"An explanation or more glimmer?" Floydien's voice shouted back towards the hovering vessel. "Stabby stabby yourselves before you mix up what you want with what you give!"
The sound stones crackled as the voice on the other end of the megaphone growled, "What in Spark's name is this creature going on about?!" Several Ledomaritan voices argued hushedly with one another. "I don't know who you think you are, but you are violating airspace above a Nightshade Industrial Facility! Bring your airship about and—"
"Floydien comes for Nancy Jane, because the Madame of Night and Shading took her away from Floydien! A fair exchange, it was not. I never asked for glimmer. I never asked for the eyes and the nights of stars and crackles!"
"Friggin' maniac, I swear to—" The megaphone cut off as more hushed voices grumbled and muttered. "I don't care where you think he's from! He's obviously a vagabond and a lunatic—"
"Bite the stabby stabby horses' tongues!" Floydien snarled. The air filled with static energy, raising the hair along Pilate's coat. "Only Floydien gets to speak about Floydien in the third pony!"
And, just like that, a loud crack of thunder rolled. The air heated up, then tingled with electricity as the voices across the way yelped. The patrol ship's engines veered and sputtered.
"Holy crap!"
"What did he just launch from his friggin' antlers?!"
"I don't care! Shoot it! Shoot it!"
"You cannot shoot what you cannot spit at!" Floydien's hooves clamored across the swaying gondola. The air whistled as another blast went off. "Boomers be boomed! For Nancy Jane!"
Screams and howls of peril echoed. Smoke billowed left and right across Pilate's muzzle. He concentrated, and yet all he could sense were residual pulses of runic mana emanating from a tiny source on his shoulder: Simon. With each sparkle of mysterious energy from the rodent's crown, the zebra's sphere felt in every direction at once. He sensed the body of their dirigible weaving, smokestabs looming below, and a metallic vessel dead ahead, careening in a sharp turn as bodies clashed and collided with one another. Hooves flailed, and horns crossed with strange branches brimming with energy.
"Floydien shall pour out all the spit until you give her back!" The voice roared in the middle of the maelstrom. Grunting, cussing ponies drowned him out, not before he could get a shot out. The air crackled with thunder yet again. Pilate went doubly blind as burning tendrils of energy ribboned across the O.A.S.I.S. field. There was a burst of hot air, followed by the ghostly whistle of leaking steam. Their airship had been struck.
"Gaaah!" Pilate fell to the side, banging against the railing. He winced, tilting his head up. He felt Simon a dozen feet away, and O.A.S.I.S.'s energy jumped to it, pulsing, revealing the body of a spinning zeppelin that was deflating, falling, tilting at thirty degrees... forty-five degrees... sixty...
Pilate tried climbing up the side of the drifting, plummeting ship, but several ropes snapped loose from the dirigible above. He screamed, falling through space. He flung a hoof up and caught the rudder of the airship before he could fall to an incalculably long drop. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to pull himself back up. The aircraft had fallen into a spiral; he could feel his lower body dangling like the tail to a shredded kite.
"Nnnngh... guh... Floydien!" he shouted, feeling his hoof slipping. "Mr. Floydien! Augh!" He couldn't yell hard enough. The battle was looming high above. The sound of churning smokestacks boiled all around him. He could feel hot ash pelting him from all sides. "Simon?! Somepony, please! I-I'm falling!"
Just then, the entire airship jolted. Through a sheer miracle alone, he remained clinging to the edge of the craft. He heard a loud grinding sound of the wooden vehicle scraping against the edge of a factory's spire as he lost more and more altitude.
Panting, Pilate pivoted around. The blood was rushing away from his limb. His twitching ears pounded as he sought for a sign of Simon. O.A.S.I.S. was deader than stone, and the darkness beyond the bedlam was for once overwhelming.
"Belle..." Pilate stammered as he finally lost his grip. A last breath. "I love you..."
The zebra plummeted. He flipped three times. He sailed liked a rock towards some unseen abyss. His eyes teared and his breath hyperventilated. Then, suddenly, he realized that a good ten seconds had passed. Twenty seconds. Thirty.
He couldn't possibly have been so high that the drop would have taken a minute to consume him. What was more...
"The w-wind..." He spoke out loud, shivering in midair. "What the devil?!" He could hear Floydien's voice in the distance. If he was still within earshot of his former companion, then that would mean—"I'm... n-not falling?"
As if in answer, a shrill voice chriped from his shoulder Pilate felt a pulse of energy through O.A.S.I.S, streaking through a tiny rodent's body and illuminating a field of floating objects around him... and along with him. Chunks of broken zeppelin matter were levitating in the air besides his flailing form.
"S-Simon!" Pilate gasped. "Simon, you're... y-you're telekinetic...?"
Another chirp. When O.A.S.I.S. pulsed again, the energy was a great deal more concentrated, highlighting the rodent's tail, body, and crown. Pilate experienced a ghostly sensation, as if he was both looking at the squirrel and existing as the squirrel at the same time. In that blink of otherworldly senses, he felt a pair of sparkling tesla coils atop the rodent's cranium.
"Fascinating," the zebra quipped.
Up above, another crack of magical thunder rolled. It was accompanied by the tell-tale sign of a dirigible completely exploding. Hot air surged everywhere at once, followed by the horrific whistling of a heavy weight throttling towards them.
"Simon, Floydien said you would be my guide—now would be a good time to start!" Pilate sputtered.
As if gripped in a magical set of teeth, the two souls were yanked downward and away from the hurdling body of their former aircraft. Pilate's breath left him as his hooves made contact with a sheet of glass. He slid down an angled cliff of windowpanes, his body rolling and stumbling like a giant ponyquin. Below him, a terrible shattering sound resonated. He realized that what was left of the miniature zeppelin had collapsed through the glass ceiling of some sort of tall building. Pilate felt himself sliding towards a yawning hole.
"Simon! The building! We're going to—"
Instead of stopping, the zebra's body accelerated. He felt a magical push—filled with static electricity and resolve. Yelping, Pilate plunged past a cloud of broken glass. His skin stung in several places, then was soothed by the first taste of air conditioning in months. Two loud noises filled his ears: the rumble of a collapsing zeppelin hitting the lower floors, and an annoying siren blaring through the shattered interior of the place.
Before he could make sense out of all of the sounds, he felt his hooves touching down onto a tile floor. He reached out, and his hoof graced a railing, something expensive and polished.
"Solid oak... varnished..." Pilate's ears twitched. "An office complex?" He gulped. "Nightshade Industries. We're deep in the center of Nightshade's manufacturing division in Blue Nova..." He shuddered and flinched from several shards of glass still falling from above. "Then... th-then that must mean..."
Four paws landed squarely on his flank.
"Gah!" He breathed easier. "Oh, Simon! Simon, thank you for saving me." He gulped. "Listen, I don't know if you can understand me any better than Floydien. You're obviously... not a normal squirrel. But, if you can, then—"
Two paws pulled and tugged on Pilate's ears. The zebra winced, then froze in place as another pulse of energy connected O.A.S.I.S. with the rodent. He could feel the little creature's paws pointing towards the far end of a long bridge stretching across the lofty lobby. The sound of sliding doors and galloping hooves became clear through the mayhem of the settling crash.
"Blessed Spark..." Pilate gulped and nodded vehemently. "You're right. We must hide. No sense in letting what happened to Floydien... h-happen to us..."
Simon tugged the zebra's ears in one particular direction. Taking a gamble, Pilate galloped that way, waited for another pulse of energy, and navigated his way into a series of utility closets.
Telekinetic squirrels, huh? Didn't see that coming...
Well, that went well. Was that the end of Floydien?
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Mana experimentation tends to do some crazy things.
FinkNightshade's imagination knows no bounds.Simon still ain't got nothin' on Bruce.
Well, so much for my Nancy Jane = Nightshade theory.
Telekinetic squirrels? Applejack should count herself lucky. I'm kind of getting an Angel-vibe from Simon...y'know, if Angel was less of a douche. And as for Floydien, I'm sticking by my old, tried-and-true philosophy of "They're not dead until you identify the corpse".
Now: Pilate and Belle reunite?
...yeah, probably not. Not yet, anyway. That'd be too easy.
nixxes.com/nixxes/images/stories/projects/wallpapers/deus%20ex.jpg
Well, things are getting interesting~er for Pilate. Lookin' forwards to seeing him working together with Raiden~squirrel to get outta the Nightshade facilities
and finding out the truth about Belle's horn while he's at it.Like Trixie, only more obnoxious and less villainous. And jerkish. And, possibly, alive. Although, knowing IC and what he pulled off at the beginning of this fic, who knows about that?
Tesla coil is spelled with a capitol T. Unless you're referring to the unit for magnetic field.
Tesla Squirrels rock!
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Is that an End of Ponies reference? If so, I agree. Not until Simon smokes a cigar will he have a chance.
Once again you write another amazing chapter! I hope Floydien is still alive.
Oh just one small thing that I noticed
as entertaining as it was to read I do believe that you mean smokestacks.
So, is Floydien... dead? It doesn't seem like he'd fly right up to the tower without a plan for when his airship inevitably fell to their defenses. I'd be willing to bet he either survived the crash somehow or bailed out before it hit. IC practically made a new language for him - it would be strange to kill him now.
I agree with most of the comments here - Floydien is not dead. For all his maniacal lunacy, even he wouldn't send himself to such a purposeless agonizing and painful death. Especially when "Nancy Jane" was so close by.
No doubt, this is some inexplicably convoluted plan that could only spawn from the frazzled mind of a diabolical demented failed mana experiment with serious speech impairment. Something which nobody could ever hope to comprehend.
Let's expect the unexpectable.
SIMON THE TASER SQUIRREL RETURNS!
Begs the question, is Floydien full of squirrels?
Simon the taser squirrel for best sidekick.
Now just stay in that closet until Belle and Phoenix come along and are forced to hide in the same place.
The Badass squirrel returns.
Huh...hope Floydian is alright...I'm actually rather concerned for him...
You know you're up shit creek without a paddle when you're left with a squirrel as a guide. Granted, squirrels have a tendency to be quite useful in your stories, and this one in particular is a telekinetic, ass-kickin' munchkin of a squirrel. But it's still a squirrel.
Doubt Floydien's dead. Went out with a bang if he did. Onwards!
So he's a deer?
Isn't this the third zeppelin crash Pilate has went through? No wonder he's afraid of those things.
But now we have confirmation on Floydien being another escaped subject from Nightshade. We now also know that his magic isn't natural, which then again means that Nightshade is definitely experimenting with taking and giving magic both. What could it be that was taken from him during those experiments? Maybe it's something even closer to him than an object. A part of his body, or a part of his mind maybe...
2598022 Floydien is a God damn hero, son. You mind your tongue when adressing a God damn hero.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse. There are no heroes there.
Floydien'll walk it off, I'm sure. He'll pop up somewhere spewing his insane gobbledegook (possibly to save Pilate/Belle/Whoever ends up in the building and needs help). At least I'm hoping he will. He didn't even get any last words, though its unlikely that they would have made sense to those listening, anyway.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Pilate invested in a parachute after this and refused to take it off, ever. Heck, he should wear two, just in case.
Also also: I think Simon, who has thus far been silent, is going to either remain so, or end up speaking in a really unlikely voice and scare the crap out of Pilate when he does. Just a thought. Anywho, my own inane rambling over - onward!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, at least we now know that Simon is a telekinetic squirrel. Â Innavedr, people. Â Also, I really hope that Floydien isn't dead, no matter how hopeless his situation is. Â These are my thoughts so far.Â
-MASH
P.S. Â I'm really sorry that I didn't do an evaluation last night, but it was one of those nights where I couldn't think of anything but sleep. Â I still can't think of anything but sleep...zzz...
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What does that mean?
2597816 Who is Bruce?
3680458 "Furthermore, I consider that Searo must be destroyed." A quote from Cato, a great Roman speaker, who used to make the same statement about Carthage after every speech he would give.
Look out Rocky and Bullwinkle! There's a new dynamic duo in town!
Simon the Telekinetic Squirrel. Yeah, let's go with that.
-Spirit
smokestabs? what r smokestabs? u trying for smokestacks?
Reading that made my brain explode... Twice. Can you do that? Can you explode twice? Well, I guess if you can be doubly blind you can be doubly exploded...ed. I think I deserve a moustache for that one!
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Must have really hated Carthage, or he just wanted to be in favour of the people. XP
Simon for best pet. Angel, step aside.
Floyd, thank you...
Well, that's one way to enter
Finished with the final Rainbow Tape! Number 8, down! And it only took... a month and a half!
Woo!
4769028 Angel was never a contender, pally
So Floydien also escaped from Nightshade Industries, but his beloved didn't. That, and they imbued him with magic that he normally wouldn't have had. Interesting.
Hah!
Ooooo. Well, that explains a few things.
Floydien is one crazy S.O.B. Doubt he's gone, though.
Hm. Both Floydien and Kera have now hinted that Nightshade is going Rainbow Factory on unicorns and other horned ungulates.
Simon is my new hero now!
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Ah, now I know what Glimmer is.
Yeesh, now that a jolt to the senses!
Simon plus Oasis makes a sort of "vision pulse" for Pilate to follow, kind of reminding me of the game "Devil's Tuning Fork".
Floydien uses spit!
It is super effective!
5724326
Na that Tank, though Angle Bunny is not as bad as as the fandom makes him out to be.