The chapter begins with Shining, Dima, Solomon and the convenient setup for a boss battle. And I have to admit that the scene might a lot more intense if the helicopter didn't suddenly start to play its own boss music. Makarov always knows how to kill a moment. Besides that Solomon did really supply the two with rockets they can use against his helicopter, it is a really bizarre choice to make himself look more impressive in this battle. His last humiliating defeat happened just today for crying out loud! It still isn't a fair fight so why even bother with such overcomplicated setup? There is also a bit of cover here, the two heroes can use but there is no place to hide from Makarov's most deadly weapon: monologues. He complains that he is related to the murderer Dima which really doesn't work since Solomon already did one genocide and is planning another. He has no right to complain about other people killing less then he did.
Then he opens the battle with his machine guns while the two counter with their rockets. Shining does miss of course (he needs ammunition that is actively seeking his enemy) but apparently the rockets have some sort of timer and explode even if they miss their target. On the other side Dima's successful hit does very little damage against the little golden brick. They try to break Solomon's concentration by mocking his boring speeches but he counters with a dictionary. Maybe Makarov should also give Running Gag a few pointers for comedy. The two attempt to exploit his distraction but Shining's lack of experience with these weapons makes both of them miss. Now the imagination thing tries to mock the two by calling them a gay or inter-racial couple. But the two are just better at banter and roll with it. They quickly manage to anger Solomon enough to land two hits and this finally does some damage to his little golden brick. Being so racist makes little sense for a half-unicorn but then again nothing about the fake identity of the imagination thing does make sense. His real mother looks like a massive crossover between species so he really shouldn't TRY to argue like this. Besides that he is WAY too fixated on Shining to dance around this issue, he did even undress the unicorn and change his own clothes before Shining's eyes. Maybe Makarov wants to tell us something.
Then Solomon remembers that his helicopter has rockets as well and blasts their cover and parts of the roof itself apart. And Shining is still able to produce witty banter under this condition but their following attack does miss the imagination thing. Even Makarov wouldn't repeat the same mistake four times. So the unicorn makes up a new plan on the fly but to do so Dima has to hide below the roof to allow his friend to conserve magic. The deer does not like the idea of hiding and as soon as the imagination thing returns to the battle, he mocks his sorta-brother's cowardice. Sadly it makes sense that Solomon was praising his brother before since he does give credit to the dead from time to time, it seems that as soon as they are dead, he doesn't see them as things that could overshadow him any more. If he hadn't added so many holes to the boss battle area, this might have been much harder for Dima to hide. Shining then does fire a rocket and teleports it inside the helicopter bypassing the armor (and the ridiculous gold plating) and does massive damage to the little flying brick. Not even the rockets do work any longer and Dima returns to the battlefield.
Now that Makarov is angry, his treats towards Shining's family become downright hilarious. The terror of nose picking and bathroom lamps will never be forgotten. Besides that the other weapons of the helicopter fail as well and even the boss music stops. This is finally too much for Solomon (nobody interrupts his battle theme!) and he tries to kill the two with the rotors of his little flying brick. In the end the helicopter goes down into the nearby park and just in time Shining's allies arrive! Now they can carry all the remaining rockets down and watch Makarov crash. At least something they got out of climbing this (now) huge tower to help the unicorn. While they all have to climb the tower down again, the imagination thing did loose a lot of time that he should have used to recover. And he will loose even more with the walk back to his base.
The allies already know that now he will throw even bigger guns at them. Well technically he lost his biggest gun (the golden flying phallic brick of death and crime against aerodynamics) at the very beginning of this struggle but he still has a lot of toys left like his walkers, Mammoth Tanks or his Pseudocorn Cyborgs. Yet the next surprise is a rather mundane assault with various weapons from the apartments around them. They also have a sniper that manages to hit Shining before Natasha can take him out but Pandora's armor prevents worse. The allies fight well especially the Immortals but even they can get injured and killed on this hellish battlefield.
They continue to make progress but then they get the news that Mammoth Tanks are coming their way. The unicorn was absolutely terrified of these war machines before and it was unavoidable that he would run into them sooner or later. These weapons were created to kill everything but they must have a few weaknesses. After all such overwhelming power must require a few sacrifices in other aspects. In about 10 minutes two of them will arrive with further backup. So there might still be enough time left to plan an ambush. Oddball is surprisingly honest and cheerful about their inability to destroy these tanks from the front or the sides. But this still leaves one other side from which they could attack these weapons. Besides that the tracks of the Mammoth Tanks could be destroyed to immobilize the entire tank. So they do have a weakpoint and it makes sense that so much firepower is pretty heavy and difficult to move around.
In the end they are very likely to sustain heavy causalities. Shining is understandably terrified of the idea to loose even more lives today after having to witness so many deaths already. The interviewers try to give him an advice but the anti-teleport shields and his own lack of experience with the teleporting spell does make this impossible.
In the end Oddball has another crazy plan to minimize causalities and it is fair to say that crazy plans had so far the best success rate. They try to position their forces in a way that will be the most effective and might allow them to surprise and strike the enemy were it hurts the most. But these enemies seem to have a strategy as well (apparently Makarov is not leading them directly) and one of the tanks is staying behind on the bridge they need to cross while the other one and a group of Tankettes are on their way to them. The first confrontation is fierce and while their rockets work well against the Tankettes, Shining is forced to use his shields to aid in the battle. Even in his weakened state his magic is more then a match for the slow weapon.
Then the Mammoth arrives but it has to circle around a building before it is in firing range. This does allow the allies to strike it but it still keeps working and unleashes hell upon the allies. Both the firepower and the armor are quite impressive and it even has further backup in the form of Rhino Tanks. So the weapon keeps advancing even crushing other Hooviets under it. Shining confronts it and instead of trying to shield himself, he shields the tank gun barrels, letting the shells detonate inside. He keeps blowing up weapons from the inside. But this is far from over. Rockets rain down on them and some of them contain deadly gas. Several including Shining are just able to put on their gas masks but many on both sides are not fast enough. Being again forced to see others die, leads to the unicorn focusing his shields in such a precise manner that he destroys the weapons one by one. But the Mammoth still hasn't given up and now that most of its weapons are totaled it tries to crush the unicorn before it. It doesn't get the chance however as an allied tank is able to land a point-blank strike at the rear. Now the mighty Mammoth is history.
But one oversized tank still remains. They grimly prepare themselves for the next Mammoth but the one on the bridge is a different model. This tank is able to generate earthquakes and it heavily damages the bridge they NEED to cross. The entire process does also obliterates the tank itself but the bridge is still standing. While it is too damaged to be crossed safely, there is a unicorn with powerful shields nearby that might be able to hold it together long enough for them to cross.
The unicorn in question is able to do this and reaches a new world record for the most profanities said in ten minutes. He was not able to get everybody across as the heavy Hooviet tanks were just too much. So the forces that couldn't cross are sent to guard the wounded. This does mean that Shining's current group has become smaller but he has still much more then he started out with. Now they are about to reach the fortress that holds Shining's friends. There are surprisingly few troops here but this actually makes sense since Makarov said that he placed most of his troops around his decoy bunkers, so the main fortress is not that well protected. The unicorn also argues that the imagination thing simply can't pull endless forces out of nowhere anymore. Alternatively Makarov might be stupid enough to actually want them to infiltrate his base for the final showdown.
Suddenly one of the Pseudocorn Cyborgs is attacking the group. Shining quickly shields them as Dima returns the fire with his own gun. The two are really a good team, basically shield and sword. However what kills this cyborg is that it uses some sort of magnetism-based power just as rockets fly past it. So the poor victim that was transformed into this abomination finally finds her rest in the afterlife. As the heroes go on, they reach the place that doubles as prison and the controls of Project Skyfall. It is safe to say that Makarov learned nothing from the failure of Chernobull and put too much into the same place. He made the same mistake with his shiny golden phallic flying brick of death that did contain his Paradox Engine as well as his prized prisoner Shining. That certainly did turn out well.
Now they can exploit Makarov's poor planning by hitting him hard, freeing the prisoners, destroying much of the defenses from the inside and wrecking Project Skyfall in the process. With the support of Natasha's aiming skills, stealthy shinobis, tanks accompanied by music, Zangief's skill with rocket launchers (he is a real master of unlocking), a rail car launched by telekinesis and Shining's shields they are able to force their way into the base. The unicorn also takes the chance to weaponize his shield and uses telekinesis to knock out whoever Hooviet is unfortunate enough to get close to the item. Eventually they do reach two paths: one will lead to the control room and the other one to the cells. I wonder how they know where which path will lead. Then again Makarov might have labeled the corridors in his fortress very clearly since he believes that all his followers are moronic pawns anyway. So Dima will go forward to the controls of the super weapon as the unicorn will save his friends. Only Gilda and the medic Kamarov accompany Shining on his personal mission, they all know that the guards here are smarter then Makarov and most of them will guard the important superweapon instead of the prisoners.
The prisoners are not unguarded however but the three are able to take care of the guards that try to stop them. Now Gilda's griffin nature comes in handy to lead the way to the pony prisoners. Apparently the way to the prisoners isn't as well labeled as the way to the superweapon. Surprisingly the final guard turns out to be a cyborg Diamond Dog but as Shining can hear the voices of his friends behind the doors he charges forward. The cyborg is quite resistant against shield attacks, knives or Kamarov's attempts to just shot it and suddenly the cyborg pulls out a chainsaw from its back to saw the shield apart.
Gilda is able to destroy the weapon with a point-blank blast from her shotgun (and Makarov mocked her for hesitating) yet the cyborg counter with close range attacks. Now Kamarov is able to land a good hit that allows Shining to smash the exposed weakpoint several times for massive damage. The former Diamond Dog is able to repel this attack as well but as it focuses on Gilda again, she blasts hit directly with her shotgun, exposing another weakpoint. This allows Shining to land another direct hit with a gravity spell into its chest. Now the cyborg is finally defeated and if there was still something alive inside him, the Diamond Dog might find peace in death. Makarov begins to run out of ways to kill Shining. Gilda and Shining were a pretty good and coordinated team as well, striking from multiple directions and covering each other.
It turns out that all of Shining's friends are here but while they are still alive and not brainwashed or transformed into monsters, they are seriously injured and Gag's wing is gone. They are understandably amazed when the unicorn honestly tells them what he all did on his way to reach them. It is good to see that Running Gag still isn't broken and he doesn't blame his injury one bit on his friend. Together Kamarov and Garnet are able to treat their wounds and to bring the group back into fighting shape. Amusingly when the unicorn tells them the entire insane story, Thunderchild's first reaction is to ask for Pandora's wingspread. Then again considering what huge wings the Alicorns have, it might be understandable to expect something huge. On the other side Pandora is a Goddess, she could easily take any shape or form. The others are hardly surprised either, they have seen enough strangeness around Shining so far to be used to it.
On their way out Garnet shows her respect to the fallen Diamond Dog that even the narration only called an “it.” Then again the cyborg transformation made the gender almost impossible to guess so “it” might be the correct term. As a master of internal decorating, Makarov decided to place the armory just next to the prison. There they find more of Pandora's special armor and the unicorn guesses that this is the result of him imagining it like a videogame, so there are plenty of refill stations. Unfortunately there are no safe points and shops for upgrades. Soon enough the entire group is armored and equipped for the final confrontations. They do reach Dima who made some progress towards the control room but one of the remaining Pseudocorn Cyborgs and a few other cyborgs are guarding the installation. It is time to reunite Yablokovodka's sister with her family in the only way that is left possible.
