With a rush of air, Rainbow Dash glided down a corridor littered with debris and the tell-tale signs of a monumental battle. After two or three more turns, she found herself skimming the careening edge of a chaos strip foundry. At last, a huge chunk of broken glass opened up to the looming hangar of the collapsing Hold beyond.
Exiting, Rainbow levitated in a nervous hover over the loading bays. The Lightning Bearer was gone. Every dock was devoid of a manaship. As the floating mountain slanted further and further in its collapse, the pegasus could see chunks of discarded supplies and entire crates of metal sliding towards their various ledges and plummeting into the great hollow below.
Rainbow Dash panted, her eyes darting about. Every source of light was dimming. Loud reverberations echoed through the chamber as larger and larger cracks formed in the walls of the place. Rainbow’s mind was the clearest it had been in days, and she could almost make out the wailing sound of the demonic dragon that lived deep within that doomed hovel.
Pivoting about, she shone her ruby pendant’s glow across the remaining platforms that hadn’t entirely crumbled to dust. It was then that she saw bodies: hundreds of them. Droves of ponies lay motionless, all of them Xonans. The tell-tale signs of self-inflicted stab wounds glistened in the light that Rainbow had to give. The grave smelled of rust and decay, and it continued to crumble beneath her gaze, spilling corpses into the shadows.
Rainbow took a deep breath, clenching her eyes shut. Her wings flapped, flapped harder, and angled about. With a snarling expression, she tore her way towards the exit, following the trailing exhaust of the Lightning Bearer.
The ship in question had cleared the exit to the Sacred Hold minutes ago. It lifted, pivoted northwest, and made for the air above the nearby mountaintops.
On the top deck, Arcshod marched down the lines of busily working crewmembers in their Ledomaritan disguises. Spying the mountain peaks looming ahead, he shouted a command, and the massive dreadnaught lifted the last few dozen meters necessary to clear the gasp.
Adjusting his uniform, he glanced over his shoulder at the Sacred Hold. He saw two bodies darting after one another, exchanging clashes of sparks and miniature explosions. The stallion smirked, and then--with a glowing horn--shouted once more to the ponies on board.
The Lightning Bearer’s engines lit up and burned with a powerful burst of energy…
...accelerating the ship far away on its northwesterly path towards Seclorum’s headquarters.
Roarke spotted it through the corner of her eye-lenses, but she had very little time to react. Zytharros’ magic spewed at her in bright flashes of lightning-hot arcs. She twirled, alternated thrusters from her right horseshoes to her left, and dashed to her left, skimming the craggy surfaces of the Hold.
All the while, Zytharros Followed the metal mare’s tail, whipping the reins to his chaos serpent. His eyes alternated strobing with the blinding pulse of the chaos strip around his neck. With terribly imbued power, he urged the reptilian abomination forward, forcing its fanged jaws to nip and snap at the bounty hunter’s flailing limbs.
“Friggin’ worm fetishist--Buck off!” Roarke spun in her flight, rigged a shoulder-mounted energy cannon, and fired at his skull.
Quick thinking, Zytharros floated the armored plates off his body and re-formed his blade just in time to deflect her attack. With a snarl, he spun on his mounted serpent and slashed his bastard sword straight into the stone surface of the Hold blurring past him. With telekinetic assistance, he launched a volley of hot burning rubble into Roarke’s face.
She grunted, covering her exposed face with two forelimbs. When she lowered her hooves, she saw two miniature summons being thrown at her muzzle. The translucent snakes sailed towards her jugular. She fought them up, but lost speed with the flailing motion.
At last, Zytharros made contact with her. The flat edge of his blade smacked against her spine, shattering her energy launcher to shrapnel shreds.
“Gaaaugh!” Roarke shrieked and lost her balance. Her body slammed against the Hold. She tried kicking up, but the warrior had caught up, shoving her in the chest with the flat of his hoof. He scraped her body viciously against the stone surface, drawing a shallow canal for several meters.
Hissing in pain, Roarke unlatched her tail and spun it around his fetlock. Before she could send a pulse of electricity, he telekinetically twirled his blade, severing her prehensile prosthetic. She shrieked from the sparks and tried kicking away, only to have the tail of the serpent wrap three times around her.
The chaos beast roared and slammed her repeatedly against the stone surface before tossing her at full force. Her body flew, spun, then collapsed against the summit of the Hold. She bounced like a skipping stone and came to a grinding halt, twitching all over.
“Nnnn-mmmff…” Roarke tried standing up, only to collapse on wobbling limbs. She smelled smoke wafting out of of the joints of her armored suit. “Goddess, grant me a good death…”
Thud! The cracked surface of the summit fractured even more from all four of Zytharros’ hooves landing. “It is willing to oblige.”
Roarke wiped blood off her chin. “I didn’t say I was going out alone…” A panel in her left forelimb spun around, exposing a flickering runic explosive. Spinning about, she fired a loop of metal coils around him and yanked towards her. “Let’s hug it out--”
Zytharros snapped the cables clean with his sword.
Roarke twitched. “Oh sh--”
“Haaaaaugh!” He had already closed the distance between them and was slamming the hilt of his sword into her chest. As she collapsed, wheezing, he raised his rear hooves and pummeled her foreleg repeatedly until the runic explosive had imploded to useless, powdery bits. “No. It shall perish slowly…” He hissed.
“Haukkkt… nnngh…” Roarke rolled over, snickering in pain. “Oh please… the day a Breeder knows how to sh-show me a good time--”
“Silence!” He lifted her with telekinesis, let out a hideous growl, and slammed the tip of his blade into her chestpiece.
“Aaaugh!” Roarke yelped.
“No more tricks,” he sneered. “No more hiding. And no more heathen filth!” He fired a pulse of chaos energy up the length of his blade.
Roarke gasped as every single plate and layer of her suit popped off one by one. Finally, the hydraulic plugs blasted loose, exposing her thin, muscular body and the pale brown coat she was used to hiding. Once every outer strip of metal was cast to the wind, she was magically tossed to the ground where she rolled to a wincing stop.
“It wants a fitting end?” The Xonan spat. He pivoted about and hissed into his floating chaos strip. “Then feed Nagu’n’s children.” As he spoke, several fissures opened around him, glowing bright silver as a dozen floating serpents slithered through, joined by the large snake he had rode the bulk of the battle on. “Feed them all…” His tattooed muzzle curved in a rvenous grin.
Roarke twitched and looked up, her lenses reflecting a solid wall of reptile. “Hmmph…” She droned. “Groovy.”
They converged on her in a mass of snapping, tearing jaws.