The Overgrown Steel Winged Crow dashed to Boa, having her dodge aimlessly left and right until it strafed sideways ahead her, resting on the ground once more. It stared at her without having any slight hint of movement, analysing her every move.
'What is up with this bird?' Boa thought, 'It's acting like its got the mind of a pony...' She shifted her head to look over the Crow and saw the royal guards commencing battle with the enemy troops; Big Macintosh alone pretty much balanced out the odd number on their side, he was helping the guards fend off the enemy troops and was doing a pretty good job at it.
'There s no way he's just a farmer... right?' she mused.
The Crow shot up its wings immediately grabbing Boa's attention, it began to flap them back and forth in an incredibly fast motion generating a powerful airflow towards Boa. She bent down in an effort to keep balance but was soon being pushed back by the force of the air; her hooves skidded against the ground leaving a trail of dust as she slid back.
'At this rate I'll be blown away!' Boa quickly focused energy around her hooves which emerged a large chunk of gravel and soil behind her, she held herself against it whilst standing on her hind legs, "erupting stairway!" she yelled as she stomped the floor with her left hoof, a thick earthy stairway rapidly began to form its way to the Crow, each step higher than the previous one. Boa galloped up the stairway and unsheathed the sword wrapped was around her waist with her mouth, as she reached the last step she leaped down gripping the sword with her front hooves, the Crow flew upwards at an angle dodging Boa's attack causing her to impale the sword against the solid ground.
Boa observed the movements of the Crow, it was circling her high above the skies again, "that birds planning something, I just know it," she uttered to herself under her breath.
"You okay back there, Boa!" Forest yelled as he pointed the staff at the Giant Salamander as an ocean blue aura matching the colour of his eyes surrounded his horn, he slowly stepped forward inch by inch which made the Salamander back away at his pace, the two soldiers riding the beast were pointing their spears at him, connecting the aura of their magic to the spears.
"Yeah, I'm fine, don't lose focus on your opponents now!" She replied.
"Heh, focus is his middle name!" Jokey added.
"Well, actually, it's Season, but whatever!" Forest remarked back to them.
Boa shook her head and gave a grin, 'those two...' she thought in amenity, her fiery red eyes still locked on to the Crow.
Jokey leaped back several times in response to the Hydra attempts of attacking him, the Hydra lunged each head down to him, trying to bite him and gobble him up, "If you guys don't mind, I could use a helping hoof with this Hydra!"
Forest deflected two incoming beam attacks with the ends of the staff from the soldiers,"trying my best to find the moment, bro!"
"Hold on, Jokey! I'm on my way!" as soon as Boa tried to respond to Jokey's need of aid, the Crow unleashed a deadly shower of steel needles, she stopped with a short gasp and quickly shielded herself with a semicircle of rock which sprang out from the ground. Boa had waited until the continuous sound of metal jabbing rough surface had ended, she jumped out of the rocky shield and exchanged glares with the Crow once more as it landed in front of her; from the spots of which the steel needles had been launched down to her, new ones quickly grew out.
"Sorry, Jokey! but it looks like I'm a little occupied too!" she added as she shot a mean look to the Overgrown Crow.
The Hydra spun around lashing around its tail in an attempt to strike Jokey.
"Woah!" Jokey leaped back as the Hydra's tail slammed against the ground, Kanthon had turned around to face Jokey.
'Now's my chance!' Forest thought as he saw the opportunity to help Jokey by striking Kanthon as his back was turned to him.
"Force wave!" Forest yelled, a short transparent wave of what was considered 'absolute force' paved into the ground, causing rubble and dust to blind the vision of the mounted Salamander, Forest dashed up to Kanthon in the form of lighting once again, he pulled back the staff preparing to strike the zebra.
Kanthon turned his head back to Forest with a divine grin, "bingo." Kanthon remarked, foreseeing the step he had planned.
Forest's expression changed from a sure shot to look of misconception, Forest disappeared with an unappealing sound of a heavy gulp.
"What the hay? Did the air just swallow Forest!" Jokey could not believe what he had just witnessed.
Kanthon laughed at the yellow unicorns misunderstanding, "have you already forgotten? It was the Giant Cloaking Salamander... the two soldiers that are riding it are deeply skilled with teleportation. You see, the Salamander will cloak itself as well as whatever touches its skin, the best thing about this creature is that it decides which object it's touching to cloak, truly a marvellous creature."
"Forest! Come on bro, get yourself out of there!" Jokey shouted with worry.
"It's no use... the stomach of that amphibian is like a prison with no locks, just bars surrounding the victim," Kanthon replied unhesitatingly.
A loud ruffle of leaves and tree branches roared from behind Boa, she looked back in surprise, but found nothing.
Kanthon smiled nefariously, "It seems as though the Salamander has left the area to digest your friend."
"Look out, Boa!" Big Macintosh yelled out as he tossed an enemy guard over his shoulder. The Crow dashed to Boa headbuttig her strongly, she flew into a tree behind her and let out a grunt of pain upon impact.
"Boa!" Jokey asserted in anguish to the sight of what had happened to her.
Boa picked herself up while shaking, she glared angrily at the Crow that was just about ready to headbutt her once more, 'not as smart as I thought you were' she thought. Boa then quickly erupted a large earthy pillar below her, lifting her upwards. The Crow bashed its head against the the rocky pillar, it cawed loudly and covers its head with its wings, it seemed to be whimpering silently.
"Looks like I found the weak point of that feather brained bird of yours," Boa stated as she gave a victorious grin.
"Nice one!" Jokey added with a chuckle, "Cuase it's a bird and its got feathers! Brilliant!"
"And don't think Forest is gonna give up so easily, as long as he's got some grease he'll slip through those bars!"
"Yeah!" Jokey complied with a praise.
"Don't get full of yourself so easily, mare!" Kanthon began to rant angrily. Jokey smiled as he saw his chance to use the technique he had mastered within the past four days of training.
"Dang, zebra... you got to much heat buildin' up in that brain of yours... wouldn't wanna overload now would ya'? Please, allow me." Jokey whispered to himself confidently, his horn generated an aura of fire as he took an offensive stance.
"Double grand fireball!" Jokey simultaneously launched two large fireballs at least double his size in radius; the fireballs burst upon impact against the back of the Hydra.
x
Pinkie Pie galloped through natural obstacles of the forest, 'gotta be quick!' she thought as she jumped over a sprouting root of a tree.
She galloped until the solid bump of her hooves hit something sonorous causing her to trip over, "Ugh, what kinda pony wants to take a nap in a forest? Ever thought about a bed, smarty pants?"
The stallion that she tripped over picked himself up and glared at her furiously, it was the same guard that Boa had launched away.
"Uh- oh... uh I mean yeah sure! It's perfectly fine if you wanna sleep in a forest, haha!" she added as she lowered her ears, backing away from the guard as a look of fear struck her face.
The guard tossed his spear at her which cut through the top half of the joint of a tree branch that was just above Pinkie Pie, she jumped back in surprise, the guard then walked up to her as she kept backing away, "come 'ere cupcake," the guard said as he soon walked underneath the weakened branch.
Pinkie Pie came to a sudden stop as she felt her tail twitching, "twitchy twitcha- twitch?" she blurted with a gasp, "Quick! Find cover! Some thing s gonna fall!" Pinkie Pie dove into a space behind a rock behind her and got on the ground covering her head with her hooves.
The guard laughed in amusement, "such a foal! What a stupid attempt to-" The tree branch that the guard tossed his spear at fell loose from the tree and landed on his head, "hog... wash..." he muttered while losing consciousness, he fell flat on to the ground.
Pinkie Pie looked over the rock and with and shrugged, "can't say I didn't warn ya, silly," she added, "oh yeah, better hurry!" she continued down the path to Froggy Bottom Bog.
x
"Agh! This sucks!" Forest exclaimed in annoyance as he tried to budging his way within the Salamanders stomach, the muscles began contracting, squeezing on to Forest giving him no space for movement, the upper and lower surfaces pressed against his cheeks.
"I can barely move! this thing is seriously gonna try to digest me alive!" he spoke with clenched teeth and squinted eyes as slimy muck went down the back of his mane, "Al right buddy, you wanna play rough? Well fine, eat this! Forcefield blast!"
The Giant Salamander croaked loudly as a large circular bulge formed around its stomach and quickly vanished.
"What in the- was that him?" one of the guards questioned as they tried to maintain balance on the shaking Salamander.
"He's gonna cause some trouble, let's stab him," the other guard replied.
"Are you nuts? You'll kill the Salamander you idiot."
"Woah!" the guards shouted in unison as a second bulge occurred, making the Salamander shake violently. As it came to rest once more, it began to groan heavily losing balance on its own legs, it coughed multiple times until it finally spat out the deep orange stallion.
"Uugh... dude, this is just nasty," Forest remarked to himself as he stood up on his hind legs, brushing the slime off himself, he shook his head vigorously from side to side cleansing his mane from the slime.
"No way, nopony's ever gotten out of the Salamanders stomach before!" one of the guards exclaimed furiously.
"Force magic," Forest began, "a little something I picked on long ago, whenever unicorns practice basic magic they intend to develop another type of their own, I take you two must have something else up your sleeves other that just basic magic beams.
Forest placed a hoof over his chest, his hoof clanged against his armor as he felt a sudden wave of slight exhaustion, "What the... hay?"
The guards chuckled darkly, "you know what s so special about this creature? other than turning invisible its got the ability to spit out slime that chews up vitality, and all that slime is generated in its stomach... basically, you were in a cesspool of life sucking slime."
'And the force magic doesn't help,' Forest thought to himself, 'although force magic is powerful, the density and pressure of the spells take a hefty amount of power... this is not good.'
The Salamander suddenly cloaked itself along with the guards, leaving Forest on high alert; Forest took a defensive stance as he reached for the staff on his back, unfortunately for him, it was not there. 'Damn! Must have dropped it when that thing swallowed me!'
A ruffle in the grass caused Forest to turn around with great caution, the armoured tail of the Salamander swung upwards in an attempt to strike Forest, he blocked off the steel tipped tail with his bracer s, but it got past his control and struck him just above his stomach, leaving a scratch on his armour.
"Oof!" Forest grunted as he was launched up into the air, the guards teleported themselves and the Salamander away from his sight, Forest looked around in mid-air trying to spot where they had gone, he then looked up and saw the giant amphibian landing towards him, mouth wide open.
"Not this time! Lightning bolt!" Forest shot out an instant bolt of blue lightning which surged through the Salamander and the guards, one of the guards being more resistive was able to teleport himself, his companion, and the beast back to the ground. Forest fell to a hard landing but managed to avoid injury.
"Come on! Why wont you cloak!" one guard yelled in worry.
"The electricity must have messed with its nerves, we're gonna have to do this without the Salamander... besides, our friend over there isn't looking so healthy." The guards jumped off the temporarily handicapped Salamander and upholstered their spears.
'Come on Forest, they're just guards... you can handle them, but damn, I haven't felt this bad in a-' Forest's thoughts were cut off as he felt something jump on to his back.
"Forest! I found you first! Great!" Pinkie Pie had leaped on to his back whilst he stood his hind legs.
"Pinkie? What are you doing here?" Forest replied in surprise to her appearance.
"You won't believe what I just went through! I bumped in to some weirdo who was taking a nap in the middle of the forest on my way here and boy did he look grumpy, but anyway he actually tried to attack me and then a tree branch fell on his head and he was all like 'Oough' and he fell to the ground even after I warned him I mean can you believe it? seriously how dumb can a pony get?" Pinkie Pie told her reasons of appearance to Forest once again in fast forward, but he did not find it strange, he understood her from start to finish.
"So you made this super candy bar thing that-" Forest was interrupted by a loud hey from one of the guards.
"Did you forget about us already? Come on, get your spear ready, lets give 'em both the descending steel slash," the guard uttered to his companion.
"Right, pink ones mine..." the other guard added.
The guards teleported out of sight, leaving the Salamander behind, Forest and Pinkie Pie looked around and found that the guards were no where in sight.
"Now your just being predictable..." Forest said to himself as he looked up and found the two guards were falling to them at high speed from the sky, an aura of brownish-red surrounded them and the spears they were pointing to both Forest and Pinkie Pie.
"Hold on to me tightly, Sweetie Pie, I have to time this just right," Pinkie Pie got down from his back and stood on her hind legs as he did, they hugged each other tightly, Forest looked up and waited until they guards were close enough.
"Force..." Forest's horn began to give a strange transparent aura, the guards accelerated down to them as the aura they produced overtook their bodies, surrounding them with a deep red aura shaped like the head of a spear.
"Field..." a very faint white aura covered both Forest and Pinkamena, tiny pebbles bounced around their hooves, the descending guards were now only inches away from them.
"Blast!" with just a few millimetres to spare, the forcefield surrounded both Forest and Pinkie Pie, the forcefield is a quick technique, a temporary forceful shield that only lasts about two seconds but the auric spear fell into it much faster than that time span. The aura spear shattered as it paved itself into the surface of the forcefield, the guards continued landing at the same speed; BAM! directly into the forcefield, the guards soared through the air and landed on the ground just next to the Salamander.
The Salamander picked up the half dead guards with its tale and placed them on to the saddle, the beast emitted green glowing particles from its back that were soon absorbed by the guards, the Giant Salamander gave them the vitality it had absorbed from Forest. The guards regained consciousness.
"You ve gotta be kidding me..." Forest uttered as he fell to the floor, supporting himself with his front hooves, "I... used... to much power..."
"Forest!" Pinkie Pie went down to him, trying to support him as she placed his hoof over her shoulder.
"Pinkie..." Forest addressed her with a shaky huff, "you didn't test the candy bar yet, did you?"
"N- no..." she replied with a feeling of burden and realising her mistake, an untested magically enhanced energy bar that is meant to rehydrate and revitalise could have a dangerous side effect, but what chances did they have?
"It's okay," Forest comforted her with a smile, the kind that told her everything is going to be okay, the effect he has when he smiles. He lifted up his other hoof and gently took the candy bar from her. Forest bit into the plain white wrapper and tore it off revealing a bumpy chocolate coloured bar, without hesitation, he bit the bar and chewed it all up. "I'll stop at nothing to protect you, Pinkamena."
"Hu-" Forest placed his hooves against his stomach, a sharp pain had struck him and then quickly left, he could feel himself becoming energized again.
Pinkie Pie edged closer to him, "S- Sunset? are you-"
"This... candy... IS SO GOOD, BABY!", Forest yelled out in extreme excitement. Devouring the whole bar at once leads to ridiculous hyper activity, side effect acknowledged, "lightnin' dash!"
"Uh- oh..." the guards blurted in unison, Forest then dashed to them in the form of lightning, landing between them on the Salamander.
"Pow!" Forest annotated the sound effect as he gave an uppercut to one guard, "feel the love of the drop kick!" he exclaimed with great enthusiasm as he drop kicked the other guard off the Salamander, he then lightning dashed up to mid-air.
"Yeah, Forest! Woohooo! Show 'em how it's done!" Pinkie Pie cheered frantically.
"Prepare to be unified with the crazy bonds of chain lightning!" Forest's horn began to glow vividly with an aura of yellow electricity, "lemme give you an encore folks! Chain Lightning!" the yellow lighting struck the Salamander and the flow of electricity connected to the guards, Forest held the flow for the necessary length on to have them knocked out. As the he ended the flow ended, the guards and the Salamander fell to the ground unconscious.
"Holy smokes!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as her jaw dropped with a grin. Forest rushed to her and picked her up, twirling her around as they cheered at their success, Pinkie Pie giggled uncontrollably as he threw her up into the air and caught her multiple times, he then held her with ease and had their lips connect for a long kiss of victory.
"Your the best Pinks! I mean did you see that? I was all like pow! And then the drop kick and they didn't even see it coming!" Forest started.
"Did I? I can never miss something that great! I mean did you see the looks on their faces when they saw you all pumped up like that? They were all like bluuuh, Hilarious!" Pinkie Pie complied with equally high enthusiasm. Forest is an excitable pony, so he does natural intend to get hyper. Forest and Pinkie Pie entertained each other that way.
x
The Hydra stood in the swamp water with Kanthon still on top of its left middle head, putting Kanthon at an advantage against the fire based stallion, Jokey Bizarre.
"Haha! Did you hear that? I told you my main man Forest would be al right!" Jokey exclaimed cheerfully as he pointed at Kanthon who remained silent.
"Did he say something about candy?" Boa mused.
"Eeyup." Big Macintosh complied, still fighting off the enemy troops with the royal guards of North Charlie.
Kanthon's anger was rising once more, "don't get your hopes up defenders... this battle isn't over just yet." The zebra began to shout commands in his mother tongue once more, The Hydra roared furiously in response, all heads staring at Jokey with green glowing eyes, the Overgrown Steel winged Crow gave a loud raging caw, additional steel spikes poked out of its back, round its neck around its wings.
Kanthon grinned malevolently, "Let's see how well you perform when the rage of the beast is unleashed."