A New Pony In School

My ears perked as a sliding sound was heard to my right. I turned my head quickly to find that CJ had skidded to a halt, and was standing still as stone, ears at attention and scanning the room. For what, I couldn't tell. The hoofsteps on my left and behind me also slowed to a gradual stop, my head snapping towards the other colts. Their irises constricted, and they began slowly moving forward. The slow walk became a trot, which became a canter before finally transitioning into a full gallop. This information barely processed in my mind, before I became aware of pained cries coming from down the pathway. I recognised them almost instantly. I charged down the hall at full speed, spreading my wings every now and then to glide, as much as I could with one of them being broken. All I could think of was getting to the source of the noise.

Getting to Domino.

Domina "Domino" Iridis was one of my closest friends. She moved to a different town, but we wrote letters to each other all the time. Still do. She is a pegasus who wears glasses, and has a shiny pastel green coat, to match her slightly muddy green eyes. Her mane is dark brown tipped with all the colours of the rainbow. And she was in trouble.

I tried to ignore the searing pain in my horn, and flapped my tattered wings as fast as I could. I could see the silhouettes of the others as the tunnel got progressively less dim. A sharp scream ran out, and I rammed my sharp hooves into the ground, before tumbling over with the momentum of the landing. I scrambled to my hooves, snapping my head from left to right, scanning the room for Domino. The sight I was greeted with made my breath catch in my throat.

Grim was sitting on a throne of thorns, as the bright red beam of light coming from her horn faded. She was a full grown mare, with horn and wings rivalling those of Celestia. She looked at me, her face appeared smug, but there was a look of pure and utter loathing in her magenta irises.

I folded my wings and swallowed thickly. There were at least 30 changelings in the room. We were going to die. Alone, here, in the dark damp tunnels underneath Trothampton. I was terrified.

I briefly wondered what all these tunnels were doing under the school, before turning my attention back to the smirking face of the filly-turned-mare.

To sum up the situation quickly, I had no magic, no wings, was weakened tremendously and was about a fifth of her size.

Fantastic.

Doing my best impression of someone who wasn't completely petrified, I attempted to smirk, though it came out as more of a grimace. "You look positively dreadful in that getup Grim, what were you thinking? 'Giant' is so last millennium."

This earned a snarl, as she countered "Greys don't suit you dear, surely you realise how dreary you look. At least I have a sense of colour coordination."

I refrained from mentioning how much the magenta of her eyes clashed with her moss green mane.

"Witty banter aside, are you actually gonna do anything, or are you scared of a poor, weak, defenceless filly?" I snarked. She seemed taken aback, but only for a fraction of a second before regaining her composure. Her thin lips curled upwards in a sick grin as she fluttered her wings, beats growing stronger with each passing second until the air was filled with the droning of large insect wings flapping incessantly.

Oh poop.

A sharp cry ran out, but I barely noticed in my preoccupation. She flew upward in a smooth arc, and it would have been a beautiful display of aerodynamics if it hadn't been signalling my imminent death. Reaching the peak of the curve, she made a sharp twist of a wing and was suddenly hurtling towards me at breakneck speeds. I steeled myself for the blow, praying to anyone who would listen, hoping at least my friends would make it out of the labyrinth alive.

That was the last thought to go through my head before I was shattered into the cold embrace of death.

(3rd person POV)

Grim sat back on her haunches, looking down at the quickly fading body of the filly at her feet. Her nose wrinkled slightly at the growing pool of red seeping from the alicorn's wounds, but the disgust was quickly overpowered by her triumph.

Until she was practically split in two with pain.

Screaming shrilly, she fell to the ground as searing hot pain spread from her chest. The area began to glow brightly as the pain worsened, until she was foaming at the mouth from sheer agony. Just at that moment, a pastel orange colt came skidding around the corner, one ear missing and hind legs mangled. His eyes widened as he took in the scene before him, fat tears streaming down his face at the sight of his best friend dead on the floor.

His vision was considerably blurred from the force of his crying, so much so that he wouldn't know an orb of white light if it smacked him in the face. Which, incidentally, is exactly what happened. His vision cleared just enough for him to see Grim Dark wobble on her hooves, before collapsing on the cold stone floor, black, ink like liquid spilling from a large cavity in her chest, and her horn.

He barked out a short cry of victory, before becoming acutely aware of a crushing pain spreading from his horn and setting his body on fire.

"That's unfortunate." He whispered breathily, and proceeded to crumple to the ground, out like a light, to join the other bodies lying motionless on the floor.