Rainbow just didn't get it. She'd stolen, broken into businesses and homes, terrorized the populace, and beaten every police pony in town, yet it still wasn't enough to draw out her treacherous friends. It may have been showing Ponyville that Mare Do Well wasn't the hero they'd thought she was, but that wasn't all that Dash was after. She wanted the five. She wanted to make them pay, but she couldn't do that if she couldn't find them. She was sure if she'd caused enough of a ruckus that they would come out to stop her, but so far she'd met with no success.
What am I going to have to do, blow something up? The thought lingered in her mind, and an idea began to form around it. Maybe she should blow something up. She'd done it before, so she knew she could. But what to destroy? Something big. Something important. Something Ponyville would be sure to miss. When Rainbow thought about it, she immediately knew which building to choose.
She sat down at her desk and began to write on a fresh sheet of paper. She didn't like math, but she'd studied it a few times. She had to know a few things if she wanted to be a Wonderbolt. The best flyers know at least a thing or two about physics and geometry. Being able to judge distance, speed, and angle at a glance were essential when performing high-risk maneuvers. Some quick mental math to guide your flight path could mean the difference between making a sharp turn and spinning out of control and crashing. For what she was about to attempt, she would need some preparation.
* * * *
Dark Spectrum kicked open the double doors, shouting into the building, but found that it was already empty. Pleased to catch a break, she headed back into the sky. She assumed that somepony freed the weather team sometime during the previous day, since the sky was clear when she got to town.
After gaining a lot of altitude, Spectrum looked down and judged the distance to her target. The doors stood open, just as she had left them a minute ago, but she thought she was a bit too close. She backed up a little and hovered higher, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Alright, here we go."
She tucked her wings close and dove, going almost straight down toward the ground. She flared her wings and gradually changed her angle, curving slowly toward the center of town, her speed increasing steadily. She kept her front hooves forward and her back legs straight behind her to cut down on drag, but something wasn't quite right and she could feel it. She wasn't going quite as fast as she needed to be going. What was the problem?
It was her costume. She hadn't factored in her costume when doing the calculations for this stunt. It created more drag than her naked body and it was slowing her down. She'd have to adjust her angle of attack and get more speed. At least she had thought to leave behind her cloud bottles, which would have made her even slower.
She flapped her wings and adjusted her curve. This was going to be trickier than she thought, now. If she made even one tiny mistake she would either hit the ground or slam through a wall, neither of which would be good.
Focus, she thought. You're the best in Equestria. You can maneuver into and out of a well barely wider than your wingspan while carrying a filly. You can slalom through obstacles a foot apart at the speed of sound. You pulled a sonic rainboom before you were old enough to have a job. You've got this.
Her belly was almost touching the wooden floor by the time she streaked through the front doors. And then it happened. As soon as she felt it kick in, she pulled up hard and shot straight up through the roof of the town hall, the magic pouring out of her body protecting her from the impact. A glance over her shoulder brought a smirk to her face.
The town hall exploded behind her as a rainbow-colored blast ripped through it, tearing the walls to mere splinters and leveling the entire building.
That's not all it did. As Spectrum turned to watch and let her speed decrease, the planar shock wave of the sonic rainboom shredded the market stalls around the town square and flattened the shops and houses close by. It was the most destructive thing she'd ever witnessed. It was a thing of wonder, both terrifying and beautiful. It was Dark Spectrum's finest work, and it was sure to be remembered.
It was also highly visible, possibly even from space. Spectrum looked up to the moon. I wonder if Luna can see this. She waved to the Lunar Princess in case she could. "Hey, Princess. Pretty cool, huh? Betcha wish you could'a done this back when you were Nightmare—"
Spectrum stopped waving, suddenly struck by something. She'd had it before, but it had only been a passing thought. She and Princess Luna really weren't that different, were they? Both were once respected, revered even, and both turned to villainy due to the way the populace had treated them. Of course, Nightmare Moon had wanted all of Equestria, while Spectrum just wanted Mare Do Well. Although, now that she really thought about it, what would Dark Spectrum do if she ever really got her revenge? There was no way she could ever go back to being Rainbow, not after the things she'd done. Luna had been forgiven, sure, and was now respected once again. But that had taken a thousand years and a set of magical trinkets to fix things. Somewhere in her mind, Rainbow doubted that she'd get the same chance.
She didn't have much time to process any more of this little revelation, however, as something slammed into her back while she was having it. The two tumbled briefly before Spectrum kicked away from the offending object and got a look at it.
It was a pegasus. Not just any pegasus, either. She'd met this pegasus at the Grand Galloping Gala. She'd even saved his pie. "Soarin! Hey, what's u—" Rainbow stopped herself, pushing hard to suppress her inner fangirl. She was Dark Spectrum now, not a squeeing filly with a celebrity crush. "What're you doing here?"
"You've gone too far, Spectrum." The voice came from behind her, and she whipped around to see Spitfire hovering not too far away. "We're here to put an end to your crime spree. Now get down on the ground and keep your hooves spread." Misty Fly hovered into view nearby. Three Wonderbolts, all in Ponyville just for Spectrum. If they hadn't been there to arrest her, she would have been downright ecstatic.
She turned back to Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts, the blades attached to her wings glinting ever so slightly in the moonlight. Her hero was hovering less than 20 feet away, armed for combat and ready to place her under arrest. Soarin had already attacked her. Rainbow would have been quite upset. Rainbow would have been conflicted and torn that her personal heroes were out to get her. But Rainbow wasn't in charge. Dark Spectrum was, and she saw this as just another betrayal in a long line of ponies who had let her down.
At least, that's what Rainbow kept telling herself.
It happened fast. Too fast to think about, but slow enough for the quickest pegasus in Equestria to react to Misty as she shot through the air. Spectrum flapped her wings forward to dodge the mare's attack, and the fight began.
Spectrum leaned back to dodge Spitfire's dive, barely missing the pegasus's strike, and brought a hoof up to redirect Soarin's kick away from her face. She kicked off Soarin's chest, whipped around to smack him with a roundhouse kick and then rolled into the fetal position to duck under Misty's swinging hooves before turning and bucking her away.
Spectrum was good, but this was too much at once. Any mistake she made would end the fight with her on the ground. The police ponies had been more numerous, but these three were far better fighters. Spectrum shot upward suddenly, cartwheeled through the air as she stalled, and blasted back down with a flap of her wings, shooting past her three opponents as they moved up to catch her.
She swooped low over the wreckage of the town square, weaving around the beams and boards that stuck out of the rubble. Just like Ghastly Gorge, she thought. Just like when I held that contest to find a pet. She smiled inwardly. That dumb turtle just wouldn't give up. A real tough turtle, that Tank.
"Tortoise," she heard Fluttershy say in her mind, and almost slammed into the only remaining wall of a novelty shop. She silently cursed herself for losing focus and checked behind her, only to drop to the ground as Spitfire just barely missed her target.
The Wonderbolt landed with three hooves against the wall and looked down at Spectrum below. "Give it up, Dash. It doesn't have to be like this. Just get—" Spectrum cut her off with an uppercut, but her ascension was short-lived as Soarin swung in and grabbed her out of the air. That didn't last long either once Spectrum flipped the two around and slammed Soarin through the wall of somepony's house. She kicked the stallion away and flew back outside.
Spitfire was hovering over the ruined novelty shop, her jaw hanging askew. She punched her jaw with a hoof, causing it to make a disconcertingly-loud cracking sound and straighten out. "I know what you're thinking, Rainbow: you're too far gone, right? You've gone past the point of no return and there's no hope of going back, right?"
Spitfire pushed her goggles up onto her forehead, directly exposing her orange eyes to the moonlight. "Well, it's not too late, Dash. It's never too late to make things right."
Spectrum turned, splitting her attention between Spitfire and Soarin as he hovered back into sight inside the house. A pale pink Earth pony fled from the home, screaming something about horror.
"The only one in that hole you're digging is you, Dash." Spitfire's words brought Spectrum's gaze back to her. "Don't make it six feet deep."
Spectrum wanted to tell her to shut her trap, but it was exactly what she had been thinking. Instead, she was silent. Was Spitfire right? She had gone so far and still hadn't drawn out Mare Do Well. Was it time to give up?
If it weren't for those darned goggles, she might have seen it coming. The sound of three pairs of wings close by drowned out the light fluttering sound of Misty's approach, and Spectrum was tackled by the Wonderbolt before she knew what was happening. Instinct kicked in, and she tumbled just enough to land on top of Misty, both sliding through the dirt road and leaving a shallow trench behind.
Misty was out cold from the impact, having taken most of the force and softening the blow for Spectrum, who quickly got to a standing position. Soarin swooped in, but Spectrum saw it coming well in advance. She slid sideways just out of his path, biting onto Soarin's tail and twisting around in a circle to send him spinning over the road and into a pile of rubble. Soarin started to pull himself out, but Spectrum was already there, smashing a broken support beam over his head. Soarin fell limp, though he was still breathing (Dash checked).
Spitfire walked slowly down the road toward Spectrum, stopping just outside of her reach as the villain stepped away from Soarin. The two pegasi eyed one another and slowly began to orbit a point halfway between the two.
"I know you're not a bad pony, Rainbow Dash. You saved the lives of four ponies during the Best Young Flyer Competition, including myself and my two fellow Wonderbolts here. You helped defeat both Nightmare Moon and Discord when they returned — yeah, I know about that. You were a hero once, and it's not too late to fix the damage you've caused."
"You're right about one thing, Spitfire: I was a hero once. Being a hero is how I got into this mess in the first place. Me being a hero was the reason that Mare Do Well was created."
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. "What's Mare Do Well?"
Spectrum shook her head. "Five ponies who destroyed my life. That's all that really matters right now. They created Mare Do Well to show Ponyville that I wasn't good enough to be their hero, and I'm going to make them pay for it. I'm not after you, or Soarin, or Misty, or anypony else right now. So, just... stay outta my way."
Spitfire's voice softened slightly. "I can't let you go, Dash, not after what you've done. You know that."
"Yeah... yeah, I guess not." Spectrum made her decision. She had come too far to give up now. She shifted on her hooves, cracking the joints in her legs, wings, and neck.
"So, that's how it's gonna be." It was more of a statement than a question. Spitfire stretched her wings out, the attached wingblades catching the moonlight again. She shifted her goggles back over her eyes.
Spectrum nodded. Both stood still a few seconds longer, watching the other. Maybe, under different circumstances, they could have flown alongside one another as friends. Perhaps in some alternate universe where things played out differently. Rainbow had a lot of respect for Spitfire, and got the feeling it was mutual. She didn't want to fight her hero, but she couldn't back down, not after everything she'd been through. If she didn't take Spitfire down, Spitfire would take her down.
Somepony had to fall that night.
Spitfire struck first, giving Spectrum a simple right hook. It was deflected, as expected, and Spitfire continued the spin to follow up with a roundhouse kick. That one struck home, knocking Spectrum's goggles askew and sending her back a few steps. Spectrum flapped her wings once, rearing up and striking out with both forelegs to push Spitfire back as she went in for another attack.
Spectrum kept her wings pumping, staying on her hind legs and holding her forehooves up defensively. Spitfire assumed a similar pose, though it was one with much greater refinement, certainly the result of years of combat training. The two regarded one another briefly as Spectrum adjusted her goggles, then both hopped forward to strike the other.
Spectrum jumped up to avoid Spitfire's leg sweep and countered with a hoof to the face. Spitfire ducked to avoid Spectrum's follow-up swing and dove forward, sending her opponent tumbling hooves-over-head. Spectrum wasted no time in her recovery, twisting around and bucking Spitfire up into the air.
Spitfire flapped her wings and managed to stop just in time for Spectrum to slam into her. The two arced through the air briefly before hitting the side of a house with Spitfire pinned.
Spectrum jabbed once, then twice, and then flew into a flurry of lightning-fast strikes. Spitfire kept up at first, matching hoof-strike for hoof-strike, but Spectrum was faster than her. First one strike slipped through her defenses. Then another. Soon she was barely blocking any of the blows.
Spitfire kicked one of her back legs upward into Spectrum's crotch. She let out squeak of pain, stopping her assault, and Spitfire flung herself forward against Spectrum's chest, sending both rolling across the road. As soon as they separated, Spectrum stumbled slightly as she stood up, and Spitfire coughed as she got to her hooves. Spectrum glanced at her opponent and then shot up into the air, knowing she wasn't at her best on the ground. Spitfire coughed again, but launched herself after the costumed pegasus all the same.
Spectrum checked over her shoulder and then banked hard to her left. She was fairly certain she could out-fly Spitfire if she wanted to, but that would mean losing her chance at Mare Do Well. If anything was going to bring the masked mare out of retirement, it was the damage she'd done to the town square. She just had to hold out until the false hero showed herself.
Spectrum flared her wings and came to a sudden halt, turning and swinging out a leg to catch Spitfire off guard. The Wonderbolt rolled around the blow and latched onto the front of Spectrum's jumpsuit, flipping both of them end-over-end through the air.
"Get off me," Spectrum said as she punched at the pony attached to her costume, but Spitfire held fast. The two tumbled through the sky, a flailing mess of hooves and feathers, exchanging strikes as Spectrum tried to free herself. Spectrum couldn't pull them out of their fall if Spitfire was still fighting with wing beats of her own. "Let me go or we'll both crash!" Spectrum shouted, pausing her assault on the hitchhiker.
"Whatever it takes," Spitfire growled through the fabric between her teeth. Spectrum paused, struck by the look on her opponent's face. The ground was coming up fast, and there was no fear in Spitfire's eyes.
Spectrum relented, pulling her wings in and letting Spitfire take control. As soon as they weren't falling, Spectrum tried to take back control of their course, but the ensuing struggle ended up with both tumbling down a dirt road, accumulating numerous bruises and scrapes.
By sheer bad luck, Spectrum was the one who hit the wall of the costume shop, the air being knocked from her lungs. Spitfire put a hoof against Spectrum's chest, leaning on her for a moment and breathing heavily before she cocked the other one back. "Don't make me do this, Dash!"
Spectrum replied by swinging a hoof at Spitfire, who leaned her face back to avoid the blow, but not far enough to avoid the blade that had popped out when Spectrum had hit the wall. Spitfire gasped, and Spectrum kicked her away, splattering blood across the dirt road.
Rainbow stepped away from the wall, tripping over her own hooves, and couldn't help but grimace when she saw the damage she'd done. The left half of Spitfire's face was split open, extending her mouth to a point just below her eye, and Rainbow could see all of her teeth on her left side.
Rainbow's gaze fell to the bloodied blade that extended past her hoof, a little shocked at herself. It had been a reflex. An instinct. She had forgotten that they were even there, since she hadn't had reason to cut herself free for a few days.
She just barely looked back up in time to lean out of the way of Spitfire's wingblade as it slashed at her throat, missing by mere inches. Spitfire followed up with a leg-sweep that sent Dash off her hooves. Then she sent Rainbow rolling across the dirt as she spun in place and slammed her back hooves into Rainbow's chest before she'd hit the ground. The Wonderbolt didn't even seem to care about the blood pouring from her face as she rushed across the ground and tried to stomp Spectrum into the dust.
Dash rolled out of the way, twisting and getting back on her hooves just in time to deflect another wingblade slash with a sharp edge of her own. She hopped back up on her hind legs and slid the other blade out of its hiding place.
Spitfire growled as she wiped some of the blood from her face, which was contorted into a sneer. Whether the expression was from pain or rage, Rainbow couldn't tell. Spitfire took a few steps closer, paused a second to pant through her bloody, gritted teeth, and then lunged for her opponent with a growl.
Steel met steel again and again as the brawl turned into a knife fight, but both pegasi were slowing down as their duel dragged on. Rainbow hopped back with a yelp as a steel blade slid across her chest, cutting through her padded suit and drawing blood. Spitfire sucked in a sharp breath as one of the modified kitchen knives sliced into her foreleg. Soon, both mares were leaking blood from at least five places each.
Rainbow had to flip over backward and spring off her forehooves as Spitfire spun across the dirt, swinging one wing after the other. As soon as her back hooves dug into the ground, Dash sprang forward with both blades out. Spitfire twisted and rolled over, letting her opponent sail over her.
Spitfire landed before Rainbow, and she was already rushing toward Dash as she did. Spitfire leapt up into a backflip, her left-rear hoof catching her opponent in the chin and knocking her goggles right off her face. Rainbow didn't even have time to spit the blood out of her mouth before the Wonderbolt jumped up and punched her face down into the dirt.
Rainbow spat out her mouthful of blood and her costume fangs as her opponent placed a hoof down on her neck. Spitfire was panting, and Rainbow could feel the Wonderbolt's hoof trembling against her. Dash slid her hooves under her torso to get up, and felt Spitfire's hoof press down harder against her neck. Had Spitfire been holding back before? There wasn't time to think about it.
Rainbow pushed off the ground with half her hooves and one wing, rolling over and knocking Spitfire off balance as her hoof slipped out from under her. Dash stopped in mid-air with a flap of her wings and spun around the other way, landing her left-rear hoof on the top of Spitfire's head and smashing her chin against the ground.
Spitfire's goggles were cracked, and it took her a moment to get her shaking hooves under her again. She slid backwards across the dirt a short distance, raising herself up on her shuddering legs as they tripped over themselves.
Dash barely touched down to whip a rear hoof across Spitfire's bloody face in a roundhouse kick, almost pushing her goggles completely off. Rainbow dropped down, her blades digging into the dirt, and slammed both her rear hooves in the side of the Wonderbolt's head.
Spitfire stumbled sideways a few feet, collapsed to the dusty ground in a heap, and the fight was over.
Rainbow Dash picked up her goggles and fell into a sitting position, panting hard as she looked down at the bloodied and unconscious Spitfire. The golden mare was breathing, but not doing much else. The captain of the Wonderbolts, her personal hero, was lying bleeding on the ground. This wasn't what Rainbow had wanted at all.
A shuffling sound caught her attention, and a look around told her that ponies were coming out of their homes now that the ruckus had ceased. They were gathering near the victorious Dark Spectrum and the fallen Wonderbolts, though none of the spectators got very close.
Rainbow turned her head slowly, taking in the crowd. As her eyes fell upon each pony in the gathering group, they grew visibly nervous and stepped away, the fear plain on their faces and in their eyes. Some of them were even bowing, though their shaking bodies told Rainbow that it wasn't out of love and respect.
Her eyes turned back to Spitfire. She'd always dreamed of joining the Wonderbolts and flying alongside that mare. Rainbow never would have expected that she would one day see Spitfire defeated by her own hooves. How had things gone so horribly wrong for her?
"Mare Do Well," she breathed, the name filling her bones with hatred and her eyes with fire. It was Mare Do Well who had caused all of this. It was Mare Do Well's actions that had started her on this path, and it was then Mare Do Well's inaction that had led her to wreak more and more havoc on the city. It was Mare Do Well who had made her battle her greatest heroes.
And now it was Mare Do Well who would answer for all of these things.
Dark Spectrum pulled her goggles back down, covering her eyes with the blood-red lenses, and turned to the terrified townsponies. "Where's Twilight Sparkle? Where's Applejack? Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy." She paused for two seconds, only to snap, "Answer me!"
One of the ponies spoke up. "I... I think I saw Pinkie—" but the blue unicorn stopped suddenly as Spectrum whipped around to look at her. It took her a moment to resume under the villain's glare. "I saw her on 8th Street, heading that way." She pointed a hoof to the north and Spectrum shot into the air.
She paused near a chimney, calling back to the crowd, "Get Spitfire and the others to the hospital." The grouped ponies just stared at her. "Do it!" she shouted, causing a few to jump. Five of the ponies split from the pack and started to pick up the fallen Wonderbolts.
Spectrum turned from the crowd, rising higher and scanning the streets below. She didn't care about unmasking the five anymore. She'd lost too much already, and it seemed that the five cowards would never come out to face her.
She'd thought long and hard about what she would do to the five ponies who had ruined her life. It was a difficult decision for the longest time, but suddenly it was an easy one to make. They'd taken everything from her, and tonight they would pay for it; Spectrum would make darn sure of that. By the end of the night, vengeance would be hers.
By the end of the night, she would be the only Element of Harmony left breathing.