//------------------------------// // Tome 4 - Scraps // Story: Guns of Pegasus // by Twisted Gears //------------------------------// "...How could've we felt in this ambush so easily! GRAAH!" Muttered a certain blood-red Mare, resisting- Oh, no. Not resisting, subduing to the desire to hit an innocent nearby tree with her hoof, anger and frustration running through her veins, her heart beating with the strenght of a Flak round hitting an unprotected hull, splinters and chips of wood flying in all directions. Watching her commit murder against an innocent tree, Tin could only observe with sadness the frustration that ran free through Bloodwing's body, and the subsequent sobs that came afterwards. He felt the need to embrace her and provide comfort, but something told him that it would only make matters worse. So he spoke, from a safe distance. "Y-You know, they could still be alive. If we turn around and act quick enough-" "Damn them, you're right!" Bloodwing shouted at the top of her lungs, tears of angst rolling down her cheeks, bloodshot eyes staring directly at Tin's very own soul. "Come on, we're still in time to rescue them!" She added, inmediatly running back towards the crash site, ignoring the possibility of the Pirates still being around, or the lingering danger of a wildfire spreading from the wreck. Or that her hoof was now injured, after leaving a hole on a tree. "W-Wait!" Tin pleaded, running behind Bloodwing and the trail of raw anger and desperation that she left behind, "What about the pirates? What if they're waiting for us there?" "To Tartarus with them all! I'll personally send 'em there if I ever cross paths with one!" She shouted back, her pace accelerating with the aid of her wings, until they reached the crash site. A Galleon, one of the mightiest kind of ships ever built on the Skylands, reduced to nothing but a burning piile of scraps, scattered through a small clearing on the thick rainforest. Fog made it hard to see, the dense vegetation only made matters worse, if the spreading fire wasn't enough. The hull of the ship was unrecognizable, the whole lower deck spread through the clearing in numerous chunks of varied sizes and states. One of the broadside Flak cannons was relatively intact, lodged ontop of a tree while the upper deck was sideways and smashed onto a large tree. The balloon, on the other hoof, had completely combusted into a set of massive fireballs, bits and pieces of the thick fabric that once kept the highly flammable gas in check, were now falling from the sky in flames, setting the low shrubs on fire and heating up the area beyond desireable conditions. Not an area where anypony wants to be -But this didn't stop the angered Bloodwing from jumping facefirst into the closest patch of debris, in the hopes of finding anypony from the crew, much to Tin's change of heart on the subject of recovery. Oddly enough, there were no Pirates in the vicinity. Not even the whirring of engines out in the distance. Nothing but the sounds of flames engulfing everything, and the pleading moans of a mare... Wait. That sounded like Cloud's voice! Without wasting a second, Tin and Bloodwing rushed over to the voice, and saw Cloud's blue hoof peeking out from under a pile of metal chunks that once used to be a heavy Flak cannon and the lower deck. They both used their bare hooves to pry through the cannons and chunks of steel and brass, until they finally digged Cloud out, who was in a worse shape than before. Her bandages were now soaked in blood, and she had more wounds all over her body. "B-Buck..." She moaned out in pure pain, barely able to move. "Hold on, we've got you!" Tin reassured, helping her ontop of his back to carry her to a safer spot, away from the potential flames. Cloud coughed a few times -Spitting up blood, before gesturing to the north. "I-I saw Pepper fall somewhere there. S-Somepony help her out!" She pleaded, before groaning in pain. Blinking, Bloodwing ran straight towards where Cloud gestured, as Tin carried her away to a safe distance away from the Balloon, huddled under the mostly intact midsection of the Galleon. Laying her on a flat sheet of steel, Tin examined her up and down. She had several deep cuts, too many to treat with what he had on him, and was losing blood at an alarming pace, so much that his bac was soaked on her crimson fluid. And she knew that. Before Tin could even start ripping his jacked off for pieces of cloth, Cloud rose her hoof and poked his chest. "N-No, my time is over. Save them for the rest. B-But... Get closer..." Cloud requested, her single yellow eye pleading at him. Blinking, Tin got a bit closer, just as Cloud's hooves, both of them, rose and clinged onto his neck. Her head rose too, her lips quickly meeting his, his eyes opening wide in surprise as he received an iron-y taste of a deathbed kiss. To this, Cloud whispered, "I'm sorry." Once she released him, her body felt back onto the plate, lifeless as the ship behind them, succumbing to her wounds. They were too many for her to handle. Tin could only watch in confussion and horror as a member of the crew he was part of perished in front of him. Tears started to roll off from his eyes, and he started to rub off the blood from Cloud off from his lips and onto his jacket, sobbing a bit. Pepper's voice emerged from the other side of the temporary shelter. "Cloud? Cloud you whore, you better- O-Oh." She said, as her orange body peeked besides the wreck, noticing a tearfull Tin and a lifeless Cloud. Closing her amber eyes and rubbing her red mane, she shook her head. "Buck, first Rusty's gone and now Cloud too..." "Wait, Rusty's...?" Tin asked, holding in more tears, to wich Pepper nodded. "Yeah, found her squished in what's left of the engine room. No clue where the cap'n or lil' Pear went to, tho." Pepper added, with an unusually cold tone. Just then, Bloodwing flew over them. "Who's... Who's Pear?" Tin asked, but Bloodwing cut him off. "Didn't found anypony else. Uh... Why isn't Cloud moving?" She asked, landing next to them. "She... Didn't made it." Tin explained, looking away, to wich Pepper nodded, laying a hoof above her own little cuts and bruises. Bloodwing looked at Cloud's lifeless body, before walking to her and raising a hoof to close her eye. "Rest well, you beautifull bitch. We'll... We'll miss you." "We'll give her a propper burial when this place isn't burning down. There's nothing we can do." Pepper said, looking back at the flaming remains of the Balloon. "What we can do is gather up whatever we can and huddle up somewhere away from those pirates. Last thing we need is gettin' shot at again. Or worse." Bloodwing nodded, looking towards Tin. "Let's just... Yes. Let's just go. I think we can... Salvage something from the lower decks before the fire spreads too far." She suggested, as the others nodded. Hope was at an all-time low, but survival came in first. With a last thought for Cloud and Rusty, Tin, Bloodwing and Pepper set off to try and find anything usefull among the wrecklage. Food, tools. Weapons. Anything that could help them survive in this harsh enviroment, after losing what was a family and a home for them...