Parting clouds--misty fluffs of white were twined as my breathless drake soared through the skies, me being barely able to hold onto one of them. Every beat of their wings reverberated, dispersing the fog-like clouds. The skies were, as expected, tremendously cold as their clouds swathed me like a cradle.

The ocean below shimmered defiantly against the sun, letting out glimmers of light in clusters as waves swished and crashed about in a turmoil sort of state.

Clouds of a misty, slightly dark shaded vapor were cleaved into pieces as I flew through them, their chilling, damp touch still clinging onto my skin as if they were dust. These clouds clung onto my body for a bit before being cast away due to the air being shoved out of the way due to my drake's rhythmic motions of its fell wings.

To my left was a formation of similar, if not identical, dragons. Their flying pattern was uniform; they weren't spread out, instead, they were forming a row. I'm not too keen on aerial formations, but this seemed to be out of innate instinct, as if they'd have practiced this pattern countless of times.

'Well, isn't that food for thought?' I muttered idly to myself in my head as placed my chin on my palm.

The positioning and synchronization of their flight was seamless; not one was out of line and not one was going too fast or too slow to cause the formation to crumble.

My eyes adrift to the skyline, I let out a sigh of boredom. 'This thing is uncomfortable to sit on, if I look down I'll get nausea, and if I were to even just adjust my position, I'd risk-' Suddenly, a haze of what felt like sleety winds assaulted my still-open jaw, causing me to convulse with a bit of gagging. "Dammit," I spat out instinctively, wiping my mouth off as I did, "Should've closed my mouth..."

Recomposing my fortitude, I studied my ride. Its carapace of leathery, dead flesh mingling and weaved around the protruding bones, shook and trembled violently against the austere gales. I could barely keep my posture on this thing.

My eyes drifted around the horizon. The clouds bogged my vision. I could only see smokescreens of white as far as my vision could perceive. Silhouettes of land formations and mountains presented themselves midst the whiteness, appearing as if they were ghastly phantasms of my mind.

I sighed as my eyes drearily drooped downwards, casting my gaze over the fragmented islands. Yes--islands. They acted as if they were recluses, trying their best to avoid the rest of the other islands, buoyantly staying afloat, going wherever the whims of the winds dictated them.

I could see some being merged coarsely due to direct contact. Rubble and debris seemingly appeared to have been glued by contact, these islands now travel across the sea in unity in perpetual unity.

I was shaken as I suddenly slipped. My hand grabbing onto the remnants of collar bones and loose, molding flesh, I desperately held on for dear life. It was both mortifying and awe-striking simultaneously.

The vastness of water below was alarming--for as far as one could see, nothing but a great ocean was present. The water was alluringly clear for whatever reason. The reflection of blurring after-images of the speeding fleet of dragons was clear, placing me in some sort of trance as I looked at it, my eyes lit up in curiosity.

...Unfortunately, however, I shouldn't exactly marvel at the product of once large landmasses rending itself and dividing itself into smaller bits of land.

I shifted myself, adjusting my position as I loosely positioned my footing into a crevice of some sort, probably a depressing within this unholy beast's columns of withered ribs. I'd have otherwise attested to this, but the bony dragon showed no pain nor discomfort in its vicious visage. I shifted around my foot due to lack of better leverage.

I heard a snap of some sort. I instantly recoiled at the sickening crunch.

My head bolted downwards, directly being set onto my feet. Just above my foot, I could discern a long bone, rusted with decay like the rest, being shattered and splintered due to my pressure. I jerked back my foot in instinct. The instinctive response caused my body to sway a bit too much to the left--too much.

I dangled a bit to the side, my body dangerously tilting over the end of the rotting dragon. I flailed my hands a bit, but it was all in vain as I suddenly found myself falling over to the edge.

As if a reflexive urge overtook my body, my hand surged forward, reaching forth for the neck of the dragon. My hand gripped it hard and I pulled myself back up to safety.

A spritz of sweat fell from my forehead as I clutched my chest, feeling the fleeting beats of my heart. I breathed a few deep breaths, patting my chest as I did. Shrugging off the panic, I returned my attention towards the seemingly unperturbed dragon.

Not even displeased by lack of... professionalism. Not a single response. It simply kept on flying, as if nothing has happened. I sighed out as I reclined a bit. "Remember what we're looking for--the place where that large ray of light originated from."

It let out a low growl, as if conveying its annoyance.

"No need to be so arrogant about it."

=========

Shadows began to appear, dotting the horizon. I squinted my eyes, narrowing down my vision at the direction of these ominous silhouettes. They inched closer and closer to us exceedingly fast, as if they were moving... towards us.

"Stop! Stop flying! Stay stationary in the air," my command echoed out, and my fell drake obeyed, shifting its pattern of flight to make itself simply hover in place. The formation of other undead drakes followed as well--we were now two, lengthy immobile in the middle of the skies.

"Summoner!" I heard Vesper call out from beside me. "Why are we stopping? Did you catch a glimpse of something?"

I didn't bother refocusing my eyes on him, I kept my fixated look onto the far skyline. "Put your head forward and look for yourself," I replied in an almost deadpan tone.

Finally, emerging out of the dimming shade, metallic behemoths. Hanging above these were balloon-like objects that easily surpassed the size of the body of the metal frames of these floating fortresses. I snapped into realization.

"Bleeding hell! These are airships! Reinforced ones!" I tried to whisper, but what came out of my mouth was instead a frantic shout.

These zeppelins were rearing closer to us, flaunting their sheer size that could rival whole castles at us. Their bloated envelopes that are keeping them airborne were protected; steeling themselves on their usual papery surface were plates that seemed to be several inches thick. The hull of these aerial leviathans were sloped and shone out a polished luster. Just above the hull was some sort of dome--cannons and a miscellany of machinery protruding out of them. I could barely see the rotatory propellers and rocket-based propulsion devices were coupled along the rear.

They arched us, forming in a slightly curved line-like formation before us. As if their machinations came to life, cogs and cabins shifted along their main bodies. Finally, they brandished their cannons at us, their bottomless hollows reared at our direction.

My eyes widened as trickles of sweat profusely dropped from my face. "Evasion! Evasion!" I called out to the rest of my undead comrades as I withdrew my book from my robes. "Everyone! Focus on not getting hit!"

As soon as I yelled those out, the zeppelins opened fire. The ends of their barrels flared with inferno accompanied with thunderclaps that could rival lighting. Resonating and deafening, the sound of cannon volleys resounded within the area for miles on end. I felt the air beside me heat up and distort as a black, spherical orb blurred past just inches away from my drake.

I was faced with turbulence as the upheaval of air was caused by my dragon spiraling upwards. I shrugged off the dizziness, opening my book as I honed my vision on one of the airships.

I looked back for a brief second, taking note that there were no casualties... yet. "Good.Their lack of proper anti-air shall be their downfall." My words went underneath my breath as I cursed random words in a hushed mumble. "This is still problematic. Way too problematic..."

"Too problematic."

I extended my arm forwards, the Grimoire opened and resting on the palm of my hand. "Go! Attack while they're still reloading!" I yelled out to my dragons.

They let out staggering roars as they all lashed out in a symphony-like coordination, tearing the skies around them as they bolted into the airships' surroundings without a hint of fear.

The book within my grasps trembled as I revved its contained magic stored within it. With a flourish, I swung the book to the side with force and velocity. Pages, illuminating with a purplish glow, scattered themselves from the book's bounds and began to flutter in the air.

These torn pages danced in the air before abruptly stopping themselves in place, as if time itself stopped for themselves. Letting out a blinding, purple flash, these pages sped their way towards the armor of the ships.

They sped through the battlefield, nimbly missing the haze of drakes, moving in serpentine patterns in order to avoid friendly fire. They bore themselves into the hull of a single airship as they struck with speed rivaling lightning itself. For a second, nothing happened, the airships remaining fully functional.

Suddenly, the front of that airship flashed an explosive radiance and suddenly was suddenly engulfed in a large combustion of an inferno of purple flames. The flames danced and danced, forming a massive sphere of heat. Finally, the infernal fireball dissipated in display of vanishing embers, revealing the nonexistent hull of the ship.

The ship's rear dangled, a lone chain-like line holding itself up onto the still intact balloon. Finally, with a metallic snap, the remaining structure of the ship fell to the ground. It splashed into the ocean as it spiraled out of control. It began to sink, seemingly being gradually devoured by the abysmal ocean below. As its mast began to delve into the ocean, I could see scurrying members of the operators escaping from the drowning airship, frantically trying to swim above the tides. Though, the staff of the airship was obscured by the clouds, I have no trouble presuming that they were ponies.

"Ugh." I shuddered at the gruesome display. Suddenly, I was jerked a bit back as my drake suddenly dove upwards, I caught a glimpse of a shelling of metallic pellets fired at where my drake and I once were, ripping the winds as they bolted past the now empty space. Nearly letting go of my grasp due to panic, I asserted my hands once more to the drake's collar bone.

Bringing my head up ahead of me, I was a greeted with the sight of one of the airships, their cannons steeled and sighted on me. I could see a spiral groove within the hollows of the cannon. I could see mechanisms shift and turn within the base of the cannon; if I had to guess, it was reloading.

Suddenly, before it could complete the loading sequence, a lone undead dragon blurred past by. Circling the cannon, the fell beast let out its decaying breath, engulfing the armament piece in a hazy fireball of black fire. As the dark inferno dissipated into embers, I caught glimpse of what happened to the cannon--it was riddled with a thick mantle of rust.

Cracking and splitting due to the enfeebled metal frame, the barrel of the gun began to fragment apart, crumbling into the ocean below piece by piece. The barrel suddenly came off, delving into the depths below in a violent splash. I managed to sneak a glance at the main structure of the gun--it too was riddled with rust, no longer able to perform its duty.

"If that what happens to metal being exposed to these wyrms' breaths, I really don't wanna discover what happens when some poor bastard gets hit by this stuff." My eyes darted around the battlefield a bit.

Spectating, observing, estimating--it's become second nature for me by now. The terrain--well, this is an aerial battle, so no cover whatsoever for me to hide behind with. I was a good several yards away from the remaining airships. The airships weren't faring so well. My army of the undead were too nimble, dodging and diving out of the way of incoming fires.

I scouted the battlefield, spotting Vesper still intact and riding his mount, clinging barely to consciousness. His eyes were a bit lidded, I could barely see his pupils. His head seemed abnormally wavy, even if he was riding an undead dragon around. Even from here, I could see his face displaying that he really wanted to vomit.

I shrugged. "He'll be fine or at least I hope so..." I gulped down a bit, trying to swallow the nervousness back into my chest. "Everyone! Prioritize on protecting the pony riding the dragon!" I yelled out, my words, like a knell, ringing throughout the battlefield. 'Having a newly formed ally be eviscerated by cannon balls? No; that won't do.'

Returning my scrutinizing gaze to the general battlefield, I was appalled by one particular ship. Hovering over the waters, it eclipsed an overwhelming shadow. It was much larger; perhaps about half times larger than the usual ships. And unlike the rest of the flying fortresses, this was much more heavily armored; plates layered among other plates were visible among its behemoth-like frame. These steel plates were somewhat similar to actual scales.

I steadied myself. Craning my neck towards my not breathing mount's head, I spoke out, "Hey. See that one there? The especially larger one?" I extended my hand, pointing at the aforementioned ship. My mount reared its head, glowering at the ship. "I'm certain that's where they hold the leading member. I'd like to talk to him."

With a low growl, my mount let out a small amount of the vaporous, shadowy flames from its mouth. It reared a bit, backing off a few feet. I was about to question why it was doing this, but it suddenly streamlined forward, piercing through the wind. Turbulent winds began to drag against me as everything in my vision became a blur.

"Gah- slow down, why won't you?" I spoke out, prompting my mount to draw some slack on its wings, slowing our sortie down a bit. The gust that were once pummeling my face ceased. However, the whistling of metal streaming throughout the space beside me caused my heartbeat to hasten once more. "Woah! Never mind! Never mind! Go faster or the both of us will wind up-"

Suddenly, the reflective surface of my eyes glinted a glimpse of a stray collection of lights from various directions as my jaws hung loosely at what I was seeing. The surrounding fleet of airships began to shift, their machinated components shifting and turning in several paths. Open cogs were in clear view as they turned, revving up some sort of machine from their bases.

Their main platforms on the middle, upper part of their frames began to move aside, revealing some sort of colossal hatch giving a clear view inside the confounding circuitry, the mass of wires, and the intimidating plates of steel in the interior of the ship. Suddenly, steam seemed to have been expelled from the airships as they all collectively began activating some sort of machine of theirs.

Through the wide gap of these mechanical, aerial behemoths, I could catch glimpses of something emerging. "What the..." I trailed off as I could do nothing but helplessly survey whatever was to come from these airships.

Letting out a collective shriek of metal scraping against metal, the airships unraveled some sort of machine from their crevices. These machines were cubic and were several feet in size; I'd say they were larger than an average house. These cubic machines whirred and hummed a sort of noise engines would make when they're revved.

Cables, varying in color from red, green, to blue, were apparent, protruding like ivies from these machines. Pipes, uncountable as there was a menagerie of them poking out of the encasement of these devices, spewed out billows after billows of some sort of ethereal, foreboding cyan mist. These mists left a wake of magical, blue embers in their wake as they dissipated into the air.

There was an audible thumping in my throat now--my heartbeat. Sweat began to trickle like a torrent of cascading waters from my head. "What- what is this?" I managed to feebly utter to myself, the winds still whistling faint whispers in my ears as I soared through the skies, my mount unrelenting its charge towards the presumable flagship.

Suddenly, the telltale sounds of magic being ignited began to sound in the air deafeningly as the airships themselves seemed to quiver in power as their mysterious devices began opening their middle ports, revealing the catalyst of their magic. Suddenly, the devices began lighting up even more at a higher magnitude as a spherical barrier began to encompass all of the airships.

"A magical shield... ?" My fell dragons cut through the air at insane velocities, not even I could keep up with their speeds. Yet, they all simply rebounded off the barrier as they pelted themselves against the shield, leaving not even a crack on its translucent surface. "Magical shields sizable enough to fit whole airships the size of skyscrapers?"

Tongues of black fire were peppering the aegis of the ships. The flames distorted the shields somewhat, but as the fires disappeared in embers, the barriers remained unscathed.

'Ridiculous... how am I suppose to even survive this?'

My skin began to heat up as my mind became disorientated as a wave of nauseatingly high amounts of condensed magic became to plague the atmosphere--presumably, this was the doing of the airships' shielding systems.

Through the thick of emanation of arcane light, I could faintly discern a reflective, diamond-like surface of the catalysts. My eyes froze and automatically fixated upon these catalysts as I suddenly had my recollection accosted me.

"Crystal Hearts?" I muttered as I swore I felt a shiver ran across my spine. "These..." I fumbled with my words as I remembered my last encounter with them back in Ponyville. "These replicated Hearts... they were being manufactured in the Crystal Kingdom, but I can't say I was expecting them to be used like this..."

My eyes refocused on the flagship, and much to my surprise, it was still preparing for its shield's deployment. The lack of cubical mass of steel and wires were indicating to me that it had a much slower rate of activation and that I had still time to infiltrate it unimpeded.

"Yah!" I tugged the neckbone of my unliving mount. "Come on," I drew the Grimoire close to me, preparing for another attack, "We still have time! Hurry! Towards that one!" I pointed my free hand towards the central ship.

With a howl sort of roar, my dragon lanced through the winds, me barely being to hold on as everything in my peripheral vision became muddied and were reduced to mere blurs.

I bit my lip hard, threatening to draw blood from it as I brought my Grimoire before me, extending it lengthily with my arm forwards. The Grimoire was permeating a shimmering glow of red, a vastness of magic currently sealed within it. All of the ambient magic left out from those shielding things are working to my favor, it seems; time to experiment.

I swiveled my head to the left, spotting a couple or so of airships, their massive walls of magic repelling whatever attack was coming from my feral wyrms of the dead. Steadying the Grimoire, I lined its end at the shield device. I sighed as I reluctantly began calming my breaths in order to get a good shot.

With an echoing, high-pitched blast, my Grimoire shot out a page at such velocity that it made the winds themselves ripple. Staggered by the recoil, I desperately clutched onto my undead friend's back. Steadying myself once more, I let out a reassured sigh as I turned my head again to face my target.

There was a visible shattered crevice at where the page has struck. Just beyond the crack was the machine, now ripped apart and mangled beyond recognition. The barrier machine had a very visible split in between it coupled with several fractures and cracks. Sparks flew off from it as its cables, severed and unceremoniously left hanging loosely, began flailing around like rabid snakes.

The affected ship's magical protection began to blink as its once translucent surface became plagued with pervasive static. As if like battered, brittle stone, the shield began chipping off piece by piece, once more making the ship susceptible to my dragons' attacks.

"Nice-" I turned my face forward, the pupils of my eyes shrinking twofold of its original size as my jaw went agape as I just realized that I was mere twenty feet or so from the colossal flagship--and must I remark, it is quite large up close.

Its steel frame basked in the sunlight, reflecting off clear images of the clouds--and the explosions and the other combatants--off of its polished steel. It was easily the size of a recumbent office building, might be even more. The thickness of its armor seemed to be much more deep than I have anticipated.

I closed my eyes, seeing that I was mere seconds away from a bone-shattering impact. Before I shut the lids of my eyes tightly, however, my mount unhinged its jaw, breathing out a heavy stream of decaying fire from its mouth and into the middle, cabin-like protrusion of the hulking flagship.

The rusting fires did its job; the reinforced were rusted, cracks forming and crevices splitting across its surface. Suddenly, I was brought upwards as my undead dragon dove upwards, leaving the both of us several feet above the behemoth of an airship and avoiding crashing into said behemoth.

My perception of time became decelerated as I furrowed my brows in concentration as I took my Grimoire up and pointed it at the middle of the rusted surface. Paying no regard to the violent thumping of my heart nor the violent rumbling sounds of nearby cannons detonating, I took my luck up for a gamble and shot the surface.

With another page being sent at impeccable speeds, I was pushed backwards a bit by the sheer recoil as the winds around me pulsated from the force of my shot. However, I was steeled just so that I managed to remain stable and allowing me to see if my shot worked. Instead of the page piercing clean through the airship, it stuck to the rusted surface, its runic engravings letting out a sinister red glow from its parchment.

Suddenly, the runes on the page became blindingly radiant. Without more than adequate warning, the page detonated, letting out a fireball that shook even the winds from where I soared. Flames spat, winds became scorching hot and the inferno raged throughout the ship, obscuring most of it. The flames were unruly enough that even I managed to get caught somewhat in its stretch.

"Ugh!" I trembled a bit as the sparks from the explosion singed me somewhat, stinging into my skin, searing through my cloak. I shoved off the pain, focusing my vision on the still rampant fires clinging onto the ship's armor. Through the fire and flames, obscured a bit by the hazy smoke, I could see a newly formed breach on the cabin of the ship.

"Good," I spoke softly as I continued on spectating. "The attack worked--worked a bit too much, to be honest." I extended my arm, gesturing towards the breach. "Go! The both of us need to get in there so that I can talk to whoever is in charge of this fleet!"

Obliging, the dragon shrieked, letting out a menacing warcry. Slipping through the air much like how a snake slithers through grass, it closed in the distance between the both of us and the hole in mere seconds.

Cleaving through the air, my vision was momentarily obscured by the licking infernos as I was suddenly plunged deep into the ship as we passed through the breach with no difficulty.

My dragon landed with a resounding thump as I readied my Grimoire, calming my hand and relaxing my mind so that I wouldn't angle my shot wrong--must combat be required.

The inner part of the airship was rather dim, and I could only see a bit clearly as there was the rays of light beaming from the agape canopy. The room was spacious, more than enough for my dragon and several other uncountable machinery to fit in this room. The lightbulbs were inactive, contributing to the poor lighting of the room. Shadowy silhouettes filled the room. Many of these silhouettes were merely large computer like terminals and other devices; and I swore one looked like a toaster.

Many of these silhouettes, however, were... gryphons? Their physique were somewhat similar as they were currently standing on all fours. The beak and somewhat differently shaped wings gave them away, however.

"Gryphons?" I muttered out audibly as I waved my Grimoire around, posing myself that I might shoot without hesitation should they make a move. "I was expecting ponies to have these machines," my voice carried out throughout the many corridors of this place in an echo.

"You're right," one of the shadows spoke as it began moving towards me. "Actually, the ponies were supposed to have these flying fortresses." The voice's came in view as whoever it was stepped beneath the sunbeams' embrace; it was another gryphon. Cloaked in an azure mantle, he stared listlessly towards me. "We prefer not the term stealing, however. I'd like to see us simply... 'borrowing' these metal constructs."

"Stole from the ponies? Doesn't that mean..." I hesitated for a bit, staring dead into his eyes. I blinked as I gnashed my teeth together. "You're against Celestia?"

He nodded simply.

"So why the hell are we fighting?"

"You started it," he retorted.