North Blitz
This is the continuation of the story of six mares who have yet to realize their own destinies.
After absorbing the energies from six mysterious gems that Princess Celestia sent to them, the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony retired to bed early that evening, their minds and hearts heavy with the day’s events. What occurred that night would have been understood or comprehended by none of them.
In a dream unknowingly shared by all, each were guided by an unseen voice, and faced with a strange choice of powers in an even stranger environment of stained glass circles floating over an endless abyss. Each then went on to battle miniature elementals of the energy inside each of the respectives gems they had synergized with. Armed with strange new weapons and abilities, they triumphed over the trials thrown their way, but were soon faced with a colossus of that very same element.
Failing to defeat the colossus, they were all dragged into the depths of the abyss that awaited below them before they awoke, but there was nothing they could understand from the dream.
And now, a sinister shadow falls over Rainbow Dash’s home as she wakes, a series of yellow flashes stalking her every step as the new day begins...
“The Order of Koaxia”
Chapter 3
North Blitz
~
Rainbow Dash felt like a worn-out sack of potatoes when she woke up that morning.
“Ugh...” the rainbow-maned pegasus groaned as she turned over to her other side on her cloud-bed, facing the sunlight that streamed through the window. Absently, she raised one of her hooves in front of her, eyeing it critically, and then clenched and unclenched it, watching the single fold of skin crease and smoothen as she examined it.
“Just... what the hay was that dream supposed to be?” She muttered to herself. Something about that dream had just been plain odd - something about her body had felt totally wrong. Forelegs that were shorter than her hind ones, five manipulating digits, being able to balance so well on just her hind legs alone...
“So bizarre... What was that place?” Rainbow Dash groaned as she lifted herself off her bed, tilting her neck this way and that and eliciting several sharp cracks! Taking a moment to stretch her sore and aching muscles to get the blood flowing, she trotted in place for a few moments, warming herself up.
“Well, no use wondering about it... it’s just some stupid dream. Not like it’s gonna come true or anything...” she muttered under her breath as she continued on with her morning calisthenics, ignoring the strange niggling feeling that slowly pooled at the back of her skull.
Quickly finishing her warmups and stretches, the cyan pegasus then galloped straight out the door, flinging it open before throwing herself off the edge of her cloud manor.
Folding in her wings as she plummeted downwards, Rainbow Dash dropped like a bullet... and just as she was mere metres away from crashing headlong into the ground, her wings unfurled, and she veered off from her collision course with the ground with only inches to spare, a spectacular turn that would have sent Scootaloo into a tizzy.
“Yep, still got it,” she chortled to herself despite the death-defying stunt she had just pulled off. With a mighty flap of her wings, the winged mare swiftly ascended several dozen metres, rising above the treeline of the forest and bringing Ponyville into view.
“All right! Let’s see...” in her mind, Rainbow Dash slowly ticked off one-by-one the things she always did for her morning routine. “Morning warmups, check. Dive out of cloud manor, check. Death defying stunt? Che-bucking-eck.”
The pegasus smirked to herself, and then immediately grimaced as the rumblings of her stomach finally caught up with her.
“Ugh... breakfast... unchecked.”
Veering in the direction of Ponyville before flapping her wings several more times to pick up more speed, Rainbow Dash was so distracted by her hunger that she totally missed the slight prickling in her right hoof as her coat stood slightly on end. Too busy revelling in the feeling of the wind in her face, she failed to notice the single cumulus cloud that was trailing behind her conspicuously quickly.
Strange dream in the morning aside, the day couldn’t have possibly been more normal.
Breakfast had gone smoothly as she wolfed down some donuts at Sugarcube Corner, and even sprung several surprise pranks on Pinkie, as was their “morning tradition”. Even now she chased the pink earth pony all around the shop with a spray-can of whipped cream, laughing madly as she tried to coat her friend in the stuff.
As the chase went on, Dash began to notice that something was different. Pinkie was still the same laughing, mad, and lovably friendly Pinkie, but something in her grin as Dash chased her around seemed slightly... what, challenging?
If anything, it reminded Dash of herself, whenever she was in one of those moods where she felt like charging into a friendly challenge and seeing who could come out on top - and she was fiercely competitive whenever she got in those moods.
Yeah. Something about Pinkie seemed unprecedentedly fierce today.
And Rainbow Dash finally felt it first-hoof as the pink pony twisted around her latest spray of whipped cream, deftly avoiding it before practically pouncing on the pegasus, pinning her to the floor and knocking the spray can out of her grip.
“Yield, Dashie?” Pinkie asked with a playful smirk, and Dash couldn’t help but let out a good-natured laugh.
“Yeah, I yield, Pinks. Now get off’a me!”
Giggling as the glinty edge in her eyes suddenly disappeared, Pinkie Pie beamed as she leapt off Rainbow Dash, allowing the pegasus to get to her hooves. The cyan speedster began to move, and before she even knew what she was doing, surged upright in an uncanny display of dexterity, twirling herself back up onto her front legs before flipping back onto all fours.
Pinkie Pie let out an appreciative whistle, visibly impressed. “Wow, coming up with new tricks, Dash?”
Rainbow Dash would’ve given just as cocky a reply if she hadn’t been so surprised at what she had just done. No, she wasn’t coming up with new tricks, she hadn’t even known what she’d pulled off! It had just seemed so... natural. Like she’d been pulling off the same move over and over again her entire life...
Come to think of it... none of this had ever happened before she got that nasty shock from that crystal at Twilight’s yesterday.
“No, not really, Pinkie...” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself, her mind distant in thought. “Hay, I haven’t even come up with that one, let alone practiced it...”
Something wasn’t right here. Something was different; very different.
“Hold the phone, Pinks. I gotta pay a visit to Twilight.”
Ignoring the confused look the pink party pony was giving her, Rainbow Dash galloped out the door and immediately took to the air, turning in the direction of Ponyville’s library as she beat her wings furiously in agitation.
Again, she found herself so caught up in her hurry that she failed to spot the shadowy figure who silently leaped from rooftop to rooftop unnoticed, trailing her every move.
Twilight Sparkle was not a morning pony.
Nope, not a morning pony at all. If yesterday’s meeting had been harrowing, the dream she had experienced was positively nightmarish in comparison.
She had woken screaming, with her mane completely frazzled and her eyes wide and bloodshot, staring at the ceiling. Thankfully, Spike had managed to stay completely asleep through her mini-freakout, and she had been spared having to awkwardly explain away her nightmare.
But unfortunately, that didn’t make the experience any less unnerving. The dream had just been so... so vivid.
The unicorn looked down at her hoof as she absently sipped at her coffee, clenching and unclenching it as she watched the single fold of skin crease and smoothen itself out again and again.
Just what was it about having five digits on her forehoof seem so weird?
Twilight would have continued down that train of thought for the rest of her breakfast, staring into her coffee, had a sudden crash from the library’s upper floor window not rudely jolted her from her reverie. Not a second later there came the sounds of multiple shelves collapsing and books clattering to the floor, and Twilight bit back a long-suffering groan.
Yep, it looked like Rainbow Dash still hadn’t learnt to use the door.
The sounds of tumbling books and creaking shelves continued for a few more seconds, before the aforementioned pegasus streaked down the stairs in a cyan blur, coming to an abrupt stop right before her.
“Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said flippantly, as though she hadn’t just wrecked the entire upper floor of the library. “You got a minute?”
The lavender unicorn did groan this time, and she let her face drop to the table in tired resignation. Her exasperation properly expressed, the librarian tilted her head upwards to face Rainbow Dash, her chin still resting on the wooden surface.
It must have been Thursday. She could never get the hang of Thursdays.“What is it, Rainbow...?”
“You uhh... you had any progress with those gem things? You know, looking into ‘em and all?”
Twilight arched an eyebrow at that, taken slightly by surprise. “I didn’t think you’d be even interested at all, Rainbow Dash. Sadly, no. I haven’t made any progress at all.” The unicorn turned her gaze pensively to go back to staring at her coffee, too troubled by the contents of last night’s... dream? Vision? Whatever it was, what she saw inside there had her too distracted to even concentrate on analyzing the crystals further.
“I had the... the weirdest dream last night,” the young scholar finally admitted after a few seconds, still staring into her mug and scratching at her head absently as her thoughts churned furiously with dozens of different theories and ideas. “I’ve been trying to figure out what it means, but it was just so bizarre...”
“Huge black abyss with glass circles and fighting this huge thing with weird weapons and powers?” Rainbow Dash’s voice suddenly cut in on her thoughts, and Twilight’s eyes widened in shock.
“You experienced it too!?” She thumped a hoof on the table as her gaze shot upright to lock with Rainbow Dash’s own, her expression now completely serious.
The cyan pegasus quickly retreated back a step, looking slightly nervous. “Whoa, relax there, Twilight! I don’t remember much - just a lot of lightning blasts here and there, and this awesome sword I was carrying! Get this - it had a motorcycle handle!”
Rainbow Dash was practically gushing by now at the sheer coolness of what she could recall, but Twilight was so deep in thought that she barely heard the pegasus’ ramblings. Her mind was rapidly drawing the parallels between Rainbow Dash’s dream and hers, and acknowledging the undeniable evidence that there was at least some connection between the crystals’ energies and the strange dream she had experienced.
“- and then I went up against this huge giant made out of nothing but lightning, but I managed to give him a good kick in the teeth but onc- hey Twilight, you okay?” A cyan hoof nudged Twilight on the shoulder, and the young scholar jolted out of her little thinking stupor, glancing towards a nonplussed Rainbow Dash with a confused look.
“Huh? Oh, I’m fine, Rainbow Dash... Just... drawing some parallels between your dream and mine...” Twilight began looking away again with that far-off, deep-in-thought look, and Rainbow Dash groaned when she realized that the lavender unicorn was actually staring into her coffee mug. Again.
Apparently, asking Twilight was going to be a dead end. The lavender unicorn was practically half-asleep before her morning coffee, and Rainbow Dash didn’t feel like waiting around for the librarian to finish her breakfast.
Leaving her egghead friend to continue on her ponderings, Rainbow Dash turned where she stood and started trotting off to the library’s front door, when an odd shape outside the window flashed through her peripheral vision.
Wait a sec... the hay is that?
Immediately snapping her focus to the library’s window, she caught the slightest, most fleeting glimpse of something... Something black, slender, and standing on two hind legs.
Or at least, that was what she thought she saw. Having just a split-second to see something, especially something that could possibly be a mere figment of your imagination, didn’t exactly give a lot of details as to out what it was. Because when she took a closer look, the mysterious silhouette was gone, and all she could see was Twilight’s fence.
Gah, horsefeathers, all this thinking was already giving Rainbow Dash’s uncommonly-used mental faculties a general headache. It was still way too early in the morning to deal with something like this.
Quickly trotting out of the library and taking off with a beat of her wings, she turned in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. Though she rapidly picked up speed, the winged mare found herself distracted; despite her best efforts, she was unable to totally ignore the raised hackles on the back of her neck, and the sensation that something was following her.
Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have been the first one to admit it, but Fluttershy’s reaction to whatever was in the obsidian yesterday had the daredevil very concerned for her fillyhood friend.
After the fruitless meeting at Twilight’s library yesterday, where she and Applejack had completely failed to get further answers from the lavender unicorn, she had personally accompanied Fluttershy back to her home on the outskirts of Ponyville to make sure that she had made it home safely.
The poor yellow pegasus had been in tears the entire walk there, despite her best efforts to remain composed, and Rainbow Dash had walked silently but faithfully by her friend’s side. Even as she had bid goodbye to her closest friend, Fluttershy had given her a forced smile through the streaks her tears had left on her face before entering her cottage.
Rainbow Dash had to make sure her fillyhood friend was still doing okay with whatever it was that had hit her. The cyan pegasus came to a soft landing at Fluttershy’s door, and she began knocking loudly to announce her arrival.
“Hey Fluttershy! You home?”
A few moments later the door creaked open a tiny sliver, but no yellow-furred head meekly stuck out of the crack to greet her - Rainbow Dash glanced downwards, and was instead greeted by the sight of Angel Bunny looking up at her expectantly.
“Hey little guy!” She gave the tiny rabbit an affectionate ruffle on the head with a hoof, ignoring his irate expression at the uncalled-for noogie. “Is Fluttershy here?”
A paw jabbing over his shoulder indicated that indeed she was, and the door soon opened to let Rainbow in. The cyan pegasus quickly trotted in, but noticed that the living room was empty. That just left one other place - Fluttershy must have still been in her bedroom.
“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash called out as she cantered up the steps leading upstairs. “I’m here! You feeling all right?”
When no answer came to her, worry began to claw at the edges of her mind. Had something happened? The slightest beginnings of panic began to ingrain themselves in her mind, and Rainbow Dash doubled her speed.
Perhaps a little more forcefully than she had intended, she set her hoof on the door to Fluttershy’s bedroom and quickly jerked it open, stepping inside and glancing hurriedly around the room. When she spotted the shivering, huddled mass still lying atop the bed, Rainbow Dash let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
For just a moment, when Fluttershy hadn’t answered her calls, she’d feared that the worst might have happened, that she might have disappeared, or that she might have-
No. No. Fluttershy would never do that! Shaking her head to quickly clear it of errant thoughts, the rainbow-maned pegasus quickly trotted forward and went over to where Fluttershy still lay shivering on her bed.
“Hey, Flutters!” Rainbow Dash whispered as she pulled the covers back, revealing a still-shaking, still-crying Fluttershy, her eyes still tightly shut and brimming with tears. “You all right?”
At the sound of her fillyhood nickname, the yellow pegasus lifted up her head from her tear-stained pillow. It was all she could do to gaze imploringly at Rainbow Dash for a single moment, before her eyes closed shut again her head fell back down, shaking uselessly.
“I... I had the worst nightmare last night, Rainbow! Darkness, pressing in everywhere around me... I tried to block it out but I couldn’t, I just couldn’t...!”
Whatever else Fluttershy had to say dissolved away into a series of broken sobs as she sagged towards Rainbow Dash, and the cyan pegasus quickly scooped her friend up into the most comforting hug she could muster, patting Fluttershy reassuringly on the back.
Any other pony and she wouldn’t have been caught dead being such a “softie”, but Fluttershy was one of those rare ponies whom Rainbow Dash didn’t mind going to the ends of Equestria for, even in public. And for a pony whose reputation was almost everything to her, this was saying a lot.
“So, you had one too, huh?” The cyan pegasus murmured after a few seconds, and Fluttershy looked up at her, confused.
“Wait... you had it too?”
“Yeah... it was freakin weird. Lightning giants and stuff, and I had this sword with a motorcycle handle. And on this glass circle in the middle of all this blackness... You dreamt of anything like that?”
Fluttershy giggled slightly at her friend’s nonchalant description, but felt slightly disconcerted all the same. “Yes... I had something like that. I... don’t want to think about it right now.”
Parting away from Rainbow, Fluttershy quickly got off her bed and onto her hooves, wiping the remnants of her tears away and giving her a genial smile. “Why don’t you go downstairs and make yourself at home, Dash? I just need a minute to wash up.”
“Oh, that’s all right, ‘Shy!” Rainbow Dash declined, already starting to feel like she’d outstayed her welcome - outside, the sky was calling to her, and her wings were already itching to get working. “I was just dropping by to make sure you were all right, but I’ve got a lot on my plate today. Lots of practice and training to get on with - you know the usual story.”
“Oh! Well, it’s all right then. Enjoy your training today Dash!” Fluttershy suddenly came forward and gave Rainbow an unexpected hug, and she backed up slightly in surprise before grinning, returning it.
“You too, Flutters. Take care yourself, y’hear?”
She had left Fluttershy to her own devices soon after making sure that everything with the shy little pegasus really was all right and she wasn’t going to spontaneously break down or something. Taking off from the cottage’s doorstep, Rainbow Dash had then streaked into the wide, open air-space above the fields on the outskirts of Ponyville, intent on getting on with her daily training regimen.
Several hours later, she had been halfway through practicing her signature Buccaneer Blaze when she felt it.
A strange prickling in her right hoof so strong that she couldn’t ignore it - the very same hoof she used to touch the topaz yesterday.
Her fur was beginning to stand on end very uncomfortably, as though she’d spent too much time shuffling through the clouds picking up static electricity, and this time Rainbow Dash couldn’t deny what she had been feeling the entire morning.
She was getting the willies something bad, and she didn’t even know what was causing it!
“Geez, for Celestia’s sake, what is wrong with you, Rainbow?” The rainbow-maned mare admonished herself loudly as she alighted on a nearby cloud, trying to shake off the strange feeling that had infiltrated even her very bones. By the stars, she just couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was being watched...
A tiny spot of heat began to burn incredibly hot at the back of her neck, and her breath hitched in her throat. Her eyes shrunk into mere pinpricks as something in her subconscious suddenly clicked, and Rainbow Dash reacted.
The cyan pegasus made a mad dive to her left as she threw herself off the cloud and into the air below her as a bolt of yellow lightning blasted through the spot she had occupied but a split second before. The cloud’s obliteration was instantaneous, as the electricity reduced it to naught but a few shreds of vapor.
Her heart hammering from the close call, Rainbow Dash whirled around to where the lightning bolt had come from, the feeling of dread and unexplainable fear that was mounting in her chest beginning to build even further. She couldn’t explain it, but whatever had just hurled that bolt at her, she did not want to meet it face-to-face.
No... No, it wasn’t because she was being a wuss. Let it be known that Rainbow Dash was never afraid of facing any conventional threat head on, but something about that lightning bolt had thrown her for a loop.
Because for one thing, while that bolt had come within scant inches of connecting with her, for the briefest of moments she had been able to sense the energies that had been fuelling that bolt... and to her horror, she had realized that she recognized that energy.
Lightning coursing through her body, muscles spasming in molten agony as lethal currents overloaded synapses....
It was here.
Whatever had left behind the energies contained within the topaz she had touched was here.
It was here, and it had come for her.
The rainbow-maned pegasus lifted her head up slowly, breaking out in a cold sweat and almost fearful of what she would see, to be greeted by something the likes of which she had never seen before.
A two-legged, bipedal creature clad in a black coat of some sort was standing atop a cloud above her, one of its legs raised higher than the other. A shock of spiky golden hair dominated the top of its otherwise furless head, and its eyes sparked from within with a shocking electric yellow.
Its face was oddly expressive, with a nub of a nose situated in its centre, and a mouth that did not protrude at all. Its features were hard and angular, hinting at its masculine gender.
In its right hand, eerily akin to Spike’s manipulative claws, it held a massive sword almost as long as its own body, and a chill ran down Rainbow Dash’s spine as she realized just how similar the sword’s was to the one’s she had wielded in her dream. A dragon’s head formed its hilt, a pair of draconic wings radiating out the sides to serve as its crossguard, and electricity was dancing about the blade.
But as intimidating as the weapon it held in its grip was, the most unnerving thing of all was the smile it was giving her - because Rainbow Dash recognized that kind of smile.
It was the smile that predators gave their prey when they had finally cornered them.
“Why,” The creature spoke in a deep and decidedly masculine voice; a voice that promised horrifying agony, and a painful death. “Hello there, missy.”
He stood up upon his nimbus, summoning his blade into his hand, and stared down towards the hovering pegasus that was but a few feet below him.
Her eyes - yes, her eyes, for the tiny creature’s facial features were decidedly feminine and rounded - were as wide as dinner plates as she regarded him the same way a deer might regard a lion that was just moments away from pouncing on it. Her pupils had shrunk to mere pinpricks, an obvious indicator of fear, and the grin on his face widened just the slightest bit more.
Oh, this was going to be a good one, he could tell.
“W-what in the hay are you supposed to be!?” The pegasus mare before him spoke in a high-pitched voice cracked with fear, and he nearly laughed out loud. Geez, even their language had an automatic vocabulary censor!
“Melchior. North Blitz of the Order of Koaxia.” He gave her his name and title along with a short, mock bow, still leering at her with that predatory grin. “Though I suppose you’d never have heard of us, or the human race, given the fact that we arrived here only a few weeks ago.”
Something seemed to click inside the pegasus’ head, given her expression, and her frame tensed up even further, as though she was preparing to either bolt or rush him. “You... so it was you guys that Princess Celestia felt snooping around here! You and your... Order of whatever!”
Melchior let out a bark of laughter at that, and he plunged his sword into the cloud he stood upon - in response, the entire fluffy white mass turned a dark gray, and lightning began to spark around its edges. “Frankly I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out. This place has already gone to the dogs - your Princess is too soft! Letting us wander around for weeks without even taking any direct action!”
“Hey!” The pegasus spat out in sudden vehemence, and her stance took on a decidedly aggressive tone. “Don’t you dare talk about the Princess like that!”
“Oooh!” Melchior raised his hands mockingly. “Sounds like I struck a nerve there. Did that smart?”
“SHUT UP!!!”
A cyan blur suddenly zoomed straight at him, and Melchior immediately leaned slightly to the left, letting a blue-furred hoof pass just inches from landing a wild haymaker. A malicious grin then spread over his face, and his left leg blurred forward.
“Too slow!”
Rainbow Dash had just about had it with this cocky buzzard! At first, her fear had locked her in place, a fear of the unknown and just what this thing in front of her was. However, the more this blabbermouth continued his mouthing off against the Princess, hurling slight after slight against her beloved monarch, she had found her fear melting away, replaced by a seething pot of anger that began to bubble within her chest.
And that mocking tone of his, directed straight at herself - ugh, that was the last straw!!!
Snarling in rage, Rainbow Dash ignored the instinct that was screaming at the back of her head for her to run, and instead launched herself towards the ‘human’ that called itself Melchior, fully intending to give him a good bucking in the face until all his teeth had been kicked in!
“SHUT UP!!!”
Mustering all her strength, she threw her left hoof forward in a wild haymaker, intending on making this stranger pay for his disrespect to the Princess... and was utterly bewildered when her hoof met nothing but empty air.
Wait, what in the-
“Too slow!”
And then a freight train suddenly slammed right into her midsection. The wind was utterly blown out of Rainbow Dash’s lungs as she choked on her own spit, and before she knew it her entire world was spinning end over end as she felt herself hurtling through the air in some unknown direction.
Desperate to regain her balance, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings madly in an attempt to stop her tumble, but it was no use. The force of whatever had just hit her was so great that she couldn’t overcome it, and before she could even begin to slow down she felt herself crash into something; the impact jolted her body sharply as a stab of agony hit her in the chest, but still she didn’t stop tumbling.
Several moments later her world finally stopped spinning, and Rainbow Dash gasped for air despite the protests of her winded chest. By the stars, she could barely breathe...
Getting onto hooves that protested against taking her weight, the cyan pegasus forced herself upright, opening her eyes just a bit to see where she had landed. A quick glance around told her that somehow that single blow had managed to hurl her all the way across to the ground far below her, and her mind briefly reeled in awed horror at the kind of force that must have taken to accomplish...
And then her musings were cut short when Melchior suddenly appeared in front of her, one of his fists cocked backwards.
“Oi! Quit daydreaming!”
The same freight train that had hit her in the gut but a few seconds ago slammed right into her jaw, and she could only let out a strangled hurk! in surprise as she felt herself being hurled through the air once again.
And then everything went mercifully black.
Get up...
“Unngghh...” She moaned under her breath, wincing as the throbbing in her jaw intensified, but that pain felt nothing compared to the red-hot stabbing poker that still assailed her in her chest. Stars, it felt like she’d cracked a rib...
Get up...
Perhaps if she just took a moment to rest here... maybe the pain would go away...
Yeah... Sleep sounded good...
Get up!
BZZT!
A violent shock jolted her right in the chest, and burning energy sizzled through her entire body as it spasmed violently.
“AUGH!”
Get up!!!
BZZZZT!!!
“AAAGGGHH!!!”
Her screams came through muscles that had locked up in sheer agony. Her throat had seized up, and it hurt to even breathe, yet the shocks from her chest pulsed again and again, sending burning energy coursing through her veins with every beat.
And the burning energy... it gave her strength.
GET UP!!!
“Haaaaahhh!!!” With a rasping gasp, Rainbow Dash’s eyes finally opened, and she found herself lying down on her side, caked with dirt with a livid bruise right across her chest. Judging from the intense throbbing from her left cheek, that likely wasn’t her only injury; her jaw was probably either bruised or fractured as well, she couldn’t tell.
“Celestia, what the hay just hit me...?” The pegasus shook her head as she struggled to get back onto her hooves, glancing around to see where she had landed this time. A cursory check confirmed that she had indeed crashed into the ground, leaving behind a sizeable furrow and dirt trail where she had landed...
Her fur stood up on end again.
In a wild burst of pure instinct, Rainbow Dash threw herself forward again, barely avoiding the bolt of lightning that blasted away at the miniature furrow she had just made, passing by so close that her fur and skin were singed by its passage.
Cursing, she took the air again in the first direction that came to mind, flapping her wings madly as she rapidly picked up speed, desperate to get somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t here. Up, down, left, right, it didn’t matter so long as she managed to put some distance between her and that lunatic ‘human’...!
“What’s the matter? Runnin’ scared?” That voice suddenly came from behind her, and Rainbow Dash started before whirling her head around to look behind her - and indeed, Melchior was hot on her trail, somehow riding atop a nimbus cloud and pursuing her with a speed that rivalled her own.
The cyan pegasus’ mind was so busy whirling with the implications of humans being able to stand atop clouds as well when only pegasi were supposed to be able to do that, that she barely even saw the punch coming in time for her to dodge it by a hairsbreadth.
“Ha! Good, you’re getting faster!” Melchior crowed as though he was enjoying the sport of this, and then his left leg blurred forward again. Rainbow barely saw it coming, and she lifted up her forelegs just in time to block the brunt of the blow.
“Nnnggghhh!” The pegasus let out a pained grunt as she was sent tumbling helplessly through the air again, but this time she managed to regain control of herself. As her wings flared outwards to slow her fall, the panicking mare found herself struggling to comprehend this nightmarish situation, her thoughts racing along at a breakneck pace.
Starless hells above, who the hay is this guy!? Showing up out of nowhere and then just attacking me? What the hay is going on here!?
Any further thoughts were immediately forced out of Rainbow Dash’s mind as Melchior renewed his assault, and a barrage of punches and kicks streaked her way.
The unknown human was moving so fast that it was all Rainbow Dash could even do to keep up. Every single blow he threw her way was either dodged, or blocked, or parried aside by nothing more than an hairsbreadth. But, even if she was able to avoid the worst of the attacks, Rainbow Dash was already stretching her reflexes and speed to their limits. Even if she managed to keep up her defense, launching a counter-attack was clearly out of the question.
Get away...! I have to get away!
Letting out a desperate cry, the mare lifted her hind legs in an unexpected burst of speed, and bucked straight off of Melchior’s chest with every bit of force she could muster. Taking the brief window of opportunity as her opponent stumbled back, Rainbow Dash immediately turned tail and zoomed off, desperate to open up at least some distance between them.
“Hey, get back here!”
Rainbow Dash barely even heard Melchior’s enraged shout as she tore through the sky. Suddenly, a blast of white fire slammed square into her back, sending her wings into wild spasms and eliciting a scream of pain from the pegasus as she was thrown wildly off course.
The smell of burnt meat and singed fur leaking into her nostrils, Rainbow Dash belatedly realized that Melchior must have hit her with a lightning bolt while she had been retreating.
Ah, horsefeathers...!
Frantically flapping her spasming wings in an attempt to get them working, she finally managed to flare them outwards several seconds later, bringing her uncontrolled tumble to a halt and sparing her a punishing impact against the ground beneath her.
Gasping out in relief, she quickly threw herself into an upward climb, trying to regain lost altitude in case Melchior tried to make her crash again. Honestly, she wasn’t going to be called Rainbow Crash again by the end of this fight... if she even survived it!
Fluttershy had been in the midst of feeding Angel Bunny his lunch when the first lightning bolt struck.
The accompanying thunderclap rolled right over Fluttershy’s cottage, and at the sudden CRACK-OOM!!! the butter yellow pegasus had immediately dived under her couch, shaking madly in fright.
It had taken several whacks over the head with a carrot from Angel Bunny to finally coax her out from beneath her furniture and take a look outside. To Fluttershy’s surprise, the sky was actually clear - there wasn’t a trace of a single grey stormcloud in the sky. In fact, besides the warm, friendly sunshine, the endless blue expanse was entirely empty.
So why exactly had there been the sound of a thunderbolt just now? There hadn’t been a thunderstorm scheduled for today by the pegasi weather team...
And then another thunderclap struck. And then another. And another. And before Fluttershy knew it, she was cowering underneath her table, Angel Bunny staring at her with a very annoyed look on his face.
A thumb jabbed over the tiny rabbit’s shoulder, and his irritated expression seemed to scream “Don’t you think you ought to get out there and see what’s going on!?”
“Oh, but what if there’s an unscheduled storm outside? I don’t want to get accidentally struck by-”
A paw suddenly slapped lightly across her face, and Fluttershy immediately snapped out of her needless worrying, giving Angel Bunny a grateful look. “Yes, you’re right, Angel bunny. I’m probably worrying too much. There’s nothing to be scared o-”
CRACK-OOM!!!
“Eeep!”
Angel’s expression said it all: This was going to be a long day.
Several minutes later Fluttershy had finally mustered the courage to step outside her cottage despite the frequent thunderclaps. Walking down the path away from her home, she saw that the sky was indeed clear; not a single stormcloud was in sight.
So what then was causing all those dreadful thunderclaps?
Another CRACK-OOM!!! not more than a second later sent her jumping several feet straight into the air, and gave her an answer - in the sky above her, a single gray cloud floated serenely in the air... and several lightning bolts were issuing from it every few seconds, seemingly chasing after...
Fluttershy’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach when she saw just what the lightning bolts were coming dangerously close to hitting, and she immediately bolted forward in a dead gallop, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
There was no mistaking the rainbow-colored trail that was circling around that cloud - she had to get to Rainbow Dash before something terrible happened!
Another bolt of lightning suddenly flashed past her, leaving the air around her crackling and tangy with the stench of ozone. Cursing, Rainbow Dash pushed her body as far as she could, her heart pounding wildly in her chest and adrenaline coursing through her veins, reducing the throbbing in her chest and her cheek to nigh imperceptible levels.
More bolts flashed past her in attempts to catch her off-guard again, but this time she was ready for them. The seconds slowly ticked by as she began to outpace the attacks bit by bit, her speed increasing slowly and steadily.
A brief sideways glance, and she had Melchior’s location - up above and circling around to her left, still perched upon his nimbus, and firing off more lightning bolts with each thrust of his palms.
Smirking, Rainbow Dash decided right then that it was time to put a stop to that.
Abruptly veering towards her pursuer, Rainbow Dash narrowly avoided yet another lightning bolt that Melchior had been leading on her, one that certainly would have been hit her had she not suddenly changed course.
Streaking forward like a missile, the cyan pegasus tackled Melchior right in the gut before he even had time to react, throwing him off his nimbus. A quick kick from her hind legs reduced the nimbus to vapor, and she grabbed Melchior by the collar of his coat.
“Let’s see you fly without your cloud!”
Spinning around several times, building up momentum, Rainbow Dash felt the burning energy coursing through her body reach a boiling crescendo, and with all her strength, she hurled Melchior towards the ground, not unlike how he had thrown her downwards mere moments ago.
“Hyaaaaah!!!”
A satisfied grin spread over her face as she watched Melchior fall - let’s see how he liked it when he was on the receiving end!
The human dropped like a meteor, slamming right into ground far below, the impact kicking up a sizeable dust cloud. As the cyan pegasus looked down, she realized that she had just hurled Melchior right through the canopy of the Everfree Forest.
Both the forest canopy and the dust cloud obscured Rainbow Dash’s view of the miniature crater he had no doubt left behind, however, and she couldn’t see whether or not her opponent was still standing, or if he was even conscious. Then again, she did just hurl him with enough force to gouge a crater in the ground, and it was the Everfree Forest she had just thrown him into. Surely no pony could’ve survived that!
“... Huh. Really, that’s it?” a panting Rainbow Dash, despite her exhaustion, managed to smirk to herself as she dusted herself off, letting out a sigh of relief. “Well, guess he really was all bark and no... bi... te...”
The rainbow-maned pegasus’ voice trailed off as her ears perked up, picking out the faintest mutterings of something. The dust below began to clear, and as she strained her eyes and ears to look through the Everfree’s canopy, she could barely make out a dark shape... still... standing...
“Disappear with the thunder...”
Oh, horseapples, that couldn’t be good...
“KIRIN.”
Abruptly, the rest of the dust cloud was blown away, reduced to so much vapor as an utterly massive blast of blue-white energy, crackling with electricity, came streaking her way. Rainbow Dash let out a yell of surprise as she barely managed to dodge to the side in time, avoiding the certainly-lethal blast, but leaving herself completely open to what came next.
In the aftershock of the blast, Melchior suddenly appeared before her in a flash of yellow lightning, his blade reared backwards behind him and ready to deal a killing blow. He was still flying forward, airborne somehow, and... was that a lightning bolt he was surfing on!?
“You’re finished!” Rainbow Dash heard his voice proclaim through the haze of her shock, and a sudden streak of white-hot, burning agony slashed across her chest as his sword sliced a ragged, bloody line, sending droplets of blood flying.
Guh... wha...!? Rainbow Dash’s mind was so mind boggled by the sheer speed at which Melchior had been moving, and simultaneously addled by the pain of her wounds, that she could barely even think. Her body simply reacted, and she threw herself backwards, desperate to open up some distance between the two of them.
“Ride the lightning, bitch!” Melchior crowed triumphantly as he zipped around for another pass. Before Rainbow Dash knew it he had disappeared from sight, and then his boot suddenly planted itself in the small of her back. More electricity coursed through her body, sending her muscles into agonized spasms as Melchior’s electrified kick sent her flying through the air yet again.
“Gaaah!” Rainbow Dash let out another scream of pain as her entire body convulsed. It only through sheer force of will that she was somehow able to shut out the pain and force her shaking, exhausted body to obey her commands.
Quickly regaining herself and halting her tumble, she raggedly beat her wings in an attempt to beat another hasty retreat, barely even aware of what direction she was flying in - as long as it was away from Melchior!
Celestia, could nothing even stop this guy!?
Fluttershy had been galloping forward with her gaze craned towards the sky for several minutes now.
The spectacular show of aerial acrobatics had been brought to an abrupt end when Rainbow Dash had suddenly streaked towards the cloud that had been shooting lightning bolts at her, and Fluttershy watched in horrified fascination as the cyan pegasus threw herself forward in a flying tackle at the cloud.
At first, Fluttershy had no idea why Rainbow Dash would have done that. However, as the grey mass of the cloud disappeared with a quick kick from the speedster’s hind legs, she realized that Rainbow Dash had tackled off somepony from the cloud...
… or rather, something, as Fluttershy realized with a shock when she took a closer look.
Suddenly, Dash began to spin around rapidly in mid-air, still holding onto whatever it was she had tackled, as though building up momentum, and Fluttershy swore she could have seen the slightest crackles of blue-white electricity dancing around her friend’s forehooves...
And then all of a sudden her spinning stopped, and she hurled whatever it was she was holding in her hooves groundwards. The unknown object plummeted down like a missile, and Fluttershy found herself gasping in horror at what she had just seen Rainbow Dash do.
Had her best friend, of all ponies, really just hurled a creature down to its death on the ground far below, and murdered in cold blood?
No! No! Rainbow Dash would never! She wouldn’t! Fluttershy thought desperately to herself as fear lent her legs even greater swiftness. Yet, despite the increase in her speed, it felt like every step she took was a mere inch compared to the miles that stretched out between her and Rainbow Dash.
As she watched helplessly, the unknown object slammed right into the ground ahead of her. It was only then, with her gaze finally torn away from the sky overhead, that Fluttershy took note of the treeline steadily approaching her - she was running straight towards the Everfree Forest.
“Eeeep!” the terrified squeak squeezed itself out of Fluttershy’s throat, which had suddenly locked up from sheer fright, and her hooves immediately dug into the ground in front of her in a frantic attempt to stop her forward gallop.
Oh my, oh no, oh dear, it fell inside there, but I can’t go inside there! It’s so dark, and scary, but oh goodness what if it needs help? What if Rainbow Dash needs help? What if... what if... Ohhh... Ohhhhh...
Before her panicked train of thought could get any further, another sudden blast of lightning elicited another startled squeak from her. But even as Fluttershy reflexively scrambled backwards, she couldn’t help but notice that there was something different about this one.
Firstly, it had originated from the ground.
Secondly, it had come within a hairsbreadth of striking Rainbow Dash.
By the stars - somepony was trying to kill her!
As she stood there trembling, frozen by indecision and fear of the unknowns that lay before her, Fluttershy’s mind frantically tried to kickstart her body into action. A series of unusually strong thoughts raced through the mare’s mind, screaming at her that Rainbow Dash was up there, that somepony was trying to kill her best friend, and that she had to help her!
GET IT TOGETHER, FLUTTERSHY! Rainbow Dash needs you!!!
Gulping, the pegasus narrowed her eyes in determination. Resolutely, she started her forward gallop again, paying no heed to the darkness that enveloped her as she charged into the Everfree Forest’s shadowy paths.
Slamming into the hard packed earth beneath her once again, Rainbow Dash let out an agonized gasp, blood dripping from her mouth and splattering onto the ground next to her.
Stars above, there just was no stopping him. No matter what she threw at him, or how she tried to flee, Melchior always remained one step ahead of her. Bruises and slash wounds covered almost every conceivable inch of her body, and her wings had been mangled and broken beyond recognition. Yet somehow, she still managed to push on, and not collapse into a bloodied, battered heap.
Cursing, she placed her hooves beneath her, forcing her body upright again as she turned to face Melchior, still standing atop his lightning bolt above her. Her entire body continued to burn from the inside out with that sizzling energy that pulsed through her veins, each new pulse renewed by every beat of her heart, every beat giving her strength.
Strength that was just barely enough to push through the haze of pain and exhaustion that hung over her entire body. She had been pushed to her very limits constantly these past few minutes, and yet something inside her just kept her going, something that refused to let her fall.
Her wings, despite being sliced up and having their bones broken in more places than she even knew she had, continued to flap, and she clumsily took to the air again, lunging straight at Melchior with a speed that belied her battered state.
But it was still not fast enough. Between the several times the two had tussled in mid-air and gone hoof to fist, Melchior had always come away the victor. Even now, after all their aerial bouts, he had only a few bruises and light cuts, whereas Rainbow Dash had been wounded beyond anything she had even experienced in her life.
Heck, even as Melchior sent her flying backwards yet again, Rainbow Dash’s mind absently contemplated the fact that, given the wounds she had sustained, she should have already died three times over.
Crashing unceremoniously into the dirt of the Everfree Forest’s floor for what felt like the thousandth time, the cyan pegasus struggled to get back up onto her hooves again, when the sudden sound of boots scuffing against dirt came to her ears.
Abruptly, a pair of booted feet came into her field of vision, and then a strong, firm hand closed itself around her throat in a vice-like grip. Gasping for breath, Rainbow Dash felt herself lifting helplessly into the air, her hind legs dangling several feet off the ground. Melchior’s face soon came into view, and the yellow-haired human’s expression was... snide, to say the least.
“Well, can’t say I’m impressed by your skill, but damn if you ain’t one tenacious bitch.” The smirk on his face made Rainbow want to just wipe it off with a clean hook from her forehoof, but she just couldn’t summon the strength anymore - all she could do was paw uselessly at the hand gripping her throat with her forehooves. “I’ve never seen anything like you that could take all that punishment I just dished out and still keep coming back for more.”
Rainbow Dash’s pride, despite her exhaustion, stirred angrily in response. Indignant fury managed to override her ruined body, giving her just enough strength to carry out one last act of defiance.
“G-go to hell,” the cyan pegasus spat in her captor’s face, but, if anything, her resistance only seemed to make the grin on Melchior’s face grow even wider.
“Finally. Some freakin’ backbone when I’m looking for it. Now, what do you say we just put an end to this?”
“J... Just get it over with...”
Melchior’s smirk only grew. “Very well then... if you insist!”
Before Rainbow Dash knew it, she was suddenly flung into the air, high above the ground... and high above the Everfree canopy. She blinked, and as the clouds began zipping past her she belatedly realized that she had been thrown up beyond the cloud layers.
A brief downward glance rewarded her with the sight of a tiny dot, all that she could see of Melchior at this point... and yet, despite the distance between them, she heard his next words clear as day, every syllable reverberating through her very body and soul.
“Thunder; Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud!!!”
And then she saw it.
From behind Melchior, it appeared. That very same colossus of lightning that she faced in her dream last night, it slowly began to manifest and coalesce into a solid shape behind Melchior... and as she watched, a suit of aqua-blue armor gilded with golden crests began to solidify around its electric body - a suit of armor that was utterly dwarfed by the massive flail connected to its shoulder by a thick iron chain.
As the giant blue-clad knight bent itself at the knees, Rainbow Dash’s half-closed eyes instinctively locked on the speck that was Melchior far below her, barely noting that her aggressor was mirroring the construct’s movements - or rather, perhaps it was mirroring his movements?
And then the duo suddenly took to the air in a truly massive leap, and Rainbow Dash belatedly realized that while she was still ascending at a blistering rate, Melchior and his colossus were swiftly catching up on her.
At that point, the pegasus’ brain was working on rapid fire. Several facts registered with her in quick succession - firstly, her rate of ascent. She had experienced this kind of velocity before, and that happened only during one kind of occasion - when she was approaching Sonic Rainboom levels of speed.
Even now, she could already feel the resistance of the sound barrier tugging at her, fighting to push her back and halt her ascent. Luckily, it didn’t take much more than a few flaps of her wings took care of that - Melchior had already given her one heck of a head start in speed.
Second, Melchior’s own rate of ascent meant that he would probably catch up with her soon... in fact, probably within a few seconds, he would be mere inches behind her, within point blank range of a Sonic Rainboom if she managed to pull one off.
The third fact that registered with her was the putting of the first two facts together - and with it, came a sliver of hope for victory.
If she could pull this off, she just might make it out of this alive!
Hope lent her wings strength, and with it, the dynamo within her heart began to pulse with energy again. Once more, that strange, sizzling power spread throughout her entire body, causing the haze of pain and fatigue that had fallen over her to disappear completely.
Having never felt stronger in her life, Rainbow Dash aimed herself skyward, and blasted forward with all her might. The resistance of the sound barrier strained against her, holding her back with everything it had... but just... a little... further...
It never stood a chance. If the sound barrier had been a thick, elastic rubber wall that she had struggled against to break through previously, it now shattered before her like a sheet of fragile glass.
The cyan speedster’s velocity tore right through the barrier as though it had been made of paper mache, and there was a gigantic KA-BOOM!!! that she felt explode behind her, its psychedelic aftershock already spreading far, far outwards around her.
But there was only one aftereffect that she was concerned with. Still travelling at supersonic velocities, the rainbow-maned pegasus veered around until she was streaking straight towards the ground beneath her. Just as she had hoped, her opponent was falling, completely stunned and blasted towards the ground by the aftershock of the Sonic Rainboom she had just performed.
Melchior tumbled through the air gracelessly, the azure giant that was Famfrit mirroring his descent not more than a few feet from him. The yellow-haired human was completely helpless in his tumble, and Rainbow Dash took exactly that opportunity to blast forward and tackle him right in the gut.
As she rocketed groundwards like a meteor, Famfrit was suddenly yanked along with them, as though connected to Melchior by some invisible tether. Melchior battered at her body with his fists, but Rainbow Dash felt none of it - her vision was completely focused on that one single point that lay beyond her.
The one single point on the ground that, upon impact, would transfer every single joule of her accumulated kinetic energy into the ground, and release every iota of it in an explosive detonation of thermal and light energy.
An explosive transfer of energy known to many Ponyvilleians as the “Sonic Rainnuke”.
KRAAAAACKKKK-OOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
The resulting mushroom cloud could have been seen for miles around. And, just a mile or two away, a certain yellow-furred pegasus caught sight of the cloud, before immediately doubling her speed, galloping heedlessly through the Everfree forest.
Rainbow Dash gasped out as she rose to a sitting position, ignoring the blood that steadily dripped from the corner of her mouth. The sizzling current of power that had been coursing through her body less than a minute ago had ebbed to a low, numbing buzz, and her body felt so heavy that it was all that she could do to even move it.
But all that didn’t matter. Because she’d done it!
She’d survived her encounter with this mad human and lived to tell the tale!
Melchior’s body lay unmoving beneath hers, his coat smoking from the heat of the impact, and his fingers limply curled around the handle of his greatsword. From what Rainbow Dash could see, it certainly didn’t look like he was getting up anytime soon. Famfrit lay half-buried in a nearby mini-crater, half of its massive armored body blocked by the earth it was buried in.
Leaning back, Rainbow Dash let out a laugh, and simply relished the feeling of being alive.
She was still alive!
The pegasus had still been the middle of getting the chuckles out of her system, slowly forcing herself back onto numb, trembling legs that could barely take her weight, when the unthinkable happened. Without warning, Melchior’s yellow eyes snapped open, and his gloved hand shot up from beneath the mare, latching onto her larynx with an incredible strength.
“Hurk! W-whuh-!?” Rainbow Dash could only splutter in shock and horror as her supposedly-defeated opponent began to slowly rise from the ground, his coat still smoking from the impact, his electric yellow hair slightly singed.
“Well, well... I was intending to do things the tedious way for me while making the transfer nicer and easier for ya...” Melchior let out a low, menacing growl that made Dash’s blood freeze right in her veins. “If you’d just kept on flying unconscious up there like you were supposed to and not pulled that rainbow shit off, you might’ve just gotten through the whole thing painlessly. But now that you’ve done gone and pissed me off...”
Slowly, the azure giant plucked itself from the soil behind the black-clad human, and Rainbow Dash could only watch in mounting dread as it got to its feet and slowly walked towards them, each step of the colossus visibly quaking the ground.
“I’m going to do this the easy way, which is only gonna make it all the more unpleasant for you,” Melchior finished. “But, I suppose a little spitfire like you can handle a little pain, eh?”
Whatever feisty reply the pegasus had in mind came out only as a strangled croak - Melchior didn’t even give her the chance to finish, and he nodded to Famfrit.
The azure giant then did something that Rainbow Dash did not expect at all. Instead of raising its flail, it brought its right arm up behind Melchior, and stiffening its fingers into a rigid palm, drove its entire arm square into Melchior’s back right up till its armored elbow.
The human visibly flinched at the impact, a wince passing across his face, but the most surprising thing was that Famfrit’s arm didn’t erupt out from the other side of his chest. No, instead the azure giant’s arm began to crackle with electricity, and as it did, so too did the entirety of Melchior’s body.
“You’d better brace yourself,” Melchior sneered as lightning arced about his entire being, his yellow eyes glowing from within with a mad, yellow spark, “cos this is gonna sting a lot!”
And before Rainbow Dash could even begin to brace herself, Melchior reared his free arm back, a ball of electricity gathering within his palm, and then thrust his entire arm right into her chest.
Only Melchior’s grip on her throat kept the scream of agony from erupting from her. Searing, blinding pain raced across her entire body, burning her from the inside out with its sheer intensity. Light assaulted her eyes in blinding displays, stabbing at her retinas with millions of tiny knives.
The agony was so intense that she was barely aware of what was going on around her, entirely unaware of the fact she was in the epicentre of a massive thunderbolt that was currently arcing skywards. Of Melchior, she could perceive no trace through the blinding curtain of pain that blanketed all of her senses, and left her blind and deaf to the world around her.
After what seemed like an eternity later, the searing surges of agony finally receded, and as numbness began to creep across her entire being, Rainbow Dash gratefully welcomed the darkness that soon came mercifully after... But not before hearing one last message as she slipped into oblivion.
Damn thing was killing me from the inside out the moment I inherited it improperly anyway...
You’d damn well better make good use of this, y’hear!?
When the light finally faded and the lightning disappeared, there was a massive clearing where the two combatants had once stood, at the centre of which was a large crater.
And within the crater lay a single, twitching female body... a female body with two arms, two legs, pale skin, and a long, wild shock of rainbow-colored hair descending from her head.
After galloping for what felt like dozens of miles, Fluttershy finally came to a stop at a massive clearing - a clearing that had lain in the direction of the massive thunderbolt she had seen arcing skyward not more than a few minutes ago.
From what little she could see through the Everfree’s canopy, Rainbow Dash had somehow managed to perform another Sonic Rainboom, and followed it up with another freefall dive that led right into a Sonic Rainnuke. Fluttershy knew that these maneuvers weren’t just any old tricks Rainbow Dash would just pull out willy nilly, not unless she was seriously “getting the lead out”, as her rainbow-maned friend was so fond of putting it.
If there was something that had forced Rainbow Dash to play both of her trump cards back to back, Fluttershy knew just how grave the situation was, and just how badly her fillyhood friend needed help.
That was why she barely even hesitated as she galloped towards the crater, her hooves hardly touching the ground as she practically flew to the crater’s edge. Nearing the depression, she found herself praying to Celestia that she wouldn’t find Rainbow Dash either dead or dying.
What she saw inside sent her brain scrambling for several seconds, frantically searching for a decent explanation as to just what lay before her.
Inside the crater was not a cyan-furred pegasus.
Inside the crater was a creature that looked more akin to a hairless ape than anything. It had two legs and two arms, the latter of which both ended in a hand that possessed five dextrous-looking digits, and its pale skin was almost completely devoid of fur or hair.
It lay facedown, and she could not get a clear look at its visage. However, as she took a closer look... she realized with a gasp that there was no mistaking that pair of cyan-feathered wings that extended from its back, or the wild mane of rainbow-colored hair that extended from its head... no, her head.
There was no mistaking it. This unknown, this creature... was her friend Rainbow Dash.
Carefully honed caring instincts from years of looking after injured and sick animals immediately kicked in, and Fluttershy swiftly moved forward, quickly inspecting her friend’s strange body for injuries, external or otherwise.
As far as Fluttershy could tell, Rainbow Dash was unhurt, even in this new... body, thank Celestia. However, it didn’t take the meek mare long to realize that she wouldn’t be any closer to getting help if she just stayed there. Quickly, she tried to nudge her friend over, trying to get Rainbow Dash onto her back so she could carry her back to Ponyville hospital.
At her nudgings, a soft, agonized moan came forth from the creature’s throat, and Fluttershy’s breath hitched in her chest as she recognized its voice.
There was no doubt about it - new body or not, this was Rainbow Dash.
Half a minute of struggling later, and Fluttershy realized that there was no way she could get something so huge over her back! Rainbow Dash’s new body was at least half again her size, and weighed so much more. There was just no way she could do it on her own...
Suddenly, a pale light began to surround Rainbow Dash’s body. Squeaking in fright, Fluttershy immediately backed away several steps, watching in trepidation as the glow began to envelop her friend... until it faded away a few seconds later, leaving behind not her friend’s mysterious new body, but the familiar, welcome sight of the cyan-furred, rainbow-maned pegasus that she had known for her entire life.
Rainbow Dash was still unconscious at that point, but, as Fluttershy gratefully picked up the now-much-lighter load and hoisted her friend onto her back, the butter-yellow pegasus couldn’t help but let out a tiny, relieved smile, the tension in her chest easing just the slightest bit.
“Don’t you worry, Rainbow Dash. I’m going to get you home safe.”
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O COME ON
he turned into a human she better be able to turn back
435029 She... DID turn back at the end of the chapter...
^ lol
Awesome chapter. So are they going to be able to change willingly or what?
435224 That would be the equivalent of giving out spoilers... heheh
...dammit. The classic wait for the next chapter/episode begins!
Can't wait
435113 im sorry i must have accedentaly glazed over that part
YES this is amazing
Sincerely the Doctor
Oh mai gawd. That fight left me blind and on the verge of a seizure. SO MANY DAMN LIGHTS.
438226 Haha! Glad you liked it! What'd you think of the soundtrack? I put in hours just trying to find the right piece of music to fit the mood of the scene, yet nobody seems to be commenting on it!
438259
The soundtrack was great! The "Viral Theme" was probably the most fitting for North Blitz's first appearance. I enjoyed the music through and through!
Holy Shit.
That was awesome! 
The fight was incredibly well done and had it alot of action too. And that was just Dash's. I can't wait to see what the other Mane 6 have to go through in their fight's. This is easily one of the best stories I've read in a long time and it deserves more views and likes in my opinion.
SO INTERESTING! I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!! Awesome fight scene btw XD Excitedly await the next chapter
Huh, glad her human form keeps her wings, otherwise she would never want to use it. I have to wonder though, will Twilight and Ratity have horns shooting out of their heads? It seems less nessisary and more goofy in my mind so I hope not. Instead their magic can be used in a more classic Mage style.
440143 Yep that's the plan, heh. Even I find humans with horns to be weird, so they'll have it in a more classic mage style. You could envision it as a sort of classic fighter-thief-mage combination between the three types of ponies and their human forms.
439703 SOME of the Mane 6 might not have fights per se, because each method of inheritance depends on which is the pony's strongest attribute. Dash was headstrong and prone to rushing in along the most direct path - Melchior's approach with her reflected that. As for the other members of the Order... well, we already know that Rarity is obsessed with finesse and displays of flair and splendour. Applejack, like RD, is direct and straightforward. Fluttershy is horrible at combat but she has an incredibly strong will and psyche. Pinkie Pie is... well, unpredictable, to say the least, heh. You can expect balls-out hot-blooded Crazy Awesome from her. And Twilight is an intellectual above all, but she also has prodigious spellcasting talent. Let your brain stew on those for a while to determine what kind of fights await our other heroines
Pretty interesting, and very fast-paced and actiony. The only problems I have is if the excessive japanese names keep on that's going to get annoying and there are some major logic fails. Like Rainbow somehow being able to fly with bones in her wings broken.
446426 How Rainbow was able to fly with the bones in her wings broken: The very same reason how SPARTAN super-soldiers are able to continue to fight despite suffering horrific wounds. They block out the pain. Rainbow Dash at the moment was channeling a huge amount of innate magical energy through her body that allowed her to push past the pain and achieve incredible feats of strength and endurance. This will be addressed and explained later in the story.
Oh right, and sorry about the Japanese, but that's going to be a part of the story. So, sorry if you don't like it, but I've decided it's going to stick around.
446797 Ok, I'll see about coping with the japanese, but if you break a leg, no amount of blocking out pain is going to enable you to run because the support structure for your muscles is damaged. Continuing to move would just sever tissue. The SPARTANs had reinforced bones and powered armor to reinforce their bodies, Rainbow Dash has neither.
447103 It's magic, that is all, heh. Magic is reinforcing her body. I don't need to explain anything else. Things will eventually reach a point where they go up against forces equal to gods. At that point, things like pesky broken bones and flesh wounds are going to be the least of their concerns.
447107 So yet-to-be-explained magic somehow reinforcing her body? Some part of me wants to contest that and say yes that does need an explanation, but I've been in a few conversations where I said "Spiral Energy works because it does and it's awesome, shut up, science is invalid here." Still I think the difference here is the form of media, I think. Visual/Audio vs Literary. In literary, explanation is all you got.
447123 Don't worry, explanations will come later in the story, haha. Just for now, to prevent spoilers, accept the temporary explanation that "it was magic, I don't have to explain anything". Yet.
Alright! Well, that was one hell of a wild ride. And now for the discussion:
So, I'm going to bet that Melchior is based on various Bleach characters, considering that he pulled off a Getsuga Tensho, and what I can only assume is his equivalent of a Bankai. Because if summoning an armor-clad lightning elemental is just a Shikai, then damn.
Nice job of implementing Rainbow's various abilities, shifting them from mere stunts to tools of war. Really, you just handled Dash's character well overall; it seems to me that you captured her personality and reactions perfectly, alternating her between cocky and terrified quite adroitly. I suppose Fluttershy could be considered this chapter's other big character, and you did a fine job with her as well. It should be fun to see how you handle her whenever she gets her big moment.
The battle scenes, as has already been stated in not so many words, were quite impressive; they carried a fast-paced, electrifying sensation, perfectly suited for characters such as these. Actions and reactions, rains of blows and strikes, barely a spare second to catch their breath. And yes, the music was very well suited, only amplifying the overall experience.
However, I do find myself agreeing with Sithis on the whole "it's magical healing" thing. While you made it evident that the lightning... element thing, whatever it's called, the topaz stuck in her was keeping her alive and moving, shattered bones, especially in something as fragile as a wing, can't be repaired with pure adrenaline. Horrible wounds, bruises, and I'd say even dislocations can be explained by the energy pulsing through Dash, but without something to reinforce her bones, to keep them locked in place even when broken, her wings should have been torn to absolute shreds. *Cough*Beserker Armor*Cough*
Once again, great chapter. Eagerly looking forward to the next one. And I promise to shut up about Berserk now.
448653 Thanks for all the feedback! I'll be sure to clear up everything about how Rainbow survived her fight and pulled off all of her impossible feats of endurance via explanation and investigation by our resident egghead Twilight, heheh, but that'll be in future chapters.
more please
375250 Mariorulez14
Excuse me, i'm new here, but how do you track?
477993 My pleasure to provide you with images!
Here's Rainbow Dash's, the Red Queen from Devil May Cry 4:
images.wikia.com/devilmaycry/images/f/fe/RedQueen.jpg
This one is Applejack's, the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII:
images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/9/9a/Buster_sword_2_FF7.png
Twilight's, the Lance of Longinus from Neon Genesis Evangelion:
wiki.evageeks.org/images/8/8f/M26_C031_a_big.jpg
Rarity's, Raising Heart from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
images.wikia.com/nanoha/images/b/b1/Nanohaas-raising_heart_weapon.jpg
Fluttershy's, Shun Shun Rikka from Bleach:
images.wikia.com/bleach/en/images/1/1a/OrihimeHairClip.png
And finally Pinkie's, the Gurren Lagann's Giga Drill from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
images.wikia.com/gurennlagann/images/1/1c/TTGL13.jpg
478699
Thanks.
I knew about the claymore and the Drill, since I've seen Gurren Lagann and hear about FFVII through commerical art pieces and what not.
But as for Devil May Cry and the others, I've only hear for them, never seen them.
Evangelion, I saw on Adult Siwm on Cartoon Network years ago. So I forgot about that one weapon. ^^;
505128 It's a massive multi-crossover that includes elements from several different universes. I do try my best to make sure that the elements are woven together as seamlessly as possible by adding in original components of my own though.
505157 Ah, large scale. Sounds enjoyable. I love those.
that's it for applejack? please... at least give her cloud's bifurcated buster. That would at least mean she'd have options.
i18.photobucket.com/albums/b132/windreaver6/Weapons/Cloudsswordwiprender213123123.jpg
Also, the lance of Longinus just seems... bland to me. NGE always had a snarky psuedo-religious aspect... more like mock all religions aspect really. I personally would change that, though I can't argue with it's effectiveness.
I suppose the best option is maybe to give her that as one of her weapons... but let her use other, more effective weapons? One final note on the previous chapter... the lance on longinus cannot miss anything with an AT field. AT field = anything with a personal existence field (perhaps an aura?) and an elemental definitely qualifies.
505428 You won't have to worry about those, all I'll say is (without giving out spoilers) is that by the time they master their powers, they will have more options on their hands.
Ah and regarding the LoL (lol I had no idea before now that was its acronym), well its use was in the context of a dreamscape, so many improbable things would have happened, including the Lance missing its intended target. Besides like I said earlier, as the story goes on, it won't be Twilight's only weapon. Just wait until you see what I have planned for her Noble Phantasm- OH CRAP I'VE ALREADY SAID TOO MUCH
505632 I did see that coming , so no worries. I would perhaps make a suggestion though... make them do a lot more work toearn their powers. Giving Twi THE gamebreaker lance as a starting weapon just seems... cruel to the bad guys. And how will you give THAT a bankai?
Speaking of which... how will they even get bankai for preexisting weapons... or are their equipment polymorphs... or do they have a bag of holding?
Maybe I we should just take this to PMs? I wish I could help with this... though to be honest you don't sound like you need it at the moment. Still, I love to help with this kind of thing...
So let me recap so far. The mane 6 have reached tier 1, RD now tier 2. They've had their heart dive, but they haven't gotte- omg I just had an idea for twilight.
505658 YES PLEASE do PM me with your ideas, I am in dire need of a co-author right now. I'm running dry on ideas to keep the first story running, and all the material that I brainstormed out was for Book 2 and Book 3.
505673 It will be my pleasure.
505632
So much crossover! And you tipped your hand spoiler wise with the soundtrack (I'm putting in a request for the Unlimited Blade Works version of Unmei no Yoru).
Rule of Cool and Refuge in Audacity are running strong, and I'm just chanting the Mystery Science Theater 3000 mantra until some measure of sense is given for this multiverse crazyness.
Edit: As long as I'm thinking Nasuverse, anything from the Kara no Kyokai soundtrack, especially This song. Yuki Kajiura is genius
Who the hell do you think I am kick
505632
Wait. . . Noble Phantasm?!
NASUVERSE?!?!
Blame it on Zelretch? Blame it on Zelretch.
Shit has become well and truly real.
I freaking love it, the music helps get me into the fight and characteristics of the characters images planted deep into my imagination made the story seem, so clear. That fight was its own kind of epic really. But why do I get the distinct feeling that the guy was somehow a bankai/ a sword beast or something like that at least. Seriously, I thought he was a villian or something and it almost pictured into my skull that he was giving her his power. I'll just have to see how this pans out.
1716482 And this is only chapter 4 out of 11...!!
