//------------------------------//
// Battle of the Wyrm 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

"I can't be the only who thinks this is a terrible idea!" Rarity stammered.  Even for a ghost mare, it was difficult to be heard over the rumbling tumult below.  Nevertheless, she followed Rainbow closely as the girls' anchor flew lower and lower circles over the edge of the entity's destruction.  "Believing—even for once—that there's a shred of respect to be had in that Seraphimus creature!"  Her voice squeaked delicately.  "Leaving her with the eloquent Kepler, no less!"

"I'm tellin' y'all, I ain't sensin' anythang to be concerned with!" Applejack exclaimed.  "At least, not at the moment!"

"Are you meaning to say that she's made a complete turnaround?" Rarity remarked.

"Well... no..."  Applejack took a deep breath.  "But, for the time bein', she's totally on board with helpin' the Herald out."

"Hmmpf!"  Rarity tilted her chin up.  "Forgive me if I find that hard to believe, given her psychotic past."

"Ain't 'bout believin', Rarity," Applejack said.  "My senses haven't let me down when they've been this on point.  Besides, we're in no situation to pick and choose acts of generosity.  No offense..."

"Point being...?"  Rarity squinted.

"Shhhhh!"  Twilight Sparkle frowned.  "Everypony, please!  Rainbow needs our help right now!"

"Actually, I just need Fluttershy's," Rainbow muttered, concentrating her narrow gaze on the fractured valley below.  "How about it, Flutters?  Am I getting warm?"

"I hate to say it, Rainbow, but you're going to have to fly lower," Fluttershy said in a trembling voice.  "The two bodies aren't in the creature's path, but it will be uncomfortably close."

"I can do 'uncomfortable.'"

"I was afraid of that."  Gulping, Fluttershy pointed.  "Follow that path... through the rising mists."

"I think I see them!" Rainbow's voice cracked.

"You must get closer," Fluttershy insisted.  "One of them—I sense—is faint."

"As in dying?"

"I don't know.  That's why you must get closer."

"On it."  Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Rainbow dove in the direction of Fluttershy's pointing limb.

Pinkie Pie trailed at the end of the ghostly train.  Her body shook as he looked in the direction of the massive wyrm.  "Better hurry up, Dashie!  I think it's getting restless!"





Kepler paced and paced around the stationary wagon.  His scorpion tail curled and uncurled.  Every now and then—as the earth shook—he flashed a worried look towards the debris clouds rising from the sundered valley below the nearest cliff.

"Would you please stop that incessant shuffling?" Seraphimus droned, staring calmly into the same abyss.

Kepler gulped.  "It cannot be helped.  My frriends arre in perril at the tentacles of a continental god-beast and the only thing I can do is polish my glasses and rroll my Rr's..."  The wyvern sighed heavily.  "A rratherr unflinching porrtrrait of my existence, I fearr..."

"Preserve your strength for a moment when you can utilize it far more efficently."

Kepler glanced at her.  "I suppose you shall next prrevail upon telling me not to give up hope..."

"We all will die at some point," Seraphimus said coldly.  "Thanks to your impulsive leader, perishing will happen far... far quicker here in this blighted realm."

"A fate you look forrwarrd to with grreat anticipation, I imagine."

"Don't attempt to be sarcastic and bitter.  It doesn't suit you, wyvern."

Kepler squinted at her from a distance.  He adjusted his spectacles and murmured:  "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"What... arre you gaining frrom this, all of a sudden?"  He tilted his hairy head aside.  "How do you, a wounded nihilist if therre everr was one, benefit frrom spontaneously assisting us?"

"Do you see my talons?"

"Yes.  They arre bound."

"I can't very well do much on my own in this hellscape," Seraphimus droned.  "And it profits no one to be useless in times of conflict."

"Only those with a cerrtifiable futurre stand to profit."

Seraphimus frowned into the ashen valley.  "Do not pretend to know what my future holds."

"Emptiness?  Oblivion?  A slow and melancholic death?"

Seraphimus was silent.

Kepler bore a bittersweet smile.  "Back on the Light Side, my brrotherrs and I know that ourr days arre numberred.  Wyverrns perrish farr fasterr than naturre allows them to prrocrreate.  Death surrrounds us in a shrroud, and therre is no escape frrom extinction.  This is why the Mountain Matrron took us underr herr wing, I suspect.  And when she did so, she taught us to make the best out of the meagerr time we have left... to purrsue peace, enlightenment, and the betterrment of all brrotherrs and sisterrs everrywherre."

"An insipid, futile philosophy."

"Oh, quite.  Which makes me wonderr how a crreaturre so insistent on having lost everrything can still find the strrength to combat impossible adverrsity."

Seraphimus took a deep breath.  "I was trained to be a defender of Verlaxion.  Even in the Goddess' tragic absence, the instinct remains."

"Orr... perrhaps... therre is something farr deeperr."  Kepler smiled.  "Something that was innately strrong and fearrless in you long beforre Verrlaxion arrrived to stake a claim."

"You're misguided and self-absorbed," Seraphimus muttered.  "This conversation is pointless.  This whole damnable situation is pointless."

"Ach... and yet herre we both arre."  Kepler waved a claw towards the shifting terrain in the distance.  "An endangerred fourr-eyed wyverrn and a widowed grriffin in chains.  Based on yourr perrspective, the two of us should have perrished about five or six similarr cataclysms ago..."

"... ... ..."  Seraphimus stood still.  Her charcoal-brown eyes followed a trace of color as it dove deep into the valley.





"I see them!"  Pinkie Pie squeaked.  She floated over Rainbow's diving figure.  "Look!  It's Flynn and Ariel!"

"Oh, how delightful!"  Rarity craned her neck to look at the two ponies nestled on the edge of a craggy chunk of earth.  "I... I think one of them is injured?"

"It's Flynn," Fluttershy said.

"Whew!"  Rainbow exhaled, descending.  "Thank Celestia!"

"Rainbow!"  Twilight Sparkle scowled.

Rainbow flinched.  "S-sorry."  She squinted.  "Flutters, how bad off is he?"

"He's just knocked out.  Unconscious."  Fluttershy exhaled.  "The poor thing..."

"Ariel ain't feelin' too good," Applejack said, eyes shut as she relied on her senses.  "Somethin' tells me she's at her wit's end."

Swooooosh!

"H-hey..."  Rainbow wheezed, touching down beside the two.  "...did somepony order Chineighs?"

"Rainbow Dash!"  Ariel let go of Flynn and rushed towards her, scooping the petite pegasus up in a deep hug.  "Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh—!"  She clenched her eyelids shut, squeezing tears away.  "I n-never thought I'd see you again!"

Rainbow wheezed.  "Y-you might not... if you k-keep squeezing..."

Wincing, Ariel floated backwards.  "Sorry..."

The earth rumbled.  Rainbow flew a nervous glance over her shoulder, then back at the two Heraldites.  "How's Flynn?"

"The very definition of 'pooped.'"  Ariel shook nervously in place.  She rubbed her fetlocks together as wary eyes traveled in the direction of the slithering beast.  "After all he's been through today, I-I'm afraid the poor dude won't be able to use his magic for a week."

"Well..."  Rainbow touched down and felt the unconscious unicorn's forehead.  She winced from the burning fever.  "...he owes a lot to you for saving his skin."

"Are you k-kidding?!"  Ariel's muzzle hung agape.  "I'm alive because of him!"

"Oh yeah?"

Ariel nodded fervently, flying down to grasp the stallion's shoulders.  "After the monster knocked us sky-high, I blacked out.  Next thing I knew, I was pinned beneath a boulder.  My tail was stuck.  I struggled to get out... and the thing was slithering closer.  Then—out of nowhere—Flynn here charged up and used his telekinesis to push the boulder away.  It must have shorted out his horn or something, cuz I had to fly him out of there.  We would have been devoured... h-hadn't the beast suddenly shifted towards Alpha."

"Yeah."  Rainbow exhaled.  "It was coming after Keps and I."

"Kepler's okay?!"  Ariel's eyes widened.  "What about the wagon?"

"It's all in one piece," Rainbow said.  "Thanks to Seraphimus."

Ariel did a double-take.  "I'm sorry.  Thanks to who?"

"Look, we can talk about it later."  Rainbow shifted Flynn's figure.  "Right now, we gotta fly Flynn to safety.  Then I'm going to need your help in finding Big Show and Wildcard—"

"Better do it fast, Rainbow!" Twilight Sparkle suddenly yelped.

"What?"  Rainbow craned her neck.  "What's the matter?"

"The landscape is breaking apart in our direction!" Rarity squeaked.

"They're both right."  Fluttershy gulped.  "The beast is headed this way."

"Awwwwwwwwwww Luna poop," Rainbow grunted.

"What?"  Ariel flinched in place.  "What's the Girl-Alarm say?"

"We'd better move."  Rainbow started picking Flynn's limp body up.  "Now."

Rummmmmmmmmmmmmmmble!

A shadow fell over the two pegasi in the starlight.  Ariel looked up to see the left flank of the beast slithering closer towards them.  As its chitinous body tilted, a sea of tentacles rolled over and lunged in their direction.

"Oh shit!"  Ariel's ears drooped as she trembled all over.  "Oh shit shit shit shit shit—!"

"Quick!"  Rainbow shoved Flynn into Ariel's grasp.  "Take him to higher ground!"

"But—"

"You're bigger than me, girl!  You can carry him further!"  Rainbow took a deep breath and charged the tentacles head on.  "I'll buy you some time!"

"Rainbow!" Ariel practically shrieked.  "Are you kidding?!  You can't take that thing on—"

"I've got no choice!"  Rainbow huffed, her ruby eyes reflecting a deathly wave of tendrils inbound.  "Go—"

SWOOOSH!  A dark figure murked in front of her, blocking protectively.

The ghostly mares gasped.

"Wildcard!" Rarity chirped jubilantly.

Cl-Cl-Clakkka!  Bard's bo-staff kissed the starlight.  With a savage glint to his goggles, a bruised Desperado stood his ground in midair.  He twirled the weapon just as the probisci of the stalks lashed at them.  Thunk!  Th-Thunk!  Cl-Cl-Clank!

Wincing, Ariel took that opportunity to fly towards Alpha with Flynn dangling in her grasp.

Sparks flew as Wildcard deflected more and more of the ravenous stalks.

Hovering behind him, Rainbow's eyes wandered to the griffin's armored side.  She spotted the hilt of an ancient Emeraldinian sword.  "Wildcard!" her voice cracked.  "Pass it!"

Reading her mind, the griffin spared a metal talon—Schiiiiiing!—unsheathed the blade and flipped it behind him.

Rainbow nimbly caught it in her teeth, then flew in to slice the multiple tentacles being warded off by Wildcard's twirling staff.  Sch-Sch-Schliiiiink!

Red mists kissed the air.  A groan echoed from deep within the beast's mammoth girth.  A rolling length of the creature shifted in the two mortals direction.  As a result, a fresh wave of stalks lunged all at once.  Swiiiiiiiish!

Wildcard clenched his beak tight and held the staff up at full length.  Th-Thwkkkk!  No less than twenty tendrils wrapped around Bard's weapon.  The Desperado shook and struggled, but it was obvious that he was about to loose the staff altogether.

"Mrmmmfff... hold it—!"  Rainbow Dash did a backflip, twirled about, and flew lengthwise across the row of grappling tentacles.  Sl-Sl-Sl-Sl-Sl-Sliiiink!  She lopped them all off, reducing the tendrils to meaty chunks.

Another groan.  The beast only slithered closer, promising yet another onslaught of countless tentacles.

"This isn't working!" Twilight exclaimed.  "We're only tickling the monster!"

"We gotta give it some real hurt somehow!" Applejack stammered.

"Rainbow, look!"  Rarity pointed.

Recovering at Wildcard's side, Rainbow followed the fashionista's gesture.  She saw a long crease... an ancient fissure grown into the side of the entity's chitinous flesh.

"A weak point?" Pinkie wheezed.

"As weak as it's gonna get!" Rarity said.

"Wildcard!"  Rainbow pointed at the spot in question.  "Do you see—?"

Wildcard nodded.  Whistling, he lifted up a bit and attracted the next wave of tentacles, fending them off as best as he could with Bard's staff.

Rainbow, in the meantime, spat her sword out and clasped it between two fetlocks.  "Rrrrrrrrrrrgh...!"  Wings at full-blur, she threw herself at the visible seam in the monster's natural armor.  She struck it blade-first, and the old Emeraldinian weapon sank halfway to the hilt.  Chttttuunnk!

The creature barely budged.  Then again, the Heraldites weren't done yet.

"Draw back, Rainbow!"  Applejack shouted.  "Wildcard's about to do his thang!"

Sure enough, as Rainbow Dash flew back from the embedded weapon, the Desperado dove down.  He reared his metal arm back, and glowing mana emanated brilliantly from the leyline core of the prosthetic, accompanied by a deep bass hum.  Vrmmmmmmmmmm!  At last—with a shower of sparks—the limb overloaded, and Wildcard threw his metallic fist forward with the mother of all punches, landing squarely against the hilt of the embedded blade.

THUNKKKK! 

A wild spray of red juices fountained in every direction from the fresh gash.  This was followed by an immense, deaffening groan, and the creature stopped slithering altogether.  The tentacles across the wyrm's back all retracted at once in some epic "wincing" gesture.

"Ohhhhhhhh it felt that alright!" Pinkie Pie belched.

"Good enough!"  Rainbow panted for breath and motioned Wildcard to follow her as she ascended.  "Let's get the heck out of here and regroup with Ariel and—"

"Look out!" Fluttershy shrieked.

"Huh?"  Rainbow gasped as Wildcard's arm wrapped protectively around her and dragged her to a higher altitude.  "Whoah!"

At that very moment, the creature's body was lunging skyward.  Patches of cosmic light was instantly blotted out as the front half of the beast reared towards the heavens, stretching for hundreds and hundreds of meters.  Squinting, Rainbow and her companions could see giant, barbed mandibles stabbing at the sky.  Ear-piercing shrieks rippled outwards in every direction, and the earth shook as its rear half rose and fell with catastrophic thrashing motions.

"Hmmmpff!"  Pinkie folded her forelimbs and rolled her eyes.  "What a big baby!"

"Wow..."  Twilight blinked.  "I didn't think we hurt it that much."

"I think... something else is happening to it," Fluttershy said.

Rainbow sputtered for breath, dangling from Wildcard's clutches.  "Like what?"

"I don't know..."  Fluttershy pointed.  "Just look at how its mandibles are biting at the air.  It's almost as if it's struggling to breathe."

"Yeah!"  Pinkie also pointed.  "And just look at that big fat pony perched on its giant mandibles!  I mean... talk about annoying!"

Twilight did a double-take.  "Wait... what?!"

"What big fat pony?" Applejack wheezed.

From a distance, both Rainbow Dash and Wildcard could hear a guttural war-cry, accompanied by the distant glint of a swinging axe.  The war shouts acted as savage punctuation to each of the monster's prolonged groans.

"Ya like that?!"  A voice could be faintly heard echoing.  "Take it, ya big fat rolling bitch turd!  Take ittt!  Raaaaaaaaugh!"

Wildcard's goggles rattled.

"Buck me sideways..."  Rainbow grimaced.  "...is... is that actually...?"

Fluttershy's forelimbs curled up as she nervously eyed the pony perched suicidally atop the creature's thrashing face.  "Oh... my..."