Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 121: In The Air Tonight

The ponies outside the ring jeered and yelled encouragement as the big pony and I circled each other. His forelegs were decorated with the monotone ink of prison tattoos, showing who he was more clearly than his generic winged-cloud cutie mark. I’d been here long enough now to know how to read them. The crimes he’d committed to get thrown in one of the Enclave’s highest security prisons. The crimes he’d done while he was here. What was waiting for him if he ever got out.

Starfall Upper had been a professional boxer until he’d made enemies and done the things that got him put away here in the hole. He was in the running for the most dangerous pony in the prison. The last time anypony’d gotten into the ring with him, they’d left with broken bones and he’d gotten an extra year added to his sentence.

“Are you gonna fight or just dance around it all day?” he growled around his mouthpiece.

“I need to give ponies time to make bets,” I jabbed back at him. “If I went right for you, it’d be over too quickly for anypony to enjoy it!”

He came at me while I was talking. My perception changed gear with no effort on my part, and everything slowed down long enough for me to see it. His wing spread, a single powerful beat on one side that twisted his left shoulder up and put the full force of his body and his wingpower into a blow.

I dipped to the side and gave him a friendly pat on the cheek with my gloved hoof, teasing him and not even attempting a real blow. Starfall’s face turned red with anger and he planted his hindleg firmly, using his existing momentum and turning it around in another direction to come at me hard and fast.

His right forehoof hit my jaw. He was wearing a glove, but it still felt like having a boulder smash me in the face.

I took it head-on and went forward into him, shoulder-checking him and forcing him back. Ponies outside the ring yelled about cheating.

“I didn’t hear the ref make a call!” I shouted to them.

Starfall scoffed. “What ref?”

I grinned. He returned the smirk. It’s not like this was a match in some big professional arena. He might have been a prizefighter, but he knew how to have a real fight, too. One of the tattoos on his left foreleg covered a bite mark.

We circled each other halfway around the ring again like particles in a cyclotron before both of us charged at some invisible signal. Starfall was hard to read. Most ponies, I could tell what they were going to do in a fight, but even my sixth sense was lagging when it came to him. He was used to fighting other ponies who had experience and perception, and it showed in the way he kept his movements to the bare minimum and didn’t show what he was going to do until it was too late to stop him.

His right hoof hit my raised guard, keeping up the pressure and drawing my attention while his left tried to find a way to sneak inside to crack it open.

The doors to the prison gym opened. I was only dimly aware of it, because if it took more than a tiny fraction of my awareness, Starfall would use that gap to insert a punch. He was an in-fighter, keeping up the pressure and not letting me retreat.

I deflected a punch with a twist of my forehoof, freeing half my guard up to make an attack of my own. It was a mistake. He leaned into that deflection hard, turning almost entirely to the side. He punched sideways with his left and got me in the snout. It was a stinging, eye-watering blow. More importantly, that sudden surprise left me open.

He came all the way back around. Unfortunately for Starfall, he’d accidentally made me angry. I threw a real punch at him just as he completed the spin. It was almost too late for him. The air around my hoof sparked and crackled, a power field forming around it in an unconscious response to my anger.

Starfall saw it and threw himself to the ground out of self-preservation. My punch went over his head and into one of the turnbuckles holding the ropes. The glove on my hoof exploded.

“Hey, we agreed no powerhooves!” Starfall complained, getting up and taking off his gloves. He trotted over to me, upset. “You said you were working on that, Chamomile.”

“I know, I know,” I grunted. “Sorry. It happens sometimes when I get too into it.” I’d gotten the energy field to turn off, but now I was stuck, and I had a sinking feeling that I knew why. I braced myself against the turnstile and yanked. Claws popped free like corks out of a bottle, sending me stumbling back until I caught myself.

“And the lightning claws too?” Starfall pursed his lips and shook his head.

“If this was a real fight to the death, they’d be very good to have,” I retorted. “It’s harder than it looks. It’s like a reflex makes them pop out.”

I shook my forehoof and let them fold back up inside my leg. They vanished almost seamlessly. If a pony didn’t know what they were looking for, they’d be forgiven for not noticing at all. It was less like the way a cat’s claws extended and more the way a folding knife snapped open.

“And it’s important to control reflexes,” Starfall cautioned. “That’s what we’ve been working on with your physical therapy, remember?”

I sighed. “I remember.”

He patted me on the shoulder. “It’s okay. We all make mistakes. Just don’t let it hurt other ponies.”

“He almost had you on the ropes!” the pony who’d complained about my shoulder check cheered from outside the ring.

The cast on his right foreleg was a good indication about how that’d gone. I felt bad that he’d broken his leg in three places hitting me in the chest. Signed Placard wasn’t a smart pony. He’d started his first day in prison by finding the biggest, toughest pony in prison and punching them.

“I’m gonna miss you two,” I said, giving them a quick hug.

“Are you going somewhere?” Placard asked. “I didn’t think you were up for parole yet.”

I nodded to the pony who’d just walked in. “My ride just got here.”

“I’d like to think I’m good for more than that,” Quattro Formaggio said. The golden-colored pony smiled and brushed her mane back, her expression difficult to read through her sunglasses.

I hopped out of the wing, flapping a few times to land softly next to her. I could feel her gaze linger on my wings.

“Starfall, Signed, this is Quattro. She’s a spy. Don’t let anypony know. Quattro, these are Starfall and Signed Placard. We’re prison buddies!”

“Charmed,” Signed said, taking Quattro’s hoof and kissing it politely.

“So what are you two in for?” Quattro asked. “I can guess with Chamomile. She probably beat up some ponies and caused a massive explosion.”

“Tax evasion,” Starfall said. “I made some large sports bets and didn’t report my winnings.”

“I am unfairly confined for political reasons!” Placard declared. He’d been arrested for protesting. Protesting what, neither he nor the prosecutor seemed sure. Just protesting in general about the state of things.

“I was expecting to hear something about murders or armed robbery,” Quattro admitted.

“Murder!” Starfall scoffed, laughing. “If a pony did that, they’d get executed, not sent to prison! What, they’re going to waste resources feeding them after they killed somepony?”

“Nopony here has a sentence lasting more than a year,” Placard said in support. “I’m pretty sure most of us are just grounded because we embarrassed our families.”

“What about the…?” Quattro motioned to Starfall’s prison tattoos.

“The henna?” Starfall asked. “One of the ponies in block B is an artist with it. It looks great, doesn’t it?”

“Temporary tattoos,” Quattro sighed. “Chamomile, why did they put you in here when you might hurt somepony?”

I shrugged. “The government is trying to figure out what to do with me. That means lots of debates and paperwork and delays. They needed me somewhere safe until they were done.”

Quattro shook her head. “No wonder Cozy Glow thought she could just trot in and take over. I’m honestly shocked you haven’t walked out. Nopony here could stop you.”

“I needed some help getting used to all this,” I said. I spread my batlike or, really, draconic wings. “Starfall has a degree in sports medicine and Signy has been great moral support.”

“She also keeps the bullies from picking on me,” Signed Placard said. “They didn’t like it when I read my manifesto on poetry night, even after I made it rhyme.”

Starfall nodded. “Physical therapy is important for anypony who suffers a serious injury, even after they think they’re fully recovered.”

“That’s nice,” Quattro agreed. “You two seem like very nice ponies and I’m sorry you had to get locked up with Chamomile.”

“Thank you.”

“So!” Quattro clapped her hooves. “You don’t seem surprised. You’re not shocked I managed to get on the first airbus here?”

I shrugged mildly. “I used my real name when I was filling out the paperwork with the guards. I knew if I waited here long enough you’d show up.”

Quattro shrugged in mild agreement. “That’s a lot of faith in me.”

I scoffed. “You helped me get Cube out of prison. I knew you’d show up once you heard I’d been put in the icebox. I figured it was the fastest way to find you. That’s why I let myself get arrested.”

“I’m sure,” Quattro said. She didn’t sound sure. She sounded like she thought I was lying and hadn’t meant to go to prison at all. Like I’d had some other, better plan. She’d be wrong about that.

“So?” I asked. “I assume you have some complicated plan on busting me out?”

“I might have one. Before I go to that kind of effort I need to know if it’s worth it. Clearly you’ve had some changes while you were gone.”

“Going to space changes a pony,” I said quietly. “I saw things you can’t even imagine. I was there in the capsule, and I looked outside and I saw the whole world below me. And then this bright, shining light grabbed me, and I woke up on a table with changelings around me holding probes.”

Quattro hesitated. “You’re lying.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve gotten better at it!”

“Thank you, I think.”

“It’s a compliment. Should I assume you’ve some sort of self-imposed mission that you need my help on?” Quattro asked.

“Absolutely. I’ve even got a plan, but I’ll need to figure out the situation up here before I get into details. If it works out the way I think it will, we can deal with Cozy Glow, the Exodus Red, and my mom all at the same time.”

“That’s ambitious and vague,” Quattro tilted her head back in faux thought, though I knew she’d already made up her mind. She’d have come for me even if I had no plan at all, just because I was a good grenade to throw at a situation and blow it up. “I like your guts, kid. Now, I’ve got a 12-part plan to get us out of here without killing anypony, and we can take your two friends here if you want--”

“No thanks,” Starfall said. “I’ve got a parole hearing tomorrow.”

“And I’m going to be released in a few weeks,” Signed Placard put in.

“Maybe they should have put Chamomile in a zoo instead of a prison,” Quattro mumbled. “You two seem way too nice to be locked up with a tiger.”

The door to the gym opened again. “Chamomile!” the guard yelled, waving when he spotted me. “Your lawyer’s here!”

“You told them you were my lawyer?” I whispered to Quattro. She shook her head. “Then what lawyer is he talking about?”

---

“By all rights I should leave you in here,” the old, bearded unicorn said, adjusting his professional, pressed, dry-cleaned suit. He kept touching his slicked-back mane to make sure it was in place. “Do you have any idea how many things I’m dealing with right now?”

“I’m sure it’s so many that you don’t even have spare time to count them,” I retorted.

Star Swirl the Bearded, professional hero and put-upon endlessly by everypony around him, including the abstract notion of fate itself, nodded firmly. “At least you understand that much. Things have spiraled out of control. This situation is already deviating heavily from the main timeline of events I outlined. I underestimated how much damage a few loose cannons could do.”

“The orbital strikes did even more,” I reminded him. “So when did you get a law degree?”

“Don’t be stupid. They didn’t even have lawyers when I was in school. It was a civilized time. I’ve merely cast a few suggestion and charm spells to make the ponies here believe I have the appropriate credentials. Harmless little enchantments.”

“So you two know each other?” Quattro asked.

Star Swirl looked at her. Quattro smiled back.

“Hi,” Quattro said, offering a hoof to shake. “I’m one of Chamomile’s oldest and best friends.”

“That is hardly a sign of your good character,” Star Swirl retorted. “This pony has caused me and all of Equestria more problems than all but… perhaps a dozen ponies. If I didn’t owe her several favors, I’d have left her here and hoped she stayed out of the way.”

“Kinda funny that both of you came to break me out on the same day,” I said.

“It’s not that funny,” Quattro shrugged. “I told you, I got the first transport here. They only run a bus once a week. I think he was on the same bus.”

“I could have teleported here,” Star Swirl said defensively. “I decided not to. I’m trying to avoid drawing too much attention to myself, and suddenly appearing at the gates of a high-security prison is a good way to get noticed. I just snuck in with the rest of the lawyers.”

“I told the guards I was here for a conjugal visit and they didn’t want any details after that,” Quattro noted.

Star Swirl rolled his eyes and turned back to me. “I don’t see why you even left Seaquestria! It was a nice place, and according to history, it stays sealed until long after you could break anything. At least another few decades before anypony notices they're down there.”

I shrugged. “I died. Then there was a zombie outbreak, and I ended up setting off a megaspell and getting banished.”

Star Swirl gave me a flat look.

“Do you have any more megaspells?” Quattro asked. “Because if that’s your plan, it’s not a bad one. I can get behind the use of brute force to solve problems.”

I rolled my eyes. “It was a healing megaspell to cure the outbreak.”

“Then why you’d get banished?” Quattro asked.

“I might have also picked a fight with their entire military. It’s a long story. There was a conspiracy and it didn’t go all the way to the top because I cut off the head.”

Star Swirl muttered something under his breath about how he couldn’t even put a foal in a playpen without it being set on fire.

“It’s actually really good to see you,” I said. “You might be able to save me a week of running around like an idiot.”

He raised an eyebrow and motioned for me to explain.

“I need the details on a specific spell. I was going to go to Winterhoof and ask around there, but it was a little bit of a long shot and I’d probably end up on some quest that would cause even more problems somewhere down the line.”

I was hoping if I phrased it like helping me was also going to minimize collateral damage that he’d be more willing to go along with it.

“I do know just about every spell ever written down and a few that I decided not to write down because they were too dangerous,” Star Swirl conceded. Then he sharply held up a hoof. “But! I didn’t come here to help you with some insane, reckless plan.”

“My plan is perfectly rational,” I promised him. “I want to use magic to solve this whole invasion situation. That’s the best way to solve any problem, isn’t it?”

The ancient wizard glared at me. “You’re trying to manage me like a cranky foal.”

“Sorry.” I gave him a nervous grin. He really was my best hope to get a critical component for my plan, and he’d practically fallen into my lap. I explained my plan, or at least the part I needed from him. I am not saying what it is here yet because I am being dramatic in my narration. Also there was a good chance it’d blow up in my face and I don’t want ponies to know how bad my ideas actually are.

“Are you serious?” Star Swirl asked. “That spell that has been done perhaps thrice in recorded history. It, not to put too fine a point on it, needs more magical energy than any normal unicorn could possibly provide!”

“That’s the one,” I confirmed.

“I know the spell but I can’t cast it the way you need. It wouldn’t have nearly enough power.” He sat back and folded his forehooves. “If I can’t do it, nopony can.”

“Flurry Heart could.”

“It’s not an option. I can slip out because I’m careful. I know how to navigate the space between spaces and how to avoid causing any bloody paradoxes. She’s…” he hesitated.

I shrugged and suggested an adjective. “Scary.”

“Terrifying,” Star Swirl corrected. “A bloody foal with enough power to knock the moon out of orbit. The point is, I can’t cast it and neither of you two have horns.”

“Would something that could cause an eclipse have enough power?” I asked.

“Yes…” Star Swirl said slowly. “You did something. You were involved in that idiot mess!”

“I fixed it!” I protested.

“I remember that,” Quattro said. “That was right before I got back in touch with you, Chamomile. There were riots in most major cities. Panic everywhere. Ponies setting things on fire and declaring it was the end times. Then a few hours later they all felt silly about it.”

A sigh escaped my lips. “Sounds right.”

Quattro chuckled. “You never do anything halfway do you?”

“I stopped the pony who did it. They were using a ritual set up in this huge ritual megaspell space. It’s cleaned out now but it should be intact. We can use that to set off the spell!”

“It’s theoretically possible,” Star Swirl admitted. “I’d have to rewrite half the spell, but it could be forced to work.”

“All you’d have to do then is lure the Exodus Red into exactly the right position right on top of your giant ritual room and hope they don’t notice it,” Quattro said. She snorted. “Cozy Glow isn’t that dumb.”

I shook my head. “We’ll bring the spell to her. It’s not in a building, it’s onboard the Exodus Black.”

“Your plan has more holes than a block of swiss cheese,” Star Swirl said. He stood up. “You’re lucky I don’t have anything better right now. We should be away. I need time to rewrite that spell to work with these newfangled bloody megaspell arrays. You need to secure a way to actually cast it once I’ve got it ready to go.”

“Don’t worry, the captain of the Exodus Black and I are personal friends,” I said. “Are they really just going to let us walk out of here?”

Star Swirl trotted over to the door and snorted, pushing it open. “Charm spells. Not only will they let us, they’ll believe it was their idea to make us leave. And that’s without hurting anypony, blowing anything up, or causing irreparable damage to the timeline.”

“He’s like the total opposite of you, Chamomile,” Quattro whispered.

“I’ve noticed that, thanks.”

Quattro patted my shoulder. “You’re more fun.”

---

The guards put me in hoofcuffs, took them off, and walked around with half-finished paperwork in a daze. Star Swirl’s spells had put a real whammy on them, but he assured us it would settle out after we’d left.

“For them, it will be like a dream,” he said. “They’ll fill in all the little details on their own around the facts. I gave them a suggestion to finish filling out the paperwork before they do anything else, and once things are filed in a society like this, it doesn’t matter what really happened, only what’s on the forms.”

“We’re going to have to come up with a plan for getting to the Exodus Black,” Quattro said. “The military isn’t going to let you borrow any Vertibucks.”

“You two both got here on the same ride, right?” I asked.

“Along with two dozen other ponies. It was a sky wagon, if we have to fly as far as I think we do, something pony-pulled isn’t going to cut it.” Quattro rubbed her chin. “We’ll have to think outside the box.”

“How bad is my standing with the military anyway?” I asked.

Quattro winced. “I wouldn’t say you’ve burned every single bridge, but the ponies that like you are the ones who put you in prison. You don’t want to know what the ponies who don’t like you wanted to do.”

“Execution?”

“They might be willing to compromise and give you a blindfold before the firing squad starts shooting.”

A beam rifle shot smashed into the energy shield around us. The high-energy blast exploded into a storm of sparks that cascaded along its surface, tracing out paths around us.

“Thanks for the save, old man!” Quattro yelled to Star Swirl. His horn was glowing dim grey-blue.

“I always have a contingency spell ready to activate itself if you’re attacked,” Star Swirl explained. “It’s the most basic requirement of any decent battle mage.”

Quattro smiled. “Chamomile, we’ve got to keep this guy around.”

“Don’t be stupid, I’m staying as far away from your mess as I can,” Star Swirl scoffed. “I’ve been on enough adventures in my own time.”

A second shot streaked through, and Star Swirl confidently reinforced his shield. This time I was able to catch where the shots were aimed. I’d assumed the first one was after me, but this time I was sure.

“Quattro, do you have any enemies-- why am I asking? Of course you do.”

She didn’t try to deny it. “None of them should know I’m here! I’ve been lying low ever since the naval review!”

“None of my enemies are alive,” Star Swirl noted.

“I’ll try your method next time,” Quattro promised. “Chamomile?”

“I need to stretch my wings anyway,” I agreed. I took to the air once Star Swirl dropped his shield. Flying with the new wings felt different in ways that are hard to describe. They were heavier than my old wings, letting me shift weight around more easily. They were more maneuverable but I wasn’t sure I trusted them over long distances. I had to do a lot more flapping.

Speed wasn’t a problem. I spotted the shooter on a ridge of clouds overlooking the prison entrance. The pony ditched a camouflage tarp as I neared her hunting blind, revealing her black, lightly-armored bodysuit and array of weapons. I dove and slammed down in front of her, knocking the heavy beam rifle off-target before she could fire again.

The mare’s horn glowed, and an array of knives and pistols floated around her in a deadly cloud. There was something familiar about this.

“Wait,” I said. I narrowed my eyes.

My mysterious attacker waited a moment, not firing. She was watching me for something. After a moment with neither of us killing each other, she tossed her helmet aside, shaking out her mane and looking at me. Not with hate, but with the total exasperation that I tended to inspire in the average pony.

I was surprised but not shocked. “Cube?”

“Do you have any idea what I’ve been through since the Hub?” Cube demanded. She gave me half a second to answer, not enough time to even begin a response before she pressed forward. “It wasn’t enough that the most important strategic resource in the world was lost while under my command, but almost every warsat blew its payload! And half of them hit the Exodus Red! Cozy Glow declared me a mutineer and a traitor and even my own father disowned me!”

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Wait, what was that about the Exodus Red?”

“And on top of that, I was sure you were dead!” Cube continued. “I can’t believe you! Any time things get tough you just buck off to buck knows where!”

I shuffled my hooves, trying not to feel guilty. It was hard. She was very upset at me and I had sort of ruined her life. “It was an island resort.”

“An island. Resort.” Cube said slowly.

“And I lost a leg and a wing! I was very traumatized!”

She looked at my fully intact limbs and raised an eyebrow.

“I got better.”

“Oh yes. You got better.” She growled.

“Mom did it!” I declared. “It’s not my fault! She was using the island to develop dark magic, and hacking it with what was left of the Black Dragon, and I’m pretty sure I ended up there because she guided me subtly after she hacked my body on the Hub!”

Cube glared at me and said nothing.

“I got eaten by a dragon and had to fight Mom’s digital avatar in a very exciting and high-budget computer-generated fight sequence.”

“And what about that?” she motioned.

“You just indicated all of me.”

“Yes.”

“An ancient superintelligent computer was hooked into the black dragon at the time and I think she fixed me up before the dragon spat me out,” I said. “She owed me a favor for saving her.”

“That story is stupid, incredibly unlikely, and has holes big enough for me to fly the Juniper through it!” Cube snapped. “So I believe it. It’s exactly the sort of stupid stuff you get involved in.”

“Thank you.”

“Now will you please get out of the way so I can finish shooting Quattro Formaggio?”

“You know I can’t let you do that.”

“Why?” Cube whined. “She’s a traitor to everypony, Chamomile! No matter what she says, it’s a lie!”

“It’s true, I lie a lot,” Quattro confirmed. She was lying down on the cloud surface, relaxed and kicking her back hooves up in the air like a teen filly gossiping at a sleepover. “Don’t stop, keep going. I like to hear what other ponies think about me.”

“Because it helps you figure out an angle for stabbing them in the back,” Cube retorted.

“Girls, don’t fight,” I said firmly. “Cube, did you come here on the same skywagon as Quattro and Star Swirl.”

“I’ve been here for three days,” Cube said. “I was waiting for them to transfer you to a higher-security prison. I was going to hijack the transport and rescue you.” She sat down on a box full of self-heating meals. “When I saw Quattro, I knew she’d come here to find some way to make things worse. She’s probably still working for Cozy Glow.”

Quattro frowned and took off her sunglasses. “I’m not.”

“That’s exactly what you’d say if you were!”

“Can we focus?” I asked. “There was one thing I didn’t understand. You said the orbital strikes hit the Exodus Red? I thought they were aimed in the middle of nowhere!”

“No such luck,” Cube huffed. “They caused a huge amount of damage. It’s all repaired now thanks to SIVA, but the point is that it was directed against a moving target, so Cozy Glow was sure I did it. She doesn’t believe Mom could have hacked anything. She thinks her containment is perfect.”

“I just got back from an island where Mom didn’t just hack something, she was still connected to it through some kind of relay,” I replied.

“Good luck proving that to Cozy,” Cube said. “She’s been acting unhinged since it went down. She lost half the crew of the Red. Believe it or not, she did care about them. About us. And she thinks I did it.”

“Why the orbital strike at all?” Quattro asked. “The loss of life is tragic, but it doesn’t help your mother at all.”

I rubbed my chin, thinking of the rifles on the Hub twisting the ponies holding them into monsters. My own foreleg turning against me and trying to kill me. All it took was a few seconds of junk code in a burst transmission. The dream I’d had. Pieces in a subtly different color being put on the board without anypony even noticing.

“The repairs might have been the point,” I said. “We need to stop the Exodus Red as soon as possible. How did you get here, Cube? Maybe we can--”

“Teleported,” she said.

“Into a highly-secure area?” Star Swirl asked, finally getting over to us.

“The Enclave doesn’t have a lot of unicorns, and the ones it does have are kept busy and very highly paid,” I said. “That’s why my Mom was pretty well-off.”

Cube nodded in agreement. “The inside of the prison has plenty of wards but maintaining external ones for the one-in-a-million chance a unicorn might try to break in instead of out? Way too expensive.”

“Good thing Chamomile is a one-in-a-million pony,” Quattro chuckled.

“She might as well have this junk, too,” Cube said. She kicked one of the hooflockers she had in her blind. “I took it from the Juniper before Dad made me leave. He gave me as much as I could carry but he had to follow orders. Let me unlock it and--”

“I got it,” I said, using the tiny bit of magic I could to slip into the mechanism and pop it open without the key. Cube blinked in surprise.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“She’s always finding new ways to be dangerously stupid and stupidly dangerous,” Star Swirl groaned.

“Some kind of thaumoframe thing,” I explained. “My body picked up how to make it after getting pelted with enough shrapnel from-- from this, actually.”

I opened the case wide to reveal the blue-tinted power armor lying inside, disassembled for transport.

“I thought you’d need it back,” Cube said mildly.

“Thank you,” I said, really meaning it. “Wait, were you able to--”

I stopped my question before it could be properly said. Cube picked a blue helmet out of the box and held it up. There was no life in the machine. I couldn’t sense a soul or magic. The horn had been cut off the helmet, leaving a repaired-over scar on the forehead.

Cube shook her head. “Her soul was anchored in what was left of her horn. They took it and it’s still on the Exodus Red.”

I nodded slowly. It was one more thing I had to set right. I put the helmet back in the box. I’d get the armor together later, once I’d had a bit to let the news settle.

Quattro sighed and got up. “I think I know where we can find a ship. We’ll take a little side trip to Thunderbolt Shores. Captain Glint still… well, she doesn’t owe me any favors but she might extend me a line of credit if I ask nicely.”

“And how do we get there?” Cube asked. “You’re just pushing the problem down the line.”

“Unlike a mysterious airship in the middle of nowhere, we can just buy an airbus ticket if we want to go to Thunderbolt Shores,” Quattro said. “Who’s up for a road trip?”

Comments

[Reese]

"I braced myself against the turnstile and yanked"
"I braced myself against the turnbuckle and yanked"?

"“He almost had you on the ropes!” the pony who’d complained about my shoulder check cheered from outside the ring.

The cast on his right foreleg was a good indication about how that’d gone."
Just checking, but did some text go missing between these two, or some drafts collide? There's enough of a connection that I could see that not being the case, but there also seems like a sufficient degree of discontinuity that it might have been; I thought I'd comment on it just in case.

"I hopped out of the wing, flapping a few"
"I hopped out of the ring, flapping a few"?

"“Nopony here has a sentence lasting more than a year,” Placard said in support."
While it might technically not depending on the details, this seems like it might conflict with this from earlier:
"The last time anypony’d gotten into the ring with him, they’d left with broken bones and he’d gotten an extra year added to his sentence."
I thought I'd point it out just in case.

"Then why you’d get banished"
"Then why'd you get banished"?

"That spell that has been done perhaps"
"That spell has been done perhaps"?

"I always have a contingency spell ready to activate itself if you’re attacked"
"I always have a contingency spell ready to activate itself if I'm attacked"?

Thanks for writing!

[howard035]

I am so excited that we might FINALLY get Destiny back!