//------------------------------// // Part 12 // Story: The Dark Coming // by LordLogan //------------------------------// The Night Goddess loomed over her greatly wounded enemy; ready to finish with the final blow, "We cannot see why our sister has had such trouble with thou's weak power! Thou is most unfortunate to fall by thine hoof. Art thou prepared for thy execution?" The Queen struggled to rise as that last attack was great. She wanted nothing more than to spit on Luna's face, "Do your worst night Princess. I knew all along you didn't feel any of this love non-sense that your so called friends feel." "Tis a lie! We struck down upon thou for one reason and one reason only! We must ensure the safety of thine subjects by ridding Equestria of troublesome foes such as thyself!" Luna's horn started to glow. "Thou will die within the war that thou hast started!" Luna was about to finish Queen Chrysalis when she was interrupted by a voice as loud as hers. "STOP!" Luna looked behind her to see the lavender mare with 3 of her best friends. "Twilight Sparkle! What is the meaning for thou's interruptions!?" "Princess Luna, I know she has angered and endangered you but please don't be a killer. I don't want everypony to get the wrong idea about you again." "To ensure the safety of thine subjects is of greater importance than their affection!" Chrysalis grinned at the opportunity that has been presented upon her by shining a powerful green light that blinded everyponies' sight. When the light diminished, two Lunas stood before the four elements. --- "Hahaha oh isn't this just fun Princess Celestia? We haven't fought like this in years." Both Celestia and Discord stood with various wounds and dust across their bodies. They both remained vigilant as to not allow the other any opportunity to attack. "Yes Discord, it has been some time however; I will not allow myself to make the same mistake as I did last time." "Oh? And what is this mistake you speak of? Remaining up against the entity of chaos? Has the great and powerful Celestia finally decided to give up?" "No Discord, quite the opposite. I allowed you to live last time with hopes that you would change. I was a naive fool to believe such a thing could happen to a being such as yourself. You will die here today Discord as I cannot allow you to run amok any longer. You are far too dangerous for that." "Well, heh, that is something I'd expect from your sister, Princess Luna. Has the great Goddess of Day found a change of heart?" "It is as I said. I have to ensure the safety of all and you jeopardize that. I am sorry it has to be that way but you knew that death was a part of war." "Oh Celestia, if your subjects only knew how naïve their ruler was!" Discord shot a blast of energy towards Celestia but Celestia responded with a blast of her own, colliding with Discord's, struggling to make it to their target. "You cannot kill chaos! Chaos is half the universe, like evil. To retain a balance, both must exist!" Discord's blast made it towards the alicorn; overpowering her magic and impacting upon her face, sending her back against the wall. "You, Princess, are weak. It is time for you to step down." Discord made his way over to Celestisa, grabbing her by the throat and whispering in her ear, "I wonder, do you value life as much as order? I suppose it doesn't matter since you will lose both today." Discord threw Celestia across the room smashing her into a new wall. "Ha ha ha ha! Oh this is so much fun!" --- "Keep at them stallions! Do not let them overrun the castle! Hold the line!" Sining Armor proclaimed as he slashed away changelings one by one while blasting magic bolts towards others at a distance. A near-by guard questioned his commander, "Sir, with the changeling's abilities how do we know we're attacking them or us?" "As much of an advantage as changing into us would be, it comes at a great disadvantage?" "How so sir?" "Well while they think they are being clever by helping us at first and wait for the opportunity to back stab us, they'd be slaying their own kind to gain that trust. Likewise, if they pretend to be one of us they are risking the fact that another changeling will not be able to realize that it is an ally and therefore he'll kill a comrade." "I understand sir but…" The soldier was interrupted by a most unexpected and feared noise. "RAAAAAAWR!!!!" Shining Armor looked up and saw a large red dragon flying overhead. The ponies started to panic as they expected that the dragon was here to assist the changelings. "Unicorns, fire upon that dragon! Earth ponies, hold your ground! Do not show em' fear!" The battle raged on but now with a dragon breathing down fire destroying anything, or anyone, in its path. --- Gilda kicked Dash off but grabbed her by her rainbow tail and swatted her whole body against the ground. Dash bucked the griffin away and dove at her; punching Gilda's stomach and smashing her in the ground. Dash backed away from her opponent, hoping it was finished. "Ya know Dash, I think this is the first time we ever physically fought. We always had many contests against one another doing various things besides the races. But this is the first real fight. It is a shame you're going to have to die. At least your death won't be lame." "I don't think so Gilda, my Goddesses are counting on me. Equestria is counting on me and more importantly, my real friends are counting on me! Live or die, you will fall and the ponies will succeed!" Dash flew towards Gilda again but the attempt failed as Gilda dodged to the side and elbow dropped the pegasus' back. "You may have won some of our races but I was always faster than you in the end." Gilda stomped on the back of Rainbow's head crushing it against the ground. Rainbow Dash felt blood dripping from her nose and mouth. Gilda repeatedly pounded her head on the ground as Rainbow could only think to herself, unable to release words, 'Gilda…what happened to you?' Thoughts of the two playing as children and defending each other from bullies ran through her head. Eating contests were held at dinner almost every day and sometimes they even had sleepovers where they'd reveal inner secrets that they thought were too girly to pronounce to the world. 'You used to be the coolest person I knew and now, you are the cruelest. You always pushed me to do better; to be the fastest pony in Equestria and now, I must outrun you. ' Rainbow's eyes got serious as she stopped Gilda's paw by grabbing her ankle. "What do you think you're gonna…woah!" Dash soared up in the sky while holding the griffin. Rainbow was not holding back and was sure that this next attack should be the finish. Meanwhile on the ground, Applejack saw the rainbow flare with a brown follower zooming up into the deep sky. "Ra…Rainbow? But who in the hay is that behind her?! She's going faster than ever before!" Rainbow felt the tremendous pressure from flying so fast and finally got high enough to begin her new move. Without stopping her momentum Rainbow grabbed Gilda's other leg with her other hoof and began to spin Gilda around faster and faster until she let Gilda go plummeting her towards the ground. The cyan pony then plummeted behind her gaining more and more speed before colliding into Gilda. The pressure began to show around Rainbow, showing her that she was beyond the sound barrier. "I call this new move…" Dash collided into Gilda but kept heading towards the ground, "THE SPINNING RAINBOMB!" BOOM! A blast of rainbow energy exploded behind them picking them up speed while another blast was heard as Dash crushed Gilda into the hard rocky ground, breaking some of the griffin's bones including her rip cage. Gilda gave out a great, "CAAAAW!" As she could not believe the attack that was just made upon her. Dash hovered back away from the griffin peering into the other's eyes. Gilda looked back at her with blood flowing from her face, "D-Dash…*cough*…n-ni-nice…m-m-mo-move…" And Gilda drifted off into a death that was as cold as her heart. Rainbow felt some tears at the bottom of her eyelids form but tried to hold them back, as Gilda would not approve. Applejack made her way over to the scene wanting to know who that was and what happened. As the orange pony stared into the gravel she knew instantly who it was and the connection to Rainbow. She looked towards her friend and knew Dash, too, was broken inside. Applejack immediately wrapped her hooves around the pegasus and embraced her tightly, "Now, now sugarcube, don't cry. You did what had to be done." Tears began to flow down Rainbow's face, "Sh-she was my friend A-AJ a-and I-I-I-I killed h-her." "No, no sweet pea, you did what you had to. She chose this for herself. She hurt you and doing that was her biggest mistake." Applejack began to cry as she felt the cyan pony's pain. "H-hush n-now s-sugarcube, all will be alright." Rainbow tightened her hug around Applejack trying to embrace her back. "I'm so proud of you, Rainbow." "T-th-thank you, AJ. You're my best friend." Applejack liked to hear that but couldn't help but be stricken for she knew she wanted them to be more than just friends; but the earth pony knew that her crush was in need and simply replied, "You are a very special pony, Rainbow."