The three were left dumbfounded for a moment. “Wait…are you saying Acting-President Neighsay went to all of that trouble to put us into a prison cell just to try and sneak us out again?”
Cozy let out a small giggle. “Oh no, he doesn’t know anything about this. I’m the one who got you out of there.”
“You…?” Sunset asked incredulously.
“You bet! I’m Acting-President Neighsay’s number one assistant! So when I asked if I could inspect your cells to make sure everything was in working order, the guards had no problem letting me in! After that, I just made sure you were put in a cell with a loose grating and placed the key on the toilet paper roll! Everything else was just hint-dropping from there! And here you are!”
“But wait a second…” Dash spoke up again, still looking the most confused out of all of them. “You aren’t doing what Neighsay wanted…but you’re busting us out? Why?”
“Well, like I told you, the future President needs your help and he needs it badly! Everyone in Fillydelphia does!” Cozy’s face began to look a bit downcast. “I do what the Acting-President says, but…sometimes I kind of wonder if he’s saying the right things. He’s not interested in making accommodations for folks who end up getting Promethian Sigils. I don’t know if Manehattan just wants them for the military or not, but Mr. Neighsay? He doesn’t want them at all. I already know what he plans for his administration. After we break things off from Manehattan, he’s going to start setting up centers where anyone who’s an eidolon has to go so that they’re out of Fillydelphian society. Even if he has to break up families to do it.”
All three of the women looked mutually uncomfortable on hearing that.
“It would be bad enough if the Acting-President was just doing that, but it gets a lot worse,” Cozy went on. She proceeded to point at the open wall. “Just look out there!”
The three turned and looked. A moment later, Twilight and Sunset both yelped, and all three of them quickly went to one side to try and hide themselves. They were just in time to miss the looming shadow of a Fillydelphian airship, one of three all together, as it sailed in low over the prison complex. They weren’t civilian aircraft or light cruisers either. Each one was tricked out with cannons, plate armor, and even musketeers…clean polished and ready for war. They weren’t alone, either. Several smaller objects, much faster and jetting about in a different way all together, were also surrounding it like a swarm of flies.
As they came in low over the prison, they began to swerve about and head for the tallest tower. Evidently, they planned on docking there; using it as a hub to disembark. Seeing all of this happening immediately made things clear to Twilight.
“This prison…isn’t being used as a prison right now, is it?”
Cozy shook her head. “Nope! It’s not public knowledge yet, but this fortress is getting rearmed to protect against Griffonstone. They’ll be moving in through former Cloudsdale territory any day now.”
Dash nearly spun on the girl. “Wha…Griffonstone? They’re actually trying to invade Fillydelphia? You’re joking! They’d get creamed on the spot!”
“Oh, not anymore,” the girl answered nervously. “They’re welcoming their own eidolons. In fact, they already got a new wing of their own military that’s devoted just to eidolons. They’ve fought a few sorties against us already and our own troops got wiped out in those fights. All of the military advisors have been telling the Acting-President that they’re just testing them for now. Now that we’re moving to try and stop them, though, they’re going to start fighting us for real.”
This latest bit of news made the group even more uncomfortable. Twilight bowed her head and ran her hand through her hair fretfully. Sunset likewise looked uneasy as she crossed her arms. “I knew this would only be a matter of time… That’s why I tried to keep my own Promethian Sigil a secret to anyone except those I knew I could tru…well, dominate at least.”
“That arms race is coming true…” Twilight spoke uneasily. “I hoped it wouldn’t… I hoped people would have just been happy the night was gone… I thought they’d at least wait a little longer for this… It’s only been a few weeks, for crying out loud!”
“If Griffonstone keeps getting more eidolons to fight for them, I don’t think Fillydelphia has a chance,” Cozy continued anxiously. “The Acting-President says we don’t need eidolons to fight on our side. He says we’ll invent ways to stop them. But if we do, who’s to say we’ll stop with the eidolons on the other side of a war? What if we end up doing that to eidolons everywhere? Including right here in Fillydelphia?”
She looked up at the three with a weak smile.
“That’s why I hoped that maybe I could do something about it if…if I helped you…?”
The three again looked back at her. “Us?” Twilight echoed back.
“Sure! I know the Acting-President thinks this is all a big Manehattan/Trottingham alliance, but I think you were telling the truth back in the cellblock. And if you were telling the truth, that means not only are all of you heroes for stopping that horrible eternal night and all of the nasty Light Eaters, but that means you might be able to get back to Manehattan and stop anything from happening if our Acting-President decides to put his foot in his mouth.”
Sunset frowned. “I’m not really sure what we’ll be able to do for you or Fillydelphia. All they’re going to think of us is that we broke out of our cells and escaped to Manehattan. I don’t see how that helps our case much against the Acting-President.”
“Well, that’s true,” Cozy admitted, “but the Acting-President isn’t the only person in charge of Fillydelphia, is he? There’s lot of other representatives who don’t really like how he’s planning on treating the eidolons and who don’t want to break the alliance with Manehattan. And if you and other Manehattan eidolons were to jump in and stop the Griffonstone ones? That’d sure make a lot of people, including our representatives, think that eidolons and Manehattanites are good people to have around, wouldn’t it? Besides, you’ll be able to do a lot more to help us out there than stuck in a cell waiting to be executed, won’t you?”
The three paused, looking to one another. Dash shrugged. “She’s got a point there.”
“For right now, just know you’ve got a friend in Fillydelphia in a high place,” Cozy smiled. “We can talk more about what we can do once you’re back in Manehattan. Don’t you worry about a thing…I’ll find a way to get ahold of you from there. For right now, just concentrate on how you’re going to get out of Rider’s Island and the rest of Fillydelphia.”
The three wheeled back to her. “Wait…what?” Twilight retorted. “I thought you were breaking us out of the prison!”
“What, me?” Cozy answered in genuine astonishment. “Golly…I’m just the Acting-President’s assistant! It was all I could do just to get you this far! From here on in, I thought you could use your powers to get out the rest of the way! Oh! Speaking of that…” She quickly reached down into her pocket, producing a watch soon after and looking at the time. “It’s about time that my rooftop inspection should be over, so I got to get back downstairs before anyone starts suspecting anything!” She quickly put the watch back and waved to the three even as she pushed through them for the opening. “Good luck, everyone! I’ll be rooting for you!”
Twilight struggled to reach out for her. “Wait a second!”
However, she pulled back soon after as Cozy Glow walked out from the enclosure, as following her would have meant exposing herself as well. Both she and the others were helpless to do anything else but see her gingerly make her way back over to the rooftop access doorway and slip inside. Moments later, she was gone. The three were left in the small enclosure with the roar of numerous flying vehicles still arriving at the prison hovering all around them.
Dash stood dumbfounded a few moments before frowning. “Well…that just happened.”
“She had a point,” Sunset shrugged. “It might have been the best she could do just to get us out of our cells and to the roof.”
“Yeah…” Dash sardonically answered, “and got us right in the crosshairs of the guards as soon as they realize we’re gone.”
“To be honest? It was probably going to come to that sooner or later anyway,” Twilight responded. “At least they don’t know we’re gone for right now. It seems like most of the guards were tending to that alarm. Maybe they were trying to see to all of these ships arriving…whoa!”
Twilight abruptly snapped back away from the opening even further as a roar of steam shot by. No sooner had she recoiled when she gasped in astonishment. One of the smaller flying vehicles she had only seen from a distance before now was shooting past the entrance. As a result, she got just enough of a look to see it was some sort of harness that was expanded into armor that was enclosing a single individual wielding a massive gun and a goggled helmet. They roared right past on jets of steam like a rocket, before veering to one side and shooting up for the main tower.
Sunset looked a bit amazed at the near flyby, and Dash, surprisingly enough, actually broke into a grin on seeing it. Twilight, however, was nearly aghast. “What…what was that?!”
“Heh…that’s a bona fide genuine set of Steam Wings.”
Both Twilight and Sunset looked to Dash when she said that. By now, however, her eyes were in the sky, watching the steam armor as it shot into the heavens with a look that was equal parts nostalgia and admiration.
“Been a long time since I’ve seen a set of ‘em. Looks like Fillydelphia really hammered out the dents in their design. They fly almost as great as the Cloudsdale ones.”
“I’ll admit, I never seen a set myself before,” Sunset spoke with an air of amazement. “Not with all my years in Trottingham. I almost thought they were counter-intelligence, when I heard the stories about how great they were supposed to be.”
Dash let out a loud laugh. “Ha! You’re not the first one to think the stories about the Steam Wings were a bunch of hot air! That’s just because that’s how amazing they are! Check ‘em out! Special Cloudsdale technology carries tanks of ultra-pressurized steam and jets it out in bursts so strong that it’s like you’re flying! For 30 minutes a pop, you feel like you’re king of the world! They can blast you so strong you can outstrip falcons in mid-dive!”
“D-D-Did you say ‘falcons’?!” Twilight nearly shrieked. “That’s over 200 miles per hour! Do you have any idea how much compressed steam it would take in order to keep you in the air jetting around like that for 30 minutes?”
“Sure I do,” Dash said as she jabbed her own chest. “Former Wonderbolt, remember?”
“But…but…that’s like strapping on a bomb!”
“Heh-heh…and that’s why the Wonderbolts were the best of the best out there. Only the greatest of Steam Wing pilots were good enough, brave enough, and even cool enough to handle jetting around in their league. Doesn’t matter if you bring out armies, cannons, airships, tanks… Nothing could beat us when we were in the air! Fast and furious…that was the Wonderbolts in a nutshell! No boundaries, no rules…just you and the sky! There was nothing better!”
Sunset rolled her eyes a little. “I hate to disrupt your little trip down memory lane, but we still need to think of a way to get out of here and those Steam Wings are going to make that nearly impossible with all their eyes up there. Anyone got any ideas?”
Dash shrugged. After a moment, both she and Sunset looked to Twilight in unison.
She grimaced a little before sighing. “Alright…getting out by the ground is no good. There’s no way we can sneak back down through the prison and get aboard the ferry without being seen. Swimming for it is out of the question. Even if all of us were strong enough to make it to shore, we’re surrounded by guard towers and sentries who would spot us. So…” She inhaled nervously. “…that leaves one option.”
She turned and looked back out the opening again. The others followed her gaze, all the way to the top of the main tower where the airships were docking.
“You’re kidding,” Sunset remarked.
“Either we steal a ship or sneak on board one, but the only way out of here is via the air.”
Sunset groaned and held a hand to her head. “This is insane…”
“This is…awesome!” Dash immediately chirped, grinning from ear to ear. “Now we’re talking.”
Sunset looked at her incredulously. “Are you out of your mind? Do you know how hard it’s going to be to get out of here on an airship?”
“Well yeah, but so what? We can handle it. And can you think of anything cooler that racing out of here on one of their own airships? That’s something only out of the action novels!”
Sunset let out a sore mutter again. Twilight, on her part, exhaled and wiped for her brow. “Alright. I guess the first stop is the hanger. Let’s see how much ground we can cover before they start looking for us…”
As if on cue, the three heard the same bell alarm from before start going off. Only this time, it did so as a continuous note. Within seconds, the watchmen that they could see from their position began to spring to life and started scanning the area more vigorously. Beneath them, they heard echoes of footsteps as stationed soldiers and guards began to move. They even heard the distant sound of dogs barking.
Sunset grimaced. “I’d go with ‘none’.”
Moving about the prison when it was being converted back into a fortress and after they had been placed inside as inmates, escaped from their cell, and had the entire installation put on alert went about as well as one could imagine. The next thirty minutes was spent darting in and out of the view of watchmen, ducking behind every obstruction, wall, or obstacle they could find that could hinder someone’s view, and waiting desperately for conditions to improve or it to grow darker out for them to move further. If Twilight and Dash’s Anima Viris could have offered any assistance, such an opportunity was lost on the three of them. They didn’t dare changing into the eye-catching forms with their glowing auras. Everyone was forced to move as near-normal people.
The alarm cut off soon after they got underway, but it didn’t matter. The main purpose had been to put the facility on alert and it had succeeded. Now the lack of an alarm simply meant they had to tread lightly everywhere and couldn’t risk calling out directions to one another. On the plus side, while places to hide were few and far between on the roof, it also was a place that had a small number of guards in charge of everything. As such, they were able to work their way across it at first. Unfortunately, after clearing about 200 yards, the Steel Wings came into play and joined the patrol for them. Once that happened, it was all they could do to make any headway at all.
Through several near scrapes, the three had managed to reach the edge of the roof. Just below them, spanning the top floor, was a skybridge walkway connecting the wall-like outer complex in toward the central tower. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to get back in unnoticed and take the bridge normally. Instead, the three waited carefully for the gap in the sentries both from one of the surrounding towers plus the main tower, then, one by one, lowered themselves down to the top of the bridge. A small maintenance shack leftover from construction was perched on top of it, flush with the perimeter building. As each one landed, they quickly scrambled inside.
Breathing hard and sweating, the three all pressed themselves against the walls and halted there momentarily. It wasn’t too long before they had to force themselves to clam up even there, however, as they discovered the floor was paper thin when the sounds of people moving underneath became audible. They looked to each other as they heard the footsteps come closer, only to pause right beneath them.
Dash frowned. “This stinks!” she whispered loudly. “We need to just bust through!”
“I don’t know if just two of us can do that in a prison!” Twilight whispered back. “Especially with all of those Steel Wing things!”
Dash opened her mouth to respond, before a voice echoed through the floor below. “Did you hear something?”
Quickly, the three went as still as statues.
“Nah,” one of them answered after several seconds, “just jumpy, I guess… Ever since hearing that those three escaped, I’ve been expecting the worst at every corner…”
“Relax,” another voice answered. “If they really were that strong, they wouldn’t be sneaking around here. That means those freaks aren’t as strong as the news makes them out to be.”
Dash grit her teeth at that, but Sunset quickly reached out and put a hand on her shoulder before she could attempt anything to make them eat those words.
“They aren’t getting out of here. We got the bridges covered, the entrances covered, and the ferry covered. There’s nowhere for them to go: land, sea, or air.”
“I hope you’re right. With that endless night over Equestria gone, I thought things would start getting back to normal. Now they’re going crazier than ever. Didn’t you hear about Slipshire?”
“No. Heard what?”
“That there isn’t any more Slipshire. It’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“They had another surge of the Nighttouched.”
“Get real! Those things should be hiding in holes all day long now.”
“Well, they aren’t. They had a surge. Worst one ever. I hear it was like a flood of them. They came over the border and they just wiped out everything. Not just people. Building, vehicles, even the local animals. All gone just like that. Worse yet? It happened during the day.”
“Oh, now you’re just swallowing wild rumors! They don’t go out during the day! That hurts them, remember?”
“I’m just telling you what I heard. Something went on at Slipshire. Something really bad. Enough to where the Acting-President wants to keep a lid on it until we’ve taken care of Griffonstone.”
“Well, that won’t be much longer. Hear that?”
The two below them were silent for a time. The three hidden above turned their heads up and listened as well. It was quiet for a while, or perhaps as quiet as it had been before. Yet after a short time, through the thinness of the walls, they made out just the faintest sound of a boat horn.
“What’s that?” they heard below.
“Last bit of munitions. The latest ammunition. Strong enough to put a hole straight through a Trottingham warship if it hit it dead on. Once we have this load, Rider’s Island will be fully up and ready. Not too soon, if you ask me. I got some real intel for you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Griffonstone’s getting ready to make a move. They said they got two warships coming up the river this morning. By now they’ve got to be in the sea. Not too hard of a run from here.”
“Great… Survive four years of fighting monsters out of Equestria only to bite one in a fight with Griffonstone…”
The two went quiet after that. However, no further footsteps were heard, indicating that neither of them were moving. The three looked up to one another after a short time.
“So…what now?” Dash finally asked in a quieter whisper.
Twilight grimaced. “I…I don’t know. I thought maybe we could cross over the roof on here to get to the main tower, but…” She winced as she looked skyward. “But those sentries will spot us in no time. Even if we could, we can’t get on their roof or inside in time. And we can’t go back from here. It’ll take too long to climb back up…”
Dash eyed her a moment. “Are you trying to say we’re stuck here?”
“I…didn’t say that…” Twilight spoke back meekly. “But…well…considering the circumstances…”
“Ugh!” Dash barely restrained herself from yelling. “Just let me run in there! I’m too fast for them! And look! We’re hidden in here right now! I can whip out my Anima Viri without anyone seeing me!”
“They’ll see you as soon as you dart out of here, though,” Sunset spoke up. “And they have a bottleneck on either end of this bridge. There’s no way you won’t get spotted.”
“So what? I’m fast enough to take ‘em all down!”
“But you might not before they set an alarm! Twilight and I aren’t as fast as you and we’ll be the first to get hit by everyone running to catch up with you!”
She crossed her arms and frowned. “I don’t see you coming up with any bright ideas. I thought you were supposed to be this smart military commander?”
Sunset opened her mouth momentarily at that, but then shut it again. However, she didn’t recoil this time. She raised a finger to her chin and tapped it as she looked around the area. After a time, however, she looked up again.
“What we need right now…is a diversion.”
This prompted Twilight to look up and to her as well. “Huh?”
Sunset sighed. “Look…you can teleport, right?”
Twilight looked a bit uneasy at that. “Well…sort of…”
She frowned. “You can at least go a short distance away and back, right? Especially using your Anima Viri?”
“Well, yes, but I can’t get the two of you out doing that. And I can’t do it that much.”
“You don’t need to. All you have to do is teleport as far away as you can from us, use your magic to start a fire, and then teleport back. Or better yet, an explosive fire. Everyone will assume it’s arson or an attack, and they’ll go running to the outer defenses. Then we can cut across to the main tower easily. Honestly?” She looked a bit wistful for a moment as she crossed her arms. “If I still could use magic, it’s what I would do.”
Twilight looked rather uncomfortable at the idea. “Well, that…that does make sense, but I’m not sure I can teleport twice in succession like that… Especially after casting a fire spell…”
“It’s still the best chance we have. It’s the best way we can cause a diversion without being seen ourselves. If you can’t do it, then we might as well go with Rainbow Dash’s plan, because that’s the best we can get. We won’t get another chance for you two to don your Anima Viris.”
There was a pause between the two sides. Dash, in spite of her earlier bluster, as well as the thought that her idea would have to be the default if nothing else was available, seemed to realize the logic in Sunset’s plan. Although she pumped herself up for being ready to go, she also eyed Twilight and waited for her verdict. The woman looked one way and another, mentally debating whether or not it was possible, but at long last let out a sigh.
“I…guess I could try it.”
Sunset frowned back. “If you’re that uncertain about it, it’s a no-go. Do you think you can do it or not?”
Twilight paused again. “I…I think…” She hesitated, then shook her head and firmed up. “No, I know I can do it. It’ll be tough but I can pull it off.”
Before she could stop herself, Sunset actually smiled back. “Great. Let’s see it.”
Dash shrugged. “Well, if this falls through, we can always go with Plan B: Awesome. After you.”
Twilight let out an exhale. She shook her head and began to limber herself up. “Alright…alright, just give me a second to get ready…” She cracked her neck, stepped up and down a few times, held her hands in the air and practiced a few sigils briefly, mentally went over the right words, and finally stabilized. All of this took her a considerably long time, during which the other two began to slowly grow impatient, but finally she seemed to be ready.
“Ok, I’m going to do it.” She held her hand into the air. “Just hope this works when I whisper it…and that nothing shines through the floor… Member of my house, I command-”
Suddenly, a distant explosion went off within the prison facility with sufficient force to send a tremor even through the small shack in which they were hiding. Twilight froze where she stood with her hand still extended. From below them, they soon heard some noise.
“What the hell was that?”
“It came from below us!”
Both Sunset and Dash looked to Twilight in alarm. “Whoa…” Dash muttered. “I take it back. That was awesome. I didn’t even see you move!”
She immediately lowered her hand. “It wasn’t me! I didn’t even have time to call out my Anima Viri!”
Another explosion went off. A third and fourth one soon followed it. Soon after, the alarm blared again. This time, it signaled off in single note bursts.
“It’s coming from the pier!” one of the voices below shouted.
“We’re under attack?” the other shouted incredulously, obviously referring to the alarm call. “But how? There’s nothing in the air and there’s no way in except for…”
He was drowned out by the sound of numerous footsteps charging down the skybridge right for both of them. Seconds later, they slowed only for a third voice to shout.
“You two! Come on! To the first floor! We’re being shelled!”
“What? How? From where?”
“Where do you think? The supply boat’s been raided! They’ll infiltrating from that!”
“How could they be infiltrating from the boat?”
“Stop asking questions and just move out!”
The footsteps started up again. They rapidly charged out and down through the bridge area back into the perimeter structure of the prison, and after that quickly faded. However, the sounds of chaos were just getting started. Another explosion went off, and soon the sound of distant cries began to be intermingled with them. Gunfire followed up along with more shouting.
The three listened to it for a moment before looking up at each other. After a few seconds, Sunset looked to the opening to their shelter. She risked inching forward and little and looking out. Sure enough, the sentries on the upper tower were now distracted and fully focusing on the pier area below, getting out their weapons and trying to line up shots. She ducked her head back in soon after.
“You think that’s Griffonstone down there?” Twilight asked.
“They’re nuts!” Dash retorted. “You saw how guarded that front was when we got here, didn’t you? If they’re trying to infiltrate from here, they’ll get blown to pieces!”
Twilight grimaced. “Unless what Cozy Glow said was right…”
“Who cares?” Sunset interjected. “Now’s our chance to move, and it could close up at any second! We need to get across this bridge!”
The other two could hardly argue with that. Although it was more impromptu than either of them wanted, they got ready to run. Soon after, with Sunset now in the lead, the three of them took off out of their small shelter and began to dash across the roof of the skybridge.
The trip was rather nerve-wracking. In addition to having to worry about any sentry or watchman spotting them, the roof to the skybridge was slanted and the edge led to nothing but a five story drop down to a rather painful end on jagged, sharp rocks. Whoever built it wanted to ensure the only reasonable way across would be to go through the bridge itself. Nevertheless, none of them looked down, and after a rather anxious minute of a mixture of hunched-over walking and even crawling, they made it to an identical shack on the other side.
They didn’t stay there that long, however. Now across, Dash pushed ahead and began to scale the wall against them, running up the rough texture vertical stone with what momentum she could, and got high enough to reach out and grab the edge of the nearest tier overhead. Quickly, she pulled herself up and over the top, and once there she reached down over the side and held out her hand. Twilight and Sunset looked to each other a moment, before the latter moved up to the wall and bent down, offering herself as a stepladder. Twilight somewhat hesitantly climbed on top soon after, then extended her hand upward until she was able to grasp Dash’s. She readily pulled her up and over, and more reluctantly reset herself to extend a hand to Sunset. The woman grimaced back, but then braced herself and leapt up after her. She let out a small cry when the force dislodged one of the shingles from the roof, but she still managed to make the leap and get caught by Dash. She pulled her up the rest of the way afterward.
As soon as all were on top, they quickly glanced around for the nearest opening. They spotted one in the form of another rooftop access stairway shed not far from them. Having no other options for shelter, they quickly ran over to it. Dash again took the lead and greeted the door with a solid blow from one of her legs, snapping the lock and knocking it inside. It wasn’t the most comforting thing in the world, knowing that sound had to have echoed, but there was little they could do about it now. The three prayed the alarm was loud enough to obscure the sound as they poured inside.
The corridor within was a narrow stairwell, and led only downward a single flight of stairs before opening into a much wider room. Unfortunately, from their position, they couldn’t see in that well. As a result, they only slowly made their way down, keeping their eyes peeled for anything and listening closely.
It wasn’t too long before they heard a voice calling out. “Commander!”
Instantly, the three froze in the stairwell. It was hardly the best hiding place. All one had to do was come by and look up to be staring right at them. They could only hope that the shadows of the narrow passage were enough to obscure them as they hunkered down. All three looked, but only Dash, still in the lead, was close enough to even see the feet of several officers gathered in the middle of a spacious room.
“Yeah, yeah,” another voice responded. “We heard the alarm. What’s up?”
“It’s that team from Griffonstone! They’ve infiltrated the complex! They’re attacking right now! All units are being ordered to mobilize!”
A brief pause resulted. “Did you say all units?”
The other voice sighed in exasperation. “Yes, all units.”
A clap resounded. “Ha! It’s about time we got something to do besides sentry duty, ‘eh ladies and gentlemen?”
A round of snickers and enthusiastic noise responded, from no less than a dozen individuals.
“Not a problem, lieutenant. We’ll take care of things right away. It’s about time we started to break some long-obsolete Wonderbolt records, eh? You don’t mind if the prison gets a little beaten up in the process, do you? ‘Cause it sounds like the attackers sure don’t mind.”
Another sigh. “You’re authorized to use whatever force is necessary to neutralize the Griffonstone eidolons. Just make sure to leave the skybridges intact. They’re the only way in and out of the central tower.”
“Alright, alright…no problem. Ok, fellas! Let’s get to the Steel Wings and show these mutants a thing or two!”
A round of cheers resulted, before the sounds of footsteps rushing off resounded. This time, however, the three were close enough to clearly make out the sound of the direction they went in. The bulk all went to the left while a few other footsteps went to the right before all went silent again. The three kept hanging out in the shaft momentarily, with Twilight and Sunset listening and waiting for any other footsteps.
Dash, however, was gritting her teeth and making a fist. “Like some junky Fillydelphian team could ever beat the Wonderbolts…”
“Forget your ego and get moving!” Sunset shot back.
She grumbled, but finally got up and began to make her way down the stairwell. “If we didn’t have to do all this sneaking around I’d find that commander of theirs and knock out a few of her teeth… I bet I could fly rings around someone like her…”
“Save it for when we’re cornered!” Sunset retorted. As she said this, she lowered enough to enter the wider chamber. Although the stairwell they were in kept going down, they exited here. It was austere, rather like the rest of the prison, holding only concrete floors and walls with windows allowing plenty of outdoor views, but aside from that it wasn’t much. Fortunately, no guards were posted there at the moment, but there were three wide-open hallways in front of them as well as a doorway which presumably led back to the skybridge behind them.
As soon as the three emerged into the area, they looked about briefly. “Alright,” Twilight spoke up, “any votes on where to now?”
Sunset exhaled before pointing down one of the hallways. “That way.”
She turned to her. “Why that way?”
“That’s the way the rest of those people talking about Steel Wings went. I’ll bet that’s the way to whatever they’re using for an airship dock.”
Twilight winced. “That place will be crawling with guards, soldiers, and pilots!”
Sunset shrugged. “How else are we supposed to get out of here? That’s where we planned on going, wasn’t it?”
The spellcaster moaned hopelessly.
Dash, however, grinned and made a fist, punching it into her opposite hand. “Alright! Finally we’re getting somewhere!” She nearly took a step in that direction before halting. Her smile ebbed a little before she exhaled. “Well, if we’re this close, then I guess I better not put it off any longer…” She held her own hand in the air. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Leader of the Wonderbolts—Captain Spitfire!”
As her own aura exploded, Sunset turned and looked to Twilight. She sighed once before holding her own hand up. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Master of Sorcery—Starswirl the Bearded!”
Seconds later, both were fully in their Anima Viris and radiating their respective auras. Dash took only a moment to grin before taking off down the corridor…going a bit too fast and soon needing to wait up for the others. Twilight soon followed suit. Sunset, running as hard as she herself could move, for even the small enhancement was enough to make Twilight faster than her, brought up the rear.
The corridor itself seemed to be a fairly straight shot, at least in terms of branching pathways. The only route ahead curved slightly, no doubt following the natural curvature of the tower’s edge itself, which meant they didn’t have to worry about veering off in the wrong direction but did have to concern themselves with any threats up ahead. As it turned out, they didn’t have long to wait for any. As they passed the first set of doors leading to a side room, they rounded the corridor only to see a pair of Fillydelphian soldiers running the opposite way.
The two immediately halted, going wide-eyed on seeing the glowing individuals approaching them. “Hey y-”
Fortunately, they only got out half a shout before Rainbow Dash sprung on them. She moved like a blaze before lashing out with both hands together, striking both at a vital point. They didn’t even get out a reasonably loud “oof” or moan before both were dropped to the ground.
“Yeah! Two down!” she cheered as she kept running.
Sunset and Twilight both frowned. “Could we try to speak at a volume not loud enough to bring out any more…?” the former muttered.
Twilight didn’t get a chance to answer before they heard the sound of doors flying open behind them. Both she and Sunset paused and turned around. They spotted three more soldiers running out from the room they just passed, staring at them all the while. They were rather shocked to even see the glowing individuals, but that confusion didn’t last. One of them ran for the nearest alarm panel on the wall while the other two raised their weapons.
Fortunately, Twilight was a bit faster. While without a wand she lacked the fine focus for it, nothing stopped her from quickly drawing a sigil with her finger and causing it to melt away into a cloud of potent gray mist that spilled out the entire hallway behind them. It flooded over the three soldiers in an instant, and before the two could finish aiming or the third reach the alarm all three had their eyes roll back in their heads before the collapsed to the ground, sound asleep.
Twilight exhaled in relief before turning and running after Dash once again, who was already pulling ahead. Sunset did much the same as she turned and ran after her. “Much better…”
The three passed a few more doorways as they ran along the corridor, but fortunately no others came out. There was one remaining squad of four soldiers, but this time their backs were to the group and Dash had even less of a problem getting the drop on them. Nevertheless, this prompted both Sunset and Twilight to pick up the pace as best as they could; knowing they were starting to leave a “trail” behind them that wouldn’t go unnoticed for long.
“Ha! This is too easy!” Dash called back as she picked up her own speed. At this point, the corridor was widening slightly up ahead. It was clear that they were nearly to the next junction around the tower. “Just line up these Fillydelphians right in front of me! I’ll take ‘em all down in no time!”
“Rainbow Dash, I think Sunset is right…” Twilight uneasily called back. “Maybe we should keep it down a little…”
“Relax, Twilight! I got this in the bag! Just let me see the whites of their eyes-”
Abruptly, Dash ground to a halt in her tracks; stopping so fast from digging her feet in that she actually pounded a small dent into the floor. A second later, she rapidly backpedaled. Twilight and Sunset themselves scarcely had time to stop as well to process this when a thunder of gunfire erupted from the bend in the hall just ahead.
Crying out, Twilight quickly did as Dash did—flung herself back and against the curved corridor wall for shelter. Sunset followed suit just as bullets came racing around the corner and blasted where Dash had been. In mere seconds, they were rendered nearly deaf from the choruses of gunfire and the corridor itself was rapidly filling up with concrete dust from the hundreds of bullets tearing apart the corridor wall. Even with Dash out of the way, the gunfire continued to rage for several seconds, during which the section of the corridor they had been approaching was nearly totally decimated.
The guns finally cut off and the echoes slowly died down. Twilight, Sunset, and Dash, still wincing with their backs to the wall, looked at the opposite curve. It looked like a wrecking ball had hit it. Bits of wall and loose stone slowly rained to the floor from the ruins of the passageway wall. Aside from that, the only sound was the clicks of the gunners just around the corner reloading.
Sunset and Twilight both slowly looked at Dash with a critical glare, the former more so than the latter.
She smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “Ok,” she whispered, “I may have gotten a bit too excited.”
“How many did you see over there?”
“I, uh…only got a glance because all of their guns were up, but…twenty? Thirty?”
Twilight went wide-eyed. “That many?!”
“They could have been setting an ambush for those Griffonstone invaders,” Sunset suggested. “Then they heard us coming instead…”
“Well what now?”
“The fact that they aren’t telling us to come out with our hands up means they’re probably not going to take us alive… They’re probably waiting for reinforcements to come the other way then we’ll be pinned.”
Twilight looked over. “Dash, can you get them all?”
Her enthusiastic look turned to one of nervousness as she looked evasive. “Well, uh…there is a lot of them, and they’re all shooting at once, and they’re all expecting me…so…”
Sunset gave her a deadpan glare. “You’re kidding me. A moment ago you sounded like you wanted to beat up the entire prison.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t think I was going to have to hit them all when they all had guns pointed at me and trigger fingers! I can still get them…” Her voice lowered. “Probably…maybe…”
Sunset sighed and turned her head. “Twilight?”
“Alright, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll send a lightning spell down that way. Whoever it doesn’t hit should be stunned long enough for Rainbow Dash to go in and take down. Ok?”
Sunset nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Dash nodded. “Alright. Just leave it to me.”
Twilight took in a deep breath and looked ahead. Moistening her lips, for fear that a gunner would spot her before she could make the next move, she slowly inched her arms up and away from the wall. She held both in front of her and extended her forefingers. “I don’t have a wand, so this isn’t going to be the nicest spell. Just get in there the second you see the flash around the corner.”
Dash inched away from the side just so she could ready herself to spring up and off. “I got it. Do it.”
The Caster took in another deep breath, and then slowly began to draw the symbol. The first few words of the arcane language came out of her mouth…
Before she was cut off to the sound of a resounding, echoing explosion from just around the corner. Both she as well as Sunset and Dash cried out and ducked for cover as chunks of building material and clouds of smoke burst from around the corner and into the hallway. Their ears were pierced with the enclosed eruption, causing them to grasp the sides of their head in pain as the area around them rocked from the blast. As bad as the gunfire had been moments ago, this was far more intense and harder to withstand. The reverberations alone were enough to leave all three of them stunned.
When they finally died down enough to recover, all three found themselves coughing and snorting from the clouds of dust still billowing down the corridor. Much larger pieces of concrete were still loosening and settling when Dash, wincing, managed to look up and to the corner up ahead. “What the hell was that?”
Twilight and Sunset slowly picked themselves up in turn. Once all were standing, the three women exchanged a glance, but realized there was nowhere else to go. Bracing themselves, they faced the hallway where the explosion had come from and began to slowly creep forward.
It didn’t take long for them to reach another open chamber much like the one they had climbed down into. At least, they reached what was left of it. The set of doors for this chamber was gone along with a good portion of the wall they had been mounted on. The explosion had come from there and had blasted them clean off. The twenty or thirty soldiers that Dash had managed to catch a glimpse of before were now sprawled out everywhere, many of them having taken a severe or even fatal hit when the wall had burst. About half of them were crumpled around rubble or half-buried in it. There were a few moans from the group, but it was clear that none of them were in any shape to do anything about them now.
On entering the area, Dash looked around a bit, before she burst into a smile. “Sweet! Someone took them out for us! Look!” She gestured to the one difference to this chamber from the previous one. Where the last room had three hallways, one of the hallways had been replaced by a wide staircase. “Here’s where we go up!”
“I’d hang on just a second,” Twilight responded.
“Why?”
“Because I think we just ran into that ‘someone’.”
Dash looked back around, and saw both Twilight and Sunset staring at the ruins of the doors. However, the smoke had cleared a bit more, and it was slowly revealing two individuals standing there. Normally, that wouldn’t have been enough to get either woman to pause. However, there was something about them that stood out a bit more than any other soldier they had run into so far.
They were both glowing with auras similar to Twilight’s and Dash’s, and they both had hands with the unmistakable sign of an Anima Viri blazing on them.
“Oh crap…” Sunset muttered.
As the smoke kept dying down, they got a better look at both of them. Based on the fact that both wore some sort of light armor, it soon became clear that both of them were the role of the Warrior. It was small wonder they had charged in through the smoke, as the blast likely wasn’t much to either of them. However, it seemed that they had spotted Twilight and Dash at roughly the same time they themselves had been spotted, and seeing two more individuals who also had Anima Viris was causing them to pause. Nevertheless, as they stood there, they gave the three of them rather dark and unfriendly looks.
They weren’t alone long. Two more shapes ran out of the smoke only to freeze on seeing their companions stopped, and then turned and looked ahead to spot the three. One was wearing a coat and a wide-brimmed hat with a feather, indicating a Magician. The other had a robe and hat similar to Twilight’s own, only this one was also sporting a wand to give away her identity as a Caster. Others quickly ran up to join them. They weren’t glowing, but they were heavily armed and freely baring their own Promethian Sigils on their hands. More so than that, their dull colors, dress, and appearances clearly gave them away as ones from Griffonstone.
For a few fateful seconds, the two sides stared at each other; neither really sure of what to do next. Yet even as they stood and stared, they heard a voice accompanying a final set of footsteps pushing through the smoke.
“Alright, alright, move in already! What’s the big hold…”
She didn’t finish as she parted the smoke and saw the same sight as the others. Soon she was frozen in place as well, likewise amazed.
Dash’s jaw nearly dropped. “Gilda?”
The Griffonstone native stared a bit longer before smirking. “Well now, fancy seeing you here, Dash. Looks like you made it out of that tunnel alive.”