"...and give yourself up to the Queen's forces like the piece of property that you are!"
With a grunt, Rainbow Dash kicked a pile of stones off her. Her armor was starting to peel off, and she tripped over a broken horseshoe as she stumbled back onto the crater-strewn landscape. It was hard to see through all the fresh smoke and flames.
"Belle?! Pilate?! Crimson?!" She coughed and wheezed as another shell landed uncomfortably close, flinging a heated curtain of wind towards her flinching body. "Unnngh... R-Roarke!" she stammered. "M-my suit's busted! I need you to fly some of my friends away and—" Another shell exploded a chunk of rock to her left, flinging her to her bruised chest. "Ooof!"
All the while, Shell's voice rang menacingly over the whistling bombs.
"You and you alone have the power to stop this, just as I have the power to end the life of every mortal creature on that hill! You want to save those you care about?! Then give up, for you cannot save yourself and them in the process!"
A chunk of Deep Ridge's inner bowels landed in the middle of the group with a thud, as if to punctuate the hellish declaration. Scooting backwards on his fat flanks, Josho telekinetically helped Ebon and Props back up to their hooves while shouting, "There's no mistaking it! That's Shell alright! Never heard the guy sound that pissed!"
Crouching several feet away and shaking the dirt off her, Imre sat up, gasping. With wide eyes, she peered at Josho, then up at the menacing flicker of the Steel Wing up in the north sky. "Buck me sideways..."
"Crimson!" Tweak rushed over, helping a stunned Imre to her hooves. He motioned with his reflective hoof. "This ain't crap that we can shoot at! Let's get all these tattooed tourists onto the Noble Jury and make like the wind—"
"Incoming!" Clark shouted as he was already rushing the cloaked civillians towards Floydien's airship. "Everypony, down!" He and the nearby Xonans gasped.
"Tweak!" Imre squeaked.
The crystal stallion turned—then caught a wall of burning shrapnel as the shell exploded before them. He flew back, his body smoking. "Nnnngh-Aaaaaaugh! Crap! Crapppp!" His face winced tightly as he clutched a leaking crack gouged deep in his right rear leg. "Nnnngh! Crud biscuits, it hurts! Friggin' pig headed death pissers! Gaaaugh!"
With a pale expression, Imre scurried over him. She fumbled through her satchel of things, knocking the pistol around a few times as she finally produced her first aid kit, immediately going to work on his profusely bleeding injury. "Damn crystal skin, this is gonna be tough..."
"Love your bedside bullcrap already, girl..." Tweak hissed.
"Rainbow Dash!" Imre craned her neck to shout over the bombing. "I need help here! Tweak's hurt bad! Where's Pilate?!"
"I... I can't see..." Rainbow Dash spun about, her ruby eyes squinting. "Oh, Celestia, please. I'm sorry for everything, j-just help me. I don't care how—" She gasped. "There! Guys! Hey, guys!"
A little foal was telekinetically lifting rock after rock off a pair of bodies buried in the rubble. With tiny grunts, the Xonan youngster uncovered enough weight that the two ponies could move. Before she could call out their names, a whistling sound sailed down from overhead.
Kera looked up, the tears on her face reflecting the orange flames of the incoming ordinance.
Wincing, Belle looked up. She saw it, then thrashed her hooves over Pilate's body, shoving Kera back by several meters.
"Ooof!" Kera landed with a grunt. The shell landed two seconds later.
The plateau split down the center. Huge chunks of rock fell loose into the deathly deep canyon below. Among them were—
"Aaugh!" Pilate yelped as he, Belle, and the rock they were on plunged into dust and darkness.
"Belle!" Kera shrieked, though her voice was outmatched by Rainbow Dash's warbling shriek.
"N-no!"