The Red Thing in the Sky

by TitanicIsBestShip

Run the Gauntlet

Chapter Six: Run the Gauntlet

The ship Deringer wars a type three skyship freighter, a merchant vessel. She wasn’t very large, only 75 feet, and between her smallish size and her large diesel-electric engines, the Derringer could outrun most skyships. Her captain, Cold Stone, had commanded her for fourteen years, and that had almost been brought to an abrupt close when the “Red Thing” almost hit them. It was supposed to be a routine supply run to the Galapaghorse islands, but if it wasn’t for the Derringer’s speed and agility, she would have been lost behind that wall of red. Her agility wasn’t the only thing that kept her safe. The Derringer made many long distance runs, and speed wasn’t going to save you from a pirate ambush. Most skysailors thought pirates were a joke, but they existed in force outside of the mainland of Equestria, and that’s where the Derringer voyaged. She boasted four medium brassball swivel 75mm guns on her bow, fantail, and port and starboard wings. To accompany the cannons, the Derringer carried two GH-11 repeaters, one on her foredeck, one on her afterdeck. “Captain! We’ve sighted a ship flying the Equestrian Battle Standard!” the ship’s Bosun's Mate shouted.

“Bearing?” came the captain’s gruff reply.

“Oh-two-five-oh!” the Bosun’s Mate responded.

“Hmmm, a Royal Equestrian Air Navy vessel? Give me a firing solution on that ship!” the captain shouted at his bridge officers.

“Sir? Fire on the Air Navy? Why?” Tarnish, the Deringer’s gunnery officer, asked.

“They’re heading right for the wall! All they’re going to do is tell people ‘it’s going to be all right!’ ‘Don’t worry!’ Ponies don’t need to hear that! They need to run! Now give me a firing solution on the ship!” Cold Stone screamed at him. He had just about lost it with Celestia’s military forces. In his mind, they had abandoned the ponies affected by the wall of red, and he didn’t need them.

“Aye sir, brassball guns one, two, and three loaded with standard shot, firing solution on bearing Oh-three-four-one with a fifteen foot lead!” Tarnish responded.

“Good! Ready guns one, two, and three!” Cold Stone waited a few seconds. “Salvo!” he shouted. Three cannons boomed and their deadly copper and brass projectiles hurled towards the Highlander.

The group of five ponies was still standing on the bow of the Highlander, gazing out the stampede of skyships when the Deringer’s guns boomed. “Was that..? DOWN!” Barzano yelled at the top of his lungs. All five ponies immediately ducked as two copper projectiles flew over their heads.

“Who just shot at us?” Cloudbolt asked, whirling his head around. As he did, one of the shots impacted the starboard thwart, and the ponies were knocked off their feet.

“There!” Barzano pointed at a class three skyship, carrying several smoking guns.

“What do we do?” Michael demanded. “We’re screwed if they keep shooting!” Barzano looked at Cloudbolt.

“Why don’t you give him a nice Air Navy warning?” Barzano asked Cloud.

“Uh...I’m only a cadet! I can’t act like an officer….” he responded.

“Oh come on Cloud!”

“What am I supposed to say?” Cloudbolt demanded.

He sighed “Let me do it,” Barzano said. His horn flared as he used magic to project his voice. “Unknown vessel!” He yelled. “You are firing on a Royal Air Navy vessel! We are carrying a weapon of mass destruction! If you continue your assault, not only will you be committing treason, but we WILL DESTROY YOU!” Barzano levitated his device above the Highlander’s deck, and the Deringer abruptly ceased firing. “Alright, let’s see how much damage those bastards did to my ship.” Barzano, Cloudbolt, and Michael walked backdeck to look for any obvious damage. Flarania stayed on the deck, her mouth wide open, shaking. DerpTime was still sitting at the bow, drawing a picture. His only comment during the ordeal was, “Argh, they messed up my sketch!”

The three ponies walked backdeck. As they came down the stairs, they stopped when they saw a large dent in the starboard side. “Wow! It put a dent in, and bounced right off!” Michael commented. “That’s some thick armor!”

“Yup, and that was only brassball shot,” Barzano said. Cloudbolt walked right in front of him.

“Alright, I cannot take it anymore. Barzano, where do you learn all this stuff? How do you know how to fly skyships, make warheads, and how do you have knowledge of naval guns? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were an admiral in the air navy!” Cloudbolt said.

“For another time Cloudbolt,” Barzano laughed. “You get some rest, I’ll take the helm.” Barzano walked updeck, leaving Cloud and Michael to their rooms. As Barzano poked his head out of the hatch, he noticed that the sun was already down and that DerpTime was no longer on the first deck. He also saw Flarania, slumped on deck, crying her eyes out. “Oh no…” Barzano walked over to her, picked her up, and promptly gave her a warm hug. “Hey! Shhh! Don’t cry,” he comforted her. Flarania choked up words as she tried to speak between tears.

“They shot at us! We could have crashed! You could have died! I could have died!” she bawled. Barzano held her tighter.

“But we’re ok! Shhhh!”

“Y-yeah..thanks to you.. oh sweet Celestia! I owe you my life!” Flarania stared into his eyes, tears streaming down her own.

“Hey now! Don’t get like that! You don’t owe me anything,” Barzano held her farther back, and then proceeded to plant a warm kiss on her lips. Barzano smiled.

Flara cried into his mane. Barzano let her borrow her face into his mane for a few minutes before lifting her face up.

“Flarania, as cute as you are, can you stop crying now?” Barzano said lightly. Flarania only smiled and returned Barzano’s kiss.

“Hey, you’re an astronomer, tell me some constellations!” She said, pointing to the sky. Barzano laughed.

“Alright! Well, if you look straight up,” Barzano pointed at a group of stars just under the front of their derigable, “You can see Scorpio, and to the left of it a ways,” Barzano swept his hoof across the sky, “That’s Orion.” Barzano kept pointing out constellations to Flarania, who had put her head on his shoulder, and wrapped a blanket around the both of them.

The next morning, and the sixth one in the air, the five ponies awoke to see a towering red wall, roughly two miles ahead of them, covering the horizon. Cloudbolt had, once again, cooked breakfast and made coffee for the other ponies in the group, which he was thanked for several times. Barzano had prepped the nuclear device on the first deck, and had taken the helm. Cloudbolt had taken the spotter position on the top deck, Michael and DerpTime were sitting at the chaukrail, and Flarania stood next to Barzano at the helm. “So, what are we going to do with that….thing….again?” Flarania nervously asked Barzano.

“Well… the idea is that we kind just fly right up to the wall, set the three-minute timer, and throw the device into the wall,” Barzano responded. “And if all goes well, the wall should slowly vanish.” Flarania nodded. She already knew the plan, she just wanted reassurance from Barzano that everything would be ok. The last leg of the journey yielded only silence. As the Highlander approached the cascade wall, Barzano let Cloudbolt take the helm as he levitated his device.

“Steady now,” Barzano warned. The wall was now within two hundred yards of the skyship. “Hard to starboard on my mark.” With a stiff nod from Cloudbolt, Barzano activated the device. The light clicked on orange, indicating the device was armed and working, and in the time it had taken him to do so, the wall had closed in another hundred yards. “Cloud, ahead quarter please,” Barzano said. Cloudbolt adjusted the controls on his console to reduce speed. “Steady….MARK!” Barzano yelled as he thrusted the device into the wall. The Highlander swung to starboard and the ponies were thrown to the deck. Partially thanks to Cloudbolt’s piloting, but mostly thanks to luck, the Highlander missed the wall entirely. “Cloudbolt, ahead full please,” Barzano said.

“You don’t need to tell me,” Cloudbolt responded with a smirk. The ponies, save Cloudbolt, then turned to observe the wall. The Wall began to shimmer, and the red faded from it, leaving an empty black.

“Bar? What does that mean?” Michael asked.

“I have no idea….” They stood staring at the black emptiness, until the wall suddenly flashed white, and began peeling in on itself. The five of them began cheering and whooping. Shouts of “We did it!” “We did it!” could be heard from everypony in the group, except for DerpTime, who merely looked at the re-synchronizing Equestria and smiled.