//------------------------------// // Oh, For Searo's Sake // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// “Uhmmm…” Rainbow Dash blinked into the high winds of a morning sky. “Uhhhh…” Roarke tilted her helmet aside, gazing at her wingpony as they both hovered over a thick bed of clouds. “Anyday now.” “Uhhhhh…” Rainbow Dash gulped. “That’s… uh… that’s a big ship.” Roarke returned to gazing at the hulking body of the Lightning Bearer as it lifted up from the marshlands below and rumbled its way east. The ship’s twin dirigibles blotted out the sun as it coasted towards the horizon. “Eh… I’ve seen bigger.” “Well, no wonder you and Khao’s other lackeys got totally, righteously owned,” Rainbow remarked, glancing down at the stallion in her grasp. “That friggin’ hunk of bolts could blast a hole through a mountain!” “Actually… uhm…” Zaid’s eyes narrowed as he continued dangling perilously dangling from the pegasus’ grip. “That ain’t the ship that smoked us.” “No?” “Nah. It’s totally different. It’s way bigger, not to mention it has two dirigibles instead of one.” “Maybe it ate the ship that took Kera,” Roarke muttered. “Hey! Yeah!” Zaid smirked. “Maybe you’re right! It’s got a big enough metal belly for it!” Roarke sighed, her voice taking a grumbling tone. “Rainbow, you certain the lavender light is situated inside that thing?” Rainbow gulped. “I wish it wasn’t,” she said. “But it’s in there, alright, and it’s moving from the top deck to some place deep in the center of the thing.” “I see,” Roarke muttered. “Well, attacking a Top Class Ledomaritan State of the Art Flying Fortress is a viable option. I very much doubt we’d live through it, but bucket lists certainly don’t kick themselves.” “Look, let’s not freak out too much, okay?” “Who said I was freaking out?” “I can tell, alright? I’m already seeing the perspiration on your… erm… helmet.” “Meh.” “Let’s just rest a moment and think this through.” Rainbow Dash hovered to a cloud bed. She placed Zaid down and perched on the mist’s wispy edge. “If they’re not armed to the teeth, they’ll at least have a crapton of guards waiting to tear us apart--” “Uhm…” Roarke fidgeted in mid-hover. Rainbow looked up at her. “Yes? Does Roarke most Rare already have an idea?” “No.” Roarke pointed. “Why’d you just drop the breeder?” “Huh?!” Rainbow Dash looked down at the fresh, gaping hole in the cloud beside her. “Luna Poop!” She dove in a sapphiric blur. Roarke watched, craning her neck patiently. After a few seconds, Rainbow Dash hovered back up through the hole, grunting as she once again sported the weight of a frazzled stallion in her grasp. “Nnngh! My bad. Been ages since I sat on a cloud. My head’s in other places.” “At least y-you g-got a head…” Zaid wheezed. He swallowed down a bubble of bile while his nostril lost a trickle of blood. “Wake me when the universe stops spinning.” “If he dies, can I have his kidneys?” Roarke asked. “No!” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Can we please talk about the situation at hoof?!” “What’s to talk about?” Roarke gestured towards the hulking dreadnaught in the distance. “We’re obviously outnumbered. The only fortuitous thing to do is wait for the thing to engage another ship in combat and attempt boarding it while they’re distracted.” “And wait for all sorts of horribad crap to happen to Kera in the meantime?!” Rainbow Dash frowned. “No way, Roarke! We owe it to her to act immediately!” She gazed up at the bright blue morning sky. “You know this place more than I do. What’s the weather like?” “Uhm, muggy?” Roarke pointed at thin wisps of air drifting over the marshlands below. “Humid, hot, lots of moisture.” “So I’m guessing convection is a big thing here?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Hot air collecting into tall, vertical clouds that breed thunderstorms in the late day?” “If that’s how feathered ponies describe it, then sure.” “I think it’s time I put my cloud kicking talents into work.” Rainbow Dash drifted over. “Here, hold the ‘breeder.’” Roarke merely stared at Rainbow. “Do I have to?” “Do you know how to shove clouds around and form an early afternoon thunderstorm?” “I’m a metal mare, not a meteorologist.” “Yeah, good thing you’re not both or else you’d have a lot more rust.” “Bite your tongue!” Roarke snapped. “I do not have any rust!” “Prove it.” Rainbow Dash shoved Zaid into Roarke’s metal grip. “Do some exercise. I gotta go make us some cover.” “For what?” “For awesomeness!” Rainbow Dash said with a devilish smirk. She shot eastward, bursting through a wave of mist and collecting the moisture with her wings. “And try to keep up with the ship! But don’t go too low or else they’ll see us before they need to!” Roarke hovered, alone with Zaid in her grip. “Uhhhh…” Zaid fidgeted. “Why would I be an accessory to exercise? Do I weigh a lot?” “Ohhhh how I would love to test that,” Roarke droned. “I’m not sure how to break this to you, but I think I could do with a bathroom break.” “What’s stopping you?” Roarke drifted forward, her helmeted eyes on Rainbow Dash. “We could use some hailstones to knock sense into her.” “Heh! Yaaay!” A trickling noise in the wind. “I’m being useful!” “Hmmm? Oh for Searo’s sake!"