Spike progressively woke up, slowly opening his eyes, his head was hurting him a bit. He passed his hand behind his head and felt a small lump under his spiky hairs. He finally became aware of his situation and panic started to rise in his little mind. He looked around him and saw that he was sat against the trunk of a tree. As he looked around him, nothing but trees and darkness filled his field of view.

“T-Twilight?” He called in panic, “R-Rainbow?”

Then, a noise came from behind him, making him jump in fear.

“Woah, easy there, buddy.” Rainbow Dash said, kneeling in front of him, “You took a bad hit, just rest here.”

“R-Rainbow!” He said, jumping in the knight’s chest for comfort and safeness, “What happened? Where are we? Is Twilight okay? Do-”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Rainbow said, stroking him in the back, “Keep calm, champ, I’ll explain everything to ya’.” She said, getting up, “Before that, I’ll grab you sister- Yes, she’s safe.” She reassured him.

Rainbow Dash disappeared for a few seconds behind a bush and reappeared with the princess of Equuis. “Spike!” Twilight exclaimed in relief, taking her little brother in a warm hug.

“Twilight!” Spike cried, glad that his older sister was okay. “W-What happened, I remember getting out of the castle but-”

“You passed out,” She explained calmly to him, “You took a bad hit when you fell, Rainbow had to carry you out through the tunnels under the city…”

“Glad that none of those assholes was aware of that passage,” Rainbow said, taking a sit next to them, “I don’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if they knew.”

The three of them fell silent, Rainbow gritted her teeth in irritation, and punched the tree next to her. “If only I was stronger!” She said.

“Rainbow…” Twilight started, “It’s not your fault…”

“One hit! I went down with only one hit! And I thought I was strong…” She said, not daring to look the princess in her eyes.

“You are strong.” Twilight said, putting her hand on her friend’s shoulder, “We just weren’t prepared…”

“Is…” Spike started, both of the girls looked at him, “Is mom going to be okay?”

Twilight looked at Rainbow who sighed and took the little boy’s hand in her own, “Spike,” Rainbow Dash said, “Your mother is the strongest magician in all of Equuis, hell, the strongest in the world! I’m sure she’s still alive…”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t really sure about that statement, but for now, she needed to put the little boy at ease.

“I’m with Rainbow, I don’t think Nightmare Moon wanted to kill her and…” Then she looked at the ground, “She said she wanted me, but for what?”

“I don’t know.” Rainbow said starting to get up, “Spike, are you feeling better?”

“Y-yeah, I think so.” The prince replied.

“Okay, we need to move, we can’t stay here.” The knight said while helping the princess and the prince to get up.

“Where are we?” Spike asked.

“In the Everfree Forest,” The princess explains to him, “We’re not far away from Draquuis.”

“Draquuis?” He asked, “Why are we heading there?”

“We can’t stay here, look,” Rainbow said pointing at the sky, showing the full moon. Spike gave her a questioning look and she sighed, “It’s ten in the morning Spike.”

“W-What? How-”

“It’s her.” Twilight said, “It’s her magic. We can’t stay in Equuis…”

“We have to go to the Shadowlands.” Rainbow said, now taking the lead of their little group.

They walked amongst the trees of the magical forest, “The Shadowlands?” The prince asked, “Why?”

The princess, walking next to her brother, walked slowly watching where she was walking, “Spitfire said to Rainbow that someone was able to help us there.”

“Yeah, a certain Sunset Shimmer gal’.” Rainbow said, “Ever heard of her?”

“Her name isn’t unfamiliar but… I have no idea who she is.” Twilight admitted.

Spike didn’t understand as he shrugged his shoulders, “So, if we don’t know her, why are we even bothering to seek for her help?”

“Because Spitfire said so,” Rainbow said, closing her eyes, putting her hand on the handle of the katana around her waist, “And it’s our only lead.”

She then turned around and looked at them, “As of now, you’re not a prince anymore, same for you princess. Even if Draquuis is supposed to be our ally, I don’t want to take any risks.” She crossed her arms against her chest, “From now on, you’re Twilight, not Twilight Sparkle, just Twilight.”

“But,” Twilight started, “I don’t think Spike will be bothered about that but, people knows what I look like. We won’t be able to hide for long…”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Rainbow said, walking toward the princess, she then took her hair and, with the help of her new weapon, cut them straight above her shoulders.

“W-What are you doing?” Spike asked.

Then, the knight took off her cloak and gave it to the princess, “Put that, with the hood on.”

The princess did as she was told and Rainbow looked at her and then nodded, “It should do it for now.”

They resumed their walk amongst the sea of trees, Spike hoping they won’t cross any strange creatures. “D-Do you know where we going?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not the first time I pass through this forest, if we don’t make too much noise, we won’t be bothered until we cross the border of Draquuis. I know where there’s a passage we can use, Draquuis guards aren’t really watching this place.” She explained as she made her way through the bushes.

“And, when we finally arrive in Draquuis, what are-” Spike started.

“Spike,” Rainbow said, cutting him in the middle of his sentence, “Listen, to be honest with you, I have no idea what’ll happen next. But I only need you to trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you or your sister, okay?”

“O-okay.” He said, a bit reassured now.

They walked silently for the next hours, making their way around the trees and bushes, sometimes making detour to avoid places where they heard disturbing noises. After four hours of walk, Rainbow finally called a break, the princess and the prince didn’t have Rainbow’s stamina and they weren’t used to walk for this long.

“I’m hungry…” Spike said, putting a hand on his belly from where strange noises came from.

“I know Spike, I know…” Twilight said, taking him in her arms, “I promise you we’ll eat something when we get out of this forest.” She then turned to face Rainbow who was using the water of a river next to them to refresh her face a bit. “H-How long until we arrive in Draquuis?”

“Hmm, I don’t know, half an hour? Maybe an entire hour if we have to make another detour.” She explained.

“You hear that Spike, we-” She was cut by the hellish noise coming from her own stomach, “M-Maybe I’m a little hungry too.”

Rainbow sighed as she gets up and walked towards them, “Okay, I get it. You two stay here. I’ll look for something to eat.”

“Thanks Rainbow.” Twilight said to her knight, as she was walking away.

“You STAY here!” She repeated before disappearing amongst the trees.

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Spike asked.

Twilight chuckled, “Spike, that’s Rainbow Dash we’re talking about, I pity the poor beast who’ll dare to attack her.”

Both of them waited the return of the knight, sat on the trunk of a tree, the only source of light was the light of the moon piercing through the leaves of the trees of the forest.

“Are…” Spike started, getting the attention of his sister who turned her look to face him, “Are we going to be okay, Twilight?” He asked, in a sob.

“Of course we…” She stopped herself. She looked at her feet and sighed, “To be totally transparent with you Spike, I don’t know …”

The boy bit his lower lip, pulling out of the dirt the grass blades next to him, “I want to go home.” He stated.

Twilight took the boy head and let him lay on her thighs, “I know Spike, but we should focus on the positive.”

“The positive?” The prince asked, “What’s positive here?”

Twilight hummed, scratching her chin, “I don’t know… Oh yeah, look, maybe we can’t go home now but at least, you don’t have to clean up your room anymore.”

The boy straightened himself and looked curiously at her sister, and before they realized it, they both started to chuckle and that chuckle transformed quickly into a laughter.

“See?” Twilight said, “It feels good to laugh a bit.”

“Yeah.” Spike approved, getting back on the comfortable position on his sister’s legs, looking up, Twilight could clearly see his eyes still red from all the crying.

“Do you remember last summer,” The princess started, “When Rainbow Dash couldn’t come for your birthday because she was in training camp,” A smirk appeared on her face, “You were so pissed that you ran off and lost yourself in the woods behind the castle.”

“I remember.” Spike said, rolling his eyes.

“We all started to look for you, and after hours of searching you, Spitfire finally found you, crying behind a tree. Do you remember what she told you?”

“She said…” Spike started, searching in his thoughts the exact thing Spitfire told him, “Oh yeah, she told me that it was okay to be scared in an unknown location, but she also told me that I should use this as a strength to survive, she said that crying was for…” He then stopped and chuckled when he remembered what was her exacts words, “Crying was for wimps.”

Twilight laughed, stroking the boy’s hair, “Not the word that I would’ve choose, but she’s right, don’t cry Spike, because you’re the man here and soon, it’ll be you who’ll protect me and Rainbow.”

He raised his head up, looking at his sister, “Y-You really think so?

“I’m sure.” Twilight said, smiling at her brother.

The moment would be heartwarming only if a strange noise didn’t come from the bushes in front of them. They both jumped to their feet, looking at the bush. “Humm, what was that?” Spike asked.

Twilight gulped, “O-Okay, don’t be scared, it’s p-probably nothing…” She tried to reassure him.

Then coming out of the bushes was a huge and frightening beast, all covered in brown fur, sharp fangs and long claws about the same size as a dagger, a long brown mane making its way from his head to his long tail.

“I-Is nothing a Lion-bear?” The boy asked in fear.

The princess grabbed her little brother by his hand, “Spike run!” She ordered him.

They started running as the Lion-bear released a menacing growl. It started to chase after them, slowed down by all the trees around it, but it easily started to get closer to them. Twilight turned abruptly to her left, her hand holding on firmly on her brother’s, her heart beating at an unacceptable rate.

“Crap!” Spike said.

Twilight saw a tree with a hole on the trunk, not enough to hide her but… “Quick Spike! Get in there!”

The boy listened to his sister as he hides himself, “What about you?” He asked, concerned.

“Don’t worry about me! I’ll come back for you!” And just like that she disappeared through the darkness of the forest.

Spike heard heavy steps not for away from him coming from behind. He puts his hand on his mouth, wanting to make less sound possible. The steps stopped and Spike waited a few seconds before sighing in relief. Just then, the beast appeared just in front of him, growling at him, Spike now realizing that a tooth of this monster was around the same size as the boy’s head.

The frightened prince screamed in fear when the beast tried to grab him with one of his claws, the monstrous beast managed to scratched the poor boy on his arm but something hit him in the back. The beast didn’t appreciate that as he turned slowly facing the princess who just hit it with a long heavy stick she grabbed on the ground.

Seeing that it didn’t do anything to the monster, Twilight yelped as she slowly walked backwards, “M-Maybe we can just… Talk this out?” She tried.

The beast howled at her and dashed forward in her direction. Twilight held her arms up, waiting for the beast to land on her an eat her alive, but she felt someone pushing her on the side of the beast’s trajectory, “Twilight move!”

Rainbow Dash, coming from nowhere just saved the princess from an imminent death. The Lion-bear growled at her, not appreciating having his bread out of the mouth.

The knight stood in front of it, holding firmly on her katana. “Come at me.”

The beast launched itself forward, trying to hit the girl with his left paw full of claws, but Rainbow Dash’s flexibility enabled her to dodged it and slice the monster’s arm. A wound opened in the beast’s arm as it lets out a scream in fury. Although the injury was not very serious, it should dissuade it from making the same mistake.

In a fighting stance, Rainbow Dash drew circle in the air with the point of her sword, patiently waiting for the beast to make a move.

Twilight ran to her brother’s side, the poor boy was crying and bleeding from his arm. The princess ripped off a piece of her clock and made him makeshift bandage.

The beast and Rainbow Dash were in the middle of a stare-off, waiting to see who’ll make the first move. It was Rainbow Dash who tried to hit it on his side, but the Lion-bear saw it coming and dodged it before running toward her and gave her a head-butt in her stomach. Rainbow Dash landed a few feet behind, managing to get up quickly. She rubbed her stomach and gritted her teeth from the pain. She spat blood out from her mouth and frowned, “Not bad.” She stated.

The monster wasn’t in a hurry go back on the attack. This time, it gets closer to the knight slowly, long and filthy dribble of saliva escaped from his gaping mouth, closing it in a snap making a noise close to a slamming door. Rainbow waited for it, not leaving it from her sight, describing a half circle with her feet carefully moving forward.

It wasn’t her first rodeo with a beast like this one. When you were a knight in the royal guard, you have to be prepared against any mortal enemies, so Rainbow trained many years in the edges of the Everfree Forest, fighting against all kind of beasts living here, and she always won.

Sometimes slowing down, sometimes speeding up her movements, Rainbow deconcentrated the Lion-bear. The beast leaped forward, the knight turned gracefully on herself, dodging it as the blood lusted beast lacerated the air with its claws.

The beast wasn’t over and ran toward her, she waited and when it was very close to her. Rainbow stopped abruptly, closed her eyes, and froze, the sword in the air. When the beast was on his two back feet getting ready to strike her, she released a war cry and, being faithful to her name, dashed towards it, she slipped between the beast’s legs and held her katana up high, cutting through the beast crotch and belly.

The beast didn’t fully understood what just happened and felled on the ground, guts and organs pulling out of it in a pool of blood. Rainbow, releasing a sigh of relief, fell on one knee and grabbed her stomach with her free arm, having trouble to breathe, thankfully, the chainmail she wore under her shirt took most of the blow. She didn’t waste any more time and managed to get up to head toward the prince, putting her blade back in its scabbard around her waist, “Spike! Are you okay?”

The poor little boy had already passed out, from fear and exhaustion. “He’s fine,” Twilight said, passing her hand on the boy’s forehead, “The wound isn’t that bad, I managed to stop the bleeding.”

The princess then turned toward her knight and yelped in horror seeing Rainbow’s face covered in blood, “Oh my god Rain-”

“Don’t worry princess,” The knight said, taking a sit next to her, “It’s not my blood.” She finished, pointing toward the beast’s direction.

“You… You saved us…”

“Again.” The knight added.

The princess rolled her eyes and allowed herself a chuckle, “At least, now we’ve got something to eat.”

Their rest didn’t last when Rainbow Dash jumped to her feet, hearing footsteps surrounding them.

“What now?” She growled in frustration, protecting the princess and the prince.

Then, at least about twenty people appeared from the bushes, all of them pointing towards Rainbow’s direction with their swords or their bows.

“Tell ya’ Ah heard something.” The biggest man of them said with a deep voice.

He was tall, ginger hair and was carrying a huge two-handed sword. Rainbow realized who or what they were and cursed herself, “Bandits, just what we needed.”

Now that they were closer, Twilight could take a better look at them and saw that most of them weren’t in the greatest shape. Some of them were badly hurt, and their equipment was poor quality. The biggest of them, the ginger one, took notice of the dead body of the Lion-bear next to them and stared it in shock. “How-” He turned around and looked at the rainbow haired knight who had already her hand on the handle of her blade, “Did ya’ kill it?”

“I did,” She replied, scowling him, “Look at it closer, now, imagine what I can do to you.”

He didn’t answer her remark as if he didn’t hear it, frowning and glaring at her with his big green eyes, “Who are ya’, and what are ya’ doin’ in our forest?”

Twilight, outraged, took a step forward, “Your forest?” She asked, “Excuse me sir but, this isn’t your forest, we’re in Equuis here and-”

“Sorry to disappoint ya’ missy but,” The man stopped her, “The three of ya’ aren’t in Equuis anymore.”

“Yeah!” Said a high pitched voice coming from behind the man, then, coming from behind him, a little girl around the same age as Spike came next to him. She had long red hair and the sword she was holding on was in wood but she held it like it was a devastating weapon. “Ya’ are in the border between Equuis and Draquuis and it’s our territory!” She stated.

Rainbow Dash chuckled at the sight of the little girl, “And what are you, a dwarf?”

The little girl growled and stepped forward, “You-”

“Applebloom!” The big man reprimanded her, she stopped and let out a ‘humpf‘. He then took notice of Spike’s state and asked a bit of concern in his voice, “What’s up with him?”

Twilight hold her brother closer to her, “He was attacked by this beast.” She said, showing him Spike’s arm.

The man walked closer to them but Rainbow Dash prevented him, taking out her sword from its sheath, “You’re a little overconfident.” She said, frowning.

“I just want to take a look.” He then dropped his weapon on the ground and made a nod of his head to his fellow companions making them all lowered their weapons.

Rainbow looked at Twilight for an approval and the princess sighed before nodding to her.

“Fine.” Rainbow said, “But I got an eye on you.”

He nodded and resumed his walk. He finally arrived next to the boy and kneeled at his side, taking a closer look at his wound, “Oh, not looking good,” He said, “He must be treated soon before the wound gets infected.” He explained.

“Oh no.” Twilight lamented.

“We should get him to the boss.” The little girl who had come closer said, “She’ll know what to do.”

Rainbow Dash leaned closer to Twilight and whispered, “I don’t trust them.”

“Me neither,” Twilight replied with a sigh, “But what choice do we have?”

The beautiful city Canterlot used to be was now in a poor condition, most of the habitations were destroyed and burned down to ashes, a bunch of corpses were filling the empty and dark streets, the few of the citizens who survived the assault were now hiding in their homes, too afraid to step outside. The scary Moonis soldiers who were patrolling in the streets were ruthless, not hesitating to kill any person who just glanced at them.

The night had taken possession of the sky, and all the magic of love and friendship that used to filled the air was now long gone, replaced by a dark and dirty magic that made your skin crawl.

Canterlot’s Castle, usually bright white was now covered in a black substance dripping on the walls in a certain rhythm, making the persons looking at it think that the castle was breathing, almost alive. Equuis guards were now, for those who survived the assault, all locked up in the castle’s dungeon, at the mercy of their tormentors. Those who weren’t breathing anymore, were tossed without mercy in the mass grave not far away from the castle.

Spitfire slowly opened her eyes, her head hurting like hell. She felt something cold on her back and realized she was laying against a cold floor. When her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she noticed she was locked up in a cell of Canterlot’s dungeon, and adding insult to injury, she was handcuffed to the wall with a long iron chain. She managed to get up to her feet, stumbling, still dizzy from the blow she took on her head the day before.

She concentrated and tried to summon her magic, but quickly gave up when she realized she was trapped with anti-magic handcuff. “Fuck.”

She turned her head toward the cell’s bars when she heard footsteps in the dark hallways of the castle’s dungeon, seeing a light coming from a torch heading toward her direction.

She frowned when she saw Esdeath, accompanied with two guards, stopping in front of her cell.

Spitfire chuckled when she saw Esdeath giving her a bright smile, “What?” The now imprisoned captain asked her, “Missing me already?”

Esdeath quietly made a sign to one of the guard next to her who opened the cell. The current Moonis army chief slowly made her way and stood silently in front of Spitfire, confronting the glare the imprisoned woman gave her. Then, still wearing an innocent smile, she violently punched her in her stomach, making Spitfire fell on her knees and spat blood on the ground. The hit was quickly followed by a kick to the head, making Spitfire completely fell on the ground.

Esdeath, pushed her boot’s heel on Spitfire stomach, making her growl in pain. When Esdeath was finally getting bored of it, she squats next to Spitfire, raising up her head by pulling her hair.

“Woaw, you’re uglier than I thought you were, now that I can see you clear-” Spitfire was stopped by a head-butt of Esdeath, breaking her nose, blood started to drool on her face. But Spitfire ignored the pain and smirked at her, “Aren’t you supposed to ask question before hitting me?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong.” Esdeath said, taking Spitfire’s head between her hands. “I’m not here to ask you anything. That’s Lancelot’s job. Me?” She said, shrugging, “I’m just here to have some fun.”

She then grabbed Spitfire’s hair and made her violently hit the ground.

Spitfire yelled in pain, but glared furiously at Esdeath, who’s smile grew wider and sinister, “Oh yes, give me that look! It drives me wild!” She held out her fist and hit Spitfire in face, one, two, three times. “And don’t worry, I don’t want to kill you,” She explained, “I’m just here to break you.”

She then gets up and started to kick in the stomach of a helpless Spitfire, laughing while she was repeatedly doing it. She then pushed her heel against Spitfire’s face, making her bleed from her cheek. Esdeath kneeled next to her and licked the blood on Spitfire’s face, with a sound of ecstasy and pure delight. “I don’t know about you, but I think we’re going to be the best friends ever!” She said in Spitfire’s ear, her hand wandering around the captain’s chest, Spitfire gritting her teeth while she was suffering. “The best of friends.” The blue haired woman added, with a chuckle like one of a little girl who just fall in love.

Author's Note

It seems Celestia has to die in every stories of mine.. meh

For a more detailed map of Ponytaria, just click here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/936718/queenslayer-map-and-cities