//------------------------------// // Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow // Story: Hoofed by Your Own Petard // by Tortfeasor //------------------------------// Hoofed By Your Own Petard Disclaimer: This is the eighth best disclaimer you will ever read. Chapter Eighteen: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow Rarity did not like Trixie. That they were trying to kill each other may have made that obvious, but Rarity had not liked Trixie from the very first time they’d met. The loathing she knew, and in fact had known from the very first time they’d met, was entirely mutual. When Celestia had been in control they’d never quite come to blows, but that was not for a lack of arguments or trying between the two. Had Celestia not intervened they likely would have torn each other and a chunk of a palace apart several times over before either of them had ever heard of Nightmare Moon or the Elements of Harmony. “The Great and Powerful Trixie thinks this look suits you. Covered in dirt and filth and vainly trying to fend off your inevitable death and failure. Trixie only wishes that Celestia could be here to see her last hope dashed to a red paste on the rocks.” “I see a month and a half under Nightmare Moon has done nothing for your ego,” and then sneering at Trixie’s armor, “or for your fashion sense.” “Ignorant as ever of what you truly face. Nightmare Moon grants only her most capable and powerful adherents the honor of wearing armor like hers into battle. Trixie is her most powerful and most capable adherent. A lesson you’ll learn but won’t live to use.” “Oh for pony’s sake, are you still on that whole greatest unicorn of all history delusion? You’ve seen how powerful Twilight Sparkle is. She has more power in one hoof than we could ever hope to muster. I knew you were always lacking in brains, but your ability to ignore reality in favor of your own little fantasy is almost unbelievable.” “Fantasy? The only fantasy world is the one you’re living in. Trixie worked for everything she has. You waltzed into the castle and Celestia gave you everything! She took your little bauble shop from a storefront to an empire, she gave you influence second only to her, she made sure your lessons were the ones that had magic you could use in the real world, and you just simpered and smiled along with all of it! And what did Trixie get? Nothing but a worthless title and endless hours locked away in musty old towers with useless books written by long dead fools. You were always her favorite while Trixie labored in thankless shadows. When Trixie succeeded at unlocking arcane secrets of magic that baffled the greatest minds for decades she got a pat on the back and another worthless lesson. When you mastered spells a feeble minded earth pony should have had no trouble using you were hailed as a new Starswirl the Bearded and showered with bits and rewards. But Nightmare Moon recognizes true power. She knew that Trixie alone could master the darkest and most powerful secrets of unicorn magic and make all others bow before her as the true magical genius she is. And once Trixie throws your broken body at the steps of the royal castle Nightmare Moon will make sure that all Equestria knows she is a goddess and Trixie is but a short step below her. Trixie will at last have the rewards her power and talent deserves.” “That’s it? The reason you betrayed Celestia, plunged Equestria into eternal night, forced her guards into mindless servitude to a tyrant, unleashed every pony who ever dabbled in dark magic on their neighbors, scattered families, and condemned countless ponies to starvation, oppression, and possibly death is because she didn’t give you enough gold stars in school? That is the lowest and basest sort of treachery imaginable. You think Celestia didn’t give you anything? Tell me, did you ever have to pay for a single thing in your life after you became her apprentice? Did you ever have to do any sort of manual labor, or did you have servants jumping to tend to your every whim? Was Celestia threatening to throw you out on your poor oversensitive haunches in the slums of the lowest level of the undercity, or did you have ponies scrambling to offer you job after job and nearly coming to blows over the prestige of hiring Celestia’s apprentice? You had ponies falling all over themselves to offer you everything you wanted. Power, money, sycophants, it could have all been yours if you had stopped wallowing in self pity long enough to reach out and grab the world they offered you. But it still wouldn’t have been enough would it? You’re one of those ponies who could have the moon hoofed to them on a silver platter and you’d complain the stars weren’t on the platter as well. Even if you beat me I wonder how long it will be until Nightmare Moon realizes that you’ll never be happy under her. You won’t be happy until you’re in her place with everypony worshiping you. And until you’re either on top or in the deepest and darkest dungeon in Equestria you’re just a traitor waiting to happen to everypony you work with.” Trixie’s face contorted in rage and she shot a bolt of lightning at Rarity. Rarity already had several rocks ready to block Trixie’s attack, and even before the dust had settled to the ground she was charging the other unicorn. Over a month of desperate fighting, and fighting alongside pegasi and earth ponies, had taught her the importance of fighting with everything she had at her disposal as well as fighting dirty when it was necessary. Trixie had unfortunately learned a few tricks too, so Rarity failed to gore the other unicorn with her horn and end the fight right there, but she at least scored a satisfying cut along Trixie’s side. The two of them tumbled to the ground and engaged in a brutal and entirely graceless beating with their hooves, teeth, and horns. Rarity had hoped she might catch Trixie off guard with this move. But, she wryly thought, Nightmare Moon encouraged far too much brutality and treachery in her subordinates for Trixie to not have prepared for this sort of thing. Oh well, she would just be a little longer than she’d hoped. Still plenty of time left to catch up to Twilight and the others and end this once and for all. -- They’d quickly wound around the mountain climbing up towards Canterlot and Twilight couldn’t see Rarity and Trixie anymore. The last she’d seen them the two unicorns appeared to be shouting at each other, but she worried about what could be going on out of her sight between the two very personal enemies. She scrambled up a bit of loose rock and rather abruptly started worrying about her own circumstances. It was a long way to the ground, and large chunks of rock almost all the way. Falling would be a very bad idea right about now. For the first time in her life Twilight Sparkle wished she weren’t a unicorn. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were slowly circling up with their earth bound friends and showing no signs of strain or being worried about falling off the mountain. They had at least taken all the saddlebags so Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack only had to get themselves up the mountain. They were making decent progress, but as she thought such a cheery thought Twilight made a bad decision. She looked up and saw exactly how much mountain they still had left to climb. She didn’t have to worry about how long it might take Rarity to beat Trixie anymore. They were going to be climbing for most of the day. And then they still had to break into the castle, steal the Elements right out from under Nightmare Moon herself, and escape alive. No problem. At least it wouldn’t be a problem as long as nopony spotted them. Rainbow Dash assured Twilight that she could do another sonic rainboom if she had to in order to get them out of any trouble, but that would give away their position and bring down lots of trouble. So it figured that at that exact moment somepony spotted them, or rather some griffon spotted them. “Still hanging around with these twerps Rainbow Dash? I guess you really are chronically un-cool.” “Still here Gilda? I thought when I did that sonic rainboom it would have taught you your lesson about messing with me or my friends.” “That was sheer luck dweeb. I’ll show you what real talent is. And lucky me, I’ll get to do it the hard way.” Twilight barely caught the saddlebags Rainbow Dash was carrying as the pegasus sped off. At the same time she made the mistake of looking down towards the ground and saw again just how far she’d fall if she lost her grip with any of her hooves. Scrambling back to press herself against the mountain Twilight looked up to see Rainbow Dash flying for her life. Twilight knew that Rainbow Dash was an incredibly skilled flier, and that she’d come a long way since the Summer Sun Celebration. But Gilda wasn’t a novice by any means either, and she was flying with the sole purpose of killing Rainbow Dash. Her friend seemed to be fairly easily dodging Gilda’s attacks, but since the griffon only had to succeed once that thought failed to make Twilight feel any better. Twilight had never been the sort of pony to sit by and let another of her friends fight for their life without doing anything about it, and this time wouldn’t be an exception. Her horn lit up and several small fireballs started orbiting it. Hopefully they could hurt, or at least distract, Gilda without giving away their position to anypony else. “Don’t,” Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder. “This is about those two, and it wouldn’t be right to jump into it. I want to help Rainbow Dash just as much as you do, but this is her fight.” “But what if Gilda hurts her or kills her? Rainbow Dash wouldn’t just stand around while that happened to one of us.” “Does it look like Rainbow Dash needs our help right now?” Applejack pointed out to where Rainbow Dash seemed to be leading Gilda on a merry chase. “We can always help her if she needs it, but only if she needs it.” “Fine,” Twilight huffed and released the magic. “But girls, for the record, if we ever run into a mortal enemy of mine and we start trying to kill each other I want you to help me. I’d rather just win than go on some adventure of self discovery and fulfillment through combat.” “I’d just rather avoid a fight,” Fluttershy muttered, “or having enemies at all.” “I want an enemy!” Pinkie Pie jumped about distressingly close to the edge of the rocks. “Because then I could throw them a party and make them my friend. And then I could throw them another party because now I had a new friend!” “Girls,” Applejack was the only one to keep her mind on the task at hoof, “let’s keep watching Rainbow Dash so we can help her if we need to.” “Get back here Rainbow Crash!” They could hear Gilda shout. “You can’t run from me forever!” “Who says I’m running from you?” Rainbow Dash shouted back. “I’m just flying around and you’re so bad at this you can’t keep up!” Gilda just growled and swiped at a laughing Rainbow Dash. Dodging the swipe Rainbow Dash cast a glance back at Twilight and the others before speeding away from the mountain. Applejack seemed to read something from the glance as she stepped away from the others and turned to face the mountain. “Applejack,” Twilight asked, “what are you…” “I’d stay back if I were you.” Applejack was carefully watching Gilda chasing Rainbow Dash over her shoulder. “And if this goes wrong you might want to get ready with some fancy magic.” Twilight stumbled back and lit her horn back up. Looking at where Applejack was and what Rainbow Dash was doing she thought she had a clue what the two had in mind, and if she was right and things went wrong she would have to scramble in a hurry with her magic. Rainbow Dash turned, and after dodging a few more attacks started flying straight towards the mountain, or more precisely straight towards Applejack. In her single minded rage Gilda failed to notice the other pony and kept pursing Rainbow Dash with a grim determination. “Flying towards a mountain is the best you can do?” Gilda chased her would be prey. “You’re mine dweeb face!” Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything. Instead she was completely focused on her flying. Seeing the two fliers approaching Applejack set her hooves in a clear bucking position, and Twilight readied her magic in case the whole plan fell apart. Her problem was that she wasn’t sure if she would need to act first to save Rainbow Dash and Applejack, or to incapacitate Gilda. She needn’t have worried. Rainbow Dash pulled off her maneuver so perfectly Twilight thought that she could have bitten off some of Applejack’s hair if she’d wanted to. Instead she sped upwards, and confused by her apparent early pull up Gilda didn’t realize the trap until it was far, far too late. Flying into a mountain at full speed would have been bad. Getting bucked by Applejack would have been bad. Flying full speed into one of Applejack’s bucks was very bad. Applejack’s hooves connected with a dull thud. Gilda crashed to a halt seemed to freeze in the air before taking a few unsteady flaps backwards and plummeting towards the forest below. The last Twilight saw of her, Gilda was trying rather unsuccessfully to control her descent into the trees. She didn’t think they’d have to worry about Gilda for some time after that. Maybe even long enough to get out alive with the Elements of Harmony and use them. “That was fun,” Rainbow Dash settled down next to Twilight. “Good teamwork Applejack.” “I suppose you did okay,” Applejack flipped several saddlebags back to Rainbow Dash. “You wasted enough time though. Now let’s get going before Rarity takes a different path up the mountain and beats us to Canterlot.” -- Rarity was used to working while tired. It had been a long hike when she and Pinkie Pie were first starting to mine gems. And while hiring their first few employees had made the mining a bit easier the paperwork that had gone along with running a small business had taken up just as much time, and been in its own way just as hard. Then she’d had to balance lessons with Celestia, her new found social obligations, and running a rapidly expanding business. So yes, Rarity knew how to give her best when she was running on less than a hundred percent. But she’d been sleeping and eating far too little for over a month now and it was starting to take its toll. Rarity had always been extremely careful with her weight and had never had much fat to burn. She’d burned it and more besides since fleeing Canterlot. She was easily in the best shape of her life, and adrenaline was a wonderful thing, but she was clearly going to lose the race to exhaustion. “Not so mouthy once you realize how pitiful you truly are. Can you feel your death approaching? Don’t worry, Trixie has other things in mind for you. You’ll beg to die by the time you are finally given the mercy of death.” “Don’t go taking a victory lap before you’ve won. You’ve taken quite a few lumps yourself. I’m rather fond of that cut under your eye. I think it will scar over and give you a nice prisoner look when you’re rotting away in the deepest and darkest dungeon in all Equestria.” Trixie scowled and summoned several clouds that began flinging lightning towards the ground. Rarity responded by rolling away from the clouds and firing several rocks at Trixie. The blue unicorn erected a shield to protect herself and Rarity noted with distaste that her attack didn’t seem to be straining Trixie’s shield. Pressing her advantage Trixie began to blanket the area with lightning. Reluctantly, Rarity stopped throwing earth at the other unicorn and concentrated entirely on dodging Trixie’s attack. Each lightning bolt wasn’t terribly hard to dodge, but there were a lot of lightning bolts coming down and the effect added up. Her graceful rolls and sidesteps soon dissolved into throwing herself about and scrambling from safe ground to safe ground. All the while Rarity was burning more and more energy without hurting Trixie. Once forced completely on the defensive it was only a matter of time until Rarity wouldn’t be able to dodge one of Trixie’s attacks. Despite the fact that she knew it was coming being hit by lighting hurt. A lot. It hurt even worse once she rolled over and saw the large spot where her fur had been burned away. If she lived through this that was going to take forever to grow back and style properly. Rarity saw Trixie calmly walking towards her and tried once again to attack the other unicorn with several needle sharp rocks speeding towards her. Trixie however was smart enough to sill have her shield up and Rarity’s attack was quickly reduced to gravel raining on the ground. “Ha!” Trixie stomped down on Rarity with a hoof. “Trixie is victorious once and for all. Skill and power proved far superior to your pathetic grace and elegance. Trixie will throw your broken body to the streets so all can see Trixie’s superiority. Then you will be the one to suffer in the deepest and darkest dungeon in all Equestria. Nightmare Moon spent a thousand years in the moon plotting her revenge. Trixie knows she thought of several very creative torture methods during that long time and you will be the first to experience them.” Rarity knew she couldn’t match Trixie’s magic in her state so she tried to wriggle out from under Trixie and fight with hooves and teeth again. A filthy and barbaric exercise yes, but she had to do whatever she could to win and catch up with Twilight and the others. Unfortunately all she succeeded in doing was driving Trixie’s hoof deeper into her side. “Trixie finds it all the more satisfying that you fight with everything you have. You should know that you are well and truly beaten when you admit your defeat. But how to truly break you? Ah, Trixie has the perfect idea. You think your precious sister is safe at that farm in Ponyville. You’re wrong. Nightmare Moon has known where your pathetic little families have been this whole time. Trixie will break your darling little sister and then remake her to be Trixie’s apprentice. Trixie will teach her to hate everything you love, to be loyal to Nightmare Moon, and you will watch every second of it.” Rarity was more exhausted and beaten up than she had ever been in her life. She was weak and tired, and nowhere near her full potential. And Trixie was a skilled, powerful, and magically protected unicorn. All that did her absolutely no good against the wave of magical force Rarity threw at her. “Don’t you dare lay one filthy hoof on Sweetie Belle!” As the beam of raw power faded, excess magic literally rained from Rarity’s horn. “Trixie did not say you could get up!” Trixie’s horn glowed brilliantly and a bolt of lightning shot straight at Rarity. The lightning bolt simply ceased as Rarity’s eyes began to glow with power. As Trixie staggered back in shock a wave of earth erupted in front of Rarity surged forward until it reached and engulfed Trixie. “I’ll tear you apart limb by limb if you even think about disturbing a single hair on her.” The calm detachment with which Rarity spoke seemed to scare Trixie more than rage ever could. Trixie’s horn glowed brighter and her earthen prison slowly began to crumble under the assault. She broke free into a fighting stance, but before she could move a rock almost as large as her came hurtling from her side and hit her with a sickening crunch. The blue unicorn went sprawling and before she could struggle back to her hooves Rarity had a number of sharpened shards of rock hovering in front of her face. “Go ahead and kill me.” Trixie groaned and wheezed. “Nightmare Moon will make me suffer worse than you can imagine before she kills me after a failure like this, and Celestia’s ‘mercies’ would be even worse to a traitor.” “So you can talk about yourself in something other than the third person,” Rarity said coldly. “But no, I want you to live so you can suffer the consequences for everything you’ve done.” Trixie coughed, “I thought you self proclaimed ‘heroes’ were supposed to always do the right thing.” “Such a charming and naïve thought.” Rarity laughed without humor. “Twilight Sparkle however compared me to the element of generosity, not kindness. So I’m afraid you’re asking the wrong pony if you’re looking for a quick out from everything you’ve done. Stay here or run, it won’t matter once Nightmare Moon catches you or Celestia comes back and gets her hooves on you.” Rarity used a little magic to keep the rocks hovering over Trixie awhile longer. But she never looked back as she turned and walked away to start catching up with her friends. -- Rainbow Dash loved being a pegasus. Even before she’d done a sonic rainboom she wouldn’t have traded her wings for anything in all Equestria. Sure Rarity and Twilight had their fancy schmancy magic, but Rainbow Dash was sure it couldn’t compare to the feeling of flight. Today though she was also grateful that she was a pegasus. While she and Fluttershy were lazily riding currents of air up the mountain and only occasionally flapping their wings Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were huffing and puffing up the mountain. They still had quite a ways to go, but before long they would hit the main road up to Canterlot and the going would be much easier. At least it would be much easier for the earth bound ponies. Rainbow Dash couldn’t care one way or another about the terrain beyond any impact it had on her ability to fly. She would have much preferred to not be carrying a bunch of saddlebags as she flew, but if her friends had to climb with their saddlebags this would take even longer than it already was. And that was on top of having to slow down so Rarity could catch up. This was taking forever. “Hey Twilight,” she said, “I’m gonna fly ahead and see if there’s anything we need to look out for.” “Okay, but be care…” Twilight was cut off as Rainbow Dash dumped all the saddlebags she was carrying onto the unsuspecting unicorn before speeding off in a rainbow colored blur. They weren’t far at all from the main road it turned out. Once she hit the paved switchbacks Rainbow Dash started a rapidly ascending spiral towards Canterlot itself. The city gates were quite massive, but a quick look said that they were far more for show than any real sense of protection. That had always come from Celestia. Down below Rainbow Dash could see her friends looking up at her and she waved to them to show that they were all clear. She saw Twilight wave back and turned for a last look at the gates. Then she saw that Twilight hadn’t been waving, but had instead been gesturing a warning. She looked up and saw a group of ponies in black and purple flight suits diving towards her. Rainbow Dash knew she could outrun them, but not this time. This time Rainbow Dash knew she could beat them at their own game. “Hello Rainbow Dash,” they pulled up in front of her in formation. “You’ve become a truly magnificent flyer since the last time we talked. You can out fly any pegasus in all Equestria, and Nightmare Moon is prepared to give you all Equestria to have that talent serve her. So name your price. Anything short of Nightmare Moon’s throne itself can be yours. All you have to do is ask. Piles of bits, a palace the size of Manehatten, throngs of adoring worshipers, your enemies strung up for your amusement, none of it has to be out of your reach if you want it.” “Thank you,” Rainbow Dash shook her head, “but no. You’re offering me the world, and I’d love to take it. But if you gave me the world and I had to give up my friends for it I don’t think I’d actually get anything in the end. So go back and tell Nightmare Moon that I’m not on her side, and I won’t ever be.” The Shadowbolts glared at her behind their opaque goggles, and for a few fleeting seconds Rainbow Dash thought she would have another fight on her hooves, but then they turned and flew off back into the city. As they got farther and farther away they seemed to become almost translucent until they seemed puffs of stardust disappearing in the distance. Rainbow Dash descended much more directly and rapidly than she’d gone up and before long she was landing in the middle of all her friends. “Good job Rainbow Dash,” Applejack slapped her on the back. “We were all very worried about you.” “What are you guys talking about?” Rainbow Dash looked like Applejack had been speaking buffalo. “You know I’d never leave my friends hanging.” Twilight smiled at her and floated the saddlebags back to her. The smile Rainbow Dash was okay with. The saddlebags she could have done without. “There you are!” They all turned to see Rarity scrambling up the rocks behind them. I’d worried you were all already in Canterlot without me. “Of course not silly.” Pinkie Pie giggled. “How would we have our ‘we beat Nightmare Moon party’ together if we left you behind?” Twilight gasped. “Are you okay Rarity?” Rainbow Dash belatedly noticed that Rarity was covered in scrapes, had dried blood all over her previously white coat, and she had a particularly nasty spot where it looked like the fur had been burned away and the skin below burned. “Just flesh wounds.” Rarity elegantly trotted past them. “And besides, you should see what I did to Trixie.” “I’d rather not,” Fluttershy muttered. “I don’t like fighting.” Confident that there was now nothing between them and Canterlot they made very good time towards and then up the main road. Rainbow Dash had never been to Canterlot, and even under its present ownership she was eager to see the capital of Equestria. She noticed however that Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and even Pinkie Pie had nervous looks on their faces. This was their home, and who knew what had befallen it. Suddenly her eagerness faded. “Ready?” Twilight asked Rarity. The other unicorn nodded and together they opened one of the massive metal doors to Canterlot. The six stepped through into Canterlot and Rainbow Dash heard a strangled gasp from Twilight Sparkle.