This Platinum Crown

by Capn_Chryssalid

Chapter Thirty : Friendship is a Battlefield

- - -
(30)

Friendship is a Battlefield

- - -

“Now, little sister… open the bars of your golden cage.”

- - -

“Sweet Celestia’s Mercy.”

Shigure was not a young stallion. He was not a sheltered noble. He had been born in a family bred to serve and to protect. He was an earth pony, and he had trained and fought and bled for those he swore fealty to. Passing through, even skirting, the Everfree was not his preferred means of escaping the realm with Lady Yumi, but it was not what he would have considered frightfully dangerous. There were nature preserves like the Everfree in Neighpon, after all.

He had survived in one for four months, once.

But this…?

He wasn’t even sure what he was seeing.

Chalice - the small, timid mare - bubbled and seethed with a dark, writhing mass of raw magic that could only be what the unicorns called “aether.” Shigure had only seen it once: a tiny amount, just a few drops, bottled in a thick-walled jar and locked behind crystal in an alchemist’s shop. This mare, if she was even a mare, now wore a sheet of it like an ever expanding, living blanket.

She cried out, almost like she was in pain, a short agonized gasp for air.

- - -

“Show them your special talent; show them what you were born to do.”

- - -

The two Neighponese ponies could only watch, frozen in place, as the last patch of Chalice’s pink coat vanished. As it did, the darkness of the aether seemed to recede, gradually turning an otherworldly purple-transparent hue. Yet it continued to expand and grow. A blast of cold stole the air from their mouths, and Shigure saw his breath turn to visible vapor, like in the dead of winter.

Lights twinkled within the now semi-transparent mass of… was it even flesh?

Whatever it was, whatever Chalice had become, it now stood twice his own height, and Shigure was not a small stallion. Star strewn wings fountained from the back of the celestial pony, flapping and glittering, and as they passed through a thick net of spider webs, those same webs fell to the earth and shattered like glass: frozen solid. Branches creaked and followed soon after, also shattering on impact with the ground.

A transparent mane and tail were the last to take form, completing the visage of the unearthly pony. Eyelids opened, but there was nothing inside them: just more shifting aether. Even the twinkling stars within had now migrated throughout the body. The otherworldly being turned her, his, its head - facing the two stunned foreigners.

It extended a hoof, and something extended vertically.

A bow.

“The Bow of Sagittarius,” Yumi muttered, voice hushed with terror. She covered her head with her hooves, struck mute to the point where she could only shake her head.

Shigure walked in front of her, glaring at the glowing being. “No matter the bow, it only has a single arrow. Yumi-hime! It only has a single arrow. I will be your shield, you must be my bow.”

“My… shield?” she asked, and slowly seemed to emerge from her dazed state. “I’m so tired, Shigure. I don’t know if I can…” She forced herself onto her hooves. “But I will! I will be behind you. I will try!”

Sagittarius clutched the now fully formed crystal bow, a single blazing ember stretched out across it like an arrow drawn from the sun itself. Shigure steeled himself and charged headlong into the glowing being. With every hoof-fall, he felt the earth reverberate and respond to him. His first few steps were light.

His third and fourth left deep imprints in the packed ground of the Everfree.

His fifth and sixth left cracks in their wake.

His seventh and eighth thundered, the trees around him shaking like plucked strings.

His heart pounded hard in his chest as he charged, the weight of his legs growing with every gallop. This was the other side of what he had shown Miss Applejack. Just as one could be anchored and dispersed into the earth, so could the earth be drawn in and added to the self. Master Yama, Yumi-hime’s father and his own noble teacher, had once said that the ultimate expression of an earth pony was to embrace all of the world. It was too much to ask of any pony, of course. But a minute fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the world?

That was doable.

Like treading water, the simulacrum that Chalice had become reared up and brought down a hoof to try and drive him into the ground. Shigure let it come, squaring his shoulders and raising one foreleg to block it. The impact was crushing, murderous, but Shigure let it slide off him. He didn’t need to fight it, he only need to get under it. Even then, his foreleg came back numb and chilled from the brief contact.

Then, finally, he was inside the guard of the being. With all the force he had built up, with all the mass and energy borrowed from the earth and the forest, Shigure plowed his left shoulder, left hoof and the side of his head into the right front leg holding the Bow of Sagittarius. The bone-jarring impact was enough to knock the creature off its back hooves and into the air, and though it would have shattered the ribs and shoulder of any pony it had hit, and though Sagittarius’s foreleg was thrown wide, it did not dislodge the crystal bow.

‘Yumi-hime… I’m sorry. Was this was the best I could do…?’

Falling away from his target, a freezing pain mixed with the strain of muscle and bone, Shigure saw the forms of two Everfree trees begin to warp. From out of wood and root, two new Timber Wolves literally sprouted from the brush, ripping free as two twisted old trees split open, giving birth to the nature golems. Splintered maws stretched out and bit down on the front legs of the pony turned Sagittarius, wooden fangs sinking into empyrean flesh.

Shigure’s back hit the hard, unyielding ground --

And above him, he felt a rush as a thousand pieces of razor sharp bark filled the air, shed from a half dozen trees. He could imagine entire faces of trees laid bare, as they released their bark like the quills of a porcupine. To think that Yumi-hime still had the strength to not only create two incomplete Timber Wolves out of nothing but forest debris, but call on the Honey Locust Tree, too? Shigure’s heart swelled with pride. Yumi truly had earned her name: there was no match in ranged combat.

Yet, as the rain of razor sharp spines closed in on the pinned celestial pony a thunderous boom shook the canopy, and a shockwave scattered the flurry of spines. The force of it sent Shigure rolling, and tore the leaves from branches and bushes all around them. Dirt and debris pelted the grizzled old earth pony, even as he scrambled to stand back up.

With a thud, the huge star strewn pony tore free of the two Timber Wolves, landing on three legs. Pieces of wooden skull rained down, a chuck with a still faintly glowing eye crashing to the ground just a hoof’s length away from Shigure’s face.

Looking up, he saw that Sagittarius’ crystal bow was empty and un-notched.

Had it scattered the entire barrage with one shot? How had it even taken aim? He had forced the foreleg back and out of the way! A softer ‘thud’ sound demanded his attention, and Shigure whirled around only to see Yumi face down in the dirt and leaves of the forest floor.

“Yumi-hime,” he hissed, “No.”

There was a displacement in the air, and Shigure turned back to the pony with the crystal bow. The arrow was back, notched and vibrating, literally humming with power.

“S-Shigure…” He ran to her at the sound of Yumi’s voice, tried to pick her up to run away. She was as limp as putty, too exhausted to even move more than her lips. “Shigure… Sagittarius’s arrow…”

“I only have a single arrow.” The giant pony spoke for the first time, in a distorted mare’s voice. It was Chalice’s voice, but strained, stretched, deepened. “It always returns, and it never misses.”

Inexorably, the celestial pony aimed its bow at them, and the arrow drew back of its own accord.

“Return to Dust.”

- - -

A huge gray hoof filled Rainbow Dash’s world for a split second before everything turned upside down and topsy-turvy. The ground rushed up treacherously fast - her old foe and her favorite crashing place all in one - and she barely had time to spread her wings enough to avert her make-out session with the cold, hard earth. Hooves hit the ground instead and she pushed, bouncing off the side of the rocky outcropping moments before it exploded in her face.

Body smoking, Dash spun around, letting her momentum carry her in one direction while she kicked out in the other. Anticipating an enemy’s point of attack was the first thing Soarin had drilled into her skull, and like any good combat flyer - or any good predator for that matter - in the heat of the moment Ritterkreuz would aim for where she was most vulnerable and lunge for any available blind spot if she thought she could get away with it. And she did.

Or, she tried.

A pair of cyan hooves slammed into the swooping gray pegasus, hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs. Not enough, unfortunately, to actually stun her. Ritter locked her forelegs against Dash’s extended hindlegs and spun around, hurling her back into the rock face she had just bounced off of. This time she hit the rock hard, bounced in an uncoordinated way, and tumbled down until she landed on a ledge.

It was tempting to just lie there for a few seconds, or maybe the rest of the day, but instead she rolled to the side and launched herself into the air. A gray streak followed close behind her, cantering two steps and taking off as well. It was suicidal to stay on the ground in a ‘race’ like this - a race to stay conscious with a brute of a pegasus nipping at her heels. The cold wind blowing in her face as she gained altitude, Rainbow Dash rolled and pulled tightly upward into a loop, diving into her opponent, still behind her.

A quick jink and Ritter swerved, taking a swipe at the bombing pegasus. She wasn’t much for diving herself, but she loved to use any opportunity to close and strike back. Dash got in a good hit, pushed off before they could become entangled and dove down and away, trading altitude for a quick boost of speed.

Flying was always a game of trading energy for height, height for speed, speed for more energy.

The two streaks knitted a double helix across the air, fighting for altitude and lancing through clouds in their path. Pass after pass, they clashed before soaring back down, two blurs in parallel, buzzing across, past and around jagged spades of broken, mined-out mountain. The ground here was a lethal obstacle course of uneven ground, thorny trees and sudden up-thrusts of stone like brick-red waves.

Soarin took wing himself, if only to keep the pair in sight.

A blue zag shot away from a ninety degree cliffside of sheared stone before curving away and around another outcropping. Rainbow Dash was the lighter, faster, more maneuverable flyer. He had expected that much. In fact, she was even lighter, faster and more maneuverable than Spitfire herself. He’d seen a few glimpses of that when Spitfire had taken the weathermare aside to test her personally. Dash had an incredible ability to cut and turn at almost ninety degree angles without a push-off surface, and defying expectations, she actually seemed to become more maneuverable the faster she went.

Ritterkreuz, on the other hoof, was stronger, had better climb with larger, stronger wings, and she was far and away more experienced. That was where one of Rainbow Dash’s intangible skills came into play: her instincts. Good instinct and quick thinking on the wing was the only counter she had to Ritter’s experience advantage. Experience, after all, couldn’t be taught. It could only come from racing, fighting, competing with and going face to face with another pegasus.

Soarin shielded his face as the air stitched with explosions, Ritterkreuz’s trademark special talent manifesting itself in the most obvious of ways. If this had been a few hundred years ago, it was a skill the Wonderbolts would have been happy to cultivate. Back when the unit valued aerial combat skills over stunt flying and entertainment, it could have earned her praise instead of notoriety. In modern times, though, it was out of date and out of style. The only thing close was the lightning and smoke trail all Wonderbolts picked up. Fighting was still part of the unit’s history and glory, and they were still sometimes called to fly into a battle with some monster or another, but those times were few and far between. Equestria was just too peaceful.

Instead, Ritter had been told to make it into something ‘showmare’ like.

Soarin hadn’t been present for her response, but he suspected she had never once actually considered it. Spitfire had tried to help, he knew, and the two had developed a new maneuver: the Twisting Cloud Carver. Fire and Thunder. Soarin couldn’t help but wonder if it had only delayed the inevitable. Ritterkreuz was a Wonderbolt, but she was also the pony she had been before she joined up. That would never change.

The air shook, and Rainbow Dash hit the ground, galloping hard, blossoms of blasted earth erupting along her multi-colored trail. Rather than keep moving in a straight line she cut to the left, around and around until her hooves left the ground. Soon even her distinctive color palette disappeared into the winding twister she kicked up. Alighting on one of the dozens of rocky outcroppings that had were all that remained of the mined-out mountain, Soarin grinned, recognizing what she was trying to do.

“Smart,” he said to himself. “This is good ground for that move.”

Flying out of range of the twister, Ritterkreuz came to a stop, large gray wings leisurely flapping. Only a keen eye could catch some of her feathers scraping together and the little push they made, though the result was clear to anypony watching her. Her Galloping Grenadier exploded harmlessly against the tremendous wind shear of the tornado.

It was the best counter they could come up with: Ritterkreuz’s explosions were highly condensed packets of fire and air magic, formed by the feathers of her wings and pushed forward at high speed: faster, in fact, than any pony could fly. Anypony that wasn’t named Rainbow Dash, anyway. They would explode on contact or at a given distance, and high wind shear would disrupt and detonate them prematurely.

‘As long as she’s inside that tornado, Ritterkreuz can’t touch her with the Grenadier,’ Soarin thought. ‘And…!’

“And!” Deep within the tornado, Rainbow Dash seemed to be keeping similar thoughts. “Since you can’t hit me in here, how about I hit you?”

The ground at the base of the tornado began to churn, and soon rocks began to fly, shot out from inside like a hail of bullets. The debris ripped up and into the spinning winds was ammunition for the weathermare inside, as Rainbow Dash kicked an ever increasing number of rocks up at her opponent. Ritterkreuz snarled, swatting the first rock away, and the second, only to get hit in the face by the third. Another series of explosions detonated harmlessly on the outside of the tornado, and another trio of missiles battered the gray pegasus mare.

Quickly growing tired of being a hovering target, Ritter shot away to the side, bobbing and weaving. Rainbow Dash’s aim was uncanny, however, even against a fast-moving target. A smarter pegasus would probably have flown further away, out of range of Dash’s ability to kick a rock the size of her head. Ritter, however, was too stubborn to listen to whatever Celestia-given smarts she had. She refused to back off.

The duo only intensified their two way barrage.

More and more rocks pelted Ritterkreuz, in the face and trunk and wings, but she shrugged off or batted away every one that came close. In return, her wings flapped faster and harder, projecting a constant stream of smaller explosions. They flowered all across the tornado, budding and blooming and dying, a dozen of them at any one time. Gradually, the tornado itself seemed to change color, briefly taking on shades of blush red and orange amid the gray.

‘What’s… going on?’ Soarin wondered, leaning closer and narrowing his eyes. ‘What’s with that color?’

“What do you think, Rainbow Dash?” Ritterkreuz roared, backhoofing another block of stone. “Can you knock me out of the sky before you roast alive in there?!”

‘Roast alive?’ It all suddenly clicked. ‘Fire and wind magic! If she uses enough fire, though, then the tornado will become hotter and hotter.’

Finally, the whirlwind came apart, a few remaining rocks and a half a ton of gravel flying in every direction. In the middle of it all, Rainbow Dash hovered, trying to catch her breath. Her mane and tail were frazzled and beads of sweat trickled down her neck and forehead.

“That was fun! Do you have more tricks like that?” Ritterkreuz asked, descending and flying closer to the weathermare. “I bet if you worked on it some more, brought down some clouds, you could generate enough lightning to hit me with bolts of it instead of just rocks. That would be even more fun!”

Dash exhaled slowly and smiled. “Maybe I’ll do that then.”

“I am glad you aren’t just flying away, though you’ll probably try it again later.” Ritterkreuz crossed her forelegs, still grinning happily. “You hit hard, too - harder than Sparky did, though not as hard as that cranky old bitch, Raging Storm.” She craned her neck enough to look over at Soarin, perched close by. “I still don’t mind if your coltfriend joins in, too. Like I told Spitfire. I don’t mind being double-teamed. In fact, if it were you two, it’d be kind of hot.”

“He’s just here to watch,” Dash assured her. “Eyes on me, okay?”

“If that’s what you want,” Ritter complied, “Since I’m waiting for you to catch your breath, how about--”

“Actually!” Dash interrupted, and the former Wonderbolt gave her a questioning, curious look.

“What?”

“You said before that you never thought of the Wonderbolts as your team mates, right?” She waited to see Ritter nod, just once. “See, that just doesn’t make sense to me,” Dash admitted. “Why did you wait so long to quit, then? You could’ve done it any time.”

For a few seconds, Ritterkreuz simply hovered in place, her grin replaced by a tight line.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Dash insisted.

“The timing… it isn’t really an interesting story, but you’ve been fun, so I guess I can tell you that if you need to know so badly.” The big gray mare rolled her eyes, her lime green mane flapping behind her in the breeze. “I got this letter, you see. It said that Antimony - that bitch - had finally been beaten by somepony, and that my old pal Bloody was back on the market. I wasn’t about to just let some other evil bitch walk in and take him, so I figured I’d try picking up where I left off.”

“Where you left off?” Rainbow Dash asked, her breathing returning to normal as she recovered. “What does that mean?”

“It means… Blueblood and I were fuck buddies back in the day. It was a good thing!” Ritter grinned again at the shocked or maybe disgusted look on her opponent’s face. “Deep down, he’s always hated all the other mares around him, and we shared that contempt. The prissy daughters of rich families, the scheming witches in gala dresses, the ambitious whores with noble titles, even the star struck idiots from backwoods villages who bought into all that romance bullshit. All of them could go right to Pony Hell. We had each other’s backs, and with Antimony gone, I figured I’d hop back into his bed. What would the Wonderbolts be able to do then?”

She glanced back over as Soarin, but just for a moment.

“Nothing. It’d be like the old days!” Ritter groaned and spat off to the side. “Except, go figure, he’s actually in love with this Rarity mare. I don’t like the smell of her, but at least she isn’t a murderous bitch, so I figured I’d let things be. It left me in a bit of a bind, really. I couldn’t even get one last ‘see you on the flipside’ lay off him. So that was one reason.”

Dash started to gain altitude, eyes scanning the area around them. “And the other one?”

“The Wonderbolts were getting boring!” she explained, shrugging. “I told you this before, and it’s true. The racing and the flying and the crowds… it was kind of neat, to start with, but after a while it got boring. Nothing pisses me off more than being bored. Where was the challenge? How can you go from risking your life, risking your body, spilling blood and having your blood spilled, and then settle for a life of entertaining snot nosed foals?”

Ritterkreuz shook her head, forcefully: no.

“I joined up after Antimony beat me with those damn unicorn tricks of hers, and I still plan to put paid to her one day for it, but after that there wasn’t anypony left. All my real comrades were dead and gone. All the ponies who were anything like me. I should never have joined the Wonderbolts. They’ve lost touch with what they used to be. I should have just left Equestria… started a group of pirates… or a Free Company. Kill and kill and kill until somepony or something kills me.”

“How can you even think like that?!” Dash yelled, now at the same height at the other mare. “What do you mean your comrades were--”

“That’s enough talking about that,” Ritterkreuz snarled. “I assume you’ve caught your breath. Fight me! Throw more at me! I don’t care what! Just do it!!”

There was no point arguing, so Rainbow Dash did just what the mare wanted of her.

- - -

“Captain.”

“Captain.”

“Captain!”

Thunderhead inclined his head respectfully to his team mates as he walked past them. His heart ached at the sight of a few injured Wonderbolts, stopping briefly to check on them, even if they were well enough to stand outside their tents and gawk as his return. He wasn’t much of a sight himself, really: bandages wrapped tight around his chest, neck and the foundations of his wings. His entire right wing was still in a sling, hanging by his side. A long stitch in his forehead had necessitated cutting a small strip of his distinctive snow white and silver mane, the latter the same rare color as his coat.

“Wild Rider, good to see you up and about,” he said, patting the shoulder of a mare with a black eye and a patch over her right cheek.

“Misty Fly,” he answered another call of “Captain!” and assured the wheat colored mare that he was fine and that he’d fly again, sooner rather than later.

“Silver Lining. High Winds. I heard you two had a rough time of it. Heal up quickly, the both of you.”

“Captain!”

“Captain!”

“Blaze. How’s the leg? Good. Good. Wind Shear. Gah! Surprise! I need to breathe!”

“Oh, sorry!” The seemingly unhurt mare released him and he smiled at her, at all of them.

“Hey, everypony! The Captain’s back!” Surprise yelled, quickly flying off to rouse anyone else who could hear or stand - or just hear - to come and see for themselves. Thunderhead chuckled. Surprise had always been one of his favorites, though he doubted she’d ever be promoted beyond lieutenant. Just the threat of paperwork usually sent her packing off on a hastily assembled training trip to the gym.

Thunderhead stopped a few more times on his way to one tent in particular.

The Wonderbolts Mobile Headquarters was a cloud, naturally, but one built to provide the unit with facilities far from Cloudsdale or to foreign countries where manufactured clouds weren’t readily available. The large, rectangular cloud base had three levels to it in some parts, though much of it was storage. Living quarters were just lots on the topmost level, organized by rank. At the head of the unit, in large tent designed to be both quarters and office, was the lot reserved for the Captain of the Wonderbolts.

As Thunderhead got close to it, he saw the Captain herself: Spitfire. She was already out front in her uniform, hoof raised in respectful salute. He grinned at the sight of her and returned the salute. Spitfire had always been a model Wonderbolt. She worked hard, she trained hard, and she was creative and excited both by flying and by organizing routes and routines. She never balked or abused any responsibility given her. By any standard, she loved the Wonderbolts - both the long and storied company and the ponies who made it up. That was always the most important thing: the ponies who made up the Wonderbolts. The name was nothing without them, and without the trust and love they had for their Captain.

Raging Storm, his own Vice-Captain, was sadly lacking in that respect. It was poor taste to think ill of her, especially with her lying wounded, but Thunderhead had long since decided not to pass on the Captaincy to her. She loved the Wonderbolts, too, in her own way… but to her, the reputation and name of the company were all-important. He would not have driven them against Ritterkreuz so recklessly. Most Wonderbolts were not trained for combat anymore, and furthermore many didn’t even have the mindset for it. He would have pursued the rogue Wonderbolt more cautiously, and with only picked squads.

Though, the ‘wear her down with numbers’ strategy did have some merit… it had costs, too.

Spitfire, though? Spitfire. He remembered when she joined as a young, bright-eyed mare striking it out on her own for the first time. The fiery scrub had quickly earned the respect of the other recruits. It occurred to Thunderhead, as he watched her lower her leg from the salute, that she probably never knew how he had been grooming her to be Captain one day.

‘The one pony I secretly favored, and I think I was hardest on her,’ he thought, but put that aside. There were other matters to deal with on his visit than to reminisce or regret.

“Captain!” she said, “You’re back?”

“I am, Captain,” he saw her surprise at his using her ‘acting’ rank. “Back for a little while, anyway. We need to have a little talk.”

“Of course, sir!” Spitfire stepped aside, and pulled open the flap of her tent. He walked inside, ducking his head, and as he did he heard her cough and start to ask something: probably about filling the Vice-Captain seat. It was a polite way of asking what role she would have, now that he was back.

She needn’t have worried.

“Spitfire,” he said, motioning for her to be silent for a moment. “You are Captain of this unit. My being here does not change that.”

He took a moment to look around the tent. It was his, had been his, but she had moved one or two things in. Her name was on the grill on top of the fold-out desk.

“Sir, no pony will ever replace you…” She bowed her head and sat behind the desk, a little uneasily. “But I will try, sir, until your wing heals. If that is what you want.”

He also sat down, in front of the desk. It was a position he hadn’t occupied in many years, not since Winter Bora’s short tenure as Captain. And now here they were, dealing with his daughter. One of them, anyway.

“How’s the team?” he asked, first.

“We’re down to only two active flights,” Spitfire replied, and it was much of what he already knew. “Of those, I would only consider one to be combat capable at the moment. I’ve organized training exercises to try and improve responsiveness and familiarity in combat among those still fit enough to go up against Ritterkreuz. Most of our wounded were caught in ambushes. Many of our flyers have the skills, but not the experience. Most… most signed up to fly, not to fight, sir.”

Thunderhead nodded, gravely. “One thousand two hundred and fifteen years have passed since we were first formed as a flying company. Our numbers have dwindled to as low as five members and ballooned to as many as three hundred. The Wonderbolts evolve to reflect their times and the needs of the ponies who embrace our ideals and our mission to serve Cloudsdale and the Princess.”

“Princesses,” Spitfire corrected, and her snout scrunched up a bit, “sir.”

“Princesses, yes!” Thunderhead said with a friendly chuckle. “My age must be showing. I’m so used to the one… one of these days we’ll need to amend our charter. Re-amend it, actually, since it was Princesses, then Princess, and now princesses again.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Point being: that the Wonderbolts change and sometimes, those we call Wonderbolts change as well.” Thunderhead let a breath escape through his nose, just enough to curtail a sigh, and stile a glance at his broken wing. “Regardless: Ritterkreuz. We need to talk a little about her, Captain Spitfire.”

“What is there to talk about?” Spitfire asked, balancing a pair of polarized sunglasses between her hooves. “If you mean, what is our current operation against her? We’re using the Rainbow Dash option. I sent a brief to you in the hospital.”

“That’s partly the reason why I am here now,” Thunderhead replied. “This involves Miss Dash as well.”

Spitfire gave him a wary look, as if he had come to pull the plug on things. “How… how so? Sir?”

He closed his eyes, and did genuinely sigh. “This is really my fault, you don’t know. I should have compiled a brief for my replacement. If you had been promoted like I intended, then I would have told you the day you got your pin and wings.”

Spitfire’s ears perked at his admission that he had intended to promote her, but she remained cool. “Sir? What is it I need to know?”

“Roughly eight years ago, the after effects of a strange weather phenomenon were detected just outside Cloudsdale. Barometric meters and Cumulonimbus seismographs recorded the event as it stretched out over several small villages and even Canterlot itself. While dismissed by many as some sort of fluke or natural occurrence, there were many pegasus ponies who recognized the event for what it was. They understood that somepony out there, likely somepony in Cloudsdale, had rediscovered the legendary Sonic Rain Boom.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire said.

“None other,” Thunderhead replied, nodding. “The Rain Boom used to be a weapon in classical times, used to inspire one’s allies and decimate one’s enemies. Commander Hurricane himself was the last to use it in combat, and since that time is had been considered a lost skill and passed into legend. That one could occur just outside the bounds of Cloudsdale and go un-investigated is unthinkable.”

Spitfire could see where this was leading. “Who was it?”

“The Princess’s stallions got to her first, but the ones looking were the Weather and War Department’s Research Division. By the time they identified the filly responsible, the Princess already had an order issued not to interfere with her. She was part of another project, and not to be disturbed or kept from naturally developing her talents.”

“Another project. The Elements of Harmony?”

“That would fit, yes.” Thunderhead paused a moment, with that information out of the way, contemplating how best to bring up what came next. “You’re still young, but one thing you’ll learn after a few years as Captain is that the WWD is not easily dissuaded. Not even by a Princess and a secret royal decree. Research Division knew that the Rain Boom was possible, and clandestinely watched Miss Dash for many years. I’d bet they’re still watching her, even after…”

He shook his head, not wanting to fly off on a tangent. “They knew that the Rain Boom could be done and they even had an idea of how. A secret study was funded to investigate and identify other candidates capable of producing or reproducing the effect.”

“The blank slate in Ritter’s background?” Spitfire guessed, raising a hoof to her chin as she considered the implications of what she had heard. “She can’t… do it, can she?”

“No,” Thunderhead replied. “Four candidates were chosen and sent to Boom Lake outside Los Pegasus. Ritterkreuz was one, as you guessed, but all four were failures. Different attempts were made with both assisted and unassisted flight, altered control surfaces by modifying the wing, and feather enchantment and rigidity experiments to mitigate shockwaves and the imbalance of partial trans-sonic flow as a pony approaches the sound barrier. Two of the candidates were wounded, too badly to continue.”

“With the final two, a wind tunnel study concluded that the barrier could only be broken by a pony in a steep dive. The problem being that high speeds already cause a nose-down pitch and increasing negative-g loads across the entire body…”

“I’d say it was suicide, sir, but I’ve seen Rainbow Dash do it,” Spitfire stared down at her sunglasses. “At the Best Young Flyers competition. She saved my life and the lives of two others. I don’t know how, but she did.”

“Supposedly, control over one’s flight improves once though the barrier,” Thunderhead replied, but he wasn’t entirely sure himself. Except for what one pony could do, it was all theoretical.

“The last two tests… that focused on dives…” Spitfire asked, though she had an idea. “What happened?”

“They crashed, of course.” Thunderhead clopped a hoof onto the fold out table for emphasis. “The dive is impossible to pull out of, and no pony - except maybe Miss Dash - can achieve that sort of speed in level flight. There was an incident following the first two tests… the other candidate became convinced that only ‘extreme duress’ could enable a pony to pull the move off. She jumped off the cloud base, went into a dive, and died when she hit the ground.”

Spitfire was silent, her hooves crossed over her desk.

“The Princess found out, demanded that the project be canceled, and then - and this is the really unusual part - recommended that we take Ritterkreuz in.”

“The…!” Spitfire almost surged out of her chair. “Princess Celestia sent Ritter to us? I thought it was Commander Bora!”

“No. The Commander actually disagreed,” Thunderhead told her, told the new Captain of the Wonderbolts. “It came down to me: to my decision. I thought about it and about what I had been told. In the end, I sided with the Princess over my old mentor and I approved her admission into the company. I had hoped… that our values, that our ideals of teamwork and duty… would rub off on her.”

“This has been a long time in coming,” he said, rueful. “I brought this on the Wonderbolts. I wish… I could have left you more, Spitfire. A Captain should never have to pass on his failings to his successor.”

“Sir!” Spitfire stood up, and Thunderhead started at her sudden outburst. “We will look after our own, sir. And I will take care of this company. I…” She shuddered, but took a breath and composed herself as an officer shoulder. “I will take care of this matter, sir. You needn’t worry about it.”

He raised a hoof to salute, his broken wing not feeling quite as heavy as it did before he entered. “That is good to hear, Captain. Now tell me about this Rainbow Dash you’ve put so much faith in.”

- - -

Applejack’s back hit the base of the ornamental spruce, a painful grunt escaping her lips as she quickly crouched low, avoiding Dew’s hoof as he tried to punch the protective bubble off her mouth and nose. Swirling wisps of pollen circled the two ponies as Applejack kicked off and to the left, turning her back on the stallion and kicking back. Dew deftly bounced away under threat of being apple-bucked. Unlike the Element of Honesty, he had no need for a magical shield around his muzzle. He breathed the pollen as easily as Pinkie Pie did, and without the excuse of being naturally too doggone crazy for it to affect.

Blood pumping, Applejack quickly switched from balancing on her two front legs to her two back ones. Grabbing hold of the pillar-like tree, she could feel the potent mix of earth pony magic flowing through it. Horticultural specialists had only put it in the ground here this morning for the festival and all the roots were still in the ball. Yumi’s magic was flowing through it, too, and Applejack added a bit of her own. Rearing back, she slammed her front hooves into the trunk, easily dislodging it from its shallow bed and sending it flying.

“Uh!” White Dew grunted as it slammed into him, sending him onto his back.

Given a moment to breathe, Applejack picked her lasso up off the ground, the shield around her mouth flashing as it rejected the pollen that had accumulated on it. Trotting towards the downed Neighponese earth pony, she jumped back as the tree upended and tumbled like a log over her crouching form.

The ornamental tree crashed to the ground behind her, hitting another of its kin.

Applejack ignored it, spitting out the loop of her lasso and starting to spin it. She aimed for White Dew’s exposed left back leg, but he rolled away and then bounced, nimbly, to the side when she tried to catch him by the neck. The pair circled - each recalling when they had previously fought during Yumi’s pas d’arms outside town - and then Applejack growled and resumed her attack. White Dew jumped, suddenly, avoiding a crack of the lasso.

Applejack smirked to herself, bringing the loop up, wide, to catch him in mid-air--

Only to have it close around a dazed and murmuring festival goer instead. Dew must have picked her up to use as a shield! Applejack cursed under her breath, pulling on the lasso to get the bystander out of the way.

“Sorry, Flashy!” she apologized to the tipsy earth pony mare. “Shoot!”

White Dew was already rebounding back from his landing, front hooves extended to stamp down while she was distracted. Thinking quickly, Applejack spun around and her tail lashed out instead of her lasso, catching the stallion by the left hoof and flipping him head over hooves. He hit the ground, tumbled, a spray of glittery red and yellow pollen kicked up in the process, and landed on all fours. A shake of his mane, and more of the psychotropic pollen took to the air around him.

Behind him, lightning sliced down from above, chasing an erratic blur of pink.

“Stand still, Celestia DAMN IT!” Cool Breeze roared, anything but cool headed as she punched a hoof repeatedly into a large cloud floating to her right side. With every blow, the crackling cloud discharged another arcing bolt of electricity.

Pinkie Pie cartwheeled through a grove of the pollen generating trees, emerging impossibly unscathed a few seconds later as bolt after bolt struck, splitting open trunks and blasting away branches. Running straight up the trunk of one of the taller trees, she grappled onto the top, pulling it back like rubber band.

“You can’t DO that!” Cool Breeze yelled, shaking a hoof. “Trees don’t bend that way!”

“Sure they do!” Pinkie yelled back as the tree sprang straight, propelling her into the air. “WEEEE!!”

The pegasus spread her wings to fly away but was a heartbeat too slow, and the pink terror slammed bodily into her like a living cannonball. Pink and teal, they spun together like a two-toned beach ball before hitting the ground and coming apart. After tumbling and skidding across a long patch of grass, Cool Breeze finally came to stop, face-first, in the bosom of a giggly Mrs. Cake. The mare and her husband were reclined next to one another on a small rise in the property, the male of the pair intently studying a framed piece of art.

“I- I- I still don’t see the sailboat, honey badger,” Carrot Cake said with a frown. He slowly turned to his giggling wife only to gasp. “Don’t look now, dear… but you have a pony in your lap.”

“She’s so cute, too!” Mrs Cake pinched the grown mare’s cheeks.

“Get off me!” The irate Neighponese pegasus snarled, disentangling herself from Mrs Cake’s hooves. Standing back up and turning around, she barely had time to raise her wing to block something thrown at her face. It -

It splattered?

“Guess where I landed!” Pinkie Pie called in a sing-song voice, her forelegs weighed down by various cakes and pies and pastries. Not even waiting for an answer, she tossed one of the pies into the air and spun around, kicking it with a back leg before landing on two legs again.

“How do you DO that?!” Cool Breeze snarled, wings conjuring up a cloud to hide behind.

The sweets began to fly in one direction, and lightning soon cracked in response.

One of which flew wild and slashed into a wavering lavender barrier, drawing a wince from Twilight Sparkle as she struggled to hold the shield up… all while small bubbles of orange threatened to puncture the barrier entirely. It wasn’t just the infiltration of orange, either. A marble statue flew through the air and shattered against the barrier - it would have passed right through and plowed into her, if not for her seeing it at the last second and solidifying the shield. She’d have kept it solid, too, except there were trippy ponies underhoof and all around her who could get hurt in the process.

To her left, orange bubbles began to accumulate, piled one atop the other to form a wall.

Gritting her teeth, Twilight focused on pulling on just one of them. It was a lot harder to move or alter another unicorn’s shield spell, especially with so much already on her plate. Extending a hoof to help concentrate, she felt the bubble begin to give, stretching from a sphere into a distended oval, until it finally popped. The ones next to it interlaced with the original bubble, also popped, and soon half-a-dozen others fell and burst. Through the crack in the orange wall, she could see her objective: the Blueblood manor.

Through the gap, a pale mare ran through and into the shield.

“Did you find him?” Twilight asked, seeing Eunomie appear.

“Still no sign of your brother,” she replied, shaking her head but neither excited by her ordeal on the outside nor dissuaded from going back out again. “It stands to reason that, if given the opportunity by his incapacitation, our opponents would sequester him away so we would not be able to revive him. Lady Rarity is also still missing somewhere in the pollen storm.”

“And--” Twilight winced again, horn blazing bright to seal up another widening hole in her lavender shield spell. A trickle of pollen from outside managed to get inside before the gap could close, but a telekinetic push pressed it back into the inside of the barrier where it disintegrated.

Eunomie’s horn dimmed, the only clue to her participation in the move.

“Thanks,” Twilight told her, “So, no Shiney, no Rarity… what about the guy doing all this?”

“Yumi’s barrier mage has concealed himself as well,” Eunomie replied. “I suspect this was set up as a contingency beforehoof and that he or she has erected a transparent barrier to hide within.”

“A transparent barrier?” Twilight asked, gritting her teeth. “An invisible bubble, then. If only we had a general idea of where this pony IS!”

“Uh, hey?” another unicorn from one of the groups huddled under Twilight’s shield clearly overheard. She approached the two mares with a nervous, though not exactly shy, grin. A pair of tinted oval glasses concealed her eyes. “Hey there, I uh - couldn’t help but overhear. I might be able to help find this guy.”

“How?” Eunomie asked, bluntly.

“I remember you!” Twilight exclaimed, but quickly had to divert her attention to her barrier and the wall between them and the manor. “It was, um… the DJ…?”

“DJ Pon-3!” the unicorn mare said. “That’s me! My friends call me Vinyl Scratch, so - anyway, I can find this guy if you can get me my subwoofer. I’ve got a spell that I bet will work!”

“Your subwoofer,” Eunomie repeated, evaluating the DJ. “That would be with your other equipment near the mansion, would it not?”

Vinyl’s grin turned bashful. “Yeah. That’s where I was set up.”

“No pony can approach the mansion without being targeted,” Eunomie told her. “There is some sort of proximity alarm…”

“Then, might I make a suggestion?” a stallion inquired, leading over the group that had clustered around him and the DJ. Fancypants reached up to adjust his monocle. “You need a pony light on her hooves, is that it?”

“Mister Fancypants?” Twilight asked, glancing back over her shoulder. “You don’t mean...?”

“Me? No, no, no!” The Canterlot socialite reached a leg over to pat a lithe mare on the shoulder. “Fleur. Would you be so kind as to try?”

“What?” she model asked, hoof to her own chest, “…Me!?”

Fate chose that moment to further startle the starlet by nearly dropping a pegasus onto her head.

Fleur-de-lis yelped in fright and surprise as the steel plated body of a Free Company flyer tumbled through the ceiling of Twilight’s barrier, crashing just a few hoof-lengths from her nose. A dozen eyes turned upward, where the sky was now streaked by cracks of lightning and the shadows of partly gathered clouds. A few raindrops fell, through the shield, to land on noses and outstretched hooves.

Up in the air, Cool Breeze blasted through a half-formed raincloud, dispersing it and gathering a crackling cloak of lightning around her. Busy trying to wash away the pollen cloud below with a hastily improvised rainstorm, a second Free Company pegasus was caught unprepared as Breeze circled around and plowed into her. A crack like thunder split the air, and the accumulated charge instantly discharged.

The pegasus was sent flying in an arc, crashing into and through one of the manor windows.

“Ha-ha!” she snarled, rubbing her hooves against the cloud below her to build up electricity again. There was one other flyer left in the air, another steel-cuirassed company-pony, his hooves full gathering together moisture enough to form a raincloud.

“Now I’ve waahahhHH?!” Cool Breeze yowled in surprise and pain as something yanked her back and down, through the thin cloud beneath her. Lightning discharged from her front hooves, shooting harmlessly up and into the air in a wild and barely coordinated spray of silver sparks.

“Come on sugarcube!” Applejack yelled, lasso wrapped around one leg and clenched between her teeth for good measure. “Get down here!”

Still spraying lightning, Cool Breeze crashed into the tree Applejack had jumped off of, setting half the ornamental pine on fire as she barreled through branches, breaking dozens on her way to hit the ground. Applejack fell, too, but landed on four hooves and broke into a gallop, spinning around in a tight circle and yanking Cool Breeze out of the muddy ditch she had dug with her backside. The Neighponese pegasus screamed as she whirled around, hooves flying up to guard her face as she slammed into and through a sculpture of Princess Celestia’s shapely behind.

Momentarily dazed, she groaned just in time to see Applejack push aside Celestia’s broken rear end. Then the earth pony had her by the mane, and she flew halfway across the pavilion and into another exhibit. She crashed through that too, and then out the back of the tent, between a pair of battling earth ponies.

“I AM the great mighty Pie,

So don’t ex~pect to run right by,

I have here no lack of cake,

Picking a fight was a mistake!

How ‘bout a tart?

It’s a la carte!”

A whole cake exploded against the ground, sending White Dew diving out of the way of the huge, sticky projectile.

Don’t think I’ll ever let you get away!

Not when I have so much stuff to throw!

I’ll help myself to this wonder-ful buffet

And give you yours to go!

Here! Let me noose

Another mousse!

Prowling on top of the pavilion tent, Pinkie let fly another cake, this one with curiously bearing a dozen still-lit candles and the words ‘happy birthday’ on it. Her opponent couldn’t avoid this one, as he ended up in a field of pollen-loony ponies who promptly grabbed his legs and kept him from moving.

“Now I’m real~ly get~ting kind of sad!

Don’t you see this swirl~ing sea of treats?

From up on my launch pad,

I can serve up all the eats!

Have a souvenir!

It’s ginger beer!”

White Dew wiped the cake from his eyes and glared up at her. “Ginger beer?”

“Ginger Beer!” Pinkie cheered, spinning a hose around in one hoof and taking aim. “Ginger BEEEEER!”

But before she could hit him, the pink pony lost her footing as one of the poles holding up the multicolored pavilion tent gave way. Front legs flailing uselessly, and worse, spraying ginger beer in every direction, Pinkie Pie ended up taking a swan dive off the roof with a high pitched “WAAAAHHH!!”

More than a trickle of that same beer arced high over Twilight’s barrier, barely missing Fleur-de-lis as Fancypants gave her a boost by bodily hurling her out of the shield. Landing nimbly she started prancing towards the manor, a bubble filter over her mouth. The graceful noblemare and model par excellence struck a brief pose as another streak of beer narrowly avoided hitting her mane. Leaping forward like a ballerina, taking a few tiny steps and then jumping, Fleur just barely escaped an orange bubble barrier that formed beneath her.

Shying away from the barrier that now lay between her and the safety of the lavender shield, Fleur grimaced… only to suddenly hear the distinctive click-click-clicking of a camera. Turning around for just a moment, she saw Photo Finish on Fancy’s back, a camera in front of her face. Fleur’s momentary anxiety instantly vanished in the shutter light of the camera, and she zipped backwards with a flourish, avoiding another forming orange bubble.

Striking one pose after another, she avoided one encapsulating, ensnaring barrier after another on her way to the mansion, following a walkway that zigged and zagged along an erratic path that only she could see. Then, at last, she was close enough to use a little unicorn magic to scoop up Vinyl’s subwoofer. Prancing away, the barrier mage seemed less inclined to pester her on the way back to the purple shield.

Finally, the breathless model of a mare returned, carefully placing the subwoofer on the ground.

“Jolly good work, my dear!” Fancypants was the first to greet her, only for Fleur to give him a dark glare.

“You threw me, Fancy.”

“Ah, yes, quite. Was actually rather fun, too.”

The bubble over Fleur’s mouth vanished, returning to Eunomie.

“Alright, Vinyl Scratch,” Twilight said, looking behind her back. Next to her, Eunomie nodded, once, her feelings identical to Twilight’s. “Show us what you can do.”

“What I can do is lay down a twenty-hertz bass beat that you’ll hear in your bones!” Vinyl’s horn lit up and she placed both front hooves on top of the subwoofer. “Just make sure you keep that shield up! If I end up tripping out I’m charging double!” She tilted her head slightly as she reconsidered that. “Or half, depending on how I feel in the morning!”

And then her magic surged into the subwoofer and a deep rumble filled the air and rippled through the ground. Everypony near her felt it as much as they heard it, like a warble in their stomach that made their hooves tremble. It wasn’t alone, either: the subwoofer drummed out a beat to an unheard song. Twilight’s shield shook, too, vibrating slightly from the sound waves.

So did the orange bubbles around them.

So did something transparent up on the roof of the manor.

“There!” Twilight yelled, pointing up and horn fiercely aglow. “I’ve got him!”

Applejack raised a hoof to her eyes as something bright exploded - or maybe popped was a better word - to her right side, and way up. Then she turned her focus back to what was in front of her and spat out the burned remnants of her lasso. She had other problems to worry about, starting with the fires spreading around her. Luckily, she and the little firestarter who had caused the blaze in the first place were well away from most other ponies. Even the pollen-addled ponies that were up and about knew better than to get near ‘hot hot ouchies.’

Ducking away from a burning piece of debris, she broke into a quick trot, jumping in time to bite down on a straight combed blue tail. She’d done this quite a few times to Rainbow Dash, and Cool Breeze wasn’t half the flyer Ponyville’s premier weatherpony was. She tried to gain altitude, reaching for the gathering clouds overhead, but Applejack thought heavy thoughts and started to swing her lower body. Her hooves brushed the ground for just a second and it was all she needed to gain traction and, with just the muscles in her neck, flip the pegasus mare down and into the ground.

The teal pegasus glowered at her with murderous, desperate eyes.

“D-damnit…!” she cursed, trying to scramble away from the far stronger earth pony. “A cloud! I need a cloud!”

“Ain’t none of those down here!” Applejack raised a hoof to knock her out for good--

Only for an invisible force to seize her by the tail and pull her away from the pegasus!

“Suzukaze!” a stallion cried out. “Forget her! Take out the purple barrier!”

Applejack cursed as the pegasus took off, laughing.

--only to be intercepted by a pink blur from out of nowhere. “BANZAIII!!”

“Get off me, you lunatic!”

Slamming back onto the ground, Cool Breeze grabbed a hoof-full of pink mane, tucked in her legs and kicked, sending Pinkie spinning through the air --

“Watch it!” And right into Evening Squall as he started throwing more orange barriers, both towards Twilight - now almost at the face of the mansion - and up into the air.

“What is this, Pinkie Pie Pinball?” the party pony bounced off the unicorn’s side and scrambled around and between his legs, avoiding an enveloping orange barrier. Grabbing onto his left front leg, Pinkie made a little jump, not into the air, but onto the stallion’s back, still holding one of his front legs behind his head. His horn flared as he began building up magic for another barrier, but hesitated with how she was practically clinging onto him.

“Gotcha now!” Pinkie giggled.

At least until Evening Squall reared up, and eschewing magic entirely, fell onto his back, crushing her under him.

“Oh oh,” she muttered as the ground shot up under her.

“Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” Applejack cursed, hooves full subduing a flailing Cool Breeze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a dirty and pastry-stained White Dew jumping from one falling orange barrier bubble after another, higher and higher, towards where the sole remaining Free Company pegasus had almost finished preparing a rain cloud to start washing away the pollen.

“Get her!” Cool Breeze yelled, one of her hooves pressing into Applejack’s eye and dislodging her Stetson.

White Dew jumped, hooves outstretched.

Only to stop in midair as a long pearl white ribbon wrapped like a starving snake around his left hind leg. Eyes wide in determination and frustration, foiled by just how close he had come, a grieved yell escaped White Dew’s mouth. And then the ribbon tugged, hard, and he fell back down to earth.

Still struggling in Applejack’s hooves, Cool Breeze sneered, bearing teeth, as she saw a pony emerge at the other end of that ribbon. “How? You didn’t have…!”

Rarity ducked her head as the ribbon, torn from her own dress, retracted back into a neat ream.

Around her mouth, a blue bubble protected her from the pollen storm.

Applejack whistled and laughed at the sight. “Well I’ll be a horse’s--”

“Don’t finish that,” Rarity interrupted, ribbon lashing out again.

Cool Breeze snarled like a cornered animal, flapping her wings and twisting around, bringing Applejack between her and the incoming spool of magical fabric. It weaved right around the apple farmer, who let Cool Breeze go, and then corrected course, heading for the pegasus again. Yelling now, the Neighponese lightning-trained mare skipped back on her hind legs, juking to the size to avoid one snap of the ribbon and then taking into the air to avoid the next. Then she slipped into a tight nettle of ornamental trees and the ribbon quivered… extended as far as it could go.

“I suppose it would be too much for the same trick to work twice,” Rarity said with a huff.

“You’ve got no idea how glad ah am ta see you, sugarcube!” Applejack saluted the unicorn mare. She turned back to the copse of trees. “Go help Pinkie Pie. Ah’ll keep this one grounded.”

“Don’t count us out yet!” Evening Squall rolled a bubble barrier away towards the two mares, a trapped Pinkie Pie inside. She seemed to be altogether enjoying being a gerbil in a ball, scurrying in place.

“We are the chosen retainers of Yumi-hime!” White Dew agreed, also standing up. Despite the literal pasting Pinkie Pie had given him, and despite being body slammed into the ground just a moment ago, he was practically unscratched, compliments of his enhanced earth pony vitality and healing.

“We won’t fail her!” Cool Breeze burst out of the trees, plowing right into Applejack rather than even trying to get around her. The force of the impact sent the apple farmer stumbling back, closer to where Rarity stood.

Pinkie Pie’s bubble had stopped too, and she had struck a pose to make some sort of determined declaration… except the bubble muted her, so no one heard it. Seeing everyone stare at her, the party pony sighed and unrolled a piece of paper from her tail. And then a crayon. Sitting down, she hastily scribbled out a note and boldly pressed it up against the barrier.

“Is there any apple bread left?” Applejack read, and the five gathered ponies leveled a half lidded stare at Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie quickly turned the note around.

“I’ll never give up!” Rarity read. “Much better.”

Pinkie turned the note around again.

“But, seriously, is there any apple bread left?” Rarity read that, too. She hung her head in undisguised exasperation. “Oh, Pinkie Pie…”

Evening Squall, however, laughed. “What she’s saying makes sense you know!” he yelled, tiny orange bubbles circling his horn as he extended a hoof. “Wishing for apple bread is all any of you will do once I have you in one of my--”

A large white hoof grabbed him by the wrist and lifted, until the stallion’s foreleg rose over his shoulder. “Barriers?”

“Tch!” Evening Squall clucked his tongue, looking back at a freshly revived Shining Armor, an anti-pollen bubble around the guard captain’s mouth. “So they found the bush I tossed you behind.”

“Thanks to Twilie and her friends, they did.” Shining Armor’s eyes glowed in tandem with his horn. He raised his voice to shout, “You two finished out there?”

“Just about!” Twilight called back, and she and Eunomie both ran up, levitating twin clusters of picked pine cones. “Between the ones Rarity got, too, I think we’ve got them all!”

It was then that, through the haze of pollen, the Neighponese trio noticed that the ornamental trees were all bare. Some were still on fire, a few others knocked down or uprooted outright, but there wasn’t a single reddish pollen-spewing pine cone left. Overhead, a raincloud rumbled, waiting for the signal.

Cool Breeze recovered first, glaring past Applejack at Rarity, the mare who had first humiliated her at the pas d’arms, back when they’d first visited Ponyville. “All this time, you were…?”

Rarity’s magic brought up another thin line of ribbon, dotted by dozens of impaled pine cones. They had been neatly threaded and plucked and now hung like beads on a gossamer necklace. Once detached they were a colorful, but harmless, ornament themselves.

“I think I might hang these over my door for hearth’s warming,” Rarity said with a knowing, confident smirk. “They’re actually quite beautiful when not poisoning everypony.”

“You guys are surrounded,” Twilight added, scowling at the foreign-born ponies.

“I’d listen to her if I were you,” Shining Armor agreed, and with the trees de-coned, finally released his own shield spell. A similar purple barrier expanded out and away from him at the epicenter, crackling and hissing as it slowly neutralized the particulate pollen cloud. Unlike Twilight’s barrier, that disintegrated the pollen on contact, Shining’s merely pushed it all back while canceling out the spell within each particle. The barrier expanded enough to engulf the entire festival and beyond before petering off.

The air cleared around them.

Revealing the large, wooden, snarling visage of an alpha Timber Wolf, the trunk of it alone large enough for a pony to live in. Parts of the nature golem looked chipped or damaged: there was a long black streak burned along one leg and a crack in the cheek below one eye smoked with more of the same green inner fire that smoldered within the eye sockets. In the distance, now made visible by the dispersal of the cloud, the hills between the manor and Ponyville - at the very least - were a battle between yet more of the wolves, tiny at this distance, and fast moving specks in the sky.

“Oh. I wasn’t aware they grew that big,” Twilight stated, fascinated by the slowly approaching behemoth.

The massive Timber Wolf opened carriage-sized jaws, a blast of hot breath visible in the air.

“Study it later, darling!” Rarity called to the pair. “Sir Armor, would you please remove that beast from my yard?”

“Right!” Shining Armor let go of Evening Squall and met the charging Timber Wolf with a wall of magic.

The fight wasn’t over yet.

- - -

Rainbow Dash rolled halfway into her dive and pulled up and into a bank of wild clouds.

Laughing like a madmare, Ritterkreuz followed right behind, a series of explosions shredding the cloud to pieces before she even came close to it. She rolled herself, curving around to the side and gaining altitude as she passed by a cyan streak. Her foreleg came away from the brief dust-up with something attached.

A dark black cloud hugged her right hoof, and a second later, it began to unload pulses of lightning into her body. For a second, Ritter’s wings froze up along with half the muscles in her body, but she only fell a pony length or two before reasserting control. Rainbow Dash was already circling her at high speed, throwing a second cloud to stick to Ritter’s back left leg. A third followed seconds later, latching onto her right shoulder.

Grabbing onto the cloud behind her shoulder with her left hoof and biting down on the one around her right hoof, Ritter began to rip them free. While she did so, however, Rainbow Dash blasted away and into another wild cloud. She quickly returned with more charged material to throw. The next one, Ritter saw coming and tried to swat away with her wing. Except it caught there, too, and a fresh round of electroshock therapy began.

Roaring as the current tore through her body, Ritterkreuz suddenly lunged. Dash stopped to throw, and crashing right through the charged cloud - letting it stick to the side of her face - the big gray mare seized the Element of Loyalty by the throat. Using the very same hoof Rainbow Dash had first ensnared. The pulses now found two bodies to torment instead of just one, and Dash screamed as the two plummeted, wracked by shocks that arced between their bodies and out into the air in dancing forks of lightning.

A thick canopy of branches and leaves and webs cushioned their crash and tore off the electrostatic clouds, but also ripped away feathers and cut lines in their skin. Rainbow Dash just barely managed to angle herself so they both hit, side to side, instead of her underneath. She tucked in a hind leg, placed a hoof against Ritters’s midsection, and pushed, again and again until she came free of the other mare’s grip.

Hitting the ground and rolling on her side, her wings spread to catch some air and keep her from slamming into anything worse than just the ground. They were in or near the Everfree now, opposite the Rambling Rock Ridge, which meant there literally were much worse things to crash into.

She pushed herself higher as a roaring gray form passed below her.

Ritter’s hoof slammed into a tree behind Dash, taking a chunk out of it like Pinkie Pie would leave a perfect, circular bite-mark on a whole cake. Enraged at missing her target, Ritterkreuz still had the presence of mind to spin with her missed blow, the tip of her wing brushing by - and catching - Dash by her long, chromatic tail. The freakish thing about Ritterkreuz was that, even with just one wing, she had more than enough strength to manhandle even another Wonderbolt.

The large gray wing snapped back, and Dash felt herself reeled in like a minnow on a fishing line. She slammed bodily into the ground and, as Ritter fell onto four legs again, the former Wonderbolt’s wing snapped in another direction, taking Rainbow’s tail - and the rest of her - along for the ride. Covering her face with her forelegs, Dash plowed into another tree, bounced off, and then crashed into another, and then a third…

Until, finally, the hairs in her tail had enough and tore apart.

Ritterkreuz glared at the hoof-full of ripped off hairs, red and orange and yellow and green, still gripped by her wing. Sniffing disdainfully, she discarded them and stalked through the brush in the direction her prey had ended up thrown. While she did so, she also reached up to her face to tear away the cloud that was still stuck over one eye and still blasting her with lightning. Ripping it away also removed all the eyelashes over her left eye and a few strands of her lime green mane.

“This isn’t hide and seek, Rainbow Dash!” she snarled, utterly unconcerned by any injury she could have caused herself.

Jonquil gold eyes narrowed in disgust as one of her hooves came back coated in mud.

“A swamp?” she wondered, surveying the bog that lay through the bush. Thin riparian trees, distinct from the thicker forest conifers, lined and demarcated raised areas above water level. Reeds and thick blankets of slime and moss dominated everything below that level, water-logged and mired except for a few tufts of tall, hardy grass that clung to life, floating on the surface.

“YAAAAHHH!” The cry preceded a pony-like form emerging from the muck, swinging a piece of flotsam like a baseball bat. The old wooden log shattered on contact with Ritter’s rock-hard skull and her wing flexed, an explosion sending both mares flying apart and into the fen.

Galloping for the water, Rainbow Dash and Ritterkreuz both dove in to try and wash the mud out of their wings. At the same time, both breeched the surface of one of the medium-sized pools - the ones more mud than mire - and flew right at the other. Dash, the quicker, got the better of the first clash, turning and bucking Ritterkreuz in the ribs. The big mare nearly hit the water again, but a single flap of her too-large wings kept her aloft.

Her feathers vibrated and the explosions began again.

Rainbow Dash banked hard as a series of the blasts etched a sloppy line along the shore of the largest blue-green lake. Messy chunks of mud and reed rained down, but both mares ignored the property damage as Dash found a floating sedge mat and, skimming close to the surface, ripped away a chunk of the floating ecosystem to hurl at her opponent. Predictably Ritterkreuz blasted it to smithereens, but in blocking her view, she made it harder for her to see Rainbow Dash reverse course and plow into her.

The two mares skimmed the surface of the lake, skipping like stones as Dash tried to push her opponent back into the water. Ritter’s wings made a widening streak against the surface of the lake, ripping through another thick mat of floating moss and grass and even a small tree. Back out over the water for a second after that, they twisted up and into the air, still wrestling.

Below them, the surface of the water exploded as serpent-like head and a fat round body emerged. Another head followed the first, and then a third, as the Hydra, disturbed by all the movement on the surface, zeroed in on the culprits. Two stubby legs pulled the stump-like body of the creature halfway out of the swamp, and four long necks extended upwards, flat, armored heads snapping at the coiled gray and blue streak.

An explosion deflected one of the jaws and the monster howled in anger and pain.

Then the streaks came apart, gray chasing blue, as they wound around the side of the creature. Water cascaded into the air from another blast, a brief rainbow lingering in the air before being blown away, too, by another explosion. One head chased the gray streak and another the blue, but when the two pegasi began twisting around each other both ended up momentarily tangled.

Roaring, the remaining two heads directed the body further out of the water while spinning around. Rainbow Dash saw a raw red mouth open ahead of her and cut in towards the wall of light brown that was the monster’s thick torso. Ritterkreuz also ignored the Hydra’s snapping, and a trio of explosions missed the evading weathermare, one hitting the monster’s body and another two a pair of long necks. Dash weaved through them, like swaying trees, and out the other side. Ritterkreuz was right behind her.

Skipping across the surface of the water, she purposefully kicked up a long trail of droplets behind her as she circled wide around both Ritter and the Hydra. These, the former Wonderbolt ignored, and Rainbow Dash grinned to herself. Her tail snapped, cropped and messy though it had become due to the other mare’s rough treatment, and a long rainbow trail developed in her wake.

A bit of magic, and the rainbow itself solidified.

Rainbow Dash pulled up, sharply, and the rainbow itself came with her, detaching from the surface of the lake. Another of the Hydra’s heads ducked down to intercept her, but Dash made a deft corkscrew, winding around and avoiding the hungry jaws. The Hydra’s head produced a guttural growl as it missed its prey, and then found itself caught in a vice of rainbow magic. Another head swooped down, snapping hard and fast to catch her in mid-air, but it was a heartbeat too slow, missing the pony and tasting the rainbow.

Rainbow Dash pulled up and then into a wide dive, wrapping a loop around the Hydra’s neck; banking and weaving between the other two… she kept going until her hooves skipped along the expanse of the monster’s back. Galloping, now, she pulled the rainbow taut and zipped across its back, past its flat tail, and then under its legs. Letting the rainbow go as it became too tight to keep holding onto, she turned around and saw a gray streak pick up where she left off.

Grabbing onto the exposed end of Dash’s rainbow trail, Ritterkreuz banked left and around one of the beast’s legs. It twisted painfully and the monster’s four heads all howled in mutual panic. With a warble, the unbalanced monster fell onto its wounded side and rolled, like a pig in the mud, back and into the safety of the water. The heads were frantically biting at the other heads, now, trying to free each other as they all slipped beneath the waves.

Gliding down to a patch of bushes, the two pegasus ponies watched each other warily, trying to catch their breath. Both also kept an eye on the lake nearby, just in case the Hydra came up for a second round.

Ritterkreuz laughed, suddenly, ripping a sprig from a nearby bush. It was ripe with reddish-orange berries nestled between small jagged leaves dotted with burgundy, and she tossed it at her opponent without warning. Dash caught the sprig, but eyed it with some trepidation.

“Cloudberries,” Ritter said, plucking a fragile branch from the bush and sucking up a half dozen of the berries. “They taste a little like apples.”

“This is the Everfree forest,” Dash reminded her. “I wouldn’t eat the grass out here. It’d probably try and eat me.”

Ritter shrugged.

Not one to let even an unspoken challenge go, Rainbow Dash went against her own advice and ate one then another of the berries. They were tart and juicy, and they didn’t immediately shrink her or grow another head, so she cleaned off the rest of the branch in a hurry. It was just a quick little snack, but it felt invigorating to have something in her stomach. Even though Soarin had always said not to eat during a flight… or, presumably, a fight…

“I used to know a pony who could make these into a drink,” Ritterkreuz said, momentarily ignoring Dash to look out over the still lake. “It was good, too. Stupid bitch should’ve told me how she did it before she died.”

“She a friend of yours or something?”

Ritter glared at her in response.

“What?” Dash asked, tossing aside one sprig to pull out another. The leaves weren’t that great, but the berries were alright. It was kind of a waste that they grew out in a swamp of all places. Most sane ponies - minus Fluttershy - avoided swamps like the plague.

“She wasn’t a friend,” the gray mare explained, reaching up to the mess around her left eye, where she’d torn off the static cloud. “She was… just somepony I worked with, once.”

“And what job would anypony hire you for?” Rainbow Dash asked, and Ritter smirked at the insulting tone. “Demolition? Insurance fraud?”

“Actually, Rainbow Bitch…” She pointed at the weathermare. “Our job was to copy you.”

Dash spat out a berry and nearly choked on another. “W-what?!”

“It was supposed to be a secret, but what the Pony Hell? I’m a wanted mare anyway, so I’ll tell you.” Ritterkreuz shook out her mane and, in the process, stretched her neck and shoulders. “After you did that first Rain Boom of yours, those old farts in Weather and War decided they wanted to be able to do it, too. I got picked up for it. They let us get away with just about anything to try and make our own Boom. It was me and three other mares. Two of them washed out quick, but this other one…”

“Merry Weather,” Ritter said the name with a scowl. “She was an idiot. Merry thought only a moment of extreme stress could give a pony the rush she needed to make a Rain Boom. But she was wrong, and it cost her… her dumb life.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore, though!” The former Wonderbolt spread her wings and with a single flap, took to the air in an effortless hover. “We’ve had a real fun time, but I want to see your Rain Boom again. This time, I’ll wreck it… and you.”

Rainbow Dash sighed, throwing away the branch she had been nibbling on.

“Don’t hesitate!” Ritter goaded her on, and grunted. “Maybe I’ll have to tell you something, then, to get you properly riled up. All this time, and back during the other fight, too… you must have been watching my wings and how I can use them to make explosions? My Galloping Grenadier. Sometimes I’d use my left-” She flapped her left wing for emphasis. “-and sometimes I’d use my right.” She flapped her right.

“What do you think happens?” she asked, rising up a little higher. “When I use both at the same time?”

Dash recalled an explosion large enough to level half a dozen trees, sending them flying like toothpicks. She had been flying away from the madmare at the time - it hadn’t been possible to see which wing she had used for that massive blast. She also hadn’t seen whatever Ritter had used to demolish half the quarry outside town. Was it possible that she had done both of those things with just a single wing?

Ritterkreuz flapped her wings, but the motion was different than before. It was like the difference between a pony walking along at a casual pace, and a pony actually working hard to gallop. She could feel it in her ear: the air pressure was rising. They were at sea level with the swamp, and Ritter was changing the air pressure around them by flapping her wings. Gone was the grin on her face, replaced by a look of concentration.

‘It would take a dozen weatherponies to affect such a large area! Is this the radius of the explosion she can cause?! It was bad enough before! I can’t let her get anywhere near anypony else like this!’

Rainbow Dash took off, and the disgraced ex-Wonderbolt followed.

- - -

Shining Armor’s shield began to crack as the Timber Wolf battered at it with swiping claws and furiously snapping teeth. The golem itself was taking far more damage than it could mete out, but the pieces that broke off - dozens of root-like teeth, shards of bark and hardened claw, even an entire shattered leg turned to a stump of vinelike ligaments and wooden muscle - all regenerated nearly as quickly as the damage appeared. Just touching the stump to one of the de-coned trees, the Wolf absorbed it, branch and trunk and root, forming a new replacement leg.

Behind him, Twilight levitated White Dew, the earth pony rendered helpless by unicorn magic, only for her to end up knocked off her hooves by a speeding Cool Breeze. Applejack danced away from Evening Squall as he started throwing around formed barrier bubbles instead of just making more. Sweat had matted his two-toned red mane, now limp around his straining horn. Like all of the Neighponese trio, they were nearly exhausted, but fought on regardless, calling on the last few dregs of stamina.

Almost a hundred ponies watched the fight from the relative safety of the manor steps, most having recovered their wits enough to either get out of the way or be herded out of danger by one or more of Ponyville’s Elements of Harmony. Unseen by all, one pony watched with a frown from behind one of the manor’s large windows, up on the third floor. The female changeling in the guise of Prince Blueblood narrowed ‘his’ eyes at the battle, her mind on another contest, out of sight.

‘These damned wolves…’ she thought, as Shining Armor pushed the largest one of them all back with his shield, trying to remove it from the castle grounds. ‘Don’t tell me those two grubs haven’t caught Yumi yet? You’d think the Queen would have sent competent changelings to escort her pet pony around. I gave them Blueblood’s entire guard! Just where are they?’

A pie splattered against the window and started to slowly creep back down, leaving blueberry in its wake.

‘Things are a mess down there. I’m tempted to… no. Our intelligence is that Blueblood, despite this teleporting ability he’s recently developed, isn’t a fighter. He wouldn’t get involved, so it would be suspicious if I did so.’

Snorting, the false Prince turned from the window and walked away.

Down below, Rarity yipped as a thick mass of wood and brush flew from the side of the alpha Timber Wolf, crashing at her hooves. Two rolls of fabric floating to her left and right, one white and torn from the side of her dress and one blue, formed from her own mane and tail, she backed away from the knot of wood as it developed a quartet of limbs and a pair of glowing green eyes.

“Oh! I’ve heard about Timber Wolf reproduction via architomy!” Twilight remarked, taking a second from firing streams of purple energy from her horn at the flying Cool Breeze. “They use asexual fragments called polyps to--”

“How do we stop it?” Rarity cried, hastily wrapping the proto-wolf up in white cloth. “Twilight! How do we stop it!!”

“I - I, uh, I’m not actually sure!” The studious unicorn babbled. “I think I remember them being a colony organism, so, um, uh… capable of… of… morphallactic regeneration… and, uh…!”

“Equestrian, sugarcube!” Applejack pounced, knocking her friend out of the way of a stray lightning bolt. She gave the unicorn a quick shake. “Come on, you got this!”

“S-s-sectioning, won’t work… fire, no… OH!” Twilight gasped, eyes lighting up. “OH! I’ve got it!”

Applejack helped her up, and nodded.

Twilight ran over to Rarity, yelling, “Rarity! Lift it up! Into the air!”

“What? This little brute?” Rarity gestured to the struggling Timber Wolf polyp she had trapped. The little wood and shrub monster was snarling and struggling against its fabric prison. Frowning at the creature, Rarity willed the cloth up into the air, taking the just pony-sized Timber Wolf with it.

“What now?” Rarity asked, glancing around and wary of the ongoing melee around her.

“If I remember Biruni’s Blue Book of Bizzare Beasts, the polyp should have--” She reached for the snapping baby Timber Wolf, recoiling at its toothy little jaws. A bit of magic, and she forced the mouth open. “Here!”

She reached in, extracting a leafy green briar, like a thorny nut.

The rest of the Wolf continued to struggle… for only for a few seconds. Then it went limp.

“Whatever is that thing?” Rarity asked, releasing the body of the Timber Wolf polyp from her fabric prison.

“This is the actual polyp that broke from that,” Twilight explained, pointing back at the huge Timber Wolf her brother continued to struggle with, now with the help of two errant Free Company ponies, the pegasus from before and a newly arrived stallion. “If I dropped it and let it hit the ground, it would reform the body back there around itself. All we have to do is…”

“Is this?” Rarity asked, cutting off enough white fabric to encapsulate the polyp. Testing the theory, both mares watched as Twilight dropped it onto the grass.

The tightly wrapped polyp vibrated, shuddered, but then went motionless.

“Wa-ha-ha!” Rarity clopped her hooves happily. “So,” she said, turning to the big one. “We just need to do the same to that one, then?”

“Actually,” Twilight replied, with a groan. “That one probably had dozens of polyp colonies.”

Rarity moaned and fell dramatically onto her side. “Of all the possible things!”

“We’ll need to break the big one apart and just keep trying to find the polyps inside, isolating every single one until it can’t reform,” Twilight explained. “All while fighting off these other ponies and maybe any other ones that break away, too.”

“MAKE WAY! COMING THROUGH!!” Pinkie yelled, racing between the two mares with a table full of food over her head.

Evening Squall, her target, whirled around just in time to see what was coming. “Not more cake!”

Too late, Pinkie upended the entire table over him. “Say hello to my little friend!!”

“That isn’t little at all!” Whether it was the cake, or the heavy wooden table he was more afraid of, neither unicorn could guess. Given that Pinkie Pie then began bouncing up and down on top of the overturned table, it was probably the table.

Twilight and Rarity were still debating just where to head to next and how, when they overheard voices from the ponies by the manor. A dozen of them were pointing up. Rarity and Twilight were about to also look up, when Cool Breeze crashed do the ground behind them, certainly not for the first time…

Only this time, she didn’t get back up.

A red and orange dragon, twice as tall as a pony, also landed near the fallen pegasus mare. He snorted a gust of fire above a mouth full of mismatched teeth, displayed by a prominent overbite. The flying silhouettes of a hoof-full of other dragons crossed the sky, and one followed the red drake down. Purple with a bright green frill of round scales, sporting small wings with green membranes that seemed utterly inadequate for keeping him in the air, this particular dragon was immediately and instantly recognizable.

“Spike!” Twilight called, and conjured up a catcher’s mitt of magic when she noticed he was coming in at a high speed. She stumbled back as he landed, face first, in her magical field.

“Spike?” Rarity asked, slowly smiling as it proved to be him.

“Still… need to work on landing,” he muttered, rolling out of Twilight’s magical grip and onto the ground. He rubbed his squished nose with an errant claw. He hadn’t grown much, except for the wings. “Geez, I guess I’m the new Rainbow Crash now…”

He laughed, nervously, as he stood up on his little legs and looked up at the two mares.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, pointing up at the two other dragons overhead, not counting the one on the ground. “But I brought some friends over? I think they’re, um, friendly dragons or something now? Or at least they want to see Ponyville for themselves.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. “How’d you manage that? A friendly dragon, huh?”

Rarity ‘hmm’ed as the red one and a large brown dragon mobbed the alpha Timber Wolf.

“Rather useful, I’d say,” she concluded, and bent over to give Spike a quick kiss on the cheek. “Welcome back, Spikey-wikey. Your timing is impeccable!”

The little dragon swooned, a goofy smile on his face.

Twilight patted him on the head, affectionate but not up to trying to top Rarity’s kiss. “Now we just need to--”

A faint tremor passed underhoof, and both mares looked up towards the horizon, and the outline of the Everfree forest. They were just in time to see a rising plume of ash and fire, tiny from so far away, but what must have been massive to see from miles away. A strange glow emanated from the blast, and then something streaked against a rising hill, shearing a glowing line across it, like a knife drawn fast over a sheet of paper.

“W-what on Equestria was that?” Twilight gaped, but then her eyes tightened. “It came from the Everfree.”

- - -

Rainbow Dash could actually see this Galloping Grenadier as it moved through the air: a lumbering, flickering cannonball of compressed air and fire. Wings slanted, she rushed from it as far as she could, and the shockwave from it still buffeted her and sent her careening through the air out of control. Half her body turning numb, Dash felt a much more acute pain. Tiny bits of debris from the ground had been ejected from the explosion below, and had hit here even a race-track’s length away.

Below, trees were flattened in a perfect, smoking circle, an expanding ring of dust and leaves and dirt and forest debris roiling through what was still standing. As the pressure shifted, that ring of debris lifted off to hover, ghost-like, in midair over the crushed forest and swampland. Part of the circle of destruction had included the edge of the lake below, and water rushed in to flood the slightly depressed earth, turning dirt into soggy mud.

Shaking her head in dismay, she turned to the sky and flew higher.

Ritterkreuz gave chase, but she seemed to be moving slower than before. Turning around while letting her momentum carry her on course, Dash quickly saw why - the crazy mare couldn’t both fly at top speed and compress enough air for her two-wing grenadier. Not that she even needed to fly that quickly when she could just rely on the air-blast’s ludicrous radius to knock anypony and anything out of the sky.

Facing forward again, she accelerated, climbing even higher… towards the sun. This was another bit of practical advice Soarin had taught her. Disappearing into the sun, he had called it. A pony could keep her back to the sun, too, but that was for attacking. Even Ritterkreuz wouldn’t be able to see her target when the sun was in the way.

Not that Dash expected a lack of ‘seeing’ something to keep Ritter from trying to blow it up anyway.

Reaching her apex, she turned nose-down and dived at top speed. The sky shuddered and roared seconds later as the massive grenadier exploded high in the air. Not only had it overshot, but the extra speed of the dive and the fact that it had been fired upwards all gave the weathermare more time to get out of range. The shockwave buffeted here again, but there was no debris this time, and it was too far away to be a threat.

‘Now I just need to figure out how to get away from the next one, too!’ she thought, but chuckled to herself. There were a few wild clouds far to the left of her, but up ahead was a cloud depot just stuffed full of mass produced clouds, some still with the Cloudsdale tag on them.

She’d called in a few favors with her friends the other day.

What she needed now was difficult: delicacy.

Flying into the neatly packed rectangular grid of labeled clouds, Dash began to kick, scattering the ones in the center into smaller packets. Others, she hit with the back of a leg as she flew by, sometimes once or twice, but didn’t disperse. Looping out of the formation again, she caught sight of Ritterkreuz approaching and drew her into firing a third grenadier clear. Using another well-timed dive, Rainbow Dash escaped the blast wave from that one, too.

‘That’s two!’ she told herself, pulling up and into the now slightly scattered grid of clouds. ‘I don’t have enough altitude for that trick again!’

Hitting more of the clouds as she flew past, Dash saw Ritter watching her with fascination… and annoyance. This wasn’t the move she had demanded to see.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ritterkreuz growled, and this time only used one wing.

It was the regular grenadier, the fast one, and it caught Dash unprepared.

The cloud she had just passed by came apart and the blast nearly bent her wing backwards. Still, she recovered, pushed herself harder, and flew by another trio of clouds, kicking one into pieces while hitting the other two in passing. Growing increasingly annoyed, Ritterkreuz’s left and right wings alternated now, unleashing a machine-like barrage of Galloping Grenadiers, blowing apart clouds and exploding in a cascade of fire in the air, a patch of destruction just behind a high speed cyan blur.

“You destroyed all my hiding spots!” Dash yelled, hooves clutching her mane in panic.

“I told you to hit me with your Rain Boom!” Ritter roared, slowly turning to keep Dash in sight. She flapped both wings, the air pressure in front of her rising in a little point of compressed fire and wind.

Rainbow Dash just kept circling, and praying that Ritterkreuz didn’t fire that grenadier off in the direction of town. It wasn’t good being this close. They were literally as far from Ponyville as Dash could’ve had these clouds moved and that was still uncomfortably close. The potential victims probably wouldn’t even be on the ground. With the way she was circling around Ritter’s axis, it would more likely be Ponyville’s relatively few cloud homes that got demolished. It was better than the town below, though. Dash shuddered. All that was a worst case possibility.

Ritterkreuz, so far, hadn’t killed even one pony. Not a Wonderbolt and not a civilian, though she had terrorized more than a few… apparently mostly stallions. Stallions who then described the frightful encounter to their irate marefriends, so, based on that and a dash of her own judgment, Rainbow Dash was fairly certain Ritter wouldn’t just level half the town out of spite. Probably.

‘Do you want me to blast the town instead?’ Was what she almost expected the big mare to say, even if it was a hollow threat. Instead, true to form, Ritterkreuz just growled, spinning faster to get a bead on her one and only target.

She was smarter than she looked, too, as she paused and led Dash zip around her back.

“What the hell is this?” she asked, not even bothering trying to follow Dash’s circular flying. “This wind… you’re making another tornado?”

At that point, any sane mare would probably have flown away.

Any sane mare would have seen that her opponent was up to something and decided to put distance between them.

Any sane mare would have tried to counter the move with something of her own.

‘But I’m not dealing with any sane mare,’ Dash thought, and Ritterkreuz began to laugh.

In a matter of seconds it was too late for her to do anything, anyway. By then the winds had picked up and taken on a life of their own, swirling around the former Wonderbolt and stretching vertically, both upwards and downwards. The tornado was up and running, the largest Dash had ever created. She put more and more pegasus magic into it, going faster and faster until she reached her limit. Even she couldn’t get nearly up to Rain Boom speeds while circling something.

‘I could probably lift Rarity’s boutique out of the ground with this twister!’ Dash felt a spike of pride at her accomplishment. ‘Do you see this, Soarin? You’re out there watching, I’m sure of it. Well, check this out and make sure you tell Spitfire, too, and all the other Wonderbolts! Who made this totally awesome, super tornado? Rainbow-freaking-Dash that’s who!’

Ritterkreuz remained in the tornado, eyes darting as she tried to keep track of where Dash had disappeared, deep into the vortex of winds. The tornado was getting thicker and thicker as it gained strength, and as the former Wonderbolt looked up, she could see that the funnel had tapered to a point, closing off any exit from the top. Likewise, she saw that the bottom was also now a dead end.

A quick Galloping Grenadier exploded against the swirling wall of wind, doing no damage to it.

“This isn’t the Rain Boom,” she said, her grin reappearing. “But it’s fun, too! Are you trying to lock me up in here?”

“Nah!” Dash’s voice came was distorted by the wind and her speed, still circling around the big mare. “What good would that do?”

“Not much, though I’d hesitate to use my full powered grenadier inside here,” Ritter explained. “Are you trying to tempt me into blowing myself up?”

“Nope! I’ve got another idea!”

“Yeah?” Ritterkreuz’s eyes lit up as she saw it, too. “OH HO! I see! I see!”

The darkening of the tornado wasn’t just due to the wind.

All the clouds from the depot were being sucked in, too. The tornado turned a smoky white and then it began to buzz, like a chorus of crickets. Brief white and yellow flashes crackled along the interior of the funnel, a product of all the micro-clouds rubbing up against the larger charged cloud packets. All were caught in the dynamo-like vortex, generating ever increasing amounts of electricity.

It wasn’t long before they began to discharge. A bolt missed Ritterkreuz by a few hoof-lengths, but another hit her in the side a second later. Flying away, she dodged another shock, but as the walls of the tornado widened, the ceiling and roof of the enclosure came together, trapping her in a vice. The tornado was almost like a capacitor in the making, as it turned into a whirling saucer, very wide and very thin. Soon, it would almost come together, and there wouldn’t be anywhere to go or anyway to avoid the lightning.

Rainbow Dash was still circling the warped tornado, her wings straining with effort.

“So far, so good! Any second now she should--”

The tornado swelled, strained, and exploded.

In the epicenter of it all, Ritterkreuz hovered with wings fully extended, legs tucked in around her face and vulnerable stomach. Her entire body was blackened, her gray coat tarred by streaks of ashy slate. Her mane and tail, scored and torn, crackled with static electricity. Slow moving fragments of cloud and gusts of encircling wind still clung to life, orbiting around the mare and seething with lingering charge. The air around her was a ruddy russet red, so tightly packed with dissipating magic it could be just barely perceived with the naked eye, almost to the point that it matched unicorn magic in thaumatic concentration.

“Is that ALL?” Ritterkreuz trumpeted, feathers falling away from her as she hovered.

Her eyes narrowed to slits and her grin grew wide enough to bare teeth when she saw a blue speck heading towards her. The disgraced Wonderbolt licked her lips, guessing that the entire point of the tornado trick must have been to soften her up and keep her from forming a full power grenadier blast.

“SEE! Much better than rocks!” Ritter laughed, her bruised wings beating, fast, rapidly forming a new full-power grenadier. “Come on!”

Jasmine colored eyes watched the blue speck, now surrounded by a cone of water vapor.

‘That’s it,’ she thought, no more time for words. Everything around her began to slow, thoughts racing as she prepared for the one instant she’d have to act. ‘She’s approaching the barrier. I know that cone. She’s doing it.’

The grenadier began to fluctuate, releasing a droning warble.

‘Her wings,’ Ritterkreuz remembered. ‘I need to wait for the front of her wing to break the barrier, but not the back. I’ll hit her in the split second the Rain Boom forms around her center of gravity! That split second is...!’

Ritterkreuz saw it.

Suddenly flying backwards, both of her wings came together, propelling her galloping grenadier. The sphere of compressed air and fire shot forward, and Ritterkreuz waited a full second before snapping her wings back and lunging forward. It wasn’t a full powered grenadier - it couldn’t be, not this close - the full powered shot was already too slow, and a big blast would only knock the two mares apart. To beat the Rain Boom was to strike a blow that was both precise and overpowering.

The cone of Rainbow Dash’s forming Rain Boom hit the grenadier and detonated it prematurely.

Which was exactly why Ritter had flown back before releasing it. The shockwaves across Dash’s wings were already too much for her to maneuver with. When the pressure from the explosion surrounded her, wrapping around her with the ring of the blast, she crumpled and spun out, nose down and head over hooves. A ripple of rainbow light spread away from her and then cracked, shattering into shards of dazzling multi-colored magic.

“YEESSS!!” Ritterkreuz howled, already rushing in for the kill, one hoof reared back to deliver the final blow. ‘The Sonic Rain Boom is broken! Do you see that, Merry Weather, you idiot? Do you see that, Soarin?! Make sure you tell Sparky and the other Wonderbolts! Tell them that I beat the Rain Boom! Tell them no pegasus is the equal of Ritterkreuz!!’

Except, just then, Dash tumbled forward and her wings snapped out.

‘Her wings - her wings were tucked in?!’ Ritter realized, committed to her lunge. ‘The bitch tucked in her wings! She broke her own Rain Boom!!’

There were exactly ten pony lengths between the two mares.

‘She can’t possibly gain enough speed in that little space,’ Ritter told herself, still closing in. ‘No pony is that fast!’

Yet, impossibly, a vapor cone began to form around Rainbow Dash, and a prismatic wave began to flow around her periphery.

‘The bitch is actually doing it!’ Ritterkreuz realized with a spike of panic. ‘I should… I should alter my course. Try and avoid her. Come around from behind with a grenadier. At least I could slow myself and create a packet of wind to absorb her Rain Boom. I should…!’

Ritterkreuz mentally kicked herself.

‘What am I thinking? Avoid it? ... Cushion it?’ She roared, spittle trailing from the corner of her mouth as the deluge of rainbow light became all she could see. ‘Break against me or kill me. There is nothing else.’

The two came together in a blast of wind and magic and light.

- -

Rainbow Dash regained consciousness as she fell.

She could feel the wind at her back, and up in the sky… there was only the blue expanse, marred by faint remains of destroyed clouds. It took a second - a very long second - to piece together the last few conscious moments of her life. The tornado. It should have killed virtually any pony, but she had known Ritterkreuz would somehow still survive. The crazy mare was like an earth pony with wings. She was like an angry, psychotic Big Macintosh with wings… in estrus. She’d still been flying, even after tanking that insane tornado.

Which was why Rainbow Dash had never intended to rely on just that one move. Soarin had said it before, so many times, in training. It was the second principle of the Dicta Boltcke, the document that was the foundation of air combat, written by the founder of the Wonderbolts himself. “Always continue with an attack you have begun.” Of course, the fifth rule was always to attempt to attack from behind and to avoid a head-on-head clash whenever possible, but - well - Dash had to admit she had a hard head for rules and books. One out of two principles wasn’t bad.

She briefly closed her eyes, remembering the clash.

She had built up speed, felt the Rain Boom form around her, and noticed Ritterkreuz also attacking. Some sort of instinct had screamed to tuck in her wings, to try and absorb the blast that had to be coming. The explosion had washed around her as she fell through it, like a needle through a bull’s-eye. Then - then everything had gone white, until it all turned into noise and pain.

Eyes snapping open, Dash spun around. Wings angling back, she dived, searching for and finding a gray body in free fall. Ritterkreuz was limp as a rag doll and falling fast. Dash pushed harder to close the gap between them, vapor collecting around her shoulders and outstretched legs.

Eyes also open, still conscious, Ritterkreuz saw it, too.

‘Ah. Stupid… Rainbow Bitch…’ she thought, amid the fog of agony that was her broken body. ‘What is she doing? You don’t need to chase after me anymore. You got me. Just relax and watch me fall. Idiot.’

She willed her wings to move, to try and form an explosion, but they were totally numb.

‘Stupid wings. I guess I’m spent. Sorry, Rainbow Bitch, I would’ve liked to blast you one more time, just for being so damn persistent.’ She saw Dash reaching for her, the sky far above them. It was impossible to see the ground, but it had to be close.

‘I’d kinda hoped to die in the air. Splattering against the ground like an egg somepony dropped? Just like Merry Weather.’ Ritter closed her eyes. ‘Oh well. Sorry, Blueblood, you prissy idiot, I guess you’ll have to watch your own back again. Spitfire… Sparky, I guess I’ll see you in Hell. We can do a Cloud Carver down there, if they have clouds in Hell, which they probably don’t. I’ll make some, in case you show up. Fluttershy… you’re probably the last pony who’ll end up in the fire, but if you visited me, too, I guess I wouldn’t mind. If you can help out that runt, once I’m gone, then that’d be perfect.’

The wind was deafening, now.

‘Come on, earth. Come on, ground. Give me a hug, you rock hard bitch… catch me one last time…’

A mare’s cry drowned out the wind, and Ritterkreuz felt her body lurch. Everything seemed to shift around her. Eyes opening, she saw the sky, and more than that, she saw colors: all the colors of the rainbow. They were flapping in the air, garishly painted on some mare’s mane, and they were etched onto the sky just behind them. The ring-like wave of rainbow light spread, slowly, across the sky at a low altitude just above the trees.

‘That light... is that…?’ she closed her eyes again. ‘Fuck me.’

- -

Soarin landed just moments after Rainbow Dash dumped Ritterkreuz onto the grass outside the Everfree forest. He had been watching from afar, and despite what some Wonderbolts may have wanted, he had tried to dive in after the two mares had collided. In the end, he had been too slow.

He had needed to stay far away.

It would have been too tempting to get involved, especially when it looked like Rainbow Dash was in trouble. Only distance had let him keep a cool, detached confidence. When Ritter had begun using those larger explosions, he had… he had almost broken his word. There was no need to tell anypony that, however.

“You did it,” he said, awed.

Motionless at their hooves was Ritterkreuz. The mare who had disgraced and terrorized the Wonderbolts. Entire squads had failed to bring her down. Looking down at the grim, bruised and bloody pony, a pair of hoof prints pressed into her chest, Ritterkreuz looked… almost asleep. Almost at peace.

Then she grabbed his leg.

“GAAHH!” He recoiled, jumping into the air.

Coughing up berry coated phlegm, Ritterkreuz gave an inarticulate snarl and reached upwards with a trembling hoof. “R-rr-aa--!”

“Give it a rest, would you?” Dash said, and kicked the gray mare on the side of the head.

Ritter lowered her leg, and, eyes open and lucid, stared up at the blue sky. The Rain Boom was still expanding, lighting up the sky even as it began to dissipate.

“Why?” she asked, after a few labored breaths. “Why didn’t you let me fall?”

Rainbow Dash stood over her, haggard and bruised, but still ultimately standing.

“Because,” she told the beaten mare. “I wanted you to see a real Rain Boom. You wanted that, too, didn’t you? Here it is.”

Ritterkreuz’s brows drew together in a pained frown. “I wanted to break your--”

“What I hit you with wasn’t a Rain Boom.”

The former Wonderbolt’s eyes fixed on the weathermare. “Eh? But--”

“I tried to hit you with the Rain Boom,” Dash admitted, and turned her eyes upwards. She pointed up, too. “See for yourself. There’s only one ring. If I’d hit you with the Rain Boom, there would be two.”

Ritterkreuz blinked, her confusion at war with the default anger bubbling up from inside her crushed body.

“Like I said, I tried to hit you with one.” Rainbow Dash ran the hoof she had pointed up with through her matted, filthy mane. “I really did. I was scared. Scared like when I first had to fly away from you. But I couldn’t do it. It was sort of close, but it wasn’t a Rain Boom.”

“So…” Ritter groaned, forcing her eyes closed in shame. “You beat me, even without the Rain Boom. Is that it?”

“That’s wrong, too.”

Rainbow Dash collapsed onto her side next to the fallen Wonderbolt.

“You said you’d tried to copy the Boom, and you thought it was a weapon, right? Like your Galloping Grenadier?”

Ritter slowly opened her eyes again. “…yes.”

“How do you know the Rain Boom is a weapon?” Dash asked, simply.

“I - I…?” Ritterkreuz stammered, a strange, disconcerted look on her face. “I thought…? We thought…”

“I think the Rain Boom is something you use to save ponies' lives, not take them,” Dash told her, and gently poked the beaten Wonderbolt with a hoof. “Just like I saved you.”

Ritter didn’t respond, preferring to shake her head in dismay.

“Soarin? Do you have my saddle bag?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Toss it here. Gah! I’m injured you know! You could at least have tossed it under-hoof!”

“Oops!”

“Let me see… let me see… ah! Here it is!”

A picture suddenly filled Ritterkreuz’s vision.

It was a picture of her: a few years younger, at a race track. The lithographic print had captured her racing towards some goal, grinning confidently. Her wings were spread wide, not in malice, not to use her grenadier, just to push forward, whether her opponent was another pony, or just beating her own best time on the clock. The print read: Squadron Four, Rookie All Star. Ritterkreuz.

“You recognize this trading card?” Dash asked, holding it over the beaten mare’s face. “Check it out. Mint condition, too! Almost mint. Maybe there’s one or two stains. Anyway! This!” she said, shaking the card slightly. “This is who you were to me. I looked up to you. I still sort of do.”

Rainbow Dash placed the card in Ritterkreuz’s hoof, patting it to make sure she had a grip on it.

“I’m letting you borrow this,” she said, and spread her cyan blue wings. “Once I’m a Wonderbolt, once I’m Captain of the Wonderbolts, you can give it back to me. I’ll fly with you.”

Ritterkreuz closed her eyes again.

“Soarin? That honor of the Wonderbolts stuff… I was kinda wondering if…?”

“I’ll probably get yelled at, but I never was good at saying ‘no’ to pretty mares. We’ll see how your way works.”

The pair took off, vanishing into the clear blue sky.

Her leg and hoof unsteady, Ritterkreuz brought the card back up, staring hard at it.

‘You can give it back to me. I’ll fly with you.’

Letting her hoof fall across her chest, still holding onto the card, she muttered a soft curse. There were tears in her eyes, and she didn’t have the strength to wipe them away.

- - -

“Spitfire’s gonna be pissed you let her go like that.”

“I know,” Dash said, her wings struggling to keep her up. She’d put up a particularly tough front, but it was all she could do to get out of earshot of the fallen Ritterkreuz. “Ugh…”

She felt something warm slip up under her, and a moment later Soarin was beneath her, carrying her through the air. Blushing, but making sure he didn’t see it, she wrapped her front legs around his neck. She’d seen Pinkie lying on the backs of one of her stallion-friends and it had always looked a little fun, not that she’d ever want anypony to think she needed to be carried around. Letting her wings fold up on her sides and rest, though… was pretty nice.

“I guess getting chewed out is better than what you went through,” Soarin reasoned, not that he really had to bother. “So this is the least I can do.”

“Just this one time,” she told him, still blushing into his back, “Since you’ll feel guilty if I don’t play along.”

The two flew for a few seconds in silence.

“You were pretty awesome back there, you know.”

“I know! I was!”

They laughed… until a flash of light briefly blinded them.

Stopping in midair, Soarin shielded his eyes. Still holding onto him, Rainbow Dash did the same. The eyes of the two pegasus ponies just barely caught the source of the light: a tiny flickering lance of fire out on the other side of the Everfree opposite the town. It vanished for a heartbeat, and then returned, piercing the forest with a hellish glow.

From that pinprick, everything seemed to leap up and into the air, an instant before a bright pure-light - not fire, but something else - expanded like a bubble. It wasn’t like Ritterkreuz’s magic, both ponies could see. It was more like a unicorn barrier, expanding outwards and simply disintegrating everything in its path or sending it flying. The barrier wasn’t dome shaped, though… it was, itself, coming apart as it spread.

“It’s a shockwave!” Soarin realized, gaping in wonder. “A magical shockwave?”

“From what?” Dash asked, and no sooner did the light fade there, than it erupted far to the left.

“There!” Soarin yelled, pointing.

A rise of hill was now glowing. A yellow-white blight was spreading there and upward, slashing across the hillside. It took a moment to process - to realize - that it wasn’t just a color of magic. A spray of bright red droplets flew from the conflagration of yellow, bright and hot like sparks from steel striking flint. The analogy was surprisingly apt, as Dash and Soarin both noticed, at the same time, that the yellow was not just a fading magical aura.

The slash on the hill itself was yellow: melted, molten yellow, rapidly cooling to orange.

Fire burst out around the slash in the hill, and in the cleared space there, it became clear that a line had been cut into the hillside. A tree tumbled into the gap, falling its entire height downward before hitting the bottom and catching fire. The air around it wavered, mirage-like, from the heat.

Then, impossibly, a flickering light like a star shot back to where the first blast had come from. It was fast - faster than a pegasus could fly, almost too fast to see - and its passing left a faint light trail in the sky. It was no coincidence. There was no mistaking it.

There was something down there.

There was something terrible down there, on the outskirts of the Everfree.

Author's Note:

This is, by the way, the longest chapter in This Platinum Crown, at around 19k words.
And we finally got some action! Who doesn't love some action?

I've altered the description of the fic, too, as some may have noticed. This is to better reflect the direction of the story as a whole and because we are entering the final phase of the fanfic. My thanks and appreciation go out to all my readers who have stuck with me in TPC for what will be about 400,000 words now. I suppose, like many authors, I feel the need to contribute my epic-length fic to the fandom. This is a nice little milestone, though! I hope you'll be there for the final chapter, too, when I get there.

And special salute to Jorlem and Ponydora, for giving me some proofin' and pre-readin'

Comments

[Brawny Steed]

I'll be honest with you... I was beginning to lose faith in this fic.

Here's why: Chrysalis' motions and enough intrigue to make Drow of all beings sick of it. I'm fond of the bad guys being stronger than the good guys but when the bad guys just don't leave out any room for failure (which I'm positive is going to happen here somewhere) I start getting squeamish. The previous chapter is testimony to that. Now I just don't know if ANY of the Mane 6 are the real deal or the changelings. I still believe that Cadance is actually down there in those caves rather than being an ally of Alpha Brass, Mr Smug Face 2013. I only know that it MIGHT just have been the real Shining Armor being sent to those very same caves, but when Chrysalis mentioned "next to his sister," I just...

This chapter? Just brought me back to liking it again. Just... you know what, fucking brilliant to see Dash using more than just brawn and ferocity in her fight against Ritter. I loved seeing Vinyl AND Fleur being awesome as well. Now if only the Crusaders could get their share of the good moments too...

But honestly, things are now beginning to come to a major clash with the Changelings. We just need to bear with the intrigue (including waiting for Rarity's answer to Yumi's proposal of an alliance) and see where Twilight will go with her relationship with Brass. I hope she'll find the truth about him soon.

[TinyPlaidNinjas]

I'm very curious as to how this will end. At 400k, you're approaching the legendary fallout equestria, yet you just keep throwing in more more plot twists. What will you do next? The mind boggles at the possibilities.

[WanderingPony]

It's tough moving that much wordage under it's own power, but you're doing it here. Speaking of homonyms...

"Even the pollen-addled ponies that were up and about knew better than to get hear ‘hot hot ouchies.’" should probably be near. :)

[majob]

I seriously hope Yumi and Shigure pull through.

I also kinda hope we get to see a little more of the backroom maneuvering and politics before the curtain call. It's rare to see a story that deals with the scheming that happens behind the scenes and does it so well.

[Luminary]

Ye gods. Cap'n, I love your work, but I'm starting to suspect you're some kind of rogue AI, instead of a human. Surely no mere human could churn out so much story. Plus, it follows. The internet is 25% ponies, by weight, (Presumably the rest being made up some combination of cat pictures and porn.) surely that would infect any artificial intelligence connected to the 'net. Logic!

I suppose I shall passively give my freedom to my new silicon overlord, so long as he(or she) continues to supply more of This Platinum Crown.

Okay! On with things.
Normally my brain happily filters typos before reaching my conscious layer, but this one had it doing a double take trying to figure out where a mouse came from:

avoiding Dew’s hoof as he tried to punch the protective bubble off her mouse and nose.

The art festival fight was a bit much to keep track of. It's bound to happen when you have a large, confusing melee that includes OCs. It's easy for them to blend together in such a case. I know it's a bit trite, but there's a reason that fights tend to section off into pairs and small groups in various forms of media. It's just far easier to parse, and you can appreciate the individual merits of the combatants far better. I know that large, confusing furballs have their place, but it's something to be done sparingly.

However, speaking of appreciating martial merit: You gotta love how Pinkie grapples like she has hands. And there totally isn't anything that anyone can say about it, because she's Pinkie. She would probably fight just like that in the show. Like some kind of giant, hyperactive, twisty, pastry-tossing ferret.

Bonus points for having her totally stop the fight with her crayon writing, while both sides just sat there boggling at her.

Dash's fight with Ritter was much easier to deal with. It even had a few pauses for the reader to catch their breath, which is a good thing in such a large, action-rich chapter. And the best part wasn't even the fight itself (Though, like others, I do like that Dash was actually using her head), it was the close. Making Ritter cry and clutch the card? Best way it could have ended, by far. Dash's little cuddle scene, after that, was cute too. Sure, our heroes can kick butt, it's always nice to be reminded why we really cheer for them, and not the other far more dubious badasses.

And speaking of those of dubious morality. Nightmare!Chalice. Yeesh. What the hell kind of secrets is that family packing? I guess we begin to see what it takes to set stars to aiding in a certain someone's escape.

[Lurks-no-More]

Whoah.

Rainbow Dash vs. Ritterkreutz in an air battle to end all air battles! Pinkie thwarting the Neighponese by refusing to play by the rules of physics! Fleur, the mistress of Model-Fu! And whatever is going on with Chalice, Shigure and Yumi right now, I have no idea but it's sure to be a doozy.

After all the plotting and planning and scheming and set-up, this was a really enjoyable burst of high-octane pony action. Looking forwards to seeing the fall-out from this!

[Shantara]

Everypony is awesome: the episode.

Thank you for your fantastic update pace! I cannot even imagine how could anyone write lengthly high quality chapters with such speed!

They pair circled -> The pair circled

[Obsidian]

Yet again... Twilight's getting pushed around. First by a cloud of pollen which by all rights she should have simply been able to blow away, then by a barrier making unicorn, then a Timber Wolf.

I need to see rage-shifted Twilight. I need to see Twilight kicking flank and taking names. So far she's probably the least well represented of the Mane 6.

And Chalice... some how summoning a celestial entity? Yea, power right there, why can't Twilight manage something? BAH!

[coandco]

A quick jink and Ritter swerved, taking a swipe as the bombing pegasus.

As the bombing pegasus what? Did you mean "at the bombing pegasus"?

Predictably Ritterkreuz blasted it to smithereens, but in blocking her view, he made it harder for her to see Rainbow Dash reverse course and plow into her.

Who's the "he" in "he made it harder"? There aren't any males involved in this scene to my knowledge.

“I think the Rain Boom is something you use to save ponies lives, not take them,” Dash told her, and gently poked the beaten Wonderbolt with a hoof. “Just like I saved you.”

"Ponies lives" should be "ponies' lives" to indicate the possessive rather than the plural.

[nemryn]

“You threw me, Fancy.”
“Ah, yes, quite. Was actually rather fun, too.”

Fancy Pants did come in fifth in the 547th All-Equestria Wife-Throw, after all.

[Between Lines]

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Best Story on Fimfiction.

[Shantara]

2197508
Sometimes, it feels like TPC is a subtle "take that" to all fics with stupidly overpowered Twilight as a main character. In this story, she got power, but has difficulties with creative applications of her spells, that are not covered in her books. On the other hand, Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie can improvise and win fights against ponies with lifetime of combat experience and training.

[dragonjek]

Alas, Celestia's plot. You will be missed. Seriously though, it was amazing how you transitioned from fight to fight like that, with the brief snippets visible from one perspective being used to transfer over to the other pair fighting. That, along with the way they kept switching opponents made for one of the most impressive and innovative combat scenes I've ever read. I don't think I've ever read something like that before.

And the Ritter versus Dash... dayum, you've outdone yourself. The original battle between them was amazing. This one took everything in the first, did it better, and then added new, entirely believable aspects to it to make a fresh experience that was still enthralling. You have a talent for writing combat scenes that is truly awe-inspiring.

Chalice's fight was also good, although more for its disturbing nature than for the above reasons. Can she do other constellations, or just Sagittarius? The way she just completely and utterly tanked what two serious powerhouses threw at her... wow. How the hell did Antimony beat her?
Nice to see that the aether manipulation you mentioned before is showing up, though. I now see why Twilight doesn't use it.

Amazing Pinkie song, btw. I'm hearing drums and tubas (with a Wilhelm scream a the end).

The entire section with Fleur was hilarious. Utterly hilarious.

[Bugsydor]

You, sir, are an absolute genius when it comes to writing Pinkie Pie fights. I collapsed with laughter when Suzukaze exclaimed that "Trees don't bend that way!" Also, cake assault is serious business. Also, when she shouted "BANZAI!" I half expected her to bean Suzukaze with a small ornamentally sculpted tree.

I feel for poor Twiley here. Not being able to fight properly because you're running in an escort mission where you have to protect targets is one of the most frustrating things, especially if you know you could just raze the battlefield if you didn't need to worry about the frakking civilians. That's my explanation for why she didn't seem quite as OP as usual to me, at least.

[djthomp]

Holy crap, she just turned herself into some sort of avatar of Sagittarius? That seems bad... Here's hoping Shigure & Yumi make it out of this alive, but I'm not quite sure how they might be able to without some sort of rescue. I'm still hoping for Zecora to show up and do something, though what that might be I'm not so sure.

“Return to Dust.”

Not sure what to say other than this aerial fight is awesome. Dashie approves.

A little Ritter back story, interesting. I wonder what Celestia was up to sending her to the Wonderbolts, or if it wasn't really much of a plan other than trying to find something reasonably safe (for a given value of safe) for her to do.

AJ is trying her best I am sure, but nothing can top Pinkie for entertaining fight scenes I think. Especially once the song started.

Go Fleur! Wife throwing is always a good idea.

Applejack raised a hoof to her eyes as something bright exploded - or maybe popped was a better word - to her right side, and way up.

I imagine that establishes Dash's fight as happening at the exact same time as this one.

Rarity! Hell yeah!

“I’ll never give up!” Rarity read. “Much better.”
Pinkie turned the note around again.
“But, seriously, is there any apple bread left?” Rarity read that, too. She hung her head in undisguised exasperation. “Oh, Pinkie Pie…”

Shining Armor! And there's the last of the pollen shenanigans it looks like, time for the second half of the fight.

Ahh, pretty classic fight interruption with that Hydra. Who was dealt with in quite short order, very nice.

I suspect Blueling is making a mistake not helping out with the fight. Pre-TBNE Blueblood would certainly have cooled his hooves, but now we're talking about a pony who fought an extended running battle in his attempt to get back to Ponyville to interrupt the Rarity/Antimony fight. I don't think that New Blueblood would just wait this one out.

“Not more cake!”

All of the cake, and the table too! Spike! With wings! And dragon friends! That's worth a hell yeah x10! Exclamation mark!

An exploding tornado, very nice, Dash. Oh yeah Dash! Win the fight and then save her with a Rain Boom.

“I think the Rain Boom is something you use to save ponies' lives, not take them,” Dash told her, and gently poked the beaten Wonderbolt with a hoof. “Just like I saved you.”

...

‘You can give it back to me. I’ll fly with you.’

Epic ending to that fight.

And a nice little bit of SoarinDash to end the chapter. Well, that and an arrow from Tartarus I think. Damn, that might be an Elements of Harmony or Princess level big bad right there. Assuming she didn’t just kill Yumi and return to normal at least.

Epic chapter, and oh my god that ending.

[Convisku]

Best chapter yet? Bloody oath it is.
Wait.The- the final phase? Surely it's not going to be over so soon... We're a third of the way in. Halfway, maybe. Come on. Please.

So... Celestia issued a secret edict that Rainbow wasn't to be messed with, and the WWD went ahead with a secret plan to weaponise the rainboom anyway. I'm pretty sure Celestia knew this, and part of sending Ritter to the Wonderbolts was keeping her 'controlled'/'directed' until she could be used to train Rainbow. Which is what this whole fight was; experience and martial skills for the now Post-EoH-Plan RD (Not that I'm saying anyone but the Princess thinks that is what has happened).

Perhaps some of the best combat scenes I've seen written. A huge mess of a fight smushed into the manor grounds, but still easy to keep track of. Good transition between characters as takedowns and wranglings go on all the time. I keep waiting for Twilight to fight herself, but it'll happen eventually, and only when it's right. As much as I like our OP Best Pony, I'm glad you've stopped her from being too all-powerful (she's getting enough of that from just knowing about the changelings).

2197051

Like some kind of giant, hyperactive, twisty, pastry-tossing ferret.

Ha! The top description of a Combat Pinkius.

[Kristaline]

That was what I'm talking about last time I wrote a comment : badass fights ! As always, you improve yourself when you're writing action scenes And I love the way you wrote Pinkie

But, still... where's Fluttershy ? Last time we see her, doesn't she said she have to going out ? I hope her kindness could save Yumi, Shigure and Chalice. She's the best for that

[A cubed]

2186362
Crap, thanks for reminding me that I have real books to read as well as 500 fanfics on this site... I don't doubt that this is rewarding, it's just quite a daunting task. But if I take it a chapter at a time, I will eventually be finished. I kinda wish I'd gotten into the fandom BEFORE summer of 2012...

[The Great Derpsby]

2197880
I agree. Also, we need to keep something in mind: If we go by show canon, Twilight is not (yet) the most powerful unicorn that's ever lived- likely not even the most powerful Unicorn in current Equestria! After all, she couldn't do an age spell; something that's "only for the highest level unicorns", to quote from Magic Duel, implying that such unicorns do/did exist. So it appears that even ignoring the princesses, Twilight's not the absolute pinnacle of the arcane... yet.

[Gear]

Ha Ha, Taste the rainbow indeed.

Spectacular work Captain!

After so long building everything up, plans within plans withing plans, it's finally time for the cards to hit the table.

[Always Breakfast]

Did...did Pinkie just sing the Great Mighty Poo song?

[Psykosis]

Holy crap was that intense. Ooh, I can't wait to see what happens next!

[Racheakt]

Chalice is useing Sussano!

dailyanimeart.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/susanoo_by_rikydosanin.jpg

Jeesh.... that's scary.

And Pinkie sang the Mighty Poo song! Somebody, quick, make a music video!

Also, the music for this chapter is

[Crimson Dawn]

Pinkie proves once again that she really is deserving of being "knighted". She may be goofy but she seems to be among the most skilled (and amusing) fighters in Equestria.

I seriously loled all over the Pinkie fight.

[Ralfil]

I'm just glad that Spike is back.

[Forderz]

I can't wait to see how !Blueblood tries to justify his cowardly behavior to Rarity, or even to Shining and Twilight. They all know he is a capable fighter.

I noticed a mistake: could just could -> could just rely

Fancy getting in on Equestria's national sport with Fleur was hilarious, and I was surprised Fleur didn't do more while using her quartto(sp?) style of combat. I suppose a mare must have her secrets, though.

I bet Yumi is kicking herself for sending those Timber Wolves to the party instead of keeping pace with her.

And no real Blueblood scene? Next chapter, I suppose.

[Ponibius]

Whew! That was quite the action filled chapter! Going to be all sorts of fallout from this one. Lots of entertaining fights in this one. Looks like it might be check and mate for Yumi. Chalice looks like quite the terror now.

[q97randomguy]

Oh my bucking Celestia. This is amazing. You, sir, need an award. Or two. Maybe more.
Amazing dogfight, amazing multi-pony fight scene, Twilight being nerdy and powerful, but not super OP... this chapter is, without a doubt, my favorite chapter in this story.
And that's without getting into the insane levels of badflankery that was going on mostly in the background. What you described sounded almost like a nuke... I reeeeaaaally want the next chapter soon.

Flying was always a game of trading energy for height, height for speed, speed for more energy.

Truer words were never... typed.

“You can’t DO that!” Cool Breeze yelled, shaking a hoof. “Trees don’t bend that way!”

iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-say-goodbye-to-physics.gif

“You threw me, Fancy.”

Taking lessons from Shining? No, wait, Shining must be taking notes from him!

missing the pony and tasting the rainbow.

Gosh, I love me a good Skittles reference.

.

The bone jarring impact

"bone-jarring"

even against a fast moving target

"fast-moving"

name of the company were all important.

"all-important"

One detached they were a colorful, but harmless, ornament themselves.

"Once" And I don't think that "themselves" is doing you any favors. In fact, it's awkward.

Ritter’s rock hard skull

"rock-hard"

one of the medium sized pools

"medium-sized"

the creature half-way out

"halfway"

She stumbled back as he landed; face first, in her magical field.

Semicolon should be a comma, unless you feel like "Face first, in her magical field." works as a sentence in your narrative voice...

Using another well timed dive

"well-timed"

[Amneiger]

Oh Celestia that was amazing. My dream is to one day write like you do.

[DungeonMiner]

From reading the combat, I have but one analysis:

You had far too much fun writing this chapter.

[Astarea]

Alternative title: A Game of Crowns.

As for this chapter, woah, that's a lot of combat!

[GBscientist]

Dicta Boltke! Haha! I love the horse puns!

I do hope Yumi makes is out of this alive because I'm starting to like her.

Also, yaaay Spike's back! With with wings!

[DeusExIgnis]

I'll just leave this here...
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLpIcbd6_wM]

[lonewolf23k]

You know, if the Mane Six manage to save Yumi (and I don't see why they would fail, judging at their performance throughout the series), then Changeling/Blueblood's stint may be very shortlived. Because Applejack will likely vouch for Yumi's innocence, and Rarity will realize that the Real Blueblood would never do such a thing as frame someone for murder. And since Alpha Brass and Chrysalis told Twilight Sparkle of the existence of Changelings, she'll put two and two together and realize Blueblood's been replaced.

[Hoof of Approval]

This is the last round! The final stop on the tour. After this, only one mare will wear the Platinum Crown!

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Three or four days to read this and that was when I had to stop for work and obligations. I'm following this.

[Arzoo]

The resolution of the Rainbow vs. Ritter arc was more satisfying than I thought possible. Climactic action and, probably more importantly, Rainbow's words to her were perfect.

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2285935
I should probably be doing one of my combined response posts, while I'm working, but I think I only have time for just this one at the moment. It covers something not too often brought up, which is the thematic disconnect between some of the characters - especially the fiance foils - and canon or even semi-canon MLP. Ritter would be the first to really evoke this (though Antimony herself was a disconnect, given her ruthlessness), since she goes out of her way to be abrasive, foul mouthed, confrontational, violent and sexually aggressive: all the things contrary to as we see it AND as ponies see themselves. This is very much purposeful to her character.
Likewise, you may cringe when Euporie starts to show her true colors, later on.

As cartoony and magical as Equestria can be in TPC, Equestrians themselves can run the range of behaviors... they are sexual beings and aggressive beings and intelligent beings that can lie and hurt others and themselves. I'd say, the population of Equestria themselves, may diverge more from the canon than the world they inhabit, since I can be much more free to explore their ambitions and flaws (especially their flaws). Even if friendship ultimately rules supreme, you can expect that different ponies have different views on it, just like with us humans.

[RevelRomp]

2289068
"I'd say, the population of Equestria themselves, may diverge more from the canon than the world they inhabit, since I can be much more free to explore their ambitions and flaws (especially their flaws)."

Centering the divergence on the ponies themselves installed a bit of dread in me. I just keep thinking of moments in other stories and even some moments of the show itself were it felt like things twisted so far as to break in purpose. Though I figure if something's engaged me for 22 hours of audiobook listening (near tail end of Knight and Enchantress now), something's still going right.

Though on another hoof, maybe the exploration will be what keeps things interesting? I don't know. Still doubtful. But I'll trust in you.
--

Seven hours and half way into To Move a Mountain later:
"All the things contrary to as we see it AND as ponies see themselves."

I missed the significance in this the first two times reading the comment. I think I have a better understanding of (at least one reason) why Ritter needs to exist, now. I never really thought about the characters as foils. I only knew how much I disliked pretty much everything Ritter did. I'm concerned for Scootaloo's psych and well-being at the moment, but she'll probably survive whatever goes down between her, Dash, and Ritter. Maybe she'll grow stronger for it.

Or become damaged goods with broken wares.

"Likewise, you may cringe when Euporie starts to show her true colors, later on."
Probably. I think I feel better for knowing in advance. Gives me time to practice my table-flipping skills.

13 more hours of listening until I'm caught up to the current chapter. About another 2-3 days living time then. That's a whole lot of free entertainment (and potentially education, what with a number of topics and themes I've never explored prior to this story) you've given. Thank you!

[RevelRomp]

Well. All caught up. Liked the fancy actionshow going on. Aside from that, not sure what to even think anymore.

[RoboRed]

Finally. I'm finally caught up with this story.

What you have done here, Capn, is nothing short of magnificent. I just wish it hadn't taken me that crossover from Sweetie Chronicles to get me into this. So many interwoven plots. So many great OCs (I LOVE Ritterkreuz, despite the fact she's a crazy psychobitch), big bads with massive power yet vastly different styles, all these factions of the nobility vying for power, and Rarity...my god, she is so wonderfully written and portrayed in this story. This story has officially won my "Robo Award for Best Portrayal of Rarity".

And now things are coming to a head. Chysalis is on the move. Neighpon is only a few steps away from war if the situation with Yumi doesn't get fixed. Chalice has turned into a god-awful scary I-don't-know-what and is wrecking havoc in the Everfree. And Euporie...well, you left that warning, and she's already show herself to be scary powerful.

I kind of have a feeling that we'll be seeing Antimony again soon.

Ye gods, I can't wait for more...

2188879

>> Z2
After thinking about it, I made an adjustment to that line of dialogue.

Darn...again, wish I'd been here earlier. I'm curious now.

[404]

2202419
He isn't well enough to fight, remember? That treacherous fiend Yumi poisoned him.

[DaProphet]

2229863
I was going to say I doubt it will be that easy. But then I remembered, Twilight KNOWS about changelings and what they can do. Normally I think both sides would think the other was lying, but if you add in knowledge of changelings, there's a perfect way to explain extremely out of character actions.

Also, what the heck is Chalice doing there anyway? She was apparently there to intercept an escaping Yumi, but why would either she or Alpha Brass (who is supposedly in charge of her) expect Yumi to be fleeing Ponyville? From what I gathered replacing Blueblood was one of Chrysalis's plots independent of Alpha Brass. So either Alpha Brass is a near omniscient chess-master or Chalice doesn't just answer to him... Honestly I really hope its the latter. Having Chalice there on Alpha Brass's orders stretches credulity in terms of his capabilities, and aside from that he has no REASON to want Yumi dead.

[Ono-Matopoeia]

NOOOOO! NOT YUMI-HIME!

Rainbow Dash vs Ritterkreuz. GO RAINBOW DASH!!!

Lovin' Ritter more and more with her every appearance.

“Trees don’t bend that way!” “Sure they do! WEEEE!!”

Vinyl's feelin' the wub.

Shining Armor saves the day.

Galloping Grenadier with two wings?!?!? YOU CAN DO IT DASHIE! KICK HER FLANK!

WOOO! RAINBOW DASH WON! YAY!!!

[Movie Reel]

So let's review:

Chalice has the Susanoo, which terrifies me.

Fancy Pants is skilled in the art of The Wife.

Spike is back!

Ritter is free but too injured to really do anything about it.

Little bit of SoarinDash never hurt anyone.

Hope Yumi and Shigure are okay. But again, with the Susanoo your pretty. Much done.

That was 19000 words worth of action, took me way too long to finish, but it was one of the best chapters yet.

[Movie Reel]

2200484

Chalice is useing Sussano!

Thats what I said! And that is terrifying.

[The Author of Life]

Well at least we know what caused the Tunguska event. Damn, Ritterkreuz is a freaking powerhouse. Remind me not to get on her bad side.

[Arcanist Ascendant]

Damn, Pinkie can throw down.

Also, Chalice kind of reminds me of Nasus from League of Legends. Not unkind, but terrifying.

"Wither."