//------------------------------// // Just a Little Faster // Story: PONYVERSE // by TopWanted //------------------------------// Just a Little Faster ===E8DB Rainbow shot up into the sky and into the cloud cover. Immediately she was greeted with a world of dark grays and wetness. It took her a moment to orient herself. Then a lightning bolt shot past her arcing into the clouds behind. She was surprised by how quickly she dodged it. “Lightning!” she shouted into the void of gray. Several sparks shot off from not far away and she followed them. Yet whatever their source was seemed determined to stay out of reach. “Lightning, please! Talk to me!” She heard a weird sound like a rushed voice and a scream, then it spoke to her from seemingly all directions. “GET OUT OF HERE!” The voice was Lightning’s but something else as well. “I’m not leaving without you, Dust.” Electricity shot at her again but this time it seemed even slower than before. Rainbow moved to the side as it passed. “You’re getting weaker, you need to get that thing off you.” “Weaker?” The revenant shot out from behind her and grabbed her neck. “I’m stronger than you’ll ever be!” Rainbow struggled against its hold and shook vigorously. She felt her body almost heat up as she kept shaking and shaking and then the revenant flew off. Rainbow had to calm herself down to stop the shaking. She looked at her hoof and almost saw it blur with motion. What was that? “How did you do that?” the revenant asked as it righted itself below her. “I… I don’t…” It shouted and launched again. Once more Rainbow saw the attack coming and was able to dodge but then it bounced on the cloud behind her and ricocheted. Rainbow tried to keep track of where it went as the revenant flew in sharp angles all over the place. She was amazed she was able to keep up with it. Finally, it attacked reaching its black hoof out at her in a wild pounce. Rainbow lifted her own hoof to intercept and the two collided with a shocking impact. The revenant stared in disbelief at her, cocking its head to the side. Even Rainbow was surprised she was doing this good considering her wounds. Her wounds that she couldn’t even feel anymore. “What… did you do?” it asked in Lightning’s voice. Instinctively, Rainbow gritted her teeth and pushed forward like a punch. Electricity shot up her arm and the speed of her swing was increased a dozen times over. The revenant went flying back in surprise and crashed through the cloud cover. Rainbow was left alone staring at her hoof as an arc of multicolored energy dissipated around it. “What’s going on?” --- Elsewhere in an abandoned lair floating in spacetime, a siren blared. Outside the fortress electricity and colors shifted from pink and white to every color imaginable. On a screen a simple warning flashed. “Veloci-Source Anomaly Detected! Veloci-Source Anomaly Detected!” --- Rainbow broke through the cloud cover and immediately saw the carnage below. Things were getting worse as fires had begun to break out in Hoofenbach. Even Sky Glaive was not immune as she saw the earth ponies had set up catapults to shoot balls of burning hay into the cloud holding it up. Each hit seemed to disperse more cloud and she could already see Sky Glaive beginning to tilt. They’ll just let it drop on themselves at this rate, she thought. The revenant slammed into her side with a roar and Rainbow spun in the air. They tumbled head over hooves as neither could control where they flew, colliding with the ground of Sky Glaive. They separated and Rainbow could see venom in the revenant’s eyes. “I don’t know how you got so good so fast but it doesn’t change anything!” “Lightning, look around! Everything’s falling apart! Spitfire used you to start a war! Our friends are getting hurt needlessly fighting each other!” Lightning almost seemed to react to this as her head turned right and left taking the scene in. But the revenant simply shook her head to clear it. “Let them fight. We’re the ones fighting now.” Rainbow stood a little taller, her face looking more determined. “You don’t want to do this. I know you, Lightning. You’re brash, rude, a showoff. But so am I. So was I. But we can’t be like that forever. We can’t live for the trophies or the wins.” She reached for her chest and took off her Wonderbolt pin showing it to her. “This represents more than just us. It represents a duty. Duty to the ponies of Equestria. But also a duty to each other.” The revenant glared at her but still made no move. “We protect each other. So that’s what I’m going to do for them, Dust. What are you going to do?” The revenant looked about ready to attack when it turned away in pain. It screamed and reached a hoof up to its face, gripping the darkness covering it and tearing it free. Rainbow saw Lightning’s eye protrude from beneath as she continued to tear down the length of her neck, her mouth getting free. “Don’t… just stand there!” Lightning shouted, struggling to fight the thing that had overtook her. Rainbow was on her in a flash. She helped grab at the darkness and pulled until it gave. For some reason it seemed to shrink at her touch, the darkness itself almost screaming in pain. Lightning’s head and torso became free and Rainbow grabbed her hooves. The darkness latched itself onto the ground behind its host, desperately pulling her back. Yet Rainbow pulled in the opposite direction. Their eyes met. “I was an idiot,” Lightning fought to say as she writhed against the revenant’s hold. “I never should have done this. I just… I just wanted you to acknowledge me. I know Fluttershy was your friend, but so was I!” Rainbow pulled a little harder beginning to beat her wings. “That’s not stupid. I was the idiot. I never actually said how I appreciated you! You have nothing to prove to me! Because you’ll always be my friend!” The revenant let out another shriek and rainbow beat her wings faster. Soon they began to blur behind her. Tendrils around Lightning began to snap and in an instant she was free. Rainbow’s momentum sent her flying backward at incredible speed, a shock wave of rainbow energy lingering behind her. She grabbed Lightning tight and flew into the sky with her. Behind them on the tarmac, the revenant wailed and waved without its host. Rainbow didn’t even know how fast she was going until she broke through the cloud cover and into the ionosphere. She stopped on a dime and looked down, noticing a trail of crackling multicolored electricity following her. Lightning still held on but pushed her face away looking down as well. “How did we get up here?” Even she had not been that fast getting this high. Rainbow looked at her hooves again noticing the trailing currents of energy. They looked familiar. She smiled. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think we have a lot of time to think about it. What do you say we clear these clouds with a double rainboom?” Lightning flapped her wings and flew next to her. “But… I’m not as strong anymore. And that’s your thing.” “You saying you can’t do it?” She asked with a grin. Lightning’s dejectedness vanished and she frowned. “You kidding?” They clasped hooves and nodded to each other. “Let’s do some cleaning up then.” --- Spitfire, otherwise known as Queen Chrysalis, looked on the battle with a despondent air. She did not want to abandon this place since it had proved a rather nice nest for feeding off of the cooperation and camaraderie the ponies of the two camps held. But, the safety of her hive came first. They needed to be gone as this floating island they called Sky Glaive would soon be the location of another battle. One far more destructive and devastating. One that could destroy all her changelings. To simply leave would cause too much of a stir. There were already too many changelings in place, their disappearance wouldn’t go unnoticed and Chrysalis had worked too hard to keep her race secret. By getting the ponies to destroy themselves she ensured a safe and explainable way for all of her children to disappear. Nopony would question the disappearance of soldiers during a war. They’d just be deserters. She gaged the emotions of the battle going on above and below while watching from the edge of Sky Glaive. Anger and retribution. Not very tasty emotions. Too hot and dry with no substance, yet this wasn’t the time to eat. “My Queen!” one of her soldiers floated down next to her and bowed. “Report?” she asked, though it seemed like everything was going smoothly. “We’ve discovered something on the tarmac.” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow but followed them. What awaited was something strange. A mass of wet-looking black tendrils all clumped together on the ground. “And this just appeared?” “After those two mares finished fighting. We stayed away as long as possible but this was left behind.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the thing. Her plan had been going well so far, but those two presented a problem. The rainbow maned mare from her dream, not to mention reports of a pink blur attacking her soldiers below. Two of the ponies from her prophetic dream. This could not be a coincidence. No doubt the rainbow maned one would be back as well. She had shown her tenacity despite her wounds. She saw the mass wriggle and writhe as if alive and frowned. Tentatively the changeling queen reached out to its emotions. She let out a gasp as her mind brushed against the thing. Her pupils dilated and she fell to her knees. Thirsty. Why was she so thirsty? It was like this thing did not have emotions but rather the antithesis of them. It seemed to drain her of all sustenance. She tried to pull away but the thing had her. It had no eyes but it knew where she was. It lunged at her. ===E8DB Lightning took a deep breath as they lined up next to each other. “You got this,” Rainbow said. “I know, shut up.” Lightning said back. She looked annoyed but Rainbow could tell she was thankful for the support. It was good to see her friend again. It made the decision she’d made all the more easy. “Ready?” “Ready.” “GO!” Both shot out of the sky above and down. Rainbow flew faster than she had ever gone but for some reason she knew she could go faster. Lightning trailed only a little bit behind, seeming to catch her backdraft. Before, she had to be precise in when she could use the rainboom, but now she felt like she could use it whenever she wanted. They hit the cloud cover above the stratosphere and she let it loose. An explosion of color shot out in all directions, pushing the clouds away. Directly behind her, Lightning also hit the barrier. Her own pulse was a bright yellow and exploded in all directions, seeming to rain a mixture of yellow magic and sunlight down on the grounds. They still flew but Rainbow could see that their explosions had stopped the fighting. Ponies were looking up in shock and awe as two beautiful sights seemed to bring them back to their senses. The only ones left still fighting covered their eyes, their disguises beginning to fail from the massive amount of magical energy. --- A soldier on the ground jumped slightly at the sight of one of his comrades turning into an insect-like thing. More and more began to react like this, even in the air. At the center of camp, a large stallion climbed to the top of a stack of logs and shouted for attention. “Stop this!” Shining Armor shouted. “Do you see now? The enemy you’ve been fighting is each other. Don’t let your anger cloud your judgment!” He pointed to a changeling. “This is the enemy! The ones you’ve been so afraid of and have manipulated you so much.” The changelings didn’t seem to be able to change back, their magic damaged in some way. They all began to back away as the tide of battle suddenly shifted. Shining Armor and Pinkie nodded to each other smiling as the soldiers began to advance on the bug army. Then, to the surprise of everypony, the changelings began to fight back. --- “What?” Rainbow said as she looked at the new battle starting below. Catapults still fired and ponies still fought, only with their attentions on the right adversary. Still, why hadn’t the changelings simply fled. There were a lot of them, sure, but there were more ponies. They didn’t have an advantage. Yet the resolution in their eyes disturbed her. “Why is it still going?” Lightning asked from behind her. “I don’t-” She was cut off as a giant black tendril crashed into her and Lightning. It stuck to her like glue and slammed her down on the ground of Sky Glaive so hard that the camp fell another few feet in the sky. If they didn’t do anything now it would crush everypony beneath it. Lightning was out cold and Rainbow struggled against the blackness but stopped as she looked up at the face of their captor. The tendril holding them was gigantic because the monster was gigantic. Covered in the darkness that had once possessed Lightning, now stood a giant changeling, ten stories tall and growing as more of the swarm flew mindlessly to join it. It was shaped like a taller changeling, with a long neck and crooked horn. The darkness seemed to pulse across its body as she could see hundreds of squirming forms beneath it like roaches beneath a blanket. It lowered its massive head toward her with narrow eyes full of red glowing hate. “You insignificant little gnat!” it shouted in a feminine voice reminiscent of every mare she had ever known. “You think this changes anything? You think you can go on after making so many mistakes?!” Like Lightning before it, it seemed confused at its own words, like it was many talking as one. “I hate you. I hate you! I…” It stopped as the face contorted and seemed to change morphing into a softer younger one. It looked at her with a new expression she did not expect and spoke in one simple voice. “Help… me.” “Fluttershy…” The face changed again becoming fanged and angry as it lifted its other hoof to bring it down on them. Then everything slowed down. Rainbow knew immediately what was going on. It was simply an extension of the strange things that had been happening to her all day. Time had not stopped but more she was moving fast. She spotted some flyers fighting in the air as beats of their wings seemed to take an eternity. “Is this how Pinkie feels all the time?” she asked herself. She didn’t know why Pinkie’s powers had become hers, but she had no time to look a gift horse in the mouth. She had to find some way to stop all this. The rainboom had only revealed the changelings but now with the Revenant controlling them, they were probably ten times as dangerous. Not to mention the fact that the island they were on was slowly falling out of the sky. Rainbow closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to go through every ability Pinkie had shown them. She recalled a time when the mare actually vibrated so fast that she phased through the wall of the Veloci-Lair and scared Flutterbat. Could that work? Rainbow concentrated on shaking her whole body and vibrated. It was slow at first but her determination made it stronger. Then stronger. Still, why couldn’t she phase through? She tried harder pushing her body to the limit until she screamed in pain. Then the boom hit. --- Rainbow felt herself detach from the sticky darkness and float away. It was amazing. These powers had just healed her a while ago and now they had nearly rattled her to breaking. Pinkie did this almost every day? She wearily opened her eyes to find herself in a swirling vortex of colors. Pink looked to be the most prominent but arcs of every color sparked and threatened to overtake it. She felt like she was floating in a dream, then she saw it. She had only seen the place from the inside but it made her recognize the layout of the world around her. “The Veloci-Source?” There was no air here, yet she could breathe. No ground, yet she could walk. A screech reached her ears and she spun around finally seeing one of the reason she was so tired. The giant revenant reared its hooves back, obviously more hindered by the loss of ground than she, and screamed again waving its tendrils everywhere. It spun in space, flakes of itself falling off like ash, dissolving in the space around it. Rainbow narrowed her eyes on a bit of color amidst the dark. Lightning had been brought too. The revenant made eye contact with her and then Lightning, narrowing its eyes with hate before struggling forward. Rainbow launched herself forward too but found that just because she could walk here didn’t make it easy. Walking in the Veloci-Source was like drudging through a bank of snow up to her neck. It was as if the place, despite being a source of speed, spurned it as well. Both struggled against their hamperings trying to reach the mare who floated unconscious between them. Rainbow could move faster than it, but the revenant was closer. It swung its arms at Lightning aimlessly, ash falling off it as it continued to dissolve. To her horror, Rainbow saw that Lightning was also beginning to fade away, pieces of herself flaking off. “NO!!” Rainbow shouted and increased her efforts. “I won’t… let anything… happen to you!” She was so close she reached her hoof out to catch her, the revenant was right there as well. “That’s my promise!” She clasped her friends hoof just as the revenant swung. She pulled her away, its attack narrowly missing as it made a silent scream of rage. She pulled Lightning to her body and began to vibrate just as she’d done before, her mind only focused on getting back home. As she began to vibrate again the revenant went through its death throws, thrashing wildly and shrieking. Hundreds of faces pushed against its skin. Most were changelings but one stood out to her. A friend’s face. It seemed to look her in the eyes as it dissolved out of existence. “I’ll help you too, Fluttershy,” she whispered. Her body and Lightning’s disappeared in a boom, leaving the Revenant alone. Its red eyes widened in fear as most of its body had faded away. It tried to let out one last howl of rage but its voice died and faded as easily as its flesh. Soon it was torn to pieces and evaporated in the realm of lightning and energy.