Stories of a Shade

by ConfettiColored

Chapter 18

The yellow light turned out to be a group of Blood's minions surrounding a square-shaped machine with a funnel at the top. I noticed they were all Unicorns.

"Hey, what are we doing this for?" One of them asked.

"The boss said we have to keep this machine running. He said it makes an illusion spanning the whole forest to throw his enemies off his trail while he interrogates Celestia and Luna on how to steal the Tree's power," One of them replied.

That was all I needed to know. I jumped out from the bush I was hiding behind and performed a leg sweep on the biggest one, before stomping on his face, knocking him out cold. The others stopped powering the machine to stop me from taking out any more of them. I got a laser shot at me, but I countered with one of my own and it knocked the thug out of the tree he had jumped up to. I then watched as the rest of my team took out the three remaining cultists. Then Artemis punched me in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" I yelled.

"Twilight told us not to fight anyone," She retorted.

"Oh, come on! We had to get rid of the machine somehow! Speaking of which..." I said before shooting a powerful electric spark at the machine, causing it to short-circuit and explode.

"Now let's get back to the others," I said, taking to the sky again. "Lead the way, boss," I said to Rainbow Dash. As we were headed back to the the rest of the group, I called Roam on the phone to tell him we were coming.

"Hey. Why is the forest back to normal?" He asked the moment I touched down on the ground.

"I am fine, thanks so much for asking," I scowled. "There was some sort of machine making a mirage to throw us off Blood's trail. We knocked out his minions and destroyed the machine. We also found out that he's holding Celestia and Luna hostage," I explained. "So, am I correct to assume that we head to the Tree of Harmony now?"

"Well, I guess so. We don't have anything else to be doing," Twilight said. "Everyone here has come up with some sort of plan, so I don't see any reason to put this off any longer,"

"So, what's the plan for you?" I asked. "You just gonna do that Super Sonic thing with your friends and blast Blood Oath into kingdom come?"

"Er, no. We didn't ever really find out why that happened, or how to use those forms again," Said Applejack.

"Oh. That's a shame. It'd be really useful in the fight," I said.

"Yeah, but maybe it's for the best. I mean, if we could just do that whenever a new threat showed up, how do think Equestria would fare once we all passed away? They would have become way to reliant on us," She said.

"How about we just focus on the problem we have now? Besides, you got a long ways to go before you die," I said, as I had never really felt comfortable talking about death. "I'm going to go talk to my brother about what to do during the fight," I said, walking off before she could respond. "Hey, bro," I said when I got within earshot of Roam. "What is it you think would be best for me to do during the fight?" I asked, cutting right to the chase.

"Don't get yourself killed," He said jokingly. I really have rubbed off on him, haven't I? "You, your sister, and I are going to focus on whatever the biggest threat happens to be at the moment,"

"I have a feeling I know who that's going to be," I said in anticipation.

"Well, until we see what he has set up, we won't really know. Who knows what he's got his hands on in the time that he's been free,"

"Speak of the devil. It looks like we're here," I said, pointing to the mane six crouching at the edge of a cliff, looking down at something glowing a hazy light blue that had to be the Tree of Harmony. They motioned for everyone to lay low and pointed at something at the bottom of the cliff. We all looked at it, and sure enough, it was the Tree of Harmony. I noticed the old castle of the two sisters which I had remodeled and repaired not far off, but that's not important. What was important was that Celestia and Luna were tied up near the crystalline tree with Blood Oath talking to them about something, probably trying to get some information out of them.

"Why aren't they fighting back?" Our sniper wondered aloud.

"They know that even together, they can't overpower him, so they're stalling until help comes," Said Roam.

"Well, help's here. Do we attack now?" I asked no one in particular.

"Hmm. Does anyone think they can sneak over behind the Princesses and cut them free?" Rarity asked.

"I probably could if the Joker over there wasn't watching them," I said, gesturing to Blood Oath.

"I could cause a distraction," Offered Rainbow, then, without waiting a second longer, flew down there and kicked Blood in the chest.

"OW! Why, you little... GET HER!" He bellowed to his Pegasi, who flinched for a moment before taking to the sky and chasing her down. Their efforts were fruitless, however, as she was way to fast for any of them.

"Reckless," Twilight muttered. "CHARGE!" She yelled, and everyone except our sniper and the medics jumped onto the battlefield , while I flew silently behind the poles that Tia and Luna were tied to. I summoned my claws to cut them down, and they rubbed their wrists before jumping into the battle themselves without a word of thanks.

"Don't everyone thank me all at once," I said under my breath before joining the fray myself.