“Hellllooooo, Equestria to Rainbow Dash, anyone there?” asked Spike.
“Wha—huh?”
“You zoned out there for a moment,” Twilight said softly. “Are you okay? You didn’t tell us about any of this stuff at the party that evening, and it’s starting to sound like you should have.”
“No, no, it’s fine— I’m fine. That part— I just— you know, I’ve been talking for a while, I’m a little hoarse. Gimme a minute to go squeeze out some rainwater, will ya?” Without waiting for a reply, Dash flew up beyond the cloud layer and out of sight.
“You’re a pony, silly, of course you’re a little horse!” Pinkie called out after her. When Rainbow didn’t reply, she put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Or maybe it’s that a horse is just a big pony? And if that’s the case, does Big Macintosh have to take a lot of cough drops?”
Twilight’s headache throbbed a little harder. “Pinkie, I promise you, one day I’m going to find out what makes your mind tick.” (Twilight had refused to call it a futile endeavor and gave it a place on her long term to-do list, just after learning how to read books which have not yet been written and figuring out the speed of dark.)
“It doesn’t tick, Twilight. It hums! And sometimes it sings harmony. Oh yeah! I was wondering, who do you think was the giggly friend Dashie was talking about? At first I thought of Applejack but she usually just chuckles which isn’t really the same as giggling so then I figured she must have meant Rarity because she does this great ‘Wa ha ha ha!’ laugh but calling her a nut seems kinda mean ‘cause she just really loves her job and gets carried away sometimes and then I remembered Spike—”
“I meant you, Pinkie!” chimed in an exasperated voice from above.
“Oh, that’s right! I guess I am, huh?” said Pinkie, who promptly dissolved into a fit of snorts and laughter.
Whatever you might think, I didn’t just lay there and cry. It’s hard to be angry or feel sorry for yourself when you’re busy trying to remember how to breathe. I’m used to thin air, but right then I didn’t feel like I could get enough of it.
The good thing about being stunned like that is that it only takes a little time to recover from compared to something like a broken wing. After a few minutes my legs weren’t completely numb any more and my head was pounding with the sort of pain that hurts too much for you to be as dead as you thought you were. So I pulled my hooves beneath me and gave standing up a try. I fell back over a second later, but it helped me realize what I needed to do.
“Alright, Rainbow Dash, here’s the plan. Step one: Get off this stupid mountain. Step two: Find the Wonderbolts. And the big one, step three: Get back at Nimbus for ruining everything.”
Now that I had a goal, I tried standing up again. Shaky, but I could do it. After a few practice stretches, I figured my wings could hold me again too. The problem was that I couldn’t see the Wonderbolts when they flew off, so I had no idea which direction to go to track them down. Nothing left in the sky but clouds and lingering smoke. Whatever that stuff was made of, it wasn’t going away as quickly as it did during their shows.
And the funny thing was, one of the trails looked new. One of them must’ve accidentally turned on their gizmo thingy when they took off. Suckers.
It led south along the mountains, right up to the point where the Crysta range runs into the Everfree Forest. Things start getting weird around there, big surprise. Most of the unnatural clouds that form over the forest don’t go anywhere and just keep building up until they explode into the roughest, toughest storms you’ll find anywhere in Equestria. Those are strong enough to mess with the area’s wind patterns a bit, but aren’t really a big deal unless you’re crazy enough to get caught out in one. Or unless you’re Zecora. I have no idea how she survives out there. That dinky little hut should’ve been washed away before it finished being built. Anyway, some of the other clouds end up drifting towards Ponyville, and I have to spend a lot of time pushing them back before they get too close and ruin the weather schedule or burn down Sweet Apple Acres with their freaky magic lightning or something like that. Not that AJ ever thanks me for saving her place all the time.
The rest of the clouds go the other way, towards the mountains, and then they get stuck. They don’t bunch up and rain out like they normally do over the forest either, they just start falling down the slopes until they eventually slide back into the Everfree. So that part of the Crysta range is always covered in clouds and fog and we weather ponies aren’t sure why that happens, so we call them the Mistery Mountains. Get it? Mist-ery? Heh heh. Eh.
The point is, the smoke trail I was following disappeared into that mess. But if the Wonderbolts could deal with creepy magic mist, then so could I. And they couldn’t have gone far, anyway. I know I’m faster than them, and they had maybe ten, fifteen minutes on me, tops.
It wasn’t easy going, though. I slipped into the fog to start looking, but it was so thick that flying felt more like swimming, and I couldn’t see more than about twenty hooves ahead. “Hey! Anypony out there?” Up the slopes. “Red?” Back down the other side. “Autumn?” I flew over to the next mountain. “Hellloooooooo!” Nothing. Not even an echo.
You know how hard it is to find three ponies in the middle of nowhere when you’re basically blind? It’s really freakin’ hard. And after all the other stuff I’d been through already, working through that fog was wearing me out faster than I liked. The next two peaks were just as Wonderbolt-free, so I settled down to take a break for a moment and figure out what to do next. Looking one mountain at a time wasn’t getting me anywhere. I didn’t know for sure that the Wonderbolts were even there. I couldn’t imagine why they’d bother going into the mist if they were just going straight through it, but if they had, they could’ve been halfway back to Cloudsdale already. Or maybe they did it just to throw off any followers, like me. If that was the case, then it was over. My big day was done. I kicked a stray rock down the slope and watched it vanish into the fog. “Guess that’s it, Rainbow. Did a few tricks, got decked by your heroes, and couldn’t make your only lead count for anything. Totally worth all the trouble.”
And my head ached like crazy. I went to rub it with a hoof, but there was something caught in my mane. Somehow, even after all the action of the last couple hours, my crown had stayed on the whole time. I’d forgotten it was even there. And yeah, I didn’t really care about it when I got the thing and I still don’t, but seeing it then reminded me that the day hadn’t been all bad. “At least I got to spend some time with the Wonderbolts. And everypony saw me do a Sonic Rainboom and save their lives, so that’s pretty cool. Plus Rarity owes me, like, forever.” I wish. She offered to help me save my fashion life instead of waiting on me wing and hoof for a week. You call that gratitude? ‘Cause I don’t. “And besides, the Gala’s coming up soon, so I can track them down there and find out what their deal is where they can’t sucker punch me and bail. I’ll have them trapped! They’ll have to explain!” I got back on my hooves. “You hear that? I’m not giving up!”
“What? Who’s out there? Is that you, Sylvia?” A voice! Kind of old and scratchy sounding, and definitely not one of the ones I was looking for, but I was happy just to find anypony. Or anygriffon, as it turned out. I could just barely make out a shape with wings in the distance, and I’d spent enough time with griffons to know one when I saw one. But what the hay was he doing hanging around a place like that?
I pushed my way through the mist towards him. “Uh, no, my name’s Rainbow Dash. Who are you? Actually, have you seen any other ponies around? Pegasi wearing blue? I’m trying to find them.”
“Ponies! Here? Ponies in blue?!” That might’ve been the wrong thing to mention. “Aw no, no, no, no, no, you’re a Wonderbolt! The Wonderbolts are here!” he yelled, and vanished back into the mist. “Captaaiiiiiiin! We’ve been found! Red alert, red a—” Whoops.
I wasn’t the only one interested in the griffon, though, ‘cause another figure darted out from behind the other side of the mountain and took off after the guy. A small pegasus. Maybe she wanted the griffon, but I wanted her, and I definitely wasn’t too tired for a chase. I took off, hot on her tail.
“Hey, Nimbus! We need to talk!”
She looked back and stuck her tongue out at me. “Nice going, featherbrain! Have you ever heard of covert operations, or being subtle?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you over the sound of this headache I happen to have. Maybe you know something about it?”
“You don’t know how to take a hint, do you? We’ve got more important things to do than catering to the daydreams of a wide-eyed filly who isn’t as great as she thinks she is!” She tried to wave me away again, but it hadn’t worked before and it wasn’t going to work then. “Go home! Take a hike! You don’t belong here!” I was closing the gap, one flap at a time. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I caught up, but that sort of problem usually solves itself pretty quickly. One last burst of speed sent me cutting through the fog, getting closer... closer... and... got her! Or at least one of her back legs.
What I wasn’t expecting was how fast she could stop, spin, and buck me right off. I went flying head over hooves and just missed clipping a peak before catching myself. She didn’t move, so I charged straight at her again. In return I got a pair of legs around my neck and a quick trip straight down. Another charge, another toss. It didn’t matter how fast I dove through the mist, I couldn’t touch her! Coming in slow and trying to catch her off guard didn’t work either. Maybe I should’ve listened to the guys at the dojo when they said I wasn’t actually a black belt yet.
She wasn’t chasing after the griffon any more, though, so I figured that was a win too. “Honestly,” she said with a frown, “tough enough to get up sooner than most ponies I have to put down and stubborn enough to chase us all the way here. I’d be impressed if you weren’t also thick enough to pick fights you can’t win.” One hoof rapped against her skull while she said that, and her wings beat faster. “And thanks to your hard head and your loud mouth, the element of surprise we needed is completely gone. Nice job. And you think you can be a Wonderbolt?” She finished by crossing her legs and sneering at me. I liked her better when she was pretending to be nice.
“If they let little fillies like you in, yeah, I bet I can make it.” There was no way she could still be on guard in that position. I drifted a little closer to try and get the jump on her again, and then the next thing I knew she’d sorta kinda put me in a headlock. “Hey! Lemme go!” It was a really good headlock, the kind AJ uses on... her, uh, pigs. Yeah. They get feisty sometimes.
“And what does it tell you that you can’t seem to beat this ‘little filly’, Rainbow?” She squeezed harder. “I can tell you right now, a pony who can’t learn from her mistakes could never join us.”
“Okay, fine, just get off!” She did, and I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to stay out of reach for a bit. We started flying around each other in a circle, each of us sizing the other up. “What’s your problem? The guys kept talking like they couldn’t wait to make me a Wonderbolt, and all I get out of you is one insult after another. What’d I ever do to you?”
“Nothing, at least not personally. I just like seeing how you react. It’s very... informative.” She got a smug grin on her face that I hated immediately.
“I’m not some toy for you to play around with! And remember,” I said, pointing at her, “you owe me! All of you!”
Her ears perked up. “Oh, do we? And Red was so worried you’d figure it out. I told him you probably weren’t a clever pony. After all, you’ve got your dear friend the Princess’s protégé to be clever for you.” I didn’t know which part of that to be mad about first, but I was done trying to get her when she was looking. “And you aren’t charging at me again even though you really want to. Maybe you can learn. Try not to be such an open book, though.” Snotty little know-it-all. I couldn’t figure out how the rest of the team could stand her.
Maybe she’d answer a different question. “If you’re done making fun of me, why don’t you tell me how you know who my friends are?”
“Why, weren’t they cheering you on at the competition?” she said, tilting her head to the side. “And anypony who’s spent any time in the palace knows who Twilight Sparkle is. It’s not every century the Princess takes on an apprentice, after all. I just put two and two together. You make it sound like I’m some sort of spy.” Her smile was trying way too hard to look innocent, like the one the Crusaders put on when they’re up to something.
“Between all the secrets and how you were going after that guy? Yeah, maybe you are.” The last thing I was going to do was admit that she had a fair point. “What’s Equestria’s best flight team doing chasing griffons in the middle of nowhere anyway? I know... I used to know a griffon. They aren’t that exciting.”
Nimbus flew closer. “Did you forget that you aren’t supposed to know?” she said, tapping me on the nose for emphasis. “There was a theft. That’s all.”
I pushed her away. “But why the Wonderbolts? That sounds more like a Royal Guard thing.”
I guess that struck a nerve, ‘cause she stopped smiling. About time. “Hm. Good question. If you find a good answer, let me know.”
Yeah, that was enough of that. I didn’t come all the way out there to play Twenty Questions With A Chip On The Other Guy’s Shoulder. It’s this special version where you can ask as much as you want, but all you get back are insults and cryptic crap. “How about you just tell me where the guys are, and I’ll go see them instead.”
She shook her head. “As much as I’d love to leave you to your own devices, I don’t know exactly where they are right now. Red’s supposed to send up a signal when it’s time to regroup. Plus, Autumn would never let me hear the end of it if I abandoned you in an awful place like this.”
Great. “Whatever happened to ‘Through any storm or any weather, Wonderbolts will fly together’?”
“You know the anthem, that’s cute.” She stopped floating around and stared off into the fog. “Not in this weather. There was too much ground to cover and not enough visibility to search it efficiently without splitting up.” Suddenly a loud whistling noise filled the air, and off in the distance we could see a burning firework rocketing skywards. “Ah, good timing! I told you there’d be a signal.” A second later it exploded, shining bright even through the mist. “...uh oh. Red.”
“What? Is that him?”
“Huh? Oh. Maybe. I meant the color, though. A red signal like that means there’s trouble. Come on!” First thing she’d said all day that made sense.
Nimbus took off like lightning and I followed right behind her. We blew past one mountain after another, each one as big and gray and boring as the last. Nothing lived up here, not even the really nasty stuff from the forest. One mountain stood out from the rest though, which had to be the place the Wonderbolts were looking for. The enormous cave in the side was impossible to miss, and the pegasus at the mouth of it looked like he was about to get eaten. It made me wonder if maybe the mountains were what lived up here and they just waited for something to be dumb enough to wander in. You never can tell with the Everfree. I couldn’t see any further inside on account of the stream of mist flowing in, which wasn’t helping me shake the feeling that I was about to become something’s lunch.
It turned out I was right, and the pegasus standing there was Red Sky after all. “Nimbus! You made it! And Rainbow! You made it?” He didn’t have to look so surprised.
“Better believe it. Your buddy here hits like a girl and you left me a map. Gotta try harder than that to ditch the Dash,” I crowed, head held high.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on her, boss,” said Nimbus.
“Have not!”
“We got here as fast as we could.” She walked on past, ignoring me. “What’s going on? Didn’t you see a scout come by? I thought we were going to scrap the whole thing as soon as they got tipped off.” She stopped yapping and looked around. “And where’s Autumn?”
He pointed a hoof towards the back of the cave. “He’s in there, as far as I can tell. Saw him get chased in by one of their guards. When he didn’t come back out, I figured I’d better call you in case you were still free.”
She lowered her wings and her voice. “I’m only one pony, boss. Not really much in the way of backup.”
“Two ponies,” I added. Nimbus ignored me again.
“I know. I should’ve brought more,” said Red. “I didn’t want to risk anypony I didn’t need to. Or I shouldn’t have had us split up. Or... something, I don’t know.” He slammed a hoof into the ground at the end of that. It wasn’t really cold out, but I couldn’t help shivering a little. Wonderbolts weren’t supposed to be so uncertain, or look so frustrated.
I didn’t have time to think about it for long, though. Five figures were coming out of the cave, through the mist. “Hey, guys? I think we’ve got company.” Four of them looked like griffons. The one in the center was a pony, and when the griffons stopped, she kept walking forward.
“Oh good,” she snarled. “The Wonderfoals. Again. And here I’d hoped the idiot back there was the only one and Gregor was just scared of his own shadow.”
“I toldja, captain! I toldja there was more!” called one of the griffons from behind her, the same voice from earlier. Maybe I should’ve chased him down instead after all.
“Yes, shut up. The real question is just how many reinforcements he had. Eight? Eleven?” She stopped a few paces in front of us and turned around, stomping one hoof twice. “Stop pedaling, you twits! I can’t see anything out here!” Somepony repeated the call further back in the cave, and the wind blowing the mist inside finally stopped. At least there was actually something back there causing it and I could stop worrying the mountain was going to suddenly bite down.
Have I mentioned I hate caves? Give me open sky above my head instead of stone any day.
The air cleared quickly. She was a dark purple earth pony wearing a pair of earrings and a bracelet that matched her angry orange eyes. One of those big black hats with three corners kept a curly black mane from falling into her face, which said that she hated us all and had better things to be doing. I think her cutie mark was a parachute, but I couldn’t see it clearly through a saddlebag. “Only three? I do believe I’m insulted. And one of you doesn’t even count,” she said, glaring at me. “Is Celestia so tired of your incompetence that she has you babysitting now?” Her gaze drifted up. “Or does that gaudy trinket mean you’re their new mascot, here to cheer them on as they fail to stop me yet again?”
Great. The only pony around who didn’t talk in riddles was the Wonderbolts’ enemy. I didn’t even know they had enemies. “Guess again. It’s from today’s Best Young Flier competition. Which means I’m the best thing in the skies right now.” Nimbus muttered something under her breath behind me.
“Oh, that. Well, it’s good to know that the pegasi’s proud tradition of unbridled arrogance has carried on to the next generation,” said the mare, slowly strolling forward. “Though I must say it’s a pity that Cloudsdale’s standards have fallen so far.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” She was an earth pony, what did she know about good flying?
She stepped closer again, almost close enough to reach, and leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “That if a scrawny little foal like you is the best they can come up with, well, the future of flight in Equestria is looking pretty dim.”
“Oh, that’s it!” I’d taken enough abuse already, and I wasn’t gonna stand for any more trash talk from complete strangers! I spread my wings and pounced, and just before I had her she stepped back and suddenly the four griffons I’d forgotten to keep an eye on were there instead. They didn’t lay into me, but being pinned to the ground by eight claws doesn’t feel much better. It was the third fight I’d lost that day, if I counted getting decked, the second time I’d eaten dirt, and I swore it’d be the last time I let myself get beaten like that.
“Get off her!”
“Get off me!”
“I told you to stop picking fights, dummy!” Me and Red, again. And Nimbus.
The mare walked back towards me, her purple hooves all I could see from the ground. It felt too familiar. “Pfeh. ‘Best Young Flier.’ Foals giving awards to foals.” She leaned over, and while I didn’t feel the crown’s weight when it was on, I could tell when it was gone. I craned my head up a little further just in time to see it slip into her saddlebag. “Nothing compared to our real haul, but it’d be a shame to let such fine gold go to waste.” One leg motioned forward and the griffons tossed me back at the Wonderbolts. Red caught me on his back and put me down gently. A couple hours earlier, I would’ve freaked out at being that close, but right then it was just nice to hit something besides solid stone again.
“Alright, Dunderdolts and guest, here’s how it is.” Her stance shifted just enough to tell that she meant business. “You’re annoying and ineffectual, but I honestly don't want your blood on my hooves in addition to high theft if I can help it. So you’re going to come inside with me and my crew, watch us sail out of here, and then stay put for three hours.” The scowl stuck on her face got worse. “If I see you before then, I may forget to cut the ropes binding the twit we have tied up in the brig before throwing him overboard. Would you believe he broke in there himself, thinking we’d already captured the rest of you? His loss. And yours. Do we have an understanding?” It was the sort of question that dared us to challenge it.
“Very well,” said Red. “As long as you don’t hurt—“
“No, we don’t have an understanding!” I yelled. I don’t back down from dares. “We’re just gonna let them get away?”
He raised an eyebrow, even from behind the goggles. “You have a better idea?”
“You’re the team captain, don’t you?” I had to think of something or the only people around who were even bigger jerks than Nimbus were going to win. No matter what my problems with the Wonderbolts were right then, I couldn’t let that happen. “Wait, we’re in the middle of the mountains,” I said, shaking my head. “They can’t sail away when we’re a mile above sea level!” I really should’ve known it wasn’t that simple. Nothing else had been, that day.
The mare smiled for the first time, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You really are clueless. Reminds me of why I don’t have any other ponies in the crew. Come along, then, and allow me to shatter the sheltered little world you live in.” She motioned back, into the cave. “You first.” The griffons parted to the sides, leaving the way open. The Wonderbolts looked at each other, then went on in. I stared her down for a moment, but then the griffons started pushing me forward and I didn’t really feel like trying five on one odds.
The tunnel went straight back and opened into a cavern a couple hundred hooves high. It reminded me of that dragon’s hoard we went to. Probably was one in the past. The walls were lined with a series of dim, flickering lights which were just bright enough to light up the place. For a secret hideout, it was pretty boring. Some crates, a couple tables, a big patch of moss on the wall, nothing cool. Except for it.
“To bring you up to speed, I am the illustrious Captain Stirrup, prized quarry of those lackeys of the throne in front of you, and this is my pride and joy, the finest vessel ever to sail the skies, the Saucy Mare!” She’d reared back and stretched both front legs out to draw our attention like a showpony, but it wasn’t like we could miss seeing it.
In front of us was an entire ship like the ones they have way out on the coast, but it wasn’t like any ship you’ve ever seen. A bunch of cables ran up from the deck, and above it was the biggest balloon in the world, shaped like an egg, or maybe a really fat fish—
“Wait, wait, wait, hold it!”
Come on, Twilight, I can’t stop here!
“And I can’t keep quiet any longer! This is ridiculous!” Twilight was on her hooves and pacing back and forth. “I was with you up to the point where the Wonderbolts almost knocked you out, and I can maybe believe that, but they are not some secret royal police force! It’s one of the oldest conspiracy theories there is! You might as well believe in the Unicorns in Black, or the Twelve Majestic Mares!”
“I dunno if I’d call them police, ‘cause I don’t think they officially arrest anypony. But they’re definitely tied to the throne, believe it or not,” said Rainbow Dash, who’d started hovering upright with her front legs crossed in response to Twilight’s pacing.
“And I don’t! I lived in the palace for years, and the Wonderbolts only ever showed up for special royal celebrations.”
“Apparently there were enough ‘royal celebrations’ that they recognized you,” Dash countered.
Twilight stopped to draw a circle in the mud. “Well... they could’ve just seen my picture in the papers.”
“And by papers, she means tabloids,” said Spike, keeping an eye on the rose nestled in her mane in case it changed back.
“It’s a long story,” she added quickly, before Rainbow could ask the question etched on her face.
“And you’re gonna tell it to me later, but okay.” Dash dropped back to the ground. Getting a juicy bit of information like that was worth a little arguing. “Did you ever wonder why they show up for royal parties all the time if they aren’t on the palace’s payroll?”
“Because they’re great performers, and popular, and—”
Dash waved her concerns aside. “Big Top and Center Ring’s circus is popular too, and you don’t see them at the palace.”
“Actually, they swing by every few months to visit the Princess’s menagerie.” Dash buried her face in her hooves. “It’s just that they’re the only ones qualified to give checkups to the more exotic animals in her collection,” Twilight clarified. “And she likes the dancing bears,” she added after some thought.
“You should see them tango!” said Spike, without turning from his target. The discarded thorns had just flashed into pebbles. It was only a matter of time.
Rainbow Dash picked herself back up. “Let’s try a different angle. You said it yourself, the Princess meets Autumn Westwind on a regular basis, right?”
“For the sake of philanthropy!” said Twilight.
“Yeah, sure. Here’s another thing I dug up that an egghead like you might know.” Twilight rolled her eyes, but Dash went on. “The first captain of the Wonderbolts, you know who he was a week before the team got started?”
“A weather pon—”
“That’s right, the captain of the Royal Guard!” Rainbow sprung to her hooves, incapable of sitting still and gloating at the same time. “One day he retires out of the blue, and the next thing you know he’s leading this mysterious new team of ace fliers. Just try and tell me that’s not suspicious.”
“I think she’s got you there, Twilight,” said Spike, wagging a finger. “And besides, everybody knows the Unicorns in Black are real, so what’s one more secret group?” His arms froze mid-gesture. “Wait, what if the Princess sends out the UIB to draw attention away from the secret operations of the Wonderbolts? And maybe the Wonderbolts are just there to distract us from her secret ninja squad!” He looked around frantically before diving behind Twilight’s tail, venturing only to poke his snout and eyes through the hair. “They could be watching us right now!”
(There was no ninja squad, but Spike was otherwise closer to the truth than he realized. The original rumors about the UIB’s existence had been started by Princess Celestia herself several centuries ago to give the burgeoning news industry something to temporarily latch onto besides royal gossip. To her surprise, the story took on a life of its own and entered the folklore of the common pony. In response, she began occasionally sending out small groups of the darker-furred members of the Royal Guard to wander the high-rent districts of Canterlot. Just for show. They’d drawn less attention than usual as of late, however, as the ponies who usually followed them with interest were enthralled by an exciting new branch of conspiracy tentatively known as the Luna Landing Hoax.)
“You read too many comics, Spike,” said Twilight.
Pinkie did her best to hide behind the dragon, not wanting to miss an opportunity to get into the spirit of things. “Ooh, are we playing hide-and- go-seek? I love hide-and-go-seek! I’ll count! One... two... three... four...”
“Pinkie, they’re ninjas!” protested Spike. “You can’t find a ninja!”
“That’s what they think! Five... six... seven...”
“I still say you can’t prove it, but okay, maybe I can’t prove that the Wonderbolts really are just a flight team either,” said Twilight. “But you can’t be serious about a bunch of pirates having a zeppelin!”
“A what?” replied Dash.
“A zeppelin!”
Twilight was met with a blank stare.
“...the big balloon ship thingy.”
Recognition dawned. “Oooh, that. What’s the problem with that?”
“They don’t exist!” Twilight resumed pacing in circles around Rainbow, prompting Spike to bolt for the safety of the nearest tree. Pinkie stayed put. “It’s incredibly difficult to build a stable balloon of the size you’d need for large scale transport, let alone one capable of carrying an entire ship like you’re talking about. Never mind the problems with steering and propulsion.” She closed her eyes momentarily to run the numbers in her head, and shuddered. “With so many pegasus shipping services around, nopony in Equestria has ever bothered developing one past the theoretical stages.”
“Well, somepony figured it out.”
“Hmm.” The two opposed ponies stared at each other, unwilling to give up.
Rainbow Dash cracked first, as Twilight rounded her flank again. “What’d you want me to do, ask the nice band of pirates for the name of the used cart dealer they got it from?”
“I’m just curious how a band of criminals got their hooves on a piece of high technology that we aren’t able to actually produce.”
“They stole it, I dunno.” Dash shrugged. “Are you done complaining about stuff I saw yet?”
Twilight stopped and sighed, the look on her face briefly betraying an internal struggle. Resignation won out. “We’re all ears, keep going.”
“Thirty-seven... thirty-eight... but if I were all ears then I wouldn’t have a mouth and then I couldn’t eat cookies and ice cream and peanut brittle and that’d be really sad, Twilight! Eighty-three... Eighty-four...”
“There! Ninja! Wait, no, that’s just a turtle. Can turtles be ninjas?”
“Continue, please,” said Twilight.
Like I was saying, the zaplint or whatever was huge. A bunch of dog guys like the ones that ponynapped Rarity last week were hauling the last of the crates onboard, and a dozen or so little rat-looking guys scrambled on after them and went inside somewhere. The rest of the cavern looked empty except for the torches and junk scattered around. Either they hadn’t been here long, or they were packing up and leaving for good.
Captain Stirrup and the griffons went past us and headed on up. “Beautiful ship, isn’t she? Flight for everyone, not just the lucky few with wings. Take a good look, because I don’t plan on ever coming back to this rotten country.” She stuck her head below deck for a moment. “Start pedaling, you lazy rats!” The propellers on the sides started spinning up, causing the wind I felt earlier to blow in again. Mystery solved. “You won’t miss me and I won’t miss you and we’ll all be happier. Ripping you chumps off for enough gold to make a dragon jealous, that makes me happy too. Weigh anchor!” Slowly, the ship started moving forward, hoof by hoof. If they were in a hurry, they weren’t going anywhere fast. No wonder she wanted three hours. She leaned on the railing one last time and shook a hoof at us. “Remember, no pursuit or your friend gets it!”
So we waited. The pirates sailed on out of sight, and eventually out of hearing, too. And then we waited some more. “That’s it? We’re really letting the bad guys get away? No chase, no rescue?” I asked Red. “I mean, this whole thing isn’t what I expected out of you guys, but I know you aren’t quitters. What happened to ‘make the best of a bad situation’?”
“This is bad. Very bad.” The nervous energy and frustration he’d had before had drained away. All that was left was a pony who couldn’t do anything but sigh and stare down at his hooves. It made my feathers itch. “Maybe too bad. I... I don’t know how to make the best of this one. We’re in way over our heads here. Large, organized gangs aren’t what we’re used to dealing with, but a certain somepony in charge thinks we can and I’m stuck figuring out how.” He let out a bitter laugh at that. “Not that I’ve been much good at it. Stirrup and her crew have been plundering trade caravans and small towns for months.” Quiet anger crept into his voice. “We’ve never been able to catch them off guard, and even with the whole team we’re outnumbered by too much to risk an assault. We finally managed to trail them back to this region, and I’d hoped we could sneak in and sabotage the balloon while they were busy, but...” The anger fizzled. “It’s all gone wrong now. If Autumn hadn’t gotten captured we might’ve still pulled if off. But after the mess I’ve made of the job? I’m not sure there’ll still be a Wonderbolts by this time tomorrow.”
I couldn’t believe it. The day I finally meet my hero, the captain of the Wonderbolts himself, he starts talking about the team breaking up? No. No. Not on my watch. “What happened to you?” He wouldn’t look at me, but I stuck a hoof under his chin and pulled his head up. I was going to get an answer this time. “You used to be able to get back up from anything. Even that time you slammed into a tree and sprained an ankle trying to do that rolling hairpin turn, you didn’t go home, you kept trying until you got it right. And you’re gonna stop now?”
He looked at me funny. “That was years ago. And I never told anypony how it happened.” Guess he never noticed me after all.
Now I was the one who couldn’t make eye contact. “I, uh, I used to watch you practice, back in Cloudsdale. That’s basically why I’m even here today.” His jaw dropped a little. I kept talking before he could say anything to make things even more awkward. “That’s why I wanted to figure out the Sonic Rainboom, right? Because I figured if I could do something even cooler than you could, the Wonderbolts would have to take me. I spent hundreds of hours trying it over and over, and I’ve got the scrapes and bruises to prove it.” I rubbed one of them on my neck that’d been aching all day. Nopony ever said stunt flying was for wimps. “All the way up until the competition I still couldn’t pull it off. But what I did know is that I couldn’t give up, because that’s what being a Wonderbolt’s all about, right?” That sounded right. I could finally stand to go face to face with him again. “Picking yourself up and dusting yourself off until you catch your dream? That’s the kind of pony I thought you were.” I didn’t know exactly what point I was trying to make, but Red looked like he was figuring something out.
“Well said, Miss Dash! My estimation of you improves more and more with each passing moment we spend together.”
I was not startled and did not scream like a little filly just because somepony snuck up on me.
“Don’t encourage her. Hey boss, are you two done gabbing yet? We’ve been had.” I hadn’t noticed Nimbus going anywhere, but she came flying up behind Autumn, who looked a lot less tied up on a ship a mile away from here than I’d expected.
Whatever train of thought Red had been on was completely derailed. “I... wha... Autumn! Where’ve you been? What are you doing here?”
“I had the peculiar misfortune to seek refuge from my pursuer in the very cavern we were looking for, it seems,” he said. “With no readily apparent avenue of escape, I took the opportunity to make a quick tour of the vessel’s interior. Marvelous work, incidentally.” No wonder you liked him, Twilight. He’s the only other pony I know who could get distracted by science in the middle of a life-threatening situation. “The crew caught up with me rather quicker than I would have liked, however.”
“Yeah, turns out they had him bound and gagged and stuffed in a sack on the floor this whole time,” said Nimbus. “Couldn’t see him because of the ship in the way before, and the lighting’s bad enough that I almost tripped over him when I went for a look around.”
“But if he’s here,” Red sputtered, “then what was she planning—”
“Drop it!” We only had a second to figure out where the yell came from before a super-loud clang sound almost made us deaf. A giant gate of metal bars had dropped from the shadows above, sealing the cavern off from the outer cave. A second later a couple of the little rat guys from earlier came sliding down the chains attached to it and dove through the gaps between the bars, carrying something shiny in their paws.
Being in a cave is bad enough, but being locked in a cave? Oh no. Not happening. I was up to it like lightning, kicking and pulling, but it wouldn’t budge. Trying to squeeze through the bars didn’t work any better. They were spaced just a little too close together for a pony to get through.
It turns out that the first rule of dealing with pirates is to never trust them about anything, even their own escapes. “Tsk tsk.” Captain Stirrup came floating up to the other side of the gate riding one of the griffons, who had the two rats in her claws. “I didn’t imagine you would take so long to find him. Should’ve expected that you lot would obey an order to sit still like a trained puppy, I suppose. No matter. Basalt!” She clapped her hooves together twice. “Time to pull your weight!”
I turned around to try and figure out what she was yelling at. The place was still basically empty. Empty crates, empty tables, and mostly empty walls, except for the torches and the big patch of moss. The big moving patch of moss. “Uh, guys?”
“Madame Stirrup, it’s still not too late to turn from your misspent life of crime!” called Autumn.
No, it wasn’t the moss that was moving, it was the wall the moss was growing on. Of course, walls don’t usually do something that looks a lot like standing up. “Guys, you might want to turn—”
“Oh, but I already have,” said Stirrup. “I’ve stolen so much already that I don’t need any more. So farewell, Blunderbolts! I don’t expect we’ll meet again.” I didn’t see them fly off. It was hard to tear myself away from watching the wall grow arms and legs.
“It’s Wonderbolts! Wonder! Bolts!” yelled Nimbus. “Crazy mare.”
“I don’t believe she quite grasped my point,” Autumn muttered.
Red was the only one paying any attention to me. “Rainbow Dash,” he said while turning to follow my gaze, “what are you staring... at?” He looked up. And up. The “wall” turned around too. It was at least as tall as three ponies, maybe four, had glowing ruby eyes, and teeth like diamonds. “Oh.” Autumn and Nimbus glanced back and bolted halfway across the room, landing in a fighting stance with their wings flared. Red just stared the monster down for a moment. And then he relaxed. “You know, I think she was lying about not wanting to kill us.”
“You think?” called Nimbus.
“Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, though,” he replied, flapping right up to the thing’s ugly face. “Basalt, was it?”
“Yup.” It could talk!
“You wouldn’t happen to be the same troll we kicked out of Equestria about five months ago, would you? I think I recognize the shade of ruby, and the distinctive way you have bits of sheep stuck in your molars.” He pointed to the part he meant, and there really was a scrap of wool there.
“One and der same.” Imagine a talking avalanche and you’re most of the way to knowing what it sounded like. And don’t ask me if it was a guy or a girl, ‘cause I never did figure that out. I’m just gonna call it a he.
“No hard feelings?”
“Dey were der worst months of my life.” He stood up straight, stretched, and scratched a spot on his back. Those arms were long.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, dat’s dragon ter... tera... terraror...” I guess being a living rock didn’t make him a smart rock.
“Territory?” suggested Red.
“Land, dat’s it. Not organized or nuttin, but dere’s enuffa dem ta make a troll nervous.” Somehow he managed to crack his knuckles. I don’t know how something made of stone even does that.
“Right, I think I’d heard something about that before, now that you mention it. Poor vacation spot, then?” Red sounded awfully chipper for a guy hovering within arm’s reach of a giant monster.
“Dragons, see, dey love us trolls.” Red opened his mouth to say something. “Real tasty onna count of our gem-like min’rel structure.” And then he closed it again. The troll started acting out his story with big, sweeping gestures that Red had to avoid. “So der cap’n, she find me hidin’ and say ‘what big strong troll like you doin’ inna place like dis,’ and I say ‘you is either brave or stupid pony ta talk ta troll like me,’ but not too loud ‘cause a dragon mighta heard and den she said ‘I not on der menu but iffn you come with me you get reg’lar meals and no dragon worries’ and I tink dat a pretty good deal. Anyhow, now I is on guard here and get a whole sheep or goat or sometimes a pig ev’ry day. Der good life.” Red drifted back into place. The arms were pretty slow, but getting hit still would’ve hurt.
He looked over his shoulder, back at us. “Hey, Nimbus? Remind me to close the case about all the missing livestock complaints when we get home.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“Perhaps we should inform the papers that the culprit was not, in fact, some mysterious form of extraequestrian intelligence,” said Autumn.
“What, and spoil their fun?” replied Red. “I don’t think trolls are native to Equestria anyway, so they still count. I’m less sure about the intelligence part.” He turned back around, but the troll hadn’t reacted to the jab. “In any case, Basalt, we’re in something of a hurry here so if you don’t mind we’ll just figure out how to get through this gate and get out of your mane. Moss. Out of your moss. Alright?”
“Nope. Cap’n said ‘crush dem inta glue’ and I’m tinkin’ I’d like ta do dat. Hold still.” Wham! One second the walking wall was standing still, and then just like that he’d smashed his hands together right where Red was hovering. Way faster than he let on. He pulled his hands apart and looked at them all confused, like he was surprised not to see pony paste there.
Red had stopped flying just in time and hit the ground standing. “How about I give you a rain check and we’ll come back in the evening to finish this?”
“Checked earlier. Wasn’t rainin’.” One massive leg swung up for just a moment before slamming down into the ground—bam!—with enough force to leave a small crater, scattering shards of rock everywhere. A couple bits nicked me, followed by Red’s flying body that’d gone sailing from the force of the near hit. We both went tumbling backwards in tangle of hooves and wings. Getting thrown into each other really wasn’t how I’d meant to spend time together.
“Grrrraaaaaarrrrggh!”
One of the lessons I learned that day is that you don’t have to be smart when you’re thirty hooves tall, made of rock, and run and hit like a train.
“Move move move!” I got bucked hard in one direction, then Autumn blasted down and pulled Red out of the way just before a double-handed overhead hit crashed down and took another chunk out of the floor. If this went on too long, there wasn’t going to be any stable ground left to stand on.
Good thing we were all pegasi. The air was definitely the safest place right then, and we grouped up at the top of the cavern out of reach. “Alright,” said Red, “here’s the plan. Autumn, Nimbus, get that gate open. There has to be some sort of control mechanism on one side or the other. Crawl through the bars if you have to, Nimbus.” I let out a snort and she glared at me, but I didn’t care. It was just good to see Red finally looking how I remembered him, like nearly being flattened three times in a row was the best thing that’d happened to him all day. “I’ll keep Basalt busy. Rainbow Dash, keep out of the way and don’t get yourself hurt.”
Or maybe he was just crazy. “You can’t take that thing alone!”
He shook his head. “Maybe, maybe not. But right now you’re under my watch and I am not letting this year’s best young flier go home crippled or worse because she got wrapped up in a Wonderbolt mistake. There’s more to this than just flying.”
“And there’s no way I’m letting you get squashed by a monster when I can help!”
“I’ll be fine!” he protested.
“Me too! Look, I kicked a dragon in the face once and I’m still here, and this thing can’t even breathe fire. I can take it!”
“A dragon?” asked Nimbus. “When?”
“Sometime last fall. Big red guy, big smoke problem, blah blah blah. It was easy.” She didn’t need to know who actually got rid of it.
“That was you?”
“Oh, you know about tha—” A table crashed into the ceiling nearby, showering us with splinters. Down below, the troll was already busy ripping up a chunk of the floor like he was pulling weeds.
“Argue about it later,” Red cut in. “You’ve got your orders, go!” The Wonderbolts all shot off in different directions and the next boulder came screaming in right behind them. We were gonna have to be careful even in the air if the big lug’s aim got any better.
Staying out of the fight wasn’t gonna happen. Sure, I like the Wonderbolts, but they don’t get to order me around until I’m on the team. So I caught up with Red, who’d started flying a wide circle around the edge of the cavern. He didn’t seem happy to see me, but that was his problem. “What’s the plan? How’d you guys beat him before?”
“We didn’t!” he called back.
“What? How’d you kick him out of Equestria a few months ago if you didn’t beat him?” A pair of rocks smashed into the wall behind us.
“We tied him to a hot air balloon while he was asleep and dragged him across the border. You’d have to be nuts to attack head on!”
“Oh yeah? Then let’s get nuts!” A little ways in front of us, a spike of what used to be the floor hit the wall and stuck there. Red dove under. I hit it hooves first and pushed off towards the troll. I think a couple of the Wonderbolts yelled at me to stop, but if they were gonna be wimps about it, what did I care? Flight school taught me that there aren’t a lot of problems you can’t solve with a good kick to the other guy’s face.
I let out a “Hiiiyaaaaaaaaa!” and covered the gap in a flash. Basalt wasn’t expecting one of us to actually come straight at him and just stood there, the perfect target. I could see the future already: Rainbow Dash one, dumb troll none, thanks for saving the day, and here’s your invitation to the Wonderbolts for being way more awesome than us. I broke into a wide grin just thinking about it. And at the last second, the troll did too. Hoof met stone with a loud crack and a few smaller crunching noises. The crack was one of Basalt’s teeth coming loose, which he casually spat back out over my shoulder. The crunching noises were every joint in my front legs smashing together at the same time because the stupid thing didn’t move an inch.
Part of why I left flight school was because they had this thing about how you can’t solve all your problems by kicking jerks in the face. It sounded silly at the time, but they might’ve actually had something there.
“Der cap’n is either brave or stupid. You, I tink, is just stupid.” Fortunately I’ve had enough experience with cra— er, hard landings that they don’t faze me much any more. By the time Basalt made a grab for me, I was already gone and back at Red’s side.
“Are you okay?” He didn’t yell at me because I failed, or because I didn’t listen. Not even a snarky comment. That was nice.
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” As long as I didn’t have to walk anywhere for a while, anyway. “Hit a wall, big deal. Did you think of anything yet?”
“After watching you almost break a leg?” He shook his head. “Nope. Autumn, how’s it going?”
Autumn came down to join us while Nimbus started flying tight circles around the troll to keep him distracted. Better her than me. “Nothing but bad news, old chum. We found the mechanism to raise the gate bolted to the ceiling. It’s quite a simple setup, really, nothing but elementary machinery.”
“How’s that bad news?”
“All that’s left of it are the bolts and chains. There’re obvious spots for a crank and gears,” he said, swirling one hoof in a circle, “but I’m fairly certain the kobolds that escaped dismantled it and took the parts with them.”
“So the gate isn’t coming back up, then. Great.” A crash and a yelp from the center distracted us, but Nimbus got back up and started flying even faster. “Any other way out?”
“None that we’ve noticed. I could have blasted away the supports holding it in place with a little black powder.” He didn’t say “hint, hint,” but you could hear it anyway.
“Autumn, you’re the last pony I’d let carry an explosive in the lining of his suit.”
“Well, if you hadn’t vetoed the Wonderbelt, I wouldn’t have to keep it near the corrosive acid.”
“The belt caused too much drag,” Red replied, keeping an eye on Nimbus. She’d gotten a little tornado of gravel going, which kept the three of us out of sight. Then what Autumn had actually said finally got through and he did a double take. “Wait, what acid?”
“Oh, did I forget to tell you about it? It’s a wonderful new mixture I cooked up to help refine my other metallurgical creations. Eats away half an inch of most known metals in under half an hour! I keep a vial on my person now for just such an occasion.” His suit looked skintight to me, but I figured I’d better not poke it in case he might burst into flame or something. Never did figure out where they actually kept all that junk.
Red sighed and nodded. “Longer than I’d like to spend tangling with a troll, but okay, do it. And you’re going to give me a rundown of everything you’re carrying around this evening.”
“If I could use it now, I would, believe me.” Red gave him one of those looks that said he only had a few seconds to explain. “The whole vial was already put to use earlier, you see.”
“On what?”
Autumn tilted one hoof back and forth. “A little trick here, a little sabotage there. Their brig isn’t as secure as it used to be, thanks to my little tour. Not what I’d call the pressing issue of the moment though, hm? Buy me some more time and I’ll see what else I can do.”
“Alright.” Red gave him a slight nod, and Autumn sped off. He started tapping his chin with a hoof. “So that’s how he did it. I thought that explanation sounded bogus. Canterlot doesn’t have a foundry.”
“How he did what?” I asked. Being left out of the loop still sucked.
But no, apparently we were back to playing Don’t Tell Rainbow Dash Anything. “Nimbus, fall back! Rainbow, stick close and help me keep it distracted.” Not too hard at the moment. Nimbus’s gravel whirlwind collapsed, revealing a dizzy and disoriented troll stumbling around and taking swipes at ponies who weren’t there. Red came to a stop in the air right in front of his face again, just out of arm’s reach this time. “What’s the matter, big guy? Did the mean little ponies confuse you?”
“Dere you are!” The troll swung an arm out, but Red was already back down on the floor, hopping from hoof to hoof.
“Too slow!” He dove between Basalt’s legs just as he raised one up for another stomp and looped around from above, twisting in the air to look at him face to face and upside-down. “Wrong again!” For a split second he landed on the outstretched leg, then bolted away just in time for the thing’s big fat fist to take a chip out of his own knee. So cool.
“Grraaaaaggh!” Troll, meet floor.
“Hah! How do you like the ground, pal?” I asked. Finally, someone besides me ate dirt that day. Things were looking up. So was Basalt, who was already getting back on his feet with another chunk of rock in hand. “C’mon, take your best shot.” If Red was quick enough to stay one step ahead after all, so was I. The rock came flying through the air in a slow and lazy arc that I didn’t even have to try to avoid. “You throw like a filly—whoa!” A much bigger, much faster rock came sailing in high right behind the first and brushed my mane as it went over. I couldn’t help turning to watch it crash into the gate behind me, like I had to make sure it was really dead or something. “That’s—okay, that’s better.”
Apparently Nimbus really was small enough to slip through the bars, ‘cause she was on the other side watching us fight. “Keep moving! Now!”
“Huh?” I did a quick pivot. “Ohcrapohcrapohcrap!” Behind that boulder came the biggest, fastest one of all, and by that I mean I had an entire troll flying right at me. It’s just not fair for something that large to be that agile. Of course, it’s not fair for me to be so much faster and cooler than everypony else either, so I guess some of us are just born awesome like that. A slower pony wouldn’t have been able to twist out of the way at the last second, for instance. Big ugly went on past and slammed into the gate, which turned out to be the only thing around he couldn’t pulverize on contact. The bars bent in a little, though. The impact left him dazed enough that he staggered around and ran into a nearby torch on the wall.
Nimbus slipped back through to our side, keeping an eye on the groggy troll below. “Nice dodge. Keep on not dying, I have an idea.” She started flying up to Autumn, then stopped. “Try to make him mad. You should remember why.”
If she thought she could sucker punch this guy, she had another thing coming. He was just glaring up at me for the time being. One hand was clamped down on his head, and thin trails of smoke seeped between the fingers. The torch must’ve lit up his hair.
Red came over to me this time. “We’re learning his moves, but he’s learning ours,” he said. “And I bet he can keep going longer than we can.”
“Nimbus wants us to tick him off some more,” I replied. I kept my eyes on the troll, and he kept his eyes on us. “You know, I didn’t think moss could burn.”
“Beats me. We don’t exactly get a lot of it in Canterlot. But if it can... hm.” He didn’t finish the thought, but he started looking around the cavern. The lights lining the wall still blazed away. “That’ll work. Be right back!” These weren’t pony torches either. They were the short, stubby kind made by people who don’t have to worry about holding an open flame less than a hoof away from their face using their teeth. That was when I knew for sure that Red Sky was seriously a crazy pony, ‘cause he flew over and wrenched one right off the wall like it was part of a Wonderbolts routine. Maybe it’s something new they’re working on. One way or the other, he darted over to Basalt and rammed the burning end of the torch into the moss carpeting the troll’s back.
“Hey! What you doing? Leave dat alone!” He twisted around to shake Red off, but the damage was already done, and a full-blown fire erupted in a spot his arms couldn’t reach. Red dropped the stub on the troll’s head for good measure and took off, one side of his suit’s mask scorched black. Basalt erupted into a towering column of flame behind him, finally bringing some real light to the dim cavern. “No! No! Make it stop!”
“Okay Nimbus, he’s mad and on fire,” I called up. “I hope your brilliant idea is about ready!” She and Autumn were doing something up on the ceiling, but for all I knew they were making bets on which one of us bit it first.
“You... you burned it! Dat took monts ta grow!” I guess the moss was some sort of troll fashion statement. Who knew?
“Nimbus!” All I could hear over the enraged troll was some angry mumbling from above and Red’s heavy breathing. He never did get that drink earlier, and he definitely wasn’t looking good after a stunt like that.
“Stupid ponies burned it all! Stupid... stupid... gaaaaaaarrgh!” If being pounced by a troll over and over was bad before, now it was ten times worse. He gave up on making actual words and charged at us like a living meteor, anger burning in his ruby eyes hotter than the actual fire. I grabbed Red and dragged him up out of arm’s reach. Dealing with flying rocks seemed safer than hanging around the bottom all of a sudden.
“Guys? Hello? Little help?” The troll must not’ve seen us fly away, because he went completely berserk, howling with rage and punching the floor at random. If any of us did land, we’d probably break something trying to run across all the gravel and craters.
“Got it!” There was a loud cracking noise, and one of the big chains attached to the gate fell from the ceiling and crashed into the floor. “Miss Dash, take that and secure the target! Hurry!” Tie up the incredibly dangerous flaming troll with the incredibly heavy hunk of metal. Great.
But if Rainbow Dash can’t do it, it can’t be done, right? I dove for the loose end. Heavy doesn’t begin to describe it. Okay, I carried four ponies at once earlier that day, but it turns out that a pony is a lot lighter than a pony’s size in steel. It took everything I had just to get the chain off the ground, and my legs were screaming from the beating they took earlier. And then Basalt saw me. He charged.
I’ve never been so happy to see another pair of hooves, even when they did turn out to belong to Nimbus. She’s small, but she was enough to pick up the slack and get us both out of the way before we got flattened. The troll slammed into the outstretched chain, swinging the two of us at the end in a wide arc around it. We used the momentum to start flying a loop around his chest, wrapping him up link by link. He pulled at the chain, but didn’t think to just grab us. Autumn and Red came down with the other one soon after and wound around him going the other way. I’d like to see AJ top that with her little rope.
Not that it stopped the big guy from trying to break out. Being on fire and weighed down by a ton of metal still wasn’t enough to bring him down. If he’d just walked over to the gate, there probably would’ve been enough slack for the loops to fall right off. Instead, he thrashed and roared and kept pulling against them. Red floated in front of his face again, opposite the exit cave. “Well, so much... so much for your boss’s... deathtrap... eh?” The poor guy was completely out of breath.
“Rrrragh!” Basalt flung himself forward as hard as he could. Something groaned, and Autumn motioned for us to back away from the gate.
“Yeah, I... I don’t feel like talking either. We’ll be back later. I don’t know where we’re going to find a balloon to fly you across the border around here, though.”
“GRRRAAAAAAHHH!” The chains snapped taut one last time, and then I learned what a horrible sound tearing metal makes. It’s like hearing a thousand cats clawing a chalkboard. The gate itself held together, but whoever built it didn’t put as much effort into the supports holding it in place, ‘cause they ripped right apart. The whole thing went flying through the air and clobbered Basalt from behind, sending him crashing to the ground for good in a flaming heap. Freedom at last!
“Everypony, let’s go!” Red tore out of there like a light and vanished into the mist, myself and the other Wonderbolts right behind him. None of us looked back.
Seriously, I’m never following anypony into a cave again.