The Drop
& & &
The mist receded and Rainbow Dash immediately darted out, calling for her friends. “Guys, look out--!”
Nightmare Moon tossed her head back and laughed, thunder and lightning flashing as she did so. “FOALS! You have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide! Your precious Elements of Harmony lie shattered on the ground, along with all your hopes of victory!”
Rainbow Dash was ready to dismiss that as another lie when she saw the broken remnants of the six stone spheres and felt her heart sink. The evil alicorn cackled, so confident in her success that she didn’t even make a move to prevent Rainbow Dash’s from joining her. “Rainbow Dash!” Despite everything, she smiled when she heard and saw her friends running towards her. “You’re all right!” Twilight beamed as she stopped short just in front of her.
“Heh, you know me.” Rainbow ran a hoof through her mane. “Just needed to figure out how to make the best entrance ever.”
“Glad t’see yer in one piece.” Applejack said, slapping Rainbow on the back. The pegasus bit her lip, hard, trying not to wince or yelp. “Even if yer brains still have the same consistency of oatmeal.”
“Oatmeal, are you crazy?” Pinkie Pie looked at her.
Fluttershy walked over and laid her neck across Rainbow’s. “We were so worried!”
“It is good to see you again Rainbow Dash.” Rarity nodded. “I for one certainly hope that you have a backup plan now that the Elements of Harmony are….” She fished for a proper description as she viewed the ruined remains. “…a bunch of dumb rocks.” She commented bitterly.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and snorted. “Forget the Elements.” Everypony looked up at her in askance.
“Um, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked at her. “But, how are we supposed to stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?”
Dash flapped her wings determinedly. “I’ll tell you how! We’re going to stop her ourselves!” She jutted out a hoof and pointed it at them. “Everything can’t be fixed in a neat little package by a bunch of glowy magical rocks or a wave of a hoof or wishing on a star…the only way to make things right is to do it yourself!”
She pointed angrily at Nightmare Moon. “She tried to tempt me with all my dreams like they were just something that could be given to you as a freebie. Well, Celestia taught me that life doesn’t work that way and that you have to work to get where you want to go.” Rainbow Dash looked at each of her friends in turn. “And you know what? We all worked to get where we are: right here, right now. So who needs a bunch of mystic doodads or whatever when we got us?”
The others were looking at each other not quite sure if they were ready to believe this. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Fine. She’d just have to prove it. “Pinkie Pie!” She took to the air and pointed pointed to the pink earth pony. “She saved us all from the Swamp of Despair by being joyful and laughing and, well, being random. If she can make us smile when we were reliving our worst moments EVER, then she can do anything!” Pinkie smiled and let out a small hop of joy.
“Rarity,” Dash turned around. “She surrounds herself with beautiful outfits and stuff, but didn’t hesitate to give away something priceless to her if it meant making things better for others. When a pony’s as generous as her, she would do anything to save the world.” Rarity smiled gratefully, touched by the compliment.
“Applejack!” She looked at the orange farmpony. “She might look and act like a simple old cowpony with a big flank,” Dash gave a little smirk at AJ’s annoyed glower. “But stood up and told the truth when she did something wrong, knowing that it might mean giving up her own life. But more than that, she’s true to herself. She might not be the cleverest of ponies, but when you’re that honest and have that strong a sense of justice, it makes others want to be as good and pure as her.” AJ blushed slightly, tugging her hat down.
But Rainbow wasn’t finished. “Fluttershy!” The canary yellow pegasus eeped and looked surprised, even though she must’ve known it was coming. “Aside from being, like, the nicest pony EVER, she managed to make friends with the weirdest and creepiest of creatures.” Fluttershy scuffed her hoof shyly. “When you’re kind enough and compassionate enough to make enemies into friends, nothing’s impossible!”
She turned around. “And then there’s Twilight. What can I say? Most awesome unicorn, ever!” Rainbow beamed. “She managed to beat the most powerful unicorn in Canterlot and free her brother from Nightmare Moon’s control. With her magic, we’re unstoppable!” Dash flew around her friends in a big circle. “When all this started I didn’t think you ladies would be up to this. I was wrong.” She admitted. “I asked if any of you had ever done the impossible…well, you all have now.”
“Let’s not forget about you sugarcube.” Applejack nudged Rainbow with her head. “Don’t sell yerself short…something ah never thought ah’d need to say.” She added wryly, to giggles from the others. “Sugarcube, yer alright. You blur the line between foolish and brave so much ah’d forget they were two different words.” She slapped Rainbow Dash on the withers. “You’ve stuck by us through thick and thin and there ain’t nothing that stopped you from gettin’ to Ditzy and Shining and yer other friends. Shucks, ah’d say you were the loyalest pony ah ever met!”
“They’re right!” Pinkie flounced. “We are superincrediawesomazing! Just like my song! You’ve got everything that you need, right in front of you! Nothing’s stopping you, nothing that you can’t do that the world can throw at you!”
“I-I suppose if we can do all that…” Fluttershy hesitantly added. “Then I guess we CAN do anything!”
Rarity nodded. “I agree darlings, who needs some tacky old bits of rock when we have the most fabulous and amazing ponies in all of Equestria, and the most fashionable as well?”
“Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!” Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof in the air. “Well, mostly.” She amended. “Anyway! Are you girls ready?”
“Yeah!” Came the enthused reply.
“Are we gonna kick Nightmare Moon’s flank all the way back to the moon?”
“YEAH!”
“Then let’s GO!”
“YEEAAH!”
The six mares charged at Nightmare Moon as she stood, unintimated and unimpressed as they ran towards her. Out of the corner of her eye, she detected a flicker of light coming from the remnants of the Elements of Harmony. The six shattered balls each softly started to pulse with a color of the rainbow…as did the six approaching mares, determination etched onto each of their faces. “It’s impossible.” She whispered, a twinge of fear working its way into her black heart.
She felt something tap her on the head. “Excuse me?” Nightmare Moon looked up to see the pink one somehow standing atop her head on her hind legs…without even noticing how she had gotten up there! “Hiya!” Pinkie waved. “Um, I’m supposed to say something really brave and heroic now but all I can think of is….El Kabong!” She shouted, whipping out a guitar from someplace in her mane (Nightmare Moon blinked in surprise) and brought it crashing down on the wicked mare’s head with an audible KLONG!
Nightmare Moon bellowed, clutching her head as Pinkie Pie hopped off, stumbling off the dais and towards the center of her throne room. “When I get a hold of you—”
“Heeeyaw!” Applejack whooped as she planted her front hooves on the floor and lashed out with her back ones, bucking the evil princess in the side. “How’d you like THEM apples?”
Stumbling, the Nightmare had no time to recover before Twilight Sparkle blasted her other side with a powerful stream of magic. Rarity wrapped a perfumed, lacy hanky around her hoof and delivered a quick jab to the side of her head. “I always found that a velvet hoof inside a lace boot was the best solution,” she commented.
Fluttershy meekly held up her hoof. She didn’t so much punch the dark queen as much as she stumbled into it with enough force to snap her head back.
“HEY!” Rainbow Dash shouted as Nightmare Moon regained her bearings. She looked up just in time to see a blue hoof approaching her face. A meaty THOK! Filled the air. “Keep in on everpony! Pinkie Pie!”
“Spoooon!” Came the enthusiastic cry as she introduced her hooves to Nightmare Moon’s face and threw a party for them.
“Applejack!” Again, the powerful hind legs of Applejack lashed out, striking Nightmare Moon like she was nothing but a tree to be bucked. “Rarity!” The unicorn delivered a strong kick of her own to the side of Nightmare Moon’s head. “Fluttershy!” A meek, danty smack was applied to the alicorn’s cheek. “Twilight!” A surge of magic blasted the alicorn towards Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus grinned as she lashed out with both hooves jabbing with a series of lightning punches, finishing with a fierce uppercut that sent her foe flying back. Rainbow Dash darted out of the nearest window and flew around the entire castle only to reenter through a window on the opposite side of the room and strike Nightmare Moon again from her other side!
“Keep it up!” Rainbow Dash called as her friend surrounded Nightmare Moon in a circle. “Again! Pinkie Pie! Applejack! Rarity! Fluttershy! Twilight!”
With hooves and wings and magic was rained down upon the dark mare as she was knocked to and fro. She would no sooner turn from one attacker only to be beset by the rest. And everywhere she turned, every place she looked, there was Rainbow Dash. Darting here, appearing there, always with an encouraging shout to one of her friends or a defiant cry railing against Nightmare Moon. She was buffeted by her wings, sore all over from the lashing of Dash’s hooves against her hide and the angry, determined glint in her eye that chilled even her hard heart.
Worse, the longer the fight went on, the more closely the six cooperated and worked together, the more they pulsed with the light emanating from the Elements of Harmony. “No!” Her eyes widened. “NO, NO, NO!” Her eyes shined solid white as she tossed her wings wide, a shockwave of energy erupting from her that tossed her attackers back. There was a bright flash and everypony in the throne room found themselves pressed against the wall.
“ENOUGH!” She panted as her horn shimmered. Black strips burst from the tip and encircled the ponies. One wrapped itself around Fluttershy’s middle, pinning her wings down. Two more attached themselves to Twilight and Rarity’s horn, blocking their magic, before circling down to tie their legs together. Two more hogtied Pinkie Pie and Applejack.
Only Rainbow Dash was left unaffected. She panted, glaring at Nightmare Moon. “Let them go!”
Nightmare Moon chuffed. “I warned you Rainbow Dash…I warned you that I would make you suffer as nopony ever has for defying me.”
“You know, when you said you were going to kill me, I didn’t imagine that I’d by dying of old age.” She narrowed her eyes. “Unless you plan on doing me in with your killer breath. Pwah! You’ve got a royal case of B.O. your heinous!”
“Make your feeble jokes while you can.” The alicorn tossed her head dismissively. “They will not avail you here.”
“That’s right, keep on talking me to death.” Dash rolled her eyes. “You’ve gone this long, why stop now?”
The Nightmare’s horn shimmered and the throne room reassembled itself. Part of the wall fell away, revealing the night sky and the great heights upon which the tower stood. Five long protrusions jutted out into the air, each of her friends deposited upon one of them. Rainbow Dash jerked up at seeing them tied and bound precariously at the edge, a hair’s length away from falling off. She attempted to fly out and grab them only to find her tail tied and bound to the floor with Nightmare Moon’s magic.
Nightmare Moon’s ears twitched and she turned her head to see Ditzy Doo and Zecora trying to carry Shining Armor and Silver Lining and Steelwing out. Rainbow tried to warn them. “Ditzy, Zecora, RUN!” But it was too late. Soon the five of them were bound to the wall, trapped.
“Now…” Nightmare Moon spun around. “We are going to play a little game…you fancy yourself the fastest in the world? One of the greatest fliers ever?”
Rainbow Dash extended her wings and arched them up in a threatening fashion. “You let me go and I’ll show you how fast I can kick your rump.”
Nightmare Moon bared her teeth. “Let’s put that to the test!” She levitated Twilight and the others off their precarious positions and held them out over the abyss. “How many of your friends do you think you’ll be able to save before they hit the ground? Two? Three? Maybe four if you’re extraordinarily lucky? But not all of them.” The Nightmare was smug. “Your friends called you the loyalest of all. Let’s see what they think now! So who will you choose to save? Who will you save to sacrifice? The choice is yours. Better pick fast!”
She laughed as she released her hold on Rainbow Dash’s tail just as she let the others drop off the edge. They screamed as they fell, making Nightmare Moon laugh as Rainbow let out an anguished cry of her own as she flew down after them, knowing that Nightmare Moon was right: she wasn’t fast enough, wasn’t good enough.
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Man, Nightmare Moon is a sadistic bitch.
Aaaaahhhh, why do you do this to us?? Keep giving us cliffhangers. MORE! ....P-please?
*eagerly reads, waiting for the moment they get to curb-stomp NMM... then hits a cliffhanger*
AH, COME ON!!!
(reads last line) BULLSHIT! SONIC RAINBOOM BITCH!
(slow clap)
Oh bravo ser
Words fail me, so I won't even try to pause this superawesome chapter.
And what comes next...
Effin' Brilliant, you have literally spent the entire story building to this point.
Far be it for me to impinge on your boundless generosity in writing this to begin with, but...
BY Luna's Gamertag ¡MOAR!
Spoooon!!! I know that's from somewhere ?
And there's the test of loyalty. I figured that the temptation bit wasn't the end of it. I can't wait to see how Rainbow solves this one. Looking forward to the next chapter!
Uh-oh... umm... Rainboom?
:oh yes...
1169972 I remember in a comic I read that it was the sound effect used when your character dies in Touhou. Not sure if that's what it really is, but it's possible.
SO EPIC!!!!!!!!
1169982
Yeah, that's the perfect moment for it,
Nightmare Moon: BWAHAHA! You can't save all your friends before they hit the ground! It's impossible!
Rainbow Dash: Oh yeah? Watch me.
(Awesomeness ensues)
Rainbow Dash: I think you forgot just who you're dealing with. Impossible? Maybe for anypony else, but I make the impossible possible.
1169930 1169968 As far as I can tell, this story usually updates on a bi-daily basis, and yet everyone keeps asking for more.
Also "EL Kabong", I loled so hard.
1170074 [Part of comment edited out due to absolute stupidity. I might as well head to bed early...]
Seriously, though, can't wait to see the girls whoop Night Mare's flank like in the show. We were so close to that one part but was stopped by her again. Way to ruin a moment, NMM!
Speed is the only option!
Demon Lady of the Round Table, I pray for your success.
A cliffhanger, almost literally.
suddenly Rainbow channels Guile... SONIC BOOM!
1170074
Well yes, I KNOW that but ...
Oh come on!
Dash is going to
[spoiler deleted] 
You know you want to see what comes next.
It's a testament to Trinary's writing that I'm feeling impatient
You buy that, right?
I see a plot hole: why did nmm take rbd out of a pocket dimension separated from her allies when nmm can control its terrain or she could snip its connection to reality causing her to drift in space between spaces. If it was telepathy nmm could crush her mind, if it was an illusion why not trap her inside it, if it was temporal acceleration nmm can regress her until before her birth or if its limited to the current area re-try the offer as rbd won't remember each pass until she makes the perfect offer and delivery. Other than "its magic I ain't gotta explain shit" or because the plot demands it, I don't see why she got out of there alive.
Also: dramatic irony is dramatic
RAINBOOM TIME.
This is it; can't wait until (presumably) Twilight notices the glowing things. AFTER Rainbow Dash saves her, of course.
I see someone around here has read Spiderman....now let's hope that Rainbow Dash can do a better job than the webbed wonder.
...hey...
...Hey!
I know that scene! At the end! The Joker did it to Batman in a non-canon tie in comic that I swear looked like it was Jhonen Vasquez's work! I don't think it was, but the style of art was very similar.
...
...I also didn't like it very much. But this! This is much better!
1170231 Well, the mark of a good story is leaving its audience wanting more, so yeah.
1170098 Uh, bi-daily is 48 hours, so your screwed
... wait, was that the joke? 
Then again, the Mane Six would already be done if the Elements of Harmony weren't taking their sweet ass time to activate.
I would blame Trinary for that, but I think the Elements do take a while to actually do anything in the show. It's almost like watching a typical anime transformation sequence.
1169972
Utilikiltarian of the year!
R A I N B O O M incoming!
I think the elements are taking so long because Dash simply not as powerful a unifying force as Twilight. She is still good its just she's not learning about friendship the way Twi had to. Twilight started out with zero friends(not counting Spike). Rainbow had Shining Armor, Ditzy, and Fluttershy.
1170245
&co before teh Shadowbolting?
My guess? Bluffs.
Notice how she had to knock out
Also, how her army of "pure" SBs could barely fight dogs and fish and bats?
And canon NMM kept trying to use props to off the Mane 6?
I'm betting trips to the moon are pretty taxing, even for semi-phenomenal nearly cosmic god-ponies (otherwise, why the buck not ship Dissy there after Luna was back?)
I think the big stuff is really taxing, and that she gets part of her power from how strong her enemies think she is (classic shadow conjuration and abjuration).
Funny thing, before season 2 where she was able to do a rainboom on command, the only times she was able to pull one off was when her friends were at stake, physically forcing herself to accomplish what looked... intensely uncomfortable to say the least. And considering that while performing it she was able to effortlessly carry four entities as opposed to the normal one, three of whom were dead weight and thus about twice as heavy as usual(or at least 1.5), she should be able to pull this off
Spoon? Oh come on, don't tell me that's a reference...
This chapter was entirely unnecessary after a certain point. The Elements should have fired by now.
1170478 I see your point, but I don't think Twilight was nearly as lonely as everyone seems to think. In addition to Spike, she also had a BBBFF, a foalsitter that she really liked, and a close relationship with Celestia. At the same time, she was approached by three ponies at the beginning of the first episode who wanted to hang out with her, but she completely blew them off. It seems to me that Twilight always had at least some friends, but until the end of the second episode, she considered them a low priority.
1170699
I guess you have a point. Of course BBBFF and foalsitter materialized out of thin air at the end of season 2, but whatever. Maybe its because Twilight isn't a walking ego trip like Rainbow. Also, I can see blowing off crazy pony friends when your convinced( rightly so ) that an evil moon monster is coming to cause eternal night.
1170560 True but that's not what this chapter is about.
I do love how differently this is working out compared to canon, and how well it suits the characters in question. Twilight researched and prepared as best she was able, knew she needed a specific bit of magic to get the desired result and then fired the orbital friendship cannon. Dash? Solution 1, try hitting it. Solution 2, try hitting it even harder.
I'm honestly not sure at this point if they are actually going to finish the battle with magical friendship lasers or just beating on Nightmare Moon until she starts crying and apologizes.
1169972
It's the battle cry of a super "hero" known as The Tick.
1169972 "Spoon!" is the battle cry of the Tick. He's a crazy moron, but in a good way.
And on the editing front: Loyalist generally refers to a political alignment: Rainbow Dash is a Celestian loyalist.
"Most loyal" would be loyalest; Rainbow Dash is the loyalest pony.
Edit: Gah. And after constructing those sentences, the more pertinent feature is that loyalist is a noun while loyalest is an adjective. Yeesh.
Threw a party on her face....
But no party canon?
Hey... Look... Listen: MOAR
I await patiently.
1170070
I am in absolute agreement with Chengar. If ever there was a time for the Rainboom, both literally and figuratively, this is it.
In canon, the Rainboom drew the girls together and unwittingly pre-destined them to be a coherent group. Now it will save their lives and become the cement of their friendship, instead of somehow beating NMM on their own, and as they all get back to their normal lives sort of drift away from each other.
Oh Celestia I hate my brain sometimes. It just equated Dash to JLU's Flash. Then reminded me that the removal of Flash from the equation created the Justice Lords. ... Someone write up a Harmony Lords fic. My brain won't be satisfied.
1170402 Oh, buck, apparently I can't tell time; so no, that wasn't a joke. It was just me being a dumbo. Well I just got home at that time and was feeling like shit so I wasn't really paying attention.
When I got to this part, my mind took a hard turn that totally killed the mood so I figured I would share it.
“Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!” Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof in the air. “Well, mostly.” She amended. “Anyway! Are you girls ready?”
“Yeah!” Came the enthused reply.
“Are we gonna kick Nightmare Moon’s flank all the way back to the moon?”
“YEAH!”
“Then let’s GO!”
rainboom time!
Lolololololololol...ahem.lolololololololol...my bad but the guitar scene with Pinkie....lololololololololololol
As always, ALTERNATE UNIVERSE IS BEST UNIVERSE!
I WANT MOAAAARRR!!!
Ah, a callout to the death of Gwen Stacy? Interesting.
Still, this is starting to get tedious.
This final confrontation is starting to drag out. I thought for sure we'd reached the climax when NMM had threatened basically to make everyone there suffer horribly, and then Dash calls out the other elements and then gets reminded of her own loyalty. Instead we get a brief punch-fest that ends with a Green Goblin moment. I'm actually starting to consider not even reading the next update, for fear that it will be ANOTHER cliffhanger/extension, because at this point it's starting to become rote.
Oh, come on! This is not funny.
I meen it Pinkie! Confound those cliffhangers, they drive me crasy.
EL KABONG!
GASP! SONIC RAINBOOM! SONIC RAINBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!
1174438
So...many...cliffhangers...