Chapter 3: This Chapter Comes After Chapter Two
1055 AD, April 19th
Previously on Twilight VS Anime…
Iron Will flexed his muscles hard enough to blow apart the ground beneath him. “HOO-RAH!”
Applejack flexed her muscles hard enough to create a sonic boom. “YEE-HAW!”
The two grunted and hotdogged mightily as they thumb-wrestled.
Applejack won despite lacking the required appendages.
“Hoooo! Down Iron Will falls…” Iron Will fell onto his back dramatically, tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. “Oooh yeah…”
Having somehow acquired a black eye and a bloodied mouth, Applejack raised a hard-won trophy high in the air victoriously as the crowd cheered. “Ah did it, ma and pa’s graves! Ah did it!”
Twilight shook her head in bewilderment. “What the f…?”
“Hey, Twilight, I’m, uh…” Celestia tittered in a disturbed fashion as she looked through a telescope. “I’m creepin’ on you, ah heh heh…”
Star Secret downed several bottles of whiskey, desperate to get drunk and not consciously suffer through this nonsense. “Curse my powerful body!”
Episode Four
レインボーダッシュはかつて彼女のフロントドアとの戦いを失いました
Reinbōdasshu wa katsute kanojo no furonto doa to notatakai o ushinaimashita – Dramatic Battle on Canterlot Mountain!!
Not many ponies knew this, but there was another way to get into Canterlot besides by train, flight, or particularly strong teleportation.
At the base of the mountain the capitol city was built into, there was an old – very old – mountain path that used to be frequented by miners back in the days when Canterlot was just a small, isolated settlement called Drowning Depths.
Despite the centuries that have passed, the mountain path still remained stable and safe, though it was still advised to exercise caution and to have somepony familiar with the trek.
“Arggh! I… I can’t go on!”
Twilight groaned and facehooved as Rarity collapsed on the trail – after laying down a blanket of course – and lifted her forehoof to her brow dramatically.
“I… I am sorry, my friends… but this high altitude wind… this dust…” Rarity’s lower lip quivered. “It is too much! L-leave me – I shan’t be a burden to you.”
Twilight sighed and plomped down on her rump, uncaring to the small pebbles that poked her buttocks, and stared off the edge of the mountain path as Fluttershy went to apply the smelling salts and delicately fan Rarity’s face.
‘Why did Applejack have to suplex that train? And that guide? And our map?!’
The trail was more or less linear, but still!
At the very least, she had a good view: they were a little over halfway up the mountain and from her vantage point she could see a vast majority of the land. The train tracks winded all the way below across green fields like a snake and small dots on the horizon informed her that yes, Ponyville had not exploded twice for no reason.
Looking further over the side, Twilight examined the rocky outcroppings-
Ah, and there were the two reasons they couldn’t simply fly or teleport up this mountain.
“Yeah, we’re still onto you!” Spitfire called up at her, clinging upside-down on a thick branch that jutted out from between two boulders. A strong gust of wind made it creak ominously and she tightened her grip before yelling, “We’re still watching!”
“… Barely!” Soarin whimpered as he clung to Spitfire’s back. “I-I mean, we’re sort of tired and hungry and Spitfire won’t let me use the bathroom, but we’re breathing… so far!”
“Still going strong!”
“We have different opinions on what’s considered ‘strong’, but it’s cool!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and pulled back to glower at her fashion-minded friend. “Rarity, are you done yet?”
“Ooh, I…” Rarity began to stir and push herself back up, glazed eyes clearing. “Why, it’s a miracle! This newfound strength surging through my veins; this abundance of stamina; it’s indescribable! I, I think I can do it, Twilight! I can carry on!”
Rainbow Dash awkwardly floated down to hover beside Rarity, her voice lowering into a worried stage-whisper. ”Uh, don’t wanna alarm you or anything, but I think Twilight’s this close to throwing you off the cliff. Like… literally throwing you.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, darling. Twilight-”
“Pah hah! You telling me that…”
“-is just fine. See? Look how calm she- oh dear, that’s an unhealthy amount of smoke coming from her nostrils. Er, yes, let’s get to it! Chop-chop!”
Rarity was quick to take the lead.
Finally able to start trekking up the mountain once more, Twilight felt her temper cool down and the plumes of grey smoke spewing from her nostrils dwindled to thin wisps.
Pinkie Pie was bouncing alongside her with a saddlebag full of climbing gear. It seemed moot to question where she had gotten it all. Really, Twilight was just happy that she seemed to have an infinite supply of water bottles.
The air was… unusually heavy even though they were so high up and not within Canterlot’s weather-control radius.
Twilight often felt similarly when the pegasi of Ponyville were brewing up a storm.
But she didn’t see any dark clouds in the sky.
‘Not that logic seems to apply to anything anymore. I’m half-shocked I don’t simply fly into space because gravity decided to give up.’
‘Give up’.
Any other time, Twilight would have needed to have her limbs shorn off or her friends’ lives to be put at stake before even considering such a concept.
But this time, the stakes were about as high as the little colt, Pip. The notion of simply lying on the ground and stewing in self-pity, ignoring the repeated pointy stick poking Discord would no doubt inflict on her, was an appealing one.
Twilight sighed and glanced at her side, to her smiling pink friend. She pricked her ears and could hear Applejack and Rainbow Dash chuckling about some private joke. She finally looked forwards and saw Rarity emphatically sharing what gossip Ponyville had to offer to Fluttershy, who shyly smiled and nodded, happy to listen.
But her friends seemed to be enjoying this little adventure.
‘I can’t just derail this whole adventure, not when everypony’s gotten so into it. They’d understand if I explained how I felt, but… but it’s still selfish of me.’
Besides, it wasn’t as if Twilight hadn’t had fun at any point.
Watching some of her friends and their foes’ antics and reactions were quite amusing and that look of accomplishment on Applejack’s face last night was worth the headache brought on by the reality-screwing match she and Iron Will had.
There was definitely-
“Get down!”
Twilight had enough time to blink out of her thoughts and move her lips to form the ‘wh-’ of ‘what’ before something pushed her to the ground from behind.
‘Harsh voice, light but sturdy skeletal structure, strength a degree above my own – Rainbow Dash.’
“Rainbow-”
Twilight’s face was pushed into the dirt and a few dirty stones pushed past her lips. She was more preoccupied with the taste than the sound of an electrical discharge searing over their heads and impacting with a sheer wall.
Rainbow Dash’s hoof lets up and Twilight raises her head, expression sour as she spat out the rocks and blew a raspberry with her grime-coated tongue. “Pfft! Pfft! Blegh! What in Equestria is-”
“Get down!”
Whump
Twilight was introduced to the ground once more as another electrical discharge went over their heads.
She was let up again. “Pfft! What-”
“Get down!”
Whump
“Get down!”
Whump
“Don’t go up!”
Whump
“Drop your head!”
Twilight shot up and conjured an arcane barrier to absorb the brunt of another bolt. The shock and force made her teeth shake, but she held on, horn and eyes blazing with white light. She called on more power and her barrier’s strength multiplied ten-fold.
“I will not lie here and kiss the ground at your feet! I am a princess of Equestria, the Princess of Friendship; your attacks are nothing to… to…”
Twilight slowly came down from the unexpected high and her barrier dissipated, leaving her standing awkwardly, one ear twitching at the inexplicable sound of triumphant music fading with a waning note of disappointment.
“Wh… What was that?” She shook her head, brow furrowed in confusion. “There was this… sudden feeling I can’t describe. Deep within my soul… there was this burning passion. I-I… I never thought that…”
Twilight suddenly frowned.
“Why am I talking like this?”
“Hit the floor!”
Whump
“Ah hah hah hah!” A derisive, feminine laugh echoed off the mountain cliffs once the bolt of electricity passed over their heads. “What’s the point in even trying to defeat you losers? You’re doing a pretty good job by yourselves.”
‘Do I recognize that voice?’
Twilight lifted her face from the dirt and saw the mare that had spoken was a pegasus. She stood high in the air on top of a dark cloud, but the sun was behind her, so she could only make out a vague body shape; the rest of the mare’s features were enshrouded in shadow.
“I bet I could take you all out with just a strong wind that’ll blow you right over the edge!” The mare snickered cruelly and her right eye flashed with a golden light. “But that’s just no fun, is it?”
The rest of Twilight’s friends were standing from where they had taken cover against the ground and where bunching together, weapons and abilities synching up in preparation of a battle.
“Who th’ heck are ya?!” Applejack yelled, green embers dancing across her body. “Come down an’ show yerself!”
“… If you insist.”
Before Twilight’s eyes, the mysterious mare seemed to melt into the cloud she rode. In the time it took for her to blink, a lightning bolt shot out from beneath the cloud and struck the path ahead of them, creating an explosion of dust and superheated rock.
‘Glad none of that got in my mouth…’
As the dust cleared, the mare stepped forwards, a mocking sneer etched onto her familiar face.
“Long time, no see, Dashie…”
Lightning Dust, the Sky Assassin
Currently banned from ever participating in trust exercises
“You…” Rainbow Dash growled chillingly and her anger wasn’t exclusive.
Twilight didn’t really believe in ‘hating’ anypony, but Lightning Dust held a particular place in her heart as somepony who not only almost caused her death but the deaths of her friends. She hadn’t even apologized.
True, Rainbow Dash had played a part, but she had saved them from her own mistake and was terribly guilty after the ordeal. Lightning Dust was only sorry that she got kicked out of the Wonderbolts.
Even so… maybe there was still a chance for forgiveness and redemption. After all, if Discord-
“Hey, why don’t we make this like old times?” Lightning Dust chuckled and jerked her head to the side of the path, where pointy rocks waited below. “Just dive head-first and start flailing around.”
… If Discord could be redeemed, then maybe Lightning Dust could be, too.
Speaking of which, Lightning Dust seemed different since last they met.
Instead of the Wonderbolts’ uniform, she had donned a dark blue uniform that seemed militaristic in nature, and a white handkerchief peeked out from the breast pocket. A silver cape was attached to the shoulders of her uniform and billowed dramatically.
Was there any other way capes billowed anymore?
In addition, Lightning Dust had a small crossbow strapped to her right forehoof. It was only about the size of a dinner plate, but Twilight was immediately wary of it; with all the crazy stuff their opponents were able to do, she wouldn’t be surprised if that thing could shoot dragons made of timber wolves.
“Trust me…” Lightning Dust continued with an arrogant smirk. “It’ll be a less painful defeat than if you go up against me.”
“That so?” Rainbow Dash confidently marched forwards whilst flexing her wings. As if bidden by the flex – oh please no more flexing, Twilight thought to herself – cold winds gathered around her body like she was a walking cyclone. “Because I could say the same for you…”
“Heh… had a feeling you’d be the one to step up,” Lightning Dust’s neck clicked as she bent it left and right. “Fine by me – it doesn’t matter what order you losers go in, you’re all going down the same way. And then?” She flashed a menacing grin and her eyes briefly flicked over to the edge of the path. “I’m coming for those Wonderbolts.”
“I stand by what I did!” Spitfire yelled up in reply.
“I was just standing around when it happened!” Soarin added.
“Recruit – if you don’t kick her ass, then I’m doing it! And then I’ll kick your ass for not kicking her ass!”
“Long story short: Spitfire has a fixation on asses!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow Dash gave a swift salute to the edge and turned back to her opponent. “So…?”
Lightning Dust shrugged carelessly. “Let’s just get this started.”
In stark contrast to the other battles, there was no witty banter or trading of insults.
The instant Lightning dust finished talking, she lifted her forehoof and, with a bright golden flash of her right eye, fired a bolt of lightning from her crossbow that quickly took the form of an arrow.
Rainbow Dash shielded herself with her wings and the bolt impacted harmlessly; she retaliated by leaping forwards and spinning her entire body like a corkscrew, summoning powerful winds that shielded her body.
“Death Tornado Strike!”
Lightning Dust’s eye flashed again and her body suddenly became mist-like and transparent.
“Ethereal Shift!”
Rainbow Dash went straight through her opponent and had to quickly turn on a dime, wings fanning out to catch the winds so she rotated to face the right direction. It was because of her quick reflexes that she was able to duck her head to avoid another lightning arrow.
“My life went to shit because of you and the Wonderbolts!” Lightning Dust growled as she fired a barrage of arrows, forcing her opponent to fly up into the sky. “I trained for years to be the best of the best and what do I have to show for it? Nothing!”
“You did that to yourself!” Rainbow Dash hollered back as she looped and zig-zagged, arrows whizzing past, close enough to cause her hair to stand on end. “I’m not the one who decided to whip up a tornado to clear those clouds! Death Tornado Strike!”
“But you went along with it!” Lightning Dust’s form shimmered and she transformed into a lightning bolt that zapped back into the cloud she rode on, narrowly dodging Rainbow Dash’s attack as it shredded stone and dirt. Lightning Dust reappeared on top of her cloud. “You’re just as guilty as I am!”
“You know what else happened that day?!” From below, Spitfire shifted her forelegs to get a better grip on the branch. “She saved her friends, admitted what she did was wrong, and showed integrity! You trashed my office before leaving and superglued a picture of your ass to the front of my desk!”
“See? Total fixation!”
“Shut up!” Lightning Dust’s eye flashed and her cloud descended over the cliff, putting her at the same altitude with the exhausted Wonderbolts. She aimed her crossbow at them threateningly, her lips curled in a vicious snarl. “You’re not involved in this!”
Ever defiant in the face of danger – to Soarin’s displeasure – Spitfire lifted her chin and stubbornly replied, “I don’t see how I can’t be involved in this.”
“Hey!”
Rainbow Dash swooped in from a diagonal angle and punched Lightning Dust off her cloud. The vexed mare tumbled towards the ground for a moment or two before transforming to lightning and zapping back onto her cloud, now sporting a wicked shiner.
“This is between you and me, not them!” Rainbow Dash hovered in place, facing off against her opponent, and the two circled each other in the wide expanse of sky.
Lightning Dust snarled and spat off the side of her cloud. “Idiot! This isn’t just about you; this is about everypony that got me kicked out in the first place!” She whipped out her crossbow and fired another salvo of arrows. “My tornado idea was perfect!”
“Really?!” Rainbow Dash flew low, looped about, and came round at Lightning Dust. “You’re freaking delusional! You’re the one that couldn’t control it in the first place! I was doing fine until you crashed out! Tornado Death Strike!”
“Ethereal Shift!” Lightning Dust waited until her foe passed through her before solidifying and shooting several more arrows at her back. “So what? A bunch of trained Wonderbolts and recruits couldn’t stop one tornado? That’s pathetic!”
“My, somepony’s in denial,” Rarity clucked her tongue disapprovingly as the others spared a sympathetic wince when a few arrows struck Rainbow Dash in the back. “How immature.”
Applejack shrugged, watching as their friend recovered and turned to face her opponent, her forelegs coming together as winds gathered around the limbs. “Some ponies jes’ have tha’ sort of inflated pride. RD sometimes talks a big game, but she ain’t never gonna be tha’ bad.”
“Whirlwind Blast!”
Twilight perked an eyebrow as she watched her friend push both her forehooves forward to send out a blast of wind that caught Lightning Dust and made her spin around on the cloud like a twist top.
A dangerous, crossbow wielding twirl top that announced their displeasure of being spun with a series of garbled curses.
‘The griffons have actual magic that controls wind, don’t they? Maybe I should start studying up on that when this is all over. Some of ponykind’s greatest achievements have been through the studying and expanding on other races’ ideas.’
Twilight hummed to herself thoughtfully as Pinkie whooped and jumped at her side, spilling popcorn everywhere.
“Woo-hoo! Go, Dashie! Go, Dashie! If you can’t do it, then maybe Fluttershy can!”
“Wh-what? V-violence? Oh no, th-that’s too violent for me!”
“Alright, y-you’re really…” Lightning Dust swayed on her cloud as she struggled to focus on the angry Rainbow Dashes that hovered several yards away. “G-getting on my nerves. Th-that cloning technique w-won’t help you! Huagh!”
“Ew!” Rainbow Dash made a face as Lightning Dust blew chunks over the side of her cloud. “Did you have… fish?!”
“So?” Lightning Dust swiped her chin, cheeks red. “It’s not technically meat-meat! Lots of pegasi eat fish!”
Meanwhile…
“Oh, the long trek is murder on Trixie’s hooves…” Trixie stumbled onwards to the mountain path that led to Canterlot city. Her cape and hat each weighed at least a few pounds, but she wouldn’t dare take it off; she needed to be at maximum mysteriousness at all times! “Her stamina is waning… her belly is rumbling… her thighs are sweating… but her spirit is strong!”
The Great and Powerful magician held her head up high, fuelled purely by love and the desire to complete her task.
A different task and a personal one.
For it was a task she elected to perform herself, for the first time since she became a chess piece in the Chaos Lord’s game.
That battle had opened her eyes to new possibilities and she needed to repay that kindness for the Great and Powerful Trixie was also Benevolent and Grateful.
No doubt her former lord would be vexed by what she was planning to do… but so be it.
“Trixie will be triumphant!” She raised her head further so she was staring straight up at the sky, her perfect teeth bared in a dazzling smile. “You hear Trixie, my love?! Trixie will be-”
SPLAT
“I tire of these petty games…” Lightning Dust snorted and the glow of her eye brightened to a point that brought discomfort to look at it. “You don’t know real power, you don’t what a real pegasi is capable of.”
“…” Rainbow Dash’s ears twitched as she frowned thoughtfully at nothing in particular. It was only when she heard Lightning Dust clear her throat in irritation did she come back to her senses. “Huh? Oh, thought I heard somepony… Er, what were you saying?”
“…”
Lightning Dust scowled vehemently before opening her mouth wide to let out a powerful scream.
Glowing cracks spread out from her glowing eye and across her face like she was literally breaking apart into pieces, but there was a raw feeling of power and strength in the air; it was so thick and heavy that Rainbow Dash felt a chill run down her spine, and it became harder to flap her wings.
“The hell?” Rainbow Dash hovered in place awkwardly as she felt a familiar tremor in her bones. Still, she looked up, just to confirm her feeling. “A… storm?”
“Ooh, look at the angry clouds!” Pinkie giggled brightly, completely unaware of her friends’ uneasy and fearful expressions and body language.
Twilight had felt the signs of an approaching storm, but she didn’t expect one to literally blow in from nowhere, and at such a dizzying speed!
Clouds lacked the traits to be alive and therefore, lacked the capability to have emotions, but the way the massive expanse of dark grey billowed in from every direction and covered the blue sky from sight with a bone-shaking rumble of thunder… well, if she had to assign an emotion to describe it, then, yes, it would have to be ‘anger’.
The amount of light dropped drastically and made it all that much harder to see Lightning Dust, who was still screaming and slowly levitating into the air, golden light pouring out from her eyes and streaming from the widening cracks in her body. The cloud she had stood on whipped upwards to merge into the churning storm high above, as if it was alive and not just a cluster of evaporated water molecules.
Bzzz-CRACK
Wonderful – now there was actual lightning arcing down at random points. However, Twilight noticed that with each strike, they seemed to be getting closer to hitting-
Bzzz-CRACK
Bzzz-CRACK
Bzzz-CRACK
“Gah!” Twilight had to look away from the blinding flashes that stung her eyes whenever Lightning Dust attracted another yellow bolt. Theoretically, pegasi could survive quite a few direct hits if their Aura was particularly strong, but this… no, something was going down. “What’s happening?!”
If anypony answered, then their voices must have been drowned out by the lightning, for that was all Twilight could hear. Closing her eyes did little to ease her discomfort, the flashes were still bright even behind the protection of her eyelids.
The dreadful experience came to a sudden and abrupt halt a few moments later, but the silence actually seemed louder and more threatening.
Regardless, Twilight cautiously opened her eyes and looked back to the two opponents, squinting to see through the colourful spots dancing in her peripheral.
The storm was still there and it was still so dark, but the lightning had stopped.
As for the opponents…
Rainbow Dash was still hovering in the same spot, but was completely tense and high on alert. Her breathing was heavy, her eyes narrowed, and her forelegs wrapped in swirling wind currents.
Lightning Dust, on the other hoof, was hovering in place without the use of her wings; they hung as limply as the rest of her body, and though her head was bowed and framed in shadow, a wisp of golden smoke rose from one eye. It sparkled gently and drifted lazily, behaving nothing like the tiny sparks of electricity that jumped and danced along her body.
“… Heh…”
Lightning Dust slowly raised her head and flashed her foe a menacing rictus, all the more terrifying from the light that throbbed deep within her gullet, giving her face a skeletal appearance.
“Heh heh…”
Slowly, she extended her forelegs to the sides… and that’s when the rain started coming down.
“Heh heh heh heh heh heh ha ha ha ha ha!!”
Lightning Dust exploded into a sphere of golden light.
Rainbow Dash let out an undignified squawk of fright and flapped her wings to fly backwards, half-blinded as the sphere rapidly grew to the size of a bear, then a house, and then to half the size of Canterlot Castle.
There was a second explosion that dispersed the sphere and a massive shape flared out with a tremendous roar.
Rainbow Dash stopped in place, jaw dropping as her eyes tried to convince her brain that they were not, in fact, broken.
“Oh… Mother… Faust…”
Twilight and her friends – yes, even Pinkie, who dropped her popcorn bucket in shock – stared in open-mouthed astonishment and awe at the thing that came from the sphere.
“Wh…?” Twilight helplessly gestured towards the air, eyes rolling about. “How does…? Buh?!”
“Whoa…” Spitfire lowered her sunglasses to get a better view. “That’s…”
“So…” Soarin continued with a dumbstruck expression.
“Awesome…” Rainbow Dash pressed her forehooves against her cheeks and made a wheezing squee deep in her throat.
A dragon stared down at the pegasus, each beat of its massive wings producing hurricane-like winds and sending bolts of lightning up into the clouds. The behemoth was all shades of yellow and literally composed of lightning; its form shuddered and shifted constantly, making any form of accurate measurement difficult, but it was most definitely only a few metres short on the red dragon that once blanketed Ponyville in smoke.
The eyes glowed white like miniature suns and when it opened its mouth, thick clouds poured out; they produced rain almost immediately, and the droplets turned to steam once they made contact with the dragon.
It seemed to be smirking, but it was hard to tell with the way its mouth shifted and trembled.
“Behold my true… awesome power!”
Lightning Dust, the Storm-Eater
Currently over-compensating because of mommy issues
To be Continued…
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Mommy issues?
6897101 Lightning Dash's mom had unrealistic expectations of her and pushed her daughter to be everything she couldn't be when she was growing up. Eventually, the falling out led to a rebellious streak, an incident with the Cloudsdale officials, and a replacement of a sack of potatoes... The entire thing was just silly and left a lasting mark on Lightning Dust.
Fortunately, it was nowhere near as dark as I could have made it...
At least... not in this timeline.
Should be either "a pegasus" or "pegasi".
6897278 Found and fixed - thank you for pointing that out.
Well, every time with Lighting Dust, I have to make an obligatory mention that Twilight and friends flew into a Wonderbolt practice area that could probably be considered a military zone at that. LD is at fault for letting the tornado get out of hand, but Twilight had no right to be there. If somebody decided to walk into Twilight's range when she's doing magical spellcasting and gets injured, should they be blaming Twilight for that? No.
But in any event, Lightning Dust summons lightning and absorbs enough energy to turn into a dragon. Knowing Rainbow Dash, she won't be satisfied with just 'beating' Dragon Dust, she has to do something super awesome that out-awesomefies Dragon Dust, even if out-awesomefies isn't a word.