//------------------------------// // Rise Again // Story: Eljunbyro // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// "Nnnngh—No!" Rainbow Dash shouted, slapping the pendant pack on and flapping her one good wing. Several enforcers stumbled back. Captain Filta and his fellow officers gasped. Shell leaned against the sarcophagus and blinked down at the pegasus. Rainbow Dash glared up at him, braving the pain of her shredded wing to stand up on wobbly legs. "You! It was you in Aridstone!" She hissed and lurched forward, spitting. "It wasn't me who killed those villagers... or the dragon... or anything else with a heart! It was you! You and only you! Why?!" Shell narrowed his gaze on her and spoke in a low voice, "You are the Confederacy's greatest secret. Such a weapon cannot be shared with ponies unworthy of the courage and tenacity to wield you." Rainbow Dash hissed into her forelimbs, quivering from head to toe. Shell continued, "Your acquistion and usage would be made all the easier if there just wasn't—" "What?!" Rainbow Dash snarled. "Bodies in the way?! More living flesh for you to tear asunder?! What did you really do with my friends, you big pile of murderous jerk?! Huh?! Where is Belle and Pilate really?!" Shell's nostrils flared. "Step inside the sarcophagus..." "No!" Rainbow Dash growled, dizziness overwhelming her as she fell again to her belly. In spite of her spasms, she struggled to crawl away from the container. "I w-won't give you what you want!" "I'm warning you—" "Will... keep fighting..." She hissed. "K-keep flying. Will not... g-give in... won't... lose... never lose..." With a flash of light, Shell raised the taser to the nape of her throat. "My little pony, you lost long before you even flew out this far from home and you know it." In a hissing voice, he raised the taser and said, "You've always been a great deal more useful in death. I'll be happy to restore unto Ledo the Confederacy's most valuable corpse." Rainbow Dash twitched, writhed, and fainted. With a breath of finality, Shell brought the sparkling blade down— —only to have it slice harmlessly into the wooden deck—off target—from the sudden rocking of the entire Steel Wing. "Unngh!" Shell grunted, stumbling to his side. Filta and the other enforcers braced themselves as a second explosion roared off the bow of the ship. "Report!" Filta hollered. "Captain! Prime Enforcer!" A frazzled crew member ran and leapt over the debris, skidding to a stop before them. "An unidentified ship has broken through the armada and is heading straight for us!" "Ship?!" Filta spat. "What ship?!" He was anwered with a rocket-propelled explosive embedding into the mast above him and exploding violently. He and several other ponies fell under a burning splash of splinters. "Searonese!" A pony shouted from several meters away across the deck. "Searonese vessel off the starboard side!" Shell spun about, his eye flaring. The air above them split apart with a crack of mana-induced thunder. He and several ponies looked to see a slender black craft roaring through the heavens. With twin sparks of energy, two black cables fired down. In an instant, they wrapped loops around Rainbow Dash's limp body. "No..." Shell galloped towards it. The cables drew slack, yanking Rainbow's bloodied body off the deck and after the fleeing vessel. "No!" Shell skidded to a stop, flashing his horn. In a fitful effort, he held Rainbow's body in place, level with the shattered masts. Before he could so much as fling the red-hot taser to sever the cords, he became aware of several flickering explosives that had been attached to the Steel Wing's hull during its flyby. Holding his breath, he relinquished his telekinetic grip of Rainbow Dash and dove backwards. The resulting explosion almost ripped the Steel Wing in half. Cannons, chunks of wood, and flailing stallions flew—screaming—into the burning lengths of Foxtaur below. Filta and several other ponies clung onto the shattered railings of the careening battlecruiser as it began a lurching descent towards the forest canopy. Shell... Shell was getting back up on shivering hooves. He looked up in time to see the Searonese vessel becoming a lone dot on the horizon. Sneering so hard that he nearly foamed at the mouth, the enraged unicorn ran up to the launchpad, hopped into the only available managlider that wasn't falling off the edge, and roared its engines to life. The interceptor threw Shell forward with a burst of energy. Powering the thrusters to the breaking point, Shell pursued the bounty hunter's vessel as it sped south along the Sapphire Ravine and beyond range of the armada's cannon fire. Shell pumped magic from his horn into the core of the aircraft, watching fitfully as he inched closer and closer to the rear of the slender manaship. He armed the wings of the interceptor and prepared to fire— Just then, a turret popped loose along the rear of the Searonese vessel. It swiveled about, trained itself on Shell, and fired a thick stream of blue energy. Shell yanked hard at the controls, struggling to veer the managlider out of harm's way. However, the blasts lopped off his aircraft's wing. He flew into a death spun, growling as he attempted to regain control. He had no choice but to yank the ship down and dive towards a stretch of cliffface untouched by the burning lengths of Foxtaur. His ship grinded, slid, and shattered upon impact. He leapt off and—with the aid of telekinesis—landed himself safely—albeit roughly—on a patch of loose grass hanging precariously upon the edge of the deep ravine. There, hyperventilating, the Ledomaritan Prime Enforcer watched as the rogue ship made off with his target... along with his entire plans. It came out of him at first as a whining noise, but soon he was screaming at the top of his lungs, tossing his hooves to the heavens in unbridled rage as the morning sun burned him to his core.