//------------------------------// // Almost the Boss Fight... // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Rainbow's muzzle had grown numb from the pelting winds. Nevertheless, hours into her pursuit, she flew with heroic grace, all the while keeping the burning thrusters of the Lightning-Bearer in her sights. For the longest time, she pondered as to why an airship of such size and magnitude could actually outrun her. When she finally came within a close enough distance to discern the shapes standing on board, the pegasus began to understand. There were rows of Xonans lined up at the stern. These were not disguised like the rest of the "Ledomaritan" soldiers; their tattoos glowed into the murk of night. Instead, they stood like battle-mages, channeling their horns into the mana assembly of the ship's engines. Rainbow Dash didn't understand how, but she figured that they must have been accelerating the ship in some fashion, empowering it to fly faster than its normal means. Rainbow gritted her teeth beneath a smirking expression. She suddenly had a second wind beneath her wings, for she now understood a way that she could slow down the ship. The speed at which she was going now was startling. During her northwest glide, she found herself whizzing by mountains, rock deserts, and buttes at an alarming rate. The scars of war blurred beneath her, but she didn't have the time or attention to observe them. Instead, she angled her wings until she was veritably whistling her way into the starlight. The Lightning-Bearer's thrusters were menacingly bright things in her perspective at this point. Rainbow's ears rang with thunder and her eyes had to adjust to the bright-blue glow pulsating in a thick line before her. It felt like a summer's day by the time she came within spitting distance. All of the sudden, the air heated up, and Rainbow Dash felt herself jerking forward—as if with an unexpected boost of acceleration. She gasped, finding the need to actually pivot her wings as split-second wind brakes. With careful coordination, she slowed down and kept a steady pace directly behind the vessel's thrusters. In her peripheral vision, she spotted wavering mirages. The starry night was distorted around her, and Rainbow realized that she must have reached a vaporous pocket positioned directly behind the massive, speeding battleship. This was it... Ascending slightly, Rainbow leveled herself with the warrior mages situated on the ship's stern. A fresh curtain of sweat ran down her brow, obscuring her view of the Xonans. She fixed that with a forelimb brushed across her face. Concentrating, she then pressed her hoof to her ruby pendant, rubbing the lightning bolt in tiny little circles. None of the Xonans noticed her, which is what made this moment so perfect. Rainbow Dash held her breath. Her eyes flickered a bright red to match the ruby of her Element of Loyalty. Soon, her necklace glowed like a miniature star, and she tilted her neck so that the magnitude of the luminescence focused forward in a straight beam. At first, it had no effect on the ponies lined up before the engine. Rainbow tried strafing sideways in mid-flight. It took some straining, but her eyes caught the glint of her ruby light flouncing across the Lightning Bearer's rear bulkheads. With careful precision, she moved and tilted her upper body so that the "lightning bolt" shaped spotlight swam over the Xonan bodies... and then came to a rest over a single mage's meditative face. "Come on..." Rainbow Dash hissed, her wings beating, her coat sweating, her eyes and pendant glowing amidst the speed and fury. "Come on...!" At last, something happened. The mage's face tensed up. His tattoos flickered—soon followed by his horn. At last, his magic dwindled as he lost all concentration. He opened his eyes and gasped inaudibly, his whole face flinching from the direct beam of Rainbow's pendant. As he stumbled back and fell to his side, Rainbow glided to her right and cast the beam over another Xonan's face. This stallion reacted much more swiftly than the first. He opened his eyes, instantly regretted it, and stumbled sideways in a blind fashion—hissing in pain. In his clumsy collapse, he bumped into another mage, and both of them fell to the ground, writhing. The rest of the line was clearly upset. Amidst the exchange of blue and red lights, Rainbow could make out their tattoos and horns flickering, like lightning bulbs burning out their fuses. That wasn't all that she noticed; the thrusters were suddenly looming towards her, as if the engines wanted to burn her alive. It took Rainbow two and a half thoughts to realize that the worst case scenario was actually the best. She was slowing the ship down, and now she had to decelerate in order to avoid being burnt to a crisp. "Yeah!" Rainbow Dash grinned a crescent moon. The speeding mountaintops to either side of her were now coming to a slow glide. "Yeah! Yeah!" With a devilish smirk, she focused her ruby beam on the last few mages who were lined up. "Pull over and show me your licenses, ya melon fudges!" "Reevuul thulien dranda keleen!" A helmspony shouted. He turned from the ship's controls and stared, wide-eyed, at his superior across the top deck of the Lightning Bearer. "Venuusen graat! Rekka fraan saladrenna mesuul thien!" Arcshod trotted forward, his brow furrowed. "Dranda keleeniulen?!" He hissed through gritted teeth. "Mekkana hraajuut sutuulien bassim krein?" "Dreit, Arcshod Xon-Nagu'n." The lead Xonan rubbed his chin. Then, with a gasp, he slowly spun and stared at the stern of the ship. Several other disguised Xonans looked with him. One by one, the line of mages fell, until there were only four. "Threnna!" Arcshod snarled, breaking into a gallop. "Jaakulien burdreinnu trentte threnna!" Berets fell to the ground as several "Ledomaritans" charged along with them. Soon, an entire company of disguised soldiers stood at the ship's stern. Many of them knelt down and tended to the dizzied mages. The others, including Arcshod, stood at the very edge, squinting through the massive glow of slowing thruster engines in an attempt to spot their enemy. "Siulen!" One stallion gasped, pointing for the others to see. "Jaakuul rekkanna threnna!" "Oss Tray Oh..." Another murmured. Arcshod glared. In open view, Rainbow Dash could be seen strafing to her right, shining her ruby pendant into the last of the vigilent mages. The effect was of her interference was undeniable. The engines puttered to their normal, dull hum, and in a matter of seconds the pegasus would be able to naturally catch up with any part of the monsterous battleship and even board it. "Heradda drenna drezzu!" A warrior sneered. His tattoos briefly flickered through his disguise as he and several fellow soldiers pulled out their chaos necklaces and breathed on them. Portals started to open all around the soldiers. "Fekkara lassulien diul Nagu'n!" But before they could do anything, Arcshod raised his hoof. The soldiers gawked at him, their portals disappearing as swiftly as they were summoned. "Selvatta melunmas, Arcshod Xon-Nagu'n?" He slowly shook his head, a devilish grin sweeping across his large face. "Naasta, trennde diul Xon. Nagu'n rekkatharia." He looked up... up... So did the other soldiers. And they smiled. Rainbow Dash saw their expressions. Amidst her sweating, panting breaths, she glanced to the left and to the right. Everything looked normal... until the stars above disappeared. "Huh?" She twirled until she was flying upside down and looked straight up at the heavens. "What the..." A giant, wing-shaped figure blotted out the heavens. Two seconds later, that very same figure looked straight down at her. A pair slitted eyes pulsed with pale aquamarine fire, and then two burning mouths opened like demonic tears in the fabric of space. The air lit up with a ghoulish, falsetto scream, and spiraling plumes of flame soared down at Rainbow Dash, curling the tips of her feathers with their heat. "Luna Poop!" Rainbow shouted into the approach of a roasting death.