• Published 8th Sep 2012
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One Mare's Worth - Equestria Buck Yeah



When Rainbow Dash's speed during a new trick turns out to be too much for her own good, she comes to realize how important she really is when she finds herself in a war-torn version of her old home.

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Chapter 33

Twilight snarled and fired her own beam of magic back at the tyrant. Their attacks came together violently in the center of the room, fighting for dominance. While Twilight pushed with what strength she could, Celestia seemed unphased though slightly surprised. She always knew Twilight was powerful, but not so much that she could stand up to her at all. The alicorn's yellow beam slowly pushed Twilight's back a few feet as Celestia put more energy behind the attack. Planting her hooves as hard as she could, the lavender mare stopped the approaching disaster a foot from her horn.

The Princess smirked at the desperate unicorn. "Not bad, Twilight. Even at the end, you still manage to impress me. I think once I'm finished here, I'll go deal with that backstabbing brother of yours. He did have a hoof in this rebellion, after all."

Her eyes snapped open.

"I won't let you lay a hoof on my brother, or anypony else ever again!"

Her mane and tail suddenly began to stand on end, lifted by a powerful surge of magic. Without warning, her coat changed from a light purple to an orange-white, and her hair burst into flames. Her eyes grew wide, turning a bright, burning red. With an explosion of raw power, her channeled spell doubled in size and rocketed back at the startled alicorn. Celestia sneered and flexed her magical might, stopping Twilight's onslaught only a few feet away. Tensing up, she strengthened her spell and gradually pushed back, returning their stalemate to the middle.

With a devilish smirk, she mocked Twilight again. "I wonder how powerful would you be if you were allowed to spend the last few decades studying instead of fighting? Though I suppose in a few minutes, it won't even matter."

As the titans clashed, Rainbow saw Rarity's predicament and dove from the sky at her attacker, ramming her shoulder into him and knocking him away. She followed through, grabbing his head and slamming it into the floor. Still holding on, she pushed herself off and somersaulted back into the air, spun back around and helped Rarity to her hooves.

The unicorn nodded in appreciation and looked over at the duel. "She can't keep it up forever! We've got to do something!"

Rainbow shoved her out of the way and throttled a guard in the jaw as he tried to ambush them. She quickly gripped him by the shoulders and kicked him in the stomach.

"I'm going in!"

"Rainbow, be careful!" Rarity cried as the pegasus sped off. A maroon colored pegasus suddenly swooped down and caught the posh pony in the cheek, knocking her hard to the floor. She rubbed the stinging away and found a trace of blood on her hoof. She gasped, then snarled and gritted her teeth.

Standing up angrily, she shot a look at her attacker that somehow didn't set him ablaze. "You stained my coat!" she spat furiously. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get blood out of your coat?!"

Mustering every bit of strength inside her, she stomped up to the now terrified pegasus and punched him in the teeth. Three of them broke away and another half dozen cracked, thanks to the horseshoe she was still wearing. He collapsed, screaming and balled up like a scared foal. He saw Rarity ready to continue the beating and he threw his hoof up, crying and whimpering in pain.

She froze up and hesitated. Blood was pooling from his lips onto the marble. Glancing, she noticed the teeth that she just shattered and bit her lip. With a sigh and watering eyes, Rarity picked them up, and their owner, and levitated them off to the corner. She followed a quick step behind, not wanting to be jumped again. When they arrived, the pegasus was set down gently, and Rarity looked over him with remorse. She was starting to remember why she originally left the war to begin with.

"I'll.. make sure you get looked at if we get through this. Just.. just stay down. I've still got to help my friends," she ordered.

Shaking, he nodded and held onto his muzzle. The ivory mare ran back into the skirmish and tackled an earth pony off of Applejack. She made sure to remind herself not to do anything that could severely hurt her fellow ponies. There was only one monster in the room, and it wasn't her, any of her friends, or any of the guards really.

As the fighting continued, Rainbow had broken away from the pack and sped off toward Celestia. She had been caught by one of the Princess' unicorns and fought against the air to get free. Thanks to Apple Bloom overpowering her captor, Rainbow was finally able to resume her charge. She flew as fast as she could at the Princess, spreading her wings flat when she got near.

"I'll have to thank Spike for this," she said to herself, and rolled at the last second, slicing the razor-like tips of her metal feathers through Celestia's side. She doubled back and repeated her maneuver, leaving a long gash on the Princess' underbelly.

The ancient mare shrieked, losing her focus. Twilight's beam was suddenly fast approaching. Gnashing her teeth in an effort to ignore the pain, she fought back and stopped the incoming pink magic from overwhelming her, only a foot from her face. She paused and found Rainbow Dash from the corner of her eye. With a thought, she caught the pegasus in midair and held her in place. Her attention returned to the stream in front of her and growled, forcing it back to the middle again.

A sparkling cloud of golden magic radiated from horn and grabbed onto Rainbow, flinging her into the scuffle and knocking over several friends and enemies like a bowling ball. The aura dissipated and the Princess yelled out, "You incompetent fools! Do I still have to do everything myself? Even now?!"

The base of her horn shined brightly, firing numerous shots of magic in random directions. Aside from most of Twilight's friends, half of her own guards were hit and tumbled over in pain. The fiery mare lifted a hoof as one of the blasts came her way, singing the marble. She blinked in disbelief and turned her head slightly, seeing the pile of injured and worn bodies near the entrance to the room.

'She doesn't even care about her own soldiers! She.. she just doesn't care!' Twilight thought.

An eye twitched. A blood vessel throbbed in her temple. Her nose curled up as she slowly bared her teeth. Her whole body began to shake and she started breathing heavily. Bits of saliva flew from her lips as she exhaled harder and harder. Unable to hold back the depths of her rage anymore, she let out a scream that pierced the heavens. Everypony in the room stopped cold and watched.

Sparks of electricity spat from her horn erratically. The fire emitting from her body subtly changed from shades of orange and red to yellow and then to white and blue. The smell of singed coat filled her friends' nostrils. Tears flowed from the corners of her eyes as she pushed her limits beyond anything she ever had before. Twilight finally opened her eyes, ready to end this, revealing that her pupils had completely disappeared.

The others felt the eruption of her power, even though most of them had never wielded magic. The only one that wasn't immediately intimidated was Celestia.

The marble floor suddenly cracked in several places. The fractures shot across the room and then up the columns closest to the infuriated unicorn. Tiny bits of dust and stone trickled down the pillars as the entire room began to rumble. One by one, the other columns in the room befell the same fate as the originals. A final shockwave of power came forth from Twilight, shattering the stained glass windows all around them.

She steadied herself and threw her horn forward. With the full potential of her magic now at the surface, her blast of pink energy grew even wider and spirals of power climbed up the beam. It slowly forced its way ahead, much to Celestia's surprise. Through the bleeding and the strain on her magic, the Princess managed to dig deep and halted Twilight's advance mere inches in front of her eyes.

The alicorn snarled at the powerful unicorn below, "You think you can stand up to me? You think you can challenge a god?!"

Celestia's magenta eyes were replaced by balls of unholy fire. The golden beam firing from her majestic horn doubled in size and pushed Twilight away an inch at a time.

The burning mare gritted her teeth. Desperate to finish the Princess once and for all, she strained against every fiber of her being. However, the releasing of such enormous amounts of magic started to take its toll on her. As Twilight tried to force out more than she really had, unknown to her, a small crack started to form at the base of her horn. As the seconds ticked by, it crawled its way to the tip, until finally it split open, sparks and energies bleeding from the wound. Twilight screamed in agony and fell to her haunches, exhausted and writhing. The bright flames cooled and quickly dissipated, leaving only her striped mane and tail, and the powerful ray of magic shrank to normal.

Pinkie, as well as the rest, were watching the battle intently. She gasped loudly when Twilight faltered. She tossed the body of an injured guard off her and got to her hooves as quickly as possible. In a second, she raced off.

"Pinkie!" Applejack called out.

With Twilight severely weakened and running out of strength, Celestia smiled wickedly, her ultimate victory assured.

"Say goodbye, Twilight!"

A gentle nudge was all that was needed to reduce Twilight's ray of magic to nothing. Celestia's large, yellow beam barreled forward, and Twilight stared into its light as it consumed her vision. Her eyes shrank to almost nothing, and she waited for the end.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, before she was tackled out of the way by a pink blur at the last second. The Princess' attack flew past Pinkie's tail, missing her by inches, and shattered a massive hole into the floor.

The pair slid to a stop several feet away. Twilight was completely drained and barely breathing. Celestia landed opposite them, visibly annoyed that her kill somehow managed to get away. She was breathing heavily as well, not used to putting so much magic into a single attack.

Twilight slowly lifted up her head to gaze upon her rescuer. She smiled when she saw a fluffy pink mane hanging over her. "Pinkie.. if.. if only.. was a bit stronger.." she squeaked out.

"Shhh. Don't worry. I'll get her for you."

Celestia laughed heartily. "You? The only real weapon you have against me is completely spent, and you're just an earth pony! What do you think you're going to do against me?"

Pinkie sneered at the cocky alicorn. "I know a little something just as powerful as magic."

"Oh really? Show me."

"Gladly," and with that, the ageless mare jumped into the hole in front of them.

The Princess stared blankly, bewildered yet amused. "Suicide? Hmph. Idiot."

A pink hoof suddenly connected with her white cheek, knocking her to the floor hard. The leader of the Party Crashers stood over her with a look in her eyes that would kill anypony else.

"But.. the hole! Where did you come from?!" Celestia hissed.

"Behind the TARDIS, if you really want to know."

"How? How is that possible?!"

"That's my little secret."

Livid that a hoof was laid on her, Celestia fired a blast of magic that Pinkie easily dodged, ducking behind a pillar behind her. The large mare stood, wings spread, and telekinetically grabbed onto the base of the pillar and ripped it away, only to reveal nothing. She blinked, unsure of what was going on.

Pinkie suddenly appeared on her back, taking Celestia completely by surprise. Grabbing on tight to her wing, the pink pony yanked down and utterly destroyed one of the joints, causing the alicorn to howl in pain. Pinkie disappeared again and sped out from behind another column, slamming a front hoof into the Princess' chest, sending her stumbling back.

Enraged, the Princess lifted herself onto her hind legs and crashed back down, trying to crush Pinkie. The young mare dove under the alicorn and sat up quickly. A lightning fast uppercut knocked the wind out of the maniacal pony. "Oof!"

Struggling with a broken wing, Celestia leapt up and clumsily glided backward. With her magic, she grabbed hold of Pinkie and repeatedly smashed her against the wall, cracking several of her ribs, before dropping her onto the floor. The party mare looked up, blood seeping out of her mouth, and smiled. She rose to her hooves and stumbled back toward one of the shattered windows behind her. With a mocking salute, she fell out.

Celestia sighed with relief only to be struck down by an elbow to the back of her neck that inexplicably fell out the sky. Pinkie rolled off and stood proudly over the Princess, completely unharmed. The white mare stared in horror at the pink pony that simply wouldn't go away.

"Wh-What are you?"

"I'm the one who's going to destroy you," Pinkie said, sneering.

The Princess let the words sink in, and growled defiantly at her enemy. A sudden blast fired out of her long horn, striking Pinkie in the chest, sending her flying. They both stood and glared at each other challengingly.

"I have a few tricks of my own, little one."

Her horn flickered again and shot out another bolt of magic, but the glow didn't fade. Pinkie jumped out of the way without effort.

"Pinkie!" Applejack yelled. "Behind you! It's coming back!"

She whipped her head around and watched it finish turning. Annoyed, she charged toward the Princess and slid between her legs, emerging behind her, as the magic closed in.

"Oh, please. Can't you try something more creative?" Celestia spat. With a slight swing of her head, the missile arced around its wielder.

Pinkie darted around the room, bouncing off the columns, the TARDIS, the walls, trying to get away. A quick idea came to her and she smiled. Once again, she ran toward Celestia, slowing her pace, her grin growing.

"This again? You can do better than that!"

She looked behind her and saw the magic almost on top of her.

"Then you're gonna love this!"

Just as she was about to be struck, Pinkie leapt toward the confused Princess' face and grabbed onto her horn, diving behind it as the beam collided with its source. The royal alicorn panicked as her body was warped and twisted into the nothingness.

Everypony stared, baffled, at the empty space that just a moment ago contained a Princess and a very angry pink pony. After a moment, one of Celestia's pegasus guards spoke up, "Wha.. What happened? Where'd they go?"

Loo took a breath. "Where she does her work."

-----

Pinkie and Celestia burst out of an opening that didn't exist and fell into a void. The floor, the ceiling, the walls, everything around them had the appearance of a cluster of stars and galaxies. They twisted and fluxed into a kaleidoscopic swirl of colors and shapes, and then changed again into a spiral pattern that somehow consumed all the space around them. The patterns morphed into a calm, flowing form as if one was underwater. The randomness continued, some of the unusual designs repeating, other new ones taking their place.

The Princess gawked at the insanity around her, puffing out her wings. Her heart was racing and sweat started to form on her brow. It took her a moment to realize that her body, particularly her wing, was suddenly totally undamaged. She spun around as she inspected the bizarre world and found Pinkie grinning at her. Snapping back to her senses, she growled at her adversary.

"Get me out of here! Now!"

"Ummmm, hmmmmm, uuuuh, no."

"Then I'll see you die here!"

"Not gonna happen, and if it did, then you'd be stranded."

"Do you know who you're talking to?" Celestia hissed. "I'd find a way out of here even if it took a thousand years!"

"Sure you would. Now, where were we? Oh yeah!"

Pinkie cartwheeled and fell through an invisible exit. Celestia tried to prepare for a sneak attack, but had no idea where it was about to come from. A quick jab to her throat suddenly came from below. The Princess lifted a hoof to counterattack, but found nopony in front of them. The young mare zipped up to the alicorn's right side, spun around on a single hoof and bucked her in the ribs, forcing a scream. She felt them crack and break under her hooves.

With a quick snap of her wing, Celestia sent Pinkie careening away. A nasty scrape bled on her cheek. She quickly rose and moved in faster than the ancient mare could see. Darting past the Princess, Pinkie stopped short and chopped hard at her haunch, causing her to buckle. But, being caught behind a pony had its consequences.

Celestia kicked the party pony in the shoulder violently with her uninjured leg, and she rolled several yards before coming to a stop. She sat up, her right forelimb hanging lifelessly. Irritated, Pinkie stood up straight and jumped into through a nonexistent trap door below her. A second later, she popped out of another trap door right in front of it, fixed from head to hoof.

The Princess was fuming. Nothing she could do seemed to stop the unrelenting pony. Across the space, she watched as Pinkie leaned forward and scraped at the floor, readying a charge. She bared her teeth and spread her wings. After digging at the ground herself, the two ponies raced toward each other.

At the last moment, Pinkie jumped to the side and grabbed the Princess's tattered mane, spinning around her head and neck with the momentum. She planted herself on Celestia's wide back and pulled as hard as she could.

"Luna spent a thousand years on the moon without any air. Do you hope to choke me to death, you little insect?"

"No," Pinkie retorted, "I just wanted to hear you gag. So much for that, I guess!"

Despite her head being wrapped up, her white horn pierced through the liquid-like hair. It sparked to life as the Princess struggled to throw Pinkie off.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Belle did that only one time and she learned not to real quick!"

Ignoring her suggestion, Celestia fired a beam into the distance, only to have it turn around on its own and close in on them. Pinkie watched the spell and mocked her enemy, "How did you put it? 'You can do better than that'?"

Rubbing salt in the wound, the pink mare grabbed the horn and throttled Celestia in the face from behind. It only took two swings before she connected with her eye. "Aaagh!"

Satisfied with hurting her, Pinkie perched on the alicorn's head and jumped off. She watched the ray of magic fly past her harmlessly as she ran several yards away. The injured mare held her eye, and her mane unraveled itself. Her good eye widened as the bolt of power closed in. The Princess ducked, sending the beam inches past her head and into a wall behind her, breaking a black hole open in the backwards world.

Almost instantly, she found herself being sucked into the void. Her majestic mane and tail were yanked back as she fought for her life. It was nearly impossible to take a step without losing a few more inches in ground, and as hard as she was flapping her wings, it wasn't helping her escape its pull. Far from the hole, but still slightly affected by it, stood Pinkie Pie, staring knowingly at the struggling ruler.

"What.. what did you do?!" Celestia cried out.

"Me? I warned you, but nooooo, you didn't want to listen to me! I only brought you here! What do I know about this place, right?"

"I'll get you for this!"

Sick of listening to her, Pinkie pulled a grenade from its strap and held it up high. "Hey Celestia," she said, removing the pin, "catch."

She nonchalantly let it go, allowing it to be taken by the vacuum. It made a beeline for the Princess, whose pupils shrank to pinprick size as the explosive erupted a foot from her face. The blast wave threw her off her hooves and her hindquarters were caught by oblivion. There was no stopping it now. Her hips and sides were taken, then her mane and her torso. She caught herself with her forelimbs right before she was pulled in completely.

"No! Noooo–aaah!"

And she was gone, her scream echoing and fading away. Pinkie stood victoriously, proudly, as the winds tried to take her as well. But, being as far as she was, there was no danger. She took a deep breath and hit her shoulder against a door that wasn't there and fell out of her world.

-----

Derpy's friends stood on their guard as the enemy troops waited for something, anything, to happen that would tell them the fate of their glorious leader. The answer came in the form of a pink pony falling out from under the red carpet near the TARDIS. Exhausted, Pinkie slammed her face flat onto the floor.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity ran over to check on Twilight while the Party Crashers went to Pinkie Pie. Calmly, the Commander stepped forward and knelt beside the earth pony.

She peeled herself off the floor and smiled. "Mission accomplished."

Relieved that it was finally over, Derpy reciprocated. "Nice job, Pinkie."

The enemy guards looked at each other with a glimmer of hope. "Wait," a lime green unicorn said, "does.. does that mean she's gone? Like, gone gone?"

Pinkie nodded happily. One by one, the soldiers giggled to themselves before breaking into boisterous laughter and celebration. Derpy's own troops couldn't help but smile at their display of joy. Their nightmare, and all of Equestria's, was finally over.

Rarity happened to see the pegasus in the corner that she had previous hurt and her heart dropped in spite of the happiness in the room. She cautiously approached a white earth pony and put her hoof on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but.. well.. I told your friend there that I'd make sure he was taken care of. I-I don't know where the medical area is– "

"Don't worry," the stallion said, "we'll get him looked at. May as well do it right now." He turned to a lime green unicorn next to him. "Here, help me bring him to get fixed up."

Grinning, the pair trotted over to their comrade and lifted him onto the white stallion's back. "Come on, bud. Let's get you taken care of."

As the three left, the wounded pegasus looked to Rarity with thankful eyes and nodded. She smiled warmly and nodded back. Once they were gone, she returned to her old friends.

"You know what this calls for?" Pinkie asked, somehow peeling the two branded symbols off her cutie marks. "A party!"

"Finally a reason to throw one, eh, Pinks?" Rainbow said, chuckling.

"Awww yeah!"

"You're going to have to put that party on hold, Pinkie. We're still not quite done," Derpy chimed in. "We've got to work on getting the sun and moon moving again. Perhaps once Twilight has recovered, maybe she could do it, if she could find the right spell. If that doesn't pan out, maybe we can ask Cadance. We have to get our crops growing again. That shouldn't be too bad there. Plus, we have to let the rest of Equestria know that the war is over. Maybe once we catch up with Spike, we can have him send some letters around."

"Listen," a biege earth pony said, "I don't know how easy it'll be trying to convince our side that Celestia's gone, but if there's anything we can do to help, and I think I speak for everypony here, we will." The others in attendance nodded gleefully.

"Thanks. It's appreciated," Derpy replied. "Before we get to any of that though, we still have one last thing to do here. Rainbow, do you still have the Screwdriver on you?"

The pegasus shuffled through her saddlebag. After a moment, her wings puffed out and she removed the amazing tool with her teeth. Taking it in her hoof, she held it high for all to see.

"Good. The Doctor did want us to destroy this thing. After everything that's happened because of it, I can understand why." She craned her head, eying the blue pegasus. "Rainbow? Would you do the honor?"

The two pegasi walked up to the TARDIS. With a push of the Screwdriver's button and a wave in front of the door, the latch popped. Rainbow opened the door to find an unexpected guest inside.

"Ah, you made it! Brilliant! I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to show up."