With each deck full of galloping, clamoring workhooves, the Lightning Bearer turned about, pivoted northeast, and bore down on the lone, unsuspecting freighter. The Xonan colors were soon blotted out by the Ledomaritan battleship’s massive hull.
Roarke watched all of this from where she clung to ship’s hull. She had crawled along to the vessel’s jutting bow, and from here she watched as the smaller aircraft drew closer at an alarming rate. Her eye-lenses scanned the quietly puttering vessel, then traveled back up towards the sky where the fog was the thickest. She studied how the mist collected most prominently in a patch of air due northeast of the Lightning Bearer, where the freighter had emerged just two minutes before. The metal mare’s brow furrowed in deep thought.
Up on the deck, Rainbow Dash panted. She pivoted about on her haunches, trying her best to make sense of the sudden movement as the battleship zeroed in on its target. Just a few feet to the afflicted pegasus’ side, Nightshade stood with the very book that was paralyzing her. Past the brooding mare, Prime Enforcer Fortis stood next to three fellow officers, levitating a pair of binoculars before his eyes.
“Keep the approach at sixty degrees high!” Fortis shouted. “With our luck, we’ll run them into the mountain without having to fire a shot! Just like the encounter at Gray Hills.”
One officer chuckled. Another shouted commands into a sound stone, and Rainbow could feel the mana thrusters of the huge ship thrusting so that the Lightning Bearer loomed just above its target.
“Wow, they don’t stand a chance!” Basso’s voice could be heard, filtering through the noisy shipwork.
“I know,” Zetta replied in a dull tone. “I’m rarely above deck when a battle happens. I didn’t realize it was this easy.”
Rainbow Dash blinked. She glanced from soldier to soldier, then at Straker’s figure.
The stallion stood still and quiet, his eyes calmly aimed at the horizon. While everypony scrambled around him, he remained eerily unmoving.
The mare’s lips pursed. Before she could dwell on the subject, however, the most intense wave of dizziness hit her. She almost squealed in pain, doubling over and sprawling out onto the deck. She hissed through waves of nausea, then gasped in shock when the sensation ended just as quickly as it began. She still felt weak, but it was as though a solid wave of stormy weather had passed. Her eyes felt sharper, and she could feel a fire behind them flickering boldly as she gazed towards the northeast.
Nightshade had witnessed all of this. With a trembling gait, she rushed over to Fortis’ side and murmured, “Prime Enforcer…”
“Load the forward cannon array!” the stallion was shouting. “Aim for the ship’s upper dirigible struts! Make every shot count!”
“Sir…” Nightshade leaned in further. “I believe something is amiss. Perhaps we should rethink our strategy--”
“Please, good Madame, not now.” Fortis waved her off. “I’m in the middle of vanquishing this blight from our skies.”
“The vessel doesn’t pose a single threat to us. Something isn’t right.”
“I would most certainly agree.” Fortis turned and briefly glared at the mare. “You are sticking your fair muzzle into military protocol. I’ve allowed you several luxuries so far, Madame, it would be most fitting if you showed gratitude by remembering your place--”
“Movement sighted!” a voice shouted towards the starboard side. “Off the starboard side!”
“Northeast! Forty-five degrees!”
Several officers gasped and stammered. Fortis spun--along with Nightshade--to squint at the foggy sky above the mountains.
Rainbow Dash turned, peering into the mist in time to see a near-indescribable event. Several rivulets of shadow danced through the air, more and more progressively outlining a spherical shape looming just above the Lightning Bearer. Just then, several loud shrieks pierced the heavens, like the ghosts of dying cats. The fog vented in several places, like a tea kettle cracking randomly along its ceramic surfaces. The shrieks doubled, tripled, then turned into a prolonged banshee siren as the sphere unraveled like living yarn. Writhing, squirming shapes flew out of a dense formation, fanning out like a murder of crows. The midday light glistened off of sharp fins, polished scales, and pale fangs.
At first, they looked like serpents. But the more the creatures spread apart and split up, they resembled giant floating manta-rays with extra-long tails twirling like the ends of living kites. Each abomination had six slitted eyes and two separate mouths with razor sharp teeth. They chirped with otherworldly resonance, twirling about like coordinated swimmers as they suddenly all dove at once, gliding like gray reapers towards the Lightning Bearer below.
It was only during their murderous attack that Rainbow Dash spotted colorful figures mounted on the backs of each of these monsters. She realized that ponies were riding them, ponies with brightly glowing horns that contrasted with the dark lines etched across their velvety coats like barbed wire sewn into the skin. As they spun about in the dim sunlight, alabaster slivers of metal glinted under each of their necks. They raised scimitars into the air, shouting in a tongue that ran shivers up the spine of every gawking workhoof across the battleship’s top deck.
“What in Spark’s name are those…?” a pony stammered.
“They’re riding beasts!” Zetta’s voice cracked. “Flying serpents and living monsters! Just like the Xonans in the report from Seclorum’s outpost!”
“Look!” Another pony shouted while pointing skyward. “Do you see?”
As the dozens upon dozens of serpents dove towards the Lightning Bearer, their spreading numbers revealed three massive blue shapes high above. A trio of huge Xonan battleships suddenly loomed, each bearing the same color as the helpless frigate below.
“An ambush…” Nightshade stammered.
Fortis gritted his teeth and shouted, “Turn about! Hard to starboard! Target the enemy vessels!”
“Sir, we can’t until we gain altitude!” a soldier shouted from below the platform. “They have us in their sights!”
“Then raise the ship and arm every cannon--”
“Sir! Bogeys incoming!”
The siren shrieks in the air magnified. The serpents dove low, sweeping the deck with their glistening jaws. Ponies scrambled left and right as the leathery bodies blurred overhead. Several unlucky stallions shrieked at the top of their lungs as the creatures’ sweeping jaws bit onto their legs and hoisted them clear off the deck of the Lightning-Bearer. Their mangled bodies were chewed up and spat onto the mountains below as the Xonans rode the serpents in a wide arc, coming about for a second attack.
And while they took their time to angle back, several percussions of thunder sounded off from above. Rainbow Dash jerked her eyesight up in time to spot multiple flashes of light. Mana-propelled missiles were sailing down at the Lightning Bearer as the vessel struggled to rise up and turn about.
“Incoming!” Basso shouted.
An officer besides Fortis’ flinching figure bellowed, “Brace for impact!”
Nightshade was already diving to the deck, covering the book with her body.
Rainbow Dash gripped onto a nearby wooden piece of railing.
As the whistling noise hit a fever pitch, Roarke found herself in the shadow of the diving missiles. She kicked off the hull of the Lightning Bearer with a grunt and skimmed its surface towards a relatively “safe” spot.
When missiles hit, the mountains below echoed with explosions and screams, through which the shrieking serpents effortlessly sliced, tripling in numbers.
Tattooed warriors, badass airships, eldricht abominations.
You spoil us too much, IC.
And I wonder if the flying manta rays of doom are related to a chaos rift...
Oh yes. I like where this is going.
LET THE BATTLE BEGIN.
Oh, shit, son. We finally meet the Xonans... and they are pissed... and riding magic manta rays.
Thirty pushups and thirty situps, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Silly Fortis. You should have known that Rainbow is so awesome that she leaves naught but destruction in her wake.
Or maybe something about her automatically inspires military genius in nearby Xonans. Either or.
Explosionsssssssss...
Some pretty striking imagery in this one. I'm assuming these snake-riding dudes are allied to the Xonan sorceress that's been mentioned a few times now, and, further, than these unholy creatures are her doing. Ought to be interesting.
3413117 Mark my words.
Chaos. Rift.
3413195
It actually occurred to me that these things are not dissimilar to the winged things that Rainbow faced in Windthrow. You may be onto something. It may be where the Xonan magic lady gets her powers. After all, it's been a while since the machine world came into play.
Just when I thought this story couldn't get more awesome, we get crazy magical sky pirates riding on giant mutant flying manta ray monsters.
I don't even know what to say.
3413206 Well, according to Oporst...
Eeyup.
I put my non existant bits on these manta rays being product of a chaos rift.
The Lightning Bearer is in for a rough fight.
Yay! More chaos creatures like waaaay back with the minotaurs!
An ambush, huh? Am-bush. Wonder where those grow. Probably somewhere in Xona.
~Basso
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Dear god...I think you may be right. They are rather eerily similar to those chaos critters from back in Austraeoh. And Rainbow's currently on sensory overload from the book...or it could be exposure to chaos. I can't recall - did she suffer any ill effects in the presence of the creatures back in her previous adventure?
3413310
Not the monsters themselves, if memory serves. But the chaos strips used the control them didn't agree with her.
Hmm........most intriguing........Hmmmmmmmm;maybe.........just maybe...
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Chaos strips evidence? The book's energy somehow canceling out the chaos strips? Like Harmony + Chaos =
I agree with above statements, these manta rays seem quite a lot like the chaos creatures from Austraeoh. Do the Xonans have control over chaos magic through their connection with the machine world? I wonder... What will happen when Rainbow is captured by Xonans after the Lightning Bearer falls and she meets the Xonan princess that was mentioned earlier?
As much as they're holding our heroes prisoner, it would only be a bad thing for the Lightning Bearer to get blown to bits.
That is a lot of enemies, though. I have to wonder if they'll need Dash's help to punch these dudes in the face. That would certainly be the start of an unlikely and very conditional alliance, but at least she wouldn't be stuck vomiting in a cell forever.
This is going to be a ballast of epic kersplosions.
Shell, you're missing it! MISSING IT!
3413090 That's like... reverse Battle Meditation.
The shitstorm has hit! The shitstorm has hit!
Damn, these Xonans are brutal.
Hopefully Dash and crew can hop ship before ship becomes part of the mountain, if things really go south.
Rainbow Dash teams up with the crew of the Lightning Bearer to fight off the Xonans, thus establishing a very, very tenuous alliance between the two.
After all, the Lightning Bearer's too awesome of a ship to get blown up just yet. It hasn't even exchanged fire with the Steel Wing yet! Cmon, I wanna see giant battlecruisers go at each other!
24
Getting ready for ensuing epicness!
3413635
If worst comes to worst, you can always imagine the result of Michael Bay directing a porno about two whales.
...seems I might be helping the Xonans...Well, that's alright. So far from what I have seen of them they may be the good guys after all. Just hope Basso, Zetta, RD Kera, Roarke, Zaid *coughandmyselfcough* get out of there safely.
3413635
... *sigh* you know, as pissed as I was about Fortis before... that would be pretty cool. They could totally kick some ass together.
After all, friendship did power the strongest weapon known to pony kind... Did. ;_;
Three Xonan battleships and a fleet of chaos monsters with no easy enter machine world and fast close door?
I wonder if Basso can take those Mantas out two at a time by smacking their heads together, since nothing against any of them seems to work? Having hypergeometrical projections of that level from such sources seems a little over the top.
Now, what do you get when a blast of steam condenses in the optical interaction of a flight gem and the setting sun?
Goodbye, Gray Smoke and Ledomare! Off we go to Xona and meeting the Xonans!
Boarders, land, or culture, what is it that makes a country? None of these but rather it's people and their spirit.
... Why do I think that Shell will reappear in the next couple chapters?
I believe this is bad for all parties present..
That's one heck of a simile. I wonder if I can use this in day-to-day life...
Wyverns? I LOVE wyverns!
They're so fun to string up...
*cough cough* Anyways. Xonan battle commences, the book's effects have been Dispelled from Dash, and I sense explosion in our future. Oh, Shell~ You're missing out on all the fuuun~
Shell ETA: 4 chapters.
Jury ETA: 25 chapters.
I am glad my predictions proved correct.
Because this is very interesting stuff you've bombarded us with here, Colon. The imagery is so vivid that my eyes are bleeding.
Chaos metal, leathery flying monsters... Windthrow, anyone?
I have also made a completely unrelated prediction the Ordsjot rune is something to do with chaos magic rather than the book.
It certainly sounds like chaos strips controlling these things; never trust weird princesses with funny names.
Of course, the little fish ploy. Fortis, your arrogance has probably cost you your ship, and your life.
Finally! It's been a while since this story truly awed me. This. This!
With all the black, evil stuff going on my first guess was that Zetta had been hearing that great, dubious, shadowy darkness before - but with the chaos metal around their necks, I believe by now even I understand with what kind of creatures the Xonans forged a pact. Dash is going to have a blast.
Or perhaps, with all that's been going on, I can finally surrender my theory and accept that Spark and Darkness are really Harmony and Chaos.
3414445 As Dash should have proven many times over by now, it still very much does. Punk's not dead, and neither is Harmony.
We finally see some real Xonans. And they remind me of Avatar.
3416542
True dat, man. True dat.
It's just not as... perceptible as it was before.
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3416637
mlponline.net/attachments/its-time-to-stop-posting-jpg.780/
3413393
That.... is an interesting hypothesis....
If the book is indeed harmony, and the dizziness is a result of too much harmony or too much chaos in one place, does Dash get stronger/more awesome when both are present at the same time? (I'm assuming that she's stronger in her current state than before Discord: I don't think there's been any direct mention of that in the story, but it just seems likely given the stunts she pulls off)
I would not like to be among her enemies if that is the case....
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Called it! Really awesome scene here...My immediate thought was that those beasts may be related to a chaos rift. Don't know why, but that's what I thought. As long as there are soldiers on the deck, the Lightning Bearer doesn't stand a chance. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
3476505
Me too
Well, it looks like the Xonans have a grasp on chaos magic. This totally won't end badly for Rainbow Dash and everyone else around her.
This is like some Riddick level nightmare fuel. No wonder Dash had the premonition/flashback-majigg about the demon bats - their even uglier cousins are back for another go. But, you know what they say - demon-spawn make the best scapegoats for an undercover jailbreak. Silver lining and all that.
I really like this sentence. It's pretty.
Onward!
Finally,
Xonans in action!
-Spirit
Holy Crap Xonan ferocity at its bloody FINEST O_O
And I almost thought he was a competent captain. I guess not, and now everyone is paying the price.
Always a bigger fish, eh Obi-dash?