Rainbow Dash held her breath. Her legs tensed, the rear limbs pressing against the base of the crumbling column as she prepared to kick off and fly somewhere—anywhere. But as the claws fished closer and the steamy air filled brighter and brighter with Durandal's glow, she couldn't spot a practical escape path from her predicament.
Then, like a burst of thunder from the distance, Polyph's voice wailed, "Durandallll! Nnnngh—Help me! I'm stuck!"
The column behind Rainbow Dash stopped shaking. "I know you're stuck, Polyph!" he boomed back. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to find our little intruder!"
"Look. Whatever it is, it's long gone now! Stop creeping around a bunch of useless bricabrac and come help me!"
The air shifted from the basilisk's sniffling nostrils. A dull pause, and then the many legs scraped and scuffled across the floor. "Hrmmm... very well..."
Shivering, Rainbow Dash gripped the looking glass again. She angled it beyond the edge of the cracked column and gazed at its reflection. She spotted the scales and claws of the massive monster slithering away. Her little alcove of the collapsed pegasus city was once again being ignored.
With an exhale of relief, Rainbow Dash shifted forward, her weight falling on all four hooves. Slipping the mirror back into her saddlebag, she bravely peered around the corner.
She saw nothing but rising steam and scattered rocks.
The pegasus squinted. She looked left, then right. Still, nothing stirred. The ancient alabaster courtyards of the lair lingered in silence.
Gulping, she quietly padded out, then began flapping her wings. She lifted up in the air by twenty feet... forty... sixty...
The higher she rose, the greater a view of the entire cavern she got. Rainbow could now see Polyph's leather bag, Durandal's foodstuffs, and the chessboard full of frozen figures. At last, she rose high enough to see the double-doors where Polyph was still stuck.
And the cyclops was alone. "Nnnngh! Durandal, where are you?!"
Rainbow Dash sucked her breath in. The air lit up around her with a pale glow.
"Having myself a snack," rumbled a heavy, moist breath from behind.
Rainbow Dash did something stupid. She flew backwards.
Catching the basilisk off guard, she ricocheted off his twitching head, rolled over his glowing eye, and dove down his long, long backside. The giant serpent-like beast tried spinning around, flinging his outstretched limbs at the pegasus like propeller blades. Rainbow Dash held her breath and effortlessly bobbed and weaved in and out of the thin spaces afforded between the sharp claws. When she at last reached the tail, she flew the weight of her body into a soft spot and slammed into it with all four limbs. Thwap!
"Owww!" Durandal snarled. "Damn it!"
Rainbow could already see the pale spotlight forming on the ground around her. She rolled to the side and sprang off the stone. Milliseconds later, Durandal's jaws slammed into the rocky floor, teeth grinding against the pale material and causing sparks to fly.
Already twirling about, Rainbow glided like a blue missile for the door. Polyph's fat thighs and flapping loin cloth loomed in view. Despite the ugly sight, Rainbow continued hurling her body towards it, wings flapping in a mad blur.
"Come on... come on..."
Sure enough, she heard the rustling of scales behind her. "I'm going to eat you. Crap you out. And set you on fire, you stupid, meddling pony!"
Just then, Polyph twisted his skull, heaved his shoulders, and finally got his skull unstuck from the doors. "Haaaaugh!" He spun around with a sprinkling of wooden splinters cascading down his torso. "Heheh! And you said I could never use my head—" His speech cut itself short as he shrieked like a feminine elephant.
Rainbow Dash was sailing towards his skull. She spun twice around his head, planted her body against the back of her skull, and shoved off with all her strength. "Nnngh!"
Polyph's head jerked forward. Propelled by the weight of his horn, he stumbled towards Durandal—who was in the process of leaping towards Rainbow Dash and—consequently—Polyph.
Thuddd! Both monsters slammed into one another with a murderous clap of thunder. Durandal's lengthy body wrapped around Polyph's three times. Suffocating, the cyclops shook and thrashed about, trying to get disentangled from his demonic chess partner.
"Mmmfnnnghhh!"
"Just stop struggling! I'm trying to untwist myself!"
"Unnghwsshh ghhuusllff?! Gummfwngiffjkljdsplnn!"
"Just stop! I got this! I've got—dammit, Polyph!"
"Rhuuguuuuu!"
In the meantime, Rainbow Dash had flown around in an arc, coming to a hovering stop before the two monstrosities. She levitated there in a casual manner, cracking the joints in her neck and shoulders before drifting forward and giving the two a gentle kick—not to mention a smirk.
"Gaaaaaaah!" Durandal shrieked for the both of them as they teetered like giant lumber towards the door, inevitably smashing it. The wooden frames completely shattered, flying off the hinges. The outside world yawned wide open, filling the air with a cold mountain draft.
"Hah!" Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof in mid-air. She flew down and perched victoriously on an outcropping of Cloudstone. "Serves you right, you flank-sniffing creepazoids! Feel that sunshine kissing your flesh with fire?! That's the taste of justice! Courtesy of Rainbow Kickflank Dash—" She threw a casual glance outside and immediately belched: "Oh come on!"
It was a dark, cloudy night outside.
"Ughhhh..." Durandal's one glowing eye spun in a pale swirl.
"Raaaaaaaaugh!" Polyph finally burst out of the mess of looping coils and reached for the pegasus.
Rainbow barely had the chance to squeak, much less flutter away. A massive hand grabbed her, all five iron-wrought fingers constricting her like a vice.
"Rrrrgh!" Polyph stood tall in the doorframe, sneering into Rainbow Dash's twitching face. His breath was steely and rancid while his horn glowed with bright blue frost energy. "I'm gonna freeze your insides and peel your skin off slowly while you watch, you stupid bird horse!"
"Grnnkkkt..." Rainbow Dash wheezed, her eyes tearing. "Gr-groovy..."
"Uhhh... Polyph?"
"Not now, Durandal!" the cyclops roared as the air between him and Rainbow Dash grew chillier. "You hunt down your own dessert!"
"Polyyyyyph!"
"Grrrr—What?!" He spun to see, then gasped with a shrill shriek.
The clouds had broken, giving way to solid moonlight. The lunar glow ran across the southern mountain face in a sharp swath, causing the monsters' flesh to instantly steam. Both the basilisk and the cyclops writhed in pain from the sun's reflected energy.
Rainbow gasped as she felt herself dropped from Polyph's gnarled hand. She flew backwards, panting, watching with bright ruby eyes as both beasts tried scrambling back into the lair.
But it was too late; the moon's glow followed them. With no double doors to block its path, it wafted into the lair. It made contact with the layers upon layers of cloudstone, and suddenly the light intensified. Rainbow Dash watched in wonderment as the lair glowed five times brighter, with the pale constructs of the ancient pegasus city magnifying the lunar light by tenfold.
Durandal's lair had suddenly turned into a virtual oven. Every inch of the serpent's slithering body smoked as if burning from the inside out. He and Polyph comically slid and hopped about, every surface of the interior instantly stinging them upon contact.
"Aaaugh! It burns! It burns!"
"Damned curse!"
"My lair!" Durandal shrieked. "My beautiful, beautiful home!"
"Bah!" Polyph tried grabbing his bag, wincing as his feet sizzled with each step he took. "You can keep it! This is a friggin' pressure cooker!" His skull caught on fire, and he yelped in a high-pitched tone. "Aaaaaugh! My horn! Screw this!" He scrambled on all fours-like a gorilla and bounded outside into the considerably less-bright valley. "I'm better off in the Underworld!"
"Polyyyph!" Durandal stammered in a suddenly panicked voice. His legs went slack as he slithered like a giant cobra after the cyclops. "Help me! You gotta carry me!"
"Nuts to that!" Polyph's voice echoed over the night-swept hillsides. "I gotta make it back to Tartarus before sunrise!"
"I don't wanna melt out here!" Durandal was a slobbering, pitiful mess. "Take me with youuuuu!" His body slithered down the mountainside like a slinking shadow. Soon, all Rainbow Dash could see of him was the glow of his eye, but even that vanished as he fled into the depths of the mountain range.
"Yeah! Awwww yeah!" Rainbow Dash touched down on the glowing floor littered with rocks and door parts. She reared her front legs and cheered. "Take a brimstone bath and never come back, ya jerkmeisters!" She heard a rattling sound and glanced down at a jar that had rolled to a stop with a sloshing eye inside. "Wooo! Didja see that, Squidgy?!" She stretched her hoof out. "Gimme some skin!"
The jar made contact with the moonlight. The eye spun around three times, burst into flames, and melted with a puff of smoke.
"..." Rainbow blinked. "Woohooo! Yaaay Squidgy!" She jumped, did a few flips in the air, and levitated in place, catching her breaths. She gazed out at the star-lit countryside, grinning to herself.
As her panting inhales and exhales evened out, she imagined she was in another part of Equestria, gazing down at rows upon rows of apple orchards instead. In the next blink, the farm had vanished, but she felt no less exultant.
Her smile widened, though it was a soft thing by now. Quietly, she twirled about, squinting towards the enormous chessboard.
"Hmmmm..."