//------------------------------//
// Run Silent and Run Dash 
// Story: Utaan 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Yup."  A pair of squinting eyeslits pierced the translucent runic field protecting the observation level of Bleak's Plummet from the tons and tons of seawater beyond.  "Yuppppppp... there she blows."

"Where?"  Nicole craned her neck to look past Echo's shoulders.  The two of them stood at their underwater post on the uppermost strut of the submerged sarosian dwelling.  Due east, dense waves of water shifted and churned in constant flux.  "I don't—"  Bard's hat slumped over her brow.  "Grnngh."  She shoved it back up, eyeslits peering.  "—see anything!"

"It's coming," Echo's voice purred past his fangs.  "Wait for it."

"Wait for what—?"  Nicole's exclamation was sliced by a sudden pulse of bright green light.  "Eeek!"

Echo winced, rubbing his leafy ears.  "Damn, girl.  I knew you were raised on a farm full of dull farts—but not into my skull, please!"

"Erm... s-sorry..."  Nicole's shy smile didn't last long, for soon she was digesting the resulting pulse of green runic light beyond the window with genuine excitement.  "But... that's it!  Isn't it?  The Herald's signal?!"

"Uh huh."  Echo nodded, staring into the green aura as it began to fade.  A dull torpedo shot past them, having relayed its magical message.  It descended ineffectually into the swirling currents below Bleak's Plummet.  "That means the Central Guard's almost on top of us."

"Cutting it awfully close, huh?"

"No other way to cut it.  We can't stay deep for too long."  Echo turned around, facing an anxious line of sarosians positioned in the chamber behind them.  "Either we make the dive and start cruising now, or we're caught dead in the water."  He nodded fervently.  "That's the signal!  Go tell Mama Xarchellus—we're good to go!"

"Ywm, Ryckmun!" a sarosian nodded fervently before turning to face his colleagues.  A few shrieks echoed between them, and they rushed into the lower chambers to pass the word along.

"Oh gosh..."  Nicole shivered slightly, her ears and wings drooping.  "Oh gosh—if they see us drifting underneath them—"

"Hey..."  Echo flashed her a calm look.  "Wouldn't be a midnighter lifestyle if it wasn't fraught with stupid dangerous crap every other second."

"I know, just... just..."  Nicole gulped, squirming.  "Now that it's actually happening..."

"Could be worse."  Echo tried to smirk.  "We could be Rainbow Dash right now."

Nicole said nothing.  She merely trembled.

Echo looked at her... out the observation window... then back at her.  Taking a breath, he shuffled sideways in the runic light and wrapped a gentle wing around her.

Nicole's nerves calmed... if only slightly.

"It's going to work," Echo said.  "The plan... the voyage... everything."  He held her tight as they both gazed at the fading green aura beneath the waves.  "Someday... when we're cruising through the clouds of Equestria where Rainbow Dash was foaled... we're going to look back at all of this and laugh at what pussies we all were."

"Yeah..."  Nicole nodded.  "...maybe I'll hit your head then."

Fanged teeth.  "You can hit me in the head now."

"I'll consider it."  Nicole shuddered.  Her slitted eyes turned slightly misty.  "Good luck, Johnny..."

The last of the green light faded.  There were shrieks in the distant hallways of Bleak's Plummet, echoing authoritatively across the chambers and bleakweed bulkheads.  And then...

TH-THWOOSH!

...Nicole and Echo nearly stumbled as the entire weight of the structure shifted through the water.

The runic light flickered.

Bubbles formed across the gnarled portholes.

Soon, the vessel was lurching, shifting, and—at last—cruising west through the stormy waters.





"Bard!" Rainbow Dash hollered.  "Get your butt on board the Stardust!  Prepare the artillery runes!"

"Way ahead of ya, darlin'!" Bard hopped onto the vessel, followed by a pair of sarosians.

"Ariel!  Wildcard!  Form your groups and gather the stormclouds above us!"

"Sure thing, Rainbow!" Ariel saluted as she and Wildcard flew up into the air along with their bat-pony companions.

Applejack grimaced as she stared at Pinkie's confused expression.  In an orange blur, she streaked up closer to her anchor.  "Rainbow..."

"Enix, you'll be in charge of the second wave!" Rainbow hollered, preoccupied in the moment.  She spun to face the last four Heraldites positioned on the final platform.  "Flynn!  Kepler!  Keep an eye out on the Gondola!  It'll be your job to signal us when it's time to cross over!"

"Affirrmative, Rrainbow One!"

"Rainbow Dash..."  Applejack fidgeted in midair as her ghostly companions grew more and more anxious.

"Axan... Logan..."  Rainbow's eyes narrowed.  "We'll need you as a last resort.  Hopefully the ships won't come close enough to the edge for there to be a final final stand.  But in case these punks get within breathing room—that's when you'll be called upon."

"You should put us at the front of the defense," Remna grumbled.

"Axan, the plans are already made."  Rainbow's brow furrowed.  "If worse comes to worst, I can't afford to drag your dumb dragon weight all the way back here to the edge.  Like I said—we need you as a last resort!"

"Rainbow Dash—!" Applejack tried hollering.

"I say bring 'em!" Logan hissed, smiling wickedly.  "Any chance to test my axe is a fight worth friggin' having!"

"Rein it in, tough guy," Rainbow Dash said.  She lifted her muzzle to shout at the group as a whole:  "The same goes for the rest of you!  The idea here is to shove these jerks back!  Not maim and kill!  Don't take any lives unless you absolutely positively need to do so as a defensive measure!  Hopefully—between the stormclouds and the runic explosives—we just might have enough to scare these melon fudges all the way back to Frostknife—"

"Rainbow Dash!"  Applejack hollered into the pegasus' ear.  "Listen up, ya lil' varmint!"

Wincing, Rainbow Dash spun around.  "Yeesh!  AJ, what's the big deal?  Can't you see it's time for—?"

"Rainbow."  Applejack glared at her.  "We've got a problem."

"Huh?"  Rainbow's head tilted crookedly.  "What kind of a pro—?"  She froze upon seeing a terrified expression—not just on Pinkie Pie's face, but Rarity's and Fluttershy's as well.  She instantly deflated, her ears drooping.  "Hey... talk to me, girls.  What's going on?"

"Fluttershy?"  Twilight Sparkle spun about, similarly confused.  "Rarity?  What's the matter?"

"Oh goodness..."  Fluttershy nibbled on the edges of her ghostly fetlocks, proceeding to pace about in anxious circles.  "Oh my goodness.  Oh... g-goodness!"

"Rainbow?"  Bard leaned forward off the port side of the Stardust.  Above him, Wildcard and Ariel hovered close by with worred expressions.  "What seems to be the problem?"

"Do... do your friends sense something wrong?" Ariel murmured.

Rainbow floated towards the most distressed spectre of all.  "Rarity...?"

"Mmmmm...!"  The fashionista whimpered inwardly.  She stared up at Rainbow with glossy eyes.  "There's... b-been a huge mistake."

"Then tell me."  Rainbow gnashed her teeth.  "How big of a boo-boo is it?  What's going on?"

Rarity exchanged glances with Fluttershy.  With ears drooping, she looked worriedly at Rainbow once again.  "There aren't two ships, Rainbow darling..."

Rainbow's muzzle hung agape.  "... ... ...what?"





Splooosh!

A fountain of salt water billowed against the rusted prow of a speedily churning privateer ship.  As it crested the wave, the skeleton crew on board shifted with the vessel's weight.

Perched on the very bow was Seraphimus.  The ocean mist formed a slick sheen against her neckfeathers, and the flash of thunder gifted brief color to her charcoal brown eyes, but was gone in a heartbeat.  Silent as a dagger, she peered east into the miasma of black vapor and blacker stormwaters.

A thin dark line foretold the end of the world.  Firmaments billowed in the distance—but was mostly obscured by rolling clouds that loomed ever closer.  Below the frontmost ship's prow, the waters rippled and danced wildly... constantly.

Seraphimus' razor sharp talons clung to the support railing of the ship.  As thunder rolled, she pivoted about and threw her slicing gaze back at the ocean due west—beyond the point vessel's wake.

The second and third ships followed at a long distance behind her, cruising side by side.  On the northernmost vessel sat Brye Chandler, clad in all his bulky armor—save for a helmet that he held tightly in a pair of metal-laced hooves.  Surrounded by rain-soaked subordinates, he cautiously... nervously eyed the final horizon before them.

A dozen deckplates behind Chandler, Commander Keris perched along with his wingmates.  While he stood tall and resolute, a noticeable shudder ran anxiously through the likes of Starstorm, Windburst, and Raptr.  They eyed the maelstrom all around them, but Keris kept his hawkeyes trained on one figure and one figure alone: Seraphimus.

In such icy resolution, the champions of Frostknife pierced their way towards the edge of everything, serenaded by the noise of chaos all around.





"What the hell do you mean, there are three ships?!?" Logan cackled.

"Calm down, Big Show—" Flynn tried.

"You calm down, you bald-ass mana-guzzler!"  The larger stallion gnashed his teeth.  "This whole Goddess-dayum plan of ours depends on there being only two ships that we gotta bait and switch!"  He waved a wild hoof in Rainbow's direction.  "But now the Council of Friendly Ghosts is telling us that there's three?!"

"Shove a horseshoe in it, will ya?!" Bard barked from the deck of the Stardust.  "What matters is that we know the truth now.  So we gotta deal with it and not snap at each other's necks like a bunch of angry horned toads—!"

"What difference does it make what we know now!?"  Ariel flailed her forelimbs.  "Didn't you hear what Rainbow said?!  One ship's positioned way ahead of the other two!"

"A rreasonable strrategy," Kepler hummed.  "Seeing as ourr antagonists do not know what exactly to expect frrom us here—"

"Point is...!"  Ariel gritted her teeth.  "...their formation's nothing like we expected!  We just sent Bleak's Plummet to their doom!"

"Now hold up—" Bard held a hoof out.

"If one Frostknife ship is taking point, then the other two must be hanging far behind!" Ariel exclaimed.  "That means when Bleak's Plummet surfaces, it won't be west of the ships!  It'll be directly beneath them!  The whole structure will be torn apart!  Xarchellus' exodus to Equestria will be all for nothing!"

"Not if we can help it!"  Bard said, frowning.  He turned to look at Flynn.  "Can't we... I dunno... warn them or somethin'?"

"I'm afraid it's too late."  Flynn shook his head.  "They will have seen the torpedo signal by now.  If all goes according to the original plan, they'll be passing underneath the Central Guard's ships right now as we speak."

"You mean the Central Guard's first ship," Ariel insisted.

Flynn sighed hard.  "Well... yes... but—"

"But nothing!"  Ariel exclaimed.  "Don't you get it?!  They're screwed now!  We're screwed!"

Wildcard gestured something briskly.

Flynn shook his head.  "I'm afraid not.  Another torpedo wouldn't reach Bleak's Plummet in time.  And even if it did..."  He turned to look at Rainbow Dash.  "...it still won't change the fact that they can only stay submerged for a limited amount of time.  They gotta come up sooner than later."

All this time, Rainbow Dash had been pacing and pacing.  She merely gave Flynn a look.  To her side, Fluttershy and Rarity were practically sobbing.

"I'm so very sorry, darling..."  Rarity shuddered.  "If only my senses worked as well at a grand distance."

"I don't know why I didn't realize how far apart the front of the group was from the rest!"  Fluttershy sniffled.  "It's all my fault.  So many ponies are going to die because of me..."

Rainbow didn't have a chance to respond to that—

"How come we never knew about the third ship?!" Logan spat.  "Huh?!  Who bucked that up royally?!"

"The reconaissance group claimed that there were only two vessels," Enix said from where she hovered above the group.  Her fangs glinted with the lightning.  "Obviously, they were in error."

"Damn straight they were!" Logan snarled.  "I thought your nightblooded brothers and sisters could—y'know—see well at night!"

"This mistake shall not go unpunished," Enix growled.  "I assure you I shall find those responsible and personally fl—"

Bard whistled shrilly.  "Let's not tan any of our own brothers' and sisters' hides just yet.  Enough yappin' around!  Let's think of a solution already!"  He stomped a hoof against the Stardust's deckplates.  "Come on, y'all!  We're better than this!  Let's put our noggins together!"

"Isn't it obvious?"  Remna droned, glaring at everyone.  "The plan is obsolete now.  That leaves us with one option: we must attack the armada with a full-frontal assault."

"Negative!"  Kepler frowned.  His spectacles glistened in the stormlight.  "We shall not deparrt this plane with a massacrre underr ourr belts!"

"And risk the lives of thousands on board Xarchellus' vessel full of fragile mortals?" Remna took a fuming breath.  "It is a noble thing to shrug off the flirtations of death, but I don't see how we have any other choice now."

"For Mortuana's sake, girl!" Ariel's voice cracked.  "If we attack them straight on, then most of Enix's wingmates will die!"

"I do believe she's already prepared to take the hit for her companions' prior mistakes—"

"That's not the point!  Without them to distract the dickbags from Frostknife, then how are we going to last long enough to make it to the Gondola in one piece?!"

Flynn, Bard, and Logan joined the argument in a bevy of bellicose voices.  Enix's shrieks and Kepler's rolling tongue tried to make their opinions heard as well.  Even Wildcard drifted into the heart of the fray, gesturing wildly with flesh and metal talons.

All the while, Rainbow Dash stood on the side.  She had stopped pacing... choosing instead to stand icily still while her allies bickered and argued the frenzied minute away.

Twilight Sparkle wrung her forelimbs, shivering in mid-hover.  "I don't understand... we thought of every variable... every single one!"

"I was tryin' to warn ya, Rainbow!" Applejack exclaimed.  "I knew somethin' was up the moment I saw Pinkie Pie all-a-fidgety."

"But..."  Twilight bit her lip.  "...how did Pinkie know?"

"I wish I could say!"  The distressed party pony's ears were drooping.  Bright blue eyes pierced Rainbow from a shivering distance.  "It's like nothing I've ever felt before!  I... only wish I could have put my hoof on it sooner..."

"Rainbow Dash..."  Rarity floated in front of their anchor, her eyes pleading.  "Bleak's Plummet is still a few hundred meters east of the foremost ship."  She gulped.  "There still may be time to do something about this error in judgment."

"Like what?"  Applejack shrugged wildly.  "Flynn done said we can't signal Xarchellus' flock to do anythang else at this point!"

"Maybe he's right."  Pinkie suddenly brightened, her ears perking up.  "But what about signaling the bad guys' ships?"

"Ehhh?"  Rarity did a double-take.

Twilight Sparkle rubbed her forehead.  "... ... ...you mean like a distraction?"

"Abso-duti-lutely!"

"But that was part of the original plan!" Applejack exclaimed.  "And that seems shot to Tartarus at the moment!"

"Well... duhhhhh!"  Pinkie Pie hopped in mid-air.  "We make an even bigger distraction!"

"Like... how big?" Rarity asked.

"Big enough that... that..."  Pinkie's nose scrunched and she growled in frustration.  "Grrrrrr!  Whatever!  Just something so party-poopingly-huge that it'll grab the three ships' attention super hard!  Something that will make them ignore Bleak's Plummet no matter what!"

"If you ask me, darling, the only thing that will accomplish that is blowing a hole through one of their vessels!" Rarity said.

Rainbow Dash threw Rarity a swift glance.  She took a breath... opening her muzzle—

"Rainbow Dash..."

Rainbow turned to look.

Fluttershy was gazing solemnly at her.  "She's here."

Rainbow blinked.

"Seraphimus."  Fluttershy took a calm breath, her tears fading.  "The first ship that's taking point."  Her eyes narrowed.  "She's on board it."

Rainbow stared and stared.  At last, with a firm voice, she spoke into the thunderous winds:  "I need to face them."

Just like that, the noisy argument around her shattered.  Enix, the Desperadoes, and the Herald all spun to face Rainbow.

"Huh??"  Ariel blinked.

"Our plan to distract the Central Guard isn't screwed up," Rainbow said firmly, trotting a straight line across the platform.  "Not so long as we have me."  She approached the group, her eyes hard and determined.  "They're not after the Herald.  They're not after any midnighters."  She came to a stop, gesturing.  "What they came here for is the Rainbow Rogue who slaughtered their Goddess and cursed their land."

"Yeah..."  Flynn tilted his head aside, eyebrow arched.  "...and?"

Rainbow took a deep breath.  "I think it's about time I gave it to them.  All of it."  She glanced aside at Fluttershy.  "Dastardly villain and all."

"Rainbow..."  Twilight gulped.  "...they'll kill you."

"They can't kill what they can't catch."  Rainbow turned to face the Job Squad.  "I've outrun Seraphimus' finest before."  The hint of a devilish smirk.  "I can sure as heck do it again."

Bard's eyes narrowed.  "She's here... ain't she?"

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy nodded.  She mouthed two other names.

"Yup."  Rainbow nodded back.  "So is Chandler.  But then again..."  A harder smirk.  "...so is Keris."

Remna blinked.

"Well..."  Bard glanced up at Wildcard.  "...reckon there's a smidgen of hope, at least."

Wildcard's beak tightened.

"But... but what exactly are you planning now?!" Ariel exclaimed, glancing worriedly down at Rainbow.  "Even if you fly west to intercept them, they'll spot you in a heartbeat!"  She gulped. "Seraphimus will spot you in a heartbeat!  You wouldn't make it within a kilometer of the ship!"

"I'm not going to be flying."

Ariel did a double-take.  "You're not?"

"Wuh oh..."  Pinkie rubbed her aching shoulder.  "...Dashie's about to do something stuuuuuupiddddd."

Twilight's voice growled from deep within her ghostly chest.  "Rainbowwww...?"

Their anchor was too busy approaching the thick of the group.  "Enix... Flynn... how long did it take you to build that bleakweed torpedo just now?"

"Uhm..."  Flynn gulped.  "Twenty minutes."

Rainbow merely nodded.  "You've got two minutes to make a second one."

Flynn's ears drooped.  "Buh."

Rainbow spun to face Enix.  "Explosive runes.  I'll need a buttload of them."

Enix's eyeslits narrowed.  "Are you... planning what I believe you are planning, Blood of Luna?"

"That depends if you've ever been crazy enough."

Enix took a breath.  "Considering I've survived over two decades of bloodied combat, I daresay I've never been."

"Austraeoh..."  Remna droned.

"Save it, Axan," Rainbow hissed, waving a hoof as she settled beside Flynn and assisted him in building another torpedo.  "By the time you're halfway through bitching at me, Bleak's Plummet will have been compromised.  We're at the edge of the world.  The time for thinking is over."  She looked up with a frown.  "The explosives, dang it!  I know I'm stealing the spotlight here, but throw me a bone here!"





Brye Chandler fidgeted.  He felt like pacing, but—perched awkwardly in the center of his guilded chariot—he had nowhere to go.  Impatiently, he leaned forward against the rain-glossed metal, squinting his green eyes past the bodies of his militant subordinates to pierce the fog and mist beyond.  The persistent roar of the world's end slowly swallowed the chugging noise of all three ships' steam engines.

"Damnation..."  The Defense Minister gnashed his teeth.  "...it's worse than what the elders have written in the old scrolls.  This place is like a never-ending hot spring.  I can't see worth my own weight in gold."

"It's said that there's a point of no return, Minister," a griffon officer exclaimed, holding a talon up to steady the chariot as the deck beneath them rocked from the tempestuous waves.  With errant splashes of seawater, they plowed through the wake of the front vessel taking point far ahead of them.  "Past a random formation of stone structures—it's said—the current flows towards the Firmaments with an inescapable velocity."

"And we're approaching such a bleak longitude now," Chandler said, his features hardening as he continued to gaze... gaze.  "She hasn't much of a world left to hide in now.  Certainly not on sea at least."

A pegasus looked up at him.  "Shall we take to the skies, sir?"

Chandler opened his muzzle... but had nothing to say.

"Defense Minister?"

Chandler gulped—although he tried to hide it.  His armor rattled a bit as he stole a glance behind him.  He looked at Keris and his fellow wingmates perched at the back of the ship.  In a distant voice, he muttered:  "Has there... been any signal from Seraphimus?"

The pegasus soldier shook his head.  "No, sir.  It doesn't look like she's spotted anything yet."

Chandler bit his lip.  He looked east at the frontmost steamship—eyeing the lone silver figure of Seraphimus perched on the distant bow.

The subordinates around him shifted uncomfortably.  A griffon spoke up:  "Sir?  Do we take wing—?"

"Not yet," Chandler blurted.  "Dammit, soldier.  Do we want to spread our numbers thin this early?"  He slapped a gauntlet'd hoof against the edge of his chariot.  "We stay on board our ships until Seraphimus... I-I mean until I give the word to do otherwise!  No sooner!"

Thunder rolled.  The warriors of Frostknife exchanged looks.

"Aye, sir."  A griffon gestured to the others.  "Eyes east!  Wait for the Minister's signal!"

"Aye!"

"Understood!"

As Chandler took several deep breaths and lingered anxiously in his chariot...

...Keris and the rest of the Right Talon of Verlaxion remained calm near the stern of the very same vessel.

"What's got them shouting at each other?" Raptr stammered.  His armor—much like everyone else's—had earned a fine sheen from the permeating moisture in the air.  "Do they see something we don't?"

"Mmmmmmmmm... nope..."  Windburst squinted at the Defense Minister's posse across the deck.  "But something tells me they'll be the first to spot something—even before Seraphimus... especially if the something they spot is not actually there."

Raptr flung them a nervous look.  "Huh??"

"What I think the Sergeant is trying to say," Starstorm spoke, "Is that the Defense Minister's military inexperience is starting to show."

"The rat bastard's gonna pop any second," Windburst droned.  "What's worse—he's infected this entire crew.  Never mind Seraphimus; this entire armada is a powder keg waiting to go off."

Starstorm exhaled sharply.  "Wanna bet that somepony out there is going to take advantage of that?"

"I most certainly will," Keris said firmly.  Calmly.  "In fact, my odds are on Rainbow Dash."

Raptr flung a look back at Keris.  "You really think she's got something in store for us?"

"For us?"  Keris looked back at the rookie.  "The Defense Minister, perhaps.  The Central Guard as a whole?  Most definitely.  Where we come in remains to be seen... but I suspect that—someway, somehow—we're going to be a very important variable."

"What kind of a variable?"  Raptr remarked.  "We've no idea what she's planning!"

"Indeed."  Keris nodded.  "Just as she has no idea what true terror Chandler has brought with him to the edge of the world."  His gaze fell on the front ship taking point.  "Chandler's not the real problem here.  If we're to be the equalizers that Rainbow Dash needs, our eyes will need to be on Seraphimus.  No one else."

Windburst and Starburst exchanged tense glances.

Raptr gulped.  "What's the plan, then?  How... h-how are we going to deal with her?"

"Leave that to me," Keris spoke firmly beneath the lightning and thunder.  "When somepony makes the first move—and I greatly suspect it will be Rainbow—everything will turn into pure and unmitigated chaos.  We're going to be the one force maintaining harmony on our end."  He took a deep breath.  "Here's hoping she gives us the clues we need to help her at all the right moments."

Raptr's beak rattled.  He stared at Seraphimus' glinting figure from afar.  "A lot of ponies and griffons are going to die today, aren't they?"

Keris was silent.  He held his position firmly—even as the ship rocked and the waves splashed harder and wetter.





Th-Thump!  Ariel and Wildcard dumped a bunch of runestones onto the granite platform.

"There!"  Ariel huffed, her brow soaked with sweat and seawater.  She stammered between the claps of thunder:  "That's all that Bard's group could spare from the Stardust."

"Right."  Rainbow nodded.  "Good stuff."  She knelt beside Enix and a few other sarosians, assisting them in weaving bleakweed around a narrow cylinder.  "Find a way to cluster it all together."

"With what?  Rubber bands?"

"Use some netting, girl!  Be friggin' creative!"  Rainbow huffed, fumbling with more bleakweed.  "Ask Wildcard if you have to."

"They're cruising closerrrrrrrrr..."  Rarity squealed.

"Flynn?"  Rainbow's eyes darted up.  "How are we on those enchantments?"

"Friggin' asinine leylines..."  The stallion hissed and sweated, his horn producing steam in the drifting mists as he labored a mile-per-minute with his runes.  "...buck my plot with a gamma ray burst, I swear to Goddess..."

"Cool beans."  Rainbow looked at Enix huddled across from her.  "Got a command or two for me to steal?"

"I can think of chiefly two," Enix said.  With brisk hooves, she crafted a crude "basket" about the size of a beach ball and fitted it with runes.  "At most—three."

"Right.  Gonna need to be coached on them before I take the plunge."

"Uhmmm... Rainbow?"  Twilight drifted in, trembling.  "Perhaps now you might tell us exactly what you're planning?"

"Nope."  Rainbow looked at the Stardust.  "Still got enough to shake the seas with?"

"And some to grow on!"  Bard perched nervously on the ship's port side.  "Rainbow, darlin', we'd sure as Hell like to know what the new signal to start launchin' artillery will be."

"Nothing new!  It's the same signal as before!" Rainbow barked through the thunder as she and the sarosians placed the finishing touches on the makeshift torpedo.  "Look for Ariel and Wildcard to fire their flares!"  She glanced at the feathered Desperado in question.  "Wildcard, you'll be in charge of the first front of stormclouds.  Once you see enemy bogeys taking to the sky, prepare the ambush."

Wildcard whistled and gestured dramatically.

"Uhm..."  Logan limped over.  "...he's asking what exactly is going to make the Central Guard fly up towards the aerial ambush."

"They'll be chasing me."  Rainbow's eyes narrowed.  "Immediately after I blow up the first ship."

Bard did a double-take.  "Say what?"

"Dearrest Austrraeoh..."  Kepler nearly dropped his glasses as he shuffled over.  "...suicidal guile notwithstanding, how exactly do you plan to do this remarrkably dazzling feat?"

"I'm working on the plan right now!"  Rainbow gestured briskly.  "Quick!  Hand us the last of the bleakweed fibers!"

"Austraeoh."  Remna droned.  "If I may protest."

"You may not."  Rainbow grabbed the twine from Kepler and affixed the last of the runes while Flynn simultaneously enchanted them.  "We all have our places to be, Axan.  Wildcard's is in the sky.  Bard's is on the Stardust.  Yours is here with Kepler and Flynn."

"And where—pray tell—is your place, Austraeoh?" Remna growled.

"Where it's always been."  Rainbow briefly glanced at Twilight and Applejack.  "All over the friggin' place."  She slapped the bleakweed firmly into place and hooked her forelimbs beneath the torpedo.  "Alright, everypony!  Let's get this thing in the water!"





Th-Thumppp!

The gnarled bulkheads of Bleak's Plummet rocked and groaned.

"Nnngh!"  Nicole—grasping onto an errant root—jolted with the entire structure.  Runic light flickered all around her as she flung a worried look down the nearest chamber.  "What was that?"  She tilted the brow of the stetson up over her brow.  "Did we hit a sperm whale?  Ohhhhhhhh I just know we hit a sperm whale!"

After a series of shrieks echoed through the dim halls, Echo drifted back into the observation chamber—steadying her.  "Calm your flank, girl."  He held her tight as the two gazed at the bubbling waters beyond the magically-shielded window.  "It's just some oceanic turbulence.  Nothing unexpected... considering the speeds at which we're seafarting..."

"We... we can still keep this up, r-right?" Nicole stammered.  Her fangs glinted through a worried breath.  "I feel like the whole structure's gonna buckle at any moment!"

"Did Johnny teach you to worry like a deflated puffer fish?"  Echo managed a smirk.  "We're doing just fine.  Trust me.  All of Xarchellus' finest are monitoring every rune and enchantment in this place!  We couldn't possibly be safer."

Nicole gulped, shivering against him.  "You sure of that?"

"Bae..."  Echo brushed her bangs back.  "...would I lie to you?  Besides, at the first sign of trouble—any trouble—we'll know it instantly from a high-pitched warning cry sent through the hallways."

At that instant, there was a high-pitched warning cry sent through the hallways.

"Gah!"  Nicole clung to Echo, paling.  "What's that?  What is that?!?"

"Grrrrrrr..."  Echo spun and shrieked back down the halls where the cry came from.

Seconds rolled by, then another shriek returned—this one louder and more desperate.  It was accompanied by several nervous voices stammering in moonwhinny.

"What?"  Nicole gritted her teeth.  "What's going on?"

"'Problem???'"  Echo echoed.  The hairs on the back of his neck bristled.  "What kind of problem?!"

More words were shrieked in moonwhinny.

Echo blinked.  Smoothely, he disentangled himself from Nicole and slunk his way towards the translucent runic window.  Once he was perched within the half-domed frame, he stared straight up... up at the frothing surface of the tempestuous waters above them and all of Bleak's Plummet.

"Echo...?"  Nicole whimpered, squatting behind him as she too peered into the oceanic scene outside.  "What's the matter?"

"Uhm..."  Echo's eyeslits squinted and squinted some more.

At last—he saw them:  three slicing, bubbling wakes.  There were three vessels cruising above them.  One to the far east... and the other two dragging at a grand distance behind.  At the sluggish rate at which Bleak's Plummet was cruising, it wasn't anywhere near close to clearing the westernmost pair of lagging vessels.

"What do you see?" Nicole asked.

Echo gulped... and his leafy ears formed cold quotation marks to his glinting fangs.  "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww shit."





Splash!  The torpedo dropped violently into the waves.

"Shhhhhh—!"  Rainbow hissed through clenched teeth.  She plunged halfway over the edge to steady the bobbing cylinder.  "Easy there!  Easy!"

The sarosians beside her apologized in moonwhinny.  Logan marched through them, carrying the makeshift basket full of explosive runes.

"Uhhhhhh... Ariel and Wildcard made the bag work somehow, Rainbow."  The large stallion gulped.  "But... uhm... maybe you would want to rethink—"

"And ruin something perfectly stupid?"  Rainbow Dash yanked the satchel from him and gripped it tightly in her fetlocks.  "Too late for that."

"Rainbow, I must declare," Twilight spoke in a firm voice.  "I'm with Big Show on this one."

"You're not fat enough."  Rainbow looked at Flynn.  "Flynn?  These runes good to go?"

"Grnnngh..."  The bald stallion rubbed his still-steaming horn.  "If my damn migraine is anything to go by... you're all gravy."

Rainbow winced slightly.  "Sorry, dude.  Thanks a ton."  She nodded at the wyvern in the group.  "Look after him, Kepler."

"Aye, Rrainbow One."

"Everypony!"  Rainbow slinked off the edge of the Emeraldinian granite, preparing to submerge herself along with the torpedo aimed west.  "You know your places!  We've been through all the crazy specifics already—so let's just keep things sweet and simple!"  Thunder rolled as she gestured at herself with a water-soaked hoof.  "I'm going to blow up the first ship!  The moment that happens, I'll lead the Central Guard to our teams in the air!  Bard, you're going to blast the heck out of the remaining two ships and—as a group—we'll lead them to the second ambush site by the rocks!  Axan... Big Show... you're both backup in case the Gondola hasn't arrived yet—but when it does..."  She pointed at Kepler and Flynn.  "You two alert us!  Any other emergency warnings will be handled through colored flares from all sides!  Got it?"

"Without question, Austrraeoh."  Kepler nodded.

"Blarghl..."  Flynn burped, leaning weakly against the wyvern.

"The moment the Gondolda's here, the Herald hops in and Enix's group flies off to rejoin Bleak's Plummet."  Rainbow took a deep, deep breath.  "We good?"

Nothing but thunder.

"Good."  Rainbow slunk deeper into the waves, hugging the torpedo under one arm.  "Then let's get this crazy show on the—"

"Rainbow!" Twilight hissed.

Before Rainbow could retort, Enix glided over in a pale blur.

"Blood of Luna!  I've just finished it!"

Rainbow gave her a weird look.  "Finished what?"

Enix frowned, grasping a miniature basket in her hooves.  "Your determination is as courageous as it is blind.  It's a wonder you made it a single kilometer out of the Solar Sister's kingdom alive."

"A thought that occurs to me every minute," Remna grumbled aside.

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "Enix, faster, please?  Bleak's Plummet isn't getting any closer to not-imploding."

"The first torpedo traversed over a kilometer of dense water to relay its signal to Luna's Flock," Enix swiftly said.  "Precisely how did you intend to survive an indentically perilous journey?"

Rainbow bobbed and bobbed in the waves.  She shrugged.  "Figured I would... y'know... hold my breath?"

Twilight face-hoofed.  "Rainbow..."

"What?"  Her anchor shrugged at the ghost.  "I'm already blue in the face!"

"When we're on the Dark Side, I'm going to make you black and bluer," Ariel grumbled with folded forelimbs.

"Love you too, girl," Rainbow spat through the salt water.

"Hmmmf."  Enix squatted low, holding the basket of runes out with two forelimbs.  "Use this."

Rainbow gently grasped the item.  She squinted at the rope-like construct of the basket.  "This... looks like the lifts we took down to Bleak's Plummet."

"Precisely."  Enix nodded.  "Place it over your head."

"Do as she says, Austraeoh," Remna grumbled.

For once, Rainbow obeyed the Divine.  She fixed the half-domed basket around her cranium.

"I will initiate the enchantment to shield it from the waters," Enix said.  "It will work in preserving oxygen... but only for a limited time."  Her eyeslits narrowed sharply.  "A very limited time."

Rainbow nodded, inhaling.  "Will I be able to... y'know..."  She raised the basket of explosives that Wildcard and Ariel had prepared.  "...set these babies off with the right command while wearing this thing?"

"Not unless you want to be instantly decapitated," Enix explained.

Bard and Wildcard winced from a distance.

"There wasn't enough time to nullify the shield runes from other, contrasting enchantments," Enix explained.  "Not that it matters.  Considering the distance that we've calculated, the shield will likely run out before the torpedo completes its journey... if it completes its journey."  Her scarred brow furrowed.  "Someway, somehow, you will have to remove the helmet, reach the ship, surface, and set off the runic explosives yourself.  I suspect you will have mere seconds between the command given and the resulting blast."

"Cool," Rainbow sputtered.

"There's still time to back out of this absurd maneuver," Remna insisted.

"Axan... there's never been any time to back out."  Rainbow calmly gazed at the draconian mare.  "Not even before I 'foaled yesterday.'  Mortuana knew this."

"Indeed."  Remna nodded.  "And that's why she is no longer with us."

"But I'm coming back."  Rainbow glared.  "Do you understand?"

The Herald and the sarosians shifted about nervously.

"I'm coming back."  Rainbow's gaze fell upon the Desperados.  "... ... ... I am coming back."

Bard took a deep breath.  Standing on board the Stardust, he lifted his muzzle and hollered into the air:  "Y'all heard her!  She's doin' her part!"  He extended his staff and slapped it firmly down onto the deckplates.  "Now let's do ours!"

Wildcard firmly nodded, cracking his feathery neckjoints as he hovered higher in the air.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh balls, help us," Ariel whimpered as she joined the former mercenary.

"Can't say it isn't exciting this way," Logan muttered with a slight smile.

"We've got yer back, darlin'," Bard said.  He threw Rainbow Dash a brotherly smirk.  "Only fittin' you steal the spotlight."

Rainbow smiled back at him.  "Now there's a good Bard."  She glanced aside at her ghostly companions.  "Girls?"

"For the record..."  Twilight frowned.  "...I think this is—by far—the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"Hey egghead, we have an entire dark side left to explore."  Rainbow merely smiled at her.  "Expect that record to be shattered."

Twilight rolled her eyes.  "I'll be monitoring the leylines of the runes' enchantment," she moaned.

"I'll tell you when we're close to the steamships, darling!" Rarity said.

"And I'll keep an eye on our friends and enemies as we draw closer!" Fluttershy insisted.  "I promise!"

"Leave any random eddy or wave or stingray to me!" Pinkie Pie chirped.  "Pinkie Sense has got your back, girl!"

Applejack growled.  "And I will be tannin' yer hide somethin' fierce once we all become flesh'n'blood once again."

"Now there's an incentive."  Rainbow hooked the torpedo under one hoof while she roped the straps of the explosive satchel around the opposite fetlock.  Taking several deeep breaths within her makeshift helmet, she looked up at Enix positioned along the granite's edge.  "Light it up."

Enix stooped over, lowering her head so that her scarred muzzle was inches away from the woven Bleakweed around Rainbow's head.  "Y'mnym," she whispered.

Fl-Flash!  The runes within the fibers lit up.  Silver-gray plates of translucent manalight solidified between the spaces, forming a makeshift dome around the petite pegasus' skull.

Rainbow twitched slightly—feeling a tingling enchantment in the tight pocket of air above and below her ears.  She looked at Enix.

Enix looked at her.  "Nocturnal blessings, W'ynlppa yln H'luun," she murmured.  "Everypony's future lies in wait for you among the stars."  That said, she leaned back and—with slitted eyes firmly affixed to the torpedo—she shrieked:  "M'wynhrm!"

FWOOOOOOOSH!  The bleakweed cylinder instantly barreled west, kicking up a bubbling froth of seawater.  Rainbow Dash gasped—startled by the jolt.  She clasped her muzzle tightly shut, only to realize that the wave of water flying at her face was being redirected safely around the round contours of her makeshift helmet.  All she could do was concentrate on the jarring physics of the moment as the torpedo—propelled by burning runes—descended at a twenty degree angle, swiftly submerging Rainbow and her ghostly friends beneath the depths of the world's end.





Gray streaks of layered liquid rippled all around Rainbow Dash.  The lightning and thunder vanished, replaced instead by an endless roar of dying ocean from all sides.  She knew she was soaring west—her last trip west—but all she could make out was chaos and the faint glow of harmonic light in her peripheral.  The Gondola rested directly behind her, growing more and more distant with each wave of bubbles.  It felt awkward, frightening, and more than a little bit wrong.

Gnashing her teeth, Rainbow hugged the enchanted cylinder under her right forelimb—a task that grew increasingly difficult with each burning second.  The torpedo heated up the waters all around her, forcing her to sweat vehemently within the tight space of her helmet... serenaded by the claustrophobic echoes of her panting breaths.  The weight of the bag of explosive runes dragged in the water behind her—threatening to yank her left forelimb out of its socket.  Suppressing a pained grunt, she positioned her body so that she could hug the satchel to her chest—squarely between herself and the torpedo—as she rode out the next few hundred meters of maniacal wave-piercing.

"Oh my goodness!"  Fluttershy whimpered, flinching tightly as her ghostly figure was dragged underwater along with Rainbow.  "Oh my goodness—this is far faster than I was expecting!"

"Just stay calm and monitor everything around us!" Twilight Sparkle commanded, her voice cracking above the volume of rippling waters in every direction.  "Rarity?  Pinkie?"

"We're already on it, darling!"

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Guhh..."  Twilight squinted west, her vision unimpeded by the thick depths gurgling past them, but having no greater luck spotting their distant target.  "We n-need somepony to keep track of the time going by!" she exclaimed.  "I can't imagine that the oxygen in Rainbow's helmet will last forever!"

"I'll do it!"  Applejack sputtered.  She somersaulted awkwardly through the bubbles as her ghostly essence struggled to keep up with Rainbow.  "Reckon it's just like countin' apples back home!  Only... while glidin' underwater with the aim of blowin' up a ship full of bad dudes."

"We're... n-not going to blow them up too, are we?" Fluttershy stammered.

"One... hckkk... th-thing at a t-time..." Rainbow wheezed.

"Rainbow, save your breath, darling!" Rarity insisted, her ghostly eyes reflecting bubbles and froth.  "Let us do the moralistic mulling for the time being!"

"The charge is still strong!" Twilight insisted, glancing at the torpedo.  "Concentrate, everypony!"  She looked west again with a pensive expression.  "We've got a lot of water to cover!"

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth.  Her breaths fogged against the translucent manashields around her as she skimmed and skimmed and—





A shrill whistle escaped Wildcard's beak.  As soon as he had the attention of everypony around him, he gestured towards the sky and ascended swiftly.

"Mofo's right, y'all!"  Bard shouted.  The torpedo's westward wake hadn't yet begun to fade by the time he crossed the deck of the Stardust and cut loose the moorings.  "No more time for gawkin'!  Let's mosey!"  He shouted over his shoulder to his two sarosian crewmates.  "Bat One and Bat Two!  Get the engine runnin'!  We'll gun it for the first few minutes then cut the noise and cruise on through the straits!"

"Ywm, land-dweller," one said, ducking into the cabin to activate the motor.

"Keep yer heads cool, partners!" Bard hollered once again, squinting west as lightning brimmed overhead.  "It's them hotheads whom we're aimin' to take to the woodshed!  Let's hit 'em where it hurts and make like ghosts!"

"Hopefully not in the morrtal sense!" Kepler shouted, rushing gleefully to his post along with Flynn.  "Ha-hah!"

"Dubya-Cee!" Bard growled as the Stardust's motor came to life.  The ship puttered west against the currents, and the Desperado rushed up to the top deck to grab the rudder wheel.  "Dun get too cocky without me, or else I'll be firin' the first round of flares right at yer feathery hide!"

"Don't worry, Bard!" Ariel shouted from high above.  "I'll keep him in check!"  She motioned towards the fellow sarosians.  "Alright, everyone!  To the stormclouds!  Move it!  Move it!"

"M'lywylla sym whym!" Enix shrieked, taking up the rear behind Ariel and Wildcard.  She glared at all of the sarosians and moved them into separate formations.  "H'lymwym syl'ym w'lynym sylymym H'Luun!"

"Sylymym H'Luun!"  The air shook with their response, and then all was thunder as the group pierced the heavens.

The sonic clap of their rapid departure produced a heavy burst of wind.  Along the far fringes of the Emeraldinian platform, multiple empty crystalline jars swayed in the wind, rattling against each other and making sweet percussion.

Silent, Remna glanced back at the multiple see-through containers of ancient origin.  The air sang with otherworldly chimes—until the jars settled.  The draconian mare took a deep breath... then swiveled back to face west.  Her violet brow furrowed as she observed the many sarosians and Heraldites disappearing into the sky...





...a sky that turned darker and darker along the bleak horizon to the east.  Seraphimus watched—charcoal eyes stern and piercing—as the nebulous starlight was swiftly blotted out by thick black mists.

Her perch on the frontmost ship's bow tightened.  Armored claws dug into the rusty hull.

There were only four other members of the Central Guard on board the heavily rocking ship.  One pegasus crewmember immediatedly spotted the shift in Seraphimus' posture.  He glided the length of the deck and came to a scraping stop behind her.  "Ma'am?  What is it?"

Seraphimus said nothing.  Her scrutinous eyes swept north... south... and back again... repeating...

The soldier behind her gulped.  "Do... do you see midnighters?"

"Stormclouds," Seraphimus pronounced.  The feathers along her neck raised slightly.  "Thicker than the rest."

"Should... I signal the rest of Chandler's fleet to alter their course?"

"No."  Seraphimus leaned back slightly, studying the skies in a calmer breath.  Her eyes traced the lightning as her ears tickled with the thunder.  "There's no going back."

The soldier blinked.  "Ma'am?"

Seraphimus didn't give any more of a response.  She scratched the bottom of her beak... her gaze falling down... down...

...gazing into the waters.





"Eight hundred meters!" Rarity exclaimed.  She twirled and spun through the bubbles in a desperate attempt to steer closer to her anchor.  It was a difficult ask—for while the torpedo kept true to its westward path, Rainbow's body constantly flailed and shifted from where she haphazardly struggled to grip the enchanted cylinder.  "Eight hundred meters and closing!"

"One third of the way there, Dashie!"  Pinkie exclaimed.  "At least, I think so—right?"

Rarity huffed, her tense ghost eyes full of seawater.  "Just keep your senses attuned to their own wavelength, Pinkie, darling—"

"Jellyfish!" Pinkie hollered.

"... ... ...!"  Eyes bulging, Rainbow threw her body to her right.  She rolled under the weight of the torpedo.  Her wet figure avoided the swaying tentacles of a dense cluster of pink jellyfish by mere inches.

"Whew!"  Pinkie swiped her brow... in a current full of seawater.  "Boy oh boy would that have been anticlimactic!"  A ghostly stetson whapped her over the head.  "Ouchie!"

Applejack put her ghostly hat back on and twirled to look at Rainbow.  "You've been at this for three minutes!  Yer doin' good, sugarcube!"

"Half the enchantments are burnt out!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Oh no!"  Fluttershy whimpered as a flash of lightning pierced the ocean's surface above them.  "Is that too soon?"

"No.  I... I think it's what Enix calculated," Twilight stammered.  "The torpedo's momentum should carry us all the way to where the armada's currently located!"

"Seven hundred meters!" Rarity exclaimed.  "We'll be there in a blink, Rainbow!"

Applejack leveled her face with Rainbow's.  "How're ya holdin' up on breathin' air, RD?"

Rainbow gnashed her teeth.  Moisture was seeping in through every nook and cranny of the shielded helmet.  Any breath she managed to steal was a desperate, squeaky thing.

"On second thought..."  Applejack smiled nervously.  "...save it for when it's crunch time, ya hear?"

"Six hundred and fifty meters!"

"They're getting closer," Fluttershy hummed, nervously rubbing her forelimbs together.  "Seraphimus is still on the front ship!"

Rainbow gulped.  Her eyes darted about, lashes dotted with salt water.  All she could see was a swirling maelstrom of thick ocean rushing towards her, filling her ears with a continuous roar.





"If... if we surface now..."  Nicole clung to a stalk of bleakweed as she stared out the magic window into the ocean depths.  "...we'll be right in the middle of them, won't we?"

"I... I'm not sure..."  Echo and other sarosians were busy peering up, up at the watery surface.  As the eastmost ship's wake ended... the bottom hulls of two other churning vessels could be seen taking up the fluctuating space.  At that current moment, the armada loomed directly above the bulk of Bleak's Plummet.  "Actually... I think we'll be surfacing just west of them."

"Really?"  Nicole flung him a look, beaming.  "That's great!  I mean... r-right?"

Echo stared at her blankly.  "We'll be sitting ducks, Nicole," he droned.  "Unless a thousand of us jump out and push, we'll be stuck in open range of their attack for minutes."

Nicole bit her lip hard.  Her fangs glinted as she stammered:  "How long until we are forced to surface?"

"Any moment now," Echo said as a cold shudder ran through the chamber.  "At this rate, we'll be brittle bits of water-logged coral."

Nicole choked on a sob.  She hugged herself in the cold runic light.  "Johnny..."  She sniffled, leafy ears drooping.  "Johnny, I'm so sorry.  All the hard work you've done—"

Just then, one of the sarosians in the chamber shrieked.  A velvety hoof pointed out the magic portholes of Bleak's Plummet.

"Look!"

"Something's coming!"

"Huh?  What?"  Echo leaned forward, eyes bright and curious.  "Where?"

"See?"  An elder nightblood pointed.  "Have you gone blind, Ryckmun?"

Echo stared and squinted and—"Hot damn."  His ears perked up.  "Well I'll be."

"What?"  Nicole craned her neck to look.  "What is it?"

Echo managed his best smile as the structure weaved in the deep waters all around them.  "Something stupid."





"Five hundred meters!" Rarity exclaimed, her horn glowing.  "Four hundred and f-fifty!  My goodness!" She stared incredulously through the water at her companions.  "We're picking up speed!"

"The runes are burning out the last of the enchantment!" Twilight exclaimed.  "The leylines are drying up!"

"Oh!  Oh wow!"  Fluttershy suddenly gasped, staring down into the depths.

"What in tarnation is that?!" Applejack reacted to a dark, lingering shape that was slowly churning west beneath Rainbow Dash's position.

"It's... it's Bleak's Plummet!" Fluttershy exclaimed.  "Thousands of Luna's foals are waiting down there for us to save them!"

"At this rate, it will only barely clear the boats!" Rarity exclaimed.  Her gaze lifted up towards the water's surface due west.  "Rainbow, darling, we're within four hundred meters now!  You should be able to see them!"

Rainbow hissed and winced.  The air was growing thin in her helmet, and the water level was rising up to her nostrils.  She struggled to keep her chin above the moisture while her ruby eyes twitched in the direction that Rarity had indicated.

Three faint shadows lingered directly ahead.  One of them was closer than the rest, its hull slicing violently through the shallow waters...





Brye Chandler watched the frontmost ship from afar.

Suddenly, his chariot's weight shifted slightly—and he felt himself leaning towards the front of his riding compartment against his will.

He wasn't alone.  The rest of the Central Guard murmured in curious alarm—feeling as the deck swayed noticeably beneath them.

"What was that?"  Chandler asked, blinking.  "That just now?  Have we slowed?"

"It wasn't the engines, Minister," one griffon reported from below.

Another soldier spoke up:  "I think we're experiencing some kind of drag."

"From what?"

"I... don't know, sir.  The sea currents this far out are quite unpredictable..."

"Well, maintain our course, and signal our sister ship to do the same.  I want to be in visual range of the point vessel at all times."

Keris listened from afar.  He cocked his feathered neck curiously to the side.

"A drag?" Raptr thought out loud.

"Just a shift in the tide," Windburst said, eyes trained on Seraphimus from afar.  "Nothing more."

"Unless something was pulling at the water volume beneath us," Starstorm suggested.  "Like a group of whales."

"... ... ..."  Keris stepped back, squinting thoughtfully.  On calm claws, he strafed aside from the group.  The rest of the Talon watched in silence as the Commander approached the port side of his vessel and stared straight down into the water.

The waves appeared... darker than before.

Keris peered and peered in contemplative silence.





The ships were just now passing over the summit of Bleak's Plummet.

Nicole, Echo, and the rest of the sarosians stared with bated breaths.  Just then—there was a heavy jolt felt throughout the entire ship.

"Guh!"  Nicole flinched, teeth chattering.  "What now?"

The air around her rattled with moonwhinny.

Echo did his best to translate:  "The runes are being drained!  They're needing a reenchantment."

"Does..."  Nicole squeaked.  "...does that mean we're resurfacing?"

Just as she said this, the bodies of everypony on board shifted.  Bubbles formed outside the window, shooting briskly downwards.  The whole structure was rising rapidly.

"Here it comes..."  Echo steeled himself as he shrieked over his shoulder:  "Alert the Matriarch!  They're going to see us—!"

"Look!"  One of the sarosian spotters pointed at the tiny object barreling between them and the three ships.  "It's approaching!"

"Huh?" Echo did a double-take.

"Wait..."  Nicole caught an umistakably petite body of blue clinging to the torpedo.  "Is... is that Rainbow Dash?"

"Whoever it is..."  The spotter beside them spoke in a deep voice.  "...they're veering off course.  See?"

"What in the Hell is she even doing?" Echo stammered as they collectively began to rise.





"Uh oh!"  Pinkie Pie's everything was a-twitching.  She flung the other mares a pale look.  "Uh oh!  Uh oh!  Uh ohhhh!"

"What's going on?" Fluttershy yelped.

"We're veering off course!" Rarity exclaimed.  She looked at their anchor.  "Rainbow!"

Rainbow could barely breathe—much less summon the strength to respond.  Only a narrow pocket of air remained at the very top of Enix's makeshift helmet.  Nevertheless, the prismatic pegasus stole a good enough glimpse of her circumstances to realize that the torpedo was tilting towards its right and shooting north.

"Why ain't it goin' straight no more?" Applejack asked.

"It... it's Bleak's Plummet!" Twilight exclaimed, her horn glowing.  "Their runes have lost enchantment and now they're surfacing!"

"Now?!" Fluttershy panicked.

Twilight continued in as tense a voice:  "The lunar energy has caused a feedback!  It's shorted out the remaining charge in Enix's torpedo!"

"Well, at least it still seems to have momentum!" Applejack said.

"Yes—but we're going in the wrong way!" Rarity yelped.  "We'll never reach the ships now!"

"What are we going to do?" Fluttershy whimpered.

Twilight gnawed at her lavender fetlocks.

Applejack—meanwhile—flew directly in Rainbow's face.  "Sugarcube... now's a good time to pull somethin' out of yer sassy bag of tricks."

Naturally, Rainbow Dash was already on it.  Clamping her muzzle shut to keep out the rising seawater, she swung her body around the bleakweed undercarriage of the cylinder.  Once she was on the right side of it, she straightened her body... tensed her muscles... and shot a rigid wing out to the left—creating drag.

"Rainbow?"  Twilight squinted.  "What are you doing?"

"Duhhhhh!"  Pinkie grinned maniacally.  "Something awesome, silly!"

Twilight watched—in amazement—as Rainbow's outstretched wing altered the course of the runic cylinder.  Suddenly, the torpedo was tilting about and gliding west again.  Rainbow rotated her body and stretched the other wing out to center it just right, all the while holding her breath to the best of her ability.

Water rushed and rippled past her... and yet she was heading back towards her target.

"A marvelous accomplishment, darling," Rarity said.  "But I'm afraid we've lost momentum from that."

"Bleak's Plummet is rising!" Fluttershy said.  "And fast!"

Rainbow closed her eyes, shuddered, and reopened them—only to see a flicker of light encompassing her vision.

In the distance, the runes of Bleak's Plummet were strobing brightly as they lost their current enchantment.  But that wasn't all...

...for the lunar fragments holding Rainbow's helmet were starting to flicker as well.

Twilight saw it, and her eyes widened just like Rainbow's.  "Oh no..."





Streaks of light broke through the depths.

Keris' beak hung agape.  His magenta eyes reflected the unmistakable sign of a massive structure looming directly beneath them... surging west and into the wake that Chandler's ships formed.

"Commander?"  Starstorm and Raptr trotted to his side.  "What is it that you see—?"  The female sergeant took one look down and her hawkeyes widened.

Raptr glanced into the waves as well... and the rookie was far less civil.  "Holy sh—!"  Both Keris' and Starstorm's talons clamped over his beak.  "Mrmmmf!"

"... ... ..."  Keris flung a worried look across the deck.

Chandler and his fellow soldiers all had their flanks to the Talon.  Nobody else was gazing straight into the sea.

With a calm breath, the three protectors leaned away from the port side railing.

"Whatever it is... it appears to be surfacing rapidly," Starstorm said.

Raptr gulped.  "Some sort of... underwater ambush?"  His feathers ruffled.  "An attack from behind?"

"We don't know that yet," Keris said, stealing one more glance at the water.  His eyes traced every streak and flicker of light.  "It begs the question—why didn't they just surface beneath us?"

"Commander!"  Windburst's exclamation was hoarse... but forceful.

Keris and the others looked his way.

Nervously, the sergeant pointed due east.

Keris craned his neck...

...just in time to see Seraphimus craning hers.  Even from such a grand distance, Seraphimus had chosen that exact moment to stare back at her former subordinate.  There was a glint of metal—followed by a flicker of silver feathers.

Breathless, the sergeants looked worriedly at their commander.

Keris swallowed dryly.  "Damn."





Seraphimus' eyes narrowed.

The other crew members of the frontmost ship were staring curiously at her.

Seraphimus ripped her gaze from Keris' vessel.  Without saying a word, she approached the starboard side of the steamship...

...and stared down into the waves.





"Two hundred meters!" Rarity stammered.  As the runes of Bleak's Plummet strobed at a greater and greater distance, she looked worriedly at Rainbow.  "We're losing them!"

"We're not going to make it to the ships!" Twilight said.

Rainbow sputtered.  Gargled.  She looked all around with the scant air afforded by the helmet.

Then, with tense muscles, she "climbed" up the length of Enix's torpedo just as its runes were going dead.

"Sugarcube?"  Applejack blinked.  "What—?"

Without hesitation, Rainbow perched her body against the "nose" of the torpedo.  She tensed every muscle, straightened her equine figure straight out... and sprung her rear legs off the projectile.

Seawater rippled as she propelled herself forward.  Then—at a strategic moment—she shot both wings out at her sides, steering her speeding body towards the frontmost ship as she carried the momentum of the torpedo that had brought her there.

"One hundred and eighty meters!" Rarity gasped.  "One hundred and sixty!"

"Go, Dashie!  Go Dashie!" Pinkie cheered.

Rainbow barely registered her words.  The last shields of her helmet were finally fizzling out.  Rainbow put all her concentration into the glide forward—all the while clutching the satchel of explosive runes to her chest.

"One hundred and forty!  One hundred and twenty!"





"Seraphimus???" the crew ponies stammered.

She didn't answer.  Icily, the former Commander trotted the length of the starboard side railing.  Her charcoal-brown eyes studied the lights that were flickering due west of them.

At last, she reached the bow, squinting out into the depths.

Her beak muscles tightened as she saw the runic lights approaching the wake of the three ships, growing brighter and brighter beneath the surface.





"What is it?"  A Frostknifer besides the Defense Minister's chariot craned his neck.

Several other soldiers shifted where they stood, immensely curious about the movement on board the eastmost ship.

"What's going on?  What's the problem?"

Chandler's lips pursed.  He exhaled in a cold breath.  "She sees something..."





"W'lyppa syln wyl'ylyhym!"

"Wyn'sylma syln H'Luun!"

"Wym!  Lyn'syppa thym'lym hy'ml!"

Nicole and Echo crept closer until they were hugging each other.  Their slitted eyes reflected the hulls of the three vessels... and the churning surf between them.





"Eighty meters!"  Rarity spun about.  "Rainbow Dash, you're nearly there—!"

All was water and thunder.

The runes around Rainbow's helmet flickered for one last time.

With lungs aching, Rainbow tilted her head straight up and took a daring—sputtering—final breath of the remaining pocket of air.  In the next blink, she yanked the hollow bleakweed helmet clear off her skull and flung it behind her.  Eyes glaring into the depths, she kicked her rear legs and swam the rest of the way.

Her ghostly companions shouted and yelped and—





"That's it!" Ariel hollered through the whipping winds.  She, Wildcard, and Enix settled on separate cloudbeds—darkened from all of the compressed moisture they had gathered in the swift glide west.  "Pack it all in!  Spread apart!  Hold your positions!"

Enix timed her commanding shrieks with the thunder so as to mask her echoes of Ariel's orders.  She and her fellow sarosians perched nervously at their stations, waiting for the next moment.

A moment... that was not coming.

Wildcard's goggles rattled.  He appeared across the thunderous heights, made eye-contact with Ariel, and hand-signed emphatically.

Ariel gulped.  "I don't know... we were supposed to hear from her by now!"  Pensively, she looked down through the stormy mists with worried eyes.  "She should have made it at this point..."





Rainbow's lungs were on fire.

A persistent ringing noise filled her ears as the edges of her vision blacked out—framed by a haunting harmonic gold.

She anchored herself to it... floating upwards... approaching the rusted belly of a massive metal shape.

Rarity shouted something.  Twilight was pointing.

Weakly... with muscles screaming... Rainbow reached a hoof up towards the rudder.

Cl-Clang!

Her fetlock made contact.

The rest of her body swung from the momentum of her arrival.

She spun about, her other fetlock stretched westward from the murderous weight of the explosive satchel.

She clenched her teeth... screaming bubbles.

Fluttershy shrieked.  Rarity and Twilight rambled in a panic.  Applejack and Pinkie Pie cheered their friend on.

Eyes rolling, Rainbow tugged at the satchel... and yanked her body up.





Seraphimus' eyes were locked on the lights far west.  She could see the immense shadowy shape of something rising with great speed, encompassing a good chunk of the ocean's surface from below.

"Lieutenant!" she hollered to a member of the skeletonous crew behind her.  "Signal the Defense Minister that we have a—"

Splaaash!

"... ... ...?!"  Seraphimus looked straight down.





"Hckkkkkkkkt!" Rainbow inhaled as much oxygen as she could.  She clung to the rusted stern of the ship, breaking the surface and writhing from the force of air rushing into her lungs.

In the next waking moment, she pierced the thick malaise of her body's sheer ache and grasped the satchel in both hooves.

"Rainbow...!" Fluttershy exclaimed in a high-pitched tone.

"...?!"  Rainbow looked straight up.  Her eyes reflected Seraphimus.

Seraphimus' reflected Rainbow.

Thunder.

Waves.

Seraphimus frowned.  Scrkkkk!  With razor sharp claws, she perched on the very edge of the ship.  "Guardians of Frostknife—!"

Without flinching, Rainbow swiftly hooked the straps of the satchel around a loose rivet.  "H'rhnum!!!"  In the next blink, she had backflipped, kicked her legs off the ship's hull, and dove reverse back into the water.

"—the Rainbow Rogue is—"  Seraphimus began, but she didn't finish.  She became aware of a high-pitched vibration.  Her eyes fell to the dangling satchel directly below.

...a satchel stuck to the brim with lunar rocks that were growing bright, brighter, and—

Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

KAPOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!