Clash of the Legends

As soon as he teleported into the dungeons, Shining Armor felt something bash against his head. Even through the helmet, the impact smacked his brain out of action for a moment and left him helpless against his attacker. As he staggered on all 4 hooves, more thuds hit into his helmet, and darkness surrounding his vision as he toppled to the ground signalled that he was going unconcious. As his eyesight dimmed, he could only see a maroon set of hooves kneeling down in front of him. Before he left conciousness, a familiar face appeared in his view. Deep red fur striped gold as blue eyes glared at him with a less than friendly expression being demonstrated. The face of Psycho-Scorch continued to stare into Shining's eyes, until he finally lost it and passed out on the floor.

Cadence was still waking up very slowly, when she felt something crack against her jaw. Letting out a cry of pain, she tried to move her hooves so that she could nurse the injury, but a loud clinking meant she was tied with chains to something above her head. Barely even able to find the strength to lift her head, the moment she did a crossbow was being pushed into Cadence's face. Now she knew how Celestia felt when she had attacked her merely days before. Except this time, it's possible she had been abused by her attacker, judging by her lack of armor. Slowly, she allowed for her vision to find its hooves before she realized what had happened. Just next to her, Shining Armor was hung by his hooves from a wall, much in the same fashion as she was. Blood stained his snout and every so often would drip down onto the dark cobblestone floor. Looking left, she could also see Scorch-Mane, looking at her whilst he folded a cast iron bar using magic. He growled at her, trotted over, and reeled back, before swinging the pole into her ribs. Letting out a cry of pain, Cadence was just about to try to blast her attacker out of the door to the dungeon when she realized something awful: she couldn't.

"Nice try, pinkie." the stallion laughed in a worrying manner before pointing at his horn as it glowed a faint red. "Magic blocker. Works wonders, eh? I could teach you it. Too bad you won't be alive to learn it." And with that, he began to swing the bar into Cadence's stomach, then her legs, her flanks, her ribs, her face. Every hit, Cadence screamed in pain, and by the time her battering was over she was in tears, sniffing and making quiet coughs as she heard the iron pole clatter to the stone. "Well, I think that was excruciating enough." smirked Scorch as he turned to Cadence's helmet on the floor, crouched down, and looked into the lens of the helmet camera. "Tell you viewers what. You send guards, I expend all of her lives; As slowly, painfully, and sadistically as possible. Don't send guards, and she'll live. Your choice." he snarled at the helmet, before yelling as he smashed it into the ground. The parts of the protective headpiece broke apart, scattering about the room and eventually coming to rest in puddles of blood. The only camera left was Shining Armor's, lying on its side and facing the two competitors hung from a wall helplessly as Scorch-Mane walked out.

"Sh-Shining..." Cadence tearfully whimpered. "P-please...wake up...Shining...please...wake up..." Cadence was begging the unconcious stallion to arise from his damage-induced sleep. She could do nothing to wake him up; the magic blocker may have worn off, but she had no clue how to bring him up into conciousness. Suddenly, Shining Armor began to groan, before going through the exact same procedure Cadence had when she was waking up. "Calm down," she soothed, "I'm here too. We're being held hostage by your team-mate, Scorch-Mane." Shining Armor barely had his eyes half open, when he finally spoke.

"He...cloned himself...they're all parts...of his...personality..." he whispered, "I think...it's the psychotic part...that has us here." Cadence looked back in surprise. Scorch-Mane cloned himself? He's that much of a psycho that he'd beat me almost within an inch of my life?

"Clones?" Cadence asked, before suddenly realizing something. "Clones...maybe...yes, that might work!" Cadence smiled, suddenly excited. Shining simply began to look at her as though she had gone insane. "What?" Shining asked her.

"Well," she replied. "You know that he's been mind messed by Luna? If we find her, she might be able to control ALL of the clones by using her...whatever she did." As each part of the plan was explained, Shining Armor began to understand her idea. If Luna did her thingymajigg that she used on Scorch, she might be able to gain the upper hand over these clones.

"So," he replied, "Where's Princess Luna?"

With that, both went silent thinking about where she might be.

Luna could barely even begin to express how refreshed she felt after her rest. She hadn't slept that well since her banishment, and she felt amazing. Her first instinct was to roll over and go back to sleep, and so she followed her instinct. But when she did roll over, she came face to face with 'last night': Scorch-Mane was lying in front of her, the same shocked expression on his face as Luna had, and was staring at her as though to say, 'Did...we just...errr...'. Luna also looked at him, staring into his eyes. 'I hope not...no offense...ummm...'. With these words passed, they began a telepathic conversation.

"Ma'am...this is...awkward...er...what do we do here...?" Scorch thought.

"Well...errr...memory spells might work?" Luna thought back.

"But...don't they usually...mess about sometimes? Like, pretty crazily messed up?" He whimpered silently, worried expression on his face.

"Um, that was...1 in a million that she died..." Luna tried to smile. "Let's just do it. Same time." She thought into his mind as she began to prepare the spell. As soon as he saw her charging it, Scorch-Mane looked more worried but followed suit. Blue and red auras surrounded their horns as they both closed their eyes, before pushing them onto each other's foreheads. Both alicorns' wings poomphed up at the images that flashed into their minds, despite Scorch's wings never being of any use in his life. Luna's cheeks went bright red at the image of the two making out in the bed, lips interlocked in a struggle for dominance. Both were embracing each other in a tight hug, eyes closed and nuzzling each other as though they were a married couple.

"Oh...wow?" Was all Luna could whisper to Scorch, looking dead into his eyes with cheeks almost the same colour as Scorch's fur. "That...was intimate...I, er, don't know...what to say..."

"Neither do I." Scorch whispered back. "You...me...we, er, well...made out? But...we've known each other almost our whole lives! Why now?" Luna brought her hoof up from under the covers, tapping her chin as she went deep into thought. After several minutes, she finally sighed. "Maybe...we should ask Celestia?" Luna whispered, tapping the side of her helmet and causing radio static to come over the small speakers.

"Well, I'm sure this'll be fun to explain." Scorch sighed, before rolling over and going back to sleep.

Aerlion Drift was quietly awoken by the sound of a voice crackling over Celestia's helmet speakers. Ignoring it, he rolled his eyes before curling back into a fluffy ball under Celestia's wing. He sighed happily, but was rudely interuppted in his bliss by the static again. Finally, he began to nudge Celestia with a hoof.

"Tia..." he mumbled from under the warmth of her wing. "Phone...for you..." He waited for an answer, before a feminine sigh sounded over his head.

"Really?" Celestia muttered. "I'mma just gon' ignore it..." she trailed off. Neither moved from their comfortable positions, not even making the effort to open their eyes. Finally, as the radio hissed again, Celestia groaned and levitated the helmet onto her head. "Hello...?" she asked.

"Tia?" Luna asked quietly over the radio. "May I ask something?"

"Go on, Lulu..." Celestia ran a hoof through her mane, barely even moving the rest of her body.

"Have you ever...done something you regret the morning after?" Celestia's ears pricked up.

"No, why?" Celestia replied.

"Well...I may have...kind of...well...made love...to Scorch-Mane...kind of..." Celestia was speechless. Her sister, the monarch, and Scorch-Mane, her foalhood friend, had hooked up?

"...good for you..." Celestia muttered as she turned off her radio, levitating her helmet from her head and throwing it across the room, before finally returning to her position over her guard, her supplying him with warmth whilst he returned the favour. Luna and her life was none of her concern; only her and her life was genuinely important. Just before she returned to sleep, her eyes fell on the cracks in the wood of the barn, completely dark due to snow coverage. The only light supplied was from her mane and tail, gently illuminating the room.

"Who...?" Aerlion was about to get up and ask her, before being swiftly cut off by nuzzles. It's super-effective; Aerlion emitted a cross between the noise you make during a massage and the noise you make when surprised, before dropping back onto his knees, completely submissive to the alicorn holding him down with a warm neck that also smelt of fudge. Sighing happily, he returned the nuzzles, before wrapping his brown forelegs around Celestia's neck, a stark contrast to the pale white her fur was. Deciding now would be the best time, Celestia leaned down, before kissing the stallion on the forehead. Almost immediately, his grip relaxed around her neck, before he finally snuggled up almost right under Celestia's huge wingspan, fitting neatly next to her side. Just before he passed out from too much 'd'awwww' moment, he heard Celestia whisper into his ear.

"Luna." she purred in his ear. "She said she'd slept with your friend Scorch-Mane. So now this won't matter." Celestia whispered, delivering a final few nuzzles before falling back to sleep.

"But...the competition..." Aerlion whimpered.

"Ignore it." she replied sleepily. "Let's just class this as 'hoof-to-hoof combat'. As of now though trooper, consider yourself by royal order..." As she barely had the energy to finish her sentence, she uttered one final word. "...off-duty."