Ain't No Time For an Encore
“Come on, Rainbow!” Twilight stammered, nervously eyeing the ocean's surface as it grew closer and closer below. “Don't let them get the best of you!”
“You can do it, darling!” Rarity shrieked, although her cracking voice betrayed her panic.
“Grrrrgghhhh!” Rainbow thrashed and struggled with the two mercenaries, limb-locked with the combatants as they plummeted after Echo. Eventually, she twirled around, jerking to a stop as she faced Wildcard. The griffon's talons dug into her shoulders, and she felt stabbing flashes of pain. Somewhere amidst the struggle, Rainbow Dash heard the rattle of his goggles, and she saw her frenzied reflection in his lenses. “Your goggles...” the mare sputtered, and she slid a hoof to her pendant. “Bet they're super dark for a reason.”
Fl-Flasssh! A pulse of ruby light shot out from the Element of Loyalty, immediately blinding the griffon. Wildcard opened his beak wide in a mute scream. His body instantly flew off of Rainbow Dash and twirled limply into the wild blue yonder.
Before Rainbow Dash could spread her wings and glide after Echo, Bard's limbs wrapped around her in mid-fall. Within seconds, the stallion's hooves reached for Rainbow's pendant. They made the slightest contact, nearly knocking the item off the pegasus' neck.
Rainbow felt a dizzying jolt ricochet through her. At the same time, the images of Twilight and Rarity flickered on either side of the mare.
“—Rainbow, what is—” Twilight stammered, only to fade once more as Bard's grip came into contact with the pendant yet again. “—starting to disappear—!”
Rainbow let loose an audible gasp as the world spun around her.
Bard's drawling voice came into menacing focus: “Somethin' tells me we're a mite bit attached to this hear pendant, aren't we...?” And then he gripped the Element with two strong hooves, yanking and pulling.
Rarity and Twilight faded entirely. Rainbow felt her blood turn cold, and her eyes flashed red-on-yellow. With a final act of desperation, she flung two hooves around one of Bard's fetlocks... and bit into it.
“Yeowwwch!” Bard flung her away in a throwing motion. Clunk! The pendant flew completely off of Rainbow, and the mare went spiraling out of control.
Wincing from the pain of Rainbow's bite, Bard nevertheless flapped his wings, evened out, and swooped towards Echo. He grabbed the Sarosian, then lifted up and away from the ocean's surface. Above him, Wildcard had recovered, and the griffon flew low enough to watch along with Bard as the mare continued her plunge.
“Hell's bells...” Bard flexed his bleeding hoof while holding Echo with the other. He cast a nervous glance at the falling pony. “Did... did she grow fangs just now?”
Wildcard flew evenly with him, anxiously gesturing with his talons.
“Dun reckon she'll be all that well once she hits the waves,” Bard nervously stammered.
Frowning, Wildcard tugged on the stallion's wings and pointed northeast.
Bard sighed, nodded, and followed the griffon. As the two ascended with Echo, however, he tossed several nervous glances down behind him.
Rainbow fell amidst twirling stars.
She gnashed her teeth, wincing from the waves of ice slicing through her flesh.
A musical chime lit her ears.
The mare flung her ruby eyes wide open.
A sideways horizon of water soared towards her skull. Somewhere in the immediate foreground, she saw the twirling glint of her loose pendant.
Holding her breath, Rainbow Dash strafed towards it. She reached out a hairy fetlock. When she gritted her teeth, it forced her jaw open wider than she was used to.
Cl-Clank! Her limb caught the pendant. In a flash, she flung it back around her neck. Instantly, the frost in her veins melted, and she felt a tingling sensation return to her entire body. With a final amber flash to her vision, she felt a pair of spots across her forehead snap, and two tiny black flecks flew off into the blue sky.
Within seconds, a white and a lavender image faded back into existence, screaming desperately in Rainbow's face.
“Up! Up, Rainbow!”
“Pull up!”
“You have to pull up!”
Rainbow gasped, looking up—only to look down. The rippling ocean sailed up to her skull.
Th-Thwissssh! With a spiraling motion, Rainbow flew level with the horizon. She missed the concrete kiss of seawater by mere inches, and her flapping wings formed spreading waves that rippled off in opposite directions.
Wheezing, the mare flew straight forward, catching her senses as well as her breaths.
“Oh, thank Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed, hovering close to the pegasus. “For a second there, Rainbow, we thought you were a goner.”
“You had grown faint, darling,” Rarity said. “And... and...” She fought the urge to grimace. “Your h-head. It... it was bleeding—”
“I'm okay...” Rainbow hissed.
“But Rainbow—”
“I'm fine,” Rainbow growled. The blurring waves reflected her gnashing teeth. “And now... it's time to finish this.” FWOOOOOOSH! She shot straight up while the two spectres helplessly dangled along for the ride.
“For the last time!” Bard spat, flapping his wings harder as he carried Echo's flailing figure. “We ain't splittin' up!”
Wildcard flew ahead of him, wildly motionin with his flesh and metal talons.
“Cuz ain't no good gonna come of it!” Bard growled. “What if she were to catch up with us again?! How'd we be able to handle ourselves?!”
Wildcard simply stared at Bard.
“Lemme put it another way...” Bard's voice cracked, “How would I be able to handle myself without ya?!”
A rumbling picked up in the distance.
“Oh Queen V have mercy...” Bard looked behind them, gnashing his teeth. “Time for the encore...”
Sch-Schiiiing! Wildcard produced his two nightsticks.
“Get ready for anythang!” Bard hollered, twirling around so that he flew sideways alongside Wildcard. “If she gets close, aim for the pendant around her—”
SHOOOOOOOM! Rainbow streaked perfectly past them.
“...neck.” Bard blinked. He and Wildcard turned dumbly around. “What in tarnation...?”
Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwooosh! Rainbow Dash twirled into the nearby clouds, then disappeared.
All was silent, save for a slight rumbling.
Then...
FWOOOOOOSH! She came surging back towards them, diving from the northeast.
“Here she comes! Prepare yourself—”
Once again, Rainbow streaked violently past them, missing the pair entirely.
The griffon grimaced, beak clattering.
“Okay...” Bard's brow furrowed. “...now she's just taunting us.”
“Mrmmf-mrrmmmfff!” Echo squirmed.
“Shuddup!” Bard yelped. “Who asked you—?!”
SH-SHOOOOOOM! Yet again, the pegasus streaked by. Bard and Wildcard turned to look, and it was somewhere around this time that the two mercenaries realized just how dark the sky had gotten.
“Erm...” Bard's eyes searched the heavens. “...wait a cotton-pickin' moment...”
Clouds were closing in all around them. It took a few heart-stopping seconds for the bounty hunters to figure out why. With each spiraling streak, Rainbow closed the misty vapors tighter and tighter around the two. The clouds turned dark and darker by the second, blotting out the sun and reducing the atmosphere to a angry gray haze.
“Shiet!” Bard pointed in a random direction. “She's boxin' us in! Quick, Dubya-Cee, we gotta—”
But just as they tried making a move, a bright streak of lightning ripped past them. Wildcard instantly winced from the strobing light, and both clutched their ears from the ensuing thunder. Within seconds, another pulse of lightning blossomed across the aerial arena, and the following thunderclap was twice as intensely deafening.
The entire time, Rainbow flew faster and faster around the pair, using her streaking wingfeathers to close the pocket of thunderclouds in tighter and tighter. Soon the mercenaries found themselves encapsulated in a dense pocket of inclement weather, moist and impenetrable.
“Lemme ask you guys something...!” Rainbow's cracking voice echoed across the sky.
The air tingled with electricity. Bard's mane hairs spread apart while Wildcard's feathers stood on end.
“...what did your mommies and daddies teach you about carrying metal junk into a lightning storm...?!”
Wildcard and Bard spun about, panting, panicking.
WOOOOOOOOOOSH! A prismatic streak plowed between them, knocking the two figures apart. With a miniature sonic boom, Rainbow plucked Echo's body up in her forelimbs, then plummeted out of the cloud, smirking with a sharp salute.
“...nothing... apparently!” And she was gone, along with her echoing voice. Behind her, thunder and haze closed up the pocket of disturbed air.
Bard shuddered. He felt a haunting tingle of static electricity between his teeth as he drawled: “Heh...” Smiling lips. “...now that's one way to get licked...”
KRAKKKKK!
A brilliant flash of lightning exploded from within the tightly formed anvil cloud.
As Rainbow plummeted away from the scene with Echo in her grasp, she looked back to see two figures—trailing with smoke—fall clear out of the cloud and towards the distant ocean below.
Not wasting a second, Rainbow shot due west, approaching the east edge of Rust. Once the smell of smoke and dead fish returned to her nostrils, she relaxed, and glided in on lazy feathers.
“Mrmmffmf-mmmfff!” Echo struggled.
“Best to settle his frightened spirit, Rainbow,” Rarity said.
“Rarity's right,” Twilight added with a smile. “They're not pursuing us anymore. It's over.”
“Relax, dude. Ya feel that?” Rainbow smiled, pivoted Echo around, and removed the gag from his muzzle. “...the worst part is over.”
“Bleaaacckaaaauttgght!” Echo instantly vomited a copious fountain of coral-tainted bile all over Rainbow's muzzle, neck, and chest.
“... … …” Rainbow clenched her teeth, shivering as her body dripped with slime and undigested food. “...then again.”
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the title makes me hope that this is the last chapter for RD's fight/chase scene with ze pegasus bard and ze mute griffon.
SHIT
Pheeeeeeeewww...
...I suppose that's one way to end the chase/fight scenes.
well, with that done, I believe Rainbow has some explaining to do about why she wears the Loyalty pendant all the time.
Aww, they're adorababble together!
Well, about time they won.
Glad to finally join the party! Been a long journey to get here, but it's barely half way over.
Damn, that thunder cloud. That's a helluva finishing move.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, there it is.
Well, I suppose were were due for a resurfacing of the chaos. Rainbow's got some explaining to do, now.
Has anyone died yet? No? Mehhhh.
Knew it
Also, was expecting a rainboom. And maybe something more about the flickering they experienced.
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And here we have an authentic photo of Swan Song.
independent.co.uk/incoming/article9596192.ece/alternates/w620/george-rr-martin.jpg
6150627 Well yeah, what did you think my username meant?!
Somebody call nine-one-one~
Song of Ice and Fire on the dance floor, woah-ohh, oh~
Gratitude in it's raw form.
I'm still not quite over how JoJo-esque this is.
That's right, Rainbow Dash: channel your inner Zeus. Fry the pathetic mortals!
...
She didn't kill them, right?
Right?
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Especially when ''handling myself without ya'' could mean several things...
You can hurt her. You can hurt her friends. Hell, hurt her family, but there is one rule that anyone who wants to not get their butts handed to them (or eviscerated in worst case scenario) needs to remember. Do not take Loyalty from Miss Dash. May Harmony have mercy on their souls (fingers crossed for these two to not have an off-screen death).
Pending Bard and WC survive and do not join the new party, I can totally see them filling some sort of Team Rocket roll, always almost getting away with stealing the less-cute-than-Pikachu mammal, Echo.
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Not if he doesn't have hands.
Strike true....THUNDER REIGN!
Looks like they pressed her beserk button.
Though it seems her transformation happened slower than it used to,granted,she has taken it off herself for fights,in particular,against Roarke in Foxtaur iirc. But when Roarke did it to revive her in Val Roa she went feral near instantly. Maybe having the others free is boosting her resistanceto the chaos inside her.
-Memories given light,ease a lonely flight.Ynanhluutr
Well damn. That's a pretty nifty way of putting those two down. I'm not sure what their chances are of surviving that, but I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of them. Unless, of course, they feel a bounty isn't worth the hassle.
I like to think that "food" consists of little feelers and insect wings. That amuses me, for some reason.
I almost want to see those two again if only for Bard to prostrate himself before Rainbow and start begging her to teach him.
... Four chapters.
I'm keeping my claim on the bet, but I'll extend it to JaTL. Well played, you. Well played.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
Rainbow Dash used Thunder.
It was super effective!
Oooooh shit. You got some explaining to do, Rainbow...
Literally made an account just so I could comment on this amazing story. Looking forward to the next chapter!
Spookle or Scarity demanding a Chaos-Dash explanation in 3,2,1...
Also, Bard and WC will be back. After all, no body means no confirmation. I shouldn't need to mention The Name to remind you all of this rule.
*unleashes stream of profanity*
Heh, four chapters.
...Roarke lasted, what, five? Friggin noobs.
6150801 I think that the reason it took so long now is because she is in far better shape than she was then, and was thus able to brace against it and hold onto herself, while last time she was unconscious when it happened and she had no chance to do so.
6151305 To be fair, Roarke is a high standard to be held to, Crimson, Eagle Eye, Phoenix, and Zenith didn't even last one chapter between the lot of them, and they were badasses in their own rights.
6151127 They are characters who have not killed anyone Rainbow cares about, and who have been beaten up by Rainbow, they will join the party now. This is not negotiable.
I can't help but get the feeling that part of the reason these guys lasted so long was that they were continually trying to actually get away from her while Roarke was keeping up her own rush down whenever there was distance between them, combined with the fact that Rainbow hasn't been fighting nearly as much recently as she had been back then and was less prepared to cut loose on them because they were not armored, she disabled the griffion's metal arm fairly easily when she tried, so she was most likely holding back to keep from completely wrecking them, until the very end at least.
6150970 "Just"
Have you read the whole thing from Austreaoh on? If so "Just" does not heh, justify the time and effort you've put in.
Bard, you have no idea what you've just done.
You're a lucky stallion Bard. This time.
Well then, looks like Rainbow is finally going to have to explain her...condition to the ghosts. I wonder how they'll take it.
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Well, I hope you'll stick around to comment on future chapters, too. The more, the merrier!
6151305
She lasted six, actually.
Yeah, expected that to happen
Truly Tartarus hath no fury like a weathermare scorned.
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Welcome to the Lunar Ninth!
quickmeme.com/img/ca/ca3872562a82e6d166b3a78ab3fe13d3edf786f985e1f8b754a74885268618b0.jpg
6150627 You know that used to be an authentic photo of Imploding Colon.
Well, this chapter answers my pondering on why she wasn't using weather magic in the previous chapters....it wasn't flashy enough.
cdn.hark.com/images/001/068/172/1068172/original.jpg
So now Twilight and Rarity will keep pestering Rainbow until she tells them that she's 1/2 pony, 1/2 everything else
So it looks to me like Twilight and Rarity are dependent on the pendant to stay "alive." Yet another reason not to lose the pendant.
Annd, there goes the reason you dont give ideas to the GM
Prediction. unfortunately this tends to alter the future if too accurate.
Pinkie:Wait, wait. Riffle, riffle, gasp, riffle. There, now Im caught up with the story, its time to
PARTY.
Damn it Echo, if you'd done that earlier they would have just handed you back to Rainbow.
Eww gross.
6150970 Stick around! Belated welcome to the Lunar Ninth.
Damn they got really lucky with the pendant a few seconds more and Rainbow would have not been able to get it back most likely.
I had a feeling Echo wouldn't make it the whole time, surprised he made it as long as he did.
6151420
...Yeah, I did read all of it. ^^; Figured it was about time to give this series some love...
so, in the interim of Dashie losing her Pendant, both Rarity and Twilight were still manifested
this makes me think that they are far more "attached" to Rainbow at this point, rather than the Pendant
which would also explain why the fit's are less common now and back with the Jury (and why Dashie was able to hold more control in her transforming state)
back with the jury she was sorrounded by companions, giving her loyalty and friendship a boost (thus making her more harmonious, and fighting the Choas inside)
now she has the literal elements of harmony with her (well, two out of five)
so what will the release of all of them spell?
will our beloved hero be cured of her sickness?
will she be purified, and re-united with her long lost companions in the flesh?
or will it all go horribly, horribly wrong?
Hehe, I rather enjoyed those two figures, Bard and Dubya-Cee. Quite the interesting pair who must have a most intense backstory. I hope to hear more from them soon!
Also.... I'm finally caught up! This is both a dream and a nightmare come true for me. It feels absolutely amazing to finally be on track with the current pace of the story, but now I won't be able to read 40 chapters a day anymore.
Oh well....
Anywho, I was thinking, up until this book the chapter titles' number of words has corresponded with the book number. But with this book, the number of words in each title is six.... Therefore, my idea is that from now on out the number of words in the title will decrease by one with each subsequent book, so when we arrive at the 12th book the chapter title length will have returned to 1 word.
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6150970
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Looks like I'm joining you three as the newest people who have finally caught up to the story! Now us Fantastic Four must press onwards for the glory of Queen Ver..... I mean Austraeoh!
6150923
Well, they are both metal and flying, so more like super super effective!
Critical Hit!
Foe Bard has been knocked out!
Foe Wildcard has been knocked out!
Southern Syndicate has no pokemon remaining. You win!
You get Echo as a prize!
6154214
... Booster Spice has been caught up with the story for a while now. (S)He just has siestas every now and then (don't we all) and then has to catch back up on the five or ten chapters (s)he missed.
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6154164
Welcome to the Lunar Ninth, you two! Congratulations on catching up.
According to cartoon physics, she would've been fine.
6154352 Actually, steel types only take neutral damage from electric types, they deal half damage to electric. so it would just be 2x damage, not 4x damage.
So now Rainbow has to explain things to Rarity. Hurray!
They have no idea how close they were to causing a disaster on a worldwide scale. I think they ticked her off though, because she has NEVER used lightning in an offensive manner in this story.
Weather powers to assist in some manner yes, rare but not unheard of in the series, but never to attack other ponies. Wonder if Verlax region Pegasi even know that they can manipulate the weather.
What a prize after such an enjoyable battle