//------------------------------//
// Bleed No More 
// Story: Innavedr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"You really think you can take us all out with those?!"  Tweak snarled across the battle-torn hangar at Terra and her fellow metal mares.  With a swift twitch of his crystalline forelimbs, he charged more energy into his manarifle and took aim at the bounty hunters with their supply of fuse bombs.  "The next one you launch will be your last—"

"At ease, Tweak," Crimson said, touching his shoulder with a calm hoof.

Tweak blinked aside at him.  "Oh, don't go soft on me now!  We have them—"

"And we have ourselves flying through the roof of this damn place if a single rifle blast sets off their whole arsenal."  Crimson stepped ahead of his group while Tweak, Lucky Strike, Imre, and the rest looked on.  "You can't harm us.  You can't even come near us."  He stood in place, his eyes narrowing on the line of angry mares caught in the standoff.  "Not only can we shut down any and all of your tech, but we've removed your one reliable source of power.  Face it.  You're crippled."

"Hah!"  Terra guffawed, pointing at his crutch with a metal hoof.  "That's a fine statement coming from you!"  She gripped two bombs and hissed across the hangar towards him.  "This is your last chance, runt.  Give yourselves up, or—"

"Or what?"  Crimson frowned.  "You risk blowing all of us to the Spark and beyond!  You know this!"

"Certainly..."  Terra's wide set of teeth grinned.  "And to die in the preservation of Searo's honorable Hold would be an honorable way to end..."

"You can't be serious!"  Crimson scoffed.  He gestured towards the shattered walls of the place.  "What do you stand to gain?!  Is your pride worth destroying everything you've ever worked to accomplish?"

"They... uhm..."  Imre fidgeted from behind Crimson.  She leaned forward and muttered, "They'll totally do it.  We're all good as dead."

"Brother..."  Lucky Strike looked over at Tweak.  "We need to get out of here."

Tweak gulped and gave Crimson an anxious glance.  "Boy, you'd best switch your diplomacy gland for your soldier's gland really dayum quick."

"Let us leave," Crimson repeated.  "Allow these crystal ponies to return home and never bother them again.  They were never yours to begin with, and yet you kidnapped and assaulted them like they were lower than livestock.  That is not a warrior's way of life.  If that's what your leader's been teaching you all this time, then no wonder she's so diseased—"

"Quiet, breeder!"  Terra spat, the veins showing in her massive cranium.  "Breeders, all of you!"  She pivoted and pointed at Imre.  "That includes you, you festering pile of ungrateful slime!  Roarke was once an awesome pony!  A mare who demanded respect!  After lugging your pathetic flank back from the warzone, she's gone completely crazy!  And now look what her pretentiousness has done!  It's poisoned the glory of the Goddess Searo!"

"Don't knock it until you've tried it, princess," Imre droned.

"There is only one way out of here!"  Terra lit both bombs.  "And that is the way of blood!"  With a yell, she spun and tossed both explosives up high.

Tweak hissed, "Crimson—!"

"On it!" Crimson grunted, already channeling magic through his horn.  But it was far too late, and the explosives were descending towards the group of crystalline victims—

A pair of black metal cables flew in from the outside world, lassoed the bombs, and just as swiftly yanked them into the sunlight.  They fell towards the mountainous space beyond, exploding in thunderous bursts of shrapnel.  In their wake, a slender vessel glided in.  A blue pegasus with prismatic mane hair stood perched on the hull of the manaship like a surfboarder.

"Rainbow Dash..."  Crimson breathlessly stammered, his eyes wide.

"Yeesh," Tweak remarked.  "She's even fruitier in the daylight."

Imre glanced over.  "I'm sure she's glad you're so thankful..."

"What in Searo's name...?!"  Terra stammered, the blood vessels in her eyeballs threatening to burst.  The metal mares beside her backtrotted with uncertainty as the vessel hovered to stop along the edge of the hangar.  "Impossible!  What is that thing running on?!"

"Awesomeness with a side of pickles."  Rainbow Dash plopped down on battered horseshoes, shaking off the bruises and scabs of battle.  "But mostly awesomeness."

As if on cue, the long side door to the manaship slid open, and Roarke hovered out on roaring thrusters.  She landed besides Rainbow Dash, unfolding her helmet to reveal a pair of lenses over a tight frown.  "The same material that flows through our armor also laces the manacore of my vessel.  Thanks to processed crystal pony blood, my tech is immune to the same power shortages that have rendered you all so useless."

"Pffft!"  Terra slapped the ground with her hooves and barked, "Well, of course it does!  And just how did you—oh loyal Roarke most Rare—acquire such a precious resource?!"

"The way that you and all of our other sisters didn't," Roarke retorted.  "I asked."  She glanced over at Imre.  "I knew there might be a time when Pestiferous' latest expenditure would explode in her face, and I would need a way to cover my flank.  So, I took the precautions to do just that."  She glared back in Terra's direction.  "Just like any sensible metal mare would."

"Fat chance!" Terra roared.  "You planned this from the start, you traitor!"

"Oh, if only things were that righteously true."

"The Top Spear will see to it that you get pulled apart, tendon by tendon!" Terra spat.  "Once Pestiferous knows that you kept us from murdering these cowards—"

"I doubt she'll be in the mood to do anything but feed worms," Roarke said.

The metal mares all did massive double takes.  "Huh?!"  Terra stammered.

"Here..."  Rainbow Dash spoke up. She reached behind her and produced a large metal object.  "Feast your eyes, bigshot."  She tossed the item forward.

Pestiferous' blood-stained and soot-covered breathing mask rattled to a stop in front of the growing crowd of metal mares.  The armor-bound warriors mutterd amidst each other in shock and dismay.

Terra's mouth hung open.  She slowly shook her head, exhaling heavily.  "No... This is surely a trick!"

"Like all the ones you tried pulling on us?"  Roarke's lenses pistoned out as she marched slowly across the line of mares, glaring at each and every one of us.  "Like a whiny younger sibling?  With Pestiferous as your anchor?"  She stopped to point back at Imre.  "In an attempt to get at me through the ponies I've fought tooth and hoof to protect?"  She swiveled and pointed back at Rainbow Dash.  "Pretending that it was all just some impromptu exercise to test the might of my apprentice?"  With nostrils flaring, Roarke stared directly at the line of warriors.  "Well, your test failed.  And my half-blade and I not only passed your stupid exam, we exceeded it.  We grew beyond the boundaries of all the little ploys you tried dragging us through, and we eliminated the problem at the head."

"You..."  Terra gnashed her teeth.  "No, you can't be serious—"

Roarke slammed her hooves onto the ground and yelled with thunderous gusto.  "I have slain the Top Spear!"  She snarled like a canine to her shivering comrades of like spirit.  "With the help of my Half-Blade, we cornered Lady Pestiferous when she was at her strongest, and we left her as nothing but a stain on this heartless mountain."  Turning slowly, she gazed at Rainbow Dash as she quietly added, "Though she was our leader, and she once was strong, her time is now over.  A new spear has been bloodied in her place."

Rainbow Dash stared back, biting her lip.

Meanwhile, a nervous commotion rose through the crowd of metal mares.  The unquenchable anger had been drained from their faces as they exchanged shocked glances, murmuring with one another.

"Lady Pestiferous is dead!"

"She's truly dead!"

"Surely, she fought like a true warrior!"

"Against a High Blade and her apprentice combined!"

"The old spear is worn... a new pike is bloodied..."

"A new spear... with new blood for Searo..."

"Roarke... Roarke most Rare..."

"She is the blood-soaked spear!  The Top Spear!"

"Lady Roarke, Top Spear of Searo!"

"The bloodiest spear!"

"What... What?!"  Terra blinked several times.  Then, with a prolonged snarl, she stomped her hooves and shouted at the group behind her.  "No!  No!  Shut up this instant!  Are you all stupid?!"

"Are you?!" Rainbow Dash remarked, summoning a surprised glance from Terra.  Rainbow motioned with her head towards Roarke next to her.  "You heard her!  She offed that stinky spider crab you called a leader!  She's the new top banana now!  So, like, get her a throne and stuff.  Just, y'know, clean off all the slime and crud first."

"This is outrageous!"  Terra growled, pointing with a thick, metal-laced forelimb.  "No conspiring coward of a pony should be allowed to become Top Spear!"

"Right."  Roarke turned to stare coldly at Terra.  "Which is precisely why you'll never have such a seat."

Rainbow Dash let loose a silent howl of laughter, covering her bruised mouth.

Crimson, Tweak, and the others glanced about nervously.

Terra could barely hear her own pounding heartbeat from the sound of excitedly chanting metal mares behind her.  Her expression paled for a brief moment, but she fought it off by charging several trots ahead and shouting at the bounty hunter besides Rainbow.  "Fine!  If you're so insistent that you are now the Top Spear! Then I challenge you for the throne you so envy!"

"Pffft... as if I even want the throne."  Roarke waved her off.

The hangar grew dead silent as Terra gasped yet again.  "What?!"

Roarke made to walk away.  "Besides, you're not even worth my breath.  This wasn't my mess to begin with.  You want to put the pieces of Searo's legacy back together?  Do it on your own time.  I need to fly somewhere... fly somewhere for a long while and think."

"Nnnngh—Always thinking!  Always plotting!  But when are you ever actually slaying?!"  Terra snarled.  "Some Top Spear you'd be!  You can't even accept a challenge when it's given to you!  You're a gutless, spineless coward!"

Every mare behind Terra winced.

Roarke took a deep, deep breath.  She turned around, glaring.

Imre winced.  "Ah, jeez..."

Crimson gave her a glance.  "'Ah, jeez,' what?"

Imre said nothing.  She watched as Roarke marched stormily towards Terra.

"Hey... uh..."  Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously.  "Nice speech and all, but can we get going with the whole 'fly away and think' business?  Cuz I've found that to be not half as bad as it sounds—"

Roarke fiercely brushed the pegasus aside.  She took a deep breath, then jerked her neck to the side.  A pulse of light flickered through her armor.  Then, with several successive spurts of steam, her armor peeled off, one plate at a time.  Her helmet fell, followed by her shoulderblades, her spine clasps, and her flank bucklers.  At last, the array of hydraulic wires popped loose from every plug running along the length of her body.  She jumped out of the unfolded armor with a jingle of her mane's metal ringlets.  With all of the Searonese layers of battle-sturdy alloy gone, Roarke looked bizarrely thin, almost even more petite than Rainbow Dash upon an initial glance.

The whole time, Terra and her fellow mares gawked at the display, especially as Roarke stepped into Terra's shadow, cracked her joints, and dragged a hoof along the battered hangar floor.

"Strip the armor or keep it," Roarke grunted, her lenses glinting as she glared up at the massive mare.  "It will make no difference."

All of the other bounty hunters looked at Terra.  After a fuming breath, Terra twisted her neck in a similar gesture.  Her heavy plates of armor started falling off like the skin to a rusted blue onion.  The ground shook with each layer of the stuff that collapsed.

"For the love of oats..."  Tweak grumbled under his breath, holding up Lucky's weak figure.  He cast a nervous glance towards the manaship.  "We have no time for this—"

"Stuff it, shiny," Rainbow Dash said, suddenly standing by his side.  "We so totally do have all the time for this."

Crimson watched curiously and Imre lethargically as Terra took several massive steps, looming above the far smaller equine with all of her muscular girth.  She snapped the cricks in her joints and sneered at Roarke.

Roarke coiled her muscles tight.  "What are you waiting for?" she deadpanned.  "A kiss?"

Terra blinked.  Then, with a building growl, she galloped straight for the mare.  Her hoof flew... but struck nothing but floor.

This was because Roarke had jumped straight up.  She bounced off Terra's forelimb, twirled, and bucked two hooves across the large pony's chin in midair.

Terra spat blood, summoning a ritualistic warcry or two from the other metal mares watching.  Shaking the shock of the impact, she charged again, this time with more calculated poise.  She swung several massive hooves, each time contacting nothing but hangar floor as Roarke leapt out of every blow, avoiding the chunks of concrete that flew her way.

With almost a dancing finesse, Roarke rolled to the side, somersaulted forward, galloped up Terra's ribcage, flipped, and came down with a drop kick across Terra's spine.

Terra grunted in annoyance.  Her body lurched down, and in so doing her face was in the right spot to receive an uppercut from Roarke.  Shaking the blow off, she lunged forward like a bear and grabbed Roarke's tiny body in a pair of massive forelimbs.

Rainbow Dash grimaced.  She made to trot forward, but Imre was suddenly raising a hoof out, shaking her head.  Rainbow Dash fidgeted from where she watched.

Roarke gritted her teeth as she felt the pressure of Terra's heavily muscled limbs squeezing around her.  Then, with a massive spasm of her forward muscles, she slid two hooves up and slammed the opposite sides of Terra's jaw.

Terra immediately quivered all over from the surge of pain flying down her spine.  As she was stunned, Roarke exhaled, contracted her chest, and slipped loosely from Terra's grasp.  She rolled her back against the ground and bucked all four of her hooves against Terra's chest.

With a grunt, Terra leaned back on her rear limbs.  Roarke took the opportunity to sweep one of Terra's legs out from under her.  The massive pony fell to her right side, only to have her skull caught in the crook of Roarke's forelimbs and further accelerated into the ground.

Several metal mares winced.  Others cheered and began a rhythmic chant for blood.

Roarke made no show of the matter.  She kipped up from the body-slam, spun about, and bounced in a ready stance, glaring down at Terra.

Terra looked up at her, sweating up a storm.  Soon, she broke into another frown, sliding away from Roarke.

The smaller warrior watched quietly as Terra got up and galloped towards a hunk of smoldering manaship parts.

Snarling, Terra picked up a large, sharp shard of metal.  With a bloody shout, she charged Roarke from afar.

Roarke ducked the jab, side-stepped two more swings, then jumped back as Terra jabbed hard at the floor.  The tip of the impromptu weapon dug into the concrete.  Roarke planted her rear hooves against it, anchored it in place, and flung both hooves straight up, contacting Terra's nose.  The larger pony jolted from the blow and her grip of the bludgeon loosened.  In the same breath, Roarke gripped Terra's skull in two hooves and yanked back towards her.  As a result, Terra's right cheek ripped down the whole length of the metallic shard.

"Aaaaugh!"  Terra howled in pain, writhing on the floor as she clutched a hoof to the sudden, meaty gash in her large face.

Roarke calmly trotted over her, paused at her spine, and flung a pair of hooves down into specific spots equadistant from her vertebrae.

Terra's breath was caught on a snorting sound.  Her entire body locked up in sudden paralysis.  "What... what did...?"

"Pressure points," Roarke said, panting as her metal plugs glistened with sweat.  "I just told a bunch of your nerves to stop working..."

"For... h-how long?"

"Doesn't matter," Roarke grunted.  "This battle is over."  She tossed her ringlet'd mane back and wiped the sweat from her brow.  "Not like it even started to begin with."

"This... this is an outrage!"  Terra spat and spat some more, twitching barely an inch from where she lay dormant against the concrete.  "Undo this so that we can fight like true warriors!"

"As if trying to bludgeon me to death a minute ago was soooo honorable," Roarke said, still catching her breath as she paced around the huge, meaty mare.  "But I couldn't expect you to think well enough to understand the gravity of that.  Heck, I don't expect you to think at all.  If you did bother to think—bother to improve yourself—maybe you'd know how to get yourself out of this predicament."

"This is unfair..."  Terra hissed.  "A weakling's death!  Finish me off, damn you!  Murder me in the spirit of Searo—"

"Murdering you would mean that you're a creature capable of housing a soul."  Roarke looked up, frowning at the line of gawking mares.  "And what of the rest of you?!  Huh?!  Are you so busy plugging metal into your guts that you forgot what it meant to have the blood you so desire to spill in the first place?!  Centuries ago, when a wise and gallant mare tried to form Searomare, she was opposed by weaklings, cowards, and backstabbers!  She traveled south to build an empire out of guile, grit, and gusto!  But that is not what this place is today!  This place has made a brothel out of Searo's grave, made idiots for the sake of some nameless, shapeless idolatry!  You can't respect honor if you don't have the brain to compute it with!  Pestiferous thought she could run every campaign imaginable on this pathetic, mindless zeal, and it nearly brought all of Searo's legacy to the ground!  Did you know that she had plans to invade Ledomare?!"

The mares exchanged glances, muttering in mixed shock and excitement.

"She did!"  Roarke shouted, pacing.  "And she would have destroyed every bloodthirsty warrior in the process!  Not like it mattered!  She knew her days were numbered!  She knew she would be dead long before we ran our resources dry on some worthless war of attrition in hopes that it might fill the vestules of our carnivorous hearts!  Already, Searo's Hold has been stripped bear, surviving on living batteries in the form of crystal ponies.  There was no backup plan, no fallback contingency for the inevitable massacre that Pestiferous was about to set in action!"

Swiveling, Roarke pointed a furious hoof at the prone body of Terra.

"And that miserable pile of maggot sucking flesh was stupid enough to believe not only that Pestiferous' plan was righteous for the future of all Searonese, but that she was somehow able and willing to continue it herself!  Yes!  That!  That waste of a stud's seed right there that thought she could best me in a match that she had every muscle to win, but no brain matter!"  Roarke spun and hissed at her sisters in arms yet again.  "Because, after all, she is the epitome of Searonese might now.  All fury and no fortitude.  And just because nopony has dared to challenge the stupid status quo until now, has that actually made it right?"

Silence reigned over the crowd of warriors.  Many of them hung their heads in sudden, lucid comprehension.

In the meantime, Roarke had trotted over towards the group of crystal ponies and stallions.  "For years, I fought with myself, trying to deny the downhill fate of our once-glorious empire.  We were mares of war, once.  Now we are bounty hunters, gun runners, pillagers, common thugs.  A mountain full of manatech doesn't wipe all the filth of failure away.  So, in shame, I thought I could test myself... challenge myself... better myself..."  She turned and looked at Rainbow Dash.  "I did just that—and I didn't realize how I would become better, until I became broken in the process."  With a deep breath, Roarke added, "And a wise soul told me that the most courageous thing would be to admit that I'd been weak all along..."

Rainbow Dash stared back, breathing calmly.

With a scrape of her hooves, Roarke turned to face the Searonese from afar.  "Well, I'm sick and tired of being weak.  I'm tired of depending on ancient ideas, instead of my own reason.  Yeah, I claimed Pestiferous' head.  After all the crud she put me through, can anypony blame me?  Call me what you want—Top Spear, Bloodiest Spear, Lady Roarke—none of it matters anymore.  I can't stand the smell of this place.  All the blood is rotten.  So, in the words of Goddess Searo herself..."

Roarke trotted over, swept up her armor, and looked up to glare at the crowd.

"'Screw you.'"

That said, she turned and trotted firmly towards the open door of her manaship while the phalanx of warriors watched in stunned silence.

Shuffling past Tweak and his brother, the metal mare paused to say, "If you polished breeders wanna get out of here, now's your friggin' chance.  I can't promise it won't be a tight fit."  Then, with a toss of her metal-laced mane, she hopped and disappeared into her vessel.

Tweak and Lucky exchanged glances.  They shrugged and motioned towards the vehicle, quietly making their way inside, filing one after another.

Crimson watched as the group prepared to exit.  With a breath of relief, her turned to Rainbow Dash.  "We'd better move... before anypony changes their mind about us being allowed to do so..."

Rainbow nodded wearily.  "Glad to know I'm not the only equine sick of this place."  She turned around.  "Let's blow this place like a Manehattan—"  She froze in mid utterance, blinking.  Turning to look over her shoulder, she groaned heavily.  "Oh, for the love of Celestia.  Not again."

"Is something the matter?"  Crimson asked.

"Nothing I can't handle.  Hop inside.  This won't take long."  Rainbow Dash trotted over to a sulking unicorn figure off to the side.  "Now, we've been through this..."

"We most certainly have," Imre said in a dull tone, avoiding Rainbow's gaze as she slumped even further against the hangar floor.  "You wanna wear my ears out?  Try it in the afterlife."

"Listen—"

"No, you listen."  Imre stared up at her.  The usual scowl was gone, replaced by a vulnerable expression with moistening eyes.  "This place may be broken, shattered, and beyond repair... but it's the only home that I deserve.  There's nothing for me out there but bad memories and regret.  Thanks for all you've done for me and stuff, but... you gotta let go of me..."

Rainbow Dash sighed long and hard.  She looked calmly out towards the sun-kissed snowpeaks outside the hangar.  "You know what?  You're absolutely right.  I really oughta let go of you..."

Imre shuddered and looked back towards the floor.  "I'm glad we've finally come to an agreement—"  Her eyes bugged and her breath flew out of her lungs after receiving a savage metal horseshoe to the chest.  With a dainty groan, she fell unconscious—only for Rainbow Dash to catch her, draped over her partially armored spine.

"...afterrrrr I carry you into the friggin' ship, you crazy emo horse lady."  Rainbow Dash effortlessly carried her up into the cabin of the ship, jumping lithely through the door as it slid close.  "Alright, Roarke most Radical!  Second star to the right and straight on 'til migraine!"

With roaring thrusters, Roarke's ship lifted up, pivoted about, and thundered away from Searo's Hold with finality.  Only once its blaring engines were far away could the echo of Terra's snarling voice be heard.

"This isn't over, you smug bitch!  Do you hear me?!  It isn't over!  I will hunt you until you're dead!  Until you're dead!"