Chapter Five
A Tight Squeeze

In which Twilight makes several poor decisions
while not in full possession of her faculties,
and takes a rather large risk based solely on a tenuous connection
between appearance and appellation.

May 3rd, 1014, Afternoon
Onboard Nebula, approaching and within
the Dragon's Teeth range

Rainbow Dash stopped trying to fit a quarrel into the crossbow and stared at me in disbelief. "Twilight, if they catch us, they're going to kill us!"

The energy it took to stomp my hoof on the deck made my head swim. "Unless you can take out an entire airship with that thing, put it down! Those zebras aren't bad ponies. They're just defending their sultan against pirates... well, defending his property, anyway. We're in this mess because we're trying to save lives."

"An' we're gonna fail at that in a right unpleasant way, if'n they catch us," Applejack shot back.

Rainbow glared at me and dropped the quarrel into the slot on the top of the crossbow. Then she raised the stock to her cheek, squinted along it, and fired.

She scowled at me and jerked her head toward the closest airship. I turned to look and saw that she'd hit its steering fin. She had used one of those quarrels with the crescent-shaped cutting heads, and the fabric panel between two of the fin's spines had been sliced apart from end to end.

I was exhausted and not thinking clearly. Far from helping the situation, I was actively detracting from our defense. I'd have done better to just collapse against the stern rail and provide some cover or….

"Yesh, Capt'n?" the changeling hissed around the grip of the short serrated blade in her mouth.

"Go to my cabin and get the small black box that's in the locked cabinet over my bunk." I pulled the cabinet's key out of my vest and dropped my head to let the chain slide off of my neck.

She sheathed her blade, scooped up the key, and vaulted over the quarterdeck rail to the waist of the ship.

In under a minute, Rainbow Dash managed to shred most of the nearest pursuer's forward steering fin on her starboard side. The ship's crew had shifted her course to protect that side, but were slowing because of the damage. I was impressed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who was impressed. The attack ship's captain had taken Dash's actions personally and had launched a squad of four pegasi, armed with bows, to get rid of the threat to his vessel. They climbed as they raced toward Nebula, to make it hard for us to return fire, and when they'd gotten within range, they began doing their best to turn Rainbow Dash into a pin cushion.

Believe it or not, Rainbow was fast enough to dodge arrows. If they came one at a time, that is. The third arrow cut through her left wing, missing the flesh, but chopping at least a half-dozen of her primary flight feathers in half. Rarity cut the fourth arrow from the air before it could lodge in Dash's chest.

"Git under cover, ya idjit!" Applejack yelled at Dash. "It's you they're shootin' for!"

"Hide? Are you kidding? I'm..." Another volley arrived, one crescent-headed arrow thudding into the deck between Rainbow's forehooves, and another clipping even more feathers from her ruined wing. "Yikes!" Her sense of self-preservation finally kicked in and she dove behind the binnacle.

One of the archers unwisely got within the range of Rarity's magic, and paid the price. She wasn't magically strong enough to pull a pony out of the air, but she didn't need to be. The first four primary feathers on the archer's left wing glowed briefly and snapped in half. Without his main flight feathers, the pegasus couldn't stay in the air. He had enough control and lift to flounder to a soft landing, but our enemies had been reduced by one.

The others back-winged and shot another volley. Rarity cut another arrow out of the air and the feathers of the severed end smacked me across the nose. Chestnut, a crewpony who had been helping rig anti-boarding netting, cried out and I glanced at him to see a long shallow cut along his ribs, just beginning to bleed.

"I'm sorry, but I'm tired of pussy-footing around with these ruffians," Rarity said, sliding her blades back into their sheathes. The remaining archers were out of her magical range, but where her levitation left off, physics took over. She neatly flung a belaying pin straight into the forehead of one of the pegasi with enough force to knock him cold.

One of his companions dropped his bow and dove to catch the unconscious pony, leaving only one other, who hurriedly retreated to his ship.

The damaged airship slipped further behind and yawed to one side to allow the untouched third vessel to come alongside of her. There was movement on deck, and the captains held a shouted conversation that we couldn't quite make out. The pegasi from the crippled ship took to the air and moved to flanking positions high and on each side of us. They were carrying long sections of what appeared to be iron chain with many hooks attached. Evidently they had a way to deal with magically strong opponents. That was definitely not good.

Khaatarrekket stood on my left, holding the little box from my cabin in her mouth. She could have levitated it, but was being understandably cautious with the little don't-ever-touch-it item.

I nodded to the deck and Ket set it down. This presented me with another problem, as the box was magically locked and protected. The mechanism of the lock was an intricate matrix of thaumic nodes based on prime numbers that would be impossible to figure out for a unicorn without the key value and a knowledge of higher mathematics, but which I could calculate and manipulate in my sleep. It just needed a touch of magic. Magic which I didn't have at the moment.

My first mate looked up from the main deck, where he was levitating the heavy booms for the anti-boarding netting into place. "Captain?"

He was a strong stallion with strong magic. He had proved himself to be a dependable and unflappable officer. And I still hesitated to ask him for what I needed.

"I—" I leaned over the rail and lowered my voice. Fairlead took the hint and moved to just below me. "I'm going to ask you for something. Ask, Mr. Fairlead. This is not an order, and if you refuse I will understand completely."

I took a deep breath. "I need to take your magic for just a little while. You weren't in Equestria when Tirek went on his rampage, so you don't know what it's like, but I assure you, it isn't pleasant."

He glanced astern to where the attack ship was closing fast, his mouth went tight, and then he gave a nod of his own.

It was ugly. There are some things that should never be done, and I felt a deep uneasiness as I watched the color fade from Fairlead 's eyes and the cutie mark fade from his thigh. But it was something that had to be done.

I unlocked the box as quickly as I could and then slipped the talisman over my head. I shuddered with the sudden rush of magical power, then vaulted over the quarterdeck rail and dropped to the main deck beside the slumped form of my first mate. I held up his muzzle with a hoof and breathed out his power. I waited until he had scrambled to his hooves, while trying to avoid looking at his horrified expression, and then returned to the quarterdeck.

The enemy pegasi were out of sight above Nebula's envelope, but with my new magical strength, it was easy to detect them. They were far to each side and gaining altitude in an effort to make sure they were out of telekinesis range before they unleashed whatever nasty tactic they were up to.

Well, they weren't out of my range! I duplicated Rarity's little trick on a grander scale. The first thing the rest of the crew knew of it were the surprised and anguished cries of the enemy pegasi. Next, they saw the long hooked chains dropping to either side of us, followed seconds later by cursing and screaming ponies thrashing useless wings as they shed gear and floundered in the grip of remorseless gravity.

I spared a moment to laugh at the sight, then turned my attention to the airships. "Now..." I could feel myself grinning as I walked to the stern rail. Crewponies hurriedly got out of my way.

The first bolt of magic hit the airship with the crippled fin. I'd aimed it to take out the forward gas cell just above the long blade at the bow, but the skin of the envelope lit up and crackled, dispersing the energy of the shot. It seemed the zebra sultan could afford talented magical artificers... for his military, at least.

"Oh, it's going to be like that, is it?" I snarled. I fired three more blasts in quick succession. Each hit and dispersed, but I could sense the energy retained by the fine enchanted mesh that covered the ship's outer skin. A dozen or so more shots would be enough to heat it to the point where it would fail or set fire to the fabric it was supposed to protect.

"If you want to burn, so be it!" I flung five more blasts into the ship's defenses before a hoof slammed into my chest.

I looked down. Applejack had a hoof planted solidly on my chest. I raised a leg to slap it away and then paused. The enemy ship was smoldering and turning away, frantically maneuvering to escape. If it had caught fire, everypony aboard that wasn't able to fly would have died horribly.

"I—" Oh sweet Celestia, what had I been doing? Fighting the enemy. Destroying the ponies that would have killed me and my friends without a thought. They deserved to die! Who would mourn the loss of mere peasants? Who cared for such lowly….

The hoof caught me across the face, and Applejack shoved her muzzle right against mine. "Twilight! What's wrong with you?" Her voice was angry but there was a tremble in it, and I realized with horror that my friend was afraid of me.

I frantically glanced around and saw that I was the center of a circle of terrified ponies. Before I could think, before my thoughts could turn back to the cold, remorseless track they wanted to follow, I lowered my head and scraped the talisman off of my neck with a hoof.

I dropped like a wind-broken tree branch. I couldn't even turn my head but I heard AJ snapping out orders.

"No! Don't touch that cussed thing! Any of y'all got a stick or... yeah a marling spike will do. Just scoop it up and drop it back in that there box. Be careful!"

Strong hooves circled my barrel and I was dragged behind the binnacle and dropped next to Rainbow Dash. "You just rest, Twilight. We'll take care of it."

Dash started to get up but I asked her to stay. "You can't do anything... until they board us. If you could... keep me filled in on what's happening, I'd appreciate it," I wheezed.

She sighed but said, "Sure, Twilight," and looked sternward. "The last one is coming up fast. Couple of unicorns are doing something with her engines. I think they're gonna ram us. Try to stick us with that long blade mounted at the bow, y'know? There's zebras on deck with little catapults... loading them with pots of green, steamy gunk. This doesn't look good, Twi. You sure you don't have any umph left?"

I didn't have enough "umph" to turn my head. All I could see were the onrushing peaks of the Dragon's Teeth. We were nearly there, and it was amazing how much the mountains looked like actual fangs. In fact, they looked exactly like dragon dentition. Exactly.

"This... is important," I took as deep a breath as I could and tried to get my instructions all out in one rush. "Once we clear that first peak to starboard, turn us hard right and keep as much speed as you can. You'll have about two furlongs of narrow canyon and then you'll need to take a hard left just opposite the jagged outcrop that will be to your right. You won't see it, but there's an opening there."

"How do you know that?" Rainbow Dash put in. It was good timing on her part, because it gave me time to get my breath back.

I grinned. "Spike sleeps with his mouth open." Before she could ask the obvious question, I continued to Fluttershy. "After you make that turn you'll have half a furlong to get us another five hundred feet of altitude, or we'll smack into a sheer cliff. Hopefully, the zebras won't be as good at piloting as you are."

I wasn't. The shape and the name of the mountains could have been sheer coincidence. But I didn't believe in coincidences of that magnitude. And there was nothing left that would help us unless I wanted to risk going full Nightmare Twilight. And I didn't... not even if my friends would let me. "Absolutely sure," I said.

"Oh. Okay." Fluttershy swallowed and then bellowed out, "Everypony hang on to something!"

Applejack heard her and repeated the command loudly enough that the crew could hear it. Then things got exciting.

Rainbow Dash hooked one foreleg through the railing and grabbed me around the barrel with the other. We slid a bit as Nebula heeled over before her hull swung with the first turn, but Dash's grip kept us more or less in one place.

There was some quiet but heartfelt swearing from the crew as our port lateral fin scraped the granite, but it turned to cheers as they saw the wild yaw of the pursuing ship as she tried to keep up with us.

"She's not going to make it!" shouted one over-eager crewpony. He was almost right.

The attack ship scraped the mountainside with her port elevator in almost the same place we had hit, then over-compensated and rammed the long blade on her nose into the opposite side of the canyon.

A cheer went up from Nebula's crew, but it trailed off when the whole blade structure dropped off of the attacker's nose cone, and the ship swung back on course once again. The blade had been built to be easily discarded if it was damaged... or wedged in an enemy vessel, I supposed.

They closed fast and arrows began arcing toward us. Then one of the catapults fired. If Fairlead hadn't deflected it with his magic, the smoldering pot of burning green goo would have burst on the quarterdeck. When it hit the granite below us, there was a violent hissing and black oily smoke billowed up into the air. Five more catapults readied their shots, looking to overwhelm our ability to deflect them.

I had just managed to raise my head to see how far we had to go until the blind canyon when Fluttershy yelled for everypony to hang on again. I was half rolled over by the inertia of the maneuver, and cracked my horn and the side of my head against the binnacle.

By the time my head cleared, we were in the shadow of the narrow walls of rock and there were unpleasant scraping and grinding noises coming from all around me. But the sounds from aft of us were worse. We were close enough to hear the cursing of the zebra officers, the dreadful prolonged crackling of skeletal spars, and the sharp hiss of tearing fabric as their ship slammed the side of her envelope against the jagged rocks.

We'd done it! Our last pursuer was too damaged to continue the chase. I had about a second to start to relax when the pony on watch in the bow screamed, "M-mountain! Mountain dead ahead!"

The dead end of the canyon was a bit closer than my rough estimate predicted. Okay, a lot closer.

Fluttershy screamed. It was a weird, quiet sort of scream; a high, nearly ultrasonic eeeeeeeeeeeee of terror that went on and on. Fortunately, Fluttershy could scream and fly at the same time. Her hooves flew over the ballast controls in a yellow blur and then pounded down on the big release levers.

There was a hollow boom as all six emergency dump valves slammed open and then the roar of tons of water falling into open air. Then Nebula's deck leaped upward and I slipped and hit my horn hard against the quartedeck rail. There was an ugly cracking sound and everything went black.

The Twilight Enigma

by iisaw

5 A Tight Squeeze