There Is No Easy Way Out
“Guh!” Basso grunted, nearly toppling back from his gun turret controls. He threw a nervous look over his shoulder. “Is the hull still in one piece?!”
“Barely!” Zetta's voice cracked as she looked into the cockpit. “Prowse, sir, if we take too many more hits, we're done for!”
“Aatxe's ship ain't no wee mosquito!” Prowse hollered, gripping the controls of the Tarkington tight. “She can take it! We've just gotta get a jump on these goblin sods!”
“Prowse, we've been circling them for five minutes straight!” Booster Spice hollered. He climbed towards the front of the narrow ship. “We haven't gotten the jump on anyone! Take it from somepony who's flown with the Jury through thick and thin! We gotta try a different tactic!”
“Nnngh... like wh-what?!”
Booster glanced back down the full length of the ship. “The last few armaments—do we have the means of dropping them straight down?”
“Negative! This bloody ship wasn't built with a bomb bay!”
“Well, I have an idea! If we could just ascend to a higher level and fly over them—” Booster's speech was interrupted by a savage blast of energy impacting their starboard side. Bursts of flame erupted across the ship, filling the Tarkington with steam.
“Aaaugh!” Zetta fell from her shattered console, sprawled across the floor and twitching.
Basso wheezed and hacked for breath. “Zetta!”
Reeling from the blow, the Tarkington veered towards its billowing starboard. It descended at a sharp angle, colliding with the south face of a spiraling Val Roan tower.
Scrkkkkkttt! The ship grazed the edge of the skyscraper, spilling glass and flecks of bronze metal to the alleyways below. Citizens fled for cover, dodging chunks of debris.
After the long grind, the Tarkington hovered off, limply drifting its way between buildings.
The two massive goblin battleships loomed high above. Atop Haman's Gamma vessel, the Cartel leader spotted the Tarkington's plight.
“Their stabilizers have been heavily damaged!” a lackey shouted. “This is our opportunity to take them out, boss!”
“Blow them out of the sky,” Haman slurred, grinning. “And take out that entire apartment complex behind them.”
“Aye, sir!” The goblin twirled towards the remaining gunners. “All hands, target the eleven o'clock position and fire—”
“Incoming!” an imp shouted. “Incoming, six o'clock low!”
Goblins muttered and gasped. Haman spun in his creaking suit, eyes thin and slitted. “...what?!”
Fwooooosh! The Noble Jury ascended like an arrow, approaching the twin battleships.
“Turn your heads and cough, salad tossers!” Zaid shouted at the targets beyond the cracked windshield.
“Mr. Zaid!” Bellesmith hollered as she and Pilate gripped the port side turret immediately outside the cockpit. “Fire!”
Zaid's hoof slammed over the red button besides the pilot's seat.
The second rocketed strapped to the bow discharged, sailing forward on a plume of ignited fuel. It raced its way skyward, veering slightly before impacting the left rear side of the Gamma ship's hull.
KAPOWWW! A good chunk of the ship's rear was obliterated in an instant.
Haman fell back with a grunt as he was showered with shrapnel, flame, and a spray of goblin body parts.
When the smoke cleared and the screams persisted, Haman could see from his overturned suit that two of the three lateral propellers had been completely blown. With a chaotic groan, the Gamma ship veered hard to port, lurching in mid-air. Before the engineers on board could stabilize it, the vessel collided with the starboard side of the other battleship.
Crkkkkk!
Both ships locked together, leaning into each other's weight in mid-air. The other ship struggled to compensate, and the two massive dreadnoughts spun a slow, lumbering ballet just south of the Val Roan towers.
While the Tarkington flew off to recover—FWOOOOSH!—the Noble Jury roared upwards at a sharp angle, jerking left as it ascended above the two locked battleships. The vessel tilted in its sharp ascent, with the port side tilting to face the Cartel's damaged vessels.
This, of course, gave Pilate and Belle full view of the top decks and the goblins scrambling atop them.
“Spark have mercy,” Belle shuddered.
“You said it, beloved.” Gnashing his teeth, Pilate pulled the trigger. FL-FL-FL-FLASH! A murderous stream of mana-blasts rolled across the top deck, trailing flame and burning plasma all across the industrial death machines that Haman had toiled so hard to put together. Imps shrieked and dove for cover—those who survived the onslaught, at least.
As the Noble Jury finished its violent run, it flew west in a sharp curve, leaving the smoldering mid-air mess behind. The two battleships were far too damaged to resume its bombardment on the south edge of the Capital anytime soon. This, of course, led to a large salvo of cheers from the Val Roan citizens watching from a distance.
Sputtering smoke and losing strips of metallic debris, the Noble Jury and the Tarkington nevertheless stabilized, closed in formation, and came back around for a return flight, their eyes on the lumbering goblin targets.
“It would seem, for lack of a better term, that you're totally screwed,” Rainbow Dash said, pacing before Queen Chrysalis across the warehouse. “All these months, years... decades? You planned so hard to conquer the light side of the world. You tried exploiting the war between Ledomare and Xona. You failed. You tried taking over one of the ancient Sentinels. You failed. And here, in Val Roa, you've tried to pull the rug out from underneath the Monarchy, and still... you just can't seem to get the job done, even with all experience and wisdom of a giant freaky mutant alicorn bug pony thingy...”
“You cannot hold me hostage here, my little pony,” Chrysalis' warbling voice hissed across the way. Her eyes narrowed beneath a mess of translucent mane hair. “At any moment, I could—”
“What?” Rainbow's ruby glare glinted. “Overpower me? Queeny, you've been powerless ever since I gave your Hive Mind the Harmonic zap back in Stratopolis. Your drones left you, abandoned you all over the world, from east to west, north to south. Don't pretend to have an edge in this situation... or any kind of advantage whatsoever. You see, the Noble Jurists have gotten a naked peek into your life as of late, and it's pathetic. You don't even have the power to turn into any sort of beastly thing that could overpower me. You can't outfly me—even in your best condition, that wouldn't have remotely been an option.”
She paced closer, her eyes trained on the changeling Queen.
“Without the ability to control your Hive, you became desperate. Instead of flying back to the Dark Side of the Plane and reuniting with Tchern, you decided—against all odds—to go forward with your nefarious plans in Val Roa. And since you couldn't rely on a changeling army, you did the next best thing. You split yourself into three parts and you assumed the positions of the most powerful members of the Val Roan government. It was a pretty nifty plan, save for one thing. You were friggin' starving, which is why you had to preserve the King and Queen and use them for 'fuel' while you attempted to sow the seeds of chaos here in the Capital. And if that failed, you still had the Night Crystals that you had brought over from the Dark Side, containing the scrumptious soul energy of the victims you and your sister had leeched while engaged in the Trinary War.”
Fidgeting, Chrysalis' eyes darted nervously towards the empty warehouse shelves.
“Oh, don't bother.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “They're gone. They're waaaay gone. And, I wonder, just how long can you last without them... or without the ability to feed on any soul whatsoever... especially since you've trained your body for so long to suckle on pain and misery as opposed to love. There's nothing more pathetic than a starved pony who's dependent on the unhealthiest of crap. What will it look like when you die of malnourishment, Queen Chrysalis? Will you roll up like a giant cockroach? Will you turn to ash? Will it be friggin' painful as balls?”
Chrysalis jerked towards her, her eyes flickering green and desperate.
Rainbow Dash frown, teeth clenched. “Give. The Soul Sentries. Up.” Her brow furrowed. “Now.”
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...I wish I could say I felt it was going to be this easy, but there's still half the book left. Chryssy's hiding something. Likely within the Soul Sentries. Possibly something...unpleasant, for both them and those around them.
This may be the point in the story where shit goes full cray.
Anyways, keep up the hard work, Jury and Tarkington. Waste their slimy pointy-eared behinds!
Relevant. But wait. Chrysalis has been used to feeding on chaos and disharmony. And Dash is currently poisoned by...
Forty side-straddle hops, ):(. Knock 'em out!
I would think killing the Queen, or even just knocking her unconscious, would release her hold over the sentries. This is merely the first request, to soften her up. Rainbow Dash wants her help to cross the Grand Choke.
The fate of the originals is still unclear. Chrysalis in the past did not kill the beings she replaced with drones; she just kept them somewhere safe out of the way. It would make sense to have kept them alive so she could feed off of them too. But no evidence has been supplied that she has been feeding off anyone other than the King and Queen. Perhaps they had to be sacrificed in order to split herself into copies of them.
In her best condition, she could turn into an exact copy of you and at the very least match your flying.
So I haven't even read this story but the description makes me want to. So good job with that.
righteous crap almighty...
For the love of the little children, the ass-kick is righteous.
Why do I now feel sorry for Chrysalis?
5535785
You may want to go back to the first one.
She's not going to give up quite so easily...
5535785
Do. The long hours spent reading are worth it.
With the goblins drifting away like balloons, I say we leave them for Roarke to finish off and let the Jury and the Tarkington get repaired.
I wonder where they moved the Night Crystals to...
I love all the music videos in the comments.
Rainbow Dash continues to use Social Fu!...
5535784 An exact copy of her minus the chaos thing living inside of her. If Rainbow were truely 100% set on catching Chrysalis then she could take off the element and catch / kill her almost instantly... unless she had the ability to mimic that too, in which case why did she bother with anything else.
5535919 weren't the night crystals what they used to e.m.p. the soul sentries? I think they have already been used up.
Perhaps Saikano's betrayal changed something in her because as weak as she is I think she would be able to still take Rainbow Dash on. Also I have the feeling RD might pull a Cadance here and make her own magic to defeat Chrysalis and become an Alicorn. Though I've had a feeling that was how this was going to end for a while now.
5535989 Chrysalis calls the dark side of the plane, where chaos reigns, her home. At her best, it's not clear a chaos monster would defeat her. She has used chaos monsters as her minions, including a chaos-infected Divine.
Which is all why Rainbow Dash needs her help.
Good catch. For Chryssi's sake, they better have some left to use as a carrot, sparingly handed out.
Things aren't looking good for the holey-legged giant bug. But there's 70 chapters left. Anything can still happen.
Nice job summing up the events of the last five books. Seriously, I don't think you could've done it better. A bit awkward and a bit hammy, but all of Rainbow's taunting is just gonna call down divine retribution on Chrysalis's behalf...
So, what screws everything up in the next seventy chapters?
Still no sign of Roarke and the lounge.
Wonder what they're up to.
Given that Chrys went back to a whole warehouse full of Night crystals, and the Xonan crew have only fired off a couple of disruption rounds, even barrel sized, shouldnt have made much of a dent in the supply, I wonder if the Night Crystals, are the Skystone of the Darkside. In which case, would it be possible to build something that combined the two highly disparate materials, which possibly have the rather intresting ability of obliterating each other on contact, related to the mana disruption used on the Soul Sentries?
If this is a valid occurance, what would happen if Josho ported close to teh skystone drives on teh goblin ships, and shotgun fired a night crystal into a skystone shrd, to prevent mana shorting his horn to the combination?
You dancin, you listin, Im listin, Im dancin.
Oh. thats unpleasant.
Do goblin battleships carry disruptive gem cores, like the ones Dash has to launch into the upper Stratosphere to get out of range? And which currently, given the demise of poor wizball, only the yet to arrive Rourke and Lounge can boost?
It seems that RD doesn't understand the concept of pragmatism, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna blow up in her face.
Given we'll need probably 50 chapters to say goodbye before crossing the wastes I figure Chrysalis has at least 20 chapters of ick-fest left. Unless there's another enemy we need to worry about.
Wait a minute, the Lounge didn't show up did they? Oh shi-
5536048
To be fair, Rainbow's chaos beast within nonsense is the remains of Discord himself who is far beyond the power of anything else we have seen in the series thus far save the elements themselves, there is no telling what the upper limits on Dash's chaos form would be and how it would stack up against a heavy weight like chrysalis.
But yeah, those crystals could come in handy in negotiations right about now... also makes me wonder if Dash could use them like the lavender flame, though I doubt that.
Does this mean Dashie has won over Chrysalis? Was the big surprise in this story a happy ending? What of Roarke and the Lounge? What of Ebon? What of Scootaloo back home?
It's going to be 70 chapters of Props channelling Pinkie Pie in an endless cycle of partying.... Celestia help us all.
[youtube=MwPb7g_BlXQ]
Here Enters the Goblin
KingQueenseriously, Roarke has to be close by now
Oh dear. My spidey senses are telling me that Chrysalis is about to play her trump card/last resort. And something tells me it's not going to be pretty. On the bright side, the ensuing shitstorm would be a great opportunity for Roarke to swoop in turn the tides in their favor. We'll see.
*eyes the next seventy chapters nervously and hears the echoes of that ominous proclamation on Skirts' blog*
5535778
I have a feeling that you may be on to something...
And it's gonna suck so freaking hard if you're right...
I like this owning of goblin ships and talking between Rainbow and Chrysalis. Continue please.
We don't have seventy chapters of bug face left. I dunno how much it'll be, but Yaerfaerda will end with Dash and any companions going over to the Dark Side of the plane.
My hunch is she has to use Chryssi to get there.
Now we get to see if Chryssi will resist out of spite.
Also, I wonder if we're going to get a chance to see an angry Basso. Zetta's been hurt. No way he can be passive about that.(Although I look forward to the awkward romance.)
5535785
I started reading the first book just as the second book came out. Once you get past the first arc in the first book you won't stop reading.
5538586
I....what?
I don't think we're talking about the same thing.
I will guess the battleships will recover and the Lounge will take them out? Because right now that seems like a hook without a coat.
5536862 I'd remind you of the Queen of Magic trying to take on the entire draconequus race, and with moderate success. While it is usually futile pigeonholing to sort entities or characters by power, I'd still daresay that the Divines may just be linked to more powerful forces than the Draconequui, or more closely so. ...but that's theoretical thinking. In the current situation yeah, I don't see Chryssi salvaging anything from Discord of all people.
This the kind of beatdown that we never expected Dash to deliver but it's so sweet to see.
5539199 I concur.
5537092 Prep the party cannon, and wait for IC to make that party canon.
5539061 Play School!
Play School was a British children's television series produced by the BBC which ran from 21 April 1964 until 11 March 1988.
Play School was sold to Australia, and was then followed by local production: the Australian version has been produced since 1966. Similarly New Zealand bought the programme before producing their own from 1975 to 1990. The Canadian adaption was Polka Dot Door.
Other countries including Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Israel were provided with scripts and film segments so they could produce their own versions. Sesame Street was a derivative of Play School, adopting their "strong visual style, fast-moving action, humor, and music".
Bananas in Pyjamas is an Australian children's television show that premiered on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since become syndicated in many different countries, and dubbed into other languages. The concept was inspired by the success of the song Bananas in Pyjamas, written by Carey Blyton in 1967, on Play School. This song, which had become a regular item on Play School, became the theme of the new series.
What happened to the Lounge?
If the Soul Sentries can be stopped the good guys can focus on the goblins again. Come on, Dash, put your persuasion on. :rainbowdetermined:
-Spirit
Well, she sure set her straight. What's next in this plan, though? The end game? A villain redemption, maybe? I am fairly interested because I don't know how redeemable Chryssi will be. But who knows, I could be wrong.
5919111 I dunno exactly where it's going, but Damn dashie's on the ball today.
I'm not sure Chrysalis is much for talking, even in her state.
6084428
Heck yeah! Stupid plans really are Dash's specialty.
Dashie, are we seriously doing this? You've seen plenty of villains monologue; does it ever work out for them?
8162531
> Villain Monologue 🐜
Hero Monologue
C'mon man that's basic story math.
Night crystals?
Heh. That's one way to kill two birds with one stone.
More like two battleships with one rocket!
Hell yeah. Achievement: awrsomeness
Words cannot describe how badass RD is here.
Excuse me, the what now? Did I miss something? What the heck are Night Crystals?
I guess they're like soul gems.
She got ya Chrysalis.