Black clouds rumbled with the power of Thor while Scootaloo flew as stealthily as she could, straining her metal wings while she was forced to support the added weight of the Captain. Rogers had an iron grip on both of Scootaloo's forehooves, leaving one of his arms free to hold onto his shield. Scootaloo occasionally glanced up at the thunder while they flew, but Cap felt right at home in the middle of a thunderstorm.
"So, metal wings, huh?" Captain America asked Scootaloo after a particularly bad lightning bolt streaked by barely missing the pair, glancing up at the mare with curiosity. Scootaloo now wore a vest with a crossbow attached to it, goggles that were a bluish tint, and something around her hooves that Cap didn't recognize.
"Yeah...I've always had trouble with flying, ever since I was little," she admitted while still glancing around, her metal wings flapping as bursts of flame erupted from the tips with every flap." My wings were really small and couldn't get me much liftoff...and then the whole takeover of the five happened, so I really didn't have time to work on building mine up. Must be weird for you, huh?"
"Actually makes me feel closer to home than you'd think," Steve smiled as her wings reminded him of his partner before another question crossed his mind. "So, how did you get them anyway? With all of Equestria under the iron fist...hoof...of the Five, there must have been a drought in metal smiths."
"Applebloom made them for me, with just pieces of scrap and other items. I swear that mare is incredible," Scootaloo admitted with a shake of her head and a smile. "She's a wizard with technology. She built these wings for me, helped to create the command center and makes most of our gear and tech. I swear, without her I don't know what I..."
Scootaloo's eyes widened slightly when she realized what she was saying, before she glanced down at Steve, who had a smile on his face as his eyes told her to continue. "What we'd do without her. Yeah, that's what I meant," she reiterated, causing the Cap's smile to widen slightly as he turned his gaze ahead...and narrowed his eyes at what he saw.
"That's enough chatter. We're getting close." Just as the Cap said, a black cloud rolled by them to reveal the abomination that was the Starfall, which was resting next to a city that had been built entirely of clouds. Scootaloo narrowed her eyes as Rogers reached back and freed his shield, slipping it onto his left arm while preparing for battle. "So, how close can we get before they begin to shoot at us?"
"Right about...now," Scootaloo replied when lights began to flash on the ship, and the pair could hear the faint sound of alarm bells ringing. Captain America spied a loading door that was open on the side of the ship, already planning a path to it as gargoyles began to swarm out of the hangars.
"See that loading dock? That's our entrance!" Cap called up to her before blasts of magic began to hail down around them. With a grunt of effort, the Captain pulled himself up to Scootaloo and protected her with his shield, hearing the spells and other objects bombard it as they flew closer.
"Are you kidding me?! There's no way that will stay open long enough for us to get inside!" Scootaloo yelled while she weaved to the side, avoiding a horde of goyles that nearly knocked them both out of the sky. Cap began to notice where each of the gargoyles was positioned and where they'd be flying to, before looking at the entrance that was beginning to slide shut its metal doors.
"You just leave that to me," Captain America said with a smile while he slid his shield off of his arm and caught it in his hand, stretching his arm back as he took precise aim. "You just get ready to move...NOW!" Cap hurled his shield forward when he said this, causing Scootaloo to rocket forward in a burst of speed as fire shot from her wings. The shield bounced off of one gargoyle's skull before sailing into another one, bouncing straight up and catching one below the belt.
"What in the...?" Scootaloo whispered while she watched the shield crack another gargoyle in the face, before it sailed right in between the closing doors and wedged itself right between the two, preventing them from fully closing and leaving open a gap for them to enter. She narrowed her eyes before pushing herself as hard as she could go, barely avoiding all of the magic blasts and stone monsters as she did so.
With one last push, she burst through the defenses and reached the doors, Cap releasing his grip on her as she slid through the crack and snatched his shield out of the gap before he flew inside as well. He hit the ground rolling and quickly sprung back to his feet, arming himself once more while he took in a quick look at where the both of them had landed.
Cap and Scootaloo had landed on a large sheet of metal that was connected to numerous catwalks, each of which held dozens of armed guards that were all staring at the pair of intruders. Cap only had a moment to take all of that in before he dove to the side and tackled Scootaloo behind a large crate, ducking behind it as well, while spells and arrows ripped past their heads.
"See? Told you to leave the door to me," Captain America told Scootaloo when the doors finally shut behind the pair, sealing the gargoyles out.
"How in the hell did you do that?!" Scootaloo roared over the sounds of arrows and spells, drawing her crossbow and firing from the side of the crate. She caught one armored horse in the shoulder and sent him staggering back, before she had to take cover from the retaliation shots. "That shield of yours bounced like ten times and went right where it need to! How?!"
"Depends on if the old gal likes you or not. But it also takes precision," Captain America began before he spun out from behind cover, using his momentum to hurl his shield into the wall next to them. "Practice," he continued while he flipped into the air over the arrows and magic as the shield bounced from the wall, hurtling into the side of a minion's head. The underling had just begun to fall as the shield returned to the Captain, who snatched it out of the air before driving both feet into another minion's armored face.
He then rolled under a barrage of fire and hopped back to his feet while deflecting the rest of the attacks, managing to deflect one pony's spell back at him. When that pony dropped to the ground, the Captain slid under another barrage as he tossed the shield once more, catching an underling in the chin. Steve kicked off a guard rail to vault over a pair of minions, driving boots into the backs of their heads before hitting the deck in a roll. A guard took perfect aim at him, yet was denied the shot as the shield snapped his head to the side while the Frisbee slammed into his skull.
Cap rose to his feet before glancing over his shoulder to a see a guard taking aim right at the Captain's back...before a bolt that was shot by Scootaloo hit the underling in the back and dropped him without a sound. "And a little sprinkle of luck," Cap finished with a smile before holding out his hand to catch the Frisbee. Scootaloo raced up beside him with crossbow in hoof as more guards began to storm the catwalks, leaving the pair little choice but to run in the opposite direction. Cap deflected the spells and arrows, while Scootaloo fired back with, as Cap noticed, fairly inaccurate shots.
"Damn it, this door is locked!" Scootaloo yelled in frustration when the pair reached the end of the catwalk, finding a large door that, as Scootaloo had said, was shut with a large lock on the front. "Dang it, now I regret not bringing Bloom with me. She's really good at-" The edge of the vibranium shield slammed into the lock and shattered it with ease, allowing the Captain to pry open the doors with his strength.
"No time to complain! Keep moving, Soldier!" he ordered, Scootaloo not hesitating to dive in through the opening he had made. Rogers followed her a moment later and slammed the doors shut behind him, wrapping a chain he found off to the side around the handles. "Alright, that bought us a little time. We need to keep moving before they cut through that."
"What's the plan Cap?" Scootaloo asked while the pair started to run through the hallways that awaited them. Rogers took a moment to study a layout of the ship that had been placed up on the wall.
"We'll be heading to the central chamber. According to this, that's where the ponies on here keep the power source of the Starfall," Captain America ordered before his head snapped to the side, lifting his shield just in time to deflect multiple magic bolts. "Move! We need to get going!"
Scootaloo returned fire while the Captain provided defense, not risking throwing his shield in fear of leaving Scootaloo unprotected. That left the pair with no option but to keep moving through the hallways as fast as they could, with the Captain ducking slightly through hallways that were not designed for beings of his height. A pair of armored minions leapt out from around the next corner and took aim at the two, but Cap reacted faster--he kicked one of them in the head before driving his shield into the other's throat. The pony dropped with a gurgle while the Captain grabbed the other pony's armored head and drove it into the wall with a loud clang.
"Why don't you do that to all of them?!" Scootaloo asked after Captain America slammed a door shut behind them, ramming a metal rod into the control wheel to prevent the ponies from entering.
"Too many of them. Also, because they're not our primary objective," Steve replied as he rounded a corner and found another one of the maps on the wall. "We're heading in the right direction, but we've got a bit more of a trek. Come on Soldier, keep up."
"Wow, this place is really...scary," Scootaloo admitted when she and the Captain ran past a room that was filled to the brim with weapons and armor, shaking the mare slightly as Steve ran past it without a second glance. What did garner a second glance from him was a massive, open chamber that was filled with dozens of turrets that all were connected to a set of pipes. His eyes narrowed when he spied the pipes all heading in the same direction, towards the very room that they were heading to.
'Of course, we need to get past these guys first,' Cap planned as he ducked behind his shield, deflecting magic once more as the gunners in the cannon room began to fire at the pair. Scootaloo ducked behind a pair of barrels, freeing up the Captain to start tossing the Frisbee once again. He hurled the shield off in one direction before charging a pair of gunners, reading their next shots and ducking under their shots before getting in close.
He slammed the palm of one of his hands into the pony's nose, snapping its head back before he turned his focus to the other one. That minion drew a long knife that he slashed at the Captain, who caught the pony's arm to stop the attack before driving his other hand into the joint of the gunner. A loud crack was followed by screaming while the pony dropped the knife, but with a knee to the gut the Captain dropped the pony without another sound.
Cap then held out his hand for his shield, but instead of his friend, his arm caught an arrow that tore through his suit and sliced his flesh. Roger's gritted his teeth in pain as he rolled to the side to avoid the next couple of shots, throwing himself behind a crate of arrows to regroup. He checked on his injury to find that the wound could wait, allowing him to change focus onto where his shield had gone. He opened one of his pouches and pulled out a small mirror, which he gently slid out to the side of the crate to glance around.
'There it is,' he mused with annoyance when he spied his shield, caught in what seemed to be the magic of one of the unicorns atop a gunner's seat. Numerous archers surrounded the pony, but the Captain also noticed that the pony with his shield seemed to be waiting for the Captain, almost as if...
Without another thought, the Captain holstered the mirror and rolled out from behind the crate, raising his head and smirking directly at the pony with his shield. The minion seemed to scowl under his helmet before he hurled the shield with his magic, aiming right for the A on the Captain's head. But Steve had spent years learning how his shield worked, allowing him to leap up and catch the disc out of the air with one fell swoop. Cap spun in the air and once more hurled the shield back towards the stunned ponies, with the pony that had caught his shield now catching it once more in the face.
"Had trouble that time, didn't you?" Steve asked with a smile when the shield bounced off of that pony before ricocheting into two of the archers that had been closest to the other. He ducked under another volley of arrows before grabbing the shield out of the air, deflecting the rest of the attacks as he backed up to his crate once more. He slammed his back into it as five ponies armed with spell cannons and crossbows began to advance on his position from both sides. Cap was beginning to plan how to deal with them before a bolt with a green orb attached to it embedded itself at their hooves.
"What the hell?" one of them had enough time to ask before the bolt exploded in a fury of magic, hurling the bodies of the ponies across the room. Rogers glanced out from behind his shield to see that the bolt had cleared the room, allowing both him and the smirking Scootaloo to emerge from cover unhindered.
"That was a good shot. Didn't know you had explosive bolts," Captain America observed as he glanced at her crossbow, which had all sorts of bolts on it.
"Like I said. Bloom's the best," Scootaloo pridefully replied before turning her focus to the massive door on the other end of the room. "Now then, how in Faust's name are we going to manage to get through that?" Rogers took one glance at the reinforced doors before turning his focus to the giant swivel cannons that resided in the room.
"I think I have an idea," he said before handing his shield to Scootaloo. "But you might want to take cover behind this." Scootaloo took one look at where the Captain was looking and grabbed the shield without a second thought, racing to the other end of the room while the Captain leapt up into one of the seats. It was a little small for him, but he was able to work the controls well enough to turn one of the cannons into the room and aim it straight for the door.
"Knock, knock." The roar from the firing cannon nearly deafened the Captain, but if the sound of the cannon didn't do it, then the massive explosion of the door being blow apart in a flash of blackish light definitely did. Rogers ducked down behind the artillery as shrapnel flew across the room, hearing shards of metal strike the cannon, while he was able to pick up on pieces bouncing off of his shield. After a moment the sound of raining metal stopped, giving him the chance to peak out from behind his cover.
"We're good to go, Scootaloo," he called out to the mare as he emerged, smiling when he saw her huddled behind his shield still, as she crawled out from behind cover.
"I don't know what's scarier. That you fired that thing at near point blank range or just how well this shield of yours works," Scootaloo said with awe as she handed the disc back to the Captain, who slid it onto his left arm once more with a smile.
"Come on Soldier, time to bring this death machine down." Cap prepared himself for anything that could be on the other side as he and Scootaloo hurled themselves through the smokey remains of the door, emerging on the other side...to have their breath stolen away.
A massive room with two flights greeted them, with a giant, dome-like window--that allowed ponies on that deck to glance out at the world around them--taking up the front of the room. But it wasn't the view nor the strange machinery that was attached to the ceiling that drew their eyes. Instead, it was the giant sphere in the center of the room, that was hooked up to a strange machine that drew the pair over, a machine that had hundreds of cables and tubes attached to it. Yet despite the oddity of the machine, the Captain found himself more interested in the creature that resided inside the sphere at the center.
The creature looked shriveled up and frail, almost like the life force had been sucked out of it. Its arms and legs were in chains and a strange device was wrapped around its head. But what interested Steve the most was the features of the serpent-like creature, looking like it had been created with multiple animal parts.
"That's...a strange beast," the Captain admitted as he glanced upon it, but a glance at the horrified face of Scootaloo showed him that there was more going on than he knew. "What's the matter? Do you know who this guy is?"
"That's impossible. He went missing so long ago," Scootaloo whispered when she glanced up at the Captain with horrified eyes. "This is Discord, the being of Chaos."
"Indeed he is...or rather, he was!"
Cap grabbed Scootaloo and rolled to the side, just in time to avoid a massive, metal claw that crushed the very spot where they had been standing a moment before. Steve rolled to his feet with Scootaloo in his arms, swiveling his head to spy a monstrous, crab like machine that was towering over the both of them. Its black eyes burned with a chaotic power as its pincers clamped together menacingly, stepping from side-to-side as it took up a good chunk of the room.
"What is that thing?" Scootaloo asked Captain America, who lowered her to the ground before narrowing his eyes.
"If I had to take a guess...trouble."