The winds of the chilled air at high altitude sifted through Applejack’s blonde mane as she stood at on the starboard railing of the ship. Her hooves rested on the bar as she peered out into the distant array of shapeless clouds and highflying birds. She would be the first to admit that she never really had an affinity for flying, or being off of the ground in general for that matter, but several times in a skyride was enough to change her mind on the matter. She still preferred not having the threat of falling to her death hanging over her head, but gradual exposure to the world above her had put her at a greater sense of ease.
She would, of course, never be as comfortable in the air as the mare that was currently steering very ship she was standing on. That girl lived and breathed danger, whether she was on an airship, a glider, or if she was lucky enough to get her hoofs on it, a fighter plane. This didn’t mean she was weak on the ground, quite the opposite in fact, but her prowess in the air made it nearly suicide for anyone stupid enough to engage in a dogfight with her, and judging from the startling amount of bandits she had shot down in her time as a pilot, there were quite a few stupid ponies in the world.
But that was one thing that seemed to remain constant, the threat of bandits. Applejack preferred to face them on hoof rather than in the air. Despite her lack of agility in the air, she had superb aim with hoof-held firearms, such as her trusty lever action rifle. She also had a specialty in close range combat that even Rainbow Dash could not match up to. Even though she would never admit to this out loud, she at least acknowledged it as Applejack was usually the first candidate selected by her for an assignment or expedition.
Applejack adjusted her position on the rail, causing the butt of her rifle to swing and hit the pole. She tightened the strap and fixed her ponytail. She had opted not to wear her hat outside for obvious reasons, and she was beginning to miss it already. Her coat flapped in the wind, but the satchel full of ammunition weighed it down enough so that it wasn’t of any significant bother.
Figuring she had seen enough, Applejack relinquished her position on the railing and made her way inside the ship’s interior, the wood panels creaked under several of her steps, but she simply continued to trot along to the crew’s quarters. She passed down the long hallway and opened the door to her room. It was small, as one might expect it to be, but for a room on an airship, it served its purpose. She had privacy, a rack to store her weapons, a nightstand, and a decently comfortable bed.
Applejack snagged her stetson off of the bed and set it atop her crown. She swung her Long-Shot rifle off of her back and set down on the bed. She then began to slowly go over every inch of the gun. Had the sights or the barrel been worn out? Were there any complications with the lever or the trigger? Was it in need of cleaning? Needless to say, Applejack was very scrutinous when it came to proper maintenance of her rifle. Sagacious as she was, she wasn’t ashamed to say that she had taken down many bandits simply because they neglected to realize the importance of maintaining their equipment.
Convinced everything was in order, Applejack set the rifle down at her side and drew her small Cyclone Revolver sidearm. There had been quite a few variations of this weapon over the past year and a half, and Applejack had consistently preferred a sidearm that would allow her to quickly take advantage of any close combat situation. The shortened barrel meant that it wasn’t only quick to draw, but easy to conceal. If her rifle was in a no go situation, such as inside the tight halls of an airship, the Cyclone provided more than enough punch to blow her attacker away. Of course the obvious downside to the weapon was a painfully slow reload time. It took skill not to be caught with your pants down while filling the cylinder with new rounds. Even so, it had proven itself to be a reliable weapon in sticky situations.
As Applejack looked over the gun, she noticed the cylinder was a bit loose. Luckily, the mare was not without her trusty set of tools that she always brought with her for just such an occasion. She reached for a satchel on the small nightstand next to her bed, and unraveled it to reveal a plethora of complex tools to be used at her disposal. She carefully selected one of these tools and set to work on fixing the loose cylinder, ensuring that it was nice and secure. Convinced she had done an adequate job, she set her tools aside and rearmed herself.
Applejack walked out of her room and up the flight of stairs at the end of the hallway. She passed through another hallway of similar length until she reached the steel door to the bridge. With a bit of effort she slid the door to the side. Inside she found the ship’s pilot looking over the topographical map of the region. It was a three dimensional model built into a stand in the center of the room; however, there were several smaller maps on the table under Rainbow’s hooves as well. When she caught sight of Applejack in the doorway, she waved her in.
“Come take a look at this.”
Applejack complied and walked over to her friend. As she did, Rainbow Dash pointed to a northwestern section of the three dimensional map that contained a small mountain range that circled around a particular body of water, Lake Eoia.
“See this section of land here?” she asked.
“Yeah, what about it?”
Without immediately responding, Dash grabbed two of the flat maps and pointed to the corresponding region. This particular map contained more detailed illustrations of trade routes spanning from Canterlot to their current destination, Vanhoover. “Primary and secondary routes always led around this stretch,” she pointed to an area between a gap in the mountain range and the lake, “Because it was a strategic chokepoints for bandits right?”
“Right?” said Applejack incredulously, unsure of the point Rainbow Dash was trying to make.
“There’s a small gap roughly seven miles east that could possibly get us into that area undetected. But, what I’m thinking we do is take the same route, but cut around from their northern end. These guys assume that the mountains that wrap around the west and north ends are thick enough to keep out intruders, but they won’t be expecting us to attack from inside the ring. We attack from their blind spot and level the camp to a smoldering wreck,” she concluded.
“Rainbow,” Applejack began, “That’s a mighty fine plan an all, but you gotta remember, we ain’t on our normal ship. This here’s just a merchant vessel and not only that, it’s just the two of us on this thing. Normally we’d have escorts but I guess the higher-ups thought it was more economical to send better pilots instead of better ships.”
“Well, this thing isn’t totally defenseless. She has a decent set of cannons and a fairly g-ahh who am I kidding? We’d get annihilated.” Rainbow Dash grunted and walked over to one of the other tables. She picked up her red beret that had been sitting on it and placed it on top of her head before walking back over. “This ship sucks so much eggs. Why couldn’t we have at least scored a Berserker class ship or something? Merchant rank? Seriously? What a waste of our talent,” she sighed.
“I agree Rainbow, really I do, but we just need to wait until we’re more equipped before we go in guns blazing. We’ll haul this junk to Vanhoover and then we can see if it’s in the budget to be taking a risk like that. No need to get ourselves killed over nothing.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash waved her comment off. “Alright, we’ll take the long way.” She picked up a pencil off of the table and circled the area of interest for future reference. “But I’m taking note of this place. We could seriously save a ton on fuel with these clowns outta the way.”
Applejack rested a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Sorry sugarcube, but it’s just the two of us. Now heck, most of the time I’d say that’s enough, but this hunk a junk just wouldn’t last in an extended firefight. We’d end up losing the shipment, and you know what no shipment means.”
“Yeah, no dough.”
“Exactly.”
Rainbow Dash left her position at the center map and walked over to the ship’s wheel. She altered the course ever so slightly, setting them on a path for the primary clearing which, although significantly safer, would eventually cost them more in fuel. She adjusted her beret and turned her head over her shoulder. “Ya know, we should hit up Las Pegasus sometime; you, me, and the rest of the girls. Celestia knows we could use a vacation.”
“First you wanna go after bad guys and now you wanna relax?” Applejack smiled. “Seems like you aren’t quite sure on what you wanna do.”
Rainbow Dash simply shook her head. “Anything but this.”
“Oh, this ain’t so bad,” Applejack defended. “Sometimes you gotta kick it back and take it easy every once in a while.”
Rainbow Dash gauged their current altitude and maintained the current course. They still had a long way to go to Vanhoover, and then of course there was the journey back. This wasn’t the type of assignment she and Applejack were known for signing up for. She was an ace pilot, not a delivery mare. Unfortunately, when money spoke, the wise thing to do was to shut up and listen.
“Dash?” Applejack said suddenly.
“Hmm?”
“Do—”, she paused for a moment, trying to find her wording. “Do you think things will ever be simple for us again? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like travellin’ and the money and all that but, do you ever miss the old days?”
Rainbow Dash sighed loudly and nodded. “I do, actually. Things weren’t so complicated back then. Seemed like the most we had to worry about was the occasional baddie and what we were gonna have for breakfast in the morning. But now,” she looked out of the large windows to the distant and nostalgic blue sky, “Seems like every day we’re watching our backs. But, in all honesty, we’ve gotten too used to this lifestyle. I think the simple days are behind us now.”
Applejack lowered her head and gave a slight nod. “Yeah, I was afraid you’d say that.”
Applejack walked across the bridge and grabbed one of the navigation maps and quickly scanned over their instruments. They were due to cross the mountain range in roughly an hour and a half and they still had a bit of a journey to go from there. She peaked through the window to the world outside to get a greater sense of where they were exactly located. She then marked their current position on the map relative to the distance that still had to be traveled. From the looks of it, fuel was going to be tight, so they were more than likely going to have to make a pit stop in Tall Tale. From there they could fly directly north and across into Vanhoover within an hour or two.
They had considered taking a more northern route, which would have passed them through Cloudsdale and over Galloping Gorge, but the icy winds that often came when traveling north were brutal on the airships, especially ones that weren’t top-notch to begin with.
“Hey, hey Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said as she started pointing her hoof out of the window. In the distance, she could see a blurry object just barely obscured behind a cloud, but as it passed, the form became clearer, and she could see it was another airship.
Applejack walked over to the wall and retrieved the binoculars hanging off of it on a hook. She adjusted the dial on the top to focus the image, but when she did, she couldn’t help but grunt in frustration.
“Bandits, but just the one ship.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smirk as she pulled a bit more speed out of the airship. They would never survive a battle with a full bandit armada, but they were more than a match for a single vessel, especially when that single vessel would be under the assumption that the girls were helpless traders. Oh how dead wrong they would be.
Applejack continued to track the distance of the ship. They were definitely getting closer and if they didn’t prepare the weapons systems, they would be sitting ducks.
Applejack took off out of the bridge and down the flight of stairs. She descended a second flight and quickly entered the cannon room. It wasn’t much; there were two rather outdated cannons that had to be hoof loaded after each shot. All the sight did was make her wish they were back on their own airship. The howitzers they were in possession of could hold five shells at a time, not to mention that both the starboard and port sides had been rigged with four each. They essentially made this entire aircraft look like a peashooter.
She opened the container and loaded in the first shell. She checked and locked the cannon before sighting down her target. When she was sure she had them in her sights, she tugged on the release, sending the shell hurtling toward the enemy. It was a close shot but it inevitably strayed too far right, detonating in mid-air. The bandits continued moving directly toward them, limiting their width and therefore, the amount of lateral space for the ship to have fired on. Applejack was quick on her hooves, loading in another shell and sending it skyward. This one was closer, but it still wasn’t a hit.
Seeing her window of opportunity quickly fading, the mare quickly slammed a fresh shell into the cannon. She aimed just ahead of her target and yanked on the release. In a true ‘third times the charm’ fashion, the shell struck close enough to the ship’s starboard side to cause a minor explosive force to brush the ship. She could see the dirigible wobble slightly, but it ultimately continued its course, much to her chagrin.
Her opportunity for long range combat faded quickly as the ship moved into the cannon’s blind spot. She watched through one of the windows as the ship only resumed parallel travel with the merchant ship when it could line up next to it, which almost instantly gave their intentions away.
“Fantastic,” she muttered.
Seeing no other option the mare yanked her rifle off of her back and proceeded to head upstairs. She crossed through the hallway that lead to the outside deck and made her way around toward the stern end of the ship. She could see the enemy vessel accelerating to match their speed, and they wasted no time in bridging the gap with a simple set of grappling hooks and ropes. In a rather organized fashion that seemed ludicrous for a bunch of bandits, they one by one began to slowly attempt to cross over.
Applejack swung the Long-Shot off of her back and took aim. She cocked the lever and sent a shot down range. It struck one of the bandits in the spine, making him go limp and slide off the rope altogether. She pulled the lever again, but this time she closed in some of the distance between her and her targets. The rifle cracked again and the stallion on the receiving end was unfortunate enough to catch the bullet in his skull. He slumped dead on the rope until the agitated pony behind him pulled the body off of the rope and let it fall to the Equestrian earth below.
Not wasting another second, Applejack put a new round in the chamber and fired. This shot caught one of the ropes and frayed it, but it did not apply enough force to actually sever it. That is, until she fired a second slug at it, detaching the rope altogether and sending three unfortunate stallions to their demise.
Applejack took the opportunity to reload, but it wasn’t long before the marauders on the second rope completely crossed over. Now safely back on an airship, the bandits drew their pistols and began taking potshots at the mare. She smiled as she realized how ridiculously off their aim was, but now that they were on the ship, Applejack was going to start running out of breathing room very quickly.
She cocked the rifle and fired at one of the stallions standing behind a metal fixture. The stallion returned fire with two shots from his pistol before diving back into cover as Applejack picked off one of his partners who happened to lean too far out from cover.
“You’ll pay for that!” he shouted at the mare as he fired off three successive shots. He was startled out of his wits when a round struck the weapon in his hoof, sending it out of his grasp and out of cover. He snarled but remained hidden as more of his teammates took up defensive positions around the ship.
Seeing no way to gain the upperhoof from her position, Applejack opted to quietly head down the passageway to her right. If she was lucky, a majority of the bandits would be clustered around the starboard side, so a brief flank from her position in the passageway might allow her to take one or two of the stallions out before she would be shot back into cover.
She slowly drew her rifle around the corner only to receive a hoof to the jaw. She stumbled back and dropped her rifle, but was quick in retrieving her sidearm from it's holster, sending a round into the stallion’s side. He howled in pain, but before she could finish him off, she felt a pair of hooves grab her around her torso and forelimbs, rendering them useless. She dropped the pistol, but continued to struggle in his hooves, despite the fact that he was significantly larger than she was. His partner, still clutching his gunshot wound, sneered as he unbuttoned his knife from its holster and approached her. Rebellious as ever, Applejack didn’t give him the pleasure of looking into a scared face. She spat at his hooves and smirked.
The angered stallion quickly closed the gap between him and Applejack, but stopped suddenly upon hearing a loud bang. His face scrunched up and he fell forward onto the deck. Behind him, Rainbow Dash stood holding her custom made Wing Racer pistol. The sun behind her shone around each curve of her body and feather of her wings. Her lips tugged up into a smug smile.
“Let’s dance.”
Applejack took the opportunity to slam her hoof down on the stallion's. He recoiled, releasing his grip and hopping back on one hoof.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!”
The mare ducked and gave Rainbow Dash a clear shot. With a loud crack, the stallion took the round in his shoulder which caused him to back up until he fell back over the railing, plummeting to his death.
“What took you so dang long?” Applejack huffed.
“Pssh, I thought you had it!”
Their conversation was cut short as a volley of bullets tore at the end of the walkway closest to them. They sunk back into cover to avoid becoming Swiss cheese. Without saying a word, Rainbow Dash maneuvered to the other end of the walkway, remaining behind cover. She looked back at Applejack, who smiled and nodded approvingly.
Both mares swung out from behind cover and unleashed a volley of rounds of their own. Out of the seven bandits that had boarded the ship, both were able to eliminate one on their side. Rainbow Dash reached from around her back and retrieved a larger weapon, a Wind Seeker rifle. Even though the base models were bolt action, she had hers tailor made to her liking; a larger clip and an enchanted mechanism, permitting rapid fire.
She leaned out and let the ammo fly, cutting one bandit down and nailing another in the leg. She fell to the ground yelling in pain, but Applejack was quick in mopping up the kill with a well placed shot to her chest.
“Cover me!” Dash yelled as she flew out from behind cover. Staying close to the ship, she let loose another storm of bullets, forcing the bandits to crouch and back up. Applejack took advantage of the opportunity to plant a round through a beefy stallion who was too big for his piece of cover. Knowing she was out of bullets, she pulled her Cyclone out and quickly fired off the remaining five rounds to keep the bandits pinned in cover.
Rainbow Dash sailed directly over the marauders and fired her rifle in controlled bursts. The second to last bandit repeatedly jerked back as round after round thrashed his body. The remaining bandit shrieked loudly and dropped her gun. She threw her hooves over her head and brought her face to the floor.
“I surrender!” she squeaked.
The pegasus dove out of her flight and landed in front of the mare. The first thing she did was kick her weapon out of reach and forced the mare stomach first onto the floor.
“Please, I don’t want to die over some stupid cargo!”
“Shut up, you might live longer,” Rainbow Dash scoffed as she crossed the mare’s hooves around her back and stepped on them in lieu of rope. Applejack approached the two, rifle at the ready for even the slightest move.
“Whatta think,” Applejack motioned toward the mare on the ground. “Yay or nay?”
Without responding Rainbow Dash spun her rifle around and drove the stock into the back of the mare’s head. She quietly went limp and slipped into unconsciousness. When she was sure she was out, Rainbow Dash picked her up and tossed her over her back.
“She might have information about the camp by the lake. Here,” she said and tossed an odd looking square to her partner. “Get that ship off of us while I bring her downstairs.”
Applejack nodded and the two mares walked in opposite directions. Upon reaching the grappling hooks, she looked down at the odd golden square and twisted a knob that caused a small timer on its face to move as well. When the needle reached thirty seconds, she pushed the dial in and flipped the small lever on the bottom right corner. The timer began to slowly ticking down from thirty.
She wasted no time in chucking the device onto the deck of the parasitic ship. Without missing a beat she reached over to one of the bandits’ bodies and grabbed his combat knife. She quickly started sawing away at the rope, digging through the fibrous material with relative ease. As the ship was no longer attached to theirs, it began to quickly fall behind. Seconds later, a huge explosion tore through the center of the ship. As if encouraged by this rebellious act, smaller explosions began to shoot up from inside the hull. Dust and debris sailed left and right and, just when the explosions seemed to have died down, a massive fireball escaped from the core of the ship, effectively bisecting it. With no strength to keep it’s battered self in the air, the ship crumbled into pieces and sunk to the earth below.
Satisfied with her fireworks display, Applejack turned back and departed from the edge of the ship. She followed Rainbow Dash’s path downstairs and to the cargo hold. When she opened the door, she found the mare tying their captive up to a post in the middle of the room with some of their extra rope. She knotted it in the back and then moved around to the bandit herself. She kneeled down and slapped her cheeks a few times.
“Rise and shine sweetheart!”
The groggy mare slowly opened her eyes as her blurry vision creeped back to her. She could see two mares, but not very distinctly. She almost faded back into unconsciousness until Rainbow Dash gave her a few more slaps on the cheek.
“Hu-what?”
Rainbow Dash feigned a smile. “Welcome back to the world of the conscious. Now tell me about the base at Lake Eoia and I might not put you back under,” she sneered.
Rather than answer her question, the mare began jovially bouncing up and down as much as she could, despite being tied up and having a searing headache. “Oh you spared me! Thank you! Thank you s—”
Before she could finish, Rainbow Dash planted a hoof into the mare’s chest. Her eyes went wide and she began to cough up spit and sections of her brown mane drooped in front of her face Her captor crouched down next to her and stared directly in her eyes.
“I am not your friend. If you aggravate me I’ll put you back in La-La Land, clear?”
The mare continued coughing but nodded her head and responded nonetheless. “Crystal.”
Applejack approached the two and stood before her. “We know the bandits have a base of operations functioning out of the mountain chokepoint on Lake Eoia. We want to know everything about it; troop movements, defenses, number of airships, that sort of thing.”
The bandit thought for a moment but ultimately shook her head. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t work out of Lake Eoia.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and sat up. She brought her hoof behind her and started digging into one of the satchels. “Well, sucks for you then.”
“But,”
She stopped.
“But?” Applejack prodded.
“But we work with that branch fairly often. I’ve only been to Lake Eoia twice, and I’ll tell you what I saw, but there’s no guarantee that the base hasn’t changed since then.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Alright, let’s hear it.”
“The base is constructed to encircle the south eastern portion of the lake. They’ve got defenses covering a good portion of the mountain gap, and I overheard somepony mention that they were going to rig the mountains with enough explosives to seal off the entrance,” she coughed for a second and continued. “From what I saw they have about five airships surrounded by a sizable amount of guards. One of the ships looked like it could have been a Juggernaut class.”
Rainbow Dash turned around and faced her partner. “Well that complicates things a bit,” she turned back to the prisoner. “What else?”
The mare began to look like she was panicking, struggling to recall any useful information. “Um—uh d-defenses! They’re weaker toward the northwest! If you can find a way to get in from there, you can hit the hangers from behind!” Her excited yelling caused her to start coughing again. The rope almost seemed to tighten around her tan fur.
Rainbow Dash walked behind the post and loosened the rope ever so slightly, while still having it maintain a firm grip on her body. When she walked back around, she glanced at the mare. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Rainbow Dash tapped Applejack on the shoulder and motioned for them to head upstairs. When they were clear of the cargo hold, they shut the door and began travelling up to the bridge.
“Do you think she was telling the truth?” Rainbow Dash muttered. “You’re better at this whole honesty thing than I am.”
“Well, I don’t necessarily think she’s lying, but I wouldn’t be so quick as to call her an honest pony. She’s a captive, and a captive might shout out whatever to they need to avoid dying.”
The two walked over to the bridge and Rainbow Dash quickly checked the instruments and gauged their altitude. They were several degrees off course, but it wasn’t anything a few turns of the wheel couldn’t fix.
“We’ll take her with us to Tall Tale,” she said over her shoulder. “If she proves to be a nuisance, we can just pass her on to the authorities and let them deal with it.”
“It’s as good a plan as any.”
The pilot snickered as she steered the vessel through the thin clouds of the open blue sky. The day wasn’t turning out to be so monotonous after all.