//------------------------------//
// Chapter 33: The Confrontation Begins 
// Story: Daring Do and the Hand of Doom 
// by Unwhole Hole 
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The frigid night air blew through the wooded village, making the needles of the dark, gnarled trees sway and rustle strangely. All of the native ponies were asleep, as were the goats. Their thin, thick-glassed windows were dark, save for the glow from fires within their houses. The group moved in silence, even though it was not necessary. These ponies had lived for countless generations on the slopes of Lyskymm, and they knew the things that lurked in the night, that rose up from the caves or came down from the cursed city that loomed overhead. 
None of those monsters or specters appeared on this night, perhaps because they knew that they were not needed. The ponies that moved through the darkness toward one particular, crooked house on the outskirts were far more deadly than any amarok or ijrac that might be wandering the icy night. 
As they approached, a shape drifted downward from above and took the lead. She was the pony known to Rainbow Dash as Absence, and the leader of the operation. She arrived wearing armor, although of a more advanced type than the others. Hers was thinner and lighter, and partially obscured by a thick cape.
She touched down just in front of the zebra, and the zebra nodded in response and fell back. Even he was able to see that she was meant to take the lead, a position that left the pony sometimes known as Absence feeling oddly uncomfortable. 
The front of the group stopped, while those on the edge fanned outward. The building had two entrances, although one had been mostly overgrown by a substantial laurel tree, leaving only one viable entrance or exit apart from the windows. Their target was trapped.
And, with their target trapped, they were all deeply surprised when the front door swung open and Daring Do, dressed in a thick green jacket and carrying a damaged whip at her side, stepped out to meet them. 
Equally surprising was the fact that she was not alone. There were three other ponies behind her. The first to exit and stand at her side was a blue Pegsus with a short rainbow mane.
The commander of the group gasped, although not loud enough for the others to hear. She immediately retracted her helmet, allowing it to fold behind her head.
“Rainbow Dash,” she said.
“Absence?” Rainbow Dash looked profoundly confused. “What- -what are you doing here?!”
“You’re not supposed to be here,” snapped Absence in return, ignoring the question. “Go back inside. This doesn’t concern you.”
One of the flanking armored Pegasi suddenly stepped forward. It was not an aggressive posture, though, and he retracted his helmet as well. In the moonlight, it was clear that he was staring wide-eyed at the pony who had stealthily emerged from behind Rainbow Dash.
“Sister?” he gasped. 
The girl looked up. She was still wearing her armor, and her artificial eyes glimmered in the dim light. A surprised expression came over her face, and she rushed forward to meet the red-eyed soldier. They hugged. “We thought we’d lost you!” said the stallion, holding her tightly. “Sister, I’m so glad you are safe!” 
“Safe,” noted Absence, “but standing on the wrong side.”
“Wrong side?” the stallion looked up at her, and his brother appeared confused even through his helmet. “Sister, are you implying…no! We can’t fight our own sibling!”
“Of course not,” snapped Absence. “Doing so would be utterly impossible. Nor do I intend to fight Rainbow Dash, as she is…” She paused for a moment. “…my friend. Or anypony for that matter.” While she said the last part, her red eyes drifted toward the last pony, an earth-mare she did not recognize. One who seemed to be entirely unaffected by the chill in the air and who bore a single sheathed sword on her back. 
“You brought an awful lot of soldiers for not wanting to fight,” said Daring Do, slowly. 
“A precaution. We were warned that you were quite dangerous.”	
“By Caballeron?”
“By a well-paid consultant. So yes. But as dangerous as you are, you are outnumbered.”
“So, what? You want to talk?”
“I never thought I’d say this,” whispered Rainbow Dash. “But that actually works more often than you’d think.”
“Rainbow Dash. I told you to leave.”
“Why are you here, Absence? What is this? You’re- -” Rainbow Dash gasped. “You’re one of THEM!”
The earth-mare slapped the back of Rainbow Dash’s head. “COME ON!” she hissed. 
“My objective does not lie with you, Rainbow Dash. It lies strictly with Daring Do. You and my sister, please go back inside. I do not want to hurt you. And I do not want you to see what we are about to do.”
“And what exactly is that?” asked Daring Do. Her expression remained stoic. 
“Your methods and behaviors are contrary to our mission, our values, and the good of Equestria as a whole. As such, our orders are to terminate you.” She drew her half-serrated sword from its scabbard beneath her cape. “Without hesitation, without mercy, and without remorse.” 
Absence’s sister with her robotic eyes gasped audibly and pushed away from her brother, retreating to the line of ponies she had come from. She shook her head, trying to express her displeasure with her orders. Absence did not understand why. 
“You daughter of a hoarder!” cried the half-frozen zebra at Absence’s side. “That was NOT our order!” 
“It was mine,” said Absence. With a sudden motion so quick that it was almost imperceptible, she leapt forward, raising the sword over her head. She watched as Daring Do perceived what was happening, and saw the look of realization cross her eyes. By then, though, it was too late. The sword was descending, and there was no time for her to dodge.
The entire village shook from the clang of metal against metal. Absence was showered by a plume of hot violet sparks as her sword ground against that of the earth-mare: a strange, silver blade inscribed with glowing runes. 
The earth-mare shifted position, parrying Absence’s blade with lightning speed and moving to strike. Absence responded by pivoting her sword on its hoof-ring and catching the earth-mare’s silver blade on one of the serrations of her own. 
Both rotated, swirling away from one another until they were standing three paces apart, each holding their blades at the ready. The earth-mare took a strange stance that Absence did not recognize.
“You have an excellent blade,” noted Absence. 
“You too. Any other sword and I would have cut it clean in half.”
“The same is true of mine.”
“It’s some good workmanship. But you don’t have any runes.”
“No. As I don’t need them.” 
Absence shot forward. The earth-mare pirouetted so fast that the only visible part of her motion was the flash of her blade. She came up from below where Absence could not parry, so rather than even attempt to do so, Absence extended one of her forelegs. The silver blade sparked and arced on her armor, damaging it badly in the process. Had it been a direct cut, it would have gone through; however, being at an oblique angle, Absence was able to force the blade out of the way long enough to strike the earth-mare in the nose with the ring of her sword. The earth-mare’s head was knocked back- -and then brought down against Absence’s forehead.
Even with her titanium reinforced skull, the impact from the blow sent Absence reeling. 
“Ha,” said the earth-mare, blowing her already swelling nose. “That’s what happens when you try to challenge an earth-pony.” 
Absence shook her head, trying to clear it. Even though the titanium had not worked as well as she had hoped, it had allowed her to stay conscious. 
“So the least sort of pony can fight,” she said. “Very well. So be it.”
She lifted her blade and took flight as the earth-mare with the rune-marked blade rushed forward toward her. 
As they fought, Zel flashed past, cursing the cold as he did. He took the opportunity to raise his spear and charge Daring Do herself. He simply could not allow the albino Pegasi to “terminate” her, both for the sake of customer service for Caballeron and because of how strongly he desired to once again fight the mare who he had witnessed uttering a spell that was supposed to be known only to zebra shamans. The thought of it excited him. 
Except that he never reached her. A flash of white appeared out of the corner of his vision, and he raised the haft of his spear just in time to block a blow from a thinly armored hoof- -but not a second blow that struck him on the side of the face. 
The white mare with the strange eyes was attacking him with unbridled fury. Her attack was swift- -far more swift than Zel had anticipated from such a young-looking mare- -and almost perversely silent. Her motions made no noise, and although her mouth was opened for a scream, no sound came out. 
“Your siblings may refuse to bite/ but I will NOT shy away from this fight!” cried Zel. He spoke the words to a spell and the blade of his spear flashed with the thin, flowing runes that covered it. With a swift jab, he rammed it forward toward the white Pegasus.
She held up one of her forelegs in defense. The spear poked through her thin armor with ease and pricked her, but was stopped dead on the alloy of her ulna. 
Zel’s eyes widened. “What- - what did you do?! / What even ARE you?!”
The mare did not answer. She shoved the spear out of the way and leapt forward into battle. All without a single word or sound. 
Across from her, an even more qualified white Pegasus charged at Rainbow Dash, intending to tackle her. He was quick- -far more so than a normal pony, either do to his innate speed or the robotics in his armor- -but nowhere near as quick as Rainbow Dash. She ducked and punched him in the stomach, directly where his ribs met his gut. There was, of course, no effect; he was wearing several inches of metal plate on his body. 
Rainbow Dash recoiled and turned, recalling her training. Although they were largely for show, the Wonderbolts were technically still part of the Royal Air Force, and consequently the Equestrian military. She had spent a great deal of time in the required hoof-to-hoof combat training, and had even managed to get Soarin on his back and pinned- -more than once. The training only augmented her experience from many, many fights, usually started over cider or Fluttershy’s honor. 
How exactly to deal with a pony wearing power-armor had never been covered in the lessons, though. Rainbow Dash had no idea what to do. Punching something like a changeling was one thing; punching a walking tank- -or getting punched by said tank- -was another thing entirely.
And she did get punched. The blow landed exactly where she had tried to strike the armored Pegasus. Rainbow Dash’s wind was knocked from her and she was thrown back. The only reason she was not completely incapacitated was the thick jacket she was wearing combined with the fact that she had been in the air at the time, where she could just be thrown rather than pounded into the ground. 
She landed beside Daring Do, who had just unleashed her whip and lashed the rump of a pony wearing sunglasses despite it being the middle of the night. He squealed, and this apparently greatly angered a Pegasus mare with a Mohawk, who charged with gusto only for Rainbow Dash to suddenly lift her legs and buck the mare in the elbows. She was at least more stoic than the stallion; rather than shriek she went pale and said several words in a language that Rainbow Dash could not understand.
Rainbow Dash promptly shot to her feet. “Hey,” she said, nearly breaking out in excited laughter, “Daring! Behind you!”
Daring Do executed a flip without looking, barely dodging the charge from the other armored pony. He wheeled around and faced her, only to be blocked by Rainbow Dash.  
“Hey!” she cried. “Over here! You guy’s mother sucks fat greasy CUCUMBERS!” 
“What our mother chooses to suck or not to suck is none of your business,” snapped the nearest Pegasus knight.
“Well then why don’t you prove me wrong? HA!” Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, spreading her wings. “Daring! Those guys can’t fly in all that armor, they’re too heavy! They’ll never catch me!”
One of the armored Pegasi looked up at her. Rainbow Dash could not have seen it, but the internal HUD of his helmet shifted, displaying a new combination of meters and interface metrics. “Igniting,” he said.
Several pieces of his armor folded outward, and the apertures concealed beneath burst with red flame that rapidly resolved to blue. As the jets lifted him into the air, the Pegasus spread his wings from beneath the armor as well as several robotic stabilizers. 
“Cadence’s soft underbelly!” swore Rainbow Dash, immediately shooting into the air as the armored Pegasus followed in hot pursuit. 
Daring Do elected to stay on the ground. These armored suits were not like the one she had seen in Southern Equestria: they did not seem to have air holes. Daring Do supposed that they had an oxygen supply built in for the altitude, which would have put her at a severe disadvantage if she tried to take flight. Luckily, despite being outnumbered, the fight was reasonably balanced: Rainbow Dash had distracted one of the armored Pegasi while White had driven the zebra nearly back into a nearby ravine. 
The Pegasus with the Mohawk recovered from the blow to her joints and lunged at Daring Do. Daring Do swirled and punched at her, only for her to dodge- -just as one of the armored Pegasi leapt toward her. Daring Do dodged again, this time nearly having to lie on the ground. She then rolled, barely in time to avoid an armored metal hoof straight to the frozen ground where her head had just been. 
She lashed out with her whip again, this time striking the unarmored Pegasus on her side. The dragon leather cut deeply into her clothing, leaving a gash that stuffing and feathers leaked from. The mare winced; part of the whip had struck her exposed wing. 
The impact knocked the mare off balance, forcing the white earth-stallion she was with to have to catch her. Daring Do recognized him as Withers. He was one of Caballeron’s goons.
“Hey Withers!” she cried.
The stallion looked at her, confused. “What?”
She answered his question with a kick to his face that snapped his sunglasses cleanly in half. 
This, however, proved to be a mistake. The Pegasus mare and the armored stallion both leapt at once, throwing Withers out of the way. The mare pinned Daring Do, and the stallion wrapped his hooves around her. Daring Do heard the mechanical whine of his armor as he began to squeeze. Her ribs popped, and she would have screamed if she had any air left. 
A flash of silver crossed within inches of her head, severing at least a quarter of her mane in the process. The stallion suddenly cried out beneath his helmet and one of his hooves went limp. Luminescent hydraulic fluid sprayed out over the frozen ground, converting both Daring Do and the mare with a Mohawk.
“My contacts!” screamed the mare, grabbing at her eyes uselessly. “I can’t see!” 
She released Daring Do’s legs, and Daring Do flipped herself over, ignoring the pain, and kicked the armored stallion off her. With the robotics severed on one of his front legs, he lumbered forward at a speed far too slow for him to catch Daring Do. Daring Do unfurled her whip, grabbing one of his rear legs and pulling. He was knocked off balance entirely and fell hard against the stony ground. 
Sweetie Drops slid across the path, arriving next to Daring Do.
“Thanks.”
“You need to get out of here!” Sweetie Drops was breathing hard and, despite the cold, sweating. “It’s you they want! MOVE!”
Sweetie Drops flipped as the white Pegasus struck once more. She reeled backward and lifted her sword to defend against the second blow, then to feint and attack. The mare fell for the feint, but dodged the attack. The blade cut within millimeters of one of her ears, and she neither flinched nor blinked. Her red eyes stared unblinkingly at Sweetie Drops. She almost looked bored.
The fight was not going as well as it should have, and Sweetie Drops knew why. While she was able to fight ponies if the situation called for it, her training had been in fighting monsters. They were larger, stronger, and often faster, but they did not move the same way ponies did. The motions she knew by heart had to be modified constantly. Making matters worse, her oxygen supply was running low. She had expended most of it climbing the mountain and had not had time to chance it on arrival. The thinner it got, the more she began to slow. 
The Pegasus, meanwhile, wore no mask and required no oxygen augmentation. In fact, she barely seemed to grow tired. Even after the intense duel had gone on for several minutes, she was neither out of breath nor showed any signs of slowing. 
“Are you even a pony?” gasped Sweetie Drops, not expecting the Pegasus to hear.
“No,” she replied curtly.
The Pegasus took flight and descended rapidly. Sweetie Drops parried again. Although the Pegasus, as a Pegasus, had the advantage of flight, it actually made her less efficient if only because Sweetie Drops had been trained for many years on how to deal with flying monsters. She had, after all, once singlehoofedly taken on a bugbear; a single Pegasus with a sword- -no matter how hard or sharp it was- -was nothing compared to that. 
The mare circled, trying to find a path to Daring Do. Sweetie Drops did not let her. However, as she threw herself into position, a shape appeared from the dark. A shape of a  minotaur. 
A fist slammed into Bon Bon’s side with incredible force. “BOOM!” she cried. Hearing her voice was odd; Sweetie Drops, in all her travels, had never met a female minotaur. “HA! You just got BROKE, son!”
Except that Sweetie Drops had dug her hooves into the hard earth and barely been moved a foot. She looked up into the Minotaur’s face and saw her go pale. “Celestia darn it you’re stupid. I’m an earth-pony. And I’m BUSY.” She pivoted and punched the minotaur in the gut. The blow knocked the minotaur back several meters as her eyes bugged out, and she doubled over, coughing. She had, apparently, been unaware that while earth-ponies could neither fly nor use magic, they tended to have exorbitant strength.   
As a non-pony form of life, a minotaur would technically have qualified for the use of the silver sword. Sweetie Drops, though, was a merciful pony. She instead flipped and struck the minotaur in the face with a resounding kick, then as she fell struck her again in the side. The minotaur never felt the second blow; she had been concussed into unconsciousness by the one to her head. 
Only then did Sweetie Drops barely manage to get the sword over her back in time to block a slash from above. The runes on the blade sparked in protest as the white Pegasus whirled around. Sweetie Drops whirled as well and blocked. As boring as this was, she found herself wishing that the ponies that the griffons who had trained her to use that sword could have seen this fight.