//------------------------------// // The Wrath of a Rival // Story: Swooping Pegasus // by FenrisianBrony //------------------------------// Rainbow walked out of the main building of the barracks, a small smile on her face. “How did it go?” Pinpoint asked from his position next to the door. “Really well.” Rainbow smiled, looking at the Sergeant. “She asked me to join her in the Wonderbolts.” “You’re in the Wonderbolts?” He asked in astonishment. “Well, strictly civilian role, but yes.” Rainbow admitted. “I didn’t know there were civilian roles in the Wonderbolts.” Pinpoint said in interest. “There weren’t, not before today.” Rainbow smiled. “Spitfire made an exception.” “Wow. She must really want you on the flight demo team.” Pinpoint nodded. “I guess.” Rainbow replied. “I’ve got to get going though, so sorry to cut this short, but…” “No worries. If you’re ever in the neighbourhood, look me up.” “Will do.” Rainbow smiled, before turning and headed out of the entrance of the fort, before walking down a side street. Maybe she should go back and see Applejack, smooth things… “Hey! Rainbow Crash!” Came an obnoxious voice, one that rainbow knew all too well. “Dumbbell.” She growled, turning to face the brown Pegasus stallion. Dumbbell was not alone, and was accompanied by nine other ponies, including the other two bullies from Cloudsdale. “What do you want?” Rainbow asked exasperatedly. “We just wanted to see if what LD said was true. If little old rainbow Crash was really back from her failure from two years ago.” Dumbbell laughed, hoping to get a rise out of Rainbow. He didn’t. “LD?” Rainbow asked, looking around the group, before spotting exactly what she was looking for. “Lightning Dust.” Now that she was exposed, the green mare pushed her way past the others, until she was standing at the forefront of the group. She leered at Rainbow, open disgust visible on her face. “Rainbow. I’m going to ask once. What, did Spitfire, want with you?” She growled. “Why do you want to know?” Rainbow asked, tensing her legs instinctively. “It doesn’t matter why. Tell me now.” She growled, tensing her rear legs. “Or what?” rainbow asked, smirking slightly. “Or the boys and I will break you, and make you sing like a bird.” She smiled. “Ok, first things first, I’m wearing armour, that has routinely stood up to actual weapons wielded by actual soldiers, so if you think you could get through it, be my guest.” Rainbow said matter-of-factly. “Second, I’ve endured more pain than your puny, pathetic minds could possibly imagine, and survived with my sanity relatively intact, so if you think hitting me will do anything, then you are welcome to come and try, but it will be your funeral. Lastly, there are only ten of you. If you wanted to actually achieve something, you should have brought a lot more. Did you tell them about Ponyville, Lightning Dust? About the way the Wonderbolts were called out to fix a problem, which I then fixed? Do you think that any or all of you could really handle something that outclasses Equestria’s rapid response team?” “What’s she talking about?” A dark red Pegasus asked, looking at Lightning Dust. “She’s lying.” Lightning Dust grunted. “Trying to unnerve you.” “If that’s what you want to believe, then go ahead.” Rainbow said softly. “You hear that boys?” Dumbbell smirked, looking at the others in his group. “Little Miss Crash here gave us permission.” “You sure about this Dumbbell?” One of ponies asked. “She sounded pretty serious.” “She’s not dangerous.” Dumbbell smirked. Bolstered by Dumbbells words, the others, minus Lightning Dust, slowly encircled Rainbow Dash, grinning manically, all grinning manically. “Go on.” Lightning Dust said, sadistic glee sneaking into her voice. With a growl, Dumbbell ran forward, swinging a hoof at Rainbow. Rainbow didn’t even blink as she effortlessly evaded the sloppy attack. Dumbbell growled and continued to swing his hooves, and each time, Rainbow dodged them. “Why. Wont. You. Stay. Still?!” He shouted, throwing a punch with each word. “Fine.” Rainbow said innocently, and suddenly stopped moving, allowing one of Dumbbell’s blows to impact on her chest armour. She didn’t feel a thing, even as Dumbbell cried out in pain. “Is it my turn?” She asked softly, before springing into motion, and bringing a hoof up into Dumbbell’s chest, winding him, and putting him out of the fight. The other ponies, including Lightning Dust, looked on in awe as the Rainbow Pegasus calmly took out a much bigger opponent like it was nothing, and then just stood there, waiting for whatever was going to come next. “Well what are you standing around for!?” Lightning Dust asked. If looks could kill, even Rainbow’s armour wouldn’t have saved her. “Get her!” Spurred on by their leaders words, the other eight ponies blurred into action. They weren’t going to make the same mistake as Dumbbell, and all charged at her at the same time. “Still not enough.” Rainbow said under her breath, before blurring into action herself. Sprinting forward, Rainbow brought a hoof up into the jaw of the first pony, shattering teeth as she forced his jaws to slam together. The ponies scream was cut short, as Rainbow grabbed the body and hurled it at a pair of other ponies, demonstrating a strength that nopony had expected from a pony of her size. The throw knocked the pony out and stopped his screaming, as well as halting the other two ponies for a moment, and allowed Rainbow time to deal with the others. Ducking low, she avoided a punch from one of her other childhood bullies, before wrapping her hooves around his waist and flapping her wings, flipping over and using his body to block another punch, before she inverted him and slammed his head down into the stone of the Canterlot pavements. Rainbow allowed herself a smile, Juhani would have been proud of that move. Not dwelling on that, Rainbow turned to face the other ponies, who had all formed a group together, and were now staring at Rainbow. Lightning Dust was still standing just off from the fight, but her anger was steadily growing. With a roar, both the group of ponies and Rainbow sprinted towards each other, and with a crunch, they collided. Rocking back on her hooves, Rainbow avoided a head but, before rolling to avoid being buffeted off balance by a wing strike. Using the momentum of the roll, she a hoof into the ribs of a pony, before kicking out at another stallion, causing him to drop to the ground in pain as she found her mark in between his legs. Not waiting for a second, she lashed out, using her whole body to smash aside a pony’s pitiful defence, knocking her to the floor, where she lay still, apart from the rise and fall of her chest. Four down. Six to go. Screaming, she dived at a pony, allowing him to hit her chest, the blow hardly even registering, before she was on him, both forehooves slamming into his chest, a sickening crunch was audible around the square, as ribs cracked, and a pony screamed. Five down. The ponies were now looking at her with fear, but Rainbow wasn’t going to stop now. She couldn’t. All she could do, was limit the damage she was doing. If her mind wasn’t more messed up than Discords, maybe she could, but now, it was just a case of limiting the damage she did, and to pray that she wouldn’t kill any of them. Not waiting till they moved, Rainbow jumped up, before flapping her wings and propelling herself downwards, scattering the group and making them easy, individual targets. Dodging a flurry of blows from a Pegasus mare, she opened up with her own cascade of blows, raining them down on the pony’s chest and face. She didn’t even scream as she went down. It was over too quickly. Forcing herself to check the fallen pony, she felt her pulse, making sure she was alive. This gave one of the ponies enough time to dart in and slam a hoof directly into her face, spraying blood across the already darkening pavement. Whooping in joy, the pony tried to follow up his blow, believing that nopony would be able to defend themselves after a blow like that. In a way, he was right. Nopony from Equestria would have been able to, not even a guard or a member of the Wonderbolts. But then again, she outclassed both of them. He leered at the form of the Pegasus mare on the ground, her eyes closed, and looking to all the world like she was unconscious. He raised his forehooves into the area, rearing up on his hind legs, and preparing to slam his hooves down into Rainbows face. This was when Rainbow made her move. She quickly brought her hooves round, tripping the pony, and rolling on top of the fallen pony, grabbing his head and bringing her own head smashing into it, knocking him unconscious. Seven down. The final two ponies looked at each other nervously, before the first one lunged towards Rainbow. It was sloppy, but quick, and that was all Rainbow needed. Without hesitating, she moved to the side, stepping out of the way of the lamppost she was in front of, and grabbing the pony mid-flight, driving him even quicker into the pole, and denting the metal. Rainbow stared at the other pony, catching and holding his gaze for almost a full minute, allowing the fear to build in his eyes. It was one thing fighting a mindless beast, it was quite another to fight a calculating and cunning one. Eventually, Rainbow grinned, exposing her chipped and broken teeth. Some of the chips were old, never having healed properly, others were new, from when the pony had hit her in the muzzle. Slowly, she ran her tongue over the jagged edges, catching it on a particularly sharp bit, and causing it to bleed slightly. She didn’t even register the tiny amount of pain, and just continued to stare at the pony, before she uttered one word. “Run.” She didn’t shout, or growl it, it wasn’t louder or softer than anything else she had said in the conversation, but the effect it had on the pony was instantaneous. The pony bolted, flapping his wings as he ran, before taking off, fleeing through the skies of Canterlot. Turning, Rainbow faced the final pony in the area. “Lightning.” She nodded, licking her teeth again. “Rainbow.” She growled back. “Maybe I did under estimate you.” With that, Lightning jumped forward, swinging a hoof at Rainbow. Rainbow blocked it with her own foreleg, but was forced backwards by the sudden ferocity of the assault. While Lightning was nowhere near the skill of some opponents that Rainbow had faced, she was leagues ahead of the other would be attackers, and that gave her at least a moments advantage through surprise. Rainbow however, had something completely different on her mind. Behind her eyes, she could feel a familiar sensation, and could already see the red haze clouding her vision, signifying the oncoming war mask. She knew that if she donned the mask again, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself, and only one of the pair would walk away from the fight alive. Considering the fact that she had superior training and armour on, it didn’t take a genius to figure out who it would be. Sighing, and using most of her mental powers to tear herself away from the violent thoughts racing through her mind, Rainbow did the only action left to her. She bolted. Streaking into the sky, she quickly rose above Canterlot, leaving an enraged Lightning Dust behind. “Come back and fight!” She screamed, but Rainbow was already too far away. Growling, she spread her own wings, and took off after Rainbow.