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Chapter 1. Solids1,042 words
Chapter 2. Liquids834 words
Chapter 3. Gas1,626 words
Chapter 4. Plasma602 words
Chapter 5. The end.1,776 words

Chapter 5. The end.

“We know you are here, Doo. To not even move after our last encounter, you must surely be a fool. I apologize, should I call you by your real name, Yearling?”

The laugh echoed in the mostly empty house, as Dr. Caballeron and his four henchponies strode through the living room.

“You fell for that?” a quiet but roughly feminine voice said from the top of the stairs that led up. “Daring Doo thought for sure you’d figure it out.”

Dr. Caballeron paused, and looked up. In the shadows, rainbow colored hair was barely visible.

“See, Daring is dead,” the figure said bitterly and angrily. “But she knew you’d come for me. I just thought you were smarter than that. You never thought why I was with her after your first attack here? You never wondered why I was at the conference with her?”

Slowly, she stood and began walking down the stairs, glaring at Dr. Caballeron.

“Rainbow… Dash?” Caballeron said uncertainly. “We know of you as Element of Harmony,” he said more firmly. “Not a writer.”

“Oh no, of course not,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “Because publishing an adventure book under my actual name about one of my friends would totally not be suspicious,” she said before laughing, spreading her wings. “Now, either get the hell out of my house, or get ready for an Element of Loyalty flank whooping.”

The henchponies exchanged uncertain looks, but Dr. Caballeron narrowed his eyes.

“You are the writer, and Daring has passed away? If this is true, where has she been buried?”

Rainbow laughed, shaking her head. “Why would I know? I wasn’t even told about her funeral! I’m not family, just a friend, and she was in Canterlot when she passed away.”

“How did she die?”

“Cancer. Probably not helped by your stress inducing escapades, she’d been hiding it for months.”

Dr. Caballeron hesitated but he nodded his head slowly. “The last time we fought, she seemed tired… Coughing before we’d even traded blows, and her coat looked thin… Damn it, damn it all. Well, regardless of my nemesis's fate, I am in search of a sword. I believe that she may have left it here, so I will now search your home to find it. Get out of our way.”

“No,” Rainbow said simply. “Because the last thing she wanted in the world was for me to get that sword to the Canterlot Royal Vault safely, and I will not let her last wishes be in vain.”

“Well that tells me two things,” Caballeron said casually. “First, that it is in this home, and secondly, that you are a fool.”

“What?!” Rainbow squeaked, suddenly uncertain as the five stallions all started stalking towards her.

The pegasus flew backward up the stairs with a yelp, before two of the henchponies charged up the stairs. They descended again rather quickly as a wooden log was launched down the stairs, ripping a hole through the wall and slamming into the ground outside, barely missing the two stallions who had flung themselves over the railing and onto the bottom floor with painful thuds.

“Come on, boys. You can’t give up that easily,” Rainbow taunted from upstairs.

One of the henchponies charged up the stairs, shouting angrily before there was a loud crack and a few quick smacks before he came tumbling back down.

“The sword must be upstairs,” Caballeron said angrily. “Go, go! She cannot get you all at once!”

The two uninjured henchponies charged up the stairs, but as Dr. Caballeron was about to join them and the sounds of combat began, there was a cough from the door.

“Catch you at a bad time?”

He turned, to see Rainbow Dash at the door, sitting back on her haunches as she drew an ornate sword from it’s scabbard, crackling with electrical energy.

“What, but… Who…”

The bad doctor didn’t have much time to react to the duplicate pegasus, as she slashed out at him with the sword, forcing him to dart backward as a henchpony tumbled down the stairs, hitting the landing hard enough to knock him out while the two ponies that had tossed themselves off the stairs earlier struggled to stand before backing away from Rainbow.

“Hey! Sorry I’m late!” she shouted with a grin.

There was a groan from upstairs before the fourth hench pony was tossed unceremoniously out of a window to crash into the ground outside.

The other Rainbow poked her head down the stairs at her twin.

“Dash.”

“Rainbow,” the newcomer said with a smirk. “Come on, these guys giving you trouble? We’ll have them tied up and in chains in ten seconds flat.”

“Is it that you can’t come up with new catch-phrases, or is it that you think reusing them indefinitely is somehow okay?” the one at the top of the stairs groaned.

“Hey! My catchphrases are awesome! You’re the writer, you give me some better ones.”

“Well… I… later, we need to take care of them.”

Both of them returned their focus to the three remaining confused stallions.

“Ladies, I believe that we may have a misunderstanding. I came here for that sword, and will happily leave if I have it,” Dr. Caballeron said as his hoof edged under his coat towards his holster.

“Oh, well that seems reasonable,” Dash said with a smile, twirling the sword.

“No it doesn’t. Daring Doo’s last wishes were to have that sword safely in the vault in Canterlot,” Rainbow replied, shaking her head.

“Then I suppose we must do this the difficult way,” Caballeron said as his hoof found his pistol.

He pulled the pistol and took aim, only for the sword to slam into the metal barrel, knocking the gun to the side before the rainbow-maned mare spun on her hind hoof and brought the flat of the blade in a wide arc before thudding into the stallion’s head and sending him to the floor, groaning.

“Woah. I didn’t think you had it in you, sis,” the other pegasus said, still standing by the door.

“Sis?” Dash mouthed silently with a raised eyebrow, looking back at Rainbow.

She shrugged, and Dash rolled her eyes before looking back at Caballeron. But in her moment of inattention, he sprung up and kicked her in the side of the head, before kicking out at her hoof, knocking the sword to the ground where it clattered over next to one of the still conscious henchponies, who snatched it up just in time to block a hoof from the mare not fighting Caballeron.

The battle became an uncertain frenzy as the two henchponies fought a retreating battle against Rainbow, and Dr. Caballeron used his skill and trickery to put Dash on the defense. Gradually, the two combats worked in an orbit around eachother.

Abruptly, Caballeron tossed his coat off at Dash, forcing her to take to the air as he lept on Rainbow, striking her three times in rapid succession while she did her best to defend herself. Once she was somewhat pushed back, the three stallions took off at a gallop out of the front door with the sword.

The two spectral-maned pegusi slumped to the floor, taking a moment to catch their breath as the two remaining henchponies groaned from where they were on the floor and dirt outside.

“I can fly faster than you can run. Stay down, and we’ll be nice, not mentioning the violence to the cops.”

Two sorrowful whimpers responded, and the twins grinned a bit. Slowly, Rainbow chuckled, before letting out a full laugh.

“Oh, ow. Ow, laughing hurts.”

Before long, they had both the stallions tied up and secure in the upstairs bedroom, while they relaxed downstairs waiting for the police to arrive at Daring’s remote cabin.

“So, you never explained why it was so important he get a fake,” Rainbow Dash said quietly as she laid herself out on Daring’s couch.

Daring kept the disguise on, though to any of Rainbow Dash’s friends it would be easy to tell she wasn’t their friend. Her eyes were a slightly darker maroon, compared to Dash’s ruby eyes.

“The original is more than a weapon, it’s… A ritual keystone,” Daring said with a yawn as she poured herself some water and sat nearby. “I don’t give two feathers if Dr. caballeron is making money. I don’t care, to be honest. What I do care about is the risk of his employers getting their hands, claws, or slimy tentacles on things that could spell trouble for our world.”

“Ritual… Faking your death and manufacturing a legendary weapon is a long way to go to prevent a single ritual from taking place,” Rainbow pointed out. “What kind of ritual?”

“The kind of ritual that calls down the Nightmare to take over a host,” Daring said darkly. “The type of ritual that required pony sacrifices.”

The dark room was lit only by the light from a single unicorn, who was holding a cloth wrapped sword carefully, and wearing pure black robes.

Around her, five other ponies worked in the darkness of the long undisturbed tomb, arranging the artifacts that she had painstakingly assembled. Arcane symbols were carved into the stone where dust and grime had obscured the originals, and four candles were lit, so the mare could drop the light of her horn.

She gently removed the cloth from the gleaming sword, and stepped up onto the alter. Gesturing to an earth pony mare, she had the other lay down on the altar as the unicorn rose up on her hind legs, holding the sword with the point down towards the earth pony’s barrel.

“In the darkest night of this year, in the deepest tomb of the fallen warriors of the Lunar army, in the humble robes of the Lunar priestess, I call upon our willing sacrifice, to bring to life the Nightmare in her heart. To have her reborn in darkness, to reclaim the world.

She drove the point down, and it pierced the mare, who let out a scream that shook dust from the ceiling. The six ponies waited, but no darkness poured from the shadows. No manifestation of evil claimed her body.

The earth pony mare sobbed, and they all realized the blade had just cut into her rib and glanced to the side. It was a painful wound but she would certainly live.

Someone cleared their throat, and the six all looked towards the tomb’s entrance.

Sitting there as though she was sitting in an office, concerned about having disturbed an important meeting, Princess luna sipped a disposable cup of coffee before smiling around at them all.

“You called?”

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