“He-e-e-e-e-e-ey gu-u-u-u-u-u-uys?!” Zaid's bellowing voice shook while he gripped the rattling controls of the ship. “Guhhh... do any of you remember that one time when I said 'Wow, this is super not-good! I can't imagine it ever getting more super not-good than this!”
“NO!” Both Pilate and Bellesmith hollered at the same time, bracing themselves against the bulkheads.
“Really? None of you guys can remember?” Zaid gulped. “Because, if I did say that, I was totally and hilariously wrong!”
The Noble Jury grazed the top of a jutting earthen peak. The whole ship jolted while strips of metal flew off, sailing violently into the smoldering trail of fumes behind them.
“I dunno about you, but I think we're all about to lose a lot of weight!” Zaid wheezed.
“Can you pull us up any more?!” Belle exclaimed.
“Cap'n, my Cap'n, we're not falling!” Zaid shouted back. “The damn thing's just falling sideways!”
“There's nothing to filter the skystone acceleration!” Pilate loudly said, wincing as the ship rocked and jolted again. “We're being pushed forward and only forward!”
“Scrkkkt! Sticky-wicky business, my little ponies!”
Zaid's twitching gaze flew to the intercom. “Blondie?!”
“The engine controls are all blowing apart! I can barely contain the steam and—” There was the crackling sound of explosive air bursts. “Gaaah! Ow ow ow ow owieeee—Scrkkk!” Props' voice cut out.
“Blondie!” Zaid shouted, still struggling with the controls.
“Somepony has to go down there!” Belle said. She instantly paled at her own words. With a deep breath, she tightened her muscles and spun around. “I'll go assist her!”
“Assist her?!” Pilate cackled. “Assist her with what?!”
“Props and I might just be able to get us enough lift to crash-land the Jury safely!” Belle said. She skirted by him and stuck her muzzle into the windy deck. “Stay right here!”
“Belle, no!” Pilate reached blindly for her.
She paused, swiveled around, and grasped his fetlock in hers.
Pilate gritted his teeth, wincing.
With a warm breath, Belle leaned in, nuzzled the stallion,and kissed his nose. She leaned back. “Don't panic, beloved.” She bore a rosy smile amidst the plunging chaos. “The Spark won't fail us now.”
“But Belle, what if—” He squirmed, then blurted: “I love you.”
“I'll be back to return the sentiment.” Belle climbed out.
“Belle—”
“Remain here with Zaid! We're gonna get through this!”
Pilate clung to the bulkhead beside him, shivering.
“She'd better be quick about it,” Zaid grumbled, his eyes locked on a steep line of mountains looming directly in front of them, and growing closer.
Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut. The force of wind against her muzzle was so intense that she could barely see anything besides a foggy blur anyways. Instead, she trailed the smell of acrid smoke from the burning stern of the runaway ship.
In tiny, lightning-quick blinks, she determined just where the plunging Jury was in relation to her. Then, wings beating to the breaking point, she propelled herself forward, a cone of air formed tightly around her cranium.
Ravines and mountainous summits surged underneath, sending bursts of thunderous percussion into the pegasus' ears. Her insides tore from the sheer tension in her muscles, and she had to urge herself forward with a deep, warbling yell.
Meters per second, the mare slowly... tortuously approached the rear of the disintegrating ship.
Grunting, Belle pulled herself towards the stern. Her body heaved with each lunging stretch of her front limbs. She couldn't bother to inhale too much, or else her body wouldn't cling so tightly to the ship's top deck. The wind threatened to hurl her off into the murderous stone desert at any moment.
With gnashing teeth, she pulled herself to the first skystone support strut, and then the second. Chunks of glowing crystalline matter shattered above her. She pressed herself hard to the deck as enchanted shrapnel rained across the hull on either side.
Wincing, she looked up. Her chestnut eyes twitched.
From a distance, she spotted a ruby pulse of Harmonic light, approaching closer and closer with a prismatic streak for a tail.
“... … ...” Bellesmith smiled for the first time in as long as she could remember. With a sudden burst of strength, she courageously flung herself forward. “Haaaaugh!” The daredevilish plunge sent her sailing towards the entrance of the rear stairwell. She caught the edge with one outstretched hoof. Her body dangled like a yellow windsock, and she may have sobbed a bit. However, with a strong grunt, she pulled herself through the frame, then dove down the careening stairwell. Heaving and shuddering in pain, Belle nevertheless crawled to the bottom deck and grasped the valve of the engine room door, twisting it with all her might.
Rainbow Dash drew closer and closer to the Jury. Here, the smoke billowing out of the ruptured hangar was so thick and pungent that it was near-impossible to breathe. Rainbow Dash's face darkened bluer, and she felt her vision blocking out along the extremities. Her wings had become numb, and the fluid in her ears had detected an imbalance.
She was decelerating; the Noble Jury cruised away.
The pegasus somehow found the breath to whimper. Just then, her eyes twitched at a sign of movement.
The top piece of the stern's upper railing was cracking apart. With a sickening snap, a metallic plank three times the size of her body ripped off the hull and sailed at her like a tossed scythe.
Rainbow gnashed her teeth, flipped, dodged the metal debris with inches to spare, and slapped her hooves down. She made contact with the back of the plank—and then she kicked off with all her might, aided by a burst of Harmonic energy from deep within her pendant.
Rainbow burst through the smoke, her body whipped by one or two tongues of flame.
But her hoof made contact. She gripped tight to the back of the Noble Jury, refusing to let go. Then, catching a breath beyond the edge of the trailing fumes, she flexed her muscles and slowly pulled herself onto the deck.
Since when could she use her pendant to superpower her kicks?
Yes! Rainbow Dash is on the scene! Now I hope she can get everyone off in time.
Physics? Where we're going we don't need physics.
I can't think of anything clever to say, but...
5562547
Hate to say it but I think there might be some sort of Total Party Kill before the end of the book. I think there's gonna need to be new character sheets rolled for the second half of this saga/
5562547
Dun Dun Dun!
5562565
I don't think Rainbow is going to go completely alone into the other side, mostly because that would really just make the next six books basically a rehash of the previous six. I'm not saying everyone is coming with her (I suspect Bellesmith, Pilate and Kera are not coming for sure.) just that some will.
I see we're gonna drag this across a few chapters...
I wonder how things are going back in town.
Oh, c'mon, you may die.
Go full French!
Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man...
The idea of Props being injured makes me sad.
5562544 I don't think she realizes that yet. :/
5562544
it functions as a lantern, harmic lazerbeam, comms device, anti-chaos barrier, and powersource
and you're questioning it's ability to send energy into her body to propel herself forward violently?
eh, it can be explained as a reversal of what it's done before; instead of shooting high-power blasts of HARMONY outward, Dash absorbs it, then channels it into her legs.
thats what i'm going with
Awesomeness doesn't need to obey the laws of physics.
5562685
Definitely an Uncharted-esque moment.
5562757 I can live with this.
RAINBOW, DO IT!
The Jury is nothing more than a careening manaball waiting to happen right now.
Will Kera ever see her foster parents again?
Will the destruction of the Jury be traumatic enough to allow Floydien to once again become Duke Floyd of Bountiful?
Will Zaid get the chance to enjoy another grilled cheese sandwich?
Will Skirts keep telling the laws of physics 'Screw you, you melon fudge'?
Tune in next time, on Yaerfaerda!
...
I'm really interested in what Floydien's reaction to this will be.
5562597 that's so something your character would say.
5562597
5562560
This oddly reminds me of the backstory created for Pilate's character immediately before he encountered Belle. I'm sure it's nothing.
5563056
It always ends in an airship crash.
5562544 I always kinda thought that stuff just happens when she really needs it.
I'm still holding out hope that the 'real' Saikano, Sharp Quill and Fishberry are alive in Changeling coccoons somewhere.
I want to see what they're like.
Rainbow is on board, can she uses the pendant to stabilise the skystone via the book? Or at least give the book power and let Zaid have some steering?
Ha!
5563335 We were alive in those cocoons at the Soul Sentry conversion facility. Then the Rainbow Infiltration Party blew those, and us, into venison.
Oh, it's getting harsh. I am actually starting to wonder whether they will all come out of this unscathed.
5563056 Oh ho ho, good catch. There might just be some connection. Though now I am almost certain something will happen to at least one of them, likely Pilate.
5563359
I sure hope not. I really want to see those characters.
5563059
It all starts in an airship crash
Dash gets to where she wants to go to save the day, yaay. Props is currently taking Mr Lobster out to dinner.
Hopefully there are enough parachutes on board, Dash, that we aint about to see Jury brand Crab Paste.
5562757
It's a pretty big difference between acting on external forces- creating light, communicating over distance, shooting laser beams- and then empowering her own body. It's been six books and we've never seen the Element do anything to her other than keep her alive. Perhaps it's just her learning how to use it better, but I feel like if that were the case IC should have dropped some hints than her increasing use of the Element for a wider range of tasks was due to her growing understanding of its power.
Wow nice move on Rainbow's part to catch up. How exactly is Belle going to help in this situation?
http://www.comtourist.com/images/large/oka-18-terschelling/terschelling-oka-18-02.jpg is the sort of image I have in my head, although obviously a skystone ship rather than a seagoing one.
I think I have a thing for crashing stuff. I rammed two airships together in my own story, and a lot of the stories in my favourites seem to have large amounts of destruction going on.
Rainbow reaching the ship could be a sign that they are all going to live, or it could just be a chance to crush her more thoroughly through their death when she comes so close to saving them.
The physics in this story always make me giggle. It's just so ridiculous at times.
5563609
5563059
Don't you guys remember?
I forgot who said it, but they're right.
5565089 Google is your friend.
Here's the original post: 5460896
darn
-Spirit
5562547 Phrasing!
She was going so damn fast, she began splitting the molecules in the air, igniting the oxygen somehow. That's fucking fast.
EDIT: Actually, I believe that was the ship. But that would have been pretty damn awesome, huh?
5919243 Yeah that would have been pretty damned awesome.
5919243 Well, Rainbow was keeping pace and even catching up with the ship. So both she and it were in the hypersonic regime (mach 5+). To put it in perspective the SR-71 can only hit mach 3.2. so yeah, really really fast
Bullets are not suitable transports, Belle and co.
This chapter makes me wonder: By just how many orders of magnitude did the sound barrier get raped here?
5562544
On dire straights, I've no doubt the semi sentient element would aid her.
Remember that it's actively keeping her alive through it's power, it's not stretch that it's willing to redirect some of that when it's needed.
Dash, don't tear yourself up! We need you as one whole East Horse!
So this is what happens when you leave all the straight couples on the ship by them selves.