"Hey, Trailblazer. How's your leg?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
"Huh, I never thought about it." He tried moving it around, but it didn't hurt. He placed it back on the ground, but no pain came from doing it. "I'd say that it's better now." He bucked and kicked the wall, and still didn't feel any pain on impact. "Yeah, I'm good all right!"
"Although we should've checked before we came up here," said Rainbow Dash. She chuckled for a little bit, but then it grew weaker quickly.
"Okay, joke's over! In we go!" Twilight Sparkle stepped ahead of the others and turned at the first corner. Then she screamed.
"No!" Pinkie Pie yelled. The other five ran to the corner to see what happened. "Are you okay, Twilight?"
"I'm fine. It's THIS that I screamed about!" She pointed to what she saw, and the others saw it and recoiled. There, they saw a white dead pegasus, with a large puddle of blood around him. His sides and wings were impaled, leaving a hole that could only have been left by a blade.
"Did Black Hole really go and kill his own followers?" thought Rarity. "How uncouth!"
"I think I've seen this pegasus from somewhere..." Trailblazer said.
"Huh?"
Trailblazer walked to the corpse's head and examined it. "Yeah, I remember this guy... His name is White Comet, and he was one of the ponies that I picked on as a foal."
"Now how do you think he ended up working for Black Hole?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"I don't know, but I do know one thing... I never got a chance to apologize to him." Then, he sniffed.
"I'm sure he knows now, Trailblazer..." remarked Twilight.
"Rest in peace, Comet..." Then, he looked back up. "There's nothing we can do about him now. We should get going."
"Right behind you," said Fluttershy.
The six ponies began to walk up the stairs that they ran into and walked up them. Once they reached the upper floor, they found a bunch of Black Hole's guards around the corner, prepared to attack.
Trailblazer quickly pulled his head back after peeking around the corner. "Hm, it looks like they're prepared to ambush us when we arrived," he whispered. "We'll have to find some other way around them."
"Not quite," Twilight reassured. "Remember that invisibility spell we used back at Silver Soul's castle? I can do the same here."
"Oh... Right. I forgot all about it."
"Okay... Now."
All six of them became fully invisible from the cloak effect. They walked past the guards in the hallway, undetected. After they reached the next room, the cloak wore off, but they still weren't noticed.
"Simple, simple, no big deal..." Trailblazer said softly.
"Well, it takes a little bit of time to recharge the cloak," said Twilight. "Should we wait until it recharges?"
"I think we can make our way around this castle without it. We just have to go without any of them seeing us."
"But what if they do...?" wondered Fluttershy.
"Then we just have to fight them."
They wandered through the wide open room that they uncloaked in and ended up in an empty hallway. There was an adjacent hallway with no guards in it either. On the other side of that hallway, there was another staircase that led up to a higher floor. Trailblazer walked up to the entryway of that staircase, but he caught a glimpse of a guard walking down them. He quickly jerked his head back.
"There's a guard coming!" he whispered. He quickly bolted to the other side of the entryway and pressed himself against the wall. The other five went into the adjacent hallway and kept themselves pinned to it's wall. By any chance, the corner would hide themselves.
The guard walked through the passage and looked off to his left. He noticed Trailblazer against the wall.
"Hey, boys, I found him!" he yelled.
He lowered his spear and charged at him. Trailblazer dove to his left and tackled the guard. He placed his left loof over his mouth and stabbed his neck with his knife in the other. His head fell and he passed away.
"With my apologies!" he told the departed.
"Do you hear anyone coming?" pinkie Pie asked.
All of them stopped to listen for anything. They heard no footsteps coming.
"Why is this place so vacant?" Rainbow Dash wondered. "You'd think that they'd be all around the castle"
"Maybe Black Hole is stupid," said Pinkie.
"Well, that's not our problem," said Twilight. "We should keep moving."
They walked up the stairs and reached a hallway with a few more doorways on the same side that they came from. They walked through it for a couple seconds until one of the doors opened in front of them. Trailblazer quickly leaned himself against the wall, hoping that whoever walked from the open door was headed the opposite way. Right then, another door opened behind him, and a guard walked out of it. He noticed the six trying to sneak around.
"I spy with my little eye!" he yelled. Many other guards began to run into the hallway, alerted from the yelling.
"Here they come, fight!" Trailblazer yelled. As he did that, he lunged at the one pony who called for his allies and knocked him down. He got back up and got his support from the several other guards that ran into the hallway. As Rainbow Dash flew around all of them to attack and distract them, the others kicked them in an effort to fend them off. Pinkie Pie kicked around, Twilight and Rarity attacked using some of their unicorn magic along with their kicks, Fluttershy did some distracting but refrained from attacking, and Trailblazer used his knife to try to stab, slash, and quickly dispatch any incoming guards. They didn't get beat up too much though. As the guards simply tried charging them, they used a mix of magic, combat, and flanking to defeat them. This continued until all of the guards were on the floor, either unconscious or dead.
"Why, that was no fuss whatsoever!" Rarity scoffed, analyzed the horde.
"What, sick, leader sent BABIES to fight me?" taunted Trailblazer with a thick accent.
"Okay, I know they didn't do much, but they still know we're here," warned Pinkie. "Go go go!"
All of them started to run through the hallway that they just fought in and tried going through a door at the end of it. Another wave of guards were in that room, already running at them.
"Get ready!" alerted Rainbow Dash. She flew over the guards, tempting them to throw their spears at her. A few on the front lines did, but they got distracted by her. Trailblazer took the opportunity and drove his knife into the unaware guards. The several that were alive retaliated and attacked Trailblazer, but he easily dodged the charges and spear jabs.
Then they heard Twilight emit a yell of severe pain. The other few ponies in the back noticed that the guards that they snuck past when cloaked were also alerted of their presence. They also saw Twilight got impaled by one of their spears.
"Enemies on our flank!" Trailblazer yelled as he quickly took a peek to see what happened. In that split second, he was nicked with one of their spears. He turned around and kicked him with his hind legs and then went to help out the ponies in the back. Rainbow Dash took care of the guards in front, being too fast for them to follow and rammed them to knock them out. Rarity and Pinkie Pie assisted Trailblazer in fighting off the enemies that flanked them. They got pushed back and were knocked away. The last one of the flankers got knocked off a ledge and didn't return.
"Twilight!" Trailblazer said as he turned around. "Tell me something!" He saw that her left side had been punctured, and she was bleeding. The wound was near her hind leg.
"They... They're trying to kill us!" she said, then strained to get up with her hind legs. She simply stayed sitting down.
"Just hang on. Let Dr. Trailblazer fix you." He pulled out one of his first-aid kits and began to help her out. While using a cotton swab to wipe the blood away, he then cleansed it a little. Twilight cringed then that happened.
"Ow! That hurt!" she yelped.
"I know this'll sting a bit, but that only means it's working. Now quit fussing."
He then grabbed some of his pain herbs and let her take those. A bandage was wrapped around her waist and taped, cleansed, and padded at the puncture area with a small square cloth. Pressure was kept on it, and the bleeding stopped.
Twilight let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks."
"No problem. Now then, where were we...?"
The six ponies jogged through the castle, trying to find their way through. Upon finding a door with a fancy gold lining, they opened it. Inside was a room with a big door, nearly as tall as a two-story house. It had three keyholes with the keys absent, and even more gold lining along with some gold decorations forming geometric patterns of triangles, diamonds, and stars.
And standing in front of it, was SteelHide, angrier than ever.
"You guys are making me SO mad!" he growled. "First, my ambush at the cliff fails, next, you beat us, even WITH the help of the Shadowcolts, and then, you manage to kill Sclar!"
"Yeah, we just kick too much ass," a smug Trailblazer talked back.
"But I guess there's nothing else that can help a bad mood other than spreading it around... AppleJack had it rough around here."
Trailblazer felt his temper dwindling. "What...?"
"Yeah, we beat her, tied her, and even locked her in a little cage, just big enough for her to lie down in."
"Did you..."
"Yeah, we made her miserable, all right."
Trailblazer stared at SteelHide, squinting, his rage building quietly for several seconds. After that time has passed, he screamed and charged at him. SteelHide lifted his right foreleg, which now had mechanical parts over it. A bright, fat, green beam became charged in front of the bottom of his hoof, and it got fired at him. Trailblazer was struck with it, and he got knocked back and was rammed into the wall. He fell back down on the ground. A pony-sized indent was left on the wall where Trailblazer struck it.
"Whoa! What was THAT?!" Rainbow Dash quickly flew to his side and helped picking himself up. SteelHide stood in his place, admiring the machine around his foreleg. It was shaped like a metallic tube that surrounded his foreleg to accommodate it, so it could be worn. There were three thin metallic extensions in front of the bottom of his hoof that reached towards the center, which was where the beam was prepared and fired from. SteelHide lifted his leg to his face and smiled, admiring it.
"Take a good look at this little beauty," said SteelHide. "Yeah, we had this gadjet getting developed by some of our scientists here. It was a top secret project that Black Hole started and supported on his own. It's still a prototype, but, DAMN! I love this thing already! Hell, I haven't even tried out all of it's features yet!"
Trailblazer got back up, aching. "Oh, now this is going to be cheap on so many levels..."
SteelHide turned a dial on his laser gun and made a screen in front of him turn a reddish orange. A thin fiery beam shot from the barrel and set a corner plant on fire. It was incinerated in a matter of seconds.
"Whoa! Now THIS thing is bloody useful!" He turned to face the six ponies and aimed his new device at them. "Your journey ends here! With me!"
"Oh, please! Like a ruffian like you could best us! We'll still emerge victorious!" Rarity shouted at him. She then looked at the other five, looking somewhat worried. "Right, dears...?"
"No problem!" Rainbow Dash yelled. She got up and zipped around through the air, baiting SteelHide to fire at her. He turned the dial on his device and turned it red. A bunch of bright red beams fired rapidly at her, but Rainbow Dash was dodging all of them.
"How about we attack together, Rarity?" Twilight Sparkle suggested.
"Well, let's keep our distance now..." she agreed. Their horns glowed together, preparing a beam of their own. SteelHide noticed them preparing an attack, and aimed it at them. Twilight and Rarity fired their two beams, which twisted around each other and at SteelHide. his screen turned green again, and he fired his fat green beam at them. It easily disintegrated the twisting beam attack that the two unicorns fired. They both ran in opposite directions to avoid SteelHide's attack and kept him from making his beam connect with the two unicorns. This distracting gave Rainbow Dash and Trailblazer a chance to close in and attack him. Both of them started punching and kicking him from all over, Rainbow Dash handing her aerial advantage and Trailblazer striking him from behind. SteelHide shoved Rainbow Dash back and aimed at her, but Trailblazer saw this and kicked his machine, causing his beam to aim harmlessly at the ceiling. He ran away as SteelHide tried getting his gun to get back to the way it was, giving Dash a chance to get some distance between them.
"Ugh, now I'm starting to hate this thing," he grumbled.
"Hey! I have an idea now!" whispered Trailblazer to his friends. "If we keep on attacking that machine, it'll stop working for him!"
"Huh, why didn't we think of that before?" wondered Pinkie Pie.
Just then, a blue mortar-like projectile flew at them and exploded just a few feet away from them.
"Come get some!" SteelHide angrily yelled. He launched another blue mortar and tried aiming at the whole group. They quickly separated to avoid having all of them getting blasted at once, but Fluttershy got caught in the blast. She was thrown back at the wall and fell, dazed.
"Fluttershy!" exclaimed Rarity. She dragged her behind cover, which were some crates, and pulled out some dizziness-lifting herbs. She gave them to Fluttershy, and she ate them. Her dizziness went away, and she got back up to try to help again. There, she saw Pinkie Pie zig-zag bouncing across the ground. She did not get hit once, unknown to everypony in the room on how she is able to do that. But she closed the distance and tried the tapping on the opposite shoulder trick. Rainbow Dash was on that opposite side and kicked him. He got knocked down, giving Pinkie a chance to stomp on the device, and she did. SteelHide quickly pulled his leg back and shoved her back, but Pinkie Pie was away when that happened. He then turned to face Rainbow Dash again, who was flying away in a high ark across the room. SteelHide switched to his rapid fire beams and struck her with them. She yelled in pain and plummeted to the floor, landing hard on it.
"No, Rainbow!!" yelled Trailblazer. He ran to where she was lying and picked her up. SteelHide aimed at him and resumed his rapid fire, trying to strike both of them. His gun recoiled with each shot, making all of the laser beams fired around him rather than at him. He ran behind cover and tended to her.
"Where did he get you?" he asked.
"Ow, it feels like all over..." she moaned.
Trailblazer pulled out his other first-aid pack, but he hesitated. "Tell me where it hurts the most."
"It's my head and all of my legs, ow!" Rainbow Dash tried to move, but it hurt to do so.
"Just stay still, and let me heal you as much as I can. And eat these while I'm at it." He gave her the last of his pain-lifting herbs and put a bandage around her forehead and tied it. He then placed splints on her legs, similarly to the ones he had on his left hind one after getting thrown away by Sclar, and wrapped them.
"How are you holding out now?"
"I can still fly, so that's something..." She got up and started to fly back into the fight.
"No!" Trailblazer bit her tail and yanked it back behind cover. "You don't want to get more hurt than you are now." He took a peek over the crates and saw the other four trying to fight the constant beams of fire, energy mortars, and forceful repositioning from SteelHide, who was just as irate as he was when he was struck a little bit ago.
"Fluttershy!" he called. She flew to them and saw an injured Rainbow Dash. "Listen..." Trailblazer ulled out his knife. "I need to go back on the offensive. Watch her and make sure that she doesn't get more hurt."
"Yeah, yeah, I will..." Fluttershy panted. She stood in front of her, keeping her covered. Trailblazer got back in the open and ran to Twilight.
"I could use that cloak again," he told her.
"Oh, yeah, good idea." Her horn glowed and Trailblazer became fully invisible. Pinkie Pie continued to distract SteelHide by bouncing around, not taking a single hit. Rarity kept on firing her own beams at him, harming him, and causing him to retaliate at her. She dodged easily, but he didn't notice Trailblazer decloaking right next to him. He thrust his knife into his device, damaging it for the last time. He ran away, to avoid getting attacked. SteelHide tried pulling the knife out, but he couldn't. Electrical sparks began to surge from the machine.
"Hey, what is this?? How can I take this thing off?!" yelled SteelHide. He couldn't get his machine off of his leg, and he got shocked. The pulse ran right through his body in a millisecond, and he fell, limp, and lifeless.
"Here, a touching story..." Trailblazer said softly yet in a cruel manner. "Once upon a time, you died, and I lived happily ever after. THE END."
"Well, now that he's out of the way..." said Rarity. "Shall we go through this door?"
"Hey, Rainbow," called Trailblazer. "How are you holding out?"
"I can make it," she said. She flew from behind the crates with Fluttershy and caught up with them. "Let's go."
The door opened when they approached it. Beyond the large doorway was an eerie looking temple with the dreadful coloring that Black Hole and his followers observed earlier.
"So, this is that palace-type place that this treasure is locked in..." pondered Trailblazer.
"Oh, not to worry," said Rarity. "Our magic can brighten up this place."
"Okay, great. That'll help. No biggie! Just stay along the path and we'll be okay." Trailblazer walked a little bit ahead into the temple, and looked through it. He swallowed and looked a bit worried, thinking that they could get lost and unable to find their way out if the worst had come. But he knew that he had to do this, to stop Black Hole, and to rescue AppleJack from him. He ventered forward into the dark temple, with the other five following close behind.