The eerie fog choking the air made Rainbow Dash almost feel sick. It reminded her way too much of her awful battle against Fluttershy from before.

She tried to keep that outta her mind though and stay in the present. Her and Gilda were the recon squad sent to check the next village on the Lightning Knights’ path for potential threats, but what the pair found was nothing.

Almost literally, nothing.

The village was still standing; row after row of identical two story houses that were so flawlessly similar and disgustingly mediocre at the same time that Rainbow had a hard time believing they were created by hand.

But every single one was empty. Doors hung wide open, and windows too, and smell of mist and fog eliminated any rancid odors that might be coming from inside unless one were to take a closer look, which neither Gilda nor Rainbow were inclined to do.

They stood on a dirt road, the rows of houses on one side and on the other was a canopy of towering trees that almost looked like they were clawing at the air, like they were begging to be released from some invisible barrier, or maybe it looked like they were clawing at any unsuspecting creature that was foolish enough to wander past them.

“This place gives me the creeps!” Rainbow complained, stomping her talon and crossing her arms.

“What, are you gonna cry about it?” Gilda said irritably, but then she busted out a cunning grin. “Or are you saying you need me to protect you? Is that it, Dash? Are you scared and you need Gilda’s big strong arms?”

“Shut up!” Rainbow balked and gave Gilda a shove, though the thought of being wrapped up in those giant beefy arms of hers wasn’t an unpleasant one… “I’m just saying, let’s get outta here. It’s not like there’s anything—”

“Wait, hold on dude,” a relaxed woman’s voice cut through the fog, Rainbow and Gilda both turning to face her in an instant. Only her silhouette was visible at first and Rainbow’s dumbass lesbian brain was like ‘damn she kinda thicc tho’.

“And you are?” Gilda asked tepidly.

“Name’s Tree Hugger,” the woman came into plain view and Rainbow got a better look at her, and was delighted to see that she was indeed pretty thicc. She was a dryad; she almost looked like a pony except for the fungus crawling all over her body, which honestly was pretty cool. “And uhhhh sorry but I can’t let you leave.”

“You’re with the Family?” Gilda cracked her knuckles, and Tree Hugger just nodded slowly.

“Let’s be careful, Gilda,” Rainbow said, taking a step behind the quetzalcoatl. “We don’t know what she’s capable of so we should keep our distance.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Gilda scoffed and scraped her talon across the dirt road, revealing that under the thin layer of dirt and mud was a firm foundation of stone. “I’ll take this bitch out, don’t you worry. All you need to do is cover me!”

Gilda took off like a rocket, propelled by an explosion of wind from her magic, and Rainbow locked onto Tree Hugger; whatever she tried to pull, Rainbow was gonna be ready to counter it.

Tree Hugger jumped away from Gilda’s punch and immediately scrambled up the nearest tree, Gilda spitting in frustration.

“What kinda coward just climbs up a tree in the middle of a fight?” Gilda said in disgust.

“Coward that wants to stay alive,” Tree Hugger hung from a high branch by the back of her legs and let out a good-natured chuckle. She sure was chill for someone in a life or death battle, and it kinda pissed Rainbow off if she was being honest.

“If you think height’s gonna help you,” Gilda growled with a fierce grin on her face and she flared out her wings, “you obviously missed something!”

“Gilda, wait!” Rainbow shouted. “She’s clearly baiting you! Don’t go up there!”

Gilda clicked her tongue and closed her wings, and Rainbow caught the disappointment that flickered across Tree Hugger’s face even if it was only there for an instant.

“Instead,” Rainbow gave a confident and bloodthirsty smile as she charged her laser and pointed it right at Tree Hugger, “let’s bring her down to us!”

Rainbow’s blue laser fired from her fingertips and tore through Tree Hugger’s perch in a roaring explosion that sent the plant girl flying and crashing to the road with a thud, the leaves from her tree fluttering all around the battlefield as the smoke cleared and revealed a splintered trunk was all that remained of the tree Rainbow hit.

Gilda wasted no time closing the distance against Tree Hugger and charged at her, letting loose a punch that exploded with a devastating burst of concentrated wind.

It whiffed completely, and Tree Hugger was able to take advantage of that missed opportunity to get back to her feet and jump away from Gilda; the dryad was singed by the explosion and bruised by the fall, but those injuries were pretty minor for a seasoned fighter like her.

What was infinitely more concerning was that Gilda’s attack totally flopped, and Rainbow couldn’t understand why; she was certain that Gilda was gonna hit her! But there was no time for second-guessing, so Rainbow just fired her laser directly at Tree Hugger, and there was no way she was gonna miss such a clean shot!

And yet she did. The laser flew harmlessly over Tree Hugger’s shoulder and exploded too far in the distance to have any effect on the fight at all.

“Something wrong, my dudes?” Tree Hugger said casually, and Rainbow growled under her breath, which was tame compared to the ferocious snarl that Gilda responded with.

“Don’t mess with me!” Gilda let out a massive explosion of wind, and gave a premature victorious chuckle, but Tree Hugger just appeared standing beside it unharmed, clicking her tongue and shaking her head.

Something was seriously wrong here, but what? Rainbow was able to hit the tree just fine, so what was diff—

The tree.

The leaves from that tree were still fluttering in the air over the battlefield, descending way too slowly to be normal. Rainbow hadn't paid it much mind at first and now she was kicking herself for ignoring it.

“Gilda! Those leaves!” Rainbow shouted. “When we blew up the tree, Tree Hugger’s aura coated the leaves and now it’s covering the whole battlefield!”

“Nice going, hotshot!” Gilda shouted irritably.

“Don’t blame her,” Tree Hugger said coolly, stealing both Rainbow and Gilda’s attention. “You know what would’ve happened if you’d jumped up into that tree like you were planning to do?” Tree Hugger jumped and disappeared into one of the other trees beside the road. “Here, I’ll show you.”

Something came from the tree and grabbed Gilda, but Rainbow couldn’t see it clearly through the fog that suddenly felt a lot thicker than it was before, and when Rainbow could see clearly again, Gilda was gone.

Rainbow called out her name, but it was obvious she couldn’t respond. Rainbow turned her eyes to the tree next to the destroyed one, which Tree Hugger had escaped inside and likely dragged Gilda into.

Obviously Rainbow couldn’t follow Gilda inside, and she couldn’t just blow it up haphazardly either, but she felt pretty clever when she realized she could blow it up at the base and topple it over, then with her speed rescue Gilda before anything bad happened. It was the perfect plan!

Rainbow fired off her lasers and sure enough the tree came crashing down, with Rainbow bolting through its leaves to rescue Gilda.

She didn’t find any Gilda. She didn’t find any anything, in fact! The inside of the tree’s leaves were another damn pocket plane like what Fluttershy had, and Rainbow felt something sticking to her body, slowing her movement until she was immobilized.

It was hard to see cuz it was all dark and leafy in this place, but Rainbow looked at her arms and legs and was able to identify that she was covered in what looked like tree sap; thick, slimy sap that pinned her arms to her sides and her legs to each other.

“Dude,” Tree Hugger said as she floated weightlessly over to the pinned Rainbow Dash.

“I’m not a dude,” Rainbow said flatly.

“Sis—”

“I’m not cis either,” Rainbow chuckled.

“Fam,” Tree Hugger said, only sounding mildly bemused, “you gotta clear your mind, Rainbow Dash. You gotta realize the Lightning Knights? They don’t care about you, they don’t have your best interests at heart. But the Family will treat you like you deserve.”

Tree Hugger put her hands on Rainbow’s cheeks, and she tried to move her hands to swat Tree Hugger away but this sap was too sticky.

“Don’t you want to be treated like you deserve?”

“Maybe,” Rainbow let out a single chuckle, “but consider this instead.”

And then Rainbow exploded.

If Tree Hugger thought pinning Rainbow’s hands would stop her from firing her lasers, or that she wouldn’t fire them at herself, she was gravely mistaken. It was nearly impossible for a creature to harm themselves with their own magic anyway, so as the tree and its pocket plane got ripped apart and Tree Hugger got sent flying onto the road on her back, all Rainbow was left with were her arms and legs freed and a renewed vigor for kicking Tree Hugger’s ass!

But first, Rainbow had to find Gilda. She had to be in one of these other trees, right? But there were a LOT of trees, and Rainbow couldn’t tell which ones were enchanted by Tree Hugger’s magic and which ones weren’t.

Also, while her movement was freed up, Rainbow was still covered in sticky gross weird stuff, which definitely didn’t bode well.

“Sorry fam,” Tree Hugger panted as she got to her feet, “but I can’t just let you folks do whatever you want.”

Rainbow clicked her tongue and fired a bunch of lasers directly at Tree Hugger, but they all missed her. Rainbow was feeling woozy too, and Tree Hugger was starting to get closer. This wasn’t good at all, but Rainbow wasn’t gonna just admit defeat!

She dug deep into herself, to try and center herself and focus her thoughts, really delve deep into her mind palace… and what she found was Pinkie Pie. Her smile, her warmth, her confidence, her faith in Rainbow; all of it sent a jolt through Rainbow’s body and brought a laugh to her lips, and when she opened her eyes, Rainbow Dash could see clearly.

Rainbow pointed her fingers at Tree Hugger and charged her laser, but Tree Hugger just stood still with that dazed smile on her face. Rainbow smiled too, the sharp and confident smile of a predator about to mark her prey, and even despite Tree Hugger’s confidence, the dryad suddenly realized she was in danger.

The laser went off, headed straight for Tree Hugger, and unless the plant girl dodged it, it was gonna hit its mark no question. But through the resulting explosion, it was hard to tell at first if it hit.

Okay yeah she dodged it, but the dryad only realized the danger just in time, so her dodge was clumsy and left her stumbling, making her an easy target for Rainbow to dash up to and slam into her stomach with a flying kick, Rainbow’s shin colliding with the woman’s belly and knocking the air outta her lungs before sending her crashing on her back into the road.

Rainbow couldn’t waste time looking through every single damn tree to figure out which one Gilda was trapped in so to hell with it, she just decided to blow them all sky high! She charged her lasers through her whole body and flared out her wings on her arms, firing lasers that tore through the entire line of trees and reduced them to ash.

Sure enough, Gilda came flopping out of one of the trees when the pocket plane was destroyed, her body covered in that sticky sap and immobilized. She was struggling like mad though, even though her arms were pinned at her sides and her legs were stuck together, and the sap covered her beak so whatever curses she was yelling only came out as muffled grunts.

Honestly it was a little funny watching her flop around like a fish but Rainbow figured she’d better rescue her partner sooner rather than later. Gilda’s struggles and muffled curses got louder and angrier as Rainbow approached but she figured Gilda was just mad that she had to be saved.

She didn’t realize it was a warning until she felt a hand grab hold of her talon, and she looked down to see Tree Hugger’s hand coming out of the ground.

“Ha! If you think a little trick like that’s gonna work on me-” Rainbow flared her wings on her arms and jumped into the air away from Tree Hugger’s grasping hand “-you got another thing comi—”

A shot of sticky sap came from the trees behind Rainbow, making her wings too heavy to fly and causing her to start falling.

Rainbow fell to the ground and limbs from a nearby tree spun sap around her body like they were spooling thread, quickly immobilizing her legs and pinning her arms, even covering her mouth so she couldn’t curse Tree Hugger out.

Worse than that, Rainbow realized only too late that the sap was sucking her magic, and since she had never fully rid herself of the stuff that covered her the first time, and was now bound in a thick coat of it, she quickly ran out of energy and couldn’t blow herself up like last time.

Rainbow tried to move her arms but the sap resisted her struggles and snapped painfully into place any time she thought she found a little slack. The sticky gross shit covered her mouth and made it impossible to scream, and she just knew it’d be hell getting this garbage out of her feathers.

Tree Hugger arose from the ground and wiped some sweat off her brow. It wouldn’t mean much if Rainbow and Gilda couldn’t free themselves, but it was at least satisfying to start seeing this battle take its toll on Tree Hugger too.

The plant girl came closer to Rainbow Dash and she figured even if she couldn’t use her magic and even if she was tied up, she still had her body she could use as a weapon, and she launched herself into Tree Hugger, headbutting her in the stomach like a damn torpedo and knocking the wind outta her again.

Rainbow swept her legs against Tree Hugger’s next, knocking them out from under her and sending the plant girl to the ground on her back, where she was vulnerable to Rainbow’s next attack, raising her legs into the air and slamming them down hard on Tree Hugger’s stomach.

If that barrage didn’t weaken Tree Hugger’s concentration enough for the girls to escape, Rainbow would have to come up with another plan but she really didn’t want to so she hoped that was enough!

The sound of Gilda’s laughter hinted that yeah Rainbow probably nailed it. She looked over and saw Gilda cackling as she tore the sap off her body like it was wrapping paper, her body glowing with a bright pink magic aura.

Pinkie Pie. Gilda hadn't used her restorative gift yet, and was probably waiting for the perfect opportunity. Nice! Even nicer still was that Gilda just tore through the slime covering Rainbow, freeing her body and letting her fly again! And Rainbow couldn’t lie; Gilda coming to her rescue was kinda hot.

Tree Hugger got to her feet and groaned irritably as she stumbled back and away from Rainbow and Gilda.

“You mad, bro?” Gilda cracked her knuckles, and Tree Hugger just sighed.

“Anger’s a part of life, fam,” Tree Hugger let out a breathless chuckle. “Just as natural and valid as every other emotion. What matters is what you do with it.”

“Yeah whatever nerd,” Gilda rolled her eyes and then stared Tree Hugger down, taking a defensive stance in front of Rainbow and whispering to her. “Hey Dash, you outta juice?”

“Just about,” Rainbow admitted, “I got a couple shots left in me if I really push myself.”

“We always push ourselves,” Gilda looked back at Rainbow briefly with a stunningly beautiful grin, “a hundred and ten percent!”

“Damn right!” Rainbow responded with her own eager smile, ready to back Gilda up until the end, no matter what.

“I’ll tenderize her,” Gilda said and tried to crack her knuckles again but nothing happened cuz she’d just done that already, “then you take her out in one shot. Got it?”

“Got it!”

Gilda charged in and with her renewed strength and Tree Hugger starting to dwindle toward the end of her rope, the plant gal had no shot at dodging Gilda’s attack and an explosion of wind devastated her and sent her flying, the side of her face and body badly burned.

That said, Tree Hugger just dug herself under the ground to escape. Rainbow and Gilda had the same exact thought and flew up into the air right away, making sure to stay clear of the trees; Rainbow destroyed a whole bunch of ‘em but it was pretty hard to tell if Tree Hugger still had influence over the others, and the last thing the girls needed was to be caught in one of those trees again.

“This girl’s tough,” Rainbow panted. It took more effort than she wanted to admit to keep herself airborne after all this.

“How you holding up, Dash?” Gilda asked, sounding uncharacteristically sincere, which really took Rainbow off-guard.

“Please,” Rainbow scoffed, no idea how to handle Gilda’s apparent sincerity, “I’m not gonna let you have all the glory.”

“Good,” Gilda cackled. “Cuz if you give me an inch, I’ll leave you in the dust before you know it.”

“Ha! You think so?” Rainbow scoffed. “The only way I’d be eating your dust is if I came up behind you after lapping you.”

“Big words for a bottom bitch,” Gilda said through gritted teeth, but she couldn’t force away her smile.

“You not like that, G?” Rainbow flew up close to Gilda, chest to chest. “You gonna punish me later?”

“I just might,” Gilda licked her lips.

“Cool, but first—” Rainbow locked eyes with Gilda and pointed her finger downward, firing a laser that tore through a tree and exploded, revealing Tree Hugger as it sent her flying.

“Damn Dash, that was a killer shot!” Gilda exclaimed, her eyes wide and her smile even wider.

“Thanks!” Rainbow said bashfully, rubbing the back of her mane and blushing, butterflies running amok in her stomach. “I just felt it, I dunno!”

“You stay up here,” Gilda said, “I’ll knock her out.”

Gilda hit the ground with an explosion of wind that knocked the already battered Tree Hugger into a splintered stump with a thunk.

“Not so tough without all your little tricks, huh?” Gilda’s fingers twitched in anticipation for what she probably hoped was gonna be a game-ending punch.

“Bold of you to think I’m outta tricks, fam,” Tree Hugger said with a cool grin, and disappeared under the ground again.

Rainbow hovered closer to the ground, just out of range of any grabby hands from under the earth, but she was seriously struggling to keep herself afloat, and she found it harder to lift her wings the closer she got to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Gilda barked and walked over to Rainbow. “You wanna get caught again?”

“Sorry,” Rainbow fell flat on her butt, leaning her back against one of the houses on the other side of the road from the trees, “I just needed to sit down a sec.”

“I feel ya,” Gilda groaned and arched her back, “but we can’t let our guard down. Those trees are still here. I dunno if she created them with her magic or just possessed ‘em or something, but I can still feel her aura radiating off of ‘em. I’m not taking-” Gilda panted and sat down next to Dash “-any chances.”

“You tired too?” Rainbow asked, and Gilda just nodded lazily. Rainbow nodded too, too exhausted to do anything else.

Then her eyes snapped open, and she realized.

“Shit!” Rainbow stood up like a shot but her exhaustion made her stumble and nearly fall over, if it wasn’t for Gilda standing up and catching her. “The trees have roots, Gilda!”

“Roots,” Gilda’s eyes widened in horrified realization, “underground.”

Sap suddenly started firing from the ground like woah, slapping across Rainbow’s and Gilda’s mouths and sealing them shut. Gilda groaned angrily but before she could act, her hand was bound by sap to Rainbow’s, and then quickly their other arms and their legs were bound together, the pair quickly being wrapped up in sap back to back with each other, falling over and unable to do anything but struggle helplessly and scream into the sticky paste covering their mouths.

Tree Hugger climbed out from under the ground, looking battered and exhausted, but pleased with herself. She’d basically won the fight, so why shouldn’t she be? As she stepped closer, Rainbow tried to think of anything she could do, but she was completely wiped out.

So Gilda stepped up instead, screaming furiously and exploding with a devastating amount of wind that not only forced Tree Hugger back, but melted the sap around Gilda and Rainbow’s bodies. Unfortunately, such a massive attack also left Gilda unable to move.

“You gotta take her out, Dash,” Gilda panted. “One shot. We’re out of second chances.”

“R-right…”

No pressure or anything.

Rainbow tried to use her brain to find Tree Hugger but she was already exhausted and being blasted by Gilda’s magic didn’t do her any favors. She was starting to lose it and she could barely see straight.

There was still a heavy cloud of fog, but Rainbow felt confident that there was no way Tree Hugger could approach Rainbow without being seen and shot dead first in said cloud, giving Rainbow and her long range attacks a minor advantage… but it was slowly disappearing, and then Rainbow would lose her only advantage.

BUT NO PRESURE THOUGH!

Screw it! Screw this! Rainbow couldn’t use her brain to figure anything out but she could sure follow Gilda’s example and use overwhelming force!

She picked Gilda up and hoisted her over her shoulders, no easy feat considering Gilda was a massive wall of muscle, but Rainbow managed and threw herself into the sky, keeping herself and Gilda airborne and charging what little magic she had left into one last laser.

She put everything into this attack; her anger, her heart, her laughter, her love for Gilda and her dreams of taking over the Lightning Knights with her. EVERYTHING was riding on this and Rainbow would be damned straight to hell if she messed this up!

“FULL POWER! SATELLITE CANNON!!”

The laser shot out of her wings like, well, a cannon, and time seemed to slow to a crawl in the instant before it detonated, exploding with a massive eruption that ripped the trees to splinters and even bowled over the first row of houses, leaving nothing but a scorched black earth in its wake.

And one very battered and very exhausted dryad.

Unfortunately, that attack took all the energy Rainbow had left, and she didn’t have any leftover for things like ‘flying’ or ‘carrying Gilda’ so she careened toward the earth. Honestly she barely even noticed, she was only like half-conscious at this point.

But she sure noticed when her momentum suddenly stopped, and it wasn’t cuz she hit the ground; she was carried in Gilda’s arms, who’d recovered just enough to fly under her own power and catch Rainbow before she slammed into the earth.

“You dweeb,” Gilda chuckled, “I always gotta save your ass.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow said sincerely, and now it was Gilda’s turn to get flustered and not know how to respond.

“Shut up or I’ll drop you,” she grumbled.

gildash tho..... *eyes emoji*