The Light Inside Us

Twilight stared at Theo. She was trapped and cornered in an underground crypt with Rainbow, Thorax, and Smolder, by Theo, Radcliffe and some others.

Plus, Theo had just shattered a vial, and Rainbow seemed horror-struck by it.

“Murder time,” said Vulture, pulling out a crossbow.

This is it, Twilight thought, We’re dead.

But a stronger voice was telling her, NO!! You can’t give up hope!!

So Twilight thought hard about what to do. Her mind wasn’t drawing anything.

“What?” Theo smirked, noticing Twilight’s blank expression. “Your mind finally failed you?”

“Mine didn’t,” said Thorax, and without warning he sent a spell flying at Theo.

Theo casually deflected it, doing exactly what Thorax had wanted–distracting him.

Thorax’s second spell hit the lights.

“Calm down!” Thorax yelled, as Smolder screamed.

Theo ignited his horn. Twilight hit him with a spell.

Theo responded with a verbal curse.

Radcliffe sent a spell into the darkness. There was a brief moment, then Thorax lunged up and sank his fangs deep into Rad’s side.

With his echo-location, Thorax had the advantage of being able to see in the dark, while the others were fighting blind.

Vulture fired his crossbow.

Dash’s world went spinning. She hit the ground and the scroll slipped from her hooves. “No!” she cried.

Thorax was fighting several ponies at once. He sent spells at them, knocking them unconscious.

Then Thorax felt a curse miss him by inches.

Theo’s horn was glowing red in the dark, and Thorax attacked….

There was a very intense scuffle, and Thorax wasn’t entirely sure what was happening. He killed his original spell, and the lights came on.

Theo and Radcliffe were lying on the ground wounded, but most of the team was still conscious.

Dash grabbed the scroll. “C’mon!”

“You psycho,” growled Vulture. “die.”

Twilight and her friends made it to the entrance tunnel, just as a firework exploded behind them.

Smolder flicked the key card on the scanner, and the secret entrance opened.

Vulture entered the tunnel, and Dash slammed the door on him.

Vulture’s muffled yells were drowned out as another firework exploded behind them.

Twilight spun around, in time to see Snowy fire another firework at her.

“Hey!” yelled Smolder. “You again!”

“‘Course,” said Snowy, sending a spell at the vending machine. It tore off the wall, and Vulture stepped out seeming unfazed.

More ponies were now flooding into the atrium.

Smolder sent flames at the carpeted floor, and it burst into flames.

“C’mon!” she yelled.

They started towards the door, but Smolder, having a crazy idea, pulled them towards the back stairwell.

“This way!”

Twilight glanced back, and was glad to see Shiny wasn’t in the burning room anymore.

They entered the stairwell, and started running up.

Snowy entered second, followed by Vulture.

About halfway up, Twilight fell back, and threw Snowy back. A spell cracked the stairs.

Dash threw the doors open.

“Why are we here?” asked Thorax, as the enemies began exiting onto the roof.

“Jump!” yelled Smolder, leaping to the adjacent building.

“‘Course we’re gonna do this,” muttered Twilight.

She leapt, and sent a stunning spell back. An assassin fell to the ground, six stories below.

Smolder ducked behind a heater.

A pony tackled Dash to the ground.

A second later the giant fan on the heater burst off and struck him.

Smolder flashed a thumbs up.

“You just stole that from Daring Do,” Dash said, getting up.

The next building was up.

“Window!” Thorax yelled, and dropped, smashing through somepony’s balcony window. He hit a sofa, and was unhurt.

His friends dropped in after him.

Thorax ducked behind the kitchen counter, as Snowy tried to kill him with a curse. It exploded a case of water bottles, flooding the kitchen. The fridge door opened.

A pony charged Thorax, slipped on the water, and smashed into the fridge, knocking the shelves out. Thorax slammed the door on him.

Thorax sent a spell at Snowy, and knocked her over the sofa.

Vulture blew up the counter. A chunk of marble hit Thorax in the head.

Twilight blasted Vulture off his hooves.

Jase tackled Twilight to the ground, and pulled out a knife. Twi wrestled it out of his hooves, then threw it out the window. Jase punched her in the mouth.

Ignoring the coppery taste of blood in her mouth, Twilight threw Jase off her, and he slammed into an orange unicorn with a green mane.

The orange unicorn stumbled onto the balcony.

Vulture recovered, but so did Thorax, and they launched themselves at each other. Vulture sent a punch at Thorax, but was blocked. Thorax launched a combo at Vulture, who stopped it, before rolling on top of Thorax. Thorax felt the air slowly being crushed out of him.

Twilight threw Vulture off Thorax with her magic. Vulture hit one of his teammates, and they all tumbled onto the balcony.

Twilight severed the balcony from the building, and Dash and Smolder slammed the doors shut.

Vulture jumped right before the balcony fell, and shattered one of the glass doors, but Dash kicked out, and Vulture fell.

Snowy (who was now fighting solo) sent a spell at Smolder, knocking her into the other glass door, which cracked. Smolder dived out of the way, and Snowy’s follow up spell shattered the glass, before blowing a sizable crater in the neighboring building.

Thorax jumped up, but Snowy punched him in the face, before tossing him out of the hole.

“Thorax!” yelled Dash.

A spell hit Dash, throwing her out of the building, but she extended her wings, and recovered. She noticed Thorax had landed on a fire escape, and was fine.

Snowy sent a curse at Twi, who parried, before wrapping Snowy up in her magic.

Snowy broke free. Smolder snatched a paper weight off the floor, and hurled it at her. It struck Snowy in the head, and she crumpled to the ground.

“We have to get down,” said Smolder, as sirens wailed on the street below.

“Here!” Thorax called. “Fire escape!”

Twi and Smolder jumped to it. The steel crumpled and warped under their weight. Dash, who’d been right under the platform, let go. The structure crumpled right above her, and Dash wondered if she'd be crushed. At the very bottom, Dash extended her wings, and slipped out, but not before the structure hit her. She skidded across the asphalt, bleeding.

“Oh Dash we’re so sorry!” Twi exclaimed, jumping down and kneeling beside her friend.

“Should've realized that would happen,” said Smolder sheepishly.

“Don’t worry,” said Dash through gritted teeth, “I’m fine. Now let’s get out of this place!”

“Not so fast!”

Twilight turned to see Vulture and the orange unicorn aiming their horns at her.

“You’re so dead you psychos!” the orange unicorn growled.

“Shut up Zapp,” said a voice calmly.

Twilight felt her heart drop. She turned to see Theo striding towards them. He stood at the edge of the alley. Twilight wasn’t sure if it was a result of the fight or not, but Theo was missing a bit of his ear. He also had a scar across his face.

“Wow what happened to you,” Dash mocked. “Got hit by a train or something?”

Theo’s ear twitched irritability. “I could ask the same about you. Been through a meat grinder as of lately?”

Dash scrunched up her face. “Lemme think… No, no, I don’t believe I have. Are you speaking from personal experience?”

Theo actually took a step back. “You’ve been trained in insult school or something?”

“Nah,” said Dash airily. “And I doubt you’ve been. You’re insults suck!”

“Well my magic doesn’t!” Theo yelled, lighting his horn up.

“Wow,” said Dash, “you’re making your horn glow. I’m so scared–.”

Theo fired, and Dash dodged, before slamming into Theo. They hit a wall.

Vulture cursed, but before he could do anything, Twilight paralyzed him.

The orange unicorn just backed away. Thorax stunned her.

Theo flipped Dash over, and slammed her to the ground. Dash yelped.

Twilight blasted Theo away.

Theo backed slowly into the street, sending curses back at Twilight and her friends.

Twilight sent a spell at Theo. It somehow missed all the oncoming spells, and hit him. Theo staggered.

Smolder wrenched open a door set into the wall of the alley.

“Here!” she yelled.

Twi sent another spell, before turning, and entering the door. She slammed, and magically locked it. It was pitch black, and oddly, smelled of mushrooms, pizza sauce, and pasta.

“Bingo!” said Thorax and flipped a switch. The lights flicked on.

They were in a kitchen. Pizza ingredients and sauce were littered haphazardly on tables. There were ovens along one wall, and sinks all along another.

“Er,” said Smolder. “Maybe I should have considered the possibility that we’re trapped here….”

The door tore off its hinges. Vulture was standing there. Theo brushed past him and entered the room.

“You nutters!” he yelled.

“You coward!” yelled Dash.

Theo sent a spell at Dash. Dash ducked out of the way, before grabbing a pizza cutter and throwing it at Theo. Theo jumped out of the way, and hit a sink, tearing it off the wall. Water spewed from the wall.

Theo howled.

All the others entered the room, and for the first time, Dash realized truly how many ponies Theo had under his control.

She didn’t like it.

Twilight sent spells flying at the assassins, while Thorax started fighting Vulture again.

Thorax threw Vulture over a table. Vulture threw a table at Thorax. Thorax hit the ground, and Vulture pounced. Thorax blocked a one-two combo, before punching Vulture in the throat. Vulture kicked him in the stomach. Thorax blasted Vulture in the chest.

Vulture tumbled out the door.

At which point all the sinks exploded. Ceramic flew everywhere, and water began rushing out.

Theo staggered out the door. Vulture slammed it.

“Huh?” asked Dash. “They ran?”

Twilight finished subduing all the enemies.

“I guess so. Let’s get outta here.” Twilight grabbed the door in her magic, but it didn’t budge.

Smolder glanced down. The water was already covering her feet. “I think I see their strategy,” she said, trying to stay calm.

“Aww,” said Dash. “That sucks.”

Twilight yanked back, but the door remained firmly shut.

“We can teleport out!” said Thorax.

Twilight’s horn glowed, but nothing happened. “Excellent,” she said. “It appears the Royal Guard have shown up and cast anti-teleportation spells over the whole block.”

“That’s oddly specific,” said Smolder.

“Shiny told me about it.”

Dash gave a sort of half wince.

Thorax rolled his eyes. Dash grabbed Thorax and pulled him to a corner. “Can’t we use Felics Felix?” he asked.

Thorax sighed. “I left my bag back in that unmarked office. And I get a feeling that it's considered a crime scene right now.”

“Did you put your initials on that bag?” asked Dash worriedly.

“No,” said Thorax. “They won’t know who’s bag it was. I left no identifiers either.”

“Can you hurry up over there?” asked Twilight desperately. The water was now up to her chest.

They were going to drown.

~~~~

Twi felt funny. Dash had gone to Thorax. This just further increased her certainty that they were a thing. Before she’d been able to pawn it off as just a hunch, but now she was almost certain.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“Look for another way out!” Smolder said.

Dash turned away from Thorax, and started searching.

“Just blow the door open!” Dash yelled.

Twilight sent a spell at the door, but only succeeded in knocking herself out cold.

“Twilight!” Dash yelled, lunging over to her, and dragging her out of the water, which was now up to Dash’s neck.

The others were already swimming. “They put some spell on it!” Thorax called, thinking of what could bypass it.

“Twilight!” Dash yelled again, shaking Twilight desperately. “Twily wake up! Please!”

And in that moment Smolder understood.

“Smolder!” called Thorax. “Any ideas?”

“Negative,” said Smolder. “You?”

“Maybe,” said Thorax, getting a sudden inspiration. He sent a spell across the room. It hit the wall, which cracked a little.

“It’s working!” Smolder exclaimed, swimming over to Thorax. Dash pulled Twilight over as well.

Thorax kept chipping away at it.

The water was rushing in faster than ever.

And then, without warning, Smolder’s head bumped into the roof. “Running out of time Thorax!”

Thorax kept shooting at the same spot. “Please,” he murmured.

Smolder started taking deep breaths. She was gonna have to start holding it soon. Dash knew what she was doing, but kept shaking Twilight, trying to wake her up. “Twily WAKE UP!! You’re going to DROWN!!”

Thorax saw a tiny bit of sunlight. He focused all his energy on the spot.

Then, without warning, he was underwater.

Thorax fired.

The wall shattered.

The water burst out like a tidal wave. Everything in its path was picked up and thrown. The guards in the street scattered, as the wave dispersed.

And then it was over. Dash suddenly realized she was hugging Twilight hard. Dash was considering letting go, when Twilight opened her eyes.

And threw up.

Dash immediately released her, as Twilight’s lungs purged themselves of all the water she’d swallowed.

She shakily got up.

“Well that was something,” she murmured softly.

Dash smiled.

Smolder and Thorax rounded the corner.

“Oh now you wake up,” Smolder huffed.

Dash glared at her.

Strangely, everyone there knew what was happening between Dash and Twilight, and they all seemed to be pretending they didn’t. Except for Twilight, who was way too weak to pretend.

“Let’s, er, get outta here,” Thorax suggested awkwardly. “I’m not really in the mood to get arrested.”

Dash helped Twilight to her hooves.

Smolder glanced at Thorax and whispered, “Do you know?”

“Yes,” he whispered back.

Smolder checked to make sure that Dash and Twi were far behind them, then whispered, “D’you think it’ll work out?”

Thorax smiled. “Yes, I think it will.”