//------------------------------// // The Final Showdown // Story: Rainbow Dash's Hidden Power // by Mudkipman98 //------------------------------// WARNING: This chapter contains some slight gore. i.e. descriptions of blood and occurrences where blood is present. If you do not like minor descriptions of blood, then please leave now. You have been warned. Enjoy! :) "Oh boy is this the most ironic thing that's happened to me in the last 30 years," said the commander, finally noticing his surroundings. Once again, possibly for the final time, he stood in the grassy field of his dreams with Rainbow Dash as his opponent. Before he could continue his thoughts, he felt a hoof connect with his face. As he was sent spiraling up into the air, he caught a few short glimpses of Rainbow. She had just come out of a round house kick. She soon rocketed up after him with her hoof glowing in energy. She blasted through his shoulder in one punch then launched him to the ground with another burst of energy, creating a crater in the landscape. Before she could land on top of him, he shot out from his position and began regenerating his shoulder. Being a space pony, he did after all have access to space age tech. As soon as it was healed, he fired several bursts at Rainbow who had now landed in his crater and was beginning to charge at him. She wove around them as she flew over the ground at full speed. Just as she made contact, she sonic rainboomed into him. As she slowed, her momentum kept the commander flying, eventually crashing him into a giant rock which seemed to be one of the few rough patches in the field. Before Rainbow Dash could pursue him again, he launched out of the rubble at her, energy blade around his hoof. They crossed paths in mid air, flying straight by each other and landing 30 yards away from each other. Rainbow Dash fell to the ground as blood arced from her side. The commander must have hit her with that blade. "But how?" she said out loud. "Oh I think you'll find I'm much faster than I seem." He then charged at her again, this time with both his front hooves glowing red hot with energy blades. As he closed in, his shots connected. One by one, his shots cut Rainbow sending rivulets of blood arcing off her body. Yet, Rainbow Dash stayed strong. She held her own against the onslaught of hits, already getting ready to release a new energy burst in a shock wave. As she took more and more hits, she began to measure the commander's movements. Once she had his timing down, she prepared to launch her shock wave. Then she stopped. As she looked down at herself, she could see one of the commander's hooves sticking in her chest. She threw her head up to look at the commander in front of her. She coughed up a clot of blood, then, "What," said the commander, an air of triumph in his voice. "Did you think I wouldn't notice you charging up energy? I'm not a mind reader, but after fighting tons of other space ponies, I've learned to pick up on energy spikes. Your's was easily recognizable." He then began to twist slowly, digging his energy blade hoof into her. He threw her over his head and across the field. Her impact caused a new crater in the hillside. The commander began to slowly fly toward her point of impact, charging a final killing blast, just to make sure that she was dead. Arriving at her crater, he released the shot at full force. But something caught it. Whatever it was, it had enough energy to repel his shot back at him. The commander barely had time to dodge before the air sizzled where he floated just moments before. Looking down at Rainbow's crater, he could see a stallion. This stallion had a blue coat and silver hair in the same style as the Doctor's mane. He carried a rather large sword similar to the buster sword from Final Fantasy VII, and he had two wings sticking out of his back. Before the commander could react, the stallion jumped at him with his sword blazing with fire. As the stallion swung, the commander tried to dodge, but was met with a shock wave of fire knocking him back and leaving him dazed. The stallion bashed him with the flat edge of his blade, sending the commander into the dirt below. Quickly, the stallion flew over to Rainbow Dash's crater. Landing next to her, he placed his sword down and put his forehead to hers. /)*#*(\ Rainbow Dash could have sworn she was going to die. She didn't have the time or energy left to ascend to her super pony level, and the commander throwing a fiery ball at her didn't exactly increase her odds. When she thought she would surely burn, she saw a flash of blue. A deep blue. Deeper blue than the Doctor's TARDIS in the few times she had seen it. Whatever it was, it stopped the commander's attack, then leaped at him with a giant sword. She saw him disappear over the edge of the crater. He soon returned, kneeling down next to her and putting his forehead to hers. 0--Inside Rainbow Dash's Soul--0 Inside of herself, Rainbow could feel some other soul there. Again, she felt a strange sense of violation at this intrusion, but she let it pass. At this point, she was more curious as to why this stallion had broken into her soul. "Rainbow Dash?" he said, sounding scared for her safety. As soon as he picked up on Rainbow's life force, he sighed in relief. "Oh thank Luna you're still alive. I was afraid I had time jumped to the wrong time and location." "Wait. Are you the Doctor?" "WHAT?! No! While I can travel in time, I don't even resemble him remotely. Though I must say, his obsession with butter and muffins kinda scares me. Never mind that though. How are you? Ya know, apart from the hole in your chest." "Well," began Rainbow, "I'm actually doing fine. I had him on the ropes there. Right when I was gonna get him, he caught me off guard." "That sucks," said the strange stallion. "I'm Storm Blade, by the way." Examining his appearance further, she could see his cutie mark; a sword. "Listen to me though. Like I said, I'm a time traveler. In your future, I will be very important to you. You haven't met me yet, but I know you like a sister. You've just got to trust me here." "Okay then. Shoot." "What, just like that? You're gonna trust me right away? No questions?" "None at all. After hearing from Derpy Whooves about the Doctor's adventures, I can believe almost anything that has to do with time travel." "Well then, that makes this a whole lot easier. By the way, while we've been talking, I've implanted the ability to regenerate quickly using energy into you, just like the commander must have done by now." "Well then, let's go!" said Rainbow Dash, eager to get back to the fight. She could already feel her cells reconstructing and multiplying. "Okay," said Storm Blade. He then released himself from her soul, leaving an empty space in Rainbow Dash. Oddly, it felt good to have a stallion that wasn't bent on killing her inside of her soul. /)*#*(\ Storm Blade pulled himself away from Rainbow, picking up his sword and getting ready to fly out of the crater. He looked down at Rainbow Dash and watched as a green glow surrounded her chest. She began to seal herself up, and before she knew it, she was standing up and pumping her wings, ready to fly up the crater herself. Storm nodded to Rainbow, the signal to launch, and they both rocketed up out of the crater, hovering and trying to find where the commander had landed. They found him alright. He lay in a pile of dirt not 100 yards away. As he began to stir, Rainbow Dash and Storm Blade began charging up their internal energy. Immediately, the commander launched from his position into the air, landing a punch into Storm and firing a burst of energy into Rainbow. They both recovered quickly and returned the shots. They soon found themselves meeting each other's energy bursts without any of them connecting. Storm Blade broke off and flew to the commander's back. Without stopping to charge, he fired 2 balls of blue energy into the commander, causing him to flinch and let up his energy output. This pause let Rainbow's shots find their mark. With each successive hit, the commander's armor began to break apart until it was nothing but the chest guard, and even that had taken a beating. He released a shock wave that stunned Storm Blade and Rainbow Dash, causing them both to fall a few yards before regaining altitude. Then Storm Blade made his move. While the commander was still trying to recover his energy from his recent burst, Storm flew under him and knocked him higher into the air. The commander was helpless as he spun out of control after being launched upward. Quickly, Storm and Rainbow flew up next to him, Storm cutting him with his blade and Rainbow discharging hundreds of energy shots into him. And yet, he survived. He finally corrected himself and blocked both pegasi's attacks. Spinning 360 degrees around, he shot tons of energy bursts out of his hooves, each one connecting and forcing Storm and Rainbow back. He then fired another one of his spear-head beams into Storm, creating an arc of blood off of his arm. He dropped his sword and let himself spiral to the ground, impacting beneath the aerial battle. His sword stuck the ground first, creating a small crater due to its weight. The commander then fired three more of these beams into Rainbow Dash, creating the same effect and sending Rainbow Dash to the planet's surface. As she pulled her head up from the impact, she saw the commander land at Storm Blade's crater. Then she heard the screaming. It was coming from the crater, and she soon heard the sound of bones snapping. The commander was crushing Storm Blade's ribs! /)*#*(\ "Ya know," began the commander, "you wouldn't have survived this fight anyway. I'd have just killed that cyan one over there, then finished you off with enough energy to spare!" Then, he noticed something. There seemed to be a strange amount of static in the air. Stopping for a moment to turn around, he noticed a gold ball of energy moving toward him. He barely had time to put his forelegs up to block it. The impact and momentum, however, launched him out of the small crater and left him dazed a short area away. /)*#*(\ Looking up through his reddening vision, Storm Blade looked out of his crater to see who had saved him. Floating there, her hoof sizzling, was Rainbow Dash in full super pony form. Her coat was white and her mane stuck up behind her. She immediately flew over to Storm Blade and put a hoof to his arm. Storm watched as her excess energy transferred to him and began to regenerate his broken bones. As soon as her hoof left him, he began to pick himself up, pulling his sword out of the dirt. Then, he did something that surprised Rainbow Dash. His energy built up and eventually, he elevated to super pony form just like her. His sword began to glow with white energy as did the rest of his body as his coat changed color. "You're not the only one who can do that," said Storm as he noticed the shocked look on Rainbow Dash's face. "Oh great, now I've got two super ponies to deal with," came the commander as he picked himself up. "Alright then, lets get this over with. Lance gets insecure if I'm not there to watch him." Rainbow Dash and Storm Blade couldn't help but chuckle to themselves. In no time, the fight was back on. As the commander and the two super ponies clashed, the commander blocked each of their attacks and managed to land a few of his own. Before long, Storm was bloodied, Rainbow Dash bruised, and the commander out of most of his energy. Then it went Harry Potter style. Both sides jumped away from each other, preparing to fire a beam of energy at their enemy(s). As they released their blasts, the energy connected and created a blast of unstable energy at their collision point. As the unstable energy moved back and forth between the two sides, it became abundantly clear that the commander was going to lose. Seeing this, he broke away, causing the unstable energy to explode while creating a veil of smoke. Rainbow Dash and Storm were left coughing in the smoke that refused to clear. "Where is he?" asked Storm. "I have no clue," came Rainbow's reply. "He's gotta be here somewhere. I watched him jump away." "Then we should stay on guard. If he is still here, then he'll no doubt try to kill one of us with some sort of sneaky move. He's probably in the smoke now, watching us. Waiting for the right time to strike." Rainbow Dash looked around nervously as Storm's last few words soaked into her mind. "Well then, we'd better find him before he finds us." "And how in the world do you propose we do that?" "Well, you said you know me in the future. My future. Didn't I ever share my special gift with you?" said Rainbow. A smile lit on Storm's face then. "Right! You can see auras! Get to it then," he said enthusiastically. Rainbow began to search the smoke for auras. She found some excess unstable energy from the blast, but apart from that, nothing. Then she hit her mark. She found the commander's aura, but it was in the exact wrong spot. It was behind Storm Blade! Before Rainbow could warn her future friend, he screamed out in pain as tons of energy bursts struck his back. He then looked to Rainbow Dash with sadness and loss in his eyes. His eye lids began to close and he started to fall to the planet's surface. Rainbow Dash would've tried to stop his fall, but when she was getting ready to help, the commander charged at her forcing her to block the attack instead of help. She could only watch as Storm's body, along with his sword, struck the ground with such force that Rainbow could hear some of Storm's bones crack. Rainbow Dash looked into the commander's eyes as he began to laugh at his victory. Then something ticked in Rainbow's head. To put it simply... She snapped. Her energy level jumped to twice her normal super pony level. Her mane grew by about four inches, which was oddly noticeable, and she gained muscle mass. While the commander was in shock at the sudden transformation, he received hundreds of blows to his face and abdomen, leaving bruises across his body that were immediately visible. "But, how is that possible?" he managed to stutter before Rainbow resumed her assault. She uppercutted the commander higher into the sky, delivering blow after blow until they were at the edge of the planet's atmosphere. By this point, the commander didn't even care any more. He had no hope of stopping this pegasis, especially after her current transformation. So he just sat there waiting to die. Rainbow then flew up higher above the commander and began to draw all of the unstable energy from the previous explosion that still remained on the planet. Even at her current height, the energy could still be absorbed. She focused it into as tight of a beam as she could in her hand. Due to the amount of energy, the tightest she could make it in diameter was as much as 3 ponies tall. Without hesitation, she fired the giant super-compressed beam into the commander at full force. /)*#*(\ 'I'm going to die.' That was all the commander could think about as he got closer and closer to the planet's surface. When he made impact, he began to feel the heat of lava about 2000 yards below him. "I curse you, you damn pegasis!" he yelled as loud as he could as he continuously crashed through layers of dirt and rock. "The whole universe will want you dead! Every planet and alien race out there will come for you, and you had better be ready, because none of them will let you kill them so easily! AAAAAHHHHHGGGGG!" He let out a blood curdling scream as he met the planet's core. /)*#*(\ Rainbow Dash could hear the impact of the commander's surely dead body on the core. She immediately flew back down to the planet's surface, desperate to locate Storm Blade's body. After searching for a few minutes, she found him. He had reverted from his super pony form, and he lay in the crater motionless. She immediately checked his pulse. Success! He was still alive! That meant that he could still be saved! "Alright you, I'm gonna figure out this teleporter thingy and get both of us back to Equestria." With that, she grabbed a hold of Storm Blade's wrist and checked the contraption on it. It displayed an easy-to-use interface, complete with a tutorial. "Well, that's convenient." The ground not 10 yards away exploded. The planet was ripping itself apart! Of course! With the unstable energy that Rainbow Dash had launched into the core along with the commander, it was causing a chain reaction that was destroying the planet from the inside out! Everything around her began to explode, covering her in dust and ash. "Welcome to the Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey transporter," said a cheerful voice out of the device on Storm's wrist, a voice that was oddly familiar. "If you're hearing this message, that means that you, the planet you're on, or someone very important to you or your timeline is in danger. Please follow these instructions to teleport you to your destination safely. First, please enter the planet that you would like to teleport to." "Oh god," said Rainbow. "An automated voice that speaks extremely slow even thought it knows what's going on!" Doing as the device asked, she entered the name of the planet that Equestria was on, then waited for the next set of instructions. *BOOM* Another portion of planet exploded, closer to her this time. "Thank you. Now, please input the time you would like to jump to. If you don't have a specific time you'd like to visit, please press OK without touching any other buttons." She did as she was told, then waited. "Thank you," spoke the device. "Enjoy your trip. And remember, don't blink. Sometimes, a weeping angel or two will get into the teleporter stream. It would be terribly unfortunate if you died because of something meant to save you." "Wait, what?" asked Rainbow out loud. Before she could protest any further, she saw a flash of light and then-