//------------------------------// // Nightwatch: Saving the Day // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// The hatch to the bridge opened and a cheerful-looking Pinkie bounced in. “Alright, I fired off the cannons! Did we hit them?” Everyone else’s eyes were glued to the viewing windows. Although the ones off the prow didn’t show much other than cloudy night sky, the ones on their port-side were now looking over their target as a few smoldering bits of it rained down. “Yup,” Dash, still at the wheel, answered back. “I’ll say we did.” “Hooray! That means it worked, right?” Rarity winced. “Well…assuming that we were right on guessing that Twilight would try to disable the Morning Glory on Sunset’s ship, assuming she actually succeeded, assuming that large metal bar that we found mounted into our own Morning Glory that was vibrating was what was protecting our ship, assuming that we managed to strike the same thing on their ship, and, finally, assuming that we fired on the other ship and not the one that Twilight was on…yes.” Pinkie paused momentarily. “Hooray! It worked!” “That had to be the most half-baked plan I’ve ever been in on…” Applejack grumbled. “Hey, you know what they say about stuff that’s half-baked, right?” Dash smirked. “They taste extra moist when you bite into them.” “…What in tarnation does that have ta’ do with our plan?” “Um, everyone…” Fluttershy spoke up meekly. She pointed to the window. “The other ship is…moving away.” Everyone was struck at that. They looked back out. While all three airships were in drift and slowly halting in midair, one of them brought their engines to life and began to pull away from the other two. As soon as it peeled itself off, it orientated itself around and aimed for the other side of the Legacy before firing up the engines again. “Uh…I didn’t get everythin’ ‘bout them Wake Up Daisies or whatever you called ‘em…” Applejack spoke again, far more nervously, “but I thought ya’ said if we take ‘em out they’ll both need to stay close to us?” “Er…yeah…they should…” Dash answered, her own voice beginning to sound uncomfortable. The ship’s engines soon fired enough for the ship to start pulling back up alongside the opposite edge of the Legacy. It cut the engines as it slid into broadside range. Rarity swallowed. “Rainbow Dash, dear…I think it would be nice if we turned the engines back on…” “After that move just now, we’d blow them out if we didn’t give them a chance to cool. I warned you about that…” Dash uneasily answered, before forcing a smile. “But no biggie! I mean…they’d blow up their own comrades if they fired on us now, heh! And they’d never do that!” A pause. “…Right?” The other airship hovered in darkness for a moment longer, before four eruptions were seen alongside it in tandem. “Oh crap…” Dash moaned. “Everyone hit the deck!” Applejack shouted. She slammed herself to the ground along with Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and even Spike. Pinkie grinned, treating it as more of a game before she ducked as well. Moments later, the airship gave a violent tremor and rattle, before it rapidly subsided again. “We’re hit! We’re hit!” Applejack screamed, still crouching against the ground, covering her head, and her eyes shut. “Bail out! Every woman fer herself! Get the life jackets ‘fore we take on water!” “Applejack?” Fluttershy’s voice meekly spoke up. “It…really doesn’t seem all that bad.” The farmer hesitated a moment more before opening one eye. She saw Fluttershy was already standing up again, looking more curious than scared. The others soon looked up as well and rose too. They looked up and around, but saw no signs of damage. Even in the windows outside the area was clear, with no signs of debris or explosions. The group looked around in puzzlement. “Was that it?” Moments later, the deck suddenly gave a lurch strong enough to knock Rarity and Fluttershy off their feet and send Spike scrambling. Even after it stopped, the deck was tilted at a slight angle. Alarmed, the women looked around for a moment before Dash glanced out the windows and pointed. “I see it in the light from their ships! Look!” As Rarity and Fluttershy began to get up again, Applejack and Pinkie looked out. The farmer focused a moment before she began to make out links stretching across the night sky, barely illuminated, stretching between the two airships. “Chains?” “Skyhooks,” Dash explained. “Harpoons with chains. When airships run out of cannon ammo or can’t fire back, they hook each other and lash themselves together to let the musketeers finish the job.” Applejack smirked as she hefted her hammer. “Heh, I’ll knock out them oversized fishhooks in no time.” Another series of eruptions went out, and the ship suddenly gave another shudder. The women managed to stay balanced that time, but noticed that it came from the other side. They turned and looked, and saw the other ship had done the same. “They’ve got us from both sides!” Rarity exclaimed. “But they’re not shooting cannons… I think they both want to be close to us,” Fluttershy answered. “Aw yeah! That means the plan worked!” Dash grinned. “They can’t let us get away now!” “When you put it that way, that…actually sounds a bit bad…” Rarity muttered. “Not to worry,” Applejack answered. “Just means twice as much work fer me!” “Oh, but we can’t get away right away,” Fluttershy protested. “We still have to get Twilight.” “And now that they’ve got us trapped between them and they’re closing in to board us, this is the perfect chance to get on board!” Pinkie cheered. “Again, not the way I would have phrased things…” Rarity sighed. “But we still haven’t found which ship she’s even on.” “Wait,” Fluttershy called, pointing out the window. “What’s that over there?” The others turned and looked. On the farther ship that was either reeling them in or reeling itself closer, something was going off on the deck. A small shower of sparks, like a firework, was firing off. They assumed it was some sort of combustible at first, until they noticed something about it in particular. “Is that…lavender?” “Just like Twilight’s hair and aura!” Dash grinned. “Alright, looks like we got our ship now!” Applejack quickly brought her hand up and began to stand away from the others before she made the call to her Anima Viri. An explosion of her own aura later, and she was armored and hefting her warhammer. “I’ll take care of the hooks from the other ship! As soon as Twilight’s on board, we’ll blast outta here!” Rarity drew herself up and then raised her own hand. A few phrases later, and her own aura quickly transformed her into the flamboyant red hat and ensemble. She hefted her parasol-turned-rapier soon after. Pinkie quickly stepped in next to her, grinning as she brought out her own and was soon in her rougish ensemble again before tucking her utensil-turned-knife in her teeth. “Pinkie, Spike, and I will see to Twilight. That leaves Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to tend to the ship and make ready to leave as soon as we’re back.” “Yay!” Pinkie cheered. “But one question. Who takes care of that thing?” “Huh?” The group once again looked outside to the ship. While it was still reeling in and sparks were still emerging from the upper deck, they saw flaming lights come out from under it. Soon after, the fires rapidly began to arch through the air, belching out smoke behind them, before the lights of the airship caught upon the gleam of rotating propellers. Soon after, they saw electricity snake around it, just barely making out what looked like an armored wheelless chariot mounted on turbines zooming through the air. “What in tarnation is that blasted thing?” Applejack shouted. Before anyone could answer, the device rapidly arched up and through the air, right over the top of their own deck. They looked out the window along the front of the prow as it passed by, before an armored figure crackling with electricity leapt off and landed on the deck in a crouch. He didn’t stay that way long, but quickly jumped to his feet and began to run. “Good heavens…” Rarity uttered. “It’s that beastly man from the mines!” Applejack frowned. She advanced a step. “I’ll deal with him…” “No!” The women turned to Dash, who was already stepping away from the wheel. Her eyes were narrowed, but she was grinning. She made a fist and pumped it into the other. “This one’s all mine.” She called out her own Anima Viri and was fully equipped soon after. She turned around and started to walk, but looked over her shoulder as she did. “Fluttershy, watch the wheel! I’ll be right back!” “Wh-what?” she began to protest, only for Dash to immediately take off in a blaze of speed. She tried looking back to the others for help, but Applejack was already wheeling around. “C’mon, y’all! We got work ta’ do and not much time to do it!” She quickly ran off before Rarity, Pinkie, and Spike charged out as well. Fluttershy held out her hand to them to try and tell them to wait, but they were already charging for one of the exit hatches before she could make out a weak mutter. Soon, she was left standing alone on the bridge as the hatches slowly closed behind the others. “Oh my.” The royal guard knew the layout of the Legacy very well, and as such didn’t waste an instant. As soon as he landed he dashed for the exit hatch for the upper deck. Even without using his enhancements, he was there in a moment, reaching out, twisting the bulkhead around as fast as he could and opening it up. He made it halfway across the threshold when the blow struck him solidly in the chest. It was loud enough for a clang to ring out from his armor as he went sliding backward a clean ten feet away from the hatch, and only due to his natural balance even when wearing the suit did he not fall over. Even so, though his face was covered, his body language clearly showed surprise when he looked back up. While the entryway had been clear moments earlier, it now had Dash grinning from ear to ear as she lowered her foot. “Remember me, tin can man? What do you say we finish this for good?” The royal guard didn’t answer. He stood still a moment, before his armor began to spark. An instant later it ignited in a brilliant flash, and he reappeared facing the entryway again with his spear extended in a thrust. This time, his surprise was so strong he actually verbalized. “Wh…what?” Dash, still grinning, was to one side and letting the spear hit nothing but air. “Looks like you just lost the best trick up your sleeve.” She snapped her hand forward and drove the palm into his face soon after. This time, the blow was strong enough to make him stagger back several feet, although the armor blocked it enough to where he was able to stabilize and brandish his spear in front of him again. Dash, however, was a different story. Her own hand had flown off of his helmet and she nearly snapped back along with it, yelling in pain. She quickly advanced outside of the threshold at roughly the same time; so that both were left facing off against one another. “Right…” she muttered as she shook her half-numb hand. “Forgot about your other trick…” The royal guard stared at her for a moment, electricity still peeling off of his suit every once in a while, before he snapped forward. He didn’t accelerate like last time, but instead swiped his spear out for her neck. She quickly swiveled back to avoid it, before pivoting to one side and the other as he followed up with thrusts for her middle. As soon as she evaded them, he advanced while crossing the spear in front of him, bringing up the shaft to try and catch her beneath the chin. This too forced her to back up, soon driving her into the threshold again. He kept advancing afterward, once more bringing the tip around in a cross slash before swinging the spear around and trying to thrust again. By this point, she was so backed up into the corridor that the royal guard was nearly across the threshold. Getting frustrated, the next time he drove his spear tip forward she swung out her arm and deflected the flat side. The spear was repelled almost as much as her arm, to the tune of a loud electrical snap. She grit her teeth through it, but nevertheless forced the numbed appendage to go up along with her good arm and grasped the overhead pipes. She swung back once, then swung both legs forward again while the royal guard still tried to recover. Once again, she caught him in the chest and very solidly this time. Enough to knock him back out the threshold and a good distance onto the deck before he fell on his back at last. He quickly got up, but Dash couldn’t seize on it. As soon as she landed she nearly collapsed herself, for both of her legs were in pain and her toes were numb. It was all she could do to stagger back out onto the deck, but she forced herself to and, as soon as she did, slammed the hatch shut behind her again. “You aren’t…getting any farther than me!” she shouted, trying to continue to sound bold and confident through her pain and numbness. The royal guard managed to rise again, leveling his spear. “You’re hitting through my shield, but not that hard. You caught me more off-balance than anything. This electrical discharge is going to tear you up faster than you can do the same to me.” Dash really did force a smirk at this. “That’s assuming it holds up through too many more of those shocks. ‘Cause once it’s down, there’s nothing between me and you.” The royal guard answered by thrusting forward, and this time Dash ran in to meet it. It had taken Twilight considerable time, not the least bit due to the fact that in addition to her movements being slow the ride kept jostling her one way and the other, and, now that she saw the others had come, she prioritized on signaling them first. Yet finally she managed to raise her hand and move it enough to generate a small spell. In response, the mists surrounding the airship condensed and shot down a stream of water along her torso. It definitely hurt, but her goal was to try and clean the gunk as best as she could to get moving again. When the water subsided, she tried to rise again, only to find that, while she had sped up, she was still moving at a walking pace as best. Nevertheless, she got to her feet. She had to move and try and find something to use as a wand. No sooner had she gotten to her feet, however, when she heard a yell. “There she is! Get her!” She turned to the shouting. By now, the Rising Sun and Prodigy had both attached themselves to the Legacy, and had reeled each other in with their skyhooks. While the Rising Sun was still pulling closer, the Legacy had already docked, and in response the soldiers were jumping over one after another. They had already spotted Twilight between her aura and her sparks she had shot off before, and were crossing the deck to get to her. Twilight looked back to the hatch on the Rising Sun, making sure it was still frozen for the time being. Unfortunately she was moving too slow to run to jump the current deck for Legacy’s, and there was nowhere for her to run or hide except on the hostile airship. Without a wand of some sort, she couldn’t focus her spells properly either. She struggled to think for a moment of what to do as the soldiers kept running closer… Her train of thought was cut off as Pinkie Pie, in her full Rogue role, slid out from the side and right in the path of Snails and the soldiers behind him. “Har har! Trying to board me ship? We’ll keelhaul the lot of ya’ for this!” Snails was stunned for several seconds, before he snapped out of it enough, along with the rest of the group with him, to take aim with their weapons. However, the moment they fired, Pinkie simply did a nimble cartwheel to one side and evaded the stream of goop as well as the magical weapon fire. She kept on rolling right until she was right in front of one of the other soldiers. Expecting an attack, the soldier quickly raised her weapon and pulled back. The others likewise held their fire, but Snails, not realizing the hazard, turned and shot. Pinkie grinned and ducked soon after, letting Snails’ comrade get pasted by the material instead. Immediately, she dropped into “slow motion” as she only slowly showed surprise. As if popping through midair itself, Pinkie sprang back up in front of another soldier. Snails quickly turned to her to fire again, only for her to duck and let another one of the soldiers get hit. She popped up again, this time from behind a third one and waving her hand. This soldier tried to wave her own hands and yell at Snails to stop, but it was too late. She got hit as well as Pinkie continued to nimbly hop from one soldier to another. Snips and his own group continued to rush forward unimpeded. They nearly made it to the edge of the ship to jump over to the Rising Sun, when Rarity in her Magician role ran out and planted herself in their path. Her appearance alone was enough to make them grind to a halt as she stared them down dangerously from beneath her hat brim; particularly at the armored soldier leading them. “If you wish to take one step closer,” she spoke coolly, before brandishing her rapier, waving it in front of her a few times before aiming it directly at Snips. “You’ll have to go through me!” Snips faced off against her for a moment, simply staring, then he hoisted his scissor-like blades. With one simple movement, he leaned forward and slapped them together around the edge of her sword. Half of the rapier was instantly snapped off with enough force to send it sailing through the air. Rarity’s bold look vanished. She gaped at the remains of her sword in shock. She glanced back down, only to see Snips rearing back and widening his scissor blade again. He snapped forward a moment later, but Rarity yelped and raised her hand. Whether in panic or instinct, she performed a small gesture with it before holding it in a stopping gesture, just as Snips advanced. Yet while the blades passed her, when he tried to collapse them he found himself unable. He paused a moment, before grunting and trying again. Still no luck. “Hey! What gives?” He looked at his weapons and, to his surprise, the main joint in the center had been encased in ice. It now acted as a wedge to keep the scissors open. Gritting his teeth and groaning, he began to struggle with it, but Twilight was distracted on hearing a metal tinkling nearby. She looked and was just in time to see the remains of the end of the blade land only about ten feet away from her before rolling to a stop. Almost the moment it did, it lost its shine and reverted into the severed half of a parasol. She stared at it for a split second, just long enough for her mind to click, before she made a scramble for it. Unfortunately, she also saw that the rest of the solders with Snips had not stopped moving. As he kept fighting with his own weapon, they had continued to the edge of the ship, and the one in the lead saw the move she was making. Quickly, she planted her feet and raised her weapon. Twilight was still slowed and several feet away from the object when she heard her weapon start to charge. She froze in midstep and looked up, paling on seeing the gun pointed at her, struggling to think if she should try and counter or still go for the parasol piece. Fortunately she didn’t have to decide. With a snarl, Spike shot out from the side of the ship and clamped his jaw on her wrist while flinging his bulk at her. The combination of the moves caused her to swing her arm out wide and lose balance; falling over onto one side. Not only did her shot misfire, but he quickly dug into her and kept her pinned. Twilight was shocked at Spike’s move, but only for a moment before she ran the rest of the way to take up the parasol. As she seized it the other soldiers reached the edge, but they were split between her and Spike now. Some looked at the dog and thought of firing in spite of the close range to their comrade, while others looked to Twilight. One of them finally chose her and raised to fire, but by that point her aura had spread to the parasol piece and morphed it into a new wand. Performing another gesture, she snapped her wand around. A vortex of wind rapidly collected and lashed out at both that soldier and the next nearest behind him. The gust was so powerful it not only blew both of them over, but their weapons were sent flying out of their hands. One managed to land on the deck but the other was sent completely over the edge. The others were surprised by her sudden action, and so she used the moment to quickly whip up a cloud of frost in front of her before sending it flying. The incoming soldiers cried out and shielded their eyes as stinging cold and ice crystals bombarded them. That was all the delay she wanted to sweep her wand about and generate a more focused water spell. Seconds later, she cried out in pain again as it blasted her body, but also cleaned off more of the goop. Snips finally gave a yell as he forgot trying to get his scissors working again, and instead swung violently at Rarity with his jammed blades. Even locked in position they were still deadly, and she cried out in alarm as she dropped her sword hilt and snapped back. Wincing and nervous, she raised her hand and tried another gesture. Unfortunately she was too anxious and didn’t have an object to focus her power. All she managed was a flurry of sparks that seemed to do little more than annoy Snips before he drove the blades at her again. She cried out as they nearly took off a foot at the ankle before tearing into the upper deck. They were caught for a fraction of a second as the wood pinched the blade, but the sound of Rarity’s call had alerted Pinkie just as she was spinning Snails around in so many rings that the rest of the soldiers with him had been forced to pull back to avoid any more of the goop he was firing. She quickly looked at the situation and reacted—shooting over to the nearest slowed soldier. She zoomed right past him, leaving him confused and wondering what she had done, before emerging on the other side with his combat knife in hand. “Rarity! Catch!” She turned and saw Pinkie fling the weapon to her. Snips, meanwhile, yanked his weapon free just as Rarity reached up and snatched the hilt of the knife out of the air. Crying out again, he swung his huge blades behind him and tried to arch them around for Rarity’s neck. This time, however, a solid metal clang was the result. In spite of the size of the huge scissor blades, Snips was stunned to see Rarity, bearing a fresh sword of a more saber-like type, actually holding him and the weight of his weapons back against the flat of it. Rarity exhaled in relief. “Thank you, darling!” she called, before focusing totally on him again. “Shall we try this again?” Letting out another growl, he pulled his blades back and thrust them forward. This time, however, Rarity quickly backstepped, moving her feet and poise into the right form, and deflected the hit away with the flat of her blade. He advanced on her and stabbed several more times, but the situation had changed. Not only was he using a much more awkward weapon stuck in a jammed position, but Rarity quickly calmed into a more formal dueling style and used her above-normal strength to divert each thrust for her; mostly using the weight to deflect it back to the ground. This only made Snips angrier and more fierce and rapid with each thrust, but she continued to back up and parry each blow. For a moment, Snips still looked to have the edge as he forced her back and toward the edge of the upper deck, with nowhere else to go. However, just as he was a few steps away from backing her against an railing, she deflected his latest blow to the ground enough to make the tip once again hit the deck and embed in it; only to snap forward with a thrust for her own for his chest. Letting out an alarmed and panicked noise, he quickly snapped up and yanked his weapon with him. Nevertheless, she kept advancing, walking her body around as she did to get clear and thrust two more times. Snips had no choice but to raise his weapon and gauntlets to block against each of the strikes. With a loud clang and a flurry of sparks, his metal gloves deflected both blows before he finally brandished his scissor blade again. He nearly renewed the attack, when he spotted his hand armor. He gasped again on seeing two long gashes in the metal from either thrust. “Wh-what?! Those knives Lady Sunset gave us can’t cut my gauntlets!” “I think I might have improved upon her style just a tad,” Rarity answered, actually giving a smug smile. In spite of the now-clear anxiety he was feeling, Snips hesitated only a fraction of a second longer before steeling himself and renewing the attack. By now, the two soldiers that were using their rifle butts to try and chip away at Twilight’s ice barrier were both red faced and sweating; for all the good it did them. They had managed to break away some pieces, but most of the barrier was smooth without edges to fracture. They were barely able to dent and chip it, let along get any major cracks. Behind them, their CO as well as multiple other soldiers were left to stand helplessly. The corridor wasn’t even big enough for more of them to try and help out the first. She finally fumed in exasperation. “This is pointless! We’ll be here for half an hour tunneling through this!” One of them hoisted his gun. “Let’s just blast through it. One good fire shot’ll-” “Don’t you dare!” the CO immediately barked. “The bridge is already reporting we’re losing pressure from all this ice cooling off lines! We shoot it and end up rupturing any of them and we might not be able to get any power back while we’re stuck over Equestria!” A clatter of boots on metal rang from up the hall. The CO and several of the soldiers looked down the corridor and a single soldier, huffing and puffing, finished dashed into earshot before he called out. “Side hatches alongside the Legacy are a bust! We’ll have to climb over the deck through the emergency hatches on the starboard side!” The soldier let out a groan but then frantically motioned. “Then get moving, already! If we don’t get that Morning Glory off the Legacy we’re going to be flying through hell the whole way back! And if Lady Sunset gets here and sees we aren’t already on board their ship, none of us may be flying home at all!” Dash made another move in, but snapped back just as quickly when the royal guard twirled his spear before snapping out at her head twice. She tried to dart in and deliver another hit as soon as she evaded the second spear tip, but he quickly changed positions and braced his spear against himself to keep her back. While she could have driven in a blow around the weapon, it wouldn’t have gone as hard or deep, and she pulled back rather than waste the move. Soon after, he advanced forward and swung his spear around to cleave at her with the tip. She managed to sidestep it, and in another moment he would have brought in the shaft of the weapon to protect himself. However, she beat him to it. In another flash she was at his side, leg already bent, and hooked around to drive her knee into his side. It was enough to crumple him around it a little and make him retreat in pain, but the prolonged contact was far worse on Dash. Her leg was so numb from the blow that she quickly shifted balance to one leg afterward; unable to stand on the other. Unfortunately, since he hadn’t taken nearly as much as she had hoped from that hit, he recovered first and drove his spear out in another thrust for his head. Immobilized and unable to dodge, she had no choice but to lash out and wrap her arm around the end of the spear and hold it close to her body. Soon, electricity was discharging out of it audibly as her face and body contorted in pain, but she grit her teeth and forced herself through it to raise her good leg, cock it back, and smash it in his face. The hit was strong enough to loosen something in the armor and he staggered back from the strike. However, when Dash released and touched the ground it was all she could do to stand on two numbed legs. And several seconds later, when the royal guard regained his bearings, she was still unable to take a step. Her body was an easy target as he drove the spear tip right for her chest. Unable to do anything else, Dash snapped her arms up and slapped her palms around the spear tip. She caught it and deflected it, but at the price of getting another painful, stunning discharge that immobilized her arms as well. The royal guard expected that, and quickly twisted the shaft around to make a bar grip before slamming it against her body. Advancing, he drove his helmet deep into her forehead. Alone, the blow wouldn’t have been enough to do much. Coupled with the fact that she kept taking damage from him, including constant electric shocks, and that it too packed that level of a punch, and it was enough to snap her head back. He kept pushing against the spear and managed to shove her off her feet. Raising the shaft, he braced it across her neck before he slammed her down into the deck hard enough to use her body to fracture it; right as the metal pole slammed against her windpipe. In spite of her durability, Dash’s eyes bulged and she gagged. He would have kept pushing in on her and electrocuting her further, if the pain didn’t drive her into a wild yet powerful move. Snapping her body and legs up, in spite of their numbness, she used them as levers to push him up, engage a backward somersault, and throw him and his weapon clear off of her. By complete accident, his body was toppled over itself and the back of his head slammed against a protruding metal anchor bolt on deck with a resounding clang. It wasn’t enough to disable him, but it did leave him stunned. Dash, unfortunately, couldn’t seize on it. By now she could smell burning coming from her body, and it was clear his electrical discharge was taking a greater toll on her than her blows on him. She had to grit her teeth and focus just to push herself up off the ground on her numb limbs. She forced her head up, but saw that the royal guard was already beginning to push off the deck. She nearly told herself to ignore the pain and push herself back to her feet. However, she paused when she looked about her. The wooden deck was fractured and splintered from the force of her impact, and had knocked up some of the fractured planks. She looked back up to the royal guard. A moment later she began to smirk. The armored man finished rising and got his spear at the ready, while Dash was still pushing herself up. In spite of his own state, he held for a moment, not hitting her while her head was down and her back was arched. However, the moment she did get her feet underneath her and began to push up, he advanced on her again while raising his spear. Before he could get close enough to strike, however, she shot forward the rest of the way and buried one of her fists into his side. A loud crackling sound went out, but the guard himself aborted his attack. His body wrenched and he cried in pain before he retreated a step. Looking down at his side, he saw half of the armor protecting it dented and the other half beginning to fall out. A bit surprised, he looked up to Dash. Fragments of wood splinters were toppling off of her extended fist, but her opposing one still had her fingers driven into a block of wood—turning it into a crude, impromptu, “brass knuckle”. She flashed a grin, before shooting forward and driving that fist into his chest. Another “oof” of pain went out as the breastplate was dented, and he went staggering back. Again, Dash shattered the wood punching him, but the moment he was away she quickly dove back to the deck. As he struggled to regain his balance, she drove her fingers into the wooden planks so sharply that she put her hands through them, and ripped upward a moment later with a fresh set of protection. By then, the guard was up again and sweeping his spear out to try and keep her away, but she quickly ducked under it. As soon as it went over her head, she tried to lunge at him again. He crossed his spear shaft in front of himself and intercepted one blow, but she followed up by using her other hand to hook him across the helmet. The thicker portion took most of it, but still dented as he was knocked into a waver. This gave Dash the moment she needed to spring back. Before she could dive for more wood protection, the royal guard, while trying to regain his balance, aimed his spear tip and shot out a bolt of electricity at her. Quickly, she sprang back to evade it, as well as two more follow-up jolts from him. However, he could do no more than that without pausing to recharge, and quickly he barreled at her to try and follow up. Unfortunately, she still had enough time to drop to the deck, drive her hands in again, and rip up two longer planks of wood. She swung both at him as ramshackle weapons. He smacked one away with his spear while he used a gauntlet to break away the other, but that only split off the wood enough for her to have two fresh sets of hand protection. She used one to block a follow-up spear swipe while smashing her hand into his already-weakened side. This time, the crack rang out that didn’t sound like it was armor alone. He faltered and, for a moment, looked like he was disabled. However, Dash couldn’t follow up that strike, and while she dove for more wood he recovered enough to jab his spear at her feet. Without any protection there she quickly had to backpedal to avoid it. Not losing his advantage, he continued to press after her, driving the spear repeatedly at her legs to try and at least force her into stumbling. Yet as she maintained her footing and balance, he realized it wouldn’t work and quickly cut off the attack to swing the spear shaft and tip up to try and cleave her chin. No good for him. She chuckled as she swung her head back, then snapped forward with both fists at the ready. He tried to protect himself with his spear, but just as she did she punched the shaft with her strongest blow she could manage. As her latest set of wooden protection shattered into splinters, the weapon gave a groan before snapping all together, and to the shock of the royal guard he was left holding two halves of a sparking, arcing spear. He was so stunned he couldn’t react before Dash smashed him in the face with her other hand. This time his faceplate shattered like a dish, revealing his tight, agonized face. The rest of his body sailed to the ground soon after. In spite of the power of the hit it didn’t render him unconscious, but soon after the armor began to spark violently around where she had damaged it. That included his face, and he winced in further pain from it. Still holding onto his sparking, broken weapon, his hand reached out and grasped something on his gauntlet. A moment later, the humming from his suit dimmed as the sparks around his face and side cut off. “Looks like you just ran out of protection,” Dash smirked, not bothering with wood as she advanced on him again. The royal guard turned himself about on his back, but other than that wasn’t getting up fast. The blow seemed to have taken much of the fight out of him. He barely was able to move by the time Dash got there. She seized him by the collar and yanked him to his feet. Her other fist went back and tightened. “Now I get to tag you back for that bout on the-” Dash was cut off as either split end of the spear, which she had ignored in spite of the fact both were still sparking and snaking, were driven forward against either one of her temples. On making contact the royal guard discharged their accumulated electricity into her brain. The woman’s face twisted into an expression of agony and horror before the rest of her body seized, but the royal guard didn’t stop. Her purposely pumped all the energy he could into her, and the electrocution lasted five full seconds before the resistors in his weapon finally gave out and split. When it was done, Dash, now sporting a blackened burn mark on either side of her head, both of which were smoldering, fell to the ground. She lay there limp and lifeless, not even breathing. As for him, he discarded both of the remains of his spear in an instant. Wheeling around, he faced the now-clear entryway into the ship, and a second later the last part of his body that could still get a charge, his feet, ignited and propelled him in a flash into the ship and down toward the engine room. Approximately 30 seconds later, the hatch to the bridge slowly creaked open. Fluttershy, now in her own Anima Viri, nervously poked her head out and looked around. The fight was still raging around her but Dash was still lying on the deck smoldering and burned from the electrocution. She nearly went out, only to yelp and pull back when a stray icicle shot zoomed past her hard enough to scrape the paint off the hatch. Letting out a panicked whimper, she ducked more under her hood and quickly ran out; staying as low as she could. Fortunately, she made it to Rainbow Dash’s side without much incident and held her staff over her. She closed her eyes and recited the spell that Twilight had taught her; causing her hands to light up with a soft green aura. The smoldering soon stopped and as she kept healing the burn marks slowly vanished. They were down to a pair of raw spots when Dash’s eyes suddenly shot open and she bolted upright so readily that Fluttershy exclaimed and fell back on her own rear end. “That bastard and his cheap shots! I’ll hit him so hard he’ll be eating half his teeth!” she instantly cried, only to see where she was and that her opponent was gone. She turned and looked to the side, spotting the white-robed woman shrinking back. “Fluttershy?! What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be manning the controls!” “Well, I saw you lying on the ground and, um…burning…and I thought you wouldn’t mind if I stepped away…just for a teeny, tiny bit…” “Well you can’t let the rudder go wild! There’s no telling where the ship will drift to or…” She suddenly paused, forgetting about that and looking around. “Wait…wait! Where’d that tin can guy go?” “Him? Oh…he, um…ran into the hatch into the ship. I waited until he had passed before I came out.” She spun to her in horror. “Into the ship?! What do you mean you let him run into the ship?! Do you have any idea what he’s probably doing?!” Fluttershy cringed a bit more with each yell. “No. What?” Before Dash could answer, the loud humming coming from their own resonant crossbar spanning the ship suddenly cut off. The air around them, aside from the sounds of battle, quickly grew silent. Fluttershy looked up and around, while Dash slapped her palm across her face. “That. He just swiped our own Morning Glory! If he gets off the ship with it, they can blow us out of the sky as soon as they pull away!” “Oh my…” she remarked, cupping a hand to her mouth. Dash groaned as she quickly jumped to her own feet. “I think I can still outrun him…just so long as I can pick which way back to the upper deck he’ll take…” “Wait.” The huntsman hesitated, looking back to Fluttershy as she used her own staff to rise. “If he’s still using that flying machine, I have an idea where he’ll be.” At long last, the first three soldiers climbed over the far side of the Rising Sun. Getting to the side emergency hatches and exiting through them to shinny up the side of their own airship hadn’t been easy, but at last the reinforcements crossed over and landed on the upper deck. They quickly moved away from the side to make room for the next three before switching on their harnesses and their guns, then looked about. It took them only a few moments to spot Twilight Sparkle further down the deck. In spite of being in her Caster form, she was currently pinned down by gunfire as her friends struggled with the forces coming in from the Legacy. While she had recovered greatly from the previous slowdown inflicted on her, she was still moving somewhat sluggish. Now was the best time to strike. With that in mind, the three quickly advanced forward to get a clear shot. They moved around the central hatch, still frozen shut, and emerged with a clean path to her. The nearest raised his weapon. A loud whistle interrupted him. “Hey over there!” The three turned and looked, alerted by the sound, before the nearest one gasped. Moments later, he was bowled over and knocked to the deck as a skyhook, its prongs blunted and collapsed by powerful hammer blows, smacked into him. The other two, stunned at the move, looked over at the source. They saw a grinning armored woman with a warhammer slung over one shoulder and another bent skyhook easily dangling from her free hand by its massive chain. “Looks like you folks lost somethin’! You can have it back! I already banged it back into shape!” With that, she hoised her arm up and flung the anchor around by the chain. To the shock of the other two soldiers, she smashed it back down so hard onto the deck of the Rising Sun it put a hole right through their upper deck and jammed itself back in their own ship. By now, the next three soldiers had run up to the side of their companions, but Twilight had also been alerted by the commotion. Quickly she began to crawl for more cover, but by now the soldiers were focused on her companion and began to fire upon her. She answered by grinning and running away, not minding the shots that zoomed past her. Her target was already the next skyhook. She soon reached it and, while the soldiers kept trying to fire, she ripped it out of her own ship, swung it around once, and flung the anchor and length of chain back at the soldiers. Two of them panicked and ducked, but two more found themselves ripped back by the chain, hurtled into their ship, and wrapped around their own hatch entrance before the chain swung about and anchored into their own deck—pinning them there. As the farmer ran to the next hook, the remaining reinforcements continued to pursue her; forgetting about their quarry to do so. By this point, Snails was surrounded by a “pancake” of the adhesive gunk all around him. The rest of his support was long gone and being picked off one at a time by Spike’s tackles and takedowns, and now he could only turn in a very narrow circle and step lightly. It seemed he couldn’t risk touching his own material once it left his gauntlet barrels, or he would suffer the same fate intended for his victims. Nevertheless, he kept pacing around and looking about him. “Ok now!” he called out. “No more jumping around! I’ve got the whole area covered! You take one step toward me and I’ll see it or I’ll squirt you with my next shot!” “Ooo!” Snails gave a start, shocked to hear that voice from right below him, before Pinkie leapt up right in his face. He actually stepped back at that, before he winced and struggled to keep his balance. One more step would put him in the goo. Pinkie didn’t seem to care as she looked at his gauntlets. “Wow! I’m impressed! After all of this stuff you still have more!” Suddenly, she reached out and took either gauntlet. Before Snips realized what was happening, she plucked either one right off of his hands. He gaped, but even more so when the loss of the weight made him stagger back even more. “D-D-Don’t touch those! Lady Sunset will kill me if I let anything happen to them!” “You really fit them all into these little tubes?” Pinkie asked. “Oh, wait! I know!” She ducked again only to pop up behind him, suddenly seizing the back portion of his armor and, without any effort at all, disconnected it and lifted it off of him. “You have a whole bunch stored in here, don’t you?” Snails couldn’t answer. He had been struggling to compensate for his lack of balance, but now it shifted the other way. As a result, he suddenly spilled forward, waved his arms about, and, before he could stop himself, stumbled forward and tripped. He ended up sprawling and falling face-first into a mass of his own adhesive—splattering over half of his body. He lay there a moment before only very slowly pulling his head up and glancing at his situation. “Awwwwwwwwwwwwww…” Meanwhile, Pinkie helped herself to trying on the armor before slipping both of her hands into the gauntlets. She held them before her a moment before squeezing her fists. She leapt a little on seeing two streams of adhesive shoot out, before she grinned and gave an excited squee. “Coooool! I got to try this out! Thanks!” She merrily hopped back over the gunk, doing a flip to land on her own poofy hair, which seemed immune to the material as it landed on it, before bouncing off again like a spring and landing on her feet well on the other side. She dashed off soon after. “…maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan…” Snails slowly finished. Snips continued to try and overpower Rarity, but now that she had her poise and a wider blade he was finding it much harder. In spite of his own skill, his weapon was too awkward and she could damage it. He wildly swung this way and that at her to try and get her to back off, still trying to knock his joints free, but the moment he paused she lunged in with a thrust. Before he could try another move, he was forced to raise and block again; only to lose more shavings of his weapon in the process. Grunting, he surged forward and swung the blade in a vertical upward slash before bringing it down in a chop, but she sidestepped it and advanced on him with a battering blow. He got another slash through one of his pauldrons before he could bring his blades up to swing and smack her sword aside. However, she went ahead and let the weapon be struck away, only to bring it back around and jab forward into his opposing arm’s rerebrace. It didn’t go deep, but he still felt a sting of pain as the tip of the blade broke first the armor then his skin. “Graaaah!” Finally fed up, Snips yanked his arms apart, hoping to disconnect his blades again. Instead, however, a bit to his own surprise, the opposing move broke the ice at last. He gaped a moment on finding his scissor blades free, but then grinned. Quickly, he collapsed them and held up the unified blade. “Ha! Now you’re gonna get it!” A second later, he took off for her again, this time using his weapon as more of a broadsword. While they were still oversized and unwieldy, he held onto them much better, and now Rarity’s own face tightened as she quickly backed up and parried one slash after another. This time she couldn’t get a hit in edgewise or get a way out. Soon he was closing the distance between them even as she kept trying to back up, and sweating a little as she struggled to focus. At last he made a move. Sweeping his blades around, he suddenly snapped them open and caught her own sword in the crook between the two. He didn’t snap her sword this time, but instead swung it about and flung it away. To her shock, her blade was twisted out of her hands and flung tip-first into the deck—embedding there and holding. She tried to reach for it, only for Snips to quickly open his scissors more and snap out for her arm. She quickly recoiled and he followed up by opening the scissors fully wide. “Ha! Gotcha!” Before he could drive forward for her neck, however, Rarity pushed back her panic and concentrated. Holding up her other hand she quickly performed a gesture, chanted a few syllables, and then pointed forward just as Snips lunged for her. In response, a bolt of electricity snaked off of her fingertips and struck him right in either eye. Crying out in pain again, Snips aborted his attack and let the blades of the scissors fall to the ground as he felt for his eyes with one hand. Rarity didn’t hesitate but quickly aimed her hand down and performed a second spell. As Snips recovered and grasped the scissor blades with both hands again, a fireball impacted near his foot and ignited; lighting his boot aflame. He was just raising his blade to attack the designer when he froze in his spot, looked at his own smoldering appendage, and then began to yelp and holler as he struggled to stamp it out. In the seconds it took him to do so, Rarity quickly reached down and pried her weapon loose. Snips looked back at her, only for her to lunge forward and quickly slice out for his chest. He let out a yipe and staggered back, but not before he heard the sound of metal-on-metal followed by sparking and a smell of burning from his chest. As he finished wobbling back, he heard the power source on his own suit quiet down. He raised his scissor blades only to hear their own hum die out and the light emanating from them dim. “Oh no…” he weakly moaned. Rarity, now getting a dangerous look of her own, advanced. She lashed out with her sword and struck and slashed again and again. Snips quickly backed up, struggling to protect himself with his swords, but without any magical power enhancing them Rarity cleaved off a bit with each strike. The tip of her saber moved in one after another, slicing off a piece of his armor each time. Bit by bit, he began to shed his components and leave himself wearing only his undersuit and bare skin beneath. One slice took off the mouthpiece to his helmet. Another cleaved off the crown of it, leaving what was left to slide down around his head like a strange collar…and unveiling a very panicked Trottingham soldier. As he was pushed closer and closer to the edge, Rarity’s sword cut off pieces of the scissor blades like they were salami, until it was left only with the main joints and the handles. With one more move, she thrust forward with such force she split the joint in half. Snips gave a cry of alarm as he stumbled back, almost tripping over the remains of his own armor, before the edge of the Legacy stopped him. Rarity’s saber flashed out two more times, knocking the remains of the scissor blade out of his hands, and leaving him cringing and defenseless. Rarity glared at him coldly as she pulled her blade back one more time for a final thrust. “This is for Ms. Cheerilee, you horrid brute!” She drove the blade forward. Snips, desperate to avoid it, gave one last panicked squeal before he threw himself backward. Unfortunately for him, there was nowhere for him to go and the weight of his upper body spilled over the edge. His face gave one last panicked look of surprise before he felt gravity yank him the rest of the way, and he cried out in a resounding echo as his body vanished over the side… Only for the armor pieces dangling from one leg to get caught in the mounted rigging. A sharp snap later, and he was left flailing and swinging from side to side over oblivion by a single foot. Rarity was left standing there, still in mid-thrust, and a look of disbelief for a moment at what she had done. However, she steeled herself soon after. Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she raised herself up and a moment later, she advanced back to the deck to deal with the next soldier. The hatch to the ventral loading bay gave a sharp turn before the door was practically smashed open from the opposite side. In staggered the royal guard. His armor was still sparking and failing more all the time; most recently in his leg area. Nevertheless, he continued to push forward, huffing and panting in exhaustion and pain, while hoisting along the weight of a functional Morning Glory along with him. With his legs failed he could no longer make his instantaneous dashes, and even knowing the layout of the ship it had taken him far longer than he wanted to run to engineering and then down to the bowels of the ship. Nevertheless, he didn’t see anyone in the loading bay on his arrival, and after a quick glance around he ran all the way to the console with the emergency override lever. He paused just long enough to seize it and give it a turn. Immediately, the heavy metal doors disengaged and popped open. A rush of cold, damp air began to billow into the chamber, blowing about anything that wasn’t nailed down, but he paid little heed to any of it. He ran all the way to the edge and looked down, seeing nothing below but thick clouds and the night sky. Echoes of the fighting on deck resounded, but nothing more. He set the Morning Glory down just long enough to switch off his legs all together, redirecting any power he had left to his gauntlets. Following that, he attempted to manipulate a control on one of them. It took a few tries, for it too was losing power, but finally the signal took and his armor began to let out a loud hum. Quickly, he took up the Morning Glory again and primed himself to jump. Several seconds slowly passed as he waited impatiently. After about twenty seconds, an echo of footsteps finally began to come down the passage he had entered from. Soon after, he heard the hatch creak open again as someone new entered the loading bay. However, at that same moment, his “chariot”’s turbines became audible, moments before it slid out right beneath him. Without looking back to the entrance, he waited only until he could make out the vehicle’s lights and then leapt through the opening. After sailing through the sky for a moment, he impacted the floor of his ride. It shifted a little but maintained its position and speed. In another moment, he would have seized the controls and flown back to the Rising Sun. Yet as he was reaching for them, a voice called from his left ear. “Nice of you to drop in!” Eyes widening, he wheeled around and barely had time to recognize the grinning face of Rainbow Dash standing right next to him in the seat region before she smashed her head into his. No longer having the armored protection, the blow was solid and he instantly slumped; nearly going unconscious. He was powerless to resist as Dash tore the Morning Glory out from his hands and, far more easily, held it under one arm as she reached up. Moments later, the end of the Legacy’s loading winch came down and into her grip; courtesy of Fluttershy up above having just arrived and immediately lowered it. As the royal guard got enough of his bearings to look up, Dash nimbly leapt onto the edge of the chariot right next to one of the turbines. She gave him a nod. “See you next ‘fall’, buddy!” With one sharp, forceful thrust of one leg, she kicked off of the chariot and into the air while simultaneously denting in the metal of the turbine enough to seize the interior rotors. A split second later, it gave a sharp whine before it exploded. The eyes of the royal guard widened before, to the tune of a grating roar and spewing black smoke, the vehicle went into a violent corkscrew spin. The remaining turbine was soon overtaxed as the chariot dropped beneath Dash’s feet and went spiraling to the ground. In moments, it vanished into the lower cloud cover. The last seen of it or its rider was a trail of smoldering flame dancing through the night sky. As for Dash, she continued to hang over oblivion, hoisting the Morning Glory in one arm and swaying one way and another, before looking skyward. “Uh, hello? Fluttershy?” “Sorry! This crank is awful stiff…” “Well I’d like to be back in the airship rather than trailing from it before the fight is over up there!” Fluttershy’s only answer was a bit of light noise and a very slow ratcheting sound. Dash nearly groaned as she felt herself ascend at an almost imperceptible rate. She shifted her grip and, to pass the time, glanced back below. It only took her a moment to notice something new. At first, she thought, impossible as it was, that the chariot had somehow leveled off and was rising again on seeing a small light. However, other lights were starting to join with it, scattered about below them. They were all in sets of pairs. That told her all she needed to know. “I think the Nighttouched have noticed we aren’t, uh, ‘projecting’ anymore…” Moments later, the clouds swirled a bit beneath her. She looked straight down, saw nothing but sky for a moment, but then noticed a pair of eyespots. These ones weren’t from a Light Eater like they had been with the Tantabus, but she noticed they were indeed quite large, and attached to something moving rather fast. “I…think we may need to get out of here soon…” Applejack’s hammer rang out two more times, finishing banging the last of the Prodigy’s skyhooks into a harpoon. That done, she easily swiveled it around in one hand, hefted it, and threw it like a spear right back into their own deck. It proved to be an effective weapon as it punctured through it and all the way down to the lower deck beneath. Seconds later, the loosened Prodigy began to drift away from the side of the Legacy. The farmer turned around and shouted. “That’s one! Just need one more!” The fight that was still ongoing was quickly being resolved. Now bearing Snails’ weapon, Pinkie was laughing as she sent endless streams of the slow-down paste toward whoever managed to arise from the Rising Sun. At their slow rate of entering the battle, they had no chance of massing an attack before they were left too slow to even fire their magic-imbued weapons. Most of the others that had boarded from the Prodigy had been forced to withdraw in the wake of Snails’ attack, and those that hadn’t now felt themselves feeling the brunt of spells from both Twilight and Rarity as well as the occasional takedown from Spike. When the Prodigy was cut loose, many of them immediately turned and desperately tried to jump back on board before they could be left stranded with their superhuman opponents. And in the wake of this, as well as Applejack’s shout, Twilight finally arose from her shelter on the Rising Sun. After doing a quick glance to make sure all of her surrounding attackers were either slowed or pinned, she took off for the edge herself. Two last soldiers that were still able to fire tried to take aim at her, but she countered with a thunderbolt of her own that struck their weapons right in whatever they were using for fuel or ammunition. They cried out as their weapons exploded in a ball of fire and ice, respectively. Taking a deep breath, keeping her eyes forward and not looking down, Twilight reached the edge and vaulted across. Although she flailed and cried out in the process, she sailed across and landed in a tumble on the other side. “Alright! Mission accomplished!” Pinkie cheered. “Twilight’s on board, Applejack!” Rarity shouted. “Loosen their vessel and let’s be off!” “You got it!” Applejack yelled back, quickly pivoting around. “Only one hook left! Fluttershy and Rainbow better be ready to punch it!” She ran as fast as she could although there wasn’t much need at the moment. Snails was trying to drag himself over to his dangling partner, and the rest of the soldiers were either incapacitated or dragging themselves to cover. So long as the Rising Sun was still tethered to the Legacy, opening fire with any cannons was not an option. The way was all but clear. Applejack reached the last remaining hook. Not bothering to be fancy, she simply bent over and seized it. It was embedded in the wood by two prongs, but it took her only a moment to start lifting them out. Clang. Applejack’s opposite arm gyrated so violently that she winced and snapped her head around. She gaped at what she saw. Her father’s hammer-turned-warhammer was flying out of her grip from the power of the blow that had just struck it. The clang was loud enough to get the attention of the others as well, but the farmer herself could only look on in horror as the weapon sailed beyond her reach, slipped down in between the space between the airships, and vanished into the night. “No!” she cried. She nearly reached out for it, before her wits realized what had just happened. Sure enough, a second later she saw something topple to the ground nearby. An arrow shaft. “Applejack! Take cover!” Twilight screamed. The farmer, her mind clicking, struggled to do just that, but it was too late. A sharp whistle went through the air, and she only managed to turn to the side before an arrow shaft that had been aimed for her heart embedded in the side of her shoulder instead. Even with all of her strength, Applejack still cried out in pain as she was knocked off of her feet and sent to the deck of the ship. Her armor had done little to protect against the piercing shaft. She quickly used her good arm to drag herself behind the ship’s railing for cover. The others quickly dove for shelter as well. Pinkie shot behind the relief valve assembly on the upper deck as a shaft nipped at her heels. Rarity cried out and ran behind the upper hatch access cabin as two more arrows ripped apart the deck in her wake. Twilight herself was only able to pry open one of the ammunition cache bays and crawl inside because the arrows weren’t aimed for her. Even so, she could barely her crouching body in and press her body against the open doors for shelter, especially when Spike quickly ran in at her side. On the deck of the Rising Sun, Sunset Shimmer, fully in her Archer form and knocking a new arrow, slowly emerged from the remains of a hole she had burned in the side of her own upper hatch access cabin; not caring that it was still holt and smoldering in her wake. “It’s like I’ve known for years… You want something done, you got to do it yourself,” she snorted as she walked to the edge of the ship. “Ok Twilight! You want to make this difficult? Let’s see how many of your friends I need to kill to get you to come quietly!”