Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Glitterball huddled beside the three nervous fillies, using her horn to provide them some comforting light as they all listened to the sounds of fighting around the corner.

Each wayward shout, magical discharge, or faint explosion would make Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle wince and tense up. Scootaloo tried to keep a brave face, but even she shrank down and joined the clustered ball her friends were forming at the older mare’s hooves.

Glitter flashed the trio a smile as she looked their way before trailing her eyes toward the intersection. She knew Cadence and Shining Armor to be capable enough in their own right, and she also knew Raincloud to be a formidable foe, but she still couldn’t help but worry.

These worried thoughts then shifted to her friends. She inched a hoof off the ground, briefly contemplating trying to reach Glimmer Shine or one of the others. She softened her eyes and wrinkled her mouth slightly before setting her hoof back down. They were probably focused on their own problems, and they didn’t need her distracting them just to make her feel better.

Everyone… please be alright.
.
..
…
A wooden crash rang out as Raincloud sent one of the pale ponies sailing into a table off to the side with enough force to reduce it to splinters.

The trio hadn’t managed to land another fatal hit on any of the vampires since their fight began. The pale ponies weren’t keen on giving up easily.

Shining Armor jumped back to avoid a pounce from a pegasus mare. He stabbed the dagger floating in his magical aura toward her, but she evaded it. He started to redirect his blade for another strike, when another pegasus leaped onto him from the side, nearly sending him to the floor.

“Gah!” Shining dropped his blade from the sudden loss of focus. He tried to shake the stallion off of him, but the pale pony had a good grip around his side. Much to his horror, the mare in front of him capitalized on her companion’s distraction and leaped forward, fangs bared and ready to rip into the unicorn’s throat.

Then, out of nowhere, a second silver blade held aloft by a blue corona jabbed into the mare’s side mid pounce. She scarcely let out the beginnings of a yell before her body erupted into flaming ash.

Before Shining even opened his eyes from the cloud of hot debris hitting his face, the weight of the other pony on top of him suddenly got lighter.

The pale stallion flailed and yelped in surprise as he was lifted up and quickly tossed across the room. Shining looked over to watch the pony nearly land on one of the other vampires before turning and meeting Cadence’s gaze. The couple shared a quick smile and nod of acknowledgment before a sudden growl made both of them freeze.

Cadence turned to see the green-furred unicorn mare’s burning red eyes boring into her. She gasped softly, starting to seize up and relight her horn to try and retaliate, but the mare acted first in the form of a quick and deceptively powerful punch to the chest.

The blow sent the alicorn off of her hooves and flying to the floor behind her. She hit the wall near the door to the room roughly, her entire chest and back throbbing from the pain of the respective impacts.

“Cadence!” Shining widened his eyes as he saw his wife being brutally knocked to the floor. He then narrowed his gaze, turning toward the pale unicorn with a fierce intensity that would have caught most ponies off guard and made them shiver where they stood. However, the green mare seemed unfazed even as the captain of the royal guard lit his horn.

“I’m going to enjoy making her watch while I eat you.” The mare said with a sadistic smile as she lowered herself and lit her horn as well.

While the two lovers prepared to duke it out with the green mare, Raincloud was still dealing with the riff-raff a few feet away.

She dodged out of the way of a careless pounce by an earth stallion, only to rear up and kick him away with her hind legs moments later. While he was tumbling into the shattered remains of a few chairs, Raincloud turned to find three more pale faces waiting for her.

One of the ponies, a pegasus mare that Cadence had tossed, rushed down the other side of the room, seemingly ignoring Raincloud to get back into the fight with Shining and Cadence. However, the remaining two ponies were definitely focused on the gray mare.

A unicorn stallion that Raincloud knew to be the one who stabbed her and left her for dead stared her down with an earth mare by his side. The both of them were wary of her and the powers she had displayed, but they looked ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness.

Raincloud smirked at the unicorn. “What’s the matter? Scared?”

“Not on your life, missy.” The stallion growled.

“Well, come on, then! Quit screwing around. You think you can do a better job of killing me this time?” Raincloud taunted.

The stallion tensed his jaw and narrowed his eyes at the cocky pegasus. However, before he could think to attack, the mare beside him beat him to the punch as she charged forward with an angry cry.

Raincloud dodged the first wildly thrown hoof heading for her jaw. She ducked under the next. As she was crouched down, she channeled her shadow magic to one hoof, enveloping the tip in a pulsating aura of darkness, and punched up into the mare’s gut.

The enhanced blow immediately knocked the wind out of the pale mare’s sails, leaving her to make a sucking croak. She was sent flying straight up into the ceiling above, striking it and bouncing off with another bone-rattling impact. By the time her head fell down enough for her to see the pegasus below her, her eyes widened at the sight of a column of surging purple flame rushing up to meet her.

The unicorn stallion growled uneasily as he heard his companion scream out in pain. The spout of dark energy completely obscured her from view, and as Raincloud let it vanish a few moments later, nothing but a few fleeting embers were left behind.

Raincloud looked down as the purple glow around her hoof shrank back to its tip. She was a bit surprised to see the stallion charging straight for her in a bold display. He quickly swatted away her still glowing hoof before turning toward her with horn aglow.

Before he could shoot off a spell, he suddenly felt a slight tingle envelop his body as a darkly purple-tinged aura faintly appeared before his vision. He found himself being shoved to the wall beside him violently.

The stallion couldn’t move, despite his best efforts. He tried to turn his head to face the mare, only to be abruptly whirled around directly toward her. Raincloud still had a single hoof aglow with shadowy energy, and she seemed to move it whenever she wanted to move him.

“Pay attention, bat breath. Let me show you how it’s done.” Raincloud stated. Without even looking, she held her glowing hoof behind her head.

One of the silver daggers still lying on the floor from where Shining or Cadence dropped it started vibrating as it was covered in a faint aura of similar color. In an instant, it shot off the floor and zipped across the room.

Raincloud pointed her hoof ahead before casually moving out of the way. The stallion flinched as his wide eyes settled on the pointed blade sailing straight toward him at high speeds.

The dagger buried itself into his chest, causing him to jerk against the pegasus’ magical hold and yell as his form burned up in a circle spreading out from the wound. Once the pony’s skeletal form fully collapsed into ash, the dagger was left sticking out of the wall, buried a good inch or two inside.

Hearing three distinct thumps behind her, Raincloud turned to see the green-furred mare and her two remaining companions falling flat on their backs after being knocked away. She also saw Cadence and Shining Armor walking forward, with horns glowing bright and their last silver dagger pointed ahead threateningly.

The green-furred mare panted softly as she pushed herself up on one foreleg. Seeing a gray hoof being planted in front of her, she winced hesitantly and looked up, only to find Raincloud standing there with a pleased smirk.

“Aww, son of a- gack!”

Raincloud planted her hoof down on the unicorn’s neck, stifling her words. “Watch your language… There are kids outside.”

“Oh, now you care about being kid-friendly?” Cadence snorted softly, a wry smile forming as the pegasus gave her a half-lidded stare.

The green-furred mare clutched at the hoof crushing her neck. She looked over, only to see her two companions wearing fearful expressions as they watched the trio and waited for whatever was about to come. The cowards. She would stab them herself if she could move.

“Guh… I… I-I hope you choke on your own blood when the Prince gets done with you.” She croaked out, gathering some saliva in her mouth and spitting up at the pegasus.

Raincloud flinched briefly before slowly bringing one of her wingtips up and wiping her face. She stared at the spit dripping off before stifling a growl and cracking her neck. “I’m really going to enjoy this.”

Just then, the green mare’s eyes widened abruptly as her body jerked. She let out a sharp yelp, which sounded strangled from the pressure Raincloud was still applying to her windpipe. Suddenly, she coughed violently, sending a spray of blood out and onto the floor.

“What the…?” Raincloud backed up, leaving the unicorn mare to clutch her throat and spasm on the ground.

Shining Armor cringed with disgust at the gruesome display as more blood started spewing from the pale mare’s mouth. “Holy hay, Raincloud. What are you doing to her?”

“I’m not doing anything!” Raincloud insisted.

Then, the other two vampiric ponies coughed and sputtered, reaching for their own throats and collapsing to the floor in writhing, convulsing messes. Soon after, they started spitting up blood as well. Or rather, it seemed to flow from them without any input from their bodies.

“What’s happening to them?” Shining asked, backing up a few steps and watching hesitantly for any sign of foul play.

Cadence watched uneasily as the blood being expelled from the three ponies pooled on the ground. Much to her initial confusion and horror, she witnessed it seemingly disappearing through the floor, falling down through the cracks and seams of the stonework as if it was being pulled by some unseen force.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” She muttered.

The green-furred unicorn’s convulsions and strangled noises of pain gradually diminished the more crimson fluid left her. Eventually, her eyes drifted halfway shut and her hooves fell away from her neck as her body settled. With one final sputter and a bubbling exhale, she fell still as the stream of blood leaving her mouth tapered to a stop.

Soon after, starting at her hooves and quickly overtaking her, her body quietly collapsed into ash and vanished.

The other two vampires soon followed suit. Their struggles and coughs and gurgles fading along with the strength in their bodies as the fountains of blood ceased flowing. They were left as mere lifeless corpses on the floor, a final image of the pony they once were that swiftly vanished into embers.

Raincloud and her two companions watched the three pools of crimson fluid disappearing before their eyes until nary a stain was left behind. The pegasus blinked once, then twice. “What… just happened?”

“I’m not sure… but I think it has something to do with Dusk,” Cadence said, casting her eyes up to the symbol at the back of the room.

“What… You think Dusk killed his own minions?” Shining asked, furrowing his brows in confusion. “Why?”

The alicorn ignored his question, instead making her way over toward the back of the room. Toward the symbol. “That’s not important right now. We need to hurry up and break this spell so we can get the girls to safety and go help the others.” She insisted.

However, her enthusiasm was stunted slightly as they drew closer to the symbol. It was smaller than the one Shining had seen on the underside of the chessboard, but it looked equally complex with its many intricate patterns, lines, and sigils.

“Uh…” Shining muttered as he took in the scope of the symbol. “Raincloud, can you-”

He didn’t even have to ask before Raincloud nudged past him. “Yeah, yeah, move over. Let the professionals handle this.” She said, already scanning her eyes over the symbol and mapping out what it did.

Cadence started to say something when they heard hoofsteps approaching from behind. She and Shining turned to see Glitterball walking in with a small troop of fillies hugging close to her legs.

“Glitter?” Cadence said.

“We stopped hearing noises over here and got worried,” Glitterball said, taking a cursory glance around the room. “I take it you handled everything alright?”

Shining nodded, brushing some dust off of his uniform and loosening his stiff muscles from the fight. “Yeah… Now we’re just waiting for Raincloud to break that symbol.”

All eyes shifted back to see the pegasus quietly tracing in the air and pointing with her hoof at seemingly random spots of the symbol. She paused as she noticed everyone looking at her expectantly.

“You can break that symbol, can’t you?” Cadence asked.

Raincloud stretched her forelegs and popped her neck. “It doesn’t look too complicated. Give me a minute.”

With that, the others stepped back as the pegasus wreathed her hoof in purple flames. Despite her assurances, they weren’t sure what would happen as she started lowering her hoof toward sections of the symbol and shooting her shadow energy into it. Some of them even flinched away and covered their face, though the three fillies couldn’t help but sneak a nervous peek or two.

Then, a minute or so later, Raincloud exclaimed in revelation. “Aha! Got it!” She announced triumphantly before planting her hoof down in the symbol’s center.

With little warning, a pulse of sound and light surged out from the symbol. The light intensified, and Glitter and Cadence shielded the trio of fillies as it filled the room, overwhelming their senses.

“AH!” Apple Bloom squeaked fearfully as a rumbling came from the floor. Everything was white visually, and she couldn’t even see her own hooves in front of her face. The only thing telling her she wasn't alone was the two shivering masses huddled next to her, and the set of forelegs wrapped around all three of them from Glitterball.

Then, all at once, everything stopped. The rumbling, the noises, even the light.

Scootaloo was the first to open her eyes. It took her a solid moment or two to blink and adjust to the now dark space.

The now dark, and much smaller space. In fact, it wasn't just smaller, it was completely different.

“What the…?” The young pegasus muttered.

Glitterball and the others all gradually opened their eyes as well. The unicorn shivered slightly at a cold breeze coming through the space, seemingly from outside. She turned to see a large hole in a stone wall.

Cadence examined the rest of the room alongside Shining Armor. They appeared to be in a ruined master bedroom judging from the splintered debris in the shape of a bed in the far corner. However, that wasn't all they noticed.

“Where are we?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I thought we were in a dining room or something?”

“The spell must have shunted us to the closest real space once it ended.” Raincloud reasoned. “As for where we ended up… Your guess is probably better than mine, short stuff. You’ve been here before, I haven’t.”

“I know where we are…” Shining said flatly, drawing the others’ attention.

Glitterball turned to see both Shining and Cadence staring ahead at a spot on the floor. And as she saw what they were looking at, it all clicked together for her, causing her expression to plummet.

There were small, blue candles lying around. A few were lying in the middle of the floor, but two were deliberately placed on either side of the large hole in the wall behind them and by a door to their side. All of them were extinguished, and all of them had auto-igniting charms inscribed on paper slips wrapped around their wicks, which were slightly burnt.

Frozen blood was liberally stained on the stone floors in an erratic trail, along with familiar-looking pinholes and slash marks. And sitting in the middle of one of the smaller puddles was the shattered remains of a faintly luminous sword. Its blade was scattered in dozens of fragments, and its hilt barely had any solid piece left attached to it.

As they saw the sword and slowly pieced it together themselves, Scootaloo and her two friends’ eyes dulled and their faces drooped into sullen frowns.

“So this is… this is where…” Glitter’s lips trembled as she struggled to get the words out. She felt her eyes threatening to shimmer, and the icy wind blowing in from outside wasn't helping.

“Yeah…” Shining Armor replied, glancing behind him at the large hole. He didn’t even need to check. He knew that if he walked over there and looked down, he would see the front of the castle, roughly where he and the others were standing when they failed to save their human friend.

Cadence rested a hoof on the white stallion’s back, causing him to look up. “Shining… are you ok?”

He exhaled softly through his nose and wrinkled his mouth at that, avoiding her loving gaze only to find himself staring at the broken hilt of Tom’s sword again. “I had him…” He tapped his horn. “We all had him… he was right there… and we just…. We just…” He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head.

“That wasn't your fault, and you know that.” Cadence insisted.

Shining sighed and nodded a few times as he centered himself again before facing her. “I know… It’s just… hard to think about.” He looked over to the side, where Glitterball and the three fillies were offering him empathetic frowns. Even Raincloud was in somber silence, though she wasn't sad like they were.

“But let’s leave the thinking for later. Right now, we’ve got a job to do.” He said, standing up and taking a quick breath to steady himself before quickly walking over to the opening on the other side of the room.

Cadence glanced down to the sword on the floor, letting her gaze linger on it for a moment before standing up as well. She knew the stallion was right. They couldn’t mourn friends they had lost, not when they had friends that needed them right now.

“Come on, girls. Let’s get you somewhere safe.” Cadence said, lighting her horn and gently lifting the three fillies onto her back as she walked toward the hole in the wall on the other side of the room.

“Wait!” Scootaloo stammered as she looked at the alicorn and the others nervously. “But… but what are you going to do?”

Cadence paused and formed a stiff smile as she looked back to the fillies. “Don’t worry about that, Scootaloo… everything will be fine.”

“Yeah. You’ll be back home, safe and sound in no time.” Glitterball said. She was wearing a genuine enough smile, but she didn’t seem to be able to meet any of their worried gazes directly.

“Glitterball… w-what about you guys?” Sweetie asked with trembling lips. “I… I don’t want this to be the last time I see you. Please… please say you’ll come back… please tell me you, and Princess Cadence, and... a-and Rarity, and everyone else is coming back.”

Glitter bit her lip and turned away from the fillies. Finally, she hid a sniff and stood on her hind legs so she could embrace the trio for a moment. Then, without a word, she stepped back and allowed Cadence to keep walking.

“Glitter…? Glitter?!” Sweetie moved to Cadence’s tail end so she could keep in line with the unicorn. “Answer me!” She pleaded, but the more sorrowful she got, the more the white mare struggled to maintain eye contact.

“Mr. Shining Armor… You’re gonna be ok, aren’t you?” Apple Bloom asked, still holding onto a bit of denial and optimistic hope, but judging from her trembling eyes, this illusion was quickly being shattered. “M’sis told me that you was one of the bravest guards she knew. I… I-I know she don’t know that many guards, but… you’ll keep her safe, won’t you?”

Shining Armor kept quiet, even as the young farmer’s eyes grew more desperate. He wrinkled his mouth. He wanted to say something. He should have said something, but somehow, he couldn’t. He didn’t want to leave them with the harsh reality he was struggling to face himself, but he couldn’t lie any longer for the sake of cushioning whatever blow was to come.

“Will somepony say something?!” Scootaloo pleaded as Cadence neared the opening and rested her forehooves on the small ledge of crumbled wall. “Please… don’t just tell me you’re all expecting to… to d-”

A hoof suddenly fell down over her head and ruffled her purple mane, causing the few tears forming in her eyes to fall as Scootaloo widened them. She looked over, only to see Raincloud of all ponies hovering alongside them.

“Enough with the waterworks, kid. You’re giving me a headache.” Raincloud said, surprisingly more lighthearted in her soft tone than anyone expected. “I’ll keep an eye out for your sisters… and I guess the rest of them too.” She glanced to Glitterball, Shining, and Cadence and sighed before shaking her head and forming a half-smirk as she looked between the fillies. “Hey… It was kinda cool getting to know you runts. Don’t grow up to be a jerk like me… but also don’t be afraid to show the world who’s boss, ‘kay?”

The fillies were speechless at that. They looked around at the others with a sense of sorrow in their eyes. Nobody wanted to say it, but the trio could see it on their faces. The thing being left unsaid, the word that none of them seemed capable of uttering, was goodbye.

Cadence shared an affirming nod with Shining and Glitter before turning her attention to the opening before her. A path to freedom, but not for her. Not yet anyway.

“Hold on, girls.” She cautioned as she spread her wings and swooped down. Scootaloo and the others nearly fell off as they let their worried stares linger on the three ponies behind them before they were forced to cling to the alicorn’s back.

The trio shivered as their bodies were met with the full force of a wintery gust of snow. They were outside again for the first time in what seemed like forever. This journey was chillingly familiar to them, but instead of flying all the way down the cliff to some awaiting carriages, the alicorn ferried them over a much shorter distance.

Cadence landed and padded over to the first carriage she met, her hooves clopping on the frozen stone forecourt. The team of guards heading the carriage seemed surprised and more than a little stunned to see her.

“Princess Cadence… you’re safe!” One guard remarked with a relieved smile. He started to go off on a series of questions about where the others were when he saw the half-smile she flashed and the trio of fillies shivering on her back and decided against bothering her.

Cadence quickly used her magic to open the carriage door and float the fillies off her back, whisking them inside. She searched through some overhead compartments, thankfully finding some thick blankets and bringing them down.

Scootaloo and her two friends reluctantly sat there as the fuzzy covering was magically wrapped around their forms, creating three pockets for them to poke their heads out of. The young pegasus stood and exited her pocket before climbing over as Cadence closed the door. She jumped up and pulled herself up so she could look out of the window at the alicorn.

“Princess…” Scootaloo started, unsure of what to say as she stared up at the pink mare.

Cadence exhaled softly and brought a hoof up to the side of the window as the other two fillies joined their friend. “I’m sorry, girls… but it’s time for me to go.”

“This isn’t fair!” Sweetie Belle’s lips trembled and fresh tears welled up in her eyes. “Why does everyone have to fight that alicorn…?! Why does he want to hurt you guys?! It’s… it’s not fair!”

Cadence lit her horn and cleared some tears away from the fillies’ eyes. “The world isn’t always fair, my little ponies… but that doesn’t mean you can’t have hope.” She smiled warmly at them, though there was a certain sadness in her eyes as well. “Love and hope… always. Remember that.”

Then, despite the tiny hoof reaching out to her, the alicorn stepped away. She struggled to keep from looking back at them before turning ahead to the team of guards. The pegasus stallions all straightened their posture as she approached.

“Take them back to Ponyville… Leave them with the Apple family over at Sweet Apple Acres.” She instructed.

The stallions seemed surprised and slightly confused by the alicorn’s orders.

“But… Princess, that wouldn’t leave enough carriages for you and the others.” One of them reasoned, a bit of a concerned frown starting to form.

“You can stop in the nearest town and send for another team to bring one here.” Cadence explained with a resolute expression that most weren’t used to seeing from the princess of love. “Listen to me very carefully… Once you drop them off, I want you to send word back to Canterlot. Have these orders distributed to every guard in Equestria.” She paused, her mouth forming a grim line. “If we do not return from this place, have every able-bodied pony in every town informed and armed to protect themselves against this threat as best they can. One of Celestia’s advisors should know more.”

There was a pregnant pause as the guards all processed what they were being told. The alicorn was essentially leaving them with doomsday orders in case she and the other princesses didn’t survive.

The first stallion took an even breath before nodding and saluting, leading the others to follow his example. “Yes, Princess Cadence. We wish you the best.”

And with that, they started pulling away and taking flight.

As the carriage started to pass by, Cadence saw the three fillies looking at her with newfound worry and alarm as they realized they were being taken away.

“Princess!” All three of them called after her, but their voices barely reached her as the team of pegasi took to the air and climbed before curving away. She could just barely see their silhouettes poking out of the window before they vanished into the clouds.

Cadence stared up into the dreary gray expanse for a few moments before a distinctly singular set of clops drew her attention behind her just in time to watch Raincloud setting Glitterball down on solid ground. Shining Armor soon blinked down beside them in a flash of magenta magical energy before the three of them looked around.

“Man… fresh air. I’ve missed this.” Raincloud said before another breeze made her fold her forelegs, hug herself with her wings, and shiver. “Ok, I’m over it. Can we go back inside now?”

“Well… are we all ready to go fight a big scary vampire alicorn?” Shining Armor asked with a semi-lighthearted tone.

“I think we crossed that threshold a while ago.” Glitter said, getting in one last look at the admittedly beautiful sight of the frozen forest far below before she resigned herself to a horrible death in a frigid castle.

Cadence smiled as she walked up to her friends, settling her gaze on her husband and resting a hoof on his shoulder. “To the ends of the earth, my love.”

“Sounds about right,” Shining noted as he looked around before looking back at her and giving her a confident nod.

Then, they all started walking up to the front doors. They stopped before the great wooden gateway as Cadence lit her horn and pulled both open with relative ease, revealing the same layout they had seen when they first found the castle, with no unnaturally long corridors or twisting rooms in sight.

“Hey, Sprinkles…” Raincloud said, turning to Glitterball. “If I die in there, can you please burn this stupid collar for me?” She gave the annoying device a slight tug. Even if it wasn't currently suppressing her magic, it was still uncomfortable to wear.

Glitterball chuckled slightly and smiled. “Only if you promise to stop calling me that.” She said, following the royal couple as they started to enter.

“Fine, fine…” Raincloud sighed, only to narrow a brow pensively as she stared at the unicorn’s mane.

“Confetti head is out too…” Glitter added with a half-lidded stare and a wry smirk.

“Aww, come on! Give me something to work with!”

“My name seems like a good place to start.”

Meanwhile, amidst the pegasus’ annoyed grumbles and Shining Armor’s slight chuckle, Cadence looked over to see his expression drop into a serious, flat stare. Her expression flattened as well, and she stared down the dark corridor ahead with troubled thoughts drifting through her head, even despite her determination.

Twilight… everyone… hold on. We’re coming.