Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Down in the courtyard, as the battle raged on above them, those that were left behind gathered around and tended to their wounded.

Sparkplug did her best to clean Pinkie Pie’s wound with what meager medical supplies they had left. The slash wound wasn't severe enough to warrant the use of their few remaining bandages, luckily, but the pink mare still winced and cringed like a filly awaiting a shot.

A short distance away, Rarity sat back against one of the pillars to a stone overhang. She did her best to remain still and silent as Glimmer Shine cleaned and wrapped the large wound across her side.

“How’s that?” Glimmer asked as he finished tightening the gauze wrappings.

Rarity grimaced and rested a hoof to the bandage before taking a breath and nodding. “Thank you, darling… t-that’s much better. Although… I do hope that Blue Bolt can heal this before it leaves a scar.” She said, growing quiet as she silently dreaded the thought of how much makeup it would take to hide such a terrible blemish on her pristine fur coat.

Glimmer Shine managed a dry chuckle. “If a scar is your biggest worry by the end of tonight, I’d say we’re doing good.”

Meanwhile, Fluttershy sat alone as close to the courtyard as she could while still having stone underneath her. She stared up toward the roof, a worried frown stuck on her face.

They had been able to see and hear signs of their friends fighting for some time now, mostly in the form of projectiles flying or one of their winged friends swooping into and out of view, but it had been quiet for a few minutes.

Hearing hoofsteps approaching, the yellow mare looked over and spotted Applejack walking up and sitting down beside her.

“How’s your wing, sugar?” Applejack asked softly, frowning at the sight of a still-bloodied slash going down her friend’s side.

Fluttershy looked down to the appendage in question. It still stung a lot, even after she managed to fold it, but compared to some of her friends’ injuries, it might as well have been a paper cut.

“It’s ok… for the most part.” She said before shifting her attention to the bloodstained bandage adorning the farmer. “What about you? How’s your shoulder?”

Applejack winced as she turned her neck toward the injury. “It’s seen better days, that’s for sure.”

Fluttershy wrinkled her mouth in a slight mirror of the already small smile the orange mare was sporting. However, even this brief semblance of cheer faded as she returned her gaze up to the roof. “I hope the others are ok…”

Hearing the pegasus bring up their friends made Applejack’s features fall as well. She looked back to the overhang Rarity was leaning against, the same one that Twilight had fallen onto before settling into a bloody heap just minutes ago.

They were all shocked and distraught at seeing the color drain from her face right before their eyes with nothing they could do to help. If Cadence and the others hadn’t shown up with Raincloud, they very well might have watched the unicorn die.

A hollow feeling wormed its way into A.J’s gut as she looked skyward. Would their friends be ok? They had never faced a foe quite as deadly as Dusk before. Some of their members had already suffered mortal injuries that would have claimed their lives in mere minutes had supernatural powers not intervened.

She kept thinking back to watching Twilight fall to the ground. They all knew that some or even all of them might die, but would she be able to keep a strong front if it actually happened?

Fluttershy looked down suddenly as a hoof was put around her shoulder. She was surprised to see the orange mare wearing a strained smile.

“They’ll be fine… They always are.” Applejack said.

The pegasus wasn't sure how to react to that. Judging from the slight tremble in the foreleg around her, she wondered if Applejack was the one worrying the most between them.

Fluttershy started to say something when some movement up above drew everyone’s attention.

They saw Twilight and the others coming up to the edge of the roof just above the overhang. Many of them looked beaten, bruised, and exhausted, so much so that they took a few moments to seemingly figure out how they were going to get down.

Celestia was the first to make a move. She carried Sunspot on her back, hinting at the suited mare’s inability to fly, and sized up the drop below before unfurling her wings and jumping down. The alicorn hovered to the top of the overhang, wincing as she struggled to flap her wings hard enough to break their fall. Then, she ambled over to the edge and hovered down once more into the courtyard.

Glitterball and Luna were next, being levitated down by Twilight and Shining Armor respectively. Once they were on the ground, Glitter turned upward and lit her horn, wrapping her magic around Twilight and gently lifting the mare off the roof. Shining Armor then lifted Cadence down with some help from Twilight and Glitter before being floated down himself.

“Boy, you guys are a sight for sore eyes.” Sparkplug remarked cheerfully as she limped over and hugged Glitterball, who was happy to return the gesture.

“It’s good to see you guys too,” Sunspot added as Glimmer Shine came over and patted her and Glitter on the shoulder.

Twilight smiled as Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy flocked to her side and hugged her as well. After a moment of effort in standing up, Rarity came over and joined her friends.

“We were so worried for you!” Pinkie fretted as she squeezed the purple mare, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically as both of them yelped slightly from their wounds stinging.

However, Fluttershy’s expression dropped as she looked around, only to notice three missing ponies. “Wait… where’s Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt?” She asked uneasily.

“And… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but where’s Raincloud?” Glimmer Shine added.

Twilight and the others immediately grew somber as the three pegasi were brought up. “They…” The purple mare started, struggling to find the words. “Blue Bolt tackled Dusk off the side of the castle. Rainbow and Raincloud went after them.”

Rarity gasped, “On their own?!”

Applejack jolted with alarm. “Mercy sakes. I knew Dash was crazy, but I didn’t think she was this crazy!”

“Dashie… Blue…” Fluttershy muttered to herself, her eyes beginning to tremble at the thought of her oldest friends fighting such a dangerous foe alone. Raincloud was a fierce fighter, but even she could only do so much to help the pair.

“What are we waiting for?!” Pinkie asked, looking to the others urgently. “Shouldn’t we go help them?!”

Twilight fought off a pang of sadness as she struggled to answer that question. She desperately wanted to go help, but she herself felt like she might fall over if she walked faster than a trot. “I’m not sure if we can help them, Pinkie.”

“Whad’ya mean, Twilight?” Applejack asked, a bit surprised at the unicorn. “What are we s’posed to do? Just… just let them die alone?!”

The orange mare’s question left most of the group to fall silent. Many were hanging their heads or avoiding eye contact.

After a moment, Applejack took a steady breath to calm herself before adopting a determined expression. “That’s what we came here for, right? To do this together, no matter what happens. We tried the elements, and we lost… but if Rainbow and Blue and even Raincloud are going to fight to the bitter end, then shouldn’t we be right there with ‘em?”

Finally, it was Twilight who spoke up. “You’re right, Applejack…” She said, sniffing once before wiping some fledgling tears from her eyes. “I hate the idea of just sitting on the sidelines and letting someone else fight for me. The last time we tried to do the safest thing for the most people… Tom died.”

The others remained speechless and waited as the purple mare paused for a moment to get rid of the tickle in her throat.

“I would love to go down there and fight with them to my last breath… but I don’t think it’s that simple anymore,” Twilight said, looking around at the rest of the group. “I don’t know about you, but we can barely walk. The only way down to Rainbow Dash and the others is by flying or teleporting down the cliff, or making it down those stairs we climbed the first time we came here. Even if we did manage to get down without killing ourselves, and we did get to them in time, I’m afraid that we would only be a hindrance to them. If Dusk kills one of us, that’s just more blood for him to use to regenerate.”

A few moments went by as the group digested the unicorn’s words. Some agreed wholeheartedly, while others were more conflicted. Still, everyone could understand where she was coming from as their wounds and exhaustion constantly reminded them of how poorly prepared for combat they were.

“I think she’s right…” Glimmer Shine chimed in.

Sunspot lifted her brows at the stallion. “Glimmer?”

“Me and Glitter seem to be the healthiest ones here,” Glimmer said, gesturing to the white unicorn. She was relatively unharmed, and he only had minor cuts and bruises, with only a slight slash near his shoulder causing some concern.

“I can’t speak for her, but I’d be more than willing to climb down there and go fight with the others.” The stallion continued. “But… like Twilight said, I don’t know if that would be the best option. Blue Bolt is a slayer, and Raincloud has shadow magic to help keep her safe. Rainbow Dash is the one I’m most worried about, but if any of us could dodge Dusk’s attacks and stay in the fight, it would be her. If any of us show up, we would just get in the way and cause more grief for them when they need to be focusing on themselves.”

Applejack rubbed a hoof along her muzzle, pressing it into her clenched eyes as she struggled with her thoughts. She produced a stressed exhale before looking up at the others, then at Celestia. “What do you think, Princess? I don’t wanna end up gettin’ anypony killed chargin’ in there head first, but… I don’t wanna just leave them on their own.” Her voice grew softer as she let her ears droop.

Celestia mulled over the orange mare’s question for a few moments, perhaps struggling with her own thoughts on the matter. Finally, she sighed. “As always… I think the choice is yours to make. Each of you came here to protect your friends and family… and none of that has changed. However, given our… collective exhaustion, I feel that Twilight and Glimmer Shine have brought up valid points. We may very well end up doing more harm than good to Rainbow Dash and the others if we go after them and Dusk targets us.”

Applejack and some of the others looked down with somber expressions at this. How could wanting to help a friend fight for their life feel so conflicting?

“But, with that in mind,” Celestia continued. “If any of you do decide to go… I will go with you and help however I can.”

Luna stiffened her posture as best she could, managing to stand tall with some difficulty. “I will accompany you as well.”

Then, Twilight stepped forward. “Me too…”

Soon, many of the others were voicing their agreement. However, there was still a palpable sense of conflict as everyone mulled over whether actually going was a good idea or not.

Seeing how she was the one to start the other side of the discussion, many of the ponies looked to Applejack to see how she would react.

The orange mare pressed her lips together tightly, her jaw stiff and her hooves tensing as she desperately tried to convince herself wholeheartedly one way or another. Both options felt wrong to her now, and she hated it.

“Let’s at least head outside and see if we can watch ‘em from the cliff. Either way, I do not wanna hide here in this stupid castle and wait around.” Applejack suggested, to which everyone seemed to agree completely.

With that, the ponies all started to gather themselves and head back into the castle corridors. Those that were more steady on their hooves than others helped some that were struggling to walk on their own, like Luna and Cadence. And while they were all unable to go terribly fast, they decided to move at the pace of their slowest members.

The front entrance wasn't that far away anyway, and they would need the rest for whatever was to come next.

Toward the back of the group, Applejack took one last look up at the courtyard roof before securing her hat on her head and pressing onward with her friends.

Blue… I know it ain’t fair to rely on you so much, but please… keep her safe

A few minutes earlier

Both Blue Bolt and Dusk sailed through the air, propelled at great speed by the pegasus’ burst of enhanced wingpower. Neither of them could move very much from the sheer force of the wind forming a cone around them.

Dusk grunted and tried to wrench his forelegs free, but the blue stallion was hugging him tightly, preventing him from using any blood from his wrists while they were pressed to his sides. He couldn’t use any blood from his neck either, as Blue Bolt was keeping himself out of the way of the open wound.

The pair flew in a downward arc toward the snowy field below, getting farther and farther away from the castle with each passing moment until, finally, they struck terra firma once more.

Both of them made slight outbursts of pain as their bodies bounced off of frozen earth, getting surprising air and sending flecks of snow flying up on their way. The second impact came several feet later, causing them to start rolling and tumbling, whereupon they separated.

While Dusk managed to dig in with his hooves somewhat and dramatically slow his momentum, Blue Bolt was forced to hang on for the ride as he continued sliding and rolling even further before he too settled to a gradual stop.

The pegasus’ face and several areas on his body were reddened from grating along the harsh ice and frozen dirt. He was bleeding at least superficially in numerous places too, and he felt like a sock full of coins put through a dryer.

Slowly, painfully, he lifted his head up and planted a single forelimb on the slippery ground. His head was still spinning, and his vision was starting to blur. As he struggled to push himself up, his limbs shook and even gave out, forcing him to start over.

In the distance, he could see an equine silhouette standing and starting to approach. He pushed through the pain to get to his knees and face his foe when a familiar ringing took his hearing and further fogged his mind.

“Ngh…” Blue Bolt faltered, resting on his side and holding a hoof to his head as faint whispers tickled the back of his consciousness. His body started to feel distant and numb, but he fought to keep alert and awake. He knew that using his burst of speed when he was already tired was risky, but he had hoped that it wouldn’t come to this.

The winged figure ahead of him gave a strained chuckle as he approached and saw the state he was in.

“What’s the matter, Blue Bolt…? You look a bit out of sorts…” Dusk said. Even if Blue couldn’t see it amid his blurring vision, he could practically feel the amused smirk on the alicorn’s face.

Taking a few deep breaths to try and calm his pounding heart and push back the dizzying numbness, Blue Bolt tried again to stand up, making more progress this time, albeit slower than he wanted.

Dusk flattened his expression as he watched the pegasus struggling. He cracked his stiff neck, the lingering pains from their collision causing a slight tug at his lips, and lifted a hoof. “Here, let me help you.” He said before swiping his foreleg across.

A thin crimson lash whipped out of his wrist and followed his motion as it stretched over to the pegasus, colliding with Blue’s side and smacking him away like a fly.

The stallion yelped in pain as his side burned, and then again as he tumbled along the ground before smacking back-first into a snow-dusted tree trunk. It was hard to tell if the resulting sound was the icy bark cracking or his spine.

“There we are. Don’t you feel so much more energetic?” Dusk asked. “I find that a good slap to the face is all that’s needed to get the blood pumping in the morning.”

Gritting his teeth under the throbbing pain racking his body, Blue Bolt forced himself up again, managing to shakily get to his hooves. The ringing in his head faded, and his vision clarified, but the feeling of fatigue was still lingering.

However, he couldn’t focus on recovering for long, as a flash of movement came speeding toward him, causing him to widen his eyes and duck to the side.

He could still move with some deftness and speed, but it still wasn't enough to completely dodge the volley of three blood streams. Two of them rocketed into the tree behind him, while the third punched through his collarbone and knocked him back from the force.

“Agh!” Blue yelped and clutched his new injury with his only good forelimb. As he uncovered it and looked down at the bleeding wound, he could already feel and see a ring of embers starting to seal it up.

The pegasus looked up and glared at the pale alicorn. He lurched forward onto all fours and pushed through the pain to rush toward his opponent.

Dusk got light on his hooves as Blue gave a frustrated yell and summoned the infuriating weapons that he had come to know and despise. With a swift strike and an equally swift dodge, the tides shifted the other way momentarily as Blue started driving the alicorn back.

After dodging the second strike, Dusk caught the pegasus’ foreleg, keeping the pointed blade sticking out at him mere inches from his chest.

Blue Bolt struggled to try and push the blade further, but their enhanced strengths seemed to still be evenly matched. Perhaps they had worn the alicorn down more than he thought?

Then, a skull rattling punch came from Dusk’s other hoof, sending Blue to the ground so hard that he nearly tumbled over himself. He tried to shake the blow off and stand up immediately, but this movement was swiftly met by a single tendril coming down and piercing through his chest, pinning him to the ground.

With the burning pain coursing through his body, Blue Bolt arched his back and half yelled, half coughed as blood sputtered from his mouth. He raced his hooves to the tendril, his blades vanishing at the loss of fortitude and concentration needed to keep them material.

He squinted an eye open, only to see more tendrils snaking out of Dusk’s neck and pointing down at him menacingly, reminding him of the legs of a spider raising up to pierce down into some unfortunate prey.

“Let’s see you regenerate once I rip the flesh from your bones!” Dusk cackled.

Then, an audible click rang out, followed swiftly by Dusk’s sadistic grin shifting to a pained look of surprise as something whizzed into his back.

“GAH!”

The alicorn threw his head back at the fiery pain radiating through him. Something silver. It had to be, but it was too small to be a dagger. He whirled around, ready to face whatever foolish soul was bold enough to interrupt him, only to face them much closer than he anticipated in the form of a cyan hind hoof smacking into his jaw at full force.

As the tendrils under the alicorn’s control lost their shape and cohesion, including the one piercing into his chest, Blue Bolt looked up to see a vested pegasus mare landing in front of him, a steely look of determination on her face and a discharged crossbow in one hoof.

“Rain...bow?” He coughed, one final trickle of blood coming free of his throat before he made a sucking noise of pain as his lungs and chest started burning and mending. Once they were finished, he coughed a few more times and panted briefly before looking up to her. “What are you doing here?!”

Rainbow Dash stuck a hoof out and helped pull the stallion to his hooves before turning to watch Dusk starting to get up as well. “Helping you, what does it look like?” She answered plainly, reaching down and fumbling along her vest to find another bolt for her bow.

Blue Bolt stood in front of his friend protectively as Dusk growled and slowly pushed up from the ground.

The alicorn reached a hoof behind him as his healing ability dislodged the burning projectile piercing his flesh. He pulled back a blood-covered silver bolt and stared at it, his hoof sizzling slightly at its touch, before shifting his hateful glare up to the cyan pony.

“Loyalty…” He hissed, clenching his hoof tightly before dropping a smashed lump of silver to the snow below.

Even despite the wave of fear and dread building within her, Rainbow couldn’t help a defiant snort. “The name’s Rainbow Dash. Don’t forget it when I’m-”

Then, before she could even finish her remark, she was cut off by the alicorn flinging a hoof toward her and sending a stream of blood shooting out.

Blue Bolt pushed her to the side, landing on top of her and just narrowly missing the strike himself. They both briefly shared a concerned look before darting their gaze to see Dusk with two tendrils curling out of his wrists in preparation for battle.

The two ponies scrambled to get to their hooves and ready themselves for another dodge, when Dusk suddenly shifted his eyes upwards in brief confusion, and then alarm. Before either Blue or Rainbow knew what was going on, a swooping sound came from behind them, followed by a loud shockwave of air blowing over their heads.

The shockwave slammed into Dusk’s form, blowing him clear off his hooves and sending him flying back several feet alongside a heap of snow.

Rainbow Dash and her friend looked over as another pegasus landed beside them, perhaps the last pony either of them expected to see.

“Raincloud?” Rainbow skewed her expression in surprise.

Raincloud had one hoof outstretched, with a light pulse of purple coloration fading back to her usual gray as she lowered it. She also had a silver dagger under her other hoof. She looked at the pair, and then over at the vampiric alicorn she just sent flying like a sack of helium-filled potatoes.

“So… do we have a plan, or are we just bathing in honey and poking like… all the bears?” She asked.

“That depends.” Blue said, “How much more of that weird magic stuff you got?”

The sight of the gray mare panting and looking a bit ill didn’t exactly comfort them.

“Not much…” Raincloud replied plainly. “Do I get anything cool for joining the biggest idiot club?”

Rainbow chuckled nervously as she turned to look ahead at an even more pissed-off Dusk, if such a thing could exist. “‘I got killed by a psychotic vampire alicorn, and all I got was this stupid shirt’... Yeah, sounds like a real bestseller.”

“It’s going to be if we don’t stop this guy. Any ideas?” Blue asked, only to receive a flat look from the gray mare.

“You’re the big bad slayer of evil, why don’t you tell us?!” Raincloud retorted.

Blue Bolt sighed and leveled his gaze ahead. “Well, it’s like you said… Let’s go poke the bear.” He stated as he started walking forward, a somber sense of resolve on his face.

Raincloud lingered for a moment and watched as Rainbow Dash fluttered into the air and immediately followed after the stallion. The pair looked like they were ready to give their all in this last-ditch effort at stopping the monstrous alicorn.

“Maybe being a vampire won’t be so bad?” Raincloud muttered to herself, shaking her head slowly and silently rethinking her life choices before huffing and trotting after the suicidal pegasi.

Up ahead, the pale alicorn slowly picked himself up from the ground and got to all fours. His mane was disheveled, and his fur was bespeckled with snow. He actually slipped a bit on the icy earth, which only further served to boil his blood.

Dusk turned to see three ponies standing against him defiantly. He clenched his jaw, the red glow in his eyes standing out amid the blowing wind and snow around them, and stamped a hoof down on the brittle ice beneath him.

“I… will not… be upstaged, by the likes of you!” He shouted, the cool sophistication in his voice having long since devolved into unbridled, almost childish, rage.

“Dude… You have got to stop buying into your own hype.” Blue Bolt stared at the alicorn wearily.

“Yeah. What he said.” Rainbow Dash added.

Raincloud raised an eyebrow at the cyan mare. “This coming from the self-described ‘fastest flyer in Equestria’?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on our side?” Rainbow asked flatly.

Dusk felt his eye twitch from this. Not only did they have the gall to face him, but now they were ignoring him like he was barely a threat.

With a primal yell loud and sudden enough to startle the trio, Dusk whipped a set of tendrils out of his wrists, sending the crimson lashes speeding toward them.

All three of them immediately took to the sky, getting clear just in time to feel the draft of air from the tendrils cracking beneath them. However, they knew by now that evading Dusk’s attacks wasn't so simple.

Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder, only to find the tip of one of the tendrils halting unnaturally in the air before darting up after her. She flinched and pushed her wings to beat faster as she curved and spiraled, hoping to use every evasive trick in the book to keep the deadly spear away from her.

Over on the other side of things, Raincloud also noticed one of these tendrils chasing after her, and it was gaining fast. She looked back to her wings and cringed a bit as she focused on her shadow magic.

“Come on, baby… come on!” She muttered to herself tensely, closing her eyes and concentrating like her life depended on it, which weirdly made it harder. Thankfully, however, she could feel the slightest aura of pulsating shadow energy filling her wings with strength and speed just in time to pull away from a close shave.

However, even with this boost in speed, the tendril was still giving her a run for her money. Either it was her exhaustion lessening her abilities, or perhaps Dusk wanted her dead that bad that he was directly controlling the tendril. Either way, she wasn't going to last long like this.

And then, the tendril collapsed into liquid and began to fall to the earth as Blue Bolt slashed one of his blades across a section of it lower down.

Raincloud looked down, surprised and relieved to find her blue-furred savior. He gave her a quick nod, which she reciprocated before they both shifted their attention to Dusk.

The alicorn, as expected, was less than enthused about their survival. He glared up at them before turning to look at the falling spray of his blood. Suddenly, he lifted his hoof and focused his unseen influence over his own crimson life force.

Blue Bolt and Raincloud watched as the spray of blood froze in the air. Almost the instant they realized what was happening and started to flinch, the individual droplets and trails shot toward them.

While he managed to dodge some of the shots, Blue yelped as two struck him, one in the flank, and one punching through both his wing and side. He started falling toward the ground under his lessened wingpower and newfound injuries.

Raincloud flew forward and evaded most of the miniature spears. Then, just as she thought she was home free, she cried out as a searing pain raked across her back as one of the streams clipped her. She could feel blood leaking out, joining the rest of the filth drying into her fur from her earlier dip into the crimson waters. The pain was enough to break her subtle concentration over her shadow magic, causing her to slow down as the glow around her wings faded.

Dusk smirked at the sight of the gray pegasus’ strained flying. He prepared to send up the rest of the broken tendril to impale her when a popping bang came from above and behind him. Two or three pin-sized green projectiles zipped into his back, causing a good deal of pain and even some blood spatter as they punched through his form.

He whirled around, spotting Rainbow Dash high above aiming down at him with one of those infuriating magic vials. He had hoped that the other tendril would keep her busy, but apparently, she noticed its slowed movements as he shifted concentration to Blue Bolt and Raincloud.

The alicorn held a hoof in front of his neck, preparing to gather a ball of blood for an attack when he paused and cringed at the attempt. Trying to force that much blood out of his reserve almost seemed difficult, and it was even taking a minute to heal the small holes in his body.

Rainbow Dash seemed to notice this. She leaned in closer to confirm what she was seeing, only to have a smile tug at her lips. “Yes…” She muttered. Finally, they were making a visible dent in the impossibly perfect armor of constant regeneration the alicorn had. There was yet a light at the end of the tunnel.

But they weren’t out of the woods just yet, for just as they were pushing themselves past the brink and giving this fight their all, Dusk wasn't willing to back down either. He grit his teeth and focused for a moment, managing to expedite the process of healing his wounds. He then turned to the mismatched tendrils still snaking through the air, a glint of malice shining in his eyes.

Much like they had before, both tendrils exploded into dozens of individual droplets of blood, which swiftly elongated before darting through the air toward Rainbow Dash.

The cyan mare widened her eyes as she saw the projectiles incoming. Not only were they heading for her, but many of them were curving and coming in from the sides, above and below, cutting off her escape routes.

Rainbow yelped fearfully and turned away, giving a mighty flap of her wings to hopefully save her life. Somehow, she managed to keep ahead of the many crimson needles.

However, many of the projectiles split off and got ahead of her, boxing her in as she curved around to try and gain speed. She froze as she saw this and cringed, realizing that she wouldn’t be able to get away fast enough with her sudden change in momentum.

Then, just as she flinched her eyes shut and accepted her fate, a gray shape darted in through one of the small gaps in the cage of projectiles and got close to her.

With a fierce yell, Raincloud flung both forelegs out and projected as much shadow energy as she could muster out of her hooves. The swirling purple and black mass flashed out around them and formed a ball.

Rainbow peaked her eyes open amid the sound of dozens of muted impacts. She found her fellow pegasus sweating profusely and straining to maintain the barrier keeping them alive, the two faint auras around the gray mare’s forehooves pulsing and fitting wildly.

“Uh… R-Raincloud?” Rainbow spoke hesitantly as the constant impacts seemed to get closer as the shadowy shell around them got thinner.

“I’m… trying!” Raincloud retorted. Her hooves were shaking, and her jaw was vibrating from how hard she was gritting her teeth.

Then, a bloody needle zipped through the barrier, nearly striking both of them. As Rainbow was reacting to that one, another came from behind her and clipped her side.

“OW!”

While the cyan pony was clutching a nasty cut, Raincloud did her best to keep going despite her fading strength. She thought her heart was going to explode from how hard it was pounding.

She opened her eyes, just in time to see another blood bullet piercing her barrier and heading straight toward her.

“AGH!” Raincloud yelped as the projectile pierced her hind leg, close to the hip. The sudden shock to her system, combined with her exhaustion and stress from trying to overuse shadow magic, seemed to be too much for her as her eyes rolled up and fluttered shut.

Rainbow Dash froze as she saw the gray mare starting to drop out of the air. “Raincloud!” She reached out to catch her companion, only to pause and look up as the barrier around her totally faded, allowing the last few projectiles to zip forward unimpeded.

The cyan mare flinched her eyes shut and covered her head with her forelegs, but after a few seconds, no pain came. She looked up and blinked, finding herself to be relatively intact. Apparently, the last few projectiles weren’t lined up to hit her amid the encroaching darkness, and Dusk hadn’t course-corrected them afterward.

Shifting her attention back to the gray pegasus, Rainbow widened her eyes and trailed them down to find Raincloud still plummeting out of the air. She darted downwards, racing toward the unconscious mare and managing to catch up to her.

“Gotcha!” Rainbow stated, jolting slightly at the added weight as she caught the gray mare in her forelegs.

Raincloud mumbled as her eyes rolled under their creaking lids. Slowly, she started coming to her senses and drowsily gazed up at the cyan mare.

"Mmph… mom, it isn’t even morning." She muttered before the cogs in her head started turning. Then, her look of confusion shifted to surprise, and then veiled embarrassment. "I wasn't talking out loud, was I?"

Rainbow Dash failed to hide a smirk. "I don’t know what you're talking about, sweetie."

Raincloud flattened her lids. "Yeah, you can just let me drop now, thanks." She said before suddenly yelping and reaching down to her hind leg.

Rainbow Dash cringed sympathetically at her companion's wound. However, before she could even ask if the gray mare was ok, a whipping sound drew their attention down.

They spotted Dusk sending another tendril cracking up toward them far too fast to dodge. By now, they knew that such a fast-moving attack would cut deeply into them. They would have braced for the pain, but all they had time for was the beginnings of a flinch.

And then, the tendril scattered into liquid and splashed into them harmlessly.

Surprised and confused by their miraculous survival, the pair looked down, only to find their stallion friend slicing through the base of the tendril near Dusk’s wrist with one of his blades.

Blue Bolt and Dusk locked eyes as he managed to get off that single strike unnoticed. He only got this far because the alicorn was so focused on the two mares. In an instant, both of them reacted.

While Blue swung his already outstretched foreleg, rotating his weapon into a better position as he went, Dusk reeled back. The tip of the ornate blade narrowly missed the alicorn’s neck. Dusk could actually feel a slight sting as the seemingly corrosive material barely nicked his fur.

Dusk reached up a foreleg and blocked a second swing from Blue’s other limb. Then, as the pegasus was reeling his free hoof back for another strike, Dusk lifted his chin and exposed the wound on his neck before a spray of blood gushed out of it, landing in Blue’s eyes.

Blue Bolt instinctively yelped at the sudden assault on his vision and stumbled back. He tried to keep his eyes open, but it was nigh impossible to see anything. While he was frantically wiping one hoof along his face, he reached the other up and leveled it where he remembered Dusk being before letting loose a burst of light.

Nothing happened to indicate that he had hit anything. There was no sizzling sound or noises of pain. There was, however, a frantic voice shouting from above.

“Blue Bolt, look out!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

Spotting movement in his still blurry vision, Blue looked up to see what could only be Dusk flying upwards ahead of him. However, his vision clarified to also see two tendrils heading out of the alicorn’s wrists and down toward the ground.

He looked down, only to find the tips of said tendrils zooming straight toward him.

The pegasus had little time to react, even with his enhanced abilities. He might have been able to dodge if he wasn't so tired already, but in his current state, he could do nothing to stop the crimson spears from impaling into his chest and sending him flying off his hooves from the force.

As the stallion was hurtling away, two injuries that would be fatal to any normal pony piercing through his body, Dusk shifted his attention back up toward the two mares. The alicorn was swiftly met by another pop as a green projectile burned into his side.

Rainbow Dash flew backward away from the alicorn while firing ahead with her weapon of choice, making quick bursts of two or three attacks at a time before giving it time to cool down.

Her eyes flashed with alarm as she saw the alicorn loose a volley of blood bullets, which quickly spread out and sped toward her. Rainbow cringed and put her weapon back in its holster, shifting her full focus to flying as she turned and sped up.

The crimson needles dauntlessly followed the cyan mare as she curved and looped around. They neared closer and closer, causing her to sweat nervously as she watched them over her shoulder. Her mind raced with a way to save herself, before looking ahead and spotting something. With time running out, she flapped her wings hard and pulled ahead by mere inches.

Then, Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully and covered her head as she dove around a frozen rock jutting out of the ground at the last second. As expected, the blood bullets curved to chase her and struck the thick boulder.

She flinched at the resulting pings and cracking noises, hoping against all hope that the rock would be sturdy enough to prevent any of the streams from piercing through and hitting her. Thankfully, the only thing she felt was the slight stinging cold from lying among the snow and ice.

Dusk narrowed his eyes at the annoying pegasus’ lucky break. He started to send a more directed attack toward her that she couldn’t trick, when the sound of flapping wings came behind him and a burning pain seared into his side.

“Gah!” The alicorn yelped as a silver dagger was driven into his abdomen by Raincloud. He grit his teeth and lashed out, whipping his foreleg around and whipping a razor-thin tendril out.

Raincloud saw the attack coming, but it was so sudden and close by that all she had time to do was widen her eyes before the tendril raked across her neck. Her mechanical collar shattered into pieces, and blood gushed out as a deep gash was left in her throat.

Back on the opposite side of the clearing, Rainbow Dash pushed herself up from the snow and looked ahead to check on her gray companion. Her face paled and her eyes went wide as she saw Raincloud flying backward from a strike, a geyser of blood and broken metal pieces flying free from her neck.

“Raincloud!” Rainbow darted forward, leaving behind a small crater of loose snow as she took off.

She made a beeline past Dusk, who seemed to be more focused on trying to get the dagger out of his side, and followed the gray pegasus’ trajectory several feet back, watching as Raincloud skidded along the ground and came to a rough stop against a tree trunk.

As she touched her hooves down to snowy ground once more, she stared ahead with jaw falling open in shock at the state of the wounded mare.

Raincloud was essentially bleeding out from a slit throat, and much of her strength was immediately sapped from the strike and her brief flight. Her ruined collar was elsewhere, having fallen apart once it was broken open, but somehow that wasn't a major concern at the moment.

“Sweet Celestia… Raincloud!” Rainbow Dash knelt down and rested her hooves on the gray mare’s shoulder and chest, which were already running red with blood.

Hearing another whipping sound, Rainbow looked over, only to freeze as she saw more tendrils about to crash down into them. Up ahead, Dusk was casting an angry glare their way, having finally ripped the dagger out of his body with his magic.

Then, just before the tendrils came down and pierced the defenseless mares, a fierce yell came from the side as Blue Bolt galloped forward and tackled Dusk to the ground, breaking his fragile concentration and liquifying the crimson lashes.

While the two stallions were going off into another close-quarters struggle, Rainbow Dash turned back to her gravely wounded companion.

“Raincloud, look at me.” She said, lightly jostling the pegasus bleeding out before her eyes in the hopes of keeping her focused and awake. “You have to heal yourself. Blue isn’t going to get here in time.”

Raincloud made a strangled noise of pain and blinked hard, her wild eyes darting and trembling. She tried to move her foreleg, but she could only get it to her chest before it flopped down uselessly.

Seeing her companion slipping further and further into death, Rainbow Dash felt her heart racing as she grabbed the gray mare’s foreleg and pressed it to her neck. “Come on! You’re not gonna let this be what takes you out, are you?!”

Gradually, but alarmingly fast, Rainbow could feel the strength in the gray mare’s body leaving. A few moments went by as Raincloud took in choking gasps of air and struggled to keep her eyes from drifting shut.

Finally, a pulsating aura of purple energy faintly appeared around her hoof and started flowing into the wound on her neck.

It was far weaker than Rainbow remembered from watching the pegasus heal Sweetie Belle. Raincloud must have been nearly out of stamina even before she had suffered this injury. For several seconds, nothing seemed to come of the mare’s attempts at healing herself as her lifeblood kept gushing out.

Then, slowly but surely, the wound stopped bleeding and started to close. Rainbow Dash held her breath, as did Raincloud as she pushed herself just to keep up this one single task. Eventually, the flowing shadowy energy finally ceased, leaving behind a nasty-looking mess of scar tissue that hadn’t quite vanished.

Thankfully, however, the bleeding had stopped.

Rainbow Dash let out the breath she had been holding and smiled with relief as the gray mare laid back against the tree and panted heavily. “You did it… Oh man, thank goodness for that.” She said before turning as a particularly loud crash and a yell drew her attention back to the battle still waging behind them. “Can you still stand?” She asked, offering Raincloud a hoof up.

Raincloud hesitated from taking the cyan pony’s hoof. As she opened her mouth to speak, nothing but a slight harsh noise came out. She shifted her eyes warily and held a hoof to her neck, trying again only to receive the same result.

“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked. She frowned with concern as she watched the gray mare gesture to her own neck with a hoof and shake her head. “You can’t talk…?” She asked, receiving an uneasy nod in response.

Rainbow took a closer look at Raincloud’s neck. The scar tissue left behind from her wound certainly looked deep enough to cause problems with her vocal cords.

“Do you have enough energy left to heal it?” She asked before pausing and sighing. “Of course not. You would have already done it if you did… Stupid question, sorry.”

Raincloud gave her a flat look. Rainbow didn’t even need to hear her to understand what she meant.

“Alright…” Rainbow said, straining briefly as she pulled her companion to all fours and helped her steady herself before handing her a vial off her vest. “Take this, and be careful where you point it.”

Raincloud looked down to see that the pegasus had handed her her own popper. After staring at it, and then her for a moment, she nodded once.

“The safety’s off, so just point and shoot… oh, and please don’t pick now to turn on us.” Rainbow Dash reminded, a hint of weariness to her voice.

Raincloud rolled her eyes and grumbled as best she could, which didn’t amount to much, given the trainwreck that was her throat. Still, she couldn’t exactly blame the cyan mare too much for not completely trusting her.

Another thunderous impact drew the mares’ attention down. Several feet away, Blue Bolt was doing his best to dodge a flurry of tendrils striking the ground around him.

He seemed to barely be holding his own, and while his movements were sluggish and difficult, Dusk also seemed to be slowing down, either from exhaustion or to toy with the stallion further.

Rainbow Dash gasped as she watched a tendril swipe sideways into Blue Bolt’s ribs, sending him flying with great force and leaving a bloody gash up his side.

Blue sailed across the clearing at great speed before coming to an abrupt stop against another tree. The first impact rattled his very being, and the second impact with the ground did little to help.

“Ngh…” Blue squinted one eye open as he struggled to get up. He only managed to push himself up on his foreleg, chest heaving and limbs shaking. His side started to burn as his powers kicked in again and mended his newest wound. If he was being honest, he would rather deal with the gash.

“Blue Bolt!”

The faint voice of his friend calling out to him made the stallion look up. All he could see was a red whip crashing down toward him before the world went black.