Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 4:10 - Allegiance

Chapter 4:10 – Allegiance

Rainbow Dash banked beneath the clouds as she neared Castle Falcon. Nestled among the northeastern fringes of the aptly named Red Mountains, the stone structure was built in the same strange architectural pattern as many Hunter fortresses. The exterior ring of walls, towers, and parapets was the same as any castle, but the keep was nearly pyramidal in design. The ziggurat-like structure rose in several tiers, walkways ringing it at different levels, interrupted by asymmetrical clusters of square and circular towers. The outer walls would provide defense against most earthbound monsters as well more mundane enemies, and the keep’s structure would protect from aerial attack.

It had been a while since Rainbow Dash had last been at the home of her Hunter Order. Usually, she worked around Ponieville and never ventured too far away, until the past few years when her time with the Brave Companions had taken her places she’d never dreamed of going. Despite all that travel, even beyond Equestria, she hadn’t returned to this nearby keep. It was barely a day’s flight away, but to get here, Rainbow Dash had to leave the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht. That normally wouldn’t matter to a Hunter, who owed allegiance to no one crown. However, because of her ties to Regents Celestia and Luna through the Brave Companions, Queen Harmonia likely wouldn’t welcome her presence in the Kingdom of Los Pegasus.

Fortunately, another successor to the late Queen Helianthus might be willing to. At least, that was what Rainbow Dash and Grandmaster Threll expected to happen. King Alfons of Applewood and Mareagon had called Hunters from across his newly minted kingdom and beyond to participate in a Great Hunt. It was rare that such an event happened; rare enough for Dash’s grandmaster—who usually left the Hunters beneath her to themselves—to command her to come to Castle Falcon. A Great Hunt could be called by any monarch when they wished to draw in Hunters from far and wide to deal with a great threat, but they avoided doing so as much as possible since they were then compelled to provide a truly stupendous payment to the Hunters—usually an incredibly valuable relic or artifact. King Alfons hadn’t shared the reward he planned to give, but there had been rumors. If the Hunters weren’t impressed by what he offered when they arrived, they’d all quickly disperse and end the Great Hunt before it even began. The king really had to bring the best he could.

Rainbow Dash landed in the courtyard outside of the fortress and made her way to the keep’s main entrance. Landing on the walkways above would’ve put her closer to her destination, but their doors into the keep were most likely securely locked and barred, unlike the main doors which were flung open. Castle Falcon, like many Hunter fortresses, was usually sparsely populated, its residents out pursuing work, so there weren’t enough ponies to patrol everywhere. The few Hunters that were here only had to keep an eye on the one entrance that was unbarred, and that worked well enough.

Rainbow Dash saw no fellow Hunters until she reached the castle’s great hall. Within, three other pegasi awaited her. Grandmaster Threll sat atop a table as she addressed the others while running a stone strapped to her forehoof up and down a blade to sharpen it. The Order of the Falcon’s grandmaster was nearly a century old, yet still looked to be in fine fighting shape, even if her close-cropped mane had gone completely gray. Her right eye was covered in a patch, and the scar from the wound that had taken her sight on that side ran along and across her muzzle from under it. The other two were Hunters that Rainbow Dash had met and worked with several times in the past. On the left was Mangonel, a heavily muscled stallion whose iconic spiked horseshoes hung from his flank armor so as not to disturb the floors of the castle. Beside him was Ren, a mare with a strangely timid demeanor. Upon meeting her for the first time, Rainbow Dash had wondered how she’d managed to make it through the training in the Order of the Sparrow, but all doubts had been dispelled after she’d seen her fight. She was more than competent in combat, though she fought with a silence that could be unnerving.

“So, you’ve decided to join us, Rainbow Dash,” Threll scolded her, and the others turned toward her at Threll’s remark.

“Apologies,” Rainbow Dash said without really meaning it.

She wasn’t late, she just hadn’t gotten here first—which was really the same thing in Threll’s eye. Rainbow Dash herself had felt the same way once, but things had changed. She’d still gotten here as quickly as she could, outside of Twilight Sparkle opening a portal directly for her. Twilight hadn’t been available to perform such a task, though, busy as she was with her mother, so there was nothing more Threll could expect of her.

“I was just telling the others about King Alfons’s Great Hunt,” Threll said as she turned her attention back to her sword. “They can fill you in on the details as you fly south. Do the Falcon justice. Remember whose symbol you wear.”

Threll gave a look at Rainbow Dash’s medallion. Though all of them wore the symbol of the falcon to denote their Hunter order, hers was different, ringed as it was by the barbs of the Order of the Thorn. Rainbow Dash got the message, not that she needed it. The Order of the Thorn didn’t truly exist; it was simply a way for the Wonderbolts to single out future candidates to join their ranks. Her true allegiance was to the Order of the Falcon, who that had supported her for years and given her a second chance after her disgraceful killing of another student and her time in the ignominious Order of the Magpie.

“Are we really the best team?” Ren asked timidly. “What about Windrose?”

“Windrose is too far away and busy with Hunts in the Snowshear Mountains,” Threll replied. “No, you are the best our order can offer. King Alfons is too impatient to begin his Great Hunt to wait for Windrose to arrive.”

For a monarch, a Great Hunt was an efficient way to draw in many Hunters to take care of a particularly troubling infestation. For the Hunters that came, though, it was a competition. Because of the requirements for exorbitant compensation, the reward the monarch offered was often a single item that could not be split evenly among all the Hunters involved. Long ago, the Hunters had come up with a solution to determine who would receive the coveted prize of the Great Hunt. Each order sent a team of three Hunters, theoretically their best. Among themselves, they knew all the rules of the Great Hunt and how to determine the winner. All would participate, but only one team would walk away with the reward. It would not go to the individual members but to the entire order, with the grandmaster deciding the best use for it.

“We’d better get going, then,” Rainbow Dash said. “Mangonel, Ren, we can talk while we fly.”

Threll dismissed them, and the two other Hunters followed Rainbow Dash out of Castle Falcon. Soon they were in the air, headed south.

***

There wasn’t really much for the others to fill Rainbow Dash in on as they flew; Grandmaster Threll simply wasn’t in the habit of repeating herself. The known details were that King Alfons was preparing to start the Great Hunt in three days’ time at the southern border of his kingdom, along the fringe of the great forest of Wyrdwood that—along with the Equestrian Divide—separated the kingdoms in the north from the pirate kingdoms of the south. Not that there were many of those left anymore; over the past few years, all but the few stubborn bands of pirates clinging to the east coast of the continent had been conquered by the satyrs of the Storm Isles. Most of the southern border of the Kingdom of Applewood and Mareagon was taken up by mountains, apart from a narrow strip on the coast and another in the east, right next to the South Equestry River. That river marked the border with the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht (according to Celestia), but the Mareagonese and the Los Pegasans before them claimed the land across it as their own. King Alfons was respecting the border in practice for now, though. His camp was pitched on the river’s west bank, and he intended to expand south instead of east. That was why he had called the Great Hunt: to deal with the monsters that infested the southern forest so that he could begin settling it.

It was no small task that lay ahead of Alfons and the Hunters he’d called. Wyrdwood was nearly as infested with monsters as the Everfree Forest had been before the events at the end of the past year, and it was much larger. Alfons didn’t expect them to clear out all the monsters in one Great Hunt, something he’d made clear in his invitation to ensure Hunters actually showed up. He knew it would be a long task and he’d need to pay individual Hunters to protect his settlements as he pushed south, but there was one pressing issue that needed to be solved before he could expand. There was a reason that ponies hadn’t pushed into the Wyrdwood; monsters had had a long time to grow old and large here. There was a particular beast—an ancient rikeswyrm—that Alfons wanted to see gone before he could set his plans into motion. That was the prey of the Great Hunt, the monster all the assembled Hunters would be questing after.

Quite a few had arrived already by the time the Falcon Hunters appeared. Their simple tents were scattered around in groups of three, contrasting with King Alfons’s pavilions and the neat lines of his camp followers’ tents. Most had chosen positions near a tree so they could hang a medallion or banner to denote their orders. Rainbow Dash and the others followed suit, picking a spot near a gnarled old oak to pitch their camp. Ren hung an oversized wooden medallion with the symbol of the falcon from one of the branches for the sake of passers-by.

The Great Hunt would begin the following day. After the few hours of sleep Hunters needed, the groups assembled before Alfons’s pavilion to await his announcement of the Hunt’s commencement. Things started out normally enough as they waited, Hunters standing in their teams stoically, only rarely chatting with each other, but that began to change before Alfons’s appearance. Murmurs of surprise went up throughout the crowd of Hunters, and it didn’t take long for the reason to pass around to everypony. The subject of conversation was the team that had arrived at the last minute and taken a position near the front of the crowd. Even without the buzz, it wouldn’t have been difficult to spot them. Unlike everypony else, whose armor was mostly black, gray, and brown, the Wonderbolts stood out in their bright blue and yellow barding. The surprise wasn’t just about competing against the most elite team of Hunters in Equestria; the Wonderbolts had never taken part in a Great Hunt in the past. What had changed now?

Before Rainbow Dash could puzzle it out, King Alfons made his appearance. Members of his court preceded him, emerging from the pavilion to line up and face the crowd of Hunters. When Alfons exited the pavilion, he was followed closely by a sorceress in long, flowing robes. She could only have come from one place—Applewood Tower—sent as a reminder that Alfons had had to cede absolute sovereignty in his kingdom in order to create it. Despite occupying a position closer to royalty than any other member of his court, the sorceress was not the tower’s Grand Enchanter and thus not an equal with the king, so she stayed back as King Alfons ascended the podium set up for him. He looked disappointed to see that some of the Hunters were hovering and thus denied him the advantage of his podium, but quickly recovered.

“Hunters from across Equestria, I’m pleased to call you all to a Great Hunt!” King Alfons announced. “Your quarry is the ancient rikeswyrm that haunts the lands south of the Pyreneighs! Whoever dispatches this beast will be victorious!”

The Hunters remained, waiting. King Alfons had declared the Hunt, but he hadn’t completed his duty to the satisfaction of those assembled yet.

“Bring out the prize!” he called back to the sorceress.

She concentrated for a moment before a portal split the air atop the podium next to Alfons. A servant pushed a chest through, and Alfons unlocked it with a key about his neck, revealing what was within. Inside the chest was a single item, a mace head with a long chain wrapped around it. Though it would mean little to most ponies, to Hunters this was an extraordinary prize.

“The reward for killing the rikeswyrm shall be this!” King Alfons declared. “The Chain-Whip of Stormbreaker, one of the original Wonderbolts!”

It had been rumored that the chain-whip was in the possession of the Dukes of Alcyon, and Hunters had wondered when the duke-turned-king had announced the Great Hunt if he might trot it out. Now it was confirmed, and it became clearer why the Wonderbolts were here. During her brief stay in Castle Thorn, Rainbow Dash had seen the fabled weapons of the other six original Wonderbolts, collected over the years and preserved as nigh sacred relics. All that was missing was the Chain-Whip of Stormbreaker, and the Wonderbolts intended to gain it here to complete the array.

“Now, do that which you do best!” Alfons commanded after relocking the chest. “Hunt!”

The teams of Hunters took off one by one and began to spread out as they headed south. Rainbow Dash, Mangonel, and Ren had made a plan the night before, anticipating what the day would bring, so they all knew exactly what path to take over the Wyrdwood. The Wonderbolts shot past them, determined to slay the rikeswyrm first, and Rainbow Dash identified them as they flew. Spitfire took the lead, Soarin and Fleetfoot following. They must have truly been serious about winning the Great Hunt to have sent both the captain of the Wonderbolts and her lieutenant. The three of them were quickly out of sight, as were the rest of the Hunters, leaving the Falcon Hunters alone apart from distant specks in the sky and the monsters roaming the forest below.

Traditionally, the first day of a Great Hunt, especially when it involved such a large and troublesome foe, was spent scouting out the terrain and locating likely spots to ambush the quarry. That’s exactly what the Falcon Hunters had decided to do. All they knew of the rikeswyrm was that it lived somewhere south of the Pyreneighs, the peaks of which shifted from the west to the north as they flew around them. It couldn’t have been too far, not if the locals knew it existed, since they didn’t venture far south of the forest’s border and the Pyreneighs themselves were mostly populated by satyrs.

Locating the monster, though no simple task, was the most straightforward part of the quest. Rikeswyrms were difficult adversaries, even under normal circumstances. The many-limbed serpents were flesh and blood, but they were also pseudo-ethereal, able to phase through solid matter. This allowed them to slip away more easily than almost any other monster that Hunters faced, since they could submerge themselves in the earth to escape. Rikeswyrms built their dens far beneath the surface soil, phasing through layers of dirt and rock until they carved out their dens where nothing could touch them. If a rikeswyrm remained in its den, no Hunter could reach it. Fortunately, they had to leave their homes in order to hunt, since prey existed only on the surface. That was when Hunters would strike.

So far as anypony knew, there was no limit to how big a rikeswyrm could grow. Although they started small, barely larger than an earthworm, they grew with every year of their lives. Usually Hunters were called in (later than they should have been) to deal with them when they were the size of a large hound, but they’d been known to grow as long as a sailing ship if left to their own devices. Thankfully, the more they grew, the easier they were to find if one was in the right place at the right time. For some unknown reason, exceptionally large rikeswyrms began to attract other monsters when they surfaced; the larger the rikeswyrm, the greater the concentration. If the size of this particular rikeswyrm wasn’t being exaggerated, the commotion caused by its surfacing ought to attract the attention of every Hunter in the area.

Rainbow Dash, Mangonel, and Ren flew to and fro across the Wyrdwood, keeping a lookout for the telltale signs of a rikeswyrm: disturbed earth and stone and concentrations of other monsters. There was no sign of the former, indicating that the rikeswyrm had not recently excavated a new den or had been smart in spreading out the detritus, but plenty of the latter. Whenever they descended to the trees, they found themselves under attack from monsters of all types, forcing them to shift tactics and equipment on the fly to stay alive, or else retreat back to higher altitudes. The sky didn’t always keep them safe, though. There were plenty of flying beasts—harpies, manticores, skyrays, and the like—that either pursued them or flew up unprovoked. There was no choice but to cut these down, and the Falcon Hunters managed well enough against them.

“What’s going on over there?” Mangonel asked as the three of them regrouped after some solo scouting, pointing to a flurry of activity in the east.

The three Hunters bore down on the swarming monsters, picking up the pace as the situation became apparent. Swords flashed and bombs exploded in midair as the Wonderbolts fought against an overwhelming attack. A large flock of perytons and a scatter of drakes had converged on them, putting aside their differences (mostly) for the moment to attack these interlopers instead. Winged deer and pseudo-dragons fell from the sky as Equestria’s greatest Hunters fought them off, but it was a losing battle.

Rainbow Dash came to their rescue first, not stopping as she streaked past a drake about to bite into Fleetfoot from behind, decapitating it and clipping its wings with her sword. She dodged a blast of lightning from a peryton’s antlers before tossing knives into its neck. As it fell braying, she retrieved the blades and slit the beast’s throat. By that point, Mangonel and Ren had also joined the fray, and the six Hunters were able to turn the tide. The monsters’ numbers were falling, but they continued to attack as if crazed. Mistakes started to happen, and the beasts got some hits in against the ponies trained from foalhood to kill them. Any wounds were superficial, until a peryton managed to gore Soarin while he was busy holding off a drake. Spitfire’s second-in-command grimaced as he swung his sword through the drake’s wing joint and kicked the peryton away. The winged deer fired a blast of lightning as it tumbled, managing to hit Soarin purely by chance. Soarin’s sword fell from his mouth as he dropped out of the sky, tumbling freely.

“Soarin! Pull up!” Spitfire yelled down at him between strikes against an overgrown drake, but he was unresponsive.

Rainbow Dash managed to strike through the two perytons in front of her before streaking downwards after Soarin. She was barely above the trees when she managed to get under him and carry his bleeding, unconscious body away from a fatal impact. She could hear growls and splintering branches from the other monsters eager to attack them as she streaked barely above the ground. Before she shot up again, Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of the forest floor below her, a layer of translucent scales shimmering just over it, moss and grass shivering in anticipation of those scales becoming corporeal. Then, they vanished, sinking back beneath the soil. The rikeswyrm was right here but had decided not to surface. The Wonderbolts had found their quarry, but that didn’t matter at the moment. All that mattered was getting Soarin to safety before he bled out.

***

With the Wyldwood full of monsters, there was nowhere to land to treat Soarin’s wounds, so the Hunters did the best they could in the air while Rainbow Dash carried him back to the camp east of the Pyreneighs. Night had fallen by the time they arrived, and Dash left Soarin with the other two Wonderbolts. The rest of the night was spent washing Soarin’s blood from her armor and planning with Mangonel and Ren for the next day. Relocating the place where she’d where she’d seen the rikeswyrm would be difficult, but that might not matter so long as they could find the general area. It wasn’t likely to emerge in exactly the same spot, but if they could determine the territory near its den, they’d have a chance to trap it in the open. After a sparse few hours of sleep, they prepared to leave again. Before they went, though, Rainbow Dash left Mangonel and Ren to check on how Soarin was doing. The news was not good when she spoke to Spitfire and Fleetfoot outside of Soarin’s tent.

“It’s worse than we thought,” Spitfire confided in her. “It’s not just the chest wound; that last lightning blast injured his wing as well, and you know how hard it is for wings to mend properly. Even if he can stand and hold a sword, Soarin’s not going to be able to fly for the next few days.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t suppose there are any other Wonderbolts nearby you can call in? It’s going to be tough with only two.”

“I’m afraid not,” Spitfire replied.

“Although,” Fleetfoot said thoughtfully as she eyed Rainbow Dash’s medallion around her neck, “You are a Hunter of the Thorn …”

“So you could join us,” Spitfire finished the thought.

The rules among Hunters at a Great Hunt were that each team was composed of Hunters from the same order. However, both the Wonderbolts and the Order of the Thorn were unique, and they were linked together. Though it had never been done before, technically Wonderbolts and Hunters of the Thorn could be considered part of the same order.

“Join you?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I do have my own team to look after.”

“Not permanently, just until Soarin’s recovered,” Fleetfoot assured her.

“You can still hunt with the Falcons, but we could really use your help to scout and prep,” Spitfire said as she trotted over and put a wing across Rainbow Dash’s back. “Think about it, Rainbow Dash. We’d be honored to have you fly with the Wonderbolts.”

This was the dream she’d had since she was a foal. How could she turn down such an offer, to fly with her heroes, even if only for a little while?

“All right, I’ll do it,” she said.

“Wise decision,” Spitfire said with a smile. “You’ll be a Wonderbolt in no time.”

***

For the next few days of the Great Hunt, Rainbow Dash split her time between the Hunters of her own order and the Wonderbolts. She never told Mangonel and Ren that she was helping the Wonderbolts with their scouting whenever they split up. They likely wouldn’t understand, and she’d be back with them full time as soon as Soarin was back in commission, so it wouldn’t do any harm. At least, that’s what she told herself.

There was much to do to prepare to take down the rikeswyrm. They managed to narrow down the areas in which it hunted and did some preemptive clearing out of monsters to make their job easier and deny their quarry easy prey. Once word got around that the rikeswyrm’s territory had been found, all the Hunter teams descended upon the region, aiding in the process. Only one team could be proclaimed victorious, but it would likely take more than three Hunters to defeat the rikeswyrm.

Unless, perhaps, those three Hunters were Wonderbolts. As much as Rainbow Dash tried to tell herself she still belonged with the Falcon Hunters, hunting alongside the Wonderbolts was what she wanted and where she felt she deserved to be. After a day of fighting together, she began to familiarize herself with how Fleetfoot and Spitfire moved and worked seamlessly alongside them. Though she didn’t have their distinctive armor, it was almost like she was a Wonderbolt already. She tried to juggle both teams, but it soon became apparent which one she preferred; the longer Soarin remained out of commission, the more it felt like she could fly with the Wonderbolts forever.

“Rainbow Dash, we’ve got something to ask you,” Fleetfoot said as the three of them perched in the splayed branches of a tree, resting after clearing out nearby monsters and setting a trap for the rikeswyrm.

“This Great Hunt’s going to come to an end soon, and it doesn’t look like Soarin’s going to be healed in time to help us take down the rikeswyrm,” Spitfire said. “We want you to join the Wonderbolt team—officially.”

“As a member of the Order of the Thorn, of course,” Fleetfoot said. “You’ve really been proving yourself, though, and taking down this rikeswyrm with us is the last proof I need to recommend you get moved to the top of the list to be the next Wonderbolt.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked hopefully, but then her thoughts turned to Mangonel and Ren. “But … the Order of the Falcon really needs me, too.”

“We’ve all had to make that decision eventually,” Fleetfoot said, “Between our order and the Wonderbolts. Let’s face it, once you think it through, it’s obvious who the right choice is.”

“Think about it,” Spitfire said as she prepared to take off, “But let us know by tomorrow morning what your decision is.”

***

Rainbow Dash glided over the darkened landscape, her path lit only by the moon and stars. After leaving the Wonderbolts, she’d spent the rest of the day wrestling with the decision ahead of her. She could stay with Mangonel and Ren and the Order of the Falcon, or she could join the Wonderbolts instead. She had a reason to be with each, and it was causing a crisis inside of her. While fighting alongside Mangonel and Ren, her absent mind had caused her to slip up and suffer a sting from a venomous scorponid. When they returned to camp, she used her wound as an excuse to turn in early, only to slip away in the night. She needed somepony to talk to about her dilemma, and fortunately for her, there was a friend nearby who might be able to offer her advice. Word was passing through Alfons’s camp that Celestia’s pupil, Twilight Sparkle, was in the area, visiting the lands across the South Equestry River as part of the procession with her mother. Rainbow Dash managed to obtain enough rumors to determine where to go and located the old manor house where her friend was supposed to be.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight Sparkle asked in surprise when she answered the door. “What are you doing here?”

“Sorry to interrupt your time with your mother,” Rainbow Dash apologized, thinking of her own lack of a matronly figure for the first time in years. “I have a dilemma, Twilight, and I could use your advice.”

“I see,” Twilight Sparkle said after the Hunter had explained. “It is quite the situation you have gotten yourself into, Rainbow Dash. Torn between your dream and your existing ties. If I had had to choose between my family and becoming Celestia’s apprentice …”

“What would you have chosen?” Rainbow Dash asked, hoping for some insight.

Twilight looked thoughtful for several seconds before responding.

“The situation is different, and I was merely a foal at the time. It would not gain you anything to learn such a thing,” Twilight said instead of answering directly. “Rainbow Dash, I think you know what decision you must make, but it must be you who makes it. I should not interfere. Do you understand?”

“I think so,” Rainbow Dash said, disheartened. Twilight thought she knew what she should choose, but Rainbow Dash was still unsure. Hopefully she would have the answer by the time she returned to the Hunters’ camp.

***

No answer came to her during the flight back, nor by the next morning, but a solution did occur to her. When her fellow Falcon Hunters and later the Wonderbolts came by her tent, she played up her injury from the day before, insisting that she needed rest to combat the scorponid’s venom still in her body. Truthfully, her Hunter physiology had already mostly burned it out, but it wasn’t unknown for particularly powerful scorponid strikes to take days to recover from, so her excuse wasn’t questioned. Mangonel and Ren had at first insisted on staying with her, but she’d eventually convicned them that they still needed to go out and fight for the sake of their order. Fleetfoot and Spitfire had been easier to convince, acting professional and taking off to hunt the rikeswyrm once Rainbow Dash had explained her temporary infirmity.

As she lay in her tent, looking up at the canvas above her, she continued to agonize over the choice between the Order of the Falcon and the Wonderbolts. She’d found a temporary solution, but choosing not to choose didn’t feel like a real decision. She’d have to remain in camp until the rikeswyrm was slain to avoid giving an answer, which could be soon or days away; and her excuse wouldn’t hold up forever. As she wrestled with her plight, she saw a shadow move past her tent and got up to see who was moving around the camp—perhaps somepony sent by Alfons to spy on or steal from the Hunters.

“Soarin?” she said in surprise as she poked her head out of her tent and spotted the shadow’s source.

“Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash,” Soarin said, also in surprise. “What are you still doing in camp? I thought I was the only one here.”

“Spitfire and Fleetfoot didn’t tell you?” Rainbow Dash asked, before realizing that they couldn’t have if they’d headed straight out to hunt the rikeswyrm.

“No, they, um … they haven’t spoken with me much since I was injured,” Soarin admitted.

“How’s that going?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Your wing looks good as new.”

“Yes, well, the thing is, I, uh … I’m perfectly fine … and have been for a while now,” Soarin said. “I’ve always been a quick healer, even by Hunter standards, but Spitfire and Fleetfoot insisted I stay behind to mend fully. They told me not to worry, that they’d manage victory for the Wonderbolts even without me.”

“Because they thought I could be your replacement,” Rainbow Dash said, too softly for Soarin to hear.

Things were beginning to come together. Spitfire and Fleetfoot had seen in Rainbow Dash a chance to boost the Wonderbolts’ chances of winning the Great Hunt and crippling another team at the same time. They knew how desperately she wanted to be a Wonderbolt,and they’d tried to use that and her link through the Order of the Thorn to manipulate her into doing what they wanted. All they needed then was to keep Soarin out of the picture so she could take his place. And yet, even after figuring this out, Rainbow Dash still wanted to hunt alongside them. She looked back at her camp; at Mangonel’s and Ren’s tents, the embers of the campfire, and at the wooden Falcon medallion hanging from the nearby tree that, implausibly and just for a moment, seemed to shimmer with light. She knew the decision she had to make.

“Soarin, get your gear. We’ll head out to the hunting grounds together,” Rainbow Dash said.

“What? Why?” Soarin asked, dumbfounded.

“Both our teams are going to need us.”

***

It wasn’t difficult to find the other Hunters as they awaited the rikeswyrm’s appearance; they had been setting things up for days. Rainbow Dash and Soarin managed to cause a bit of a commotion when they arrived. Soarin’s injury had been well known for a long time, and word of what had befallen Rainbow Dash had also spread quickly. Mangonel, Ren, Fleetfoot, and Spitfire flew out and met them in midair.

“Rainbow Dash! You managed to fight through the venom, huh? Good for you!” Fleetfoot said, completely ignoring Soarin as Spitfire glared at him.

“That’s Rainbow Dash for you,” Ren said quietly. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?”

“I’m fine,” Rainbow Dash assured her.

“So, Rainbow Dash, are you with us?” Spitfire asked.

“I know where my allegiance should lie,” Rainbow Dash said. “I may aspire to be a Wonderbolt, but my loyalty is with the Order of the Falcon.”

“You sure about that?” Fleetfoot asked, almost making it a threat.

“You lied to me about the extent of Soarin’s injuries so I would help you, you played off my desire to be a Wonderbolt, you took advantage of my place in the Order of the Thorn, all to help you win the Chain-Sword of Stormbreaker. Is it really worth all that?” Rainbow Dash accused Fleetfoot and Spitfire as she advanced on them. “My dream has always been to join the Wonderbolts, but it seems every time we meet, I learn something about you that I didn’t want to know, something that taints that dream. If you want to be treated like heroes, maybe you should act like them.”

“You’re full of surprises, Rainbow Dash. You have been since the first time I heard about you,” Spitfire said as she stared Rainbow Dash down. “You say it’s your dream to become a Wonderbolt, but every time you get close to achieving that dream, you strike out and do something to sabotage yourself.”

“I’m just trying to do what I think is right,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yes, I think you are,” Spitfire said as she looked past her to Soarin, who was still patiently waiting to be acknowledged by his fellow Wonderbolts.

Whatever the captain of the Wonderbolts had been about to say to her lieutenant was lost as cries went up from the other teams of Hunters in the area. Trees shook, and Hunters in the distance started fighting off incoming flying monsters. The rikeswyrm had decided to surface, and the legion of Hunters took off from their perches to intercept it. Foul sounds rose from the forest as monsters rushed in to fill the space that had been cleared by Hunters in the previous days, as eager as those above to be there when the rikeswyrm emerged.

Its head appeared first, beginning as an ethereal shimmering outline of a snout until it had passed through the trees and was able to become corporeal. The head was long and smooth, with an appearance somewhere between that of a serpent and a fish. Large black eyes with glowing gold irises peered out from beneath slight brows, taking in their surroundings quickly. This rikeswyrm had remained unhunted in the Wyrdwood for ages and had grown to a truly phenomenal size. The head alone was as large as the biggest sailing ships, reaching a level of magnitude bigger than the largest recorded rikeswyrm. It was a truly monstrous specimen and would require many Hunters to take down.

The rikeswyrm hadn’t grown so large by being a fool; it knew the threat facing it if it were to continue surfacing, so it tried to drop back beneath the soil. However, the enchanted stones the Hunters had placed all over the forest in the preceding days prevented it from doing so and it found itself stuck with its head above ground, unable to turn ethereal again. The rikeswyrm swiftly realized this and decided the only recourse was to fight. Its long serpentine body began to reveal itself as the rikeswyrm reared up, swimming through the air as ably as it had through the soil. A massive pillar of flesh covered in flailing, clawed arms rose into the air seemingly without end, until the rikeswyrm decided it had reared its head high enough.

The Hunters were closing in, the sheer scale of the beast only really dawning on them as they drew near. Steam gushed from the rikeswyrm’s nostrils, placed on the bridge of its head, back from its eyes, and its head was soon obscured in a thick cloud. Light flickered from within the cloud as the rikeswyrm opened its mouth and began to build up an electrical charge between its jaws. Lightning lanced out from the cloud, but the Hunters had prepared for this. Kites attached to iron stakes perforated the area and surrounded the rikeswyrm, drawing the lightning strikes away from the Hunters for the most part.

As the Hunters reached striking distance of the rikeswyrm, the sky became crowded and confused. Flying beasts swirled around the serpent’s body, drawn by its inexplicable magnetism to other monsters. The Hunters had to contend not just with them but also with the rikeswyrm’s flailing limbs, each as thick as a tree trunk. It became chaos as they had to juggle attempts to strike their quarry and defend against the minor monsters in their way. Thrown bombs and grenades boomed and crackled, blades sliced through the air, and crossbow bolts flew every which way.

In the midst of all the chaos, Rainbow Dash and her fellow Falcon Hunters managed to slice their way through to the rikeswyrm’s body. Mangonel held off the monsters that descended on them, pulping them with his spiked horseshoes, while Rainbow Dash and Ren tried to pierce through the rikeswyrm’s thick hide. Its scales, while no larger than a pony’s hoof, had many layers, eventually fusing into much larger plates farther down, and it seemed impossible to cut straight through. Rainbow Dash led them upward, chopping through the forest of limbs toward its neck, where they might have a better chance of finding an opening.

The rikeswyrm, meanwhile, was not content to rest on its laurels and let the cloud of smaller monsters defend it or to allow its lightning strikes to vanish uselessly into the ground. Stretching its jaws wider, it allowed the power there to grow until it focused into a beam of energy and swept it across the aerial battlefield. Monsters were burned up or vaporized, and some of the Hunters unable to get out of the way in time joined them. Many fought desperately now to close the distance and contact the rikeswyrm’s body, where they would be safe from its beam.

As the rikeswyrm prepared another blast, the Wonderbolts flew in formation directly at the glow coming from its mouth. Each of them was laden with bombs they’d picked up from caches down in the forest, ready to be released from their armor at the pull of a cord in their mouths. When the rikeswyrm released its built-up energy and shot another beam from its mouth, the Wonderbolts split off in three directions. Soarin released his bombs first, and they detonated the moment they struck the rikeswyrm’s beam, cutting it short. Fleetfoot released hers next, cutting the beam shorter still, and Spitfire finished the drop, her bombs detonating nearly within the rikeswyrm’s mouth. The blasts dispelled much of the cloud around its head and struck its face, causing it to recoil instinctively and shake smoke from where minor damage had been dealt.

The three Falcon Hunters had to take evasive action to avoid being struck by the massive head, but they were able to get back to it after the rikeswyrm had calmed down. That the Wonderbolts had managed to deal any real damage to the beast at all was impressive, but it was nowhere near what was required to bring it down. More Hunters had made it through to the rikeswyrm’s body but were running into the same issues of getting through its flesh. Something drastic would be needed to pierce those scales.

“I’ll be back,” Rainbow Dash told Ren and Mangonel. “Stay alive until then.”

As they continued to advance up the rikeswyrm’s neck, Rainbow Dash shot up into the sky, flying free of the chaos surrounding the massive beast. It took a long time for it to dwindle beneath her, but eventually Rainbow Dash was high enough that the rikeswyrm looked like no more than a snake. Gripping her sword firmly in her teeth, she started to descend. Wind whistled as she picked up speed rapidly on the way down, and she could feel resistance begin to build against her. She knew she could push past it and kept going, building tension until she was right on top of the rikeswyrm. Then, she struck. A sonic rainboom exploded from where her sword met the rikeswyrm’s neck, and the shockwave threw monsters and Hunters alike back from the cut.

As she circled around beneath its neck in the aftermath of her strike, she knew it hadn’t been enough to bring the beast down. Cresting it from the opposite side, she saw that she had managed to open a large gash in the rikeswyrm’s neck but had come far from severing it. The massive serpent howled in pain and rage as it flailed around, and the Hunters struggled to stay ahead of the twisting neck as it swung back and forth. Lightning began to build between its jaws again, some also emerging from the gash Rainbow Dash had opened, keeping Hunters from exploiting the opening she’d made. It did mean, at least, that she’d managed to cut through to its windpipe.

The rikeswyrm swung around with supernatural speed as it released another beam of energy, trees igniting where it went wide. Hunters circled the wounded creature as it twisted around, limbs grasping at them, claws slicing past them. The Wonderbolts flew toward its mouth again as the beam ceased. A roar shook the air and it began to build for another strike, but Fleetfoot shot ahead and tossed a bomb into the growing power, detonating it. It began to build again, but this time Soarin shot ahead and extinguished the power with a blast. Spitfire, carrying a frankly absurd amount of bombs, plunged through the smoke and between the rikeswyrm’s jaws as they instinctively snapped shut. Seconds passed with no sign of Spitfire until she emerged, hacking wildly, through the gap Rainbow Dash had opened.

“Get back!” she yelled as she emerged, dripping with blood and gore.

Hunters pulled away from the rikeswyrm’s head while fighting the monsters still circling around, but they had plenty of time before the bombs Spitfire was no longer carrying went off. Detonations sounded wetly from within the rikeswyrm’s head and neck, accompanied by splintering bone and tearing flesh. A sickly roar expelled by the blast sounded from the rikeswyrm’s mouth before its jaw split and cheeks blew out. The gash on its neck expanded and the head began to tear away from the monster’s body. The earth below cracked violently as the rest of the rikeswyrm’s body beneath the ground became just as corporeal as that above. The rikeswyrm’s long, sinuous form fell slowly through the air, crushing hapless monsters as they tried to flee, and crashed to the ground with an impact that toppled hundreds of trees.

***

Rainbow Dash, Mangonel, and Ren packed up their camp and prepared to return to Castle Falcon. Now that the Great Hunt had ended, Hunters all around them were doing the same, all returning to their own fortresses or headed back on the road. Some would return to help with the clearing of monsters as King Alfons pushed settlements south, but for the time being there was no more work to be had here.

After slaying the rikeswyrm, the Hunters had all sat down and hashed out the rules for the Great Hunt to determine the winner. The Wonderbolts had been chosen, and it was Spitfire who carried an eye of the rikeswyrm, nearly as large as she was, to King Alfons as proof. The Wonderbolts had won the Chain-Whip of Stormbreaker, and without Rainbow Dash assisting them in the final battle, though she did feel a bit cheated for helping them cache all the explosives they’d used to finish the job.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire said as she trotted by the partially disassembled Falcon camp, Fleetfoot and Soarin following her, and all three Falcon Hunters looked up.

Spitfire tossed Rainbow Dash the icon the Wonderbolts had hung up at their camp to mark its allegiance. The Falcon’s icon had been a wooden medallion, but the Wonderbolts had a winged lightning bolt made of gold.

“Keep it,” Spitfire said as Rainbow Dash looked up from it. “I know, it’s useless to you right now—you made that clear—but maybe it’ll come in handy someday.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow Dash said before packing it up with the rest of her things, not noticing the unnatural light that shimmered across it even after it had been wrapped up.

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

Nice crossover with the previous chapter. It shows that you planned for this encounter between Rainbow and Twilight to happen.

A nice re-telling of Rainbow's "loyalty" episode (oddly enough, one of the few episodes in the series to actually focus on her element...then again, I guess once loyalty is proven, and being as how Rainbow is so stubborn in that regard, there was not much need). To be honest, I feel kinda sorry for the worm and monsters of Wyldwood. They weren't actively engaging in attacks or harming pony settlements. In fac t, it seems the satyrs lived okay alongside them (which also makes me wonder what'll happen to the satyrs when the pony settlers begin coming through). And since most other hooved animals in this series are sapient, that has me wondering about the perytons as well?

But this is a darker retelling of the series, and it is pretty reflective of the attitudes people in our world had to native populations and wildlife during the similar time period, so...

Still, I wonder how these implications are going to affect Fluttershy later, especially when she turns "batty" eventually. Will she gain a new perspective for the "monsters" they've hunted, and how will it affect her views and relationship with Rainbow?

[Xanderfox]

Nice adaption of the episode for this universe, Spitfire knows Rainbow is special, not just because of her skills but her loyalty. It's a special person who makes you want to be better, and Rainbow makes Spotfire want her whole team to be better because of Dash.