The Aurora lumbered through the sky in a steady crawl. While it may have been bigger than the other airships that were built before it, the flag ship also far out matched any of them in terms of speed. A single flash in the night, dropped a pony along the top, as he fell a few feet to the heavy canvas hull.

Landing with his hooves barely getting a grip, Iron could feel himself sliding across the edges as the wind pushed against him from the ship moving forward unto its target.

“How do I get myself in to these sorts of things…” he muttered while trying to trudge himself along the outer skin.

Though the losing battle, finally caught up to him. A gust of wind from this high up managed to knock the colt over on his side, as his hooves scrambled to get hold of anything they could reach. Yet with the sleek design that the ship had, Iron found his hooves empty in their attempts. Flexing out his wrist, the short blade extended out as he shot it in to the canvas.

While any sort of high speed projectile would have been stopped by the enchantments along the skin, the slow and steady blade cutting in to it could break between the fibers of the fabric itself. Giving the colt the grip he needed, as the blade tugged against the skin.

“Oh thank the stars for loopholes,” whipping his other hoof, another blade shot out as he drilled it in to the skin. Feeling the skin push back against him as he went with more speed this time, Iron steadied himself against the fabric, and slowly started to make himself across the skin, one step at a time.

Eventually, even with the wind pushing against him and slowing the stallion down to a crawl, Iron reached an exterior hatch on the roof. Flipping the lid, the colt poked his head inside to get a lay of the land, as his visor met that of a tin soldiers. Grabbing it by the shoulders, Iron heaved the heavy stallion up and out of the hatch as he threw him across the canvas hull. Tumbling overtop the skin, a short axe brought it to a halt, as the armored equine steadied himself against the hull.

Staring down his target, it brought out a second axe as it watched the stallion hold his ground. With all the strength it could muster in its metal joints, the creation heaved itself up and over to Iron, trying to end the fight as quickly as it could after getting its orders from its creator. Though one factor never crossed the equines’ hollow mind all that much.

Wind.

Slowing his leap down to a skip, the tin soldier fell flat on his face against the canvas skin, giving his opponent the opening he was expecting. With a graceful slide across the hull, Iron whipped himself down and across the skin, sliding his hind hooves square in to the stallions’ face as the impact dislodged him from the airship, and ripped the axes from his grasp. Without a sound, the creation of Bronzes’ talons was sent bouncing across the hull, till it finally reached the edge and plummeted to the ground.

Satisfied that no matter how much armor these things may have on them, that kind of fall would kill it, Iron grabbed on to the side of the hatch and slithered his way back inside of the ship. Quickly making sure he was the only one around before moving even an inch from where he stood.

Sticking closely to the walls, the colt moved his way down the hall. For every inch that he made, he scanned around to ensure any patrol or enemy he saw would pass him by without a second thought. Though with his hoof held firmly over top the gem in the center of his chest plate, waiting to go to glass in a moments’ notice, the colt took note that for as big as the ship was. There wasn’t anypony around him as he stalked the halls.

“You’d think this thing would need an entire army to operate it?” he questioned himself, as he wandered about.

Reaching a ladder well, Iron grabbed on to either rail and slid down, immediately bringing up a bracer for whatever would be waiting for him in sight after he landed. Yet unlike the hatch to actually get in here, Iron hadn’t run in to any at his hooves. All he seemed to be doing was passing by bladders of hydrogen for the ship to use, and while at first the colt had started to contemplate a bomb. He quickly realized that he’d likely still be on the ship long after it detonated.

Reaching a large hatch, the colt cracked it open as he pressed a hoof through to clear the way should he meet any of Bronzes’ tin soldiers once more. Though as he opened the gap more and more, Iron realized why he had run in to only a single soldier sense making it aboard, as he stared at the cause down below.

Battalion after battalion of automatons fell in to rank behind one another in the airships own hanger bay. Each one armed, armored, and ready for a fight. Beside them stood dozens of the tanks that had been produced in the factories that once stood back in the capital, as soldiers loaded them up to the brim with their own munitions. While on top of all this, on the outer edges of the rows of soldiers, bombs longer than the average gryphon were rolled about to the various Bombay’s where they would be dropped on whatever target below.

A heavy lump settled itself in the back of Irons’ throat as he looked down at the amassed troops for the fight. What he and Egyes had done to the other airships and the gryphons’ war effort, laid only as a simple dent in the war wagon that Bronze had prepared. However, a click though from the speakers fixed through the hanger bay, drew the attention of all present, and even the ears of the stowaway they didn’t know of yet.

“Attention my loyal combatants,” Iron heard the mares’ voice cut through the air, like her talons scratching on a chalkboard, “the time has come for us to take the fight to those who helped to start it all… Seren.”

With a chill, Iron shuttered in his armor, “Of course that’s where she’s headed…” he face hoofed himself. Even with all that was destroyed, from just what he saw below, Bronze would still be able to wipe half the country off the map.

“While your brethren who still reside with the Gryphons, or the DDR go to work fulfilling their purpose, you who ride with me will soon be doing the same once we reach the shimmering pillar on the horizon… the eye sore that still blinds me to this day,” with a second click, the mic that Bronze had been using was hung up, as those in the hanger bay went back to work prepping for war.

As one colt prepped for a fight all of his own.

“…The eye sore that still blinds me to this day,” Bronze said in her command center of the airship. The bridge itself was as open as it was massive, two full stories rested as she could observe the work from the second, while command it from the ground floor. Everything she needed to drop the bombs, mandate her troops, or even launch those in the bays to combat. All laid at the tips of her talons.

A chuckle escaped from her lips as she leaned back in her control chair, taking stock of the whole situation at once. While the ship itself resided on autopilot, using an enchanted gem on a map to guide itself as if it had a mind all on its own, the engines along the sides trudged the ship along. Leaving the mare to almost admire the situation all to herself… for the most part. So much planning had been done in the years leading up to this moment, and so much had been lost. Though in the end, all of it had been worth it to the mare.

The teasing and taunting that she endured while young, molded her mind to what it is now. While the accident that took her limbs and crippled her, gave her a purpose that she could only imagine, and a drive that no creature alive could hope to stop. As she rested now staring out the window, a smirk finally managed to grace her lips, and her eyes met those of the mare that rested there with her.

“You already know where I’m headed,” she narrowed her eyes at the mare, “don’t you?”

“Boralus… the spectacle of Seren,” Grace answered hollowly, barely raising her eyes up to look at those of Bronze.

“Smart mare, aren’t you…”

“All this… just to settle a score?” Bronze saw the eyes of the monarch meet hers fully for the first time in a while, no tears, no hindrance, just the truth from them. “A friend once told me… in war, soldiers will die, good ponies will die… that’s the way war works,” the mare recalled as she tried to bring up the stallions’ words as best she could, “all you can do is come up with a plan, and when the bodies start coming back… learn to live with it.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, that struck a nerve with the metallic mare. As she narrowed her eyes, while looking at the bound princess there, tied to a railing, “Is this your grand gesture?” she asked, “is this how you were hoping to get me to call off my army, just with your words?”

“No… this is just the words of a mare, who is in over her head in a position she knows little of,” Grace admitted to her of her own position. “Your father died in a fight long ago that the gryphons started, my parents did what only a leader could do and retaliated. Your mother died after years of trying to take care of you, and bettering your life after your accident, all on her own…”

She watched as the pupils of the mare started to dilate from just the words leaving her lips, “…you lost both your parents to something senseless in the end. Just as mine were taken from me while out on travel. They succumbed to a fire at the Inn they were staying at for the night,” the princess allowed the memory of hearing the news the next day to come back to her.

Even after all those years, it still brought a fresh tear to her eye, “none of it happened with reason, all of it could have been prevented, but those events left both of us with an everlasting impact… yet I moved on…” Bronze hadn’t moved an inch sense Grace started talking, and still stood there with a single talon raised mid stride off the ground, “…Don’t you think it’s time, you do the same?”

Bronze stood there still motionless, contemplating the mares’ words for a second more. Before she pushed them off to the side, “What’s done is done, Princess Grace…” she started to walk away from her counterpart, “I intend to wipe the slate clean, just as I always planned on doing.”

“… You won’t win.”

“And who’s going to stop me then? The soldiers of Seren? Your vast armament of advanced weaponry?” she asked, turning her head just enough to look at the mare over her shoulder, “Your colt?”

“He’s… ahh… not my colt,” Grace started to blush for a moment, “but… I wouldn’t put it past him to at least try.”

“Try as he might… assuming he's even reached my ship, he won’t make it out of this alive.”

“And…You’ve probably said that once or twice already,” Grace smirked at her, while Bronze brushed off the comment and ignored the mare.

Iron slid his way across the deck of the airship, having already a general layout of the structure. It didn’t seem that hard to find the bridge, If Bronze was going to be anywhere, it’d be there. And if she was holding Grace, she likely wouldn’t let the mare out of her sight. Though with the war effort mustering behind him, there was little that went through his mind that eased the colt should this whole plan go up in smoke.

“Come to Boralus, support the war effort, supply troops to better the fight,” Iron muttered to himself. All while he made the mental note that this all started out as a simple twist of his wrists, at the hooves of the mare he was trying to save right now, “Call that irony.”

Looking up to the sign above, all he read was the simple word that he had been looking for. Bridge, marked atop the single hatch that he had hoped to find eventually. With a sigh, and then with time a deep breath, Iron placed a hoof on the latch and swung it open. Holding a hoof out to cover his mark, should the mare be standing in front of him.

Though in front wasn’t an exact statement, as his hoof was quickly grabbed by a pair of talons and the colt found himself pulled through the doorway. Unceremoniously being tossed across the room. The heavy armor skidded across the ground as Iron came to a stop just across from the other one he had been seeking.

“Mornin’, your majesty,” Iron half saluted from his position, as he raised his head up.

Even through her demise, a smile started to present itself across Graces’ features. A simple gesture that told him all he needed to know about how she was holding up. However, that was short lived, as the metal scraping against the deck quickly brought Grace back to her senses. As Iron sprung up to all fours, and stared down the metal mare.

“And so we meet again,” Bronze said as she took a few steps closer to him, though the colt didn’t move an inch, “you’ve leveled nearly an entire city, killed countless gryphons and diamond dogs, survived against a fleet of airships once before, squared off against a king and a chief, and on top of all that… fought against me drunk, and still lived,” the mare watched as Iron took a step to meet her own, “tell me… when do you think your lucks going to finally give out?”

“Hopefully long enough for me to wipe that grin off your face,” Iron cracked his neck, and started to roll his shoulders. Already knowing this was going to be one of those fights, with a flip of his visor, the colt brought out a cigarette to his lips as he started to puff away on it.

“A soldiers’ last smoke?” Bronze questioned, “I think I can let you have that much.”

“Not a soldier, remember our little talk?” he asked, all while taking in as much of the nicotine as physically possible from one breath, “you know the one just before we blew up half the kingdom?”

“True… so in that case…” Bronze cut to the chase, dropped her shoulders, flared out her wings, and leapt across the close gap between the two of them.

Just as Iron dropped the visor.

Egyes stood on, watching as the city he once called home burned all around him. Iron had left moments ago to continue his own story, as the gryphon now had to figure out a way to ensure his would reach tomorrow. If only to keep good on his words.

“Make it up as I go…” he pondered for a moment, as he turned and started to head back towards the great hall.

Reaching the hall, the injured gryphon stuck closely to the walls as he peered around the corner, hoping only to see the two guards that were there gone. Though he had no such luck. Just as they were trained to do, the pair remained stuck to the sides of the door, until their next orders told them otherwise. Though unexpectedly to the gryphon, the doors swung open, and a familiar face that he had started to know came prodding through.

Silvertongue panted and heaved from where he stood, along with the two soldiers next to him. Having come from the outside where much of the city lie in burning ruins of its former self, the drake had breathed in more fumes and soot than he cared to in his life time, and for one that can muster fire on his own. He couldn’t imagine how the gryphons with him were coping.

“Bronze!” he tried to call out over a hoarse tongue, “Bronze! The place is going up in smoke, I would advise-”

The drake would have finished, though the sight of the king lying there dead on the floor, with his own sword put through his chest put a damper on things really quick. Looking every which way he could, neither he or the gryphons with him saw any remnants of the mare they sought. The only sound that filled the room from their silence remained the crackling of the fires raging outside of the walls.

“We have to get out of here,” he muttered to himself, before turning around to head out. Yet as he did, both of Bronzes’ guards had placed themselves in front of the door, blocking their way, “Clear a path,” the drake commanded with a motion of his claws and the words upon his lips.

However, with seconds ticking by, the two soldiers failed to even flinch at Silvers’ words. As Egyes watched and waited to see if those that had just entered would instead charge up the stairs, the same ones he found himself on. With no response still, Silver had grown tired of the dilly dallying.

“Automatons!” he shouted, in case they had somehow gone deaf, as he marched towards the open doors, “I gave you an order! Move!”

This time though, both guards looked up to meet his gaze with their own. Just as an envious shimmer flickered through their visors. Each one using their hoof, pressed the doors shut as they started to march on towards the three. Having dealt with these things before, Silver halted his advance, knowing that they were never much of the talking type.

Though the two gryphons with him hadn’t exactly gotten used to the idea of having a pair of hollowed armor following them around, and each of them took a step back. Just as the two equines reached the drake.

“Well?” Silver patiently waited for a response, “What is it?”

Without a word, each of them pounced on the drake. Pushing him down with just their weight alone, the desk ridden dragon was little match for their combined strength. Only the aqua fire he started to spew gave him any sort of breathing room, as the flames tore in to the armor of the figures atop him.

Yet even with the heat, that did little to slow the two. A heavy hoof clasped to the open mouth of the drake and held it open, just as his brother did the same to the upper jaw. Leaving Silver lying there on the ground coughing on his own breath as he fought to try and get control of his own mouth… but to no avail. With one mighty yank, the tendons and connective tissue that held his jaw firm, tore out from their sockets and his mandible was left dangling on the ground just as he flailed about.

The two gryphons that had come with Silver knew not what to do. They had never seen the armored creations turn on one of their own. All they could do was watch as after the drakes’ jaw was snapped, one raised up both his fore hooves and brought them down on to the throat of the dragon. Silencing him once more, as Silvertongue choked while working against his own tissues.

Heaving on the ground, and close to death as it would seem. The two hopped off him and quickly turned their attention to the two gryphons standing there, as they started to back up from the pair advancing steadily towards them. Though what seemed like a mystery to them, to one in the room, all made sense now.

Egyes watched as the entire scene unfolded before him, from the shimmer he caught in their eyes, to the fall of the dragon, to now the slaughter of those two gryphons that never expected it to come to this. With the grace that only trained killers could manage, the gryphon held his tongue as he watched both of his old comrades fall to the ground, drowning in their own fluids from where they lied.

‘Wipe the slate clean…’ Egyes repeated the mares’ words in the back of his mind, ‘that’s what her play is, that’s what she wanted to do all along.’ He put it all together finally, “She’s just going to kill… everything…”

With that last word muttered, both of the armored equine snapped their heads to the corner that Egyes hid himself behind. As he watched through only a half hidden face the emerald eyes stare him down, striking daggers in to his own pair. A second later, the two slowly started to make their way over to the gryphon.

Knowing the gig was up. Egyes upholstered his pistol, and drew his sword as he showed himself to the two. Flying away wasn’t an option at this point. So for now, the gryphon checked his clip as he slid it back in to the handle.

“Whelp…” the gryphon steadied himself against the ground, and stared the two down, “…Shall we?”