With a rush of air, Rainbow Dash glided down a corridor littered with debris and the tell-tale signs of a monumental battle. After two or three more turns, she found herself skimming the careening edge of a chaos strip foundry. At last, a huge chunk of broken glass opened up to the looming hangar of the collapsing Hold beyond.
Exiting, Rainbow levitated in a nervous hover over the loading bays. The Lightning Bearer was gone. Every dock was devoid of a manaship. As the floating mountain slanted further and further in its collapse, the pegasus could see chunks of discarded supplies and entire crates of metal sliding towards their various ledges and plummeting into the great hollow below.
Rainbow Dash panted, her eyes darting about. Every source of light was dimming. Loud reverberations echoed through the chamber as larger and larger cracks formed in the walls of the place. Rainbow’s mind was the clearest it had been in days, and she could almost make out the wailing sound of the demonic dragon that lived deep within that doomed hovel.
Pivoting about, she shone her ruby pendant’s glow across the remaining platforms that hadn’t entirely crumbled to dust. It was then that she saw bodies: hundreds of them. Droves of ponies lay motionless, all of them Xonans. The tell-tale signs of self-inflicted stab wounds glistened in the light that Rainbow had to give. The grave smelled of rust and decay, and it continued to crumble beneath her gaze, spilling corpses into the shadows.
Rainbow took a deep breath, clenching her eyes shut. Her wings flapped, flapped harder, and angled about. With a snarling expression, she tore her way towards the exit, following the trailing exhaust of the Lightning Bearer.
The ship in question had cleared the exit to the Sacred Hold minutes ago. It lifted, pivoted northwest, and made for the air above the nearby mountaintops.
On the top deck, Arcshod marched down the lines of busily working crewmembers in their Ledomaritan disguises. Spying the mountain peaks looming ahead, he shouted a command, and the massive dreadnaught lifted the last few dozen meters necessary to clear the gasp.
Adjusting his uniform, he glanced over his shoulder at the Sacred Hold. He saw two bodies darting after one another, exchanging clashes of sparks and miniature explosions. The stallion smirked, and then--with a glowing horn--shouted once more to the ponies on board.
The Lightning Bearer’s engines lit up and burned with a powerful burst of energy…
...accelerating the ship far away on its northwesterly path towards Seclorum’s headquarters.
Roarke spotted it through the corner of her eye-lenses, but she had very little time to react. Zytharros’ magic spewed at her in bright flashes of lightning-hot arcs. She twirled, alternated thrusters from her right horseshoes to her left, and dashed to her left, skimming the craggy surfaces of the Hold.
All the while, Zytharros Followed the metal mare’s tail, whipping the reins to his chaos serpent. His eyes alternated strobing with the blinding pulse of the chaos strip around his neck. With terribly imbued power, he urged the reptilian abomination forward, forcing its fanged jaws to nip and snap at the bounty hunter’s flailing limbs.
“Friggin’ worm fetishist--Buck off!” Roarke spun in her flight, rigged a shoulder-mounted energy cannon, and fired at his skull.
Quick thinking, Zytharros floated the armored plates off his body and re-formed his blade just in time to deflect her attack. With a snarl, he spun on his mounted serpent and slashed his bastard sword straight into the stone surface of the Hold blurring past him. With telekinetic assistance, he launched a volley of hot burning rubble into Roarke’s face.
She grunted, covering her exposed face with two forelimbs. When she lowered her hooves, she saw two miniature summons being thrown at her muzzle. The translucent snakes sailed towards her jugular. She fought them up, but lost speed with the flailing motion.
At last, Zytharros made contact with her. The flat edge of his blade smacked against her spine, shattering her energy launcher to shrapnel shreds.
“Gaaaugh!” Roarke shrieked and lost her balance. Her body slammed against the Hold. She tried kicking up, but the warrior had caught up, shoving her in the chest with the flat of his hoof. He scraped her body viciously against the stone surface, drawing a shallow canal for several meters.
Hissing in pain, Roarke unlatched her tail and spun it around his fetlock. Before she could send a pulse of electricity, he telekinetically twirled his blade, severing her prehensile prosthetic. She shrieked from the sparks and tried kicking away, only to have the tail of the serpent wrap three times around her.
The chaos beast roared and slammed her repeatedly against the stone surface before tossing her at full force. Her body flew, spun, then collapsed against the summit of the Hold. She bounced like a skipping stone and came to a grinding halt, twitching all over.
“Nnnn-mmmff…” Roarke tried standing up, only to collapse on wobbling limbs. She smelled smoke wafting out of of the joints of her armored suit. “Goddess, grant me a good death…”
Thud! The cracked surface of the summit fractured even more from all four of Zytharros’ hooves landing. “It is willing to oblige.”
Roarke wiped blood off her chin. “I didn’t say I was going out alone…” A panel in her left forelimb spun around, exposing a flickering runic explosive. Spinning about, she fired a loop of metal coils around him and yanked towards her. “Let’s hug it out--”
Zytharros snapped the cables clean with his sword.
Roarke twitched. “Oh sh--”
“Haaaaaugh!” He had already closed the distance between them and was slamming the hilt of his sword into her chest. As she collapsed, wheezing, he raised his rear hooves and pummeled her foreleg repeatedly until the runic explosive had imploded to useless, powdery bits. “No. It shall perish slowly…” He hissed.
“Haukkkt… nnngh…” Roarke rolled over, snickering in pain. “Oh please… the day a Breeder knows how to sh-show me a good time--”
“Silence!” He lifted her with telekinesis, let out a hideous growl, and slammed the tip of his blade into her chestpiece.
“Aaaugh!” Roarke yelped.
“No more tricks,” he sneered. “No more hiding. And no more heathen filth!” He fired a pulse of chaos energy up the length of his blade.
Roarke gasped as every single plate and layer of her suit popped off one by one. Finally, the hydraulic plugs blasted loose, exposing her thin, muscular body and the pale brown coat she was used to hiding. Once every outer strip of metal was cast to the wind, she was magically tossed to the ground where she rolled to a wincing stop.
“It wants a fitting end?” The Xonan spat. He pivoted about and hissed into his floating chaos strip. “Then feed Nagu’n’s children.” As he spoke, several fissures opened around him, glowing bright silver as a dozen floating serpents slithered through, joined by the large snake he had rode the bulk of the battle on. “Feed them all…” His tattooed muzzle curved in a rvenous grin.
Roarke twitched and looked up, her lenses reflecting a solid wall of reptile. “Hmmph…” She droned. “Groovy.”
They converged on her in a mass of snapping, tearing jaws.
Roarke Most Badass.
Fifty crunches, ):(. Knock 'em out!
So Roarke is dead now?
Rourkes not down yet. Never mind the Rainbow Nuke, its Everypony Wang Chun tonight.
Roarke? Die that easy? Don't be silly.
3632722
Can't be sure yet. Funny thing about this series; it doesn't always end the way we think it will.
So now Zytharros and several chaos serpents are facing against a battered Roarke without her armor.
...
Things are getting even, I see.
And no one actually believes that she would actually die here. That would be totally psycotic.
I still want my insert to be bisected.
Now I want him bisected s l o w l y.
3632722
Hey.
Don't forget. No body. Simon's body was unfortunately, too visible for the timespace continuum and had to stay dead. Roarke however, is in the state know has Schrodinger's's cat. She is both alive and dead until the next chapter proves otherwise.
Last-second save in 3...
Sonic Rain-nuke? Though she probably won't have time to get up to speed, so just angry Dash mode.
Has she done a rainboom yet in the story? I feel like when she does it will be at some crucial point where she crashes into the badguy and beats him/her up. (her being Nevlamas or some other unintroduced threat)
> shoulder-mountain energy cannon
Wat.
~Basso
Tactical Rainbow Extraction incoming. Chaos beast destruction imminent. Zytharros, you're going down.
Oh no! Roarke is dead! Again!
3633092
I think she did one in Austraeoh. Not fully sure.
So Roarke is most definitely not dead, but I was thinking about how she would react if she ended up losing her armor.
Roarke should pull a Captain Jack Harkness and pull a gun from her ass
I honestly don't know what I would do without these to read every day. Years of my life have been spent looking forward to the next chapter now. One day they're going to end, and on that day I will be a shattered individual.
3633953 I'm not sure how the captain can fit up her ass but I'm sure he could find a way if he really needed to.
Well, this would be a good time for Rainbow to show up.
That seems to easy.
*Sees chapter title* You saw The Hobbit, didn't you?
Wuh-oh. Roarke's nekkid. The way her armor was "cast to the wind" makes me wonder if our favorite metal mare will have a little less metal from here on out. Let's just hope that Rainbow can get there in time. And back again.
Roarke ain't dead, but that was a hell of a fight. Nice to see them fighting somebody who's got an equal skill level as Roarke Most OP. I enjoy watching the heroes get beat up a lot; it only makes it that much more satisfying when they put a violent end to their opponent later.
24
3633391
Yep, and another one at the final battle of Eljunbyro.
3633956
Same boat here. I won't know what to do anymore. I pretty much only check FimFiction for these anymore anyway.
3634663 I see what you did there.
~Basso
3633101 You're an energy cannon?
3633391
Oh yeah, now that I think about it, there was that one part when she was in that first settlement (Windforge or something, had the minotaurs and first chaos monster sightings)
and was chasing after the kid who got taken by chaos monsters, she went really fast for a really long time.. but not sure in the rainboom happened, also too lazy to actually go check, but whatever
"No more tricks," he said as he unleashed all his tricks on her.
Oh look,
she'she's dead. At this point of intensity, someone just has to die. Well he was a pretty strong action character. Oh, and of course I must retract my earlier fals observation about the record having failed. Five chapters and counting. Also, either this entire arc is a flashback or Josho is having the longest fall in the history of Equestria right now.3632722 If only. Don't get lost in false hopes.
3634663
I'll call it before anyone else does:
If Zytharros kicks the bucket, then Roarke will get new armor.
Why not assimilate something from an adversary that beat her up?
It worked with RD.
3636781 Roarke isn't wearing Dash, though.
~Basso
3636781
Wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Roarke with magical, shape-shifting armor would be pretty damn awesome.
A panel in her left forelimb spun around, exposing a flickering runic explosive.
Shiit... happens.
She ain't dying here!
The crowd isn't big enough.
>His tattooed muzzle curved in a rvenous grin
le rvenous
IIIIIt's Dashie's Second Get-Backing Adventure!!
Roarke sure is lucky that Dash recovered from her dizzy bout there. Right now, she's the only chance Roarke's got at surviving. She'd better hurry...Roarke couldn't die, right? I mean, it is Imploding we're talking about, but still...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Three left, let's do it! 1, 2, 3, 4, tell me do you love me more?
Roarke, you can pull through. He'd just a worthless breeder.
Or they would have, if Rainbow Dash hadn't intercepted them and blown them to ecto-mc-whatsit smithereens, right?
Onward!
Come on, Dash!
-Spirit
Yeah, something tells me she ain't talking to you zytharros...
And the Rainbow comes in and destroys.
WHAT A CLIFFHANGER
Dash'll fly in and save her, of course, but... I must find that out for certain tomorrow! To bed with me!
5897021 I applaud your resolve, I couldn't have slept after a cliffhanger like that one,
in Before Rainbow Dash
Your fancy chaos pets will soon be useless. And if Dash can't protect Roarke, you can be damm sure she'll avenge her.
3718532 for sho
Chaos energy can't melt steel
beamsarmor