//------------------------------//
// Trust and Dash Distress 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

As Rainbow Dash's body plunged in the distance, roped by vines...

...Flynn was starting to hyperventilate from where he piloted the doomed wagon.

"I c-can't... c-can't keep her even!"  The unicorn yelped, his mechanical eye whurring as he telekinetically fought with the aircraft.

"Dude, calm down!" Logan barked.  "Are we falling?!"

"We haven't stopped falling, fatass!"

"Don't you yell at me!"

"We've got no god to yell at!  So you'll have to do!"  Flynn nervously glanced at the curved horizon bowing past his vision.  The death stalks were coming so close that he could almost hear their chitinous orifices snapping.  "Wildcard!  For buck's sake!  You gotta steady us!"

The Desperado in question was a sweating mess of molting feathers at this point.

"He's doing his best!" Kepler shouted.  "Maybe if I lent a wing—?!"

"With those leathery scraps?!"  Logan hissed, struggling to stay upright as the wagon spun and spun.  "Sorry, bro, but you'd snap in half!"

"Then does anypony have a betterr plan?"

Seraphimus leaned forward, facing Logan.  "Break my bindings!"

Logan blinked.

Flynn barked over his shoulder, "Are you friggin' crazy, lady?!"

Seraphimus huffed, frowning.  "Just my wings!  Never mind my talons!"

"Not on your life!" Flynn wheezed.  "We'd be better off tossing you to the vines for distraction—"

"Baldy, shut up!"  Logan squinted at Seraphimus.  "Can you balance this bitch out?"

"Dude!"  Flynn fussed and struggled with the craft, horn strobing.  "You'd have to uncuff her from the craft too!  Don't do it!"

Seraphimus snorted.  "After all the absurd scrapes you fools have been through, do you really wish to perish from pride?"

Logan took a deep breath.  He looked towards the back of the wagon.  "Double-yoo?"

Wildcard looked back.  Panting, the Desperado clenched his beak... ... ...and nodded.

"Big Show..." Flynn droned.

The large stallion in the center inhaled thoughtfully.  Then—with a grip of his axe—

Cl-Clakkkk!

The manacles binding Seraphimus' wings flew into the spiraling air.

Clank!

Followed by the hoofcuffs anchoring her to the wagon.

"There—!" Logan shouted.  "Now just—"

Seraphimus immediately took off, going airborne.

Logan's eyes twitched.

"Dammit to Hell—!" Flynn cursed.

Th-Thwppp!  Seraphimus stretched her wings out, took a breath, and threw herself downward in a silver streak.  Thwooooooosh!  She made a perfect landing on the wagon's port side.  Cl-Clankkk!  Her bound claws stuck into the metal rim with an iron grip.  Tail-lashing, she threw a look over her shoulder.  "Jordan!  Time is of the essence!"

Wildcard nodded.  With much relief, he abandoned the rear of the craft and scurried up to starboard side.

Flynn shook.  "This is the stupidest idea in the history of stupid ideas—"

"We have farr morre prressing concerrns at the moment, brrotherr!"  Wyvern interjected.  He looked at the two griffins.  "Forr Goddess' sake, frriends, flap those wings!"

The two former Talon members shared one mutual look.  Then—with precise mental timing—they stretched their wings out and flapped their feathers strongly.  It took several cases of minute adjustment, but they were ultimately able to stop the wagon's maddening plunge.

Flynn breathed easier and easier, his mechanical eye adjusting on the dark curve ahead as it finally stayed in place.

"Baldy..."  Logan growled.  "Get us moving or I'm gonna strangle your neck."

"I-I think I have a path!" Flynn stammered.  Several looping and curved limestone formations came into place.  He gulped.  "But not for long!"

"Regain momentum!" Seraphimus shouted.  Her charcoal brown eyes focused on the obstacles ahead.  "Pick up speed!  We will adjust course when necessary!"

Wildcard breathed and breathed.  As the wagon coasted over the waving stalks, he cast a brief, forlorn look to where he last saw Rainbow...





...who was now currently being dragged earthward by a tether of dead stalks.

Her eyes rolled from the bloodrush of the maddening plunge.  When she finally collected herself, she threw her gaze sideways—seeing the living summit of a ravenous forest sailing into her peripheral.

"Awwwwwwwwww Luna Poop."

It was the least graceful thing to say upon a chaotic death—Rainbow thought.  Soon, he wasn't thinking about much else... for the rest of the stalks greeted her plunge with a bevy of scarlet tongues lashing skyward... and wrapping around her fuzzy limbs.

Thw-Thw-Thw-Thw-Thwppp!

"Grnnnngh!"  Rainbow Dash hissed, straining and sweating.  She was being tugged apart in every direction by a dense mess of tentacles.  The most horrifying thought was that the pressure hadn't yet been applied, and any second she would be ripped to shreds.

To say the least, her friends were hysterical.

"Rainbow!"

"No!"

"Dashie!"

"Rainbow, darling, you must fight it!"

"Fly, Rainbow, fly!"

"Dun let these varmints take you, sugarcube!"

"Please, Rainbow!  You have to get out of their grip!"

Rainbow's eyes narrowed to the sight of ghostly colors swimming a frightened orbit around her.  She fought and struggled—but the tendrils only tugged harder.  "Grkkkkk... mrmmffff..."  Tears formed along her muzzle.  In their saline reflection, a pair of red-on-yellow eyes flickered... accompanied by cackling grin.

"You're too small, Sparky.  Maybe they'll toss you back in?"

"Ohhhhhhhh go buck yourself already," Rainbow hissed.

She regretted saying that instantly, for Fluttershy's pained voice responded:  "R-Rainbow...?"

Rainbow gulped, struggling for a far less caustic pair of "final words" to impart.  At long last, she wheezed:  "Grilled... cheese...?"

Then, from the heavens—

"Let.  Her.  Go!!!"

"Awwwwwwwwwwww buck..."  Applejack slurred.

Rainbow squinted one eye open.

A winged shadow blotted out the sky, sailing downwards like a gray missile.  "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"  Ariel sailed at the stalks holding Rainbow with a murderous drop kick.

"Yes!"  Rarity cheered.  "Of course!  A smashing rescue!"

Swoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh!  Ariel flew straight into the tentacles...

...and bounced right off.  THUMP!

"... ... ..."  Rarity blinked.  "...bollocks."

"Grghhgghghghhhhgghhh!"  Ariel wobbled in mid-air, eyes rattling.

Thw-Thw-Thwppp!  An entertwining loop of vines snaked around each other and flanked the Heraldite.

Muscles straining, Rainbow wheezed loudly:  "Girl—!"

Ariel saw it.  She dodged the whipping stalks, spun around, and flew underneath Rainbow.  Hovering in place, she angrily kicked and bucked and punched the necks of the tentacles savagely.  "Hah!  Yah!  Graah!  Mraah!  Hiyaa!"

Thud-Thud-Thud-Thud-Thud-Thud!

The tendrils wobbled—but maintained their grip of Rainbow Dash.

"Well..."  Pinkie smiled at the others.  "...at least she's persistent!  You gotta give her that!"

Twilight glared daggers at the mare.  "Could you not?"

"Ariel... girl..."  Rainbow sputtered, feeling her limbs pulling at their sockets.  "...just... s-save yourse—"

"Httt!"  Ariel flew away.

"Oh no..."  Fluttershy whimpered.

"Shhhh!"  Applejack waved a hoof, silencing the others as their combined gaze fell on the mare.  "Wait for it!"

Almost as swiftly as shew ascended, Ariel came barreling back—ten times as fast.  "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!  She sailed violently past the converging tentacles, arced about, then flew past again.  She did this repeatedly, and cyclonically, becoming a circular blur that spun-spun-spun-spun around the vines grasping Rainbow Dash.

The air picked up, howling at one point or another.  Caught up in the pegasus' tornado, the tentacles ensnaring Rainbow Dash spun as well.  Soon they wrapped around themselves halfway down the base... forming a dense focal point that buckled and bled from the weight.

And it was precisely at such a vulnerable target that Ariel new flung her angry weight.

"HAAAAAAAUGH!"

SNAPPPPPP!  In a wet splash of scarlet, the combined tentacles exploded... falling to the limestone earth below in wet, shriveled strands.  The "tongues" wrapped around Rainbow's limbs went slack, and soon the petite pegasus was falling too.

But her plunge landed her in Ariel's arms.

"Got ya!"  Swooooooooosh!  Ariel carried the two of them away from the floral massacre.  Soon they were coasting over the chaotic landscape.

"Wooohooo!"  Pinkie Pie cheered.

"She did it!"

"Yeeeeeeha!"

"Yaaaaaay..." Fluttershy added.

Coaxed to consciousness by her friends' warm cheers, Rainbow breathed normally again.  She looked up at the pegasus carrying her.  "Heh... who's the damsel now, huh?"

Ariel managed a heroic wink.  "I won't say anything if you won't."

Rainbow smiled.

"Hmmmff..."  A fang glinted, reflected off Ariel's blue eyes.  "Fake neighs.  Gotta love it."

Rainbow instantly frowned.  "Don't you start."

"Huh?"  Ariel remarked.

The air thundered with whipping tentacles.

Both mares looked behind.

Thw-Thw-Thwiiiish!  A mass of stalks sailed straight towards them in a forested wave.

"Shit nuggets!" Ariel's voice cracked.  She flapped her wings.  "Skyward—!"

"NO!" Rainbow shouted.  "We won't outfly them in time!"

"Guhhhhhhhhh—!"  Ariel sweated as the tentacles caught up with their peripheral vision.  "What, then—?"

"The rocks!"  Rainbow pointed at the limestone formations dead ahead.  "We'll lose 'em in that!"

"Ah jeez...!"  Ariel whimpered as she flew straight for the curved, looping stone.  A mess of stalks thrashed at their whipping tails.  "Ah jeez ah jeez ah jeez!!!"