Ticket to Ride
"It should be just past this corridor!" Tweak shouted, galloping as swiftly as he could up a steep line of granite steps. The glow of his body and all the crystal ponies running behind him lit up the dim corridor with shimmering luminescence. "Stay close! If we run into any bounty hunters, stand behind me and I'll reduce them to smoldering shrapnel!"
"Unngh..." Crimson stumbled once or twice, fighting a wave of dizziness as he struggled to take up the rear. "This would be a lot easier without the nausea..."
He felt a gentle tug of telekinesis. Looking to his side, he saw Imre giving him a boost as she ran alongside the group.
"It's the crystal ponies' mana interference with your horn's leylines," she droned. "You're likely to feel a great deal of dizziness and discomfort—"
"Yes, yes. I'm well acquainted with all of that, thanks." Crimson picked up the pace, hobbling up the stairs on three limbs and a splintery prosthetic. "You seem to be doing very well for yourself."
"I'm used to it. I've treated most of these ponies, remember? Still..." She glanced behind her flank in mid sprint.
Crimson looked back at her. He said, "What is it? Are we forgetting something?"
Imre shuddered. "Rainbow Dash is battling Lady Pestiferous all on her own..."
"She can handle that freak," Crimson said. "I've seen the pegasus in action. She's a tough cookie."
"You make it sound sweet that she's likely bleeding out her frickin' guts to save our flanks."
"Beneath all of the butt-kicking and the guile, you bet it's sweet. I've seen it—the way she dives after her friends..."
"Friends?"
"Look, we all have something worth getting out of here for," Crimson grunted. "Most of us, at least." He gave her a sideways glance. "You aren't... worried, are you?"
Imre stared back at him, blinked, then muttered, "Don't be ridiculous. Rainbow Dash is all that stands between us and the Top Spear of Searo's Hold."
"Hmmph..." Crimson smirked tiredly, facing ahead as he continued his gallop. "You may have been locked away in this place Spark knows how long, but your blood isn't nearly as cold as the rest of the mares."
"You wanna put that to the test—?"
"Shhhh!" Tweak hissed. "Shut your traps, everypony! We're almost there!"
As the group arrived at the top of the ascending corridor, the thunderous noise of manafire exchange and explosions lit the air. Tweak peaked out onto the hangar, his breaths coming and going in little spurts. At last, he smiled and hoarsely whispered back to the group.
"Guess what! Our posse is still there! As well as the ship! Boy, do I know how to pick the right stuff..."
"Sounds like a party out there," Crimson uttered. "How many mares have shown up?"
"I'm guessing a dozen. They're all bunched up along the south end of the hangar. My boys have them pinned down with rifle fire."
"I know the metal mares around here are meatheaded," Imre said, poking her head into the group of stallions. "But they're not exactly mindless drones. If so many of them are holed up in one spot, it only means another group is either trying to attack your friends' flank or utilize a secret weapon."
"Tweak?" Crimson looked over. "What do you think? Should we risk it?"
Tweak took a deep breath. He glanced over his shoulder at Lucky Strike leaning against another stallion. "I certainly didn't come all this way to do figure skating." He turned and looked at Crimson. "I'll run out first and draw their fire. You and Miss Sunshine there cover these stallions with your magic while they make a break for the manaship. I'll come up the rear."
Imre frowned. "I don't recall enlisting in your little battallion here."
"Yeah, and I don't remember gutting your bowels with a fork!" Tweak shouted in her face. "But everything's subject to change, now isn't it, cupcake?!"
"Hmmph..." Imre crossed her forelimbs indignantly.
"I got it, Tweak," Crimson calmly said, charging up his horn. "I'll get your stallions to safety. Now... after you..."
"Be careful, brother," Lucky Strike nervously insisted.
"I never am..." Tweak charged his manarifle, held his breath, then charged ravenously out into the open floor of the rubble-strewn hangar. "Yaaaaaaaaaaah! Eat mana, you crud sponges!" The sound of his shouts were absorbed by the utter cacophony of his rapidly firing rifle. Streams of energy ate their way across the open room, knocking several mares off their flanks and backing them even further behind the flimsy line of defense they had erected besides the distant entrance ot the place.
In the meantime, Crimson was galloping forward, positioning himself between the many stallions making a run for the crystal ponies defending Aeterna's manaship. He erected a force field of energy in time to deflect several metal mares' return volleys. At one point, his shield flickered, threatening to dissipate. In timely fashion, Imre galloped up and reinforced it with a flash of energy. Crimson sweatily smiled in gratitude, but Imre simply glared past him, gesturing for more stallions to make the crossing.
At last, Tweak's rifle burned red hot. The very barrel melted and fused shut; he had fired too many discharges within a span of thirty seconds. Cursing under his breath, he tossed the item down, swiveled about, and galloped towards the group while weaponfire exchanged back and forth over his twitching, crystalline ears.
"Alright! Let's lower our energy field and get the manaship to turn on again! I wanna get home in time for—"
Three smoking objects were suddenly lobbed over his head. He skidded to a stop, gasped, and shouted, "Bombs! Get down!"
Crimson and his fellow ponies looked up. Three large, fragmentary explosives—with fully lit, sparkling fuses—rattled to a stop between them and the escape craft. He gritted his teeth and summoned a force field just in time.
The resulting explosion made everypony's ears ring. Bits of shrapnel flew in every direction. Half of them splashed violently against Crimson's energy barrier. The other half flew murderously into Aeterna's manaship. The ship shattered in many places. At last, the manacore ruptured, and the vessel went up in a huge fireball that heated up the entire hangar.
"Nnngh—Gaah!" Crimson hissed as steam rose from his coat. He fell back, only for Imre and a crystal pony to embrace him. They slid him away from the wreckage and towards the suddenly helpless group of escapees.
Tweak, dumbfounded, spun around. He spotted a hole that had been freshly blasted only ten meters away. Standing in the fresh gap of sundered rock was Terra, along with three other mares. Though their armor and gadgetry were dormant from the crystal ponies' aura, it didn't stop them from brandishing several primitive fuse bombs and a miniature catapult mechanism.
"I'm sorry, was that your ticket out of here?" Terra's meaty face grinned within the metal brace of her helmet piece. "Well, it looks like I've found you another ticket that's faster..." Her eyes narrowed. "And bloodier."
And her fellow warriors loaded new bombs into the catapult...
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Two boss fights at once?
You spoil us!
2506452
It's like a microcosm of the story as a whole: parties split up and take on epic adventures before ultimately rejoining in the crux of epic strife.
2506470
So... two boss battles, and then one huge double kick-ass boss battle?
Cool!
...and exploded in their faces!
Disadvantage to destroying the hangar - no more ships to hijack.
Never heard that one before, now have ya?
YES DRILL SERGEANT!! ... That said, I still don't get the name connection between Jake and Tweak.
What I do know though is that he and Imre make a great team.
2.bp.blogspot.com/_b6xckWxjCZE/SwrpYWBwesI/AAAAAAAAAd0/ZuAxhDIBBhc/s1600/04.jpg
They really do.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse.
Damn, but I'm still wondering where might Roarke's ship be? More importantly, will we be getting more belle and pilate again soon? Please
There's a sexual metaphor in here somewhere.
Flash To Bang Time - Accept
And the second fight begins.
Well, this seems extremely easy to counter. The unicorns just need to catch the bombs with telekinesis and throw them back.
Heh remember the Crystal Ponies of Equestria; all love and happiness. Good times... Good times...
Honeytiger is very confused today.
2506739 If you don't get the Jake/Tweak connection you wouldn't get the KMCA/Imre connection either
Isn't it actually Rye? I swear I heard that somewhere once.
So THAT'S where she's been!
Damn you Terra. Why do you have to go and make a another boss battle out of the blue!?
2506602 Remember Roarke's ship flew off somewhere? I don't think this is the end of it yet...
That IS the best line ever: "Yeah, and I don't remember gutting your bowels with a fork... [but] everything's subject to change, now isn't it, cupcake?!"
I'm really hoping that Roarke's ship lands on top of Terra and squashes her miserable carcass flat.
Bombs, bombs, bombs, AND MORE BOMBS!!!!!
I know a couple of readers have commented on this already, but this was pure gold:
Seriously, Scolon, I'm jealous. Excellent job EVEN THOUGH ITS ANOTHER BUCKING CLIFFHANGER. I can't wait to get back to the other members of our little rag-tag team once Rainbow ultimately defeats Pestiferous.
Ooooh, two fight scenes. I don't know which one I want to see more.
Mother of God....
ah...poopie...
2507392 There is one? The only Imre I know is Lakatos.
2509416 there's another Imre? wow
2506473
I'm willing to wager that the two fights somehow meet eventually
Well sh*t... There goes that route...
Time for RD and the spider pony to come crashing through the ceiling
Look's like that escape ship has sailed.
With the number of walls RBD's crashing Pestiferous through, it's only a matter of time before these two fights converge.
I'm not sure why the power-outage affected the metal mares so much. In the end, they're still wearing armor and their opponents aren't. That should really be all that matters.
we can apply star wars logic here: there is always another ship.
2509470 It's a regular name in parts of eastern Europe. That wasn't really an answer to my question, though...
2510822 If Jake wants to elaborate he can, but I can only speak for myself
2508313
In a story with daily updates, "cliffhanger" is a pretty relative term.
Hey guys!
What do you do if a metal-mare throws a manual incendiary at you?
Light the fuse, and throw it back!
2510852 Well what is it then? Dayum man...
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Oh, come on. Now we've got another cliffhanger with Dash! Anyways, Crimson's team just lost their ride out of Searo and got themselves in a whole heap of trouble with Terra. In the shape they're in now, I don't thunk they'll be able to stand up to Terra and her buddies for a long time, at least. Either they need to find another escape route or Dash needs to beat Pestiferous and come to their aid fast. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Ah, I thought I'd forgotten about something. Turns out that something ended up being a homicidal, oversized earth pony with incendiary devices. So now everyone's in hot water, and Roarke is still MIA with questionable loyalties - sounds like good times lie ahead. Onward!
2507373 arnt you always confused?
>the flimsy line of defense they had erected besides the distant entrance ot the place
Do you mean "beside" and "to"?
Huzzah! I finally passed whizzball1!
This calls for a celebration of epic proportions*! 
Also, saying that the next chapters are going to be awesome is kind of stating the obvious by this point, isn't it?
*Celebration consists of reading more while eating popcorn in solitude. Epicness is subjective and therefore cannot be guaranteed. Enter fourty-two (42) more pages of legal mumbo-jumbo here.
Why?!
They must find a new way. 
Also, this is bad.
I expect that IC will now plop us over in Belle's and Phoenix's or Pilate and Floydien's stories just to spite us.
-Spirit
4232166
...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Now there are two epic battles of survival.
I swear, Crimson'll be little more than a burnt husk by the end of this, all of his mana having run havock about him.
Roarke's ship would be great right about now.
Figures, it really was going too well.
Oh good, I was just about to complain about this being too easy.
In general it is a good idea to leave your escape craft out of the action until absolutely necessary, instead of leaving it where any idiot with a weapon and a working eye can take potshots at it. But I can give it a pass since this is literally these guys' first rescue mission. Something to remember for next time they go on a daring rescue, but what are the odds of that happening?
05/11/2017 16:37 UTC