Quest For Harmony

by destinedjagold

Chapter 58 - Breaking The Limit

"I've got to warn them!" Rainbow's voice trailed off as she zoomed further and further away from Gold Blitz and the rest of her companions. She flapped her wings as hard and as fast as she could, as she headed towards Pegasopolis while leaving a trail of rainbow behind her.

"R-Rainbow Dash—" Scootaloo shouted, "wait!"

---

A purple unicorn, standing firm and proud on top of the edge of the giant metallic cannon, disregarded the strong stormy wind and grinned as she eyed the rainbow trail that was heading towards the very target of the weapon.

A few feet behind her was a dark-blue coated unicorn, who stood tall as well.

A white unicorn walked out from the shadows of the mountain, and was heading towards her majesty with clear difficulty of keeping her footing on the weapon, not to mention the strong wind is making things for her a lot more difficult.

She stopped, two or so meters from Starfall. She bowed, despite having difficulty to even stand firmly in the spot. "P-princess," she shivered. She just realized how cold she was feeling at the moment. She hid a grin. Maybe after all of this, a private victory celebration is waiting sooner than later.

Starfall didn't move an inch. He locked his gaze on the cloud kingdom, while Twilight turned her head towards the white unicorn, her grin was still plastered firmly on her face. "Yes?"

Rarity lifted her head, returning her gaze at her. "Everything is in order, princess. Shall I take my position?"

Twilight grinned further, and Rarity took that as an answer. She bowed before carefully trotting back. Twilight turned and locked her gaze on the cloud kingdom.

"Order isn't really the right word, my dear Rarity..."

---

Rainbow Dash, upon her arrival on the cloud kingdom, was blocked and was now surrounded by armored pegasi stallions.

"We are sorry, Miss Dash," one of the stallions spoke loudly so his voice will break through the strong chilly wind. Rainbow cringed, hearing her title was no longer spoken by the stallions she used to command. "...but we have strict orders not to let you go further in the kingdom."

"Look," the cyan mare grunted, "I don't care if you'll let me in or not, but," she spun, facing the direction of where the mountain of Unicornia stood. "I want you to deliver a message, and fast!"

Rainbow extended a hoof, pointing at the mountain far away. Other stallions stared at the direction, and lost their breath after what they have seen.

---

Rarity stood on the metallic weapon near the shadows of the mountain of where it came out. She took a deep breath — the cold stormy air filled her lungs. She turned her head back, and took a while for her eyes to adjust to the dimly lit interior of the mountain.

Earth ponies from inside were now closing the rectangular door of the cannon on the end of the weapon, were they have filled it with years and years of collected gems from all across the land.

Such a waste of gems, she thought as she smiled bitterly before turning her head back to the purple unicorn on the other end of the weapon. As the purple unicorn's mane danced with the wind, she wondered how such a young soul was able to command the empire after Celestia fell ill. She shook her head, for there is a proper time to deal such thoughts. She inhaled deep yet again, shivering slightly as the cold air filled her lungs once more. As she exhaled, she concentrated her magic on her horn, and slightly collecting mana energy from a small radius of her surroundings to enhance her power. Though it only provided little help, for there was no mana energy on steel, and the air was too strong to collect a few.

Nevertheless, she concentrated. "Princess!" she yelled with all her might. Twilight's horn glowed, Starfall's horn glowed soon after, and Rarity took that as her reply. Soon, the faint purple glow of Twilight's horn flared brightly as a purple strand of mana started crawling in the air. It connected with Starfall's horn, where he grunted slightly, and soon, three purple strands of mana stream slowly wormed in the air, crawling towards Rarity's glowing horn.

Rarity sighed a bit. She didn't know that streaming mana energy would require time to connect from one horn to another. Hm... Maybe it's because of their distance? She shook the question away. She needed to concentrate, and if she needed to wait, then wait she shall.

---

The pegasi ponies in Pegasopolis were in panic. Civilians were flying everywhere, while some even flew out of the kingdom's borders. Armored stallions did manage to stop each one, but for how long is a question none of them bothered troubling with.

"Listen up!" Rainbow's voice boomed from the heavens. Each soul turned to her. She was flying a few inches above the tallest tower of the kingdom. "We're not going to achieve anything from being afraid!"

Far below, Cloud Strike smirked. The king had ordered him to take her place in protecting Ponyville after her failed attempt of stopping the advancing unicorns from a surprise attack. He knew far too well that Rainbow Dash no longer has the authority to make commands to anypony. But as he scanned the royal grounds of the castle, those higher in rank than him were speechless. His grin grew longer. He knew it was a mistake to remove her from her rank. But did they listen? They are now.

"That weapon of theirs is far too big for even a hundred — no, — a thousand unicorns to move! You know why!? Because it's locked on the ground!" Rainbow spat, shouting with all her lungs as she landed on top of the tower. She doesn't want to show it, but she knew she couldn't hover in the air while wasting her breath shouting. "They can't move their cannon, but we can move its target!" She flapped her wings twice as she raised a hoof in the air. "Now who's with me!?"

As the crowd all shouted in unison, Cloud Strike closed his eyes, turned to the ground, and shook his head slightly with a warm smile. There really is something about Rainbow Dash that she can motivate any pony.

"I can't hear you!" Rainbow shouted, and it was quickly followed by an even louder roar from the crowd below and around her. She eyed the crowd with a victorious smile before fixing her gaze at the mountain far away. "I won't fail again..." she whispered as her smile faded into a serious frown. "I won't fail again..." she repeated, more quiet this time.

---

The purple mana streams have already snaked their way on Rarity's glowing horn. She grunted as a powerful wave of magic — that she never knew would be possible — had made contact, and now, a few more snaked out from her horn, growing longer as it quietly crawled in the air towards the other unicorns inside the mountain, where their horns were already lighting in different colors.

Rarity heard an echo of shouting ponies. She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the kingdom of clouds far away, where she thought was where the echo had come from.

Twilight also heard it, and also doubted if it came from Pegasopolis, but what it was didn't matter. She looked down, and the unicorns down below were like ants: taking their positions and preparing themselves if ever the pegasi were to strike.

Inside the mountain, the unicorns were shivering slightly. Whether it was the uncertainty of the mana stream reaching them or the chilly stormy air that continually entered the huge hole on the mountain's face, or probably both.

After each of the unicorns' glowing horns were reached by the strands of the mana stream, their horns — as well as Twilight's, Starfall's and Rarity's — glowed dimly, as a bright serpent-like stream of mana flowed out from the group of unicorns, and was slithering its way in the air towards the crystal rods poking out near the end of the cannon inside the mountain.

The crystal rods were two meters in height, and were already glowing brighter and brighter the mana stream got close.

The mana stream connected with a rod, and continued heading to the others. Finally connected with all rods, Twilight sensed that she was finally connected with the crystals inside, and as well as the cannon. She grinned as she eyed the cloud kingdom slowly moving east.

"So," the purple unicorn licked her lips and kept her grin, "time for the grand finalé." She took a breath and concentrated. With her powerful magic, she was able to gather huge amounts of mana from the air, and absorbed it all to her horn, and directly sent jolts of mana energy to the cannon through the mana stream, where Rarity and the other unicorns jerked from the powerful energy they were channeling.

Rarity and the other unicorns suddenly felt their grounds were shaking slightly... Rarity didn't know what was happening.

---

"Keep it up!" Rainbow shouted as she and the other pegasi ponies pushed the edge of their cloud kingdom towards east. It was a slow process, but at least they're now out of the aim of the cannon. Grinning, she flew out of the pushing ponies and looked at the mountain of the unicorns.

Rainbow's grin evaporated as her coat went white...as white as the cannon's mouth, which was glowing brightly, and was still aimed at their kingdom.

"N-no..." Rainbow whispered. She slowly turned to the pegasi ponies. They were still busy pushing, and were all completely unaware that their efforts were fruitless. How did that cannon manage to turn, she had no idea, but now's not the time to think. It was time to act! "Everypony!" Rainbow shouted as she hovered and flew above the others. "Fly away! Fly away! Now!"

---

"Target..." Twilight gasped, "locked..." She had no idea that a great amount of her energy would be drained away in the process of preparing the mana cannon to fire. Has she miscalculated perhaps? No. This is the first in history, and she'll be the one to write all of the facts, if she remembers doing so. Through the mana stream, she also felt the exhaustion of the other unicorns. She couldn't delay any further. Despite her stamina rapidly decreasing, she grinned, and continued sending waves upon waves of mana energy to the cannon.

From the mouth of the cannon, Twilight could already see the brightly white glow and could already hear the hissing noises of burning mana from within.

She closed her eyes, and everything went dead silent. She slowly took a breath. She felt how cold the air was traveling from her nostrils down to her lungs. He kept it there for a moment before exhaling through her mouth. She slowly opened her eyes. With a serious look, she spoke, "game over..."

---

The pegasi ponies were flying away from their kingdom, while some decided to stay and, to what fate their kingdom faces, they'll face it as well. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash would be none of those. She knew that if the kingdom falls, the unicorns would easily take over Ponyville.

She failed protecting that town once, and she swore never to fail again from protecting it...no matter what the cost.

"Dash!" a white coated stallion with yellow mane and tail hovered to her. "We should leave, now!"

Rainbow Dash turned away from him, and locked her gaze on the glowing mouth of the cannon. "N-no..." she replied through trembling lips.

"Dash," Cloud Strike spoke, "leave, now!" But after receiving no response, he added, "this is an order!"

"Screw your orders!" Rainbow Dash removed her helmet and dropped it towards the thunderous clouds of the Everfree down below.

"W-what are you doing!?"

Rainbow shook her light armor off of her, following her helmet down below. "Sorry Clouddy," she stretched her legs and cracked her neck. "But this mare flies solo from now on."

"Ack!" Cloud grabbed her foreleg with both of his. "Don't be crazy!" Rainbow shot him a glare. "What could a mare like you possibly do at a time like this!?" He strengthened his grip on her hooves to make sure she won't be able to fly anywhere.

Rainbow was silent for a while, holding her glare. She soon grinned devilishly at him, which made Cloud blink in confusion. With smiling lips, and teary eyes, she spoke. "I-I'll let you see a legend..."

With that, she quickly opened her mouth wide and bit his foreleg, making him jerk and lose his grip on her. She flared her wings and flapped them as hard and as fast as ever, heading straight towards the cannon far far away...

---

Twilight's eyes glowed white as her whole body was surrounded by a white glow. And finally, with a stomp, the cannon fired a fearsome ray of mana, huge enough to cover everything of Pegasopolis, and powerful enough to dissolve anything.

The cannon flew backwards, and it's base hit the other side of the mountain, summoning a terrifying earthquake that startled and made the unicorns stumble and lose their concentration, resulting for the mana stream to break and for the cannon to slowly return to its neutral state.

---

The monstrous mana beam was quickly approaching towards the cloud kingdom.

Rainbow Dash was quickly flying towards the incoming mana beam. She gulped, but didn't slowed her pace. In fact, she became even faster and faster in every beat of her blurring wings.

Everything became slow for the ponies and a dragon who were watching nervously on the edge of a forest. They have shouted, and they have wailed, but their voices were only carried by the wind elsewhere.

Rainbow Dash had already summoned a v-shaped air wave, but she hadn't noticed. All she was focused on was to hear it. She was too late when she did it before. But this time, she knew she'll make it.

But her hope of making it was slowly dissolving as she realized how close she was getting towards the quick mana beam. But there's no time to turn and evade it, as she suddenly heard something breaking all around her.

Rainbow Dash had broken the sound barrier.

Rainbow Dash has created the legendary Sonic Rainboom.

Rainbow Dash was too close to the mana beam.

---

Everything stopped for one moment. Rainbow had realized that things won't be going as she hoped it would...

"Rainbow Dash...!" she heard the wind faintly delivered the voice of a filly to her ears.

Will she ever see her again? She doubted it, but, she was thankful to be given this moment to smile.

"Heh," she whispered to herself, "sorry squirt..."

She closed her eyes...

---

The instant the Sonic Rainboom had appeared was also the moment it collided with the huge beam of melting mana. Rainbow had only time to register in her brain of how close and how hot it was when a powerful explosion had erupted.

The explosion was loud for even those who were far away needed their hooves to cover their ears. But it also created a blinding white light, forcing the ponies — even those who were staring elsewhere — needed to close their eyes to protect their sight.

Seconds flew by, and everything became rain and wind again.

Twilight collapsed, slipped off the cannon, and was to fall were it not for Starfall's quick hooves to catch her. He grunted, and pulled the purple unicorn back up with all of the strength that was left in him.

Scootaloo and the others were quickly working their eyes to spot the only pony they were concerned for the moment, but as the seconds became minutes, the one-winged pegasus lost her footing and collapsed, sobbing.

"N-no, wait..." Gold Blitz whispered to himself, his pupils small and his face pale after what he just witnessed. "R-Rainbow's...no..."

Comments

[Warman1138]

Thumbs up.

[butterfield pancake]

Actually if I recall the mana Cannon also needs the Mana of the Opposing Summon Spirits in this case

1. Celcius [madien of Everlasting Ice]
2. Shadow [Envoy from the Dark Abyss]
3. Volt [Hammer of Godly Thunder]
4. Gnome [Servant of Mother Earth]