The Phantom Filly

by Lucar

Chapter 9: Study Your Enemy

They failed. They couldn't believe they failed. They had everything. Number, robots, weapons, armor, the Phantom Ruby, the alicorns, enemies mostly not ready...

And they failed... because Discord joined Eggman and Tirek, changing everything. Discord was too powerful. By himself and just the snap of his fingers, he could change the tide of the battle in just a few seconds. And since the Elements of Harmony, Discord's main weakness, were back in the Tree of Harmony to give it back its power to stop the plunder vines from spreading, the only way to face him they had was the Phantom Ruby that possessed powers that could counter his. But if Scootaloo had to be honest, she wasn't sure that she could defeat him. She could fight him, but with only 50% of the ruby's power in her control, an actual victory would be extremely hard to obtain against him.

At least, a good thing in this was that they countered each other. As long as Scootaloo and Discord were ready to answer the call of the battle, they would make sure that the other couldn't use his/her powers to destroy the other's army. Scootaloo could already see many fights against the draconequus in the future just to make sure of this. She would keep Discord occupied while the others tried to win the battle.

This greatly annoyed Scootaloo because this meant that she couldn't participate too much in the actual action to destroy Eggman's robots. Thankfully, she believed in the others. They won't need her to fight Eggman's robots. Not now that they were used and had the means to face them.

Still, because of this fail, the mood was very gloomy as she and the mares returned in Ponyville. Fluttershy was so heartbroken by Discord's betrayal that she locked herself in her home, but Rainbow quickly flew through one of her window to remain with her.

The worst was that because of this failure, because of Discord's betrayal, a war certainly started. Celestia already went to start the building of a second robot factory, a weapon factory, and a construction site for airships, while Luna went to start the preparations for an all out war. Recruitment, training, fortifying the cities, sending ponies to build an outpost near the Badlands to keep watch of Eggman, and so on.

The near future will be a dark one...

Scootaloo returned to her friends, taking the replica's place, and told everything to them. Despite the bad news, they decided to continue crusading to get their mind out of it.

Infinite was curiously silent.

---

Tonight, when Scootaloo slept, like usual, she appeared in her mindscape shared with Infinite where she found him back against one of the burning buildings, arms crossed in apparent thought.

"A bit for your thought?" asked Scootaloo. "You've been curiously silent since the battle."

"I have nothing to say. You failed."

"Really? No speech like 'mouahaha! You shouldn't have trusted others! Now this clown betrayed you and you lost because of this'?"

"First, I don't laugh like that. It's more Eggman's thing. Second, no need to say what you already understood. The only thing I should say is 'I told you so'."

Scootaloo huffed. "I never really trusted Discord in the first place. I was just willing to trust him because Fluttershy trusted him, and the princess seemed to think the same thing. But it doesn't mean that I will stop trusting Rainbow, Fluttershy, and the others. On the contrary, I must trust in them, because with Discord joining Eggman, this isn't a war that I will be able to win by myself. Not until I manage to defeat him."

"But he's too powerful. You said it yourself. And as much as it pains me to say it, I concur with what you said. With just 50% of the ruby's power, winning against him will be tough. We aren't powerful enough. We would need the ruby's power at its 100%."

"But for this, we would have to merge..."

"Something I still refuse," They both said at the same time.

"But this means that we will have to find something else to defeat him than power," said Infinite.

"Really? What?" asked Scootaloo.

Infinite groaned. "I don't believe what I'm about to say... We will have to be like Sonic."

"Who?"

"The blue hedgehog you saw in my memories. The one who defeated me. Remember, he defeated me despite my overwhelming powers. And against Eggman's robots, no matter their firepower, no matter their resistance, no matter their size, no matter that they fly or swim, Sonic always manage to destroy them. And yet, all he has is his speed."

"So we must be fast?"

"Partly. We must also be smart. I don't doubt that the cat helped him a lot in defeating me, but a big part of my defeat was that he managed to understand my powers and how I used them. So he was able to counter and dodge anything I threw at him. It's the same against Eggman's robots. He always analyses how they work, how they move, how they attack, where they're weak, and in the end, he runs, he dodges, he waits for the opening, and he strikes. It's no use to be powerful if you can't hit your enemy."

"The problem with Discord is that he's random. He's the Spirit of Chaos, there's no way to understand him."

"And yet, remember what you did in your fight against him. When he dropped that giant ball on you, you immediately acted to counter it. This is the key. You will have to counter and avoid whatever he will throw at you using what little power from the Phantom Ruby you have, work your way to find an opening, and strike. You don't understand him, but you understand his powers, and you have the power to counter them. It's enough."

Scootaloo looked down in thought. "Yeah. This is also what I understood from Shining Armor's training. 'Study your enemy.' But I still have a lot of training to do. I don't think I will succeed in the first try." She looked back at Infinite, determined. "Until I manage to defeat Discord, I trust everypony to be able to win this war even without me. Actually, I may repeat to them what you just told me. I'm sure that this will help them a lot against Eggman's robots, even the most powerful ones. Thank you, Infinite."

At this, Scootaloo went to train, leaving Infinite by himself. He frowned.

'Study your enemy'... No wonder I was so weak. I was putting everything in my strength and my power. If I had stopped to think before acting harshly... Maybe... He closed his eyes with a sigh. What an 'Ultimate Mercenary' I was... I hate this place. It causes me to think and to question myself...

---

"He said that?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo nodded. "Yup. ‘Study your enemy'. This is the lesson he gave me tonight. Shining Armor was already giving it, but Infinite helped to make me understand how important it is. If we want to defeat Eggman and his army, we will have to read his creations and act in consequence to be able to destroy them. Like, with the Death Egg Robot, its weakness was its head and its bottom. If we had remained calm, focusing on its attacks to understand them and better avoid them, we would have eventually won without Infinite. Of course, this will need some training, but if you want, I can create a replica of the Death Egg Robot, and we can train against it. It should be easy, we already know all its attacks.”

The six mares in front of her looked at each other in thought.

"Look. I'll go first to show you," said Scootaloo before she created a Death Egg Robot replica.

Thankfully, they were far enough outside of Ponyville, so they won't risk causing any damage. The ponies still moved away to not be caught in the crossfire. Just in case, Scootaloo created a dome shield around her and the replica. Scootaloo then took her Zero persona and started floating in front of the robot.

DEATH EGG MAGICAL ROBOT REPLICA

The robot attacked her by sending its left arm, and Scootaloo avoided it by flying to the side. It then attacked with a magical beam, and Scootaloo flew away from it as it chased her while approaching the robot. When she was close enough, the robot stopped firing its beam and tried to smash her with its right arm, only for Scootaloo to fly out of the way again before successfully hitting the head.

She quickly flew away before the robot could counterattack, and it jumped at her, only for Scootaloo to fly under it, so she was behind it when it landed. She then hit its bottom violently, sending it flying a couple of feet to land loudly on its belly.

To the ponies' amazement, Scootaloo continued to hit the robot again and again without getting hit in return, and without even using much of the Phantom Ruby. She just remained focused on the robot and its attacks, avoided them, and attacked when she had an opening. She wasn't rushing the fight. And after two minutes of fight, the robot fell to the ground and exploded.

"See?" said the filly. "Of course, we won't know what future robots will be able to do, so this will be harder, but you get the gist. So who wants to try now?" she asked as she created a new Death Egg Robot replica.

"Me!" shouted Rainbow Dash determinately.

"I knew you would be the first," said Scootaloo before she left Rainbow to fight the replica.

Rainbow had it easy against the robot. She was fast, and she could fly, so all she had to do was passing the robot's defense and hit the head. The fight was over in a little over one minute. She actually complained that she didn't manage to beat it in ten seconds flat.

Applejack went next. Contrary to Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, she couldn't fly, so she had to be even more careful. Her primary ways to attack the robot were either to wait for it to fire an arm at her so she could climb on it and reach the head, or wait for it to jump in order to go behind it and hit its bottom.

Pinkie Pie came next. Being Pinkie, she had no problem avoiding the attacks and reaching the weaknesses, and she ended the fight almost as rapidly as Rainbow Dash using a squeaky hammer.

Twilight decided to be the next one. She had both flight and magic, powerful magic, so she just had to remain at a distance to avoid the attacks and fire magical beams at the weaknesses in return.

Rarity also used magic, but went with throwing gems, many gems, that were like big bullets that easily perforated the bottom and the head.

Hesitantly, Fluttershy decided to come after Rarity. She wasn't one to fight, but thinking about the poor critters trapped in Eggman's robots, she wanted to join in. She already proved in Manehattan and in the Badlands that she could be a dangerous foe. But there, she remained calm and repeated the methods used by Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but slower and more carefully. Her fight took the longest, but she was still effective with a minimum risk taken.

Scootaloo smiled. With some more training, those six will become Eggman's nightmare. Especially Rainbow. The poor guy will regret Sonic.

As for her, she had a draconequus to defeat.

Comments

[DavisSentoV5]

I would never expect someone as chaotic and evil like Infinite, would give such meaningful advice to combat someone, who is also chaotic and evil like Discord. Was that a sign of him turning over a new Leaf? Maybe not. Great job on this chapter, can't wait to see the next one.

[Shadic Midnight Blitzer]

Is Sonic faster or Rainbow?

[Lucar]

10113774
Remember, he wants to see Discord eat dirt as much as Scootaloo after the humiliation he gave him back in Manehattan's factory. It just forced him to think in a way he never thought before: with his brain.

[DavisSentoV5]

10113793
Which no doubt must have hurt him for using it

[Lucar]

10113796
Well, you saw what he thought at the end.

10113791
Hard to say, they can both go faster than sound. They're pretty much equal.

[Shadic Midnight Blitzer]

10113799
Yeah

[Ardyn1997]

I see Infinite is learning the ways of jolly co-operation, next step, FRIENDSHIP.

[Herald of Opera]

10113791
10113799
Actually, it's consistently shown that Sonic requires significant effort to reach his namesake speeds. By the Season 2 finale, Rainbow Dash can Sonic Rainboom pretty much instantly while also going upwards. Ponies are really freaking hax.

[Lucar]

10127674
After, I read that Sonic can go many times over the speed of sound where Rainbow probably can only go one or two times above it maximum, and that's not counting when he becomes Supersonic or Hypersonic, or even when he gets the Light Speed Shoes.

[Herald of Opera]

Supersonic or Hypersonic, or even when he gets the Light Speed Shoes.

All of which require outside assistance. Also known as obviously cheating and/or something Rainbow Dash could use too.

That said, he's changed hands/canons more often so of course he's less consistent, but even then there's that guy who did the mach-cone math that says the Sonic Rainboom is at least five times the speed your claiming it is.

[Lucar]

10127708

but even then there's that guy who did the mach-cone math that says the Sonic Rainboom is at least five times the speed your claiming it is.

Ah, I didn't know that. Since some sources say that Sonic can go (at least) at mach 5, then it would mean that they're pretty much equal in speed, but that Rainbow has a better acceleration. But, potentially, without the limits of the games, Sonic could also have a good acceleration (like in Sonic X). Again, it ends in a tie.

[The Kelduo]

Her main ways to attack the robot were either to wait for it to fire an arm at her so she could climb on it and reach the head, or wait for it to jump so she could go behind it and hit its bottom.

I detect a reference to Sonic Generations!

[Lucar]

10144440
Well, it's how Death Egg Robots are fought when you can't fly.

[ghostcyclone02]

"Partly. We must also be smart. I don't doubt that the cat helped him a lot in defeating me, but a big part of my defeat was that he managed to understand my powers and how I used them. So he was able to counter and dodge anything I threw at him. It's the same against Eggman's robots. He always analyses how they work, how they move, how they attack, where they're weak, and in the end, he runs, he dodges, he waits for the opening, and he strikes. It's no use to be powerful if you can't hit your enemy."

So wait are they just misidentifying Knuckes as a cat over and over or is this meant to be the CAC protagonist of Forces?

[Lucar]

11842712
The protagonist of Forces.