Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

172. Volcanic Panic.

Author's Note:

Music: Megaraptor - Yellow Planet (Bucky O' Hare Metal)

-Equus, Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight-

“So you’ll give me back the missing piece of Equestria after we manage to complete the world summit, because your daughter is really trying to drag things out.” Grousing this out to the person on the other side of the table didn’t help me with the amused demeanor she was giving off.

“Oh, most certainly, my kitten needs to make things right and she has gotten multiple people working on this even before she knew about the Grogar Cultists thing. Any failure at any part of our current plans will end with the responsible parties getting the worst kind of non-lethal punishment imaginable.” Kuril was just filing her claws as she sat at the table waiting on a home cooked apple family meal, a good meal that was not made by her own paws. “I mean aside from a lifetime permanent ban from my restaurant of course… I can definitely do far worse than Jaded can. If you know what Zecora can really do, then you can imagine that fairly well.”

“How are you a part of this and why do you say that like Jade’s been following ‘your’ orders and not the other way around.” The response I received was an evil grin.

“Do you think Jaded is the only one that can plan? Am I not the mayor or ruler of my own little country right now? Both Jaded and I have our own plans in motion and Jade is busy securing the failsafe. Discord certainly found it deliciously ironic when I ran things past him.” Kuril just looked at the apple trees and sniffed the air, her mentioning Discord sent a chill down my spine. The lovely Abyssinian grinned and tipped her pointy hat to me. “Those pies they are making will be glorious. Look, even if all my kittens are amazing Twilight, nobody is perfect and we can only do our best as leaders. Yes, you’ll get the Airship Mauled region back, but some things have to happen first. We’re currently forcing an uneasy balance and quite a few people are in on it, one is that you still need to ferret out any remaining Grogar cultists.”

“There’s only one, maybe two holdouts left.” Say what I will about Tianhuo’s blisteringly insane work ethic, but her and Pom’s Canis Minor puppies were currently the best on loan support we were currently getting. Not that my brother or the Crystal Ponies helping us were bad or anything, I can trust the crystal ponies to not want anything to do with Grogar after going through what they did with Sombra.

-Earth, Russia, Krakarov Lair, Clockwerk-

“You’ll see my dear, Cooper may have gathered a bunch of annoying pests together, but they will need more than bravado to take me down!” I left the glaring female in the tube and turned towards the cameras as they focused on Cooper's approach. “Even if it is incomplete, my secondary body is fully capable and I can control it remotely.”

“You’ll never get away with this Clockwerk!” The bait for my trap shouted and I ignored her.

It was unfortunate that I had missed the other two officers, but they were unimportant. This would be a rather delicious little reunion, provided Cooper even makes it far enough to be trapped by me.

-Krakarov Entrance, Sly-

Murray plowed the van through the gate and let Clockwerk know exactly where we were, the van’s gun rose into position.

Speaking of positioning, a specific robot falcon flying among a number of falcons was about to sneak in and open up a different avenue of attack for when we needed it the most.

Okay Clockwerk, were you ready for Team Cooper, Team Leap Lamb and Team Interpol all at once?

Well… Team Interpol is going to be a little tied up for a bit, but they’d have our backs to keep this whole situation under control once they got around to getting back together.

Nobody wanted building sized metal owls with death ray eyes flying around after all.

I took aim with the gun and glared up at the owl tower gazing over our pathway forwards from a distance. Once I started firing, I wasn’t letting off until the gun was destroyed or until we made it to the cavern.

“Looks like he’s sent out a welcoming party Sly!” That he did Bentley, let’s show him why our friendship will go the distance.

“Here we go Sly!” Murray hollered loudly as he pushed the van forward and up the path.

Hundreds of robot falcons poured out and started to circle, preparing for dives on us from varying angles.

What made a Cooper wasn’t the blood in their veins or a family heirloom in the form of a book, it was the company they kept.

“Bring it on you maleficent mechanical monster.” I was in the presence of the best company a guy could ask for!

-Pom-

“They’ve started, Bentley be giving us the green.” Shanty motioned to Dodo looking down at her in his back. “Okay Dodo, Set Sail!”

I really didn’t like the idea that we were basically large distractions.

Dodo warbled and surged forward slowly and began picking up speed.

Dolly and I were on Dodo’s back behind Shanty, Smolder squeezed in on Shanty’s right in the seat.

“Reminder, Shanty is not immune to lava and should stay with Dodo as much as possible. If for any reason we fall off, Smolder will be fine and both Dolly and I can glide to safety.” We were now crossing the open rocking field and that’s when the magma slugs and a secondary flock of robot falcons started targeting us. “Dodo is far too fast for the magma slugs to be a threat, focus on the falcons!”

“So we wait until they are all close right?” As Smolder asked this, Dodo turned and fired a cupcake into the face of a falcon and it suddenly swerved into another and they fell into a magma vent.

“Dodo knows his range better than we do, we’re to keep them off of him if they get too close.” I answered as I looked behind us. “Dolly we’re going to try and conserve as much energy as possible, but don’t be afraid to ask me for energy to bark blast.”

“Right, because things are heating up!” Dolly nodded and was on the lookout as several falcons dove on us from above, she quietly took hold of her skateboard and readied it. She was going to stay stuck to my back with the exception of extenuating circumstances.

“Please Dolly, no puns.” We were in the open, moving over rocky terrain with molten veins of weaker rock. At least we had room to maneuver. Sly’s team was on a really narrow pathway and had slightly more trouble at dealing with things that were directly above them.

Us on the other hoof… Smolder blasted the flacon straight above with a fireball, I fire a bark blast into the one swooping at us from the right to take out its head and Dolly smashed the approached from the left with a quick launch of her skateboard. Shanty fired a riptide, which immediately turned into a blast of superheated steam that surged behind me and Dolly to tear the wing off the one behind us.

“Shanty, maybe you should be careful with that, dehydration is going to be a problem around here.” That she barely fired it between my body leaning to the right and Dolly’s to left had me slightly worried for our safety.

“Sorry, but that be a really good shot yeah?” Shanty grinned and turned back to the front.

Dodo was not idle, whether he was firing baked goods from his beak or his normal energy pulse thing, he was continuing to charge forward and keep us closer to what was relatively safer terrain. Anything that came into his range was bound to be blown out of the air with machine precision if he targeted it.

We veered right as more falcons turned to start diving, we were almost able to see the path straight up to the tower, that’s when it turned its head and looked at us.

“Heavy Hooter is active!” I screamed, while pointing at it as its eyes lit up.

“Really Pom… that is what you want to be calling it? Oh no… Dodo!” The increase in Shanty’s voice made Dodo turn from looking at tower sized owl and speed forward as a beam bit into the rocky terrain behind us and started trail after us sending magma flying into the air and as soon as he passed behind a pillar the thing stopped firing. It seems to have lost us despite being out in the open a second later.

I felt Dolly shift and I felt myself slammed forward, looking over my shoulder Dolly was holding off the grasping claws of a robot falcon. Another two were almost on us.

“Everyone duck!” Smolder yelled and I lowered myself down, Dodo lowered his neck and head and ran underneath an archway of rock that knocked the robot falcon off our back.

The other two falcons swerved out of the way and opened their claws as they came in at us. Another four were circling and readying for a dive

“Another beam be coming!” As Shanty said that, Dodo angled himself for what I recognized as a lava tube.

“Dodo what are you…” I couldn’t ask the question as he ran us straight in before the beam could hit and I looked back at a massive wave of energy chewing up the entrance behind us before dissipating.

Dodo then started up and along the right wall, as the floor slowly opened up into more lava veins as we continued down the tunnel. The two falcons had to change positions so they could only come at us one at a time from behind.

I fired a bark blast back and it hit the closing robots right wing and sent it spiraling into the one behind it. After they exploded upon impact with the floor, it to started cracking, opening up and spilling lava out.

“Can you be going faster please?” Shanty stated as her dangling ears started to scorch from the narrowing tunnel and the quick flowing lava following right behind us.

“Can I second that?!” Dolly shouted through her paws as she resettled her skateboard onto her back.

Dodo suddenly veered to the floor and up to the left wall as a burst of lava exploded out of the right wall in front of where we had been, he started going faster as asked and we saw an exit to the tunnel that thankfully didn’t end in a literal ‘dead’ end.

“Dodo fire and then jump when we get close to the exit!” Glancing back at me with a half turned head, Dodo nodded and then turned back to concentrating on pumping his legs to keep us ahead of the lava filling the tube.

The four falcons appeared at the exit arrayed in a row with their claws extended and ready to rend us apart. Dodo blasted the second one in the chest and in an amazing show of dexterity he leapt up, stomped the third one and leapt off it before it hit the ground. The other two metal falcons were splattered into melted piles of metal when lava erupted from the tube seconds later.

We were now way off track and further out now, in a valley pathway going uphill with molten rock sloshing lazily against the ground behind us.

“We’re getting too far off track!” We needed to keep the larger tower sized mechanical owls attention.

“Can we stop from being derailed Pom?” Did we really need comedy in our lives right now Shanty? We were on a volcano that was fairly active at the moment.

“I’m having enough problems just staying on Dodo!” Smolder muttered, as she sat up next to Shanty. “Uh… guys... we’re about to be out in the open again and… incoming!”

We ducked down and as a metal falcon shot over us narrowly missing my face with its talons.

“Dolly!” Smolder was staring behind me in alarm.

“Oh dog, help!” Looking back, Dolly could be seen getting carried off by the falcon clutching at her skateboard.

Several other falcons were converging on the one that had hauled the now dangling Dolly off my back.

Looking down at the hot lava pooling in the base of the valley.

“Meet back with us at the path up to the Heavy Hooter!” I kicked off and up high, twirling and bringing my hooves to my sides I dove back down the incline.

Once the heat was really getting to me I spread my hooves and bounced off a powerful thermal after quickly morphing my wool into glide form.

I shot straight up high into the air, being lightweight always had its advantages as I was able to catch up with the falcon to slam into its left wing to grab it with my right hoof.

It stumbled and dropped in the air at my added weight and lashed out both its metal legs sideways at me while still clutching the board trying to get me to let go. The other two falcons started to veer and correct their angles of approach as I slammed my right rear hoof up into clinging to its body below the left wing joint.

I gritted my teeth and slung my left rear leg up in a buck to its face that staggered it in the air, it still hadn’t let go of Dolly.

Our falling momentum had entered a mostly straight glide as I held its left wing in place preventing it from flapping.

Suddenly our direction veered sideways as a violet glow overtook us and the two descending falcons missed us.

“Pom, take it out already!” Dolly yelled up at me as she jerked on the board with her front paws, managing to have gone from dangling to actively trying to free herself.

I lashed out my left leg once, still not enough, a second time, still not enough. Getting frustrated I added the magical wolf claw in and immediately shredded its head and upper torso.

The world went flipping and before I knew it one of the falcons slammed into me and dug one of its sharp piercing talons deeply into my flank.

“Agh!” I bleated before Dolly landed on the falcon’s back and drove her skateboard through its neck decapitating it. She then leapt onto me as I fell away and wrapped her paws around my neck, I spread my hooves to go back to gliding.

“That’s bad! Wool bandage it now, pushing the wool into position with my hind leg!” I felt Dolly’s rear legs dig into my backside and my wool bandaged the injury. I was about to ask what about the other falcon, when it was almost on us.

A series of shots blew through it from the front of the volcano.

I turned as saw Sly quickly turned the van mounted gun to blast another robot falcon away, but it had managed to get in close enough to rip into his left shoulder before it finally fell apart.

“Whoa, we have got to thank him for that save later!” Whooped Dolly as I veered back for the steep path leading up towards the Heavy Hooter, its eyes were glowing… but they weren’t focused on Shanty, Smolder or Dodo. Dolly finally noticed and her excitement immediately bottomed out. “Pom…”

They were on us and almost done charging, my eyes were widening as the malevolent force in them unleashed.

In a panic Dolly swatted the right side of my head and she was sending me feelings of urgency as we spiraled out of the way of the beam that started trailing down after us when she forced our momentum sideways.

I quickly got my senses back into gear and entered a steep dive as the rending beam of energy was almost at the tip of my tail. I could feel the raw power behind it, I seriously doubt my wool would block all of that for even a second.

I could see Dodo on the right and he had taken some claw marks from the robot falcons that Smolder was melting them with blasts of flames on the right side. Shanty was clinging to Dodo’s other side with her hind hooves and viciously cutting down any that tried to cling or claw at her beleaguered familiar that was still continuing to keep an amazing pace.

“Pom, almost to the ground here and we have falcons on each side, focus!” Looking up at the trailing beam and at the two falcons swooping down to prevent us from moving out of its path.

“Get ready to push my forward momentum as hard as you can Dolly. Hold on!” I inhaled deeply through my mouth the world started to slow down.

I could almost see the energy flowing out of the pair of eyes as the massive beam surged downwards on top of us with less and less room to maneuver by the second. Moving left or right would open us up to attack, staying in the center was a not a good idea unless I could land behind something sturdy.

Saw a spot, okay physics, let’s see if this works.

I exhaled and spread my front legs and after we bounced I flapped them and kicked with my hind legs, we bounced off to the right of the beam and Dolly pushed my momentum forward and towards the falcon coming from the right.

Everything was moving in slow motion as I thrust my hooves forwards and kicked outward with my hind legs to start up a powerful spin.

My wool shifted into drill form and I ripped through the falcon’s torso, I quickly shifted back into gliding as I spread my hooves back out.

We shot uphill and started to slow down as we came up to the base of a cliff. Inflating my wool to stop, we quickly dropped behind it before the beam could swerve and hit us. It quickly petered out after burning into the cliff above us for a few seconds.

The entire region started to quake and shift, the entire volcano started rumbling and that wasn’t a very good sign.

“The volcano may or may not be tearing itself apart now.” I looked behind me as the other falcon was already on us only to get the lower half of its body blasted away.

Dodo was suddenly there, ripping into its neck with his beak to slam the robot falcon into the ground and I think I even saw him swallowing parts of it as he quickly shredded it. After he was done with it, he came to a stop next to us to nuzzle Dolly and me affectionately with his pointy beak while warbling softly.

“Heh heh, Dodo stop it, we’re fine! I am so glad that this metal lug is on our side.” Dolly stated with her paws still tightly clamped around my neck. We all looked at the crust surrounding the base of the volcano started breaking apart and magama started rising up out of the volcano’s surroundings. “That’s- not good.”

“Understatement Dolly, this place is going to come down around us if the Heavy Hooter keeps shooting its beam at us.” Not the best name for a tower sized owl statue with death rays, but I was sticking to it.

Shanty broke out her canteen and started greedily guzzling the water in it down. I looked at the rents in Dodo’s body and looked like the falcons did some damage to his torso, but it was the most armored part of his body. I noted that Shanty was mostly fine, as was Smolder.

“Shanty did three more of her riptide attacks, it dehydrated her real fast… also what is that thing doing now?” Smolder brought our attentions to the side of the badly scorched cliff we were beneath.

We all moved over and peeked upwards around the base of the solid wall of rock protecting us from reprisal. The Heavy Hooter started to spread its massive wings, with a single flap a massive cloud of darkness seemed to shed off of them.

“Is that being a miasma?” Shanty asked and I narrowed my eyes at the sudden shift in the dark cloud that came off its wings, there was a loud mechanical buzzing noise filling the air.

That’s when I realized what that the dark cloud that came off the massive wings were.

“No… that’s the sound of at least a thousand of robot falcons flapping their wings… how many did this Clockwerk guy make?!” Yep, this guy was definitely up there with Teatime Clockwork in the overkill department. The monstrously large tower started to slowly flap its wings slightly faster. “You have got to be kidding me, it’s taking off?!”

“Yeah and all those robot falcons are coming down on us!” Yes, I can see that swirling cloud of talons starting to angle for us Smolder. “Run?”

“Dolly how powerful can you do that Aero thing?” I asked as the cloud started to form into a snake as the falcons started to stream towards our position, the Heavy Hooter was barely more than a hundred feet off the ground judging by the way it’s legless torso lifted up. That thing was actually flying despite how heavy it must have been.

“You’ve seen the limit of it.” Dolly stated while staring at the mass of death coming for us. “It’s mostly powerful in small doses and I can’t use it for too long, it drains me quickly, as in a few seconds.”

“Smolder, how long can you spew out fire for?” My second question was starting to get me some strange stares.

“About a minute or two, why?” Why indeed Smolder, we should be running and here I am planning something big.

“Shanty… cyclone?” Stating this as I turned to her. Shanty put away her canteen by tossing it into Dodo’s back as she came up to me with a grin.

“I be ready, if you can actually be doing it!” Shanty stated while trotting in place excitedly.

“Doing what?” A confused Dolly asked, she wasn’t there when we busted straight through Devotindos City’s front lines.

“Something that will take a lot of the fight out of all of us…” Trotting by everyone I walked up the hillside to the top of the cliff, I looked down to Dodo. “Dodo dig into the base of the cliff and find us after we do this, we’re going to exhaust ourselves! Dolly on my head, Shanty grab my left hoof, Smolder on my right.”

They all did as I asked, I started to inhale again and as much as my fragile lungs could take. Like Dormarch said, I really shouldn’t be using Dancing Flame with the complications it was giving to me, but this was an emergency and Dormarch wasn’t here. He was busy somewhere else.

When I exhaled I kicked off with my left hind leg and started to twirl in place as the snake like swarm of mechanical birds came down on us enmasse. Shanty’s rear legs started generating cutting arcs, Smolder blew fire and lastly… Dolly pointed her left index paw digit to the sky.

“Aero!” A swirling compacting bubble formed...

-At the edge of the volcanic region-

Darkwing Duck had found Officer Judy under attack and helped deal with a number of falcons, now they could go help the others.

Only something drew the duck, the fox and the rabbit’s attentions to the Volcano…

Something brightly sparked on the side of the volcano and that 'something' erupted into the sky like a nuclear explosion, drawing in a snake of darkness and lighting up a massive owl.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

Oh hey, a Limit.

Also, Dolly presumably could learn other basic magic with a proper teacher (Lena) and a proper motivation (currently unlikely).