Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Sparkplug groaned anxiously as she stared out of the doorway into the hall. She hadn’t heard any signs of battle or her friends in a while, and while the small empty room around her was relatively safe and out of the way, it did little to ease her fears with how silent it was.

What also didn’t ease her fears, was her wounded companion lying on the floor nearby.

Sunspot’s wound wasn't bleeding externally anymore, as evidenced by the bandage around her suit still holding some semblance of white coloring, but there was no telling how much blood she had lost on the inside.

Then, Sparkplug narrowed her eyes and pricked her ears as she noticed her companion’s soft breathing slowing down. The pegasus had been making pained moans and murmurs intermittently for a while now, but now it was troublingly quiet.

Looking over, Sparkplug widened her eyes as she saw Sunspot’s eyes closed and her expression going slack.

“Sunspot?” She jolted to her hooves, cringing briefly as she put weight on her bad ankle. She limped over to the pegasus’ side and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Sunspot?!”

With little more response than a slight twitch and a murmur, Sparkplug felt her heart start to race as she shook harder. “Sunspot, wake up!” She lightly slapped the mare’s face, only to receive the same result.

Darting her eyes around and bringing a trembling hoof to her muzzle, Sparkplug whined as she tried to think of some way to help the pegasus. Her friend didn’t seem to be fully unconscious yet, but she was fading fast, and if she fell asleep, it would be all over.

Then, she settled her eyes on the mare’s wound as a thought popped into her head, one that made her cringe sympathetically. With no other option, she flinched one eye closed and set her hoof over Sunspot’s wound before pressing hard.

After a moment, Sunspot’s expression wrinkled and she shot her hooves to her side as an agonized yell escaped her. “AGHH!”

Sparkplug immediately stopped and looked at the pegasus with face full of remorse. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry! You were…” She paused for a moment to take a breath and exhale shakily. “You’ve got to stay awake, Sunspot.”

“Mmph…” Sunspot tensed her limbs and opened her weary eyes to look up at the gray mare. “I’m awake now…” She mumbled. Her voice might have held some form of dry humor to it if it didn’t sound so weak.

“Try to keep alert. We can’t have you passing out…” Sparkplug said, scooting back slightly. “I know! Why don’t we… talk about something? Yeah, that’ll work. If you’re talking, you’re not asleep!” She reasoned.

Sunspot made an effort to lift her head that didn’t quite stick. She settled for propping a foreleg underneath herself. “What… what do you want to talk about?” She asked before turning her head away and coughing. “I mean… o-other than how I’m dying in some… ngh… stupid castle.”

Sparkplug frowned at that. “You’re not going to die here, so… so stop talking like that.”

“I thought… you wanted me to talk?” Sunspot smiled weakly before another cringe made her curl inward slightly.

Seeing her friend in such a state made Sparkplug’s heart ache. The pegasus was normally so brazen and hardy that it was easy to think she was indestructible. After all, she was one of the founding members of Spirit. She had survived countless monsters and perilous odds so many times before.

Now, however, she looked disturbingly mortal.

“Sunspot, I-”

Sparkplug started to say something when a sudden flash of light and a faint rumbling sound interrupted her. Both ponies had their senses of sight and hearing taken amidst an unexplained tremor. They could almost swear that they could feel the ground shifting beneath them.

Then, all at once, everything stopped. Sparkplug blinked hard, and then again as she found her entire visual frame of reference around her changed. The room around them had changed as well. In fact, they weren’t even in a room anymore. They were in a hallway.

“W-what the?!” Sparkplug startled to her hooves and darted her eyes around her. Her fledgling monster hunter instincts kicked in and she reached a hoof midway to her strobe before she stopped herself. The initial alarm faded, but didn’t vanish as she took in her new surroundings.

“Sparkplug… Am I hallucinating?” Sunspot asked, struggling to focus her eyes and clarify her vision enough to be sure that her senses weren’t failing her near death.

“No… I saw it too.” Sparkplug said. The gray mare creased her eyes in confusion as she took a slower look around. While she half expected her surroundings to change again, they didn’t. They did, however, start to look familiar. “Hey, I recognize this place. This is what the castle looked like before.” She noted. If her estimations were correct, they were in one of the hallways near the courtyard.

“Ngh…” Sunspot grunted as she lifted her head slightly. “You think… t-that... P-Princess Cadence broke that... spell?” She panted.

Before Sparkplug could formulate a response, they both heard another myriad of noises, only these sounded like the all too familiar noises of battle.

Faint cries, yells, and crashes could be heard in the near distance. And while it was hard to make out, Sparkplug could distinguish several small pops and pings in rapid succession. She had come to know this as the sound left behind when Dusk’s blood projectiles struck solid objects.

“Oh no…” Sparkplug’s pupils shrank. The previous battle with Dusk hadn’t exactly been pleasant, but now she could hear a lot more screams and yells, coming from many feminine sources.

Racing a hoof to her ear, she focused on her friends and let the communication spell trigger. “Glimmer, what’s going on over there?!” She asked urgently.

No response came.

Sparkplug’s lips trembled as she swallowed briefly. “Glimmer…? H-Hello…?” She quaked, only to get nothing but silence once again. Shifting her focus and her thoughts to another, she tried again. “Princess Luna? Can you hear me?!”

Again, no answer.

“Pinkie Pie…? Twilight?! Can anypony hear me over there?!”

By now, her heart was pounding again, and her breathing became ragged and shallow as she dropped her hoof to the floor. She cringed and looked down to her hind leg, and then at the hallway ahead, taking one last gulp of air before pressing her lips together tightly and starting to move forward.

Sunspot shifted on the ground as she saw the gray mare walking away with as much urgency as she could have with a limp. “Sparkplug…? Wh… w-what are you… doing?” She cringed, trying to force herself to stand up and follow after her friend, only to fall back the inch or so she lifted.

Sparkplug turned to look over her shoulder at the wounded pegasus before facing ahead. “Stay here, Sunspot. I’ll be right back… You stay alive, you hear me?”

“Wait!” Sunspot protested as loudly as she could, but the gray mare seemed determined. It reminded her of how she helplessly watched Peppermint venture off toward danger, just before his death. “Sparkplug!”

Ignoring the pleas of her friend, and the sharp pains from her ankle, Sparkplug pressed forward. She followed the noises left through an intersection, and up ahead, she could see moonlight faintly filtering in from outside. It must have been the courtyard.

Hearing the noises growing louder as she approached, Sparkplug switched off her flashlight and drew her popper from its holster. Her hoof tensed around the tiny vial, but she kept going despite her fear.

As she got closer to the openings out into the courtyard, she could clearly identify many of the voices and yells she had heard before. It was definitely Twilight and the others. Horns discharging, magical zaps, strobe fire, and clanging metal filled the air. There were also sharp whipping sounds interspaced between the pings and crashes.

Then, as she prepared to poke her head through the archway in front of her, Sparkplug flinched back suddenly as a pained yell came from directly nearby, followed sharply by a pink mare sailing through the air, nearly hitting her.

Sparkplug gasped as she turned to watch a bloodied and battered Pinkie Pie smack into the stone wall behind the archway and collapse into a crumpled heap.

“Pinkie!” She immediately rushed to her friend’s side and examined her.

The party pony’s vest was ripped open in several places, most of which were bleeding at least superficially. A particularly long but shallow slash was across her chest, and her right brow was split open slightly. The glass in her vest-mounted flashlight was shattered, and one of her detectors was broken open, with only the empty cap and some of the jagged glass case left attached to the pull cord. Her fur and mane were scuffed and disheveled heavily, and she looked like she had been through a war.

“Ngh…” Pinkie shakily lifted her head, one eye flinched closed. She took a strained breath as she noticed the gray mare in front of her. “Sparkplug…?”

“Pinkie, are you ok? Can you move?” Sparkplug asked, already starting to help the battered mare up from her seated position.

However, she soon got her answer as Pinkie looked behind her and widened her eyes.

“Look out!” Pinkie pushed through her exhaustion and pain to lunge forward, tackling the gray mare to the floor and dragging her to the side behind one of the arches leading outside.

Just before they got clear, Sparkplug felt something whiz by her side as a loud crash of crumbling stone rang out. She managed to look up just in time to catch a short stream of blood plowing through the wall in front of them, right where they just were.

Sparkplug pressed herself against the edge of the stone barrier behind her and looked out into the courtyard, only to have her face pale at what she found.

Her earlier assessment of Pinkie’s wounds coming from a warzone wasn’t far off. The entire courtyard was a chaotic and terrifying sight to behold.

Blood tendrils and streams whipped and flew around the area with merciless disregard. Some appeared directed, while others were more basic in their movements and trajectories.

Huddled behind a raised stone plot meant for holding outdoor plants, Applejack was doing her best to fire potshots with her strobe, either up in the air or at some of the tendrils in the hopes of breaking them off.

Rarity was lying low to the ground, resting her head against the cold stone beside the farmer. She was cringing painfully, clutching her side and a bleeding slash on her foreleg near the shoulder.

A cyan shape whizzed into view, circling the courtyard and taking evasive action from a few blood shots aiming for her. Rainbow Dash had a cut down her cheek and her flank, but these weren’t very severe. However, as one of the tendrils nearby whipped up at her, she turned to see it much too late and widened her eyes before being swatted out of the air.

The pegasus let out a sharp yelp as the tendril raked up her side. It left a thin bleeding slash and cut her vest, along with sending her tumbling into the wall behind her, and then down onto the stone overhang that sat above each opening back into the castle. The surrounding stone walls also had barely noticeable lines etched into them all around, seemingly coming from missed strikes with these razor-thin whips.

Near the back of the courtyard, Fluttershy and a wounded-looking Celestia huddled together underneath a magenta forcefield. Twilight stood tall in front of her friend and mentor, her teeth grit and her horn alight.

Every few moments, a tendril would whip down onto the unicorn’s barrier, or a blood bullet would ping off the side. Each strike made Twilight flinch slightly as her magical stamina struggled to hold up to the assault.

Glimmer Shine was behind one of the archways opposite Sparkplug and Pinkie. He seemed to be in poor health as well, judging from how he was clutching one shoulder and panting heavily. Suddenly, he jolted in alarm and scrambled to flee as a particularly strong tendril lashed sideways across, cutting through the pillars of each stone archway on his side and even cutting through the wall behind as it chased after him.

Up in the air, Blue Bolt and a hastily healed Luna were both locked in direct combat with the target of all the strobe and popper fire. Dusk himself.

The pale alicorn had numerous tendrils and blood streams snaking and zipping out of each of the three wounds across his body. He seemed to be putting more direct focus into a couple of the tendrils directly connected to him at a time while using more indirect and imprecise control for all of the disconnected tendrils, streams, and projectiles.

Sparkplug cringed as she watched Blue Bolt get swatted out of the air by a rapidly moving tendril, leaving a similar slash to the one she saw on Pinkie, only deeper. She ducked back around the corner and pressed her body up against the arch behind her, her breathing growing more frantic.

“Sweet Celestia…” Sparkplug muttered as she turned to her pink companion, her eyes showing a sense of intense fear and dread. “What happened?! I thought you guys were supposed to use the elements on him?!” She asked, looking to the balloon-shaped gem necklace just above Pinkie’s vest collar.

Pinkie trailed her eyes down, a surprising shimmer of despair and hopelessness behind them. “We did… It didn’t work.” She explained.

Sparkplug caught a gasp with a hoof. She glanced at the chaos and carnage around the corner before turning to the pink mare with a more desperate expression. “Wh… what do we do now?” She quaked.

Pinkie wrinkled her mouth as she looked the gray mare in the eye, unsure of what to say at first. “We… we do our best.” She stated softly, a sad sort of resolve to her words as she rested one hoof on Sparkplug’s shoulder, and the other on her own strobe.

Sparkplug took a shaky breath, a bittersweet smile forming as she looked to the pink mare with trembling eyes. Finally, she opened her forelegs and reached forward, wrapping Pinkie in a brief but warm embrace. Pinkie returned the impromptu hug before the both of them broke off and pressed themselves shoulder to shoulder against the pillar behind them.

The gray mare lifted her popper and flicked off the safety. She looked to the side and gave Pinkie one final nod, which was returned in kind, before they both shifted their eyes to the battle waging nearby.

Outside in the courtyard, Applejack flinched and ducked, shielding her head as a pair of tendrils whipped down, digging into the frozen dirt and stone above her sparse cover and sending a slight spray of debris down onto her and the unicorn beside her.

She took a tense breath and trailed her eyes up toward the alicorn above. He wasn't even really paying attention to them for the most part.

Then, a soft whine drew her attention down to her friend.

“Land sakes… You ok, Rare? How bad is it?” Applejack asked, crouching down and hovering a hoof near the white mare.

Rarity drew air between her teeth and squinted her eyes open as she removed the hoof from her side, exposing a bloody gash to the frigid elements. “Ngh… I… I’m alright, I-I think… It hurts more than anything else.” She assured with a strained voice, though her orange companion wasn't exactly comforted as she clutched the wound again and writhed.

Applejack frowned slightly before a particularly close ping made her prick her ears and dart her head toward the noise. “We can’t stay here… we’re sittin’ ducks. Can ya move?”

“I… I-I can try.” Rarity said, struggling to lift up before she was suddenly shoved back down as Applejack pounced over her, covering her body as best she could while a series of blood bullets impacted all around them.

A few feet away near one of the pillars for a stone overhang, Twilight watched her friends struggling to stay alive with soft eyes and a tensed jaw. She had tried her best to pitch in and attack Dusk to keep his focus off of the others before, but she was quickly forced onto the defensive like many of her friends.

“Ngh!” She flinched as another tendril whipped down into her shield before it wriggled away. A slight crack was left behind in the luminous barrier that didn’t go unnoticed by Fluttershy and Celestia.

“Twilight, Fluttershy, you need to… tch… to keep yourselves safe.” Celestia insisted, pressing a hoof against her chest, over part of a painful-looking slash that was barely leaking blood down her coat.

“But, Princess… we can’t just leave you.” Fluttershy fretted.

Seeing how concerned the pair were, Celestia cringed and pushed herself to her hooves, managing to stand somewhat tall. “I still… have some fight left in me.”

Another sharp yelp drew their attention back to the purple unicorn. Twilight was sweating profusely now, and her horn was sparking. More cracks were spidering out along her shield’s surface.

“I can’t hold this much longer!” Twilight announced.

“Both of you, run for cover!” Celestia instructed as she lit her horn and cast her gaze up towards Dusk. “I will do my best to keep him off you!”

“Princess-” Twilight started to turn and protest, when an overwhelming pain rippled through her head as her barrier shattered. She yelped and clutched her horn, not noticing as a blood bullet whizzed between her and Fluttershy, narrowly missing both of them.

“GO!” Celestia shouted.

Fluttershy rushed forward and helped nudge her unicorn friend into a running gallop. No sooner did they start moving did a tendril whip down behind them, followed swiftly by a few bullets striking the ground and stone.

“AH!” Fluttershy yelped and shrank down as a tendril zipped toward her, only to be stopped abruptly by a glowing yellow shield appearing in the air above her.

“Fluttershy, come on!” Twilight pulled the pegasus by the hoof until she started to run again. She knew they had to find cover of some sort, but they couldn’t just stop and dart to the side. If they changed directions even for an instant, then the projectiles barely missing them wouldn’t miss for long.

Meanwhile, Celestia turned from the fleeing ponies and shot a fireball up toward Dusk, hoping to at least distract him. Her jaw tensed as he whipped a tendril up and swatted it away, destroying both the tendril and the fiery projectile.

Then, before she could even react, a whipping sound came from the side as an unseen tendril zipped low and smacked into her side. Celestia grunted as she was batted away and rolled along the ground. Her ribs stung like crazy, but luckily it hadn’t broken her skin.

Up in the air, Dusk smirked briefly at the sight of his former mentor settling into a crumpled heap. He turned and noticed Luna charging up her horn, barely even lifting a hoof to direct a tendril to swat her away.

Then, he settled his eyes back on the two fleeing ponies nearing the other side of the courtyard. Fluttershy tripped over a raised corner of stone in her haste, causing Twilight to pause and go back to help her.

Both of them looked up and felt their bodies seize in fear as they saw a grouping of pointed blood streams flying straight at them like a volley of arrows.

Twilight flinched and instinctively tried to shield Fluttershy with her body. It was all she could do in time. However, strangely, no pain came. What did come in its place was a series of loud cracks splitting the air, followed by Dusk yelling.

The pair looked up, surprised and initially panicked to see the bloody spears so close, only for them to melt back into liquid and fall to the ground. Up above, Dusk had half a dozen or so tiny holes punched through his form that were still steaming slightly.

Twilight looked down to find their mystery savior, only to spot Pinkie Pie and Sparkplug standing in an archway across the courtyard. The pair were holding out their poppers, which were still smoking at the tips.

The unicorn and pegasus felt gratitude and relief washing over them briefly, before that was quickly replaced with dread and concern as Dusk emitted a low growl and whirled around in the air.

“Oh no…” Twilight’s pupils shrank.

Sparkplug and Pinkie lowered their poppers hesitantly as the pale alicorn shifted focus to them. They both knew what they were getting into, but somehow it still gripped their hearts with fear to see those burning red eyes glaring down at them.

Two tendrils snaked out of Dusk’s wrists as he outstretched his forelegs. The crimson spears curved around each other and raised upwards before zipping down toward the two mares.

With a fearful scream, both ponies scrambled to try and get away, with Pinkie helping as best she could to keep Sparkplug moving quickly despite her injured ankle. But no matter how much she tried, they both knew that she would have been better off saving herself.

Luckily, she didn’t have to.

A winged blur zipped up and blocked both tendrils with a set of metallic pings as Blue Bolt flew straight for Dusk with both blades at the ready. The pegasus reeled back and gave a rapid swing with his right forelimb. Dusk managed to deftly dodge backward, and then duck under Blue’s next swing.

Blue started to swing a third time when the alicorn directed a few wayward blood streams below to fly upwards and form together before thinning out into a spindly pair of tendrils, which quickly wrapped around Blue’s hind legs.

“Woah!” Blue yelped as all of his wingpower was overwhelmed in an instant by a violent pull downward. He was sent hurtling to the ground, bouncing off of it with a pained grunt and coming to a rough stop, his spirit weapons fading into embers from the abrupt jolt to his concentration and consciousness.

Dusk stared down at the stallion with an icy glare and started to direct another attack, when more magical zaps discharged behind him, sharply followed by a pair of blue energy bolts burning into his back.

Then, a few more projectiles of different color and direction slammed into him, causing his body to tense and his back to arch from the pain. He whirled around to find not only Luna up in the air, but Glimmer Shine, Twilight, and Celestia down on the ground, all with their respective weapons readied and steely determination in their eyes.

A frustrated growl ripped free of the pale pony’s throat as he placed a hoof before the wound in his neck, preparing to gather some blood for a counterattack. When suddenly, he heard a rapidly approaching sound of wings and what could only be described as a battle cry.

He turned just in time to catch sight of a cyan blur before two hind hooves rocketed into his chest, sending him flying back with a surprisingly decent amount of speed.

Rainbow Dash panted heavily from her exhausting attack. She had flown out of the airspace of the castle and came crashing back in at full speed. However, she smiled through the fatigue as she watched the alicorn slam into one of the courtyard walls. It was definitely worth the extra effort.

Then, her smile faded as she watched Dusk recover in the air with little more than a slight dip and a belabored shake of the head to even indicate he felt anything.

“How dare you strike me a second time, Loyalty!” Dusk bellowed, eyes flaring red as three streams of blood quickly floated out of his wrists and neck before pointing straight at her.

“Oh, man.” Rainbow squeaked, her pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

Down on the ground, Blue Bolt gasped and pushed himself up on his forelegs as he saw his friend in peril. “Rainbow!”

Without even wasting a moment, Blue pushed past his still aching body and channeled his newfound powers. His eyes glowed orange, soon followed by his wings unfolding with an unnaturally powerful gust of air as a similar glow washed over them.

Then, like a shot from a cannon, the pegasus was up.

Dusk didn’t even have time to process anything before he suddenly found an equine shape slamming into him, sending him flying backward through the air with a set of hooves at his neck. His tendrils and all the other floating streams of blood around the area collapsed into liquid as the alicorn’s concentration was fully broken.

“Blue!” Rainbow Dash widened her eyes before zipping off to help her friend.

Twilight and the others all watched the cyan mare zipping out of sight. While some started to lick their wounds or look around to check on their friends, the purple mare, Celestia, and Luna all stared up toward the roof of the castle where the battle was seemingly being taken without them.

Up over the castle walls, Dusk and Blue Bolt quickly arced downwards and fell to the rough stone platform that made up the roof.

Dusk impacted first, a slight noise of pain escaping him as he bounced and rolled with the pegasus grappling him the whole way. Blue Bolt did his best to ignore the sensation of his fur and skin scraping against such weathered and icy stone at high speeds so he could maintain his grip.

Finally, the pair crashed to a stop against one of the thin crenellations at the edge of the roof. Blue Bolt ended up on the bottom of the pile, and his hooves were quickly removed from Dusk’s throat as the larger pony stamped down on his shoulders.

“Gah!” Blue cringed and raced to grab the forelegs pressing down on him. He tried to kick with his hinds, but Dusk quickly pinned those underhoof as well.

Dusk briefly noted the orange glow fading from the stallion’s eyes. His own stare hardened and he hissed through clenched teeth. “You are really beginning to annoy me!”

Blood slowly floated out of the alicorn’s neck and formed a sharp point, which was aimed straight at the pinned pegasus. Blue Bolt grit his teeth and raced to think of a plan of attack. With his shoulders pinned, he did the one thing he could think to do and lifted a hoof toward Dusk’s body.

Perhaps noticing this, Dusk’s eyes flashed with revelation and he quickly jumped back just as a beam of light surged upwards.

Blue Bolt lifted himself up and re-aimed his hoof, but before he could discharge another burst, two tendrils zipped toward him and wrapped around his neck. The crushing force lifted him off of the ground before slamming him back down like a ragdoll.

Then, the pegasus was pulled along the ground and slammed headfirst into one of the solid stone crenellations with a skull-rattling impact.

Dusk prepared to send the stallion flying again when the sound of rapidly approaching wingbeats made him turn to see Rainbow Dash rushing toward him with something in her hoof. He flicked a foreleg and sent a blood stream toward her, but she managed to dodge to the side before zipping up to him and slashing out with a silver dagger.

The mare’s quick movement proved too difficult to dodge fully, and Dusk caught the stinging blade across his clavicle. Rainbow flipped the dagger around in her hoof and swung back, burying the blade into his neck before he swatted a tendril at her, knocking her away with a painful yelp.

Rainbow settled on the ground several feet away, bruised but luckily not bloodied from the rash counterattack. She pushed herself up and rubbed her now sore ribs before looking up to see the alicorn.

Dusk tensed his jaw in pain as the dagger sticking into his neck continued to sizzle and burn his flesh. He lifted a hoof up to grab it instinctively, only to flinch as the silvery handle stung even his hardened hooftip. Finally, he lit his horn, wrapping the blade in a similarly colored corona before ripping it out with reckless abandon and throwing it to the floor along with the spurt of blood it caused.

He turned to see Blue Bolt had managed to get upright and was now sizing him up with a threatening glare. Rainbow Dash made it to her hooves as well and drew a vial from her vest that she held with confident resolve and pointed it at him.

“Do you really think you can win against me?” Dusk scoffed, his lips curving upward slightly at the mere thought.

Rainbow Dash started to say something brash and cocky to irritate him more when someone else beat her to it.

“Perhaps not… But that will not stop us from trying.” A familiar voice came as Princess Celestia hovered up to the roof and landed a little behind the cyan mare. Her form was still shaky, and her face told of great exhaustion and pain, but her eyes were still fierce and full of resolve.

Another set of flapping wings signaled Luna swooping up. She chose to stay in the air as she hovered closer to her sister, even despite the slight sting she felt from the rushed healing job Blue Bolt managed to perform on her wing.

“Either you kill us, or we kill you. We will not stop until one of these things has come to pass.” Luna added, shifting her slight grimace of pain into a determined leer.

A slight magical zap came from off to the side as a purple unicorn flashed into existence before lowering herself into a fighting stance and keeping her lit horn pointed at Dusk.

“We’re not letting you hurt anyone else, Dusk. This ends tonight.” Twilight said.

Dusk trailed his gaze between each of them. Being surrounded five to one would have shaken most people’s confidence, especially when among those five were the royal sisters, two element bearers, and a pegasus brought back from death with otherworldly powers.

Dusk, however, could only laugh.

Twilight and the others tensed up as the alicorn threw his head back in wild, self-amused laughter. They knew he could lash out in an instant and kill one of them, their body dropping before anyone could even realize what had happened, so they kept on their guard.

They had heard him laugh before. The sound would probably haunt their dreams for years to come. They had never heard him laugh like this, though. It was genuine, full-blown, hysterical, yet somehow it still sounded cold and sadistic. It went on longer than should have been possible in one breath, but then again, he didn’t need to breathe.

After his outburst had faded, Dusk looked back down. A tight-lipped, wide grin was on his face, and a bloodthirsty glint was in his eyes.

“I think we can finally agree on something, Twilight Sparkle… This ends tonight.” Dusk said, casually moving a foreleg to the side and letting it hang.

Then, he swiped it across, sending a rapidly moving blood bullet straight for Rainbow Dash.

The crimson projectile zipped straight between the cyan mare’s eyes. She only managed to register a flinch and the beginnings of a retreat before it struck.

And it struck hard. So hard, in fact, that it nearly shattered the magenta forcefield that flashed in front of her.

With her breath still held, Rainbow looked over to see Twilight hiding some strain behind a determined smirk. They barely gave each other any further acknowledgment before they returned their attention to their opponent.

Dusk immediately took flight as everyone leaped into action. He whipped two tendrils out of his wrists, cracking some of the stone beneath them before they floated up, poised and ready.

Blue Bolt summoned both his foreblades and leaped into the air toward the alicorn, while Twilight and the two sisters flung spells ahead. Rainbow Dash hovered up and aimed her strobe toward Dusk before firing off a few shots.

The pale stallion evaded most of the projectiles heading his way, though some hit their mark. He whipped one tendril along the ground, sweeping under Celestia’s legs as she took flight and nearly striking Twilight before she jumped over it.

Meanwhile, the other tendril curved around and shot after Blue Bolt. He tried and failed to dodge, leaving the tip of the tendril to pierce clean through his stomach and out the other side. The blow sent a spray of his own blood out and sent him falling sideways with a spent breath carrying a choked cry.

Seeing her friend taking a brutal hit, Rainbow Dash softened her eyes with concern before hardening them as she faced the pale alicorn. She fired a volley of bursts from her strobe toward Dusk. Most of the multicolored orbs were right on target, exploding into colorful sparkles and causing an irritating sizzle wherever they struck.

Luna and Celestia joined the cyan mare in attacking, though their blasts held more power than the measly strobe she was wielding. Luna in particular managed to blow off a good chunk of flesh with a bolt of crackling energy as she swooped past.

While Dusk cast an agitated glare at the three flyers and lashed out with a few tendrils, Twilight took her chance to join the fray. She floated a silver dagger off of her own vest and picked up the fallen dagger Rainbow had used. In a surprise attack, she drove the closer blade into Dusk’s back while he wasn't looking, and then shot her own dagger forward as he reacted to the first impact.

However, Dusk managed to speedily swat the dagger out of the unicorn’s aura with a tendril. He plucked the other dagger out of his back and glared at Twilight before flicking his wrist and sending a pair of blood bullets after her, forcing her to retreat into a sprint with a fearful yelp as the projectiles curved and chased after her.

Hearing Blue Bolt making another charge toward him, Dusk turned and dodged a swipe of the stallion’s blades. He then caught Blue’s foreleg mid stab, staring the pegasus down in a brief power struggle that seemed to be evenly matched before he lit up his horn and knocked Blue away with a concussive blast.

Without even missing a beat, Dusk flicked a tendril out behind him, swatting Rainbow Dash out of the air and down into the stone roof with a sturdy crack. The cyan mare expelled some saliva as all the wind was forcefully knocked from her lungs.

Two more blasts of yellow and blue energy came as Celestia fired from afar and Luna flew above him for a better view. He dodged one and took the other in his stride, barely cringing at the hole scorched in his back. Then, he retaliated in kind by whipping Celestia to the side violently, sending her to the ground with a pained yip.

Returning his attention skyward, he sent a tendril rocketing out of his neck and up toward Luna. The blue alicorn was too occupied watching her sister getting knocked down to notice until it was too late.

“Ack!” Luna started to cry out, only to have the sound die in her throat as the crimson lash wrapped around her entire body. It crushed her chest, making it hard to even breathe properly. It also pinned her wings and her limbs, leaving her at Dusk’s mercy.

Over by the edge of the roof closest to the courtyard, Twilight dove to the floor as the two streams following her struck the ground where she just was. She pushed herself up, only to freeze as she heard a familiar voice crying out in pain.

“Princess Luna!” She gasped as she turned to see Dusk holding Luna up like a balloon attached by a string.

Celestia shakily lifted her head up, her eyes widening at the sight of her sister being constricted by a crimson vine. She turned ahead, watching as Rainbow Dash attempted to fly up to rescue the alicorn, only to be swatted away again by another tendril.

“Hold on, Princess!” Blue Bolt stated, starting to charge up a wave of energy through one of his blades in the hopes of cutting her down. He just barely got the glow to appear before two smaller tendrils zipped toward him and wrapped around his neck, pulling him to the floor and tightening. “Gack!”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Dusk taunted, “no interrupting me when I’m having fun.” He smirked as he shifted his eyes upwards.

Just then, Luna let out an agonized cry as the tendril around her tightened. There was a sound like bones being strained and pressed beyond their intended capacity, and even a few disconcerting pops that the shocked onlookers could only hope were joints.

“Sister!” Celestia reached out toward her trapped sibling to no avail. She shifted her steely gaze down to Dusk and tried to charge a spell, but she quickly found the fatigue in her body was catching up to her. “Dusk, stop this!”

Dusk merely chuckled dryly at the desperation in the alicorn’s voice. “Come now, Celestia. We both knew this was going to happen eventually. You should be thankful I’m putting her out of her misery sooner rather than later.” He said, lifting his empty hoof up as he looked up to Luna before clenching it.

On cue, Luna’s head arched back and a bit of blood spilled down her chin as the tendril squeezed once more.

“Wait!”

A voice cried out, though it wasn't Celestia’s.

Dusk and everyone else looked over toward Twilight, who was staring ahead with a desperate look in her eyes.

“Please… you don’t have to do this,” Twilight said, doing anything she could to stop the alicorn from getting hurt. She would have tried attacking, but she was afraid that would merely anger him and make him kill Luna instantly.

“Hmm?” Dusk raised an eyebrow at the unicorn lazily.

Twilight’s breathing grew rapid and shallow as her mind raced for something to say. Somehow she knew that this wouldn’t work, but she couldn’t accept any other option. Failure meant Luna being crushed to death.

She swallowed hard before making an effort to stop her trembling jaw long enough to speak. “You were Celestia’s student… I know you hate her… and I know you think she wronged you, but surely she must have taught you something about the magic of friendship?”

“Twilight… what are you doing?” Rainbow Dash whispered anxiously toward the unicorn. She was still recovering from the last impact she took. She wanted someone to save Luna somehow, but she didn’t want her friend putting herself in the spotlight either.

Celestia stared at the purple mare uneasily, and then looked back to Dusk and Luna. “Twilight…”

Dusk sat down and eased Luna’s tendril slightly, if only to get her to quiet down for a moment. He looked to the unicorn with a blank and dispassionate stare. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “The magic of friendship? Do not make me laugh… What use could I have for friends? I’d much prefer fearful subjects.”

Twilight softened her eyes at that, mostly out of nervousness. This would perhaps be the hardest sell she would ever make for the beauty of friendship, but she would have to try, at least until she could think of something else. After all, all of their lives were on the line.

“If you rule everyone you meet with fear… you might get what you want in the short term, but you’ll eventually discover that your life will be empty. You won’t be able to trust anyone… or confide in anyone in your time of need.” Twilight explained, a faint sense of optimistic hope in her eyes. “Friends make life better… They listen to you when you need them, they pick you up at your lowest points… and they share your joy at your highest.”

The unicorn took a careful step forward. “Princess Luna thought similarly to you once.” She glanced up to the alicorn with soft eyes, who by now was looking down at her uneasily. “She only saw others as subjects to rule over… to serve and admire her. But she learned that that isn’t true. Every life in Equestria and beyond is unique… and they all have something different to offer each-”

*Shink*

A wet gush sounded out abruptly, cutting the unicorn off.

Celestia, Luna, Rainbow Dash, and Blue Bolt all widened their eyes as they watched a single stream of blood zip toward Twilight and punch through her chest.

Dusk gradually lowered his outstretched hoof and snorted. “I grow bored of you…”

Rainbow Dash felt her heart stop. The breath she had lost slowly returned in the form of a drawn-out gasp as she watched her friend stare blankly ahead.

Twilight slowly looked down, silent and unreactive like nothing had even happened. She pressed a hoof to her chest briefly before pulling it back. It was stained red, and a slow gush of crimson ebbed out from the visually unnoticeable wound, dripping down her vest.

The unicorn’s legs began to shake as she looked back up to her friends. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out other than a slight noise of pain. Her eyes trembled and seemed to struggle to keep focus. She stumbled back one step, then another.

And then her legs buckled underneath her, sending her plummeting backward over the side of the roof and out of sight.

Rainbow Dash stared at the empty space where her friend just was, tears welling in her eyes and an empty feeling in her chest. Flashes of their fight with the hooded ponies came to her. Images of the purple mare’s smiling face being replaced by a single image of her lying motionless in a pool of her own blood.

“TWILIGHT!”