While Rarity was being surrounded by a trio of monstrous creatures, Indigo was regaining consciousness after being taken by kidnappers. If the two ponies had been aware of each other's predicament, they would've struggled to decide who was worse off in that moment.
Indigo's head ached and her goggles took longer than usual to cycle out of total darkness and reveal the world around her. While she was waiting for her vision to return, she heard the constant rush of air, felt the vibrations beneath her and smelt the familiar scent of a low-grade magical engine.
She deduced she was on a small airship before her goggles finally adjusted to confirm her surroundings. Unfortunately, knowing what kind of vehicle she was in didn't help her escape. She couldn't fly and she wouldn't survive a fall, certainly not a fall at high speed.
“Look who’s awake,” a stallion's voice interrupted her thoughts and Indigo looked up to see the male kidnapper sitting beside her. His blue head lowered as he checked the rope binding her legs. “Between the shock-tap and the sleep bomb, I wasn't sure she'd be waking up at all.”
"Don't be so dramatic, Zap," a mare's voice replied and Indigo turned to look further up from where she lay sprawled on the airship floor to find the female kidnapper operating the vehicle's controls. "She's fine. Just like I said."
“She's been out for twice as long as usual,” Zap grumbled, nudging Indigo's head with a forehoof, "Are you sure we didn't fry her brain, Sapper?"
“Yes, I'm sure. Because I know what I'm doing,” Sapper rolled her eyes before looking down at the tinkerer, "what law describes the rate of magic-point decay within enchanted crystals?”
"Brightspark's law of potential," Indigo replied instinctively.
"See, she's fine."
"Let's hope so, the boss needs her alive and with a fully functional brain," Zap replied with a shake of his head.
While her captors were bickering, Indigo checked her bound legs. The ropes were thick and the knots tight, she could probably escape them, but not without drawing attention. Twisting as much as she dared, the tinkerer confirmed that the tools and weapons that were usually strapped across her back had been removed, so even if she did free her limbs, she'd be unarmed and on an airship with two thugs.
“What do you want with me?” she stammered.
“We just want you to live up to your reputation and fix something for us,” Zap explained, leaning down to grin at their captive, “If you can do that then everything will be fine. If you cant… well, it’s not going to be pretty.”
Indigo felt her heart accelerating as two thoughts tried to overwhelm her mind. Firstly, if they just wanted her to fix something, then she was perfectly safe because she could fix anything. But secondly, that was only true if the ponies kidnapping and threatening her upheld their end of the bargain, which seemed far from guaranteed.
The tinkerer swallowed hard before yelping as the small airship skittered across the treetops, the thin floor beneath her scraping across branches at high speed.
Sapper giggled with delight as she yanked at the controls, swerving the airship around a taller tree with sparks flying as the armoured front section almost bounced off of a thick trunk. Zap rolled his eyes while Indigo struggled to wedge herself into the space between seats and hold tight with bound hooves.
“Maybe you should slow down,” Zap called over the roar of the engine. "Or at least fly high enough that we're not skimming jungle canopy!"
“Don’t spoil my fun,” Sapper replied with a shrug. "And we need to fly low or we'll be spotted from a distance."
“We'll also be spotted if we crash in a fiery explosion,” Zap observed as Indigo yelped again, desperately trying not to get bounced out of the small airship, “And we don't want this engineer to have a heart attack before we reach the camp.”
“Fine,” Sapper sighed, looking down at her passengers from the pilot's platform before easing off on the throttle and raising them a little higher in the air.
=
Rarity backed away from the trio of large, snake-leach monsters that slithered slowly toward her. Deep blue eyes glanced around, looking for an escape route or for Deputy Rook who had disappeared the moment the threat turned up. But there was no sign of the missing lawpony and the only way out of the clearing was into the thick undergrowth of the jungle, not something she'd be able to gallop through at full speed.
That left her with the option to fight or talk.
“I sense that you’re unhappy with my presence?” Rarity said, “I do apologise and I’m more than happy to leave in peace. There’s no need to compound this faux pas by resorting to violence.”
The nearest beast roared in response before charging at her, moving with surprising speed as it lunged forward with its circular mouth open wide. Rarity darted gracefully to the side, avoiding the jaws before raising a fore-hoof to slam into the creature’s body as it flew past her.
Rarity was expecting a subtle flash of blue-white light around the edge of her hoof as it collided with the monster's scaled skin. Instead there was no flash, just an unexpected jolt of pain that left her stumbling as the second monster lunged.
Desperately twisting, Rarity managed to avoid the knife-like teeth plunging into her neck. Instead the monster glanced off of her shoulder, the heavy beast sending her tumbling to the ground.
Grunting in the most ladylike way she could manage under the circumstances, she rolled to the side, avoiding the third lunging creature but finding herself face to face with the first as it slithered closer, angling to wrap itself around her fallen form.
"Nope!" Rarity snapped, her rear hooves bucking into the creature's head. The impact stung her legs as it sent the monster thudding to the ground on the far side of the small clearing.
Still on the ground, she grabbed a cluster of nearby stones with her magical field and flung them toward the two upright monstrosities. But the pebbles moved awkwardly through the air and bounced off of the reptilian hides with none of the force she was expecting.
“I assure you, this is not the finest example of my skill,” she gasped.
Scrambling to her hooves, Rarity backed away from the trio of monsters as her mind raced. When it came to fighting, she wasn't physically or magically the strongest, but she prided herself on attention to detail and having the skill to act on her analysis.
The snake-leech-creatures liked to lunge and they telegraphed the attack. The monsters would compress their bodies, sinking back like a coiled spring before bolting forward, teeth first. Now she knew what to look for she could avoid being hit as long as she was careful about her placement and managed to keep all three attackers in view. And as long as she stayed moving and on her feet, they wouldn't get a chance to wrap around her and squeeze until she broke.
The bigger problem was how to fight back. Rarity had landed a couple of blows, but they had lacked the power she'd intended and her telekinetic attacks were just as weak. She wasn't sure if her magic was still low after the sleep bombs rattled her brain or if the monsters were somehow draining her power. Either way, she couldn't fight back.
So, she was left dodging attacks and hoping the snake-leeches became tired before she did.
"It appears we are at an impasse, darlings," Rarity explained as she reached the edge of the clearing and debated whether using the undergrowth for cover was worth the risk of loosing sight of her opponents, "So, perhaps we should just call this a draw and go our separate ways. No hard feelings?"
The nearest creatures prepared to lunge together and Rarity dodged to the side, ducking down low as she brought up both fore-hooves to lash out. It wasn't a particularly natural or comfortable position for a pony, but she managed to avoid both attacks and land another blow on the body of the second snake-leech.
Gasping, she scrambled to her hooves again and twisted to buck the third beast before it had a chance to attack. Her blow landed awkwardly as the creature turned in the air to swipe at her with its tail.
Rarity thudded to the ground for the second time with her flank aching and the third monster recovering quicker than the others. Scrambling, she got to her hooves before the beasts could lunge again and backed away to the opposite edge of the clearing.
"Alright, maybe I can't fight this to a draw, but I promise I will make it a pyrric victory for you," Rarity winced as she put weight on her aching flank.
The snake-leeches slowly spread out, taking their time as they made sure Rarity was surrounded with her back against the thick jungle. The unicorn was about to turn and run when she caught a flash of movement above her.
“Incoming!” Rook screamed as she dropped from the jungle canopy, plummeting straight at the monster to Rarity's right.
Rook slammed into the creature, her metal climbing shoes colliding with the leech-like head. The beast slumped to the ground as Rook leaped upward again, spinning to buck both rear hooves into the second monster, forcing the beast to sprawl on its side as the last of the trio turned to face the cloaked unicorn.
The deputy kicked the fallen snake trying to whip her with its tail while the final beast prepared to lunge at the occupied Rook. Rarity darted forward, her hooves slamming into the monster's jaw before it could attack. Her blow caught the creature off guard, sending it tumbling to the ground where Rook's metal shoes could land a barrage of powerful kicks.
With a hollow, shrieking sound, the trio of monsters slithered back into the jungle, moving with pained, awkward jerks.
"I was afraid of this, we've been lucky for too long,” Rook sighed, inspecting her climbing shoes to make sure the spiked bases were largely undamaged. Turning to the white unicorn glaring at her, she smiled, “How are you holding up, Rarity?”
Rarity panted, her head tilting to the side and her eyes narrowing. Her body ached, her heart was racing and her fur was slick with sweat and dirt from the jungle floor. Most importantly, she was flooded with adrenalin and the pony who'd abandoned her at the start of the fight was now standing right in front of her.
“You disappeared!” Rarity frowned, stomping her right fore-hoof before taking a step toward Rook. "You disappeared, leaving me to fight alone!"
“I climbed a tree.” Rook explained calmly as Rarity stopped almost muzzle to muzzle with her. Still smiling, she gestured to the spiked, metal shoes strapped to her hooves. “I needed to get the drop on our uninvited guests while they were distracted,” she nodded in the direction the creatures had retreated before pointing upward, “I knew you could protect yourself while I got into position. You’re a fighter. I’ve got pretty good instincts about these things.”
“Instincts? You put my life in danger based on instinct?” Rarity continued to frown as Rook removed her shoes before slipping them back into the pockets hidden within her cloak.
“Yes and no,” The violet mare nodded, “Those vampire-wyrms feed off of magic, not life-force. I thought everypony knew that?"
"Clearly I'm not well versed in local wildlife!” Rarity snapped, "We don't have these vampire-worm things back home!"
"Vampire-wyrms" Rook corrected, "They're common jungle pests and were probably drawn to whatever powered the air-ship. They wouldn’t kill you, just suck out your magic. So, yeah, you would've been left unconscious for other monsters to find, but I was always going to intervene before that happened.”
"Was that supposed to sound reassuring?" Rarity rolled her eyes again, "And how do you explain the circular mouths filled with razor sharp teeth that they tried to plunge into my flesh! Are they simply a decorative choice?"
"Their saliva is a paralytic, they were just trying to scratch you. A single small cut would've been enough to leave you helpless for them to feed on," Rook explained, ”They weren't planning on severing an artery or anything, they need their victims alive."
“They were attempting to scratch me by plunging hoof-width teeth into me?”
“It would’ve been a… bad scratch… I’ll admit.”
“It still sounds like you were relying on luck," Rarity sighed and shook her head, trying to move past the lingering weight of anger, "You said those things were magical leaches? That explains why my kicks felt weak. I was trying to use magic to enhance my attacks.”
“Yeah, you were flash-shielding, right? I recognised the U.M.A style,” Rook nodded. "Nice technique by the way. I'm no expert, but you looked like a professional."
“Simply a skilled amateur, I assure you. So, you needed to take them by surprise so you could use your own magic without the... vampire-wyrms weakening you,” Rarity sighed theatrically, “I can see why that was necessary, but a little warning would’ve been nice. For all I knew, you'd left me to die alone in the jungle.”
“I... yeah… it doesn’t sound good now that I hear it out loud,” Rook replied with a slightly awkward, apologetic smile, “Sorry. I’m used to working alone.”
“Alone? You’re the deputy. Surely you’re used to cooperation?”
“The Sheriff isn’t exactly a great example of teamwork,” Rook replied with a shrug.
Rarity hesitated. The deputy’s story didn’t sit right with her and she wanted to pick it apart like the detectives in her favourite stories. But Indigo was still missing and standing around, questioning her only ally wouldn’t help rescue the kidnapped tinkerer.
“Well, no harm done,” Rarity said with forced politeness, “if you can still track Indigo while she's in an airship, we should keep moving. We’re already falling behind, no need to delay things further.”
"Agreed," Rook said before sniffing the air a few times and turning toward the setting sun and pointing into the jungle. "Let's go.”
=
Indigo and her captors were far ahead of the rescue party, racing above the jungle in an airship the tinkerer felt was too small and too cobbled together to safely carry three ponies at high speeds. But Sapper, the female bandit still seemed intent on traveling as fast as possible and as close to the jungle canopy as she could get away with.
The tinkerer focused on the airship around her and tried not to think about the kidnappers or the jungle rushing beneath them. More specifically, she focused on thinking of improvements for the craft.
The gondola beneath the balloon was put together from random scraps and suspended using old metal cables. Indigo’s first thought for improvement was to destroy it in a fire and then rebuild from scratch.
The balloon itself was small, too small to lift the craft on its own, so their elevation was being enhanced with magic. The tinkerer couldn't see the engine, but she could hear it, at the back of the ship beneath the pilot's platform that Sapper stood on. She could reliably guess how it was fuelled and what enchantments were being used to produce speed and lift. But the rattle and burr echoing around them told her there was plenty of room for improvement. And plenty of chance for the engine to fail at any moment, leaving them plummeting from the sky.
"Skybound's gravitational distortion," Indigo whispered to herself, her goggles cycled shut so she could focus on the sounds, "Four enchantments rigged to work together, incorrectly balanced. Need repositioning and calibrating."
“Quit muttering, tinkerer,” Zap said as the engine hissed and they started to slow down, "We're here. Home sweet home.”
"Bandit camp sweet bandit camp," Sapper added as she guided the airship toward the ground.
Taking a deep breath, Indigo steadied herself for looking over the side of the gondola. Peeking her goggles over the top, the tinkerer’s already racing heart accelerated as tree branches rushed by, less than a hoof-width from the bottom of their craft.
Swallowing her scream, Indigo looked ahead to find the mountain range at the edge of the jungle and spotted a rocky alcove with a ramshackle camp beyond a wooden barricade. Half hidden by foliage and stone, a ruined airship sat at an odd angle at the rear of the bandit camp.
From a distance it was difficult to say for certain that the ship was pre-Equestrian, but Indigo recognised familiar design elements within the damage and decay. If it really was over a thousand years old it would’ve been the biggest artefact from that era to be uncovered.
“If you haven’t already guessed, that’s what we need you to repair,” Zap said, leaning closer so he could be heard over the roar of the engine.
“You want me to fix an ancient, pre-Equestrian airship?” Indigo whispered, tilting her head to the side as she studied the ruined craft they rushed toward, “Yeah, I can do that,” she nodded.
Even with the dozens of archeological digs nearby, they’d only uncovered a few small pieces of technology. The thought of working on an entire airship was enough to make the tinkerer forget her predicament as her mind raced with ideas.
A pair of guards waved to them as their airship passed over the crude wooden walls to land in a clearing surrounded by tents and shacks. The Pre-Equestrian craft disappeared behind the largest tent in the middle of the improvised settlement as they descended, and indigo snapped out of her engineering trance in time to register the bandits surrounding her.
They’d barely touched the ground when Zap dragged Indigo upright and shoved her out of the gondola. Stumbling on the rocky ground, the tinkerer glanced around as a dozen ponies stepped out of their tents to study the new arrival.
They were mostly earth ponies with a couple of unicorns at the back. Everypony was dressed the same as Sapper and Zap, wearing a simple harness and saddlebags around their torso with metal armour covering their hooves and parts of their fore-legs.
“Welcome back, my friends,” a voice boomed as an unusually large unicorn stepped out of the main tent, “I see you’ve brought another tribute for our grand cause!”
The unicorn stallion was soft orange in colour with both his fur and mane sharing the same tones. Most of his cutiemark was hidden by saddlebags, but what little could be seen appeared to be twisted and jagged.
Indigo shuddered, her heart racing with fear as the crowd started to chant and stomp their hooves. The heavy thuds of metal against stone echoed in her memories.
“What do you say, engineer?” The pale orange unicorn called, his voice louder than before as the tinkerer huddled back, trying to hide from the world, “Will you be the one who finally completes our airship, allowing us to achieve our dreams?”
Indigo trembled as Zap kept her from running with a firm hold on the rope binding her legs. Not that the bound pony could even think of running.
“Yes?” she answered hesitantly, looking up at the larger unicorn.
“She agrees!” the bandit leader called, eliciting more cheers and stomps from his followers. “And of course… if she fails us, we’ll have fun breaking her while we wait for the next tribute.”
More loud stomping echoed around her.
“Great,” Indigo stammered as the leader turned to trot back into his tent and she was forced to follow him as fast as her bound hooves would allow.
“Sapper, take care of the airship,” Zap called over his shoulder as he shoved Indigo ahead.
“Yeah, yeah,” Sapper sighed dismissively, turning her attention back to the small craft, “I guess I’ll take care of the maintenance while you take all the credit for grabbing our new engineer.”
“That’s the plan,” Zap grinned, following the tinkerer into the tent.
Indigo was surprised by how orderly the interior was compared to the rest of the bandit camp. Instead of piles of junk and roughly thrown together structures, everything was neatly separated into distinct sections.
She’d never set up an office inside a tent, but the bandit leader’s room felt like something she’d organise herself. There was a familiar structure to everything.
“I’m Red Roses, the leader of this merry band and its time for me to..." The bandit leader frowned as he fully registered Indigo's appearance for the first time, "Why is she wearing a mask?"
"She was like that when we found her," Zap shrugged, standing guard by the tent entrance.
"It's medical," Indigo explained, her artificial voice a rough whisper, "I need the mask."
"Fine, whatever," Red rolled his eyes before continuing, "I don't care what you look like or how you're dressed, I just need you to understand the rules," He rested both fore-hooves on the table, leaning across to grin viciously at the tinkerer, “Do you understand the rules?”
“Fix the airship, or else?” Indigo offered when he paused expectantly.
“Exactly! Fix the airship, or else,” Red nodded, “specifically, or else we’ll torture and kill you. And, in case you get any clever ideas, like trying to escape or sabotaging our project, we can always make you suffer worse. Some of our members can be very creative.”
“Understood,” Indigo whispered, swallowing hard and hoping her trembling legs wouldn’t collapse completely.
“Wonderful. It appears you’re a smart one after all,” Red smiled, his horn glowing a soft, golden colour as he opened a desk draw to retrieve an old pocket watch. Without breaking eye contact with Indigo, he solemnly placed the silver timepiece on the worktop between them, “So, no sabotaging the project, no trying to escape and, perhaps most importantly, you have exactly one day to fix the airship.”
“Wait!” Indigo gasped, shock overriding her fear, “You want me to fix a wrecked ship I’ve never seen before in a single day?”
The tinkerer's goggles whirred, the focus shifting rapidly as her gaze darted from left to right and her ribs heaved from rapid breathing.
“Precisely,” Red nodded, tapping the button on top of the pocket watch, “I've had trouble in the past, keeping engineers focused. So this time limit means you'll get properly motivated and our airship will get finished. Sooner or later. And remember, if you're the lucky mechanic that gets the ship working, you'll get to live. Isn't that generous?”
Indigo clenched her jaw and held back the observation that the bandits would quickly run out of skilled engineers if they stuck to Red's plan. They weren’t in a highly populated or highly educated region. But she kept quiet and nodded along with the imposing leader’s speech.
“Let’s hope you’re as good as you claim,” Zap laughed, his armoured fore-hoof pressing into Indigo's shoulder again as the ticking clock filled her thoughts.
“It looks like you understand,” Red said as he trotted around the table, lifting the watch and carrying it with him, “Let’s show you what you’re working with. The clock is ticking.”
Indigo continued to nod numbly as she was shoved toward an exit at the back of the tent.
Stepping through the fabric doorway, Indigo found herself surrounded by piles of junk with the wrecked airship ahead, leaning against the vertical rock-face at the base of the mountain. Up close, she could see that the craft was smaller than most modern flying machines with the main ship roughly the same size as a train car. But what made it stand out from more recent designs was the way it blended magic and technology using techniques that'd become lost or impossible to replicate since the end of the pre-Equestrian era.
"We've been gathering supplies ever since we uncovered the ship," Red explained, leading her through the piles of junk, "But despite her best efforts, Sapper has been unable to restore it to working condition. That’s why we’ve brought in a professional."
Indigo nodded idly as she trotted closer and ran her right forehoof over the airship's damaged exterior.
“No wonder they can't repair you,” She whispered, her gaze lingering on a cracked crystal decorated with ancient runes, “Most ponies wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“Can I take it from your muted mutterings that you’re confident you can fix the ship?” Red asked, standing to one side of the tinkerer with Zap on the other.
“I’m... familiar with the technology,” Indigo nodded, “Or as familiar as any pony can be as most pre-Equestrian machinery has been lost for over a thousand years. But to repair an entire airship, with no workshop, no assistance and no reliable way to replicate ancient workings... It won't be easy.”
“Yes, it won't be easy,” Red nodded, “Take whatever tools and equipment you need from the junk piles and we'll send scouts looking for any additional parts you ask for. But your time is limited, so I'd prioritise making your requests as soon as possible.”
Indigo stared at the junk pile and spotted a variety of magical and technological items all taken from ground vehicles. The small airship they'd flown in on was the only airborne machine in the camp.
“i’ll get to work,” Indigo nodded before turning to examine the rest of the ship.
“Wonderful,” Red grinned, “Remember, we'll be watching you the whole time. And while I’ve instructed the guards not to kill you until the twenty-four hours are up, they’re free to hurt you as much as they like if you try to escape.”
Indigo forced herself to nod again as Zap laughed savagely.
"I'm Indigo Ferrum, I can do this, I can repair an entire airship," she whispered to herself. "I just don't know if I can do it before the deadline..."