//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: Thunder from Above, Fire from Below // Story: The River Rising (Iota Force Issue #7) // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// “Holy... did you see that?” Icy's eyes flicked up to Archer when she heard that, though the rest of her face didn't move for a while, as if the corners of her mouth were still attached to the ground even as she raised the rest of her head. After nearly having a heart attack getting over the bridge and being constantly assailed by rain, she'd just been forced to dive down into the mud to grab something when she saw the whirlwind, only to find out that it wasn't even coming near them, so such drastic measures hadn't been necessary. For that matter, she didn't know if, had it passed directly over them, her hanging on would have helped. But she didn't even have time to wonder that before she realized that, if it wasn't aimed at them, the whirlwind would most likely have been sent at the town, making even her drenched, mud-spattered safety feel like something to be guilty over. She was, all in all, thoroughly miserable, so she felt quite justified in responding to Archer's question with, “See what? You mean the gigantic, rocket-powered tornado? Nope, didn't notice anything like that! Maybe you were seeing things.” For a moment, Icy wondered what Alula would say in regards to her sarcasm – whether she'd be proud of Icy, tell her it needed work and give her some tips or simply insist she leave it to the professionals. In any case, it helped her mood only marginally when Archer chuckled at her observation. “Fair enough,” she said, sounding less bothered by the aggression than Icy would have liked, but she hadn't expected it to truly get to her, “but I was more talking about how this pony made it. The “rocket-powered” part.” “What about it?” Icy asked, still far too miffed to admit that it was any kind of clever. Still, it seemed Archer didn't have such compunctions. “Well, the whole ‘tying rockets into a circle’ thing... No way that should have worked. Just tying them together, either they'd start bouncing every which way or, even if you could get 'em spinning, you couldn’t get 'em level enough to make a tornado. Using 'em like they did... that's some dang impressive precision right there!” Icy was spared having to glare at Archer when Lance gave her a disapproving look, less severe than Icy's would have been but, she thought, carrying far more meaning. Archer put her hooves up placatingly. “Hey, I didn't say impressive was a good thing.” She thought for a moment before shrugging and beginning to walk onwards towards the mountain. “Or a bad thing, really. It just is.” Icy rolled her eyes and snorted as she and Lance followed. “I'm happy you find the town getting wrecked “impressive”. Er, it was going towards the town, right?” she asked, her irritated tone letting up slightly as she realized she hadn't got confirmation of that and was turned around enough in the forest that she had no idea which direction the town lay in. Still, Archer nodded. “Yeah, but don't worry. I don't know much about weather, but that didn't seem too strong.” She paused for a split second before raising a hoof to cut off any interjection and spoke rapidly, “By tornado standards, I mean. Point is, the weather pegasi should be able to counter-spin it without a problem before long – won't do any real damage.” Icy was a little torn for a moment between trusting Archer's instincts and being annoyed at how casually she was treating the possibility. After a moment of trying to decide, she settled on only a slightly snide tone as she asked. “Well, I don't know much about weather either, but I know that even if it only lasts a few seconds, a tornado's gonna do some real damage to what it does hit.” Archer nodded, her face indicating that she took the point, but still replied, “Yeah, but it was heading towards Sweet Apple Acres. Not much to damage there – a few apple trees, maybe, but nothing important.” Back in Ponyville, Applejack paused for a moment as she stacked sandbags, her eye twitching for reasons she wasn't sure of. “Trust me, they'll be fine,” Archer finished. For a moment, Icy found herself nodding in agreement before she saw Lance tilting his head sharply, asking a question before jerking his head in the direction the tornado had gone. Both Icy and Archer thought for a moment. “That's... a really good question,” Archer said after a moment. “Why did they send it at the Acres?” Icy swallowed hard, both happy and worried at having thought of the probable answer. “Well, the whole town was involved in preparing for the flood. Maybe there was something important there that this pony wanted to wreck.” Archer nodded, her fading smile giving Icy a tiny, unpleasant sort of satisfaction. “Can't think what there'd be there, but you've got a point.” She looked up towards the treeline, to where Mount Foalja rose past it. “I mean, we can't rule out that they're just crazy and did it out of random insanity – trying to flood a town with weather rockets ain't exactly the sign of a stable mind, you know – but they may have been trying to screw things up for the town.” Icy gulped and it was apparently loud enough for Archer to hear her and turn around, giving her an encouraging smile. “Thing is, though,” she said, her head turned so she could both look at Icy and keep their path in her peripheral vision, “the “don't worry” still applies. Even if they did try to stop the town getting themselves ready, it won't do 'em any good – they'll still manage it, trust me.” Icy's expression didn't lose its doubt, but she did give a hesitant nod. With a smirk, Archer turned back to the front. “See, Ponyville may be full of total loonies, but we know how to handle a crisis. Got the experience with 'em, if nothing else.” Icy frowned in puzzlement at her words. “Um, wasn't there a mare in the town square talking about ‘the horror’ of Sugarcube Corner being out of cupcakes last week?” Archer nodded but didn't seem bothered. “Yeah, but that wasn’t a crisis, was it? I’m talking about when the chips are really down, you know? Besides, I said Ponyville was good in a crisis, not the ponies in it.” Icy's frown and confusion deepened. “What's the difference? Like the land is...?” She trailed off as Archer shook her head. “Nah, I mean when we work together. Whole is greater, that kinda thing.” Icy was about to question this further when Lance nodded in agreement, before raising a hoof to the top of his head and running it along the front, miming out a crown. At that, Icy nodded, understanding what they were implying. “So, good leadership can make a difference. I guess they'll be okay, then, since they've got Mayor Mare and Princess Tw-” “Anyway!” Archer suddenly blurted out, her eyes snapping open wide and looking sharply back at Icy, almost entirely knocking her out of her bad mood in surprise. As consistent as Archer's perpetual relaxation usually was, there had been one or two instances when she'd gotten angry or agitated in the time Icy had known her. However, she had never once actually snapped like that or gotten startled, so it caught Icy completely off-guard. Still, it only lasted a moment before she relaxed again and continued. “Anyway, it's not like we can go back and help them. Best thing we can do to make things easier for the town is take out the pony trying to destroy it.” Icy nodded, though a hint of worry edged back into her consciousness as she did. “Uh huh, we've just got to take out a pony who can throw around tornados.” Archer gave a grim chuckle at that. “Yeah. Probably better if we we avoid anything that could give away that we're here, lik-” She was cut off when a massive thunderclap sounded just above them, a bolt of electricity surging through a nearby tree and making much of its bark explode. Before anyone could say anything, a sudden crash came from above them and a huge shape plummeted through the canopy, twisting for a moment before it hit the ground and carved a deep gash in it, sending mud flying up along its path. “Like that, f’rexample,” Archer said without missing a beat. She whipped her bow off her back in an instant, Lance drawing his sword at the same time. Icy felt a little inadequate next to that as she flared her wings a good couple of seconds later. However, as the mud fell back to the ground and revealed what the falling shape had been, that suddenly didn't feel as important as the fact she got them up at all. Lying there at the end of the furrow was a huge lion with the wings of a bat and a scorpion's tail. Icy had seen pictures of manticores before – and of course had read that issue where Captain Equestria fought the Manticore, even if they had been mostly equine and using the name – but seeing one firsthoof was a whole different experience. Even as it lay there, heaving and covered in dirt, it managed to send a shiver of intimidation through her. The tableau stayed static for a couple of seconds as the manticore remained still, the only change coming as the rain fell and washed away the mud covering its body. As it did, it soon became clear why it had fallen out of the sky – nearly the entire left side of its body was covered in a huge, blackened burn, along with its left wing looking ragged and bleeding slightly from hitting the branches on the way down. Even some of the majestic mane around its head had been burned away, though it still retained more than enough to give it its trademark menacing silhouette. A moment later, it planted its right forepaw firmly into the ground and rose shakily to its feet. Looking down, Icy could see more blood being washed off its legs along with the mud. She couldn't see any large or open wounds from the angle she was looking, but as it got its paws under it, she saw that its left forepaw had been twisted into an unpleasant-looking angle and, even as the thing realigned it into a more natural stance, it was notably shaky on it. However, all of this didn't stop the thing from whipping its head up and growling at the ponies, its eyes making it very clear that they were to stay away. The fact that it held its needle-sharp tail out in front of it only served to emphasize that point, the wicked point glinting slightly in the rain and sending enough fear through Icy that she couldn't stop her wings from wilting. Still, it seemed she was the only one so scared, as Archer held her free hoof up placatingly. “Whoa, whoa, easy, big guy! We're not gonna hurt you!” The manticores growled again in response, obviously not convinced. However, a moment later, there was a loud fluttering from all around the area and it turned its head away from them, clearly finding whatever was landing a greater threat. Icy wasn't sure why, though, as the sound appeared to be coming from a flock of small, black birds coming down and landing on the branches of the surrounding trees, forming a rough circle around the manticore and ponies. Icy wasn't nearly experienced enough in animal care or bird watching to tell exactly what species of bird they were – crows, ravens, blackbirds and rooks all looked the same to her, though she always wondered if she could tell the latter because they only moved in straight, non-diagonal lines. Fortunately, Archer was more on the ball, it seemed, as she reached slowly for an arrow. “Well, that explains it – storm crows!” Icy tilted her head slightly. “Storm crows? Oh, because they come out in storms like this one?” She hadn't heard of them before, but that seemed to make sense. “Are they dangerous?” Archer opened her mouth to respond before it was cut off by a roar from the manticore, clearly aimed at the crows to try and scare them off. However, in response, the three crows directly in its line of sight hopped closer together. Icy was about to ask why when, suddenly, their long, yellow beaks began glowing. Within a fraction of a second, they were radiating light like a torch and, a moment later, electricity began to crackle along their beaks. As Icy looked on, astonished, the electricity leapt off the tips of their beaks in unison, forming small bolts of lightning, each going into the same point in the air in front of them. For an instant, that point had a bright, static ball of electricity hanging there before it surged forward, the three jolts combining into a larger bolt that impacted the ground with a clap of thunder. Icy swallowed and nodded. “Right. Okay. Storm crows!” she muttered. It was easy, at least for her, to forget, what with the constant rainfall, the huge amounts of flowing water around and the constant, niggling threat of full flooding, that they were in the middle of the Everfree Forest, a place that was constantly coming up with new and more powerful threats even when dry. A long, tense silence settled over the scene after the crows and the manticore had made their threats. There was movement from both sides, but never anything loud and sudden – the manticore turned slowly around to keep its eyes on its opponents and, occasionally, one of the crows would flap to a different position, but it was clear neither side was going to make the first move until there was an opening. However, what made it even more tense for Icy was that it was beginning to seem like those weren't the only sides in this situation. “Er, guys,” she stage-whispered, feeling it more important to keep her words calm and non-threatening than quiet, “is it just me or are the crows looking at us, too?” “Yep,” Archer replied, slowly nocking her arrow, though not pulling the string back yet. “Probably think we're easy pickings. Shows what they know.” Icy gulped, wishing, not for the first time, that she had Archer's ever-present confidence. Still, she focused on the situation at hoof and what could be done about it. “Should we get ready to run again?” She wasn't sure which answer she was hoping for – she wasn't looking forward to another chase so soon after the timber wolves, but neither did she like the idea of fighting these things. However, she realized the chase would have been preferable only as Lance shook his head that they wouldn't be doing that. “Yeah, no point,” Archer added to his silent denial. “Doubt we could outpace 'em, plus they've got range on us they can use in flight. And the big guy might distract a fair few of 'em, but there'd still be plenty to chase us down.” Lance turned and gave Archer a long frown at the idea of leaving the manticore to fend for itself. Archer simply rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know we're not gonna. I wasn't saying we would or we should, just that it wouldn't help even if we did.” Icy scuffed a hoof against the muddy ground in agitation. “So, if they attack, we're gonna have to fight?” Her eyes darted around, the quiet tension of the situation proving impossible to get used to, instead only getting more stressful with each passing minute. Archer nodded. “Probably. Could maybe try scaring 'em off, but anything loud enough to do that'd give us away to the pony upstairs.” She jerked her head up towards where Mount Foalja sat above the canopy. “Plus, if a manticore can't do that, not sure what we’d do to get 'em running.” Lance tilted his head slightly at Archer's words, questioning why the crows didn’t seem scared of the giant beast. “Huh, good question,” Archer said after a moment, still keeping her voice low but without the same kind of strain as before as she thought about it. “Storm crows wouldn't normally be this aggressive or brave, especially after the first few got taken out.” “Are we sure they did?” Icy asked, happy for even the slight distraction from the silent battle of wills happening in front of and all around them. “Maybe they caught the manticore by surprise?” “Nah,” Archer replied, “There was blood on its claws and tail as it fell, before it tore its wing. It took out a fair chunk of 'em, I'd say.” Icy hummed, trusting Archer's eyes but not sure what else could have made the crows bolder. After all, even if she didn't take Archer's word for it, the fact she hadn't seen or heard them coming near or into Ponyville ever suggested they weren't the Everfree's apex predators. However, a drop of rain falling splashing up off her muzzle, under her hood and into her eye gave her a thought. “Maybe the weather's making them stronger. I mean, they are storm crows, not thunder crows.” Archer nodded. “Maybe. Dangit, where's Fluttershy or Zecora when you need 'em? Or even Zat?” Icy frowned in confusion. “Zatrathan?” Of course, she remembered the zebra they had met a couple of weeks ago in the Crystal Empire and, while Archer had become firm friends and pen pals with him, Icy wasn't sure what the young spellsword had to do with the situation. “Does he know stuff about animals too?” Archer smiled a little too wide as she thought of him. “Nah, but when it comes to things zapping other things, he's an expert.” Icy hummed uncertainly – while he had demonstrated quite a skill with channelling electricity through his sword, she wasn't sure how he could help. If anything, it seemed like Archer just wanted him around in general, though Icy didn't know why. However, she was brought out of her thoughts about that when a sudden jerk of movement in her peripheral vision drew her attention back to the manticore, giving her just enough time to ready her wings before things started happening rapidly. The Manticore, still slowly moving around to keep an eye on as many of the birds around it as possible, took a step that was just a little poorly angled, its face making clear that it knew it as soon as its paw made contact with the ground, but it had too much momentum to stop. As a result, its leg buckled a little and knocked the whole creature down slightly, stunning it slightly and making it whimper in pain for an instant as it tried to right itself. It wasn't much, but it was enough for one of the birds to see an opening and dart off the branch it had been sitting on, seeming to move almost as quickly as the electricity gathering on its beak. Fortunately, it wasn't the only thing that could move rapidly, as Lance darted between the two and whipped his broad-brimmed hat off his head, its form stiffening as it became an effective shield and blocked the bolt from the bird's beak. However, that was enough to break the tension and send the rest of the birds up into the air, flying around the land-bound creatures and charging their beaks. Icy backed off a step towards the centre and tried to count how many there were as she sent a blast of cold out into the whirling mass of feathers and thunder, catching a couple with a glancing hit that nevertheless froze their wings in solid ice blocks and sent them into a crash landing, knocking them out completely. Still, it didn't seem like much of a victory to Icy, who estimated there to be at least fifty of the birds. Fortunately, they weren't all attacking simultaneously, presumably for fear of interfering with one another – not a good thing when you were throwing lightning around. Instead, a few at a time would break off from the circle and swoop over them, sending out blasts as they passed. As intimidating as this was, it did make things a little more manageable, since it gave them a bit of forewarning about when a blast would come. However, as Icy stepped back, just about avoiding the blast that impacted next to her hooves but still came close enough for her to feel the heat from the small bolt, she didn't feel all that comforted. Another step back made her bump into Archer. Risking a momentary glance over her shoulder, Icy met her eyes and got an encouraging smirk for her trouble as Archer fired a steady stream of arrows into the horde, catching most of those that were heading towards her. Just before Icy turned away, she saw a group of three break off and fly towards Archer, giving Icy a momentary concern. Archer, however, barely seemed to acknowledge the problem as she sent an impact arrow into the central crow, knocking it to the side and out of the air, such that it deflected one of its fellows and the arrow knocked into and deflected the other. Icy blinked but, after a moment, subconsciously thanked her lucky stars that she was beginning to get used to Archer's skill, as it meant she was able to focus back in front of her just in time to see the storm crow flying straight at her, its beak crackling menacingly. Flapping her wings wildly, she managed to send a rough wave of cold at it. She was briefly afraid when it didn't fully freeze the crow, but simply made a layer of frost on its wings. However, it seemed that was enough, as the sudden icing up of the wings stopped them from working properly, sending the crow crashing into the ground and making its electricity discharge through the earth, sending up a small explosion of mud and grass. When it settled, the bird was unconscious. Icy blinked, a little astonished that that had worked as well as it did. However, she soon nodded to herself as she realized that this made things a little easier – she didn't have to totally freeze the birds, just give them enough of a coating that they couldn't fly. Flaring her wings, she began gathering her energy for a much wider and less intense blast. However, after a moment, she realized the slight problem with this – she wasn't entirely sure how to make such a blast. For as long as she'd known of her abilities – which hadn't been all that long, relatively speaking – she'd always had to focus her blasts as much as she could to make them as effective as possible. Even after she'd gotten a suit that helped increase her blasts' power, she'd still always focused on keeping her energy tight and controlled. As such, while she knew roughly the movements to create a weaker, more widespread gust, she wasn't entirely clear on how to spread her energy through it. Still, she didn't let the stop her from trying, pulling her wings much further back from normal and shoving them forward sharply before stopping them before they got too close together as they went forward. As she did, she focused on the energy in her wings, trying to call it up a little more gently than normal and spread it out through her feathers much more evenly – she'd never really noticed before how much her energy naturally pooled at her wingtips and wasn't sure whether that was due to the nature of the energy or simply how she instinctively wielded it. Either way, the attempt was a moderate success, sending out a wave of energy that was certainly much wider than normal, but that she could see as soon as it left her wings wouldn't go nearly as far. It did, immensely fortunately, catch both the crows that had presumably noticed her state of focus and come at her to exploit her seeming vulnerability, sending them crashing to the ground. However, the distance between her and the circling birds, combined with the many raindrops that got between her and them, drawing in the cold and getting frozen, meant that only one other crow was iced up enough to plummet, and that one only because it had been flying a lot nearer to her as it passed. Icy hummed a little in disappointment, resolving to practice this once they were home. In the meantime, however, she took a few shaky steps closer to the feather-filled perimeter, hoping she could catch a few more in her next wave. As she started gathering energy once more, keeping tense and ready for any incoming bolts, she heard Archer over her shoulder call out, “Lance, eight o'clock! Wants you to put your sword up!” Icy turned her head towards Lance, only to see a crow flying at her from between him and her. Letting her wings flap on instinct, she managed to ice it up and bring it down as she turned around, catching two more behind it as well. As she finished turning around, she got a full look at Lance and the manticore, both of whom were extremely active in the fight. The manticore was clumsily swiping its claws and stabbing its tail at every crow that came near, occasionally shifting its wings slightly, as if its instincts told it to take flight for the fraction of a second it took for its charred wings and hurt legs to remind it why that was a bad idea. Still, as obvious as it was that its injuries were preventing it from operating at its full capacity, it was still pretty effective at smacking and skewering any crows that got near it. That said, few did, as Lance was doing an immensely effective job protecting the beast, darting around and slashing all comers out of the air, creating a small flash each time as his sword's stunning enchantment knocked them silly. For a brief moment, Icy wondered how much of Lance's fervour in protecting the manticore was for its benefit and how much was for the birds'. Either way, she soon spotted what Archer had meant – a single crow was hovering just behind and to the side of Lance, keeping high enough that neither he nor the manticore could reach it. Icy wouldn't have thought these birds capable of hovering, but it was just about managing it, electricity crackling along its wings as it flapped them into a blur like a hummingbird. It was waiting for something, but Icy was briefly unsure what. A flash of movement to her side drew her attention away as a bird flew at her from the side. She flapped a blast at it just in time, freezing it in a block of ice a moment before the lightning fired from its beak. The lightning did blast the ice into a cloud of chunks and vapour, but the explosion still served to knock the crow out completely, so it didn't make much of a difference. Turning back, Icy just about caught the bird descending for a moment before retreating up high, in some sort of false start for whatever it was trying to do. However, the fact that it coincided with Lance raising his sword slightly and then lowering it again gave Icy an idea of what Archer had meant. Lance was, for the most part, keeping his sword low and close except for the appropriately lightning-quick slashes to deflect incoming birds. Presumably, he was aware of the dangers of swinging a lightning rod around in this situation, and the crow was waiting for him to raise it enough to take advantage of that. However, it seemed that Lance's raising of the sword had been a test of his own, as he nodded as soon as the bird backed off. After taking care of another crow, he let out a long grunt of seeming displeasure as, conspicuously, from Icy's perspective at least, he kept his sword up for a long moment. It seemed that the hovering crow didn't find this as suspicious, though, as it descended and charged its beak for a bolt. Icy was briefly worried as the tableau remained roughly static for a moment as the charge built up into a blast. However, an instant before it did, Lance sprung into action, whipping the sword up vertically and throwing it into the air, where it hung for a moment as the thunderbolt flew from the bird's beak and struck the blade, visibly charging it with electricity. Lance, however, didn't keep himself upright to catch the blade, instead falling as if onto his back as soon as it left his hoof, a moment later kicking his hindhooves up into a backwards cartwheel. As his hindlegs flew up and he stood on his forehooves, he straightened himself up for a split second before falling back, bringing one of his knees sharply forward to ram into his sword's hilt, his thick, protective clothing stopping the charge from going into him. As such, the sword remained charged when it was driven into the hovering crow's chest, the flash of the impact stunning it enough that it didn't resist as both continued back, ramming the bird into a tree. As soon as the bird made contact with the bark, the electricity surged out of the sword and into the tree, using the bird as a bridge and exposing it to the full force of the lightning. Icy had no idea how much of the bird's subsequent unconsciousness was because of the sword's stunning effect and how much was because of the electricity, but either way, its wings flopped down and its body dropped like a stone, out of the fight. Once this had happened, Lance leapt up towards the tree, grabbing the now-safe sword's hilt before twisting his hindhooves forward to leapt back off the tree and towards the manticore again, landing just in time to swipe another bird out of the air before it could fire. Icy chuckled a little. She didn't know if she'd ever cease to be amazed at Lance's talent for finding the most direct and effective route to achieving his goals that nevertheless looked incredibly flashy and made him into an unintentional show-off. However, she certainly hoped she wouldn't stop noticing it – it was part of what made her job so fun. That said, it did occasionally have its problematic moments, such as when that very same sense of fun meant she wasn't paying full attention to her surroundings. “Icy! Seven o'clock!” Icy blinked as her focus was yanked back into the present situation. However, it took her a moment to parse what Archer had called out, picturing a clock's hands at seven and working out where she was referring to in relation to where Icy was. Thinking in retrospect later, Icy would think it would have probably been a lot easier and more efficient to just say “Behind you!” but she would then suppose that Archer was used to giving precise orders and that Icy simply needed to get used to her method of alerting others. In the moment, however, she simply yelped when she finally turned around to see the storm crow diving towards her, its near-pitch-black eyes unusually clear from the metre-distance it was at, helped by being lit up by the thunderbolt streaking from its beak. Fortunately, her startled reflexes were sharp enough for her to yank her forehooves back from the ground an instant before it was struck by the bolt, but the force of the mud kicked up and the intense heat still sent a jolt up through her legs. It only lasted a moment, but it was enough to stop her from arresting her movement, sending her leaping back from the crow. As she rose, she flapped her wings on instinct, sending a non-freezing gust forward and propelling her backwards, as well as stunning the crow enough for Archer to nail it with an arrow. Not that she probably needed it to be stunned, but it didn't hurt. Icy, however, was a little more concerned with her impromptu leap, twisting her body around to face forward so she could both see where she was going and, if necessary, go into a glide. However, any hopes of the latter went out of the window when she saw that she was heading straight for another one of the crows. The bird in question was just turning its head towards the incoming filly, its beak already sparking with electricity to blast at her. Icy's eyes widened as her attempts to straighten out her flight overshot the mark and sent her twisting too far and ending up just as uncontrolled. She stopped herself from spiralling any further, but that didn't stop her from heading straight along the crow's line of fire. Half out of an actual, if vague, idea and half out of blind panic, Icy flapped her wings once more, directing the force of the gust behind her and speeding her even faster towards the crow. If nothing else, that seemed to startle and confuse it, setting its rapidly beating wings off-rhythm and making it dip slightly in the air. Icy wasn't sure how or why, but the sight of the crow being surprised helped clear her head a little, focusing her thoughts and perceptions enough that, an instant before the crow blasted her, she thought to reach her hooves out and grab it by its body, yanking it aside and making the bolt miss her by nearly half a metre. Of course, once she had a hold of the bird, the issues with that arrangement became somewhat more clear, as her momentum, combined with the wild flapping of her wings and the force of its own wingbeats – which would have been solidly focused in one direction had her weight not been pulling it around all over the place, making them effectively as random as her flapping wings – sent the two into a bizarre, spiralling spin that had disoriented both of them, which in turn only intensified the wild flailing and making the nauseating ride worse. However, even in her confusion, Icy thought to pull the crow's body up to her and force it to turn, so its beak was facing away from her. This, it turned out, was a very good move, as it quickly began firing off small bolts at high speed, clearly panicking as much as Icy had been. In fact, through the world's tumbling, Icy could just about see that one of these bolts struck another one of the crows and, though she couldn’t make out the image of exactly what happened, she was able to see and hear the electrical explosion that resulted from it and get the distinct impression that that particular crow was out of the fight. And also that, once it recovered, it would probably have some choice words, or perhaps caws, for the crow she was grappling. However, after what could have been a few moments or a few minutes from Icy's perspective, gravity seemed to finally get its act together and reassert itself on the pair. This didn't stop their wild spinning, simply giving their occasional, momentary horizontal position a good view of the approaching ground. Icy yelped as she let go of the crow and kicked it away with an elbow, a move that she realized was a good idea about a second after she did it, as the crow let off one final, desperate bolt. Evidently, it was putting everything it had into it without really thinking about how it would help, as was proved when the bolt impacted the ground a few centimetres below it, sending up another substantial explosion of mud and dirt and knocking the crow unconscious. Had Icy not let go, there was a good chance she'd have been knocked for a loop by said explosion as well. Groaning a little even as she thanked her lucky stars for her unintentionally good judgement, she rose to her hooves and looked up to see Archer's smirk, which felt a little irritating even as it was attempting to be encouraging. “Nice moves there, Icy!” she said as she let off another arrow, barely looking at its path but still getting the squawk of a hit. “Took out two of 'em.” Icy sighed. “I wasn't trying to...” “I know,” Archer interrupted with an infuriatingly casual shrug. “Was still cool.” Icy sighed into a chuckle as she straightened her wings up, getting ready to gather her energy and contribute to the fight once more. At least, in a way where she was trying to. “Still,” Archer continued as she fired off another shot, “wish I'd known they were vulnerable to their own lightning earlier – could have taken out two or three at a time with a few shock arrows before they got this thin.” Looking around, Icy took in the situation and saw that, indeed, the flock had thinned out massively since the fight had begun. Thanks to the steady whittling down of their numbers in between the few times a chunk had been taken out at once, there couldn't have been more than fifteen left. Still, that wasn't to say that they weren't in danger, as Icy recalled the force she'd felt even on the edge of one bolt. She tensed to dodge any more that were incoming. However, no sooner had she registered this thought than the crows circling them started to rise higher in the air, a few beginning to congregate in a tight ring above them, just above the point any of them could reach. As more and more began joining the ring, their beaks all began to crackle at once and it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were intending to do – combine all their blasts into one massive thunderbolt. Their positioning suggested that they were aiming primarily for the manticore but, with the size of the bolt they'd no doubt produce, Icy didn't suppose it mattered. Though the manticore had been twisting around decently well to take out any crows that came close, it was only able to do so by totally favouring one front leg and it was obvious that it wouldn't be able to move away fast enough to escape the bolt. Meanwhile, the only way for the ponies to avoid it was to leave the manticore to its fate and one glance at Lance's masked face told her, in no uncertain terms, that that wasn't happening. Icy's mind raced as she tried to think of what they could do about it. A lightning rod of some sort might protect them from the first bolt, but anything she could think of that would reach high enough would be destroyed by said bolt, after which the crows could simply make another one. Some sort of explosion or area attack would be able to take them all out at once, but she knew Archer wasn't allowed explosive arrows, as the filly had sometimes semi-bitterly noted, and she couldn't think of any other such abilities they had. A drop of rain landing on a particularly sensitive bit of her wing did remind her that she had one ability with something of a wide area of effect, but she doubted her waves of cold would do anything more than make them shiver at the distance she was at, and that wasn't taking into account how she'd only just started learning the skill. She could focus enough of a blast to freeze one of them, maybe two if they were particularly close together, but that was assuming she could even hit one, which was by no means a certain proposition. Still, she thought as she watched the circle of birds move to the side in a spiral, keeping themselves above the manticore's limping steps, it might be her best option. Maybe if she was lucky, the frozen bird would stay in the air long enough to disrupt their flight patterns. She thought back over the encounter so far to think about what had happened before when she'd frozen them – most had simply plummeted, so she doubted they could stay up for any length of time, although the one that had been in mid-blast had simply made the ice explode, so... Her eyes widened and she tapped a hoof on the ground in realization. Admittedly, it wasn't nearly as satisfying as normal since it simply produced a splash of mud rather than the normal satisfying clop and she momentarily wished she had fingers to snap before shaking the thought off. She looked up at the birds and flared her wings as she evaluated the situation. Admittedly, she was no Archer, but she could get a rough idea of what would happen if she sent up a block of ice. If she got one of the birds as it fired, the explosion would take a few out – maybe a little less than half if she was lucky and sent a particularly big block up there. She didn't know if that would be enough, but it was something at least. Of course, sending up a lot of energy would make it much harder to aim, so her chances of hitting a rapidly moving target were slim, but she had to try. However, as soon as she began gathering up her energy, taking much longer than normal so as to almost saturate her wings with cold, she saw the birds finally beginning to pour their electrical energies into the centre of the ring and another idea flashed into her mind – a block of ice in the centre could well take them all out. She was briefly worried when she realized that she'd need something solid there to freeze – she wasn't yet skilled enough to make ice in thin air, even if she ever could be. However, she was still focused enough on the idea to call out, “Can you get something into the centre of them?” “You got it!” Archer replied, having already been aiming a shot up at the ring. Shifting her aim slightly, she let loose an arrow before immediately loading another, this one thicker and covered in shiny, copper-like veins. Firing this new arrow up into the air, Icy followed its path up towards the birds, where the first arrow had just struck one of them, knocking it out of the ring and out of the sky. Icy was briefly confused about how this helped them in any meaningful way before the arrow, having bounced off the bird, fell into the central nimbus of electricity. It immediately caught fire, of course, but an instant before it was reduced completely to ash, the second arrow struck it, sending out a spray of burning wood chips that were quickly quenched by the rain around them. However, before Icy could wonder about the purpose of this, she saw that not only was the second arrow staying mostly unharmed by the lightning around it, but it was also staying firmly in place, as if lodged in some invisible structure. It only took a moment for Icy to realize what it was and she smiled with a nod. “Heh, course. Stick-n-Stays!” she muttered as she flapped her wings hard, having to put every ounce of her strength into keeping them moving and firm, to try and focus the massive amount of energy she'd built up. It was quite an effort, but it seemed to have the desired effect, flash-freezing a massive chunk of ice around the hanging arrow, thick enough to cover the area from the centre of the ring to halfway towards the circling birds and encase the ball of electricity they had been building up. If nothing else, it would almost certainly protect them from the lightning itself, which would have been enough for Icy. However, a moment later, the crackling of both thunder and ice rose to a crescendo before a series of deep cracks rushed through the ice block in an instant and the whole thing burst into a cloud of ice chunks, water vapour and occasional puffs of steam. For about a tenth of a second, Icy was a little disappointed and worried, since it didn't look like the release of energy – it would be an exaggeration to call it an explosion – would be enough to take out all the crows. Maybe one or two might have been in the wrong position and taken enough of a hit to knock them out of the air, but it probably wouldn't be enough to end the problem. However, after that brief moment of doubt, it became clear that where the burst had failed, the flying ice chunks would easily pick up the slack, sailing out from the chunk and ramming into the circle of birds, with only a few being quick or well-positioned enough to dodge them. This was only helped by the fact that, even if the burst of energy and vapour wasn't enough to hurt the crows, it certainly stunned them for long enough that the flying ice could knock them out of the air. Of course, Icy only had a fraction of a second to appreciate this before her attention was drawn to the many chunks that had been sent shooting down towards her and her allies. Before her mind could even fully register this, her wings were already flapping down, sending a wave of energy along the ground in front of her, before pulling up and forming a small, thick umbrella of ice that would shield her from the falling debris. For a moment, she felt a little guilty that her reflexes, seemingly more intelligent than her mind, had only thought to protect herself rather than her friends. However, as she looked out to the side, she realized she needn't have bothered: Archer was easily dodging the rain of shards, even taking a moment to fire a couple of shots up into the birds, presumably to take out a couple that had avoided getting hit before; Lance was keeping his sword up, dodging almost as nimbly and easily slashing the few ice fragments he couldn't avoid out of the air; and the manticore simply took the falling chunks on its back, grunting loudly in pain but trusting in its thick hide to protect it from the brunt of the damage. Once the rain of ice had subsided, Icy peeked out and up, curious to see what, if anything, was left of the attacking force. A smile blossomed on her face as she saw that the only crows who weren't coming in for a crash landing were instead flying off into the distance, obviously retreating and, while Icy couldn't be sure and doubted it, she liked to imagine they were whimpering incessantly, whining about how their “easy prey” had turned out to be dangerous after all. Huh, she thought as the cockiness of that thought fully registered with her. I wonder if this is how Archer feels... all the time. Sure enough, Archer was striding up to the manticore, giving it a smile before putting a hoof on its shoulder. “There we go! Not such a problem, huh, big guy?” The manticore gave a small growl, not enough to be intimidating, simply to raise the idea of intimidation should it be needed. It was clear that, while it had certainly noticed that the ponies had protected it and were certainly on its side against the storm crows, it didn't trust them enough not to let them know that it was still a massive slab of fur, claws and predation. Archer rolled her eyes. “Hey, alright, fine! You gonna be okay from here?” It was unclear whether the manticore understood her words or was simply acting on its own impulses, but took a purposeful step towards the edge of the clearing, signifying that it was leaving. Icy got the impression that it wasn't actively against them following, but that it wasn't looking for it either. It limped forward a few steps, its hurt leg slowing it down a little and giving it a wobbly gait, but not truly immobilizing it. However, a moment later, it became clear that it probably should have, as it landed on its leg at a bad angle and its knee buckled, sending it hurtling hard towards the ground. Fortunately, before its torso could hit the ground and send it sprawling, Lance dived underneath it and caught it, though the strain in his muscles showed that he had barely managed to both keep his grip and stop himself from getting crushed. Still, he was able to keep his balance and posture enough to glare up at the others, both in protest at them not joining him and to ask if they’d challenge his decision. Icy tilted her head, a little surprised, but still trotted up to join him in pulling the manticore back to its feet. Admittedly, Icy was neither an earth pony nor particularly strong, so she doubted she would help much, but she was happy to lend what little aid she could. Archer, on the other hoof, scoffed even as she too came up to join him. “Oh, come on, Lance! He'll be fine – this can't be the first time he's gotten hurt like this. He lives in the Everfree, for crying out loud,” she said. There wasn't much aggression behind her words, though how much was because of her normal easy-going nature and how much was because she didn't mind enough to argue the point with any degree of passion, Icy couldn't say. Still, Lance remained firm, shaking his head once at Archer and, even once the manticore had regained its stability, stayed very close to it as they went forward in the direction of Mount Foalja, ready to catch it again if needed. Icy lingered a moment before following, just long enough to hear Archer mutter, “I get it, but some things don't need protecting,” before she too followed behind, pulling the map out of her quiver. As she joined the others around the manticore, she spoke up, this time loud enough to be heard by everyone. “You're lucky – there's a rocky overhang about a klick in this direction, we can leave him there for now – should be safe enough.” Lance gave her a long look before nodding and shrugging, the combination of the movements indicating that he appreciated being told and was glad of it, but if there was no such area, that wouldn't have stopped him from helping the creature. Archer sighed heavily before shaking her head and smiling. “Alright, okay, fine. Let's go, then.” Icy tilted her head a little at Archer's acceptance, having had similar doubts herself, even if she didn't want to raise them. “Are you sure? I don't want us to put the town at risk – are we sure we'll have time to do this?” Lance gave her a level look and nodded. At this, Archer regained her characteristic smirk as she took up position on the manticore's other side. “Oh, we will, believe me.” Icy pursed her lips for a moment, unsure, but soon shrugged and hurried a little to catch up to the others as they lapsed into the silence of vigilance. Fortunately, the manticore's size and overall strength meant that, even while limping heavily, it was able to move at a decent pace, even more so with an earth pony on either side of it to stabilize it should it stumble. While Icy was sure that it was slowing them down, it wasn't doing so nearly as much as she feared and, far sooner than she'd expected and before she'd allowed herself to get used to the situation, the group had arrived at the overhang Archer had been guiding them towards. As quickly as they'd made it, however, it took a considerable time afterwards for Lance, their resident non-verbal communication expert, to get across in gestures that it should stay there and wait, and that once the weather cleared up, they'd send someone to help it. Even then, while the manticore did sit down with the seeming intention to stay there, Icy had no idea how much of that was because it had understood, how much was because it simply trusted that they wouldn't leave it helpless for long and how much was simply because it was in no state to move anyway. However, once that was done and the group started to turn away, a gentle growl stopped them - clearly not to scare them, just to get their attention. When they turned around, they saw that the manticore had already begun chewing on an oddly coloured plant - green with striations of blue, red and yellow - that covered a good portion of the ground. As soon as the group was facing it, the manticore slashed its massive claws through a patch of the thick leaves, cutting them away from their roots, before nodding towards them encouragingly. “Huh. Well, appreciate the thought, big guy,” Archer said as she picked up the offered leaves. “Hope we won’t need ‘em, but can’t hurt to have ‘em in reserve.” “What are they?” Icy asked as Archer put them in her quiver. “Rainbowsellia,” Archer replied, giving the manticore a wave before turning and leading the group away. “Natural painkiller. Pretty useful stuff, even if we got way more than we’d even need.” “Really?” Icy asked, happy for the distracting conversation. “Yeah, I guess he was thinking on manticore scale. Someone our size, one or two leaves’d be our max. Even for a grown-up, you wouldn’t want more than three. This much?” She indicated the dozens of leaves in her quiver. “Be a one-way ticket to Pukesville, if you’re lucky.” Icy winced, immediately deciding to change the subject in the hopes of dispelling that image. “So, we're sure we'll have time to stop this pony before... you know...” Archer gave her a smile and a nod. “Oh, yeah, no problem. Flooding a town ain't a quick job, no matter how many weather rockets you got,” she assured her. “Besides, like I said, the town's pretty good when it comes to preparing for a disaster. They'll be able to hold things together until we can take care of the problem. Icy looked up at the sky as if to remind herself of the reason she was feeling as tense and nervous as she was. “Er, if you're sure.” Archer nodded firmly. “Oh, I am. I mean, we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves and think we've already won or anything, but we can take a little detour here and there.” Icy raised an eyebrow, a little confused at Archer's seeming change in attitude towards the manticore. “Really? Cause you seemed... kind of against helping it before. Was that not about wanting to hurry up?” Archer shook her head, a slightly abashed smile on her face. “Oh, no, I definitely wanted to get along quicker, it just had nothing to do with worrying about the town.” Icy tilted her head sharply. “It wasn't? But then why...?” Archer sighed into a single chuckle. “I admit, it's not a great reason. I'm just eager to get there, is all. I wanna get a real look at the kid that's doing this, wanna see what they’re like, what their deal is and maybe,” she pushed her muzzle up with a hoof to imitate a cartoonishly posh posture and said, in a mockery of an upper-class accent, “if the opportunity presents itself,” she dropped her muzzle and finished in her normal, loose accent, “stick an arrow up their plot.” Despite herself and the situation, Icy giggled at Archer's tone and slightly off-colour wording. “Okay, I guess I can understand that.” “Geez, I sure hope not,” Archer replied, her smile turning sardonic. “It's a pretty silly reason and it's kinda based on my own... thing. I've just seen so many almost-good shots to the mountaintop through the trees, it was kinda bugging me not getting a good one.” There was a long pause before Icy spoke again. “Huh. I mean, we've been a long way from Mount Foalja, and there's been all this wind and rain too.” “I know,” Archer said with a totally straight face. “That's why I said they were almost good – I'd need a bigger bow, longer legs and clearer weather to get an arrow all the way there. Doesn't mean I can't see that I could if I did.” Icy's brow remained thoroughly furrowed for a moment, not quite seeing what Archer meant before shrugging it off. “I guess. Well, you should have your chance pretty soon, right? We're almost there, so we- ah!” Icy was cut off when Archer grabbed her tail and stopped, yanking Icy back with a bit of pain and a lot of shock. Icy hadn't even really noticed that she'd been pulling slightly ahead of Archer and Lance, the tension pervading her body making her steps slightly quicker even as the conversation helped distract her mind from it. She whipped her head around as her hooves scrabbled on the muddy ground to remain upright, seeing Archer's mouth clamped firmly around Icy's tail hair and her hoof in front of Lance, stopping him without nearly so much discomfort. Fortunately, Archer's grip on Icy's tail remained firm, allowing Icy to find her stability after a moment, even if it was rather unpleasant. Once the group had safely stopped, Archer spat out the tail hair and, after a moment working her tongue to banish the taste, which Icy couldn't imagine had been pleasant, she pointed ahead of them. “Almost there, yeah, but we got another little detour. See that big patch of blue flowers over there?” Icy turned forward again, squinting slightly to see through the pouring rain and cloud-and-canopy-dimmed lighting of the forest. Her eyes weren't nearly as sharp as Archer's, as high a bar as that was, and she would have believed Archer that there was something there even if she had seen nothing at all. However, after a moment, she was able to parse the somewhat muted-looking colours of the area to see, indeed, a huge area of the ground covered in a blue that would, in normal weather, be bright, vibrant and easily spotted. She couldn't make out much more than the general colour, but it made sense that it was a flower patch, even if blue grass wasn't out of the question when dealing with a place like the Everfree. Still, she nodded, not quite seeing what the deal was. “Uh huh? What is it?” “Poison Joke,” Archer replied. “O... kay?” Icy frowned, trying to think if she'd heard the name before. She'd certainly heard of poison oak, but after a few seconds, she couldn't remember ever hearing of Poison Joke before. Although, just by hearing the name, she concluded that it sounded like the sort of thing that would be in the Everfree. Well, that or the name of a D-list supervillain – The Poison Joke. Still, after a moment, she shook her head, both to refocus on the subject and to remind herself that not everything in the Everfree wanted ponies dead, otherwise it would be impossible to take a single step without the ground swallowing you or the grass reaching up to throttle you or the air punching you in the lungs from the inside. Shivering a little at the image, which only served to expose her to more rain and make things worse, she just decided to ask, “So, is Poison Joke dangerous?” There was a long pause while all three of them blinked at what Icy had just said. “Well,” Archer began after a while, “I mean, it’s...” “Poisonous, yeah, I know, realized just after I said it,” Icy assured her, looking to the side in embarrassment. Still, after a second she thought about it further and realized there was something to her question after all. “But, I mean, poison can mean a lot of different things. Is it only dangerous if you eat it, do you just have to smell it...?” Archer shook her head. “Nah, it just has to touch you to hit you with its thing. Mind you, it usually takes a while to affect you and it's not like it's deadly or anything, but I'm still not looking to deal with it right now.” As soon as she finished, she jerked her head to the side in an indication of the way they would be going before she started moving to the side, in a large circle that kept the flower patch at a safe distance. Icy and Lance joined her a moment later, Icy a little confused as she asked, “So what does it do, then?” Archer snorted, unamused but acknowledging the theoretical possibility of amusement that she was denying. “Well, on paper, it plays a kind of magical joke on you. Trouble is, the stuff's got a messed up sense of humour. Mostly, it screws around with your body – shrinking or growing you, making your horn, wings, hooves or hair useless or crazy, changing your voice... not sure there's a limit on nasty little pranks it's got in store for ponies that step in it.” “Huh,” Icy said after a moment, somewhat nonplussed at such a thing, even in the Everfree – it seemed simultaneously too harmless and too actively mean-spirited for such a place. Still, she had no reason to disbelieve Archer and it was certainly possible in that forest. “Fair enough – I guess it'd be better if we avoid getting cursed,” she said with a slight chuckle. Archer, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes with a slight sneer. “It's not a curse, Icy, there's no such thing as curses.” “It's not?” Icy replied. Archer sighed. “Of course not. It's just a powerful, targeted magical change to somepony's body, mind or life that's bound to them for a long time or until they do something special to dispel it. Nothing at all like a curse.” Even Lance looked at Archer a little askance at her pedantry on the matter, while Icy's mouth stretched to one side unsurely. “If you say so.” “Oh, I definitely do,” Archer replied, though with less force than she'd used to establish her skepticism. “And it only takes one touch to get joked, so keep your eye out. We may be at a distance, but the wind could send a few petals at us if we're not careful.” Icy was about to question whether their being careful would in any way affect whether petals got sent in their direction, as opposed to simply whether they would be able to avoid them, when a flash of movement from Lance drew her attention to her side, where his sword was slapping a blue leaf out of the air. After another second, it fully registered with Icy what Lance had just saved her from and her breath hitched, even as she gave him a grateful nod. In response, he simply nodded back, making it clear she was welcome. “Yeah, sorry,” Archer said a moment later, “shouldn't have gotten that close. Got so busy explaining it I wasn't keeping an eye out – should have shot it out of the air long before it got that close.” She took her bow from her back and held it in one hoof while the other three continued walking. “You can relax if you want, guys, I'll take out any that come.” Lance snorted slightly – just because he could relax didn't mean he thought he should or would. After a moment of thinking about it, Icy saw his point too. “Well, I mean, we should still be careful, right? What if more than one gets blown towards us at a time? Seems like a thing that could happen.” Archer nodded, lips pursed slightly as she considered the point. “Yeah, it could, but it'd have to be a heck of a lot of them coming at us at once if I couldn't take care of all of them before they get here. I mean, it's not like I'd need them to even leave the patch before I could knock 'em away.” Icy's eyes widened a little at the claim as she considered how fast and unpredictably the petals moved on the wind. “Really?” “Oh, yeah, easy,” Archer replied before indicating a spot above the patch with her muzzle. “See that petal there? Just past the big y-shaped branch?” Following the line Archer was pointing, Icy could indeed see a petal just beginning to make its way out of the area of the patch and towards them, high up in the tree line. In fact, it was because she was following Archer's sightline up that when she heard the pulling back of the bowstring, she realized what was about to happen. “No, wait, don't...! Her words came a second too late as the bowstring twanged and an arrow shot past her, heading up and into the treeline. To Archer's immense credit, it did indeed hit the petal and, in a flash of impact magic, knocked it down to be caught in the canopy. To her immense discredit, however, a petal wasn't nearly enough to stop the arrow's movement, meaning it continued up past the treetops, shaking the leaves as it passed by and, unless they were inconceivably lucky, alerting the pony on the mountaintop to their presence. There was a long, oppressively tense pause before Archer gulped. “That was a very dumb thing I just did.” Domino blinked as she watched the arrow fall back into the trees again. She had been keeping something of an eye in that direction after the manticore and the storm crows had landed further out there, but only as much of an eye as she could without being debilitated by the irritation. The presence of so many living creatures in the area made it painfully impossible to tell what was or would be happening there. She could only tell a few basic things about it, like the number and size of the things involved, but everything else was agonizingly uncertain. Even the explosion of ice only told her something was freezing something but no more. An arrow, on the other hoof? That was quite unmistakable – only sapient creatures could make, fletch and fire arrows. And a quick look at the angles suggested it was firing with one hoof and a mouth by a pony of some kind, about her size. And, though it was obviously either not aimed at her or aimed badly at her, it seemed likely that, whoever these small ponies were and however they'd gotten past her wind wall, they were going to try to stop her. Sneering in disgust at the problem, she trotted over to the crate of rockets and retrieved another set of tied-together wind rockets, placing them on the ground to calculate how to get them spinning towards the interlopers.