PONY Legacy

by RBDash47

10 Restoration

The train sped toward the Badlands, barely shuddering when Cracken and her Black Guard touched down on the roof and killed their flight packs. At a gesture from their commander, the soldiers swung down and jumped inside through the open door. After a moment, she followed them in, already knowing what she would find:

An empty cabin.

There was noprogram aboard the train. The soldiers made a brief but thorough search and nodded at her to confirm. She stepped forward and inspected the console, then looked ahead through the windshield.

Without facing them, she signaled to her Guard, and one by one they filed out the open door, flying up into a holding pattern above the train. She paused a moment, watching the landscape blur by as the train approached a brightly lit arch, the craggy Badlands beyond it. Dazzling pink letters at the top of the arch spelled out a message to any passengers who might glance up in time to see it.

- — END OF LINE — -

The tracks ended abruptly just beyond, at the edge of a sheer cliff face that marked the boundary of the Badlands. Cracken took a few steps back, aligning herself with the still-open door. The train shot off the terminated tracks into the empty night beyond, beginning a slow arc to the ground far below.

Behind the dark glass of her helmet, Cracken allowed her eyes to slide shut, reveling in the feeling of weightlessness, seducing her senses with an effortless freedom. Her hooves lifted from the floor, the train falling away below her. After a moment, she pivoted, activated her flight pack, and launched out of the doomed train, arcing smoothly up to rejoin her waiting troops.

Below her, the empty train smashed into a dark hill, shattering into a dozen chunks of disfigured hardware that buried themselves amongst the mangled remnants of their predecessors.

Cracken signaled the Black Guard and they broke from their holding pattern, peeling off back towards Canterlot. She followed, analyzing the situation.

The targets had abandoned the train. Had they even boarded it to begin with? Possibly they’d activated it as a decoy and found some other way out of Canterlot. She rejected this. The elevator had been thoroughly deactivated, sealing them into the departure area. They must have left the train after it exited the tunnel at the base of the mountain. Were they proceeding on hoof, or had they secured some other form of transport?

A flicker at the corner of her eye. She turned and saw nothing at first, but then she saw it again: three shapes moving fast and low to the ground far to the side. Her eyes narrowed. No vehicle—just flight packs. Heading for the Portal, already far past her now. Possibly they had modified their flight packs for increased speed. She looked ahead at her Guard, but they were too far to signal; she had drifted while in thought. There was no time. She banked sharply, ignoring the sudden centrifugal force that screamed through her frame, and zeroed in on the swift-moving targets ahead. They were barely visible now. She tucked in her wings and stretched out her body, lowering her cross section and therefore her wind resistance, and sped towards them.

Shy landed on the balcony of RBD’s tower and tapped her pack control, shutting it off. She sighed as she felt the weight of the pack disappear and the legband’s telltales dimmed. Folding her wings, she stepped inside and found RBD poring over a map of the System. “Has Cracken found them yet?”

RBD glanced over her shoulder. “Shy. Hmm. No, she hasn’t yet. I’m sure she will, and if not, well, they’ll be taken care of.” She gestured to the map, where great orange shapes were advancing on the Badlands and the Portal within.

“Are… will they be hurt?”

RBD paused, then turned to face Shy and spoke in an even voice. “Of course not. I don’t want them hurt, I just want them returned, that’s all.”

Shy bit her lip, looking deep into RBD’s eyes. “I… wish I could believe you. I’ve tried to believe you for hundreds of cycles now, but I… I can’t do it anymore.”

RBD’s eyes narrowed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Shy gulped, but didn’t break eye contact. “It means I know what you’re doing is wrong. I know Celestia should be allowed to leave the System. Dash too.” At her double’s name, RBD’s lips twisted.

“Is that so?” RBD inspected her, then pointed to her foreleg. “What’s with the flight pack? Where’ve you been, Shy, hmm? Visiting with some old friends, maybe?” She took a step forward, and Shy instinctively took a step back.

“Y-you should give me your disc, RBD,” Shy said, standing up straighter.

RBD’s face broke into amazement, and she laughed: a hard sound. She took another step forward, and Shy retreated again. “Are you kidding me? You want me to just hoof over my disc, so you can run it back to your little princess so she can take care of me?”

Shy frowned. “Sh-she can fix you, RBD. She can fix everything. Everything can go back to—to the way it should be, if you’d just let her go.”

“Fix me?” RBD growled, and Shy jumped back in fright. “There’s nothing wrong with me. Maybe there’s something wrong with you, and I’ve put up with it for long enough.” The dark mare advanced on Shy, who recoiled and shook, but then the fair pegasus steadied herself and took a deep breath and stood up straight, and stared at RBD.

RBD froze. “What—what are you—” she ground out.

“Now you listen to me, RBD. You’re going to stop bullying everyprogram and you’re going to give me your disc. Do I make myself clear?”

Jerkily, RBD raised a hoof. Slowly moved it back towards her flank and her disc. “I… yes…” Then she snarled and lunged forward and Shy cried out but the cry guttered down to nothing halfway through. “…but it doesn’t matter how clear you make yourself. Celestia isn’t getting my disc.”

Shy looked down. She couldn’t breathe. She took in the sight of a burning orange blade extending from the foreleg of RBD’s suit, buried deep in her chest. She didn’t feel anything. Around the blade, spreading outward, her body began to decohere and fall apart, shattering silently into a waterfall of sparkling cubes that rained to the floor, bouncing between her forehooves.

She looked back up at RBD, her mouth working soundlessly, and the last thing she saw as her vision defocused was burning rage in magenta eyes.

RBD sneered at the dissolving pile of shimmering blocks that used to be her oldest friend.

“Pathetic.”

And she turned and strode toward the balcony.

Celestia cried out and started to lose altitude. They were still keeping low, so there wasn’t much to lose. She plowed into the ground, sending up a spray of debris, propelled by her relentless flight pack until the safeties cut in and the pack powered down, and she came to rest at the end of a long furrow in the terrain.

“Celestia!” Spark cried, and teleported instantly to her side out of mid-air. Dash was forced to wheel around and fly down to them, her mind ablaze with fear.

The ancient alicorn lay in a crumpled heap. Spark had wrapped herself around the fallen princess and was murmuring in her ear. Dash killed her pack and dropped to the ground next to them. “What happened?! Is she okay?”

Spark looked up at her, worry plain on her face. “I’m not sure. She isn’t responding to me. How do you feel?”

Dash was bewildered. “How do I feel? I’m fine, I didn’t just auger in—”

“That means she’s still keeping the life support spell going, Dash,” Spark cut in. “That’s a good sign.”

“Oh, ponyfeathers. Right.” Dash shuddered, but moved closer. “Celestia? Can you hear me?”

Celestia’s eyes flickered under their lids, and she twisted weakly in Spark’s embrace. “Dash… I… too much,” she breathed, barely audible. “It’s too much.”

Dash hardened her voice, glad Celestia’s eyes were closed, so the alicorn couldn’t see the fear in her eyes. “No, Celestia. We need you. I need you to keep going, to keep with it. We’re so close, we’re almost out of here. We’re almost back to Equestria. We all miss you so much. Luna misses you so much.”

Celestia calmed, resting against Spark, who stroked her mane. “Luna…”

“Yes, Luna. Your sister needs you too. You’ve done so well for so long in here, just a little more—practically no time at all—and you’ll be done, and you can rest.”

Celestia sighed, and was still for so long terror seized Dash’s heart and she felt her chest getting tight, too tight to breathe, but then—

“Yes,” Celestia whispered. “Almost there.” Her eyes opened and stared ahead blankly at the churning clouds, then she blinked and turned to look at Dash. “Thank you.”

Dash forced a smile. “Thank you. Really need that life-support spell going, you know?” She offered a hoof, and Celestia took it, and together Dash and Spark helped the much taller pony to her wavering feet. She took a moment to steady herself, then hugged Spark. The unicorn program hugged her back, pressing her face into Celestia’s chest, and Dash blinked in surprise and then sorrow at the glimmering tears forming in the corner of Spark’s squeezed-shut eyes. Celestia, who couldn’t see them, nuzzled Spark’s mane and they broke apart, Celestia nodding to Dash as Spark hurriedly wiped her face.

“We should get going,” Dash said.

A wave of weariness crashed over Celestia’s face, but she didn’t falter in her stance. “We should. But I could use a moment more before we get back under way, to collect myself.” Dash fought off an impatient grimace and nodded, inspecting the horizon instead. Celestia kneeled, closed her eyes, and began cycling through slow, deep breaths. For an instant, Dash thought she saw a bright pinpoint of pink light up near Canterlot, but it was gone instantly.

After a moment, Celestia breathed, “I am not… entirely sure what happened. It was as though the life support spell no longer had enough power to support us, and I nearly lost control of it. I lost control of my flight instead. You feel well?”

“Yeah, I didn’t notice anything,” Dash reassured her. She kept scanning the horizon, and caught another pink pinpoint, much lower down the mountain. She frowned and made eye contact with Spark, motioned her over without rousing Celestia.

“What is it?” Spark murmured.

“I keep seeing these pink flashes back towards the city,” Dash muttered in her ear. “Know what they could be?”

Spark frowned and looked towards Canterlot. “Hmm… pink’s not really in keeping with the motif here, you know?” She closed her eyes and lit her horn. “I’m scanning to see if I can feel anything unusual coming from over there.” Dash stared at her hornlight, which glowed magenta. “Wait, there is something… it’s stuttery, but it’s coming towards us…”

Dash smirked. “Of course it is!” She shot straight up into the sky, spinning to face Canterlot and peering at the landscape separating her from the capital city. As soon as she rose level with the cliff surrounding the Badlands, she could see more bright pink flashes. One at a time, they made their way with remarkable speed straight towards her across the wasteland, ending only a second or two later with a final burst directly in front of her.

As the magical light faded, she saw Twilight Sparkle’s face, abject worry replaced by utter relief as her eyes focused on Dash, and she knew then that at least to some degree, Spark had been right.

Twilight’s expression quickly turned to dismay as she began to fall, having not anticipated her mid-air arrival.

“Hold up!” said Dash. She reached down and grabbed the falling unicorn, bringing her back up to stare at her. A lot of thoughts and feelings fought in Dash’s mind for dominance. In the end, she just smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing in here, but I gotta say you have no idea how good it is to see you, even if you almost just killed me and Celestia.” She pulled her in for a hug.

“Rainbow!” Twilight wrapped her hooves around Dash and hugged back just as tightly. “When I realized what I’d done, where you’d gone—” She jerked back to give Dash a perplexed look. “What do you mean, I almost killed you and Celestia?!”

Dash laughed; she couldn’t help it. Everything had just gotten so much harder. “Come with me and I’ll explain.” She slowly started dropping them back to the ground. “And there’s someone you need to meet.”

Spark and Dash had to stand to one side as Twilight immediately beelined for the princess, any thought of bowing or custom forgotten as they embraced. Dash smiled to herself at the unbridled joy in Celestia’s eyes at the sight of her original most faithful student. The two cried in each other’s forelegs for a moment, Twilight assuring Celestia she’d never forgotten her and had been searching for her all these years, and Celestia assuring Twilight that she knew.

When they broke apart and Twilight turned back to Dash, her eyes landed on Spark and her jaw dropped. Dash and Spark tried to not laugh, and Spark stepped forward. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Twilight Sparkle.” She sketched a quick bow. “I’m Spark.” Twilight looked from Spark to Dash and back again, and then dipped into her own brief return bow before galloping over to examine Spark up close.

Dash grinned at the sight of two Twilight Sparkles face to face, one short-haired and bodysuited, one the same as always. She realized that just as with herself and RBD, Twilight looked a little older than her virtual counterpart, a few more lines around the eyes.

Spark laughed out loud when Twilight started poking and prodding her, and drew her real-life counterpart into a hug, whispering something into her ear. Twilight’s eyes widened and locked onto Dash’s, who cleared her throat.

“As fascinating as you are, we really don’t have time for this right now,” Dash said, and the two unicorns broke apart, Spark giving Twilight a sad smile and Twilight nodding back to her. “We’re kind of in a time crunch here. We have to get to the Portal before RBD or Cracken or the Black Guard get us.”

Twilight gasped and turned to face them all. “Of course! So stupid of me—that’s the whole reason I inserted myself here to begin with. There’s an ambush waiting for you in the Badlands, you were headed straight for it. I had to warn you!”

Dash blew out a breath. “Great, RBD didn’t have enough to throw at us already? What’s—”

A speeding dark shape lit with orange tracery interrupted her, smashing into the ground a few feet away. Dash leaped between it and the others and groaned when the debris cloud cleared enough to reveal Cracken, rising from a crouch. “Oh, buck,” she swore, thinking fast. “Spark, drop a shield around her, now.” Spark nodded and a bubble of light flickered into being around the black pegasus, who immediately reared up and battered against it. The lightwall flexed and pulsed at the points of impact, but didn’t give.

Dash rushed to Twilight. “Take this.” She shucked off her legband and slid it around Twilight’s foreleg, pressing the activation stud, taking some small pleasure in the expression of surprise on Twilight’s face as the pack’s weight materialized on her back. “It’ll let you fly. Celestia can help you with that. You’re going to help Celestia sneak past that ambush, okay?”

Twilight stared at her, speechless. Dash could see the gears turning behind her eyes, trying desperately to keep up with her rapidly changing situation. “You’ll be fine. Just be careful and stick close to Celestia, she’ll get you back to the Portal and we’ll all get out of here, okay?” A moment’s hesitation, and then Twilight nodded, giving herself over to Dash’s judgment, and warmth rose up in Dash. “Good. Now go help Spark with that shield for a second.”

Behind her, Cracken reared up and bucked the shield hard enough to send hairline fractures spidering over its surface. Despite being ten feet away and not physically linked with the shield, Spark herself slid backward from the force. Twilight gulped and galloped over, igniting her own horn, wrapping the shield in a second layer of energy.

Dash turned to Celestia. “You and Twilight are going to get to the Portal. Help her with the pack, and stay out of sight. You have to promise to get her out of here, no matter what.”

Celestia frowned back at her. “We will all return to Equestria.”

Dash set her jaw. “But if we can’t, if something happens, you leave me behind. Both of you are more important and you know it.”

“All of my little ponies are important. You are no exception.”

Dash growled with frustration and stabbed a hoof towards Twilight fighting to keep Cracken contained. “She’s the exception. She’s exceptional. You’re not going to win this argument, Celestia. Promise me.”

“I…” Dash’s eyes were hard as iron, and Celestia gave in. “Very well. I will do what must be done.”

“Good.” Dash whirled and called to the unicorns. “Can Cracken hear through that thing?”

“I don’t think so!” Spark shouted back.

“Okay! We’ve been winging it long enough, so here’s the plan. Spark, you’re our advance team. Follow the indicator to the Portal—teleport there and throw up a shield, don’t let anyone through except us. Twilight, you lead Celestia past the ambush. Celestia, you lead Twilight to the Portal. Got it?”

“What about Cracken?” Spark yelled.

“What about you?” Twilight cried.

“I’ll take care of Cracken, buy you guys the time you need to get to the Portal, and meet up with you there. Don’t you worry about me,” Dash said, confidence masking her desperation. “Everybody ready?”

“Yes!” they chorused.

“Okay. One—two—three—go!”

Dash gave a great flap of her wings and blasted straight for Cracken. In the split-second before she reached the black pegasus, the barrier separating them dissipated as Twilight ran to Celestia and Spark disappeared in a blaze of magical energy. Cracken barely had time to register that she was no longer confined before Dash smashed into her, sending them flying together into a nearby hillside.

Dash rose up and glared down at Cracken, who didn’t hesitate in using all four legs to kick Dash off of her. She tumbled down the hill and Cracken flew at her, but she rolled out of the way and managed to land a blow on Cracken’s leg as she landed. The resulting stumble bought her enough time to jump up and square off against the black pegasus.

She needed to slow Cracken down, make her enemy less maneuverable; that should get her the upper hoof and she could go from there. She knew just the thing.

Cracken lunged at her, swinging with a forehoof, but Dash bunched her legs underneath her and jumped straight up. She spun around as Cracken passed under her and kicked out with both hindlegs, striking both of Cracken’s wings hard enough to break the delicate bones inside. It should hurt a lot—assuming Cracken felt pain—but more importantly, it would make her wings useless dead weight.

But bones didn’t crack under her hooves. Instead, she felt an almost electrical sizzle.

She looked down in surprise. Cracken’s wings distorted briefly with a crackling noise before snapping back to normal. Dash continued her spin and stuck the landing, sliding back slightly from her momentum, and stared at Cracken, who had whirled to face her again and appeared completely unharmed. What the hay?

Her confusion distracted her long enough for the black pegasus to launch another attack, closing the distance with a flap of apparently invincible wings.

As Cracken spun around, aiming a roundhouse kick at her face, Dash caught sight of her enemy’s disc and the glimmer of a new idea formed in her mind. A moment later she was sailing through the air, her head ringing from the impact of Cracken’s hoof, but the idea solidified and she knew what she had to do.

Cracken landed on her, pinning her to the ground, but Dash used her wings to roll herself with no warning, taking Cracken by surprise. They ended up with Dash on top, and she grabbed Cracken’s helmet in both forehooves and started smashing it as hard as she could against the ground, over and over, until spiderweb fractures appeared in its surface and Cracken’s movements became wavery and erratic. Dash dropped the dazed program’s head and grabbed her disc right off her flank; Cracken was too disoriented to stop her.

“I really don’t want to derezz you, Cracken,” Dash told her barely-conscious enemy. “Too many programs have died already.” She put a little space between them, then set the disc down and activated its display. As she’d hoped, the status monitor indicated Cracken was a deeply corrupted program.

If Dash could restore her, they wouldn’t have to worry about the leader of the Black Guard any more. Might even have a new ally. She reached for the diagnostic commands but something grabbed her hindleg and dragged her away from the disc.

Dash rolled onto her back and saw Cracken hauling at her; the black pegasus was unsteady but still strong. With her free hindleg, Dash kicked Cracken in the face as hard as she could. Cracken’s head snapped back, her helmet shattering completely. She released Dash’s leg as she toppled backward in a crumpled heap on the ground, fragments of smoked glass raining down around her. Dash barely paused to watch.

She scrambled for the disc and hit the repair command, which flashed green and then began pulsing, signaling it was ready to begin its work. Dash scooped up the disc and ran back to Cracken, almost dropping it when she caught sight of Cracken’s face for the first time.

Her fur was discolored, practically gray, and she was almost entirely crisscrossed with horrible scars that gave her a blocky, malformed appearance. A particularly deep fissure ran across her throat.

Steeling herself, Dash set the disc on her enemy’s flank. Cracken’s eyes snapped open, bright emerald irises focusing instantly on Dash. She raised a foreleg but Dash snapped the disc into place and Cracken’s eyes flashed blue for an instant, and then she screamed.

Dash fell back at the jagged, garbled cry, as Cracken writhed and thrashed. Distortions rolled over her exposed skin, the scar tissue pulsing and bulging as it healed in shimmering waves. Electrical energy coruscated around her body and wings, growing in power and intensity until Cracken glowed white and Dash had to shield her eyes with a foreleg.

The screaming stopped. The light died out.

Dash risked a peek and saw Cracken’s limp form laying on the ground. Her suit’s orange lights had vanished. Dash slowly walked over to the black pegasus—but saw she wasn’t a pegasus any more. Her wings were gone. Hesitantly, Dash nudged her, but she didn’t respond. Dash grabbed her with her forelegs and rolled her over—and her breath caught in her throat.

Of course.

A short blonde mane fell away to reveal light orange fur dotted with pale freckles. After a moment, the reformed program stirred and slowly blinked, those same emerald eyes looking up at Dash, and she smiled. The telltale tracery on her suit pulsed to life, a soft cool blue.

“Well hey there, Rainbow Dash. Ain’t you a sight for sore eyes?” She pushed herself up, groaning. “I gotta tell you, I feel like I’ve been chewed up, spit out, and stepped on.” Dash offered her a hoof and helped her up, and ended up pulling her in for a hug.

“It’s great to see you, uh…”

They pulled back and the other mare grinned. “Call me APP.” She glanced around, sudden concern on her face. “Now then, we best get a move on! RBD’s gotta be on her way by now. We might be able to catch up with Twilight and Celestia, help make sure they get to the Portal.”

Dash nodded. “Right. Are you, uh,” she gave APP a once-over, “good to fly?”

APP craned her head to inspect her back, wiggling her shoulder blades. “Now that sure is weird. You really get used ta havin’ wings, after hundreds o’ cycles with ’em. But no, I think it’d probably be best if you flew and I hitched a ride, whaddaya say?” She slipped off her legband and offered it to Dash.

Dash unfurled her wings and gave them a flap. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She took the legband, put it on, and activated it; the flight pack thrummed to life on her suit. “Okay, hop on.”

APP climbed onto Dash’s back, carefully positioning herself to avoid the pack’s thrusters, and they streaked off into the dark sky.

Comments

[Black Hoof]

Celestia is getting in urgent need of medical care... but they got one less foe to worry about and a new ally! And Twilight is there to help too, good.
... Poor Shy...

[Bojack H]

please don't copy the end of tron legacy...

[RBDash47]

10875647
I'd like to think my ending is sufficiently different!

[tsaukpaetra]

But Dash should still have the enhanced flight pack...?
We've been wondering where Applejack's analogue has been all this time. Seems RBD is no stranger to hacking...
So the spell is even more taxing with each additional pony? Celestia you really need to optimize that...

[RBDash47]

10890004
Dash gave her pack to Twilight after Cracken showed up, so that Twilight could fly away with the others:

Dash rushed to Twilight. “Take this.” She shucked off her legband and slid it around Twilight’s foreleg, pressing the activation stud, taking some small pleasure in the expression of surprise on Twilight’s face as the pack’s weight materialized on her back. “It’ll let you fly. Celestia can help you with that. You’re going to help Celestia sneak past that ambush, okay?”

[Caligari87]

Seeing Celestia struggle is tough. She's usually so strong. All the face-to-face meetups were fun too! Sad that we lost Shy; wish she'd been able to do more but again her fate was likely pre-determined. RBD is really just intent on leaving a wake of destruction behind her, huh?

[AppleTank]

It's kinda neat Ch 10 was when Twilight linked up back with Dash, being 100x the time it took for them to sync up.