Literal thunder rocked the air as the speed of the boulder threw the wagon off-course.
Flynn hissed into the effort he took to steady the veering craft. Inevitably—from Rainbow's and Ariel's evasive wing-flapping—the entire wagon took a sharp turn, sailing violently towards Alpha.
"Steady it!" Logan shouted. "Steady it towards Curveside, dammit!"
"We're... tr-trying...!" Ariel squeaked.
"Deep brreaths!" Kepler shouted, flexing his wings to help evenly distribute his own weight atop the rocking craft. The hair blew at his shaggy neck hairs. "Deep brreaths and concentrrate, frriends!"
"Easy... easy!" Rainbow Dash snarled, flapping her left feathers hard. After much effort, she and Ariel were finally able to angle the wagon evenly towards the bent horizon. "Level it out! Wildcard?!?"
The Desperado in the back exhaled heavily, then gave a metal thumb's up as he regained forward thrust with his wings.
"But now we're aimed towards Alpha!" Ariel exclaimed.
"It's okay!" Rainbow panted, eyes darting about as she surveyed the increasingly chaotic situation. "We can pivot it! Just... just... g-give me a second to think—!"
FWOOOOOOOOOOSH! Another boulder flew violently close.
"That one nearly hit us!" Rarity yelped.
"Cheese and crackers!" Flynn wheezed. "Are they getting closer?!"
"The vines are compensating," Seraphimus droned. Her manacles rattled as she calmly eyed the waving forest beneath the rapidly gliding carriage. "They're using more and more stalks to get better shots at the craft."
"But friggin' how?!?" Rainbow Dash barked. "Since when could these stupid things pull a collaborative chess game on our flanks?!"
"It doesn't matter." Seraphimus' eyes narrowed. "Fact is—the rocks are sailing closer. In a matter of time, we'll be struck. The wagon will be dashed to pieces and half of us will fall to a gory death."
"I'm not on board the whole 'falling-to-a-gory-death' part!" Ariel exclaimed.
"Girl, you've got wings," Logan grunted.
"At this rate I'll have half of one!" Ariel shrieked, struggling to keep the vessel gliding forward with her feathers stretched out. "Rrrrrrrrngh!"
"Okay... okay!" Rainbow Dash wheezed. "Everypony calm down!" She looked towards the front of the vessel, squinting into the whipping winds. "Do you see the edge of the forest?!?"
Flynn's mechanical eye whirred in place. "I believe so...!"
"How long until we've passed over it?"
"It'd be a lot better if we were still facing Curveside!" Flynn shouted. "There's less of it than there is towards Alpha!"
"Then we gotta swing this dayum thing back towards the right!" Logan hollered. "P.D.Q! Pussies Don't Quit!"
"Negative," Seraphimus grunted, struggling to stay upright across the rattling wagon. "Altering our trajectory will only slow the wagon's descent even further. We'll never make it to the forest's edge."
"Oh horse hockey!" Rainbow spat. "You're just trying to put a damper in this like always—"
"She's not wrong, Rainbow!" Flynn's voice cracked.
"Buh?"
"We lost a lot of air with those last few dodges!" Flynn exclaimed. "I'm afraid the murder chicken's right! If we mess with the current trajectory too much—"
"Well we can't just give in to the plunge!" Logan snarled. "Not after all we've been through!"
"Actually, you can and you should," Seraphimus said.
"Huh?!"
Her charcoal eyes focused on the next boulder being prepped below. "If we struggle to re-orient the craft, we'll only be smashed to bits by the projectiles and lose all on board. However... if we accept the situation and allow the vessel to descend into the stalks—the wagon will be consumed while those of us with wings can still make a flying leap for the outer edge of the forest."
"Yeah?!" Logan frowned. "And what about those of us who can't fly?!"
Seraphimus merely shrugged. "May Verlaxion have mercy on your blighted souls."
"I don't like the sound of that," Pinkie mewled. "And not just because it's unsexy!"
"Sera..." Rainbow gnashed her teeth. "If for one second you think I'm gonna sacrifice the lives of my friends just so a few of us can make it free—"
"I do not see how you have a choice," Seraphimus said.
"Sugarcube!" Applejack's voice warbled through the turbulent air. "You'd better pay attention to—"
Wildcard whistled shrilly.
"Incoming!" Rarity shrieked.
Rainbow's ears already whistled with the next incoming projectile.
"Quick! Quick!" Rainbow flapped her left wing in desperation. "We gotta dodge!"
"Dodge where?!" Ariel's voice cracked.
"Starrboarrd side!" Kepler hollered. "It's flying towarrds ourr rright side—!"
No sooner could the Wyvern finish when—
CLANK!
The next tossed boulder clipped the right side of the craft. Miraculously, the wagon remained in one piece. Not so miraculously, however—
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaauughhh!" Ariel was jolted savagely. With a burst of air, the pegasus was knocked cleanly off the craft. She could be seen plunging like a gray brick towards the ravenous stalks below.
"Oh no!" Fluttershy shrieked.
"Ariel!" Flynn hollered, horn strobing. "Ariel's in danger!"
Logan spat: "What, again?!?"
Wings, Ariel. Flap your gods-damned wings! This ain't the time to pull over and smell the roses!
Just fly Ariel! You've got wings!
....oh gods no. If what I think happened has happened....
Seraphimus helps out, yay!
Its bad enough when the Timberwolves herd you into the trap, but when the forest guides you into the ambush?
How good are those stalks again at taking a sonic shock blade just above ground level? For stability, Logan can finally start throwing his weight around?
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/306622535804649483/358779854100889611/DashFace.png
OH BOY NEW CHAPTER.
8430820
That face will now forever be associated with this series.
Goddamnit
Come on Ariel flap those wings!
Quick! Rainbow!
Kiss it better!
She wasn't hit by the rock, so she should be able to recover fairly easily, the hard part will be counteracting the roll she's probably been tossed into.
Also, keep it up Sera, you're becoming the group tactician.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
OHFUG
i.imgur.com/q7KiAhN.png
OhgodplznonotArielnotthissoon
8430870
You don't know the half of it...
8431017
YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD
8430870
And you're welcome.
Don't you dare do this, IC.
And now it gets serious.
8431137
what is the reference?
Pff all she has to do is reorient herself before she falls into the range of the sea of stalks and then probably start dodging rocks while catching up to the Plank. Ezpz
If evasion doesn't help, how about a distraction? These stalks can apparently somehow detect every object above them, so they could keep these things busy by throwing some objects overboard. And I am not talking about ponies.
Edit: Or they use moon rocks as bombs.
Must... not... smash... screen...
Oh come on Logan. That hasn't happened since Utaan...
Also, I remember something about poison gas back in Darkreach. Ponies in glass houses should avoid farting too much.
8431017
fug :DDDDD
8431179
It's just that I don't want Ariel to die.
There comes a point where everybody is just going to die voluntarily just so Sera can finally shut her cake hole.
...meat hole?
...worm hole?
Well this has just gone from bad to worse!
Well, that went south fast.
Looks like Ariel needs to pull some aerials to keep her air...eal.
8431585
Of course not ponies. I mean, how badly do they really need Seraphimus?
Nuuu!
8432474
More than I'd like to admit. Yes, Sera is a major douchebag and prefers to stay emo all the time, but they still depend on her.
Why? The reason is Rainbow. She decided to rescue Sera after the gondola fight because she can't stand to see people die and is willing to give them another chance, even against all odds. To ditch her would have been the easy way back then, but now Rainbow is bound by that decision.
She cannot let Sera die that easily without plunging herself into another deep crisis.
Really wish we had an early warning system to know about incoming projectiles. Like some kind of sixth sense that can warn us about inmediate danger...
How do you drone about being attacked by killer vines?!
Dang it Sera, you need to learn how to spell correctly while talking.
8434228
In the morose deadpan of a griffon who looks forward to death, I suppose.
[Nagmeister]: You have a hole in your right wing!
Flight capability diminished by 38.97%
Activate the Dash Protocol.
Enemy flak is too thick! We'll never make it to the drop!
8432220 an attempt was made.
So the vines are learning, huh? Those are far too intelligent to be just regular magical vines. They had to have been placed there, but by who?
8436540
We just have to make it there alive, no one said it has to be in one piece.
Welp looks like they might be following Sera's plan after all...
Slippy's hit!
The damsel in distress strikes aga-
Beat me to it.
No ones gonna die...right?
.....right?
It's never a good day when the doom prophet is validated. Let's hope things can still turn out ok. It's too early to lose someone else, especially in such an unsexy manner.
FLAP ARIEL, FLAP!