Ancient evils

Chapter 16: The heart of Cloudsdale

Unlike most cities, Cloudsdale had very little wreckage strewn about, and only moderate building destruction. There was the occasional propaganda poster, with a picture of some pegasi enlisting. The alliance continued to march in to the city, with a strange lack of resistance. Sure, the occasional citizen would attack them, and there were a few guards left, but most were quickly subdued. Shield's soldiers reached the Palace, where Armor soon arrived.

"I would have thought they had more military than this." said Shield.

"They can't fund it, it would just be a bunch of undertrained civilians with no weapons." said Armor.

"We should check the dungeons, they might have some prisoners locked up." said Shield.

The two groups united, and headed towards the dungeons. Inside were various mares and stallions, most of whom were innocent. Rainbow heard the jailer coming by, and quickly ambushed him before he could react. She jabbed her blades into him, and took the keys. She then went throught the cell blocks, unlocking various cells. She reahed the final cell, where inside she saw a face she had been waiting for a long time.

"A...Applejack?" she managed to get out, still in a state of disbelief.

Applejack was indeed inside the cell, and her eyes lit up when she heard her friend's voice.

"Rainbow...is that you?" she said.

Rainbow nodded, and unlocked the cell. Applejack slowly walked out. She looked very bruised and beaten. Her mane hung down, no longer in the ponytail she usually kept it in. Every step she took looked pained, but she nonetheless made it out.

"They're going to pay for this!" said Rainbow, with a look of angry determination on her face. "You should stay back here until the fighting is over."

Applejack nodded, much to tired to put up a fight. She grabbed her hat from a chest of belongings taken from prisoners. She put on the hat and then sat back down.

"I'll be back once this is done." said Rainbow. She rejoined with the rest of the group, and headed back out of the dungeon. The palace had very large double doors, made of an incredibly strong, yet ultralight material of which Rainbow knew little about. She once heard that buildings in Cloudsdale were made light enough to float by using some strange material found deep underground in the Everfree. But whatever it was, it was very easy to open even though it was larger than a one story house. The door flung open, and inside pegasi were packed in, and charged out in a wall of blades. The alliance unicorns blasted them out of the sky, and earth ponies finished them off once they landed. Shield was at the front of the group, and in the suprise attack a pegasus jabbed his blade deep into his chest. Shield doubled over in pain, and was bleeding quite a bit. A rather thin bright red pegasus, with long white hair and deep blue eyes walked slowly toward Shield. He wore a cloak which covered much of his body. The cloak was a deep carmine, and seemed to be covering something.

"Well, this is quite a surprise." said the pegasus. "How pleasant of you to drop in for a visit."

Shining Armor charged the red pegasus, but was reposted and sent sprawling.

"That's the best you can do?" he said, in a condescending manner. "I thought this fight would be fun."

A smirk apeared on the pegasus's face, and a black and purple aura surrounded him.

"I guess we all make mistakes" he said. "Yours was coming here."

He flicked out a blade, and approached Shield. His slow hoofsteps seemed to echo throughout the room. Clip, clop,clip,clop. He had nearly reached Shield, when a rainbow shot towards him. The blue pegasus at the front of the rainbow tackling him and knocking him over.

"Seems one of you can actually put up a fight" said the red pegasus. "How about we settle this one on one?" he asked.

Rainbow nodded, confident in her abilities.

"Follow me." he said, and flew off towards a secluded cloud off in the distance. Rainbow followed him to the cloud.