Rarity, Zecora and Rainbow Dash, the latter carrying the former two and a pair of saddlebags with straps and buttons holding them closed upon her back, descended upon Ashwood. They frowned as the Void opened up to let them through. "Oh what is that dreary darkness? What is it doing here?" Rarity asked, wincing at the rather dubious invitation.

"Beats me," Rainbow replied in earnest, spotting a clearing as they came close to the treeline. Within lay a rather conspicuous set of white feathers in a single, solitary trail that she could see right away. The anomaly lay scattered in a zig-zag pattern as if whomever left them just threw them about without a care as to where they fell, much less a care for their existence altogether. Along with them was a set of hoofprints, clustered close together and pointing due south with the straightness of an arrow, and it was only thanks to their dents that she could spot them as she came closer. Rainbow alighted just at the start of this trail, right behind the prints that cut through half the clearing. She noticed they didn't have the grooves indicative of frogs; either the owner was in shoes, or had malformed feet.

Zecora's tail bristled as she clambered off of Rainbow Dash. Her back bowed a little, as she used her tail to heft those twin saddlebags onto her own back. She reached into one of the saddlebags as soon as they settled while Rarity clambered off and fumbled for a moment. The sound of clanking and rustling came from the bag that the tail was intruding into, digging feverishly.

Rarity watched as Zecora paused after a few seconds before pulling out a large, simple dagger of steel and brass from beneath the flap. She threw it up into the air, being careful to not send it anywhere near her companions, and caught it expertly with a fetlock. "I'm a little concerned our escorts let us come here, when it's this… Void they seem to fear," she muttered warily, eying the darkness as if expecting it to strike.

"Well, we've bested the likes of Discord and Nightmare Moon; perhaps that's why we were allowed to land," Rarity pointed out, looking at Zecora with no small amount of concern. "But I don't think they should have—"

Rainbow turned to Rarity and cut in before she could finish that sentence, "The Major had every right to give us some form of weaponry, Rares! The trees here come alive, for Celestia's sake—" Here, she flailed her forelegs wildly, being mindful of where the forelegs were flailing towards, "—and I'm willing to bet on Luna's silver horseshoes that this Void is something that's gonna take the Elements of Harmony to beat!"

Rarity wilted, ears folding back at that declaration. Zecora turned to her and decided to add in her two bits, "Alas, Rainbow Dash does have reason to fret. I saw one of our escorts turn into a timberpony before the sun set." Both her companions turned to her, brows raised. "Yes, a full-fledged timberpony, wood tearing through skin and everything. Her general and coworkers had to contain her in a makeshift ring."

"Who?" Rarity asked, frown deepening at that mental image.

Zecora racked her brain for a moment, eying the surrounding Void with caution, unsure of how to answer Rarity's query. She saw something move in the shadows, and elected to change the subject. "We mustn't dally, not out here, until the Void has passed." Zecora used her tail to reach into her saddlebags again, and pulled out another large dagger to fork over to Rarity. Then she reached one more time and pulled a third dagger to give to Rainbow. "We're going to need help, all that we can amass."

Rarity lit up her horn and took the dagger in her magic, and Rainbow simply held hers with a fetlock. "I suppose that's true…" she muttered under her breath, ears turning back at the prospect of having to fight with an actual weapon and get blood on her hooves all over again. However, she acknowledged that something was awry, and in this zany situation, it didn't hurt to have something sharp and pointy if and possibly when the need could arise. The fiasco with Discord had nothing on this mess—hell, now that she thought of it, he'd probably approve of this whacko brand of chaos.

The ground rumbled slightly as the herd began trotting with Zecora taking point on three legs, following the tracks intently and sending feathers away with the beating of hooves and wings. If nothing else, the prints at least told them somepony else was up and about in this forest, and they'd need to find said pony—fast. And that was assuming the tracks belonged to a pony to begin with. Rarity's ears twitched as the tremor came and went through the soil. Faintly, just barely whispering through the broken branches of the trees, she could also hear something else scraping against the soil with a distinct tittering rhythm.

Schraaaa-ta-ta-ta would have been the best way to describe it were she to roll it off her tongue; it hurt her ears, yet it wasn't even that loud. Her coat stood on end as that tittering rattled again and again and again. Her mane frayed in places, and her hooves shook each time the sound reached her. It had an odd metallic quality to it, but it sounded substantially weaker—as if the source was not truly steel, but trying its best to merely imitate it.

She held her dagger tightly in her magical grip. Something was ahead; very likely armed, given the tittering, and just as likely to not play nice. She'd avoid outright murder if she could, but she reminded herself that Fantasia probably would not give her the chance to do so. It was home to an entire military force after all, who were more than happy to enlighten her to that fact. Some part of her half-madly wondered what drove the gryphons and changelings to unify to form said force, but she shook the thought out of her head with little more than a cursory glance at her torched surroundings.

Rarity asked Zecora another question, if only to get her mind off of the current mess for one second of reprieve, "Have you brought any potions with you?"

Zecora nodded, and used her dagger to gesture to the other saddlebag she hadn't disturbed. "I did, but there was only so much that I could carry which would fit," she replied. "But enough to last the trip, without leaving the bags split." She flicked both bags open with her tail, careful to avoid rustling the contents any further, revealing a small menagerie of corked glass bottles within. Each bottle was holding a differently-colored liquid, all of them splishing and splashing with her trotting.

"Well, at least we came prepared for this trip," Rainbow said matter-of-factly, crossing her forelegs together in a way that her dagger didn't end up going through one of them. "Even though I can kick lots of flank with my bare hooves, something tells me I miiiiight need more than speed and strength here." As she hovered ahead, she turned to look forward, squinting her eyes as she saw a distant crimson glow moving further and further away. She heard the ground rumbling again, and noted that she could hear the repeated scraping a little more clearly now. She strained her eyes to see a silhouette, going upright, sprinting with urgency under that glow.

The glow and silhouette vanished in seconds. The tittering faded with a fleeting echo. She turned to her friends and slowed a little. "You think the Void controls the ectoplasms that control the weather here?" she asked, tilting her head.

Rarity shook hers. "Given that the Void arrived only today, I don't think it's highly likely," she muttered in reply. "Possible, yes, but not likely." She trotted a little faster, aura faltering around her dagger for a brief moment. She steeled herself; she'd already killed once. And it was in response to a string of brutalities that even stunned her military escorts. She was glad they had standards.

Then again, she supposed, somebody had to have standards within this interplanetary hellhole she'd found herself in. Better to see eye-to-eye with her escorts on some matters than none at all. Her tail twitched with her steps; were Pinkie here, she'd have probably declared Rarity's innate 'sense' was going on the fritz. The thought, despite being born of such an unusual mental scenario, did warm her heart a little—without dulling the underlying edge of danger it presented.

The ground shook again, this time hard enough to make the desolate, fallen trees rattle against the scorched soil. Cracks started to run from each errant root as, against all logic, a wildfire, and Ragnarok itself, the trees started to move as though they were one. Branches twitched, curled up on themselves, broke into fragments with the effort. Trunks peeled, frayed, heaved as their roots pushed them up and up. Rarity, Rainbow, and Zecora paused as fallen logs shed off their burnt bark and flesh, revealing thin layers of ashen tissue clinging to time-bleached bones.

One tree that miraculously still had its face intact after peeling away its bark and flesh turned to the trio, mouth opening and voice immediately turning hoarse as it spoke. "Armag-geddon has c-come for Greenw-wood… run, save yourse-selves," it warned before slumping over with its brethren. The ground kept rumbling as, one by one, the trees pulled themselves further and further apart. With a final heave that ripped out the tiniest roots, all life seemingly left these poor creatures—and perhaps, Rainbow inwardly hoped, for good this time. But though they ceased movement altogether, the ground kept shaking anyway.

Rarity shivered at the gruesome display. "Is it just me, or has the seventh circle of Tartarus made Ashwood its home?" she muttered. That was a thought so morbid, she'd figured King Sombra would retch upon hearing it were he still alive.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, but still couldn't contain a minor shuddering of her hocks. "Now's not the time for that, Rares," she muttered, a slight tremble in her tone. Her gut clenched; equine instinct screamed to leave, and for a split-second she entertained that idea before casting it aside. Amidst the shaking, though, came another sharp scraping from behind, followed by flapping wings and beating hooves. Rainbow and the others whirled around, daggers raised, only to lower their blades as they saw Lazarus and Sarah coming into view. Both were barreling towards the group, and they were so wide-eyed they could've given Pinkie Pie a run for her bits. The former has his horn glowing and his magic clutching his spear and a radio; the latter had her cursed harp and halberd in claw, and a loose black scarf on her neck.

"What brought you two here? And why are you going against the doctor's orders?" Rarity asked, ears twitching to the tune of the shuddering ground.

Sarah closed her wings and alighted on her hooves, twiddling her harp and idly plucking its strings with the barest of movements. "Well… Lazarus decided to drag me here…" she muttered, lifting a claw to point accusingly at him.

Lazarus nodded in confirmation and waved his spear at the surrounding hellscape of strewn bark. "The Major said there has to be a soldier accompanying you lot, and let me come down. In other words, a matter of necessity." He saw Rainbow's mouth open and cut her off before she could speak, "And no, I know exactly nothing about the Void that's made quite a ruckus in the last hour or so."

Rainbow threw her forelegs in the air and waved them wildly. "Then why'd you only come now?!" she barked with no small amount of exasperation.

Lazarus wilted a bit. "I had to take the long way of levitating myself down," he replied with earnest. "And keep Miss I'll-Ignore-Doctor from making a new indent in the ground."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Sparkles," she snarked. She turned to the radio as it started to buzz, and leaned against her weapon when the ground gave a particularly large heave that made everypony but Rainbow stagger.

"Is it just me, or do we have an earthquake?" Twilight Sparkle asked from the radio.

"On top of everything else, I'd have expected as much at this rate," Lance grumbled dismally, his voice followed by the sound of flapping wings.

"Twilight! You okay?!" Rainbow yelled, flying right to Lazarus to howl in his radio.

Twilight sighed from her end. "Physically, yes. Mentally, screaming," she replied. Rainbow could almost hear the deadpan in her tone. "This place is trying to screw us harder than even I gave it credit for."

Rainbow wilted—sadly, there was no denying the truth of that statement. "You kicking flank on your end?" she tried.

"As well as I can, in cramped halls with everyone else I'm accompanying," Twilight replied, sounding a bit too chipper all of a sudden. Rainbow inwardly hoped she wasn't starting to become bloodthirsty. "I'll let you know if anything else happens."

"Same here," Rainbow said, and internally sighed in relief. The ground shook once more, this time forming budding hills in places, further splitting and fragmenting upon said budding hills. She turned to one a few wingbeats away, raising one brow and lowering the other as she saw sharp spines and dulled, almost discolored flesh rotating from under its cracks. Her hocks shuddered; that looked and moved very much like trouble. The others turned to her and noticed where she was looking, but by the time they turned to the hill, what was beneath it had crawled back into the still-shaking ground. And it left a not-quite-flat patch of useless land in its wake.

Sarah spread her wings again, and started flapping to get airborne. Lazarus turned to her and snorted. "Just don't do anything reckless," he muttered.

Sarah rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, yeah," she hissed in reply. She glanced around, watching for any more upheavals that resulted in raised patches of soil and whatever might have caused the ground to shake. But the inky blackness of the Void only ensured she saw little else beyond the fallen trees, save the occasional pulse of what seemed to be purple mana—here, not even her feline eyes helped at all. At this, her ears flattened against her skull. "Anyone else feel like we're about to go in circles?" she asked.

"Well…" Rarity turned to the trail she and her companions, and presumably Lazarus and Sarah, had been following until now. Her brow furrowed when she saw the ground did more than heave and crack; it sent the feathers of that trail in all manner of directions, and worse, made the prints almost unrecognizable. She was silently thankful she could still discern said prints from the rest of the broken soil. "Not… quite circles, but I do feel we're being led somewhere," she answered uneasily. Her horn glowed brighter, light flickering at its tip. She hummed for a moment, registering something with her magic—and she planted her hooves firmly in the ground when she felt that magic tugging at her ever so slightly. "... alright then. It seems I've found gemstones…"

"What are you on about?" Sarah asked, watching as Rarity moved her head for a moment, almost letting her horn act as some sort of tracking wand that was intent on yanking her away.

"My talent, dear," Rarity replied, smirking as her magic stopped its pulling and weaved its way through the hellscape of splinters, forming twin blue ribbons that pointed the way. Her smile dropped when the ribbons turned from blue to black in a fraction of a second and then reverted. "Hrm… it's never done that before… the gems might be magical... "

"Either that, or the Void's fucking with your spell," Lazarus piped up, shaking his head. "And why would gems grow here?"

Rarity took a moment to consider the question. She had to reign in her tail before it could stand on end. "I may be detecting the caverns… yet the spell's not pointing that way…" she muttered, taking in those implications to account of her growing list of concerns. "Please tell me we won't have to run afoul of a crystalized wraith again…" With that unseemly utterance, she started to march in the direction her magic pointed her towards. Reluctantly, the others followed after her, all eyes warily scanning the Void for anymore signs of lurking danger.

For several minutes after, only the sound of beating wings and marching hooves stomping on fracturing soil reached their ears—none spoke a word, instead acting on instinct and magic. The ground kept up its incessant shaking, but this did not deter the quintet in the slightest. Sarah dared not lay claw upon the strings of her hexed harp, though she removed her scarf to carefully affix it onto the shaft of her halberd. Zecora did not tinker with her bottled potions, instead content to let them jostle and rattle with her steps. She also let her tail take hold of her dagger—inconvenient, yes, but better when one needed all four legs to gallop if the ground started to fissure.

Lazarus glanced at the portable radio every few seconds, expecting something to come out of it. But nothing other than muted hoofsteps came from it; the rest was just white noise that was drowned out by the whole of what was Ashwood Forest. Occasionally, there was a thunking and splintering, but he ignored it—for that wasn't his prerogative. He instead chose to ponder about where, exactly, Rarity's magic was leading them—and what possibly awaited for them when they reached it.

Yet the magical ribbons seemed to be neverending, stretching on and on through the Void—meager twin lights, amidst the surrounding darkness and destruction. The group followed them with diligence for several more minutes on end, passing tree after tree as their sense of time was slowly distorted. The Void seemed to be toying with them, almost waiting for them to do something else, Lazarus was sure of it.

But if the Void was waiting for them to do something, then what was it waiting for? His spear rattled as he scraped against a tree on his way past it, the sound sending chills through his coat as it reached him. Lazarus made to voice the question dancing on his tongue, mouth opening—before snapping right back shut when his eyes caught more movement a trot's length to the right of Rarity's ribbons.

He instantly zeroed in on it, head turning in that direction, speartip flashing and turning to face forward. Legs tensed as he caught moving, pulsating spikes and dirt-dusted flesh writhing just underneath another freshly-formed hillside. Eyes turned red, tail stiffened, hocks shaking with the urge to charge and stab—an urge Lazarus willed with all of his might to keep at bay. Sarah turned to it too, clutching her harxe with both claws and a tight grip. It took Rainbow and the others a second to sense something amiss, and they likewise shifted to look at the still-rumbling hill with daggers at the ready.

The thing slid back underground, and an echoing growl followed it as the hill sank. Sarah and Rainbow landed upright after a few seconds, warily sharing uneasy glances. The group fell still and silent, half a million questions wedged up their throats that sent their minds into a collective tizzy. Lazarus noted, faintly, that a pungent stench of rot was wafting from the cracks in the soil, and the moment he noticed it was the same moment his stomach turned itself into a knot. With a wince and a groan, he looked at everyone else and found their noses wrinkling as the appalling aroma hit them too.

It was mere moments after that initial stench did anyone move. Rarity was the first to break formation, turning to her dual ribbons and trotting after them with a harried pace. The others followed after her, with Sarah and Rainbow taking to the air again, hovering over everypony else as the cluster tightened. Rarity's magic dimmed a little, having been cast for so long at this point, but still it aimed straight and true due south with the will of an inverted compass. Why the smell only hit them now, with what all the burnt corpses surrounding them…

Rarity caught sight of a crimson light up ahead, and more feathers being left in its wake, just barely touched by the barren soil. Even better, her magic ribbons pointed right at it and brightened considerably—and she could hear that incessant scraping again, too! Before she could get her legs into gear and dart off after the glow, her magic first faltered, then dimmed when the light and its source darted off again. That time, it left fast enough to shed a few fluttering feathers in its wake, leaving them to dance a confused pirouette before they landed soundlessly on the ground.

Internally, she groaned and facehoofed. Some part of her brain concocted an image of Sweetie Belle shouting "Oh come on!" in nothing short of exasperation. Externally, though, Rarity heaved a ladylike sigh of annoyed resignation, and let her eyes narrow by just a smidgen. Whatever was making that light, and marked itself in a way only her magic could track, was not going to slip by her personal radar. She picked up her speed, until it was just shy of a gallop, her horn flickering wildly as she charged. The others hurried after her, and Rainbow frowned when she saw the blue shifting to red and back again, without stopping.

Rarity noticed this too, but didn't let that deter her—if it was the Void's doing, there was nothing she could do about it except cancel out her spell. Instead, she chose to take it as a sign of omen, though she was careful to avoid pigeonholing it into the good or bad categories. After all, those particular chicks had yet to hatch, and given everything else as of late, perhaps that was best. The ground heaved again after Rarity charged, this time with enough force to form a hill right in front of the group, immediately growing tall enough to make the whole lot skid to a collective halt. Everyone bumped into each other as Rarity stopped, blades pointing this way and that as bellies met with spines and withers, though thankfully without slicing into vulnerable flesh even as magic faltered with the unplanned crash.

The group just barely disentangled themselves, with Zecora making sure the potions didn't spill—they hadn't, thank Faust—when the hill that cropped up before them broke in two. From the broken earthen shell rose a gargantuan rotting head whose flesh barely held together, supported by a long, hole-riddled and serpentine neck. Red scales shimmered proudly in Rarity's light, despite wasting away with age, further accentuated by black wounds and viridian blood. Twin pinpricks of gold zeroed in on the lot, and from the newest obstacle, a hollow baritone rumbled with the ground. "I thought I warned you… to stay well away from here," it hissed, ire dripping as much as the fluid that came from its jaws. "But it matters not—my mercy has waned…"

The creature took a deep inhale, gathering reddish-black energy that could not have come from the Void itself. The others looked up and spotted yellowed bones, before Lazarus lit up his horn brightly and used his magic to grab everyone else. "You have got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed before they vanished in a burst of light. Right as that burst faded, the thing unleashed its hellish energy on the spot where the group stood. The attack set about vaporizing the soil with enough force to carve into the very ground a hole so deep, it was far more than enough to let magma spill forth the moment the volley ended.

Several trees down from the attack, Lazarus and the others reappeared in another burst, eyes wide and tails puffed in alarm. "Fuck… I didn't expect Mr. Grumpyscales to slither here…" Lazarus complained, voice low to avoid the chance of alerting their aggressor. He made the radio vanish as he studied the attacker, watching him as he scanned the landscape.

"He may be after Greenwood's ponies…" Rainbow muttered, withers sagging at the thought.

Sarah shook her head. "If that were true, the lich-wyrm would have gotten there already," she pointed out, frowning deeply enough to bare sharpened teeth. She poked her head carefully around a fallen tree and saw, just barely, the golden orbs of their newest arrival scanning the whole of Ashwood. "I think we're on his lunch menu…" The orbs snapped to her as she said that, and her wings shuddered as another volley of hellish energy was readied in their adversary's maw.

Lazarus looked over and flared his horn again. "Brace for impact, and hit the ground running!" he barked before light engulfed the group. Another blast pitted the ground where they stood, and yet more magma welled up once the volley dissipated. The lich-wyrm growled in displeasure, eyes narrowing with what little flesh they still had. He glanced around, scowling, opening his mouth to charge more energy as he waited for the tell-tale flash of light.

His head swiveled when he caught a burst from the corner of his eye, just barely visible in the Void. He let loose another torrent in that direction, leaving further destruction in his wake that he'd hoped would include those he had warned. Though, he shouldn't have been surprised to catch sight of Lazarus and his little group veering as far away from the strike as they could, first galloping due east before changing course for the north.

The lich-wyrm grinned nonetheless, and angled his neck until it was parallel with the ground. With a great heave he surged forward, issuing forth an echoing roar that caused the remnants of Ashwood to tremble. His long body slid out of the hole he'd emerged from, easily a good two dozen meters that carved a singular, fluid path in his wake. "You cannot hope to outpace me!" he exclaimed, a twisted sense of delight taking root in his baritone. "For my time-tempered prowess cannot be so easily matched!"

Lazarus and the others stumbled at the echoing roar, before Rainbow started to gather him, Rarity, and Zecora upon her back. Sarah took that as her cue to get flapping, and she wasted no time racing to get airborne. "No way in Tartarus am I letting anypony be eaten!" Rainbow shouted, flapping her own wings as hard as she could even as everypony was jostling into position.

"In that case, let me help!" Sarah exclaimed before playing a few strings of her harp with one claw. The instrument glowed, shaking against its bonds as the very air around her and the others shifted ever so slightly. Rainbow turned her ears, expecting another cacophony to come.

Rarity turned to the pursuing lich-wyrm, who was quickly catching up to them, sending trees flying everywhere as he homed in while they were just starting their climb skyward. "What can we do against that barbarian?!" she yelled, eyes widening when the beast opened up his rotting mouth to prepare another magical strike.

"Right now, flying away!" Sarah hissed in reply as she felt a breeze wafting past her hocks, though she couldn't tell which way it was going since she was flying for dear life. She did notice, however, that a tingling feeling was creeping up her legs as the magical energy continued to gather around the wyrm's mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the abandoned torches that marked whatever paths used to exist in Ashwood, oddly burning bright ruby red. She veered to them, making sure to tap Rainbow on her cutie mark before she even gestured that way. Rainbow nodded and followed after her, right as the lich-wyrm let loose a strike creating another path clean through the fallen forest, one that carved a deep furrow into the earth and missed the whole group by millimeters of their tails.

The lich-wyrm turned to coil, orbs affixed on the group as he knocked aside more trees in a wide circle without care, creating a whole new clearing in the process. "You will not escape! Your pathetic folly ends here!" he declared as he reoriented his body to start giving chase again. His eyes narrowed further when he saw the airborne herd gain a few measly feet of distance and altitude, even seeing green-tinted air shifting to give them a much needed boost beneath their wings. But his smile remained firmly in place; it would matter little in the end, for whomever was manipulating the wind was just delaying the inevitable.

Sarah kept playing, her movements frantic as her instrument glowed with its warped power. "I don't know what the unicorns of Canterlot did to this thing! I can't control it!" Sarah yelped, seeing Rarity give her an incredulous look out of the corner of her eye.

"Better than having headaches if you ask me! I doubt its screaming could stop the wyrm!" Rainbow hissed, inwardly grateful the thing wouldn't bash her eardrums in a second time. She looked down to the torches for a moment, seeing their flames flickering out just as they passed overhead. Then she glanced to where the torches were leading, eyes widening as an outcrop of rock came into view.

Rarity, having made her, Rainbow's and Zecora's daggers vanish in a flash of light, squeaked at the sight. "Is that the crystal caverns?" she asked.

"Don't know, don't care, I just want out of here!" Sarah exclaimed, glancing down to see the second batch of torches that forked away from the first. She turned there right away, and Rainbow followed suit as Lazarus made his spear vanish in a flash of light. Behind them, the lich-wyrm couldn't stop himself in time, and crashed head-first into the caverns with a sort of bravado only a beast of his size could possess. He roared as the cavern exit collapsed around him, rearing up as much as his body would allow to shake bits of boulder out of his gaping wounds. He twisted in another coil, using his tail to brush aside the remnants of the ruined exit in one fell swoop before turning back to the group that had caught his eye.

"You ignorant whelps! A fate worse than death will befall you if you keep up this miserable charade!" the lich-wyrm howled as he started to give chase once again. "Let me ease your suffering; everything will be over soon!"

Lazarus turned to the wyrm and barked out, "We don't want your tender mercies! Piss off!" The wyrm roared in response, gathering up more of his hellish light with which to vaporize everything it touched. How was he—no, how the hell would any of them fight a creature that could wipe them all out in mere moments? He glanced around wildly, looking to both Ashwood and the Void-shrouded sky for something, and found that the torchline had taken a detour southeast. He pointed with a hoof and barked, "That way, that way!" Rainbow nodded upon seeing his hoof, and she turned in that direction. Sarah was wheeling after her, still playing with all her might.

Another blast of destructive magic just missed them by inches that time, tearing yet another straight line of furrowed, clean-cut soil in its wake. The lich-wyrm didn't bother to coil, instead zig-zagging his whole body to keep up with his fleeing prey. He knew not why they still persisted on living, and chose not to parlay with words anymore, instead raising his head just enough to be perfectly level with their wings as he readied another blast. Everyone could feel superheated air swirling around them, being sucked into that maw alongside a chilling darkness that danced in tandem with that arid air.

Sarah's wingbeats started to falter, and Lazarus yanked her harxe before making it vanish in a flare of light. Then he yanked her bodily, and pulled her onto his own back with a disgruntled frown. "Save it," he hissed as she turned to him with a scowl, and with reluctance she wrapped her claws around his barrel. Rainbow, still picking up speed and going strong, barely noticed the brief spat and changed altitude until she was parallel with the ground. Another blast of hellish energy sailed by overhead, warping the very air around it as it careened a ways off.

She needed serious help, she realized—but against the wyrm, and here in Ashwood, where would she find it? "Faust damn it," Rainbow muttered, eyes narrowing as she caught sight of a wide fissure running through the ground up ahead, deep enough to house corporeal darkness. The fissure gave her an idea, and she veered into it without a second thought, finding yet more superheated air waiting for her, trying its best to push her back up. The fissure crumbled around her as the lich-wyrm squeezed his way into it with an abominable, almost obscene fortitude, another round of magic gathering around his waiting maw. The air and earth shook around them as Rainbow pressed on, trying to get to the bottom of the chasm, which turned from pitch black to shades of red, orange, and gold in a matter of seconds.

Magma waited below, bubbling with rage as it flowed at the bottom, melting the clusters of soil the lich-wyrm unwittingly dropped into it! Rainbow could barely change course in time, scorching one hind hoof with a pained yelp as she reoriented to be parallel with the glowing red substance. The lich-wyrm wasn't so quick; he gave a pained cry as his underbelly rubbed up against the magma, exposed flesh melting and scales withering at the onslaught as he continued to try and catch Rainbow Dash. His magic faltered, charged blast dissipating with his cry, crackling harmlessly around his own head.

Rainbow blinked and bit back budding tears, wounded hoof shaking as she forced herself to keep flying. With grit teeth she scanned the fissure, noting that with each passing second the magma bubbled more and more—angrily at that. She heard a pop of magic, and Lazarus mutter, "Sorry, didn't want your bags spilling!" Guessing what had happened, and then sending it to the lowest rung of her worries, Rainbow made a sharp turn as the fissure curved unexpectedly. She tightened her flight path and let the heated air lift her up as the lich-wyrm tried to smack into her with his head.

Rainbow was faster, however, and she flew on, ducking underneath the strike that sent more dirt cascading down below. Her wings began to ache from the pressure on her back, yet that made the will to live burn much more fiercely. She turned again as the fissure did likewise, zipping erratically to egg the wyrm on. He struck again, missing her by a whole tree's height as he dug the side of his face into the breaking earth. With an ethereal hiss he surged after her, teeth gnashing and snapping with another crackle of magic.

Rainbow flew on, in mere moments forming a wide corkscrew that spanned the whole length of the fissure. The earth kept breaking up around them, piling into the magma which began to rise at the disturbance, piling onto the lich-wyrm in a futile attempt to weigh him down, trying and failing to pile onto the group as Rainbow weaved around the fragments of soil with ease. The lich-wyrm unleashed another blast that Rainbow barely dodged, firing right into the fissure's outer walls a little too close to the rising flow of magma.

Once the blast ended, more magma spilled forth from that hole and got into the wyrm's mouth as he made to snap at Rainbow Dash once again, searing it on contact. The undead beast let out another pained roar, half-gurgling as he thrashed as much as the fissure would allow. Rainbow got out of the chasm and alighted on the ground, letting everyone clamber off of her as she kept her wounded hoof raised. They heard the wyrm screaming and flailing about, heard the soil continuing to break and weigh him down, even saw his massive shadow dancing along the fissure's edge thanks to the magma. But past all of that, they couldn't see him. Rainbow looked to the others and relaxed a little, seeing them frazzled but otherwise alright. "That was close," she muttered.

"Too close," Lazarus agreed, turning about to look at where they'd ended up now. He spotted a groaning wisteria tree a few trots off, spitting out red seeds that sizzled as the earth continued to shake. Beyond that, though, it did little else.

Rainbow turned to the tree in question, rearing up onto her hinds with her burnt hoof carefully raised and wings spread wide for balance. Crossing her forelegs over her barrel, she studied its habit of seed-spitting for a few seconds. "What's with that tree?" she asked; Lazarus could almost hear her asking 'And what in Tartarus pissed it off?' on top of that. He found himself tensing when she didn't speak any further.

Sarah looked at the tree and gave a tiny squeak, pupils shrinking and wings sagging at its presence. "... we should leave it," she muttered weakly, garnering incredulous looks from Lazarus and Rainbow within a matter of seconds.

"And why is that?" Lazarus asked, frowning with the corners of his lips turning a little lopsided.

"Is it because of the things it's horking everywhere?" Rainbow added, tilting her head a little.

Before anybody could answer, the lich-wyrm burst forth from the chasm with an angry, warbling roar that sent magma flying out of his scorched throat. As the roar died he was turning his baleful gaze onto the group, with his wounds aglow in burning orange liquid. The magma below continued to rise, burning brighter and brighter until it cast the lich-wyrm in a stark, hellish light as he leaned ever so slightly against the fissure's edge.

"Now you've done it, you insolent ponies…" the wyrm bellowed, withered scales dropping from his body to reveal torched flesh beneath. "Now you have really earned my ire!" He started charging another blast, one powerful enough to lift the magma off of his own body as well as the seeds of the wysteria tree to join with the red and black energies. As he charged, he remained blissfully unaware of a bright crimson light homing on him from the trail of destruction he had wrought, as well as the myriad of golden lights surrounding it.