//------------------------------//
// Wish I Was Homeward Bound 
// Story: Utaan 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Nnnrgh... d-dammit!"  Brye Chandler fidgeted and fussed, pressing himself into the embrace of one griffon while the other bodyguard struggled to dislodge the spear from his armor.  "Careful!  You'll cut my flesh!"

"Defense Minister..."  The griffon's hawkeyes narrowed as he focused on his task.  The three were positioned on a cloud high above the last known sighting of the Stardust.  "...if you simply stop squirming, I can more carefully assist you—"

"I'm the one stallion entrusted by Verlaxion to avenge her legacy!" Chandler barked.  "I do not 'squirm'!"

"Hrmmm..."  The griffon gripping the stuck spear clenched his beak.  "...then surely you can weather this."

"What was that—?"  CHTUNKKK!  "—aaaaaaugh!"  Chandler clutched the dented armor where the spear was yanked free.  "Are you mad?!"

"But it barely grazed you—"

"Never mind!"  Chandler shoved against him and then gestured at the other bodyguard holding him.  "Take us down immediately!  There's no telling where those Blighted fiends went!"

"Sir, you ordered us to ascend in the first place—"

"Silence and do as I say!"  Chandler tightened his helmet as the bodyguards took wing, carrying him off the cloud and descending once again.  "If that vessel full of black magic gets away, then we will have sacrificed this entire flanking move for nothing!"

"I... I think I see it, sir!"  One griffon pointed with a free talon.  "It's right where we left it!"

"Then take us down already!"  Chandler cocked his crossbow.  "I need to know if our soldiers finished that cretin off!"





A gentle melody wafted through the air.

Acoustic strings and harmonic chords.

Th-Th-Thump!  Chandler and his two bodyguards landed heavily on the bow of the Stardust.  They gawked at the bloody carnage strewn all across the deckplates.

"What... in blazes...?" Chandler murmured.

His bodyguards grimaced upon seeing the lifeless remains of their former comrades.  But that wasn't all...

"Hey!" Chandler craned his neck, helmet rattling.  "Hey you!"

There was no response from the source of the music.  A pegasus sat near the cabin door, hunched over.  There was an instrument in his hooves.

Frowning, Chandler marched towards him in his bulky armor.  "I am Defense Minister Brye Chandler of Rohbredden.  In the name of Goddess Verlaxion, I order you to stand down and tell me the plans of the Rainbow Rogue!"

Bard's response was to hum in tune to the gentle guitar riff he was playing.  He squatted on the corpse of a Frostknifer, plucking the strings with one fetlock and a surviving wing.

"Did you hear me, Blighted one?!"  Chandler aimed his crossbow.  "I said that I am Defense Minister Brye..."  His lips trailed, as did his gaze.  "...Chandler of Rohbredden..."  His eyes fell on the sword-tip impaling Bard's figured.  "...good Goddess."

"Hmmmmmmm..."  Bard plucked the strings of his guitar, staining the wooden finish red.  "...time it was... and what a time it was... it was..."

The two bodyguards blinked incredulously at one another.

"Funny..."  Bard chuckled.  Blood squeezed through the seams of his front teeth.  "...the sweetest songs are somehow always the shortest."

At this point, Brye Chandler was ignoring him.  With a gaping expression, he trotted past the wounded musician and gazed at the cabin door...

...a cabin door that had been slid wide open, revealing an entire glowing stockpile of enchanted runestones.

A melodic sigh.  Bard smiled into the reddened heavens as he plucked a final chord.  "Well, Amber, it took dayum near forever, but here we are.”

Chandler spun around, eyes wide.

Bard gazed back.  Unflinching.  "H'rhnum..."

Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmm—  Every single rock inside the belly of the Stardust glowed to the point of blinding.

"Get o-out!" Chandler's voice cracked.  His helmet flew into the mists as he scrambled to gallop off the ship's bloody deck.  "Get out before it—"  He had no more words, for he had no more lungs.  Billowing lunar plasma engulfed him, Bard, the two griffons and—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!





The red sky was drowned in a rising plume of orange and silver flame.

Keris, Windburst, and the rest of their company jerked in place.  Gasping.  Squinting.

They hovered to a stop just above the last remaining ship of Chandler's armada.  As other Frostknifers carried waterlogged survivors back on board, the east horizon behind them erupted in runic wrath.





The shockwave reached Rainbow Dash and Ariel—nearly throwing them off balance.

"Augh!"

"Guhhh!"

Rainbow Dash and Ariel spun around, squinting down and towards the west.  The twilight faded for a brief moment, as if kissed by a second sun for the first time in epochs.

The explosion ended as dramatically as it began, and despite having produced monumental thunder...

...Rainbow Dash was acutely aware of a shocked gasp to her side.  She looked immediately at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy looked back at her.  Ears drooped and a yellow muzzle quivered.

Rainbow Dash gawked.  "Wildcard?"

Fluttershy slowly shook her head.

Rainbow blinked.  Then her pupils shrank.  "... ... ...Bard."

A sniffle.  Fluttershy's eyes filled with tears.

"Rainbow...?"  Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie—who was rubbing a shivering shoulder.  She looked back at their anchor.  "Rainbow, what is—?"

"Look!" Rarity pointed at the western sky.

The ghostly mares gazed in one accord.  As the lasting glow of the explosion faded, a dark figure glided ever closer.  Wildcard flew east.  His metal arm dangled limply.  His other talon gripped a bloodied staff.

"Wildcard..."  Ariel murmured.  "There you are!  We lost you when..."  She blinked.  "What are you doing with Bard's—?"

Fwoooosh!  Wildcard glided past her.  His expression was stoic and nothing else.  He decelerated slightly—but without turning back.  He kept his flight slow for as long as he was within Rainbow's gaze.

"... ... ..."  Ariel stared after him.  At last, as the twilight returned, her eyes turned glossy above a weak frown.  "No..."  Wings blurred.  She muscled herself west.  "No!"

A petite hoof yanked her back with remarkable strength.  "Ariel—"

"No!  We can't just leave him back there—"

"Rrrrgh!"  Rainbow practically threw Ariel after Wildcard.  She glared at her.  Through her.  "He gave his all!  Now it's time we gave ours!  Or do you really want to shame him that badly?!"

Ariel pouted.  She heaved... shook... and caved under a fountain of tears.  She shook them dry the only way she knew how—by flying into the stormy winds, making a bitter bee-line for the edge of the world.

Rainbow Dash followed her with no less speed.  A cold frown sliced the air in front of her.

And yet... on a softer plane...

...the quiet, sobbing voices of her friends joined her.

"Rainbow Dash..."  Twilight glided alongside the mare.  Her face was a lavender bowl of grimacing sympathy.  "Rainbow Dash, I am so... so sorry..."  She reached a vaporous limb through her friend's wings.  "Please... if th-there's anything we can do—"

"We move."

"Rainbow, please—"

"We head east!" Rainbow Dash grunted into the cosmos and the hazy line of gold separating them.  "Until there is no east left."  At last, she caught up with Wildcard.  She looked at him.

Wildcard said nothing.  Gripping the other Desperado's weapon like a spear, he cut a windy path towards the end of all things.

Rainbow exhaled, ears drooping.  She flew close to the griffon, and the two accelerated to catch up with Ariel.





"W'yllsa!  W'yllsa!  S'ylywym wysll thym!"

"Alright!  Alright!" Echo hollered towards the upper chambers.  There was a final rush of salty air through Bleak's Plummet, and the walls rang with stomping hooves.  "Seal it up!  The others will join us when we resurface again!"

"What?" Nicole breathily managed.  "Did... did we—?"

"That red signal just now!"  Echo's fangs glinted in the runelight.  "Rainbow's done it!  Our brothers and sisters are flocking west!  Keeping a high cover!"

"Are we abandoning them—?"

"Pfft!  Hardly!  A good bunch of them are already on board—along with Enix!  The rest will keep high in the clouds and rendezvous once Bleak's Plummet breaches the waves!"

"Then... then we made it," Nicole managed with a shudder.  "Rainbow... Johnny... we—"

"Hold on tight, bae."  Echo steadied her shoulders as the entire ship shifted with a jolt.  "Dive time."

Nicole's eyeslits reflected a wave of bubbles from beyond the magic window.  "I... I can hardly believe—"

"Believe what?"  Echo smiled at her.  "Relax, girl.  I know it's sappy'n'shiet, but..."  He gazed out at the dimming east waters as the entire structure drew away.  "...we're going home."

Nicole pursed her lips.  "Home."  The word was only half-melodic.  The shadow of the ocean fell over Bard's hat, then her, then everything.








"Commander!" Windburst shouted, wincing in mid-flight as he struggled to follow his superior.  "Commander!  Hold up!"

Keris said nothing.  He flew over the wall of fire... the wrecked privateer ship and the rocks and shoals surrounding it.  As the last few survivors of the wreck were being carried to the remaining vessel west of them, he found a group of pegasi circling a burning patch of debris due east.

"Commander..."  At last, Windburst caught up with him.  He panted.  "What are we doing out here?  The troops are gathered above Chandler's ship like you ordered—"

"That explosion, Sergeant..."

"Yeah?  What about it?  It was loud, stupid, and noisy—"

"Shhhh!"  Keris hissed aside as a quartet of armored pegasi approached.  "I just need to know..."

"Know what?"

"Commander?" one pegasus stammered, a pale expression spread over her features.  "Commander Keris?  Is that you?"

"Report, soldier," Keris firmly said.

"It... it's the Defense Minister, sir," the pegasus said.  Her three partners fidgeted nervously in mid-air with their backs to the explosion's epicenter.  "While we were fishing survivors out of the waters surrounding the second ship, we spotted him flying east with a contingent of bodyguards to engage the enemy artillery vessel and—"

"And what?"  Keris' magenta eyes narrowed.  "It exploded?"

"I... I'm afraid so, Commander."

"And the Defense Minister?"  Windburst leaned forward.  "Brye Chandler?  Did you find him?"

"We..."  The pegasus looked at the others.  "We... uhm..."

"Well?"

Gulping, the soldier nervously looked back at the Talon members.  "We found his head."

Silence.

"But... we c-couldn't find the rest of him... Commander... s-sir..."

Keris exhaled.  He looked at the wreckage... then at the lightning and cosmic nebulae beyond.

"Commander Keris?"  The pegasus hovered higher.  "With the Defense Minister gone and Seraphimus unaccounted for... that puts you in charge of our offensive."

Windburst took a deep breath and delivered into the thunderous air:  "What are your orders..."  He glanced stealthily aside.  "Commander, sir?"

Keris closed his eyes.  His headcrest settled—as did the edge in his voice.  "Retreat."

The pegasus soldiers gaped at him.  "S-sir?"

"We are to fall back and retreat safely to Frostknife.  The Rainbow Rogue's forces have us outsmarted and outgunned here and it would be a tragic folly to waste the most elite of the late Verlaxion's foals in a futile act of vengeance that even she didn't mandate when she was alive."  Keris' eyes reopened and they were glaring.  "Do you have a problem with that, soldier?"

Silence.

Keris looked around.  "Does anypony have a problem with that?"

Dead winds.

Rain.

And...

"N-no, sir!"

"Not at all sir!"

"T-take us back to Frostknife pl-please... Commander... s-sir..."

Windburst sighed with relief.

"Good."  Commander Keris sliced his claws west in a dramatic motion.  "Fall back.  Regather the troops.  Tell them... we're heading back home... to protect our loved ones!"

Bodies swiftly, eagerly glided past him, carving a path westward over the rock formations and shipwrecks.

"Fall back!"

"Sound retreat!""

"Move!  Move!  Move!"





"Listen...!"  Raptr tilted his head up from where he and Starstorm squatted on a low-hanging cloud.  "Do you hear that?"

Starstorm paused in wrapping a length of metal wire around Seraphimus' wings.  The former Commander's talons and paws were already tightly bound, and her silver feathers fluttered in the noisy breeze.

"It... it..."  Starstorm cocked her avian head aside.  Sure enough—between the thunder and wind—she and the rookie could make out the distant hollering of Central Guardians.  "It sounds like they're sounding a retreat."

"Then... then Keris did it!" Raptr exclaimed, smiling jubilantly.  "He and Windburst have forced Chandler to change his mind!"

"I wonder if it has anything to do with that brilliant explosion just now," Starstorm muttered.

"Maybe... although..."  Raptr gulped, squinting into the rain.  "Now you've got me worried."

"What for?"  Starstorm returned to wrapping the cord around Seraphimus' wings.  "We got what we came here for."

"Did we?  How do we know that Rainbow Dash made it?"

"Remember that red flare from earlier?"

"Uhm... yeah?"

Starstorm leaned in over Seraphimus.  "If you ask me, that was the signal."

"Signal?"

"For Rainbow's gang to split up.  The midnighters are going away for good."  Starstorm smirked, tying the cord into complex knots.  "And Rainbow's group?  They're probably halfway to the Dark Side by now..."

Silver feathers shifted.  Muscles tightened.  And when Starstorm's last words were spoken...

...a pair of charcoal eyes flew open.