With loud, booming salvos, the armada of Ledomaritan zeppelins fired at the hill of earth sloping east from the walls of Blue Nova. There were three large warships in the center, flanked by a dozen miniature aircraft, and the largest cannons were repeatedly and mercilessly pummeling the suspiciously misshapen earth from afar.
On the deck of the centermost ship, Enforcer Evans stood, squinting into the flying waves of debris. A setting sun spilled golden beams through the scattered dust as deeper and deeper craters were carved out of the ground.
“We've been going at this for nearly forty-five minutes!” another enforcer shouted above the blaring cannons. “How long are we going to be at it?!”
“Until we expose the hidden chamber built underneath!”
“And what if there's nothing to be found?!”
“This is Prime Enforcer Shell's order, not mine.” Evans icily stared over at his cohort. “Would you be the first to break his command?”
The stallion said nothing.
“Keep firing!” Evans shouted, facing forward again.
Not long after, a pair of stallions galloped up from the ship's lower decks. “Sir! Sir, we've detected movement!”
Evans spun about, his mouth pursed. “From within the area of fire?”
A stallion nodded and exclaimed, “Something's opening up! Like a structure of some sorts!”
Evans exchanged glances with the soldier next to him. He waved wildly to the enforcers nearby. “Cease fire! Cease fire!”
Several officers amplified the command, shouting the order across the deck. Stallions with flags and flares passed the signal along to the flanking battlecruisers. After continuous rounds of cacophonous thunder, the noise and shelling finally stopped. Everypony craned their necks from where they were station, gawking at the sight below.
Through the clearing dust, a rustic brown interior of multi-layered metal appeared. The sunlight edged over the crest of the two massively opening doors, pouring into the grand hollow with the grace of melting ice.
“I don't get it...” An enforcer murmured into Evans' ringing ears. “Why open the doors? Why now?”
“Hopefully, they are wanting to surrender to an immediate inspection,” Evans said calmly. “Otherwise, they would be subject to... immediate... t-termination...” The enforcer's brow furrowed.
Something was shifting through the mouth of the immense hangar. Several thick shapes rose out of the ashen dark like dragon heads. A worried murmur washed over the ship from every confused enforcer in attendance.
Evans fidgeted nervously. He hissed towards a subordinate. “Give me those binoculars!” Levitating the item in question to his brow, he stared out towards the sundered hilltop. As the site came into focus, he saw one zeppelin emerging... followed by two... then four and eight and sixteen and thirty-two...
“Sir, what is it?”
Evans opened his mouth, lingered, then ultimately sputtered, “Transports. Transports are... uhm... exiting the interior.”
The enforcers exchanged glances, then trotted closer to the commander. “How many, sir?”
Evans gulped and lowered the binoculars. “Well over a hundred...”
Several jaws dropped.
“They... they're civilians?”
“I cannot tell! They... they bear no flags!”
“They can't all be civilians!”
“Was it not Prime Enforcer Shell's command that no subjects be allowed to escape the target zone?”
“Yes... but...”
“We have to inspect them!”
“With what?!” Evans growled. He and the other stallions shared collectively blank stares. They looked back at their paltry escort, numbering no more than twelve ships. Then, with pensive breaths, they gazed back as eighty... one hundred... one hundred and twenty zeppelins slowly drifted out of the hangar's mouth.
Far away, beyond the dense cloud of hovering airships, within the bowels of Nightshade's once-concealed chamber, a pair of ponies stood within in a lofty control chamber above the humongous interior doorframe. They locked the doors in place and gave Rainbow Dash a signal. She saluted back, then hovered down, hooking each Nightshade employee under a separate forelimb. Then, holding her breath, she fired her thrusters, flying the three of them towards one of several airships towards the rear of the unmoored fleet.
As the pegasus flew, she and the employees glanced on either side of them. One by one, the leftover zeppelins were being detached from their docking stations. As the ships drifted off, guided by an accelerating autopilot, a pony or two jumped off of each, landing on the metal bridges of the hangar and running towards the rear of the interior. They saluted Rainbow Dash in mid gallop and made for a few airships that were remaining stationary. There, the workers and engineers combined to form the skeleton crews of over two dozen airships. They communicated with each other via soundstones and dramatic hoof signals.
Rainbow Dash lightly placed the two ponies with her atop a miniature airship's deck. They nodded with thankful expressions before rushing to detach the vessel from their respective mooring clamps. Soon, at the rear of the massive surge of exiting vehicles, a second squadron formed, and each of these—unlike the bulk at the front—were actually manned by ponies of various crew complements. While Rainbow Dash observed the group as a whole, she twirled about on her suit's thrusters and faced the majestically hovering sight of the Noble Jury towards the roof of the hangar.
“Okay, guys... that should be most of them!” Rainbow Dash said. “Nopony's fired yet, so that should give everyone space to make an exit.”
”This isn't going to work...” Imre's voice droned.
Rainbow frowned at the sound stone. “Girl, for the last time—”
”Will you let me finish?” Imre barked. ”Unless we get some of these ships to fly into the enemy's faces, they're still going to blow every one of us out of the skies.”
”None of us can fly, Miss Dash,” Clark's voice said. “And as much as we'd like to soar our way into the thick of things and give the fleet a little push, as t'were...”
“No, I get it,” Rainbow said with a nod. “Floydien's 'beloved' has huge flanks. You all would be sitting ducks!”
”Snkkkt—Floydien heard that, vomit boomer! You apologize this instance or—”
”Scrkkk—Rainbow, it's Pilate. I hate to ask any more from you than what's already been requested...”
“Look, Pilate, we're in this together. Well, most of us, at least.” She fidgeted as she glanced down at the squadron of civilian vessels piloted by the Nightshade group. “I'll give everypony the cover that they need! Wait for my signal, okay?”
”Whatever you do, Rainbow, don't fly too close to that armada. You're just as fragile as the rest of us, you know...”
“Zebra, please. Don't insult me.” Smirking, Rainbow Dash lowered the soundstone and twirled to face the Nightshade employees. “All right!” she shouted above the sound of her own thrusters. “Here's what is going to happen! I'm going to fly out there and accelerate a bunch of the airborne ships so that they catch the armada's attention!” She gestured out the huge yawning doors and into the sunlight. “Trust me, I know a thing or two about Ledomaritan enforcers! Sooner than you think, they'll start firing, and the air's gonna be full of flak and fire and stuff! It's gonna be dangerous flying, so I want your best pilots at the helm of each ship! We're not out of the woods yet!”
She held a separate shard up in her hoof.
“I'm listening in on the same frequency as your sound stones! You need to keep to the rear and let the rest of the ships absorb the damage! But if any of you get hit, or if you find yourselves in a pinch, then give me a shout! Trust me! I'm pretty darn fast! I'll get you out of any jam that might happen! But once you fly off, you're on your own! Get out of this city, this province, this state—whatever! Just get out of view of the enforcers! Then, once the heat's died down, return to Blue Nova! Return to your families! So long as they don't see your faces in these ships, they don't know that you're involved!”
With collective breaths of relief and steely determination, the many mares and stallions nodded in one accord.
“Alright! Wait for my signal! Best of luck to each and every one of you! You're helping us as much as we're helping you!”
With a salute, Rainbow Dash flew up and past the Noble Jury. She gave the cockpit a wave, and an elk inside nodded back, his antlers sparkling through the glass windshield. A zebra and a unicorn backtrotted as Floydien leaned forward, channeling energy into the control consoles of the majestic vessel. The skystone above the craft flashed a brighter crimson. With rivuleting waves of mana, the ship hovered away from the docking clamps, filling the bowels of Nightshade's hideout with a high-pitched rumble.
Rainbow Dash accelerated her thrusters, rocketing herself out of the mouth of the hangar like a lone missile. She gritted her teeth against the biting wind, twirling left and right around the bodies of multiple, multiple airships. Once she was closer towards the front of the densely drifting cloud of ships, she touched down on one airship, trotted into its cockpit, and shoved the instrument throttles forward. With a steady hum, the ship puttered faster, accelerating towards the Ledomaritan armada. As this happened, Rainbow Dash immediately jumped ship and flew to the next closest dirigible. She landed, throttled it forward, and hopped to the next one without wasting anytime.
In swift order, Rainbow Dash forced no less than twenty airships to accelerate at full-speed. They cruised like metal mountains towards the center three warships of the military blockade.
On board the lead ship, Evans started to tremble. Bulbs of sweat ran down his temple as he looked across the line of advancing ships.
“Sir, they're...” An officer looked nervously towards him. “They're accelerating towards us... and fast...”
“They're coming at ramming speed!” another enforcer exclaimed. “They're not stopping!”
“Give me the amplification stone,” Evans said, motioning with his hoof.
A fellow enforcer levitated the shard in question towards him.
Evans spoke into the glowing rock, broadcasting his voice loudly through the air. “Attention, civilians vessels! Halt your advance at once and prepare to be boarded!” Evans winced, even as the words came boldly out of his mouth. ”This area is off limits to non-military flight, and every unauthorized ship from this hangar is under official investigation. Stop or you will be fired upon!”
The ships did not halt. As a matter of fact, twice as many were accelerating than just seconds before. A tiny prismatic figure was darting between the ships in the middle, but Evans was too encumbered by the moment to notice.
“Sir, they're... uh... they're not stopping...”
Evans stammered and spat, ”This is your last warning! Stop your advance, or by the power invested in m-me by the Council of Ledo, you will b-be fired... upon...”
The ships came faster and faster. The air whistled from their sharp ascent, tickling the ears of the frightened enforcers upon the battlecruisers' decks.
“Enforcer Evans...?”
Evans gnashed his teeth and threw the shard down. He murmured aside to his fellow officers. “Open fire...”
“On wh-which ones, sir?”
Evans spastically shout. “All of them!”
The enforcers blinked at each other. They looked down the deck.
The gunners glanced back. Then, almost flinching as one, they spun the turrets about, loaded their shells, and fired.
The air filled with thunderous crashes once again as the cannons unleashed their fury on the front line of airships. Several of them shattered, and several more exploded.
Rainbow Dash found herself having to kick away from an exploding zeppelin underneath her. “Whoah! Haaaa-ha ha ha ha!” She smirked devilishly as she twirled about on roaring thrusters and rocketed towards another line of slowly drifting ships. She shouted into both soundstones. “Come on in, boys and girls! The water's fine!”
As she accelerated against the flow of airships, the air behind her filled with fire and shrapnel.
The first round of shelling ended, and as the battlecruisers reloaded, the unmanned civilian ships continued hurtling towards the armada on a suicide path. Their numbers were barely whittled down, and soon they were flocking over the vessels on all sides.
“Pull us back...” Evans murmured at first. He spun about and shouted at the top of his lungs. “Hard to stern! Get us out of their path!”
Bells rang and stallions ran—panicked—from station to station as the massive ships tried swinging out of the way. The smaller escort vessels drifted in, albeit in awkward and ill-timed clusters. They tried intercepting the speeding ships, but were largely unsuccessful. Several of the airships brushed up against the battlercuiser's hulls, scraping at the metal surfaces and knocking several soldiers off their hooves. The air filled with noise and panic, and in the midst of it all, the armada stupidly fired a second salvo, sending even more waves of burning metal flying into the air and adding to the chaos.