Chapter Eighty Seven
Chapter Eighty Seven
The sounds of small hooves pounding desperately away at the walls of the force field echoed through the clearing they currently occupied, intermixed with the varying sounds of discomfort and discontent coming from the youngest in their group. Any foal that wasn't otherwise occupied with trying to care for the babies, was assisting in the group's escape efforts to the best of their abilities.
The majority of the group was bucking at the force field in an effort to weaken its walls, but were so far seeing no return for either their efforts, or the soreness in their hooves.
A number of others not assisting with going through the wall, had come up with the brilliant idea of going under the wall, and were working together in an effort to dig a hole near the edge of the force field that would allow them all to crawl out underneath. But with all the roots from the nearby trees, and the number of rocks to be found underground, their efforts weren't paying off much better.
Diamond Tiara was the exception of either of these two approaches. While the others were pounding away with their hooves, or otherwise trying to move dirt, she had come up with the idea of using an excavated section of granite to pound at the force field, slamming the most pointed end against its surface. She was utilizing the approach of working smarter rather than harder in an attempt to solve the problem, using something with greater density than her own hooves, to deliver a more concentrated measure of force against a smaller area in hopes of achieving a greater deal of good.
"I'm," Pipsqueak panted as he proved to be the first shield bucker to slow to a stop, "I'm too tired. I need to rest."
"Same here," Shady added as she delivered one last buck, before sitting down on her haunches to rest. "Twangy, ya had a good idea and all. But I don't think it's going to do any good. We've been at it for a long while now, and we're no closer than when we started," she said in between breaths, mentally kicking herself for making no effort at staying in shape.
Apple Bloom wanted to protest the growing voices is discouragement, urging them to continue because there was no way of telling at what point the force field would grow too weak to hold them any longer. But try as she might, she just couldn't muster the optimism to actually do such. She had known from the beginning that her plan was a long shot at best, done primarily as a distraction from just sitting around, and having no options but simply waiting for whatever was going to happen, to actually happen. Much like everyone else, she too ceased her efforts at breaking through the shield.
"We didn't even put a dent in it," Sweetie Belle lamented. Despite her magic being underdeveloped, she'd been able to feel... well something as they bucked away at it. But for all their effort, she really couldn't feel any difference from when they started.
Diamond Tiara unceremoniously dropped her rock to the ground with a thud, feeling both exhausted and smug at the same time. She wanted to rub in the fact that she'd been right all along, but right now she just didn't have the energy for it. She ultimately decided to cut Apple Bloom and the others some slack, simply because they'd put some thought into what they'd been trying.
"I guess hooves don't beat exoskeletons," Shady idly commented. "Hey, excavators! How you doin' over there on your end?"
"Horrible," Truffle Shuffle wheezed as he wiped his brow. "Even using the stones we had to dig out, we're still not getting anywhere."
Archer nodded in agreement. "We're having to spend more time trying to break out all the tree roots than we are actually digging. For being a clearing, the ground sure isn't clear."
"At the rate we're going, even Featherweight wouldn't be able to squeeze through whatever hole we get dug," Truffle Shuffle added.
"Not with that big of a head he wouldn't," Noi mumbled.
"Hey, I object to that!" Featherweight shouted back. "My head is not big!"
"Have you looked in the mirror lately? You're built like a lollipop," Noi stated.
"Do we have to separate you two?" Silver Spoon asked, being in absolutely no mood for pointless squabbling right now. She was at the point that if Diamond Tiara offered up a single smartflanked remark, she'd tell even her to shut her mouth right now.
"So what now?" Dinky asked as defeat slowly sank in. First she'd failed at learning magic from Twilight, and now she'd failed in helping break out of this prison. As far as she was concerned, this wasn't turning out good at all.
"Wake up Peachy Petal. If we've gotta be awake, she should be too," Shady stated.
Nopony knew for certain how they had arrived at the clearing, or even when they'd all arrived, or who was the first to become aware of their surroundings. But everypony had more or less woken up within a short amount of time of each other, with some taking longer than others. But Peachy Petal had been the exception to all that. Out of everyone, that filly had been asleep the longest, through all of the commotion they'd been raising in their escape attempts. Her sleep had been so sound, she hadn't even realized she'd had an accident, and was currently laying in it; much to the disgust and disbelief of everyone present.
"Don't go and do that, she's just gonna whine," Scootaloo complained. They were better off with Peachy being asleep and quiet, even if she wasn't contributing anything to their efforts.
Apple Bloom simply facehooved, unable to think of any other response that felt appropriate right now. This group was starting to pick itself apart. "Any other ideas then?" she asked.
"I don't know," Sweetie Belle replied. Except she spoke too soon, as an idea did come to her. "Hey Shady, what're your ears telling you on all that commotion we heard earlier?"
Shady paused what she was doing, before lifting her head up, her ears twitching and swiveling all about as she tried to get a bead on the outside, while separating the background noise that festered on the inside.
"Whatever it was, I can't hear it now. Either it's gone, or it simply stopped," she eventually replied, all the while hoping it was a good thing. It wasn't just the commotion, it was how the ground just seemed to tremble under her hooves in conjunction with it all. That did something that very few things managed to successfully do; left her feeling truly disturbed.
She really couldn't bring herself to care why it had stopped. All she really cared about was that it had stopped.
Rainbow Dash grunted as she moved to grind to a halt, flaring out her wings, and digging her armored hoofwear on all four legs in against the tough soil and grass of the forest floor, sending dust flying as she finally skidded herself to a complete stop.
There were no two ways about it, Scratchy was tough! Not that she'd actually thought Ulquiorra was weak, because that'd be just plain wrong; she'd felt the force behind his punch simply by being next to it, so she had some idea of just what he could do. But still, knowing that fact didn't prepare her for just how tough her selected fight was going to be. She'd been off to a good start, but Scratchy had quickly been able to close the lead she'd had on him up until now. It wasn't that she thought she could've outdone the Arrancar, but she'd hoped that she could've gotten some response for the effort she'd put in so far.
Unfortunately that just wasn't the case. No matter what kind of hits she delivered, Scratchy seemed able to just shrug them off as if they were nothing. With how things were going, she might as well be throwing water balloons at him. It was a fact that was seriously pissing her off! Plus he could hit back hard on his own, some of the blows actually to the point that she could actually feel them through her armor, and leaving her dreading what it might be like if Luna hadn't given it to her before she headed out.
She needed to catch her breath, and gather her thoughts for how to respond next. Not being able to punch him right in the chest was a severe disadvantage, thanks to that gaping hole he had where most of his rib cage was supposed to be. Seriously, if Ulquiorra had executed the guy this was based on, why couldn't he have just blown his head off instead? Why'd he have to go all center of mass like he did? Why-
Her thoughts were interrupted when she had to leap back to avoid Scratchy slicing her in half. Despite not being able to fly -or at least simply not demonstrating such yet- he was unbelievably quick on his feet when he wasn't stumbling about drunkenly, and could run like Applejack when she was mad and determined; not a good combination for her to be facing down.
But as fast as Scratchy was on his feet, she was a lot faster in the air; a fact perfectly demonstrated as she easily avoided a lunging thrust by simply turning herself to the side, and then swinging back around to kick him in the back of the skull as he overshot his mark, and went tumbling.
That was another thing that pissed her off. Nothing she threw at Scratchy seemed to have any effect on him. She'd come to accept that killing wasn't going to be an option, what with Ulquiorra had done to him before she got here, but was it really asking too much for at least one of the blows she'd delivered to his skull to be enough to at least knock him unconscious for a little while? Why'd he have to have a head like a block of marble anyway?
How Ulquiorra was faring against Misty, she didn't really know, as she'd been distracted with what was in front of her, rather than what was around her. As much effort as she'd put into just staying alive, it was too much effort to check on him. Maybe it was a bad idea to take on each others' opponents like this.
And there went Scratchy, climbing back up onto his feet yet again. Honestly, how much abuse could he take? Did she have to hit him with her Sonic Rainboom to put him down for good? The only reason she hadn't resorted to that yet, was because she didn't know where the foals were, and putting them at risk wasn't an option. She was just going to have to keep doing what she was doing, for as long as she could manage.
"Alright, Scratchy, let's see what you've got," she taunted him a she set down on her hooves and prepared to engage in another round.
This was no nightmare where she was powerless, not anymore. This was the waking world where she had full control of her options and actions, where she could respond accordingly, and things responded to her actions in turn. That gave her the advantage in this fight. Nightmare Moon couldn't negate her efforts by simply sweeping the landscape clear, and using Misty as she saw fit in an effort to mentally break her. If nothing else then she should at least be able to out-think this big dummy. This time around she had the home field advantage.
Scratchy growled ferociously and moved to attack, but she intercepted him and cut off his avenue of attack, blocking his sword with the use of her left armored wing, a loud metallic clang sounding as she did so, before leaping up to buck him in the chest on both sides of his gaping hole, and send him stumbling back from the force of the impact. That presented her with just the opening she needed to push her assault by flying forward, and engaging him at close range, using all six of her limbs for various swipes, blows, and kicks, actually putting him on the defensive for a change as he tried to intercept and block them in an effort to manage a counterattack. Really she was just trying to keep him on his toes and unable to reestablish himself, she didn't care how she went about doing it.
"If that's what you've got, then you really are fucked!" she stated, before delivering a brutal flash kick that caught him right under the chin with all of her might.
The force behind the kick, while being enough to make her do a back flip before she could come to a complete stop, was simultaneously enough to propel Scratchy right off the floor, and send him flying almost straight up. Seeing the opportunity she was presented with, she flew in close and repeated the same tactic with another flash kick, propelling Scratchy even higher up. Now he really was in her domain, where she had the most control of their surroundings. And she was going to take full advantage of that fact.
In a flash she was behind him, wrapping her forelegs around his midsection, and pinning his arms at his sides, right below the elbows to greatly reduce his ability to move. "Gotcha!" she shouted triumphantly.
Much as would be expected, Scratchy wasn't the least bit happy about being restrained, and was fighting to get loose, growling the entire time.
"Careful now," she taunted him as she held firm, "half of all falls that result in death occur at less than twenty feet up. And we're way higher than twenty feet right now," she said as she proceeded to shake him and swing him side to side in a jarring fashion to try and take some of the fight out of him. "You and I are just gonna wait up here where you can't get into any trouble. Ulquiorra's gonna turn Misty into paste down below, and then we're both gonna rip you apart. And there's not a thing you can do about it."
She was confident in her position now, realizing that she didn't have to fight harder than Scratchy, she just had to fight smarter than him. With Scratchy's arms restrained at his sides, there was very little he could actually do against her. Now it was just a matter of being patient, and waiting for Ulquiorra to get done with what he was doing, so he could supply the muscle. And considering how Scratchy weighed less than another pony, she could do that with relative ease, even with the armor being a factor.
Or at least that's how it should've gone anyway. Scratchy, however, had other ideas in all of this, and started working at getting loose again. But rather than struggling or trying to kick his way free, he was working at breaking her hold on him by overpowering her grip. And much to surprise and disbelief, it was working too! How was that even possible?
"No way!" she stated in disbelief as her forelegs were being forced apart. She was sure that she'd stripped him of whatever leverage he had, leaving him helpless to do anything of significance, but now she was seeing how that wasn't really the case.
She struggled to keep him contained, but soon found that to be an impossibility. Despite working from a totally dead stop, Scratchy eventually managed to completely break free from her hold. But rather than falling to the ground like she'd expected to happen, he managed to grab a firm hold on her hind leg with his left hand, with a very stout grip.
"Hey, you, no holding hooves on the first date!" she yelled as she now tried to shake him off, kicking at his hand in an effort to break his hold and get herself loose. But try as she might, his hands proved to be just as durable and resilient as the rest of him, and breaking his grip was turning out to be anything but easy.
Her efforts at getting loose came to an immediate halt as Scratchy went on the offensive, and started swiping at her with his sword. In such tight quarters there was no getting away, and no using her wings as shields since she needed them to stay aloft. That unfortunately left her with little option but blocking with her hoofwear to avoid having something important get cut off.
"Let me go!" she yelled as she took every opportunity she had to shake Scratchy loose from her leg, in between stopping him from using his sword against her, but he held on for dear life regardless. Her leg was getting tired, feeling like all the extra weight was going to pull it right out of her hip joint each time she tried to make him let her go. She knew that if that happened, things were going to go very bad for her.
With determination and desperation beginning to merge together, she swung her left upward as hard as she could, swinging Scratchy up in the process, before slamming both of her shod hooves down on the back of his head as hard as she could. There was a cracking noise that followed the impact, but what it was she didn't know, nor did she care; all she cared about was that it was apparently enough to make him disengage his death grip on her leg, and he was now in free fall for the ground.
For a normal pony, a fall from this height would easily prove fatal. But Scratchy was nothing even close to a pony, so she wasn't sure what was going to happen. Nor was she sure if she should intervene or not. There was no need to save him, but at the same time if she didn't, he was just going to interfere with whatever Ulquiorra was doing, and put her back at a disadvantage since he'd be on solid ground again.
"Forget it," she grumbled, before breaking into a dive after Scratchy, before bringing herself around, rising her right hind leg, and dropping it in a wicked axe kick right on his spine to accelerate his descent to the ground, causing him to slam into the forest flooring with more force than if she'd done nothing at all.
Judging by the sound of the impact, it had likely hurt a lot.
Rainbow Dash panted, physically winded from all of that. When Ulquiorra had described this thing as nothing but a marionette that Nightmare Moon hadn't learned how to properly control, she'd mistakenly believed that it wouldn't be this difficult of a fight. But she'd thought so, so very wrong. This was an endurance marathon, designed to push her to her breaking point, and leave her a crumpled mess on the floor.
Or maybe it was designed to push Ulquiorra to whatever his breaking point was. If that was the case, she didn't know how she was stacking up comparatively. All she knew for certain was how she couldn't keep this up all night.
"I wonder how much blood a pony has to lose before it starts affecting them," she muttered to herself in between breaths. The cut on her leg from Misty's whip had shown no signs of healing; understandable considering how much she'd been moving about as of late, but still disturbing nonetheless with how much of her blue fur was being stained a dark red. She had no idea if it was worse than it looked, or if it looked worse than it was. All she knew was that it was still more blood than she was comfortable with seeing. "I'm sure not getting a pint of Q-positive out here..."
She needed to touch down and land. Staying up here certainly wasn't doing anyone any good. All she was doing was tiring herself out further.
"I'm gonna be sore tomorrow," she said to herself as she descended and set down on all four of her hooves, her armor creaking as she folded her wings in at her sides.
Unfortunately as she did, she realized that Scratchy was nowhere to be found. Nor were there any signs of where he'd landed either. Not that the fog was really helping any, but she should've been able to see something. She looked left, she looked right, she even turned completely around, but he wasn't anywhere to be found in this mess.
"Where'd he go? I was sure he landed here," she said to herself. Surely she hadn't been that far off in her aim.
Her answer came as she felt her hind leg grabbed from behind, and practically wrenched out from under her as she was dragged off the ground, and swung about in a circle like she was being used for a hammer toss. Somehow Scratchy had gotten behind her, despite her having just looked there and seen absolutely nothing! By the time she found herself stuck in the third rotation she was screaming helplessly, before she was hurled and set flying like she was nothing but a stupid frisbee!
Her unexpected flight was cut short, however, as both her rear hooves came to rest against the trunk of a tree, her legs bending to help absorb the shock of the impact.
"Booyah!" she yelled as she kicked off from the tree, propelling herself at Scratchy and slamming into his midsection, tackling him to the ground with enough force to bounce right back off, before slamming his back into the nearest tree.
"You're seriously pissing me off!" she stated as she pulled back and began slamming her hooves into his front, raining down all manner of blows to his face and chest, intent on knocking him right through the tree he was pinned against. She didn't care if it was a possibility in her condition on not, that wasn't going to stop her from trying her hardest to achieve that goal.
"You fucked up when you attacked my friends!" she yelled as she belted Scratchy right across the face with her right hoof. "You should've just focused on me!" as she slugged with her left hoof. "But you just had to go and fuck with all of us!" she continued as she slammed both hooves down on Scratchy's head at the same time. "Now look at what you've got!" she declared as she kicked him right in the face with her back hoof, slamming the metal of her shoe right into his exposed teeth.
Punch, kick, punch, kick, it didn't matter to her what blow she delivered, just so long as it made contact with the intended target, and gave a satisfying sense of impact. Each blow made her feel just a little bit better, about herself, about the overall situation, and about life in general. She was taking charge of her life again, she was awake, and she was the final determinator of her fate. Nopony else would decide what she felt, thought, or believed; absolutely nopony!
"Here's a little something, from me to you, with all the love you deserve to get," she said as she placed both front hooves on Sandy's shoulders, "FUCK YOU!" she yelled as she pulled her right hind leg back as far as she could, and swung it forward, kicking him right between his spindly legs with all of her might. She then did the same maneuver a second time. And then a third time, just to make sure the point had successfully gotten across, and that nothing was left to doubt.
She was exhausted by this point. Her wings were starting to feel like they were made of lead, and it was harder to catch her breath than it had been. Luna hadn't been exaggerating when she said she wasn't in any shape for an extended fight in her condition. She felt like she was running on pure fumes at this point. Plus the armor wasn't helping out either; it didn't matter if she was only perceiving a few pounds thanks to the lightening enhancements, it was still extra weight added to a regimen that hadn't factored in such things. She couldn't keep this up, and she knew it. All she could do was hope that she'd gotten her point across with that last kick, and that Scratchy would be down for a bit as a result.
No such luck with that. Before she could react, Scratchy had grabbed her right foreleg and held it firmly, cutting off her avenue of escape, before attempting to cut her in half. Whether through conscious thought, instinct, or pure dumb luck, she trapped the sword blade before her foreleg and her armor, pinning it at her side so he couldn't get it loose and do anymore harm to her.
In light of this development, only one conclusion seemed logical to Rainbow Dash at this point; Scratchy was a gelding. He didn't have any junk to his name! That meant her kicks had been useless, and had just likely pissed him off all the worse. And now she was trapped in uncomfortably close proximity to him, and all those sharp teeth...
"Let me go!" she yelled and proceeded to do the only thing that came to her mind; she pulled her head back and slammed it forward as hard as she could, headbutting him with all of her might.
The pain that followed in the aftermath was excruciating. And the use of language in the aftermath reflected that fact, both in substance and volume.
The landing Rainbow Dash experienced as she entered the clearing was one of her less graceful ones, finally culminating with a rolling stop against a tree trunk to her side. But that was to be expected, considering the fact that she'd just been grabbed and thrown like she had.
The pain of the landing was lessening, but she was still tempted to just lay still, and maybe pass out in the process. Right now that sounded like a reasonably acceptable idea.
"Problems?"
The sound of the voice interrupted her plans on how to proceed, and motivated her to roll over and look at who was addressing her. The who turned out to be Ulquiorra. But what he was doing wasn't anything like she was expecting. It was so unexpected, it was totally pissing her off, and making her forget about her own pain.
Not only was Ulquiorra not covered in blood, but Misty was still alive and kicking! And in this case it was a literal evaluation of the situation, with her currently pinned to the ground, muttering and flailing about helplessly as Ulquiorra sat atop her, keeping her in the prone position.
"Why you..." she grumbled as she climbed back to her hooves, pushing the discomfort off to the side to make room for her fury. "I've been slugging it out with Scratchy all over this forest, and you've just been sitting on your ass this whole time!?" she shouted.
"Technically it's your ass, not mine," Ulquiorra replied from his improvised perch.
Rainbow Dash scowled in response. "Oh hardy, har, har."
"As I'm sure you're aware by now, whatever these things are, they're incredibly resilient to being killed," he pointed out, before emphasizing the point by slamming his right fist against the side of Misty's head in an effort to quiet her down some. "The best course of action available seems to be keeping them occupied to hinder their interference. And in answer to your question, I've been doing far more than simply sitting here."
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Rainbow Dash asked, skeptical of his claim that he was doing anything beyond being a paperweight.
"Tracking your movements in the fog as you did battle with the Kurostruct, in an effort to map out the area it treads, while trying to prevent you from traveling further," Ulquiorra explained. Rainbow Dash's reiatsu was really the only thing he could sense in this entire area that stood out in the fog, making her easy to track with his pesquisa. "There's definite evidence of a conscious effort to prevent you from traveling further northward, suggesting the foals are being held somewhere in that general direction. South, east, west, this entire time you've been traveling in every single direction except north. The process of elimination suggests we'll find the hostages there."
"Really? Awesome!" Rainbow Dash stated, before finally taking note of something wet running down her face. She reached up and wiped with her foreleg, before pulling back in horror at seeing the dark red stain her fur had practically soaked up. "Great, headbutting that butthead probably wasn't my best decision."
She knew from experience that head wounds tended to bleed worse than others, even if the damage wasn't all that serious. She should've known that doing something like that was going to screw her over, but she hadn't been thinking at the time and simply acted. Now she was going to be paying for it.
"Get down."
Before she could even ask what Ulquiorra was talking about, he was already on his feet, Misty's cape firmly held in his hand as he swung her around and hurled her right at her. She dropped out of pure instinct as the costumed unicorn went sailing over her head, before a loud commotion erupted behind her. Looking behind her, she saw that Scratchy had made his way to the clearing, and had just met Misty in a head on collision that knocked him right off his feet.
"Dude, that was cool," Rainbow Dash said as she got back onto her hooves, watching as Scratchy and Misty were both trying to recover from what had just happened. It definitely wasn't a pretty sight, with how awkward and ungainly Scratchy was; evidence of what Ulquiorra has said earlier about Nightmare Moon not knowing how to properly use the body. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so terrifying.
"Your glowing evaluation aside, this is a serious matter we find ourselves in. So long as the foals remain unaccounted for, I can't risk using my Cero against either one of them. And they'll remain a liability for as long as we have to contend with these two," Ulquiorra stated.
"Well then get going, I'll keep them busy," Rainbow Dash replied as she wiped her face again in preparation of more battle. "I can take care of myself. You can find them a lot faster than I can."
Ulquiorra didn't even have the chance to rebuke Rainbow Dash for her stupidity in believing that she could successfully take on the Kurostruct by herself, in addition to the presence of the Mare Do Well illusion, before she took off towards them to re-initiate her engagement. She didn't even wait for the Kurostruct to finish getting back to its feet before swooping around behind it, and pulling it into a headlock with her forelegs, before using her armored wings to batter its head.
Commendable. She was stupid, but she was commendable. Despite being obviously fatigued in stature, with her vision compromised with her head wound, she was refusing to back down against a superior opponent. A superior opponent, who at the moment seemed unable to reach all the way back behind it, and actually pull her loose. Perhaps she wasn't as hopelessly outclassed as he initially thought.
Of course that didn't change the fact that the Mare Do Well construct was free to engage however it saw fit; a fact that was about to become painfully apparent as it drew its whip back in preparation of striking Rainbow Dash from behind. That simply wouldn't do.
"Our business isn't yet concluded," he stated as he appeared behind the lot of them in a flash of sonido, and grabbed it from behind by its neck, lifting it right up off the ground, and flinging it backwards into the nearest tree. Not through the tree, but that made little difference; if it were a normal pony, its spine would've been snapped from the impact. But this wasn't a normal pony by any measure.
"Outstanding durability aside, it doesn't change the fact that you're nothing but trash," he said as he walked over to where it laid, gripped it by its throat as he lifted it up off the forest floor, and proceeded to repeatedly slam his right fist into its barrel. Each blow delivered caused its limbs to spasm, as it emitted inequine shrieks. But whether or not this was due to experiencing actual pain, he couldn't tell. Nor could he really bring himself to actually care one way or the other.
"Oogiora!"
The strangulated, garbled scream from behind definitely caught his attention. He stopped his assault momentarily to turn and look, only to find that Rainbow Dash had lost control of her own situation. He didn't know how it had happened, but somehow the Kurostruct had managed to get her around to the front, and was currently maintaining a tight grip on her neck, unmoved by her efforts at prying herself loose with her hooves. But the source of the garbled yell came from the fact that its zanpakutō was dangerously close to her face, the only thing serving to keep it from cutting her apart being the fact that she was currently holding the edge firmly between her front teeth, biting down on it to inhibit its movement.
Despite her best efforts to the contrary, she was proving to be nothing but a hindrance.
A quick drop kick to the Mare Do Well served to free him up, by sending it flying straight upward at great speed, allowing him to firmly ensnare the Kurostruct's right arm.
"Let go," he instructed. No sooner had she relinquished her hold with her teeth, he pulled one way to restrain the sword arm, while she proceeded to try and break loose, either by trying to fly backwards, or simply kick her way free at any available piece of flesh.
"Get your hand off of me! Lemme go!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she viciously kicked Sandy wherever she could, be it in his ribs, or even his face, in a desperate bid to break loose while she could still breathe. But no matter how much force she put into it, he didn't show any signs of letting up. "Ulquiorra, get him off me! Please!"
"That's easier said than done at this point," Ulquiorra replied. The Kurostruct had enough strength to toss him about as it saw fit, and had demonstrated such facts. Already he was needing to hold onto its arm with both hands just to keep it restrained. If he let go now, even temporarily, the amount of trouble they were going to be in was likely going to be much worse than it was currently.
Desperation was started to set in for Rainbow Dash. Ulquiorra knew more of what he was doing when it came to choking somepony out, but Scratchy's grip was certainly getting there, making it more difficult to breathe. She set about beating him about his head with one of her armored wings as she kicked at his ribs, but nothing was proving sufficient. Finally, as the panic of asphyxiation began to reach a fevered pitch, she did the only thing she could think of; she unfurled her left wing all the way, and rammed the tip of the primary point of the armor right into his left eye socket with all of her might.
Whereas everything else they'd been throwing against Scratchy had proven ineffective, that had generated different results. The loud growling and rumbling he'd been emitting since their engagement had suddenly taken a far different pitch at the ocular invasion, and motivated him to try even harder to rip his arm free from Ulquiorra's hold than before; something that was proving to be quite impossible to accomplish, as Ulquiorra was maintaining a death grip that wasn't about to be broken.
In response to these facts, Rainbow Dash found herself being flung away by Scratchy, tearing the point out of his eye in the process. She managed to break her departure by flaring her wings outward and catching herself, before setting back down on her hooves. At least she was free, so that was a small improvement over just a minute ago. But they still had a long way to go before they were out of the woods. They couldn't really do anything with their opponents, and that was keeping them from finding Scootaloo and the others.
Before she could figure out how to go about reengaging in the fight, she saw Ulquiorra change up his tactics, placing his left hand under Scratchy's chin. A second later there was a flash of red light, a loud bang, a flash of explosion, and a now-headless Scratchy toppling over to the ground like a felled tree.
"That wasn't a Cero, was it?" she asked as she approached.
"It wasn't," Ulquiorra confirmed.
"So why didn't you do that earlier? It would've made things a lot easier," she pointed out.
"If I had, the proximity to the blast could've killed you in your current condition," Ulquiorra explained.
"Oh. Right, right," Rainbow Dash agreed and nodded. At least he'd taken her into consideration before simply acting. "So is that it then? Is he dead finally?"
"That would require it to have been alive in the first place," Ulquiorra pointed out. "Such details aside, waiting around to find out wouldn't be in our best interest. We need to find the foals before anything else can happen."
"Right," Rainbow Dash said with a nod. She wanted to find them and get them out of this forest before anything else could happen to them.
She turned to look around, wondering which direction they should head, before hearing a commotion behind her. Quickly spinning around she saw a blur of Ulquiorra's image, now holding an old kerosene lantern which he was in the process of lighting. She didn't feel the need to ask, as she could put two and two together herself. Why Ulquiorra felt the need for a lantern, she wasn't sure, but she'd ask him about that later on when the situation was under more control.
"So why didn't you do that earlier? I mean back in your world? Why didn't you go for his head instead of his chest?" she asked as they began making their way north in search of the foals.
"I admit, I didn't consider it at the time. I didn't foresee his Hollow side taking control of his body as it did," Ulquiorra admitted. If he had, then perhaps the situation would've turned out differently. And by the time it was apparent that he should've tried such, it was already too late.
It was only after, that he noticed Rainbow Dash was no longer following him. He stopped and turned to observe her as she looked back at the Kurostruct's remains.
"He's probably not gonna be needing his zanpakutō anytime soon," she pointed out. "Can I have it?"
The first thought that popped into Ulquiorra's mind at hearing the question, was the number of physical impracticalities that would be involved with her trying to actually wield the Kurostruct's zanpakutō if she were allowed to procure it for herself; lacking the telekinetic abilities of Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and every other unicorn in Equestria, she would possess a significant tactical disadvantage in trying to use it. The only way he could see it being possible, would be if she used her mouth in a prehensile manner.
The second thought that came to his mind, was the fact that it was foolish to leave an opponent armed; especially when said opponent had already demonstrated the uncanny ability of unbreaking its neck, and proceeding to walk about as if it had simply been slapped. Explosive decapitation might've done the job just fine, but why take chances with such?
"With the death grip it was utilizing earlier, severing the arm may prove necessary for such a course of action," he pointed out.
At hearing this, Rainbow Dash couldn't suppress the smirk that was quickly growing across her face, nor could she suppress the snickering that followed. "So what you're saying is, he can lend us a hand with looking for the foals?"
The look Ulquiorra gave Rainbow Dash in response was one best described as capable of curdling turpentine; a rather impressive feat considering just how little his facial expression changed.
"You're a moron," he flatly stated in response, "go and claim your souvenir, before I find myself tempted to do something physical that I might actually regret later."
Rainbow Dash couldn't help but chuckle a little in response. But she opted to not press her luck, and turned back to where Scratchy's body laid. The sooner she got his sword pried loose from his cold, dead hand, the better she'd feel about what might come later.
"What the? Hey, where's the body? Didn't we leave it behind us?" she asked.
Curious, Ulquiorra turned to look and see what she was referring to. Much like last time when he broke its neck, the Kurostruct was nowhere to be found. What the hell was going on around here? Where was this thing going whenever they turned their back on it?
"How's that even possible? You blew his head clean off! W-w-what... what the fuck is going on around here?" Rainbow Dash asked, a sense of dread washing over her in light of this discovery.
"I don't know. But I'm not in any mood to stand around and find out," Ulquiorra replied.
"You don't have to tell me twice, let's fly on outta here!" Rainbow Dash stated as she spread her wings and prepared to take off.
Unfortunately that course of action never got beyond the planning stage. Before either of them could successfully take to the air, Rainbow Dash was treated to the sight of a black sword blade exploding from his midsection, covered in his blood as it ripped its way through both him and his shirt. The look of genuine shock crossing his face just made it all the worse to actually witness, as she could see him trying to comprehend just what had happened.
She screamed at the sight of Ulquiorra being impaled, and then lifted up off the ground as the lantern dropped, his feet dangling in the air as he grasped the blade with both hands. And then she screamed again as it became apparent that it was Scratchy who'd just done it with a two-handed grip on his zanpakutō. All the while she felt utterly powerless as she watched Ulquiorra lifted up overhead, before Scratchy swung his sword to the side hard enough to throw him completely off like he was nothing. And now there was nothing standing between him and her. Without conscious thought she started backing up, as Scratchy slowly lumbered his way towards her.
What was she gonna do? What was she gonna do? She couldn't possibly stand up against that thing, not after what it had just demonstrated it could do to Ulquiorra like it was no challenge at all. Scratchy had just proven that he could skewer someone capable of beating -and even killing- a dragon like it was a common activity for him, how was she seriously supposed to challenge that? What was she supposed to do against something that could recover from having its brains blown out, and its entire head disintegrated?
Fight or die, dumbass, fight or die, her mind yelled at her. Every survival instinct she had to her was screaming and blaring sirens for her to do something to interrupt the course of events that were unfolding in front of her, knowing that if they were allowed to proceed without intervention, there'd be no stopping them. But what could she hope to do against this monster, this demon? Ulquiorra hadn't even had a chance, and he was the strongest of all of them. What was she supposed to do when he couldn't do anything? What if he was dying from his injury?
Ulquiorra, she'd almost forgotten about him and what had happened. She'd... she'd almost forgotten about her friend. Her... her friend. The same friend who had saved her from her own suicide attempt, and gotten her back on the course to healing in the first place. The one who had challenged her to stand up on her own four hooves, and then challenged her further, stoking her ego and infuriating her to the point of wanting to get better just so she could slug him. The one who had been looking after her every night, ensuring that she was safe as she slept. The one who had played a part in rescuing her from Thrush's clutches...
The next thing she was consciously aware of was the pain in her foreleg as her right hoof connected with Scratchy's jaw, delivering enough force to make his feet leave the forest floor.
Coherent thought was gone by this point as rage completely overtook her. This bastard had just killed her friend for all she knew, pushing her well beyond the point of being able to actually feel fear. Now all she felt was a burning desire for revenge. She didn't care how she went about doing it, so long as he was made to suffer for what he'd done.
"C'mere you!"
She flew up after him, latching onto him in a flying tackle as she soared upward, dragging Scratchy with her as she accelerated, climbing higher and higher as fast as her wings would take them.
"If you've got any lungs, you're gonna find out what it's like when the air in them freezes solid!" she stated as she continued climbing, intent on taking him high enough up that there'd be no way to survive a drop at such a height. "You die first, and then Nightmare Moon!"
She quickly breached the top of the fog as she rocketed upward, climbing ever higher and higher. High enough for the air to start feeling chilly against her fur. High enough to... what the?
All thoughts on what she was going to do were interrupted at witnessing something completely unexpected; Scratchy's body was actually disintegrating in her grip. She barely had time to process this new information as she watched him fading away in a mess of... fog?
Fog. These things were made up entirely of fog. Or more precisely they were made up of terror fog. No wonder they couldn't be killed; how could you kill something you were surrounded by? Even if they did succeed in breaking their bodies, there was plenty more to replace them with.
"Oh, you cheating bitch!" she shouted before breaking into a nosedive, heading back into the fog bank. She had no idea what she was going to do once she got there, as she was making it all up as she went along. She'd figure out a course of action later on.
She breached the fog for a third time, the dim light of the lantern serving as a beacon for her to find her way back to her original location. As she came in for a landed she proceeded to look around, looking for any sign of where Scratchy might be hiding, or where Ulquiorra might currently be. But despite seeing where he'd been thrown, she wasn't seeing any sign of him. First Scratchy, and now him, what was going on around here? How did bodies just disappear when you weren't looking?
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," she taunted as her eyes moved back and forth across the field of fog, the thestral vision spell allowing for nothing to hide from her in the shadows. Although that didn't stop her from having to actually look for it. "Maybe you shouldn't have sucked down all that fear. I think it made you afraid yourself. I think you're too terrified to come out and actually face me, because you know I'll kick your ass! You're too damn weak to fight even one little pegasus!"
In hindsight, attempting to bully the disembodied spirit of a demonic and vengeful alicorn probably wasn't a good idea. There was no telling how powerful Nightmare Moon was, or what the limits on her powers were yet. But right now she wasn't operating on hindsight, nor did she really care about things like that. All she cared about right now was delivering the thrashing of a lifetime, and nopony had better get in her way!
"I know you're here. You're what Ulquiorra's been sensing all over Ponyville, just like what he's been sensing here, so I know you're hiding. Either come out and face me... or I'm gonna take your fog away from you," she warned and gave a flap of her wings to emphasize her point. She was a weather pony, no miserable fog held power over the likes of her.
Her ears flicked at the sound of some commotion behind her, motivating her to while around and see who or what was trying to sneak up behind her. What it was proved to be none other than Scratchy. Again. Several paces behind her, and stumbling its way forward.
"Ugh, not you again," she groaned as she gave another flap of her wings and propelled herself upward off the ground. "Seriously, is this all you've got? Is this all you've fucking got!?" she yelled, addressing her surroundings rather than her selected opponent.
Scratchy, in response, growled in what she could only assume was fury at being dissed in such a manner.
Rainbow Dash responded in turn by blowing a raspberry at him. "Not so tough when you can't actually reach me, huh?"
Another growl came from Scratchy as he looked directly at her, followed by a red glow emanating from between his horns. It looked a lot like red static electricity crackling from between the two as it ran up the entire length, before finally gathering at the tips and coalescing together in the form of a glowing ball of red energy.
Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide with surprise as she saw this, her mind instantly recalling what she'd witnessed when Ulquiorra had shown her his memories of his fight against Scratchy back in his own world. Instantly she knew just what this was, and how bad it was going to be for her.
"Oh shi-"
"So Rainbow's back in town," Vinyl noted.
"Eeyup," Big Macintosh replied.
"And she's sporting some wicked lookin' lunar armor ta boot," Vinyl continued.
"Eeyup," Big Macintosh replied.
"And she took off inta the forest to help a ghost look for Ponyville's youngest," Vinyl added.
"Eeyup," Big Macintosh stated.
Vinyl nodded in response. "See, this is why I like talkin' with ya, Mac, ya got a firm grasp of the situation."
Despite Ulquiorra -and now apparently Rainbow Dash- being on the case of finding the foals, the assembled ponies who'd been prepared to march into the Everfree Forest to find them hadn't been able to rest easy. The disappearance of Twilight and the others had only served to increase their unease with everything, leaving them to do little more than wait. Some tried to occupy themselves with distractions to varying degrees of success, while others could do little more than pace with anxiousness about not being able to do anything to help.
If it weren't for the crisis at hoof, the gathering would've been a pleasant one they found themselves in. Small talk was being made, it was a nice night out, they had plenty of illumination... it was enough to make some of the musicians contemplate bringing in some instruments to try and relax the mood, and soothe some frazzled nerves.
Of course such a plan left Vinyl out. Her music wasn't suited for soothing as much as it was energizing, and this crowd was energized enough with worry. That left her trying to pass the time with conversation.
Unfortunately the conversation was interrupted by a loud noise in the distance, followed by a beam of bright red light shooting straight up into the air, easily visible all the way in Ponyville! Many of those assembled scattered in fear, not having a clue what they'd just witnessed, and not having any desire to find out.
"Sweet Faust, what was that?" Vinyl asked, uncertain of what to make of it.
"Ah don' know. But Ah reckon we should let the others know," Big Macintosh suggested.
"Right on," Vinyl replied and quickly nodded, before taking off at a gallop for the library.
Rainbow Dash didn't know what to think. At the Cero being discharged she'd instinctively shut her eyes and crossed her forelegs in front of her in some effort to shield herself, even if it was going to be futile to try. But futile or not, she hadn't actually felt anything. The pressure on her bladder had certainly relaxed when she thought she was going to die, but other than that she felt alright. Curiosity finally won out and she peaked out to see just what had happened.
What happened had been Ulquiorra coming out of nowhere from behind, grabbing Scratchy by his horns, and forcefully pulling his head back so his Cero traveled straight up into the air where it couldn't do any harm, rather than hitting her.
As the Cero finally ceased, she concluded that once again, he'd just saved her ass.
"As usual, you seem incapable of staying out of trouble when left on your own," he stated, before proceeding to hurl Scratchy away like it was a hammer toss.
Rainbow Dash swooped in, and proceeded to do her best to hug the stuffing out of Ulquiorra where he stood.
"Dude, you're alright!" she cheered with both excitement and relief. "But... but how? I saw you get impaled. I-"
"I've had worse," Ulquiorra replied evenly, unfazed by the fact that he was being clung to currently.
While his high-speed regeneration was second to none among the Espada, and allowed him to instantly regrow lost limbs, the same couldn't be said for his vital organs. If they were lost in battle, there was no coming back from that; as had been demonstrated in his fight against Ichigo Kurosaki.
That said, however, that didn't mean that he couldn't regenerate organs that had merely been damaged, even severely. So long as a sufficient portion remained present, any tissue that had been lost could be completely replaced with little difficulty.
"Oh," Rainbow Dash replied before finally relinquishing her hold on him. She'd ask later on, once this whole mess was over. "I figured out why we aren't having any luck killing these things, they're made out of fog. I took Scratchy out of it, and he completely dissolved in my hooves. I think as long as they stay in the field, there's not much we can do to them that'll actually stick."
"That would certainly explain a few things," Ulquiorra noted, such as how he hadn't been able to sense anything distinctive in the fog. The fact that what they'd been fighting had been fog constructs really wasn't all that surprising to him. In his time here in Equestria, he'd seen enough things that defied his understanding of how the world -and even basic reality- worked around him. The number of things that he understood, were outnumbered by the things he didn't -or couldn't- understand. What difference did one more oddity, such as the solidity of fog, really make overall?
Although in light of his development, he felt he could -possibly- better understand Rainbow Dash's indignation over discovering that she had become a victim of terror fog. To think that something as simple as water vapor could easily hand both of them their asses, was not a pleasant thought to engage.
It only became less pleasant as the Kurostruct made its way back to them, while using its zanpakutō to demonstrate how it could easily cut through an entire tree in a single swing, causing it to crash to the ground with a loud commotion.
Rainbow Dash was, understandably, disturbed by witnessing this. Just the fact that fog could actually do something like that...
"He's not gonna be making it easy on us," she muttered, already knowing she'd have to be extra careful now. At least she still had her speed advantage over him.
"If you think that's your only concern, you're so very wrong!"
Rainbow Dash stiffened up at hearing that familiar voice, and turned to see Misty slowly approaching from the rear, walking in that totally arrogant walk of somepony who believed they had the situation fully under their control, and had nothing to worry about. She totally hated that walk.
"Do me a favor," she said as she turned to face Ulquiorra. "Stomp her skull into the ground while I take Scratchy skydiving."
"At this point that course of action would be unwise. If the Kurostruct can hurt me, it can certainly kill you. It would be best to refrain from swapping adversaries any further," Ulquiorra explained. She'd needed rescuing once already from such a course of action, a second time really wasn't necessary; she'd do better facing her own opponent, if for no other reason than the simple fact that it lacked hands for grabbing her. "However, if you're too afraid..."
"What, me, afraid? I'm not afraid of anything! I faced down Scratchy when I thought he killed you! I..." she loudly protested at the very notion, only stopping when she saw the look he was giving her as she did. She didn't just scowl at him in response, she outright glared at him. "You're totally fucking with me, aren't you?"
"Without the courtesy of even buying you dinner first," Ulquiorra replied.
"What?" Rainbow Dash asked, before quickly shaking her head. "Never mind, I'll ask later. I'll show you who's scared."
With that said she took off, plowing into Misty at full speed as she traveled along, and dragged her along for the ride.
With Rainbow Dash preoccupied with her own adversary, and -comparatively- safely out of the way, Ulquiorra turned his attention to the Kurostruct in preparation of his own engagement.
"Just so it's quite clear, and there are no misunderstandings to be had, this shirt you ruined was a gift," he stated.
A lot of thoughts were flying through Rainbow Dash's mind as she plowed into Misty at full force, actually shoving her along with her hooves skidding against the ground before she was slammed back first into the nearest tree. Thoughts like just how much rage she currently had in her, and how it felt like she was trying to contain a forest fire in her body as she proceeded to pin Misty against the tree with one hoof, and pound on her with the other hoof. There was so much adrenaline pumping through her system right now, and she felt so hot, she honestly wondered if she was going to burst into flames of fury.
She didn't care that this was nothing more than a fog construct she was pounding on right now. All she really cared about was how much pain she was currently carrying around, and wanting to make somepony -anypony really- understand what it was like. She so desperately wanted to hurt somepony else, just to make herself feel a little bit better. And if somepony had to be hurt, who better than the one that had hurt her to begin with?
"You're gonna wish Ulquiorra had stuck with you, rather than passing you off to me," Rainbow Dash stated in between blows being delivered to Misty's skull. "With him it's just business. But me, it's all personal. I've got an invested interest in making you hurt, and watching you bleed!" she yelled as she continued pounding away at Misty.
As she unloaded, she was trying desperately to tell herself that she wasn't actually enjoying the feel of Misty's skull being slammed against her shod hoof and against the trunk of the tree. Or the feel of the ribs in her barrel as she kicked her as hard as she could. There was a visceral, primal satisfaction to inflicting this sort of pain, on this sort of pony. It reminded her too much of the incident back at the Carousel Boutique. And worst of all, it reminded her of the fact that she had enjoyed it at the time, and had no intention of stopping at the time. If Spike hadn't been there to stop her, she would've followed through and killed Rarity on the spot, no hesitation whatsoever.
Now here she was, trying to drown out those thoughts and memories, as she wailed on Misty against the tree, slamming her back into the bark to the point it was flying off from the impact. Making it all the worse was that the more she unloaded on Misty, the angrier she felt as more and more rage just came pouring out of her. The dam had finally broken as an outlet had been found, and there was no stopping it. Everything she'd been dealing with, or bottling up so she wouldn't have to deal with it, was escaping as she pounded away on Misty, unconcerned about anything else.
Both the spirit and the fire were strong, but the flesh was weak. Despite all of the anger she had within her, she simply couldn't keep pounding away indefinitely. Fatigue eventually caught up with her, slowing down her movements, before eventually leaving her exhausted and panting as she learned against Misty for support, keeping her pinned against the tree.
"Oh my, what a violent little pony you are," Misty cooed mockingly, her voice carrying absolutely no signs of being any worse for wear, despite the beating she'd weathered at Rainbow Dash's hooves.
"Fuck you," Rainbow Dash spat as she kept Misty pinned to the tree.
"Are you offering?" Misty asked.
It took Rainbow Dash a moment to realize just what she was saying. When the realization finally set in she pulled her hoof back uncertainly, before slamming both forward and slammed Misty back up against the tree.
"You think trying to be cute is gonna save you? Don't bet on it!" she stated as she drew her right hoof back and slammed it right into Misty's muzzle. "After all the pain and suffering you've caused me, all you did to rip me and my friends apart, you're not getting out of this one. And after I'm done with you, I'm coming after your boss!"
Misty seemed unfazed by the assault. "You think that I did any of this to you?" she asked and shook her head in response. "You did all this to yourself. You're selfish and egotistical, overconfident in your own abilities and standings, you don't care at all about your friends unless they further your own ambitions. You're the one that hurt yourself, I didn't have any part in any of it. If you were a better friend you would-"
The following blow to Misty's barrel shut her up completely, causing her whole body to shake from the impact as she was slammed against the tree again.
"Don't you ever, EVER talk about my friends again! You don't know anything!" Rainbow Dash yelled, her exhaustion being forgotten as she found herself in a whole new degree of pissed off. Without even thinking about it, she relinquished her hold and raised both hooves over her head, before bringing both of them down on Misty's head as hard as she could, staggering her with the blow.
Misty just looked back up at Rainbow Dash again, unmoved by the emotional and physical outburst. "No matter how much you hit me, it's not going to change the truth of the matter. There's no denying it, you really don't care about them more than yourself. You'd let each of them fall if helping them meant getting in the way of your own desires. You're more interested in yourself than anypony else."
Rainbow Dash glared at Misty and prepared to slug her again, but stopped short of actually following through. "And why exactly should I listen to anything you try and tell me? You're not even real. What would you know about them, or me for that matter?" she asked.
"I know everything there is to know, about both them and you. And for good reason, too..." Misty stated, a practical purr in her voice as she spoke.
Rainbow Dash watched in surprise as the purple and dark blue trappings of Misty's costume practically melted away, revealing the pony they hid underneath. She'd been expecting the visage of Rarity, but that wasn't the case here. Instead she was greeted with the appearance of herself! There was another Rainbow Dash underneath the costume, now staring back at her. But this Rainbow Dash was different, all of her colors dingy and dark like she hadn't seen a bath in weeks, if not months, and the sclera of her eyes were completely black.
"What... what are you?" Rainbow Dash asked, finding the entire thing to be utterly disturbing.
"You mean to tell me that you don't even recognize me? You really are a dummy, you know that? I'm you. Or more accurately, I'm your darkness. I'm what you try so desperately to keep the others from seeing. I'm every negative impulse and dark thought you've ever had in your life. I know every nasty little secret you've got about yourself. I know everything there is to know about you, because I am you!" the other stated with glee and a sneer.
"So... that'd make you, what, "Darkbow" or something?" Rainbow Dash asked, more confused than anything. Or maybe she was Shadow Dash? Ugh, she really wished Spike was here right now, he was good with nicknames.
The other Rainbow Dash chuckled in response. "It doesn't matter what you call me, because it doesn't change anything. You and I are the same. Well, as far as being the same pony anyway. I'm just better than you, because I'm honest about myself. I don't pretend to be something I'm not to get what I want from others. I'm the more real version of you that you're afraid of admitting to."
"Every dark thought, huh? So... that'd mean it was your idea to kill yourself, right? You were the one too scared to face not knowing which way was up, not me, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Darkbow hadn't expected that sort of response, not from an idiot like this. She frowned in response to more or less being had, and proceeded to pull up her hind legs and kick Rainbow Dash in her barrel, pushing her back and letting her get loose. It didn't matter if the armor she wore was protecting her, that was a small issue that could easily be dealt with.
"You can be cute and funny all you want, it's not going to change anything, or help you out of this," she stated as she set down on all four of her hooves again. "You're in so much trouble right now, it's not even funny."
Rainbow Dash shrugged, unimpressed with the warning. "Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. I'm pretty sure I can kick your ass just fine," she replied as she rolled her withers in preparation of the coming fight.
"Ugh, you're so stupid, manure for brains, do you know that? I'm you, remember!? If we fight you wouldn't be kicking my ass, you'd be kicking your own ass!" Darkbow yelled.
"So what you're saying... is that I own your ass?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Darkbow stared blankly at Rainbow Dash, before facehoofing and muttering various equestrian obscenities under her breath. It wasn't just the stupidity of the questions getting to her, it was the fact that she had a cocky, cheeky grin on her face that proved she knew exactly what she was going. Rainbow Dash was quickly stealing her shtick, and beating her over the head with it, right after rebuking her for using the same routine. "Oh you are so going to get it. You know that, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are we gonna fight, or are we just gonna talk all night?" Rainbow Dash asked. She was getting seriously impatient with the lack of action that her foggy counterpart was instituting. If she was going to keep this up then she was going to go back and help Ulquiorra; Scratchy wasn't much for conversation, but at least he was entertaining in his own right. "You really weren't kidding when you said you were my darkness, were you? You're really boring," she stated.
"You want a fight? You'll get a fight!" Darkbow yelled back. She'd had enough playing around, she was doing to show this arrogant mare who the real boss was.
"Well then bring it!" Rainbow Dash stated back as she flared her wings.
Rarity hummed to herself as she went about her business, more to occupy her mind with something than to try and bring any sort of music to the current situation; it was quite tense right now, and she didn't dare do anything to set somepony off, even unintentionally. Their nerves were quite frazzled enough, what with there being nothing to do but wait, and all the while worrying about Rainbow Dash's well being.
They'd all been reunited a mere few minutes after so long of being separated, only for her to once again head off on her own for parts unknown. For all any of them knew, that was the last time they would ever see each other, regardless of Rainbow Dash's theory that Nightmare Moon wouldn't do anything to actually harm her. There were simply no guarantees to make them feel any better.
Hence why she was preoccupying herself with the one thing she actually could manage right now.
"One more stroke, and... oh yes, that's much better," she said as she ran one last pass of a comb through Zecora's mane. Much as she liked the look of the zebra's mane being down, it simply wasn't her. And with nothing else to do, she'd taken the opportunity to procure a comb and some styling mousse to bring it back more to its natural mohawk styling.
"Thank you, my friend," Zecora replied, grateful that Rarity had taken the time to assist her in such a manner, despite it paling in comparison to the more serious problems they were currently facing. Somehow it just felt... better to have her mohawk back again, even if it had been restored with chemicals she didn't associate with.
"Think nothing of it. In truth I should be thanking you. If I had to stand around much longer with nothing to do, I'm certain the stress would drive me mad," Rarity replied. The others might've been content to wait around the library's round table, but she wasn't.
"Yes, about that," Zecora started as she glanced over at the library's table, and everyone currently standing around it, and looking intently at the surface. "If I may inquire, just what events are they allowing to transpire?" she asked as she looked over at everyone else gathered around the table.
"I'm afraid I wasn't paying much attention at the time. If I remember correctly, Luna is doing something with her magic and the surface of the moon, to provide a bird's eye view of the Everfree Forest on the table's surface, while overlaying a representation of Rainbow Dash's location so they can see where the foals currently are. Supposedly it's to help them know where to go once she arrives at her destination," Rarity explained as best she could, now wishing her mind hadn't glossed over the explanation she'd gotten from Twilight as to what the process entailed. But the mare was so technical in her explanations, it was often hard to follow her.
For a while the library was silent. At least as silent as it could be with eight ponies of varying species and one dragon all anxiously awaiting updates on their friend, with most of them crowding around a magic map while waiting for updates.
"Might I ask, why do they not simply raise the sun? Would not such serve to make Nightmare Moon come undone?" Zecora asked.
Rarity paused, uncertain of how to answer that question. "I don't know. But I say we find out."
She approached the table, Zecora following close behind. The table was certainly crowded, but not to the point where getting Luna's attention would mean doing something impolite. There was -thankfully- enough room for her to gently prod the night princess' wither. She could only assume how presumptuous the gesture appeared to Zecora, to so casually touch a ruler. But with everything that had been happening recently, she doubted anypony would really care.
"Yes? What is it?" Luna asked as she turned her attention away from the table.
"Sorry to interrupt, Luna, but Zecora had a question that, frankly, has left me wondering. If Nightmare Moon is a creature of the night, couldn't we simply raise the sun early? Wouldn't that serve to put an end to her plans?" Rarity asked.
"If only it were that simple," Luna replied and shook her head. "Nightmare Moon is a creature of darkness, but she does not need it in order to survive. She abhors the light for many reasons, mostly for it being associated with my sister, but it does not harm her. Raising the sun would serve as more of an annoyance to her than anything else," she explained. Had it been as simple as that, she would've raised the sun a long time ago to squash that foul demon. "Beyond such, I do not want to give her anymore reason to harm the foals. There is no telling what she might do; she is vindictive enough to subject them to needless suffering out of mere pettiness."
"Look! Look!"
Luna explanation of why they weren't currently flooding the Everfree Forest with light, cutting through the thick canopies to banish every trace of shadow there was, was cut short by Pinkie's excited state. She quickly turned her attention back to the map displayed on the table, and saw a red dot now present; the same red dot that earlier had represented Rainbow Dash's position. It had been present up until she'd breached the mass of terror fog that had accumulated in the forest, before going silent. She had assumed that the fog would do nothing to obstruct their monitoring efforts, but they'd been wrong about that. This was the first real indication of just where she'd been in that whole mess, and all the ground it covered.
And just as soon as it had appeared, it was gone again, plunging back down into the fog where they couldn't follow.
"I don't get it, what's she doing?" Twilight asked.
"I do not know. Although I wish I did," Luna replied. With no way of cutting through the fog, it was anypony's guess on where they were within that mile of Nightmare Moon's domain.
Rarity shuffled anxiously on her hooves, the not knowing proving to be even worse than knowing gruesome details, as it allowed her mind to run wild. The only proof they'd had so far that Rainbow Dash was still alive, was how hard the Element of Loyalty was strobing and flashing within its case. And while the map showed her still being alive and mobile, none of this really told them anything else.
A loud crashing sound served to startle just about all of them, causing a group jump to occur before they finally realized what it was the front door being knocked on rather enthusiastically.
"This library is seein' more activity than the Manehattan train station," Applejack stated as she got a hold of herself and made her way for the front door to see who was knocking.
"A moment, Applejack," Luna spoke up, causing the earth pony to pause, and allowing her to walk past her. "Considering everything that has been going on, it may be another trick. And if it is, I wholly intend to wallop whatever is on the other side of that door," she explained.
"Well in that case, be mah guest," Applejack replied, not wanting to get between Luna and what she felt was important business.
Luna stepped over to the door, making herself ready for whatever might be waiting for them as it pounded away. She reached out and gripped the knob in her magic, and quickly swung it open to confront who and/or what was there.
"Princess?"
What she didn't expect to encounter, was a confused looking Vinyl Scratch looking up at her.
"What're ya doin' here, Princess?" Vinyl asked.
"Answering the door," Luna replied matter-of-factly, "what of yourself? What brings you by so anxiously?" she asked.
"Oh. Right. I think we might have a problem."
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Christ man, I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. That was probably one of the best quotes of the story, in my opinion.
that deleted scene would have been perfect.
I knew it the Mare Do Well was actually Rainbow's inner "Hollow". The truth hurts and who knows the truth than yourself.
That Vasto Lorde fog monster is becoming a real pain. Each time it's struck down it comes back stronger. [Manga spoiler] Just like Sternritter Gerard Valkyrie currently.
Also
if I didn't misinterpreted and Rainbow was talking about the Kurosaki fog monster, then you might want to change that either by Vizard, Vasto Lorde, Shinigami, or whatever, but Arrancar doesn't fit.
That scene with Darkbow (Shadow Dash?) reminded me of Persona 4. Oh, and no spoilers about the game, I'm playing it for the first time and haven't beaten it yet.
Edit: Didn't think I would upset people with that comment. Sorry.
I always assumed that Ulquiorra could heal his organs if they were mostly intact. You seem to agree.
Although, just out of curiosity, which of his organs aren't vital? Like, the pancreas? If that's obliterated, can it come back? Since it's non-vital and all. And what about a transplant? Say, if he were to get another Arrancar's lung, or something similar. That's the thing with regenerators. The writers never give you enough context.
And honestly, why aren't they just tossing the fog constructs? I mean it. Just practice your shot put. Or, better yet, if Ulquiorra releases his zanpakuto, I'm fairly certain the rush of energy will completely dissipate the fog. Such an omnidirectional rush of power could certainly ruin the Nightmare's plans.
Ok, RD did far better against the Kurostruct than I'd think possible. EIther the Lunar Armor is totally Hax or somethings up. Also, quite liked how RD talked "Darkbow" into a corner. Perfect "U Mad Bro?" moment.
Below are the edits for this chapter:
*Sandy - Not sure if you meant to put "Sandy" there, can't really remember you ever using that as a nickname for Ichigo. But seeing as you've used it twice I'm inclined to believe it's just something I overlooked.
*and soothe from frazzled nerves. - and soothe their frazzled nerves.
*when I though he killed - when I thought he killed
*gonna shave you? - gonna save you? (Ok, I'll admit that I snickered at that one.)
*you've got about you. - you've got about yourself.
*I'm the realer version - I'm the real version
*So... that'd be it - So... that'd mean it
*she was doing to show - she was going to show
*started out as a taken on Dirty Bit's - started out as a take on Dirty Bit's
*everyone that's been loyal - everyone that've been loyal
It really has been that long, hasn't it? Your fic is still going strong, man
7213457 he can't aford to take the risk. He doesn't know they are in a barrier. As far as ulquiorra knows they are just wondering around somewhere trying to find a way back.
7212083
I just had to put it in there.
7212332
It was, but it just didn't fit the flow.
7212457
Actually she's comparing herself to Ulquiorra in her fight, and poorly since she's not getting anywhere.
7213055
Haven't heard of that one.
7213457
That's my take on the whole regeneration thing.
Not sure what you're asking about the fog constructs being tossed. But Ulquiorra is more or less blind to his surroundings, so he really can't risk firing off a Cero since he doesn't know where the foals are. So he has to use blunt force trauma instead.
As to why he isn't utilizing his release, he's got good reason. As he's noting, the more credence he shows it, the stronger it becomes. He broke its neck, it gouged out his eye. He blew its head off with a Bala, it impaled him like his hierro was nothing, and demonstrated the ability to discharge a Cero. Going initial release is a risky gamble he can't afford to take.
7213491
Something's up? Are you saying that I might be practicing deception?
7214044
It's going stronger than I've been. This isn't easy.
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Even if he did know they were contained within a barrier, it wouldn't help. Not knowing how much abuse it could take, he wouldn't want to discharge a Cero in what might be the direction they are, since they'd have no way to escape.
7214749 I mean… To be fair, it's powered by NMM. I highly doubt that NMM can manage enough power to equally counter Ulquiorra's Resurrecion states. Especially without a body. And the release's power would undoubtedly dispel a portion of the fog with the whole 'huge burst of energy/wind' effect.
On a side note, I have to wonder… What were to happen if Ulquiorra were hit by Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark theft spell? Would it work like the Sternritter Bankai medallions? Could it even work on Ulquiorra? On a Shinigami, I could understand. But an Arrancar? Who are literally defined by their Hollow parts?
7214749 ik. And even his release could possibly kill them anyways. Most likely the barrier could take the shock waves but ya, since ulquiorra doesn't know he can't risk it along with making the constructs stronger. By "them" i mean the foals.
7214749 What? You being deceptive, of course not! You're obviously a paragon of virtue and are far to considerate of your readers feelings to jerk them around like that.
Another amzing chapter. Great job.
7215247
Granted that might happen, but Ulquiorra has no way of knowing what's going to happen. All he knows for certain is that Nightmare Moon can solidify the fog to the point of being able to skewer him, meaning she has considerable strength at her disposal, and can call upon it if necessary. He's got reason to not want to tip his hand just yet.
As to Starlight Glimmer, I've been considering that since the season 5 premier, and I still don't have any answers. What could Ulquiorra actually be stripped of, that would potentially affect him? And to what degree could he be affected? Could it keep him from breaking down the door? Could he demonstrate just how stupid the equality thing is by breaking one of Starlight's leg with a single kick, and prove his point with how there are no medics in the village? Or would he be negatively affected in a way that left him like Coyote Starrk, and constantly sleeping?
7215253
Meaning he has to be mindful of a great many factors while engaging in battle.
7215307
has been doubled.
The
7213457 My biggest question has always been: since Arrancar are dead and just absorb soul energy... why do they need organs in the first place?
(That time when biology ruined anime forever...)
7216346
See, Ulquiorra's learning friendship after all!
7216518 I am a supreme super-genius! I can understand anything if it makes sense!
(Realizes Hollows... and all of "Bleach" for that matter... makes no sense...)
THE MADNESS HAS TAKEN ME!!! AGAIN!!
7214749
This reminds me of a quote, apparently spoken by John F. Kennedy: "We choose to go to the Moon... we choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard."
This story has pushed your writing skills to new levels, and you now have a respectable following of readers, who eagerly await each new chapter. It may not be easy in practice, but you sure do make it look easy to the rest of us,
[retching sounds]
"Ugh, you're so stupid, manure for brains, do you know that? I'm you, remember!? If we fight you wouldn't be kicking my ass, you'd be kicking your own ass!" Darkbow yelled.
"So what you're saying... is that I own your ass?" Rainbow Dash asked.
HAHAHA
that was perfect
7322887
I made that comment quite some time ago: I figured it out between then and now.
Thank you for your concern, however.
7329826 While I normally stay out of dub-v.s.-sub debates, as far as the Naruto anime is concerned.....yeah I prefer the original Japanese VAs as well.
cant what to see what happens next
plz write moar ;4;
Wow. Ulquiorra has definitely changed from the beginning of the story. Character development at its finest.
Now that's a good story...
I don't know why but I'm continuously refreshing this page. Maybe it will be updated if I continue to do so.
Nice Story
7437983 Way of destruction#101: Continuous refresh!
Yes finally we have some sort of idea why these things won't die. Now to actually do something! Sad I'm also caught up but I must continue!