With a gasp, Rainbow Dash dove low. The air crackled with the snapping sound of the beast's massive jaws, then she was mercilessly soaked by a spray of water and slime as the creature's forward half plunged straight into the cavernous lake just behind her.
Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth and flew forward as hard as she could. To her horror, she found herself having to navigate around a giant, red-scaled, serpentine body that was roping in and out of the waters all around her. Dipping under a looping flank of muscle and shooting up, Rainbow Dash clung with four hooves to a stalactite. She hung upside down like a bat, panting, her mane soaked. Tilting her head, she aimed her pendant down at the subterranean pool beneath her.
The large, hulking body of the quarry eel was just then finishing its epic plunge into the underwater nest. But just as she was trying to get a mental estimate of its size, there was another gigantic splash, and two completely new heads were lunging at her, shrieking.
Rainbow Dash kicked off the stalactite, spun, and narrowly dodged the two sets of razor-sharp jaws. Just as she dove under the two arching bodies, she was flung head-first into a third eel's maw, then a fourth. She barrel-rolled left and right, assaulted by walls of tossed water and ooze, but barely managed to evade the snapping mouths. Her world had turned into a heated kaleidoscope of dancing crimson light and bestial shrieks.
No matter how agile or evasive Rainbow was, these giant monstrosities caught up with her, forcing her to perform increasingly wild and acrobatic maneuvers. She had encountered quarry eels before, but not in this fashion. She had never been foolish enough to have been stuck in the heart of a mountain, in a dank claustrophobic space with these giant carnivores completely surrounding her. Here she was now like a small field mouse caught in a pit of snakes, and as the seconds ticked by she was further and further amazed to still be alive.
Then her ruby eyes caught a cluster of thick stalagmites sticking out of the waters several meters ahead in the crimson glow of her pendant. Spinning in mid-air, she threaded her way through two looping flanks of scales, darted through a pair of snapping jaws, and skimmed the slimy lake's surface as she made a bee-line for the rock formation. She flapped her wings harder than she had ever before. She could hear the conjoined hiss of nearly a dozen giant eels speeding towards her from behind. With dexterous grace, she soared straight towards a “fork” in the rising rock formation, spun sideways, and effortlessly slipped through them.
The monsters behind her were hardly as nimble. Six of them in a row slammed murderously into the rock, sending chunks of limestone debris flying across the echoing chamber. They collapsed like a giant bag of wet noodles as several more eels slithered past them and resumed their chase, albeit at an increased distance.
Rainbow Dash exhaled in relief. She had been successful. She now had the space she needed to fly forward, unimpeded, and find a tunnel that could safely take her out of that place. Using her head and agility, the pegasus had once again avoided death, and now she was speeding for her life.
Then she stopped in the middle of the giant cavern.
Rainbow Dash hovered in place, her deadpan face strewn with sweat and slime.
The roar of splashing water increases as the remaining quarry eels converged on her.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash pivoted around, and her pendant's light along with her. She stared into the faces of the incoming eels. Her jaw tightened until her gritting teeth showed. Flapping her wings harder, she lowered her goggles and performed a complete about-face, flying directly towards the incoming phalanx of monsters.
Their red eyes glinted from the light of her neckpiece. Theirs forest of razor sharp teeth glistened with slime and saliva. Powered by hunger and rage, they lunged straight at their prey.
Rainbow Dash's eyes flared beneath the goggles. The ceiling shook and the water parted ways as she burned a lightning bolt's path towards them, greeting their menacing scales and serrated teeth with a long, loud, and haunting scream.
So... The pendant did something awesome and saved Dash? Works for me.
The pendant?
Eels?
And- what?
This story is so intriguing!
What the hell happened to Dash?
Okay, I'm going to tentatively keep holding onto the werewolf idea -- if only because it fits in with my new idea -- while I form a new idea. Some God awful thing happened to her Element. Something has either happened to it so it's acting like this, or she has learned how to use it.
I'm kind of now leaning to towards the idea that Celestia and Luna are fighting one another. The werewolf idea is still there, mixed in with the multiple bad things happening to her element, but I'm just confused now xD
Still an amazing story.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Not much here, except for a fact I find funny-one of my previous theories
has been thwarted by this chapter and another has been enforced. Firstly, the eggs are not dragon eggs-they are quarry eel eggs. Secondly, my theory that the element of loyalty necklace can perform magic has been enforced, seeing as how Dash used it's power to stop the eels. Not much else, though. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Hmm... This story is focusing a lot on RD's Element. I'm not going to make any guesses about why yet, though...
-THEpandaman007
Great stuff! MUST READ MOAR!
One more, and then I've gotta go eat something today...
Wow....this is getting heavy, with all the element can do now.....
I don't get why so many people are astounded by what the element can do. So far all we've seen it do is light up to make it easier to see. People keep saying that the pendant stopped the eels and saved RD but she just flew inbetween two stalactites. What does the EoM have to do with that?
Am I missing something?
Knowing they're quarry eels makes it a lot more serious. You do not want to mess with a nest of those guys.
yup, she is trying to get killed
She did a barrel roll?
>Theirs forest of razor sharp teeth glistened
u wot m8
Austraeohaiku
Dodging quarry eels
Over, sideways and under
Then turn, face the beasts
Ooh, eels, nice. This is the first 'action' chapter really, and I hope we see a lot more of them, because it was amazing! You handled the fight well, making it seem very realistic. Well, as realistic as a cartoon pony can be. This story just keeps getting better. Also, did she just shoot lightning from her element? I'm sure it could never do all these things before. Ah well, just another mystery to figure out!
So yeah, this chapter is kind of what I was saving up for. Not a whole lot to do last chapter... So good news is that I think I will finally have time to draw a thing or two for this story again, but I'm not completely sure and also did a little research on drawing backgrounds. Bad news is that I will have to draw things that will take a lot more time then just throwing up links all over the place. Here, have another. Also, ICC's ability to write fight scenes does improve throughout the story, though is a bit of a let down to me last time I read it later in the story.
here's the link to some Cave inspired work, Spring is still in the making.
http://alafreo.deviantart.com/art/Untitled-426752376?ga_submit_new=10%253A1389650994
any comments appreciated, so thanks
(it sucks that this story is all about scenery and I suck at drawing that. oh well, practice makes perfect)
"M'am, she's gonna jump! Inside the city!"
"Green light! Green light to engage!"
Frickin Mario 64 eels.
Eels... Quarry eels and Rainbow is in their nest... I'm not sure whether I want to laugh at her stupidity or feel sorry for her getting caught there. Either way, I hope she gets away, and I kind of want to know what changed her mind from running to attacking. 0.o Kind of drastic when there are that many angry carnivores out for your flank. Oh well, let's find out! Also... I have to wonder how long you can go making such an epic story that lacks any dialogue whatsoever.... Well, I know your stories remain epic, but you know what I mean. How long until the first bit of dialogue appears in this epic epic.
3715106 its called AU for a reason
Sonic Rainboom? I'm on the edge of my seat.
Okay, so something turned RD's radicalness dial all the way from "daring" to "death-seeker".
Nice to see somebody using these old fellas.
sometimes you gotta go into danger to get out of danger.
07/06/2019
01:15 UTC
9716291
I just realised I remember you from last time I read this story
Rainbow "Danger" Dash charging at quarry eels. Not the safest idea, indeed, but also...an exciting one.
When you have nothing to live for... You think that duking it out with monsters several times your size is a sound idea.
The "long, haunting scream" is still one of my favorite bits of the early series.
Of course, that explains the tunnel and it's labyrinthine nature, then coming to a central nesting chamber.
Edit: Also I see so many people under this chapter saying the Element helped her, which it didn't. All it did was light her way while she maneuvered. However, notably, something happened to her eyes at the end there. Either normal pupil-reacting-to-light stuff, or something else.
Notably, though, was that deadpan. Was it her realizing what the tunnels were as she thought about it, or was it related to her possible eye alteration?
I said last chapter that it was an angler fish. It turned out to be a whole bunch of giant eels, which are objectively worse in pretty much every way.