Sand Castle charged the plant pony in front of him, bowling it over. The torch had been discarded, and he had spent just a moment uncertain, before the fight began in earnest, Castle and the plant pony trading blows.
However, Spoiled Rich simply watched from the tree line, none too eager to take part. Sand Castle clearly had not yet noticed the barked plant ponies began to surround him as he traded blows with the larger ones.
Filthy Rich began to take tentative steps forward. He began to creep up slowly behind them, as they themselves sneaked up on Sand Castle.
Spoiled snorted softly to herself, and followed suit, getting up to earshot of Filthy. “What exactly are you planning?”
“I’m waiting for…” he began, and the barken plant ponies, for their part, began to close in behind Sand Castle, as he duked it out with the two larger ponies. “-- them to move up close enough for me to catch all of them in one of my… I’m not sure what to call it. The magic I used back in the cave.”
He began to creep forward into the clearing, but Spoiled hung back. She was not eager to get into that mess. She spent another moment taking the situation in. Her husband was sneaking forward, making his way rather stealthily behind the bark ponies, waiting for his chance to ambush them. Sand Castle was not winning his fight with the vine ponies. Beyond them, that bipedal plant… thing was watching intently, apparently amused? Spoiled scowled. Just what was that creature capable of? Hopefully it thought that Sand Castle was alone, though.
And beyond that, pinned up against the tree, was Dawn Crest. With nobody even paying attention to her, as all eyes were on Sand Castle’s fight.
Spoiled Rich narrowed her eyes and a smirk appeared on her face.
She slunk back to the tree line, giving the whole fight a wide berth as she moved back to the tree, getting herself closer to it. There was a loud thunderclap as Filthy Rich entered the battle, blasting the ponies near him away.
Spoiled looked back. Her husband began zapping the larger ponies from his hoof, and she snorted. How unlikely was that? It was like something out of a story. The mild mannered businessman awakes to find he has magic powers? Ridiculous...
But, of course, also useful. Just what could she use powers like that for… Well, for certain what she would not use them for is for a dramatic confrontation in the forest in the night. She could imagine many subtle ways she could flex magical might… but she certainly would not dramatically point her hoof and use magical beams and thunderous spells.
No, once your opponent knew all you could do was that? A weakness, for sure. Never let your enemies know the extent of your abilities. Let them imagine you can do anything, while your real capabilities--your real limits--were unknown.
She got herself onto the other side of the tree, peering out at the fight, as that biped watched the fight with amusement. Filthy and Sand Castle were turning the tide, but the biped remained undaunted, and Spoiled scowled.
Like that. Spoiled had no idea what this mare was capable of, but it was clear her confidence was not broken by her companions apparently losing the fight. That was bad.
Spoiled slunk out from behind the tree. The biped was distracted and she had no time to lose, if she was going to free Dawn Crest, it was going to be now.
Spoiled made her move immediately. As the biped started engaging Filthy in a conversation, she made her way to Dawn Crest, pinned and wrapped up against the wall. Spoiled drew the dagger strapped to her side, and started sawing through one of the wooden branches that bound Dawn.
Dawn Gleam, being jostled by the sawing, started to stir, her eyes fluttering open. She began to moan, and Spoiled put a free hoof onto her lips. Her eyes snapped open and she stared down, Spoiled lightly shushing her, as she went back to sawing the branch.
When the dagger finally snapped through the first branch, she noticed that it wasn’t actually wrapping around her. The tip had pierced her skin, and she could see drops dripping from both ends of the severed vine. She didn’t need to be able to see what color the fluid was to know what was being drained from Dawn Gleam.
She took just a moment to look up at the gnarled tree, its branches looked dead and withered, no leaves were found on it. No other trees were near its canopy, either, as if all of them had fled its presence. She had a sinking creeping feeling as she realized this dead tree was very alive, and drinking Dawn’s blood.
From behind her, a voice called out “Enough of this!” Spoiled twitched with a start, sure she had been caught, but after a moment, the voice continued to speak, and it became clear it wasn’t talking at her. She looked back, and saw that Filthy and Sand Castle had whittled down their opponents to only one, and the biped stepped in then.
She shook her head. She didn’t have time to dread. She put the dagger away, and instead grabbed the first vine with her teeth, pulling it out. Dawn made a muffled hissing noise as Spoiled tore the vines out of her one by one.
After pulling out a full side, Spoiled got up to her side, pulling one of Dawn’s forelegs over her withers. “Alright, hangon tight, now,” Spoiled said, watching for Dawn to nod. Her grip was weak, but there was enough force to hold her steady as Spoiled pulled her from the other half of the vines.
Spoiled braced Dawn on her shoulder. “We have to hurry,” she whispered, and the two of them limped along, Spoiled making sure they were keeping to a brisk pace. The mare was heavier than she looked, and as she plodded along, shouldering most of the burden, she could feel her fur getting matted with blood.
“Come on, come on,” she said softly, trying to urge herself on as much as Dawn. She didn’t look back. There was nothing to look at. Either they made it to the tree line before the biped noticed, or she would turn back and notice them, and then they were as good as dead.
Dawn’s hoofsteps became little more than bracing, and the limping became closer to dragging. Spoiled pushing herself forward, the grip getting more awkward by the minute, her eyes focused only on the foliage ahead of her. Her chant became more of a mutter, spoken inbetween ragged breaths, and she forced herself forward, foot by foot.
Finally, she reached far enough into the tree line that she was securely behind foliage, and relaxed, losing her grip on Dawn, gracelessly dumping her behind a bush. She sat down, panting heavily.
She spent the moment looking over Dawn, but it was too dark to see anything specific. Huffing to herself she dragged herself over to Dawn, feeling her to inspect her wounds. Spoiled furrowed her brow. It was wet and sticky. Was she still bleeding? Or was this just from before? It was too dark and she knew too little about this to tell.
Dawn’s eyes fluttered open, and she moaned a little, stirring again. An eye cracked open, and it looked down at Spoiled.
Spoiled didn’t look up. “I hope some of your strength is returning, because I don’t think we have too much time left.”
Dawn mumbled something again, and Spoiled snapped her head up to look. Dawn was, just for a moment, focused on Spoiled, before the eyes wandered, and her hoof went up to her head, holding it for a moment. “I… hard…” she mumbled.
Spoiled grit her teeth. What a useless filly. It was all her fault that she was possibly on death’s door, and her husband was busy fighting for her life, and they were stuck in a terrifying forest with plant monsters trying to kill them.
She opened her mouth, only to hear a high pitched screech, and Spoiled’s mouth clamped shut. She peeked around the tree, to see the tall biped staring back at the place Dawn used to be, and the rest of minions were, unfortunately, also standing up. The biped was now pacing back and forth, with her minions watching her.
And nobody watching her husband and Sand Castle. But, she noticed, Filthy was not watching the biped, he was looking around. She put more of herself out of there, waving her hooves above her head, and saw him see her. She motioned him over, and he grabbed the back of Sand Castle’s work tunic, and gestured to him to go.
The two of them started creeping, somewhat slowly, and Sand Castle moved down, as they ran aside, to pick up their makeshift torch. Spoiled grimaced. The shadows of the plant creatures were all moving, but they hadn’t seemed to notice, and her companions continued their careful movement toward her.
She pulled back behind the tree, starting to lift Dawn up. “Come on… we’re going to give you to somepony who can actually hold you.”
She was shifting around when she heard another cry from the singsong voice. A few moments later Sand Castle and Filthy burst out from the foliage line, continuing to run. “Waitwaitwait!” she cried out, and the two stopped and looked back. She wrenched herself forward, pointing at Sand Castle. “Take her.”
He looked at her wide eyed, the shadows of the torch casting a wild look at him.
Filthy came to her aid, though. “We can’t wait. You’re right, Sand Castle needs to take her.” The two of them quickly shifted Dawn Crest onto Sand Castle’s back, and Spoiled snatched the torch from Sand’s mouth, it dropping on the ground near them.
The plant ponies burst from where Filthy and Sand did just a few seconds ago, making angry roars. The three ponies all took steps back, having precious few feet between them and their enemies.
“Blow them away like before,” Spoiled ordered to her husband. “Hurry!”
“You’re closer than they are,” he hissed. “You wanna get thrown into a tree?”
The plant ponies took a step forward, and Spoiled stepped back. “Then shoot them or something, right? Figure something out. You’re the pony with the magic.”
There was more rustling, and Spoiled grabbed the torch from the ground as the rest of the plant ponies began filing in followed by the tall biped. “Aww. I see none of you got too far.” She smiled at them, a too wide smile. “And I thought you mighta been clever. I’m happy to see I was wrong.”
Spoiled glared at the plant creatures, the three of her companions backing up slowly, and she caught a glimpse of her husband, as the light flickered on his face. She thought… she saw gleam in his eye, and what appeared to be a cocky, wicked smile on his face. He reared up onto his hind legs, but instead of bringing them down, he shouted a different magical word.
A bright light appeared at his hooves, and from it a fan of flames erupted, blanketing the plant creatures, from pony to biped, in a sheet of flame. The lot of them screeched and roared, and Filthy Rich, the light flickering on his face, still, held an unreadable sinister expression.
“We have to go!” Spoiled shouted, breaking him out of the moment, and the three ponies and one hanging on all wheeled around and took off into the dark forest.
The three of them, with Dawn holding on, galloped away from the flames, not knowing exactly where they were going, only that the closest edge of the forest was this way. The forest flew by as they thumped loudly. There was no clear path, but none of them cared as they trampled straight through, leaving a wake of underbrush.
Spoiled’s legs began to burn as they ran, and she huffed, and she looked back. It was dark, and nothing but a dim light could be seen from the direction they came from. “Hold,” she puffed out. “Hold on…”
The group slowed to a halt, and Spoiled lay against a tree trunk, breathing heavily. She looked to her husband, who was puffing just about as hard as she was, but was in fact, looking behind them, staring into the woods as well.
She turned back to it. Nothing seemed to be moving. No sounds could be heard except some distant crackling or wind rustling. No more screeches or horrid noises from the plant creatures.
“We should get going,” Filthy Rich said, and Spoiled looked back at him. “I think we’re in the clear.”
Spoiled nodded and turned away from the flames in the distance, only for just a flicker of light to stay her. She looked back, and there was but a small ember that could be seen on the trunk of a tree. She tilted her head, because it seemed just a little far for a stray ember to make, but that’s all there was there, so she turned away, and began to follow Filthy and Sand Castle.
But only for a short while, before a tree in front of them began to contort, and from it, a figure emerged, coming straight out of the bark of the tree itself.
It was the dryad from before, and she had seen better days. Her once smooth green skin was cracked and burnt, and something still inside her glowed with a burning ember. She carried a gnarled piece of wood as a club. She opened her maw and roared, a great screeching thing which seemed to shake the trees around her, and swung her club at Sand Castle, the foremost pony, colliding with his side and sending him and Dawn Crest sprawling on the ground.
Before anyone could react, she also invoked a magic word, and vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping Sand Castle up in vines. Spoiled grit her teeth. Sand Castle was, well, had been, proving to be a tough fighter. Someone she definitely would want in between this monster and her.
And Dawn Crest would be useless, still half hopped up on wildberries and delirious from bloodloss--if she were capable of fighting in the first place--which meant the only real fighter that was left was…
Filthy Rich shouted a magic incantation, and a fresh wave of flame burst from his outstretched hoof, washing over the burning dryad, who screamed, but instead of rearing back, pressed forward, her club glowing sickly green as it collided with Filthy Rich’s side, but he wasn’t sent onto the ground.
Spoiled stared at the scene, but didn’t have time to consider her options, as she fumbled with the sword strapped to her side. Managing to pull it out, she held it out, looking warily at the fight, in front of her.
The second swing of the club barely whiffed over Filthy’s head, and he pointed his hoof again, and Spoiled could feel the hot wave of fire from where she was. The figure, however, was undaunted, swinging her club, landing a shallow hit on Filthy.
She was also, however, distracted.
Spoiled whirled around and darted to where Sand Castle was tied down, only to find that Dawn had crawled over to him, and was already sawing through his vines. Spoiled knelt down and cleaved through several on the opposite side, and he pulled himself up
One more time, Filthy shouted the magical incantation… but Spoiled’s ear simply twitched. There was no flash of light, no burst of heat. Spoiled turned around to see Filthy still on the ground, his hoof outstretched. He shouted the word again, but no fire was produced. He shook his hoof in frustration, shouting the word a third time.
The plant woman above him let out a ragged laugh. “All out of magic? What a pity.” Her voice was no longer the singsong thing of beauty, but harsh and gravely. Her hand glowed as she said her own magic incantation, the vines growing from the ground to wrap up Filthy. “I was worried for a moment.”
She raised her club, just in time for Sand Castle to collide with her side. She stumbled but was not taken down, and she whipped around to slam her club into him. She growled and started to incant a spell again, only to be rewarded with a swift headbutt to her midsection, knocking the words out of her mouth.
The clumsy swing came back to Sand Castle, missing again, and he swung his hoof, missing her. She backed up, getting a little distance to swing at, and he also backed up. The two of them circled each other, only taking tentative strikes. The dryad limped as she moved, some of her foliage still on flame from Filthy’s attacks, but her glowing club was still menacing, and Sand Castle visibly panted.
It had been a long night.
Spoiled looked on, her teeth gritting around the sword she held in it, until a bit of movement caught the corner of her eye. Dawn was struggling to stand, her eyes fixed on the fight in front of her, a dagger in her mouth.
She couldn’t possibly be trying to go out there, Spoiled thought. She’s weak from blood loss, for Celestia’s sake. She’s more liable to get in the way than help. Someone to help the fight would at best be fresh and…
Spoiled narrowed her eyes and squeezed the sword in her mouth. She had hoped… well it didn't matter. It wouldn’t be the first time she stabbed something, after all.
The circling of the two combatants continued, and the biped swept around so her back was to Spoiled, and Spoiled slid forward, creeping up behind her. She brought her head back and swung the sword to the bottom of the creature’s abdomen, underneath where she would guess a rib cage was, and the sword slid straight through the soft flesh, lodging itself in her target’s body.
The dryad screeched and writhed, the sword now embedded her back. But, amazingly, she did not fall, but instead lashed out clumsily with the club behind her. Spoiled tried to spring back, but was too close and the club landed a solid hit on her side, sending her sprawling.
She collided with the ground, gasping for breath. The figure above her screeched again, and she winced, ready for another blow. This was the damn reason she didn’t want to be in a stupid fight. But no blow came, and she pulled her head up with some difficulty.
The sword, sticking out of the front of her abdomen, was being wrenched inside of her by Sand Castle, gripping it with his mouth. She made strangled garbled noises, and when he released the sword she collapsed to the ground.
Spoiled pulled herself half up, with some difficulty. Her sword was embedded in the plant woman in front of them. The plant woman who had taunted them, threatened them, presumably was responsible for Dawn Crest’s blood loss at that huge dead tree. The plant woman who did all those things while clearly a… thinking… living… intelligent creature.
And she lay there, motionless, her life bleeding out of her.
Spoiled lost the strength in her forelegs and fell back down. Her side ached. Even one hit was enough to do that. They couldn’t… afford a protracted battle. They simply couldn’t. Nothing more could be heard, though. No creatures coming after them from the forest. No twitches from the woman on the ground.
It was over.
Deep in the forest, the dead tree sat, with but a few servants remaining. So many of his children were dead today. Burnt, smashed, stabbed. And his dryad was dead. He could feel it.
The few remaining servants were standing vigil, watching the trees around him burn. He could hear their wordless screams, and it pleased him. For too long they surrounded him, not able to reclaim the blighted ground he stood upon, but also preventing his roots from spreading, their oppressive life stunting his own unlife.
But tonight. Tonight they burnt.
Convenient that they gave him the wide berth they did.
And on tonight, of all nights, right after he had sipped the blood of a fae. It was precious little, but it was enough. Enough that his servants would have new brothers and sisters in the coming fortnight, born of the very trees that the fire would destroy. More than the children he lost.
His wordless chuckle echoed throughout the forest.