“Dare I ask, what's the purpose of the silver finish?” Crimson asked.
From across the veering cabin, Tweak smirked while polishing his pistol. He held the shiny white stock of the crystal-powered weapon in the crook of his hoof and said, “Family heirloom. My great granddad used it to fend off Searonese bandits back in the Great Sapphire War.”
Crimson raised an eyebrow. “Was there really such a conflict?”
“Feh. No. But that's what they should have called it, instead of the South Aurum Searonese Incursion. It's the damned Ledomaritans that get to write the history books around here. We just harvest the crystals they need to power up the Spark-forsaken printing presses that make 'em.”
“Still, it is a very nice gun.”
“Damn straight it is.” Tweak clicked loose a hoofbrace from the weapon's left side. “Practical, too.” He slid the metallic ring over his right forelimb, so that he could hold the barrel out at leg's length. “Fits right around the leg, so you can come out of a full speed gallop and wield it when running into a fray.”
“What's the firing mechanism?”
“Same as any weapon. It was built by unicorns, you know, only custom fit to channel crystal energy from a bearer such as myself...” Tweak glanced up with a wag of his shiny eyebrows. “Or like my grandpappy. There's an old family tale about how he once fired a full clip into a hydra's chest. He did it in less than two seconds; didn't even have to reload. Damn near died from all of the energy output, but it worked. The hydra's heart exploded from the inside. Heh... for two generations, the family crafted harvesting equipment from the pathetic creature's orange scales.”
“That would explain a few things I saw on the farm,” Crimson said with a nod. He gripped a bulkhead with a metal limb as the bounty hunter's ship bobbed through a burst of turbulence. “You ever taken it into action?”
“Tried to frighten off a few metal mares with it,” Tweak said with a sigh, sliding the pistol off his hoof and clicking the brace back into the stock. “Didn't work much. Those body thiefs only ever responded to long ranged rifles anyways. It's a crying shame my grandpa isn't around still. Spark knows, he could have shot the nose off of a Killa from the far side of the village. Who knows how many holes he could have put into the metal mares. Now there was a stallion who knew how to make use of something that was built for perfection.”
A voice groaned from across the cabin. “Mares, stallions. You're all the same.”
Both ponies glanced over.
“Hmmm?” Crimson blinked.
Imre looked up from where she was preparing a field med kit. “Always so obsessed with weapons. So what if you abort the egg sack of a black widow at a million hoofball fields or whatcrap. I swear, does anypony these days not think about killing?”
“We're about to go into a dangerous situation,” Crimson said with a furrowed brow. “It helps to be prepared.”
“Spoken like a true soldier,” Imre grumbled. “Killing is like punching a clock, isn't it?”
Before Crimson could respond, Tweak loomed over her. “Now, that isn't exactly fair! You know how much he's stuck his head out for weak lil' sissies like you?! He's lost his best friends trying to fight for what he believes in!”
Crimson sighed, waving a metal hoof. “Tweak, please...”
“Nah, I ain't finished!” Tweak frowned at the mare. “Just what have you done to prepare for out little shindig in Pale Shelf! You're guiding us through there, Miss Commando! Or have you forgotten?”
“As a matter of fact, I haven't forgotten.” She zipped up a saddlebag full of supplies and hoisted them over her flanks. “And I am preparing... preparing for all of the bodies you're gonna drop between here and rescuing two of Rainbow Dash's best friends.”
“Belle and Pilate have been taken against their will,” Crimson said quietly yet firmly. “The enforcers of Ledo have proven time and time again that they do not listen to reason, nor are they capable of grace. We have no other choice but to rescue the beloveds by any force necessary.”
“But is it absolutely necessary?” Imre asked in a droning tone. “Couldn't somepony, I dunno, use a weapon by not using it for once in this world?”
Tweak stared at her as if she was made of clouds. “Were ya born yesterday, girl? Do you even hear yourself?”
Imre sighed, rubbing a hoof over her short mane. “I... I don't know. I guess I just wish things would stop repeating themselves.”
“Repeating themselves?”
“Where I come from. The way I was raised. I... I...” Imre bit her lip, staring towards the cockpit.
Around that time, Rainbow Dash trotted up. “Whew... I think the dizzy spells are over with for the time...” She shook her colorful head and squinted at the trio. “What's going on? Having chit-chat?”
“Nnnngh...” Tweak turned around and trotted loathesomely towards his seat. “I wouldn't mind myself having a barbecue. Dumb mare over roasted flames.”
Rainbow Dash blinked at him. She turned to gawk at Crimson. “Is it the crystal ponies' time of month?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Crimson shrugged with a smirk.
“Once every four weeks, they form synchronized cracks and jab into ponies' fetlocks?”
“What the Hell?!” Roarke suddenly barked from the cockpit.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know. Not my best quip—but I was just doing the vomit tango back there! Cut me some slack—”
“No, it's not that.” Roarke slowed the vehicle as she brought up the copper map of raised needles. “I'm detecting something.”
“Something?!” Rainbow Dash galloped towards the front, immediately followed by a breathless Crimson. “Like a black and white and blind all over something?”
“Pretty damn much.” Roarke rotated a valve and slapped a crystal diode. A series of pins raised up, fluctuating with burning ends, and they were positioned northeast of where the speedy craft currently was. “There be your favorite zebra,” the metal mare said through her helmet. “Or, presumably, his mana sphere. Here's hoping it's still attached to his head.”
“But that... that...” Rainbow Dash's jaw hung open.
“It most definitely is not Pale Shelf,” Imre said, trotting up.
“Then... what in the heck is it?” Tweak asked, craning his head to see from a distance.
“It's a city,” Rainbow Dash said, then squinted. “At least I think it is, unless all those big pins are trying to suggest that Pilate and Belle ended up in a forest of flu shots.”
“The only city in this area of the Confederacy is Blue Nova,” Crimson said. “A major shipping port, zeppelin manufacturing center, and also the headquarters for Nightshade Industries, if I'm not mistaken.”
“Blue Nova?” Rainbow Dash made a grimacing expression. “Sounds like a stallion who stole a kiss from me at Flight Camp.”
Imre glanced at her. “Stole a kiss from you?”
“Yeah. They all called him 'Blue Nose' for two months straight after that.” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and leaned in. “Is this—like—current? Is this totally where Pilate is?”
“Most definitely,” Roarke said. “Or, like I said, the O.A.S.I.S. sphere that's ordinarily fused to his nervous system and runic skull plate.”
Rainbow Dash looked at Crimson.
The stallion glanced back, patient.
With a deep breath, Rainbow Dash nodded and said, “Then we're totally going there. Let's hope his stripes are still attached too, ya dig?”
“Oh, I dig.” Tweak smirked. “A friendly little romp through a stuffed-up city. Whew! The day just keeps getting better and better.”
Imre glared at him. “You're impossible.”
“And your head looks like a hoofbrush.”
“Shhhh!” Rainbow Dash hissed. “Knock it off until you get to knock bad ponies' blocks off! It's time to do less saving and a lot less suck!” She tapped Roarke's shoulderplates. “You mind doing the honors?”
“Hey...” The bounty hunter shrugged and veered to the right, angling the craft northeast. “It's only my airship and your best friends.”
“Remind me to give you a lecture about guilt trips later.”
“You suck at lectures. I like it more when you kick flank.”
“Yeah, I know, right?”
Definitely isn't your best.
My favorite kind of banter.
Meta chapters are best chapters.
And now the battle is confirmed for land and air units. Explosion time is nearing yet again! And it should be real this time!
So how much time has passed since Belle got captured?
Here comes the party, and the pain.
2930441
Maybe like 2-3 days.
2928959
See, that's where Madame Pinkie comes in. Pinkie Pie can clearly see into the future, so she cloned herself with the mirror pool just in case the unthinkable happened, and sent her clone to the far reaches of eastern Equestria to help Dash's new buddies. Silly Discord didn't see that one coming, I'm sure.
2930430Huzzah! Explosion time!
All right! We're on track again! Our heroes know where our other heroes are, and shit's going down. Hell, yeah!
Great day, so thirty push-ups. Take a break, you know? Knock 'em out!
I still think one of the members of the party is going to betray the others. Maybe Floydien. Either way, someone major's going to die by the end of this.
Eeeyup.
Blue is going Nova.
That town ain't gonna be standing when this is done....
Prepare for awesome.
IT'S HAPPENING.
Suddenly, somewhere in Blue Nova, the Jaws theme started playing.
It begins...
Again.
'Bout time I caught up, and bout time that backup arrived!
Alright! We're gonna go back to more 'slposions! Hopefully my body is ready.
You know what this story needs? More aggressively-used sonic rainbooms.
I wonder if Pilate will ever be able to get O.A.S.I.S. fixed. The whole not-attached-to-him bit allows for far too much ambiguity in scenarios like this. Will they find Pilate or just his mana-sphere?
Been awhile since Dash got all "awesome sauce" on some losers.
Time to reunite, yes?
Omg! It's time to kick some good 'ol fashioned flank!
rainbow pony Jesus is about to convert some mother buckers in the art of awesomeness
Poor Blue Nova. So unsuspecting of the sudden infusion of awesome coming its way. I'm kind of glad there won't be a big Pale Shelf side-track, though I suspect that place will come up again later, in some way. Way too much ominousness was painted around it for it to be unused.
P.S. - Great banter is great.
This relationship Dashie has with Roarke is pretty funny.
2931207
Suddenly,Shell got a very,very,very bad case of the shivers,as if sensing his imminent failure to capture Rainbow Dash yet again!
2930688 that would be so awesome in this story..
2930943 Most likely either Tweak or Crimson, considering their happy, sappy little plan to unite Franzington and Aurum.
Hopefully, it isn't the other one which has been eluded to, because I highly doubt that anybody wants to see Dash die anytime soon.
I'm suddenly slightly worried about the ending. We kinda had downer endings in A and E. I really hope that we get more awesome than suck at the end of I.
But for now, I am content with generous amounts of awesome sauce.
2930688 Thing is, we're not in Equestria anymore, so...
Would have been a nice theory theory though.
RD: PINKIE PIE?!? I thought you were dead!
PP: Of course not you silly goose! I used my Pinkie sense to see the future and went to the mirror pool to clone myself!
RD:... what's the mirr- nevermind.
Oh, hurray! We get to find Pilate.
2930430
Yes... Yes!... YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!
“You suck at lectures. I like it more when you kick flank.”
“Yeah, I know, right?”
*Blink blink* Huh?
...
Oh!
Roarke is a sadomasochist!
... Oh.
Presumably it would be easier for belle to get off an airship if there was a friendly one to pick her up.
Bloody love the banter.
There be a reunion a-brewing, by the looks of things.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Huh...I kind of liked the lectures because they were full of mystery. She's kicked flank so many times, though...eh. Interesting. Anyways, thank God they're on the right course now. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Huh...I kind of liked the lectures because they were full of mystery. She's kicked flank so many times, though...eh. Interesting. Anyways, thank God they're on the right course now. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
And we rejoin our heroes just as they're getting back on track to find their lost
braille newspaperseeing-impaired zebra friend. Now, just how long are you going to have all of your characters in the same city before having them meet up? Its been painful enough already with Belle and Pilate on the brink of reuniting for the past, like, twenty chapters or more.And I'm not writing Pale Shelf off just yet. Imre still has a role to play there, I think. Unless you off her in the next arc or something...
Onward to characters hopefully not dying in the imminent explosions!
So it's really coming all together. Thank heavens I don't have to wait for the next chapters to see it come crashing down.
i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/009/675/luffy-worth-it-meme.jpg
Dash, you interrupted Imre. Oh well. We're here in Blue Nova now! It's all coming together.
-Spirit
Oh thank god, crisis averted, RD and Co. are now going to the right place! Time to rock
So they are finally about to be united?
3021435 lol thats be me after i slipped an RD kiss
Imre may be a dark doctor, but she's still a doctor. Refreshing to see a pacifists attempt in this story.
Okay, but are they just going to ignore pale shelf?
more
_________________
Dashie's so full of awesomesauce. Having Texas around only makes her so much more awesome.
Shipping it so much.
Blue nose...poor guy.
That nose ain't gonna be right ever again.
But damn! They finally got the right place down!
That 'freindky little ronp' has been going on without you.
Between Shell locking down the city, ponies terrorizing the place and escaping Nightshade industries, magical explosions and Belle's galavanting through the slums being chased by enforcers, I would say you're all pretty late.
somehow that made me think of "not just about pushing ourselves, but pushing ourselves in the right direction."
8665671
Hey, having a blue nose is awesome. Just ask Tony Tony Chopper.