Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Infinite Shapes Most Dreadful - Part 6

"How are you with synchronised flying?"

Rainbow looked at her other self. "You're talking with the future Captain of the Wonderbolts," she said, "what about you?"

"You're talking with the former one. Before they were dismantled or eaten." The armourless Dash took off towards the sky.

The armed one stuck close to her until they stopped. "So, what do you have in mind?"

The other her looked at the sword floating beside them. "Working together."

Rainbow looked between the weapon and her other self. "I'm not sure what I hate more. That you're doing the whole understanding each other because we're largely the same pony stitch, or that it's actually working." Without adding anything else, she dashed towards the ground and the creature. She didn't strike at it, merely passing by it to catch its attention and check on Pinkie. Once she confirmed the mare was safe, she darted towards the sky once more, passing by the other pegasus and then going further still as she built up speed.

The second Rainbow Dash followed after the first as soon as she passed by her. Both flew upwards, getting faster with each flap of their wings, keeping their speeds the same and their distance constant. After a slight nod of the armoured one's head and tail, something an external observer might have easily missed, they both began to turn back towards the ground, losing as little speed as possible during the maneuver and soon accelerating again as they headed back towards the ground.

The one ahead readied her sword right under her hooves, and aimed straight for the creature's torso. She knew she had only a small window of time to do what she had to, but it wasn't anything harder than what she'd done already dozens of times in her life. She just had to hope the other her wouldn't ram into her.

Predictably, the monster turned towards them. A few metres and fragments of a second away from crashing right into it, Rainbow turned her trajectory upwards to dodge. Not her sword's. It pierced the creature's skin and caused it to shriek, but didn't go too much deeper than that.

Not until the second Rainbow rammed into the hilt at full speed with her hooves, and pushed the blade straight through the nightmare's body and the tip out the other side. It was dead before it got to scream, and all along its length its centipede-like body collapsed onto the ground.

"That was cool!" said Pinkie enthusiastically, bouncing over the motionless corpse of the creature who'd tried to kill the three of them as she approached the two Rainbows. "What are we doing next?"

"Staying on the border and waiting for Luna, like I've said before." Rainbow's sword vanished. "You've already been put through more danger than you should have."

"Come on!" the other Rainbow taunted her. "We've already proved we can deal with these things."

"That was a small one, and it gave us more trouble than it ever should have." She stared at her other self almost angrily. "And you don't get to drag anyone else into this. You don't get to endanger someone else's safety. Understood?"

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Yeah, Dash is definitely the sort of person who'd get fed up with her past self real fast. Or her future self, for that matter. Still, at least she works well with them.

[Saix]

Forget Rainbow Dash/Trixie or Rainbow Dash/Pinkie Pie, Double Dash is clearly the superior option.