The Blue Knight

by The_Darker_Fonts

Chapter 8: Bloodied Masks

Blueblood immediately lurched to the side, scanning the stairs below him, towards the bottom, where he knew Lily would still be. Two figures had emerged from the shadows, and were wrestling Lily to the ground, near the edge of the landing they were on. He couldn’t recognize the figures themselves, but instantly recognized the threat they posed. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his mask back down as he loosened the grip he had on himself, allowing himself to drift into a guided fall towards the one holding her rear legs down. As he neared, he cushioned himself slightly with magic bringing his hooves in to brace.

He landed sharply on the goon at Lily’s back, and instantly the snap of a bone breaking filled the air. The stallion below him shouted in unfathomable pain, but Blueblood didn’t let up, bringing his hoof down on the back of the stallion’s head. It smashed into the stone beneath them, and Blueblood watched in morbid fascination as blood suddenly spattered to the sound of the pony’s nose breaking as well. Both strikes, the landing and the bashing of the stallion’s head, were apparently not enough to bring this one down, as he attempted to stand even with Blueblood on his back.

The unicorn sidestepped a sudden strike from the first stallion’s accomplice, who wore a soft felt mask of some sort to conceal his identity. He was sure now that they were both stallions from their heavy grunting, and the incredible roughness of their strength. The other stallion attempted to strike him with a front hoof again, but instead of dodging, Blueblood slammed his own hoof right into the oncoming one. The strike stalled both of them, but having been prepared for the contact, Blueblood forced his hoof to keep moving, pushing the stallion back and off balance. Having forced the second stallion into an unsteady stance, he began a quick attack of his own.

He struck twice face level with the stallion before feinting a punch, instead following through with a hit of his own to his opponent’s knee. The large stallion stumbled slightly from the impact, but the retaliation for the hit was quicker than Blueblood expected, the follow through uppercut catching his ear and sliding across his cheek. The move was wobbly, however, and seeing this, Blueblood lunged in, landing a heavy strike to the snout. The stallion scrunched up his face as he stumbled back more, and not wanting to allow his enemy any rest, he pivoted on his front legs, allowing his hind legs to swing like a fence, both catching the stallion across the face.

The brief sight Blueblood got from spinning around allowed him to catch movement towards his right, where the other stallion had been laying. He now ducked past a slowly thrown hoof, landing a strike of his own directly to the side of the head. The shot went straight to his temple, and almost instantly the stallion collapsed, unconscious and bleeding. Even as he finished off fighting one of them, the other landed a harsh kick to Blueblood’s flanks, a strike hard enough that he knew the spot would bruise.

Gritting his teeth, he stepped back, staring the stallion in the eyes through each of their masks, glaring in a way he knew this criminal would see. He lunged first, striking for the softer parts of his legs and shoulder, trying to hit a muscle that would cause him to lose control of his limbs. The stallion knew, however, and was able to lower himself so that when a hit landed, it was protected by his folded up shoulder. With a grunt, the stallion struck back, managing to land a hook across Blueblood’s face through a block.

Spinning with the blow, he turned his back to the stallion and reared forward, kicking both legs with as much force as he could. The strike landed harshly on the stallion’s side as he realized all too late that he couldn’t block that powerful of a strike. He tumbled to the ground, Blueblood pouncing on him before he could stand back up, landing a hoof in his unprotected stomach.

Laying down across the body of his foe, Blueblood attempted to pin the stallion’s hooves to his side. He was able to grasp and control one, but the other slipped through and past him, striking him painfully on the top of his head. Dazed by the powerful punch, he was unable to hold the stallion down any longer, and he stood up, shoving Blueblood towards the edge of the stairs. He realized he couldn’t roll over and stand before the stallion attacked again, so he instead rocked forward, trying to land a weak strike on his enemy’s legs.

The stallion merely stepped into the attack, raising the targeted hoof to dodge it. He struck with that same hoof, hitting Blueblood’s raised head once again and knocking it back into the cold stone of the stair step. The force of the blow caused his jaw to clench both naturally, and because of the pain. A soft, almost sweet flavor filled his mouth with the clench of his jaw, and he realized that, in his rush to save Lily yet again, he’d forgotten he still had the healer’s mark in his mouth. As both the juice and his own blood filled his mouth, he suddenly felt a keen sharpness grow in his mind.

The other stallion was slowly getting up in obvious pain while his companion roughly shoved Blueblood to the edge of the stair, his head hanging over a respectable drop. They were only at the first landing, but already he knew that if a regular pony were to tumble off here, they would be seriously injured, maybe even killed. It was one of the reasons a millennia and a half year old stairs to the river were less used than a train. The injured stallion began to hobble over to him, a grimace etched into his face as he dragged one of his hind legs behind him, glaring at the unicorn who’d done him harm.

“Well well well,” the stallion gloated, “looks like ‘n a fair fight, th’ great Blue Knight is eas’ly bested.”

“Hey, I did all of the fighting,” the stallion pinning him down complained.

“That’s why I called it a fair fight,” the previous stallion sharply retorted. “Now be quiet. I wanna see who in Celestia’s eva’ lovin’ Equestria this guy is.”

“I’m not too keen on just handing out my name,” Blueblood protested, suddenly wrapping his hooves around the two that held him down. Both stallions looked shocked that he was even conscious after the brutal hits to the head, but Blueblood felt completely fine. “I’d be glad to know your’s though,” he growled.

He suddenly pulled the stallion’s hooves, shooting his hind legs into the big earth pony’s gut, launching him over Blueblood’s head. The stallion went over Blueblood entirely and began to fall towards the ground far below. Before Blueblood could react, the other stallion jerked forward, shouting in pain and surprise as he too was sent off of the stairs, tumbling away with his companion.

Blueblood turned his head just in time to catch sight of the stallion passing him, then turned back quickly to where he had stood. Lily was standing there now, completely petrified and a good bit pale as she stared at the ledge where the stallion’s had gone over. Grunting, Blueblood stood and took a step towards her, reaching out a hoof and placing it on her shoulder.

“Hey,” Blueblood said, getting no response. “Hey,” he repeated, louder this time. Lily shuddered suddenly and looked into his mask with terrified, trembling eyes, tears beginning to roll down her face. Ah yes, the after effects of violence on normal ponies. He’d only had to deal with this once before, and that time had left the poor pony rather traumatized. Hopefully he could de-escalate this mare’s panic.

Centering up with her, he looked her dead in the eyes through his mask and told her firmly, “You did the right thing. That stallion would have attempted to kill me, and was definitely planning on it, and he would have harmed you as well. Whatever you think you did wrong is no worse than what needed to be done for both of our own safety, you hear?””

Lily nodded almost absently, which wasn’t good enough for him. Shaking her slightly, he yelled, “Wake up, you stupid mare! Look at yourself, trembling like a leaf like you did some terrible villain, when it was the real villains you defeated! Don’t go all hazy on me with your black and white vision of the world now, okay?”

The pink mare suddenly seemed to wake up, shaking her head to clear whatever was going on in her head before saying, “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. I didn’t do anything bad… unless I killed him…”

“If you killed him, then so be it,” Blueblood coldly told her. “If you were more concerned with the life of that stallion than your own, you truly are too good of a mare. Otherwise, don’t give it another thought. If he and his companion are both dead, then it spares you, me and the constables a whole load of trouble. Now come on, we should leave here.”

“W-What about those stallions,” Lily asked, glancing back to the ledge. “Shouldn’t we… help them?”

“No, we shouldn’t,” Blueblood answered firmly. “You should go home and never see me again, and since trouble seems to have a thing for you, I’ll follow behind. Then, if I feel merciful enough to give these idiots a third chance, I’ll come back to take care of them. Otherwise, the constables are gonna have a good climb ahead of them.”

“But, what if they die,” Lily protested.

“Then the universe has given what they justly deserve,” Blueblood reinstated harshly. “Now go, I won’t ask again.”

“That was commanding,” Lily grumbled, but she complied bitterly, turning and beginning to ascend the stairs once again, glancing at the ledge one last time.

Shaking his head tiredly, Blueblood lifted himself up off the ground before beginning to fly off. He watched from the air as the mare ascended the stairs, dodging her glances up to see where he was watching her from. Slowly, he relaxed, and as he did, he felt the pain in his head dim the rest of the way as well. Lily had said healer’s mark wasn’t actually used in any remedies, but apparently that was wrong. As soon as he’d chewed the leaf, the juice had numbed the pain in his mouth, and swallowing it held the same results almost instantly.

Grimacing, he realized he still had the chewed up flower tucked against his cheek, something he’d learned to do when hiding sweets from caretakers. Apparently his muscle memory had taken control, but not the disgusting flavor of blood and flower mixed in his mouth. Pulling his mask up to free his face, he spat the revolting combination out of his mouth. Feeling wetness on his nose, he looked down, realizing that Lily still wasn’t out of sight, and levitated himself behind a nearby cloud to finish pulling his mask off.

When he looked it over in the moonlight, he was surprised to find that the mouth and part of the forehead were bloodied, a trickle of red running down around his right eye. The fabric was soft, yet durable, so while it hadn’t torn, his flesh beneath it had. Running his hoof over where the spot of blood on his forehead was, he found it sticky with drying serum. Huffing, he realized that the stallion had broken flesh when striking him in the forehead, and now that his head was out in the air, he could feel the cool wetness of blood on the back of it. Luna would surely have a heart attack if she saw the condition he was in right now, and the thought made him chuckle.

Not wanting to put the bloodied mask back on, and knowing well the path the mare would take home, Blueblood decided to descend to the river below. He travelled a few hundred paces out before descending, to ensure that neither Lily or the two goons that could quite possibly be alive identified him. He aimed for and landed softly in the shallower part of the river, where it was a bit marshy. Reeds stuck up out of the muddy bank, and slowly became submerged in water, the mud replaced by a smooth, rocky bottom that was hard to navigate with his hooves. Still, he managed to balance himself as he washed out the mask in the cold water.

When he was finally done, the mask was drenched and smelled slightly like the reeds scattered through the water, but it was clean. Putting it back on, he had to resist the urge to shake his head to get the water off, an instinctive habit. Shivering at the cold wetness that veiled his head, he turned to the cliff face that led up to Canterlot. With a determined frown, he began to fly towards where he thought the pair of delinquents had landed after their fall.

Approaching the first stairwell, he saw two masses on the grass beneath it, though only one was visibly moving. It was the bigger one, the one that had pinned Blueblood down and given him the blows to his head. The large stallion was attempting to push himself off of the ground, his breathing ragged and his mane matted with sweat. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem too wounded at all, and save for the visible struggling he had, one could assume he was merely exhausted from rigorous workout. The perspective was not the same with his companion, who laid in a small puddle of blood, still unconscious from his fall. Or perhaps dead, seeing as it didn’t look like he was breathing.

The large stallion noticed Blueblood’s approach, and growled, calling, “Come to finish the job, ya bastard?”

Blueblood pulled up short, coolly responding, “Depends on your cooperation.”

“Well I ain’t havin’ none a’ what you got, and ain’t gonna do whateva ya want,” he determinedly stated. “Besides, ya ain’t gonna kill us. Ponies have rules.”

“Well, like you, it seems I’m not a pony,” Blueblood rumbled, stepping up to the stallion. He attempted to stand and look him in the eye, but Blueblood snapped his hoof forward into the stallion's stable leg, sweeping it and causing him to collapse on his side. The stallion visibly gritted his teeth, and Blueblood realized that he probably had several broken ribs, and taking a look beneath the stallion real quick, internal bleeding, seeing as he had landed soft side on a large rock.

“Now, I have two simple questions for you, and you both get to live,” Blueblood informed the stallion, who was once again attempting to stand. “Otherwise, I hope you know how to swim in your condition.”

The stallion glared at him with the comment, but didn’t protest, too painfully aware that neither he nor his companion could survive in the river waters with their injuries. “Now, my first question is who are you, and not your names, but who are you,” Blueblood clarified.

“We’re freedom fighters,” the stallion answered in an almost proud voice, too sincere to be a false or mocking answer. “We’re gonna make sure ev’ry single one a’ us are gonna have life like the rest o’ them regular ponies. A life Celestia, ever blessed be her name, took from us.”

“And who do you idiots work for,” Blueblood continued to question, unfazed by the short rant.

“A stallion,” the pony answered simply, finally standing. With a contemptuous look, he said, “Now let us go.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal,” Blueblood reminded him.

“Because there was no deal,” he protested, surprisingly calm. Glancing down at his companion, a worried look crossed his face and he asked, “Do you think he’s…”

“Maybe,” Blueblood answered coldly, before raising his hoof and striking the stallion in the temple. He crumpled back to the ground, unconscious. “That’s the constable’s problem now.”

Without another glance at the injured pair, he flew off into the night, heading straight for the castle. He was going to have a lot of work to do.

Author's Note:

Took a decent while to get this chapter out. I was forced into a hiatus that's affected all of my writing, but hope the wait was worth it.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Worth the wait i say. He could have been a bit calmer/polite with lily

[The_Darker_Fonts]

10892281
His strategy: Make her think about what was being yelled in her face, not what she'd done. Besides, after this second attack on her, and repeated attempts to distance her from him (given it was only in a day) he's a little stressed too. Oh, and that whole 1000 word fight scene could weigh in a little as well.

[Bronycommander]

10892910
of course