Clang!!! CL-CLAKK!
Sparks showered in the center of a dark hallway, revealing a pair of identical, sweat-stained beaks. Not-so-identical limbs slashed and swung and parried with a pair of like-metallic staves. Some of the sparks fell on a collection of rags spilling out of an abandoned storage compartment. The dry material erupted in flames immediately, bathing the nearby bulkheads in amber firelight.
Wildcard's goggles glinted with the miniature blaze. Taking short and swift breaths, he backstepped, propping his staff horizontally over the stub of his left limb. Cuts and scrapes along his body glowed faintly in the chaotic dimness. Wildcard's headcrest lowered as he tightened his muscles in anticipation of his doppelganger's next attack.
Seething, the mimic Desperado approached. His lion's tail twitched, belying his next movement.
Wildcard readied himself. He lifted his staff at the last second, knocked the enemy's weapon down, then slammed his feline limbs down across the length of the metallic extension with all his weight.
The air rang with a sickening CRACK! Green blood poured out of the hollow of the fake bo-staff.
"Aaaaaaaaugh!" a pegasus mare's head erupted out of the fake griffin's neck. In a blood-curdling second, the changeling switched to Ariel, cradling her bleeding forelimb as her pained body banged against one wall, the next, and back again.
Panting, Wildcard leaned against Bard's staff, watching his crazed opponent with somber patience.
"Mmmmm—Mommmmma!" Ariel shrieked, then shook her head to the other side, forming tusks, hair, and spectacles. "Brrotherrssss!!!" Eyes flickered green, then turned magenta. "Celestia..." Rainbow Dash whimpered. "Why does it h-hurt so much?!"
Wildcard gulped. He steadied himself in the penumbra of the flames' warmth.
Seething, the creature looked up, glaring through the rising smoke. "Bloodwings."
Wildcard raised an eyecrest.
"You must be... hrkkkk..." The changeling's eyes flickered green once again. "A horrible name for horrible creatures... snkkkkt... she wrote them... mother etched them..." She choked on a sob. "...black scratches against the bone white surface of my dr-dreams..." Green bile dribbled out of the creature's muzzle. "I will... tell find her... tell her where you are..." She seethed as her eyes narrowed to hawkish slits. "...kill... every... one..."
It was then that the Desperado finally chose to charge his opponent. But just as he reached her, staff swinging—
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaugh!!!" With an explosion of wings and feathers, a bleeding Seraphimus leapt straight into his charge.
"!!!!!" Wildcard could scarcely raise the staff in time to defend himself. The doppelganger pounced him, swinging merciless talons and stabbing with the Talon Commander's beak.
The flames flickered brighter as a streak of glowing blood littered the bulkhead beside the blaze.
"Rainbow..." Fluttershy squirmed with sudden fright. "Rainbow, we have to go up to the top floors! Now!"
"Yeah, I get it, Flutters," Rainbow said, already gliding along with Ariel for the nearest stairwell. She illuminated the path ahead of them with her ruby pendant. "If we hurry, we might just meet up with Logan and check—"
"Logan's fine!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "It's Wildcard!"
Rainbow did a double-take in midflight. "Wildcard?"
"Wildcard?!" Ariel stammered.
"I... I'm afraid he's hurt!" Fluttershy's voice cracked. "He must be in battle with the changeling."
"And what?" Applejack craned her neck. "The changeling's winnin'?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Pinkie Pie winced as her body vibrated in two alternating places. "Fluttershy's right. We should hurry."
"What does that twitch mean, Pinkie?" Rarity asked.
"Well, back home, it usually meant that I was burning brownies in the oven!"
"There's... no bakery for thousands of miles!"
Rainbow clenched her teeth. "A fire..."
"Rainbow...?" Ariel murmured.
"Move your wings!" Rainbow Dash flapped harder as she shot her body up the stairwell. "The situated just shifted from 'holy crud' to 'holy mega super crud!'"
"Cr-crud!" Ariel wheezed, struggling to keep up.
"Thattagirl!" Rainbow sped vertically through the heart of Darkreach. "Keep it brief!"
For the fifth time in a row, Kepler struck a match.
He slowly waved the meager light about, squinting through his glasses to make out any possible detail in the pitch-black common room. All he caught was the glint of firelight against the tile of the Verdestone Mosaic.
Somewhere in the distance, growing faint and fainter, a series of metallic impacts echoed.
"Could... it be the powerr going back on?" Kepler stammered.
"Don't be so foolish, wyvern," droned a cold voice from the shadows. Kepler turned around, and the matchlight illuminated Seraphimus pale feathers. "There's combat going on deep in these halls," Seraphimus said, her voice tense. Cautious. "The longer we wait here, the more we delay the inevitable."
Kepler took a deep breath. "My frriends have things underr contrrol."
"Only a Blighted fool could believe that," Seraphimus muttered. "But if you believe in what the Rainbow Rogue says, then that's not a grand surprise."
"Shhhh!" Kepler waved her off while craning his hairy neck towards the distant echoes. "I must ascerrtain what is going on!"
"What's to figure out?" Seraphimus glared. "Judging from the ferocity of that noise, it can only belong to one griffin." Her crest feathers raised on end. "Let me go."
"Bite yourr tongue!" Kepler snapped. "You know verry well I cannot do that!"
"You can and you should!" Seraphimus snarled. "Jordan is in trouble! And if you're too weak to help him—"
"I have my station, just as he has his."
"Wyvern..." Seraphimus stared solidly at him. "I do not care for the Rainbow Rogue or your foolish brothers-in-arms... but if there's any scrap of respectful spirit left in Jordan's beleaugered body, then I would be remiss to let him perish at the hands of whatever goddess-forsaken monstrosity dwells here."
Kepler turned to smirk at her. "Currious... that cerrtainly does not like the thoughtless crretin who attacked us on the Gondola..."
Seraphimus clenched her beak shut. She sat silent where she was handcuffed to the pipework.
"Arre you rready to embrrace exactly wherre you arre?"
Silence.
Eerie silence.
"Shhhhhh...!" Kepler craned his neck. "Do you hearr that? The sounds of combat have stopped."
Seraphimus fumed. "I swear... if he's dead, wyvern, you will have to own up for—"
"Silence! Please, fickle one!" Kepler insisted. As his match went out, he lit another one and hobbled towards the nearest hallway. "Wildcarrd?"
There was no response.
"Brrotherr...?"
Sill dead silence.
Seraphimus and Kepler held their breaths.
Then... a light... flickering.
Bzzzzzt!
The manalights lining the ceiling of the common room lit up with a pale glow.
"Ha-hah!" Kepler beamed through his tusks as the room traded pitch black for a comfortable dimness. "Flynn, you brrilliant crreaturre!"