With a rustle of leaves and moss, the three ponies sped their way into the body of Foxtaur. The forest was ancient, with the outermost trees resembling gnarled, twisting briars. Brown branches spread in every direction, several of them dipping low and turning the ceiling of the place into a claustrophobic maze of wooden tributatires. The thickest canopy imaginable stretched over their heads, cutting out all sunlight as the three came to a shuffling stop in the center of a bushy clearing.
Pilate and Bellesmith leaned against each other, sweating and panting heavily. Rainbow Dash hovered just above them, glancing every which way for signs of movement.
"Relax... Rainbow... Dash...." Belle managed to say. "Your luck... as always... threw our pursuers off..."
"Since when could unicorns fly?" Rainbow Dash uttered with a frown. "That's totally cheating!"
"I'm inclined to agree," Pilate stammered.
"What matters is they're gone!" Belle exclaimed. She gulped, ran a hoof through her mane, and added, "And so is that huge, nasty—"
The edge of Foxtaur exploded behind them. Through a shattering sea of branches, the giant arthropod lunged towards the three, its mandibles drooling heavily.
Belle was too breathless to shriek. Pilate blanched and froze in place. Branches and brambles fell towards them as the giant centipede sliced its way through.
In a blue blur, Rainbow Dash shoved the two ponies out of the way. She had very little room to avoid the falling branches and bits of trees. Eventually, she shoved the three to a stop against the trunk of a massive oak. Hopping up from the bodies of her trembling friends, Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth.
"Oh, you gotta be friggin' kidding me!"
The centipede swirled about, its many legs carving thick ravines into the leaves and soil of the forest floor. Its massive feelers swam through the air of the place, forcing its head to tilt closer and closer to the succulent trio.
"We c-can't outrun something with that many legs!" Bellesmith exclaimed.
Pilate gulped. "Legs?"
"Rainbow Dash, wh-what will we do?"
"Hurt less while I hurt it more!" Rainbow Dash blurred towards the creatures, swinging two forelimbs together until they slammed upside its headpiece. "Nnngh—Haaaugh!"
The centipede reeled backwards, its shell of a body toppeling two trees over. Everything was chaos and fluttering leaves.
"Rainbow—!" Belle hollered, Pilate in tow.
"Will you friggin' run, already?!" Rainbow Dash said before taking a leg to the back. "Augh!" She pinballed off two tree branches, kicked off a brown trunk, and avoided a fanged lunge from the head of the creature. In a splash of splinters and sawdust, she flew up and frowned down at the thrashing, thrashing thing. "Y'know, I went easy on you! I decided to leave you alone! But noooooooooo—We couldn't have that, now could we?"
With a foul-smelling shriek, the massive arthropod surged eastward, trailing at the two helpless ponies.
"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow Dash dove down and repeately kicked and bucked at its bulging body segments. "This is our dance! Now you stay put and fight like a—"
All it took was the lifting of three combined legs, and Rainbow Dash was knocked effortlessly into a cluster of bushes. She fought and fumbled with several dipping vines to disentangle herself from the mess. Looking over, she sweated to see her friends being cornered against a row of boulders.
Belle and Pilate were pressed against the wall. They considered running an alternate course, but the centipede had circled the trap with its entire body and was now leering its fanged pinches above the two. With feelers twitching, the creature prepared to lunge at the helpless couple.
Rainbow Dash hissed through clenched teeth. She flew against the rope of thorns ensaring her legs. Blood flew in the air, but she managed to slide free. With a pained groan, she soared towards the head of the creature and slammed into it before it could thrust its fangs at her friends.
The centipede's head flew towards an ancient tree, where it's upper row of legs were fortuitously stuck in the forking of several gnarled branches. Twitching and spasming, it fought to free itself.
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings... and flew away from the creature. She became a blur in the distant edge of the clustered forest.
Belle watched, curious. Pilate shivered, his ears twitching.
A low thunder rumbled through the air. Trees shook and branches wobbled. Finally, Rainbow Dash returned from her head start, surging at several thousand kilometers per hour. She angled her body into a drop kick and focused all her angry velocity on a pair of legs sticking out of the branches that the monster was trapped in.
A sickening snap filled the air. The creature howled in agony as two of its legs flew juicily in the air. Rainbow Dash caught one in her hooves, circled about, and perched atop the very crown of the creature. Positioning the razor-sharp limb like a spear in her grasp, she raised it up, took a deep breath for courage, and stabbed it down into the soft mouth of the creature. This, she repeated again and again, summoning many shrieks from the ensnared arthropod.
Below, Belle and Pilate shivered in the shadow of the melee. Belle stared with wide eyes. As more sickening sounds of a pummeled exoskeleton lit the air, she grimaced harder and harder. A wave of bubbling juices landed at her hooves, and still she kept wincing. Pilate was no less effected, his ears drooping to eliminate the sound of the centipede's painful wails. Soon Belle was looking green in the face, having to plant a hoof over her muzzle to keep her breakfast in. Finally, after half a mandible fell at her hooves, Rainbow Dash touched down beside them, half her body stained with giant bug juices.
"Now go home and pray I don't chase you there!" Rainbow Dash spat.
Yipping like a giant bag of beaten puppies, the hulking monster dislodged from the tree and limped painfully towards the west edge of the forest. As it pierced the edge of the canopy, there was the unmistakable silhouette of its headpiece having been pierced down the center with a jagged leg. In a swish of limbs and juices, it was gone.
Rainbow Dash stood in place, her nostrils flaring as she finally, finally coiled her wings.
Pilate and Belle stared in her direction, dumbfounded.
Gulping, Rainbow Dash spun around. She smiled briefly.
"So yeah! I found you guys a book! Heheh... ohhhhhhhh..."
And she collapsed in a dizzy heap.
"Rainbow!"
juicy.... juicy....
yeah, that sounds just delicious...
Where is everyone?
There should be an option to upvote individual chapters. Just 'cause i want to upvote this every time i read it
I DID IT! 327 chapters in THREE DAYS! (What does that say about me? ) I finally caught up. Now to read all the updates I completely ignored while power-reading this series.
Really, Rainbow? What is it with these ponies and their obsession with books?
Great chapter, though. I'm really looking forward to the next one.
Updatelicious.
Ah Rainbow... you are indeed Awesome.
Badass Rainbow again! Ah, I sure do love these juicy action scenes.
Rainbow flew up high!
Rainbow used Fly!
It's super effective!
The wild Scolipede fled!
Was reading this bit while eating lunch. Not the smartest idea I've ever had.
Hammer Smashed Face - Cannibal Corpse
Also, gnarly. And ew.
And I thought catching up 280 chapters was a lot, and that took me three weeks. As for what it says about you..
Well, that is a...
1976008 Join the club. We have cookies.
That, right there, may be the awesomest description I've ever heard.
And, DAYUM! Badass Dash is... well, simply Rainbow Dash!
):(, no push-ups this chapter. Ya done did good.
Ah, back to fight scenes and defeating monsters. It's like reading the cave eel scene from the beginning Austraeoh again. Almost nostalgic after the long stint of character & story development. These are the days it's good to read Eljunbyro.
1976526
1976526 I think I laughed harder than I should have at this comment.
And oh great, another dizzy spell...
1976008>>1976889 And lemonade. Can't forget the lemonade.
1976960>>1976889 Can I do a victory dance?
Yes?
Good.
samgreenmedia.com/zombie-dance.gif
1976980 Let me join you.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m74opwVbUR1qcrne8.gif
Its tummy had the rumblies that only legs could satisfy.
1976960 Oh, and the brownies.
"And my axe!"
Rainbow Dash, go home. You're drunk.
1976960
1977024
These foodstuffs all pale in comparison to grilled cheese.
Mmmmm....stabby...
Several thousand kilometers an hour.
Well damn...
Oh come on, that's gotta be a level up for her. How many XP was that thing worth, again?
I noticed that Dash has changed how she thinks of Pilate and Belle.
I don't think she's done that before, even with all of the emotional development she's been having lately.
I guess she's just one step closer to being fixed. Which of course means it's only a matter of time before something horrible happens to her.
Wheee, books get thrown at Pilate!
And legs get thrown at everything else...
Ah, the 'ol use their own legs against them move. A classic.
1977840
Yup! We haven't really seen too much of the three of them since the chapter New Friends, which concludes with:
So it is nice to see that actually stick. Friendship, companionship, love, these are all big themes in Eljunbyro, especially as it pertains to loss and healing. Additionally, Rainbow having these feelings really cements Eljunbyro's purpose in psychological and emotional realms. The lone adventurer has learned she doesn't always have to be alone, that her burdens can be shared, that death and dying don't have to be the end.
1978434
I like big books and I cannot lie.
Eyup
1976008
It means you have more free time than me and I am jealous.
1978833 And that's why i keep saying it. Zadubadabu shall be the third story in the series of eastward flight.
1978882 I also took midterms the last three days.
1978939
And now you aren't.
Well, damn - epic battle scene, anyone? Also, juicily? at the same time - I'm not sure how that works, don't ask. Seems like the dizzy spells are rearing their ugly heads again, too. Not that I didn't already, but I pity the fool (Shell) who tries to mess with Rainbow, especially now that she's got some new friends to go all Loyalty on. Until tomorrow, then!
1976346 Both funny AND surprisingly accurate!
EAT PAIN.
You see that chapter title and you know you're in for something good.
... i've been trying t get started on this story but i just don't have the time. Sorry but I might never read this...
1980410
you're seriously missing out...
1980714Im trying, theres just so much i need to do, and once i start a story i stick with it to the end, so this one is going to take up a lot of my time. I'm really trying to clear some space.
1980841 it takes about 7 hours to catch up
Wow... I bet there's a lot of good meat In a giant centipede.
I bet they taste like shrimp, or lobster.
This chapter was deliciously disgusting.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we get the epic fight between Dash and the centipede that we were building up for last chapter. Maybe Imploding intended it to be that way...I don't know. But this chapter was pretty gory and grim. It harkens back to the crucifixions at Silvadel back in the original Austraeoh. The description of the fight here was very nice as well. It kind of reminded me of the epic Windthrow battle that lasted three whole chapters. Both fights had a similar tone, I think. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
And we have another epic fight. C'mon guys, Dash is just too.... Dash. Buck that centipede, it aint got no chance against Rainbow Dash!
That was also strangely graphic. I really wouldn't like the idea of stabbing a giant centipede in the mouth with it's own leg....
Dammit Dash, why you so Dash?
Onwards!
1976008
That's quite the marathon you've done, sir. I did something similar on Austreaoh, but that was only around 90 chapters in 12 hour span.
Nothing like ripping off an opponent's limb and thrashing them with it to show you mean business. And that "giant bag of puppies" line was just the perfect cap.
Two chapters ago:
This chapter:
So that's where that extra R came from!
All I can say:
Yeah! Go Dash!
Also... So... Much... Gore...
Me likely.
RD being BOSS as ...well RD.