Days later, Ebon Mane woke up early. He trotted across the mess hall of the Noble Jury—yawning to himself—and made his way into the kitchen. Once inside, he started cracking eggs and preparing an omelette. Thinking of Josho, he decided to make some pancackes on the side for good measure. It was an altogether pleasant morning, and he hummed a tune to himself as he went through the regular motions.
Things changed when he reached for a bottle of syrup from storage. His body jolted suddenly. He wheezed, feeling breathless, and teetered hard to his side. Pots and pans fell to the floor, and the stallion soon followed them.
"Ooof!" Ebon winced, hugging himself as he felt a burning sensation surge through his figure. His eyes clenched shut, tearing, and he felt as if thunder was roaring against the walls of his skull. As the agonizing seconds rolled by, the thunder took on a form, almost resembling a voice. Before he could hear what was being said, he sensed a pulse of light from beyond his lids.
Ebon opened his eyes. He sensed a faint green glow around him, glinting off the kitchen equipment. He realized that a reflective metal pan was to his right. He pivoted his head, looking. A pair of green orbs levitated just in front of his face. When he blinked, the orbs dimmed and turned bright again. Then, slowly, the green light faded, and Ebon was gazing at the reflection of a frightened, sweating stallion.
Slowly, he stood up, clutching himself as he shivered. "M... m-mother..." He blinked at himself, surprised at the suddeny utterance. Sniffling, he remained huddled there in the kitchen, leaning a cabinet as his lungs hyperventilated.
"How long did it last?" Eagle asked.
Ebon bit his lip, curled up atop the cot in the cabin across from him. "Not... not long. Seconds, maybe." He gulped. "But it felt like forever."
"You felt like you were burning on the inside?"
"Yeah..." Ebon nodded, his eyes quivering and frightened. "At f-first, I thought I was having maybe a heart attack... or a stroke. But it's not like any sort of sensation I've ever known about before. Something really scary took over me. And, what's more, I swear I saw a light..."
Eagle Eye cocked his head to the side. "A light?"
Ebon nodded.
Eagle shuffled over to the cot. "What kind of light?"
"Bright. Green. All around me."
"Green?"
"Or..." Ebon's eyes narrowed. "Or perhaps it was inside of me." He tilted his head up and stared at Eagle with a quivering lip. "And the only reason I sensed it everywhere was that it was all I could see!"
"That's..." Eagle fidgeted where he stood. "That's rather odd..."
"That isn't the end of it," Ebon said. "I... I had this loud rumbling in my ear. Only, it wasn't just noise... it was a voice."
"A voice?"
Ebon nodded and nodded. "I'm sure of it. It was speaking to me. Commanding me."
"Commanding you?" Eagle ran a hoof through his mane and fought to keep from shivering. "Commanding you to do what?"
"I... I don't know..." Ebon whimpered slightly. "But... b-but as soon as the worst of it was over, I... felt her..."
"Huh?"
"I sensed her. I smelled her. It's like I could crawl into her arms and be safe... and yet I was so scared, Eagle. It shocked me to my core..."
"Who are you talking about?"
Ebon exhaled. "My mother..." He clenched his teeth. "I swear, it feels like—for the first time in forever—she's actually trying to find me. And... and I-I've never experienced that before! And yet I have! And... and it's so confusing..."
Eagle said nothing.
"Eagle...?" Ebon sniffled, his eyes wattering up. "EE, I'm frightened..."
"Oh, Ebon..."
The stallion covered his eyes. "What's happening to me n-now?! What more do I h-have to deal with?! I can't stand it!"
Eagle slid up on the cot and held Ebon close. "You're safe. You're with me. You've got nothing to worry about."
"But wh-what's happening, then?!" Ebon sobbed quietly, burying his muzzle in Eagle's shoulder. "H-how can I be a reliable cook and Jurist if something like this is to happen again?"
"Whatever it is, you've fought your way past it!" Eagle smiled encouragingly. "If you had to, I'm sure you'd overcome it again!"
Ebon hiccuped and raised his puffy eyes to look into Eagle's. "But... wh-what makes you so certain it will happen again?"
Eagle instantly paled. His ears folded back.
Ebon saw it. He looked frightened. "EE...?"
Eagle took a deep breath. "Ebon, I..."
Ebon stared, his eyes moist and glistening.
Eagle swallowed a lump down his throat. His voice wavered as he said, "There's something I-I've been meaning to tell you. You must understand, that n-no matter how crazy this sounds, I love you for who you are... no matter what..."
"Huh...?" Ebon squirmed, leaning forward. "What is it?"
"You see, Ebon..." Eagle winced. "You... uh... uhm... you're a—"
CRACKKK! Out of nowhere, a gigantic three-pronged barb about the size of a pony smashed its way through the outer hull of the Jury, embedding into the stallions' chamber and coming to a violent stop just inches from their bodies.
"Gaaaaaaah!" Ebon threw himself into Eagle's embrace.
"Whoah!" Eagle teetered, toppled, and fell out of bed with Ebon. "Holy s—" THUD!
The entire ship was still shaking by the time Props regained her balance. She stood up, shaking the cobwebs out of her head. When she looked up, her goggles reflected over a dozen leaks in the steam pipes.
"Fuzzlecrap!" She swiped a wrench up in her teeth and galloped into action. The lavender glow of the caged book splattered her body with kaleidoscopic wipes as she tightened one pipe after another.
As the steam died down, Zaid stumbled into the engine room from next door navigation, coughing and waving the mists out from before his muzzle. "Whew! It's like a fish factory down here! Blondie, you okay?!"
"Mrmmf—mmfmfrff!" Props tightened two more pipes and turned her head towards him. Ptooie! "I-I dunno what happened, Zaidy Waidy! Something shook all the pipes loose!"
"We've been hit!" Zaid spat.
"We have?!"
"At least that's what Floydien said!"
"Yeah!" Props swung her way to another set of pipes and began banging away. "But by what?!"
"Kera! Darling!" Bellesmith hissed from across the mess hall. "Keep your head down!"
"But I see something out there!" Kera chirped, standing atop a chair as the ship shook and wobbled. Through the porthole, she spotted log cabins, wooden walkways, and crude towers. "It's a village! Why would a village attack us?!"
"I don't know!" Belle wheezed, motioning from where she squatted beside the couches in the lounge. "Now get over here!"
Kera scampered over, bright-eyed. "How could a village attack us?!"
"She's not falling!" an earth pony in wooden armor shouted from the rooftop of a two-story building. He lowered his binoculars and shouted across the town. "Ready cannon two!"
Across the street, a half-dozen earth ponies were turning and twisting the valves of a complicated, wood-mounted ballista. The barbs of the weapon's iron tip glistened from the overcast sky. Slowly, it tilted up from the ponies' collective labors and aimed at the Noble Jury above the treetops.
"I don't understand!" a young, frightened stallion stammered in the moist, alpine air. "That's the first time we ever hit her directly! Wouldn't it have killed her?!"
"She's obviously made of stronger stuff than we imagined, Keebroo," a grizzled old stallion said as he pulled at a coarse rope and tightened the ballista in place. "Grnnngh... but if you were there at the campsite like I was when it got torn off the face of the friggin' earth, then you wouldn't be any least bit surprised."
"But Drakshaa, seriously!" Keebroo shivered in his armor. "How can she take a javelin to the ribs and still live?!"
"Enough dayum chatter!" Drakshaa tilted his head and shouted over the other grunting ponies. "Hey Booster! Is the angle right?!"
Situated atop a wooden tower in the corner of the village, a golden-blonde stallion stared through a pair of face-mounted spyglasses. He licked his lips, leaning precariously forward on the edge of the lofty platform. "Almost there... coming around... like sky butter, yesssss..."
"Dammit, Booster!" Drakshaa shouted louder. "Snap out of it!"
Booster jerked nervously and raised his goggles. "Huh?!" His hazel eyes blinked.
"Can we friggin' hit her again or not?!"
"Raise it a little!" Booster shouted. "When she comes swooping, she'll have to raise her head up to blow fire! We can skewer her snout!"
"And that'll kill her for good, right?!"
"Well... technically, with its superior immune system being resilient to volatile infections—"
"Will it kill her or not?!"
"There's only one way to find out!"
"You heard the geek!" Drakshaa spat at the others. "Raise her up! We're gonna skin her alive by nightfall or else I'm a donkey's uncle!"
The ponies heaved and labored to tilted the ballista higher.
Eagle Eye stumbled up the stairwell, panting for breath. He came out onto the top deck—sliding towards the port side with a gasp. He hadn't anticipated the ship to lean so precariously. Just before the petite unicorn could plummet over the railing—
"Hey now!" Josho caught him with his telekinetic field and hoisted the stallion to his side. "I'd never figured you to suck at ballet."
"What in the h-hay is going on around here?!" Eagle stammered, clutching his shield.
"Some spit-sucking boomer shot a dagger through Floydien's beloved Nancy Jane!" shouted the elk from the cockpit.
"Yes, dammit, we know! Stick your antlers back up your butt" Josho hollered back. As the ship teetered on its circular course, he pointed over the side. "The javelin was fired from somewhere down there in Squalortown. We must have been passing over the village when some smartass decided to play target practice."
"But... wh-why hit us?!" Eagle stammered.
"I don't know..." Josho pumped his shotgun. "But I know a fat bastard who can hit back."
Rainbow and Roarke stumbled out of the cockpit.
"How bad is it?" Josho asked.
"The weight of the javelin is worse than the rupture it's caused," Roarke said. "It's weighing us towards the port and making it hard to fly straight."
"Otherwise, it seems like we're all okay," Rainbow said.
"'Okay?!'" Eagle Eye barked. "That dang thing nearly impaled Ebon!"
Josho smirked. "It's about dayum time something did, huh?"
"Tchh... old stallion..."
"The question is, will they fire again?" Rainbow said, squinting at the village.
"You would even ask that?" Roarke jerked her neck. A spark ran down her body, causing dark plates to extend from every length of metal reinforcement. "If ponies can construct one killer instrument, then nothing will stop them from making one hundred."
"Nancy Jane can't fly fast enough at this rate to avoid more rust glimmer!" Floydien shouted once more.
"Right..." Josho trotted towards the ship's edge and aimed his rifle. "So, let's let them rust first."
"Josho, wait!" Rainbow hissed, wings outstretched. "I didn't come out all this way to draw blood from complete strangers!"
"Pfft!" Josho smirked while squinting. "What do I look like, a nurse?"
"Why isn't she diving towards us, yet?" Keebroo asked.
"The hell should we care?!" Drakshaa slapped a valve in place and yelled across the town. "Booster! We're good to go! You give the signal—"
KAPOW! A single blast sent metal bits soaring through the front wooden support of the ballista. With a loud groaning sound, the barb slumped forward on its own weight and crashed through several feet of lumber.
Villagers dove off the roof—screaming in fright—and fell into the thick muddy streets below.
Keebroo shrieked as he and Drakshaa tumbled onto an awning, tore through, and fell to the ground below.
Atop his tower, Booster winced. He clung to the railing as the structure wobbled from the vibrations of the javelin impacting the earth two buildings down. He looked up at the Noble Jury, his goggles slick from a fresh drizzle of rain.
Suddenly, the stallion gasped. "It's... it's not her..."
Meanwhile, Drakshaa was disentangling himself from Keebroo's shivering body. "Rrrrgh! That tears it!" He stomped through the mud and hollered to every doorfront. "To arms! It's now or never! Grab every crossbow and torch you have!"
With a collective roar, dozens of ponies charged out of the town hall, drug store, and nearby apartments. Worried mares and foals watched from inside as their husbands, fathers, and brothers charged into the street and formed a courageous phalanx as the Noble Jury came around.
"Get her in your sights, boys!" Drakshaa spat as Keebroo stumbled to join the ranks. "Let's let her pay for all the silver we've lost! It's her blood or ours!"
Several ponies shouted in fury, filling the air with thunder.
Booster nervously tried yelping over the volume of their voices. "Guys! It's not her! It's an airship! There are ponies inside!" He gritted his teeth. "Darn it!" Hoisting a wrench in two hooves, he hoisted it over a metal cable and zip-lined down into the middle of the village.
As he did so, four bodies descended from the Noble Jury. Rainbow Dash carried Roarke while Eagle Eye and Josho drifted the height of three stories with their telekinesis. As soon as all four landed, they charged directly into the village.
The villagers followed Drakshaa's lead, charging straight at them.
"Whoah!" Eagle Eye's voice cracked, his eyes reflecting a wall of angry muzzles. "I don't think they're happy to see us?!"
"We've handled worse!" Rainbow barked. "Remember—knock them out! Neutralize! I don't want anypony getting killed!"
"Tell that to them," Roarke grunted.
"Roarke..."
"Here they come!" Josho cracked the joints in his neck and aimed his rifle.
Before the two parties could slam into one another, Booster leapt in the center, slid in the mud, and raised his forelimbs. "STOPPPPPP!"
Both groups skidded to a stop, breathless.
Booster panted and panted. At last, he turned and barked at Drakshaa. "It's an airship!"
Drakshaa tossed his raven black locks and squinted. "Excuse me?"
"It's an airship! I saw it with my goggles!" Booster tilted the article in question up to his brow and blinked. "We hit an airship! It's not her!"
"Uh oh..." Keebroo gulped.
"Excuse me..." Josho trotted forward, frowning. "But what the hell, huh?! What did we ever friggin' do to you guys?!"
"We were just passing through!" Rainbow Dash added, gritting her teeth. "If you didn't want us over your rooftops, you could have at least warned us!"
"Please... forgive us..." Booster spun and faced them. "You have to understand! We've never had an airship fly around these parts! The only thing that's been flying around these parts is her! We mistook you for her!"
Roarke's lenses retracted. She glanced quietly aside at Rainbow.
"Her?" Rainbow leaned her head to the side. "Her, who?"
Booster gawked at them. "The... the dragon, of course."
Josho scratched his head, then glanced at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow stared with thin eyes. "A... dragon?" She gulped. "What dragon?"
"Eewwwwwwwwwwwwww..." Eagle winced, looking at his hooves with teary eyes. "There's mud all over me..."