I had both guns at the ready as the Pegasus flying at me closed the distance. To my surprise, however, she seemed to notice the barrier in time and careened off to the side and circled around before she impacted. I watched her from the center of the deck as she flew like a hawk around The Gilgamesh.
I noticed the chariots were still at least five miles away, leaving me and the pegasus with about a minute or less to settle anything uninterrupted. I kept one pistol aimed at her and smiled. “Care to tell me your name flyer?”
The blue pegasus growled as she flew above. “Like I’d tell scum like you!”
I shrugged and shook my head. “It was worth a shot.” I walked over to the steering wheel of the ship and flicked a switch underneath. The barrier flickered for a moment before turning off, and as soon as the pegasus dived in I flicked it back on. I readied the second gun and kept my aim on her. “Just you and me now.” She landed on the deck and we glared into each other’s eyes. Her wings were flared as we both circled around the deck, waiting on the other to make the first move.
It didn’t take long for the pegasus to decide to charge me headlong. I sidestepped and fired a shot at her as she passed me. She flapped her wings sending herself off to the side, and the bullet impacted in the ground shattering into a cloud of blue smoke that rose about two feet off the ground on impact.
The pegasus grinned and laughed at me. “Ha! You’ll have to be faster than that to... to...” The smoke passed over her from the wind blowing and she started to stumble. “What the hay... Why am I so... sleepy?” She fell forward onto the deck and was out like a light. Her soft snores showing that she was still alive and well.
I twirled the pistol I had fired and put both back in the holsters attached to the bandoliers. I stepped next to the pony as I looked at the incoming chariots. Most were filled with Unicorn guards, but one in particular caught my eye.
While this one had the same guards, it’s passengers were different. It had a variety of color as two unicorns, two earth ponies, and a pegasus rode in it, staring down at me and the unconscious pegasus next to me. The purple unicorn gasped with the rest before shouting. “Rainbow!”
The moment the word left her mouth I felt a sharp pain behind my left eye, as I felt an old memory rise out of my mind. I couldn’t make out what was being said clearly, and whenever the person talking would say my name, it always sounded like a bunch of static for a moment.
“Come on *********, it’ll be fun!”
“Katie, do I***ave too? It was a stupid *************ow then and it still is now.”
“Please ***** I pr************like it. Rainbow Dash isn’t********** character as you think. There’s even a massi********** that’s full of ***********.”
*sigh* “Fine. I’ll ************ if you’ll stop bugging me about *********** back to my school work afterwards, okay?”
“WOOHOO! Alright!”
I shook my head to get rid of the memory and looked back up. The pegasus guards were now circling above the Gilgamesh and some of the unicorns had begun to fire beams at the shield. Two got clever and shot at the same spot, causing a hole to form in the shield. The other guards stopped their assault and as their pilots flew by they jumped into the hole and landed around the deck either using spells or the railing to slow their descent.
I looked at them as they readied spears and swords around me before tipping my hat down over my eyes. “Gentlemen, I’ll give you one chance, either leave my ship peacefully with Miss Dash here,” my left hand rested on the hilt of my sword, causing the blade to turn enough to gleam, “or I will be forced to remove you myself.”
The guards either kept their spears pointed at me, attained a more defensive stance, or gave a fellow guard an arrogant smirk. Good, there’s the recruits and there’s the veterans in this mess. One of the more experience guards came closer to me and shouted. “By order of Princess Celestia, you are hereby under arrest!”
I reached to my side and grabbed my sword. I swung out and sent a wave of air across every guard before readying my blade above my head while I held my left arm out, palm up. “Very well.” My gaze narrowed. “You’ve made your choice.”
I flicked my blade and each of the weapons they held at the ready split in two. The lead guard jumped in surprise as his spear was destroyed and didn’t notice me as I came in to kick his jaw. He was sent flying over most of his soldiers and crashed into the far back row, knocking out more guards and injuring a few others.
The remaining guards grabbed the spare weapons they had been armed with before trying to charge. With a quick flick of my wrist, I riposted the first blade and then brought the hilt of my sword into the guard’s head. I grabbed him by the horn before he fell and sent him flying into more guards, causing the whole lot to crash into some barrels that were on deck. A veteran soldier started sending blasts of magic at me, forcing me to dodge his fellow guards and block the beams of magic as he launched stun after stun spell. Each shot that hit and each magic wielded blade that came in contact with the sword caused it to glow a faint blue that grew brighter as each clash with the blade.
I danced around the deck and pulled out one of my pistols while dodging. I flicked two bullets out of the bandelier with the grip, a Lapis and Topaz bullet, and loaded them into the chamber midair while flipping over another guard. I vaulted into the air and shot downwards and a blue and yellow blast crashed into the deck, letting out a cloud of sleeping gas that forcefully spread across the deck. Most of the guards had been hit by the blast, but more started coming through the hole and landed around me. The veteran from before also had avoided the blast, and was still firing at me from near the ship’s front
More blasts of magic were fired at me from all sides. I spun around and slashed most of them in half before jumping out of the way. The blade of my sword had only intensified through all this and I started making my way closer to the veteran guard as soon as the blade started glowing a magnificent cerulean. His colleagues tried to grab me during my charge and only managed to catch the air where I was standing previously. The ones who attempted to attack were used as stepping stones as I vaulted faster at the veteran.
The guard started firing more shots that kept missing and hitting the guards behind and around me as I dodged and deflected them with both my blade and his fellow guards occasionally. His eyes widened just before I stepped on his face and vaulted high over the entire deck. I felt my blade vibrate for a moment as I swung down and pulled the trigger on the hilt, causing a barrage of blue bolts to mercilessly crash into the deck of the ship. Any guard that wasn’t unconscious was soon coated in ice and completely immobilized under the onslaught of ice magic that they had provided me.
I landed on my feet with a small thump in the center of the deck and looked around to survey the damage done. There were the fifteen I had knocked unconscious along with Rainbow, and then there were twenty seven more that were now currently icescultpers. They would melt free in three hours or so, so I looked up and hummed for a moment. I started to walk when I felt a sharp pain in my left leg. A quick look showed some blue arcs crackling across it, the signs of a stun spell glancing me at the last minute. I reached into my coat and pulled out a small vial filled with a blue liquid and poured it on my leg, causing the spell to dissipate completely. I put the empty vial back into my coat next to a green one labeled Antidote before I stood up and looked at a certain pegasus.
I walked back over to Rainbow, before I picked up the sleeping pegasus. I looked up at the remaining pegasus guards as I made my way back to the wheel of the ship. I put a hand on the switch that would lower the barrier before shouting up at the remaining soldiers. “Attention Royal Guards! I have three options to chose from! Either you come and pick up your fellow guards and the civilian without attacking when I lower this barrier, or you can attack me head on and risk the safety of all six civilians and your fellow guards. Your final option is to flee, but I doubt that any of you plan on doing so on your honor. The first ensures that you all will leave unscathed further, the second and third will see to it that you’ll regret not taking the first, whether it be by my hand or not.”
“You have thirty seconds.”
The chariots circled for a moment before one of the lead flyers snorted. “We don’t have a choice men! Have the chariot with the elements prepare to land! As soon as they're off, bring them in one at a time and pick up your squad!”
I flicked the barrier off and the chariot holding the purple unicorn and the other civilians touched down. I walked over to the chariot as the purple one started getting off of the chariot. I put Rainbow down on the ground and looked down at the purple unicorn. “Take your friend and leave. I did not want any trouble to begin with.”
She gulped a little and lifted her friend onto the chariot in a violet aura. As she did, the touch of her magic slipping between my fingers and the pegasus was... different. While a normal unicorn’s magic was slightly heated, her’s was as warm as a fresh baked confection. There’s something special about her... I can tell. I’m not quite sure what though.
As Rainbow landed on the chariot, her other friends all hurriedly huddled around the downed pegasus. Seeing the worry on their faces I smiled a little. “There’s no need to worry, she’s simply asleep and will wake up in about an hour or two. Now if you would please leave so that the other chariots can board and pick up their fellow soldiers I would be grateful.”
Put off by my sudden change in attitude, the unicorn moved back onto the chariot and kept her gaze on me. Some of her friends looked at me as well, and I thought I saw something familiar. I was broken from my thought when the chariot holding them took off.
The next chariot landed and only one guard unhitched from the rest. He was the one who was shouting all the orders, and the decorations on his armor said much about him. “Alright criminal, you won. What are your terms for releasing my squad?”
I glared down at him and sheathed my sword. “Get them off my ship. That’s all I want. To be left alone.” I grabbed one of the unconscious guards and tossed him ungracefully into the chariot.
The captain seemed shocked and blinked a few times. “That’s it? No ransom?”
I picked up a second one who was frozen and heard him growling at me as I loaded him on as well. “Not at all. I have everything I need. Now if you’d help me get your squad onto the chariots I’d be thankful.” Three more guards later, the next chariot came down. Then the next, then the next.
The last chariot was almost finished being loaded when the guard spoke up. “Who are you? You’re labeled as one of the most dangerous villains to ever face the princess, yet you let us live. Why?”
I chuckled. “I’m just an inventor. I don’t kill on purpose.” As soon as the last guard was off of my ship, I reactivated the barrier and took the ship off of auto. I steered it away from the mountains and changed the ships heading to north east. Whatever town or city I saw first would be where I would start learning just what had changed in the world over the past 1500 years, and most definitely would grab a bloody map. I reached down under the deck again and flicked a second switch that was to the right of the first one, causing the ship’s barrier to change color into a light red. To anyone else outside, the ship had simply vanished into thin air.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “To think this whole mess could have been avoided if Boris had just remembered about the cloaking system.” I clicked the radio on and messaged everyone onboard. “Everyone, it’s safe to come out now. The ship’s clear.”
Boris ran out after about a minute and was followed by Victoria. The rest of our happy little family started coming upstairs shortly after him. “Dad that was awesome! You were all like Swish! and then they were all Kapow! and then you sliced the air and cut all their spears in half! That was the greatest! thing! EVER!”
I smiled and raised an eyebrow as I looked at him. “And how exactly were you able to see anything from below deck?”
Boris started fumbling for an answer and Victoria sighed. “He was looking out a peep hole he drilled into the ship. You can see the whole deck from inside when you look through it.”
Boris huffed and glared at his sister as both Steve and Ed laughed. “VICKY! I told you to keep it a secret!” Victoria was smiling smugly as she stared back at her brother.
Ah, kids. They’re such bundles of fun. I’m going to enjoy this trip with them around.
(Canterlot)
As the chariots landed back at the castle, Celestia stood waiting for them with Luna at her side. When Celestia saw that I was not with them upon their arrival, her face fell into a frown. She looked at the closest guard, the captain of the squad, before speaking. “What happened to Invention?”
He bowed down and gave his report while grimacing. “Invention neutralized over half our squadron and even managed to capture the Element of Loyalty with ease, your highness. However he let us gather our fallen and take back the Element of Loyalty before vanishing completely.” Celestia glared at the horizon as she passed the bowing guard towards the railing of Canterlot.
Luna cast brief glances at the frozen guards before she walked over to Twilight and her friends. “Are all of you alright?”
Twilight nodded. “We’ll be fine Princess Luna. Rainbow’s asleep from whatever Invention did to her, but that’s all he’s done so far.” She paused for a moment before looking over towards the mountain range and frowning. “But I think you’ll need to tell us more about him Princess. I know you said he could build almost anything from nothing, but how in Equestria was he able to build an airship of that design?
Luna frowned and looked off to where her sister stood. “To be honest Twilight, even I do not know. He never revealed how he did so, and any notes we found after he was banished were either destroyed, or locked away so heavily that no magic could ever touch them. Not even mine.”
Meanwhile, the guard who had informed Celestia was resting off to the side. One of his squad was waking up and groaned as he rubbed his face. The Captain ran over to his subordinate and helped him up. “Are you alright Highwind?”
The unicorn grumbled as a long bruise was forming on his face. “The next time I see that oversized, tailless, naked dragon again...”
The Captain kept a neutral face and helped Highwind stand. “He’s not a dragon, Invention is what the Princess calls a Human. Did you forget that part of our briefing?”
Highwind snorted and took his helmet off, causing his coat and mane change into their natural colors, a sky blue and stark grey respectively. He glared out at the mountains as his twin lance cutie mark was revealed. “I mean no disrespect Captain, but right now I don’t care. Dragon or Human, I’m going to get Invention back for this. On my family name I swear it.”
The Captain looked at Highwind for a moment before sighing. “You never did like listening to orders.” He trotted over to stand next to Highwind before taking his own helmet off, and his colors remaining the same. “I know that I can’t change your mind, but I still have to remind you that it is the squad’s job to capture him, not just yours. If you go AWOL, I can’t help you and I will detain you.”
Highwind tisked for a moment before speaking again. “Can I at least request that I am allowed to use my spear Captain?”
The Captain laughed a little. “Of course. Every guard is allowed to customize their equipment aside from their armor. I’m not allowed to deny you that to begin with.” The Captian raised an eyebrow before looking at Highwind. “Did you really forget that from basic?”
Highwind smirked and turned his gaze back to the mountains. “Possibly.” He frowned as he started glaring at the same spot Celestia was. “Next time, I’ll be stepping on you, Invention. Not the other way around.”