//------------------------------// // Eat Pain // Story: Eljunbyro // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// With a rustle of leaves and moss, the three ponies sped their way into the body of Foxtaur. The forest was ancient, with the outermost trees resembling gnarled, twisting briars. Brown branches spread in every direction, several of them dipping low and turning the ceiling of the place into a claustrophobic maze of wooden tributatires. The thickest canopy imaginable stretched over their heads, cutting out all sunlight as the three came to a shuffling stop in the center of a bushy clearing. Pilate and Bellesmith leaned against each other, sweating and panting heavily. Rainbow Dash hovered just above them, glancing every which way for signs of movement. "Relax... Rainbow... Dash...." Belle managed to say. "Your luck... as always... threw our pursuers off..." "Since when could unicorns fly?" Rainbow Dash uttered with a frown. "That's totally cheating!" "I'm inclined to agree," Pilate stammered. "What matters is they're gone!" Belle exclaimed. She gulped, ran a hoof through her mane, and added, "And so is that huge, nasty—" The edge of Foxtaur exploded behind them. Through a shattering sea of branches, the giant arthropod lunged towards the three, its mandibles drooling heavily. Belle was too breathless to shriek. Pilate blanched and froze in place. Branches and brambles fell towards them as the giant centipede sliced its way through. In a blue blur, Rainbow Dash shoved the two ponies out of the way. She had very little room to avoid the falling branches and bits of trees. Eventually, she shoved the three to a stop against the trunk of a massive oak. Hopping up from the bodies of her trembling friends, Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth. "Oh, you gotta be friggin' kidding me!" The centipede swirled about, its many legs carving thick ravines into the leaves and soil of the forest floor. Its massive feelers swam through the air of the place, forcing its head to tilt closer and closer to the succulent trio. "We c-can't outrun something with that many legs!" Bellesmith exclaimed. Pilate gulped. "Legs?" "Rainbow Dash, wh-what will we do?" "Hurt less while I hurt it more!" Rainbow Dash blurred towards the creatures, swinging two forelimbs together until they slammed upside its headpiece. "Nnngh—Haaaugh!" The centipede reeled backwards, its shell of a body toppeling two trees over. Everything was chaos and fluttering leaves. "Rainbow—!" Belle hollered, Pilate in tow. "Will you friggin' run, already?!" Rainbow Dash said before taking a leg to the back. "Augh!" She pinballed off two tree branches, kicked off a brown trunk, and avoided a fanged lunge from the head of the creature. In a splash of splinters and sawdust, she flew up and frowned down at the thrashing, thrashing thing. "Y'know, I went easy on you! I decided to leave you alone! But noooooooooo—We couldn't have that, now could we?" With a foul-smelling shriek, the massive arthropod surged eastward, trailing at the two helpless ponies. "Oh no you don't!" Rainbow Dash dove down and repeately kicked and bucked at its bulging body segments. "This is our dance! Now you stay put and fight like a—" All it took was the lifting of three combined legs, and Rainbow Dash was knocked effortlessly into a cluster of bushes. She fought and fumbled with several dipping vines to disentangle herself from the mess. Looking over, she sweated to see her friends being cornered against a row of boulders. Belle and Pilate were pressed against the wall. They considered running an alternate course, but the centipede had circled the trap with its entire body and was now leering its fanged pinches above the two. With feelers twitching, the creature prepared to lunge at the helpless couple. Rainbow Dash hissed through clenched teeth. She flew against the rope of thorns ensaring her legs. Blood flew in the air, but she managed to slide free. With a pained groan, she soared towards the head of the creature and slammed into it before it could thrust its fangs at her friends. The centipede's head flew towards an ancient tree, where it's upper row of legs were fortuitously stuck in the forking of several gnarled branches. Twitching and spasming, it fought to free itself. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings... and flew away from the creature. She became a blur in the distant edge of the clustered forest. Belle watched, curious. Pilate shivered, his ears twitching. A low thunder rumbled through the air. Trees shook and branches wobbled. Finally, Rainbow Dash returned from her head start, surging at several thousand kilometers per hour. She angled her body into a drop kick and focused all her angry velocity on a pair of legs sticking out of the branches that the monster was trapped in. A sickening snap filled the air. The creature howled in agony as two of its legs flew juicily in the air. Rainbow Dash caught one in her hooves, circled about, and perched atop the very crown of the creature. Positioning the razor-sharp limb like a spear in her grasp, she raised it up, took a deep breath for courage, and stabbed it down into the soft mouth of the creature. This, she repeated again and again, summoning many shrieks from the ensnared arthropod. Below, Belle and Pilate shivered in the shadow of the melee. Belle stared with wide eyes. As more sickening sounds of a pummeled exoskeleton lit the air, she grimaced harder and harder. A wave of bubbling juices landed at her hooves, and still she kept wincing. Pilate was no less effected, his ears drooping to eliminate the sound of the centipede's painful wails. Soon Belle was looking green in the face, having to plant a hoof over her muzzle to keep her breakfast in. Finally, after half a mandible fell at her hooves, Rainbow Dash touched down beside them, half her body stained with giant bug juices. "Now go home and pray I don't chase you there!" Rainbow Dash spat. Yipping like a giant bag of beaten puppies, the hulking monster dislodged from the tree and limped painfully towards the west edge of the forest. As it pierced the edge of the canopy, there was the unmistakable silhouette of its headpiece having been pierced down the center with a jagged leg. In a swish of limbs and juices, it was gone. Rainbow Dash stood in place, her nostrils flaring as she finally, finally coiled her wings. Pilate and Belle stared in her direction, dumbfounded. Gulping, Rainbow Dash spun around. She smiled briefly. "So yeah! I found you guys a book! Heheh... ohhhhhhhh..." And she collapsed in a dizzy heap. "Rainbow!"