Impossibilities

Chapter 6

Old Friends

The time had come for the last battle. The Baron knew this would be the best of all; for one, Rainbow Dash would be utterly unwilling to harm her best friend. For two…well, that was it, really. But it was enough for the Baron to see Dash get annihilated without putting up any sort of fight. He even had his favorite tea at his side, and a bowl of various small confections next to him.

But enough about the Baron's guess as to the outcome of the battle; let's see what the outcome is for ourselves.

()()()

Out of all of them, Rainbow Dash was teleported the least distance. It wasn't saying a whole lot, though; she was still in Equestria, certainly, but several miles away from her initial location; a large apple farm called Sweet Apple Acres. You wouldn't be able to tell this at first, though; the majority of the trees were gone, and those that remained were completely dead and blackened from the horrendously polluted atmosphere. All the buildings had fallen apart, and not one living thing remained in it. The imposing factor, plus the "Applejack used to live here" factor, was exactly why the Baron chose this place for the final battle.

"Whoa…" Dash slowly began to look around, observing everything that had changed. "What happened here?"

No one else was around, so she started walking through the remains of the farm.

"Is…is this all that's left?"

She sat down, trying to take in everything that was going on. Equestria had been utterly ruined; nothing about it even vaguely resembled the peaceful land it once was. From what she could tell through the horrendous smog, Canterlot had been completely razed and replaced with a huge factory that produced the vast majority of pollution. She didn't know what was made there, and didn't really care to find out. But a metallic clang behind her and the sound of ground being crushed beneath a hoof interrupted her thoughts.

She wheeled around, and saw Applejack standing there, exactly as she had been back in Ponyville.

"A-applejack?" She asked, taking a step backwards. "I-it's me, Rainbow Dash. Remember me? Your best friend?"

Applejack merely stood there, doing nothing.

"Can you hear me?"

Dash took a step forward; a foolish mistake, since Applejack took this to be the first move, and responded as only she could: charging straight forward, taking advantage of the pneumatic pistons in her legs.

"Whoa!" Dash narrowly avoided the attack, but fell to the ground due to the surprise.

"Applejack, come on, it's me!"

Dash clambered to her hooves, and turned back to look at Applejack, who had now stopped, and was waiting for Dash's move.

"You don't have to do this! I'm your friend!"

But Applejack was having none of this. She charged again, steam coursing through her body like the blood that was once there. This time, Dash simply flew over her, having some actual reaction time, since she wasn't caught by surprise. Applejack ran off into the distance, not expecting that, and rammed into a tree, destroying it and providing a momentary distraction.

"Oh man, Applejack…Sorry!"

She allowed herself to fall to the ground, and began running towards the old, dilapidated barn, remembering something they had done a while ago.

As Dash got inside, Applejack got back up, and immediately ran towards the barn, it being the only vague cover that one could think of. In a few seconds, she was inside, and saw that Dash was standing next to two overturned barrels full of rotten apples.

"Applejack?" She asked, losing hope that any of this would work. "Do you remember these? The time we had that bet?"

Applejack looked at her for a moment, before recalling a vague memory…

()()()

"You ready, Dash?" Applejack asked, standing in the barn, in front of a barrel filled with apples. Dash was next to her, with her own barrel filled with the same number of apples. They were having another one of their silly little contests; this time, to see whom could eat the most apples in an hour.

"That depends," she responded, sounding as confident as ever, "Are you?"

"Oh, I'm rarin' to go!" Applejack yelled back. "Let's start this up!"

They began eating, and as they did, the memory started to fade away…

()()()

At that moment, Applejack snapped back to the present, her programming stopping her from having any good memories for too long, but still enough for her to hesitate hurting her friend. But that wasn't enough for the Baron, still paying close attention.

"What? Impossible!" The Baron yelled. "I suppressed those memories! I crushed their spirits and broke their minds! I convinced them their closest friends had completely abandoned them! How could she possibly remember any of this!"

He swatted away his cup of tea in rage, and cursed Applejack under his breath. She was a strong one, and he clearly didn't break her enough. He took a few deep breaths, and sat back down, hoping that the fight would soon get back on track…

()()()

In fact, by the time the Baron started watching again after this bout of anger, the fight had recommenced. Dash took advantage of the distraction provided by the memory, and flew away, out of the farm entirely and back to Ponyville. However, this wasn't nearly enough to stop her foe, who was in hot pursuit towards the town.

There must be something in town she remembers…that's still here," she thought, touching down in the former marketplace, which now seemed to be a sort of refugee camp. A few slipshod tents were scattered about, as were several cardboard boxes. A small group of ponies, none of which Dash recognized, were scattered around a flaming barrel; four fillies and a colt. Each of them was covered with partially stitched rags, and were completely hidden to any observers; the ugly brown rags blended in perfectly with the horrendously ugly brown surroundings.

"Uh, hello?" She asked them.

The all looked up as one, and gasped in horror.

"She's clean, and looks healthy," the colt said, standing up. Surprisingly, his voice was perfectly fine, as opposed to the gritty nicotine-bathed voice most people would have expected. Dash guessed he was the leader of the group, not that it was a great accomplishment in this place. "She must be one of the traitors! GET HER!"

"Wait, what? I'm not a traitor! I'm trying to help!"

This statement was hardly a convincing one, and two of the fillies tried attacking her, and by that I mean just running at her like idiots. She easily dodged, and the two fillies prepared for another attack before the leader came to a realization.

"Wait! Stop! Do not harm her! She is the one that went missing! She is no traitor!"

"Uh, yeah, I already said that I'm not!"

"We must apologize for that…" he looked away from her, and bowed his head, "We can't afford to take any chances. I am named Karek. You must be…Rainbow Dash, correct?"

"Yeah, that's me, the one and only! Fastest pony in Equestria!" she beamed.

Karek only stared at her, not particularly caring about her supposed credentials. "Anyway, we've been searching for you and your friends a very long time. I did not think today would be the day."

"Wait, you've been looking for us? We were just outside the library a few minutes ago."

"Damn. Where are they now?"

"I…don't really know, actually. I hope they won…"

"Won against who?" Karek was interested now; if they had managed to fight one of the Baron's minions, and actually win, they could gain one of the biggest advantages in history.

"Uh…he called them the Spartans or something. I forgot exactly what he s…"

"Wait!" Karek interrupted. "The Spartans? They exist?"

"Yeah, and I'm kind of in the middle of fighting one!"

Karek raised his eyebrow. "For how long?"

"Uh…ten minutes, maybe? I'm not sure…"

"You faced a Spartan for ten minutes and you are still alive? How can this be possible?"

"Well, I used to know her…"

He looked at Dash solemnly, and shook his head. "If you had mercy, you would allow her to die."

Dash was only able to gape at this suggestion. "You want me to KILL her? I can't do that? She's…she's my friend!"

"She is not your friend anymore; her mind has been destroyed, her spirit crushed. She only knows that you are the enemy, and that you must die."

"No…I can't…"

She heard a metallic clank, and knew who was standing right behind her.

"Applejack…please…it's me, Rainbow Dash…don't you remember?"

"No!" Karek shouted. "She remembers nothing!"

But Applejack was still hesitant, and Rainbow Dash realized something: she had remembered something, even if it wasn't much.

"You're lying." Dash turned to face the colt. "She did remember something. She's still in there, somewhere."

"Oh, forget this." Karek used his magic to pull of the cloak, revealing that he was actually the Baron in a clever disguise. He didn't have his monocle or bowler hat, but it was still very clearly him.

"You!" Dash shouted, her anger boiling up within.

"Yes, yes, it's me. Any groups of 'freedom fighters' would be doing unpaid slave labor in the factory by now. I'm not an idiot, you know. Anyway, as for why I'm here, I thought that I would give Applejack a hand in your demise, but for some reason, she refuses to kill you now. Come on, Applejack, just do her in already!"

"No!" Dash was getting desperate, and her voice had begun to crack. "Applejack, you have to listen to me! This is the guy that did all of this! He's made Equestria into a wasteland! He killed Rarity and Fluttershy!"

That was enough to send Applejack back into reality, and see what had happened. She was barely capable of speech, but still tried to push something out.

"You…you did this…to me…to us…to Equestria." Her voice was cold and robotic, but still had that southern drawl to it.

"Yes, I did do this." The Baron smiled, seemingly pleased with his work; then he went deathly serious again. "But I am your master, and I command you to kill Rainbow Dash at once!"

Applejack looked down at herself, at her metallic legs, with their steam pipes and pistons. He claimed that Dash had abandoned her, but that wasn't true; she was trying to help her, trying to make her remember who she really was. And then, she came to the most important decision of all.

"No."

The Baron was enraged at this example of insubordination. "That wasn't a request, Applejack!" He shouted in raw fury, "That was an order! Kill her right now or I'll torture both of you to death in the most horrifically painful ways imaginable! Actually, no, I will ensure that your pain is so great that it cannot even be comprehended by a mortal being! KILL HER NOW!"

"Oh, shut up." Dash said, kicking up with her hind legs, attempting to strike the Baron's face. This rather weak attack was not nearly enough to stop the Baron, who easily dodged it.

"You'll have to do vastly better than that!" He taunted. This was a prompt for Applejack to attack him, doing something much more complex. She leaped into the air, almost twenty feet straight up, and spread out her limbs, to maximize her impact area. As she fell to the earth, the Baron remembered something; not to move out of the way, but where she learned this.

"Damn! I taught her how to do that!"

With only a second to spare, the Baron flew up, but the sheer force of Applejack hitting the ground was enough to blow him towards the "refugees", which were nothing more than specters. He quickly righted himself, and was getting very impatient.

"Enough of this!" He began charging a devastating attack, and aimed at Rainbow Dash. "Good day, madam!"

A neon red beam of raw destructive energy coursed towards her…but it did not hit Dash. At the last possible instant, Applejack had jumped in front of the beam, and absorbed all of its power, though she was still thrown backwards, knocking both her and Dash into the ground. Applejack tried to stand up, but collapsed to the ground, a gaping "wound" in her side. The attack and blown through her outer steel casing and hit her main boiler, which was blowing steam out through the hole in it.

"Oh…what happened?" Dash climbed to her hooves, and saw what had happened to Applejack.

"NO!" she shouted, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Applejack, please, don't die on me!"

Applejack looked at her friend, and with her last remaining energy, she said, "Don't worry. He lost anyway…"

Her only eye closed, and Dash knew it was too late for her. The Baron began laughing, but Dash soon shut him up.

"You…you BASTARD!" she screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You killed her! You turned her into…THIS!"

She yelled out an inarticulate cry, one of pure anguish, before flying at incredible speeds into the polluted atmosphere. She held her breath, to avoid breathing in the toxic air, and kept flying up and up.

"What is she doing now?" The Baron wondered aloud, before receiving his answer. At about a mile and a half up, she had stopped flying upwards, and began going in a streamlined freefall, right towards her enemy. A few powerful flaps of her wings increased her speed massively, forming a cone around her body, and eventually, she did the impossible: she broke the sound barrier, and for the third time in her life, did a Sonic Rainboom. At the point where she hit that speed, a massive "boom" could be heard, and a large, perfectly concentric rainbow expanded outwards, powerful enough to clear away part of the toxic atmosphere.

"What?" The Baron cried. "Impossible!"

He was so shocked, he did not even try to move out of the way, and bore the full force of Rainbow Dash going at mach 1.1. A massive cloud of dust rose up, and many of the surrounding buildings were completely destroyed.

It took some time for the dust to clear, and when it did, the Baron was gone; he had teleported away to his fortress to heal. His injuries were to great, and he recognized that only a fool would stay and fight in his condition.

"Dash?" A voice called out, Adam's voice. "Is that you?"

"No," Jack responded, "It's just another pony that can go at the speed of sound and leave a rainbow-colored trail!"

The others soon found her, panting heavily, and still crying.

"What was that?" Simon asked, completely bewildered.

"A Sonic Rainboom," was all she could manage to choke out, "The Baron's gone."

"I'm sorry about Applejack." Lewis said, trying to show his sympathies.

"Uh, I figured out a spell to go back to the past. We can do it whenever you're ready. "

Dash walked towards them.

"Let's take him down."

One bright flash later, they had gone twenty years in the past, leaving behind a wasteland that only they could repair…

()()()

Yeah, I'm pretty much going to be a lot more serious with this one, as evidenced by the death and tragedy and such. As for the late upload, I started school recently, and am now on a new update schedule: the new chapters now come on Saturdays. Until next week, this has been AwkwardVulpix, over and out.