Into the Deadmines, Part II: Fall
The passage felt shorter than the others before, though whether it was because they were running this one or whether it was actually shorter was a question they didn’t have time to consider. Though not normally one for much physical exertion, Twilight found herself appreciating the flood of adrenaline into her system and the rest from constant spellcasting that required so much mental agility.
They soon came upon the next bronze gate, exactly the same as the others that had preceded it.
Only… it had two padlocks on it. And it was barred. And, as another of Twilight’s spells confirmed, it was locked from the other side, too.
And there was also the matter of the giant cannon that sat right next to it, unmanned save for two previously sleeping guards.
They were lucky – they hadn’t woken up from the group blundering towards them, which had given Rarity the opportunity to sneak up through the shadows and knock one unconscious, just as she had in Elwynn with one of the gnolls. Twilight repeated her polymorph trick and turned the other into a sheep that remained asleep even after transformation had occurred.
“Bet there’s something big on the other side of this door, with all of this security.” Rainbow examined the bar appreciatively, as Fluttershy gingerly carried the Defias-turned-sheep as far away from the door – and from Wilder – as she could, then came back to drag the unconscious woman away too. “AJ and I could maybe lift this off. Think you can sort the locks, Rarity?”
“Perhaps,” Rarity hummed, running her hand across one of the padlocks as she took her hairpin out of her pocket. “I will get to work immediately.”
“Let’s get this bar then, partner.” Applejack took one end of the bar, Rainbow took the other. “One, two… heave!”
With most of the group suddenly concentrating on something, Twilight sidled over to Pinkie, the only one other than herself without an immediate task to fulfil. “Are you doing okay, Pinkie? You haven’t said much since we entered the mines…” Less than usual, anyway.
Pinkie gave her a strained grin. She still looked the same level of happy as she normally did, but also the most exhausted that Twilight had seen her since she’d tried staying up all night to guard the cake on the Friendship Express. “I’m doing fine! Keeping everybody else healthy is my top priority, but I won’t forget to keep myself in tip-top condition – you don’t need to worry about that.”
Twilight scratched her head. “You know I always worry. I kinda have to.”
“Aww, and we appreciate that! Honestly, I may be a bit tired, but I’m staying positive. I got your backs, yo.”
“We’ll keep doing our best, too,” Fluttershy chimed in, back from moving the downed thieves, Wilder at her heels. The wolf was still quite subdued; Twilight realised with almost certainty that he had never been inside such an enclosed space before. For an animal with limited understanding of the situation it must be like being trapped. “I won’t pretend it’s easy for us; no, it’s definitely very hard. But I can look at you and everyone else for guidance and I feel happy making a difference however I can.”
Meanwhile, the paladin and the warrior had managed to get the bar off the door and were easing it to the ground. “Careful hon, don’t be putting your back out now… there we go.”
CLUNK went the bar as they set it down.
…
CRASH
The second sound came from back the way they had run, up the tunnel to the forge. Voices thundered in the distance, not quite close enough to be distinguishable, but growing more so by the second.
Gilnid and his men had broken through.
“Rarity, can you have the door open before they catch up to us?” Twilight asked, weighing the options quickly.
“No.” Rarity shook her head, only now clicking off the first padlock. “We haven’t enough time. I’m not that good, dear.”
“All right, see if you can get the second one off. Applejack, think we can give Rarity the time she needs?”
The blonde scratched her head. “Maybe, hon. We’re all pretty beat, they really ain’t, and if they bring all they’ve got we’ll get swarmed. Dunno how long it’ll take her to crack this door, either.”
“All right. We need another plan.” Twilight chewed a strand of hair that had fallen into her mouth. It was becoming a nervous habit, one she really didn’t like. “It’s risky. We don’t know if the cannon’s even ready to fire, or if it even can. Who knows how often they bother to maintain it? It might just explode in our faces...”
The sound of footsteps approaching was getting louder by the second.
“…but I don’t see any other option. Rainbow, AJ, can you swing it round to point at the door?”
“Sure.”
“You got it.”
They did so, straining hard against the heavy weight of the cannon. It span slowly, but eventually they managed to get it one-eighty degrees from its original facing so that it was now aiming at the gate.
Twilight lit a flame at her fingertips and tried to ignite the fuse wire. For a long moment she feared that it wouldn’t catch, but then the thin rope started to smoulder, then burn. “Find cover, everyone!” she yelled, teleporting herself behind a nearby rocky outcropping. “Get ready to run through once the door is down. This is going to be a close one…”
“Give it up and die, you freaks!” The goblin roared out as viciously as his vocal chords could manage as he rounded the corner, flanked by three human Defias guards. “The rest of my boys are right behind us so you’d better just...” He trailed off as they skidded to the halt, taking in how the group were all behind cover, how the cannon’s fuse was lit and almost gone…
His guards retreated behind the corner at the sight of the cannon – they knew how temperamental it could be. He knew, too, but he also knew that the intruders had made it all the way through the rest of the Deadmines to get to him, and that if they could do that, could’ve even killed Rhaak’zor and Sneed for all he knew, then they could definitely slip through his fingers here. Disappointed bosses meant less money – dead bosses generally meant none. He couldn’t take that risk – too much profit, too many opportunities to advance his knowledge – they were all at stake. So Gilnid threw himself at them, fuelled by madness and greed.
KABOOM
CRACK
A gasp of thick black smoke erupted out of the cannon as it blew backwards from the force of being fired, followed a fraction of a second later by the impact of the cannonball against the door. It passed through as they had hoped, the effort of doing so robbing the ball of much of its inertia – though it still had enough to soar away unseen into the cavern beyond.
The gate blew open from the impact, the durability of the metal it was made of no match for the speed and point-blank range at which the cannon was fired. It crumpled and fragmented where struck directly, shattering into shards of shrapnel that sprayed out in front of and beyond the gate. Luckily the cover they had chosen proved to be solid enough to spare them a painful end. Gilnid escaped his own death through sheer luck or providence.
“Go through! Go, go!” They rose out of cover as soon as the destructive aftermath had finished and made for the relative safety of beyond the door – their experience of the Deadmines so far had taught them that it wouldn’t be much safer, but they had a more immediate problem in the passage as Gilnid was now close enough to be a very real threat himself.
“You’ll never take my profit!” he shrieked as he swung his spiked mace at Twilight’s back, the last of the group to make a break for it. She realised late how sure his strike was, twisting and summoning a mana barrier at the last possible moment to stave off the blow. It succeeded but dissipated immediately in a violet shower from the force of his attack – and it was a trick that she couldn’t use twice.
It certainly didn’t slow the enraged goblin down in the slightest, and nor did the nova of frost that she tried afterwards. He aimed his follow-up attack at her face, just able to reach high enough to connect.
No…
But then Rarity was between them, catching the mace with one of her daggers angled upwards, so that the strike passed safely over their heads. She held her other dagger in a reverse grip and jabbed at his main hand with the butt, making him recoil backwards and loosen his grip temporarily. Though there was no lasting damage, it was still a painful, bruising manoeuvre, meant to diminish his combat effectiveness rather than cause any real harm.
“Come on, Rarity!” Twilight urged. She’d taken advantage of the chance that Rarity had given her to move away from the fight and now stood with the others by the door. A layer of ice was already beginning to form as she channelled, intent on freezing the way through just as she had after the fight with the ogre.
Rarity tried to back away, hoping that her display of skill would dissuade the goblin from attacking further. But still he pursued them, consumed with avarice. A weak blow from his mace turned out to be a feint, as he went for her eyes with his unharmed off-hand, sharp nails out to puncture or tear.
She parried and turned away attack after attack, forced all the way back to the just-big-enough hole in the ice that Twilight was leaving her to get through. She scored the odd nick where he left her no choice but to cut or die, yet still fought primarily on the defensive.
She skipped elegantly through the remaining hole at last, confident that she could hold him off easily given the lack of space, but still Gilnid didn’t give up. He made one last desperate lunge up for her throat with his mace swapped to his off-hand, the spikes easily capable of cutting into her if she allowed them to even if his arm had less power behind it than he would have liked.
It was easy to avoid. So easy. And it gave her the perfect moment, the perfect opportunity…
The perfect thread to unpick.
She lashed out with her daggers into the remaining gap, slipped past the arm that was poking through, and carved a deep X into his throat. Scarlet spewed into the air as he fell backwards and gurgled out his last breath.
Nobody spoke as Rarity quietly sheathed her daggers and looked firmly away. They were all too shocked to even breathe a sigh of relief.
“You… d-didn’t have to do that,” stuttered Twilight eventually, still casting to reinforce the barrier. The gap had disappeared completely now, the goblin’s corpse just visible through it as a dark silhouette. She kept going until it was thick enough to cover all the way up to the edge of the brass, and then stopped, taking a deep breath that did little to calm her, or relieve the splitting headache she now had.
“I believe I did,” Rarity replied frostily, still refusing to meet their eyes. “We have more pressing matters to worry about, regardless.”
We always seem to. Twilight thought sadly.
“Yeah... C’mon. Let’s see what was so important that—woah.”
Rainbow couldn’t finish her sentence, her jaw dropped as she turned and looked deeper into the cave.
They’d been so distracted that they hadn’t taken in their surroundings – and how this space differed from all the rest.
It was many times the size of any of those rooms, far bigger than all of them combined. The ceiling was obscured in darkness, too tall for them to see just how it went.
The first striking realisation concerned the purpose of it all, however. They had emerged into a wet dock, a safe harbour built in the hollowed-out cavern. They could practically taste the seawater in the air, could watch as it lapped calmly at the edge of the rocky bank that they stood upon, not a wave in sight. They could see two large gate doors in the distance at the edge of the harbour, which presumably led out to the sea – Twilight guessed somewhere south of Westfall - and allowed ships access in and out of the base. They’d all been down to the docks at Stormwind at least once or twice since arriving there, but this was the closest they’d gotten to such a large body of water. Torches once again provided the otherwise gloomy area with some illumination, dotted as they were in strategic places around the bay.
But what they couldn’t miss – what really took their breaths away – was what was moored in the harbour.
It was a behemoth of a ship, a black, red and silver monstrosity under construction in the bowels of the Deadmines.
Metal plates were being hammered onto the wooden top layer to give the ship added protection. Red treated timbers formed the sturdy bottom half of the ship, an unknown amount of which was submerged comfortably below the water, and it appeared to move using massive propeller wheels in place on both starboard and port. It was positively bristling with cannon, including an unbelievably large main gun, and they could only guess at what size of crew complement it could hold.
It was amazing that the thing could even float. It was bigger by far than all the vessels they’d seen at a distance in Stormwind – a true marvel of naval and weapons engineering. Even just calling it a ‘ship’ felt like an understatement.
That explains why they needed all the materials, and how they got the lumber in… It’s like a fortress, a castle on the sea – I don’t think I've ever seen anything like it. It’s incredible.
Incredibly terrifying.
She took note that several of the gun emplacements were still empty, how the construction in some areas still appeared to be in progress, judging from the scaffolding… but also how many of the armaments were in place, and how it was clearly seaworthy enough to sit docked as it was. It was far too close to completion for her liking.
She found her voice first, before the rest of her friends. “This ship can only have been built to hurt Stormwind – destroying ships, disrupting trade, and taking revenge against those who they believe wronged them. I’m guessing VanCleef’s all the way up the top there.” She indicated what appeared to be a cabin at the summit of the ship.
“This fella,” Applejack started uncomfortably. “If he’s gonna build somethin’ like this, d’ya really think he’ll be the type to back down from just a chat?”
“If not, we’ll just have to find a way to stop this thing before they can launch it.” Twilight resolved with a shrug.
“Yeah… but can we even stop a ship this big, just us?” Rainbow asked, little trace of her usual cocksure confidence now in her tone.
“Or could we accomplish the same goal by simply ending the Brotherhood, here and now?” Rarity asked quietly.
Twilight knew exactly what she meant by that statement, and now it was her turn to be unable to look the fashionista in the eye instead of the other way around. There was a lump in the mage’s throat, one that had persisted since she’d watched the goblin fall by her friend’s blade, and it showed no sign of going away any time soon.
“We stick to the plan,” she said at last, marching briskly along the bank in the direction of what appeared to be a gangway up to the ship. “Let’s go.”
It wasn’t the most inspiring display of leadership the others had seen from their former princess. They shared a nervous glance - save for Rarity, who was still absorbed within her own thoughts - then followed on in silence.
“We’re under attack!” A deep voice bellowed. “Avast, ye swabs! Repel the invaders!”
They were able to make out a large figure at the top of the plank on the ship, driving a group of six pirates forwards to fight them, all of whom clutched an array of bladed and spiked weapons.
“Looks like we’ve got company.”
“We’ve taken on boys an’ girls like y’all before and we ain’t gonna back down now!” Applejack shouted at the rushing foe, waving her shield and sword threateningly to get their attention. “Yeah, that’s right, you come after me!”
The taunting worked – where a heartbeat earlier they had been running aimlessly towards them, now they came at Applejack specifically, fixated on her demise.
“We haven’t got time for this!” Twilight reminded the others. “Their reinforcements will break through my ice wall eventually. Incapacitate these guys so we can board the ship!”
She weaved arcane power for just over a second and suddenly the most dangerous-looking pirate of the bunch was replaced by a sheep. He wandering around aimlessly while his fellows kept running at them.
The rearmost brigand, a woman, staggered over a moment later, gasping for breath. Rarity appeared out of her shadow, a grim look in her eyes as she followed up her initial kidney shot with a crippling pommel strike across the back of her legs. She didn’t draw blood, but the sharp pain was more than enough to put the unlucky criminal down. She collapsed sobbing as Rarity disappeared just as quickly as she had materialised.
Applejack found herself struggling with the four Defias who reached her. The first easily patted away her first swing and pinned her arm back with his own blade; his strength was greater than hers. She punched out across her body with her shield to block all their strikes of opportunity, but took a step backwards as they continued to bear down on her. This time, she didn’t have the choke point of the narrow corridor to use to her advantage.
This time, however, she had her friends. As she fell back, Rainbow pushed forward, her unexpectedly quick movement for her armour proficiency taking the enemy by surprise. Her light-infused strike cracked the woman’s jaw straight up, though without the force to snap her neck – she was merely knocked out, her eyes rolling all the way back as she toppled over.
The brutal precision of the attack made the other attackers hesitate, giving Applejack the chance she needed. She dropped her sword, fended off an inaccurate blow from the one on her right and grappled with the other, who cried out in alarm as she swept his legs from under him and used the momentum to send him flying towards the edge of the dock.
He went straight off and into the drink, emerging a few seconds later and choking out some of the water he had accidentally swallowed. The dock was far too steep for him to climb back up – he was out of the fight.
The last remaining fighter quickly became aware of his situation – how his friends were either unconscious, soaked or had turned into a sheep. He took note of the rabid wolf charging towards him, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and who seemed hungry enough to gobble him up.
He decided that discretion was the better part of valour and fled, jumping into the water himself and saving them the trouble of pushing him in. Applejack finished the job by picking up the man-turned-sheep and throwing him in as well. The spell wore off as he hit the water but there was nothing more he could do, and joined his fellows in swimming for the far shore.
“What? How can that be all of our men on duty?!” the figure on the ship barked out in alarm, then shouted to someone else on the ship. “Go find the rest, ye incompetent landlubber!”
“Let’s keep the momentum up! Go, go!” Twilight urged them along the bank – they couldn’t afford to waste time.
The nature of the figure on the ship became clear as they approached the gangplank. He wasn’t human, a goblin or an ogre, and his appearance gave them momentary pause.
They hadn’t seen anything like his kind before. He had clearly bovine features, including hooves, yet walked upright on two legs, dressed in a thin leather top and dark blue pants. Even with their perceptions distorted by how he had the higher ground, it was obvious that he stood a good head above them, just shorter than the ogre but with a large hump to his back, covered, like the rest of him, in a layer of thick black fur which did little to hide his musculature. He had not one but instead two horns jutting out to the side above his ears, though one appeared to have broken a while before and had long since healed as a stump, and clutched a curved sword in one of his three-fingered hands.
“He’s a tauren! Strong and slow like an ogre, but much smarter!” Twilight warned. “Don’t let your guard down!”
“Afraid of getting your hands dirty?” Applejack shouted as they reached the far end of the bank. “Bet you’re not even as tough as your crew, and look how quick they went down!”
“Why would anyone like getting their hands dirty, anyway?” Pinkie giggled, throwing out another bubble to shield the warrior from harm. “Unless they work on a farm or some dirt gathering business or whatever.”
“Come up here and say that to my face!” the tauren leered down at them, ignoring Pinkie’s hyperactive musings. “You’ll find out just how tough I—huh…”
He trailed off, distracted, and then reached a hand into the shadows beside him…
…and pulled a very surprised Rarity into view.
“Unhand me, you ruffian!” she screeched, squirming in his iron grip. He held her at arm’s length as she cut at him to no avail, then in one solid motion tossed her all the way down towards the bank.
She crashed down in a heap on top of Rainbow and both were left sprawled out and groaning in pain.
“Pathetic landlubber, thought I wouldn’t see ye?” he started down the ramp, quickly breaking into a running charge. “Maybe this’ll be easier than I thought!”
“Watch out, ‘ere he comes!” Applejack planted her feet and took the charge…
…badly. Even though he hadn’t had the distance to build up much momentum she still wasn’t unable to stand up to his weight. “Oof!” she grunted as she soared backwards, and she would’ve gone off the bank and into the drink had a nearby rock formation not been in the way.
She hit it with a painful crunch and fell to her knees, shaken and in pain.
Pinkie skipped over hurriedly to see what she could do, but the tauren was only just getting started. With Applejack stunned and Rainbow still recovering, he had free reign to go after the other, less armoured members of the party...
Twilight gulped as she realised that she had become his target. He could have probably deduced from her light attire alone that she was capable of using magic, but the fight a moment ago had no doubt confirmed any suspicion he might have had – and made her number one on his threat list.
She tried the polymorph spell again but he just shrugged it off; sometimes the spell failed because of caster error, or because the target was too big, or determined, to be even temporarily transmogrified. It had to be expected sometimes, but it had been her best option – and he was getting closer. She blew out freezing magic in the shape of a cone, which slowed him, but not tremendously. Then, as his blade chopped towards her she teleported past him, gone in the blink of eye.
The tauren’s eyes narrowed as he quickly assessed his options. To him, though the mage was now the furthest away, she was not only tied for being the least protected, but was also the most isolated, with none of her friends in her immediate vicinity.
She was still the best target, and she knew it too.
I can’t teleport away again, and I can’t turn him into something else. I’ll be lucky if a barrier even holds up against one attack.
I could blast him. He’s going to kill me if I don’t. And all that power… that rush of energy… Yes…
He contemptuously kicked Wilder aside as the wolf went for him, then pulled the second sword out of the scabbard at his hip and focused on Twilight once more.
…NO! She clenched her left fist and the swirl of arcane power that had been gathering there dissipated. If I kill him I’ll be no better than he is. How can I convince VanCleef that there’s a better way than fighting if I kill half his organisation to get to him? How will I be in the right?
But he’s still going to kill me. I… just need something less destructive.
Fire’s… not a good idea. But I’ve been calling water and ice all day, to freeze the doors, to slow the molten flow. I should be pretty good at moderating the output by now – I can use it to slow him down, buy time for the others. I just need to be careful.
Her thoughts flashed through her head in a second, and by the time he had taken his fifth step towards her once again, the mage had made her decision.
She raised her hand, going through the same motions as she would when calling arcane power, but focusing instead on the plane of water. A chunk of ice splintered into existence next to her palm, and as it grew and morphed into the shape of a projectile, she launched both hands forward and hurled it with all her mental might.
It smashed into him dead on, spreading frost over his body where it impacted. He grunted in discomfort but kept coming.
This time they were far enough apart that the chill made more of a difference, even if it wasn’t as concentrated or powerful as it had been in the form of a cone. She didn’t stop at one bolt, hurling a second, that battered him on the chest, then a third, which struck him dead on in the face. The spell felt easier, more fluid, with each successive cast.
“Why won’t any of you listen?” she shouted. “All we want to do is talk!”
“Funny way of showin’ it!” he retorted. “But even if ye did try to parley I wouldn’t accept it! Ol’ Smite didn’t become first mate of the Defias Juggernaut by showin’ mercy!”
She ducked under a wild slash from both reavers, tossing another bolt at him and then continuing immediately after with another chilling cone. He struggled to bring his reavers to bear, and by the time he succeeded Twilight had the strength ready to teleport out of his way again, landing this time next to Rainbow, who finally got back on her feet, and Fluttershy, who had been looking after her mewling pet. Rarity had already recovered and had disappeared from view once more.
Smite, as his name apparently was, turned, but found himself face-to-face with Applejack. Pinkie had managed to rouse her friend from her pain, and she was riled up and ready for round two with the bovine pirate.
“Ain’t nobody gets away with tryna cut up my friend!” she snarled, timing a vengeful strike perfectly as Wilder re-joined the fray, sinking his teeth into the leg that had booted him before.
“D’ah!” the tauren howled, half from pain, half from frustration; the attacks were starting to add up. “Now you’re making me angry!”
He kicked Applejack’s shield, hard – even blocking it, she still only just kept her balance against his strength – then discarded both of his swords, tossing them both at Wilder.
The surprise attack necessitated the wolf dodging back, which gave the tauren the chance to sprint over to the locked chest that had been sitting by the water’s edge since their arrival.
He stomped right through the lid, apparently not feeling the crushed wood splinters on his tough hoof, pulled the rest of the material out of the way and withdrew a mighty warhammer – far bigger and more intimidating than even the one the ogre had been wielding earlier.
“Come on!” he challenged. “Let’s see how ye deal with this!”
She had no hope of parrying such a large weapon, nor did she stand much chance blocking either, so focused on anticipating and dodging instead – a clean hit across her chest would mean the end of her fight, and perhaps her life. She suffered no such wounds from his slow and steady hits, but did take a few on the arms, wrists and one glancing blow just below her stomach that cracked her armour and left her bruised.
They suddenly had another problem to deal with. Two Defias rogues appeared out of nowhere, no doubt finally arriving from the ship after the tauren had called for help earlier. They rounded on the warrior from behind, hoping to take her out quickly and free up their boss to go after the others.
I have a clear shot from where I’m standing. I… can do this.
Emboldened by her previous success, Twilight pulled in arcane power and unleashed a blast in their direction. She held back significantly and got the result she was looking for. They didn’t explode or dissolve – they just flew backwards into the rock face but without any visible damage. Satisfied, she returned to slowing the Smite’s movements with her frost.
They had spilled over to the more open soil bank as Applejack bobbed and weaved backwards away from his dangerous hits. It gave the others much more room; Wilder pushed in to resume his attacks once more, and Rarity was there as well, hacking and slashing away to little effect against his thick hide. They also had to dodge when he, aware of his predicament, tried a whirlwind swing to take them all out, but the combination of fatigue, his wounds and Twilight’s spells were seriously reducing Smite’s combat effectiveness to the point that Pinkie no longer struggled to keep up.
Rainbow had pulled away since she had recovered from being landed on, kneeling in supplication to the light next to Fluttershy. She rose at last, eyes brimming with the power she had beseeched for, and walked steadily towards the battle.
“Get out of the way guys, this is gonna be a big one!” she warned, and they wisely retreated – the hunter whistled once to call her companion back.
“Ye think that puny weapon can beat Smite’s Mighty Hammer?” he chuckled, and prepared a two-handed, powerful slam…
…which he never got the chance to execute.
Grinning, Rainbow slung her hammer. The action caused Smite to falter. He stared at her, suspecting trickery.
The power spread from her eyes down to her fingertips, and she raised her left hand. “Taste judgment!”
A shining flare burst from her hand in the shape of a weapon and consumed the tauren from above in an explosion which briefly lit up the entire cavern, such was its radiance.
When it died down, Smite was on the floor, all the fight gone out of him. A quick check confirmed that he had only been knocked out, having been chipped away at by their attacks and finished by the light. They checked the two rogues and they were the same – Twilight’s spell had knocked them unconscious, as she had intended.
Buoyed by a fight where no lives were taken, she gestured for the group to hurry up onto the ship.
“We need to get all the way to the top. That must be where we’ll find VanCleef.” They were up the plank and all aboard, ready to run along the side of the ship. “Let’s find a way up!”
Halfway round, a pirate wearing a purple shirt burst out of a door on their left-hand side. “Hey!” he shouted in alarm as they ran towards him, his hands raised in what Twilight quickly recognised as a casting motion. “Die, invaders!”
What looked like flowing water leapt from his fingertips and passed through them, and Twilight immediately had a distinct feeling of seasickness as she forced down the urge to empty her stomach. He tried to prepare another, but Rainbow was now right on top of him.
“We don’t have time for you!” she dismissed him with a swing that sent him off the side of the ship and into the water below.
“Everyone okay?” Twilight asked around the group as they kept going; there were some green faces but none among them sought to stop.
They came to a staircase leading to the upper decks, but Applejack glanced to the right first and exclaimed, “Lookie there! That scaffoldin’ looks mighty sturdy. We might be able to save some time gettin’ up to the top.”
It turned out to be a good observation, as the construction framework led them all the way to the peak without having to go through what was probably a maze of corridors inside – the Defias had to have been using it to put the finishing touches on the vessel without having to waste too much time.
Rarity scouted up ahead first as they climbed, re-joining them just before the summit to tell them to wait and listen. They had company, it seemed.
A goblin carrying a sharp, pointed spear, dressed in a red shirt, gray breeches and black boots stood conversing with two pirates in front of the cabin they had spotted earlier from the ground. What set him apart from all those they had seen before was the navy blue pirate’s hat he wore – a hat adorned with a skull and crossbones.
“Mr Smite should’ve checked in after dealing with the intruders,” he said, peering over the edge of the ship as far as he could. I can’t see the bank from here either. Twilight mused. This must be a blind spot. They must not have been able to see the fight! “Get down there and find out what’s going on!”
“Aye, cap’n Greenskin sir!” The pirates hurried off into the ship as he began pacing up and down.
“Surely he won’t fight back on his own without at least hearing us out when we outnumber him seven to one…” Twilight whispered hopefully.
They waited until his underlings were long gone and he was facing away then clambered gingerly up to him.
“Ahem…” Twilight coughed awkwardly once they were all assembled. “Captain Greenskin, sir?”
“What?!” he turned, startled, his eyes darting between them, immediately assessing their numbers and the threat they posed. “Landlubbers?! How… oh, so ol’ Smite failed to deal with ye, eh?” He shook his head, raising his spear. “Nay matter. Ye won’t leave this ship alive!”
“Please, wait!” Twilight pleaded. “All we’ve wanted to do is talk to the Defias, to Edwin VanCleef, about finding a way to end this conflict without any more bloodshed. I know it sounds crazy, but have ever tried the peaceful way?”
This made Greenskin pause. “Lass,” he began, and she would’ve thought almost gently had it not been for the bloodthirsty look in his eyes. “I’m a pirate. Most of me crew have been pirates all their lives. We don’t care squat about the Defias’s vengeance – we just care ‘bout plunder and excitement. Listening to ye won’t get us that – not fighting won’t get us that, and that’s why I’ll be killin’ ye soon anyway, no matter what you have to say.
“But between you and me, Edwin ain’t gonna be talked out of his vendetta either. He lost too much to them damned nobles. He’ll haunt Stormwind for the rest of his life, and if he dies he’ll take a chunk of it with him, I don’t doubt.
“But ye… ye certainly have no hope of stopping us together!” he finished, and lunged at them.
Here we go again! Twilight despaired as he closed with them.
He darted around, laying into each of them in turn with his spear, the extra reach it granted making up for his small arms while his size made it difficult for them to land blows in return. “Stay… still!” Rainbow grunted. That he was too quick for her to handle said a lot about his speed.
“Can’t catch me, ye filthy landlubbers! Ye’ll fall before the Defias!” he mocked.
Twilight grimaced as he nicked her leg and moved on, interrupted her casting as her hand reflexively dropped down to the injury. But there was something more than just pain. I feel… dizzy. His weapon looks like it’s coated with something… poison?
He’s planning on wearing us down over time! “Get closer together!” she ordered. “Group up and make him come to us!”
But he wouldn’t just let them do that, jumping in and out around them, forcing them to defend themselves or suffer even worse damage.
Pinkie threw out shields and other sparks of holy energy whenever she could, but none held up for long or did much against his onslaught.
“Fluttershy!” Hoping for an edge, Twilight called over to the shaking woman, Wilder still by her side in a protective position. “Do you have any more crystals, of any kind?”
“N-no, I’m sorry!” she gasped in pain, falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around the relatively deep scratches from the spear’s razor edge, the increased confidence she’d try to show back in the mineshaft gone in the face of the pain. “Oh, I’m just so useless! I can’t fight…”
The pirate captain sensed an opportunity. Backing away from his combat with the close-range fighters in the group, he span towards the weakest link of the group and held up his weapon like a javelin.
“If ye can’t fight, little girl, then ye’ll be the first to go!” he chuckled… and hurled his spear at Fluttershy.
Pinkie couldn’t shield her, for all the good it seemed to be doing the others against the spear anyway. The makeshift projectile flew true, straight at her neck.
Twilight had realised what he was about to do before he even began the movement for it. She ran through all the scenarios as the spear left his fingers and found no solution – no spell she could cast to stop it, nothing Pinkie could do to prevent it, no possible intervention her friends could provide.
The images flashed through her mind. She saw her friend die. She saw the spear pierce her through the neck, cutting a wound so deep that there was no hope for her survival. She watched Fluttershy fall to the ground, bleeding out...
Except in reality, she didn’t.
In reality, outside of her mind’s eye, there was a strangled yelp, then silence.
Twilight blinked and her friend was still alive, still kneeling where she was. Unharmed.
But Wilder wasn’t.
The wolf had seen the danger coming, seen the weapon soaring towards his master. He understood what it would mean if she was hit. And he’d taken the instinctive, split-second decision to do what any hunter’s companion would do.
He had leapt in the way and taken it for her.
The spear had driven in deep, all the way to his heart, matting his fur with blood. The sparkle had already gone from his eyes.
Death had been near-instantaneous.
Fluttershy squeaked, her voice lost, words failing her. She couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. She shook him gently, then roughly, trying to wake him up as if he had merely overslept.
Captain Greenskin gave them no quarter. Even without his spear – which he couldn’t find an angle to retrieve safely - he still came at them, hitting and biting and scratching. “I’ll get ye next, for sure! Don’t think ye’ve escaped just cause ye had a meatbag like that to take a spear for ye! Died like a stuck pig, hah!”
The others weren’t immobilised by shock like Fluttershy; they were just angry. Twilight found herself casting an arcane blast without restraint, determined to make the murderer pay…
N-no. I can’t… I mustn’t. I might even destroy the deck of the ship if I use that much power, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll even hit. She settled for frost again in the hope of slowing him down.
“You’ll pay for that, you monster!” Rainbow roared. She, Applejack and Rarity all went for the captain at once, seeking to grab and hold him down, but a bold leap took him above where they expected him to be, and they only succeeded in crashing into each other.
“P-Pinkie,” Over to the side of the fight, Fluttershy stuttered, eyes still unbelievably wide. “P-please. You have to h-heal him.”
“F-Fluttershy…” Pinkie stammered in response, still desperately trying to recover her own strength in between the spells she had been throwing out. “I d-don’t think I can…”
“Please!”
Pinkie tried. Tears poured down her face as she pushed her power to its limit.
“C’mon, everybody, s-smile smile s-smile, f-fill my heart up with sunshine, s-sunshine…”
Light poured from her as she burst out into song, blanketing the top of the ship in its lustre. The others felt their wounds mend, the poison’s effects diminish, and even their fatigue fade as the warmth of Pinkie’s inner magic filled them.
“All I r-really n-need’s a smile smile s-smile, f-from these h-h-happy f-friends of mine…”
But none of it touched Wilder. It flowed past him even as it embraced Fluttershy. He laid as still as he had from the moment he’d taken the spear for her.
For all she could do, for all she had done to keep them safe… Pinkie couldn’t reverse death.
Fluttershy clutched tightly to the wolf, tears streaming down faster as she realised it wasn’t working.
Pinkie stopped singing at last and fell to the deck herself. “I’m sorry…” she croaked out.
“Ye will be when I get to ye.”
“Grahhhhhhhh!” Rarity screamed in frustration at Greenskin’s words and as he deftly sidestepped her cuts, swinging round to make a dash for the group’s healer. “I would not have believed that someone could be this annoying!”
“Just lie down and accept yer fate, toots!” he retorted. “All of ye should. I can do this all day, and—”
He was cut off as Fluttershy began to scream.
It was a primal howl of pain and rage. Moving faster than the others had ever seen her move, she pulled the crossbow from the sling across her back and loaded it with a gleaming iron bolt.
Still screaming, still holding that highest note of loss, she pulled the trigger.
THUDUNK
Captain Greenskin stared at Fluttershy. He opened his mouth, confused.
He fell face-first to the floor, a bolt lodged in between his eyes.
Fluttershy paid no further heed to the goblin’s death, but did go quiet. The crossbow fell from her grip and clattered to the wooden deck as she sank back down to her companion’s body and pulled him close, weeping inconsolably.
The others gathered around them quietly.
“Sorry…” Pinkie whispered after a few moments of silence that felt like a lifetime. “You’re all healed up, but I c-can’t do anything about the poison…”
“I got it, Pinkie.” Rainbow reassured her, moving round the group and cleansing the toxin with her own light.
“Twilight… this whole trip… is it gonna be worth it?” Applejack asked, a tear leaking out of her eye.
“We’ve come this far and lost so much already—” Twilight sadly began to reply.
“—and this is where your story ends.” a voice cut her off before she could begin her next sentence.
They couldn’t see him, but he was near. The swing-doors of the cabin creaked ever so slightly, and she had a pretty good idea that he was inside.
And that he was Edwin VanCleef, leader of the Defias Brotherhood.
“So, the heroes have come for me. I’m surprised it took the fools at Sentinel Hill so long to send a party that could make it this far. Or is SI7 pulling your strings?”
Rarity visibly stiffened at that, though none of the group noticed.
VanCleef wasn’t going to give them much chance to breathe.
The longer they could keep him talking, the more strength they could recover before having to fight again. She could see that Pinkie in particular really needed the break. The wounds inflicted by the goblin had required her constant attention, and she looked close to passing out from sheer stress. She wasn’t smiling anymore, hadn’t been since Wilder had died, but wore instead a terribly neutral expression that for her was practically the equivalent of the grumpiest of frowns.
Then again, how could any of us smile at this point? After what we’ve just seen…
“Please, Edwin. We don’t want to fight. We just want to end this conflict before it goes any further.”
“You kill my forces in front of me and then talk of peace?”
“None of this had to happen,” she replied, her tone betraying her remorse. “We wanted to come in peacefully, openly, but your men have been nothing but hostile.”
“Tell me, then, mage. Why should I listen to you?”
She thought carefully for a moment before responding. “Because lasting peace isn’t something that ever just happens. You can only build it slowly, with compassion and understanding. Because fighting is the easy way out, but it takes a strong heart to put aside a weapon – put aside hatred – and create a lasting future. There is no future in the course of action you take now… but if you change it, then who knows what you might accomplish? Please…”
“You say that as if we went straight to violence. Only when the nobles refused to even negotiate with us did we begin to riot, and only once we were then thrown from the city like dogs did we form the Defias. But of course, you will not accept these truths. You are blinded by the lies you have been fed.”
There was rage in that voice, but it didn’t burn hot, like Fluttershy had when she’d buried a bolt in Greenskin’s forehead. No – his rage burned cold, the kind that had been festering for years in the darkness – the kind that inspired untold vengeance.
And it sounded infinitely more dangerous as a result.
She desperately sought something to say that would change his mind. She even thought about telling him of Equestria, of how so many problems could be resolved by being understanding of others, through the values of the Elements of Harmony… how much kinder their world had been as a result.
But the words didn’t come, and those futile thoughts faded.
Suddenly all she could think of was her friends. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, haunted by those they missed and those they had slain. Rarity, who’d barely spoken a word since she’d cut the smelter’s throat. Pinkie Pie, barely holding herself and the group up. Fluttershy, compelled to kill by the loss of a friend…
Despite the fact that they had lots of space to move around on the deck, it felt as though they were trapped in a cage with a hungry wild animal.
Fluttershy’s sobs provided a steady, constant beat in the background of their conversation. Twilight desperately hoped that the leader of the Brotherhood would consider her beneath his notice if it came to a fight, but given the way she had just put a bolt through his ship’s captain’s eyes… probably not.
“Riotin’ and all this criminal stuff you’ve done since don’t sound like the kind of stuff that well-meaning folks do.” Applejack cut in. Everyone else had moved to close ranks around Fluttershy, but the warrior stood in front of the cabin, making herself the most obvious target.
“All to achieve the end of Stormwind, and make those foolish nobles pay.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“And one wrong should not go unpunished.”
“And you’d just leave your friend to fight and die for you?” the element of loyalty demanded contemptuously.
“He was not my friend. None of the pirates are,” the voice spat dismissively. “They are tools, instruments of my vengeance. Tools can be replaced. The Defias are all that matter to me now.”
“Please… I understand how you feel.” I can tell him about when Discord corrupted everyone, how abandoned I felt! "I know what it feels like to be-"
“You don’t know. You don’t understand. You couldn’t possibly understand, unless you were there. And if you had been there, then you would stand with us now.” the disembodied voice spat with great contempt.
Something exploded elsewhere in the cavern, interrupting their heated conversation. Looking down from the ship, Twilight could see the door they had come in through, and that her ice wall had just fallen. An untold number of figures were streaming into the cavern, their destination clear.
Thinking quickly, she summoned arcane power and directed it at the scaffolding near their feet. The resulting explosion rocked the ship as the construction aid fell away, but it removed the shortcut they had taken – the Defias reinforcements would have to go all the way through the ship to get to them.
“My lieutenants were right to challenge you.” VanCleef said. “Now, you will pay for the lives you have taken, and you will not be the last of Stormwind’s lackeys to fall before our crusade.”
“Please, wait—” Twilight begged, but her pleas fell on uncaring ears.
“None may challenge the brotherhood!” he roared as he leapt through the cabin door, poised to attack.
The leader of the Defias was decked out in gilded black leather that, apart from the gold, was only a shade lighter than his shock of black hair. He wore the same red bandana as all of his underlings, and carried two vicious-looking swords in his hands.
He wasn’t as slippery as Greenskin, but for his size he was incredibly fast. He came straight at Applejack, slamming his curved swords into her as soon as they would reach. One caught on her shield and deflected, while the other slipped past and found her armour at her stomach.
She staggered back, bruised, her guard shattered as he pushed for the kill, but she was saved by Rarity pouncing into the fray. She scored glancing hits with her weapons, forcing him to dance away…
…but he gave ground too readily, a trap she fell straight into.
She advanced, thinking that she’d rattled him, and he punished her for it by coming back in with both blades. Eyes wide at the extent of his speed, she managed to stop one with both daggers but couldn’t prevent the lower of the two from biting into her leg.
She fell down on her hands and knees as her blood splattered the deck, the outlaw looming over her. He settled for kicking her out of the way, not risking the downwards slash onto her unprotected spine that Rainbow had been seeking to intercept.
The paladin turned her blocking manoeuvre into a rush, swinging back upwards before he had a chance to get his guard up. He ducked to the right and retaliated, going for her chest. Unlike with Applejack, this time his blades caught in her chainmail without much power behind them and she shrugged off the hits.
A quick prayer to the light gave her the strength to overpower him, and she wrenched his arm over her shoulder, pulling him towards the floor.
He came out of the throw into a roll, however, using the momentum to his advantage to gain some distance on her. He was back in her threat range before she’d even had time to realise that her throw hadn’t stunned him, bowling her over with a charge.
“Lapdogs, all of you!” he cried, raising a blade in a mocking salute, then found himself covered in rime as Twilight finally had the surety to launch a spell at him. “Fool,” he spat at the one who he rightly assumed was the group’s leader. “Our cause is righteous!”
“Nothing I’ve seen of the Defias so far speaks of righteousness!” she retorted angrily, launching an even larger chunk of ice. He batted it away and moved towards her with murderous intent.
She panicked, ceasing another cast and went to teleport through him, but even chilled he was too fast for that. He dropped the weapon in his left hand and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up – she stared down fearfully into his hateful eyes as he hefted his right sabre.
“I care not for peace,” he spat in her face. “I care not for the future! I will avenge the wrongs of the past!”
She saw that hatred within him, and suddenly felt sure that she’d made a terrible mistake.
She’d underestimated the depths of his anger. How long he’d had to plot his vengeance. He’s right. I can’t relate to that.
“And this is where your story ends,” he echoed his own words, and moved to run her through…
…and suddenly found Applejack’s sword coming for his neck. “Gonna take more than that to take us down!”
He let go of the mage in an effort to get clear, but found Rarity’s knives at his back. “That is not how you treat a lady.” she informed him, wincing from the pain in her leg.
“We’re not done, either.” Rainbow moved into his view, eyes shining once again.
Twilight retreated to a safe distance and looked over at Pinkie, who now stood where Rainbow had fallen, having healed her a moment before. She’d crept over while VanCleef had been distracted with Twilight, and had got the rest of the group fighting fit once more.
“I think that’s the last from me, Twilight,” she panted. “Pinkie’s all tuckered out.”
VanCleef’s eyes narrowed as they darted from three he’d injured, the three who were suddenly back into the fight, to the robe-wearing pink-haired girl, alone on the starboard side of the ship.
Lightning fast once more, he span and downed Rainbow with a punch to the jaw, then copied her throw and used it on Rarity, tossing the already-hamstrung rogue hard into the wall of the cabin. “The brotherhood will prevail!”
He’s going for Pinkie.
The priest looked like she could barely stand, barely keep herself awake, let alone shield herself or run away.
He caught Applejack’s shield as she tried to bash him with it and delivered a roundhouse kick straight to the side of her face. He landed out of it cleanly and looked up towards Pinkie with a determined expression.
He’s going to kill her. He knows she’s the one keeping us in this fight.
There was no-one left in his way as he ran at his target. Pinkie closed her eyes.
We can’t lose her. I can’t lose her!
Pinkie…
“PINKIE!”
…
A fusion of arcane and fire energy exploded at the centre of the deck. It engulfed the leader of the Brotherhood completely, missing the prone forms of the others by a hair. The arcane power blew out faster than the flame, which rose to the sky in a pillar before passing as well.
It took Twilight a moment to realise that her hand was outstretched. It took another to realise that she had been the cause of the explosion.
VanCleef lay in a heap by the side of the cabin. His arms were bent out of place, his bones shattered – whether by the force of the impact or her spell, it was impossible to determine. One of his legs seemed undamaged, but the other… he was missing everything below the knee, the wound cauterized entirely by the heat of her blast.
He glared up defiantly at Twilight as she approached, speechless. He was in too much pain to attempt standing or even sitting up. He choked out blood as he fought to force out his dying words. “Where are your values now, mage? Is this... how your quest for peace... was supposed to end?” he taunted, as she stared at him in shock.
“Vengeance comes… The brotherhood… will live…”
His body twitched, then moved no more.
His eyes were still filled with hatred, even in death.
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Wow, you're on a roll! Good stuff and merry Christmas to you too!
Welcome to reality girls.
I wonder how they will handle a certain young girls vengeance for what she just witnessed?
Oh, and welcome to Azeroth.
And so the girls learn one of the harsh truths of Azeroth.
More often than not, problems can only be solved with violence. Diplomacy simply will not work on some people.
keep this story going
is going to blow up at the brotherhood ? pure meltdown anyone?
You're not in Equestria anymore, girls. Azeroth's foundation is built on violence.
Well, that ended a lot better than I thought chain-pulling the whole dungeon would.
6767398 yup
Smite!!! I missed Smite
Yes, yes it does warant the upgrade.
Welcome to Azeroth, dears. Get out while you still can. Preferably before a certain young mage starts listening to certain....thoughts.
Holy fraggin throne! Twilight just scored her first kill!
We are nearly full circle. Only Pinkie hasn't taken a life now. I'm scared of what Pinkamena will do as a Shadow Priest...
The toughest one is really Fluttershy. Kindness just took a life in a moment of anger.
None of them are going to get out of Azeroth unscarred. And their journey has only just begun, too. The emotional scars have already begun, I can only imagine what sorts of physical scars they'll also be walking away with by the end of this.
Oh god what is twilight becoming
Nobody levelled up?
'Bout fricken time Flutters and Twi realized that they ain't in Equestria anymore.
Sorry, girls, but most worlds are based on violence and death. Get used to it, or get yourselves killed.