Streamwalker had been right. The spire was obvious from the air – a massive shaft of rock sticking straight up out of the ground like some kind of oversized termite nest, dull grey and rough, with a round top and sheer sides dotted with dozens of cave mouths. More than half of them glowed with the cheerful light of campfires.
“This is intriguing,” Ghealach commented, as Dash circled around the place at a great distance, something inside her suggesting that her wings might make her very visible to the monsters and she should keep a healthy buffer between the spire and herself to maintain the element of surprise. “Buggane councils rarely fortify themselves in such a defensive location as this. In what time I have been able to guard the night here over the years, I have only observed them to excavate caves near population centers.”
“Streamwalker did say it was like they had someone smart leading them,” Dash pointed out. “Maybe they’re trying out something new.”
“You gravely overestimate their collective intelligence, Rainbow Dash,” Ghealach chuckled. “Alone, I could envision a single buggane perhaps being pressured into a new tactic as a matter of survival. But in groups? In groups, bugganes are more driven by instinct than intellect – more so than usual. They are more akin to beasts than thinking beings.”
“Maybe they just got smarter.”
“Also impossible. The most brilliant buggane, if put in a council, would be no better than the rest of them. Their self-control is almost entirely stripped when together.”
“Well, maybe it’s not a council, then!” she snapped frustratedly. “Something’s different, if that’s how councils usually work! Streamwalker said they traveled in groups, and they didn’t start attacking each other then! Maybe all the ones who eat their friends are dead now?”
Ghealach was quiet for a few blessed moments. “I hope you are wrong, Rainbow Dash. If that were true, it would be a grave threat not only to my coming reign, but also to my wards.”
She ignored the smug assuredness of future victory implicit in those words in favor of observing the buggane base further. Streamwalker had said there was a smaller spire near the main one where they kept their prisoners, but she couldn’t – oh, no, there it was, on the opposite side of the spire; it came into view as she continued her orbit of the place. It was definitely smaller – the top of it barely peeked above the leafy surface of the canopy – but past that, it was almost identical to the larger inselberg. It looked much more assailable as well.
“Am I going to be able to use magic during this?” she asked Ghealach. The Dust Sentinel nodded.
“If necessary, I will supply it,” she said. “But you will not be blasting your way in. If you had any delusions that you would summon rays of focused moonlight down from the heavens to smite open this rock, I will shatter them now.”
“Great,” she grumbled. “Define ‘necessary’.”
“When I deem it so.”
“Can you at least change my wings to make them less shiny?”
“As doing that would require you to not be in the air – unless you enjoy plummeting a thousand feet to certain excruciating pain below as your wings disappear – I will deny that request, as well.”
Just bucking great, she thought sourly, flaring her wings and making a sharp turn to begin her approach to the buggane base. I’m going in with wings that glitter like some kind of fancy dress from Rarity, I have to take on a base full of giant monsters without any magic, and none of those foals can probably fly, so I’ll have to escape with them on hoof. Why did I agree to this, again?
We do the impossible because it’s a challenge.
The air over the trees near the spire was deathly still, empty of helpful thermals, like whatever monsters lived inside had killed it first when they moved in. Thankfully, it was all descent from where she’d been; all she had to do was extend her wings and glide, spiraling down towards the top of the smaller spire silently, her metallic feathers for once not making a sound. She couldn’t see any of the bugganes outside of the spire; hay, she couldn’t see any inside, either. They seemed to be avoiding the cave mouths. There weren’t even any guards posted.
“Bugganes have eyes sensitive to light,” Ghealach informed her as she landed. “They stay underground during the day, for the most part. At night, they will occasionally emerge to hunt on the surface.”
“I guess that explains why there aren’t any guards,” she responded.
“They may also have killed and eaten each other by now.”
“Awesome.”
The smaller spire was maybe sixty feet in height, and thirty in diameter. It was roughly circular, though uneven, and flatter where a cave mouth punctured it. Dash hopped down from the top to a ledge about halfway down the spire, wincing as her wings rattled and pulling them tighter against her sides in an attempt to muffle them. There was a particularly large cave mouth down near the base; it seemed to have been artificially widened. She figured that was her best bet for finding where the foals were.
Noisily again – she was really starting to hate her wings – she dropped the rest of the way, landing near the cave entrance. The hole was almost pitch black, or at least it logically should have been, but she could somehow still see perfectly in it. Through it, down a short tunnel with walls scored and scratched by giant claws, she could see a larger open space that must have taken up the entire base of the spire. In the center of it was a large rock bowl - a cauldron perhaps, roughly hewn, and surrounded by logs and and dry grass and branches. They weren’t lit yet. She prepared to step into the cave and start searching for the foals…and then something huge stepped into her view.
At first, she thought there had to be some kind of magnifying glass stuck over the opposite end of the tunnel. Star-nosed moles didn’t get that large – the biggest one she’d ever seen was a particularly well-fed specimen that Fluttershy had insisted was “adorable” and “sweet”, but that she’d honestly found kind of creepy. That mole had been less than a foot in length. This thing was nine feet tall and walked on its stocky hind legs, leaving its massive claws free to swing at its sides. Its face, if it could be called that, was dominated by twenty or so fleshy, pink things, tentacles or something similar she guessed, that waved around in the air as it swung its head back and forth, back and forth, slowly and deliberately. Below that cluster of tentacles sat a gaping maw filled with needle-sharp teeth that glistened in the meager amount of light that made it through the tunnel. She couldn't see any eyes. She assumed that the tentacles got in the way. A short, ratlike tail trailed behind it, twitching as it dragged over the rough stone floor, and the whole creature was covered in short, bristly black fur.
This was a really, really bad decision, was the only thought that managed to form in her head. Really, really, really bad.
It looks slow. Agility is a weapon like anything else.
Hesitantly, she took a step into the tunnel, determined not to let fear stop her. There were foals in there, after all – fillies and colts and wolf pups, probably just as terrified as she was, if not more so. She couldn’t just turn around and leave!
Another step. She prayed her wings wouldn’t rattle. The buggane stopped in its tracks, turning its head slowly in an arc, its face-tentacles waving frantically. She tried to ignore the feeling of revulsion and took another few steps in rapid succession, slipping along the wall of the tunnel and pressing herself against the side of the cave. The buggane made a snuffling sound, snorted once, and kept about its business, which appeared to be related to an overturned stone bowl on the opposite side of the cave. Dash was about to take another step, towards the cauldron now, but then the buggane lifted the bowl and a filly screamed.
She watched, frozen, as a kelpie filly with a blue-grey coat and a long seaweed mane screamed and bolted for the open cave mouth. The buggane bellowed in response – a squealing, grating sound that somehow reverberated like a roar through the cave – and slammed a claw down around the filly. She kept screaming as the beast slipped its other claw under her and lifted her off the ground. Rainbow Dash tensed; if that thing wanted to eat that filly right now, she was going to make sure it regretted that decision for the rest of its days!
Instead, the buggane dropped the panicked filly into the steep-sided cauldron. It then stuck its face into the cauldron and bellowed again, eliciting a chorus of new screams, male and female, from its depths. It turned away again, making more snuffling noises – was it laughing? That alone was almost enough to make her leap into action – that thing deserved the flank-kicking she was about to put on it! – when something inside her stopped her at the sight of several more overturned bowls along the wall.
Wait for it to put all of them in the pot. Then attack.
Instead, she slipped along the perimeter of the cave, detouring around stalagmites the buggane had left for some reason, to get in a better position to launch her attack. Ideally, she had to be on the same side of the cave as the buggane, to minimize the chance of it detecting her before she could land a blow. Where would the best place to hit it be? Those tentacles looked kind of sensitive…
The buggane finished dumping foals and pups into the cauldron just as Rainbow Dash made it to the same side of the cave as it. Before she could start her attack, though, it shuffled away for a low stone shelf carved into the cave wall near the mouth. She watched it, following silently, sticking to the wall, ready to jump if it seemed to be going for some kind of fire-starter. Instead, it looked like it was just going for a deer. A deer skin. She fought down revulsion again at the sight of the thing – a carefully hollowed out doe, its ribcage left in still, apparently to maintain its structure – as the buggane gently lifted it and brought it over to the cauldron, where it poured the contents – some kind of clear, syrupy fluid with flecks of green leaves suspended in it – all over the foals inside. Then, it put it back, and lumbered towards the cave mouth. When it was out of sight and out of the cave, she jumped onto the rim of the cauldron with a noisy assist from her wings and looked down at twenty or so mixed foals and cubs, all covered with whatever sauce the buggane had used, and all of them huddled terrifiedly together in the middle.
“Hey!” she whispered. “Up here!”
“The buggane!” one of the pups screeched, but a kelpie filly stuffed her hoof in his mouth.
“Who are you?” she whispered back.
“Rainbow Dash,” she answered quickly, before Ghealach could interfere. “And a few other ponies, too. I’m here to get you out!” They started cheering; she shushed them quickly, glancing towards the cave mouth. “Stay quiet! I’m going to try to knock the cauldron over so you can get out. As soon as it tips over, run towards the cave mouth, okay?”
“Which way is that?” one asked.
“Just go towards the light,” another answered.
“Hold on a sec, and get ready to run!” she warned them. Then she caught sight of the buggane returning, and whispered, “Wait, it’s back. I’ll take care of it first.”
The buggane had rolled with it a large rock, she realized. Before she could do anything, it had rolled the stone in front of the cave mouth. A few shafts of light made it around it – it wasn’t a perfect fit – but it was enough. With that boulder there, there was no way she could escape! The buggane seemed to realize this. She could hear the sound of its snuffling laughter as it shuffled closer.
“Keeps in smell,” it rumbled, to her shock – they could talk? “Keeps in noisy thief-birds!”
Buck.
With a squealing roar, the buggane leaped with startling speed towards the cauldron. Dash hurled herself out of the way. It caught itself on the cauldron rim, squealed again, and swung its claws wildly around, sweeping through the air where she’d been. Then, it stopped, standing with its back to the cauldron, sweeping its head back and forth and letting its face-tentacles wave around in the air.
“Boss says no more games with noisy thief-birds,” it grumbled as it searched for her. She kept completely still. “Too much food get away in games. Make move, thief-bird…”
Deciding to risk a bit of maneuvering to get around behind it, Dash quietly stepped along the cave wall. Somehow, though, it spotted her, and with a third ear-splitting squeal it lunged for where she was! Her wings crashed as she made an assisted leap out of harm’s way and the buggane hit the wall, giving her an opportunity to strike for the back of its head. Its flailing arms forced her to catch herself in mid-air and retreat again. With an errant blow, the beast sent a spray of rock shards and dust off from the wall – she did not want to get hit by that thing!
“Speedy noisy thief-bird,” it growled, picking itself up again and standing still once more. “Cook you too. Thief-bird chicks delicious. Grown ones must be too.”
Dash waited for another opportunity to strike, but if it kept anticipating her like that, they’d be at this for hours, and she’d promised the return of the foals by sundown! Probably a brash claim, in retrospect, but it had been made, and by Celestia, she’d stick to it.
How does it keep spotting me when it doesn’t even have any eyes? she wondered, waiting to pounce on the first sign of weakness. The answer hit her a second later as she remembered her experience with Fluttershy's mole. The tentacles! It can feel when I move!
“Come here, little noisy thief-bird,” the buggane rumbled, shuffling away from the wall and swinging its claws around lazily. “Plenty of room in my pot…”
The buggane was getting closer and closer to her with each step of its spindly-toed feet. She’d have to move soon, before it hit her with a swipe of its claws. Abruptly, she leapt behind the cauldron, dodging the buggane’s lunge but putting herself in a bad position to exploit its stumble as it scrambled to its feet again.
I have to stop it from sensing my movements somehow, she thought, looking around the cave frantically for some way to do that – making sure to only move her eyes. There wasn’t a great deal to work with – numerous stone bowls scattered around the floor, that deer, the cauldron itself, a few stalagmites…but where there are stalagmites, there’s usually a stalactite or two, too! She risked a glance towards the ceiling, dodging another attack from the buggane when it came, but she’d seen enough – there were stalactites, good-sized ones all over the place. Now, if she could just find a way to knock one down onto the buggane…
“Where is you…” the buggane muttered. It was shuffling closer to the scattered stone bowls – well in front of Dash. If the buggane got between her and the bowls, she could hit it from behind and cause it stumble over them – and while it was on the ground, she could knock one of the stalactites off by flying into it, dropping it onto the monster! Perfect! She settled lower, into the perfect position to pounce on the buggane’s back when the time came, and instead brought the beast’s wrath down on her prematurely. She leapt out of the way – again – as the buggane crashed through a nearby stalagmite and mauled the floor where she’d been standing. Her dodge took her into the center of the bowl-scattered area, and she smiled as she realized she was now in the perfect position to implement her plan.
She deliberately jumped across the rest of the bowls, drawing the buggane after her again. With a surprised shriek, the monster stumbled and tripped over the cookware and sprawled onto its stomach. Before it could get up, Rainbow Dash beat her wings and hurled herself at the stalactite she’d spotted over the area and rammed into it with as much force as she could muster. The extra mass added by her feathers’ composition helped, and it only took a single blow to dislodge it. The buggane, trying to stand again, had the slab of stone land squarely on its fleshy nose – and let out a scream of pain so piercing it almost deafened her.
While it was occupied, she dropped back to the ground and threw herself against the cauldron. The wood surrounding it helped prop it up; angrily, she skidded around it and bucked the firewood away from the opposite side. Then she returned – the buggane was still screaming and trying to free itself – and tried again. This time, the cauldron toppled, spilling the foals and pups out. She didn’t give them time to orient themselves.
“Get together and run!” she ordered. A quick glance back at the buggane told her that it was still out of the fight, at least for another minute or so. “I’ll get the boulder out of the way! When we’re outside, run for the trees – I’ll make sure none of these things try to follow you!”
As they stumbled around in the darkness, she positioned herself at the end of the short tunnel to the cave mouth, stretching her wings and gauging how much force she’d need to apply to break the boulder. It had looked pretty thick when the buggane had pulled it into place. She was certain she didn’t have the physical strength or mass to break through normally.
“Some magic right now would be really helpful, Ghealach!” she shouted, readying herself to break through the boulder.
“Why would you want her help?” Cloud Ferry asked, smirking. She materialized just to Dash’s left. “I’m the actress. I know how to make an exit.”
“Either of you, just bucking help, before that thing gets up!” she snapped. She could feel her magic come back – flooding in like electrified water bursting through a dam. If she hadn’t been expecting it, she probably would have been swept away by it, but in her current frame of mind it was nothing more than a tool to get herself and the foals to safety. Without hesitation, she flapped her wings as hard as she could and flew at the boulder, orienting herself so her hooves would all hit dead center, with as much magic as she could muster behind them to amplify the force. When she hit, with a thunderous crack that drowned out the buggane’s agonized squeals for a brief second, the boulder didn’t just roll away or crack – it exploded, in a flash of red magic, fragments of it flying out in all directions and seeming to freeze in mid-air for an instant as the light reflected off them like shards of a mirror. A wave of nausea hit her almost immediately, but she suppressed the urge to vomit as best she could – they had to get away!
The foals wasted no time in bolting. She was still recovering from the expenditure of magic when they galloped and ran around her and shot off towards the treeline. She followed as quickly as she could, galloping after them without a second look at the spires – that explosion had blown whatever stealth she’d still had, there had to be bugganes after them – and soon caught up with them.
They paused for breath in a clearing after a few minutes, several of the kelpies flopping over onto the grass, the wolf pups panting heavily and somehow managing to favor the kelpie foals with looks of disdain at the same time, as if to say, really? You can’t even run for ten minutes without falling over? Rainbow Dash didn’t let herself sit down for a rest – physically, she didn’t need one – but she did stand still for a few seconds, trying to get the nausea left in the magic’s wake under control.
“Okay,” she said, after letting the foals catch their breath. “I’m not sure how far away your village is from here on foot – I kind of flew here – and I’m not sure what kind of obstacles are in the way. Do any of you know the way back from the ground?”
“I do,” one of the wolf pups – white-furred; he almost looked like Streamwalker – raised a paw. “My father takes me out with his pack sometimes. I’ve been out here before.”
“Good. You can lead us back,” she said. “Okay, when everyone – “
She fell silent as she felt the ground beneath her shudder. She leapt forwards as the area she’d been standing on suddenly collapsed, dropping out as a buggane shrieked and hauled itself out of its tunnel and onto solid ground. The foals started panicking again, with the exception of the white wolf pup, who – fairly uselessly – bared his teeth and growled at the monster. The buggane didn’t seem to care. Thinking quickly, Dash reached for her magic again – she needed an attack spell of some kind, something guaranteed to stop the thing, to stun it long enough for them to get away – lightning worked!
With another wave of nausea as she expended entirely too much magic on a single action, Rainbow Dash called into existence a bolt of lightning. It speared down into the buggane from the blue open sky, like a blazing white river of electricity, pulsing and writhing as the buggane howled. She could have sworn she saw the thing’s skeleton through the blinding glare.
The bolt lasted far longer than a bolt had any right to; she could record its duration in seconds. When it finally dissipated, and it finally stopped torturing the buggane, the monster simply collapsed, all life gone from its limbs. It toppled over forward, causing the ground to shiver under the impact, and lay still. Absolutely, perfectly still. Had she killed it?
“Let’s go,” she urged the foals. “Come on, before another one shows up!”
“Follow me!” the white pup declared. They fell in behind him silently, the foals every now and again shooting furtive looks back at the buggane. The pups all seemed unimpressed. Dash followed a moment after the rest of them had vanished into the underbrush, watching the buggane for signs of life. Surely, one lightning bolt hadn’t been enough to kill it? Pegasi survived strikes like that all the time! The smell of charred hair and flesh coming from it was a mark against it still being alive, as was its perfect stillness – not even its chest was moving; did bugganes need to breathe? – but it couldn’t have died! She’d never killed anything before! She’d never even wanted to kill anything before - not to the point where if it had happened, she'd have been happy.
She tried to let the monotony of their trek through the forest drive her conflicted emotions from her mind. It wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if she didn’t acknowledge, on some level at least, that she had, actually, wanted it dead, both for what it was going to do to the foals and just for what it was. And she’d wanted to be the one to kill it.