Princesses of Equestria

Chapter 32: Shadows and Lies

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight cried.

Though half-buried by Armonia's melted castle, and unable to see a foot in front of her, let alone twenty thousand feet into the sky, Twilight knew Rainbow's fate, for the Link of Harmony still bound them.

She'd felt the petrifying bite of Armonia's horn scythe. The wind rushing against her. Rushing as she reached free fall. Twilight held Pinkie closer, bulled through the cloying treacly pool, and calculated like crazy.

Lower troposphere: twenty thousand feet. Average free fall speed: one hundred and fifty four feet per second. Divide a) by b) ... Goddess have mercy.

One hundred and fifteen seconds.

She had less than two minutes. She'd be—

"Too late! I'll be too late. Oh dear!"

Fluttershy spellcast in a panicked rush. Saplings instantly sprouted from the ground underhoof, their clutching fronds aimed at Rainbow.

If they'd been rooted in fresh soil, Applejack reckoned Fluttershy's magical stems would have formed a branch long, thick and fast enough to catch Rainbow in three shakes of a timber wolf's tail. Instead, they withered and died in two shakes, poisoned by the sludge which used to be Armonia's castle.

Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike had gotten outdoors before the place collapsed, only to end up in a courtyard that had become a swamp. The oily mud reached up to everypony's knees, and steamed where it touched their Heartstone armor. Without their enchanted protection, they'd have been finished. Instead, they were merely bogged down, and going nowhere slowly.

Which spelled disaster for Rainbow, who needed them yesterday.

"Grah! Come on!" Applejack reached for the earth beneath and tried to raise a solid walkway. Another will contested her own. Armonia's will. Made sense. At its core the palace was, like Armonia's phoblins, an extension of herself. If she told it to ground team Twilight, then team Twilight were grounded.

Another frantic pulse from Twily. Forty seconds until Rainbow crashed.

Thirty-nine. Thirty-eight.

Forget reaching. Applejack shoved for the earth, head aching with the effort.

Thirty-six. Thirty-five.

"Ugh! Confounded guck!" Rarity's horn glowed a frigid green, and frost gathered on the mud ahead. Through the Link, Applejack deduced she'd intended to form a path from ice, but Armonia's mud didn't oblige her.

"Bother!" Rarity cursed as freezing slush only slowed her further. "Buh—" A sneeze. "Bothering botheration!"

"Sir Spike, at your service!" On her back, a pint-sized knight spewed dragonfire. The slush melted before Rarity caught a cold, but nopony celebrated. Rainbow's clock was ticking.

"Twenty-two seconds!" Spike shouted just after Twilight thought it. Everypony's struggles redoubled.

Twenty seconds. Applejack shoved harder.

Nineteen seconds. Fluttershy's newest vines died.

Eighteen. Rarity and Spike advanced a step.

Seventeen. A blue dot fell to the Everfree Forest.

Sixteen. A black dot dove in pursuit.

Fifteen. Twilight dug to the surface.

Fourteen. She'd be out in a minute.