//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: The Flying Dutchman // Story: Loyalty in Brass: Captain's Ashes // by Mr BHunt //------------------------------// High in the sky, above the Fog, above the mad souls of Griffinstone, was a large airship. Similar in design to the Behemoth, but more deformed. The Flying Dutchman looked like a mangled beast, with its bow having three rams in the shape of a jagged smile, it's hull riddled with tears, holes and dents and the massive balloon that once held up the massive airship was too torn to be used, now only the power of its two special crewmen was keeping it afloat and together. The Dutchman slowly started to descend through the clouds and towards the Fog that strangled Griffinstone, one could see a strange similarity to another assault on a capital. The Behemoth was strangely vacant when the first of the ponies returned to Canterlot, not one pony noticed the faded shadow of the massive ruined ship that lazily flew through the sky and through the clouds. The old Centurion couldn't waste such a useful ship, so he did what he could to repair the ship. The Centurion was no longer in charge of the now terrifying Dutchman, now a large soldier was Captain. One could say he was related in someway to the Legate of Glory. The Legate of Strife, armed with an intricate curved sword and a strange metal rod, both currently in their sheaths on his hips. The Legate stood at the bow of the airship, his armored arms crossed. A few Cleaners were on deck, modifications to their weapons made them spew an almost constant flow of mist and their once orange eyes were a deep red. The Legate was also different, he was much thinner than most soldiers and wore a long but thin cloak and hood that covered his face, one that looks like it was worn by a Brass Praetorian. The Legate looked to his side at and saw a shambling Centurion, his faceplate shattered revealing its inside, a dim and cloudy red crystal hovering within. "Heh, Good work for alerting me, but it was unfortunate you alerted me." The Legate said to himself and looked down at Griffonstone, then a large Incinerator walked up to him. "Legate, our scouts have reported back. The pests are on the move and moving towards Griffinstone, are we moving onto the next phase?" The large soldier asked in his garbled voice and the Legate thought for a moment, then turned to him. "Yes, where are the scouts?" The Legate barked and the Incinerator pointed a finger to the stern of the ship, where three large shadowy were perched. The Legate moved past the Incinerator and shoved the stumbling Centurion out of his way, stomping towards his scouts. Three large, intimidating and mindless dragons, one red the other blue and the last purple. But all had eyes not of intelligence, but blank and hazy orbs of orange. The red dragon leaned down in a bow to the Legate as he approached, the other two followed quickly. "Sir, we found the ponies as requested, they were beginning to leave Canterlot on an airship when we flew back." The red dragon stated in a low monotone, the Legate grunted and was about to speak. "Sir, another airship was with them, full of soldiers." The purple dragon interrupted and the Legate was about to snarl, but then stopped. "Oh? So the pests are bringing more of their filthy kind? Interesting." The Legate hummed then walked to the helm of the Dutchman, the many Cleaners looked up at their Legate. "Where are the Dragon Riders? Come forward!" The Legate barked and three Cleaners stepped forward, they had no tanks on their back and had shredded cloaks around their shoulders. "Go with the scouts and tear apart the pests' ships! Send them to the ground!" The Legate roared and the crew cheered as the Dragon Riders charged up the flight of stairs and charged towards the dragons. They gripped the chains that acted like a bridle and spun onto the backs of their dragons, they forced the drakes to drop off the stern and then swooped around the Flying Dutchman towards the shores of Equestria. The Legate quickly descended the stairs and walked into the cabin below the helm, inside was a small room with another door on the other side. But inside were two unique soldiers on the opposite sides of the room, they looked like Praetorians but had no runes and their cloaks were more grey and very torn, both had their hands out and were glowing a sickly green colour and were steadily moving their fingers. "Follow those scouts and get those guns ready for the assault!" The Legate snarled as he quickly past the Praetorians, who watched him open and slam the door. The pair then quickly moved their arms to the west, following the scouts without direction. The Legate walked into the new room, filled with a massive pipe organ on the wall. The Legate felt the ship move and sat upon the bench and raised his hands above the many keys, waiting for the sound of dragon fire to begin the thundering song... The two airships were quickly making headway towards Griffinstone above the clouds, the Royalty and the Long Night flew through the air. On board the Long Night were the squads of Captain's Loyal, most were watching the skies for any sign of attack. Also on board was Luna, Violet and Swift, who requested to transfer ships. The Solar Captain was standing near the bow, along with a batpony with a few scars across his face. "So, why does a Solar Guard want to be on board a Lunar Guard ship?" The batpony asked and Swift looked at him from under his hat. "I... dunno, just a feeling that told me to." Swift sighed, the batpony was opening his mouth when a shout rang out. "DRAGON! Off the starboard!" A Lunar Guard yelled out and Swift turned and spotted a slow moving red dragon, lazily floating towards them. "Another one! Straight ahead!" Swift turned again and saw a purple dragon, but what really scared him was the next shout. "Dragon, blue, dropping from above..." A voice whispered to Swift who spun around and looked up to see a blue dragon swooping down, a dark shape on its back. Suddenly the dragon opened its maw and let out a mighty roar that ringed in the ponies ears, by now most of the Lunar Guard were holding weapons and a few were flying around the Long Night. Then the red dragon flew over the heads of the batponies and swung around, distracting them from the purple dragon that landed on the deck. "SWEET LUNA!" A guard yelled when they noticed the ship dip from the weight, all the guards turned to glare at the dragon. Luna stormed onto deck with a furious expression. "What is going on?!" The Princess demanded when a large shape slowly rose from the dragon's back, a hooded brass armored soldier. The other two dragons swooped around and hung beside the first as the Dragon Riders glared at Luna, suddenly a large hail of yellow bolts smashed into the riders and dragons. The red and blue dragons quickly dashed from the Lunar Ship and headed towards the Royal Guard Ship, but the purple dragon stayed and its rider dismounted. Four batponies quickly charged the Dragon Rider but the soldier just slowly pulled a large sword from his back, the first batpony leapt up with a spear and a warcry. But the Dragon Rider leapt back then spun back down onto the surprised Lunar Guard, smashing the guard into red paste with his massive sword. The other guards hesitated and the Dragon Rider to advantage, he pulled the sword back and swung it with such force it both knocked the torn bodies of the guards off the Long Night and caused the Rider to stumble forwards. Luna growled and summoned two swords, quickly flinging them at the Rider, who suddenly dropped his sword and stumbled backwards. The Dragon Rider slowly reached out a hand before collapsing to the deck, the purple dragon immediately roared in anger and opened his maw wide, a fire ready to burst forth. But a loud sound caused the dragon's glazed eyes to shrink, the drake quickly flew from the airship and joined his brothers. Everypony looked around for the sound of music, filled with such hate and malice it made a few ponies flinch. Suddenly a massive creature emerged in front the twin airships, a deformed and terrifying beast. The Flying Dutchman tore through the clouds and levelled out, directly on course to pass in between the ships. The ponies on board both airships heard the pipe organ being played aggressively and heard thumps and clashes, a few eagle eyed ponies could see a large number of soldiers on board, stomping and slamming their fists onto their chests. The Princesses looked across the sky at each other, their eyes wide with fear. Onboard the Flying Dutchman, a few Cleaners were rushing across the deck while the main force were thumping in beat with their Legate's song. Three Cleaners quickly rushed to a large open hole on the bow of the ship, a large weapon started to rise from the shadowy depths of the Flying Dutchman's hull, two of the Cleaners dropped onto the mounted weapon and its platform. The Flak Cannon was an amalgamation of a ballista and a magical cannon, shooting fast moving, enchanted bolts. The last Cleaner leapt to the trigger as the two others grapped the levers on both sides of the cannon and started to move the weapon's gaze towards the Long Night. The Incinerator noticed the two Dragon Riders hovering nearby and snarled, he grabbed a long, wound up whip and cracked the air next to the nearest Rider with it. The Dragon Rider looked at the Incinerator with his dragon. "What are you doing back here?! GET UP THE FRONT AND ATTACK!" The Incinerator roared and the pair of Dragon Riders flinched and quickly flew towards the airships. Then the Flak Cannon started to unleash a rapid hail of piercing bolts. "GET DOW- Ergh!" A batpony screamed when a massive bolt stuck him to the mast of the Long Night, Luna narrowed her eyes and quickly summoned a shield over the ship, but not fast enough as another Lunar Guard was torn in half, squirting blood upon her fellow soldiers. Swift noticed colour in the corner of his eye and turned, the Dragon Riders were approaching fast. His horn glowed and he closed his eyes, then he opened them and shot a large spear of blue magic at the red dragon and caused it to roar in pain, going slightly of course. The other Rider shot to the side as another two spears flew through the air. Swift's horn sparked and the unicorn grunted, falled to the deck. On the Royalty, they became the target of the Dutchman's wraith, fortunately Celestia put up a shield quicker than Luna. But she soon realised it was for nothing, as the third bolt slammed through her shield and pierced the deck beside her hoof, then another flew and skimmed her cheek. Celestia dropped the shield and grabbed the bolt that was speeding towards her face, she growled and spun it around and sent it speeding back. But then she grunted as a bolt skimmed her leg, she looked to her left and saw the Elements scattered across the deck with sailors, her small guard force even smaller, with only Captain Shinning Armor and a pair of mare Royal Guards left. "Look out, Captain!" One of the mares screamed and Shining Armor looked up to see a bolt closing in, time seemed to slow as it approached. Then one of the last guards leapt into the bolt's path and was slammed into the deck, she coughed up blood and saluted to Shining before falling limp. Suddenly the hail moved back to the Long Night, giving the Royalty time to plan. The helmsman ducked under a stray bolt and looked to his Princess. "Princess Celestia! What are your orders?!" The stallion yelled and she turned to look around at the Elements, looks of horror in their eyes, but with determination shining bright. "Get us to that ship! I'll disable that weapon!" Celestia barked and the helmsman nodded and looked to the remains of the crew, barking orders to them to get wind into the sails. But as the Royalty sailed forth, Luna and her guard struggled under both the hail of bolts and the swooping dragons. Her guards were lobbing spears as the pair of dragons flew overhead, snatching a pair of batponies on the way. Then Luna heard a low moan, she spared a gaze to her side and saw the limp Dragon Rider twitch and quickly get to his feet. The Rider picked up his sword and charged towards the ropes that held the large balloon in place, Luna's eyes widened as she realised too late what he was doing. The Dragon Rider braced then spun through the air, slashing at the ropes. The entire airship jerked slightly, snapping Swift back to his senses. The unicorn stood and flinched as he felt his horn sting, he looked around and spotted the Dragon Rider, who sliced another rope. Swift unsheathed his sword and charged, shooting a bolt to catch the Rider's attention. The Dragon Rider somehow bent backwards and let the bolt fly over, then he twisted around and snarled at the unicorn. Swift slid under the sword as it was swung around, then jammed his sword up into the Rider's throat. But as Swift turned to watch the Dragon Rider fall, he was instead greeted by the pommel of a large sword. Swift grunted then leapt back, firing more bolts of blue magic at the Dragon Rider, who was too busy tearing the sword from his throat to notice. The Rider threw the sword at Swift then leapt into the air to crush the unicorn as he was forced to grab the sword, but then he was grabbed by a dark blue aura and thrown off the Long Night, Swift looked at Luna and nodded thanks. Then Swift's eyes widened as he pointed at something behind Luna, she turned and saw the Royalty's bow explode with the weapon onboard the Dutchman.