A World Of Open Skies

by NeverEatTheLemonsAlone

Chapter Four - Battle For Baltimare, Part I

Down below, far beneath the riot and the oncoming Imperial airships, the three Canterlot escapees paced.

Torque leaned against the wall, lounging there and watching the three mares walk back and forth, muttering agitatedly to each other. He yawned. “How many times do I gotta tell y'all? Ya can't do anythin’ right now. Just let them handle it. Just listen to me, yeah? Get some damned rest.”

No response. He sighed.

Minutes wore on into hours, and still the three Alliance rebels didn’t return. Even Torque started to grow nervous, eventually joining the others in their pacing back and forth. All of a sudden, though, an hour into his pacing, the old radio on the wall started fizzing and popping with static. He rushed over to it, gritting his teeth as he frantically adjusted the knobs and dials. “Damn it,” he grunted, “I’m still not getting anything!”

Rarity galloped over, shouldering him aside. “Let me take a look at this. If there’s one thing I know, it’s magilectrics.” Her horn ignited, and the controls of the radio panel moved smoothly to a single position. The static suddenly cleared, and a voice resolved:

--to all Alliance cells! This is Blast Furnace, leader of cell four! If anypony can hear me, rendezvous at the main airdock! This is an emergency!

Torque picked up the transmitter and shouted into it, but Blast didn’t hear him. It seemed that whatever radio she was using, the receiver wasn’t picking him up. He swore, slamming the transmitter back down into the cradle and turning to the other three. “Gear up, y’all. We’re going out.” From a previously hidden holster on his flank, he pulled out a revolver, priming the manafilaments with an eerie blue glow as he pressed his hoof to the door’s control lever and rammed it open.

Rainbow glanced at her companions before shrugging and following Torque. Rarity and AJ shared a single look and nodded, trotting after her.

---

The airdock had been totally shut down after the enormous riot. The factory workers had been removed, either to their complices or the prison, and most of the New Harmony guards were sleeping off the injuries they’d accrued. Thus, the airdock had transformed into a perfect meeting place, into which trickled a slow, careful stream of Alliance sympathizers. The few remaining uninjured guards had been relatively easy to subdue, and now they slept silently in crates several hundred meters from the otherwise-abandoned dock.

In the center of the airdock, standing on a makeshift podium crafted mostly from shipping containers, was Blast, flanked by Lyra and Thirty-Four. When the four walked into the airdock, she was addressing a large and ever-growing crowd of ponies holding weapons of various types, from pitchforks to old pistols to state-of-the-art autoguns.

“So, I ask you one more time, ponies of Baltimare,” Blast was saying, “are you going to let New Harmony come to your home, kill you, take prisoner your loved ones?”

The crowd roared a hearty “NO!” as she continued to rile them up.

“Are you going to just stand there and let their airships cover the sky until there’s no getting out?”

“NO!”

“Are you going to surrender, and give up your fealty to their Diarchy-damned Lady Steward Sparkle?”

“NO!”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“FIGHT!”

“What are you fighting for, ponies?!”

“WE’RE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM!”

Blast lifted her prosthetic to the sky and her eye flashed brightly. “Yes, we are! So get ready, Alliance! We’re going in hot!” The crowd cheered as she hopped off, guiding Lyra and Thirty-Four to Skyshard.

Rainbow broke from her three companions, galloping up to them. Her eyes were narrowed. “Hey, fill me in. What’s going on?”

Blast rolled her eye. “Should’ve guessed that Torque would hear my radio and bring you lot out. So, here’s the deal: New Harmony knows we came here. They’re sending an excessively large regiment of soldiers to run the Harmony Killings one more time, kill every Alliance supporter in Baltimare.” She continued walking, paying no attention to Rainbow’s shocked expression. “Good job we went to take back Skyshard, or else Lyra wouldn’t have heard that on her radio.”

“So,” she continued grimly, arriving at the gangplank to the airship in question, “we’re going to give them what we want. We’re giving them the Alliance. Right. In. Their. Faces.”

Rainbow’s shock disintegrated, replaced with a deep grimace. “Alright. I have an idea. How much time do we have?”

Blast shook her head. “No more than six hours.”

Rainbow nodded. “Alright. Give me a second. Lyra, get over here.”

She grabbed the mint-colored unicorn and galloped ahead, blitzing her way onto Skyshard to Lyra’s muffled protests.

Meanwhile, Rarity continued Blast’s work. Her training as a diplomat came in handy as stepped up onto the podium, speaking in the articulate confidence of a trained orator. “Some of you probably know who I am,” she started, catching sight of the frowning and angry faces of some ponies in the crowd. “Or rather, you believe you do. You know me as Dutchess Rarity Belle, advisor to the Lady Steward. However,” she held up a hoof, forestalling the angry shouts she could nearly feel coming,” that’s not all I am. You may not know me by the name I went by as a pilot before the war’s end, though I’m sure some of you have heard it, especially here in Baltimare.” She bowed. “You may call me Elusif, captain of Diamynd Fyre, fastest Interceptor in the skies.”

That certainly rustled some feathers, both literally and metaphorically. Perhaps anywhere else, it would have been a moment of shrugging and confusion, followed by more heckling. But for Alliance-oriented Baltimareans, those two names bordered on legendary. Though the story had largely been blown out of proportion, a few details were agreed on largely universally: Elusif had been a textiles manufacturer in Baltimare before the war, and had quickly risen through the ranks, largely owing to her incredible attention to detail and precision. She’d been the pilot of a light assault airship known as an Interceptor, and had flown it through well over a hundred skirmishes and several major battles. It had nearly always been a major player in them. The thought that the long-since thought dead Elusif might be standing in front of them? It definitely caught their attention, and she knew it.

As she worked the crowd, the last of the three, AJ, was left utterly bewildered. Her eyes narrowed; she didn’t like being out of her depth. Determined to look like she was doing something helpful, she purposefully marched straight past Blast and into Skyshard, grumbling in frustration.

As she passed through the cramped corridors of the airship’s gondola, she kept looking for ways up. She wanted to get on deck, clear her head, think for a bit. The overpowering smell of oil had seeped into her coat, and she felt as though she would vomit. Finally, she managed to find the ladder that led to the upper deck. Clambering up it, she paused for a moment, suspended in space in the center of the balloon, surrounded by steel scaffolding and gas envelopes. She swayed a bit, then continued, only barely stopping herself from throwing up all over the inside of the Skyshard’s balloon, and that was a conversation with Lyra that she didn’t relish having.

She emerged into the relatively fresh air, and found herself staring at Rainbow and Lyra as they struggled to bolt an enormous autocannon onto the side of Incarnadine. As she stared, Rainbow caught her eyes, waving her over.

“Hey, AJ! Give us a hoof in lifting this, huh? It’s heavy, and from I’m seeing of Lyra, she’s not exactly the most gifted at magic!” Lyra frowned harshly, but didn’t dispute the claim, instead meeting AJ’s eyes with something of a beseeching look after a moment.

AJ looked between the two of them. “Before I help you, wanna explain to me exactly what’s goin’ on here?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Trust a farmer not to know an opportunity when she she’s one.” She quickly silenced AJ’s impending comeback, holding up a hoof to forestall her. “Well, it’s simple. I am sick and tired of piloting this thing without having a way to defend her, and I need to blow off some steam. We’re going on the offensive.”

Once again, AJ ended up staring, though for a different reason this time. “Are you crazy? There’s gonna be NH all over the skies! You’ll get blown away faster’n a tree in a hurricane!”

Rainbow grinned. “Oh, that’s what you think. Two things. One: this ship, even though it’s cobbled together, is pretty quick on the engine. Not fast, but agile. Now that I’ve slept awhile, I can pilot this thing like there’s no tomorrow.”

“There might not be,” AJ grumbled to herself as Rainbow continued:
“And two? I won’t be on this ship. We will.”

"Uh-uh. Nope. Count me out. I told y'all that no matter what, I'd have no part in actively fightin' New Harmony, and that still stands."

With that said, AJ immediately trotted at quite a brisk pace away from the other two ponies. Rainbow gritted her teeth, straining under the weight of the enormous autocannon. "Fine! If you won't help, go get Blast! At least she knows tyranny when she sees it!"

No response. Rainbow growled, glaring after her as she walked rapidly to the other end of the deck, looking out over the Horseshoe Bay.

The paintings tell me that this place was right pretty once. thought AJ, glaring iron-hard over the railing at the layer of gray smog hanging low over the oil-slicked waters, I wish it still was. She glanced back at the apples on her flank and her gaze softened. I miss Appleloosa. I never shoulda left.

---

To the west, the Gemini-class gunship Skyslicer hummed through the sky, bearing its way to Baltimare at the head of a small fleet of Imperial airships. Arctic stood on deck, bewildered, as she watched them filter out of the clouds on all sides.

All of this for three fugitives? She'd though even a single Gemini was too much, but this was absurd. So far, she'd seen half a dozen Draco light combat ships, and a few larger cruisers, and there was no sign they were stopping anywhere else. Utterly confused, she approached the senior officer at the wheel as he began decelerating and barking orders into a radio. After a few minutes of awkwardly shifting about and waiting, she was rewarded with him turning a cool eye to her and giving a perfunctory "Yes?"

"W-well, Sir..." she began, "permission to speak freely?"

He motioned with his hoof for her to go on and gave a brief "granted."

Encouraged, she continued. "Doesn't this seem...excessive? I mean, we're just out to capture a few fugitives, right? Even one Gemini feels overboard. Why are we bringing a whole fleet?"

After a few moments of intensive manipulation of the controls to bring the Gemini into a tight dive, he glanced at her over his shoulder. "We were initially out to capture the three fugitives, yes. However, en route to Baltimare, we received information about a series of Alliance cells there. I was granted authority to lead a strike against the alliance leadership. Make no mistake, Ensign Arctic Breeze. We're going to war. Understood?"

The lump in Arctic's throat grew throughout his explanation, and when he concluded, she nodded heavily. "Yes, Wing Commander Thunderlane. Understood."

He grunted, returning his full attention to the navigation. "Lieutenant Blossomforth should've told everypony onboard. I'll have to speak with her when this is over about her responsibilities to this ship. Tell your bunkmate and spread the word."

Saluting with a "yes Sir!" Arctic made her way belowdecks, relating the story to everypony she passed, until she arrived back at the cabin she'd shared with Swift last night. "Hey, Swift! Got some news for you!"

After explaining the situation to him, she returned to the deck, this time with her standard-issue shortsword strapped to her back, anxiety gnawing at her gut. She'd only been in direct combat once or twice, and never on this scale. She touched the handle of the blade as though to reassure herself, but it only made it worse. She cast her gaze afar, letting it scan over the dozen or so airships she could see, and shook her head. How many Alliance are there in Baltimare?

---

AJ, Lyra, Rarity and Rainbow were quiet as Blast held a fobwatch in her prosthetic hoof, staring grimly at it as the last few inevitable seconds ticked down. She’d resumed her stance on the shipping crate.

Tick

Tick

Tick

"And that's oh-seven-hundred on 4•24 Bloomrise. You're all now hunted by the state. Everypony get ready to kill or be killed, because we're officially out of options. Airships will be here in about an hour, maybe two.”

“Look,” she started, turning to the waiting crowd of Alliance supporters. “I’m not a very good leader, and I’m certainly not an inspiring speaker. Get Silver Slick from one of the other Alliance cells if you want a pony that can talk. I’m not gonna gild the lily; I only give straight talk. NH will be swarming these docks in ten minutes, tops. They’re better equipped and better trained than us, and they outnumber us by an absurd amount. A little while after that, some airships are coming in from OC with bombardment and reinforcement straight from the seat of NH. I’m not going to lie. Most of us, if not all, are going to die if we stay. So if you’re willing to sacrifice your freedoms and dignity to keep living, go on. Get out of here. I don’t think anybody here will think any less of you, and I certainly won’t.”

Nopony moved. A few ponies coughed self-consciously and shifted.

“But,” she continued, “those of you ready to fight and die for what you believe in, you stay right here with me. We’re going to bring everything we’ve got, march right up to those imperials, and kick their damn teeth in.” Her single natural eye scanned the crowd as the artificial one accompanied it, the orange glare lending her an angry, imposing air as she stared down from her improvised podium.

“I don’t know if many of you still remember the Diarchy from before the war. Hell, even if you do, you’ve probably forgotten about most of it by now. But I damn well remember it. I don’t know where it went, or what happened to the Princesses, but I’m going to stand up and strike a blow for them. I’m going to fight for the country that this was, not the empire that it is. I’m going to buck New Harmony in the face, and when I do, you all know what I’m going to shout?”

She held up her metal hoof and shouted at the top of her lungs, “FOR EQUESTRIA!” At the same time, a gust of harsh offshore wind blew through and her short mane and tail flapped, looking for all the world like a statue in commemoration of a war with the pose she was in.

“So,” she continued as she dropped her hoof back to the ground, voice once again at a normal volume and her teeth bared in a savage smile, “who’s with me?”

The resulting bellow of “FOR EQUESTRIA!” was absolutely deafening.

“That’s what I like to hear!” crowed Blast over it, punching her forehooves together. “Come on, then! Let’s get ready to kick ‘em where it hurts! Rainbow,” she called over her shoulder, “you know what to do!”

Rainbow’s face split with a madcap grin. “Got it! Come on, you two!” she called, motioning to Rarity and Lyra and dashing to the Skyshard with them in her wake.

Out of the corner of her eye, Blast spotted AJ creeping off, slipping out of the angry mob and away, into the dawning light of Baltimare and back towards the hideout. She shook her head in some combination of sadness and anger, muttering “good riddance.” She leapt off of the box, taking her place at the head of the crowd. “Get ready, everypony!” she called, “we don’t have long to wait!”

---

Inside the Skyshard, Rainbow cannoned through the various hallways until she eventually found the ladder leading up to the top deck. Biting out a quick “Lyra, why is this ladder so hard to find?” she ascended, leaving the two quite confused unicorns to follow again.

“You know, you could’ve just asked where it was!” called Lyra. Immediately afterwards, she sighed. “Never mind.”

As they reached the deck, they looked around for a moment, guts twisting at the boiling mass of stormclouds just off the coast. “If I still remember anything of tactics,” remarked Rarity, “they’ll attack from in there so we don’t see it until it’s too late.”

Lyra nodded. “Sounds about right. That’s what I would do.”

“Hey!” called Rainbow from the skeletal deck of Incarnadine, “Hurry up, you two! We don’t have all day!”

As they trotted over, she continued speaking at a mile a minute, all the while tuning the ship up. “Rarity, you’re on piloting duty. For Sky’s sake, you seemed to do well enough for yourself in the war, and from what I saw of your piloting before Lyra came and got us, you’ve still got it. Lyra, you and I are doing everything else.” She grinned again. “You know what that means.”

Rarity belatedly realized that there were two large guns bolted to the side of the craft with makeshift gunning nests fastened to their tops. They were somewhat unstable and phenomenally dangerous to get anywhere near, let alone on top of. She shook her head with wonderment. “You had what, eight or nine hours, Rainbow? And you’ve turned this lovely craft of mine into a monster. Well played.”

Rainbow chuckled. “Six, actually. That’s nothing, wait ‘til we get in flight. You’re on the rocket, Lyra. I’ll be on the autocannon. So,” she continued, turning to Rarity, “we’re going to be doing strafing runs on the NH fodder in the city to help Blast for the first few minutes, say thirty or so. Then we’re turning around and flying right into that.” As she cranked the ignition and the balloon swelled, she pointed out into the stormclouds. “Our job is to delay the NH fleet for as long as we can. And hey, if we manage to scratch a few out of the sky,” she laughed mirthlessly, “who’s counting?”

Lyra shrugged. “Suicide mission it is, then.” She stroked the deck of the Skyshard with a careful hoof, grinning. “You’ve served me well. Guess it’s time for Flash to take over.” Snapping out of her reverie, she hopped aboard the gunning nest, launching half a dozen arcanopulse charges into the rocket launcher and throwing Rarity a mock salute. Rainbow followed suit on the other side, snapping the chain of bullets into the autocannon and priming the manafilaments.

Rarity sighed. “You’re both mad, and we’re all going to die,” she murmured as she took hold of the steering servos, caressing them softly before she too grinned. A strange feeling, isn’t it? she mused, some kind of liberation that comes from knowing you’re about to die. “Alright. Hold on to your hooves!” She rammed the throttle forward and the ship lurched, blasting ahead with far more speed than before. “Rainbow!” she choked out, “what in the Sky did you do to this thing?”

“I told you,” laughed Rainbow madly, “It’s what I do! Torque taught me a lot in those few minutes, you know! Tuned up the engine, got the C-regs working at peak performance!”

By the time Rarity had gotten the speed under control, the streets had begun to fill with New Harmony soldiers, and even more were skimming low over the brick buildings on a beeline towards the airdock. Rarity dipped down behind a squad, all the while shouting over the wind and engines,

“Lyra! Save your rockets for the airships! Let Rainbow have a go at these!” Twin salutes from both ponies, and then the cl-cl-cl-clank! of an autocannon resounded and three pegasi fell out of the sky. Before any retaliation could arrive, she’d pumped the servos and ascended at a steep angle into the sky, the lightweight frame of the airship serving her well. Cheers could be heard from below as the ragtag group of Alliance caught sight of the small airship soaring through the sky.

Over a few more minutes, the Incarnadine’s autocannnon fire had taken apart a few more squads of pegasi, and a single well-placed and impulsive Lyra rocket had blown half a platoon out of the sky. They weren’t entirely unscathed, and a series of small autogun holes in the balloon leaked gas, but on the whole, they were largely intact.

“Alright, Rarity!” called Rainbow, “We’re about done here! Let’s get into those clouds! Turn on the radio to the frequency Lyra gave you and let’s pop some balloons!”

Rarity nodded to give assurance that she’d heard and cranked the transceiver to the Imperial frequency, darting away from
the city, over the stormy waves of the Horseshoe Bay and into the livid clouds offshore. They parted around the airship as Rarity killed the engines, drifting through the cloudmass, occasionally rocked by a heavy gust of wind. The sky was eerily silent, only broken by occasional bursts of static and incomprehensibly garbled chatter from the radio. The trio waited in tense silence.

Then a shadow soared over them.

As one, they looked up as the great shadow of a Gemini-class dual balloon gunship slowly drifted through the clouds above them, blocking out what little light of the dawn could be seen through the clouds. It was followed in rapid time by several ships that, while admittedly smaller than a Gemini, were certainly no slouch in assault. Rarity’s eyes met Lyra’s in a look of wide-eyed horror.

As they passed and set the clouds thrumming with their collective engine sound, Rarity very carefully cranked the engines of the Incarnadine again, revving them back up and quietly approaching the rear of the small fleet. Heaving a single heavy sigh, she closed her eyes and quietly mouthed a brief phrase before nodding to Lyra and motioning at the Cassiopeia-class ship closest to them, one that utterly dwarfed them.

The rocket flashed across the sky, a blue beacon that illuminated the world in silent cerulean light for the barest moment. Rarity caught the confused, then horrified, looks of the ponies on the ship as they stared at the rapidly approaching mana flare. She sank through the clouds again, disappearing into the dark mire of the storm.

Then impact.

The perfect silence was shattered by the roar of an explosion and the cries of pain and alarm. The radio fizzed to life immediately, shrieking so loudly it hurt Rarity’s ears. She slammed it off, focusing instead on piloting. Lyra shot off another shell. It missed completely, hissing through the sky and into the beyond. Rarity grimaced. “Don’t shoot, damnit! Unless you know it’s going to hit, all you’re doing is wasting munitions and telling them exactly where we are!”

Her statement was punctuated with rattling of autocannons and she gritted her teeth, performing the best evasive maneuvers she could as the deck was spattered with metallic sparks. “We’re going for another pass!” she ground out. “Rainbow! You’re on autocannon duty now! Shred that balloon as best you can!”

“Aye aye, Cap!” bit out Rainbow, wrapping her hooves around the dual triggers.

“Alright, get ready! We’re going up!”

Rarity poured on the gas and they rose, approaching from the other side of the Cassiopeia like a phantom. Before they could properly react, Rainbow hailed fire on them, peppering their balloon with holes. Though some punched through, the majority inevitably impacted onto gas envelopes. The air was filled with the smell of fuel. Returning fire soared at them, gleaming in the light of the autocannon’s muzzle flashes.

“Alright, Lyra! One rocket, right on the balloon! Bring them down!”

Another flare of blue light burned its way towards the balloon. Upon impact, the manafire ignited the leaking gas envelopes and an enormous fireball spilled through the sky, igniting the clouds in hellish light.

Rainbow pumped her hoof as the balloon of the Cassiopeia crumpled in upon itself. “That’s for Incarnadine!” she bellowed as Rarity coasted away into the gloom.

“Shut up, Rainbow!” hissed Rarity. Only she saw the flare round sticking out of the back of the ship. She couldn’t reach it. Nopony could, not without it landing. And it was broadcasting their position perfectly through the clouds. She tried to pull it out with her magic, but the telekinetic field skated off ineffectually. “Of course,” she growled. “Of course they had to make their flares out of elementally pure iron.” No sooner had she spoken than an enormous shell thrummed by them, plunging through the clouds and out of sight. A litany of swears burst of Rarity’s mouth as she ascended rapidly, trying to get high up, away from the firing arcs of any ship that might be threatening. A hail of autocannon fire from three sides denied her that opportunity, and as they were encircled, Rarity’s hooves fell slack upon the steering servos. “It’s been a pleasure, ladies. I just want you all to know that it’s been an honor.” She placed a hoof dramatically onto her forehead, and took a bow.

In rapid time, the sides of the craft were pierced with no fewer than twelve harpoons. Even if the engines had been gunned, they couldn’t have moved.

Rainbow pried herself from the gunning cage, acrobatically jumping to the deck. “Rarity!” she shouted. “Shut up and pull the big lever by your hooves!”

She was met with a somewhat distrustful stare as the pilot retired her dramatic stance. “What does the big lever do?”

“Just do it, damnit! We don’t have time to argue! Lyra! On deck! Now!”

Shrugging apathetically, Rarity cranked the lever as Lyra clambered her way over the rails and aboard the central deck. The deranged grin had resurfaced on Rainbow’s face. “Time for the last bit of what I did on this thing when you were all giving speeches! If we don’t get out of this, been nice knowing you two!” She held her hooves to her ears and whooped exultantly.

The hull of Incarnadine exploded.

A blast of fire roared its way beyond the central deck. The guns, the platforms, the balloon, and most of the armor were blown off, and the harpoons and flare were sent reeling. The airship dropped quickly and uncontrollably through the clouds, wind ripping by the three mares.

"Just like the platforms, eh, Rarity?" Shouted Rainbow as they accelerated downwards.

"You're crazy! Absolutely crazy!"

Rainbow grinned wildly. "But then again, didn't you know that already?" The sea loomed beneath them. "Get ready!”

A moment later, the blasted remains of Incarnadine slammed into the waves, sinking below the surface and leaving no trace that it had ever existed.

---

Back in Baltimare, the fight was going poorly for the Alliance. Though the airship’s flyovers had bought them some time, when the entire garrison of Baltimare was brought out in force, there was little to be done. She hadn’t seen Thirty-Four since the fighting had started, and Torque had long run out of bullets in his revolver and reverted to hoof-to-hoof combat. She was bleeding from a few small wounds, and her artificial eye had been smashed by a bullet. It had shielded her brain, but at the cost of dimming and dying, leaving the side of her spitting angry sparks and occasionally flickering as her vision dipped in and out, disorienting her greatly. The NH just kept coming, and the few remaining Alliance supporters left fighting were hard-pressed to keep going. She shut her eye for a moment, breathing deeply. I guess it ends here, huh?

Her eye snapped open again in time to see a pegasus diving towards her. She lifted her artifical hoof and took the sword strike on the metal casing, then grabbed him by the neck and brutally slammed him down into the ground. “For Equestria!” She roared, her voice guttural and rendered into a gargling growl by the blood in her mouth.

“Good. Very good! I couldn’t have said it better myself!”

She whirled in confusion and stared. A brown pegasus was hovering by her side, and nearly a hundred more dove down to accompany him, hovering a little ways above them and bolstering the failing defenses of the Alliance. He winked. “Blast Furnace, right? I’m Oak. Heard you were making a bit of a last stand here, and well...I just thought, what fun!” His voice was lilting and jocular, some sort of accent she couldn’t quite recognize as he continued. “So, I just took my crew, and we came down to lend a hoof!” He lifted his foreleg, and wrapped around it was a green cloth band. Looking at the rest of the pegasi in the sky who now engaged the soldiers, Blast realized they all bore that same band, and a realization dawned in her eyes. Oak noticed, grinning widely. “Yep! This here’s my factory crew, loyal to the Alliance down to a pony! So just say the word, Blast, and we’re yours!”

She sighed hugely, relief and incredulity warring in her eyes. “Well, you came just in time, Oak. Have fun, I guess. Airships’re coming in soon. Get ready for the fight of your life.”

His eyes glimmered. “Wouldn’t have it any other way!” He flapped up into the sky, taking position at the head of his factory crew. “Come on then, everypony! Let’s show these NH a good time!”

---

High up in a marble tower in Baltimare, an elegant pink and white unicorn sat in an ornate mahogany chair. The room she was in was paneled in exotic woods and metals imported from annexed countries, and it was absolutely immaculate. A crystal decanter filled with wine sat on a dressing-table nearby, and in the corner sat a grandfather clock of incredible workmanship. The mare sipped tea out of a gilt teacup as she watched the wartorn airdock. An elderly stallion trotted up beside her. “More tea, Ms. de Lis?”

She waved him away, slender muzzle graced with a beatific smile. “Not now, Platter. Thank you, though.”

He nodded, retreating, as the Colonel-Governess watched the bloodbath beneath unfolding. She sighed contentedly. “Just a bit longer, then the airships get here and I can take those fools to Devil’s Gulch.” The smile narrowed. “I wonder how much the Lady Steward will pay for reparations to the city, hmm…?” A breathy chuckle followed. "It won't be long."

Comments

[NeverEatTheLemonsAlone]

8253259

Much appreciated! New chapter is up, I hope it's to your liking!

[Blaster M]

Literally going out with a bang

[Snowkitsune]

Dive dive dive

[Applety]

8262795
Woot! New chapter!! Though I feel so bad for Applejack... she's in such a crap position and is truly struggling here. :(

I hope Rarity and Rainbow make it back ok and I hope the three become better friends and whatnot. (Not gonna lie I'm also a mega rarijack shipper so I hold out hope... even though it is very unlikely lol)

I just want them all to be okay!