Chapter 94- War of Equestria: Part III
Dark took a moment to catch his breath as he leaned on his Death Reaver for support. While fighting numbers like that wouldn't normally be a problem for him, the risk of him instantly dying from being caught in the undead dragons' miasma breath put him under additional pressure. That, and the fact that the holy rainwater pouring down on him wasn't doing much to help him either as it continued to hinder his fire magic, and his shadow and death magic. Not to mention that each drop of rainwater continued to sting and distract him, despite his attempts at ignoring them.
"Where's Light, Nocturne?" Dark asked, his eyes focused on the loose rocks that formed the cave-in at the mouth of the mine.
"He's somewhere up above us," Nocturne vaguely answered. "I can't tell where exactly with all of this holy water raining down on us. However..."
Dark raised a curious eyebrow. "What?"
"There's something going on behind us, just outside of the village's wall."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No, but what I can feel is powerful holy magic coming from that direction. But, it feels different, similar to the seals you would make for your fire pillars."
"So he's using magical seals too then," Dark mused out loud. "In that case, we should stay away from that area, along with any other areas with runes carved into the ground. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not get caught in a seal of holy magic."
"Agreed," Nocturne nodded, or would've if he had a head and neck to do so.
Hearing the rocks starting to move, Dark looked away from the light and back to the collapsed mining entrance. Having caught his breath and rested enough for now, Dark stood up and pulled his sword out of the ground, readying himself for another fight.
"You know, you should've been dead by now," Light's voice echoed throughout the village, causing Dark's head to snap around to try and find him.
"You can't say that you're actually surprised that I've beaten those undead dragons?" Dark wondered. "I mean, yeah their breath is more lethal to me, but they're a lot slower than what they were when they were alive. Plus, they've lost their fireproof hide in exchange for one to resist their poisonous miasma."
"I'm not talking about that, Dark," Light said with a sinister chuckle. "Tell me, did you ever consider how those humans found out about your arrival in the first place?"
Dark froze as he heard Light bring that up, which only fueled Light's glee.
"What does it matter now?" Dark questioned. "They're dead and are of no threat to me, or my friends and family."
"I know, but do tell me anyway."
Dark's eyes continued to scan the area, despite the sound of shifting rocks growing louder.
"I know that you worked with Gunter and Blueblood in creating that amulet that you used to send me there in the first place, along with preventing the portal from opening to let me back home to Equestria. I also know that Twilight told me that one of Blueblood's partners managed to get ahold of their world's version of them and..."
Dark's eyes slowly widened as he understood what Light was getting at. Shakily, he lowered himself to all-fours with his sword falling to his side.
"You didn't," he weakly said. "Light, tell me that you..."
"HAHAHAHAH!! So you finally figured it out!" Light laughed. "Of course, that idiot Gunter is too stupid to had thought of doing something like that, and that rat, Blueblood, didn't want to get his hooves any dirtier than they already were. So, Dark, tell me, since you've technically killed me once already, why are you so hesitant to do so again?"
"Just ignore him, Dark," Nocturne told him, trying to prevent Dark from crumbling at the flashbacks of when he killed Light's human-self.
"But I killed Light," Dark murmured.
"That wasn't your brother that you killed, Dark. That was a psychotic human who tortured and nearly killed you, and then later tried to kill Twilight."
"But-"
"But nothing! That man you killed was a monster, not your brother! Now, quit your pitiful wallowing, get yourself together, and fight! Or do you not want to go back to Twilight and the others?"
Though still shaken by what he'd just now learned, Dark stood back up on his hooves and slowly reached down and picked his sword up out of the water puddle he'd dropped it in. Taking in shaky breaths to try calming himself, Dark waited as the rocks barricading the collapsed mine fell, revealing several claws that were burrowing through the rest of it.
Up above, Light frowned as he saw that Dark wasn't quite as distressed as he'd hoped.
"Huh. I was kinda hoping that that would've done him in," he said to himself before shrugging. "Oh well, at least I'll get to see him squirm with this next part."
While Light remained on his spot up in the storm clouds, Dark readied himself as the first of the undead dragons broke through the collapsed mining entrance. While still disturbed that he had killed the human version of his own brother, he figured that distracting himself with this fight would help him. Calming himself with the help of a few words from Nocturne, Dark became calm enough that he wasn't shaking anymore, just as the undead dragon lumbering towards him got within range of its miasma breath.
Giving a single beat with his wings, Dark flung himself over the miasma and landed on the dragon's head before plunging his sword into its skull. Seconds later, the dragon ceased its breath attack and started fading away like the others Dark had slain before it. With the first of hundreds more down, Dark gripped his sword with both claws and readied himself for a long fight. But, that quickly changed when he heard the sound of hooves clopping on the cobblestone and puddles behind him. Thinking that Light had landed and was preparing to attack, Dark spun around and was ready to fight back, but froze in place at what was actually there.
Instead of it being Light walking towards him, what Dark saw instead was at least a hundred skeletal ponies ranging from unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. All of which Dark could see Light's magic running through them like with the undead dragons. Only difference between the ponies was that the pegasi had just barely enough skin on their wings to allow for them to fly again.
"Compared to those dragons, this on was a bit more difficult," Light's voice sounded through the area. "While resurrecting them was a simple enough task with the help of the seal instructions from Aurora's spellbook, it was having to regenerate the skin on the pegasi to allow them flight again that was the challenging part."
"You didn't..." Dark muttered quietly in disbelief before looking up at the clouds above. "Light! Tell me you didn't just do this!"
"Do what? Resurrect our dead fellow villagers to fight you?" he mockingly asked. "Yes. Yes I did."
"Please tell me that you at least didn't defile our family's graves?!" he pleaded.
"They're all dead, so it doesn't matter to me at this point. It's not like they have a use for their bones now anyway. Oh, and good luck finding out who's who in there, because even though I was the one who resurrected their skeletons, I still have no clue as to where any of them are, considering that they all look alike as bare bones."
As tears flowed from Dark's eyes for Light having done this to their deceased family, Light's laughter could be heard echoing all around him.
"Damn. During my time as Lord of Death, even I never went this far," Nocturne murmured. "This is low, even by my standards."
Not hearing anything from Dark, and sensing the undead dragons closing in on him, Nocturne turned his attention to Dark.
"Hey, Dark, you still with me here?"
However, instead of seeing Dark falling apart like he'd thought he would, he instead saw a burning anger in Dark's teary eyes. He was then further surprised when he saw Dark reaching into the jacket pocket that contained the Rage Pellet Shining gave him.
"Dark, now let's hold on for a second here and think about this," Nocturne cautiously told him. "You're hurting and angry right now, and need to take a moment to think this over."
Despite his concerns, Nocturne's words fell on deaf ears as Dark ignored him and pulled out the Rage Pellet from his pocket.
"No, Nocturne," Dark said grimly, eyeing out the Rage Pellet in his claw. "I was trying to be nice and patient with Light before, but now he's really crossed the line."
"But you told me yourself that you've never Rage Shifted before! And now that you're a kirin with my powers, we don't know what will happen to you!"
"Well then, it's about time we found out."
Before Nocturne could say another word to try and talk him out of it, Dark tossed the Rage Pellet in his mouth and swallowed.
Things weren't going too well as Shining stood at the front lines that held the barrier together. While most of the salamanders and flaming manticores had been defeated, and Flutterbat had used her chaotically-enhanced Stare on a large number of flaming manticores and ordered them all home, that still left a little over a thousand salamanders, and two hundred flaming manticores. But, what made things more difficult was the added addition of the dragons that had joined the battle. While Applejack's and Pinkie's airships, and the pegasi were distracting the ones flying above them, the ones on the ground were beating at the barriers with their dragon-sized weapons.
"Keep it up, everypony!" Shining shouted before glancing off to his right. "Kite Shield! Aura Lance! Can you two try buying us some time here?! We need to rotate some of these unicorns out for fresher ones, but we can't do it and keep the barrier up while under this kind of pressure!"
"Yes, sir!" they both shouted with a salute.
"Then do your thing!"
Both nodding, Kite created a dome of magical shields around him and Aura, while Aura used her magic to fill in each of the gaps with magical spears. With them now secured and ready, the two walked through the massive barrier and out into the enemy's forces. Almost immediately they were under siege from all sides and above as they made themselves to be easy targets. However, despite the numbers, only so many of them could get to them at once, which allowed for Kite to relax a little bit as his shields weren't under as much pressure as what he'd thought they'd be.
"Stay focused, Kite," Aura told him, having noticed his posture gone laxed.
"Sorry," he apologized.
A moment later, Kite looked around to see that they were several dozen yards away from the barrier. Out of verbal hearing range, Kite turned off the communication crystal installed in his helmet before turning to his companion and doing the same to hers, taking Aura by surprise before she glared at him.
"What do you think you're doing?!" she shouted.
"I've been meaning to ask you something in private for a while now, but was too nervous before to do so."
"So you pick now of all times?! And why did you turn off my crystal?!"
"I didn't want this being transmitted to everypony in the guard to hear. As for why now? It's because I figured I might as well ask just incase we get killed."
"Ask what?" she huffed, turning her back to him and launching another spear through a pair of salamanders before replacing it with another.
"Will you go out with me?"
Aura froze in place as she took a moment to process that. Despite the sounds of war all around them, and the banging and scraping on Kite's shields, his question continued to echo clearly in her mind. Slowly, after several long seconds, she turned back around to face him with a significant blush on her cheeks.
"Wh- what?" she stuttered unsurely.
Kite's brow furrowed in nervous determination. "I asked if you would go out with me."
"... d-do you mean a-as... just friends, or as... uh..."
Kite swallowed a large lump in his throat before he pushed his words out.
"As in more than just friends," he replied. "Aura Lance, if we manage to make it through this, would you go out on a date with me?"
Standing in the middle of a battle, Aura found herself nervous and weak-kneed. It wasn't because she was surrounded by hundreds of enemies who were trying to kill her, but because her squadmate and oldest friend, had just asked her out on a date. Not just a date either, but one that would more than likely turn out to be a romantic one. Opening her mouth, Aura tried to speak, but words to be difficult to say at the moment. It took her nearly a full minute before she found her voice again.
"... um... why would you want to-"
"I'm sorry, Aura," Kite apologized with a wince, feeling the pressure against his shields, "but it would take too long if I tried to explain to you why now. Besides, we are standing in the middle of the enemy's forces. I'm sorry if I'm sounding impatient here, but if it's alright, could you give me an answer?"
There was a brief pause before Aura slowly nodded. "I... well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give it a try."
Happy with her answer, Kite's joy was shown through his magic as his shields lit up brightly, momentarily blinding everything looking at its direction from the outside. Taking a step forward, Kite was beginning to approach Aura, but was stopped when she placed a hoof on his chest with a small smirk on her face.
"But that'll have to wait until after we both make it out alive," she said teasingly.
Blushing, Kite nodded in agreement before he turned his and Aura's crystals back on... and both winced when he did.
"Why did you two turn off your communication crystals?!" Shining shouted at them. "I've been trying to get ahold of you two for a while now just to get no response! I thought that you two were dead!"
"Sorry, sir!" Kite nervously apologized to him. "That was my fault!"
"And why would you feel the need to do that in the middle of a war?"
Kite didn't reply and was instead silent as he and Aura were too embarrassed to answer him. A few seconds of silence later, a snickering could be heard over their gems.
"If it's what I think it is, sir, you might wanna put us on a private channel," Steel Hoof requested, earning a snort from Shining before doing so.
There was a brief pause before they all heard a clicking sound, followed by the chat in their crystals going silent.
"Alright, we're alone now. So, what's going on here?" Shining irritatedly asked.
"You finally asked her, didn't you, kid?" Steel Hoof asked, earning an unseen surprise look from Kite and Aura, and a confused one from Shining.
"What are you talking about, Steel Hoof?"
"The kid's been trying to figure a way to ask Aura Lance out on a date. Sure took him long enough," he added with a huff.
"Wha... but.. how did you-" Kite tried speaking, but was stumbling over his words.
"I heard you talking to yourself about it in the barracks a few months ago," Steel answered Kite. "I always told you that you need to better mind your surroundings."
"Is this true, Aura?" Shining asked.
With a gulp, Aura sighed. "Yes, sir. It's true."
"... and...?"
"And what, sir?"
"What's your answer?"
She blushed and glanced at Kite. "Yes."
"In that case, I wish you two the best of luck. But for now, you'll have to save that for later. I don't mind love on the battlefield, but I don't think that now's the time for it, considering where you two are currently standing right now."
Kite and Aura looked around to see that they were still surrounded.
"Agreed," Kite agreed.
"Good. Now then, you two should get back here. We've managed to get most of the unicorns rotated out with newer, fresher ones."
"Yes, sir!" they both replied.
Moving as one, Kite and Aura moved together to rejoin the others as Shining changed their channel back to the one they were using before. One shielding them from their enemies, while the other one impaled them on her magical spears. However, just as they were passing through, the barrier cracked and started to shatter, starting from the top down.
"Damn it!" Shining grunted, having felt a shared fraction of the magical backlash from their barrier faltering.
As the barrier continued to crumble, the dragons started to swing their weapons over it in an attempt to strike the ponies. Doing what he and the others could, Shining poured more of his magic into the remains of the barrier to prevent the salamanders from overrunning them. Doing what he could, Shining looked around to see the other unicorns' magic starting to waver. Not liking where this was going, Shining pressed his hoof to the area on his helmet where his gem was located.
"This is Shining Armor," he announced, "I need for any available units to reinforce us at the center."
There as a brief moment of static before ponies began to reply.
"Prince Shining Armor, this is Captain Gray Diamond," he announced. "I'm sorry, sir, but my lieutenants and I are trying to prevent our right flank from collapsing at the moment."
"This is Captain Iron Guard," he spoke next. "I'm sorry too, sir, but we are just barely holding the left flank thanks to the hydra here."
Shining grimaced at the negative for reinforcements.
"Sorry, Shining, but I'm a bit tied up with the guests up here," Pinkie apologized.
"Shinin' Armor? Are ya still there?" Applejack asked.
"Yes. I'm here, Applejack," he replied. "Can you give us some support?"
"It's kinda hard ta say. It's a bit crowded up here, but Ah'll bring the ship over ta your location ta help ya as soon as Ah can."
"How soon are you talking? Because the barrier's breaking down, my unicorns are struggling to hold it, and the dead salamanders are piling up to the point where the others can almost use them to jump over the barrier."
There was a moment of silence before Applejack replied. "If ya can hold out for a minute or two, Ah'll be right there."
Shining breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks. We'll do what we can until then."
"In that case, since AJ's coming to help you there, me and Fluttershy are gonna help Captain Gray and the others over there," Rainbow said, having heard them.
"It's Flutter- you know what? I give up," Flutterbat said with an exasperated sigh.
With help on the way, Shining returned to focusing on keeping the barrier from collapsing completely. However, due to the piles of dead salamanders increasing, a few of them had finally managed to leap over the top of the barrier, and down into the pony army, one of which landing right behind Shining with its eyes set on him. Seeing it, Shining was about to turn around and blast it when a familiar mare leaped on its back and plunged her sword into its skull. Relaxing slightly from the save, Shining smiled as the mare flicked the blood off of her sword's blade and sheathed it in her umbrella.
"I didn't expect you to be here, but thanks for the save, Snow Flower," Shining thanked.
Pleased for the thankfulness, Snow Flower walked up to Shining as she twirled her opened umbrella.
"You can thank First Strike for that," she said with a smile. "He may be past his prime, but that stallion still knows how to stir a crowd. Especially if its a crowd of gladiators."
"So the rest of you guys are here too then?"
She nodded before motioning off to their left with her head. "They're off over there. I saw that you guys were having some trouble over here and decided to come and help."
"Thanks. As you can see, we can use it."
Snow Flower giggled. "Well then, it's a good thing that I didn't come alone."
Shining raised an eyebrow. "Another gladiator?"
As it to answer his question, a rotating double axe flew past Shining's head and bounced off of the head of another salamander, leaving a large gash in its head before it the axe bounced back in the air and landed in the hoof of its owner.
"Welcome to the League of Craven!"
Seeing the strange earth pony stallion, Shining looked over at Snow Flower, who just shrugged.
"He's got an ego the size of Canterlot Mountain, but he's very good with those axes of his," she explained. "I don't know how he does it, but every time he throws them, they always seem to come right back to him."
Craven chuckled as he walked past them. "That's because Craven does it all with style."
Shining frowned. "I see what you mean about that ego," he said disapprovingly.
"Aww. Don't be jealous," Craven cockily smirked. "But by all means, let's admire me."
Shining rolled his eyes and pointed a hoof back at the dragons and salamanders behind him.
"We've got bigger things to deal with. Now, can you help us defeat them or not?"
Craven gave a cocky grin and began spinning his axes. "Heh. Too easy."
Using the head of one of his axes, Craven hooked it on the top of the barrier and pulled himself up and over it. Landing on the other side, he started to spin his rotating axes until they were almost a blur to everyone who saw. Laughing, Craven began throwing his spinning axes at everything that moved on this side of the barrier. Getting into a rhythm, Craven would throw one axe and wait for it to start coming back before throwing another, keeping his axes flying at a consistent pace that allowed for one axe to remain in his hoof, while the other struck his target.
As he continued slaughtering everything in his way, it appeared that he was thriving more and more on the high of each kill that he got. Of course, Craven didn't remain idle, however, as he was always on the move, changing directions and essentially controlling the battlefield around his immediate area. Whenever a salamander would get too close, he would skip back while throwing an axe in its face, or throw his axes horizontally side-by-side and knock them off to the side. However, while he was just fine with the salamanders, it were the dragons that excited him with the thrill of battle and bloodlust.
Wanting to have some fun, Craven ran towards one of the dragon and began throwing his axes at it. Though they struck the underside of the dragon, Craven's axes only managed to leave a shallow cut before they bounced back to him. Having caught his axe, Craven rolled off to his right in order to dodge the dragon trying to smash him under its claw. Seeing this as an opening, Craven jumped up onto the back of the dragon's claw as it lifted it back up and brought it level to its face to get a look at the stallion. Smirking at how easy the dragon unknowingly made this for him, Craven threw both of his axes and struck the dragon in both its eyes, blinding it and sending it reeling back in agony as it clung to its eyes with its claws. With the dragon now blind and its attention drawn away from him, Craven landed began rotating his axes until they were at full speed.
"Hashtag Craven big plays!"
His axes now spinning like a pair of buzz saws, Craven threw his two axes forward, both leaving a trail in the ground as they spun vertically, despite them soaring a foot up off the ground. A few seconds later, the two axes curved upward and shredded their way through the dragon's chest before exiting out the back. A second later, seemingly on their own, the two rotating axes spun in place briefly before going in reverse, cutting back through the dragon again before eventually being caught by Craven. Watching the dead dragon collapse, Craven ceased his axes spinning, folded his right axe up, hooked it onto his back, and smoothed out his mane with his free hoof.
"Seems to be blood everywhere I go," he said to himself with a hint of pride.
While he was busy, Snow Flower remained by Shining's side as she did what she could in covering for Shining as he tried to raise the barrier back up. Moving swiftly, Snow Flower swung her sword with quick strikes at any salamanders that got over the top of the barrier, while using her umbrella's canopy as a shield against their fire breath.
Good thing I had the guys at the Coliseum add that fireproof enchantment to my umbrella and clothes after my fight with Dark, she thought.
"Hey, Snow Flower," Shining called, gaining her attention as she flicked the blood off of her sword again.
"Yes?"
"Is your friend there always like that?"
Snow Flower shook her head with a defeated sigh. "Sad to say that he is."
Shining groaned inwardly as he struggled to raise the barrier back up.
"Dang it all," he muttered with strain in his voice. "What in Celestia's name is taking Applejack so long to-"
Shining was immediately silenced as the area on the other side of the barrier in front of him exploded, sending salamanders and their severed limbs flying up around them. Surprised by the initial explosion, he was soon greeted by several more, each accompanied by the screeching of the salamanders as they were torn apart, and the sound of cannon fire. Figuring what was the cause of it, Shining looked up and let out a breath of relief when he saw the Applebreaker rapidly descending before coming to a stop and hovering a hundred feet over them.
"Sorry for takin' so long," Applejack apologized. "We had a bit of trouble with them dragons over where we were just at."
"It's fine, Applejack. Thank you for coming," Shining thanked her. "Now then, could you cover us while my troops and I get this barrier back up?"
"Sure thing, sugarcube."
"Thanks. Also, we've got a lot of wounded here that could use some medical attention."
"Alright. Ah'll have some of the pegasi that are on board fly down and bring them up ta get patched up."
"Thanks again. It'll be good to get them some help before they-"
"Prince Shining Armor! There's been a development over here!"
Wincing from the volume, Shining took a second for his ears to stop ringing before replying.
"Yes, Captain Gray Diamond, what's is it? Your forces haven't fallen have they?"
"No, sir. We've spotted the enemy general near our position!"
Shining's eyes narrowed, but before he could give an order, another voice beat him to it.
"Stay away from him! He's all mine!" Rainbow growled.
"Rainbow Dash, are you sure you can-"
"I know I can," she firmly said, interrupting Shining.
"But what about us?" Emerald questioned. "You covering for us is what's been keeping us from being overrun."
"Fluttershy will stay here and continue to help you guys out."
"But she's just one pony," Saph pointed out.
"Yeah, but she's a pony with Discord's chaotic magic, so you should be just fine," Rainbow dismissed. "Besides, if we can manage to capture or beat Gunter, then maybe Inferno will finally get his scaly but out here and we can finally finish this."
"And what if Inferno decides to retreat instead of fighting himself?"
"Yeah, like he'll be able to outrun me, Pinkie and Applejack's airships, the Wonderbolts, or the princesses."
Letting it end there, Rainbow beat her wings and flew over to where Gunter was spotted. Weaving through the Everfree manticores, dragons, and what flaming manticores were left, she was soon able to pick out Gunter and his flaming manticore mount. Eyes narrowed sharply, Rainbow flew up high above the battle in the sky and dove down at Gunter from the side. Wrapping her forelegs around him, she tackled him off of his mount and continued downward towards the ground with the contents of Gunter's saddlebag spilling out below them. Closing in on the ground fast, Rainbow pushed Gunter down below her before she quickly started to pull up and skid to a halt several yards away.
Lightly panting from that exertion of speed and force, Rainbow brought her left hoof up to her right shoulder and winced. Feeling the pain coming from it, she tenderly rubbed against the sore spot as she just now started to realize that when she'd tackled Gunter, her shoulder connected with one of the metal plates covering his hide.
"Dang it. That hurt," she muttered.
"Damn right that hurt, you stupid mare!" Gunter shouted, getting up to his hooves and shaking the dirt off of him.
Good thing too that I had these metal plates, or else that would've hurt much more, he mentally added before cockily smirking at Rainbow. "Hey, aren't you one of those mares that I saw when I came with King Inferno to meet with the princesses?"
"Yeah, I am," Rainbow snorted, "and I've been looking forward to kicking your flank for a long time now. Ever since I found out what you did to Dark."
Gunter rolled his eyes. "Is that panzy of a stallion still complaining about that?" he scoffed, earning him an angry growl from Rainbow.
"Hey! You better watch your mouth! Dark's more of a stallion than you can ever hope to be!"
Not liking having been insulted like that, Gunter reached his left hoof into his saddlebag and pulled out one of two flare guns that had been securely strapped down in it.
"It won't really matter anyway," he grinned. "After all, Dark's a dead stallion. And in the end, a dead stallion isn't much of a stallion, right?"
Before he could react, Gunter found a hoof connecting to the side of his face as Rainbow flew up to him and landed a right hook.
"Fat chance!" she shouted defiantly. "Like Dark would lose to some cheap jerk like Light."
Gunter chuckled and wiped a small trail of blood from the corner of his lips. "That just goes to shows how much you know. I may be a deceiver and not play by the rules all that much, but Light Wing is far worse than I am. Especially since he received his new magic."
"What new magic are you talking about? Because I doubt that you're talking about his horn or that weird light that comes from his wings."
That cocky smirk reappeared on Gunter's muzzle. "Have you forgotten that I'm the brightest stick in the woods? I'm not stupid enough to spill the beans like that to some wannabe pegasus broad."
Rainbow's eyes snapped wide in anger for being insulted like that. "That's it! Either you shut up right now, or else I'm gonna clobber you until you're colors are turned black and blue!"
Chuckling, Gunter pointed his flare gun up and pulled the trigger, sending a red light up high where the dragons and pegasi were flying overhead.
"Come and try."
Falling for his taunt, Rainbow bolted at him as fast as she could with her left foreleg drawn back for a punch. However, as she got closer, Gunter brought both of his metal-plated forehooves up in front of his face, blocking Rainbow's punch when she was close enough to deliver it. Despite her punch having sent him rolling across the ground with the force and speed behind her hit, Rainbow yelped and recoiled her hoof to her chest. Taking a look at it, she saw that while it didn't seem to be broken, there as still a nice sized crack in her hoof.
Okay, so I gotta be more careful of that metal plating of his, she mused. Dang it all! It really sucks that, like, half of his body is covered in metal.
Shaking her hoof in an attempt to relieve the pain, Rainbow was about to charge at him again when a dragon landed between the two of them. Recoiling from the bad breath as it roared at her, Rainbow briefly looked around her surroundings to see that every dragon that had been up in the air had landed, most of which landed in the middle of their army of ponies and Everfree creatures, and were now slaughtering them with their claws and fire breath.
"Like I said before," Gunter began as he shakily got back up, "I'm not stupid. I know that I can't beat you, so that's why I'm having someone else do it for me."
Rainbow's eyes snapped back to Gunter. "You coward!"
"'Coward'? Nah. I just don't like having to fight a fight that I can't win is all."
Now faced with this dragon, Rainbow growled in anger and frustration, but paused when she heard panicking on her headset.
"The lines are falling! Everypony fall back to the checkpoint and regroup!" Shining ordered.
Snarling, Rainbow ignored the order and flew forward towards the dragon. However, instead of going for it, she flew down between its legs and went straight for Gunter. Seeing the surprised look on his face, she picked up her speed a little bit and tackled him just as he tried to spread his wings to fly away. Thankfully for Rainbow, this time she managed to hit a non-plated part of his body, instead of hitting his metal platings again.
Not stopping, Rainbow continued to fly low with one hoof wrapped around Gunter, while the other was pressing the side of his head down as she dragged his head across the dirt, leaving a small trail of upturned dirt, fur, and blood behind them. Almost fifteen second later of dragging him through the ground, Rainbow did a mid-air flip and tossed Gunter away, watching as his body tumbled across the grass until his body eventually came to a stop. Snorting, she took a look at his bloodied and dirty face, and landed beside his head.
"That was just plain pathetic," she said disappointingly. "With all of that cockiness and bragging of yours, I thought that you'd put up more of a fight. Now I see that you're just all bark and absolutely no bite."
Gunter let out a pained groan, unable to reply as Rainbow having dragged him through the ground caused the metal plating the side of his face and jaw to loosen and allow for some of the grass, dirt, and rocks to get in beneath the metal.
Hearing the dragon she'd gotten past earlier approaching, Rainbow looked over Gunter as she hastily thought of how best to get away with her new prisoner. As she did, she saw that Gunter had another flare in his saddlebag. Getting an idea, Rainbow reached in, pulled it free from its strap, and flew up and around to face the dragon. Once it was close enough, Rainbow aimed the flare gun at its face and fired, nailing it in the eye and causing it to lose its balance with the pain shooting through its eye, and crash in mid-run as it skidded past. Having distracted the dragon for now, Rainbow flew back down and tossed Gunter over her back before flying back up into the sky.
"Hey, guys!" Rainbow shouted through her headset. "I got Gunter!"
"You did?!" Celestia replied, her voice sounding surprised.
"Yeah! Turns out that the guy was a total wuss and had one of his dragons fight me instead."
"Well done, Rainbow Dash," Luna complimented.
"Thanks, but what am I supposed to do with him exactly? Because I doubt that he'll stay down for too long."
A second later, Rainbow found herself in the shadow of Pinkie's Hammer.
"You can put him in here!" Pinkie told her. "We've got a ton of extra rope and chains, so we can have him tied down below deck and have some of the crew guard him."
"Thanks, Pinkie," Rainbow thanked with a hint of relief. "While I don't like to admit it, I gotta say that these metal plates on him are making him extra heavy."
"That's interestin' and all," Applejack began, "but we've got one heck of a mess goin' on over here, Pinkie. We need ya and your airship ta come over here and help everypony out."
"Sure thing, Applejack," Pinkie confirmed. "Just give me a moment to pick up Rainbow and her cargo, and we'll be on our way."
Moving as quick as she could, Rainbow flew up to the landing platform leading below deck and landed, but winced as she felt a sting of pain coming from her cracked hoof. Letting the guards relieve her of her prisoner, Rainbow saw the stairs towards the back of the airship and flew up them until the reached the deck where Pinkie and Flutterbat waited for her.
"Fluttershy! I'm so glad that you made it," Rainbow said with relief as she hugged her friend, while Flutterbat, despite the slight irritation of her not calling her by her 'proper name' at the moment, gave a small smile and returned the friendly gesture.
"You too," Flutterbat returned. "I was a little worried when you flew off like that, despite you saying that you'd be fine."
Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle. "Well, not exactly. Turns out that punching metal plates isn't such a good idea."
Pinkie looked at the hoof that Rainbow was nursing slightly. "Are you gonna be alright?"
"Yeah. It's just a crack, so I'll be fine. Just as long as I don't try anything like that again with that hoof."
"Still, you should probably get somepony to take a look at that as soon as possible."
Hearing the new voice behind her, Rainbow turned around to see Spitfire landing and gave a salute.
"Thank you, ma'am, but I'll be alright," Rainbow said.
"I mean it," Spitfire firmly pressed. "We can't use regular fighting methods with these dragons, so we're needing to rely on bucks and punches to hurt them. If you're hoof is damaged already, then you shouldn't fight like that anymore."
"But I-"
Rainbow was silenced when Spitfire raised a hoof. "That being said, I know that you're also not one to just roll over and give up. So, while I can't allow for you to fight with your bare hooves anymore, that doesn't mean that you can't operate one of these turrets and help provide covering fire for everypony."
Rainbow paused for a moment before speaking. "You mean that I get to fire one of those cool cannons?"
Spitfire nodded. "That's right. Just remember to buckle your straps in before you start firing. The last idiot who operated it didn't and ended up falling out of it and off the airship."
Nodding, Rainbow gave another salute before she flew back down below deck and strapped herself into the open turret seat. Placing her hooves on the controls, she started to get a feel for it before she looked down the sights at the pandemonium below her. Frowning at how badly things were starting to turn out, Rainbow used her keen eyesight to pick out where the ponies were and began firing at the dragons and salamanders near them.
Up at the command post, Twilight and the others watched in horror as the dragons burned and slashed at the retreating ponies.
"This isn't good," Luna grimaced. "Our forces can't re-establish a barrier with those dragons all over them."
"There's gotta be something that we can do!" Twilight said, fearing for her brother's safety. "We can't just sit up here while everypony down there's dying!"
"And we won't," Cadence said, stepping forward towards the ledge. "I'm going to head on down and help set up a barrier for them to retreat into."
"Cadence-" Celestia began, only to go quiet when she saw Cadence look back with a hardened expression.
"My husband is down there in the middle of all of that, and I'm not going to just stand by and let him die while I can do something to help him!"
"But what about your horn?" Rarity asked. "Has it healed enough since King Sombra's attack for you to be doing that?"
"Don't worry about it. My horn is healed enough that I can safely cast spells again."
"Well then," Spike began, cracking his knuckles, "in that case, I guess I better get going too."
This earned him a surprise look from the others, especially Twilight.
"What?! No, Spike! You can't down there!" she sternly said.
"Yes I can," he shot back, facing Twilight with an almost sad look on his face. "Listen, Twilight, I can help them. Like Cadence, I too don't want to stay here while I can do something to help everypony down there."
Twilight's eyes were starting to water now, now having to fear for not only her brother and Dark, but for Cadence and possibly Spike as well. Hanging her head low, Twilight let out a sniffle before she felt herself being pulled into a warm, soft hug. Cracking her eyes open, she saw that she was being held comfortingly by Cadence, with Spike on her other side.
"We'll look after each other, Twilight," Cadence reassured. "I promise."
Spike nodded against Twilight's side. "Yeah. Don't worry about us. We'll be back before you know it."
Fearfully, Twilight brought a foreleg around both of them and hugged them back.
"Be careful you two," she whispered.
"Of course, Twilight," Cadence said with a smile, letting Twilight go with Spike following suit.
Finished with their goodbye to Twilight, Cadence and Spike walked over towards the cliff overlooking the battlefield below.
"Okay, Spike, hop on and I'll take you down."
Hearing her, Spike looked at Cadence briefly before smirking.
"Thanks, but I got this," he declined.
Curious, Cadence saw Spike as his claws glowed green with his magic, and watched as his magic pooled at the center of his back. Seconds later, her eyes widened as the two pools of magic began to shape themselves until they took the shape of a pair of large, magically translucent wings twice the length of Spike himself. Though surprised by it initially, she was then further surprised when they began to flap and lift Spike off the ground until he was in a controlled hover several feet off the ground.
"Just a little something Rin taught me," Spike bragged, clearly proud of himself and his ability to finally fly like other dragons. "Now let's get going. Shining and the others aren't gonna save themselves, you know."
Snapped out of her surprised stupor, Cadence spread her wings and followed down after Spike to join in the battle.
Over on the other side of the battlefield, a certain dragon who'd taken a signal flare to the eye had returned to Inferno and informed him about what happened to Gunter. Unfortunatly for him, after he was done, he was knocked down before his face was crushed by Inferno's warhammer.
"Useless," Inferno spat.
Lifting his warhammer's head out of the bloody mess that was the dragon's head, Inferno shouldered his weapon and began his march forward with the fifty armored dragons that stayed back to guard him.
"Guess if you want something done right, you'll have to do it yourself."
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Ooh can't wait to see how badass Dark becomes!
Well first off celestia damn cliff hangers second is dark gonna end up looking like one of these? img11.deviantart.net/a66a/i/2010/188/6/e/_grim_reaper__by_moni158.jpg t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfe63sCVn-8T8Lfpht-w2Nc3cfJDCNXxeepylHUtYNMmCIM7v1 t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQHCaqH5cJjpNnJCK-sPt8xOHA66d3Rw3fwSZ6RBRZfoY5CrItG-A
Light.... you absolute IDIOT!!!
Trying to kill your brother was bad enough, but desecrating the graves of your family?! It seems you didn't even care for them at all.... and that is something I can not abide...
Dark... kick his flank to Tartarus... and give him hell...
Anyone else expecting to see a black feather in Light's chest once the bastard dies?
I'm still wondering when twilight is going to unleash darks army
I believe the part "Light is fucked forever in his foreverity" was forgotten
When Dark got serious and took the rage pallet I was like FINALLY!
Nice author. Keep up the good work.
While reading through your fic I've noted a frequent use of "it turns out". I highly suggest going back and changing these out as the phrase is weak from overuse. Plus it is not creative enough for explanations.
I really feel like they everyone will start feeling Dark's surge of power while they are fighting and its going to be epice
I'm just saying. If they all stop fighting and see a black beam in the sky, feel an immense increase in magic, and Pinkie says they the magic level is over 9000, I am going to flip.
7925310 Yeah, that would be so awesome!
I'm honestly surprised he would even need a rage pellet. If I were in his shoes I would be so beyond sadness and anger, my blood would be boiling and I would see red.
Heh.. League of Craven..
Heh heh heh... Craven some Draven..
7914160
Well, first off, Dark had to leave the Living Scythe (Death Reaper) with Twilight, so my guess is no.
Second, in my mind, it's more likely that Rage Dark might just look like a Kirin version of this: ( https://cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/ec2g-1443938994-292581-medium ). Since the Grim Reaper is more EqG universe 'cause, you know, they have humans and Equestria's death was the Scaleless Dragon, Nocturne.
Now for me to read the next chapter and find out.