"Raaaaaaaaugh!" Seraphimus flew in with dual swords, stuck two creatures by their gullets, and smashed their skulls into one another. A third beast flew in—shrieking—through the resulting cloud of ruby light. She blocked its attack with both swords crossed, then swiftly sliced them outward in opposite directions.
The gangly beast suffered the loss of both forelimbs. As it hobbled about and shrieked, Seraphimus merely kicked the pathetic thing to the ground and vaulted off of it.
"Suffer," she spat out the side of her beak and approached the next line of creatures. Wildcard stood not too far off. He was a great deal more winded than his former superior, but he held his own with expert twirls of the staff.
Rainbow Dash—in the meantime—had just finished dodging two separate charging creatures. She caught the weight of one beast and used its momentum to ram it into another. Then—leaping over another pouncing monster—she flew up high to get a breathless survey of the situation.
Her eyes twitched to see more and more pale bodies rushing up from the crooks and crevices of the Edgeside landscape. Within minutes, she and her two cohorts would be outnumbered by four times as many of the creatures.
"Where in the h-hay are they even coming from?" Rainbow's voice cracked.
She had ascended high enough for her friends to rematerialize, unimpeded by the chaotic cretins below.
"They sure are crawlin' out of the woodwork, aren't they?" Applejack stammered.
"Those blasted things must live in vast underground colonies!" Rarity remarked.
"I get it now!" Pinkie Pie barked. "They're mole men!"
"Those aren't like any m-moles I've ever s-seen," Fluttershy said, trembling.
"Huh..." Twilight Sparkle rubbed her chin, thinking hard. "Pale... bipedal... imp-like underground cave dwellers..."
Rainbow's ruby eyes nervously darted around the intensifying cluster of beasts down below. "Something ringing a bell, Twilight?"
"I... I don't know..." Twilight bit her lip. "I feel like I've read about things like this before, but I can't remember where..."
"Well, could we 'remember' on another occasion?!" Rarity exclaimed, looking Curveside behind them. "Rainbow's friends could be ready to go any second!"
"Rarity's right!" Applejack exclaimed, pointing at the thick waves of chaotic reinforcement. "We've barely made a dent in this here army—and they're growin' bigger by the second!"
"Ehhhhhh..." Pinkie waved a hoof. "Sera's got them."
"The battle's nowhere near won and you know it!" Rarity said, pouting. "And don't call her 'Sera'! We are not on a first-name basis now—"
"Hey! Sera!" Rainbow shouted towards the two fighters below. "Wildcard! There's a bunch more coming! We gotta draw back and—"
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaugh!" Seraphimus dove deeper and deeper, filling the air with ruby aftermath. "I am the Right Talon of Verlaxion! You shall go no further!"
"I don't suppose... uhm..." Fluttershy trembled, gulped. "...we can just let her go as far as she wants into the fray?"
Rainbow huffed. "We've got to buy the Herald more time." She angled her wings and began a swift, perilous dive back into the battle. "If that hovercart isn't airborne, then there's no point."
Rarity moaned. "I was afraid you'd say that—" She and Twilight and the rest vanished as Rainbow came within shrieking distance of the beasts yet again.
Discord reappeared, smirking. "Ah! There you are!" He pointed at Seraphimus with his paw. "Looks like the catbird found its catbirdnip."
"Shut up!" Rainbow channeled her wrath into a murderous drop-kick, smashing a beast in the face and slamming it into its companions. "Rnnngh!" Her eyes flickered red-on-yellow as she pummeled skull after pale skull. "Did somepony order a concussion pizza?!"
Discord shrugged towards an invisible camera. "Thaaaaaaaat's my Sparky!" He blew out the side of his muzzle, emulating a seated audience of laughing ponies.
"Flynnnnnnnnnnn..." Logan droned.
"Shut up!" The balding stallion sweated all over, aiming his horn at the hovercraft and covering it with a magic field. "I've got this! I swear!"
"It is now orr neverr, brrotherr!" Kepler exclaimed. Perched on the wagon, he looked worriedly towards Edgeside. His spectacles reflected a writhing sea of pale bodies. "I cannot even fathom how ourr frriends have managed forr this long!"
"With that friggin' death ostrich that Logan unleashed?" Ariel's voice cracked. "I can fathom pretty damn well!"
"Will you let it rest already?!?" Logan barked. "I did what I had to do for the sake of preserving Flynn's stupid fart sarcophagus—"
Fl-Flasssh! The chaos strips slathered to the perimeter of the carriage lit up, intertwined with lunar dust and magical leylines.
"I did it!" Flynn exclaimed, hopping up and down. "Fart sarcophagus away! I mean—Dammit!"
"Who cares what it's called!" Logan hopped on board, causing the thing to wobble and nearly throw Kepler off. "What matters is that it's airborne!" Shimmying to the front, he shouted into the lunar glow of the runes. "M'shrynmh L'fynym!"
Flynn gasped, reaching out with his hoof. "No! Wait!"
WHAM! The craft slammed into the ground and scraped backwards, grinding Edgeside.
"Whoah!" Ariel gasped.
"Gah!" Kepler flailed yet again.
"The buck—?!?" Logan hissed.
Flynn rushed up to the chassis and wheezed: "M'shrykkym L'vynyk!"
With an audible hum, the hovercraft lifted back up and slowly glided forward.
"What gives?" Logan stammered.
"It's a chaotic focus!" Flynn exclaimed. "You have to give the opposite commands!"
"You've gotta be shittin' me!" Logan snarled loudly. "That's stupid!"
"You're stupid!" Flynn barked back. "Look, we either work around the bullshit or we don't work at all! We don't work—we don't fly! We don't fly—"
"I get it, Baldy! Shut up!" Logan huffed, frowning at the slowly coasting vehicle. "I'm just... n-not sure I can remember all the damned moonwhinny commands and somehow ejaculate them inside out."
"Allow me, brrotherr," Kepler offered, crawling forward. "My memory is quite rrobust in that rregarrd—"
"Nah, best that I say them, Keps," Logan grumbled. "Thanks to Brainiac McMumbles, here, we're flying on chaos and a prayer. Roll your R's too much and we might get pregnant with changelings or some shiet..."
"I'll say them!" Flynn climbed on. "Do we have all our stuff—?"
"All the stuff that matters!"
"Good." Flynn looked up. "Ariel—?!"
"Already on it!" Swoooooooooooosh! Ariel shot Edgeside in a gray blur. "Head on without us! We'll catch up via wing!"
"Don't waste time for nothing!" Logan hollered as Flynn steadied and accelerated the humming craft. Gradually, they coasted up the steep hillside, leaving dust and a glowing lunar trail behind them. "And make sure that Rainbow doesn't get too close to this crap! Have her fly recon—!"
"Yeah yeah..." Ariel exhaled. Gritting her teeth, she flew towards the intense battle. Her blue eyes reflected tufts of ruby light, issuing outward from the center of the melee. "Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeease please please please please let none of those be Rainbow Dash's soul..."
"Htttt!" Rainbow, meantime, was kicking one beast after another. She stood side by side with Wildcard, wincing as the floor was littered with more bodies and black blood. "Guh... for once, can we fight something that leaks cider?"
"Rainbow!" Ariel flew in from above.
"Oh hey, girl!" Rainbow Dash panted for breath. "Welcome to the party!"
"The hovercraft's airborne!"
"Flynn got it to fly?!"
"Yeah! Good enough!" Ariel looked aside, her eyes reflecting a dark black figure in mid-attack. "Oh. Wildcard. You're alive too. Cool beans."
"He's hurt! We gotta retreat!" Rainbow hollered above the fray, using two fetlocks like a crude bullhorn. "Hey! Sera! Move your tail!"
Discord coasted by, phasing through Ariel and Wildcard as he ate from ghostly popcorn. "Oh where or where did my little psycho go? Or where or where could she be?"
Rainbow blinked, eyes darting across the shifting and thrashing bodies. She parried one attack and kicked another beast away. "Where the buck?!"
"Did you already lose her?!" Ariel asked.
Rainbow looked over at the Desperado. "Yo! Wildcard! Your old boss?! Where she at—?!"
Wildcard looked at her. He actually gasped; his goggles reflected a pale-feathered figure in full lunge.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!" Schiiiiiiiiing! Seraphimus sailed straight towards Ariel with both swords swinging.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaackies!" Ariel curled up into a shivering little ball in mid-air.
SCH-SCHLUNNNK! Both of Seraphimus' swords punctured the chest of an agile beast that was just two inches from pouncing Ariel from behind. The former Talon Commander slammed the beast down and began eviscerating its torso to black ribbons.
Rainbow grimaced.
"Rgnnnghhhhh!" Ariel shook all over, frowning. "I swear to Goddess! I've only been here thirty seconds!"
"Don't take it to heart." Rainbow punched two more beasts, and shoved against a third as she looked over at Wildcard. "Quick, dude! Give us an exit!"
Wildcard sucked his breath in. The air tingled as he raised his metal fist high in the air. Sparks flew from the joints, and the manacore nestled deep within the newly-constructed prosthetic reached a fever pitch.
Vrommmmmmmmmmmmmm!
As a fresh wave of beasts leapt at the group, Wildcard slammed his metal fist violently into the ground. WHUDDDDDDDDD!
A concussive blast vaporously echoed its way Edgeside, knocking nearly three dozen creatures onto their backs. As they struggled and thrashed to get up, Wildcard swiftly hooked an arm under Rainbow's tummy and lifted off... gliding alongside Ariel as the three sped back in the direction of the wagon with the Austraeoh in tow.
"Good t-timing, too!" Ariel stammered. She took a nervous look at the massive waves of chaotic reserves. Soon a veritable ocean of ravenous bipeds was clambering after them, shaking the earth with their impenetrable charge. "Awwwwwwww shit... I hope Flynn's stupid surf board can outglide that."
"Th-there's one way to find out!" Rainbow writhed, dangling in Wildcard's protective grasp as the three continud their glide. "Come on, Sera! We're making back to the wagon!"
All she heard were banshee shrieks and scraping claws.
"... ... ...Seraphimus?!" Rainbow's ruby eyes darted nervously towards the pale sea below. "Where are you?!"
Discord reappeared in Rainbow's peripheral, flickering upon the precipice of vanishing. "Ask not for whom the catbird tweets!" He grinned, chuckling breathily. "Hah! I worked a lot on that last one!"
"For the love of Celestia..." Rainbow clutched her forehead as the group gained altitude. "...why couldn't I be haunted by a ghostly Verlax instead?!?"