Painting the Red Barge Red
When Swab came to, all he saw was rust. He heard nothing.
Then the cold rolled over.
A burning sky loomed above, and his right ear was filled with screams.
Some of the wailing came from the distance... blood curdling... dangling in tatters. Another set of lungs howled right next to him.
“Mmmmff... Croche...?” He looked aside.
The filly was rolling on her belly. She clutched her skull and sobbed unceasingly.
“Croche!” Swab shouted.
P-POW! A shell went off just above him, raining that part of the Barge with ashes and burning metal flakes.
Wincing, Swab scampered across the smokey clearing. He side-stepped a collapsed bulkhead and two sets of pipes, leaking steam.
“Croche!” He knelt beside her, resting a hoof on the filly's shoulder. “Just calm down!” he tried yelping above her shrieks. “Please! You have to be quiet for one second! Now... tell me where you're hurt!”
“Nnnngh—Goddessss!” Croche whimpered, rolling from side to side. “Ohgoddessohgoddessohgoddess!”
Swab paled. He had never seen the girl this emotive before. “Verxlaxion, bless me. She's hurt bad.” He reached in, wincing as another explosion rocked the Barge. “Just stay still! I have to see if—”
“Nnnngh!” She batted his hoof away. The act made her turn over, revealing a tear-stained face above remarkably intact limbs. “Mmmmffnngh... make it stopppp...”
“You're...” Swab exhaled, blinking. “Why, you're not hurt at all—!”
“Make it stop make it stop make it stopppp...” Croche sobbed.
Swab reached for her, fidgeted, then bit his lip. With agile grace, the colt hopped up, bounced off a bulkhead, and used his forelimbs to grab around the crooked length of an overhanging pipe. Tiny muscles quivering, he pulled himself up, peering over a collapsed array of metal shingles.
His yellow eyes reflected five ships along the horizon. A bunch of rafts drew closer, motorized, speeding towards the damaged struts along the Barge's north and west sides.
“Pirates...” Swab murmured. “Loads of them! They... they must be firing at us with dredge coal! Nothing else could damage from that distance!”
“I know I know I know...” Croche buried her muzzle in her hooves. “Mrmmmfff... they've c-come back...”
“Huh?!” Swab looked over his shoulder, dangling.
“Mrmmmff... they've come back to finish me offffff!” She hiccuped, sobbed. “Just like they took them from me! Oh Verlaxion! Verlaxion, f-forgive me!” An explosive blast sent a wave of heat kicking at her matted mane. She whimpered into her forelimbs. “I'm so sorry. So very sorry. Please don't let them t-take meeee...”
“Croche...” Swab gulped. “When did you join us in the hold? Years ago? These couldn't possibly be the pirates who... who killed your...” His words trailed off as he stared at her. Gnawing on his bottom lip, he gave the pirate ships a final, forlorn look. Then he dropped down to his hooves. “Grfff...” Scampering, he rushed over and hoisted Croche up by her shoulders. “Croche, we gotta move!”
“Mmmgnnh—No!” She struggled, flailed.
“Croche, they're firing at us! We gotta—”
“They took Mommy and Daddy!” Croche gnashed her teeth, shaking all over. “They're gonna take me—”
“Not if we go somewhere safe—” POWWW! An explosion rocked the Barge two bulkheads away. Nevertheless, Swab hissed: “They won't get to you, Croche! I promise!”
She looked up at him finally, eyes glazed over.
“I know somewhere that's safe... okay?” Swab stared at her. “Right next to the strongest pony in the world.”
“Strongest... pony...?”
“Just come on!” Swab galloped out of the collapsed deck, dragging Croche along with her. “I'll take you there! I'll take you to where you'll be safe! Where we'll all be safe!”
Panting, Croche stumbled after him. Her eyes scraped the sky, tears reflecting the burning swath of another load of ordinance flying... plummeting... landing—
P-POWWW!
The last impact tore a piece of the north strut off the rest of the welded boats. It bent, broke, and plunged hard into the muck, sending dirty water splattering all across Monket and his steamships.
The enslaved crew dashed left and right all around him, attempting to fire the engines of the ship above and below deck back to life. He didn't waste any time barking into their ears.
“Get the fire burning, you sorry sack of shits!” Monket cracked a whip, sweating into the heat of the flames gathering from the nearby, impacted struts. “As long as we're stuck in this canal, we're shark food!”
“More incoming!” a slave shouted.
Monket sneered. “Goddess dammit—BRACE YOURSELVES!”
This next projectile positively whistled on its way down. Through sheer luck, it plunged purely into the narrow strip of water. Two seconds later, it exploded somewhere deep below. The resounding surge of oceanwater sent every bit of hull across the northern strut reeling, scraping and rattling against one another. Dredgers and guards ran from deck to deck, gathering every long ranged weapon that they could and carrying them up into the towers.
“Looks like Skagra's stallions are preparing to retaliate, sir!” a crew member stammered.
“A lot of crud that will do,” Monket grumbled, standing up straight from bracing. “Those lame-ass harpoons of his are useless at long distance.” He turned and shouted towards the stern. “Prime the iron cannons! Ready all ammunition!”
“But sir! What if they hit us! If our ammunition is above deck—”
“It's too late to be anything but risky! We're locked in here and we gotta ward them off!” Monket glared down the length of the narrow, narrow strut. His other steamship was blocking the only available exit, and there wasn't enough room for both ships to navigate the canals together. “Dammit... dammit to the depths...” He spun and hollered in the direction of the central platform. “Skagra! I need these struts opened up...”
“...and I need them opened now!”
BL-BLAMMM! A shell exploded like flak just to the south of the platform. Flakes of rust blanketed Nixkit and Skagra as the two crouched behind the upper balcony's railing.
“Damn if that mudtopper doesn't know how to punctuate his sentences,” Skagra muttered.
“Boss... we can't rely completely on Monket!” Nixkit shouted, pointing north over the railing. “He's locked in with both of his ships! The pirates know that! They're concentrating most of their firepower on the canal!”
“Mmrmmmff... and it'll be hell getting the struts to spread with the sky raining diarrhea on our collective tiaras.” Skagra picked up a random horseshoe that had fallen loose, bit on the end of it, grimaced, and tossed it aside. “Right.” POWWW! He stood up, the only stallion unflinching from the latest explosion. “I need three suicidal idiots to follow me into Navigation. We're gonna manually rotate the ship counterclockwise from there.” He spun and pointed at a cowering stallion. “You there!”
The dredger looked up, shivering. “B-Boss...?”
“You and those other bozos next to you. Run to the west strut! When you get my signal, pull the lateral rudders out! I don't care how many steam vents you gotta pop! Make it drag!”
“You gonna force the strut open by drifting the Barge?!” Nixkit wheezed.
“No. I just like doing burning pirouettes in the morning.” B-BOOOM! Hot debris rained across Skagra's shoulders. He exhaled fumes calmly, brushing his bangs only for them to droop back. “I think that was the last one.”
“Huh?” Nixkit looked up. “How do you know that?”
Skagra held up a hoof.
Utter silence bathed the Barge.
“They... th-they stopped?” stammered a stallion.
“Mrmmmff... hardly.” The top dredger pointed northwest. “Feast your vaginas on the horizon, poofballs.”
Nixkit and the others peered over the railing to look.
Beyond the panicked bodies scurrying across Red Barge, they saw the wake of several small motorboats reaching the outer struts.
“Shit!” Schiiing! Nixkit habitually unsheathed a shark prod in his grasp. “Boarders!”
“All the muckers in the seven seas only want one thing,” Skagra slurred. “And Chandler figures he just gave them the ticket to it.” He spat. “Well, they ain't havin' none. Not while I still piss sideways.” He marched off, followed by a pair of stallions. “Nixxy! Take every able-hoofed dredger you can and tear ass westways! Beat 'em to a bloody pulp! Use your teeth if you have to! One condition!” He snarled, pointing with sudden intensity. “They do not get to our prize in the Southern Strut! Or else all is lost! You hear me!”
“Aw shit...” Nixkit was already galloping down the ramp, followed by several breathless stallions. “Aw shit aw shit aw shit...”
“Awwwwwww shit yeah!”
Saxon galloped against the flow of shrieking, fleeing families. The citizens of Red Barge galloped towards the eastern struts. Meanwhile, the bright-eyed guardian leapt in wild, pony parkour over the fresh craters and burnholes across the rattled deck.
“Goddess Verlaxion!” He leapt high, grabbed the stalk of a guard tower, and shimmied up it with miraculous agility. “Grant me your holy dick so that I may gouge... gouge... gouge!” Ch-Chtung! He primed a harpoon gun, fed it compacted steam, and narrowed the sights on the first of many boats foaming up to the west edge of the Barge. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh bitchin' barnacles, who wants to sing inside my snotholes tonight?! HaHA!”
All along his flank, dozens upon dozens of guardians ran up to their towers—or else stood upon the brink of the muck-swept struts. They formed right-angled phalanxes, aiming all manner of harpoon guns and makeshift catapults at the incoming boats. One by one, the gunners at their turrets shouted and whooped at one another.
There was an equally passionate return. Seated inside the incoming motorboats, surly stallions huddled tight, their coats painted with soot and grease. They banged their blades and shields together, shouting into the salty air with frenzy and bloodlust.
The Red Bargers hollered back—the loudest of which was Saxon.
“Raaa-aaaaaa-haaa-haa-haaaaugh!” He used his entire body to yank back the steam release of his harpoon gun. Pft-TOOM! “Here's maggots in your eggs, sweet queefs!”
The harpoon flew low, skimming the ocean's surface. Within a blink, it zeroed in on the bow of a single boat. The first two rows of stallions leaned left and right. The third row was not so lucky. The harpoon imploded the skull of one privateer... ricocheted off the bloodied deck with a splash of sparks... then impaled a leg of another. The stallion howled in pain, only to be yanked back towards the Barge as Saxon retracted the harpoon. The other pirates gargled with laughter and continued charging.
All across the strut, harpoons and burning chunks of loose bulkheads flew. The entire length of dredgers unleashed their wrath on the amphibious invasion party. Half of the harpoons sank ineffectually into the ocean... while a few of them—like Saxon's—struck their target, splattering the motorboats with blood and bone. As the harpoons retracted, the boats kept charging inward, their occupants bravely blocking and batting away the loose bits of shrapnel being tossed at them.
Whurrrrrr—Ch-Chtunk! Saxon finally retracted his harpoon. A still-twitching, still-sputtering pirate hung off the serrated barb.
“Grkkk... pllffkkt...” The stallion's head rolled back, as did his eyes. “Mrmmff... please... grkkkt... k-kill me...”
“Dude...” Ch-Chtung! Saxon re-primed the steam gun. “It's gonna be biblical.” That sneered, he happily twirled the harpoon east, fixating on a boat full of invaders that was about to make landing. Pft-TOOM!
The harpoon launched—carrying the screaming, impaled pirate with it. This time, the blade sunk deep into the engine of the targeted boat. The vessel erupted in flames, its occupants flailing and shrieking in agony.
“Htttt!” Saxon yanked his controls hard to the left. The turret spun, retracting the harpoon and dragging the weight of the boat along with it. The sheer traction caused the tower to collapse on its foundation. Saxon was quick to leapt out before the tower could claim him. Rolling over, he squatted and watched as the burning boat swung sideways into a second vessel. Both skiffs locked together, and—entangled—they slammed hard into the hulls of the Western Strut.
KAPOWWWW! An enormous fireballs billowed skyward, illuminating the Barge as multiple other ships ran aground. Pirates leapt on board, and all—too—swiftly they were engaging the dredgers and guards, hoof to hoof, blade to blade, teeth to teeth.
“Wooooo!” Cl-Clakkka! Saxon unsheathed his shark prod and approached the bloody melee with a wide-eyed swagger. “At last! At last! I was born today!” He yelled into the air—and he was not alone. Several frenzied dredgers accompanied him, tasers crackling in the polluted air as the defenders of Red Barge charged into the fray, unleashing months and months of pent-up wrath on the unsuspecting privateers.
The roar of the battle drifted its way down into the claustrophobic metal confines of the brig.
There, Digiff's eyes fluttered open. The bearded dredger grunted—struggling to get up. He was encumbered with a metal bulkhead lying over his chest.
“Grnnngh... grnkkkkt!” He hissed and sputtered. His ears twitched from the sound of screams and blood-curdling war cries above deck. “Dammit... dammit! I need... grkkk... n-need to fight!”
“Are you mad?!” Keris' voice rang out from the cell to Digiff's direct left. “There's no telling what the seven seas have unleashed up there!”
“Doesn't matter...” Digiff snarled. “Home is... ngrkkkt... home...”
“Will you always dance to Skagra's damnable tune?!” A pair of hawkeyes glared out from beyond the crumpled bars. A piece of the bulkhead had caused half of Keris' cell to collapse. “Even beyond death?”
“Mrmmfff... grnnnngh...” Digiff struggled and fought against the weight of the fallen bulkhead. Despite his thick muscles, he could only get it to move a few mere inches.
“Here... hold on!” Keris shimmied and scurried closer to the bars. With a bit of effort, he was able to stick his bound talons out through a fresh gap in the cell. “You grab this side. I'll grab this one!”
“Mrmmff...” Digiff sweated, eyes darting aside. “Can... c-can you manage?”
Keris nodded. “We'll both push on the count of three. Alright?”
“Got it.”
“One... two... three!”
Both the stallion and the griffon shoved against the bulkhead with all their might. Ever so slowly, it shifted out of its slumped position, freeing the dredger from underneath. Digiff slid to the side, one inch at a time. He repositioned his limbs so that he could more properly shove the chunk of metal away from his prone body.
Meanwhile—as Keris strained on his end—he heard a raspy voice from across the way. It was difficult at first to make out the words through all of the echoing bedlam from the bloodbath above... but with a little bit of concentration...
“Fluttershy? Fluttershy! You have to stay calm. Look at me—Fluttershy. Look. At. Me.”
Wincing and sweating, Keris squinted one eye past his strain.
He caught a glimpse of flickering ruby light beyond the penumbra of multiple black bars. A petite blue body squatted on all fours, staring intently into a corner of her cell.
“You're right. It IS terrible. I can't imagine what it's like to feel each of their souls slipping away but you have to stay with me! Not with them! With me! Look into my eyes. Are you looking? Good, now listen. There's nothing we can do for them—Fluttershy! I mean it. Look at me. Let them go. You have to let them go.”
Keris shuddered... exhaled...
He repositioned his grip of the beam as Digiff started to crawl free.
The pegasus reached her trembling hoof into the shadows, caressing an invisible shape before her.
“Just let them go, Fluttershy. If you blame yourself for every death you witness, you'll never stay sane. Trust me. Just let them go...” She hung her head, and the ruby light caught silvery streaks along the sides of her muzzle. “Please... just let them go... let th-them g-go...”
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DIRTY!
The lot of them!
I'm thinking that in the end it'll be actions, not words, that convince Keris.
Also, poor Flutters. Of all the four, she's the one who gets to witness the true horrors akin to what Rainbow faced alone. Not only that, but she can sense their souls passing...
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Oh. Oh hot frickin damn. Fluttershy can feel them dying.
Well, Saxon's good for at least one thing.
No. No no no. Ah, jeez.
Fluttershy gets a cold, hard dose of horribleness. And Dash has to witness her anguish and feel it right alongside her. The feels are real, ladies and gentlemen of the Ninth. They are very, very real.
In other news, this happened.
I enjoy Saxon... He's like a poet.
So Fluttershy has some sort of empathic soul powers? I wonder how those will be useful in this story. And I can't wait to see what happens next. Here's hoping Saxon gets cut down in the battle, the damn maniac.
Co-chair Whitemane of the Austraeoh Fan Club would like to issue a formal invitation to one 'Swift "Swab" Song'.
Memo: unprecedentedly rapid growth in fanboyism
Ok so Fluttershy can also sense death, interesting. Also is it just me or does anyone else have a feeling that Rainbow Dash was talking about letting go of the Jury at the end there?
Flutters is so fucked on this journey if she can feel the loss of every single soul who dies near Rainbow. Poor Flutters...
Fluttershy can feel their souls?
If only she was Hollow, Dashie could level up. Plenty of fires around.
Not the nicest way for Dash to discover how much of a burden this particular ghost ability must be for Flutters. And yet she hasn't retreated into the Vanilla Zone. Either she's so overwhelmed or Dash's pleading is having some sort of impact.
6619584
A mix of that and the initial "death" of her friends echoing in her words there.
Shit just got so heavy that her apathetic shell shattered completely with the onset of tears.
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/random-ness/images/5/55/Glasses_off.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130618000829
Shy is having a panic attack.
Dash is pleading.
Croche is terrified.
Swift Song is taking charge.
Nixkit is panicking.
Saxon is mutilating.
Skagra is planning
...
i.ytimg.com/vi/X1mG0Y2CKas/hqdefault.jpg
Rebel 8. Action!
-In the end isolation, hunted by a nation. Utaan.
She knows this very well.
But it is difficult telling someone to do something that you don't actually believe.
6619584 I think she is trying to tell herself to let go of what she did at the Quade.
That must have been hard to aim. Yet it did more damage than expected.
Is Saxon that much of a psycho that he practiced this, or just lucky?
ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2015-05/21/5/imagebuzz/webdr13/anigif_optimized-7818-1432201062-11.gif
Poor Fluttershy.
Paradoxically, I'm really looking forward to Saxon dying (the pony, not the mister).
Are none of the other girls going to even try and check up on Flutters? This would be a prime moment to show them what living outside of Equestria is like. Goddess, the Ledomartian warzone would have rekilled Fluttershy.
Dat title though.
(Incidentally, all the PC types going "I Say!" over this song are missing some info. Neverland is a manifestation of the dreams of small English boys, who have never seen a real "red man." Of course it is inhabited by stereotypes. How could it be otherwise?)
go digiff! join the rainbow/keris party!
oh man...
I don't like fluttershy that much, but damn she doesn't deserve to feel those ponies dying. 
at least Fluttershy is brave enough to face reality. As opposed to a few other ponies...wonder what they'll think when Flutters comes back to the zone to sleep or whatever.
He's no Kera, but He'll do.
Oh, shit. I was hoping this wouldn't happen. Fluttershy (my favorite pone) being able to feel every living soul around her, and what they're feeling, and when they're dying, and she can do literally nothing to help them. Sweet Celestia on a friggin' bicycle, IC, you discovered the perfect hell for her.
Awesome points to Dashie for comforting a friend. Also, take special note Keris: Monsters don't weep for the loss of others.
The Barge is holding for now, but which side loses to attrition first, I wonder?
Sucks for Fluttershy to have to feel all of that. Worse situation to be an empath in. Hope she can pull through and find the strength to do what she can to help Dash get out of there. If Dash can find a way out she might be able to draw those pirates off of Red Barge, which is the only conceivable way for er to minimize casualties at this point.
With Swab and Croche heading that way we'll have something almost resembling a party forming.
Pretty sure saxon is a war boy from mad max. Fluttershy must feel the presence of ponies around dash and herself..interesting and completely horrible when they die apparently.
Well hot diggity damn, looks like Saxon's got more uses than "angry fuckbean" after all, still I don't think shark prods versus swords is exactly a balanced fight
Look at Saxon go! What a crazy guy.
I guess being able to sense life also means you can sense death too. Poor Flutters
Well now, maybe when Fluttershy finally sees the others she can explain in her unique way that the world outside is not the peaceful little Equestria that Twilight so naively thinks it is.
Michael Bay's Water World remake sure is loud.
So, let's see...
Fires: Check. Explosions: Check. Friends: Check. The day completely FUBAR: Check.
Situation: Perfect.
Every character shines like silver in this chapter
Loyalty
Things are really getting messy.
Just thought of something.
When Monket arrived, Swab had cleaned up the struts so well, they glided easily and smoothly apart, forming the canal.
So if Skagra gets those ships out, or possibly, doesnt wait, and puts the thrusters into full power, skewed, so the back end of the canal closes first violently, and progresses down the length of the canal, Monkets ship would get fired out the end as if from a,
[sunglasses]
Wave Cannon?
6620206 I can get Twilight being upset, but claiming that she'd rather die than save the world than compromise was basically spitting in the face of everything RD had sacrificed so far, and then abandoning her friend in the state she was? That's not excusable. She's being tremendously selfish and self-absorbed.
Been a while since we had a good battle!
6619584 Death has an emotional profile. She would sense that.
6619698 I never realised how hilarious that shot looks when taken by itself.
6619611
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When you can feel as if minor flecks if your soul are fading away, all you've got to do is let them go.
Let.....them.....g-go.....
Lights, camera, a- actually fuck the lights and the camera, just action!
6620206
I think his point still stands though. The image of Rainbow throughout Rohbreddon is that of an unfeeling demon bent only on death and destruction which definitely isn't the case here.
I think the fact that events from the past still weigh heavy on her conscience is proof that she still has one.
Well, there goes the neighborhood...
I'm pretty sure that last paragraph was the saddest thing I've read this entire book.
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So is this the first time that the story confirms that Fluttershy is more than just an empath (more than changelings' empathy)? She's got some sort of soul sense... huh. It's only fitting that Kindness is most in touch with suffering and death.
I'm calling shenanigans if AJ's ability is only a lie detector.
... was IC spying on me playing Fallout 4 last night? 'cause this seems oddly similar to that bout of awesomeness.
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6619539
singing
Do you think so?
Well I better not show you where the dredge coal is made.
Sweet dredge coal.
Mmmm sweet dredge coal.
Geez that gotta be rough on shy
6620407
The "not an unfeeling monster" thing is evident, but Keris knows that she isn't without guile. They know Theamin sided with her, so she isn't a rampaging beast, but the fact of her crimes still stands. She could literally be Fluttershy, but they know she destroyed the village so no matter how "feeling" and "pitiful" she looks, she did a horrible thing knowingly.
Keris is totally justified in not trusting her, and "feeling" is not absolving what RD did.
6621479 She didn't do a terrible thing, Verlax caused it and the monks did it to themselves.
Huh. Apparently Saxon's not just lucky. He's apparently also legitimately threatening.