Pestiferous couldn't find room to hiss; her face was full of pegasus.
The mutated mare's skull spun left and right from each blow of Rainbow's dual blades. Grunting and snarling, Rainbow Dash viciously punished her the entire time they collectively fell. Soon, they were plunging into the center of the dense armory, crashing through racks of spears, shields, and blades. Pestiferous' metal-laced body formed a crater. Rainbow's body...
She was propelled off of Pestiferous and into a backwards cannonball. Firing her thrusters, Rainbow managed to even herself out at the last second. She hovered in reverse, panting, staring at rising dust from Pestiferous' landing. After several breaths in time, there was no movement from her foe. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground with a relaxed sigh—
"Hraaaauckht!" Pestiferous lunged at Rainbow Dash, scurrying upside down across the floor like a gigantic spider crab.
Rainbow positively squeaked and raised her dull swords in front of her.
With one back-hoofk, Pestiferous shattered the blades to bits. Her metal forelimb knocked Rainbow up high.
Rainbow Dash twirled towards the ceiling. Through the corner of her vision, she caught several flickering manalights. Reaching her hoof out, she hooked her forelimb around what turned out to be a metal chandelier. Her momentum carried her in a full swing, and soon she was looping back on the light fixture. With the aid of her suit's rockets, she sailed straight back down at Pestiferous in a murderous drop-kick. "Yaaaaaaa—"
Pestiferous merely gabbed her in a pair of torso-pinchers and body-slammed Rainbow to the ground.
"Ufff!" Rainbow lost the wind from her lungs. "Figured," she sputtered, then gasped to see the sharp elbows of Pestiferous' segmented forelimbs sailing down at her. Rainbow fired her thrusters, lifted up in time to dodge the attack, and twisted in a circle, all the while maintaining a vice-like grip on Pestiferous' torso prosthetics. With a sickening snap, Rainbow successfully ripped the metal feelers from the Top Spear's armored body.
"Graaaaughkkkt!" Pestiferous stumbled backwards, her armor leaking precious crystal pony blood from deep cavities within the chestpiece.
Rainbow Dash saw it. She glanced down at the twitching pinchers in her grasp. With a grunt, she dove at Pestiferous and attempted to shove the metallic claws into the open gashes.
Pestiferous kneed Rainbow in the chest with a rising leg joint. She then gripped Rainbow by the back of her armor, suplexed her twice against the floor, and flung her—snarling—towards a pile of stacked armor along the edge of the room.
With a voice cracking yell, Rainbow Dash disappeared into the mountain of bucklers and armored plates. After a few seconds, she burst out the other side with a shield aimed directly at Pestiferous' skull.
"Hckkkt—Aaaugh!" Pestiferous stumbled back as Rainbow slammed the disc repeatedly across the metal mare's skull at the full force of her rocketing glide. The pegasus finished with a sweep of Pestiferous' lower legs. The Top Spear fell back onto the floor, writhing like an enormous cockroach. Rainbow hadn't stopped; she was busy yanking Pestiferous rear leg up, hoisting it over to her damaged chest, and jabbing the hooked end of the limb straight into the exposed bit of armor.
Pestiferous let loose a long, wailing yell into her mask. Seeing red, she slapped Rainbow off her and hoisted her antenna from the back of her neck. The manarifle mounted to the nozzle twisted, turned, and fired a steady stream of green energy at the nimble figure.
Rainbow flew wide around the room, her ears twitching at the sound of the bright emerald laser eating into the tables, walls, weapon racks, and lockers of the armory surrounding them. By the time the laser chased Rainbow's circling figure into a line of mana-cores, an enormous explosion rocked the dim interior of Searo's Hold.
"Rrrrghh!" Pestiferous stumbled up to her hooves, wheezing into the spread of dust and embers. She squinted, for a bright gray light was wafting in from the side of the room that had exploded.
Rainbow saw it too; and she gasped. A chunk of the outside world shimmered in all its liberating glory. The Top Spear had unwittingly blown a hole open in the belly of Searo's Hold. "Sweet! It was a nice party and all, paleface, but I gotta jet!" Rainbow throttled towards the hazy opening looming before her...
...at least before Pestiferous' gangly body landed with a threatening thud before her, blocking Rainbow's way. "Not today, coward!" She lifted one foot directly in Rainbow's face.
With a metallic clang, Rainbow Dash fell hard and ground into the floor. One of Pestiferous metal appendages came down on the pegasus hard, gripping her with titanic strength. Rainbow hissed and winced for breath as she was raised high before the sickly mare's looming gaze.
"All you've had on your sssssshide hasssssh been luck..." Pestiferous mucousy eyes narrowed as she grumbled. "If it weren't for poniessssssh like you, thissssssh world would know perfection. It would know the unforgiving thirsssssssht for blood..."
"Nnnngh..." Rainbow Dash's face grimace beneath her helmet. "You talk big for an oversized tick..."
"I sssssshall cleansssshe Searo's country of poniesssssh too frail to bring the goddesssssh true glory..." In one swift motion, Pestiferous yanked Rainbow's mask off, exposed her prismatic cranium, and aimed the manarifle of her antenna between the pegasus' ruby eyes. "Starting with you..."
"Heh..." Rainbow grinned devilishly in spite of her strain. "Go on. Take the shot... if you're mare enough..."
Pestiferous' eyes twitched. Nevertheless, she hissed, "A mossssssht curiousssssh runt. I will be thinking much of your wordsssssh long after I've eaten your heart." The rifle pulsed with bright emerald and fired.
Holding her breath, Rainbow Dash yanked her body backwards. She positioned herself so that the green laser flew entirely into the body of her pendant's ruby lightning bolt. The Element of Loyalty flickered all over with green, strobed, and fired the beam straight back out—this time laced with ruby energy.
"Graaa-aaauchkt!" Pestiferous shrieked, her face engulfed in righteous energy.
Rainbow's eyes flickered red-on-yellow for the briefest of moments. She overcame the dizziness in time to knock Pestiferous' limb off her body with otherworldly strength. Then, not pausing to breathe, she rocketed up to the back of Pestiferous head, mounted her shoulders, and wrestled for control of the antenna mounted manarifle. The Top Spear thrashed and roared underneath her; she fired the manarifle at random, hoping to blow a hole through the pegasus at point blank.
With a shout of her own for strength, Rainbow Dash managed to hoist the rifle so that it tilted away from her. The heavy laser carved a ravine through the floor of the armory, until it fatefully burned its way into the mana-powered helmet lying discarded on the floor. The device Imre had crafted for Rainbow overloaded, and much like the half-blade's armorpiece that Rainbow Dash had utilized in the arena, its mana conduits ruptured.
The resulting explosion blew the two ponies back, back, back, towards the light. Rainbow Dash gasped, for soon gravity was taking over. She tried to rocket away, but Pestiferous' angry limbs were getting tangled with hers. All of the sudden, the two fell out the gash of Searo's Hold in a heap of metal and flesh, plummeting towards the snow-pelted ravine that loomed far below.
And now for some body surfing. Watch with glee as RD rides a stick insect down a snowy mountainside
Son of a bitch, A perfect amory, turned to smithereens...
Tiime for some ponyesque snowboarding.
Hope they built those Elements to last, because Dash is sure putting this one through its paces...
use Seismic Toss!
*hoof
*voice-cracking
This has been Grammar Nazism with can--I mean, Novus. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
Friggin' spider ponies.
Looks like Rainbow and Pestiferous had a little...falling out.
And now: Roarke to the rescue? I keep thinking she'll suddenly show up, because she's been MIA for a while now.
Pestiferous disappoints me with her lack of intelligence, or her blinding arrogance. Anybody would have noticed Rainbow was not about to sit there and take the shot, that she had a freakin' plan (to an extent).
Yet all Pestiferous does is make some boasts, some condescending remarks and a few more threats. I swear, if she screams "NOOOO!" when she dies...which she will, right?
Please let her die. My entomophobia can't take it.
Rainbow is such a badass that she can have her helmet knocked off twice and STILL be able to control the rockets.
Element of Loyalty -- You broke it you bought it
This Stallion says oh crap
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Even after it's exploded and everything. That takes a certain level of radicalness...
Man. You can't be going into a midday armory, now, RD! Stop getting distracted.
Oh, and what's up with the laser absorbing element of loyalty? When did you learn to do that?
And they fell... again.
great, more falling! should have brought a grappling hook RD.
AVALANCE
And now, Floydien and Pilate are in Searo for some reason and they catch the two with their ship. This will definitely happen, right colon?
And not in a good way either.
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Always wear two helmets. One on top of the other, for exactly this reason.
Thrashing Rage - Voivod
Quick, RD! Use the thrusters! Wait... no helmet...
I know! Use your wings! Wait... one's broken...
Uh... try to absorb the impact with your thick skull?
That's all I got.
Well at least there were explosions. And my money is on Roarke the badass appearing all of a sudden with her ship, you know, the only one still working? Which by the way, doesn't that mean it's running on... crystal pony blood?
Shit day was just made better by daily poni. Thank you.
Pestiferous reminds so much of vegeta with her HUGE arrogant attitude.
Hah ima gonna kil u wit MAH LAZ-R!!
Lol yeah right, ima kil u wit MAH PENANT!!
Dayum girl!!
Whenever this word is mentioned, I think of this awesome moment.
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mavwneha9c1qi8avmo1_500.gif
Read this and immediately thought of a face full of fuzzy pegasus belly. Made me smile.
When did Zecora become the narrator?
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Eh, I figure the controls actually are mounted to, like, the shoulders, and simply run to the front of the helmet. Any reference to helmet mounted controls is simply verbal shorthand
One day IC's going to run out of spider-like creatures to compare Pestiferous to. One day.
Although I doubt that Pesty will survive the next few chapters. Meh.
wait... this isn't the story Honeytiger saw an update for...
Well damn.
This is what I call a Searing.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Oh boy. That can't be good. But then again, this is Rainbow Dash we're talking about. It can't be too hard to at least get away from Pestiferous, right? Also, epic fight scene is epic. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Ain't no such thing as too many explosions. Or too many death-defying (hopefully for Rainbow, anyway) free-falls as a direct result of said explosions. So either Roarke returns to save the day, or Crimson and Co. commandeer another ship. Or Rainbow's pendant unlocks yet another skill (parachute app, go!) in midair. Onward!
Go, Dash! Again. It's another very well described fight scene, all of which I love. Now, this is bad.
-Spirit
It's funny. I was just thinking about how long it's been since Dash has had a Chaotic-Dizzy-Thingymabob-Whatsit(c) and... boom. IC does it again and reads my mind. Perhaps he's secretly Pinkie in disguise?
For a pegasus, she sure does do a lot of falling.
Hi, Regidar.
Back after a brief brake!
More typos than usual here, but do I mind? Nah...
This spiderfuck is getting on my nerves. Glad they seem to be in a state of —pardon me—freefall now, as it were, hehe.
So, anyone else notice that Dash has apparently gotten over her 'no killing' thing? I know she hasn't killed yet, but from how this sounds, she's not far from it.
Also, the beginning of this chapter reminded me of Sword Art Online when the main character fought the...70 or 75 floor boss.
I don't comment much on this story, because it's just so freakin' epic that I can't find any words to describe it.
5871031 I know. It is rather reminiscent...
5871031
Well, she killed like a couple dozen of Shell's glider pilots...
5871031 They are collateral damage, she has not gone through PREMEDITATED murder yet. There is a big difference between killing someone in the heat of battle, and planning out their murder.
She has some impressive movement precision.
The dramatic fighting fall! Exciting!
As it should be. Er, scratch that.
Nice. It's good to see that this abomination can actually be damaged.
Well that was poorly planned.
And that, on the other hand, was badass and awesome.
Yikes, another fall to certain doom? This story has a lot of that.
Don't worry. Rainbow shall become Rainbow the White soon enough.
Yes, please.
Living the dream.
Okay Gandalf.
Gawd, she's scary. This bitch belongs in Silent Hills or some shit.
This girl be ending at the joints and taking neck snaps and just shurgging it off.
Talk about tenacious. She's terrifying
Hello, and again, welcome to Searo's Hold robotic assisted blood drive.