Rainbow Dash vs Applejack : Alternative Ending
"What. The. Buck. Did you just say to me?" Rainbow growled, her voice low and her eyes dark.
"Ah said," Applejack repeated "that Ah'm goin' to tell every pony in Ponyville what Ah heard coming from Twi's house yesterday, and show 'em the proof, you freakish filly-fooler!"
"How dare you! I thought you were my friend! I thought I could count on you!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her legs spread in defiance, mere inches from the face of her once friend
"Yeah, Ah was, but Ah'm the Element of Honesty, sugar, and that means that Ah tell the truth!" Applejack emphasized by stamping a hoof on the ground. "An' that means that Ah tell you when I think what you're doin' with that mare is sick!"
Snap.
Before Applejack knew it was coming, Rainbow Dash's lightning fast hoof found Applejack's jaw, Rainbow roaring in a fury that would have even a dragon shaking in its scales.
Laid out flat on the ground, Applejack lifted her head to look her attacker in the eye.
"You really shouldn't a' done that, Rainbow." Applejack whispered darkly. "Now you've gone and pissed me off. Ah really hope you know what you're gettin' into." She finished, standing and turning on her heel and began to walk toward the barn.
"What are you afraid of, you bucking bigot?! Afraid I'll kick your country pony ass to next Tuesday?" Rainbow jeered after her.
Applejack grinned menacingly at the clueless Pegasus. "Not quite, Hun. Just grabbin' a little somethin'." she called back, disappearing behind the door as she rummaged in a pile of what sounded like metal.
When Applejack returned, she was wielding a sword. A Zwiehander as longer as she was tall, held in her hooves by magnetic hoof covers.
The awkward looking weapon appeared to be very old, the pattern etched into the blade vaguely resembling the branches of an apple tree. A green trim, miraculously preserved through the ages, outlined the branches, which all flowed toward the hilt, the handle of which was bound in worn leather from repeated use, ending in the pommel, which had set within it a flawless ruby shaped like an apple.
"This," Applejack explained, "Is the sword, Wingless, passed down from mah great-great-grandpappy, who was a warrior in the Pony Wars back when Equestria was still in disharmony. It was created for one purpose, and that purpose was to ground a Pegasus, to make them fight on our terms. Or to make it nice and simple for you, the magic that lets you fly no longer works." Applejack said, a grim expression washing over her face before setting her mouth into a determined line.
Applejack stood, battle-ready for the coming battle, taking on the determined stance her brother had taught her long ago, the sun glinting off of her similarly patterned gauntlets and armor, making the brilliant greens and reds in the light armor she wore shine all the brighter, the weightlessly forged steel glinting in the sunlight.
"Impressive," Rainbow Dash lightly commented, her expression remaining neutral, save for a raised eyebrow in consideration of her lightly armored foe. "But fortunately for me, your precious sword only stops the magic that makes me fly."
"That's the idea. And that's all that you've got. Even your weather magic doesn't work unless you're in contact with a cloud." AJ spat.
"True enough," Rainbow relented, a sly smile creeping over her lips. "but Pegasus have a magic that you don't know about." Rainbow said, her smile having grown into a deadly grin.
"And that would be?" Applejack queried, keeping her face neutral as beads of sweat grew on her back.
"Teleportation of inanimate objects." Rainbow revealed, raising her hoof to a previously unnoticed rain loud in the sparsely clouded country sky.
Suddenly, the white cloud flashed black, shortly before a bolt of lightning shot from within, striking Dash's outstretched hoof, blinding Applejack.
When she had finally cleared the spots from her eyes, AJ couldn't help but stare at the scene before her. Walking from within the crater created by Rainbow's teleportation magic, was Rainbow Dash, dressed and armed for battle, electricity snapping throughout her armor, glowing blue as it worked its way to the ground.
The armor, simple and light to be fair to her opponent, had no outstanding design other than the black lightning bolt pattern that traced its way from her gauntlets to the shin guards she wore, respectfully omitting a helmet and boots for an even match to the similarly armed Applejack.
Rainbow's weapon of choice glinted in its sheath, the shine refracting into the colors of her rainbow mane, clinking lightly against the Cloud Steel on her back.
Rainbow drew her sword, allowing Applejack a moment to marvel at the craftsmanship.
The single handed sword, styled after a classic broad sword, had a design as intricate as that of her opponent's.
The pommel was inlaid with a hollow crystal filled with liquid rainbow, shimmering it's colors through the facets of its container. The whole of the blade seemed to possess an aura that glowed with more colors than AJ had ever seen.
A dim blue glow caught Applejack's attention emanating from Rainbow's armored gloves, the one in contact with the blade glowing slightly brighter than the other. Applejack thought they were just magnetic like her own, until she noticed the glow: it was electricity. Crackling blue energy sparked between ridges on the gloves and between the sword, flowing into the weapon to give the white steel a dim blue glow.
"What a coincidence," Rainbow smiled. "my sword has a story too. It was given to me by Black Storm, the descendant of the greatest warrior ever to live in Cloudsdale. Meet Silver Lining. Legend has it he gets sharper the more I use him... Still wanna do this, or are you finally gonna back down?" Rainbow finished, a dangerous spark in her eyes.
"Hell yeah, Ah've been meanin' to set you straight fer a long time, but now with this..." Applejack glared at the right armored Pegasus. "All bets are off!" Applejack screamed, launching herself at her target. Deftly avoided by Rainbow, Applejack turned with speed that rivaled Dash to block her counter, causing the Pegasus' arm to bounce back before she was ready, knocking her off balance.
Her blade pointed at the ground from the block, and wanting to take advantage of her opponent’s weakness, AJ wasted no time in smashing the mare with her upturned pommel, putting the weight of the weapon behind the strike, knocking the dazed Pegasus down.
As Rainbow's rattled mind still spun from the farm pony's powerful strike, she realized that she was swiftly coming down with a full force thrust to the spot where Rainbow still lay.
A wild swing of Rainbow's blade, which deflected the large blade, was all that prevented Applejack's blade from skewering the dizzy mare on the spot.
Rainbow rolled out of Applejack’s sight in order to recover from her dizziness. This left her wide open; Applejack took this opportunity to raise Wingless over her head, preparing for a devastating strike. Finally, Rainbow was able to stop the world around her from spinning; she turned in the nick of time to spot Applejack stampeding towards her with her giant sword above her head.
“Gotcha’!” yelled Applejack, as she brought the massive blade to the spot where Rainbow was standing. Suddenly, a sly grin was now apparent on Rainbow’s face as she readied her blade in a lunging position. In an instant, she lunged Silver Lining towards Wingless and in a flash of bright colors, AJ went flying backwards. "What in the hay was that?!" Applejack demanded, buying time while her ears stopped ringing.
"That, my dearest Applejack," Rainbow said, a devious sparkle in her eye, "was a Sonic Rainboom!"
"What? I thought that that could only happen while you were flyin'?" Applejack shouted in frustration, glancing at the area leveled around them.
"No, I just need to go fast enough." Rainbow bragged. "I used to need my wings, but now I can do it with any part of my body." this brought a smile to Rainbow's lips. "It means that you don't have a chance of winning. You may as well give up."
“Not a chance!” cried Applejack as she jumped high into the air, holding her blade with both hooves. She then swung her blade down, using it’s weight and her own to fly at Rainbow at an incredible speed.
“Applejack, you should know that won’t work” said Rainbow with a mocking grin, as she dodged Applejack’s attack. AJ’s sword got wedged deeply into the ground; Rainbow got up and was ready to strike at the orange mare’s now undefended body.
She raised her blade in a way that used as much force as possible; this left most of her body undefended as well. In an instant, AJ let go of the hilt of her sword, then raised both her back hooves of the ground and used a full force buck to Rainbow’s gut.
Rainbow’s world shook and went white as she went flying backwards. She landed hard on the wall of the barn and burst through.
She could tell that some of her ribs where broken and the impact of the wall to her exposed wings must have shattered at least one of them, she couldn’t tell which one though. She tried getting up, only to find herself too weak to stand, she coughed out blood.
“You’re lucky you had that armor on” said Applejack, with a dead serious look on her face, “otherwise all ribs woulda’ broke and punctured your vital organs”. She walked towards the extremely exhausted Rainbow, she hissed in pain after each breath she took. “I’ll give ya this one chance to walk away from this, I’m tired, your wounds are too serious for you to continue fighting, and we’re causin’ damage to the farm” said Applejack.
“Not a chance AJ, I’ve got too much at risk here, I can’t back down” wheezed Rainbow Dash, as she stood up using Silver Lining as support for her broken body. “I’LL NEVER BACK DOWN!!!” she screamed as she clasped her sword with both hooves, the contents of the hollow crystal clearly draining into the hilt.
“Shine, Clear Day!” yelled the Rainbow Pegasus, clasping her sword with both hands, the contents of the hollow crystal clearly draining into the hilt.
Applejack barely registered Rainbow's words, until the sword began to glow brightly.
Obviously suspecting a trick, AJ's attack faltered, giving Rainbow the time she needed.
Pulling with all her might, the secret of Silver Lining was revealed: a second, ethereal looking blade that phased out of the first, this blade looking like rainbow weaponized. The total width of the two swords was equal to that of the original, and while on looked like a thinner version, the other appeared as though the colors of the rainbow had been weaver into a blade.
"Now... With the help of Clear Day... It's time to DIE!" Rainbow screamed, a feral look in her eyes as she no longer fought with the blades, and it appeared the blades simply fought while her body danced behind them like flowing silk, a deadly dance of flashing steel, her mane and tail flowing behind her.
It was like as if her sword weighed nothing and her wounds weren’t there. She moved faster and pushed back Applejack more than at the beginning of the battle. She just got faster and faster after each volley of lunges.
Before Applejack knew it, Rainbow Dash was now firing Sonic Rainbooms at her; she wasn’t giving Applejack any moment to rest. It wasn’t visible on the outside, but Rainbow was in terrible pain, every movement she made was like getting stabbed in the gut. Before long, she would get exhausted, so she needed to end this here and now.
At some points, Rainbow’s blade got through Applejack’s defenses and hit her on various spots. She was bleeding from her wrist from the constant parrying she had to do; she was pierced in her arms, gut, shoulders, and her chest. She was now exhausted and bleeding fast.
“Looks like I will have to use it” thought Applejack; she held her sword in front of her, supporting it with her free hoof on the other end of the blade. She let Rainbow hit her with a Sonic Rainboom, sending her flying back, she quickly recovered and put some distance between her and Dash.
She then held the hilt with both hooves and concentrated, the branch patterns etched onto the blade now glowed with a green aura, making the pattern even more beautiful and noticeable. Once the aura filled the pattern all the way to the top, the blade shone a bright green and started to change shape.
“Grow, Red Harvester!” the already huge blade grew even larger, but changed shape completely. It was now a giant War Axe, the handle was the shade of brown that resembled tree bark that also had a pattern that made it look like wood. The Axe blades, if looked at correctly, looked like an Apple, it’s smooth but sharp edge glinted in the sun light. The old, worn sword Wingless was now a brand new War Axe.
“Now, the real battle begins!” screamed Apple as she charged for Rainbow Dash, Red Harvester dragging along behind her. She used both hooves to swing the gigantic axe, Rainbow was in too much pain to dodge it, so she blocked instead.
But that was a fatal mistake, the axe collided with Clear Day and Silver Lining, the force of the impact caused Rainbow to go flying to the left. She stumbled and slides, until she was finally able to get some bearing.
Rainbow looked down to both her blades, and inspected the damage. There was a small cut on each blade, where liquid rainbow trickled down the width of Clear Day. “I have to be more careful, one more impact from that axe and I can kiss Clear Day and Silver Lining goodbye” thought Rainbow, she looked over to Applejack.
Applejack was still recovering from her swing, that axe was really heavy. “Ok, it seems that axe is too much even for her. I can easily dodge her attacks if I can just muster enough strength…” thought Rainbow Dash, she now had her plan all worked out.
She charged at Applejack, and paid close attention to AJ’s every move. AJ readied her axe to swing, as she swung her axe, Rainbow jumped before it could make contact. She was high in the air above AJ, Rainbow put her swords above her head and used the sword’s weight to plunge down towards Applejack.
“I have you now!” she thought, but suddenly, Applejack brought the heavy axe above her head, blocking Clear Day from cutting a huge crevice into her head. The vibration the impact made traveled up Rainbow’s arm.
Applejack then swung Red Harvester, and Rainbow used her blades to block the strike, but was met with unpleasant results. Rainbow went flying again, this time not able to find any bearing and slammed against the barn.
Her whole world was white and she started seeing stars, it was over, she couldn’t move and Clear Day and Silver Lining shattered. Her vision started to clear as Applejack walked towards her, her axe now back to a sword.
Rainbow tried standing, but the only thing she could do was sit against the barn wall. Applejack held her blade towards Rainbow. They were both breathing heavily and were extremely exhausted, “it’s over Rainbow, give up now, and we can both just walk away from this with our hooves clean” said Applejack. Rainbow’s face went dark; tears started welling in her eyes, “you’re not giving up are you?” said Rainbow Dash just above a whisper. “Ah’m afraid not, sugarcube” said Applejack with a determined look in her eyes, “I don’t wanna kill you”. Rainbow let out a sigh, “then I guess it’s decided then” as she smiled, “I’m sorry Twilight” she whispered.
Then, to Applejack’s surprise, Rainbow grabbed Applejack’s sword and plunged it into her own chest…
Time stood still as Applejack’s surprised and horrified eyes looked into Rainbow’s empty and vacant eyes. “Why did you do that…” said Applejack as her eyes started to well up with tears, Rainbow gave her a weak smile. “I’d rather die than to know one of my friends didn’t stay true to our friendship” said Rainbow Dash, for the last time, her voice barely audible. Then time finally caught up, Rainbow’s head hung there, her eyes staring into nothing. Applejack quickly removed the blade from Rainbow’s chest, it started to rain…
The End.
