Let's get ready to ruuuuuummmmmble
Rainbow Dash looked across the landscape before her and recognized it easily. Her heart lurched as she looked at Lerris in all it’s beauty. “And now we come to the philosophical dream sequence,” Discord’s voice said from behind a building, his fanged muzzle appearing first before he stepped out wearing a black tuxedo and white top hat.
Rainbow Dash maintained a calm exterior and inhaled to speak.
Discord lifted a claw and waved it. “Now, now. Before you say something heroic and awesome, I should remind you this is a dream and anything you say can and will be held against you until you awaken,” he pounded a gavel against the building and walked to her as it burst into flames and began to crumble. “The reason you’re here is to make a choice. You see,” he disappeared and reappeared beside her with his hands on her withers.
She shrugged him off but he put a claw to her lips. “Oh shush, it’s beginning. Watch,” he slithered through the air until he was behind her, in a flash of light she was on her belly, in a lounge chair, with a container of popcorn to her right and lemonade to her left. “In the left corner, we have Shell,” Discord pointed to a lone stallion that fit the look the stallion had carried during his last battle with Rainbow Dash, beside a building that was intact still. Her blood boiled as she recognized him.
Rainbow lunged from her chair only to have the chair lasso her around her middle and tie her wings to her body, legs together in a hogtie, all as it pulled her back onto itself. The town faded from pristine with a single burning building into the burning ruin it was when Rainbow and her friends left Lerris for the last time.
“And in the right corner, The terror of the skies and everypony she crosses,” he pointed to a gryphon in shining silver armor about 300 yards away from Shell, facing him, “we have Seraphimus. Right talon of Veralxion, long time commander and soldier, as well as zealot supreme. They look ready to kill each other, who will win?!” Discord announced. Rainbow’s eyes darted between the two and then found Discord standing in the center between the two wearing a referee uniform. “Round one, fight!”
Seraphimus, dressed in full plate armor befitting her rank stomped a claw on the ground and extended her wings, showing an emblem on her chest that was… “Is that-” Rainbow started before Discord shushed from inside her ear and climbed out, resting his elbows on her snout as he looked into Rainbow's eyes.
“Yes, it’s your element. The Element of Loyalty seems to be her trait as well, interesting. And the scar across Shell’s eye seems very lightning bolt-y, if I’ve ever seen one,” he turned aside and pointed a telescope at the stallion and held it to Rainbow's eye.
Indeed the scar was shaped and sized as though Rainbow had pressed her necklace to his face, leaving a horrific scar.
With a battle roar, Shell charged Seraphimus, horn glowing white while sparkling at the tip. Seraphimus held her stance, watching him move, seemingly ready to take any strike that he let loose. Seraphimus took a single step forward which led to a faster charge from Shell.
Shell reached the gryphon and with a flash of his horn vanished, reappearing behind her with his full momentum. She hopped aside barely avoiding his magic bolt and opened her wings, taking flight as he landed and skidded across the loose dirt road sending dust in his wake.
He ran to and hopped on the nearest building's wall and began jumping between it and another building beside it, getting to a higher spot each time while he looked to find, and found, Seraphimus.
Her wings flapped, gusting air behind her then hugged her sides as she shot forward like a spear in flight at him.
Her beak held firm under it's armor and her charcoal eyes locked onto her target. With a snarl, he spun between his second and third jumps, sending out a kick that was a bit too early, but a great feign to hide the bolt of energy he lanced at her. Her right wing's pinion feathers extended slightly and she twisted, the bolt barely missed her, then struck her from behind.
Opening her wings, Seraphimus banked hard left and vanished from his sight as he landed at a window’s edge shy of his target of the rooftop. Climbing into the open window he planted his hooves on the soft green shag carpeting and his horn lit as he scanned the buildings for his foe.
Seconds of near silence passed as Rainbow watched the stallion from a TV screen set in front of herself and Discord. “Popcorn? Oh fine, spoilsport, I’ll nom-nom them all myself,” Discord crunched a pawful of buttery, salty popcorn, “Ooo, lookie there,” he pointed at the television.
Seraphimus peeked inside the doorway silently at the stallion and lowered herself, rolling her shoulders. She pounced at the immobile stallion and her armored beak met the wall, phasing through his image. He burst from behind the fully opened door and tackled her through the thin wooden wall and into the open town again. Breaking apart, they both landed on their paws and hooves, staring daggers at each other.
“You know, we don’t need to fight. We can join forces against that life-ruining multi-colored bitch! Look what she did to me,” Shell shouted and tore his coat open, exposing a hole in his chest where Rainbow had impaled him. “She did this to me!”
Seraphimus’ expression hardened. “She took my family from me. She tore a hole in my heart that rivals your own. But, no one can come between my vengeance for that blighted harpie.”
“Then I’ll help you exact that revenge, on my word of honor I will support you in your efforts to capture, eviscerate, and slowly kill that rainbow maned freak of nature.” Shell relaxed and raised a hoof with a determined look. Seraphimus regarded him and made her way to him, raised her talons in a fist and as she reached to his hoof he lunged at her, impaling a small knife between the plates in her armor.
“NO ONE SHALL COME BETWEEN ME AND MY REVENGE,” he roared at her as he turned and bucked her, “not you, not Ledo, not even god in the flesh! I’ll kill all that cross me,” he said turning to face the gryphon and watch as she smashed into a building’s second floor. Shattering ceramics sounded and dust escaped the hole her body had opened.
The knife flew at him with the perfect aim she should be known for, aimed at his heart. He stood to take the blade. “No heart, I just showed you, fool!” he managed before gripping his chest and falling to a foreknee. “What the hell?”
Seraphimus landed and cracked her neck to the side. “Added one of my own blades that trailed yours; bounced off the hilt when it entered you. You've got a knife stabbing you inside, what a way to die," she shook her head as he trembled, unable to see his face because he was looking at his chest. "You’re a heartless bastard and you should know I’d never trust you. You just struck first and caught me just before I was going to attack you, a rare event indeed. I think you may have a point though.
“I may not be able to take her down myself and assistance... I wouldn’t be opposed to,” she leapt forward and gripped him by the neck, lifting him and with a twirl, she sent him into the ground floor of the same building she was in with much more clatter, “but I’d never work with a blighted fool the same as her.”
He burst from the building with a flash of his horn, clearing the debris, and threw both knives at her, one straight at her, the other ascending. She dodged left and with a flap of her wings and the first knife flew by, then she took a step back and jumped up, just dodging his next energy blast that kicked dirt into the air below her and trailed in her wake. An audible wing flap was all it took and she tore through the air at him again.
This time she was too close for him to attack magically without taking her barreling into him, so he fell to his belly and planted his rear hooves. As she neared ramming into him, Shell arched his back and lifted her angle of flight. Would she have been inexperienced she would have fallen for the redirect, but she ducked her head and grabbed his tail, dragging him across the ground behind her.
He cast a spell and with a flash, he appeared on her back and wrapped his forelegs around her neck.
“Urk!”
“Yes, even armor can’t save you, bitch. You’re just another creature that supports Xona and I’ll kill you like the other wastes of air and space you all are.”
Seraphimus arced, shot straight up in three flaps, then lost a short struggle as he’d managed to wrestle her wings to her body and hold them with his hind legs. She flexed her neck muscles to get a precious gulp of air as she reached the apex and closed her eyes.
“What’re you doing?” he asked as his sneer turned to one of interest. “My, you certainly got us up high quickly," he chuckled honestly, "self-sacrifice for little old me?” he released her wings, “but I know your dedicated type. You won’t die until your goal is complete and Rainbow is dead. You have no choice but to save yourself, and me with you,” he shouted over the loud air, watching the ground approach.
Discord pulled Rainbow’s chair close to his and shoved a pawful of popcorn into her mouth. “They represent you, Rainbow Dash. You’re fighting yourself, even at this very moment. You can’t control who’ll win this fight, but you can watch you beat yourself up until the end.
“The dark, adventurous mare that will stop at nothing to achieve her goal of saving the world by destroying evil and that which she perceives as bad, or perhaps the winner will be the noble dedicated one that fights with a purpose and clear goal of defending the world, backed by her goddess of unimaginable power who has, conviniently been indisposed. Who will you place your bets on?” he shoved another pawful of popcorn into Rainbow’s mouth as she spat the first out and tried to speak. “Stop talking, it’s just getting good!”
Shell grunted as he tightened his grip on her throat without reaction. They began to struggle for dominance in the fall. He arched his back and Seraphimus arched hers, trying to keep him under her fall. He twisted, she twisted. He leaned, she leaned. “So, you may just win this one,” he shouted over the rushing air as gravity pulled them down at terminal velocity.
Fifty feet. Twelve feet. He struck the ground with a meaty thud, stopping Seraphimus from an inconvience as he pressed into her back’s armor with a crunch, absorbing her weight. She bounced off him in a controlled flip to her paws, wings outstretched.
She looked at the broken stallion and turned away with her wings open. A knife flew at her that she barely deflected. “You don’t die easily, do you?”
“I’m quite persistent," he said with a bright flash of blue light from his horn, healing himself, "and I won’t have you get Rainbow Dash before I do,” he pulled a knife from inside his uniform and gripped it in his teeth.
“And I feel the same, yet you’re nearing death with each strike and I’m still standing strong. Give up and I’ll make your end semi-merciful,” she offered stoically.
“Like I’d ever surrender in the first place, Xonan whore,” he took a shaking step towards her and his horn lit with a red tint. He cast his spell and when it struck Seraphimus, her armor clinked as it fell apart from the energy he sent her way. She glared at his smug smile as he began rapidly shooting at her.
She ducked and rolled out of the beams as best she could, still the magic chipped away at her armor. The whole time she dodged closer and closer to him. Her front was now unarmored yet she swiped a claw at him and raked across his shield, to which he replied with an explosion of spherical energy that sent her flying into the air, stunned for an instant.
He charged and leapt at her, swinging his head and the knife, cutting into her chest, just skimming the bones of her ribs. She grunted, ignoring the sharp pain, and brought her talons together, into his neck as then fell.
She twisted and nearly cut through his head with her talons but somehow she wasn't strong enough to kill him. She released him as the blade swung at her again and they landed, Seraphimus just losing some headcrest feathers.
Holding her arm to her body wound, she glared at him and his smirking face. Both dripping blood, they waited for the other to make a move.
Discord slithered around her and hovered in the air, swaying his pawed arm toward the fighting duo. “And now you see, dearest Sparky, what you have to deal with alone. You’re fighting yourself, and no matter how close one of you gets to winning there’s always an advantage to the other,” he pointed to the gryphon flying up and diving at Shell, trading magic for claw strikes, “until eventually one wins or,” he snapped his talons and the city appeared as it was after Shell laid waste to it, “everything stays as it is.”
“Discord,” Rainbow finally managed, “what if the wrong one wins?” she asked as the chair released her to lay comfortably so she could watch the fight.
“Then you’ll be more like the winner of this little spat until the next convient plot twist. Simple as that,” he grinned and held a full body mirror to Rainbow he'd pulled from behind himself. She flinched and looked away at the creature she saw. Mostly Discord’s body but with a few traits from each of the combatants. Wing of a gryphon, one horn of a unicorn, the scar on her eye… she didn’t care to see anymore, and with a wave of her hand the mirror vanished in a flash of light.
Discord flinched, then laughed. “Oh, not bad! Can you do it again?” Discord asked hopping between feet and clapping his hands.
She reached and felt her neck, the element was still there and she sighed as she laid back. “So, I lose either way? Is that what you’re saying? Are you finally giving me an answer, or is this more tricks and games and stuff?”
“Ohhh, I’d say I'm more mediating an internal debate,” he grinned as a building began to crumble behind him, “and I think I’m doing quite well myself.”
Rainbow sighed and reached for her drink, gripping it too tightly in her talons, crushing the cup, yet she still brought it to her lips and drank from the straw as though the cup wasn't now empty. “This’ pretty good. Maybe I can’t decide who wins inside of me, but I can decide who wins between you and me,” she tossed the drink at Discord and he took it with a smile.
He then pouted as he poured, easily, six times the amount of soggy popcorn from the carton he held.
“You wet my snack? This means war,” the carton emptied and he stood, wearing a soldier’s uniform. “Next time that is, it's time to wake up and forget all but the best parts of this dream,” he winked and the world went dark as Rainbow felt a chill across her body and heard the flap of Wildcard’s wings passing over her.