Ch. 52 Last One Standing
A near blank expression graced Rainbow's face as she walked through the labyrinth's halls. Her half-lidded eyes barely registered her surroundings as she walked, her wings and pony ears twitching every so often. A faint breeze surrounded her at a near constant rate with each step, its flow a mirror of her own breathing. A light fog kept her mind focused and calm as she channeled her magic throughout her body. It was a surreal experience for her to be in such a state, to be so calm in the face of certain danger. Was she scared? As shameful as it was to her to admit, yes she was. Was she angry at the creature that led to her greatest regrets to date? Absolutely. To say she hated Lily would've been an understatement worthy of a nobel prize. Was she worried about Scootaloo? No dumber a question was ever asked. So why was she so calm? Why wasn't she spiting poison down the halls as she hunted down the Elder Wraith like a shark on a blood-trail? The answer was simple; that was how she lost Sunset in the first place.
If she had stopped for a moment and thought, then maybe she would't've been tricked so easily. If she had listened to Loyalty from the start, maybe the element wouldn't've needed to be so brutal to get her attention before she left her. If she had been a better sister-figure, maybe Scootaloo and her friends wound't've ever made Anon-a-Miss in the first place. So many "if maybes" had entered her life recently, all because of her impulsive nature and rash actions. She was tired of it. Tired of charging blindly into things and watching the people she cared about getting hurt in the crossfire. It was like Conviction said on the first night of her training; she had a brain and it was about damn time she started using it.
Stay calm, she thought, gentle breaths passing her lips as her magic lightly drifted through her. You can get through this. This is what you've been training for, right?
A faint smile formed on her lips at that.
Still, I wish Scoots hadn't got dragged into this, she thought, her smile wilting. Why did that have to happen? Hadn't the squirt been through enough?
She sighed and shook her head. Thinking like that wasn't going to get her anywhere. Scootaloo was in danger and she had the power to save her. That was what mattered.
Her inner musings paused as she came to a triple break in the path. She stared blankly at the three halls for a few seconds before she sighed and closed her eyes. Her wings twitched open as she channeled a bit of her magic through them into the open air. A light breeze washed over her then into the paths with a soft whistle. Her mind completely emptied as the enchanted air traveled freely beyond her line of sight. A few seconds later, a faint breeze from each of the paths returned to her, the center path's breeze slightly different from the others as it tickled her feathers and added to her smile as she opened her eyes. With a nod, her wings closed and she took the center path with the same calm stride she used before.
***
Scootaloo sat with her knees curled up to her chest, her arms wrapped tight around them as she stared at one of the portals with wide, barely blinking eyes. Lily watched her with a wide smile while her daughters stared at their sister with heads tilted in confusion. Till now, nothing could really hold the young Wraith's attention for very long. One minute, she was going on about building a pocket dimension full of stunt ramps and the next she was asking if a TV could function in Lily's nest. Now the girl's attention was one hundred percent focused on the rainbow haired girl shown on the portal.
"Sis?" Applebloom asked, taking a step towards Scootaloo. "Are ya' okay?"
Scootaloo didn't respond as she continued to watch Rainbow. Sweetie gave her mother a worried look, only to be met with a reassuring smile from the elder Wraith.
"She's hunting," she whispered, subtly creeping behind her engrossed daughter to watch Rainbow as well.
Sweetie nodded in understanding while Applebloom looked even more confused. While she had seen Sweetie hunt, her sister never acted like this. The Unicorn would alway sport a wide grin and giggle sweetly as she lured a guard or staff pony into a dark corner of the castle and harvest their fear. Then again, Sweetie was always the more expressive sibling.
"When you find your prey," Lily explained. "You want to gather as much information on them as you can on them. How they move, how they think; all of it get's trapped in a fine laser focus. It was the same for me when I found Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie."
Applebloom nodded, but still sported a concerned frown as she stared at Scootaloo.
Will Ah be like that when Ah find prey?
A shiver shot down her spine as she imagined herself in the same position. As much as she loved her sisters, she hoped her hunting instincts would manifest in a more dignified way. Perhaps something caught between Sweetie's sweet mirth and Scootaloo's eagle-eyed obsession.
Lily giggled as she gently petted Scootaloo's head, a flood of pride filling her as she watched the young Wraith.
That's my girl.
As she thought that, her eyes drifted towards the portal and a curious grimace marred her face. The girl on display was normally a very emotive person, a fact that Lily was able to capitalize to great effect when she was ripening Sunset. Even after Sunset escaped her, the rainbow-haired girl was a delicious hurricane of emotions just waiting to be harvested. Now, there was barely a trace of negative emotion to be found in the girl, at least none that she could detect by any noteworthy degrees. This remained constant, even as she closed in on one of the seed chambers.
Curious. Show me girl. Show us what kind of prey you are.
***
Rainbow squinted her eyes as she stepped out of her dimly lit hallway into a well lit arena, her wings opening fully as her body braced for any dangers. As her eyes slowly adapted to the sudden shift in lighting, a figure standing in the middle of the arena slowly came into focus. For the most part, the being resembled a lean yet toned human male, but only in the most basic sense. The whole creature was covered in a shinning black resin like a kind of exoskeleton with a pair of gray metallic leggings and kilt as his only article of clothing. His head was that of a wasp, complete with antennae and vicious pincers for a mouth. Two gray wings were spread wide at his back, flicking with a deep propeller sound with each movement. Instead of a right hand, he had a football-sized insect's abdomen attached to his wrist with a foot long stinger arming it like a blade.
Her eyes narrowed into a glare as she stepped further into the room, the sounds of flowers crunching under her shoes mixing with the sound of the creature's wingbeats. Said creature stared her down as she approached, his compound eyes unable to showcase what he felt about the girl, though his tensing right arm gave her a pretty good idea what he wanted to do to her. With a literal blink, the creature disappeared, making her pause and quickly tap into her magic. At the last second, a faint breeze on her left wing caught her attention and she threw herself to her right. A second later, a loud burst of sound and wind slammed into where she stood previously. She jumped to her feet and assumed a defensive stance as she turned to face her attacker. Said attacker was kneeling with his stinger-blade halfway dug into the ground.
"Your quick," he said, voice dry and full of clicks as his mandibles came together between word. He jerked his weapon free and slowly stood up, turning to face Rainbow fully. "Good. I was afraid that this would't be a challenge."
"Who the hell are you?" she growled, senses on high alert as she stared the seed down.
"I go by Pearce," he said, a hint of mirth decorating his tone as he stared down at his weapon. "Pretty fitting I think. What do they call you, human?"
"Rainbow Dash," she growled.
Pearce froze, then threw his head back as a laugh forced its way past his mandibles. Rainbow rolled her eyes at that as she channeled her magic in preparation of at least five different spells if the seed moved again. Instead, he let out a happy sigh and stared at her with relaxed body language and said something that brought a rueful chuckle out of her.
"Now that is a fitting name. Such a quick and colorful opponent could never ask for a more fitting one even if they tried!"
"Don't know about that," she grimaced. "I've been pretty slow about other things lately."
"Right, that Sunset girl, right?"
Rainbow's eyes widened at that and with a drying throat she asked, "Y-You know about that?"
"All of us seed know," Pearce chuckled. "We share a kind of mental link with the Mistress. She learns everything we learn and we gain whatever knowledge she wants us to have. Kind of boring sometimes, but every know and then, I get to learn about how others have fun."
"Have fun?" Rainbow asked, shock making way for outrage as she growled, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, tilting his head. "Didn't a part of you want what happened? Didn't you want an excuse to kick that girl to her knees for what she did to you all those years ago? Why else would you put so much effort into plotting her beatings? C'mon. Admit it. Deep down inside, you wanted to see her break."
She should've been furious. She wanted to deny what Pearce was saying. She wanted to break the seed's mouth to make him shut up. Instead, she stood there frozen as her guilt slowly filled her like a sickly cold tar. Everything he said was true. A part of her did want Sunset to suffer for everything she did and the Anon-a-Miss incident gave her just the excuse she needed to put all of that resentment to work. She felt sick as she remembered all of the horrible things she had planned for Sunset the day Lightning decked her.
Pearce's clicking chuckle snapped her out of her dark thoughts as he said, "Why are you beating yourself up over it? You were just doing what comes naturally!"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she snarled, a light tremble running through her as she glared at the seed before her.
"Don't we all just want to have fun?" he asked matter-of-factly.
Those simple words made Rainbow's mind freeze as a cruel reality she tried to deny charged to the front of her mind. As much as she hated to admit it, it was a lot of fun to have a chance to crush Sunset. The world felt like it was made of jelly as she watched Pearce point his weapon at her, a cold numbness dominating her senses as the stinger moved towards her as if in slow-motion. She closed her eyes as she let the self-loathing she had been fighting against for weeks have its way with her. It was just like that day she was on Canter Bridge. She really had no right to live in this world.
It was then that she remembered what happened on that day, how Lightning Dust ran to her aid and saved her from the dark. Then she remembered her sessions with Doctor Hearths Warming and all of the genuine concern the Therapist gave her each time they talked. An early spring day came to her, a day that the very girl she hurt so deeply forgave her for her betrayal.
Her eyes flew open and at the last second sidestepped away from the blade aimed at her heart, her shirt getting torn just below the chest by the weapon's edge as it passed her. She quickly jumped back ten steps and assumed her fighting stance, a fire burning behind her eyes as she stared her enemy down.
"You're right," she growled, her magic flaring around her in a lightly whistling breeze around her wings and limbs. "I made some big mistakes and hurt someone close to me, but I'm not going to be that person anymore. I refuse to let myself fall for that shit ever again!"
"Don't fool yourself," he sighed, then flew towards her with his weapon aimed at her as he roared, "No one can deny who they are!"
"You're right," she smiled, then stood up straight an pointed a finger-gun at him. "But they can change."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uurkmfkKodg
In a matter of seconds, her as small ball of air the size of a golfball formed on her fingertip and with a loud whistle, fired off it towards the incoming seed. Pearce saw it at the last possible second and tried to dodge it only for it to tear a deep gash into his shoulder as it grazed him. An irritated growl made it past his mandibles as her closed in on her, only to stab into empty space as a blast of air from below sent the girl into the air. He head just enough time to look up before the girl let loose a hellfire barrage of air bullets on him, her wings keeping her air born as she attacked. Pearce let out agonized screams of fury as he flew out of the attack zone, dozens of deep gashes and dents marring his body. The seed let out a demonic screech as he took to the air, gray blood leaking from his countless wounds as he angrily aimed his weapon at her.
"Not bad," he snarled. "Maybe this will be more fun than I thought it would be."
A jet black beam of energy shot out of the stinger's tip, narrowly missing Rainbow's head as it hit the wall behind her in a continuous stream like a laser sword. She ducked down just as the seed jerked his weapon sideways, a bit of her prismatic hair coming off as the beam passed over her head. Pearce laughed as he swung his weapon around, the beam always closing in on Rainbow like a the worlds most lethal exact-o-knife as she flew about the room. Every now and then, she would fire a flurry of air bullets at him, but aside from annoy him the attacks had little effect on him. She needed to hit him with something stronger and for that she was going to need time. To give her what she needed, she shifted her magic to her wings and the bottom of her feet and summoned a constant blast of air from them, tripling her speed as she flew all across the room.
"Fly as fast as you want Rainbow," Pearce laughed. "I'll catch you eventually!"
"We'll see about that!" Rainbow cried.
For what felt like an hour, the two continued this deadly game of tag. At the same time Rainbow was gathering as much air as she could into one of her hands, compressing it as tightly as her magic could into a mass of swirly gales the size of a soccer ball. She glanced at her handy work with a sly smile and threw it towards the chamber's ceiling. Pearce noticed, but before he could respond Rainbow appeared above it with a blast of wind and bicycle-kicked the orb towards him. Not eager to see how powerful Rainbow's spell was, he quickly got out of the way only to see Rainbow now hovering a foot over the ground with a wide smile. Faster than he could blink, the girl kicked the ball back up towards him before disappearing again. Letting out a battle cry, the seed met the attack head on and stabbed his stinger into the incoming air ball. A thundering, whistling explosion filled the chamber as the two forces clashed before a loud snap followed by the sound of shattering metal took its place. Pearce looked, dumbfounded at the broken blade, half of which was now a crumbled pile of shards siting on the chamber floor below.
"There's plenty more where that came from bub," she smirked as she hovered behind him, another ball of wind sitting in her palm to prove her point.
For a moment, no sound beyond the whistling of Rainbow's wind and the flapping of wings could be heard in the room. That changed when Pearce trembled with laugher and turned towards Rainbow.
"Now this is more like it!" he cried, his motions more animated as he continued to laugh. "Do you have any idea how long I've waited for someone like you?! After all this time trapped in boring fights I finally find someone that can get my heart pumping! This is amazing!"
The seed fell into a laughing fit as he reveled in the moment, all the while, Rainbow felt a cold chill run down her spine.
What the hell is wrong with this guy?
"Th-This is great," he chuckled, his laugher finally seeming to taper off to a more manageable degree as he reached for something in his kilt pocket. "Now I know I can go all out. Let's hope you can keep this up a little longer."
As he said that, he pulled a black gem out of his pocket and stabbed it into his chest. Cracks covered his body seconds before he seemingly exploded into a mass of black smoke. A sharp buzzing filled the air and the cloud flew apart to reveal a horror that Rainbow would never forget. Hovering before her was a twisted cross between a human and a fly. His arms and legs were covered with thick bristly hairs and bent in unnatural ways. Three sharp claws ended each limb that dripped with a substance hissed when it hit the ground. His torso was covered with patches of the same hair along with a thick chitinous shell that glistened like oil-slicked glass. The worse new feature about him was his head. Round, bulbous, red eyes fastened to an equally round head covered by the same chitin that armored the rest of his body with a slimy tube coming out his face where his mouth should've been.
A terrible screeching roar filled the room along with the thundering infernal buzzing of a million bees when the monstrosity threw its head back. Rainbow waisted no time going on the offensive, a disgusted glare marring her face as she let go of her wind orb and kicked it towards the monster. The creature disappeared just before the attack could connect, said spell blasting a huge crater into the far wall as she looked around for the creature. A sharp increase in the buzzing to her left was what saved her from certain death as she snapped her wings closed in fell, a pair of claws just inches away from slitting her throat. She quickly gathered her magic into her right hand and fired a barrage of air bullets towards her opponent. She blinked and the creature disappeared again, her previous attack slamming harmlessly into the wall beyond instead. She snapped her wings open and flew with her back towards the ground, a mere foot of space separating her from it as she scanned the room for Pearce. As he eyes frantically searched for the fly monster, she tried to think of a way to deal with him.
He's too fast for me to hit or track. I need to find a way to get him before he has a chance to escape, but how?!
She frantically ran through her list of spells, hoping against hope that she had something in her arsenal that could help her here. When one spell in particular caught her attention, a faint whine crept past her grimace as a plan started to form in her head. When it came together, she tried to think of another one, any other plan that could get the job done. Sadly, nothing came to her that wouldn't lead to a very painful death. It was a reckless, stupid, and near suicidal plan, the kind of plan Rainbow needed to end this.
Heaths Warming's gonna pull a late shift after this, she thought with a gulp as she started channeling her magic.
As she floated backwards over the ground, she gathered as much air towards her as she could, her hands close together over her chest as a small ball of air formed between them. Her magic gathered and compressed the air as tightly as it could, the ball vibrating against its confines as the air within it continued to grow. At the same time, numerous small glowing orbs formed within the ball, like fireflies caught in a jar as the second part of Rainbow's spell started to take form. As she put the finishing touches on her spell, Rainbow continued to scan the chamber for Pearce. She was only going to get one shot at this.
The seed suddenly appeared on the ceiling above her, his back facing her as he sunk his claws into the flowers like the insect he resembled. Her eyes widened when she felt a sudden spike of magic before a thundering blast of sound filled the room, everything seemingly wavering under the force of the seed's attack. It took everything Rainbow had not to cover her ears as the sound slammed into her, the force pinning her to the ground as she continued to prepare her spell. She silently thanked whatever god was listening that she was an aeromancer as her magic leeched the sound magic away from her ears and into the ground. With gritted teeth she forced herself to her feet, ball of magic air shaking in her hands as she stood in defiance of her opponent's might.
"Is that the best you've got?" she growled. "Cool. Let me show you what I've got, pal."
With that, she spread her wings and with the aid of what bits of her magic she could spare, ripped her way through the constant buzzing sound wall as she flew towards Pearce. Her body burned as it was pushed further and further against its limits to reach her goal. It hurt, like her whole body was slowly being torn to shreds as she made her way towards the seed, but she forced herself to keep going. A weary smile formed on her lips when she got to the two foot mark and she put her hands up towards the seed, he spell finally freed from its confines. Pearce had enough time to dislodge himself from the ceiling, but by that point it was already too late as the wind orb quickly expanded and trapped him. The small spheres contained with him went from gently drifting about to rapidly flying around him like a swarm of furious hornets. They flew faster and faster, the air gradually turning more wild as they moved. The giant fly tried to claw his way out, but all it did was rip his claws apart as the wind magic grinded away at them. In time, a furious windstorm filled the orb before the magic in the orbs finally activated. The pressure in the sphere hit critical mass and a massive explosion filled the room as the spell detonated. As Rainbow slowly floated back first down to earth, a light chuckle crept past her lips. In the sky above her, the last fragments of her spell formed a beautiful rainbow before disappearing along with the crumbling remains of the seed she fought. The soft crunch of flowers greeted her as she finally drifted towards the ground.
A peaceful silence filled the room as she stared up at the ceiling. As she did, she chuckled as a single thought rang through her head.
I'm so gonna need a nap when this is over.
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Ah Muzen Cab? The bee guy?
media.discordapp.net/attachments/662785751347363873/715071621886509077/SkinArt_AhMuzenCab_Default.png?width=349&height=466
Well then, let's see. Verra fast, but with nothing in particular so far as defensive capabilities it would seem. Relying on her agility to keep her out of trouble. Closing to melee would be a good idea for once if you could catch her, as she seems to have been trained in ranged attacks for some unknowable reason. As aeromancy seems to be her stock in trade, the ability to create a vacuum would deprive her of her main weapon. For once, gaseous attacks are not recommended, as she can banish them quite easily.
Areomancy is not known for it's ability to deal heavy blows, a sufficiently durable enemy would be able to shrug off most of her attacks. Though I would strongly recommend something that does not need to breathe, as she should be more than capable of creating her own vacuums. Mentalism is again recommended, as she seems somewhat, brittle. Though as always, repeated failed attempts will only temper her, save the psychological trauma for when you can make it a sure thing.
Over all, I'd recommend a mage, something that can directly contest her control over the environment and throw out attacks that can hit her. Ideally, I'd pair said mage with something tough enough to force her to keep her distance.
...for some reason, I want the others to meet up and see Fluttershy standing there annoyed as if she's been waiting on them forever. ...yes, I want Flutters to one-shot her opponent. 'XD
10254811
I would prefer her to take a page out of Darth Vader or Maul’s playbook. Just pure overpower and letting their enemies know who the boss is.
Speed battles don't always interest me, but this was good.
10254811
I would pay money to see that!
Information gathering is all well and good pre hunt, but you have to control the environment later on to make it useful. We've seen enough variety in fighting styles and power sets (just with the first half of the team) that it would be quite difficult to counter everything at once. Admittedly this is a pocket dimension, so there's always going to be some of that. And those power crystals she gave her minions are doing quite the job at enhancing the stamina loss, so there's that too.
Also, it is telling that there is still a connection of sorts between the CMC and their sibling figures, given the reactions so far. Twisted, mind, but a connection.
10254798
I'm quite enjoying your post battle analyses so far.
10254854
...you mean she draws out the beating?
10255363
Kinda like this.
Or Vader at the end of Rouge One.
Man, this story has a lot of chapters and I still do like the story no matter what. How many chapters are there going to be left? I’m just curious and hoping that Sunset, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Humane 5, and Twilight Sparkle will be back together again.
10257907
I know it's an overused color in this fandom, but it's meant to be the same color as Octavia's eyes (a seemingly common thing in the MLP universe with very few exceptions as far as magic is concerned).
Octavia's weapon is lavender, not black.
10257916
not bad.
code names, right?
10255420
I see.
I thought she was compressing the air into plasma for a second there
I'll bet Pinkie Pie drove Lilly up the wall.