Tooth and Nail
"..about this."
Gulping, Rainbow Dash backtrotted away from the half-dozen pack of glowing timberwolves. Menacing as the creatures were, the loud roar coming from the ring of onlooking metal mares drew them further into the center. They reared their heads and snarled, their emerald eyeslits glaring around the lengths of the arena.
With a resounding hiss, the center platform of enclosures that brought them up to the surface slowly lowered. The arena was now an even playing field for bloodspilling.
"Alright... alright..."
Rainbow Dash darted her helmeted head left and right, surveying her immediate environment. She tossed several glances over the wooden craniums of the centrally located monstrosities. Across the way, Imre stood beside her fellow victims: veritable morsels of meat waiting to be plucked.
With a rattling shuffle, Rainbow found herself standing once more amid her five fellow, trembling cohorts. "Okay, everypony," she spoke loosely. "Just stay still and be cool. No sudden movements, and we just might be able to figure a way out of this." She bit her lip beneath her helmet, staring once more at Imre's distant figure. "Step one: get Imre. Step two: avoid being mangled to death by hungry wooden death puppies." She gulped, and her brow furrowed. "Step three: kick Roarke's rusted flank from here to Neighvana."
Beside her, the one half-blade was starting to chant louder and louder. "Must pr-prove myself... must prove myself..." She gulped. "Must honor myself before the g-goddess..."
Rainbow hissed aside at her. "Look, will ya knock it off? We gotta be quiet or else—"
"My m-mentor will have me back!" the pony gasped, her eyes wide and her face brimming with sweat. Her hooves grinded against the rocky floor. "I c-can still prove myself!"
"No bright ideas!" Rainbow grunted, reaching out for her. "The only reason we're both here is because we're not wanted—"
"Blood for Searo..." The half-blade charged frantically ahead, screaming. "Blood for Searo!"
"No!" Rainbow Dash flung herself forward, but it was too late. The mare was yards ahead. "You idiot! Don't—"
"Nnnngh!" The mare was barely within twenty feet of the monsters when the timberwolves were already pouncing on her. The center of the arena was awash in screams and entrails.
Rainbow winced, squinting away from the nightmarish scene.
All six timber wolves gathered in a tight circle, their teeth digging into the succulent meat. It didn't last for very long. The first of many beasts raised its dripping muzzle from the feast. Its eyes narrowed on Rainbow's group as a prolonged growl escaped its mouth.
"Ah jeez," Rainbow whispered. "With a capital 'J'..."
Howling, the monster scraped at the ground and charged her. Two of its siblings mindlessly joined its full-speed sprint. Soon, the weight of three metaphysical blood beasts were bearing down on the pegasus.
Rainbow glanced at her shrieking group of companions. With a jolt of energy, she began running in the opposite direction, albeit slightly angled towards the creatures. As a result, they took immediate notice of her and her alone, and all three of them altered their course. She now found her vision being clouded by all three shadows. Holding her breath, she dove straight forward, sliding across the ground.
The timberwolves landed near the wall of the arena. Swiveling around, they howled and barked in fury.
Rainbow Dash jumped back to her hooves—but stumbled in the process. "Augh!" She winced, feeling a sharp pain rocketing through her left side. "Nnngh... st-still... sore..."
Her helmet echoed with the noise of her pursuers on the rebound. With no time to ache, she backflip and blindly planted her hooves down.
Luckily, her instincts prevailed; she landed on the neck of a charging timberwolf. Without hesitation, she jumped again, trying to distance herself even more from the group she had arrived with. For her noble efforts, she was awarded with a hard paw smacked across her amor. Thankfully, she took the blow on her right side, and rolled harmlessly towards the side.
"Unngh!" With a clatter, Rainbow came to an awkward stop. She stood up, and now her helmet was reflecting six sets of glowing eyes charging at her instead of just three. "Alright, you mangy mudsticks!" she snarled, then nipped at the levers inside her helmet. "You wanna play rough?! Well eat my dust—" She tugged on a knob, and her thrusters shot her in reverse. "Gaaaah!"
The image of the charging timberwolves shrunk as she scooted backwards at the speed of sound. Soon, she was slamming against the edge of the arena, much to the insane laughter of the attending metal mares.
"Frig!" Rainbow grunted. Once her lungs had refilled, she wheezed and tongued the many levers jutting into her muzzle. "Mmmmf—Which of you stupid corncobs is the one that makes me kick AAAAAAH!" She shrieked as, with one tug, she found herself rocketing forward like a missile.
The timberwolves' eyes flared for a brief second. They parted ways, making room for her to fly through the hideous pack.
"Guhhhh!" Rainbow squealed. The opposite end of the arena rapidly approached. Already she could see Imre and the other samples of wolf fodder leaping to the side. "Come on—ya crud bucket!" she shouted and started pulling on the various knobs at random. "Mmmmf—Whoah!"
Soon, Rainbow Dash was zig-zagging through the air like a winged serpent. The Searonese laughed uproariously at her plight. All the while, the six timberwolves bit and nipped at the air in a desperate attempt to cleave her in two. One actually succeeded to headbutt her armor in mid-flight. With a gasp, Rainbow Dash soared down towards the earth. Spinning until she faced the ceiling, she pulled at her controls and escaped a full-on impact with the ground by mere centimeters.
With twitching eyes, she looked up and saw herself flying directly into the pack of monsters. They leapt at her all at once. Breathlessly, she tugged on the middle-most lever, accelerating her flight. With spiraling finesse, she pulled up and burst through the mess of reaching limbs, forcing the timberwolves to collide into one another with a scattering spray of branches and twigs.
Mixed cheers and hollers emanated from the crowd. Rainbow's vaporous trail burned its away around the arena at spectator level.
Watching from beside Pestiferous' seat, Roarke gazed with slowly rotating lenses. There was a glistening sheen to her brown coat.
"What's the matter, sister?" Spoke a booming voice from beside her.
Roarke's ears drooped from beneath her helmet. She barely flinched as Terra leaned in with her massive grin.
"You seem rather tense! You're well known for your wisdom, not your anxiety!"
"I am not anxious," Roarke droned.
"Is that so?" Terra's meaty face grinned. She glanced aside.
Roarke followed her gaze, noticing how tightly her hooves were gripping the balcony's edge. She rested her forelimbs by her side and muttered, "What is the meaning of this, Terra? We've hunted and fought side by side for so long. What is this all supposed to prove?"
"Why, whatever do you mean by that?"
"You know exactly what I mean," Roarke said, controlling her involuntary twitches as her sight fell on Imre down below. "If this is something between you and me and the Top Spear—"
"When it comes to Top Spear, everything about us is concerned," Terra spat, an iron frown burning to the surface of her face. "I've known this day would come for years now. Did you?"
"I figured we'd be dead by then," Roarke said.
"Not everypony is as lucky as Pestiferous," Terra said. "Nor as short-sighted as you."
"You call me short-sighted?" Roarke droned, then gestured into the noisy arena. "I'm not the one who put lightning incarnate into a deathmatch just to ruin our Lady's expectations."
Terra blinked in confusion. "Huh?"
"Just watch, genius."
Terra swiveled to gaze upon the scene.
By now, Rainbow Dash was starting to fly evenly. She panted into the controls that she was learning, but nevertheless formed a smile. "Ahhhh yeah! Just took a little bit of fiddling around, is all! A mare could get used to—"
A leaping timberwolf smacked her, throwing her off balance. With a shriek, Rainbow Dash spiraled as her thrusters flung her once more towards the ground. With a grunt, she cut her engines before she could turn into paste. After several clumsy somersaults, she landed upside down against a wall.
"Mmmmf... Yeah, buck this." With a gasp, she kipped up to her hooves, took a galloping start, and flew over the frustrated timberwolves. Both the audience and the trembling victims watched as she made a burning beeline for Imre, snatching up the unsuspecting unicorn with a yelp.
"Wh-what do you think you're doing?!" Imre shouted.
"Blowing this bridle stand!" Rainbow Dash howled into the thunder of her rocket engines. She soared towards the back of the arena, her helmeted gaze locked on a stone hallway in the distance. "I'll drop you off and come back for as many as these poor saps as I can find—"
"No, don't!" Imre exclaimed, thrashing in her grasp.
"Luck, just 'cuz you and your captors are cool with slaughtering innocents doesn't mean I can stand for—"
"No, I mean you can't! The mana-field—"
"Mana-what?" Rainbow Dash was answered by a huge splash of blue energy. Sure enough, as soon as she flew beyond the edge of the ring, a nebulous field of light splashed to life. Flexing like an elastic band, the field flung her and Imre off in separate directions. "Unngh!" Rainbow Dash landed on her side and positively yelped from the pain shooting through her tender left wing. "Darn it! I'd give my left front hoof to be fighting normal, stupid minotaurs again..."
There was a loud shout from behind. Rainbow Dash turned around just in time to see Imre falling on her flank... and curling into a shivering ball as two timberwolves pounced on her at once.
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Yay action!
Oh god oh man,
Imre
Oh god oh man oh god oh man
Make toothpicks of them Dashie! Leave no wolf standing.
oh dear.
Good luck with that, Imre. Also, how does one get rid of timberwolves for good? I mean, seriously. They're invincible or something.
There is no better description for the awesomeness that is Rainbow Dash.
2432386
She can't die! We know exactly the wrong amount of stuff about her!
In my opinion, a character can only die when we know enough about them to know them well, or when we don't know them at all!
Imre is exactly in the middle.
This is Australia...
With any luck, the next chapter will be the best one since Roarke and Dash
flirtedfought.. . . That, or IC is going to switch us back to Pilate.
CLIFFHANGER!!!
ARRRGH!!! >:(
Imre better not be dead in future chapters
.
And you call yourself a Berzerker. Shameful.
Spearhead - Bolt Thrower
weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/shit-just-got-real.jpg
2432764 Now ICs gonna kill Imre just to screw you over for this comment. Good job.
I really hope some of those stallions actually make themselves useful.
I mean, as something other than a distracting meal for the timberwolves...
Okay, so I guess they're not all Roarke's. Well, it was an idea.
Roarke isn't as good at keeping secrets as she thought, it would seem...
...but that doesn't mean they know quite everything, either.
2433965
Considering that they were probably thrown down here because they'd been literally worked to death, I'm afraid I wouldn't bank on it.
well shit rainbow dash, what will you do now?
oh shit imre is gonna die.
2433755
But... But... The Loose ends!
This is Australia...
2434410
Yeah, there have never been any loose ends in this series...
*wince* That poor half-blade...
2428096
When you're right, you're right.
Timberwolves don't even have blood. Joke's on you, half-blade. By the way, always remember: those things are fragile little beasts. Just a little push and they come all apart
Cupid disapproves this message.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse.
Glad I caught up. The recent chapters have been fantastic
!
2434502
I'm not saying that there have never been any loose ends. What I'm saying is that if Imre dies now, it would be like opening the door to your room, and finding that it was suddenly a doorway to the future, and then you got stuck there. Possibly acceptable, but really jarring and unexpected.
This is Australia...
Watch Crimson and the crystal ponies come charging in right about now.
2432527
I hear that they don't much care for fire.
Let's dash up the rainbow report! (Yeah that's right, we're sticking with this)
Another generally amazing fight sequence by IC, simply well done showing off RD's badflankery. But yeah, I don't think there is a way to win here, is there? I mean, there's the suggestion that you can permanently kill timberwolves with fire, but where might they get a hold of that? I'm gonna say it's either the thrusters from the rockets, or some extreme plot twist we didn't see coming. (Notice the lack of stories besides RD's the past few chapters...
) A bit of interesting dialogue between Roarke and Terra up in the viewer's stand, it seems that this event has been anticipated by Terra (and probably Pestifirous) for years now. Don't you just love it when your mortal enemies spend entire years actually plotting your downfall?
True loyalty never dies.
You really shoulda seen that one coming, Dash.
They give you a jetpack suit, and then you try and fly away? I suppose Pegasus instinct just kicks in. 
In other news, Imre is about to be fed to a bunch of
And now I'm curious. How exactly would that work? If you were to get eaten by a bunch of sticks, where on earth would you go? Would you get "digested" and converted into green demon branch energy? Or do the Timber Wolves just kill for fun? Aaand now I'm theorizing about a fictional creature's digestive abilities. Onward - before I start waxing philosophical on Diamond Dog culture or something.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
I really liked this chapter. The banter between Roarke and Terra was enjoyable as was the fight scene. And even Imploding can't kill off Imre that soon and unceremoniously...right? These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
2453220 Now I have three opinions to consider! Nice.
>"..about this."
You nœ ðat an ellipsis has three dots, not two… reit?
>she backflip and blindly planted her hooves down
Do you mean "backflipped"?
>she was awarded with a hard paw smacked across her amor
Do you mean "armor"?
3728398 ( ͡°ᕍ ᷼ ͡°)
Go dash!
Uh oh.
-Spirit
3691556
You missed one, and you'll need to find it, fæg.
You can't make a callback without me mentioning that you can use "g" too.
Geez.
4764923 FEIN, FEGIT
>You're well known for your wisdom
*well-known
>throwing her off balance
*off-balance
NO!
Imre!
Damn...
So Terra plotted with Pestiferous to set up this little game...she may regret it.
Also, we could use a quick dash about now, Rainbow.
Battery ponies. Who's got the most charge, wins.
Well, no time like the present to figure out how those rocket controls work.
Heh.
Alas, poor idiot, we barely knew thee. Except for what your entrails look like.
I have a hunch that RD ends up having to take off her necklace.
Am getting Iron Man 1 vibes here
. Most of us know how that one turned out, with a large heap of awesome
.
05/10/2017 19:48 UTC
...intense.
ouchies, that's gotta hurt
R.I.P. Cannon Fodder.