Echo toppled to the side while Rainbow and Wildcard tumbled across the wooden platform. They ended with Rainbow Dash on top, and she threw two hooves down into the griffon's chest to put a quick end to his current breath.
Clank! Wildcard blocked with a metal talon, then pecked his beck forward.
Rainbow winced, tilting her neck back so that her Element deflected the blow. Sparks flew, and within the next breath Wildcard was flinging his right fist into Rainbow's skull. Before she could even recover, he kicked his lion legs up, vaulting her over him with effortless finesse.
Rainbow Dash twirled in mid-air, caught the nearest wall with her rear hooves, and kicked off. Twirling about, she propelled her snarling self at Wildcard's figure. Her eyes twitched...
...for to her surprise he was already on his feet. He leaned back up, wings spread wide, and flicked both wrists. Sch-Schtttk! He produced a pair of silver nightsticks in his talons, twirled them, and met her charge with a flurry of angry metal.
“Whoah!” Rainbow Dash wheezed, ducking low. She slid beneath his swings like a limbo dancer, then somersaulted forward in time to avoid his violent swings. Chunks of wood flew from the impacts as he scraped and jabbed after her.
Holding her breath, Rainbow galloped up a metal pole, kicked off it, and swung two angry hooves at Wildcard's midsection.
He blocked her fetlocks with a nightstick then caught the length of her lower limbs under his right armpit. Twirling his whole body, the griffon body-slammed her whole weight into the platform.
“Ooomf!” Rainbow winced, lying awkwardly on her back. Still holding her legs, he jabbed a nightstick straight for her muzzle. “Grkkk!” Rainbow clapped both front hooves together, stopping the weapon just inches from her muzzle.
“That's a dense silver alloy, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said, hovering over the scene with a glowing horn. “It could crush your skull in twain!”
“Don't... doubt it...” Rainbow hissed through her teeth. Inhaling, she twisted her wing muscles, extending her feathery appendages. Her body rose up and reverse-somersaulted, bicycle kicking Wildcard across the beak.
The griffon stumbled back, slumping up against the platform's railing.
Once Rainbow landed in a sliding squat, she sensed a body darting upwards to her left. She looked in time to see Bard ascending rapidly with Echo in his grip.
“Thattaboy, Dubya-Cee!” The pegasus mercenary shouted, making it to cloud level with the gagged sarosian. “Just keep her dancin' and I'll secure the target!”
Rainbow spread her wings to fly after him—
Pl-Plink! A tiny cylinder landed in front of her, smoking and glowing. Half-a-second later: POWWW!
“Augh!” Rainbow flew back from the concussive blast. The air tingled with static electricity.
“Oh wow...” Twilight wheezed, rubbing her glowing horn. “Manacrystals! They've got enchanted grenades! No wonder I could sense them!”
“Yeah... uh huh...” Rainbow sneered, gazing at a sudden cloud of purple smoke surrounding her and the platform. “Well, could you sense harder?”
“Uhhhhm...” Twilight turned and turned. Suddenly, her eyes sparked with lavender light and she pointed behind Rainbow. “Your six!”
Rainbow spun and brought both hooves up.
Fwoooosh! Wildcard came bursting through the murk like a hell beast. Cl-Clankkk! Rainbow blocked his dual nightsticks with a well-timed upswing of her fetlock. She countered with a savage hoof to Wildcard's beak.
Whack! His goggles rattled from the impact. Absorbing the pain, he leaned back and performed a round-house kick, flinging a razor-sharp talon at Rainbow's face.
She ducked the swing, then sprung upwards before he could come back with a forward thrust of his nightsticks. Flapping her wings, she desperately sped after the last spot in the air where she had seen Bard fly. However, within seconds, the griffon was on her back, grappling her figure and shoving her back to the platform.
Rainbow fell, tumbled, and rolled awkwardly to her hooves in time to face his incoming dive. Th-Th-Th-Th-Thwish! He twirled and spun the nightsticks at her face. She juked, side-stepped, then slammed her hoof down on one of his wrists, pinning him to the platform.
Without skipping a breath, Wildcard tossed his other nighstick up, spun towards his weak side, grabbed the weapon in his prehensile tail, then swung it down at Rainbow's skull.
She gasped, ducked the blow, but was incapable of dodging his follow-up swing. WHACK! She rolled across the platform, bumping to a stop against the railing.
“Rainbow, darling!” Rarity squeaked.
“Not... n-now...” Rainbow wheezed.
“Listen!” The unicorn pointed at the opponent. “His left arm is a prosthetic! It's weak just a few inches below the elbow!”
Rainbow looked up.
Sucking in his breath, Wildcard jumped high in the air and came down in a savage bird-of-prey pounce.
Rainbow gritted her teeth, then slammed her own skull back into the loose wooden railing. Crack! A slender rod broke free, and she shoved it up like a lance, contacting the spot where his metal limb met the rest of his left arm.
Wildcard jolted in place, wincing all over as sparks spat out from his limb.
“That did it!” Twilight gasped, grinning. “He's suffering manafeedback!”
“Httt!” Rainbow swept his paws out from beneath him.
The griffon toppled soundlessly over.
Rainbow stood in time to grip his body from behind. “You're good.” Then, with a grunt, she savagely suplexed him through a series of wooden barrels. Smasssh! In the settling dust, she posed next to her spectral marefriends. “But we're awesome.” A glint in her eyes, then—
FWOOOOOOSH!
—she throttled straight skyward, piercing the misty clouds above the platform city of Rust.
“Mrmmmf-mrmmmfff!” Echo shook and struggled, dangling in Bard's grap.
“Will ya quit yer fussin' already?” Bard stammered, flying high above the clouds. “Figured a fanged feller like you would be used to hangin' upside down.”
“Mmmfff-grrrrrrmmmmff...” Echo glared daggers at the pegasus.
“Shucks, it ain't all that bad!” Bard smiled. “Yer more useful alive than dead! I'm sure the Southern Hand will only make you gut fish for the rest of yer life! Could be worse, y'know. Ever worked as a janitor in a Wyvern monastery?”
“Grmgrrrmmfff!” Echo shook and thrashed.
“Well... shoot... haven't ya seen enough guano in yer life?” He glanced down, squinting at the distant haze of Rust far below. “What's taken' Dubya-Cee so long?”
“Mrmmf-hrmmf-mrffff!”
“Dun be ridiculous!” Bard chuckled. “She ain't even part of the equation! Besides, nopony ever beats Wildcard at a straight-up slobberknocker.”
Just then, a blue speck grew larger, soaring towards the two in flight.
“...!” Bard gasped wide. “Whoah dayum! She beat Wildcard!”
“I'm gonna make this real simple for you!” Rainbow Dash ascended until she was hovering face to face with the mercenary, frowning. “You toss the batpony, and I'll let you get away with enough limbs to float on the ocean surface!”
“My, we sure are hotheaded today,” Bard said, carrying a residual smirk. “Do ya kiss yer Momma with them stones?”
“I'm not gonna ask you a second time!” Rainbow hissed. “In case you don't know how to count, that's one less than a hoof to your flank fugly mug!”
“Alright, alright...” Bard waved one hoof while he gripped Echo with the other. “All things in good time. But a question, darlin', if ya dun mind me asking.”
“Grrrrr...”
“Just what is a half-rotten loser like this to a mare like you?” Bard said, chuckling. “Dun tell me you've got midnight fever!”
“Mrmmmffff!” Echo protested.
“None of your business!” Rainbow hollered.
“Well, that's just the thang. It's precisely our business, and yer stickin' a mighty fine rod into the spokes of it.” He nevertheless shrugged. “Still, I wouldn't be much of a gentlecolt if I didn't oblige a pretty filly. You said to toss 'em...”
Twilight and Rarity gasped. Rainbow's pupils shrank. “Wait—!”
“Bottom's up!” Bard dropped the sarosian like a lead balloon. “Muzzles down!”
“Rainbow, quick!” Rarity shrieked.
“Hold on, Echo!” Rainbow dove. “I'm—grkkkk!”
Bard—quick as lightning—had put her in a four-legged hold from behind, locking her cranium with the length of his metal pole pressed to her throat. “Mind if I lead this dance?”
“Snkkkt...” Rainbow struggled for a breath. Her tearing eyes watched as Echo plunged and plunged further below. “Grkkk...” She struggled to look over her shoulder. “...d-dirty...”
“The only proper fight is one ya can win.” Wings flapping, Bard slipped one hoof into a leather belt beneath his guitar case. “Ya shoulda paid more attention to my singin' words. Them's the clean part.”
“Rainbow!” Twilight flew close to the two. “He's pulling out another enchanted grenade!”
“It has bits of Dreamer's Crystal in it!” Rarity exclaimed. “A form of knockout gas!”
“Ain't gonna drop ya anyplace where you'll break, missy,” Bard said, dragging his hoof back.
“It's his right limb!” Twilight said, pointing. “He's aiming for your muzzle!”
“After all, yer not on the list—”
Rainbow Dash struggled, slipped her left wing out from between them, and flapped all the feathers. The two pivoted hard to the right.
Bard incidentally smacked himself in the skull with his own grenade. Crack! The pellet burst against his stetson, spilling smoke all over the two of them. “Aaaaugh! Hellfire!”
WHUMP! Rainbow Dash bucked her rear legs back, shoving him away. Then, catching her breath, she immediately dove down—plunging after Echo's distant figure.
Bard twirled awkwardly. He resorted to yanking his hat off and using both it and the staff to fan the smoke away. “Kaff... koff!... haauckt!” He wheezed, covering his muzzle as he gazed down after her. “Whew-wee!” A crooked smirk. “I think I'm in love.”
Fwoooooooooosh!
Rainbow descended sharply, her face muscles rippling from the sheer force of her dive.
Echo's flailing figure grew larger and larger in her sight.
“You're almost there, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cheered, floating along the mare.
“You can save him!” Rarity added. “You've got this darling—”
Just then, a dark figure soared straight up, caught Echo's body, and shot violently up past Rainbow.
Time slowed down, and the frazzled pegasus glanced aside. She caught just enough of Wildcard's figure to see a deadpan beak beneath a pair of black lenses... followed by an obscene middle talon made out of metal.
Rainbow blinked.
SHOOOM! Time resumed, as did momentum. The rippling winds were so loud that Rainbow couldn't even hear her own yell of frustration.
“Well, if you didn't soak all of our market stands, then who did?!” hollered an angry tradespony in Theanim Mane's face.
“Erm...” Theanim leaned back against the railing along the edge of a watery canal. “Please... everypony... calm down...” He waved nervously at the throng of angry locals. “It's just a minor altercation between my partner and a pair of no-good misanthropes!” He held a hoof over his chest. “I assure you! It will not happen again—”
THWOOOOSH! Rainbow Dash fell down, backflipped, then spread her wings out wide. She braked in midair, just a few naked feet above the canal waters.
In the half-second that followed, Rarity and Twilight awkwardly toppled down past her.
Rainbow flapped her wings with such incredible force that it produced a thunderous concussion of air. POWWW!
She shot up, and Rarity and Twilight rubber banded after the pegasus—both mares shrieking. In the meantime, a circular crater of water rippled outward in every direction, soon overshadowing the ponies who stood on the platforms of Rust, gawking.
“Oh Queen Verlaxion,” Theanim moaned, instinctively covering his camera bag with his body. “Take me now—”
SPLOOOOOSH!