Crazy, Mad, Insane

Shining stood at the end of the bridge, looking at the ruins of the castle on the other side. There had been a few pegasus guards circling around them, but they'd quickly retreated after he'd struck one in mid-air and impaled him to the stone walls of a tower, before retreating his sword and letting his body fall to the ground where it was reduced to a limp tangle of torn flesh and broken bones.

He walked across the bridge, reaching the other side unharmed. As soon as the last of his hooves left the bridge and touched the ground a light blue glow enveloped the ropes and snapped them, and the bridge fell into the pit below, only attached to the other side. Shining turned and acknowledged the occurrence, then turned again and returned to moving towards the castle.

There, near the entrance, a large pony was waiting for him. Completely covered in a thick armour of grey metal, his eyes obscured and his vision allowed only by two small squared holes in his helm, he stood taller than Shining, whose head reached at about the soldier's shoulder. A large spiked club rested at his side, and as he noticed Shining approaching he hooked it to the front of his mask, ready to swing it.

Shining's sword flew up to the pony's face, then slowed down and positioned itself near the eyes, the only visible opening in the armour. After a tentative prodding, Shining concluded that the holes were too small for the sword to fit through them, the tip barely making it in and the pony's eyes remaining out of its reach. The operation elicited a deep sounding chuckle from the guard, who waited for Shining to come closer so he could smash him.

Shining recovered his sword. "Clever," he commented, "pretty clever. She's a smart one after all. Too bad I'll have to kill her." He took a few steps forward. "Hey, you!" he addressed the armoured pony, "Mind getting out of the way so I can go kill your boss and free her prisoners? Otherwise I'll have to kill you."

The guard began to laugh at the unicorn.

"Well, I warned him," Shining whispered to himself. He teleported in front of the laughing pony, catching him by slight surprise, and before the other had time to react he kicked his head with one of his front hooves.

The pony was sent flying backwards, smashing through the wooden gates of the castle. He landed inside the main hall, amidst the confusion of the guards inside, and as Shining calmly walked through the opening he'd left one of the presents ran towards his unmoving body. The smaller guard removed the bigger one's helmet to check if he was alright. His head wasn't there, and the only thing left were its remains, now reduced to nothing more than a shapeless pulp that dripped out of the helmet as it was removed. The guard let it fall to the ground in shock, and stood there shaking in fear.

"Okay everybody," Shining said, drawing the attention to himself and lifting his sword to his side, "who wants to die?"

Shining magically cleaned his sword, gathering up the smeared blood and then launching it away. Three had answered positively. Not intentionally, clearly, but they had. After he'd disposed of them, the rest had decided that they didn't want anything to do with him and had left the castle.

Now he was standing at the entrance to the adjacent room. By what he'd been able to gather, Applejack was being kept in the tower, while Rarity was waiting for him in the old throne room. That only left her personal guard to deal with. Shining smiled as he saw her.

The mare landed in the middle of the room, her black and purple armour reflecting the light that filtered in through the cracks in the walls and ceiling. She looked up, her striped gold and amber mane moving out of the way to reveal her orange eyes, a grin on her face. A red pair of long knives dangled from her armour, not limiting her movements but still easily accessible by her wings, the colour a stark contrast with her technically turquoise coat that always sparked discussions about whether it was a shade of green or a shade of light blue.

"I can already tell this is going to annoy many," Shining said, approaching her. "But on the bright side, not as many as if I'd been cutting Spitfire to pieces instead. We still have a while to go before that."

Lightning Dust grabbed the knives in her wings. "So you've come to die. Be grateful that it's by my hoof, she wouldn't have been as merciful as to give you a swift death."

"You know, she's not gonna bite you. It's not how things work." Shining readied his sword. "As for the dying part, the dragon said the same. Now his carcass is feeding the village where I killed him, and the parts that won't be eaten quickly enough will rot as those villagers die trying to defend them from the nearby cities. But don't worry," Shining said, preparing to deflect the upcoming attack, "you'll feed no one but the worms."

Lightning dashed forward with a powerful push of her hooves. The twin blades of her knives came in contact with Shining's sword as she flew above him, the unicorn's motion pushing them upwards and leaving him unharmed. The pegasus landed behind him and turned around, weapons held as a cross in front of her to block possible attacks. "You're pretty good, for someone stuck to the ground."

Shining slowly turned towards her, dragging the tip of his sword on the ground as he did, the sound of metal on stone filling the room while he completed the semi-circular motion. "Nice blades," he commented, giving her a nod, "are they red so nobody notices there's never any blood on them?"

Lightning kicked off towards him at the provocation, angling her wings to hit him from both above and below.

Shining expertly twisted his sword in front of himself, pinning Lightning's left weapon to the ground with the point of his sword while catching the right one with the cross-guard. "She doesn't care for you. But frankly, if you're this bad then she wouldn't even if she was different."

Lightning pulled back, freeing her knives, and began to throw a series of wing swings at Shining.

The unicorn's sword danced in front of him, deflecting every one of Lightning's blows. Shining yawned. "Is this all you've got?" he asked in a bored tone from behind his weapon.

The pegasus grunted and doubled her efforts, but to no avail. Finally, after one of her attacks Shining's sword twirled in the air, catching both of her knives and locking her with he wings outstretched and pointed low to the ground. Lightning looked up to see Shining's cold expression.

"You're still in time to retreat, you know?" he said, not taking advantage of her opening. "Do yourself a favour and leave. She's just using you."

Lightning gave a kick of her legs, pushing herself backwards and away from Shining. She started at him with hate and prepared to charge at him.

"So this is how it is, huh?" Shining brought his sword in position at his side.

Lightning moved forward, a blur of colour as she kicked off from the ground with the help of her wings, and reached Shining in mere fractions of a second, both of her scarlet knives descending towards him at the tips of her wings.

Shining stepped to the side, the motion strangely calm and collected when considering the speed at which he did it.

A split second later, Lightning dust was behind him, staring forward, and he turned to look at her, not a scratch on his body.

Lightning screamed, and the knife held in her right wing fell to the ground. From the base of her wing, blood began to spray, and she barely managed to stay on her hooves as she tried to keep it lifted up.

"It's not fatal," Shining commented. "You have an excuse to go away now."

Lightning dust turned towards him. "Never!" she hissed, then picked up the fallen knife in her mouth.

Shining looked down. "A shame, really. She must have wanted to get rid of you if she sent you to the slaughter like this. But if you still refuse to acknowledge how she's just manipulating you, well..." A smile came on Shining's lips, uncomfortably large. "Better for me," he let out, looking up as he began to quietly chuckle, "I get to have a bit more fun."

Lightning Dust saw the blow coming. She was aware of it for every fraction of a second in which it travelled through the air and towards her head. And she was equally, dreadfully aware that it was too fast for her to dodge.

The cross guard of Shining's sword pierced through the bottom of Lightning's mouth, hooking on her jaw, and before she could react in any way, the unicorn pulled.

Her jaw came off with a sickening pop, coupled with the horrifying sound of flesh tearing, and fell to the ground. Before her now torn appendage had even hit the floor, the knife she was holding with it was trapped into the unicorn's magic, and rapidly used to pin her right wing to her body.

Lightning stood there, something similar to a scream coming from the remains of her mouth, as blood kept flowing from her freshly opened wounds. After a few seconds of shock, during which Shining simply stared at her and smiled, she finally managed to regain some self-control, though her legs were shaking. She stared at the unicorn, her eyes ablaze with rage, and brandishing her only remaining knife with her left wing she charged at him.

She didn't even get to see Shining's motion. She became aware of the fact that he'd reacted only once he was already behind her, her wing already cut away. She fell to the ground, the impact knocking her helmet away. The knife in her right side penetrated even more deeply thanks to her weight on top of it, and she laid there in shock as her own blood created a puddle around her. Finally, through much effort, she managed to get back up, her legs barely holding her up.

"Sorry if I have to cut this short, but I was supposed to fight the other white unicorn, I can't have this battle take up most of the time," Shining said as he turned around to face her once more. "She really must have hated you." His sword swung perpendicular to the ground and split the remains of Lightning's head clean in half, and he walked away as her lifeless corpse fell motionless to the ground, only stopping to clean his sword with the wing he'd cut away from her.

He made his way to the old throne room, encountering no one else in his path, and entered. There, at the far end of the room, staring back at him as she sat on the old and half-broken throne, Rarity waited for him to come closer. She wore no armour, but a golden ring decorated her horn, and a deep crimson cape covered her back, the edges trimmed with white fur.

She remained silent, but once he reached the middle of the room she got up and cast her cape aside, beginning to walk towards him. He waited for her there, and once she reached a distance she deemed sufficient she stopped and removed the ring from her horn, placing it back upon her seat on the throne with her magic, then stared deep in the eyes of the stallion in front of her. "So you've come to-"

"Skip that part, please, I've heard it already."

Shining's sword swung horizontally, parallel to the ground, right at the height of Rarity's mouth. It sliced through both of her cheeks and cut away the tip of her tongue.

Rarity stared at the other unicorn, seeming somewhat annoyed, as her cheeks reattached and her tongue grew back, her wounds fully healing. She munched a bit on the remaining tip of her tongue Shining had cut, then swallowed it. "Straight to the point, huh?"

Another strike of Shining's sword, a little higher than before. Rarity's eyes were cut this time, blood beginning to spray from them, before, again, the unicorn fully healed.

"A little overeager, are we?" A blast of magic fired from Rarity's horn, and Shining had to step back to avoid it. "You don't seem to have grasped the situation you're in, darling." She turned a little to the side, posing as she gave the stallion a better look at her body, including her cutie mark. "Did nobody tell you that diamond is unbreakable?"

"Is this the part where I insult your hairstyle and you get mad at me?" Shining readied his sword, keeping it parallel to the ground and pointed at the mare, floating near his eyes.

Rarity began to walk around in a circular path, keeping her eyes on him as he responded to her motion by walking on the same circle, remaining on the side opposite of hers. She lit her horn and prepared to fire again. "Do you even know what you're fighting against, Dragonslayer?"

Shining's horn glowed for a split second, too fast for Rarity to react to it, then the stallion disappeared in a small flash of light.

He reappeared behind Rarity and smashed her head on the floor with his front hooves, shattering her skull and sending small chunks of her brain flying outwards as he smeared the rest on the stone pavement. "Vampire," he commented, his voice met by Rarity's left eye turning towards him from the broken mass beneath his hooves.

Watching the way the mare's head pieced itself back together, he continued. "Third generation, going by the speed at which you regenerate. So you weren't bitten by one of the originals, huh?"

Rarity's body clawed its way away from beneath him, and her head finished recomposing itself. "I see you're well informed." She teleported at his side and swung a blade of magical energy protruding from her horn at Shining's neck.

The stallion managed to block the attack with his sword, coating it in his own magic to prevent Rarity's spell from going through it, but some strands of his blue mane fell to the ground, cut away by the mare's blade as he'd jerked his neck to defend himself from the hit.

"So you must be aware that you're fighting a useless battle." Rarity pressed against the sword, forcing Shining to concentrate on holding her back. Suddenly, she cut off the spell, and as her head rapidly dived forward she shot another blast of magic towards Shining.

He was able to avoid being hit full on by the blast by pushing his body to the side with a kick from his legs, and the ray simply bruised him on the shoulder, leaving a trail of burnt hair on the left side of his back.

"Surely you know-"

She was interrupted by Shining's sword materialising inside her head, passed through her mouth. With a series of blinks of light the weapon disappeared and reappeared in each one of her legs, shattering her ankles and severing muscles and tendons.

"That a vampire keeps regenerating unless you destroy its weak spot, which is the area where it was originally bitten." Shining calmly walked closer to her, head titled to the side as he examined her. "Yeah, I know that. I'll just have to hit you there then."

Rarity's body regenerated, and she smiled at him. "Do you plan to guess?" She fired another spell, and Shining sidestepped to dodge it.

"Maybe." Shining brought his sword to his side.

Rarity laughed. "I'm sorry, darling, you won't live enough to try them all."

Shining stopped and looked up at her. "How about this, then? You give me one shot at it, without doing anything to stop me. And if I fail, I'll let you hit me once, to make things even."

Rarity began to laugh once again, throwing her head forward. "Oh, fine, then!" She posed and stood still, legs straight and head held high. "Let's play this little game of yours, if you're really this stupid." She smiled and stared at him.

Shining smiled back and walked up to her. "How about... here." He placed the tip of his sword against the base of Rarity's horn, to the side, the flat of the blade touching the horn.

Rarity's smile dropped from her face and her breathing quickened. She tried to move and half lifted one of her hooves, but the pressure from Shining's weapon held her in place. "How? How did you-"

"Interesting creatures, you vampires," he said, slowly dragging the tip of his sword in circles around the base of her horn and ignoring her. "You can regenerate from pretty much anything. Unless, the part of your body that was bitten first is taken away and destroyed first. You can regenerate from it and you can regrow it through an ongoing regeneration if you suffered other wounds, which makes it very hard to deal with you if one isn't precise." He began to push a little more, drawing some blood from Rarity's head.

Rarity gritted her teeth. "HOW THE FUCK DID YOU KNOW?"

Shining looked at her, faking surprise. "Oh, me?" He smiled. "Maybe you shouldn't have told Lightning Dust about it."

Rarity's eyes began to dart around in confusion, her lower lip twitching. "No, she... She would never have told you. She couldn't have told you! I FUCKING HYPNOTISED HER FOR FUCK'S SAKE, SHE-"

With one swift motion, Shining's sword entered Rarity's skull and cut around the horn, removing a small cone-shaped area of flesh and bone beneath it. Rarity remained paralysed mid-sentence by the shock, her mouth hanging open. Shining's sword launched the horn up in the air with a sudden jerk, and a spell fired from Shining's horn disintegrated it in mid-air.

"You..." Rarity's eyes were unfocused, spittle was dribbling down from her mouth and blood was flowing down from the hole in her head. "YOU FUCKING-"

"Out of curiosity, who bit you?"

Shining's sword rapidly danced between Rarity's legs, cutting away all four of them. It lifted, slicing away her tail in the process, and with two more broad swipes added to its spiralling motion it separated the unicorn's body in three. Then with one final arc it cut away her head, sending it flying and spinning into the air as the rest of her body fell to the ground in a pool of blood and entrails.

Shining watched the head spin as it fell back to the ground, and once it was just above his head in terms of height he launched his sword through it and impaled it, the weapon lodging itself in the old stone wall. He then pushed the sword into the wall all the way to the hilt, smashing Rarity's head. "Vinyl, huh?" he commented, then walked away, retrieving his sword.

The door to the tower had a magical lock on it, one he quickly deactivated with his horn, and once he did the door swung open to reveal the dark prison inside.

Applejack looked up, blinded by the sudden light from outside. "Who is it?" she asked, her dry throat failing her attempt to sound defiant.

"You really need to have a talk with your brother." Shining's sword, covered by his magical aura, cut away the runes-covered chains bound to Applejack's hooves. "He thinks he's got the right to decide who you fuck."

Applejack got up, her legs shaking, and she almost collapsed as she tried to hug the stallion.

"Calm down there, I don't want to bring back a corpse." He placed the barely conscious pony on his back. "I told your brother I was bringing his sister back, and I plan to do that. And then..." He walked out and stared at the Sun setting in the distance, then sighed. "I think it's time for me to pay a visit to mine."