Justice

I run forward with the three timber wolves at my heels just as the five break from the tree line. One wolf pounces on Rarity, another on Rainbow Dash, and the last one attacks Pinkie Pie. I swing my staff directly down on Applejack.

All of our attacks pass right through them.

The mirages, as they were, disappear.

I recoil in shock as the wolves look around wondering where their prey had gone. The Twilight mirage in front of me smiles, and disappears as well.

“It’s a trap!”

I see a cyan blur out of the corner of my eye, and before I can move out of the way, I’m hit.

We go flying into a tree, and I hear a few of my ribs on the left side rack. Rainbow is thrown off me by the impact, and tumbles a little ways away from me. I fall to the ground with a grunt of pain. I look up and see a fireball come flying out of the woods, and hit one of the wolves.

It burns to a crisp.

From a different part of the woods, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie come charging out. Twilight remains hidden. The other two wolves jump to attack them, but Rarity slips by and charges me. Ignoring the pain, I stagger to my feet and take a few paces from the tree. In my peripheral vision, I see Rainbow get up and start flying at me. At the last second, I duck to avoid Rainbow, who crashes into the tree behind me. While bending down, I scoop up a handful of dirt and throw it directly into Rarity’s face. She coughs and splutters, and promptly ignores me in favor of getting the dirt off her. I raise me staff to knock Rarity out, but another fireball comes out from the woods and grazes my shoulder. It hurts like hell. I quickly run a few feet and duck behind another tree for cover. I carefully peer out from behind the tree, and I see rainbow lying stunned on the ground. Rarity was still busy trying to pick every speck of dirt off her coat.

“At least I won’t have to worry about those two for awhile…” I thought.

I hear a sickening crunch, and I peer around the other side of the tree. Applejack had just crushed the skull of the second timber wolf. The third was unsuccessfully trying to bite Pinkie Pie, but upon seeing his comrade dead, it quickly runs behind a tree and hides. Applejack and Pinkie started searching for me. “Fluttershy told me Applejack tries to bite off more than she can chew… maybe if I get her attention she’ll try and attack me by herself, rather than getting Pinkie to help.” I mutter to myself.

I step out from behind the tree and wave at Applejack while Pinkie was looking the other way. Upon seeing me, she gallops in my direction without saying a word to Pinkie.

“Perfect.” I thought.

I step back behind the tree and prepare a swing for when she comes around. Just as I hear her coming around the tree, I swing with all my might right at where she was going to be.

But she was expecting that.

She ducks underneath the blow, and my swing went wide and connected with the tree. While the painful vibrations travel up my arm, she spins around and bucks me right in the stomach with her back legs.

I go flying.

I hit the ground hard, and the breath is driven out of my body.

I look up, and she gets up on her hind legs. She raises her hooves in the air, and I realize she was about to kill me the same way she killed the wolf. But before she can, I lash out with a kick that catches her in the chin. She falls backwards, and I stagger once again to my feet. I pick up my staff, and before she can recover, I knock her out cold with a well-placed blow to the head.

“One down, four to go…” I grimly thought.

I hadn’t expected it to be this difficult.

I limp back to the tree and look around it. Rarity had almost finished dusting herself off, and Rainbow had gotten to her hooves and was staggering around.

“They won’t be out of this for long, I need to deal with Pinkie while I can.”

I use the trees as cover as I move closer to where Pinkie was searching for me. She had heard the noise of Applejack and I fighting, as was moving my direction. I catch her attention, and I laugh at her. She is furious, and comes galloping towards me. I couldn’t go any closer because Twilight would send more fireballs, so this was the perfect bait to get her to come to me. Once she is a few feet away, I swing my staff. Almost before I even began the swing, she dodges and headbutts me on my left side. The cracked ribs are fully broken now, and I cry out in pain as I fall down. After hitting me, she keeps going for a little ways so she can build up speed for the next strike. She then turns around and charges again. I stagger to my knees, and I feebly attempt to stab with my staff. She contemptuously dodges, and again headbutts me in the chest. I fall backwards, and she tramples right over me. Again she keeps going, only to stop about twenty feet away.

I’m on the verge of blacking out.

“No… I’m not going to let my ass get kicked by a pink pony! But how to get around that freakish Pinkie Sense?”

I ignore the pain and stagger to my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Rarity finish dusting herself off. She then charges towards me, probably trying to gore me with her horn. Pinkie begin her charge as well, and from her eyes I could see she thought this one would finish me off. I have a flash of inspiration, and I turn to face Rarity. Just as Rarity is upon me, I grab her horn. Using her own momentum, I swing her around me and directly into Pinkie Pie.

Her Pinkie Sense didn’t catch that.

They go tumbling for a little ways, and then separate. I rush forward, and knock Pinkie out with a blow from my staff.

“Two down, three to go.“

I turn to attack Rarity, but with horror I realize I had left cover. Another fireball comes out of the woods and burns the right side of my face. I howl in pain and I fall down. My right hand clenched over my face, and my left hand carrying the staff, I crawl behind the nearest tree.

“Damn it… I’m going to die here…” I thought. “I can barely stand, I’m burnt, I cant see out of my right eye, and my ribs are broken.” The smell of my own burning hair accented my thoughts. I look around with my one good eye, and I see the last wolf cowering beside me.

I ask it, “I don’t suppose you have any good ideas?”

It covers its eyes with its paws, and whimpers.

“I didn’t think so…” I mutter. I hear a rustle in the bushes in front of me, and Rainbow Dash comes staggering out.

I panic.

She says, “Heh, finally found you. Looks like my friends did quite the number on you.” I notice she seemed slightly angry when she said “friends“.

“That’s right, no loyalty!” I think with hope. “I just might be able to convince her to leave!”

I say, “Some friends you got, I heard they treat you like crap.”

I didn’t know if this was true or not, but I had to try something.

Apparently I got lucky, because she said, “Your telling me, I had to drag their sorry asses all the way here from Canterlot! And what do I get in return? Nothing! Just another job to do!”

“You shouldn’t let them treat you like that, you deserve better.” I said softly, slowly trying to manipulate her.

She was buying it.

“I know I do! I don’t even know why I hang with them anymore.”

This is it.

“Well why don’t you just leave? They will always take you for granted if you’re their little lapdog, always taking commands. You have to leave to show them you don’t take orders from anypony.” I finish hopefully. She thinks for a second and eventually nods her head.

“Y’know, your right, I should leave. For a weird human thing, your pretty smart, thanks. See ya!”

And with that she flies off. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Three down, two to go.”

I look at the wolf, “We have to deal with Rarity next, and I’m in bad condition. I’m going to need your help.” Surprisingly, the wolf nods, a if it understood me.

“Alright then, help me up.” I put my arm around the timber wolves’ neck, and use it to pull myself up. I wait for the dizziness to fade, and then I stagger out from behind the tree. I force the pain aside. Without my high pain tolerance, I’d already have passed out. Rarity spots me and the wolf, and charges us. I limp farther away from the edge, until I’m out of range of the fireballs. I turn my head to the right so my left eye had a better view of her. My right eye was fine, but the eyelid had swollen shut from the burn. Hoping to make Rarity afraid of the wolf, I say, “You better watch out Rarity, the wolf has all kinds of dirt on it, might get your coat dirty.” She skids to a stop and takes a few steps back, all the while eyeing the wolf warily.

“Get her!” I yell to the wolf while limping forward.

The wolf runs ahead towards her.

Rarity screams, “Get away from me you filthy animal!”

Her horn glows with a bright light, and I recognize she is about to use magic.

“Wait, get back!” I yell to the wolf, but it is to late.

There is a blinding flash of light, and when I can see again, I notice the wolf had been turned into a solid diamond statue. Rarity blinks in surprise, and I realize it had been an accident.

“Wait a second… she is the greedy one! Ha, I know what I can do with this!” I think triumphantly.

I say aloud, “That’s a nice diamond statue there, you better take it away before Twilight gets it…”

Rarity gasps in horror at the thought, and says, “No! This diamond is mine!” She throws herself over the statue, and in a quick burst of magic, they are gone.

I sigh in relief.

I had lost my last wolf, there was only one pony left now.

“Four down, one to go. But now what? If I step out of cover, I’ll get fried. I don’t think I could go around and find her either. I’ll just have to play on her pride and hope I get lucky.” I think with grim determination. I limp out into an open spot where I had been blasted before, and stop. I have to lean heavily on my staff, without it I wouldn’t even be able to stand. I yell out, “All your friends have either deserted you or have been defeated. Its only us now, face me!”

The seconds pass by slowly.

A bead of sweat trickles down my forehead.

I was expecting to get vaporized any second.

After what felt like eternity, Twilight steps out of a bush in front of me and slowly canters forward. I see a smug grin on her face.

She says, “You are right, it is only us left. But I am the strongest of my friends, and you are injured. Do you really think you can win?”

I give her a small smile, “Not really, but I’ve come farther than I expected. Doesn’t hurt to try.”

Her smug smile turns into an evil grin, “Oh, but this will hurt. A lot.”

Her horn glows purple, and I look around wildly wondering where the attack will come from. I eventually notice my right hand has a small purple dot on the end of the middle finger. I look at it closely and the small dot elongates until it is about two inches high. I realize with horror that it is a blade. Before I can react, the blade digs itself into the top of my middle finger, and cuts all the way up to my shoulder. I give a blood-curdling scream, and  fall to the ground. I clutch my right arm, which has blood pouring from it in a never-ending stream, and I felt my vision fading. Twilight trots slowly up to me, all the while smiling. She stops just underneath a tree to my left. “Now to finish you.” She says nonchalantly. Her horn glows with magic once again, and I realize I’m going to die. I happen to look up, and I see the branches of the tree above Twilight moving. I realize with a start that was the tree Fluttershy was hiding in. Just as Twilight was about to release the spell, the sheathe of my sword came flying out of the tree. With a loud crack, it hit Twilight directly on the top of her head. Her horn still glowing, she staggers from the blow. Fluttershy drops out of the tree, my kilij clutched between her teeth. Before Twilight could react, she lunges forward and slashes at her face. Twilight tried to duck, but only halfway succeeded. Instead of cutting her face, the sword cut a small niche into her horn. Sparks of magic were flying off her injured horn, and Twilight looked scared. Fluttershy backed up as a mass of purple energy surrounded Twilight. The magic became increasingly unstable looking. With a large explosion and flash of light, Twilight was gone. Upon seeing her gone, I rest my head against the ground, and slowly close my eyes. The last thing I saw was Fluttershy’s distraught look as she leaned over me.