• Published 7th Mar 2013
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Master - NejinOniwa



While investigating a strange magical signal, the Element bearers (along with an unsuspecting Spike) are scattered throughout a strange world filled with even stranger creatures. The one who brought them there is very interested in catching them all.

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Chapter 9 - Pair of Aces

Chapter 9 – Pair of Aces

Rainbow's heart was beating like the drums of a whole marching band as she fled the house. She wasn't entirely sure of what had happened; one second she had been beating the crap out of some cocky bird, and the next she had just fallen asleep. Vaguely, she remembered some kind of red light...

Wait, something said inside her, and she pulled to a stop, stuck in thought. The red light. I'm pretty sure I saw that before, too – when that blue bear-thing was doing stuff with those ball-widgets! Did he trap me inside one of those too?

She had never heard of any creatures that could stare a pony to sleep, but there were cockatrices who did worse; it wasn't unlikely by any stretch of the word. “So, I was stared to sleep, trapped inside some magic ball-thingy, and taken away...” Looking around a bit she could see the lake from before not too far off, and behind her lay a jumble of strange houses and roads. “To that bear-thing's cave. Town. Whatever. Either way, they cheated to beat me, so I still won! Nobody beats Rainbow Dash in the air!” She puffed her chest out a bit, feeling her self-confidence return – without it she couldn't succeed with anything, but with it she was unstoppable. She was Rainbow Dash!

She was of half a mind to stay there and go on for a while, but then she heard it again; that tiny voice inside her mind, saying, almost commanding her: Wait. Annoyed, she turned around, grumbling. “Wait for what, exactly?” She looked around her, and down towards the town, but didn't spot anything but a small flock of birds. A small flock of birds...one of which looked very familiar, and was carrying something large, blue and equally familiar on its back. And they were all making full speed toward her.

The cheaters thought they could get her again, did they?

“Ha! In your dreams, pigeons! You half-baked bunch of bird crackers, catch the Rainbow Dash? It AIN'T GONNA FLY!" With a final gesture their way, she spun about and beat her wings, setting off toward the mountains in a burst of speed that left her pursuers in the dust.

The landscape and the wind rushed past her. She was the ruler of the sky – the fastest pegasus in Equestria! – and wherever this weird place was, it didn't have anything that could match her in the air. After all the weirdness of that ball-prison or whatever it was, flying again felt good; she felt good. Was she flying faster than she usually did, or was it just her imagination? Heh, yeah, it probably is, she thought with a bashful grin. Most likely it was just the rush of breaking out of her prison – she counted that as beating those cheating mules a second time – and getting to fly again that she was taking her head.

She shook herself a bit, dipping slightly in altitude as she did. It wouldn't do to lose her cool in a place like this – wherever it might be – and in order for her to stay at her peak performance level, she needed naps. A brief look at the sun in the sky placed the time at an hour and some before midday; and unless you counted the time she'd spent stared to sleep and imprisoned, she hadn't had a single proper nap since waking up in the morning. In Rainbow Dash's eyes, that mean nap time was way overdue.

Before long she was approaching the first set of mountains, with forested foothills painted by rivers and waterfalls most everywhere. She chose a grove at random, and grabbed hold of a bit of cloud on her way down. Naps were important, after all, but just as important was having somewhere good to nap; and if the cheaters were still searching the airspace in the area for her, taking her usual spot of “the comfiest cloud couch around in the sky” would probably be a bad idea.

After a few seconds of scouting for a good place to put her impromptu bed, she decided on a decently covered spot behind a few bushes. Dragging the cloud with her down, she scooted it carefully into place, before diving into its fluffy embrace with gusto and falling asleep on the spot.

-/-/-/

Unfortunately, Falkner's plan had failed to bear fruit. He'd gotten his hopes up when he spotted the rainbow creature – which he really needed to come up with a name for – just hanging around in the sky, but before he could come close enough to aim the pokéball's return beam with any level of reliability, she spotted him. Spotted him, made a few taunting noises and gestures, and blazed off fast enough to leave an afterimage that remained for several seconds.

Aside from learning that the pokémon was faster than anything he'd ever seen before – up to and possibly including the test runs of the Magnet Train that was going to open between Kanto and Johto within a few weeks – and that she had an attitude problem the size of a Snorlax's belly, his excursion hadn't gained him much ground. Not yet, at least.

Luckily the rainbow afterimage had remained long enough for him to get a decent bearing on her course, and with the help of his own pokémon he had started to make his way toward the Dark Mountains with good speed.

At least, it was good speed by his standards. He was fairly certain it took him considerably more time to get anywhere than Pidgeot would've managed on its own, and nevermind his equine fugitive. That time, however, gave him some opportunity to think up a good name for his discovery – a task that was almost just as vital as recovering her successfully. Rainbow, Equine. Rayquine? No, that sounds stupid. Requiem? No, that sounds like a ghost-type...

Thus he spent a good number of minutes, taking the time to go over what facts he had on the creature as well for a better overview and more inspiration for its name. His gear clock had just crossed over to 1PM when he noticed the lush greenery native to the Violet area starting to give way for the darker, hardier flora and terrain of the mountain region. Alert, he raised a hand to cover the sun, and started scanning the land beneath him for his chromatic runaway.

He wasn't more than a few hundred meters from the foothills when Natu gave a startled cry, one that soon broke out into a panicked cackle. He could feel the psychic bird trying to tell him something, but all he understood of it was the single word beating through his mind like an enormous drum.

FLEE! FLEE! FLEE! FLEE!

It was bad enough that he himself was getting a headache from it, but from the reactions the rest of his team showed it was clear that whatever message he'd missed had gotten across quite properly to them. Murkrow was cawing like mad, flying back and forth as it tried to both block his way and run away at the same time. Pidgeot, meanwhile, was staying quiet; but it was an ominous silence that he recognized very well, and it had turned right about the second Natu had opened its beak. Its plume stood rigid – the only real fear signal he'd ever managed to decipher from the hardy avian – and its eyes were darting this way and that, obviously looking for a threat far too close and far too powerful for it to handle on its own.

What the hell is going on here, Falkner wondered quietly. It was clear enough that he wouldn't be able to get much closer to his prey, with his pokémon acting up like this; at least, not with their help. Signaling Pidgeot to go in for a landing, he reached down to adjust his boots to a proper position. He had been a bit hasty in putting them on when leaving the Gym, and he wasn't wearing any socks; once again, though, he figured it'd have to do. On a day like this, he could hardly afford to be averse to a bit of exercise of his own, after all.

He recalled Natu and Murkrow into their balls as they started descending, and as soon as they'd landed and he'd given Pidgeot a comforting ruffle of its stiff plumage feathers, he let his mount follow suit. Briefly checking his gear for the right direction, he set off upwards, hoping he would get through the experience without his boots chafing too much.

Once he got moving through the dark-nettled foilage, his mind started wandering again – returning to the yet-unsolved question of what to name the pokémon he was searching for. Equine. Rainbow. Chromatic, prismatic, and very very fast. Prismidash? No, too similar. Chromine? No, that sounds like a chemical. Prismine? Actually not too bad. Prismine. It's got style. Could be better, I suppose, but it's a decent start.

It was a decent start indeed, and one that meant he didn't have to completely occupy himself with that question any longer; which in turn let him do some actual progress on searching for the thing. If he didn't come up with anything better, Prismine would have to do – and if his instincts were right, it probably would.

-/-/-/

A loud, satisfied yawn were the first thing that escaped Rainbow's lips as she slowly woke from her slumber. She stretched and rolled, splaying herself out on the cloud and tensing every muscle in her body for a second, before letting herself fall completely limp and lean back on her cloudy rest with sigh of contentment. “Mmmmm. I needed that. I really needed that.”

As tempting as it was to just roll back up and extend her nap time an hour or two, she had more important things to do right now. For one, she needed clean herself up a bit; she had no idea what sort of weird stuff she'd pulled with her from that red-lit prison ball, and while she was hardly no Rarity, she wasn't too keen on finding out. For another she had to make sure she didn't get discovered by that bear-thing – or any other weird creepers happening to be in the mood to put a pegasus in a cage, for that matter. And for that, she needed a place to hide. No, wait, that doesn't sound cool enough, her brain immediately protested – so she fired up her largely unused creative circuits to come up with a sufficiently awesome replacement.

Luckily, there was one readily available. “A secret base.” She grinned. Now that sounds cool enough for Rainbow Dash. She nodded briefly in satisfaction before hopping off the cloud she'd slept on, and made her way down to a nearby stream. The cold water's biting chill sunk its fangs into her as she dove in face-first, but who wasn't used to that? Any pegasus worth her name grew used to taking cloud-showers early on, and the only difference was whether they did so before or after everyone around them started picking on them for smelling bad.

She sucked in a deep breath as she got back up, wringing her wings out first before giving her body a good shake; the remaining water would dry off quickly enough as she flew, and she honestly didn't mind being a little wet, so there wasn't any rush with that. Instead, she looked around for anything decently edible – she was starting to feel a bit hungry now after her nap, and all the activity preceding it – and after deciding she wasn't quite hungry enough to eat grass, pinecones or nettles yet, she lowered herself to the stream again to slake some of her thirst.

Once she'd downed a few gulps of the refreshing mountain water and driven the worst of her parched throat away, she noted with annoyance that her mane was hanging down into the water. “Ugh, come on,” she grumbled as she fumbled with a hoof, trying to get it back into place. The prismatic hairs wouldn't follow her wishes, however – and with a look in the water's natural mirror, she could easily see why. “Man, I thought I cut this like, two months ago or something,” she groaned, firmly dissatisfied with her body's inability to stop ruining her awesome manecut every season. She wasn't close to Rarity's – or Fluttershy's, for that part – level by any means, but she did put a good deal of work in to make sure she maintained her awesome look all year round. At least, it was a good deal of work according to her standards.

She cursed herself for not noticing her predicament earlier; if she'd looked herself in a mirror even once yesterday, she could've paid a visit to the hairdresser, the spa sisters or even Fluttershy, and have her hairdo properly fixed back up to its normal standard of awesome. Now, though, she was stuck in the wilderness without so much as a pair of scissors to her name, and she'd be forced to inaugurate her secret base with long hair like she was some fru-fru magazine model or something.

She mulled over this a moment as she drew a few more mouthfuls of water from the stream, before shaking herself up and taking wing. Oh, get over it, you big grumpy Dash, she told herself as she started scanning the area around her. Once I get this dry, I bet I won't even notice the difference anyway. Focus on finding a base instead of grumbling over your looks – you're not Rarity, for Celestia's sake! So one pep-talk richer, that was what she did.

Since she were in the mountains and all, she figured that the best place to start looking for a potential base would be to make like a dragon and find a cave somewhere. Sure, caves are usually a bit tacky when you find them, Rainbow reasoned as she started wandering uphill in search of her future lair of awesome. But that's not their fault! I mean, houses don't have too much swag either until you do something with them! Dragons just don't have any sense of how to rad up a place, that's all.

It didn't take long until she discovered a well-sized hole in the rocky mountain wall, and she grinned in satisfaction as she landed at the entrance to her newly-dubbed secret base. “Don't worry, cave! You might not be super-cool just yet, but the awesomest pony in existence, Rainbow Dash, is here to fix up your game! Be thankful!” With a glance backward to make sure she wasn't being followed or anything, she pushed down the tiny bit of fear that was trying to gain a foothold in her brain and entered the cave on hoof.

The passage was a bit more than pony-size in height, but it was narrow and winding; she couldn't flare her wings too much, and the small amount of light that had illuminated the entrance took little effort to delve much further into the mountain. It didn't take long before she had to feel her way forward to avoid tripping over herself, and on several occasions she reflected that having a unicorn around for some light would've been pretty nifty in this situation.

It took a minute or so, but eventually the narrow passage gave way for a larger, roomier cavern. The occasional drop of condensed water falling from the roof a meter or so above her head made the only sound she could hear aside from her own breathing and hoofsteps, and judging by the echo it wasn't an all too large cavern either; just a few meters in every direction, she guessed. She put her hoof to one wall and followed it, just to make sure there wasn't anything she'd missed, but when she thought she'd done about half the way around she walked right into something soft. From the way it felt, smooth in texture and hanging limply from above, she thought it was some sort of plant; at least, until a loud, echoing voice spoke up inside her head.

I believe this is what the humans refer to as, hm, irony.

She gave a startled cry and tried to back away, but the thing she'd walked into was suddenly alive, warm and moving. She managed to get out of its grasp after a second or so, but just as she was about to hightail it out of the cave at full speed, the familiar feeling of someone grabbing hold of her with magic enveloped her entire body, and she was rendered immobile. For a few seconds, at least; then the field let go of her head, hooves and body in that order, leaving only a light touch around the base of her wings and her legs. The message was clear enough, though – she would not be allowed to escape.

Well, this is a shitty secret base, she grumbled, and was about to ask the voice what it meant with irony, when it surprised her again by replying to her thoughts. That is incorrect, Rainbow Dash. It is an excellent, hm, secret base. You just picked one that already happened to be occupied.

She couldn't help but drop her jaw at this, and stood dumbstruck a second before sputtering her answer. “Y-you can read my mind? What the hay!” She thought about the wisdom in using rhetorical questions, or whatever it was Twilight called them, against weird mind-reading creeps, and decided it was probably best to negotiate her way out of this place as soon as she could. “Well, whatever, but if this base is already occupied, I, uh, don't have much business here, and certainly none with you, no offense or anything, so could you please let me go so I can keep looking for some other cave to base up in? I kind of need one of my own so the bear-things don't catch me or anything.” It was a bit too rambling of a line for her taste, but she was gradually starting to lean well over into panic territory, and she didn't want to be in this mind-reading whatever's grasp when that happened.

Unfortunately, the mind-reading whatever had other plans.

I'm afraid I can't do that, Rainbow Dash. You see, the irony I was talking about was this: I've been looking everywhere for you since morning, and then you come blindly stumbling across the one place I'm not watching – my own base of operations. Ah, of course. I believe this place is quite dark, now that you mention it. Allow me.

She was about to ask the voice what it was going on about this morning for, but then it complied with her subconscious wish of being able to see. Slowly a small orb of pale purple light sparked to life, illuminating the entire cavern without so much as making her squint – and when she saw just what it was she'd walked into, understanding dawned on her faster than the sun at summer solstice. It was the spindly, white-pink creature she'd seen during Twilight's ritual, and its eyes were shining with a subtle purple aura of magic.

I am Mewtwo, the creature's voice rumbled in answer to the question she was about to think, and I am in need of your help.

It took several seconds for Rainbow to formulate any thoughts at all, and those that came first were ones of plain astonishment. “Wha- help? What the hell are you talking about? You seem powerful enough to me to make do on your own! Besides, hold on, did you do all this? Did you bring me here, wherever here is? Couldn't you just have asked someone nearby if you needed help with something?”

She was about to shoot into another length of protests and questions, but the creature raised its lanky arm and put one of its three stubby claw-nubs to her mouth. Its skin was disturbingly soft, as if it had never been exposed to anything at all. No, I could not. The beings of this world are not well disposed towards me. That is why I sent the signal – I needed someone from somewhere else, or they would not have agreed to aid me unless I forced them. That is...not what I require.

Rainbow made a derisive snort and brushed aside the creature's arm with a hoof, stomping the cavern floor as she brought it down with enough force to send echoes all the way out to the entrance. “Yeah, right. I see where this is going, you know – 'not well disposed towards me', my flank! I bet you're just some kind of evil bad guy who wants to find some gullible goody-four-shoes to do your bidding – you might even be a spy or something! Well that's not going to work on Rainbow Dash, you spindly freak, so you'd best give that up right here and now before I decide to buck your nose in!”

Her voice echoed across the walls of the cave for several seconds, and she slowly started to realize what she'd actually said. And the fact that she'd said it to a freaky mind-reading weirdo who had not long ago demonstrated its ability to completely immobilize her with its magic. Slowly, and a bit too loudly for her liking, she gulped.

Eventually, the echoes subsided, and Mewtwo broke the eerie silence. Evil is indeed the reason I cannot seek others of this world for help. However, it is not my own. Rainbow frowned, and started to fear she might've insulted the thing more than she'd intended; but the pale lanky mage went on. My creators were greedy and ambitious men, only seeking to further their own powers by making something greater than themselves. When they failed to control me they turned to a man by the name Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket; a vicious pack of thieves, vandals and murderers. But I did not know this, and saw only his ruthless strength. I let him chain me, and served – however briefly – his will. When I later broke free of Giovanni's control, and one other human managed to bring about his defeat, he revealed my existence to the world, and painted the Team Rocket name on my shoulders.

It was hard to spot, but she thought she could see Mewtwo's alien frame slump ever so slightly, its twisted gnarly limbs edging just a little bit downward. The spotlight of the world was on me, and I desperately strove to defend what little territory I had found. I admit now that I was distrusting and hasty in my measures, and perhaps things could have gone differently if I had not – but for all my power over the present, changing history is beyond my grasp. After fighting off countless humans seeking to 'bring me to justice', the same one who brought down my former master came to me as well. He bested me, and I was forced to flee my sanctuary.

Mewtwo's eyes focused and looked into hers, and she saw in them a slight hint of violent, fearsome rage that made her swallow both once and twice. That is why they will not help me; that is why I turned to other worlds for help. I had hope when I saw you all, before Mew interfered and scattered you across the land; your hearts were loyal, caring and benevolent, free from the many failures of the human mind. I had hope, but I am starting to fear it was misplaced. I do not appreciate being wrong, no more than I appreciate being wronged, Rainbow Dash.

It took a few seconds for all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place inside her head, but thankfully it eventually did. It's a bit like with Zecora, except bigger, she mused. Suddenly aware of the creature's posture, she struggled against his magic and flared her wings best she could. “Whoa, dude, calm down! I, I mean, I didn't know about that. I'm, um, sorry. For saying those things. I shouldn't have. You'd think I'd learn the second time around, but I guess I'm a bit stupid like that,” she ended with a mumble, pawing sheepishly at the ground as she tried to stomach her shame.

Then another thing Mewtwo had said came to mind, and she jerked her head back up to look the creature in the eye. “Hold on! You said 'you all', right? Are Twilight and the others here as well? Are they okay?” She recalled the manner in which she'd appeared in this world, and a biting chill ate its way down her spine. Of all the Elements, she was the only one who could actually fly with any level of reliability. Despite her recent improvements, Fluttershy could still be about as flightworthy as a feathered brick sometimes; and the others didn't even have a single wing to their collective names.

Mewtwo's face was as unreadable as ever – rather expectable from the way it used telepathy for all its communication, but still uncanny – but she thought she could feel a bit of assurance from the creature. Your apology is...accepted. Distrust is not unique to myself, I suppose. And your friends are all alive, I at least know that much. But my old base is unreliable these days, and I haven't had all too much time to search; Mew threw quite a wrench into my plans, intervening as she did. Also, keeping the barrier up takes a lot of concentration, and I can't look everywhere at the same time. I have located one, but...

The voice faded, and she could see some movement in Mewtwo's alien expression. A human is approaching. I do not recognize him, but judging from his willpower he could be quite strong.

It took some effort, but if she listened carefully Rainbow could indeed hear hoofsteps coming from the cave's mouth. No way! Astonishment was first in among the emotions in her mind, but looming dread soon followed suit. Is it that blue bear-thing still trying to catch me? How did he manage to find me here?

For a moment she had forgotten about Mewtwo's mind-reading ability, and she jumped slightly as he responded to her thoughts. He may have had other pokémon trace you – he carries a team of five with him. Did he capture you? A burst of shame inside her mind betrayed the answer to that question, and the voice went on. Do you want me to dispose of him, or destroy the ball he used on you?

It took her a few seconds to process what the creature meant, but a shiver ran through Rainbow's spine when understanding dawned. However, the whole deal with Mewtwo's mind-reading ability had gotten her to think a bit; and now, the last piece needed for her idea had just marched into her hooves.

“Actually, no. I wanna make this fellow talk.”

-/-/-/

The cloud he'd found mysteriously sitting on a ledge had been quite a tell to begin with; it hadn't taken a lot of thought for Falkner to tie that to this morning's episode at the lake. It still left him with quite a bit of mountain to search, however. Thus, when he'd recognized the familiar sounds of the Prismine's taunting cries from the inside of a cave, he'd been quite thankful indeed for the clue given. Gritting his teeth as he remembered the state his pokémon were in, he sneaked in on careful feet, not even daring to use his gear for light.

Strangely, there seemed to be some kind of light shining from deeper inside the cave, and Falkner couldn't help but wonder what else might be in there with his chromatic runaway. Thanks to the slight illumination, it didn't take long for him to find his way out of the narrow tunnel and into the larger chamber where his prey – as expected – awaited.

Prismine stood on all fours in a defiant position, staring at straight at him from the moment he stepped out of the shadows. As if expecting his arrival; as if waiting for him. It was time to do what he'd come for.

Adrenaline rising, he produced her pokéball from his belt and aimed the beam dead center toward her. “Prismine! You can't run away from me, this time!” Aimed, squinted a bit – where was that light coming from? – and fired.

The very moment before the red light was about to hit her, Prismine shifted. He knew illusion techniques well enough to see this one for what it was: sheer, pure speed. One moment she'd been dead in the beam's path, and the next she simply wasn't there anymore, but a meter to the side; her long, chromatic mane hung in the air like a mockery of an actual afterimage, defying gravity despite being very very real.

Then, after a second, he saw the orb of pale light – and the yet paler creature that was holding it. A creature that he, just as most every other trainer in the world, had seen everywhere on the news three years ago; and had thought safely done and dealt with thanks to the intervention of another living legend. Now, he stood face to face with Mewtwo; and there was no Red aside from the stripe on Prismine's mane hanging in the air.

He gulped. Then he opened his mouth, and was just about to say something – he wasn't even sure what – when Prismine gave a loud, taunting snort.

And yelled at him.

“Prismine? Prismine? What sort of cheesy fru-fru mind comes up with that!? MY NAME IS RAINBOW DASH!”

Slowly and uncontrollably, Falkner's jaw dropped. What?

For several seconds his confounded mind tried to grasp what was going on, before finally giving up and resorting to the oldest backup solution there was. Eyes rolling up, the young gym leader wobbled, teetered, and fainted dramatically on the spot into a big, messy heap of gangly human limbs.

Author's Note:

TONIGHT WE UPDATES IN HELL

So yeah, HOW ABOUT THAT TWIST, EH CHUMPS?

As a bit of a reader question: what do you think is going on with Mewtwo now, as opposed to what you thought from his earlier appearances in the prologue and opening chapter? Give your comments below.

Now I have to get myself all packed up and slept so I don't get left behind by the car when morning comes. Smell y'all later!

//ViKing AuThor