Filler - Dash kicks some gum and chews some bubble ass (edited)
The whole area was completely flooded with fog; and thick fog at that. Thick enough that Pinkie might comment on how it could've been peanut butter. In all of her years of weather service for Ponyville, Rainbow Dash couldn't remember ever seeing it this bad before; it was more like cloud matter than anything else. But she knew it couldn't be cloud since she was currently walking about on the ground, trying to find her way out of this mess. Clouds didn't settle and hold together on the ground to this consistency, so she didn't have any idea as to what was going on right now.
"Hello?" she called out, trying to determine if anyone else was currently around. Between the fog, and the darkness, she felt lucky -and fortunate- to even be seeing her own nose right now.
Flight was always an option for getting out of this mess. But right now she didn't want to try it, until she had some idea of where she was. If she was stuck on some small island, and lost her sense of direction, she'd wind up losing the only solid ground she knew of, and have no place to touch down if her wings started to cramp up from extended use. As much as she loved flying, she knew she had to land eventually, and after having to go so long without flying, she knew that it would be way too risky to try right now.
For better or worse, she was stuck here on the ground, alone in the dark, and surrounded by creepy thick fog that shouldn't even be here.
"Hello!?" she called out again, louder this time in an effort to actually be heard, hoping that somepony was not only around but also within earshot.
"Dashie?"
Rainbow Dash's ears flicked, definitely hearing a voice somewhere in all of this mess. And a very familiar voice at that; a very familiar voice, using a very specific nickname of hers.
"Pinkie?" she asked as she looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of something other than fog and darkness. One would think so much pink would stick out like a sore hoof around here, but so far apparently not. "Hey Pinks, where in the hay are ya!?"
"I don't know, Dashie, I can't see anything!" Pinkie called out, her voice heavy with fear.
"... Are your eyes open?" Rainbow Dash asked. It was a ridiculous question, but considering how random and silly Pinkie could be at times, it was as good a place to start as anything.
"I think so," Pinkie replied.
Well so much for that notion. But she should've expected it really. Pinkie could be pretty random sometimes, and forgetful at other times, but even Rainbow Dash was pretty sure she would at least know to open her eyes.
"Alright, hold on Pinkie," she called back. The fact that Pinkie was here with her, somewhere, that meant there was other hard ground around her. She just had to go about finding it. That would mean having to clear this mess out of the area. And she only knew one way to go about doing that.
Rainbow Dash leaped into the air and unfurled her wings to break into a low hover, before flapping them as hard as she could, generating massive winds to stir up the fog, breaking it up, and forcing it to dissipate from the area.
Despite the fog breaking up, the darkness still remained, leaving nothing but a sea of inky blackness behind. Except for a solitary dot of pink.
"Dashie!"
Rainbow Dash set back down on the ground, and was instantly besieged by Pinkie in a ferocious hug.
"Dashie! Oh, Dashie! It's so good to see you!" Pinkie stated as she hugged Rainbow Dash for dear life.
"It's good to see you too, Pinks, I've been missing you something fierce," Rainbow Dash stated as she finally managed to pull a foreleg loose, and wrap it around the pink earth pony to return the hug. "Hey... could I ask you a question?"
"You just did, silly filly," Pinkie giggled.
"Alright, alright, fair enough," Rainbow Dash replied. "Seriously though, I've got a question that's burning, and in desperate need of an answer to extinguish it," she stated.
"What is it?" Pinkie asked.
"Well I just can't help but wonder why your cutie mark is upside down. Any idea why that is?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Uh..." Pinkie paused and blinked, trying to think, "Dashie, I can explain..."
The next thing Pinkie knew, Rainbow Dash pulled back, and decked her hard in the face, sending her flying backwards, before crashing against the ground.
"You're not Pinkie! Take that disguise off!" Rainbow Dash yelled and stomped her hoof on the ground.
Pinkie grunted as she stood back up, and rubbed her face where she'd been hit. "What gave me away?"
"The real Pinkie would've looked at hearing her cutie mark was upside down," Rainbow Dash stated as she scowled. "Now either take off that disguise, or I'll rip it off of your bones. Your choice."
"Pinkie" sighed in response to this statement, before her appearance shifted to the cloaked form of Mistress Do Well.
"You're really irritating at times, you know that? I like a challenge as much as the next pony, but things would be so much better, if you'd just be a good little pegasus, and finally learn your place, instead of forcing me to continually reteach you lessons that you should already know by heart," she stated.
"Now where would the fun be in that?" Rainbow Dash asked sarcastically as she shrugged. "Now it's your turn to learn about the concept of pain!"
Mistress Do Well nearly ducked as two things went whizzing by her head from behind. But instead she watched as the shackle-like implements flew over to where Rainbow Dash stood, and clamped over her hooves. And then she watched as she shackles shifted in impossible ways, as numerous steel plates grew out of them, and began changing form.
"You're gonna be in for it this time!" Rainbow Dash stated as the plates shifted together, working their way up her forelegs, while also moving and joining together to become something very specific as she reared up; hands. Mechanical hands. The shackles were morphing into gauntlets.
Mistress Do Well simply frowned behind her mask as she watched the theatrics as various pieces of metal slid into place with the sound of uncoordinated clicks of unseen gears accompanying the visual display.
"Oh please, not that insufferable "Ironhorse" yet again. I've already beaten you over that once. How many times do I have to beat that fantasy out of you, before it finally takes?" she asked.
"Oh you wish it was Ironhorse!" Rainbow Dash stated as the segmented panels of the gauntlets locked firmly into place, a cyan light shining through the seams separating each individual plate and component that made them up. "I've got something special in mind for you, Misty!"
There was a loud, metallic clang as Rainbow Dash slammed her metallic palms together, ushering forth a blinding flash of light from between them, forcing Mistress Do Well to shield her eyes. with the brim of her hat.
When she finally could look and see what her victim had concocted in her latest bout of lucid dreaming, she would admit that it wasn't what she'd expected.
Rainbow Dash stood before her, reared up on her hind legs, but her body structure was all wrong. This looked like dedicated standing like that insufferable Lyra Heartstrings would pull off. She was cloaked in a deep blue kimono, emblazoned with various star patterns all over it, and a deep red sash at her waist, holding the kimono shut, and two swords at her side; a katana on the left, and what looked like a wakizashi on the right. Resting diagonally on her back was another sword of similar style. Her face was obscured by a bright red scarf wrapped around it, the tails being blown in some ethereal wind that was left unfelt. The gauntlets remained, the sleeves going down to the mechanical wrists as the hands coiled into fists. Resting atop her head was a conical straw hat, almost completely obscuring what of her face wasn't hidden by the scarf.
"Cobalt Samurai!"
Mistress Do Well merely stared on, an eyebrow cocked underneath her mask, totally unimpressed by this turn of developments. Surely she couldn't be serious.
"Comic books weren't enough, so now you turn to "Daring Do and the Seventeen Samurai" to protect you?" she asked.
Rainbow Dash said nothing as the fingers of her mechanical right hand flexed smoothly. She casually reached upward -her right foreleg bending in a way that simply shouldn't have been physically possible- as she grasped the hilt of the sword resting on her back.
Quick as a flash, Rainbow Dash withdrew the blade and brought it around front -the blade practically singing as it sliced through the air- revealing it to be an odachi, easily just as long as she was tall, if not even more so, with a cerulean blue tassel dangling from the pommel.
"Protect me? More like end you," Rainbow Dash said as she peaked out from below her straw hat, glaring at Mistress Do Well as she took a two-handed grip on the odachi; something easier said than done, but still.
Mistress Do Well scoffed behind her mask. "As if you-"
Her dismissive statement was cut short as Rainbow Dash charged forward -running unbelievably fast on just her hind legs- and swung her massive sword right for where she'd been standing. If she hadn't jumped back when she had, she would've been cleaved completely in half by now.
That wasn't the only strike she had to contend with, however. The next thing she knew, Rainbow Dash had launched into a manic flurry of swings, slashes and thrusts with her sword, pushing her assault, and pushing her back in the process. Dream or no dream, that blade was going to hurt quite a bit if it landed.
Unfortunately she'd left herself open as she reared up on her hind legs to avoid being bisected by one particular swing, just barely missing having her belly cut open. It was an opening she realized only too late, when Rainbow Dash exploited it by using her left hind leg to deliver a brutal side kick right to her barrel -made all the worse by the fact that Rainbow Dash was apparently wearing heavy iron horse shoes- that sent her flying back, and crashing against the ground, before skidding to a halt.
"Are you ready to give up yet? Or do I have to beat you some more first?" Rainbow Dash asked as she lowered her leg, and firmly planted her hoof against the ground to emphasize the word.
Mistress Do Well groaned as she picked herself up off the ground, slowly standing back up again, and shaking herself as if she were ridding herself of dust. She would admit, she didn't expect Rainbow Dash to have such a vivid imagination when it came to foreign fighting styles. And the difference in their builds -quadruped versus apparently biped- had caught her a little off guard. But that would soon be rectified.
"Oh, darling, we're just getting started," she crooned, grinning behind her mask. "You should know full well, you're not the only one who can shift and contort her body like the fabled ponies of the orient," she explained, before proving her point by rearing up on her hind legs, and standing upright, before rolling and popping her forelegs against her sides, and flexed them much as Rainbow Dash had done, proving that she wasn't about to be outdone by her quarry.
Rainbow Dash merely scowled below her scarf. "Your spine can bend like a pretzel for all I care. It's not gonna help you. I'm the Cobalt Samurai!"
"Ah!" Mistress Do Well exclaimed. "But you're apparently forgetting about the primary antagonist of the "Seventeen Samurai" story, darling. The dreaded warlord, the Amethyst Shogun of the Seven Swords!"
Rainbow Dash felt a sharp drop in her bravado as Mistress Do Well's image flashed to that of Rarity, only to be completely covered head to hoof in a complete set of very intimidating-looking shogun armor, covered in various sharp points and prominent horns, and a terrifying face mask, a great deal of the whole thing a very vibrant looking purple. At her sides, and across her back, were seven sheathed katanas, each of them slowly being withdrawn in a magical aura.
"Ohh... butthurt!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed at seeing all of the blades coming out. Seven swords against one, magical aptitude against mechanical hands... yeah, this was so gonna suck for her.
But suck or no suck, she wasn't about to back down. Much like last time, she was off like a shot, ready to engage Mistress Do Well in an epic battle of wills and steel.
Blades clashed violently, with sparks flying, slashes and thrusts being narrowly avoided or outright deflected. Swords were spun, and spinning flips were carried out; primarily by Rainbow Dash as she leaped all about to avoid being struck, while simultaneously looking for an exploitable opening.
Rainbow Dash knew that she was the one with undeniably fast physical reflexes, and was easily going hoof to hoof with Mistress Do Well in this struggle, despite being outnumbered in terms of weaponry. But Mistress Do Well didn't need to physically react as she manipulated each katana with just her magic, all the while just standing there with her forelegs crossed over her chest, standing like an imposing sentinel behind that mask of hers. It was all highly intimidating, and infuriating to deal with.
Plus that speed did little to assist her when Mistress Do Well struck with all swords at the same time. She just barely managed to guard against the multi-blade strike, before being sent flying backwards from the force of the impact, and somersaulting in the process.
Her horse shoes skidded against the floor, kicking up sparks in the process, as did the mechanical fingers of her left hand as she ground herself to a stop, holding her odachi to the side as she did. This was proving to be a lot harder than she'd anticipated. She was panting and gasping for air, her kimono was starting to look shredded from so many close calls, her hat was long since absent, and her gauntlets were developing some really deep gashes from when she'd used them as shields.
"What's the matter, darling? Finding out that you're not cut out for playing with the grown ups?" Mistress Do Well asked with mock concern dripping in her voice. A seam appeared down the middle of the mask she wore, splitting it in two halves that retracted into the sides of her helmet. "We don't have to keep doing this, darling, you can always surrender. Everything will be forgiven and forgotten... after the appropriate beating that is..."
Rainbow Dash merely grunted as she pushed herself back up into a standing position, raising her left foreleg, and pointing her fist as Mistress Do Well.
"Ah forgive and forget this," she stated as the segmented plates on the gauntlet split apart and opened up, allowing a mechanical device to rise to the surface. A device that quickly revealed itself to be a miniature crossbow, as the arms extended and rotated outward, pulling the bowstring taut and cocked. She flicked her fist downward, sending a bolt hurtling downrange, and slamming into the chest piece of Mistress Do Well's armor.
Unfortunately the bolt failed to penetrate deep enough to do any damage, and merely hung limply, like it was about to fall out out of the armor seam from its own weight.
Mistress Do Well looked unimpressed by the impotent display of resistance. Surely she couldn't be serious...
"Was this supposed to amount to something?" she asked as she looked down at the pitiful bolt that had barely managed to scratch her armor.
She noticed the burning fuse attached to it, about one second before the whole thing violently exploded in her face, the force of the blast sending her flying backwards, and crashing through a wall that hadn't been there just a moment ago.
"Pretty much," Rainbow Dash replied with a smirk behind her scarf, as the crossbow folded itself back up, and lowered itself back into the gauntlet, as the plates closed above it.
By the time Mistress Do Well managed to climb back out into the open, she looked like she'd been hit by a runaway wagon. Her armor was blown to bits, with only random fragments remaining in place, clinging to the singed appearance of Rarity that she wore.
"That... that..." she panted, more out of annoyance than any physical exertion. "That wasn't in any of the "Daring Do" books, you rotten little brat!" she screamed.
Rainbow Dash merely shrugged in response. "So I cheated. Sue me."
"Oh I'm going to do far worse than that!" Mistress Do Well howled, the seven katanas remaining despite her armor being gone.
"Then bring it!" Rainbow Dash replied. She rotated her right fist to allow her to slam the odachi into the ground, before reaching down to her waist and cross-drawing her other two swords; katana in her right hand, wakizashi in her left. With a single kick of her left hoof, she was off like a shot, prepared to engage Mistress Do Well once again.
Swords clashed, sparks flying from where steel violently made contact with other steel.
This time around the combat was more even between the two, as Rainbow Dash was having a much easier time defending with two swords instead of just one; it allowed for a greater range of motion, an even quicker response time, off-hand options that hadn't been present previously, and greater abilities to counter, and press an attack when a timely opportunity was presented. Plus her acrobatic flips and spins were able to flow much more naturally now, which helped in the defense as she could guard with a horse shoe when necessary.
There was also the little detail about how her kicks were back to being brutal, now that she didn't have to try and kick through armor.
But even though the battle was shaping up to be more even, she was still finding herself on defense more often than not. More than once her kimono suffered from a katana coming uncomfortably close to her body, eventually leaving it little more than shreds that barely hung to her frame. Finally it got to the point of such ridiculousness, that she simply shrugged the rags off entirely as she prepared to continue.
"Get out of my dreams already!" Rainbow Dash yelled, emphasizing her order with a katana pointed as Mistress Do Well.
"As if I would ever take an order from a weak little pegasus like you!" Mistress Do Well scoffed. But as she opened her mouth to talk again, and explain how the proper order of things was to proceed, Rainbow Dash had already crossed the distance between them, slipping in past the guard of her floating katanas, with her swords crossed, and edges against her neck.
"Then I'll just take your head as a consolation prize!" Rainbow Dash stated and pulled her blades together.
Unfortunately she realized too late that she should've just cut, and not talked, as the moment had given Mistress Do Well enough time to maneuver two of her swords in behind her neck, and wedged them against her own, preventing her from actually cutting.
"Shit!"
"Quite so," Mistress Do Well purred as she pushed the swords back, taking them away from her neck. And now that she was free of that, she decided to go one step further, and magically gripped the opposing swords, intent on ripping them right now of Rainbow Dash's hands; no matter how much she attempted to resist.
Her plans, however, hadn't accounted for Rainbow Dash relinquishing her hold on her wakizashi, and swinging at her face with her metal fist. An act she just barely managed to stop with her forelegs, holding it down and out of the way.
Rainbow Dash tried again, relinquishing her katana, and balling up her fist as she pulled it back, and slammed it forward for Mistress Do Well's face. An act that was stopped by one of the katanas actually impaling the mechanical hand through the palm, the tsuba serving to stop her advancement from coming anywhere close to its intended target.
"Creative, little pegasus, but not good enough," Mistress Do Well commented and smirked again.
Rainbow Dash's only response came as the segmented plates of her right gauntlet opened up, allowing her hoof to escape, and be used to slug her opponent right across her face. That sent her staggering, losing her concentration and grip on her katanas, and allowing for a follow up punch with an armored fist, and another front kick to the barrel, that sent her staggering back into the wall.
As Rainbow Dash proceeded to pound away on Mistress Do Well, the mechanical hand on the discarded gauntlet split apart right down the middle, disengaging itself from the katana, before pushing itself away with the fingers. Now freed, it skittered across the floor like a running spider, before stopping in front of Rainbow Dash, and presenting itself so she could shove her foreleg down into it, letting the plates close back around it, and allowing her to go at it with both fists once again.
That wasn't saying that everything was going according to plan, however, as Mistress Do Well still had to be contended with. Despite the fact that she was getting pounded like a punching bag, that did nothing to keep her from being able to respond, and react to the incoming assault; like pulling her head back just in time to avoid an uppercut being delivered to her chin, the mechanical fist stopping just short of her snout.
Rainbow Dash frowned at this development. Before following up by flicking the middle finger outward quickly, smacking her right on the snout hard enough to make her flinch in response. That was all the opening she needed to fully reengage her target.
The moves that were used in pounding away as Mistress Do Well, Rainbow Dash would admit to not knowing them. But she didn't need to know them by name, in order to know that they were highly effective at causing pain and injury; especially when they were delivered with raised solid steel knuckles. But there was one move that she knew very well by name; and that was strangulation.
Quick as a flash, Rainbow Dash grabbed her scarf and unwrapped it from her neck and face, before wrapping it around Mistress Do Well's neck, and pulling it tight on both ends.
Unfortunately that's where everything went wrong. The next thing Rainbow Dash knew, as she was choking the life out of Mistress Do Well, there was a flash of green light, and her white forelegs were now covered in a black, segmented, insectoid-looking armoring, running the whole length of her legs, and ending in similarly-styled hands. Hands that had fingers, that let her grip the material of the scarf, and tear it to shreds before she could be choked into unconsciousness.
"Did you seriously think that you were the only one who could make use of hands in this dream?" Mistress Do Well asked rhetorically, before quickly reaching out with her left hand, grabbing Rainbow Dash by the throat, and proceeding to lift her right off the ground until her hind legs with dangling and kicking. "I apparently haven't been beating you enough, if you still think you can continue fighting me..."
Rainbow Dash gasped for air as she gripped Mistress Do Well's leg, trying to break her grip, but ultimately it proved to be a futile effort. So she responded by letting go with her left hand, and flipping it upward, resulting in a double-edged stiletto blade popping out from the underneath of the gauntlet with an authoritative slamming of metal on metal. Quickly she pulled her leg back, and plunged towards Mistress Do Well's heart.
Unfortunately Mistress Do Well proved to be quicker, and gripped her gauntlet by the wrist, stopping its forward movement.
"My, my, you're just full of surprises," Mistress Do Well commented as she tightened her grip on Rainbow Dash's neck.
Rainbow Dash wheezed as she tried to breathe, before letting go with her right hand, and retrieving a hidden tanto from behind her back, and slamming the blade's tip into the side of Mistress Do Well's leg, burying it deeply. Although by the way Mistress Do Well reacted, you'd never guess that she was injured.
"And wherever did you keep that hidden this whole time?" she asked. Rainbow Dash's only response was to push harder, sinking the blade deeper into her foreleg, and forcing the tip out the other side of her leg.
What she immediately learned about the maneuver of defiance, however, was that it gave Rainbow Dash a point of leverage to wrench her hand away from her neck, allowing her to drop back onto her hooves, and exert control once again.
Control that came in the form of kicking off the ground, deploying her wings to take flight, and forcefully dragging Mistress Do Well along for the ride!
"Put me down this instant!" Mistress Do Well demanded, not liking that she was being taken for a flight.
"That's exactly what I'm gonna do!" Rainbow Dash stated as she stopped her ascent, and proceeded to do a stationary barrel roll, working up a greater and greater rotation speed, before hurling her unwilling passenger skyward at great velocity, and with a great scream coming from her in the process.
Rainbow Dash turned down to face the ground, and extended her right foreleg as the plates on top split apart at the seams to reveal a barrel that ran the full length of the gauntlet, as an arrow tip emerged from the muzzle, with three prongs extended outward. The arrow launched as the prongs flexed, with a long wire connected to the end, and running back into the muzzle of the barrel.
The prongs of the arrow snagged the tsuba of the odachi, latching on tightly as the wire was retracted at lightning speed, the sword falling perfectly into place in Rainbow Dash's right hand as she tightly gripped it while the barrel sank back into the gauntlet, before setting her sights back on Mistress Do Well currently in the process of falling.
She was off like a shot, delivering a deep, slicing cut to Mistress Do Well as she rocketed past her, before adjusting her trajectory to do the same from another angle, and then another still. She was moving at such fast speeds, it started giving the image that there were more than a dozen of her, zooming every which direction, and striking Mistress Do Well with such speed from so many different angles, she was completely devoid of the ability to shield herself against the hundreds of blows raining down upon her.
And just like that, the barrage stopped as Rainbow Dash zoomed above Mistress Do Well's current position, tightly gripping her sword as the blade started giving off a blue glow. Like a shot she was -again- off, rocketing towards her target, her sword pulled back as far as her body would allow.
"FINAL STRIKE!"
Rainbow Dash swung her sword downward, striking Mistress Do Well with the edge as hard as she possibly could. An explosion of blue flames erupted outward from the point of impact, accompanied by a shock wave from the amount of force that had been delivered, sending Mistress Do Well hurtling towards the ground in a trail of smoke, before slamming into the flooring with enough force to crush it underneath her, leaving her laying prone in a smoking crater.
Rainbow Dash panted heavily as she touched down on the ground again, exhausted from all of the physical exertion she'd done in the space of just a few minutes. But at least now it was all over. Nothing could've survived that kind of abuse she'd just dished out. Nothing could...
"Oh come on already!" she yelled out of fury and disbelief as she saw Mistress Do Well in the process of picking herself up off the ground and crawling out of the crater, the snow white fur of the Rarity disguise showing only minor signs of being dirty. "Why aren't you dead yet!?"
"Idiot," Mistress Do Well grunted as she slowly pushed herself back up into a standing position, her gauntlets showing no signs of damage, despite the amount of abuse they'd been subjected to. "You can't kill me. No matter how hard you try and hit me, it won't do any good. Unlike you, I'm not mortal, and thus not prone to mortal limitations. You could chop me into pieces, but those pieces will always reform, and come back for you," she explained, annoyed that the simple fact was being so blatantly ignored. "Your lucid dreaming won't change those facts. I cannot be killed by the likes of you..."
"Then I'm just gonna have to try harder, Misty" Rainbow Dash growled as the barrel on her right gauntlet rose into few again, the grappling hook arrow shooting out the front, and latching onto Mistress Do Well's left gauntlet.
"You disobedient, stupid little foal-" Mistress Do Well started to say. But in the middle of scolding about how such futile gestures would do no good, Rainbow Dash dropped her sword, and took off flying around her, quickly wrapping the wire around her in the process. "Wait, what're you doing!?"
"Gift wrapping!" Rainbow Dash stated as she made a final pass, pulling the wire tight, securing Mistress Do Well's forelegs against her body in the process, before wrapping her forelegs around her, and gripping tightly with her hands. "I'm just the distraction in all of this. The real heavy hitter is on the way now. LUNA!"
At this, Mistress Do Well observed as what served as the sky above them shattered like glass, as a very angry looking night princess came swooping in, headed directly for her. And she watched as, without a word, Luna flipped herself over in midair, to allow herself to bring her right hind leg up high as she came down, before swinging it downward in an axe kick right where she was standing.
The ground beneath them shook and cracked from the force of the impact, sending up dust and debris in every direction that had them coughing and choking. Luna immediately flapped her wings to try and clear the air, and give them a better idea of what their surroundings were.
"Did it work?" Rainbow Dash in between coughing fits. "Did you get her?"
"No..." Luna sighed and hung her head as she sat down, her wings tucking back in at her sides again. "She managed to escape just before I could put an end to her. I am sorry, Rainbow Dash, I was too slow..."
Rainbow Dash wanted to scream, to cry, to yell, to curse out anything in sight, and everything in existence at these words. But she couldn't. Try as she might she couldn't bring herself to unleash a violent flurry of unrestrained fury at this disappointing development. Instead all she could bring herself to do was sigh, and slump her shoulders.
"Why..." she paused as the locking plates of her gauntlets undid themselves, allowing them to drop to the ground. "Why... why can't we stop this thing?" she asked, absentmindedly stepping out of her horseshoes, before her body reverted back to its natural form, as she sat on her haunches and slumped.
"I hit her so hard with everything I could think of, and I only slowed her down. You got involved, and you couldn't even lay a hoof on her. What... what's the point anymore? What good is lucid dreaming, if I'm still so helpless and weak?" she asked absently as she looked down at the ground in defeat.
"Look at me, Rainbow Dash," Luna said softly as she approached, and gently lifted her head up with her hoof. "Even if you do see it in yourself, I see no weakness in you. The fact that you have developed so much, in such a short amount of times, speaks highly of your skills in lucid dreaming. Even if you cannot defeat this entity, you are keeping it at bay, and continually reminding it that you are not to be trifled with. Perhaps you can do nothing but slow it down, but it must still contend with the fact that you actively oppose and resist it. There is something to be said for that."
"I guess," Rainbow Dash replied as she slowly turned her eyes back downward. "I just wish I had something to show for my efforts. Something that said I was actually doing some good, rather than just pissing it off."
"The fact that you are pissing off this entity, shows that your efforts are not for nothing. How many ponies can say that they have punched a non-corporeal entity in the face, and infuriated it in the process?" Luna asked.
At that, Rainbow Dash couldn't suppress the smirk that was trying to creep out over her face. But that didn't stop her from trying. Luna was trying to make her feel better about her own failures, and she knew it. She didn't want to be depressed about everything and just mope, but she still felt like this situation wasn't getting the gravity it deserved.
"For whatever reason, this entity must contend with the fact that you can indeed physically oppose it. This means that its abilities are finite, and it is bound by at least some limitations," Luna pointed out.
"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked up, now interested at hearing that. "You think so?"
"Indeed I do," Luna replied and nodded. "If it could simply shrug off whatever you threw at it, it would obviously do so, to show that resistance was futile. Yet it does not, indicating that it cannot. And the fact that it cannot, means that it can eventually be stopped."
At hearing that, Rainbow Dash could no longer hide the smile that was threatening to bust through, wanting to be seen by all. If this thing that wore her friend's faces as a disguise, actually had to deal with her kicking its ass, that meant that it could be beaten. Not beaten like a punching bag, but beaten permanently. And if it could be beaten, that meant she could eventually take her life back.
Now she just needed to figure out a way to translate these developments in the dream world, into real-world achievements. And if there was a way to actually do it, she was certain that she could find it.
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I almost pegged it as an Iron Man reference myself, namely Tatsu's Technological Technicolor Technomare.
I figured Rainbow Dash's opponent was that malignant mind monster lurking inside of her.
wow...
Good to see RD fighting back, and I'm feeling smugly satisfied that the antagonist was getting its face kicked in.
Below are the edits for this chapter:
*cloud since she currently - cloud since she was currently
*watched as she shackle-like - watched as the shackle-like
*you, before if finally - you, before it finally
*wasn't being the gravity - wasn't getting the gravity
media3.giphy.com/media/bsa6nRZ3W18Vq/giphy.gif
5972154
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm not telling anything just yet.
5972522
It definitely is.
5975337
Well what can you expect from a dream by Rainbow Dash?
I'm here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And i'm all out of ass!
Having a good time RD, no?
Did... did Rainbow just use Omnislash?
7159873
Something like that.
Ah, beautiful references.
I'm convinced the Cobalt Samurai was a reference to Ace Attorney.
And then the metal gauntlets and crossbow made me think of Berserk
Followed by Assassin's Creed with the hidden blade
And I'm convinced that was an omnislash at the end there
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Actually I don't know anything about Ace Attorney. Cobalt Samurai was just an oriental-sounding idea that I thought Rainbow Dash would find appropriate for a reference.
The gauntlets are a reference to Iron Man 3. The crossbow and hidden blade to Assassin's Creed with the phantom blade. The nose flick was a reference to the Angry Video Game Nerd and Nostalgia Critic fight. The grappling hook was a reference to Swat Kats. The final strike was definitely a reference to the omni slash. Rainbow Dash tying up Misty with the cable was a reference to the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes back.
I just realized something.
Considering that antagonist (Not spoiling it for anyone, deal with it) invaded Rainbow Dash's dreams. She could've just said, "Cease to exist." and that would've likely solved her problem, even temporarily. In fact it could even go as far as saying its permanent so long as Dash remembers to keep saying that long enough that the antagonist would've given up on trying any longer.
She's obviously aware that she's in a dream and anyone whos lucid enough and with imagination can go and do anything and everything, including doing references. So by simply believing or even imagining that, the antagonist shouldn't have been able nor have anything to counter against something like that.
Then again, where's the fun and "awesomeness" in that?
Dunno if this is a good suggestion, but when you revealed Cobalt Samurai, I was thinking that Rainbow Dash might decide to mimic either Shinigami or Arrancars with that getup. (By this I mean that RD might adapt the Daisho or Odachi into her Sealed Zanpakuto, as she expressed interest in the vizards. Maybe this can occur in another filler chapter?)