Reflections Of Evil
“How long is this going to take?” Shining Armor grumbled. A dark magic aura connected his horn to the red one in the snow.
“It will take as long as it needs to. Though with our connection, you will be able to get to Canterlot quicker than on your own,” the horn promised.
Shining Armor sighed. “Why did you call me now? And why me?”
“Tell you what, whenever YOU explode, we’ll time you and see if you can pull your mind back together any faster.” The horn gave a raspy laugh.
“Point made,” Shining growled back.
“And as for you specifically, don’t flatter yourself. You’re not the first one I summoned out here; you’re only the first to actually arrive.”
Shining didn’t like the way that had been phrased, but pushed it aside. “So, we join minds like this, become powerful enough to win or even stop the war, as well as any other problems along the way you don’t bother to tell me?”
“I don’t believe I ever stuttered. If it’s coming events that concern you, then simply know I’m unfamiliar with the details… you’ll understand when we’re done here.” The horn fell quiet.
“So how do you even know they’re going to happen?”
“Precognition is not simple to decipher. I know things will happen, a vague idea of what, but no idea of when or where. You’ll know enough upon the merge, so stop concerning yourself over it.”
Shining frowned but kept up the spell. The horn began to disintegrate bit by bit, carried by the dark aura as it became one with Shining Armor.
As the process went on, their thoughts began to join. “Ah, I see. You’re quite the smart lad.”
“Why? Because I recognize danger and want to save my family?”
“Because you recognize I’m not lying to you. Not to mention… I see you truly do want this power I offer.”
Shining Armor scowled and muttered to himself, but didn’t deny the claim.
“Such language. Do you always think such filthy things?” The horn laughed. The barrier between their individual minds began to drop and they were able to communicate simply through thought, the last tip of the horn funneling up the aura and becoming a part of Shining. “Do you see what I meant now?”
Shining Armor paused, soaking in the images that now flashed before him. The premonitions were hazy, but he understood what he saw. First he stood under a storm, black clouds and blue lightning tearing across Equestrian skies, while the food and crops around him began to shrivel and dry as it seemed the land was being drained of any moisture.
Before he could figure out where he was, he saw a new, more horrifying image of decayed and decrepit skeletal creatures walking once again, some pony and others not, but all dead, each one walking towards a river of blood.
Then he saw the griffons and the ponies, each at one another’s throats, brandishing weapons, talons, and shields as two towers erupted from the ground. One held a mighty gryphon, laughing victoriously above the bloodshed as he rose higher, while on the other pillar he saw his own sister, glaring to the opposing pillar, rage and fury bringing her wings to flare.
He tried to call out to her, but the scene was washed away under a tidal wave of grubs and maggots, consuming everything as a disgusting, gargling whinny overtook his senses, chilling him. He saw ponies and griffons both swimming in the mass of maggots, choking and coughing before sinking back into the wave without resistance.
Shining Armor opened his eyes and felt sweat on his brow, breathing heavily. I see… you were right.
“Of course I was.”
So we’re dealing with—
“Our very end.”
Shining Armor shook his head. We’ll take care of this then. We won’t let it come to pass.
“Better get on it then, champion. We have the power, let the wife know we’re heading out to grab some biscuits and stop a war; we’ll be back by morning,” Sombra chuckled, taking form within Shining’s consciousness and popping his neck. “If you want me to take the wheel though, I’d be glad to oblige.”
You’re never getting control, Shining Armor thought back with venom in his tone. As he turned to make his way back to the empire, he gasped and felt his knees buckle from a sudden rush of magic overtaking him.
Sombra laughed again. “We’ll see.”
“Enchantment is faint, but present. Much higher levels than I’m capable of, even with complete focus.” Lyra stepped away from Rarity with a deep concern on her face and a glowing horn. “It’s still affecting you; suppressing ideas that the enchanter doesn’t want coming into your mind.”
“What?” Gilda burst. “You’re telling me that there are creatures capable of brainwashing, and even stopping thought altogether?”
Lyra shook her head. “Not quite, but close enough. Whoever did this to Rarity is someone with vast amounts of magic, possibly on par with the alicorns. This isn’t acceptable magic in Equestria either, I know, I studied it.” Everyone in the group gave a worried look to Lyra. “I said studied, it’s not acceptable to use, not know. It’s beyond my level anyway, as I’ve said.”
“Well, this is disturbing news. But why would something draw me out here simply to have me go gem hunting?” Rarity questioned.
Lyra tapped at her chin in thought as everyone else did the same, thinking up answers.
“You mentioned ‘getting out quickly’ when we first met, Rare,” Rainbow Dash brought up. “Would that have anything to do with it?”
Rarity gave a slight glare to Rainbow before answering. “I doubt it. Magic hardly has anything to do with my want to escape this frozen mountain.”
“We might have an idea,” Spot piped up. Attention turned to him and Fido. The small dog cleared his throat before beginning. “Under the earth, there are stories dogs tell, of mind wipers and brain eaters that lure their prey into a general area. The unfortunate dog or other creature would think the idea their own, proceeding until they are eventually found by their controller… and consumed.”
The grim thought sat with everyone for a moment, bringing Rarity to a tremble.
“Perhaps it is best we get out of here pretty quick,” Rainbow Dash said. “Lyra, you ready to locate Pinkie?”
Lyra nodded. “Yeah, no problem, boss. There’s a frozen pool a few feet from here I can use as a focus.”
As Lyra began to walk off, Fluttershy flew up to her side and cleared her throat. “Lyra, could you do a favor for me? If it’s not intrusive?”
“Sure. What’s up?” Lyra replied in her usual, bright demeanor.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and shook her head. “It’s not going to help me right now, but the knowledge will lift a heavy burden off of me. Could you perform the scrying spell for me after we know where Pinkie Pie is?”
Lyra threw herself onto her back legs and gave a shrug with her forelegs. “Don’t see why not. Know who you’re looking for?”
Fluttershy nodded her head, determination in her eyes and her jaw firm.
Lyra gave a smile as the group followed them to the pool. All gathered, Lyra produced her lyre and gave a strum. As she performed her song and spell, the ice began to quiver as if it had melted. Rainbow Dash stepped forward and uttered “Pinkie Pie” to make the quivering give way to an image of a port.
“That’s Vanhoover,” Gilda pointed out. “You fucking kidding me? We ran right past her!”
“Perhaps hiding among the common folk?” Fido offered.
“Not likely. That ain’t Pinkie’s style. Songs an’ booze an’ dance is what she’d be attracted to, if not hostin’,” Applejack objected.
“Either way, she’s there, and we’re going back to find her,” Rainbow Dash butted in. “Better that she’s close to home anyway, we’re almost done.”
Everyone separated and began making preparations to leave as Lyra and Fluttershy stayed by the pool.
“So who are we lookin’ for? You have something with recent contact?” Lyra asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “Myself.”
Lyra smiled. “Right, we can check in. Just say their name when the water starts to ripple. You may feel a bit of a tingle.” She turned and began walking off, confusing Fluttershy. “We need another pool, this one’s used up for the day!” Lyra called back in explanation.
“Oh,” was all Fluttershy gave in response. She followed behind before they found another reflective pool of ice.
The spell began anew, and Fluttershy felt a light tremor run through her body, seeing a similar reaction in the ice. She cleared her throat and looked into the reflection. “Tanzick.” She spat the word with hatred only she understood. Nothing appeared, and she let out a sigh of relief. It was premature, however, as her eyes opened to meet the view of her rival flying with a wicked grin on his face.
Lyra’s eyes grew wide as well, finding her focus difficult to maintain as below Tanzick she saw a bright mint and yellow dot in a white land, with many gray dots approaching them.
“Shhhhit,” Lyra spat. She put her lyre away and turned around to run. Fluttershy followed after, the two of them running as fast as they could get their hooves going. “RAINBOW! WE HAVE TROUBLE!”
Rainbow Dash looked behind her and saw Lyra and Fluttershy running towards her. Above them she saw the mangled face of an all too familiar beast. She readied herself for combat, floating slightly above the ground and flicking her blades into position. Her comrades followed her lead, but everyone lost their resolve as they saw a flood of gray fur coming over the snow covered mountains.
“Worgs!” Applejack cried out.
“No real way we can run from all of that,” Gilda pointed out, drawing her Morningstar.
Rainbow let out a sigh. “I think you’re right. Keep Rover safe.” She turned back to the dog himself. “Keep out of this one. You’re not in any good shape.”
Rover nodded in understanding and began making his way back towards the cave for safety. Spot and Fido followed after, weapons drawn and ready to defend Rover.
As the mass drew closer though, they came to a slow walk, Tanzick descending and standing before them. There were around twelve of them. At Tanzick’s side came a larger worg, almost invisible amongst the snow if it weren’t for his thin black lips and sky colored eyes.
Rarity attempted to hide behind the rest of the group, ducking low. Fluttershy, in contrast, was snarling viciously, drowning out the similar sounds that the worgs produced.
Tanzick merely chuckled at the sight of his rival in such a foul mood as the large white wolf beside him cleared its throat.
“Greetings, fair travelers,” he began. With every syllable out of his throat the party felt the air grow colder. It seemed as if he were waiting for a response, but when none came but the battle ready stares of the ponies and Gilda he continued. “My pack and I were wandering the mountains, searching for something… taken from us.” His words implied knowledge of this ‘something’ was shared with someone in the group. Rainbow began to understand Rarity’s eagerness to leave. “As well as our friend here,” the wolf continued, motioning a paw to Tanzick, “has said that he has business with the somewhat angry pegasus there.”
Fluttershy never took her eyes off the peryton, snarling even louder than before, positioned to pounce. It only seemed to add to Tanzick’s amusement, however, and provoke the worgs to edge nearer.
“We’re not discussing business with your ilk,” Lyra stated rather bluntly. “The peryton is no friend of ours, and your kind isn’t much for diplomacy anyway.”
Rainbow nodded in agreement. “Fluttershy stays with us.”
The white wolf laughed. “Well obviously. The unicorn is correct however, we aren’t much for speaking away our problems, but if I didn’t want to try… would I have bothered speaking to you to begin with?” A silence fell over the group as the thought passed.
“As if I don’t understand sadism,” Gilda retorted. “Could be you’re just talking to us like a griffon chick plays with its food before it eats. You wanna see us beg or plead, right?”
“Well, that is a logical argument,” the wolf agreed, “but no. I see that you are well armed and experienced, an ambush would be more effective for killing you.” At the mention of this, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Gilda, and Lyra began to look around them for signs of more worgs. “We have not prepared such an encounter, the druid or the unicorn could tell you as much.”
Dash kept her gaze affixed on the white wolf’s eyes, unflinching and unblinking. “Fluttershy, see if you can smell any more of them around.”
Fluttershy obeyed, but kept on snarling as her face rearranged slightly, giving her a more ferocious and bear-like appearance. After some slight sniffing she growled, “No others near.”
With that confirmed, Dash let out a silent sigh of relief. “So you want to talk? Talk.”
The wolf grinned. “Intelligent answer, I can respect that. Of course I can see that you’re only stalling, looking for a chance to strike. We all know that this is ending with blood in the snow.”
Rainbow scowled. “So why aren’t we at it already?”
The wolf gave a modest shrug of his forelegs. “Because we’re both looking for our perfect opportunity… an opening… you’re looking for our weak link as we look for…” Another grin spread across his tar colored lips, his eyes falling on Rover dipping into the cave. “Yours.”
“Don’t ya dare be thinkin’ ‘bout goin’ near him!” Applejack growled, stepping forward and earning a few nasty snarls in her direction.
“Oh, of course not,” the wolf cooed. “Because I’m more than certain we still have something to discuss.”
His threatening smile got his point across to Rainbow, and with a sigh she asked, “What’re we discussing then?”
The wolf’s grin only grew more satisfied as he admired his claws. “Well, we’re all going to be at one another’s throats soon enough, so I’m going to get our terms set up through this.” He made himself very clear and logical, though for the fact that he was talking about upcoming death, that wasn’t calming anyone down. “We’ll overlook the weak one for now, the clear chink in your armor, if we can have a good look at our true prey. I believe she called herself Rarity?”
Dash let out a sigh. “I’m more willing to bet on Rare’s skills than Rover’s endurance right now anyways.” She turned around, bringing a shiver to Rarity’s spine before – “BUT!” She stopped. “Let’s hear what exactly she took from you. After all, it must have been really important for you to come after her with a small army.”
The wolf chortled once again. “Fair enough. She’s holding some rather valuable minerals of ours, lenses as I like to call them; rare gems capable of funneling magical energy and focusing it into a concentrated beam.”
Almost the entire group furrowed their brows in confusion. “What would a worg need a magical lens for?”
“Nothing,” Lyra interrupted. “A winter wolf, however, has a breath weapon; if you’ll remember.”
A confirming hum from the wolf brought a sinking feeling to Rainbow’s stomach. “So you basically want to turn yourself into a magical cannon?”
“To put it bluntly, I suppose that is correct. Call it living up to my namesake,” the wolf returned. When he was met with silence again he let out a sigh. “I’ve given every chance for manners and polite behavior, but it seems obvious you aren’t willing to comply. And to think you’re all considered the ‘civilized’ race without pausing to ask a name, even for spell casting purposes.”
“Fine,” Rainbow interjected, “what is your name?”
With a growl growing in his throat the wolf answered, “Freezer.”
“Creative,” Gilda scoffed. “Enough stalling already! We’ve already said no deal!” She threw back her mace and began to take a step forward before Dash stepped in front of her.
“Hold on, G. There’s one more thing I have to ask Freezer here,” she insisted.
“What? What is there to possibly talk about anymore? Any further offer here is for him to get a clearer shot at one of us, which if I know you, you’d never take.” Gilda was fuming and ready to fight, looking as if she would club right through Dash to start it.
“It’s the most important question I can ask at this moment,” Rainbow insisted, calm and poised. “Does this hurt?!” She turned fast and thrust her blade directly into Freezer’s shoulder, bringing him into a howl of agony.
Everyone leapt in after Dash’s lead, taking advantage of the shock she caused. Gilda brought her Morningstar into the nose of a worg that ran towards her, Lyra sank Emerald directly into the throat of another, and Applejack brought her hooves down hard on another’s skull, knocking it out cold.
Fluttershy and Tanzick took to the skies, engaging in their own private battle. Spike and Fido kept their ground, guarding the cave and staying focused.
Rarity came into view as everyone scattered and grabbed Freezer’s attention. The white worg swatted Rainbow Dash aside with one of his powerful paws and let his jaw drop, firing a white and blue beam from the back of his throat towards the snowy unicorn in her coats.
Dash let her element react, throwing up a ruby barrier in front of Rarity that blocked the breath attack, forming a thick coat of ice on the shield. The shield didn’t block the winds that came with the blast, however, as it blew hard against Rarity, throwing her heavy fur coats off of her and revealing belts and pouches all filled to bursting with gems. One such jewel, a massive diamond carved into a perfect circle, sat atop her back.
“The lenses,” Freezer grinned as he began running hard towards Rarity, fangs flashing and eyes widened.
Rarity didn’t move or even wince, instead bringing the massive circular diamond in front of her like a shield, replacing Rainbow’s barrier. Her glowing horn formed an orb at the point, spiraling and spinning as Freezer drew closer. Rainbow took off in an attempt to stop him, but before she could sink her swords into Freezer’s back, Rarity let the energy above her horn sink into the diamond, forcing it to become a brilliant blue before firing out a discharge of magical force that landed a solid hit directly into his chest.
The attack brought awe to any who were watching as Freezer was tossed onto his back as Rarity stood unfazed and composed. When she noticed an open mouthed stare from Rainbow, she simply retorted with, “What? He told you what these did. Please stop gawking and let’s dispatch these ruffians.” She drew from her hip an elegantly crafted rapier, forged of silver with golden inlay through the center of the blade and jewels expertly embedded within the hilt.
Another worg leapt upon Rarity, but made contact with her lens, scraping his claws and teeth in a futile attack. She stuck her weapon’s tip right through the worg’s jaw, piercing the bottom of his muzzle and pinning his mouth shut. She then bashed against him with her diamond, knocking him down with her rapier sealing his mouth.
As she turned to the rest of the action, she produced an emerald from one of her pouches and fired a magical charge into it, forcing it to pulse with inner light. “I’d suggest taking cover,” she called out to her friends. They followed her order, ducking behind large mounds of snow or taking to the sky. Rarity let the emerald fly into the center of the worgs, watching as it reacted to the magic inside and exploded, sending shards of emerald into the skin of nearby worgs, followed by a radial detonation of magical energy. Three worgs fell dead.
“Alright Rarity!” Rainbow Dash cheered.
Rainbow herself descended upon a recovering Freezer, thrusting her blades towards his spine. The winter wolf jumped out of the way, Dash’s forehooves crashing into the snow. He took advantage of the moment he earned and fired off another beam of frost, freezing Dash’s wings solid and grounding her.
The sudden weight made it even more difficult for Dash to recover, leaving her vulnerable as Freezer jumped her, sinking his teeth into the back of her neck. Against the pain, Dash did her best to throw Freezer off, throwing her head back, but he kept his jaws clamped tight.
Gilda took notice of Rainbow’s plight while struggling to hold an attacker of her own at bay while it chewed on the handle of her weapon. With a battle cry and a powerful shove, she toppled the worg and brought her heavy mace down on his chest. She could hear as every rib cracked underneath the blow and he stopped moving, turning her attention back to Rainbow.
Gilda tossed herself at Freezer and made to take a crack at his skull. He noticed and let go of his bite, allowing the Morningstar to collide with Dash’s frozen wings, cracking the ice around them.
The griffon and the pegasus stood by one another, sizing up the large worg before them as he readied another breath attack.
Above the snow, Fluttershy and Tanzick exchanged fierce blow after fierce blow, the two of them risking dangerous injuries to deal one of their own.
Fluttershy ignored the pain from Tanzick’s latest bite, sticking his stomach with one of her thorns. “WHY?” she roared.
“Am I still here?” he gurgled back. He grasped Fluttershy’s hoof with his talon and pulled her thorn out, letting his blood spill to the icy ground without so much as a wince. “Because my vendetta isn’t finished, a Wild still draws breath while I do as well! You think I’d die with that hanging over my head?” With a snap, Fluttershy felt her leg break as Tanzick smashed his hoof against her leg.
Fluttershy’s mouth fell agape, trying to scream in pain, but she refused. Her willpower and new stubborn behavior wouldn’t allow her to give her rival the satisfaction of her agonized wail. Tanzick let go of the leg and it fell to Fluttershy’s side limply.
Tanzick gave a cruel chuckle. “An eye, an ear, a few cuts and bruises, I can accept that price for the satisfaction of ripping the Wilds’ last in half, again!”
At these words, Fluttershy lost her conscious mind, her thoughts overwhelmed by her instincts. A primal howl bellowed from her throat as she began changing once again. Her mane fluffed out and encircled her face as she threw her head back, dropping her antlers to the ground below. Her muzzle shortened and teeth sharpened while her tail thinned out until forming a small tuft at the tip.
Tanzick looked on with interest. “Intriguing. Lord taught you this, I’m guessing?”
Fluttershy’s response was a bite to Tanzick’s right foreleg, taking the peryton by surprise with her newly developed fangs. He felt incredible amounts of pain as Fluttershy clenched her jaw tighter, bringing her teeth deeper. Tanzick actually acknowledged the pain with a scream, bashing his free hoof against Fluttershy’s head in an attempt to get her off.
Back on the ground, Lyra and Applejack were fighting back to back as three worgs closed in on them. Lyra slid Emerald across the throat of one of their attackers, taking him down easily as another worg jumped up and grabbed the blade from the air, holding tightly to it in his teeth.
Lyra wrestled for control of her blade as the third worg attempted to attack her. He was knocked aside by Applejack’s steel hoof smashing into his jaw.
“C’mon ya scraggly mongrel, let’s see ya try it again!” Applejack stamped her hooves into the snow, kicking the powder up as she snorted aggressively.
Fido and Spot stood their ground in front of the cave as two other worgs approached. “Step no further, though dogs and worgs have their differences, I am reluctant to fight a cousin, but I will protect my pack leader if I must,” Spot spoke clearly as he held a paw out, the other holding one of his daggers. As the wolves drew closer, the duo came tighter together around the cave entrance.
“So be it,” Fido grumbled. He pulled his axe back as a worg jumped for him. As the beast nearly fell onto Fido, he swung his axe, cleaving the wolf in half.
Spot took initiative and thrust a paw into his opponent’s mouth, twisting in a way that he stuck his blade into the worg’s tongue, holding its jaw open with his dagger as Spot slashed his other dagger across the worg’s eyes. Blinded, the worg let out a howl and tried to bite down on Spot’s paw. The small dog was quick however, and withdrew his paw, leaving the dagger in as the worg’s bite brought the blade down through his tongue and lower jaw.
Rainbow Dash and Gilda jumped to opposite sides to avoid an incoming frost breath, avoiding the attack before they both started charging Freezer, Dash on hoof and Gilda by wing. The wolf jumped back, dodging Gilda’s Morningstar. Rainbow brought a blade upwards in an attempt to pierce his throat, but by lifting his head he got out with a mere scrape up his chin.
With a swat, Freezer dragged his claws against Rainbow’s nose. The strong and sudden scent of blood made her almost gag, flinching hard enough for Freezer to take another strike and scrape up her cheek.
Gilda rushed him again and managed a blow of her own, hearing the crack from a few of Freezer’s ribs. He let out a howl in anger, waking the hound that took Applejack’s hammer to the head.
The awakened hound charged over to its master, leaping over the winter wolf and crashing into Gilda, sending them both tumbling through the snow. Gilda found herself pinned under the worg’s paws, his drool splashing onto her beak as he snarled. He thrust his jaws at her in an attempt to bite out her throat, but she moved out of the way, taking the opportunity to instead bite and pull at his ear. The worg whimpered in pain as she tugged and tried to move away, releasing Gilda’s talons and back legs. She curled her right talon and punched the beast against his damaged head, bringing another whine before she shoved him and stood again.
The beast tried to recover, getting back to his paws before Gilda let out a roar and hammered both of her talons down on his head in one fatal strike. The griffon gave a disappointed sigh and spat on the corpse.
Rarity was still engaged with the muzzled worg, standing ready with a focused expression. The monster gave a muffled growl, trying to still appear intimidating, but only inviting a ladylike giggle from Rarity. “Come now, darling, you’ll only embarrass yourself. I’ll remove the blade if you retreat and stay away, as I suggested before.”
The worg only seemed angrier as he paced a circle around Rarity to try and find an opening.
“Or we could continue this little spat and end up worse for it,” Rarity said as she grabbed another emerald with her hoof and held it up for the beast to see. He shrunk before the sight of the jewel, backing away and looking for a clear direction to run. He looked back to Rarity and gave a frantic nod of acceptance. “Good,” she said with a smile.
Her aura encapsulated the rapier once again and pulled the weapon out of the creature’s muzzle as he let out a cry of pain. “Move along then. You’ll not see more of me this lifetime.” Rarity motioned her hoof in a shooing motion and the bleeding hound bobbed its head in agreement, turning to run in the direction it had come from with its friends.
Freezer, locked in combat with Rainbow, caught a glimpse of the worg attempting to flee. In a ferocious snarl, he bit Rainbow by the leg as she swung an attack at him, her blade piercing his lips and extending his mouth. Freezer ignored this as he flung Rainbow to his side and turned on his fleeing pack mate, opening his maw and releasing another burst of frost.
The worg didn’t notice the attack until he was hit, his body encased in ice, even the blood that fell from his muzzle stood silently in its eternal descent.
Rainbow saw this and felt an anger welling up inside her. “You’re fighting me!” She threw herself back onto her hooves and charged in, screaming. Freezer turned to meet her blades with his throat, baffled that he had been so careless.
In his attempt to set an example, he had left himself open, allowing his ego to get the better of himself. He dared not try to speak, racing his mind for a solution to his present problem. Eventually he came to the acceptance that he wasn’t getting out of this battle alive. He decided to do as much damage as he could in that case.
With a swipe, Freezer forced Rainbow to duck and evade, withdrawing her blade from his throat. In that instance, Freezer called upon his frost breath to freeze the wound in his throat. Blood kept dripping from his neck and began building up inside as well, almost choking him. He ran towards Rainbow as she recovered and spat blood directly into her face, forcing her to shut her eyes as he snapped his jaws back down on her previously bitten leg, shredding the limb.
Rainbow shrieked in pain as she felt Freezer’s teeth scrape against the bone in her foreleg. Among the pain she also felt excessive cold spreading throughout her body, freezing her insides.
Freezer gurgled on his and Rainbows blood in an attempt to chuckle. Rainbow Dash felt herself slowing, her body resisting her actions and trying to stop. Her adrenaline stopped, her pain overwhelmed her, her heartbeat slowed, her energy dropped and she began to feel numb as the freezing bite soaked into her.
She was defiant however, summoning her anger and passion to heat her as she took one more thrust into the monster, impaling her blade between his smiling, wintry eyes, and watching him fall limp into the snow where his blood painted the snow.
Panting out of exhaustion and pain, Rainbow looked around to see her comrades finishing their fights as well. Applejack sent her opponent flying until he hit the ground, limp and unmoving. Lyra wrestled Emerald back from the worg and swiftly introduced it to his heart. Spot had taken mercy on his opponent and withdrew his dagger, offering him a chance to run, and without Freezer standing to stop him, the worg accepted.
“That only leaves…” Rainbow looked upwards and saw Fluttershy still battling with Tanzick as a drop of blood from their battle added to her war paint mask.
In the sky, Fluttershy refused to release Tanzick’s leg, simply letting him continue to beat on her head as she sank her bite in to the point she was scraping his marrow.
“Let GO!” Tanzick bellowed.
Fluttershy’s eyes glared back up towards him, devoid of intelligence, only a primal and wrathful stare. She jerked her head and ripped Tanzick’s leg from his body, allowing it to drop to the ground.
In shock, the peryton lost control of his wings and began to fall. Fluttershy pursued in a rapid descent, her broken arm flapping behind her as she struck out with her good leg, stabbing Tanzick repeatedly with the thorns on her vine, jabbing holes rapidly into his stomach before landing on his broken and maimed body with her back legs, releasing a mighty lion’s roar.
She looked into the eyes of her rival, and she knew that he was finally down for good. “Fluttershy?” She turned her head to see Applejack standing behind her, as well as all of her friends with terrified looks on their faces. She felt shame wash over her; bringing her back to a self she hadn’t felt for years. The pain in her body, the taste of blood in her mouth, it all disgusted her and brought tears to her eyes. She bawled silently, tears running down her cheeks and her chest expanding and shrinking.
Rainbow Dash stepped forward and allowed Fluttershy to cry into her shoulder. She lost control. Years of anger had to come out eventually I guess. Rainbow looked back to the rest of the group. “We have to get out of here quickly. Sorry we can’t rest, but Freezer said there were more, and they’ll come looking for us. Not to mention we still have a dragon on our backs. Let’s get out of the Frozen North, then we’ll rest for the night and head out for Vanhoover and recover on the way.” She let out a groan as she sniffed up some of her own blood and wobbled, weakened from her spilling blood.
“We don’t gotta worry too much about that, Dash,” Gilda answered. “You an’ Flutters here seem to have gotten the worst of it.” She pointed to Rainbow’s damaged leg. “You two and the dog need some recovery. Not to mention…” Gilda lifted her weapon once again and took a hard swing against the ice on Rainbow’s wings, shattering it into smaller bits that Rainbow was able to shake off with a few flaps.
“Right,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Rover, Fluttershy, and I will do our best to keep pulling our weight. The sooner we can finish this and go home, the sooner we can get the real rest we need.”