"Rainbow Dash! Watch it!" Pilate stammered, stumbling after her.
"Warn them!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Not me!" That said, she gnashed her teeth against the hilt of the Sword of Solstice and charged further down the tunnel. As she did so, she swung the blade to the left and right in heated, golden sweeps. Each lunge forced the purple slime further and further back from her presence. Steam billowed from the layers of muck as if the dreaded slime positively melted from the presence of the blade. "Grnnghhh--It's like mowing the lawn in Tartarus!"
Panting, Pilate turned around and aimed his helm towards the exit behind them. All of the changelings were gone, and his ears echoed with the pounding salvos of Rainbow's sword-swinging charge. "The shapeshifters..." He gulped. "They've all vanished."
"Grnngh... that's a g-good thing..." Rainbow swung and swung.
"Is it possible that you reached all of them?" Pilate remarked. "Every single one?"
"Mrmmff... well... every one around here," Rainbow panted. "I'll bet you a daisy sandwich that Queen Criminal is still chilling all the way in Val Roa, untouched."
"Then... then perhaps the change is temporary?"
"I dunno. I hope not."
"So many shape-shifters... and you affected a good bulk of them at once. I wonder if that includes many of them east of here--"
"Y'know, Pilate, th-this spelunking would be a lot easier if I had your help in the here-and-now."
"What's to h-help?!" He spun to face her, his muzzle scrunched beneath the helm. "You seem to have a firm grip on things--"
Right as he said that, a body emerged from the slime puddles to his right.
Rainbow spun with a gasp. "Behind you!"
"Gah!" Pilate snapped to it, swinging his Lounge staff in time to uppercut the approaching pegasus.
Rainbow Dash promptly slid in with a downswing of the Sword of Solstice. In a blink, the creature dissolved, its muck evaporating along with its entrails.
PIlate shuddered, stumbling back a step and a half. "Great Sp-Spark! It came out of nowhere!"
"Yes, well, nowhere happens to be the place we're headed," Rainbow said between strained breaths. "I'm gonna need your one hundred and ten percent, buddy."
"Sorry, it's just that--"
"Out of your element?" Rainbow swung to take out another lunging zombie. Thwack!
"Yes. I must agree, an abysmal charge into the heart of a slimy undead coven isn't exactly my usual afternoon activity."
"Well, live and learn, Pilate. Here's something you can weave stories about to your smexical striped grandfoals."
"How in Spark's name did Hurricane even fight her way to the control room?"
"That's a darn good question. Something tells me you and I are about to find out." Rainbow Dash hoofed the sword over to Pilate. "Here. Hold this."
"M-me?!" Pilate tucked his staff away and nervously gripped the golden sword. "But... b-but what about you?!"
"I'm going to be doing the awesome part." She gripped Pilate's shoulders from behind. "There's no time to be delicate about this. Time isn't exactly batting for our team at the moment."
Pilate gulped. "Rainbow, are you sure we're cut out for doing this on our lonesome?"
"Dude... a mare carrying a blind zebra with blood-vision and carrying a burning golden sword?" Rainbow's flapping wings took them both off the ground. "There's no other way to do this. Now--whatever you do--don't drop the darn thing!"
"I swear, Rainbow, you have too much faith in--" Pilate gasped as the two blurred ahead on Rainbow's gliding feathers. "--meeeeeeeeee!"
"Less doubting and more zombie slashing!" As Rainbow shouted, the two mercilessly carved their way down the tunnel and towards the pit below. The sheer heat and aura of the Sword of Solstice in Pilate's grasp caused a continuous swath of granite to be cleared through the sea of purple muck, and despite the floundering undead pony or two, there was no sign that the bubbling substance was about to coagulate back together anytime soon. "Thatta zebra! We're going for the gold!"
"If you insist!" And the two ducked down beyond the light from the outside world.
Half a minute passed...
A figure slinked down into the doorframe of the Urohringr passage. Carefully navigating the trench through the muck that the two equines had carved, the shadow scurried on four limbs, swiftly making its way to the pit's edge. Once there, it paused to survey the drop, swishing a reptilian tail left and right before ultimately plunging with wild abandon.
Damn Loungists...
Oh great exactly what we need right now. That jackass. Also Pilate really needs some more confidence in himself, hes better then he realizes.
Uh oh, one of the Lounge has gone feral!
This does not bode well for our two heroes!
Tune in again for next exciting part!
Story developments. Nice.
4478530 No need to bring religion into this. My deities disapprove of that.
Oh, and in my headcanon they're a cult. So this made sense when I wrote it.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot about the Lounge. Just when things are making progress, another stick has to fly into the spokes, don't it?
Doesn't the Lounge have a taboo against not wearing the all-covering suit? This guy could be a defector.
How would one describe Roarke's mechanical tail?
Oh great the Lounge. Exactly what we need...
Cruuuuuuuud...friggin' Lounge...
Oh, just thought I'd mention that about 25 minutes ago Urohringr hit the featured again. I'm sure our friendly neighborhood Imploding Colon would be riveted if he weren't a such a veteran.
I know it's too ominous to not be bad but there is a part of me that is still pulling for a member of the Lounge to somehow join the jury. I can hope.
Razzar will probably be dead by the end of the arc.
Frakkin' Salon!
I wonder what roarke went to go do after helping pilate. Roarke and dash are going too have it out soon I think.
4478922
Shiny swords, stripes, wings and blood vision. This chapter is awsome.
Roarke or Lounge?
Ah Crud. Lizard tail says its Razzar of the Lounge, who wants all teh glory and so will try and grab the sword as Dash goes to put the yellow mana crystal on the stand, or even the crystal and sword and staff and thermos of Smooze as a weapon. I hope that plant is lizert eating.
Beeping Razzar.
4478922 let's hope
please be roarke.
please be roarke.
please be—ah, who am I kidding?
Oh yeah, I forgot that Razzar totally left on a quest to kill Rainbow Dash earlier.
Well, he's got timing down, I'll give him that.
Razzar, please stop being a douchebag
Raz had the potential of an awesome villain and he has it still. I haven't given up hope yet.
4478668 Sexy.
Razzar...
-Spirit
Of course Chryssy is in Val Roa. One does not simple read an IC story and kill off the villain in under 100 chapters
razzar pretty much faces the death penalty either way. either hed chase Rainbow down here and now, or rainbow would chase HIM down after all this...
Let's see what happens now that Razzar is in the mix.
Sometimes, 'It Makes Sense in Context', just doesn't cut it in conveying how weird something is.
And the lizards are still at it.
Hm, don't you suppose Commander Hurricane had the sword as well? I believe that's what allowed her to get past all this gross muck.
6522373
She said she did. In her lecture on the history of the Sentinle, and why they should steer clear of the death trap that the Lizard's unleashed.
6522373 Rainbow found it in her grave, so I would imagine so.
06/04/2017 17:29 UTC
Right, because you have tea and crumpets with your beloved and the princess of Night.
I wonder if our local antipath heard that glorious monologue?
Razzar, if that's you, get the fuck outta here.