//------------------------------// // She's Named "Bastion" For a Reason // Story: Yaerfaerda // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// FL-FLASH! Floydien shot a volley at the distantly pursuing phalanx of soldiers and ran around another turn in the twisting corridors. Rainbow's limp body shuddered over his backside as he galloped speedily along. “How much further to flee flee!?” “Here! Here!” Midnite Bastion stammered. At the end of the final corridor, a solid wall lingered as a dead-end. Only, it wasn't a wall. The mare slid on her knees and squatted before the thing. With a slap of her hoof against a console, a tiny compartment open, exposing a series of buttons and levers with blinking lights. “Just give me a minute! I should be able to get this open!” “Better make it a dayum quick minute!” Jake hollered, turning towards the far end of the corridor from which several loud hoofsteps galloped and echoed. “Cuz we've got a gaggle of Val Really Pissed Off Reindeer!” “Hairy boomer is reaching.” “You're one to spit!” “Yes yes yessss.” Midnite suddenly shuddered. “Oh no...” Jake tilted his head down, squinting at her. “Not too fond of those words, Missy Chick Lady.” Midnite looked up, her muzzle grimacing. “I can open it up.” “So? Do it!” “But... the locking mechanism is stupidly simple,” she said, gulping. “As soon as we're on the other side and we've closed this thing, any reindeer with a lick of sense will be able to crack the code.” She fidgeted. “Unless...” “Yeah...?” “I can piece together several algorithms that would give the soldiers hours to crack the code, but... I-I can only do that on this side.” The group huddled in dead silence. At last, with a determined frown, Midnite Bastion said, “You three go ahead. I'm the only one who can keep the door sealed long enough for you to make a swift getaway.” “But then you fall into the hooves of the stabby stabs!” Floydien sputtered. “Yeah, well, many of them are my former comrades in arms,” Midnite said. “I've made this bed. Only fitting that I face it.” “It's not that simple!” Floydien growled. “They will rip charcoal boomer apart!” “Maybe so.” Midnite shuddered. “But so long as the three of you get Rainbow Dash to safety and regroup with the Duchess, then all is not lost.” She smiled faintly. “You can still put a stop to Fishberry, Sharp Quill...” She shivered slightly. “...and Saikano.” Floydien bit his lip. He gazed down the echoing corridor, then at the door right in front of them. Schwisssh! It opened suddenly. Midnite stepped back, point into the dark, ascending passage. “Go. I mean it. Gallop like you've never galloped before.” She took a deep breath. “Daughter... Guardian... Val Roan? I'm many things, but first and foremost, I'm a soldier. I've trained for worse.” A large hoof rested on Midnite's shoulder. “You're not alone there.” Midnite glanced up. “Huh?” Jake's muzzle was uncharacteristically dry as he said, “There's no friggin' way you can sit there on your pretty little knees, performing a gazillion 'algorithms' or what-shit while a throng of angry reindeer kick your teeth in.” “Constable, I can manage—” “Yes. Because you'll have the most asstastic pair of antlers here to hold the mana-peckers off.” Jake looked up and nodded at the elk. “Move along, pantywaist.” Floydien's muzzle hung open. “Is the hairy boomer serious...?” Jake shrugged. “Ponky! I've headbutted my way through whole seas of goblins.” A stupid grin. “So what's a bit more weight and horns? Besides, I was never that cutout for sneaking out into the wilderness and shit.” He cracked the joints in his neck, glaring down the corridor behind them. “These punks are asking for a righteous jar of Jake. They'll never know what hit them.” Shuddering, Midnite nevertheless said, “He's right. I need him.” She looked up at the elk. “Get Rainbow Dash to safety. Get the both of you to safety! Val Roa depends on it!” Floydien stared at them in silence. The moose and the mare stared back. After a while, Floydien's ears twitched. He exhaled slowly, ultimately rasping: “Floydien may or may not have been friend to hairy and charcoal boomers in Floydien's past life... but as for this one? As for Floydien?” He slowly nodded with the vaguest hint of a smile. “Yes yes yes....” “So long, Floyd...” Midnite winced. Her eyes glazed over as she formed a crooked smile of her own. “Floydien.” Floydien looked at her. He nodded. He glanced at Jake—who made kissy lips. Rolling his red eyes, the elk turned around with Rainbow Dash and was gone. Midnite clenched her eyes shut and jerked a lever. Schwisssh! She gasped as she felt the door close between them. Floydien's hoofsteps could no longer be heard. “Better get to eggheading, pretty bird,” Jake said. Midnite cleared her throat. With a slight sniffle, she sat up and began plinking and slapping away at the various buttons while the lights of the console flashed green and red alternatively. “Jake...?” “Make it quick, Bastion,” Jake said, grinding his hooves against the floor as he faced the hallway beyond. “We're about to have some righteously indignant company.” Midnite's nostrils flared. “Do you think there's a part of him that will ever love me?” Jake's ears twitched. After a dull exhale, he said in a dull tone: “I friggin' doubt it, Midnite.” Midnite gazed beyond her hoofwork. “Do you think... there's a part of him that will ever love again?” “I've got news for you, sweetflank,” Jake said. He glanced briefly over his shoulder as the first of several guards rounded the bend in the distance. “He done found himself another Nancy Jane.” Midnite's gaze hardened. “Well... then that makes this worth it.” “What are you waiting for, ya sled-humping fish farts?!” Jake grinned, then cackled as he reared his hooves. “Dinner's served! Now come put your toilet nugget heads on Jake's plate!” Antlers brimming, the guards thundered down the hall, closing the distance between themselves and a psychotically bellowing moose. A dull thud reverberated across the steeply ascending chamber. Floydien paused once, glancing over his shoulder. His lips parted as he hesitated briefly. “Nnnngrh...” Rainbow stirred across his shoulder, sweating profusely as her muzzle moved. “Gotta... fl-fly to Ponyville,” she feverishly murmured, clenched eyes squeezing with tears. “Discord... he's got... h-he's got...” Floydien's red eyes darted towards her. He took a shuddering breath, frowned, and galloped briskly up the passage towards the distant exit. And the Val Roan countryside beyond.