Rainbow Dash sat on the ground where she crashed and continually preened her feathers. A lot of others seemed to think that she was somewhat of a messy individual, but any flyer knows that they can't afford to have anything wrong with their feathers: the cleaner, the better. It was for this reason that she was trying to clean off the red paint that somehow got on the tips of all her feathers. It didn't matter that it looked awesome; she couldn't have them messing with her flight. After growling from how coloration would not go away, it didn't take long for her to find somepony to blame. "Wordsmith," she said with all the venom she could muster. What she found herself wanting to do to him were things that she would never repeat out loud.
"Hey, pony!"
"For the love of!" She sighed loudly: she did not want to deal with those three at all; though hopefully they wouldn't find her.
"There you are."
"Screw you!" she thought to the whole of reality. She turned her head back and looked at the three that had found her just a few moments ago. "Look, I'm sure you guys are nice ... whatever you are, but I've got better things to worry about than dealing with the three of you."
"HA!" said the big ugly leader. "What could be more important than making a deal with the Great and Powerful Zongeh." While Rainbow Dash's ear's perked up, her face fell. For a few moments after, her left eye twitched: being reminded of a certain showmare does that to her. "You okay pony?"
She jumped back when she caught a whiff of his hand waving right in front of her muzzle. "Sweet Celestia! When's the last time you washed those things?!"
He and the bald one exchanged confused looks while the other one looked at her with his confused expression. "You don't know what hands are?"
He was mostly ignored as she watched the other two shrug then narrowed her eyes. "Okay ... here's ground rule number one: DON'T touch me!"
"What's number two?" asked Combee.
Her eye twitched. "I didn't have one until you asked that brilliant question. Number two is no stupid questions."
Zomboo beat his chest and smiled widely. "Of course it was brilliant! What else would you expect from one as great as myself!"
"And number three is ..."
"Excuse me!" Three of them looked around in mild surprise at the new voice while Dash groaned at having to deal with potentially another one. Within moments, another individual showed up from behind the tall grass and spotted Bombay and his cronies. He was a head shorter than Zombie and word a lab coat that was completely out of place. His skin was very pale and his hair was blond. He also held a notepad and a pen in his hands. Upon spotting the three, he gave a friendly wave. "Hello there gentlemen. Would you happened to know where I might find that un..." His voice trailed off upon spotting the blue winged horse with a Rainbow mane. "Fascinating. I've never seen a horse this small before. Fossil records show they did exist before the great extinction, but never with wings."
He reached out and pulled out a wing for observation only for Dash to snap it back and glare at him. "Hey, what do you think you are doing?!"
He stared at her for a few seconds before bringing up his notepad. "While searching the central savanna for any ingredients of interest, I encountered a new species."
He wrote on his notepad as he talked, which only served as a new source of irritation for Dash. "Hey, what's the big idea?!"
"Subject has demonstrated the ability to speak coherently, yet this only shows the potential for sapience. Subject is around 85 centimeters at the withers and estimated to be close to 135 centimeters with head held up and level."
As he continued describing her, the underling with hair rose up to Zarcon's ear and cupped his mouth. "Zongeh, why are we listening to this."
He turned to his underling and shushed him. "Be quiet. Don't you know that you're supposed to pay attention to everything the quest giver has to say. What if I missed something important because of you? We'd have to go through all of this all over again, that's what."
"That's our Lord Zongeh!" exclaimed the bald one with mild exasperation.
The other one back away from Zartan and sighed. "But this isn't a video game."
During this, the strange man finished his observations and nodded more to his self than to anyone else present. Kyubey brought his hands to the sides of his head and shouted out. "Ahhh, I missed it. Now I have to listen to it all over again!"
The man glanced at Zongell and tilted his head. "If you wish, you can read what I wrote down."
At this point, Dash had enough. "Who the hay are you!?"
He looked down at her than back to his notepad. "Subject has asked for my identity." He lowed the pad and looked at her directly. "I am a Homo sapiens, also known as a Human Being."
She groaned at his response. "I said who you are, not what."
He repeated looking at her then at his notebook. "Correction: subject asked for my personal moniker, not my physical identity. Additional note: the asking for a name indicates that the subject has one as well." He lowered his pad again. "My name is Script Wright; what is your's?"
"Rainbow Dash," she said to him with an expression she forced to be neutral.
He nodded and returned to his notes. "The subject has provided the moniker Rainbow Dash. For the sake of brevity, it shall referred to as Dash from this point on. Additional note: the use of an individual name strongly suggests sentience. Treating Dash politely is recommended."
The eyelid that was twitching through the entire encounter suddenly stopped. "That's It!" She jumped into the air and flapped her wings with all her strength. She shot up and reached the cloud she was aiming for in the blink of an eye and obliterated it upon collision. She lost control and spun in the air for a few seconds before leveling into a glide. Now that she was in her flight mentality, she began taking in all the information she could.
She could make out the four figures down on the ground trying to find her from the distance. Only the egghead was looking directly at her. The land consisted of tall golden grasses that spread out in nearly all directions. The wind blew against it and created a shimmering quality that made for a stunning view. She eventually could make out some portions of the grass below moving against the wind. She quickly realized that there was something, a lot of somethings moving straight for the group below. They kept below the tall grass, but Dash couldn't help but have a bad feeling about them.
She tilted her body towards the group and began a slow dive towards them. She wanted to flap, to get to them faster, but she still had no idea how to control the sudden acceleration that would follow. By time she reached them, the things were only a few moments away. "You guys have to get out of here! There's something coming!"
"Interesting, perhaps it's another unknown species."
Dash's eyes twitched. "Are you crazy?! I don't know what they are, but they're big and they're coming straight at you!"
"Ah Ha Ha Ha!" laughed Zilleh. "What an amateur. You never run from a fight: how else will you get any experience points?"
Script looked over at him then back at him then back at his pad. "The subject with the highly forgettable name appears to believe that games translate into reality."
Dash tried to prepare some kind of response, but movement to her side caught her eye. She could only watch in surprise as some sort of limb shot out from the tall grass and swatted her away. She didn't even have time to wonder what hit her when another limb spiked her down from her trajectory. When she opened her eyes, she was immediately pinned down by a large hand that covered her body. Numerous tiny needles tried to pierce her skin as the pressure increased. She looked up with wide eyes at a massive pair canines coming down at her. "Zongeh Smash!"
She watched what looked like a cleaver embed itself into the face of whatever was holding her down with a solid thunk. The creature looked up and unleashed a screeching sound that was mixed with what sounded like a gale blowing through dense foliage. It tightened his fingers around Dash's body and threw her straight at Nene. As she was being tossed, time slowed and she finally got a look at the creatures attacking them, and they reminded her a lot of timberwolves: if timberwolves were baboons.
Their bodies were made from wooden vines instead of sticks and brownish green leaves completely covered anywhere there would be hair on a normal baboon. All the exposed vines had thorns all over them including the wooden spikes that made up their canines. Alongside the green glowing eyes were there ones who's eyes glowed red or dark purple; only one had purple eyes.
Hardly an instant passed in the time she made her observations. This left her plenty of time to think to spread her wings and flap so that she'd avoid before crashing into Zongess, who had had his arms up defensively in order to block the collision that would't be. A quick look around revealed that they were nearly surrounded by five of the baboons. "What are these things?!" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Bramble Baboons; Plant Beasts: Capture Level 7. This detritivorous species is known as the top scavenger of this area, but they will hunt if they need to. It appears that is what they are doing now. ... We should run."
For the Bramble Baboons, what started as investigating what looked like some creature crashing into the ground turned into a hunt for four human's and the crashed creature. One of them managed to grab the winged prey and deal some damage and would have dealt a finishing blow if it didn't get distracted by the strong smelling one. It was how the flying one recovered from being crushed and thrown that gave them all pause. From what all of them could see, it was unharmed from what would have killed any of their normal prey. This could only mean that it was strong.
The humans were weak. Three of them managed to slip through their ring, but the forth will fall. They only had to get the other one out of the way. The human started running while the winged one prepared to take to the air while keeping it's eyes on them. Their leader quickly reached out and made sure to barely miss grabbing it's prismatic tail. As planned, this scared it further into the air. With a screech, he gave his signal.
After narrowly avoiding being grabbed by the purple eyed baboon and leaving it screeching, Dash looked down at the situation from her safe elevation. The three stooges already looked like they reached a safe distance away, but Script was still in the thick of it. With a sigh, she conceded that she'd have to carry him away. She angled towards him but paused when the grass near him shifted. This moment of hesitation proved to be a massive mistake when a thorny fist from a previously unnoticed baboon shot out of the grass and slammed into the fleeing researcher.
Time once again slowed for Dash's mind as she tried to angle her descent straight for him. By time she got her sights set on him, another baboon backhanded him away. She could only watch dumbstruck as he tumbled away like a rag-doll. "RESTITUTION!"
He eventually stopped rolling, or more accurately; moving. "PUNISHMENT!"
The baboons slowly approached their prey with a sense of satisfaction despite the meager meal. "VENGEANCE!"
All of the Bramble Baboons froze when a wave of oppression washed over them. Despite being frozen, despite being terrified, the red and purple eyed ones managed to look up at the source. All they saw was eclipsed in a thin red fog that colored everything they saw with one exception: the blue and rainbow figure hovering over them with closed eyes and a passive expression.
The mist collected quickly and took on a quadrupedal shape with two different halves. The back half had dark golden fur with large paws and a long tail with a small tuft at the end. The front half was far more imposing with a long sharp beak shaped head and a deep red coat that looked like something between feathers and fur. It's sharply shaped eyes slowly opened along with it's mouth, which was filled with countless sharp teeth. "DEATH!"
Dash's eyes snapped open and she dove down at the nearest baboon. She flew right past it with wings outstretched then hovered just over the ground. When she gently landed, the baboon fell into two pieces. The others then ran away from her with a symphony of screeches. She simply climbed into the air and dove towards another with hooves outstretched. The thorns on it's head were crushed under her firm hooves an instant before it's head became pulp upon the ground.
She shot to the side and with her wings mowing down the tall grass as she passed. One had the misfortune to be in her path and was split in two just like the first one. The next unfortunate baboon manage to avoid being mowed down, which drew her direct attention. She flew past it until it was reduced to a pile of wooden chunks. She wasted no time finding another which she gripped in her hooves and took high into the air. The thorns littering covering its body failed to irritate her, especially after it's shoulder was torn apart from being unable to withstand the g-forces.
After dropping the severed arm, she looked down and finally zeroed on the purple-eyed leader. In the blink of an eye, she landed right in-front of it. The baboon watched fearfully as her rainbow hair covered her face. His arms and legs buckled when gale winds created by her descent forced him down. When he was finally able to look back up, the much smaller creature was unchanged. Enough time to escape had passed, but the baboon did not; not because he was too scared to move, but because he knew there was no point. If he was going to die, he'd do it facing his slayer.
Rainbow dash rose up and face her entire body towards her final foe while giving full view of the cold anger in her empty white eyes. "Feather..." she extended her wings back fully then flapped, which released a wave of sharpened wind, "Fillet!" The countless blades of wind tore the baboon's upper body to shreds.
With the last of the baboons taken care of, Dash relaxed and fell to the ground in a heap of exhaustion. Though she wanted nothing more than to lay down and rest or to freak out over what she just did, Dash turned towards where she last saw Script's body. She found him laying face up with a calm expression despite the blood dripping from his mouth. She didn't even try to blink back the tears she shed for this guy that she didn't know anything about. "Berries."
She barely managed to understand him and responded in kind. "Huh?"
He coughed then took a deep breath. "The purple berries have curative pro (cough) properties."
Rainbow's half-lidded eyes snapped open and she looked around frantically. She managed to control her flight around the area in search for a bush or something that would have berries growing on it until she realized that she had no idea what kind of berries he was talking about.
She was about to fly back to him, but her gaze was drawn towards the remains of one of the Bramble Baboons that she had somehow sliced in half. Even thought it leaked sap instead of blood, she couldn't help but blanch at the lifeless eyes of the slain beast. She would have ignored it completely if it weren't for her spotting an unusual green lump on it's lower half. She went to check it out against her better judgement and found that instead of the normal big behind that baboon's were known for, the baboon had a large green unripe raspberry on its posterior.
She normally would have wanted to question the strangeness of how there were large berries on their bottoms, but Dash's little mission came first. Now knowing what to look for, she subsequently check the bodies of each baboon: red, green, green, red. Only when she reached the final one she killed did she find the purple berries. She avoided thinking about how she was pulling out a creature's behind then immediately took the large berry nearly as large as herself towards where Script lay.
Upon reaching him, Dash found that the blood dripping from his mouth had formed a small puddle. "Hold on, I've got the berries!"
She tore one of the drupelets off the large blackberry as carefully as she could, but still tore the fruit's skin slightly. The juice tasted similar to blackberries with something else she couldn't help but crave. She suppressed the cravings and dropped it into Script's hand.
With some of Dash's aid, he brought the baseball sized drupelet to his mouth and took a bite. He managed to swallow after a little while, then he looked up at Dash with a smile. "Delicious..." (cough) "you should try one.
"What are you talking about?!" she yelled frantically. "You need all you can get!" He watched her put another piece in his hands, then pushed it into her mouth the moment she tried to let go.
She bit down in shock which gave her the full force of the taste. It indeed tasted like blackberries, but there was a syrupy thickness that didn't come just from excessive sugar: it was from a thick concentration of nutrients. Dash could practically feel a flood of vital vitamins and minerals; which amplified her desire for the fruit far more than mere sweetness could.
The berries were still sweet; up to ten times sweeter than normal blackberries. She couldn't even think about stopping before eating the next drupelet all for herself. She shook her head after swallowing, which was just enough to regain her self-control. She then grabbed the next one and offered it to Script, which he responded to by shaking his head. "One is enough."
She looked at him with a confused panicky expression. "What are you talking about?!"
He raised a palm to pause her query, except he was a fair bit off from where she really was. "I seem (cough) to have some cerebral hemorrhaging in my vision centers."
"Egghead talk ... that means the berries' are working, right?!" She knew she was fooling herself. Thanks to the Daring Do books, she was well read enough to know what 'cerebral' and 'hemorrhaging' meant, and both together made for a really, really bad combination. "Stop acting tough, you need another!"
"No, you eat it. (cough) It will not help me recover." He entered a violent coughing fit that spilled some bubbles of blood from his mouth. He forced a breath in and smiled. "My twin, Author (cough) if you see him, tell him that I passed after eating something tasty. Thank you ... Dash."
Dash could only blink in the time his body went lime and his eyes became dead as he was. She spent the next few moments replaying all the mistakes she made, but two stood out above all the others: she could have carried him away at the start and she could have not hesitated. Had she done that, he would have been fine. With unbridled rage towards herself, the climbed in to the air at breakneck speeds. Far sooner than normal, she reached the barriers that always sprang up to prevent her from achieving her signature move.
The barriers tore like paper; filling the sky with a stunning rainbow disk that would be her salute to a life lost as well as her promise to not let it happen again.