*POV 3rd person*

Boris dived out of the way to avoid another bolt of lightning, maybe he should have waited for Fluttershy to fix up Rainbow Dash before attacking Lightning Dust, now they were several thousand feet up in the air.

“Stay still” Lightning said.

“Not-never” Boris said, blowing her back with a strung gust of wind. Lightning just laughed.

“Is that all you’ve got?” she asked “a light breeze? You’re Princess must be truly desperate if she sent you to deal with me”

“She was your princess too!” Boris said, charging forward and striking with his katanas, only to be blocked by Lightning’s blade.

“She is weak” Lightning said, pushing back and sending electricity coursing through the blades “Teridax just helped us to see that”

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree you will spend your whole life thinking it’s stupid” Boris said, straining slightly.

“That makes no bucking sense” Lightning said, before kicking the Toa away and sending a bolt of lightning towards him.

“Hey, bitch!” a voice said, Lightning looked towards the source of the sound only to get struck by a bolt of plasma.

“AHHH!” Lightning cried out in pain as electricity and fire coursed through her. Her muscles locked up and she plummeted towards the ground, Rainbow sighed with relief before flying towards Boris.

“You okay?” she asked, Boris nodded despite the arcs of electricity flowing over his armour.

“Had bad-worse” he said, twitching slightly.

Lightning Dust lay on the ground with a hole through her stomach and a sharp, bloody rock a few feet away, she spat at some blood and chuckled bitterly.

“Not getting out of his one are we, Lightning?” she said to herself, leaning against a boulder. She heard wing beats approaching, followed by Rainbow Dash gasping.

“Oh buck, Lightning!” she exclaimed, flying over. Lightning stopped her by folding up a clawed hand.

“It’s too late” she said, before changing into her pegasus form which also had a hole through the stomach “I’d bleed out before you could get help” Rainbow shook her head in denial.

“No” she said “you must have some way of healing yourself”

“Even if I did I wouldn’t” she said.

“Wha-why!?” Rainbow asked, hey eyes watering, Lightning chuckled.

“Let’s just say that your shot knocked some sense into me” she said, spitting out some blood “just, do one thing for me”

“What?” Rainbow asked.

“Don’t blame yourself” Lightning said, she saw Rainbow go to object and weakly held up a hoof “just don’t, I know what you’re going to say so don’t”

“But I was the one that hit you” Rainbow said, tears streamed down her cheeks “I did this”

“I…forced you to…do this” Lightning said, looking drowsy “it’s…not your…fault” she then shut her eyes and stopped breathing, Rainbow Dash fell into a sitting position and broke down. The rest of the elements then appeared.

“Rainbow” Twilight said “we’ve started to force the Rahkshi back, we’ve…oh” Twilights smile fell when she saw Rainbow Dash sobbing, Fluttershy slowly walked forward.

“R-Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked “are you going to be okay?” she slowly placed a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, the cyan pegasus sighed and her shoulders slumped.

“I-I don’t know” she said, between sobs, she turned around and rested her head on Fluttershy’s shoulder, the yellow pegasus put her arms around Rainbow.

In the Jörmungandr multiple drop-pods of varying sizes were being prepared for launch.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Gali asked as she climbed into one.

“Absolutely not” Vapaa said, strapping himself in “but it’s the only way to fall 30’000 feet in 60 seconds”

“How fast is that exactly?” Norik asked.

“340 miles, or 529 Kio per hour” Vapaa said “give or take a few Kio, 30’000 feet is about 6.6 Kio” the eyes of all of the Spherus Magnans widened and Lewa gave a low whistle.

“Mata Nui!” Lewa exclaimed “that’s what I call quick-speed”

“Are you all ready to drop?” Vapaa asked, they all nodded their conformations and Natrix selected a song to play through the coms, Vapaa rolled his eyes “really, this one!?” Natrix just shrugged.

“It fits” Natrix said, Vapaa face palmed before pulling the lever. The pods dropped just as the song settled into a steady riff, about 60 seconds later they impacted against the desert ground, followed by all of the doors flying off. In the distance they could see the Rahkshi forces retreating, with no sign of the Makuta assigned to lead them, Miserix chuckled.

“This makes things so much simpler” he said, stepping out of his shipping container sized drop-pod.

“What do you mean?” Vapaa asked, stepping out of his

“I would usually have to mentally overthrow the original leader of the Rahkshi, in this case the female Makuta assigned to control them whilst in Appleloosa, I can neither see her nor sense her control” Miserix said, he then flew into the air and raised his fire staff into the air “RAHKSHI, YOUR LEADER HAS FALLEN. YOU WILL BOW DOWN TO ME OR FACE DESTRUCTION” the Rahkshi all stopped and the Toa and alternate Teridax could see the entire battalion of Rahkshi drop down like a wave, signifying their submission to Miserix, who slowly lowered down to the ground.

*song ends*

“Well that was anti-climactic” Natrix said “Why exactly are we even here if all you had to do was fly up there and shake your staff” Miserix chuckled and looked down at the human out of the corner of his eye.

“What do you think would happen if I was unable to take control of them, hmm?” the Draconic-Makuta asked “did you expect me to take on a millennia of Rahkshi by myself?”

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

We were helping to rebuild the town when the Elements of Harmony walked past, Rainbow was distraught and was carrying a filled body bag on her back.

“Oh, no” Gilda whispered.

“What?” I asked.

“I think that is, or was Lightning Dust” she said, sadly, rubbing the back of her neck “they weren’t exactly friends, but Dash isn’t the type of pony to wish death upon someone, enemy or not” I sighed.

“Will she be okay?” I asked, Gilda shook her head uncertainly.

“I don’t know” she said “I’ve known her for years, I know things about her that no one else does and I’ve never seen her this distraught about someone she knows dying, unless…” she trailed off and her eyes widened.

“What?” I asked, she looked at me, her eyes full of worry.

“Unless she feels guilty” she said, before flying over to Rainbow Dash, they briefly talked and Gilda’s eyes widened before her expression softened and she placed a talon on Rainbow’s shoulder comfortingly before flying back over and helping me to lift up a door.

“What happened?” I asked, Gilda sighed as we placed the door back on its frames.

“She killed Lightning Dust” she said.

“Shit” I said “if you want to go and comfort her then I won’t hold it against you”

“Whilst I appreciate the gesture” she said “I’m terrible at mushy stuff, better her fellow ponies are there for her. But I promise you this, when I find Teridax, that jäveln är död” she slipped from a southern Equestrian accent into a Griffonian accent as she said this.

“That’s probably the first time I’ve ever heard you speak Griffonian” I said “let alone swear” she shrugged

“My Mom died in childbirth” she said “my Dad re-married with a pegasus whilst I was still a chick, as a result I can speak both languages in their respective accent, what about you, even I know you aren’t from around here, yet you and your brother speak with a Northern Equestrian accent, whilst Vapaa and Natrix speak with Southern Equestrian accents.

“Me and my brother come from a small island where everyone speaks in accents that are practically identical to Northern Equestrian accents” I said “but with a hell of a lot more variation”

“And the other two?” she asked, gesturing to Vapaa and Natrix.

“They come from a continent where everyone speaks with Southern Equestrian accents” I said

*later that day*

Lightning was laid out on a funeral pyre that was yet to be lit, Twilight had placed a spell on her so her wounds weren’t visible. Rainbow Dash stepped forward with a bow strapped to her left arm and touched the fitted arrow to a torch before aiming at the pyre and pulling the bow back with her wing and firing the lit arrow, Celestia began reciting a prayer as the arrow hit the pyre, setting it alight.

“Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother, and my sisters, and my brothers. Lo, there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning” as she said this Gilda, myself, all of the Neu-Toa and the Elements of Harmony aimed and fired lit arrows at the pyre “Lo, they do call to me. They bid me take my place among them, on the plains of paradise, where the brave may live forever” no one said anything as the funeral pyre burnt into the night Next Chapter: 6 a brief interlude Estimated time remaining: 58 Minutes