Chapter 15 - The Pinnacle
The Pinnacle
The Seeker rumbled underfoot, bucking and shaking as a dull boom echoed through the compartment. Blade looked up towards the bare, wooden ceiling as its lone light dimmed and then grew brighter once more. “That was a hit,” she muttered, before turning her eyes back to the rest of the group. “Sounds like it’s getting hot out there.”
“It’s a war, kit,” Hain said. He was sitting across from her, casually running the flat of his knife up and down his talons. “Weather notwithstanding, ‘hot’ is kind of the default status.”
“Fine by me,” Barnabas said, shifting in his seat as the Seeker shook again, dropping several feet. “As long as our fire is hotter than the Order’s.” The Seeker rattled again, the floor jerking underfoot as twin thumps echoed through the room. The main guns firing. Hopefully they were taking something down.
The compartment rattled again, a loud bang echoing through the compartment, followed by distant yells from the crew, faint and indistinct against the rumble of the airship itself. Blade looked around the room again, flexing her talons and idly wishing that the eyrie had at least had something approaching a normal dropship. The courier frigate was definitely better armored, but sitting blind inside of it while it maneuvered its way over to the Pinnacle wasn’t exactly comforting.
“Everyone geared up?” she asked again, ignoring the look of absolute disdain Frost gave her at hearing the repeated question.
“Clear,” Alchemy said, tugging at the straps of his carry harness with one hoof. Barnabas and Frost each echoed similar sentiments, pulling at the straps of their own makeshift harnesses.
“Good,” Blade said as the frigate vibrated once more beneath them, wood and metal rattling like a children’s toy. “Make sure they’re good and tight. With the weather out there, the last thing you want to be doing is taking a quick trip to the bottom of the tower because something came loose.” The Seeker jerked again as if to prove her point, rising and dropping like a wild beast.
A door slid to one side as the ship lurched once more, a griffon soldier poking her head into the room, and looking at them. “Just a few more minutes!” she called. “We’re almost close enough to make the drop.”
“Good,” Blade said, grabbing her seat as the Seeker made a particularly violent drop in the air, a long groan echoing down the length of the ship. The griffon at the door wrapped her talons around a handrail set along the wall, her wings flaring out to keep herself from lifting off. “You got any updates for us?”
“Just one!” the griffon shouted as another bang echoed through the ship. “A request from command. If you could find and clear out whatever group of unicorns are responsible for this weather—” The Seeker jerked again, tilting to one side before righting. “We’d really appreciate it,” the griffon finished, pushing her helm back into position. A yell echoed up the hall from behind her, and she gave them a quick grin. “That’s the one minute mark. We’re almost to the Pinnacle!”
“Right!” Blade said, standing as the Seeker shook again, another loud boom echoing through the room and shaking the deck. “Team, let’s get into position.” She steadied herself against the wall as the rest of the group began to make their way towards the door, making use of the handrails every time the ship shook to steady themselves.
“I used to wonder if airships really needed these,” Alchemy said, tapping the rail with one hoof as they moved down the hall. “I guess they do. How do you guys fly in stuff like this?”
“Not easily,” their griffon escort replied as the deck began to pitch to one side beneath them. “Granted, most of the time the weather isn’t this bad.” She reached the end of the hallway and waited by the heavy, armored hatch, one pair of talons on the latch. Blade could hear a steady whine coming from the other side of the hatch, a droning howl that rose and fell as she listened to it. “But if you guys don’t do something about those magic users, it’s going to get a lot worse.”
“Don’t worry,” Frost said, her voice cutting through the air of the hall like a knife. “We will.”
“Good,” the griffon said. She took one last look at each of them. “Hold onto the deck. The last thing we want is for one of you to go flying overboard.”
She tugged the latch down and the distant whine became a roar of wind as the hatch opened, white flakes spiraling into the hallway and whipping past them with incredible speed. Blade narrowed her eyes as she moved forward through the gale and out onto the deck, tucking her wings tight against her body as the air buffeted her with the force of a gale. The Seeker jerked underfoot and she crouched, dropping her center of gravity low as another pair of distant booms echoed off of the bow. She looked up to she snow spiraling away from the front of the ship, a hollow blossoming in the thick air as the Seeker’s guns momentarily overpowered the wind. It didn’t last though. Within seconds, the howling storm had reclaimed the gap, sweeping away the smoke and snow with violent abandon.
Can they even see what they’re shooting at? she wondered as she followed their guide across the deck. The whirling snow was thick enough that she could only make out the faint silhouette of the Pinnacle, a looming, grey spire barely distinct from the snow around it.
We’re close too, she thought as they moved toward the edge of the Seeker. They’re definitely boosting the storm. It wasn’t supposed to be nearly this bad. She came to a stop as she stepped up to the rail, between the two armored ballistas that were both rotating and firing as quickly as they could. A bolt of pure purple emerged from the howling wind and slammed into the side of the ship, a sharp crack echoing through the air and shaking the deck beneath her feet.
“We’re almost there!” their guide called, pointing to the distant shape of the Pinnacle as it became more distinct. “We’re spiraling in, trying to move with the wind. As soon as we get close enough, we’re going to try to blow out a set of windows about halfway up! We do that, your team moves. Clear?”
“Clear!” Blade called back. Her voice vanished into the storm, her words sucked from her mouth by the howling winds. “Just get us close enough to make the distance!”
“We’ll get you as close as we can!” came the reply. “But we can’t hang around here forever!” As if to emphasize her words, another beam swept out of the snow, a loud ping ringing in the air for a second before being covered by the storm. “They’ve still got coverage on the airship docks, so we won’t be able to land you any help until we’ve cleared them out!”
“Got it,” Blade called, glancing back towards the Pinnacle. It was coming closer, features appearing on its surface as the fog of snow faded, and she could see those same features sliding to one side as the Seeker rolled past, tightening its inward path. “If we get an chance, we’ll see what we can do about clearing a landing zone for you.”
“We’d appreciate that!” the aide called back. “We’ve got several corvettes ready to airdrop the moment their defensive line breaks! We can’t do a shock drop with the winds, so if you can stop either, the fleet would really appreciate it!”
“We’ll see what we find first!” Blade said, eying the Pinnacle as it drew closer and closer, filling the sky. This place is massive. It’s like a skyscraper made of a rock. A big one. More bolts of magic were arcing out at them now, but they were close enough to the side of the tower that a number of them missed, cutting out into the white sky.
“This is it!” the griffon said as both ballistas began to turn downwards, spinning on their mounts, their gunnery crews retargeting something below the deck of the ship. Two heavy, powerful thumps shook the deck, one after another as the two weapons fired, heavy bolts shooting downward like spikes. The crews hurried to reload the weapons, two griffons working the cranks while a third lifted the next bolt into place. The gunner fired as soon as the loader was clear, launching another bolt toward the Pinnacle.
“Form up!” Blade called, stepping back from the gunwale. The gunner lifted two talons, signaling his team to load another round as Frost, Barnabas, and Alchemy stepped up to the rail, gripping it with hands or hooves.
The ballistas fired again, the specialized rounds each had been loaded with splitting up as they flew through the air, breaking apart into dozens of smaller, widespread anti-personnel rounds. Blade stepped forward, Hain beside her, and took hold of the handles on the back of the team’s harnesses, clenching her talons into tight fists as she sucked in a breath.
Probably a bad time to start thinking about how I’ve never done this before, she thought as she checked to make sure that both she and Hain had distributed their grip properly. They each had one pair of talons wrapped around Barnabas’s harness, and another pair gripping one of the two ponies. Any second now … She looked over to the gunnery crew, waiting for the signal. The gunner looked up at her, lifted his foreleg, waited a moment ... and then dropped it.
“Go!” She pushed herself forward, spreading her wings as Barnabas, Frost, and Alchemy jumped. Her forelimbs and wings screamed with exertion as the sudden weight tugged at her, pulling her and Hain down through the swirling wind, the world spinning around her as she fought to gain control. Hain matched her movements and the spinning slowed, coming to a stop as they centered their forward momentum on the Pinnacle.
There. She could see the shattered, jagged opening now, the broken remains of the thick, heavy glass that the Seeker’s projectiles had blasted apart. It was rising fast to meet them, and she tilted her wings, fighting the resistance from both the wind and the combined weight of the three sapients she and Hain were struggling to carry.
Come on! Come on! The window was coming up fast. If they missed it, it was going to be a long, quite possibly fatal descent to the ice below. Move! The opening was rushing towards them now, so close she could see some of the anti-personnel bolts embedded in the floor. “Open on my mark!” she called, twisting her wings and praying that she wouldn’t pull every muscle in her body when they made their move. “Mark!”
She snapped her wings to their full extension and fought back a scream as her forelimbs jerked downward, the combined weight making it feel as if every joint in her body was being pulled apart. Come on!
Her wing clipped the top edge of the shattered window as they shot through the gap, feathers and flesh tearing against the sharp glass, and this time she did scream as her wing failed her. She let go of the harnesses, spiraling out across the room and slamming into the floor as Barnabas let out a roar. She rolled, tucking her wings and limbs up close to her body as bits of glass dug into her skin, her head banging against the ground. There was a bright flash, followed by a roar and a sharp, meaty thunk, and then the room was quiet save for the howl of the wind.
“Ow.” She rolled off of her side, ignoring the sharp, burning sensations in her side and the limp feeling of her forelimbs. Her head was spinning, though from the impact or the pain, she wasn’t quite sure. She gave it a quick shake, trying to bump her thoughts back into place.
“Easy,” someone said. The voice was familiar. It took her a moment to place it as an orange hoof cupped her chin. “Here, drink this.” Something was placed on the bottom of her beak, something cool and smooth, and then the hoof pushed her head back, tilting her beak and sending something spilling down into her throat.
A cool, soothing sensation brushed across her mind and suddenly her thoughts seemed much more organized. “Alchemy,” she said, placing the name of the pony holding her head. “Ow.” His hooves moved away as she stood under her own power, rubbing the side of her head. “Thanks.”
Alchemy had already moved away, attending to Hain as the old griffon rose from the ground, glass dropping from his body. Blade turned and gave her own wings a shake, bits and pieces of glass dropping to the ground from her body like crystalline rain.
“Thank you,” she said again as the potion rushed out to her wing and finished its work, feathers regrowing and the gash sealed itself shut. She took a quick look around at the rest of the room. It looked like they’d landed in a wide common area. There was a balcony overhead that ringed the room, and several chairs and tables on their level had been scattered by their arrival. “How long was I out? Is the room clear?”
Barnabas was standing over by the door, his greataxe gripped in both hands. There was a red smear across the blade. “It’s clear,” he said, pointing at something behind her. She turned. There, near the shattered window, was a member of the cult, her body pinned to the floor by two of the anti-personnel bolts. She was clearly dead.
“There was just that one and the one by the door here,” Barnabas said. She turned back to notice that he was standing by a cream-colored lump on the floor that was wrapped in the same robes as the rest of the cult. “You were only stunned for a few seconds.”
Huh, she thought as she looked at the body. No head. Barnabas’s axe had done its work.
“Topside’s clear,” Frost called as she poked her head over the edge of the balcony. “No sign of anypony.”
“Good,” Blade said as thoughts pulled themselves back together. Alchemy was stepping away from Hain, the old griffon pulling himself up from the floor. “Let’s hope we don’t have to do that again anytime soon. Everyone good and ready?” A chorus of nods echoed back at her.
“Right,” she said, stepping towards the door and taking care to pick her way around the shards of broken glass. “Someone’s bound to have heard that. Our arrival won’t be secret for long.” She looked up at the balcony. “Frost, can you tell what direction that weather-altering magic is coming from? Is it close by?”
The mare shook her head. “It’s not close. But it is somewhere above us.”
“Great,” Blade said, nodding. “That works then; we’re going up anyway. We stick together and we make our way up the spiral. We encounter resistance, we take it down fast and quiet. Frost,” she said, looking towards the mare once more. “Keep us up to date on that weather magic. If you think we’re close, let us know.”
“Got it,” she said, her horn glowing as she trotted down the stairs, her bow floating in front of her.
“Let’s—”
The door squeaked open, pulling outward into the hall as a trio of unicorns, their horns each marked with a red tip, strode through the doorway. Blade froze for a second as the trio came to a stunned halt, their eyes going wide and a strained, collective gasp emerging from their throats.
The mutual surprise didn’t last.
With a roar Barnabas swept his axe around, cleaving right through one of the initiate’s shoulders and sending him crashing to the ground. Blade leapt forward even as both of the unicorn’s horns lit, lashing out with poorly aimed magic blasts. The air glowed white-hot next to her face for just a moment, and then she was on the unicorn, her talons lashing out and cutting deep tracks across his chest as she let out a loud shriek.
Alchemy took the last initiate, darting past her so quickly she almost missed it and slamming his shoulder into the unicorn. The blow was heavy enough to lift the unicorn from his hooves, sending him flying back through the air and out of the room.
A shout of alarm rose up from somewhere outside and Hain darted past her, followed by Frost. She finished her initiate off by slamming his head down into the ground with both talons, feeling the faint crunch of bone as something—either his jaw or his nose—came apart. Then she followed the rest of the team out into the grand spiral.
She had to admit, it was grand. She even slowed for a moment, her attention swept up by the hollowed-out inside of the Pinnacle stretched out before her, a wide open space ringed by supportive pillars and the spiraling, wide, rising staircase that made its way around the inside. It was a classic example of a griffon eyrie: protected from the elements, yet with plenty of space to stretch one’s wings.
Then a bolt of magic bounced off one of the nearby pillars and she snapped her attention back to the task at claw. It was an impressive eyrie. It was also occupied. They even added railings to the stairway, she thought. Up the stairwell she could see the rest of the group already engaging a second group of initiates, cutting through them like so much wheat, but it was a small group. She spread her wings, glad for the raised ceiling on the stairwell as she took to the air and caught up to the team.
Most of their attackers were already down. There were three initiates and one mage lying on the ground, unconscious or dead, and as she watched Alchemy drove his elbow into the last initiate’s chest, launching him backwards and over the edge of the staircase. There was a faint scream as the cultist dropped out of sight.
A door slammed open further up the stairway, a crowd of unicorns bursting out, their horns lighting as they began firing bolts of magic. Frost was the first to react, firing an arrow toward the group that slipped between the two forward-most unicorns before exploding in a hail of razor-sharp ice fragments. Several of them screamed in pain, their timbres switching to horror and fear moments later as Blade and Barnabas descended upon them.
“Keep moving!” she called as Barnabas slammed the last unicorn into the wall headfirst. “We need to go up, fast!” More shouts and outcries were breaking out all around them as they rose, climbing the inside of the tower. Frost began firing over and over again as they raced up the stairwell, her arrows hitting door after door and sealing them over with a coating of heavy ice.
The shouts and yells were silenced as a titanic voice echoed through the inside of the spire, almost deafening in its volume. “Intruders on the middle levels! Intruders!”
“Well, that tears the stealth approach!” Blade shouted as the remnants of the announcement echoed around them. “It’s time to smash and break, team!”
“This counted as stealth?” Alchemy called as they moved up the stairs. “Are you kidding me?”
“Save it for the bad guys,” Blade called back. She could see motion across the spiral; a whole group of unicorns moving down the stairwell at them. “Frost! Cultists at three!”
The mare turned and fired in one fluid motion, her magic launching no less than three arrows in the time it took for the first to cross the empty space of the spiral. A series of cracks rang out as the arrows detonated, shouts of surprise filling the air as the force broke ranks. Blade tucked her wings close and dropped as some of the unicorns began firing back, several beams of magic missing her by only a few feet.
“Keep them pinned!” she shouted to Frost. “We’ll wrap around!” Frost nodded and continued firing, ducking behind one of the stone pillars to take cover from the returning blasts. Several of the cultists had apparently had the same idea; Blade could see them still making their way down around the bend of the stairway towards them.
“Bruin!” Barnabas called as the group came into view. For a moment Blade wasn’t sure what he’d meant by the cry, then she caught sight of the unicorn leading the charge. She was huge, her brown body rippling with swollen muscle that looked both unnatural and unhealthy, as if some force was swelling against her body from the inside, trying to force its way out. There was a metal ring of some kind strapped around the base of the mare’s horn, and as Blade watched, a sickly glow began to emanate from it. The mare’s body began to swell even further, every muscle bulging outward as she opened her mouth with a scream of rage.
Blade dropped as one of the unicorns tracking her fired a bolt of magic, the shot whizzing by overhead and ricocheting off of the ceiling. Barnabas answered the mare’s roar with a yell of his own, and the two crashed into each other like two colliding titans, each rocking the other back.
Magic bolts filled the air as several of the initiates opened fire, and Blade was forced to weave her approach. Another unicorn’s horn lit up, this one with a red band around the base, and a blue glow appeared around her body, her wingbeats slowing as something gripped her entire body, pressing in from all directions.
He’s trying to grab me! Blade thought as she forced herself to move. She could feel her body resisting the telekinetic hold, the spell slipping as the crystals within her skin fought back against the new influx of magic, but it was getting harder and harder to move, like weights and restrictive bands had been tied to every one of her limbs. The unicorn grinned as the initiates nearby began to point their horns at her.
Hain swept into the distracted cultists like a whirlwind, his knife flashing as he let out a fierce warcry. The magic field around her blipped away, gone as the chosen’s concentration was broken by the sudden appearance of a knife through his throat. The rest of the initiates scattered, breaking up as they began firing at Hain, and Blade beat her wings, dropping in to help out.
Across the stairwell, there was another roar as Barnabas was thrown backwards by the bruin, the enraged unicorn slamming him into the wall and then lowering her head to charge. Then there was a blur of orange, and she let out a scream as Alchemy drove his forehooves into her side with enough force to send her stumbling. She lashed out with a backhoof, Alchemy stepping nimbly aside and then pressing his attack once more as the muscular unicorn let out another yell. Her body was twisting, skin growing tight as she grew larger and larger.
Barnabas let out a roar of his own as he stepped in, slamming his greataxe into the side of the bruin’s head. The unicorn let out another roar of pain as the sharp blade cut through her cheek, only stopping when it hit bone.
An arrow caught her in the face, snapping her head back even as ice began spreading across her head. She let out one last muffled roar as the ice swept over her mouth and eyes, and then stumbled back, rearing up on her hind legs and scraping at the advancing ice with her forehooves.
“Volley!” Alchemy shouted, jumping and landing a kick right in the center of the bruin’s back with both legs. The off-balance mare stumbled forward, her hooves slipping as she tried to keep her balance. The flat of Barnabas’s axe slammed into the side of her head, shattering ice and knocking the mare away as he swung the weapon like a baseball bat. Dazed and disoriented, the mare didn’t even realize how close she was to the edge of the stair until Alchemy’s running leap hit her in square in the chest. There was a loud crack as the railing broke, followed by a shriek of horror as the augmented unicorn dropped from sight.
“Keep moving!” Blade called as she drove the last cultist’s head into the ground, feeling a faint sense of satisfaction at the meaty clunk that resonated up her foreleg. “Head for the top!” She began running, taking each step of the massive staircase in a single bound. They passed by the group of unicorns that had fired on them from opposite the spiral, most of them frozen to the ground or lying unconscious and dying from multiple arrow wounds. Frost had done her job.
Another door burst open ahead of them, a chosen poking his head out before withdrawing it in a panic. An ice arrow sunk deep into the wood a moment later, ice sheets blossoming all around it and spreading out in beautiful, deadly patterns. Alchemy gave the door a kick as they passed, slamming it shut so the ice could finish its work.
“Frost!” Blade called. “How far are we from that spell?”
“Still pretty far!” Frost said. “They’re probably near the top of the tower.”
“Further away than the airship docks?”
“Probably.”
“Fine,” Blade said as another trio of initiates appeared on the steps above them. Where did they find all these guys? One of them managed to get a poorly aimed bolt off before Frost fired an arrow, the magical blast detonating harmlessly against the ceiling as the team swept over the three unprepared unicorns.
This actually isn’t as bad as I’d thought it might be, Blade thought as they made another circuit up the Pinnacle. They must be spread more thin than we thought to be putting up this little resistance. That or they’ve pulled everything back to protect the vital areas and we’re just running into the leftovers. She searched the upcoming stairs, her eyes hunting for recognizable markings as they climbed. We must be halfway to the airship docks by now. I guess we’ll take out their defensive net, and then—
“Down!” Someone crashed onto her back, shoving her down against the stairs as a wave of heat swept by just above her. From the way they’d come came a titanic bang followed by another wave of heat, and then whoever had crashed into her back was shoving her to the side as the air filled with hissing sounds.
“Take cover!” That was Frost’s voice, and as Blade looked up an arrow hit the ground right in front of her, ice growing out and up into a small wall that she could crouch behind. She could see several more of the ice blockades growing out of the stairs around her, the rest of the team taking refuge behind them.
“Nice move!” she called, giving the mare a quick nod of appreciation as another fireball collided with the front of the ice she was crouching behind, sputtering as it went out.
All right, she thought, risking a peek over the top of the ice barrier. Let’s see what we’ve got. Another fireball shot by overhead, the heat from its passage almost singeing her feathers, and she ducked back as the barrage intensified.
“Mages!” she called to the others. “Two or three of them. And a couple more chosen.”
“We must be close to the docks,” Hain said. “Otherwise why bother pinning us here?” The intensity of the bolts began to pick up, and several beams began to converge on one of the ice barriers, steam rising from the block of ice with a loud hiss. Frost sent an arrow flying back towards their attackers but someone batted it from the air with a loud crack, ice fragments scattering as the arrow detonated.
“Doesn’t matter where they have us pinned,” Barnabas said. He was laying flat on his chest, his body barely covered by the icy wall Frost had given him. “The problem is that we are pinned. Any ideas before they just have someone rush us from behind?”
“I agree,” Frost said as she formed and fired another arrow in one smooth movement, replenishing one of the barricades as it began to crack under the weight of the heated beams that were pouring onto it. “I can’t keep this up forever.”
“Hain?” Blade asked, looking in the direction of the older griffon. “Any ideas?”
He nodded. “We need to get someone to disrupt their spellcasting before they get the bright idea to just focus on us one at a time.” He glanced at her and then in the direction of Alchemy. “Do you think you could carry him on your back?”
“What?”
“Alchemy,” Hain said, barely flinching as a kinetic bolt of some kind slammed into his barrier, a chip of ice breaking off and flying past his face. “Could you carry him?”
“While flying?” It wouldn’t be easy, but … “Sure, I could.”
“Good,” Hain said. “Fall back and climb one of the pillars. If they don’t have anyone guarding the level above us, you can make your way around it until you’re right above them.”
“Then catch them off-guard from above,” she said, nodding. “Got it. Alchemy, you topped off?”
The orange earth pony plucked a vial from his combat harness and quickly emptied it. “Ready,” he said, eyeing the gap between their barriers. “You?”
She took a quick glance at the clump of now shielded unicorns, making a fast count of how many steps up they were. “Now!”
Alchemy bolted across the gap, his body a blur. Several bolts skipped across the empty stone behind him, and then he was behind her, shielded from sight and danger by Frost’s wall.
That still left them with another gap to cross, however. There was still a several foot space between her barrier and the railing. Alright, we’ll need to move fast, and time it so that we don’t—
An arrow struck the gap, another barrier rising out of the stone. Fireballs began hissing against it almost immediately, and her own barrier began to glow as one of the unicorns up above tried to wrap his magic around it.
“Go,” she said, crawling over to the railing and pressing her body right up against the rail, Alchemy right behind her. She gave him a nod and he climbed on top of her back, locking his hooves around her chest.
Here, we go, she thought as she climbed over the rail and braced her talons against the side of the massive stone pillar. I hope this works.
She jumped, Alchemy’s forelegs tightening around her chest as she began flapping her wings, keeping them tucked as close to her body as she could while still giving herself a little lift. Her claws scraped against the hard stone as she tried to find some grip, the rasping sound a counterpoint to the sounds of the magical firestorm flying at the rest of her team.
Come on … she told herself, her hind legs kicking against the slick rock as she tried to lift herself higher. You can do this! She was making progress, but not much. Her wings felt confined, cramped, and she could feel the muscles burning as she forced them to work within her limited requirements.
There was a downward shove that almost made her squawk in surprise, and then she was lifting through the air, the weight on her back gone. She looked up to see the tip of Alchemy’s tail vanish over the upper railing, and she let out a relieved sigh. A moment later, without the earth pony’s extra weight, she dug her talons into the soft wood and pulled herself over the side.
“Sorry about that,” Alchemy said, his voice low as he moved up the steps. The level was completely empty of any cult members. “I wasn’t sure that would work until it did, but I wasn’t sure you were going to make it.”
“It’s fine,” Blade said, forcing her wings to their full extension and shivering as blood rushed through them. “It worked. Now lets get the drop on that group of mages.”
“Who do we go for first?’ Alchemy asked.
Six, seven, eight … She pulled her attention away from counting the steps to give him a sideways glance. “Take the mages down first. Hard and fast. They’re going to have the most dangerous spells. Don’t hesitate.”
“Right.”
Nine, ten, eleven! “This is it,” she said, turning and slowing as she faced the nearest pillar. “Let’s—” She stopped speaking as Alchemy dove past her, his body twisting as he dropped over the side. She jumped forward just in time to see him kick off one of the pillars and bounce down to the stairway beneath her. Stunned shouts filled the air as she spread her wings, rolling and diving down towards the next level.
She came down with her talons extended, shrieking as she raked her claws across a mage’s back, shredding cloth and skin with equal ease. Then she was in the melee, lashing out in every direction as bolts and beams of glowing magic echoed all around her, mixing with shouts and yells coming from all directions.
Something hot and painful scorched across her side, and she jumped back, ignoring the burning pain as she dragged a cultist into one of his fellows. There was a bellowing roar as Barnabas and the rest of the team joined the melee, bowling over several of the panicking initiates.
Only the mages and a few of the chosen seemed to be holding their ground, falling back and firing spells into the fight even as more and more of the initiates fell. Blade turned towards them, spreading her wings and leaping forward, only to shut her eyes in pain as a bright flash filled her vision. She slammed into the ground hard as something took hold of her by the back, her beak snapping shut from the force of the impact. Then it pulled, lifting her up and throwing her sideways through the air. She managed to tuck her wings in against her side before she slammed into the wall, but she could still feel the faint pop as one of the vulnerable bones snapped. Her head met the stone a moment later, stars erupting across the field of purple and black that was all she could see.
She could feel the grip on her back growing loose as it yanked her up towards the ceiling, dragging her body along the wall. Knives of pain erupted along her wing as the broken limb twisted, and she kicked away from the wall on reflex, the top of her head brushing the ceiling before she fell, dropping to the ground.
Her vision was starting to clear, though it was hard to focus through the pain coming from her wing. She could still feel the hold on her back, but it was weakening, the energy surging down her forelimbs and into her claws.
She didn’t know what it was going to do when she let it out, but she did know that she hurt. And she was angry about it.
Her vision cleared enough that she could see the mage standing a few feet away, his horn glowing a bright yellow, a slightly confused look on his face as the tugging sensation on her back increased. She let out a shriek and jumped forward, letting the pain in her wing and side fuel her rage at the mage, and had a brief sense of satisfaction as the unicorn’s eyes went wide. He began to turn away, the glow around his horn winking out, and then she was on him, one pair of talons lashing out and transferring some of his own telekinetic magic back at him.
The mage jerked as if he’d been hit by a force much greater than her talons, his body flying back at high speed as something vibrant and yellow seemed to leak out of her talons. There was a muted crack as he hit the wall, and then the mage collapsed to the ground, his body limp. Blade turned just in time to see Hain get rid of the last chosen, the determined unicorn firing off one last blast of magic before the griffon’s knife found its mark.
“Everyone … everyone all right?” she asked, clenching her teeth as the pain in her wing tried to pull itself to her full awareness. She took a quick look around at the rest of the team. Hain seemed okay though a few of his feathers were charred and singed. Barnabas was resting his weight on the handle of his axe, breathing heavily, several clear lines carved across the front of his armor. Even Alchemy seemed injured as he stepped towards her, limping lightly, though with each step it was less pronounced.
“Your wing is broken,” he said as he stepped up to her. “I’ll need to set it in the correct position before I give you anything. I don’t have anything that can heal it. Not this quickly.”
“Can you wrap it and give me something for the pain?” she asked, wincing as her wing moved slightly.
“I can, but it’s not going to take effect very fast,” Alchemy warned, holding his hooves a few inches away from her wing. “And we’re going to need to set—”
“Just do what it takes for me to get back in the fight,” she said, taking a deep breath and tensing her body as his hooves touched her wing. A moment later she cried out, her legs giving way beneath her as pain blossomed along her wing and back.
“Almost there,” Alchemy said, and she choked back another cry, clenching her beak so hard she almost felt as if it would break as her wing twisted again. It felt as if the entire left side of her body had been engulfed in flame, flame that had somehow sucked itself deep inside every bone and limb.
“There,” Alchemy said, the pain lessening as he took a step back, and she let out a sigh of relief. “Now hold still. Hain?” He motioned towards the older griffon. “Could you help …?”
Hain nodded, stepping up to her right side as she lifted herself back from the ground. Alchemy pulled a tight, flat roll of cloth from somewhere inside his combat harness and peeled off the end, tossing the other towards Hain.
“Don’t move,” he said as the pair began wrapping the cloth around her middle, binding the wing tightly against her side. With each motion her wing sent out a fresh wave of pain, but compared to the agony it had been giving her a moment earlier, it almost wasn’t noticeable.
“Here,” Alchemy said, passing her a vial as soon as the wrap was complete. “This will help deaden the pain, but that’s all. I can’t mix it with a regrowth potion, though, and an injury like this even with a bone potion would take at least a day or two to heal, so it’s the best we can do right now.”
“It’s fine,” she said, snapping the cork free with a twitch of her claw and downing the mixture. It tasted foul, like she’d gagged on something that wasn’t meant to be eaten, but she choked it down anyway. They had to mission to finish. “Anyone else need any attention?” When nothing but shaking heads made their way back towards her, she nodded and tossed the empty vial away.
“All right, then let’s finish this,” she said. “The docks are only a few levels up.” She began moving forward, wincing as her wing sent a twinge of pain down her side, but ignoring the feeling as they began to move upward once more. “If you see anyone else, hit them hard and hit them fast.”
They pressed upwards, pausing only once to take out another trio of chosen before they could shout for help. Either whoever the group that they’d taken out was reporting to was simply assuming that their silence meant they were still occupied, or the cult was spread more thin than they’d thought.
There don’t seem to be a lot of the heavy hitters, Blade thought as the stairway began to level out, flattening into a long, level half-circle that marked the airship docks. There were four guards on the inside, each of the them initiates, and Frost dropped them with well-placed arrows, picking them off before any of them could make a noise. Either the cult’s more lacking in higher level magic-users than we thought, or they’re using quite a lot of them to fuel that big magic weather spell of theirs.
They’d been briefed on the design of the docks. They filled an entire level of the tower, a solid ring rather than a staggered spiral, half of it storage space for equipment, cargo, and parts, the other half of it berths for airships that could pump out their liftgas. The docks themselves were metal platforms and docking arms that could be collapsed and folded down against the side of the spire in case of heavy storms or—in this case—a desire to deny an opposing force a landing zone. The final defensive touch was a series of anti-air cannons and more modern guns that had been built into stone of the spire itself, ringing the sides and the tops of each of the platforms.
Okay, Blade thought as they moved up to the first set of doors, Alchemy taking point and vanishing through the opening. A faint howl of wind echoed through the open door, along with the distant rumble of weapons fire. Good. It would cover their assault.
Alchemy stuck his head back through the first door and waved them in. They followed one by one, moving into a dimly lit airship berth that was completely devoid of any signs of life. The heavy doors on the far side of the bay were shut tight, though the howl of the wind had become strong enough that they could still hear it whipping past. Better yet, however, the control booth for the platforms seemed completely abandoned. All she could see through the thick glass was a flickering whirlwind of white.
“Barnabas,” Blade whispered, pointing one claw towards the empty booth. He nodded, sheathing his axe on his back and making his way towards the control booth. As he did, she turned to the rest of the team and pointed up at the lone set of stairs leading towards the defensive emplacements. They moved up the wooden steps as quietly as possible, none of them willing to take any chances despite the faint heavy thud of cannonfire echoing through the room. Frost paused near the top of the steps, looking at Blade and then pointing her hooves towards both sets of doors.
Blade nodded, the mare staying put and provide cover for both the rest of them and Barnabas as they moved past and right up against the heavy, wooden doors that led to the emplacement. Blade pressed her head up against the wood, listened for a moment, and then flashed a “go” signal to Hain and Alchemy.
They moved fast, Alchemy kicking the door open and her and Hain sweeping out onto the platform before any of the gunners could react. A single, heavy cannon sat in the middle of the circular, snow-swept platform, tilted skyward as two unicorns reloaded it with a third looking on. One of them dropped the cannonball he was holding, his jaw gaping as the group swept towards him. The other two unicorns on the platform turned to look, the boss of the trio opening his mouth to yell, his horn lighting up just before Alchemy hit him in the chest and knocking him back over the edge. The wind sucked him away with a faint scream. The other two went down at roughly the same time as she and Hain crashed into them, slamming them down to the ground.
One down, Blade thought as she took a quick look around. The storm was so thick she couldn’t even make out the surface of the ice down below her, though she could hear the faint cracks of explosions as the pirate fleet clashed with the Bloodhooves. Here and there she thought she could see a faint flash as someone fired, but it was hard to tell amongst the dancing snows if that was what she was actually seeing or if it was just wishful thinking.
“Come on!” she called, turning and heading back through the doors, moving towards the next defensive bay. They wouldn’t have long before the other emplacements noticed that one of their number had stopped firing, and there was an even higher chance that they’d notice the deployment of the landing platform.
The second defensive platform went down as easily as the first one—easier, actually, since the three unicorns controlling it were watching the sky, looking for targets. Each of them joined the chosen from the first platform in being given a quick chance to learn how to fly. As far as Blade could tell, none of them figured it out before being swept out of sight. The third and fourth emplacements suffered the same fate, though one of the unicorns working the guns did manage to get a bolt off that took a chunk out of Hain’s armor.
They returned to the first berth where they’d left Barnabas and Frost to find the mare standing over the body of another shadow, a grim smile on her face. “He thought he could catch my brother off-guard,” she explained as they helped the minotaur work the machinery, the first platform slowly unfolding into place, sliding first out of the side of the spire and then folding out its supports. They hadn’t even managed to lock it into place when the first corvette appeared out of the whitewashed sky, darting in close to the platform and dropping dozens of griffons from its gondola, a full wing of soldiers who dropped through the air like stone, spreading their wings at the last second to avoid hitting the platform at full speed.
“Welcome to the party!” Blade called as the hangar doors were pulled open, two talons worth of griffons spilling into the empty berth with crossbows at the ready. One of the groups immediately made for the next hangar over, calling out to one another as two of them began to work the heavy gears that would deploy the next landing platform. Outside, even before the first wing of griffons had cleared the platform, a second group was dropping in, spreading their wings in perfect unison as they dropped out of the sky. Like the first group, most of them were wearing plain red-and-brown painted armor, but she could see one talon whose armor was accentuated with golden lines, their helmets and chest plates more ornate than those of the griffons around them. They were part of the Patriarch’s own command wing.
“Good work getting the docks deployed,” their commander said as she approached them, snapping the group a quick salute with her wings. The rest of her talon formed up behind her, their eyes searching the room as if looking for an immediate threat. “We’ve been waiting to get out of that storm for a while.”
“I don’t blame you,” Blade said. “Especially when a lot of the fun is in here. You guys have a plan?”
“Five talons will secure the docks,” the commander said, her voice crisp. “Alpha Wing is going to work their way down, clearing the tower room by room, while my talon and a full wing will move up. We’re going to neutralize the spellcasters, and try to cut the head off the snake. You can stay here if you like,” she said, motioning towards the docks, where another wing of griffons was already raining in, bringing the total to three—more than a hundred griffons.
“Or,” the commander continued, tapping a revolver that was hanging to one side of her chest. “If you’d like to help clear the rest of the tower, we’d appreciate the help. You got us this far, but if you’d like ...”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Blade said, ignoring the pain in her wing as she gave the commander a grin. “We’re just glad you’re willing to keep up.” The wing commander nodded and then waved at the team behind her. As one, they moved for the door.
* * *
“Armed!” the griffon called, stepping back from the ornately carved, heavy-set wooden door, giving the small series of packets he’d attached to the surface a final tug and yanking the detonation cord free. “It’s hot!”
Blade ducked behind cover, following the example of the rest of the soldiers in covering her ears and opening her jaw wide as they waited for the blast. They didn’t have to wait long. A rapid-fire chain of cracks filled the air, her chest shaking with each detonation. Splinters of wood shot by overhead, smoke filling the air as the talon commander signaled her team to move forward.
She and her team ducked out of cover along with them, watching as the massive, locked door that had been the entrance to the old patriarch’s penthouse crumbled, broken apart by the breaching charges. As the team moved almost silently through the smoke, they stumbled across the forms of several cult members lying on the stairwell, two bruins and a shadow. Blood was streaming from multiple lacerations as well as their ears, and none of the three were conscious. A chunk of wood had been shoved clean through one shadow’s shoulder. The squad paused just long enough to check the three for signs of life and make sure they were down before moving on. The talons behind them would secure them, though what would be done with them no one was really sure yet.
The top of the stairwell was clear of smoke, and one of the griffons poked his head over the top of the stairs, ducking back as a single bolt of red energy cut through the space, setting fire to the far wall as it missed.
“Just one,” the griffon said, drawing his crossbow. “The rest must be hiding further in.”
“Let me handle this.” Frost pushed her way to top of the stairs, drawing her bow. “Hey!” she shouted. “I know you can hear me in there.”
“I don’t have anything to say to the likes of you, disgusting inferiors!” came the reply. Another bolt of magic sparked off of the far ceiling.
“Yeah, well these ‘inferiors’ are being pretty superior at the moment,” Blade called before Frost could say anything. “So you might want to rethink your position, seeing as we took your tower and all. Plus most of your mages.” There had only been six controlling the spell that had been making the weather so bad, which was odd given the strength estimate that Frost had made. “You’re not really in a position to do much but whine.” There was a hiss of anger from their mysterious defender, and Frost gave her a look.
“What?” Blade asked. “I’m just pointing out the obvious. You talk to him now.”
Frost turned back to the head of the stairs, readying her bow. “Who is this?”
“I am mage Subtle Eye—” Blade felt a thrill sweep through her at the name. Perfect! “—and I am—”
The cultist’s words cut off in a scream as Frost fired, her arrow snapping away from her bow and then detonating somewhere inside the room with a sharp crack. Frost was up over the top of the stairs before the scream had cut off, Blade close behind, and the mare fired again, her arrow catching the dark-blue unicorn in the shoulder and throwing him to one side. “Barnabas,” she said, her voice icy calm as she fired again, this time pinning the stallion’s right foreleg to the desk he had been standing in front of. “Prune him.”
“You’ll—” Whatever Subtle was going to say was cut off as Barnabas stepped forward and snapped his head back with a backhand. As the unicorn’s head bounced off of the desk he caught it and slammed it down once more, holding it in place. Then he lifted his axe in one hand. There was a swift thunk, and Subtle screamed, his entire body jerking in pain as Barnabas swept his axe off the side of the desk, a dark blue horn falling to the carpet.
“Check the rest of the rooms,” one of the griffons said, motioning towards the doors in the back of the room. “Be careful, we don’t know what sort of traps they might have waiting. Several of the griffons complied, stepping around the desk and the wheezing, crying occupant pinned to its front.
“I’d consider that light, given what your cult has done,” Frost said, drawing another arrow and aiming it at Subtle, whose tears seemed to be stemming from equal parts pain and rage. “Now, where is Sagis?”
“He’s not here,” the unicorn said, laughing. “He’s gone.”
“Ran away like a coward,” Blade said, though she didn’t really believe it.
Subtle laughed. “No,” he said, shaking his head and blinking away the blood that was seeping out of the stump where his horn had been. “No, he’s gone to awaken our king.” He let out a long, wheezing laugh.
“Rooms are clear!” one of the griffons called. “No one’s here, invisible or otherwise.”
“Where’d he go?” Frost asked.
“Where’s the key?” Blade cut in before he could answer. “Did he take it?”
Subtle laughed again. “Of course he took it,” he said, his head rolling back. “He and all the most dedicated of my brothers and sisters are waiting to open his prison. Your fight here is meaningless. King Sombra will annihilate you all.” A few of the griffon soldiers shot uneasy glances at one another.
Wonderful, Blade thought with a sigh as she rolled her eyes around the room. He’s gone, and he took the key with him. Now how am I supposed to— Something caught her eye and she paused.
“Where did he go?” Frost demanded, prodding the unicorn with an arrow. “Tell me so I can go kill him.”
“I’ll never—” Subtle began.
“We don’t need you to tell,” Blade said, stepping around the desk and looking at the massive map of the Ocean painted across one wall of the opulent office. There was an island she’d never seen before in the middle of the northeast, one with a strange structure sitting atop it: a triangular piece of carved rock.
“Frost,” she said, tapping the map with one talon. “Maybe I’m just looking at outdated maps, but I’ve never seen this island on anything before.” She glanced at the nearby Bloodhoof stronghold and made a few quick mental estimates. “Isn’t this out where the eyrie said the other half of the Bloodhooves’ fleet is?”
“Yeah,” Hain said, stepping up alongside her and looking up at the strange island. “It is. But I’ve never heard of anything of interest being out there besides small, worn over rocks. Way too small for a colony.”
“Small enough for a prison, though,” she said, shooting a glance towards Subtle. The unicorn was glaring at her, murder in his eyes. “An ancient, magical prison for some nutty unicorn psychopath, maybe?”
“How dare you impugn the great King Sombra—” Subtle began.
“Ma’am!” one of the soldiers by the backside of the desk called, his clear voice drowning out the ranting unicorn. “These papers look like they’re about that island. And they’ve got ancient griffon on them.”
“What?” Blade stepped up to the desk, looking down at a spread of papers that Subtle had apparently been studying at some earlier point. The first thing she noticed were two side-by-side photographs, one of the key she’d been sent to retrieve, the other of the stone arch that was featured so prominently on the Ocean map.
“That is ancient griffon,” she said, frowning as she looked down at the pages. She spread a few of them out, revealing more pictures of an ice-filled cavern, massive open spaces, and—creepily enough—what looked like skeletons frozen in the ice.
“It is the prison of King Sombra!” Subtle declared, his voice rising in a fever pitch. “You cannot stop his return. The Order will release him, and with us as his true servants, the superior species, we will grind this Ocean beneath our hooves, we will—”
Blade ignored the unicorn’s ranting, her eyes narrowing as she spotted a photograph of what looked like some sort of entrance. The language was ancient, but there was enough of a similarity … “Tonoz?” she said in surprise.
Subtle stumbled. “What?”
“This ‘prison’ of yours,” Blade said. “It’s named ‘The Vault.’” She held up the photograph. “Ancient griffon. This word is close enough to modern griffon I recognize it.”
“So it’s the vault then,” Subtle said, sneering. “The vault where those pathetic immortals Celestia and Luna banished the rightful king of—”
“That’s half the title,” Blade said, running the second part of the phrase over and over again in her head. The language had changed, some of the letters seemed off. In fact, something about the whole situation felt off. Why would an ancient unicorn king be entombed here? With griffon writing all over his prison? Something just doesn’t quite add up ... she thought. The cult seems so sure, but I’m not.
“What does it matter if that’s only half of the title?” Subtle snapped. “In a matter of days Lord Sagis will open it. King Sombra will be free of his prison at last!” A few of the griffons shot nervous glances at one another, and Blade saw Frost pull her arrow back a bit. “You cannot stop it!” the unicorn screamed, spittle dripping down his jaw. “King Sombra will kill you all! He comes! Nothing can—” His head met the top of the desk with a hard, meaty thunk, and this time he stayed down, unconscious.
“What?” Alchemy asked, setting his hoof back down as everyone looked in his direction. “He was starting to creep me out.”
“I’ll need to report this to command,” the wing leader said. “The patriarch must be informed. The fleet will need to react immediately if we’re to round up the rest of the cult and stop this …” She waved a pair of talons in the direction of Subtle’s limp body. “This … madness from escaping. If this cult truly has a king, then we need to stop him as well.”
“And we’ll need to move fast,” Blade said, gathering up the papers. “We need to get to that island and stop them from opening that structure, whatever it is.”
“The vault?” the commander asked, lifting one eyebrow.
“Not just the vault,” Blade said, as the last word of the phrase clicked into place somewhat. “The Vault of Bones. Now tell me that doesn’t sound like the perfect place to store an old, insane, unicorn king corpse.”
“You think this Sombra is dead?” the commander asked.
“Dead, alive, what does it matter?” Blade said, shrugging and feeling a faint twinge of pain from her deadened wing. “If you think the cult won’t be able to make use of whatever’s in there, then by all means bet on it. Me?” She took a quick look around the room. “All I know is that the cult seems certain they’re about to release some big, bad, evil entity on the world. And the last thing I want is for that to happen. Which means we need to move. Now.” The rest of her team nodded, along with the wing commander.
“Very well,” she said, snapping her talons and signaling for one of her soldiers. “I will have the patriarch informed.”
“Good,” Blade said, turning and taking a quick glance at the map on the side of the room, her eyes gravitating towards the strange, triangular arch. There was an uneasy feeling in her gut, a twisting, almost nauseous sensation that was telling her that something bad was about to happen. “How fast can we be there?”
“If we push it?” the commander said. “Two or three days. Maybe four.”
“Good,” Blade said. “Because I don’t think Sagis would leave this place if he didn’t have a good reason.” She turned to look back at the rest of the room. “Something tells me we need to get to the Vault of Bones. As soon as we can.”
“Or we’ll all regret it.”
Count of Laws Broken: 0
Total Laws Broken: 63
Damage Value (In Bits): 15
Total Damage Value (In Bits): 390,896
Stats
Page generated in 0.038 seconds
Total duration
1,003 users online
1,608,762 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
And there's our tie in to the city of bones that is being excavated.
What'd she break this time that's worth 15 bits?
Whelp, there's the connection. We'll probably be jumping back to that group before long, where they release something that will enable Sagis to free Sombrero. I'm seeing something close to a TPK for our adventurers in the upcoming chapters.
This made me look up what a group of unicorns is. Apparently its a "blessing" this cites three examples (two of which are online articles and all of which are relatively recent). So it seems a bit of fun neologism.
A "blessing" sounds a bit naff , they are already little ponies no need to belittle them any more. Mind you they have "cutie marks" so I guess it fits!
6215905
Window? Table?
This is very, very interesting... Waiting is so hard!
So much action, that I loved every minute of it!
15 Bits? The Order must have really skimped on their interior decorating.
Also, "Vault of Bones"? We're gonna end up with an undead zombie army by the end of this, aren't we?
Spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine.
Well it is a vault of bones so they'll be spooky scary skeletons.
Maybe my second picture for the art contest will be Blade and Frost manning a stall offering flying lessons and snow cones to cultists for 15 bits a pop.
And here we have two cities of bones: One in the sun, and one in the shade. Maybe Sombra was imprisoned in two pieces. Or maybe the one in the sun is someone just as bad, and we'll be dealing with double trouble...
6217272
I was going to try to think of something funny to say about that part, but now I'm just thinking about how I would love to see that hilarious picture in the fanart contest.
6217427
I only hope I live up to your expectations.
6216250 TPK?
Hold on...
How did they only accumulate 15 bits in damage?
6218065
Total Party Kill. It's from D&D when a group of adventurers find themselves decimated due to their own negligence, a mean DM, or more likely than not, just bad rolls.
I can't possibly point out every awesome thing that happened this chapter, but to single one thing out...
This might be the first time I've seen an extended description of what it feel like to be grasped in a unicorn's field. That was a pretty sweet use of something that's surprisingly scarce in this fandom.
6218065
TPK = Total Party Kill (I didn't get it at first either)
Edit: Oh, whoops. I didn't know that he had already answered your question.
6218106
Yeah, that threw me at first too, but if you think about it, the armies did most of the damage, Team Blade only really smashed a couple doors and windows.
6218106
Yeah, that threw me at first too, but if you think about it, the armies did most of the damage, Team Blade only really smashed a couple doors and windows.
I'm kind of glad I put off reading chapters for two and a half weeks. I get to read this all at once.
And things are really starting to connect in my mind. Maybe it is a prison for some old griffon evil/terror that was sealed far away from the source, which would be located in the desert excavation site.
Wait... the total dmg value was 15 bits... didn't they like... break a metric plot ton of stuff just now? Was the tower only worth 15 bits, and if so what does that say about griffins architecture?
More evidence! More ideas! The Vault of Bones is the island where Sombra is suppose to be at and didn't Dusty Tomb say that they were looking at the road to the City of Bones. What if Sombra is released in the middle of the desert on top of the dig spot, instead of the Ocean!? Oh boy are they gonna be surprised!
6283941 She broke a door and a window XD