Austraeoh

by Imploding Colon


Swept

“Gaaah!” Rainbow Dash grunted as she took the full brunt of the diving creature in her forelimbs. She was flung back hard onto the wooden platforms of Windthrow with a thrashing, stabbing monster at the end of her hooves. “Noo good, blood sucking, bird brained, near-sighted, tarantula huffing, sonuva—“

“Roll!” Gold Petals' voice shouted.

Rainbow Dash gave her a crooked glance from beyond the monster's flailing limbs. “The heck?!”

Gold Petals pointed, her eyes wide. “Roll! Roll!”

Rainbow Dash looked to her left. A pile of sharp wooden splinters remained of the bucket. “Oh. Awesome! Raaaaugh!” She flung her body to the left. She and the creature barreled across the floor until she pressed its weight hard onto the sharp shards of debris.

The creature let loose a hideous shriek. In its pain, it disentangled itself from Rainbow Dash and thrashed across the alleyway of Windthrow, bleeding.

Gold Petals rushed over to Rainbow Dash's side. “Are you okay?!”

“Better than okay,” Rainbow Dash snarled and batted her away as she stood up. “Pissed!”

The monster flapped its wings and jumped upright. All of the citizens of Windthrow were alerted by that point. Stallions and mares and foals gasped in fright at the bleeding thing in the misty daylight. It spun about, hissing at every living thing collectively.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash snarled and charged the invader. “Right here, gorgeous! If you wanna dance, you'd better know how to shimmy—”

The creature's left wing uppercutted Rainbow Dash.

“Ooof!” Rainbow Dash flew through Gold Petals cart, collapsing in a pile of debris.

“Nnngh!” Gold Petals gripped a wooden club in her teeth and slammed the weight of it across the creature's hide.

The monster reeled, rolled through piles of dust, and flapped spasmatically in the middle of the street. By that time, four stallions in leather armor had galloped up. Flanking them was none other than Sladesteed. With bright eyes, he pointed and shouted at his guards. “Quick! Kill it! Don't give it a chance to fly away!”

“Wait!”

Several ponies glanced over.

Hushtail stood, trembling in the midst of two servants. He weakly trotted forward and stammered, “Capture it alive! Don't kill it!”

“Father, are you crazy?!” Sladesteed shouted above the murmur of the crowd. His fellow ponies stirred nervously by his side. “This thing is the spawn of Tartarus!” He turned towards his cohorts once more. “Slay it immediately—!”

“If we don't go about this reasonably,” Hushtail growled “We won't ever put a stop to this mayhem!”

“Father, there's never going to be a stop to it no matter what we do!”

“Why must you constantly challenged my wisdom—?!”

“Aaaaugh!” Rainbow Dash burst loudly out of the remains of the cart. “For the love of cider, shut up! You two are worse than a flying squadron of bat monkey spiders anyday!” She yanked a wheel off the wagon, spun her body, and flung the thing like a disc at the monster. “Haaaugh—Your mother!”

The twirling wheel flew past the creature, for it had dodged at the last second. It flew through the air and sliced its way straight over Rainbow Dash's billowing mane.

The pegasus gasped and spun around. Her eyes widened as she saw the beast's trajectory.

It flew over the crowd, spiraled past Sladesteed and his comrades, and jabbed its legs down just in time to reach into the dense forest of ponies... and sweep a shrieking foal up off his hooves.

“Unnngh—Aaaah! Mommy!” the little colt wailed as he was swept into the dense mists beyond the village's wailing.

A mare reached out for him, sobbing hysterically. Before she could plunge off into the mountainside, none other than Red Turnip held her down.

“Somepony! Anypony!” Red Turnip shouted, his face flung between anger and sheer horror. “Help! It's snatched my bro! That stupid demon filth's got my little brother!”

Hushtail's face went pale. A shudder of despair swam through the crowd. Once it reached, Gold Petals, she was nearly in tears. With a quivering lip, she looked over and murmured, “Rainbow...?”

The pegasus was already gone, her blue wings slicing a path directly after the leathery foalnapper.