//------------------------------//
// Exit Through Explosions Shop 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

"Ariel!"  Logan's voice echoed from the depths of the cave.

The mare in question levitated at the mouth of the enclosure.  She wrung her fetlocks, staring anxiously down the craggy slopes of the mountainside.

"Ariel!"  Logan's voice rang once again.  "Dammit, girl!  Get your ass in here!  Double-Yoo and I need your help shoving this damn wagon down the tunnel!"

"I-I just to make sure that Rainbow Dash gets here safely!" Ariel stammered.

Beside her, Flynn and Kepler were fitting the last of the runic charges to the entrance.  The wyvern breathed over the lunar material, and the stones glowed a pale blue.

"Therre, brrotherr!"  Kepler exclaimed.  "Prrimed and rready!"

"Good!"  Flynn slapped his backside and motioned into the dark of the tunnel.  "Go join the others!  Prepare another charge for halfway down the cave!  Just in case!"

"On it—!"  Kepler spread his wings and glided down the claustrophobic passage.

"You too, girl!" Flynn said to Ariel.

"Not until Rainbow's here!"

"She's gotta be inbound after that signal we casted!  Don't worry!"

"But—"

"I'll keep a look out!"  Flynn gave a brief albeit sweaty smile.  "She'll get here.  I'll make sure of it!  Promise!"

Ariel gulped, her blue eyes still lingering on the twilight outside.  "Okay..."  A deep breath, and she turned tail with a flash of feathers.  Swooooooooosh!

In her absence, Flynn stood alone at the mouth of the cave.  He charged his horn, casting light on the mountainous rock bordering the edge of the entrance.  "Okay..."  He gritted his teeth, ears twitching from the sound of cacophonous banshee shrieks, growing closer and hungrier.  "...now get your friggin' fruity ass here already..."  The stallion fought the urge to tremble.  "...getting down to the wire."





"We're getting down to the wire!" Twilight Sparkle said.

"It's okay!"  Rainbow panted, flapping her wings as she swiftly ascended the mountain's edge.  "Look!"  She pointed at a patch of manalight.  "I see the entrance!"

"Who is that?"  Rarity squinted.  "Flynn?"

"Fluttershy, can you tell if everypony's inside the cave?" Applejack asked.

"I-I can only sense Flynn!"  Fluttershy exclaimed.  "The others m-must be too close to the wagon!"

"Terrific..."  Rainbow huffed, flying faster and faster towards her goal.  "Guess we'll have to deal with that when the time comes—"

"Dashie!"  Pinkie yelped, eyelids fluttering.  She pointed at a pale shape leaping at her.  "Look out!"

"Huh?"  Rainbow spun—and caught a mouthful of troll.  "Whoah!"

"Hressssssssh!"  The beast pounced her flank suddenly.  By a slim miracle, the slashing claws caught nothing but air above Rainbow's head.  The mare ducked and balled her body up, ramming the thing in its belly.  Whump!  Shrieking, the troll fell, but not without reaching up and grabbing Rainbow by its tail.

"Aaaugh!"  Rainbow slumped down, caught by the weight of the monster.

"Good heavens—!"  Rarity yelped.

"Buck 'em, Rainbow!" Applejack shouted.

"Rrrrrghh—!!!"  Rainbow kicked the troll in the face... then again and again.  Whump!  Whump!  Whump!

At long last, the beast fell...

...only to reveal a half-dozen beasts charging up Rainbow's side. "Hresssssha!"

Rainbow reached for her pendant, but it was too late.  The first of several beasts fell upon her—

Schliiiiiiiiink!  Seraphimus came charging in, literally punching through the beast's head.  Her talons punctured its neck, spilling black blood all down her body.  Snarling, she swung the creature on her arm like a club and sent two more trolls sprawling downhill.

"Where d-did they come from?!?" Rainbow wheezed, grasping her tail.

"Mrnnghh!"  Seraphimus parried another attack and flung a corpse down at another attacker.  "I do not know, but I am not complaining."

"We're almost at the cave—"

"Go!"  Seraphimus grunted, fending off another group of flankers.  "I shall make quick business of these!  Then I shall join you!"

"But—!"

"No arguing!  Move!"  Seraphimus then dove into the attackers, disassembling their charge.  "Haaaaaugh!"

Rainbow rubbed her pendant.  The ruby energy inside spark and fizzled, not fully conjured yet.  Cursing under her breath, the petite pegasus flew up the rest of the hillside.





Flynn craned his neck.  His teeth was starting to chatter, then—

Swooooooosh!  Rainbow Dash appeared right in front of him.

"Gaaah!"  The stallion hobbled back.  His mechanical eye rotated in surprise.  At last, he caught his breath.  "Friggin' A... I thought you'd never make it..."

"Where are the others?"

"Inside.  They're pushing the wagon deep—"

"Join them.  Go."

"But—"  Flynn clenched his teeth.  "What...?  I mean... why don't we just blow this thing and—?"

"Sera's still out there."

"For real?"

"Uh huh."  Rainbow purched low at the cave entrance and stared out, eyes narrow.  "She should be here any moment."

"Her and who else?"

Rainbow turned to frown at him.  "Are the charges ready?"

"Uhhhhhh... yeah—"

"Run in.  Put as much distance between yourself and the cave entrance as possible."

"But Rainbow Dash—"

"I'm going to close it!"  Rainbow shouted.  "It's the moonwhinny command for 'burst,' right?"

"Well, yeah, but if you just blew it now—"

"I will do it when I choose to."  Rainbow clenched her jaws and glared out the cave.  The air shook with shrieks as a sea of pale flesh washed up to the base of the mountain from all sides.  There was no more sign of the arid stone earth beneath all the ravaging, stampeding bodies.  "Now move it.  Don't make me kick you down the tunnel like a hoofball."

Flynn huffed.  He tossed a mane he didn't have, turned tail, and galloped off.  "I swear... we're going to have to drag you to the Midnight Armory in a coffin..."

"Better fill it with cider," Rainbow muttered, holding her ground.

Twilight Sparkle floated in close.  "Not... exactly a joking moment, Rainbow."

"When is it ever?"  Rainbow gulped.  She chanted under her breath:  "Come on, Sera.  Come on come on come on..."

"She ain't exactly makin' it easy on us," Applejack muttered.

"Daaa-aaa-aaa-aaashieeee!"  Pinkie Pie shook in time with the ghastly tremors rolling through the mountain from the mass of creatures below.  "They're reallllllly angryyyyyy—!"

"It's like a sea of emptiness washing up on all sides!" Twilight Sparkle winced.  "I-I can't sense anything beyond the ring of primed lunar stones!"

"Dang it, Sera..."  Rainbow's ears curved back.  "...move your cattail already..."

"She... erm..."  Rarity smiled nervously at the others.  "She's tenacious!  Surely sh-she could survive if—"

"Don't even suggest it!" Fluttershy said, frowning.

"I'm just saying, darling—"

"Fluttershy, do you seven sense her out there?" Twilight asked.

"It's..."  Fluttershy gulped, trembling.  "It's hard to say.  There's just so much of them..."

The howls were deafening at this point.  The tunnel had been reduced to a wind tunnel of high-pitched screams.  Rainbow could scarcely keep her molars still inside her mouth.

"I know her survival means everythang to ya, sugarcube," Applejack said softly, hovering close.  "But if her crazy heroics cost ya the rest of yer friends..."

"Please, Sera..."  Rainbow's eyes clenched shut.  Tears formed along the edges.  "Don't prove her right.  Don't let her win..."

The ghostly mares trembled in place.  Their eyes reflected a wave of pale flesh and gleaming claws.

"They're here!" Rarity shrieked, curling back.  "They're upon us!"

"It's now or never, Rainbow!" Twilight's voice cracked.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath.  With a knot in her throat, she gazed directly at the runic stones and opened her muzzle—

"Wait!" Fluttershy shrieked.

Pinkie twitched all over.  "Incoming—!"

Swooooooooosh!  A pale body glided in, stained in blood—both glowing and not.

"Mrmmmfff!"  Seraphimus slammed into a chunk of rock and sprawled to the ground.  She was scraped and cut in multiple places, and a dismembered troll arm clung to her tail.  "Encountered a ch-challenge or two..."

"Now, Rainbow!" Twilight yelped.  "Blow it!  Blow it!"

Rainbow kicked backwards off the earth, just as a wall of razor-toothed grimaces lunged at her.  "H'rhnum!!!"

Flasssssssssh!

P-POWWWWWWW!

The ring of lunar stones lit up at once.  The resulting concussive blast went both ways, knocking trolls sky high while propelling Rainbow and Seraphimus deeper into the throat of the cave.  There was a sliver of twilight—then all was swallowed up by collapsing rock and dirt.  The ensuing blackness was accompanied by a thunderous roll of thunder.  The roof cave in, rolling after the two ragdolling figures.

Seraphimus fell hard to the ground.  Within a blink, Rainbow snatched her up by the waist and flew both of them forward.  She used the griffon's luminescent wounds to light their way, zigzagging around stalagmites as a wave of debris hurled after them.

And just as the thunder ceased, so did their wingflaps.  Their bodies rolled against a cold wall of stone...

...where they lay in darkness, awaiting the end of the tremors.