Today at the Steam Sale
Chandler shivered, clutching his bejeweled robe tightly around his figure. He stood close to his steel steamship's bow, staring due west. The fumes and smokestacks of Red Barge rose into full, foul clarity. His nose wrinkled at the pungent odor of the polluted air.
With steady hooves, Longaze trotted across the deck and came to a stop beside him. The blonde bodyguard stared at his shivering figure, then spoke: “Would you like to go below deck and sit by the furnace, sir?”
“I'm not cold,” Chandler grumbled. “Besides... I didn't come all this way to hide my face now.”
Longaze took a deep breath, staring west at the hazy lengths of the rusted struts. “You know...” She cleared her throat. “It's not too late to turn back, sir.”
“No...”
“With extra resources dedicated towards company security, I can more properly assess any of Skagra's threats and prevent another incident like what happened in the harb—”
“No no no!” Chandler hissed, stomping a hoof. “For the thousandth time no! I have to do this!”
“With all due respect, sir, you don't owe Skagra anything.”
“Oh, I owe him something alright,” Chandler muttered. “I owe him several explosive things... all launched at his pathetic half-heads.” His nostrils flared. The steamship's engines roared beneath him as the vessel approached the eastern struts of Red Barge. “Once the Rainbow Rogue is mine, I'll have what I need to ascend to the top of Rohbredden. When the time is ready, I'll come back. It might take years... even decades. But I'll return to these seas of muck... and when I do, it will be with the merciless wrath of a million rampaging windigoes.” He sneered through his teeth, “I'll make sure Skagra is still alive to feel every organ being ripped out of him. Hrmmmff... let's see him laugh that up, the smug bastard.”
“And the first step to such revenge...” Longaze raised an eyebrow. “...is to suck up to the miscreant?”
“Longaze, I know you're paid to protect me... but don't forget that such a task starts with respect.” He turned towards her with a limp smile. “Above all things, I'm a politician.” He adjusted his cloak of jades. “Of course it all starts with sucking up.” His ears folded. “And when it comes time to spit it all back out, it'll be right into Skagra's gaping wounds.”
“Hmmm...” Longaze looked at the incoming struts in the filthy water. “Perhaps I should have looked into politics instead.”
“Stick to throwing yourself at dredge coal explosions, my dear,” Chandler muttered. “You'll live longer... or at least smell less like a corpse.” He coughed, then waved a hoof in the air. “Let's announce our presence, shall we?”
Longaze turned and hollered at the sparse crew positioned across the top deck. “Sound off the horn!”
A pair of cleanly uniformed stallions nodded. They each grabbed a lever situated along a central mast and tugged. Soon, a massive foghorn was blaring overhead...
...casting loud salvos of bass noise across the rippling muck and the platforms floating within it.
Skagra turned from where stood talking with a group of stallions next to a cart full of dredge dust.
“Ah! My date's here! And right as the sun kisses the seagull droppings just right.” Skagra turned around four hundred degrees, brushed his bangs back, then cocked his head to the side. “How do I look? Hmmm?” He blinked, then blurted: “Like a sack of walrus testicles? Good.” He shuffled east, motioning to a pair of dredgers to follow. “I wanna give Chandler something to weep over at night.” He waved again. “Bring your tasers, boys. Make them extra tasery so he'll have something bright to squint at. Bonus nibbles if you make him go cross-eyed. Nmiaow...”
The other stallions with the cart grunted, pushing the supply of dredge dust southwest and towards the brig.
“Ah hah!” Rarity spun from where she and Pinkie Pie stood beside a rusted wall deep inside Rainbow's former cell. “Rainbow Dash! Come here as soon as you can! You absolutely must take a look at this!”
“Careful... careful...” Twilight Sparkle murmured, floating close to Rainbow Dash. She gestured with her hooves, delicately directing the motions which Rainbow used to fasten the splint to Keris' broken talon. “You don't want to apply too much pressure. Remember, this is a temporary solution until he can get proper medical aid.”
“I'm keeping focused on him,” Fluttershy said, smiling from the other side of the shuddering griffon. “If he starts to feel pain, I'll know.”
“Mrmmfff...” Rainbow sweated, struggling to tie together a pair of metal rods situated around Keris' forelimb. “I think he has the ability to tell me when or if I'm hurting him.”
“I would most certainly hope so,” Keris stammered, hawkeyes darting left and right. “Uhm...”
“Don't worry,” Rainbow muttered. “We're concentrating on what I'm doing.”
“I've gathered half of that, at least.”
“Dashie!” Pinkie called from the cell. “Did you hear Rarara or didn't you?” She pointed at the wall. “We've got something to show you! Come see!”
“A little busy right now, Pinkie,” Rainbow muttered, biting through another length of gauze.
“Yeesh!” Pinkie frowned. “Just how long does it take to tie a tourniquet to a cat-chicken?”
“It's a splint, not a tourniquet, Pinkie.”
“Huh?” Blue eyes blinked. “Then how come you guys called it a tourniquet earlier?”
“I don't even remotely remember saying that.”
“You totally did!” Pinkie Pie pouted. “How 'bout we get Dashie to Mareguyver a time machine out of the rest of the metal bars here so we can go back and show you—”
“Focus, girls,” Rainbow grunted. “I know you've been inside the Vanilla Zone for forever and a day, but c'mon.”
“Just let her do her work,” Fluttershy said. “After all, a broken talon is no laughing matter. It takes a great deal of care and attention to make sure that his limb is even remotely stabilized. Even if it takes half-an-hour, we must be attentive or else—”
“There.” Rainbow Dash brushed her hooves off. “Done.”
“...” Fluttershy blinked. “Oh.”
Rainbow grasped Keris' other talon. “Here... uh... try to stand.”
“So long as you try not to rip me asunder in a violent, beastly rage,” Keris wheezed.
“Erm... yeah...” Rainbow grimaced, helping the wincing griffon onto his three good limbs. “About that. I just wanna say—”
“Dassssssshiiiiieee!”
“Friggin' what?!” Rainbow Dash turned to glare. With a roll of her eyes, she stomped across the rubble-strewn brig. “Give me a just a second, Limptenant. My newly reunited ghost alarms are summoning me.”
“I'm not sure we even have a second, Miss Dash!” Keris sputtered in a raspy voice. He hobbled on three limbs. “Skagra's stallions will be here at any moment with a deadly compound. As soon as they hear how quiet it's become down here, they'll know the fight's over, and they'll suffocate us with the infernal stuff!”
“You hear that?” Rainbow Dash said, pointing back at the griffon as she approached Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “It's half past Death-Thirty, and we're expecting company. Pleeeeease tell me you gals found something good.”
“Only the finest find, darling!” Rarity smiled proudly, then pointed at a spot along the wall, approximately four hoof-lengths away from the corner. “There's a narrow pipe full of condensed steam just beyond the rusted surface here. It's old and in sore need of maintenance.”
“This isn't quite the time to go wrenching around, Rares.”
“Of course not. It's not your style.” Rarity pointed. “But if you strike this wall hard enough, I suspect you'll knock the pipe loose, which will rupture the rest of the steam array that's squeezed between the bulkheads.”
“Uhhmm...” Rainbow Dash blinked. “Don't we wanna avoid that?” she asked. “Seems like leaking steam around this place is bad juju.”
“Heehee...!” Pinkie giggle-snorted. “She said 'juju.'”
“Rainbow... Dash...” A tiny, hoarse voice echoed from the corner.
Rainbow turned around.
Swab limped into the center of the cell. He rubbed his throat, squinting up at the mare. “Are your friends talking about... mmfff... kicking some steam pipes loose?”
“Yeah.” Rainbow arched an eyebrow. “Is that doable, kid?”
“This place hasn't been looked at in ages,” Swab said. He swallowed a sore lump down his throat and pointed. “Long before this was a prison, it was just a chamber to house overflowing dredgers and their families. Or so I've been told.” He gulped yet again. “Chalk it up to lazy engineering... but a bunch of excess steam has gathered around here. But it shouldn't be too hot.”
“And what if we cause the array to rupture?” Rainbow asked. She looked in Rarity's direction, then back at the orphan. “Will it—like—scald us until we're super dead?”
Swab weakly shook his head. “Shouldn't. I'm pretty sure of it.”
“Rainbow Dash...” Twilight floated over towards the pegasus. “A bunch of upwards flowing steam might be a good thing right now.” She pointed straight up.
Rainbow's chin tilted. Her pupils shrank as she spotted the shadow of a large wagon being rolled to a stop outside, followed by excited dredgers' voices.
“Is that what I think it is?” a dredger asked.
“Yup...” Another patted the back of the cart as his companions began unloading the circular containers. “Scourge of the shoreline processing plants.”
“Hrmmff... damn continentals always find soft ways to die.”
“Heh...” Nixkit paced around the cart. “Anypony hear anymore scuffling from below?”
A dredger tilted his ear towards the bolted doorway, then shook his head. “Nothing, sir.”
“That griffin has gotta be deader than dead.”
“What'll it be, Nix?” another thug asked. “Do we put her to sleep or what?”
Nostrils flaring, Nixkit looked east in time to see a spotless ship rolling into port. “Chandler's already here. It's now or never.” He swung a hoof at the stallions. “Pour it in, boys.”
The thugs nodded, rolling the grimy cylinders towards the far corners of the grated door.
“If nothing else, the fat cat will be thankful we delivered the product in its sleep.” He motioned towards another stallion. “Go to the Skag Hole and grab the freak's necklace.” He frowned at a pair of dredgers. “And be careful with that shit! Cover your muzzles when you pour. Pirates have sucked us dry of enough healthy blood on this hunk of junk...”
“Right here?” Rainbow asked, pointing at a patch of rusted wall.
Rarity nodded. “Yes, Rainbow.”
“She's right.” Twilight phased her head out of the wall. “Start hitting!” She ducked back in with a flash of lavender.
“Okay...” Rainbow gnashed her teeth and—“Rrrrnnngh!” Th-Thap! She bucked the wall. “Grrrff!” Thud! And again. “Grrkkk! Wh-Whack!
“Any change, Twilight?” Fluttershy exclaimed.
The unicorn poked through the wall, shaking her head. “Not that I can see!”
“It's working!” Rarity exclaimed. “Trust me! I feel it! Just keep giving it the college try, Rainbow!”
“Rrrrrgh!” Rainbow huffed and puffed, bucking and striking at the wall. “Mrmmfffngh... come on!” Whap! Thap! Whack!
The last impact sent a savage fissure forming between the wall and the corner.
Twilight's head shoved out again. “Something's giving!”
“Yeah...” Rainbow panted. “But no steam leak.”
“You have to hit it harder, Rainbow,” Rarity said. “It'll give way! Believe me!”
Rainbow grimaced, rubbing her aching lower fetlock. “I-I'm not sure how much harder I can hit. Mrrmmfff... Celestia.”
Just then, a metal bar scraped across the floor.
“... ... ...?” Rainbow turned, blinking. “Birdboy...?”
“Hmmm... how I do tire of avian jabs.” Keris nevertheless used the loose bar as a cane, hobbling over to the mare's side. “I think I'm starting to see what you, Swab, and... ahem... the others are on about.”
“You do?”
“Well, perhaps not, but the inevitability of certain doom preparing to rain down from above is ample motivation.” Squinting one hawkeye, he threaded the tip of the bar through the fresh crack in the wall. “I do believe some localized pressure is in order.”
“Dude, you're... like... totally broken right now,” Rainbow said.
“There's a saying in Rohbredden,” the Lieutenant coolly spoke. “I trust it's universal, even beyond the blight.” He cleared his throat, smirking crookedly at her from beneath his beak. “'It takes one to know one.'”
“... ... ...” Rainbow Dash smirked. “Keep your pole lodged in tight, guy.”
“Aye.” Keris wrapped two of his limbs around the bar.
Rainbow exhaled, turning towards the wall. “There's something I'd never thought I'd say out loud.” She grunted and kicked. “Grnnngh!” Whack! “Mrmmmff!” Thwack!
“Hurry...” Swab wheezed, eyes tracing the rolling shadows above. “I hear barrels rattling!”
Pinkie phased down from above, wide-eyed. “The scamp isn't kidding! Steamy-steamy time, girls!”
“Almost...” Rainbow grunted, hissed. “Almost...”
“Here...” Keris sweated, twisting and turning the bar, causing the crack in the wall to crumble further. “Just aim a bit higher...”
“Grnnngh!” Rainbow kicked and kicked. Whack! Th-Thwack! She panted, sweating with each impact. “Y'know... it deserves... mrmmff... being said...” She gulped, kicking again. “Sorry for totally turning demon-dragonequus on you and nearly stomping you into griffon goo.”
“Hey...” Keris exhaled through a limp grin. “...those who go searching for monsters tend to find them.”
“Yeah... and?” Rainbow hissed, kicking once more. “Did you?”
“Let's discuss that once we're dead.”
“Deal.” CRACKKK! Rainbow's last kick caused a fountain of gray steam to billow out of the wall. “Hah! No deal!”
Twilight burst from the wall. “You struck gold!”
“It's working!” Swab wheezed. “The steam's spilling out!”
“Yeah, but not fast enough.” Rainbow wiped her brow, then looked over her shoulder. “Rares?”
“It still needs to rupture into the array,” Rarity said. She pointed. “See if you can tear it to the left.”
“On it!” Rainbow gently shoved Keris aside. He and Swab watched as Rainbow took control of the bar, then pulled it with all her might. “Grnnnn-nnnnnnnnnnggaaaaugh!”
SNAP!
HISSSSSSSSSSSSS!
An explosive cloud of mist billowed out of the wall, instantly filling the brig from wall to wall.
“Happy New Year—!!!” Pinkie yodeled into the wave of steam.
“And a one... and a two.. and a...”
“Dump it!” Nixkit hollered.
The thugs tipped over the first of several barrels of volatile dredge dust...
...right as an enormous jet of steam came rocketing up through the grate.
“Gah!”
“Whoah!”
“Holy shit—!”
“Back—Back!” Nixkit hollered, then held his breath—for dredge dust was being blown straight back at them.
The Red Bargers galloped in opposite directions, several dropping their shark prods altogether. Before the first opened cylinder could tip over, Nixkit rushed in and pulled it up-right. He threw a lid on, jumped away, then exhaled in a heavy wheeze. He and the others stood their distance, nervously covering their muzzles as they watched the veritable geyser erupting in front of him.
“Verlaxion's sleet...”
“That was close...”
“What in the mucking hell is going on down there?”
“That dayum bitch blew a steam pipe array!”
“Yeah! No shit! But how?!”
“Cuz she's the same violent freak that Monket pulled out of the sea! That's how! Goddess-dayum, dude! Didn't you see how she was kicking the griffon's beak in just minutes ago?”
“Uhm...” One thug gulped. “Boss?” He glanced at Nixkit while pointing at the billowing steam. “I... uh... I think we have a problem.”
Nixkit clenched his teeth, sweating profusely. The fog horn sounded again from a distance. He glanced across the struts with beaded eyes, spotting Chandler's steamship as it moored into place. “Yeah...” He shuddered, staring at the mists once again. “...we do indeed...”
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Skagra didn't notice that the pendant's gone. How careless.
IC that IC saw the latest episode.
Because laughing at a mistake is more fun than fixing it.
Well, now they are working together quite well, hope this lasts beyond the break out.
It still leaves to be seen how they're going to actually get out of the brig, but I'm sure with the return of the ghostbusters, they'll find someway to break free and fly away from there before the whole place descends on them. I mean, it hasn't been mentioned yet, but I'm pretty sure Rainbow's wings are fully healed by now, and Keris' wings aren't in any problem whatsoever. And Swab is light enough that Rainbow could carry him out of there if she wanted...
...but are we still gonna get to see Red Barge go down in flames? Because I'm still waiting on that. Probably when Seraphimus gets there... which knowing the laws of Dramatic Timing, should be any minute now.
Hah. Elegant.
Well, it seems there's not gonna be any real chance to rest. We've got Seraphimus and the Talon inbound as well, and they shouldn't be far off, unless my chronology is askew. But hot damn is it nice to see some teamwork. Abrupt shifts aside, the compounding of ghostly powers is resulting in a rather severe case of power creep and it is glorious. Particularly in light of how quickly they took control of the situation: Rainbow's finally being proactive again.
Unf. I'm excited.
2 days too early Skirts
flicks back a chapter... Oh, you cad, changing it like that!
Good to see Keris is at least starting to trust Rainbow, now that he's seen how she becomes Dashcord.
Nice bits of Team work going on here, and with Chandler finally here I think we can start getting the Red Barge saga to a close.
We're about to see something get absolutely and completely #rekt
https://youtu.be/ASj81daun5Q
IT WAS ON PURPOSE.
Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy
Feels good to have the team back together
3 updates in 2 days? You spoil us IC.
So...this should be a fun bit of chaos.
Fortunately, chaos is Dash's schtick.
-In the end isolation, hunted by a nation. Utaan.
Dat title.
I sense an impending conflict of interests. Rainbow (specifically her friends) is going to want to leave peacefully and fly east. Keris (especially if the Talon shows up) will want to dismantle Red Barge and ruin Chandler. I expect they will stay together for the near future, so I'm curious which path they will take.
Red Barge-class sauna. Useful against catching dredge dust sickness
Well, Nixie was following the Fireworks code. Put the lid back on so the thing doesnt go boom.
Means airborne offences now have something most unpleasant to play with once they get out.
Dredge dust floating in air, is called poor mans nuke for a Very good reason.
Given Chandlers here and the Talons inbound, Id say its almost time for that classic TV show.
It Aint Half Hot Mum.
We,re the Boys to Entertain You.
Wait... if they can hear the dredgers, wouldn't the dredgers be able to tell that something's up by the fact that there isn't screeching coming from inside?
That's what she said!
Someone saw the new episode
6660673
What happened to Digiff and Whony & Co? I'm pretty sure Nixitt & Crew should have come across them as they brought the dust.
Not much to comment in this one, other than the title.
That's not a Steam sale, that's a steam sale.
That must have been some serious steam power, to blow up an entire barrel worth of dust. I hope the guys had something to cling to down there.
Oh IC so much win in the chapter.
Hah! Right back in their dumb faces.
Time to escape this steel ocean
img0.derpicdn.net/img/2013/6/25/356804/thumb.png
6660713
Or right after Keris crosses the horizon with Dash and/or Swab. I'm not sure who she's leaving with, but I'm pretty sure Dash is leaving with someone, or somebodies.
6660713 As if Keris would leave without all the foals. Dash is gonna split with Swift Song and Croche while Keris distracts the rest of the talon with rescuing the rest of the foals.
Just a random thought: if dredge coal gets its bite from chaos metal, and hence Dash can neutralize it with her pendant, then she can cure Seraphimus' family—when Verlaxion cannot.
will it be about space engineers? oh wait, that was yesterday, nevermind
skagra is the evil twin brother of jan !
this joke will only be remembered in the comments
6660586
To be fair, yours sounds more impressive.
And here begins the long-anticipated Keris-Swab-Rainbow teamup!!!
6661040
Surely more than enough time had passed for him to be incapacitated and dragged down into the hold by this point? Unless the scene was still playing out in a comical fashion on a separate walkway behind Nixkit and the dredgers.
6661628
A grown stallion overwhelmed by malnourished colts? Yeah, I can see that happen.
I, too, am surprised Skagra didn't notice the pendant went missing. Oh well. Gift horses, and all that. I guess he's just so cocky that he got careless.
Also, I'm sooo excited to see how this whole situation plays out.
6661649
Already down thanks to a well-place kick even before the kids started battering him with blunt weapons. With his punches apparently doing little to stop a healthy number of individually weak-ass kids with nothing to lose from keeping him down when Swab left the scene.
Not to suggest that he's unconscious or anything, they should have been capable of overwhelming him long enough to bind his legs together or gag him. If anything, dragging his hide into their quarters would be more taxing.
6660989 The proper term is thermobaric warhead, and those are not anywhere close to even small nuclear devices. Though given the fuel is a non-Einsteinian substance that may produce greater energy than real world substance equivalents (dredge coal, which may or may not be chaos metal infused coal) speculating on the size of the boom until it happens is a moot point. But it will definitely get the Talon's attention.
6661347 Verlax can''t, or won't?
Back and all caught up from playing Fallout 4, this is just the chapter I was waiting for. As things start turning around, I'm excited to see what happens next!
Hopefully this means good things for when they've escaped. At the very least, it would be great if Keris was not going to try to bag Rainbow after this.
6662375 That's an interesting question, of course, but would it really matter to Seraphimus?
6661724
Desperation fuels unimaginable feats.
6660726
IC be one sneaky lemur... Color me impressed!
6661844
Hang on.
Aren't thermobaric warheads the ones that , if they fail to kill you with fire, they asphyxiate you?
Heat and pressure, right?
I saw the chapter title in my notifications, and I was like, wait, what?
He's one classy motherfucker.
6666794 The classiest
I suppose you could say that this chapter was really
steamy
Red barge brig: sponsored by Gaben.
6704366 oh you.
I think now is a good time to leave, and as fast as possible.
Also A tiny horse voice.
6909860
