The Steel Wing carved a cold path through the mists, bearing down on the fragile site of Deep Ridge along the north edge of the ravine. There were five craters already carved into the plateau, and yet the Ledomaritan warship kept firing, with smoking mana cannons unleashing blast after blast upon the frightened equine shapes far below.
"Good job getting the cannons repaired in time, Captain," Shell's voice rang as metallically as the engines around him.
Filta glanced aside. Clearing his throat, he adjusted his uniform and stood tall and resolute besides the Prime Enforcer and Evans. "If I had known you were going to order me to attack a location such as this, I would have adjusted course sooner to make better time."
"Yes, well..." Shell glanced behind him at the middle of the deck. "I've been forced to make adjustments of my own lately."
Shackled in chains and surrounded by guards, Madame Nightshade shuddered. Her haggard face tilted up, bearing a ghostly pale expression. Her lips pursed, but there were no words to give. She had donated Shell enough as it was.
"I can see that," Filta said in the meantime. He had to raise his voice above the endless assault of cannons. "I trust you know what you're doing here..."
"And I trust you to know better than to question my judgment by now."
Filta had to bite his tongue. He stared ahead as the carnage ensued.
Evans couldn't help but stammer, "Sir, at the rate at which you're firing, all of the suspects will be dead in minutes!" He pointed with a fidgeting hoof. "Shouldn't we give them a small spell to offer up a surrender?"
"I only want one of them to surrender, Evans," Shell said coolly. He gestured towards one of the many guards, and they hoofed him a large, glowing soundstone. "And she knows as much as I do that she's bound to outlast her so called 'friends' no matter who's tossing the ordinance."
Clearing his throat, he spoke firmly into the enchanted shard, amplifying his voice thunderously across the plateau, so that it even boomed louder than the shelling.
"The one called Rainbow Dash! I order you to surrender yourself and only yourself immediately!" His eye narrowed along with the hardening lines of his face. "I will not cease bombarding this entire mountaintop until you land all four of your hooves on board this vessel..."