Rainbow Dash didn't want to look behind her, but she did. In mid-glide, she threw a glance past her burning thrusters. The pale face of an equine monstrosity glimmered like a pale white comet surging straight towards the pegasus. Lady Pestiferous' segmented limbs clambered across the thin walls of the passageway like the ravenous legs of a centipede. When she shrieked in rage, it sounded like a wall of bats nipping at Rainbow's dangling hooves.
"Guhh!" Rainbow looked ahead in time to veer past a line of pillars. "Less looking and more escaping. Hnnng!" Biting over a throng of levers, she darted to the right. She heard the tell-tale signs of stone masonry being smashed to bits as Pestiferous lunged after her at an unstoppable pace.
"Raaauchkkkt—I will make a vomit bassssshin out of your chesssssht cavity, runt!"
"Whew!" Rainbow whistled as she darted up a line of steep marble steps, ascending through the labyrinth of Searo's Hold. "They're always so chatty once they've transformed into horrible mutant boss freakaponies. Hmmf!"
She grabbed a pillar in the crook of her armored hoof, cut her thrusters, spun ninety degrees, kicked off, and shot off in a random direction down a stone cross-junction. She heard Pestiferous crashing through the structure behind her, but a wave of bricks fell down, blocking all line of sight.
After a full minute of flying impeded through the thundering bosom of the metal mares' lair, Rainbow Dash slowed her rocketed flight to a gentle hover. She burst through the doors to a broad, torch-lit feast hall. The walls were lined with totems, mounted heads of big game, and a dented array of battered trophies. Not taking time to sight-see, Rainbow spun around, slammed the doors close, and kicked a pair of torch stands down to seal the passageway shut.
Cutting her thrusters, Rainbow Dash landed and backtrotted towards the center of the chamber. Her armor rattled as she panted to catch her breath.
"Okay... okay..." She gulped and readjusted her partially shattered helmet. "No time to panic. The good news is that I got her away from Crimson, Imre, and the rest. Maybe they'll find their way to the surface. And I..."
She spun around, blinking at the abandoned feast table.
"Horseapples, I could eat a... a... well, myself, I guess."
Shuddering, she spun once more to face the door. "Right. Not now. Gotta think. Think..." She rapped her skull several times with a metal horseshoe. "Beating her up until she gives up isn't gonna cut it. She's... like... if a cemetery and a giant scorpion had a love child." Rainbow gulped. "Plus, the crystal ponies' glowy stuff had no effect on her, thanks to Imre." She blinked a few times, then glanced down at her own suit. "If this armor is powered by the same blood juice stuff, and it's battered to heck, then maybe she has a similar weakness—?"
"Hraaaaaauchkkt!" Pestiferous' hissing voice filled the room like a hurricane wind. This may have had something to do with the fact that she had just burst up through the rocky floor directly beneath Rainbow Dash a few milliseconds prior.
"Gaaah! Jeez!" Rainbow flounced and rolled away, dodging chunks of debris. "Okay, you do not get to make anymore awesome entrances!"
"Die!" Pestiferous howled, standing up like an ivory scarecrow and tossing a slab of marble at the pegasus.
Rainbow Dash flattened her armored body to the ground. The slab flew over her, spilling sparks as it scraped across the back of her suit. She tilted her head up and saw a bladed claw from Pestiferous' torso sailing at her. With a grunt, Rainbow Dash rolled over beneath the chamber's long wooden feasting table.
"Rhkkkkt!" Pestiferous flung two of her mutated prosthetics forward.
The table was smashed into three pieces. A plank of heavy oak fell on Rainbow. Lying on her back, she braced the thick board with all four hooves. Then, gritting her teeth over the helmet's levers, she fired a burst of thrusters. Her body and her legs flew up, uppercutting Pestiferous across her masked face.
"Graaaughkt!" Pestiferous' mask rocked off center. She wheezed, hissed, and straightened the apparatus with a metal claw. Growling, she turned her left torso feeler into a buzz saw and lunged it at Rainbow.
Rainbow backflipped, landed in a slide, and dashed left-and-right to avoid the lunges. When Pestiferous stabbed too low with the saw, Rainbow clamped the weapon's limb to the ground with her hooves, held her breath, and galloped up the length of it. She jumped high, bravely clasped all fours over Pestiferous' elongated neck, and pummeled the Top Spear several times in the pale skull with her forelimbs. "Nnngh! Ghhh! Raaugh!"
"Haaaaauuchk!" Pestiferous lifted her left forelimb and clamped it over Rainbow's neck. "That wasssssh daring, my little pony, but you will have to do better than—"
Rainbow blew a pair of thrusters straight out her horseshoes.
"Aaaaugh!" Pestiferous neck bent a ridiculous forty-five degrees backwards from the blow. She let go of Rainbow.
Before she could fall to the ground, Rainbow fired half of her thrusters so that her body delivered a spinning roundhouse to Pestiferous' chest.
"Raaauchkt!" Pestiferous spun all the way around. Her twitching spine was exposed. Rainbow Dash landed, held her breath, and galloped furiously towards her—only to be blindly punched across the face by the metal mare's rear limb.
"Ooof!" Rainbow flew back, pinballed off a pillar, and slammed against a wall. A throng of jaded weapons and southern Ledomaritan heirlooms clattered across the torchlit ground around her. "Unnngh... Darn it..." She snarled, getting up on aching, wobbling limbs. "I did not fly halfway across the frickin' world to be done in by an asthmatic pony in a spider suit!"
With a banshee scream, Pestiferous protruded an antenna suddenly from her spine. Dripping with processed crystal pony blood, it pivoted around, glowed a hot green, and fired a volley of mana energy at the pegasus.
Rainbow Dash's eyes darted to her right. She saw a worn shield lying by her side. Rainbow picked it up in an instant. Her body curled up behind it as she held the object towards Pestiferous. The stream of manafire bounced and ricocheted off the buckler, filling Rainbow's ears with endless clatter. Then, as swiftly as the noise began, it ended. Rainbow bravely peaked around the edge of the disc.
Her vision filled with Pestiferous' charging form. "Yaaaauhhhckkt!" Pestiferous kicked her rear leg up, smashing the shield completely in two.
Rainbow Dash flew off like a hoofball, spinning several times. By the time she reached the far wall, however, she had gotten her bearings. She landed in a horizontal squat against the wall. Her peripheral vision caught two thick iron swords hanging on either side of her. Without a second thought, she gripped them in the crook of her hooves.
Pestiferous was thundering towards her yet again—
Summoning a snarl, Rainbow Dash activated her thrusters. She kicked off the wall, melting a brown scorch mark into the surface. Flying at the speed of screams, she barreled directly towards the Top Spear.
The mutated pony swung both forelimbs.
Rainbow Dash spun, expertly twirling through the violent attack, as well as past the two torso limbs beyond. She landed on Pestiferous chest, her snarl culminating into a beserker scream. Mercilessly, she slammed both swords—one blade after another—left and right across Pestiferous rock-hard cranium.
The leader of the metal mares reeled back from the relentless bludgeoning. Not once did Rainbow cut off her thrusters; her armored body shoved the two of them back, back, back and through a wall of the room. They smashed through the flimsy brick and mortar, their grappling bodies plunging down into the depths of a large Searonese armory below.
The humor, Scolon. It does exist.
But hey, great chapter. I wonder what Dash will find in that armory.
Besides, you know, weapons and armor.
Into an armory... Well that's helpful
Armoury....
Dash! Are you ready? Pestiferous, are you ready? Three... Two... One... FIGHT!
Gotta love them crazy boss battles.
And now they head towards more boomsticks and sharp, pointy objects...
Reminds me of the Injustice: Gods Among Us stage transitions.
Well, she's almost like a centipede in a cave. I imagine Dash has to be quite sick of all these epic boss fights by this point and I am just waiting for her to become Imre when it comes to these things.
Not the end of Pestiferous, I presume.
Man, Pestiferous is a tough old bat. But I guess it makes sense. I mean, sure, she may LOOK like a six-million-dollar mummified camel spider, but you don't lead a society like Searo for over a century unless you're able to spray opponents against a wall with relative ease. However, she's never fought The Dash before, either. That, or Roarke will drop by to help Rainbow at the last moment.
2497720 Presumably not apple pies.
I expected a legendary boss battle and I am not disappointed.
2497720
lots and lots of explody stuff
It's a good thing Rainbow has tons of experience fighting giant centipedes.
Now this, is a boss battle.
Honeytiger wonders what is in the armory!
Ol' Pesty sucks at boss banter. The least you could do is come up with better quips than "die".
Though the chest cavity one was inspired, if I say so myself.
Battery - Metallica
Woah, look!
She got to the armory.
Now she just needs midnight.
2498160 I was waiting for someone to make the connection!
Something tells me the only weakness we saw in Dash's armor was explosions, so the only thing that can help her now is a bomb. Perhaps.... atmoic in nature? Sure would solve a lot of problems in one go. Her friends? Meh, she'll accidently kill them, but casualties of war are bound to happen. As for her, well she'll be flying east yet again. This is what I imagine would happen. Knowing IC, I'm completely and totally wrong.
2498183
And short skirts. Don't forget about those.
Well now. Pestiferous is starting to be, well, a pest.
Dashie went rage mode at the end there
My suggestion for a new boss strategy for Dash:
If only...
These bosses just get more and more epic.
One question though. How exactly is Dash operating her rockets, when the lower half of her helmet fell off a while back?
Exploding armor. In the armory right now where they keep lots of stuff that explodes...
2498807
Moxie.
Boss-battles. You can't escape them in adventures, such as this one, or video games. This one is not the best, but who can really top the one between Snake and Liquid at the end of MGS4?
*bouncing up and down waiting for the next edition*
Man, I hope this fight isn't completely solo Dash. We have more than enough battle-ready ponies at this point for some collaborative fight scenes. The one-on-ones are getting a little tiring after 500k words.
As ever: Rainboss Dash.
Something that I failed to notice until now: isn't it simply horrific that Pestiferous is still called a 'lady'? Her, a lady! Rarity's ashes are turning in their grave.
2498807
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse.
Boss Battle, Go! Round 2, Fight!
I love the insane scale of the boss fights in this story - wouldn't be surprised if RBD is merely dreaming all this up in a coma or something, she can't really be as awesome as she thinks she is...can she?
2499800
No!
There will never be enough Rainbow!
An armoury? In Searo, land of insane mana-powered super machines?
Yeah, there's totally going to be some badass crap in that place. More badass than a few bludgeoning swords, anyway.
Ooo the armory. MOAR!
IIIIIt's Dashie's Kentucky Derby Special Evaluation Time!
Oh, awesome. The spectacular fight scenes just keep on coming. I seriously think that Imploding should write a novel of some sort. Or make the Austraeoh series info a novel. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Still got it.:flutteryay:
Seeing as Pesty is already armed to the teeth (literally), this new battle location can only be a positive thing for Dash. And are all of Dash's big fights underground? Minotaurs? Check. Bat things? Check (at least for certain parts). Steroid Eels? Check. Dragons, on multiple occasions? Yep. Giant centipedes? Mhmm. Other ponies? (the evil guy from the child sacrificing city from Austraeoh, as well as Shell the first time?) Yes, and yes. And now this thing. Moral of the story - don't go underground. Ever. for any reason.
2529386 >make the Austraeoh series info a novel
I sink u meen "into"
More amazing fighting descriptions! Pestiferous is no match for Dash! Time for Round 2.
-Spirit
2529386
I don't think that this story would be able to fit as a novel in its current format. I mean, so far, this story could work, but Austraeoh and Eljunbyro by and large won't work well.
Well, Dash, you now have weapons.
fuck, the walls and floors here are flimsy
5664765 Fuck Floors and walls. who needs em anyways.
6008841 Who needs walls? That's what God gave us cliffs for!
Armory eh, hope Dashie finds something useful.
Take her bane mask, Dash. Take it and she'll choke!
Big bads always do tend to have a problem with monologuing.
Well, an armory is definitely a better place for this fight than a mess hall, better supporting props.
it's a sad day when brick and mortar are flimsy
6619901 Well, brick and mortar is very brittle, and extremely susceptible to lateral and torsional forces. The only force it can properly handle is compression force.
jesus flipping christ, this series sure does love writing grunting sounds!
examples!
Aaaaugh
Raaauchkt
Ooof
Yaaaauhhhckkt