“O-o-ou-uch…” Iron groaned as he stared up at the ceiling of the bridge. While stars danced in his vision, just as they did the late night sky outside.

For all his armor enhancements, the colt was still finding it nearly impossible to get the drop on the mare. Here he was, on her turf, one on one, with only his wit to guide him. A wit that was starting to fade fast.

Climbing up to his hooves, Iron flipped his visor up to wipe the blood off his nose that he took from the last hit. Thankfully, the mare across from him seemed to enjoy the time they were sharing, as she watched and waited for him to gather himself before even speaking.

“Please, take as much time as you’d like, Mister Knight,” Bronze rolled her wings along her side, “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

More tired of seeing that smirk than his own body was, Iron brought up a hoof and launched off a flurry of attacks. From the simple ray spell, to even the lightning bolts that he had used on occasion. All of them the mare met head on with her very own enchantments. The gems in her limbs shined bright, while they fed off her own magic that she had gathered to fight his. Leaving the mare with just a yawn to escape her breath while she toyed with him.

Breaking off the attack, the colt dove in for a more direct approach, as he swung left and right at her with his short blades. Matching him, Bronze brought out her toys as well, as the two slashed and parried back and forth along the bridge. Iron may have been stronger, more than capable of pushing through her block. Though Bronze was far more agile than he could hope to best. With every move that brought him closer to the mare where he’d have the advantage, she managed to slither her way out of his grasp to a better position.

Taking both of his weapons in claw, the metal on metal did nothing to injure her, as Bronze lifted herself over top of him and snapped off the blades from their mechanisms. Locking her hind legs around his neck, the mare flipped Iron square against the ground, before kicking him off to the side.

Meeting Grace once more, the colt shook his head as the kind mare looked down on him. “Iron…” she paused to grab his attention through the ringing in his ears, “You’re getting your ass kicked here.”

“Comment duly noted, Gracie,” he turned around and grabbed hold of a console.

Using his augmented limbs, the colt ripped the hardware straight out of its stand, as he hurtled it at the mare. Having little time to dodge having attempted to lunge at him, Bronze met the cold metal face to face, and was sent flat on the floor. The weight of her own tech holding her down. Leaping atop the contraption, Iron brought hoof after hoof back to the side of his head, before slamming them in to her own.

Faint visions of the life that she once lived, clouded up in the mares’ mind. Having gone through her fair share of beatings from colts and others like Marble, Bronze rolled with the punches, and kept her stare fixated on Iron through his visor the entire time. Though what of her life the colt never knew, all he could tell was that the mare was used to this sort of treatment. As he opted something a little more old-fashioned.

With a final head butt from his helmet meeting her flesh. Bronze reeled back against the cold ground, and let off a burst of energy from her horn as it pulsed out her body. Shooting the colt and the console off her, the mare quickly took her chance and grabbed on to one of the rocket pods on his back. With a massive tug from her claws, the welds that held it on broke off, and in her spin. The tube of metal found its mark against the colts’ temple.

Dazed from the hit, Iron stumbled back against his hooves fighting to drop him to the ground. The second swing to make contact added to the first, and only further sent the colt in to a tailspin. As he literally spun around on his hind hooves. Catching himself before he hit the dirt once more, Iron ducked out of the way of the third swing, and rammed the mare in the side. Forcing Bronze to drop is own weapon from her grasp, as she locked with him.

Feeling her own hooves scrape against the flooring, the mare pounded away against his back plating. The colts’ stride never broke, and the mare quickly was slammed in to another console. The enchantments that he had spent so much time on, finally were paying off against her. As with every use, the mare could see his own gems recharge from his magic to their fullest.

A gift, that gave the mare an idea.

Blocking each successive attack with her own built in bracers, Bronze rolled across the console as another one hit. Driving his own hoof through its face, and out the other side. Iron looked up from his trance, and saw the mare sliding away as she repositioned herself once more against him.

“Running isn’t going to do you any good you know…” he called to her, the sarcasm vacant in his voice, as he ripped his hoof from the console.

Across his shoulder, the steady glint of the sunrise off in the distance finally greeted them. As the two rivals stared down one another. Even through the few hits that she had taken, from the swollen cheek, to the couple cuts across her brow. Bronze pushed some of her metallic strands from her face as she looked past him, and unto the horizon.

“It won’t do Seren any good as well,” she motioned for him to grasp the full situation.

Looking outside, even off at this great distance. The spire of Boralus still could be seen, the beacon of hope to many that had traveled here. Now set itself as the impending fate of all those below, while Iron realized that time had never been on his side. The speck of light would soon be much more than that, and even as he fought the mare. Her troops would still go to work on those in the city.

“How I have hated that sight all these years, until now that is,” Bronze monologued, as even Grace turned to see her own city coming in to harms view. “Do whatever you will, Iron Knight… destroy my weapons, kill my creations, remove my allies…” the eerie chuckle that he had started to know her by, reared its ugly head once more, “in the end, both our fates are already sealed.”

Using what strength he could muster in his telekinesis against her. Iron drew the mare in closer with a flick of his horn, before grabbing her by either side of the face and putting it to the ground. A move that the mare had been hoping for.

With his attention on one thing, her canvas flared out, and pushed the mare above him. Just as the heavy hoof landed where her head once was. Latching herself around him, Bronze held on to the colt. As Iron bucked every which way to dislodge the mare, but to no avail, and in no time at all.

Her cold talons, found the very gift he was given.

Digging hard against the bone, the horn atop his head, cracked away at the stump.

The nerve endings in the tissue shot directly to the colts’ brain, registering the injury in seconds, as he felt the burning from an open wound right on his skull. Having been exposed to cast spells better, Iron had left himself with a chink in his armor that almost gave him shivers at night. And right now, caused all the colts’ limbs to lock up at once, as he hit the floor.

“A-A-A-ar-r-rgh!” Iron screeched from the deepest part of his stomach that he could without losing his breath. Through the sound piercing wale of his own, a squeal from the tied mare across the room echoed from his loss. Clenching his teeth to keep the tears at bay, the colt winced his eyes to barely a slit as he fought to right himself back up.

“You. Cankerous. WHORE. Monger!” the shout resonated through the room, as it came from the princesses’ lips. Staring down the mare from her position on the ground, it wasn’t much to be afraid of. Though even if she wasn’t the one that took the hit, Grace could feel the pain her friend was dealing with.

“Oh shut it you…” Bronze in one sweep of her talon, brought a section of rope from behind the princess and gaged her. Silencing the mare, and leaving Bronze to toy with the colt once more.

All the while, Iron watched as the mare held his own appendage, dancing it amongst her talons like a trophy. Tossing it to the ground, Bronze placed a claw over top it and pushed even harder. Across the grinding of his teeth, Iron could hear the cracking of the bone against the weight, while he focused every last bit of nerves against her.

“Our fates our sealed…” she grinned, wallowing in his dread, “yours ends with knowing Boralus burned, and there wasn’t a thing you could do to stop it.”

Grinding to dust the last of the bone, Bronze shot across to him. As Iron brought up his hooves as best he could to fend her off. With his means of recharging the gems in his suit now lost, it became just another suit of armor like any other guard would wear, with a few additional perks he would have to use sparingly. Against a mare like this, and all she had up her sleeves, that was next to useless to him.

Hit after hit he blocked, parried, or dodged. Trying to keep some sort of distance between himself and the mare. Though with every step he took, Bronze took two more to catch him. With his abilities they were evenly matched… to some extent. Though with his card now called, the colt found himself at what little mercy she had.

Bringing both hooves up to block a punch. The mare shoved in to him, pushing the colt on to his back with a boost from her wings pushing herself. In seconds Iron found the mare clawing away at his suit, trying to tear against the metal itself. Until she managed to get a grip on his helm, and rip it off.

Grace watched as Irons’ helmet slid across the floor near her. Staring blankly at her in defeat, but no more so than the colt was at the mare atop him. In a hush, the princess whimpered all to herself. Watching as the mad mare leaded further down to the colts’ muzzle, and her wings pushed firm against his hooves to hold him down.

Though even through the obvious blank stare of dread on his brow, Iron never once let a tear fall. Something that even Bronze had to admire to some degree. “You’ve lost there, Iron…” Bronze tutted, lightly guiding a talon across his jaw line as she teased him, “Your skills could have done you right by me. Yet, you chose her side instead.”

“What can I say?” he joked through the blood on his tongue, “I’m a loyal bastard.”

“Loyalty misplaced.”

Whipping her claw out, the pistol that called it home protruded itself from the housing. As the barrel lowered down to the colts’ forehead, at the base of his horns’ stump. Grinning to him as she pulled the internal trigger, Iron closed his eyes…

And ripped a hoof free.

Pushing the barrel away far enough to avoid his head. His ears rung from the shot glancing against the metal floor next to him, but it was the last thing on the colts’ mind. Grasping on to the barrel with a hoof, Iron charged what left he had in most of his gems to one goal.

An electric surge.

The arc skipped neatly across his suit, forming the perfect circuit as it jumped to Bronzes’ own metal. While she may have not felt it at first, her body was the last thing the charge was sent to. The gems in her talon shimmered, as they sucked up all the power they could absorb from the spell forcing itself in to them. And one by one, it started to be too much to handle.

Gems shattered across her false leg in an irruption rivaling that of a firework display gone wrong, and with every one that broke. A little more control was lost by the mare. The gun quickly crumbled to her side, as did her body, and Iron heaved her off of him. Pinning her to the deck just as she had done to him. Yet this time he wore the smirk. The energy the gems gave off, weakened the metal that held them, and before long. Iron ripped not only his hoof away from her, but the limb from her very body.

Pushing him off of her, Bronze slid herself across the floor. “H-h-how? How is that possible?” she wondered, looking to him for answers as if she just became a student once more.

“I’m no stranger to charging gems, Bronze…” he replied, righting himself up as he pushed the thoughts of pain from his mind. “I never really used my horn to control my spells, I used the magic in me, something you should be familiar with,” picking the limb back up. Iron tossed it over to her, so she may look at her own failure, “though I used quality stones in all my works, able to hold a charge to them easily without over doing it,” calmly the colt took a step forward, and watched with glee as she slid back from him, “it took me a while to identify the stones you were using, and while easier to work with… they don’t do so well under pressure.”

“You… you used my own gems against me!” she said, almost sounding hurt. As the mare righted herself up on three legs.

“You tried to play a game I know all too well,” Iron calmed the gems of his own, saving what little juice they had left, “you’re just the player… but I’m the coach…”

Enraged at her own fault in this game, Bronze realized all along, that he was right. She upgraded the appearance of her limbs, their function, and even their strength… though she neglected the very thing that gave them life. Weaker gems were easier for a non-magical equine such as herself to control, never once did she think she would have to upgrade those as well, they worked so well through the years…

Until now.

Flapping her wings against the deck, the mare shot across and rammed the colt square in the chest. She didn’t care if her head would be hurting later from the impact, all that mattered to her was destroying the one that had done this to her. First it was Grace on her list, then Rhorkin, and Reinhart… though Iron quickly found his way scratched on to the parchment in the back of her head.

Swiping against his unprotected face, the claws dug deep in to the colts’ coat as he reeled back in a moments noticed, tossing the mare away to his side. Though with a new energy thriving through her, Bronze didn’t let a simple slip up such as losing a limb stop her. After all, she had dealt with that before.

Sliding out her blade from her wrist, the mare slashed against his open flesh. Though with his blades out of commission, Iron blocked against her with his bracers, holding steady against the blows. Until another window would present itself to him. For unknown to her, this wasn’t his first go without being able to use magic.

Stomping on the blade after the mare over shot, Iron shoulder checked Bronze, ripping the blade out of the mechanism that held it in place. Not waiting a second longer, the colt saw as his chance opened up finally, watching as she stumbled to the ground under the weight of only three legs.

Pouncing atop her, with only three quarters of her body able to lift. Bronze couldn’t fight the stallion against her, as Iron brought back both his hooves and slammed them atop her wings. Grasping on to the frames, with a supplemental surge of energy going through his joints. The very thing that Bronze had admired Graces’ kind for, were ripped from her shoulder blades.

Arching her head back in agony, Bronze clenched her tongue to fight the pain. Yet the mare didn’t see the hoof coming to bare against the back of her skull, and in one quick strike the soft tissue met hard metal. Knocking her out cold for a moment, Bronze collapsed against the floor underneath the ex-guard, as Iron looked at her to ensure she was out.

For a moment, the colt teased at the idea of bringing a hoof up and crushing her skull right then and there. At the very least tossing her out the window so she would know what his friend had to go through. However, as he looked up to the sun starting to rise up even more, Iron saw that he had more pressing matters to attend.

Galloping over to the mare that saw it all, Iron quickly worked at the ropes that bound the mare, as she muffled something from her breath. Cutting as fast as he could with what stumps remained of his own blades, the bindings fell to Graces’ side and she seemingly ripped the section muzzling her off in one go. Wrapping her hooves and wings around the armored shell of her savior, Grace looked at Iron straight in his eyes with almost a tear in her own.

“You crazy… CRAZY FOOL!” she yelled at him, though if the colt was wondering if it was an insult or not.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out.

Without him even having a second to catch his breath. Iron found the princess’ lips pressed against his own, and for a moment there, the colt didn’t need to breathe. Wafting the scent of the mare up his muzzle. Irons’ hooves quickly started growing a mind of their own. Enveloping her in his grasp, Iron accepted the gesture willingly, as he gave in if only for a moment of peace amongst the chaos and pulled the mare in even closer.

Breaking away from the embrace, Iron leaned his forehead to her own. Completely unaware of the missing horn atop his head, while they both found a smile creeping on their muzzles from the purity of the moment, “Crazy… yes, though I don’t hear you complaining,” he left her with a wink, before picking Grace up to her hooves.

Across the room, as the two shared their much needed moment… Bronze dragged herself across to her command chair, if only to destroy the very serenity that she found herself in. Reaching up, the mare pulled herself in to the seat, and with a weakened touch from the blood being lost along her back.

The talon cranked away at one lever along its side.

The sound of a siren yanked the two back in to reality, as they looked across the short space, to the one who had brought them here to begin with. Even with parts of her bone ripped out from where her wings once were, and holding herself up on three legs now, Bronzes’ smile could still never be broken so long as she had a card to play.

Perking his ears up to the sound of the horn, it didn’t take a sorcerer to figure out what the mare had just done, “You just set this thing to blow…” Iron narrowed his eyes on the mare, “didn’t you?”

“And scatter a few of my troops across the land, call it a parting gift, Iron Knight,” Bronze winked at him, while feeling the ship itself rattle from her chair, “hydrogen’s such a volatile gas, all it takes is a spark, as you should know well.”

The airship rocked back and forth, from whatever mechanism the mare had set in motion kicking to life. Without even a second thought, Iron in a single motion ripped a console from the floor, and sent it hurtling towards a window. Blowing it out so at least one of them could have an escape.

“How are your wings?” he asked to the mare by his side.

“Functional,” Graces’ voice started to tremble, “but I’m not leaving you here…”

“Grace! There’s no-”

Pressing her muzzle against his, Grace silenced the colt as her eyes did all the talking she needed to. Though a few words never hurt, her at least, “I said. I’m. Not. Leaving. You here!” the mare snapped at him, forcing Iron to lose a couple inches in his ego, “Do… what you do best, make it up as you go…”

The Aurora rattled heavily, tossing itself like a ship in a hurricane, as both of them lost their footing against the metal. Even Bronze herself slid out of her chair, coming to rest against the ground as her face looked out on the rising sun. Though for the colt with a new life breathed in to him, his eyes took on that of what he was at heart.

A tinkerer.

Snapping from everything in the room he had at his disposal, all of it seemed more than useless to him… until they eyed but a single thing, still resting on the floor from where he removed them.

Bronzes wings may have been attached to her by surgery, but they still had a metal frame to it that he could work with. So long as the gems in them still had a charge, they may just be of some use to the desperate colt. Galloping over to them, with what magic he still had left in his suit, Iron brought each of the wings to the back plate. Welding them in place as much as his reserves would allow, the joints that fixed on to Bronzes’ shoulder blades did their part.

Commanding the new additions with much concentration from his own magic of his body, Iron flared the wings out to their fullest, the enchantments in them still holding some sort of charge after the fight. As he grabbed Grace by her hoof and lead her head long through the open window.

From her place on the ground, Bronze watched as the two leapt to their fate, leaving her in a place she knew all too well. Alone.

Pushing herself up on her flank with her prosthetic. Bronze for a moment could feel her parents standing there with her, as her fathers’ words passed through the shattered mind once more. ‘Child of mine, you’re going to do great things in life… you just don’t know it yet,’ the mare silently heard them echo. Holding back a tear as best she could, with the warm sun filling her with at least some level of comfort, the horn atop the twisted mares’ head started to glow with the dwindling energy it still had.

“I’m sorry Dad, I’m sorry Mom,” Bronze sniffled, wiping her nose with a careful talon, “I tried to…”

In a single flash, it was all over.

Free falling like his friend was aptly named for, wasn’t something new to the colt. Though having a few seconds to learn how to control a pair of wings, given that your life quite literally depended on it, was something that Iron was quickly starting to gain more respect for his air born cousins for contending with on a daily basis.

At first his form was that of a rock, then it slowly turned in to a new born bird, as he brought them out to his side. Turning the colt in to a make shift glider, gingerly he soared against the air around him, “Oh I could get used to this…” Iron mused as he felt the wind rush past his face.

“Now’s not the time to day dream!” Grace shouted at him.

From overhead, the two saw a flash of light, before the sound ever reached them. Though when it did, it beat against their ear drums like a buffalo tribe. Rattling the pair in their escape, Iron jerked left and right in his armor, while Grace simply held her hooves over top her own head to protect from any shrapnel. Yet curiosity was a fickle thing, and something the colt was known for, as he turned his head if only to get a glimpse.

All the munitions that he saw stored within the ship, all the bladders that were needed to keep it up in the air, all of it… lead to the hell fire that started to rain down just behind them. Before either of them got caught up in the down pour, the pair quickly lurched their wings forward, speeding themselves up as best they could.

Something that for one of them, quickly was starting to wither.

Ever sense he took control of them, Iron could feel the wings starting to lock up from the flight. However Bronze may have used them, she must have recharged the gems somehow on a near constant basis, if only from the others stored around her body. Something that with his own enchantments all but drained, and his horn out of commission, the colt would only be left to wonder… as he fell.

Locking up after one last bead of strength, the joints seized, and for a moment Iron felt the wind stop. “… Shit…” he muttered, while gravity quickly took over to finish his sentence.

Dropping like the rock he had started out as, the ground below him never looked so hard as it did this time around. Even with his armor across him, that left Iron as nothing more than a smashed can against a brick street, to be picked up with a spade later. It’s times like these that the colt almost enjoyed, giving himself moments of clarity.

‘Hmm… Whelp these could have worked…’ Iron pondered to himself, having already imagined how his funeral would look.

Closed casket for sure, with maybe a few pictures of when he was younger, then in the guard, then as a teacher. Many of his students would probably attend, surely all the teachers would. Freefall wouldn’t be far from his corpse, nor would Amber, hell even his new friend Egyes would be close by. ‘Grace…’ his mind reminded him of quickly, as he closed his eyes, simply to accept his fate on a high note.

Up until he felt something hit his chest.

Cracking his eyes open, they widened somehow farther than his sockets could physically allow, as he saw the mare wrapped around him mid drift. “Grace!” he shouted above the rushing fate, with them both tumbling in the air, “What are you doing!”

“Saving your emerald ass!” she barked back at him, flaring her wings out to their fullest.

It would have completely stopped a pony of her size, though given that she was trying to support an armored stallion, it merely acted as a wind breaker did against a storm. Thinking on her hooves, Grace pushed her hooves against the limp canvas appendages with all the might her body held on to. Splaying out, the fabric caught the wind, and matched her own wings as they tried to break the fall as much as the two could have hoped.

Iron felt the rush of air slow down, though as he saw the ground coming closer with every twist they made in the sky. The colt looked down at the mare, who was trying her hardest to ensure they’d at least live to see a tomorrow, as he silently made his own choice.

“I’ll see ya around,” Iron managed to almost whisper in her ear, causing the mare to look up at the genuine smile across his lips, as he gave her a quick peck on her own stunning her, “…Gracie.” With a thrust of his body weight, the colt repositioned himself with his face to her… and the skies above.

With the ground coming seconds later.