"Did he have to make it rain?" Silverstar muttered.

"Is that all you have on your mind?" Fateweaver shot back. "We have an objective."

Rolling his eyes, Silverstar led Fateweaver and the pony rebels forward, closer to the town.

"Friggin' mud..." One of them mumbled to themselves, grimacing when he slipped and fell to the ground. Once they were at the edge of the town, they waited for confirmation that Eclipse had also brought his team into position.

The sight of Sagebrush chasing around a pair of Dawn's Light served as confirmation enough.

"I hope those jars of yours do what you say they will." Silverstar said, adjusting the trio of vials Fateweaver had given to him. Similar sets had been handed to each of the rebels.

"Trust me, Sheriff." The buffalo grinned. "They will provide more than enough to trigger the hydrogen inside the blimp. It's the hot air balloons we will need to be tactical with."

Gritting his teeth, Silverstar motioned his ponies forward, also 'helping' a lone guard who had lost his way. Fateweaver followed, though his attempt at stealth was ruined by the buffalo's natural bulk. So, staying back a safe distance, the shaman kept the rest of his team in sight as they advanced on the airship. Along the way, they encountered sparse resistance, little more than a few soldiers who weren't outside town.

Most of the scattered lot were organizing a retreat, hastened by the sudden onslaught that the buffalo were bringing. Several individual balloons had already taken off, hoisting an above maximum amount of supplies and personnel. This organized retreat aside, there were no cowards in the Dawn's Light. Every one of them were fighting or guarding their supplies. It would have been impressive if they weren't the bad guys.

Lining up behind a building, the group of rebels gathered themselves in preparation. Several climbed onto the building's roof. Others made their way around the zeppelin. Eying several balloons that were grounded nearby, Silverstar gave the order to attack, loosing the smaller strike team on the surprised Dawn's Light.

Charging through the throng of sudden fighting, Fateweaver carved a path through where the opposition was thickest. Scattering a dozen enemies and flattening two, he gave the rebels a large area for movement. Flinging one of his vials, the 'little surprise' bounced its way to a trio of enemies before imploding with extreme force, pulling in its targets. This was followed shortly after by an explosion, sending fire and napalm outward for several meters and charring both ground and flesh.

Jumping to the side, Fateweaver easily avoided the spear that had been thrown at him, an orange phantom of which he had used to time his defense. Knowing that his personal supply of magic was limited, he rarely used it, but this was a special case. Quickly covering the distance between the spear thrower and himself, Fateweaver headbutted the pony, knocking him out cold.

Looking around, he realized that most of the fighting had already been cleaned up. Silverstar was trotting up from his left, but the zeppelin was sitting just on his right. Motioning towards the airship, Fateweaver grunted at Silverstar, who smiled.

Silverstar ordered his rebels to destroy any balloons they could, including the airship. Several short minutes later, each balloon seemed to pull in on itself, seconds before exploding outward. Due to the hydrogen inside of it, the zeppelin went in a particularly large ball of fire.

Trading a hoof-bump, Silverstar and Fateweaver congratulated each other on a job well done. Then a howl of rage hit their ears.

Each turned to see an angry minotaur charging at them, swinging a sledgehammer the likes of which could kill if not avoided in time.

Along with him was Jango, the corrupt pony who had been acting as a pacifier for any Appleloosans who disagreed with the ponies who had taken over the town. Behind him was the same mare that Fateweaver and Silverstar had seen fighting Eclipse in the mine.

A few Dawn's Light rallied around the sudden appearance of their leaders, bringing the fighting back around to the rebels who had infiltrated the town.

Fateweaver distracted the minotaur, doing his best to keep the attention of the raging fighter. Silverstar traded hoofs with Jango, neither of the two seeming to have any major advantage over the other.

Royal slipped around and through the fighting that had re-erupted around her. There was a balloon incoming, if she could just attract the attention of the soldiers on board. Shouting orders at the top of her lungs, she just barely managed to break through the noise and clatter around her.

The balloon turned towards her, lowering a rope ladder for Royal and the other two commanders.

"Oh, no you don't!" Dust Demon barreled into Royal, knocking her away. Behind him, Breaburn brought up a spear, threatening the balloon in the event it came any closer. From where he was fighting, Fateweaver managed to see several buffalo filter into the edge of the area, the sight of them bringing good news from the rest of the battle.

The airship continued to burn, despite the rain that was now beginning to abate. Somehow, this is what reminded Fatweweaver that he still had some of his vials and potions left, not all of which were of the implosion/explosion variety.

Taking a deep breath, he tossed down a sleeping gas potion of his, trying to use it to incapacitate his opponent, though the minotaur showed no signs of slowing down even after a lungful of the stuff. Gritting his teeth, he charged forward, lowering his horns to skewer the bull-man.

Despite being half-blinded by anger at the destruction of his airship, he still had enough thinking capacity to get out of the way, dodging the buffalo's charge.

Unable to do a quick turn while charging, Fateweaver dug his hooves into the earth, softened by the rain. Skidding for several meters, he eventually came to a full stop, turning to find that the minotaur had moved on to Breaburn.

The orange earth pony fled before the approaching mass of muscle, one of the most strategically practical moves anypony would ever make. Grudge chased him a short distance, but allowed the pony to escape. Without him and his spear, the balloon came in for a near landing, once more lowering its rope ladder.

Jango brought a board he had picked up and sung it around, aiming for Silverstar's head. The sherrif ducked, bringing his right hoof up in an uppercut. Now bleeding from a split lip and with one tooth loose, Jango gritted his teeth and swung again, trying to bring his improvised weapon to bear.

Silverstar stepped back, a grin on his face. At Jango's questioning glance, the pony laughed. "Turn around."

Turning his head, Jango heard somepony shout, "For Mallet, you son of a--" before his ears were filled by a deafening crack. At least, it was deafening to him.

Somehow, he had ended up laying on the ground, bleeding from the head. Opening one eye, he found a dusty brown pegusus standing over him. "Glad to see you're still awake. Just like he was when I was watching."

Bringing up a broken spear shaft, Dust Demon jammed the broken end into Jango's eye, driving the wood through the stallion's brain and finding purchase in the back of the skull. Jango released a scream, a sound that came out as little moer than a gargle to any who were listening.

Silverstar looked to Dust Demon. "What about the mare?"

Suddenly out of breath, the pegasus had to take a moment before answering. "Ran before I could fight her. Probly' with that minotaur.

"Where's Eclipse?"

A brown blur being flung from the balloon that had just picked up Royal and Grudge answered the question for them. Eclipse landed on a small black cloud, softening his landing. He still bore the bruise that had gotten him kicked off the balloon, though.

He jumped down to the ground, preparing to force the balloon to the ground by any means he could. Charging up a blast of chaos magic, he barely heard someone shouting at him.

Curious, he turned his head in time to see a lone unicorn fire a spell at him, knocking him to the ground. The unicorn fired another spell, knocking Eclipse out before Dust Demon tackled the unicorn to the ground, Silverstar not far behind.

Almost immediately, the rain stopped and the dark clouds above began to clear away, just in time for the buffalo herds to finish the remaining Dawn's Light, though almost a third managed to escape even with the destroyed balloons.

watching as several rebels tended to Eclipse, Fateweaver sighed to himself. "I should have known that he would try to use his own honesty to break another's loyalty. He needs loyalty of his own before he can succesfully break her of her prison."

An eagle landed on the shaman's horn.

"Ah, there you are, my ever faithful friend." Fateweaver chuckled as the bird settled into it's perch. The same bird that had showed Eclipse the canyon in the Elder's cradle. "Take a letter..."