The Blackwatch airships pass over me when I’m about three quarters towards the burning airship. Their low rumbles snuck up behind me, and then they hauled ass overhead. Blackwatch deployed the airships later than I expected. Even with the delayed start, the airships caught up to me and gained the lead. I better start hauling ass too!

The buildings in this district are far shorter than the skyscraper I just came from. They bounce between five and ten stories, with a few outliers poking above here and there. The different building heights make for an interesting run across the rooftops, as I’m constantly jumping over large gaps to get to the next roof. I’m often falling a bit short and have to run up a wall to get back up topside. It’s an adventure, to say the least.

One benefit of all these low rooftops is I can see the thick pillar of smoke rising from the wreckage. I don’t just see it, I smell it too. This isn’t the smoky smell you get around a camp fire or when you burn your dinner. This is the smell of a blaze. It’s unmistakable. I remember a long time ago in Griffonstone when the fishing wharfs caught on fire. The smoke traveled up the mountain and no one could escape it. I’ll never forget it. This is the same.

The light from the flames is bouncing off the plume and lighting up the night. It’s casting a dull, orange glow on the dark sky. While no one is ever going to blind themselves by looking up, Manehattan is lit well enough to see where I’m going, even without night vision. If the sound of the explosion or the smell of the fire didn’t wake anybody up, an orange glowing city will do the trick for sure.

The flying airships slow down and descend not too far away from my position. If they’re right over Blueblood’s airship, then I’m about a fifteen second sprint away from the crash site. The smoke is staring to get intense. My eyes are watering a bit. I jump up onto the rooftop of one of the taller buildings and get a view of the situation. Sure enough, I can see the site from here. Its close enough for a short run, but far enough away so Blackwatch won’t spot me.

I cut it super duper close with the artillery shot. Blueblood’s blimp was about to fly over the shore when it blew up. It's at the edge of the island! Half of the wreckage is lying on the street, while the rest of the hulk is dipping into the river.

The whole thing is a bonfire. I can feel the heat from here. Sheets of blazing fabric are hanging off the silhouette of a metal skeleton. The cold, dark waters of the river are flickering with orange, and all the buildings in the area are glowing the same color.

A breeze hits my face, and I get a nice, hot whiff of air that’s more smoke than oxygen. This triggers a coughing fit, and I hack up a long for half a minute. If it’s this bad up here, then I’d hate to imagine how bad it is down there.

I go back to scouting the area. There are Blackwatch troops surrounding the downed airship. A lot of them don’t seem to know what to do. They’re running back and forth, talking on their voice boxes, and yelling commands willy nilly. Soon they’re reinforced by the arriving airships, and more Blackwatch goons grapple down via cable to add to the chaos.

The Blackwatch uniforms, the black suit and the blue glowing goggles, are easy to pick out from the burning blaze behind them. I can easily count twenty or so goons establishing control over the scene. I use the term control loosely here, because I don’t think they know what they’re supposed to do.

I know what I’m supposed to do, rescue Rainbow. Now that her mode of transportation is down, Blackwatch isn’t taking her anywhere. The pegasus is mine for the taking.

If I didn’t blow her to bits…

“Gilda, are you there?”

I perk up at the mental connection. If Rainbow is using the connection, then she’s okay. I didn’t kill her! Yeah, I’m here. I’ll get you out in a minute.

“Oh good. I have one question.” Our mental link erupts in a shriek. “What in Tartarus just happened?!”

I rub my temple to calm down the headache she just gave me. I’m starting to hate this mental link thing we have going. I stopped Blackwatch from taking you away. Explosions were involved.

“I… don’t even want to know. Just get me out of here.” She grumbles to herself, too quiet for me to hear. Which is odd, considering we’re listening to each other’s thoughts, so volume shouldn’t be an issue. “It’s getting hot in here. Why is it getting hot?”

Um… I stare at the raging inferno. Rainbow is somewhere in there.

“Explosions led to fire, got it. Just get me out of here before I die by pressure cooker.”

Rainbow is bossier than I remember. Just as a reminder, smack her upside the head when we’re out of here. I still owe her for the chicken comment. Right away, your majesty.

I jump off my perch and glide towards the inferno. The heat grows more intense as I soar closer, and the air clogs up with dense smoke. At some point I'm going to cross a threshold where I will have to get out of here. This is too unpleasant for a mountain girl like me who enjoys cold, clean air. And it’s going to get worse. Rainbow’s box is in the fire.

When my glide starts to decline, I fold in my wings and drop like a stone. Two blue-eyes, who are having an argument about something inane, get caught in my crash zone and fly off their hooves when my shockwave hits them. This prompts all the surrounding goons to look my way. Before they had no clue what they were doing. Now, once they recognize me as a threat, they know to aim their weapons and hold their ground.

“Can you guys help me find a package?” I ask. “I lost it here somewhere. It’s a package for last name Wiener, first name Ima. Do you know where it is?”

I throw up a tumor claw to block a magic bolt. Magic splatters over my fist, and more bolts come after it. The bolts are hard to see against the fiery blaze, but I can still feel them.

“Ima is not going to be happy if you returned to sender!” I slam my fists together in front of my face and charge forwards. “You won’t like Mister Weiner when he’s angry!”

Rainbows voice pops in my head. “Who’s Ima Wiener?”

Ha ha, you’re a wiener! Wrong audience, but I’ll take it.

Rainbow doesn’t dignify that with a response. Aw, no fun.

Blue-eyes jump out of my way as I barrel towards the inferno. That’s fine, I’m not after them. I hold my breath as I run straight into the curtain of fire. One moment it’s uncomfortably warm. Next it’s blazing hot and I can feel my flesh sizzling. Sweet mercy, this is stupid!

I skid to a halt, kicking up flames as I stop. Everything around me is fire, and only fire. I think even I caught on fire. The roaring cackle from the burning is all I can hear, and even that is hard to hear with my melting eardrums. I need to rush this. I don’t know how long I can hold my breath in here.

With all the fire going on, it’s hard to get my bearings in here. Fortunately, I still have my Gilda sense. I ping for Rainbow, and my monster powers tug me in her direction. I follow the tug, hopping over debris and dodging large flame pillars. It’s a death trap in here.

Fortunately for my sanity, airships aren’t large in the grand scheme of things. It isn’t long before the black silhouette of Rainbow’s box pops out against the flames. Awesome. I do my best to run towards it without burning myself or tearing open my skin on a piece of metal.

Rainbow’s box is covered in airship pieces, but there’s enough exposed surface area for me to break into. In fact, the side of the box I’m looking at is the same one I took a whack at earlier. There’s already a big dent for me to work with.

Knock knock, I’m here to break you out, I say over the mind line.

Rainbow sounds relieved when her end of the connection picks up. “Thank you! I’m ready to end this insanity.”

We’re not out of the woods yet. Get ready to run as fast as you can. I raise a tumor claw behind me, ready to swing it. Oh, and cover your ears.

The tumor slams into the side of the box. The box lets out a loud ring, and the shockwave blows the flames back. I slam it again, and again. Each time, the dent grows larger. I’m getting close to breaking it open!

When the dent is big enough, I take one last swing. My fist breaks open the wall and tears a huge hole into the side. A gust of clean air hits me in the face, and I take a breath of it in before the smoke takes over once again.

The room within the box is dark, even with the raging inferno lighting everything up. Out of the darkness, a blue face pops out. Two rose eyes look up at me, and a huge grin grows underneath them.

The tumors shapeshift to normal, and I hold out a griffon claw to the blue face. Grab on to me and run!

Rainbow Dash grabs my claw and uses it to help herself climb out of the hole. She squeezes tight once she’s completely out, and we take off the same instant.

I run towards a direction I feel is safe, which is any direction. We just need to get out of the fire. I don’t go my full speed to let Rainbow keep up with me, but she’s doing well on her own to keep pace. In fact, she gets ahead of me, so I put in a little power to get ahead of her.

Our escape turns into a race. I speed up to stay ahead of Rainbow, and she picks up speed to get ahead of me. In return, I have to put in more monster power to get ahead of her. I smile. It’s a cycle of speed I haven’t felt in a long time. My memory isn’t up to snuff, but I remember us doing this exact same thing back in the Junior Speedsters, only I was the one catching up with her.

There’s a flaming curtain in front of us. We brace ourselves as we charge head on. We crash through it, and we burst out from the airship wreckage. The air is still smoke filled out here, but at least there’s air to breathe! I was holding my breath for too long in that place. With this air that’s not on fire, I open my beak and take a gulp-

Of a gallon of water as we splash into the river! Oh right, half the airship is over the river! I choke as I take in water. My first instinct is to kick up before I drown, and I kick myself up to the surface. After upchucking the liquid that got into my system, a rainbow colored mane pops out of the surface next to me. She gasps. Her rose eyes look at me, and she tugs me in the direction of the shore. I nod, and we doggy paddle for safety.

The airship is only several yards above and away from us when we reach shore, but the heat’s not as intense now that we’re soaking wet. We crawl up onto the pile of rocks at the base of the quay. A few feet above our heads is the edge of the road. . Smoke rises, and the airship is elevated away from us, so we’re in a nice little pocket of fresh air, and we take in as much as we can.

I look at Rainbow for the first time in forever. There she is, eyes closed, gasping like a fish, taking in the first taste of fresh air she’s had in a month. Damn she’s a beautiful fish. It’s platonic, of course. It’s just nice to see her face after all this time of tracking her down, even if her face is covered in soot. It’s just a nice thing to look at.

I must look the same. I’m taking in air in gulps. I’d say we’re both oxygen starved. All my feathers are burnt to a crisp, if not burnt to ashes. My regeneration is already at work fixing that up, but it still stings.

I nudge Rainbow’s shoulder, and her rosy eyes flicker open. “Hey, guess what?”

Rainbow grumbles as she puts in more effort to keep her eyes open. “What?”

“You’re a wiener.” My arm drops back into the rocks and I chuckle.

Rainbow grunts. “You owe me a boatload of lemon lime soda.”

My eyes roll. “As if. I literally worked my ass off trying to save you.”

The rascal of a pegasus grins, showing off all her teeth. “A deal’s a deal, superseding all proceeding events.” I thwack the side of her head. “Ow!”

“That’s for calling me a chicken.” I flop on my back and look up at the raging inferno not too far away from us. While basking under a burning airship is all fun and good, we do need to get out of here soon. Blackwatch is still street side, and it’ll only take one look over the railing to find us down here.

“Do we have anywhere to go?” Rainbow asks.

“Yeah, I know a pony.” Pinkie said she’d have a boat ready for us. Hope she remembered. “Hey Rainbow.”

“What?”

I reach out and pat her on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Before Rainbow can say anything, the rattling of a chain cracks down from the sky, and said chain wraps around my arm.

Fuck.

The chain yanks me over the quay, the force of which dislocates the joint in my shoulder with a loud pop. It flings me above the heads of all the blue-eyes surrounding the downed airship. After a moment of airtime I slam into the hard pavement of the street.

The chain tugs at my arm, but I smash the links with a tumor claw before the chain flies in the air again. I watch it slither in the air before it slinks back to its owner, a beige earth pony bimbo in a tight corset.

Are you serious?! I just got done rescuing Rainbow Dash and these clowns still want this Tartarus damned three-ring circus to keep on going! Sure, let’s keep trying out the lion taming act. The big cat only mauled the entire mime troop and the world famous strong man. Send in the acrobats to finish the job. Thousandth time is the charm!

I’m standing in a clearing in the middle of a street. Blue-eyes surround me, and they all aim their weapons at me. The dull hum of airships hovers over our heads, no doubt preparing their weapons.

I stick my claw in the ground. Corset yells the first sound of an order before a cluster of blades sprouts out underneath her. She must have sensed it, since she jumps out of the way just as they pop out of the ground. She puts all the fury she has in her order. “Blow her to bits!”

Magic bolts from the blue-eye’s shooters, heavy bolts from the airships, and explosive fire spells from the flying airships as well, all rain down on the spot I’m standing on. To be more time accurate, it all rains down on the spot I was standing on a fraction of a second ago. I super jump into the air before my spot turns into a molten ball of arcane death.

The direction I jump is directly towards the burning airship. The fire is still going strong, so that is not a place where I want to be. I flare out my wings and glide along the edge of the inferno. The heat licks my belly as I fly by, and the updraft gives my wings extra lift. While I’m not able to fly correctly, I can get assistance. The airship’s heat sends me rocketing high above the blue-eyes, almost as high as the lowest airship in the sky.

The blue-eyes don’t lose track of me that easy. They’re quick to start shooting bolts up at me. Most of them go wide, but a few of them hit me. It’s enough to give my regeneration a run for its money.

Movement by the shore catches my eye. I scan the area to find Rainbow Dash still below the quay in a struggle of her own. The bimbo in the suit, of course she’s here, is currently fighting Rainbow in a head on battle. Suit has knives in both of her hooves and is throwing a fury of swipes and thrusts at Rainbow.

Rainbow is just fast enough to avoid most of Suit’s strikes, but Suit manages to slip some in. From up here, I can see where Rainbow is hit. Suit will get a cut or a stab on the pegasus, but Rainbow’s flesh will stitch together and heal back up. Sweet, Rainbow can regenerate, just like me.

And just like me, Rainbow is having trouble flying. She keeps hopping and flapping her wings as hard as she can to jump up into the sky, but her wings go stiff when she gains a foot of air. This gives Suit an opportunity to strike whenever Rainbow does this, and her strikes are nasty.

My wings fold in and I dive bomb towards Suit. I put out my tumor claws to crush her into a mushy pulp when I land. Suit must have heard me. She turns to look up at the sky, then jumps away to avoid me, just like her cohort with the groundspikes. I crater in between Rainbow and Suit, sending a shockwave that creates a little mini tsunami in the river and rocks in the sky.

I grin at Rainbow. “Need help?”

I choke when two knife blades pierce the back of my neck and cut through my throat. I try grabbing the bimbo behind me, but all I catch is empty air. A spike of pain shoots up my leg as another knife stabs me behind the knee. I turn to face Suit, and get a knife beneath the jaw for my troubles.

My tumor claws switch into my old classics, the oversized blade claws. “Every last one of you bastards are getting on my last nerves!” With the blades up my gullet, my words come out along with some blood spittle.

Suit twirls her knife blades at me before I lunge at her with my monster claws. She sidesteps me and sticks another blade in me, this time in my flank.

I slow down to a stop, and I simply stand there for a moment. It just hit me how stupid this whole thing is. Why in Tartarus am I fighting? I don’t have to fight. Fighting just gives me migraines and knives in the throat. Fuck this, I’m done.

I turn around, jumping back to avoid the obvious knife heading for my face. I think Suit is going for my eyes. “Rainbow, you can regenerate but you can’t fly, right?”

The pegasus, who took to the sidelines when I stepped in to assist, nods. “Yeah, I can’t fly away. What gives?!”

“If I had to take a guess,” I pause to swipe at Suit, who was stepping in to stab me in the face. She dodges it, of course. “I’d say you’ve turned into a freaky monster, just like me. And just like me, you should have a method of escaping.”

“What?”

Suit takes another swing at me. I step left, which is what she expected as she jams a blade in my shoulder as I do so. Don’t care. I dash past her and grab Rainbow by the foreleg. “Run!”

Rainbow’s legs flail about as I drag her in my sprint. It takes the pegasus a couple of seconds to get her feet on the ground, but once she gets it she starts running at the same speed as me. Her eyes go wide. “Wow! This is cool!”

“I know, and we can go faster.” I pick up speed, and Rainbow matches it, and overtakes me. We get into our racing mindset once again. The blue-eyes shrink to little specks in the distance. The burning airship disappears when we jump out of the quay and run into the urban jungle of Manehattan. The only reminder of the place we just came from is the glowing orange sky. There’s no way Blackwatch can catch up with us.

“Eat our dust,” Rainbow yells behind us. Blackwatch is long gone. We’ve done it, we’ve finally escaped them! “Now that I can run almost as fast as I can fly, where are we going to go?”

“Almost as fast?”

“You know it’s true. Where are we going?”

I grin down at her. She might be fast, but I’m still taller. “I got a boat.”

Author's Notes:

Developer's Notice - In response to recent incidents, our team would like to remind everyone that Unlicensed Software Modification is still punishable by law. This includes the Nexus Story mod. Especially the Nexus Story mod. Please don't use mods. We don't want to sue our fans.