Epilogue: Know They Did1,309 words

Wrath: Donut, Steel

Twilight flew up above the crowd. "Everyone, make your way back to the train platform! As quickly as you can- go!" she ordered. Dogs, donkeys, ponies, griffons, prisoners and guards, everyone outside Team Dan followed her instructions. The ground beneath them still shook, like a distant thunder pulsing through the very surface. The final heartbeats of a world.

"Do we know how the cannon works?" Dan asked.

"No, we don't," Twilight said. "But I do."

"Okay, don't get cute. Just answer me when I ask you."

Rarity called down from the tower. "Everyone! We need your help up here!" And Twilight was quick to levitate them back up. She accidentally landed Cap off-balance and he nearly stumbled. It was still difficult for her to keep track of so many things at once, a burden of being so magically-adept.

They landed on the roof of the tower and were greeted with the sight of their next challenge approaching. In the distance, a very familiar-looking ring-shaped armored airship was coming towards them. But though it looked familiar, it was not the one they were hoping to see.

"Oh... for a moment, I thought it was Gust," Phoenix said.

"Yeah, me too, Nicky. Me too."

Advanced Flying Invasion Fortress
Cogsdale Mk. 2
If The First One Explodes, Make The Second One Bigger

Now, they finally knew what Rice did with Gust and the griffons' airships: he combined them into one big ship. Resources were scarce in Equestria, even in its twilight hour. He could've easily stripped the three Expunger-class griffon carriers and built a new vessel, but he actually just stacked all three on top of each other and built an armored hull around it. Originally, his plan was to use Cogsdale as a station to invade Earth and rule it at his leisure. But things had changed.

Rice could not escape Equestria any more than he could escape any other part of his past. Superweapons based around powerful ponies, weaponized technology adapted from what was already built, even Cogsdale was based on Cloudsdale and was built for a similar function. Rice lacked imagination because he couldn't imagine anything beyond the loss of his son. Unlike Dan, who used agony to move forward, Rice was trapped in it, unable to move on in body or in mind.

"Alright," Cap said, readying his shield. "Plan, Dan?"

Smirking, Dan folded his arms. "The longer I fight Rice Grip, the easier it gets. There's at least ten different ways I could- I mean, WE could take this thing down. A few I could do on my own, even, but you guys are here, so might as well keep it a team effort."

"That's fantastic!" Phoenix exclaimed. (Yes! Confidence, oh, I missed you!) "I mean, of course. We've stood up to all of Rice's contraptions so far, we should be good at it by now."

Dan nodded. "We could easily have Twilight just zap us up to the ship and start breaking it from the inside. Then, she teleports us out before we crash. Done in fifteen minutes tops."

Chris nodded. "Not bad. Not the most original plan, but not bad."

"It's not the most original airship, either," Dan said. The ring-shaped silvery monstrosity approached, the storms breaking around it. "But," Dan continued.

"But?"

"But, we could make it even simpler." He turned around. "Let's shoot it with the cannon." Concerned looks turned to Dan, obliging him to elaborate further. "We just let the thing keep coming, wait until it's right over us and then shoot us through the thing." And people kept staring at him. "We just gas up the cannon more, really overpower it and then shoot us through the big metal thingy-"

"Who else thinks that's a bad idea?" Chris asked. Everyone but Dan raised a hand/hoof. As they were talking, the sky fortress was still approaching ominously. Slower than Gust's old ships even, and they were built to hold stuff, not for speed. When you make something that gargantuan and armored, you had to sacrifice somewhere. With what that carrier was carrying, however, you weren't worried about getting anywhere quickly.

"Okay, fine. We would have literally killed two birds with one stone, one of them being the evil flying steel donut."

"We might have been one of the birds, Dan!" Twilight yelled.

"You know, there IS a big hole in the middle of that thing, the big steel donut. We might've just shot right through it." Phoenix chuckled and rubbed his neck. "Heh, maybe we wouldn't have to fight it at all." (There's wishful thinking.)

"Who else likes Nick's plan?" Everyone including Dan raised a hand/hoof.

Dan looked up at his own raised hand. "This outcome surprises me."

Chris clapped his hands. "Okay, cool, let's head back into the cannon and skip this boss fight. Twilight, would you do the honors?"

She smiled. "Gladly."

*poffpoffpoffpoffpoff* Unfortunately, another party was involved and it just raised its objection. The Cogsdale fired a flurry of missiles that streaked into the air a split-second before Twilight could act.

"Missiles. It's always missiles," Dan remarked. "Nothing we haven't seen before, people. Rice's routine is old, we've got this. Chris, shoot the missiles with your rifle, Twilight, shield. Then, we go with Plan A, take the thing down from the inside."

"Right."
"On it."

They readied themselves as the missiles rapidly approached. This was nothing they hadn't seen before and by now, they were ready for it. Even Phoenix was ready, and he popped open his reflecting/deflecting parasol, which everybody else forgot he had with him. Dan got out his shotgun, which was technically still Dollars' shotgun, and narrowed his eyes as the streaks in the sky came closer.

Chris fired at the missiles, but even he had trouble hitting them. On the third shot, he hit one, but it didn't explode.

"Uh oh." They didn't have time to ask him what he meant.

"Twilight, shield." A purple bubble enveloped the group, all sparkly and pretty in Twilight's pony magic. The girly sparkles were a reassuring comfort to all of them.

The missiles came closer to the ground. "Get ready!" Dan yelled. And then, the missiles hit the ground. Some of them exploded on impact, others didn't.

"Uh oh," Cap and Phoenix echoed Chris. But Dan didn't.

"Ha! Duds."

"I don't think that's it, Dan."

A wave of black rapidly swarmed towards them. At first, it looked like the Smooze or a wave of Midnight Parasprites, parasprites known for getting midnight munchies, but it was something worse. Tiny spheres slowly materialized and rushed towards Twilight's shield.

"Maybe we should-" Cap's suggestion cutoff when the balls stuck to the shield. The purple shield was quickly covered in the tiny, baseball-sized black orbs.

"This is new. I don't like this. It's new and I don't like it," Dan said.

Twilight's head darted around all of them. "They shouldn't be able to-" And then, they exploded.

Each one with the force of a grenade blasted. Twilight's shield broke to pieces, leaving the rest of the orbs to explode on the gang. Cap, Chris, Dan, Phoenix and Twilight all did their best to cover themselves in the last moment before the explosives went off, but all were blasted by the swarm of orbs. They went flying back into the cannon's outer wall.

Slowly, the horse and four men(obvious allegory!) peeled off the wall. And landed flat on the ground.

"Auuugh..."
"I think I... I think I left part of myself on the wall."
"You did," Chris told Twilight. She looked behind her and saw some of her feathers were stuck to the wall, burnt. Just loose ones, but it illustrated the point. They had been taken off-guard.

"Okay..." Dan said, steadying himself. "Now, we know what we're up against. We can still-" The ground beneath his feet shook. A tiny, silver cone burrowed up from the ground, the tip of one of the missiles. Before it exploded, Dan had time to ball his fists, raise them to the sky and shout,

"DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONUUUUUUUUUTTTTS!!!!" he then looked back at the camera. "Okay, I know that one doesn't EXACTLY fit the situation, but I don't have a lot to work with right now."

"You could do another one later," Phoenix suggested.

Dan thought, and nodded. "Good idea, Nicky." Then the missiles exploded and they were set skyrocketing again.

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Booster Spice

Booster Spice #1 · May 9th, 2020 · · ·

Hmm, When did Rice pick up Teatime? thats some really high quality evil genius attack weaponry there.

LadyLeomon

LadyLeomon #2 · May 10th, 2020 · 3 · ·

Sorry Dan-tastic Author, no Pinkie Smile this time, honestly it's been a rough week. I had to say goodbye to a beloved furry friend who was rehomed, she wasn't mine she just stopped by for food every day. It was decided (not by me) that her situation here wasn't ideal so she was rehomed and I miss her every morning she doesn't stop by for breakfast, I miss you Precious: my favourite fluffy neighbour

Sorry for being a downer, and thanks for this newest chapter. If only I could blow up or shoot my problems away like Dan I'd be a helluva lot happier.

Thank for this newer Dan-tastic instalment and I'll see you in the next one!

Your Eternal Fan 💙🐱💙

Barrobroadcaster