//------------------------------// // Starting to Get Good // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash was still exhaling the full extent of her scream when Nevlamas soared violently over the heads of her and all her equine cohorts. Several Ledomaritans shrieked, diving towards the muddied ground. Most of the Xonan warriors—however—stood their ground, gawking at the Divine monstrosity. "Malladraak siul Xon..." "Merrana sen Lasairfion Xon-Ameek!" "Berakka thennulien trentte bleen!" "The false Nagu'n..." A warrior sneered. Breathless, Rainbow glanced at him. "Huh?!" He frowned while glancing at the burning swath the dragon was flying. "It stands for all of Lasairfion's treachery. Now it is a monster that seeks to devour both the friend and the enemy." "Yeah, that's great! Like I give a flying feather!" Rainbow Dash hovered high, cupping two hooves around her muzzle as she shouted up the mountain slopes. "Keraaaaa!" She panted, panted, and bellowed, "Roarkkkkke!" The nearby ponies craned their necks to look at the charred rubble where a manaship once hovered. "Who were they?" a nurse asked. "Nnnngh!" Rainbow rammed into her, knocking the mare onto her flank. "Don't talk like that!" Darting upwards, Rainbow hugged the edge of the mountain, shouting with each leg of her ascent. "Kera! Roarke! Zetta! Anypony! Say something! Anything!" Another pony helped the nurse up as she stammered, "Was it something I said?" "I think that monster just burned her friends alive." "Oh, dear Spark..." "Well, we can't just stand here!" A soldier spun around, shivering. "If the Xonan bombshells don't take us out, then that giant winged freak will!" "It matters little at the moment," a Xonan warrior said. "It needs our help for honorably helping the strangers in the darkness." "Huh?!" The Xonan glanced over. "Is it so full of thickness?" Ponies exchanged confused glances. "I think I understand him..." A Ledomaritan engineer trotted forward. "She lent us a hoof when we needed it. Whoever she is, should we abandon her now?" A few ponies stared at their hooves. Others courageously nodded in agreement. "Very well then." The engineer hopped onto the managlider. "Any volunteers?" "Guys!" Rainbow dove towards a charred piece of wreckage. What remained of the manaship had melted into a blackened obelisk leaning crookedly over the edge of the mountain. The pegasus' eyes glossed over as she hovered over the smoldering site. "Nnnngh... Oh no. Oh Celestia, no." Her muzzle quivered. "I shouldn't have gone on my own! There was nothing I-I could have done to stopped all of this craziness." She drifted lower, her body dangling limply on pathetic wings. "I... I-I shouldn't have left you guys alone..." Silence... And then... "Pffft! Unnngh! Darn right, you shouldn't have left us!" Rainbow gasped, her eyes darting low. A stallion with a yellow-streaked mane poked his head out from beneath the wreckage. "You totally could have fetched us some grilled cheese sandwiches along the way!" Rainbow's mouth exploded into a psychotic grin. "Zaid!" She shot down in a prismatic blur. "You're alive!" She planted her hooves on his shoulder. "Omigoshomigoshomigosh! But—" "Settle down, Rainbow Dash, we're all in one piece," droned Zetta's voice. Several more bodies crawled out from beside the ex-cultist. A perfect patch of unburnt soil lay beneath the charred surfaces of the overturned manaship. Zetta stood up, wobbling slightly until Basso steadied her. "Unnngh..." She flounced the smoldering edges of her roasted mane and sighed with a limp smile. "Well, we're mostly in one piece..." "Zetta!" Rainbow Dash flew in and nuzzled her dearly. "Praise Luna! For a moment there, I almost had to kiss a stallion!" "You're welcome..." Zetta's muzzle scrunched up. "I-I think?" "It's all Zetta's doing," Basso said with a smirk. "Huh?" Rainbow Dash glanced around as all the Ledomaritan survivors gradually stood up. "Indeed." Nightshade emerged from the shadows, her mane a mess. "It was her bright idea to swerve hard and overturn the manaship so that its lower hull shielded us from the monster's flames. Aside from a few bumps and bruises, I'd say that we're rather—" "Yes!" Rainbow's voice cracked as she beamed in Nightshade's direction. "You made it!" She flew forward, tossed Nightshade aside, and scooped Kera into a sweet, sweet hug. "Friggin' A, girl! If you burnt to a crisp, I don't think I'd ever sleep soundly ever again!" "Guhh!" Kera grunted, wall-eyed from Rainbow's hardcore nuzzling. She managed a smile, adjusting her grip of the glowing tome. "And we all kn-know how you love your power naps." "Nnngh..." Nightshade struggled up to her hooves, frowning as she dusted herself off. "I can only imagine..." "Rainbow, stop squeezing me! It's hard to breathe from all the smoke!" "Erm... s-sorries..." Rainbow placed the filly down in the shadow of the overturned manaship. "Where's Roarke?" She glanced across the many faces blinking at her. "Is she okay too?" "I'm right h-here, Rainbow," grumbled a voice. Rainbow spun about with forelimbs wide. "There you are! Hah! Praise Luna! You almost became Roarke Most Medium-Rare—" A light brown-hoof slammed across Rainbow's face. Kera, Zetta, and Basso winced. Rainbow fell to the ground as Roarke loomed above her. "Are you mad?!" Roarke howled, her eye-lenses pistoning in and out with steamy fury. "You let that damnable thing live?!" "Woohoo!" Zaid pulled Nightshade into a bouncy side hug as he watched. "Lover's quarrel!" "The fuzz are you going on about?" Rainbow Dash barked, then rubbed the red whelt on her muzzle. "And darn it, girl! You sure you even need armor?" "At least I have my wits about me!" Roarke leaned forward, spitting. "Why didn't you finish the dragon off when you had the chance?!" "What makes you think I did have a chance?!" Roarke pointed towards the aquamarine bearer of flames above the battlements to the north. "She obviously fell behind our manaship for a reason! What else in this Searo-forsaken continent could have slowed her down but you?!" "Well, jeez! I'm sorry!" Rainbow Dash stood up, snarling into Roarke's enraged face. "Maybe I left my 'dragon-slaying' license back in Equestria!" "You think I'm joking?!" "Well neither am I!" Rainbow shouted. She pointed at her pendant. "In case you haven't noticed, I've got my hooves full with being the last bearer of Harmony! Not Homicide!" "It certainly didn't stop you back in Blue Nova or Gray Smoke!" "Well maybe I actually wanna be stopped!" Rainbow stamped her hooves. "Maybe I wanna stop all of this! Maybe I'm sick of death and destruction happening everywhere I friggin' turn!" Roarke waved her hoof once more towards the carnage in the north. "Well, what a fine job you're doing so far!" Rainbow hissed. "Why, you ungrateful, stuck up, rusted piece of—" "Go ahead! Say all you want!" Roarked barked, grinding her bare hooves. "I don't need any metal to survive a beating from you—" As the mares rushed each other, Nightshade was suddenly standing between them with forelimbs calmly stretched into their chests. "Ahem... if I may." She glared at Rainbow Dash. "All foolish mistakes aside..." She then glared at Roarke. "We can still stop this unnecessary catastrophe." "Darn it..." Zaid leaned back, forelimbs crossed. "It was starting to get good, too."