Hooves Will Go On
With softly clopping hooves, Kera trotted up to the container and squinted at the glowing book within. As the hovering tome slowly spun about, she spotted one shimmering word after another, spelling out words that she only half understood.
“Why do they even want this thing so bad anyways?” she murmured to the bulkheads of the manaship around her. “I mean, I know it’s kind of cool looking, but it’s not like you can read the darn thing!”
She heard the faintest sound of larger hooves shifting through the walls around her. She gasped, flinching as a tremble ran through her body. After a few seconds, she steeled herself with a long, deep breath.
“Well, if they want it so bad, then I don’t want the cloud huffers to have it.” That said, she glanced around the room and saw an extra pair of robes hanging in the corner. The filly smiled mischievously, then turned to approach the cage. She leaned up against it, standing on her rear limbs while her forelegs clasped the bars of the thing. Studying the slender surfaces of the cage, she found several joints where screws had been tightened in place. “Ugh, what a sloppy job.” She licked her lips as she charged a beam of energy into her horn. “This should be as simple as a plate of grasshoppers.”
Mana twinkled between her and the cage. The bars began to shake as the screws lit up, one by one.
“Nnnnnngh!” Her face tightened as she focused all energy into the screws. “Come on… it’s j-just like stealing fr-from post boxes back in Blue Nova…!”
Sweat ran down her face, but at last one screw started rotating. After several long, agonizing seconds, it fell loose and rattled to the floor. Kera took one deep breath and continued struggling through the next bunch of fasteners. Hoofsteps sounded through the nearby bulkheads, and she attempted to hurry in her task.
A second screw clattered loose, then a third and a fourth.
At last, the upper bars slid loose from the lower half of the cage. Kera grunted, pivoting her horn to the side in time to catch the bulk of the structure. Then, panting as if she was in labor, she tilted upper half of the cage high enough so that a large space appeared in the center. Through this, she reached a hoof in, grasped a piece of the book’s binding, and yanked it out.
Success: the tome was hers.
Without thinking, she cut off her manastream completely. The cage fell with a cacophonous ringing sound, shaking Kera to her core.
Whatever hoofsteps were plodding around the manaship, they completely and utterly stopped. A few seconds later, shouting voices rang through the bulkheads.
“Crap.” Kera dragged the heavy book between her teeth and shuffled backwards towards the edge of the room. “Mmmmmmfff-crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!”
The heavy hoofsteps galloped closer and closer.
Kera made it to a bench where the spare cloak was resting. She picked it up, fumbled through the brown fabric like it was a collapsed tent, and finally found a spacious pocket inside, presumably sewn to fit a zealot’s steam rigging. She slid the tome inside, hiding the glow through the material. She then slipped the thing over her and bunched the fabric enough so that she couldn’t trip on it. As the hoofsteps bounded up to the very door outside, she threw the hood over her head and flattened her body up against the wall besides the entrance.
With a heavy cranking noise, the door flew open. Air rushed out into the cloudy mists as three ponies rushed in.
“What in the Host’s name was that noise?”
“Hmmmph. I think it was just a pocket of air that we hit.”
“Think again! Look!”
A voice gasped. “The Relic!” Three bodies shuffled up to the loosely dangling, empty cage. “It’s gone!”
“By the Angels…”
“Why didn’t we have somepony guarding this?!” One growled to the others. “I thought I said that somepony should be watching this at all times!”
“But we’re alone out here! If anyone did this, it was one of us!”
“No time for hoof-pointing! We have to search the whole ship for the book!”
By this point, Kera had made an awkward yet silent exit. With a great length of the cloak trailing behind her, she slid out of the room behind the gawking ponies and galloped out onto the outer edge of the deck. Adjusting the weight of the book hanging in her robes, she followed the metal railing and rushed towards the stern.
“Th-there’s gotta be a perfect place to hide in here,” she murmured to herself. “Some place where these idiots aren’t smart enough to check--”
“Hey! You there!”
Her ears flattened beneath her hood. “Thundercrap!” she hissed.
The hoofsteps of two ponies approached her from behind. “Where did you come from just now?!” one exclaimed.
“Hey, uhm…” The voice of the second pony dripped in. “Since when did we have a brother or sister that small?”
“What the…?!” The first shifted closer. “By the Host, you’re right. Hey! Stop where you are! Turn around!”
Kera sighed, then tightened her limbs. “If you say so.” She spun around, flung her hood off, and threw her horn forward with a burst of telekinesis. “Haaaaaaaa!”
A vaporous burst of air sailed down the deck, knocking the foremost zealot clear off her hooves. “Gaaaah!”
“Whoah!” The second one gasped, snarled, and produced a dart gun from beneath his sleeve.
“Farts!” Kera hissed, stumbling backwards. “I-I forgot they had those!”
He fired two professional shots.
Kera thought fast, firing up a translucent shield in front of her that deflected the darts. Glancing to her side, she saw a metal tool box hanging off the wall and immediately flung it at the stallion. “Nnnngh!”
The magically lifted tools flew in a wide spread, forcing the stallion to duck low and shield his head. Before he could look up, Kera was scampering towards the far end of the manaships, hyperventilating. The mists of the cloud enveloped her little robed figure.
A group of ponies ran along the deck, crossing the distance between the room with the empty cage and the two collapsed guards. “What’s all the noise?!”
“It’s the child!” one said as he helped the other get up--wincing--in a sea of fallen metal tools. “She’s escaped her hold! The magic she can wield is incredible…!”
“D-did she come from starboard side?”
“I… uh… y-yes! Yes, we saw her trotting quietly along the deck here!” The stallion pointed into the misty lengths of the ship. “She galloped that way! The foal’s wearing one of our cloaks! It’s three times too large for her!”
“Great…” A stallion grunted. “She must have done it. She must have stolen the Relic!”
“We have to find her!”
“Search every inch of the ship! Every door and every deck! She could be hiding anywhere!”
“We must find that book! The quest to summon the Harbinger depends on it!”
“Go! Go!”
Kera fought tears as she scampered from one deck to another, clinging to the walls, minding the railings. As the seconds bled into minutes, she heard rattling hoofsteps from all directions. Bodies darted in and out of the mists, and it was through sheer miracle alone that she remained undetected for so long. Ten minutes into the frenzied ordeal, she found a spot towards the bow of the ship where she could squeeze her body in the groove of two adjacent bulkheads. There, she clutched the weight of the tome to herself and silently prayed that nopony could spot a hint of the glow through either the brown fabric or the white fog surrounding her.
At last, she heard a group of voices, clear as day. Her every inch froze as she came to the realization that the windows to the ship’s bridge must have been directly over her shivering head.
“Sister, we’ve searched every floor! Wherever she is, it’s not inside!”
“You’re certain of this?”
“Absolutely! But we can keep searching if you--”
“No, that’d be a waste of time. This child is more than just an elusive foal. The Harbinger has evidently taught her fantastic skills in the art of stealth. There’s no telling if she’s found a way off this ship already. If we can’t find her in this mess, than we need to even the playing field!”
“How do you mean?”
“Take the wheels and bring us down.”
“Wait--you mean--”
“Yes.”
“But! But that’s too dangerous!”
“She has the Relic! Imagine what danger we’ll be in if she gets away with it!”
“But--”
“Just do it! Khao’s counting on us!”
“Yes, m-ma’am!”
Kera blinked, then gasped as the whole ship groaned. Steam vents thrusted on the far ends of the vessel, and the weight of the entire thing tilted forward. She fumbled as she found herself leaning forward. Rolling across the deck, she slid into the railings and gripped it nervously. Before her, the mists parted, blinding her with sunlight and a bright blue sky.
As her squinting eyes came into focus, she stared in wonder at a gorgeous plain looming with spacious forests stretching east and west as far as she could see. A glistening blue river ran north and south through it, flanked with marshlands brimming with wildlife.
“Oh jeez…” She swallowed dryly as the ship dipped all the way out of the thick cloud above it. “Where in the heck are we?”
“There!” a voice shouted from behind. “There! I see her!”
Kera spun with a gasp. “Oh crap, that was f-fast!” Without a second thought, she galloped towards the port side.
“Quick! She’s running!”
“Port side! Port side!”
“Cut her off!”
Kera’s legs blurred beneath her cloak, but there was no use. Equine bodies doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in her peripheral vision. With no mists to obscure her tracks, she stood out like a black stain against a white sheet. Her hooves limped to a stop as she froze along a length of railing halfway down the ship’s deck. She stood stock-still, fidgeting, glancing left and right at the solid ring of zealots closing in on her.
“Wait!” one shouted, holding her hoof high. For some reason, her face was awash with concern, and she approached the foal slowly. “Do not be afraid. We will not hurt you.”
Kera’s face scrunched in confusion. She looked at herself, at the obvious weight of the tome beneath her cloak, and to how close she was to the edge of the ship.
“We never had planned for you to jump aboard our managlider in the first place--”
“Back the crap off!” Kera grunted, raising a bundle of the cloak and aiming it for the edge of the railing. “Or else!”
Everypony jerked still, staring at her with tense expressions.
“Just… just calm down,” a stallion said, waving his hooves. “No need to hurt yourself…”
“Buffalo biscuits!” Kera scowled. “You dudes don’t give a flying feather about me! You just want the stupid book back!”
“‘Flying… feather…?’” one murmured out loud.
“She’s been an audience to Austraeoh,” a mare grumbled, then turned to face her. “Look, child, we did not lose so many of our brothers and sisters just to have the book go to waste. You will hoof it over to us and you will do so now.”
“Oh will I?” Kera grinned evilly as she leaned closer to the ship’s edge.
The mare frowned. “The Relic is a construct of Angels and Prophets far more powerful than mortal kind. That book is impervious to damage.” Her eyes narrowed. “You, however, are not.”
Kera blinked. “What… wh-what are you trying to say?”
A stallion shuffled closer to the mare. “Sister, please, don’t--”
“Silence!” she hissed at the others. “We all know what Khao would do to all of us if we failed to meet the rendezvous successfully! This foal is expendable. The Relic is not.”
“But there has to be another way! Let’s just talk it out! There’s no need for--” The stallion froze.
The mare had frozen too.
Everypony grew pale with horror, their wide eyes staring into the west, past the port side, past Kera.
The foal blinked. “H-huh?!” Her eyes darted across each pallid expression. “What the heck’s going on around here?” Fidgeting, she twirled around… and then her eyes widened too.
A large gray shape loomed on the western horizon, casting a grim shadow over the forests below. With roaring propellers, a hulking battleship five times’ the size of the zealots’ manaship turned about, coming to face the Herald’s vessel directly.
“Blessed Angels…” A stallion stammered. “Ledo…”
“Ledomare!”
“Enforcers!” The mare spun and shouted towards the others. “Bring us back up! Get us cover--”
Twin beams of light flickered across the battleship’s hull. Seconds later, the sound of thunder reached them, followed by a loud whistling sound. And then a chunk of the manaship exploded.
“Unnngh!” Kera shrieked, her body sprawling across the deck as pieces of burning metal flew overhead. Screams and panicked hoofsteps rang out around her. The sky tilted as the vessel began reeling.
“Get the engines back online!”
“One of the skystone pylons took a hit! We’ll fly off course!”
“Whatever it takes to get away from them!”
“Gaugh! The deck’s on fire! I can’t get to the bridge!”
“Follow me to the starboard side! We’ll get in through another passage--”
Thunder rolled again.
“Incoming!”
“Brace for impact--”
The air whistled as two more cannonballs landed deep into the metal hull of the ship. The railing bent apart as strips of the deck flew into the sky with fiery debris. Half-a-dozen ponies were blown off their hooves. The mares and stallions plunged--screaming--into the green expanse below.
Kera watched with twitching eyes as the landscape around her began spinning.
“A second pylon’s been taken out! We’re d-down to one piece of skystone!”
“We have no other choice! We have to land this thing!”
“They’ll finish us off before we reach sea level!”
“Empty the portside steam vents! Maybe we can mask our descent!”
“Gaaaugh!” a mare screamed as a series of pipes exploded in her face. Her burnt corpse slid down the deck and rolled past Kera, falling into the twirling landscape below.
The air whistled again. All was wind and screams.
“Look out--”
A piece of the stern flew apart. The ship veered harder to its side, flinging Kera like a loose stone.
“Aaaaack!” she shrieked, flinging a hoof out and clutching onto the first thing she could. The foal dangled, gripping onto a loose bar of railing as the manaship reeled to its portside, dead in the air. “Unngh… oh please… oh please oh please oh please d-don’t slip…” She grimaced as the unthinkable began to happen. She could swear that the weight of the tome was the thing pulling her down, and she felt her sweaty hoof slipping gradually from the metal spoke, one centimeter per second. “Mmmmnngh… no… n-no!”
She slipped.
Kera screamed as she fell to her death--
A strong hoof flew down and grasped her by a length of cloak.
She gasped, eyes wide as she found herself hoisted up.
“Gotcha, kiddo!” A stallion pulled her into a strong embrace, then kicked at the sharply angled deck as he drew the both of them up onto an even chunk of debris.
The foal panted, clinging to the random zealot in the middle of the chaos. She glanced up at him.
He was a young pony, and a similarly panicked expression mirrored hers across his face. The wind kicked at his yellow-streaked mane.
“Brother Zaid!”
He turned towards the voice.
A mare waved from an upper deck. “Get her to the starboard side! We’ll grab steam riggings and fly off the ship in formation! Maybe we can outrun them… in… the forests…”
“Sister?” he stammered.
“They… they stopped firing.”
Kera and the stallion looked west.
Not only had the battleship stopped firing, but it had pivoted about so that its starboard side faced them entirely. There was the glint of something--like a mirror from far away--and the ship’s propellers came to a stop. Then, with a hum of manaengines, a skiff detached from the craft and glided towards them.
Several surviving zealots had gathered nearby, gawking in disbelief.
“What are they doing?”
“Should we fire on the raft?”
“You kidding?! One more cannon blast and we’re all dead!”
“Let’s… let’s just see what th-they want…”
The ship fell into cold silence.
The Ledomaritan skiff drew closer, closer. The shapes of lavender berets came into focus. Once the vessel was within shouting distance, several enforcers trained floating manarifles on every zealot within sight.
A mare trotted up to the edge of the shattered ship. “What… wh-what are your terms?”
“The Xonan.” The lead stallion waved his rifle and nodded towards Kera. “Give her to us.”
Kera ran a hoof across her tattooed face, blinking.
The zealots exchanged glances. They looked back at the soldiers. “But, we do not understand--”
The speaking pony was rewarded with a new hole in her head. She slumped down in a wet splash as her “brothers” and “sisters” gasped in horror.
“There is nothing to understand!” the Ledomaritan shouted, cocking his smoking rifle. “The child! Hoof her over! Now!”
Kera bit her lip. She felt the weight of the stallion behind her shifting. He eyed the enforcers warily as he stood up, gripped Kera in two strong hooves, and held her over the edge of the ship.
The skiff ran abreast the battered vessel. Two enforcers lowered their guns and aimed their horns towards Kera instead.
The foal gasped as she was telekinetically hoisted off the Herald’s vessel and onto the floating skiff. She was forced to sit between two uniformed unicorns. Almost immediately, the skiff drifted away, turned about, and glided due west towards the battleship.
The lead enforcer holstered his rifle and spoke into a glowing sound stone. “It’s done. We have the child.” He put the stone away, and once the skiff was a hundred meters away from the manaship, he spun his hoof wildly in the air.
Thunder boomed. Two burning streaks skimmed the air above the skiff. Kera hissed from the turbulence. She turned and looked over her cloaked shoulder.
One second, the battered manaship hung in the air. The next second…
Kapow!
The craft exploded in the center. With a shower of screams and bodies, the manaship broke into two parts. The burning halves plummeted towards the forests below, filling a chunk of the atmosphere with smoke and effluent manasteam.
Kera bit her lip, shivering as she clutched the weight of the tome under her cloak. Then, after suffering a frightening thought, she let go of the book altogether, instead choosing to smooth out the fabric of the robe, obscuring the shape of the secret book in her possession. Her heart pounded harder and harder as the skiff came to a slow glide, then moored with the hulking battleship.
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And that's why you always have power in your shields, even in civilian sectors.
Only comemnt possible is "oh shit."
Shell to the... rescue? I can't decide if this is the best or worst possible timing.
Fifty four-count side-straddle hops, ):( Knock 'em out!
Oh no... Ledomare again!
... At least the cultists don't have the Relic anymore?
Yeah, it's kind of hard to put a good spin on things when the situation keeps taking a nosedive.
That's either Shell or what's his name That's gone %100 brutal... either way it's bad. Shell or back into Nightshade's plot... I wonder which Kera would prefer
Ah, ex-Enforcer Shell, it's been a while.
Because expecting Roarke and Dash to catch up to the Heralds first was too optimistic.
And I just hoofed Kera over to Shell.
And now they're plunging to the ground.
What now, is it going to start raining?
...that was unexpected.
~bass
Well, it got worse again.
Funny thought... Shell's battleship has never been resupplied. When is it going to run out of, er, shells?
3305595
Shell is a psychopath. He "saved" her so he can hold her hostage. And where she is now, well, the cultists were a much better host. My question is, how did he possibly know where to find her?
Nooo! They killed brother Zaid!
Ohhhh shiiiit...Shell's back.
3305717 Brother *ehem* Zaid said thet they evaded a Ledomaritan ship on their way, it was most likely the Steel Wing.
3305843 That would surely be a record for the shortest charachter appearence, wouldn't it?
3305991
>That feel when having a generic username means you'll never have a cameo despite reading since austraeoh
3306001Maybe not, but you can still get shout outs.
I remember that back in Eljunbyro or Innavedr there was a user called "Uncreative" in 1337, and lamenting that he (she?) couldn't get a cameo.
Next chapter, then-enforcer Josho made an off-hand remark about Pilate using some "uncreative numbers".
I think it was nice.
Wellllp. Shell's back. Now ve are havink zee trouble.
Ees not good for health.
3305717
I'm assuming he can detect the book, and that the 'Xonan foal' request was just guesswork
3305991 *Sobbing* Whyyyyyyy!!! Zaid!
3305632 The Captein just makes that comment even better.
There was that flight attendant who survived the aircraft coming apart at lots of thousands of feet, her impact softened by trees and deep snow. The author can select what happenes next, such as sleeper characters, even accross stories.
These guys are definitely not paranoid enough yet.
Looks like OpticalPunk is in another Machine World.
Goddammit. Roarke, you have something to kill now. Happy?
As much as I disliked the zealots, I'm not sure how I feel about Shell's arrival here. In one fell swoop, he might've reclaimed the title of most-loathed villain. And now, we wait for Roarbow's arrival.
These cultists. These PEOPLE. Seriously, I've spoken about educated ignorance, but now they are being just straight-out retarded. Jeeze, I'm almost glad they're gone. Let's just... let's just put a big, cozy blanket over all of this and forget these people ever happened. Goodness gracious...
Here lies Zaid. He lived carefully and died a virgin. Well, if nothing else he now holds the record for the shortest appearance in the entire series so far.
Also, I'm probably still at the northern edge of the world, freezing my tail off and juggling with skystone or something. Chin up, Zaid, it could be worse!
3306939 Captain? What captain? I only see the duke!
This is a rather unfortunate turn of events.
(how the hell did they know where Kera was?)
Probably Shell. Also I don't think Zaid is dead yet. Too much fun to be had yet.
I don't see how Shell would know that Kera had the relic, so I guess he wanted her. He's gonna be pretty damn excited when he finds out that he's killed two birds with one stone.
I don't think it's shell. they are near the war front right? shell couldn't have caught up already.
Well lookie there, Kera got that book! It's one of them 'do sexy machine' things.
I wonder who coined that phrase. Perhaps it was Props.
... Well, almost do sexy machine. If she hadn't been foalnapped by those lousy Ledos.
inb4 zaid survives and joins the gang.
Also inb4 that doesn't happen now that I've said that.
I win either way (:
Well then... that happened. I feel bad for the stalkers now. Shell's a dick. Assuming that this is, in fact, Shell...
3305663 3306241 3306953 3308147 3308249 3308797
At worst Zaid had an offscreen death, but we all know that that's never a garuntee (*cough cough* Shell). Lasairfion's got the idea.
3305602
Now Kera has the Relic, and Khao is obligated to (re)obtain it...
I wonder who will reach the Enforcer ship first: RD and Roarke, or Khao and the cult?
3306055 3306001
Yeah, I though about that too. My username isn't exactly cameo-friendly (kinda makes me not want a drop until I have a "namechange")
3308559, 3308877 Hey, you are right. There hasn't been any confirmation that this ship is in fact the Steel Wing.
Well, it will be very interesting to see what Insane Shell is like comparable to his old, more cold and reserved brand of lunacy.
3309207 I know of only a very limited number of Ledomartian battlecruisers specifically on the hunt for a Xonan filly and operating with such extreme brutality so far west of the front line.
3309815 I know, I know...
I'm just trying to delay the inevitable.
3309862 You could be spending all that time writing down your last will and testament. You know, while still in free fall.
By the way, I love the fact that Shell didn't even stop to mention anything about the cultists he was snatching Kera from. "Weird people with tattooed wings and rainbow braids wearing dart guns and piloting a ship powered by familiar red crystals in the middle of Ledomare? Like I give a fuck."
3309894 My head hasn't exploded yet, stop pronouncing me dead!
And they haven's explicitely stated that Shell is right out there, right? As far as we know, he just order the attack and is curled in a ball in his quarters with Imre's body.
3309956
3308527
My working theory (one I hashed out in chat last night) is that he wants her in order to sequence with Imre's dead body.
Which will, naturally, involve some smashing of horns.
3305585 No matter how powerful your engines are *nods*
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, to quote Imre, that was both the best and worst possible thing to happen at that moment. I knew Shell would show up at an inoppertune moment, though. Because he showed up, Kera lives. But because he showed up...Kera's chances for survival have dropped considerably. Also, those Enforcers were just ruthless. Shell must have really done a number on them for them to be almost as cruel as him. But Dash follows the book, so at least she'll still be able to find Kera. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Huh. I suppose this is one of those classic "out of the frying pan and into the fire" type scenarios, isn't it? What are the odds that Shell (or whoever these party crashers are) will discover the book and use it as leverage over Dash and Co.? Although, presumably that's what they already planned to do with Kera...Eh, this whole situation is getting more convoluted by the chapter - I love it.
Well, more stuff to read - onward!
I hope Roarke is equipped to take on a whole ship by herself without her managlider. Because if not, Kera's in deep shit. I can't imagine her escaping from trained guardsponies. However, never underestimate the incompetence of mooks.
>If we can’t find her in this mess, than we need to even the playing field!
y u no "then" ;_;
Shell to the rescue? Or not?
-Spirit
And I almost wanted that guy who saved Kera to be a major character.
3371959 right? lol good saying for that too.
Kera seems to be an expert at attracting the worst kind of company.
Well, our great cultist battle has been cut short, before Roarke and Rainbow even got there! Now it's just gonna be more Ledo vs. Austraoeh battlin'.
Come ooon.