Collision Code

by SSJRandomMaster

Act 4 Chapter 1

Act IV: Climactic Collisions
Chapter 1: Breaking Limit After Limit
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Though they had mostly split up for their preparations, all eight of the group had their heart in what they were doing. This was something they knew might happen again, but hoped deep down that it wouldn’t. For the threat the remaining prisoners posed, though, they scarcely had time for hoping.

Day by day, they pushed their limits again and again, increasing their readiness for the final hurdle. Norma had declared war, and they were doing everything in their power to ensure they could meet that challenge. Though it felt like so much longer due to what was at risk, Day Fourteen of the preparation had arrived.

They still had roughly half a month left before the last battle would begin. And they would spend the second half of the month the same way they would spend the first half of the month.
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Had she been asked even a month ago, Rarity would have vocally and dramatically sworn off the notion of going to the Everfree Forest more than once a week, if that. Even though she’d been in there a couple of times at this point in her life, if given the choice, she wouldn’t have done it. But this was one of those times where she definitely did not have the choice. With each day that passed, she could feel her connection to her magic growing ever stronger. Twilight’s guidance had seen to that.

Both now stood on the pond’s surface, balancing on it with their magic. Rarity had a bit of trouble getting that step down at first, but quickly managed to right herself as the hours went by. Two weeks later, she was able to stand upon the surface as though it was a normal thing. Several large bubbles of water floated around her, held in blue auras.

The waterfall provides such a delightful ambience… Rarity reflected dully, her attention briefly diverting from her task. The water she was holding briefly buckled, but she soon corrected herself, focusing on holding the bubbles aloft. For a few moments, Rarity simply stood, letting her breaths come in slow, steady bursts.

There was the hum of two unicorn horns casting magic, which further added to the calming effect of the area. Rarity opened her eyes after a few minutes, looking around. She was currently facing outwards, towards the tree line, just like usual. She looked around, seeing the water bubbles continue to float in place. However, she looked around a bit more.

Strange… Rarity thought, her mind starting to wander as she continued to look around the area. There was something missing, or rather, multiple somethings. No matter how many bubbles Rarity made, Twilight always had a couple more floating around the area. It was, therefore, a pretty strange sight indeed that only Rarity was floating bubbles. Yet, Twilight’s horn was clearly active…

Why hasn’t Twilight started yet? Has her concentration been broken? As Rarity continued to ponder this, her gaze finally fell on the waterfall. Nothing seemed off about it at first. The stream was shimmering in the light, it connected to the pond like normal. As Rarity’s gaze focused further, she could make out the beginnings of a magenta shimmer among the water’s surface on the falls. Just as she began to register what that might mean, her gaze focused completely. In the waterfall, a few stray leaves were floating… traveling up the waterfall.

The implications sent Rarity’s mind spinning, and it took everything in her just to remain above the water, her water bubbles falling into the water. She couldn’t deny what she was looking at now.

“Un…unbelievable…!” Rarity gasped, “T-Twilight, you’ve reversed the waterfall!?”

Twilight didn’t say anything at first. Then, she turned towards the waterfall, looking at it with a look of wonder. Her concentration wavered at first, causing an effect where the waterfall seemed to “flicker” in and out of its reversed motion, stopping entirely during the brief moments.

“I can’t believe it myself,” Twilight said, “I’d been meaning to work my way to this level! I never thought I’d have it in just two weeks…”

Twilight continued to reverse the waterfall for a few seconds more, before she released her hold on it. The water quickly reversed its direction and fell towards the pond, sending up great splashes. Neither of them really noticed it straight away, but the water level of the pond stabilized.

Rarity could only stare at the waterfall, then to Twilight, repeating a few more times as what had happened finally set in. When it did, though, Rarity finally turned her attention fully to the waterfall. She cleared her throat and took in a deep breath.

“Good job, Twilight,” Rarity said, “I… I think I know what my new goal is now…”
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Two weeks had made all the difference for them. Mostly because they only ever removed the armor when they absolutely couldn’t wear it; at night, when sleeping, and in the morning, when going about their usual routines. All the other hours were consumed by heavy metal plating.

It was maddeningly difficult the first few days for Rainbow to get herself home. Her home was just so high when she had added several tons of metal to her usual outfit. Fluttershy could barely stand to walk her way back home, but kept with it despite the fact her body had always cried out for rest. Applejack had the least trouble of the three, but that wasn’t saying a whole lot. At the end of the first day she had to explain why she was dressed like it was Nightmare Night, though thankfully that questioning had passed before long.

Rainbow leapt forward, her wings now able to achieve quite a bit of lift so that she could rush Fluttershy. Soon as it was no longer needed, Fluttershy had assumed control of her body during these training sessions, just as the plan had been before Kurama. She lifted her arms to block the punch, causing a loud “clang” to reverberate around the clearing.

Applejack came in from Rainbow’s side, managing to lift up her leg to deliver a strong kick to Rainbow’s side with yet another loud clang. Rainbow staggered; though the attack didn’t hurt thanks to the armor, she could still feel the impact—an impact that pretty much had all three of the girls in agreement that they had to be careful to not hit each other in the face. They really didn’t have time for a visit to the dentist of that magnitude.

Fluttershy saw a chance and went for it, swinging up with a kick. Her attack barely missed Applejack, who turned her attention to her. Fluttershy stumbled forward off-balance, but Applejack did nothing, offering her a small chance to attack. Seizing the opportunity to prove herself, Fluttershy clenched her hand and thrust her fist straight out.

It seemed to happen so fast. While Applejack had busied herself giving Fluttershy an open target, Rainbow had recovered, and moved to attack Applejack back. Rainbow’s fist clashed with the side of Applejack’s chest plate, making her stagger in turn. As a result, Fluttershy’s fist missed her intended target, crashing hard into the side of Rainbow’s gauntlet.

Both Fluttershy and Rainbow recoiled, the gauntlets vibrating from the force of Fluttershy’s punch. Neither of them had been prepared for that. Even Applejack took a moment of pause as she processed exactly what had happened.

“Ugh,” Rainbow shook her hand a bit, the shock finally wearing off as she flexed her fingers, “Not bad, Fluttershy. That shows me better than anything this is working.”

“You really think so?” Fluttershy asked, “I… I can’t tell…”

“It might be your form,” Rainbow said, “We didn’t exactly get a whole lot of time to iron all that out before that whole mess with Kurama happened.”

“After two weeks…” Applejack said, “That can’t be right…”

“U-um…” Fluttershy stuttered, “I think you two fight each other a bit more than you do with me.”

Rainbow and Applejack both paused, each reflecting on the past days since they started wearing the heavy armor. The more they thought about it, the more they realized it. Yet, when they really thought about it, it made quite a bit of sense. They’d always had a rivalry over anything that involved physical force.

“I… I hadn’t noticed there, Fluttershy,” Applejack removed her hat, scratching between her ears for a few moments before replacing it, “Huh. Even when we’re supposed to be completely serious…”

“It just happens on its own, I swear!” Rainbow said, “I don’t even think about it… Guess our competitive spirits got the better of us. But we still have time to fix it!”

Fluttershy looked between the two mares, wondering how this would go.

“We just have to split our time a bit more carefully is all,” Applejack said, “Meaning, we’ve gotta pay more attention to Fluttershy, let her have some time to fight, and build up her form. I don’t think she’s behind too much with strength since she’s movin’ with all her armor on her, but we’d better start getting ourselves straight.”

“Right,” Rainbow said, “This ain’t a contest.”

There was a short pause. Fluttershy prepared herself, waiting for one of them to start coming at her first.

“So who gets to help Fluttershy train first?” asked Applejack.
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With any homeland, one would have to learn the ins and outs in order to traverse the area easily. In the short two weeks since his arrival, John was sure that he had managed to find his own. However, that wasn’t to say that things were easy for him. Rather, he was prepared for the difficulty. That being said, there was still one unavoidable thing he had to go through at least once a day.

A fight.

Each day brought a new challenge, some old faces, some new, but always ensuring that he never let his guard down. He currently found himself in a literal ring of fire surrounded by several other dragons cheering at the ensuing battle. Rather than fighting several opponents at once, however, John was faced with only one. However, this one was proving to be one of his strongest opponents yet, and the biggest.

Standing several feet above him the mass of this dragon could only be compared to one other creature, one he’d faced a while back. Baring down at him, this flightless dragon swung his bulky arm down on him, cratering the ground with his forearm as John had managed to dodge. He took a moment to catch his breath, fighting this other dragon head-on was taxing. On any other day he’d take advantage of his flight, but there were two things stopping him. The first was his pride, and the second, to his surprise, were the rules set by the challenger.

Both combatants would fight until either one was knocked out of the ring of fire, or was rendered unable to fight. Both were to keep to the ground during the fight: no flying or breath attacks were allowed. In its essence, the fight was meant to be a straight-out physical brawl and nothing else. Although John wasn’t sure of fairness of these restrictions, given his opponent’s size, he knew full well the dragons took these rules seriously. But John didn’t come to this place looking for a fair fight, he came looking to better himself and get stronger. And that was what he was going to do.

Finally, he charged the larger dragon headlong. John pulled back his fist and unleashed a hard blow to his side. The larger dragon’s body lurched from the hit, but he stood his ground and quickly retaliated with a swing of his tail. John put up his guard but was still knocked back from the blow, his body coming within inches of the ring of fire. His arms stung from the hit, but he was able to shake it off just as the larger dragon charged him again. John didn’t have time to avoid this attack so he was left with no other choice.

Endure.

He dug his feet into the ground and braced himself for impact. Near instantly, the large dragon tackled him with all his weight. Several tons threatened to push him out of bounds, but John continued to keep himself upright. But still, he found himself losing the struggle with each second as he slowly inched towards the ring. Any second now, he was sure he’d give out, this other dragon was too much for him.

I’ve… I’ve reached my—

“You betta not be givin’ up on me, ya hear!” John was snapped into attention by the dragon that was pressuring him, “If you’s was this weak, I’d have stomped ya a while ago! I know you’re holdin’ back on me!”

The dragon pushed harder and leaned in until he was staring John directly in the eyes. “I don’t know what you take me fo’ but I ain’t letting this end ‘til I see what you got!” Finally pulling back from his push, the dragon grabbed onto John and tossed him towards the center of the ring. John bounced slightly, but managed to recover, looking up at the dragon in confusion as he stared back at him.

“You think I challenged you ‘cuz I like a good throwdown?” The dragon paused for a moment and corrected himself, “Okay, that’s part of the reason, but in less than a month, you suddenly become the talk of the and here I am thinkin’ I’ve finally found me a good challenge. And what do I get? Someone who thinks he can half-ass the whole fight and hope to win?” He shook his head, much to John’s surprise. John never thought he’d be judged mid-battle.

“Nah, it don’t work like that. E’ther yous fight me all out willingly,” The dragon spread his stance and stomped the ground hard enough to leave a single crack in it, “Or I makes ya, and personally, I prefer the second one.” Without waiting for a response, he charged after John once again, a sharp grin across his face as he closed the distance. John stood with his head bowed, his mind racing quickly trying to find a course of action.

He’s too strong for me, but he won’t end this. He wants me to stop holding back, but what if—An all too familiar face flashed in his mind once again. He had done this several times a day, a random reminder of what he had done that he couldn’t escape. It was something that had occurred when, mentally and physically, he had been pushed to his limits. And now, he was being pushed there again by someone who wanted to see it, wanted to test that strength. John’s own pride kept him from staying down. He’d continue to fight until he couldn’t move, and maybe even further than that. So if he wanted this to be over with, if he wanted to end the fight and walk away, he was left with no other option.

“Fine,” John said, raising his head, “But only for a minute.” Opening his eyes wide, his pupils quickly went slit, he wasn’t holding back anymore. His opponent saw the change in him and was pleased to see it. Both of the dragons charged each other, drawing a fist back as they were upon each other. After slamming down a single foot they threw their punches, which collided in the center.

Their attacks were at a stalemate as both tried to push on the other. The large dragon stared down at John, still smirking.

“Now that’s more—“ Suddenly, John vanished from his sight and he was quickly met with a sharp pain in his stomach. Looking down he saw that John had ducked under him and delivered a powerful hit. But before he could retaliate he found that John wasn’t finished. Bringing up another fist John struck the dragon with an uppercut just under his chin. The force behind the strike was enough to knock the dragon a few inches off the ground and a few inches back.

With his head blown back, the dragon stumbled slightly but was able to regain his footing. The cheers in the background only grew louder now. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” He roared in delight. This was the fight he was looking for after all. John didn’t respond, simply trying to keep himself under some form of control while he was in his feral state of mind.

“Now we can finish this,” The dragon charged again with a greater speed than before, but John was ready for it. The two charge towards the center one last time and collided with great force. This time, it seemed more evenly matched, but John still had the issue regarding the size difference. The large dragon, simply by using his greater weight, would still overcome John in due time. This weight, the weight of what felt like a mountain bearing down on him, it wasn’t the first time John had felt like this. And each time he’d faced it before, he was unable to handle it alone.

Not this time… John dug deep, deeper than he had dared to before. He continued to push, his opponent being pushed back slightly, Stronger. Again, he managed to push forward. Stronger! The larger dragon felt something was off, but it was too late for him to react now. Before he knew it, John was under him, and his own feet were slowly rising off the ground.

No matter the challenge, I will grow stronger! Suddenly, the cheering stopped as all eyes watched. The dragon, who was easily twice John’s size, had finally found flight. He was thrown off the ground and over the ring of fire. The silence was only broken when he finally landed on the ground, with enough weight to leave a small crater.

“Holy wyvern… he threw Fissure,” Was the only statement anyone could give among the dragons gathered around. Some watched as John made his leave, a single flap of his wings kicking up a strong gust, snuffing out the flames as he calmly walked away from the group.

He’d defeated his strongest opponent yet, but he wasn’t proud. That was because of one simple thing: he had been forced to flip his switch yet again, something he came here to learn to avoid. He wanted to grow strong enough that he wouldn’t need it, and yet it really seemed like he wouldn’t accomplish this.

As John walked away in silent contemplation, he didn’t notice that he was being followed.
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Each new day Corey faced had always been filled with challenges. That was just a constant factor in his life these days. However, that held especially true for all of the last thirteen days. Each day since his training started, he’d been worked to the bone and back with ever-increasing weights. It was like Shining was conditioning him all over again, but this time while forcing him to heft around an unknown amount more than his body weight. And each day, that extra load seemed to increase. He was not allowed to use his magic to lift the armor specifically.

Thankfully, his magic seemed to be back in order; once again, he’d go to bed every night, very sore and feeling overworked, and wake up early every morning feeling as rejuvenated as he could. Even under the tutelage of Princess Celestia herself, Corey was still not a morning person.

Right now, Corey was headed to the large room once more, his armor loudly clanging on the stone floor. Day fourteen’s armor had to be the heaviest; either today or tomorrow, Corey knew, was the last day he was obligated to wear it every day as part of his physical conditioning. It was still a challenge to move with it on, just as it was on day one.

Princess Celestia had found a few other tasks he could do during the day with the armor, but most of their time was spent in that large room. Corey passed inside. As expected, she was already there, decked out in her own armor. He never stopped to wonder if it too was weighted, but he had this funny feeling it was less for her protection and more for his.

Corey looked around the room as he passed through the door. The room had definitely seen better days, but it still seemed pretty sturdy enough. Cracks in the walls, small fissures in the floor, a few annihilated tiles…

“I trust you know this day will be the hardest of all?” asked Princess Celestia, her look just as stern as the days before when this was part of his schedule.

“Of course,” Corey nodded, slowly shifting into a ready position as the doors closed behind him.

The two simply looked to one another for several moments, before the tension broke.

It was always Celestia who made the first move. That hadn’t changed from the first day to the next, to the present day. This time, she opened by opening her wings and rushing at him directly, but Corey acted as quickly as he could, raising his arms to defend. Every time a physical blow landed, Corey found himself blown away by how much strength was behind the attack. There were two attacks before Celestia vanished from his line of sight.

This was the general format of their spars the last two weeks. No matter how hard Corey would try—and he did try—he could never so much as land even a glancing blow on Celestia. This was entirely an endurance round, during which Corey would be pushed to his limit. Each day, the difficulty was compounded; not only was he wearing more weight day-to-day, but Celestia tried harder from day-to-day.

Corey’s awareness did not quite catch up to him quick enough, and he felt something slam into his side; what looked like a glass box made of amber magic shattered against him, vanishing into particles. Corey actually lifted from his feet and landed on the ground, creating yet another large crack in the ground where he’d hit.

Shit, I have to get up! Corey thought, quickly urging his arms and legs to exert the appropriate amount of force to get himself up. His ear flicked and he looked behind him, pushing himself from the ground off of pure adrenaline alone. All he succeeded in doing was flipping himself over, barely moving out of the way of another glass box impact.

He withheld a gasp as he saw yet another one falling on them. Though it didn’t leave any cuts when it hit, and the armor did protect him from any severe damage, it still wasn’t a good idea to take the attacks. Corey pushed himself out of the way again, rolling yet again. He barely had time to get to his feet the regular way—Princess Celestia was not at all kidding when she said this was going to be the hardest day of all.

Corey gritted his teeth and placed his hands to the ground. He could not use his strength magic under normal circumstances, but it didn’t mean he was totally out of options. Taking in a deep breath, he unleashed a strong burst of magic, just enough to get himself to his feet. The kickback was nearly enough to flip him completely over in an arc, but he managed to right himself yet again. Another glass box construct slammed into the ground where he was and broke. Corey turned, seeing Celestia launching several of them at him.

Though he knew full well this always ended badly, Corey rushed in anyway. Often, Celestia didn’t attack him directly more than needed. A good portion of the time, she’d just throw these targets at him for him to attack.

He rushed in, swinging his fists and legs at any target that got close, easily shattering them with a single hit if he didn’t simply swat them out of his way. He continued to push his way through, trying his hardest to make it through the targets. The boxes seemed to stop coming as Corey got close. Corey swung out at Celestia…

Only to find his arm being grabbed mid-trajectory. He was then thrown over onto his back once again, causing yet another tile to break under his armor. Celestia released his arm and vanished once again.

Grunting, Corey bodily made his way to his feet.

To be expected, I still can’t land a hit… Corey thought, But I can still feel it…

Celestia appeared across from him, raising her arms as her horn lit up with magic once again, more boxes appearing. Corey met the challenge yet again, trying not to let them hit him as he tried to get in close.

I’m getting stronger!

Author's Note:

Here's how we start Act 4 of the story. Things still aren't quite at the final battle. There are a few things left to do before we get that far. With that in mind, please enjoy, and we're back to normal. See you all next Sunday.