//------------------------------//
// Final Round 
// Story: Eljunbyro 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Nnnngh—Gah!"  With much strain and effort, Eagle Eye finally wrenched himself free of the cables that had bound him to the tree.  Stumbling across the clearing, he made for the trunk of the tree from which his companions were suspended, when an explosion to his right made him collapse with a gasp.

Roarke and Rainbow Dash came bursting out of the lower wall of the ruins.  Tumbling amidst a wave of crumbled bricks and dust, they rolled into the glittering sunlight.

The first to get up was Roarke, but it was in an awkward, adrenalized stumble.  Rainbow Dash was leaping upon her in a blink, slamming two hooves across her chest and spinning around with a dual limb'd buck.

Roarke limped back into a tree.  Wheezing, she feebly pivoted her left flank of armor and fired a coil of metal cords.

Rainbow Dash easily caught them in a pair of forelimbs.  "No."  She yanked Roarked forward.

Roarke stumbled—wincing—into Rainbow Dash's elbow.  With a grunt, she fell onto the loose soil of Foxtaur.

Rainbow Dash yanked, pulled, and tored at the cables, snapping them into brittle filaments.  Taking a breath, she raised both her forelimbs and prepared to slam them down, knocking the wind out of Roarke.

But the metal mare had one last trick.  Her wings shot out, and she propelled herself across the ground, kicking leaves up in a hazy flurry.

"By the Spark!"  Eagle Eye stammered, galloping up to Rainbow's side.  "She can fly?"

"Why not?"  Rainbow spat, heaving with pain and exhaustion as she stared up at the soaring pony.  "Seems like she can't die."

"You're letting her get away!" Zenith shouted.

"Nah..."  Rainbow shook her head, gulped, and panted.  "She's not leaving."

"How do you know that?" Eagle Eye asked.

"Cuz I'm here," Rainbow grunted, her eyes narrowing.

Sure enough—with a thunderous echo of sparkling thrusters—the bounty hunter veered around a row of trees and came diving back from afar.  The unmistakable strobe of tasers flickered from her outstretched forelimbs.

Still struggling to catch her breath, Rainbow glanced all around the miniature clearing.  She saw something heavy and glinting in the dark soil: Crimson's hammer.

"Give up!" Rainbow shouted, trotting forward.  "I'm warning you!"

"I'll surrender—" Roarke's shouting voice flew ahead of her smirking face.  "—once I'm happily wearing your skin for a coat!"

"Suit yourself!"  Rainbow charged in a full gallop.  The shadow of Roarke was upon her, tasers crackling.

"Rainbow!" Bellesmith shrieked from above.

"Hckkt!"  Rainbow dove forward, grabbed Crimson's hammer, rolled, and came out of the somersault with a vicious upswing.

With a flash of sparks, Roarke's left wing was instantly smashed to bits.

"Gaaaah!" she shrieked, spinning uncontrollably.  Like a spiraling comet, she rocketed across the clearing, beneath the dangling prisoners, and into thick brown trunk.  Splinters and chunks of metal flew hotly into the air.  With a sickening groan, the tree holding Pilate and Bellesmith shook—then began falling over.

Rainbow spat the hammer out and shouted, "Guys—!"

"I got 'em!"  Eagle Eye ran forward, bravely skirting the edge of the falling tree.  His lavender face scrunched up as a field of telekinesis enveloped the couple.  He safely yanked them from the branches just as the tree slammed into the ground below.  As the thunder and cloud of wooden chips settled, Pilate and Belle could be seen floating safely down besides the petite stallion.  With a heavy breath, Eagle Eye collapsed between them, recovering from the mental strain.

Rainbow Dash peered up at Crimson and his fellow mercenaries.  Their nets were wobbling wildly, but they were perfectly secure.  The noise of the battle had almost entirely settled by the time she shook her prismatic mane straight and limped her way across the messy clearing.  She dragged the hammer with her all the while.

Beyond a cluster of wooden shingles and loose branches, Roarke lay, her armored peeled off in numerous places to reveal a mesh of metal fibers tightly clothed over pale brown skin.  She was curled in a pitiable fetal position, her remaining metal wing sparkling from the punishment Rainbow Dash had given her.  Steam rose from the various metal plugs fixed to her body.  When Rainbow arrived, one lense rotated out at a crooked angle, reflecting the pegasus in its copper surface.

"Hnnckkt... grkkk—heh... was... w-was everything... I could have ever hoped..."

"My friends..."  Rainbow Dash glared, her body shadowed against the misty beams of sunlight pouring down on the battle scene.  "Why did you bag them up like mulch?"

"The... bounty m-mentioned you weren't alone..."  Roarke hissed.  "I had to... draw you out..."  Her lips curved, laced with blood.  "Bait... heheheheh..."

"You would use my friends as bait?" Rainbow Dash murmured, her ruby eyes narrowing.

"I had to get to you."  Roarke gulped.  "I will gladly do it again—"

"My friends?!" Rainbow spat.  "Have you no friggin' heart?!"

"Takes up too much space," she said with a smirk, her lenses rotating in and out.  She coughed, hacked, and twitched under the shadow of the victor.  "Make it quick..."

Rainbow blinked.  "Make what quick?"

"Don't be stupid..."

A twitch sparked through Rainbow's ears.  She felt her hoof tightening around the handle of the hammer.

Eagle Eye paused in the middle of cutting Pilate and Bellesmith loose to glance over.

"We both f-fought bravely..."  Roarke sputtered.  "It's what I would do for you."

"I... did not ask for a fight," Rainbow grumbled back.  "I never do.  It's always pieces of junk like you who start it."

"Doesn't matter, featherbrain.  F-finish it."

Rainbow's brow furrowed.  The hammer began to shift in the dirt.

"Take her out!" Phoenix barked from above.  "She was about to have our dang heads!"

"You can't reason with her kind," Zenith grunted.  "They have metal for brains."

Roarke twitched, gritting her teeth in pain.  A trickle of blood ran down from her left lense.

Crawling free of the net, Belle glanced over and her expression instantly paled.  "Rainbow Dash!"  She broke into a gallop.  "Rainbow—"

A hoof held her in place.

She glanced back.

Pilate was gripping her tail.  His lips curved in a placid expression.

Biting her lip, Belle glanced back at the scene.

Rainbow breathed and breathed—and a flicker of color flashed through her skull.  She slumped back on her haunches, exhaling slowly over the course in time it took for the ruby to replace the yellow hue in her eyes.  She gritted her teeth and hoisted the hammer up high.

Roarke's body relaxed as she awaited the blow.

It wouldn't come.  Rainbow tossed Crimson's weapon far across the clearing and turned around.  "Consider yourself finished..."

Roarke twitched.  Her head lifted up, wincing in the process.  "You... c-can't leave me like this!  I'm dying—"

"No, you're just super lame," Rainbow Dash muttered, trotting away in a firm swagger.  "Don't sweat it.  Something tells me you're good at putting parts of yourself back together."  She paused beside Eagle Eye.  "Think you can tie her up or something?  Binding ponies just isn't my bag."

"Yeah, sure," Eagle Eye said with a nod.  "Uhm... c-can we get my friends down, though?"

"What am I, Queen Jerkface?  Totally, dude!"

Eagle Eye smiled—then twitched as Phoenix shouted:

"Are you crazy?!  Finish her off!  If you let her live, a ton of her sisters might come and put all our heads on a spike!"

"Hey, she said it's finished—it's finished!" Eagle Eye barked up.  "Give her some credit!  She just won us all our freedom!"

"She won us nothing but a severely pissed off clan of Searonese gangsters—" Zenith began.

"Stuff it, soldiers," Crimson grunted.  "Let's just be happy we're not sold into slavery."

"But Captain—"

"I said quiet!  Show a little gratitude for Spark's sake!"

In the meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had wandered over to Pilate and Belle.  She made every effort not to limp as she smoothed her bruised coat over and slicked her tussled mane back.  "Ahem."  She smiled exhaustedly.  "Hey."

The two equines gawked at her.

"So... uh..."  Rainbow Dash scratched one forelimb with the other.  "Sorry about earlier, y'know.  It was one heck of a dizzy spell and—"

Belle plunged forward, hugging her close.

Rainbow did a double-take, but ultimately smiled.  She patted Belle's shoulder, only to lurch from another weight to her opposite end.  She looked over her should and smirked.  "Really?  You too?"

"Mmmhmmm..."  Pilate smiled as he nuzzled her with as much vigor as his beloved.  "Most certainly."

"Ugggghhh..."  Rainbow Dash slumped between them, rolling her eyes.  "I think I'd rather go back to receiving concussions."

And her closest friends chuckled.