First Movement: Part 10- Aerial Duet
Aerial Duet
Rainbow Dash heard the shout coming from the chamber, and she was inside quicker than a blink. She entered just in time to see Gilded Wing tuck something in his satchel, gazing apprehensively at a motionless Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow ran past Lord Wing and knelt beside her friend. A quick hoof to the throat told her that the unicorn still had a pulse, and was still breathing. Dash turned to Gilded with a question on her lips. “What happened?”
Wing’s eyes turned to the antechamber’s entrance as Lyra and Barbary walked in. “She slipped on the smooth floor and hit her head, I’m afraid.” The griffon lord turned back to the incapacitated unicorn on the ground. “Will she be all right?”
A loud shriek cut off Rainbow’s response; Lyra Heartstrings looked to be just this side of a fainting spell. “Big bats! Huge bats! I hate bats!” Her hoof flailed around wildly as she attempted to ward off the immobile statues.
Rainbow Dash glanced away from Twilight for just a moment, getting an eyeful of Lyra’s nemeses before returning to her examination. “Not bats, Lyra, just Grotesques. Spooky statues. Now get over here!”
Lyra trotted over, but not before making extra certain the carved crystal Grotesques were not about to eat her. Rainbow Dash propped Twilight’s head up to clear her air passages. “Hay, Bard-Lady! Hold Twilight up so I can get a good look at her.”
One quick telekinetic spell later, Twilight Sparkle was floating above the ground. Rainbow ran her hooves along the surface of Twilight’s head and found two lumps. One sat on the back of her head, near her crown; and the other on her forehead, just beside her purple horn. Two bumps? she thought. What, did her head bounce?
Twilight stirred, and her eyelids fluttered open. She smiled sleepily at Rainbow Dash. “Hiyah Dash, ‘sup?”
The pegasus cupped her friend’s face in her hooves and looked into Twilight’s eyes. “Do you remember what happened?” Crud. Rainbow’s concerned frown deepened when she saw her friend’s pupils. Uneven sizes, that’s not good.
Twilight pursed her lips in an attempt to concentrate. “I dunno wha’ happened. I was in this room, then I woke up on the floor.” She rubbed carefully around her forehead’s bump. “Le’ me tell yah, I gotta headache the size a’ Manehatten.”
The quiet murmur of conversation tore Rainbow Dash’s attention away from Twilight. Gilded Wing and Crested Barbary were in the middle of heated discourse. She could just barely make out a few sentences, but what she heard didn’t sound good.
“Was that really necessary? Why didn’t you just take the heart?” Crested poked a talon at Gilded’s chest.
“I did what I had to, now here’s what we’ll do…”
Rainbow Dash strained her ears, but couldn’t catch any more of the conversation. More murmuring followed as Twilight continued to come to. After a moment, Gilded walked out of the room, while Barbary stayed put.
Rainbow Dash chewed her bottom lip, a difficult decision before her. Something doesn’t quite fit here, she mused. Gilded obviously knows more than he’s letting on. I don’t want to just leave Twilight, but… “Lyra, I’m gonna see what Gilded’s up to, stay with Twilight until I get back.”
Lyra opened her mouth to comment, but Dash held up a hoof. “Just do it. And Twilight?”
Twilight Sparkle raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Wha’ is it, Rainbow Dash?”
“Just… try not to use magic,” Rainbow sighed. She then cantered off in the direction of the retreating griffon.
Her progress was temporarily halted by the mercenary Barbary. “Where are you going?”
“To see what Gilded’s up to.” She brushed past him with less than a glance. Her canter became a gallop as she ran down the hallway to catch up with her target. Finding him was easy, his golden hide shown even in the darkness. “Hay, Lord Wing!” she called out to him. “Wait up!”
For all appearances, the towering griffon didn’t seem to hear her. He continued walking forwards, though at a quicker pace. Rainbow increased hers in turn, pulling up alongside him. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
“To the camp, to get some help.” Gilded Wing stared straight ahead as he spoke.
“Well, Twilight’ll be able to walk on her own in a minute, so we just need to tell Martial to get the doctors.” Rainbow Dash watched the griffon carefully. “There’s something I don’t get, you were there when it happened, right?”
“Yes, of course. I saw her fall.” His face betrayed no sign of nervousness, but his voice rose a little.
“It’s kinda strange.” Rainbow Dash stepped in front of the griffon and stopped, causing him to come to an abrupt halt. “It looks like she hit her head pretty bad. You say she just tripped?”
He glared down at her, his sharp eyes burning holes in her head. “Yes, unfortunately. Why do you ask?”
Rainbow twisted her lip into a scowl. “Because just a couple days ago, I saw her trip and fall while carrying a huge load of books,” she explained. “She caught herself in her magic just fine; she didn’t even drop a single book. Wanna explain how this time was different?”
A staring contest developed between the two adventurers, neither giving an inch. When it was obvious that Gilded Wing was not going to reply, Rainbow switched topics. “So, what’s in the bag? I saw you stuff something inside when you called for help.”
Gilded pawed at his satchel absently. “It’s none of your concern, just a sensitive instrument.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rainbow Dash countered. “Maybe I want to make it my concern.”
Gilded Wing took a step back as the rainbow-maned pegasus hovered up to eye-level, careful not to hit any trip-wires. “You’re hiding something; it’s as plain as the beak on your face.” Rainbow narrowed her eyes at the archeologist. “Now’s the part where you tell me what it is.”
The towering griffon opened his beak, seemingly about to explain his case. What came out of his mouth, however, was a terrible, powerful lion’s roar. Rainbow Dash fell out of the air, her heart skipping a beat.
A gilded wing swooshed over the pegasus’s head as the golden griffon raced past. Rainbow Dash whipped her head around, tracking the lord as he headed for the exit. Adrenaline rushed through her veins as she spread her wings; using them as stabilizers as she chased Gilded. If he wasn’t suspicious before, he sure is now!
Martial Paw shivered as the snow began to fall. It was only a matter of time before the snow completely buried the entrance to the cave. He hoped that the explorers would be done soon.
The sound of stamping feet and clicking nails caused Martial to turn, looking into the mouth of the cavernous temple. Lord Gilded Wing practically burst from the entrance, sending Martial tumbling into the snow. Rainbow Dash narrowly avoided trampling the younger griffon, yelling an apology as she took to the air. Martial watched as the two flyers spun and circled in the sky. He clicked his beak nervously, watching for just a moment before heading into the camp to retrieve the waiting mercenaries.
“I suppose it was too good to last.”
Rainbow Dash soared through the wintery sky, easily keeping up with her much larger opponent. “What’s got you running scared, huh!?” she shouted as the two flew. “What’ve you got to hide!?”
He responded by flapping a wing, hitting her hard in the face. The blow sent the pegasus into a tailspin. She tucked her wings in and let herself fall for a few feet, before reopening her wings and rapidly climbing back up. Six seconds flat.
Rainbow Dash slammed her shoulder into the massive creature’s side, but his enormous wings kept him steady. She was about to attempt the maneuver again, when Gilded swiped a razor-sharp talon at her side, leaving a small cut behind. She hissed in pain, and slowed down momentarily to inspect the wound. It stung, but it was pretty shallow.
She looked up to track down her target once more, but her attention was claimed by a large cloud-bank flowing past the mountain range. The cold-front was fast approaching, and the winter storm was almost on top of the archeological camp. A sudden gust of wind caught her, and she struggled to stay under her own control. When Rainbow noticed that Gilded was having the same trouble, she doubled her efforts to get to him.
She landed on his back, much to his surprise, and grasped at his satchel. “This looks important!” She gripped the strap in her teeth and took off, creating a tug-of-war between the pony and the griffon. Snow started to blow, and the wind spun the flyers around, catching their wings and knocking them both off-balance. A cross-breeze pushed Rainbow Dash right into the griffon lord’s grasp, putting her face-to-face with an enraged Gilded Wing.
In Nightmare Moon’s eyes, she saw haughtiness and triumph. In Discord’s demeanor was a certain kind of playfulness, as well as keen bitterness. She hadn’t got a good look at Sombra, but he was always far more interested in ruling than anything else. Rainbow Dash looked right into Gilded’s brown eyes, and saw only hatred within.
This griffon really wanted to kill her, right then and there.
She had faced down alicorns, dragons, and demigods, and Rainbow Dash had never been as terrified for her life as she was at that moment.
Lyra stood awkwardly next to Twilight Sparkle, holding the purple mare steady as she regained her senses. She felt the eyes of the carved crystal “Grotesques” staring down at her, their purple wings glistening in the meager light provided by Crested Barbary’s lantern. “So, we’re all absolutely certain that these things aren’t gonna suddenly come to life, right?”
Twilight held a damp cloth to her head in an effort to lessen the headache. “Preddy sure.”
“Okay, so you said ‘pretty sure,’ which means that there’s a slight chance that they’ll wake up and kill us all.” Lyra shivered in the cold. “So what can we, as individuals, do about it?”
Twilight looked at the mint mare out of the corner of her eye. “Well, one of can ask the other to shuddup. The other can shuddup.”
“Well, excuse me for caring,” Lyra huffed. “I’ve seen weirder things than living statues around you.”
“It would take a preddy intense come-to-life spell to make these statues to get up off of their big, stony rumps and try to eat you.” Twilight pointed an accusing hoof at Barbary. “An’ unless Crested is hiding a unicorn horn under his feathers, we aren’t gonna have a problem with it!”
The mercenary rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Keep me out of it.”
He glanced at a time piece and turned back to the two ponies. “Sparkle, you’re well enough to argue, are you well enough to walk?”
She tested her hooves and took a hesitant step forward. “I think so, are we gonna go out?”
Crested Barbary nodded. “Follow me. We’ll get back to the camp shortly.”
Rainbow Dash struggled in the griffon’s grasp, but his talons held her hooves in an iron grip. His diamond-sharp beak snapped mere inches from her neck. She bucked wildly, catching him in the stomach more by luck than by choice. He let go, and Rainbow Dash retreated in a flash.
Holding Gilded’s purloined satchel in her mouth, she soared furiously into a flurry of snow. She could barely see the hoof in front of her face, let alone anything else, but she could feel the griffon closing in. She blasted forth, doing everything in her power to keep from spinning out again.
Her eyes caught the blurry outline of a rocky outcropping just a few feet in front of her, and she pulled up just in time to avoid a face-full of rock. A sickening crack of bone on stone behind her revealed that Gilded Wing was not so lucky. She landed in the midst of the falling snowstorm, and opened the satchel that Gilded had so zealously protected. Rainbow found the crystal heart inside, pulsating with its dark, purple magic. “What in the heck is this!?”
A sharp hiss behind her caused Rainbow to spin around, and the silhouette of the large griffon lord loomed over her. He raised a fist and knocked the blue pegasus down with a hefty blow. Talons grasped hooves once again, and Rainbow struggled fruitlessly in his grasp. One bite from his beak, and it would all be over. She closed her eyes in preparation of the stinging, yet brief, pain, but it never came. She opened her eyes to see why she was still alive, but immediately shut them again, cringing away from the gruesome sight before her.
The sound of hissing breath came from the griffon’s open mouth, and bits of shattered beak dangled from his gaping maw. When he had crashed into the rock, some miracle had kept his neck from snapping. Unfortunately for him, he did not escape unscathed. His entire beak was crushed by the rock, leaving the griffon unable to speak, bite, or breathe properly.
He tried to raise a talon to land a killing blow on Rainbow, but he had his claws full just holding her down. They struggled for several tense moments, the pegasus unable to break free or land a hit of her own.
Lyra exited the temple just behind Twilight Sparkle. She felt the temperature dropping by several degrees as the cold-front approached. The snow was already a foot deeper than when they’d entered, and the cavern mouth would be blocked up before long.
Twilight quickly discarded her damp cloth before it froze to her horn. “Where’s Rainbow Dash? She and Lord Wing should’ve been waiting for us.”
Instead of answering her question, Barbary gave a command. “Stay here, there’s something I need to… attend to.”
He flew off without another word, leaving the two ponies alone in the snowstorm. Lyra crouched down, tying her scarf tighter around her neck. “You know, he could have left the lantern.”
Twilight would have said something, but she chose that moment to keel over in exhaustion. Lyra leaped up and tried to help the purple unicorn. “Twilight, are you alright? Please tell me you’re alright!”
Twilight winced, Lyra’s voice pounded in her head like a drum. “Not so loud…”
Lyra took her scarf off and wrapped it around Twilight’s barrel. “Are you dizzy? Are you cold? Is there anything I can do?”
“I feel cold,” Twilight replied. “And tired. I just wanna sleep this headache off.”
“No, no, no, no,” Lyra lit her horn and attempted to remember any fire-lighting spells she had learned as a filly in Brownies. “Sleeping in the cold is bad, we can’t let you sleep.” A small sizzle came from a growing pile of snow as it turned to slush. “Right, I need wood for that one.”
She looked up at the black clouds hovering overhead. The snow was falling fast and heavy, with no end in sight. “Somepony help us, please.”
The cold was wearing Rainbow Dash down, even more-so than Gilded Wing’s strength. Her head sank into the snow as he pressed, and she could feel her resolve sink with it. I’m gonna die right here, she despaired. Unless a miracle happens, I’m dead right now.
Four pairs of talons gripped Gilded Wing by the shoulders and pulled him off of Rainbow Dash. She got to her feet quickly, ready to either fight or thank her rescuers. Gilded was being held back by four powerful griffon mercenaries, all of whom had to use every bit of their strength just to keep him still.
Rainbow found herself surrounded by griffons on all sides, with odds of one to a dozen. Martial Paw tended to a slightly-calmed Gilded Wing’s wounds, even as the griffon lord stared daggers in her direction. Crested Barbary walked up to her, a javelin pointed at her gullet. “Rainbow Dash, please stand down.”
“What is this, some kinda griffon conspiracy!?” Rainbow Dash snarled at the mercenary. “Are you gonna kill me, and my friends, too?”
“Murder was not in the job description,” Crested shot a heated glare at Lord Wing. “But you know too much, so you’re going to have to come with us.”
“Like heck!” Rainbow Dash leapt up, just taking to the air before she was brought down to earth with a heavy net. “Let me go! I’m warning you!”
Martial Paw walked up to her and attempted to placate her. “Dash, just calm down, it’ll be alright.”
“Get away from me!” She fought and struggled with the net, but as the rope tightened around her, she realized that it wasn’t doing any good. She settled down in the snow and waited to see what the griffons would do.
She saw Crested speaking animatedly with Gilded Wing, who was only able to respond with nods and head shaking. “We can’t just kill her! We didn’t come here to start an international incident!”
The griffon lord shook his head violently. He shoved a mercenary to the ground and grabbed a rapier off of the warrior’s belt, charging with malicious intent. The enraged “noble” was boxed in by various pikes and javelins, preventing him from slaying the imprisoned pegasus.
Crested stepped up to Rainbow Dash, eyebrows knitted apologetically. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but we must bring you back to our homeland, Miss Dash.” He signaled to two mercenaries to carry her. “It’s simply a matter of convenience now.”
“Let me go, you freaks!” Rainbow Dash bounced and jerked in the griffons’ grasp, but only succeeded in wasting energy. “I gotta help my friends! Let me go!”
Crested led the group ahead, using a compass to stay on course. “I’m sure you’ll understand once we’ve explained, Miss Dash, but for now…”
He gazed ahead into the deadly blizzard. “We have to simply stay alive.”
Lyra lay next to Twilight, keeping both of them as warm as possible. She had nothing to burn except the scarves, and they wouldn’t last long enough to matter. She thought that she could hear ponies from the camp calling out to her, but it was hard to hear anything over the wind. Twilight’s breathing had become softer, so she assumed that the purple unicorn had fallen asleep. She had only minutes to spare.
A spark of inspiration hit the musician. She concentrated on her failed fire spell and increased its power as much as she was able. Golden flames poured out of her horn, and she raised her head upwards. She held on to it for as long as she could, then let it go.
The burst of fire shot into the air, sparked once in its ark, and then hovered amidst the snow. It went out sooner than she had hoped, but Lyra knew it was their only chance.
As she herself slipped out of consciousness, she caught the blurry outline of two ponies walking up to her, shouting her name and Twilight’s. A warm foreleg circled her midsection, and Lyra felt herself being carried off, back to the camp and safety.
Betrayed and left out in the cold
With many secrets yet untold
In freezing ice, and windy heights
The villain’s plan will unfold
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Wow. Just, wow.
I did not see this coming, and yet it really didn't feel forced in the slightest. That's, quite impressive. I especially love how you captured Rainbow's fear and surprise at this turn of events, as well as her loyalty to her friends. I am really interested to see where you go with this.
Oh, Lyra is usefull.
2248494
Welcome to the show, enjoy your stay, have some popcorn...
Just a little.
2249921
Just this once.
Though really, she hasn't been all that bad, she just hasn't been given much of an opportunity to show off her actual skills.
2249208
Good, good, i'm so glad I have the capacity to surprise!
It really does help if you take a few days to rewrite what you've written, flesh out this scene or that... Etc.
Wish i'd realized that when I was writing Dusty's little day in the limelight.
We're going far, I can tell you that. Right across the sea.
Those griffons are such idots
Staying alive, my foot. I can understand the fear of Sombra, but evil always gets defeated, no matter how much he may prepare.
And not only that, but they are in the thick of things and going to get good hard slaps because of it.
I almost feel sorry for the griffon lord, almost.