Princess Luna's long-distance spell pushed Rainbow Dash faster than her mind and body could compensate for. Not only was she catching up on the monster, but in a matter of seconds she would be overtaking it. She clenched her teeth and straightened her body as the glowing pendant throttled her towards the leathery target's rear. She feared that she might split the air with an unnatural thunder, or else illuminate the clouds around them with her pendant's glow. Whatever the case, the monster made no sign of detecting Rainbow's presence.
Rainbow Dash's face was moist with sweat. Her goggles pressed hard into her face. Above, the stars of night began to blur as she reached peak velocity. She could already feel the energy in her pendant fading, and she realized that it was either now or never.
She came up to just above the monster. She held her breath and glided down. She stretched her forelimbs eagerly, spotting the poor, dangling body of the kidnapped colt just within reach. Then she saw nothing but teeth.
Rainbow gasped, for the monster had spun completely around and launched itself at her. The two collided hard in mid-air. The creature angled its wings and caught a gust of air. It used the heavy currents to uppercut Rainbow with its body. Rainbow merely absorbed the blow and grabbed ahold of the monster's body with four limbs. Her weight tugged awkwardly at the thing, and two souls plummeted towards the mountains.
A horizontal row of teeth shimmered in the moonlight as it lunged and snapped towards Rainbow's face. Rainbow dodged each thrust, all the while dishing out heavy hoof-strikes to the creature's flat excuse for a forehead. The monster cried and jerked left and right, attempting to fling Rainbow off. Its weight was already offset by the colt's body dangling below.
After nearly losing her grip, a flicker of righteous anger drew across Rainbow's eyes. She jabbed her neck forward and literally bit into the right wing of the creature. She didn't draw blood, but she held the monster's wing down. From the awkward lunge of her weight, the two fliers twirled earthward like a spinning comet.
Then, suddenly, the free-fall tripled in momentum. Rainbow Dash became aware of a shrieking body being flung into the dark haze of the world below. The colt had just awoken from his stupor, and just in time to be dropped like a tiny bag of bricks into the earth below.
Rainbow gasped and dove towards the falling foal. She lurched in midair, for the creature's arachnid legs were grabbing her from behind. She hissed, twisted, and bucked her rear legs hard into the creature's face. The monster flew off of her, and Rainbow plummeted.
The colt disappeared. All was fog and screaming. Seething through her teeth, Rainbow Dash ripped her goggles off and flung it into the purple atmosphere. With tearing eyes, she scoured the yawning forests below. There was a blacker-than-black dot that was becoming smaller below her. It was the source of the screams.
Rainbow bulleted towards it. She clung her wings to her side. Her body stretched out as she became a veritable torpedo, slicing her way through the air to catch up with the collapsing colt. On either side of her, mountains rose. The stars disappeared. Trees shot up and branches and branches swallowed her and—
“Hnnnngh-Gotcha!” Rainbow Dash flung her forelimbs out into the darkness.
A tiny body clutched to her, whimpering, for the ground was less than a second away—
“Haaaugh!” Rainbow Dash twirled her wings out. They nearly tore at the sockets, but they shredded into the wind at just the right angle to turn Rainbow Dash upside down.
She spiraled, flung her shoulders to the earth, and glided over a river of dead leaves and pine needles while clutching the gasping foal safely to her chest. Half a breath later, she hit a mound of earth and the two of them went airborne. After another breathless lunge, they slammed into the earth again—once more with Rainbow Dash absorbing the blow—and skimmed to a grinding stop against a series of dead trunks.
Rainbow Dash hung numbly under a chorus of trembling breaths. The foal clung to her tightly, murmuring unintelligible things. Rainbow's twitching eyes remained locked on the northern horizon. She saw the lone dot of the creature flying on alone, undaunted, without its prey. She saw it coast over a plume of rising smoke just beyond the next star-lit hill. And then she saw nothing.
For she had finally passed out.