Rainbow Dash took off to find the other members of the Pristine Army; she couldn’t remember the exact number anymore, but she knew there weren’t too many of them still around. So imagine her surprise when she found a whole little cluster of them bombarding a boarded up and barricaded house.
She had half a mind to blow them all away right then and there, but then she looked around. Wind Rider had captured her with a much smaller group, and the dudes Rarity had just beaten up were way far away. It was possible these soldiers wouldn’t recognize her at first, which gave her a way more interesting idea.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Rainbow asked casually as she walked up to the soldiers, most of who turned on her with suspicion and disdain but they didn’t outright attack her, so that was cool.
“And you are?” one of the soldiers asked, pointing a baton at Rainbow.
“A Slayer, working directly under Celestia,” Rainbow said with an assuring smile. “She’s not super happy about how long this is taking, so she sent me to—”
“Celestia,” one of the soldiers scoffed in disgust. “Well you go back and tell her we don’t need—”
“Alright, calm down,” one of the other soldiers clapped the dude on the shoulder. “Celestia may be on her way out, but she still deserves some respect.”
“On her way out?” Rainbow cocked her head. That felt ominous.
“Just, y’know,” the man gestured vaguely, “past her prime. Thousand years makes a mare grow old, you know how it is.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Rainbow shrugged. She didn’t really know what to say but she figured just agreeing would be best for now. “So what’s going on here?”
“Bunch of ponies barricaded themselves up in this house,” one of the soldiers grumbled. “We’re gonna drag ‘em out and show ‘em who’s boss.”
“Do they have dragons in there?” Rainbow asked.
“Who cares?” the soldier scoffed. “This isn’t about that anymore, this is about teaching them some damn respect!”
“I gotcha,” Rainbow nodded and tried to ignore the turning in her stomach. She so badly just wanted to tear these guys a new one right here and now, but if her plan worked out, the payoff would be so worth it. “Well hey, let me go in and talk to those guys. Maybe I can convince ‘em to come out. They might feel a bit more comfortable if someone not dressed in body armor goes up to them.”
“Fine,” the de facto leader of the soldiers said, “but don’t forget who has authority here. It’s us. Celestia may have sent you, but this is our mission, our territory. Don’t forget that.”
“No problem,” Rainbow gave a weak salute but she tried to make it convincing. Last thing she wanted was to step on one of these guys’ egos and have them all up in arms about it. “I’m on your side, all I want is for everyone to get to go home in one piece, sooner rather than later.”
“Then get going,” the man bopped his head toward the house, “we don’t have all day to waste.”
Rainbow headed off and walked toward the house. The ponies inside likely didn’t have much in the way of weapons, so she wasn’t terribly worried.
“Hello?” Rainbow asked as she knocked on the door. “Can I get in there?”
“No? Obviously?” a woman’s voice replied. “You’re one of them.”
“I’m not, but I see what you mean,” Rainbow sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “I’m actually an ex-Slayer. I got discommunicated or whatever when I told Celestia to take her bigoted anti-dragon bullshit and shove it.
“But like, those are just words. I get why you don’t trust me. I wouldn’t trust me either, and I think not trusting me right now is the right call. All I wanna say is that this town belongs to you guys. The Pristine Army has their weapons and armor, but that’s all they have. If you have something just as strong on your side, you can take this town back from them.
“Which is where I come in!”
Rainbow flew into the air and flapped her wings toward the soldiers, buffeting them with gale force winds to disorient them. She tried to do that thing that Rarity did where she just ripped all their armor off them, but Rainbow’s version was a lot more clumsy than hers so she ended up just ripping the armor to shreds and cutting up a couple of the soldiers.
No one died though, so that was pretty cool!
“What are you doing?!” one of the soldiers screamed, and Rainbow dropped right in front of his face.
“I’m doing my job as a Slayer,” Rainbow said and kicked the dude in the dick. “I’m protecting the people of Equestria!”
Sure enough, without their armor and when their weapons proved useless against Rainbow’s magic, the soldiers ran for the hills. Rainbow wasn’t Rarity though, if she wanted to maybe rip a couple of these dudes’ legs off, she could just do that.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to though. She didn’t buy into that ‘if you kill them you’re just as bad as them’ bullshit, but she did feel like maybe violence for the sake of violence, against an already defeated and powerless enemy, wasn’t a super good look.
MAYBE. She was open to reconsidering sometime.
“Not bad, Dash. Not bad,” Wind Rider slow clapped as he approached Rainbow, his armored stained with blood. “You really have a knack for being a pain in our sides, huh?”
“Shut up,” Rainbow spat. “I’ve been itching to kick your ass practically since we first met! Glad I finally got the opportunity!”
“Well I hope you can at least put up an entertaining match,” Wind Rider said drolly. He flared out his wings and powerful currents of wind shot out from them, which took Rainbow back a bit. Like, did this guy have the same kinda magic she was working with? No way this guy kissed any hot dragons.
Still though, she couldn’t ignore that magic. Looked like this wasn’t gonna be as one-sided as she hoped.
Rainbow pushed herself forward with her wind magic, surrounding her knives in blades of wind that cut through Wind Rider’s armor as she zipped past him, a spray of blood shooting out of the gash she left.
“Is this all just some game to you, Wind Rider?” Rainbow scoffed and leapt at him again, aiming to rip that mask off his face.
“Basically,” Wind Rider deflected Rainbow’s attack with a powerful air current, pushing her to the ground, but she was at least able to regain her balance and back off before he could counterattack. “People get so hung up on taking everything so seriously.”
Wind Rider shrugged, and Rainbow just clicked her tongue. It was easy for him to not take things seriously since he didn’t have to worry about facing consequences for his actions.
“People’s lives are at stake!” Rainbow yelled as she lunged forward with her knives. She didn’t even know why she was bothering, but it was just so galling that this dude had the nerve to be so damn smug about not caring about other people.
“They wouldn’t be,” Wind Rider blasted Rainbow to the ground with another gust of wind, “if these ponies would just let the Pristine Army do their job.”
Wind Rider kicked Rainbow in the side, and powered by his magic he really sent her flying. He sent a blade of wind toward her that she was able to slow down with her own wind magic, but it still hit her in her arms as she used them to block, shredding them up and covering them in bloody scratches.
“Dragons are people, you dipshit!” Rainbow growled and dashed behind Wind Rider, then zipping out from behind him as he inevitably counterattacked, jumping from place to place until he was too dizzy to keep up with her and then landing a solid punch right to his face that sent him flying this time.
“Maybe,” Wind Rider chuckled, and his mask was knocked off by Rainbow’s punch so she could see his lip was bleeding a little bit. “But if they act out of line, they’ll be put in their place just like anypony else!”
Rainbow braced herself for Wind Rider’s attack; she was starting to feel the exhaustion creeping in. It was something Twilight warned her about, that the adrenaline for wielding so much more magical energy than you’re used to would make you feel like you had a lot more stamina than you actually did, so it was easy to wear yourself out with these big, flashy, powerful attacks.
And like, Rainbow wasn’t so good at ‘restraint’ even on her best days.
“What’s the matter, Rainbow Dash?” Wind Rider let out a single bitter cackle. “You feeling a little tired? Need a break?”
“I’m not gonna lose to you,” Rainbow spat. “I’m not gonna stop fighting for what I believe is the right thing to do!”
“You will if you die,” Wind Rider said flatly.
“I guess I just won’t die then,” Rainbow grinned, and Wind Rider clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes.
“You keep talking like that, you’ll—”
A rock smacking Wind Rider in the head stopped his sentence. He reacted with surprise and looked around to see where the rock came from, only to look directly into an oncoming table leg that hit him square between the eyes.
It was like two seconds before more stuff came flying at him; from rocks and pieces of furniture, to food and glass bottles and even a couple people who threw knives, all of it coming from the ponies who had been barricaded inside the nearby house.
“You little ponies!” Wind Rider snarled at them before having his dome donked by another thrown bottle. He exploded in a gust of wind, but his distraction left him completely open to Rainbow slamming him in the spine with a flying kick, knocking the wind outta him and sending him to the ground.
The ponies wasted no time in running toward him, brandishing bats and clubs and stuff. He exploded with gale force winds once again, but this time Rainbow was close enough to dissipate those winds with her own magic before they could harm anyone.
And on top of that, he was starting to sweat. His breathing was getting heavier too. Rainbow wasn’t the only one pushing herself to the limit.
“This isn’t—”
Wind Rider balked as he stared down the mob in front of him and Rainbow behind him. They were hesitant to get too close to him, and rightfully so considering how dangerous he was, but it was super obvious that if they were given the opportunity, they would beat the shit outta him, and Rainbow was primed and ready to hand that opportunity to them on a silver platter, as it were.
“This isn’t fair!” Wind Rider screamed. “You can’t do this to me! I’m a member of the Pristine Army! You vermin need to get back in line!”
“Give it up, Wind Rider,” Rainbow sighed and clapped Wind Rider on the shoulder. “This fight is over.”
Wind Rider snarled some indistinct gibberish and then took off into the sky, propelling himself with the last of his magic so that he could get away without fear of reprisal. A fitting move for a coward like him, Rainbow supposed, but it was still really annoying.
“Hey,” the woman Rainbow was speaking to earlier, the one from the house, reached out her hand to Rainbow, “thanks.”
“No problem,” Rainbow nodded confidently and took the woman’s hand.