//------------------------------// // Face the Raven, Part 3 // Story: My Brave Pony: Starfleet Nemesis // by Scipio Smith //------------------------------// Face the Raven, Part Three Hello. My name's Berry. What's your name? Raven's hands clenched into fists by her side; her own claws dug into her soft palms but she barely felt the pain. She didn't feel anything right now except seething hatred for the pony princess in front of her. She had been so close. So close! Close to freedom, to being rid of her father and his instructions and his influence on her life and the way that he could turn her into a gibbering moron almost whenever he felt like it. Free of rules, free of missions, free of the role that she had been created for, all of it! She and Eve, with Twilight's power, had been ready to set the galaxy on it's ear. Already the Insecto Armada was headed for Equestria and once there...they'd been so close. Without Twilight's power the issue with Titan was in doubt, and Eve... Raven glanced at her, on her hands and knees, weakened and enfeebled by what Twilight Sparkle had done to her. They'd been so close. And all because Twilight's friends wouldn't leave well enough alone. All because Princess Twilight didn't seem to realise that you were supposed to stay dead once Raven killed you! Raven bared her fangs as she strode forward, presenting none of her fears or misgivings on her face or in her stride but only her anger. She stood between Eve and her enemies, fists clenched, teeth bared. "You seem to be making a habit of getting in my way, princess," Raven declared. "Getting in my way has a high mortality rate." I'm not afraid of you. I know that you won't hurt me, Raven. Raven hissed angrily at the memory. Why? Why should you get to come back to life and be happy with all of your friends while I...it isn't fair! When last the two of them had met face to face, the princess and the assassin, Twilight had been terrified. That was a sweet memory, the trembling fear on Twilight's face as she realised that she was going to die, the pain that coursing through her body, the tears on her cheeks. Oh, yes, Twilight had been terrified before the end, begging for her life like some pathetic coward even as her life ebbed away from her. But she didn't look afraid now. Now she was resolute and undaunted. "I'm going to stop you, Raven. You, Titan, the Grand Ruler, all of you. I won't let you win." Raven's lip curled in a sneer. "I seem to recall we've danced these steps before, princess. The last time you vowed to stop me didn't end to well for you." "She's not alone this time," Rainbow growled. "Oh, I see," Raven said. "You're all very brave when the odds are six to one, aren't you? Why don't you take a step forward and go another round with me one-on-one, Princess Twilight, and we'll see how brave you are without the peanut gallery!" "Not gonna happen," Applejack said. "Yeah; Twi, if you were so much as considering that then so help me-" Rainbow began. Twilight chuckled. "Don't worry, girls. I've learned my lesson." "What would Princess Celestia say about this?" Raven asked. "Wouldn't she want you to do the honourable thing?" Twilight looked at her flatly. "Seriously? That's what your going with? Yeah, sure, Princess Celestia would want me to abandon my friends, because she never thought much of them to begin with - oh no, wait, that's the complete opposite of what she thought and did!" "Well there's no need to take that tone about it," Raven said. Behind her mask, however, she was...disapointed. As ferocious as she was in battle - and Raven was a nigh-unstoppable force once a fight go going - she had often considered that her greatest asset was her ability to push the emotional hot buttons of her opponents, to force them off guard, to get them riled up and making mistakes. She had played Twilight like a fiddle the last time, getting her worked up enough about the fate of Celestia that she had abandoned all caution and rushed to confront Raven with fatal consequences. But now it seemed that nothing Raven could do would faze her. She would have to try a different tack. She turned her gaze on Rainbow Dash. "What about you, Rainbow Dash? Are you going to-" Rainbow yawned theatricality. "Oh, for Celestia's sake, just give it a rest, will ya? It's not working, so stop trying. Twilight's here, we're all together, nopony cares what you have to say." "I'm afraid you can't divide us, darling," Rarity said. "Better than you have tried, and even they never succeeded for more than twenty minutes." "When we're together there isn't anything that we can't do!" Pinkie cried. "The magic that binds us resides in each of our hearts," said Fluttershy. "We stand by one another through thick and thin," said Applejack, pulling her hat down so that it cast a shadow over her face. "And we never give up, no matter what," Twilight said. Raven growled wordlessly. It made her sick, seeing them all standing there together like that, Twilight with all of her friends. It made her so...so angry! Raven...what are you doing...we're friends! I'll be your friend no matter what. Kill her, and prove to me that you are worthy to be my blade. But...but she's my friend. Kill her, or I will destroy and create from my soul another who can. "Tell me something, all of you," Raven said. "If you had to choose between sacrificing your own life or the life of one of your friends, which would you choose?" "Neither," Twilight said. "Together I know we'd find another way, a better way that no one else had thought of yet." "There is no other way!" Raven roared. "It doesn't matter if the odds are six to one against me, I am Raven! Even if you were all at a hundred percent of your power you still wouldn't be a match for me!" "Then I suppose we'll just have to go beyond a hundred percent," Twilight said. "What do you think this is, a comic book?" Raven shouted. "Do you think you can say something like that and you'll just get Resolve or something that will let you beat me?" "I don't know," Twilight said, and Raven noticed that her eyes were glowing brighter than before. All of their eyes were glowing, burning brightly with the fire of determination that burned within them to defeat her. "But I meant what I said before: I won't let you win." Raven growled angrily as she leapt through the air, her legs carrying her upwards and forwards before she began to descend on Twilight, claws extended and hands drawn back for a slashing stroke that would eviscerate this princess and put an end to her brief resurrection. She didn't see the punch coming. All she saw was a blue blur with rainbow highlights before she felt the fist connecting with her face. Raven's skin was light armour, the best blow of Lightning Dawn had barely moved her, but she felt that punch. She felt it on her face and in her teeth and on her jawbone and she felt the way she was was tossed backwards. Raven rolled across the ground, wincing a little at the pain as she came to a stop. She looked up, glaring. Rainbow Dash landed protectively in front of Twilight. "How about you rumble with somepony who knows how to throw a punch?" "Or a kick?" Applejack added, as she managed the feat of appearing supremely casual as she ambled over to stand with Rainbow Dash and in front of Twilight, both of the hovering protectively over her like bodyguards. She would have made a jibe about that, something about Twilight letting her dear friends fight her battles for her, but what would have been the point? They'd already proven that Raven's words had no more power to hurt them. So she was going to have to actually hurt them the old fashioned way. If I don't, then they'll hurt Eve. I can't let that happen. I have to keep them focussed on me, and I have to win. Raven got up, ostentatiously smoothing down her blue cloak. She threw back her hood, even though it wasn't time to use the uniforce just yet. She focussed on Rainbow Dash and Applejack, stood before Twilight, protecting her...no, protecting all the others. Of course. That was who they were, wasn't it. They both considered themselves to be 'the strong one', the one who took care of the rest, the one who took the knocks and dished them out. Raven would kill them first. Raven charged, her feet hammering the metal surface beneath her as she rushed them. Rainbow Dash ran to meet her, moving so quickly that a gust of wind erupted all around her. Raven swung with her right. Rainbow swung with her left. Their two fists collided with each other as the two ponies met in the centre of the chamber, their punches clashing against one another like two waves meeting in the tempestuous sea. Raven grunted at the unexpected pain in her fist. Rainbow smirked. The two began trading blows, their fists flying through the air. Rainbow wasn't even trying to block, she was taking everything that Raven could throw at her just so long as she could hit Raven in turn. You idiot. I can take anything that you can throw at me. Which wasn't to say that it didn't hurt. In fact it was starting to hurt a lot. Rainbow's blows were landing firmer and harder than any of Lightning Dawn's punches. And Rainbow didn't seem to be feeling Raven's blows at all. She stood there and took them, like a mountain refusing to bend before the hurricane. Any one of Raven's punches should have had her on her back, five of them should have turned her into paste, but Rainbow just took them, all the while wearing that stupid, infuriating smirk like she knew something that Raven didn't. Impossible! There's no way that you could just tank all of this without even feeling it? How are you doing this? Not when Raven was feeling each and every punch that Rainbow dealt to her. She was...she was being forced backwards, recoiling in the face of Rainbow's hurricane of punches that were, she was beginning to realise, all perfectly and precisely targeted. And each of them...each of them landing with more than a hundred percent of Rainbow Dash's power. Rainbow's cyan eyes burned as her smirk widened. "You just don't get it, do you? One totally awesome pony can go beyond the impossible." She hit Raven with a gut punch that made her double up before it sent her flying backwards through the air. "Six totally awesome ponies can change the world!" Raven hit the wall so hard it cratered beneath her impact. She could feel the shards of rock digging into her back. Her body was sore everywhere that Rainbow Dash had struck her but she couldn't let it slow her down. This was what she'd trained for, this was what she'd prepared for, this was the point of all the times that her dear old dad had wracked her with pain so that she could fight past it. Raven emerged from the crater with her wings flared, not running now but flying a foot or two above the ground. A bright lavender light erupted from Twilight's horn. Raven darted out of the way, twisting like a salmon as the magical beam surged past her. She dodged a second beam, and a third. The fourth one hit her square in the chest. Raven couldn't help but to cry out as she was knocked back and sideways. Her wings beat furiously to keep her in the air. Then she was hit again, and again, and again. A hundred bolts of magic flew from Twilight's horn one after the other in rapid succession, then a hundred more and they all seemed to home in on Raven. She was predicting Raven's movements! She wasn't firing at where Raven was but at where she was going to be so no matter how fast Raven was, no matter how quickly she got out of the way Twilight always hit her! Raven snarled in impotent anger as she was knocked up and down and left and right by the incessant magical onslaught that pricked her and kicked her and would not let up. She wasn't this strong before. This power...is this the strength of the bond they share? Raven was panting for breath now, she could feel her strenght withering under Twilight's onslaught that followed so swiftly on the heels of Rainbow's brutal assault. And it was planned. Twilight was hitting her in the exactly the same places that Rainbow had. It was like they understood each other without having to give voice to it. "I will...not...lose," Raven growled, in words that lacked conviction as she struggled to break out of Twilight's attack. Abruptly - perhaps she was tiring a little - Twilight left her an opening, an opening which Raven took eagerly as she broke free and soared as fast as her leather wings would carry her straight towards Rarity. If I can kill her then the others will lose heart. And I will kill her, there's no way that a mare like her could- With an expression on her face of majestic disdain worthy of the grandest of the grande dames of the Canterlot social scene, Rarity delivered a ladylike slap to Raven's face that nevertheless managed to punt Raven twenty feet sideways, right into the path of Pinkie Pie. Pinkie had produced a giant hammer from somewhere, blue with yellow stars on it, which she used to hit Raven in the face with a sound-effect that Raven might have found humorous if she hadn't just been hit in the face with a giant hammer. Raven's feet touched the ground as she staggered backwards, head spinning, only to wander into the path of a flying kick from Applejack. Raven could barely see straight now, let alone think straight. Everything seemed so slow as she glided through the air. She felt someone's hand on her arm. "I'm very sorry about this, but I hope you realise that it's for the best," Fluttershy said mildly as she spun Raven around, deaf to her cry of alarm, and threw her. Threw her right into the path of a beam of magic from Twilight that struck Raven square in the chest, bearing her backwards against the flood, slamming her into the wall, holding her fast as it pressed itself upon her. It wasn't attacking her, Raven realised as the spell kept on holding her in place; it was leaching off her, it was dispersing her strength. She could feel her hands shaking, feel her legs grow weak, feel her head becoming increasingly light. Clever...clever...princess. The spell ceased, and Raven slid down the wall to hit the floor. She folded, her knees buckling first before her face collided with the cold, hard metal. She lay there, helpless, unable to move, barely able to see. They were all just blobs of colour in front of her now. So...this is what it's like to face them in their prime. I see now why Celesto wanted Twilight dead so badly. I didn't get it before but now...now I understand. These mares...they're too dangerous to be allowed to remain together like this. What are you going to do to me, Princess Twilight? A shadow fell over Raven's face, a shadow dressed in black armour. "I won't let you hurt my friend, either," Eve declared. "Evenfall," Twilight said softly. "You don't need to do this." "You have no idea what I need to do," Eve said. "I understand you're scared-" "I'm not afraid! Not of you, or anyone!" "Let me help you, Eve-" "The way your friends helped me? The way you helped Raven?" Eve demanded. "Don't assume that you're the only one who feels a sense of righteous purpose. We are enemies, so be it. One day we'll find out which of us is superior. But not today." Raven felt Eve grab hold of her, saw the flash of lavender light consume her darkening vision, and felt herself being pulled far away. Twilight watched as Eve teleported away, taking the barely-conscious Raven with her. I suppose that means we'll see them both again. A pity...but I suppose it can't be helped. She was conscious, acutely conscious, of all her friends around her...but she didn't speak to them. She couldn't even bring herself to look at them right now for fear of what she might see in their faces. She was afraid, afraid of what they thought, afraid of what they might say. How long had it been? She wasn't sure, it was hard to judge the passage of time when you were an imprisoned soul. Months, years? Enough time for them to get over her and move on with their lives, she supposed it was a miracle that they had come at all. They would have been well within their rights not to. She had abandoned them, she'd run away...this was all her fault. What could she say to that? How could she even begin to make it up to them? How could she even start to thank them? What could she say? All words seemed so inadequate in the face of the circumstances. "Twilight?" There was no getting around it, no getting away. Twilight turned around, to see Spike looking up at her. He had grown a little since she'd seen him last, but not too much. He was still recognisably a kid, if an older kid now. Her baby brother growing up. How much had she missed already? Twilight's mouth felt dry, as if her body was conspiring with her mind to thwart her will to speak. "H-hey, Spike." "Twilight," Spike murmured, disbelieving. "It...it's really you." "Yes," Twilight said, and she found that there were tears in her eyes, tears falling unbidden down her face. "Yes, it's me, I..." She hesitated, letting the tears flow. "I don't know how to thank you, Spike. Or to apologise. You...you gave up your knight for me and I can't give it back to you. That magic...it's all used up. I used it up in-" "It doesn't matter." "Spike," Twilight said softly. "You don't have to pretend. I know that that power was all that you ever dreamed of." Spike stared at her a moment, in silence. Then his arms were around Twilight's neck, pulling her close as Spike pressed himself against her. "None of that power matters a bit without you in the world, Twilight." Twilight felt warm bodies all around her, pressing close, enfolding her in their embrace as in their love. She felt tears falling upon her coat. "Welcome home, Twilight," Pinkie said, in between what sounded like sobs. "Yeah, welcome home, Sugarcube," said Applejack. "Girls," Twilight murmured. "I...I don't know how to...I'm so sorry." "Shhh," Fluttershy whispered. "You don't have anything to apologise for." "I...I don't? But-" "But nothing," Fluttershy said softly but insistently. "You're back, and we're together again. That's all that matters now." "I am never letting you out of my sight," Rainbow said, in a voice that sounded choked. "Do you hear me?" "You have no idea how wonderful it is to see you, darling," Rarity said. "Oh, I think I've got some idea," Twilight replied. She sniffed. "It's about as wonderful as it is for me to see all of you, right? Thank you. Thank you so much, for everything." They stayed that way for a while, entangled in a group hug. Twilight didn't want them to let her go. She didn't want them to ever let her go again. Lightning, Artie and Snowflame watched the scene unfold from the shadow of the entrance to the cavern. "Well, now I've seen everything," Artie said. "More to the point, I think I've just seen my next painting." Lightning looked at him. "Seriously?" "What?" Artie asked. "You're telling me you can't see it in your mind's eye: The Resurrection of Twilight Sparkle, by Artie Bristles. Can't you imagine it hanging on the wall in the RoyalAcademy. Ooh, it should be part of a diptych: The Death and Resurrection of Princess Twilight." "After what we've just seen this is where your mind goes?" "I think that what we've just seen is exactly the kind of thing that should be commemorated for posterity in great art." Artie paused expectantly. "Neither of you?" "What?" Snowflame asked. "Isn't either of you going to make the joke about how if it's great art we want I shouldn't be...you know what, never mind. You've changed a lot, Lightning, but you still don't have a sense of humour." "We're none of us perfect," Lightning muttered. "They look...they look really happy, don't they?" "They look whole," Artie said. "It fits the way it never did without her around." "I don't know about that, but I agree about the fitting part," Snowflame said. "Even I can see it. Looks like they didn't need our help after all." "No," Lightning agreed. "If they ever did." Artie frowned. "Hey, Lightning...aren't you going to get in on that? Or just go over to them?" Lightning looked at them. Like he'd said, like Artie and Snowflame had agreed with him, it fit the way they were. With the seven of them it looked natural. The way it was meant to be. He had no desire to intrude on that with his unnatural presence. Lightning shook his head. "No. This is their moment. We'll let them savour it." The three of them were silent for a moment. Snowflame asked, "So what happens now?" "I've no idea," Lightning replied. "We set out to find Twilight and we did, if maybe not the way that we expected. We found her, her friends saved her...and now we'll see what she has in mind to save the world."