My New Life
Chapter 20 – Old Ideas Dashed
"I am Corrosive Dash!" The red pegasus yelled.
"What do you want?" Pure said to him.
"I want him to step away from my sister." He pointed to Dawn with a shaking hoof, staring at him with burning hatred in his yellow eyes. "If he does not do so, I will reduce him to ash."
"If you want to harm anypony, you will have to go through me first." Pure drew forth a sword from the ground and charged at him. He brought his sword down onto his back.
Klink!
It bounced right off Corrosive Dash's fur and slashed Pure's face on the rebound, causing a small stream of blood to trickle off his face.
Pure stumbled backwards in shock. "What the-"
He smiled. "My turn." He opened his mouth to reveal razor sharp teeth and as Pure stared into his throat, he saw a dim grey glow which quickly began to expand.
He had only seen this type of glow once before and his eyes grew wide. "Aww crap."
A torrent of grey flames erupted from his maw and quickly engulfed Pure Heart.
"Prince Pure Heart!" Everypony shouted.
"Step off!" Black Steel said, thrashing into Corrosive's side with his head.
This knocked Corrosive off his feet, interrupting the spout of fire. When it died down, everypony gasped as they saw a grey figure standing in front of Pure Heart who had his crystal armor on.
"What the huh?" Pure's armor melted away and he inspected the figure. "It's Dawn."
Rainbow Dash walked forward and reached for Dawn's snout. "Dawn?" As soon as she made contact, Dawn's snout began to crumble in to dust. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do this to me." She caught the falling pieces of ash and shoved it back onto his form, causing him to only fall apart faster.
Applejack came up to the stage and grabbed Rainbow. "Rainbow Dash, stop. He's gone."
"No he's not. I can still save him." She said, tears starting to flow from her eyes.
"Listen to me!" Applejack shouted. Rainbow stopped and looked at her through her tears. "You can't do anything for him."
Rainbow Dash began to openly weep and Applejack pulled her into a hug.
"That fool!" Corrosive said out loud. "How dare he try to get in between me and my prey."
"Fool? Fool?! He just gave his life to protect the Prince and you call him a fool?!" Rainbow yelled, turning towards him with tears still in her eyes. "He is way more brave than you are."
He was shocked at the way she was speaking to him. "I only call him that because it was not his battle. I knew Pure Heart would be able to protect himself. No one else was supposed to get hurt."
"Yeah. Well, you screwed up. Because of you, a pony I actually liked is gone forever." She began to cry heavily again.
He seemed to contemplate this for a moment and then walked over to her. "You really like this pony, don't you." She silently nodded. "Very well then." He roared and something strange began to happen.
There was a gust of wind as the ashes of Dawn were picked up and swirled around and around. Then a sonicboom echoed as a light flashed where in a black stallion stood in the epicenter.
"Hey Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow was awestruck at the sight that she had just beheld. Dawn was standing exactly back where he stood.
"What happened?" He asked, rubbing his head. He coughed a little and a cloud of soot was expelled from his lungs.
"You're alive!" Rainbow jumped on top of him and began to bounce on him. "Oh man! That was so cool!"
"That's great and all, but could you please get off of me?"
"Oops, my bad." Rainbow hopped off of Dawn and helped him to his hooves.
"Can somepony please explain what just happened?" Pure Heart asked.
"I believe I can clear that up." Luna said, gliding down from the balcony. "But first, I believe we should retire to the courtroom back at the castle."
"Alright. Twilight?"
She walked onto the stage. "Yes, Pure Heart?"
"Can you see to that the festival gets cleaned up?"
"Of course."
"Good. Luna, Vapor Sky and I will escort Rainbow Dash, Dawn, Corrosive Dash, and Applejack back to Canterlot."
"Me?" Applejack asked.
"Yes. For some reason, I believe you should be involved in this."
"But I need to get back to Sweet Apple Acres and be ready for apple bucking tomorrow."
"You shall come with us, and that is final." Pure turned towards Corrosive Dash. "And you." Pure stomped his hoof and large crystal shards broke through the surface of the earth and shrouded Corrosive in a jagged prison with only his eyes showing. "Don't think I forgot about your little hissy fit earlier. As far as I am concerned, you are still dangerous and so will be treated as such until otherwise proven."
Corrosive Dash snarled and blew smoke out of his nostrils.
"Now that he is restrained, we will be off." Pure Heart and Luna both used there magic and teleported the seven of them to the castle.
Pure Heart's POV
Upon arriving in the courtroom, I asked Vapor Sky to take Dawn to the medical wing for a checkup. When she left, I closed the doors, never taking my eyes off of Corrosive Dash.
"Rainbow Dash, can you confirm whether this is in fact your brother?" I asked.
"Well, he definitely looks like him. But then again, my brother wasn't able to breathe fire. Plus, my brother is dead."
"I am not dead! I'm right here!" Corrosive said, slightly muffled through his prison.
"Shut up! It's not your turn!" I yelled. Turning back to Rainbow Dash, I said, "So your brother is dead?"
"Yep. At least that is what Sunny Skies said."
"Who?" Luna asked.
"My step-mother."
"You have a step-mother?" Applejack said.
"Yeah. I don't like to talk about her. She was kind of a jerk."
"Wait, what did she say to lead you to believe that he is dead?" I asked.
"She said that he was attempting to do a Sonic Rainboom and didn't pull up in time and crashed into the Everfree Forest. Rescue teams were unable to recover the body."
"...Okay. And that means he is dead because?" I asked with uncertainty.
She gave me an irritated look and said, "He fell into the Everfree Forest. He was easy prey for anything that could have been passing by."
"Ah, I see." I nodded my head.
"Anyways, that was over three years ago. I spent the first year crying about him. Sunny would just say to suck it up and get over it. She wasn't very comforting. I eventually just tuned that part of my life out." She looked very down trodden. Applejack put a foreleg around her and patted her on the back.
"Alright, so what would convince you that this was in fact your brother?" Luna asked.
Rainbow wiped her nose with her foreleg and thought for a moment. "His cutie mark. I remember his cutie mark being so cool."
"What did it look like?"
"Let's see." She began rubbing her head as if it would stimulate her memory. "It was a green lightning bolt...in front of a shield...and behind the shield were...two flaming swords."
"Okay, let us have a look. Honey, would you please?" Luna asked.
"Sure." I walked up to Corrosive Dash. "I am going to let you go. Don't try any funny business, got it?" He nodded and I stomped my hoof which retracted the crystal prison.
Rainbow walked up to his side and gasped. "It's him!"