There was only one hour left before Equestria would die. Time was running out and there was almost nothing anypony could do to stop it. Silvershot Crimson, Rainbow Dash, and Applebloom ventured out to Afriki to stop the worst virus pandemic to ever happen in pony history. Their search for the cure for the virus has come to the conclusion that the element of sacrifice, the most powerful element of harmony that ever existed, needed to be fixed to save every being in Equestria from certain death. They needed to return to Equestria to Princess Celestia to tell her what they had found.
As they patiently waited in their airship, which had occupancy of over a thousand ponies, Princess Celestia and the world leaders were gathering the pieces needed to forge the element of sacrifice together. There was one problem though; there were seven pieces found, but one was missing.
Silvershot leaned on the enormous observation window for hours, trying to think where the last piece could have been kept in secret. He stood there, just staring at the golden orange clouds as the sun started to set. His head smacked against the glass. He was tired, but he knew he couldn't rest anymore. He was running out of time.
Applebloom couldn't do anything but sit on the sofa just across from where he stood. She wanted to offer ideas, but she thought it would be rude to ruin his train of thought. Occasionally, she would stare off into the clouds just like Silvershot was to try and get ideas. All she got was boredom.
"Hey, Silvershot," Applebloom squeaked. Silvershot turned his head to her. His eyes scared Applebloom because they looked empty and sad. She gulped down the lump of saliva sitting in the back of her throat before speaking again. "Are ya'll okay?"
"I am fine," Silvershot moaned. "I am just worried about Equestria. I am worried about Applejack, Rarity, and Princess Celestia. Most of all, I am worried about Fortress."
"Ay'm sure she is alright. Spike is with her."
"Yea, you're right. Maybe you will save me, save me from losing hope and my sanity."
"I do whatever I ca-" She was cut off by the intercom speaker located in the corner of the observation room.
Finn's voice blared through the speakers. Silvershot and Applebloom could hear Rainbow Dash's voice in the background. "Silvershot, we need you at the bridge now. We got some trouble."
Silvershot and Applebloom exchanged glances and galloped to the staircase to the bridge. From the staircase, they could hear the commotion at the bridge as ponies from all commanding positions scrambled on the floor.
Silvershot opened the door and tried his best to guide Applebloom through the rushing ponies. Finn, Rainbow Dash, and a couple of ponies wearing navy hats surrounded the steering wheel of the airship. Silvershot and Applebloom approached the steering wheel before looking out the front window to see what all the commotion was about.
There was a massive airship at the stern of Finn's shop, just as big, or maybe bigger since the ship was several kilometers away.
"Silvershot," Finn called out after dismissing his subordinates to their original stations. "Our scouts have confirmed that the ship ahead of us is not a cargo ship, but Danja's military ship carrying enough Griffin soldiers for every stallion, mare, filly, and colt on this ship. If they invade, which they probably will, we are done for."
"Okay, hold on," Silvershot said while raising a hoof up. He looked down at Applebloom who stood next to his side. "Applebloom, will you go with Rainbow Dash to our cabin and stay there with her?" He turned to Rainbow Dash next. "Can you make sure she is safe?"
"Of course," Rainbow Dash agreed. "I'll make sure-"
"I want to stay here, though!" Applebloom interrupted. She stamped her hoof on the ground in disagreement. "I wanna stay!"
"Applebloom, I need you to be safe," Silvershot humbly said to get her to understand. "If you got hurt or get killed, I don't know what I'd do. If something goes wrong, I want to know that you were at least safe. Do you understand?"
"Yea, I got it."
"Good, maybe you can write a letter to Applejack telling her you're okay. You haven't talked to her in a day."
"Well alright, I can do that. I'll even write a letter to Fortress for you. I hope they're okay."
"I hope so, too."
Applebloom turned her back to Silvershot and started heading towards the door. Behind her, Rainbow Dash followed with a pace that would make sure that Applebloom wouldn't wander off by herself in the massive ship. Before Applebloom and Rainbow Dash could leave the bridge though, Applebloom turned around and lunged at Silvershot. He caught her in mid-air.
"Please be careful," she begged as her grip on Silvershot got tighter.
"Don't you worry about me. Just go, please," Silvershot said back to her. He hugged her and then released her.
Applebloom trotted off to the staircase with Rainbow Dash. Silvershot wiped the small tear that grew under his eyelid and tried to hide his crying. He felt bad for leaving Applebloom behind, but he knew it was the only way to keep her safe.
The whole ship shook unexpectedly and it nearly knocked Silvershot off his hooves. Everypony was thrown off balance and many of them fell to the floor. Even Finn fell to the floor and the steering wheel of the ship started to spin out of control. Silvershot used his magic to hold onto on the wheel so the ship wouldn't veer off-course. Finn got up from the floor and put his hooves on the wheel again. He pulled down his intercom microphone and spoke into it.
"Damage reports, everypony!" Finn commanded.
"The engine room sustained damage from that bomb, but one more bomb and we won't be flying anymore," one of the engineer ponies replied back through the intercom.
"Our armory got destroyed in the blast. The Blacksmith is trying her best to repair our weapons as fast as possible, but we need time," a pony from the armory answered back.
"The cabin docks received some damage too," a third pony said. "We are getting the wounded to the infirmary as soon as possible."
"Are Rainbow Dash and Applebloom alright?" Silvershot yelped into the microphone behind Finn.
"I'm sorry, Silvershot," the Shaman said back to him, shoving the cabin pony away from the microphone. "We haven't seen or heard from them."
"Cazzata!" Silvershot murmured scornfully. He changed his voice back to normal when he was going to talk to Finn. "Finn, I am going to look for them."
"I need you here, Silvershot," Finn said back. "I can't command an entire shop in shambles. I need a leader like you to help."
"I am not a leader; not like how my father was." Then it hit him. The missing leader with the missing piece: Silver Lancet. "Finn, I know where the missing piece is! My father has it."
The ship shook again, with greater force than last time. A barrage of cannonballs and bombs hit the ship once again at the same spot. The ship crashed to a halt, but it still stayed suspended in the air. After getting up from the floor, Silvershot and Finn checked on the condition of the ship one last time.
"The engine got blown up that time. We are running on reserve magic to keep us suspended but we don't have enough magic to keep us in the air until we get the engine together again," a new engineer pony said to Finn. The other one was either dead or busy, but Silvershot didn't know which.
"There's too much to do. I am setting up the ship for auto-pilot to help out everypony, but I still need your help, Silvershot."
"What do you want me to do?" Silvershot asked.
"Griffins are boarding the ship!" The microphone next to Finn blared. The other microphone speakers started to chant the same line.
"The engine needs to get fixed, Griffins are on the deck, and Applebloom and Rainbow Dash are missing. Decide on what you want to accomplish. I'll handle the rest."
"I can handle the engine; help the ponies on deck with the griffins," Silvershot replied. "I am pretty sure Rainbow Dash will keep Applebloom safe. She promised."
"You got it," Finn reached under the steering wheel to take out a blunderbuss gun. He attached his massive gun to his hoof boot. "I still need to get revenge on griffins for Feathered Hill."
"You go do that. I'll head to the engine room."
"The Blacksmith should be there by the time you get to the engine room. She'll be there to help with the repairs."
"Okay, got it."
Silvershot and Finn high-hoofed each other and then separated ways. Silvershot remembered that Armonia and Finn used to high-hoof each other before parting ways just like he did with Finn. It just occurred to him after the event happened. There was still more Armonia wanted to tell Silvershot, but no time to figure it out.
Silvershot had to ask Finn the one question that's been bugging him for the longest time and he wanted to ask now, because it might be the last time he saw him. "Finn, wait. How did you become to live over a thousand years? You were around when Armonia was alive and you look like you haven't aged a bit now."
"Oh Silvershot, that's an easy question to answer. The reason I look so young is-" The ship shook one more time, interrupting Finn's answer. "No time to explain. Go Silvershot!"
Silvershot was forced to dismiss his curiosity for the time being. He galloped as fast as he could to the stairs that led to the engine room. Sometimes, parts of the staircase had collapsed and Silvershot had no choice but to leap a fair distance to descend down.
The last flight of stairs was the biggest jump, but he landed safely on the ground with four hooves. Immediately after landing on the ground, huge gusts of wind blared at his face. The hole on the side of the ship was bigger than Silvershot had anticipated. He could fit his entire two-story house inside it. In his ear, he could hear the banging noises of hammers and nails as ponies tried to desperately close up the hole on the side of the ship. Silvershot could also hear Blacksmith's hammer and wrench banging at the broken engine that kept the ship afloat. Silvershot galloped as fast as he could to the Blacksmith's side.
"Blacksmith, I'm here. Is there anything you need me to do?" Silvershot asked.
"Silvershot, first, don't call me Blacksmith anymore. Call me Ironheart Ashling. That's my real name."
"Okay, Ironheart, what do you want me to do?"
"There's a scepter connected to the engine that collects magic periodically from things around it like plants and animals. The collecting jar was damaged and it cannot collect magic as well as it did before. While I fix the engine and the collecting jar, I need you to channel your magic into the scepter so the ship doesn't crash."
"Alright, sounds easy enough."
"It's not that easy Silvershot. You need to keep a 100% focus on the scepter once you've started. A single disruption before I finish the repairs could result in an explosion big enough to take the ship and everypony with it to hell. Now, don't mess up!"
Silvershot shivered a little bit. The fate of the ship rested in his hooves. He made a nervous nod to Ironheart and then dismissed himself to get ready. He stood with his four hooves on the ground in a spellcasting position. There was a jewel on top of the scepter when Silvershot glanced at it. The jewel was a diamond and one Rarity would have loved to keep if she saw it.
Silvershot channelled vast amounts of his magic into his horn and shot a beam of magic at the scepter. The scepter grew a bright grey light like his horn. Light trickled down into a transparent containment unit with a broken base. The ship shook once again as magic began to pour instead of trickle. The shaking was less violent than before which was a good sign. The ship started to move and gain speed and altitude and Silvershot could see the ship rising above the clouds. At first, the magic transfer was pinching Silvershot's horn slightly, but the pain was starting to increase.
"Good job Silvershot, you're doing great!" Ironheart cheered on.
"Thank you. Please hurry..." Silvershot both thanked yet begged as he continued his spell. "It hurts..."
"I'm trying, just hold on."
Silvershot stood his ground and tried to withstand the pain as long as he could. Ironheart was doing her best to make the repairs to the magic collecting jar as fast as possible. She had her blowtorch ready and a piece of aluminium glass to fix the hole. Ironheart got on her rolling panel and rolled herself under the collecting jar to fix the broken hole.
As the pain increased, so did the size of the magic transfer. The beam exponentially enhanced itself so it was four times its original size. The ship was slowly but surely getting faster. Danja's ship of pirate Griffins were slowly gaining.
Tears of sweat dropped down Silvershot's head and his breath was getting faster and deeper. He felt like he was galloping a marathon. He could see the broken glass portion of the jar almost finished.
He gasped for air before asking Ironheart if she was finished yet. "Almost done yet?"
"Just about.... done..." Ironheart muttered.
"Griffin! Everypony run!" A random pony yelped into the air.
"Griffins aren't that bad if it’s just one. How bad can he be?" Silvershot said.
That was an understatement. The Griffin that was coming down the stairs was a massive one. His body was at least four times the size of a normal griffin with talons as sharp as swords. His tail was covered in plate-armor that made it into a weapon. Tattooed on his right foreleg was "The Big One" which made Silvershot shiver in his boots.
"Ironheart! Hurry up!" Silvershot screamed.
"I'm trying! Don't lose focus!" She screamed back, hammering at the bolts that were attached to the collecting jar.
"Hurry up!"
"I am!"
The Griffin's large talons pounded at the ground like a drum. Each beat getting closer and closer to Silvershot, Ironheart, and the collecting jar. The last crack of the collecting jar was being repaired by the time the big Griffin got close enough to lunge at Silvershot. Silvershot tried his best to ignore the Griffin so the collecting jar wouldn't break.
"Griffin, you better back away or else," Silvershot starred down his opponent. He prepared his boots for an engagement.
"What is a little pony like you going to stop me?" His talons sparked little lights of energy when they stopped in front of Silvershot.
"This."
Silvershot jumped into the air and disappeared in a blink of magic. The Griffin remained still as Silvershot disappeared. When Silvershot reappeared behind the Griffin, the Griffin fell to the ground. His neck sputtered some blood where Silvershot made the precise incision with his throwing star. Silvershot got up from the ground and looked at his throwing star. It looked completely different than it did before.
The throwing star had segmented spikes on the edges and there were pulsating bursts of blue light from its center hole. It looked like it evolved on its own. It was futuristic looking.
It was lucky that Silvershot jumped at the Griffin at the time he did. Ironheart just finished her repairs on the collection jar just as Silvershot severed the connection of magic. She watched him take down the Griffin. Despite all of her travels with Finn and all the unicorns she has met, she had never seen a spell like that used as a fighting technique.
Ironheart rolled out from under the collection jar and met up with Silvershot.
"Through all my years of travel, I've never seen magic like that," she said to him. She really thought it was amazing. "Where did you learn it?"
Silvershot was silent. He honestly didn't know how he learned that spell nor did he know where his new throwing star came from. They just... existed without a reason. "I don't know. I don't remember where I learned it from."
"I thought your amnesia was gone."
"I know it's gone. So where did it come from?"
"Are you done seeing Armonia's memories?"
"I should be. I've seen all that he had to show me. That fighting technique; could it be from somepony else?"
"I don't know, but we have to regroup with the others."
Silvershot's ears flinched as he and Ironheart were heading upstairs. He heard something flying fast towards the ship and it wasn't another Griffin.
"Get down," a voice whispered in Silvershot's ear. There was nopony near him besides Ironheart and it definitely wasn't her voice.
Silvershot relayed the message back to Ironheart. "Get down. Now!"
Whoever warned Silvershot saved him and Ironheart. While Silvershot and Ironheart were fixing the collecting jar for the engine, Danja was preparing to destroy the ship and all its passengers in one blow. She fired a ballistic cannon bullet at the ship with enough force to level Ponyville.
The bullet crashed into ship, with everypony still on it.