“Well, this is a stinky pile of crud.”
Eagle Eye leaned over Josho's shoulder from where he sat in the managlider's gunner's seat. “Care to be a tad bit more specific?”
Josho pointed towards the hazy splotch of urbanity along the northern horizon. “There's a blockade surrounding the city. Looks like Filta's armada that broke off from Foxtaur.”
“What in spark's name are they all doing up here?” Eagle Eye squeaked.
“What in the Queen's left ovary are we doing here, kid?”
Eagle Eye blinked. He gazed down at the passing landscape in thought, then winced. “Pilate...”
“From the looks of it, that zebra that you have a crush on is generating a lot of flak.”
“I so do not have a crush on him!” Eagle Eye frowned. “I just want to get him safely to his beloved. You know that.”
“Hard not to,” Josho grumbled. “It's all you've been friggin' yapping on about for the past twelve hours.”
Eagle Eye's lavender ears drooped. “Erm... s-sorry,” he muttered with an embarrassed smile.
“Nothing to be sorry about, kiddo. I know you're genuinely concerned about the striped yahoo... for whatever reason...”
“And what about you, huh?” Eagle Eye glanced curiously at the obese stallion. “Are you still doing all of this just because you're fed up with the Confederacy?”
Josho let loose a long, lingering growl. “Think of it this way: I've been long overdue for a vacation.”
Eagle smiled. “You know, that vacation could last forever, so long as you have ponies to spend it with.”
“That's the lamest sort of come-on I've ever heard.”
Eagle Eye giggled. “I like this you, even if it's still a fat and slobbering 'you.'”
“Jee, thanks.”
With a sigh, Eagle gazed towards the zeppelins dotting the horizon. “Still, what are gonna do about all of these airships?”
“We could fart in their direction and hope that the warm air carries them to Xona.”
“Seriously, Josho...”
“Honestly, it looks like most of them are gathered to the east,” the stallion said. “So, like, if we take a more westerly approach, we could dismount from this thing and start a sweeping search from the street. Not sure what one and a half stallions in the middle of a huge maretropolis can hope to accomplish, though...”
“Pilate's got that mana thingy attached to his neck. Maybe we can find a way to look that up!”
“I'm a soldier, not a radar antenna.”
“I was just saying that—”
“Shhh!” Josho grunted suddenly, decelerating the vehicle. “Shut your strudel-hole!”
Eagle Eye scrunched up behind him, trembling. “What is it?” he whispered.
“Something's going down,” the stallion muttered. “I think... I think there's an air battle happening.”
“An air battle?”
“Buck me.” Josho's face contorted as he looked at his instrument panel. “It's straight ahead of us, over the city. What in the name of lacy bridles is going on with this lame-ass country?!”
“You tell me. You've fought for it.”
“So have you, kid.”
“But you have, longer.” Eagle Eye blinked. “And fatter.”
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap.” Josho's instruments blinked and beeped.
“What is it?” Eagle Eye next shrieked as several silver shapes soared past them from the south. An entire squadron of managliders was ripping its way north, northwest, towards a cluster of dense aircraft along the upper spires of Blue Nova.
“They're really in a hurry!” Josho shouted as he struggled to stabilize the vessel. “Like their plots are on fire or something!”
“Could you, for once, make an expletive that doesn't involve fire and body parts?!”
“I thought it'd be familiar territory for you!” Josho then reacted to a flickering sound stone to the top left of his instrument panel. “Wuh oh. Uhm...”
“Uhhhh...”
“I gotta take... this?” Josho zapped the sound stone with his horn. “Uhm... This is... uh... Managlider X, reporting.”
”Scrkkk! What are you doing out of formation?! We need all the help we can in engaging the intruder!”
Eagle Eye whispered with wide violet eyes. “They must think we are p-part of the blockade!”
Josho bit his lip, then spoke into the sound stone. “I am... uhm... transporting a blushing bride to her wedding in the... uh... a-azure district.”
Eagle Eye frowned. “Hey!”
“It's very important!” Josho continued. “Daughter of a major military general and all!”
”No excuses! All forces are required to engage the enemy! Rejoin formation or else!”
As if on cue, the air shook with heavy thunder. Both stallions blinked, then glanced behind them. Another squadron was flying in from patrol, heading straight towards them. The centermost aircraft's cannons heated up with precaution.
“Crud on a bitch biscuit!” Josho hissed, then gripped the controls in the crooks of his hooves. He accelerated the craft in time to fall into formation with the others. “Uhm... Copy that! The bride just f-fainted anyways! I'll drop her off once we're closer to the city!”
Whether the voice on the other end heard that or not, it mattered little. He spoke with almost robotic urgency. ”Bogey headed towards southwest wall! All vessels, prepare to intercept! Let's see if we can drive them towards the east blockade! Scrkkk!”
“Well, this isn't good!” Eagle Eye stammered. “Who in their right mind would be attacking this city?!”
“Just what are we doing here?!” Josho grumbled. “This certainly isn't a game of pool we've come to toss cigarettes at!”
“Still, we need to get out of this situation.”
“Heh. You mean fly out of formation now that they've all seen us?” Josho glanced side to side at the various managliders they were now a part of. “They'll shoot us out of the sky faster than a plagued sparrow.”
“But this isn't helping us at all in finding Pilate!”
“Kid, I wasn't born yesterday. I'm doing this right here to save our skin. If you wanna hop out at random, be my guest.”
Eagle Eye shuddered, sitting deep in his seat as he clung nervously to the gun turret. “At least find us a safer altitude f-first...”
“What we need is a plan. Whoever this 'bogey' is, they've stirred up the hornet's nest pretty bad.”
“You don't...” Eagle Eye fidgeted. “You don't think that they're related, do you?”
“Hell, we've had so much irony lately, what's another pile of crap atop the dunghill?”
“Seriously. I think you need to see a shrink about that...”