"Tell her that her hunter awaits in the latest wound her evil path has carved into the heart of this Queen's holy continent! Scrkkkkk!"
Rainbow Dash flew west.
Her lungs heaved.
The wind pelted her face, freezing the edges of her eyelids as she squinted against the misty mountain air.
Her pendant rattled beneath her neck, an ever-present weight tugging her towards the jagged peaks swirling below.
All became a fog, dully throbbing into her ears as her mind resonated with that hideous voice.
Snarling, she beat her wings faster, causing the air to whistle around her knifing body as she pressed herself due west, retracing the Noble Jury's gliding path at four times the speed.
On board the Jury, ponies scrambled.
"Turn us about, Floydien!" Josho grumbled. "Spark Dammit! Faster!"
"Make up your spit!" The elk shouted from deep within the cockpit where he had already rushed in. "Nancy Jane can't very well make it anywhere if she flies apart!"
Props' voice rang from an intercom. "I-I can't activate the main skystone core without blowing us up sky high! B-but I can overload the steam manifolds to g-give us an initial burst!"
"Do it, Propsy!" Ebon exclaimed. "Every little bit helps!"
"This is nuts!" Zaid panted, turning to look wide-eyed at Roarke. "Couldn't you have gone with her?! All she had to do was—I dunno—carry your badflank self or something!"
"It wasn't her choice," Roarke said coldly. However, there was the slightest hint of a tremble as she shook her head. "Besides, we both know that I would have only weighed her down." She gulped and stared towards the western horizon just as the vessel spun its way around. "What she needs right now is speed..."
Zaid bit his lip. He turned towards Eagle Eye.
The hyperventilating stallion sat in the middle of the deck, slumped on his knees. His tearful eyes remained locked on the soundstone as it rocked and teetered with the shifting weight of the Jury.
"Shhhh... cease your weeping, child." The distorted sound of muffled sobs. "This is a beautiful thing. This is a reunion." A high-pitched whine, followed by a metallic scraping sound. "Just as the monster bathed me in the ashes of my beloved daughter...Scrkkkk I... will... Scrkkk—Give her a most honorable baptism—Scrkkk!" More scraping, then a horrible crunch as the source of the transmission shattered on the other end.
The sound stone went dead.
Thunder rolled in the distance, which is how Rainbow Dash knew she was getting close. She saw distant strobes of natural light to the northwest. Black clouds hung over the sharp mountainous ridges, showing brief silhouette flashes of a valley beyond the knifing heights.
Rainbow bulleted straight towards it, her breaths reaching a fever pitch. As the air shrieked past her ears, she clenched her eyes shut and gnashed her teeth.
"Twists and turns are my master plan..."
A squeaking sob broke out of her throat. She flashed her eyes open.
Ponyville hung beneath her, a chaotic jigsaw puzzle of what it once was.
No matter how hard or how fast that she flew, the ring of five ashen piles still waited for her...
Beyond her hooves' reach...
"...Then find the elements back where you began."
Her pupils burned red against yellow pools. She blinked hard and growled.
"No..."
She flew faster, angling her body so that a cone of air formed on either side of her sharp wings.
"Not again..."
The atmosphere split apart with a thunderous boom.
She came out the other end, sobbing.
"Please... Luna... Celestia... not again!"
She entered the valley like a comet, surging towards the drizzly darkness below.