Chapter 4 - Starlight
I was not happy about getting used as bait. What was I thinking when I came up with this stupid plan? At the time it seemed like a good way to protect the innocent ponies of Ponyville. After all, the whole reason they were in danger was because some lich had an insane grudge against me. Plus, I didn't want to disappoint Twilight. Again. Those were the kind of things a good and noble pony was supposed to do and care about, and Twilight had spent a lot of time trying to help me become one of those.
Ugh! Being a good pony would be a lot easier if this whole situation wasn’t so unfair! Why couldn’t it just be a friendship lesson?! Why did I have to be the one that Rising had developed a crazy obsession with? Hadn’t I gone through enough already without getting some crazy undead monster developing a random murderous obsession with me?
I wouldn’t have even needed to come out here as bait if ponies had gone straight to the shelters like they were supposed to during an emergency like this. An hour—a full stupid hour everypony had to get to someplace safe, but even as the last minutes of Rising’s deadline ticked away I could still see ponies milling about. A couple of Storm’s guards had even caught Snips and Snails trying to find somewhere to watch the battle because they thought it would be cool to see a big battle between the Twilight Guard and an undead army. Applejack also had a lot of trouble getting Granny Smith to the shelter. Apparently she’d gotten stubborn about how she’d been at that farm all her life and no ‘Gosh-durn skellingtons’ were going to make her leave it now. Idiots.
Then there were the ponies who tried loading up carts full of their personal possessions to take to the shelters. Did they honestly think they would be able to fit all that crap into an underground bunker? The most anypony was allowed to bring with them into the shelters were the essentials they could pack into their saddlebags. We had a practice drill at least once a year for this type of thing for pony’s sake! Not that everypony even needed the drills in Ponyville; monsters attacked so regularly that everypony got plenty of experience doing the real thing, so it wasn’t like everypony was ignorant about what they were supposed to do.
So you would think everypony would be a pro at this by now, but nope! There was still the same hooffull of stragglers that always delayed the closing of the shelters. Oh sure, most everypony was somewhere safe by now, but it was always a few jerks that had to ruin everything for everypony. And it was because of them that I was going to have to put my neck on the line instead of being nicely secure inside of a castle protected by some of the best wards I’d ever seen. I could’ve been standing besides an alicorn princess with a full company of the Royal Guard between me and danger, but instead I was out here practically inviting one of my worst nightmares to come get me. Perfect, just perfect.
This kind of thing never would’ve happened at my old village. When I gave the orders there, everyone jumped to getting it done with a smile.
I sighed and shook my head. Of course they’d have leapt to obey me, I’d enslaved them all. What I’d done to them was a lot worse than a few ponies taking too long to get to safety. It made me wonder ... everypony here was sticking by me when Rising Fire had come for my head. Would it have been the same if all the ponies from my old village had wanted to kill me instead of eventually being willing to forgive me? For that matter, had they actually forgiven me on their own, or was that just lingering effects of the brainwashing and stable syndrome?
I was so sick of making mistakes and regretting them. Every time I’d tried to get my life back on track, I’d gone wrong with it sooner or later and I wound up in jail, or exiled, or on basically lifelong probation. Being Twilight’s personal student sounded nice and all, but I didn’t have any illusions about what it actually meant. As long as I kept doing the right things and learning friendship lessons it was fine, but we both knew part of her job was to slap me down and report me to the authorities if I started falling back into old habits.
Oh well. At least if I died heroically it would prove I’d reformed myself.
At least Twilight had given me a set of armor the two of us had worked together to enchant. It was full plate in the Royal Guard style, and it’d been painted in a purple-and-teal trim similar in color to my mane and coat. While it was a long way from being safely inside the palace, it was a whole lot better than nothing. I’d been in enough fights to know just how important armor was to keeping your hide intact.
Storm lead the way to Sweet Apple Acres. We stopped at some fallow field flanking one of Applejack’s apple orchards, and Storm looked around as she studied her battlefield of choice. Beyond the farm was the emerald shield—the only thing standing between me or anypony else from running away. Behind us were a dozen Royal Guard scouts, and another dozen ponies of the Long Patrol. All of their armor had been enchanted to blend in with the environment, slowly shifting colors as they walked.
“The open fields will give us plenty of time to see them coming.” Storm pointed to the Apple orchards and one of the Apples’ many barns sitting next to the trees. “Applejack agreed to let us use her orchards and barn for cover. We’ll lie in hiding while you go out into that field and try and draw Rising’s attention.”
I let out a huff. “Greeeat, I can't wait to see the hundreds of undead slowly walk towards me.”
Storm arched an eyebrow. “Would you prefer not being able to see them?”
My ears flattened as my irritation grew. “No. I'd prefer not having to fight them to start with.”
“As would I, but since that does not appear to be an option...”
I kicked a rock sitting alongside the rock to vent some of my frustration. “I really hate the undead, you know that?”
Storm watched me with one of her inscrutable frowns. “I would be worried if you did not.”
I grunted in reply. It wasn’t hard to hear what was unsaid: ‘Not that I would be surprised if you’ve made some undead in the past.’ Sure, I broke some of the laws of magic, but practicing necromancy wasn’t one of them. After my run-in with Rising and her minions, the idea of using necromancy made me queasy.
But instead of getting into an argument about it, I followed one of Twilight’s bits of advice and just let it go to focus on more productive things. “You sure that armor of yours is up for taking on Rising?”
Storm waved for her soldiers to start moving towards the orchard and barn. “I believe it will be if everything you told me is accurate. It is possible that Rising will have sort of counter to Shadow’s Armor, but there is only one way to know for sure.”
I frowned at Storm. “You fill me with so much confidence.”
Storm’s wings flicked. “I am doing the best I can with what I have available. I am sorry if putting my life on the line with a set of magic armor whose abilities cannot be fully trusted is not good enough for you.”
“Hey, my life is on the line too here!” I waved emphatically at the field where I was supposed to stand for everyone to see. “I just don't like you always being on my case, and convincing Twilight to use me as bait!”
“Do you not recall?” Storm asked with an upraised eyebrow. “You volunteered.”
I stomped a hoof. “Well I don't want everyone in town getting hurt! I don’t want anypony getting hurt! I didn’t ask for this! I don’t deserve to be hunted by Rising! I just...”
I took several deep breaths as I tried to rein in my temper. “Rising scares me, okay? I was just living a normal life on one of the Freeport islands. At the time my biggest concern was making sure we grew enough food so that we wouldn’t go hungry, and maybe even have enough to sell at the market so that we could buy a little something. Then some big scary lich leading a bunch of zombies came after me, and only me. I don't even know why. I didn't do anything. Sure, I broke a couple of laws in Freeport, but nothing big! Nothing that meant I should be murdered! That encounter messed up my whole life! I went on the run hoping I could get far enough that Rising wouldn’t be able to find me.”
Storm grunted. “Do not worry. I might not care for you, but I will not let Rising have you. Her Highness would be ... hurt if something were to happen to you.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that. Did she only want to protect me because of Twilight, or because it was her duty? Was there more to it? Still, it was good to hear that she would be there for me. I had to admit, more than a little of me was worried that Storm was secretly planning on leaving me to hang out to dry when Rising showed up. As Storm said, she didn’t care for me, and this would be a great way to get rid of me for good while maintaining plausible deniability. After all, all sorts of unpleasant possibilities could happen on a battlefield.
What would Twilight say to do in a situation like this? Probably something about trusting Storm to do the right thing. Ugh, being a good pony was so hard.
“Thanks for that,” I said, trying my best to sound sincere. “And I don't want Twilight to get hurt either. She's... I know I have a bit of a spotted history, but I don't know why anyone would think Twilight has destroyed a world. I mean, it's Twilight—she’s a big adorkable goof, not some crazy genocidal monster.”
Storm nodded. “I do not think she is even capable of violence outside of defending herself and her loved ones.”
I shook my head, hardly being able to believe this whole situation. “Like I said, Rising is crazy, and I think I'm more than justified to be scared of a crazy lich trying to kill me.”
Storm puffed out her chest and her wingblade covered wings twitched. “We will stop her, here and now. You know what part you play in the plan?”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “It’s not that hard to figure out: be as big and obvious as possible and call Rising out, then hope and pray Rising is as crazy obsessed with me as we think she is so that the two of us can take her out.” I looked to Storm, as I was still a long way from being convinced this plan was the best idea in the world. “You've got my back, right?”
“Just stay close by. We can’t keep up with you if you start teleporting.” A slight frown tugged at her lips. “What do we do if Rising sends one of her lieutenants instead of coming herself?”
“I can handle those without your help,” I answered. “Just keep an eye out for Rising, she’s the real threat.”
“I see.” Storm glanced in the direction of the Friendship Castle. “Are you sure you are ready for this? You do not have to go through with this if you do not wish to. I made my oaths to fight for Her Highness when I joined the Guard. You have not.”
It was sorely tempting to take this opportunity to get the hay out of there. Nearly everything about this was a nightmare scenario, and that safe room back at the palace was a siren’s call to me. But... “No, I’m good. If I start running now... I don’t think I’ll ever stop running. I’ve spent most of my life running, and I’m tired of it.” I also looked at the palace, thinking of all who was there. “And I don’t want to disappoint Twilight. She’s done so much for me, turned my whole life around.” My teeth clenched. “And I’m not about to let that damned lich hurt her or anypony else I care about. So yeah, I’m sick of running. Time to fight.”
To my surprise, Storm smiled. It wasn’t a big smile, but it was there. I had seen that happen maybe a couple of times since moving to the palace. “For Equestria.”
At that she departed to join her troops, leaving me alone to do my part in the plan. I took a breath to steady myself before heading out into the middle of the fallow field. The seconds ticked by. I knew it couldn’t be long until Rising’s deadline ended, but it still felt like forever. Years had passed, but somehow that minute seemed to last longer than the last few years.
Then the minute passed, and the horde of the dead advanced. There were flickers of green flames as rank upon rank of skeletons advanced through the shield. Each was wearing black armor with gold trim, and they marched in perfect lockstepped ranks. There were hundreds upon hundreds of the things, all making their way towards the Friendship Castle.
The only thing that kept the advance from being perfectly uniform was the fact that the undead had to move through uneven terrain and through obstacles. They weren’t too smart, so they had some trouble compensating for such things, but they did eventually manage to get through whatever was causing them trouble and got their lines back in order.
As they approached, despite being neither from Canterlot nor any sort of royalty, I unleashed a pretty good imitation of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “HEY RISING FIRE, YOU STUPID CRAZY LICH! YOU WANT ME?! HERE I AM! COME ON! LET'S THROW DOWN, HERE AND NOW! COME AND GET ME IF YOU WANT ME SO BAD!”
Barely a second after I was done speaking, the skeletons collectively stopped. They paused for several long seconds before they started moving again, only this time they opened a large gap in their formation to go around me.
Okay, that was a bit confusing... And frustrating. They started passing on either side of me, ignoring me completely. My anger flashed and my horn lighted. “Hey! Don't ignore me! You’re here for me, you stupid undead!”
A burst of Blightfire shot from my horn, and a column of black flames ran down the length of the formation to my right. The skeletons unceremoniously fell, their bones cracking and breaking, and their armor warping from the magical flames. A few seconds later, I did the same to the column on my left. Dozens and dozens of the things were destroyed, and it felt good. After so many years of being afraid of Rising show up again, I was getting to lash out at my persecutor. Sure, it was only against some mindless minions, and I’d only barely dented their numbers, but I’d take it. It felt a whole lot better than being afraid.
But that moment of euphoria was cut off when a voice that I remembered from my nightmares spoke up from above me. “They're not ignoring you. They're just staying out of my way.”
I momentarily froze as the nightmares of a pegasus moving so fast she was little more than a blur, and of a long fall in darkness that ended with me hitting the ground flashed in front of my vision. Eventually, I managed to force myself to look up as my heart threatened to burst out of my chest.
The revenant hovered over me and was smirking down at me. In the daylight I could confirm that she did indeed look like Rainbow Dash, though this Rainbow’s coat and mane looked faded compared to her living counterpart’s vibrant hues. The monster still had a metal wing, but unlike last time she was wearing a set of familiar-looking antiquated armor painted in the same black with gold trim that seemed to be the fashion with Rising’s forces, and she had a sword sheathed at her side. Where there’d been exposed bone on her face before, now there was gleaming silvery metal. I guess she’d gotten some upgrades.
When I didn’t give her an immediate response, the revenant mocked me. “Sorry, Rising's too busy with the big picture to deal with small fry like you.” Her smirk grew. “She assigned me to capture you and Twilight, and you’d better believe that I’m going to enjoy this.”
“S-small fry?!” I seized upon my anger to push through my fear. Being angry I could deal with; anger was something I was used to, something I could use in a fight. Fear would just paralyze me. So buck fear, I was getting mad, and I was going to blow that smug smirk off that stupid revenant’s face. “I'm not a small fry! I'm the entire reason you're here, you stupid undead!”
The revenant snorted. “Of course you’re a small fry. It’s obvious that you’re out here trying to stop us from attacking the palace while Twilight’s inside protected by all her guards and stuff. That means you’re the minion and she’s the boss, duuuh.”
I ground my teeth together and tried to keep my temper under control. “Hey! You can’t just dismiss me when you’ve gone through all of this just to get me. This is your second shot at me, if you’ll remember.”
The revenant rolled its eyes. “Okay, so that makes you a boss, but you’re still not the final boss. You’re just a challenge for me to overcome to get to the one really behind destroying my world.”
I was a little offended she kept dismissing me as a small fry, but in all honesty I had bigger concerns than a bruised ego. It’s not like I wanted to convince her to bring Rising into this. Still, if I could get under her skin ... well Rainbow was a bit impulsive and emotional. I’d take any advantage I could get. “Funny that you think I’m so unimportant when you’re also completely obsessed with getting revenge on me. Oh, and just so we’re clear, I had nothing to do with blowing up any worlds. I wouldn’t even know how to do that!”
The undead parody of Rainbow Dash landed in front of me, glaring as she drew her blade. “Stop lying. We already know you did it, and nothing you say is going to change that.”
Now that she was right in front of me and I could get a better look at her, there was something vaguely familiar about her armor. However, I stopped worrying about that as soon as I got a good look at the sword. I’d recognize that sword anywhere—rippling pattern than ran up the lengths of the long, single-edged blade was pretty distinctive. I knew the sword well. After all, I had a scar on my back from it. “Wait, you stole Chainbreaker?!”
“I didn't steal it!” Rainbow snapped. “It’s mine! Rising gave it to me after we checked the ruins of what was left of Freeport.”
Honestly, the whole alternate world thing was starting to freak me out a bit. It had been easy to dismiss the whole thing as some crazy lich’s fantasy years ago, back when there hadn’t been anything to back it up beyond Rising’s word. Now ... well seeing an uncannily perfect duplicate of Rainbow Dash and Chainbreaker, and knowing there was one of Rarity as well made it a lot more complicated. I’d first met this version of Rainbow Dash back when the real one was an unmarked foal I didn’t even know existed. Not to mention that Rising being some sort of undead version of Sunset Shimmer did explain a couple things. Honestly, I was struggling to come up with an explanation that didn’t sound about as crazy as alternate universe time travel.
If she was actually from another world and there was time travel going on ... what did that mean for the rest of her story? What if all this madness ended with everyone I cared about dead, and I decided to go back and destroy their world to punish them? It’s not like it would be the first time I used time travel to try and destroy everything somepony cared about just to get payback.
No.
I wasn’t that pony anymore, and I never would be. Besides, that kind of ridiculous scenario went against basic cause and effect. I wasn’t the monster here, they were. “Why would I destroy your stupid world?! I didn’t even know it existed until you told me!”
“I don’t care why you did it!” Rainbow snarled, hefting Chainbreaker. “We can do this the easy way where you surrender and we’ll give you a fair trial, or we can do it the hard way where I beat you to a pulp and drag you back. Rising wants you alive so you can stand trial for your crimes, but if push comes to shove ... well we already know you’re guilty, so nobody’s gonna shed any tears if you get killed resisting arrest.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Have you forgotten who won the last time we fought? I kicked your plot last time, and I’ve gotten a lot stronger since then!”
The revenant snorted. “You only ‘won’ because the other Sunset bailed your sorry plot out. You never could’ve touched me if it was a fair fight. And guess what? No Sunset here to help you this time! It’s just you. And. Me.”
“You talk a lot better than you fight,” I shot back. Plus I did have backup: Storm. She would be looking out for Rising, but she wouldn’t leave me hanging if I was having trouble. Not that I would need her help to beat this up-jumped zombie, but it was nice to know it was there just in case something crazy happened.
“Fine then, enough talk!” The revenant charged in, Chainbreaker held high. I instinctively tossed up one of my dome-shaped shields, but a second later I realized I’d screwed up. When I’d fought against Sunset, she’d been able to use Chainbreaker to carve straight through all my defensive spells. The sword even cut straight through Blackfyre’s hide, and an elder dragon’s hide was one of the toughest things around. There was no time to cast a different spell. Rainbow was so fast I’d barely had time to manage the first barrier. The only thing I had time to do was close my eyes and brace for the end.
But instead of the all-too familiar sensation of Chainbreaker’s blade cutting into my flesh, there was the ringing tone of steel hitting a solid barrier. I slowly opened my eyes to see Revenant Rainbow glaring at me, Chainbreaker partially embedded into my shield and small cracks surrounding the cut. Rainbow yanked the blade out a second later, before I could even figure out what had just happened. I needed a bit of time and space to figure this out, so I teleported to the other side of the fallow field. I fired off a quick blast of magic in the hopes it might catch Rainbow off guard, but she deftly dodged to the side and charged me again.
That was definitely Chainbreaker. I’d just gotten a good look at it up close and personal. But it should have cut right through my shield. Unless...
Rainbow hit my shield again and didn’t have any more luck. The pieces finally fell into place and I smirked at her. “Wait a minute, you’re not bonded with Chainbreaker are you?”
The glare Rainbow shot at me confirmed I was right. “What do you know?!” She yanked her blade free again, taking to the air and flying back and forth to add extra momentum to her slashes. More cracks formed, but all I had to do was pour a bit more energy into the shield to keep it from breaking.
“I know that Chainbreaker can cut through any bond, including any shield I put up,” I explained as Rainbow continued her relentless assault. “Trust me, I’ve experienced that first hoof, but you can’t touch me. So that means one thing.” I smirked as I caught her gaze with my own. “You’re not bonded with Chainbreaker. In other words, you can’t use its full abilities. And you know why that is? It’s because you’re a slave.”
“I'm no slave!” That statement threw Rainbow’s game off enough that I teleported away from the field. I tossed a firefall into the field as fast as I could, setting everything on fire. For a moment I dared to I might have gotten her, but then a familiar rainbow contrail shot up into the air. Guess I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.
Though my fireball had failed to kill the revenant, that didn’t mean I couldn’t keep working to throw Rainbow off with the facts. “Oh but you are. You’re some undead minion Rising summoned up to do her bidding, right? That makes you nothing more than her slave. That, and I doubt Chainbreaker likes your master all that much, being a mad lich.”
I couldn’t help but be a bit bitter when I said those words. Years ago, I had stolen Chainbreaker to try and free myself from the geas Blackfyre had put on me to turn me into his slave. It hadn’t worked. You’d think a sword that was all about freeing slaves would want to help out somepony who’d been enslaved, but apparently it didn’t work that way. From what Sunset said during all her moralizing, the sword apparently decided I was Blackfyre’s collaborator rather than one of his victims. What did it know? It was just a big stupid hunk of metal. Even if...
“Shut up!” Rainbow charged me again, darting left and right as I fired a series of blasts to try and take her out of the sky. “I’m no one's slave! You don’t know anything, you monster!”
Once again she hit my shield to no practical effect. “Here’s a little bit of advice for you: if you were Chainbreaker’s wielder, I wouldn’t be able to do this.” I cast a magnetism spell and yanked Chainbreaker from Rainbow’s grasp. I created a brief hole in my shield to let the sword pass through and I snatched it from the air.
Rainbow blinked in surprise at how easily I took her weapon from her, and I took a moment to admire it. Once again, Chainbreaker was mine. Or, at least, a Chainbreaker was mine. I studied the blade, and as far as I could tell it was functionally the same as my world’s Chainbreaker. It was Chainbreaker, and it was mine again. Who cared about it’s exact origins?
The moment of triumph didn’t last. The blade rested in my hooves, and nothing happened. There was no profound sensation, no glowing lights, no sudden flash of insight. Nothing. It was just an inert piece of sharp metal in my hooves. I still wasn’t bonded to it.
Dammit! I’d come so far, worked so hard to improve myself, done so much to prove that Twilight had been right making me her student. But despite everything I’d achieved, Chainbreaker still wouldn’t bond to me. That was ... it just didn’t make sense! I wanted to be a good pony, to be a hero. I was here putting my neck on the line to save everypony, for Celestia’s sake! Sunset hadn’t done anything like that when she got the sword. She just grabbed it from me, and suddenly it liked her. I’d done a lot more than she had, so why wouldn’t Chainbreaker recognize me as its wielder? I deserved it!
I didn’t have any time to study the sword or have an existential crisis over what it meant that Chainbreaker still wouldn’t accept me. Rainbow’s voice cracking like a whip reminded me that I needed to focus on short-term survival. “Hey, give that back! “She snarled and slammed a hoof into my shield, hard enough to send cracks rippling through it.
I glowered at Rainbow. I could feel the rage bubbling up within me, but thankfully I had something I could take that anger out on without needing to feel an ounce of guilt. I teleported again, all the way out to the edge of Sweet Apple Acres to get some space. I’d replayed the first fight with the revenant a million times in my head. Comparing our strengths and weaknesses; thinking about what I could do differently. Trying to figure out what it would take to win.
I fired off several tracking bolts that curved and altered course to home in on Rainbow. The theory had been sound, but alternate universe mare proved to be every bit as fast and dexterous as my universe’s Rainbow. She shot into the air, nimbly dodging through the bolts to come right at me.
I threw up a solid wall of flames right in front of the revenant, but she somehow managed to pull off a perfect ninety-degree turn despite how fast she was moving. The g-forces from that turn should’ve snapped her neck or made her black out, but I guess those things aren’t problems for the undead. Her hooves blurred as she threw at least a half dozen hoof-sized objects at me. I created another domed-shield to intercept them, and fire consumed my entire world as the fire gems exploded against my shield.
I couldn’t risk Rainbow pulling off some other nasty trick while the fires blinded me, so I teleported to someplace I was familiar with. I popped back into existence next to Applejack’s house, and immediately started casting my next spell. Rainbow was already darting straight at me; it was like she always knew exactly where I was. Maybe it was some revenant ability, or magic Rising had given her. Either way, I fired off several fireballs in an arc right at Rainbow. Great explosions rocked Sweet Apple Acres, blowing up dirt, crops, and fence fragments as Applejack’s home turned into a warzone.
But Rainbow dodged it all. Nothing seemed to touch her as she used her freakish speed and agility to close the distance between us. I misjudged the casting time for my next spell, and Rainbow slammed into my shield with enough force to make cracks run across half the dome.
Worse than the damage, she’d somehow punted me into the air. My shield was still holding, but I couldn’t win against Rainbow in the air. The revenant didn’t waste any time intensifying her assault, zipping by and repeatedly slamming into my shield. Each impact sent the sphere rolling wildly, and I couldn’t spare a moment’s thought to worry about anything beyond surviving the next few seconds. With each impact the cracks in my shield got worse, and I didn’t have the time or energy to spare to reinforce it.
With an almost feral howl of glee, one of her hooves smashed right through my shield and came to within inches of my face. Just when I thought I was safe, something metallic shot out of her hoof. I jerked my head to the side out of pure instinct, and it saved my life: instead of going into my eye the attack just sliced open my cheek.
I unleashed a wave of pure kinetic force out, too frightened and hurt to think about anything other than getting her away from me. Even Rainbow couldn’t dodge a point-blank blast, and I enjoyed the few precious seconds of breathing room I’d bought as she was thrown back like she’d been hit by a train. I immediately teleported back to ground level, heading for the cover of Applejack’s trees. Rainbow would probably find me pretty quickly, but I needed all the time I could get.
My hoof flew to my injured cheek, quickly taking stock of my wound. Painful bleeding a lot, but not too horrible. I threw out a quick spell to slow down the bleeding, but that was about all the healing magic I knew. At least I’d dodged in time. Rainbow had nearly taken out the same eye I’d lost in one of my fights with Sunset, and this time Blackfyre wasn’t around to give me a new one. Of course, it was his fault I’d lost that eye to begin with...
Rainbow burst through through the treetops, and I barely had time to teleport clear before she slammed into the ground where I’d been standing seconds before. The impact sent out a shockwave that blasted apart dozens of apple trees, and I silently apologized to Applejack. Between the damage to her orchard and the fires I’d started in her fields, Sweet Apple Acres was going to have a rough time. Good thing she had insurance. Or at least, I was pretty sure she did.
I fired off some more energy bolts at Rainbow Dash’s back, but she somehow dodged them all despite the fact that there was no way she could’ve seen them coming. I guess she must have been cheating. “Figures Rising gave you some tricks. That’s okay, I’ve got my own.” I fired off another set of bolts, trying to box her in between the two sets of spells.
Rainbow zig-zagged and my bolts scattered in a wider and wider pattern as they tried to compensate for her dodges. Despite her efforts, my spells closed in on her, but at the last moment, Rainbow twisted and twirled between the bolts, with a couple of them only barely missing her. Some bolts collided with one another or the surrounding trees, and while I could swear one of them hit her, nothing came of it. Considering it would have blown a hole in her chest if it connected, I must have been mistaken.
After breaking through my spells, Rainbow came streaking towards me. I teleported to a different part of the orchard before she could close with me, but it was hard not to feel like I was just delaying the inevitable. I was certain I could eventually connect with her if I got enough chances to sling spells at her, but she wasn’t likely to keep trying the same thing over and over. Still, all the crazy dodges she’d been pulling off couldn’t have been easy, and she needed to get them perfect every single time. I only needed to get lucky once to do serious damage.
She must have reached the same conclusion, because instead of charging me again, I saw her rainbow contrail shoot up into the sky. I ran to where I could see through the tree canopy. Whatever she was up to, I needed to see it coming in time to stop it. As soon as I found a break in the trees that gave me a clear line of sight, I knew I’d made the right call.
The revenant had started gathering clouds, and it didn’t take her long to pack them into a really ugly-looking black thundercloud. I quickly put up a spell to protect myself from the inevitable lightning bolts, then hurled a fireball up at her. Rainbow was once again quick on the uptake, dodging away before my fireball got even close to connecting. However, I hadn’t been aiming for the pegasus this time. When my fireball detonated, it did a very good job of disrupting the thundercloud she’d put so much effort into building.
Despite the disruption I’d caused, there was still more than enough of a cloud to cause some damage, especially now that I’d given away my position. Rainbow slammed her hooves down on the cloud, and I brought up a fresh shield just in time to catch the lightning bolt that came hammering towards me. It struck the shield with a blinding flash and deafening roar, but the shield held.
That’s when I realized that getting hit by the lightning bolt was only part of the danger. As it turns out, a point-blank hit from a thunderbolt is pretty similar to getting hit by a thunderflash stone.
I quickly teleported away to buy time to recover, but like Twilight said: teleporting blind was really dangerous. I wound up stumbling and falling flat on my face when my hooves hit uneven ground. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise, because a moment later something whooshed over my head.
I blinked several times and rubbed my eyes, and the world started to come back into focus—just in time to see Rainbow barreling right at me with a lightning cloud on each hoof. I tried to get another shield up, but an instant later she was on top of me. My head rocked back as her hoof slammed home, but before I even had time to register the punch, white-hot agony shot through my body as electricity coursed through it. I collapsed to the ground, my muscles spasming as I vainly struggled to bring them back under control. I didn’t have time to lie on the ground twitching. Rainbow was already winding up to hit me again.
I didn’t have the time or mental focus to use a spell, so instead I quickly grabbed Chainbreaker and put it between myself and Rainbow. For once, she didn’t manage to pull off one of her impossible dodges and her own momentum carried her into my attack. The sword’s tip skittered over her chest plate until it found a gap near her shoulder guard and slipped in. Unfortunately it didn’t get very far before the curved blade got caught against Rainbow’s armor.
The attack might not have done much damage, but it did at least halt her forward momentum. She took another swing at me, but I managed to keep her at bay for the moment. I didn’t trust the sword to stop her from getting at me for very long, so I quickly teleported clear to buy a little more breathing room to shake off the effects of the lightning bolt. I couldn’t get very far after the hits I’d taken, and within moments, Rainbow was on me again. I teleported again, and then again and again as I tried to shake Rainbow and find somewhere I could recover.
“Is running away the only thing you can do?!” Rainbow screamed as she continued coming at me like an unstoppable train. “You can’t keep teleporting forever! You’re gonna wear yourself out eventually, and unlike you I don’t get tired. I’ll never give up! Even if I have to chase you to the end of the world! Not that you’ll ever get that far!”
She was right: I couldn’t keep running. I had to go on the offensive if I was ever going to win. Good thing I had an ace in the hole I’d been saving for this fight. I threw up another shield, heavily reinforcing it this time. Four aetherial chains shot into the ground near me and then wrapped around the shield, making sure I wouldn’t be popped up into the air again as I started getting to work on the main event. “Oh don’t worry, I’m done running away. I’ve got the perfect spell to swat an annoying little gnat like you.”
After my first fight with the revenant, I hit the books to try and find a spell that could deal with the monster if she ever showed up again. Eventually I had come across something that was exactly what I needed. It had its drawbacks, namely needing a lot of magical power and time to cast, but if I could get it off, it would be more than worth it.
The revenant smirked. “Good luck. You’re way too slow to ever hit me.”
I smirked right back at her. “But that’s the thing, Rainbow: I don’t need to be fast. I just need to use a fast spell.”
I put another layer on my shield just to be safe, then got to work on my attack. I poured magic into my horn until it started to strain from the effort, and the light became so intense that I had to squint my eyes. I fired the spell, and a dozen beams of bright teal energy shot out of my horn, crackling through the air as they headed straight for Rainbow Dash. Judging by the smell that assaulted my nostrils a second later and the wisps of blue vapor trailing after my spell, it was powerful enough to ionize the air around it. The beams passed through my shield with no trouble; my dome shield only kept hostile magic out, it didn’t trap mine inside.
Rainbow immediately shot up into the air, easily going over my beams. “Seriously, was that it? I was expecting something a bit less lame.”
“Oh, I’m just getting started!” The dozen beams I unleashed shot up after Rainbow Dash, spreading out as they went. I kept the movements jagged and full of sharp angles, making them almost impossible to predict. It didn’t matter how fast she could move if she didn’t know what she needed to dodge in. Not that dodging would do anything but delay the inevitable.
To the revenant’s credit, it managed to survive a full fifteen seconds by streaking in between gaps, zipping through clouds, and whatever else she could do to try and lose the spells or break line of sight with me. When she ducked down below the tree line against my beams chased after her, carving chunks out of Applejack’s orchard and clearing the terrain until she had nowhere left to hide.
Since dodging and hiding clearly wasn’t going to work, Rainbow shifted tactics and charged me. I knew what she was trying. I’d practiced this spell with my universe’s Rainbow—albeit a much less lethal version—and she’d also tried to trick me into hitting myself with my own spell. Okay, my Rainbow might actually have tricked me into doing that once, but that’s why I was practicing it in the first place. Now I knew exactly how to counter that particular strategy. Two of the beams shot in and cut the revenant off, forcing her to change directions, and then more beams streaked in and forced her to abandon the plan altogether.
Rainbow picked up speed again as she focused on ducking, dodging, and weaving her way through my spells. Then the moment I’d been waiting for arrived: Rainbow shot up, but had to do a quick loop to avoid a beam the nearly took her head off. She rolled in place to barely get around another beam, but then her momentum halted as her flight stalled from her repeated dodges. I smirked as all the beams converge on Rainbow at once. There was nowhere to dodge this time. Anywhere she went was just another path to oncoming destruction.
It might have been a trick of the light, but I could have sworn that the revenant was smirking as the spell converged on her. Maybe in the end she wanted death, or was so enthralled with pushing herself to her limit and beyond that she was fine with her fate. Whatever the truth was, the dozen beams struck her simultaneously. The blast of light was so bright I had to cover my eyes as Rainbow disintegrated.
I let out a relieved groan and sat down. All the effort and tension left me gasping for breath, and my horn throbbed from all the spellcasting. Considering I’d been beaten and electrocuted, I was probably going to be sore as hay once the adrenaline wore off. But all that faded to insignificance stacked up against the fact that I’d done it, I’d won. The revenant was gone.
I stood up to the monster that had been in my nightmares almost as many times as Rising herself. It had taken way more magic than I wanted, especially with Rising waiting in the wings, but a victory was a victory. I could return to the palace with my head held high.
“No seriously, was that your best shot?”
My jaw dropped as the smoke cleared, revealing a completely unharmed Rainbow Dash. She slowly clapped her hooves together, sarcastically applauding my efforts. I stared at her, trying to make sense of it. “B-but how?! That should have disintegrated you!”
Rainbow smirked, polishing her armor with a hoof. “Like you said: Rising gave me a few toys.”
I stared at the armor, and suddenly the pieces fell into place. I hadn’t recognized it before with the new paint job, and Chainbreaker had captured my attention right away. “That’s ... but how did you...?”
“We had plenty of time for Rising to crack the security spells on the armor,” Rainbow announced with a smug grin. “And after that ... well, let’s just say Shadow’s spirit was plenty pissed when she found out you’d wiped out her entire clan.” She shrugged. “I wanted to beat you without the Armor, but a win’s a win, and there’s way more than my pride at stake here.”
She jabbed a hoof at me, and my own spell came shooting out right back at me. I poured extra energy into my shield, putting everything I could into holding off the attack. Time seemed to slow to almost a crawl as the attack closed in. That’s when I realized I’d made a terrible mistake. Well, another one.
When the spell hit, it passed straight through my shield. It was still my magic, and my shield didn’t block my own spells.
Oh. Oh horseapples.
I tried to throw up a different sort of barrier, teleport clear, anything, but before I could manage it, the world vanished in a flash of white-hot agony.
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And the counter to Shadow's armor turns out to be wearing Shadow's armor. That'll do it.
Am I the only one somewhat happy Revenant Rainbow kicked Starlights flank?
Ah, that felt good.
Just shaking my head over Starlight's thought process, she was so close to connecting some of the dots but just couldn't do it.
Chainbraker is going to mean something. Starlight's desire for it, much like Sunset want to be a princess, proves she doesn't deserve it. But I now have to wonder if Rising is bonded to it, or if this worlds Sunset could have two
This is cool.
And so Starlight continues to be a narcissistic piece of garbage. It's not about actually doing the right thing. It's about "getting the reward she deserves".
Somehow, SOMEHOW still doesn't get what her little time-travel adventure where she saw alternate realities that her actions might have had consequences. That is either some really powerful denial going on, or she really is just that completely hopeless and still has delusions about she's somehow a good pony. She deserves a reward, after all.
Note that Starlight´s mind has already edited the memory in which she was originally planning to guilt-trip Twilight into becoming the bait, while she awaited safely in the castle.
Somehow, is good to see no war, apocalypse or even zombie resurrection are enough to keep Rainbow from being...Rainbow.
Chainbreaker: "NopeNopeNope..."
9867683
Speaking of which, where is Storm?
9867730
Nope.
With a bit of luck that is the last chapter we will have from Starlight’s perspective.
That last bit of chapter was jaw dropping!! I was not expecting that at all. Having the magic pass through the shield because it's Starlight's own??? A genius bit of writing there!
9867776
I get the feeling Rising isn't bonded to Chainbreaker. Her Rainbow says “It’s mine! Rising gave it to me after we checked the ruins of what was left of Freeport.” and I don't think Sunset was using it at all during Come and See. That could also be that Chainbreaker as a concept didn't exist yet (I don't remember if that or Lesser Lights was published first), but maybe the whole Northmarch incident didn't occur in Rising's world.
9868095
Yeah, only the first act of Northern happened (Sunset’s visit to Argentium and meeting with her mother).
9868081
I don't mean anything bad by it, but it's hardly a new concept. Ganon's been hurt by his own power since the original Legend of Zelda, for one. Sauron's only true weakness in LOTR was having the ring embued with his essence destroyed in his own forge, etc, etc.
Would it be too much to hope for Sunset to dual wield Chainbreakers eventually? That sounds really awesome.
Its ironic but if it weren’t for Rising Fire’s earlier attempt to kill Starlight, the crazy Northern Venture wouldn’t have happened (as Starlight wouldn’t have tried to rob Blackfyre to prepare for Rising Fire) and Sunset would never have bonded with Chainbreaker. Or at least that’s what it sounds like? That explains why in Come and See Sunset never thinks about the sword and that Sunset still had the potential to become an alicorn (but chose another path to immortality). I guess other Sunset rose to become Archon without Chainbreaker then.
Well, at least Revenant Dash will probably arrest Starlight and take her back for “trial” rather than kill her while she’s unconscious. I guess its not a surprise they would have their own version of Shadow’s Armor. Now the question is what other artifacts they’ve found in the ruins of their world (anything from the Alicorn Amulet to whatever was locked up in the Sealed Repository is probably fair game?).
Just hope that’s the last of Starlight’s POV, it would be nice to see someone else. Particularly when Starlight is almost subconsciously edging away from the probable answer. She’s not an evil pony but she’s already way pass her second chance. At least she’s aware her current nice life is due to Twilight’s mercy and she’s trying to be a better pony (and failing often).
Starlight’s toast. Pretty sure she just disintegrated herself.
9868288
I’d planned on only doing the one Starlight chapter, but her chapter ran a bit long so I broke it up.
Imagine how angry Shadow has to be to allow an undead, serving under a lich, to wear the armor.
Like Steve Roger working with Hydra because some third Party nuked to oblivion the United States.
You were so flipping close Starlight, and you still didn't get there
So Chainbreaker and Shadow's armor? Dang she's loaded for bear!
Also can't imagine Storm will be happy with an undead wearing Shadow's armor right in front of her.
9867873
Or she knows the theory correctly, and Rising Fire is just being an insane lich blaming the time travel shenanigans for destroying the world.
9868974
We both know that's not the case. I would also point out even if Rarity, Rising, and Rainbow (three R's... huh I just now realized that), are insane, that does not mean they're wrong, either.
9869056
It doesn't make sense for them to be right, though. Twilight and Starlight would have to be super-dense.
*Something's* up.
9869148
They ARE super-dense. Or at the very least Starlight is. Her narcissism is blatant. She is either in denial, or too wrapped up in herself to see the truth, that's all there is to it.
Twilight, however, does not have the full story yet. She doesn't know enough to piece together the events of the past. Ignorance, but by no fault of her own.
The fact that Vamparity did not spell out the series of events to her living counterpart does not help matters. Honestly it's one of the things that bugs me most about this story. The undead trio really need to spell it out plainly for the living so that they can get the whole picture. Not just shout out "she/they destroyed our world!" Explain exactly how it happened! Tell them everything you know. Give them a clue as to what's going on! I would like to see everyone caught up on the series of events that lead to this point rather than the living wondering WTF is going on.
So...there's something I don't understand.
Clearly in the Winningverse, Sunset never went through the mirror.
But...in the Rising Storm series or whatever, it's clear that the events of the Winningverse still happened. Storm being Twilight's guard, Cloud losing her mom, etc. What's with that?
Also Starlight's behavior more or less justifies what I commented on back in Old Wounds. Twilight's such a pushover she'll continue trying to help and support the most horrible, unapologetic, self-centered, despicable person far past the point of redemption because they're 'friends.'
9869411
Oncoming Storm’s a different universe with a different Equestria (though one that still uses a lot of Winningverse elements)
9869421
Okay.
Another question. Starlight grew up in a wealthy merchant family in Freeport if I remember right, which I'm probably not. So...when or how could Sunburst have come into the picture? Because honestly, everything you've had Starlight do seems like it stems from something much worse than, "My best friend moved away and we didn't write or visit each other for some reason!"
9869411
I don’t see how this chapter proved Twilight was in the wrong, we have Starlight pushing through her own fear to do something dangerous and responsible to make Twilight happy. I though Chengar’s been doing a great job.
PLEASE tell me we’re not doing the anime thing where people fighting to the death are explaining the exact mechanics of their attacks before it’s even been implemented.
9867730
Now it’s going to be easier for the undead to beat the shit out of everyone in Ponyville and drag Twilight to execution, so no.
9868758
Close to figuring out what? I’m interested in how she’s trying to break down the flow of cause and effect for this whole thing. And also impressed with Chengar capturing her pessimism, and running with it to imagine herself in a disturbed place. That last bit I really relate to.
I'm obviously in the minority here, but as unlikable as Winningverse Starlight was, I hope she survives. Phoenix Empire Starlight already got hoist on her own petard and took out Cloud Kicker in the process, so...
9869427
Fitting Sunburst into Starlight’s Freeport backstory is a bit tricky. Hazards of giving Starlight a background before canon did. Though I suppose there’s nothing stopping him from being a Freeport native too when/if we ever use him in a story. If she and Sunburst both went to the school for gifted unicorns, her getting expelled would certainly help make things awkward between them.
Though considering I’m not a fan of Starlight’s motivation for all her evil acts stemming from the trauma of having a childhood friend move away, I’m not opposed to changing that part of her backstory. With her life being pretty much a never-ending cycle of bad decisions and the misery those create, it’s not like we need to add anything more to it. I doubt having a childhood friend move away compares to all the damage she has from her first run-in with Rising or her involuntary service to Blackfyre.
9869887
At least canon Starlight is actually sympathetic, takes responsibility for her faults, and isn't obsessed with someone else other than herself ruining her life.
So Shadow decided that, given the situation, Revenant Dash was a worthy bearer. (And if Storm heard that last bit, then just what is she going to make of it?) And Chainbreaker isn't bonded with Revenant Dash, but is that because Dash isn't worthy, or because it is still bonded to Rising?
9869887
I really think that doesn't match the chronology of what happened with the Mane 6 and Glimmer, and misses the whole focus of her mindset. She takes umbrage with how a Cutie Mark took away her friend. The conflict she faced as a filly wasn't (just) a missing friend, it was the realization that part of life was out of her control. So as an adult, she creates an entire neighborhood and social circle she controls. But then the Mane 6 come across this, and yank her out of her totalitarian comfort zone, tearing down her life's work. That's when her fixation with Twilight begins
An issue with how The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2 ends is that because this show always places emphasis on friendship, it ends up talking more about her relationship with Sunburst, because she didn't have REAL friends at Our Town; just people she lived vicariously with. So Starlight being broken up about Our Town, the loss of community and home, didn't factor as much as it should have during Twilight's effort to calm her down. We just go back to the trope of EVERY choice in someone's life originates from one hour of a person's total lifespan. It's a big problem, but that 2nd inciting incident from the start of Season 5 is still clearly referenced to:
But that last bit is foreign to Starlight, because even for people she ostensibly cares about, she never wants someone having their hands on the wheel of HER life. That's how Starlight took the concepts of equality, community and socialism and turned it into something so nasty; she wouldn't admit this, but her mindset puts her closer to some anti-establishment, ultra-libertarian.
I honestly view Starlight as something close to a high-functioning sociopath... Which is a word to tread carefully with, since it's constantly equated with psychopath, maliciousness, rage, selfish and evil; when all those terms can have extremely different confluences in definition. (I know that the previous sentence I compared her to a libertarian, but I'm comparing those, either). Other villains like Tirek, Chrysalis, or Sunset Shimmer would actively make the choice of disregarding someone else's happiness for their own desires. They say friendship and other moral societal concepts are overhyped crocks of shit. Starlight sees the values, and agrees with them on paper... But somehow the concepts that get planted in her head come out warped. The best example of this when she got introduced to Big Mac.
Other villains might have zapped Macintosh out of anger or for the sake of physical comedy. But casting her spell, Starlight honestly thinks she's making things better. Of course the underlying motive is making life easier for herself, she just projects that if Big Mac gains an aspect of herself, he'll be sincerely happier. By season 7, it's reached a slightly healthier stage; for All Bottled Up, she's still using magic to unnaturally alter personalities, but she only does it to herself. She recognizes that her morality is skewed differently than most ponies, but rather than trying to unhealthily change the world, she (still unhealthily) tries changing herself.
9869887
By the way, something else has occurred to me. After everything she did in the North, I imagine Starlight was VERY high on the EIS and Magus Corps' watchlists...so how was she able to establish a well-entrenched cult town without anyone cracking down on her?
9870472
I guess Starlight founded Our Town beyond the borders of Equestria, precisely to avoid detection.
She didn't count on the Cutie Map luring a friggin' Princess and her merry band of friends to her door.
9871434
We did. Princess Twilight and the Dangerously Daunting Delegates.
9872260
Not to mention that Our Town appears (at least on the surface) to be a pretty normal and happy community. If anyone tried to dig deeper ... well Starlight was pretty quick to equalize and try to brainwash the Mane 6 when they started digging into Our Town.
9872285
But again, Starlight should have been under investigation just for being herself. Why were there no eyes on the town?
9872260
But it’s not beyond the borders. The map didn’t expand that far until after the movie
9872374
It may have been inside Equestria’s borders, but it seemed like it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Probably so isolated nobody noticed it was there. Maybe she just found a few followers and went “off-grid” so to speak.
9872397
I guess that's possible.
I liked the fight scene with Revenant Dash, and after that final revelation, I'm really hoping the next chapter is from Storm's perspective. But I am still kind of frustrated by how dense everyone seems to be. Starlight even directly mentions her previous time-travel shenanigans in the narration, so we know they definitely happened in this universe, but she's still not connecting the obvious dots. I would like to take this as confirmation of my previous theory that Twilight and Starlight are actually not responsible for what happened, and that they simply won't entertain the possibility because they know the time travel spell they were using doesn't work that way, but even then it borders on unbelievable that the thought never crossed their mind for even a second.
9872926
Starlight’s failure to connect the dots was far more a matter of not wanting to pursue that particular line of thought because she’s much happier believing she’s 100% innocent and Rising is just crazy.
9867899
Chainbreaker when Starlight tries to bond with it:
9872397
9872569
Equestria's a pretty big place, and you have to remember that Equestria doesn't have the communication or travel capabilities of our own world. If you want to get anywhere you have to do it by hoof, wing, train, or boat. Instant communication also isn't available to the majority of ponies. These things make it much easier to go under the radar, or even change your identity, than it is in our own society where you can't do anything without appropriate ID, a bank account, and a cell phone. By building a community out in the middle of nowhere she could get herself a pretty significant degree of secrecy. Remember, organizations like the EIS have limited resources, and if at first it didn't seem like anything was wrong with her village she could have fallen off as a high priority watch. And unfortunate accidents could have happened to any followup investigators, especially given Starlight's rather ... aggressive recruitment policies.
9874505
Yeah, it’s entirely conceivable that one of the ponies singing about how grand life is in Our Town was whoever they sent to keep an eye on Starlight and make sure she wasn’t up to any funny business.
9874761
Except she was. Why didn't they bust her?
9875740
... Because a spy who’d been brainwashed into joining her cult would obviously send back reports that everything was fine and there was no reason to worry about Starlight Glimmer. The mind-controlled citizens were all pretty certain that life was grand in Our Town and there were absolutely no problem at all and nothing creepy or wrong about the entire setup.
9876148
Oh right
With this bit of backstory exposition from Starlight, it really does seem like the "Rising started everything with her original attack" theory is going to come into play.
Technically true.
If only she knew.
Oh shit, that's probably Shadow's Armor, too.
Revenant Rainbow not having full use of the sword suggests that she may also not have full use of the armor (assuming I'm right about that).
Nice!
More evidence of Shadow's Armor, perhaps.
I knew it. Might be a double edged sword (double edged armor?) if that version of Shadow finds out that the true story is more complicated than she was told.
9870277
Addendum: Also, Starlight can't exactly bring it up on her own. "No Twilight, I didn't want to destroy your life because I lost my friend; I did it because you took away my slaves!" She knows that wouldn't endear her to anypony, and the show probably figured that wouldn't endear her to the audience. As intimidating and real Starlight's cult felt, I think the show was WAY too trepedacious with examining the relationship between an abuser and an abuse victim. Compared to say, Steven Universe (even though that didn't always nail the landing). That's a dynamic that also could have been explored more with Chrysalis interacting with any of the reformed Changelings, but the closest we got to that was Ocellus's nightmare vision.