//------------------------------// // Demons IV // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// The mechanical Crocodile chomped after Rainbow Dash’s trail while she fought to clamber over the garbage in the narrow corridor she had found herself in. It was some sort of back alley way up in these top level hallways that didn’t seem to be in use anymore. Dust caked everything and she had broken through maybe half a hundred spiderwebs already. She had gone down here after flying through the maze-like halls in an attempt to lose the metal beasts since she didn’t think any of them could fit in a place like this. Well she was proven wrong by the crocodile flattening itself sideways and essentially crawling along the wall, wedged between both sides, and coming at her at a 90 degree angle. So here she was barely scrambling away from it while garbage and other refuse covered the ground and made it more difficult and she didn’t have the room to fly or use her wings at all. Great. “Stupid thing! Wait till we get out into the open and I’m going to smash you to pieces!” Rainbow yelled back at the Crocodile. It responded by chomping at her again, flames spilling from its mouth and setting fire to a lot of the discarded trash around them. The heat was starting to get pretty bad in this tight area and Rainbow Dash was beginning to sweat. She needed to get out of here. Luckily there was a light at the end of the tunnel that she could see. The passage she was in clearly opened up into a larger room soon she just wasn’t sure where that would end up being. As long as it gave her room to fight this thing in though that was okay for her. So Rainbow Dash scampered along even faster, with licks of flames and metal teeth nipping at the end of her tail. She saw an old metal tub on the ground in front of her and grabbed it when she ran by, tossing it over her head and hopeing it would clonk the Crocodile. Well the Croc grasped it with its jaws and shredded it to pieces while Rainbow Dash watched over her shoulder. “Yeesh. Note to self: don’t let that thing bite you,” Rainbow said. Thankfully even when just running her speed was very impressive for most ponies (as she had proved to Applejack very well on more than one occasion) and despite the rampaging of the Crocodile monster she was more than capable of keeping out of its clutches until she got out of the corridor. Once she hit the light she extended her wings and flew up into the room while the Crocodile shot out and slid across the metal floor, digging its claws in to stop itself. They were in some kind of shaft now, the middle of the floor just going down until it was pure darkness with nothing but a small railing around it for safety. Several other closed, hopefully not locked, doors and vents led out of here and more trash was all across the floor. Rainbow Dash grinned at the Crocodile monster as it snapped up at her, the ceiling of the room was high enough for her to avoid it as long as it didn’t try jumping or using the walls. “You’re going down,” Rainbow Dash said as she floated out of its range. The Croc didn’t seem to like her sass as it jumped on two legs, using its heavy tail to balance itself, and tried to bite her out of the air. Rainbow Dash flipped over its head and went down its back, grasping a hose on the way down in her teeth and yanking on it until it tore out of the metal beasts back. The Crocodile fell to the floor as some sort of viscous red liquid poured out from the tube. Definitely not gasoline, and it wasn’t blood either of course, she wasn’t sure what it was but at least she knew it couldn’t be good for the Croc to be losing it. It turned and tried to swipe her with its tail at the same time but Rainbow Dash flew away from it. The Croc opened up its jaw at her when it turned around and hunched down on its already short legs. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at it. “Are you trying to jump?” Her question was answered as the Crocodile launched itself at her with surprising speed and force, it thumped the floor with its tail to start its jump and give it extra momentum. This time Dash made the decision to go under it so she ducked right beneath its jaw as it flew over her. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, the Croc’s tail lashed out at her when she flew beneath its belly and she had to quickly turn to the side to avoid it but it still ended up clipping her wing. Dash winced as she crashed to the cold metal floor and slid across it towards the railing. But she wasn’t the only one to get a little damaged. The Crocodile had jumped with too much strength, it ended up jumping snout-first into the wall after Rainbow Dash dodged it. Clang! The sound of metal striking metal echoed extra loudly in this fairly confined room. Rainbow Dash picked herself up and flexed her wing a bit, didn’t feel too bad, maybe a little bruised at the worst. She then looked over at the Crocodile and grinned in amusement as it twitched on the floor, its legs whirring and squeaking as it struggled to stand back up normally. When it finally got itself back in order and turned around to face Rainbow Dash she saw that its snout was dented and warped and the lower jaw was a bit loose off its screws like it had been dislocated. “You’re not even half as tough as some of the other monsters I’ve fought up here,” Rainbow Dash grinned with confidence. “And I’m not finished with you yet.” The Crocodile didn’t care about her proclamation as it scrambled over to her as fast as it could on its relatively stubby legs. Since she was still on the ground it wasn’t trying anything fancy just yet. Once it got close enough to her it started trying to bite her again while she dodged backwards, circling the pit. Because of its damage though, every time it bit down its jaws didn’t close right and the sharp teeth scraped against each other or the insides of its mouth, the thing was probably going to break itself out of unintentional self-injury at some point. That still didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous though since even hitting Dash without being able to bite her properly would really hurt. Flames were still haphazardly shooting out of its mouth too, maybe because of the jaw damage but they were just leaking everywhere. The Crocodile was blowing some at her but even more shot out the sides. Now how could she take care of those flames for good? One of the hoses on it had to be the fuel line. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to give herself a bit of a higher jump to get over the Croc. It saw her do this and tried to match her, raising its upper body to try and bite her out of the air, but it was too slow and perhaps some of the damage it had taken kept it from being able to rise as high as it could before. Rainbow Dash ended up landing on top of its tail and swiftly turned to grab onto a few of the hoses that ran all over its body. The Crocodile thrashed about and tried to buck Rainbow Dash off of it but she held on, gritting her teeth and using her full strength to try and yank out the hoses. Suddenly the Crocodile started to roll over and Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, she was forced to release the hoses or she’d be crushed underneath it. “Dang!” Rainbow growled as she flew off the metal beast while it rolled across the floor until it smashed into the railing. It immediately recovered and came yapping at her again. Her eyes now narrowed on some of the exposed wires leading to the thing’s head. “Okay, plan B!” If the other hoses were giving her trouble she’d just tear off something else that seemed important. Rainbow Dash ran at the Crocodile to meet it head on. It seemed perfectly fine with this, its jaws snapping open and shut back and forth. But at the last second Rainbow Dash dodged to the side, ducking under a jet of flames that came out of its mouth and grabbed the Croc’s leg. She used it to stop her momentum and pull herself up onto the Croc’s head where she instantly grabbed a few wires that looked like they went into the metal monster’s eyes. The beast roared and looked like it was going to start roaring again so Dash grabbed the wires with both hooves and then powerfully flapped her wings as she pulled. Right as it turned over something snapped and the wires were yanked out with an electric sparking noise and Dash flew to the ceiling to avoid the Croc’s rampage. Once it stopped rolling it rose much more hesitantly this time, it’s head swiveling around and looking for its prey. When Dash noticed why she grinned in victory. The red eyes had turned off completely, when she tore out those wires it must’ve totally lost vision. Now the only thing left to do was get rid of it for good and she knew exactly how to do that. She flew over till she was floating in the middle of the pit and shouted at the Croc. “Hey you stupid trash can, I’m right here! Come and get me!” The Crocodile turned to her and—hearing that she was above the floor and currently out of its reach—prepared to jump for her. Rainbow Dash just floated there grinning as she watched it launch itself at her once more, the Crocodile’s mouth and claws flailing wildly at her even as she effortlessly flapped her wings once to get out of the way. And then much to the Crocodile’s dismay it found no metal floor below it when it fell. And fell. Rainbow Dash waved goodbye until it disappeared completely into the darkness and then landed back by the railing. “Okay, need to find my way out of this place and go back down to open the door. They’re all counting on me,” Rainbow Dash nodded to herself. That was when she heard the sliding open of a vent and the sound of scurrying metal limbs all around her. Rainbow Dash looked to see a number of vents leading into the pit room being opened up, as well as some of the doors, and creepy new metal monstrosities started to pour out of them and surround her. She frowned as by her count a dozen metal crabs and spiders crawled all over the walls of the room while she kept her distance near the middle. Some of them were on the ceiling, others on the wall by the narrow corridor she had come in from, and others crawling about behind her. Their red eyes stayed focused on her while their pincers and fangs menacingly snapped at her. “Just what I needed...” Rainbow Dash grumbled and prepared for round two.