”What was that?” Twilight Velvet looked up to Daring Do from her platform. “‘Brilliant plan?’ Why thank you, it was rather brilliant if I do say so myself. I was actually on top of the situation the whol-ly crap! Behind you!”

Two pegasi popped out from behind a girder. Daring glanced behind as Velvet charged her horn. One bit a bullet from Daring’s rifle; the other bit several hundred milliamps of bio-aetheric electricity.

There was a third flyer.

Phasing out of the shadows, a griffon grappled Daring’s stunned form from behind. One talon hooked Daring’s cheek; the other reached her neck. Daring’s left hoof trembled, the griffon’s talons close to her carotid. Daring’s right foreleg, trapped by the griffon’s elbow, pawed for her trowel. A flash of lightning revealed a thin trickle of blood from Daring’s lip. Velvet pranced in place. Her forelegs dripped with sweat. This wasn’t like the train. It was dark, and the whole room was shaking. A sure shot was far less likely.

Daring’s hoof touched the trowel. An agonized hack sputtered from her mouth as she whipped it out. Three stabs to the ribs and a full-on hind hoof blast later, the griffon rebounded off of a column. Daring gasped and coughed, then spun around.

Velvet’s bolt beat her to it…and more.

The electric spell raced up the metal column and across a nearby catwalk. The light show cascaded into four mercs taking aim from the shadows. One of their convulsing bodies joined the griffon’s, tearing holes at the airship’s bottom hull.

Daring scratched at her mane, the soft smile on her face again.