"SQUAWWWWK! GET THEM! CATCH THOSE THIEVES AND BRING ME THEIR INSIDES!"
In mid sprint, Rainbow Dash panted aside to Gilda. "Who in the hay is he talking to?!"
Then, up above, the one and only exit spilled over with angry, shrieking griffons. Fibb's posse came flying straight towards the two with bloodlust.
"Ah jeez!" Rainbow squirmed, teetered, and fell off to the side. "That's who the hay!"
Gilda fell off the other. "Fly southwest!" Swooosh! "Into the crystal trunk!"
Fwooosh! Rainbow plunged down into the openspace. "The trunk's hollow too?!" She realized something was missing. "Crud!" She jerked aside, grabbed the Wind Chalice in mid fall, then twirled around. She uprighted her body just in time to glide over the solid crystalline surface beneath her. Shivering, she followed Gilda's frame as the griffon sped towards a thick wall, then threaded through one of several gaping holes.
Rainbow spiraled through it, and came out into a giant cylindrical chasm on the other side. It was here that Rainbow discovered that the body of the enormous tree was—in fact—hollow. Hundreds if not thousands of griffons flew from habitat to habitat situated all along the vertical space.
"THE MEAT'S GETTING AWAY!" Fibb's voice bellowed from behind. "GET THEM! STRING THEM UP!"
Lancie poked his head out. "Such an obsession with strings. I'd say he should see a shrink, but his brain is microscopic enough as it is."
"Not now, Lancie!" Rainbow said. She flapped her wings once. FWOOOOOSH! She shot forward like a bullet, propelled by a magical wind force. "Whoaaa-oaaa-oaaah!"
Gilda sensed Rainbow surging past her body. "Hey!" With a gasp, she flung a set of talons out. "Don't leave me, dweeb—GAH!" She yelped from being savagely jerked along after the mare. The two rocketed straight towards the far wall, glistening with reflected torchlight. Griffons of all flocks of life gasped, and leapt out of the way.
"Gaaaaaie!" Rainbow screamed, flailing out of control.
"Pull down! Pull down!" Gilda hollered.
Rainbow flapped her wings to do just that. SHOOOOOOM! The two screamed earthward, twirling madly at suicidal speeds. They ripped past dangling wooden platforms and market vendors, sending feathered citizens diving in every direction. Within half-a-minute, the bottom of the tree's hollow interior loomed, along with a razor sharp sea of stalagmites.
"Pull up! PULL UP!" Gilda hollered, clinging to the mare.
"I'm... tr-trying!" Rainbow pivoted her wings, curving her body. With an agonizing delay, she aimed her body horizontally, then diagonally upwards. At last—still plunging—she aimed her figure towards the distant speck of a ceiling and flapped her wings. POWWW! A pocket of air exploded beneath her, and the two were propelled—screaming—back up the way they came.
Fibb and over three dozen angry griffons popped out of the hole leading into their hollow bough. "WHERE IN SPIT'S BUBBLES DID THEY GO?!" Fibb yelped.
Fw-Fwoosh! Gilda and Rainbow Dash shot straight up like a bullet.
Fibb blinked, his tiny metal helmet rattling. "WHAT IN THE HELL?!"
"I think they still have the Wind Chalice, boss!"
"YEAH AND YOU STILL HAVE YOUR SPINES!" Fibb gripped the catbird and his buddy, threw them to the floor, then used them both as a violent springboard. CRACK! He propelled his body up like a meaty missle, salivating out the beak as his eyes turned red, fixated on the two figures above. "BEANNNNS!"