Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Rainbow
I’ve got nothing against running. I love to run. The thrill of speed, the rush of wind through my mane, heart pounding, adrenaline racing. It’s exhilarating.
Now, running for your life, that’s another story entirely. All the excitement is suddenly sucked away when the threat of harm — or death, which seemed more likely — was hot on your hooves. Well, ok, there was still a little thrill, but it’s not the kind to be enjoyed.
Fluttershy was terrified, and actually managing to stay ahead of me. Guess that’s what fear can do to somepony. Behind us were a dozen of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. They were like huge bloated worms with a hundred legs and nothing but teeth where its mouth would have been. We’d discovered these monsters just after separating from Marco. They were in a hallway filled with dead guards, eating the bodies. Human, pony, even Changeling. It was horrifying. Fluttershy must have agreed because she screamed the second she laid eyes on the scene, and thus why we were now fleeing from an army of those giant bugs.
We ran up one corridor and down another in a panicked frenzy. We ran so fast that I feared that fumbling would result in serious injury. And yet the bugs kept just inches from biting the tips of our tails. I glanced over at Fluttershy; she had tears streaming down her face and her knees were beginning to quiver as she ran. I knew if she fell down she wouldn’t be getting back up, even if those things weren’t following us. Ugh, we can’t keep running forever.
I guess the castle agreed with me, because the hallway ended in a sharp turn. An idea sprung into my head, so I moved as close to the wall as I could. When Fluttershy and I rounded the corner I stopped abruptly and spun just as the first monster rounded the corner. I slammed both front hooves right below the beast’s mouth, hitting two weird red jelly things that might have been eyes. I expected it to stumble backwards into its buddies, or cry out in pain. It did neither, instead simply bursting on my hooves like an over-filled water balloon. Red liquids squirted everywhere, and the thing screeched in agony. The nearest creature immediately stopped chasing us and began devouring the one I’d just popped.
I gave a yelp of terror as the rest followed suit. Pretty soon the image before me became a writhing mass of bloated flesh ripping and tearing into each other. Green goo was splattering the hallways, and one of the monsters was even eating itself! A massive tear had been made in its right side, and it was happily scooping up whatever came leaking out without any hesitation. It wasn’t until a few of them looked at me that I noticed the red goop drying on my fur and began running again, fighting down a wave of nausea.
Ahead, Fluttershy was waiting, not moving, looking back at me fearfully. I bit back on my retort and instead shouted “What are you doing? Run!” She paused a moment before turning tail and running again, myself not far behind. My sides were burning and my legs felt like jelly, but I knew if I stopped I’d be dead.
Fluttershy gave a cry of alarm and in an instant all my senses were focused on her. You know how some ponies always say that time seems to slow down during stressful moments? I’d always considered it just superstition, but that was happening right now. I had time to take in the horrible scene as it was happening; I saw the loose tile that Fluttershy had tripped on, saw a small piece of it go flying off as well, chipped off by her hoof. Her wings flared out in surprise, usually an action too fast to really see, but I saw each feather bristle in the air, the bending and twisting of her joints as they realigned for flight. She brought her front hooves up close to her body, ensuring her jaw was the first part of her to hit the floor. She even managed to bounce slightly from the impact, her mane flying about madly as she did. It would have been slightly comical if it were anypony else other than Fluttershy — and there wasn’t a horde of monsters chasing us.
And just like that, the moment was gone. I skidded to a stop, but was going so fast that I slipped on the tiles, overshooting Fluttershy as she lay there momentarily dazed. I spun around just in time to see one of those water bugs crawl on top of Fluttershy and she gave a terrified scream that pierced the air.
“Fluttershy!” I yelled, running towards her, cursing my injured wing. The bug opened its mouth and what I can only assume was a tongue lashed out, licking Fluttershy’s face. Suddenly, another cry was heard, and a flaming blur zipped past the creature, tearing open its back and showering Fluttershy in green goo.
<Can’t you go five minutes without getting into trouble?> Tobias asked, landing on my back.
I wasn’t paying attention to him, even though he was talking in my head. Fluttershy was crawling to her hooves and covered in the stinking green slime. I saw her eyes beginning to tear up as she looked at herself, and then to the mass that was once the insect monster.
<Fluttershy, be upset later. Right now you’ve got to run,> Tobias snapped rather harshly. An awful screeching sound filled the air and I looked up at the mass of bugs coming towards us. There were only three left, and the dripping remains of the others were still oozing between their teeth, yet they didn’t seem full from their meals at all. Tobias took a quick look at them and spread his wings, screeching and taking off. He zoomed between their bloated bodies and then lit himself on fire. There was a moment of agonizing screeches before the insects fell over in a writhing, burning heap.
I glanced over at Fluttershy and quickly realized she wouldn’t be moving on her own anytime soon. I quickly threw her onto my back — wincing in pain as I was reminded of my injured wing as Fluttershy accidentally kicked it — and ran at a steady pace the way Tobias had come. I hadn’t ran very far before I came to a section of the castle that had collapsed; large chunks of marble and granite were scattered everywhere, but the thing that immediately drew my attention was the giant dragon that was likely the cause of the destruction. Its shoulder was black as if burned, and there were holes riddling its wing membrane. And despite it all, the dragon was grinning.
TSEEEW!
The sound filled my ears and I whipped my head around, looking for the source moments before the dragon roared in pain and loosed a giant fireball into the sky. I instinctively followed its path and saw another of those strange ships like what the Prince and his followers arrived in get engulfed by the flame and simply dropped out of the sky like a stone, crashing somewhere in the gardens with an impressive explosion. It grinned savagely, but then its eyes locked onto something else and it took off.
“Rainbow! Fluttershy! Over here!”
The voice caught me off-guard and I jumped back, startled, until I spied Rarity and Ax huddled beneath where the dragon had been. I ran towards them, Twilight glowered at me from her cage, silent. It was very unnerving to see her like that.
“Oh my, whatever happened to you two?” Rarity cried. “Rainbow, dear, purple simply isn’t your colour.”
<Is your friend unwell? Does she require medical aid?>
“...they’re all dead...” Fluttershy whimpered softly, even softer than usual.
“We were trapped by these giant bugs. They, ah, exploded on us,” I quickly explained.
<Taxxons,> Tobias said plainly. <I forgot how messy they can be.>
“Feh, a minor setback. You’ve still lost, you just don’t know it yet. All you’ve done is prolong your suffering,” ‘Twilight’ said disdainfully.
I shot her a glare but didn’t respond, instead turning back to Rarity, and immediately noticed something interesting. “Hey, how’d you get your Element back?”
Rarity glanced at her neck. “Oh, right. Applejack had it, along with the others. She ran off to find you, but I don’t know when–”
She was interrupted by an explosion from behind me. I spun on my hind legs, forgetting about Fluttershy who rolled off, coming to rest beside Ax. I gasped in surprise as Applejack, Pinkie, and Applebloom were all running towards us, two humans chasing them, carrying those strange weapons.
“Somepony help!” Applejack cried moments before one of them fired. She managed to jump out of the way just in the nick of time, but this gave it a clear path to Rarity.
“Gah!” she cried as the beam hit her right on her horn, even causing her to stumble backwards a little. Her horn sparked, glowing a brilliant light blue which quickly turned white and expanded outwards. She barely had time to notice it herself before the light exploded, sending rays of purple and blue out in all directions. A loud crack echoed through the hall, as well as the sound of the two humans collapsing to the ground — Ax had managed to move within striking range. The light subsided and I saw Rarity slumped against the farthest wall, the tip of her horn charred black.
She wasn’t moving. From here I couldn’t even tell if she was breathing. I was just about to run for her when I heard laughter and snapped my head towards ‘Twilight’. She wasn’t looking at me or Rarity, but at the large mass of ponies coming towards us. Many of them I recognized from Ponyville, like the Mayor and Berry Punch, and almost ran towards them for help, overjoyed, before I remembered the last time I’d seen them. Trapped in that underground cavern...
Ax noticed the ponies and spun around to face them. Not a second after he did another group of humans came down the hallway, boxing us in from the other side. My heart sank as I looked at my injured wing. If only I could fly. If only Twilight were here...
‘Twilight’ spun around to look at the humans and grinned. She took a step towards them, her face plastered with the smuggest smile you could ever imagine.
“You lot certainly took your time arriv—”
Fluttershy screamed. Applejack cried out. Pinkie went rigid and I heard a cracking sound. I could only watch dumbly as Twilight fell to the ground, the center of her chest black and burned. I barely had time to leap out of the way before another shot whizzed by my head. Tobias zoomed towards the humans, stopping just in front of them and spreading his wings. Blinding light bathed the controllers, forcing them to shield their eyes. I turned and ran to Rarity, who was groggily standing and looking very disoriented.
<Ax-man, get everyone to safety!> Tobias yelled. <I can’t keep this up forever!>
“Ugh, my head feels like I spent the night at one of Vinyl’s parties,” Rarity slurred.
“This is no time to be talking about parties!” Pinkie shouted, which very nearly made me suspect her. “We’ll have a big party to celebrate later, but for right now...” she finished by jumping over to me and forced my Element onto my neck, an irate Applejack running up behind her.
“Dangit, Pinkie, Ah told ya not to touch mah hat!” she huffed as she snatched her hat out of Pinkie’s hooves.
“Guys, argue later,” I said. “Get Twilight and let’s go somewhere safer.”
Neither Pinkie or Applejack gave a reply, instead both rushing over to ‘Twilight’ and supporting her between each other. Fluttershy was helping to steady Rarity, and I came over to speed thing up. Ax and Tobias followed afterwards, and luckily the humans were still too dazed to give proper chase. We had only ran a short distance when Pinkie shouted “Twitcha-twitch! Twitcha-twitch!”
Instinctively I looked to the sky and gave a yelp, leaping back moments before Rachel slammed into the castle and crashed in front of us, chunks of marble and granite raining down on her. Above her was some sort of massive metal ax with a diamond shaped head.
“What is that?!” I yelled.
<A Blade Ship,> Ax calmly replied in that infuriating ‘why isn’t it obvious to you?’ tone. <I am afraid we may have lost the battle, unless you possess a sufficiently powerful anti-aircraft weapon.>
“Ah ain’t givin’ up that easily!” Applejack said defiantly. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
“Agreed, though getting up there seems a tad difficult,” Rarity said. She looked up at the Blade Ship, but only for a second, before her eyes locked onto something else. “Fluttershy!”
My eyes were following Rarity’s in less than a second. Fluttershy was flying up the side of the ruined castle towards Rachel’s crumpled form. Above her, however, the Blade Ship looked like it was readying for another blast, and from what I could tell it looked like it was aiming for Rachel.
“Fluttershy! Look out!” I cried. She turned her head towards me in confusion, not noticing the looming disaster above her. I started to run towards her, felt my wings snap open and pushed down the wave of pain that followed immediately after, but I knew I wouldn’t make it in time even if I could fly.
TSSSEEEEWWW!
A beam of energy shot out from the ship, aimed directly at Rachel and Fluttershy. I heard myself cry out in panic just as the beam was about to hit them, when it suddenly broke out in all directions, forming a weird ever-moving lightning shield around us. I stopped where I was and simply stared at this feat of impossibility.
“We had feared we would not make it in time.” I spun around and saw Princess Luna standing behind me, her horn aglow. Next to her was the Changeling Queen and a wolf, both pretty beaten and bruised. The wolf took a few pained steps towards Rachel.
<Rachel! Rachel, are you alright?>
“While We are concerned for your friend’s well-being, We hasten to add that We cannot keep this defense up indefinitely.”
Princess Luna was beginning to strain with the shield as the ship fired a second time, creating another disturbingly-pretty lightning show. Sweat was beginning to dot her brow, but she gritted her teeth and kept it up all the same.
“Wow, never thought I could survive one of those blasts,” Rachel said smugly. I whipped my head around at her just in time to see a pair of oversized dragon wings melt into her back; Jake — who I guess had turned into the queen along with Marco — and Cassie huddled around her to keep her out of sight the best they could. “Still have a headache from it, though.”
A piercing scream from Rarity drew my attention and I spun towards her, expecting trouble — and groaned as I felt my muscles beginning to tire — but there was nothing there. Rarity was pointing at Twilight and mouthing words, or trying hard not to vomit. I followed her gaze and felt my own bile threaten to move into my throat. Coming out of Twilight’s ear was a large grey sluglike thing. It wiggled and twisted forward before falling from Twilight and landing on the ground with a wet slapping sound.
Rarity took a step back, clearly appalled by the sight. I kept my eyes on the Yeerk, watching it squirm weakly on the ground blindly. It’s kinda funny, this small, blind creature was capable of all this pain and suffering. That it thought itself so superior when it was just... this. The only reason anypony anywhere had any reason to fear it was because of the innocent beings it used like tools, only to discard them when they were no longer useful. I didn’t care if they were just doing what they were born to do, they were enslaving others and subjecting them to torture. Forcing them to watch helplessly as they lied, and tricked, and submitted their family and friends to this same unjust fate.
Like what Discord did to you.
I felt a spark of anger ignite inside of me. Discord had acted the same way with us; he forced me to abandon my friends when they needed me most. Like what this insignificant slug had done to Twilight, tearing her away from us. And just like with me, we had to forcibly subdue her in order to help. We had to hurt her, not that this thing cared. No, it just used her as a means to an end, and when she got hurt it left. No use staying on a crashing airship. Around me I could hear the sounds of battle continuing as Princess Luna struggled to keep her shield up, but my gaze was locked on the slug, the cause of all this misery. Prince Jake said he would help to end this war, the same war going on back at his home, and I knew how I could help him.
I raised my hoof in the air, almost as if I was in a trance or a dream. I knew what I was about to do, but couldn’t stop myself. And, as quickly as I’d raised it, I brought my hoof down on the miserable little worm and ground it into the dirt.
“Nopony’s going to use me or my friends again,” I quietly snarled at it.
I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and quickly looked up, and immediately felt a wave of relief wash over me as Twilight sat up, looking very tired and pained, but alive.
“Rainbow,” she said, looking at my hoof and then back at my face. Hers was a mask of shock, distress, and disbelief. She didn’t say anything for a while, instead just looking at me, almost as if she was hoping there was a sliver of a chance she was wrong. That I would tell her so with a word or expression. I didn’t and turned away, unable to look her in the eyes any longer.
I didn’t even realize Twilight had moved until she rested a hoof on my shoulder and I looked up at her; her expression had barely changed, but there was now an extra layer of disappointment on top of everything else. She spoke softly, “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we’ve got to end this while we still can.”
She looked away from me and gave a slight nod. I craned my neck around and saw Applejack pull the last Element out of her hat and toss it to Twilight. She gave a sad sort-of-smile as she carefully put it on — with the jewel seemingly glowing as soon as she did — then spoke loudly enough for all of us to hear. “Girls, form up! We’re fighting back.”
No sooner had her voice died out I felt the familiar surge of magic flow through me and was lifted off the ground. In spite of everything that had happened recently I smiled; the magic enveloping me was warm and inviting, like cozying up to a fire on a cold winter’s day. The girls rose around me, and the Elements began to hum an almost soothing sound.
Below us, Princess Luna was on her knees and the magic shield was cracked in many areas. Prince Jake’s group, however, was looking at us in bewilderment. I pushed them out of my mind for the moment and lost myself in the ebb and flow of the spell.
The humming increased, and soon outlines of the specific shapes on our elements were being sent forth in short waves. At this point the Princess’s strength left her, the shield finally shattering, and she collapsed to the ground. All eyes turned back to the Blade Ship, but I wasn’t worried. Twilight’s eyes were glowing a brilliant white, and I knew we’d won.
The Blade Ship fired, and so did we. Their beam was met with a large rainbow formed from the collective energies of the Elements, and for a split second time seemed to stop. Both the energy beam from the ship and our rainbow were frozen in the air, neither one moving, then time started moving again with our rainbow overtaking the attack and pushing it back towards the Blade Ship.
I sensed, or felt, or knew, I’m not really sure, the energy from the Blade Ship get engulfed by our rainbow, making it brighter and stronger, until it collided with the flying battleaxe. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, then the back of the thing just exploded in, and I swear I’m not making this up, a rainbow of colour that spread out in all directions, almost like my Sonic Rainboom. But it didn’t stop there; as the rainbow rings expanded from the Blade Ship they abruptly changed course, all the colours meeting in a central pocket directly in front of the diamond head. Then, the gathered magic gave a final burst and sent the ship tumbling down through the sky in the direction of the Everfree.
But the Elements weren’t done yet. I felt another surge of magic flow through me as a second rainbow formed and shot out towards the nearest human, leaping from one to the next faster than they could blink. It was a chain; each human was the link that bound the rainbow together into a single continued stream of magic. Hork Bajir and the centipede monsters were also caught trying to flee, even a few ponies as well. All becoming a part of the chain of magic we’d created. With an unspoken sigh, the magic simply stopped and we were gently lowered to the ground, while everyone that was connected to us collapsed in a heap. I opened my mouth to say something, but fell to the ground myself, completely drained of any energy.
It wouldn’t be for a few days until we discovered the extent of the damage; when the ship crashed, it was nearly horizontal with the ground and moving fast enough to uproot trees and bushes, leaving a vast path of destruction and devastation in its wake. It stopped only when it smashed into the base of a mountain and nearly buried itself underneath. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, considering I still don’t know exactly how the Elements work, the Blade Ship’s crash collapsed the Yeerk Pool hidden beneath the forest, rendering it unusable.
At the moment, though, I was just about to fall asleep, finally letting the exhaustion and fatigue catch up with me when I was quite rudely shook out of my stupor. I wearily opened one eye and rolled it upwards, about to yell at whomever was keeping me from my rest, but felt my words die in my throat as I took in her white fur and ethereal mane.
After all, one doesn’t insult Princess Celestia.
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Well, you COULD shoot down a blade Ship with the Elements of Harmony.
Or you could just ram it
FINALLY! About time the yeerks got kicked in the balls.
Whoo, we reached the climax!
Putting the "Harm" in "Harmony." No happy endings for all those foot-soldiers of the Yeerk empire? They were only following orders; I hope the Elements found a less lethal solution than what I think happened.
Yeah. Those Yeerks suck balls!
Orbital friendship cannon is a go.
Twilight's recovery was surprisingly swift. She was injured severely enough to get the Visser to abandon ship, but she recovered from the injury (at least enough to talk, be mobile, and use the Element of Magic) the instant the Visser died?
Not saying there's still something wrong with Twilight (I don't think there is, I just think the healing was a bit fast), but it doesn't really feel like we've truly reached the end. After all, the Andalite Bandits have barely made use of their new Changeling morphs beyond flying, and they could've done that with pegasi!
2727368 More then likely the Yeerk assumed they were all boned and made a last ditch attempt to flee.
... the crowd was not going to listen to her explanation about obtaining Sparkle's body. (Last they knew Twilight was the enemy.)
... the body she HAD, Chrysalis has just showed up. ( They would probably assume she was still in charge.)
... and (Visser 3's?) Blade ship was laying waste to all viable targets... ( See first statement... not that Visser 3 ever cared about such trivial things as "Friendly Fire".)
*le smirk* I give the story ,,, anywhere from 2-10 chapters to be finished...
This better not be the end. Everything was solved by this; it would be such a crappy, lackluster finale to an awesome fic. Everything was just too convenient.
2726975
Technically, that would be Anti-aircraft friendship cannon in go
Sooo...
God of Chaos? Statueified (Twice)
Goddess of the Moon on an Omnicidal Power Trip? Exiled to the Moon and then Stripped of her Anger and Rage.
Mind-Controlling Slugs? Vaporised...
Wait, what?
Please don't go the route of so many fanfics where the Elements are used as lethal weapons.
I read this series as a kid, and have most of the series in my basement collecting dust.
Like and favorite, sir.
Climax at last...I hope.
2728900
I like orbital better because it went up to the blade ship and spread
Great chapter!
so much better than actual animorphs ending
2729926
I don't think so. Given Twilight's reaction to Rainbow's murder of Visser Seven, I don't think this fic is going to go that route.
VICTORY!!
HUZZAH! VICTORY IS NEAR!!!