Sanguine Souls

Master yourself, and you shall master your enemy

"Alright...no weapons, I guess" Soul said, and with a bit of magic and a quick blink, Soul's scythe disappeared from sight to the Underworld. Along with his new-found strength, he was intent to summon it again when need be. As if taking note, Jayhawk firmly gripped the handle of his sword.

"Hey, guys...check this out" Jay said while diverting his eyes between Soul and Alphinx. When they gave him attention, he continued "Okay...no weapons, right? Well, I won't be needing THIS!" On his words, Jayhawk unholstered his blade and in one swift motion whipped the sword into the air. The wind ripped violently as Jayhawk's weapon flew spinning through the sky until it was completely out of sight. Jay smiled widely as he pleasingly watched the results of his mighty toss "Ah, that only gets more awesome every time"

Soul was somewhat shocked as he asked "Jay...how are you going to get that back? Isn't that sword important to you?"

In response, Jay waved his hand recklessly as he spoke "Nah, it's alright. Watch!" Suddenly, Jayhawk held his hand up into the air and clenched it into a fist. The second Jay's hand closed, a white shape of his sword appeared within his hands, and at the very same moment, his weapon returned to him immediately as if it had never been thrown "Without the sword, I'm just a really strong guy, so naturally I'd need an ability to get it back whenever I need it. My 'Sword Blink' spell fits that role perfectly" Then, without a moment's hesitation, Jay repeated the process of sending his sword off the mountain in which Canterlot lay atop.

With blank eyes and a half open mouth, Alphinx watched the weapon fly away until it was out of range, then she spoke "So..it's not only unbreakable and razor sharp, but it always comes back to you whenever you need it?"

"Yep" Jay shortly replied, still looking in the direction his blade had taken off "Stellar quality steel, too. I got a blacksmith friend back home who polishes that thing to a mirror sheen"

"A personal blacksmith....Trest?" Alphinx asked

"You know his name?" Jay quizzed

"Who doesn't?" Alphinx joked

"Good point" Jay concluded

"I don't" Soul interrupted

"That's cause you're a pony" Jay shot back

"So?" Soul responded

"Different dimensions" stated Jay

"If he knows you, he could know Trest" Alphinx added

"I never spoke about him until now" Jay quickly replied

"Is he a magical blackmsith?" Soul inquired

"So you do know him?" Jay poked

"No, I just guessed.." Soul trailed off

"Even I knew he would be a magic smithy" Alphinx interjected

"I don't get why you expect a pony to know anything about a human" Jay said in hopes of shooting down Alphinx's point

"Why can't I?" Soul annoyingly asked "Just because the only human I've ever met was 'the all mighty Guardian-"

"Jayhawk! Soul!" Daring shouted as she flew from the castle entrance and across the garden. She halted swiftly and landed in front of the trio, seemingly almost out of breath "Soul, there's something coming! Jay...I guess I'm glad you're back to normal..."

"Yeah, everybody is" Jayhawk confidently stated

Daring seemed unnerved when she saw Alphinx standing casually next to Jay "Uhm...is that?..."

"Jay saved her life. She's on our side now" Soul quickly cut in

"That makes things a lot less awkward..." Daring noted "So, why was she almost-"

"Anyway, what where you saying before, Daring?" Soul quickly said in an attempt to jump subjects "You were talking about that huge swarm of ponies headed this way, right?"

"Yes! You saw them too?" Daring asked in a worried tone "The guards tried stopping them but they wouldn't listen. It's as if they were mindless, or controlled by something. I thought maybe that guy.." Daring looked around as she spoke, but fell silent as she noticed Haimon's corpse "Oh...I suppose that conclusion is out of the question..."

"Actually, that's exactly the conclusion" Soul confirmed as he pointed to Alphinx "Alphinx told me that Haimon ordered all those ponies to march on Canterlot castle to kill us in case his plan failed"

"Wow..." Daring said slowly. She stared idly at the ground for a moment before looking back at Soul "So, that means...it's them or you?"

"Not necessarily" Jay spoke up, catching Daring's attention whilst he stared towards Canterlot "From what I know, the more blood we spill, the worse things get. We need to subdue them non-lethally, unless..." Jay slowly moved his gaze towards Alphinx, who gave him a quizzical expression in return "..the death of the host for the demon means the demon can't gain any more power via sacrifice...am I correct?"

Alphinx's expression withdrew as she spoke "You are...but, unfortunately, that's not the case" she paused, placing a hand on her arm nervously "If we kill them...Venticulus would be the one to take Haimon's place...it would be the same situation all over again, but against an even stronger Cruenta"

"Damn, I forgot there was a third one of you guys..." Jay said in a hopeless tone "Who is that 'Venticulus', anyways? Why isn't he here, helping his allies?"

"Veniculus is Haimon's brother. He's...kind of anti-social..." Alphinx spoke as if she was embarrassed to even be affiliated with him "That, and because he's also watching over the hideout. He's only really helping us because of Haimon"

"....Haimon isn't his real name, is it?" Jay asked sternly.

"Nope" Alphinx confirmed.

"Do you know his real name?" Jay pressed.

"....nope" Alphinx admitted.

"What about you...? What's your real name?"Jay inquired further.

"Uh, guys...?" Soul suddenly broke in with an unnerved tone "Maybe we should talk later, we have a situation at hand!"

Jay and Alphinx turned their attention to where Soul's gaze was to see the infamous army of ponies crowding through the front gate to the garden. The ponies' coats all lacked what was seemingly their original hue, and they all shared a similar expression of blank anger. They bore sharp fangs, and held appendages such as horns or wings at the ready. Slowly they approached the group.

"Right. Problem" Jay stated blandly, eventually turning his body to face them "Shall we turn it into a solution?"

"Daring...?" Soul spoke backwards to the Pegasus behind him

"I'll get Shining and the guards. They should be able to help, too" Daring responded

"Thanks. You read my mind" Soul confirmed as Daring flew off towards the castle

Soul took a readied stance, and glanced over to Jayhawk and Alphinx. Alphinx was ready as well, but Jay stood still as he had before. Before Soul could think of a reason why, Jay spun once and threw off his red jacket. He then swiftly lifted his knee, and slammed his foot down as he stepped into his own stance. With his jacket off, Soul could clearly see the tremors in Jay's body as he focused into what seemed to be an ascertained fighting style. He held his left hand out sideways in front of him, with his right hand clenched into a fist by the back side of his gut. His muscles tensed and he began breathing out through his mouth. Alphinx stared blankly at him as if someone had hypnotized her and forgot to snap her out of it.

"...let's do this!" Jay shouted. He turned his hand around and beckoned towards the group of approaching enemies "Who wants a piece of the champ?!"

"Maybe we should have a plan first, Jay?" Soul quickly asked "They do outnumber us, even with Shining's help coming"

"I do, in fact" Jay replied without moving his attention "You two are nimbler than me, so I'll play the role of Tank. Split off and deal with chunks of them at a time. I'll stand my ground here; just come back to me if you need any help" (Fighting a large group of enemies? There's a Battle Music for that!)

At Jay's words, Alphinx snapped out of her hypnosis and turned her attention back towards the impending battle "Understood" she said in a hastened tone.

Soul repeated Alphinx's words just as the group of blood-lusted ponies descended upon them. Some Pegasi lifted into the air to attack from above, and Soul swiftly took to the skies to counteract them. At the same moment, Alphinx zipped away from the center of the garden and began dashing in and out of the group, taking an enemy down with her every pass. Aside from Soul and Alphinx's tactics, however, the brunt of the swarm still seemed intent on charging full-throttle towards Jay, who stood still just moments before the ponies hit him. Then, with the sound of his own resounding battle shout, Jay struck the charge head on, landing blows with blinding speed on any ponies who came within range. Through the large gathering of enemies around him, Jay cleared a hole within the middle which he stood, unwaveringly fighting off ponies as the circle began slowly expanding. After several minutes of the trio fighting, Soul had managed to knock any of the flying Pegasi to the ground, and Alphinx had just finished off a small skirmish of her own. The two took their moment of reprise to look towards Jay to see he was still holding the group around him at bay. Any time an opponent neared him, Jay immediately struck it down. It was clear he was beading with sweat, but Jay was yet to be touched by any of the ponies. Soul quickly flew by Alphinx and tapped her on the shoulder, giving her a stern look as he flew towards Jay. She nodded quickly in response and leaped after him into the group, landing behind Jay and taking a stance with her back against his.

"We got a problem, Alphinx?" Jay huffed through his exertions, immediately palm-striking a pony who came near him. He quickly ducked as Alphinx rolled over his back and stomped the pony's snout into the ground.

"I thought you might actually want help" Alphinx admitted, swiftly following her words with a whip-kick to the chin of an approaching enemy.

"Actually, I got an idea. Give me your leg" Jay said, holding a hand backwards towards Alphinx. Without hesitation, Alphinx stretched her leg back so that Jay could grasp her calf "Good, now hold your arms up, and cover your head!"

Alphinx barely had enough time to do as Jay instructed as he firmly grabbed onto her leg, swinging her full length towards a chunk of the pony group and knocking them over. Jay quickly followed his swing by grabbing onto Alphinx's leg with his other hand and swinging her again in multiple circles, effectively becoming a human cyclone with his new-found weapon. Then, after spinning a few more times, Jay finally left go of Alphinx into the crowd. She quickly recovered by turning Jay's toss into her own flying kick, crashing through three more ponies before stopping on one enemy and back-flipping off it's snout. Just as she had regained balance, Jay leaped to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"One more time, backwards. Kick!" Jay said quickly, yanking on Alphinx's arms as he began twirling with her once again. As the two spun, Alphinx angled her kick towards the direction of the turn, and began cleaving through the ponies as Jay swung her around. Just as before, Jay let Alphinx go after a good amount of swings, sending her flying through another line of ponies until she busted past another and out of the crowd. Due to her constant spins, however, Alphinx only fell tumbling head-over-heels on the ground when she attempted to regain her footing. In quick notice of her fall, Jay swiftly and forcefully tackled through a clove of enemies and stood ground in front of Alphinx as the world came back to her.

"Uhgn...no more spins, please..." Alphinx mumbled as she dizzily stood back up.

Jayhawk chuckled lightly at Alphinx's state "Sorry. You're just a really fun weapon to use" Just as he finished speaking, Jay immediately moved to defend himself against an attacker, and counter-attacked strongly, sending the pony careening towards the group from whence it came. As Jay struck down another opponent, Soul came swooping in, grabbing a pony by the arms and spinning once before tossing hard towards the ground. When his victim refused to stand again, Soul let himself fall down so that he was standing with Jayhawk and Alphinx.

"Well....I feel kind of embarrassed" Jay admitted as Alphinx and Soul stepped closer into tight formation with him "I let you guys go off to deal with whoever you want, and you're both done before me"

"To be fair, you had the most enemies to deal with" Alphinx stated.

"And if you hadn't been taking care of them, we might not be doing so well" Soul added in.

"You kiddin' me?" Jay asked mockingly "This is sloppy by my standards! Just not very used to fighting horses, I suppose"

Before their conversation continued, Jay could hear the sound of multiple other ponies approaching in from the castle. He was instinctively defensive before he noticed that Shining Armor and a squad of unarmed guard ponies were closing in on them. Jay quickly nudged Soul on the shoulder before motioning with his head towards their incoming allies. Soul smiled triumphantly upon noticing what Jay had pointed him to "Now we're sure to finish this fight. Shining and his guards are some of the best trained fighters in Equestria"

Upon Soul's boast, Shining and his men stopped beside him "Soul, how's everything going? Daring told us what's going on, and we're here to help you fight. I brought some of my best men!"

"Glad you could come, Shining. We could use all the help we can get" Soul replied in a lighter tone.

"It's our duty to protect Canterlot, even if it's from other ponies. Now, let's get in there!" Shining shouted towards his men, who followed suit as the entire group, Soul, Alphinx, and Jay charged forward against the swarm of pony puppets. The erratic sounds of battle and fighters in struggles ensued over the passing minutes as the mind-controlled pony numbers began slowly dropping against the force of Jay, Soul, and their allies. Eventually, only one of the hundreds of ponies managed to stand.

"Ah, hold up, I got this one" Jay quickly informed to the group whilst holding a hand out towards them. Just as he began walking, the pony immediately charged Jay, to which he reacted by simply stopping his stride and holding his arms out in anticipation. After just a few gallops, the pony leaped straight into Jay's stomach. Upon impact, the assailant fell back flat on the ground with a thump as if he had ran head-first into a brick wall. Jay had barely been moved by the hit, and still stood in his same pose as if he hadn't noticed the pony collide with him.

"Oops!" Jay shouted in a mockingly worried tone as he looked down at the collapsed equine. He placed his hands on his hips as he looked back towards Soul and the others "Poor baby hurt his little head! Oh, no!" Soul could feel the ease in the air as some of the group giggled at Jay's joking victory.

"That's all of them, is it?" Alphinx asked idly as she surveyed the remnants of the brawl. What ponies weren't flat-out unconscious seemed as if they could barely move, and the garden had become increasingly quieter.

"Well, I wasn't keeping count or nothin', but I think pillow-head here was the probably the last fighter" Jay said confidently as he gave the downed pony one last look "Now, as I was asking before....". Alphinx stood still and silent as Jay trailed off and began motioning to her to answer. When he motioned once more only to get a careless look, he spoke again "It's clear the three of you have aliases; code names that you use for this kind of stuff. Like mine, as 'Jayhawk'. So, if 'Alphinx' is your code name, what's your real name?"

"...perhaps the gentleman would like to introduce himself first?" Alphinx returned after a short pause "I don't think anyone here knows you as anything but 'Jayhawk'"

"David" Jay firmly stated back "You're welcome. Not many people know it" (Not changing his name here on out)

"I'm Sarah" spoke the black-garbed, ginger-haired girl in a softer tone "As for 'Haimon' and 'Venticulus'...well, I suppose you'll have to ask Venticulus yourself" (Totally changing her name here on out)

"I plan to" Jayhawk replied in a lighter tone. He clasped his hand together before looking towards Soul, then back to Sarah as he continued "Which reminds me....you remember where he is, yeah?"

"Yeah, I think so" Sarah quickly confirmed

"Perfect" Jayhawk piped up as he walked closer to the group. When he stopped, Jay half-bowed toward Shining and his men "Shining Armor, I appreciate the co-operation and help. You have an excellent response time"

"No problem" Shining Armor humbly assured "We're glad to help. It's what we do"

"So, I guess we really did make some progress by coming here" Soul admitted in a seemingly happy tone "We saved the princesses, and gained a valuable ally"

"'Valuable'? Soul, I'm flattered" Sarah lightly joked at her own expense.

"Hey!" Jay quickly shouted, pointing an incriminating finger at Sarah "Nobody is devoid of value. Nobody on my team, at least"

"Well, then, I suppose I'm glad to be on your team" Sarah replied with a soft smile.

Jay simply responded by smiling widely and holding one thumb on his fist up towards Sarah. He gave the group a look-over before speaking "Well, everybody's present....shall we get going?"

"Yes, let's be off" Soul quickly agreed with a short nod "I want to finish this hunt once and for all"

"I agree" Daring piped up as she walked beside Soul "The sooner this is over, the sooner Soul can get back to doing nothing" Daring nudged Soul on the shoulder as she giggled at her own jest.

"We'll need to head to the city 'Manehattan'. From there, I can lead the way." Sarah added in. As she continued, Sarah began checking the pockets on her outfit "I think I still have some extra Polymorphing scrolls folded somewhere-"

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to stop you right there" Jay suddenly interrupted, holding his hand out towards Sarah "I value my humanity. There's not a single chance in Hell that you're going to Polymorph me into a pony"

"...Jay" Sarah replied in a lowered tone

"Not on your life" Jayhawk swiftly shot back

"Jay" Soul intervened

"It's not happening" Jayhawk defended towards Soul

"The ponies in the city have never seen humans like you, Jay" Soul debated in a stern tone "If you just walk around normally, you'll cause a lot of unwanted commotion. We might even be found out before we get there!"

"If staying out of sight is my only option, then that's what I'll do" Jay confirmed, crossing his arms "I can be pretty stealthy"

Soul closed his eyes and sighed heavily at Jay's response. He kicked at the ground lightly for a few seconds before speaking "Fine. Don't let a single pony see you for more than a split second" Soul glanced over at Sarah before continuing "If you're willing to take a pony form to lead me to the hideout, then I suppose that is good enough"

"How will Jayhawk know where we are when we get to the hideout?" Sarah asked, looking over to Jay

Soul was about to speak when Jay cut in "Just call my name. I'll be there" Jay affirmed. In a split-second flash, Jay's spectral wings suddenly out-folded from his back. He leaped a short distance over the group and landed beside his jacket, dusting it off lightly as he picked it from the ground. His wings seemed unimpeded as he slipped the jacket back on "I'll meet the three of you in the big city. Don't get into trouble without me!" Before he got a response, Jay leaped through the air and took to the skies in blast of wind. Within seconds, Jay was zipping away from the mountain and leaving the group's eyesight.

"....he's going the wrong way" Daring spoke up after a long pause

"I trust he'll be back" Soul said, still keeping his eyes in the direction which Jay had taken off towards "Somehow, I know calling his name will work. Right now, we just need to worry about getting to Manehattan and finding that hideout. Sarah?" Soul diverted his gaze over to the girl as he spoke

"Right. Gimme just a second" Sarah quickly acknowledged as she pulled a small square of paper from one of her pockets. With her other hand, she pulled out a small pen and dug a circle in the grass around her. When she was done, she held the pen with her teeth as she unfolded the paper and began reading the incantation on it to herself. Then she grabbed the pen and, with a swift stab, stuck into the ground and held onto it until a small plume of smoke covered her entire body. When the smoke cleared, Sarah was a light grey mare with her same short ginger hair hanging by her right eye, and a matching tail that passed no longer than the middle of her hind legs. Her eyes still held the same violet color, and the scar on her neck still persisted into her changed form.

"Perfect!" Daring exclaimed "Now you'll fit in with any pony in Manehatan" As she examined Sarah's pony body, she quickly noticed the absence of a cutie mark on her flank "Well, um...except for being a blank flank, I guess"

"A what?...who?" Sarah asked inquiringly, attempting to see the spot to which daring had her attention

"Never mind. It's fine" Daring confirmed as she waved a hoof through the air "Let's get going. It won't take us long to get to Manehattan by train"

"Good idea" Soul nodded as he agreed "I could use the rest anyhow..." As he trailed off, the three ponies began heading towards the train station as Shining Armor and his men bid their own farewells. Soul found himself staring off into the sky where Jayhawk had disappeared as he walked with Daring and Sarah.

Mysterious...he was so dead-set on staying human. Where did he go?....and why? Soul pondered to himself as he moved. He suddenly found himself remembering the words of the cultist pony he had fought back in Ponyville "The Hawk is not to be so closely trusted"....was that pony telling the truth?...has Jay been telling the truth?... Unease began creeping it's way into Soul's mind as he delved deeper into his own machinations

...and can I really trust him so much?