The wind howling by Rainbow’s head filled her ears, her teeth gritting angrily against each other as the wind nearly drowned away the bullets screaming far closer to her than she would've wished. Occasionally a heavier cannon fired alongside the autoguns, forcing her to constantly keep moving in serpentine.
She'd found out, to her frustration, that Rarity’s cobbled-together craft had no armaments whatsoever, and now was keeping as far ahead of the Draco-class light pursuit crafts that were chasing as possible. Unfortunately for the three mares, the outdated engines couldn't quite surpass the brand new components of the Imperial ships, and they were slowly gaining.
It had been relatively smooth flying for the first few hours of Canterlot, but it was not to last. The radio by the helm had crackled to life, broadcasting on all frequencies an enormous bounty on an unnamed, ramshackle airship with three crewponies headed due west from Canterlot. From that point onwards, it had become a frustrating nightmare of avoiding both Imperial and civilian airships attempting to either bring them in our shoot them down.
Until now, they'd been able to scrape by with a combination of Rainbow’s daring and fortunate luck. It seemed now that their fortune was running out. It had been over forty-five hours since Rainbow had slept and it was showing in her flying. Her reactions were occasionally sluggish, and she was starting to make stupid mistakes. The bags under her eyes, though ever-present, were significantly more defined, and sore against the wind. Rarity had begged her repeatedly, when they weren't attempting to outfly another airship, to let her take over, but Rainbow refused to relinquish the helm, always responding in the same way, give or take a few words: “Sorry, Rarity, but I've got no time to rest. Don't worry, I'm fine. I'll sleep when we're safe.”
Her hooves twisted the servos and she manipulated the controls expertly. The airship suddenly slid to a halt, rapidly losing altitude as it turned precisely ninety degrees around. Unable to respond quickly, the two Dracos slid past for quite a distance. By the time they'd turned to face the more nimble ship, it had resumed motion and established a sizable gap, putting them out of the light pursuit crafts’ firing range for a crucial moment, taking a second to wipe the sweat from her exhausted eyes.
She winced as she looked behind. Though she'd barely left, the Dracos were closing rapidly. The first artillery shells thundered from their cannons, their shimmering steel blasting narrowly passed the ship.
I can't keep outmaneuvering them forever, Rainbow thought grimly, this time overfilling the balloon with air and rising quickly, again momentarily escaping the fire arcs of the heavy guns. Desperate, she punched the radio transmitter button, shouting into it as she broadcast the signal across all bands: “If there's anyone out there, we need help! Unarmed civilian airship Incarnadine,” she continued, relapsing into old habits under stress and exhaustion, “under attack by two Imperial Draco-class light pursuit crafts! I repeat, we need help!”
Leaving the radio open on all channels in desperate hope for a reply, she resumed evasive maneuvers. It quickly grew more complicated: the two pursuers split, closing around her pincer-style, one low and one high. She considered trying a midair spin again, but quickly reconsidered; in that position, it would expose the broadside in a blatant invitation: SHOOT ME.
A spray of autogun fire pinged off of the metal centimeters from her hind hooves. She jumped slightly, eyes wide. The booming of the cannons was closer now, and the ship rocked as a shell clipped the hull before rocketing off into empty space. Rainbow closed her eyes a moment, a silent prayer to Celestia coming unbidden.
Kssshhhhhhttt
Hello?
Her eyes slammed open. Grabbing the radio transceiver and adjusting the dial to the frequency it was coming in on, she chattered rapidly into it, “Yes, pilot of Incarnadine here! Can you hear me?”
The voice that fizzed through the radio was a mare’s, somewhat lilting and melodic. Captain Lyra of dubiously-legal armed civilian airship Skyshard here. You're coming in loud and clear! We heard you're under attack by New Harmony airships, and lucky for you, I really don’t like New Harmony. What are your coordinates?
Ignoring the tears of relief made trailed down her face, she checked the navbar, quickly scanning the clicking counters. “North seventy-three, west fourteen, elevation thirty-four hundred meters!”
We're no more than a degree or two off on both counts, roughly the same altitude. Hold out for another two or three minutes, then we can start covering you!
The radio went silent. Rainbow, even renewed by the incoming hope, knew there wasn't time enough time. So, she decided to do something utterly insane and stupid to buy some more. Something only Rainbow Dash would do.
Screwing up her face, she slammed her hooves on the deck, sending clamor ringing through the ship. “Rarity!” Her voice was as loud as she could push it, and sure enough, the unicorn soon trotted up to the controls.
“What is it?” She shouted over the wind.
“You know how to fly this thing, right?” A nod. “Good! When I say so, take the controls!”
“Wait, what? What are you planning, Rainbow!”
“Just do it!” shot back Rainbow. She veered to the left suddenly, circling rapidly and ending up broadside right next to one of the Draco airships.
“Wait, Rainbow, you're not seriously thinking...”
“Fly!” the pegasus screamed, dashing to the edge and jumping off into space.
The scene was frozen for what seemed like hours. Her lithe, athletic form hung suspended in the ice-cold void between the low clouds and the untouchable stars, mirrored by the newly-christened second Incarnadine and the Draco. Rarity looked on in silent horror. The gunner she was leaping towards stared in confusion. All seemed perfectly soundless. Her intact wing flexed and contracted reflexively, and she suddenly recalled with utter and perfect clarity how it felt to fly.
Then time resumed.
She crashed into the gunner, the adrenaline searing through her veins banishing for a moment the heavy weight of exhaustion. She hurled around, tossing the unicorn screaming over the side. Snapping out her hindquarters, she broke the autogun off at the hinge. It plummeted after its former operator, vanishing into the night sky beneath. “HEY!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, “COME AND GET ME!”
The Incarnadine dodged and wove elegantly through the fire of the other Draco, but the one Rainbow had boarded ceased its battery, too occupied with attempting to stop the slippery mare before she caused any more damage.
It took them no more than a minute to grab her, tiredness dragging her down as she ceased being as agile as she could've been. But it was enough. As the Draco’s crew returned to their postings, leaving Rainbow tied up in the small cargo hold, a sleek, huge icy-blue airship shaped like a javelin pierced the clouds, a sudden volley of explosive steel raining from its numerous noseguns onto the other Imperial ship. It lasted all of ten seconds before buckling about the middle, equine bodies plummeting away as it transformed into a mangled mess of steel falling to the roiling clouds below.
---
Aboard the Skyshard, a minty green unicorn levitated the transmitter of an elegant radio up to her face, a wild smile on her face as she clicked it over to the go-to Imperial radio frequency. “Attention Draco! This is the Skyshard! How are all of you today?”
Crackling through her receiver came a swear, then blaring alarm klaxons. Lyra laughed out loud. “Oooh, they think they’re getting away! Gunners!” she called behind her, “are the rockets reloaded?”
“Yes, Cap!’ came a universal consensus from half a dozen voices.
“Good! Fire in three…”
The radio blared again, this time broadcasting Rarity’s panicked voice: Skyshard, whatever you do, don’t fire on that Draco! Our crewmember boarded them to buy us time! Can you help us get her back?
“Well, how ‘bout that...haven’t heard her voice in a while. Hold fire!” shouted Lyra, holding up her hoof. The gunners, primed and ready to fire, eased their hooves off of the trigger levers as Lyra picked up the transmitter again, dialing in to the Incarnadine’s frequency. “Sure, I’ll see what I can do. If they fire on me, though, I’m blowing them out of the sky!” Another laugh exploded out of her as she twisted the dial sharply, back to the Draco in the bizarre three-way communication. “Hey, whoever’s piloting that Draco! Give the Incarnadine their crewmember back or I’m sending down to your friends!”
Buck off! came the screamed reply through the receiver. Rolling her eyes, Lyra sighed happily. “Yes! This is the best part!” She worked the servos rapidly, rolling broadside to the Draco. “Harpooners!” she called. A few moments later, the thump-hiss of steam-launchers firing cabled harpoons sang through her ears. She giggled happily as six of them found purchase in the Draco’s hull. “Alright, bring her in!”
The broken autogun mount that Rainbow had smashed was useless against the Skyshard as the grinning gunners activated the cable winches, ripping the Draco through the air straight towards them.
Lyra rammed the throttle into neutral, her magic grasping a brilliantly-tooled two-shot pistol from a holster on her flank. “Prepare to board!” she called over the sound of retracting cables, smile still plastered to her face as she additionally drew an engraved sabre from the opposite hip. “You’re looking for a pony from the Incarnadine,” she shouted, pointing at the circling airship, “probably tied up somewhere in the cabin or hold!”
The sky-shuddering thud of two airships colliding rebounded through her hooves as the Draco finished its retraction, its crew gathered on deck armed with typical Imperial issue weapons. Giving vent to one last chuckle as she galloped to the edge of her helm, Lyra swan-dove off the side, rolling as she landed on the bow. She lifted the sights of her pistol to her eye, snapping off two quick shots into the mare with the purple-line uniform, one in the chest, one in the head. “Skyshard,” she bellowed to her oncoming crew, “show them how it’s done!” With that, she charged into the melee, ripping her sword across every Imperial uniform in sight.
As she danced her way elegantly through the combat, she caught sight of a flash of silver as a blade flickered towards her, drawn by blisteringly fast magic, and she barely dodged it in time, letting it skate off the edge of her own to deflect it off to the side. Tracing the leylines of magic, invisible to non-unicorns, she found it connecting to a lean, haggard stallion, his eyes narrowed as he carved the blade across her crewmates.
Forgetting the rest of the combat in favor of the unicorn, she launched her own blade at him, spearing it towards his throat. He waited until the last moment before sweeping his blade crossways, knocking hers aside without apparent effort. “Artless,” he sneered at her, barely heard over the mayhem as he turned the deflection into a viciously quick stab.
Returning her emptied pistol to its holster, she replaced it in the air with a viciously-sharp keris that had sat behind it on her flank, returning her sword to float beside it as she used the knife to block the lunge, turning the motion into a fluid revolution around her in a perfect arc to slash the throat of an Imperial running up behind her. Her eyes narrowed, locking with that of the stallion’s as he stared haughtily down at her from his position at the stern.
---
From her position at the helm of Incarnadine, Rarity looked down at the maelstrom of flashing steel and roaring gunfire beneath her. She had been joined on deck by AJ, airsickness forgotten with the gravity of the situation.
“AJ,” she suddenly burst out, “I’m taking us low over them. Get to the edge.”
“You nuts?” AJ responded immediately.
A baleful glare bored into her. “Those ponies down there are risking all of their lives to help Rainbow, who is, in fact, the only reason we are both still living. I hate to pull this, but I got you out of Canterlot. You owe me. So I’ll ask again, get to the edge.”
Hissing with frustration at the earth pony, Rarity continued. “We’re moving quickly, and slowing down could be dangerous. You’re not going to have a vast amount of time to make the landing, and if you miss, nopony’s catching you. You have one shot at this, understand?”
Giving her an angry glance, AJ responded. “Yeah. I got it.”
“Alright,” huffed Rarity, “we’re going low now. Be careful down there.”
Poised on the edge, AJ grumbled to herself as she measured the distance between her and the deck of the Draco. All told, it had to be at least five meters, and while normally that would present little difficulty for her, it was from one fast-moving airship onto another airship over an endless abyss of sky, down into a bloody mess in which it was more than likely she would be injured or killed. Then she realized that Rarity was at least partially right: Rainbow had made a similar jump, having been awake for nearly two days running, to buy them time to escape. Otherwise they’d be scattered to pulp on the ground by now. So she screwed up her eyes for a moment, gathering courage and muttering, “here I come, Rainbow,” under her breath before stepping off the edge.
What followed was a heart-stopping handful of seconds as the deck beneath her grew more pronounced, and she braced for impact, reaching her hoof up to stop her hat from falling off.
Then impact,
She cannoned into the deck of the Draco with a sound like thunder, her incredibly strong legs and earth pony resilience absorbing any damage. For the briefest moment, the fighting around her hiccuped as Imperials and the crew of the Skyshard looked at her with abject confusion.
Then an Imperial took advantage of the delay, launch a strike against a unicorn who wielded a sword and long knife. She blocked clumsily, grunting, and he kicked her hard, knocking her screaming off of the deck. One of the boarders, a burnt-orange pegasus shouted, “Captain!” His voice was suffused with rage.
The scene roared back into chaos. A pony in uniform ran at her, swinging a sword wildly. She ducked under it, pivoting and smashing him in the jaw with both hooves. He crumpled to the ground and she took advantage of the brief delay to gallop towards the first door she saw, charging another pony bodily out of the way and smashing the flimsy lock apart with a single buck.
“AJ?” croaked a voice from inside. The pale moonlight from outside glittered through the doorway, illuminating the tied form of Rainbow.
“Yeah, it’s me,” AJ replied as she unknotted the rope. Rainbow’s grateful, bloodshot eyes suddenly widened.
“Behind you!” she cried, and AJ whirled. Not in time, though, to stop the magically-suspended, bloodstained sword from pressing none-too-gently against her throat. The stallion before her looked ill, but his pale eyes burned with fixated life. His voice, when he spoke, was not raspy as AJ had expected from his rough exterior; it was smooth, almost hypnotic. Oil sliding over ice.
“Now then, let’s all just calm down, shall we?”
---
Lyra had definitely been in worse situations. She knew that for sure. She just couldn’t think of any off the top of her head.
She kept her foreleg firmly wrapped around the sword hilt, trying her best not to look down as she dangled from the blade embedded in the side of the Draco.
The deck above her had gone quiet a minute or so ago. She wasn’t sure which side had won, but based on the fact that nopony had crossed back over to her airship over the harpoon lines, she assumed the worst. Gritting her teeth, she strained upwards for the fourth time, feeling her joints pop. This time, she managed to get a grip on the jutting spar of steel above her. Now that she was no longer dependent on it for her continued survival, she yanked repeatedly on the sword beneath her with her magic, exceedingly conscious at the gusts of wind tickling her hind legs. When it ripped out of the side of the ship, she hauled herself up. She stood precariously on the thin platform, slowly edging her way over towards the stern, where she could see a narrow ladder leading up from the piece of metal.
From a pouch on the side of the holster, she withdrew her two spare bullets, loading them into her pistol and priming the manafilaments that served as the firing mechanism for detonation. The pale blue light they exuded leaked from the carven details, lighting a relief-carved swirl of wind from the inside. Taking a deep breath, she slowly climbed the ladder, peeking over the side.
It was as she’d feared.
Her few remaining living crewmembers were manacled to a post with a crude chain, limbs tied together. Most of them lay on the deck, staining the wood with deep red. Artfully drawn curved slices decorated most of their corpses, evidence of their killer: the unicorn stallion’s deadly sword.
She, herself a surpassing swordspony, had managed to occupy him for a good while, but then he’d taken advantage of her distraction with the earth pony falling from the sky to strike at her. She’d blocked clumsily, knocking her off balance, and from there, it had been an easy task for him to kick her off the edge. She’d only barely managed to catch herself with her sword, embedding it into the side of the ship and clutching it for dear life.
For another time in not long enough, she cursed herself for not saving a bullet for such a situation. The officer had died after the first; there had been no reason other than sheer satisfaction to shoot her a second time. After she’d begun dueling him, there had been no time to reload. She had been single-minded in her fight; anything less would’ve meant instant death against a pony as skilled as he.
“Where are you, you bastard…” she muttered, scanning the deck for any sign of him, pistol floating by her side beneath the deck line. Though she was running a risk of enemies noticing her glowing horn, it was a low-powered spell, so the light was negligible. She hoped that would be enough to keep her from being detected.
There he was!
He was guiding two mares to the line, a pegasus and the earth pony that had fallen from Incarnadine. That pegasus must’ve been the other crewmember, she realized. Drawing a careful bead on the stallion as she ever-so-slowly raised the pistol, she held her breath and squeezed the trembling trigger lever.
Once. Twice. The shots rang out across the deck. The stallion fell.
Alarmed, the crew of the Draco started to draw weapons, but even their unicorns were in a totally different class than the nameless stallion. They’d barely even extended their magic before Lyra’s flashing blade was cutting them. In barely a moment, three had been brutally slaughtered. Taking the initiative, her first mate Flash Powder hurled the chain that bound his hooves together over another’s head, choking her out. “Cap! Here!”
Lyra and Flash had been together since she could fly an airship. It had been many, many years, and in that time, they’d gotten to know each others’ thought processes perfectly. So Lyra immediately understood what he was after. Her sword darted out again, knocking a unicorn’s blade out of trajectory in the process, and smashed into the pulled-taut chain. It parted with a keening shriek, leaving Flash free. He whirled, bucking the oxygen-starved pony in front of him to the ground and grabbing Lyra’s looted keris from her belt. “That’s my captain’s,” he snarled viciously, plunging it into her neck before tossing underhand it to its rightful owner. “Never been so glad to see you, Cap!”
Lyra’s grin returned as she intercepted it with her magical field, using it to block a sweeping boarding axe as she knocked a pistol from the shaking hooves of a pegasus with her sword, running him through in the same motion. “Never been so glad to have you as a first mate, Flash!”
In short order, Lyra had dismantled the remainder of the Draco’s crew, no injuries to show for it but a half-dozen small cuts scattered across her body. The only real injuries were the shredded tip of her left ear, half of which had been taken off by a too-close-for-comfort bullet, and a sore knee that had been bludgeoned by the butt of the gun that had fired said bullet as its wielder’s last act. Sheathing her two blades, magic largely spent after a series of battles--she was never the most gifted of unicorns--she manually fished through the pockets of the mare Flash had asphyxiated and stabbed until she found a key, quickly unlocking her crew.
When she came to the two foreign ponies, her eyebrows drew together angrily. “If it weren’t for you two,” she growled, “my crew would still be alive.”
As AJ struggled to find an adequate response, Lyra suddenly burst out laughing. “But hey, that’s life for a crewmember on the Skyshard! If you’re not ready to die, stay on the ground!”
AJ looked at her with some concern, but those worries were soon shunted aside by a tremendous yawn from Rainbow. Lyra tilted her head at the pegasus. “So you’re the one that radioed me?” Rainbow nodded soundlessly, then toppled forward, exhaustion and stress taking their toll. Flash jumped forward and caught her, holding her up as Lyra unbound her manacles, proceeding to AJ’s soon after.
“I’m sorry ‘bout Rainbow. She’s been up for two days flyin’ now, and it shows. I’m Applejack, but you can just call me AJ.” She stuck out a hoof, which Lyra grasped eagerly.
“Lyra. Let’s get back on the Skyshard. There’s a platform on top that’s small enough for your ship to land on, and I’m done with this damned ship.” She spat hatefully on the deck of the Draco before walking to the platforms that had been strung over the boarding lines. “Come on, let’s get off of this trash fire.”
AJ hastily followed, walking after the still-Rainbow bearing Flash Powder to the belly of the Skyshard. She turned sadly, looking back at the bloodstained, corpse-strewn Imperial ship, the previously-immaculate uniforms bled over into red. “This ain’t what I wanted…” she muttered, then turned away, walking after Lyra and into the guts of Skyshard.
---
As the grappling harpoons disengaged with a rapid pinging sound, the roughened stallion opened his eyes.
---
The radio on Incarnadine fizzed again, and Lyra’s voice buzzed through it: Hey, whoever’s piloting that ship, there’s a platform on top of mine where you can land. I’ve got your two friends here. Come down and join us.
Pressing a hoof to her heart, Rarity sighed in relief. “Thank Celestia, they’re ok…” she murmured, veering to the disengaging Skyshard and decelerating rapidly until she matched its speed , turning until she was parallel with the larger ship. Descending, she touched down gently with no issue. Sighing hugely, she engaged the magnetic docking clamps and left the helm.
Upon dropping down from the ship, she was met by Lyra and AJ. She grinned at Lyra, reaching out a hoof. “It’s been a while, Lyra. Nice ship. You’ve done nicely for yourself, it seems.”
Lyra stepped forwards, meeting Rarity’s hoof with her own, eyes and voice suffused with incredulity. “Oh, have I ever. I can't believe you're here, Rarity. Looks like you finally got out of that damn city. Must be nice to be back out in the skies, huh?”
AJ looked back and forth between the two in confusion. “Hang on, y’all know each other?”
Rarity turned to her. “Yeah. She’s a friend I haven’t seen in ages, not since my piloting days near the beginning of the war, some twenty years ago now, I think. We’ve kept in contact occasionally by radio, but she’s rarely near Canterlot, and I’ve been kept busy by attending to the Lady Steward. I knew she was in the area, but I didn’t think we’d actually run across her.”
“Huh,” AJ mused, “so you two flew for New Harmony in the war?”
Rarity laughed. “Oh, Applejack, no. I didn’t always live in Canterlot. Where do you think that string of code I spouted to Rainbow back in NC came from? Lyra and I both flew for the Alliance.”
AJ stepped back a few steps, face a picture of confusion. “Wait, you’re kiddin’.”
Rarity shook her head. “Not even. She avoided the Harmony killings by fleeing west, I avoided them by melting into Old Canterlot and worked my way up over the years. Why would I joke about that?”
AJ sighed, face falling flat. “You wouldn’t. Only I was kinda hoping you were. The Apples supported New Harmony. Guess I still kinda do.”
Rarity laid a hoof on her shoulder, withdrawing slightly as she flinched away. “Applejack, I understand how hard it is to let go of a conviction. But,” she motioned at the floating wreck of the Draco in the distance, “New Harmony’s just tried to kill you in quite a few fun different ways. Don’t you think it’s about time you cut ties?”
Another sigh from AJ. “...I know. It’s just...I grew up on stories of the heroes of this empire during the war. I can’t let go of them. I’ll fly with y’all for a while, but I’m not goin’ to give up on New Harmony, ya hear? Not yet.”
Lyra shrugged. “Well, that’s good enough for my ship. What about you, Rarity? You breaking off with her over something like that?”
Rarity laughed. “Come on, you know me better than that. She came with me out of Canterlot, which means she’s okay by me.”
“Well, now that we’ve gotten that sorted,” chirped Lyra suddenly, “you’re all going to need to get belowdecks. We’re going to accelerate, and I’d rather not have either of you blowing off the back under my watch.”
AJ frowned. “Really? How fast does this thing go?”
Lyra guffawed. “If the fastest you’ve ever gone is that rust bucket Rarity cooked up, have I got a treat for you. Now get down there. In ten seconds, I’m hitting the punch. Ten...nine…” she counted down, sauntering over to the helm controls.
As she counted, Rarity and AJ scrambled down the hatch, slamming it closed just as the countdown was drawing to a close. A sudden thud bumped through the ship and the two ponies fell over backwards from the sudden speed. The Skyshard pierced through the sky with seemingly-impossible speed. Now Rarity could understand how this ship had closed on their position earlier so quickly; it was a work of functional art.
---
Several hours later, Rainbow’s eyes flicked open in the darkness of a room lit by a single faint candle and she blinked a few times, disoriented by the unfamiliar surroundings. She rolled out of her bunk, landing on the ground with a thud and grimacing, realizing just how sore she really was. “Aghhhh...” she hissed out, curling into a ball on the floor as she waited for the cramps and pain to abate. She felt as though her entire body was bruised.
At length, she felt intact enough to tremble to her hooves, hobbling to the door. She felt hungover, her previous exhaustion even now taking its toll as she left the room, eyes stinging as she wandered a labyrinth of narrow, brightly lit corridors. She encountered a window, looking out it and gasping. Beneath them was a landscape totally different from that of Canterlot’s surroundings where she recalled being. The smell of the air in this ship was intoxicating; a perfume of oil and brass, the scent of airship unmistakable no matter where one was.
Following the hum of the engines, she followed the sound, exploring deeper down into the ship until she arrived at her eventual destination on any airship: the engine room.
As she closed the door behind her and beheld the engines of whatever airship she was on, she gasped involuntarily. She had no idea what kind of engines these were, but whatever they were, they looked gorgeous to her mechanic’s eyes. For a moment she reached down before forgetting that she’d left her spanner on Incarnadine. She frowned, slowly stepping closer to the machines.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
She jolted as a vaguely familiar voice exploded out from behind her. She turned as a sea-foam green unicorn walked in after her. “I was wondering when you’d wake up, Rainbow Dash. I think I met you a long time ago while flying for the Alliance, but I can’t be sure. So I’ll just introduce myself as a new pony. I’m Lyra. You heard me over the radio. This is my airship, the Skyshard. You’ve been asleep for fifteen hours or so, if I’m not wrong, and I’m taking a moment to rest. Your friends told me you’re a mechanic, so when I saw you gone from your room, I figured you’d probably be here.”
Rainbow cut straight to her first question with no preamble: “I looked out the window. Where are we?”
Lyra chuckled. “Straight to the point, I see. That’s good. We’re a little west of Baltimare, which is where we’re heading. There’s still a good chunk of underground Alliance there, and New Harmony is more lax there than it is in most places. That’s where we’re regrouping.”
“Baltimare? In fifteen hours? It took us two days just to get out of Canterlot airspace, and we were going west! What kind of engines are these?”
Lyra stepped up to the largest of the engines, stroking it affectionately. “This is one of the newer engines. I took a look at your ship. No offense, but it’s horribly outdated. Nobody’s used Cadance regulators since long before the war ended. Too inefficient to use liquid mana injectors. These shove pure manafilament straight into the combustion chambers. Sure, it makes a ton more exhaust and heat, but the speed you get out of them is great.”
Rainbow stared at the engine, fascinated, trying to puzzle its operation out. “Awesome…” she mumbled, eyes unfocusing. Lyra burst out in a gout of laughter.
“It is, isn’t it? Now come on. Your friends probably want to talk to you.”
Rainbow was still stiff and sore, and it took far longer than it should’ve for the two to arrive at the hatch leading up to the deck. “C’mon, up you go,” shouted Lyra, nudging Rainbow up the ladder. “You’re so slow! Can’t you go any faster?”
Hurrying herself, Rainbow emerged into the searing sunlight. Her eyes, adjusted for the dimness of the interior of an airship, screwed themselves shut until she felt that she wouldn’t go blind anymore upon opening them, and she did so.
The long, thin ship stretched out before and behind her, and to the sides, the perfect, cloudless sky stretched. The Incarnadine had been bolted to the wood of the deck, and Rarity and Applejack stood on the deck, discussing in angry tones. “Damnit, Rarity! I left Canterlot with you, but I damn sure never agreed to get involved in a war!”
“Well, what are you going to do, then? Every Imperial soldier in New Harmony knows your face by now, and you definitely won't be able to talk your way out like I could.”
“An’ what's that supposed to mean? You callin’ me stupid?”
“No! You're not stupid! But you haven't had two decades of training and practice in diplomacy!” Rarity’s voice was growing strained, slowly climbing an octave.
AJ stomped once, the clang making Rainbow winced as her headache pulsed. “I told you, I don't care what's goin’ on. I told you, didn't I? I'm not givin’ up on New Harmony!”
Rarity exhaled pointedly, clearly trying to restrain her frustration. “AJ, what else can you do? They’ll be looking for you in Ponyville. They’ll be looking for you everywhere. If you come with us, at least you’ll be safer.”
Lyra sighed. “They’re still talking about this? They’ve been going on for hours now!”
Rainbow frowned. “Going on? About what?”
Lyra shrugged. “Eh, Rarity wants AJ to join the Alliance, and AJ is still hopeful for New Harmony. I say, it doesn’t really matter as long as she doesn’t try to blow me out of the sky, but that’s just me.” She sighed. “I came and helped you guys because I’m sick of them bullying others around, but that doesn’t mean I want another war.”
Rainbow nodded. “I know what you mean. On one hoof, I’m done fighting, and I just want to live, y’know? But on the other...” she grimaced, “I want revenge on the ponies that took my crew from me.”
Lyra looked sidelong at her. “Yeah, about that. Rarity did mention you were Alliance too. What crew did you fly with?”
Rainbow sighed. “If you gotta know, I flew with Surprise, Fluttershy, and Double Diamond. But I’d really rather not talk too much about them. Old wound, but still raw.”
Lyra nodded. “I respect that. But...if it means anything, Surprise was one of the best ponies—and pilots—I’ve ever met.” Rainbow nodded wordlessly.
The two sat in silence for a bit, listening to the continued arguing from Rarity and AJ, before Rainbow turned to Lyra. “So...uh...are we gonna stop them?”
Rolling her eyes, Lyra grinned. “If I must. Hey! You two! Shut up and get down here!” she called up at the two ponies.
“Do you mind, Lyra? I’m in the middle of something—Oh! Rainbow!” said Rarity, bouncing from irritation to elation in record time.
AJ kept glaring at her a moment longer, muttering “this isn’t over, Rarity,” under her breath before turning. “Good t’see you awake, Rainbow. We were right worried about you.”
Rainbow grinned before grimacing a bit. “Yeah, no worries, guys, I’m fine. Just a headache from tiredness is all.”
“Well, I do hope you feel better soon,” said Rarity, AJ nodding in accordance.
Rainbow smiled cockily. “Thanks. So do I.”
The three continued to talk relatively meaninglessly for the next half an hour or so, during which Lyra returned to the helm, As their conversations drew to a close, Lyra hollered back at them, “We’re coming in for a landing on the Baltimare central airdock! Be ready for a jolt! And if you have anything you can use to cover AJ, do it now!”
Rarity chuckled loudly as she dove down into the guts of the airship, coming up with a vindictive gleam in her eyes and one of her still-preserved black cloaks. “Ohhh, AJ…” she singsonged, creeping up on her, “ready to wear a cloak again?”
Seemingly in no mood for games, AJ snatched it out of the air immediately, donning it and pulling the drawstring tight. Her hat went into her saddlebags, secured tightly to make extra sure it wouldn’t fall out. “I can’t deal with that right now, Rarity. This is bad enough on its own, you don’t need to make it worse.”
The airship was shrouded in intense silence.
Then came the docking crash familiar to any pilots, and a spring-loaded gangplank extended with a chunk from the deck, leading through the warm, wet sea air and into Baltimare.