//------------------------------// // Dissonance Of Harmony // Story: Castle Ponyvania // by Truro //------------------------------// Chapter 6 From the high tower, Punch Spike watched as our six heroines crossed the castle draw bridge and enter the main keep. "Bollocks!" he snapped. "Please don't swear in front of the prisoner." Said Fallen. "What the hell are you talking about, Fall Guy? She's a sacrifice!" he pointed at Apple Bloom who was cast in an iron collar attached to an alter, "What does It matter if she hears me swearing or not?" "Your bad language offends me, too you know." Eclipse added. "Look, can we shut up about what words I can or can't say for a moment and concentrate? The good guys are breaking in! One of use has to get downstairs and kick them silly tarts out!" A smile of relief returned to Apple Bloom's face. The term 'Good Guys' likely referred to her big sister and her friends, as they had often been entrusted with special missions for Princess Celestia, such as dragon hunting. The term 'Tarts' on the other hand had her puzzled. Was Apple Jack going to use apple tarts to rescue her? Then again, Apple Pies were the weapon of choice in the battle of Appaloosa, so maybe there was method to her madness after all. "Right!" Punch shouted "Who's going after them?" "I'll stay here and guard the prisoner." Said Fallen. "There's a turn up. I'd have thought you'd be the first one to get your teeth into that yellow one." Fallen began to look uncomfortable. "I'm…not as hungry as I thought I was." Punch turned to Eclipse. "I've got to start getting ready for the ceremony. You go and get rid of them." "Me? But I'll get my mane all sweaty!" "Get your fat arse down those stairs or I'll rip every last bloody hair out!" With his pompadour held hostage in this way, Eclipse had no choice. *-*-* The bearers of the elements of harmony entered the great hall of the castle, tired but unbeaten. Most were panting and sweat trickled along their backs. "Can't stop…" Rainbow Dash panted "Must…save...Bloom." "Wait!" Rarity gasped, "Just let me get my second wind!" "There's no…" pant "time!" She got into the starter's position and was just about to take off, when Twilight hopped in front of her. "Calm down, Rainbow." "Outta my…" gasp "way…" pant "Twilight." "Look, there's still time before midnight and some of the others are about to collapse." "Then I'll go on without you!" "We can only activate the elements of harmony when the six of us are together! Let's just take five minutes to get our bearings and catch our breath." Rainbow just pounced and dashed right past her right past her. "Oh no you don't!" Apple Jack yelled, jumping in front. "If you don't get out my way I'll…!" "You do what? Get it into that thick skull of yours! You're not the only one who wants to save Apple Bloom!" Rainbow just glared. It was a battle of wills as their eyes met. "This isn't like the running of the leaves. There's more at stake than winning a stupid bet, or showing off how great you are. If you're going to stand even a snowball's chance in a volcano against those vamponies, then you're going to need help. It doesn't matter how tough you think you are." Rainbow's eyes flashed with anger and she reeled with a furious neigh. Then she sat down. "Five minutes. No more!" Silence fell. Twilight pulled out her thermos and passed it around. "Ooh! I know what we need!" Pinkie piped up. She was one of the few who least needed a rest. She had neigh unlimited energy. She went along the wall and tapped it with her front hoof. Her child like face conveyed a focused look that indicated that it was one of those rare times that she was actually concentrating on something. Tap tap. Solid. Tap, tap. Nope. Tap, tap. Not here. Thud, thud. Perfect! She smiled, flipped around and smashed the wall open with a double back kick. The others were speechless. The dust settled and there, in the new hole in the wall, was a plate with six donughts. "Doughnut anyone?" Jaws all around were dropped so low they could practically have dug a hole all the way to china. And if Pinkie producing sweets from the wall wasn't random enough, music started playing. "Oh no! No Pinkie! Not now!" Twilight wailed. "If you want a tasty treat that's round, not long, A hundred million beat cops can't be wrong! Hardy any two will ever taste the same, Be they either filled or glazed or plain! Donuts! Over them, I gush! Donuts! For a sugar rush! Doghnuuuts… Doughnuts!" Once the music died down, they began to eat the snacks. Already, they were feeling a little better. Music can do that sometimes. Like if you hear a catchy disco beat, sometimes you just have this uncontrollable urge to get up and dance. The sugar from the doughnuts and the caffeine from the coffee revitalised the six. "Ah! How quaint! A nice little picnic!" came a voice. The six fillies turned to see Eclipse entering through a door. Apple Jack jumped up and stood firm, with a firry snort. "Where's Apple Bloom? Bring her down now!" He sighed. "You are so one track minded. How come you never ask how I am?" "It might have something to do with the fact that you keep stalking us, trying to drink our blood and you kidnapped a small child!" "Oh, Miss Sparkle, don't you see? You could have been a fine vampony. What a team we would have made! You with your brains, recourses, popularity and magic! And me, with my…" "With your sequins and hairspray. Now get out of our way or I'll show you my magic up front! " her horn glowed menacingly like a red light sabre. He glowered at the six fillies. "I should have known. Heartless witches just like all the other girls who've rejected me. I've tried to befriend every filly in Ponyville and only one was ever kind enough to give me the time of day." "You're rather vain for someone without a reflection." Said Rarity. "The one common element among those girls is you. Just because someone doesn't fawn over you, doesn't mean they don't have a heart." "Enough talk!" yelled Rainbow, "I'm gonna smash you into a pile of dust, buster!" She dived towards him. His horn glowed and the skeleton ponies dived out of the shadows, crashing into rainbow and pining her down. Then more of them charged at the other ponies. The two on top of rainbow dash kept stomping her. One began to rip the feathers out of her wings. She screamed in pain and thrashed around violently. Twilight shot out a magic bolt at the one in front of her. "Fluttershy! You go help Rainbow!" "Alright." Fluttershy raced forward and slammed into one of them. As the skeleton reeled like a cobra, Fluttershy opened her wing and spun it through the monster's neck sending its head flying. Fluttershy stood over Rainbow Dash, keeping the skeletons away by swinging her powerful wings around like swords. All around, fur and bones were flying. Earth ponies kicked, and unicorns fired light magic in every direction. Eclipse was satisfied. There were enough skeletons to keep the girls at bay without him being directly involved, so he powered up his horn. It glowed an angry red and burst into flames. Whoosh! His horn began to spew embers. One singed Apple Jack's tail as she yelped out of the way. Pinkie did a jump splits as the fireball shot under her legs. Now the goodies had to dodge fireballs. But they couldn't keep dodging because they were trying to fight the skeletons, which were harder to hit because fireballs were shooting up their backsides, but Fluttershy couldn't dodge the fireballs because she was trying to protect Rainbow Dash and she couldn't protect Rainbow Dash because all the chaos was driving her batty! Eclipse grinned with every ounce of smugness and sadistic pleasure. He could aim his shot safely. In his sinister sights, was the white unicorn who dared to call him vain. Boom. Direct hit. Rarity screamed in agony. The others look towards her and screamed as their friend fell to the ground, her mane burning and her agonised wailing fading away, drowned out by Eclipse's laughter. Time seemed to stop. Rarity lay completely still and silent on the ground. Then she got up. "My hair…what did he do to my hair?" She felt her long purple main and grabbed a string. It was pitch black, smelled horrible and crumbled to ash. Her eyes narrowed into razor sharp knives. "Son of a bitch…" Eclipse stopped laughing when he saw Rarity. Her horn glowed violent purple. Sparks of magic zapped menacingly, lighting up the whole room. Eclipse started to look nervous. "S-S-Stop her!" One ran at her from the side. A swipe of her hoof knocked its head off. Another tried to grab her from behind and was blasted with magic for its trouble. By now, Eclipse was really getting scarred. He turned and ran. His hoofs pounded the floor as Rarity's horn gave a maddeningly loud hum and a bolt of lightning shot out. Eclipse's scream echoed down the hall. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. And a bolt of lightning up the ass for a ruined mane. The last skeleton broke apart with a rattle of bones. Panting with anger, Rainbow Dash picked her self up. "This…is…stupid." She turned towards the door and began walking. "Rainbow! What are you doing?" Twilight called. Rainbow turned and shot her a nasty look. "You're plan isn't going to work! You're leading a suicide run!" She opened up her wings. A couple of torn feathers floated down. "You can't leave!" Apple Jack yelled "What about my sister." Rainbow said nothing. She just galloped out of the door and took off into the cold, cloudy night. Apple Jack ran after her. "You good for nothing coward!" Silence. Apple Jack stood there, glaring angrily at the sky as a wave of blue feathers dropped around. No one knew what to say. Apple Jack turned around and walked forward. She walked right past Rarity (who was manically beating a skull) and kept moving forward. "Come on. We've no time to lose." Twilight trotted alongside her. "Are you okay?" The earth pony turned her head away from the unicorn. "I don't want to talk about it. Saving Bloom's all that matters now." Twilight thought it best to pretend that she hadn't seen that one tear escape from Apple Jack's eye.