Orders from the Head should never be discussed. It was like that and no otherwise. In other circumstances, they all would have followed this instruction to the letter, not even asking themselves questions. Tonight it was different. They had not been thoughtful, they had let Applejack go without making sure she was not in danger and because of this, Rainbow Dash had gone as well.
They all had in minds what had happened to Double Diamond. The memory was still fresh. It was clear that danger was prowling, especially as taken into account Twilight Sparkle’s warning. This was the reason they were supposed to be at this assembly, after all.
They had no time to waste. By joint agreement, the three stallions decided to go and save both Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Soarin would take care of the mare pegasus for a practical obvious reason, and the other two would get separated ways, looking for the Angel of Mercy.
They had no plans in mind, no pre-established strategies. It was too late to think about it. Time was running out and they had to act.
Only, as soon as they were decided, like popping from out of nowhere, a pack of stallions dressed in white cloaks turned up in front of their dumbstruck eyes, all ready to charge into them at the least move.
It would have been easier to flee for Soarin. With a few flaps, he would fly away, on condition that none of their opponents were pegasi. But it would also mean abandoning his brothers of arms behind him. There was no way he could do such a thing. He maybe was The Council’s “newbie” yet he was part of this Militia too and he was not to behave like a coward colt.
If they wanted to fight to the finish, fine. They could count on him.
A pony with a coat similar to its anthracite mane stepped forward. Undoubtedly, he was the leader of that small brigade. His eyes determined and full of self-confidence, he scrubbed the thick layer of snow under his hooves, as if ready to attack.
“So, minions? Feeling lonely without your marefriends?”
They all knew this sentence had been said with the sole purpose of provoking them. Of course, it made most of the stallions who were waiting behind laughing out loud. Now there was no doubt this whole thing had been an ambush from the very beginning, and they had fell into it headfirst. Somewhere in the city, Applejack and Rainbow Dash probably also had to deal with attackers.
And the only way for the trio to be able to help them was to get rid of the bunch in front of them. They were about twenty ponies. Against three. Quite a difficult challenge to take up, yet not impossible.
All they needed was the spark to set the whole thing on fire. Though Big Macintosh did not like the insinuation about his little sister, he would rather not to give in to provocation. That would give them too much credit.
“Don’t worry”, the grey pony continued. “As soon as we’ll be done with you, we’ll go and take care of them both. I always wanted to get a taste of fighting mares.”
Impulsiveness was something to avoid in such circumstances. They all knew it… Yet one of them would not bear this new insinuation. No pony would touch one horsehair of his marefriend.
Caramel rushed forward the agitator without further thinking, his head low, determined to attack vehemently and to make him swallow his arrogance. Maybe it was stupid to react this way but for Applejack, he was willing to do anything, even such a mistake. If she was insulted or in danger, even if she undoubtedly had the ability to defend herself, as the overtrained mare she was, he had to defend her honor.
Unfortunately, the targeted pony avoided him right on time, bouncing on the side. Caramel crushed against another stallion instead, who had not expected to be accidentally knocked out and made a few of his companions stumble with him like a domino game.
This was not what was on his mind, but after all, if it helped to eliminate a few adversaries by the way, it meant his attack had not been completely pointless.
“You’re pretty bad, actually, for the very best of Ponyville”, the grey pony chuckled.
He barely finished his line when he received a violent hooves kick in his head that knocked him to the ground.
Soarin had not think. That pony needed a good lesson. As Rainbow Dash had told him when he failed on his Warrior Test, this was what happened to smart-asses showing off.
Enough time had been wasted. Now was the time to act for real. To defend themselves, to defend The Militia and to defend the two absent mares.
With this offensive, they had just lifted the flood barrier. The show was about to begin and no holds barred. Caramel stood back up, rushed to Big Macintosh and Soarin’s sides, ready to launch another attack while the bunch of stallions was closing around them.
Caramel tacitly glanced at Applejack’s older brother. Without even communicating through words, they had understood each other.
“We’ll take care of them, Soarin.”
“Eeyup”, Big Macintosh answered, determination in his green eyes.
“What?”
He did not understand. They were an army, the same hooves of one single body. They had to fight together or to renounce. Nevertheless, he had thought he had taken his chance to be treated as one of them, although he had been chosen for this Council by “chance” … and a bit randomly as well.
“No time to babble on”, Caramel continued while the circle of ponies kept on closing around them. “Try to find Rainbow Dash and Applejack. They are fighters of excellency, the best… But Members of the Council protect each other. We can’t escape those ones, but you can. Go and protect them. It’s your duty as a Member of this Council.”
Big Macintosh nodded.
The circle was still closing around them. Soon he as well would not be able to escape the ponies willing to attack them. It was no longer time to think, now it was time to act – for good, for the Cloth’s sake.
Right before it was too late, Soarin was finally able to take off and went away without a look behind, searching for one of the mares, if not both of them – maybe they had been able to meet each other. He was not sure he would be that helpful. As Caramel had insisted, they were the best. Yet he also had insisted that it was his duty and he did not want to escape from it. Fear of losing, of suffering again, gnawing at him from the inside did no longer matter.
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The way things were going, the fight has gone from “no magic” to “no weapons”, without one or the other to ask questions. This way, the ratio of power was supposed to be balanced.
Nevertheless, Rarity seldom had a real occasion to be bare-hooves fighting. She excelled with her mini razor blades, with which she was always sure to win, no matter the performance, but in face-to-face with this fair-maned little savage, it was something else than training with cotton sacks filled with feathers.
No need to be in The Militia to be able to fight. All it took was the desire to learn, and money, and a Fighting Master would take care of you, teach you the techniques and when you were a unicorn as she, how to use magic in order to have a signature, something no pony would be supposed to mimic.
Because of this, she had to admit that it was a little difficult for her to do well and honorably. Her white coat was soiled by the dirty snow and traces of Applejack’s boots. Her hoof kicks were always terrible. It never missed their targets.
Magical gifts of the unicorns depended upon their special talents. Rarity’s was to create beautiful things. Conversely to the earth mare, she did not have the art of fighting under her skin. She had learned from curiosity, in order not to be a poor defenseless mare like many of the wealthy children she knew. If she fought right now, it was for another reason. A personal reason.
She believed in him and in his cause. He had suffered from an injustice that deserved to be fixed. He was the legitimate heir of the throne and though she could admit qualities to the governing princesses, her classic education made her think this was nothing normal. A throne was made to be shared by a king and his spouse.
If he won, she would not be his spouse. Another mare was his betrothed. She was the daughter of the family that had taken him in and hid him for all these years. A reserved and soft pegasus mare who would never contradict her King. Oppositely to Rarity, who might have been rose like a lady but never let any pony get in her way.
For a couple of seconds, she thought she would be able to grab Applejack by her mane and throw her flat on her face but she was not being swift enough. The latter took the advantage from her being so close to strike her with a new kick directly against her stomach.
Rarity jumped a few inches farther, her back crushed against a patch of ground which snow had been overturned. This would leave tracks all over her coat, for sure. She would never be able to have it white again.
“Yar daydreamin’ too much, princess. Ah thought ya wanted to fight!”
Her back felt hatched from pain. It would have been hypocrite to deny the obvious. This Applejack knew the business. Each of her kicks and blows seemed more violent than the last. Yet, at first sight, it was not that easy to guess she was so strong.
Prince Blueblood had sent her to fight with The Militia’s Second-in-Command assuring her that she was nothing but an “unequal minion” and that it would be a plain formality for Rarity. Either he had lied to her or he had misjudged the mare’s abilities. Even the snow still falling around never seemed not to disturb her the least. Each time a flake wound up on her muzzle or eyelashes, she got rid of it shaking her head. The fact her damp mane deflated on each side of her neck had no effect on her neither while Rarity was shaking inside just to think her horsehair was the same mess.
That was probably the case, mentioned in passing.
“Really? I thought you were here to fight.”
Applejack rose an inquiring eyebrow in front of this affirmation. She obviously had the advantage. So what?
As long as things would be happening this way, it looked evident that Rarity would go from defeat to defeat. The True King had given her a mission and she wanted to complete it successfully. There was no way that this tousled hick would have the upper hand. What she was about to do was not really spirit of fair-play but she had made up her mind.
She stood back up and shook her mess of a mane.
“I am sorry… but I think I am going to cheat a tinsy little bit.”
A few gem-shaped blades went out from between her purple horsehair. Too bad for the fairly fight, even if this was not a very distinguished behavior. Ask a radical fight, get a radical solution.
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Dust was itchy to her nostrils. Before she even opened her eyes, Rainbow Dash sneezed. The sound it made echoed in each corner of the place she was at.
She was feeling dizzy. Then, the sensation of burn came back to her slowly, as if trying to torture her. She could feel the blood dripping from her lower flank and the flesh inside gnawing. Something was planted there, and she could not help a cry of pain when the thing in question was taken off her.
The floor of the abandoned house inside which she had fallen was dirty and smelled musty. The walls around her oozed and the cold from outside rushed into the inside through the broken windows. A few flakes even fell there. Obviously, she never landed in this place by accident. Somepony wanted her to collapse here.
She leaned against her forelegs in order to try to stand back up. Where had her boots gone? Her limbs were shaky and tears formed beads in the corner of her eyes. She had to clench her teeth and bit her lower lip not to let her pain express itself again. Blood kept on dropping along her hind hoof and the fabric of her cloak started to stick against the wound.
“You’re taking so long for a little scratch”, a masculine voice next to her said.
As her eyes got used to darkness again, she discovered little by little the characteristics of the figure standing out in front of her. A celadon-colored coat hidden by a white cloak with two holes for his wings and an indigo mane matching his eyes.
She had never seen him before. It did not matter. Rainbow Dash knew who he was. A member from this mysterious army called “unavowed”. If she judged by the fact that white was a royal color and a synonym of death at the same time, she could start to sketch a meaning to this masquerade.
There was an arrow on the floor which tip gleamed of scarlet. Arks and arrows as well as crossbows were forbidden in Equestria. They were considered as disloyal weapons, black market armaments sold to criminals too coward to be able to fight at a right distance. What a strange mix…
“Still not on your hooves, Rainbow Dash?”
“Won’t you lay off me!”
“Oh no, I won’t… See, I can’t wait to get started”, he said before lifting his cloak, revealing the longest sword she had ever seen.
Alright, she was hurt and he still had all of his energy. It could not have been any different since instead of attacking her point-blank, he had chosen to take her by surprise. If he had met her face to face without the help of a subterfuge, she knew it, he would already be biting the dust right now.
She wanted to take him at his word, to show him that even if her weapon was not as impressive, she was in no way helpless and would respond properly, but when she lifted her own cloak, Rainbow Dash remarked in fear that her sword was no longer tied at her waist. The links holding it seemed to have been ripped off.
“I think what you’re looking for has stayed on the roof”, the male pegasus said. “How unlucky.”
Rainbow Dash rose her eyes and noticed the hole in the tiles created by her fall. On the brink of it, her sword’s sheath was dangerously wobbling, pushed by the wind yet never seemed ready to tip over.
What was he thinking? She was not a simple earth pony, although there was no shame at it. All she needed was a few flaps of her wings and she would get it back in no time. In pain or not in pain.
Her hooves took off of the mucky floor, but she barely had the time to fly higher that the unknown pegasus was holding her back by her tail, pulling it with his teeth… She hated so much! Even when Applejack was doing this, she wanted to scream. He did not know the mistake he had done here.
Actually, in order to get rid of him, she did not hesitate to kick his face and was happy when she hurt him under his eyes. Unfortunately, it was not enough. He successfully made her fall back on the floor, destroying her center of gravity.
“Don’t deceive me more, Rainbow… Or do your friends call you Dash? Nevermind. Everypony says you’re quite something, that the Thunder of Revenge never spare any souls. I’m starting to doubt your legend. Seems like in reality, you’re nothing but a showy brat.”
As a teen filly, when she had been enrolled at the Academy of the Cavalry, or even in her beginnings inside The Militia, she had been the kind of pony to fly off the handle at the least of provocations. She had had many problems by giving in too quickly when in front of mockeries and bullies from the others. If someone wanted to fight, she was swift to beat the hell out of him or her.
Then what she regarded as her biggest mistake had taught her it was best to think, to put things into perspective. By agreeing to become Head of the Militia, to take on her shoulders the responsibility of a whole city, she had quietened down. In private, she could allow herself to be acting more spontaneously. There was no way she could do that when in duty.
She did not want to please this stranger by giving him what he wanted. She had to resist, not to get carried away. And above all, she had to keep the control of herself.
“Won’t you please shut the fuck up!”, she mocked between her teeth. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“I do know what I’m talking about. The great Rainbow Dash, undefeated for years. Legends. These are nothing but urban legends. If you’re as strong as you pretend, you don’t need any artefact to beat me. I am August Charmer and I’m ready to defy you. All your dearest friends probably are dead at this very moment, anyway.”
She knew she would not avoid this combat and that she would have to fight against him bare-hooves against sword. As soon as she had fallen, she had guessed the same trap probably would have got Applejack too, and surely even Caramel, Big Macintosh… and Soarin. However, they all had been trained and knew how to fight. It was what they were living for.
But her family… Nothing told her they were safe. If anyone would touch even the least horsehair of their heads, she would no longer be able to control what was inside of her.
Without a word because it was useless, she positioned in front of him, a flame dancing inside her magenta eyes. The fight that was about to begin was nothing fair. Too bad. If she won, she would prove her worth to this moron talking without knowing. Although she absolutely had no doubts about her worth. She was the best. Spread the word.