Sunburst’s cell doors hissed as the pneumatic locks on the door released, and the door slid open. Sunburst turned his head to see who came to visit his cell.
The person to walk in first was Starlight Glimmer.
Sunburst jumped up onto his feet immediately when he saw her. “Starlight?” he asked, surprised to see her.
Starlight stood there for a moment with a flat expression then she responded with a hard punch to his gut and then she grabbed his throat by one hand and slammed him against the wall, holding him up a couple inches off the ground on the wall. When everything stopped moving so fast Sunburst could see the pure rage that filled Starlight’s eyes as she held him still.
Starlight was charging a ball of cyan energy behind her to ram into Sunburst’s face when a voice came from just outside the cell door.
“Now now Lady Glimmer.” Another figure followed the voice behind Starlight. He was dressed in a grey suit with darker grey lapels, wearing high ranking military bars on the left side of his suit. He had long blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Overall he had an air of being a pompous, entitled prick. “If you kill him now, we won’t be able to get any information out of him.” he grinned.
Starlight glared at the pompous prick as she released her grip on Sunburst.
Sunburst’s feet touched the ground, and he started gasping for breath as he rubbed his throat. Starlight didn’t even move away before she turned around to give a good punch across Sunburst’s face, knocking him back onto his cot, then moved to stand behind the pompous, her arms crossed and glaring daggers at Sunburst.
“Good to see you too,” Sunburst said as he recovered from being punched in the face. “What do you want?”
The pompous spoke. “I am Admiral Blue Blood. I want you to tell me the location of the rebel base.”
Sunburst chuckled. “What the hell makes you think that I’ll tell you anything? You gonna torture me or something?”
Starlight started to move towards Sunburst but was stopped after one step by Blue Blood, holding up a hand, signaling her to halt.
Starlight glanced at him, then begrudgingly took a step back.
Blue Blood grinned. “I have my ways,” he said as he motioned with his other hand for something to come in.
He stood aside as a floating black metal sphere hovered into the room. It had dull lights flickering all over its exterior and several antennae pointing backward from the grill that looks to be its front. Attached at the bottom of the sphere was a short metal arm that held a syringe filled with a clear liquid.
Sunburst slowly reared back as the machine buzzed and slowly hovered closer to him.
Blue Blood’s grin got wider, and Starlight cracked a grin as she watched Sunburst with intentness.
A bar fight was going on as the two men were escorting Sunset and Apple Bloom off the premises, but the brawl didn’t hinder the men from completing their task.
Apple Bloom was thrown out first. She was literally airborne for a couple seconds, screaming and flailing her arms before she landed face down in the dirt a few feet away from the entrance. Sunset quickly followed suit, as she was tossed out similarly, but backward, falling on her butt. Landing away at equal, if not less, distance away from the door as Apple Bloom.
Sunset groaned as she got up and dusted herself off. Then she yelled some profanity in manedarin at the men that threw them out and were now back inside the bar.
Sunset continued to speak profanity in manedarin as she grumbled to herself and started dragging Apple Bloom, by the collar, on her way to the car.
At the car, Scootaloo was sitting down while holding her arm out, being wrapped in a bandage by the lacrima vendor from earlier, with Sweetie Belle sitting opposite of the man from Scootaloo.
When Sunset saw this, she immediately dropped Apple Bloom and rushed over towards, the one who she viewed as her most valuable asset out of the three Crusaders.
“Are you OK?” Sunset asked Scootaloo, kneeling in front of her.
“Yeah, I’m OK,” Scootaloo replied. “Just a little roughed up from a couple of loudmouths trying to steal our stuff-”
“My stuff.” Sunset interrupted.
Scootaloo blinked, internally questioning the necessity of the outburst, before continuing, “Anyway, they tried to break into the car, but I stopped them. They gave me a nasty cut on my arm here.” she pointed to her arm that was currently being bandaged by the hooded man, “Then this guy here showed up and summoned an awesome light sword-thing and cut off one of their arms!”
“Well, I’m thankful to see that you’re ok,” Sunset said as she stood back up.
“I’m fine too. Thanks for asking.” Sweetie Belle grumbled under her breath.
“Thank you, sir,” Sunset said facing the man in robes.
“Think nothing of it.” The man said as he waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m just glad that I was here at the right time to save this little girl’s life.” Sunset took a step towards the driver seat when the man continued to speak, “By the way, do you know a good driver for hire?” the man asked her.
Sunset took a step back and faced the man a bit. “I can drive. What’s the cargo?”
“Only passengers. Myself, one other we’ll pick up later, -and no questions asked.”
Sunset quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one foot. “You in some kind of local trouble?”
“Let’s just say I’d like to avoid any Alliance affairs.”
“Well now, that’s gonna cost you a pretty bit. Eleven hundred bits, all up front.”
“Eleven hundred bits?” asked Sweetie Belle. “He could buy his own car with that.”
“Well, who’s gonna drive it, kid?” Sunset said, facing her briefly then returned to the man.
The man waved his hand to calm Sweetie Belle. “I’ll pay you two hundred now, plus fifteen when we’re done.”
“Seventeen hundred?” Sunset pursed her lips and nodded. “You’ve got yourself a driver.” and she shook the man’s hand. “Ready whenever you are.”
Sunburst, his hands cuffed, was being escorted to the bridge of the aircraft. He entered the bridge and saw a large window spanning almost the entire length of the wall, while every other wall was lined with consoles, a man at nearly every one of them all facing towards the center of the room. He then saw the familiar faces of Admiral Blue Blood and Starlight Glimmer, the Admiral held his hands behind his back while looking out the window, while Starlight had her arms crossed, leaning against a console.
Looking out the large window, he could see the bow of the airship. It was almost four hundred meters in length, two-thirds of the ship was split into two broad prongs, the inner walls being perfectly parallel to each other the outer walls angled to make a triangular shape, and giant rings spanning the length of the gap every several hundred feet.
Admiral Blue Blood turned around and acknowledged Sunburst’s entrance.
Sunburst was led past Starlight to Blue Blood. “So,” he said, “I see Twilight’s personal lap dog wanted to see me personally. I could smell your stench once I left the elevator.”
“Charming to the bitter end.” The admiral replied. He then turned to Starlight, “I can see why you two were friends.” he pointed back and forth between Starlight and Sunburst. “I was quite surprised to see at how fast she was to second the order to terminate your life.”
Sunburst gave a heavy sigh, “I’m not.”
Blue Blood continued, “Before your execution, I invite you to be my guest to a ceremony that will signify this battleship to be fully operational. No city, town or village will dare oppose the empress now.”
Sunburst chuckled, “You can't beat a man the same way you beat a horse, because the harder you beat a man, the taller he stands.”
“Not after this demonstration!” Blue Blood shot back, “In a way, you have chosen the first target to be destroyed by Empress Twilight’s own hands. Since you are reluctant to provide us with information on the rebel base, I have chosen to test Empress Twilight’s new destructive power on your home village.”
Sunburst cocked his head. “Do you even know the name of my home village?”
Blue Blood blinked, “Well, no. As it stands right now, I don’t think it even has a name, but Lady Glimmer can confirm that this is indeed the right place, since you two grew up together in said village.”
Sunburst looked to Starlight, and she nodded sternly.
Sunburst swung his head back to see the windows blacked out and a view screen lowered, showing they were indeed targeting his home village. Taking a step forward, he pleaded to the admiral, “No, please, it’s a peaceful village, they have done nothing, you can’t possibly-”
“You have another target?! A military target?! Then give me a location!”
Sunburst looks at the viewscreen showing his hometown, breathing heavy.
“I grow tired of asking this question.” the admiral said, looking down at Sunburst and stepping closer, forcing him to back up into the now standing Starlight Glimmer. “Where is the rebel base?”
After giving one final sigh, he hangs his head and says, “Appleloosa, they’re at Appleloosa.”
Blue Blood lifted his head and smiled, “There, you see Lady Glimmer. He can be reasoned with.” He turns to a man at a console, “Continue with the operation.” he presses and holds a button. “You may fire when ready, your majesty.”
“WHAT!?” Sunburst exclaimed.
“You’re far too trusting my good man. Appleloosa is far too remote a location for a proper first demonstration, but don’t worry, we’ll get to your friends soon enough.” he slowly paces away.
Sunburst starts to lunge hopelessly at Blue Blood but is stopped when Starlight jumps ahead of him and, with a sharp snap and hiss, a cyan blade of light appears at his throat. Sunburst freezes and watches helplessly as men around the room chatter back and forth all the while flipping switches, pressing buttons, and turning dials.
Meanwhile, Empress Twilight was standing on a small platform at the base of the fork in the ship. The platform was raised to center her position to the rings spanning the craft, giving her a clear view of the village.
She had three jewels floating around her, one orange in the shape of an apple, one red in the shape of a lightning bolt, another a purple diamond.
An intercom buzzed, “You may fire when ready, your majesty.”
Twilight smirked and held out her hands to the sides, palms facing up, and mechanisms on the wall behind her came to life. Glowing with her energy, the devices moved in large circular motions, making an ever-changing, spinning giant magical circle.
The three gems circling her flew backward to the magic circle and stationed themselves at three out of the five empty smaller circles of the larger circle, all of which were orbiting the center of the circle in the same direction.
As time went on, Twilight maintained her pose, and the glow became brighter, and the rotation of the mechanisms became faster. Within sixty seconds everything reached its peak and Twilight reeled her arms back, palms facing forward, and thrust them forward, sending a massive beam of energy from her hands through the lenses in front of her. Three more rays emanated from the jewels and burst forth as well, their trajectory aimed to meet Twilight’s beam at the first lens between them and the bow of the ship. The three lasers had become one and flew through the ship to the final lens in front and balled up before continuing at a different trajectory towards the center of the village. When the beam made contact with the ground, a massive mushroom-cloud of dirt and flying debris instantly took its place with the sound of a gigantic explosion threatening to rupture her eardrums.
The shockwave sent enough debris up in the air that it managed to scratch and crack a few of the lenses lining the center of the ship, enough to hinder any future uses until fixed and caused minor scratching to the underside plating of the vessel.
Starlight faced the view screen and lowered her arm, her beam sword dissipated, and Sunburst fell to his knees, tears were flowing down his face as he looked to Starlight.
“Why?” was all that he could say, before she turned to look at him, her eyes showing no emotion. “Why would you do this?!” he screamed walking closer to her on his knees. “Why would you let your home be destroyed? Your family... your friends!”
Starlights eyes flared with rage as she kicked Sunburst across the face, sending him flying a couple of feet before landing on the ground unconscious.
A couple of guards picked him up and dragged him back to his cell, while Blue Blood issued an order to send a reconnaissance team to Appleloosa.
Meanwhile, Starlight stormed off to a training room and set it to maximum difficulty.
Sunset decided to stop in the middle of nowhere and set up camp to rest for the night. The sun was hardly close to setting, but better to start when there was light then try to set up when you can’t see.
To her surprise, camp got set up much faster than expected, leaving a few hours before the sun actually sets. She decided to take this time to clean her guns, laying out her cleaning kit on the hood of her car. Meanwhile, the Crusaders decided to ask the old man a few questions.
Along the way there, the old man agreed to teach the Crusaders how to use a sword. With Sweetie Belle, notably, he taught her more magical spells and techniques on how she could summon her own “lightsaber.” Despite her best efforts, Sweetie Belle could never get one to form, all she could get was some sparks to fly out of her hands.
The man told Sweetie Belle not to worry for he, “feels that the force is strong in her.”
Sunset coughed, “Nerd!”
“What was that?” asked the man, genuinely curious.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that a sword that you can hardly summon is no match for a good gun by your side.” Sunset said as she chambered a round in the handgun she had just finished cleaning and tossed it into her pocket dimension and pulled out another gun and began to field strip it.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had their swords facing each other. No movement was made for several moments, then suddenly Apple Bloom swung a downward strike, Sweetie Belle blocked and swung left, Apple Bloom parried. Apple Bloom’s next move was striking, in quick succession, Sweetie Belle’s right hand, and calf. Sweetie Belle recoiled in pain, shaking the struck hand and hopping briefly on the leg that wasn’t hit.
“Point: me.” Apple Bloom said, resting her sword on her shoulder, “18 to 1.”
“Come on Sweetie Belle, you gotta step up your game,” Scootaloo said, sitting in the dirt off to the side, her arms wrapped around her legs to let her chin rest on her knees, she was getting bored of Sweetie Belle’s insistent losing streak. “You’re not going to get any better if this keeps up.”
Sweetie Belle let out an angry sigh. “I know that! I’m trying the best I can!”
The old man then spoke up, “I suggest you go again, but this time focus on your blocking, let go of your conscious self,” he picked up a bandana and wrapped it around Sweetie Belle’s head, covering her eyes. “... and act on instinct.”
Sweetie Belle let out a laugh. “Aw come on. With this over my eyes, I can’t even see. How can I fight like this?”
“Don’t believe in yourself. Believe in the me that believes in you.” the man responded.
They all quirked their heads, then Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom posed themselves back into their fighting stance. Scootaloo got up, grabbed Sweetie Belle by the shoulders and repositioned her to face Apple Bloom properly and waved a hand in front of Sweetie Belle’s face to make sure that she really couldn’t see and sat back down.
Sunset had stopped what she was doing rested an elbow on the hood of the car, her chin in her hand. She wanted to see how this ridiculous idea would end.
A few moments of silence passed before Apple Bloom made her first move. She gave out a sharp exhale, feigning an attack, which Sweetie Belle moved to block in the absolute wrong direction. Apple Bloom smirked, then quickly swung horizontally, striking Sweetie Belle in the shoulder, she recoiled in pain.
“Stretch out with your feelings.” the man said.
Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and raised her sword, signaling she was ready.
Apple Bloom’s smirk never wavered, until she swung again.
*CRACK*
Sweetie Belle had successfully blocked an overhead attack coming from her left.
Apple Bloom was briefly stunned in awe before she quickly swung two more times.
*CRACK CRACK*, each coming from a different direction.
Sweetie Belle had blocked both attacks with ease. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and even Sunset Shimmer stood where they were, staring slack-jawed at the blindfolded child swordfighter.
“See? You can do it.” said the old man as Sweetie Belle took off her blindfold.
Sunset shook her head composed herself. “I call that lucky.”
“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”
“Good against another child is one thing, but good against a professional is something completely different.”
Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them momentarily. No one got hurt, but the old man seemed to have taken the unexpected earthquake the worst, he looked like he had a hole punched through his stomach in the middle of all that.
“Are you OK?” Scootaloo asked as she moved to prop up the old man.
“Yes, yes. I’m alright,” the man said. “I just felt a great disturbance, it was as if a thousand voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”
The Crusaders look at each other worriedly, Sunset gave an inaudible scoff, and when the man said not to worry about him and get back to training, they did.
Starlight Glimmer was pacing back and forth around a large, round, shiny black conference table in the center of the room. Twilight was sitting at the head of the table, in the middle of Starlight’s looping path. She had her feet on the table, fondling the red lightning bolt jewel in one hand between her fingers, like a pirate with a cursed gold coin, with the two other gems floating at her shoulders. Every time Starlight passed by, Twilight would spare a glance at her apprentice, then return her attention back to the red jewel. Admiral Blue Blood was sitting a couple feet away from the edge of Starlight’s pacing, mulling over information on an electronic tablet.
Twilight eventually spoke up, “What has gotten you so nervous, my apprentice?”
Starlight stopped her pacing at the opposite end of the table from Blue Blood and faced Twilight. “I am not nervous, master.” she said calmly and coldly, “I’m just tired of waiting for us to kill that wong ba duhn.”
“Language.” interjected Blue Blood, not looking up from his tablet.
“You wanna go, pretty boy!?” Starlight yelled at Blue Blood, stomping a foot in his direction, her fists clenched and doused in a cyan fire, her eyes also burning with the same flame.
Blue Blood calmly set down the tablet, raised his hands as if surrendering, faced slightly away smugly, saying, “I wouldn’t dare challenge the apprentice of Empress Twilight Sparkle - killer of Princess Celestia.”
“And don’t you forget it.” Twilight responded smugly then turned to Starlight, “Be patient my apprentice. You will have your chance to kill him soon enough.”
Just then, a guard walks into the room. Everyone turned their attention to him, and Starlight’s fire died down.
“My liege,” the guard said facing his empress, “we have just received word from the scouting party from Appleloosa. They report that there was evidence of a rebel base within the town, but has been abandoned for some time now.”
The admiral slammed a fist down on the table and jumped up from his seat. “He lied! He lied to us!”
“I told you the fool would never cooperate.” Starlight deadpanned as she crossed her arms.
The Admiral glanced at Starlight then barked an order to the guard, “Terminate him. Immediately.”
Starlight perked up at the sound of the order. “Master, permission to execute the prisoner personally.” she said eagerly.
Her master simply smiled as she said, “Permission granted.”
With that Starlight burst into a brisk walk out the door, followed by the guard, whom she pushed out of the way as she went through the door.
Admiral Blue Blood then heaved a heavy sigh as he sat back down in his seat and pinched his brow to a furrow.
“Isn’t she just adorable when she becomes full of bloodlust like that?” Twilight asked her subordinate, as she now fondled the blue diamond jewel in her hand. “I’m so proud of her.”
The admiral groaned. “Yes. Now if only she could find her way around here on her own.”
Starlight had barely walked fifty meters down the hall when she suddenly stopped, causing the guard behind her to nearly collide into her.
She turned to the guard and said, “Do you know the way to the detention center?”
“No ma’am.” he replied, standing stiffly at attention, afraid of what she might do to him for almost running into her. “This is my first time here and I just barely arrived from the docks to deliver the scout report. Also, I haven’t seen any maps on the way over here.”
Like a whining child complaining about an annoying sibling to their parents, the apprentice yells, “MASTER~!” as she walks back to the direction she came from at the same speed she came with.