//------------------------------// // Rainbow Rumble // Story: An Interesting Arrival // by Moongaze14 //------------------------------// Rainbow Rumble “I can’t believe you did that!” Rarity shrieked, scandalized at her friend’s behavior. “What the heck did I do?” Rainbow Dash asked in outrage. “As if getting incriminated by my former idol Wind Rider this morning was not enough, that jerk Statice has to ruin my afternoon with his smart mouth!” It had been a very silent trip to their room. For Rarity, she had seethed and boiled her anger and disapproval of Rainbow Dash’s actions against Statice, forming a mental list of all the grievances she had against her. Rainbow Dash, for her part, was more prepared imagining the beatdown for the green unicorn and was taken aback by Rarity’s outburst, only holding her own by her passionate belief that she was on the right in her grudge against Statice. “I’ll admit that he may be uncouth,” Rarity started, remembering her previous disagreements with Statice and then recalling how he helped her with the fake date with Fancy Pants. “But I’ve seen hints that he may be a decent pony if he’s given a chance.” “Oh, please,” Rainbow Dash snorted. “He’s a jerk!” “Need I remind you that so was Discord, and that's not counting the fact that he was worse than Statice when we first met him!” Rarity stomped a hoof adamantly. “And we gave him a chance, two if we count the time he betrayed us to Tirek.” “Then let me remind you that the first time, it was only Fluttershy rather than us who gave him the chance, and she started only because Princess Celestia ordered us to redeem him?” Rainbow Dash shoved her snout into Rarity’s face. “Not even she, his best friend, would have given him a chance if it wasn’t for our princess giving her the mission and some words of encouragement.” “Then I guess you wouldn’t have reconciled with Gilda if the map had not summoned you to Griffonstone, would you?” Rarity countered with narrowed eyes as she shoved her snout back into Rainbow Dash’s face. “Don’t bring Gilda into this,” Rainbow Dash growled, not happy to have her newly reformed friendship brought into the argument. “Gilda was very much vulgar when she first came to Ponyville, and she was very vocal about it too, while Statice at least had the decency to behave as cordially as possible,” Rarity observed clinically, not judging yet still digging for answers. “I can’t grasp why you can’t give Statice the same benefit Gilda had. Is it because you’re not foalhood friends? Or is something much more personal?” “I don’t like the guy,” Rainbow Dash glared at Rarity. “But why do you ‘don’t like’ him, darling?” Rarity asked with a softened gaze in an effort to understand him. “Is it because of the events of our first meeting with him when he attacked the guards, our fight with him, the trial where he disrespected the princesses, the accidental kiss, the escape where he made us think that he fell from Canterlot?” “No, no, no, NO, no!” Rainbow Dash answered all of her encounters with Statice on their first meeting in rapid fire, blushing and giving her fourth reply at the loudest volume when she remembered that the jerk was her first kiss. She actually flew away from Rarity, earning a smirk of satisfaction from the alabaster unicorn at winning their little staring contest. “Was it because of the Aster dilemma?” Rarity frowned comprehensively. “I understand if you do. I really thought that there was a connection between me and Aster and I was very disappointed that there was some sort of persona that Statice used to get information, even if that information was on something trivial like how to socialize better with others.” Why did she have to bring that up? Might as well get some closure on it since I never talked about the subject. “Yes,” Rainbow Dash lowered her head. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I was that close to Aster. I saw him fly around Ponyville and I could see that he’d rather be with other ponies than us. The only reason I wanted to hang out with Aster was because of Pinkie’s hunch on how familiar he was and because I kinda liked having somepony besides Applejack who could give me a run for my bits at being the Iron Pony. Then I find out Aster never existed and it was Statice all along. I felt like I lost a friend and somepony played a sick joke on me.” Rainbow Dash raised her head and saw Rarity sniffing with tears in her eyes. She reacted accordingly with a disturbed expression when the unicorn bawled and hugged her. “Oh, Rainbow, I didn’t knew you cared!” she bawled as her makeup was running down her cheeks. “Calm down, Rarity!” Rainbow Dash tried to push the unicorn away from her, cursing inwardly when she realized that Rarity was stronger than she looked. “Besides, that’s not the only reason I dislike Statice. It’s more than just sad, sappy stuff. It’s something more…darker.” “Darker, you say?” Rarity’s ears perked up at the word. Her makeup was still ruined despite no longer crying. Geez, this is awkward. It's like those stories when you tell your friend you have a crush on somepony. Well, on the bright side, if I ever get a crush on somepony, I can use this as a reference. “I’m not sure why, but for some reason, I can’t help disliking him,” Rainbow Dash frowned pensively. “Every time that I think of him, I just wanna wrangle his neck and I’m not sure why. I dealt with jerks bigger than him. This feeling just keeps getting bigger every time that I see him.” “Are you sure?” Rarity asked, feeling unnerved at what she was hearing. “Yes,” Rainbow Dash was uneasy. “I keep hearing good things from Fluttershy, Discord, and Scootaloo. And yet, somehow, I still hate him. I’ve seen the worst of him when he fought with Piercing Gaze. I’ve seen how sneaky he can be when he tricked us into that Arcanum Ball game so that we all get stuck defending one zone each while he defends all six zones with all the freedom he wants. Just standing there and pretending that I like him is eating me from the inside out, Rarity!” And then she let out a primal scream and kicked a hole on the wall. The action caught both her and Rarity by surprise. They stared at each other for a minute. “I gotta clean that up,” Rainbow Dash broke the silence awkwardly. “I have to take some air,” Rarity demurely said as she got out of the room. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, ready to give another scream, except that this time she chose to swallow it, lest she lost control and kicked another hole on the wall. She extended her right wing and read the challenge. I could always refuse and apologize. Rarity is trying to make peace with Statice. Getting into a fight with him would mean ruining any progress she made with him. She thought of Statice and then remembered all the good and bad stuff he had done to her and her friends. It was a mental exercise that Twilight had taught her to gauge whether somepony was good or evil. It wasn’t perfect by Twilight’s admission, but it was the closest thing she had to determine what kind of pony Statice was. Besides the mutual enmity besides her friends and Statice, Rainbow Dash realized that there was a special rivalry between herself and Statice. Most of their greatest insults were towards each other. He had prepared special tortures for her, such as using electricity to tickle her hooves, putting special emphasis on some of his insults just for her, or wasting a special brand of cider just to see her heartbroken reaction. They hated each other, pure and simple. It’s not like me fighting Statice is gonna ruin any progress that Rarity made with him. Besides, that jerk has it coming. She stuffed the challenge letter in the hole she kicked and got out of the room. If there was nopony in the shop, then she could always buy the supplies she needed to fill the hole in the wall to hide the evidence before Rarity came back: the perfect crime. Rarity knocked on the door of Statice’s door. Much to her worry, nopony answered. She assumed it was because the green unicorn had not yet arrived. The last thing she needed was not finding Statice to settle things up with him before something bad could develop between him and Rainbow Dash. Oh, why did Rainbow Dash have some primal hatred for him? I mean, seriously, whoever heard of primal hatred before? Couldn’t she be one of those mares that are in love with stallion and try to refuse their feelings by being in denial through insults? How in the stars am I going to explain this to Statice? “Is that you, Rarity?” Statice’s voice snapped Rarity out of her thoughts as she realized that the green unicorn had opened the door. “May I come in?” she asked politely. “You may,” he gestured with his head, allowing Rarity to enter into his room. It looked the same as before. “How are you doing at school?” Rarity asked politely. Normally, Statice would have snapped at Rarity for that comment. However, he knew that Rarity was sensible about his education and that, unlike Rainbow Dash, she didn’t mean to mock him about his temporary settlement in the educational ladder. “I’m doing fine,” Statice smiled in accomplishment. “I’m close to learning all of the experiments and assignments in the books of Magic Kindergarten. I think I may try to see if grade skipping is possible here.” “Well, I do recall some stories of Twilight doing grade skipping a couple of times,” Rarity smiled fondly as she remembered how proud her purple friend felt when she recalled her childhood accomplishments. “Nice,” Statice smiled, more for himself than for Twilight. “That means that I’ll move to that Gifted Unicorn school that everypony is bragging about.” “It is a big deal,” Rarity frowned worryingly at him. “Very few can enter and even fewer can graduate, and much fewer can make something of themselves.” “Well, I think I can fit in the criteria if I made it here despite my lack of magic know-how,” Statice sat on his bed to look at Rarity. “Do you mind telling me why you came here? I’ll assume that this is about Rainbow Dash.” Rarity blushed indicated that he hit the nail on the head. “I am ashamed of how Rainbow Dash acted when she found out about...” Rarity started the speech she prepared on her way to Statice’s room, stopping when a green hoof pressed against her lips. “Don’t even bother,” Statice shook his head in disapproval. “I don’t like it when ponies speak in behalf of somepony else. That counts as a fake apology. I’m not the type of pony that…” He was cut short when he was met with a pair of cold blue eyes that were blazing with indignant anger and a white hoof snaking against his foreleg as it removed it from her lips. From the look on Rarity’s face, she did not appreciate being interrupted. “I did not come here to apologize in Rainbow Dash’s place,” she spoke with a prim and graceful smile despite the fire in her eyes. “I merely came to ask you to give her a chance to apologize. I’ve already talked with her and realized that the two of you need to sort out your differences. Can you please listen to what I have to say to you?” “Very well,” Statice replied, putting on a tough face despite the pain in his foreleg caused by the vice grip of her hoof. What is it with mares being way stronger than they look and showing it when you have your guard at its lowest? My masters were right, females can be more dangerous than the males at times. “I know that Rainbow Dash is problematic, aggressive, and with a short temper,” Rarity began, eyes widening as she realized she was not up to a good start when she noticed Statice giving her a deadpan glare. “However, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have good qualities.” “If you’re gonna give me a profile you’re wasting your time,” Statice leaned on his bed. “Remember, Discord pretty much showed me all of Rainbow’s life since she became the Element of Loyalty until the day she defeated Tirek with you girls.” Darn it, Discord! Rarity measured her options. He already knew about Rainbow’s life until the day she defeated Tirek. Maybe some trivia information that showcased her more noble attributes would help Statice see her in a better life. “Did you know that she made peace with Gilda?” Rarity offered as she summoned her fainting couch from out of nowhere. “Is that so?” Statice asked, intrigued by the possibility of the story. “Tell me about it in extreme detail.” Rarity told him about how Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie went to Griffonstone in a mission given by the map located inside of Twilight’s castle. She then explained how the true purpose of the mission was to teach the griffons friendship by having Pinkie help Gilda and Rainbow Dash restore their friendship so that Gilda can teach friendship to their community. “You do realize that in the end Pinkie is the hero because she chose to believe in Gilda until the end while Rainbow Dash was still too stuck in the past, right?” Statice gave her a deadpan look. The question caused Rarity’s face and eyes to turn red as she grinded her teeth. For a second, Statice was ready to defend himself in case she attacked him. To his relief, she exercised great self-control. How can this ruffian remain so cynical after such a beautiful story? Nopony should have to pick sides after forgiving their friends for their transgressions? Who cares who was in the right or was in the wrong? Calm down, Rarity! He comes from a different land. He was raised to believe in different values. Maybe another story may help. “Have I told you about the time Tank went to hibernate?” Rarity asked suggestively. “Tortoises and reptiles don’t hibernate,” Statice glared at her. “They do brumate during winter. What kind of moron gave you that incorrect definition?” “Fluttershy did!” Rarity replied, offended that Statice was insulting her friend indirectly. “She even used a book for reference!” “Fluttershy was the one who did it,” Statice frowned in confusion. “I guess the zoologists in Equestria need to better study their terminology better. We’re digressing. What’s this about Tank?” “Well, Rainbow Dash did not take it well when she found out she was going to be without a pet all winter,” Rarity winced as she recalled the incident, deciding to omit some of her friend’s most unpleasant acts from the story. “She tried to prevent winter from coming at all cost." From the look of Rarity’s face, it was easy to assume that Rainbow Dash’s acts were more than just embarrassing. He was going to bet that some may have also been criminal in nature. He was not going to pry to avoid losing his source of information for the time being. “Eventually, when Fluttershy told her that she was going to endure the winter without her Tank, Rainbow Dash broke down crying…and so did Fluttershy…and Pinkie…and…ME!” Rarity immediately burst into tears at the vivid memory. Statice was too slow as Rarity drenched him in tears, leaving him to cough in his bed as she summoned tissues to dry her eyes. “Can you actually tell me something useful about Rainbow Dash, Rarity?” Statice glared at the crying fashionista. “Frankly, I don’t appreciate being covered in tears.” “Oh,” Rarity caught herself and blushed. She gave him an apologetic smile as she summoned a mirror and primed herself, fixing the smeared makeup she ruined with her tears. “I’m not sure how or why, but there is something wrong with Rainbow Dash,” she spoke, losing her smile and focusing her attention on her reflection even though she was no longer in need to maintain her beauty. “What is wrong with her?” Statice dared to ask. “She…hates you,” she replied. “I think she initially disliked you for all the previous encounters you had with her. All of them were accumulated bad experiences. I also think that she took the Aster scandal a little too personal because you were at least a friend in her eyes and then it turned out that you were just a lie. But that’s not the really scary part…” “What’s the scary part?” he felt uneasy asking for the rest. “She hates you because it feels natural,” Rarity finally looked at him in the eyes. “For some reason, Rainbow Dash can’t help but dislike you regardless of whether you do things that redeem you in the eyes of others. That’s why I want you to meet me and her tomorrow afternoon to have a chat. If you can’t be friends, then how about we try to be civil to each other?” “I’ll try my best,” Statice promised. “Thank you for coming here.” He was rewarded with a hug and a kiss from Rarity, who didn’t say another word as she rushed out of his room. He didn't react with blushing or embarrasment as he usually did when receiving affection or attention from a beautiful mare. Instead of that, he looked mortified at the information he received. He sighed as he decided to take a nap. Somepony who hates me by instinct, I’ve never faced anything like that before. “You did WHAT now?” “I said I invited Statice to have a chat with us,” Rarity repeated the news to Rainbow Dash without missing a beat. As she predicted, Rainbow Dash was not happy with the idea of her going to talk with Statice behind her back. “Why would you do that?” Rainbow Dash groaned in disgust. “The same reason you covered that hole…even if you did it with some distasteful manner,” Rarity replied as she looked at her pegasus friend with determination and then grimaced at the patched up hole. “Hey, I patched this thing up by myself!” Rainbow Dash gestured at her work with a mixture of pride and hurt feelings. “Changing the subject,” Rarity turned her head away, more to avoid looking at the monstrosity that caused an imperfection in their otherwise pristine room. “It’s about time we put aside this animosity between you two. Statice actually agreed. Why can’t you agree as well?” Well, if this means so much to Rarity then I’ll do it. Besides, there’s no way in Tartarus that I’m losing to this jerk in who’s the most civil of the two. “Fine,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “We’ll go to your afternoon chat.” “It’s settled!” Rarity beamed at Rainbow Dash before instantly scowling at the patched up hole. As her attention was driven away from her prismatic friend, she failed to notice the evil smile that formed in her face. Luckily for me, my fight with Statice starts early in the morning. It was an hour before dawn by the time Statice awoke. It was a habit that he had made to prepare himself for big events, such as battles and wars. If the videos that Discord showed him were correct, Rainbow Dash was a force of natural destruction at her best when she didn’t let her ego tamper with her potential. I hate that type of guys. It’s always hard to gauge up how much of a threat they truly are because they keep showing up their best and worst. A maelstrom of scenarios played inside his mind taking Rainbow Dash’s speed and agility in land and air into account and pitting them against her emotional immaturity to determine how he would fare against her. Some of them showed him emerging victories because Rainbow Dash was easily distracted by her hubris and short temper. Other times showed him beaten because her reflexes, eyesight, motivation, and recent training with the Wonderbolts may allow her to temper her emotions constructively. I wish I had fought her a few seasons ago. It would have been so much easier. “It’s about time you showed up!” Statice was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Rainbow Dash at the courtyard. She lacked that smug smile she always had, instead replaced with a grumpy frown that was usually reserved for him. The feeling was mutual as he scowled when he saw her. “When are we starting?” Rainbow Dash asked as she started stretching her limbs, making audible cracking and popping noises. “Right about now in Winsome Falls,” Statice declared as he opened his Archive and displayed a map of Equestria, proudly portraying all the marks that he had put there for easy access. He placed his horn in the mark that showed Rainbow Falls. “Let’s do this then,” Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on his shoulder as he activated the teleportation spell. In a flash, they had arrived at the location for their fight. Winsome Falls looked different from the time on which Statice fought Piercing Gaze. For starters, it looked ready for a thunderstorm as he noticed that most of the clouds were black or dark gray. A second thing he noticed was that there was no sunlight due to the day being cloudy and that the only sources of color were the many rainbows that were falling as rivers, puddles, or arcs in the sky. “Must be the changing of the seasons,” Rainbow Dash observed and then instantly answered as soon as Statice turned his head to ask. “Winsome Falls always does some sort of random storms with rain, thunder, and blizzard with the changing of the seasons. We’re gonna do Nightmare Night in some time so that means that we're preparing the best of fall.” “Makes sense,” Statice shrugged his shoulders and then he braced himself for combat just as Rainbow Dash assumed the opposite position. Their bodies tensed for a second and by the next second they released as they charged at each other. Statice lighted his horn with magic as he pivoted on his front legs, disappearing in a flash. He vanished! Wait! It’s just like that fight with Piercing Gaze. He teleported so that he could kick him in the middle of the attack. He spun around so that he could buck me from behind. Well, that won’t happen if I buck him first! In a second, Rainbow Dash stomped her forelegs on the ground to brake her charge and balanced on top of them, holding her rear legs in the air and preparing them for a buck just in case Statice was going to attack her from behind. She heard a popping and tensed her hind legs even more when another thought passed through her. Wait! Twilight said that if she ever used teleportation for physical attacks, the closest thing would be to pop in and buck them from a blind spot. However, she spoke about Statice like that thing was beneath him. And the way he kicked Piercing Gaze when he teleported was when the kick was still in motion so I would have been kicked by now. So that means, so it’s not a buck… In less than a second, Rainbow Dash turned her head back and saw Statice charging a spell, ready to hit her with a blast. She had to act fast or else she was going to get hit. She stomped her hind legs back into the ground, bent her forelegs, and extended her wings. By the time the green blast was fired, Rainbow Dash put all six appendages to work to perform an aerial backflip to save herself. The prismatic mare looked stunned as she kept herself floating in the air. She didn’t get time to catch her breath as she was assaulted by a repeated salvo of magic blasts. “Woah!” she yelled as she dodged left, right, up, and down. She was forced to contort her body and balance herself between four legs, two legs, and even one leg as she kept dodging each blast. I always knew he was a jerk, but this takes the cake! For his part, Statice was growing more frustrated with his blasts. Even with the good fortune of Rainbow Dash being caught off guard with his sneak attack and being left paralyzed, her survival instincts kicked in at the worst times and allowed her to dodge all of his attacks while she was floating in the same spot. Stupid witch, you make this look so easy. You have no idea what talent you have and how much you waste it with your hubris. You don’t even realize how many ponies could use half that talent you waste to survive on the cruel world on which we live. “THAT DOES IT!” Rainbow Dash yelled after dodging her twentieth blast in the fight. “It’s about time I show you what it means to be on the defensive.” Flaring her wings to their full length, Rainbow Dash flew top speed ahead. Statice growled as he stopped firing his blasts at her. The normal practice against flying opponents was to always shoot in the place they were going to be. The problem with Rainbow Dash was that her speed allowed her to fly past the spot on which he was going to shoot, meaning that any blast was going to be a guaranteed miss. She’s worse than any flying opponent I’ve ever faced. Granted, flying opponents have always been my worst weakness, but I’ve always managed to land one or two blasts on them per fight. She’s practically impossible to hit once she’s in the air! At this point, Rainbow Dash delivered a diving kick. Remembering how she once accidentally defeated a large number of royal guards when he dodged a kick from her during their first fight, Statice wisely dodged the kick and saw how the pegasus mare stomped a large hole into the ground. This mare wants to kill me. Not one to be deterred, Rainbow Dash flared her wings and flew to Statice, using the best that her martial arts could offer. She started with some fast yet powerful jabs. From the way Statice was balancing on his hind legs and blocking with his forelegs while wincing as he was blocking her punching, she saw that her attack was effective. “Try a load of this!” Rainbow Dash spun around herself and delivered a side kick to Statice’s gut, sending him a few yards away from him. It’s my chance! Rainbow Dash increased her flying speed to deliver a buck to Statice’s spine, sending him flying into the air. As he reached the peak of his ascension, she awarded him with an uppercut. As he kept getting up, he realized that he was getting closer to the clouds and what kind of setting he was. I never realized that today there were optimal weather conditions for a fight. As Rainbow Dash kept pummeling, he subtly used the cloud walking spell on himself so that he was able to walk on the clouds. To Statice’s good fortune, Rainbow Dash decided to end her combo by grabbing his tail, spinning him in circles, and throwing him around farther than she could catch up with him. Landing on a large cloud, Statice smiled at his good fortune. He used his Healing Spell to heal all of the bruises Rainbow Dash made on him. It was mainly superficial damage despite all of her hard hits so he didn't spend so much magic recuperating health. The black cloud was good enough for him. He closed his eyes and focused his magic on his horn, more specifically his lightning magic. He remembered the lecture that Digitalis had told him about it. “Elemental magic is by far one of the hardest types of magic to cast, Statice. The users must be in tune with the nature of each element in order to master them. This is why some ponies only have an affinity to one or two elements based on their personalities. In your case, lightning is among the hardest to master because you have to understand positive and negative energy. You can practically do anything with it! This is why I want you to read all of these books about energy, electricity, magnetism, storms, and anything involving lightning. Don’t frown at me like that! In our career, anything can happen. Who knows, maybe something good will come out of this?” Statice smiled as he heard the crackling sound of lightning in his horn. As it turned out, all the education about lightning Digitalis forced him to take did pay off as he was able to come up with his own unique spells thanks to the inspirations he got from the books he read. The Sprite Lightning Spell was a spell that caused a huge lightning bolt to be released upwards from the clouds. It was the perfect sneak attack against flyers that were capable of manipulating the weather. Statice smiled fondly as he recalled how many groups of enemies he took down every time he used the spell. The main problem with the spell was that he needed a thunderstorm cloud to work and for enemies to fly above said cloud so the lightning bolt would not be wasted. One of the requisites of the spell involved injecting the clouds with positive energy so that he could control and increase the lightning inside of them. To be honest, Statice had no idea how he controlled the positive energy inside of him, all he had to do was imagine happy thoughts as he charged his lightning magic. He had practiced so much over the years that he already felt when he had done positive and negative energy. Once the cloud was ready, Statice put a Trigger Spell for safety, just in case he activated the spell prematurely. Now it was up to him to continue his fight with Rainbow Dash. He looked up with alert eyes, determined not to let her… “HIYAAH!” Without any hesitation, Rainbow Dash tackled him from behind, causing the two of them to engage in a free fall brawl. Using the griffin fighting training he had taken, Statice hooked a foreleg around Rainbow Dash’s neck, swung his body around her until his front was behind her back, and then he started punching her over and over again. “YOU…” he punched her in the spine. “ARE…” he punched her in the kidney. “NUTS!” Statice finished his statement by tightening his hold on her to choke her and teleporting them right into the place where he prepared the Lightning Sprite Spell. “Let...go...off…me!” Rainbow Dash curled her hind legs and bucked Statice away from her. She glared at him when she realized something. He used teleportation. Why would he do that? What would he get by bringing me here instead of keep beating me up? Unless… “It’s a TRAP!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she noticed a green halo of light, right at the same time Statice released the Trigger Spell. Wasting no time, Rainbow Dash flew away from the thundercloud, increasing her speed as she watched a beam of green light being released into the sky along with several lightning arcs, right in the spot on which she used to fly. That little jerk! Did he just try to fry me with sprite lightning? Although Rainbow Dash was not much of a star student in flight school, she did have a fascination with natural disasters such as thunderstorms. One of her favorites was the rare phenomenon known as sprite lightning on which lightning was shown upwards into the sky rather than fall down into the ground. “I gotta check those clouds before they disperse!” Rainbow Dash declared, looking behind as the beam grew and eradicated the black clouds. She drove her hooves under the black clouds and removed as much as possible without affecting her flying speed. For a second, she felt an electric shock in her right wing, at which point she decided to use her maximum speed to escape the beam. Once she felt safe, she accelerated to a safe distance just in case Statice had another trap waiting for her. She rested on a gray rainstorm cloud, meaning that Statice could not use it against her…at least she hope he couldn’t. “What’s with this cloud?” she asked, gently squeezing the cloud so as to verify the problem with it. “There’s something wrong with the lightning in it. It feels incomplete.” “Feel this!” Rainbow Dash turned as Statice tackled her from the left, knocking them both from their foothold. “You crazy jerk!” “Look who’s talking!” Statice yelled into Rainbow Dash’s left wing as his horn filled with magic. Rainbow Dash yelped as she felt a stab of pain into her wing, glaring at Statice and his grinning mug as he teleported away from her. “You’re so gonna get it!” she roared, wings unfurling to their full length before suddenly clamping themselves to her sides. “Oh, what did he do this time?” From another cloud below, Statice watched as his Electromagnetic Field Spell took place. Perhaps the greatest drawback of his Sprite Lightning Spell was the green halo that always announced when the lightning was going to be shot out of the clouds. This was why he always bothered to use the Trigger Spell so that he could infuse positive energy on any enemy that narrowly avoided or survived the spell. I better prepare for the finishing blow. He smirked as he teleported back to the ground. He charged his horn with lightning magic, this time thinking all of his bad memories and feelings of Rainbow Dash in order to charge it with negative energy. He then used his earth elemental magic to connect with the electromagnetic energy of the earth. Raising his head, he aimed his horn skywards to throw the negatively charged energy of the earth into the positively charged cloud Rainbow Dash was carrying in her hooves. Immediately afterwards, the prismatic mare was descending twice as fast thanks to the electromagnetic force. The Positive to Negative Spell was a combination of earth and lightning magic that he usually used for escapes. He had been told that the ground was filled with negatively charged energy, hence the term “positive to positive and negative to ground” when charging a battery. Normally, he blasted the enemy with positive energy first and then he tapped into the ground with his earth elemental magic to sense the electromagnetic field before using his lightning elemental magic to inject the negative energy necessary to complete the spell. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash already had a cloud filled with positive energy in her hooves at the moment that would accelerate her descent. And since she was on the sky and falling with the aid of gravity and electromagnetism, the fall was most likely going to knock her out now that her wings were pinned to her sides. “It’s my win,” Statice observed as he teleported to a safe distance, just in case the fall was going to send enough force to bowl him over. “What the heck is wrong with this cloud?” Rainbow Dash yelled as she pulled up to no avail. One second she was falling normally and then the next one her hooves were feeling prickles and her descent was falling twice as fast. Calm down, Rainbow Dash! Remember your Wonderbolt training! Keep your cool and analyze everything. A Wonderbolt uses her head as much as her wings! Now, how did this happen? First, she was falling past the terminal velocity. She had broken the speed of sound many times with her Sonic Rainboom and she had enough flying accidents to know terminal velocity. Experience told her that gravity had little to do with the way she was falling this time. I’m not just falling. I’m being pulled over. It’s obviously magic. It must be lightning magic. Statice has been shown to have a knack for it during his fight with Piercing Gaze and during this fight. No, there’s more to just lightning. I don’t think that Statice is just the guy who’d just shock me with lightning. The secret is in this cloud. What was different about the cloud? It didn’t weigh any different, but she felt a pull from the bottom. It was like those times she played tug-of-war with Applejack or Big Macintosh. The rope was light, but it was hard to get it on her side when the pony on the other side was a lot stronger than her. And there was something different about the charge, it was bigger than before thanks to the pinprick sensation in her hooves and yet it was as familiar as what a thunderstorm cloud should feel like. For the first time in a fight, Rainbow Dash made the thoughts in her brain fly faster than her wings. If she wanted to win this fight, she needed to figure out how to escape this trap. If Daring Do could do this in all of her adventures, why couldn’t she? He’s used lightning magic during the whole fight. My wings are sealed shut by some sort of force that forces them to my sides. I got a thunderstorm cloud of sprite lightning, normally made of positively charged lightning in my hooves, which suddenly increased in electrical charge and feels more like a normal thunderstorm cloud. Said cloud is pulling me down faster to the ground than gravity did in any of my falls. What kind of force has something to do with what’s happening to me? As Rainbow Dash made her mental question, the answer came in the form of a flashback. It was one that came long before Twilight became an alicorn and she entered the Wonderbolt Academy. “What are you reading, Twilight?” “It’s a book about magnets,” Twilight cutely smiled at Rainbow Dash, making a squeaking noise in the process. “What’s so cool about that?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her. “They’re pretty much what everypony uses to put papers on their fridges.” “They can be interesting if you take your time to learn about them!” Twilight defended her new subject of interest with a pout. “Hear this, some objects have electromagnetic fields.” “You mean like the electricity in the lightning,” Rainbow Dash was now interested, she could get behind on lightning. Heck, it was her cutie mark after all. “Yes!” Twilight rapidly nodded her head. “You see, some objects have positively charged electromagnetic fields and other objects have negatively charged electromagnetic fields.” “So, one is good and another is evil?” Rainbow Dash frowned in confusion. Twilight groaned in dismay at the idea of trying to explain to Rainbow Dash that there was no concept of good or evil in science. “We’ll get to that later,” she promised her friend. “The idea is that magnets come in positive and negative fields that attract each other. Opposites attract and the like repels. Positive goes with negative.” “That doesn’t make sense!” Rainbow Dash yelled in annoyance. “Yes, it does!” Twilight stamped a hoof. “No, it doesn’t!” Rainbow Dash pointed at the book. “I work at the weather factory at Cloudsdale. And I know that positive goes with positive and negative to ground. Which reminds me, what the heck does ground have to do with negative? Why can’t it be negative with negative?” Twilight gave an irritated yell just as Spike came into the room and then wisely choose to get out just as the two mares started to argue. It had been the first time Twilight had tried to teach her something, even if it was just small talk. While the two mares quickly got over it due to the usual Ponyville disasters, it made Twilight and Rainbow realize that the two of them were not meant to talk about scientific subjects or learning. Little did they realized that the two of them would eventually try again with better results and that even that failure about magnets would prove a benefit for Rainbow Dash in the future. “Thank you, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash smiled as she finally formulated a plan to get out of her problem. Swinging her body like a pendulum, Rainbow Dash brought the cloud to her left side in an attempt to determine which charge there was on her wings. Like charges will repel each other, which means that if I rub this positively charged cloud into a positively charged wing, I may cancel them both out and I can recover the use of that wing. On the other hoof, if I rub the cloud into a negatively charged wing, I get it stuck and I still end up falling, only this time due to gravity. It’s a gamble. It may have been a gamble, but her mind went into overdrive, almost like it did a Sonic Rainboom of its own. It remembered her project about sprite lightning and how they are made of thunderstorm clouds that contained positively charged energies. It remembered how her right side was stuck by part of the sprite lightning as she escaped it when she took a cloud sample. It also recalled how Rainbow’s wings fully stuck together when Statice tackled her and stung her with lightning magic on her left side, which probably meant that he injected her with negatively charged energy. “Right side it is,” Rainbow Dash frowned with concentration as she hugged the cloud to herself and rubbed it into her side. The first thing she noticed was that her descent was slower than before, as in the normal terminal velocity she was accustomed to have when falling. Much to her surprise, there were sparks flying as soon as she scrubbed herself. She swore that the cloud was being pushed not by her wing but by some sort of invisible force. Despite the opposition, she kept the scrubbing until her right wing shot out and started flapping. “All right!” Rainbow Dash cheered as she was using her flapping wing to suspend herself in the air and stop her descent. “I got one free wing and one more down to go!” Her celebration was cut short as she heard a crackling noise and saw green light from behind her. She turned back and saw a green lightning ball coming straight at her. A memory of being hit by one the last time she entered the weather factory to stop winter to prevent Tank from hibernating crossed her mind as he was hit by it. A scream of pain came out of her lips as she felt every nerve of her body stimulated by the electrical discharge that surged across her as she fell to the ground. “Good thing I took the liberty of thinking for contingency plans,” Statice sighed as he panted. “Still, I’m starting to think that some of my spells are not as good as I thought they were.” The Lightning Ball Spell was one of his most powerful spells. It wasn’t just simply charging as much magic as possible into one ball for raw power, but it also involved adding his lightning elemental magic for even more damage, which was taxing in magic power and time consuming. Even with Rainbow Dash having one wing free, he wasn’t sure he could hit her, which was why he didn’t bother charging the attack to its fullest power, having noticed how she sensed the attacks presence based on its sound and illumination from behind her. I better go see if she’s okay. Rarity will kill me if I did permanent damage to her. I can always call Discord and ask him if he could heal her. I just hope he’s not that close to Rainbow Dash. Ugh, I never asked him how close he was to any of them in the first place. Seriously, why do I never think these things…? A booming sound interrupted his thoughts. He raised his head and noticed Rainbow Dash flying around him. She was furious with wide eyes and flaring nostrils. Her magenta eyes were now crimson with anger. “How are you flying?” Statice asked, his years of keeping a stoic mask in the face of combat allowed him to hide his surprise. “Even if you managed to figure out how to unlock your wings, there’s no way you could have done it without the cloud.” “Negative to ground, jerk,” Rainbow Dash snarled as she pointed a hoof at the ground. “I felt some sort of negatively charged electrical current when I hit the ground after you shocked me thanks to my pegasus magic. Once my wing touched the ground, both negative charges countered each other out.” The mask broke. Statice looked at her with surprise. “You…countered my spells…by using them…against each other?” he asked. “Hurts, doesn’t it?” Rainbow Dash asked as she allowed herself to smile. It was a sadistic smile, quite different from the cocky ones she used to have. “I bet you were quite happy when you took away my wings, my ability to fly, and the best things that ever happened to me, so that you could watch me fall. How’d you like that?” “I…worked hard…to make them…” Statice trembled in suppressed rage and pain at the thought of somepony taking advantage of his…creations…his babies. “You think I care,” Rainbow Dash gestured with her hooves. “I’m gonna make you cry so hard you won’t be need to shed tears for Tank next time winter comes,” Statice promised. Rainbow Dash’s head perked up. “What did you say?” she asked with narrowed eyes and a very low voice that dared him to repeat what he said. “Rarity tried to convince me what a nice pony you are and told me about how hard you took it when Tank went into brumation, the correct term for tortoises hibernating, so you did everything in your power to stop winter. And when you failed and had to accept Tank was going to be asleep all winter and you’d be alone, you cried like a baby. I never thought that Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pony and greatest flyer of Equestria, would be such a BABY!” If Statice wanted Rainbow Dash to hit him with her best shot, he already got what he wanted. She didn’t say anything. She didn't even scream at him or yell a battle cry. She just stared at him for a single second before flying upwards. She just flew into the sky until she became a prismatic star. He didn't care as he stared spitefully at her as he casted his own spell. I’ll use her own strength against her. Let’s see how she likes it! Once again, Statice used the Force Redirection Spell that he used in the Arcanum Ball match against the Elements of Harmony. He had used it against Twilight, but he was not sure how he would fare against Rainbow Dash. A ball thrown by magic was no different to a pony traveling faster than the speed of sound. A rainbow missile collided against a swirling ball of green magic, causing an explosion of rainbow dust that vastly complemented the rainbow colored scenery of Winsome Falls. Once the dust settled, Rainbow Dash stood at the bottom of a large crater. There was nopony there but her. Panic filled inside of her. She didn’t hurt Statice, did she? She wanted to teach him a lesson, not destroy him. Her eyes frantically searched for him. Her mouth uttered no words lest she started crying out of guilt. She started hyperventilating over how the fight went out of control. It was only a minute before she eventually passed out. From the horizon, a certain draconequus enjoyed the fight from beginning to end…at least at first. For after seeing the final part of this combat, he was going to have some serious words with those two. He was going to start with the loser of the fight whom he saved immediately after the explosion sent him flying into the air with perhaps many of his bones broken. “You have a way to disappoint those around you, Statice,” Discord sighed in disapproval as he held him in his lion paw. “You’re lucky Rarity found that note.” He snapped the fingers of his eagle talons to teleport to Rainbow Dash and carried her along as well. You two better pray the stars that Rarity does not bring Celly and Lulu into this argument or there will be Tartarus to pay. With a snap of his fingers, all of the damage that had been done to Winsome Falls had disappeared from the place. And with another snap, the trio also disappeared. Despite that, Discord knew from Rarity’s words that problems like this one were just the beginning of something bad. Primal hatred, she said. Nopony hates just like that. Bullies do horrible things out of malice and look what that can cause. Imagine what hatred can produce. And this comes from a former professional criminal and an Element of Harmony. Just…what will arrive out of saving you, Statice?