Love Conquers All

Star Shine felt the sweet energy enter his gem from the comatose pegasus in the bed. The gem, already having some of her life force in it, gulped the rest of it down greedily.This was what he needed, this was necessary. With two elements of harmony in his possession...he would be unstoppable!

The draining was taking its toll on the rainbow maned nuisance. Her hooves were beginning to turn to stone, as were the tips of her wings...soon, not even the fail safe could save her. She would be gone.

*Crash*

"Leave her alone, Star Shine!" The unicorn spun on his hooves, stopping the spell abruptly. How did this washed-up Wonderbolt find him? "I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going to stop you." Her ember eyes narrowed as she assumed an offensive stance and flared her nostrils.

Spitfire was not just here for Rainbow Dash, her number one fan who she had let down, but also for Soarin. Their relationship was on the proverbial ropes and she needed to salvage what she could Even if he would never love her like she loved him, the captain still wanted Soarin as a friend...and if saving Rainbow wouldn't help that, then nothing would.

"Really now?" Star Shine let out a low chuckle, his voice modulation spell cracked and faded with every word. Which gave the pale pony a very Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hide feel about him  With a hoof he pushed his white mane, which was plastered to his forehead from overexertion, out of his eyes. "Try it and see what happens..."

The pegasus launched herself at her foe, he let out a blast of magic straight at her face. Years and years of reflex training had prepared her for something like this. So with expert precision, she rolled to one side to avoid the blast. As soon as she was on her hooves again, she bolted at the pony.

Star Shine was cocky, too cocky. He was not expecting her to be this fast. With that surprise on her side, the Wonderbolt landed a hit straight across Star Shine's jaw, sending the unicorn to the ground.

"Saw what happened, and I gotta say...not impressed." Spitfire let a grin cross her face and a hint of cockiness enter her voice. She love putting down ponies like this, it always made her feel good. "Got anything else, glass jaw?"

Star Shine rubbed his jaw, the pain was absolutely excruciating! He had never been in a downright hoof fight before...but he was a quick study. So he turned his head, fire in his eyes. He was going to show this pegasus exactly how unicorns fought. "I have magic..." The look of realization on his enemy's face was priceless as she realized what she had just gotten herself into.

In an instant, Star Shine's magic gripped her around the barrel and lifted her into the air. She tried to flap her wings to escape, but his grip was absolute, it could not be moved or altered by anypony other than himself. Star Shine grinned, then drove his adversary straight into the wall with enough force to break a few bones quite audibly.

Spitfire could only scream. The pain was blinding in more ways than one. All of her nerves were overloaded, her vision swam, there was a ringing in her ears....she was at the hooves of a psychopath and it was not going to end well.

"That was nothing, my dear." Star Shine croaked out with his hoarse voice. "In fact, I think this little birdie needs her wings clipped...."

--

"W-Where did he go...?" Twilight was panting, she had never performed that many teleportation spells in a row, it had nearly drained her. "He..he has to be close..." She needed to stop Star Shine, she was the one that brought him here, it was her responsibility to end this now. It was her job to be the hero to his villain.

"What if he escaped?" Pinkie appeared next to her, seemingly out of thin air. Twilight was too worn out to scream or be surprised, heck at this point Pinkie popping in randomly was a normality. So, she simply gave the pink pony a sad look.

"Then we're doomed..." It was all she could decide. That unicorn with a gem that turned ponies to stone...it was way too dangerous. What if he got to the Princesses? Or her brother? He would be unstoppable...

"Twilight!" Both ponies looked up to see Soarin in full Wonderbolt attire. There was her air support. "We lost sight of Star Shine, Spitfire and I split up. She went towards the hospital to check on RD for me....he was with her alone the other day...I want her to be safe..." Twilight had never seen Soarin in such bad spirits, he was usually so chipper. And she should know, The Wonderbolts regularly had meals with the Princesses at the palace in Canterlot, she had seen them plenty of times.

"The hospital...Rainbow Dash..." Her mind went back to Rarity...if he truly wanted to do something evil he would need the elements out of the way. Rarity he caught by surprise, but the weakest link at the moment was...Rainbow. "We have to get there, now!"

The pale blue pegasus gave a nod andd raced off without a moment's notice. Twilight charged up her spell, they had a Star Shine to stop...

--

"And the Humerus is connected to the Ulna and Radius." With every mention of a bone, a crack came from the pegasus' wing. "Which connect to the Carpus and Metacarpus." Two cracks, Star Shine was not fully snapping the ones in her wings. He was simply inducing micro-fractures to the bone so that they may break easier in the future. Call it future-proofing his plans.

"S-Stop...please..." Spitfire was crying...she could not scream anymore. That part of her voice was all but gone now..she could only whimper with only crack. "P-please..." She was broken...the unicorn had done it. He had beaten her, then kicked her repeatedly while she was down...it was low, it was torture.

"Very well, since you said please." Star Shine let his grasp on the pegasus fade, as soon as he did so her wings fell to the ground with a thud. That only made her whimper more. "Plus, I was getting bored. Pegasus anatomy is so boring. Don't worry though, you won't feel the pain for very much longer."

Star Shine reached for the gem and immediately connected to it. This beaten down mare would be no challenge to drain. Her spirit was already savaged, it would be quick and relatively painless compared to what he had done to her. So that's what he did, within a minute only a torn Wonderbolt uniform was left on the ground. That was the only sign that Spitfire had ever existed...now for the reason he came here.

Rainbow had been slowly fading into the gem all throughout his encounter with the captain of the flying team. Most of her was already in the gem, and it was drawing what little was left in her corporeal form in. All he did was give it a little tug, and the element of loyalty faded out of existence. His victory was all but absolute at this point.

Just then, a portion of the wall exploded. Star Shine looked as soon as it happened...the sound had left his ears with a thunderous roar. His eyes connected with a pair of icy blue ones that were looking at the empty bed...in that brief moment between the wall's implosion and the debris settling...he could see hell.