Caballeron's Prize

"Ahh. So my nemesis's pathetic fangirl finally appears here in the flesh to die yet again." The Count growled through a gritted smile as his brows furrowed, standing openly as the priest blinked in surprise between the two. The crowd silent in awe of the still recognised pegasi of loyalty from the elements of harmony from years ago thought comatose from a tragic accident. "You look rather unwell. Well, better than Daring I should say."

"Keep her name out of your filthy mouth! I'm challenging you DOCTOR Caballeron! To your death!"

"Ohoh? You wish to marry Countess Ruby in my stead? How romantic." He sneered, getting a twisted glare from all the bridesmaids that were crouched ready to pounce at a moments notice.

Seizing the oppurtunity while everyone was distracted, Withers flicked a blade from his leather boot in his muzzle and placed it beneath Griiva's beak as he held her in a tight neckhold. "Tell your guardsh not to move. Now."

Her eyes tilted as the two groomstallions were stopped mid unsheathing of their own swords, one of them a unicorn who's horn was halted from glowing while taking aim at the cowering Quibble. His bowler hat tilted revealing a green gem imbedded in his skin.

"Hehngh... If this was all it took to be held like this, Withers; I might've tried killing him earlier.~" She almost manically giggled through her gagging of his tightening grip.

"Shut up."

Quibble looked around in disbelief as Fluttershy waved him over gently. The stallion looking at Rainbow and Caballeron still staring despite everything as he shuffled over nervously. His nasally voice shaken. "That was WAY too close. You could've given a guy a heads up!?" He shook his head at Celestia, getting ignored as she glared at Caballeron ahead.

"Give it up, Caballeron. You're wanted for countless crimes against Equestria and it's peoples. You failed." She sternly stepped forward, getting cut off as Rainbow walked between the two, not taking her eyes off him.

"Rainbow, what are you doing!? We have him!" Twilight pleaded. Her fur almost went pale as the crowd of dozens of Windgate ponies and griffons stood up looking at her and the two sisters with the same bloodthirsty look. The priest, who was taken aback at the commotion before also straightened himself and turned to the outsiders with a threatening glare.

"He has been challenged. We may have been understanding had you done this before she offered herself to sacred combat. However this is now a matter of the sacred god of secret passion. You will not interfere in this sacred ritual." He firmly spoke, filled with a zeal that Twilight and her friends hadn't seen before, but Celestia and Luna recognised all too well. One that had the threat of unrest and even war itself behind it.

"Th-That's crazy! This is crazy and isn't a civilized way of doing things!"

Luna furrowed her brow as she also stepped between the lavender alicorn and her own sister, blocking them from Rainbow and Caballeron. "Twilight. You're the smartest of the bunch, but you're still not comprehending she made up her mind to kill him the moment she woke up."

"That's not the point! Scootaloo isn't some prize to be claimed!" She felt her eyes swelling up, pleading to her friend not to go down this dark path. "Please don't do this Rainbow! Scootaloo, you have to tell her!" She turned to where she was standing before. Her eyes widening in shock at her disappearance. "What!? Where is she?"

"Honeshtly, I'm shurprised she shtayed that long." Withers grumbled, tsking into the handle if his knife as he kept Griiva still. "She ran outshide. If it's any consholashion, she and I agree wiff you, princessh. Barbarishim."

Torn between her friend and Scootaloo, she looked back and forth rapidly until she noticed Fluttershy was turning the corner at the exit already, dissappearing to chase after her.

"I assume you have weapons in mind. We could do hooves but I'd rather not have my lips swelled up before my kiss." He pushed out his lips mockingly, turning her blood to ice as she began smiling with a determined wrath.

"You like decorating your little slave guards with spears. cough I'd be okay with putting your fat greying head on one."

"Ohoh, I like this new you. You'd have made an exquisite henchpony." He grimly complimented, turning to his head to the priest and lifted his chin in a nod. The griffon bowed his head and moved to the nearby doorway into a storage area for the wedding, returning shortly with two simple spears with white ribbon tied to the base of the metal tips.

"In a gentlecolts duel, the one who covers the ribbon in blood fully first is declared the winner, life or death. However, I take it you accept as the groom to fight to the death for your beloved?" The griffon stoicly questioned, getting a roar of cheers from the crowd in their passionate and twisted fervor for the spirit of secret passion.

"I do."

"Then it is decided. When the organ finishes it's tune to silence, death's own will follow in it's steps. Commence!" He tossed the spears to each of them in tandom as the crowd watched with bated breath. The griffon flourishing his talon to signal the echoing, deep rumble of fast paced organ as it climbed it's notes rapidly in a heartbeat-like rythym. Many of the nobles from outside the nation covering thier mouths or eyes as the locals behind felt in their hearts each note, stomping on beat to shake the very ground.

Rainbow lifted herself to her hind legs in a spread pose to make herself a smaller target, folding her wings over the staff of the spear while resting the front over her extended hoof in challenge. The earth pony stallion disadvantaged on mobility, and instead taking a broader stance that tucked the back if his staff to his side while his forhooves held the stick from opposing sides, planting himself defensively knowing her swiftness.

"Cough Look at that. You look like you actually know how to use that thing." She grinned hatefully, feeling her lungs burning again. She wanted it to be a quick victory, but it seemed her body was turning it into a coin flip.

"Si. I seem to have an eye for them." He gritted his teeth as the organ built into it's crescendo. The two tensing in an intimate unity of innevitable battle.

"Don't lose Rainbow!" Pinkie cheered, trying to support her friend as she got worried looks from the others, torn between supporting her or trying to stop this.

Then silence.

Scootaloo panted as she tripped on her dress in the sand, crying between grunts as she used ber teeth to tear the fabric to stride better. "You stupid idiot! Dumb dumb dumb dumb!" She howled, wailing as her legs burned. Collapsing before she hit the wet sand of the shore as she sobbed. "Why can't I hate them!? Damn it!" Her face slammed into the grains of sand, cursing the veil for not letting her choke it up like Daring and Rainbow in the dark irony of her mind's last shred of attempted humor at the absurdity of where she was.

A shadow flew overhead a moment before landing. Her chest pounding undecided whether to punch or hug the figure. However she turned around not to be met with Rainbow Dash, but the soft somber gaze of Fluttershy meeting her.

"No... It wouldn't be her, huh?" She choked a sob, almost wheezing in a pathetic chortle at being disappointed but unsurprised.

"It should be." Fluttershy's lip quivered as her own eyes teared up. The echo of the organ dying as her voice whimpered shamefully.

"She had the same look as him. It's like their eyes glowed when they saw each other. Some twisted game they put me in the middle of." She dug in the sand, reminded of that day in the temple as she watched it happen the first time between them. "Maybe that was a sign of the spirit of secret passions they keep talking about."

Fluttershy wiped her face with the back of her bright hoof as she sat in front of her, looking at the dirty filly dressed up. "Well your eyes aren't glowing behind that silly curtain. If it's a game some evil spirit is playing, you should be there to remind her of who she is."

The clashing of metal echoed from the cathedral as Scootaloo flinched, still looking at the sand. "Ha... Hahaha..." The smaller pegasi's solemnly saddened as she lifted her hooves to pull up her white veil, revealing how her eyes really were. They were sullen, helpless as she smiled sadly with a pitying expression, looking at Fluttershy as if she were the naive filly. Her sadness joined with an almost twisted admiration as the next words left her lips.

"Do you really think he'd stop at Daring Do?"

Fluttershy raised her eyebrows as her lips opened in uneasy inquiry, only to be interrupted as the clashing of metal reverberated over the beach from the cavernous echoes of the temple. The yellow pegasi gulping with a firm frown in worry.

"What if it was Sweetie Belle or Applebloom? Would you really be okay with them not being there if their sisters were fighting in there?" She pleaded, lifting her hooves as each clatter of spears clashed in the air made her flinch.

"Come back with me to the princesses, Scootaloo. However this ends, Caballeron isn't escaping. You still have a choice to be there for Rainbow. She needs you."

"What choice?" The filly shook in place, staring up at her with the wide eyes Celestia glimpsed at the alter.

"He's already won."