15. Iron Trooper
--Chapter 15--
Iron Trooper
“Would you mind explaining why have you even agreed to this?” Shaw said with arms crossed in front of him as he leaned against a tree.
“Because I want to make an example out of her. And teach her something while I’m at it.” Falcon answered. He was in a middle of taking off his armor before the whole ‘Iron Pony Competition’ thing begins. Twilight have explained to him what that means, and the story behind the whole thing. The competition was an old way for two ponies from over a thousand years ago to solve disagreements when a consensus couldn’t be reached with words. Two ponies would settle things by proving who’s better, and the winner would get to dictate what he gets.
This was a very old way of dealing with things, and was no longer used that way. Now it was only meant to show one’s physical superiority. Something that many sportsponies do to boost their careers. The name was changed as well, but the original one was in an archaic language that is no longer used, and pronouncing it is nearly impossible for Falcon, and even most ponies have a hard time with saying simplest words. Twilight herself of course can speak fluently in it.
“Listen, I want to show her and others why I’m the one giving orders, and since a good opportunity showed itself, I’m going with it.” He’s left the boots and body glove on, leaving the rest of his stuff for Shaw to keep for a while. The ponies were already gathering around the arena prepared for the competition. It’s been the second competition like that in the town this year, so ponies who were setting this thing up already knew what to do and were able to do it all overnight.
Almost entire town was here, already putting money on each competitor. Most were convinced that Rainbow will devastate him, but that only made him smirk. After all, what’s the point in accepting a challenge when you’re not sure of victory. He’s been watching Rainbow for a while now, and even though he has to admit that she’s pretty good as far as ponies go, ponies were not soldiers. He was by far the stronger one of the two, only not quite as fast.
This however could be worked around. He’s noticed that the rules of the competition are quite vague, and using them against Rainbow was going to be easy. She didn’t even think about setting their own rules, which is allowed. That of course means that she plans on using her wings to her advantage, but they won’t help her enough to take the win.
Falcon stepped in the middle of the arena, where Rainbow was already waiting. She stared at him with a somewhat angry look and he responded calmly ignoring it and turning towards the town’s mayor – Mayor Mare – stood, waiting for the last groups of ponies to arrive on their places. She cleared her throat once they were here. “Fillies and Gentlecolts! I welcome you all at the Iron Pony Competition!” The crowd cheered. “Today we will see how today’s challenger - our friend Rainbow Dash - faces off against a mysterious newcomer from the unknown parts of the world – Falcon!”
The ponies responsible for preparing the arena for each event stepped inside and quickly placed few barrels in a line. “The first event will start now! Our competitors will run towards a flag behind the line of barrels. The one who achieves this task faster, will win the point. Remember though, that every time you touch the barrel you get 5 seconds added to your time as penalty.”
Rainbow was first to stand at the starting point and prepare for to run. She waited for the signal from the mayor, and once the sound of a whistle rang into her ears, she shot forward as fast as her legs could carry her. She swiftly run between the barrels, not touching any of them. She then jumped forward to the flag, pulling it out with her mouth. “16.43 seconds!” Twilight screamed from the spot next to the scoreboard.
“Good luck beating that.” Rainbow mocked as she returned back to the starting point.
“It won’t be a problem.” He took the position on the starting line and waited for the signal. It came within few seconds after someone placed a new flag in the finish line. The whistle rang through the arena again and the commander dashed towards the line of barrels.
And that’s when he used the unspecified rules of the competition’s events to his advantage for the first time. The rules only say that he can’t avoid all barrels , not that he can’t jump over them. And since the barrels were pretty small to begin with and the distance between them was big enough for him to maintain the speed, he had no problems doing so. Normally he had no chance against Rainbow in terms of pure speed, so if he was to run like she did, there’s no way he could win. Now however…
“13.79 seconds!" Twilight said after a moment of hesitation and added a point to his table. She was probably going over the rules in her head. "The winner of this event is Falcon!"
The crowd started to cheer, save for ponies who put their money on Rainbow, they called him a cheater. He heard rainbow growl from behind. "Grrr... You cheated." He turned towards her.
"I could have said something about you accelerating yourself with wings, but I didn't right?" She fell silent. "That's because there were no rules in place that stop you from using wings, and there is nothing that says I can't jump over the barrels. Remember that there are no rules in war. There are no such things as fair play or honor on the battlefield. You must use all you have to win, and the only rules you follow are the ones you set for yourself."
Rainbow sped up towards her target, accelerating her speed with her strong wings. She suddenly turned around on her front hooves and smashed the rear ones into a metal target. She quickly turned around and looked at the screen Twilight have prepared. it displayed the strength of her kick in some measurement she didn't understand. It wrote '238' with big red numbers. I won't let him win... there's no way I can lose...
She felt as if her entire pride was hanging on the line here, not to mention that if she loses then Falcon will be running her into the ground twice as hard as he's been for the past week, especially since they returned from the ship on the moon.
She looked as Falcon prepares himself for his turn. Twilight announced her score and wrote it on a big board behind her. Somepony walked over to Twilight's machine and reset the counter and place it a bit higher to make up for the difference in height between him and Rainbow, giving Falcon a 'free to go' sign.
The clone was not one to wait long and immediately sprinted towards the target. He suddenly jumped just before reaching the target and smashed both legs into it. He landed on the ground and looked at the score meter. She did the same and immediately her face twisted with anger as she grinded her teeth. It wrote ‘278’.
“Can somepony please explain why do I have to do this again!?” Spike screamed as he was shaken up and down on Rainbow’s back. He had his claws holding onto her fur tightly, almost as if his life depended on it. He was holding up much better than the last time, but that was of course not enough to last even ten seconds before he was thrown off of her and on the ground.
“Probably because you have no problems shaking off the physical abuse that goes with it, and have claws and arms that help you with staying on our backs.” Falcon answered his question and looked at the timer that displayed Rainbow’s time – 6.92 seconds. She’s really bad at creative thinking… He thought to himself, already with a way to quickly settle this in his mind.
Spike was allowed to rest for a minute before being placed on Commander’s back. The little dragon wrapped his hands tightly around his neck, slightly limiting Falcon’s air supply. This didn’t bother him at all though, and he simply waited for a signal from the mayor. He didn’t wait for it long and without any warning rolled forward on the ground. Spike, who was completely surprised by this, has lost his grip around clone’s neck the moment he felt his mass rolling over him.
“0.73 second! Falcon wins yet again!”
“I seriously have better things to do…” Spike said as he fell on the ground, tied up in Falcon’s rope.
The clone didn’t know how to use it as a lasso, which Rainbow thought she had to do for some reason, so he simply run up to Spike and tied him up, which was the point of the event. Rainbow meanwhile ended up accidently throwing the rope towards Tracker, who was leaning against the tree while talking to Fluttershy.
The commando was quick to notice the incoming lasso and caught it just before it wrapped itself around his helmet. He then pulled Rainbow towards himself before she was able to let go of the rope and ignoring her protests, tied up her legs together and then hanged her from the tree. “What the buck are you-!?” She tried to speak up, but her voice was suddenly silenced when Tracker tied her mouth close.
She was powerless to do anything when Tracker grabbed her head with one hand and without saying a word spun her around. Fluttershy was just about to help her get free, by the commando grabbed her hoof and tugged her away, leaving Rainbow hanging and spinning. “Why did you do that? It was just an accident.” The mare said.
“If she can’t do the job done right, then all she’ll get from me is that. War doesn’t forgive.”
“In other words, Falcon wants you to help him in getting her to let go of her pride?”
“…yes. He wants to show her that when you screw up, you’re the one who’ll have to deal with the consequences. She also must understand that there’s no place for working on your own in war, and that if you don’t give it your all, you’ll just get yourself and possibly others killed. I’ve seen how she behaves during the training sessions. And all I can tell, is that if a war was to break out now and she was sent to fight, she wouldn’t stay alive for long.”
“But she’s still better than me, Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie, isn’t she?”
“Only when it comes to strength. She has no idea how to cooperate with others and wants everything done by herself. She has problems obeying orders. She’s arrogant and way too full of herself. She might not leave you to die, despite her flaws I must say that she’s extremely loyal, but how is that any good if she’s more likely to attack enemy on her own with no plan whatsoever, than to work with her team and figure out a way to complete the objective and stay alive?”
Rainbow eyed the clone as he picked up one end of the line. They were standing on the opposite sides of a mud hole, each holding one end of the same rope. Both were ready, waiting only for the signal to start. ’Use all you have to win’ you say? Fine, I can play that game. Rainbow thought to herself. In a corner of her eye she saw the scoreboard. She has gained no points at all, and her pride was beginning to hurt.
But she will win this.
There’s no way she can’t do this.
There’s no way she won’t do it.
There are still more events left, more than enough to make up for the lost points. She briefly glanced at the mayor. She was just about to put the whistle in her mouth. Falcon was standing with his back turned towards her, unable to see that she’s about to give the signal. She quickly prepared herself to pull the rope just as the mayor placed the whistle in her mouth.
She pulled as strong as she could, initially making Falcon move a step closer to the hole. He recovered quickly however, and started to pull back himself. Rainbow quickly found herself unable to overpower the human with strength of her mouth and hooves, so she quickly started to flop her wings as herd as she could and flew above the hole. Falcon was taken into the air with her and immediately she started to lower the rope with the clone holding onto it into the mud. However, this wasn’t going to be quite as easy as she expected.
The clone started to quickly climb up the rope, faster than she was lowering it. Before she was able to change her tactic, Falcon has already gotten close. In panic, she decided to let go of the rope and drop it into the mud along with Falcon. She was to slow however. By the time she has let go of the rope Falcon was already able to reach his arm out and catch her.
She tried to fly away, but he wrapped his arm around her and smashed his knee into her stomach, kicking the air out of her. She was unable to recover for long enough to allow him to point her downwards, towards the mud.
The next thing she felt was the feeling of hitting the mud while the clone kept her pinned down. “Falcon wins again!” Anger started to fill her mind again as she heard those words.
“I… lost...?” Rainbow stared at the scoreboard in disbelief. Number 20 was written under Falcon’s name, and a 0 under hers. She’s lost everything that could be lost. Push-ups? She was barely able to do one hundred, while he did this as if it was a routine for him, and then continued until he made 150 push-ups, almost as if he wanted to mock her. Hand/hoof-wrestling? She couldn’t even move his hand, and once she tired herself out he just pinned her hoof down. Nothing. She could do nothing against him, no matter what she did. It was as if he knew exactly how she will act, and how to respond.
Now, she was just sitting there in disbelief as the crowd cheered. Falcon has already walked away with Shaw and Tracker, leaving her alone with her friends. “Rainbow.” Fluttershy approached her.
In response, she got up and walked away. She quickly felt a hoof being placed on her back. “What!?” She turned around, only to see Fluttershy looking at her with face unmoved by her sudden snap. She was used to it by no after all.
“You know you were asking for it, right?” She said.
“So what!? What right does he have to treat us like that!? I can take some training, but not what he does! I have no responsibility towards him.” She looked away.
“You do have a responsibility as an Element of Harmony though.” Twilight said with unusual hint of anger in her voice.
“Yeah, of course you would be on his side. You’ve been acting like a good pet ever since day one!”
The unicorn stared at the Pegasus with surprisingly cold stare, eventually responding with a voice just as cold. “Because I understand what all of this means. And what is the point in being ready to defend Equestria if we will ever have to. And I assure you, we will have to. And I’m going to make sure that what I’ve seen in those caves won’t happen again…”
“What was it that you wanted to talk about before we came here?” Falcon said as he and Shaw walked towards the old warehouse. Now it was completely rebuilt by now and ready to be use as a base of operation. Luna has even left a portal in there, in case one of them had to get to the other quickly. There was supposed to be some reward for winning the competition, but Falcon didn’t care about it. He only cared about Rainbow learning her lesson, and he was sure that with Twilight around, she’ll understand it in no time.
“I’ve been looking for a way to strengthen a signal from our old com-links lately and with the parts we’ve gathered on ‘Intrepid’, I managed to increase the range by few kilometers and I immediately found a signal coming from the Everfree.”
“A signal you say? Could it be that we’re not the first ones to crash land here?” He thought for a bit. “What have you found out about it?”
“Not much. The signal is very weak and with the rate at which it grows weaker, I predict that it will completely disappear within next few years. I was lucky to stumble upon it in the first place, if I wasn’t playing with my com-link when we were coming back from the ’Intrepid’ I wouldn’t even know where to look, and I still can’t pinpoint the exact location. We were probably flying over it and the com link picked up some interference. I think I know what the signal is though. It’s an S.O.S signal. And furthermore, it seems like it’s been here for over four thousand years…”
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My bits are on an old star fighter.
Ah nothing more satisfying then watching the arrogant have their pride destroyed
Awesome chapter!!! Really looking forward to the next. Good luck in school Omega.
7589712 Already got an 'F' (in Poland it's '1') as a welcome present from math...I'm fucked...
7590093 Woah, better luck next time. I got 1 C and 2 A's from math already.
I see that you've misspelled words every once in a while in the previous chapters and if you need an editor, I'll be happy to do it if you don't have one.
7672860 I wouldn't mind if you helped, thank you very much
7672887 If you want I can send you all chapters in .docx files in PM
7672898 please do
Is int the Rakata Infinit Empire?
Visible happiness
When the winged hussars arrived
A cry for help in time of need, await relief from holy league
60 days of siege, outnumbered and weak
Sent a message to the sky, wounded soldiers left to die
Will they hold the wall or will the city fall
Dedication
Dedication
They're outnumbered 15 to one
And the battle's begun
Then the winged hussars arrived
Coming down the mountainside
Then the winged hussars arrived
Coming down they turned the tide
As the days are passing by and as the dead are piling high
No escape and no salvation
Trenches to explosive halls are buried deep beneath the walls
Plant the charges there and watch the city fear
Desperation
Desperation
It's a desperate race against the mine
And a race against time
Then the winged hussars arrived
Coming down the mountainside
Then the winged hussars arrived
Coming down they turned the tide
Cannonballs are coming down from the sky
Janissaries are you ready to die?
We will seek our vengeance eye for an eye
You'll be stopped upon the steps of our gate
On this field you're only facing our hate
But back home the sultan's sealing your fate
We remember
In September
That's the night Vienna was freed
We made the enemy bleed!
Storm clouds, fire and steel
Death from above make their enemy kneel
7588526
i saw an old republic gunship of sorts