"GET OFF... HEY... QUIT IT!" snapped Rainbow Dash. Her wings beat beside her as she fought her way through the horde of griffins. That alone would've been a difficult task. It was made more difficult since she had to contend with said horde of ugly, mutated griffins...
"STOP BITING... SCRATCHING... PECKING... GAH!"
... being hell bent on treating her like one of those seed covered snack Fluttershy always leave out for the birds. With a few more powerful thrusts of her wings, Rainbow Dash launched herself up out of the cloud of griffins that had surrounded her. She immediately found herself just underneath the ceiling. To her dismay, instead of finding the griffin lord, Seth, she find herself surrounded by even more infected griffins. Griffins who, upon seeing her in more open space, rushed in to get their turn at the rainbow-colored treat. Rainbow Dash flipped over and began to dive right toward the cloud of griffin she just escaped from.
No longer needing her wings since she was falling, Rainbow Dash transformed them back into claws moments before she slammed into the griffin swarm. Her clawed wings thrashed around her, slashing and dicing their way through the thick cloud of mutated griffins like a lawnmower. Rainbow Dash held out her hooves straight in front her as she rammed her way through the griffins.
GOTACH! mentally cried Rainbow Dash as her hooves slammed dead center into a griffin's back. Black tendrils snaked out from her hooves and glued them into the griffin. Seconds later, she broke out from the hostile cloud and was greeted by the sweltering glow of the lava lake hundreds of feet below her.
The griffin she caught began the struggle, threatening to throw her off balance. With two quick swipe of her sharp claws, Rainbow Dash sliced off the captured infected griffin's wings before morphing her claws back into flight capable wings. A quick small adjustment to her dive angled her toward the wall of the caldera. The griffin continued to writhe and screech as the jagged wall approached.
With a wet crunch, Rainbow Dash slammed the infected griffin into the jagged wall. Blood and gore sprayed out from around her hooves as they sank into the griffin's back. Black tendrils shot out from her body as they began to assimilate the recently expired griffin. Rainbow Dash surfed down the jagged rock on top of the griffin as she bled off some of her downward momentum. When she slowed to a near complete stop after sliding for a good couple dozen yards, she kicked off against the cliff and took flight once. A long stream of griffins trailed behind her in hot pursuit.
With her hunger sated, Rainbow Dash turned her attention back to finding the griffin lord. A task that appeared impossible. The solid mass of griffins swirled above her, forming an opaque blanket just under the ceiling. Columns of griffins streamed from the mass, shifting and twisting their way down like tornadoes from a massive cloud. Except in this case, the tornadoes were filled with a bunch of biting, clawing, and pecking griffins. Despite her flying skill, Rainbow Dash knew that sooner or later, she would be surrounded and have to fight her way out of the griffin swarm once more. All she could do was to try to buy herself as much time as possible to find the griffin lord amidst the mob.
The griffin lord, on the other hoof, didn't have any problem of finding her. Without warning, something slammed into her back. Her wings seized up from the white-hot pain that followed, sending her into an uncontrolled spin. Rainbow Dash craned her neck around to see what happened. A three feet long jagged bone spike was embedded in her back right between the base of her wings. The tip of the spike stuck out just under her right wings. She reached to her side as far as her neck would allow and bit down on the tip. Fighting through the searing pain, Rainbow Dash pulled on it as hard as she could.
Come on! As she continued to tumble, Rainbow Dash noticed the ever intensifying heat coming from the molten rock below. With one final tug, and a flash of blinding pain, she tore the bone spear free and spat it away. With the offending object out of her, Rainbow Dash quickly extended her wings, still wobbling a bit from the pain, and leveled off just yards above the burning lake.
She didn't have time to catch her breath before she found herself flying through a rain of griffins. As she thread between the falling griffin, climbing away from the sweltering heat, Rainbow Dash noticed that each of them had one or more jagged bone spike embedded with them. Some looked quite dead, while the rest continued to flail and squawk until they plunge under the lava surface.
Well... a few dozens less to worry about...
Rainbow Dash turned her attention back to the solid blanket of griffins above her and found a small area from which impaled griffins were still tumbling out. Reasoning that that's where the attack came from, Rainbow Dash pulled into a climb straight toward it, hoping beyond hope that this time she would find the griffin lord to give him a piece of her mind.
=====================================================================
"Holy Moly that's a big door... ry" blurted out Pinkie Pie.
"No argument there." added Applejack as she looked up and down the massive steel slab sealing the entrance in front of them. By her reckoning, it's about twice as tall and wide as her barn, probably pretty thick too. She turned to the griffin next to her, Gilda, with her hoof pointed at the solid slab of metal. "Ya said our Rainbow is in there?"
"Yes, and so are a few hundred of their elite warriors!" added Gilda.
"And it sounded pretty loud in there! Like they're having one big party!" said Pinkie Pie, who had her right ear pressed against the metal surface. "I wonder who's winning..."
"Doesn't matter, Rainbow Dash need our help! So..." said Applejack as she pawed the ground a few times. "... let's get this thing open!"
She charged at the gate with her blade-like horns deployed, ramming them into the ground the gate was resting on. Pinkie Pie had produced a metal pipe from... somewhere. Using a nearby rock as a fulcrum, she jammed the pipe under the gate and began rocking it up and down with her legs wrapped around the far end. Fluttershy had her back up against the steel surface. Tendrils sprouted out from her forelegs, securing the pegasus to the gate itself as she pushed against the ground with her back-legs. Gilda took up position next to the three ponies, digging in her claws under the gate as far as she could and pulled. The gate took on a faint purple aura as Twilight Sparkle's horn lit up. Yet, despite four ponies plus one griffin straining to lift the gate, the gate didn't budge.
"Come on girls! Put yer back into it!" called out Applejack. The ground around her hooves began to crack as Applejack tried to wedge her horns under the gate further. The same happened with Fluttershy as her rear leg began to sink into the crumbling earth. Pinkie Pie changed her tactic. Instead of rocking the metal pole, she started jumping on it. The metal pipe squeaked and groaned as it flexed more and more under the pink-pony's bouncing. Gilda's face was turning red from the exertion. While Twilight's horn's glow grew to a new intensity, sending out showers of sparks. However, the gate proved to be immovable as ever.
"Come... on... move..." grunted Applejack while she continued to pry the gate open with her horn. When suddenly...
*CRACK* *CLUNK*
... Applejack lurched forward and smashed her head into the unyielding steel. The impact sent a small vibration through the metal surface, which was enough to partially dislodge the metal pipe Pinkie Pie was jumping on. When Pinkie Pie next landed on the metal pipe, bending it almost to the ground, the pipe popped free and...
*THWACK*
... smacked right into Pinkie's snout.
"AW!" cried Pinkie Pie.
"Applejack! Pinkie Pie!" came the simultaneous shouts of Fluttershy and Twilight. Both stopped their fruitless attempt at moving the gates and approached Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
"Are you two okay?" asked Fluttershy.
"I'm okay." answered Pinkie Pie while holding her hooves to her nose. "Just a little owie..."
"Same here." Applejack rubbed the back of her head with her hoof to ease the pain while wondering what happened.
"Applejack! Your... um... horns!" said Twilight.
"Huh?" Applejack glanced up to see what Twilight was talking about. The curved tip of both her blade horns had snapped off. Looking around, She quickly found the missing pieces wedged below the heavy gate.
"Are you... sure you're okay?" asked Twilight. While she was in the middle of asking that, the familiar swarm of tendrils spread over Applejack's horn. Within seconds, her horn blades were whole once more, with the curved tip back where they belonged.
"Yeah, I'm fine." said Applejack before putting away her horns with an annoyed grunt. "Just how heavy is this thing?"
"Judging by the size of the gate... and the fact that we can't lift it at all... I estimate that it's close to a thousand ton, if not more." answered Twilight.
"What now?" asked Gilda, who was leaning against the gate, panting from exhaustion.
"If we can't lift it..." muttered Twilight as her eyes scanned across and around the seemingly impassable gate. "... I've got it! Everyone stay back!"
Twilight closed her eyes in concentration as she lit up her horn again. The ponies and one griffin quickly scattered away from the gate. The light surrounding Twilight's horn grew brighter and brighter as seconds ticked by, accompanied by a progressive louder whine. As soon as the light reached a near blinding intensity, it began to fade as the glow coalesced toward the tip of her horn.
When the sphere of light contracted into a size of a pinhead, an intense beam of white-purple light shot out from Twilight's horn. The beam, a solid stream of raw magical power, slammed into the rock wall mere inches to the right of the base of the steel gate. Within seconds, smoke rose from the volcanic rock as it began hisses and pops.
"Ooh!" voiced Pinkie Pie as the beam inched upward, carving out a deep, glowing gouge in the rock face. "Way to go Twilight! Hang in there Rainbow Dash! We'll be there in no time!"
=====================================================================
Where... is... he... thought Rainbow Dash through gritted teeth as she launched herself off the sheer wall of the caldera. Chunks of a recently crushed griffin trailed behind her as her tendrils took a few more seconds to absorb them. Immediately, Rainbow Dash felt some strength returned to her. Yet, that didn't give her much comfort.
For the past hours, she had tried, and failed, to locate Lord Seth. Not surprising, considering that the majority of her time was spent trying to fight herself out of one bite-filled fur-ball after another. While the individual griffin's assaults were just minor inconvenience, the collective injuries they inflicted were taking a toll on her. That alone would've been problem enough, but then there was Lord Seth.
Rainbow Dash never laid eyes on the griffin lord ever since he summoned his massive swarm of griffins. That didn't mean Lord Seth didn't make his presence felt, painfully. The attacks came without warning, and almost always when she was preoccupied with the horde of griffins trying to tear her to pieces. Rainbow Dash had lost count of how many times she had been skewered by the serrated bone spikes.
In short, despite having consumed close to a hundred griffins, the constant attack had sapped away her strength. The pang of hunger had grew worse and worse, and her wounds were taking longer and longer to heal. Rainbow Dash didn't know how long she could keep this up. However, she knew that if nothing changed, she's going to die.
It was at this point that Rainbow Dash saw a glimmer of hope. Lord Seth's shower of bone spears was as painful as they were indiscriminate. As such, they had the fortunate side-effect of thinning out the griffin swarm, also known as Lord Seth's hiding place. And for the first time ever, Rainbow Dash caught the sight of Lord Seth in the form of a dragon-sized shadow moving across the ceiling of griffins.
Determined not to waste this chance, Rainbow Dash locked her eyes on the shadow and tried to keep track of it. For a full minute, she followed the moving shadow while weaving her way around griffins trying to take another bite out of her. Twice, she lost track of Lord Seth's shadow for a few terrifying seconds before catching it once more at the edge of her vision. Finally, the shape stopped moving, and Rainbow Dash waited no time before shooting straight up for it.
A shower of serrated bone spears burst out from the shadow in the griffin clouds. Rainbow Dash, with her attention already on the cloud, deftly maneuvered around the rain of spears and the falling griffins that immediately followed. She plowed through the cloud and found a welcoming sight.
Lord Seth, hovering just in front of her, with a surprised look on his face. A surprised look that Rainbow Dash erased when she smashed her fore-hoof into the hated griffin's face with a satisfying crack. Rainbow Dash vaulted over the griffin lord's head and landed on the back of his neck, morphing her wings into claws as she did so. The moment she landed, Rainbow Dash drove her claws into Lord Seth's neck, eliciting an ear-piercing scream from him.
"PAY BACK TIME!" shouted Rainbow Dash. Her wing claws hacked away at the griffin lord's neck in her attempt to cut his head off. Lord Seth howled, thrashing and spinning through the air, trying to throw her off. He plowed headlong into the massive cloud of griffins, who tried to pry her off his back. Despite that, Rainbow Dash held firm, alternating her wings between anchoring herself to the Lord Seth and slashing his neck open.
"You are not going to get rid of me that easily, you hear!?" roared Rainbow Dash against the screeching griffins. "Not you! Not your minions! Not..."
Alarms sounded in the back of Rainbow Dash's mind. But she ignored it and put her entire focus on decapitating the griffin lord. Which meant that Rainbow Dash didn't suspect anything wrong when the griffin lord started to ascend rapidly. Nor did she care that the infected griffins surrounding her abruptly left her alone. Rainbow Dash only realized that something was wrong when she saw the jagged cavern ceiling coming down toward her.
Oh... Forgot about tha...
Rainbow Dash didn't have the chance to finish her thought before, for the second time since her battle against Lord Seth started, she was crushed against the rocky ceiling. Pain exploded all over her as the jagged surface scraped her back raw. So bad it was that she didn't notice her left wing being torn off. It lasted for several agonizing seconds before Rainbow Dash popped free and began to fall. Her trouble didn't end there. Dazed and temporarily paralyzed from pain, Rainbow Dash could only watch helplessly as Lord Seth, having turned around and was mere yards in front of her, swung his spiked-covered mace-tipped tail at her.
*CRACK*
The hardened mass smashed into Rainbow Dash's stomach, knocking the air out of her and, judging by the cracking sound and the fresh wave of pain in her chest, shattering a few ribs. The impact sent her hurtling backward through the air at an alarming speed. The uncontrolled flight ended just a few short seconds later when Rainbow Dash crashed into the wall. The solid surface shattered around her as she was embedded halfway into it.
With stars in her eyes and pain filling her world, Rainbow Dash struggled to collect herself. But before she could even blink away the stars, she felt something punched her right beneath the middle of her chest.
"GAAAAAH!" Rainbow Dash let out an ear-piercing scream. The pain that followed was, as impossible as she would believe, far worse than any she had experience. Rainbow Dash looked down and saw a serrated bone spike sticking a good two feet straight out from just below her chest. She tried to pull it out of her by clamping it between her two front hooves.
"Come on... move..." wheezed Rainbow Dash through gritted teeth. But the bone spike stuck firm, pinning her to the wall. And each movement she made simply sent another shot of white-hot pain through her.
"Well... well... well..." came Lord Seth's condescending voice as he slowly hovered his way toward her. As Rainbow Dash watched, the griffin lord casually plucked an infected griffin out from swirling swarm around him. Lord Seth threw the still squawking griffin into his mouth. With a single bite, he crushed the griffin before swallowing it whole. Through it all, he never turned his predatory gaze from Rainbow Dash.
"What do we have here?" Rainbow Dash glared at Lord Seth, gritting her teeth to try to fight back the pain. However, she couldn't help but to let out a yelp when Lord Seth took hold of the end of the bone spike embedded in her and started rocking it up and down. Rainbow Dash clamped her hooves around the spike even tighter, trying to stop the serrated spike from causing even more pain. At the same time, she was threatening to crack her teeth to stop herself from crying out in pain. With one final tug, Lord Seth pulled the bone spike free. with Rainbow Dash still skewered on it, from the wall. Rainbow Dash soon found herself face-to-face with a maniacally grinning Lord Seth. "A pony on a stick!"
Lord Seth started laughing, a throaty, full-bodied laugh that sent the bone spike shaking. Another bout of intense pain shot through Rainbow Dash as she sank a good half-foot down the spike. After an agonizing minute, Lord Seth stopped before coming face-to-face with Rainbow Dash once more.
"What's wrong?" asked Lord Seth with feigned ignorance. "I thought that's was pretty funny."
Rainbow Dash did the only thing she could think of doing at the moment. She spat at him, hitting him right between his eyes. The griffin lord nonchalantly wiped away the spit with the back of his free claw before glowering at her.
"Looks like someone needs to learn her place!" growled Lord Seth before grabbing her right wing with his left claw.
"GAAAH!" Rainbow Dash howled when, with a sharp yank, Lord Seth tore her right wings off. Her scream raised another pitch as she lose her grip on the serrated spike embedded in her. She slid down the rest of the way until she was stopped by Lord Seth's claw around the spike. It was a few more seconds before her scream died down to a wheezing pant.
"Not so tough now, are you?" said Lord Seth as he casually tossed the dismembered wing behind him, where it was quickly ripped apart and consumed by the griffin swarm. Rainbow Dash glanced back, and noted with fear that all that remained of her wings were two jagged stumps with no sign that they're regenerating. On top of that, large pieces of her skin on her back were gone, scraped down to the point that she could see her own spine exposed in places. "You should thank me, now you look even. And you know what they say, beauty in symmetry or something like that."
Rainbow Dash tried to give Lord Seth a withering scowl. But with her waning strength her eyelids were struggling just to stay open.
... so... tired... the thought went through Rainbow Dash's mind as her vision began to blur.
*CLANG*
The booming sound rang across the caldera and snapped Rainbow Dash out of her haze. She, along with the confused griffin lord, looked around, trying to locate where the sound was coming from. A second clang rang out, focused their attention on the far end of the bridge of the obsidian fortress they're hovering above.
Rainbow Dash blinked, trying to figure out what she was seeing. Around the barn-sized steel gate that was trapping her in the caldera, a single, long fissure had appeared tracing the outline of the gate. As she watched, dust and debris erupted from the widening crack as a third clang thundered across the cavern.
=====================================================================
On the other side of the formerly unyielding gate, four ponies plus one griffin were doing their best to bash the gate down. Twilight's impressive display of raw magical power had carved out a deep gouge in the walls around the gate, all that was left was to knock it over.
Twilight Sparkle stared intently at the gate. A large boulder, wreathed in Twilight's magic, was floating to the left of the unicorn. To her right, Applejack got back to her position, pawing the ground impatiently. Behind them, Fluttershy had rooted herself to the ground. Her mane had morphed into a pair of whips that was stretched taut behind her, where Pinkie Pie had wrapped the whip behind her and was holding it in place with her forelegs. Pinkie Pie was pushing herself back with her back legs while Gilda pulled on the whip behind the pink pony, both trying to stretch the organic whips out as much as possibles.
"AGAIN!" shouted Twilight, sending the large boulder hurtling toward the steel gate. Applejack broke into a sprint toward the gate. Gilda shot forward, her wings beating as hard as she could. Behind them, Gilda let go and Pinkie Pie tucked her back legs in. Using Fluttershy's whips as slingshots, Pinkie Pie launched herself forward with a loud "Whee!"
The boulder crashed into the gate with a reverberating clang, followed by Applejack as she rammed head-first into it. Pinkie Pie morphed her tail into a solid round mass. Hugging the hardened mass to her chest, Pinkie Pie slammed into the top half of the gate.
The steel slab tilted forward. And this time, it didn't look like it was about to stop. Sound of groaning metal and cracking rock filled the air as the gate fell away, allowing more and more bright amber light to shine through. Amidst the cacophony, Twilight could hear a comparatively faint cry of "... timber.... wait... metal..." somewhere from the dust cloud kicked up by the falling rocks.
*BOOM*
The gate crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar, sending the ground beneath them trembling. Chunks of rocks and debris fell from the ceiling accompanied by a gust of heated air blasting them in the face. The sound of ringing of metal soon was replaced by unholy screeches. The settling dusts soon revealed the source of those sound.
"By Luna’s night..." breathed Applejack. "... are those..."
"Hey! Those are the same freaky griffins that attacked us when we were sleeping!" said Pinkie Pie.
"Gilda, did you know about this?" asked Twilight.
"Yes... I did... forgot... mention..." stammered Gilda.
"Can anypony see Rainbow..." said Fluttershy with worries. "I hope she's okay..."
"Hard tah tell..." said Applejack, squinting at the swirling storm of griffins. "Ah can't see through all dem..."
"RAINBOW!" cried Pinkie Pie, her right hoof pointing straight toward the black fortress. High above it, and just beneath the swarm of griffins, was a griffin the size of which none of them had seen before. The griffin's claw was holding a spike, upon which skewered a wingless cyan pegasus with rainbow mane and tail.
=====================================================================
"RAINBOW!" the familiar voice echoed from the recently appeared opening seconds before Rainbow Dash saw a pink, pony shape barreling out of the thinning dust cloud.
"Pinkie... Pie?"
The pink pony was immediately followed by three more ponies, plus one griffin.
"So... those are your friends?" asked Lord Seth with a sneer. "Looks like they're just in time to for the feeding!"
... huh... the brief moment of confusion turned to fear when Rainbow Dash saw Lord Seth raised his talon toward her friends on the bridge.
"FEAST! MY PETS!"
=====================================================================
"Wait up! Pinkie!" yelled Twilight, trying to keep up with the galloping pink pony. "We can't just charge in! We need a plan!"
"He got Rainbow Dash!" shouted Applejack. "Ah don't think we have time for that!"
"Who is he?" asked Twilight, eying the dragon-sized griffin. "Or... what is he?"
"He's Lord Seth of the Blackwing tribe." answered Gilda from behind the unicorn. "Although I don't remember him being that... big..."
"Big or not, we need to get Rainbow Dash away from him!" said Applejack.
"And how do you plan to do..."
"FEAST! MY PETS!" roared Lord Seth, prompting Twilight Sparkle to look up to see the rapidly descending swarm of rabid and hungry looking griffins.
"Oh my Celestia!" gasped Twilight.
"Get down." the harsh growl startled Twilight. She looked around, and found all the ponies and Gilda had stopped. All of them were looking at Fluttershy, who stood there with her back arched and her eyes closed. Then, black tendrils began to crisscross across her body. Almost immediately, all the ponies hit the bridge, all except Gilda.
"What... what is she..." stammered Gilda. Twilight reached up and, with her foreleg around the griffin's neck, yanked her to the ground.
"Hng..." Fluttershy let out a groan that sounded like she was in pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her body quivered as the black masses continued to wash through her body like waves.
Twilight's heart beat rapidly in her chest when she saw the griffin swarm above them closing. They were so close that she could make out individual griffins, their eyes filled with hunger while their claws outstretched. But those claws would never reach her.
"AH!" with a deafening roar, Fluttershy... exploded. Time seems to slow for Twilight as hundreds of tendrils, each about as thick as a unicorn horn and just as sharp looking, erupted from Fluttershy's body. So fast that Twilight could see the cone-shaped distortion as the tendrils punched themselves through the air. The tendrils skewered the griffins above them. Those nearby instantly vaporized, while those further away were blown apart into chunks. In less than the time it took for a pony to blink, Lord Seth's personal army evaporated into thin air.
=====================================================================
"Im... impossible..." stammer Lord Seth, watching the scene in front of him with eyes wide from disbelief. His minions, hundreds of infected griffins under his full controlled, were gone in a blink of an eyes. In their place were countless tendrils, jutting out in every direction like some gigantic sea urchin. Tendrils that receded back into a tiny, yellow pegasus just a second later. "How..."
"Heh... that's Fluttershy for you..." said Rainbow Dash with a cough. Talking was quite painful on account of the long, serrated bone spike skewering her right through her chest. However, she just couldn't stop herself from taunting the griffin lord. "Wonder what you did to piss her off?"
Sharp pain shot through Rainbow Dash as Lord Seth brought her back up to his face, jostling the bone spike and sending another wave of pain through her.
"SHUT IT!" snarled Lord Seth, his face contorted in anger. However, Rainbow Dash could see a slight hint of fear in his glare.
"Hey... you did ask..."
"Why you little..."
"HEY YOU!" shouted Pinkie Pie at the top of her lung, cutting off Lord Seth mid-retort. "LET HER GO YOU BIG MEANIE!"
"Make me!" snapped Lord Seth in response.
"If yah insist!" snarled Applejack. She dug her bull-like horn into the bridge and pried out a pony-sized boulder. She launched it a few feet into the air and, with a quick spin around plus a hard buck, sent it hurtling toward the airborne griffin lord. Lord Seth quickly slide to the side, avoiding the speeding projectile with ease. He wasn't so lucky with the bolt of magic that followed, courtesy of Twilight. It grazed the griffin lord's right ear, singing it as it shot past him.
"Gr..." growled Lord Seth. Rainbow Dash noticed him eyes the recently vacated exit of the caldera before turning his cold gaze back to her. "... time to cut my loses."
With that, Lord Seth grabbed hold of Rainbow Dash with his left claws. With his right claw, which was still gripping the base of the bone spear, he tore the serrated spear out from the pegasus. Despite her exhaustion, the pain still managed to eliciting a high pitched screech from her. Without pause, Lord Seth took flight over the bridge toward the exit.
=====================================================================
"He's making a run for it!" shouted Applejack, digging up another boulder and bucking it through the air. The griffin lord zipped to his left and the boulder sailed harmlessly past him once more. Several bolts of purple magic lanced through the air. Several of them got close, but none managed to land a hit on the griffin lord.
"Shoot!" cursed Applejack. "He's getting... mph!?"
Applejack felt something fuzzy stuffed into her mouth. She glanced down and saw Pinkie Pie's curly tail there.
"Throw me! Toss me! Throw me!" urged Pinkie Pie, her eyes locked on the griffin lord that was about to pass over them. "Toss me now!"
Applejack didn't question her. She bit down on the pink pony's tail. Swinging Pinkie Pie around like a hay-bale in a hay-bale toss competition, Applejack launched her straight into Lord Seth's path. A quick bank to his right, however, sent the pink comet hurtling right past the griffin lord. But Pinkie Pie didn't seems, neither did she voice, any surprise at that. Instead, the pink pony turned around and opened her mouth wide. Something long, black and slimy looking shot out from Pinkie's mouth and smacked into Lord Seth's back.
"Wha...!" uttered Lord Seth when his forward momentum was terminated abruptly. Pinkie Pie tongue, acting like a fleshy bungee-cord, yanked Lord Seth toward her as she dove down with her right back leg extended.
*CRACK*
The bone breaking sound echoed through the cavernous caldera as Pinkie Pie's back-leg drove into Lord Seth's back. She rebounded off him, launching herself toward the ceiling and extending her tongue as she went. With her body turned upside-down, Pinkie Pie's four hooves rammed into the ceiling and anchored her there. Her yards-long tongue went taught once again, pulling the griffin lord up at tremendous speed.
*CRASH*
Lord Seth smashed into the ceiling. Spiderweb like cracks radiated out from the indentation his back made in the rock. Pinkie Pie yanked her tongue away from the griffin lord's back while she launched herself off the ceiling.
"BUCK ME! BUCK ME! BUCK ME!" shouted Pinkie Pie as she dove toward Applejack with her mace-like tail held in front of her. Once again, having being used to Pinkie Pie's random shenanigan that seems to solve their problems just fine, Applejack turned around, planted her front hooves into the ground, and bucked Pinkie Pie in her ball as hard as possible. The rocky surface of the bridge cracked around Applejack's hooves as she launched the pink pony back into the air. Pinkie Pie went streaking back up toward the semi-conscious griffin lord, spinning with her tail like a bola.
*BOOM*
Pinkie Pie smashed into Lord Seth's stomach with her mace-tail, pushing the griffin lord further into the rock ceiling. The spiderweb cracks around him spread and widen even more. Chunks of rocks rain down, pelting the ponies and griffin, and prompting Twilight to raise a magical shield to deflect some larger ones. A few brief seconds later, Pinkie Pie crashed back to the bridge on all four, pulverizing the rocks beneath them.
"... and THAT is for taking my eyes!" declared Pinkie Pie, raising one hoof toward the embedded griffin lord.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at her declaration. But instead of asking, Applejack decided that there would be time to ask Pinkie Pie about her statement later. She turned her head up to the griffin lord, embedded in the ceiling and perfectly still. Narrowing her eyes, she found what she was looking, a cyan shape with rainbow streaks dangling around it clutched tightly within the griffin's talon.
"Er... how do we get Rainbow Dash down?" asked Applejack, still watching at the unmoving shape.
"I'm surprise he didn't let go after that hit." said Gilda, still trying to comprehend the brutal beating Pinkie Pie delivered to the griffin lord.
"Why isn't Rainbow moving?" asked Fluttershy, her voice on the edge of panicking. "Is she okay?"
"HEY! LET GO OF RAINBOW DASH! NOW!" shouted Pinkie Pie.
"Maybe I can cut her down..." said Twilight, her horn began to spark.
As it turned out, none of them had to do anything as the Rainbow Dash slowly slipped out of the griffin's grip and began to plummet toward them.
"I've got her! I've got her!" called out Pinkie Pie, her legs shuffling around in a blur as she tried to position herself beneath the falling pegasus. Unfortunately, Fluttershy had the same idea. Before Applejack could even warn them, the two converged on the spot below the falling pegasus and bumped their heads into each other.
"AW!" cried Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy as they were knocked on their butt. A second later, Rainbow Dash face-planted right between them with a ground-shaking thud with her limbs spread out beside her.
=====================================================================
This... is nice...
It was the first thought that ran through Rainbow's addled mind shortly after seeing the solid rock surface coming up to meet her and the darkness that followed. There was another sharp crack of pain when fate decided that her face would be the perfect choice for first contact with solid ground. But at present, all the pain had faded away to a full body numbness. That, combined with the darkness she was currently in, was just perfect for Rainbow Dash to do what she did best.
... nap time...
"... Rainbow..."
Rainbow Dash felt someone lifting her head up.
"Rainbow Dash!"
Her eyelids fluttered open for a bit, and was greeted by a pinkish blob that slowly resolved into somepony she recognized.
Oh... hi... Pinkie Pie...
"... is... is she still alive?" came Gilda's voice.
... Gilda... you're okay...
"I... I think so..." Twilight's voice came next. "Her eyes did just open."
Twilight's safe... good...
"Her wings are gone!" Applejack's voice exclaimed. "And... is... is that her spine showing?"
Don't... worry about... that...
"What are we going to do?" said Fluttershy.
Just... let me take a nap...
Rainbow Dash was starting to close her eyes when a rough shake jolted them open again.
"Rainbow Dash! Stay with us!" cried Pinkie Pie, pulling her face closer to Rainbow's.
"I know! We need fish!" said Twilight. "Last time she got this badly hurt, Fluttershy fed her some fish and she got better!"
"Where are we going to find fish around here?" questioned Applejack.
... or... just let me take a nap... Rainbow Dash's eyelids tried to closed again, but another rough shake by Pinkie Pie forced them open.
"We're losing her!" cried Pinkie Pie.
"Or a griffin! One of those... mutated griffin should work!"
"Ah think Fluttershy just vaporized all of them."
"I'm sorry..." whispered Fluttershy.
"It's not yer fault, Fluttershy." continued Applejack. "And ah don't think we should feed her Gilda!"
... yeah... you shouldn't...
"Okay... Twilight... think..." muttered Twilight, accompanied by sound of hoof hitting head.
... just... let me... sleep...
"*GASP*! THAT'S IT!" shouted Pinkie Pie.
... thank you... Pinkie...
Just as her eyes were about to close for a third time, Pinkie Pie leaned in and kissed her.
... Pinkie... I don't think a good night kiss is on the lip... thought a slightly surprised Rainbow Dash. ... not that I'm complaining...
She felt Pinkie Pie's tongue forcing its way into her mouth.
... Prench kissing is not good night kiss... Pinkie... I think... not that I'm com... HUH!?
Rainbow Dash's eyes shot wide open when she felt the tongue continued past the back of her mouth and down into her throat, followed by a flood of energy and warmth through her whole body.
=====================================================================
Twilight Sparkle stared, slack-jawed, at the scene. At first, she thought Pinkie Pie was trying to give Rainbow Dash CPR. Twilight was about to tell her that CPR didn't work that way when Rainbow Dash's eyes shot open in surprise. There was a muffled cry from the pegasus followed by a strange gurgling sound when her body started to expand like a balloon and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Black tendrils exploded out and swarmed all over her body. The ghastly wound of her back rapidly closed as black flesh began to grow from the stumps of her wings. It took mere seconds before a pair of cyan wings popped open with two faint squelches. It was then when Pinkie Pie pulled away, leaving sputtering and coughing Rainbow Dash.
"What... what did you..." said Rainbow Dash in between coughs.
"See! All better now!" said Pinkie Pie cheerfully.
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash blinked a few time and looked behind her. She let out a gasp when she noticed that her back was completely healed. Her wings, still fully spread out behind her, looked just as pristine as ever. "But... how..."
"Well..." Pinkie Pie took a deep breath and started rambling. "It looked like you were dying and I was all worried and sad and scared and Twilight here thought that we can save you if we feed you fish or griffin. But of course where are you going to find a fish here and we don't have a griffin to feed you since Fluttershy turned them into really REALLY tiny little pieces! Oh! We have Gilda! But I don't think you would like us feeding you Gilda. But then I went *GASP*, I ate a lot of griffins! I mean not just a lot a lot, but a LOT, a lot. I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Cake always warned me not to eat too many cakes because I would get a tummy ache, but today I ate like, SO many griffins that I lost count and I didn't get a tummy ache. I wonder if I can eat a bunch of cakes now and not get tummy ache. Anyway, since I ate so many griffins! I figure I can share some with you! You know what I always said, sharing is caring! But I didn't know how to share some of those with you! I thought maybe I could feed you my legs but since you were all GUH and DUH and UGH and falling asleep I don't think you could bite them off even if I shove them in your mouth. And then I thought maybe I can get Gilda to pop out a few eyeballs, now that I know they grows back, and feed them to you like little snacks. But then I got really really sad because I had some very bad memories about my eyes..." Pinkie Pie slowed down a bit while her mane deflated somewhat shortly before flaring back out and she resumed her rapid fire speech. "So anyway! I was thinking really really hard and you were getting really really sleepy when I got another *GASP* idea! My tongue! I can make it really really really long, so obviously I can grow them back! And they're small enough to shove it in your mouth! So I shoved my tongue in your mouth! But you weren't eating it so I got really worried! Maybe you didn't like a taste of my tongue or something! I mean, I don't even know what my tongue taste like! I was thinking that I should put some hot sauce on my tongue to make it hot and spicy since rainbow is hot and spicy and you got rainbow color so maybe you like spicy! But we don't have any hot sauces! So I went *GASP* idea a third time and I thought if you can't, or won't, eat my tongue then I'll just stick my tongue right into your tummy and that will be like you eating it! So I kept shoving and shoving and shoving and shoving and shoving and then your wings popped up and that's when I know you're okay! So what do my tongue taste like?"
"Um... what?" stuttered Rainbow Dash, looking thoroughly confused, as did the rest of the ponies plus Gilda.
"My tongue, what does it taste like?" repeated Pinkie Pie.
"I... I don't remember..." said Rainbow Dash. "But... um.. thanks for saving me?"
"Aw... but no problem!" answered Pinkie Pie.
"So... what's up with that guy?" Applejack gesture toward the griffin lord embedded in the ceiling above them. "I mean, how de hay did he get dis... big?"
"He had this... power that looked kind of like ours and..." Rainbow Dash blinked as she recalled what Lord Seth said right after his monstrous transformation. "He said he was working with someone!"
"Who?" asked Twilight.
"I don't know. He only said it's a she."
"Could it be that... alicorn?" said Fluttershy.
"Pestilence?" said Twilight. She went thoughtful for a moment as her hoof tapped against her chin. "That's very likely... and very worrying. It would mean that it possesses some form of intelligence."
"Ah think we should be more worried about that!" Applejack pointed her hooves at the griffin lord above them. Around the embedded form of Lord Seth, small chunks of rocks started to fall once more, followed by his entire body breaking from the ceiling.
"Move!" shouted Twilight as the group quickly galloped out of the way. A few seconds later, the dragon-sized form of the griffin lord crashed into the bridge with a thunderous thud and a plume of dust.
"So... what do we do with him?" asked Gilda, who's staring at the massive dust and debris covered griffin along with the ponies.
"I know just what to do with him!" said Rainbow Dash, he wings transforming into two sets of razor claws with a metallic zing. "Time figure out just what he was doing with that monster!"
Rainbow Dash advanced just a few steps when the enormous pile of griffin moved, prompting her to jump back in surprise.
"How the hay is he still alive!?" exclaimed Applejack as she, like the rest of her friends, crouched to a defensive stance
One after another, Lord Seth's pony-sized talons reached out and slammed themselves down on the bridge surface. Stones, dust and debris cascaded off him as his towering form began to rise. His wings flared out, sending a powerful gust blowing across the bridge while throwing large chunks of rocks flying off into the lava lake below. His beady yellow eyes opened, looking particular more menacing since his whole body was covered in jet-black from the volcanic dust covering him.
"I'm... impressed." said Lord Seth in a booming voice, his eyes scanning across the group of ponies and griffin who had readied themselves for another fight. "But it will take more than that to kill..."
"TWITCHY TWITCH!" shouted Pinkie Pie.
*CRACK*
The sharp sound echoed across the caldera, followed by a loud rumble. Lord Seth looked up, just in time to see several tons of rock falling before being crushed beneath them. The massive boulders smashed their way through the bridge, carrying the screaming griffin lord into the lava lake below. With Lord Seth gone, the ponies and griffin found themselves having a different problem on their hooves. The spiderweb cracks on the ceiling were growing wider and longer, causing chunks of rock to break away at an alarming rate. Some of the boulders splashed into the lava lake, sending up giant plumes of superheated rock. Others pounded the bridge, sending more and more bits of it to join the molten rock below.
"RUN!" shouted Applejack.
=====================================================================
Amelia, lady of the Whitetail tribe, wife of Leo, mother of Gilda, at the head of the table within the spacious mead hall of the town of Featherhorn. An improvised spear made out of fishing knife tied to a stick leaned against the table to her right. Sitting to her left, at the side of the table, were Rarity and Spike. The baby dragon had curled up on the leather covered pile of hay and fell asleep. Between them a large stone pot rested on a small candle fire, keeping the tea it held warm. A stone mug sat in front of each of them. Spike's had long since went cool, while Rarity's and Amelia's remain warm with thin wisp of steam rising off the top. Amelia picked hers up with her talon and take a sip from it. After setting the cup back in place, she returned to gaze at the slight ajarred double door of the mead hall.
Rarity picked up her own mug with her two unsteady hooves. While the injury caused by the crossbow bolt was minor, it still hurt a bit to use magic. But the shaking mug wasn't from her inexperience with manipulating object with her hooves, it was worries. It had been almost twenty hours, judging by the long beam of light cast by Celestia's sun through the gap in the door. Twenty hours since most of her friends had left for the heart of the enemy. Despite her firm conviction that her friends would pull through, the long time waiting had allowed her doubts to grow and fester. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were most likely fine, Rarity told herself. Even Fluttershy was just as likely to make it, given her past reputation of stepping up to the plate when danger present itself. But Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle? Rarity was terrified for them. Even if the rescue party reached them, who knew what horrible things those Blackwing thugs had done to them before that. The rumor she overheard from the town-griffins only served to add more revolting and depraved things to said list of horrible things.
"Miss Rarity, are you alright?"
Rarity flinched and nearly dropped the mug. She managed to settle it on the table with a bit more force than she wished before turning the griffin lady.
"I'm... fine." said Rarity. "Just worried."
"About your friends?"
Rarity nodded. "Aren't you? About your family?"
"Yes, I am." answered Amelia. A moment of silence followed while the griffin lady took another sip of her tea.
"You looked... very calm about it." stated Rarity. There was a short pause when Amelia looked thoughtful for a moment before she responded.
"I'm worried. Yet... this... is kind of freeing..."
"Beg your pardon?" interjected Rarity.
"Ever since Blackwing took our families, we had been like slaves." continued Amelia, her eyes glossing over as she gaze toward the door again. "Bound not by chains, but by their hollow promise that our families will be... alive. We have been... deluding ourselves, thinking that if we follow their every word, we will see our families once more. But what else could we do. It was either submit to them or send our families to certain death." She turned to Rarity. "But... now, with you here, the choice is no longer ours to make."
"I'm sorry..."
"There is nothing to be sorry about." Amelia smiled. "I would even say that it was a... gift, of sort. To know that no matter what happens, whether your friends succeed or... not, it will all end soon." as she said that, Amelia absentmindedly traced her talon over the blade of her makeshift spear. "No matter what, we'll be... free, one way or another."
"I... I see..." muttered Rarity as both of them returned to the tea in front of them. No words were exchange for several minutes before Rarity said. "They will win."
"Hm?" voice Amelia, intrigued.
"I trust my friends. I trust that no matter the odds, they'll always come through. They defeated Nightmare Moon on her return. They turned Discord, THE god of chaos, into stone! They helped freed Crystal Empire from the tyrant king Sombra!" Rarity stomped her hoof on the table as she jumped onto it. "They may have a lousy sense of fashion. But as Celestia and Luna are my witnesses, THEY... WILL... PREVAIL!"
It took Rarity a moment to realize that she was standing on the table with her right hoof pointed at a surprised Amelia. She quickly backed her way off the table and sat back down.
"My apologies..." muttered Rarity. Amelia smiled in response.
"Your words are a great comfort to me." said Amelia. "Thank you."
"Ugh..." Spike groaned as he began to wake up. "What's..."
The double door suddenly slammed open. It took Rarity a second to adjust her eyes to the sudden influx of light to recognize the grayish griffins with a pair of enormous glasses.
"Milady! Movement from the west!" shouted Galena. As soon as the last word left her mouth, a yellow blur shot past Rarity and out the door with a gust of wind. Rarity quickly picked up Spike and tossed him on her back before galloping out of the mead hall. She followed Galena down the slope. In the distance, near the edge of the hamlet, Rarity could see a growing crowd of griffins gathering there. In no time at all, she had reached the crowd. Sticking close to Galena, she made her way to the front of the crowd and stopped next to Amelia, who had her spear clutched against her under her right wing. Rarity squinted her eyes, trying to block out as much of the sun as possible. In the distance, a small group of black dots appeared over the horizon, joined by many, many more.
"... Blackwings?..." a voice whispered behind her. Rarity squinted some more, but with the sun setting behind the wobbly dots, it was impossible to make out what they were. Then, a single black dot shot into the sky. Rarity followed it as it went higher and higher into the sky when...
*BOOM*
... a multicolored explosion of light filled the sky. When the light faded, murmurs and gasps spread through the griffins when they saw an expanding circle of brilliant colors wash through the sky.
"That's... THAT'S RAINBOW DASH!" cried Rarity. "THAT'S RAINBOW DASH!"
"Rainbow..." a look of realization slowly dawned on Amelia. The makeshift spear under her wing dropped noiselessly to the ground as the griffin lady trotted forward. Rarity quickly followed as Amelia's trot turned into a full gallop. A low rumble grew louder and louder as the rest of the Whitetail tribe realized the same thing and ran after them. As they drew closer, Rarity saw that the black dots were griffins, hundreds of griffins galloping toward them. At the head of the group were five familiar faces, one of them a griffin's.
"GILDA! LEO!" cried Amelia as her gallop turned to a mad dash. Rarity swore that she saw tears trailing from the griffin lady's eyes, although she wasn't so sure since she was tearing up herself.
"Amelia!"
"Mom!"
Neither group bothered to stop. All around Rarity, griffins threw themselves into each others' embraced, raising cries of happiness as families long parted were reunited once more. Some shed tears of joy, some danced in the air, and some simply screamed their heads off.
Rarity was one of the latter ones.
"YOU'RE ALIVE!" cried Rarity as she wrapped her forelegs around Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. She saw Rainbow Dash landing next to Applejack and Fluttershy, and all three were smiling back at her. Rarity felt whatever worries weighing on her evaporated with the sight of all her friends together. "YOU'RE ALL ALIVE!"
"Of course we are!" said Rainbow Dash with a smirk. "Never doubt the Dash!"
"Yeah... after we have tah save yer butt like... what, twice so far?" teased Applejack, prompting Rainbow Dash to blush in embarrassment.
"Twilight!" shouted Spike, jumping off Rarity's back and onto Twilight's before wrapping his arms around her neck. "I missed you SO much!"
"I missed the both of you too." said Twilight before her smile turned to frown. "Rarity? What happened to your horn?"
Rarity released her two friends. She wiped away from tear with the back of her hoof before pointing to her horn. "Don't worry, it's nothing."
As Rarity appraised her friends it was her turn to frown. Most of her friends looked perfectly fine, yet Twilight Sparkle looked... gray. A second look revealed that the unicorn seems to be covered in ashes.
"What... what happened? And..." asked Rarity. She sniffed the air a few times and caught a peculiar smell. "... why do you smell like... rotten egg."
"Long story. The short version? Do you know that Blackwing base was so structurally unsound and the volcano they're built in so volatile that Pinkie Pie managed to collapse the whole base and cause a minor eruption just by smashing the ceiling a bit?"
Rarity looked between Twilight and Pinkie, her mind trying, and failing, to fill in the missing details.
"You... will have to tell me about that..." Rarity wrinkled her nose. "... after you take a bath."
"Bath sounds really good." concurred Twilight.
"Ooh! Do you know what this call for!?" asked a suddenly hyperactive Pinkie Pie as she took in the sight of cheering griffins around her.
"A party?" all the ponies, plus Spike, answered in unison.
"A PARTY!"
=====================================================================
The volcano that housed the recently destroyed Blackwing base was silence. Thick black plume spewed from its top and slow running rivers of lava ooze down its side. The entrance to the base was no longer there, covered by a rock-slide caused by its recently triggered, and short-lived, eruption. There was no sign of life, save for one solitary figure standing upon its slope.
The ashen alicorn had no name for herself, saved for one given to her, Pestilence. Three blood-red, pulsating sores formed her "cutie-mark", each with a thin trail of semi-dried pus running a few inches down from the sore. Her gray horn was covered by faint red veins. Her mane was made out of black and red tendrils that reached her knees. Her tail, just like her mane, was a bundle of tendrils that reached the ground. There was little movement from her, other than an occasional scrap of her hoof at the volcanic rock. Her expression was inscrutable with her gaze fixed at the ground a few hooves in front of her. Her expression didn't change when the ground began to crack. Nor did it change when a mutated diamond dog, emerged. The infected canine pulled himself out of the hole he made with elongated claws, dragging a blackened and charred body out behind him.
The body had the shape of a griffin, except about twice as long, tall, and wide as a normal griffin. Without showing any sign of emotion, Pestilence gave the scorched form a nudge with her hoof.
"... ugh..." Despite it having apparently sustained what would've been fatal injuries, it let out a groan and began to move. One of its eyes opened and revealed a yellow orb that gazed up into the alicorn's pitch-black eyes.
"... my... my queen?" croaked the body in the voice of Lord Seth. "... you... you came..."
Pestilence continued to regard Lord Seth with indifference.
"... you... save me..." wheezed Lord Seth. This time, the alicorn's left eye twitched, seemingly out of annoyance. The yellow orb in Lord Seth's only good eye swiveled around rapidly, as if in a panic to search for answer. His eye widen just a bit as he found what he was searching for.
"... I... the doctor... found the answer... you seek..." Lord Seth gasped out each word as if his life depended on it. "... the weapon... I know... where..."
Pestilence placed her right hoof on Lord Seth's head.
"... my queen..." his voice quivered as Pestilence slide her hoof down to his neck.
"... ple..."
*CRACK*
Lord Seth's neck shattered under Pestilence's hoof. His yellow eye widened in terror for a moment before it rolled up into its sockets. Black and red tendrils shot out from her body and made short work of disassembling and absorbing the griffin lord's corpse. With the deed done, Pestilence closed her eyes and the red veins in her horn glowed for a second. After the glow faded and her eyes opened once more, she waited.
Minutes later, three more mutated diamond dog emerged from the ground. One of them was holding a metallic case, about the size of a pencil box, in his mouth. Pestilence motioned him forward. The diamond dog obeyed without questioning and deposited the case in the alicorn's upturned hoof. Her wings transformed into claws. Using the tips of those claws, Pestilence opened the case in her hoof. The corner of her lips twisted into a sinister smile as she examined the content of the case.
"Perrrfect..." said Pestilence.