I launched myself into the air, screaming in fury as I did so. What did I ever do to get somepony after my life? I never made any enemies. Hell, I don’t even know who this pony in front of me is.
When I got back into reality, I looked down on myself, in all my bleeding (and probably broken) glory. I heard Twilight scream, and I jerked back to look at her. Her horn flared, and I suddenly found myself being cleaned of the blood on my body, and my cuts and lacerations closing. Rainbow Dash sprang from Twilight's side and rushed up to be by mine.
“While Twi’s magic is awesome, healing isn’t her forte. She’ll provide support from the back, and I’ll help you up front”. I nodded, thankful for the help. “Auutumn, ROCK!” she screamed. I quickly turned around, and saw the next boulder flung at not just me, but Rainbow Dash too. Unacceptable. I concentrated, and willfully blew the rocks to smithereens, leaving a huge cloud of dirt still in the air. Seeing an opportunity, I rushed to the side, then blew the dust away, straight into Kage. A cough. That’s all I need, I thought as I rushed toward the sound.
I ran into something, I don’t know, squishy? No... it's hard. I looked in front of me, and jumped back into the air, staring at the great big tree that just sprouted out of nowhere. I gave a few great flaps of my wings and cleared all the dust from the air around me. Sure enough, there was a huge tree that sprouted right in front of me.
Kage's chaotic laughter ran up along the tree with her. She raced up to the branch that I ran into and pivoted, her hindlegs bashing into me with amazing force. I flew back, unable to gain purchase in the air with my wings, and fell into the same crater she chucked me in the first time. this time, though, I didn't have a giant boulder on me, so I launched my self into the air after her again and threw a couple more well placed wind blades after her. Two of the blades made contact, and Kage stumbled, tripping over her injuries. One blade had cut one of her forelegs, while the other made a slash on her torso.
I did a barrel role when a vine shot out from the side of the tree. another came, and I couldn't dodge it, so I sliced it off. I saw Kage run up the tree again, but the same trick won't work on me twice, so I folded my wings and dropped right below the branch she was on. I opened and pumped my wing once again heading up as I turned my head to look at the suprised look on Kage's face. Now in the clouds, I landed atop one and peered over the edge.
Rainbow Dash was flying circles around the mare. "Rainbow Dash. Come here!". She looked up at me and nodded. within second the she was right next to me on the cloud, staring over the edge at Kage too.
"You got a plan?" she asked. Kage hurled a boulder up at us, but I cut it up with the wind before it reached us, and the pieces fell back to earth.
"Yeah... I need you to go back down there and distract her, while I bring this cloud down-"
"Whats a cloud gonna do to her, she can hurl boulders, and earth ponies can't touch clouds" Dashie said.
"I know, but lightning can" I said, a grin crossing my face. as soon as Rainbow Dash got the Idea and rushed back down to distract Kage. She took the bait and I slowly made my way down with cloud in hoof.
I set said cloud right above Kage's head, spun, and kicked it. The cloud instantly darkened and shot a bolt of lightning right at the mares rump.
Kage jumped. "Enough!!!" she screamed, and vine shot up from the ground from every angle, and grabbed me and dash, so that we were hanging from them. " I was told to go easy on you, since we don't know how strong you are. But fuck that, your gonna pay. That hurt, and you will not get away with it."
More branches came and wrapped themselves around all of my limbs, making it impossible for me to move. I looked over at Rainbow Dash and saw the same had been done to her. The branches began to pull. We both screamed in pain, and I closed my eyes. so this is how I'm gonna go out... this sucks.
I opened my eyes again and saw another pegasus come out of a cloud cover, and proceded to beat the shit out of Kage until she agreed to stop. Then he got up and... sliced the vines into pieces around us with wind blades?!? Me and Dash fell to the ground , and I coughed up some dirt. The pegasus came over and offered me a hoof. I took it and he pulled me back up.
"Autumn, I am sorry for the pain that Kage here caused you, but I had to make sure that you were the real deal."
"What? Who are you, why didn't you help us before, why do you know kage, and how do I know I can trust you?
He looked at me then looked away, whispering to himself then turned back to me."Okay, first off, before I answer any of your questions, you need to come with me". He turned to Dash and Twilight, who were now sitting together again and said "Don't worry ms. Sparkle, no harm will come to your friend". He quickly trotted over and handed Twi a note. she opened it and gave him a look of understanding. He trotted back up to me, then shot Kage a glare. "You will get back to HQ and I will deal with you later".
He lept into the air, and signaled for me to follow, so I did. as soon as I was next to him, he looked over to me. " First question, the name's Alex. Second, I was testing your fighting ability. Third, me and Kage are working together, and last, you don't, but you should". A little mysterious, but fair enough.
"Why did you let Kage nearly kill me?" I asked, looking at him. he too had a cutie mark of an AI, different than mine and Kage's but an AI all the same. he halted mid air, and it wasn't till I passed him that I realized he stopped. I swooped back around and stared him straight in the eye.
"I needed to know if you were good enough". he said knocking me to the side with a gust of wind.
I quickly regained my flight, and caught back up with him. "Good enough for what?" I asked him, and was given a cocky grin in response from the blue pegasus flying beside me.
"You'll find out soon enough" he said.
I looked ahead and saw Canterlot in the distance. another few minutes and we'll be there.
Okay, maybe not. We flew under the city and through a hole in the rock face of which the city rested. We landed in what looked to be a lounge. There was a huge couch, a small coffee table, and even a pool table! Alex walked in front of me before I could venture further.
"Wait here" he said, and trotted off into the next room. I sat down on the couch and waited... .. ... AAHH, could he take any longer! Then I heard hoofsteps. At least I thought I heard hoofsteps. I twisted my ears in the direction of the noise. Yup definitely hoofsteps. I turned and saw Alex walk back into the room with a white unicorn.
I got off the couch and faced him.
"I'm shining Armor, and welcome to the E.S.O.".