Chapter 17: Hope

Chapter 17: Hope

The two pegasi touched down on the cloud.

"I suppose I should introduce myself." he said. "I am known as Suffering. You may know me as one of Sin's generals. You'd better be strong, I want this to be worth my time."

He had multiple blades attached to his hooves, along with large amounts of chain attached to each one. He shot three of them at Rainbow, who quickly shot up into the air to dodge them. The chain attached to the blades was revealed to be connected to machinery he wore under his cloak. The machinery was full of all sorts of gears and chains and some devices Rainbow couldn't recognize. The chain's were pulled right back without any delay.  He continued to fire more, and Rainbow was having a very hard time dodging. One flew in between her hooves. The next her tail, which was cut. Two more flew in front of her face.  He fired one more, and grazed her cheek, leaving a small cut. He quickly reeled all the blades back in. Rainbow took this chance to charge him. She flew in close at top speed. Suffering simply waited for her. When she got fairly close to him, he raised his hoof. She got almost close enough to hit him, when three more blades flew out, causing her to quickly turn and get hit once in the leg.

"You didn't think i'd fire them all, did you?" he said.

"Looks like I'm going to have to dodge while I charge." thought Rainbow

So she tried again, and Suffering fired once more. Rainbow managed to slip through the shots, but noticed Suffering did not pull them back. He pressed a button on the machinery he had under his cloak, and then waited. Once she got close, he made a small movement with his hoof. The chains on the blades he had already fired began whipping around through the air. The blades cut Rainbow twice before she could get away, once on the flank, and once to her shoulder. As she flew away, Suffering fired more blades at her. She flew upwards into the sky. It was here she saw his critical weakness. The blades cannot fire up! To test this, she flew directly above him. He did not fire, even though he could clearly see her. He tried to fly up towards her, but was weighed down too much. Rainbow flew up higher and higher, past the clouds. She then descended at top speed, right on to him. He spun his blades once more, but Rainbow hit him, the blades only coming close enough to graze. She jabbed her blade into the machinery, jamming it and causing it to break. The chains snapped, and any fired blades simply fell to the ground, useless. He removed the machinery, and soared into the air.

"Very good." he said. "But I'm afraid this is the end for you."

He grabbed two blades from the ground and charged at Rainbow.  She blocked with her own blades, and a loud clang shot across the sky. Without the machinery and chain on his back, he could fly much faster. His long white mane shot behind him as he soared up into the sky. Rainbow chased after him. As she got close, Suffering flew in and delivered a kick to her face. He then slammed her down on to the cloud below. Both of his blades at her neck, Rainbow was powerless to stop him.

"One of the best fights I have had in a long time." he said. "You should-."

Before he could finish, however, he suddenly stopped. He shook, and slowly turned around. Behind him stood an orange mare, with a large stetson.

"That's enough outta you." said Applejack." she slowly pulled the blade out of Suffering's back.

Suffering slowly fell to the ground, Applejack's blade proving to be his death blow.

"But...I...I broke you." he said. "You were...barely even alive."

"Never underestimate the will of an Apple." she said.

"It doesn't matter anyway... I'm sure the rest of the generals have killed off your friends." he said. "Master Sin has almost recovered from the wounds that that Celestia gave him."

"Everypony else is still alive?" said Rainbow.

"Not for much longer." said Suffering.

The two of them walked away, leaving him to die. Suffering had a large grin on his face.

"So...this is what death feels like." he thought. "I have to admit, she's a good fighter. Maybe together they stand a chance. This world might have a few redeeming qualities after all."

That was the last thought to cross him mind. He let himself simply relax, and fell dead.

"How did you get over to this cloud anyway?" asked Rainbow.

"I found a little something left back at Ponyville. When i was captured they left it there, and I used to to get to you."

"So, what is "It"?" asked Rainbow

"Applejack pointed off in front of her. The two of them headed that way for a bit, and then Rainbow saw "it".

"You found the balloon?" she asked excitedly.

"Yep, it was a little torn up, but I fixed it up and now it flies real nice."

The hot air balloon that the six of them used to fly together was in front of them once more.

"I should go see how the battle went." said Rainbow.

"C'mon," she said, and got in the balloon. Rainbow followed, and they flew it down to the Cloudsdale palace. The battle was over, the alliance had captured the palace. Shield would survive, just a bit wounded. He approached the two of them.

"Hello." he said. "my name is Sivler Shield, and yours?"

"Ahm Applejack." said Applejack

"Applejack... are you one of the element bearers?"

"Yeah, what about it?" she said

"Celestia wanted us to find you, she said you would be important to defeating Sin. What luck we happened to find you here. So that's two element bearers down, four to go."

"Any idea where the others are?" asked Rainbow.

"No." said Shield "But i have a mission for you. I want you to go find them."

"That's what we were hoping for" said Rainbow.

"I'm afraid the troops have a different mission, so you two will have to go alone." he said.

The two of them nodded, and got inside the hot air balloon.