Chapter 90 - The Big Race
It would take several hours to find a suitable landing spot for the Spitfire, especially considering the snowy autumn weather and the fact that the Ghastly Gorge was smack dab in the middle of No Mare's Land. The sound of wind and snow beating on the hull did not inspire confidence for the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, who found bibliographical refuge in the Captain's library.
The afterparty celebration of the Big Race announcement petered out without a bang. Despite that the food tasted good and the slow trance music Vinyl Scratch put out placed everypony in a pensive mood. There was still dancing, though it was slow and mellow, and Twilight heard from Pinkie Pie mention that felt like the last hour of prom night. Twilight did see quite a bit of couples on the dance floor before she left, but she did not see her friends.
Sunny had already disappeared in the metal hallways, and did not return to the bedroom she shared with Twilight. Rarity and Applejack escorted their respective little sisters to sleep, and Fluttershy herded all the birds to another vacant section of the airship. Twilight did not know where Pinkie Pie went, but the pink pony insisted beforehand that the purple unicorn should take back to her room a portion of the creepy cake replica of Rainbow Dash. All there was left were the creamy eyeballs, and it tasted surprisingly good.
Rainbow Dash had already made her discreet exit with cabin girl Scootaloo in the middle of the party. Twilight did surmise that she seemed to feel a little guilty for reminding her and her newfound friends of the tragedies that occurred right before they received their marks on their flanks. Thinking about that made Twilight feel guilty herself for putting the blue Captain on the spot. Sunny's little speech at the party made the unicorn more suspicious about the alicorn more than ever. Who was she really? And why would she think that Rainbow Dash's actions had established their connection long before they met each other? It would be a cruel joke to believe that was real. Based on her friends' stories, there were many ponies who witnessed the Sonic Rainboom, and it was likely that there were a number of fillies and colts received their marks as well.
The more she dwelled upon it, the more it frightened Twilight. So far, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity had their respective Elements of Creation bestowed upon them. Then it would follow that Twilight herself would receive one. However, Trixie also received her mark on that day, and despite the path she took, she had an equal chance of having an Element bestowed upon her. It soon cast doubt that Twilight might not be the destined unicorn to wield one of the Elements of Creation. Instead, she might even be the unicorn of destruction as prophesied by Starswirl.
These thoughts prevented her from reading Daring Do's logbooks of foreign lands with effective enjoyment. She would see the words, but she would not understand them. She exhaled a deep sigh and her head fell limp. However, she quickly recovered before her face and drool fell onto the book's open pages. The logbooks were recent, but Twilight treasured them as she did with the myriad of books she collected from the underground river of her home in Unicornia. Perhaps this was not a time for reading. It might be cold outside, but she could use a breath of fresh air.
Then a blue streak followed by a rainbow trail knocked the library's door off of its hinge before Twilight could head out. A glimpse of Rainbow Dash crashed upon the shelf across the room, burying her underneath an avalanche of books. The blue pegasus had survived, but she dared not poke her head out of the pile lest she be spotted by anypony else.
"Shh!" hissed Rainbow Dash. "Don't say anything! I need to hide!"
"Hide from what?" asked Twilight.
The blue pegasus dug herself further into the book pile. Whether there was genuine danger or this was another one of her foolish games, the Captain should never be this reckless. For pony's sake, these were her own books! It was bad enough she hardly reads them.
The source of her frustration finally arrived, and there were three of them. These three happened to be Twilight's own companions, namely Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. These three were the ones who, as Applejack had put it, "hit it off" after their first meeting, and together they stood no different from the gaggle of groupies that consisted of the Spitfire's entire crew.
"Oh, Twilight," said Fluttershy. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," replied the purple unicorn.
"That's good. As for me, I was trying to find the Captain, but she suddenly vanished right when I showed up to her room with the cheer routine I had planned for her. Well, it's only one word, and its 'yay'. I guess she knew it wasn't good enough for her."
"Darling, I do not think that was the case," said Rarity. "I wanted to show her the furtight outfit she commissioned me to wear for the race in the Ghastly Gorge. I've showed her some preliminary drawings before, but I never realized she did not like them. To be fair, she did not outright say she did not like them, but she often voiced that the outfits I designed should '20% cooler', whatever that means."
"Oh, you girls," said Pinkie. "Rainbow Dash only flew away because I planted C4 behind the toilet."
"Why on earth would you do that?"
"Rainbow Dash told me that she always wanted to go to the bathroom in style."
"And you blew it up! I had plans to redesign her bathroom!"
"I hope Tank is okay from that explosion," said Fluttershy.
"Twilight, you wouldn't happen to know where our dashing Captain had flown off to, would you?"
From the corner of the purple unicorn's eye, the pile books next to her stirred and she heard a faint breath. Nopony but her had noticed.
"I guess she flew off to the find the bathroom," said Twilight.
"Isn't there a bathroom here?" asked Pinkie.
"It's still under repair. Don't worry girls, I'll let you know when I locate her."
"Please do," said Rarity. "We are nearing the Ghastly Gorge and I need her final input on her race uniform."
"And tell her I left something in her cereal again," winked Pinkie Pie. "It's a surprise."
Twilight had been tense for the last few minutes, and she nervously waved her friends goodbye as they left the library. Very rarely would she lie for others. Being raised under her strict mother did not allow her to get away with most things, but at least here she escaped her watchful eyes. She did not know why she did it. Twilight had nothing to gain other than the loyalty of a perverted captain. A captain who, nonetheless, gave Twilight her first kiss. Ick.
That captain rose out of the pile of books, and dusted herself before strutting herself in a pose. Her wings and extended, and she fanned out a gust of window the closed the library's door.
"Thank heavens," said Rainbow Dash. "You saved my hide."
"I cannot understand why you need to hide from them," said Twilight.
"As the Captain of this awesome ship, I get a lot of admirers on this ship, and some of them are particularly clingy towards me. This pegasus needs her space from time to time. Oh, and don't worry. I'm not going to kiss you like last time, unless you want me to."
Heaven forbid, and while the unicorn would like to be rid of her presence, she could not take her mind off the paper cut Rainbow Dash she suffered on left front ankle when she crashed in. A part of her worried that the Captain's blood might stain the pages of the books that she knocked over. Still, living underground in Unicornia and being on the run conditioned the unicorn to magick a disinfectant spray out from her saddlebag she had set aside. She zeroed in right as the blue pegasus opened the door.
A big yelp startled the unicorn. She fell backward on her haunches and found the startled captain hanging upside down like a fly. Twilight did not mean to frighten her, but she swore she did not pump the disinfectant from its nozzle. She was barely a few hooves away from Rainbow Dash.
"What are you doing?" asked Dash.
"Sorry," said Twilight. "I was going to tell you that you have a cut in your ankle."
"I do? Nah, it's nothin'. I’ve had worse.”
“It looks bad. Get down here and let me disinfect it.”
“I said I’m fine. I get enough of this from Fluttershy, and she rushes to my ‘aid’ whenever I stub my hoof.”
Twilight did not expect this kind of standoff. Here was the brave Captain sweating nervously as she stuck to the ceiling with her wings buzzing so fast that it appeared still as an erect tree branch. This was so unlike the Captain she saw on the stage or on the closed-circuit television. She could have zipped out of the library in “ten milliseconds flat” as she often boasted, but she appeared paralyzed by Twilight’s presence. Eventually Dash's wings tired out, and she crashed onto the wood floor with a loud thud. Several more books fell, and she immediately backed away to the corner before Twilight made a move.
Curious. Why would Rainbow Dash suddenly be frightened? And for what reason?
“Captain,” said Twilight. “Do you have some kind of haphephobia?”
“What’s that? Is that some kind of drink?”
“It means you have a fear of being touched.”
“Whaddya mean? Of course I enjoy receiving hugs from my adoring fans."
“You are a pretty bad liar about it.”
"Hey, I hugged Scootaloo and kissed you."
“I know that hug with your first mate was genuine, but I can tell you forced yourself to kiss me.”
"Look, it took a lotta courage to kiss you for Applejack's sake. I didn't sleep well after that."
"Wait, you did it for Applejack? What for?"
"You don't know?"
"Know what?"
“CAPTAIN RAINBOW DASH,” blared the overhead intercom. “WE ARE REQUESTING YOUR PRESENCE ON THE BRIDGE.”
“Gotta go!” said Dash. “You gotta prepare yourself too, considering that AJ is carrying half your soul. Meet you at the landing, Miss Purplesmart."
Dash's revelation left the unicorn confused and speechless, and the Captain had used her shock to discreetly zip out of the library regardless of her injury. Twilight had known something was going on between Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but was this mere hatred or love?
At that moment, Twilight directed her focus in finding her orange earth pony friend for a straight answer, and she would soon rendezvous with her upon the landing of the Spitfire. She came prepared with Rarity's magenta fur coat covering her body and white snow boots. Her time pouring over the Spitfire's schematics was not wasted as she expertly trotted at a steady pace through the narrow steel halls towards the rear loading bay. The number of ponies she passed by increased as did the number of birds Fluttershy had kindly let in. Now the associated bird smell overwhelmed the ship's unsettling natural odor Twilight and her friends smelled upon boarding the Spitfire for the first time.
She wrinkled her nose and forced her to adjust to the odor as she slipped into the loading bay now crammed with perhaps a hundred or so winter-dressed crewmates of the Spitfire as well as their well-dress birds. Twilight was looking at sea of rainbow, and somehow their colorful coats and hats accentuated a pony's natural hue. This was clearly Rarity's work, though Twilight had heard that there was another designer on board the ship by the name of Coco Pommel who assisted the Diamond Princess. She had yet to meet Coco, and Twilight barely managed to memorize a quarter of the names on the crew manifest.
Then she found her Applejack jogging back and forth close to the rear hatch in an elliptical clearing generated by onlookers. The Border Collie that had picked up from the Everfree Forest ran alongside her as a training partner and Apple Bloom stood close by holding her older sister's Stetson on her head. Twilight knew Rarity had designed a special suit for the orange earth mare, and the Diamond Princess did not disappoint. Applejack had donned herself in a furtight suit of red and black that made her natural muscles sleeker than before. The way the black spandex wrapped around Applejack's eyes and muzzle reminded Twilight of the heroic Gaean comic books she had found washed up on the shores of the underground river or in the newsstands of Sewer Town.
Applejack had finished her latest jogging lap before starting another one. She caught sight of Twilight waving at her after turning around. The earth pony smiled back at her nervously, but then she tripped up and stumbled towards the other end of the clearing. Ponies made way as Applejack slid and crashed into the front hull of a captured Pegasopolis cloudskiff. It was disheartening to hear the crew laughing at her misfortune, and that caused Twilight rush over to provide her support, both physical and moral. Twilight could feel Applejack trembling when she helped her up.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked. "I did not mean to distract you."
"I'm all good," replied a blushing Applejack. "You look kinda hot… I mean, you look warm in that faux mink coat of yours."
"It is kind of toasty, but I bet it will keep me warm once we step outside. Good thing Rarity didn't see that happen to your clothes, but I have to admit that red and black suit looks good on you."
"You think?" Even as Applejack turned away, Twilight could clearly see her face becoming redder.
"There is something I wanted to ask you, and it's regarding the Captain."
"Oh, don't tell me she--"
"The Captain told me she kissed me for your sake. I know you two just met, but is there something going on between you two that I don't know about?"
"Nothin's goin' on! That blue pervert only did that rustle up my jimmies just so I can agree to this stupid race. I tell ya, she's only doin' this to stop us from goin' to Pegasopolis."
"Do you really think that is the reason?"
"I ain't sure, but we gotta find another way to get to the Fifth Element if I lose the race. Maybe you can cook up a plan while the entire crew is distracted."
"You're not suggesting that we hijack the Spitfire, do you?"
"If we gotta save Gaea and Pegasopolis from annihiliatin' each other, then we got no choice. I really don't wanna do that since the crew were nice to us."
"I'll see what I can do. Just win the race, Applejack. The Captain is from Pegasopolis, and she has to honor our request if she loses."
"I won't just win the race. I'll win you back your honor."
The two mares felt a long drop and a nauseating 180-degree turn that nearly threw them and everypony else off their hooves. Twilight tripped in the process, and she immediately lifted herself up to her hind legs so that her front legs wrapped around the closest thing she could catch herself on. That would happen to be Applejack, and Twilight suddenly felt the earth pony trembling in her hooves once more.
"Applejack, are you cold?"
"No, I'm not."
Applejack politely pushed Twilight off and turned around so that her face could not be seen. The airship landed with resonating thud, and the large rear hatch whirred and rumbled its massive doors open to the outside world. As expected, a cold breeze invaded the interior, but Twilight did not expect a wall of fog rolling in.
The crew's pegasi led by two grayish mares did their best to the fog cleared for the rest of the ponies to fan out to the outside world. Despite the pegasi's best efforts, Twilight and Applejack could barely see past several feet. Twilight had known that the fog was the result of the clashing of the two opposing nations' weather systems, mainly Gaea's technological Weather Spires and Pegasopolis's own pegasi. Yet here, the fog exuded an ethereal quality. As if transfixed by a silent siren's call, the crew of the Spitfire disappeared into the fog one by one and their conversational voices faded into the white abyss.
"The Captain says you're with me."
The mysterious quality of the fog calmed Twilight enough to not be surprised by Scootaloo's sudden appearance. Thought she wasn't a full-fledged flyer, her wings stuck out of the jacket's holes. She stood on one of her beat-up aeroscooters, and yet there was another one standing behind her.
"Guess I gotta get to the startin' line," said Applejack.
"You be careful, Applejack," said Twilight. "I read that a few quarray eels still lurk around the Ghastly Gorge."
"Those eels are the last of my worries. Just make sure to stay as close to the edge as much as possible."
"I will."
Applejack lingered for a few more seconds as if there was more she wanted to say to Twilight. She might wanted a hug, but the faint image of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle behind the fog veil beckoned her to part ways with her unicorn friend. Twilight could not help but notice her wanting eyes before she turned around to give Apple Bloom a sisterly nudge to her shoulder. Before she knew it, the visages of her friend and the two fillies vanished into the fog, and Twilight was all alone with the self-proclaimed first mate of the Spitfire.
"So, do you think you need a lesson on how to ride this?" asked Scootaloo.
"A Gaean aeroscooter, huh?" Twilight retorted. She turned around and immediately climbed on top of the vacant personal vehicle before giving it a minor stress test on its assembly by gently kicking the base.
"It looks like last year's models," she said. "Top of the line with a 300cc engine and heated handlebars."
"I see you must've read up on the catalogs," Scootaloo smugly grinned. "But can you keep up with me?"
The pegasus filly revved up her aeroscooter to produce a near-deafening high-pitched whine generated by the fans situated over the antigravity thrusters. Even in this cold, the aeroscooter required a lot of cooling, and Twilight could feel the heat nipping at the tips of her hind feet. Twilight revved her aeroscooter right as a Scootaloo in all her irresponsibility shot off into the fog. Fortunately, Twilight could see the dim red beacons and the bright white light of the accelerator thrusters of her escort, and she sped off after her.
Admittedly, this was a speedy vehicle. It was hardy too, and she did not experience any bumps or sharp pitches when driving across the uneven ground of the top edge of the Ghastly Gorge. Twilight knew that the aeroscooters had been pre-plotted to run along the main path. Only the riders were there to make sure avoid any possible obstacle that appeared on the day before.
Of course, Twilight knew she had to ride along the edge due to her soul link with Applejack's Element of Truth, and she could not wait at the finish line with everypony else. In addition, she could not ride very fast despite Scootaloo's implied insistence in making the escort run a race, but thankfully she made an aerial stop beside a large hull of a ruined airship. Twilight narrowly braked in time before she crashed into something ghastly.
Bones. And it wasn't just a pile of random bones. Twilight surveyed the area and saw dozens of equine skeletons, both earth pony and pegasi died with their hooves locked in battle. The sickening sight caused her to send her aeroscooter in a cautious reversal. She feared for Scootaloo's shock, but the pegasus filly leaned against her scooter's handlebars with her goggles raised above her eyes while sipping the contents of her juice box with a pink straw. As a pegasus, Scootaloo would be used to this sight whether or not she was raised in the brutal agoge that was Pegasopolis. Luckily she wasn't, and upon close observation the pegasus filly paid her somber respects in near-silence.
"How come you're not with your friends?" Twilight asked.
"You mean Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo answered. "They're venturing out towards Appleloosa with Coco."
"What for?"
"Dunno. Apple Bloom wanted to see the place where she was 'born'. I heard from her that she had a lot of relatives who died when Pegasopolis launched their attack there. I'm kinda jealous though. I don't know who my parents are, and the closest thing I have to one is Rainbow Dash, although she is more like an older sister to me. Do you have any family Miss Twilight?"
"I have a strict mother who is the chief of our hidden underground village. My brother is currently dating the queen of the Crystal Empire, and my father… Well, he ventured to the surface when I was very young, and he was killed before I could even see him again."
"I'm sorry."
"It's all right, Scootaloo. In a morbid way, my father's departure inspired my brother and me to leave Unicornia and seek out the truth."
"Yeah, but the truth is pretty bleak out here. Pegasi and earth ponies have been fighting each other for who knows how long. Heck, there are bones here that are hundreds of years old."
A beep on Scootaloo's earpiece signaled the resume of the ride-along. The pegasus filly slipped her goggles back on and jetted off with Twilight barely catching up with her. She now focused her thoughts on figuring out how to make Captain Rainbow Dash take them to Pegasopolis, and she entertained the idea of capturing her favorite First Mate as hostage. No, that would not do. She and her friends were above that, but perhaps there would be a spell that even the Spitfire's resident unicorns would not detect.
A sudden bump disrupted Twilight's focus, which would normally be impossible because the aeroscooter should be designed to compensate for most surface irregularities. After all, it was a small hover vehicle. Yet more of these bumps threatened to throw Twilight off, and she immediately caught up to glance a worry on Scootaloo's face.
"Um, it must be Gaea launching their bunker busters on Pegasopolis-captured land," said Scootaloo.
Her attempt to assuage Twilight's concern was admirable, but it was not convincing enough. The bumps gave way to irregular tremors, something she had felt before living underground in Unicornia. Twilight was no stranger to the burrowing machinations of Gaea's bunker buster drill missiles. She even tested one before her mother found out and cast her toy into the Endless Pits. A bunker buster, by its design, had patterns. It either exploded on impact or it drilled down to a hundred feet before detonating. This did not feel like a bunker buster. The pattern was too organic, and it felt like a tatzlwurm's tough hide banging against the rock walls as it made its turn towards its prey.
Without warning, a column of light purple burst out right in front of the two traveling ponies. Scootaloo screamed, and she spiraled out of control and away from Twilight, who then crashed towards the path of the tatzlwurm. Any prepared unicorn would be able to fend off this burrowing beast that bore its tripartite jaw at Twilight, and it was known that once a blue moon that it devoured unsuspecting fillies and colts in the depths of Unicornia. She did not want to kill the tatzlwurm unnecessarily, but its frightening appearance gave her no choice. The beast spat out its three black tentacles from depths of its maw, and then…
A column of crimson burst out from the same hole, and snatched the tatzlwurm's tail in midair. The wurm wriggled and screeched desperately as the menacing quarray eel wrestled its massive trunk back into the burrow from whence it came. Twilight lay next to her toppled aeroscooter shocked and speechless. Surely she could have taken on the tatzlwurm, yet as there were predators of predators of this world, she almost felt sorry for the beast. Tatzlwurms were known to burrow long tunnels, but quarray eels go in and make them their own.
In addition to being tunnel thieves, quarray eels were notorious for being fiercely territorial, and they have been known to tear ponies and even dragons to shreds should they dare pass by their nests. Twilight's heart beat anxiously as she revved up her aeroscooter after a few false starts. She drove over to the direction to where Scootaloo crashed over, and to her dismay she stopped over a cliff face full of large holes.
This wasn't good. This might be No Mare's Land, and there were still regular hunting of quarray eels, but one was too much for anypony in the Ghastly Gorge. How could Rainbow Dash challenge Applejack in such a dangerous place? And now Scootaloo's life was in peril. Twilight got off her aeroscooter and slid down to the nearest flat area, which unfortunately was too close to a hole. She move frantically down the cliff, hoping to search for any evidence of Scootaloo's survival, but feared any sign of her demise.
The eel came back. It flew out of the hole right in front of Twilight like a mad locomotive, and then dove straight down into the fog-filled floor of the gorge. Her heart beat faster as thoughts of a defenseless Scootaloo filled her mind. Or equally worse, it smelled Applejack and was now on the hunt. Twilight jumped one more landing down, and cast a weak airburst spell that dispersed the fog outwards.
What she saw did not turn out to be the surprise she expected, and nothing about this fog tingled the magic in her horn. Far off to the bottom, the quarray eel curled up like a charmed snake, but an equine shadow slowly approached it. The pony had a thin build, but her back had a bump reminiscent of bound wings. A glint of a rainbow mane and tail in the fog confirmed that the pony was Rainbow Dash, and that pegasus patted the quarray eel's muzzle rather lovingly.
Was this even possible? Quarray eels being tamed? Nothing in Twilight's books mentioned them being tameable without the use of high-level magic, but yet she watched Rainbow Dash feed the quarray eel with meat from a sack that apparently came from nowhere. The fear in her heart had been washed away with suspicion and a touch of anger. Surely this was proof of Rainbow Dash purposely delaying the flight to Pegasopolis. Slowly the unicorn backed away, and eventually she heard the cries of Scootaloo.
"Miss Twilight, are you down there?"
The fog coalesced upon itself once more, but Twilight remembered enough to teleport herself back up to the edge, startling the pegasus filly with her appearance that nearly caused her to trip and fall over the edge. Her tiny wings flapped hard enough to help her regain her balance.
"Forgot you guys can do that," said Scootaloo. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," replied Twilight. "And you?"
"I'm cool. That tatzlwum sure surprised me, but I wasn't scared of it!"
"What about the quarray eel?"
"I didn't see any eels."
That was a pretty bad lie. Any normal pony would say "There was an eel?" or something similar to that effect. The way Scootaloo brushed off the mere mention of a quarray eel indicated that she knew, and it would not be surprising that the entire crew knew.
Applejack should be fine, Twilight reassured herself. She had no knowledge of this fact, but she could visually picture her dear friend gallantly galloping across the dry rock path of Ghastly Gorge unfazed by a harmless quarray eel should it appear before her.
Both aeroscooters revved up, and the escort ride along continued. Twilight Sparkle kept up with Scootaloo, who appeared quieter than usual, but it could be that she forced herself to be quiet in order to avoid any more slipups. It wasn't as if Scootaloo could take on Twilight by herself or lead her astray. She was too good for that, and the Captain would not allow that kind of backstabbing behavior. This "race" was a different story, and Twilight decided to call the Captain and the crew out on that.
Nearly thirty minutes had passed, and Twilight could hear herself nearing the finishing line. The blaring loud music of the Spitfire's resident DJ and the excited crowds penetrated the dense fog. Soon the silhouettes of ponies came forth, and Twilight and Scootaloo slowed down once the color of the crew's coats and the marks on their flanks became visible. The fact that they already set up a sizable stage with overhead lights and tall speakers at each side amazed Twilight at the speed and dedication in celebrating Rainbow Dash's presence. The blue captain had already finished the race by ripping through the tape and then somersaulted through the crowd to land on the stage with all her bravado. Pinkie Pie and Spike were there to congratulate her with the ceremonial champagne shower and the popping of party poppers. Scootaloo had immediately ditched Twilight and zipped off to join her captain in the celebration.
Applejack had just crossed the finishing line, and she immediately stopped once she caught sight of her rival dancing in the air with a gaudy gold trophy in her hooves. Distraught and defeated, the orange pony fell back to her haunches, but not before Rarity placed a large handkerchief for Applejack to land on. Fluttershy flew in to wrap a towel around Applejack's shoulders, but she now appeared stiff and unresponsive as a board. Not even a tight hug from the yellow pegasus broke her from her stupor.
But this race was a farce, and Twilight marched to Applejack's side and faced towards the blue Captain who was dressed in a dark blue spandex suit with white lightning accents.
"Hold it Captain!" the purple unicorn cried out. "I want to dispute the results of this race."
"But Twilight," Spike cried out into the microphone. "Rainbow Dash won!"
"She didn't and I have proof that this race was stacked against my friend Applejack the whole time."
Twilight grunted as she forced her magical energies through her horn, which then projected a floating visual screen of what she remembered and witness. She made she spared no detail from her evidence, and she even went as far to replicate the sounds and smell of the tamed quarray eel with her visual recreation spell. Satisfied that all eyes were upon the image, she disengaged her magic with a moan. Dizzy from the strain, she stumbled left and right until she backward into the Rarity's magical hold.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"That's proof that you cheated," replied Twilight.
"Pfft. Any unicorn can conjure up fake images like that. Vinyl Scratch does that all the time. Ain't that right VS?"
"You can't hide the truth from your faces. All of you were in on it, and I don't need visual proof of your lies."
"That is, um, a serious accusation Twilight," said Fluttershy, "and I don't think anypony likes to be branded as a liar."
"You're the bearer of the Element of Empathy, Fluttershy. I'm sure you can feel that their hiding their true emotions."
"Unfortunately, I do. As a matter of fact, I suspected this was the case, but I didn't want to say anything because Rainbow Dash rescued me from those bully soldiers and they took us into their airship."
"All this time we could have gone to the beautiful cloudlands of Pegasopolis and not some dingy fog-filled gorge?" asked Rarity.
"Just as I thought," said Applejack. "The Cap'n is a dishonorable cheat. Now take us to Pegasopolis."
"What if I said 'no'?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"What?"
The foggy air grew colder. The colorful stage lights switched to an insidious red hue as the crew of the Spitfire chuckled sinisterly. On stage, Spike and Pinkie Pie hugged each other in fright right as Scootaloo menacingly stared them down, and the Captain hovered into the air while cracking her neck offensively towards Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity. That was when the crew drew out guns, swords, knives, and chains as they crept closer to their "guests". Whether through the air or the ground, Twilight and her friends could not escape the onslaught of a mixed race of ponies who with their fanatical loyalty towards their beloved Captain.
"Who the hell do you think we are?" asked Rainbow Dash. "We're the Chroma Pirates, and we take no orders from no nation or pony!"
"HELP!" squeaked a filly's voice.
The filly's cries was solely responsible for dispersing the tension between the Chroma Pirates and Twilight's group, and just like that the stage lights switched to a warm yellow hue. Weapons were put away, and an unseen force charged through the crowd, knocking them up into the air left and right before it rushed into the hooves the Diamond Princess herself. For whatever reason, Sweetie Belle was in tears and had been carrying Applejack's Stetson hat in her mouth. Shortly after, the Spitfire's resident changeling, Doomie, crashed into the ground with injured wings, and Dr. Octavia leapt out of the crowd and rushed in to give her medical aid.
"Sweetie Belle!" said Rarity. "What is wrong?"
"It's Coco Pommel!" cried Sweetie Belle. "She--"
A sleek and massive black airship decloaked right on top of everypony. Its slightly sickening yet familiar odor distracted Twilight momentarily before she realized that several falling bombs screamed from above.