Sky Pirate Pip and the Dreaded Dreadnaught Die Großartige und Mächtige Trixieburg

by alt-tap

Chapter 10.1: ...The Storm.

Chapter 10.1: ...The Storm.

Ditzy stood outside the bookseller’s tent and ruffled her wings in discomfort. The foreboding storm she and the others were watching felt wrong on a level she just couldn't describe to somepony without feathers. It was like the everfree wrapped in barbedwire. And the barbs were on fire.

“How much do you want for the book?” Sweetie Belle asked Eureka, not taking her eyes from the storm.

The periwinkle bookseller had returned, empty hooved, from her search for a copy of Auspex Encephalon nearly an hour ago. It took her a while to respond. “I was hoping for a thousand,” she said distractedly. “It’s pretty unique, but it’s pretty creepy too... Aren't you concerned about that storm?”

Sweetie finally pulled her gaze away from the approaching tempest. “It’s worth at least three,” she said, fishing a treasury note from her saddlebag and magicing it to Eureka. “This is a note of exchange from the House of Generosity,” she said. “Denar, if you can get the Leiber Draconum to the Seltenheit before that storm hits the flat I’ll pay you half that amount.”

Denar hefted the titanic book and hugged it to his chest, spreading his impressive wings. “In the hope that you translate it, I do this for free.”

Sweetie Belle retrieved the orrery from her saddlebag and stuffed it into Denar’s satchel. The book weighed him down a bit, but not enough to weaken his bravado. “I will see you upon your glorious victory, good ponies!” he shouted as his wings grasped the sky.

Without warning a bolt of orange light shot past them, tearing a path of fractured earth towards the storm. A sudden tremor in the ground caused the two unicorns to stumble and fall. Ditzy spread her wings to keep her balance.

“Dinky!” Ditzy exclaimed, recognizing her daughter’s distinct candescence in the blazing light. “Sweetie Belle, we need to warn the militia! Something’s coming!” An air raid siren blared its haunting tone somewhere amongst the tents, calling The Party Enjoyment Assurance Brigade to action. “Never mind, we need to help the militia!”

Sweetie pulled the kashmir Mareabian saddlebag out of her rugged Equestrian saddlebag and strapped it on sideways, putting one pocket on her back and the other on her belly. “Eureka, where are the mining explosives kept?”

Eureka took a step back in surprise. “What? Uh, I don’t know. Would military explosives work?”

Sweetie grinned. “Even better.”

*******

Bright golden magick sparkled over Dinky's golden eyes, filling the dark, foreboding clouds with scores of aggressive red spots. She could feel Apple Bloom's muscular shoulders flexing beneath her, driving powerful, earth pony hooves into the ground, pulverizing stones and sending fissures through the earth as she ran. Thunderous hooffalls roared like war drums in Dinky's ears and the rattling of four thousand rounds of ammunition brought that profound focus she had only ever achieved in battle. It was an intoxicating feeling.

Buildings, tents and ponies zipped by in a blur. The wind pulled at Apple Bloom’s hat and bow. Earthen power gathered in her legs, pushing her ever faster. The ley rose up from the ground and soaked her in the magic of mother earth. It pulled her forward with the force of her intention and she dove through the psychedelic fractal patterns of the world beneath the world. In a flash she and Dinky were on the front line.

They emerged by a group ponies and Diamondogs riding in heavily armored, two pony chariots sorting pintle mounted Machineguns. Billhooks and disposable, explosive tipped pikes sat in racks behind the charioteers. They, together with groups of support infantry, escorted teams of four and six pony war-wagons mounting recoilless rifles, mortars and other heavy guns. All together it made for a slightly awkward blend of pony, gryphon and garou arms and technology.

One of the battle chariots closed with the duo. The gunner kept his eyes and arms trained on the rapidly closing storm, and the ramshackle zeppelins that were beginning to emerge from it. The loader-lancer, a Diomondog wearing top quality Equestrian plate armor, turned to them and pushed his visor up to speak. “Dinky pony!” Even shouting as loud as he could his voice was barely audible over the cascading thunder and howling wind. “Those is Irondogs! Lots of armor!” The report of a cannon interrupted him and moments later the shell landed between them, showering them with dirt, but failed to explode. “Use sharp rounds!” he finished, hitting his armored chest with his fist as the charioteers returned to to their group.

Dinky nodded and gave a quick salute, not bothering to try and out yell the storm. How the hey do I magick up a whole flechette shell at once?

*******

The sound of explosions grew louder as Rarity, a’la dog, and Pipsqueak sprinted towards the mouth of the cave. Flights of minutemares rose up in large flocks and raced towards the intimidating sound.

“That sounds like cannon fire!” Pip shouted, coming up closer to the gorilla like Diamondog.

“Short barrel, much powder,” Baxter said over his shoulder, ears pointed and alert. “Is mortars. Big ship mortars for siege.”

“Who would dare attack this place?” Rarity asked, watching a group of militia ponies getting ready to join the fight in front of an armorer’s stall as they ran by. “It’s well known that Pinky keeps a strong defencive force.”

The cave gave way to a dark and stormy sky. Unnatural turquoise lightning crisscrossed the ominous clouds and howling winds carried the smell of black powder and ozone. Something about the storm felt profoundly wrong to Pip, like a nail in his spine. “Run faster!” he hollered over the howling gale, driving his hooves into the ground with redoubled desperation.

“Pip!” Rarity called, lifting her head up over the dog’s shoulder. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“No!” Pip replied, fear showing in his voice. “But we can’t fight it with guns!”

Rarity’s horn illuminated, ice blue sparkles tracing a line to the Seltenheit. “I’ve called a retrieval team!” she said, barely audible over the din of battle. “They should be here in-” she was cut off by a shower of shrapnel as a mortar shell struck a nearby building.

Pip braced for impact, but none came. He glanced up only to see a violet forcefield holding the broken building at bay. A supremely well built unicorn clad in cataphract plate armor, pushed the wreckage back with his magick. “You kids alright?” he said in a rumbling baritone.

“I take captain to ship!” Baxter said, pointing to Rarity then to the Seltenheit.

“Go it! Stay behind me!” the armored pony shouted. He charged ahead, shaping his shield into a dome and plow that cleared rubble, tents, and everything else, out of their way. Pip was astonished that such a heavily armored pony could move so fast through the rubble, even passing through small buildings without so much as flinching. Pip felt like he was chasing a freight train that didn’t need tracks.

The Seltenheit loomed over the seemingly distant shipyard. Silver flashes rippled across the prow as the port side gravity cannons lent their voice to the cacophony of battle. A flash of light drew Pip’s attention above the ship, a barely visible black object sailed across the black sky, illuminated by the lightning rolling through the clouds.

Pip flinched as a shell impacted their escort’s shield, deflecting off in a shower of sparks and magick fragments. The armored unicorn shouted in pain and stumbled, but quickly shook it off and recast his shield. Pip couldn’t ignore the clearly diminished force of the barrier.

More shell exploded all around. Most were shot down by beams of unicorn magick, but some made it to the ground with terrible effect. Pip didn’t know how a recovery team was supposed to be able to find them running through this chaos, but he couldn’t think of a better plan either.

Time seemed to slow as Pip saw a unicorn wearing a light helmet and chain armor appear beside him, tackling him to the ground and firing a ray into the sky. A blinding flash of light and a bone rattling explosion knocked Pip senseless and the world faded to black.

*******

Ditzy soared over the battle below, saddlebags heavy with grenades and satchel charges. “You ready, Sweetie Belle?” she asked her passenger, who was herself carrying twice as many explosives.

The enemy's ground troops had emerged from the fog less than a minute ago, clad in hogpog armor and wielding improvised and salvaged weapons. Ditzy figured the light explosives they were carrying probably wouldn’t be able to do enough to the armored zeppelins, so the infantry was their target.

“Let's get em!” Sweetie replied, a dozen assorted explosives suspended in her telekinesis.

They darted between the zeppelins and over the enemy troops in erratic zigzags, peppering them with explosives and avoiding what little enemy fire was directed towards them among all the other pegasus bombardiers.

Sweetie held on tight as they climbed in preparation for another dive. They flew close beside one of the ramshackle airships and Sweetie tossed a satchel into an open gun port, and watched it fall through the hull. Surprised, she tried to grab part of it with her magick, but caught nothing. “Its fake!” she shouted into Ditzy’s ear.

“What?” Ditzy hollered back.

“This ship is an illusion!”

They were already above the ship so Ditzy looped around and came in for a landing on top of the envelope, only to pass right through. Only now did they realize that it was slightly transparent. They could just make out the flashes of firearms and explosives below. “We need to tell the triple A crews!” Ditzy said, turning in hover to face the mountain. “Maybe they can figure out a way to tell which ones are real!”

“Ya, lets-”

A black object the size of a carriage shot by close enough to take off a few strands of Sweetie Belle’s mane. Following its flight path they saw it smash into the gondola of a neighboring ship. On impact eight long, spider like legs snapped out, clinging to the hull and allowing the object to climb up the side. As it climbed it unfolded more and sloughed off several large plates. It looked more like a spider by the second. Long metal legs tipped with sharp claws grasped at seams and plates, pulling it over the edge and onto the deck. In place of fangs, twin machineguns emerged from armored compartments and opened fire at the deck crew. All it lacked from the arachnoid form was a bulbous abdomen.

“Go!” Sweetie screamed. Ditzy didn’t need anymore encouragement, and dove, pumping her wings to gain as much speed as possible before leveling out into an areal sprint towards the mountain. Within moments they were over the bazaar again, zipping over tents and under exploding mortar shells.

When they arrived at the main partillery battery the first salvo had just been fired and the second was being loaded. Ditzy landed hard and sweetie tumbled off her back into the dirt.

An earth pony with red crosses on his white saddlebags and helmet rushed over and kneeled beside Ditzy. “Are you injured?” he asked, crouching low to inspect the fallen pegasus.

“I’m fine,” Ditzy said, slowly getting back to her hooves. “Just exhausted.”

The medic produced a small vial from his pack, filled with a luminous pink solution. “Here, try this.”

Sweetie was already up and cantering towards the nearby command tent. “Hey!” she shouted, just it time to be drowned out by the cannons. “Hay!” she tried again.

One of the commanding ponies, a white unicorn wearing an olive green jacket, turned to face her, clearly annoyed by the interruption. “What?” she shouted gruffly.

“They have illusory ships!” Sweetie shouted, continuing towards the tent. “I think it’s a derivative of Fantasy’s Fantastic Fantasm!”

The command pony turned shouted at another pony in the tent. “Lieutenant, get me a manganese and quicksilver optic! Now!”

The lieutenant rummaged through a box for a moment before producing a brass spyglass. The commanding pony grabbed it in her magick and trained it on the battle, shifting the magick around the lens. “Sergeant!” she shouted at one of the ponies near the guns, just before they fired another volley. “I want blue manganese and quicksilver on every gun!”

“Ma’am!” a pegasus by the guns shouted, saluted and flew over to a supply tent closer to the mountain. All in the space of a second.

“Runner!” the commanding pony yelled in the opposite direction.

A blazing red pegasus appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and hovered by the commander.

“Message for the front: Blue magick illusions! Go!”

“Ma’am!” The pegasus was gone so fast the reply seemed to come from thin air.

The potion the medic gave Ditzy tasted like raw sugar and oil. She gagged but it wouldn't come back up. After only a few seconds she could feel a surge of energy rush through her body accompanied by a hot prickling sensation. It was her first experience with military grade stimulants, and she sincerely hoped it would be her last.

She stared at the curiously slow moving world in a daze for a moment before crashing back to earth. Cannons fired, thunder boomed and a distant buzzing pulled Ditzy’s attention to a flight of escort fighters heading towards the battle.

“Captain Starbright?” she said quietly towards the white unicorn that was barking orders in every direction. Her brain finally caught up with her ears. “Captain!”

After a moment's delay the captain shouted over shoulder. “Not the time, Mis Doo!”

Ditzy flitted quickly over the the captain. “The storm is being generated!” That got the captain’s attention in a heartbeat. “It’s coming from a single point above and behind the enemy zeppelins.”

“Aromancy?”

“Ya.”

The captain growled in frustration. “We can’t pinpoint a pegasus group in a storm. We need a zap scout.”

“If you can get me a two seater we can do it,” Ditzy offered, gesturing to a confused Sweetie Belle. “I had a stint as a pilot when I was younger and Sweetie can cast locator spells.”

Captain Starbright considered that for a second, thumping a hoof on the ground, before turning to shout at her subordinates again. “May!”

A perle white pegasus flitted over and landed beside the captain. “Ma’am.”

“Get these ponies a two seat stunt plane, asap.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Officer Mayfly will get you a plane,” the captain said hurriedly. “Unicorn, can you cast Longshot’s Lingering Locater?”

“No, but I do know Bright Sky’s Burning Beacon, will that work?”

Commander Starbright flung a scroll at Sweetie, hitting her in the face before Sweetie’s magick caught it. “Learn quick. Our guns will auto-target as soon as its cast. Muzzle velocity is eight thousand seventy hooves per second, do the math and get out of the way. I’d rather not hit you, but these guns only wait for Luna.”

Sweetie noded and hopped onto Ditzy’s back. “You gonna be okay, Ditzy?” she asked, almost as an afterthought.

“Nope!” Ditzy shouted happily as they took off after Officer Mayfly.

*******

Apple Bloom juked hard, narrowly avoiding the falling wreckage of an armored zeppelin as she dashed back and forth across the battle lines, occasionally trampling an inattentive enemy combatant. Flak dotted the sky like dying stars. The junkyard zeppelins never seemed to fall in number no matter how many were shot down. The ground forces had been halted, but the air assault hadn’t even slowed. The buzz of airplanes had given her hope at first, but now she had to dodge falling wreckage almost as often as directed attacks.

She felt something hit her shoulder and she dodged again, narrowly avoiding an Irondog autogiro that slammed into the ground with a dramatic, and annoying, explosion. A golden shield blocked most of the shrapnel, but she still felt something nick her in the honch. “Razi fragin air support! Push ‘em back already!” she shouted at the sky.

Something thumped her in the back of the head. “Eyes front!” She snapped back to reality in time to vault over a pile of fallen metal something something.

Dinky landed on Apple Bloom’s back a moment latter, grappling the ammo harness with all four hooves to keep from bouncing off. Her moment of flight had given her a good view over the next hill. A big metal thing shaped like a slug, or an overturned boat, was plodding slowly along the other side, no doubt pushed by a team of Irondogs hiding inside. Two forward facing machineguns fired constantly. Each side had another gun to pick off flankers.

Dinky left her rifle to the sling and magicked one of the disposable anti-armor rocket launcher from her back, extending the tube and opening the front and back dust covers at the same time. She clambered up into a kneeling position, grasping Apple Bloom’s honch between gaskin and cannon and laying the other leg flat along her back with her hoof on Apple Bloom’s withers. It was about the steadiest position she could hope to get if she wanted to fire the rocket over Apple Bloom's head, rather than through it.

She barely managed to get her weapon ready before they came over the hill. She had no idea how thick the machine’s armor was, or what the rocket could penetrate for that matter, but the side gun was already taking aim so she hastily took aim right back, wrapped the rocket in magic and fired. The shot passed cleanly through the viewport just above the gun and through the other side, inflicting superficial damage at best. Got the gunner though.

Dinky spat a curse and dropped the spent launch tube on the ground, recovering her canister rifle. Before she could fire, or even aim, a massive, black spidery thing fell from the sky and slammed into the primitive armored vehicle. Apple Bloom made a sharp turn and bolted, sending Dinky flying onto the ground. Dinky tumbled to a halt entirely too close to the frey and put up a shield just in time to watch the spider flip the slug over and fill it with machinegun fire, pelting itself and Dinky’s shield with scores of ricochets.

Watching the titans battle made Dinky feel even smaller than she usually did and she sat stunned. After ‘killing the slug’ the spider rampaged through the Irondog’s lines, spearing dogs with its legs and mowing them down with its guns. Dinky spotted a dog leveling an anti armor rifle at the spider and broke from her daze in an instant. She brought her rifle to her shoulder and fired three shots before the over designed prototype jammed again. She got him though.

She cleared the jam with a now familiar combination of hoof and magic and scanned her surroundings. One of the ammo cans lay in the dirt not far away and more dogs were emerging from the fog by the dozens. Grabbing the ammo can in her magic she dashed to the flipped vehicle, jumping in for cover. She immediately regretted her decision.

Trying desperately to ignore what she was sitting in, she refilled a couple magazines and ripped the side gun from its damaged mount. The precision work and multitasking was starting to give her a hornache, but the result was worth it: she had three fresh mags and this machine gun didn’t have a trigger guard, plus the belt was almost full. Bonus!

She locked up the ammo, stowed the mags and got two more rockets ready before peeking over the edge of her improvised bunker. A wave of infantry had passed her already and another two dozen or so were fast approaching. She took a moment give her horn a rest while they closed the distance, then recast her foe finder spell. A zeppelin accompanied the infantry, flying low to provide fire support as they approached. She had figured out that some of the zeppelins were fake a while ago when they didn’t show up as hostile, but this one was real.

She fired her rockets at the hull just below the forward support cables on the near side of the hanging gondola. One cable snapped off immediately, and the added stress caused the weakened one to take off a chunk of hull as it tore free. the hull groaned loudly and the remaining cables began to fray.

The infantry stopped in line with her cover, startled by the rockets, and Dinky stood, aiming the machinegun with unsteady telekinesis, and opened fire. Bracing the weapon with a hoof on the handle and depressing the trigger with the other made it horrendously inaccurate, but at less than two fathoms range against unaware targets she still managed to get more than half of them before the belt ran out. She dropped the gun and took cover, tossing her last two horngrenades to kick up some dust.

When she heard the exploasions she leaped from her cover, hopping towards the remaining dogs on her hind hooves, canister rifle at the ready. The grenades had done their job and all she could see was dust and glowing red blotches where dogs huddled together. She fired into the group two shots at a time, wrapping each clump of flechette in an unstable magic shell, turning them into improvised shrapnel bombs.

A series of snaps and metallic groans drew her attention to the listing zeppelin that was now almost directly above her. Reaching out with her magic she grabbed the gondola and pulled with all her might. Slowly it began to drift sideways and the hull on the far, now upper, side began to tear away. A half dozen crew dogs abandoned ship as the golden aura intensified. With a scream and a final, crackling surge she pulled the gondola free and it crashed into the ground, sending dust and debris billowing outward. her victory was short lived, however, as another group of dogs, supported by another of the sluglike vehicles, came over the rise just before the dust obscured her vision. They opened fire immediately.

Dinky bolted to the burning, crumbling wreckage of the zeppelin, half full ammo can in tow. Spotting an opening, probably a former porthole, she dove in, praying the battle would shift before her cover became a death trap.