"We're the Shadowbolts," the woman in the center said. Her goggles glinted in the harsh light of the bare bulb. "And if you don't do what we say, everybody you care about is gonna die."
Twilight abruptly disappeared in a magenta flash, reappearing behind the Shadowbolts. Her right hand glowed as she extended it. "Sleep."
One of the Shadowbolts stepped forward, holding her hands out. There was a ruby red flash of light; Twilight's spell dissipated harmlessly.
"Bad move," the leader of the Shadowbolts growled. She drew back her right hand, which began to glow golden. With a piercing kiai, she charged Twilight.
"BARRIER!"
The powered punch slammed into Twilight's shield, sending her flying into the wall.
"TWILIGHT!" the others yelled.
The Shadowbolt advanced, blazing golden talons glowing around her right hand. "I need you alive," she said. "Alive doesn't necessarily mean uninjured..."
Loyalty 3: グリッフォン
"Miri, call Spike!" Pinkie yelled frantically.
A dual-tone chime rang from inside her blouse. //Calling Spike.//
Before the Shadowbolts could process this, a second, younger, male voice sounded out. //What's up, Pinkie?//
"HEEEEEELP!" Pinkie screamed. Her scream was stifled as one of the Shadowbolts strapped a piece of duct tape over her mouth and slapped her hard enough to knock her unconscious for good measure.
//Pinkie? PINKIE!//
"Do come quickly, Spike-kun!" Rarity yelled. The Shadowbolt who had struck Pinkie approached her with the tape, and she flinched away. "I'll be quiet now..."
"Dammit, do something about that phone!" the Shadowbolt with the glowing hand yelled. "I thought we took all their phones!"
The Shadowbolt with the tape ripped open Pinkie's blouse; a smartphone fell out of her bra and clattered onto the floor. "Who the fuck keeps their phone in their bra?" she asked in a scratchy voice.
The distraction was all Twilight needed. She teleported outside...then reappeared a moment later, transformed and ready to fight. She struck the Shadowbolt who had assaulted Pinkie in the back of the head with her baton, then pointed it at Pinkie. "Awaken!"
Pinkie groaned, rubbing her head. "Oooh...my head..." She looked down. "Gah! My phone! And my boobs!"
"You'll pay for that, witch!" the scratchy-voiced Shadowbolt said. she launched herself at Twilight, aiming a wild punch at her head.
Twilight dodged, striking her again, then waved her baton at her friends. The ropes holding them disappeared. Pinkie quickly scooped up her phone and stuffed it into her skirt pocket, then tried to rearrange her blouse. "Everybody, transform!" Twilight yelled.
"Right!" the others chorused.
"Element of Harmony..."
"Element of Harmony..."
"Element of Harmony..."
"Element of Harmony..."
"Element of Harmony..."
"LOYALTY!"
"LAUGHTER!"
"GENEROSITY!"
"KINDNESS!"
"HONESTY!"
"Oh WONDERFUL!" the scratchy-voiced Shadowbolt complained, throwing her hands up in the air. "GREAT, Dreadwing! They're loose, they're pissed, and they've all transformed."
The leader, Dreadwing, shrugged, dissipating the golden glow around her hand. "So? They can't beat us, they don't know who we are or where to find us when we bail outta this place, and we know all about them and their families." She stepped forward and pointed at Twilight. "Listen up! I know you're from Sun Island. I know the rest of these dweebs are powerless without the Elements of Harmony. This doesn't have to be hard. All you gotta do is do what we say, and you'll never hear from us again."
"No way, jerk!" Rainbow cried. "You tie us up, threaten our families, and expect us to help you? Who are you losers, anyway?"
"I told you already, we're the Shadowbolts!" Dreadwing said. "I'm Dreadwing!"
"Thundercracker!" the scratchy-voiced one said, striking a pose.
"Starscream," the third Shadowbolt said, arms folded.
"And if you want your families to live out the month, you'll do us a solid," Dreadwing said. "Starscream? The names."
"Twilight Velvet. Rainbow Blaze. Clyde Pie. Sue Pie. Maud Pie. Inkamena Pie. Blinkamena Pie. Apple Bloom. Big Macintosh. Granny Smith. Sweetie Belle. Anna Twombly."
The girls paled.
Dreadwing crossed her arms. "Those are the names of everybody we're gonna kill if you don't do exactly what I say," she said.
"You forgot someone!" a voice called out as the room filled with green smoke. Three loud thumps were heard.
The smoke cleared, and Spike stood in the middle of the room, holding two kunai which burned with emerald fire.
Thundercracker was the first to rise. She launched herself at Spike, performing an impressive triple spin kick that forced him on the defensive. Rarity charged in, leaping and delivering a flying kick to the head which sent Thundercracker spinning across the floor to crash into a wall.
Starscream rolled to a crouch and slapped the floor with the palms of both hands. Blue lightning crackled outward from her hands, ripping along the floor; the bare concrete beneath Spike and Rarity exploded upward, knocking them into the steel rafters. Rainbow and Fluttershy caught them, carrying them gently to the floor.
"HEY! That was really rude!" Pinkie cried, bracing her weapon. "SMILE CONFETTI VAGINA!"
The explosion of pink smoke and party decorations from Pinkie's bazooka caught Starscream and sent her flying, but her hands burned with ruby red light, absorbing the most harmful effects of the attack. Even as she slammed into the wall, she dropped down and slapped her hands on the ground. The support column behind Pinkie warped and twisted around, binding her.
Dreadwing stood, both hands blazing with golden talons made of light. "Okay. Playtime's over," she snarled. She blurred into motion; Twilight cried out as Dreadwing slashed her across the back, then kicked her at Spike. In another burst of motion, she ran up the back wall, flipped off, and raked Rainbow across the back; Rainbow screamed as she fell to the hard floor, her wings exploding away from her body.
Fluttershy spun and threw her shield at Dreadwing, but Dreadwing folded her hands into a ram seal, exploding into a cloud of black smoke through which the shield passed harmlessly, clanging against the metal wall.
Spike gasped. "That's...ninja magic!" Gently lowering Twilight to the floor, he performed a rapid series of seals. His hands and feet blazed with emerald fire as he launched himself at Dreadwing. "HIRYUUREPPA!"
Spike's blazing fists and feet whirled into a frenzy of punches and kicks, creating a miniature green firestorm that caught Dreadwing, buffeting her. She had no time to block or counter as Spike's relentless assault pounded her. She let out a piercing screech as a final flaming kick sent her crashing into the concrete floor. Her costume was torn and smoldering; most of the back had burned away, revealing a tattoo of a griffon which covered her upper back from shoulderblade to shoulderblade.
Dreadwing snarled as she rolled to her feet. "You're an Emerald Flame Dragon," she spat.
"That's right," Spike said. "I'm Spike of the Emerald Flame Dragon Clan, and these are my friends!"
Dreadwing ripped away her charred goggles, revealing furious golden eyes. "Shadowbolts...we're leaving. We know where these losers live." She pointed furiously at Spike. "YOU," she hissed, "I'll be seeing again. I'm gonna make your whole goddamn clan pay for what they did to mine...starting with YOU."
"What my clan did?" Spike asked. "Who are you?"
"I'm the last of the Soaring Lion Eagles," Dreadwing said. Then, the warehouse exploded in black smoke.
By the time Twilight was able to clear it with her magic, the Shadowbolts were gone.
The girls and Spike gathered in the middle of the warehouse. "What...what just happened?" Fluttershy asked, eyes wide with terror. "Who...who were those girls?"
"A new problem," Twilight said grimly. A quick search of the warehouse turned up their phones, piled on a dusty old table in a corner. She checked the time and grimaced. "Can't contact Celestia-sama this late..."
"What did they want with us?" Pinkie asked, eyes wide. "They never said!"
"I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing from them again," Rainbow said as she reversed her transformation. "Crap, that hurt...that bitch did something to my wings..."
"Your wings will probably be fine next time you transform," Twilight said. "At least...I hope they will. They're not real, they're magic, so..."
"Ah gotta git home an' check on Apple Bloom," Applejack said.
"Yes, I must see to Sweetie Belle at once," Rarity agreed.
"Yeah, we'd pretty much all better go check on our families," Pinkie said, worry in her eyes. "This is unsmile..."
"We'll meet up again tomorrow to talk about...about what just happened," Twilight said. She looked at Spike, whose face was pale and shaken. "Are you okay?"
Spike shook his head. "No," he said. "No...I'm not."
* * * * *
"What the HELL, Gilda?"
Thundercracker paced the condo angrily, throwing her hands wildly into the air. "We had them! There's no way those losers could've..." She turned and stared angrily at Dreadwing, hands on her hips. "What the hell?"
Dreadwing scowled. "I didn't expect that Emerald Flame brat," she said. "Look...we're still gonna get those girls to break the Seal. But killing the Emerald Flame kid comes first."
"What's so important about some ninja kid?" Thundercracker demanded. "The thing with the stupid rock is bad enough, but now you wanna kill some kid?"
"That kid's clan killed my entire clan," Dreadwing said. "The Soaring Lion Eagles were the strongest clan on Sun Island. Then the Emerald Flame Dragons wiped us out." She looked down at her lap. "My dad knew...he told me all about it. I'm the last one left..." She clenched her fists. "That's why I want the power of the Lunar Seal. So I can do to them what they did to my clan."
"So this is all about revenge?" Thundercracker asked, disbelief in her voice. "Gilda...that's not what I signed on for."
Dreadwing glared up at her, then looked over at Starscream. "You got an opinion?"
"I'm with you to the end," Starscream said. "This is...interesting."
"We've got enough cash and stuff right now," Dreadwing said, looking up at Thundercracker. "If you want, you can take your share of everything we've got and bail. Or you can stick around and be part of something bigger than you could ever imagine."
Thundercracker frowned, crossing her arms. Her gaze held Dreadwing's for a long time.
Then, she sat down and sighed. "Alright...I'll hang tight for now. But this revenge bullshit is lame."
"You wouldn't say that if it was your clan that was burned to ashes."
"Could I just point one thing out?" Starscream interjected.
"Yeah?"
"We never actually told those girls about the Lunar Seal."
Dreadwing sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. We'll get to it. I just...I just had to bail. Couldn't think straight..."
* * * * *
Twilight contacted Sun Island shortly after daybreak. Upon hearing Twilight's report, Celestia gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "A Soaring Lion Eagle..."
"The last of the Soaring Lion Eagles," Twilight said. "We still don't know why they kidnapped us in the first place, but...as soon as she realized Spike was an Emerald Flame Dragon, she...she just left without...even telling us what they wanted from us. And now we've got this death threat looming over our families, we don't know who these girls are or where they came from, and...well..."
"And now you have a clan blood feud on your hands," Celestia said gravely. She sighed. "How's Spike holding up?"
"He's freaking out," Twilight said. "He...what happened to the Soaring Lion Eagle Clan, it...it's always bothered him. Most of the Emerald Flame Dragons regret what happened, as far as I know..."
"Yes, they do," Celestia said. "But I took great pains to bury all records of the incident..."
Twilight shrugged. "Somebody unburied it," she said. "It's a moot point now. This Dreadwing...she's a Soaring Lion Eagle, and she's out for blood."
Celestia sighed. "Well...one rogue vice mage shouldn't be that great a challenge for six mahoushoujo with the Elements of Harmony and one Emerald Flame Clan mage, whatever his feelings on the matter may be."
"If it was just this Dreadwing, it wouldn't be a problem," Twilight said. "But those other two...I didn't see the one that called herself Thundercracker use any kind of magic whatsoever, but the one called Starscream..." Twilight frowned. "She was using a type of magic I've never seen before. And...she absorbs magic. Only Pinkie-san and I actually tried to use magic attacks during our fight with the Shadowbolts...well, and Spike, but he only went after Dreadwing." She shrugged. "Starscream...I think she absorbs magic. Not in any way I'm familiar with, though."
"Hmm. I'll do some research. Do you remember anything else?"
"She...used some kind of geomancy, I think. She was making the concrete floor explode and metal support columns bend."
Celestia nodded. "I'll look into it. In the meantime, be on your guard, and...if the Shadowbolts contact you again, find out what it is they want from you."
"Hai, Celestia-sama."