The Equestrian Monomyth - Book 2 - Complexs of Disharmony

The Gryphoon Empire, the previous day of Luna's escape:

The big and heavy grate opened up with a screeching noise, and the huge and bad ass looking red dragon entered the arena, surrounded by thousands of fervent gryphoon spectators:

"Yes, yes! It's me, Agronath, the reigning champion from the Dragonlands! Yeah! Hail me, yeah!" He happily raised his foreclaws, triumphant. Then, he turned his head to the grate on the opposite side of the battleground: "Well, let's see what immensely unlucky opponent they have got for me this year. I'm going to rip him in strips, like the previous one! Mwahahahahaha!" He mocked for himself, smirking.

The second grate didn't opened, and Agronath grew impatient: "Well, this is new. Victory by forfeit? This is going to be the most wasteful trip I've ever made to the Gryphoon Empire, by far. They'll better give me a good compensation, or I'm going to eat them all, starting with King Gryphanius." He shrugged an eye, looking to the gryphoon in question, comfly sit in his throne, near the top of the tiers.

The gryphoon arbiter announced: "Gladiatooooors, get ready for battleeeee!"

Agronath got surprised: 'Gladiators?' Where is the other?. He looked around, seeing nothing, until he opted to look down. Then he looked her: A white alicorn, very alike to Celestia, but with the difference that this one has a short cut mane, with shaved sides of the head, and a mid-lenght plait over the right side of her face, almost completely covering her reinforced eyepatch. She was wearing a full body armor, with two samurai-like swords crossed over her loin, and, in the edge of her braided tail, was hanging a very sharp kunai.

Agronath couldn't help but to cackle: "Ha ha ha ha ha! THIS IS my opponent?! A LITTLE PONY?!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" He arched his head back to laugh better. "Well, at least they made me laugh... ha ha ha ha... I think...(chuckles) I think I'm not going to eat them this time." He chuckled, drying the tears from laughing so much.

But his laughter didn't last long, because he felt a slight tremor in the ground, as the alicorn unsheated her two swords, causing an air blast around her that raised a small dust cloud.

Agronath looked at her with surprise, shrugging an eye. "Whoa, it seems that this one is going on business. I almost feel pity for her."

The alicorn smirked.

"FIGHT!" Screamed the arbiter.

Without waiting, the dragon spitted a fire column from his mouth where the alicorn was, and when the fire died out, nothing were left there.

"Prftt!" Mocked Agronath. "If I come to know that this will be so easy, I'll AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" He roared with his eyes and maw wide opened, and he quickly turned around, looking with surprise and anger how almost half of his tail had been chopped off.

"AHHHHRRRGGGGGG!!!" He roared again of fury, and almost instantly a succession of white shinning bubbles started to quickly appear and dissapear around him, cutting him everywhere. "AAAHHHHRRRGGG!!!" He roared again, but of pain this time.

Suddenly, the bubble appeared to one of his sides, and quickly passed below his foreclaws, cutting his belly from side to side.

"AAAHHRRGG!" Agronath roared even again, bending forward, just for the bubble to appear on his back, slicing from the chopped edge of his tail, up to almost the base of his wings.

"AAAHHHHRRRGGG!!!" Agronath arched back, contorting of pain, and then, the alicorn, sure that he was stunned enough, appeared a certain distance from him, and swinging and making longer her tail, threw the kunai to the dragon's maw, steadily piercing it.

"Come over here!" Said the alicorn then, and, with an unbelievable strenght for a being of her size, she pulled the dragon to her hinder legs, hitting him in his mouth with such force, that she made him to fly back up to hit with a rumbling in the colosseum's walls, making the building to tremble.

"EHHHHHHHHH!!!" The gryphoons cheered! Madness in the arena!

"Killer combo!" Bragged the alicorn. Then, she twirled her swords, cleaning them from the dragon's blood, and, smirking, pointed him with one of her weapons: "Had enough, dragon dweeb?"

The dragon shooked the head, coming back to his senses, and, with red eyes from rage-filled spirit, launched a roar that made the colosseum to tremble, and took off against the alicorn, with pony-eating intentions. The alicorn then flown higher, higher and higher, and the dragon was everytime closer, until he closed his maw over the alicorn. But his 'victory' was short lived, as the white shinning bubble appeared left -slash- and right -slash-, and both of the dragon's wings were cut off.

With a pained and scared roar, the dragon, with no wings to keep him in the air anymore, fell from a considerable height until he hit the ground with his head, with an eartshaking rumbling, and there he stood, defeated.

"EHHHHHHHHH!!!" The gryphoons cheered! Madness in the arena again!

The alicorn landed near her opponent, and looked to King Gryphanius. The gryphoon king smirked, raised a claw and gave her... a thumb down.

The alicorn smirked: That meant 'FINISH HIM', so, she turned to the still conscious dragon, who raised a trembling claw, scared.

"No, little pony, no. Have mercy, please. Your kind are nice and good and... Arggghhh..." Agronath trembled in pain again, as the alicorn enlarged her horn, piercing the dragon head from inside his open maw, and appearing from the back of his head. Then, with a quick swing of both swords, she severed the dragon's head, which fell some feets away.

"EHHHHHHHHH!!!" The gryphoons cheered! Madness in the arena even again!

"Of course I have mercy." Commented the alicorn, returning her horn to it's original size and sheating her swords. "I gave you a quick and painless... FATALITY!"

Then, the arbiter happily announced: "And the winner is: Our new champion, Gryphoonheart, 'The Scorpioooooon', Daybreakeeeeeeer!"

"EHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Then Daybreaker turned to King Gryphanius, putting a hoof in her chest: "My liege!! I, Gryphoonheart 'The Scorpion' Daybreaker, are honored to give you yet another victory, for the eternal glory of the Empire! Long live King Gryphanius!"

"LONG LIVE!!!" Cheered the gryphoons.

"Long live the Gryphoon Empire!!" Daybreaker happily acclaimed with a raised foreleg.

"LONG LIVE, EHHHHHHHHH!!!" The colosseum seemed to be falling apart anytime.

Daybreaker, satisfied, looked to one of the dragon's wings, walked to it, and, using a sword, cut a slice and took it to her muzzle, chewed it a bit, and then spitted it: "Puaj. It tastes to sulphur..."

King Gryphanius, satisfied, looked to an old-aged and one-eyed gryphoon on his side: "Well done, Master Tharkhan. You've turned her in the jewel of the Empire."

Master Tharkhan smiled too: "Thank you, my King. I'm honored from your laud. I told Your Majesty that she was ready."

Trixie, shocked, was staring all that show, and a gryphoon hit her with an elbow: "Eh, little pony. Why aren't you cheering too? Come on, I want to see you cheering too! Cheer!"

Trixie made a forced smile and 'cheered' too, raising a foreleg: "Ehhhhhhh..."

A little while later, Trixie was walking from side to side of her tent, where she was being put to live with Daybreaker, to take care of her: "I can't believe this... I can't believe this... In what a mess I have gotten into. Those buckings gryphoons, they've turned my lovely and nice Daybreaker into a coldblood killing machine! Cursed and bucked all they be!"

Suddenly, she put a hoof in her chest and gasped. Then, she nervously walked to a nearby table, took a flask from there and quickly drank it's contents, then, she sat in her haunches, until her heartbeating returned to normal. Trixie closed the eyes, despaired. She was unable to escape, because, not too long after her arrival to the Empire, she had contracted some strange and incurable heart disease, and the gryphoon doctor told her that if she didn't take that medicine daily, she'll die for sure. So, even she wasn't tied at all, she was a prisoner, anyway. What a fateful destiny, just when everything was seeming to turn into better...

Trixie put the hoof back in the ground, and scowled: It should be Twilight the pony who had to be passing through this! Not her! NOT HER! Treacherous unicorn, just wait to her to return to Equestria, and she'll see!

She was deep in that thoughts, when Daybreaker happily returned to the tent: "Mommy, mommy! Did you see it?! Did you see it?!! It was like slash, flash, squish!" Daybreaker joyfully started to swing her head, mimicking the moves that she did in the battle. "That dragon dweeb never saw what hit him! Ha ha ha!" She walked to the wall and hanged her weapons and armor there. "And he was so stupid! He didn't know that he can't fly without wings! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Daybreaker cackled with a foreleg in her muzzle. "He fell like a manure sack ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Trixie made a slight disgusted grimace. "Yes, my daughter. Very funny."

Daybreaker looked to her with tenderness: "Oh, come on, mommy. Why aren't you happy for my victory? Everygryphoon was. Even King Gryphanius congratuled me! It was so honorable! And they gave me a special feast in my honor! There was cow, pig, yak... That yak meat is so hard to swallow. You know? It's so hairy. I once burned one almost to the bone, and it still has hair in the meat! Can you believe it?!"

As Daybreaker kept talking, Trixie's face started to turn green.

Daybreaker continued talking about her meal, without noticing it: "The cow meat is the best, it's soft, sweet and easy to rip. I mean, the pig's one is tasty too, but it's too greasy. I fear that it could fatten me too much. That'll slow me down, and I can't afford that, and..."

Trixie's face was now fully green, and her bloated cheeks couldn't stand it anymore:

"Bruarrghfff!" Trixie puked off.

"Mommy! Are you alright?!" Daybreaker asked her, concerned.

"Puff! Of course that I'm not... (cough) I'm not alright! (cough)" Trixie protested. Then, she turned to Daybreaker, trembling: "Daybreaker, you know that I can't stand you talking about your meals! That make me sick!"

"Bah. You don't know what you're missing, mommy. I bet that's why you ended so undergrown, while I could grow so big and strong!" Daybreaker pointed herself with a foreleg, full of herself. "I hate to say this, but you look pitiful, mommy."

Trixie scowled: "Daybreaker, stop offending your mother! Or you're going to sleep out again!" She angrily threatened her.

"No, mommy, no! Alright, alright. I'm sorry. Forgive me." Daybreaker smiled, trying to be as kind as possible.

Trixie sat on her haunches, closed the eyes, crossed her forelegs and turned the head to a side: "Hmptf!" She annoyingly huffed.

"Well, mommy..." Daybreaker decided to try another thing. "What about a truce toast?" She offered, pulling out a bottle.

Trixie looked to the bottle with the side of the eye. Given her current situation, she would like something stronger than cider. The alcoholic beverage that gryphoons made doesn't look as a bad choice. At least, getting drunk will give her some relief to the burden of her everyday life.

So, Trixie relaxed: "Alright. Let's toast..." Then, she walked to a table, and Daybreaker, very happy, served her a cup with the red content of the bottle.

Trixie looked suspiciously to the cup, and, just in case, she sniffed it, quickly backing off, horrified: "What's this...?! BLOOD?!!"

"Indeed." Confirmed Daybreaker, sniffing her cup. "Aged. Seven yea..."

She couldn't finish the explanation, as Trixie tossed the cup to the floor: "Daybreaker! You were going to make me to drink BLOOD?!" She angrily asked.

"But mommy! Everygryphoon drinks blood! What's the big deal?"

"I hate you, Daybreaker! How are you going to do this to your mother?!" Angrily Trixie scolded her.

Daybreaker's face adquired a sad grimace: "But mommyyyyy... I thought you'll be proud of meeeeeee..." She said with crying voice.

"I'm not proud of you! I hate you! I regret to have brought you to life!"

"Mommyyyyy...." Daybreaker sink her head on her forelegs and started to cry.

At that very moment, Master Tharkhan opened the tent's door: "Hey, miss Trixie, King Gryphanius demands... Daybreaker, stop crying at once!!" He angrily scolded her.

"Sorry, Master Tharkhan. I don't know what happened to me, I just..." Tried to justify herself Daybreaker.

"Silence! Is dishonorable for a warrior of your caliber to be crying like this! A true warrior's heart has no spare for tears! So, sorry is not enough! A thousand push ups, with the maximum weight you can carry, at once!" He pointed to the direction of the training area.

"Yes, master." Sadly said Daybreaker, slowly walking to the entrace.

"And I don't want to see you crying again! Move!" Master Tharkhan loudly slapped Daybreaker's flank.

Daybreaker quickly flown to the training area, loaded her loin with weight until she could barely stand, and started to do the four-leg push ups: "One, two, three, four..."

"That'll teach her." Master Tharkhan shrugged his only eye. Then, he looked to Trixie: "Miss Trixie, King Gryphanius demands you at his presence, at once!"

Trixie was walking with weariness through the throne hall. The recent remains of the celebration feast were still there, and Trixie was, simply, nauseated. However, she managed to arrive to King Gryhanius throne without fainting, as she feared that could cost her the life.

"Ave, King Gryphanius. Did you asked for me?" She asked with a trembling reverence.

"Indeed." He confirmed. "I have to say, that, despite some minor inconveniences, you've done a great job, miss Trixie."

"Oh, I'm honored for your attentions, my king."

"It's lauds, miss Trixie. Lauds. When are you going to learn? When we eat you?" Mocked Gryphanius.

"Lauds! Lauds! Yes, yes, it's lauds! I've already learned, I've already learned!" Frightfully said Trixie, with stiffed legs.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The gryphoons cackled. "Alright, now let's go to the point. When our Daybreaker will be able to move the sun and the moon? We're growing impatient."

"Ow!" Trixie got pale and started to tremble and sweat cold. "I... I'm sorry to say this my king, but... but... that's a spell that only one of the princesses... can taught to her... I... I've conducted every investigation possible and... and... that's the only way." Then, she looked to the gryphoon with big pleading eyes: "I... I'm sorry..." She gulped. "That's... all I can do... Please don't eat me..."

"Hmmm. Then that could be a problem." King Gryphanius rubbed his lower beak with a claw. "I don't think that Celestia will allow another hearing with us after the last incident. What do you propose, Agent G?" He asked to a tuxedo and black glasses-wearing gryphoon at his side.

"Well..." Agent G adjusted his shades "We thought that this could happen, so we've developed a contingency plan."

"Which is?"

"As far as we know, Princess Luna is imprisoned in the Canterlot Castle."

"Then, are you proposing a rescue?"

"Not exactly. Most likely an 'eased escape'."

"And once she's free?"

"We'll send her a messenger with the location of an extraction point and we'll bring her here." He pointed to Trixie, and then to the floor.

"Wow. Brilliant." Commented Gryphanius, with a sarcastic tone. "And she'll happily come here, forgetting that it was we, gryphoons, the ones who massacred her family."

Agent G smirked. "Nogryphoon said she'll come here from her own will."

Trixie's eyes opened wide, as she remembered ambassador Chad's words to Celestia: 'The only reason because we haven't crushed your cute little kingdom was because not only us, but all Equus needed of you. But not anymore! We have power over the moon and the sun now! So we can wipe out Equestria from existence... anytime we want!'

'Oh no!' She thought. 'If they manage to make Daybreaker a sun goddess, that'll be Equestria's end! I have to do something! I have to do something!!'

When Trixie returned to her tent, Daybreaker was already finished her punishment, and was curled, sleeping, tired to death. Trixie walked to her, to make sure she was asleep, then she walked to the tent's door and looked out, to make sure there was no gryphoon watching, and once she did that, she walked to the wall where Daybreaker's weaponry was, and silently and slowly, unsheated the kunai. Then, she walked to the sleeping mare, and raised the trembling weapon over the alicorn's neck.

"Sorry, Daybreaker... sorry... my little daughter..." Trixie mourned, with tearful eyes.

Suddenly, Daybreaker spoke among dreams: "Mommy... I love you..." Causing Trixie to gasp and to walk some steps backwards, quickly hiding the kunai under her cape.

Daybreaker continued speaking among dreams: "Mommy... I just want you to be proud of me... Why can't you be proud of me, mommy?"

Trixie lowered the head and half closed her tearful eyes. Then, as slowly and silently as she had taken the kunai, she put it back where it was, and sat on her haunches to cry...

Equestria, the day after Luna's escape:

The balloon, pulled by both Storm Chaser and Rainbow Dash, who were flying giving angry stares to each other with the side of the eye, had it's basket occupied just by Shining Armor, as Twilight and me were sharing a large flying cloud right behind. We were hugging and passionately kissing yet again, and when we broke the kiss she told me:

"Love, I have to tell you, that our first time was even better than as I had dreamed it."

"It was?"

"Yeah. Even if it still hurt a bit, and I barely can move my hinder legs, but it was... so beautiful. I was... like slowly falling in a reverie, and floating... in a warm sea of joy and happiness. And the waves of pleasure just keep coming and coming... I have no words to describe it." Then, she looked at me with an apologetic face. "The only thing that I regret, is that I've spoiled our perfect honeymoon."

"Don't worry, love. Any honeymoon with you will be perfect." I smiled.

"Do you think so?" She smiled back.

"I don't 'think so'. I'm sure of it." And we cuddled and kissed again.

When we broke the kiss again, she told me: "Love, I... I have something to confess to you..."

"Yeah? What, you cheated on me?" I teased her.

"No! Of course not!" She smiled, softly pushing me with a foreleg. "I'll rather die first. Is... that I was a bit jealous of you. I mean, you with Rainbow Dash. Even if I had given up on you, I feel as if I had to become stronger than her. I mean, that I've spent all my life studying magic, and I wasn't able to do most things that you two learned in just a few months. For instance, this flying cloud of yours. I didn't managed to cast it until just recently. I quickly figured out that it has something to do with condensing enough of the environment's moisture, but I couldn't keep the cloud joined together."

"That's beacuse you have to cast two spells at the same time, the Cloud Making and the Cloud Walking. Then the cloud will sustain by itself."

"Yeah. But you have two hands, and I have only one horn."

"That's not an issue. You can use a hoof instead."

"And that's exactly what I found out. Now I can cast up to five spells at once, against only four of Dashie! And I can even fly!" She happily bragged, opening her forelegs. "I'm stronger than her now!"

"Hey, I can hear you!" Rainbow Dash protested.

Twilight and me laughed.

"Is that's the case, I'm the one that should be jealous about you." I pointed myself with a thumb.

"Yeah? Why?" She smiled, doubtful.

"Love, because, for instance, I'm sure I'll never be able to do the ten digit-precision square and cubic roots you do, all by memory. You're like a trotting computer."

She giggled, blushing a bit: "Can you tell me more about computers?"

I smiled too: "What's this? Are we gonna cuddle, or to talk about science?"

She lewdly smiled too: "Both..."

Many miles ahead, to the north, Luna was stepping in the top of a mountain, from where the blurring form of the Gryphoon Empire could be started to be seen. She sadly looked the nearby country, and huffed:

"What I was thinking? This has to be some trap of that treacherous gryphoons. There's no way they'll let me to get to their king. They'll kill me first, and my family will never be avenged!" She trembled of anger. "I still can't understand how Celestia can let them to walk through Equestria, like nothing had happened! That's why she has to die!" She angrily hit the ground with a foreleg. "Maybe five thousands of years have passed, but I don't forget...! I can't forget..." She sadly looked to the floor. "And I can't forgive..."

She slowly drooped to the ground, despaired: "Then... what I'm supposed to do...?" She looked back in the direction to Canterlot, even it was too far away to be seen. "I can't go back there." Then she looked forward. "And I can't go further..." She looked down. "And I'm all alone..." Her eyes started to abundantly shed tears. "What... what I'm suppossed to do...?" She mumbled. Then, she closed the eyes, raised the head and screamed with the Royal Canterlot Voice: "WHAT I AM SUPPOSED TO DOOOOOO?!!!"

She sank her head on her forelegs and started to cry, scratching the ground with her hooves: "Why...? (sobs) Why I have to be inmortal...? (sobs) Why I can't die like anypony else...? (sobs) I didn't ask for this, I didn't! My sister took all the decisions for me! She never asked me! She never..." She couldn't continue speaking, her voice cut by the crying.

Then, she stopped crying: "Wait... I CAN DIE. I just... I can just kill myself..." Then, she turned the head to a side, with clenched eyes: "No! Not like this! Not like this..." She sadly looked again to the floor. "If at least, it was in a battle... yeah, a battle. That way, I'll go with a bit of dignity..." Suddenly, she perked the ears and looked back, looking the floating balloon in the distance. She smirked and sharpened the eyes: "Ow, good. Served cold..."

"Dashie, Storm Chaser! Can you pinpoint the source of that scream?!" Asked Shining Armor from the balloon basket to the leading pegasis, looking around.

"No, we can't! It could have come from anywhere!" Answered the above-mentioned.

I quickly stood up, while Twilight did the same with difficulty, but her hinder legs trembled and she had to sit on her haunches again.

"Damnation!" She cursed.

I looked to her, scrunched the mouth and raised a brow. As if this wasn't gonna be hard enough...

But I haven't too much time to bother, as I had to quickly cast a shield to protect the balloon from a dark blue beam, coming from somewhere in the distance. Well, at least we already know where she is...

"Everypony, land now, land now!" Ordered Shining Armor.

Suddenly, I had an idea: "Shinny, jump here with your sister and surround Luna from behind! I'll keep her shooting the balloon, to distract her!" I ordered, jumping to the basket and starting to retaliate with Multi Hadou-kens, to cover the rest of the ponies moves.

Shining Armor looked at me with hesitation, but Twilight assured him: "Come on, brother, do as he says! He knows what he's doing!"

Once he jumped to the flying cloud, I indicated to the pegasi: "Storm, Dashie, take her from the flanks!" They looked to me, perplexed. I rolled the eyes: "Not that flank, the sides, I meant!"

They do an understanding gesture, and flown each one by their side.

Luna kept shooting the balloon and dodging my Hadou-kens by flying or teleporting: "Come on, come on! Give me your best shot!" She pleaded below her breath.

Suddenly, a lightning stroke her magic shield. Luna looked to the side it came with the side of her eye: "Is that little bucker again. She will not escape this time..."

Then, she cast a huge dark ball on her horn, and suddenly threw it to the other side, where Storm Chaser was coming: "Ha!" She mocked. "As if I didn't know that tactic!"

However, Storm Chaser teleported, or best saying, was teleported to safety by Twilight, coming from Luna's back, while Shinning Armor trapped the blue alicorn within his shield.

But it wasn't for too long, as the spherical shield soon exploded by Luna's magic retaliation. Then, she perked the ears, and cast her Dark Cover, and everything come out of vision. Everything but me, turned into a living lightning, illuminating the area again:

"You're not going to get me with that again!" I told her, casting my dispel sword, and rushing to her. But just when she was at my reach and I had swung my hand with my bottle-cut move, to chop her horn off again, she teleported on my back, trying to catch me off-guard.

"You're not going to get me with that again either, pleb scum!" She mocked, but she couldn't hit me, as Twilight, Shining Armor and Dashie shot her at the same time.

Then, Luna bristled, forming a feather shield around her, which she used to block the attack, and then, charging that very feathers with the spell they had just threw on her, she retaliated with multitude of sharp arrow-like feathers! I didn't expected that!

Shining Armor, Twilight and me could hold the blast quite well, but Rainbow Dash and Storm Chaser didn't ran with so much luck, being the last one the pony that took the worst!

I had to make a decision: If I left the inside of the Dark Cover, Twilight and Shining Armor will likely end sightless and in great danger, but if I didn't, Dashie and Storm Chaser will surely die. So, I told them: "Shinny, make a shield around you and your sister, and kept it until I come back!" And I darted to take the battered bodies of the pegasis.

Exactly as I feared, not sooner I left the Dark Cover, I could hear that screeching sound again, the very one that almost took me down!

I get the pegasis to safety, gave a quick heal to Rainbow Dash, until she recovered conciousness, and telling her, pointing to the other pony: "Take care of him!" I quickly teleported back into the Dark Cover.

Once inside, I checked with horror how Twilight and Shining Armor had been defeated by Luna's sonic attack, as they hearing was sharper than mine, due their bigger ears! The flying cloud dissipated, and they were falling, unconscious, to the emptyness!

I appeared near them and grabbed them, using my own body to cover them from Luna's horn piercing attack. Luckily, my magic shield could stop it enough to her just giving me a skin cut.

I was in a disadvantaging position, carrying two fainted ponies against Luna, but luckily Rainbow Dash had recovered herself enough to attack Luna again, giving me enough time to take my marefriend and her brother to safety too. Not too long after I did it, Dashie fell again to the ground, too wounded to keep fighting. It seems that it was up to me again...

Luna appeared in front of me: "Well, pleb scum. Now we can finish what we started, with no more annoying interruptions..." She smirked, with sharpened eyes.

I took my hand to my side, where I had my Glock 9 mm, but I've swear not to use a firearm in Equestria again, unless strictly necessary, so I cast my Dispel Sword instead. "You're going down this time, bitch..." And telling her that, I cast a Life-Force Powered spell on my Dispel Sword, turning it into an offensive weapon.

"Good." She replied. "I was wondering when you were going to get serious..." She smirked.

Then, she cast her giant Flaming Sword, and it clashed against my Life-Force Dispel Sword, and with every clash, her sword started to turn smaller and smaller, as I was absorbing her strenght with every hit. Her smirk soon dissapeared from her face, turning into a surprised look first, and later into a tired one.

Soon, her sweating body couldn't stand no more, and her sword dissapeared, along with her will to fight. Then, I dispelled my Sword, walked to her, and casting a Magic Dispel Glove, grabbed her horn and disabled her, rougly pulling her against a nearby tree.

There we stood, both panting due the effort and looking each other with wariness. Then, I turned my head, to look all my friends, and my beloved marefriend, all spreaded around, unconscious.

"It seems that you have more ponies that you can carry. Isn't?" Luna evily chuckled.

That's it. I looked to her again and took the pistol and pointed her: "You know? Screw Celestia's orders. I'm gonna kill you, bitch."

Surprisingly for me, her expression wasn't of fear, not even of anger, but of relief. She smiled and half-lidded the eyes as I put the cannon of the gun in her muzzle, as shooting her looks like a more humane way to do it, than simply beating her to death. Then, she completely closed the eyes, and a tear slid on her cheek...

My hand trembled. The finger on the trigger twitched. Damned I'll be with my damned feelings! So, I took out the pistol from her muzzle: "Damn it, Luna! It doesn't have to end like this, girl. Why did you keep trying to get killed, bitch?!"

"I'm so tired..." She answered, with tired voice. "Tired of an eternity without friendship, without happiness... without love... I just want this to end... I can't take it anymore..." Then, she opened her big sad and tearful eyes. "Kill me, please. I beg you. You're the only one who can. Please, kill me alreadyyyyyy!!" She cried.

I rolled the eyes: "Luna, your sister loves you..."

"She didn't!" Luna interrupted me, with sobbing voice. "She hates me too! She only wants me to accompany her in her endless reign! Everypony hates me! All of them!"

Well, time for the bold move: "I don't hate you, Luna!" I exclaimed.

"W... what?" She blinked several times, perplexed.

"Yes, exactly as you heard! I mean, I hate you hurting my friends, but I don't hate YOU!" I pointed her with my finger.

"But... but how's that possible...?" She couldn't believe it. "I've tried to kill you, I've tried to kill your friends several times! That's not possible! You have to hate me too!"

"Well, believe it or not, I don't hate you, because..." I did a pause to give more strenght to my argument. "You've given me the best battles I've ever dreamed of, and thanks to you, I've become stronger and better. And that's something which I'll be forever grateful." I smiled.

Luna's irises and muzzle slowly opened even wider, more that I've tought it possible: "Then... if you don't hate me... what are your feelings about me, exactly...?" Her eyes quivered.

Now it was the time. I only pray that I can find the correct answer: "I feel... gratefulness, Luna. And I respect you, as a formidable opponent, that always pushes myself to my limits. That's what I truly feel about you."

Luna's tearful eyes shrugged, and her muzzle scrambled: "Nopony... has never said something... so beautiful to me... never ever..." Her sobbing voice trembled. "Please, forgive me..." She pleaded.

I raised a brow and shrugged an eye: "Forgive you? Who do you think that I am, your sister?"

"Please..." She pleaded again.

"And what do you will do for me to forgive you?"

"Anything! Anything you ask! Want me to be your slave?! I'll be your slave!" She offered, swallowing her pride, and about to cry.

"No, no, no!" I chucled. "I don't want a slave... I want you... to become my sparring dummy."

"Sparring dummy? What's that?" She looked to me, perplexed.

"It's just somepony who I'll be asking to have a friendly combat from time to time, to keep my skills polished."

"Ow! Yes! Sure! Sure! I can be that! I can be that!" She happily assured. "Then, do you forgive me...?" Her last words was almost unhearable.

"Yes. I do."

"Thank you thank you thank you!" She thanked me with so much passion and happiness as I've never expected on her. Then, taking strenght from where wasn't any, she pushed against me and hugged me tight, tight, tight.

I released her horn, sure about her feelings, and hugged her as well: She wasn't gonna try to kill me. Ever again.

Then, I looked to the sides, because her heart and mine started to beat as one. And I know where that could lead: "Humm... Looney-Mooney, could you... let it go? That's enough, girl."

"No."

"Luna, I'm telling you that's enough!"

"No!" She hugged me even tighter.

Then, my worst fears come true, as a familiar voice sounded behind me: "Love... are you al...? But what's the meaning of this?!!"

I rolled my eyes: "Jesus Christ..."

Storm Chaser's eyes slowly opened, as he slowly came back to his senses, being Rainbow Dash's face the first thing that he sees: "Welcome back, handsome." She greeted him.

Storm Chaser shrugged the eyes: "I think I've told you to not to flirt with me anymore."

"Yeah. As if you had any choice, stud." She joyfully mocked.

Suddenly, a purple bright and the sound of a battle could be heard at his side. The stallion startled and tried to stand up, but Rainbow Dash looked very quiet about it: "Hey, young pegasi, they're fighting Luna! Why aren't you helping them?!" He inquired, concerned.

"They aren't fighting Luna." Calmly assured Rainbow Dash, continuing with the healing procedure.

"No?! Then why are they...?!" He looked to his side, and he could see Twilight rolling around the human's head like a boa constrictor trying to asphyxiate its prey, and bucking him with every hoof and every way possible:

"I'm gonna kill you, you filthy ponynapper! I'm gonna kill you!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The human laughed, apparently very fond with his marefriend's killer instincts.

Storm Chaser looked to Rainbow Dash: "And there you are, so calm about it?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders, smiling: "It's kind of funny, once you get used to..."