Things had gone eerily silent in the hours that had passed. The snow piled up and up until it swallowed the entrance of the cavern, some sloping down into its throat in a manner resembling creeping tendrils. The four slept in their stolen vehicle, oblivious to the distant roaring that had long since faded outside. The shadows continued to writhe and slither, wrapping around the carriage—such was the shadows' nature, for there was no light with which to dispel them.

The first to awaken, ironically enough, was Yukito. His eyes slowly opened, and he could see his surroundings after a few seconds of letting them adjust to the darkness. His horn glowed and he opened the carriage door with just a little push of magic, to let fresh air in to gauge the outside situation. He inhaled deeply, and shivered as a faint chill touched his snout from beyond the door. At his side, her mane disheveled from a lack of brushing even in spite of the manecut, Sora stirred with a small grumble.

Yukito was tempted to get in some more sleep, his body aching a little as it begged him to do just that. But the situation was turning more and more dire—and somepony had to be up to start keeping watch sooner or later. With great reluctance, and a titanic yawn, he shifted to get out of the covers and off the seat to stretch his legs, but not before gently nuzzling Sora. He shuffled out to not rouse his sleeping wife; she was going to need all the energy she could get to fly their ride over the Hollowed Gorge, and…

He paused upon stepping out of the carriage, frowning. "I… should pay Sham a visit," he muttered dismally. "I at least… owe her that much." He sighed and turned to Omega's door and opened it with a flicker of magic, being careful to keep quiet. He walked over and peeked in, frown easing as he saw Omega sleeping with a small smile and eyes serenely closed. His ears twitched, but other than that, the newly-augmented stallion didn't stir. Yukito closed his door and trotted over to Starbreaker's cab and opened her door to check on her.

Starbreaker, however, was sitting up and looking at him as soon as he poked his head in. Her tail lashed, hopelessly tangled to the point it looked more like a feather duster as it moved, and her eyes turned a shade of purple. Had Yukito not known her eyes were augmented beforehoof, he'd have expected them to be bloodshot by now. "Trouble sleeping?" he asked.

Starbreaker shook her head. "Just felt this thing moving and got up," she answered.

"Oh, alright," Yukito muttered, sighing internally in relief. At least she wouldn't be cranky for the day—all the better for the rest of the group, he wagered. "Why… are your eyes purple?" he questioned.

Starbreaker glowered and wilted a little, ears drooping and shoulders sagging. She maintained eye contact, however, and simply shook her head mutely. "When will we get out of this cave?" she muttered.

Yukito let his ears twitch, idly scraping a hoof against the ground. "As soon as Sora wakes up," he answered. He wanted to press Starbreaker for more answers, but resisted the urge, as that would have lead to her potentially evading the original question again. That, and he didn't fancy another outburst at all; best to leave that slumbering beast alone. "Stay here. I'll take a look outside," he ordered. At Star's nod, he pulled his head back and trotted to the entrance of the cavern without bothering to make himself quiet. As he went, he lit up his horn to cast another light and—what the?

A shadow slid out of his light's radius, instead of dissipating into nothing. It shifted from side to side as it sank into the rest of the darkness, too fluid to be artificial, yet too corporeal to have been his imagination. Yukito's brow furrowed, and his mouth hung ajar at the sight. He trotted to the odd occurrence, which tried to hide in the dwindling sable before being cornered. Yet when he had it cornered, it just vanished into thin air, and a gust of wind rushed past his mane the instant it was gone.

Yukito shook his head and trotted back to the entrance of the cavern, going up that slope with his mind being sent into a tizzy at the anomaly. His ears twitched, and as the last bits of sleep-fog were cast aside, he found his speed picking up bit by bit, though he was careful to avoid going into a gallop. His steps echoed as he went, tumbling over each other as he didn't bother to keep any one rhythm—here in the wilds, there was no need to. All he had to do, really, was make sure his frogs could get some traction so he wouldn't slip off the slanted entrance and find himself back on square one.

He grumbled as the entrance's overhang came into view, and with it, the snow that had plugged it up. For a moment, he simply stared at it before letting his magic extend outwards to it. Whole clumps of snow the length of one foreleg were pried out and cast away; he made a mental note to teleport instead of risking a slide down once he was done digging. Compared to the teleport heist at the base—or hell, his sparring session with Sora—digging furrows into the clogged entrance was a cakewalk, helped by the snow collapsing on itself as he worked. And neither were very taxing; his horn didn't even start steaming as, with a bothersome ten minutes, he dug his way out from the overhang.

Outside, past the pine tree, he found the sky above still overcast with clouds—and suspiciously empty besides. His brow furrowed further, digging wrinkles into his snout as he waited for something—an airship, a lone pegasus, maybe a unicorn with turbines—to waltz overhead. But the skies didn't answer; they barely stirred, almost holding a collective breath. Stranger still, what little activity he could see around the base had slowed considerably; the smoke long since stopped rising, and only one or two distant forms hovered incessantly around it.

For most, this was an idyllic scene of tranquility. For him, anything but.

Everything about what he was seeing, in regards to the base itself and the silence of the skies, had an air of wrongness wafting around it. Whatever the case, there was no way in the seven hells he'd stick around any longer than needed. Yukito sighed, nose crinkling some more as his horn glowed.

Wordlessly, he teleported back into the cavern, almost immediately casting his light the moment he'd emerged from the burst to find the carriage sitting right where he'd left it. It jostled a little, and the middle door opened before Sora stumbled out, eyes dazed and distant for a few seconds as she trotted to him. "What's going on…" she croaked, ocular augments whirring to life with a small delay to let them glow. Heavens above, even glowing, her eyes were almost glazed with sleep.

"Nothing but telecoms static outside," Yukito replied, brow furrowing a little more. "Make yourself something to eat; Star's awake, and we'll have to do another check-up on Omega before we leave."

Sora nodded. "May as well give… a light breakfast to everypony," she muttered, a hoof rising to her bell. Clicking the button to activate it, she gave a weary sigh. "Light, return… three cans of... " The next word rolled off her tongue in a way that made her wince and retch just uttering it, "Olives…"

The bell rang and horked up three bursts of light in short order, which materialized into metal pastern-length tins that didn't have labels. She held one down with a foreleg and spread one wing to angle its blades just under the can's rim, activating more augments. She took a few seconds patiently waiting for the blades to crackle and glow before even trying to slice through the top of the container.

As she worked to open the cans as cleanly as she could, Yukito trotted over to the carriage and flung the other two doors open with a flick of his horn. Starbreaker jumped out straight away, and Omega perked up with a yawn. "Doc, what time is it?" Omega asked, licking his lips as he saw one opened can get moved aside.

"Daytime," Yukito replied, gently grasping Omega with his magic. Unravelling his blankets and pulling him out, he set him steadily on all four legs outside his cab. He did a quick once-over, making sure the bandages wouldn't come off or that his new legs would bend out of place.

Starbreaker trotted over to Sora as Yukito continued with his examination, ears perked as she saw another opened can get set to the side. "Food?" she guessed.

Sora nodded, but the motion was sluggish. She opened the last can and hoofed it to her charge personally. "It's not much… but we'll have to make do," she muttered.

Starbreaker took the can with a hoof, and lit up her horn to pluck an olive out of it. She popped it in her mouth and chewed, letting it sit every few seconds as she contemplated its flavor. As she did this, Yukito finished the check-up, escorted Omega over and gave him a can of his own. Afterwards, he took half the olives out of the third can to pop in his own mouth one at a time. Sora took the half-empty can and lifted it hesitantly to her oddly-twitching muzzle.

"Don't fancy olives?" Omega guessed, before Yukito picked up the can he got for him and held it to his mouth. He took a few olives, watching as Sora nodded with a wince and her muzzle scrunching up.

"I-I… I just don't know what it is about them…" Sora muttered before tilting her head and the can once her lips made contact with the rim. In one fell swoop she downed the remainder, chewing just enough to let them enter the hatch with ease. Afterwards, she dropped the can and winced again, ears flattening against her head. "Only s-saving grace? They're sm-small," she croaked, shaking as though she'd swallowed solid ice. With that, the group commenced eating in silence, dread gnawing its way through their souls as the olives were devoured.

Sora, having finished her meager meal first already, started to fidget instead. Her wings twitched, her tail hiked and dropped in its best impression of a flag yet, and her ears would constantly rotate back and forth. Her apathetic mask started cracking as the aftertaste of canned olives—euch—lingered in her mouth, and before long her expression started giving way to alternating frowns.

One was small and tight with lips firmly pressed together framed by furrowing brows, the other wide and almost gaping with brows racing to scale her forehead. Her fur began to crawl as butterflies woke up in the pit of her stomach and did a little get-together with their new and mushy playmates. Augments writhed here and there, of their own accord, making whole parts of her body squirm in ways that would have made internal parasites envious. And through it all she found herself looking at a point past the cavern wall.

But, with this particular dread and bout of waking up came a small respite, in that her stomach cramps had stopped. Though even that was minor enough for her to wedge it in the 'dailies done' section of her mental archive. She mentally relayed everything she had seen past that labeled door that she had destroyed, shivering at those vacant looks she had received… Then there was the operating room, and Omega being dragged to a blazing furnace… or perhaps to a cell, she didn't know, but still…

The Corps was hiding something—something big, by the size of that chamber alone. She decided there and then that, if she ever somehow had foals at some point in her questionably bleak future, then she wasn't going to enlighten them on that chamber's existence. Nope. Not happening. No force in the universe would make her do it. She shook her head, shelving those unsavory thoughts in the 'let's not discuss this ever again' section of her brain, one labeled 'even under life-threatening circumstances.'

She took a deep breath through her nostrils—briefly strengthening the aftertaste of olives; she was going to have to wash that out sooner or later—and closed her eyes. She had to clear her head and focus on the immediate. She forced her wings to stop fidgeting and lowered her tail. Another deep breath followed her first lengthy exhale of the day. Tense muscles and augments relaxed, ever so slightly. Her flesh stopped squirming, and the butterflies in her stomach calmed down. Easy does it…

A voice cut through her self-imposed mental fog. "Sora? Anypony home?" Sora opened her eyes and turned to the source, finding Yukito looking at her rather intently. He had finished off his olives, and sported a tight frown on his muzzle. "You spaced out for a second there…"

Sora gave another lengthy exhale and nodded. "Just… trying to figure out what to do," she muttered apologetically. She chanced a glance at the cans Omega and Starbreaker had, and found both—plus her and Yukito's shared can—empty and floating in red magic with their severed tops. Then she turned to Starbreaker to find her horn glowing. "And you can keep those," she added as an aside.

Starbreaker grinned wickedly, eyes widening and sparkling in delight. Her magic grew brighter, and her aura started to flicker and pop wildly around the cans before erupting in blue and red flames. In seconds, the metal super-heated to a white-hot mass of molten mush that tried to escape the magical hold, but wasn't strong enough to do so. A burst of more light exploded next to it, summoning forth the blade that tried to strike at her brain yesterday. It too join the melted cans, likewise heating and twisting upon itself into something unrecognizable.

Sora winced at the growing temperature and cautiously lifted one set of blades from her side, but no further than a few inches. She watched the bundle of artificial magma as it all coalesced into a spherical shape with tiny, almost unnoticed protrusions marking its ends. The roiling fires around it shaped it further, smoothed out its surface, almost polished it. Then the pyre dimmed, tongues growing weaker and feebler until they died altogether. Starbreaker clapped her forehooves together, giggling with that childish look still firmly etched on her face as the heated metal began to cool in her magic.

When it finished solidifying a half-minute afterwards, it spun lazily in her aura's hold. Red power coursed the circumference of the object, giving stark contrast to an otherwise cast iron black surface. The bumps at the ends connected these lines of power seamlessly, themselves crimson and shimmering with light that pulsed intermittently. With each pulse came a tiny beep, beep that could only be heard due to the group's collective silence.

"She… transmogrified… cans and a blade into…" Yukito trailed off, paling at the impressive yet awful sight. He stood up, tail rising on end. "When did you—"

Starbreaker turned her wicked, triumphant smirk towards him, doing nothing more to silence him on the spot. She levitated the object next to her head, scrutinizing it out of the corner of her eye. "About… two months after I got my cutie mark," she admitted with a shrug of earnest.

She held up a hoof to compare it to the object, eyes darting between both before finding her newest contribution to the world was slightly smaller than her own limb. Her childish glee melted, and with its passing her face contorted into a neutral expression. "Feh. It'll do." With that, she made the anomaly vanish in a flash of light and dropped her hoof. "And no, I won't blow you lot up with it."

Yukito sat down with a snort, though internally he'd just realized his heart was trying to make a pilgrimage out his throat. Great, the Star-Blasting Light now had another weapon at her disposal. Whoo boy. He turned to Omega, whose ears had rotated fully back on his head. "D-doc, I don't wanna b-become shrapnel…" Omega whimpered.

Yukito patted Omega on the withers reassuringly. Starbreaker turned to him, eyes narrowing whilst her brows climbed up her forehead. "Me, turn you to shrapnel?" she said in a scandalized tone, shaking her head with the question. "I'd just leave a black smudge where you're standing—you're not augmented enough for shrapnel."

Omega wilted at that scathing statement. Sora just shook her head and tapped her blades against the ground with enough force to make them clang, but not enough to leave indents. "Well, that explains an awful lot," she muttered, tone just the barest tinge of dismayed. Standing up and pulling her extended wing back, she glanced at everypony else. "You guys ready?"

Yukito and Omega both nodded. Starbreaker did likewise. With no further words they returned to the carriage and closed the doors behind themselves, with Omega and Yukito sharing a cab. The latter also made the blankets and such vanish in flashes of light; no use having them out when they wouldn't get used. Sora trotted to get herself harnessed in while they got settled.

She applied the harness and tightened the straps as needed, making sure her wings wouldn't be the least bit obstructed, and continued to inhale and exhale deeply. She even double-checked the straps, just to be on the safe side once she secured the last one in place. When that was done, she set off for the entrance with a flap and a gallop, before Yukito's magic embraced her and the construct from within.

The carriage, its passengers, and Sora all vanished in a burst of light before reappearing in the Crested Plains a mile away from the cavern. Hitting the snow-covered ground without missing a beat, Sora began flapping and galloping in wide circles to build momentum, keeping her eyes focused on the mountains that separated the Plains from the Gorge. When she had gathered enough momentum, she began to flap her wings with all her might until she began to soar, sending snow everywhere as she launched off. Up and up in a slow spiral she went, partly to gain altitude and vantage points as well as to kick-start her augments for the journey she was about to take.

Her gut twisted as she began to reach the mountain peaks, though not in a cramp—that would have indicated the straps were on too tightly or that she'd eaten too little. No, it was a subtle roiling of her muscles, one that sent harmless shocks through her system—one roiling she knew all too well, whose message she could not misunderstand. But, she would have to shelve it sooner or later, and so she did—it was just another distraction at first.

Sora's ears twitched as she heard the distant crackle of thunder. She found another storm roiling behind the mountains, building in mass and momentum of its own, bursting with lightning here and there that never left the clouds. The lightning was of the dimmed sort, if she had to guess. That just affirmed what her gut was telling her, and she snorted ruefully. "Of course, it just has to be storming when I'm dragging with me a giant lightning rod…" she hissed.

Still, she had little say in the matter, for even an ultimate weapon could only do so much with the four hooves that Mother Nature gave them. Sora flew right into the storm, eyes narrowing when she noticed the clouds were darker than usual. The lightning danced between the clouds furiously, jumping in great leaps and bounds that illuminated the gaps of its expansive home. It seemed far brighter than normal, but Sora supposed that was because she wasn't looking at it from ground level.

She looked down as a gap opened beneath her hooves, and she scanned it carefully before finding the tail-end of the Hollowed Gorge over the course of a few minutes. Strange, it wasn't supposed to be greying around the edges... was it? Slowly, she descended as before, but not in a corkscrew, nor risking the folding of her wings. Now that she looked at it without the clouds getting in her way, the Gorge itself seemed a tinge darker too. Less full of snow as well; it appeared deeper, and wider, hungering for more snow that wouldn't fall.

Slowly, a morbid thought crept into the back of Sora's mind, and it would not go away even as she noticed it had taken residence. "Has… Sham… been disturbed…?" she muttered, shivering from both those implications and the outside cold pelting her harder than before. Her eyes widened at the possibility; dear gods of old, if somepony had disturbed her dearest friend or her tomb-mates…

Alarm took hold, and lit a fire throughout her soul. Something else had intruded upon the dwelling of snow and ice, casting its shadow here. Sora glanced around on instinct, scanning the surrounding moors as far as she could possibly see.

Nothing stirred except for the carriage behind her as her wings guided it along. The intracloud lightning did not strike down. Bizarrely, snow finally began to drift from the roiling storm, first in flecks, before it became a freezing torrent that stung her from every angle. Sora continued to descend in spite of it, this time letting her blades come to life with her augments to help resist the onslaught. That gut feeling grew stronger, twisting her innards in less subtle ways as she flew to the chasm as fast as she was able.

She continued glancing this way and that, even as she reached the chasm's tail. Flying above it rather than in it, she winced as she felt snow sticking to her feathers and mane as she once again followed the rest of the chasm. Through the torrent of whirling, fierce white that she was convinced had been angered, that widening maw was the only thing that pointed the way.

She was grateful she could still see it. The snow within the Gorge was kicking up now, dancing in hellish flurries and unusual dervishes, building and tearing down mounds as they pleased. The few icicles she could make out broke with her passing, impaling and burying themselves in the uncaring white. The thunder steadily grew louder and louder, until its very passing was enough to shake earth and sky with a single clap.

Sora reoriented herself as the air ceased vibrating. Panic starting to run circles in her dizzied brain, she began to wonder what had disturbed this quiet place to elicit this reaction from the storm—and how. Her wings beat faster to counteract the cold and the howling winds, blades sizzling and vaporizing any and all flakes they touched, though it was never enough to even dent the onslaught.

But no shadows came at her, even through this storm.

None at all. It was just as lifeless as before, otherwise.

And that worried her. Sora's hooves fidgeted as she considered, perhaps, the object of the storm's ire was still here—still making quite a ruckus. But all she had to go by that assumption was the howling, snow-filled winds and the unnaturally loud—unnaturally loud for this place at any rate—thunder.

Onward she went, as slowly beneath her the Gorge widened, almost threatening to eat her and the carriage up were she not careful. She did her best to avoid looking directly down, sensing that natural, silent threat for what it was. Lightning flashed overhead, striking down at a point to her immediate left—hard enough to hit ground, leaving behind an even louder crack of thunder. Sora shuddered as she turned just briefly enough to see that bolt fade away.

She turned back ahead, frowning deeply, legs starting to kick out to keep warm. But she did that minimally; too much, and the carriage would jostle, forcing her to reorient. The angry skies above continued to darken, almost as though they were under some sort of curse. Distantly, just barely making itself heard throughout the pandemonium, she could hear the faint roar of an engine.

At this, she emitted a silent gasp and folded her forelegs to her chest immediately. She knew—memorized—that dreadful sound. Even with her adamantite-electrum blades, how the hell would she take its source on, with no rockets and a carriage strapped to her? She shook her head; reigning in her fear and steeling herself.

"No. Avoid confrontation. Vanish… vanish within this snow," Sora muttered to herself, both chastising and comforting. "Maybe the windigos have caused it… if they have any reason to. Perhaps they're trying to deter the airship, if it's an airship or windigos at all…"

Sora smiled faintly at that thought. The storm would help greatly with hiding; she'd just need to avoid freezing out here in the meantime. Easy enough, once she found shelter… at that, her smile fell. "Would Sham be okay… with us using the tomb as shelter?" she questioned, shoulders sagging.

Oddly, as that left her mouth, the storm around Sora waned; the torrent slowed just enough she could see each and every individual fleck dance by. The lightning dimmed again; thunder hushing up as the winds shifted gears to half-speed. The Gorge… nay, the whole landscape around it seemed to consider her question. The roar of the maybe-airship was still distant, but its own chorus was steadily rising in volume to fill in the thunder's sudden, conspicuous absence.

Perhaps its object of ire had passed, Sora mused. Perhaps the surrounding moors would return to their calm but eerie silence; its own sense of normalcy, in these forsaken parts.

That hope was not meant to be, however.

The storm picked up again, full-swing as the notion entered her mind. This time, the winds blew feverishly to Sora's right as the chasm widened with its toothy precipices bared. Lightning flashed, striking down next to the chasm's edge—and just a mere inch from the carriage's hind wheels on top of that! Sora turned with the wind and sped off in that direction without a second invitation. Her eyes went wide and her panic finally seized the helm.

Sweet merciful gods of old, that was far too close! "Okay, okay," Sora muttered, staring to hyperventilate, "it didn't hit the carriage… didn't hit anypony in it…"

The carriage began to rattle. Sora spared a glance over her shoulder, finding the curtains thrown wide open and Starbreaker pacing about in her cab with her tail on its end and her eyes turned blue again. Omega was babbling a mile a minute, leaning onto Yukito backside-first and kicking his hinds out frantically. Yukito himself had his mane sticking out in places, pupils shrunk, glasses lopsided and complexion pale. She couldn't really blame them for freaking out either; most anypony would, with a near-miss that close in regards to tantruming weather.

Sora turned back ahead to see where she was going as the storm let up on its flurry of snow once again; in doing so, she made a mental note to look out for this sort of agitated weather before making anymore risky forrays. The tall specter of the maybe-mountain and its itty-bitty companion came into view within seconds, still very much cloaked in shadow. She angled her wings a little, just enough to catch more wind—wind that seemed to be guiding her somewhere, she noted.

A massive shadow came in from her right, and Sora could barely see it from the corner of her eye. Lightning struck it to no avail, instead casting its frame in blinding, hellish white as it approached. Whirring engines, gargantuan turbines kicking up snow all around even though they were in mid-air, distinctly rectangular and rounded on its edges…!

Sora swooped low to the ground, but not low enough to start galloping. The mechanical behemoth turned to start chasing the carriage, wings opening topside to reveal two glowing objects that took the shape of massive black cubes housing four holes each. Each hole had a single giant, conical object sticking out. She glanced over her shoulder as the cubes fired—"Rockets?!" she shrieked, moving to ascend up to dodge the volley.

But the rockets shifted course as she did, homing in with erratic movements. Yet before they could connect, Starbreaker flung the back window open and outward. She planted her forehooves against its back to keep herself steady, and launched bolts of flame to counter. Six of the rockets exploded on impact, yet the last two managed to dodge the attack and continued giving chase. Though they too were knocked out of the sky when Yukito teleported to Starbreaker's lounge, poked his head out, summoned the borrowed rifle and let loose a well-timed laser volley.

"We'll cover you, Sora! Just get us to safety!" Yukito cried, his voice barely audible amidst the explosions.

"There won't be any safety for you miserable lot!" a voice droned from the airship, one garbled and distorted to the point nopony of the fleeing group could place an identity upon the speaker. More sections were already opening up on the wings' topsides to reveal more launchers filled with rockets coming up and ready to fire.

Sora's ears turned back as her muzzle turned frontwards. The tall shadow was getting larger. Starbreaker made the now-useless scraps of rockets vanish in bursts of light before they could hit the ground, charging up another pyre around her horn. "You're gonna run out of magic, Herald! You're gonna run out and I'll laugh as the Admiral tears your legs off!" the voice of whom Sora assumed was the ship's pilot jeered. Sixteen rockets launched out of their hubs, but instead of homing in they spiraled around and around until they completely formed a circle intent on hitting the carriage simultaneously.

Starbreaker responded by whipping head and horn in a fluid circle, almost hitting Yukito with her mane in the process. Her magic set to work, mimicking her motion—forming outside the fast-converging rockets in a burning effigy of an eight-point star. Its center was hollow at first, arms alternating red and blue as embers crackled between its peaks, before it compressed itself onto the rockets. The magical force pulled them sharply back from the carriage in one fluid motion. With one more push of the magic, the rockets exploded at once, creating a smog cloud that the airship then tore through without trouble.

The airship's wings retracted their launchers and closed topsides with a crackle of blinding lights… and then opened bottomside to reveal massive guns similar to the Buster models in build that were as long as five ponies standing in single file. But these guns were more reinforced on their tops to hold them in position—and already charging their own volley. Yukito made the borrowed gun vanish, contemplating what to do as the larger guns turned unanimously in his direction. He waited until the guns were about to let loose, then seized the carriage and Sora in his magic and teleported just as the cannons fired.

The whole lot appeared directly above ground again, and Sora found herself shaking her head to get her bearings together. She didn't question what had happened as she saw the lasers sailing overhead, and instead pumped more energy into beating her wings harder to get away that much faster. Lightning struck the airship again, doing nothing to deter it or its pilot as it slowed its pace, the latter probably confused as to what had just happened.

Then the airship changed course to match the carriage's altitude. "Sneaky trick, you weapon-coddler! No wonder the Admiral's got you on the top rung of his shitlist!" the pilot commended, with a distinct air of condemning glee in their voice. "He's gonna enjoy putting a fucking bullet into your head, like he should have done long ago!"

"The Admiral can suck my horseapples!" Yukito shouted, turning to Starbreaker and nodding. Starbreaker grinned and launched another flame-burst at the airship, but her expression fell as the flames dispersed harmlessly on its surface. The airship prepared its retort of lasers, taking aim once again as Starbreaker simply charged another pyre wordlessly. Lasers and fire launched at the same time, meeting in a collision crash course that the fire wound up losing. Though, Starbreaker thought fast and summoned one of the damaged rockets to take the hit and spare the carriage from more abuse after launching her fire.

She made the rocket vanish again to allow her and Yukito to see what the airship would throw at them next. For a few seconds that Sora used to gain a bit of distance from the pursuing construct, the pilot had fallen deathly silent. "So now the Herald's playing defense? Fine by me! I'll just shred you both all the same!" the pilot declared boldly, wings opening topside once again to reveal that the giant launchers had their rocket stocks replenished.

"I don't have time for this…" Sora grumbled, turning her muzzle to the airship as one hoof came up to hold her bell. She waited until the airship was about to fire, then pressed the button and cried, "Shield, invert!" The bell rang and responded, conjuring a spherical shield around the carriage before said shield disappeared—and promptly surrounded the airship, expanding to accommodate the menace's size. The lasers bounced off and hit the airship harmlessly, the rockets exploded against the barrier with enough force to break it and let the airship pass through the resulting smog cloud.

Lightning struck again, this time hitting the airship's left turbine with enough force to throw it off-balance. Its right wing swung sharply up into the air, causing its struck left to dig new furrows into the snow and send the substance in question everywhere. As it struggled to pry its wing up, Sora took the chance to turn around and fly past its underside, making sure she and her vehicle had several feet of distance as the cannons locked on. Once behind its tail, hoof went to bell again and she muttered, "Light, return rifle!" The bell responded, clanging and spitting out a burst of light that materialized into a gun similar in build to the Buster, but half its length. Before the gun had the chance to fall, Sora rushed to clasp it in both fetlocks and hold it to her chest.

In the carriage, Yukito closed the open window and teleported with Starbreaker to the front cab, and threw open the frontmost window so they could hang to the window frame's edge and retaliate as needed. Sora waved her rifle above her head. "Take it!" she cried, and Yukito grasped it in his magic before pulling it into the cab—as the cannons readied another payload. The airship reoriented with a mighty, snow-tossing heave, left turbine stuttering erratically as the snow caught therein was mercilessly knocked out.

Then the larger vessel turned to fly backwards with a powdery flourish, cannons turning again to face where the rockets were going to be launched. It was still tilted on its left wing, however; no doubt the effect of having been sent through an unexpected plunge. "Aaaaaaaaaand there she is, flyin' around stark naked in a frozen hellhole!" the pilot jeered, rockets shuddering as if they were resisting the urge to charge forward.

"You're only so full of yourself because you're sequestered in an arms factory!" Sora retorted, suppressing a wince from a budding ache that began hammering through the nerves of her wings.

The pilot chuckled darkly, the sound coming through whatever telecoms communications their vessel possessed. "And all you have is your bell," they smugly retorted. Sora noted that the maybe-mountain grew larger still—though how many yards, exactly, was lost to her. Ideas span in her head; if it were solid, maybe…

But she shelved the budding thought, letting it stew in a dark corner as her hoof went to her bell again. "Shield!" she cried with a push of a button, and the bell responded as a volley of more lasers and rockets fired away and homed in. A shield formed around the carriage, taking the faster lasers without issue, but warping and cracking with the onslaught of fire and shrapnel that came from colliding with said lasers' slower companions.

Just as the shield broke, Yukito made Sora's rifle vanish in a flash of magic—before doing likewise to the rest of the carriage and Sora herself. The pilot, unable to see the tell-tale signs of a teleport through the smog, much less hear it through the sounds of a shield failing, waited for the smog to clear for a few seconds. That was, before whirling the airship around to face the shadow in the distance when the cannons automatically turned there first. "Just an endless bundle of tricks, ain't ya?!" they cried, a hint of exasperation working its way into their otherwise cocky tone.

Yukito closed the front window before he teleported himself and Starbreaker to the rear cab and opened its back window. He wasted no time in planting his pasterns onto its frame's edge to hang tight. "You seem like a one-trick pony yourself!" he snapped back, hiding whatever panic he may have held behind that fierce declaration. He watched as the rocket launchers retreated into their sections of the wings' topsides with a series of bright lights, before re-emerging with another fresh volley about to fire. He turned to Starbreaker and muttered just loud enough for her to hear, "Maybe we can make it crash if we focus on the wings."

Starbreaker grinned wickedly, eyes flashing red as more flames roiled around her horn. Her magic seized the launchers and jilted the rockets, making both wings shake as the flying bombs tried to leave, but suddenly couldn't. The cannons found themselves twisted backwards as yet more magic took hold of them, shuddering in futile resistance. Yukito had to give credit where it was due; that about shut down the one-trick pony's airship. He found himself glad that Starbreaker needed no convincing to attempt to stop this thing.

The rockets exploded in their launchers right as blue flames flew at and touched their heads, all at once with enough force to jilt the things into place, with smoking bits of shrapnel acting as the only testament to their previous existence. One unfortunate launcher ended up being blown clean off the left wing from the unprecedented explosions alone, tumbling clumsily backwards and subsequently taking a one-way ticket to the frozen wastes below. The cannons misfired at the disturbance, pitting and scorching the land beneath in several places with their redirected aim.

The airship tilted dangerously left at first, before swiveling on its right in its best to compensate for the sudden jerk the loss of a launcher had created. Its wings' edges began smoking; bits of shrapnel managed to get lodged into the turbines, making them hiss and sputter as they tried to dislodge the offending bits of heated metal. Still, in spite of the setback, it pressed on, its pilot seemingly hellbent on knocking Sora and her menagerie of dissatisfied dissidents out of the air.

"That all ya got, ya blue-titted freaks?!" the pilot shouted as another hatch opened topside between the wings. The hatch was still for a moment, before glowing and revealing a much bigger cannon that swung forth on one arm, easily half the length of the vessel carrying it. It was supported by a bulky base, oddly conical in shape with a massive sphere acting as its swivel. It started charging a white light along its barrel that crackled with electricity. Ominous red lines started glowing along its base as it charged its payload.

Yukito's eyelid twitched as the larger cannon gathered more and more power. "Oh good, like that barbarian wasn't compensating for something already," he muttered with distaste and disdain.

Lightning struck the newest gun, but all it did was end up making its light expand that much more rapidly. The pilot started cackling maniacally, pounding what may or may not have been their back hooves that gave a nasty feedback loop through the telecoms of the vessel.

"Gh-gh-ghaaahaha! This'll fry you all up nice and crispy, and your augments won't be able to do shit to stop it!" the pilot cried, continuing to devolve into their maddened mirth as the massive cannon rattled with a power it could barely contain. "I am so glad all the ammo and the whole damn arsenal can be thaumically converted! Gyaahahaha!"

"What if I wedge a missile into the thing?" Starbreaker muttered, looking at Yukito with her eyes widening.

Yukito shuddered, but steeled himself. "It's either that, or worse-than-electrocution. Have at," he replied grimly.

Starbreaker nodded and conjured the missile remnants she'd used to deflect the earlier laser volley. Without warning, she launched it back at the ship that had fired it, right towards the barrel of the massive gun. But its building light melted it to nothing more than useless slag point-first, just shredding through the torn missile to cast aside whatever warped-beyond-recognition remnants could fly away. A few bits of molten mush landed on the airship without further incident; the rest descended to the planet in the form of superheated, but solidified ore. At this, she gnashed her teeth, ears turning back as the large gun kept shuddering with a force that kept charging.

"There goes that plan…" Yukito grumbled, brow furrowing as his mental gears started turning. If nopony acted soon… then certain worse-than-death was inevitable. As it was, he and his companions were just prolonging that inevitability.

"Sayonara!" Sora cried suddenly. Before Yukito could ruminate on what to do and why his wife had shouted that, the carriage jerked to a hard left as Sora changed course violently. In fact, the shift was violent enough it effortlessly broke his hoofhold, and the whiplash caused both Yukito and Starbreaker to tumble shoulder-first onto the seat. This disrupted the latter's concentration, and her magical hold on the lower cannons broke before she could register the fact.

Both rushed up and looked out the open window, eyes wide as they found themselves looking at a rocky surface to one side that they could've sworn wasn't there before. The airship wasn't as lucky, nor as quick as Sora however; damaged as it was, the only thing it could do was meet with that surface head-on. Its cannons jerked in different directions and fired off before the wings to which they were attached rammed into the rockface as the cockpit found itself ground to shrapnel. When the center of the behemoth followed suit, its central gun jilted up and fired a tower-sized electrified beam into the sky. The beam dispersed in a second, and lightning started striking on the crumbling construct with impunity immediately after.

As the rocky surface grew further and further away, it shook in a tumultuous crash as the airship just crumpled. The lightning only stopped striking it when the vehicle exploded spectacularly against its own impact point. The whole structure rumbled, pieces of massive stone dislodging here and there as the the smouldering wreckage simply started to tumble on with the resultant avalanche.

Yukito looked up, finding a sharp peak overlooking the grisly scene, with something else jutting some dozen meters or so below it. Along the side where the laser grazed this mighty and immobile behemoth, the structure had been charred to a blackened crisp. The impact point of the airship hadn't done much better, especially thanks to the lightning strikes preceding the fireworks display. The ruined airship crashed one final time at the foot of the behemoth, sending snow everywhere without further movement. And there it sat; burning and roiling away with enough flames that Yukito sincerely doubted the pilot would make it out of that wreckage alive.

Quietly, Yukito closed the window with his magic and heaved a sigh of relief, adrenaline wearing off as a chill sank into his body—a chill that more than likely came from outside. "Brr… that was… not on my list of things to do…" he muttered.

Starbreaker giggled and clapped her forehooves again. "Oh well; at least it's burning now," she chirped in delight.

Yukito nodded in agreement. "I'd rather that than chasing us," he said earnestly. He teleported with Starbreaker to the front cab and opened the frontmost window. "Where to now?" he asked.

Sora wordlessly pointed at a gleaming structure in the distance. "It may be shelter," she answered. With that, she started lowering herself to the ground at a much slower pace, conserving what energy she had after the run-in with the airship and its mad pilot. The structure reflected the light off of any and all lightning bolts that struck near it, in doing so almost acting as a beacon of sorts.

Shelter or not, it would very well have to do out here.