Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Dual Battles to the Death

Godfrey’s cutlass zinged right over Rainbow Dash’s head and she slashed at his midsection in turn with the Trident. His wings gave a single backwards flap that carried him just out of reach and the two hovered in the middle of the crescent room. Staring at each other. While he now had an amused grin on his face, she was as angry as ever.

“Come on, Rainbow Dash. I know you’re happy to fight me too. You love a good fight just as much as me,” Godfrey taunted.

“Not in this situation,” Rainbow scowled. “I know I’m a hypocrite for saying this—but your ego is something else.”

Godfrey shrugged. “I get what I want. And you’re right, what I want most right now is to beat you.”

“Yeah? I get what I want too. And what I want right now is to stop you and save my friends,” Rainbow said. She squeezed the Trident in her hooves and glared at him harder. “Godfrey… seriously, if you don’t stop and let me deal with that pony back there we’re both going to die down here.”

A vein popped in Godfrey’s forehead and he angrily flew at her. He swung strongly at her, Rainbow was forced to block with the Trident once more but thanks to his strength she was still knocked to the ground. “I don’t care!” He roared as he came at her on the floor. “All that matters now is beating you, Raindow Dash!”

“Grr!” Rainbow Dash blocked his next attack and sparks shot everywhere. “Godfrey!”

“I’m going to enjoy prying that Trident from your dead hooves! Gehahahahaha!” Godfrey laughed and swung indiscriminately at her. His swings were uncoordinated, flailing, blows. A big difference from the warriors she had fought earlier. But it didn’t really matter since he was so fast and vicious too. And she knew if he felt like it he could fight normally. Fight “better”. He was just having fun right now.

Rainbow Dash blocked and parried all his swings for now, each one making the metal of their weapons scream. She was lucky the Trident was so otherworldly or the sheer force behind his blows would’ve broken it already. On one swing she decided to mess up his rhythm—she wanted to take control of the fight or eventually he’d just wear her down. As soon as the sword came at her she stabbed the Trident up and caught the blade between its prongs, then swiftly twisted the Trident to lock it in place and almost wrench it from Godfrey’s wrist. He frowned as his wrist was turned, almost enough to either make him lose the sword or break his wrist from the awkward twist, but he was strong enough to avoid either outcome. Instead now the two of them stared from much closer than they had before, each challenging the other and trying to overpower their rival.

Rainbow’s muscles were clenched, she was putting all the strength she had into her hooves to keep Godfrey’s blade pinned. He was only using one arm but matching her strength equally. Even then it was another improvement for her compared to the first time she had fought Godfrey. Even the last time just back at the Lost Isle.

“I guess if you were too easy to overpower—again—this wouldn’t be any fun,” Godfrey grinned once more.

“I feel like you wouldn’t really care too much. You just want to win now. Scratch that big ego a little bit? Annoy you too much how I keep coming back for more that you wouldn’t mind if we weren’t fighting at our best?” Rainbow smirked.

Godfrey didn’t rise to her provocations this time. He chuckled a little bit as he pushed against the Trident. “Gotta admit you might be right, but in the end I guess I’m just a lucky griffon. Since here we are able to fight all out at our very best together. Everything else is moot.”

“Fine,” Rainbow said and stepped back, letting him push her on for now. “I’ll admit something too; you were right earlier. I’m going to have some fun fighting you as well. Rival.”

Rainbow twisted the head of the Trident around and down towards the floor, taking Godfrey’s cutlass and arm with it, and swung her body around the Trident to kick Godfrey in the chest. It was enough to finally free his cutlass from the Trident and he went sailing back with it into one of the room’s pillars. Godfrey grunted in pain as he slammed into it, almost falling to the ground but he held himself up with his free talon. And of course he still had managed to not let go of his cutlass. Rainbow wasn’t surprised by that. She flew at him quickly, low to the floor, and thrust the Trident at him. He recovered from her kick and jumped out of the way just as the Trident gouged out a huge piece of rock from the pillar.

Bits of rubble from it went flying everywhere, Godfrey picked up a piece as he got back to flying and threw it at her. Rainbow knocked it away easily but it still put her on the defensive for when he came at her with his sword again. This time he did attack in a more controlled manner, not swinging wildly and wasting energy. He was precise and swift, his stabs and cuts left no big openings for her to respond so she just had to parry everything with the Trident.

And be extra careful doing that, since some of his attacks were aimed at her hooves holding it. She didn’t have a guard like his sword did. The moment she blocked he would pull back his sword just slightly to throw another slice or stab at her. His sword arm and blade were moving so fast it looked like he was holding ten at a time. Of course Rainbow Dash’s response was just as impressive—she didn’t let him land a single attack on her. Her own hooves and Trident blurred as the two of them flew around the crescent room. Rainbow Dash wanted to get further away from Heartless but right now Godfrey still had control of the fight. She needed to do something more proactive against him.

Rainbow Dash suddenly flapped her wings as hard as she could and flew backwards and away from Godfrey to make some distance. His reflexes were sharp enough where he pretty much immediately followed her, but he was a little surprised that she’d “turn tail and run” like that. Flying over to one of the pillars, Rainbow Dash went around it and quickly slingshotted her way from right behind it and threw herself towards Godfrey again with the Trident spearing out towards his broad chest. He stopped where he was and quickly brought up his cutlass to block between the Trident’s prongs and stop it from hitting him. He had one talon grasped around the hilt of his sword and the other pushing against the back of the blade to keep it from snapping or from Rainbow Dash being able to push the Trident further.

She still flew forward and down to the floor with all her might, trying to press Godfrey back and carry him with her. Though it’s likely he could’ve fought back with how powerful his own wings were he let her take them to the ground before his back legs dug into the tile and they were stuck once more trying to overpower the other. Rainbow Dash didn’t mind—she at least had him where she wanted to be.

Giving up on the power struggle—Rainbow pulled the Trident away and jumped back before kicking the door to the next big room open. She had moved them to where she was right in front of it and now she backed up into it.

“Heh,” Godfrey smirked and calmly walked in after her, taking a look at the destroyed statues around them and the big stairs at the far end of this new chamber.

Rainbow started hovering above the ground once more and kept the Trident pointed at him. Her eyes were narrowed but otherwise she seemed calm and in control of herself.

“Going further away? That’s a mistake, Rainbow Dash,” Godfrey said as he looked over his shoulder and watched the door close back up. “If you had brought your friends to help you fight me you might have been able to survive.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Godfrey, but I don’t need anyone’s help to beat you,” Rainbow said to him.

As soon as he turned back to look at her and deliver another mocking remark, he instead had to duck under a swing of the Trident that would’ve cut right through his brow and then bring his sword up to block another swing coming at his right. The blade and prongs of the weapons clashed together once more. Hooves and talons holding them shaking. Pony and griffon stared into each other’s faces from a foot away.

“Prove it then, Rainbow Dash,” Godfrey sneered as his beak turned up in a grin. “Let’s see which one of us wins—and which one of us is dead—by the end of the day.”

---

“Okay—look, I don’t know who you are or what your relationship with Rainbow Dash is, but why don’t we all just calm down and talk this out?” Daylight Gleam said to Heartless.

Heartless of course didn’t bother to respond, or even indicate that she listened to the words at all, as she started walking towards her and the rest of Rainbow Dash’s friends.

“D-Daylight, I think we need to go...” Breakwater said.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room the Bosche Soldiers, butlers, and Dredge had already left after seeing the pink pony pull a spear out of her neck like it was nothing. Only Ballast was still there, and he was terrified. Wanting to leave too but unwilling—and perhaps unable—to leave his friends.

Daylight bit her lip and frowned at the pink pony. “Hey! I’m warning you!”

“N-Now I’m sure we can resolve this peacefully,” Gilbert said to Heartless, holding up his talons with open palms defensively to show her he meant no harm. “Whatever issue you have with Rainbow Dash, I’m sure we can be friends. There’s no need to resort to-” his eyes flickered down to Old Diver’s corpse. “-that.”

Senax also gulped and took a step back as Heartless continued on. “Your name is Heartless, isn’t it? What are you down here for?”

“You guys, really… I think we need to listen to Rainbow Dash...” Breakwater began to sweat.

“Don’t take another step!” Daylight shouted at Heartless.

The pink pony didn’t listen. She took another step.

“Ngh!” Daylight grit her teeth and put all the strength she had into her horn. It lit up powder blue and she emitted a shield from wall to wall, cutting off the half of the room they were in. Shields weren’t her specialty but she knew she could block off one little pony.

Heartless walked into the sudden wall and her head bonked off the transparent shield before she could stop herself. She didn’t seem too miffed though, merely raising an eyebrow at the soft blue magical energy blocking her from the others. She got a thoughtful look on her face as she moved her head from side to side. Like this—closer to them—they could see how ordinary she looked. She wasn’t muscular, or have any sort of strange color to her mane or tail, or anything remarkable. She was a normal looking earth pony.

Daylight exhaled and stood up straight, narrowing her eyes at the pony. “Okay, now maybe you can behave. Why don’t you tell us what you have to do with Rainbow Dash?”

“No thank you,” Heartless said and pressed a hoof up to Daylight’s shield. Immediately the shield wavered and shortly after all the magic began to be sucked into her hoof. She absorbed it until Daylight’s shield had disappeared completely.

While the others gawked in fear and disbelief—Heartless smiled.

“Magic is okay, but it doesn’t feel nearly as good or fulfilling as the light from a real, living, creature,” Heartless said. “You can try running if you want, but you can’t hide or escape from me. I’ll feel the warm lives you have—and then finally, finally, I’ll get Rainbow Dash too. I’m a little bit impatient after coming so far and having her fly off again though so could all of you just stay here and let me take your lives? I’ve had enough of barriers and interruptions.”

“I guess this is what Rainbow Dash meant by magic not working,” Gilbert said.

“Who—no—what are you?” Senax asked.

Heartless shrugged, looking as ignorant as they were. “Just me.”

Breakwater tensed up and looked over to Ballast. “Ballast, get to The Breakwater and get it ready for departure.”

Ballast just dumbly looked back at him, still in shock.

“Hey!” Breakwater yelled. “You with us? We need your help right now!”

That got Ballast moving, he stood up and nodded his head. “Y-Yeah, don’t worry about me! I’ll have The Breakwater ready!” He nervously looked at Heartless, who wasn’t paying attention to him at all. “You all be okay, and get Rainbow Dash too!”

He turned and ran down the hallway, out of the room where the entire trip to Merlantis had turned into chaos. Senax may have found her home and the last treasure of Ponyseidon, but now things had gotten truly crazy. The adventure was different now. The mission that they had all come with Senax on had ended. The new mission given to them by Rainbow Dash looked even worse—but if she was doing her part, they had to do theirs.

Heartless smiled at the four of them. And started walking forward again.

“Okay-” Daylight Gleam’s horn glowed once more. “If that’s how it has to be, then how about this!”

Her horn flashed and a bright light filled up the room.

Comments

[redmar]

It's not going to be easy for them to deal with Heartless. Of course Heartless will still show up at some point later in the story since this will not be the end of her no matter what Rainbow's friends do. I'm pretty sure it will be Godfrey's end though.

[RoboRed]