//------------------------------// // The Storm // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// Valey crouched on the catwalk beneath the platform where the elevator ambush waited, watching as they perked up with shouts and yells. She couldn't see the moving cable from her distance, but it was obvious they could. The top of the elevator carriage scrolled above the rocks and into view, and that was her cue. Clang! She vaulted onto the last platform, gave her most eager grin, and cleared her throat. "Hey there, boys! Looking for someone?" Her flanks tingled before they even started to turn; someone was aiming a projectile at her. But the threat wasn't instant, so she had time to stand and watch as they turned, confused and still rallying for a fight. "Look, there she is! Get her!" "Pfft. Cheesy." She spat off the side of the bridge, sidestepping as the danger grew closer. "You're going to have to think of better lines than that if you want to catch me!" Hissssss! A chunk of burning plasma hit the bridge where she had been standing, reducing half of it to a hole and causing her to yelp from the heat. The Defense Force shouldn't have had anything that could do that! Regardless, her opponents had somehow gotten their hooves on Sosan weaponry, and there was little good complaining about it would do her. She kicked a pipe free from the railing, grabbed it as a weapon and prepared to drill into the combatants, hoping to disable their lone turret and take them down before their plasma sniper and whatever other backup they had got too annoying. "Haaaugh! Grrargh!" Thud! Relying on her cutie mark, Valey expertly ducked a blow from the shortest, most pitiful club ever, surging past a stallion and kicking him off balance with a hind hoof. She caught his weapon with her tail as she passed, clocking the next pony's head with it and shoving him into a third. She whirled her pipe to smash a fourth out of the way... and he caught it, parrying deftly with an identical small black club. "Woah!" Valey recoiled, pivoting her momentum back into a strike at the ponies who were regrouping behind her rather than engage a test of strength she might not win. "Okay, your taste in weapons is horrible, but you actually paid attention in basic self-defense class! Good for... you!" She panted as she swung the bar through the three previous ponies, knocking one's legs out from under him. The second flapped his wings, jumping over it, and the third deftly stomped down, catching her pipe and wrenching it from her grasp. She barely had time to strike a defensive stance before her flank caught her attention again, and she glanced back to see the fourth pegasus winding up for another blow. Grinning, Valey folded her ears. "Uh-oh." Sidestepping as late as she possibly could, Valey let his hoof graze her cheek, then flipped on her back, kicking him to keep him airborne and using his momentum to turn him into a projectile toward the other three. Frustratingly, he shot out his wings, wrapping one around the railing and yanking, throwing his course off so that he only crashed into one, twisting the railing in the process. Valey wasted no time in shadow sneaking, dropping through the mesh platform and materializing on the other side, hooking a hoof around the edge of the floor and swinging back up through the mangled railing. "And stay down!" With both forehooves acting as one, Valey brought down a decisive strike on the two incapacitated stallions, stunning them further and knocking them out. "Whew..." she panted, looking them over as three more stepped up from by the turret to take number four's place. "You guys are tough. Since when did we have a special ops training department?" Deftly, she snatched the pipe bar with a wing as it was hurled at her face, then scooted sideways to dodge another plasma blast. That much and the elevator was only just passing the first station? This fight was going to be fun. CH-TUNNNGGGG! It got a lot less fun as the pony at the turret began firing on the elevator. Shattering glass rang in Starlight's ears as Maple clutched her way tighter than was necessary, great spidery cracks crawling their way up the elevator shaft's glass front. Smoke from the explosive shell was just clearing, allowing her to observe the pegasus at the turret loading it again. "This is most unfortunate!" Gerardo caterwauled, pressing against the intact surface of the carriage. "Why are they shooting at us? Their professed target is right there!" "I don't know!" Maple cried, hugging Starlight so tightly the filly was lifted off the ground. "Maybe they're mad that she's fighting? Maybe they want to use us as hostages!" A second shell rammed into the elevator shaft, puncturing a hole in the wall with an ear-splitting tinkle. The elevator just barely had time to rise into the still-intact section before the turret was ready for round three. Valey suplexed a guard's head into the floor, having isolated and gotten the better of him far more slowly than she would have liked. There were still seven left, and as she righted herself a third shell fired off, disintegrating the elevator shaft and causing it to break away far higher than the carriage had made it. Her friends were now exposed. If she had been messing around, it was time to stop. A guard taunted her from a guarded stance, too smart to make a reckless charge. But he wasn't smart enough to keep his mouth shut, and her good wing flashed out, holding a banana peel - the last remains of her lunch, stored under her hat along with the sound stone and a lone Sosan stun grenade she felt worth saving for an emergency. Unfortunately, when they could fly away and she couldn't, this wasn't it. The guard's gag reflex triggered as his mouth was stuffed forcefully with nasty, inedible banana peel. But he was a big pegasus, enough so that as he bent down to retch, Valey leapt at his back... and used him as a springboard, kicking off and vaulting over the remaining pegasi towards the turret. Unfortunately, one was already airborne, and having functional wings, he was far better at changing position midair than her. ...But not good enough. Valey's lone good wing shot out, launching her into a corkscrew that dived past his side, lacerating his own wing as she passed. He yelped and fell, but already had a blow incoming, and the slice from her sharp wingtip wasn't enough to remove his weapon's momentum. Whuddd! Driven by a thick, hairy hoof, the stallion's miniature club pummeled her soft belly and sent her rocketing downwards so hard she bounced once against the floor, landing on her back. She gasped for breath, fighting the simultaneous urges to curl up and to lay immobile, glad it had been as long as it had since she'd eaten. Someone had actually landed a blow against her! The turret fired again from right next to her, scoring a clean impact against the side of the elevator carriage. Warning lights blared as a web of cracks spread completely around the cylinder, its five inhabitants huddled terrified within. Normally air-conditioned and depressurized to provide as comfortable a ride as possible, the carriage was filled with jets of hot air as the pressure equalized through the wider cracks, forcing them further apart from the force of the transfer of air. The cracks grew, first a centimeter, then an inch, and kept spreading. Starlight looked at the floor, which was beginning to tilt, and then the ceiling, connected to them only by that thin sheet of reinforced glass and the one thing keeping them attached to the upwards-moving cable. Below, she saw Valey go down, having taken an attack, and the turret pony loading another shell just in case. Several of the pegasi were flying towards the bottom of the cylinder... Yes, they were definitely supposed to be hostages. She hoped. Gulping, Starlight felt her horn. It still had the faint pink tingle of the crystal palace below them, as if the energies the tree had lent her to dismantle the moon glass apparatus hadn't quite worn away yet. How much would they be good for? A single enhanced spell? She was still fresh, herself. Time to find out. Starlight's horn flared as the cracks grew exponentially, wisps of pink mixing in with her own teal magic. Maple's body was rigid around her, too in shock to pay attention to what she was doing as her aura intensified. The floor's tilt increased as she further charged her aura, milliseconds away from a final shatter... and with a surge of effort, a conjured crystal bloomed around them, wrapping her and Maple and the elevator roof and all her friends in a sturdy, protective shield that filled the outline of the cylinder. The waiting pegasi gasped. The elevator continued to rise. "Yeah!" Valey cheered from her back as she lashed out with both hind legs, hoping to catch anyone trying to sneak up on her while she was prone, trying to gather herself and get up. She had seen the elevator fill with crystal. As long as Starlight could keep that up, she had a little more time. Unfortunately, her attackers weren't stupid enough to get within kicking range... from that direction. Why did she have to be up against the one team of fighters in Ironridge who were apparently coordinated? Any other day of the year, it would have been a welcome challenge. Then, as one pegasus lunged at her from the side and another waited patiently for her to roll out of the way, it was ridiculously inconvenient. Sensing the waiting fighter, she instead rolled into the attacking one, reaching out and grapple-hugging the pony's chest like a zombie. His blow went wide and he toppled from the batpony latched onto his chest, flailing. "What's the matter?" she heaved, still breathless from the strike to her gut. "Don't like hugs? That's your loss, 'cause I'm really fuzzy!" Gathering all four legs between him and her, she kicked, launching his body airborne and spinning upright to grab his club. The paltry weapon found its way to the face of the pony who had been laying in wait, where it bounced off and did little more than make him mad. Maybe that was why they were using them, Valey mused as she decapitated another railing, her old pipe bar too far away to be useful. They knew she could steal whatever they brought, so they took things that would only be useful with enough raw muscle behind them. That was rude and cunning! Torn between being offended and impressed, she hefted the pipe like a javelin, forcing the nearest pegasus to dodge for fear of being skewered. He was such a big target... but the pipe didn't even leave her hooves. Instead, she spun and took out the turret pony with a blow to the head, who had just loaded another explosive shell. Where was sniper pony? Not firing for fear of hitting his allies? And where was all the backup? With four guards out, three having eaten at least one good blow and three off chasing the elevator, the fight was almost won. Valey stood against the turret, watching the remaining three size her up and decide they didn't like their odds. They took wing and flew away. Pity. Thanks to sniper pony's hole in the other side of the bridge, she had been planning to aim the explosive turret at the bridge coupling with the elevator terminal, causing the bridge to fall entirely. It wouldn't have done much since they were all pegasi, but it would have looked cool. Too bad that wasn't a plan she would ever... Her flank buzzed. Idly, she sidestepped, expecting another bolt from sniper pony, massaging her sore barrel with a hoof. But the danger tingle sharply increased, almost instantly reaching the point where time stopped and she had a few precious seconds to identify the threat... and her eyes picked out a burning gob of plasma heading straight for the turret. The one that fired explosive shells. That couldn't be good. She flung herself away just as the turret exploded, feeling her tail singe and the hairs on her back scorch. The bridge fulfilled her predictions neatly, severing where the turret had been and bending around the hole that had been perforated closer to the core. The section she was on swung like a trap door, flinging her with it as she frantically dug into the mesh surface... and then hit something and stopped with such a clang that she would have been pancaked if she hadn't gone shadow and flown right through. Landing on a small maintenance platform underneath a large overhang from the drill column's lowest completed ring, Valey stared upwards. The elevator was up there, and more pegasi were, too. She adjusted her hat; there was no time to sit around.