PONY Legacy

by RBDash47

03 Recursion

The two rainbow-maned, blue-coated pegasi stared at each other. Dash couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She’d always felt she was unique, and not just the tripe parents fed their foals about “everypony being special in their own way.” Ponies with natural many-colored manes were fairly rare, and she had never met another pony that shared her namesake shades. But worse, this pony was her: the same face, the same coat, the same rose eyes she saw every morning in the mirror. Almost the same body, but younger, leaner, fitter. In her prime. Dash knew she wasn’t exactly out of shape now—she still did plenty of training on top of her weather work, after all—but had she ever looked like that?

A wave of vertigo swept over her, as though she’d been riding a thermal a mile up and lost it without warning, plummeting down. Scrambling to regain control, stay calm, figure out what was going on.

This wasn’t her. This other self looked grimmer than Dash ever had. There was a hard set to her jaw, a tightness around the eyes, and the eyes themselves… well, she knew hers had never been so cold and calculating. There was darkness there, and Dash didn’t like what it did to her face.

“Rainbow Dash,” said the dark mare by way of greeting, and Dash shuddered at the sight and sound of her own voice coming from another pony who looked exactly like her, moved exactly like her—for the other Dash had stepped forward with an easy, athletic grace, sauntering toward her, scanning her up and down. “Never expected we’d actually meet in the flesh. So to speak. How did you get in here?”

In here? “I… Twilight found Celestia’s machine in the basement, and turned it on…”

The other Dash circled her. “So it’s just you?” she said speculatively.

“Yeah.” Her gut twisted at the thought of Twilight. She’d know what to do… a small, reproachful voice murmured at the back of her mind.

“Just you,” mused the other Dash. She gestured to Cracken. “Disc.”

Cracken stepped forward, unsnapped the identity disc from Dash’s flank, and gave it to the other Dash.

“Who are you?” Dash asked, finding herself dreading the answer. If they shared a name as well, she didn’t think she’d be able to handle it.

The other Dash glanced back at her, a dark little grin quirking her lips. “Call me RBD.” She held up Dash’s disc, eyeing it for a moment. “Let’s have a look.” A stream of light and color sprang to life above the disc and RBD watched intently. Dash peered over her shoulder and saw a torrent of images of her own life: her time in flight school, her sonic rainboom, running the weather patrol in Ponyville, her friends. A flash of angry heat passed through her. Those were her memories! Those were private! Before she could do anything, the playback ended and RBD tossed the disc back to Cracken. She reattached it to Dash’s flank with a click and stepped smartly back to her original position.

RBD frowned to herself, lost in thought. “I expected… more.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dash asked indignantly, still burning at the violation of her mind.

A glowing hoof waved away her question. “Since you’re here, I have to decide what to do with you. I suppose you could join me. Rare that a program can be in two places at once. Could be... useful.”

Dash frowned. “Join you?” She glanced around the room. “You run this place? Where’s Princess Celestia?”

An ugly look crossed her double’s face. “Ah. Yes. Our blessed creator. She’s… indisposed. I’m top pony around here, and now I’m offering you the chance to be a part of something impressive, to be my right-hoof mare.” She sneered. “It’s obvious you don’t have much going on back home.”

“I have plenty going on! My friends, my job—”

“You arrange clouds, taking orders from somepony else,” RBD said cuttingly, with a roll of her eyes. “You waste your talents in a dead-end job in a backwater town, and for what?” RBD smirked, and Dash stiffened. “Here, all will know you, all will look upon you and marvel at your speed and power. You could lead the Guard, my most elite and trusted pegasi. Equestria’s top flyers—your precious... Wonderbolts, right?—have nothing on them.”

Dash scanned the other ponies in the room: a motionless Cracken, the members of the guard who’d led her here, another suited and helmeted pegasus cowering in the corner. She needed a distraction, needed to keep her cool, needed to keep the burning resentment and despair RBD’s words had awoken within her from overwhelming her. Weather patrol was important work. Ponies relied on her. Sure, it might not be as exciting as flying with the Wonderbolts, but it kept her in Ponyville, kept her near her friends.

“Well?” said RBD impatiently. “Will you join me?”

“No,” Dash whispered. “I like my life. I want to go back to it. Now. You tell me how to get out of here, and I’m gone. My friends are waiting for me.”

RBD stared at her, and she stared back, unwavering.

“Your friends? Applejack, Fluttershy—”

A meep came from the pegasus in the corner. Dash started a bit but immediately snapped her attention back to RBD, who had ignored it.

“—Rarity, Pinkie Pie.” RBD paused. “Twilight Sparkle.”

Dash’s breath caught in her throat.

RBD was watching her closely. “Yes. Twilight Sparkle. The know-it-all egghead. The idiot who spends all her time locked away in her precious library, muzzle in a book, ignoring you unless she needs your help with something. Rejecting you. What possible interest could you have in returning to that?”

Dash gritted her teeth. “Don’t talk about her that way.”

“Why not? She’s spent, mmm, years ignoring you. You can’t deny that. Now it’s your turn. Ignore her, ignore them all and stay here, and live like a goddess.”

“No,” spat Dash.

RBD looked her over, unamused. “Last chance, Rainbow Dash.”

“Did I stutter? I’m not staying here, I’m going— Hey, get your hooves off me!” The pegasi guards had come up to her, grabbed her, started dragging her out of the room. “Where are you taking me?”

RBD moved away, casting her gaze out over the arena, her back to the others. Dash struggled against the guards, thinking fast.

“RBD!” shouted Dash. “Where is Celestia? What did you do to her?”

RBD spun, her cloak billowing out around her, glaring at Dash with such hateful intensity she went slack in surprise for a moment, unaware her face could look so cruel, unhappy to learn it could.

“The same thing I’m going to do to you, user.”

They took her back to the arena, which had been cleared of the other combatants and reconfigured in her absence. The various Iron Pony–style competition areas were gone, leaving behind a smooth glassy surface. Above her, Dash saw the same roiling, stormy sky, but frowned when she saw less of it than before. Less of it by the second: the arena was closing itself off, a ceiling materializing above them, sealing them in. Trapped. She fought the surge of claustrophobia welling up within her.

The guardsponies released her and she stood alone in front of the stands, thousands of ponies pushing and jeering above her, eager for a closer look at the newcomer. She glared back at them, striking a defiant pose, and quickly scanned the interior of the now-enclosed coliseum, looking for any possible way out, finding none.

Behind her, she heard this place’s version of Fluttershy begin speaking, hearing the timid voice boom from the arena’s loudspeakers at the same time.

“Greetings, programs. What an, um, occasion we have here before us. That is, because, we do indeed have in our midst a user…”

She trailed off as Dash turned to her and squeaked a little before she continued, a little more confidently, pointing a hoof at Dash: “A user.”

The crowd shouted and jeered, a roar of disapproval that crashed over Dash. She almost winced at the force of it.

“So,” the program asked, “what should we do? What does this user deserve? Maybe, ah, the challenge of the Grid?”

Another roar, flush with approval and anticipation, hungry to see an enemy destroyed and confident it will be.

“And, who better to battle this… singular opponent? Someprogram who has some, um, experience in these matters?” More approval from the crowd. Dash didn’t like where this was heading. She readied herself, tensed up, wishing she knew what she was readying herself for.

“Your liberator, your luminary, your l-leader…” The program gulped. “The one who vanquished the tyranny of the user so many cycles before…”

An explosion of light from above drew everyone’s attention. Dash saw the remnants of a firework sizzle out of existence and RBD blazed out of it, banking, spiraling down toward the ground.

“Arrr Beee Deee!”

At the last second she flared her wings, braking, and slammed into the ground, sticking the landing perfectly. A wave of energy rippled through the strange glassy material they stood on and her cloak dissolved in shimmering light. The crowd erupted, everyprogram leaping to their feet and calling, cheering, stamping their hooves. RBD reared up on her hind legs, shadowboxing, spreading her wings to full extension, reveling in their adulation. She fell back to all fours and stalked over to Dash, swishing her tail, flicking Dash in the face as she walked past.

“I’ve dreamed of this for a long time,” RBD murmured in her ear, coming back around to face off with Dash and stare her down. She was practically vibrating with anticipation.

“Dreamed of what?” Dash snapped, but Fluttershy’s double was approaching, balancing a tray with two legbands on her back. She drew up between them and RBD reached out, taking one of the matte black devices and fitting it around her hoof with the detached air of somepony who’s done this a thousand times. Small telltales glowed to life on it. Dash reached out for the second, hesitating when she saw the bearer balk at the approach of her hoof.

“What’s your name?” she asked, trying to inject a note of kindness in her voice, not sure if it was audible through the gruff bravado she felt obliged to keep there too.

“I’m… I’m shy,” murmured the other pegasus.

Dash started to roll her eyes but caught herself. “I know you’re shy, we’re frie— I mean, I have a friend a lot like you, back home.”

“Oh, um, no. That’s my name. I’m Shy,” said Shy.

“Oh… right.” Dash reached out again and took the band from Shy’s back, who didn’t recoil this time.

“You have a”—the program’s eyes darted to RBD—“friend like me?”

“Definitely. She’s my oldest friend, actually. We’ve known each other since I was just a little filly.”

Shy bit her lip and looked ready to ask another question, but RBD swatted at her haunch; she yelped and galloped toward the stands. She blew past Cracken, who was standing in the entrance to the arena. Dash had the distinct impression Cracken was staring straight at her.

“Enough chit-chat,” RBD growled. “Game on!” She leaped and Dash ducked, though Dash realized belatedly RBD was taking off, not attacking her, and was soaring over her.

In slow motion, Dash watched RBD touch a control on the band around her forehoof. Glowing lines of energy pulsed up her foreleg, snaking around a shimmering outline forming out of nothing. Individual components coalesced from pure light into physical form and snapped together almost faster than she could process. Less than a second after RBD launched herself forward, a sleek black pack sat between her wings, and another touch of her forehoof triggered a burst of heat and light from shaped vents at its back, kicking her forward through the air at breathtaking speed.

“We’ve got no chance, user,” said a garbled voice behind her. She whirled. Four earth ponies rose up level with her on an elevator platform, each with a legband secured around a foreleg. One of them, his mane buzzed almost flush with his coat, said, “They’re all pegasi, and we don’t have wings—we can’t maneuver like they can.” At her frown, he pointed up and she saw four pegasi guards blast out into the arena from RBD’s tower. They trailed ribbons of burning orange light that solidified behind them, like shimmering stained glass catching afternoon sunlight suspended in midair.

Watching them arc over her towards a rendezvous with RBD, she asked, “What is this, some kind of race?”

Her new friend snorted behind her. “Yeah, a race. To see who can derezz each other first.”

“Derezz? What is— I don’t want to derezz anypony.”

“Guess they’ll be derezzing you, then. Good luck, user.”

Dash frowned and opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by hooves pounding behind her. She turned from the sky to the earth ponies, already sprinting away. One by one they touched the control on their bands and their packs lifted them from the ground. She could tell immediately they wouldn’t be as agile in the air as a pegasus. There was something almost charmingly ungainly about an earth pony with its legs tucked under itself banking into a mid-air turn.

She shook herself out, unfurling her wings. Despite everything that had happened, she grinned at the prospect of getting some air.

“Okay, this I can do.”

Dash exploded straight up, flapping hard once, twice, before touching the activation stud on her own band. A smoked glass helmet unfolded itself into place around her head and she felt the pack materialize on her back, the kick of it activating, and the thrust carried her into the sky like nothing she’d ever felt before. The effortlessness of it was exhilarating, the sense of speed and power as she cut through the air faster than she had in years.

The coliseum’s new ceiling was coming up fast. It was clear, made of the same strange glasslike material as the floor. She could see the sky beyond it, though somehow the sight wasn’t all that reassuring. She twitched a wing and banked to the right, spinning out toward the center of the arena, startled by the beauty she found there.

Everypony had ribbons of light trailing from them: the four guards’ were orange, led by RBD’s deeper, almost blood-red band, and Dash’s four squadmates were chased by a delicate blue. As they twisted and dove around one another, the ribbons swirled and spun, tracing their flight paths, forming an enchanting crystal sculpture. She arced gently toward it, taking it in, feeling more at peace than she had since arriving in this dark place, loving the wind in her mane and tail, the rush of the air over her wings—even the hum of the device strapped to her back was somehow comforting. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this. Felt the pure joy of flight...

One of the blue ribbons of light ahead of her flickered and died.

The abrupt change snapped her out of her trance, and she peered into the crystalline construct, frowning. An impact mark on one of the orange barriers spread into a cracked star pattern. She remembered the time a bird had flown full-force into one of the library’s window panes and a sobbing Fluttershy had carried its still form away. The shattered remnants of an earth pony rained to the ground, dissolving completely as they hit. She heard a cheer from the crowd, saw the exultant looks the flying guards exchanged, and her eyes narrowed.

To see who can derezz each other first, the earth pony had said. Dash swallowed. This wasn’t some leisurely drift through the night sky, this was serious. Them or us. She didn’t want to have any part in this, but she didn’t see any choice, any way out.

She hit the only other control on her legband and checked over her shoulder, watching her own barrier flare to life behind her. She was grimly pleased to see that unlike the others’ single-color ribbons, hers was imbued with her very own rainbow dash, that prismatic streak of light that trailed behind her when she was moving at speed.

Dash tucked her wings in and dove, spinning into the outer layer of crisscrossing ribbons, blowing past one of the guards like he was standing still. She smirked at his shout of surprise, swooping in front of him, hearing his shout cut off as he smashed into her barrier at full speed, bursting into thousands of pieces that chimed and tinkled as they bounced down through the ribbons. She forced herself to tear her gaze away from his sparkling, tumbling remains, and yelped as she dove under a ribbon at the last second.

The guard’s ribbon disappeared as he did, opening a new path toward the other side of the translucent maze. She sped through it, glancing around, assessing the situation. While she’d been busy with the guard, another of her teammates had been lost. The two remaining were retreating to the outer edges of the arena, RBD and her minions in hot pursuit.

She kicked up and over the central core their ribbons formed and blasted toward them, overtaking the trailing guard from above. He looked up at her and she saluted him before furling her wings and cutting the power to her pack’s jet, dropping like a stone across his flight path, trailing rainbow death. He screamed and covered his face with his forelegs but it afforded little protection: one more out of the game.

Dash reignited her thruster and sped forward, coming up between the two remaining guards. They gave her one look and immediately banked for each other, trying to sandwich her, but she put on a burst of speed and whipped past them. Grunting, they skidded along either side of her ribbon for a moment before righting themselves and taking after her.

Ahead, she watched as RBD did much the same to the flying earth ponies, but when they dove together in an attempt to pincer her, she pushed ahead and cut right, catching one of them in the curve of her barrier, his anguished cry ending abruptly. Dash gritted her teeth and strained forward, catching up to her last squadmate. The two pegasi guards trailed right behind her, RBD in the middle of banking through a long loop around the arena.

“Come on!” shouted Dash. “We’ve got to work together!”

The earth pony—Dash was pleased to see it was her friend with the buzzed manecut—looked behind himself, then over at Dash and nodded. Dash looked back as well, gauging the distance from their pursuers, and sideslipped a little closer to her partner. Their barriers were corralling the two Guards behind and between them, though the idiots didn’t seem to have realized that yet. Dash gestured to the earth pony and they both slowed imperceptibly, allowing the Guards to catch up… but also decreasing how much time they’d have to react to any maneuvers by their prey.

“Steady… steady… now!” Dash and her squadmate swerved toward each other, locking in a midair hug; she flared and pivoted her wings, spinning them into a corkscrew. Over her shoulder, Dash saw their ribbons spin together into an impassable cone of light, saw the shocked expressions on the Guards’ faces as they both vaporized against the glassy barriers.

The two survivors broke apart and pulled right, skimming along the outer wall of the coliseum above the roaring crowd. Dash reached out a foreleg and the earth pony bumped it with his own, grinning widely, both of them riding a sweet wave of adrenaline. “That’s what I’m talking about! Now let’s get out there and show that madmare how it’s done!”

Dash pivoted so her belly faced the wall and kicked, her strong back legs instantly adjusting her course, sending her shooting back out toward the center of the arena. A quick glance back revealed her wingmate had managed to come around on her tail. Not bad for an earth pony. Focusing ahead, she found the arena much changed. With seven ponies out of the game, most of the light ribbons were gone, opening up more maneuvering room but making it harder to trap RBD in a bad spot. And where was RBD? Dash darted her gaze around frantically, following the trail of the bloody-orange ribbon slicing across the sky.

It looped through the center of the arena before coming up and over behind them. Dash gasped and looked left just in time to see RBD streak at her wingmate from above, savagely punching his pack; it exploded in a dazzling burst of energy and the earth pony fell out of the sky, howling in terror. RBD caught Dash’s eye, a wicked smirk on her face. Dash growled and shut off her own pack, pointed herself at the plummeting earth pony, then reignited, shooting towards him at breakneck speed.

He saw her coming for him and spread his legs, trying to increase his drag and slow his fall. She stretched out a foreleg, reaching for him—he reached back, and she could see the fear in his eyes through his visor—their hooves were almost touching, the ground was coming up fast—

Something slammed into her from the side, knocking her away from him. Instinctively, she tucked in her wings and braced just as she hit the ground, bouncing and rolling. She heard her wingmate’s scream cut off with a sound like shattering glass. As she tumbled, the weight of her pack dissolved away. She scrabbled to a halt and looked back, seeing the shards of her last teammate melt into nothing. Her stomach wrenched at the memory of his face just moments ago, the hope breaking through despair as she’d reached for him. RBD banked up and around, coming back toward Dash to finish the job.

Dash growled and punched at her legband, but nothing happened. She tore her gaze from RBD and saw the band’s telltales flicker and fade before it dissolved into light. Her helmet folded itself away, exposing her face. She looked back—RBD was streaking toward her, a vicious grin curling her lips—she braced herself, grimacing in pain, frustration, anger—not like this, it shouldn’t be like this!

A burst of pure golden light blinded her. When her vision cleared, another pony stood next to her and RBD was arcing away erratically, her forelegs covering her visor. Dash gaped.

“Grab my tail!”

Dash stared at the newcomer. A unicorn, in shades of purple. “Twilight?”

“Ugh, fine!”

The mare launched at her, and as her hooves wrapped around Dash, white-hot light consumed them.

Author's Note:

Illegal Combatant on the Grid by NoNamePaper.

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Seriously Celestia, how incompetent are you to lose to a Rainbow Dash? I expected a Daybreaker to fill in for Clu. Sigh, after you are rescued do some major training.

[RBDash47]

10837352

I expected a Daybreaker to fill in for Clu.

Daybreaker as CLU is an interesting idea! But despite the publication date, Daybreaker didn't exist when I wrote this.

Recall the author's note at the beginning:

This story was originally outlined and drafted during the S1/S2 hiatus. It is verrry much a product of its time.

[tsaukpaetra]

Well that was fun! Most people don't know this, but despite the relative increase in technically available space when going to a 3d game space, it gets a lot more disorienting to navigate and difficult to negotiate the persistent tail walls.
Rather curious who Pinkie will play.

[Caligari87]

Of course Quorra would be Spark! Still absolutely loving the character choices, though the downside I suppose to recasting major roles from a small set of known characters is that I pegged the identity of Cracken almost immediately even with the misdirects (and the expectation that Pinky would probably inhabit a fairly distinct role). Still fun to see how much she's changed.

[AppleTank]

Did you have to kill 46 RBDs to get your username

[RBDash47]

11706225
We don't talk about the first 46 RBDashes