Chaos and Harmony
CHAPTER 10; Greed Vs. Generosity
Rarity could only watch the blade edge draw towards her for a moment, just long enough to realise she couldn't dodge or block without taking a bad hit, before covering her eyes. Unexpectedly it didn't suddenly go dark like she had heard but instead dimmed, and she herself was wrapped in something soft and warm.
When she opened her eyes she was stunned to fine she was being held by a humanoid Spike. He stood tall with his muzzle, much like her own, hand flattened out slightly. His arms had grown with the rest of his body and his palms were larger and more defind then they had been; both of which were being used to hold her close to protect her. He wore a pair of blue slaks with what looked like layered armor running down the sides and no shirt, all the baby fat he had as a baby dragon was gone and replaced by a flat stomach and sturdy muscles. Last but sertanly not least were his new appendages, a large pair of wings were wrapped around the both of them, protecting the from Blueblood's attacks.
"S-Spike?" Rarity whispered.
Blueblood narrowed his eyes in a mix of rage and confusion, one second he was about to do away with an annoyance the next, a flash later, a green and purple dome was protecting her. With a flapping sound the dome opened to reveal Rarity and the newly reformed Spike. "So that's it," Blueblood growled, "You have the same power as I... No as we do." he gestured to himself and Rarity, "Oh well, it doesn't really matter because it will all be mine soon enough."
With a whipping motion Blueblood brought the blade back down on the dragon. Spike dropped back into his fighting stance as his mind recalled the lessons Kagebi had given him. "The first thing you need to know is how to move your body properly," Kagebi's voice echoed in his head, "as strange as it may sound a fighter is no diffrent than a dancer. You need to know the your own movements as well as the ones of your enemy and partners."
Before the blade could land Spike back flipped out of range, when he landed he stuck out his foot and, doing a spin, made a circle on the ground. "The next thing is your range and acuity of awareness. When you fight you have to bring your enemy into your striking range, the trade off however is that when you do you bring yourself into theirs, you have to see and feel every move you opponent makes and adjust for it in a fraction of a second. If you want to win, your range has to be larger and stronger than theirs."
Blueblood didn't like to be showed up, especially not by someone he thought inferior, so to have Spike so easily dodge his attack annoied him. "Hold still you wreched thing!" he snarled as he reformed his blade and lunged at Spike. "And the last thing is this, Every part of your body is and can be used as a weapon. This is especially true for dragons like you who are naturally armored but for any fighter worth holding a weapon it would mearly be an extention to the real weapon, themselves."
As the blade dropped down on him Spike brought up his left hand and used the back of it to block the strike as he brought up his right for a palm thrust to Blueblood's chest. With a simple spin Spike kicked him away.
Blueblood landed hard and slid for a moment before regaining his traction. Blueblood stood tall as he glared at Spike before suddenly smiling, cracking his neck and charging again. Unlike Spike, who had at most just a few hours of training multiplied in the same maner of the mane six, Blueblood had years of proper training and more experiance in the form they now shared.
Rarity watched in awe as the two traded blows. Spike was fast and stronge but lacked the experience to land anything more than a fleeting blow. Blueblood had the form and skill of the masters who taught him both sword play and fisticuffs but lacked the power needed to really injure the dragon before him causing all his blows to be knocked away with little impact.
Eventually experiance won out over raw power and Spike was forced onto his back. "It's over beast." Blueblood snirked as he drove his blade tip down aiming at Spike's chest. A flash of light in the form of an arrow knocked him back before he could strike and finish of Spike.
"Stay away from Spike." Rarity said simply.
"Insolence..." Blueblood said before looking up, his eyes now glowing in the shade of his chaos element, "Such complete INSOLENCE!" Holding out his other hand Blueblood formed another of his whip-blades, "You are peasants and I am royalty... you will not beat me..."
Blueblood in that moment Blueblood seemed to loose ratinalt thought as he began lashing out at random. While Spike was able to keep a close quaters combat style against the raging prince Rarity had to keep her distance and fire her arrow hoping to hit him and not Spike. One of the benifits of his fighting style was that Spike was able to use his fire breath, unfortunatly that was a double edged sword for Spike. He had to call on his fire to use it so Blueblood always knew when he was going to try so he could back away and use his sword to counter right threw it. The same was true for Rarity, Blueblood could always hear the arrow fly and as strong as it was the arrow would always shatter against the blade.
Sensing this wasn't getting them anywhere except in pain Spike called up an old trick he and Twilight like to use as children. Jumping into the air, using his fledgling wings to gane a little more altitude, cupped his hands around his mouth and covered the area in smoke. With Blueblood blind for the time being, Spike grabbed Rarity and pulled her behind a near by rock.
"Are you alright Spikey?" Rarity asked as she looked over the tired drake. Even threw his scales, several patches of which torn off in various places, she could see more than a few bruises.
"I'm fine but we really need a new plan." Spike said as he did his best to catch his breath. "He might might be annoying and as pleasent as a manacore with a hangnail but he packs one hell of a wallop."
Rarity sighed as she looked to her bow. "I wish I could help you more Spike," she said, "But I am not an up close fighter. All I can do is shoot by bow and hope I can make it land."
Spike gave her a soft pat on the back. "I'm not doing much better. If I could just land one blow I could probably take him out in no time." Spike sighed as he ran his hand over his spines, "We need to work together to... hey... hey I think I got a plan!"
"You do?" Rartiy said in suprise, "What is it?"
The smirk on his face told her what ever he had planned was most likly a prank on par with something Pinkie or Rainbow Dash would have thought up, if not Discord himself. "How would you like to learn a new spell?"
Blueblood coughed for a few moments as the sudden smoke cleared before screaming in terrer. "You monster!" the arrogant prince screamed, "Look what you've done to my new suit, it's covered in soot!" Noticing a flash of purple out of the corner of his eye Blueblood flicked one of his blades out to slash at it.
Spike was just barely able to block the attack with a cross guard however he had to take the full strike to his left side from Blueblood's other weapon. Spike could feel some of his ribs crack at that one and only by his sheer will did he not cry out in pain. Grabbing both swords Spike pulled hard, yanking Blueblood off his feet and right into a waiting head butt but receved a kick to his stomach in the process. On the sidelines Rarity pulled her bow string back and summoned and arrow. She closed her eyes and focused on what Spike had explaned to her.
'It's an easy spell to learn,' she slowly opened her eyes as she locked on to her target. 'Focus your magic.' Her horn began glowing with it's usual azure glow, flickering almost like a small fire. 'Then all you have to imagine who you want to send it to.' She released the arrow.
As the two enemies continued to battle it was quickly becoming aparent one had a great advantage over the other. More and more of Spike's scales were being torn away my the mad prince. Jumping backward Spike sucked in a sudden breath, causing Blueblood to wuickly back off and prepare an attack. Reather than the usual "fwoosh" of a breath being released it sounded more like a... burp?
Blueblood's thought were derailed as he felt a pain in his right shoulder as an arrow of light materialized from what looked like a cloud of greenish smoke. Turning his head quickly Blueblood spotted Rarity drawing another arrow and firing. Side stepping to avoid the attack he was about to send his blade to slash the mare when he saw it burst into blue flames and disappear only to hear another burp and felt an arrow lodge itself into his elbow.
Jumping back, Blueblood yanked out the arrows and crushed them in his hands. "Now you die slowly," he hissed as he charged at Rarity, who drew another arrow and fired. Cracking a dark smile Blueblood turned and threw his blade whip at Spike, only for the arrow to find its home in his rib and Spike's fist in his face after avoiding the strike.
Blueblood spat out blood as his whole eyes glowed and he lashed out, "I will now loose to you!" His stirkes, both in sword and whip forms, were wild and unfocused as he tried to land a hit no matter what. "I am Royalty, a PRINCE, this sould all be mine! Canterlot, Equestria, the whole world, it is my birth right! THE WORLD IS OWED TO ME!"
A hard kick to the jaw knocked Blueblood on his back, Spike quickly taking advantage of the situation by pinning him down. "I don't know what planet you're been living on but that's not how that works," Spike said as he delivered a hard right hook, "A prince isn't just a ruler, they're servants!" another hook, "The world dosen't owe you, you owe it!"
Blueblood slid back as he did his best to block another kick, "You grew up getting everything you asked for without ever stopping to think why everyone was so happy to give it to you. As Celestia's nephew you were treated well because of everything she has done to protect them, now when it's your time to step up you choose greed and selfishness. Why? Why discrace yourself like this?!"
Millions of thoughts rushed threw Blueblood's head as he contenued to both attack and defend, everything the dragon had said resinating with diffrent lessons he had been taught in his life. 'As a prince it is your respoiblity to lead the ponies who follow you.' 'Always remember, you must be willing to lay down your life for your citizens.' 'The life of a prince is a life of service.'
Before Spike could land another attack Blueblood knocked him back with his sword hilt. Something strange was going on with Blueblood, his eyes seemed to be flashing as a ring of energy surounded him. Words of ancient Equish found their way out of his mouth as he held his sword in both hands.
Something in Rarity told her what was about to happen, somewhere in the back of her mind knew he lost control. The element that he once weilded was now taking control and she had to do something to save him, so she acted.
Spike ffelt the air around the deranged prince shift and coul see the gemstone around his neck pulse and throb, as if it were getting ready to do something on it's own. Blueblood turned to Spike and, still speaking in the other tounge, lunged ready to impale the drake. The sound of a taught string being released and the air itself separating drew the attention of Blueblood as an arrow, that glowed a dark purple, struck him right in the chest.
The arrow, not unlike the gemstone before it, pulsed before it sank into Blueblood. The sword in his heand as well to the other three left on the floor seemed to bronze over before evaportating into the element of greed.
Spike and Rarity walked up to the fallen prince with a fair amount of caution. "Do you think it's over?" Rarity asked.
The gemstone pulsed once more before it jumped onto Spike, "Guess not!" he said as he tried to pull it off. As it contenued to pulse Spiek could feel it doing something, what he wasn't sure but something. "I think it's trying to corrupt me!"
Rarity grabbed the thing and suddenly the pulsing stopped, the light that shined in it dulling. The two breathed heavily for a few moments before she asked, "Are you alright Darling?"
"I'm fine," Spike said, "I don't think it was able to do what ever it was trying too, kinda weird it even had the ability to actually try anything though." Rarity nodded her agreement. "Right, we need to go though, Rarity I have a plan!"
Though she felt the need to give this some thought Rarity quickly decided to go along with what ever he came up with. "You've been doing a great job so far with your ideas Spike, I'll do what ever you say."
Spike gave a nod with a satisifed smile on his face. "We need to get you to Rainbow Dash." Seeing the confusion in her eyes he explained, "We already have a pretty good idea where everyone is so finding them won't be the issue, what will be is gathering everyone and getting back to Twilight. What we're going to have to do is separate, I'll go after Fluttershy and you go for Rainbow."
"Why me though?" she asked, "I don't have wings and don't know the cloud walker spell. Wouldn't it be easier for you to get her?"
"In theory yes, but I'm not really confedent in my flying yet and we still need the other three. If I go after Fluttershy you can send Rainbow after Applejack and I can get Pinkie. Rainbow as experiance carring things so getting Applejack, who I doubt has very much experiance in the air, back to Ponyville. Pinkie loves anything fun so she'll be a lot calmer with a fledgling like me. As for the cloud walker spell don't worry, I helped Twi learn that spell, I got it memorized inside and out."
Spike placed his hand on Rarity's shoulder to reasure her when, for just a second, both their eyes flashed green. The two stepped back and help their heads. Rarity blinked and gazed and her palm, confused beyond reason. She knew the spell.
The two friends locked eyes for a moment before pushing it off to the side, a question for another time. "I understand for the most part," She said as she cast the new spell on herself, "but how exactly am I going to get to..." she hessitatied before the answer found its way to her, "...Cloudsdale?"
Spike gulped as he second and third guessed what he was about to say. "I... I was thinking about sending you threw my flame." Rarity stared down Spike in suprise at what he just said. "I know it sounds crazy, believe me it sounds crazy on this end too, but..."
"I'll do it."
Spike froze mid sentence as he turned to the serious faced Rarity. "Excuse me?"
"You're right Spike," she said as she gave him a smile, "we don't have time for me to try and get there on hoof, you can't take me for a multitude of reasons, and as much as it scares me I don;t think we have any other options."
Giving a solom nod Spike stood before her and... hessitated. "I can't promise this won't hurt." he whispered.
"I'll take that chance. I trust you Spike." With a nod and a deep breathe, Spike focused of Rainbow and let loose his magic flames. To he great suprise it didn't burn her, as she felt the intense inferno pull he in all she felt was the warm embrace of one who loved her, would die to protect her.
Spike sighed in relief at not hearing screams of pain and spread his wings, he may be a fledgling flyer but he was going to have to make it all the way to the Cystal Empire. "No time to waste," he said as he took off unsteadliy. Unknown to the both of them they had an audiance.
Blueblood sat up in awe at just how much the two were willing to give for one another and the whole of Equestria. The more he thought about it the more he felt their words ringing true in his mind. "A prince isn't just a ruler, they're a servant... Celestia protects... royalty owe the world."