"She actually did it."
Rainbow Dash touched down gently on the clocktower's roof. It hadn't exactly been difficult to find where he had been hiding. Scratching the back of her neck, she replied.
"Yup. I wouldn't have thought that she'd have the guts, much less the power. But here we are."
"...How did you know where to find me?"
She looked out over the city of Canterlot. Once loud and bustling, a solemn mood hung in the air, giving the once glorious skyscrapers a tall and eerie look. A faint ticking noise could be heard from where Rainbow Dash stood, and she and her adversary were on the tallest building save the royal castle itself. "Call it a hunch."
She turned back towards the Skull Kid with a smirk. "By the way, how did you come back? Last I remember, you were fresh out of immortal deities."
"Do not lecture me, Rainbow Dash." The Skull Kid strode out into the moonlight. In the dim, shining light, she could just make out his burlap coat and his wooden shoes. A moonbeam danced across the face of his purple mask as he stared menacingly at her. "If we're going to do battle, we might as well finish this now."
"...That's it?"
He was silent.
"The last time we met, you talked down to me. You insulted my friends and my homeland. And now, nothing? Do I worry you that much?"
The tension between the two began to grow. "You do not worry me. I will win this fight."
"I won once."
"You got lucky once."
The two began to circle one another, carefully stepping across the stone floor. The Skull Kid moved rigidly, his wooden shoes clicking and clacking against the floor. Rainbow Dash stepped easily, her hooves moving lightly and quietly. Both of the combatants were waiting for the other to make the first move.
"Something has changed about you."
Rainbow Dash smirked. "Well, I'm not dead anymore. That's a start."
The Skull Kid shook his head slowly. "No. It is something else. You no longer possess the same power as before. Where is your mask?"
"Don't need it."
He stopped dead in his tracks. "...You don't have the mask?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her neck, popping her joints. "Nope. I wouldn't have had time to look for it anyways. My best chance of winning lies in this fight, here and now."
Again, he was silent. His muscles loosened and he stood up from his fighting stance, walking straight towards Rainbow Dash.
Warily, Rainbow Dash took a step back. "Hold on. What are you trying to pull?"
The Skull Kid sighed. "And to think I expected a challenge..."
Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "You want challenge? Come and get it!"
She shot forward, thrusting her hoof towards the Skull Kid's mask. He effortlessly stopped her punch with his foreleg, gripped her hoof, and smashed it downwards into the floor.
"AH!" Rainbow Dash was now leg deep into stone, the hoof she'd just punched with totally immobilized. She whipped her head up just in time for the Skull Kid to jab her in the face. It should have only been a swift, light strike, but her face exploded in pain. Crumpling to the ground and blinking away the red dots from her vision, Rainbow Dash pulled on her trapped leg to no avail, at the Skull Kid's mercy.
He wrapped his hooves around her midsection and wrenched her up from the ground, throwing her up towards the starlit sky. Leaping up to meet her, he stretched back his left arm, which had begun to crackle and pop from the purple energy coursing through it. Rainbow Dash had barely opened her eyes when his hoof dug into her stomach like a rocket. In a blinding flash of light, Rainbow Dash was launched across the rooftops of the city. She saw streetlights whipping below her like fireflies, and was dimly aware that, to survive, she would need to fly.
But she was shooting through the air far too fast. Although she tried to open her wings, they remained pinned to her sides. She saw the houses steadily growing larger and larger. She closed her eyes and braced for the impact.
Rather, she braced for the explosion.
When she hit, the world narrowed down to her body and the pain it was enduring. Every ounce of her being was in agony. The experience was so intense that she lost the ability to even think. Her entire body went limp, waiting for it to end.
After lying there for what felt like hours, she felt coherent thought return to her. She felt a faint rush of wind, a clatter of wood on stone. She opened her eyes and saw the blurry image of the devil himself - purple, with huge eyes. Huge eyes, yellow and red with green pupils. Spikes. Long, evil spikes coming off the sides of his face.
"HERO!"
Rainbow Dash's ear twitched. Summoning up all of her strength, she dragged her head across the ground until it faced a certain young filly.
"YOU'VE GOTTA GET UP, HERO!"
"Beat it, kid," he said. "You'll get yourself hurt."
Rainbow Dash's pupils widened. Somewhere in her mind, she felt a rumbling noise. Like a waterfall, it grew louder and louder. She let it flow through her, washing away her fears, her regrets, her injuries.
"YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU!!"
A spark went off.
"...How did you get your mask, Skull Kid?"
He turned away from the child and looked back at her. He froze.
"You...there's no way...no one could have survived that..."
She smirked. "You didn't answer my question." Knees shaking, she began to stand up. She looked at the Skull Kid directly in his eyes.
"But...how?! I punched you halfway across the city!"
Rainbow Dash began a chuckle which turned into a cough. After clearing her throat, she answered the Skull Kid.
"The mask you use houses an evil power. Even without a mask of my own, I can feel it. And if there's anyone with evil in their heart..." she lifted up her hoof shakily. "...It's you. The mask is drawn to you like a magnet. It's natural. Not just anyone can control that thing."
Her head dropped towards the ground. Her voice grew quiet and raspy.
"And I get the feeling the same applies to the Fierce Deity's Mask."
The Skull Kid stepped backwards. "No...there's no way...there's no way..."
Rainbow Dash threw her head up and shouted at the stars.
"YOU'VE KEPT ME WAITING LONG ENOUGH! SHOW YOURSELF AND HELP ME WIN THIS FIGHT!!"
She waited, panting from the effort of yelling. Blinking, she searched the city around her for a sign, for something, anything.
And all she saw was the filly.
Her eyes widened. "...Wait..."
The filly smiled sweetly and trotted over to the mare.
She stumbled backwards. "W-What is this?!"
"Be not afraid," replied the filly. "I had to know if you were the true Hero. It was merely a test."
The filly placed her hooves on the mare's shoulders.
"You passed."
And with that, the filly embraced the mare. The filly's body began to glow with a white light. As it grew brighter, Rainbow Dash felt strength returning to her limbs. She felt her blood flowing faster and faster and faster. She felt her head clearing, shaking off the cobwebs left behind from the impact.
She felt alive.
"Dumb kid..." she whispered under her breath. "But better late than never, I suppose..."
The Skull Kid could only watch on in horror as the filly's body finally disappeared completely, the white light enveloping Rainbow Dash and shielding her from the Skull Kid's view.
"RAAAAAGH!!" Rainbow Dash shouted. Loose pebbles that had been lying around her began to levitate up into the air, and as the ground beneath her began to tremble, the mask flew ever closer to her face.
Until finally, it connected.
The Hero of Time opened her golden eyes.
"Let's finish this."
She shot forward, throwing a right hook at his face. He blocked it and sent a jab of his own. After parrying it to the side, the Hero let out a shout and headbutted him in his chest. The force of the impact set him flying backwards, his shoes causing sparks to appear as they skidded across the cobblestone road. Growling under his breath, purple energy began to crackle and spread all over his body from the mask on his face. He stomped the ground with his hoof, causing a line of stalagmites to shoot up from the street.
The Hero leaped up into the air, narrowly avoiding one of the spikes, and kicked off the wall of a nearby building towards the Skull Kid. As she barreled towards him, white hot energy began to charge in her front hooves. The air around her crackled with ozone as her legs connected with his chest. Wings blurring, she propelled the two of them forwards, grinding his body into the road and leaving behind a deep divot in the stone. Finally, their progress was halted when the pair reached another building, and an explosion of dust shot up into the air along with a deafening bang as his body connected with the wall.
She leaped back onto the sidewalk, coughing and panting. She stared at the cloud of dust, waiting for something to happen. Quicker than she could react, he leaped out of the smoke and axe kicked her jaw, sending her flying upwards. Looking to her side, she dimly remembered the clocktower - the first clocktower - shooting past her as she fell to the ground. This time, it was shooting the other way.
Wait for it...
She felt the power within her begin to build. He shot up into the air after her. The distance between the two shortened rapidly.
Wait for it...
He was nearly upon her.
WAIT FOR IT...
He was suddenly directly in front of her, readying his hoof for his final blow.
NOW!!!
She released all of the energy she had been holding in with one enormous strike. The white energy of the Fierce Deity's Mask speared his body through and through. Purple smoke began to gush from the eyeholes of his mask.
"YOU'LL NEVER WIN! DO YOU HEAR ME?! SOMEHOW I'LL RETURN!! SOMEDAY I'LL BE BACK!!!"
The Hero laughed at the face of the devil.
"I think I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."
And with that, Majora's Mask exploded in a cloud of purple dust. Skull Kid's body disintegrated along with it.
The battle was over.
The Hero of Time was victorious.
She landed on the ground gently, a smirk still on her face. The gloomy atmosphere gone, she started to laugh to herself, panting and chuckling so much that her chest started to hurt. Finally she fell backwards and laid down on the ground.
"Well...that's over with."
She was answered by a cold wind.
"...Is that it? It is over, right?"
She looked to her left and saw the faint image of a small filly gazing at her sadly.
"...Yeah."
"...I suppose it can't be helped."
The Hero sighed. She could feel the last of her spirit leaving her. All power comes with a price, after all. And her mask's price was high.
"...Hey."
The Hero glanced over at the filly. The child smiled and brushed the Hero's mane away from her eyes.
"I get the feeling we'll be seeing each other again."
The Hero smiled.
"...I'd like that. But at the same time..."
She smiled. Not a cocky smirk - just an ordinary, simple smile.
"...I think I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."
And with that, Rainbow Dash - Element of Loyalty, Savior of the World, and Hero of Time - left our world.