Rainbow's Wrath

Rainbow's Wrath

Part 1: Suffering

Chapter 5: Hollow Victory

Derpy's gauntlet clad gigantic hand slammed down on where Rainbow Dash stood, the ground shaking as a cloud of dirt rose up around it. She closed her hand, and turned around, rearing her arm back before throwing Rainbow Dash off across the wasteland that stretched out before them. Rainbow Dash was propelled forward uncontrollably for a bit, until her back hit the ground and she began to bounce and roll. She used her wings to gain some balance, and then dug a hand and her feet into the ground, skidding to a halt.

Looking to Derpy with a grunt, she sprinted forward as fast as she could. As she ran forward and the land rushed past her, her targeting reticule appeared in her eye. "Something I learned the last time I used this mode! The more I target at once, the more powerful the cannon's blasts! Now is the perfect time to test this out!" She grinned as she made her way towards Derpy, who still stood by the cliff side watching the oncoming smaller foe. Derpy aimed the back of her gauntlet at Rainbow and began to fire off yellow ki spheres at her, bigger than Dash. Dash ran to the left of the blows and targeted a line up Derpy's gauntlet arm. "Max number is six, like the colors in a rainbow… minus indigo. Let's do this!" Her palms open and rapidly fire off a cannon blast of every color of the rainbow, which homed in on Derpy and slammed into her arm. The giant pony cringed and growled, firing off her ki blasts a little more spread. Rainbow had to jump over and roll under a couple of them before targeting various spots on her body for another cannon blast. As her cannon blast hit Derpy, one of her ki blasts hit Rainbow, and the cyan pony gasped as she felt her wings go numb from a surge of electricity flowing through her

Derpy ignored the pain, and once Dash was close enough she reared her fist back and punched the ground where she approached, sending debris from the ground flying into the air and creating a cloud of dirt. Rainbow Dash burst from the cloud of dirt straight into the air, but her wings were still numb. That's when she noticed all the debris, as well as Derpy's hand raising back from the ground. Rainbow Dash kicked off the debris, and bounced off Derpy's hand, repeating this process until she got higher and higher. She landed safely on a horizontal slab of land directly facing Derpy, and the wall-eyed giant swung at her in an attempt to grab Rainbow. But the smaller pony leapt from the slab, and jumped between anymore airborne debris she could while the giant hands grabbed for her.

She felt the shock leave her wings, and smirked as she shot off into the sky high above Derpy. She flipped backwards and gave her wings one hard flap as she dive bombed towards Derpy. The grey pony aimed her gauntlet up at her and began firing off more ki spheres, but Rainbow Dash dodged between them, all the while targeting Derpy before firing off another cannon blast to lower her guard.

It worked only briefly, as Derpy quickly composed herself and swung her left fist towards Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus managed to dodge over it, as close to it as possible without touching it, and she slapped her hands down on the giant's wrist before flipping forward a few times. She landed straight up and slid down her arm a bit. She then picked up speed by running along her arm, noticing Derpy rearing her right metal clad fist back. Rainbow Dash leapt forward and beat Derpy to the punch, slamming her fist into Derpy's face and making her rear back with a yelp. Derpy clapped her hands together above Rainbow Dash and gripped them tightly, swinging them down on her opponent. Rainbow tried blocking them, but the smack was too hard and sent her skyrocketing straight into the dirt below.

Derpy bent her knees and leapt into the sky, doing a couple of back flips of her own. She let the bottoms of her feet meet, placed her left fist in the palm of her right hand, and then she closed her eyes as she dropped straight down. Rainbow Dash blinked as her vision un-blurred, just in time to see a giant grey fundoshi clad bubble butt flying at her like a meteor. Derpy's bum slammed into the ground where Rainbow laid, a crater forming around her before she jumped back. Rainbow lay there sunk into the dirt, slack jawed and eye twitching. Derpy began punching at her, sinking her further into the ground with every strike. Dash felt her mind drift for a moment, and she could see her daughter Zap Apple cringing in pain. "Can you feel it Dash? Your daughter suffers for her gift as they use her to bring about Celestia's great rebirth! If you feel her pain and care at all about her, then do something! Unlock that power deep inside, or I'll kill you right-"

"GRAAAH!" Rainbow Dash leapt to her feet and caught Derpy's fist, shocking the girl as her speech was interrupted.  As the smaller pony pushed against the fist, her aura surrounded her, until a blue gauntlet appeared on her left fist, and an orange on her right. Then four more joined the mix sprouting from her back as they pushed against the fist, glowing with energy. She roared angrily as she managed to throw Derpy, by her fist alone, off the ground and skyward.

The giant pony came back down with a slam into the ground sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. "Impressive, Dashie, but you'll have to do better! Let's see how you handle this! Get her!" The ship Derpy flew in on floated past her. Dash turned to the ship, watching it fire off fifteen missiles from the cannons on top of it, the missiles shooting up into the sky. They bunched up into groups of five, and snaked through the air as they game towards her. All six of her palms opened as she rapid fired in multiple directions, blowing up several missiles as they attempted to rain down on her, clearing a spot in the middle so the rest would explode around her. The side of the ship lit up as it fired from several dozen turrets, lasers flying at her and following her as she dodged around them.

Then, to her surprise, a pair of earth pony soldiers landed on either side of her. The one to her left took a swing, but she grabbed her weapon from her and shoved the spear tip into her foot. As she reared back in pain she yanked the blade out and gave it a twirl, swinging it at the other soldier and breaking through his hilt to slam the exe blade into him. She kicked his corpse away and back flipped over the girl, dodging more turret fire. As the lasers followed her, the mare wasn't as lucky as they blew her to smithereens.

She focused on returning the rapid fire treatment, her ki blasting into the side of the side of the ship and blowing up many turrets, but not enough to end the return fire. She noticed several more missiles coming, this time further spread out and simply aiming along the ground instead of all coming for her at once. She wasn't able to stop any with her rapid fire, so she waited for three of them that focused on her position. Four of her hands caught one, while two bumped it out of the way without the chance to explode over her left. She gave the same treatment to the second, bumping it over her right. Once she caught the third, she spun around and threw it back at the ship, bunching the back of it so it would fly fast and hard straight into it. The ship tried to fire more missiles at her, and Rainbow Dash grinned getting a little cocky now. As the missiles came, she simple uppercut them one by one out of the way, until she double punched the last one right back at the ship.

Explosions were visible on the ship as it burst into flames where the missiles hit. The ship attempted to return fire, another brave soldier landing near her as the ship fired what was left of its turrets and a few more missiles. Rainbow leapt out of the way of the turret lasers, grabbing the soldier by his face and throwing him into the missiles distracting their fire. Then her three right arms slammed together at the base of their palms, opening to form one big cannon. She fired one shot at the ship, and when it made contact several explosions began to blow throughout the ship. Pieces of the ship fell as it began to fall from the sky, floating past Derpy who watched this in awe, looking back to Rainbow Dash as her ship exploded in the background behind her.

The two of them stared at each other, one on one now, for a long quiet moment. The two of them smirked, Derpy rushing to her right, and Rainbow to her left, as they ran alongside each other. Dash was fast as expected, keeping pace with her giant opponent easily. She targeted up the length of Derpy's body, and fired off a cannon blast from each hand, the blasts much larger and faster now. They slammed into Derpy, knocking her off her feet, but as she floated in the air she fired off a few large yellow ki balls of her own. Rainbow jumped and dodged around them as they exploded into the ground around her. As they ran, the ruins of the past came between them. Random pillars and titled pieces of what was once walls blocked a few of Rainbow's cannon blasts, but Derpy launched a set of missiles that went around them and closed in on Dash as she kept moving forward. The cyan pony leapt and twirled in the air dodging between most, but delivered a kick to one sending it soaring back into Derpy.

The big grey pony stumbled with a loud yelp of pain, and she growled as she fired off twice as many missiles.  Rainbow Dash rapid fired most of the missiles down, making the remaining few pose no threat to her speed as she continued to fire into Derpy. One missile surprised her, but she managed to catch it and throw it back to Derpy, who blocked it with her gauntlet and fired a couple more of her own ki blasts at Dash. While Rainbow Dash dodged these the large pony fired off another barrage of missiles, knowing her friend wouldn't have time to fire them down. But Rainbow Dash saw them coming and jumped on top of one, bouncing off it and through most of the others. She delivered and upward and downward punch to knock away a pair of missiles, and grabbed another before she hit the ground sliding. She jumped, span, and threw and kicked the missile at the same time, sending it hurtling into Derpy who didn't have time to block the speedy missile, making her stumble and groan again.

Rainbow's aura glowed around her as she leapt into the air, taking flight as she arched in the air towards Derpy, who leapt towards Rainbow Dash doing the same. Derpy swung her hand down to swat Rainbow like a fly, but the tomboy caught her by her finger. Swinging with all her might, she spun Derpy in a circle around her, straight into the sky. Derpy caught herself with her wings, and reared her fist back as it charged with aura. "Derpy Smasher!" She dashed towards her friend, Rainbow Dash returning the charge with a sonic rainboom that shattered many nearby ruins. Derpy's gauntlet met Rainbow's three armored right fists, a shockwave forming as neither budged in their advance initially. Soon Rainbow's force from her rainboom proved too much however, and as Derpy's arm began to twitch, it shot backward and out of the way. Dash continued forward though, slamming into Derpy's midriff and pushing through so hard, she could be seen visibly trying to push through Derpy's back! Derpy gasped and her tongue hung out as the wind was knocked out of her, and rainbow trail flowing from the dent in her gut as Rainbow Dash continued pushing forward, the giant ponies skin stretching like as if it was made of clay or rubber. Rainbow growled as she pushed with all her might, and once she'd reached as far as she wanted, she froze.

Like a slingshot, Derpy fired off into the sky and vanished from sight in a mere second, pushing the clouds aside as she went screaming into space.  As Derpy left the planet's atmosphere, Rainbow landed with a stomp and a grunt on the ground, looking up with a raised brow at what she had done. As Derpy finally slowed to a float, holding her midriff as her eyes squinted. "Color me impressed Rainbow Dash. You've truly surpassed your own levels from the past. Now it's time to move on to the final stage, your final test! You must beat me at full power! The power of a god! Mantra reactor, release!" Her eyes glowed and her aura swirled around her. "I call upon the power of the Mantra!" Glowing yellow marking appeared all over her body as her aura flowed from her body in a massive way that filled the space around her and far beyond it.

A ball of light that could be compared in size to the planet itself formed, and from it emerged a planet sized Derpy, coursing with aura and covered in markings. She glared down at the planet and said, "I am Derpy of the seven deities.  I have become an absolute being meant to protect this world and its mortals."  She holds out her left palm in a stance and rears her right hand back balling it into a fist. "Rainbow Dash, if you cannot survive this next attack, then you will never save your daughter! Don't have what it takes? Then DIE!" She punched forward, fire flaming around her knuckles as she pushed through the atmosphere.

Rainbow Dash went wide eyed as she saw this, but she refused to die now. She stretched and wiggled her fingers before balling all six hands into fists. She stretched out her right leg and stomped it into the ground, and then her left leg. She outstretched all six arms ready to catch the fiery continent sized fist and smirked as she screamed in a cocky tone, "Come at me, bro!" When the fist got close enough she reared all her arms down, and then slammed them up into the fist, sparks flying as metal met metal and the fist came to a stop. Her knees and elbows bent as she was pushed down, the wasteland burning up to look like the aftermath of a volcano. Fire and aura trailed up Derpy's fist as shockwaves flowed from where her fist was stopped, visible for even Derpy who gazed down at the planet from space.

While she stood there trying to hold the fist back with all her might, memories came back to Rainbow Dash. She remembered Luna dead on the floor, soldiers surrounding and assaulting her, Big Mac, Zap Apple, all her friends' betrayals, and even Celestia killing her as she said, "Your death will be the foundation of my new world!" She remembered holding her husband as he died, she remembered when she died, and she remembered the sorrow of her daughters face.

Rainbow's eyes shot open wide, and the land shook as well as Derpy's fist. "I… remember everything…! I won't let you keep me from those monsters!" Rainbow roared and made Derpy go wide eyed in shock, as Rainbow furiously barraged the fist above her with a flurry of punches. The spot where she focused her punches sparked non-stop and began to glow red. Three of Rainbow's arms shattered to pieces, but she just screamed with anger and didn't stop, not letting up even for a moment! Two more shattered, and that's when Rainbow slid her foot along the ground and held up last hand. Even her main left arm was reduced to a stump sparking with circuits and electricity, but she ignored everything as she charged aura in her last hand. Her arm and fist coursed with all the colors of the rainbow, and she reared it back and howled one last time before slamming it straight upward into the fist above her head. A shockwave coursed through Derpy's fist, and red rapidly spread through it as it began to bubble. Following all this was a rapid disintegration, and it all spread up Derpy's entire fist, to her arm, to her face.  Derpy let loose one last scream of pain as her entire body was engulfed, before she exploded in a ring of fire  that sprayed out away from the planet.

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Twilight gasped and bit her thumb hard enough to draw blood. "Impossible! How could Derpy lose to HER? She has brought shame to the seven deities!"

A yawn came from Fluttershy as she lay on her side in mid air as if it were a bed, using her bunny doll like a pillow. "In all honesty, I'm not surprised. Derpy was the weakest among us, after all."

Pinkie huffed and said, "That's because size doesn't equal power. She had a weak will from the beginning. Never really fit in with the rest of us."

Opening one eye, Fluttershy stated, "In any case, the real problem is the fact that fat idiot wasted a significant amount of mantra, an amount that took us a long time to accumulate."

"That idiot," Applejack mumbled loud enough to be heard.

Celestia waved her hand to silence them and said, "Our cause will not waver because of something as trivial as this."

Pinkie giggled and grinned. "Who cares about the cause? I'll kill her for fun!"

"Not so fast!" Celestia pointed to Pinkie. "A large Blank has appeared on the surface. With Derpy gone, I need someone to handle it."

Pinkie's eye twitched irately. "Then have someone handle it. I only follow what my blade thirsts for."

"Oops." They both looked to Rarity, who said, "While you two were arguing, Applejack went after Rainbow Dash herself." She giggled mischievously.

Pinkie huffed again and pouted. "I guess that could be fun to watch."

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One orange armored right fist stood facing the sky as it rained meteors. Unfortunately this fist was lodged in the ground not far from Rainbow Dash, who lay on her face in the dirt. She looked up to the sky and gasped as she saw Derpy falling from the heavens. She tried to stand, but her lack of arms and energy kept her fumbling forward like a caterpillar. She could only watch as Derpy crashed into the earth before her.

She shuffled forward until she reached her friends side, who now lay there in the dirt. "Derpy! Please don't die! Be alive!"

The grey ponies eyes slowly opened and she looked at Rainbow with a giggle. "Damn Rainbow Dash… you punched me so hard my eyes went straight."

Rainbow blinked as she noticed her eyes had in fact gone back to normal. She chuckled and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "I was only able to punch that hard because you pushed me Derpy. I never would've believed I was capable of what I just did."

Derpy laughed weakly. "Maybe one day, someone will punch your eyes back to normal too you zombie." Both girls giggled, but then Derpy frowned. "Rainbow Dash, I'm barely holding on. I want to tell you something before I die."

"No! Please don't talk like that Derpy! You're all I have now, hold on!"

"You knew this would happen! Now grant me my final words!" Rainbow cringed as tears flowed from her eyes now, biting her lower lip as she nodded weakly. "Rainbow Dash, before I die I wanted you to know… I always… loved you." She held two fingers to her own lips, kissing them and then placing them against Rainbow Dash's who starred in shock. "Good bye and good luck."

As Derpy's hand fell lifeless, Dash wanted to catch it. She threw herself on her friend and screamed. She didn't know she could still cry, and she lay there still even after Derpy vanished forever. "Why are you here, Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow's eyes went wide, and her teeth grit at the familiar voice. "I reckon you don't even know what you want any more sugar cube. You already failed once at living… You're a fool." Her foot steps could be heard approaching. "After you're dead, next time, don't come back." Rainbow Dash shot her gaze up, as standing before her was her sister-in-law, Applejack.

End Pt. 1 Ch. 5