. Dash and Squall even took a few hits purposely to divert a scuffle that was in their flight path. Magic attacks were hurling in all directions, shooting up down, left and right. The signature attacks of the commanders were zinging about as well, twice forcing Dash to direct Matteo elsewhere to avoid Shadow’s burst wave.

Dash was flying completely on instinct and adrenaline. The situation was more dangerous now than it had been the entire time, with literally no rhyme or reason driving it. One false move could mean the end for her or any of her allies out there. Knowing how much was on the line kept her wings pumping as hard as they could.

As they approached the other side of the action, High Winds twisted down in front of Fleetfoot and Air Mach, using her strong wings to create a burst of wind that rushed forward and knocked the last stragglers aside, Wonderbolt, Renegade, and Shadowbolt alike, giving them a clear path towards the Nimbus. The Nimbus had ceased movement, now hovering in place.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fire Streak yelled as he flew down. Twister and Squall both flinched and pulled back a little as Fire shifted down and flew beside Dash. Dash looked towards Fire while biting her lip.

“Uh!” she stuttered. “S-sir…”

“Hmph, forget about it for now!” he said with a clear look of frustration on his face. “How is Luna?!” he asked.

“She’s alive! But badly hurt! She needs help!” Dash replied while looking towards Matteo and the cringing, barely conscious princess riding on his back.

“No doubt!” Fire agreed as he looked over his shoulders. He turned and flew backwards as he put his hooves to his mouth and took a deep breath. He blew into his hooves, releasing a loud, high-pitched whistle that sounded similar to the way Spitfire did whenever she wanted to get everypony’s attention. But it sounded awkward and way off pitch. Fire grunted as the Wonderbolts began disengaging and following despite the off tune command, the Renegades doing the same once Blazetail, Flashwind, and Descent picked up on what was happening. Fire cringed as he turned back around. “One of these days I’m going to figure out how Spitfire and Silver do that whistle… WONDERBOLTS! GO! GO! GO!” he yelled.

“HOO-RAH!” the Wonderbolts replied as they and the Renegades caught up behind them. They were immediately followed by magic beams and cannon fire, but they pitched, turned, and in some cases shrugged off the attacks as they charged back toward the Nimbus.

“MOVE! MOVE!” Fire yelled. “WE HAVE TO—”

He was cut off as several bright flashes came from the direction of the Shadowbolt Fortress. Dash and Fire both turned their heads to see the fortress focused on the Nimbus, the halted course giving the Fortress more than enough time to shift, realign, and fire on it again. The Wonderbolts cringed as they watched the cannon fire crash against the Nimbus, breaking chunks of the fuselage off and clipping another small propeller. The Nimbus teetered, but again showed its resilience by staying afloat.

“BLAST! They’re already hitting us again!” Fire yelled out as Fleetfoot glanced over her shoulder ahead of them.

“WHAT DO WE DO?!” she yelled as they stayed on course despite being pelted from behind WHILE watching their own escape ship also being pelted.

“I… I…” Fire bit his lip as Dash, Fleetfoot, and everypony else nearby, including his own squad looked towards him, the only present top elite captain, for an answer, but he had none. There were three Wonderbolts that ranked above him flying nearby, but as the only captain, they seemed to put their trust in his judgment. Fire frantically looked around, his eyes landing on Blazetail and Flashwind behind him, but they also looked just as stumped. Even Descent simply stared, watching helplessly as they flew towards a dead end.

“KEEP… GOING…!” a voice suddenly caught all of their attention. Everypony’s eyes shifted to Luna as she struggled to lift her neck up. “DON’T… STOP…!”

“Your Highness?!” Fire shifted over to her. “Do you have a plan?!”

“RGH!” Luna cringed as her body shuddered, but she shrugged it off and glared towards the Shadowbolt Fortress. “Stay on course! Get me in between the Nimbus and the Fortress! Everypony else keep going!” she yelled. “I may have… a spell… that can stop them!”

Fire’s eyes widened as Luna brought up yet another ‘spell’ of hers. If the last time she revealed some secret magic to them was any indication… Luna was likely going to harm herself in the process.

“Your Highness… it won’t harm you, will it?!” he asked with worry. Luna shook her head while shuddering.

“WE HAVE… NO CHOICE!” she didn’t even try to deny it. “IT MAY BE OUR ONLY CHANCE!”

Fire looked back forward at Fleetfoot, who seemed to be looking at him to give the word. He took a quick, sharp breath and exhaled before glaring forward.

“GO!” Fire yelled. “KEEP MOVING! WE MUST REACH THE NIMBUS! GO!” he yelled, the Wonderbolts and Renegades surging onward as they continued to be pelted by the crystal magic, several painful grunts and cries ringing out as they fought through the punishment.

Just as Luna instructed, they pushed on, flying as fast as they could towards the Nimbus as it too faced a predicament similar to theirs. The attacks by the Shadowbolts intensified, and suddenly seemed to be focusing. The Wonderbolts and Renegades had spread out to prevent collateral damage, but now the eyebeams and commander attacks seemed to be zeroing in on Matteo and Luna. Several Renegades shifted downward as Blazetail called out to them, placing themselves behind Matteo and turning to fly backwards. With Bomber, Comet, Cannon, and Steady at the center, they created a shield, deflecting as much of the magic as they could away from Matteo.

The collective effort was taxing, forcing the Renegades to take many hits they could not cleanly block, but they held strong and kept moving. Dash and Fire stayed close to Matteo, flanking Luna as she stared forward with a strong, determined expression. They were growing closer and closer to Luna’s desired location. As they closed in on the midway point between the Nimbus and the Fortress, Luna began taking several deep breaths, her horn slowly coming to life with a blue aura surrounding it. As she prepped herself, she suddenly looked up and yelled at the top of her lungs.

“EVERYPONY KEEP GOING!” she belted out in her Royal Canterlot Voice. “KEEP MOVING AND DON’T LOOK BACK, OR YOU WILL BE BLINDED!” she commanded.

“Blinded?!” Dash repeated, but didn’t have time to ask.

“Griffon! Stop and face me towards the Shadowbolts and their fortress!” she commanded Matteo.

“What?!” Fire looked at her in disbelief, but Luna only shot him a harsh glare.

“NOW!” she pressed. Fire winced before refocusing on the Wonderbolt and Renegades.

“DO AS SHE SAYS! GO! GO! GO! TO THE NIMBUS!” Fire yelled out.

“HOO-RAH!” The Wonderbolts replied, breaking off and continuing towards the Nimbus, taking care to stay clear of the incoming fire from the Fortress.

“RENEGADES!” Descent called out. “COVER LUNA!” he yelled as he and the Renegades remained, stopping and placing themselves in the way of the Shadowbolt magic attacks once again.

Dash and Fire remained behind with Luna and Matteo, both refusing to leave to assure the two made it back in one piece.

Luna focused her eyes on the Shadowbolts as Matteo turned her around, her magic aura upon her horn growing in size as she readied her spell.

“HRGH!” Luna grunted, squinting as the glow grew larger and larger. She twitched, her neck and head jittering as she ground her teeth and fought to keep her head upright. Fire and Dash both wanted to voice their concern, but they held themselves back, respecting Luna’s efforts and her claim that they had no other option. “AAHHH!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!” Luna groaned louder as not only the aura, but her whole horn began to shine with a blinding light.

“Whoa!” Dash reacted, shielding her eyes as Luna’s horn became nearly as bright as the sun.

“EVERYPONY! AVERT… YOUR… EYES!” she yelled, getting the attention of the Renegades shielding them as well. “CLEAR OUT! NOW!” she added.

“RENEGADES! FALL BACK!” Descent yelled, getting them all to break and launch towards the Nimbus, giving Luna a clear view of the approaching Shadowbolts and the Fortress as it kept up its barrage on the Nimbus. Fire and Dash both turned away, Matteo reaching up and arm and covering his eyes.

“HHRRRGGGGGRAAAAAAA!!!!!” Luna shouted out, her voice filled with intense pain as she unleashed an incredibly large burst of magic from her horn. It shot out in front of her, angling upward before expanding greatly, slowly becoming a large globe that grew and grew until it was nearly half the size of the Shadowbolt fortress itself! The approaching Shadowbolts all came to a sudden halt as they gawked at the enormous discharge of magic… but they would regret doing so.

With another painful cry, Luna pumped another wave of magic through her horn and into the stream that was forming the globe. It shot along the stream, colliding with, and absorbing into the globe. The globe pulsated and suddenly released a loud, ear-piercing screech. It followed up by producing an incredibly bright light and enormous, thunderous shockwaves that burst forth, crashing against both the fortress and the Shadowbolts.

Shouts and roars of pain sounded out from the Shadowbolts as they were both blinded and forced backwards violently by the shockwaves, knocked out of the air and flung backwards. The Shadowbolt Fortress was effected as well, the light not only blinding the pilot, but the shockwaves kicking at it, forcing it to tip up and backwards, the crystals along its fuselage blinking and glowing as the pulses smashed and crashed against them.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Luna cried out in agony as the stream disconnected from her horn, but the globe continued to linger, creating more light and waves of energy. Luna’s horn kept flickering as she continued to yell. Her head lurched back and forth for a moment before an explosion of light burst forth from not only her horn, but also out of her eyes and mouth with a loud BANG. “Ahhhhhhhh…” Luna’s voice grew weak, faint blue streams of light rising from her horn, eyes, and mouth as she fell limply against Matteo’s back and passed out, her majestic mane losing its ethereal flow as it fell against her head and body.

“LUNA! Argh!” Dash gasped, but quickly shielded her eyes as she turned, avoiding eye contact with the globe of light currently hammering the Shadowbolts. Luna’s magic was incredible, but based on the horrific sight right after, such a powerful spell came at a cost. If she weren’t still breathing she would have easily been mistaken for dead. She was completely out cold.

“COME ON!” Fire yelled as he reached down and turned Matteo. “TO THE NIMBUS! WHILE WE HAVE THIS CHANCE!” he encouraged.

Dash quickly refocused and nodded, following right behind as Fire and Matteo pumped their wings and pushed themselves as fast as they could towards the Nimbus.

They were far behind, but they could see the Wonderbolts and Renegades landing on the platform and charging into the Nimbus, which looked to be straining itself just to remain in the air. The light behind them shone so brightly that even facing away they had to squint to fend off the illumination of the surrounding area from irritating their eyes.

They caught up, Dash and Matteo angling down to take Luna directly into the lobby, but Fire Streak broke away from them, aiming right for the broken bridge window above.

---

“CAPTAIN! CAP—!” Fire Streak cut himself off as he landed in the bridge and stared at the sight before him.

Squad Zero, Spitfire, and Blaze were all piled on top of Soarin as he growled kicked and tried to break free. The bridge was also in complete disarray, wires hanging from the ceiling, panels and control stations knocked over and overturned, smoke still rising from several components, hardly the state it was in when he last saw it.

“Uh… what in the world is—”

“FIRE!” Spitfire suddenly yelled as she continued to hold Soarin’s leg. “What the hell is going on out there?!”

Fire decided not to question anything. Time was of the essence, so he made it short and to the point.

“Everypony is back! We rescued Luna too!” he explained, Spitfire’s eyes widening in surprise. “She has given us another chance to escape and—”

“RAINBOW DASH!” Soarin cut him off. “I don’t give a SHIT about the others! Is Rainbow Dash safe?!” Soarin yelled out in an uncharacteristic fit of panicked rage. Fire flinched, his eyes widening, but he quickly answered.

“Yes! She’s with us!” he said quickly. Soarin immediately stopped struggling, the group holding him down almost falling off since they didn’t have to brace anymore, but Spitfire got right to her hooves.

“You said we have a chance?!” she went right back to what Fire was saying before Soarin cut him off. “IS THAT WHAT YOU SAID?!” she asked frantically as she came forward and grabbed the stretchy material of Fire’s suit, shaking him.

“Argh! YES!” Fire replied as he clamped his hooves down on her arms and held her steady. “Look I’ll explain everything later! We have to move! NOW!”

Spitfire didn’t argue, she immediately let go of Fire, ripping her arms free of his hooves as she galloped up to Lucky who was literally latched the steering lever while almost hyperventilating.

“LUCKY! PUNCH IT!” she ordered. He blinked, looking towards her. “NOW!” she yelled right in his face, bringing him back to reality.

“UH! RIGHT!” he shook his head out roughly before reaching down to the throttle and slamming it forward. It got stuck halfway, just like before, but as they moved, the propellers and components made very ugly creaking and groaning noises, their acceleration barely half of what it was capable of earlier. The noises kept spewing from the walls and from outside as the Nimbus strained itself, and it wasn’t long before the PA speaker came to life. Before anypony spoke through it, the same manner of painful noises came through it, only they sounded much worse.

“CAN SOMEPONY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON?!” Rivet yelled through it. “BECAUSE A LOT OF STUFF IS EITHER BROKEN OR BREAKING DOWN HERE AND I DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER IT CAN RUN!”

Spitfire immediately grabbed the microphone with so much force that she nearly ripped it right out of the panel.

“Just keep it going as long as you can!” she yelled.

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF—” the speaker cut out.

“JUST GO!” Spitfire yelled to Lucky. “GET US—” a loud screech and SPROING sounded out as Spitfire accidentally ripped the microphone out of the panel. “Oh, dammit. GET US DEEPER INTO THE CANYONS!”

---

Outside, the Nimbus strained, groaned, and wailed. The propellers were turning, but the old contraptions were voicing their damage as the airship pushed forward and away from the Shadowbolts left in disarray by Luna’s persisting magic spell.

Clanks and creaks echoed throughout the canyons as the Nimbus forged ahead, trails of smoke rising from several places as it teetered back and forth, some of the propellers failing and starting back up as Rivet and the engineering crew struggled to keep the heavily damaged systems running.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, but they slowly pulled away from the Shadowbolts, leaving them far behind as they moved further and further into the canyons… but it was hardly the end of their troubles.

As they flew above the expanse of very large canyons that cut deep into the earth below, several painful snaps and pops rang out and nearly half of the lower propellers came to an abrupt halt. Without the lower propulsion, the Nimbus began to descend very slowly.

---

Squad Zero had removed themselves from Soarin, but Blaze was still clinging to Soarin’s arm as Soarin himself watched with wide eyes out the window. His worry for Dash was quelled, but now replaced with a worry for everypony’s survival. It was hard to tell since he was still on the floor, but from his angle it looked like they were losing altitude.

“WE’RE NOT GOING DOWN… ARE WE?!” he asked, yelling forward frantically as all eyes went to Lucky. Lucky was pulling back hard on the lever, yanking it again and again, but when it had no visible effect, he let the lever back into resting position and gritted his teeth.

“Uh… we kind of… are…!” he replied while jittering. The P.A. blared on again.

“WE’VE LOST SEVERAL LOWER ENGINES!” Rivet yelled through the speaker. “I CAN’T KEEP THE OTHER ENGINES RUNNING WITH THIS MUCH STRESS! WE—” he was cut off as several loud clangs sounded over his voice and a very loud groan filled the entire compound. “AW, HELL! THAT WAS THE MAIN PROPELLOR! THE CABLES HAVE COME APART! WE’RE ABOUT TO LOSE ALL UPWARD LIFT!”

Spitfire didn’t bother replying. She couldn’t even if she wanted to since she had just yanked the microphone out of its panel moments ago.

“LUCKY!” she yelled as she stepped forward and put her hooves on the frame of the broken windshield, bracing herself against the strong wind rushing through as she looked below to the canyons.

They were approaching a very wide, very deep canyon. It looked like the Nimbus would fit. She was forced to make yet another judgment call, but she had no time to mull other options so she went with it. There was a canyon below they would fit into, she wasn’t going to bet on finding another any further out.

“LAND US!” she yelled as she looked over her shoulder.

“WHERE?!” he yelled back while throwing his hooves out, but quickly grabbed the propeller again. The groans of the main propeller shaft were growing weaker and their descent was gaining speed in small increments.

“THERE’S A CANYON BELOW US, I THINK WE CAN FIT IN IT! EVEN US OUT AND DO ANYTHING TO KEEP IT THAT WAY!” she ordered.

“OH! OKAY! I’LL TRY!” he yelled “Oh lord, oh lord, oh lord, OH LORD!!!!” Lucky yelled as he turned and twisted the lever to correct any sudden shift.

Spitfire immediately slammed her hoof over the compound-wide P.A., but then realized she was holding the broken microphone in her hoof.

“Dammit! I hope everypony is ready for a rough landing!” she yelled as she lowered herself to the floor and braced for impact.

Soarin remained down on the floor, tensing his body as the Nimbus’ downward descent sped up. It wasn’t falling like a rock, it still had several smaller propellers fighting to keep it afloat, but that didn’t mean the landing wasn’t going to be one hell of a shock.

Everypony else dropped, and waited for impact.

---

The Nimbus remained level, teetering only slightly as Lucky fought to keep it even, the central, large propeller was slowing down as the Nimbus approached the canyon.

It slipped right down in between the canyon walls, but there was nothing in terms of even, soft terrain below. That mixed with the slightly increasing speed of the fall was going to make for a very sloppy, and uncomfortable set down.

Still… it went down…

Down…

Down…

And the main propeller cut off completely with the Nimbus still about thirty yards in the air. With the main source of lift gone, the Nimbus gave way to gravity.

And a loud, thunderous crash rang out, echoing throughout the canyons.

---To Be Continued---

Author's Note:

Art in this Chapter by: Foxenawolf and SOARINDASH1

*Flops down on the floor*

Geeeeeeeeeee-wiz... that was a loooooong and taxing chapter...

But man oh man... so much happened, and not just action. A few... disagreements, and physical exchanges within the ranks... Not all is well, that one can be certain of. And hopefully there weren't any unintended consequences through Dash's actions... She saved Luna, but...

Anyway there we have it, quite an intense sequence, one of the most intense sequences ive ever written.

If anyone was wondering, yes, Twister riding on Matteo's back was another reference to...

Oh and i animated that picture by Fox using Photoshop and manipulating the layers a bit. The original picture is here:

Once again, sorry it took so long to get this out, as you can see it was quite large, but there has been some stress on me lately with regards to fimfiction, but i wont go into that here, i plan to post a blog later to give some insight. Dont worry, nothing is wrong

Thanks for reading! I hope you enj-- *plop* zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Comments

[bricks of lean]

1st

[Kestrel]

7238480

Sorry man, but I read the chapter like 3 days ago.

[Jim Hoxworth]

[Darth Redbeard]

awesome battle

[NyOs29]

Something is seriously wrong with Ruin...why do I get the feeling that the third nigh-on duex ex machina entity, the one mentioned by Celestia and Discord as not supposed to exist, is him. Considering he knows way more than he should and if it is true than the Wonderbolts are better off committing suicide and be done with it already.

I understand you want to stick to your already planned-out plot line Calm Winds but like Nightshade and Kayn Ost are losing patience with the Shadowbolts failed attempts; the 'abduct Soarin and eliminate the Wonderbolts and their allies for our crystal fix' sequence of events has really gotten old.

I'd rather watch Disney's Descendants again and place this story in my read later group.

And as usual when something like this happens where is Discord?! If he so -excuse me- worried about the horn begin destroyed and Soarin being possessed by the magic trapped within him going on an uncontrollable rampage then why is he still a no show?! Cause the next thing you know he'll popped up again, spout some vague garbage while rubbing salt into everyponies' wounds (at least those of the survivors) and will then leave everyone in the lurch mocking them like he always does.

Sooner or later no one will listen to him when he actually does have something of vital importance because they've grown tired of his lies and games; he's made it perfectly clear that he doesn't actually care about anyone other than himself. Even that stallion who represented the unstable blue magic within Soarin has already made it clear that he cares enough about Soarin's wellbeing to aide him in times of great need if only to preserve his own existence.

So what's Discord's excuse? It's starting look like his unwillingness to aide them (Even if it is in his best interest to do so) is nothing more than an act of pure spite towards Celestia for choosing a mortal lover over him; I seriously doubt he even cares if the horn gets destroyed and that magic gets unleashed. But then again this is the Discord that existed before Tierk betrayed him and stole his magic; a Discord who really wanted nothing to do other than to goof off and get into trouble while reveling in every ounce of chaos he unleashes (directly or not).

I really hope he gets exposed to a Tazelworm and spare us the cost of funeral expenses. It's truly more than he deserves.

[Witching Hour]

rs123.pbsrc.com/albums/o290/morgandea/Tumblr/hyperventilating.gif~c200

Do I need to say more?

No... No I don't...

Good grief... this chapter actually made me like Twister's shenanigans for once!!! Weird!

[WildStallion]

7238616 Must admit I'm in agreement and starting to think them keeping secrets from Soarin is actually doing more harm then good and is more problematic then telling him the truth. At least with the truth he might understand while being kept in the dark would cause more damage.

And I Calm, is it possible to get pics or artwork of both flying fortresses?

[Those Kids In The Corner]

Damn. That was a wild ride. Also, I began the chapter 26 secs after publishing. I have been listening to Lone Digger - Caravan Palace the entire time.

[ShadowStrike11]

Despite being one of the longest, that was easily one of the most epic chapters of PtH. Wish I had the time to get all that fan art off my mind...

Also, I approve of your animating skills.

[Jim Hoxworth]

7238688
YUSS!! CARAVAN PALACE!

(I won't link the music video here, because it's a bit... interesting.)

[BlabideeblahMLP]

“IT’S SPAGHETTI TIME!”

Now that you mention spaghetti, anyone else have a theory that Twister's energy was injected into Squall to crate Papyrus, and the leftover part of Twsiter that likes to fuck with people became Sans?
img.ifcdn.com/images/2949536072e8715d119872ea7bb913e723c5fa0700513c30fc7094ad4712e8b2_1.jpg

Also by the way HOLY SHIT WHAT FUCK WAS THIS

[Sylvian]

Dear sweet baby Celestia, Calm!

I think I need to go lay down... and stare at the ceiling for a few hours.

[CowgirlVK]

Oh man.... Get Dash to Soarin, and how is Silver!... now how are they going to get home?

[Skye Mist]

OHFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!!!!!!!

Finished watching Billboard Music Awards and I come here to read this awesome fuckin shit!The only thing that would make this any better was if I didn't have school tomorrow and/or my projects weren't due Wednesday.

[The Pony Eclipse]

Oh snap! I finally get fimfic to let me read this and rainbow factory by wooden toaster comes on pandora. Damn i love my timing. Is there a cutie mark for that? =^_~= time to get my read on.

[Those Kids In The Corner]

7238732
Interesting is certainly the way to describe it.

[Night scribbler]

Nice chapter. Expect many images * pulls a blanket over you, lifting up your head and placing a sleeping shivering in shock fleet under your neck and a pillow to rest your head on* night.

[Soaring Soarin]

Well....talk about a mammoth of a chapter....Where the hell do i even begin?

I’m… argh…” Soaring grunted, feeling dizzy as he tried to sit up. He immediately looked past Fleetfoot to Spitfire, who unlike his other squadmates, was standing a few paces away and looked… terrified?

Hmmm interesting hope this get addressed later on.Then again if i saw my best friends eyes turn green i'd be freaked out too

“IT’S SPAGHETTI TIME!”

The greatest battle cry ever

“RAINBOW DASH!” Soarin cut him off. “I don’t give a SHIT about the others! Is Rainbow Dash safe?!” Soarin yelled out in an uncharacteristic fit of panicked rage. Fire flinched, his eyes widening, but he quickly answered.

Ouch...somepony is gonna be apologizing a lot in the near future

And the main propeller cut off completely with the Nimbus still about thirty yards in the air. With the main source of lift gone, the Nimbus gave way to gravity.
And a loud, thunderous crash rang out, echoing throughout the canyons.

So are we gonna be ship wrecked in the canyons for the next five chapters? Simliar to the mountain survival/wavechill rescue arch?

Srsly tho this chapter you know that sleepy feeling you get after a thanksgiving meal or any huge meal feels like that after reading this

[AndyDash]

Well damn, that was intense.

Luna is a badass, I like it!

Dammit Dash, seriously? Hopefully her actions won't have long term consequences, both for Soarin and her career. She is the type to do first and question later, but she's pushing her luck.

The plot thickens with Moon, hard to say if he's a force for good or evil at this stage in the story.

[Hestia]

This chapter was too epic for words. Just . . . Wow . . .

And again with the cliffhangers!

[Hooper_Canson]

Luna flippin solar flared there asses!

[NyOs29]

7238811
Screw that how are they going to reach the Crystal Empire with the Shadowbolts literally ambushing them and hounding their feathers all the time. Sooner or later something's going to give and it won't be pretty. This is a war for heavens sake! In war anything goes, there is no honor, you have to make and break rules consistently, and who in their right mind would willing follow the rules of someone who clearly desires nothing more than let others secretly fight her battles for her? Send Pegasi to drive off a rampaging dragon just cause you can't be bothered to do it yourself never mind the fact that said dragon might consider you an even bigger threat?! It's time the Wonderbolts stop acting like samurai (who I personally think of as being rather arrogant pompous showoffs) and more like Shinobi.

[Jim Hoxworth]

7238842
I swear, it's like Zootopia meets Hotline Miami or some crap like that...

[CowgirlVK]

7239044 Calm has a plan... My head cannon.... Celestia, Luna...Discord... they are all pawns for a bigger power.

[Those Kids In The Corner]

7239067
I switched my open tab from that vid to a saucy fanfic I was linked to cause it would be easier to explain.

[NyOs29]

7239072
Still the forward movement of the plot is doing a continuous repetition of itself like a scratched DVD (doesn't matter which type either).

[bricks of lean]

recruit squad foxtrot with the clutch!

[CowgirlVK]

7239120 not entirely... it is simular... but enough different to keep me entertained.

[Animak]

basically on the edge of my seat the whole time.

did you intentional avoid scotty star trek references?

[PinkDragonJr]

ok man, seriously. I'm going to have to download this chapter and break it into manageable pieces. I'll get back to you in about three days.

[Color Spark]

Totes did not scream YAS as loud af when I saw this in my feed... hehe XD

[blastguard]

Quite awsome chapter here.No wonder why it had that lenght in words.The battle was realy awsome described throught words.Especially the soarin-dash part.however the most remarkable part for me here was that unique battle cry

“IT’S SPAGHETTI TIME!”

,but you cant predict twister because he is twister now calm you have to rest realy many days to replanish that much energy

[Dusk_Writer]

WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN WITH THIS?!?!

“What could possibly go wro—”

DO YOU PEOPLE EVER LEARN?!

And it looks like we’re in the clear for n—”

*eye twitch*

They were being absolutely pounded… was this the end?

Of course not, there's like at least 1,000 more words left

Dash punched him in the face… really hard.

SHIZ JUST GOT REAL

“RAINBOW DASH! STOP! THAT’S AN ORDER!”

You really think THAT would work Fire?

I BEG TO DIFFER!” Twister suddenly yelled out as he rode atop Matteo’s back. “TIME TO SEE HOW MUCH HORSEPOWER THIS NOT-HORSE HAS!” he yelled as he scooted up towards Matteo’s head and reached for his crest.

“What the hell are you—BRAWK!” Matteo squawked as Twister grabbed his crest feathers.

“DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” Twister yelled as he pulled the feathers back and then yanked them hard forward.

…I'm not gonna even try…

And hopefully there weren't any unintended consequences through Dash's actions... She saved Luna, but...

WHAT IS IT?! YOU'RE KILLING ME!!!

*dies*

[Lucky424]

“Do you wanna fly this thing?” Lucky shot back sarcastically as he poked his nose against the microphone.
“No,” Rivet replied quickly and calmly. “Just reminding you.” The P.A. cut and Lucky grumbled to himself.

“Relax,” Spitfire reassured him as she brushed herself off. “I wasn’t expecting perfection…”

Well, he did kinda have perfect scores during his pilot training... but that's a story for another time...

He was focused forward, but he was undoubtedly still a little nervous.

...yeah, cos the last time he flew something this big, he crashed it!

“Seriously!” Blaze ranted as she stopped beside Lucky. “Are you sure you know how to fly this—MMMPH!”

...Good job he's no longer part of the Silver Wings... he'd challenge her to a fight then - her skills vs his.

“WHAT?! YOU BROKE IT ALREADY?! I TOLD LUCKY NOT TO PULL IT TOO HARD!” Rivet growled.

Well.. he is single.

head, but… I…

Damn, missed something. Missing opening quotation mark after 'head'

Blade lifted a hoof and pointed towards her.
“Kill her.”

derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/10/10/740378__oc_anthro_semi-dash-grimdark_anthro+oc_gun_eyepatch_injured+wing_artist-colon-spiceddemon_oc-colon-deadeye_blood+stains.png
Don't even think about it...

different than one our own

different than one of our own

doorway. Watching as

doorway, watching as

“Uh… we kind of… are…!” he replied while jittering. The P.A. blared on again.

“Can somepony please tell me why I didn’t take the job at the local supermarket instead?!” Lucky randomly blurted out as he kept his eyes forward, anxiously gnawing on one of his hooves as he held his head against the lever.

Internal thoughts - 'I thought I'd have seen enough of this shit with the Sky Wings... I wish I was still on that squadron, they're not as bat shit crazy...'

The globe pulsated and suddenly released a loud, ear-piercing screech. It followed up by producing an incredibly bright light and enormous, thunderous shockwaves that burst forth, crashing against both the fortress and the Shadowbolts.

“Uh… we kind of… are…!” he replied while jittering. The P.A. blared on again.

Further internal thoughts - 'Well shit, they're going to pin this on me! It's just like the Ragnorak all over again!

“OH! OKAY! I’LL TRY!” he yelled “Oh lord, oh lord, oh lord, OH LORD!!!!” Lucky yelled

“OH! OKAY! I’LL TRY!” he yelled “Oh lord, oh lord, oh lord, OH LORDOh shit, oh shit, oh shit!!!!” Lucky yelled

7238480 7238513 4/5 days for me!

[moonrose]

.... Not only did you give me a fangirl attack in the middle of study hall, but. You. Ended. The. Chapter. IN. A. FU*KING. CLIFFHANGER?!?!?!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
thegalaxialword.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/crying-screaming-sobbing-guy-gif-first-world-problems.gif

WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEEEE

[Magical Shield]

Twister suddenly popped up from behind Matteo, leaping over his head, his flight cap and scarf were gone, replaced by a big, fake, curly moustache and holding a big spaghetti pan in his hooves.
“IT’S SPAGHETTI TIME!” Twister yelled

YAY! i think that bit along with this bit;

“LESS TALK, MORE NONESENSE!” Twister yelled

Werw officially my favourite bits of the whole chapter

[Gargon94]

THIS! WAS! AWESOME! Also, oh my god Twister! What was that!?! Your killing me by laughing too hard! This chapter, just...so epic...

[H3lios]

Ugh, poor Dash, now she has to get yelled at for doing her job. Unless 'protect the leader of your nation with your life' stopped being a priority for military organizations a few chapters ago

On another note, I'm a bit concerned about Twister. Is he just a comic relief? Because your starting to use his cartoonish powers to solve actual plot problems and not just for jokes, when that happens, we must question whether his abilities are just exaggerated humor for the audience's benefit or if they are actually happening from the point of view of the characters. If it's the later then he's clearly not a mortal and I can only hope that exactly what he is is addressed at some point.

[jnzsblzs]

Overall: good chapter. Probably my favorite action chapter in the entire story. It was finally not all about hoof to magic combat and the script did not looked like this (Okay Luna did something similar but she is a freaking god or something so she is allowed to break some rules every once in a while.)

Most of my other problems has been enumerated by NyOs29. One of the downside of having four parts in this fic that people get bored of the supposedly exciting chapter since they know nothing of real importance can happen until the fourth part. Like the last fight scene in SW Episode III That was the most beautifully choreographed sword scene in the history of the franchise (I have not had a chance to see the new one though) yet it was somewhat boring because we knew that every fighter gonna get out of it alive. And a tension flew right out of the window. But you know Calm that I don't read PtH for the action so this actually has fairly little importance for me. Even more of an admirable feat that despite this you actually made me excited with this medium speed flying-fortress chase scene. Really nicely done. Your choice of putting most of the scene of the very confined space of the control room where the heroes had no peripheral vision whatsoever (apart from what Blaze saw with the periscope) and the entire contraption life depended on a group of ponies who were completely isolated from the main heroes and were only contacted trough the PA system every once in a while really gave a nice near claustrophobic feeling to the chapter. I am not sure if it was 100% intentional but a really nice touch anyway.

Another nice thing in this chapter was Rainbow's character. She really shined as the element of harmony. I myself always believed that the elements of harmony are not only what they are because they display their respective element but because they invoke it from others. So when the entire Foxtrot squad leaped into the sky behind Rainbow without any hesitation I was snapping my fingers with satisfaction. This is the Rainbow I love. Doing what she thinks is right without ever thinking about the consequences.
Speaking of which: I would have loved if Rainbow had to face some consequences for her action. And I am not thinking about disciplinary actions. No I wanted to see real, irrevocable consequences. I wanted to see a dead wonderbolt. Preferably a squadmate, but even a nameless member of squad 19 would have been fine. What is a life of a single unimportant wonderbolt to that of a princess? Objectively not much. It would have been trade well worth for any strategist. However there is much more to this conflict than pure rational logic and strategy and I would have loved to see how Rainbow hoofles that she actually caused the death of one of her wingmates.

Discord's absence might have been a problem for some, and if we could believe to what is flowing through that filthy sewer that he has the oddity to call mouth, it would surely be a problem, however I don't think we can trust anything he says. And thus his presence on the battlefield (or lack thereof) can be justified. We shall see what you want to do with him and until then I will give you the benefit of doubt.

[Calm Wind]

7238600

thanks!

[Calm Wind]

7238616

We literally just came off of a 15ish chapter sequence where the Wonderbolts turned the tables on the Shdowbolts, beat the tar out of them, rescued a captive, and stole one of their toys.

[Calm Wind]

7238637

Funny i had Twister heaving into a bag during the chapter too!

[Calm Wind]

7238688

glad you enjoyed it!

7238711

Thanks! I was glad i was able to make that little animation work, Foxena uses so many layers in her images that i was able to manipulate it all freely

7238747

DEEZ NUTZ

7238796

*Spaghetti falling out of my pockets*

[Calm Wind]

7238798

static4.fjcdn.com/comments/3603472+_22f06ffe5f90a860d86af94daaf20475.jpg

[Calm Wind]

7238811

Oh there will be more to come

[Calm Wind]

7238826

SO MUCH INSANITY! (yay school! )

7238884

So drained..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Calm Wind]

7238899

Seeing as how they had to rebuild half the place the last time they crashed, it would depend on how much damage was caused. (Spoiler: this part is over by chapter 140, so... xD)

Spitfire had the conversation with Luna about the horn, thats why she looked terrified, hoping it wouldn't break.

and yes, twister has the best battle cries xD

[BlabideeblahMLP]

7240782

[Night scribbler]

7240795

* makes quiet cooing noises as you sleep on fleet*

[Calm Wind]

7238928

Indeed, lots of question here, Moon for sure, but i wonder what else?

7238951

glad you enjoyed it! You should probably just expect cliffies now

7238956

TAIYO-KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

7239144

WITH THE EPIC CATCH!