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

by alt-tap

Chapter 10.2: STURMGEIST!

Chapter 10.2: STURMGEIST!

Officer Mayfly landed in a sprint, Ditzy close behind. Sweetie jumped off Ditzy’s back, hitting the ground at nearly the same time. They ran down the hard packed dirt runway, past empty, aluminium hangers towards the maintenance shed. Some of the workers were already looking their way. Curiosity, and more than a little confusion clear in their expressions.

“Requisition!” Mayfly shouted as the three ponies approached.

A greasy brown earth pony shouted something inaudible into the workshop and several more ponies came out. “What d’ya need ma’am?” The apparent leader asked.

“A quick flap-n-zap,” Mayfly said, coming to a skittering stop in front of the mechanicks. “Needs to turn tight and accelerate fast.”

The earth pony noded, turning to a blue-gray pegasus. “Yo-Yo, how’s your number three?”

“Frame's solid as a rock,” He said, looking to one of the few occupied hangars near the back. “She needs a new engine and some touch ups, but she’ll convert nicely.”

“Get ‘er,” The brown one instructed. Two earth ponies ran to the hangar with a harness and the boss turned to the rest of the group. “Refit! Unicorns, get yer horns ready! I want a Piaffe and Whinny Double Wasp and folding landers. Magick ‘er up so the wasp don’t break ‘er. Hot swap the tanks and give er some light armor. Get ready!” By the time he finished an array of new tools and parts were arranged on a neat line of work tables and a large radial engine was being pulled from the shop on a dolly.

The biplane they brought over was slightly on the large side, but it had enough wing area to more than make up for it. The two seats were arranged for a pilot, under the wings, and a tail gunner behind and slightly elevated, sporting a gun ring, but no gun. Ditzy took particular note of the zeppelin landing lugs. Maybe she could find a way to keep it after the battle, Pip did have an empty fighter bay after all.

The ponies pulled the plane alongside the workshop and the unicorns immediately unhooked the tow harnesses and circled the plane, lifting it into the air. Multicolored magick fields peeled the skin away from the bottom and pulled off the fixed landing gear while the new engine flew into the nose. Earth ponies clambered around inside the exposed skeleton and pegasi hovered on the outside, fitting the engine into place and preparing the wings for the new folding landing gear.

A pegasus approached Ditzy with an adjustable wing-control assembly. Without a word, she attached it to Ditzy’s wings and wrote down her wing measurements. It was, without a doubt, the fastest wing sizing she had ever had.

The fuel tanks came out of the plane and were tossed aside. Light armor plates were inserted around the seats and vital components and welded into place, followed by new, armored, fuel tanks. A pegasus got into the pilot seat and hooked herself up, moving the flaps and flexing the wings while other ponies adjusted the tension to her instructions. As the skin was reattached several paint sprayers floated over and began painting a green and brown, ground support, camouflage pattern onto most of the plane. The bottom was painted in pastel blue, for countershading.

The whole operation was done in minutes, but Officer Mayfly wasn't ready to relax just yet. “You got that spell memorised yet?”

“I think so,” Sweetie replied, rereading the page again.

“Good,” Mayfly noded and turned to the mechanic crew. “Hay! That thing ready yet?”

The last few rivets were fired into place as the plane slowly lowered to the ground. “Just about,” the boss replied, ushering Sweetie and Ditzy to the plane as Mayfly flew off. “Hop in ladies. The tanks are running light, but you should have more than enough for the run plus a bit. Dont go near any anti-magic stuff, the engine mounts are enchanted so that monster we stuffed in ‘er don’t shake ‘er apart.”

Ditzy lifted Sweetie into the tail gunner's seat and settled into the pilot's. The wing control armatures were obviously adjusted in a hurry, but they were still comfortable enough to not be distracting. While she strapped on a flight cap with a tether to the fighter’s echo she had found in the seat she looked to the boss mechanic. “No guns?”

“We ain't got any. CLEAR!” he shouted, prompting his crew to clear the immediate area.

Ditzy hit the ignition and the engine roared to life. It was very modern and immensely powerful, purring like a thousand pound kitten. As the plane rolled up to the runway Ditzy marveled at the fact that she was getting more vibration from the taxiway than from the engine. That was some strong magick.

They accelerated startlingly fast, pressing the ponies hard into their seats. The wind took their wings hard and Ditzy had to fight to keep control of the plane. Once Ditzy was flying smoothly she began testing the plane’s handling, though she was a bit leary of testing the engine too much. The wings had tremendous range of motion, as fitting of a stunt plane. The armor was definitely noticeable, but didn’t pose any real problem. A few aileron turns into a barrel roll gave her a good feel for the inertia the craft would carry, and by that point they were already at the fight, so further tuning wasn’t terribly feasible anyway.

Beams of echo spells flashed between the ground and Everparty fighters as they wove through the enemy zeppelins, battling swarms of auto-gyros and running interference for the ground forces. Smoke from flak shells dotted every inch of air that wasn’t too near the front line and anti-aircraft fire from both sides crisscrossed the sky.

Ditzy came in low, using her cammo to mask her approach. After crossing the lines of battle, and dropping most of her remaining grenades, she pulled up, grazing the sides of several zeppelins that were supporting the ground. As she ascended the dogs took notice and she had to hug their zeppelins as much as possible to avoid getting shot down.

The evasive maneuvering slowed their progress towards their goal, but they were definitely getting closer. Ditzy could feel it in her wings.

The source of the disturbance was high, up in the storm, not a place one should fly, but they didn’t really have a choice in the matter. “Sweetie Belle! Can you cast a shield?” Ditzy asked through the fighter’s echo system.

“No!” Sweetie said. “I’m no good with force magick!”

Ditzy clicked her tongue and rounded the last zeppelin. It was still a ways to the cloud cover, and probable death by lightning, of the storm. She pushed the throttle forward and the engine began to sing. Not the rough growl she was used to, but a smooth, refined roar. An engineer's battle cry.

Before they could blink they were in the storm and the wind more than doubled. Again Ditzy had to fight to stay aloft. The winds twisted in every direction, but Ditzy’s sensitive wings gave her enough warning to keep the plane together. The real problem was the lightning. Other than being an unusual color, it seemed like it was alive, and targeting them.

Ditzy juked and twirled in as chaotic and unpredictable a manner as she could, but the lightning was never more than a couple steps behind.

“Up! I see it!” Sweetie’s voice startled Ditzy slightly, and she looked up.

A massive, blue zeppelin sat easily in the storm, glowing with magick and entirely unaffected by the gale force winds that swirled around it. “That’s it!” she said, adjusting her evasion in roughly the zeppelin’s direction, narrowly avoiding another volley of lightning. “How close do you need to be?”

Sweetie ducked into the plane, narrowly avoiding a bolt lightning that scorched the skin of the fuselage. “Closer than I wanna be!”

With a frustrated grunt Ditzy locked the wings of the plane and uncoupled her wings from the control armatures. “Get ready!” she yelled, slamming the throttle to full.

Ditzy rose her now free wings out of the fuselage and pulled at the magick in the air. A funnel of wind formed in front of the plane, cutting through the cross winds and pulling them forward. Lightning struck the plane, grounding into an ionized field around tale.

Sweetie fired the tracking spell as fast as she could as they passed below the luminous dreadnaught, finally striking it with two castings. “Got it! Get us out of here!” she screamed. For only an instant she caught sight of a blue unicorn wearing a hat and cape standing on the deck of the ship, her face twisted in concentration, her horn flickering reluctantly.

Ditzy dropped back into her seat and locked her wings into the controls. The electricity around the tale discharged, flipping the plane onto it’s nose, and they plummeted.

It only took about three seconds for the flak to start exploding around the zeppelin, but they were already leaving the cloud bank. The battle below raged on, oblivious to the shift that was no doubt coming, but for now Ditzy was content to retreat and, hopefully, stop her heart from exploding.

*******

Ruby Pinch careened down the mountainside on her antifriction shields. Ahead she saw a familiar grey mare wearing a blue-grey dress and a pickelhaube. She was ripping huge chunks of rock from the mountain and hurling them at the Irondog’s zeppelins and infantry. Barely ten seconds passed between throws.

“Maud!” Ruby shouted, skidding to a stop. “Maud, throw me!”

Maud kicked the ground, splitting off the chunk of mountain Ruby was standing on. Ruby struggled to stay standing as Maud lifted the boulder into the air, and she was flattened against the face as it suddenly accelerated.

The wind tore at ruby’s fur and stretched the skin on her face. With a snap she split the rock in half and launched herself upward. One half passed through a false zeppelin and crushed several dogs on the ground. The other slammed into a real ship, splitting the envelope in half and sending it plummeting to the ground.

The flak barrage conveniently lifted as she approached, all guns turning skyward and sending hot metal into the clouds. Thats where the real magic was, hot turquoise and black, twisted in rage and confusion, but Ruby had no way of reaching it so she focused on the ground rushing towards her, and the waning golden star at the center of the fray.

Starfields sparkled in Ruby’s eyes as she slipped passed the light. Dinky’s star burned with a frenzied desperation that pulled at Ruby’s heart and horn, guiding her down like an ensorcelled dart.

For a moment the battle stood still. A blinding light lit up the field and the clouds, burning away all the illusions for dozens of fathoms around its point of origin, and a deafening crack shook the ground, felling dogs and ponies alike and rupturing the envelopes of several zeppelins. The light was replaced by a profound darkness as everybody’s irises snapped tight to block the now absent light. Stories would spread far about the mysterious secret bomb of the Everparty.

Sharp golden magick radiated from the wrecked zeppelin on the nearby hill. Ruby dashed to it, slashing the hulk apart with invisible blades and sending the pieces soaring into the night with imparted inertia. She followed the destruction closely, ignoring the sharp edges, burning fuel and other hazards.

At last she reached her goal. Dinky looked up with grateful eyes as the last bulkhead was shredded and flung skyward, her horn still blazing with excess aether. Ruby grabbed her by the harness and pulled her out of the wreckage into a hug. Dinky hugged back fiercely, her canister rifle dangling between them. It lasted only a moment but it was all the recharge Dinky needed. Her foe finder was back up in an instant, scanning for threats.

A peal of thunder crashed in the distance, anticipating the resumption of the battle. Somewhere, a cannon fired, then another. Soon the battle was back on, but this time Dinky had Ruby at her back, so defeat was nothing but a dumb joke that could never be loud enough to hear.

A manic grin spread across Dink’s face and quickly migrated to Ruby’s. More dogs began to emerge from the gloom, though far more cautiously this time. Some of them were using an armored slug as cover. Dinky brought her weapon to her shoulder and fired as fast as the bolt would chamber the rounds. Her magic enshrouded the barrel, splitting apart to coat each shard of flechette in a blazing, golden shell. The swarms of nail like darts perforated the approaching vehicle’s armor effortlessly, sending the infantry it was supposed to be supporting into a panic. They ran into the fog and Dinky pursued, hopping after them like an excited crow. Nothing could touch her, Ruby would see to that, the battle was effectively over.

Her smile faltered when Ruby came sprinting out of the fog, clearly putting effort into being visible. “Tunnelers!” she shouted, pushing dinky back towards the Everparty with her magick.

Dinky slung her weapon across her back and ran along with Ruby, only now realizing they were now behind the zeppelins. She looked down at the ground and focussed hard on her foe finder spell. Nothing, the rock was too thick. “Where?”

Ruby went all ghosty, her eyes glowing with a power Dinky didn't remember her having. “They’re almost under the front line!”

Dinky stopped and readied her last rocket. “Aim me!”

Ruby circled back behind Dinky, easily wrapping herself around the smaller mare. She took Dinky’s forelegs in her own and aimed the rocket at the frenzied energies beneath the ground. “Do you think you can get it that far?”

“I think I can start a cave in.” Dinky poured as much ablative casing as she could onto the rocket and fired. It didn’t get nearly far enough, but hopefully the unusual trembling was enough to alert some sensitive earth ponies that something was up down there.

Before the rocket tube even hit the ground the earth behind them exploded. Huge slabs of glassy flint ruptured and splintered outward, scattering across a crimson hemisphere projected around a small, silver oval. A blue grey pony with an ashen mane stood in the middle of the crater, breathing heavily. “You almost killed me, what are you doing!”

The shield vanished and Ruby looked on with confusion.

“Blinky?” Dinky said in confusion, still standing on her hind hooves. “What were you doing underground?”

“Hiding!” Blinky shouted, waving her forelegs frantically. “But then you collapsed my hole! I could have been crushed!”

“We need to get back to the party!” Ruby interjected, reforming her shield into a concave plate. “I know you’re good with explosions, give us a kick.” She tossed Dinky onto the not quite toboggan before hopping on herself.

“What!?” Blinky shouted, stomping the ground for emphasis. “Are you insane?”

“Yes!” Ruby and Dinky shouted in unison, one grumpy one grinning.

“Give us all you’ve got!” Dinky added.

Blinky just stared for a moment before scowling and turning around. “You asked for it!” She curled her hind legs and bucked the ground under the back edge of the toboggan shield, pulling flecks of lead and heaps of nitrogen from the surrounding earth and arranging them in happy little birdy shapes. The resulting explosion launched the mad mares into through the air with great vigor.

The ground zipped by at lightning speed uncomfortably close below them. Ruby finally managed to stop their tumbling and smoothed their landing with a cushion of small explosions that sent them skittering just off the ground around fallen zeppelins and fighter planes and over the scarred battlefield and smoking craters.

The back of the Irondog assault was visible within seconds. Hastily erected earthworks provided cover from the Everparty’s guns, but groups of pony skirmishers darted through the trenches, preventing the dogs from gaining any long lasting footholds. Many of the Everpetry’s war chariots still rampaged across the battlefield, mostly out of ammo, but making good use of their polearms and blasting lances. But the Irondogs still had air superiority, even just by sheer numbers, and their remaining ground forces all wore heavy patchwork armor, some clearly scavenged during the battle, and wielded the best weapons they could find on their way to the front.

High over the Everparty a series of flares burned out.

With a final upthrust, ruby snapped the shield back into her anima, sending the two hurtling into the trenches. Ruby focussed her magick through the anima, projecting a pulse of kinetic force against the side of an armored slug, flipping it over.

Dinky smashed into a group of dogs hooves first, landing in a trench, and scattered them to the winds with a blast from her horn. She scrambled out of new pit and fired two explosive shots into the flipped slug. Ruby landed almost daintily next to her as the surrounding dogs turned their attention to the new opponents.

Without the slightest pause dinky fired on the group in front of her, piercing flechette managing to penetrate their armor nearly a third of the time. She ducked back into the trenches to avoid fire, only to pop up on the other side moments later and fire a few more shots.

Ruby shaped her magic into a long, hook covered chain. Using her anima as a handle she lashed at the nearest zeppelin, wrapping the conjured weapon around the envelope and tearing it open. The dogs fired, but she was already gone, and most of them forgot what they had been shooting at. Cold tethers stitched through the rage scared magiscape, binding the Irondogs like cobwebs of the mind. The crushing terror of the deep rippled through their minds, forcing them forward to their doom.

Dinky surged back across the trench, gun blazing. She shoulder checked a dog, knocking it to the ground, fired two shots into its chest, reloaded, bashed another in the head with the gun, fired three explosive shots into the crowd.

Suddenly the world lurched sideways, knocking Dinky into a trench. Everything flashed pink and a visible blast wave swatted the clouds and light aircraft from sky. The only thing Dinky could hear was ringing in her ears. Rubble, wreckage and armored dogs flew overhead. In the sky and approaching fast, was an unmistakable, sky eclipsing, purple leviathan: The Zwielicht Funkeln. It’s mere arrival had knocked a good fifth of the enemy fleet out of the sky and the ground forces were in chaos.

A primal scream shook the sky and a torrent of lightning lanced out from a now revealed blue dreadnaught and crashed against the Zwielicht Funkeln’s vast purple shield.

“Oh no.” It was Ruby’s voice. Dinky flopped her throbbing head to the side and saw Ruby struggling with a crystalline cylinder which pulsed with pearlescent light. “No, no. Turn off, turn off, turn off!”

A loudish sploosh noise caught Dinky’s ear, and she struggled to her hooves. All across the battlefield she saw random magical eruptions, some turned everything they touched into soda, or butterflies or some other ‘material’. Some left their victims floating in the air or dancing uncontrollably. Still others just left the impact sight empty, seemingly removed from reality altogether.

“Get down!” Ruby screamed, tackling Dinky to the ground and casting a crimson shield over them.

Dinky watched as a disembodied smile rushed down at them, and opened wide.

*******

Apple Bloom’s struggled out from under a heap of dirt and rubble. An indistinct plain disappeared into a thick haze of dust. The only light in the oppressive darkness was diffuse flashes of lightning and spellfire somewhere deep in the haze. Rolling thunder and cannon fire raged in the far distance. Everything had been swept clean save the debris that had piled on top of her. “Hello!” she shouted into the haze. “Is anypony there!” Her cries were swallowed by the dust.

She took a step and faltered, her foreleg wasn’t moving. “Help!” She stumbled and fell, sending a dull pain through her body. She fought her stiff neck to turn her head as a flash illuminated her body, and quickly regretted her decision. She was covered with scratches and cuts, all choked with dirt. The metal racks on her empty ammo harness were twisted and mangled, a couple digging into her sides, some below the skin. She tried to get to the belt on her chest to release the harness, but her neck wouldn't cooperate and her mouth was quivering too much to grasp the buckle.

It was hopeless, she was alone, she couldn't move, she was bleeding and she couldn't even get the blasted harness off. “Somepony help, please!” She began to cry, pounding the ground with her uninjured hoof and screaming at the empty sky.

A flash illuminated a large shape in the dust and apple bloom froze. Another faded flash illuminated it again, closer and clearer. It was the black spider beast. It’s spearlike legs made metalic tinks againsed the ground, sparking the flint as it advanced slowly in the gloom. It was getting closer. Apple Bloom lay as flat as she could, whimpering softly in the dark. Closer and closer. The nightmare thing was so close, right over her.

A faint green glow grew from between its dual machineguns and quickly became a bright light. It had found her. She tried to squirm away, but a haze of green magick held her fast. Apple Bloom squeezed her eyes shut as two blood soaked legs came down on her with agonizing slowness and, cut the straps on her harness.

With slow precision it cut away the straps and carefully removed the mangled racks. Apple Bloom opened her eyes and saw a smallish changeling standing under the belly of the mechanical monstrosity. She’d never been able to read changeling expressions, but it didn't seem hostile in the least. “Are you okay?” it, she? said with… concern? maybe?

“I, uh, thank you,” Apple bloom managed, still in a blur of adrenalin and endorphins.

“Are you okay?” the changeling repeated, stepping closer. “We have medical supplies.”

Slowly she calmed down and her mind began to clear, bringing with it whole worlds of pain. “Wah, n-no. Ah think my l-leg’s broke an, an Ah’m bleedn’ a lot.”

“I need the p-fac,” the changeling said to the spider, the buzz in her voice more pronounced than before. A small bag rolled off the front of the spider into the changeling’s magick, a silhouette of a pony and a red cross prominently displayed on the side.

She retrieved a blunt ended syringe from the bag and slowly picked her way around Apple Bloom, pulling her worst wounds closed with careful hooves and applying a viscous fluid that stung something fierce. “This is liquid bandages,” she said, her voice less buzzy again. “I don't have enough for all your cuts, but it should cover the important ones.” The fluid hardened in seconds, cutting off the flow of blood just as the changeling said. “My names Poles by the way.”

“Ah’m mighty grateful to yuh, Poles,” Apple Bloom said, watching the changelight work. “Must admit, Ah thought your spider thing was some kinda demon or something. Glad Ah was wrong.”

“That’s kinda the point,” Poles said, finishing the last major cut and moving over to Apple Bloom’s broken leg. “Now what are we gonna do with this?” She rubbed her chin with a perforated hoof, staring at the leg. “Are you claustrophobic?”

The question caught Apple Bloom off guard and it took her a moment to respond. “No, why?”

Poles pointed to the spider with her knifelike horn. “If you come inside with us-”

She was cut off by a cacophony of strange noises. Globes of color and light fell from the sky, impacting the ground with strange and unpredictable effects. Gummy bears, trains, fish and other things swarmed around them.

Poles flew onto the spider’s back on insectile wings, levitating Apple Bloom after her. She dropped through a too thin slit in the armor, which widened to allow the much larger pony access. Apple Bloom expected a cramped compartment with maybe two changelings and lots of magical machinery. What she got was a pool of black ooze with swirls of white into which Poles melted like warm wax. Apple Bloom recoiled at the strange, warm goo she was lowered into, but the top armor snapped shut, locking her in and plunging her into darkness.

“It’s okay,” Poles’ voice whispered in her ear. “We’ll get you home.”

She heard a loud, cackling woosh and they were falling. Were they supposed to be falling?

*******

Thick webs of lightning assailed Twilight’s ship-shield relentlessly. Whatever the thief had found to power the Sturmgeist’s storm engine was beyond any technology known in Equestria. Or at least known to Twilight, and that’s basically the same thing.

The assault lifted briefly, a shield of turquoise plasma replacing the lightning. A volley of flak from the ground based artillery impacted the shield, detonating before it got into effective range. The moments pause was all Twilight needed. The shield dropped and the Zwielicht Funkeln opened fire. Scores of heavy guns, unicorn artillerists and crystal prism cannons raked the faltering blue shield, forcing the Sturmgeist onto the defencive. Dozens of fighters and light bombers took the opportunity to drop from the launch ports under the edges of the flight deck and freewing pegasi poured from portholes opposite the Sturmgeist.

Twilight magiced a half fathom long iron rod from a slot in the deck. Thaumaturgical runes slowly began to thrum to life, priming the feedback nail for deployment. The Zwielicht Funkeln suddenly shook, causing Twilight to miss her shot, and nearly fall.

She spun in place and saw a whale full of potato chips where part of her flight deck should have been. Above she saw dozens more chaos shell on their way down. Nopony had managed to devise a shield that worked against distortion mortars, so Twilight had no choice but to swat them away individually with telekinesis. Following her lead, all the support unicorns on deck lit up their horns to help defend the ship, giving twilight enough time to fire a magic flare into the night sky. It flashed into a mile wide image of her cutiemark for a moment before becoming an equally huge sign reading ‘CEASE FIRE!!!’. Moments later the barrage stopped.

She glanced at the moon. “This is a major problem.”

*******

Ditzy struggled to regain control of the plane for what seemed like the tenth time in as many minutes. The blast from the Zwielicht Funkeln teleporting in had kicked up a fierce wind that was only now dieing down. Chaotic devastation rained across a city sized area, only interrupted by an area under the newly arrived dreadnaught.

The bombardment lasted for only a moment before a sigil flashed in the sky commanding the chaos to stop. The battlefield grew still, the only commotion coming from the two dreadnaughts exchanging fire half a league away.

Sweetie Belle hooked her forelegs on the side of the fuselage and leaned over the side enough to see the pockmarked and transfigured battlefield below. “What just happened?”

Ditzy glanced over the side of the plane and shook her head. “For once I don’t wanna know.”

She turned in a wide arc, trying to spot her daughter in the deathly still trenches blow. “Do you see Dinky anywhere?”

Sweetie closed her eyes and began to hum a quiet song. Lavender light with faint swirls of pink and green rose from her horn and sent a pulse across the ground. “I don't think so, but there’s so much magic down there it’s hard to pick out details.”

“What do you think we should do?” Ditzy asked. “We’re running out of fuel.”

Sweetie cast another pulse, getting nothing but noise again, and sat back into her seat. “Get to the Seltenheit. We can use their antenna to amplify the spell.”

*******

The rhythm of galloping hooves pierced the darkness of Pip’s mind. Distant rumbling quickly grew into a chaotic frenzy. A scream like tearing metal punctured his delirium and his eyes snapped open. Rarity had him draped across her back and was galloping at full sprint towards the ever nearing Seltenheit. Her archano-mechanical hind legs left twin trails of glittering blue and struck the earth with thaumaturgical force.

Another Nightmare cry snapped his attention to the sky. Two vast leviathans assailed each other with curtains of weapons fire and lightning. The half-real, blue dreadnaught fired withering waves of wrong colored lightning and serrated hail across the gap, but it was no match for the god powered warmachine it faced. Acres of empty, too real feedback clouds radiated from a score of rune spangled, coldiron rods embedded in the blue behemoth's side.

With a third scream, this one unsettlingly equine, a great rift cut across reality. The sea is rising. Impossibly vast shapes danced across the gap chittering unknowable words. Pip knew stories of similar things, but what he saw burned with dark secrets, and his mind burned with fear. The sea is rising! He tried to close his eyes, to avert his gaze from the horrible wound in reality, but he couldn't. It was swallowing him whole just as it swallowed Die Großartige und Mächtige Trixieburg. The sea is rising! The rift closed, Die Großartige und Mächtige Trixieburg vanished, and Pip blacked out.

Comments

[UniqueSKD]

Pipsqueak had always dreamed about being a pirate: sailing through the sky wherever the wind took him, with nopony trying to tell him what to do. When he discovered his special talent was captaining airships he decided to make his dreams a reality.

Sadly, he later found out that pirates sailed the seas and not the air. He was technically a terrorist attacking other airborne vessels.

Joking aside, this looks interesting as a story. Will give it a read at least.

[alt-tap]

6473444 Generally they weren't trying to look like badasses.