The Crescendo
Rainbow Dash glared Squall down from across the campsite. The rain fell in thick, smothering sheets, almost like they were standing beneath a waterfall. Every inch of Rainbow’s thin body was drenched, and whatever volume her blue coat usually gave her was flattened against her petite frame. Even worse, the rain and sand had finally worked its way into her feathers, severely limiting her mobility. Even if she took wing, she wouldn’t be able to move very fast with her feathers in such poor shape.
Thankfully, Squall seemed similarly handicapped. The chips Rainbow had put into her horn were obviously affecting her ability to wield her magic, and her telekinetic grip around her sword, though strong and stable, nevertheless flickered randomly in time with the sparks produced from the pirate’s alicorn. Her nose and mouth continued to drip blood, staining the white sands red, and sand was plastered to almost every inch of her body. But she still had that crazed, wild look in her eyes, and Rainbow knew the rabid pirate would happily fight hoof and nail to kill her. In fact, she was almost certain the pirate would’ve preferred it that way.
It didn’t matter.
Rainbow was furious. She wanted nothing more than to hurt and maim the pirate standing across from her. Her eyes slid to Squall’s left, where just a little bit away, Rarity still lied on the ground, her hooves weakly pawing at the sand and her eyes glazed over. The sight both sickened and terrified her. She’d already seen Squall shoot Coals today, and the stallion was teetering on the brink of death behind her. Though Rarity looked more active, Rainbow didn’t know where Squall had shot her. It didn’t matter; she worried for her life all the same.
“What are you waiting for?” Squall snarled. “Nervous? Or do you just want to watch her bleed?”
A red haze of rage began to cloud over Rainbow’s mind, but a spark of reason stayed her from simply charging at Squall unarmed. Wings fluttering almost uselessly at her sides, Rainbow quickly bounded over to one of Squall’s dropped swords. She didn’t have much time to prepare herself, though; almost as soon as she had her mouth around the hilt of the sword, Squall was on top of her, sword wildly cutting through the air. Rainbow whipped her head to the side, yanking the sword out of the sand and blocking Squall’s attack in one motion. She was able to force the magically manipulated sword away and flutter back three steps before Squall could set on her again. There, feeling the sword in her mouth, Rainbow allowed herself to get comfortable with the sandy weapon and slotted it into the gap between her teeth, locking it in place.
Squall fell on Rainbow like a savage beast, swinging and slashing, her sword flashing in the light of the campfire and the glow of the heavens like lightning on the earth. Rainbow kept her wings open at her side for balance as she worked on parrying Squall’s attacks, twisting and craning her neck in a desperate attempt to keep up with Squall’s sword. Sparks flew and showered across the sand, sizzling and dying almost as soon as they hit the wet tropical air. But Rainbow persisted through the beating, fighting off Squall with her limbs powered by adrenaline and rage alone.
But that didn’t put her on equal hoofing with Squall in a straight up fight. Though Rainbow had received some training as a Wonderbolt and a member of Equestria’s military by connection, Squall had been in fights. Squall had killed ponies. Squall had been fighting for longer than Rainbow had been an Element of Harmony. And under that rainy night sky, that difference swiftly made itself clear. A slash of Squall’s sword sliced a shallow flesh wound against Rainbow’s chest. A shoulder check sent Rainbow staggering backwards, and only with the balance and control her wings gave her did she pull back enough to not lose her throat on the tip of Squall’s blade. She never had a chance to press an attack of her own; her sword was tied up simply trying to hold back Squall’s.
Yet there was one thing she had that Squall and her magic lacked: two extra limbs. Though her wings were too waterlogged to fly, they were still appendages she could manipulate while she used her mouth to fend off Squall’s attacks. Taking a step back, Rainbow planted her right rear hoof in the ground and used her right wing to fling wet sand at Squall. The sudden attack caught the pirate by surprise, and Rainbow immediately lunged at her, scoring a deep cut on Squall’s right shoulder and down across her ribs before the pirate shoved her away with her magic.
Thunder boomed, nearly deafening, as the two mares reset. By now, the noise of the storm was so loud Rainbow couldn’t even hear the crashing noises going on through the jungle. She doubted anypony could even hear her struggle with Squall unless they were right outside the camp. She didn’t know what had happened to the two ponies Squall sent away to patrol the perimeter, nor the pirates the noise had led away, but they hadn’t returned yet. That in itself was a blessing; if even one other pirate had joined the fight, her and Rarity would have lost immediately.
They still weren’t faring that much better, though. Both Rarity and Coals were on the ground from Squall’s guns, and Rainbow was quickly tiring. She wouldn’t be able to keep her duel with Squall up for much longer. She knew she had enough energy for two more exchanges with the pirate captain… maybe three. If she didn’t find an opening then, it was all over.
It was now or never.
With a battle cry that stirred the blood of her warrior ancestors within her, Rainbow planted her wing crests in the ground and used them like extra legs to launch herself across the clearing at Squall. The pirate braced herself for the attack, moving her sword out a pony length in front of her muzzle, ready to intercept Rainbow’s charge before she reached her. But again using her wings for traction, Rainbow feinted one side and immediately reversed to the other, sliding around Squall’s sword. From there, she had an open path to Squall’s ribs.
Those few feet felt like an eternity to Rainbow. Her mind processed everything in the blink of an eye. The individual raindrops seemingly falling in slow motion. The flickering light of a lightning bolt arcing across the sky. The snapping waver of Squall’s horn as another burst of magic flared through it. How the very air itself began to crackle and shimmer as the pirate’s red magic began to manifest. The rippling of the pirate’s muscles beneath her silk blouse as she tried to dive away from Rainbow’s sword.
The cutlass shook in Rainbow’s mouth as it bit into solid flesh. The coppery smell of blood as steel split sinew and muscle. Her sword cut deep and true across Squall’s left side, spilling the pirate’s blood onto the sand. A strangled cry of pain escaped Squall’s throat from between her clenched teeth, and as Rainbow severed the muscles to her left foreleg, the pirate teetered and staggered.
And then she was behind Squall, sword as red as the pirate’s coat. There was a gasp of pain to accompany the booming of the thunder and the pattering of the rain on the sand. Rainbow relaxed as the sword quivered in her grasp, blood dripping off the end.
But there was no sound of a body hitting the sand.
The gasping continued, and Rainbow turned around, eyes wide with surprise. There, she saw something she didn’t think was possible: the pirate still stood, despite the river of blood pouring from her chest and her useless foreleg held limp and dead against the sand. Squall’s horn lit up, and her flickering magic pulled a flaming log out of the feeble fire. Then, screaming through the pain, she seared the gash in her chest, slowing the bleeding to little more than an oozing trickle. The smell of burnt hair and cooked pony flesh nearly made Rainbow vomit.
Squall dropped the log in the sand, where it sizzled and blackened the sediment around it, and her magic once more readied her trembling sword. “Is that all you’ve got?” she hissed through clenched teeth. “You’re gonna need to do better than that.”
Rainbow swallowed hard. She wasn't sure if she could.
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...Holy-
Ship...
Need to wrap it up. Who knows how long Gyro can keep the rest away
Wait... if Rainbow's wings are too waterlogged to fly, how do pegasi fly when it's raining...? Can they not? I've never considered this before.
8671459
I don't really know about magic cartoon pegasi, but in the real world it's very difficult for birds to fly if their wings get soaked through. They're naturally water repellent to an extent, so long as their feathers are in good condition. Once the water manages to penetrate the feathers and make a mess of them, however, it's very, very difficult for them to fly. A birdbath isn't going to render a bird unable to fly, because it's only a little water, but absolutely drenching them in rain and water like Rainbow is here definitely makes it so much harder to actually attain lift. Thus one of the reasons why you never see birds flying about when it's storming.
Maybe they are already there, but chose to simply watch and see what happens.
Squall:
I might even believe her...
If she barely has energy to stand, and is that wounded, with an second large wound on her other side, it's a matter of surviving. If Rainbow is lucky Squall will fall before the other pirates come back, or they'll use this opportunity to take her out for good. She committed the greatest sin of those who rule by intimidation and strength alone, she put herself into a situation of weakness, after all.
8671466
The wife's big into avian rescue, so that much I get. I've just never considered if it was the same for pegasi and was suddenly confused. Suffice to say, in 24th's 'verse, we can take this to be the case.