From the upper deck of the Noble Jury, Eagle peered over the railing's edge. His expert eyes narrowed—then promptly widened upon seeing the spiraling airship up above where Rainbow Dash was currently stranded. “Oh no...”
Wincing, he spun and galloped to the cockpit. Curious, Imre and Tweak followed him.
Bursting through the open doorframe, Eagle leaned against the back of Floydien's seat and exclaimed, “Rainbow's in trouble! She's stranded up there!”
Clark spun to face her. “Stranded?”
“You're certain of this?” Tweak asked.
“Eagle Eye's sight is not to be questioned,” Pilate remarked. He tilted his head in the stallion's direction. “Where was she, exactly?”
“A lone skiff, elevated above the rest at about ten o'clock high!” Eagle Eye pointed out the cockpit window. “If you bring the ship hard to port, you'll see it too!”
“Nancy Jane isn't about to exposed herself to the stabby stabby!” Floydien grunted. “Our cover is flimsy enough as it is! An exit from this mess, Floydien must help Nancy Jane find!”
“Mr. Pilate, you're in contact with the adventurer, yes?”
Pilate spoke into his soundstone. “Rainbow Dash, this is Pilate. Are you okay? Eagle Eye says you're stranded.” Silence. His striped muzzle contorted in concern. “Rainbow Dash, please respond! You're in the enemy's open line of fire!”
The airwaves were still silent.
“This is not good,” Eagle Eye murmured, fidgeting. “If she goes down...”
“Maybe she's having another one of her dizzy spells,” Imre droned.
Pilate's ears twitched at that. “You know about that?”
“You're not the only stranger she's forced to open up, you know.”
“Can't we fly towards her and save her?!” Eagle Eye asked.
“Floydien's got a point,” Clark said with a nervous twitch. “Right now, we have the other ships masking us. If we expose ourselves to save her, we may ruin our chance to fly off unnoticed.”
“Well, screw that plan!” Eagle Eye stomped his hooves. “Rainbow Dash needs our help!”
“Nopony's suggesting we abandon the lady. So simmer down.” Tweak trotted in and spoke. “Could we get one of the Nightshade ships to save her?”
“They're in even less of a condition to expose themselves than the Noble Jury,” Pilate said. “Rainbow Dash was heading towards the three battlecruisers to give us a distraction. Now, we're all sitting ducks.”
“And once they blow up the rest of this 'fleet' around us...” Tweak spoke aloud.
“Floydien needs a decision soon!” The elk grunted as flak exploded not that far from the hull. “Nancy Jane's sky stone isn't made of steel, boomers...”
“Roarke...” Imre said.
Clark glanced over. “I beg your pardon?”
“Roarke. Let's call Roarke in.”
“That'll blow our cover completely!” Tweak grunted. “Besides, it's suicide! She's better off flying to meet us in a rendezvous elsewhere!”
“Imre, we appreciate the thought,” Pilate said. “But your good friend has put herself in danger with Blue Nova's defenses enough as it is—”
Imre practically shoved her horn in the zebra's face. “In Roarke's case, there is no such thing as suicide! I'm telling you, if there's a pony in our party who's qualified to do a tough task, it's her! She will gladly save Rainbow's life, and all our necks in the process!”
The cockpit was silent.
Pilate shuddered, smiling bashfully. “Who am I to question such wisdom and intuition—?”
“Ungh! Just give me the damn stone!” Imre grabbed the communicator and spoke into its glowing surface. “Roarke. Roarke, this is Imre. Answer me.”
Far to the west, beyond the eastern walls of the city, beyond the billowing smokestacks of the industrial district, beyond the gardens and courtyards of downtown Blue Nova, Roarke's manaship spun and twirled between skyscrapers. Many of the gliders that were chasing her had put a great deal of distance between them, perhaps out of caution or maybe out of fear.
“Yup! I think they've pissed themselves!” Josho shouted into the winds rushing through the open window. “Can we call it a victory now?!”
“The forces of Ledo do not give up easily,” Crimson muttered, hanging off the metal grips of the gun turret. “They'll regroup and attempt to overwhelm us with vast numbers.”
“Damn! And here I thought there'd be a surplus of drinks since I ditched their lame-ass ranks!”
Crimson glared at him. “Why haven't I bucked you out of the ship yet?”
“You're welcome to try, muscle mass.”
“That's it!” Roarke shouted from the cockpit. “The next time I hear so much as a growl from you two breeders, I'm slitting your bellies and tying you together by your entrails—”
”Snkkt—Cute stuff, Roarke,” Imre's voice droned through the glowing console. ”But we have something of a situation here.”
“And I don't?” Roarke grunted as she veered the ship around, scaling the body of a skyscraper. “I'm running out of fuel and energy in the manaconduits. Our gun turret is nearly dry and there're still a crap ton of angry fighters on our tail. Have I mentioned that my priceless ship is shot to hell and spitting smoke?!”
”Roarke...”
“Aren't we supposed to be meeting somewhere?! I need to tell Rainbow Dash face to face that she owes me a perfectly good manaship—”
”She's collapsed, Roarke.”
Roarke's eye lenses shrank within their frames.
”She's lying dormant on a runaway hovercraft and is just a few seconds away from being blown to ashes by huge battlecruisers. We needed her for a distraction to get out of here, but she hasn't responded. Everything is going to go to crap as soon as she bites the dust.
Roarke's jaw clenched tightly and she began shaking.
”Roarke, please. Don't make me beg you, girl. We need—”
With a hiss of red steam, the metal mare's helmet snapped shut. Her projected voice grunted, “We're going in!” She jerked at the controls.
Josho twirled around. “We're going where—Gaaah!” His body flailed as the entire ship swung violently east. If it weren't for Crimson's outstretched hoof catching him, the obese unicorn would have fallen out the open door. Both stallions clung to the bulkheads of the cabin and watched as Roarke throttled the ship east at a speed so monumental that it caused vaporous bubbles of air to burst one after another in a straight line.
“I barely heard any of that!” Crimson shouted, squinting into the wind and g-forces. “What's wrong?! What's happened to Rainbow Dash?!”
“Nothing...” Roarke rocketed the ship past the final line of skyscrapers. “At least not on my watch.” Past the east wall of Blue Nova, a dense swarm of hovercraft could be seen clustered around three humongous warships. The Ledomaritan forces fired blindly into the madness, whittling the crowd away, one smoldering hull at a time. “Looks like they're trying to overwhelm them.”
“How'd they expect to get away?!” Josho grunted, struggling to see through the cockpit windows. “They'll kill themselves!”
“Not without effective misdirection,” Crimson said. “I'm guessing that's what Rainbow had in mind.”
“Looks like we're the distraction now, boys,” Roarke muttered. Her helmet tilted left and right. “If only we can find her first.”
Josho pointed. “Ask one of them morons where she's at!”
“Imre!” Roarke spoke into the console. “Which airship is Rainbow Dash lying on—” A chunk of the manaship's hull exploded. “Gaaah!”
“Jeez!” Josho reeled.
Crimson fell down to the floor. As flames and smoke spat out of a console above him, three dark shapes approached from the south. He looked straight out the door, his eyes wide. “Blessed Spark...”
“What is it?!” Josho grunted as another manablast ricocheted off the beat-up manaship. “Ungh... The managaliders?!”
“Worse...” Crimson peered his head towards the cockpit as the three shapes grew closer. “Roarke! I think your sisters are here!”
Roarke flashed a look through the starboard side of the cockpit window. “Oh, for Goddess' sake...”
Hundreds of meters south, speeding towards the air battle with screaming precision, three Searonese manaships zoomed towards one vessel out of the dozens upon dozens still left in the air. Inside the centermost ship, leaning forward across the cockpit with both hooves on the throttle, Terra grinned from ear to meaty ear.
“Roarke Most Rare...” Terra licked her dry muzzle and hissed, “That's what they'll call you for centuries, because that's how I'm going to serve your flesh in the halls of my sisters...”
The massive mare tilted her head back and shouted to the other bounty hunters at their stations.
“Arm the weapons! Lock on Roarke's ship! Destroy everything else around her! The skies belong to us!”
“Yes, Bloodiest Spear!”
“As you command it!”
“Blood for Searo...” Terra grunted as the ship accelerated to the breaking point.
All three vessels pierced into the air battle like metal comets, serenaded by the war cries of the violent souls within, lusting for carnage.
“Blood for Searo!”
God... DAMMIT, TERRA!
SHhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Terra...
Today's a run day. GO run two miles at your best pace, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Fucking Terra. Inb4 Rainbow uses the ledomartin battlecruisers to destroy the other Searonese.
How many times do i have to say that I abondened my lands... Because my people are lame...
For god's sake Terra, your arc is already over, just deal with it!
It's been an honour Roarke.
Quick, Roarke, go be around the Ledomartian battlecruisers!
Inb4 they all die next chapter because there are more Ledomaritan battlecruisers in the sky than there are clouds.
Two bits has Shell and Terra locked in a death battle while Rainbow Dash and company leave Ledomaritan space forever.
Unfortunately, I don't think Roarke is going to make it.
The party to leave will be Kera, Belle, Rainbow, Pilate, Imre, Eagle and Crimson.
That is all.
Whelp... Everyone is trying to kill everyone else, soooooo... We're done here
3063310 Nah. I reckon Roarke is gonna kick Terra's ass again and take her ship to save Dash.
Annnnnnnd now everyone's here. Awesome. Because that's what this situation needed: another complication.
I have a bad feeling one of the good guys is going to die very soon. Don't know who or how or by whose hooves, but I can sense it.
Didn't a 3 or 4 way battle happen in the last installment? Nice to see that these kind of battle royales is like a tradition at the end of these things.
Team Spark (10 atm) vs. Team Ledo (2 named vs. large number of reinforcements) vs. Team Nova (1 or 2 name vs. dwindling reinforcements) vs. Team Searo (3 atm)
Battle Start!
These air battles...I can't handle them.
so i see all these people with their names in the story and im like wow i wish that was me but because i know its not gonna happen also cant wait to see what happens next :D the suspense is killing me
Finally caught up with the Austreoh series
Just in time for yet another party to join the fight as if things weren't complicated enough.
3064014 I know completely how you feel.
3064223 join the Innavedr club! We have light refreshments and small snacks during intermission, and large and unrivaled scenes of Dash drinking cider and kicking butt.
.. and Dash is all out of cider.
I just have the image of Roarke plunging into the midst of battlecruiser fire and Terra following her in blindly.
They'll all die, of course, but at least we have been able to see the badassery of these characters before they all go out screaming their rage.
"IF" all goes well, roarke will have plenty of spare parts for her ship now. if
That pun... was Terra-ble.
Oh goddammit Terra! 9_9 Oh well, you're too stupid to live so I expect you dead soon enough. Unlike Shell who is too smart to die.
If Roarke dies here and now the way so many of you anticipate, I think I will be rather put out.
I know what to expect from Austraeoh and IC/SS&E in general, of course. If his previous work is any indicator, then we all know that in the end Rainbow Dash will probably collapse just outside the gates of the Midnight Armory and the credits will roll. And it seems plain Miss Most Rare has fallen hard for our pegasus heroine, which makes her a hundred percent more likely to eat dirt instead. But can you fault me for really liking Roarke and wanting her to actually win?
....
A good swoop is hard to time.
This was a good swoop.
Still a **** move though.
3064573
I thought it was pretty well-done
3064642 I was about to reply to this comment with a justification, until I realized the pun you made.
Blood for Searo? Searo's blood, either way. No matter who loses - I win.
3062854 Hang on a second the book is the Innavedr? I thought it was just one rune that happened to be on the cover where Kera found it! Well that changes everything. The powers of the book, the connection to Belle and Rainbow and the way it guides and empowers Belle would all make sense when it is the completion of the wind.
3063396 Tell that to Shell.
God damnit Terra!
Metal mares be crazy... Roarke should use Terras eagerness to destroy practically everything to mess up the Ledo battlecrusers.
Oh boy, here comes the massive final battle of Innavedr! Only 20 chapters left!
Oh dear lords. And of course, Phoenix and Belle with the foals will come in, with the spark and Nightshade on her ass, and THEN we'll have a battle to write home about.
Ledomaritan airspace just got a whole lot more dangerous.
I knew Terra was going to make an entrance at some point, but...
FOR FUCK'S SAKE, COULD YOUR TIMING BE ANY WORSE?!?
Well, that sure is one hell of a distraction. Roarke and the others aboard her ship are going to have a tough time getting out of this pickle, but they have to do it. For Rainbow Dash, if not the rest of the party. Because she has come too far for her story to end here... I just hope that they won't die trying.
DAMMIT TERRA THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS.
IIIIIt's Dashie's First Get-Backing Adventure!
Are you serious?! This is Imploding, so I should have been expecting something like this, but come on! COULD YOUR TIMING BE ANY WORSE?!?!?!?!
...
Never mind. With Imploding, I really don't want to know. Also, as a note, the fact that Imploding emphasizes how much Roarke guns the accelerator shows how deeply she cares/respects Dash. Just a little thing I noticed. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Alright, one left. I got this in the bag.
Oh, sweet-Celestia-on-a-bun what's this now? Why's this knob interrupting? I flailed my hands wildly above my head and then gesticulated crudely at my screen upon Terra's appearance, just so you know.
Well, Roarke wanted a new manaship...she just has to pry it from Terra's cold, dead hooves to get it.
Also, you really took the concept of airships and ran with it, didn't you? Why have one when you can have a hundred? Why have a hundred, when you can have a hundred exploding airships? And then have even more smaller airships fighting and exploding around the first hundred!
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Go big or go home.
Waiting for the steel wing to pop up again.
Those girls just don't know when to give up dammit!
I was just thinking when they were going to show up.
Bit of a bloody clusterfuck going on here. Something big's going to have to happen to turn the tide, methinks.
...
That escalated quickly.
-Spirit
Damnit. it never rains....
Holy shit, this battle is going to be immense.
Well... they wanted a distraction. Let's hope the Noble Jury can move when it has to.
well shit...
Well great, now we have Terra's horseshit to deal with too.
Ugh, nobody needs you Terra!
This seems appropriate:
Terra you idiot. Please go and get yourself killed, it will be an excellent distraction.