Taking the charge, Twilight began to draw a sigil before leaping out and pointing her wand at Sunset. In response, more of the wind blasts she had used earlier cut through the air to try and knock her back or at least off balance, but unfortunately at that very moment one of the Trottingham soldiers tried to cut across to run to the more secure part of the ship. She cried out as she was hit instead. Fortunately, her crossing allowed Rarity to run out from behind her and aim her sword at Sunset, sending out a smaller fireball instead. Once more, it didn’t work, for Sunset chose that moment to start running toward the group to meet them, and her foot lifted up right as a fireball was about to strike it and sailed harmlessly beneath.
She quickly flung a card at both of them. It struck near their feet soon after, and Twilight, before pitching around and pushing Rarity away, noticed that it was the Ace of Spades. An instant later, it evaporated and exploded in an almost porcupine-array of spears in all directions, and while the mage got the designer clear she still caught one of the prongs hitting her upper leg from behind. The tip didn’t go in too deep before she pulled away, but it still struck deep enough to not only make her cry in pain but leaveher with a limp in her step.
Dash, now free of the adhesive paste, tried to run in at the side, but was forced to halt when she realized Sunset was running right for the area of paste that Snails had left on the deck; using it as a natural barrier. Her hesitation caused Sunset to spot her and the woman responded by tossing more dice her way. Quickly, Dash pivoted and recoiled before a ‘six’ landed where she had been. The resulting explosion was not only a set of six blasts but much more violent ones than the four. Luckily she managed to run clear, and the time it took to throw the dice allowed Applejack and Pinkie Pie to come in from either side. Lacking her hammer, Applejack snatched up a broken half of a plank and threw it at her while Pinkie opened fire with her own streams of goo.
Once more, luck ended up being on her side. One of Pinkie’s streams missed her completely, while the other connected with the plank Applejack threw to both cancel it out and block the other stream. Quickly, Sunset spun her arm bracelets again, once more landing on the triple diamonds. Once again, they split off and began to bombard the area with the forceful prismatic beams.
Yet while Rarity and Dash both dove for cover, Pinkie moved forward, easily and nimbly dodging and darting through them all as she tried to get a better shot. Not only that, but Applejack grit her own teeth in determination before snatching up another broken plank; this time holding onto it to transmit her aura over it. The result morphed it into a large, imposing, and well-knobbed shileighleh. She crossed the crude weapon over herself as a shield as she kept running in. Finally, although her own back took a couple of the beam hits, Twilight toughed through it, ran toward for Sunset, dove for the ground, and cast a spell on that area in front of her. A wave of ice crystals flowed out and coated the area, in particular the paste-like gunk, and quickly solidified it to remove it as a barrier.
Sunset, seeing her obstruction removed and two coming from either side, finally snapped around and flung dice at Applejack while snapping a card out at Pinkie. The former quickly planted her feet and braced herself, meaning to tough through it, but unfortunately for her the dice roll she landed on was a ‘nine’. Dash had been quick on the uptake, however, and darted in, seized her by the shoulder, and yanked her back just in time. The entire Legacy gave a shudder from the force of the latest concussive blasts, and a hole was blown right through the upper deck and down through the deck below. Even Sunset stalled on seeing the pillar of flame erupt in her wake, nearly reaching up and puncturing the Legacy’s airbag. Twilight’s heart seized in fear at the sight, for it was clear to everyone a larger dice roll would have blown out the ship all together.
The card that she snapped out at Pinkie landed at her feet and ended up being the Ace of Diamonds. Yet rather than use some sort of diamond saw or prismatic beams, Pinkie got a surprise on seeing large gems materialize around her before flattening and connecting into some sort of shell or shield about her body. She looked at them a bit before smiling. “Ooo! Shiny!” She then proceeded to keep running forward before opening fire.
Sunset growled. “What is with this damn role?!” She nearly went for more dice, but on seeing the pillar of flame and smoke still dying down she opted against it. Unfortunately, even her move for it before deciding to pull back was enough to have her avoid Pinkie’s latest streams, before she gave her tumblers another role. Pinkie didn’t stop, but kept running to try and deal with her hand-to-hand as she waited for the tumblers to stop rotating. Unfortunately, just as she got in leaping range, Rarity gained enough of her own focus to snap up and cast another thunderbolt spell. Pinkie happened to get in her way at the same time and the bolt ended up striking her instead. Going rigid, Pinkie’s hair seemed to get extra “poofy” for a moment before she limply kept sailing at Sunset.
To evade her the woman had to quickly sidestep and pivot. Yet when Pinkie’s body sailed by, Twilight, still forcing herself back up, saw the back of her dress. A sun and moon emblem on a circle was in between her shoulder blades, but she noticed that it seemed to be loosely connected and rotating slightly. At the moment it was aimed with the sunny side up.
Getting an idea, she quickly raised her wand and began to generate a new spell. At the same time, the last tumbler finished locking: gold coins…gold coins…and gold coins. Again the images separated, this time shooting into the sky. Moments later they burst before they began to shower the area with a hailstorm of gold coins fired with the speed of arrowheads. Rarity, still shocked over what she had done to Pinkie, could only shriek and dive for cover again. Applejack broke off of Dash only to wrap her body around her as a shield; pushing her to cover as well.
Twilight alone stood her ground, executing her spell soon after. The strain was starting to wear on her, and it showed in her face and sweat, but she managed to generate a tempest once again and quickly rose it in front of her to act as a shield of her own. It blew so strong and intense that it caught the gold downpour, holding it steady and sweeping it into the vortex. Nevertheless, as the gold kept coming, she was forced to dig in and keep it churning to catch more of the coins. Even so she felt a few pass through and sting her against the face and body, leaving welts but doing little more. Her arms started to tremble and she began to buckle as time kept passing, but still she held on through it, determined to outlast it.
Finally the gold cut off, and as it died down Twilight’s tempest was still going. Straining and grunting, she flung it forward right for Sunset. She looked a bit alarmed, but only for a moment. The tempest quickly died down, and the gold that was trapped in it quickly evaporated. By the time it got to Sunset, the worst it managed to do, or so she thought, was sent a draft upward to nearly push her dress above her “naughty parts”. It faded completely soon afterward.
Sunset smiled at her. “That all you got, ‘star student’?”
Twilight didn’t answer. She faltered to one knee, breathing a little hard. Yet no sooner had she gone against the deck than she reached out and picked up a loose metal nut from some of the damage. Somewhat weakly, she raised her arm and flung it at the woman.
A moment later it hit her in the middle of the forehead, causing her a mixture of surprise and irritation at the unexpected gesture.
“Now!” Twilight shouted the moment she saw her attack work. “Her luck’s changed!”
Sunset’s eyes widened, realizing from that weak attack that she was telling the truth. Instantly, Rarity snapped out and wildly began to fling fireball spells at her. As crazy, errant, and feeble as they were, they all sailed for their mark, and Sunset quickly stepped back to try and shield herself with her large bracelets only for them to strike and sear her with deadly heat. As relatively strong as her body was, she still cried out in pain from the flames. As soon as they died down, her face was tight with anger as she lowered her arms, but now she saw Rarity charging at her with her saber at the ready.
She raised another card and snapped it out at her. It landed at her feet, revealing itself as the Ace of Hearts.
At once, a wave of vivid red light came over Rarity, and the gash on her chin, her head injury, and any other scrape or burn she had sustained not only healed itself but mended the clothing in its wake.
Sunset stared dumbfounded. “Are you kidding m-”
She got no further, for at that moment her jaw was knocked askew as Dash rushed in and belted her across the face. Even with her own enhanced strength she couldn’t shrug off a hit like that, especially since Dash didn’t let up. She immediately smashed her across the face the other way, and beat four more times in the span of a second before shooting up, kicking off of her chest, and then delivering a thrust kick to her stomach. Sunset’s eyes bulged as the air was knocked out of her, but more importantly she was knocked right into the path of Applejack running behind her. She kept her footing and stumbled around just in time to see her slam her across the side of the head with her sheleighleh. Even with enhanced durability, a wet smacking rang out from several drops of blood slapping against the deck.
Applejack didn’t let up. She let the weapon strike again and again in moves that would have crushed a normal person’s skull. The air shook with each strike and the club itself split as Sunset’s head was smacked one way and another. Finally, as she reared back for an especially strong one, Sunset leaned up and snapped back. Quickly she reached for her bracelets to spin them again, only for her hand to hit nothing. She gaped in alarm and looked over, just in time to see the recovered Pinkie grin and show off the bracelets she had pilfered right off of her body.
Glowering, she stepped back further, shooting away two steps from Applejack’s latest swing, and raised her hand to get out her dice next. Before she even had a chance to finish lifting her arm, Rarity ran in behind her at last and flashed out with her saber. Sunset let out her first real scream of pain as a bloody gash opened along the back of her hand and forearm, causing her hand to falter. Agonized and growing increasingly enraged, she snapped her hand out for whatever was still in her possession. Desperate, she clutched a card and flung it down in the midst of the women.
They all looked at it and saw it was the symbol of the Joker.
The card evaporated and an explosion went off…on Sunset’s own body. She was sent rocketing away from the group before being left tumbling across the deck of the Legacy smoldering and smoking.
As she slowly tumbled to a stop, the emblem on the back of her clothes showed the same rotating disk, only with the night side up.
The four took a moment to realize what had happened, standing their dumbly, before Pinkie lit up. “Oh! I guess that card means the joke’s on you, huh?”
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Dash smirked, cracking her knuckles, “but that felt awesome.”
“Don’t ease up yet!” Twilight yelled. “She’s not done yet! She’s still-”
At that moment, Sunset finished rolling. Without missing a beat, she lifted her sigil-bearing hand to the sky as quickly as she could. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Miraculous Healer—Mage Meadowbrook!”
The five cut off their enthusiasm as they were forced to shield themselves and dig their feet in from the sheer power and force that radiated off of Sunset in the next several seconds. The aura that radiated off of her was beginning to become dazzling. Twilight herself was the only one who looked, barely able to make out the image of a woman from the old bayou regions of Greater Everfree wearing an old “plague doctor” mask made in the fashion of a tropical bird. It soon vanished, along with Sunset’s body. At this point, it was impossible to see if this one was an even more painful transformation than the last, as the light around the woman was blinding.
The eruption died down at last, but even when it did the raw energy that was unleashed now left a distinctive noise on the air of its own. The five unshielded themselves and looked back, seeing what had come out this time.
Sunset was back on her feet. Her clothing had changed again. Now it seemed to be more in line with, surprisingly enough, Rarity’s clothing. However, it was far more elaborate and accented. It was red like hers, but accented more with her fiery tones. Some of the fabric seemed to shimmer like a living blaze. Naturally, her hand was blazing with four runes lit up at once. Her own wide-brimmed hat was low to her head and she wore a scarf that obscured most of her chin. The end effect was her eyes seemed to radiate just as they had for the Caster form. In addition to a rapier in one hand, she had an estoc in the other.
However, that wasn’t all. Her body was quivering slightly, particularly around her hand with the runes. She was also panting a little as if she was winded. And although she was smiling, it had gotten much smaller.
A moment later, she held up her estoc and began to draw a symbol with it. The group braced themselves, but no offensive magic came. Rather, as she completed it, the light broke out over her own body and took the shade of a pale green light similar to Fluttershy’s own incantations. Moments later, some of her stiffness vanished and she stood up straight and unquivering again, although she continued to breathe heavy.
“Did…she just heal herself?” Rarity suggested.
“Oh you do have an eye for detail, don’t you?” Sunset retorted. “I guess I should thank you for making this whole thing ‘interesting’ enough to actually bring out my Enchanter role. In case you haven’t noticed, Twilight, this is the perfected form of the Magician. At this point I’m like a Caster and a Healer rolled into one.”
She held up her estoc like a wand.
“On that note…”
Immediately, she began to trace a symbol in the air. This one gleamed like electrum, and was far larger and more advanced than the others. Even as she drove it, Twilight began to feel the air charge about them and the clouds over their heads started to rumble. On recognizing the symbol she paled.
“Oh no… Everyone brace yourselves!”
The others turned to her, but only saw her quickly try to raise her arm and generate a spell of her own. She never had the chance. The sigil was completed and Sunset executed it.
It was impossible to see the night sky over their heads grow darker yet, but when it exploded into an array of lightning bolts that streaked out over the top of the ship in a dozen places it was impossible to ignore. Especially since one bolt of each struck one of the five women. In spite of the seizing electricity, the raw voltage was so strong that each one of them screamed out in pain from the feeling of the blasts before they were paralyzed. Each bolt was stronger than one of the Twilight’s normal ones, and had they been five normal women the one spell would have killed them.
As it was, each one fell to the deck of the ship like puppets with clipped strings. There was a burn mark on each one for where the lightning had passed into their bodies, and whoever wasn’t totally paralyzed or semi-conscious from the blast was soon writhing in agony from it.
Sunset’s hand nearly fell back to her side and she panted heavily. She had to take a moment to catch her breath before she managed to raise it again, before she glanced over the aftermath of her spell.
“Thought I would have made at least one of you a corpse with this kind of power…” she muttered as she held the estoc higher. “I’ll just have to hit you all ag-”
She was cut off as the ship gave a violent shudder, and, still looking winded, she stumbled so much that she nearly lost her balance. She spun around to see the reason why, only to notice how much had changed.
The Rising Sun was still a deathtrap for most of its crew. They had stopped trying to get out and most of the ones on deck were struggling to stay alive. The Nighttouched were literally ripping apart some of the ones who had been slowed and dragging others screaming to their fate. Some of the Prodigy’s crew was still able to fight back, but the ship continued to break up around them. Swarms of Nighttouched birds had joined the bats, including monstrous owls, who were tearing apart the wood of the upper deck to get inside with their huge talons. Most weapons had either been broken or were running out of ammunition. With no other move left, the Prodigy had pulled around to the stern of either ship and was struggling to fight back enough to get the crew members on board. In spite of the shaky docking, they were seizing on it. Snips was practically tossing Snails on board before wiggling himself over the banisters, while others were frantically trying to either claw their way on board or at least onto rigging or rails. The deck of the Legacy was almost clear of their former opponents by now, but the Rising Sun was a different story.
Sunset didn’t have a chance to shout at any of them, however, before something happened that did knock her off balance.
The Rising Sun gave out a massive groan and a loud whining as the entire airship violently rolled one way, and since it was still anchored to the Legacy that ship did much the same. Sunset had her feet yanked out from under her as she fell to the deck, but everyone else who was trying to escape was soon thrown off their feet as well. A pair of screams went out from two soldiers that had been trying to cross over but were suddenly yanked apart from the Prodigy and now fell in the space between the airships. Still others shouted desperately as the rest of the crew tried to seize them or hold on. Sunset focused on none of them; only on the source.
As the Rising Sun’s hull rolled, she could see the reason was a gigantic serpant’s head with an arrowhead beak was clamped onto one of the turbines. It was on such a long neck that it rose right out of the mists below with no body in sight. That wasn’t all, though. Three other heads just like it were hovering next to it. One was at a distance, while another was extending the coils of its neck around the airship and a fourth was rising up to seize it as well. A grinding and splintering noise echoed through the night from the massive damage being inflicted on the airship. The crew members still trapped on board were struggling to grab onto something, but some were already either falling to oblivion or being picked off by the swarm of Nighttouched.
As the Rising Sun kept getting dragged down, the Legacy began to be yanked down with it. Twilight went wide-eyed as she found herself suddenly beginning to slide along the deck toward the edge. She tried to move herself to grab onto something, but was still too stunned to get her limbs to reach out and grasp, and there was nothing about her anyway.
Suddenly, she felt a rough snap on her back before something dragged her to a halt. She looked up and behind her; spotting Spike had her collar in her teeth and was sprawling out his legs to try and keep her from going further. The one good mark of the roll of the ship is that it had finally snapped the door open to the ammunition hatch enough for him to wiggle his way out.
She quickly looked around to the others. Pinkie, fortunately, was already getting back to her feet, but the blast had knocked her senseless and now she was off balance and doing a crazy jig in an attempt to keep it. The others, on the other hand, weren’t moving. Rainbow Dash’s body slid up against the relief valves, but Applejack kept on sliding until the edge of her split armor caught on a broken plank. It was a tentative grip at best, and the airship deck continued to tilt more.
She heard a sliding beside her and looked. She saw Rarity’s body was sliding right past her. Gritting her teeth, she forced one of her arms up and lashed out to slap it down on her as she came. Her fingers could barely clutch, so she instead used her arm as a lever to try and pin her to the deck. She barely succeeded, but Spike gave out a small whimper as he now had to hold them both back with the deck still turning.
In spite of the tentative situation, Twilight called out. “Rarity! Rarity!”
She knew the role of the Magician was slightly more resilient than that of the Caster, and hoped it was enough for her to get her bearings. Fortunately, that seemed to be the case as her eyes slowly cracked open. Nevertheless, she looked dazzled and out of it, hardly recognizing what was happening to her. “Tw…Twilight…what…?”
“Focus on healing yourself! With Fluttershy gone, you’re our only hope now!”
She blinked and looked around a bit more, before her wits came back and she gasped. She looked at the airship, then back to her. “M-M-Merciful heavens… What is that ghastly-”
“Hurry! We don’t have long!”
“But…but you’re better at magic than me by far. I should heal-”
“No! You need to be up and healing the others! Hurry! Applejack is going to slip at any moment!”
The Magician looked and gaped again on seeing her situation. She quickly blinked and steadied herself. “Al…alright…”
Sunset, meanwhile, managed to regain her footing. Looking up, she glared at the monsters attacking the ship angrily. Her eyes blazed as her swords rose.
“You’ve ticked me off on the wrong day!”
Making a gesture with her estoc, she snapped it down and around, and in response a ribbon of fire drew itself across the sky before igniting into a fiery blaze that pierced the night. The bat creatures screeched and hissed as the flames and heat drove them back at last. Not wasting a minute, she quickly gestured again before driving her estoc forward. The sky rapidly churned about overhead, the air cooled, a rumble of thunder echoed, and finally a bolt of lightning streaked from the sky and struck the nearest serpentine head. It cracked its massive jaws wide and bellowed a deafening roar of agony before it faltered, sinking down and back into the darkness.
The other two heads immediately turned to Sunset. The nearest one hissed, and then opened it jaws wide and lashed out for the ship. She jumped to one side to evade it, and the effects of the Morning Glory caused it to abort some of its bite, but it still reached down and took a massive chunk out of the side of the Legacy. The ship rocked even more, and Twilight gasped as Applejack was knocked loose and slid further down along the ship. Her feet stopped her by propping along the edge of the railing, but now that was the only thing keeping her from oblivion.
“Hurry!”
“I’m trying!” Rarity cried back as her green aura began to spill over her. “This isn’t exactly the most constructive of circumstances!”
The next head swung around and tried to come at Sunset from the side, letting its momentum push it through the effect of the Morning Glory. In response, she snapped back again and let her longer rapier fly. Flesh was seared and blood splashed out on the deck, but as the monster reared its head back and bellowed in pain the screech was so loud that other people on the deck of the Rising Sun struggling to get to the edge faltered and clutched their ears in pain. The Prodigy, on its part, was still trying to readjust itself in parallel as another head swung for Sunset. She hissed and sliced off the end of its snout before making a more elaborate gesture with her estoc. A fling later, and a blade of air flew through the sky, made contact with its neck, and cut its head clean off.
The neck rapidly sank into the clouds, but the head flew through the air a moment before coming down; knocking itself against the edge of the Legacy. That was too much. Not only did everyone bend over more and Twilight and Spike began to lose their footing, but Applejack’s feet disengaged and slid over the edge. The rest of her body soon followed.
“No!” Rarity cried, breaking off her spell and quickly letting go of Twilight’s hand. The mage was shocked, but was too late to grasp her again as she slid down to the edge after Applejack. She managed to reach her as she was going over, and quickly reached out with one hand while she drew her sword with the other. It seemed she hoped to embed it as an anchor, but it was too late for that. Instead, she cried out as she grabbed Applejack’s hand only to go over the edge with her. Twilight nearly shrieked on seeing both of them go under the railing and out…
But, fortunately, Rarity had still extended her sword and caught it as a cross bar over the railing and one of its support rods. It held, just barely, and the two women were left dangling over the slanted rail.
The Prodigy had just managed to pull itself alongside the Rising Sun and began to try and unload the struggling people from it as two new heads rose from the abyss. One of them joined the other wrapped around the turbine for a better grip, while the second moved perpendicular to the one sporting a large gash and both began to snap away at Sunset from two sides at once. At her current power, Twilight thought it would have been nothing for her to deal with both of them together, yet she grit her teeth, sweat, and strained to swing her sword between the two of them and batter them back. The effect of the Morning Glory kept them from being able to attack her full force, but even with her constantly opening a slash on either one she was having a progressively harder time holding them back.
As one darted its head in, she scowled before snapping her sword around and thrusting it out; impaling its blade into its nose. It reared back in pain before she snapped around and advanced on the head incoming from the other side. Before it could snap at her, she ducked under its jaw and used her estoc to slice open the side of its neck. She must have struck a major vessel, for immediately blood erupted out from the wound and it spasmed back violently. She was about to aim a spell at it when she cringed in pain; the result of two more roars bellowing deafeningly nearby.
She turned and spotted two new heads rising from the clouds below them. They immediately focused on her and bared their teeth. Yet moments later, a wet ripping sound came from below them just audible enough for Twilight to hear. After that, two more heads, both glistening with some sort of fluid, raised into the sky as well.
Twilight, still slowly sliding down the deck, gasped. “A hydra…it’s like a hydra…”
Sunset glared at it a moment more before her fury seemed to redouble. Her aura began to flare. As the four serpentine heads began to advance, along with the ones that were already damaged, she finally held her estoc out and began to draw a far more vivid and elaborate symbol with it; one gleaming like electrum. The sky began to churn and rumble anew.
Realizing what she was doing, Twilight looked down to ship below, then back up to her. “No! Don’t!”
Too late. Crying out in anger and fury, she drove her estoc into the symbol and executed it. At once, the sky over the Rising Sun filled with light as a shower of no less than twelve different lightning bolts rent the heavens and stormed down on the monsters below. Each one of the heads was struck with such violence that Twilight saw the bolts pierce them like they were spears or lances. However, that wasn’t all.
Two of the bolts shot down and impaled survivors. Twilight doubted any of them could have survived this new, stronger lightning. These people had no chance. Most of the other bolts either struck the deck and smashed it in partially or hit nothing. One bolt, however, struck the ice blocking the upper hatch…
A blast thundered from out of the Rising Sun as all of the steam conduits that had been frozen shut by the move burst. The cooled steam inside them had suddenly superheated from the bolt, and the resulting pressure was too much for them. It looked almost like miniature geysers as the upper hatch blew in half to the tune of multiple jets of steam.
In response, the propellers on the ship slowed,and the Rising Sun began to sink.
Twilight cried out as the deck was yanked even more, causing both her and Spike to go into a slide. Rarity cried out as well as her sword shifted. Eyes filled with panic, she looked below her at Applejack, still unconscious, and the long nothingness under it. Gasping a few times, she grit her teeth and began to speak. Twilight could barely make out arcane words; realizing she was trying to heal Applejack now to get her support, but she couldn’t focus on that. She was coming closer to sliding off the edge herself. It would only take a few more seconds…
Just as she feared the worse, however, a new sound began to ring through the air: the humming of the crossbar.
All of the hydra’s heads had fallen back to the ground by now, save for those wrapped around the Rising Sun’s turbines. They now gave angry hisses before sliding off and sinking back into the darkness. The bats swarming the deck screeched one last time before they moved as a unified wave and flew away. All other Nighttouched swarming the ship flew off as well.
Once they left, the deck of the ship rose again and leveled enough to stop Twilight and Spike’s slide, but it didn’t right itself all together. They were still tethered to the Rising Sun, and with each passing moment its engines were beginning to whine louder. Steam was continuing to escape and the propellers were continuing to slow. Worse yet, the eruption from the shaft had to have ruptured the main air sac, and the ship was already too overrun for any engineers to try and help it. By now the crew was either madly struggling to get to the top deck, trapped inside by bottlenecks or the blast that destroyed the upper hatch, or already killed by Nighttouched.
The Prodigy had only managed to get five people on board before the new lurch, and its crew was struggling to lower itself again, but the Rising Sun was falling almost as fast as they were descending to meet it and the people who were still alive weren’t able-bodied enough to get to the other ship fast enough. Twilight struggled to get herself up in spite of her pain while she could, only to find soon after that the Legacy was giving a mighty groan and starting to lean again.
They were still tethered by the remaining skyhook, and by now it looked as if it would either rip out part of the ship or drag them down along with the Rising Sun.
Sunset was sweating now. She looked dizzy as she stepped back, nearly losing her footing again from the trailing ship. She panted with every move she made. Just as she began to stabilize herself and turn back to the others, a pop went out from the falling Rising Sun and the engines slowed further. She gave a cry as she was nearly knocked off of her feet again from the ship sloping once more.
When that happened, she grit her teeth in growing pain as well as frustration. She looked over the side, seeing the Rising Sun continuing to fall, and the Prodigy still chasing it, then back to the skyhook that was still attached. She glanced between the two for a moment.
Twilight saw her, even as she struggled to keep herself from sliding again. “Sunset?”
The woman let out a long sigh. She began to raise her estoc.
“What are you doing?”
She quickly performed a gesture and aimed the point at the skyhook chain. She thrust into the sigil soon after.
Twilight’s eyes widened. “You can’t!”
A moment later, a ball of fire materialized right on the chain and quickly condensed and burned so brightly it became blinding. Under such intense heat, the iron began to gleam and deform. She kept focusing for several seconds; long enough for the crew of the Prodigy to notice a light coming up from the Legacy even as they kept descending. They never had a chance to think of a message let alone send one.
The chain began to melt and, as soon as it did, the already-tremendous strain was enough to break it all together. In a snap, the deck of the Legacy suddenly twisted up and righted itself violently. Twilight gasped and tried looking to Rarity and Applejack, but soon had herself to worry about as they violently rocked back the way they had come before the deck rolled back and forth several times; threatening to throw people off in either direction each time before stabilizing. For several seconds all she could do was throw herself on the deck and struggle to wait it out.
When she was able to look again, she looked at Sunset. Remarkably enough, in spite of her strength, the woman had been thrown to one knee and was only now forcing herself up again and looking over the edge. Twilight, as in pain as she was, forced her own body up enough to start to rise.
She couldn’t see all of what Sunset could; namely that, without the anchor to the Legacy, the Rising Sun was now plummeting. The engines and airbag, already taxed to the point of failure, now began to blow out all together as it picked up speed. Even if the ship could level itself off now, it was leaving the range of the Morning Glory again and falling into the dark world below. Distant and muted, Twilight could hear the sounds of screams faintly for a moment before they vanished. Soon it was gone.
The Prodigy was left still hovering there—no longer trying to dive. They couldn’t help the other ship now and they knew it. It simply hovered; what crew members were left on board looking up and out at the deck of the Legacy. In the night, they still saw the gleaming end of the last skyhook and Sunset forcing herself up and gleaming with a bright aura.
With a groan, Twilight finally got to her feet. She could see enough over the edge to make our not only the Prodigy but Sunset’s underlings on deck, including Snips and Snails. They were staring at Sunset in shock, but only for a time. As the seconds slowly passed realization began to come over them as well. Sunset hardly noticed, still panting and wiping sweat from her forehead.
Finally the looks turned cold.
Even angry.
About fifteen seconds later, without a signal, the clacking of their rudder was heard. Not long after their engines began to rev. This finally got her to look up. “What…?”
As she looked out, the ship began to turn away from the Legacy.
“What…what are you doing?”
The engines increased in power, and soon the ship was moving forward and away.
“Where are you going? I didn’t give the order, you idiots!”
At this point, no one was facing her anymore and the airship was pulling away and picking up speed.
“Get back here! You’re the only ship left!” she screamed at them. “I’m still on deck over here!”
“I think they know that.”
Sunset snapped around, in spite of the fact it seemed to make her dizzier, and found Twilight weakly standing and staring at her.
“They just don’t care.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You just showed them you don’t care what happens to them so long as you get what you want,” Twilight coldly retorted. “You saw your own subordinates suffering and dying and all you cared about was that they could drag you down with them. You have all that power and all you did was stand there and let them die!”
Sunset sneered as she pointed her estoc at her. “So you’re actually stupid enough to feel pity for your enemies?” She began to draw a sigil. “Then get ready to feel a lot of pity for me!”
Twilight tensed up on seeing the sigil she was making, but Sunset only got halfway through it before she heard a snarl. She spun to the source, only to see Spike lunge at her and clamp his jaws down on her extended arm. Her eyes widened in shock and pain as he yanked it down, twisting and driving his teeth in. Even with her enhanced power it hurt her, and she couldn’t complete her spell with him clamped on her wrist.
She cried out and writhed a moment, struggling to twist around and shake him loose. “Get off me! Get off me, you damn dog!” Finally, too frustrated, she raised her rapier and smashed the metal knob of it down on the dog’s head. With a yelp, he released and fell to the ground.
“Spike!” Twilight cried, trying to step forward, but still feeling her body wracked with pain. She struggled to raise her own wand, but Sunset, sporting some bloody teeth marks on her wrist, was still the better as she turned to her. She started to raise her estoc again…
Suddenly, a metal pipe, looking like a broken railing, looped around her neck before being driven back so sharply that Sunset gagged. As she choked, she was yanked back off of her feet and held in the air. Twilight was stunned a moment, until she looked over her shoulder and saw the source.
Applejack, freshly healed from Rarity, was holding her back with everything she had.
“Hit her! Hit her now with everything ya’ got!”
Moments later, Sunset, getting over her initial shock, began to squirm wildly in Applejack’s grip. By keeping her feet off the ground and the pipe around her neck, Applejack kept her from being able to stab her or get the leverage of the ground to force herself loose, but it was clear the farmer was struggling to hold her steady as she went red-faced. Twilight glanced about. Rarity had pushed herself back on deck, but her healing of Applejack must have exhausted her mana as she was still trying to get up; using her saber as a crutch. Spike wasn’t even moving. That left her.
Applejack let out a groan. “I said…hit her! I…can’t…hold her!”
“I can’t!” Twilight shouted back as she kept her wand aimed. “My mana’s running out and I can’t hit her without hitting you!”
“I got it!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Twilight spun around. She only caught a glimpse of a blur shooting past her along with a wind that nearly threw off her hat before she saw Fluttershy, staff in hand and sweating from having run all the way, coming away from where Rainbow Dash had been and running over to Pinkie Pie. Realizing what that meant, she spun back around just as she sky let out another thunderclap from Dash driving a full speed punch deep into Sunset’s gut.
The woman’s eyes bulged as she gasped, what air she could get expelled from her lungs. She weakened a little from the hit, but not nearly enough to stop her all together. Nevertheless, she was too weak to use her swords right away, so Dash quickly beat away at her for all she was worth. She dug her fists into her again and again every place in her stomach there wasn’t bone. In spite of how powerful she had become, the strain and trauma coupled with the hits was too much for her. Her face showed visible pain with each blow that landed.
Using the moment, Twilight took a deep breath and tried her best to steel herself. She kept her grip on her wand and began to chant another spell, but held it off for the right time. As for Sunset, she kept taking the hits for a moment, before her face twisted into fresh fury. Crying out in a pained gag, she swung one leg up and caught Dash under the chin as she tried to move in again. In spite of the Hunstman’s power and durability, the blow was even louder than her own strikes and she was knocked back to the ground.
As Dash grunted and began to rise again, Sunset herself brought her arms forward, meaning to use her sword or estoc on her, only to see that her hands were empty. She would have spat a curse if she wasn’t being choked, while Pinkie, nearby, grinned and waved with one hand while holding her weapons with the other. Sunset didn’t have long to fume. At that moment, Rarity got up. Raising her saber and bracing it with both hands, she ran right at Sunset with the tip aimed for her heart.
For a brief moment, genuine fear came over Sunset’s face before she did the only thing she had left: she snapped her hands up and pressed them around the sword in a blade catch. It wasn’t quite fast enough. Although she managed to clasp her hands around it, the tip still pierced her clothes and the flesh underneath. She was left pinching the blade aimed right over her heart as red fluid slowly started to stain the white parts of her outfit. Her face, tight with tension as well as rage and pain, held as best as she could as Rarity leaned herself fully into the weapon to try and force it in the rest of the way.
She was thwarted for a moment more, before Dash got back up. She spat out a mouthful of blood and rubbed her cracked lips, then darted in and began to hook into Sunset’s already-hurt side. Now the woman’s face really did contort in pain. Applejack was gagging and restraining her, Rarity was struggling to impale her, Dash was pounding her without restraint, and the exhaustion and stamina loss was taking its toll. She kept sweating and gasping more and more in the midst of the assault.
Finally, she let out a cry and made her move. Still yelling, she forced Rarity’s blade out of her chest and flung it to one side before snapping her hand around and backhanding Dash so hard she spun around twice before being sent back to the deck. She reached out and seized Rarity by the scarf while she was stunned from the move and smashed her in the face, knocking her a quarter of the way across the deck, then forced her feet down at last to give her the leverage to swung back and smash her head into Applejack’s. It was hard enough for her to not only go reeling back but both of her nostrils to gush blood. Finally, she used her fingers to draw a quick symbol and executed it; letting out a biting, potent wind blast so strong it struck Pinkie like a cannonball before bowling her away farther than Rarity.
She finally spun to Twilight, but it was too late. She had been waiting for this and executed her sigil. In response, a storm of biting, freezing, razor-sharp ice crystals flew out of her wand and right into her eyes. Sunset cried out and closed them, but even crying out caused some of them to fly in her already tender throat and gag. It left her exposed, and Twilight followed that up by sending out a solid ball of ice straight for her forehead. With all of the pain and exhaustion she had already endured, the blow snapped her head back.
While it drove Twilight into pain to follow it up, she shifted her wand to the remaining skyhook. She grit her teeth and trembled as she extended her aura over it, before plucking it right out of the deck. She swung it back like a pendulum, and as Sunset looked up she gave a yell of her own before swinging it back and smashing it full force into her.
Unable to brace herself or deal with the inerta, Sunset was knocked back off of her feet and flung through the air before smashing into the side of the upper hatch on the Legacy; hard enough to be bashed partially through it before the anchor’s teeth pinned her inside.
The echo of the last bit of magic died down, and Twilight gasped and panted as she nearly lost her footing. The airship was silent for a few moments save for the engine sounds. Pinkie managed to spring back up to her feet soon and helped Rarity up, right before Fluttershy quickly ran over to them and started to heal both. As for Applejack, she snorted, wiped the blood off of her nose, and then picked up another piece of wood to form a fresh sheleighlah. Dash herself was wavering a bit, but she managed to get back to her feet and put her fists up.
Twilight could barely hold her wand straight, but she kept it aimed at the partially wrecked upper hatchway. As she expected, Sunset was both alive and conscious, but she was sweating all over, bruised and cut in a few spots, and gasping as she struggled to move the anchor.
“What…what’s…what’s going on…? I…I should be…be mopping…the floor with you six…”
“You have no one to blame for that but yourself,” Twilight flatly answered.
“What…?”
“You said it yourself: you never bothered using your other roles and your other Anima Viris. You never needed to. Well…I don’t know about you, but none of us just ‘mastered’ our Anima Viris in a day or two. We had to practice and get used to what we could do with them. That’s why you’re still only using spells Celestia taught you rather than anything new in that form. They’re stronger, but they’re nothing new.”
Sunset paused, still panting, but realized what she was saying.
“You have four powerful spirits running through you at once and your body’s not used to it. You’re already burning yourself out just from using it a little, aren’t you? You admired all the power you had and you thought it meant you didn’t need anyone, but you never earned it. You stole it from people who had. And now you’re alone with powers you can’t control.”
Sunset snorted. “You got a smartass answer for everything, don’t you? Maybe instead of lecturing me, you should have finished me off before I could do this.”
Eyes blazing to life, Sunset stretched her hand skyward.
“Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Strongest of Fighters—Rockhoof!”
To be concluded...