Chapter 25:The Jaws of Death

Fluttershy was the first one to Rainbow Dash's side when she flew into the Medical Tent. She hid her relief behind a mask of professionalism when she saw that it wasn't the rainbow-colored Pegasus herself that was hurt, but another Pegasus she had to carry inside.

Spitfire was crying out in pain. Fluttershy took one look at her injured hoof and knew immediately what caused it. "Follow me! We don't have much time."

Rainbow Dash carried the poisoned Pegasus bridal style through the rows of beds. Most were empty, for now, but others held the few wounded that were recovered before Spitfire. Most had horrible gashes or were missing limbs, but enough had the telltale signs of shuriken wounds to tell Rainbow Dash they knew how to cure Drukhari poison.

That cure happened to be a very overworked Dr. Horse. The Unicorn doctor was exhausted to the point of passing out. Such was the reason healing magic was only used in extreme cases.

Dr. Horse shook his head and grit his teeth as Rainbow Dash brought Spitfire to him. "Nurse Redheart! I need your assistance! We've got another one!"

Nurse Redheart galloped to the doctor's side, helping Rainbow Dash place and hold Spitfire on the bed while Dr. Horse channeled his magic into her leg.

Spitfire screams of agony quieted, but didn't go away. Though it seemed she was able to comprehend where she was and what was happening to her. "AAAAHHEEERRRRR!!!! HE-HE KILLED SOARIN!!!"

Rainbow Dash lowered her ears, but was unsurprised. "I know. Don't worry, I paid him back in full. He won't hurt anypony else ever again."

Spitfire gritted her teeth and shockingly managed a smile. "Way to turn your weakness into a weapon Rainbow Crash. You need to be up there slamming into more of them."

Rainbow blushed a bit at the use of her nickname among the Wonderbolts. "Heh heh, yeah. If the doc can manage from here, I'll-" She was cut off by the sound of paniced screams from outside.

Elsewhere

Sweet Apple Acres. The humble home of the Apple family had its fair share of open space after a large portion of its trees were destroyed by the berserk Dragons in the Awakening. For this reason, a large portion of the refugees, the Yaks in particular, had set up camp there.

It was also close enough to the Everfree that if the defense failed, the refugees could easily escape into the wilderness. However, some were not content to wait until the lines of defense were broken.

"Uh, girls? Are you sure about this?" Lily Valley asked her two fellows.

"It's alright Lily, I know the Everfree Forest is scary, but it can't be worse than those freaks." Roseluck stated.

"Indeed, I have yet to encounter anything truly menacing." The odd voice froze the two ponies.

"Uh...Daisy? Please tell me that was you." Like asked the final member of their group, who had been in front of them the entire time...until now.

"...D-Daisy?" Lily tried again, quickly giving in to fear, as she and her friends were known to do.

Unlike the many times before, fear was now the most logical response...especially when a wet thud echoed from behind them.

The two Ponies turned and shrieked with fright at the unexpected noise. Many times in their lives, they would open their eyes after doing so and found that they had been afraid of something silly. This time, they opened their eyes to find Daisy with her eyes gouged out and the skin of her flanks peeled off.

The horror and unbelievable nature of the sight before them caused the two flower Ponies to faint. This has also happened many times in their lives, but they would never do so again.

"Go on ahead sisters, I will linger long enough to break these weaklings...it won't be long." Belatrixx grinned as she put away her latest top. It did not suit her as well as Cozy Glow's flanks, but it didn't hurt to have options.

The rest of the Wyches, only 8 of whom survived the assault on the Changelings, formed the vanguard of the Dark Eldar's ambush.

They sprang from the Everfree Forest and were butchering civilians before anycreature realized they were under attack.

Most of the attacks were not immediately fatal, as was their way, so the screams of their first victims drew the attention of the next, who were cut down as those beyond them turned to run.

Chaos ensued. The Ponies of Ponyville were never the bravest creatures, and their only response to the Dark Eldar they had was to panic.

Yaks were more difficult to intimidate, but they were hardly a match for the speed and grace that allowed the Wyches to dance across the ever-bloodying farmland.

The Incubi came next. While the Wyches focused on enjoying themselves and showing off, the Incubi focused on efficiency. They ignored the dying and suffering, only ending the misery of those whose throats were underfoot, and focused on slaughtering the assembled creatures while the dance of the Wyches moved to entrap them.

At this point, the surviving Yaks realized the futility of charging their enemies and used their next favorite tactic: stomping.

Yak hooves interacted with the earth in a manner similar to Earth Ponies. But where Earth Ponies accelerated plant growth, Yaks could shake the earth. Causing artificial Earthquakes within their vicinity.

The sudden tremors caused the agile Eldar to trip and stagger, allowing the already clumsy and panicking Ponies to scramble away while those that dared to fight back were able to score some hits.

Fune oversaw this, and decided to end it. The Klaivex sprinted to the Yaks in cadence with their stomping and activated his Tormentor. At the same time, the last squad of Kabalite Warriors caught up to their faster allies and added their Splinter Rifles to the already one sided slaughter.

Sweet Apple Acres was a very large farm. The initial attack alerted the wider refugees to what was happening, but as many as 120 creatures were butchered in as little as three minutes, and the worst was yet to come.

Elsewhere

Fluttershy followed Rainbow Dash out of the Medical Tent as soon as she heard the screams. The Pegasai didn't have time to ask anypony what was happening before they heard the shuriken fire.

Rainbow Dash went from shocked to furious. "THOSE CHEATING JERKS TRICKED US!!! FLUTTERSHY! GO GET ARIES! I'LL HOLD THEM OFF!"

Fluttershy couldn't even acknowledge before Rainbow Dash was gone. She quickly followed her friend's example. Launching into the air and flying towards the defensive line.

She did not get far.

A great shadow looming over her was the only warning Fluttershy got before she was swatted from the sky.

Fluttershy wasn't the most athletic Pony, but she was able to control her crash landing and recover quickly, but her attacker was just as fast.

Fluttershy barely dodged the second strike and at last got to see her attacker: a Manticore.

An alien device had been shoved into its head, injecting an acid-green fluid into the mad beast's brain and forcing it to attack anything it could reach.

Fluttershy took one look into its eyes and knew that there was no reasoning with him. All she could do was run.

The problem is, it wasn't alone. Numerous Bugbears, Chimeras, Manticores, and other creatures of the Everfree were rampaging towards Ponyville.

Several Griffins tried to fight back, but the sheer number of predatory beasts meant it would be a costly fight. And the Dark Eldar would join the fray soon.

Fluttershy tried to get airborne again, but a Bugbear intercepted her. Forcing her back to the ground to avoid its stinger.

The Manticore pounced at her. She dodged opposite the Bugbear. And to her shock and horror, the Bugbear attacked the Manticore.

As soon as the bee-like stinger pierced the Manticore's side, it responded in kind with its scorpion tail. Neither beast seemed to register the pain of each others corrosive venom anymore than as an itch, which was enough for the beasts to tangle up in a pile of paws, claws, and snarling jaws.

Fluttershy's heart seized at the sight of two animals tearing each other apart. "...no...stop...STOP IT!! STOOOOOOOOOOPP!!!"

The Bugbear ripped the Manticore's throat out. It had lost a paw and a wing in the struggle, but was still a dangerous creature, and Fluttershy's shout had drawn its attention.

The wounded Bugbear scrambled off the Manticore's corpse and lunged at Fluttershy as if killing her would end its suffering...attacking her did.

Fluttershy could only close her eyes and throw a hoof over her head when she saw the Bugbear lunge at her, but she opened her eyes when she heard it crash to the ground and felt a thick sticky liquid splash over her body.

The Pegasus opened her eyes to find the Bugbear dead at her hooves with a familiar double bladed ax embedded in its head.

Heavy footsteps drew her attention behind her. Greenskin, still in his undershirt and boxers, walked up to the Bugbear and reclaimed his Choppa before throwing an exhausted look towards Sweet Apple Acres. "Told ya Deze in da treez."

Elsewhere

"TAKE THAT!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she plowed into another Drukhari. She knew just from watching them that they were more agile than she was, which meant the only sure way to get them was to hit them in a straight line from a distance too short for them to react.

These strafing runs proved too much for the sadistic aliens. Even the fatal accuracy of the Kabalite Warriors wasn't capable of keeping pace.

Rainbow Dash struck another Wych, sending her crashing into an Incubus. The enraged warrior threw the Wych from him and charged the Pegasus. But Rainbow Dash had already vanished from sight, only to slam into the Incubus from behind.

Another Incubus observed Rainbow Dash closely. The rainbow colored Pegasus knew from one glance that this one was different, possibly in charge.

She knew instinctively that this one wouldn't be as easy to deal with as the others, but she also knew to keep an eye on him and always know how close he was to her.

She dodged some Splinter Rifle fire as she scanned for a new target, weary of the Incubus watching her. Suddenly, she made out a Wych toying with a wounded Griffin.

The injured creature refused to give up, but the Wych only enjoyed his defiance. Rainbow Dash would fix that.

She flew higher into the air in a spiral pattern, changing directions every so often to throw off the Kabalites still firing at her while she watched and waited for the perfect opportunity.

The Griffin lunged, and Rainbow Dash lunged with him. The Wych dodged out of the way of the Griffin ready to cut him again, but Rainbow Dash was going to connect first.

PainRainbow Dash slammed bodily into the Wych screaming in agony. When she righted herself, she knew that she'd been hit and that her attacker was going to strike again.

She tried to take flight, but the pain returned, driving her to the ground as she screamed.

She turned her head frantically, looking for the cause of her pain. And then she saw him, the Incubus.

Fune smiled behind his masked helm as he walked up to the Mon'Keigh champion that had caused him so much trouble, his Tormentor keeping her in place.

The Klaivex put a boot on the creature's throat. "You're good...but not good enough. I'll keep your wings as a memento."

Fune raised a Demi-Klaive...and was sent flying by a strike to the back.

Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief when the Tormentor ceased its work as her saivor galloped up to her. "Thank goodness you're alright darling. I thought I might've been too late."

"Thanks for the save Rarity." Rainbow Dash said, accepted her friends helping hoof. "Now let's get out of here before he finds his way back to us."

Fune was already on his feet. Charging towards his prey and killing anything that stood in his way. Rarity teleported the two of them as far as she could...which wasn't very far.

"I doubt that's the last we've seen of him, but I'm sure Aries can take care of him when gets here." Rainbow Dash said confidently.

"Well, I don't think we'll have to wait too long darling." Pointed a hoof out towards the other side of Ponyville, where reinforcements had finally arrived.

At the head of the herd was Starlight, Chrysalis, and of course, Aries.

Author's Note:

And so the war continues. I officially got a release date, I'm leaving Friday and starting work Monday. So I'm probably not going to be writing over the weekend as I'll be getting my bearings.

However, I'm sure you noticed the abnormal speed in which I wrote this chapter. That would be because I have a pretty good idea how I want this fight to go, and I'll even be starting the next chapter today.

I doubt I'll conclude the entire book before I leave my Trade Center and start my new life, but I'm gonna try.

Press F for the flower Ponies. We will not be seeing them again. Fluttershy is about to lose. Her. Shit over what the Dark Eldar are doing to the creatures of the Everfree. And the Dark Eldar have two more trump cards to play before its all over.

All this, and more, in the next chapter. See you then.