To Hunt a Beast

by Blackdrag-rose

2: Train Ride

Copper had kept the train they had used to traverse the distance between Appleloosa and Manehatten in a spare train house until she was sure it would be needed again. For three years the train sat in the storage area, almost alone save for Copper coming to check on it and either repair, upgrade, or install new gadgets. The warpstone, the light blueish stone that had been fixed into the train's heart, was how they had traveled between locations so quickly and Copper could tell by just looking at it that it was still fully functional after three years.

After leaving Peachy and her vampires behind Copper had immediately returned to Manehatten, returning to her shop so she could pick up as many tools as she could carry. She had been expecting to make several trips between her shop and the train house, but had been surprised to find seven of the fourteen vampires from earlier waiting for her. Peachy wanted them to move quicker then ever apparently, so Copper put aside any negative feelings towards the vampires and they hauled her supplies to the train.

There she spent the next hour modifying the steering controls, how many coaches they had, and the weapons that had already been primed for combat if they were needed. The warpstone shimmered and Copper smiled as the final touches on their destination were entered into the panel resting beside it. The train, nicknamed 'The Vengeance' by Copper, had originally been her weapon against the Changeling and their hateful Queen Chrysalis. With the stone Copper would have ridden a device capable of knocking the entire Hive off the face of Equestria in a single instant, but when Wisdom and his friends had told her the news her plan crumbled.

Now it was just a special train that could traverse the world in short spans of time, one that she had renamed to the 'Flying Vengeance' a few days ago.

"It looks the exact same as it did three years ago," said a voice as Peachy and the rest of her vampires appeared behind Copper, "I would have thought you would have given it a fresh coat of paint or changed the wheels at least. But here I find that nothing has happened to it at all."

"Some things are better left the way they were," Copper remarked, her eyes lingering on her metallic leg for a minute, "and others were meant to be altered from their original design. Normal ponies aren't supposed to become vampires and werewolves, but with you and your friends I am doubting any of you are normal anymore."

"Eclipse isn't normal, not anymore." Peachy sadly said, as if thinking about the stallion brought back pain, "Even if the three of us change we can make due with what happens, but for him it has always been different. Usually he goes off and hides for some time, say maybe a week, before coming back to fight the one that chased him off in the first place."

"The question is if he is following that same patten," Wisdom said, closing the door behind him as he and Dynamo entered the storage house, "If he is following the same pattern then that means he should have appeared already, to wreak havoc upon those that challenged him before, but we know he hasn't. Whatever is going on Eclipse isn't reappearing and has been hidden away for three years. We need to recruit Tick and whatever allies he has made before making for the Crystal Empire. Hopefully Princess Cadence will have the news we need."

"We'll be leaving soon," Copper called out, hopping onto the control station to turn the train and it's three coaches towards the gate, "So get it, pick a seat, and allow the Flying Vengeance to truly amaze the stuffing out of you."

As the gate opened Copper let a grin on her face as she pulled down on a lever, causing the ground to rattle a bit all around them and making several of the bystanders turn in wonder. The four pieces of the train rolled out of the storage house and onto the vacant track, surprising most of the ponies around them with what the train actually looked like. The Flying Vengeance had been designed after the great flying dragons, scales embedded on the sides in the design of flames. Even the very front of the train had been changed to the face of a large dragon, with a long horn nose that could help with whatever the train hit.

The train tracks, however, lifted into the air and continued until the tracks led into the sky itself. Copper smiled as the wheels began to circulate, allowing the train to move into the clouds and, eventually, left the city of Manehatten behind. The only other weird thing about the train was that the sides opened up and long metallic wings spread out of them, allowing the train to stay afloat in mid air as it traveled the airtracks.

"Are you kidding me?" Peachy shouted, sticking her head out of the window to look at the ground and the clouds, "Since when did you have a flying train?"

"I spend the last three years building the aerodynamic systems that would keep this puppy afloat in the air," Copper called out, "and I spent several weeks during that time applying the reflective scales that would make us virtually invisible to the eyes of everypony else. With the warpstone active we will make our way towards the riftgate and then travel the dimensional currents until we reach Appleloosa."

"If we're supposed to be invisible then why are there three specks heading in our direction?" Wisdom commented, drawing Copper's eyes to the three streaks behind them.

"No no no no," Copper said, her eye zooming in on the streaks to find three different colored dragons approaching, each wearing a belt with what looked like a smaller similar warpstone in the center, "They are wearing smaller warpstones, which are smaller stones that lock onto the signature of the closest warpstone in the vicinity. They allow the wearers access to the riftgates, for short distances of course, unless they can find a stone like ours and gain access to it. I'm willing to bet they want our stone so they can travel the dimensional currents to wherever they wish in mere seconds."

"When did you replace your eye?" Peachy shouted, shadows surrounding her as she tried to focus on the incoming enemies after noticing the robotic eye.

"I'll tell you later," Copper shouted back, a cannon popping out of the floor and firing a cannonball at the dragons, "but the story is long and interesting."

"Wait a minute, I recognize that black dragon." Wisdom said, the dragon shattering the cannonball before it could explode in his face, "But that's impossible, there is no way Oblivion could have found us after three years."

"I remember him," Copper growled, continuing the barrage of cannonballs as they drew closer to the rifegate, "You guys told me that he's the one responsible for the first attack on Ponyville, when he tried to collect your friend's powers for himself. Why would he be chasing us?"

"I don't know, but I also don't want to find out," Peachy yelled, her shadows cutting open one of the other dragon's wings and making it fall back down to the ground.

Oblivion was dressed up in what looked like some sort of silver metallic armor, which was somehow allowing him to avoid the cannonballs before they could explode. His claws gleamed as if they had been freshly polished, giving them a focus point to keep tabs on the moving dragon, while his wings almost seemed to cause a drift behind him. The dragon was more prepared to fight them then he had been three or four years ago, which was a lot of guessing on their part. But just as the Flying Vengeance entered the riftgate he zeroed in on the back coach and was on just in time to enter the dimensional currents.

"Ah, it is good to see you all again," came the dragon's harsh voice as the current snapped shut behind him, leaving his friends behind this time, "Ah, what a marvelous flying contraption you have designed my friend. Such a piece will do wonders in the welcome claws of, well, myself. I will commandeer this train and use it's advances to rain destruction down on the unsuspecting ponies of Equestria to spark the national war that will tear the ponykind to pieces once and for all. Then, when the bloodshed is over, I will personally destroy the stallion that every creature in the world fears and the dragons will reign supreme."

"I don't think so," Copper said, pulling out a long cylinder contraption that was pointed at Oblivion's chest, "Say hello to the Everfree for me will you."

Before any of the assembled ponies and vampires could react a beam of energy collided with Oblivion's chest and knocked him out of the train. What happened next was the complete and utter disappearance of the vile dragon, like he had suddenly disappeared from the dimensional currents. The group turned back to Copper, who was smiling as she returned the contraption to it's holder by the front lever.

"I should have used that line I had been designed for such an occasion," Copper muttered, turning back to face her companions, "So, is everypony enjoying the train ride so far?"

It was official; Copper was beginning to behave like the ever random Pinkie Pie. Peachy smiled, at least none of them had been hurt in the entire exchange between them and the dragons.

Comments

[Oubliette]

Cyborg pinkie? There's three of them now?!

[Blackdrag-rose]

3573304
Lol. Yeah, I guess so. Peachy caught that one fast.
Copper doesn't seem to mind the randomness very much.