//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30: Conflict 
// Story: The Adventures of Fragment 
// by A Dark Reminder 
//------------------------------//

	Our lunch was peaceful despite Hofnarr’s poor table manners and Pinkie’s savage eating, however I will admit that they did make lunch more entertaining than it would’ve been otherwise.  With our meals consumed, Twilight decided now would be a good time for her and Fluttershy to give me the training they had offered.  Hofnarr was the last one of us to make it out of the dining room.

“BRRRRRUUUUURP!”  Was the first thing out of Hofnarr’s mouth as the dining room doors shut.  “Excuse me,” he added with smile while Blast Shield said

“You’re nasty.”

“BRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUURP!”  All heads turned to Pinkie Pie as she giggled at our reaction.

“She’s just as nasty as you’re,” said Blast Shield as Hofnarr and Pinkie laughed and Twilight began leading us to the training room.  I saw Hofnarr and Pinkie hoofbump before starting to follow us.

“Are you really in a condition to criticize us?  You drank more than half of a bottle of wine; it’s amazing you haven’t passed out yet,” Hofnarr shot back.

“I’m perfectly capable of maneging my alcoholess.”

“I rest my case.”

“So what’ll we be covering first; magic or flight?”  I inquired.

“That’s completely up to you; whichever you think you need more help with would be best,” replied Twilight.

“In that case I would rather learn some new spells; I’ve gotten decent at flying and there’s a lot more to magic.”

“Is there any particular spell you’d like my to help you with or would you like me to teach you some new spells?”  Twilight asked as the training room’s doors came into view along with the two guards by them.

“I think I’d rather learn some new spells; make myself more versatile.”

“Variety it is.  I’ve got two spells in mind that you might find useful,” Twilight said as she opened the doors with her magic, showing that the room wasn’t being used as usual.

“In the time that I’ve spent here I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else use this room,” I commented.

“Ta be honest I’m surprised that this room hasn’t been converted into something else already,” Blast Shield slurred as we walked in.  There were three targets, three combat dummies and a clear crystal ball on a white marble pedestal.  “This room’s pretty much only used for special occasions.  I guess that you would qualify as one such occasion.”

“Does it really matter what this room is or who uses it?  For right now we’re using it and it’s a ‘do whatever we feel like at the moment’ room,” Hofnarr said as he then flew a quick lap around the room to and from where we were.  “See?  Whatever.  We.  Feel like.”

“Well, let’s not waste any time; you’ve got a lot to learn,” Twilight said as Blast Shield shut the doors while the rest of us walked into the center of the room.

“So what spell are we starting with?”  I asked Twilight.

“Let’s start with something simple; a heating spell.  A heating spell is―”

“Is exactly what it sounds like; using your mind ‘n’ magic to raise something’s temperature; sometimes to the point of combustion.  The Fireball spell is kinda taking that idea an’ mixing it with Magic Bolt,” Blast Shield interrupted.

“Yes, Blast Shield is right,” Twilight said, sounding annoyed.  “The heating spell shouldn’t be too hard to cast.”  Twilight’s horn flashed purple and a block of ice about a foot long on all sides appeared on the floor in front of her.  “The rest of you should probably stay back; just in case.”

“Why do we have to stay back but you can stay right next to him?  What if I want a front row seat?”  Hofnarr asked while crossing his forelegs.

“I need to stay right here so I can keep a better eye on this and you should stay back for your safety,” Twilight explained as Pinkie and Fluttershy walked over to the targets and Blast Shield stood by the doors.  Hofnarr mumbled something to himself as he joined Pinkie and Fluttershy.  “Okay, like I said before it’s a pretty easy spell to learn.  Concentrate on the ice while thinking of something like fire.”

“Since I’m going to use magic I should feed so that I’ll have more power to cast with; plus it’ll also help these injuries leftover from my fight with Cyclone Shade.”

“Oh, of course,” was all Twilight said.  I opened my mouth and green energy began to flow off of Twilight’s body into me.  As usual you kept an eye on her condition, but I decided not to feed off of her as much as usual because I also had Pinkie, Fluttershy and Blast Shield to feed off of.  So after a few seconds of feeding I stopped, walked over to Pinkie and Fluttershy and began to feed.  After I as done with them I feed off Blast Shield.

“Mind giving me some?  Sharing’s caring and all that,” Hofnarr said with a smile.  I walked over to him and touched his horn with my own, causing a spark of green magic as I felt power transfer out of me.

“Now that that’s out of the way I can take these bandages off and we can get started,” I said as I began removing the gauze from around my stomach and head, and as the last of it was removed from my head I noticed two things.  The first thing I noticed was that my vision out of my left eye was mostly blurry, and I saw Pinkie and Fluttershy’s expressions.

“Your eye isn’t healed!”  Pinkie exclaimed.

“What?!  Could someone get me something reflective?”  Twilight levitated the crystal ball over to me where I grabbed it with my own magic.  Looking at my reflection in the ball, I could clearly see a scar on the left side of my head starting above the eyebrow and going down my eye to some of my cheek.  The eye itself was clearly cut as well.  “I-I don’t understand; feeding on love heals, doesn’t it?”

“It does, but…” Hofnarr said getting our attention.  “Anything that wouldn’t heal on its own won’t heal with feeding; like if you tried to feed to regrow a limb, you’d heal lingering damage in that area but you won’t get a leg.  It works that way because feeding accelerates natural healing.”

“So you’re saying that this is as healed as my eye’s going to get?”

“Pretty much.  But hey, at least you have some kind of healing, right?”

“I guess I just have to deal with it.”

“That’s the spirit!”

“Fire, warmth, ice, melt.  I think I got it,” I said to myself as I stared at the block of ice and my horn began to glow dark green.  I imagined a bonfire blazing at a campsite, feeling its heat on a cold night.  Slowly but faster than normal I could see the block of ice begin to melt; beads of water flowing down its sides, forming a small puddle on the floor.  I watched the ice get smaller and smaller as it became water and steam.  Twilight really wasn’t kidding about how easy this spell is.

Once most of the ice was melted I focused on the remaining puddle so that it would evaporate, which didn’t take long.  Once the last drop was gone Twilight examined the floor; looking closely and feeling it with her hoof.

“The floor’s warm and dry but it isn’t hot.  Good job,” Twilight complemented.  “Since you did that so easily let’s see how fast you can melt the ice and evaporate the water.”

She then conjured another block of ice.  I immediately went to work with the heating spell, my horn igniting with green colored magic.  Again the spells effect was apparent instantly as the ice slowly turned into a puddle, and once the whole block of ice was water I focused the heat on that.

“You learn fast,” Twilight stated.  “I think you’ve got the hang of that spell so what do you say we move on to the next one?”

“Sounds good to me.  What is the next spell anyway?”

“A repairing spell; it’s quite the complicated spell but very useful to know.  But first we need something broken to use it on…” Twilight said she looked around for something we could use.  Hofnarr picked up on that and turned towards one of the dummies.

“What about these?  This is exactly the kinda thing they’re made for,” he suggested.  Twilight walked over to and began inspecting one of said dummies.

“Maybe not the dummy itself but its stand; fabrics are harder than something like wood to repair,” she said as she removed the dummy and then snapped the stand in two with her magic.  ”For this spell it’s easiest to do when you can see the pieces of the object you’re trying to fix,” Twilight said as she laid the two halfs on the floor in front of me.  “Try to picture the stand the way it was before it was broken in your mind while focusing your magic on the pieces and how they would fit together.”

This spell didn’t sound easy but I had faith in my power and overall capabilities, so I took a deep breath and did as told.  Green light emanating from my horn, both halfs of the stand as well as the bits of them that came off began to glow.  Even though I had gained quite a bit of power from my recent feeding the drain of using this spell was noticeable.  After almost a minute of nothing but the static of my magic the pieces began to move back into place.

As each little bit of wood went into its proper spot there was a very small flash of green, signaling that the damage had been undone.  After most of the little pieces were back where they belonged, the two halfs inched their way to the other and when they finally touched there was a green glow around the area, and when the light faded there was no trace that any damage had been done.  Twilight looked impressed by the display.

“You learn really fast; it took me almost an hour to get that spell right the first time I used it.”

“Changelings naturally learn quickly,” Hofnarr cut-in.  “It’s part of how we survive; picking up on how those around us behave and learning how to be the same.  That along with looking like any other changeling of our on hive is why we’re commonly considered to lack individuality.”

“Well I have to say that it’s a pretty useful quality to have,” I remarked as I levitated the stand and placed it rightside up.  Then Twilight moved it back to the others and placed its dummy back.  “So I got those spells easily, how about we go to flying now?  For some reason I had a relatively tough time with that yesterday.”

“Alright, Hofnarr and Fluttershy, this is your part,” Twilight said as she took a spot next to Pinkie.

“Can’t you help us teach him somehow?”  Hofnarr questioned.

“How could I help with flying?  It’s not like I have wings.”

“Touché,” Hofnarr replied as his wings began buzzing, lifting him off of the floor and allowing him to hover.  “Now, do I need to give you a rerun of the basics or do you think you remember what you’re doing?”

“We did this just yesterday; I don’t think anyone would forget the basics that easily.”

“Nonetheless!”  Hofnarr exclaimed.  “I want you flying three laps around the room NOW!”

Shouted Hofnarr.  I began flapping my wings quickly, slowly lifting myself off of the floor while the others watched closely.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Hofnarr said before I could begin.  “If you touch a wall or the floor, you start over.”

Without another word I took off going around the room flying along the wall.  I was very careful about my flying, doing my best to maintain both good speed and keep stability, which was quite challenging.  I kept myself about two feet above the floor and about one foot away from the wall.  As I passed the others completing my first lap, I heard Hofnarr yell “come on, you can do better than that!”

Hearing that, I gradually increased my speed.  I really wasn’t going that fast compared to an experienced flier, but it was better than I had done yesterday.  I began to push myself to go faster while adjusting my balance, however I found that was becoming difficult to do.  As I finished my second lap I felt my body wobble a bit, threatening to cause me to hit a wall or the floor, so I moved further away from the wall and higher above the floor.  As I came around to complete the third lap I decided to try to stop without crashing into a wall or window or anything, so when I was almost at the others I leaned my whole body back which caused an immediate drop in speed.  When I came to a complete stop, I was only about a foot away from having flown into Hofnarr.

“How’d I do?”  I asked as I panted.  I had done a few things that had gotten my heart pounding before, but that little lap race on top of some lingering nervousness got me going.

“Pretty good; the only problem I really saw was when you lost some balance on the second lap,” Hofnarr answered.

“Yeah, I still need to work on that.”

“You don’t say.  Anyways, Fluttershy, think you could help him with the balancing act?”

“But you hardly did anything; you just stood there and told me to fly around the room,” I pointed out with a raised brow.

“Hey, I already showed all I really know.  C’mon, Fragment, flying’s not that complicated or hard.  All you really need to do is fly more often so you get the hang of it and you’ll be all set.  Which is why I think Fluttershy here only really needs to show you how to not fall on your flank.”

“You’re so helpful,” I remarked with a sigh.

“Well, Fragment, let’s get started,” Fluttershy said as she walked up to me and Hofnarr stood by the others.  “Since you’re already pretty good at flying this shouldn’t be too difficult for you,” she said.  “Let’s do another lap around the room but at a slower pace, that way you’ll be able to get used to it faster.”

She began flapping her wings and slowly lifted into the air and I followed suit by starting to flap my wings, gradually lifting off of the floor a few inches.  I leaned and began moving forward while Fluttershy followed me closely and watched carefully.  I kept a steady speed as I moved, Fluttershy easily keeping up with me.

“You’re doing good so far.  You only really had trouble when you were going faster, so let’s try that,” Fluttershy said.  I began to fly faster as instructed to a pace that I would compare to slow running.  At this point is when I was beginning to have some trouble with balance, which Fluttershy noticed almost immediately.  She didn’t say anything until we came back around to the others and finished the lap.

“Something you could do when you feel yourself losing―”  Fluttershy was interrupted by someone knocking on the doors.

“Don’t look at me; I didn’t order takeout or anything,” Hofnarr said as Blast Shield stumbled to his hooves and walked in front of the doors.  He opened the doors and his mouth, but he was knocked away before he had a chance to say anything.

“Blast Shield!”  We yelled at once as we then heard chuckling.

“Hahahaha, how unfortunate; he didn't even have a chance to defend himself!  HAHAHAHAHA!”  Cyclone Shade laughed as he walked passed the now unconscious Blast Shield into the room as the others and I were in shock.  Cyclone Shade wasn’t just out of his cell, he also had his vest, utility belt and bracer.  “Awww, what’s the matter?  Thought that Celestia’s little cell would keep me contained?  HA!  What a fallacy.”

“How did you get out?!”  I asked as my horn instantly began glowing.  Twilight’s horn also lit with magic as she stood beside me while Pinkie Fluttershy and Hofnarr got behind us.

“Irrelevant.  I have spent far too much time in this castle, so it’s about time I take what I came for and be done with this.”

“You’re not laying a hoof on him while I’m here,” I said with the most threatening voice I could manage.  Cyclone Shade wasn’t amused nor threatened.

“We’ll see about that,” he said with a grin as he took a fighting stance.

“The three of you get out of here and tell Princess Celestia what’s going on,” Twilight told them quietly.

“Just the two of you against him?  Are you sure you can hold him off?”  Fluttershy asked.

“No I’m not, but you need to go.”  Cyclone Shade quickly flew into the air and dived at us.  “GO!”

Twilight said again as she put up a forcefield around us and the others made a break for the doors.  Cyclone Shade slammed into Twilight’s shield then threw one of the knives with a glowing red mark on it through it.  I pushed her out of its way but at the same time broke her focus on the shield causing it to fall.

“Crap,” I said as Cyclone Shade smiled and leaped at us with the blade of his bracer drawn.  I charged and fired a magic bolt at him but he used his wings to dodge it.  He slashed at me with the blade as I charged and fired another bolt at him, this one skimmed him.  His blade slashed across my chest as Twilight got back up and blasted Cyclone Shade with a beam of magic.  Cyclone Shade threw another knife at Twilight then punched me in the face.  His knife stabbed into Twilight’s right leg as I recovered from his attack and shot another bolt at him which he only narrowly avoided.

As my attack passed him he ducked and rolled towards me then uppercutted me, knocking me down.  Twilight levitated one of the dummies and threw at Cyclone shade, hitting him in his side with it.  Using both of his forehooves he picked up that dummy and threw at Twilight then charged at her.  I grabbed the dummy with my magic and threw it into Cyclone Shade, following it up with a magic bolt.  Kicking the dummy off of himself, Cyclone Shade jumped into the air and flew towards the doors in an attempt to escape the fight and get to Hofnarr.  An attempt that I stopped by magically shutting the doors just before he could go through them, making him slam into them.

“You son of a bitch…” he grunted as he staggered to get back up while I ran over to Twilight as she pulled the knife out of her leg.

“Are you alright?”  I asked as I helped her up.

“I will be,” she said as she turned to Cyclone Shade just in time to see him buck one of the doors down then fly out.  “Come on!”

We started running as fast as we could to catch up to Cyclone Shade before he got to Hofnarr.  As we passed Blast Shield I felt bad for leaving him there but I knew Hofnarr’s well being was in greater danger.  Once we were out of the training room I saw that the guards that were by the doors were knocked out like Blast Shield.  Further down the hallway I could see Cyclone Shade flying after the others.

Twilight and I shot at him as I flapped my wings as hard as I could and began flying down the hallway.  Cyclone Shade dodged our magic and tackled Hofnarr and Pinkie.  Hofnarr was the first one to try and run but Cyclone Shade threw a knife into the back of one of Hofnarr’s hind legs, causing Hofnarr to grunt as he fell back down to the floor.

Pinkie and Cyclone Shade got up at about the same time, and to my surprise Pinkie instantly got into action and punched Cyclone Shade in his face as Twilight and I got close.  Cyclone Shade punched Pinkie back then spun around and double kicked her with his hind legs, knocking her back a few feet.  I growled with anger at the sight, quickly charging and firing a magic bolt at him and hitting him square in the chest, then I slammed into him from the air and pinned him to the floor.

He struggled beneath me as I punched him with my right hoof repeatedly.  Cyclone Shade managed one of his hooves free and punch me back, then he shoved me off of him, got up and stabbed into my right shoulder with his bracer’s blade, then kicked me off of it, causing it to tear part of my shoulder.  Twilight fired at Cyclone Shade but he dodged it and slashed her across her chest before punching her.  He refocused on Hofnarr as he tried to limp away.  I had hated Cyclone Shade since I saw how he behaved in the interrogation room, but after seeing Twilight, Pinkie and Hofnarr bleeding from wounds he gave them, my anger boiled over.

I began charging a magic bolt and let the power build, then once a large amount of magic was charged I fired the magic bolt.  Cyclone Shade turned around and faced me just as the bolt nailed him, sending him over Hofnarr and down the hallway some.  I teleported down to him as he struggled to get back on his hooves.  I punched him again before he could completely get up.  I was consumed with anger and disgust toward Cyclone Shade, making me shove him against one the windows in the hallway.  I shoved him against it with enough force to crack it some.  With a growl Cyclone Shade punched me with his right hoof, after he did that I grabbed his shoulders and hit his head with mine with as much force as I could muster.

In the midst of his daze I began charging another blast as I saw blood flow from Cyclone Shade’s nose and his teeth stained red.  I allowed Cyclone Shade just enough time to regain focus before I blasted him with my magic, blowing him out of the window, shattering it.  I was breathing heavily as I turned back to the others.  They were staring at me with mixed emotions and expressions of shock and fear.  I guess my rampage was at least a little frightening to them.

“Are all of you okay?”  I asked as I tried to catch my breath.

“I-I think so,” Twilight answered as she examined her injured leg and Pinkie rubbed her slightly bloody nose.  “Let’s tell Princess Celestia what happ―”

“Behind you!”  Hofnarr shouted.  I didn’t have the chance to react before I was knocked forward into Twilight.  When I got back I heard Fluttershy gasp.  I turned around and saw that Cyclone Shade had his left foreleg around her neck and the blade of his bracer against it.  The others and I didn’t know what to do; he could kill Fluttershy before he could do anything.

“Now that I have your undivided attention, I will first say that if either of your horns light with magic, I’ll kill her,” Cyclone Shade said as Fluttershy struggled a little as she fought back sobs of fear.

“What do you want?”  Twilight looked between Fluttershy and Cyclone Shade with a slightly panicked look.  I could easily smell the fear coming from the others.

“You know damn well what I want, and if you don’t hoof him over I’ll have no choice but to cut open this pretty little neck and watch the blood gush.  I’m sure that none of you really want to keep Hofnarr that much.”

There was stillness as we tried to figure a way out of this and found none; if we tried to take one step against him he would kill her and move on.  That wasn’t a sacrifice we wanted to make, nor was it one we were going to.  But to my surprise it was Hofnarr himself who spoke up first.

“You win; I’ll go with you.”  Cyclone Shade looked at him with a somewhat surprised look.  “You don’t deserve to be murdered like this, Fluttershy; you’re so kind and caring… and…”  Hofnarr was on the verge of tears.  “A-and I won’t let you die like this.”

“Aww, how sweet and noble of you.  Now that that’s been sorted out, the three of you,”  He motioned to Twilight, Pinkie and I.  “will leave; just keep walking down the hall until Fluttershy here calls you.”

“How do we know you won’t hurt her when we leave?”  I asked.

“Well look at it this way; if you stay I will definitely hurt her.  Of course when I say hurt I do mean kill.”

“Come on, we don’t have a choice,” Twilight said as she slowly turned around and began walking away.  Pinkie was next to start walking away.  I gave Cyclone Shade one last glare before letting out a long sigh, then turned around and joined the others in leaving.  My heart and mind were racing with concerns and fears of what Cyclone Shade would do; he was more than capable of killing Fluttershy just for fun before leaving.

As we walked I could hear Hofnarr say something and Cyclone Shade reply, soon after that there was a thud of something against the floor.  Upon hearing it all three of us turned around in time to see Cyclone Shade pick up Hofnarr and fly out of the broken window.  As soon as Cyclone Shade was out of sight we rushed back to Fluttershy, who was shaking with what I could only assume was trauma from having her life on the line like that.

“Are you okay, Fluttershy?”  Twilight asked as some tears escaped her eyes.

“I-I’m fine…”  I looked out of the broken window and saw Cyclone Shade flying away with Hofnarr in his forelegs.  As I saw them I opened my mouth and began to feed off of the others.

“Fragment?  What’re you doing?”  Twilight asked as I stopped feeding and lit my horn with magic.

“Tell Princess Celestia what happened, NOW!”  My wings began buzzing as I teleported.  As my surroundings changed I found myself almost exactly where I wanted to go.  I had appeared in the air in Cyclone Shade’s path, but I was too close to him, making him crash into me before either of us could react.

“You idiot, if he dies we both lose,” Cyclone Shade said as he dived down to catch the now free falling Hofnarr.  I looked around below me and found a two story building with a level rooftop.  I quickly teleported myself there then turned my attention to Hofnarr, who was getting dangerously close to the ground.  I used levitation to pull Hofnarr away from Cyclone Shade and brought him over to the roof I was on.  Cyclone Shade didn’t seem to like that.  I gently sat Hofnarr beside me.  He looked like Cyclone Shade had used a paralysis dart on him.  I focused on the hallway I had come from but I was hit before I could.  Cyclone Shade had rammed me in full force, knocking me away from Hofnarr before I could cast my spell.

“You just don’t give up, do you?”  He asked as I stood up and charged my magic.

“I’d be damned if I did.”

“You’ll be damned soon enough,” he said as he extended the blade of his bracer.


[Ominous Fight Music]


Cyclone Shade made the first move by throwing a knife at me which I blocked with a small ward.  How many of those damn things does he have?!

I retaliated by firing a magic bolt at him.  He charged forward and rolled under the bolt to avoid it, and once he was back up he jumped into the air and kicked me with a hind leg which knocked me closer to the edge of the roof.  I attempted to hit him with another magic bolt be he flew to the left to dodge, then he flew passed me then into my back knocking me away from the edge.  I started flapping my wings and flew straight up and turned around.

Cyclone Shade flew up at me and punched me in the gut then flew around me.  I turned around as quickly as I could and when I saw Cyclone Shade charging at me again I made a ward in his path, which he was not able to get around fast enough.  Once he was stopped by flying into it I ceased the ward and fired a magic bolt into his chest, knocking him back a few feet.  When I fired another bolt at him he dove under it then flew back up and rammed me.

Before I could attempt to use another magic bolt on him he punched my face, flew a little higher and then kicked me in the chest with both of his hind legs.  I fired another bolt and hit him, then I fired two more bolts but he flew up again after the first one of the pair hit.  Once again he dove into me but this time with enough force to bring me back to the rooftop.  I punched his jaw as he then stabbed my left shoulder with his blade.  I leaned my head up and bit onto his left foreleg, making him yell in pain.

I violently tore a half a mouthful of his leg’s flesh off then blasted him with a magic bolt, knocking him off of me.  As I got back up I saw that he had already gotten out a small roll of gauze from his belt and was wrapping the bite wound with it.  Cyclone Shade saw my horn begin to glow for another bolt, so he jumped into the air and flew off of the roof and down to what I’d guess was street level.  I ran over to Hofnarr to make sure he was okay.  He seemed to be okay, so I began to charge to teleport us away, but as I probably should’ve seen coming, Cyclone Shade reemerged on on left and rammed me again.

This time there was enough force to knock me off the building, so I latched onto Cyclone Shade and tried to roll us over so that we would land on him.  However he had the advantage and would not allow that to happen.  In the brief seconds I had I prepared for the impact.  After a moment there was loud crack sound as my back slammed into the cobblestone road below.  I heard gasps and shouts from the ponies on the street.  Cyclone Shade punched me as I charged another bolt and fired it right into his head, effectively knocking him off of me.

We got up at the same time and found that pretty much everyone on the street was staring at us unsure of what was going on.  Cyclone Shade laughed as I took a fighting stance and charged another bolt.

“How sad is it that I’m more than sixty years old - and about thirty years older than you - and I’m still kicking your ass?”  He taunted as I fired at him.  He simply sidestepped out of the way, allowing the bolt to continue into the crowd.  The ponies barely had enough time to get out of the way.  “And that’s another thing, Fragment, a great weakness you have is caring; I don’t care who must die to get my way, and therefore, collateral damage is acceptable,”

he said as he threw another knife at me, but rather than dodging or blocking it, I caught it with levitation and threw it back at him, however he blocked it with his bracer.  He flew into the air again and threw two knives at me, this time I blocked with a ward.  I lowered the ward and began rapid firing bolts at him, each shot he dodged.  He dropped back to ground level where I had to stop my reckless shooting to avoid hurting someone.  Cyclone Shade charged me which I reacted to by firing a magic bolt at him, but he ducked and rolled under it and at the end of his roll his face was almost touching mine.

He quickly brought both of his hooves up and slammed them unto my head, knocking me down.  He punched me before I had the chance to fight back more, then I felt him get on top of me and punch me again.  “Let’s see if I can do better than a scarred eye.”

He said as he began relentlessly beating my face.  The constant assault on my head made it nearly impossible to focus a spell and I wasn’t fast enough to bring up a hoof in my defense.  But then I saw something come in from my right and ram Cyclone Shade off of me.  The moment Cyclone Shade was off of me I tried to get up, spitting a glob of blood in the process.  What I saw surprised me; I saw a brown earth pony with a yellow mane and tail with a wrench as a cutie mark standing between Cyclone Shade and I.  Cyclone Shade seemed to find this funny.

“What’s this?  A random pony coming to the aid of a changeling in the street?  You must be foolish.”

“I’m not usually one to get into a fight, but I know a bad guy when I see one,” the stranger said.  “And on top of that, I know that this here,” he motioned towards me.  “Is Fragment, the changeling who saved at least two lives when the cockatrice attacked, and I won't just watch you try and kill him.”

“Fine, then you can die with him.”  Cyclone Shade threw a knife into the pony’s right foreleg then flew into him and stabbed into his chest with his bracer’s blade.  I charged and fired a magic bolt into Cyclone Shade and knocking him away from the pony.  Cyclone Shade began to laugh as he got up.

“You can either try to catch me and let this pony die, or you can save this pony’s life and I leave with Hofnarr.  Your choice,” he said with a smile as he began to fly away.  Reacting as fast as I could I shot a bolt into Cyclone Shade’s flightpath making him fly into it, then I ran over to the pony and examined his wounds.  “Does anyone know which way the hospital is?”  I asked the crowd.

“I-it’s just a few blocks that way,” a mare from among them said and pointed in my left.  I levitated the stallion off of the ground and flew into the air pulling him along with me.  As I flew towards the hospital I looked back over my shoulder and saw Cyclone Shade flying away with Hofnarr…