//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: When Red Flows // Story: The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life // by Rhino //------------------------------// Alright, fair warning now: this chapter will be graphic, whether it’s your interpretation of graphic or not, it is definitely graphic compared to the rest of this story. There will be violence, probably graphic. Just saying, if it’s not your thing… there will be some parts you might want to skip. Well, let’s relieve some cliff hanger tension shall we? ***Saturday, Day 9, After Dark*** I knew this was going too smoothly, shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. These guys look like really bad news. The leader looks over our group after his question to nopony in particular. His eyes light up when they rest on Blue Breeze. “Look here boys, it’s the one that got away.” He and his cohorts give a chuckle, “Don’t think you’re getting away again, we’re ready for your little punches this time.” Each of them shifts their weight to where the jackets open enough to give us all glimpses of the knife each of them had in a sheath on their side as they all chuckle again. I take a few subtle steps toward Blue and whisper out of the corner of my mouth, “Blue, you fought these guys last time right? Anything we should expect?” He whispers back, “I don’t know, last time I only had to hold off three of them and none of them were armed, I have no idea what to expect.” Hydro had been listening in, “Well that’s just great.” The leader suddenly raises his hoof and the thugs immediately shut up. That does not bode well. “Now then, all of you will be coming with us.” He fondles his knife handle with a wing while he says this. Volt speaks up, though I kind of wish he didn’t, “And what if we say no?” The leader’s eyes narrow and his creepy smile grows a little wider. “I don’t recall asking.” He draws his knife with a wing and thrusts it in our direction, “GET THEM!” As the leader shouts two more pegasi dressed like the other thugs crash through the windows and draw their own weapons trying to flank us. The fight begins. Each of us besides Fluttershy ends up taking on one of the thugs, the leader not easily discernible amongst the rest. (The following fights all happen at the same time) Hydro and Applejack fight with similar styles of using bucking for offense. The only difference being that Hydro delivers a few punches and that Applejack’s bucks seem to have more of an impact than his. Both of them suffer a few cuts, the most noticeable being a slash down Hydro’s side and a cut across Applejack’s cheek that continued upwards to take a nick off her hat. In the end both of their opponents end up staying down after getting bucked in the chest a few times but they still look conscious. Blue Breeze is having a close and personal fight with his opponent, his foe wielding his knife and himself using his bare hooves. Blue’s technique is easily noticeable in his form and strikes, and a strange blur can be seen around his hooves when he pulls them back sometimes. These strikes seem to have particularly large amounts of force behind them as you can feel the wind shooting away from his opponent when they connect. Blue delivers the deciding blow after his thug takes a stab for his face and misses, Blue taking his hoof and using it to flip his opponent onto the floor as a counter. Rarity is doing some kind of martial arts thing that doesn’t contact much but keeps her opponent on the defensive anyways. This goes on for a bit until he gets annoyed and makes a horizontal slash which ends up missing her throat but catching a bit of her mane and cutting it off. She simply stands there a moment before hitting him in the jaw with an uppercut, leaving him sitting dazed against the wall. Rainbow Dash is having an aerial battle with her thug, she attacks with sudden dashes while zooming around him. He holds her off with his knife for a time but eventually her speed lets her conclude the fight by diving underneath him and bucking him into the ceiling after which he falls face first into the floor. Volt is in the middle of a blade fight with his foe, though his opponent uses his knife as a street fighter would while Volt uses a conductor rod he had in his bag as a fencer would. Volt also seems to have used his magic to put a charge into the rod seeing as every time it makes contact with the thug or his weapon it causes the thug to jump as what looks like a quick jolt flows through him. The thug decides to go for a surprise punch that winds Volt but as he raises the knife Volt simply jabs the rod into the thug’s gut hard, leaving him twitching on the ground. Pinkie Pie is bouncing all around her opponent who seems to be unable to hit the springy mare. Every time he tries she simply bounces away, onto his head, or just reverses her direction in mid-air. He seals his fat by letting himself get angry and just yelling at her to stay still so he can stab her. Her mane deflates for a moment as she stays still for a moment before she gets an angry look on her face and suddenly gut checks him across the room after which her mane poofs back up. Twilight, who I assume would have had many plans for this if she knew about it ahead of time, seemed to have trouble thinking when she is repeatedly almost stabbed by the one she is facing. She finds her stride after a moment of backing off and simply charges up her horn for a moment and blasts him. I was more towards the middle of the room than the others so I had a little more time to see my opponent coming, and thus actually got the first move which was to yank his knife out of his grasp with levitation and point it back at him. I hold him off for a bit but it’s difficult to try not to hurt somepony too bad when you’re wielding a knife. Unfortunately my only prior experience with knives is in the kitchen and this is pretty much my first real fight so when he dodges around it I couldn’t get it in front of him fast enough to prevent myself getting punched in the chest. At this point I was slightly stunned from the pain and so when I saw him getting ready for a follow up blow I quickly cast my altered levitation spell, which instead of simply lifting things is broken down into force which I am then able to control and direct, and telekinetically punched him in the side of the head a few times until he stopped coming my way. Just when all our opponents were dealt with we hear a sharp yell, “NOPONY MOVE OR THE YELLOW ONE GETS IT!” We turn to see a tenth thug holding a knife to Fluttershy’s throat and applying pressure. While we freeze trying to figure out how to help her, the rest of the thugs recover and tackle us from behind while the one holding Fluttershy tosses them some ropes and magic nullifying rings. They start limping around and tying us up in pairs, myself being on my own due to the odd number. As they are finishing tying me up instead of putting on the ring my thug instead kicks me towards the part of the room where they are holding the yellow pegasus. As he laughs I see a few tears fall from Fluttershy’s face and it’s because of these tears that I start trying to ignore the pain and think of a way out of this. Unfortunately the leader sees her tears too but has a different reaction. He walks up to her and grazes his hoof across her cheek saying, “Crying won’t get you anywhere little one,” he pulls out his knife slowly, “We’re gonna have plenty of fun with you.” Time seems to slow down as he gets in closer to her and images flood my brain. A dark room, a flash of light illuminating a scene of a yellow pegasus bruised and beaten lying on a bed crying… Another flash, a floor with a trail of blood and soft yellow feathers leading to a pair of severed wings… No flash this time, nothing but a scream and quiet sobbing I recognize as hers… The image of the leaders face, laughing… The bed again, this time with the addition of a dark shape approaching her as she tries to back away… The floor, a wingless Fluttershy is backing away from a silhouette wielding a cleaver… The scream, cut off suddenly… The face, laughing always laughing… Tears… Blood… Screaming… Laughing… A limp form, thrown carelessly into the mud, not moving, not breathing, rain pours down onto it as those responsible simply walk away… NO! I see the scene in front of me, all the horrible things that can happen. That what I have seen can easily come to pass… NO! I see him, in front of her, he wishes to harm her… I WILL NOT LET YOU TOUCH HER! I am vaguely aware of the blue stripe of my mane in front of my face turning red, as time starts to go back to normal and I focus my rage on those in front of me. I cast my altered levitation spell again, only this time… with devastating precision. I focus the force on the joints where the wings meet the back on the pegasi holding Fluttershy and the leader. They make a satisfying CRACK as blood oozes from the bases of the now useless appendages. The images of his laughing face and her crying one continue to flood my mind as I send a pointed wave of force towards my bonds and keep it going into the legs of the thug beside me, I didn’t put enough behind it to sever bone, but flesh is another story. As the blood flows rivers out of his lower legs I rush the leader and his cohort to make sure they get away from her. As I toss the leader into his minion and they skid across the floor I see Fluttershy curl up into a ball against the wall. They shall suffer for making her like this! My vision is blocked by the forms of Blue who was fighting the closest thugs to him while the rest of them stare at the bleeding one and Hydro, who was untying the rest of our group. I ignore them and keep looking for the leader; I spot him stumbling towards the door alongside the one who had held Fluttershy. As I attempt to Blink over to them one of the thugs regains enough sense to charge me, a moment later the cracks of his ribs show his first-hoof knowledge of what it feels like to have yourself crushed between a telekinetic wall and a real one. As I look back past the blurs of combat I see the leader almost to the door. You won’t get away from me! I Blink directly to the doorway blocking his path. He looks up at me with hate in his eyes and throws his minion to block me. I don’t have time for him so I simply magically grab the broken end of his wings and shove them into the sockets causing his to black out from the pain as I move towards my target. The leader’s eyes widen as I approach, he grabs a knife with one of his forehooves and holds it shakily in front of him. I stop for a moment before grinning at the idea he has given me. I snatch the knife away with my magic, turn it around, and pin his left wing to the wall with it. He screams, but he has not felt anything yet of what I plan to do to him. *SNAP* His rear left leg falls limp. *CRACK* His left foreleg spurts a bit of blood on me as it too is shattered. I sit for a moment as he is supported on his left side by a pinned broken wing. Better slow down a bit, for him to die would be a mercy, and he deserves no such mercy. What to do, I could crack the other limbs… perhaps remove an eye… pull until the pinned wing comes off? Yes that one sounds good. I see him shedding tears as I grip his body with magic once more and I chuckle to him, repeating his earlier words, “Crying won’t get you anywhere.” His eyes widen as I slowly apply more force pulling him away from his pinned wing- *SLAM* A red blur tackles me from the side onto the floor, as I attempt to rise to continue a dark blue one adds his weight causing me to be unable to rise. The red blur yells, “Rhino what are you doing!” I reply in an equally loud tone, “He deserves nothing less for trying to hurt her!” “She’s okay look!” My head is forced to look over to where a shuddering but unhurt Fluttershy is standing with the other girls. Some of them are comforting her while others like Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack are staring at me. She’s okay… My breathing starts to slow down and my mind clears, in the corner of my eye I see my stripe returning to its usual blue. I feel… drained, both magically and emotionally. The two blurs that I now recognize as Hydro and Blue slowly get off me and I stand up. We all look at each other in silence for a moment before a pattern of quickly flashing lights is seen outside of the window. We quickly make our way downstairs and had just gotten out the back when the police busted in from the other side of the building. We make our way back to our airship, Blue accompanying us. Not a word was said the entire walk back. We head below decks to the cabins, each of taking our own. Without a thought I lay down on my bed, but I know sleep will not come easily.