Cinnamon Cane vaulted in mid air and tucked his leg in, uncoiling it into the underside of the dragon’s jaw. A satisfying crunch echoed as shards of fang flew from the monster’s mouth. The head flew high and wide, away from Comet’s tail, and the filly wasted no time in gaining some distance. Wren Song, right behind her lead, crashed into the dragon’s chest and stabbed it through the lung. Summer Seas joined her on the opposite lung, and Sparky and Dewbead mirrored them on the creature’s back.
Slowly, the dragon slumped, and when its own strength was too little to keep it airborne, the ponies quickly backed off and let it fall. A roar from beneath them pointed them to their last target as Lily Nimbus did a tight twist around the dragon's neck. Her sabre wrent flesh, but only just barely, and the dragon swatted her away with a gust from its wings and sped for the Adamant. Maw wide open, it could not have been more than five yards out before Moon Fang came crashing down on the back of its head. Another non lethal blow from his polearm, but this one drove much deeper, forcing the dragon's head down and throwing off its landing. It careened head first into the bow, and together, pony and drake crashed into the side of the ship and flipped over. The deck turned into a chorus of chaos as ponies skewered the dragon and rushed to separate the chiroptequus. Lily ended the scene with a gravity driven cut into the beast's neck, severing its spine and extinguishing whatever life it had left.
Moon Fang stretched his neck with a groan as a unicorn helped him to his hooves. "Thanks, Hat. Everypony ok down here?" A few laughs and cheers rose around the dragon carcass, and they wasted as little time as possible before tossing it over. With the last dragons mopped up, the pegasi glided back to their ships. It was the tenth skirmish since they'd started south -- they were in dragon country now, no question. Cinnamon Cane waited for Comet to land before he turned on her.
“Are you trying to get killed, kid?”
Comet’s hooves were shaking too badly to unbuckle her sabres. “I’m sorry, sir. I thought I could reach it, but it saw me before I could get underneath.”
“Sabres don’t have the same range as a glaive, Shimmer, you got to move that much farther. You were told about this. You may be new to them, but we can’t afford mistakes like that. Put yourself and your wing in danger like that again, and assuming you’re still alive, I’ll pull them off your legs and dump them back in the armory.” Comet saluted and dashed below deck. Lily glanced at Cane, a glimmer of accusation in her eyes, before following her wingpony. Moon Fang made to dismiss himself, but the stallion cut him off. "Not you, Fang. Run by the medic first, get checked out." The sorbet colt saluted and headed down.
Wren Song trotted up beside her lead. “Was that really necessary, sir?”
Cinnamon Cane sighed. “It’s my job to keep them safe, Song. If I have to be a dick for that to happen, then I’ll be a dick. Better that they’re alive to hate me.” The cream colored mare observed her commander in silence.
~*~
The filly fell. Her wings flailed in the wind, limp and useless. She managed to right herself and spread her legs to slow her fall, if only slightly. All she could do now was hope Lily or somepony caught her before she reached the ground. Glancing to her sides, however, she found the skies entirely clear.
The air trembled as a massive form rushed over her. She tried to find it, but it had disappeared into the empty sky. But as quickly as it had vanished, the thing plummeted past her, knocking her away with its wake. A massive shadow, larger than any airship, dove for the ground. It unfurled its leathery wings and spun in place. All of Comet's vision was filled with this impossible shadow, this darkness made beast. As hard to distinguish as it was, she could tell it was fixed on her, and as she neared it, its maw opened to reveal oblivion.
She tried to bank away, tried to twist in midair with no wings, but there was nowhere to run. As the shadow loomed up around her, razor sharp darkness slammed shut.
~*~
Comet shot up in her bunk with a startled hiss. The nightmares had not gone away. She knew she wasn't the only one -- back at the pass, they would be woken every other night by somepony whimpering or screaming in their bed. She was glad that, this time, she had had the presence of mind to suck her scream in as she woke. A brief flare of shame washed over her as she looked around to see if anypony had woken with her, but it dissipated faster than the dream.
The sound of hooves and rustling armor came from outside the crew quarters as the CAG snuck in. Comet did a quick mental check and groaned silently. At least she was not up for nothing. Stargaze caught sight of her reflective tangerine eyes and frowned apologetically. She eased out of her bunk and slipped her chest open.
"I was already up," she whispered. The rest of the CAG was rousing her squad to take over. Dewbead was always a challenging case to wake. If the unlucky pony was too gentle, she would sleep like a stone. If they were too rough, she would wake with a jab at her attacker. With practice, however, the ponies of Crescent Platoon had figured out her "resonant frequency" as Stargaze called it, and the mare was up with a muted groan.
Squad Four slipped their armor on in the near non existent light while Squad One slipped theirs off. They patted each other on the back as they passed, some to the deck and the others to their beds. In the depths of the ship, the warm air stayed inside and kept the compartments nice and toasty. The closer they got to the top deck, the more the warmth was sapped away into the frigid night, until finally they trotted onto the ice box that was the main deck of the Adamant. At least they weren't moving at night anymore; the wind chill might have done them in. Eight tins of warm coffee and as many blankets were waiting in a circle, courtesy of Squad One and the crew on shift.
Comet wrapped herself into a bundle and sipped at her brew. The liquid warmed her from the inside out, producing a calming effect she desperately needed. Lily Nimbus was clearly only half awake by the way she swayed on her hooves. "Hey, Jitterbug, sit down so I can clear your armor." Comet set her coffee aside and did her usual pass over her wingpony's suit. Just as she'd suspected, two buckles securing her back plate were loose. "Ok, there we go. You did remember to bring your brain before rolling out of bed, right?"
"Buck you too, Egghead." Lily grabbed her coffee. Her eyes were barely open as she took her first sips. "It's too early for this crap."
"It's the same crap we've been doing for weeks, Nimbus," Cinnamon Cane said. "And if we're lucky, we'll be doing it for weeks to come."
"What has you so out of sorts this time?" Much like Rainbow Blaze, Wren Song preferred to pace rather than sit, though she rarely wandered as far.
"I'unno, just..." they were sure Lily nodded off for a second there, "... really tired tonight."
Cinnamon Cane frowned. "I'll see about getting your duties for today cut so you can rest. Go see the doc after breakfast and find out if there's something actually wrong."
"Sorry, sir," Lily mumbled over the brim of her tin.
"Just don't make a habit of it. We got to be in top shape, got it?" His squad nodded. "Fang, the doc give you the all clear?"
"Yeah boss." Moon Fang flashed a grin. "My skull's too thick for a tumble like that. Just a bruise above the shoulder, nothing serious."
Cane nodded. “Good to hear. Shimmer, you alright? Not too shook up from today, are you?”
Comet’s ears flattened against her head. “Just fine, sir. How’s the leg?”
“Not even stiff,” Cinnamon Cane flexed to demonstrate, “though the other one’s a bit mad about the kick this afternoon.”
“I’m sure that lizard was a lot more unhappy about it, Cane.” Dewbead passed Lily a second tin as she finished off the first. “What are scout parties even doing around here, anyway?”
“We should be getting close to their mesa,” Cane replied. “It makes sense they’d have eyes around here. And it’s a good thing we ran them down before they could escape. You guys did good out there today.” He rolled his eyes when he spotted Comet peering over the brim of her tin. “Yeah, Shimmer, even you too. We all make mistakes. But what are you gonna do next time?”
“Fix my mistakes and do better?”
“Right on the money.” If Song were in the circle with them, he figured she’d be happy with that. Around them, the other four airships were moored amidst the camp below. Only a dozen or so small campfires flickered in the night, illuminating the sides of nearby tents before yielding to the blue darkness once more. A fat harvest moon hung low in the sky, washing the sandy expanse in silver light. To a chiroptequus, it was an instinctual home: an open sea of brilliant light and cool night air that only they could make proper use of. That part of Comet's blood warmed her along with the coffee, and she couldn't help but smile to herself.
A unicorn came by to check the muted lamps along the deck. Despite having such a large group, the ponies had managed to slip south reasonably undetected. The draconic scouts they had encountered thus far had been taken out before they could get any messengers away. As such, they were still observing light discipline, in hopes that they might make it a little farther without any problems. While it did little to light their ship, the lanterns still exuded much needed warmth, a fact the crew did not let slip by. They huddled around the dim lights between tasks, hushed conversations dying on the wind.
Wren Song's soft, even footfalls reverberated through the deck as she wandered up and down the ship. Looking out over nighttime landscape, a fleeting shadow of a shape caught her attention. She stopped and drew in her breath.
"What's up, Song?" Summer Seas asked. She raised a hoof to silence them. No matter where she looked, the movement was gone.
"Shimmer, Fang, get over here. I need your eyes." The chiropteqi stood.
"Statue," Cinnamon Cane said as he got up, "what's happening?"
"I swear I saw something out there." The entire squad stood at that. Their resident night eyes scanned the open air, but nothing caught their attention.
It was not until a shadow flitted out from under a crop of rocks that either of them saw anything. Moon Fang was the first to spot them, and he pointed to the shapes rising from the ground. Like oil on water, four forms flowed through the darkness without a sound. To the others, there was still nothing to see. To the two of them, four obsidian dragons had slipped into their airspace completely undetected.
"Glimmerbacks, four of them!"
Dewbead grabbed her horn and blew out a long, even blast. The entire ship would be awake from that. Cinnamon Cane set his helmet atop his head. "You lot," he directed at a trio of unicorns who had come to see the commotion, "tell the others we have four hostiles closing in. We're launching to intercept." The ponies saluted and dashed off. Squad Four lined up on the gangplank and looked to each other.
"Hey Fang?" Comet said. Moon Fang looked down the line to her. "Have we ever actually done a drop as a CAG before?"
"No, Comet." His face was stuck between the nocturnal thrill of the hunt and stone cold dread. "No we have not." And then he jumped. The rest of the squad was right with him. The belly of the ship vanished behind the pegasi as they unfurled their wings and took up formation.
The indigo filly was worried about her wingpony, but Lily was as steady as a lake on a calm day. Her feathers rustled in the night air, relaying tiny changes in pressure and current. Whatever had been causing her drowsiness before, the promise of battle and a cartload of adrenaline had obliterated in an instant.
Across the open air, the stealthy glimmerbacks had realized they were spotted. Eight ponies were now closing on them, and more could be seen dropping from the other ships. Abandoning subterfuge, they sped for the camp. Their bodies wove through the air like snakes, long fins that spanned the length of their backs and tails helping to propel the beasts as their wings stayed relatively still. Dark eyes flitted about, watching the ponies as they drew close. Any second, they would clash.
Comet's sabres whistled as they cut the air in half. She was so close -- already banking in her mind, watching how to best take out the one just behind the leader. No mistakes this time, no miscalculations. But before anpony had even come within shooting distance, the dragons split in every direction and doubled back. Making full use of their wings and fins, the dark glimmerbacks outpaced the ponies by a fair margin. They could only watch as the creatures disappeared into the night once more.
"Sons of whores..." Dewbead deflated in midair. Her chest swelled. "Come back and fight, you monsters!" She called after them, but they were already shadows in the night, and then they were nothing.
"They found us," Wren whispered. Cinnamon Cane nodded.
"Scouts," the squad leader said. "They might have been hoping for a few stealth kills if they reached the camp undetected, but their main goal was tracking us. They'll be back, and they'll bring friends." He banked in place and made for the Adamant. "Come on, we have to call this in."
If Captain Candescence was regularly grim, she was right dour as the CAG reported what had happened. The message was relayed to the ground and the other ships. Guards were doubled, but everypony might as well have been standing on watch; it was hard to sleep when the promise of a dragon attack loomed over their heads. Squad Four sipped their tepid coffee, blankets forgotten on the deck, and stared into the night.
"That was a good spot, Song," Dewbead said. She was still simmering over losing the four of them.
"Thanks. I just wish we'd caught them."
"Yeah." The marine blue mare growled under her breath. "I thought we were supposed to be faster than dragons."
"One, Dew," Summer Seas said as if reading from a book, "you're not exactly our fastest wing." She glared at him, but he continued. "Two, we're faster than the breeds we know of. I've never seen a shadow dragon before."
"It looked like..." Moon Fang could not find the right word, but Comet had many more to work from.
"It was like an conger eel," the filly said, "with wings and legs, and black like tar." Fang nodded in agreement. "It looked like it could fly without flapping, using its fins to sustain a glide. Put both systems together, and it has a lot more wing power than us."
"You could make all that out?" Lily looked honestly impressed.
"Never doubt a chiroptequus's night vision," Cane rumbled. He couldn't count the number of times he'd seen the leather winged ponies heading night shifts across Cloudsdale. The hours of the moon were theirs. "Come on, I'll get us another pot. It's going to be a long night."
Squad Four settled back into their circle and watched the navy darkness beyond their ship. Comet glanced at her wingpony. The pink pony was wide awake -- jaw clenched, eyes and ears scanning the sky, wings fluttering in anticipation. Every inch of her was poised for battle. The indigo filly slipped a hoof out of her sabre boot and rested it on Lily's shoulder. The pink pony jumped at the touch, but relaxed a hair when she saw who it was. Comet smiled for her lead pony, and her lead pony nodded for her.
~*~
They returned with dawn's first light. Dozens of winged dragons and scores of running ones came upon the equine army from the south. There were fewer ground lizards, it seemed, but they were all larger than usual. The crew of the Adamant watched their foes close with a daunting but familiar speed and ferocity. Comet barely allowed herself any time on the gangplank before jumping -- it was easier to focus with wind beneath one’s wings.
There was no advanced launch group this time, no hustle to strap on armor or weapons. Every pony of every company had been suited up for an hour or more while they watched the skies. On the ground, magical arrays had been etched in the sand and dirt with a striking resemblance to Thunderhooves Pass.
Rainbow Blaze glided out in front of his platoon. “Crescent Platoon, we’re covering the left flank with Dawn. Squads One and Two, bear right and cut across their sides. Squads Three and Four, swing wide and wrap around behind them. The more you can take out without a fight, the better.” The bone shaking thump of a hundred ballistae firing at once rattled the hovering ponies. It was followed by the low drone of a warhorn that rang long and clear. “Let’s go. Loose formation, ponies, let’s not give them an easy target.” Crescent Platoon eased to the left as they flew. Above them, one of Downpour Company’s platoons was almost on the same path as them. Across their right flank, dozens of pegasi flew on the early morning currents in long, easy beats of their wings.
A few dragons were limping from ballista shots lodged in their flesh. As Squad Four wrapped wide around the main body of the dragon force, those were the first they hunted down. With punctured wings or muscles, they had little chance to evade the attacks of the smaller ponies. A resilient glimmerback snapped at Sparky Bolts and nearly caught him, but the blue pegasus rose with a powerful beat of his wings and escaped by the hairs of his tail. The dragon's neck was left long and exposed for Moon Fang’s glaive, and a pass from Dewbead's sabre sealed the deal.
Squad Three formed up as they finished clearing the last of the injured dragons. Only the healthy, angry ones remained, but at least they had the chance to attack from behind. The two squads threw everything into speed, and caught one glimmerback before it had the chance to turn its head. Four sabres lacerated the base of its wings, one cut along its jaw, and nearly a dozen spears punctured its back. If the dragon survived the shock of the attack, it made no sign of it, and fell instantly. The ponies split in half and mopped up three more before the dragons took notice.
"Fall back!" Cinnamon Cane shouted. Half a dozen dragons turned on them, fire building in two of their throats. A jet of flame tore out of the drake's maw, washing the sky in tongues of orange and red. A few of Dewbead's feathers were smoldering as she pulled up away from the blast. Summer Seas, holding pace only a pony's length behind her, was not far up enough to escape. His hind legs were caught in the fire. With a strangled cry of anguish, his muscles failed him and he fell.
"Summer!" Dewbead turned to dive after her wingpony. The only thing that stopped the glimmerback from devouring her on the spot was Lily and Comet slicing along its spine a second before it reached her. In hunched up in pain instead, and the dragon crashed into Dewbead like a boulder. The pegasus fell in a daze, as good as dead for a terrifyingly long time, before coming back and righting herself, but by then Summer Seas was nowhere to be found. Cursing to herself, she fell in behind Moon Fang and Sparky Bolts, hoping against hope that her wingpony was still alive somewhere below.
"Cane, we're going to get slaughtered out here!" Slipstream banked under a tail swipe and cut after the offensive appendage. "We need to push through or fall back." Retreating exposed their backs to the drakes. Pushing through exposed everything, but they were close to friendly forces.
"Sabres, swing wide and strafe the bastards! Everypony else, we're punching through their line. Keep together and don't stop!" The two squads funneled into a cone and charged the cloud of dragons. One of the fire breathers reared up to belch an inferno, but failed to release before Comet slit its neck just above the collar bone. Fire belched out of the wound, searing the skin and filling the sky with putrid smoke. She felt the tips of her mane singe before banking away.
Cinnamon Cane led the cone forward like a train. On only one occasion, they banked into a dragon trying to intercept them and stuck it full of glaives. Otherwise, they moved forward with no deviations. Around them, the five sabres were spiraling in every direction to keep a buffer around their squads. Lily nearly lost a wing to an ambitious little glimmerback, but she spun like a top and nearly cleaved its head from its shoulders with the reverse edge of her sabre. Comet made use of the wing cutting trick they had developed so long ago, slashing along the thin webbing and robbing the drakes of their flight. It was far and away easier than trying to land a fatal blow on every dragon.
She had nearly de-winged her second lizard when a tail whipped out of nowhere and struck her across the back. The tiny part of her mind that didn't shut off from the pain was certain her spine had snapped. Her sabres were dragging her one way, her wings and limbs another, and up was starting to look a lot like down.
A hazy commotion was raging above her. Or was it below? What was everypony shouting about again? It didn't really matter. She was tired and her back hurt. A nap would do her a world of good. A moment later, somepony was saying what had the same general sound as her name. She glanced, vision still blurry, to her left to find a pony stabilizing her fall and shaking her shoulder.
"Shimmer, wake up." Silver Raindrops shook her again. "You need to flap, Shimmer, or you'll hit the ground."
"I can't," Comet said through the fog in her head. "My back... I think it's broken... Can't feel-"
"If you had been hit hard enough to break your spine through that armor, you'd be dead." Rain's wings were fully unfurled as she fell beside the smaller filly, trying desperately to slow their fall. "But you will be if you don't spread those wings and flap. Come on, Comet, I can't carry you!" The chiroptequus unfurled her wings like a foal just learning to use them. While her muscles rebooted, she held them out to either side. Immediately, their fall began to slow.
The wind caught in her leathery webbings -- the force of the drag sent bolts of clarity rushing through her system. Fly, flap your wings, just like that, yes, up, not down, down is death, up is life, grab the air.
They need you.
Comet turned into a quick dive to right her sabres and banked skyward. Rain was right with her, glaive gleaming in the morning light. And directly above them was an exceptionally large glimmerback. The beast was diving straight at them, wings tucked half way and mouth already open to accept its easy meal.
Comet saw pink and blue blurs flutter behind the diving dragon. She called out to Rain, "On my signal, bank right and fly straight away from it." The brick red pegasus nodded. The dragon was gaining speed as it closed on the two airponies. She had to wait a bit longer. Just a bit longer.
The filly could almost count the dragon's teeth when she shouted, "Now, break!" The two ponies split in opposite directions and flew as fast as their wings could carry them. The dragon, its meal suddenly divided, slowed to a hover as it looked after its prey. Which would be an easier chase? The question was voided as Lily and Dewbead came slicing down its back, severing the tendons in its wings. Against its will, the glimmerback continued its trip to the ground.
"Good to see you, Stuffshirt," Lily said between pants. "Thanks for finding my wingpony. Where's yours?"
"I have no idea." Panic crept into the Balitmare filly's voice. "We got separated up in the main fight. I tried to find him, but I saw Comet get hit first. He should still be somewhere near the Adamant. Do you think we can make it back to the ship?" One glance at the remaining cloud of scaly death was all they needed for an answer.
Dewbead frowned at their trip back to the fight. "Shimmer, your back ok?" Comet nodded as firmly as the constant pain could allow. "Alright, ladies, form up." The mare led them back to the fight in a diamond pattern -- Lily and Silver to her sides, Comet bringing up the rear. "We have to finish up with these bastards, and then we can get all the bandages and cold packs we want."
Up above, Cinnamon Cane was leading Pinion and Wren Song after a choice glimmerback. Where Skyline had gotten to, he had no idea, but that could come later. The lizard was a fast bastard -- any time they were almost on it, it would weave away like a fish.
"Wren, swing around left and flank this mule." His wingpony banked away with an easy twist of her wings. "Pinion, swing high and see if you can't get a dive on it." The stallion pulled up out of the squad lead's periphery. Alone, he was hot on the dragon's tail while his impromptu team tightened the jaws.
The dragon suddenly rolled in midair and eyed the pegasus curiously. He was almost sure he saw it smirk at him. A flash of green swirled through its eyes as another glimmerback, its gizzard pregnant with fire, appeared above him and belched its searing cargo. One instant, there was a pegasus, a cloudsdale thoroughbred who loved to cook. The next, there was fire, and then there was nothing.
Pinion landed hard on the dragon's neck and skewered the beast on his glaive. The still roiling fire inside its throat melted his polearm and turned the shaft to ash. Cursing loudly, he jumped clear of the gurgling drake and fell in behind a group from Squad One. Wren Song showed up seconds later with a few ponies who had gotten separated from Blizzard Platoon. She scanned frantically for her commander, but he was nowhere to be seen. Her voice cracked as she called his name, but only chaos answered. Everywhere, dragons still roamed the skies. Had they even made a dent in the numbers? They must have, but why did it feel like they had accomplished nothing?
Comet Shimmer, Lily Nimbus, Silver Raindrops, and Dewbead made it back to the battle to find what seemed like as many dragons and fewer ponies. The airships had, against every regulation they usually followed, started firing into the battle wherever their airponies were not, hoping to thin the draconic numbers even by one. Cyclone Company was doing their best to compress the dragon force and rejoin their platoons in the process. Before the four ponies could join them, a series of multicolored beams of energy hurled forth from the airships. Any dragons that were caught in the cone looked like they had been hit by a mountain; wings twisted, bones cracked, and reptilian bodies fell from the sky in record numbers.
On the deck of the Adamant, unicorn teams were pouring every drop of magic they had into the salvos. Left and right, unicorns were dropping from exhaustion while the earth ponies crewed the ship. Night Light was sweating buckets, but still standing. A unicorn’s neuromana system was just not built for this amount of power output, and it was showing. After the third salvo, both of his teammates collapsed, panting and utterly spent. His vision was blurring, he thought he could taste blood in his mouth, and his legs were about to give out. He was about to let them when a foreleg caught him and pulled him back to standing.
“On your hooves, Arcanist,” Candescence said. The uniform she constantly wore had been discarded as she stepped up beside the stallion. “We have a battle to win.” Night Light willed what energy he could into his horn to combine with his captain’s. What he found, in the ethereal space between their magics, was a typhoon precariously fastened by a leash. He pooled his magic into the storm and left the firing to the captain. Sensing his contribution, she unleashed the beast.
A blast as powerful as three unicorns could manage exploded from the pair. The first dragon it hit had its wings and one leg ripped free from the force of the impact. The next three crumpled like wads of paper. A second blast erupted with equal results. Blood rage or no, it was not hard for the dragons to recognize their most dangerous opponent. The flight broke free of their meager cage and hurled themselves at the ships. With all pony wings deployed, nothing stood between them and the wooden vessels.
With their backs turned, however, nothing stood between them and the thoroughly enraged airponies whose friends they had been murdering. Sharp, metal hell rained down on them from behind -- the slowest were cut and stabbed in a dozen places before the pegasi bolted to the next one. The fastest reached the ships with almost no resistance and set to chomping any pony that got too close.
Three reached the Adamant before the ship’s wings could catch them. The first came in too fast and slammed into the deck to the welcoming party of three ballista shafts. Two were held aloft by magic, while the third was hoisted over the shoulder of an earth pony with the muscles of an alabaster god. Before the drake could stand, all three shafts had found purchase in various places in its skull.
The second dragon swooped across the bow at the last second, cutting its speed and bringing it alongside the ship. Black smoke billowed from its mouth, choking the ponies on deck and burning their eyes. With its landing cleared, the dragon set down and devoured an earth pony in two quick bites. It turned on another and got its teeth into the victim before Moon Fang arrived glaive first on the back of its neck. The beast gurgled and released its prey before collapsing to the deck.
The last drake set down on the deck with the speed of the first one but none of its clumsiness. It skidded across the wooden floor, leaving deep gouges in its wake, before turning on the nearest unicorn it could find. Captain Candescence turned to face the beast with no hint of worry or anger. If anything, she looked like she was about to scold a child. The dragon spun around and whipped its tail at her, only to have it deflect off of her shield. A swipe of its claw fared no better, and before it could try again, a wall of magic blew it to the side. The last of Night Light’s magic spent, he slumped against the bow and forced air into his lungs. The dragon rose unevenly to its feet to find Candescence staring it in the face. Before it could let out a roar, or even a whimper for that matter, the captain wrapped its maw, its neck, and its tail in coils of magic, hefted it in the air like a wet towel, and slammed it to the deck. The wood splintered under its weight before it was hoisted again and slammed against the bow. A crunch rang out from somewhere in its spine as it was again hoisted and thrown down the deck.
Gasping from the pain, limbs unresponsive, the dragon could barely gurgle as the captain neared and lifted her opponent again. Another dragon was approaching the ship, hoping for a quick kill and snack before really digging into the crew. The unicorn captain whipped the half dead dragon around, striking the newcomer with her draconic club. The second dragon crashed into the side of the ship and fell in a daze. The first dragon hung limp in the captain’s magic. She threw it at a small drake chasing one of her pegasus wings -- the shot missed, but she took solace in watching her temporary weapon fall without the slightest resistance.
Finally, with the help of the unicorn barrages, the dragons were thinning. Moonlight Company, the greenhorn pegasi, had finished supporting the troops on the ground and swung up into the dragons’ bellies. With the flank Cyclone was covering finally collapsing, the ponies could start working down the way to help clear the rest of the flight. Downpour company was not far behind, and with all four companies pounding the center of the dragon flight, their offensive force disintegrated in a shower of steel and dragon blood.
Below, the ground force had been repelled with ease. The land attack, despite the size of any given drake, could not hold a candle to the defenses the troops had dug in overnight. On the southern horizon, it became clear why they had offered so little. As the offensive failed, a mesa in the distance swelled into the air. Scores of dragons, hundreds maybe, took to the sky, but rather than attempt a second fight, they escaped in all directions. As the five airships circled overhead that afternoon, they found the top of the mesa perforated with a maze of caverns and tunnels, almost none of which reached the ground. Most of the dragons of this roost, it would seem, had been able to fly.
When word reached the ponies that their battle had won them the roost they had been after, cheers rose up across the land and sky. Where every battle they had fought before had served only to hold off the draconic tide, at long last, they had won something. They had taken something from their enemy. Everypony wanted to plant a flag on every rock they could find as the army moved in at the base of the mesa. The captain of the Adamant maintained her composed demeanor, though a smile crept at the edges of her mouth. Stories of her beating a dragon to death almost by herself spread like wildfire through the ship. Let them make her out to be a hero, she was just glad for the outcome. Fir Bough, on the other hoof, would not shut up about it.
Silver Raindrops followed her exhausted squad back to the Adamant and set down with as much grace as her rubbery limbs could muster. Comet and Lily both patted her on the back in thanks, and she gave them an affirmative, but she could not properly recall what they had just said. So instead, she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, but her peace was short lived.
"Rain!" Willow Wisp crashed into the deck and bounded up to her. "For buck's sake, Rain, where were you?"
"I was with Shimmer and Nimbus after we got separated. I tried to find you, but I saw Comet falling and had to go after her." Willow stamped a hoof against the deck.
"I had no idea where you were. I thought that scaled monster had swallowed you whole!" Willow's nostrils flared. Rain flinched. "Don't ever do that again-"
"Shimmer might have died if I had not gone after her, Willow-"
"And what am I supposed to do if you die, huh!?" A crack appeared in Willow's mask of rage. "What do I do if... I lose you?" He seemed to realize the words as they left him, but he made no attempt to reclaim them. Rain inched closer to the lemon yellow colt and nuzzled him. "Faust damn it, please don't do something like that again." He pressed his lips to her cheek; it was warm, either from the exertion of the battle or from her embarrassment at his display.
"I’m sorry, Willow." Rain rubbed her nose against the base of his mane. He just gripped her tighter and buried his head in her shoulder.