Eljunbyro

by Imploding Colon

Danger Zoning

A squadron of gliders flew low in formation. They angled towards the cluster of trees last disturbed by the stampede. The foremost wingpony held a hoof up and shouted towards his cohorts.

"Follow my lead! Incendiary rounds at the ready!"

A cyan blur lifted up beside the first craft. "Hey!" a voice cracked.

The two unicorns glanced over. Their goggles glinted as their jaws dropped in shock.

"The sky called!" Rainbow Dash yelled, frowning. "It wants its wind back!" At the last exhalation, she spun twice in mid-air and bucked all four hooves into the left wing.

The managlider spun wildly, breaking formation as it toppled towards the expanse of Foxtaur below. All of the remaining vehicles accelerated, trained on Rainbow's prismatic tail.

"Target sighted!"

"The winged pony!"

"Immobolize and capture her!"

"Yeah, you do that!" Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and bolted upwards.

The air thundered from nearly twenty managliders pulling up and flying muderously after her. The temperature heated up from so many magical engines burning through the atmosphere at once. Spacing themselves expertly apart, the airborne enforcers sliced their way towards Rainbow Dash's rear from several different angles, making intimidating progress.

"Yeah, okay," Rainbow Dash panted in mid-ascent. "They're a tad bit faster than dragons. Still—"

She pivoted her wings, dragged air, somersaulted, and flew straight back at them.

"Dumb as an ox is still dumb as an ox!" Rainbow Dash snarled angrily as she flew towards the managliders head on. "Bring it!"

The first pair of pilots in the charge gasped. They pulled hard on their controls and veered to avoid Rainbow Dash's psychotic plunge. The numerous aircraft trailing the initial vehicle followed suit, and soon all of the gliders were soaring back down in a cascading loop.

Rainbow Dash threaded her way through the bending sea of metal, mana, and mayhem. She twirled, dipped over and above aluminum fins, kicked a glider or two off-balance, and dove low towards the tree tops, heading west, flying decidedly away from where she last saw her friends and cohorts.

"You're going to have to do better than that, ya knobheads!" She smirked and glanced back, then bilnked awkwardly at how swiftly they had returned to formation. "Well, then, way to go—"

"Three gliders at the front of the formation exposed several rocket-propelled barbs from the clefts of their wings."

"Applesauce!" Rainbow Dash cursed. Already, she was twirling her body as swiftly as she could—

With ghostly whistles, the first three gliders fired their entire compliment. The sky filled with a spread of serrated projectiles like throwing knives.

Rainbow Dash held her breath as she twirled up, down, left, right, and in a maddening spiral to avoid the razor-sharp volley. Tree branches and clusters of leaves beneath her exploded from the falling projectiles. By the time she could breathe again, the managliders were catching up to her.

"Hold it steady!" The co-pilot of the foremost craft levitated a brimming taser, stood up in his seat, and swung hard at Rainbow. "Haaugh!"

Rainbow instantly twirled sideways, pivoted her rear legs, and clamped a pair of hooves over the enforcer's weapon. "Have you written gravity lately?!" Rainbow spat. "She misses you!" With that, she twisted her lower limbs, throwing the yelping stallion off his vehicle.

"Yaaaaaah—" The unicorn fell like an anvil into the treetops below.

"Enforcer down!" The pilot shrieked, fumbling with his controls. "Enforcer down—"

Rainbow Dash perched in the seat behind him and planted her front hooves against his shoulders. "Word up." She propelled herself off, knocking the glider off course and forcing the pilot to bail out while his craft exploded into a tall tree jutting out of the canopy.

The eighteen or nineteen other gliders had veered to opposite sides during this. By that very moment, they had returned, coming at Rainbow Dash from opposite angles. Forcing her into a mid-air gauntlet, they fired converging salvos of barbed rockets.

She gritted her teeth and tried to outfly the projectiles. Though she managed to thread through the thickest torrent of flying metal, a pair of glinting daggers skimmed across her left flank. A spray of blood kissed the air.

"Gaaah!" Rainbow Dash shrieked, her eyes clenched shut. She curled into a blue ball and plunged hard into the forest below, disappearing beneath the trees.

The gliders angled out and decelerated so that they coasted over the treetops at slow speed. Several pilots and co-pilots peered down into the foliage with their thick goggles.

"Target is down!"

"Any sign of her?"

"I suggest we call in a search team from the Steel Wing—"

"No time for that!" Rainbow Dash flew up casually from beneath the squadron. She had a shallow flesh wound on her side, but she ignored it while juggling a half-dozen pine cones. "Lunch!" That said, she growled and shoved the brittle seedlings into the first pair of mouths she found.

"Mmmmgnnfhh!" The lead pilot gagged, spitting up splinters as he and his co-pilot crash-landed into a clearing below. Another pair of Enforcers swung tasers at her, only to have sharp pinecones smashed into their faces. They flew off at a bizarre angle while Rainbow spun, twirled past another salvo of barbs, and flew down through a steep trench of enpty forest.

Rainbow's ears teared from a mixture of speed and pain. Pulling herself past the throbbing sensation in her flank, she pivoted sideways and flew down the length of the gradually thinning space between trees. Thick wooden trunks blurred past her body, but that didn't stop three of the gliders from dipping down low to follow her. Her fuzzy ears twitched to hear their wingpanels sliding open to expose a phalanx of rockets.

"Nope."

Twirling upside down, Rainbow Dash flew up, sped towards the top half of a thin tree, spun about, and landed with her back against it. Smirking, the pegasus reclined against the wooden bark, pending the upper portion of the tree back with her weight and inertia. Then, after casually brushing her bangs out from her face, she easily kicked off it and flew the way in which she came.

The tree flew forward after her like a rubber band, and the three managliders embraced its swinging limbs.

"Gaaaah!" Two unicorns hopped out at the last second. Their glider was reduced to manaflame and shrapnel. The other two aircraft veered away from the collision, but just barely. They joined the remaining Enforcers in slicing through the air after Rainbow Dash, surrounding her from all sides.

Rainbow Dash was getting breathless by this point. When she looked around, all she saw was forest, forest, and more forest. If she flew east, she'd lead the Enforcers to her friends. If she flew west, she'd have t contend with the hulking body of the Steel Wing.

So, with no other recourse, she flapped her wings hard and flew straight up, challenging gravity for all she was worth.

The managliders viciously scaled the height of the sky after her, filling the atmosphere with a deathly hum, like the flight of several banshees.

Comments

[Hoof of Approval]

THE CHASE IS ON

TEN THOUSAND MILES OF DEATH, STRAIGHT UP

[Pilate]

Sounds like quite the air show. Interesting that none of the Enforcers in mana-gliders seem to actually get killed or seriously hurt, though, when so many perished coming out of Blue Shelf.

[Lasairfion]

I call Rainboom

[zaponator]

I'd be her wingman, any time.

[Steel Wing]

"Three gliders at the front of the formation exposed several rocket-propelled barbs from the clefts of their wings."

Don't think that was supposed to be dialogue.

[Jake The Army Guy]

Holy crap, Dashie is awesome!! I know we always knew this, but it's great top be reminded every now and then!!

):(!! Twenty push-ups for the kick-ass Dashie! You've earned them, son. Knock 'em out!

[Captain_SCHWING]

Probably the best action scene in this story so far.

[SatoshiKyu]

2069970

Dunno about that, but it was definitely pretty freaking awesome.

[Novus Ordo Seclorum]

Rainbow Dash was getting breathless by this point. When she looked around, all she saw was forest, forest, and more forest. If she flew east, she'd lead the Enforcers to her friends. If she flew west, she'd have t contend with the hulking body of the Steel Wing.

So, with no other recourse, she flapped her wings hard and flew straight up, challenging gravity for all she was worth.

What happened to north and south?

[FloydienSlip]

Wow, that was an epic fight scene. Kudos to you for those equally awesome one-liners.

Still... CLIFFHANGERS. CURSE YOU, SCOLON!

[Danger Beans]

Whoo whoo take em down dash!

[Cynderfall]

Spare no-pony Dashie! No-pony!

[Ledomare]

"Nope."

[youtube=gvdf5n-zI14]

[Ace of Kings]

media.comicvine.com/uploads/14/146475/2833405-bay_EXPLOSION-300x237.jpg

Looks like Micheal Bay has been editing the story.

-DEAL WITH IT

[CrimsonPhoenix]

Was it too obvious to not link or something?

[LimeAttack]

And then every single Enforcer realized that they were doing the wrong thing and killed Shell.

...Guys, I was joking. Seriously. Hey, there's no need for that bat!

[Personifire]

Man. Rainbow needs to be a tad less awesome sometimes; she's getting a bit predictable.

Minus, y'know, being killed that one time. That doesn't count.

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

Aces High - Iron Maiden

2070846

I've posting that the last, like, five chapters man.

[Aqua Fortis]

Kenny Loggins just got 20% cooler.

Also, this chapter was awesome. Just plain awesome.

[Axan Zenith]

I'm surprised she hasn't pressed Z or R twice yet.

[That_one_guy]

Wicked sick with a bicycle kick.

[The_K_Man]

2069921 I second that. Another chapter or two should see the Steel Wing get torn a new flankhole with a rainboom.

[KMCA]

2069924 screw being her wingman... take her home with you.
Oh, you meant in a dogfight

[dafiltafish]

have these ponies been taught what a stall is?

[Arcshod]

And if you're still short on music for this. . .

[dashie76]

2071919Well, in order to catch up better, I started doing two or three evaluations per night instead of just one and every so often a Marathon. I've done this I'n such a way so that I always gain one chapter every day. And yeah, you did take a break for a while. Good to have you back!

[ThatPoemGuy]

I thought she was going to take control of the glider. That would have been awesome. And probably pointless.

This is Australia...

[Blue Nova]

"Word up."

...was that....
a reference to Word Girl?
Or am I just slightly crazy?

[dashie76]

IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!

So this fight scene was really, really cool!  Props to Imploding, much props.  What with Dash shooting upwards at the end, I get the feeling that we've got a rainboom coming on for the Steelwing.  These are my thoughts so far. 

-MASH

[IfOnlyICouldDeactivate]

Well, looks like we have a rainboom being prepared. Let us see how many things Dash can take out in one boom. Hopefully the Steel Wing is one of them.

Go Dash!!

Onwards!

[Riverwing]

Dash has some great one-liners here.
2069914
Wouldn't be so sure of that, gravity is a harsh mistress

[Psyco Josho]

Looks like she's gonna make it!

[MellowMabari]

"Dumb as an ox is still dumb as an ox!"

Dash, such racism!

I'm so glad I don't have to deal with cliffhangers - I'm privileged, I tell you! Onward!

[Nevlamas]

"The sky called!" Rainbow Dash yelled, frowning. "It wants its wind back!"

You tell 'em, Spark.

2070142 What, there are other directions than east?

[kajisora]

2070957
Awww, I was going to post that song.

Guess I'll have to settle for Tailgunner, for the unicorns' point of view!
Actually, more suited to the Steel Wing.

[kihutaja]

I was reminded of this (from 6:00 in particular):

[youtube=8er83h9Bbn8]

[writer]

All I could think of, really.

fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/363/0/5/better_call_kenny_loggins_by_zicygomar-d5pmdkz.png

[iloveportalz0r]

>the airborne enforcers sliced their way towards Rainbow Dash's rear
Erryone wants a piece o' dat plot

>"Three gliders at the front of the formation exposed several rocket-propelled barbs from the clefts of their wings."
Who says this?

>she'd have t contend with the
Do you mean "to"?

[Super Trampoline]

2069943 I love that you do these by the way. Keep up the great work!

[Super Trampoline]

Yeah, Dash seems to be a bit too awesome. The reason I can consistently suspend my disbelief is that she has fate on her side. hopefully.

[whizzball1]

Go Dash! Awesome as ever.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

And Rainbow chooses to do the exact opposite of what they told her to do.

[Regidar]

Somebody think of the TREES!

[Hazard]

Danger Zone.

[djthomp]

These guys were not prepared for an opponent with the mid-air maneuverability of a pegasus, especially not one like Dash.

[Real_Atomsk]

6173856
Lana!

[Niiaro]

6173856 Gooooosssseee!!!!!

[TheGreatEater]

6173856

It's criminal noone responded to your comment with

6846602
6517509
Y'all forgot the power of 80's metal ^_^.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

3 kills so far, not bad.

05/05/2017 16:44 UTC

[Sir Budginton]

The air thundered from nearly twenty managliders pulling up and flying muderously after her. The temperature heated up from so many magical engines burning through the atmosphere at once. Spacing themselves expertly apart, the airborne enforcers sliced their way towards Rainbow Dash's rear from several different angles, making intimidating progress.

So these so called "gliders" have engines... then there not gliders, they are AEROPLANES!!! I've been visualising these things in my head wrong the whole time!!!

Also ignore my comment from the previous chapter as I now know why they need magic...