No less than half a dozen zombie pegasi met their burning end in one fell swoop. Each swing Rainbow Dashmade of the sword sent the undead reeling instantly. The air filled with black ash as the purple muck evaporated from the proximity of the Sword of Solstice.
Rainbow Dash sweated from the sheer heat of the weapon's righteous fury. As she cleared out one end of the circular room, Pilate busied himself with the other half.
"Haaaugh!" The zebra came down, slamming the skull in of a beast with his staff before spinning about to block the attack of another diving monster. He sensed two flying at him from behind, so he twirled to meet their attack. However, in the midst of his spin, he realized he had moved too slow. He winced, expecting the teeth of either monster to sink into his neck at any moment.
Thunder cracked—a great deal louder than previous strikes of lightning. Suddenly, the two pegasi slumped to a soggy end at Pilate's hooves.
The zebra stood, panting, his brow furrowed beneath his helm. He sensed movement, and he tilted his head straight up. The hole to the top of the domed ceiling was clear, though he could have sworn that the faint traces of red-on-black lines denoted a streak leading away from the scene. He teetered for a while in dull confusion, then turned towards Rainbow Dash.
The mare was busy clearing away her half of the room with relative east. She was too preoccupied to notice a creature slipping through the melee and leaping at her flank.
"Rainbow!" Pilate shouted, immediately galloping her way. Without a second thought, the stallion leapt and threw his weight forward through his shoulder.
Wh-wham! The zebra plowed the monster to the ground with a clatter of metal armor.
Rainbow Dash felt the impact through her hooves. Twirling about, she saw the zombie pegasus reeling from Pilate's blow. She immediately spat the sword out, held it in the crooks of both forelimbs, and lunged forward with a massive down-thrust. "Haaaugh!"
The creature's skull split in two and the rest of it turned to ash. Rainbow Dash leaned forward against the sword, panting. She threw her mane back and murmured aside.
"Way to go, Stripesy." Her muzzle curved as she glanced at him. "Guess I got carried away there—" Her ears folded. "...Celestia."
Pilate lay on his side, convulsing. Half of his flank was covered with purple ooze, and it was spreading.
"Hnnkkkt..." The zebra clenched his teeth, his helm rattling as a hissing breath escaped his muzzle. "Blessed Spark, it burns."
Breathless, Rainbow Dash slumped down by the stallion's side. She watched with twitching eyes as the acidic muck thickened, as if a dozen unholy things were spawning from somewhere deep within.
"Rainbow..." Pilate hyperventilated, his voice squeaking in pain. "Please... tell Belle... t-tell her that I love her..." He gulped. "And I'm sorry."
Clank! Rainbow stabbed the sword into the ground half-an-inch from Pilate's prone body.
The stallion wheezed. "Rainbow...?"
She said nothing, gripping the hilt as she narrowed her gaze into a righteous glare. Between them, the Sword of Solstice glimmered with golden energy. The air grew warmer by the second, resonating with pulsating heat.
Suddenly, steam rose from Pilate's flank. The stallion winced slightly, then lay still as—inch by inch—the purple stain dissipated cleanly from his body. Within the space of a minute, the substance had completely evaporated. Pilate's flesh lay unblemished.
The zebra breathed easier and easier. He moved his lower limbs and was surprised to find that all the pain was gone.
Rainbow reached a hoof out. He grabbed it and was helped back to his hooves.
"What..." Pilate reeled, still stunned from the ordeal. "I-I mean... how? How did you do that just now?"
"I dunno..." Rainbow Dash said, pivoting the sword against the stone floor, gazing at it. "It just came to me naturally." She blinked, and a faint smile came to her lips. "Just as naturally as it once came to Hurricane, I bet."
Pilate stared at her, smiling awkwardly. He flinched, then spun towards the far ends of the room. "It's... so still in here..."
"I know..."
"What happened to all of the pegasi?"
"I think we cleared them all away, dude."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Spark alive... were they once Hurricane's soldiers?" Pilate glanced back at Rainbow. "Or a far more ancient race?"
"Who knows. Maybe both?" Rainbow Dash shrugged, glancing at the etched grooves in the floor. "Hmmmm..."
"What is it?"
Rainbow smirked. "Call it another natural hunch." She picked the sword up and trotted forward on three legs. "But I think I can make life easier for the other survivors in this place."
"Where are we headed?!" Bellesmith sputtered in the rain as she ran with the group along the outer rim of the circular structure. "This ship—the Tarkington—is it far away?"
"Over there!" Seclorum exclaimed, pointing with his hoof. "That large temple floating beneath the dark thunderloud!"
"Blessed Spark..." Belle stammered. "That has to be at least one hundred meters away!"
"There's another temple between us and them!" Prowse exclaimed. He spun around from where he stood along the windblown edge of the structure. "Alright, you bloody spark starters! Let's get a bridge made!"
"Spark... st-starters?" Josho remarked.
"I believe Unky Prowsy means 'unicorns,'" Props said.
"Hmmmf..." Prowse cocked his weaponized prosthetic. "Nopony asked you to be a bloomin' translator, lass."
"Hey, I gotta be useful at something!" Props blinked her goggled eyes. "Besides—of course—carrying the manacrystals and looking booty-full."
"We need to hurry!" Aatxe said, breathless as he leaned against Seclorum's side. "The beasts are right behind us! There's no telling how many more are out there in the storm clouds!"
"Then let's get this show on the road!" Seclorum pointed at a mess of zeppelin parts and overturned pillars. "Arcshod?! Why don't you get the bridge started?! You're the strongest of the bunch and—"
"What in Ledo's lingerie box?!" Josho barked.
Belle turned with "Eagle Eye's" body stirring on her back. "Josho, what is it?"
"Look for yourself!" The stallion pointed.
Murmurs ran across the thick crowd from Lasairfion to Prowse to Aatxe himself. Everypony watched in a shocked stupor as the two temples—the fractured one close to them and the distant structure with the Tarkington—floated ever so gradually towards them in a slow hover. Within the span of a minute, they both became three hundred percent easier to scale.
"It's... it's a miracle," Belle murmured.
"No way..." Josho rubbed his scruffy chin, then turned to squint towards the domed roof of the structure behind them. "Somehow, I smell a rainbow..."
"Is... is it working?" Pilate stammered.
"I'm willing to bet!" Rainbow Dash said through a smirking muzzle. She had stabbed the tip of the Sword of Solstice into the groove of the room's floor. Golden energy surged down into the niche, filling the grooves where the broken staves had once before. "If Hurricane wielded this thing, then I don't see why I can't work magic with it either!"
"What's the source of its power?"
"I'm not really sure. But I think the rainbow colored gemstones is something of a clue."
"They're rainbow colored?"
"Can't you tell?" Rainbow glanced up, blinking at his helm. "Oh. Right. Guess you can't."
"I wish all miracle devices worked the same, Rainbow."
"Heh. You and me both, brother." She reached a dead-end and had to pull the sword out. "Okay. I think that's as far as I can drag the temples outside."
"You're sure about that?"
"No. But we can't waste too much time second-guessing ourselves." She rushed over and grasped him by the hoof. "We got somewhere to go. You along for the ride?"
Pilate gulped and nodded with a rattle of his skystone shard. "As ready as I'll ever be."
"Think happy thoughts." Then, with a deep breath, she took off for the hole in the domed ceiling, carrying the determined stallion along with her.