The ground was slick with crimson and it ran in rivulets through the cobbled street leaving a stain on her hoofs and her thoughts. In most places it’s the colour associated with roses, hearts and hooves day and at the moment a current Canterlot fashion trend.
Not today.
“Why?” Twilight whispered.
It was sickening to look at in the glare of the midday sun; it looked like somepony had dropped a road side flare onto the ground bathing the floor in red neon.
“Why? Well why not?” She whispered back.
Twilight looked at her, the murderer. She was dressed in a cloak of heavy black that covered her head to hoof leaving only her purple muzzle visible.
A malicious smirk plastered on her face.
“You k-killed them. Why?!” barked Twilight.
“Seemed like fun.” The murderer chuckled.
Twilight balked and could summon no response for that. All around her were what was left of her friends lying in that glorious crimson of their own demise. One moment Twilight was seated at the local cafe with her most precious companions and dearest friends and then the next they were blasted apart and showered onto the street leaving only Twilight standing.
Standing in the blood, bone and what was left of one of Pinkie Pies boxes of cupcakes. A Stetson hat lay singed and smoking in what was once a young vibrant and strong earth pony. A collection of butter and sky blue feathers torn from their master’s wings drifted around the pools of crimson and lumps of pearl white bone that could only belong to a most beautiful unicorn.
Rage was not something Twilight Sparkle was accustomed to despite what many ponies said behind her back. This however, this brought Twilight Sparkle into a state of rage and grief unlike any had seen since the dark days of Nightmare Moon’s first arrival.
“I will kill you for this…you, you murderer!” roared Twilight.
“Aw did I make you mad? That’s such a cute angry face you got there, he he.” The murderer giggled. She had a stance that looked familiar but could not be placed anywhere in Twilights mind. Her voice carried an eerie tone that memory stirred to find but could not locate. Everything about this organism caused her mind to scream and flail “Who is she!”
“Did you see what I did there? Do you think that you compare to me? I am the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria.” The murderer continued.
Twilight Sparkle did not even bother to respond to that remark. Rage had blinded her to all but her target and she was not about to let this thing escape from justice. Her mind screamed caution and to remember her mentors lessons on protection and self-preservation.
All it took from the murderer was a single word to strip Twilight of any caution and any twinge of fear that remained in the reasonable sections of her brain.
“Coward.”
Twilight launched into an attack that consisted of an energy blot spell that she had once used to defeat the changeling invasion. A stream of purple projectiles blasted across the cobbled streets of Ponyville and struck the murderer in the chest. The impact caused small cloud of purple steam and magical residue to shoot out and obscure Twilights vision but she was confident that her target was now incapacitated.
As Twilight walked across the street to capture her target a sliver of ice shot back out of the mist and slipped right past Twilight leaving a cut across her left cheek.
“Try harder little Sparkle. I want this to last at least a few minutes.” The murderer smirked.
Twilight froze, “How could she stop those projectiles? They can stop a rampaging manticore!” She had little time to think any further as four more spears of ice shot at her formed from a snap-freezing of the water particles in the very air.
Using her magic to teleport to the left she escaped becoming a pincushion. The murderer was not done yet though as she charged at Twilight with two more spears aimed at Twilight. As she ran the heavy black hood billowed up for a brief moment revealing a pair of cold orbs flecked malice.
It was at this moment looking into the murderers eyes did she realise that the only way out of this was to fight hard. No simple knock-out spell would stop this monster, no teleport dropping her into a pond; no levitate spell until she was carried to prison. There was no reasoning with this thing it wanted her demise and it would not stop until she was dead.
That was not going to happen she was not going to let this fiend get away with slaughtering her friends. She didn’t care what it cost her and those thoughts of darkness brought a font of energy that rested in her soul and using all her strength she pulled a chuck of stone from the earth and threw it with all the might of an Usra Major at the murderer.
The fiend barely had time to jump to the side as the piece of paving stone smashed a nearby wall punching a hole straight through. The murderer recovered quickly and threw both ice spears at Twilight but she had already teleported high into the air above the demon.
As she fell she cast a shield spell to protect her from the fall and then cast a spell to increase her weight. In a single moment she went from 175kg pony into a fifty ton sledgehammer. The murderer somehow managed to guess this movement however and used a speed spell to dash out of the way leaving nothing but a purple blur.
Upon impact of the pony turned sledgehammer the ground cracked and all the cobblestones blasted high into the air like the after math of a volcanic eruption. They did not fall down as you would expect however as a large mist of purple magic encased them, held them, spun them and began to shoot them toward a dashing purple blur.
As the creature dashed and dodged falling stone and flying cobble she laughed and called out to Twilight.
“Is this the best you can do Twilight Sparkle? Throwing rocks is so juvenile. Here let me show you how the most powerful unicorn does things”
With that she leapt into the air and spread a pair of magical wings that glistened in the midday sun. Once out of range of the flying cobblestones she lit her horn, a purple glow emanating from underneath her hood. A large wind moved from some place deep in the sky and sent gusts of wind and flakes of ice and snow showering onto the streets of Ponyville.
Twilight stood under this maelstrom and watched as the monster used her wind spells to pull the roof off a nearby house and hurl it at her. Under normal circumstances this demonstration of power would be enough to frighten even the most battle hardened solider of the royal guard. Grief however had cleared Twilight of any feeling other than anger and pain and as this thatched piece of death soared toward her she simply cut it in half with a single blast of energy.
It smashed apart on the sides of the street and left plaster and smiley face wallpaper chunks to spew out where they pleased.
“Oh?” the murderer stated with mild surprise. “Not such the helpless little filly are we. Are you ready to fight me prop-”
Not able to even finish this question as a sliver of rock and fire was launched at the murderer. It slipped past and cut her right cheek and then exploded behind her in a blast of black smoke and shrapnel. Pieces of blast sharpened stone cut through the heavy black cloak leaving a few drops of blood and grunt of pain echoing from the demon.
“Try harder little murderer. I want this to last a few minutes” Twilight mimicked.
A malicious smirk plastered on her face.