//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: Codex Ponera - Cliffside Eyrie // by Pepperbrony //------------------------------// Rainbow tried to quietly stretch her legs. She had been hiding in the rigging of Soaring Scavenger’s envelope for almost a full day, and was trying to avoid cramping up. The airship had finally arrived at its destination ten minutes ago, but other than a few ponies disembarking nothing of note had happened yet. She kept an ear on the sound channel she’d had Tank create when the ship had finally come to rest. “Stow it, Improper Place, before you bore our colts here to tears and they fly back to Scavenger without you,” came the voice that Rainbow thought belonged to Black Strap, captain of Soaring Scavenger. Rainbow rolled her eyes. Black Strap seemed to believe in exercising his authority through volume, intimidation and humiliation. She had heard at least half a dozen similarly themed outbursts ever since she stowed away the previous day, and they were beginning to rub her the wrong way. Rainbow’s attention was piqued when she heard the sound of several fliers landing on the ground. She could tell that the newcomers were not pegasi from the repeating sound of their flapping wings; no windcrafter actually needed to flap their wings to fly. From by the sound of talons and paws touching down Rainbow concluded the new arrivals were griffons. Rainbow listened in on the conversation below, wishing she still had her notebook and pencil. Unfortunately they had been taken from her when she had been captured, so instead she did her best to commit to memory the details of the deal being brokered on the ground. When Octavia spoke about a joint attack on Cliffside Eyrie, Rainbow decided it was time to take subtle action. She plucked a feather from her wing and willed Tank to hold the air around it still. The feather stiffened as the wind fury solidified around it. Rainbow used it to poke through the fabric of the dorsal side of the envelope, then tore at the hole, widening it. The wind furies contained within would gradually find their way out through the opening, leaving the airship crippled until the damage could be repaired and the envelope refilled. “Who was that? Find him and catch him before he gets away!” roared Black Strap. Rainbow jumped at the shout, and peered over the top of the envelope to see what was happening. She saw two fillies shoot out from behind a tree at the edge of the clearing, running in opposite directions. An orange pegasus filly was headed roughly in the direction of Cliffside Canal, and was being pursued by three pegasi and the unicorn twins Flim and Flam. A yellow earth pony filly with an adorable fuchsia ribbon bow in her red mane was galloping the opposite direction, with four griffons in close pursuit. Rainbow used her wind fury to rip open the damaged envelope as loudly possible, before calling him back to her wings. She shot up and over the airship and zoomed towards the pegasus filly at top speed. Rainbow willed Tank to send the most turbulent gust of wind she could manage toward the griffons pursuing the earth filly, and was rewarded with the sound of four impacts followed by several exclamations of pain. Rainbow soon found the pegasus filly’s pursuers had changed their priorities. All three pegasi were now flying directly at her, alerted by the sound of ripping airship envelope fabric. Rainbow rolled over and over, willing Tank to twist her windstream into a vortex before she spiralled between the trio. The twirling windstream blew two of the pegasi downwards, one of them smashing leg first into the ground so hard that Rainbow could clearly hear the snap of breaking bone, but the third was able to keep himself airborne. Rainbow was about to send a gust at him, but decided not to bother when he ignored her in favour of attending Soaring Scavenger’s damaged envelope. Rainbow flew to the pegasus filly and hovered at her side. She quickly crafted up another gust of wind, aiming at Flim and Flam. They were lifted up off the ground and blown back to collide with Octavia and Black Strap. “Rainbow!” Octavia roared, while trying to disentangle herself from the mustachioed unicorn. “Tavi,” called back Rainbow, sketching a mocking salute, before turning to greet the filly. “Hey kiddo. What’s up?” “What… who… what’s going on?” stammered the filly. “Who are you?” She stopped, her eyes widened as she looked around. “Wait, where’s Apple Bloom?” “Earth pony filly, yellow coat, red mane, pink hair bow?” asked Rainbow. “I saw her going the other way with some griffons after her. I blew them out of the sky, wrecked their wings and flight feathers. Don’t worry about her; even a filly can outrun a griffon on the ground.” “We have to help her!” cried the filly. “Slow down there, squirt,” replied Rainbow. She pointed a hoof at the ponies still in the clearing. “We have our own problems.” Black Strap and Improper Place had made their way to the downed pegasi, who lifted them into the air and toward the slowly descending airship. Octavia and the twins, however, began stalking towards Rainbow and her new companion. “The twins are metalcrafters,” said Rainbow. “They’re good with those spears at close range but-” She was interrupted by the clatter of a thrown spear falling to the ground well short of them. “But they can’t throw worth a crabapple.” The filly shook her head at the pathetic attempt of a ranged attack while Rainbow continued. “And Octavia,” she said through clenched teeth, “has earth and wood furies. You should get in the air before she tries some kind of earthcrafting at you.” “But I’m not a windcrafter, I can’t fly,” replied the filly. “Oh. Well, that’s no problem,” said Rainbow. “Easy fix for that.” She had Tank wrap himself around the filly and lifted her onto her back, right between her wings. “Hold on. And if you have any crafting, now would be a good time to chip in.” “I have some fire,” said the filly as she tightened her grip on Rainbow. “Good. Now let’s - uh-oh,” began Rainbow, when Octavia gestured at the trees around the pegasi. Several branches reached down to grab them, and Rainbow dodged to the side. The filly let out a cry, tightening her grip and flicking out her wings. The branches promptly caught fire, not that that slowed them down. “Oops,” said the filly. “I thought they’d stop if they were burning.” Rainbow dodged free of the burning branches grabbing at her, but Octavia simply tracked their movements and yet more branches reached for them. “Focus the flames, use them like an axe to cut the branches!” “Will that even work?” asked the filly. “I don’t know, do it anyway!” shot back Rainbow, still trying to avoid being swatted out of the air by a particularly persistent pine branch. “Okay...” replied the filly. She narrowed her eyes, focusing on her fire fury to make it understand her intentions. She swept a wing at a branch up ahead, sending a focused flame at it. The intense fire burned clean through the base of the branch, cleanly severing it from the tree. “Yeah! Take that, grabby branch!” The branch fell to the ground, its severed end still smoking from the heat of the blazing blade, and Rainbow zipped through the newly opened space. “Much better, squirt,” she said, dodging a few more branches. “Now do it again! We need to go up, out of the forest before she gets us.” “I’m on it!” The filly flicked her wings, slowly at first, then faster as she became more and more familiar with her new crafting technique. Smoldering branches fell to the ground left and right, and a path upwards gradually opened up before them. The moment she saw a clear route to open skies, Rainbow willed Tank to her wings and pushed the fury as hard as she could. The pegasi were promptly accelerated out of the trees like an arrow from a crossbow, and found themselves in clear skies. “Yay!” exclaimed the filly. “We’re out!” Through Tank, Rainbow felt a disturbance in the air, and instinctively swerved to the side. A boulder twice her size flew through the airspace Rainbow had just vacated. “Yikes. That was close.” Rainbow and her passenger glanced back toward the clearing just in time to see Octavia earthcraft another boulder from underground, before she whirled around and bucked it hard enough to launch it into the sky. Rainbow dodged again, and flew away from the clearing and towards the canal. “Kid! See the bridge?” “Yeah! Apple Bloom and I came over on it,” replied the filly. “You’re gonna have to cut it!” Rainbow ordered. Rainbow felt the filly shift around a little, apparently considering the wisdom of the idea. “Are you sure? How will Apple Bloom get back?” “Octavia’s gonna chase us over to the other side if we leave it! And look!” Rainbow pointed a hoof at the ground below them where Flim and Flam were galloping for the bridge. “The twins are almost there. Cut it now!” “Argh! Fine!” The filly flicked her wings, willing her fire fury into her newly-learned crafting. A blade of flame blazed downwards and tore through the ropes and wooden planks of the bridge, severing it completely. Rainbow landed on the far side of Cliffside Canal, and the pair of pegasi looked back toward their pursuers. Octavia and the twins ran up to the smoking remains of the bridge, pulling up short when they realised what had happened to it. Octavia stomped a hoof, and rock flowed outward from the cliff face as she began to craft up a new bridge. But before she could make much progress Rainbow’s young companion responded with a furycrafting of her own. With a scream she flared her wings and threw forth a massive burst of fire, larger than most houses. The flames were so hot that Rainbow instinctively willed Tank to blow the heat away from her. The winds Rainbow conjured pushed the flames even further than the filly could manage on her own, so far that they caught on the vegetation on the other side of the canal. The plant matter quickly caught alight and the fire began to spread. Octavia and the twins were forced to withdraw, lest they be burned alive by the burgeoning forest fire the pegasi had created. The filly fell to her knees, breathless after such a massive work of furycraft. “Oops,” she panted, looking at the burning forest. “I was just trying to scare them off. I didn’t think I was powerful enough to throw that much fire that far.” “Actually, that might have been my fault,” replied Rainbow, rubbing the back of her head with a forehoof. “Those flames were so hot that I blew them away from me. And away from me just so happened to be towards them.” They continued to watch the fire spread further. “Should we do something about it?” wondered the young pegasus, climbing back to her hooves. “Nah, those pirates have firecrafters of their own. And at least one really good watercrafter. If they don’t want their precious airship going up in flames they’ll handle it themselves.” With a shrug, Rainbow turned and walked away from the conflagration. “Now, where do you call home, squirt?” “What? But we have to help Apple Bloom!” cried the filly, not moving from her spot. “Kid, I’m about done,” replied Rainbow, looking back over her shoulder at the filly. “I haven’t crafted that hard that fast in ages, and I haven’t had anything to eat or drink in over a day. I’m exhausted, I need to rest. We can’t help her if I crash or pass out. So tell me, which way is home?” The filly was silent for a moment, considering insisting again on helping her friend, but soon realised that compliance was her best option and set off towards the south. “Fine. We’re not far, really. We live on this orchard. The farmhouse is this way. Sweet Apple Acres.” “Apples, huh? Now we’re talking.” Rainbow joined the filly. “By the way, the name’s Rainbow Dash.” “I’m Scootaloo,” replied the filly. “Nice to meet you. We’re gonna help Apple Bloom when you’ve rested, right?” Rainbow said nothing. She had to get word of the arrangement Octavia had made with the griffons to the authorities of Cliffside Eyrie before it was too late. Setting off into griffon territory in pursuit of a filly who would probably be doing her best not to be found would take far too much time from Rainbow, but it was obvious that Scootaloo would not like hearing that. “Rainbow Dash? We are going to help her, aren’t we?” “...” “Rainbow Dash?”