Chapter 11
Swift Shot's Motivation

The 29th of November was a bright chilly day, with the sun playing across the leaves of trees with fall colors. The running of the leaves had already happened but some leaves still clung stubbornly to their host trees. The pegasi and earth ponies would be taking care of that today and the next day. Then the pegasi would bring in the clouds for the season of winter. For the seasons had to change in order for things to keep their balance.

This bright day saw a certain cyborg pegasus sitting on a cloud watching Rainbow Dash practicing her tricks. His gray white wings fluttered as he watched her. The cutie mark of a comet shaped like a speeding bullet sat upon his flank and seemed to shift as he moved in his spot a bit. Shot just couldn't get enough of watching Rainbow Dash. She was a fascinating individual, who had helped him when he most needed it. Swift Shot didn't remember anything about his life before he came to Ponyville and was helped out by Rainbow Dash.

The first thing he could remember was waking from unconsciousness in a muddy pit with badly damaged legs that wouldn't respond to his movements. His wings wouldn't respond either as they had appeared to be broken. Dark clouds had covered the sky overhead as rain descended from them to the ground. He was soaking to the bone, when he saw a trail of beautiful rainbow light overhead. Wearily looking up out of one eye, he had seen the rainbow light diving right towards him only to come to a sudden stop outside of his muddy pit. What had appeared before his weary eye was the image of a beautiful goddess with a rainbow colored mane as his mind started to go dark. This small memory had stayed with him ever since then.

It had been two years since the day of his dreadful accident and subsequent rescue by Rainbow Dash. He had been living in a cloud house near her own since a year ago. Rainbow Dash herself had nursed him back to full health for which he was grateful. She had also helped the doctors at the hospital get the experimental metal parts they needed in order to perform surgery on his broken, destroyed legs.

When she had taken him to the hospital that first day, he had been in a very bad condition. His legs were completely destroyed beyond use ever again at least beyond the conventional means of magic and regular recovery. Instead the doctors had decided that they would try an experimental procedure to see if they could help him to regain his ability to walk. The only problem was they they didn't have the necessary tools or parts to perform the surgery at the hospital. The nearest hospital with the right equipment was in Canterlot itself. So Rainbow Dash had got a list of what they needed from them and zoomed off to Canterlot to get the needed things. She had pushed herself so fast and hard she had performed a rainboom and was able to get back to the Ponyville hospital with the needed things within half an hour.

The doctors had managed to stabilize the pegasus for the time being so that he wouldn't die from blood loss but they still needed to move quickly. So when Rainbow Dash had returned with what was needed in a chariot, they had quickly taken the unconscious stallion into surgery. The doctors had managed to perform the surgery using the parts and tools retrieved. And the pegasus' legs were rebuilt from the ground up to be completely robotic. However, he had still been very weak and needed to be watched over so Rainbow Dash volunteered herself for the job.

So Rainbow Dash had kept him in her home for the next several months as his body slowly recovered from the accident. Swift had to relearn how to walk using his new mechanical legs but had help from Rainbow in doing so. The time the two spent together was invaluble for Swift as he relearned exactly what kind of a pony he was. What his likes and dislikes were, and how he was as an individual over all. Swift had also realized that he had fallen for the blue pegasus mare but was just too shy to ask her out. He felt that Rainbow needed to focus more on her own goals in life at the moment before worrying about anything else.

Rainbow Dash had also helped him to discover that his legs could do many more things than just help him walk again. Together they found out his legs could transform into many different kinds of tools and implements. They could even cover him in some kind of metallic armor that they had never seen before. He had jets in his hind legs that only worked when this full armor was active. He could also create energy blades from his fore-hooves but again only when his full armor was active. It was also during this time that Swift figured out what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to become a defender of the innocent but most importantly he wanted to stay near his beautiful Rainbow Goddess.

Swift Shot was still watching Rainbow Dash an hour later when his stomach rumbled to signal that he was hungry. He chuckled to himself and called up to Rainbow,"Hey Dash. I'm going to get get something to eat. Care to join me?"

Rainbow had stopped for the moment in order to take a small breather before continuing her routines. She turned to him with a sheepish grin as her own stomach growled at her,"Uh yeah sure. Let's go get something real quick. I want to get back to my routines as soon as possible."

Nodding his head, Swift stood up on the cloud where he had been resting and flew off down towards the town. He glided through the air effortlessly as Rainbow came up beside him. She was a little out of breath at the moment as she continued to glide along beside him.

Pointing at a small cafe, Swift happily said,"Let's go eat there real quick. I'm sure we can get a quick sandwich or something before you continue your training."

Rainbow grinned,"Sure thing. Last one there has to pay up." With that she zoomed down towards the cafe with great speed leaving a chuckling Swift behind.

Swift poured on more speed himself but was nowhere near as fast as the blue mare. He ended up landing at the cafe a few moments later only to see her lounging on one of the hay piles. Smiling to himself, he moved over to sit in the hay pile right across from her.

"Quick as always Dash. No one can catch you," he praised her happily.

"You better believe it. I am the fastest flier in all of Equestria after all,"Rainbow dash boasted as she sat back grinning. She really liked it when Swift stroked her ego like that. "I've already ordered us each a couple of daisy sandwiches. It should be enough to keep us going. Also you have to pay up."

Letting out a small sigh, Swift waved his hoof dismissively,"I know Rainbow. I'll make sure to pay for us. Just please take it easy on me. My wallet only has so many bits."

Rainbow chuckled,"No promises." She lounged easily on the pile as she waited for their food,"So any new discoveries as far as those awesome mechanical legs of yours go?"

Swift grinned,"Actually yeah. I recently found out that they can fire a freeze ray and these awesome saw like blades. I've been practicing with them and I'm getting better with them. It will take a while before I'm truly good with them though."

Rainbow nodded,"Cool. Just make sure not to overdo your training like you did that one time."

Swift's ears flattened completely as he hissed,"We agreed never to speak of that again."

Rainbow laughed a bit,"Relax Swift. I know. But its just too funny to let you live down. Besides a little teasing won't kill you."

Swift mumbled out something grumpily as he folded his forelegs. Rainbow chuckled,"Oh come on. It wasn't that bad. I mean you only cut down two of AJ's trees. And she stopped beating the crap out of you after 6 hours."

Swift hid down deeper in his seat,"Please Dash. I really don't want to remember."

Rainbow sighed and nodded her head,"Fine. I'll drop it for now." The waiter had finally arrived with their sandwiches,"Finally. They were way to slow for my tastes."

Swift picked up one of his sandwiches,"Dash you think everyone else is too slow."

Rainbow chuckled,"True enough." She scarfed down her sandwiches quickly before turning to Swift to see if he was done. He was only halfway done with the first one and she groaned,"Come on Swift. Your to slow. We'll be here forever at the rate your eating."

Swift grunted,"Well excuse me Dash. I actually like to take the time to enjoy my meal. Just go on ahead and I'll catch up."

Rainbow blinked,"Oh. Are you sure about that?"

He nodded his head,"Yeah. Just get going already." He took another bite of his first sandwich."

Rainbow grinned,"You don't need to tell me twice." She zoomed off into the air back to her training area. This suited her more than anything.

Taking another bite of his sandwich, he looked to where Rainbow had been before looking up at the sky. Swift smiled happily up at the spot in the sky where Rainbow had decided to go through her training routines.

The spot where she was practicing was half a mile outside of Ponyville over a couple of gently rolling hills. He could see her even from here practicing a new trick that she wanted to master for her next Wonderbolts routine. He quickly finished his sandwiches and then flew off to join her back at her area and resume his watching on his cloud. But as he flew towards the area his ears swiveled as he picked up heavy mechanical footsteps coming from the south of the area where the Everfree forest was.

He reached his cloud used for observation as the loud thumping of those mechanical footsteps came closer. Rainbow Dash didn't notice because she was too into her routines at the moment. Observing the source of the sounds, he saw many of the trees of the Everfree being pushed to both sides of a giant mechanical being. It appeared to have a draconian appearance but it was made of gleaming grey metal. Two giant cannons sprouted from its back to either side of its head. Gleaming red dots peered out of triangle shaped eye slots, roaming all over the land as if in search of something.

The mechanical being's red eyes looked up at them and its gaze stilled as did its body. It had finally found some fresh targets for it to practice upon. Swift's eyes narrowed at the great mechanical dragon thing that had stopped within the treeline of the Everfree. Rainbow Dash had still not noticed the giant mechanical beast as she zipped through another turn of her trick.

Swift called out to Rainbow,"Hey Dash. I think you should stop your practicing for a moment and take a look at this."

Rainbow stopped her trick after a few seconds and zipped over to him,"What is it Swift? This had better be important. I was just about to perfect my trick." Her gaze fell upon the mechanical beast,"Oh dang. That is important. I wonder what it wants and why its staring at us."

Swift flicked his eyes to her for a moment,"Heck if I know Dash. But I don't like the looks or feel of the thing. I think we should get out of here before it actually does something."

Rainbow snorted and waved her hoof dismissively,"Oh quit your worrying Swift. We'll be able to get out of the way in plenty of time if it tries something. I want to see what happens."

Swift shook his head grumbling to himself as he turned his gaze back down to the monstrosity below him. His eyes widened as he saw a yellow glow starting to build up in both of its cannons,"Uh Dash. If your seeing what I'm seeing then we should really move."

Rainbow's eyes had widened as well and she nodded,"Hay yeah. Let's get out of here." She dashed out of the way grabbing hold of him by his tail. She yanked him backwards off his cloud and pulled him along behind her as she flew towards a safer area. The yellow charge building up in the beasts cannons increased quickly until they were fully powered and its cannons moved to track them.

It roared in a dark voice,"Giga Cannon!" And the cannons on its back discharged with high velocity particle shots. The giant beams of energy reeving the air in two as they carved through the sky towards the two pegasi. They were moving so quickly and were so large that not even Rainbow Dash would be able to escape them.

Swift Shot shook himself free of Rainbow's grip as his legs glowed and then his body. The metal from his legs moved up along his body to form sleek metal armor across his back and wings. The metal on the wings being very lightweight so that he could still fly albeit slower then before. The design of the armor was very unusual and unlike any armor seen before. It was sleek with a gunmetal gray coloring all along the back. With two diagonal stripes running across the armor on his back to form a giant red X with the crossing of it between his wings. A small gun the size of a pistol was mounted on either side of his armor underneath his wings with more slender red x on the bracers of his mechanical legs. A large red x was on the chest of his armor with what seemed like flames wafting up towards the top of his armor. The helmet enclosed his head but let his ears out through slits at the top. A blue visor came down to encompass his eyes to protect them from interference of the wind as the small jets in his rear hooves fired up to give him speed. His fore hooves each split apart to reveal ports that hummed with energy and long thin energy blades powered up through the ports.

He flew in front of Rainbow Dash and put his blades together in a crossing motion. The particle beams flew through the air looking as if they were going to impact against him. A green hexagonal shield flickered into existence before Swift right as the beams came at him. The beams slammed against the shield as smaller beams of energy poured around the shield edges to continue onward. The beams powered down after a moment leaving Swift panting behind. He looked back at Rainbow Dash who was flying in place with a look of horror and shock on her face.

"Swift are you alright?"She asked starting to fly over to him.

"I'm fine Dash but you have to get out of here right now. Go get to saftey. Even you know you can't fight this thing."Swift shouted back.

She stopped where she was again as she looked down at the mechanical being. She growled,"Your right. But that doesn't mean that I have to like it. I'll get out of here but you'd better come back alive you idiot." With that she bolted off again as the mechanical dragon's cannons powered up again.

Swift growled down at his foe,"I don't know who or what you are. But your going to pay for trying to attack Rainbow Dash." He zoomed down towards the being as the jets in his hooves fired up brighter. He flew through the air with the energy blades extended as the cannons powered up again quickly.

Roaring in the the air again the being said,"Giga Cannon!" The cannons fired off two more giant particle beams at the speeding pegasus.

Swift growled,"Not this time." He curled up into a ball and started spinning rapidly forwards until he was a grey metal ball with a green edge around him as the blades coming from his ports turned green with shielding energy.

The beams impacted against the speeding ball of a pegasus only to be deflected all around it. The beams couldn't penetrate the shield around the ball as the pegasus got closer. The cannons powered down again a few seconds later as the ball impacted against the being's large head. There was a dull thunk before Swift uncurled. He hovered into the air above the being's head and stabbed directly downwards with his energy blades only to yelp in surprise as his blades were forced to either side of him. They didn't penetrate the metal of the being even a centimeter. His blades being forced apart made his forelegs splay outwards.

He thumped against the beings head as his thrusters failed to compensate for his movement. He yelped in pain from the impact as the being roared,"How dare you try to attack me. You will pay for your insolence."

Swift stuck out his tounge,"Oh look who can actually talk normally. Didn't think you had it in you."

The being roared,"Insolence. Now stay still so I can erase you from existence." The cannons on its back rotated downwards to aim right at the pegasus. He made a large gulp as he managed to hover back into the air if woozily.

"You can try to kill me but I won't make it easy for you."Swift replied as he started to move out of the way.

The being's cannons didn't power up as it instead swiped upwards with a claw catching Swift in his chest,"We shalls see." The tips of its great claw ripped through the metal encasing Swift's chest making a screeching sounds as the metal was easily ripped through. The claws scored into his chest making Swift yell in pain as he was thrown backwards. He landed on his back on a hill hard with blood spurting up into the air from one giant gouge in his chest. The flesh having been torn asunder along with the metal.

Yelling in pain, he forced himself to get back onto all fours as the blood poured from the wound to land on the ground. The grass starting to be stained red as the being's red eyes gazed upon him,"Now I will destroy you fleshling."

Swift gritted his teeth as a hoof clutched at his chest wound,"We'll see you bucket of bolts."

The machine dragon took a couple of massive steps forwards, which brought it within claw range of the pegasus again. It brought its giant claw up above its head and then slashed quickly downwards with it. This insolent fleshling would die for its transgressions. Swift started to react by trying to roll out of the way only to yelp in pain as his wound stopped him and he only ended up landing on his side.

Time seemed to stop for him as he saw the claw seemingly descend at a much slower pace and his ears twitched minutely as they picked up the voice of another stallion,"Mechanical Savior of Neo Arcadia rise again! Soul Unison, MegaMan Zero, Zero soul!"

Then a red armored being of some sort jumped into his field of vision up at the descending claw. He caught the sight of a long golden colored ponytail coming from the back of some sort of angular helmet. The being swung a green, triangular shaped energy blade at the claw. The blade sheared right through the three claw fingers of the mechanical claw before the being rolled forwards as they landed on the ground.

The talons of the claw thumped to ground with a heavy smack before they seemed to faze in and out. Then he could hear a shattering sound as the claw broke apart into tiny gray triangular pieces of light that flew off into the sky. They pieces disappeared leaving the being just outside of his field of vision as the mechanical dragon roared in fury.

Gritting his teeth, Swift managed to get back onto his hooves so he could see what was going on. Before him stood the being that had saved him in clearer focus.

The being was a stallion covered all over with red, black, and yellow armor and the long golden ponytail coming from the back of his helmet. His tail was much shorter but still the same color. The helmet was black all over except for two long angular red fins running up to the top of the helmet. These fins came together in a u shape underneath a blue jewel. White protrusions came from the sides of the helmet to cover parts of the face but they also protruded back a few inches from the back of the helmet. Black metal hoof gloves covered the stallion's four hooves. The gloves extended from large golden cuffs that connected with red armoring around all four legs. The red armoring was sleek if a little bulky and went up to the stallion's knees on all four legs. Then black armoring covered the upper parts of the legs and shoulder's of the stallion. The top of the back and the chest armor were all covered in more of the sleek red armor and connected with the helmet in a yellow collar. Clenched underneath in one hoof was the long white handle belonging to an energy blade. The blade extended outwards from the handle in a green triangular shape and the stallion stood poised for battle.

Swift spat out a wad of blood as he looked at the stallion warily,"Just who are you and why did you help me?"

The stallion turned back to him with a grim expression,"The name is Zero. And I helped you cause you were in trouble. This stupid mechanical beast is called Machinedramon and its not something you want to mess with. There is no way your energy blades will be able to penetrate its armor. Do you have anything else you can use?"

Swift winced in pain as his hoof came to his bleeding chest wound again,"Yeah. A freeze ray and spinning metal blades."

Zero nodded,"Back me up!" He then charged towards Machinedramon who was currently ranting about insolence and stupid fleshy beings. His cannons rotated downwards to face the threat before him as he swiped with his other claw.

Swift flew back into the air as more blood spattered onto the ground as he rose. He'd have to help end this battle quickly before he went unconscious from blood loss or something worse. His right fore hoof turned into the mega buster like weapon and he fired off several icy blasts at Machinedramon. Machinedramon roared as its claw stopped descending due to the joint in its elbow being frozen solid. The cannons continued to power up even quicker than before.

Zero jumped up into the air again and brought his energy sword down on the elbow joint cutting through the ice and metal there. He landed on the ground, rolling forwards again, and came to a stop. The arm fell off after a few seconds and burst into data fragments as Machinedramon roared again.

He turned his body to track Zero as the cannons came to full charge,"Giga Cannon!" The large particle beams firing at the ground right in front of Machinedramon at full power. Luckily for him his particle beams didn't harm them in the least but a large cry of pain could be heard from Zero. He flew out of the resulting explosion to land on his back next to Swift with his armor cracked all over. The blue triangular gem on his helmet pulsing weakly,"Ouch. Forgot about that attack."

He slowly got back to his hooves as blood started dribbling from the corner of his mouth. He looked at Swift,"We need to end this now." He took a few steps forwards as sparks jumped from the cracks all over his armor and red blood seeped through here and there.

Jumping into the air again he pulled out a gun that appeared on the side of his armor and charged it up quickly. He fired off several large bursts of plasma that rocketed through the air and impacted against one of the cannons melting holes in the sides of it. It powered down completely and hung limply against Machindramon's back.

Zero called out to the weakly hovering Swift,"Charge up your strongest attack and aim for one of the eyes. I'll keep its attention." He charged forwards again despite his pain and fired off more shots from the gun in his hoof. They made small impact holes in Machinedramon's hide angering it further.

It tracked him with its remaining cannon as it charged up completely again,"Giga Cannon!"

Zero jumped high into the air right over the particle beam and onto the top of the Cannon,"I don't think so!" He charged more power to his saber making it longer and more powerful as he drove it down into the last remaining cannon before jumping high into the air again. The cannon screeched and hummed with power before it exploded damaging Machindramon even further.

"Curse you fleshlings. You'll all pay."Machinedramon roared.

"Go fire your best attack now,"Zero called down to Swift. Swift had changed one of his fore-hooves into a long barreled sniper rifle of a sort that had its own ammunition source. He calmed his breath and fired off a high velocity shot from the rifle which zoomed through the air. The cross-hairs of the rifle having targeted Machinedramon's left eye. The round was a small comet in the shape of a bullet moving through the air with a burning heat and intensity. The attack easily penetrated Machinedramon's eye and up into his mechanical brain.

It overheated and then melted the inside of machindramon's mechanical CPU before that internally exploded. Machinedramon's remaining eye immediately went dark as the whole thing slumped to the ground with a heavy groan of defeat. Then after a few seconds the whole thing dissolved into a mass of data bits that disappeared.

Zero landed on the ground and quickly moved over to the heavily injured Swift,"We need to get you to the hospital quickly."

Swift nodded weakly as he thumped to the ground and his knees threatened to buckle completely,"Yeah."

Zero grabbed hold of him and the two of them disappeared in a beam of red light. That beam of red light impacted down in front of the hospital revealing the two of them. Zero quickly hauled him into the hospital and got him onto a stretcher as the nurses surrounded him and rushed him off to surgery. Zero called to Swift,"I'll make sure Miss Rainbow Dash is contacted and told where you are. Rest easy. You did a good job."

Swift slightly nodded before he closed his eyes and drifted off into blissful unconsciousness. So thus we see that Swift's motivation for defeating all kinds of foes is his desire to protect the innocent but most of all to protect the one he loves. The person he loves being of course everybody's favorite blue mare Rainbow Dash.

Author's Note

Hey Everyone. I hope you all like this chapter. I decided to have this one focus on the OC sent to me by the user Vibrant Emotion. Its nice to take a break every now and then from the main character. Course I did have Souls show up to help with the battle using the new Zero Soul chip. And yes this isn't the original Zero from Megaman X. This is the Zero from the Megaman Zero games. This Zero was built using parts from the original Zero. Course I didn't have him use any of his special abilities this time as something big and bulky like Machinedramon really doesn't warrant it. I really hope I gave both Zero and Swift Shot a good showing.