My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Heart of Friendship

by ShadowDurza

Chapter 5: The Fastest Warrior Alive

“Come on, where are you, you little hairless monkey…?” Rainbow Dash continued to mutter to herself as she zoomed throughout the Industrial District, startling and knocking over any humans unfortunate enough to be in her path, the only clue to their misfortune being a rainbow-colored streak in the air.

She wove around the factories, to the amazement of the workers hauling materials and products in and out of the plants. She had to hold her breath when she passed through the factories’ fumes and over the steaming pools of toxic waste. “Jeez. They weren’t kidding when they called this the Industrial District! How can these humans live like this? If I want to find that low-down thief, I’m going to have to change my perspective a bit.”

Rainbow Dash twisted her wings and began her ascent high into the air. She surveyed the drastically developed land below her. All throughout, the machinations of the humans moved as one. The twin monorails circled the circumference of the district, carrying humans and cargo alike. In individual sectors, trams, lifts, and cranes carried them to their intended destinations upon arrival. It all came to rest in neatly packed residential and warehouse sectors.

“You know, once you get past all the yuck and stank, it’s all pretty awesome, like one big fine-tuned machine. Even we don’t have anything on this scale. But first things first I suppose.” As she scanned the scape below her, she found her attention drawn to one point in particular, where she could make out the faintest white streak traveling at a pace only her well-trained eyes could follow as it zoomed around, up, and over the various buildings. “There you are. Better look out!” Rainbow Dash tensed her body and dove toward the streak’s path to intercept it.

Rainbow Dash slowed her descent as she approached and rolled to fly next to the running human. “Feeling a little weighed down?”

Trace glanced at her with a surprised look, then grinned. “Ah, the quadruped from Joe’s. You should count yourself lucky, not many can see me when I start moving in my fast zone, let alone move quick enough for me to notice.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Luck? Like that has anything to do with my skills! But enough about that, I’ve found you, so give me back what you stole from my friend!”

Trace gave her a competitive glance. “Finding me is one thing, a few people can do that, but catching me is quite another.”

“I think I’m keeping up with you just fine.”

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet, little lady!” Trace rocketed forward, out of sight.

Rainbow Dash scowled. “Don’t call me a little lady!” She accelerated to follow.

She chased Trace’s trail down the winding road. Not quite a minute later, she caught sight of him again. Trace’s head twitched and he looked back towards her, only to grin at her and flash another peace sign before turning back to his path and accelerating some more, his streak being followed by a red-faced Rainbow Dash.

They went left and right several times following the road. Once in a while, he’d leap to run up the side of a building and race across the top, but Rainbow Dash would merely ascend to keep up the chase. When he came to a downward stairway, he leapt onto the handrail and slid the way down before hitting the pavement and continuing his pace with Rainbow Dash weaving along the curving terrain. When he got on an upraised path between several buildings and came to a curve, instead of following it, he leaped forward and rebounded off of the buildings in the adjacent alley, forcing Rainbow Dash to tuck in her wings to avoid getting injured again. Eventually, they came to a path parallel to a monorail railway.

After dashing along it for a distance, the monorail itself started coming in from behind.Before the monorail completely passed, Trace leapt on top of it and dashed down the carts, forcing Rainbow Dash to accelerate with all her might to keep up. As the wind sped past her, all went silent for her as she approached the speed needed for her sonic rainboom. As Trace sped down the machine, he looked back after hearing a thunderous noise, and for the first time lost his composure as he gaped at the shimmering explosion of color behind him, and the rainbow-maned pegasus rocketing towards him.

He leaped off the side of the monorail, extended his arms and straightened his legs as he floated across the gap towards the nearest path, albeit much more slowly. Rainbow Dash quickly noticed that she passed her quarry by a longshot and slowed her pace to turn. She caught up with Trace right as he touched ground and took off like a bolt of lightning.

“You can fly too?”

“I’m an air tribesman. We can all levitate somewhat, but it takes time and talent to make any good use out of it. I hate to admit that I’m a slower flyer than a runner, but every element and derivative comes with its own set of innate abilities.”

“That explains why the pictures showed you guys standing on clouds.”

“What was that? Clouds? Like the nasty stuff that comes out of the factory smokestacks? Why would we- nevermind. Speaking of talents, you’re pretty skilled yourself. Nobody’s ever been able to chase me for this long before.”

Rainbow Dash gave him a confident grin. “Is that so? Well, nobody’s ever made my sonic rainboom fail before, so I guess you’re pretty awesome too. For a thief.”

“Oh, is that what you call it? I guess we both have our share of tricks then. You just might be worthy enough to see what the speed element can really do!”

“Let’s see then!”

Trace extended his hands forward as they began to glow in a mysterious white light. He began moving his hands around and gesturing with his fingers. Rainbow Dash noticed that as he did this, strange glyphs she couldn’t recognize began appearing before him.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and frowned. “Are you gonna show me what you’re made of or make a pretty light show? Come on!”

Trace scoffed. “Have a few problems with patience, do we? That’s understandable, but unfortunate considering what’s coming for you!”

Trace began to hold his hands parallel in cupped positions and the glyphs gathered in a mass between them. He accelerated a few positions ahead of Rainbow Dash, held them aloft for a moment, then threw them down onto the ground below him. Where they impacted, a horizontal line of glyphs appeared that he left behind. Before she knew it, Rainbow Dash crossed over them and they reacted to her by disappearing in a flash and covering her with their light. When the light faded, Rainbow Dash found that she was still flying, but very, very slowly. She felt like she was stuck in one of Pinkie’s extra-large molds of gelatin as her wings flapped at a snail’s pace. Trace meanwhile, was mockingly marching slightly ahead of her, raising his knees unnecessarily high with a big grin on his face.

Rainbow Dash struggled with all her might to get her words out. “I… thought… your… element… was… speed…!”

Trace arrogantly laughed as he circled around her. “Oh, it is! Slow is a speed, or has life in the fast lane made you forget that?” He moved to walk backwards in front of Rainbow Dash, held his hands up and shrugged. “Well, that was fun while it lasted, but I have to go home and count the loot! And don’t worry, that spell will wear off. Eventually!” He shook Applejack’s saddlebag in her face saying “Meep! Meep!” before dashing out of sight.

After several minutes of silently lamenting her failure while struggling against the spell with everything she had, she suddenly zoomed forward and nearly collided with the side of a nearby building, her impact cushioned by a pile of garbage bags. She lied on her back and loudly groaned. “How am I supposed to catch him if I don’t know where he went! He might as well be on the other side of the city by now!”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You came closer to catching him than any of us did after all.”

Rainbow Dash bounced to her hooves and swung her head around. “Who said that? Show yourself!”

“Woah, woah! Hold your horses!” The voice in the shadows laughed at its own joke. “Sorry. We’re coming out now.” Several humans slowly emerged from the shadows between the buildings. They all had different looks, but were all dressed the same: In baggy one-piece suits covered in buckles and buttons enclosed by several pieces of tarnished metal armor with their joints covered by pieces of rubber resembling the tires of pony-drawn carriages. Rainbow Dash maintained a prepared stance on account of all of them carrying weapons.

“Hey there, no need for that! We’re all friends here, aren’t we?” The one that talked with the same voice as before stepped forward. He was different from the others due to his armor being painted with uneven wavy purple streaks. He had thick, greasy green hair tied in a fraying bun, a face covered in warts and moles, a snaggle tooth-filled grin, and walked in a slouched posture with two short scythes slung across his back.

“Hey there, little pony. They call me Mort.”

Rainbow Dash maintained her stance and scowled. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, and what do you all know about Trace?”

Mort laughed again. “Well for one thing, we know where he lives.”

Rainbow Dash dropped her stance, but kept scowling. “Okay. Go on…”

Mort got closer and spread his arms. “Y’see, we’re part of… an association of able-bodied citizens that offer our skills for protection to people and places the Central Forces don’t have the time or resources to oversee, I myself hold the rank of Administrator. That quick little scamp has been zooming throughout the districts, looting from whomever he pleases without a second thought. We’ve been trying to make him pay his dues for years, but sadly we don’t quite match up to a top-class warrior like him.”

Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow. “Top-class? I thought you guys were just divided by your elements?”

Mort gave a loud but sad laugh. “It’s a bit deeper than that. I’m sure that even in your world, some creatures are just smarter, faster, stronger and all-round more talented than their peers. That’s just life. For us humans, we organize ourselves around how good we are in battle. Low-class warriors know a few basic spells or techniques and are at their best in groups. Mid-class warriors like myself perform well on our own but tend to be biased towards particular fighting styles and situations.

“But top-class warriors are in a league of their own. They become so intuned with their weapon that they treat them as an extension of themselves no different from their magic, to the point where the weapon in question becomes a metaphysical part of them which never breaks nor wears that they can make appear and disappear at will, among a few other fantastic things. Many train their entire lives before reaching that point, but some have so much talent that they reach it in their youth and only grow from there. They’d be running the city if it wasn’t for one fact.”

Rainbow Dash twisted her head in concern. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

Mort made a mischievous grin and put his fingertips together. “Even a top-class warrior can be defeated by a good plan.”

***

Among the derelict factories in the abandoned sectors, a white streak zoomed about. Then, it suddenly stopped behind a corner from which a red head emerged to check for something. Once the head retracted back behind the cover, the white streak emerged to zoom back along its path. This process was repeated several times across various forms of cover until it reached a crumbling residential sector, stopping behind a plastic dome with holes in it within an untended playground.

Trace held his hand out next to his face and sang out several notes with his puckered lips, which was soon answered by an extended version of his song. Spending a moment counting the notes, Trace relaxed and walked out from behind his hiding place. “We’re all eating well tonight, Tim! You have no idea what I went through to get this haul!”

“Oh, I might have some idea.” Trace looked shocked when he heard the familiar but unexpected voice, and even more so after Rainbow Dash landed in front of him.

“Well! You’re far more adept than I thought to track me this far! But where did you learn my signal?”

Rainbow Dash crouched and scowled. “That’s none of your business. Now hand over my friend’s stuff or else!”

Trace gave her an aloof smile and put one of his hands on his hip. “Or else what?” Rainbow Dash glanced to a shadowy corner beyond the playground’s fence, where a crouching Mort extended one of his scythes.

“Or this!” Rainbow Dash took off right towards Trace who skillfully evaded her at the last minute.

She chased him around the playground for a few minutes, cutting him off whenever he approached one of the exits. When he dashed towards the exit nearest to Mort, Rainbow Dash slowed her pursuit. Mort meanwhile, hefted his scythes with a spinning upward slash and a trail of fuming gunk appeared from their path and ran down to the other side of the playground, right in Trace’s way.

“Gah!” When Trace crossed it, he lost his footing and tumbled to the ground. He managed to sit up but struggled to rise completely “My legs! Poison magic?” He gave a confused look to Rainbow Dash. “But- How-?”

“She had some help.” Trace glanced in the direction of the new voice and got a haunted look as Mort hopped the fence, which grew worse as he scanned the surroundings with Mort’s associates closing in on him from all sides.

He gave Rainbow Dash a forlorn look. “You worked with the Underworlders? Do you even know what that means? Or who they are?”

Rainbow Dash extended her frowning face towards him. “Hey, it’s not like you gave me much of a choice! I had to get back what was mine!”

Mort made a big grin, swinging his scythes around as he approached Trace. “The pony’s right. Sometimes, we’ve all got to do things we’re not proud of to get what we deserve. Speaking of which…” He held the tip of his upturned scythe to Trace’s chin. “Where’s your stash, Tace?”

Trace turned on his stomach and tried to crawl away. “I don’t have a stash, Mort! I spend my loot as fast as I get it!”

Mort hoisted Trace up with his forearm and pinned him to his chest with his bicep, moving the point of his free hand’s scythe to his throat. “Now that’s not very good business sense for a thief!”

Trace grunted as he struggled against Mort. “Oh yeah? Neither is hurting people to take their wealth!”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head and gave a confused glance to Mort. “Wait. What about hurting people?”

Mort appeared to not notice her words. “Come on, Trace my man. What could you have possibly spent all that loot on? Gold? Jewels? Designer clothes? The latest in modern magic-powered conveniences?”

“Tlays! I’m hungry!” Rainbow Dash moved out of the way as a small human child hobbled with an even smaller crutch towards Mort and Trace, who had a look of utter terror on his face.

“Tim! Get out of here! Go back to your mom!”

“Momma too sleepy to play! I wanna eat and play with big bro Tlays!”

“Then go to the other kids at the clubhouse! They have lots of snacks and games!”

Trace looked like he wanted to scream as one of the Underworlders walked over and pointed a short spear at Tim. “What should I do with the kid, Mort?”

“I don’t know! Get rid of him! Drop him in the nearest cesspool! Throw him down one of the exhaust vents! Just don’t let me see him again!”

“WAIT!”

Mort cringed at Trace’s scream. “What is it?”

“I don’t have anything valuable to pay your levy, but if you let Tim go, I’ll give you my life instead!”

Mort gave him an arrogant laugh in his ear. “Why would I want your high-and-mighty life?”

“You’re one to talk about the value of lives, Mort. Not only are you ugly and can hardly cut it as a warrior, but you were born with the stinkiest, foulest element of them all! It’s no wonder everyone you know feels so sorry for you!”

Mort made a slow, sinister laugh as he tightened his hold on Trace. “I’ve got to hand it to you, you sure know how to bargain! Taking your sorry life is sounding like a better deal the more I think about it!”

Rainbow Dash readied herself. “That’s all I needed to hear!” She rocketed forward to give Mort a flying kick in the back of his head, after which he fell face down on the ground. As she passed, she scooped up Trace on her back and picked up Tim in her hooves as she circled around. She hovered in place as the Underworlder grunts were still trying to figure out what happened.

Trace leaned forward to speak into her ear. “What are you doing?”

“I’m saving your hide from these bad guys! If you can make me slow, I’m thinking you can make me faster too. So how about I fly and you attack them?”

At first, Trace looked confused, then he made a confident smile as a long, ivory-colored staff with thicker, darker segments at both ends tipped with perpendicular ovoid bulbs appeared in his raised hands with a flash of light. “Now that’s a deal I can get behind!”

When the grunts realized what was going on, they readied their weapons along with floating stones, small balls of fire, and little globs of water. Trace twirled around his staff as glyphs started appearing in the path of one of the ends. Then he pointed the staff forward which caused the glyphs to form rotating rings in front of them. Rainbow Dash flew through, and with a flash of light, everything else appeared to be going in slow motion.

Rainbow Dash raced around each of the sluggish grunts, allowing Trace to hit each of them with a sharp, precise strike to the head with his staff. When the last grunt was struck, Rainbow Dash slowed to a hover and everything started moving as normal, including each of the grunts as they fell to the ground.

Rainbow Dash let Tim back on the ground, who bobbed up and down going “Wee! Do it again!”

She turned her head to look at Trace. “Can you hand me the saddlebags now?”

Trace pulled them off of his shoulder. “I guess I definitely owe you one.”

Rainbow Dash took it around her hoof and began fishing in one of the bags with her muzzle. She retrieved a bottle of one of Zecora’s potions labeled by a skull and crossbones covered by a red strikethrough circle and flung it into Trace’s hand. “Here. This is a universal antidote. I think it’ll also work on poison made of magic too.” A confused Trace hesitated for a moment before uncorking the bottle and downing the contents. She descended onto her hooves to allow Trace to step off of her back, bending his knees several times.

Rainbow Dash slung the saddlebags over her back as Trace stepped forward. “In all the hoopla, I never bothered to introduce myself.” He held out his open hand. “Trace Paragon.”

Rainbow Dash trotted forward, put her hoof in his grip, and shook. “Rainbow Dash.”

“One more thing…” She bent into one of the bags and retrieved five bits from within, giving them to an amazed Trace. “That ought to cure the little guy’s hunger for a while.”

Trace held up each one to inspect it. “It’ll cure that and then some!”He gripped them in his fist and smiled at her. “If you ever need any help, look me up around here! You know the signal!”

Rainbow Dash started hovering. She looked back and gave him a smile in turn. “Same here, slowpoke!” Before he could retort, she zoomed off into the air.