The smoke over Foxtaur was beginning to dissipate. The managliders—having split up—were presently sweeping through the air in swirling patterns, using their engines to clear the smoke and reveal their elusive target.
On board the three battlecruisers and the escort zeppelins, dozens upon hundreds of Ledomaritan enforcers nervously eyed the sky, their hooves and horns trained on swiveling cannons loaded to fire at a moment's scream.
A trio of managliders dove high from cloudy heights, making a return trip towards the Steel Wing in the distance. The pilots and copilots glanced around fitfully. The rising sun broke through a wisp of smoke—flashed hot gold—and revealed a blue form.
A pilot glanced aside and gasped. "There—Grakkkt!" He choked as Rainbow's hooves ensnared his throat and yanked him by the skull off his seat.
"Nnngh!" Rainbow threw the enforcer's body into one glider and kicked the wing of another. Thrown off balance, all three gliders collided with one another in a shower of sparks and manaflame. The surviving unicorns jumped off, fumbling for their parachutes as the exploding vehicles overtook half of them. Rainbow Dash dove past the mayhem, riding the wave of flame and debris as she allowed it to accelerate her descent towards the thick line of aircraft.
"There! There! Blow her out of the sky!" several stallions shouted as they swiveled their cannons to fire.
But it was far too late for a clean shot. Rainbow Dash now dove through the thick of the Ledomaritan armada. Flak and cannon fire exploded ineffectually around her as she easily dove, dipped, and sped her way around hull after hull of lumbering aircraft. Managaliders skimmed their own motherships in hot pursuit, but Rainbow Dash threw them for a loop, dipping her agile body between ballasts, masts, and the support ropes of various dirigibles. She kicked off the scrambling bodies of crew members, pulled up, and flew fearlessly into the wake of exploding cannons.
Voices shouted and stallions screamed as a wayward spray of shrapnel impacted the hull of one escort ship. Rainbow Dash easily ducked its collapsing gondola as the vessel and all hooves on board drifted gruesomely towards the burning countryside below.
Flying up like a living blue dagger, Rainbow Dash skirted the surface of a battlecruiser's starboad side, dove over the deck, flew so low that she could brush tails with the captain, then avoided several mana-guns and taser swings as she barreled through a screaming cluster of bodies and came out the other side, spinning towards her target: the hulking body of Steel Wing.
Shellfire exploded on either side of her, but it mattered little. She was unstoppable. Rainbow Dash's eyes shown like blood stones in the morning light as she weaved around diving managliders, kicked off an interceptor or two, and flew bast converging cannonblasts, all the while her gaze was furiously affixed to one shape and one shape alone.
The name vomited out of her mouth before she had the good grace to stop it. "Shell!"
A scarred, gaut body in the center of the Steel Wing stood alone in a sea of diving equines, calmly gazing up at her.
"Prepare to eat hoof!" she screamed, spun her body, and dove with her lower body's heavy limbs hurdling straight towards his skull. "Yaaaaugh!"
Shell took one long breath as his one-eyed gaze flew into view, followed by a strobe of light as he unsheathed his taser staff and raised it—
monster!
*Screen goes black as the clash happens.*
NOOOOOOO
uh oh...
reading this chapter literally stopped me from breathing... o.0
Endlessly impressed, IC
Oh my god I hope you keep these exceedingly fast updates somehow.
Solid gold.
2233231
=(
it doesn't look like that... D:
Wow, what a place to stop.
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN
No Pilate.... Guess we should expect the worst.
This is going to hurt...
Is this going to be like one of those fight scenes where the guys pass each other once, and then one guy falls down after a few seconds? I sure hope so.
CLIFFHANGERS!!!!!
IIIIIt's Dashie's Tenth Marathon Evaluation Time!
Oh man oh man oh man...this is so epic...seriously. This is even better than the Roarke fight. How did Dash do that? She's up against absolutely impossible odds. She's now going to fight Shell, too. And again with Imploding's emphasis on speech - the name Shell "vomited" from Rainbow's mouth. VOMITED! This guy is the best writer I have ever had the privilege to read about, much less evaluate about! I...I'm sorry, but I may have trouble evaluating for these last few chapters due to the sheer awesomeness of this battle. Although, if Dash is smart, she'll bypass Shell and go straight for Belle. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Two more...urg...I'm out of practice...
Day 2-17th hour.
I got a distinctly Shadow the Hedgehog-ish vibe from this chapter.
You're trying to give me a heart attack, Scolon. I'm gonna pass out from awesome overload combined with stress, I'm telling you.
No Pilate yet...I refuse to believe the worst - futile optimism activate!
Also, kick his ass, Dash!
Blood red
?
....Yes? Are you going for a cliffhanger record?
And now you've woken the dragon.
>Rainbow Dash's eyes shown like blood stones in the morning light
Do you mean "shone"?
>and flew bast converging cannonblasts
Do you mean "past"?
Here we go... The final confrontation... Wait! No! Why! Why do you cut us off!
Well, it's a good thing I'm late to the story.
-Spirit
And in comes Roarke!
4759768 right?!?! man i hope so
I didn't want to be a Stoic but
fuck
I guess I might have to be
also, I've noticed a lack of Pilate comments down here... conspiracy maybe?
Shell may be in the habit of tossing ponies, but Rainbow is in the habit of tossing baddies.
4759768
I think it's a little too late for her to join the party now...face it, gentlemen, Roarke was an ass and fled
Someone brought up Pilate’s complete lack of comments this chapter, I think I know why. I mean, Axan Zenith has played into their characters before...
Anyways, what a time to leave off on. That dash even implies there was something more, it’s a cliffhanger of the next caliber. But yeah, I sense another awesome battle scene coming up, and I’m excited.