The Curse of a Magical Mare

Merely sidestepping to dodge the witch's burning charge, Fluttershy irritably tapped her hoof and stared at the flaming, tiger-like witch now burrowed in the mosaic, tiled fires in the floor of the Labyrinth, "For the so-called 'Fastest pony in Equestria', Rainbow Dash sure is late."

"Be careful, Fluttershy!" Ichibey warned, "Frieghald is extremely dangerous! You should take it out while you can!"

Plucking it's 'paw' from the ground, Frieghald growled and prowled around the Magical Mare's back, waiting for an opening. Then, an inferno burst from it's hind legs, and, like lightning, it pounced towards the pegasus.

Fluttershy simply huffed and shot to the sky. As she floated high above the witch, she replied to Ichibey, still sitting in her mane, "I'll be fine. This will a perfect opportunity to show Rainbow how things work."

"If you're sure about this, then I guess I can't stop you." Ichibey shook his head, "You ponies and your quirks... I just don't understand them!"

As Ichibey dove off of Fluttershy's back to the Labyrinth below, the pegasus rolled her eyes unemotionally, "Of course you don't; you're an Incubator."

She glared down at the flaming feline and huffed, "The old me would have loved to get to know you." Extending her curved daggers from her wrists, she swooped down and sliced a long gash across Frieghald's barrel. As the burning beast shrieked in pain, Fluttershy fluttered effortlessly in front of the witch's face and employed her old 'Stare' technique. Gently dragging a dagger across magical cougar's throat, she reached her gaze into witch's very essence, "But--and this is such a shame for you, Frieghald--I can't go back to being that me." She sighed and dropped her gaze to the floor, lowering her blade as well, "No matter hard I desire it, I can't ever go back... Because I am a Magical Mare... This... is the curse I've chosen..."

A growl resonated from her adversary. Frieghald opened it's jaw wide and gathered magical, fiery energy within it. A blaze exploded from the lion's maw, tearing up and scorching the mosaic tiles of the Labyrinth, a column of utter flaming destruction disintegrating anything unlucky enough to be caught in the attack.

"...And that makes you my enemy, Witch!" Fluttershy, flying stalwartly in the wreckage with her forelegs crossed, glowered at her foe, "Such a shame you wasted an attack of that magnitude by missing me." She growled, "You're really prying my last nerves."

Frieghald leapt and took a burning swipe at the mare, but horribly missed yet another attack as the pegasus flapped twice backwards. Fluttershy cocked her head to the left, "No more power, huh? Is that all you have? Ichibey was wrong; you're just pathetic." She shook her head, "If Rainbow Dash doesn't get here soon, I may just end this mysel-"

"Did someone order an extra dose of awesome?"

Fluttershy rolled her eyes, "Finally."

A cyan blur rushed passed the pegasus and, like a raging wind, shot Frieghald flying to the other side of the Labyrinth.

Fluttershy lowered herself to the ground and commented, "Took you long enough."

Rainbow Dash landed next to her and hefted a massive, shining claymore on her shoulder, "Got lost. Shoot me."

The yellow shot her friend a confused look, "In Ponyville?"

"Oh, heck no!" Rainbow Dash laughed, "As if! Nah, I kinda got lost in the Labyrinth. This is my first Witch, y'know. Still tryin' to get a hang of things."

Fluttershy shrugged, "Fair enough."

Rainbow smirked as she brought her blade to bear, "So, this is a Witch, eh?"

The senior nodded, "Yes. Frieghald, the Flaming Rage, to be exact."

"All we gotta do is attack until it explodes, right?" The junior asked.

The Witch growled and staggered to a stand. As it glared at the two friends, Fluttershy nodded again and warned, "More or less. Although, you should be careful. This Witch's body is comprised completely of fire magic. While I have weakened it slightly, it's still fast on it's feet and may be too much for you to-"

Rainbow cut her warning short, "Please! I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria! It's not like I'm gonna be outclassed by a kitten!"

Without thinking, she charged at the lion and swung her great blade. However, she her blade movements were sluggish, giving Frieghald just enough time to shoot a burst of fire from it's maw. The blast smashed the pegasus in the chest, flinging her rolling back to original position beside Fluttershy, her dress now ablaze.

She quickly stood up and brushed off the flames, "Ooh-ow! HOT! Hothothothothot..."

Fluttershy glared, "What did I just tell you about being careful?!"

Rainbow explained, "C'mon! He just got lucky!"

Fluttershy scowled, "Witches are 'shes'."

"Whatever!" The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes and huffed, "I got this."

She readied her blade once again and charged for Frieghald. Stopping mere feet away from the beast, she hefted her blade high into the air and brought it down on the monster. Frieghald quickly lurched to the right, causing Rainbow to miss. With the ground holding tightly to her blade, she glanced at the Witch, chuckling nervously at the beast now glaring at her.

Failing to yank her claymore out of the charred, mosaic tiling, the Magical Mare could only look on as Frieghald flashed a flaming claw across her chest, sending her rolling on the floor. When she stopped rolling, she grabbed her chest and moaned in agony as the Witch quickly moved to stand over her. As Frieghald charged fiery magic in it's mouth once again, Rainbow chuckled and muttered, "Heh... Looks like I messed up a little..."

Just as Frieghald was about to release it's built up energy, Fluttershy body slammed it, causing to fire the blast to haphazardly and explode in a far corner of the Labyrinth. The yellow pegasus glared down at and angrily chastised her friend, "Rainbow Dash, how could you be so stupid?!"

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash staggered to a stand and furrowed her brow, "That was NOT cool, Fluttersh-"

"I refuse to watch this any longer." Fluttershy turned to face Frieghald, unfurled her wings and readied her daggers, "I'll deal with this myself."

"One more time," Rainbow stopped her. She smirked as she prepared to take off again, her Soul Gem beginning to glow brightly, "I'll get it this time, I promise."

In the blink of an eye, she exploded into a rainbow stream of energy and shot towards the Witch. It met the beast and returned the flinging favor. With Frieghald now rolling, the rainbow beam followed up instantly and catapulted the monster high into the air. The beam quickly enveloped the Witch in a humongous multicolored tornado. It began to spiral around Frieghald so rapidly that all the colors of the rainbow meshed together, causing them to glow pure white as snow.

Fluttershy's eyes widened and ears fell as her heart sank. She muttered under her breath, "Rainbow Dash, you idiot!"

With her Soul Gem now glowing as well, she immediately rocketed herself straight up into the air and shot into the tornado. She instantly snatched Rainbow Dash out of the air and locked her forelegs around her neck. Fluttershy threw her friend down to the tiled floor with a heavy Vertical Suplex, the ensuing face smash causing the entire Labyrinth to quake and vibrate in fear and tile to flee the from the ground as a sickening snap resounded from Rainbow's neck.

Fluttershy slowly stood up and glared at Rainbow's body, still vertical in the ground from shock, until finally falling limp in the crater her face created. After a few moments, Rainbow plucked her face from the ground and shook away the vertigo and extra tiles from her face. Pure rage washed over her face as the Labyrinth dissipated around them. As both girls' magical mare equipment disappeared as well, Rainbow yelled, "FLUTTERSHY! WHAT. THE. HECK!"

Fluttershy merely glared down at her junior, "How foolish can you possibly be?"

Rainbow indignantly stood up and stomped, "What're you talking about?! She got away because of you! I almost had it!"

The elder Magical Mare scowled and clenched her teeth, allowing her anger to show as well, "Don't you know that using up all your magic is the fastest way to becoming a Witch?!"

The junior Magical Mare's jaw dropped and she gasped. She stammered, "M-M-Magical Mares bec-come W-W-W-Witches?!" Her face renewed it's rage as she lashed out against her senior, "You're lying! That just can't be true!"

Fluttershy rolled her eyes as Ichibey reappeared. The stoic bunny-cat added, "Actually, she's right. Using magic blackens your Soul Gem. When it becomes totally black, it breaks, and becomes a Grief Seed, which then hatches into another Witch."

"No..." Rainbow's moaned as her eyes grew wide. She quickly drew her Soul Gem out of her shoulder. To her disdain, it had already become halfway tainted, "You gotta be kidding..."

Without warning, Fluttershy held up an ornate, ebony object--which could only be best described as an anorexic, black Soul Gem--close to Rainbow's own gem. The tainted darkness leaped from her gem to the already black one, restoring it's shimmering sapphire glow. Rainbow gasped, "How did you do that?"

Fluttershy threw the black gem behind her, allowing Ichibey to receive it in an open flap on his back. She replied, "That was a Grief Seed. They become docile after defeating the Witch they originated from. They allow us to purify our magic again after a battle. If we don't, we become Witches, like Ichibey says."

"So that's how this whole shebang works, eh?" Rainbow Dash chuckled and scratched her head, "Well, thanks, I guess. Thank you for stopping me and giving me the Grief Seed."

The yellow pegasus turned away, "Please don't make me regret it."

"Jeez..." Rainbow frowned, "what's up with you being so cold?"

Fluttershy just continued walking, "Let this be a warning to you: The sin of a Magical Mare is great. This brutality of mine is the curse I must bear for that sin." She paused, "One last thing, a Grief Seed only has so many uses before it becomes active and rebirths into a Witch. Be careful about that."

Just then, a deafening boom resounded in the air, startling the two mares and the bunny-cat, shaking them all at their core.

"What was that?!" Ichibey shouted.

"I don't know!" Fluttershy worriedly shot her gaze around quickly, searching for the source of the disturbance.

Rainbow called back, "It sounded like a-"

She could not finish that deduction. Her heart sank as a purple and orange wave washed over the sky. The resulting force of the wave caused both mares to brace themselves in order to stand their ground, with Ichibey strongly gripping to Fluttershy's flying mane, flapping in the wind.

When the wave passed, both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash lowered their gaze, allowing their manes to cloak their eyes in shadow. Ichibey asked again, "That was a wave of immense power! What was that?"

"A Sonic Rainboom..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"I gotta go..." Rainbow muttered.

As she unfurled her wings to take to the sky, Fluttershy challenged, "Rainbow Dash, do you regret your wish?"

Rainbow avoided her stare, "I... I'm not sure..."

She took off without a second thought. After she bolted away, Ichibey effortlessly commented, "That was a very risky move, giving her Spike's Grief Seed like that. Since you don't have another one, I'd even say it was damning."

Fluttershy drew her Soul Gem out of her chest and stared into it. Her heart sank as she discovered only small traces of her rose sparkle had all nearly been enveloped by darkness. She tiredly sighed, "Perhaps. Maybe I was just holding to the hope that there is still good in Magical Mares..."

"I told you that escaping your fate is impossible."

"Don't be so sure," Fluttershy stated as she returned her Soul Gem to her chest, "I'm not dead just yet."