Roarke's lashing metal tail shattered straight through the rock in Rainbow's grasp.
Rainbow clutched to the two halves of stone, backflipped, and came down with both of them smashing into opposite sides of Roarke's cranium.
The bounty hunter's mane of metal-ring'd braids clattered as she stumbled back from the blow. But before Rainbow Dash could strike another hit, she squatted down low and opened a pair of compartments in her armor. Two black tentacles of metal shot out and ensnared opposite legs of the pegasus.
Rainbow Dash grunted and struggled with her bindings in midair.
Roarke smirked bloodily, thrusting her sparkling tail towards Rainbow's gut.
Rainbow held her breath and twirled backwards. Flipping within the anchorage of her restraints, she barely managed to dodge the tail which shattered a hole in a ruined wall behind her. Beating her wings, Rainbow lifted up—taking Roarke with her.
The metal mare grunted and flailed as the pegasus carried her across the ruins beneath the foliage of Foxtaur. Twisting and turning, Rainbow Dash flung Roarke left and right, making sure to swing her body like a lopsided pendulum into walls and tree trunks and more walls. Roarke grunted, taking the brunt of the impacts through her rattling armor. Just as Rainbow Dash flew towards a massive tower of mortar, she sent a blue spark cascading down her armor. The two tentacles of metal retracted, forcing her to shoot up towards her blue opponent.
Rainbow gasped as her body jerked down towards the bounty hunter. The two met in mid-air, with Roarke retracting the cables and grabbing onto Rainbow's flying body from behind. Snickering, Roarke rotated her front right hoof into a taser and prepared to jam it into Rainbow's neck.
Rainbow spun around, throwing Roarke off balance before she could make the strike, Twirling, she sped the two of them towards the old tower—slamming into it with Roarke impacting first. The pair of struggling ponies slumped to the center of a ruined temple, rolling off of each other. Roarke was the first to jump to her hooves, and she charged Rainbow like a bull, her thick head swinging low.
Rainbow Dash rolled out of the way, kipped up to her hooves, and spun in time to meet Roarke's second advanced with a bucking of her legs.
Roarked stumbled back, teetering over the edge of a massive hole in the granite floor.
"Rrrrgh!" Rainbow charged forward and speared into her armored belly. The two equines plunged several feet and slammed hard into the basement corridor below. Not a second passed without Rainbow straddling Roarke and viciously pummeling her with left and right and left and right hooks. "Grr! Rrrgh! Hrrnngh!"
Roarke shoved Rainbow off her, her lips grinning psychotically in a pale sliver of light. Rainbow Dash recaptured her balance and jumped towards her again, only for Roarke to punish with a rising uppercut.
Rainbow stumbled back, wheezing and seeing stars. Roarke advanced on her, swinging a right hoof that contacted and a left one that Rainbow blocked. She slashed her tail outward, which Rainbow dodged—as well as the next sparkling swipe.
Backflipping, Rainbow Dash found an errant sliver of granite and picked it up in her teeth. She used the random bludgeon as a club, deflecting and knocking back several of Roarke's successive tail-jabs.
The two of them proceeded this way for a while, past the dust and arcane symbols and petrified vines clinging to the walls of that deep, dark place. Rainbow's bruised and disheveled form was lit up every now and then from the sparkling impacts of Roarke's tail against her stony club.
Roarke was working up a sweat, and evidently enjoying every minute of it. Her strikes became harder and more fervent. Her grin grew brighter and more ravenous.
Finally, Rainbow's backtrotting took her halfway up a flight of stone steps. One of Roarke's tail slashes managed to wrap several times around the end of Rainbow's club. Rainbow jerked the bludgeon back, forcing Roarke to lunge forward and collapse over a bunch of steps. However, after a momentary struggle, Roarke jerked back, flinging her tail loose, whipping it in the air, and swinging it towards Rainbow's face.
With a grunt, Rainbow jumped back, reared her front hooves, and slammed them down just in time to pin the end of Roarke's unnatural tail to the granite steps. Roarke struggled and jerked—anchored in place. With mesmerizing agility, Rainbow planted her hooves on the taut tail-cord, cartwheeled along the length of it, and came down at Roarke's flanks. She landed while stabbing the sharp end of the club straight down into the bounty hunter's armor.
"Raaaugh!"
The black metal along Roarke's spine cracked down the length of her body from the impact. Blue and red sparks splashed out, along with a hiss of hydraulic steam as several bits of armor were unlatched from the metal plugs in her flesh.
"Aaaugh!" she yelped in pain and bucked her rear hooves up.
Rainbow Dash flipped off her, flapped her wings, and hovered just parallel to the staircase. "Hah! Not so ripe when you're unpeeled, are ya—"
"You should stop talking and keep hurting!" Roarke spat with a grin.
"Says the walking tin can with a death wish—!"
Roarke's rocket panels opened, and all of her remaining projectiles flared to life.
Rainbow's ruby eyes bugged as she flew backwards, waving her forelimbs wildly. "Wait!" her voice cracked. "I was just joking! Don't you friggin' do it—"
"Heheheheheh!" Roarke's lenses sparked as she launched a merciless salvo of rockets within that confined space.
Rainbow Dash flew in the opposite direction, find nothing but walls, walls, and walls. She breathlessly spotted a crack in the granite and squeezed her way through the tiny partition. The basement lit up behind her, catching the end of her tail on fire as she barely slid her way through.
The thunder that resulted was deafening. Chunks of marble and ancient stone crumbled in an instant. Outside, the sound of imploding ruins bounced off dozens upon hundreds of trees. The ground shook, sending tremors flying up the massive trunks as dust rose from the belly of the earth.
Several hapless ponies swayed in their nets. Pilate's ears were already drooping. He pivoted his striped face towards Bellesmith.
Inside her net, Belle was shivering. She stared at the rising cloud of devastation below as a mute whimper escaped her worried lips.
Wut.
Amazing as always. You do fight scenes better than almost anyone else.
So... round four?
Best action sequence so far.
Back in the old days if a fight didn't go 20 rounds you would demand your nickel back.
I totally called the chapter name! (Granted, it was obvious, but it still counts...)
I loved this chapter. What will happen to Rainbow's group of followers? And did Zenith somehow call Roarke to them?
Finish her!
*drops popcorn to ground, aghast* Oh my...
Time to go back in and listen to Roarke's dramatic monologue before RD finishes her
And now, we will see the machine
Holy shit, this is getting crazy.
2152308
She's a bounty hunter, she was probably tracking them for a while. You bring up a good point though...
You always leave us with half the dang picture.
Which is why I am so glad you update daily.
images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080513174909/metalgear/images/1/1b/Grey_fox.jpg
So she is a combination of: The Predator, Grey Fox, Adam Jensen, Samus, Hulk Hogan, and total batshit insanity.
Cool.
Hell Ripper - Infiltrator
Those two need to quit fooling around and just have sex already.
th01.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/223/5/1/luna_is_angsty_by_are_you_jealous-d5aopha.png
Wow.. Roarke is psychotic!
Dashie's pretty darn good in a fight, but she's always unarmed. Somebody needs to give her a spear or something...
Lol.
2153010
Damn straight.
Oh wait... Heheh.
Man. I kinda wanted Roarke to be a little like Bane or Darth Vader without her armor. I guess not really.
If rainbow doesn't kill her then I do hope for a new companion on this tour.
Oh and even more of a kicker if Roarke has green eyes or something that reminds Dash of AJ.
2152327 Dang it! You stole my quote.I guess thats what happens when you're late.
roarke would be an epic addition to the group, if she survives that is.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well damn. Again. Double again. This fight sequence was amazing. The last time a fight scene went on for three full chapters, it was during the Windthrow fight against the chaos bats way back in Austraeoh. So this is a really big deal. I don't see how Roarke could've survived that blast...but knowing Imploding, she probably did. I don't think she's going to join Dash's group, though, or something like that. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
A message from MASH-
I forgot to add this to this chapter's evaluation, and I'm on mobile so I can't edit it. (I'm to lazy to go all the way to mobile.fimfiction.net. Sue me.) Anyways, I'm going to be gone for a few days on vacation. I'll be back Saturday night, when the evaluations will resume.
2154926
I'm sueing you.
On the topic above us, Damn she has a lot of stamina to fight for that long.
Blargh! Too many rockets!
2153217
You did, technically. She did have a club in this fic briefly, if that counts. Somehow I doubt that any weapon of Dash's would prove to be as resistant as she is, what with all the nearly exploding and careening into walls/trees/rocks/other ponies that she does on a regular basis.
Also, is it a bad thing that I kinda want the psycho cyborg to survive this? Probably. One chapter and then I'm all caught up - onward!
>Roarked stumbled back
might wanna fix :D
2153148
Correction: Roarke is a Searan. Psychopaths wish they were this crazy.
2152667 She reminds me of someone else as well, and strongly so. The funny thing is, I also always saw a lot of her in Rainbow Dash.
She such a misfit, always ready to roll.
It's like her business, roughing up your friends is the law...
As a side note: I love how throughout the entire battle, Rainbow was stripping Roarke of her armor one piece a chapter. It's like a classic boss fight going through different phases.
A Blood Knight if ever there was one.
No rules, no mercy and no sense of self preservation.
Even if she doesn't survive this, Roarke remains a certified badass.
Also, that suit....
Talk about your equipment being an extension of yourself.....
Rainbow's bruised and disheveled form was lit up every now and then from the sparkling impacts of Roarke's tail against her stony club.
throwing a little star wars in there i see
Let the force be with you Rainbow Dash,
your going to need it
>Two black tentacles of metal shot out and ensnared opposite legs of the pegasus
I've seen enuff hentai to know where this is going
2153010
They destroyed timeless ruins in an instant.
Yes, I had to use all of them.
Also, nopony wins this round. Round 4!
3689560
A date at a nice restaurant, with the night spent with wine on the Riviera?
So all that work to solve the mystery of the ruins is lost. Along with all their supplies. Everything. Man, I gotta say, this doesn't make the case for harbouring Rainbow any better.
Good lord, Roarke is like the unholy ponified offspring of Boba Fett and the Terminator!
4898708 RIGHT?! lol
4759253 I was just thinking that.
-rage face-
well, missles are all out. the helmet is ruined. parts of the armor are destroyed. Roarke has probably bigger injuries than Dash. All in all, i think we can call this progress
onward
And now, Dashie, trapped underground by the cascade, attempts to dig herself out, only to end up running through caves for the rest of he rlife, until she dies next to a skeleton on top of a plateau of crystals...
I've noticed that everytime something should explode, it implodes. Coincidence?
5965595 I think not.
6001793 It's all a conspiracy.
5965595 what do you think
5965595 well, it's not exploding colon, now is it?
When they dig them out they are going to be interrupting their Klingon mating dance they have been going through
6623824
I think what Texas is doing is how Seronese ask a pony out on a date ... either that or it's a Seronese marriage proposal, in which case. She should at least take Dashie out on a date first. You know a few bar brawls, a soccer riot, basic Seronese dates. Before she pops the question like she's doing right now.