Conduit, Not Monster

A Test Drive (Part 1)

-Three Months Later-

         “Listen up ladies and gents!” Zeke shouted. “I’m happy to announce that you’ve all completed your training thus far!” This earned some cheers from the girls in the line and the guys gave each other fist bumps. “That’s right! As of now, you all have some pretty good knowledge of hand-to-hand combat thanks to our good friend James! Thanks again for all the hard work brother!”

         A nod came from the dark-skinned man. Zeke then called him up to pick where he left off.

         “Alright,” James began, “as many of you know Applejack got some kinda power upgrade a while back. We still don’t know what caused it, but we sure as hell aim to find that out. Now, you’re all Conduits which means that there’s a connection between you. So, I’d guess that each and every one of you is capable of doing the same thing. So, as of now, you have an assignment!” This earned a groan from the lady in the white dress. “I want each and every one of you to go out into the city and do whatever it takes to find your ‘upgrade’. We’re gonna need all the power we can get if we wanna be ready. Also, I’m gonna split y’all into teams of two. If something should happen to one of you, you’ll have some backup. Cole, you’re with AJ. Spike, with Fluttershy. Twilight, Pinkie. And Dash, Rarity. You have your teams, so get to work! Dismissed!!”

         “Yes sir!!”

         “Why do we have to do this today?” Rarity complained.

         “What I wanna know is why James paired me up with you,” Dash complained back.

         “Well excuse me for wanting a break every once in a while!”

         “And excuse me for wanting to survive every once in a while!”

         Rarity glared daggers at Dash. “Do you know how long it has been since I’ve been to a good spa?! I swear I’m looking older and older with each passing day!”

         “Just like the rest of us,” Dash mumbled.

         Rarity continued, “My skin feels like paper, my hair feels like straw, I have dark circles under my eyes, AND I have a pimple! A pimple Rainbow Dash! I’ve never had acne until just yesterday and it was because of all that sweating we did while doing that uncouth martial arts training!”

         She went on and on as the two of them walked down the street. If Dash had Pinkie’s powers, she’d turn her hand into a gun and shoot herself with it. Suddenly, Dash heard a sound almost like an engine revving. She turned towards the source to find that her suspicions were right. A car was barreling towards she and Rarity at what Dash figured was about 80 miles an hour. As quickly as she could, she pulled Rarity out of the way just in time for the car to race past them. That caught the two by surprise, but they were grateful to still be alive.

         “We’ll continue this conversation later,” Rarity said. She turned back around to try and see what that car might have been running from. Without warning, she felt a *ping* sound go off in her head, and her vision quickly zoomed in to an area a long way away. What she saw next almost made her puke.

         A pack of ugly beasts unlike anything Rarity had ever seen were running in their opposite direction. Whatever those things were, they weren’t the easiest to look at. They all had giant tumor-like growths in multiple places and sores festering with pus and blood.  Some were running on all fours like wild animals and others were running on two legs. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but Rarity knew that she and Dash were in danger. And they weren’t the only ones.

         Automatically, her vision zoomed in further to see a woman running sluggishly. She stopped for a moment to look back only to see the beasts closing in on her. Before she turned back around, Rarity saw a bundle cradled in the woman’s arms. A tiny hand was poking out of it and reaching up to the woman. Rarity gasped and grabbed Dash by the shoulders.

         “Dash! We have a problem!” she almost screamed.

         “W-what? What’s going on?!”

         “A lady and her child are in danger! 75 miles, 6 o’clock! You’ve got to help them!”

         “What are you talking about?”

         “No time to explain! Just start flying!!”

         Unsure of what was going on, Dash gave a salute and sped off into the air. She climbed higher and higher until she could see what Rarity was talking about. She saw a huge pack of monsters and figured out that Rarity was right. She bolted and flew harder than she ever had before. It was faint, but Dash saw a small figure trying to get away from the pack. Knowing what she had to do, the winged girl went into overdrive.

         She felt her body sizzle with heat as she picked up momentum. She then folded her wings to her back and proceeded to go into the nosedive position. A cone of air formed around her while electricity surged outside of it. With a sudden bang, she felt her speed double instantly and the world became a blur. She felt no resistance of gravity or wind almost as if it was just her and the sky. Somehow, a rainbow trail was following Dash through the air almost as if she was controlling it. Just as the monsters were closing in, Dash grabbed the woman and unfolded her wings. With steady precision, she looped around in the air and was soon flying in the opposite direction. She slowed to a stop on top of a nearby building with a thick air of confidence around her. She put the woman down and made sure the baby was alright as well.

         “Don’t worry. You’re both safe now,” she assured the woman. Before the woman could thank her, Dash jumped off the rooftop and floated down to the ground. She turned her attention to the beasts with a newfound fire in her eyes. “Hey losers!” she shouted.

         They all turned towards this new sound to find the girl bending over away from them. “You want a piece a’ this action?” she taunted while smacking her own ass. The beasts roared furiously and immediately set their sights on Dash. She made sure that they were dead set on her before shouting, “Then come and get me!” With one last shake of her booty, she took off.

         Rarity was able to see what her rainbow friend did thanks to her newfound ‘sonar vision’. At first, it amazed her to see something so beautiful. That is until Dash stuck her ass out at the pack. That made the fashionista give herself a facepalm. Within ten seconds, RD was back at Rarity’s side.

         “Did you see how awesome that was?!”

         “What? Your spectacle in the sky or showing off your boney butt?”

         “Small butt, big personality.”

         “Whatever. I just hope you have a plan to go along with this… you do have a plan right?”

         Dash was stumped. She always had the habit of not thinking things through. She thought it over pretty hard, but couldn’t get anything. It wasn’t until she saw the pack approaching that something came over her. A strong breeze picked up a piece of paper and it floated over to Dash. It spun in place for a second and blew away. Meanwhile, Rarity felt something else come over her. She looked at the ground and saw what looked like a ring. The diamond was missing, which gave Rarity an idea.

         Rainbow flew up once again and started to fly around in a circle. She picked up more speed until she was barely visible. It wasn’t long before bits of debris started to inch towards a spot in the street. Dust started to kick up in the gusts of wind which were forming a sort of funnel in the street. Rarity used her levitation powers to lift up a huge mound of dirt and debris from the surrounding area. She brought it over to herself and started to work with it.

         “This had better be worth it Rainbow Dash!” she screamed at the wind devil. Rarity never was one to enjoy playing with dirt. The mound began to shrink down further and further with a few miniature explosions appearing to go off inside of it.

         Finally, Dash had finished her proudest creation: a cyclone as big as a six-story building. The monsters stopped dead in their tracks and gazed at the brewing maelstrom. With a confident smirk Dash shouted, “Let’s see if you losers know how to fly!”

         With a single swipe of her wings, she hurled the storm at the crowd of monsters now struggling to get away from it. It was all in vain as the cyclone caught them in its wake and swung them around like giant rag dolls. Some were slammed into either each other or the bigger pieces of debris that were also caught in the wind.

         Rarity’s ball of dirt reached the size of a baseball before she was satisfied. With a similar smirk she said, “Enjoy it while it lasts you ugly brutes. Because I’m about to bedazzle the shit out of you!” She hurled the ball of dirt at the cyclone which immediately picked it up. Rarity maneuvered it to reached the eye of the storm before stopping it. With a single push, the ball suddenly exploded into the cyclone releasing hundreds of thousands of razor-sharp gems. In a dazzling flash, the gems impaled themselves into the monsters multiple times while using the speed of the wind as momentum.

         Just as quickly as it came, the cyclone disappeared while leaving the monsters floating in midair for a split second. The long dead bodies of the deformed beasts fell to the ground one by one with a sickening sound at the moment of impact. Neither Dash nor Rarity paid any attention to any of that as they walked away.

         “If it’s any consolation,” Rarity began, “that was very awesome. And I’m sorry for the things I said about you.”

         “It’s all good Rares. And I’m sorry too. Now how’s about we get you one of those mud baths that you go on about?”

         Rarity squealed happily at the sound of it. “And maybe I can get us both a facial?”

         “Don’t push it.”