Pony Dimension

Applejack drew the sword from the ground.

"Thanks, Spike!" she thanked.

She gave it a few practice swings before pointing it at Reckless as the sword reflected the rays of light beating down on it. She found her second wind with the help of her friends. Spike, who despite usually being scared of things like this, steeled himself to assist her. And Twilight, whom she needed to keep moving forward for. Friends don't give up on each other. But perhaps what most drove her was her family whom she needed to return to. She didn't intend to worry them for long.

"Sorry," she said now more prepared than she was, "Yer the one who's gonna be put through the ringer."

Reckless grinned at that. Applejack is what he had been looking for in an opponent. He remembered all the practice sessions when this only one who could beat him was the captain. He needed someone to force him to become stronger so that he could face that wall.

Reckless charged now on his hinds, running fiercely across the battlefield. He swung repeatedly in delight as Applejack held the sword in position to block all of his strikes. His punches were uncoordinated, but strong. Steel scraped steel and sparks flew with every hit. Applejack stood with one hoof on the handle and one supporting the blade to more sturdily defend. Punches came one after another.

"Steel Hammer!" Reckless boomed with excitement.

Reckless took a large swing back then forward. He grunted loudly as his foreleg pierced the air and landed heavily on the blade. The impact created a wind each side felt along with this force. It caused Applejack to slide back as her hooves scratched at the ground, triggering dust. She found her back pounding into a building.

Reckless rushed in for a final strike. He leaped into the air ready to flatten anything with his punches. Applejack's pupils shrunk as they focused in on him. Spike watched from the hole in the building. It was like he had been watching a prize fight, but the contestant was his friend, and the fight was deadly.

Applejack gathered her strength. She shifted her balance. She moved. She evaded. She pushed herself out of the way and her face hit the ground with the rest of her body. Reckless pounded into the wall, spreading cracks throughout it. The force embedded his hoof into the wall. He was stuck all the way to the joint of his foreleg.

"Huh?" Reckless said as he attempted to pull his leg out, not yet aware he was stuck. He blinked a few times.

"I'm stuck..." he gawked.

"I'm stuck!" he exclaimed. He then rapidly went through a variety of comic positions in an effort to gain the leverage to pull himself out.

"I'M STUCK! HELP!" he panicked unreasonably.

Spike and Applejack stared dumbly at him.

"Uh... is he okay?" Spike said.

"I DON'T LIKE BEIN' STUCK!"

"Ah don't know..."

Reckless continued to panic and Applejack was getting annoyed. She positioned herself behind him in her applebucking position with her rump facing towards him. Reckless cranked his head toward her.

"AH!" he exclaimed as his head shot back and blood expelled from his nose.*

"AH DIDN'T EVEN KICK YOU YET!" Applejack roared.

'Such beauty...' he thought forgetting himself.

Applejack launched her hooves into his face, kicking him senseless if he hadn't already been.

'Amazing...' he thought before passing out.

Applejack huffed as she looked at him before turning away. Spike leaped off his spot to join his companion. He walked up to her and began staring for a long time.

"Uh, Spi-"

"So cool!" Spike burst, "You were awesome!"

Applejack's ears fell in meekness.

"Ah, shucks, Spike. Ah couldn't have done it without ya though," she said rubbing the scales of his head. Spike also became shy from her comment.

"You gonna keep the sword?" Spike inquired. For some reason it felt like a gift rather than stolen weaponry.

Applejack pondered it as she looked back at Reckless in his unconscious state.

'If I wasn't totally focused while fighting him, Ah woulda lost for sure. Just how strong are the ponies here?

"Ah better take it, this place is dangerous."

Spike untied a sash he had worn diagonally over his shoulder and held it out in his claws. Applejack took it in her teeth and, with some assistance, tied it around her torso then tucked this longsword in on her back. After that, they began walking again, searching for places Twilight might be.

Dimension eyed Bowman and drew his sword. Bowman stood on the castle wall still in shooting position.

" Suijin-"

Rainbow instead darted at Bowman, who shot several arrows at her. However, they were tossed aside by the wind she created as she flew toward him.

Dimension brought the katana to his face eyeing the blade. His reflection bounced of the blade and into his eyes.

"It's not responding..." he muttered.

Rainbow swept past Bowman, conjuring a gust of wind against him. He struggled to maintain his balance.

Dimension closed his eyes and focused his mind. A single drop falling into a pool of water, the ripples expanding. Suijingiri's wavelength.

'I can hear it...Feel it...Suijingiri.' It flooded Dimension's head. As Rainbow was locked in combat, Dimension took fighting stance. He made the back swing.

"Water..." his sword became cloaked in water, swirling around the blade, "Cutter!" he swung forth horizontally as the water on the blade became condensed. The movement hurled a mass of water in Bowman's direction. It cut through the wall and right into Bowman.

Water is adaptive. It keeps to itself and makes room when something enters. If something is heavier it sinks it. If something is lighter it carries it across its surface. If so something tries to enter too quickly it suffers damage from the surface tension which makes it as hard as a solid.

Water is graceful. It scatters its fragments and sparkles in the light. Water is peaceful.

Water is powerful. It erodes even rocks, cutting into them with time. It causes mass devastation with its flooding and creates colossal impact with its waves.

And Bowman felt that power then. It smashed into him forcefully, splashed adaptively, and faded gracefully. He fell into the brick of the wall.

"Uh, is it just me, or was he kinda..?" Rainbow nearly complained.

"Weak?" Dimension confirmed.

Bowman struggled under a pile of stone rubble that Dimension's attack created.

"Ha!" Rainbow boasted, "See? Told you it was a fluke. These changelings are nothing! With me here, we'll take Twilight back in ten seconds flat!"

"My attack is the one that finished it," Dimension corrected.

"I did most of the work, you just stood there until I was about to finish it."

"I also doubt you could do that in ten seconds, no matter how fast you are."

"Watch me!" Rainbow declared before dashing off, leaving Dimension's eye twitching a bit.

"She actually... she's actually trying it..." he gawked.

Bowman bust his way out of the rubble.

"Hmm?" Dimension noticed.

"You dare defile the Changeling Army!" he shouted.

Dimension rolled his eyes.

"None defiles the-" Dimension flashed his sword at his neck, cutting off his sentence.

"You're starting to annoy me..." Dimension murmured in false hostility with shadows over his eyes, giving him a dark, threatening appearance. He emitted something that Bowman mistook for killing intent, causing the latter to shrink back nervously as sweat accumulated on his head.

"Please don't hurt me! I'll do anything!" he stammered with his hooves thrown in the air from panic.

Dimension scanned his mind, deciding to take advantage of it. He thought back to the bridge.

'That one was so powerful, but this guy...' he thought eyeing Bowman, who looked as though he was about to have some kind of breakdown.

'He's pathetic.' he thought with his ears dropping. He brought them back up with a question in mind.

"Tell me about your ranks," Dimension inquired now at ease.

Having been defeated, Bowman felt obliged to grant his request. The fact that he had a sword mere centimeters from his neck also motivated him.

"The Changeling Army has nine divisions, each specializing in a specific field," he explained. "The first division specializes in manipulation and deceit. The second division specializes in flight. Third is magic," he paused and shrunk back somewhat as he thought of that division's captain, "Fourth is stealth," he repeated the same action as his eyes narrowed.

'Those two are scary...''

"Fifth specializes in ranged combat, that's my division."

Dimension, who had already removed his blade from Bowman's neck, listened carefully to each and every word, taking mental notes along this way. The information would prove to be valuable in discerning his rival from the other ranks.

"Sixth is power, seventh is an elitist group, eight mostly just operates in the infirmary, and ninth is a scientific group that creates weapons and conducts experiments."

"Are certain divisions stronger than others?" Dimension inquired curiously.

"No... well, not particularly," Bowman replied indefinitely.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just that captains of the third and fourth divisions are rumored to be more powerful than the others. I've heard that they can each take out armies of hundreds all by themselves," he gulped, "They scare me."

Dimension kept his rival in mind, noting his use of magic, as well as his immense power.

'Could he be the captain of this third division?'

"Each member within each division is assigned a rank based on their power."

Dimension's eye twitched. His power, a singular subject requires a singular verb.

"The strongest is the captain, the second is the lieutenant, and the rest are given numbers from three down."

"What's your number?" Dimension asked, finally getting somewhere.

"Three."

"Hmm..." Dimension began to trot away.

"YOU DON'T JUST LEAVE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really!"

"Well," Dimension rambled, "I figured since I have all the information there's no reason for me to speak further."

"Then go!"

"Isn't that contradicting what you said earlier?"

Bowman grumbled.

Dimension trotted away and around a corner, out of sight. As he walked he shifted his thoughts to his companions instead of his foes.

'Applejack and Spike went the other way and Rainbow flew off somewhere. That leaves me alone.' he sighed.

'Well, we do have a higher chance of finding where Twilight is being he-' he paused, gawking at nothing. He stood dumbly as a few seconds passed.

"I should have had him tell me where Twilight is..." he groaned, somewhat frustrated with himself.

"Baka*," he repeated banging his head on the brick wall following the left side the path.

Rainbow glided across the sky above all the buildings, subconsciously cataloging the layout.

"It's been longer than ten seconds," she sighed. "I forgot how HUGE this place is," she said throwing her forelegs in the air.

"What's that?" one changeling said on the ground. He exchanged words with another as he squinted his eyes at the sky.

"Intruder!" he shouted.

"Huh?" Rainbow blurted as she directed her sight to the ground. Changelings gathered into groups, some armed with crossbows and other ranged weapons. A few pegasi darted at her, but she knocked them all away in succession. A chop, kick, and another kick sent them flying back to whence they came.

"I don't have time for this," Rainbow complained before dashing off, followed by more pegasi.

"Oh you wanna do this the hard way? Let's to this the hard way!" she challenged. She exploded forward with speed, pushing them all back with a gust of wind as her trademark rainbow stream appeared. The wind bristled through her fur and tugged her hair. She looped upward, leaving a trail of six colors, and then shot down through her pursuers, knocking them aside like bowling pins.

"...What..?" Dimension gawked. "She'll get  caught if she does that..."

Rainbow found a vacant cloud in the sky, and with incredible speed, carved through it, causing chunks of it to fly off and disappear. When she was finished, it resembled her cutie mark -- a cloud with a lightning bolt coming from it. She posed in front of it, then dashed to the ground once again.

Elemental, who was suffering from a severe lack of inspiration in his art, lit up instantly upon seeing Rainbow's spectacle. His eyes sparkled and his mouth hung open as he held his head to the sky.

"So artful!" he exclaimed.

Rain, lounging on a rooftop in his casual stealth, also turned his attention to the sky. He smiled through his mask, although no one could see, as he thought of Midnight's comment of the pegasus and her group of intruders.

'You really have a bad habit of underestimating ponies...'

"Big bro," said a black changeling pegasus as she looked to her older brother. Her hair had twists of black and dark gray.

"Yeah, we gotta go," he replied. He was white. The only naturally white changeling in the entire facility, possibly in all of Equestria. He was also a pegasus with a spiky mane. His hair twisted white and light gray.

The two began simultaneously walking toward Rainbow's landing spot.

"Now's our chance," the big brother, White Gale, said.

"Yeah," replied the younger sister, Black Wind.