//------------------------------//
// Last Stand 
// Story: The Legion of Bronze 
// by Sixes_And_Sevens 
//------------------------------//

The Rani had led Scootaloo and dragged the suddenly unresisting Doctor out of the lab and into the monitoring station. “Whoa~,” said Scootaloo.
“No,” growled the Rani. She pulled out a remote and began flipping the screens from one viewpoint to another. Most of them were just pictures of normal clouds. Several were just black. “Sleeping,” she said by way of explanation.
Others, though, told a different story. Scootaloo saw Ponyville, rent by rain and hail and lightning and wind, an army of robots that she almost recognized circling like vultures over a bright, shining hole in space and time. An increasing number seemed to be of places she’d already seen today. The research campus, the agora, the Cloudiseum…
“Okay~, zzo what the heck~ izz going~ on~ he~re~?”
I had a swarm of self-replicating nanomachines stored in the clouds,” the Rani explained rapidly. “Some imbeciles came in here, reprogrammed them to turn pegasi into mechanical soldiers, and let them loose.”
“Righ~t. And Ponyvil~le?”
“Presently being replaced by an alternate future where all pegasi have been converted.”
“Oh~.” There was a tremor in Scootaloo’s metallic voice. “Zzo, ar~e we~--”
“No. You’ve already been converted by my nanites, and I programmed them only to work on pegasi, not Time Lords.”
“Zz-- So we’re safe~?”
“From the nanites? Yes. From the threat of Cyber-converted pegasi, an alternate future where Roan never fell, or the issue of two points in time meeting? Very much not.”
“Ditzy…”
The Rani turned to face the Doctor. “And, of course, there’s that to sort out as well.”
The Doctor was shaking, staring blindly into space. Shaking wasn't quite the right word, though. It was as though his whole body was writhing, rippling like a puddle. And just beneath that... "What izz that~?"
“This universe doesn’t take to deception as well as our home,” the Rani said. “It’s far more… flexible. Inclusive. Anything can be possible here. Wolves made of wood, cockatrices, electric insects…”
“What ar~e you saying~?”
“Time Lords are far more than mere flesh and bone,” the Rani said. “We're nth-dimensional causal events hiding behind a shell made of only four. Sometimes, when we're under stress, that slips out.”
Scootaloo looked at the Doctor. He seemed much larger than he had before, and in his eyes, she could see exploding stars. “I’m~ guezzing that’s bad~?”
“In his current state? It wouldn’t be good.”
“Can~ you tal~k to him~? Calm~ him down~?”
The Rani blinked. “Me?”
“You’r~e lik~e his oldest frien~d, right~?”
“‘Friend’ might be pushing the definition, and I'm not his 'oldest', but I suppose... largely, you are correct.”
“You know~ him better~ than me, then~.”
“Oh-- I suppose,” the Rani said reluctantly. She looked over to the stallion. “Doctor. I included a failsafe on the nanites. They can be deactivated, and your wife can be returned to you.”
The Doctor turned, and for just a moment, Scootaloo could see the birth of the universe reflected in his eyes. “How?” he demanded.
“I devised a large electromagnetic pulse generator, which should be capable of covering the city. If the nanites spread beyond the limits, then we may not be able to catch them all.”
The Doctor nodded. “How long?” he bit out.
“I estimate perhaps half an hour.”
“Fine. So what are we waiting for, then? Where’s this pulse generator?”
“We’re inside of it.”
The Doctor stopped. “Beg pardon?”
“This section of town, this research area. It’s a giant storm cloud. I managed to make use of the few supplies I was afforded and the unique abilities this form provides to ensure that one sufficiently large lightning bolt could knock out the entire city.”
“Gre~at!” Scootaloo said. “How do we ac~tivat~e it~?”
The Rani was silent. “Rani?” the Doctor probed.
“Look, I’m a biologist, not a rainmaker!” she snapped. “How would I know?”
The Doctor growled. “Luck~ily,” Scootaloo said, “I do know what to do~.”
The Time Lords looked at her. “You do?” the Rani asked.
“I’v~e been~ studying it for~ years~.” Scootaloo said. “I~ know~ how to ma~ke a ligh~tnin~g bolt~.”
“We only have one shot at this,” the Rani warned.
“Yeah, yeah, sur~e.”
“You could tell me what to do, and I could likely pull it off.”
“How~ are you~ at flying~?”
“Not very good.”
“I’ll~ do it~! It’s~ no problem~.”
The Rani closed her eyes tightly. “If you stay in here, you’ll be safe from the pulse. I insulated this room against it. If you go out there, then your nanites will perish as surely as all the others.”
“Righ~t, but you can~ re-do it, can’t you~?”
The Rani made a despairing gesture. “With what? All my nanites would be dead, I don’t have the support to make any more, and the ease with which this experiment went sour means that I’ll be unlikely to garner any of that support. If you go out there, you’ll lose everything you gained today.”
Scootaloo was silent for a long moment.
The Doctor seemed to have forced himself to calm down. Else, all of his anger had been transferred to Scootaloo. “Are you alright?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth and let out a long, pained, electric honk, a siren of sheer misery. She pummeled the wall with her hooves, over and over again. “Zztupid~, zztupid~ Zzcoo~taloo~!”
The Doctor rose to pull her away from the wall, but one of her metal wings caught him in the nose. He reeled back, stunned, but Scootaloo seemed either not to notice or not to care. She screamed her pain at the wall until it metaphorically blistered under her verbal assault and literally dented under her furious punches.
The blows came slower and slower, and the shouts grew quieter and quieter until all was silent. All, that is, except for soft, electronic sobs.
The Doctor reached out a hoof awkwardly. “Look,” he said. “You don’t have to--”
“Yes she does,” the Rani said.
He glared at her.
“She’zz rig~ht~,” Scootaloo said. Her voice sounded more staticky now. “I~’m the on~ly~ on~e who~zze a~ble to pull~ it off~.”
“There could still be another way,” the Doctor said desperately.
She rounded on him, purple eyes glowing like lasers. “Don~’t you~ DAR~E! No mo~re liezz~. No~t after~ all thizz~.”
She broke down into crackling static again. The Doctor looked around awkwardly. The Rani sighed and trotted over to Scootaloo. “Look at me,” she instructed.
After a moment, Scootaloo lifted her head and met the Rani’s eyes. “How long have you been unable to fly?”
“Uh~, zzince I wazz bor~n, I guezz~?”
“So if you lose the ability to fly again, you’ve only gone back to how things were before.”
“Yeah~.”
“Were things so terrible before you couldn’t fly?”
“I~" Schootaloo trailed off for a long moment. "I~ guezz not~. But I couldn’t~ get to do~ my dream~ job~.”
“That is unfortunate,” the Rani agreed.
“The~ only job~ I could do~ in weath~er managemen~t is me~teorologist~.”
“Hm. Well, I know one way that you can avoid going into meteorology.”
“How~?”
“Go into something else.”
Scootaloo looked up, uncomprehending.
The Rani sighed. “Look, what are you good at?”
“Er~. Rid~ing my zzcooter~... ma~th, I guezz…”
“Then why don’t you get a job doing something like that?”
“Becauzze it isn~’t flying~. And math izz la~me.”
“I used mathematics to create those nanites currently giving you the power to fly,” the Rani said. 
Scootaloo shuffled her hooves slightly. "We~ll, I guezz~... But~ I~ can~’t... I~ can~'t do what ever~y other peg~asus can~.”
“And can every other pegasus ride your scooter as well as you? Are they as good at math? You are different, Scootaloo, but so is every other member of your species. Difference does not make you lesser. The things you can do, within the constraints of time and space and your own body, are far more important than the things you cannot.”
Scootaloo didn’t reply. “Answer me this, then,” the Rani instructed. “Is there any other pegasus who could save the world right now?”
Scootaloo let out a long, electronic hum. “I never said I would~n’t do it~.”
The Rani nodded brusquely. “You only have one shot. I suggest you make it count.”
“I will~.” She turned to the door. “On~ly one sho~t,” she repeated sadly. Then she trotted back out toward the lab.
“Meanwhile,” the Rani said, turning back to the Doctor, “you and I have business to attend to here.” She noticed the Doctor staring at her, slack-jawed. She sighed. “Now what?”
“How could you just-- tell her all that?”
“Oh yes, let's lie to her, I'm sure that will fix everything,” the Rani retorted. “There’s no use in sugarcoating it, Doctor. She can’t fly, and she’ll never be able to. But if she puts in the time and the effort, then she might rise higher than any of her peers in a different manner.”
The Doctor looked at the door, his eyes misty. “I’d say she already has.”
“Yes, yes, very touching. Now, about your TARDIS…”




“Nearly there!” Holiday shouted, peering through the sheets of rain. Moments later, another bolt of lightning split the sky.
“I felt that!” Cheerilee squeaked.
Bonbon took a deep breath. “Love the smell of ozone in the morning.”
“It’s a quarter to eleven at night,” Romana retorted.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “C’mon, let’s git.”
Overhead, they could all hear the sounds of mechanical warriors circling. The squeaking of joints, the clash of metal on metal, the flap of wings against the air all managed to overpower even the roar of the storm. It seemed to Bonbon that the noise was growing steadily louder, as well. She looked up, squinting through the sheets of water cascading over Romana’s shield spell.
Another flash of lightning showed the silhouettes that had been hidden. Dark images of diving pegasi were burned into Bonbon’s eyes. They were all holding aloft weapons. “Run!” she yelled.
The others obeyed without hesitation. “Romana, drop the umbrella! Applejack, be ready to kick in the door!"
In the next instant, all five mares were struck with gallons of water. Romana was swept off of Applejack’s back and fell to the ground, sputtering. Bonbon yanked her to her hooves, and the Time Lady stumbled quickly to catch up with the herd.
There was the sound of splintering wood from up ahead and the group ran, single file, into the relative safety of Ditzy’s house. “Make for the basement!” Romana shouted.
They all raced downstairs into the laboratory. Romana made a beeline for the table. “There must be something here,” she said frantically. “Something that’ll stop them getting in, to stop working…” 
There was the sound of heavy thumping at the top of the stairs. Then, there was cracking.
“Romana?” Holiday asked, her voice higher than usual.
“Oh, brilliant, he kept this?” Romana shoved something on her hoof. “Grab on, ladies.”
Applejack, recognizing the vortex manipulator for what it was, took Romana’s right hoof and grabbed Cheerilee around the barrel. Bonbon did the same with Holiday and Romana’s left hoof. Romana had just enough time to deliver a smug grin to the soldiers breaking through the door before she activated the manipulator. There was a flash, and they were gone.
There was another flash. “Ha!” Romana said, dropping back to all fours. “That was a near miss, wasn’t it? I could almost smell their breath on my face. Do robots breathe?”
“Uh, Romana…”
“Yes?” The Time Lady looked around and registered where she was. Specifically, she was in the exact spot she’d just tried to dematerialize from. “Oh. S’pose I should’ve considered the massive hole in spacetime before I tried to pull that one.”
She held up her hooves as the pegasi approached. “Alright, it’s a fair cop. Take me to your leader.”
None of them moved. A sweat began to bead on Romana’s forehead. Then, there was a motion near the stairs. “Oh, is your leader coming to us? Brilliant, love it when that happens. Much less walking to… do…”
Applejack said an oath. All five mares stared in horror as the purple metal alicorn began to descend the stairs, the energy weapon placed dead center on her forehead glowing with subtle menace.




Scootaloo peered furtively out of the doors to the mortuary. Nopony around? Excellent. She slipped quietly into the hall. This was going to be difficult. Lightning bolts, in and of themselves, weren’t hard to make. Most rookie weather patrol recruits made them more often on accident than on purpose. Controlled lightning bolts were much more difficult, though, and the larger they were, the harder it was to keep them from going off too early. She could feel the cloud beneath her hooves. It was quietly humming with static as it was. She could feel it, all right there beneath her. But, as the Rani had suggested, there wouldn’t be enough for two lightning bolts of the required magnitude. She had no room for error. She began to mold the cloud beneath her hooves as she walked along, twisting up strands of vapor like candyfloss. She made her way into the hall and stopped dead. Right in front of her, two guards. They were facing away from her, apparently to stop anypony from entering the area rather than keeping anypony out. 
Scootaloo considered her options. She couldn’t go down the hallway, or she’d disturb the guards.
… Other options?
Oh. Wait. She was surrounded by cloud. Quietly, she pushed through the wall and found herself on the street outside.
The street outside was surrounded by Cyberponies. They all turned to stare at her.
Er.
She pointed to the wall. “Wal~king through cloud~ has pro~ved more efficient than u~zzing doorzz.”
One by one, they all turned away again. Scootaloo made her way quickly down the street, putting a little extra bounce in her step as she did so. Electricity crackled under her hooves. She noticed one or two ponies staring as she walked by. She ignored them. Robots didn’t respond to other robots staring at them. Not even when it’s half the street. Not even when it’s the entire street. Not even when two of them are blocking the path forward, their wings outstretched.
“Uh, gree~tingzz. Izz zzomethin~g wrong?”
“Your com~munication u~nit has a fault~,” one buzzed. “Your min~d cannot~ be accezzed~. You will be re~paired~.”
“Ar~e you cer~tain of thizz~?” Scootaloo asked. Every instinct she had was telling her to bolt, but she held herself still with an ironclad force of will. “I can~ ac~cezz your~ min~d per~fectly~.”
“You~ will~ be repaired~. You~ will~ be like uzz~.”
Screw it. “You know what~?” she demanded, dropping the thick robot accent. “I won’t~! Be~cauze there’s nothin~g to fix~!”
Helpful numbers and lines appeared in her vision, showing her how to calculate just the right angle to jump. As the two heavies moved forward, she leapt, cracked their heads together, and flew like hell.




The Doctor and the Rani stepped out into the lab, much as Scootaloo had done only a few minutes before. The Doctor frowned at the TARDIS. “Alright, what exactly is the plan?”
“She’s your ship. You should be able to open her up,” the Rani replied.
“Okay, yes, got that part. Then what?”
“You lead the Cyberponies currently controlling your ship away, and I’ll go inside to effect repairs.”
The Doctor frowned. “Why don’t I fix the ship while you lead them off?”
“Because you can run faster than I can, and I’m considerably better at fixing these sorts of things than you are.”
The Doctor opened his mouth to object, then shut it again. “Fine,” he grumbled.
He made for the door while the Rani crouched behind a toppled table. He glanced back once, and the Rani gave a short, sharp nod. The Doctor pulled the handle. Or at least, he tried. His hoof went straight through the box, as though it weren’t even there. “Ah. I’m guessing that’s a bad sign,” he said.
The Rani stood up, but he waved her back down. “Stay low. I think I’ve got another way to open her up. A woman, name of River, showed me how to open a TARDIS with a snap of my fingers.”
With a look of intense concentration, he held out a hoof and glared at the door for a long minute. “Oh, wait. No fingers.”
The Rani stood up with a sigh. “Useless,” she grumbled.
“Oi!”
She trotted over to peer through the steadily fading box, studying the scene on the other side. “Do you see that, Doctor? The pegasi are circling. They’re ready to invade. As soon as they receive word from their commander, they’ll be through and we’ll be dead.”
“Regenerated--”
“Dead. You’ll be killed by your friends and neighbors, and they won’t even know it.”
“Oh, look, here comes the Lady President.”
The Doctor spun on his back hoof. Indeed, through the pouring rain, he could see Romana struggling in the hooves of a silver-maned pegasus. Not far behind, he could see Applejack, Cheerilee, Bonbon, and Holiday, all in the same predicament. “No,” he muttered.
“If you don’t do something, Doctor, then all of us will die!” the Rani growled.
The Doctor looked around the lab wildly, then threw another, desperate look at his imprisoned friends. Then, he saw it. A slow grin spread across his face. “Oh, brilliant.”




Romana wished that she could do more to help free herself and her friends from their predicament. Unfortunately, right now she found it a struggle to breathe with the cold metal hooves of her captor wrapped around her chest. “Where are you taking us?” she demanded of the Cyber-leader formerly known as Twilight.
“You~ shoul~d be grateful~,” she replied. “You~ wil~l be pre~zzent for~ our~ great re~birth~. Our~ Ren~aissan~ce~. I~ wil~l be the Leo~nardo~ da Hoov~esie~ of our~ reign~.”
Romana grit her teeth. “But we can’t stand on the clouds!”
“That~ izz~ the prob~lem~ of lesser~ beingzz~.”
“Twilight,” Applejack called. “Don’t do this! Ah’m yer friend, you don’t wanna hurt me! Applejack! The most honest and dependable of all ponies?”
“Applejack, I don’t think Twilight is at home right now,” Romana said.
“You honestly think that she'd force in a hist’ry reference if she was all machine? C’mon now, Twi! Think of Pinkie Pie! Rarity! Spike!”
The Cyberleader looked off-balance. “No~. I do not~ under~stand~.”
Romana's eyes widened. "Of course! The alternate history is still in flux! Some of their memories of the original time stream must still be accessible!"
“Zecora!” Holiday shouted.
“Lyra!” Bonbon supplied.
“Big Macintosh!” Cheerilee yelled.
“The Doctor!” Romana said.
Fortunately, among the chaotic shouting, none of the robots realized that Romana wasn’t just providing a name. She could see the Time Lord on the other side of the portal, jumping up and down, waving his hooves in the air like a lunatic. As soon as their eyes met, he gestured frantically to his right hoof.
Romana’s eyes flickered down to her own right hoof. The hoof where the vortex manipulator was still strapped tight. She looked back up at the Doctor. He mouthed something to her. She cocked her head.
He focused, then enunciated, “Preset Nine! Homing device! Into the TARDIS!”
Romana nodded, then strained to reach across her body and tap the manipulator’s controls. “Applejack, can you distract them any harder?”
Applejack glanced up at the Cyberpony holding her, a silver mare with a multi-striped mane and violet eyes. She smirked. “Ah reckon so.”
Tilting her head back and pushing up for all she was worth, she smooched robot-Rainbow Dash right on the chin. Violet eyes flickered, then grew brighter than ever as the Cybermare’s grip loosened. Applejack pushed her way out of the embrace and fell to the ground. The Cyberleader shook herself from her daze. “Seize her!”
Even as the other Cyberponies swarmed in, though, a others rose to protect the captives. The one holding Bonbon, who she was pretty sure was Rumble, dropped her and flew over to sock Cheerilee’s captor in the jaw. Lofty blocked Holiday from assault, holding her wings over her wife’s head. Fluttershy and Thunderlane pushed back against the swarm of attackers as the ponies gathered around Romana.
There was a confused jumble of hooves and manes and flesh and metal, followed by a blinding flash of light.
Fluttershy, Lofty, and the others backed together, forming an outward facing circle as the flock of pegasi drew nearer. “Y’know~,” Rumble said, “it’zz gre~at to hav~e my min~d back~. But I kin~da wish they’d~ taken uzz~ with them~.”
“Guyzz~? Where’d Twi~light and Rain~bow~ go~?”




Scootaloo buzzed along the street, kicking up cloudstuff as she went. She could hear the rest of the city closing in on her. Okay. She couldn’t outfly them all. Let’s try something else.
She dove to the street, holding her forehooves out in front of her, silently willing the clouds to part. She glanced to a nearby building and estimated the distance between it and her. Then she hit the ground and kept going, burrowing into the cloud and sealing it up behind her. A convenient readout showing her altitude helped her work out how far down she’d gone. She stopped for a moment, listening. Then, she heard the gentle paff of bodies hitting the clouds. 
Scootaloo grinned. Perfect. There was maybe six inches of visibility down here. She could stay hidden like this for hours and not be found. Of course, that wasn’t what she was going to do. She turned toward the building she’d seen earlier, calculated the angle she’d need to travel at based on the Pythagorean Theorem, and flapped for all she was worth. After several seconds, she emerged in the moonlight again. She looked around. She’d come up only a few meters away from where she’d predicted. Not bad. She peered furtively out the window. The street was alive with pegasi kicking up the clouds, tearing the street apart searching for her.
Of course, all this was only stirring up the cloud more and more. She could feel a bolt building. But it wouldn’t be big enough. She couldn’t shape the clouds under her by hoof anymore, not quickly enough.
But if she could get more ponies going at the ground like these guys were, the entire city bouncing and digging and jumbling the cloud up… that might just work! But she’d have to act fast. With a bound, she took to the air, soaring up, up, up above the city in the clouds. 
And then she could see it all below her. Not just the city. The world. She watched the patchwork landscape roll by, the clouds drifting over the fields and the forests and the towns… She wanted it to be like this forever.
But she knew it couldn’t. And it shouldn’t. So she scanned the city for massive populations of pegasi, mapping it all out in her mind. She saw it all, from where to strike first to the final blow. It would be only ten minutes before the nanites were too far away for the lightning to affect.
Scootaloo cracked her neck thoughtfully. Well. She’d just have to make those ten minutes count. She dove for the Cloudiseum.




There was a flash of light, and the mares landed on the floor of the console room. Four Cyberponies were busily working the controls, but they all turned to look at the new arrivals. Besides the five mares of flesh and blood, there was a confused-looking silver pegasus and a violet alicorn mare. “Oh no,” Cheerilee said. “We’re outnumbered!”
Romana looked between the old guard and the new. She raised her hooves. “Alright, guv’nors. It’s a fair cop, Cyberleader.”
“Ex~cel~lent~!”
“Ex~cel~lent~!”
Twilight and Propraetor Cyclone looked at one another. “Who~ ar~e you~?” Cyclone demanded.
“I~ am your~ zzup~er~ior~!” Twilight returned. “You~ dare~ to chal~lenge my rol~e as Cy~berleader~?”
“I chal~lenge noth~ing~. For you ar~e not the Cy~berleader~!”
They stared at each other for a long minute. Then, the two groups fell to fighting. Romana rushed for the control panel. “Everypony, try to stay out of their way!” she yelled, opening the door. The Doctor beamed at her, and a grey-- not silver-- pegasus ran in, her raven locks streaming out behind her. She uncorked a phial she held in one wing, being sure to open it away from her face. Romana approved. Anypony who could remember to use appropriate lab technique at a time like this was alright in her books.
The grey mare upended the vial into an exposed tube, and quicksilver ran out into the belly of the TARDIS. Then Propraetor Cyclone grabbed her from behind and yanked her away before she could do anything more.
But the Doctor was there to take over. He grabbed at the control panel, pulling levers and pressing buttons. “Romana! Can you cover me?”
“Right!” she shouted, casting her slightly wobbly shield once more, forming a bubble around the controls.
Holiday dove for cover as the two Cyberleaders pushed into the console near her. “Any time, Doctor!”
Romana winced as the three pegasi not currently grappling with each other or the Rani beat on her shield spell. “Yes-- I don’t know how long I can hold this!”
“Right!” the Doctor said. “Hold on tight!”
He grabbed onto an orange lever. Rainbow Dash grabbed onto the railing with her powerful metal hooves. Applejack grabbed onto Rainbow. Cheerilee grabbed onto Applejack. Bonbon grabbed hold of Holiday and one of the monitors. Romana just held onto the console for dear life.
The TARDIS shot into the air, right through the roof of the lab. The Doctor yanked another lever to deactivate the interior gravity, then spun the ship so that its doorway faced the clouds below. “Bombs away!” he shouted as the unsecured pegasus warriors suddenly found themselves knocked off their hooves.
And then he saw the furious face of the Rani falling down to the clouds as well. “Oh no. Ushas!”
Romana blinked. “Sorry? Ushas? As in, the Rani Ushas?”
“Do you know any others?” The Doctor reactivated the artificial gravity and went into a dive.
Romana clung on for dear life. “She’s a pegasus being carried by a pegasus! She’s hardly going to splat! We, on the other hoof--”
She was cut off when the Rani viciously elbowed CyberCyclone in the face and pushed off, hard. She soared up to the TARDIS, slamming the doors behind her. “Thank you,” she snapped. “So bloody much.”
“Oi. Did you die? No.”
The Rani folded her right wing into an incredibly rude gesture.
The others slowly, shakily regained their bearings. Holiday looked around. “Where’s Scootaloo?”




Scootaloo was quite unaware of all of this. She had been quite busy recently. Her journey could have been summarized as “Skyzantium Express Tour: All the Sights you Need to See in Under Ten Minutes.”
She’d hit up the Cloudisseum first. That had been easier than her frantic race through the streets had been. She’d gotten all of the chariots entangled before sending them and the whole crowd beside stirring up the cloud layer. After that, she’d visited the Hoofia Sofia, the Propraetor’s palace, the main drag… and now, as the time limit was ticking ever nearer, she was racing for the last place she could think of that might have a sizable population. The Rainbow Factory.
Skyzantium was justly famous for their production of rainbows. The factory had ended up creating where Rainbow Falls was in Scootaloo’s own time, and the Traders Exchange was an echo of the booming international trade the city had once enjoyed.
Of course, the secret of rainbow making had been jealously guarded by the kirin right up until a pair of pegasi disguised as sages had stolen it right out from their vast empire, but the tour guides didn’t often mention that.
(That’s not relevant), she thought to herself.
I bet its relevant to the kirin, she replied.
(Shut up and fly.)
Y’know, it’s amazing how many stories from pegasus mythology are about rising and falling.
(Shut up.)
Like, there’s Icarus, and those two giant guys…
(Shut. Up.)
And Bellerophon!
(Shut, and I can’t possibly emphasize this enough, up.)
Bellerophon was--
(OH MY LUNA--)




Bellerophon was an earth pony who befriended 
(You know what? No.)
...Sorry?
(I said no. If we’re doing Bellerophon, we’re doing it my way. Capisce?)
All right, I guess. Does that mean I get to make the interjections?
(Fine, whatever. Bellerophon was an earth pony hero who befriended Pegasus.) You remember him? Capital-P Pegasus? Medusa’s son who sprang out of her severed neck?
(Pegasus was a great flier, but not much of a fighter, and Bellerophon was a great warrior who really wanted to fly. They got together, killed a chimera with molten lead, it was awesome.)
You know, I think there’s more to it than--
(Getting to the point! Bellerophon felt that he and Pegasus deserved to be placed among the gods.)
Were they in love? Scholars disagree.
(So they flew up to the heavens, and to punish them for being too awesome, the gods sent a horsefly to sting Pegasus on the butt.)
It wasn’t excessive awesomeness, it was hubris.
(Same thing. It just depends whose side you’re on.)
I mean--
(Anyway, Pegasus bucked like crazy, because horsefly stings are the worst. And Bellerophon fell to earth.)
It wouldn’t have been the first time, either. According to the work of Soorin Carrotketgaard, Pegasus bucked Bellerophon tried to go and woo a lady, which does give the suspicion of jealousy indicative--
(Hey. Keep it short.)
Sorry. I’m just saying, they were totally dating.
(Anyway, and this is the part I think you were driving at, this was a fall from higher than Bellerophon had ever gone before. And he landed in a pile of thorns, broke his back, and went blind.)
Yow.
(Yeah, yow. That’s gotta--)
GET DOWN!




Scootaloo dove. A pegasus zoomed over her head, missing her by inches. She risked a glance back. A platoon of soldiers was bearing down on her, fast. Only one way to go. She zipped into the Rainbow Factory, the cloud puffing around her. 
She emerged in a cavernous space, full of enormous strainers, great vats of natural dyes, and huge rainbow sprayers. The machinery of the plant sat still and useless, for everypony required to run it had gone on a Scootaloo hunt.
She darted behind a vast vat of orange dye, pressing herself close against it. She heard puff after puff, signaling the arrival of more and more pegasi in the room. She held herself still until she could bear it no more. Then, she soared up over the edge of the vat. “All your fathers are bottoms!”
There are some silences that really are golden. The absolute shock and insult of a couple hundred robot pegasi that comes from having insulted their parentage is simply indescribable. Scootaloo, though, had no time to savor it. She dove for the clouds below as the silence was converted into a furious roar and the beating of wings.
She was about halfway down when a pegasus sprung up out of the clouds at her. Every instinct told her to veer. She elected to ignore those instincts and continued to barrel down directly into the stallion’s face. She saw him reel, and then she fell into the cloud.
From up above, she heard a heavy thump. She frowned at first, not knowing what it could be. Then, her vision went orange. The idiots had knocked over one of the vats of rainbow juice. The next thing she knew, a vast, flat surface struck her, and she was falling to earth, pressed against the inside of an enormous vat. Her first instinct was to try and fly back up with it, but she knew that even now she wasn’t strong enough to pull that off. Her second instinct was to try and fly faster than the vat was falling and make it out before she hit the ground, but she wasn’t fast enough for that.
So, option C it was. She flew down to nearer the rim and pushed for all she was worth. The vat began to rotate onto its side as she pushed up and out. It landed with a thud, the lip of its rim digging into the earth before it fell over onto its side. She zipped out of the top of the vat and soared up again, back to the clouds.




(And do you know what Bellerophon did after he fell?)
Er. Lived as a hermit until he died?
(Pfft. Nah. He was too awesome for that.)
But the myth says--
(It’s a myth. A lie. That’s what ‘myth’ means.)
Erm…
(He got up, got back on his horse boyfriend, and kept on fighting monsters. (Pegasus had to serve as his eyes from then on.) He was a hero, and that meant no surrender, no giving up.)
So, does that mean you’re cool with not being able to fly again?
(Rut no. You think Bellerophon was cool with thorns blinding him? No. But I’m not going to let some stupid ancient gods, or genetics, or anypony else tell me how I should live my life.)




She swooshed up through the enormous hole in the floor that the falling vat had created. “Is that all you got?” she shouted.

(Once upon a time, there was a mare named Scootaloo.)

She soared over the walkways like a falcon.
(She had to choose between everything she’d ever wanted and everything she’d ever loved.)

The pegasi gave chase, but she was defter, better at seeing the angles, and sent them sprawling into walls.

((Friends, family, her life…))

Another vat of dye was knocked over, and the wall was soaked purple.

(She chose to save the world and sacrifice herself.)

She circled around and around, soaring higher and higher until she could touch the dome.

(Her body, her dreams. Everything.)

She dove, butting through the throng, bracing for impact, closing her eyes tight. She hit the ground and everything exploded in a burst of light and sound and orange and purple and pain and exhilaration.

(And when it was done, she wouldn’t have done a thing differently.)

Scootaloo’s eyelids fluttered, the ash falling on her coat, mane and lashes. The image of the explosion was still burnt into her mind, the orange and purple lightning, the thunderclap that shook the soul. “Scoota...boom,” she murmured, before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.