The Shadow of Death

Rainbow Dash struggled to keep Soarin up and balancing on her as they ascended the stairwell towards the roof access point. Soarin kept tripping over several steps and leaving a trail of blood up the stairs.

"C'mon Soarin, we need to keep going, we need to get help!" Dash shouted, trying her best to motivate Soarin to keep going. Soarin then tried to let go, only for Dash to catch him and hold him tight.

"Just go on without me, I'm only slowing you down. I'll hold her off if she comes after us." Soarin said, trying to release the burden she had of having to carry him. Dash shook her head.

"No! I'm not leaving you!" Dash said defiantly. Soarin opened his mouth to argue, but knew that time was of the essence, and Dash wouldn't just leave him. Soarin smiled and wrapped his arm around her again and the two continued to climb.

As they reached the third floor with only 1 more flight to go before getting to the roof access point, they heard the sound of a door opening behind them. They both froze in their tracks as they heard a maniacal laugh come from below them.

"Yoohoo! Lovebirds? I have a surprise for you!" They heard Lightning Dust call out below them. Dash quickly grabbed Soarin's arms and hoisted him into the air and started to fly up the stairs. The added weight of Soarin mixed with the limited room in the stairwell hindered Dash's ability to fly fast.

Down below, Dust's ears perked up as she heard the grunting above her, she lifted off into the air and chuckled.

"The chase is on." Dust said so herself before she flew up the stairs.

Dash managed to get both of them to the Roof door and attempted to open it, however, the winds from outside were blowing against the door, and making opening it nearly impossible. Soarin joined her at the door and despite his wounded leg, managed to provide just enough strength to open the door wide enough for Dash to slip through.

"Come on Soarin! Get out here!" Rainbow shouted over the winds. She started pulling the door open further from the outside, as snow began to blow through the door's crack. Before Soarin could make a move, he heard movement behind him, he turned and his stomach dropped.

Lightning Dust was hovering up the stairs behind him, her suit along with her face and mane stained with blood, she had a look of pure insanity in her eyes, and was now armed with an ax with a bloody head.

"There you are handsome!" Lighting said sadistically. Soarin then felt an arm wrap around his neck and he was dragged out of the door. He saw Lightning lunge forward before the door slammed in her face.

Dash and Soarin fell back onto the snow covered roof and looked around. They were on a catwalk system, with two other directions to go. Luckily, there were signs labeled with a red warning sign meant for emergencies that indicated the direction of the flare launcher.

Soarin looked back at the door and saw the knob turning and quickly dove and pushed against the door. His strength combined with the wind made the door now impossible to open. Soarin turned back at Dash.

"Go! Get to the launcher and Fire the Flare!" Soarin shouted at Dash over the winds. Dash wanted to argue, but she looked back at the signs indicating where to go. Normally, the launcher could've been seen from where she was standing, but with the storm, she could barely see anything in front of her. She needed to get help.

"Be careful!" Dash shouted at Soarin before trudging forward through the accumulated snow towards the flare launcher.

Inside the stairwell, Lightning Dust was pushing against the door with all her might, but she was no match for Soarin, who made it so that the door didn't even budge, even with his injuries.

Lightning finished another failed attempt to push the door open when she stepped back. She looked down at the ax in her hooves and facehooved.

"For fucks sake!" Lightning exclaimed before raising the ax back and swinging it towards the door.

Soarin was leaning against the door still, determined to give Dash enough time to fire the flare. Then, the head of the ax pierced through the door, just missing his head.

"AAAH!" Soarin screamed as he jumped away from the door, wincing as he landed a little too hard on his injured hoof. The ax head was removed from the tiny hole it made before emerging back through the hole again, making it bigger. Soarin began to inch away from the door, feeling scared for his life. Him and Dash were on the roof in a storm, they had no escape route.

The ax head was removed from the hole again and Dust's face appeared on the other side, a sadistic smile plastered to her face.

"Heeeeere's DUSTY!" Lightning Dusty shouted before laughing maniacally and taking another swing at the door.

Soarin kept inching away slowly as Lightning continued to hack away at the door.

Rainbow Dash finally made it to the end of the catwalk and saw the silhouette of a machine just a few yards in front of her. She stepped off the catwalk into a little area with the machine in the middle. It looked like a smaller version of Pinkie's confetti cannon, only painted navy blue with the Wonderbolt's logo and pointed straight into the sky.

Dash approached the device and began to look for ways to activate it, the eventually found a lever next to it gave it a yank.

Nothing happened.

Dash frowned and began to frantically inspect it, eventually finding a hatch near the bottom that opened up and found the image of some kind of canister inside. Dash then glanced over to see a large green crate. She stepped away from the device and opened it. Sure enough, it was filled with the canisters depicted in the hatch.

Soarin took one more step back from the door as Lighting chopped one more piece off of the door and reached her hoof through and opened it. She stepped outside onto the roof, still brandishing her ax.

"Well, looks like it's just you and me blueberry." Lightning said as she started walking towards him. Soarin gulped and braced the railing as Lightning got closer and swung the ax at him.

Dash took one of the canisters out of the crate and quickly went back to the launcher. She looked at the picture of the canister and quickly placed it in the launcher the correct way the image had depicted. She then closed the hatch and heard a locking noise. Dash smiled, assuming it was ready.

She moved to pull the lever.

Soarin stumbled back out of range of Lightning's first ax swing and began leading her away from the door through the storm.

Lightning began to swing wildly, not paying attention to anything else other than her rage and bloodlust to kill. Eventually, she swung the ax and got the ax stuck in the floor grate of the catwalk.

Soarin quickly used this and stepped on the ax handle and jabbed Dust across the face, knocking her away from the ax. He was about to bend down to pull the ax from the grate when he heard a noise behind him.

*ffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww*

Soarin turned and saw the blinding red light of the flare launch into the sky above the compound. He saw some of the clouds and storm surrounding the light begin to dissipate. He turned to look at the launching area in front of him, not realizing how close he had gotten. He saw Dash step out from the other side with a grin on her face. But....

Dash stepped around the launcher and smiled at Soarin, but her grin quickly turned to one of horror as she saw Lightning Dust get back up with a small knife in her hoof and rush as Soarin.

Soarin turned just in time to see Dust reach him and stab him in the gut. Soarin grunted in pain as he felt the knife enter. He saw the wicked smile of Dust's face as she pulled the knife back and stabbed him again. Soarin let out another pained grunt before falling back onto the catwalk.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Dash screamed out in horror. Dust looked up and grinned. She reached down and pulled the ax free from the catwalk. She stepped over Soarin and walked toward Dash.

"Wow, talk about saving the best for last." Dust said as she approached the speechless and "on the verge of tears" Dash.

"I had a lot of fun killing your Wonderbolt friends, but you are somepony special to kill. You're the pony that ruined my life and crushed my dreams. I'm going to enjoy this." Dust said before raising the ax.

Dash's mind caught up with her just in time to roll away from Dust's ax swing. Her face went from one of shock and terror to one of pure rage. Lightning Dust had just taken so many of her friends from her, it was time to stop running, and start fighting.

Dash moved around the launcher, quickly grabbed a canister and opened it, finding the flare inside. She took it out and waited for Dust to make a move.

Dust quickly followed Dash and began to swing the ax in her direction. Dash waited for the right time to strike. After Dust swung the ax and the head clanged against the ground, Dash struck the flare, igniting it, and stuffed the burning end in Dust's face.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Dust screamed out in pain. She dropped the ax. Dash went to pick it up, also dropping the flare. Dust quickly recovered, though she couldn't see out her right eye and lunged at Dash. The two began to fight over the ax. Punching, kicking, yelling, and even biting at eachother to try to best the other.

As they rolled over one another, they neared the edge of the roof. Eventually, Dash got off of Dust with the ax and held it, ready to swing at Dust. She got a good look at what she did with the flare. Her right eye was closed with charred bits of fur around it. Dust looked ready to dodge if Dash swung, so Dash decided to attack with a different way.

Dash used the other end of the ax to bash Dust in the nose. Dust's head was thrown back before facing at Dash again, blood flowing out of her nose. Dust's eye twitched in rage before lunging at Dash again. Dash didn't dodge in time and the two were once again on the ground, fighting over the ax.

Eventually, the two were next to the edge of the roof, Dash looked over and saw that they were next to an area of the compound that over looked the rest of Equestria below, with no safe clouds to land on. Dash looked up at Dust, who was using the ax handle to try to choke Dash.

Dash pushed back against the ax with all her might, but Dust was also giving it her all through her rage.

"DIE! JUST DIE ALREADY! THE OTHERS WENT DOWN SO EASILY! SO JUST DIE!" Dust screamed in rage at Dash, getting spit all over her face. Dash felt the handle touch her throat and begin to apply more pressure. Dash let out a choked grunt. Dust began to grin wickedly as the handle was pushed further against her throat. It looked grim for Dash.

"GET OFF OF HER!" Dash heard a familiar voice shout. She suddenly saw Soarin grab Dust and pull her violently off of Dash. The ax landed next to Dash, and Dust and Soarin landed further from her. Dash sat up and saw Dust and Soarin getting into a scuffle that ended pretty quickly after Dust knocked Soarin down and tried to choke him. Dash quickly grabbed the ax and rushed over to them. Without hesitating she swung and buried the ax in Dust's back, also hacking into her wing. Dust wailed in pain as Soarin grabbed the tiny knife sticking out of her suit pocket and stabbed her in the chest.

Dust let out another wail in pain as Dash pulled the ax with Dust in tow off of Soarin and threw them both. The ax landed by the edge and Dust manged to stagger back just shy of the ledge. Dust looked down at the knife in her chest before she looked up to see Dash walk up to her and punch her hard across the face. Dust staggered back and fell off the roof. She tried to open up her wings, but yelped in pain and looked to see her left wing split in two from the ax blow. She looked down and saw no clouds beneath her, only the expanse of Equestria below.

Dust looked up and screamed as she plummeted to the land below.

Dash looked over the edge at Dust as she plummeted until she was out of view. Dash then turned to Soarin and....started to lightly chuckle. Soarin gave her his own smile and Dash quickly leapt at him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"I'm so happy you're okay!" Dash said as she happily embraced him. Soarin smiled as he embraced her back. He looked up to see the storm begin to dissipate, and even better, the Cloudsdale Legion began to emerge from the clouds.

"We're gonna be fine now Dash, we're gonna be okay." Soarin whispered in Dash ear as she buried her head in his chest, doing her best not to touch and accidentally hurt Soarin's wounds.

They were safe at last.