Pony Kombat

“Well, here goes nothing,” Big Mac said. Cyber Rainbow Dash's HUD started up again.

“Do you think this will work?” Shining Armor asked.

“I don't know,” Big Mac responded. “I've never done this before.” Rainbow Dash's HUD tried to link with the Tartarus core, but failed. The automatic override kicked in, and her slaving protocols were disabled. Her higher brain fuctions were restored as Derpy hunched over her.

“Rainbow Dash?” she asked. The HUD scanned Derpy as she turned to Big Mac. “Can she hear me?” Derpy asked Big Mac.

“She should,” Big Mac suggested. Derpy looked back at Rainbow Dash,

“Rainbow Dash,” she called.

“Yes, Derpy?” Cyber Rainbow Dash asked.

“How do you feel?” Derpy asked. Cyber Rainbow Dash sat up and groaned. “What is it?” Derpy asked. Cyber Rainbow Dash seemed to be in mental pain.

“I remember nothing,” she said. “All I remember is Nightmare Moon.” Derpy put a hoof on Cyber Dash's shoulder. “She must not be allowed to merge the realms.” Cyber Rainbow Dash remembered. She was sitting on a table in a temple.

“Princess Celestia, how can Rainbow Dash best help us?” Scootaloo asked.

“I do not know,” Celestia answered. “My attempts to alter future events have had negative consequences. Rainbow Dash should never have undergone this transformation. Enlisting her may only further divert the flow of time.”

“We need intel, right?” Applebloom asked. “Let's send her back to Tartarus undercover.”

“They will be unaware of my defection,” Cyber Rainbow Dash agreed. “I could deceive them.” Celestia thought about this course of action, then agreed.

~~~

In Tartarus, Fleetfoot, Applejack, and Shadow Dash were preparing another assault on Equestria. Cyber Rainbow Dash emerged from the portal and walked up to Fleetfoot.

“You report late,” Fleetfoot grumbled. “Where is the intruder?”

“I killed her in Equestria,” Cyber Rainbow Dash lied.

“She should have been saved for interrogation,” Fleetfoot reminded.

“She was formidable,” Cyber Rainbow Dash fibbed. “I had no choice.” Fleetfoot looked at Cyber Rainbow Dash coldly.

“Follow me,” she said. “We must lead a new mission.” Fleetfoot walked back to the portal and went through it. Cyber Rainbow Dash followed.

Back in the subway tunnels, a portal from Tartarus opened. Fleetfoot and Cyber Rainbow Dash walked through it.

“What mission brings us here?” Cyber Rainbow Dash asked.

“I have scanned your neural net fiber wove,” Fleetfoot answered. “Your memory banks have been recalibrated.”

“Impossible,” Cyber Rainbow Dash lied.

“The experience has been deleted from your system,” Fleetfoot confronted.  “Remove your access panel.” As Fleetfoot went to open Cyber Rainbow Dash's chest, Cyber Dash grabbed Fleetfoot's hoof and sent her flying back. Fleetfoot fell to the ground with a metal scraping.

“Your programming has been corrupted,” Fleetfoot realized.

“My soul was corrupted,” Cyber Rainbow Dash corrected. “Now it is cleansed.” The two cyborgs engaged in combat. With both of them possessing tough exteriors, the fight lasted for some time. But Cyber Rainbow Dash eventually got the upper hoof and got behind Fleetfoot. She created a large ice ball and bashed it against Fleetfoot's skull, fracturing it. She then formed a large ice blade and stabbed into Fleetfoot's back, spitting her vertebrae. Fleetfoot fell over, defeated.

“Artificial enhancements are no substitute for the Equestrian soul,” Cyber Rainbow Dash informed. She walked up to Fleetfoot and began a data transfer. She transferred the most recent mission parameters from Fleetfoot's memory banks into hers. There was a map leading to a graveyard, up in a belltower. What to go there for, Cyber Rainbow Dash did not know. But she did know that she had to be there.

“Thank you, Fleetfoot,” Cyber Rainbow Dash said. She got up and left for the graveyard.

~~~

At the top of the local cemetery belltower, up in the clockworks, Vinyl was having some fun torturing a group of Equestrian military soldiers. Narzissa and Scarlet were there as well, spectating the light torture. Vinyl shot a laser from her mechanical eye, giving one of the soldiers a slight burn. She and the two Changeling warriors laughed with delight. Vinyl shot another soldier and laughed again. Cyber Rainbow Dash entered the clocktower. She approached the group. Vinyl noticed.

“Finally!” she cried. “C'mon. We gotta get them to the graveyard at Fillydelphia.” Vinyl turned to the captive soldiers. “On your feet, all of ya!”

“For what purpose?” Cyber Rainbow Dash asked.

“Don't care, really,” Vinyl said. “So long as I get paid.” Narzissa and Scarlet were trying to get the soldiers to stand up.

“She said on your feet!” Narzissa cried.

“Come on!” Scarlet growled. “Up.” Narzissa and Scarlet lunged at the soldiers, but Cyber Rainbow Dash froze them solid.

“Hey!” Vinyl cried. “What are…” Cyber Rainbow Dash froze her as well. Cyber Rainbow Dash then turned to the soldiers.

“I will help you,” she told them. She grabbed the end of the chain that was used to bind them. She froze the long string of chain and the cuffs on the soldiers’ hooves. She then hit her end hard with an iron hoof, and the whole string of chain shattered, freeing the soldiers. Narzissa and Scarlet began to break free from the ice.

“Go!” Cyber Rainbow Dash ordered. “All of you! Now!”

“Let's go! Come on!” one of the soldiers cried out. All of the soldiers ran past Narzissa and Scarlet and began to climb down the belltower. Just as the last soldier made it to the stairwell, Narzissa and Scarlet broke free. Narzissa growled and approached Cyber Rainbow Dash.

“Your treachery will be punished!” she growled. Scarlet joined the fight. With the combined might of two Changeling warriors, the odds seemed impossible. But Cyber Rainbow Dash had the technology of the Pegasi, and she defeated her adversaries.

“All those teeth and claws and yet still overmatched,” Cyber Rainbow Dash taunted. As she stood victorious, the belltower began to shake. The bells at the top rang out as the quake shook Cyber Rainbow Dash. She looked toward the stairwell. Each and every one of the soldiers were tossed from the stairwell by Spitfire.

“Behind me!” Cyber Rainbow Dash ordered. The soldiers got up and filed behind Cyber Rainbow Dash. Spitfire floated up the stairwell and approached Cyber Rainbow Dash.

“Come no further, fiend of Tartarus!” Cyber Rainbow Dash commanded. She began battle with her opponent. Spitfire was furious that another pony had allied themselves with Equestria. That didn't matter to Cyber Rainbow Dash. She defeated Spitfire and knocked her to the ground.

“You are not so fearsome,” Cyber Rainbow Dash said. The soldiers surrounded Cyber Rainbow Dash and congratulated her.

“Thanks,” one of them said. “I thought we were done.”

“I must go,” Cyber Rainbow Dash said. “I must investigate the graveyard.”

“We'd go with, but we have to return to our unit,” another soldier said.

“That is for the best,” Cyber Rainbow Dash responded. She left the soldiers.

“Good luck,” the first soldier called after her.

“She ain't gonna need luck,” the second soldier said, admiring the technological marvel before her.

~~~

At the graveyard in Fillydelphia, Octavia and Shadow Dash were performing a ritual of some sort. Octavia spoke strange words as Shadow Dash used dark magic to make the spell go faster. A group of innocent Equestrian ponies had been captured. Cyber Rainbow Dash watched from afar.

“This is Rainbow Dash,” she said to her communication mic. In the temple, Cadence was listening. “I've encountered Octavia.” Cyber Rainbow Dash continued. “She seems to be casting a spell.” Celestia suddenly had a vision. It showed a monstrous tornado containing all of Equestria's souls.

“Celestia, what is it?” Scootaloo asked. “What did you see?”

“One of Nightmare Moon's soulnados,” Celestia answered. “On a scale I thought unimaginable. All of Equestria's souls imprisoned, absorbed by Nightmare Moon, multiplying her power.”

“That is what Rainbow Dash has found?” Scootaloo questioned. Celestia looked at her amulet. It broke a little further.

“No matter my efforts, the future remains in peril,” she worried. “How could I have failed Equestria?”

“Do not lose faith in the spirits, Celestia,” Scootaloo comforted. “They will guide you, and protect you.” Scootaloo turned to Cadence to speak to Cyber Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash,” she called. “We will disrupt the soulnado. I will be there momentarily.”

“Hurry,” Rainbow Dash said. “The spell appears to be nearly complete.”  Rainbow Dash stood up and approached Octavia and Shadow Dash.

“Who is that?” Octavia questioned.

“The one Vinyl warned us about,” Shadow Dash answered. “She is mine.” She stopped working on the spell and confronted Cyber Rainbow Dash. “You,” she snarled. “You are not worthy of the name 'Rainbow Dash'.”

“Who are you to judge?” Cyber Rainbow Dash asked.

“I wore those colors before you,” Shadow Dash said. Cyber Rainbow Dash suddenly realized the truth.

“Dashie?!” she cried.

“Yes, Lightning,” Shadow Dash said. “It is I. Octavia restored me.”

“Restored?” Cyber Rainbow Dash argued. “You and I both, we are flawed copies of our former selves.”

“I have no flaws,” Shadow Dash denied. “Octavia has perfected me.”

“For what end?!” Cyber Rainbow Dash yelled. “To serve the Everfree Forest and Tartarus?”

“It suits my purpose,” Shadow Dash admitted.

“Sister...” Cyber Rainbow Dash began.

“We have shared blood,” Shadow Dash denied again. “But we are not sisters.”

“Then I will not regret your defeat,” Cyber Rainbow Dash said. Sister battled sister in a brutal match. Both fighters fought viciously in an attempt to convince the other. Shadow Dash's dark magic countered Cyber Rainbow Dash's ice and vise versa. Cyber Rainbow Dash kicked Shadow Dash to disorient her, then formed a large ice ball. She smashed it against the back of Shadow Dash's head, cracking the skull. Cyber Rainbow Dash then formed a large ice sword and stabbed her former sister in the back, shattering her vertebrae. The fight was over.

“You are right,” Cyber Rainbow Dash agreed. “We are not sisters.” Octavia had finished the spell while the fight occurred. A thin green tornado formed and shot up towards the sky. It grew as more of Equestria's souls were sucked into it. Cyber Rainbow Dash tried to hold her ground as much as she could, but the soulnado was growing larger and more powerful every second. Equestria seemed to be out of options, and hope was running out.