Up Hill, Down Hill
"Ariel!" Logan barked, neck craning from where he perched in the center of the wagon. He squinted ahead at the dimly-lit summit of the mountain that they were scaling. "Any sign of the hole?!"
"Don't you mean the entrance?!" Ariel shouted back from where she scouted ahead.
"To Big Show, all holes are 'entrances,'" Flynn huffed, struggling to guide the craft.
"Just keep us farting forward and shut up, egghead," Logan grumbled.
"I haven't seen it yet!" Ariel exclaimed. She zig-zagged feverishly in the twilight, searching for the cave in question. "I'm looking everywhere!"
"Shit..." Flynn gnashed his teeth, sweating beneath a glowing horn. "What if we've got the wrong mountain?"
"Then we're butt-bucked seven ways to Sunday." Logan looked back at the writhing sea of trolls at the base of the mountain. "Still..." He shuddered. "Could be worse."
"Simply keep scaling the mountain, frriends!" Kepler exclaimed bombastically. With Wildcard's mute assistance, he pieced together six explosive charges and fitted them with lunar runes. "The Rrainbow One would not lead us astrray!" He shared ingredients with Wildcard and put the finishing touches on his tools. "We must do ourr parrt to prrovide us all with an escape!"
"Yeah, and then what?" Flynn huffed, glancing back with a forlorn expression. "That's the shitty part..."
"Come on! That's it!" Rainbow Dash hollered, dipping and ascending with greater and greater frequency. While the trollish attacks came faster and faster, she was finding an appropriate pattern for evading and distracting them. "We've got this, Sera! We've got this! Just a bit more—"
"Do not call me 'Sera!'" Seraphimus hissed, reaching down to slash a random creature's neck. She barreled through the ruby cloud and juked another claw-swipe. "I made a promise with Logan."
"Httt!" Rainbow narrowly dodged a pouncing troll, kicked off its back, and bounced off the head of another shrieking beast. "H-how come you get to call him 'Logan' but I don't get to call you 'Sera'?!"
"Because he didn't slay my Goddess in cold blood." Seraphimus grunted and kicked an incoming troll—knocking it back down into its companions.
"When are you going to get it through your feathery skull that I wasn't the one responsible for Verlaxion's passing?!" Rainbow had to fly under one leap or two and ascended rapidly to avoid multiple claw-strikes from the sea below. "I mean—heck—how could I have even murdered a Dragon Matriarch unless I had her assistance?"
"Your insistence on this 'Dragon' nonsense is yet another consequence of your blighted delusions."
"Oh for crying out—"
HRESSSSH!
"!!!" Rainbow had to fly backwards to avoid the latest leap. The troll skimmed her front chest and belly before ultimately nipping off a hair or two from her tail as it fell. The pegasus hovered slightly higher, catching her wheezing breath.
"Rainbow..." Twilight Sparkle floated beside her. "...while I'm all for you helping Seraphimus see the light and all—"
"She won't friggin' believe you!" Pinkie Pie hollered.
"Yeah, sugarcube!" Applejack nodded. "Besides... she's too dag-blame'd angry at the moment to bother."
"That..." Rainbow noticed the sporadic corpses of trolls littering the ground below them. "...is something I'm certainly not complaining about right now.
"If you're done talking to your psychotic alter egos..." Seraphimus pointed towards Omega... then Alpha. "...we have a developing situation."
Rainbow's ears rang with more banshee shrieks. She looked towards opposite horizons and grimaced to see more and more pale specks rushing in from the canyons and fissures of the arid landscape. The stampeding bodies merged into brand new infantries that rushed in from all sides.
"You've gotta be kidding me..."
"Something has awoken them," Seraphimus stated matter-of-factly. She ascended until she was hovering safely alongside Rainbow Dash above the surmounting sea of enemies. "I suspect they were dormant all around this area until something you did awoke them."
"Me?!" Rainbow grimaced. "Why me?!"
Seraphimus stared at her. "You do have a putrid habit for destabilizing a continent, do you not?"
Rainbow frowned. "Look, if I hadn't taken the blame for what happened back in Frostknife, your precious prefectures would still be infighting while windigoes breathed down their necks!"
"As if any argument you can make at this point would have any bearing," Seraphimus droned.
Rainbow Dash opened her muzzle to retort—
"She's right, Rainbow!" Rarity exclaimed. She pointed down and towards Curveside. "Look!"
"Hmmm?" Rainbow spun. Her eyes widened. "Crud!"
Several of the trolls had given up on their elusive targets and were—instead—scrambling up the steep hillside at breakneck speed. Claws and shins scraped against pure rock as they rushed towards the brightly-glowing location of the Herald and their wagon.
"They'll overtake them in seconds!" Fluttershy stammered.
"Not if we can help it!" Rainbow Dash flapped her wings. "Come on! We gotta hold them off before—"
Fwoooooooooosh! Seraphimus glided past her, diving down at the backsides of the runners. "Verlaxion's wrath shall drown you before the Spring Havens!" Her exclamation was punctuated by the spray of blood and pained banshee shrieks.
Rainbow winced.
"Well, at least she's useful in a pinch!" Pinkie said.
"Yeah..." Rainbow shuddered, flying swiftly to distract the flanking lines of trolls. "Now if only she could pinch herself awake."
"Where is it...?" Ariel panted and panted. Sw-Sw-Swooosh! She zipped all around, hyperventilating as she struggled to find the break in the rock. "Where is it? Where is it?!"
A shrill whistle.
"???" Ariel spun and looked down the hill.
Wildcard was standing tall in the back of the wagon. Wincing in spite of his wounds, he waved at her then pointed slightly towards the right with Bard's staff.
Ariel spun to look.
The dim glow of the stars above illuminated the faint outline of a round, circular cave entrance. Craggy rock and loose pebbles christened the entrance.
"Guys! Uh..." Ariel shifted in mid-air. "...I... uh... found it!" She gulped. "Yeah!"
"Excelsiorr!" Kepler cried out. "And my charrges arre prreparred!"
"No time for celebration!" Logan leapt out of the moving wagon and slid to a stop. "Flynn! Cut it! I'll push the damn thing in!"
"Right!" Flynn hollered into the air: "Y'hnyrr L'fynym!"
The chaos metal dimmed slightly and the vehicle coasted to a stop.
"Hah!" Flynn grinned and hopped off on the side opposite to Logan. "I'm starting to get the hang of it!"
Kepler blinked. "You have memorrized the opposite commands?"
"Eh... I'm winging it..."
"Well, leg it this time!" Logan grunted, grabbing his side of the floating wagon and shoving forward. "We gotta get this thing deep inside!"
"To give Rainbow room to enter without fainting!" Flynn nodded, telekinetically pushing his half of the craft. "Got it!"
"Quick, Keps! Wildcard!" Logan motioned with his head. "Place that shit on the cave entrance and prepare to blow it!"
"Wait!" Ariel touched down, trembling. "How will Rainbow know we're ready to rush in and seal it off?"
Wildcard gestured something.
"A signal???" Flynn spun around and aimed his horn into the sky. "Got it covered!" Holding his breath, the stallion summoned a basic illumination spell that fired a bright beam of blue light high into the air.
"What about the monsters?" Ariel asked.
Logan's eyes reflected dozens upon hundreds of bodies skittering swiftly uphill, closing in. "They've seen all they want to." His jaw tightened. "It's all up to Rainbow now."
"Hnnngh!" Rainbow dropkicked two trolls and shoved a few more off. "Rnnngh!"
"It's no use, sugarcube!" Applejack exclaimed, pointing at the countless bodies rushing up past them. "They ain't no longer interested in y'all!"
"They're going after the wagon!" Rarity shouted. "We've got to—"
"Look!" Pinkie hollered, pointing up at a bright beam of light.
"It's a unicorn light!" Twilight exclaimed. "Flynn's sending us a signal!"
"The cave entrance!" Fluttershy gasped. "Rainbow, they must be there!"
"Yes! Absolutely!" Rarity grinned. "I can even see the entrance—!"
"Then we gotta cut this off at the head." Rainbow said.
"How, Rainbow?!" Twilight's voice cracked.
"Watch me!" Rainbow flew up high, reaching a hand to her hoof. "Sera! Move uphill!"
"Just a moment!" Seraphimus's beak clattered as she kicked and slashed at a few straggling trolls. "I'm about to flank their central charge—"
"That was not a request!" Rainbow yelled. Her pendant pulsed as she summoned the mother of all harmonic bursts. "Now move!"
Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!
Rainbow's pendant fired a steady stream of ruby energy. It sliced over the mountain-side in a crimson swath, briefly illuminating the lower hill in dim artificial daylight. Thousands of beady eyes blinked, momentarily blinded by the outburst.
Seraphimus jolted in surprise. She had to jerk sideways to avoid the blinding beam.
Rainbow's friends squinted and shaded their ghostly eyes.
The harmonic blast ripped through sporadic waves of hill-climbing trolls. They froze in mid lurch, turning to stone—some of them only half transforming, so that their fleshy limbs writhed under the weight of their petrified extremities.
When at last the beam had extinguished itself, Rainbow Dash let loose a wheezing breath. Her eyes flickered red-on-yellow, then back again.
She and her friends looked down to see that a curved line of troll statues lined the mountainside like a waterstain. The rest of the beasts' brethren struggled to scale past them.
"Wowie, Dashie!" Pinkie blinked. "That was neato—"
"Httt!" Not finished, Rainbow Dash flew up, flipped into a corkscrew dive, then buzzed the thin forest of statues with mere centimeters to spare. She flapped her wings at the peak of her downwards arc, producing a clap of thunderous air. POWWW!!!
Every single statue rolled backwards. Soon, a veritable avalanche of brittle troll-shaped rocks barreled down into the remaining army. It was the equivalent of tossing a hand-ful of pebbles into an ocean's surf, but it did manage to send bodies and skulls flying from the violent impact. For what it's worth, the insurmountable stamepede was delayed for a few seconds.
But it was a few seconds enough...
"Okay!" Rainbow hollered, doubling back and sailing uphill past Seraphimus. "Friggin' go!"
Seraphimus blinked, nodded, and flew swiftly after the petite pegasus. "Verily."
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Finally, they are in the cave! I was beginning to feel like they would never find it.
That's really impressive. Hope there's nothing hiding in the cave.
...Neat trick, Rainbow.
Well, that is one way to stall a stampede. Now lets find out what is in this cave, as it sounds like an artificial cave.
Now a spelunking we go!
Oh don't worry, she already found it a long time ago... :3
Rainbow Dash, master Airbender
Have our heroes found sanctuary? Or are there other twisted denizens of the dark side lurking in the shadows of the cave?
Don't miss our next thrilling episode "Tunnel Through the Upside Down" or "Danger Things!"
A cool idea I had was that they could have let the Trolls swarm the entrance to the cave. Really make a wall of flesh at the door, then flash them all to stone. Not as efficient, but gets points for be over the top and flashy.
Rainbow has a medusa's gaze from her pendant for those bastards.
Olde English catbirb can follow orders.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Man, you know... Sera's kind of got a point.
How the buck did this story hit the featured bo... OMG its ground hog day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"True, the Dauntless is the power in these waters, but there's none that can match the Interceptor for speed."
Seraphimus holds the title of scissoriest slicer dicer, but Rainbow is all about m/s/s.
A million years from now, some geologist is gonna find the eroded remains of those trolls and be hella confused as to how they got there.
Rainbow is trolling trolls by rolling stoned trolls through their ranks. Can someone please turn this into a fanart?
He should have fired that light on the trolls instead.
This whole endless troll stampede makes me wonder, they don't show enough intelligence or social behavior in general to have created some kind of society, yet they seem to reproduce in large numbers.
Where are they getting their food to sustain and build up this size, it can't be from hunting because apparently they are pretty bad at this, every sentient hunting party would probably have counted their losses and left that prey alone after they lost and kept loosing way more than they would ever gain from it.
They also seem to have no regards for their own individual health.
It could either be some kind of primal hive that just sends orders and does not receive feedback or something more sinister that actually knows who they are hunting.
At least they have to have a pretty reliable food/energy source.
I thought I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
It turned out to be Jeff.
Poor Flash, left in Limbo yet again.
8529431
Cannibalism?
8529463
Maybe.. probably .. but cannibalism doesn't explain it, they can't eat one and grow two out of it, eating one probably wouldn't even be enough to sustain the growth of at least one new troll, the energy to create and sustain their matter have to come from somewhere.
Eating each other would only serve as a 'natural' way to regulate their numbers but not to sustain their growth.
So unless they are eating stone they must have some kind of persistent food or direct nourishing energy source and if they are eating stone why would they send hundreds to hunt, unless someone gave them the order to specifically hunt Rainbow and her group.
Well we're hopping out of the frying pan now. Lets hope we don't land in a fire.
You know, these trolls could be very useful to members in the trinary war. Get their attention, lead them to the battlefield, let the other armies wear themselves out fighting them.
Sera, you've been hanging out with Kepler too much.
Finally!
Ariel's finally going to get inside of Rainbow's cave...
A rolling stone gathers no moss, but a rolling troll gathers many more.
8529622
Still wondering about lack of rainbow colored shockwaves
Yeah, how could you do that, huh? How could you, Rainbow? I trusted you! And you murdered me!
Friggin YEAH, "verily"! ha HAH!
And then the cave trolls attacked.
Holy throne!
durandal.dnsalias.net/imgur/Wlsuktj.gif
Murderbird is tsundere.
8529093
::fangirling intensifies::
I have to wonder if the armies on the Dark side have more or less problems with Trolls then Rainbow and co. On one hand they have bigger armies, and thus can direct many more forces. On the other hand they likely lack any means to permanently deal with the trolls Ala Rainbow's Harmony beam. At any rate, it likely is something that I will find out later. For now they just need to get to the cave and seal it off.
11/17/2017
17:45 UTC
Respect+5
8529825
You went out a hero though!
No, wait. That was Axan.
You went out evil, which was super-neat too! And you got harmony-lasered.
I wonder how many words this series would be minus the action sequences.
Doubtful unless something really really really shakes her up.
Was that a smidge of respect?
Kepler starting to rub off on her?
8770108
And multi-sonic-rainboomed!
By far the most awesome way to die!