Cheating the Cycle of Life- A Padded Pony Collab

Sunset Shimmer looked around her slowly, as she moved on the tip of her toes inside the dark hallways of Tenochtitlàn's stadium, sounds of shouting, gunfire, horse whinnies, and clashing steel coming from the end of the alley she was currently walking down.

"I hope that they're doing fine," Sunset said, cringing a little at each shout she recognized, be it a cry of pain or one of rage, that echoed in the alley "I know that they're pretty good in fighting and Appiano basically has a superweapon around his neck, but that doesn't mean they're invincible. This isn't some kind of video game after all."

Sunset kept moving forward slowly, calculating each step, as the noise grew stronger and a dim neon light revealed vague shapes in the distance. Sunset dodged the small piles of excrements that were on the floor she was walking on, and kept moving, the battle noises by this point getting almost deafening, and the light revealing the shapes of the six combatant fighting.

Despite being in front of the light, Sunset could tell that Appiano riding a horse, going in circles around the "Second Twilight Sparkle," nicknamed by her and the others as Midnight Sparkle, who was armed with a pole. Intestinal Beetle was wrestling with Appiano's clone, rolling in the sand, grunting and trying to land fists non-stop, his clothes tattered to the point of leaving them in a jeans loincloth and a pair of dust-caked white slips respectively. Rarity was fencing with Lemon Zeist, both of the girls' armours showing a lot of dents and scratch marks, and their limbs covered in superficial wounds.

Sunset could only watch, as this went on.

"This looks like a stall in the fight." sunset muttered to herself. hen, all of the sudden, there was a red sparkle coming from Appiano, as he shouted.

"You will stop fighting and" there was a loud clang that covered Appiano's words "... E così sia fatta la mai volontà!"

There there was a red flash of light, one that made Sunset look away and flutter her eyelids, waiting for her eyes to recover and go back to show anything but green blurs. Sunset massaged her eyelids as she did so, and, at the same time, she realized that the sounds had at first died down and then disappeared altogether, replaced by blabbing, sights and sounds of clothing begin unrolled.

"Uhu? The fight stopped?" Sunset muttered, as she stopped to rub her eyes, as now she realized that her sight was good enough now. Turning around and walking towards the light, Sunset started to see the details.

Specifically, Intestinal Beetle as kneeled next to Rarity, a First Aid kit next to his right knee, as he applied antiseptics and Rarity bandaged herself up, hissing each time Intestinal Beetle applied the bactericide or she made a too tight bandage on her wounds.

Meanwhile, Appiano was tying his gray horse to the water tank inside the arena, his clothing showing very little damage besides for the shoulders, who showed the hairy muscle underneath and a shallow gash, a sword in the sheath of his belt, and a musket lying next to where he had dismounted from his mount.

Appiano's clone laid unconscious, bloodied and mostly naked in the sand, and Lemon Zeist's traces were only a trail of blood and footsteps accompanied by big shreds of clothing. As for Midnight sparkle, she was sitting in the middle of the battle field, chewing upon the left sleeve of her purple and turquoise tattered jacket.

Sunset Shimmer stared at Midnight Sparkle, looking all over her ragged-up clothes and somewhat battered body, but not finding any discernible reason for that to happen.

"Dè, what is it, Sunset?" appiano said, chuckling, as he walked next to Sunset Shimmer, patting her back and making her recoil a little "Impressed?"

"Yes and no," Sunset Shimmer said, looking at Midnight Sparkle staring at her with wide eyes. "I'm impressed, yes, because, I mean, how many times will I see a clone of somebody else fight with swords, muskets and poles? But..."

"But...?" Appiano said, moving his head forward a little, encouraging Sunset to finish up. She looked at Midnight Sparkle, seeing her pointing at her, babbling something.

"But what happened to Midnight Sparkle, exactly? She seems a little... off." Sunset said, scratching her chin. Appiano let out a hearty chuckle, as he patted Sunset's back lightly.

"Dè, I used the Appiani's Jewel, or Alicorn Amulet, to convince her to drop weapons and stop cause trouble. Just for kicks, I've decided to make her act like a baby too. I mean, if my clone is a serial rapist and Midnight Sparkle managed to improve her team's abilities, I'd say that it's a game that two can play."

"Oh." Was Sunset's only response. The idea sounded good to Sunset, but she was still a little baffled by the execution and the courage to actually put it in practice.

"I take that I'll drive Rarity to the hospital, Appiano?" Intestinal Beetle said, his light accent giving a threatening tone to the statement "Or will you do it?"

"Dè, I'll let you guess," Appiano said, as he then walked up to Midnight Sparkle "I have to bring one guy to the police station and bring a baby chick home, where do I put Rarity? In the trunk?"

Rarity sighed and nodded.

"You've always been such a gentleman..." Rarity said with a groan, as Intestinal Beetle took her up in his arms with a huff, and then set her on his shoulders, before bending inwards and carrying her away running. Appiano took up the Alicorn amulet, spat on it, took abit of the spti and made the sign of the cross on both his arms and his shoulders, before bending over to pick Midnight Sparkle up to keep her in one arm effortlessly, and, much to Sunset's surprise putting his clone under his right armpit. Midnight sparkle curled up, touching Appiano's nose, as she was held up.

"Um..." Sunset said, observing the situation "Is there any way I can help?"

Appiano adjusted his clone and Midnight around, then he started to walk.

"Dè, I'd say yes, but it would be wrong to say," he said, as he kept walking "If I'm not mistaken, we'll need diapers, toys and company for Midnight, until she snaps out of my mind control."

There was a rude noise, as Midnight Sparkle let out a grunt and blushed, a small bulge appearing in her trousers and making Sunset gag a little at the sudden smell.

"Yeah, you're correct," Sunset said, pinching her own nose "Hope you've got somewhere to keep her."

Appiano, after scrunching his face, shrugged and walked down the alley.

"Oh, I do, trust me on that. Flameboy and the Vice Principal would be very glad to help me out in this..." Appiano said "I mean, Flameboy Shy loves this kind of games, and so does the Vice Principal..."