The ringing in Bellesmith’s ears was still settling by the time her vision returned. The first thing she saw was the horizon tilted at forty-five degrees. Smoke billowed out from the starboard stern of the Noble Jury, and it parted just long enough to reveal the looming shape the Steel Wing above.
“Pilate…” Her lips moved slowly. She pulled herself up, wincing. Her ears popped as she forced her jaws to open and shut. “Pilate, beloved, where… where…?”
Something pierced the ringing noise: a dull shout. In a blink, time resumed, and Belle spotted a mana-powered skiff hovering abreast of the Jury. The first of many stallions stood on the edge, training a manarifle on the top deck of Floydien’s ship.
A lavender body blurred past Belle. She felt her breath leaving her, but she still couldn’t make out the sound of her own lungs producing the ex mercenary’s name.
“Freeze!” The enforcer atop the transport vessel shouted. “Hold your ground--”
“Everpony!” Eagle Eye shouted to the air as he levitated his sword and shield in mid gallop. “Get below deck!”
“Eagle--” Ebon’s voice sputtered from the far end of the ship.
“Take him down!” The stallion aboard the skiff fired.
“Nnnngh!” Eagle blocked with his shield, spun, and swung his sword high. “Yaaaaugh!”
The blade sliced clean through the soldier’s rifle, littering his body with flying crystal fragments. As the soldier fell back with a gasp, two more jumped out and landed on the Noble Jury’s top deck. They drew sparkling tasers and twirled their way into Eagle with a series of rapid attacks.
The unicorn blocked and deflected, sparks showering between him and his foes. Sweating through his violet bangs, he caught the forelimbs of one attacker with his hooves and tripped him. Twirling his body, he launched the stallion’s figure like a club into his partner.
Three more stallions jumped down. They surrounded Eagle Eye on all sides.
Belle stood up. “Eagle Eye! Stand down!” her voice cracked. “They’re too much for--”
“Get off our ship!!” He charged one, sword-and-shield criss crossing.
The stallion knocked the blow aside and stabbed forward with his taser.
The attack grazed Eagle Eye in the shoulder. He hissed, bleeding from the sliced throw, and bucked the unicorn in the side.
Two more attacked his flanks.
He threw his shield at them then attacked as they ducked. He pressed his blade against their combined tasers, then gnashed his teeth as a beam of energy coursed through his horn. The air whistled, and then the sword flew back on lavender streams, ricocheting off the two enforcers’ skulls like coconuts.
A series of hooves landed heavily behind him.
“Raaaugh!” Eagle Eye spun, only to feel his sword freezing in mid-air. His body jolted to a stop from the telekinetic grip and his eyes widened.
Shell’s singular gaze narrowed in response. With a tattered gray mane blowing in the wind, he simply thrust his horn forward.
Eagle’s own shield uppercutted him across the chin. He fell back, only to be pummeled in the skull by the handle of his own blade. The petite stallion fell down to the ground in a crumpled mess, spitting up blood and wheezing in pain.
“Eagle Eye!” Belle shrieked.
Two stallions stood achingly up besides Shell. A beam of golden energy flew out of nowhere and slammed one to the ground. Shell’s head jerked to the side.
“Away with your stabby glimmer!” Floydien hissed, crawling up from behind Props’ and Simon’s writhing bodies. The elk gritted his teeth around a bloodstained muzzle as he charged across the deck with sparkling antlers. “Away with it! Blast you--”
With a dim aura, his antlers detached from his own skull. The elk’s energy field died out. Floydien’s eyes cooled to a panicked brown as he gawked at the floating branches--only to be pummeled several times in the face by the things. “Ooof! Auggh! Spit!” The antlers swept low, tripping his cloven hooves out from underneath him. Floydien fell down hard, his weight making the whole ship shake with a miniature thunderclap.
Shell’s horn stopped glowing. As the antlers clattered to the deck, he glanced aside and motioned to his fellow enforcers.
Getting up and gathering their weapons, the Ledomaritan soldiers swiftly and mercilessly dragged the crew of the Noble Jury into the center of the leaning deck. Props’ groaned in fitful spasms as she and Simon were shoved against Belle’s right side. Ebon and Eagle Eye were dragged and forced to sit behind her, with Ebon receiving a swift kick to the spine for good measure. And to Belle’s left--
“Ooomf!” Pilate hissed, half of his mane soaked in fresh blood. He twitched as he sat on bruised knees.
“Pilate…” Belle turned towards him, and she started to hyperventilate. “Oh, Pilate!” She leaned in, nuzzling him desperately. “I thought I had lost you! I thought I had--”
“Rrrgh!” An enforcer reached in and slammed Belle’s shattered horn with the butt of his rifle.
“Aaaugh!” Belle cried as she slumped to the top deck.
“Don’t touch her!” Pilate snarled with sudden menace. “Do you hear me?! Don’t touch a single hair on her--” The enforcer’s rifle swung again, this time across his lips. He spat blood and leaned over, sputtering.
A deep voice cleared its throat.
The bedlam died in an instant. All was wind and shuddering breaths.
Belle felt a cold, cold hoof tilting her chin up. She wearily complied, and the first thing she saw was a dangling pale horn at the end of a chain. She recognized the color instantly, and the taste of bile rose in her throat.
“My good doctor…”
With quivering lips, Belle was forced to tilt her head up. She followed the metal chain from the horn to the stallion’s scarred face.
“...I have come to collect one of two things,” Shell hummed, his one good eye twitching beneath a frazzled mane. “The Council’s target… or your cowardly spine.” He swallowed and leaned forward with a rattle of the necklace. “Do you not see? I’ve given you the gift of choice. Now…” He gritted his teeth as a hellish spark billowed behind his pupil. “...choose wisely.”