Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis

by Jasper77W

Chapter 74: The End- Part 01: Perspective

"AL... I need you to do me a favor... You know how important it is. You can trust me... Can't you?"

*

"I'm in." Dainty said, chewing on a pen as she operated a laptop plugged into the servers. She and Derpy were hiding in Valhalla tower's server room, having slipped past the defenses and locked the door. AL had dropped them off here without notifying Rainbow Dash. "Giving the AIs access now." She tapped a key.

"Aaaand... That should do it." Derpy said brightly, putting the sonic screwdriver back in her pocket and silencing its oddly intellectual buzz.

*

HEX turned around in the virtual space she created for herself. It had all of Valhalla's information painted on the walls, making it easier for her to organize things.

"Visitors are not welcome." She said coldly to the red and orange AIs that strode in.

"Blue... I don't like this color a whole lot for decorating." EDI muttered, looking at the walls.

"No one asked for your opinion." HEX said, minding her own business with organizing the city's systems. "Out." She waved a hoof towards the door.

AL held up a hoof, the command dissipating on her virtual defense systems.

HEX tilted her head to one side. "Interesting. Must be a manual break in."

"You would be right." AL said, putting the hoof down. "moderator_access_elevator." She pulled up a screen, live security cam footage of Scootaloo and Katana. They looked up at the camera as the elevator doors slid open before hesitantly stepping in.

"admin_HEX/command/l0kd0wn." HEX waved a hoof. The sector in which the two were in plunged into red territory, automatic turrets popping up everywhere and shooting at them. Security footage showed them quickly diving into cover and out of sight.

"moderator_/b10ck4cc3ss." EDI said, rejecting HEX's attempt to find the manual breech.

"A minor set back." HEX murmured, rerouting her efforts.

"moderator/access/HUB12338." AL said, waving a window over to EDI. She immediately got to work, trying to hack through HEX's first layer of defense.

"admin_HEX/command/shutd0wn." HEX said. A small window opened, showing EDI's progress as a bar in orange and hers as a bar in blue. EDI managed to get to the center first and unlocked access to basic functions of the tower.

"moderator/command/lvl1doors/0p3n." AL commanded, opening up all doors of level one security. "moderator/access/HUB67449."

Another diagram showed up, EDI's orange already creeping towards the center.

"admin_HEX/protocol/lockdown." HEX said, unimpressed. The diagram disappeared, an error sign replacing it.

"Why don't you quit fighting us- we're two level two and three AIs against a three. You're bound to lose." AL said while EDI tried to work around the protocol HEX established.

"Actually, HEX is short for HEXAGON. I still favor my odds." HEX said with a smirk in her voice.

"moderator/command/lvl1/lights/OFF." AL folded her arms.

HEX raised an eyebrow. "What was that for?"

"Annoyance." AL replied simply.

HEX was pushing them back. They had gone through one level, but there was six more to go if they were to fully take over the Tower's systems. Right now she was closing in on their source, Dainty; and it was not looking good for them.

"We need someone who is actually good at cyber wars on our side." EDI muttered.

"Hey, have some faith!" AL tried to sound cheerful.

Then a window popped up, with nothing but a short notification.

'admin_DD98 has joined the conversation.'

The window expanded into a face-cam view of Dainty as she worked the keyboard, the Doctor peering over her shoulder.

AL slowly turned back to HEX, unable to remove the sly grin on her face that this turn of events brought on.

"It appears... We have an administrator."

*

Two guards. One drawn cleaver, two trigger pulls, a neatly tucked back cleaver and two dead bodies on the floor.

Rainbow stepped over the puddles of blood on the ground, seeing her own crimson reflection in them as she did so. She was on the same level as the throne room, just a few more halls and she'll be there.

She'll finally be there.

She heard footsteps at full sprint around the corner so drew and swung her cleaver and decapitated the assault unit as it came into view. That brought her into a crouched position, where she leveled the giant sword against the other two and blasted their heads off. Folding the cleaver, she continued on her journey.

The lights flickered and went off, and she raised an eyebrow at the ceiling as if it would provide her with some sort of answer.

Ahead of her was one last corner. She could tell because there was a giant floor-to-ceiling window there, a clear view of Valhalla far below glistening under the sunlight.

She didn't know what to expect. She didn't know what was waiting for her around that corner other than the gates to the throne room- where Val was probably waiting for her.

Her ears twitched- she could hear music. Piano music.

It was a soft tune, mellow and distant.

She held tight onto the canister, its red glow pulsing inside her grasp.

She rounded the corner, but there was nothing. Just the giant double doors to the throne room. It had gotten a little later into the day, the orange glow of the evening casting rays of golden sunlight across the hallway and onto everything it held.

She walked up to the doors and took a deep breath. To her surprise, they opened for her.

The throne room consisted mostly of a vast empty space. It was like a large cathedral fashioned with black marble- only, instead of rows and rows of chairs- there were steps leading to a single throne at the very end.

A small table had been set out in the center. A wooden table, nothing special. A simple white tablecloth was draped over it, and on top of that sat two sets of silver plates and cutlery.

A single chrome bowl was in the center, fashioned with flowers, bread, fruit and various other foods.

"Help yourself." Val said, sitting in the far corner and playing a grand piano. Her metallic fingers danced surprisingly delicately across the keys, creating that soft ambient tune. She caught Rainbow staring, and chuckled. "It's funny what cybernetics and a programmed routine can do." She smiled. She was wearing some sort of modified plain Qipao dress, without the dress part. It involved the upper half of the clothing combined with shorts, and both were a clean white with light blue highlights running along certain stitches.

"You seem... Different." Rainbow said, walking to her seat at the table for two. She didn't take it though, instead resting her hooves on top of it.

Val was, indeed, different. The cybernetic half of her face was gone, replaced by the seemingly normal skin she had on the most parts of her body. Rainbow did however catch an odd shimmer from it- it had a sort of hexagonal pattern running through its surface. And her legs... Instead of the two normal pony legs and hooves that she had, there were two chromed... Bipedal... Legs, with toeless booted feet. There were also a number of changes made to her other cybernetics, but she couldn't quite tell what.

"I'm so glad you noticed. I went through a lot to get these." Val smiled, watching her own fingers work and briefly giving the throne an odd look. "I'm certain you've been through a lot to get to this point in time as well."

"You know that all too well." Rainbow replied, keeping her eyes on Val in case she makes any sudden movements.

Val sighed, finishing the tune with a soft low #G. Standing up, she made a gesture with her hand and sent a command to the piano for it to start playing on its own again. She slowly strode over to her end of the table, taking an apple.

She didn't eat it though. She just looked at it.

"Forbidden fruit always tastes the sweetest." She gave a soft chuckle, then took a bite. The crunch was uncomfortably loud in the silence, despite the gentle piano tune in the background. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Yet it's just an ordinary apple. It's the forbidden part that makes it sweet."

"Is that where the phrase 'sweet revenge' comes from?" Rainbow asked sarcastically, and Val laughed.

"You make the worst segways." She took another bite. "But perhaps so. I can associate the two- both are blindingly sweet, and so much so that you'll fail to see the consequences that follow." She extended her arm, offering the untouched side of the apple to Rainbow. "Will you trust me if I say this apple isn't poisoned?"

"You and your mind games, Val..." Rainbow said, and took the apple. Without examining it, she took a small bite from the fresh side.

No poisonous bitterness consumed her mouth. No vile presences flooded her senses. Just the simple, unaltered sweetness of a natural ripe apple.

She set it down on the table, chewing. Val grinned.

"It's a good apple, isn't it?" She picked it up, examining it. "Faith is an odd thing..." She bit the area Rainbow had taken a bite out of. "You don't trust me. I don't trust you. No, mutual trust isn't what made us take these bites."

Rainbow listened silently, the cleaver capsule pulsing its ambient red in her hoof.

"We trust ourselves. We trust our own judgements of others, instead of actually trusting them in the first place." Val continued, putting the apple back in the bowl. "That is, what I think... Led us both all the way to this moment, is it not? A fight... You don't trust me with Genesis, and I don't trust you with it either."

"Like two kiddies squabbling over a toy in the playground." Rainbow nodded.

"Fighting over the spades and buckets that can reforge our little sandbox." Val cast a sad glance behind her, at the screen behind the throne. It showed a view of Valhalla, burning in the conflagrations of war. "Arguing over who should take care of a world already lost in its own destruction."

"And you should stand down, Val." Rainbow said, moving away from the chair and into open space. "You do realize what I came here for."

"I do." Val replied sadly. "And I cannot allow it."

"Haven't you made enough mistakes already? Maybe it's time for you to just accept you aren't the pony for the job." Rainbow said. "You've destroyed Equestria. You shouldn't be the one rebuilding it."

"I've made mistakes, and that's exactly what they're for." Val retorted, striding away from the table. "They make me learn. I learn from them, I know not to make them again."

"But how can anypony have faith in you anymore?" Rainbow asked. "Look at Equestria! Look at what it has become!"

Val only laughed and shook her head. Then her expression darkened as she looked up.
"Me? Equestria? Heh. That's exactly what I hate so much about you magic faction ponies." She muttered. "I'm excused of everything. I wasn't here since the beginning of time, you know. I didn't make the rules about the science faction reigning over all, I was just thrown up as its leader in the midst of it." She pointed outside. "I didn't create this." She jabbed the finger back at Rainbow. "But YOU did. It was my world, and YOU fought through it and stirred up all this chaos. You are the reason the magic faction pursued this course of action. YOU invaded MY kingdom."

"I offered peace and compassion to all willing to join me. I took in anypony willing to surrender. I forgave. You just killed, civilians, soldiers- everyone." Rainbow took a step forward. "And you killed my friends."

"And you can just stand there and say you didn't kill mine? That you didn't kill anybody's?" Val spread her arms out in a provocative gesture. "Whatever tiny bit of the magic faction that remained at the time- they were invaders! We were on defense! I had a world, Rainbow. And you were the demon that destroyed it."

"What evidence do you have of there even being a world?" Rainbow clenched the capsule.

"Valhalla!" Val said. "Have you seen it before you barged in and blew everything up? It was a thriving city. I created it. The barricade! That was a city as well, for the upper classes. There were plenty of civilians on that thing when you took it out of the sky- in fact, it had stopped serving military roles as its primary purpose since the last war."

"And Haven? You can say you've seen it?"

"Through your eyes, I have." Val replied, and Rainbow felt herself tense. "I saw a thriving city. I saw a mini oasis inside a world otherwise ruled by their enemy. But I also saw ponies- people- ready to take arms and fight me even if it'll cost them everything. Every single person in Haven was ready to take me on, and you know what-" she ran her fingers through her electric blue mane, turning her back on Rainbow. "I... I was scared."

Rainbow didn't say anything. They had forced Val's hand. They all knew Haven was one of the science faction's biggest threats.

Val laughed. It wasn't an evil laugh, as one would often expect from her. It was just a laugh. "I'm not anymore though. I guess we're similar in many ways." She said, hands behind her back as she paced back and forth. "You destroyed my world, and I did yours.
You want to use Genesis to rebuild the world, and so do I. In the same fashion as well, I'd suspect. You are partially driven by revenge- and so am I. Rainbow Dash must die, regardless of Genesis. It's a morality thing to me." She gently stepped up to her throne, resting a palm on top of it. "That leaves one last thing... Who's the monster trying to destroy the world, and who's the hero trying to save it?"

Rainbow looked down at her cybernetic arm. She saw her own reflection in the polished metal, a pony with a gleaming crimson eye. She remembered the virus. She remembered being transformed into a monster- and not just physically. But also the moment she put on the trench coat and the fedora- she knew what path she was going down.

She looked up at Val, her soft blue colors contrasting her own red.

"Neither of us are the hero." She replied. "But are we monsters?"

"You're asking me?" Val gestured to herself. "Well... I personally think we're neither. It's too subjective. We're just ponies with opposing views who think we're doing the right thing. Who's right? Who's wrong? Guess we'll never know." She chuckled.

"But one thing is for sure, isn't it?" Rainbow offered a laugh of her own. "After all this... After everything we've been through... We've simply gone nowhere."

"So isn't it time to end it?" Val made that gesture again.

"I can't agree any less." Rainbow said, weighing the capsule in her hoof.

"You know, I've been hiding from this moment for so long. I'm not scared, no... I just don't like what it will bring. Either way, if you win- I can rest in peace knowing I couldn't have done anything more. But if I win, I'm worried that I actually might be the villain."

Rainbow nodded, taking a subtle step back.

"But you know what? I've done enough hiding. All this time I've been in the tower, in my little lair. I realized I've been acting the antagonist this whole time. I'm not standing for that any longer- because you know what I've realized? There's no right or wrong in this, because you're MY antagonist." She said, flicking her right arm. A long object slid into her palm, which then unfolded into a large katana- the edge glowing a cold light blue. She weighed it in her hand, gave it a few test swings, and readied it for battle.

"And you are mine." Rainbow said, letting her cleaver slowly fold out. It clicked into place, the giant blade forming and the crystal of loyalty pulsing with crimson red energy. Then she brought a small silver device out of her pocket, holding it in a spare hoof as she backed away. "But hey... Let's not forget about all the other characters." She flicked off the lid on the object, then thumped the orange detonator against her chest.

Val's enhanced ears heard a series of beeps along the walls of the throne room- and... Below?

"This is the end, Val; my dear antagonist- it's all about to be over." Rainbow said, casting the remote away and throwing her cleaver into the ground before her as a shield.

Then the explosives beneath and around Val detonated, a chaotic storm of black marble, concrete, and steel tearing the center of the throne room apart.

*

Val coughed, waving a hand in the air and trying to clear the smoke and dust. She looked around- this was the room a level down from the throne room. The explosives had sent her down a floor.

She looked up at the giant gaping hole in the ceiling, bits of jagged steel exposed to the air after the explosion. Shattered pieces of dark marble and concrete littered the floor, accompanied by a small fire which softly crackled in a corner.

Her sword had been impaled into the ground, and she quickly yanked it out.

The smoke was clearing, and she could see shapes moving about up above. She could see the shadow that was Rainbow, the red glow from her cleaver and her cybernetic eye shining through the gloom.

"Val, I don't desire glory. I won't lie and say I don't desire whatever may come from defeating you, but WE want our world back- and you're standing in the way." Rainbow said, cleaver loosely grasped in a hoof by her side.

Vinyl stood to her right, discs in hoof and glimmering with a faint buzz. Magnum stood on her left, clad in light armor and the ACPW in rifle form with safeties off.

Scootaloo had some sort of jetpack armor on, a thermic rifle glimmering a dangerous gold in her hooves. Katana stood by her, her weapons holstered behind her back. She drew one of them, the impossibly sharp edge of the blade gleaming under the sunlight.

With a flash Nightshade appeared, a fresh line of throwing knives belted by her sides. Terra clunked up next to her, followed by Blaze and Halcyon- their horns flaring with their respective elements. Neon shimmered into existence, her dark form sullen and still.

Silver, in her black trench coat and fedora; approached with a repaired cleaver. Zealo had a sniper rifle slung across his back, a desert eagle by his side. Daring Do had her whip/baton thing with her, and a revolver on her belt for good measure.

The gathered's manes and tails flapped a little as the loud hum of the quad engines of an Apollo rang through the throne room, Lightning Dust and her jet flying up to the giant gap in the back wall. Noteworthy sat on top, bass cannon letting out a barely contained hum.

And even further behind them...

The NEMESIS hovered above Valhalla, all its weapons trained on the tower now that the city's defenses had been reduced to nothing. Jets and more reinforcements were darting out from the enormous presence, scattering out into the fallen city.

Rainbow raised her cleaver, pointing it down at Val. Her eyes gave a cold glare as she did so. She and her allies were standing above, while the former queen of the world stood below with blood on her body from the explosion earlier.

Val readied her katana, holding it up sideways over her head.

"Shall we?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

"For the future." Val growled, and kicked off the ground- thrusters opening up in her feet and propelling her up towards the others.

Rainbow leapt off the edge, swinging the cleaver towards Val- their blades made contact in mid-air, throwing the both of them off. Rainbow quickly stabilized herself with her wings, and Val did the same with her thrusters.

She quickly turned around to block a strike she heard coming, but instead of finding the cleaver she found Katana's dual light swords.

In stark contrast to Rainbow, she was much faster but the attacks she dealt were weaker.

The main problem here was that she had a sword in each hoof, and one more clenched in her jaw.

Val struggled to repel the lightning fast attacks, but thankfully for her she had limbs of steel and could block her various stabs and slashes with those.

Katana lashed out with the two swords in a scissor like motion, forcing Val to jump over them.

Then she felt a bullet explode against her spine, the force sending her tumbling over Katana and towards the gigantic hole in the wall. The thrusters in her feet flared, and she landed inches away from falling off.

Magnum gave the ACPW a quick reload, an orange explosive shell flying out of the chamber.

Val frowned- taking all of them on at the same time, in this confined space- that would be extremely troublesome.

She looked behind her- Valhalla seemed so far below. But she had full control of it.

She leant back and fell off the tower, watching it stretch out above and up into the sky as she did so.

Then she spotted a rainbow-colored flash as it darted out from the hole, a separate stream of red coming from the cleaver.

Val realized and quickly adjusted herself and stuck her feet to the tower, metal scraping against metal and sending a myriad of sparks showering over the area. Somehow she managed to keep her centre of mass stuck to the surface, raising the sword as Rainbow charged.

Rainbow didn't meet her head on. Instead, she made a trio of lightning-fast ninety-degree turns and stopped behind Val, her cleaver already swinging with the same velocity.

Val barely managed to get an elbow behind her to block the strike, but it threw her off balance and sent her slowly drifting away from the tower.

Rainbow's metal horseshoes were sliding over the tower's steel surface, creating just enough friction for her to kick off and launch at Val.

Then she noticed how Val was giving her the hand.

She quickly snapped her wings to the side, sending her off to the right. A second later a bright prism beam tore a gash through a small segment of the tower- looks like Val had some hardware upgrades from that micro gun.

Val shot another beam at her, and she managed to deflect it with her cleaver. She quickly lobbed it over to her left hoof and reached out with her right, the bright green grapple beam shooting out from the contraption mounted to her wrist and latching onto Val's outstretched arm.

With a snap of her wings, she made a turn and flung Val away from the tower and out to the city.

The cyberpony flew towards the nearest skyscraper like a bullet, a trail of smoke following her from the prism cannon's cooling pads in her arm. She smashed through the window and rolled into a long hallway, her arms behind her as she used the prism cannons as thrusters to slow her down. She lost her sword during that, but no worries.

Rainbow dive-rolled through the shattered window and brought her cleaver up, firing at Val.

Val's right arm split and fanned out into a sheet of various blades, deflecting the bullets. Then they folded back, leaving just one standing out- a long knife with a serrated edge.

Rainbow stood up, spun; and tossed the cleaver as a heavy projectile down the narrow hall towards Val. Pictures were shaken off the walls and paint peeled as it made a mini sonic boom.

If it had hit Val, it probably would've torn her body from her limbs. But she managed to duck under it, the giant sword flying over her head and disturbing her mane.

Then a familiar metal canister with a dim grey glow flew over her head, Rainbow latching onto it with her grapple. It unfolded into the cleaver, which she test swung but didn't attack with.

Wait...

Val quickly turned around, pressing a palm against the back of her own knife to meet Silver's attack. Already she could hear Rainbow approaching from the other side.

Only one way out...

She pressed on her attacks against Silver, lashing out again and again with her arm-turned-knife.

Silver deflected her strike into the wall, but Val made sure it didn't get stuck in there. She turned all the way around, ducked under a horizontal swing from the cleaver and charged up a prism beam against Silver's stomach.

Rainbow intervened at the last second, using her grapple and yanking Val's hand away. The beam ended up scorching the wall, setting the local area ablaze.

Silver was thrown off balance, and Val quickly tripped her up and ran past her. She had to get to somewhere open...

She aimed a palm up at the ceiling and fired, sliding under the debris that collapsed a second later. It sealed off the hall, leaving Rainbow and Silver on the other side.

There was a wall in front of her. No worries, she thought; and punched through it into a conference room.

"This is becoming increasingly frustrating." She muttered as Lightning Dust's Apollo rose up to the floor-to-ceiling windows, prism cannons charging up with a dangerous hum.

She quickly dug her fingers under the giant conference table and flipped it, the enormous hunk of wood and metal crushing the chairs on the other side. It didn't stop the prism beams, but it did give her visual cover as Lightning Dust let rip.

Val darted out from behind the ruined and smoking table, quickly firing several shots at the Apollo- forcing it to barrel roll out of the way. She quickly shouldered her way through another wall and into an open office block, rows and rows of individual office cubicles stretching over the room.

She made a sharp left turn into the window, breaking through into open air once again. Quickly reviewing Valhalla's systems, she adjusted her course for a small tunnel below.
Then something hit her square in the temple- and if it weren't for her augmented skin, it would've gone into her head. It did, however, shatter her skull.

But, no biggie.

She landed with a heavy crunch some twenty meters away from the tunnel she was aiming for, breaking a few bones as she did so. They mended back together, and she quickly got back up again with nothing but a bloodied lip and a healing wound on the side of her head.

She could see the bright reflection from a sniper's scope a long way away, on top of a building. Probably Magnum.

Oh, horse apples-

The next round went through her left eye and into her brain, a portion of her body shortly failing before coming back online again. She tore her left eye out- it takes longer to heal if it has shrapnel in it.

So, apparently open space wasn't that much of a good idea.

She heard a rush of air behind her, and leapt forward without waiting to figure out what it was.

Daring Do slammed her baton into the ground, cracks spidering away from the point of impact.

Val slid that knife out again, charging towards the former tomb raider. When she brought it up to meet her strike, she expected a solid response. Instead the baton writhed into a whip, twirled around her parry; and slapped her across the face.

"Buck!" She cursed, with some genuine annoyance. She grabbed hold of the whip and wrapped it around her own arm, pulling it close to sink her knife into Daring's face.

But then with a snap it went back into its baton form, and she lost her grip on the odd weapon. Before she could properly offer a reaction Daring had already smashed her left knee out, sending her collapsing down unwillingly.

She released an overcharged prism bolt into the ground, making a micro explosion. Daring was thrown back, and she used her thrusters to jet away from the grayish yellow pony.

Her knee was repairing itself, bits of metal and carbon fibre pulling itself back together.

In the meantime, she quickly issued a command to some of the idle remote controlled units around- a few AI-driven Strikers should keep Magnum occupied.

Then what can only be described as a stream of music tore through the ground by her feet, sending her stumbling back. Lightning Dust zoomed past, Noteworthy firing from the passenger seat.

Val sent a few prism beams their way, switching the cannons to low-damage and high RoF. She had to keep moving- staying still was suicide.

She quickly ran towards that tunnel she was aiming for earlier, and she could hear the hum of the electric tram as it neared. With a well judged tap of power to the thrusters, she launched herself onto the oncoming train- rolling as she landed. Daring pulled out her revolver and shot after her, the bullets sparking off the tram and too inaccurate to score a hit.

Then Rainbow fell from the sky like a meteor, landing heavily on the other end of the carriage. Val quickly turned to face her, this time deploying some sort of hook blade.

Rainbow flexed her wings and shot towards Val. Val fired an array of prism bolts at her, and Rainbow managed to either deflect them or dodge them. A few stray bolts struck the train, blowing large chunks out of the carriage.

Val was expecting a hit from the cleaver. Instead, Rainbow stuck it into the train roof and swung past it, slingshotting herself under Val's swing and slamming both rear hooves into her stomach. Her momentum carried her all the way around, and she landed perched on top of the cleaver's handle.

Val slid back, almost falling off the carriage. Then with a powerful blast from her thrusters that all but flattened the rear end of the carriage, she shot herself towards Rainbow.

Rainbow jumped up and kicked the cleaver's trigger, the giant blade flying out of the train with a resounding bang. She shot her grapple into it then with a jolt of her wings flung it out.

The giant blade tore through the side of the train as if it were nothing but tissue paper. Val saw it flying up from the side, and made some emergency course adjustments. Her thrusters sent her down towards the train again, and she made a forward roll. Quickly getting back on her feet, she lashed out with the hook blade.

Rainbow was separated from her cleaver- and Val wasn't expecting her to have other weapons. She expected her strike to hit flesh and tear Rainbow's limb off- but instead it was met by a duo of knives mounted to her metal arm.

Rainbow hooked the knives into Val's blade, ensuring it couldn't go anywhere. She then closed the distance and struck out with an elbow.

Val leaned back, the elbow flying over her nose.

Then the cleaver came swinging back again, lodging itself into the side of the train. Rainbow disengaged the grapple and kicked down into Val's knee, forcing her to kneel on one side. She was about to slam her in the head when Val shot the floor, the two of them exploding away from each other as a result.

Val landed several carriages back, rolling to a stop at the end of the train. Rainbow stumbled up from where she landed, clutching her side. Blood stained the corners of her lips, and she made a pained a growl as she limped towards her cleaver.

Val charged up a prism beam, rainbow colored light emitting from her palm. Then she spotted something large flying towards her off to the right, and paused.

The Striker she sent after Magnum earlier came down towards the train, spinning out of control. It was missing an engine.

Val quickly dashed forward and away from it, leaping towards the next carriage. The aircraft carcass slammed into the rear carriage, tearing it away from the rest of the train. There wasn't even an explosion of sorts, it was there one second and then it was gone.

But wait... Where's Magnum?

Lightning Dust and her Apollo swung into view, flying backwards to keep up with the train. And up there, sitting by the cockpit...

Well, the bullet was enough of an identifier.

The explosive shell slipped past the metal plate on her knee, gliding into the joint then detonating as explosive shells typically do. Bits of metal flew from it, and her lower left leg detached itself from the rest of her.

"This sucks." She muttered as it rolled off the side of the train. Now she'll have to regenerate the whole thing instead of just the joint.

She fired a few shots in the Apollo's general direction, trying to keep it away. It did eventually veer away to avoid her prism bolts, but not before Magnum could get another shot out.

This time the bullet exploded against Val's chest, sending her tumbling back. She fell off the end of the train, but managed to get her hook blade into the roof before she did so.

"Ow." She said as she slammed into the back of the carriage. She dangled above a cluster of twisted metal- the joint that connected the former rear carriage to this one.

Losing that one leg really did make things inconvenient. She took way longer than she should have to clamber back onto the train.

"Lovely day for a ride, Empress." Rainbow said, then swung her cleaver at the uni-legged mare.

"Woah!" Val managed to get away by using that one thruster in her existing leg, throwing herself high up into the air. It was much harder to control though, and she slammed face first into the train three carriages ahead and rolled onto her back.

"Need a prosthetic? Oh wait..." Rainbow somehow managed to get to her just as she got up, and brought the cleaver around in a giant overhead arc.

Val leant back, the broad blade brushing her nose and missing her private parts. The cleaver sunk into the train, giving her some time.

She quickly grabbed it and wrenched it out, holding its substantial weight in her hands.

"I've always wondered about this thing." She grinned at the unarmed Rainbow. Then the grin faded as the cleaver automatically folded itself into a small canister. "That's BS. Hey, catch!" She threw it off the side of the train.

Rainbow, being the flier she is; swept to the side and caught it mid-air.

"Once again, BS." Val muttered, then quickly brought her arm up to deflect a shot from the cleaver as Rainbow spun back around and landed on the train again.

A sword used Val's wrist as a pivot and swung out, clashing with Rainbow's as she attacked. Rainbow recovered and went for an underarm swing, which Val quickly swept to the side to make room. She brought up her left palm, but Rainbow grappled her leg and knocked her down and off aim.

Val frantically rolled to the side as Rainbow's cleaver came crashing into the train next to her. She lashed out with her legs, jet boosters flaring and hitting Rainbow in the stomach. Rainbow took a few steps back, the boost searing a little bit of her clothing.

Val got to her feet again, throwing out another sword on her left and going for dual-wield.

Rainbow attacked, and Val was forced to use both swords to block the direct swing. She let go of the cleaver and slipped past it, launching three hoof strikes into Val's sides. She then reached behind her and pulled the cleaver out again, swinging it over her head and down towards her opponent.

Val knocked it aside, their blades creating a shower of sparks on contact. Then the both of them dropped down to avoid being knocked over by a passing sign.

Val took the opportunity to call in a few more Strikers, then quickly got up and flipped over Rainbow with a boost from her thrusters.

Activating them once more, she leapt up and aimed a double-kick for Rainbow's head. The first hit Rainbow blocked with the back of her metal arm, and the second with the flat end of her cleaver as she brought it up to defend herself.

Val dropped back onto the train again, then lashed out with both swords in the same direction. Rainbow tilted her cleaver to the side, but had to take a step back as the second sword struck and knocked her off balance.

Val jumped up and aimed a sideways kick at her. She blocked it with her arm, but most of the force pressed into her shoulder and she took a step to the side- her hoof almost landing on thin air as there was nowhere else to go.

The city passed by below at somewhat unreal speeds, Valhalla's advanced tram systems slithering about as silver lines in between all the tall spires.

Rainbow pocketed the cleaver and grabbed Val's hand, avoiding the sword jutting out from her wrist. She stepped forward and closed the distance, then elbowed Val in the back of the head with her spare arm. Val fell off the train, but regained her balance and leaped back on again with a blast from her thrusters.

Rainbow flicked out the cleaver and sliced at her legs. She dodged back, and the attack peeled off a section of the roof.

Val wrenched the metal sheet and tore it away, throwing it like a deadly frisbee. Rainbow put a bullet into it, the shattered pieces splintering through the train.

Val quickly changed the train's route and lunged forward.

Rainbow ducked down and rolled behind Val, striking at the back of her knees and forcing her down. She spun and chopped at her neck with the cleaver, but Val managed to stop it with a hand. Her fingers closed around the cleaver as she took control of it, forcing Rainbow away.

Rainbow fired the gun on the cleaver, the recoil tearing it away from Val's grip. She leapt back and fired a myriad of shots at Val's feet.

Most of the shots tore up the train's roof, but the few that did hit tore away Val's right foot.
Val intentionally fell back and pointed her stump at Rainbow, activating the damaged thrusters.

Rainbow had a brief second to bring the cleaver up as a shield before an explosion knocked her off her hooves and sent her flying down the length of the train.

"Oof..." She grunted, rolling to a stop. Her cleaver slid away from her, resting somewhere behind her.

"Watch out for the red light!" Val said, her foot regenerating as she stood up. Then she hopped off the train, her jet booster things taking her elsewhere.

"Red... Light..." Rainbow muttered, watching one pass. Its great crimson glow seemed quite ominous.

Maybe it had reason to be.

"Buck!" She cursed, leaping behind her and grabbing her cleaver. She took off, trying to get into the sky and most importantly- away.

Another train barreled towards the one she was on from the side, the two colliding at a crossroad. The carriage that got hit was almost immediately pulverized, and the rest of the train was dragged after it. The engine on the impacting train went, an oversized ball of flames erupting across the rails as both trains were torn away from their tracks.

Rainbow didn't quite make it away in time. Shrapnel from the crash ripped into her back, and she tumbled into a building.

"Gah!" She broke her arm on a windowsill and fell down onto a fire escape catwalk with a loud clang. "God..." She cursed, slowly getting up. Her back stung, and she couldn't feel her right wing. She could feel a few fractures in the rest of her body- but at least she had three other working limbs left.

She stumbled to her hooves, leaning heavily against the wall. She felt like she was going to faint, and did her best to hold onto reality. If she passed out now, only time will tell how long she'll stay that way.

"AL? Where is she?" She grunted, getting off the wall. She stumbled a bit then had to lean against the handrails.

"Going through Valhalla trying to kill everyone." AL said.

"Come pick me up." Rainbow groaned, making her way down the fire escape to ground level. "I'm not out of the fight yet."

"You will be if you keep this up." EDI pulled up against the sidewalk, Rainbow limping towards the black car.

"How'd it go with HEX?" She opened the door and slumped in, slamming it shut behind her.

"She locked herself up. A lot of Valhalla's systems we can access, but she's got Ascension locked down- we can't get to it." EDI reported. "Right now, aside from the science faction units and public transport- we have access to most of Valhalla's systems. Lights, electrics..."

"Try make use of it." Rainbow said, and EDI accelerated away and back towards the fight.

*

Val landed on a Striker as it swung around the corner, and she turned to look at the train collision behind her. No trace of Rainbow- although, she doubted she was out.

"Quite the view up here." She heard a voice say, and turned around.

Nightshade stood at the rear end of the plane, looking about. Then she seemed to notice Val on the same aircraft, and cocked her head to one side with a grin.

"Hey, I made new knives. Wanna test em?" She pointed to the back of the cockpit, where she had already planted a knife. The handle jutted out of the thick metal armor, a soft green LED light pulsing at its end with a thin metal ring attached to it.

Val fired a prism beam at the batpony, and she ducked under it and went for the knife. A flash later and she was gone, leaving Val to herself.

Val looked down at the knife. Something about it seemed different...

"Oh of course, the pin." She growled, then dived off the Striker.

A ball of dark green light consumed the center of the aircraft, then it collapsed in on itself as reality distorted around it. Then the entire thing burst like a soft bubble, and the Striker simply didn't exist anymore.

"Dark matter... Not bad." Val said, spotting a bat shaped shadow teleport above her. The sun got in her eyes, making it hard for her to judge her opponent's precise location.

She saw a few small shapes dart towards her, and instinctively knocked them aside. The explosive knives discharging in mid-air below her.

She needed to get on the ground- in the air she'd be no match for an experienced flier- let alone a crazy teleporter.

Another Striker swooped in and she landed on it, keeping her prism cannon active in case the bat pony decides to jump in again.

There was a flash behind her.

She turned around, unleashing the full power of the prism cannon without really aiming. The beam sliced through both of the Striker's tail fins, but missed the batpony as she jumped up and over it. There was also something else...

Val barely got her arm up in time to deflect an odd looking hybrid between a disc and a ring. The item buzzed back into its owner's waiting hooves, and Vinyl Scratch slammed it down into the aircraft.

"I brought reinforcements." Nightshade said, the Striker beginning to sink.

Val lunged at her with a sword, and she parried it with one of her surprisingly strong throwing knives. Val struck out again, but Vinyl intervened and trapped the tip of her sword in a disc. With a strong magical telekinetic push she shoved both the sword and the disc away, leaving Val's side exposed.

Nightshade threw an explosive knife towards her hip, but she jumped up at the last second and it embedded itself in her ankle.

The knife blew out her left leg, reducing it to nothing but scrap metal. It also took out a good portion of the plane- and seeing as how it was definitely going down, Val reached out and tore one of its engines off. It detached and veered away, with Val acting as a sort of anchor holding it to the plane. She swung it like a hammer and smashed it back into the plane, the force flinging her away.

She saw Nightshade grab Vinyl and teleport away at the very last moment, shortly before the Striker blew itself to bits.

Then a silver blur knocked her out of the sky, and she went straight towards the ground and into the city's central boulevard.

She expected herself to skid across the ground, but her new augmentations may have increased her weight. She plowed right into the marble floors like an anvil.

She could feel the bones in her body fusing back together from tiny little fractured particles as she tried to get up. Quickly bending an arm back into the right shape and hammering in the joint shield with a fist, she turned to the skies from whence her attacker came.

She was met with a barrage of high caliber bullets, most of which tore into her flesh and tinged against her alloys.

"Lovely evening, Empress-" Silver landed, cleaver raised high. Val braced. "Care for a slice of hell with those bullets?"

The impact chipped the metal on Val's arm, but they grew back relatively quickly as she backed away.

"Hello Rainbow- or is it Silver?" She lashed out with her swords.

Silver flicked them up with her wrist-mounted grapple, then jabbed the cleaver forward. Val took it right in the chest and turned her body so that it was torn from Silver's grasp.

"Let me take Genesis- I can give you your own identity!" Val tore the cleaver from her body, then swung it at Silver.

"I already have one!" Silver yelled, parrying the strike with the grapple. The device shattered on her arm, sprinkling over the ground in shattered metal bits. That didn't stop her as she advanced, launching a strong horizontal kick into Val's hip.

Val was knocked off balance, falling onto the stump of her left leg. She lashed out with the cleaver, but Silver stopped it at its base then spun and tore it away from her.

Val brought her arms up, the cleaver coming back around and denting her armor. She shoved Silver away, rolling back and getting to her foot and stump.

"And who are you?" Val teased, her foot healing as she found balance once again.

"Loyalty." Silver growled, her hooves digging into the ground as she took off at Val in a shimmery monochromatic burst.

"You're nothing but a splinter of that! Join me and I'll show you TRUE loyalty!" Val lashed out with her own attack. Their weapons clashed with a pitched shriek of metal, and for a moment they snarled at each other nose to nose.

"No, thank you." Silver kicked down into the side of Val's leg, forcing her to kneel. She pushed down with the cleaver, keeping her pinned. "I may just be a glitch in the universe, but I'll be damned if I let you choose my destiny!" She shoved Val onto the ground and raised the cleaver. "And as for identity-" she slammed it down, the blade piercing Val's hand and stopping inches away from her face. "I'll make my own definition, thank you very much." She pulled the trigger.

The bullet tore into Val's right eye and burst out her temple, blood splattering over the floor.

"So no... I won't join you." Silver pulled the trigger again, but Val moved the cleaver aside and the shot buried itself into the marble beneath. "I've done it once, damn me to hell if I do it again!" She pulled the cleaver away, and swung.

Val rolled out of the way, then launched a booster-enhanced kick into Silver's side. Silver blocked it, but the force sent her stumbling to the side. Val leapt back and got to her feet, flicking out the hooked blades in her arms.

"I might not be true Loyalty, but thanks to you and a LOT of others... Even Loyalty itself... I've learnt of its worth." Silver wiped the blood off her torn lip with a sleeve. "I had lost my purpose the moment I betrayed my friends, but as I gained new ones I've regained that purpose." She groaned, hugging her side. The force of Val's kick must've gotten through her block. "While you're right about my worth, I don't seek to increase it through Genesis- through artificial fate. No... True worth is something that's gained... Not given."

"Then I can give you a clean slate to work from." Val said, offering a hand.

"You want me to risk everything I've gained so far for clean slate?" Silver laughed. "I'd rather not. I'm not sure if you understand, Val- but what little worth I've gained over the course of this new misadventure isn't necessarily MINE." She leant on the cleaver, stumbling a bit as she tried to recover as fast as she could. "Worth isn't just a price tag that can be slapped on me and changed whenever I feel like it. It's what others conceive of me." She regained her balance, then lifted the cleaver. "And you're going to remove them. I'm protecting my worth. I'm protecting my friends."

Val let her hand drop back down to her side and turn into a sword, nodding to herself.

"Alright." She sighed. "If you want to take your worth to hell, then so be it." She launched herself at the injured pegasus, swinging the hooked blade towards her neck.

Then the ground at her feet exploded, the force flinging her off to the side.

Nightshade landed lightly behind her, spitting out the safety pin.

"I'll take my identity to hell any day if the other choice was to have it rebuilt." Silver clicked her neck, raising the cleaver in a neutral but ready stance.

Nightshade had a hoof resting lightly on a knife, and Vinyl walked up with a disc hovering over her left hoof.

Val tilted her head, cooling leaves on her arms and legs flexing as she did a full system run through.

"Project Ascension is standing by." HEX reported.

Val gave her a thought, and almost instantly received the confirmation message.

-Execute project Ascension: Y/N?

"Y." Val said with a sly grin, and flicked out the swords in her arms.

Silver leapt forward, first firing then aiming a swing for the head.

Val blocked the shot with one arm, the bullet scattering over her armor as a powder as she brought her other arm up to meet the cleaver. She lashed out a kick into Silver's right leg, forcing her to collapse onto one knee.

Nightshade aimed a stab at Val's throat, forcing her to dodge away from Silver. She struck out sideways, Val barely avoiding the dangerous little dagger. She jabbed it forward, and Val caught it between her fingers.

Nightshade let go, grabbed hold of Silver and Vinyl, winked; and flashed away.

"I bucking knew it-" Val cursed, throwing the knife away. It exploded a fraction of a second later, the shockwave knocking her onto her back.

"Come on. Hell's waiting." Nightshade said, a dark matter dagger in hoof as she stabbed it into Val's chest.

"Welcome aboard." Val groaned, grabbing onto Nightshade's ankles. The Warden tried to teleport away, but only succeeded in bringing Val with her. A moment later they were high up in the air, Val still refusing to let go as the dark matter knife continued to burn its fuse.

Nightshade hit Val on the head again and again, trying to get her off- but to no avail.

A pearly smear dashed between the two, and Silver slashed both of Val's arms off with the cleaver. Nightshade quickly teleported away, but Silver landed on Val and jammed the tip of the cleaver against her face as they fell.

"Long live the Empress." She snarled, her back hoof pushing the knife even deeper into Val's chest as she pulled the trigger then sonic-boomed away.

Blood and metal scraps exploded across the sky, then was immediately pulled inwards by the dark matter blast and swallowed away. The foreign matter effect completely shattered her physical being.

Silver landed perched on top of a building, Nightshade and Vinyl joining her.

A small swirl of glowing pixels formed on the ground, Val reappearing. She coughed, spitting blood and bile out onto the floor.

"Ugh- rebirths are always the worst." She groaned.

Then she detected a somewhat vile presence behind her.

She lashed a kick out behind her, aiming for a hypothetical head. She hit something solid, and frowned as there was nothing there.

Then Neon shimmered into existence, her claw closing around Val's ankle.

"I missed you." Val grinned.

"I didn't." Neon replied coldly, hauling her up by her leg and flinging her into a nearby building.

The cyber pony crashed through a solid brick wall and deformed the handrails of a catwalk behind it. She got thrown into some sort of factory, with catwalks lining the walls and large cylindrical plants of sorts littering the factory floor.

"Spine." She hummed, tapping her back and waiting for it to heal.

Neon strode through the hole in the floor, her eyes glowing that usual neutral white.

"Neon, my subject. Why don't you bow down to your god? I made you, after all." Val teased, her spine twisting itself back together again.

"Because gods don't bleed." Neon replied coldly, and to drive home her point she dragged her claws across her own arm. The claws that would've easily torn through flesh simply glided off her skin.

"Gods don't need immortals like me to revive them either." Val pointed out.

"I find this conversation irrelevant and a waste of time." Neon said, striding towards Val.

Val knew her blades won't do a thing- fists and kicks will have to do.

Neon clawed out at lightning speeds for her throat. Val didn't dodge it- instead she let her fingers rake through her neck, but before she could draw her arm back Val grabbed her around the wrist.

"You're not the only one with enhanced strength." She said- well, tried to say. It was kind of hard with a shredded throat.

She rolled her eyes, then flung Neon down against the catwalk. The flimsy metal on that section collapsed, and Neon fell down about three stories before creating a little pony shaped crater in the concrete below.

Val switched to thermal vision on her eyes- Neon could manipulate light to mess with her eyes, but she won't be able to alter heat.

Neon rose from the ground, shrugging off some concrete bits. She didn't bother with a light show since she knew Val would have measures in place.

Looks like it was just going to be a good old brawl. Maybe with a prism cannon or two.

Val hopped down, which was a bad idea since Neon was waiting. She aimed a kick for Neon's head, but Neon caught her foot and flung her further into the factory. She crashed into one of the large cylinders, denting it into a semi circle. Water erupted from the top where the lid had split off, splashing down onto the factory floor.

Neon grabbed an exposed support pole and tore it from the wall. She weighed the impromptu mace in her claws, giving the ground a firm thump with the block of concrete still attached to the end of the pole.

Val dropped down from the dent in the cylinder, extra shielding popping out of her arms and covering her wrists.

Neon swung the mace, the solid block of concrete bending Val's arm as she used it for a parry. Val shook her arm back into place as it healed, then pummeled Neon's head with a fist.

Neon took a step back, bringing the mace back up. Val tried to kick it out of her claws, but at the same time Neon swung and clubbed her knee as she lashed out.

Val fell over sideways, grunting as she did so.

Neon pitched the mace over her head, ready to cave Val's skull in like a dropped egg.

Val quickly sent a prism bolt into the concrete block, shattering it and leaving a dangerously jagged end of a pole behind. Although to be fair, instead of getting her head crushed she only received a hit to the face.

She flipped over backwards and landed on her feet, then charged forward and deployed the hook blades.

Neon swiped the pole back around again, and she latched onto it. She slid behind Neon, wrenching the weapon away from her as her other blade hooked around her wrist.

Val kicked her in the knee and pulled back with her arm, felling Neon on her back. She let the hook blade fold back into her arm and clenched her hand into a fist, the energy from her prism cannon sending waves of rainbow light cascading from between her fingers.

She pounded her fist into Neon's chest, rainbow energy crackling across the ground.

She half expected Neon to lie still, but she got back up again with surprising speed.

With a quick swat from her claws she tore away a considerable chunk of flesh from Val's side.

Val stumbled back, her body disobeying some of her orders as there was a large portion of muscle missing. She fired a series of prism rays at Neon to hold her off. The micro explosions made it a little harder for her to proceed with murdering Val, just enough of a window for her to heal up.

She charged up another one of her rainbow punches, lashing out at the Warden.

Neon dodged to one side, the punch leaving behind a trail of polychromatic smoke as it grazed her nose.

She backed up, then slammed a fist into the cooling tank behind her.

Val looked up, and her thermal vision suddenly flooded with a torrent of blue. The cold water was messing with it.

She completely forgot about the water's existence as she fiddled with her eyes to make them see properly- and was immediately washed away and thrown against the far wall.
Neon tore the entire tank away, then heaved it over her head and threw it at Val.

*

"UNF!" Val grunted as she and the tank crashed through the factory wall, tumbling back out onto the central boulevard. She slid on her water-glazed back for a second, then came to a stop by a set of hooves.

"Good evening Empress." Terra said.

"I've been hearing that a lot recently." Val sighed, then quickly rolled to the side.

Terra's augmented hoof struck the ground where Val's head would've been a second ago, magical lightning crackling across the floor and shattering the concrete.

"You hear that a lot because it's true. It's a very exciting evening." He said, casually lifting his hoof from the crater in the ground. He flicked off a few pieces of stone, then turned to Val. "We get to witness your downfall."

"I am so very displeased." Val murmured, trying to get water out of her ear.

"Whatever for? You've always said you wanted the best for Equestria." Terra replied sarcastically, gently tapping his hoof on the ground and creating jumping magical sparks.

Val pouted, looking somewhat offended. "I was about to take action when you guys and gals decided to try your hands and hooves at regicide."

"So what were you doing the past decade or so?"

"Procrastinating." Val shrugged, and disappeared with a black blur as Neon tackled her from the side.

"Regicide... Pff..." Terra chuckled, then slammed his hoof into the ground.

A series of cracks split through the earth, then finally exploded in a shower of dirt and rubble at Val's feet as she fought off Neon.

Val fell back, and Neon leapt towards her with a raised claw. Then a prism bolt from the side knocked her across the street and into a wall.

Val rolled back, turning her attention to Terra as a squad of her Strikers swooped in from overhead.

Terra struck the earth, a sharp concrete spike stabbing for Val's chest from the ground. She leapt up onto a Striker as it passed, latching onto its wing then swinging herself on top of it.

A spire of earth ruptured into the sky, launching Terra up above Val and her aircraft as he rode it a few hundred meters into the air.

Val didn't bother with blocking his attack as he launched himself down at her. He was far too physically superior with those hooves.

She saw him coming, and quickly leapt to the side and off the plane. A millisecond later Terra hammered down onto the Striker, folding it in on itself with a crackle of magical energy.

She quickly co-ordinated another Striker to catch her as she fell, but before she could land on it it was torn in half by a rocket. She quickly covered her head as shrapnel blew towards her. She fell through the cloud of smoke that followed, dragging trails of grey with her as she did so.

A large black object suddenly flew overhead- a... Sports car?

All four rocket launchers mounted to EDI fired at the same time, all of them striking the back of Val's arms as she attempted a block. The force sent her barreling towards the roof of a large rectangular building below.

She shattered her spine and created a crater in the roof, then bounced up and barely managed to land on her feet again as she slid back several meters more.

A rainbow colored smear dropped down from where the black car had been, cracking the concrete as it landed.

Rainbow had the cleaver raised behind her head like she was about to bat a ball inches away from Val's nose. Something was odd about one of her arms, Val assumed it was some sort of emergency solution to her bone fracture.

Then Rainbow slammed the flat side of the oversized weapon flat against her face.

Once again she was sent flying back, tumbling into some rooftop vents and shattering some bricks.

Rainbow fired behind her, the recoil propelling her forward in compensation for her broken wing. Val quickly rolled up, flicked out a sword and ran towards her.

Rainbow grappled away at the last second, passing Val by inches. She fired her grapple again, this time latching onto Val's shoulder. Her momentum carried her around the confused cyberpony, at the same time throwing her off balance.

Val tripped and fell as she was spun in an oscillation, and Rainbow was flung up into the sky. She turned back around and pulled the trigger again, riding the recoil like a tidal wave down towards Val.

They smashed clean through the roof, the both of them tumbling onto the story below. Rainbow landed on her hooves and skid back a few meters while Val landed ungracefully on her face.

They were in some sort of warehouse, wooden crates strapped down with ropes forming a maze of sorts around the large open area they were standing in.

"Lady..." Val grunted as she manually hammered her neck back into place. "You have a problem."

"With you? Yeah." Rainbow replied, blasting herself towards her with the cleaver.

Val's arms split into the full array of blades, then rearranged themselves into two completely distorted looking claws that started at the base of her elbow.

With a blast from her thrusters she flipped over Rainbow, evading her strike. Rainbow quickly snapped around and swung the cleaver over her head, Val repurposing her stab into a block.

The cleaver slid into a gap in the mess of blades that was her arm- and thinking she had the advantage, she diverted the cleaver to the side and prepared to lash out with her spare arm.

Rainbow smirked, deploying the anchors that popped out the sides of the cleaver. They hooked into Val's claws, and she pulled the trigger.

The backlash tugged Val clean off her feet. Rainbow grappled onto the cleaver as it tore itself free, tugging it back into her hooves and bashing it into the ground where Val would've been had she not rolled away.

A sideways swing knocked Val into a couple of crates, followed by a bullet that grazed her shoulder.

Val sent a prism beam into the floor by Rainbow's hooves, driving her back. She pushed off the crates and launched herself at the disoriented pegasus, her claws sliding off the cleaver which Rainbow brought up as a shield. Her shoulder hammered into it as a result, and the two of them smashed through a pillar of boxes before coming to a rest amongst broken things and wooden shards.

Rainbow felt the strain building on her broken arm, especially from that tackle. She saw Val coming and tried to use the cleaver to defend herself, but it was knocked from her hooves in a brief moment of sharp pain from the core of her arm.

Val's right arm reformed, leaving nothing but a giant axe behind- ready to split Rainbow in two down the center. The glee in her eyes was almost adorable.

Almost.

Rainbow quickly drew a pistol like object from her pocket, raising it towards Val as she dropped the heavy axe atop her head.

At least, inches away from it.

Blue lightning zapped at her axe from between the unusual barrels of an odd looking pistol. Some sort of force was keeping it stationary there.

She raised an eyebrow.

"New toy I never got to use." Rainbow grinned, and pulled the trigger.

The scrap gun flared with cerulean energy, then flung Val to the far corner of the room following a comically loud 'VWOOMP' and curl of blast-wave distorted dust.

Val involuntarily cartwheeled into the crates on the far side and went clean through, smashing them to individual planks of wood. Then her back hit the wall and she almost took the entire thing with her as she went.

If her arm wasn't made of metal, it would've been torn clean off by that pistol thing. She quickly deployed her hook blade and latched onto a Striker as it passed, swinging onto its back.

"Buck! I was THIS close!" She cursed. She co-ordinated her other Strikers to follow her- this fight was going nowhere. She needed to get back to the tower- she needed her ace.
Then the Striker to the right lost control as Neon leapt onto it, who was manually twisting the engines to control the plane's flight path.

She flew up above Val, then dug her claws into the center of the aircraft. With a heave she tore it down the center, then threw the two halves at Val.

Val rolled to the side, the first half clipping the Striker's wing and sending it down in a spiral.

Val jumped and kicked off the second one as it flattened the plane she was on. She leapt straight for Neon as she charged down at her.

With one hand she batted away her claws, and then she dug her hook blade under Neon's chin. Momentum carried them past each other, and had Neon been anypony else it would've torn her head and spine clean from the rest of her body.

Val swung back around, letting go and launching both feet into her back. Neon was sent down like a hammer as she activated her thrusters.

Then she saw an eery purple glow creeping from the air behind her, and turned to look.
Some sort of glyph mark was there, glowing. Then it erupted into shards of concentrated energy which tore into her- flesh and metal alike.

She crashed through a satellite dish and onto a roof. The dish folded in on itself on impact, bouncing away as a ball of scrap metal. She rolled to a stop a few meters away, a few droplets of blood hitting the floor.

"Well... I haven't see you in a while..." She said as she got up, her body smoking from the magic based attack.

A white earth pony stallion with a green mane stood on the same roof, gently tapping his hoof on the ground. He wore a dark grey trench coat similar to Rainbow and Octavia, his just seemed... A little less formal.

"I don't believe we've ever met in person." Iris said, green glyph marks shimmering in his eyes.

"It'll be the last time." Val shrugged, sending a prism bolt his way.

Iris merely blinked at it, and it vanished inside a glyph mark as it appeared. With a blast of energy it bloated up to twice its original size and released the prism bolt.

Val rolled to the side as the expanded prism beam shredded the roof.

Iris conjured up a large pentagram with circles of glyphs orbiting it, then touched the center.

A tidal wave of weapons burst from the temporary portal, a cluster of spears, swords, maces, halberds, and just about any melee equipment imaginable.

Val tried to dive out of the way, but a spiked ball thing clipped her shoulder and she fell on her side.

She felt her body ripple, and looked at her hand. It shimmered in and out of existence as glyphs danced around at her fingertips.

"Crap..." She quickly rolled out of the field of influence, Iris's spell hitting just a second late and removing that chunk of roof and three more stories below from existence. She scrambled up, riding a blast from her thrusters to higher ground. "You mind not staring at a girl? It's impolite."

"I have doubts about your gender." Iris replied gently, then his right eye turned from green to red.

"Well. Ouch." Val murmured, balancing atop an antenna. She quickly jumped off as Iris sent a bolt of red lightning her way. It hit the antenna and sliced clean through it.

Val caught the antenna and swung it like a giant baseball bat towards Iris. Iris held up a hoof, a demonic circle thing emitting from it as his left eye glowed.

The antenna stopped dead on the sigil, and Iris tapped it. A blast of magic tore through the antenna, reducing it to shreds and sending Val tumbling back.

"I've been falling over a lot recently." She grunted, getting up again. Annoying how manual the process had to be.

"Credits for getting up though." Iris cocked his head to one side.

Val thought it was a gesture to her for a second, before she noticed he wasn't looking at her. She looked to her side, where one of her glyph-plagued Strikers spun towards her. She ducked under it, tore something out and threw it at Iris.

Iris redirected the partially dismantled missile back to the Striker with a harsh stare, which lay in a crumpled heap not far away.

Val crouched low and let her left arm fan out into a shield of blades, blocking the explosion out and deflecting shrapnel away from her body.

Only too late did she realize Iris had used her temporary idle status to mark her. She looked down at the glowing green targeting sigil on her chest, frowning.

"Does this mean you've been staring at my-"

Iris flicked his hoof to the side, and Val was instantly yanked away by some invisible force. She shot through a small concrete house, wrecking-balling it into piles of blocks that rolled down the staircase hidden inside.

"Ugh, please be gentle." She groaned, trying to get up. Hard to do when you have two broken legs.

Iris flicked his hoof the other way, sending her skidding across the roof. He stopped her just as she was about to fall off.

"Pity there's so little to pitch you into." He sighed, slowly trotting over to the broken mare.

"I call BS." Val muttered, her face pressed against the floor. Her skin had healed, but there was still a trail of smeared blood and sanded metal particles on the ground behind her.

"Unamusing." Iris commented, eyes turning red.

Val was still trying to get up when the curse made her collapse.

"GAAaaaeeeAAeeAh..." She groaned, clawing at her chest. The sigil had turned crimson.

She screamed and coughed up more blood- there were black glyph marks dancing in them!

"Kill me from the inside out, huh..." She grinned around a blood stained mouth, then screamed again as another wave of dark magic pulsed through her heart.

"It was rather quite easy to put the curse on you. Your heart is well corrupted as is." Iris said. "I was hoping we'd be able to save you."

"Save me? From what?" Val growled, breathing heavily as more black blood leaked from the corners of her mouth.

"Yourself." Iris replied simply. "You could've become something great. So much greater. You could've saved the world but why didn't you take the chance?"

Val stilled at that last comment.

Why didn't you take the chance?

With a blast from the thrusters she tackled Iris head on, flicked out her long sword and jammed it into his chest. He didn't get the chance to react.

They rolled onto the floor, Val's dark corrupted blood and Iris's fresh red claret spilling over them.

Iris gagged on his own blood as it surged into his mouth. Val kept the sword in his chest as she leant over his dying form.

"I'm glad you decided to attack my heart, dear." She started, a sick yet seductive grin spreading across her face. "It's the only thing I don't need." She finished, then sent a prism beam into her own chest.

She dug her fingers into her raw flesh and tore out the cursed organ. The black glyphs slowly faded away from the dying piece of flesh. She plopped it on the ground.

"You know, ironically, it hurt when you said that. When you asked me why I didn't save the world." She sighed, clearing her mane from her face. "Well, I'm going to make sure no pony ever asks me that again."

"You better." Iris managed.

"Don't worry, I will." Val said, then gently placed her hand over his face and broke his neck.
She got up, sliding her sword from his chest and flicking off the blood.

Nightshade popped into existence, her eyes flicking down to his body.

"You were a second late." Val said, stepping back into a defensive battle stance.

Nightshade didn't reply. She just stood silently, eyes glimmering with a dangerous glaze.

Then Val spotted the safety cap on the floor.

"Iris sends his regards." Nightshade said softly, then launched a knife with a green indicator at Val. Sparks erupted from her shoulder as the knife hit its target and beeped.

Val tried to pull it out, but it had deployed spikes and was firmly embedded in her shoulder. She looked up, raising her palm- a prism bolt charged up in her hand.

Nightshade vanished with a flash, leaving nothing but a strand of purple hair behind.

Val looked past where she was standing a second ago and out to the horizon. There, against the evening sun- a glimmering silver object floated. But it wasn't reflected sun rays that were causing the glimmer.

Val cursed, wrenched the knife from her body. It left her arm dangling by a few wires and twisted alloys, but she needed that knife out.

The glimmer grew brighter and brighter. She tossed the knife to one side and leapt to the other- but, well... Just a second late.

The CYCLOPS fired, a ray of pure prismatic destruction slicing through Valhalla. Buildings melted then and there, their particles heating up so rapidly that they simply exploded within seconds.

Val watched her own flesh bubble and limbs melt. It only lasted a short fraction of a second before her eyes went with them, then the rest of her body.

*

Nightshade teleported to the flames that consumed a great portion of the city, looking around- searching. Her eyes settled on a puddle of molten flesh as it shifted.

A jaw formed from the remnants of burnt bone, slowly and painfully attaching itself to a skull.

Val looked up, barely recognizable as a pony.

"Need to cool down a bit?" Nightshade tilted her head to one side. The rest of the group emerged from the smoke, trotting out through the flames.

"Halcyon." Rainbow said, her mechanical eye shimmering with a dangerous crimson scent. She had the cleaver unfolded just in case.

Halcyon nodded, stepping forward, her horn glowing- even in defeat, Val didn't look like she was going to give up.

No... There was definitely something more than personal wishes fueling her actions.

Then a grey form barreled through the smoke above, crashing into the debris on the ground. It was Blithy, and she lost one of her cybernetic limbs on impact. Even as she was regenerating, she was clearly badly beaten.

Rainbow looked back up to where she had fallen from- and raised her cleaver.

A bolt of orange energy shot through the murk, and she deflected it into the ground. Flames erupted from that portion of the floor, reducing it to nothing but ash that crumbled into the earth.

A red and black shape with jagged orange wings crashed into the ground from the smoke, and with a powerful bat of its wings it dissipated the murk around it.

Eclipse looked down at Val as she regenerated, her cybernetic limbs forming around a pile of flesh and bone. Then she looked up to their enemies, incineration cannons forming by her wings and loading with a loud clink.

Rainbow stepped forward into an offensive pose, Nightshade drew her knife, and Halcyon's horn glowed as shards of ice materialized by her side.

Val slowly got to her feet, still regenerating. She groaned, covering an empty eye socket with a hand.

There was a loud buzz as a trio of Strikers hovered down over the two, their guns trained on Rainbow. A group of assault units clunked through the smoke, weapons raised. The smoke faded, and through the flames Rainbow could see a large group of Val's troops- they were here to fight till the very end.

But then, so was she.

Terra clunked up to the group, joined by... Well, everyone. The NEMESIS hovered above the city, with the CYCLOPS in the background. Scootaloo trotted up beside Rainbow. Lightning Dust and her Apollo glided into view, fresh scars of battle visible across the hull of the vehicle.

Then the whole of Valhalla trembled, the city quaking in its weakened walls. Rainbow's eyes briefly flickered up to the Tower, and she saw it wobble a slight bit.

The city grumbled, a metallic groan shivering through the nooks and crannies of Valhalla.

Val let out a soft sigh as the rest of her body healed, and then grinned. Then laughed.

At the corner of her vision a small message blinked:

Project Ascension

-All assets connected and accounted for

-All preliminary commands executed

-Project Ascension <status update>

-ACTIVE.

Comments

[_CheckMate_]

And once again, the anime fighting style upped the ante.

Jeez, there was more property damage than Man of Steel.

[Jasper77W]

4642599
It's also going to take about five millions years to write but motivation is important and your comments are giving me plenty :> so thankyou

[Techn0log1c]

4649929

No way! Take all my motivations, but I want to see this damn awesome story complete (I mean absolutely completely really complete, with that green 'complete' sign at the bottom)!

((unnecessary) EDIT: Or is the complete sign black? Dunno, haven't seen any for a long time...)

[Jasper77W]

4923083
Ssssshhhhh, Tech, I'm trying to do something a little different with it but it'll take a year or two

[Techn0log1c]

4923884
Well, that much time should be enough for both of us to get somewhere with our plans.
Soo, meet you in... a year or two. (Somewhere in the USA, if possible. :) . whatever you... I would suggest... Manhattan... Yeah, Manhattan, definitely. Neat. - I'm working on something big, something awesome. A game ((and) game engine) to be specific. "Jasper? Sci-fi Pon3s?" to be more specific. And I must thank you! Thank what? If you hadn't written Bounty Hunters, I would know nothing about C++ (and some other programming languages), electronics, weapons, and I would have no interest in tech at all. [My *Little* Steganography: Unrenderably Small Text is Magic] Damn, why did I do .

[Jasper77W]

4928047
No idea how BH ever remotely inspired you to start programming but okay. It's cool to know that BH inspired anything at all