I still didn't like the idea of trotting around in a maid uniform, and I was less than liking the underwear that only covered just enough that they could be considered underwear at all. I did however like how the cloths at least gave me enough room to hide my enforcer and my two cartridge holders. It all went under the apron, which actually worked well as a compromise until I could get my holster back.

Sweet looked eager, yet still nervous. “Right, I'm not trying to be a downer and all, but you sure just charging them is the best idea?”

“I know, I know” I retorted, “but the all that radio chatter has got to have them all confused.”

She just cocked an eyebrow at me. “Then why didn’t we go when it started?” she face hoofed. “Never mind, I regret putting the two of you in there like that. And seriously, what were you doing in there?”

I sighed. “Lets just say I was getting some stress out. Now let's go.”

She looked over at Merit and shrugged while he held his tail between his legs. I don't know why, but I enjoyed seeing him being vulnerable. I guess I like big strong stallions with a soft side, and ones that can squeak.

Shaking off the thought, I waved for the others to get behind me, we were going to overwhelm the two guards using a standard takedown tactic. I would take the front, then Sweet would advance, after that it was Merit’s turn, and last would be Red. The guards would be too focused on me, and would fail to defend themselves from the others, or at least that was the plan. I still remember having it drilled into me back in Orthrus over and over. ‘It builds team cohesion’ they would say smugly as we suffered through the repeated run throughs.

I checked my radio, finding that it was now showing nothing but static. Though the broadcast had ended, it seemed all signals were still being jammed. But that at least meant that the guard here should still be distracted. I could only hope Mayall was safe...

“On three…” I whispered back to the others, pulling Lunar Eclipse out from under my apron. “Three!”

*Bang!”

My revolver blasted a hole in the lock, and opened the door. We rushed forward, the revolver in my mouth. The two guard rushed into the hallway ahead of us, only to stumble back as we poured out of the room.

Leaping onto the first, he fell back as I barreled into him. A second after, so did the second guard with Sweet on him. Pointing my gun at him, the guard flinched and whimpered.

“I’m sorry, don’t kill me!” The first guard cried out, bringing his forehooves up to protect his face.

“Ya, what he said.” the second pleaded. “Were just acting tough, didn’t mean nuffin’ by it.”

Sweet laughed, and pointed at the guard I was on. “Look, he even pissed himself.”

“Fuck, really.” I stepped off the guard, and saw the wet spot. “How green are you? Because that's just pathetic.”

The first guard looked away, and the second spoke up. “Yo, are you kidding with this? Give us a break lady, this position is only for show. Our parents would flip if we were to patrol down in the muck where the lowlife could shank us, Yo.” I didn’t understand why he was talking like that, but it was making me annoyed.

“Pathetic indeed.” Merit gave a sharp whistle. “I still remembered their kind from back in boot camp. A prissy politician’s kid had to do five hundred wingups for wetting his bed, and got five lashes when he started crying a bit after wingup two hundred.”

“That's all?” Red joined in. “Mother had me drink a mild poison when I talked back to her. Thought I was going to puke up my stomach.” I cocked my eye at Red, but befor I could say anything, she continued. “But enough about the past, we need to get going, I doubt these two will be able to stop us.”

She was right, but as I got ready to run, I saw the two maids peek around the coroner. “You two, best to go somewhere safe, and lay low. If things get worse, go to Orthus, they will take you in.” waving the two off the four of us galloped are way to where they were keeping our stuff.

The guards, and staff were shocked to see us run through the place, though none seemed willing to do anything about us. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were simply stunned to see my revolver out in the air. I knew that ponies in more tame stations were not trained to deal with such a threat, it was the guards job, but even the guards here were just as stunned as all the other ponies. If it hadn’t sunk in before, this alone made it even more clear to me that the guard here were for show. They lacked the aggressiveness of Golden Rule’s henchponies, or the discipline of the proper royal guard. Even when one had tried to stop us, a wave of my gun in his general direction sent the guard ducking and whimpering for cover.

It didn’t take all too long to get to the contraband room. Our belongings were scattered about among the random assortment of confiscated things. Still, it made me annoyed that any of these elitist assholes had even touched any of my gear.

“How sad.” Red spoke up, “They just dumped all my guns into a box? They really need to take better care of other ponies property.” I watch as she levetated her guns out of the box and onto the table. Ten of her small two shot pistols, which was an excessive amount of pistols to say the least, and one other gun that had a wide but short barrale.

“Is that... A flare gun?” I asked.

Red nodded, “One can never know when you will need one, dear. Always a good way to let your friends know where you are.” She proceeded to check each gun and then hide them in her dress.

Oh, right, I needed to get ready as well.

I found my holster and attached it over my blouse, and placing my Lunar Eclipse back into its home. I found my hat, scarf, and combat vest all in one neatly folded pile, completely clean. Well, at least they did something useful in touching my stuff...

Putting on my hat, I couldn’t help but smirk. Yeah, the hat was stupid, but I had grown accustomed to having it on, and anything to make me feel more comfortable at this point was something I needed. This was also true as I threw on the scarf. It was older then I was, and it would be a big sentimental loss for our family if was lost.

Last was my saddle bags and my air rifle, the Lelantos looked like it was untouched. It heavy in my hooves, like the weight of life was now added to it, both of innocent, and not. Specks of blood covered one side, likely from the angle grinder I’d been forced to use, but I had killed a lot of ponies recently, so I can’t say if it was from that time or from some point before.

“You okay, Viby?” Sweet asked.

“I don’t know.” I took a deep breath, and sighed. I looked up at Sweet, and she was all rigged up, her heavy automatic shotgun was ready to go. But I could see a slight twice in her eye. “Are you?”

She smiled, “All peachy now that I got my stuff back.” Opening up her bag, she pulled out a small vial of eyedrops. She quickly put a drop in each eye, and gave a sigh of relief. “Though my tear ducts still work, they’re not as good at keeping my new eyes lubricated. Just one of the downsides of having cool cybereyes I guess.”

I rummaged through my stuff, but like the maids had told me, all my chill pills were gone. It was not like I needed them right now, but it did mean that I was not going to feel like myself until I found some more. Though a substitute might work, if things got bad I mean. Not like I'll be going near any body of water any time soon, at least, I hope not.

There were a few more random things in the room, mostly other assorted chems and med supplies, some sex toys, weapons we didn't need, and a whole lot of alcohol. Sweet took some of the expensive looking booze, and I took three healing potions, and four vials of Med-X.

*Knock, Knock*

“You’re not supposed to be in there” The voice of a stallion spoke through the door, nether very loud, or commanding.

Sweet rolled her eyes. “Ya, we know.” She turned and bucked the door open. The stallion on the other side was knocked back and sent sprawling to the floor. “Man, I'm starting to feel sorry for these guys. I've seen completely out of it junkies in drug dens that put up a better fight. Or any fight for that matter.” Making sure that her booze was tucked away safely, she nodded to the door. “Right, the coast is clear, let's move.”

If the ponies here were scared of me with my gun, Sweet was going to be a nightmare made real to them. Still, if any of them got any funny ideas, I could use a good backup plan. I loaded a shredder round into my right foreleg before quickly following Sweet out.

“So, you really think we can get out of here without killing anypony?” Merit asked, using the extra space in the open hallway to fly above me. His battle saddle looked a bit goofy to me, the old wire system being down right primitive and unsanitary. The semiautomatic shotgun on his side looked like it should interfere with his flying, but he didn't even wobble in flight.

“We won’t kill if we can avoid it.” I huffed, feeling unsure. “Were trying to get them on our side, not start a war.” I had a bad feeling about all this, and my neck was feeling cold again. Golden Rule, this place, the royal guard. We were not ready for a royal cluster fuck so soon.

Merit saluted. “If only the Enclave had the same mindsets ten years ago.”
“But then you would not be here.” I give him a frown.

“Shouda, couda, wooda.” He shrugged before giving me a wink. “At least the sex has been great, so I can’t complain too much about how things turned out.”

Ccan't argue with that.” I said right before skidding to a stop, nearly running into Sweets surgicaly widened plot. She’d stopped in front of a door that was oddly unguarded. “What's up?”

She growled. “The fuckers set up a firing line ahead.”

Peeking around both her and the corner of the door, I saw a line of nine ponies. The one in the center was standing on a box with a megaphone held in their hooves, and would probably ask for our ‘surrender’ after they opened up on us. Which would be a hell of a thing to do, as all the ponies in the line were armed with two javelin launchers, all pre-aimed at our position. With a screech of static, the guard with the megaphone surprised me as they spoke up.

“Drop you weapons, we will use deadly force if necessary. Come quietly, and you will not be hurt.”

Sweet looked at me. “So, you think we should try another way out, or do we shoot our way out?” Despite the violent look in her eye, I knew she was not a bloodthirsty mare. She was just still angry, which I won’t lie, I was as well. Sweet would regret shooting down these ponies later, drink herself stupid. Me? Well, that wasn’t really my style. All the bravado was just to scare the other ponies from fighting us.

“I just told Merit that were not trying to start a war.” I shook my head. “So let’s be smart for now and go around them.” Sweet sighed, and nodded her head.

“Unless your going to blow a hole in the wall, I doubt there's another way out.” Red Steel spoke up. “It's quite obvious that this tower of a palace is built on the edge of the skyport. One way in, and all but one way out that isn’t a drop to your death.”

“Then what do you suggest?” I ask.

“Simple,” She smiled. “I provide you with an opening. These poor excuse for soldiers will be easy to distract, even though I doubt they could hit the broad side of the ocean if they even tried.”

“Why help?” Sweet cocked an eyebrow at her. “You do know you don't have any obligation to help us, right? I'm sure you would just be sent home or something, Unicorns are treated a lot better here.”

“A bit thick, aren't you?” Red Steel rolled her eyes. “Unlike you two, I should perfectly safe walking up to them and surrendering.” She then winked at us. “You helped me get here, so I'll help you get out of here. It’s what friends are for and all that junk.”

“Fine.” I still had a bad feeling down in my gut, but we needed an out. “But don't go getting yourself hurt, and if things go well, let's meet again, okay?”

“Darling, I'm a shark amongst fish. I’ll be just fine.” She flipped her mane and smiled. “And I have a strong feeling that we will see each other again sometime soon, don’t you worry.” We watched as she trotted past us, waving her hoof just passed the doorway. “Don't shoot, for goodness sake don't shoot little ol’ me!”

The pony with the megaphone spoke, his megaphone screeching with the sound of its feedback. “Just come out slowly with no weapons and you won’t be hurt.”

Red Steel stepped out. “I understand, no need to worry.” and slowly disappeared from view around the corner. “Well, that's a lot of guns, and all aimed at little old me? Why so afraid?”

“Miss, just trot over here.” The megaphon pony spoke. “Were going to need to search you, alright?”

She chuckled. “That’s fine, not like i’m going to bite.”

I looked over at Sweet, and she nodded. We both knew that Red was loaded down with her guns, no way she was not going to get caught. If she was going to do something, she had to do it fas…

*BANG*

We froze, then the sound of something like an SMG whent off.

A cold feeling ran down my spine, and the thought of Red getting shot came to the forefront of my mind, so did that the ponies here didn’t use ballistics very often, and all the guards were armed with javelin launchers. Slowly, I looked around the corner.

Standing amongst the guards was Red Steal, each guard having a bullet in their head, blood leaking under them. Her small guns floating around her, each one with a small line of smoke coming out of it. Her head tilted to me, one eye looking right at me, and she smiled.

“The fuck is wrong with you!?” I jumped out from behind the corner and galloped to her as she was trotting toward the outside. “Why did you kill them?”

“Well, they be goin' t' die anyways, so I though might as well get first blood.” She said, the way she spoke sounding too different now, yet far too familiar. “Ye know, ye should let loose more often. Fools like these aren't worth th' bother, or th' mercy.”

“No... You can’t be...” I took a step back, as she took a step into the light of the outside.

Red shrugged as she pulled out her flare gun. “I don’t know why Black Spot is so obsessed with you. You’re fun n’ all, but nothing special.”

“Halt!” a guard yelled from outside. I could see more coming out into view.

“Oh, by Celestia, thank you!” Red cried out, pointing her hoof at me. “That monster of a stripe has been killing ponies inside, she was going to kill me if you hadn’t shown up!”

Looking around me, I was right in the middle of the dead guards. Their blood had spread out across the floors, pooling under my hooves. The guards outside could see it, causing some to gasp while others scowled and raised their weapons.

That bitch played me!

“Don’t worry m’lady, you're safe with us.” The guard told Red as he trotted past her with his launcher aimed directly at me. The other guards outside joined in, slowly closing in.

Their eyes were completely off Red, which was exactly what she wanted. I could see the smile spread across her face, and the flare gun she’d had earlier aimed up into the sky. With a loud bang, her flair gun fired and sent a trail of crimson smoke flying high into the air. The flair hung in the air before it burst into a bright red plume before it ignited in a powerful blast that was so strong I could feel it in my chest.

The blast got the guard's attention, but when they turned their attention down to where Red had been, she was already gone. There was a quiet pause, only for a few seconds, but it felt like minutes. The coldness that ran down my spine now felt like ice, giving me an overwhelming sense of dead.

Sweet and Merit stepped out, Sweet being the first to break the silence. “What in tartarus was that?”

Everything shook with the the sound of an explosion, which was quickly followed with frantic gunfire.

I took a deep breath and a step forward, in response, the guard just outside the doorway returned to aiming their gun at me, but she fell over as she screamed as the sound of metal hitting stone range loudly in the air, pattering like rain. Blood began to pour out of her back and stomach. Two of the other guards came to her aid, almost slipping on her blood. A long dart stuck out of her belly, and a hole was in her back. What the hell, where did that come from!?

Looking up, I saw them. The pirates, a hoard of pegasi, and griffons, all coming out of the clouds and armed to the teeth with weapons. A glint of light hit my eyes, and I entered S.A.T.S. More as a reflex than anything. I selected a maneuver to jump back, using both points for maximum efficiency. I threw myself back, colliding with Sweet to push us both out of the way of the coming attack.

Darts. Dozens of large dart rained down on the unprepared guards outside. They didn’t even have time to process what had happen before they were turned into soon to not be living pin cushions. The blood poured out of their wounds as all of them collapsed, and the few that weren’t outright killed twitched and gurgled for air.

“The fuck was that!?” Sweet shouted, the look on her face clearly disturbed.

Merit trotted past us, stopping at the doorway, looking around. In his hoof was a bent dart, it must have had bounced in when it hit the ground. He picked it up and let every pony take a look. The dart, now that I could see it properly, had a wide cross section tip looked heavy and sharp, it connected to a long thin shaft with fins at the end. “Their called a flechette.” Merit spoke. “I remember seeing some in a military museum. I think they were outlawed by Celestia do to how cruel they were as weapons.” He threw the flechette outside, it making a ping sound as it clamored away.

I looked up at the sky outside, seeing the flying pirates throwing their cruel weapons at their victims below “Right, so how do protect ourselves, because I’d rather not die like that.”

He shook his head. “Hopes and prayers?”

“Oh fan fucking tastic.” Sweet yelled out. “Red turns out to be a psychopath, and now some ponies are playing lawn darts from the sky!” she took a look outside, and groaned. “I may have wanted these ass hats to get a black eye, but not like this.” Looking back at me, she had a serious look on her face. “On the bright side, I get to have my baby be put to proper use.”

I nodded back at her. “Just keep an eye up, I’ll have your back.”

Sweet rushed out, and Merit and I followed. We just needed to make it to the elevator and get out of this mess. Above us as we ran were six vertibucks with ponies hanging off of their sides, each of them wildly shooting their guns down into New Canterlot. One of the smaller towers on the edge of the city was already on fire, and the molten remnants of some sort of large defencive gun bent beyond use hung off it’s side.

Our path twisted and turned as we ran, and we had to ignore the cries of far too many wounded ponies, and we had to step over even more who were already dead. One of the pegasus pirates dropped down in our way with a twisted smile across her muzzle. Sweets gun easily ripped the pegasus to pieces as we didn't even slow down.

One more turn, and we were at the cage-like elevator. But the moment we came around the corner, we were forced to dive for cover as a few javelins came flying at us. Some of the guard ponies had taken shelter inside along with a few civilizations, and they clearly didn’t want to share the space.

“Plan B then?” Merit asked as he kept his eyes on the sky, only risking a cursory glance at me as I nodded. “Right, you take the lead. That train can't be far away.”

I waved as the elevator began to close, and as a gray pegasus swooped by in a blur. Screams came from the elevator as the guards forced the door closed as a small tube bounced its way inside. An explosion rocked us in our cover, and flames gouted out of the elevator. The ponies inside who were still alive, desperately banged on the cage like bars. The flaming elevator began to descend, dropping the grim display down out of sight, but unfortunately, not out of mind.

Looking back at Sweet, she gave the same concerned look I felt I had written across my face. Merit grabbed us both tightly and pulled us sharply down to the ground. A gust of wind came over us, followed by the sounds of hooves sliding on stone.

“Well lookie here! Didn't think I'd ever see you again.” I looked up to see the gray pegasus Graceful Gust standing before us. “Like my little display of art? Been thinking how I was going to do it since I got here. I figured it was best to wait till it was packed for maximum entertainment value. Fire bombing them was my master stroke, so much better than just shooting them if I do say so myself.”

Merit stepped over us, and slowly trotted over to Graceful. “Of course a treacherous dashite would find such a despicable action wonderful.”

“There. There it is!” Graceful gasped and pointed at Merit. “A pot calling the kettle black. Such hypocrisy, but I've been hoping to meet one of you Enclave fools for a long time now.” She pulled out a flare gun and fired it in the air, it shooting a line of gray smoke high up.

A few more pirates swooped out of the air and landed next to Graceful, he raising her hoof to catch the attention of a pair of mean looking griffins. It became a standoff, with everypony pointing their guns, yet no shots yet fired.

“Good, we've met, now get out of our way.” Merit spat back at Graceful.

“Fine fine, but Black Spot still wants his dear Dragon Slayer.” Graceful pointed a grenade launcher at us. “So be a good soldier and hoof her over.”

“Ya, no, not happening.” Merit said defiantly, as he raised his shotgun at her. “So fuck off, trator.”

She just smiled. “Ah, the whole loyalty bit. You do know there's no Grand Enclave to brown nose up to anymore, right? So just do me a favor and drop it, we both know it was all lies anyway.”

This was going nowhere, and longer we waited, the worse things were going to get.

“Listen here Graceful, I've not had the best day, and you're not making it better.” I growled at her, at least getting her to shift her attention to me. “So if you don't want another hole to choke on a dick with, it’s best just move on.”

“Fine, fine.” Graceful cocked an eye at me, and smiled to the other pirates who’d arrived around her. “It's not like you were part of this gig in the first place.” She fluttered her wings, hovering up into the air. “But just you wait, you get a pass now, but you’ll be next on the list, you’ll see.” She motioned at the two griffons, and they took flight. “Right, now who was the new target Red Steel wanted dead?” She tapped her chin before smirking right at me. “Oh, that's right, that pink and blue mare you arrived with.” She shot up into the sky, and out of sight. “Catch you later!”

“Damnit!” Merit stamped his hooves on the ground in frustration. “So, I'm guessing we're going to change our plans?”

“Fuck all this shit, we have to.” Sweet groaned. “With how quickly things are going to tartarus around here, the trains are probably blown up by now.”

I had to nod in agreement and quickly checked my pipbuck. The map came to life, showing me a fair amount of this place, but that wasn’t what I was after. Zooming out, the map revealed a blue dot on the other end of the skyport. The spot was listed as “Vertibuck landing pad” which meant that they must be leaving by air.

“Strange, I'm only getting Harps signal.” That was a bit more worrisome than I cared to admit. “Hopefully Mayall fine.”

“Well, she’s your friend. After the shit they did to me, I couldn't care less about a sand-lurker.” Sweet huffed, which I supposed I could understand her point of view. “But I’m not going to let those pirates touch one hair on Harp. She’s like the little sister I never had, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to take her to her first rock concert.”

I took a deep breath. “Then where going to the vertibuck landing pad, we don’t have time to waste.” I motion them to follow me, and galloped off. It was a trap, it had to be, but one I was more than willing to spring. If Black Spot was there, and I hoped he was, he would be the first pony I was going to kill.

Galloping down the alleys, I could see ponies cowering in their homes. The less the fortunate had been killed and left rot, their blood staining the cobblestone streets. The pirates themselves seemed to stay out of our way, no doubt ordered to let us run to into their trap, to deliver ourselves right into the cage they built for us.

By now, it wasn’t just pegasi and griffons that had landed, but I was seeing non flyer pirates running around. Quite surprising to me, that included a few mirage ponies. It all made my stomach lurch, seeing my own kind side with these barbaric outsiders. They were gathering up any pony not armed, the Orphic citizens helpless against the heavily armed mob of pirate. I wanted to help them, but every moment wasted doing that would be a moment they got closer to Harp.

*Slap”

I slid to a stop, as a pegusus screamed and was pinned to a stone wall ahead. The dart from a javelin had pierced the stone behind them, holding the pirate in place as they died and went limp. Of course, in the way of where we needed to go, was four members of the royal guard.

They lifted their guns at us, and I raised my hooves up above my head “Don't shoot, were friends of princess Harp Melody!”

The Royale guard at the front sized us up. “Two mirage ponies, one pegasus… where's the unicorn?”

“She was a spy for the assholes attacking.” I sighed, really hoping that they didn’t think I was lying. “But that doesn’t matter now, she’s gone and they’re coming after Harp. We need to go and protect her.”

Another pirate pegasus came swooping down, but one of the royal guard ponies fired at them with their javelin launcher. The pegasus wing was severed in an impressive spray of blood, and the pirate crashed down hard directly onto their head with a thick snap. They didn’t get back up.

“Right.” The royal guard pointed her second javelin launcher at me. “Like I'd believe the words of a Orthrus dog.”

Instinctively, I knew what was going to come after an insult like that. I dashed to my side, throwing myself from where I stood. The blast and heavy thunk of the javelin rang in my ear, and when I stood back on my hooves, my right leg had a deep cut through it. I had only managed to avoid being skewered by inches.

A loud clattering of gunfire came from Sweet and Merit as they returned fire, killing two of the royal guards. The last one aimed their gun, but I fired a shot before they could shoot any of us. The bullet found a nice home as it lodged itself deep into the guard's throat. Sweet and Merit walked over to me as I watched the guard struggle to breath, grasping at the hole in his throat spurted blood, while each gasping breath became more and more shallow.

“Well, so much for not killing any of them.” Sweet said is a lighthearted tone. I just grunted back, not feeling like joking about this. Sweet sighed, and patted me on the back. “I know, this is just getting more and more fucked up. But that just means we need to get to Harp even more. If there is any pony I know that can help keep her safe, it's us.”

Just one thing after another. Honestly, I almost expect Phobetor to show up to mock me just to make this shit worse. “Right, we've rested enough as it is.”

To save time and avoid any more pirates, we cut through a few homes. One house tragically had what looked like mirage pony maid who was cut down on the job. Now, she was slumped over on a table, her white blouse stained crimson from the hole pierced through her back. As we entered another house, Merit painted the walls red with pirates blood, as we stumbled in on the bastard in the middle of raping a poor mare. We couldn’t stay and help the mare, or any of the other ponies in need of help. If anything, we were just as fucked as they were if we did.

Making our way to where Harp was, we were met with the sight of the royal guard fending off a wave of pirates. Both sides had taken losses, and the pirates advantage in the air was at least for the moment, countered by the royal guards pegasi. A vertibuck flew in overhead, raining more metal death down onto the royal guard, but the guard’s huddled under a few magical barriers and shot back with an explosive javelins. A few of the shots struck and damaged the vertibuck enough that it started billowing black smoke from it, blasting holes in it’s wings and tail sections. With the damage it took, it was forced it to fly away, leaving the area in relative calm again for the moment.

A javelin struck the wall near us, nearly taking my head off, and almost making me piss myself. Scanning the area, I could see Harp pass the royal guards, along with Golden Rule, and Minted Coin. The three royals were being protected by a group of unicorns creating a magical bubble around them, blocking the gunfire. Stratus was also there, watched over them as they were being ushered onto a vertibuck. For a moment, I felt that Harp was going to get away to safety, but of course that wouldn’t be the case. Among the group was Red Steel, and in the confusion, they must have not seen her.

In what was like a flash, Red pulled out a sword, and plunged it into Minted Coin. Two nearby royal guards didn't even have time to respond before getting shot in the head by Red. Chaos erupted as guns were turned on Red, but none fired as she pulled Golden close and took him hostage. The situation only grew worse when Red’s horn glowed brightly, and a power armored unicorn appeared in front of her.

As though a bomb went off, the royal guards near the power armored pirate were sent flying. As horrendous as the sight of everything going wrong was, it gave us an opening, and I had an idea.

“Merit!” I spoke loudly. “You know how to fly a vertibuck, right?”

“I get what you're asking” Merit looked back at me and cocked an eyebrow. “But the sky is a war zone, and you want to steal a vertibuck? Not to be an ass or anything, but you want me sit in an uncomfortable seat after pounding my ass, not cool.”

“Really?” I frowned as I trotted closer to him. “Are you saying that we should give up because your ass is sore?”

“Oh don’t put words in my mouth, ” He pushed me on the chest with his hoof. “First off, things are not supposed to go up there. Second, do you not think that dashite wasn’t trying to lure us into a trap? If we charge down there, the Royal guard will think we’re with them and split their attention, giving the pirates an even bigger opening. Last thing I want to do is help those damn sea raiders.”

“I know, I know. But we can’t just let them get Harp.” It was just so frustrating. If these stubborn high-class ponies had just let us do our mission, then we could be fighting alongside the guards, not against them. “And at this point we already killed three of them, but that’s on them. I’d suggest that we go back to take the armor, but we don’t have the time. Everything’s just fucked right now. I’m still seeing things, and we’re going to lose Harp if we don’t do something. Who, may I remind you, is the linchpin of this plan against the republic, as well as the councilmembers daughter.” I winced and favored my injured leg as I honestly wasn’t sure what else to do anymore. “I’m doing my best here, alright? So if you can think of some better plan than charge, then I might as well let you fuck me up my…”

Merit shut me up with a kiss, his tone gently caressing my own. The moment felt longer than it was, but not as long as I wanted it.

“Vibraphone Echo, from the moment I saw you, you’ve amazed me.” He let go of our embrace, and looked me in the eyes. “The more I watched you, the more captivated I became, the more I wanted to be with you. I admit that at first it was because of an eight year dry spell had me a bit lustful, but the closer I got to you, the more I saw in you. Then you disappeared, and something in me hurt, hurt as much as watching my own kin fall from grace. After that, I promised that given the chance to find you, I’d never again let you slip out of my hooves. And when you were found, my heart pounded like the first time I was in combat. When I learned what was done to you, it was like learning the truth about the Enclave all over again, and I still have enough anger over it that I could tear down the republic myself if you only asked.”

I could feel my cheeks flush, and my numb mechanical legs loosen a bit. “What… what does this have to do with what’s going on now?”

“You do remember that I did lead a strike team,” He smiled. “Though normally all of us can fly, and we all had power armor. But I guess I can make do.” Glanced over at Sweet, forcing her to act like she wasn’t paying attention. Oh please, she’s been wanting me to find a stallion for a while now. She was probably eating this up, and I’d never hear the end of it. “So I’m going to take you up on your offer, and once we recover Harp, your ass is mine.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Before you ask, I did keep the lube just in case.”

“Really, that's what you're after?” I put my hoof on his muzzle to shut him up. “You may be into that stuff, but it was just a phrase, not making an offer.”

“Well, I also want you to be my special somepony.” Merit put his own hoof on my muzzle as he pulled back from my hoof. “But that can wait until later. Right now, Harp needs us to find her a way out of this damn city.”

I froze, and my limbs went limp, forcing me to sit. Special… somepony? Me? All my magic suddenly dissipated from me, as my face burned with the brightest blush I’d ever had.

“I… I don’t… I.” my feeling of gravity began to shift as I fell over, the fall only stopped by Merit catching me.

“Wow, you took that more seriously than I thought you would.” He put me back onto my hooves, and I focused putting my magic back into to them, it being a bit more difficult than it should have. Merit made sure I could sit up on my own before letting me go, which left me feeling a bit disappointed, as I didn’t mind him holding me a little longer. “Right, enough fooling around. For better or worse, here’s my plan. Instead of making a beeline for Harp, we fight the pirates first, thin out their numbers. This should send a message to Stratus that were on their side, as well as get some payback.”

The sound of Sweet racking her gun cought our attention. “So, we kill pirates, and gain the Royal Guards trust. That's my kind of plan! If you weren't already taken, I might have taken you for a ride myself.”

“Merit, I got your back.” I elbowed Sweet, and she stuck her tongue out at me. “Though, I'm still worried about what Graceful is upto.”

Merit gave me a nodd. “Never trust a dashite, so keep your eyes open for her.” He jumped from cover, and we followed.

Skirting the area the Royal guard controlled, we kept to cover to avoid taking a javelin to the flank. The first group of pirates had turned a house up ahead into a gunner nest, though it was currently filled with holes where the royal guard had shot javelins at it. Under their nose, Merit flew up and in one swift motion, dipped through a large hole in the house before firing his shotgun.

The sound of his shotgun was met with the loud clattering of small arms fire, the roof of the house gaining new holes. With a crash, Merit burst out through one of the few remain windows, sending shards of glass flying out into the air outside above us. A griffin followed him out, as did a zebra, whom gracefully landed on the ground right before Sweet blasted his face into pieces with led shot.

Aiming my air rifle up, the griffin attempted to get a shot on Merit, using his claws to hold his battle rifle with more flexibility than Merit ever would get with his battle saddle. The griffin itself didn’t move much, more hovered in place as he lined up his shot. Thankfully for Merit, his also made it almost too easy for me to line up my own shot.

With a loud burst of air, my bolt flew at the griffin. But with a strong flap of his wings, the griffin dashed up and flipped himself upside down, shifting the aim of his rifle to me. Our eyes locked, and it felt like time slowed. In this slow motion, Merit tackled the griffin, and the both of them came crashing down onto the roof of the house and out of sight.

The sound of a shotgun blast, and Merit popping over the edge of the roof with a relieved look on his face caused me to let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

“So, onto the next one?” Sweet asked right before gunfire clattered around us, a pirate attempting to shoot at us from around a corner a block away, blind firing their SMG.

We both took cover as Merit join us. “Looks like they're coming to us.” I gave Sweet an answer, “We can't get bogged down, or were just as fucked as the guard is down there.”

Merit shrugged. “Can't fly, some ponies have position themselves on the roofs, I think they’re the local anti-air.”

The sound of laughter caused us to turned and look at Sweet, she now had a wicked smile on her face. “I'm a bit freaked that I'm about this, but strangely, also a bit excited.”

“Do what?” I asked.

“Come on, Vibe, you know me.” Sweet began to shimmer, and around her magical armor formed. She must be putting as much magic into the armor talisman as she could, as the translucent orange armor started looking far more solid than I’d ever seen before. “Time to show these fuckers who owns these islands.” She stepped out, and bullets immediately began flying at her, and the ones that hit, bounced off of her with a twangy ping.

Sweet then trotted forward, her gun moving in its rigg side to side. The modified heavy automatic shotgun roared to life, sweeping the path with led shot, immediately killing three pirates. Merit and I followed, giving her supporting fire. Though with how accurate and fast her gun moved, along with her magical armor, she didn't need the help. It was almost as if she had turned herself into walking death itself.

What pirates that didn't fall back were cut down without mercy. A few flyers did try to flank us, but my E.F.S. Betrayed their position. It was easy to aim, the targeting spell slowing me to fire off a bolt as soon as they popped their heads out. One after another we picked them off. Whenever I needed to reload, Merit provided covering fire, and when he reloaded his gun, I was at his back covering our flank.

We got to the next clearing, a street crossing with very little cover. From above, gunfire roared down at us, raining bullets all round. Sweet, Merit, a I dove for cover as Sweets magical armor quickly faded from the intense assault. Peeking, I saw a rather big and dirty earth pony on a roof, standing on his back legs, holding a minigun and spraying down a wave of lead at us. A few other pirates peeked over the edge of the roof, but it was hard to tell how many there was.

Looking back at Sweet, a thin line I'm smoke came from her front left shoulder, where a talisman was installed. She herself was panting heavily. Taking in, and putting out that much magic for the talisman must have been exhausting. Worst yet, blood was seeping from that shoulder, tricalking down her leg.

“Well that run was good while it lasted, take a break, I’ll take the lead from here.” I told Sweet.

“Send them to Tartarus, but save a few for after my breather.” Sweet said with a smile and a wave. “I’ll just polish off a healing potion in the meantime.”

With a clunk, Merit had dropped his shotgun, and was now installing the battle rifle he picked up. “You do your thing, I’ll have your back in just a moment.”

So, now I just had to take out a pony with a minigun, and an unknown amount of support. “Now or never.” I said to myself as I focused my magic into my own magical armor talisman. Activating S.A.T.S it gave me a bit of extra time to think, but not much.

As soon as I pop out, it's going to be a hail of bullets. Our recent assist must have shifted their attention on us, so all the big guns were on us. The minigun can't possibly be their main assault weapon, which meant it was only here for suppressing fire. Then the others hiding on the roof might be using a markspony weapon with higher caliber ammunition for exploiting suppressed targets. Even if that was the case, then it was likely just one of them had such a weapon. The rest likely have the standard junk guns they’d been seen with before, so they wouldn’t be able to properly counter us if we took out their support. If I can take out the minigun, and whoever has the markspony’s gun, we’re good on whittling down the rest.

Exiting S.A.T.S I took a deep breath and readied my Lelantos. Jumping out from cover, I re-entered S.A.T.S, and everything slowed to a crawl. Bullets were already being fired as the spell took effect, the numerous lead rounds whizzed past me even in the altered time, distorting the air. Quickly, I scanned the group of pirates for whoever was the most dangerous.

My eyes fell on one pirate, who made me realize that my assumption had been wrong. It was not a high caliber rifle ment for precision that they were going to use, but what I guessed was some sort of crude rocket propelled grenade. It looked a lot like the explosive javelins used around here, but was painted white, with black stripes. Which incidentally, meant I could only assume that was an indicator to which side had designed this thing before the war. Alright, have to work even faster then...

My bolt flew from my rifle with an explosive pop. My eyes were locked onto the bolt as it traveled, following it as it sailed true to my aim. Ahead, a cloud of white smoke formed behind the pony with the RPG as the missile shot forward and slipped from the launcher. Even though rockets were normally fast, they took far too long to get up to speed compared to the lightweight bolt that had a hell of a head start on it. My bolt looked like it met the tip of the rocket just as the device had cleared the launcher, punching into the tip just barely before my vision went white.

Time reoriented itself back to normal as I was blinded by the explosion. The blast was sharp as the grenade detonated, and the gunfire at me had stopped rather abruptly with it. Rubbing my eye, the sound of a rifle going off next to me hurt my ears. Merit had stepped in, and was now shooting at the pirates. The pirate with the RPG was nowhere to be seen, but a bloody and charred splotch on the roof where she’d been was all that remained. The stallion with the minigun looked disoriented, and had only begun to pull himself together when one of Merit’s shots blasted open his skull.

“By Celestia's glorious maximus, how did you make them explode?” Sweet asked as she peeked out from her cover.

“They brought up an RPG.” I responded. While I wish I could have flaunted this to Sweet, we didn’t have time for that. “Got lucky and shot shot it.”

“Brutal.” she smiled at me, and chuckled a little.

I turned my attention to Merit, who was now reloading the his rifle “You think that's enough help that the guard’s will know we’re here to help?”

He nodded “Let's try to contact …”

The body of a royal guard landed next to us with a metallic wet crunch, their blood spatter out as they were crushed by their own armor in the impact.

“Mighty impressive.” A mechanical voice of a stallion boomed at us. The power armor pony was trotting our way, another royal guard floated in the air as a magical aura wrapped around their neck, the royal guard futaly trying to free them self. “But now be th' time I put ye down, an’ finish th' fight we started so many days ago.” The royal guard’s head rolled back, his neck snapping before he was dropping to the ground. “So where be that feisty pony ye all left me wit', I would so love t' roast her like she tried t' roast me.”

Closer and in the daylight, the full scale of how intimidating this power armored pony looked now hit me like a brick wall. Taller than any pony I had seen before, covered in scratched up metal. His helmet had a metal mohawk, and angry looking eyes that glared down at me. Strangely, his shoulders had glass bulbs that flickered with sparks of magical energy, that also would jumped between the bulbs. It all gave this detective dangerous look, something I did not want to get in hoof striking distance of.

“Sorry, but my sister's not here right now,” This was not what we needed. “So why don’t you go fuck off now.”

“Yer sister, ay?” He laughed with a low growl. “If I loot ye head would she come fer me? Wouldn’t be me first family I’ve ripped apart.” He raised his head, and spread his fort legs up. “Oh Celestia, oh Luna. Bless me today, fer I fight heathens in yer name. See that me faith be true, an’ me conviction righteous. Bless me so that th' vile sprogs o' th' hateful, 'n deceptive six shall receive judgment. Bless me so that I may cleanse this world o' thar evil, fer I be on o’ ye chosen.”

I was done with this madness, and fired my lelantos at the stallion. The bolt stuck into his chest, and the stallion lowered his head, looking down at me.

“I got more where tha…” I’d started to say, but trailed off as he easily plucked the bolt from his armor.

The bolt fell to the ground, and the stallion stomped on it. “Me name be Ole Salt, templar o' th' Order o' Thorns Crucible. Prepare t' be in awe o' me righteous conviction as I crush ye under th' boot o' me holy armor”

The Helmet of the royal guard floated up next to Old Salt and the bulbs of his armor lit up, sparks of magic jumped between them. The Hemet began to warp, cursed by the magic emerging from Old Salt power armor. The helmet was crushed and shaped to the point that it looked like a crude spear head. I focused my magic into my magical armor talisman, and dove out of the way as the crazy stallion thrust it toward me. Mid dive it hit my back leg with so much force that I spun around as I hit the ground.

I was dizzy for a second, but I managed to get back on my hooves and aimed my lelantos at Old Salt. Focusing as much magic into the rifle as I could, I watched him get closer. A roar of gunfire came from Sweet, but after a few seconds, her gun ran dry with scuff marks on Salt’s armor being the only effect of her wild shots.

Merit also shot at Old Salt, but his bullets proved as effective as Sweets shots. My lelantos hit maximum air capacity, and I switched it to full blow mode. Let’s see if that armor can stop this. Pulling back on the trigger, without anything as support the rifle, the recoil of it damn nearly knocked me back off my hooves.

The bolt had made contact, but not to the effect that we needed. A magical bubble surrounded Old Salt now scattered from the front, and the bolt stuck into the stallions helmet, but only the tip of the bolt had penetrated. With a shake of his head the bolt flew off, and harmlessly hit the ground.

“Wench.” The glass eyes of his power armor looked right at me. “Ye don't seem t' understand. I am blessed by th' goddesses, 'n ye're naught but below shit Heathens. No matter wha' ye do, I shall crush ye.”

Old Salt seemed to tower over me as he took a step forward, his hoof making an audible thump with each step. I entered S.A.T.S., and in the slowed time, my thoughts raced. Fighting him was going to be like fighting a mountain. His armor, his magic, it was all just too much. Rototom fought him, and only managed to escape by the singed tips of her tail, so what could I do?

Channeling enough magic for another powershot would take too long, and he didn’t even need to get close to block the shot with his magic. Even if I tried it anyway, the gun would be ripped away from my grip. How did Rototom do this? How did she fight this behemoth, and how am I supposed to when all I have is a revolver, a air rifle, and… the ripper gun.

I exited S.A.T.S. And smiled. Lifting my hooves up, I put them together like so many drug addicts had when taunting me before I hoof cuffed them together. I had one shot, so I had to make it count. “Fine, you win. We surrender, it’s obvious that we stand no…”

Everything lurched to the left as my right side was hit hard by something. Everything hurt so much that I couldn't seem to move. My ears rang from the blow, and I could taste blood on my tongue. In my blurred vision, I could see the hulking metal stallion move to stand over me. As my vision cleared, Sweet and Merit were floating in the stallion’s magical grasp, scratching at their throats as the guard pony had before them.

“No.” I whimpered through the blood in my mouth.

“Ye all be weak.” Old Salt spoke. “The weak must suffer, because they be unworthy of the goddesses blessing. It was the vile six, the ministry mares who allowed the weak to gain power. With promises of milk and honey, they eroded the rule of the goddesses, turned equestria away from their eternal wisdom an’ guidance. The weak ponies left the goddesses undefended in their time of need, too cowardly ta’ give up their pathetic lives for the greater good. And so, the goddesses left our world, where they be watching us from above, only accepting those who be truly devout. This is why the weak must be culled from the herd. You either accept your place under the light of the goddesses, or die. So it says in the good book; Suffer not the wicked and weak, for they were the ones who betrayed the goddesses, and allowed evil to take root.”

“Fanaticism to barbarism is only one step. ” I lifted my hoof up at the power armored stallion, concentrating as much magic I could to the ripper gun. “Like how I’m going from being weak, to killing you right now.” The ripper popped from my my leg, and forced Old Salt’s to gasp in surprise as I concentrated as hard as I could.

An explosion came from the barrel of the ripper gun, and Old Salt flew back. His magic dissolved, dropping Sweet and Merit as his power armored form dropped to the ground. He had only been blasted a few hoof steps back, but it was enough that he had fallen over away from us all. His power armor was now peppered with holes and unmoving on the ground. I pushed myself up, and fetched a healing potion from my bag.

“You two alright?” I asked before guzzling down the potion.

“Fucker moves fast.” Sweet spoke as she got up.

Merit puked up the food he had eaten earlier, wiping his muzzle with a grumble. “Dammit, If I ever want to start a fight with a pony overly strong in telekinesis, just knock me out, and drag me to bed.”

My body hurt less, but everything still felt a bit fuzzy, with the dust surounding me not making anything better. Quickly accessing my situation, it became clear that I was literally thrown threw a wall, into some ponies bedroom. “I found a bed for you, but lets deal with this asshole first.” I looked down at my grappling leg, and ejected the shell from the ripper guns chamber. “Minerva, reload the ripper gun.” my pip leg beeped, and the last ripper bullet floated out of my bag and into the gun in my right leg.

“Ye reckon that’s all that it takes t' kill me.” Old Salt bellowed in a distorted voice as he got back onto all fours. Blood seeped from the small holes in his armor, and one of his legs seemed to jerk as he stabilized himself. The shoulder of that leg sparked wildly with magical energy, the glass bulbs having been shattered. “Now reveal yourself, so that I may send judgment upon ye.”

It was strange, he swiveled his head around, as though he was blind, yet the ripper had completely missed his helmet and was utterly untouched. Admittedly, I don’t know how power armor works and it’s possible that the shot could have knocked out his ability to see from the inside of the helmet. Regardless, I used this opportunity to get closer, enough so that I could get a better shot at him.

“Blast it all!” his voice now sounding too robotic as it distorts. “Cowards, the lot of ya’.” He lifted his hooves up to his helmet, and a sharp hiss came from it. The helmet detached,and old Salt tossed it to the side. The stallion underneath was an older pail blue unicorn, a few nicks and cuts, with a little shabby goatee on his chin. I couldn't help but think that he was real good looking right before I blasted his head to bits.

The ripper gun lived up to its name sake as I fired it at point blank range. When the spray of gore cleared, a bloody stump sat where Old Salt’s head use to be. The rest of the body didn’t fall over immediately, simply lurching a little forward as the blood trickled down from the neck.

I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief when the E.F.S. In my vision flickered, which was never a good sign.

“Miss Vibraphone, is that thee?” and all too familiar voice spoke.

Looking passed the dead power armored pirate, I saw Mayall. But she looked... Different. She still had her purple chitin shell, but her fins and joints were now a bright pink. Her eyes were the same, though the glow from them were a little more intense. She also looked a bit like she’d been burned, her once pristine white outfit singed black along the edges, and her pipbuck seemed to be dead.

“Ya, but what happened to you?” I asked her.

Mayal got closer, and my E.F.S. Fizzled, becoming more distracting than useful. “I… I don’t know. I think I did it, but the cube was broken when I woke up.”

She presented the cube, which now no longer looking like a pristine old war artifact. Instead, it looked like a two century old piece of junk, as though time had finally caught up with it all at once. I had a good feeling that the DJ was not going to be happy about her family heirloom now being broken. “At least you're fine, I’d gotten worried for a moment.”

Looking back to the others, they gave me a nod. It was time to get Harp and get out of here. “Let's go.” pushing myself into a gallop, I rounded a corner and headed straight to where Harp was.

The royal guard had been all but decimated. Despite their skill and our help, the pirates had routed them. They were cornered on one of the landing pads, the old vertibuck spinning it's propellers as the flying pirate blocked it’s escape. Stratus was shielding Harp, the large power armored suit was dented all over. Golden Rule had been separated from the rest, currently locking swords in a duel with Red Steel. Some of Golden’s hench ponies must have come to his aid, as ponies in tan uniforms lay dead on the ground around the two alongside a few of the dead pirates.

A spray of bullets forced us to take cover. The two griffons hovering over the royal vertibuck saw fit to try and keep us out of the rest of the fight. If we were stuck here, we couldn’t help, and if we couldn’t help, then Harp and the royals were toast.

“So, got a plan?” I asked Merit as he scraped at his chin in thought.

“I got one!” Sweet spoke up. “Those royals can't leave as long as their blocked, right? And those asshole griffins are laying down fire on us. I say we clear the sky over Harp so she can leave, and we just jack another vertibuck. There are three parked here still, right?”

“From the looks of it, only two of them are still working.” Merit commented as he peeked over. “The one closest to us looks like it has a bullet hole in one of the engine manifolds, which means it’s likely to explode on us if I try to start it.”

“So, the next closest one is…” Sweet peaked over, “the one Red and Golden are fighting in front of. Oh joy.”

“Then we just hitch a ride with Harp.” I focused my magic into my rifle, and peaked with it. One of the griffins immediately shot at me, forcing me to duck down. “Fucking cat birds, I can't get a shot at them like this.”

Merit thew a tin grenade back at where we came from. “Well, we’ll need to move soon! Their reinforcements just arrived, so any second now we’re just going to be sitting ducks here.”

I nodded, now forcing more magical energy into my armor talisman. “Follow my lead.” Activating my magical armor, I leaped out of cover and took aim. A peace of lead hit me straight in the chest armor as soon as I managed to get the griffon in my sight. With a pull of the trigger, the bolt flew, but the griffin dogged at the last second and I only nicked them.

Unfortunately for the bird cat, a second bolt hit it's wing, sending it spiraling down. Sweet gave a triumphant whistle as she lined up another shot. The second griffin tried to flew higher, trying to get out of our range. A javelin flew straight up, impaling itself into the surprised griffin. Looking down, Stratus held a beast of a custom javelin launcher in her fetlocks. The tri-barrel setup on the heavy weapon rotated, putting another javelin at the ready as it emit a sharp clack from its loading mechanism.

Pushing myself forward, I almost fell over from the pain in my chest. Though the bullet didn't penetrate the magical armor, it still must have cracked a few ribs. Sweet and Merit stopped to check on me, but I waved them off and steadied myself.

The pirates ahead of us were not prepared to fight on two fronts, and scrambled out of our way after we shot a few more of them dead. Though our position was not much better as the pirates reinforcements started to fire at us, and if any more of them showed up, we were the ones who’d be forced to fight on two fronts as well.

The revving of a ripper roared in my right ear, and I lifted up my grappling leg just in time to deflect an attack from an aggressive pirate. The pirate donkey pulled back on the ripper, telegraphing his attack. Confident in my current leg, I stretched out and used the mechanism in my leg to grab the ripper, clamping down tight on the weapon and sending sparks flying from the small chain-blade’s motor. The donkey pirate only had a short moment to understand how fucked he was as I drew my Lunar Eclipse and sent a round into his skull.

Another pirate, a unicorn mare popped up behind the now dead donkey, armed with one of their damn junky S.M.G.’s. But before she could pepper me with holes, Mayall fell on her hooves next. She arched her tail before slapping it on the ground as hard as she could. The loud smack that it gave off startled some of the pirates around us, and even me, if only for just a moment. But it gave us the opportunity to scatter them with gunfire before they could collect themselves fully.

With the pirate’s line broken, we rushed our way to the landing pad. The remaining royal guard had already bored the vertibuck, and were training their guns at us. Stratus was blocking our path, her large javelins launcher mainly pointed at me.

“I can't permit you passed this point.” Her voice boomed over the spooling of the Vertibuck’s engines. “I thank you for protecting the princess, but we have the situation under control, so we’ll take it from here.”

“You call this under control!?” Sweet spat on the ground, “This is a fucking disaster!”

“And who's fault is that?” Status turned her gun to Sweet. “Who is responsible for our communications getting scrambled? And who escorted that harlet here in the first place?” she pointed her gun over at Red, who was still fighting Golden.

We watched as the vertibuck with Harp on it lift into the air, the wind from its propellers pushing back on my fur. “Let's take the next one.” I called out, but I couldn’t even hear myself over the engine of the vertibuck, so I then pointed to the last vertibuck, and the others nodded back at me.

“No, you stay here.” Stratus’ voice bellowed over the roaring engen of the vertibuck. Her tri barrel javelin launcher swung at me, giving me only a moment to back away from it. “I can't allow you to bring anymore harm on the royal family.” Her amplified voice only sounding louder as Harps Vertibuck pulled away.

“Looks like your plan failed, lover boy.” Sweet groaned, just barely audible over the vertbuck. “They still want to kill us.”

“Listen Stratus, we came to help,” Merit sighed, “if you and Orthrus don't work together, it's going to be a disaster. Just trust us on this!”

“Only as far as I can throw you.” Was her response. “Now out of the way.” Stratus stomped passed us, and charged towards Red and Golden.

“Any other plan?” I asked.

“There is no other plan.” Sweet answered, “We get out by vertibuck, or surrender to the pirates.”

Well then, we have no choice. We charged after Stratus, hoping she would change her mind. Stratus fired her second javelin at Red, but the nimble unicorn managed to dogged it while deflecting Goldens blade.

Golden backed off in time to allow Stratus to leap at Red. Even though she was in large and cumbersome power armor, she managed to move quite a lot faster than I thought she would. Red managed to get out of the way in time, but only just as Stratus still was able to hit her. The hit was a glancing blow, but it ripped part of her Red dress straight off of her.

“Damnit, I liked this dress!” Red Steel huffed. “Do you know how many slaves it took to get this made right? Let alone in a timely manner?”

Stratus swung her gun at Red with far more force than she had at me. “Shut up and die, mongrel.”

“A pitty, I was so hoping that you bored that rusty vertibuck with the princess, I would have made things so much, easier.” Red smirked.

“What do you mean by that!?” Stratus shouted.

Red suddenly disappeared as though she turned to misty vapor “Simple, royal guard captain Stratus Dancer.” Her voice came from behind us, and we turned around. Red was standing on a tall crate, a pirate unicorn standing behind her, gun drawn. “You and those you protect have been deemed week in the eyes of the goddesses and so judgment must be passed.”

Graceful Gust landed next to Red, and passed her a remote. Red took the remote, and then smashed Graceful in the face with gard of her sword. “Did you think I'd not find out about you letting these mercenaries go. Be glad I don't clip your wings fool.” Her attention turned back to us, with a flip of her main and a wiki smile, she presented the remote to us. “I assume you know what happens next?”

“Your going to give us that, and fuck right off!” Sweet shouted at Red.

I put my hoof in front of Sweet to keep her from acting too soon. “This has nothing to do with Harp, just let her be, I’ll surrender.”

“No!” Golden Rule spoke up, trotting next to us with a limp. “I’ll give myself up. Just let my sister go free.”

“You two are no fun, you know that?” Red frowned. “Fine, both you come here.” The remote floated up into the air, held in a red glow of magic. Red Steal shifted from a standing position, to sitting on the tall crate, letting her back legs dangle over the edge.

“Thank you.” Golden breathed a sigh of relief. “Now before we go, answer me, why did you attack new…”

*Bang*

Red shot one of her hidden guns. The bullet cut threw Goldens neck, splashing drops of his blood onto me. Golden pressed his hoof onto the gaping hole in his neck before wobbling, and falling over.

“It was more fun when he was fighting back.” Red said in a mocking tone. “I was planning on taking him back alive and introducing him to my other toys. But, surender is such a buzz kill. Speaking of which...”

*Click*

A flash came from the vertibuck Harp was on, followed by an explosion. The vertibuck itself didn’t explode, but of of it’s engines sputtered and ground to a halt. I could see it bellow black smoke as the whole Vertibuck began to spiral down towards the rocky mountainside below.

“Really?” Red breathed a sigh of disappointment. “How is it that those idiots couldn't build me a bomb that destroyed the whole craft?” She deadpanned as she gave the remote an unceremonious toss from her magic. “They must think that my valuable time grows on trees. And if they think I’m going to waste my time checking to make sure the princess died...”

“You fucking bitch!” Stratus screamed out, cutting off and charging at Red. The other pirates fired at Stratus, but they could not slow the power armored pony down. With a crash, the crate Red sat on seemingly exploded when Stratus slammed into it.

“Is that all you have?” Red simply jumped over, not taking any damage from what otherwise would have been a fatal blow. “Captain of the royal guard?”

With a hiss, the power armor opened up, and Stratus dashed out. Before any of the pirates could respond, she caved one of their faces in with a swift kick. As the pirate fell to the ground, she grabbed a gas mask from her victims side before taking off into the air.

Red immediately started shooting at Stratus. “Don't let her get away!” She yelled, and the other pirates aimed their guns skyward and fired.

Right now, I had an opportunity, Kill Red. And oh how much I wanted to kill this bitch. It would’ve been easy. I've done it before, just two motions. And, and… and that's what she wants me to do. Right now she must have at least one gun trained on me. The sound of an engine revving to life caught my ears, as well as Red’s.

Pushing back, I dashed to the second vertibuck. A bullet from the gun she’d had on me grazed the side of my hip, but it didn’t slow me. Sweet and Merit followed my lead, and the three of us ran to the spooling vertibuck as the pirates gave chase behind us. To no surprise of my own, Mayall was in the cockpit pressing buttons. Hopping on board the open crew cabin, I turned and fired at the pirates, soon after joined by Sweet. Merit flew in and immediately joined Mayall at the controls. She buckled in as she let him finish up starting the Vertibuck up, while Sweet and I focused on keeping the shots at us few and far between.

Sweet and I managed to take out a few pirates when then presented too much of themselves out of cover, but Red had already cut her losses and managed to run off before I could take a shot at her. As the vertibuck lifted into the air, more pirates took shots at us. Merit, however well intentioned it was, tilted the craft over the edge of the landing platform, and dipped down over the edge of the mountain.

I almost fell out of the open side of the craft, but Sweet quickly pulled me back. Okay, it wasn’t as freaky as water was, but I do not feel like falling to my death today! The two of us pushed ourselves onto the seats of the vertibuck, and quickly buckled ourselves in like Mayall had.

“I'm going to come around and sweep over the crash sight.” Merit shouted over the roaring engines of the vertibuck. “If we're lucky, we might see her right away.”

“Hay, Sweet?” I must have been running on adrenaline, because the pain in my chest was now feeling worse. “You still got that Med-X and some more healing potions by chance?”

She nodded. “Ya, but you're going to need more than that. If you start getting the shakes, were going to need some chill to stop that.”

“I’ve got some.” Mayall spoke up. We both looked at her a little befuddled. “The pony in the tower gave me some!”

Before we could ask who was this tower pony was, the vertibuck suddenly lurched to the side and went into a dive. A beam of energy shot passed us as Merit took another hard turn, the vertibuck began to shake and rattle in a way that made me worried. Mayall reached out to me with a small canister in her hoof, and I grabbed it with my grappling leg.

“Mask’s on everypony!” Merit yelled. “Were going in fast and low!”

I put the canister to my mouth, and inhaled the contents before putting it away. The pain melted away as I put on my gas mask, and making sure the straps were on tight. The rattling became worse as the wispy clouds dissipated and a line of green became much more visible below us.

“Come on you old piece of junk!” Merit shouted.

I heard a loud pop, and then the vertibuck began to shake more violently than ever. Under us, the sound of the craft hitting branches only made things worse as a bottom plate flew off in the middle of the vertibuck’s cabin, and I could see the jungle canopy whipping by below us.

Looking over to Sweet, she was still struggling to keep her mask on, only scratching at the straps as she was shaken and jostled wildly. Feeling very calm, I reach over and helped adjust her straps. She looked over at me, obviously scared, so I smiled at her. “Don’t worry, it’s all going to be…”

Footnote:

New Perk: Stonewall - You are much less likely to be knocked down in combat.

-Status Effect: Chill Addiction (high) +1 to charisma and Luck. %10 to damage resistance

Author's Notes:

I got to thank Gamma Deekay for helping out with the editing. It seems that thees days everyone's having a harder time, so it means a lot that he is willing to take the time out of his day to help. So if you have not checked out any of his story's, I suggest you do, their excellent stuff.