Smarts readied a couple of flash fruit, mentally preparing himself to initiate attack. During this time he carefully observed the landscape. The upturned soil, unusual amount of leaves and sticks, and hoof patterns alerted him to a pitfall trap that could possibly be surrounding the entire area. He smirked; they were more resourceful than he thought. He would have to be careful to not fall into the trap.
In an instant he launched two flash fruit at Rainbow temporarily blinding her. She reared back in pain while Smarts leaped over the trap, pulling out his poison covered knife. The poison caused temporary paralysis of all skeletal muscles for twelve hours. A normal pony would be paralyzed with one cut, but with the altered form of Rainbow Dash it may take many more.
Still blinded, Rainbow relied on her advanced hearing to locate the attacker; the poison he was using also gave off a distinctive scent that she was able to track. She launched several fireballs at Smarts while her vision slowly cleared. Pinkie became increasingly annoyed at Smarts for toying with her blinded fillyfriend, her Pinkie sense telling her he was up to something and if he caught them their way of life could be affected; that she launched herself at Smarts with determination. Sensing Pinkie's movement, Rainbow stopped launching fireballs afraid to burn pinkie.
Not wanting to seriously harm Pinkie, Smarts jumped back just enough to avoid Pinkie's knife before taking a swipe with his own. Even though Pinkie had no battle experience she was nearly impossible to hit. Her high energy levels allowed her to dart around every attack and counter attack with little recovery time. Her attacks were wild and would normally slow down a pony. Smarts was thankful she didn't have any knife training; otherwise he would've been in five different places at once.
Rainbow's sight finally returned completely, adding a new obstacle to Smarts attack plan. With her head low, she charged straight at him, fire pooling within her jaws while Pinkie rushed forward with a crazed smile in her eyes. With a well timed leap he planted his fore hooves on Rainbow's back avoiding a deadly bite and a fatal slash to his neck; he finished his back flip with a swipe of his knife to rainbows back, forcing her to cry out in pain.
Pinkie seemed to appear behind Smarts as he landed fury in her eyes. He dodged just fast enough that he only got a shallow cut from the bottom of his eye to his chin. Smarts took advantage of Pinkie's proximity and managed to slice her chest as she lunged toward him for a second time; infecting her blood with poison. The poison worked instantaneously; Pinkie Pie's whole body seized up and collapsed to the ground, her knife falling from her grasp.
Rainbow Dash, whom was moving a little slower than normal, just witnessed Pinkie drop like a rock. In a fit of rage she smashed into Smarts regardless of the fact that he stabbed her to the hilt with his knife in her left shoulder in defense. Her razor sharp teeth sunk deep into the nape of his neck and shoulder of his right foreleg, nearly severing his carotid artery. Smarts screamed out in agony as he fumbled for a second poison knife. He could feel the fire pool within Dash's mouth, scorching his flesh and bone, forcing another strangled cry of pain to escape. Desperately clutching the second knife he stabbed her straight in the stomach forcing her to recoil and release his horribly damaged shoulder.
Smarts took this fleeting chance at freedom to roll away from Rainbow and push himself to his feet, his right foreleg hanging limply, blood running down slowly. Running on pure adrenaline Smarts barely managed to dodge another charge form Dash, knives still imbedded into her body. Blood seemed to web across Rainbow's body from her wounds. He threw down more flash fruit nearly blinding Dash; she recognized the scent of the berries the second he pulled them out giving her a chance to avoid being blinded again.
Spots in her eyes, she released a stream of fire after Smarts, singeing his tail. The poison was slowly taking effect, bringing her into a slow frustrated trot. Her fire started coming out in weak spluttering bursts. Rainbow ended up standing shakily between Smarts and Pinkie, determined to protect her from him even if it killed her. The blood loss made her more susceptible to the poison from the knives embedded into her body as well as diminish her strength.
Smarts didn't dare to look away from Rainbow; any vulnerability shown could be deadly. She kept her muscles tense, attempting to look threatening even with her muscles slowly failing her. He watched calmly as she fought to remain standing, refusing to show any sign of weakness. In a few short minutes she was on the ground paralyzed.
Smarts finally allowed himself to slump over in pain. His shoulder and nape were throbbing angrily, blood slowly dripping down his leg. Quickly he pulled out bandages and a bottle of disinfectant. Breathing in he poured the disinfectant over his wound, the stinging sensation nearly causing him to scream out. Finally he wrapped his shoulder and nape tightly to help stop the bleeding.
Finished patching himself up, he trotted over to his targets. He carefully removed the knife in Rainbow's stomach and shoulder, disinfected the stab wounds, and bandaged it thoroughly. During the process he was surprised to witness Rainbow's skin slowly knit itself together. He then pulled out the magical orb the princesses gave him to transport all three of them back to the palace. He smiled in relief; he didn't think he could move both of them back to the palace being as damaged as he is.
Holding the orb in the air he firmly commanded, "RETURN!" A wave of blue magic spilled out of the orb and surrounded the prone forms, transporting them to the palace.