• Published 9th Mar 2013
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Innavedr - Imploding Colon



A broken party of friends struggles to reunite. Rainbow Dash continues to fly east.

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Falling With Style

Bellesmith panted, stumbling to keep up with Kera. The foal galloped ahead, scaling a tight flight of stairs leading towards a dark alcove above the conjoined laboratory chambers.

"They're gonna come after us! I know it!" Kera squeaked, her voice betraying a deep shudder of urgency. "I think there's a way out up here! Come on, Belle!"

The mare did her best to obey, but more than once she collapsed, leaning on the stairs' edges to catch her breath. She gritted her teeth and stared into the metal grating beneath her. Horrifying images flickered across her vision, and all of them colored like Nightshade's icy pupils. Belle felt a wave of cold stab through her gut, and she feared closing her eyes or else she might find herself someplace else when she opened them.

"Pilate... Pilate..." She whimpered breathily. "No matter how hard I pursue the truth, I-I keep losing ponies around me..." She brought a hoof up to her head and was almost surprised not to feel colorful bangs of hair. "Maybe... maybe that's why she simply kept flying..."

"Belle..."

She looked up.

The foal stood on a few higher steps, her eyes even with the mare's. "Why you clutching your belly like that?"

Belle glanced down, realizing that one forelimb was pressed to her abdomen. "I... I felt as though..." She winced. "Her brother must have lived through it. How could a pony survive?"

"I can't have you going nuts on me now!" Kera growled, pointing above with a petite hoof. "Look! I found a door!"

Looking up, Belle saw a tiny panel with a metal valve. Gently brushing Kera aside, she climbed up the last lengths of steps and gripped the circular piece tightly. With dainty muscles quivering, she eventually managed to twist the valve into the unlocked position. Giving the panel a good shove, she flooded the stairwell with noonday sunlight.

A jet of cool air followed immediately afterwards. Kera almost fell back with a shriek, only for Belle to steady her with a rear limb. Both ponies gazed out into the azure sky above Blue Nova. Tall buildings hovered on manafields while zeppelins puttered above and below. Compared to the grim interior of the Nightshade Industries headquarters, the world looked fantastically alive, albeit no less frightening.

"I don't suppose there's some stairs on the outside of this building as well."

"I wouldn't suspect as much," Bellesmith said, squinting into the high winds. "Spark alive... beyond a meager platform, it simply drops."

"Well... uh... maybe we could double back and hide in one of the alcoves or—"

The air of the claustrophobic stairwell behind them echoed with the sound of heavy, metal-laced hoofsteps. They spun around, seeing the hint of bobbing sources of light as a detachment of armed guards closed the distance behind them.

"Forget it... forget it!" Kera squeaked, then dashed out into the blistery winds. "Last one out is a rotten egg!"

"Kera, wait!" Belle yanked the filly back by the tail.

Kera fought and struggled. "Belle!" She frowned. "We gotta leave—"

"Let me go first!" Belle said. Gulping, she took one nervous step, then another. Inching her way, she fully exited onto the edge of the building. Kera's estimation was right: it'd take just half a gallop and suddenly the two of them would be sliding down the curved summit of the Nightshade Industries building, being plunged to a gooey death far below. "Dash, how do you handle the heights? Honestly..."

"Belle!" Kera squeaked again, dancing nervously in place within the doorframe. "They're coming! I-I can hear them!"

Belle bit her lip. She looked all around for an object to climb or a place to hide. There was no luck. They could just as well have ascended the peak of a jutting promontary. No exit existed. None except...

"Madame Nightshade gives the fine citizens of Blue Nova her well wishes!"

Bellesmith blinked. Craning her neck, she looked down to see the body of Nightshade's aircraft floating between the skyscrapers, levitating a dozen stories below their position.

The speakers affixed to the bulbous blue zeppelin continued broadcasting its felicitous propaganda. "This saturday, the Madame visits Lofty Park to address city beautification legislation!"

"Belle...?"

The mare's brow furrowed. With a determined expression, she spun around and kicked the panel to the interior shut.

Kera gasped, jumping and clinging to Belle's side in the high winds.

"Can you lock it from the outside?!" Belle asked.

"Uh... I-I think so!"

"Do it!"

Kera clenched her teeth, leaning her tattooed faced forward. With several shimmering pulses from her horn, she manipulated the valve through the thick metal. With a squeaking and grinding noise, her task was complete.

"Now what?" Kera spun, then blinked. "Belle?"

She was squatting down, unpacking everything from her right saddlebag. She took the contents of Princess Luna's satchel out and repositioned them so that they stuffed the left pouch.

"What are you doing?"

Belle stood up and aimed the empty pouch towards Kera. "Get inside."

"Huh?!" Kera made a face, stepping back a bit. "What for?"

"You're small enough," Belle said. "Don't pretend to tell me that you can't fit."

"Look, lady. I'm not your purse freshener! We've got a bunch of nasty dudes climbing up to rip us new ones, and all you can do is ask me to—"

"I'm not asking!" Belle growled, her voice cracking as she said, "I am telling you, young lady! Get inside this pouch! Now!"

Kera's ears drooped. With sudden shivers, she shuffled over and slid into Luna's satchel. "Yes, Belle. S-sorry, Belle."

Belle used her teeth to fasten the right saddlebag tight, making sure Kera was nice and secure. "Can you breathe alright?"

"I hope so..."

"Okay. I need you to trust me, Kera."

"What for—?" Kera blinked, then gasped as she saw the direction Belle was facing. "Ohhhhh crudmuffins..."

"I promise you... I will get us out of here..."

"This is such a bad idea..." Kera clenched her eyes shut and shivered against Belle's side. "This is such a bad bad bad bad bad—"

The door pounded and pounded from behind them. The air whistled as the zeppelin threaded its way through the skyscrapers below. Belle took the deepest breath of her life.

"—bad bad bad bad bad bad—"

The hinges of the door broke. She heard the tell-tale creak of the stallions bursting out into the open world, their managuns crackling in the windy air.

Belle's chestnut eyes caught a ruby glint of sunlight as she bolted forward. "Here we go!"

Kera's chant turned into a high-pitched squeal. This formed the cacophonous soundtrack to Bellesmith's plunge. It only took one leap, but soon the mare was gliding down the curved summit of the building. Glass panels and window panes blurred underneath, thumping against Belle's gliding hooves as she guided the two like a living sled towards the urbanscape below at a forty-five degree plummet.

By the time the shadows of looming skyscrapers blocked out the sunlight around them, the zeppelin's smoke rose within breathing distance. It was here that the sloped summit to the Nightshade building cut off completely, and Belle's weight was sent rocketing off the flat edge. She angled her body with the ease of an equine that was supposed to have wings. The wind beat against her eyelids, forcing her to blink once or twice. In those shutter frames of darkness, she saw mountains and valleys, the memories of a daredevilish ghost that was both her fuel and her foil.

Kera shrieked agian.

Belle's eyes twitched, and she saw the body of the zeppelin flying into her vision. She twisted her body at an angle. Her left legs struck first, followed by her right limbs a millisecond later. Grinding to the side, she slid down the curved body of the dirigible. She slid too much, and she collapsed, throwing her weight against the side of her that wasn't full of foal.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" Kera shrieked, her voice echoing off the sheets of glass suddenly reflecting the two as they hurled towards the buildingside across the way. This was when Belle realized they were about to slide completely off the zeppelin's side. She thrashed about just as they plummet into the open air. Thrusting her head forward, she clamped her teeth over a support cable of the dirigible, anchoring the two in place. They dangled for a fwe breathless seconds—that is, until the cable snapped.

Yet again, Kera gasped, punctuating the perilous swing as both ponies fell the length of the cable and swung haphazardly through the upper air of the city street. At the end of the cable's throw, Belle's teeth failed her. She lost her grip, and the pair fell three stories, only to collapse through the awning of a tenth story balcony.

"Ooomf!" Belle gasped as the two rolled off. Thinking fast, she thrust her forelimbs forward, caught the edge of the awning, and swung the two onto the body of the balcony. They collapsed through a wooden table, sending splinters and chunks of wood flying across the platform, but they managed to land with their limbs intact.

One on level flooring, Belle slumped to her haunches, panting profusefly.

"Woooohoooo!" Kera suddenly cheered, reaching from her midnight pouch to hug Belle's neck and nuzzle her dearly. "That was the absolute best idea ever! Heeeee! Belle, you're amazing!"

Belle gulped. "Wrong... A-word..." she stammered.

"Huh?"

The mare shook her head. "Nevermind. We gotta get away before anypony in the skyscraper or the airship sees us."

"Belle, look!" Kera pointed to a part of the building adjacent to the apartment balcony. Belle saw a fire escape leading towards the lower street.

"Spark be praised!" Belle stood up and galloped without hesitation. "Time to disappear!"

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