Anon Quest: 3.2 The Cloudsdale Kerfuffle

Mission #3.2 The Cloudsdale Kerfuffle.

STAT BOARD
[Blue Anon (Assassin); HP: 48/120. MP: 40/60. ATTACK: +5. DEF: +5. ABILITY: +2. Primary weapon: Bow & Arrows.
Twilight (Corruptionist); HP: 87/100. MP: 80/100. ABILITY: +3. Weapon: None.
Apple Jack (Guardian); HP: 83/100. MP 45/80. DEFENSE: +15. ABILITY: +2.Weapon: Iron horse-shoes.
Rainbow Dash (Hunter); HP: 76/90. MP 45/60. ATTACK: +5. DEFENSE: +5. TURN RATE x2. ABILITY: +1 Weapon: None.
Rarity (Domineer); HP: 49/80. MP 80/100. ABILITY: +3. Weapon: Leather whip.
Pinkie Pie (Engineer); HP: 111/120. MP 50/50. ATTACK: +5. ITEM: +1 Weapon: Saddle mounted double barrel fireworks turret.
Fluttershy (Practitioner); HP: 34/80. MP 70/100. ABILITY: +3. Weapon: Heart.]

>Deeper into the quest.
>You see Blue Anon and his party, near the end of the desperate struggle that is their third fight, against a taramis that came flying out of the amber clouds of the evening sky.
>Tarami are a very large species of aviary; six times the size of the average pony. Their feathers are a pale gray, made to blend with the clouds. They possess large beaks made to break the wood of ships, four massive wings that can take them over 100 miles an hour, and a long and thick tail with the strike force of a cannon.
>At the moment, your creature is ramming against the side of the party’s ship, practically capsizing it with its high amount of force. It’s skull is bleeding from a stab inflicted by Blue Anon’s blade, and it’s likely to have internal damage after Dash used her “Marksmenship” ability to basically turn into a golden force of pain. The roll was actually poor with only an 18, but that 50 attack minimum made it still work in her favor when you rolled a 23 defense.
>The party (except Spike of course) is outside of the ship, attempting to combat it through the air.
Rarity, throw the girls at it!
>“Not an issue, Darling.”
>With a commanding point of the hoof, Rarity sends her Topaz Twins from last turn to fly towards your taramis.
>They are now pegasi as opposed to earth ponies.
>As quickly as their wings can carry them, one decks your creature in the chin, with the second going straight for a tackle into its neck.
>It’s getting fuzzy for the poor thing, but it still has enough life in it to last at least one more attack.
>Wanting to leave a lasting impression, you use its signature ability, “Force Shatter” and give your creature a +30 attack for what will surely be its last turn.
>Your taramis raises its head and gives a loud screech to the sky, before rocketing upward away from the entire party.
What the heck?
>Blue Anon prepares an arrow to shoot at it, but before he can draw it back, your taramis dives down at a dizzying speed to target the weakest member of the party, Fluttershy, who’s already doing poorly at 34/80 HP.
>Fluttershy shrieks at the realization that she’s going to be attacked, and immediately curls up, covering her head, but before you can have it deliver the blow, Applejack intervenes using a popular reaction based ability for Guardians, “Cover”.
>With the messily cost of 15/100 mana, she dashes through the air stopping in front of Fluttershy, to take her place. She then gets upright, allowing the taramis’ beak to drive straight into her silver chest plate.
>With a +15 defense, this was a smart move for her to take Fluttershy’s place, unfortunate for Applejack though, she delivers a mediocre roll of 52.
>With a total of 67 defense versus your 104 attack, she takes a whopping 37 points of damage, bringing her near the half-way point of her health.
>Two mid-segments of her armor break, and time practically freezes as you see Applejack’s face. Her pupils seem almost nonvisible, her mouth is gaped open as the air leaves her lungs, and her limbs begin to move forward as the rest of her body prepares to rocket through the sky at 100 miles an hour.
>It should be a satisfying moment, but it’s quickly spoiled.
>In this brief moment of connection, Applejacks expression begins to change.
>Her eyes gain their lively glossiness, and almost as if she’s breaking time with you, you can see her expression change from surprise, to aggression. Her hooves suddenly move back, and in a matter of .48 seconds, she activates her second direct action based ability, “Recoil.”
>Though she still took the damage, recoil allows that damage to become an equal buff for her next attack, and with a buff of 37 plus her roll of 81, she gains a 118 attack, versus your cap defense of 60.
>Her hooves drive right between its eyes, delivering a powerful blow of 58 that cracks apart the bone.
>With the entire event flowing in real time, your tarami flew into Applejack, only for both it and her to immediately be repelled from each other in a very powerful shockwave that sends the entire party back a few inches.
> Despite the size, your creature takes the impact harder, and as it is launched back, it gives a weak wail, before losing consciousness. It then begins a decent through the sky, to fall to it’s very likely death.
>In an almost primal sense of might AJ yells to the disappearing figure, “How do ya like DEM APPLES?”
>The party gains 50 bits from the fight, and Applejack levels up gaining +5 attack. Good for them.
>With the fight over, Applejack immediately feels the sting of what may very likely be a cracked rib, and begins crouching, and groaning in pain. Rainbow comes to her aid however.
>“Woah now AJ,” says Rainbow. “I think you need to take it easy after that one.”
>She puts Applejack’s hoof over her neck, and together, they slowly walk through the air, to get back onto the ship.
>Honestly, based on how the team’s holding up, they all could use a break.
>Blue Anon’s style of leading is nothing like yours. He likes to take each character to their extreme, using up their HP without anyone using their abilities on weaker enemies, so that their abilities can simply be piled up against more difficult enemies. He likes to rely on the “HP regain = ¼ distance between fights” rule to try and cope with that, which is actually why Pinkie remains an engineer; so they can have a vehicle for farther distances as opposed to a slower, pegasus drawn vehicle. It’s a risky play style, but effective.
>Out of his three years of playing, his win rate as a hero is at least 90%, while your two years has only put you at 70%.
>Anon’s party quickly returns back to the ship in order to continue moving forward. As they make it to the ship; first Rainbow and AJ, then Twilight, then Pinkie and Rarity; Anon has a small conversation with Fluttershy as they approach.
Now seems like a good time to use your healing.
>She optimistically asks you, “So I can fix my leg then?” referencing when one of the Harpy Eagles from their last fight cracked the bones of her right hind leg.
…I…was kind of talking about AJ. You’ll be fine. AJ’s cover will keep you protected if we run into anything else that’s too dangerous. Because of that, AJ’s top priority, and you can just heal when you think you’re about to die. Oh, and give her the mana potion; she’s down to 30 if I remember correctly.
>“Oh…o-okay.”
>They arrive onto the ship, and Fluttershy heads into the halls to tend to Applejack. Blue Anon however, remains by the fences of the ship’s front, watching the horizon in anticipation of their arrival to Cloudsdale.
>It takes a little over a half hour, but sure enough, he eventually sees the iconic rainbow of the town, far off into the horizon. He also notices a pink and green pair of sky-serpents lurking far into their path.
“Great,” he says sarcastically.
>Anon pulls out an arrow, and a small vile of lavender jellyfish vemon from the inside of one of his belt’s pouches.
>Sizing them from the distance, Anon comes to the conclusion,
We can take them.
>His prediction is correct.
>The party makes it through the fight successfully, with the worst happening being Rarity and Fluttershy coming near death through the serpents’ lightning breath.
>The green serpent went down easy after Twilight destroyed it’s offence with an “Attack Minus“ spell, and Anon’s “Black-Heart Arrow” had corroded away 30 additional points of the pink serpent’s health by the time five turns had passed, plus an already established base of 31, so she was quickly dispatched by the end of the second phase via  Pinkie blasting it out of the sky.
>As the pink serpent drops ending the fight, Anon looks to his party and announces,
I think that went well.
>Rarity rolls her eyes and sarcastically tells him, “Oh course it did.”
>The rest of the ride is smooth sailing. They travel across the sky for the next ten minutes, resting peacefully, as they move to their destination; Land of Gust, the grand and prosperous Clousdale.
>During the Celestial War, Clousdale was one of the most fought over locations in all of Equestria. It’s one of the biggest nimbus societies in the divided Kingdom, one of the best vantage points around, and most importantly, it’s a town that controls the weather. Thankfully for Anon and his party, Princess Celestia was able to claim Cloudsdale during her claim of Ponyville forty years ago, but the town remains as an envious beacon in the sky to the Lunar Republic, and to a lesser extent, the Society of Discord.
>This is also where Anon’s partner Rainbow Dash was born and raised, so the fact that a bunch of Sky Pirates are giving it trouble, is especially personal to her.
>As the ship gets closer to the town, Anon notices a series of ships along its western port. This isn’t a surprise, Airships go in and out of Cloudsdale constantly, but the concerning thing, is the fact that all of the ships are red, and dwarfing his ship in comparison. That can’t be a coincidence.
>He then remembers, “Oh yeah, pirates don’t like other ships very much.”
>Anon rises from his point, and runs through the halls, and out to the ship’s back, climbing a ladder to the stern of the quarter deck where Spike is casually watching the horizon.
Spike, you need to stop this thing.
>“Why?” asks Spike, “We’re practically there.”
Those are the ships of bloodthirsty pirates. They’ll blow us right out of the sky if we get to close.
>“So you guys are just going to fly the rest of the way? That’s at least five miles.”
You bet. You’ll just have to stay out with the ship until everything’s taken care of.
>“B-but the ship is spooky at night. I don’t want to-”
Glad you understand.
>Anon yells out for his entire crew, “Everyone grab what you can! We’re hoofing it to Cloudsdale from here!”
 >A wave of disapproving groans are heard from the halls.
>It dives further into the evening when the party finally makes it into the southern end of town, far from the dock. Everypony’s tired and dreary from both prior battles, wounds, and carrying their very heavy satchels of supplies, with the only exception being Anon and Dash who remain at the front, and Pinkie who’s in the back, but still comfortable with flying in her petal powered device.
Okay gang, we’re just about here.
>Applejack tells him, “Thank Celestia. I don’t think I could’ve made it much longer.”
>Upon taking their first steps onto the puffy white mass of land, one of the pirates immediately appears.
>He’s a very large anthropomorphic bat pony, about eight feet in height with a massively wide figure, and a huge set of wings. He wears a red bandana, with a striped red and white shirt, and is carrying a ludicrously sized battle axe.
>With a smug expression, he looks to Blue Anon and tells his party with a very gruff, almost Big Bad Pet-like voice, “Well, would ya look at that. Looks like we’ve got some tourist. Well, my boss and the boys don’t take kindly to unwelcomed visitors, so you’ll have to pay a bit of a fee if you don’t want any trouble.”
Twilight?
>Before he even sees it coming, Twilight fires a ghastly black beam of magic at the bat pony’s body. He’s suddenly overcome with an unshakable feeling of weakness, to the point where he comes near collapse. He looks to her pure green eyes and red pupils, and she gives him an expression that screams, “I don’t feel like dealing with this right now.”
>“’Defense Minus’,” says Twilight who’s destroyed his defense by -15 for the next three turns.
>Despite the overwhelming weakness, the bat pony raises his axe, ready to attack, only for Dash to immediately pounce into him, pinning him to the ground with a decent roll as backup.
>“Where’s your captain,” yells Dash!
>“He stays in the town pub near the dock! P-please don’t hurt me!” he says cowardly.
Dashie?
>With a second roll, she head-butts his skull, knocking him out.
>Just then, the loud shriek of Fluttershy from the left of the party is heard.
>They turn to her direction and see that a female non-anthropic batpony with a crimson scarf, has stabbed her side with a dagger in the mouth.
>Her HP hits 14/80.
>Applejack drops her satchel, and immediately gallops to her aid, jumping over Fluttershy’s back, and tackling the girl to the ground. Applejack then begins to crush and suffocate her body between her four amazingly tough legs.
>Fluttershy screams, “Anon, can I PLEASE use my magic.”
>He shrugs his shoulders.
Sure, I’m guessing we’ve got more enemies anyways.
>His hunch is confirmed.
>The whooshing noise of wings are heard, and Anon turns to his side to see a male batpony with fiery auburn eyes and a glaive as long as himself in between his teeth, gliding across the ground from the alley of a nearby fly-fishing store (Hah, puns).  The pony tries to finish off Fluttershy, but in real life Anon beats you out for this turns initiating role, so that can’t happen.
>You were so close to taking out that healer too.
>Anon stops the batpony’s glaive mid-flight with his dagger, effectively putting him on hold as Fluttershy cast "Grand Alleviation" to heal herself, Rarity, and Applejack by +25.
>The glaive wielder announces, “That’s not fair!” through his gritted teeth, as he finally breaks Anon’s blade with his glaive, and cuts deep into his arm.
>The force brings him to the ground, knocking a few of his arrows out of his quiver.
>Pinkie yells out, “I’ve gotcha Anon,” and tries to shoot the glaive wielder from the safety of her air contraption, but a slim female batpony in a chestnut vest, flies in and tackles her.
>Her round of six shots all miss as Pinkie is knocked a dozen feet from the air to the ground, and her machine begins to whirl through the air, out of control, before eventually crashing into a nearby tavern right of the pathway.
>You’d think that crashing into a building material as soft as cloud would cause minimal damage…but it doesn’t, and the machine breaks apart.
>Meanwhile, the glaive wielder raises his body, ready to lay a devastating blow into Anon, but Rarity intervenes, tackling into him.
>Anon immediately roles from his back onto his knees, and as if the gaping wound in his arm doesn’t exist, pulls out his bow, and an arrow from the ground, and in an instant fires a shot at the vest wearing pony roughing up Pinkie.
>The flying bat-mare gives a loud wail as the arrow pieces clean through her left wing’s ligament, bringing her to the ground, and disabling any “flight” based abilities she could’ve used. It doesn’t matter though.
>With the second phase beginning, Anon immediately fires a second arrow clean through her chest into her heart, and she begins gagging desperately for…no…that sounds to dark…Anon fires the arrow clean through her skull, allowing an almost instant death.
>With only the glaive wielder left, he breaks through Rarity, enraged at the loss of his partner, and performs a “Final Chance” strike on Anon.
>‘Final Chance’ is an ability only accessed when a certain character becomes the last of their group. It gives their next attack a ridiculous +40 boost, but lowers it by -10 for the next turn.
>With a roll of 78 plus forty, you deliver a massive 118 attack versus Anon’s 74 defense, bringing in a grand total of 44 points of damage.
>The glaive pieces clean through Anon’s back, barely missing his spine, as his HP drops to 4.
>The party gasps in shock at their practically dead leader, except for Rainbow Dash.
>Rainbow reacts immediately, tackling the glaive wielder to the ground as powerfully as she can.
>“I’LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!” she screams as she begins pounding at him for two turns in a row, flattening his face with her hoof as the blood of his slowly breaking skull soaks into the clouded ground below.
>“I WILL NEVER LET MY FRIENDS DIE!” she says passionately.
>She continues to beat him, well after the point where he loses consciousness and dies, and only stops when Rarity comes to her side.
>“Rainbow, it’s finished,” says Rarity. “Come now, we need to get Anon to a hospital.”
>Dash looks to Anon, still hanging onto life by a threat, moving barely as Twilight lifts him from the ground with her magic.
>Fluttershy tells him, “Don’t move, I’ll heal you,” but, despite the injury, Anon is still somehow able to respond, but just barely.
“Waste of mana,” he weakly says.
>He then vomits a bit of blood to the ground, and his eyes slowly close as he tells her,
I’m…serious…
>Anon soon loses consciousness.
>As Twilight continues to hold his blood and organs in with her magic, she asks Dash, “Where’s the nearest place we can heal.”
>“Um…The Rightheart hospital a few building’s north of here. Common.”
>She hurriedly gallops along, and the rest of the party desperately follows from behind.