Twilight was terrified. The figure which stood over her slashed at her chest, and the blood joined paths with the already free-flowing liquid from her first wound. She tried to concentrate, to focus her magic. But to her misfortune, the diamond dog noticed her glowing horn. He swiped a heavy paw over the top of her head, smacking her horn.
Now, it is a well-known fact among the pony community that a Unicorn's horn is the most delicate and sensitive part of his or her body. To touch a unicorn's horn is normally considered a romantic gesture, but for Twilight, it had been quite clear that the diamond dog was not fond of her.
A loud Crack! was heard followed by a purple cone falling to the ground. Twilight screamed in agony, for nothing could describe the extreme pain she felt at that moment. Blood now poured out of the hole in her head where her horn once sat. Even the diamond dog recoiled at the sight of the vein like structures which sprawled out of her head. The horn itself briefly surged with energy before rolling lifelessly away from its owner. Tears were flowing from Twilight's eyes. The pain didn't go away or die down. All she could do was open her eyes to see Applejack being treated in a similar manner, except that there were at least twenty dogs around her now, trying to hold down the thrashing pony. All three of the dogs around Twilight jumped on her, stopping at nothing to produce fresh scratches on every part of her they could find. If there was a hell, she was experiencing taste of it. Every time a claw dug into her soft skin, every time she jerked in pain, the torture got even worse.
"Gak!" She coughed up blood as a paw punched her stomach.
"Kill her! Let's kill her now!"
"No! We must kill them as painfully as possible! They must pay for what they did. I want to take pleasure in ripping them apart, limb by limb. Bring over the orange one! They'll die together."
******
"See anything yet?" asked Rainbow Dash, poking her head through clouds.
"Nope!" yelled Pinkie from down below, perched on the tip of a pine tree.
"Ah, this is pointless! How are we gonna find such a small dragon in such a big forest?"
"He's not that small remember?"
"Well, yeah. I know that now. I just meant-"
"RAINBOW! MY PINKIE SENSE IS TINGLING!"
"WHAT!?" Rainbow Dash quickly dived down until she was eye to eye with the pink pony. "What's wrong? Did something happen? Is something going to happen!?" Rainbow dashed into a nearby bush, holding a rock above her head.
"No, no! Hang on," Pinkie's body then proceeded to make one of the most irregular series of movements imaginable, including an eye twitch, a tail shake, a head bobble and three flicks of an ear. "Something's happened...to...Twilight! And...Applejack!" She hopped down from the tree and bounced over to the bush where her search-partner was hiding. "SOMETHING'S HAPPENED TO TWILIGHT AND APPLEJACK!" she screeched, sending Rainbow Dash tumbling on her flank.
"What?" she asked in alarm, getting back on her hooves. "What happened to them?"
"Oh, I don't know, but it's something bad!" Pinkie grabbed Rainbow and shook her by the shoulders vigorously. "WE NEED TO FIND THEM!" She screeched before putting her down.
"Well they said that they were heading north, right? Up the path? Well let's go over-" Rainbow stopped to see a pink spot bouncing over trees in the distance, leaving behind a bush with its leaves still rustling as any hint that the pony she was talking to had been there a second ago. "How did she-oh, never mind." Rainbow quickly sped into the air and chased after her friend, leaving her own confusion on the ground.
******
Spike sprinted in towards forest path as fast as he could, with Rarity following close behind and moving branches in her path with magic as she galloped. They burst through a large shrub onto the North Trail; a path which meandered around and through trees and rocks as far as the eye could see. It was the only path that anypony dare use to venture through the largely uncharted areas of what was possibly the largest forest in that quarter of Equestria.
"Here it is!" exclaimed Spike. His excitement was quickly interrupted by a yellow pegasus as she tumbled out of the same bush which Spike and Rarity had jumped through, and landed flat on her face.
"Fluttershy, dear, when did you start chasing after us?" asked Rarity, offering her a hoof.
Fluttershy took it and stood up uneasily.
"Never mind about that right now Rarity!" said Spike, slightly annoyed. "How do we know if Twilight and Applejack have already passed through here or not?"
"Well," said Fluttershy. "There's a big clearing up ahead, and there's just trees the other way. It looks like these-" She lowered herself to the ground and pointed at a group of stones. "-were misplaced by hooves. And the distance between the two pieces of this broken twig also suggest that hooves have been here." She darted to the center of the path. "Over here, you can clearly see these faint hoofprints, and, judging by the fact that these two side-by-side pairs are close together, and that their counterparts are further away, we can say that, not only have there been two ponies down this path, but they have both been galloping. Now to figure out the direction, we merely have to look at the difference in depth from one side of a print lengthwise and the other. Since these ones have their indents on the north side, we know that both ponies are going that way." she finished, pointing north.
Both unicorn and dragon stared at her, open-mouthed.
Fluttershy sheepishly retracted her head into her mane. "Uh, tracking...animals. I kinda have to know that to find them in case...one gets lost..."
Spike quickly shook his head and returned to the topic at hand. "Okay, let's hurry!" he said, running in the appointed direction on the path. Fluttershy and Rarity quickly did the same. The path, although rough and unpleasant, was much easier to travel on than the forest floor, and within a matter of minutes, the two ponies and Spike found themselves running into a bare area where there were no trees within a radius of about two hundred metres. Off to their left side, Spike could see a small group of animals spread out along a thin patch of grass. In a few seconds, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie appeared at the other end of the clearing.
"Hey, those are diamond dogs!" said Spike worriedly. "But what are they-" Spike gasped and they all ran (or in Dashie's case, flew) over to what was a pile of lavender and orange on the ground. Spike quickly recognised Twilight and Applejack as he neared. Diamond dogs loomed over their bodies. There were over fifty of them, each one more menacing than the next.
"Oh, look, we've got company!" said the largest dog.
Spike was horrified by Twilight's condition. She was bleeding all over, with cuts and scratches on her legs, face and belly. Her mane was a mess, and her misshapen body was sprawled out on the floor. He gasped upon noticing a purple object near her hoof.
"Her horn!?" His eyes darted to her head. There was a mess of dried up blood and an enormous scab where her horn used to be. He briefly looked over and saw that Applejack was in a similar condition. He shut his eyes tightly for a second, but he found he could not keep them closed.
"Came to watch your friend die?" asked the dog. "Or perhaps you've come to die with her?"
Spike's eyes were once again glued to Twilight's scarred body. Pinkie Pie fell to the floor upon seeing her two friends, with her mane's signature poof deflated.
Rainbow Dash was right beside the bodies. "Wha-Are they DEAD?!" she shrieked.
"Dead? No, they're not dead...yet." A villainous grin spread across the diamond dog's face.
"You-Twilight...you," He was at a loss for words. He stared in horror at his closest friend's form. He felt something strong begin to build up in his chest. He started breathing heavily and puffs of smoke began to escape his nostrils. It was, unmistakably, rage. He had experienced rage before, but never like this. "You...dare touch her..." A flame was literally forming in his belly. He concentrated hard, summoning everything he could. His eyes became slits, and his claws extended. A snake-like tongue slid in and out of his mouth as fangs began to appear on his upper jaw. "I...will kill you..." His voice dissolved into a sinister hiss.
"Spike!" Fluttershy started towards him, but, before anyone could do anything, their vision met the largest display of fire any of them had ever seen; it was easily larger than Pinkie's party room. All of the ponies stared in awe at the red blaze coming from the dragon's mouth as the crisp smell of burnt flesh filled the air. Fluttershy gazed in horror at the inferno produced which was flowing steadily from a Spike she had never seen before. He blew for twenty seconds straight before stopping. As the smoke cleared, roasted canine corpses became visible on the ground. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were stunned, and Rainbow Dash had literally fallen out of the sky. Half of the diamond dogs had been completely immersed in the fire, and were lying lifeless and smoking on the ground. Many others had been severely burned, and their yelps filled the air as they scurried to find shelter or run away.
But Spike wasn't finished yet. They must die! All of them! For... this... His thoughts ran rampant; he had never felt like this before. He felt the urge, the desire to kill. And he was completely immersed in it. He wanted to see their blood, he wanted to hear them scream.
He chased after them, blowing fire in their directions, at any sign of movement. He whipped his head around to see a burned dog trying to leap behind a log. Spike ran towards him and jumped onto his weak body as he sank his teeth into the creature's neck. Yes... A venom that he didn't even know existed, spurted out of his fangs and into the body. But the next thing he did, the next scene that his stunned and horrified friends saw him do, was the most shocking yet.
With a burst of strength, Spike ripped off the neck of the corpse and the head flung metres off to the side as he swallowed the flesh that he had in his mouth in one gulp. And he loved it. He loved the feel of tearing fresh meat, he loved the way it slid down his throat. He was about to tear off another piece of flesh from the body, whose blood was now spurting out the visible blood vessels from the remainder of his throat in the litres, when he spotted another dog, who had taken shelter behind a rock. Spike blasted the area with fire once more and sheer force of the flame's blast threw both the dog and the rock into the air. He inhaled the smell of roasted meat which only heightened his hunger for slaughter. Spike didn't stop until each canine's body had been met by an enormous and deadly flame. He didn't stop until he had killed all of them. Soon enough, they were all dead as their barbecued corpses were left smoking on the ground. The surrounding plane was ablaze, and it was soon to reach the trees. But there was a limit to how much his body-and mind-could take, and it was obvious only after his rampage that he had clearly surpassed it. He blew one last puff of smoke as his pupils grew once more, and his body returned to his regular state. His vision became fuzzy and blurred and the colossal pain in his head knocked him to the ground. He coughed up smoke and once again collapsed, this time unconsciously, onto the forest floor.