The Skyla Pseudonym

by iisaw


8 Ironhoof

Chapter Eight

Ironhoof

I lowered the spyglass, collapsed it, and carefully stowed it away in the custom pocket on my saddlebags.

"Well, that's going to put a crimp in the looting part of our plan," I said, calmly. "If I may offer a suggestion, Captain?"

If I was any judge, Skyla was on the verge of screaming, "What do we do, Twilight?!" which would have been less than helpful at that point. We had gone over several possible tactics to deal with Imperial airships on the journey from the little caravanserai where we'd gotten the books, but they were all hypothetical. The unpleasant discovery that the Empire of Earth had high-powered magical weaponry made most of them unworkable—most of them.

"I think it's unwise to reveal our altitude capability yet, so I would suggest we try Wounded Mother Bird. We obviously can't outrun them on the level—not with four engines to their six—but they won't be at all surprised if we appear to make the attempt."

"Yes," Skyla said, still staring wide-eyed at the onrushing airship. "The bird thing. That's good. That will work, right?"

"Very good, Captain," I said, and saluted as if she had actually given the order to proceed. "Sirocco, we are going to execute the Wounded Mother Bird maneuver. Steer northeast, engines full ahead. Don't climb unless they do. I'll review the steps with you in a few minutes."

The pegasus nodded tightly, and rang the engines up, turning our bow away from the approaching ship. He should have repeated my order back to me, but he was understandably nervous, and that was not the time to admonish him.

The Imperial airship looked a lot like an Equestrian Royal Air Service craft. It had sleek modern lines and an integrated gondola rather than a hull hanging below its envelope. The main difference were the weapons pods. On an Equestrian ship, there would have been rows of ports to allow the unicorns to cast spells from within the armored hull. Instead, the ship pursuing us had four outboard pods, similar to the ones for the engines, but with gleaming metal barrels projecting forward from them. "Rotting guns," I swore under my breath.

"You keep using that word," Skyla said to me, putting out a wing to stop me as I headed for the companionway to the main deck. "You mean those magic weapons?"

Oh sweet, innocent Equestria! Nine out of ten universes knew that word very well indeed. "Yes," I said quietly. "Not part of the original plan for this maneuver, but I'm making some changes on the fly. I've faced them before." What I didn't tell her was that I'd never faced them on a low magic world. Without magic, the best defense against guns was to never get in front of one in the first place.

Skyla seemed to suddenly realize that the crew was watching us. She pulled her wing back and said, in her best command voice, "Very good, Ms. Nightshade. Proceed."

"Aye, aye, Captain," I replied, and trotted smartly down the companionway.

Stalwart Lance and Swift Wing had finished securing the boom they'd used to sling the anchor around the watchtower and were waiting for their next orders.

"Lance, help Filigree relocate his catapult to this point," I said, indicating a bronze sleeve on the starboard rail. "After that, get another one out of the fo'c'sle and mount it on the starboard quarter. Stand by there to operate it if need be. Load all with cutting points."

When he'd repeated it all to me and trotted off, I turned to Swift Wing. "Swift, we're doing Wounded Mother Bird. Get a big smoke pot out of the arms locker and set it up on the stern gallery. Their magic weapons are going to have a pretty big kick when they hit, so stay down. You'll be tempted to take just one little peek, but don't! I don't want to lose you, understand?"

He saluted. "Yes, Ms. Nightshade! Big pot, no peeking!"

While they went about their business, I went below to the unoccupied passenger cabin and pressed a hoof against a section of wainscotting behind the bunk. There was a sharp click and a section of the deck sprung up to reveal the hidden space beneath. I took a moment to survey my collection of dirty tricks, gave a sigh for my lost innocence, and lifted out a box that had been painted with skulls and jagged red lines.

I took the box and a couple of dropstones with throwing lines attached up to the cupola. I found Ao leaning over the aft edge with her own spyglass pressed to one eye. She looked up when I popped out of the hatch, and immediately saw what I carried.

"So, it has come to this," she said, gravely. The phrase could be used on any conceivable occasion, and had become a sort of joke between us, a way to lighten a tense situation.

It didn't really help at that moment. "I'm sorry I have to ask this of you, but we're really in a tight spot," I said, as I opened the box and carefully floated out the sealed glass bulbs. "Try not to miss; we don't have a lot of these."

She nodded and settled the bulbs into a padded bag she hung around her neck. She had already belted on the long curved blade she favored. She refused the dropstones, saying, "This one will seek to insure the matter does not degenerate to the point where this one will need to throw rocks at our foe."

"Good plan," I said. I wanted to hug her and tell her to be careful, but she really wasn't the hugging type. "Good luck, my friend."

Back on deck, I went to each pony on a catapult and explained to them exactly what I expected of them. It was simple; it was easy; anypony could do it; just aim for the target and pull—don't jerk!—the lever. Crank back as quickly as possible and reload. There will be more flashes and noises like at the tower. Ignore them. Do your job.

"Everything's ready, Captain," I reported to Skyla, after I'd explained to Sirocco the changes to the maneuvering. "I will stand by to deal with anything unexpected. Their ship isn't made for boarding actions, so I doubt that will be a concern, but they may have pegasi aboard."

"Ah." She reached up to touch the hilt of her cutlass with a hoof. "Good."

I turned to look aft. I no longer needed a spyglass to see the details of the airship. "She'll be in her range any time, now," I said loudly so that the crew could hear me. "She'll probably fire a warning shot to try to get us to—"

The first blast of magic hit Nebula squarely in the stern, shaking the deck so hard it nearly threw us off our hooves. Sirocco scrabbled at the wheel, trying to keep us on course as the glowing spatter from the shot crackled and hissed all around us. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was shocked at the curse that Skyla had blurted out. Gentlemares, pirates or not, should never use that kind of language.

"Now, Sirocco!" I called out. "Make them think we're scared!"

"Think?" he gasped out as one of the liftstays parted with a thunderous crack and dark smoke began to billow up from Nebula's stern.

But he did his job, swerving us side-to-side like a panicky helmspony might.

I scanned the sky, looking for an attack from above as I stepped to the engine telegraph. "Standby on the steering fins, Sirocco."

"Aye, ma'am," he replied through gritted teeth.

Their second shot hit us just under the tail of the envelope, and the liftstays and masts groaned with the impact. Thick smoke rolled off the lower rudder and elevators.

"Do we still have steerage, Sirocco?" Skyla asked.

He turned the wheel, making Nebula veer away to larboard, setting us up for the big move. "Yes, Captain! She's answering well!"

Skyla turned to me. "We need to do this now!"

"You heard the Captain!" I shouted. "Fins down!"

Sirocco threw the levers at the same time as I rang for Full Astern. The steering fins dropped down to dead vertical as the engines spun down and then roared to life again. The last thing the imperial airship expected us to do was stop. Not only were they suddenly in range of our catapults, they were so hot on our tail they had to swing away to avoid colliding with us.

They managed to avoid ramming us from astern, but as the next part of our plan had us turning sharply to starboard, they couldn't avoid our envelopes crashing together. Our fin was down where it blocked their view amidships, and the thick smoke pouring from the pot on our stern gallery blinded their aft weapon pod.

For a moment, our hull was only a few lengths from theirs, close enough that even our green catapult crews couldn't possibly miss. Both bolts slammed through the forward weapon pod behind the exposed barrel of the gun.

The plan was to disable it and then go for the aft pod, keeping us, the Mother Bird, relatively safe while our "chick" did her work.

If I had been given just a little more time to think about the situation, I wouldn't have been caught completely by surprise by the explosion. Luckily, Puff and Filigree had pulled their catapults up into the loading position and had started cranking back by the time the weapon pod blew, so they were protected by the solid part of the rail. The force knocked us all off our hooves and swung Nebula's hull away at a steep angle.

By the time Sirocco and I had gathered our wits and gotten control of Nebula again, she had veered away from our optimal position.

The gunner in the aft pod either panicked or decided to try a blind shot. The blast of magic erupted through the smoke and hit our larboard quarter at a steep angle. The spatter flew across the quarterdeck in spinning gobbets of blue fire.

I threw out a wing to protect Sirocco and took a hit that felt like a mule's kick. Skyla yelled and swore again, so I assumed she'd been struck as well.

Panic is contagious. Stalwart Lance fired wildly through the smoke at a dimly-seen bulbous shape, and scored a direct hit on an engine pod. There was a crash as the drive shaft sheared off and shed the propellers. One of the blades slammed into our mizzenmast about a hoofspan above my head and stuck there.

I had no idea how often the magic guns could be fired, but we would keep being hammered if something wasn't done. I still had the two dropstones I'd offered to Ao, so I pulled out one and swung it by the throwline until it hummed around my head, then I leaped into the air over the stern rail to get clear of the smoke and let fly. I'd gotten near enough on target that one little telekinetic nudge guided it right into the bronze helix around the gun's barrel with a satisfying crack!

It must have been enough to disable the weapon, because it didn't fire again.

I floundered back to the quarterdeck, cursing my wounded wing, just in time to see Ao flying over the starboard rail with two pegasi in hot pursuit. They were excellent flyers and managed to swerve sharply enough to avoid impaling themselves on my short blades and Skyla's cutlass as they passed over the quarterdeck. I took to the air in pursuit and when the two of them caught sight of me, they broke off chasing Ao and flew all-out for their ship.

"Are you alright?" I called to the kirin as she doubled back.

She landed in the waist, gasping for air, and I flopped down in an inelegant landing beside her, pain lancing through my wing. "When this one was younger," she wheezed between deep breaths, "six pegasi would have been no challenge."

"I only counted two," I said, smiling in relief that she wasn't hurt.

She smiled back. "Six minus four is two… even in this unpleasant place, Majesty."

I didn't ask how she'd done the subtraction; I had a more pressing question. "And the delivery, little chick?"

Her smile grew wider and she gestured at the receding airship. I walked to the rail and looked up. We were far enough away by then that I could see the top of their envelope, which was ablaze with green alchemical fire.

"Nice work, Ao!"

"A pleasure, Ma... " she threw a glance over my shoulder. "Ms. Nightshade."

Captain Skyla had come down to the main deck to thank Ao herself and make sure she wasn't injured. We stood together at the rail and watched the futile efforts of the airship's crew to save her.

The side of the ship's envelope was painted with an insignia involving a horseshoe and the word IRONHOOF in huge block letters. The "I" was beginning to smoulder when the flames suddenly flared brightly, hissing and throwing off showers of flaming debris.

"They just found out that water doesn't work on Zebra Fire," I said, grinning smugly.

There was a whumph and a tower of flame shot up from a rupturing gas cell. Then there was another, more drawn-out hiss as a huge flaming section of the envelope peeled away to reveal the burning interior structure, and the ship began to sink by the head.

I was beginning to worry that the crew had left it too long before evacuating when I heard the thunk of gondola hatches being thrown open and saw the ponies diving out.

I trained my spyglass on the parachutes that blossomed beneath the stricken airship. "All earth ponies," I observed. "Does anypony see any pegasi?" I called out to the crew.

Nopony said anything for a minute or so, and then Lance called out, "There!" and pointed over the stern rail. We galloped up to the quarterdeck and saw an air chariot speeding away toward Palo Verde. Two pegasi were pulling one big earth pony in the open craft, and they were flying as if their tails were on fire.

"We need to stop them!" I flexed my injured wing and grimaced. I'd never be able to catch them even if I could manage to fly more than a few furlongs.

Skyla glanced at Ao and I, and then called out, "Swift, with me! Ms. Nightshade, you have command!" She dived over the rail without waiting for a response, and a bedraggled and sooty Swift Wing flew after her.

"Sirocco! Come left to a course for Palo Verde. Follow that chariot! Full speed ahead!"

His voice, repeating my orders, faded behind me as I ran forward, yelling to the crew, "Keep an eye out for other pegasi! Ao, get topside and give us eyes up there!"

I draped myself over the forward rail next to the bowsprit and brought out my spyglass. The pegasi pulling the chariot had no other pegasi to cover them, so they couldn't do much to fight off attackers without endangering their passenger. The passenger was a different story. As Skyla and Swift approached, he lifted a long barreled weapon that looked a lot like a miniature version of one of the magical guns.

There's nothing worse than helplessly watching a loved one go into danger. The chariot was beyond catapult range. I tried a magical bolt of energy, hoping to distract the earth pony, but it fizzled out long before it reached him. I could only watch in horror as the earth pony carefully sighted his weapon on my young niece.

And that's when Swift Wing slammed into him like a freight train.

Even from half a league away, I winced at the violence of the impact. The earth pony lost hold of the gun and it tumbled away as he and Swift smashed through the forward edge of the chariot and landed on the tongue. The earth pony caught hold of the shaft with both forelegs and Swift managed to hook a hoof onto the harness of one of the pegasi, who immediately began trying to buck him off. One of Swift's wings flopped bonelessly as he desperately flapped the other, trying to keep from falling.

Skyla arrived and dove down, lifting Swift in her forelegs and setting him back in the chariot. Then I caught the flash of sunlight on her cutlass.

"Ah! Don't kill them, Celestia trample it!"  I growled out loud.

The earth pony didn't fall, and the pegasi slowed and descended. So far so good, but when they landed...

I galloped back to the quarterdeck and took the wheel from Sirocco. "Get down there and help the captain!" I whistled up the cupola and told Ao the same.

I altered Nebula's course slightly so that the catapults on her starboard side would have a clear shot at the enemy when we got near. "Don't fire if there's any chance of hitting one of our own!"

Despite outnumbering Skyla three to one after they had landed, the other ponies didn't immediately attack her—probably because she was holding her cutlass to the earth pony's throat—and Sirocco and Ao arrived moments thereafter. I let out a long sigh of relief.

I sent Filigree up to the cupola to watch for other pegasi and slowed Nebula as we approached the grounded ponies.

"Why don't you just kill us and get it over with, monster!" was the first thing I could make out as I rang the engines down to dead slow. Deep voice. I assumed it was the big earth pony. I also assumed he had never seen a kirin before.

But it was Skyla who answered him. "I'd rather not kill you, and I'm not a monster, I'm an—"

"Al Leekorn," hissed one of the pegasi.

"Demon!" the other added.

Oh my. That was interesting.

= = =

=