Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Daybreak: Summit Siege, Part III

By this point they were all panting, bloody, bruised, and looking in worse and worse shape, but the sad part was, compared to the inmates, they were still in the best condition. It didn’t take long for them to pull ahead and take the lead as they began to condense together again. The only one who lagged behind was Big Mac, who was breathing much harder than any of them liked by now, but they excused due to his load.

“Really wish we had a Healer at this point…” Sunset groaned as they finished ascending a second stairwell.

“One more flight…then we’re on the first floor,” Stygian answered through pants. “From there we need an exit…”

“Not sure how far we’ll get…but better outside than in…”

As the décor of the dungeons gave way to more palace architecture and design, the group reached one final staircase. Half-walking, half-limping, they led the over 300 strong group up the final distance. They reentered the halls of the palace; fortunately to an absence of sounds of explosions or gunfire. As soon as Stygian reached the top, he took a moment to look about, then pointed.

“That way… It should lead to the foyer…for this tower…”

Sunset took a deep breath and forced herself into a half-jog. The others did much the same as they went into the hall. There weren’t any more guards or soldiers along the way, and before long she saw the hall open up ahead into a wider area. Already, she could see large glass panes in the room they were approaching. Even if there was no door they could smash those out. For a moment, she entertained thoughts of them actually being able to escape as she emerged into the new larger chamber and looked for the stairway leading down into the foyer.

Yet that hope evaporated both for her and for all of those with her as they ground to a halt.

They had barely begun to see the floor below when they noticed at least fifteen soldiers with rifles drawn. There were likely many more of them placed there, but neither Sunset nor anyone else bothered to see any more before they pulled back. They narrowly avoided a stream of gunfire before everyone nearby quickly slammed themselves to the ground. The rest of the inmates behind them screamed in further panic and quickly recoiled. They were still shaken from the metal warrior. Now it was all the calm ones could do to keep them from scattering in panic.

The gunfire continued to rip out where they had been for several moments, actually eroding away at the edge of the stairwell in a vain attempt to hit them, before it cut off at last. Gasping and shocked, the group looked to one another.

Smolder let out a snort. “That figures… They got those three monsters to deal with and they still left behind these bastards for us?”

“What the hell?” Sunset uttered breathlessly, looking at the stairs. “They nearly cut that step apart trying to hit us!”

“I…I think that’s one of those newer types of guns…” Ocellus nervously answered. “It lets you keep shooting lots of bullets continuously…”

“Even Trottingham was still working on that when I left…” Sunset muttered.

Yona abruptly lifted her head up from the floor, looking alarmed. “Yona hear floor shaking! More Hippogriffs coming from hall!”

“Damnit! They’re surrounding us! And shooting to kill!” Sunset looked to Stygian briefly, but saw that he only had his head to the floor and was saying nothing. Inhaling sharply, she looked around for a moment, but then finally caught the stairs. “Alright, we’re going up then!”

“There’s no way out from up there!” Ocellus protested.

“There’s definitely no way out down here! Come on! Everyone back up and get to the stairs!”

Those nearest to the stairwell began to slowly inch their way back, waiting until they were out of firing range before daring to stand up again. There was no telling how long it would take the soldiers below to decide to start advancing or when the soldiers Yona heard would arrive, so there was little time for caution. As soon as they were all up, the massive group began to head for the stairwell and start to ascend. Unfortunately, that put them back in range of the soldiers blocking the exit, so they had no choice but to start returning fire to try and keep them suppressed. Luckily for them, it seemed the rapid-firing gun couldn’t aim upward, and they soon managed to turn about and wind their way up.

“I’m…getting a little tired…” Ocellus half-gasped.

“Not Yona! Yaks best at running uphill!” the larger girl boasted.

“Good. You can carry us in a minute…” Smolder groaned.

Sunset had to admit she was getting a little dizzy herself. Big Mac was visibly slowing down by the minute. This was already an act of desperation and getting them deeper in the palace with no visible escape route, but unfortunately it got worse yet. No sooner had the group managed to cross up to the upper floor and turn for one of the side halls when they were stopped yet again. Not by soldiers, but rather by a large portcullis having been dropped right in front of the hall entrance.

“What the hell is this?”

Stygian finally looked up, but only to let out another groan. “Apparently…they have ways of locking us in even if they can’t afford the soldiers to go after us…”

Sunset took a moment to catch her breath, but that was a moment too long. As the inmates began to pile up behind her, they soon saw the same sight. It wasn’t long before the tension began to become evident on their faces, and soon after they began to hear the sounds.

“We’re trapped…”

“There’s no way out…”

“They’re going to kill us all…”

Sunset felt herself tensing up, but then swallowed and motioned with her head. “Alright everyone! Next floor! Come on!”

She took the lead, and was secretly grateful when the others in the group followed after her along with the girl inmates. Fortunately, although the others paused a moment, that was enough to get them to run after them soon afterward. They reached the stairs and began to ascend.

Yet they were hardly up the first flight, which was much harder than last time, when Smolder spoke up again. “Uh…you guys do have a way for us to get out of here, right?”

“We’re working on it…” Sunset managed to mutter in between gasps.

Ocellus, looking the worst out of the three girls, took a moment to gasp enough to catch her breath as they started to exit onto the next floor. “If…if you’re…thinking…of stealing…an airship…it’s…no…no good… We’ll…we’ll never…never…”

She didn’t get a chance to finish. Sunset, still finding herself leading the way, was turning around to head to the next flight of stairs on the tower when she heard the telltale sound she had heard before.

A sonic blast.

Going white, she instantly halted where she stood, prompting the others to do the same. They never had a chance to ask what was wrong before one end of the foyer exploded.

This blast, fortunately, was decently far enough away for those who had already gotten to the top of the stairs to cover their faces and brace themselves. Yet the fact that they only felt dust strike them did little to assuage the growing dread inside them as they realized what had happened. Almost fearfully, they lowered their hands and looked ahead in the wake of the latest destruction.

Part of the wall had collapsed inward and was still falling…but that made no difference to two pairs of glowing eyes. The one with the sonic blast moved in a blur to shoot herself inside the opening that had just been made, while the one who had the rocket platform soon swooped in and at her side. Their cold, steel visages zeroed in on the group…and in particular Sunset Shimmer herself.

No one moved. No one said anything. Sunset could only stare in terror; the only sound she made being her own heavy breathing. They had no weapons, no plans, and no way of fighting back. Even the few with guns were too scared to try and use them—knowing they’d be worthless. An air of dread and finality came over all of them. A shadow fell over Sunset’s face.

This was it. There was nothing left and no escape.

The two warriors, showing neither pity nor mercy, continued to advance. The one on the platform extended her fingers like blades while the one on the right opened her mouth wide to blast again, and all the group could do was cringe and draw back…

At that moment, however, something happened that none of them expected.

A woman fell from up above and landed in between the two sides; causing the metal warriors to halt where they stood.

Sunset was dumbfounded, and it wasn’t until much later that she would eventually conclude the woman had to have been at the top of the next stairwell and jumped down. For now, she seemed to have simply appeared out of thin air. She was dressed well enough from what they could see, which wasn’t much as her back was to them. All they could really make out was a fine, long coat that splayed down to her dress boots and what looked like a traveling hood drawn up over her head—concealing everything about her features. In fact, all that could be seen was her fair hands and the long nails on each finger.

She wasted little time; immediately rising back to her feet. A moment later, she stunned Sunset a second time as she began to trace out symbols in the air while unmistakably chanting in the arcane language. She didn’t recognize all of the syllables, but there could be no question—she was casting a spell.

That became more than obvious a moment later when her aura flared and obeyed her in tracing out patterns of light in the air. Ones that glowed almost as bright and radiant as looking at the sun itself; making her own previous patterns and Twilight’s look like dim candles by comparison. When done, she swept her hand out in a circle before pointing her finger at the one with the sonic weapon.

Instantly, the light streamed toward her, breaking into rays. One of the rays condensed until it was almost like a ribbon, and suddenly lashed out and wrapped around the metal warrior’s head. Before it could fire another blast, the light ribbon contracted and slammed her weapon shut again. Not only that, but the other beams quickly snapped around her body, entangling her. She tried to fight and push through it, but it was useless. In moments, her body was completely bound and left standing rigid. She couldn’t even squirm.

Still moving her hands, the new arrival swept her hand up and turned her palm to the sky. In response, the metal warrior was plucked from the ground and began to hover in the air. A moment later, she turned her arm around and pointed again.

In response, the lights that bound the metal warrior gleamed even more brightly. In an instant, they became blinding…right before Sunset heard the sound of a teleportation spell rip through the air. Even before she could look again she knew what had happened; although she was as aghast as the others when the light faded. The metal warrior that had been caught was gone. Only her partner remained.

This, however, made the one on the rocket platform halt. The newcomer quickly turned to her and tried to seize on her distraction. She began to trace the symbols again. However, before she could complete, the rockets fired off again—this time in reverse. By the time the newcomer generated her ribbons of light, the metal warrior was back through the opening and accelerating; quickly shooting away and out of sight before the spell could grab her.

The newcomer left her hand extended a moment, but then slowly lowered it as she realized the moment had passed. The area grew silent again. After a time, the sound of distant boots, no doubt more soldiers arriving both from behind them and ahead of the hall, slowly began to become audible, but even in light of that no one moved. They were transfixed on the woman.

Sunset herself was open-mouthed; looking at her in disbelief and especially her spells. Yet a split second before she could find her voice the woman spoke without turning her head.

“I can’t protect you all from the three of them and the Hippogriffs at the same time. My ship is docked at the top of this tower. It can fly over the Hyperboreans. Take it and escape to Canterlot.”

Smolder paused for a fraction of a second, then smiled and held a thumbs up. “Sounds good to me. Let’s head on up.”

Sunset, distracted by that, turned to her along with Marble and Stygian. Already, both she and the other girls along with some of the others were headed for the stairs. “Huh?”

The girl shrugged. “When someone pops out of nowhere and does something that badass, you do what they say. Unless you guys had a better plan?”

Stygian gave a grimace at that, while Marble let out a sheepish “mmm-mmm”. It was only a moment longer before they turned and began to head to the stairs as well, with the others quickly following.

“Sunset.”

The young woman froze yet again on hearing that name. Especially in that tone of voice. She spun back to the woman, who had turned her head slightly back to her.

Just enough to see the tip of her nose and a single lock of iridescent hair.

“Twilight and the others are in grave danger. You have to get to Sedes Imperii Crystal and get them away from there.”

A moment later, she turned enough to finally show her full face.

“Time is running out.”

Sunset barely heard that. She couldn’t over the sound of her own gasping. It was her.

It was as if the past eight years hadn’t even touched her. In the few moments she had, her brain tried to tell her it was her imagination. Only someone who looked like her or shared her features. But no…they were all exactly as she remembered them. The arch on the nose, the forehead, the hue of lavender in her eyes, and even the somewhat pale pallor to her skin. She was too stunned to breathe the name but it was all that ran through her mind.

Headmistress Celestia.

The face lingered only long enough for her to realize she hadn’t imagined it before it spun back around, and the woman took off for the hall ahead to meet the approaching troops. Sunset remained rooted there a moment longer, her mind unable to think of anything else, before her feet started to stagger after her.

She was stopped by an iron grip on her arm. Yet it wasn’t until it tugged back sharply enough to her that she had enough wits to turn and look. She saw Stygian grasping her.

“What are you doing?”

“That…that woman…she was-”

“She’s buying us time and we need to use it. Come on.”

“But…but…no, I…I need to go after her.”

“That’s madness. We need to do as she said and run.”

“You don’t understand. She’s…” She started to turn away and pull as her voice grew more insistent. “I…I need to-”

“Do you know how to fly an airship?”

“Yes, but I-”

Immediately, he yanked her back much harder, enough to snap her around to look him in the eye. His face was growing angry.

“Well none of us do. If we lose you then none of us are escaping.”

Sunset hesitated. She looked back but, much to her surprise, the woman had already vanished. There were sounds of shouting down the hall that eventually gave way to clamor, but she could see no more. On top of that, far below them and back the way they came, not only were footsteps still approaching but another sound of rock breaking. The metal warriors were still coming.

She bit down and winced. Her palms sweat and her brow tightened. She didn’t move on her own, but Stygian began to pull her as he went after the others. Unconsciously, she let herself be pulled, although it wasn’t until they were up to the next floor that she finally turned away and reluctantly ran with them.

Exhaustion soon began to settle on everyone regardless of age or physical condition. It would have been unreasonable to expect the people to run up seven flights of stairs under normal conditions. They only made it up four before they were having to drop to the fastest climb they could manage. Everyone was sweating, many were hurt or bleeding, and soon more and more were staggering. The stronger soon had to help the children and the weaker, but even then they grew spaced out on the stairs and ended up spanning three floors. The only good thing was, thankfully, the sounds of battle and movement remained at a distance.

As the group neared the top, they began to feel a cool breeze wafting down on them, and they realized it was the open night air. Sure enough, as they finally reached the top and final floor, they saw it was only partially enclosed and that one hallway opened large and wide to a rooftop that apparently doubled as an airship dock. It was there that the group stopped, not just to catch their breath but to take in the sight.

At the end of the hall, gangplank still stretched out, was an airship of considerable size. Yet it wasn’t the harsh, cold metallic colors of modern military airships. Nor was it the dirty and austere ones used for work or common civilian transport. This one was beautiful; composed mostly of dark woods and more “earthy” materials. Much of it had been either carved or artistically designed for aesthetic pleasure, and it was overlain with fresh paint and gilded on all the metal parts. It looked like an airship more out of a children’s fantasy than a practical one, but it hovered there just the same.

“Oh…it’s lovely!” Ocellus commented.

“Whoa…you sure we aren’t taking the princess’ luxury yacht, or something?” Smolder asked.

“I wouldn’t care either way at this point,” Stygian answered. “Let’s just load up while-”

A loud whump from nearby cut him off. Both he and the others looked and saw that Big Mac had fallen flat on the roof—still carrying the unconscious Shining Armor on his back. Marble immediately dove down next to him and checked on him.

Sunset, on the other hand, sighed. “You pushed yourself too hard, Big Mac. You should have let us give you a hand.”

However, she hardly finished saying this when Marble’s face paled. Her jaw dropped and she let out a hint of a gasp. She looked up at Sunset and Stygian and held up her hand she had placed against him a moment ago.

Both of them were soon as pale as her when they saw it was completely red with blood.

At once, they both dove down to his side. It took a bit of effort, but they pulled Shining Armor’s unconscious body off of him—soon realizing he had been soaking up quite a bit himself. It wasn’t his blood, however. That was coming from Big Macintosh’s back. Soon others began to react in horror when they saw a good part of his shirt was likewise soaked and still quite wet.

“Oh no…” Sunset exhaled. “That…that blast must have hit him with shrapnel…”

“He’s been pushing through it this whole time…?” Stygian spoke in disbelief.

Ocellus nervously cupped a hand against her face. “I…I think that wound…is near where the hepatic blood vessels are…”

“What does that mean?” Smolder retorted.

“It means he could bleed to death pretty soon…if he hasn’t already…”

Stygian went rigid and silent again. Sunset quivered in fear for a moment, not knowing what to do exactly.

“Here, here!”

She snapped out of her paralysis when two of the inmates moved forward. One stepped up ahead and quickly went down to his side.

“I’m…not a doctor but I’ve seen some bad stuff following Nighttouched attacks…and I’ve had to help out before. I’ll get his wound bound up. You people need to get us out of here.”

Sunset was going to protest, but cut herself off when the inmate soon looked calmer and more knowledgeable than her. He immediately started to take off Big Mac’s belt while the one behind her took off his shirt. They quickly made it into a dressing and used the belt to apply it to the wound to try and stop the bleeding. Stygian said nothing else. He just stared and quivered as well.

“I’ll carry other guy!” Yona suddenly volunteered, walking up and bending down next to Shining Armor. After a moment to hoist him up, she surprisingly lifted him on her back with relative ease in spite of being over a foot shorter than him. “Yaks best at carrying hurt people!”

Marble remained at Big Mac’s side herself, clasping her hands and nervously watching him. He was still breathing, but it was much slower than any of them wanted. That left Sunset, who, on realizing no one else was moving, sighed before motioning. “Alright everyone, onto the airship!”

She found herself once again reluctantly leading the group onward across the roof and toward the gangplank. It didn’t take long for her to pick up on not one but two unwelcome things. One was that the echo of distant noise seemed to be getting closer again, which meant that at any moment they might find themselves attacked again. The other made everyone nervous…the fact that the roof they were on sported two very large artillery cannons with adjustable aim. Clearly meant for air defense, one of their shells could critically damage an aerial warship. It would only take one shot to obliterate the wooden airship.

She was the first on board and saw that the interior was clearly as designed toward art and comfort as the outside. She spent little time admiring the décor, even though it did seem familiar to her, and instead made straight for the bridge. Fortunately, the way had been left open by its pilot. A few of the other inmates, not knowing what else to do, followed her inside as she stepped in.

There were wide windows surrounding the bridge in a horseshoe-like shape, affording a wide view of the surroundings. That included the roof they were docked against. Sunset got some relief on seeing the cannons weren’t aimed directly at them, but that meant little right now. She stepped right up to the controls and looked them over.

She paused a moment before she looked like a mixture of confused and intrigued. She kept looking over them as more people came in. Among them was Ocellus. She looked a little nervous as she walked up front.

“Some people are still coming up the fifth floor, but someone ran ahead and said the Hippogriffs are coming again. And…I’m not an expert on airships, but I’m pretty sure they need a lot of people to fly…”

“It’s the Equestrian design…the Canterlot model…”

Both Ocellus and other around her looked to Sunset in confusion. “What?”

“The same design as her steam chariots. I thought these had all been destroyed.” She reached out and began to move a few controls. “I can do this… I remember it like it was yesterday…”

“What are you saying?”

Sunset blinked, but then shook her head. “Alright, we…we need to do a few things. Um…ok…check the pressure. Good. Check the boilers. Good. Altitude… It really can go that high…” She moistened her lips, then finally turned to the inmates. “I’m going to need help from some of you. Watch for when everyone is on board. Someone…no, two people…get over by that panel over there. Find those levers.”

As she spoke, she began to work along the various controls. All the while, people continued to pour into the airship. Yona managed to carry in Shining Armor with little difficulty, and as soon as that was done she ran back out again. Soon after, she was carrying Big Macintosh in with Marble Pie and Stygian in tow.

As people kept loading up, more kept going to the bridge—enough to where Sunset had to start telling them to get into the back of the ship. However, that didn’t stop Smolder from tagging along behind when Stygian and Marble Pie finally walked in.

“This thing have any cannons? ‘Cause otherwise what’s the plan to keep from getting blown away by those big guns once they get up here?”

“Taking off before they get the chance,” Sunset answered, risking a look behind her. “How’s Big Mac?”

Marble was teary-eyed and too choked up to speak, while Stygian continued to bow his head and sulk. Rather, the inmate who had treated him, and who was now stained with a good amount of his blood, looked uneasy. “The bleeding is stopping…at least the bleeding on the outside…but it doesn’t look too good…”

Sunset swallowed, but looked back to the controls and kept focusing. “Alright…everyone’s almost on. Get out there and disengage the pneumatic anchors.”

“What’s a ‘new may tick’ and how do you do that?” an inmate asked.

She groaned, rolling her eyes. “A ship like this is designed so that it can possibly be run by one or two people. But in order to dock on the fly, there’s these steam-pressurized cannons that shoot the anchors into the docking moors and automatically clasp them.”

She pointed outside, indicating to those on the bridge two long chains tethering the airship to the roof. In particular, two great big metallic structures that looked like mixtures of anchors and vises were connected around two thick mounted metal rungs.

“You need to go out there, deploy the crank ratchet, and reset them so that I can pull them in and we can take off. I’d prefer someone who can crank really fast but I’ll take whoever I can get now…”

“Alright. We’re-”

“I’ll go.”

Stygian’s curt statement was so fast it made Sunset turn around again, but without waiting for a word or confirmation the young man had already turned and was running out. One of the two groups was dumbfounded, looking to each other for a moment, before they ran out after him. Marble looked around a moment, but then turned and took off as well—leaving the second group to likewise be surprised before they ran after her.

Sunset sighed but turned back to the controls. She turned a few more settings. “Alright, that’s the best I can do until we get undocked…”

“What are we going to do?” Ocellus asked.

She pointed to a gauge. It was low at the moment, but slowly, almost imperceptibly, building. “We need to get altitude and get it in a hurry, so we can’t just gently glide on out of here. I’m building up pressure in the main air sac sub-boiler right now. The moment I say ‘go’, flip those valves against that wall and that’ll move the hot air to heat up the sac and hopefully get us to ascend as fast as possible. But if we do it while we’re still anchored I’m afraid it’ll rip part of the hull of this wooden ship right off.”

The girl nodded. “Alright.” She quickly put her hands up on two of her valves while another inmate nearby grasped the other two.

Sunset looked out the window. Stygian was running and was already across the gangplank. He soon reached his own anchor and bent down next to it. However, he was still struggling with it when the rest of his group caught up with him. She watched them watch him for a few moments before an older one stepped in. She also noticed, when he did so, Stygian snapped at him temporarily before only reluctantly pulling back.

She frowned a little, but then turned to Marble’s group as they soon ran out to their own anchor. By this point the first group was already cranking, but she realized why Marble had run out when she made it clear she knew what she was doing. Not only did she get the anchor out but she began to rapidly crank it like a seasoned pro.

The two groups continued to work for a short while, albeit a longer one than Sunset wanted. As she had hoped, each time one got tired of cranking another quickly stepped in and took over. Even so, it was a long process, and the only other thing to pass the time with was looking at the gauge that was building even more slowly.

It was only a third of the way to where Sunset wanted when Stygian’s group managed to finish. They quickly turned about and ran back for the airship, and she engaged the retractor to quickly pull that anchor in. As soon as they were inside, she heard Stygian’s voice from the rear.

“Get the guns ready! I can hear them coming up the stairwell!”

Sunset swallowed and looked back to Marble’s group. Fortunately, she didn’t even have to wait two seconds more when she saw them finish as well. They all rose, turned about, and began to rush back in. Sunset quickly looked down to retract the chain for that anchor.

The sounds of a burst of gunfire made her snap her head back up again.

When she looked up, she saw back in the interior of the tower as the first row of Mount Aris soldiers showed themselves. Their rifles were already drawn and smoke from gunpowder was rising from their weapons. Her pupils narrowed as she turned back to the other anchor.

Blood was still settling on the ground, and was joined by bodies soon after that had been riddled with bullets. In particular, she saw Marble Pie’s body twist toward her as it went down…one exit wound through her shoulder and the other through her abdomen.

“No!”

Stygian’s echo through the entire ship was soon matched with rifle shots. As Sunset watched, one of the soldier’s heads erupted in red mist before they went down. It was immediately answered by another before the others quickly took cover. More soldiers rolled up soon after and quickly spread out, with even more behind them taking side routes. Stygian’s gun continued to fire, while shots began to be returned. Soon far more than before. After a moment, more gunshots from the airship began to fire as well.

At this, Sunset grit her teeth and looked back to the console. She quickly retracted the remaining anchor, before she went over to the side hatch controls. Ignoring the gangplank, she engaged them to start closing it.

This prompted Smolder to turn to her. “What are you doing?”

“You don’t honestly think we can fight off the whole Hippogriff force with a couple guns, do you?”

“But…” Ocellus began to protest meekly, “what about…the…”

“They’re dead! And if they aren’t we can’t help them now!”

Ocellus cringed, but even Smolder was struck silent for a moment with the touch of rather cold reality. Sunset felt herself start to breathe harder and her hands shook as she looked back to the gauges. Stygian kept firing until the hatch was fully closed, at which point the soldiers began to fire en masse on the ship. As for her, she looked again to the pressure rating and saw it was only half full.

“Damnit…I really, really wish I had a drag right now…”

The gunfire didn’t last too much longer. The airship may have been more delicate than most, but it wasn’t so flimsy as to fall to some rifle bullets. However, they continued to advance while others kept spreading out. Sunset breathed heavier and kept watching the gauge.

Then a great metal clanging sound was heard. One loud enough to echo through into the airship bridge itself. Ocellus, watching the windows, let out a whimper.

“I…think I just saw one of those big cannons shift a bit.”

Sunset glanced back out that way. Her heart sank as she saw it was true. The nearest cannon had shifted downward. Based on her own experience, that meant it was locking into the gears…

“Um…isn’t now a good time to get the hell out of here?” Smolder asked.

“We don’t have enough pressure.”

“Forget the pressure! Let’s just start lifting off!”

“If we don’t get high enough, fast enough, it won’t matter! They’ll be able to track us and shoot us out of the sky! I’m waiting for the minimum!”

“Well how much longer?”

“I don’t know! This isn’t my damn ship!”

Sunset had barely stopped yelling when she saw it. The artillery unit began to pivot about to aim its barrel at the airship. Considering its size, it moved rather slowly, but more than quick enough to draw a bead on them.

She began to sweat again as she looked to the gauge. Only two-thirds of the way to where she wanted it. Gritting her teeth and whispering a curse, she yelled behind her. “Alright, now! Throw the valves! We don’t have a choice!”

Ocellus and the other inmate immediately did as they were told, and Sunset quickly engaged the steam propulsion engines. She grasped the control and hoped for the best.

The best didn’t come.

Much to her dread, the airship only slowly lifted off, and the engines did nothing but “tread air” for a moment before they began to push forward. Only slightly faster than a basic hot air balloon. The airship gently glided away from the dock, fast enough to prompt the soldiers to fire again while they slowly glided past firing range of the artillery, but that was all. They only continued to slowly climb and practically drift away. If the soldiers had been bold enough, they probably could have had a few jump on.

“Damnit all!” Sunset shouted as she struggled in vain to give the engines more power.

“Oh no…” Ocellus remarked. “I’ll…I’ll shut the valves again…”

“Don’t bother now… If we make ourselves stop here we’re only going to be an easier target. The only thing we can do now is pray this thing either picks up speed fast or they’re really bad shots with their anti-aircraft cannons…”

It didn’t take long for the cannon to start correcting itself, this time both elevating as well as pivoting around. Sunset looked back to their own altitude and speed, but as she watched them as well as the cannon falling behind them it only took her a few moments to start feeling dread all over again. It was clear that the cannon was still going to overtake them. She knew those artillery pieces were meant to hit targets that were thousands of feet in the air. Hitting them wouldn’t be an issue. As the seconds kept ticking by, she saw that the others realized the same thing.

“Wait…look!”

Hearing that call made Sunset turn away from the controls again. They had gained painfully little distance on the roof and could still see most of what was going on there, but the inmate was pointing to the cannon. At least, Sunset thought she was at first before she noticed in front of it.

Marble Pie was moving.

Not very fast, but she was dragging her bleeding body closer to the cannon. Fortunately, she didn’t have far to go, and from where she was lying none of the soldiers even noticed that one of their targets wasn’t dead. She was soon able to press herself fully against the turret, pushing herself over and sitting against it.

“What is she doing?” Smolder asked.

Sunset didn’t answer. She saw her pause there a moment, unable to fully see her face, before she saw her reaching into her dress. She came out with something small that she couldn’t recognize at first, but then she reached in again and pulled out something else.

Her eyes widened when she realized it was a stick of dynamite. She had to have removed one from the bundle that they had set up, or perhaps picked up a loose one from the soldiers. A moment later, she held up the first object and, with much strain and agony, began to move it.

In the night sky, Sunset caught just a hint of sparks.

“No…”

Yet the sparks kept coming, until they were steady and a different color.

“Marble, no…”

Even if her voice could have possibly reached her, it wouldn’t have mattered. She lay her body back against the turret again, grasping the lit dynamite to her chest just as the cannon managed to angle itself to hit the fleeing airship. She closed her eyes, and the last Sunset saw of her was her making the symbol of Gaia Everfree across her chest.

A moment later, and the dull sound of an explosion permeated the cockpit as she vanished in a ball of fire and smoke. Even from their distance, the airship was shaken by a rough tremor, but no one seemed to notice. They were silently transfixed on the side of the turret as they saw bits of metal and debris fly out from the blast. An instant later, the cannon fired…but it was too late. The blast had destroyed the support and the barrel was already falling. The artillery shell sailed underneath the airship by about 5 meters before it cascaded to the mountain valley below and detonated harmlessly.

The soldiers left on the roof were in an uproar and went scrambling. They tried to get the other cannon functional, but by the time they had even engaged it the airship had finally gained enough altitude and distance to be out of its range of motion. And it continued to gain both as it turned toward the Hyperboreans to the north. As it sailed to their darkened peaks and freedom, the palace of Mount Aris slowly filled the vision of the people on board. A good part of it was smoking or enflamed now, but still lit up and filled with chaos.

Eventually it grew smaller as Mount Aris was left behind and the airship rose toward the clouds. But still no one said anything. A loud cry was heard from the back of the ship followed by a loud noise, but nothing else. Everyone else’s heads went low and they slowly withdrew into the rear of the airship, sinking to the ground with shadows over their faces. Sunset herself had looked back as long as she could, but then looked forward again to keep driving the ship.

Her heart slowed, but the cold, low feeling persisted. And it kept doing so no matter how far away they were.

She finally sniffled once, letting out such a noise that she startled herself. Only at that point did she blink for what felt like the first time in fifteen minutes.

She reacted at that, for she felt something. Instinctively, her hand reached up to her cheek, touched it, and pulled it back.

Her fingertips were wet.

“Miss…Miss Sunset Shimmer, was it?”

The woman looked up, almost in surprise, and found Ocellus at her side looking at her.

“I-I-I understand this probably isn’t the best time, but…what…what do we do now?”

Sunset didn’t answer immediately. After staring at Ocellus for several seconds, she looked down, as if she too was thinking about that question. She inhaled and exhaled, letting a few more tears roll down her cheeks before she reached up and wiped them away. Once that was done, she looked forward again and grasped the controls.

It took her a moment longer before she could answer.

“First I’m going to take you all back to Canterlot. Then…I’m headed to Sedes Imperii Crystal.”

Author's Note:

That's the conclusion of this section. Sunset's action is done, but Twilight and the others are just getting warmed up...

Comments

[dannny43]

No, goddammit not marble, she and big mac were supposed to be a thing! Noooo