Skyhook circled around the edge of the cavern, seeking an opening into the vicious melee. The Maid was everywhere and nowhere all at once, striking with a voice like thunder only to vanish between bodies. Her laughter pierced his feathery ears. It felt like his eardrums were going to rupture.
She disappeared again, and the soldiers glanced around, their hackles rising. Skyhook ground his teeth, wishing desperately for a spear to keep her at arm’s length. A diamond dog’s arm’s length. Maybe a dragon’s.
“Up here, ninnies.”
The soldiers snapped their attention to a craggy outcropping four meters above the cavern floor. The Maid stood on the edge, her cape flaring in the energy pouring out from her amulet. Her hood remained as dark as ever, but Skyhook got fleeting glances at a gray coat and a silver tail. A soft song trailed to them, as beautiful as any he’d ever heard.
“My voice is sweet, my notes fall ever soft
To touch your ears, and hold your heads aloft
In days of yore my enemies would merely scoff
But in my words, your deepest wishes waft”
He decided he could do without the lyrics.
She inclined her hood. “Now, bow.”
All around Skyhook, the soldiers knelt down and pressed their noses into the stone. His head jerked from one side to the other. He was the only pony standing.
An irresistible force restrained his limbs. A blue glow, tainted with faint green, seized him and lifted him off the ground. He couldn’t move a muscle. He could barely breathe. He was dragged through the air up to the Maid’s perch.
He caught the glint of glasses in the fold of her cloak. “Well, aren’t you an anomaly?” she asked.
He forced words through his lips. “And you’re a witch.”
“Rule number one of being helpless, mouse.” Her voice turned hard and dripped with distain. “Don’t antagonize the cat.”
Skyhook choked a laugh. “You’re a cannibal, too?”
“Don’t be crude. We leave that to the wight.” Her grip tightened around his chest. “All your fellow soldiers are under my thrall. They’d do anything I’d tell them. How come you’re immune to my song?”
As the pressure increased, it squeezed tears from his eyes. “Tone deaf?”
“I’ve heard you sing, you idiot.” She walked along the edge of the precipice, dragging him along behind her. “It’s not because you’re a bat pony. I’ve got plenty of your fellow freaks of nature down there. It’s not because you’re strong-willed, because I’ve controlled a mare who’s so bull-headed she won’t agree with anything that isn’t her idea. There’s something different about you.”
She flicked her silvery tail. “So I’m gonna find out what that is, and then twist your head off.”
“Sounds great.” Skyhook tried to look around for an escape, but it hurt too much to move his eyes. “Let’s do it over lunch.”
“I’ll admit you amuse me.” She rubbed her chin. “A shame I can’t control you. You would have made a delightful minion.”
She halted. Time Turner stepped out from behind a rock, his hoof-gun trained on her. He clicked his tongue. “You villainous types and your monologues. Keep your thoughts on what you’re doing and you might actually accomplish something.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” the Maid snarled. She hovered Skyhook between her body and the muzzle of the gun. “I wonder if you’ve got the same resistance to my charms as your batty friend, here. I wonder if he’s got a resistance to whatever magic you’ve got in that weapon.”
“Oh, none at all,” Time said. “But then, I’m willing to bet that cloak of yours doesn’t have much resistance to hooves.”
The Maid probably blinked. “Huh?”
Daring Do jumped from above and landed on the Maid’s back. The kicked sent the maid tumbling from the ledge, into the hooves of the soldiers waiting below. They set her upright.
Skyhook grasped the tip of the outcropping, holding on as tight as his sore muscles would allow. Time hauled him up with his artificial leg.
The Maid growled. “You should have run!”
“You should have stayed home today, Milk Maid,” Daring shouted back. “Wanna piece of a real tussle?”
“I’m pretty sure you can’t deliver, old mare!” The Maid inhaled. Her amulet glowed with piercing bright light. Everypony shielded their eyes.
She let out one high, shrieking note. The caves crackled in response. Rocks fell from the ceiling. Stone crumbled beneath their hooves. The ledge fell away, leaving Daring and Time scrambling for cover, and Skyhook grabbing air with his sore wings.
The Maid looked up as the roof collapsed. “Oh horseapples.”
Time and Daring fled down the tunnel. Rocks clattered around their hooves, following them on the path to the laboratory. Skyhook ran behind them, doing his best to keep up. He looked over his shoulder to see the soldiers standing stock still, awaiting the Maid’s orders.
The Maid was nowhere to be seen.
“No!” He ran back to them and slapped one guard in the face. “Snap out of it!”
A rock the size of a carriage wheel head hit another guard in the back of the head. He fell without a word. Skyhook shook him and listened for a heartbeat. He found none.
“Cuss!” Skyhook pushed a soldier out of the way of a small avalanche. “Wake up! Everypony, wake up!”
Skyhook felt pebbles bounce off his helmet. He had to get them out of the quake. Somehow. There had to be a way out!
He turned to the path towards Dulcimer, just in time to see it vanish into the floor. He swore harder.
His eyes trailed upward. In the light of his helmet’s headlamp, he saw an opening to a larger room, one right in the center of the mountain, untouched by the cave-in. A spark of an idea hit him. “Everypony! Princess Twilight is in that room! She needs our help now!”
The guards all looked up.
Skyhook let out a painful breath. “Everybody who can fly, carry someone who can’t! We need to get up there, pronto!”
One at a time, his soldiers scooped somebody up and hauled them into the air. Skyhook picked up the unresponsive guard and laid him across his back. He was heavy, but he’d been trained to carry heavier. They raced for the opening as the room grew more unstable.
Skyhook’s eyes widened. The opening was crumbling shut as the ceiling lowered. He put on an additional burst of speed. “Hurry! The princess needs us!”
His lungs wheezing, he squeezed through the opening just as it slid shut. The mountain stopped shaking. The rocks skittered to a halt. The silence grew deafening.
Skyhook pulled off his helmet and shook out his mane. The room was large enough to fit the entire castle in. Paths led in every direction. His soldiers stood on unsteady legs, searching for the princess they were meant to protect.
Skyhook fell to his stomach and groaned. It was gonna be a long road out of the mountain.
***
Care Carrot watched as the Thunderhead decimated Cloudsdale piece by piece. Flashes of color soared through the seeded clouds; Hurricane’s soldiers making quick work building the storm. She danced her hooves, grounded and unable to fly to battle.
Velvet wrapped bandages around a civilian’s hoof. She spoke with a motherly voice, backed by years of practice. “Easy. We’re gonna get you to ground. You don’t need to worry. We’ll take care of it.”
“They’re killing it,” the pony cried. “They’re killing my home!”
“I have to do something.” Care paced across the soft ground. “We have to stop the airship. What sort of weapons does Cloudsdale have? Anti-siege thunderclouds?”
“Care, it’s been almost twenty years since I was Captain of the Guard.” Twilight Velvet jerked her horn to the remains of the base. “You’ll have to talk with Stonewall when she gets back.”
Blankety Blank fluttered his disguised wings. “Y-you won’t have long to wait. Sh-she’s coming.”
A flock of pegasi soared for the clear spot where they waited. Stonewall landed first, her armor battered by the storm. “We’ve gotten a few weapons and some armor. Not much, but it’ll be enough to start.”
“What’s the plan?” Care looked over the meager pile of armaments. “Can we get to the Thunderhead? How many attackers are there? Do we know anything?”
“We know that at the moment, we’re outnumbered and outgunned.” Stonewall gave the airship a smoldering look. “They hit us right in the barracks. We’ve got more injured soldiers than able bodies.”
She clapped a hoof to Care’s shoulder. “Which is why we need to do something rash, stupid, boneheaded, and risky.”
Care nodded. “Then I’m your mare.”
Stonewall frowned. “I really hoped you’d put up more of an argument than that.”
“I’ve learned that desperate times call for desperate measures.” Care patted Stonewall’s cheek. “And I’m a desperate mare.”
“Then here.” Stonewall kicked a set of purple and golden armor towards her. “These are my spares. They ought to adjust to fit you. It’s a bit stronger than the average armor set, so it should give you an edge on Hurricane’s goons.”
Care proceeded to buckle the plating on. The individual pieces hummed with their own force fields. “Nice. The barriers don’t just activate when the helmet’s clipped?”
“No. It’s a new safeguard we’re trying to implement.” Stonewall tested the balance on a spear. “It’s the Captain of the Guard’s armor, so it won’t disguise your coloration, but I don’t consider that a point against it.”
“It’ll work for now.” Care attached the gold-trimmed breast plate and lowered the helmet over her head. Her reddish-orange coat and green mane shone through the seams in the armor. “How do I look?”
Blankety Blank grinned. “The colors don’t clash, at least.”
“You look ready to kick some butt.” Twilight Velvet picked up a crossbow and looked through the sights. “So what’s this unbelievable plan you’ve got in your cranium?”
Stonewall scratched pictures in the cloud. “Hurricane’s got her airship in the center of the storm at all times, with both the wind and the warriors making approach difficult. We aren’t gonna be able to take the ship with a full charge. We need to make like the heroes of storybooks and slip a small team inside while the others distract the enemy.”
Twilight Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. I was wondering why it felt like I’d already seen this movie before. You’re gonna actually use Applewood tactics?”
“Rash, stupid, boneheaded, and risky.” Stonewall gave her a curt nod. “Like I said. All you guys need to do is cripple the engine and the airship will be out of the fight.”
Blankety Blank nibbled his lip with a fang. “So your s-super-elite small force is the three of us.”
Stonewall pressed her lips together. “We’ll carry you in on a taxi—”
“Yay, my favorite thing,” Care said.
“—and drop you on an upper hatch.” Stonewall rolled her eyes, then clasped her own helmet. “We’ll hope that my troops can last long enough for the Canterlot troops to mobilize.”
“They will.” Care swung her hooves to get used to the armor’s heft. She danced from one leg to the other. After a moment, she settled down and tipped her head towards the Centurion. “Stoney? Don’t get killed.”
Stonewall pressed her tongue into her cheek. “Yeah. You, too.”
Centurion Stonewall, Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, raised her booted hoof. “All wings, report in!”
The first wing of five soldiers strode forth. The head of each flight spoke up, one after the other.
“Green leader; prepped to fly.”
“Blue leader; eager for action.”
“Delta leader; armed and ready.”
“Red leader; standing by.”
“Stone leader; rocking and rolling.”
Blankety counted the available ponies. “Twenty five. I like my odds inside the airship. We’ll only be about a d-dozen to one.”
“Chill out,” Care said. “We’ll do fine. Are we or are we not really dang good at what we do?”
“I’m a police chief,” Velvet said.
“I’m a sp-spy,” Blank said.
“Whelp.” Care Carrot lowered her eyebrows. “I think I’ll go back to being the sarcastic pessimist now.”
***
Twilight’s knees knocked. She backed away from the cylinder, keeping her eyes on the glistening fairy strings. She rushed to pick up the pencil and dropped it again. She took it in her hoof, passed it to her mouth, and scrambled to scribble her thoughts. Midway through the sentence, the earth shook.
She stumbled to her knees as the sounds of the cave-in reached her. The pencil rolled far out of her reach. Dulcimer stopped it with a hoof. “Don’t worry. I’ve reinforced the walls and ceiling. This place isn’t coming down any time soon. If we get blocked in, I’ve got teleportation maps by the scanner.”
He frowned as she slid away from him, her wings flared. He picked up the dropped note and read it aloud. “‘Where did you get those—’ Those what, Twilight?”
She pointed a shaky hoof at the canisters.
“Ah. The fairy strings. They’re pretty critical for this whole operation to work.” Dulcimer connected the magic siphon to the earth pony cylinder. He tilted his head towards her and smiled wide. “I got them on a grant for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. As one of their alumni, I have certain connections.”
The earth pony heart pulsated. It was still giving off magic. Some small bit of it was still functional. Twilight held back a gag as the cavern shook once more. She snatched the pencil away from him and wrote fast and hard. No. No, they would never approve of something like this. You had to have pulled these from living ponies, Dulcimer.
He looked at her with a blank expression.
She glared at him. She ripped a page out of her notepad and stuffed it into his hooves. The entire concept is erroneous. We should not have to murder three ponies for the sake of one. It is disgusting. I don’t even understand how you could have thought this was a good idea.
Dulcimer looked up from the note. He folded it and gave it back to Twilight. “Maybe if you let me explain…” He held out a hoof.
Twilight refused to take it.
“Then follow me.” He walked towards the metal framework with the gemstone. “What you see right here is a portal through time. I hope to make myself an alicorn to be able to survive the ravages of traveling the… time stream, I suppose? It was always thought that it was impossible to change the past, but that was because of the limited amount of time you have before you’re ripped back to the present.”
He shrugged. “With the power of an alicorn, it wouldn’t be an issue. You could use phenomenal amounts of power and stay for an extended period of time, or even jump back several times to get the destination just right. It would hurt, but since alicorns don’t age, you wouldn’t suffer any permanent ill effects.”
I’m smart enough to know that changing history is dangerous. It’s irresponsible! You don’t know what might happen if you change—
“I could stop Hurricane before she cut your throat. Or even before she injured Celestia.” Dulcimer reached out for her, but she backed away. “Why are you so afraid of making things better?”
Twilight Sparkle snorted steam. Why are you so set on killing people to get power?
Dulcimer shook his head and rubbed his neck. He laughed, turning his back to her. “Oh, Twilight. I just want to see change. Change for the better. How much more… amazing would life be if you didn’t have to worry about your friends perishing before you did? Not just your five best friends, but every friend you ever made afterward?”
Twilight swallowed. She bit deep into the wood of the pencil. I’ll deal with my loss the way most people deal with grief. I’ll mourn. I’ll cry my eyes out. I’ll remember them in my heart. I’ll move on and keep making the world a better place without murdering ponies!
Dulcimer sighed. He waved a hoof. “I’m sure you’ll come to see things my way. Given time.” He looked at her with his deep, intense, dark eyes. “Twilight. It’s not fair to let a pony die when it would be so easy to save them. To make them more than they are.”
Twilight shook her head. She marched towards the wires surrounding the cylinders and grasped a tangle, ready to wrench them out.
“Stop.” Dulcimer scratched his goatee. Twilight Sparkle stood frozen in time, her face contorted with anger, her strong muscles poised to destroy his handiwork. He untangled the wires, picked her up in a magic bubble, and carried her into the shadows at the edge of his laboratory. He set her down at a particular spot and stood behind her. “Go.”
She teetered on her hind legs, thrown with her own momentum. Her head popped up. She looked every which way to find where she’d gone. She spun around, her wings flailing.
Black crystals erupted from the floor and surrounded her in a razor-sharp cage.
“The cylinders weren’t the only magic I found in Sombra’s book.” Dulcimer’s eyes glowed with purple fire. The ceiling groaned with stress. “I suspect you’ve dealt with this sort of thing before?”
Twilight Sparkle tried to scream, but her vocal chords rebelled. A clang echoed throughout the caverns as she tried to punch free from the prison. She continued to bash the crystal, sending fractures running up the surface.
“It’ll hold you long enough for me to get the process running.” Dulcimer shook his head and started towards the machinery. “I really hoped you would be more understanding than this.”
“I understand that you’re foggy in the brain!”
Dulcimer’s back stiffened. He turned to look at the earth pony making their way to him. He grimaced. “Mr. Turner, I presume.”
Time Turner held his hoof-gun at the ready. “Don’t move. I’ve been itching to shoot this thing all day and I’m looking for an opportunity.”
Dulcimer leaned his head back and let out an exasperated groan. “Don’t you people realize that when I’m done it’ll all be worth it?”
“You can’t explain this!” Time pointed to the cylinders and the dead ponies within. “You can’t make this go away! You’re a monster of the highest order! You lie, steal, murder—”
“Once I go back, I can change everything.” Dulcimer tugged at his lapels. “I’ll be a good king. I have knowledge of the flow of history on my side.”
“You tortured me for five long years!” Time Turner put his hoof on the trigger. “You aren’t taking that back. You can’t! Nothing you do will make that pain go away.”
“What if I make it so that it never happened?” Dulcimer swept his hoof across the floor. “I can go back and give myself the plans for the alicorn cylinders, the time machine, the crystal etching—all of it before I decided to meet with you. After that, nopony will have to be hurt.”
“Stop talking!” Time Turner took a step forward. “Do you want me to show you what a lead ball can do to a chiseled chin?”
“No.” Dulcimer smirked. “But did you really think I wouldn’t notice your girlfriend sneaking up behind me while we talked?”
Daring Do and Time Turner looked into each other’s eyes with the same adrenaline-filled expression. She juked a way from a blast of purple, crystalline energy. Black spikes erupted from the spot she’d been standing on.
Dulcimer ran in an arc past Time, firing Sombra’s spell as he went. Time jumped out of the way of each screaming attack and ran to meet Dulcimer before he could get to the cylinders. He crashed into the unicorn shoulder-first.
Dulcimer hit the floor hard. The purple glow faded from his eyes. He frowned. “This isn’t going as well as I’d hoped.”
Time hovered over him, gently touching the trigger. He allowed Dulcimer to stand. “No fast movements. No glowy horn bits. Daring, help Twilight get free.”
“Way ahead of you,” she said as she pried a shard away from Twilight’s cage. “It’s gonna be slow going, though.”
“Naturally.” Time Turner cracked his neck. He noted the way Dulcimer was getting up; it was putting the unicorn closer to the cylinders. “No. No more moving around. Stay right where you are, Dulcimer. I’ll not tolerate any monkey business.”
Dulcimer sighed and stretched upright. “You wound me, Turner.”
“Just following your lead, then.”
“Funny.” Dulcimer shook his smartly-trimmed ponytail. “I think you’ve forgotten what made me such a problem for you in the first place.”
Time Turner made a strangled gasp. He jerked the trigger back as fast as he could.
“Stop.” Dulcimer released a spell from his horn. The world froze around him. Time slowed. Time Turner stopped.
The end of the barrel of his hoof-gun was ablaze in a flower of heat and smoke. Tiny fragments of black material blasted forth, surrounding a metallic ball that was spinning on an axis. The projectile was moving so fast that even with time slowed as much as it was, Dulcimer could still clearly see it flying across the room.
He sidestepped the ball as it inched its way through the air. “Now that is an impressive weapon. I’ll have to see if I can make any improvements to the design—”
Time Turner blinked. His gauntlet beeped. He turned away from the slowly spreading cloud of smoke and socked Dulcimer in the jaw.
Dulcimer caught the second punch as it came. He looped his foreleg around Time’s and used the earth pony’s weight against him. He jabbed his horn towards Time’s eye.
Time responded with a headbutt. He followed up with two more in quick succession. He swung his prosthetic up underneath Dulcimer’s chin and sent the unicorn tumbling with several broken teeth.
Dulcimer spied the volleygun ball soaring just over his head. He fired off a crystalline blast and turned the floor at Time’s hooves to spikes. Time leapt above the shards, hefted his leg to strike, and brought it down.
Dulcimer caught him beneath the forelegs. He spun Time around and smashed his face against the unicorn cylinder’s glass. He held Time steady, turning his face with a hoof. “This is the fate you’ve decided for yourself.”
Time glared in the direction Dulcimer was forcing him to look. The volleygun ball sailed straight for his forehead.
“This,” Dulcimer said, “is torture. The knowledge that no matter what you do, you’re doomed. You will fail and fall, and it was your fault. You were the one who pulled the trigger. You were the one who volunteered for the mission. You were the one who brought the mare you love into danger she can’t escape from.”
He strained his muscles as Time struggled to get free. “My grandmother’s death taught me that I won’t get anything done by hoping and praying. I’ve got to take matters into my own hooves and mold the world into what I want. You let yourself be led by a princess who couldn’t even protect herself.”
The ball was close enough to reach out and touch. Time pressed his hind legs against the glass. “That’s true enough. But that’s why she’s got us!”
He kicked. He launched out of Dulcimer’s grip and rolled beneath the volleygun ball. His artificial leg tangled up beneath his body. He lifted his head with a gnarled grin. “Checkmate, Dulcimer.”
Dulcimer brushed himself off. He gave the ball an appraising glance. “I don’t think so. You missed.”
“I would have missed,” Time said, “if I was aiming for your daft bonce.”
Dulcimer’s jaw dropped. He turned just in time to watch the projectile smash through the cylinder’s glass casing. Cracks ran across the surface with agonizing slowness, while liquid spurted out from the seams. The ball trailed bubbles as it made way for the pony’s heart.
Dulcimer released his spell and returned the flow of time to normal. He scrambled for the activation switch and yanked it down. Time Turner stepped away from the ambrosia pooling on the floor and readied his hoof-gun for a second shot.
“Turner,” Dulcimer said quietly. “That wasn’t the spell I was referring to.”
Time’s heart skipped a beat. He ripped his time-stopping gauntlet off and tossed it away. He leveled his gun and aimed for Dulcimer’s chest.
Dulcimer’s spell hit him dead on.
***
Twenty-five pegasi flew towards the airship. Behind them, Stonewall towed the taxi cab pulling Blank, Velvet, and Care. “Are you three ready? We’re getting close to the storm front.”
“I can feel the chill from here!” Care shouted over the wind. “How big a window do you think we have?”
“Pretty much nil!” Stonewall pointed at the airship. “They’ve already seen us!”
A turret below the nose swiveled towards them. Two volleyguns sat beside a bulbous window. Blankety Blank gripped the edge of the cab. “Break formation!”
The gun fired, sending dozens of pellets from each barrel. A pegasus near the front of the group tumbled out of the air. The rest of them scattered into the clouds, seeking targets.
Twilight Velvet lit her horn. “Eight pegasi flying in from the high left!”
The purple-armored flyers streaked towards them, spears held tight in their forelegs. Stonewall turned in a wide right, putting their backs to them and shrinking their profile. “They can’t kill what they can’t hit. Shoot them out of the sky!”
Velvet let loose a concentrated beam of light, which clocked one warrior in the wing. They tumbled down in a tailspin. Care’s spell sent a fireball blazing into the center of the formation. They scattered, their feathers singed from the explosion.
Blank sighed as he saw the falling pegasus correct their flight. “It’s gonna be hard to take these guys out of the fight permanently.”
Stonewall swore. “They’ve reloaded the volleyguns. Hold on!”
She pulled up, bringing them above the airship’s horizontal axis, out of the gun’s firing range. A swarm of hailstones shot towards them, battering Stonewall’s armor. Clangs like resounding bells accompanied flashes of magic on her coat.
“Looks like the new armor holds up,” Care said. She sent a burst of fire from her horn to melt the next wave of hail. “Question is: Are you?”
“As well as can be expected.” Stonewall looked down and groaned. “Cuss everything, here they come.”
Blankety Blank hissed. “I count forty pegasi.”
Twilight Velvet leaned beside him. Forty warriors flew towards them, some from the churning, rolling clouds, some from the airship itself. “We’re not gonna withstand an attack from them!”
“No problem!” Stonewall said. “All part of the plan!”
“Bad plan!” Blank curled his legs close. “Very bad plan!”
Two wings of golden-armored Equestrian soldiers barreled out of the clouds to smash into Hurricane’s front ranks. The air became a blur of arrows and spears and feathers, halting their progress towards the taxi.
Stonewall flapped all the harder, determination coloring her features. “Just hold on, guys. Nearly there.”
A report came from the turret. Two Equestrian soldiers dropped with heavy wounds. Three of Hurricane’s warriors fell screaming as their wings were shredded. A moment later, the guns lowered, holding fire until the fighters were clear.
Blankety Blank squinted at the side of the airship. A hatch opened, revealing a heavily armored figure standing tall. The pegasus spread her wings, splitting apart the five sword-length blades on each side. Blank gently patted Care’s shoulder to draw her attention. “H-Hurricane has entered the battlefield.”
Hurricane dove through the clouds, gathering them up in her magical wind. She twisted and turned and generated whirlwind after whirlwind until Cloudsdale had become rapids in the sky.
Hailstones and rain pelted the Equestrian soldiers. Spears found their marks more easily, leaving long scars in their flesh, as blows to the head distracted them. An arrow found its home in Red Leader’s heart. Hurricane spun; her wingblades sought targets and found them, crippling Stone wing’s leader. She held her wings out and called the blades back to their proper place on her armor.
“Same old tricks, sick new methods.” Twilight Velvet slammed a hoof against the arm rest. “There’s got to be something we can do!”
“We have to get to the ship.” Care leaned over the front of the cab. “Especially while she’s busy!”
Stonewall glanced over her shoulder. She winced as another pegasus was impaled on Hurricane’s blades. They’d lost half their number. “You guys have to make it. You have to do it right.”
Care slumped in her seat. They were still several dozen meters away. “They’re gonna catch up.”
Blankety Blank braced himself against the cab’s side. “We’ll be ready for them. We had a g-good head start.”
***
Hurricane looked up. She saw the taxi, bright yellow against the dark clouds. She snarled and angled her flight upward.
She was stopped by a loud report from beneath the clouds.
She looked down. Several more pops greeted her ears. Three of her soldiers fell with gaping wounds in their chests. More crackles resulted in further damage. She looked around for the source, her scar flaming hot.
A wing of griffons broke through the clouds, loading their volleyguns on the fly. They took aim before the pegasi could respond and fired into their ranks. The Equestrian soldiers let out a cheer.
A second wing of five followed and pulled their triggers. A third behind that, and a fourth, all raining death upon Hurricane’s warriors.
The fifth flight was lead by King Andean Ursagryph himself. He drew a long, heavy broadsword with golden markings down the blade. He let out a victorious caw and slammed into Hurricane’s warriors with animal ferocity.
Hurricane screamed and made a bee-line for him.
She dove with wingblades bared. She and the king crossed swords with a clang that was felt above the thunder of the storm. He snarled in the griffon tongue, and she growled back in wordless rage. His blade slid from her feathers and jabbed, seeking her heart.
She went limp and fell away from the tip of his sword. A flick of her wings sent her blades flying towards his chest. A wide sweep of his sword knocked them aside.
She caught the wind and propelled her helmet’s horn into his chest.
He roared and grasped her neck with his talon to prevent her from going deeper. Her blades returned to her and swung forward. His other talon held tight to the hilt of his sword, which he brought against her side. It bounced off of her armor’s shield.
He wrenched himself free and hovered in midair, the wind and his throat howling. He lifted his sword to return to the fight.
She flew around him, her wings beating at a frenzy. The air kicked up around him, gripping his feathers and striking his flesh with bits of ice. He held one talon over his bleeding wound to stanch the blood.
Her blade raked across his back. He howled.
Another jab caught him in the heel. The next struck the tip of his wing. Clouds closed in around him and obscured his vision. He could only see smog and brief flashes of enchanted, magnetized metal.
He raised his sword and roared with all his might. A streak of lightning flashed down and struck the tip, charging the golden metal with untold power. He swung the sword with a crackle, slicing the air with an electric afterimage. It slid along the side of Hurricane’s armor and drove a deep scar into its surface.
She reeled from the force of the blow. She spiraled out of control until she landed headfirst into a dark cloud. She pulled herself up, saw him roaring towards her, and readied her wingblades to throw.
A curved blade met Andean’s halfway. The king looked into the eyes of a traitor. “Lanner!”
“It is the griffon way, my king!” Grenadier Lanner swung his arms out and left himself open. His saber glistened with pony blood. “I challenge you to an honor duel! The winner walks away as the new King of Felaccia! The other is dead!”
“You have no honor to fight for, you maggot!” Andean glanced to either side to see his Blitzwings more than holding their own. He gave Lanner a beastly grin. “I will leave your entrails spread across all Equestria!”
Hurricane settled down on a cloud to catch her breath. Lanner would distract the griffon king long enough for the next wave of warriors to arrive. She surveyed the storm, the perfect hurricane she and her people had constructed. It was nearing cataclysmic proportions. It just needed a little more seeding.
It was already strong enough to lay siege to even the most determined city.
Her shadowy shield thrummed as her armor’s electromagnet sealed her blades to her wings. She nodded with satisfaction as thirty warriors leapt from the Thunderhead’s hatches. They would soon overwhelm the Blitzwings and the remaining Cloudsdale soldiers with superior numbers. Canterlot’s troops would be unable to pierce the storm. All that was left was to finish the current battle.
She watched Lanner and Andean cross blades for a moment, before seeking another target of interest. She spied a taxi that looked so very out of place above a battlefield. She narrowed her eyes. It was suspicious. It needed to be taken care of.
She jumped into flight and made her way through the storm, trailing the otherwise forgotten vehicle.
***
“Last stop!” Stonewall said. “Everypony off!”
The brown canvas of the Thunderhead lay just beneath Care’s position on the taxi. She sucked in a deep breath and jumped. She landed heavily on the ship and dug her hooves in to keep from sliding off. Blank flew down next and helped her to her feet. Twilight Velvet plopped with a complete lack of grace and needed to be hauled onto relatively solid ground by the both of them.
Stonewall detached the taxi and let it break apart in the cacophony. She shot off like an arrow towards the main battle.
Care’s mane danced in the gale. She looked down the length of the envelop to spot the bridge with its lights blazing bright. She grasped the handles of the airship’s upper hatch. “We’ll enter through here. We need to make our way to the engine room, which should be at the rear.”
The lightning rod at the front of the ship blasted forth a bolt that turned an apartment complex to hail and thunder. Care covered her ears at the sudden boom.
“We need to stop that cannon!” Twilight Velvet breathed through her teeth. “I’ll head to the bridge and stop the firing crew. Or at least distract them. The main objective is still the same, but I should be able to handle a few crewmembers.”
“You can’t go alone!” Care ducked a hailstone as it passed by. “Take Blank with you! He’ll watch your back!”
“Y-you can’t go alone either!” Blank snapped.
“I’ve got the best chance of all of us, don’t I?” Care heaved open the hatch. “Once you have the bridge, drive this stupid thing into the ground! If I get the engine first, I’ll blow the whole thing sky-high! Either way, no more Thunderhead.”
The cannon sliced several cloud-spanning bridges in half.
“I’m not gonna argue this!” Care put her hooves on Blank’s shoulders and shook. “Go with Velvet and get that gun out of commission! I’ll meet you there when this bird goes down in flames!”
Blankety Blank snapped his teeth together. He shook his head, but backed away all the same. “Yes, Captain. Wh-whatever you say.”
Twilight Velvet gave him a nod. She looked to Care with a scrunched muzzle. “Don’t you go getting yourself killed either, Captain.”
Care tipped them a salute. “I won’t.”
She swung into the airship, climbing hoof over hoof down the ladder.
Velvet and Blank raced along the envelope until she was close enough for a teleport. “Hold tight!” she said, pulling Blankety close. He squeezed his eyes shut just before the two of them disappeared into a cloud of magical dust.
Hurricane looked between the two routes they had taken. She crawled her way up the side of the airship and stood over the hatch. After a moment’s thought, she pulled it open and stepped inside.