//------------------------------// // 11 Fragmentation // Story: PONY Legacy // by RBDash47 //------------------------------// Dash and APP sped toward the pulsing star of the Portal, and suddenly APP leaned forward to point with a forehoof, shouting in Dash’s ear over the wind. “There!” Dash followed APP’s sightline and caught a glimpse of white and lavender disappearing behind a rocky outcrop. She banked slightly, lining them up with their new target, and almost shouted in surprise when a huge burst of magical energy detonated dead ahead. “That was Twilight,” she muttered. “Why the hay is she drawing attention to herself?” And then she saw a huge shape rise up from the horizon, and realized it was too late for Twilight and Celestia to stay hidden: they’d already been found. She cursed. “Hang on!” She felt APP’s forelegs tighten around her, and she dove towards the blast site. Twilight and Celestia were back to back, surrounded by three gigantic dragons with scaly black skin that fluoresced orange where they caught the light. Luckily for Dash and APP, all three were focused on their prey, ensconced in a flickering magical shield. Choosing her moment carefully, APP threw herself off Dash to bodyslam into the closest dragon’s cheek. Its head whiplashed around, its glowing eyes rolling up into their sockets, and APP scrambled to grab onto its crest. She rode the dragon’s head all the way down to the ground, where it collapsed in an earth-shaking pile, and used the last of her momentum to launch herself free of the debris cloud, landing lightly in front of Celestia and dipping into a bow. “Howdy, Princess. It’s real good to see ya! Wish I coulda been here sooner,” she said, and Celestia gave a wry grin, slowly shaking her head as Twilight dropped her shield. Behind APP, Dash was just finishing her own high-speed tackle. Her target also hit the ground, smashed senseless. She stayed in flight and looped around towards the other ponies, regretting that the attack had bled off too much momentum to do it again. The remaining dragon stared in slow-witted shock at its fallen comrades, and then at the tiny ponies responsible. Dash killed the power and flared her wings, dropping lightly to her hooves next to Twilight. “APP, would you mind getting Celestia out of here?” “Sure thing, Dash. Princess, if you’d follow me…” The sight of two ponies moving to escape seemed to rouse the dragon, who reared up and roared. “So, you guys miss the part where you were supposed to avoid the ambush?” Dash asked, leaping to one side as a massive scaled tail slammed into the ground where she’d been standing. “Not helpful, Rainbow!” Twilight shouted over the impact. In rapid succession, she teleported between the dragon’s legs and up its tail, thoroughly confusing its attempt to follow her progress. She ended up on its snout and its eyes crossed trying to focus on her. She turned and bucked it in the eyes before it could do anything. It howled in pain and swept its claws across its face, but Twilight had already teleported back to Dash’s side. “Nice one,” Dash said appraisingly. “Now get out of here, while these three are distracted. Go with APP and Celestia, get to the Portal. I’ll lead them away, then double back to you.” Twilight looked uncertain. “Rainbow, I can’t leave you to fight three dragons on your own.” “Twilight, Celestia needs you more than I do. She’s… she’s on the ragged edge. And if she goes down, both of us do too—she’s running the life-support spell we need to exist in here. You’ve got to keep her safe, to keep us safe. Now get going!” Behind Dash, the dragon Twilight had blinded was blinking furiously, casting its enraged, watering eyes around for the two ponies. The other dragons began to stir. “Get out of here before they see you! I got this.” She flapped her wings and somersaulted into the air, landing on the semi-blinded dragon’s head, and yanked as hard as she could on the spines rising from its skull. It bellowed in pain and rage and swiped at the pegasus, but Dash dove off to the side and started flying in circles around its head. She looked down; Twilight was still looking up at her, taking a few hesitant steps backward. “Go!” Dash shouted. Twilight bit her lip, nodded up at Dash, and turned to gallop after APP and Celestia. The dragon had been trying to follow Dash around as she orbited it, and she could tell it was getting dizzy. I’ll just keep this up a little longer, and then—oh. The other two dragons had pushed themselves up and were shaking their heads, trying to clear them, starting to search for ponies to hunt. Not great. Dash flew towards the Portal until all three of the dragons were lined up behind her, then she turned and flew back at them, triggering her flight pack for an extra burst of speed. Slap! Slap! Slap! She flared her wings, coming to a mid-air hover, and faced her three massive opponents. A hoofprint blossomed on each one of their faces, and they were all scowling at her, murder in their eyes. She winked at them. “Pretty sad that three dragons can’t handle one little pony!” They snarled and launched themselves at her, lumbering into the air with great sweeps of their leathery wings. Dash blew a raspberry at them, then turned and sped off, the dragons gaining behind her as they followed. Heading away from the Portal. Without warning, APP forced Celestia to the ground, positioning them both behind a large rock. “Someone’s comin’,” she hissed, and powered on her suit’s hoofblade. Celestia widened her eyes but didn’t speak. A moment later a pony came barreling into view, instantly recognizable by her purple coloring. APP and Celestia both relaxed and stepped out, and Twilight skidded to a halt next to them. She panted, eyeing APP’s weapon. “Heh… sorry about that, sugarcube,” APP said, deactivating it. “Thought you mighta been someone else.” “Yeah, imagine that,” said a raspy voice behind them. RBD flapped lazily in the air and watched APP spin instantly, shoving Celestia behind her, the hoofblade springing back to life. She eyed the program standing between her and the flesh-and-blood ponies. “Long time no see, APP.” “RBD,” APP spat back by way of greeting. RBD’s eyes moved off APP, passing over Celestia to fall on the unicorn behind her. She smirked. “Too perfect. Twilight Sparkle has shown up after all? Rainbow Dash must be beside herself. I hope you two made the reunion count, Twilight, because you won’t be seeing each other again.” Twilight bristled, and RBD rolled her eyes. “Speaking of,” she said, glancing side to side, “where is my double? She seems to be missing…” Her eyebrows raised, devilish glee on her face. “…and so is yours! You don’t suppose they’re, ah, off getting to know each other better somewhere? Maybe we should do the same, Sparkle. After all, we’ll be spending a lot of time together very soon.” Twilight shook her head. “What are you talking about?” “Celestia hasn’t told you?” RBD nodded to the alicorn, who drew herself up and looked back defiantly. “I’m going to use your Dash’s disc to exit the System. I’ve had enough of this half-finished place; it’s time to really stretch my wings.” She considered that for a moment. “Well, Dash’s wings—close enough.” At Twilight’s horrified expression, she added, “So maybe we won’t be spending that time together. Looks like you’re going to be boring about this and try to stop me, which means I can’t let either one of you go back with me.” She shrugged. “Sorry about that.” She made no effort to inject remorse into her voice. “That ain’t gonna happen,” APP said calmly. “These ponies are goin’ home, RBD. The real Equestria ain’t no place for a program.” “Neither is this wreck of a System!” RBD snarled back. “After a thousand cycles, I deserve something better. When I finally got Blaze to send my little message, I figured I’d be able to hold Twilight here hostage. Force Celestia to transfer full control of the System to me in exchange. But a Dash-coded disc? The chance to actually get out of here? I’m not letting that slip between my hooves.” Twilight frowned. “You sent the letter? Who is Blaze?” RBD gave a short laugh. “Oh, you know Blaze. Well, maybe not by that name. Chatty little guy, purple and green? Anyway, your precious princess built a backdoor into the System. Isn’t that right, Celestia?” Twilight shot the princess a quizzical look; Celestia could only hang her head, much to RBD’s delight. “Blaze’s dragonfire is tied in to Equestria’s network,” RBD said, “so he can get messages out to the real world. It was supposed to be a backup, something only Celestia could do, and he sure didn’t want to help me out at first, but, well… you’d be surprised what a baby dragon is willing to do after a couple hundred cycles of, ah, convincing.” She grinned wickedly down at her opponents until she caught a magenta blast of magic in her shoulder, sending her pinwheeling. “You monster!” Twilight screamed as Celestia grappled with her, desperately trying to hold her back. “How could you?!” RBD regained control and straightened up, glaring at the unicorn. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.” APP stepped forward and cleared her throat, interrupting RBD imagining what she was going to do to that infuriating unicorn. “Don’t you still need Dash’s disc?” RBD paused, then reluctantly turned to her ex-lieutenant, narrowing her eyes. “Your point?” APP raised an eyebrow. “You know she’s fightin’ three dragons right now? The full-size kind? You really think they’re not gonna derezz her and her disc? Leavin’ you with no ticket outta here, and no hostage to bargain with.” Twilight gaped at APP, who ignored her, keeping her eyes locked on RBD’s. RBD stared at her for a moment, then looked at Celestia and Twilight. “APP’s telling the truth, isn’t she? That idiot took on all three dragons by herself?” “Yes,” said Celestia while Twilight yelled, “She’s not an idiot!” RBD growled and hit her legband, blasting forward into the air; the others dove to avoid her. She’d already forgotten about them. She had to get that disc. With enough altitude gained, she could see bursts of blue flame in the distant sky ahead of her. That was good. It meant Dash wasn’t dead. Yet. “APP, what did you do?” cried Twilight. “I bought us some time.” APP sighed as they stood back up. “Neither of y’all are fit to take on RBD, and I’m not feelin’ too good about my chances against her either. I promised Dash I’d get you two to the Portal, and that’s what I’m gonna do.” She and Celestia exchanged a knowing look. “Now get,” APP said firmly. Twilight stared back over her shoulder in the direction RBD had flown. Celestia said gently, “Rainbow Dash is possibly the strongest, bravest pony I have ever met. We must have faith in her. Come, Twilight.” After a moment, the unicorn stomped her foot in helpless frustration and fired up her flight pack. They took to the air, the Portal closer than ever. Dash dove, feeling the tips of her mane singe as blue flame licked above her. She’d put some good distance between the dragons and the Portal, and they’d finally gotten frustrated enough to try burning her out of the sky. It seemed as good a time as any to call it quits and get back to her friends. She scanned the landscape, hoping to find some feature she could use against them—a canyon she could run, an outcropping she could duck behind—but there was nothing out here in the dead emptiness between Canterlot and the Badlands. With a quick glance behind her, Dash twisted into a spin, pirouetting around another blast of fire. The dragons roared together, shaking her bones, and she decided to keep things simple to buy a little time while she came up with a plan. She put the ground at her tail and blasted straight into the sky, the lumbering beasts behind her straining to pull up and follow. As the wind whipped through her mane, Dash racked her brain, trying to think of anything she could do to get rid of her pursuers. She was getting tired. She knew she wouldn’t be able to evade them forever. Maybe she could trick two of them into attacking each other by putting herself between them, then dodging out of the way at the last minute. Risky, no guarantee they’ll actually take each other out, and if it actually works then I’m stuck with the last dragon by myself and no way to deal with it… She nodded to herself. Sounds good. It was the best she could do for now; she’d give it a shot and figure something else out if she had to. Dash wheeled around to head back down to the dragons, finding herself much higher up than she realized. A black-and-orange streak shot past her, fouling her flight pattern with wake turbulence. Dash tumbled briefly and recovered in time to see RBD bearing down on her again. She dove and RBD followed, much too close— Guess Shy wasn’t able to get her disc after all. RBD punched one of Dash’s wings at a pressure point near the base—Dash cried out as it seized up, refusing to move—then smashed a hoof into Dash’s flight pack, and just as in the aerial battle back in Canterlot a lifetime ago, the pack shattered into brilliant shards. The legband dissolved away a moment later and Dash spiraled out of control towards the dragons far below, the ground not far beyond them. A second later she was speeding up again, hanging upside-down and buffeted by wind: RBD had grabbed her by a hindleg and was dragging her straight up in the air, higher and higher. She struggled to break her double’s grasp, but RBD’s grip was like iron. She tried to bend herself up, straining her abdominal muscles, but she couldn’t overcome the astonishing force of the wind battering at her. Her head fell back and she looked toward the ground. The dragons had broken off, unable to fly so high, and were circling beneath them in wait. Her forehooves dangled below her, and she noticed frost growing on her suit. They were very high up now, in the thin stratospheric air. The wind wasn’t as strong here. She tried again to bend herself up and found she could nearly manage it. Desperately, she grabbed for RBD, ending up with a hoof full of her tail, and yanked it as hard as she could. RBD screeched in pain and dropped her, whirling around. Dash righted herself and flapped her wings, was pleased to find she could flap them, that RBD’s hit had worn off, and she worked hard to maintain a hover in the rarefied air. Her opponent definitely had an advantage up here; the flight pack kept her aloft with no effort. Time to change that. RBD blasted toward her and Dash sideslipped, grabbing RBD’s hindleg. Her forelegs were nearly dislocated for her trouble as she was instantly jerked forward. RBD kicked, grunting, trying to dislodge her, but Dash hung on and crawled up her double’s body, taking special care to avoid the broiling hot thruster wash of her pack. RBD began executing a series of acrobatic maneuvers, but Dash had wrapped herself around the program and no amount of corkscrews or barrel rolls would shake her free. She reached up and hit RBD’s pack, but not hard enough: it sputtered briefly, losing them a few feet in altitude, but stayed intact. Changing tactics, Dash swiped at RBD’s legband and hit the deactivation control; the pack flickered out of existence. RBD swore and batted at Dash, who was now scrabbling for the legband itself. She succeeded in knocking it off the dark mare’s leg, sending it flying out into the air, then kicked off RBD and spun toward the ground. She watched RBD dive for the legband out of the corner of her eye. That was fine. Dash had never really hoped to get the pack herself. She’d just wanted to distract RBD long enough to get some distance between them, and build up some speed for herself. Dash pointed her forehooves straight ahead and her hindlegs straight back, transforming herself into a javelin with wings. Her wings blurred as she accelerated, building on the free boost she got from gravity pulling her down, and in seconds RBD was far behind her. Far away, she heard the sound of a flight pack materializing and knew RBD had caught the legband, but she was pretty sure she had a good head start. The air quickly grew thicker, and the frost on her suit melted and bled off. She punched through a few clouds, not willing to squander the slightest momentum to avoid them. She could feel water vapor condensing around her as her velocity increased and sensed low-pressure vortices forming in her wake, filling with white vapor that left streaks in the sky. It had been a long time since she’d done this. Deep within herself, a small voice wondered if she could still do it at all. She chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw RBD had peeled off, an uncertain look on her face. Dash grinned and faced forward, flapping harder, increasing her speed. The bow shock condensed in front of her, forming a vaporous barrier between her and the circling dragons below. Dash grinned wider, tears streaming from her eyes, and aimed her forehooves straight at the center of their flight pattern. She noticed she was having trouble focusing on her hooves, and realized after a moment it wasn’t a problem with her eyes, but with the hooves themselves. They were fuzzing, distorting, losing solidity. It terrified her, but she didn’t have any better ideas, so she gritted her teeth and pushed through it. The pressure built as she flapped her burning wings so hard and fast she thought they might actually fall off, torn from her body—it was so much harder here than in her memories, like she was flying through molasses—she screamed as the vapor cone focused, tightening to a point, the compression forces simply incredible, electricity crackling around her— —until she burst through the pressure wall at the moment she drew even with the dragons, snapped forward like an overstretched rubber band. Her vacuum wake collapsed with a clap of thunder and a brilliant burst of rainbow light, briefly blinding her even from behind. She whizzed through the air straight down, flinging out her wings even though they howled with pain at the effort, desperately trying to pull up before she hit the ground, only barely managing it in time.  Exhausted, relieved, she found herself laughing as she skimmed across the landscape, an instinctive reaction to the pure adrenaline flooding her overworked body. I still got it! She looked behind herself and saw a rainbow ribbon trailing through the sky. And I didn’t even need a flight pack, she thought smugly, thinking again of the aerial battle when she’d first arrived in-System. She followed the ribbon’s arc up into the sky, back towards the dragons. The sonic rainboom’s effects would hopefully disorient them long enough for her to get away undetected and meet back up with the others— But there was no shockwave, no concentric set of rainbow rings. She gaped up at the sky and flared her poor wings, ignoring their protests as she slowed and stumbled to a stop, hitting the ground too hard and falling into a tired heap because she couldn’t tear herself away. Her rainbow trail ended in the middle of a pitch-black split in the sky. It was as though the clouds had parted, revealing a perfect night, but with no stars, no moons or planets, nothing to give the blackness depth. Her eyes could barely process the flat black shape at all, couldn’t handle the optical discontinuity. Dash wasn’t even sure if it was a two-dimensional circle or a three-dimensional sphere. A memory presented itself unbidden, of a time Princess Luna had visited Ponyville after Celestia disappeared. She realized now the true reason for the visit must have been to check on Twilight’s work, but it had been presented then as a simple stargazing trip, a break for the princess from the duties of state. She and Twilight had talked about something in space so powerful even light couldn’t escape it: a black hole. Dash thought that seemed to be a pretty accurate description for… whatever this was. Dash squinted up at it and saw its borders, where the black met the visible world, were marked by the same sort of grainy shimmer as programs derezzing. Twinkling light broke off and faded into the black. Then she realized with a start it was actually growing, the clouds in the sky swirling around it and winking out. The dragons she’d hoped to disorient were frantically flying away from the edge of the black in three different directions, but they were unstable and ungainly, and appeared to have trouble gaining speed. The shimmering boundary caught up with one of them, and she heard its distant terrified roar as the boundary swept over it. The dragon contorted and writhed, its limbs seizing, then broke apart into ever-smaller glowing pieces and evaporated into the black. The other two followed immediately after, disappearing into the void. Speechless, Dash let her eyes drop and noticed the same effect happening at ground level, directly under the cloud-level void. Blackness was spreading across the dark ground, dissolving it away. The boundary was speeding towards her. Dash broke out in a cold sweat. She forced herself to her hooves and flexed her aching wings, breaking into a scrambling gallop to build up speed until she was able to flap into the sky, angling for the Portal. It looked as far away as it had from the Smokey Mountain hideout. Really, really wish I’d held onto that flight pack. RBD stared in blank shock at the darkness spreading out below her. She’d lost sight of Rainbow Dash in the midst of the sonic rainboom and hadn’t reacquired her. As RBD’s dragons were effortlessly disintegrated by a combination of Celestia’s incompetence and Dash’s ignorance, she turned and boosted for the Portal, streaking through the air with the aid of her flight pack.