Chapter 5.1, because the author sucks at writing fighting sequences

Applejack faced her opponent. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that each pony paired off. It seemed that the one in all red-and black with glasses—Shadow, she heard them call her—was fighting Bandana, and Berserk was squaring off against Steel. There was a fourth one, but he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth as soon as the fight broke out. What if he was gathering reinforcements?

Fang didn't give her opponent time to think as she lunged once again for the orange pony's chest with her knife. Applejack dodged again. She didn't like to be put on the defensive, but Fang's knife was a little intimidating, even for Applejack. Fang kept coming, and pushed her opponent up to a wall. "I got you now, you hillbilly…"

"What did you just call me?" Applejack didn't want to go down without fighting, and those were fighting words for her if she ever heard any. She turned around and readied her legs as the black mare came running in for the killing blow. SMACK. Applejack timed her kick just right, and nailed her opponent in the jaw. Her entire mouth went limp and she dropped the blade, making a clanking sound as it hit the floor. 'Ah think ah might'a broken her jaw… I'll apologize later,' thought Applejack. But now she could be on the offensive. She knew that Celestia asked that this mission involve no death, so the country pony tried to kick at her "friend's" legs. If she could take just one leg out, Fang would be immobilized and the cops, when they eventually got here, would have an easy time arresting her. But she was a squirmy one, and now that she was on the defensive, Fang proved to be very elusive. It was as if she was able to slow down time when Applejack's hooves came closer to her legs, and casually dodge her as easy as a filly playing dodge ball with her schoolmates.

Off in the distance, Bandana and Shadow were at a standstill facing each other off. "Now missie, I don't want to fight you." Bandana said. It was a chivalrous rule of his not to hit women that posed no threat to him, especially with clubs and other weapons. He even dropped his saddlebag and threw it across the room to show the mare that he would not fight her.

"That's right… you don't want to fight me!" Shadow bolted in between Bandana's legs, and kicked the insides of all four of his knees at the same time. His legs buckled as she slid easily under him and stood up behind her opponent that was now lying on the ground. He quickly got back up, not wanting to be bested by a pony so small.

"Aww, you look like you're in pain. I'll make this quick." Shadow ran toward Bandana once again. He was ready this time and lowered his head in preparation for the sliding attack Shadow tried. Only this time, she jumped over the unicorn and used all four legs to kick him squarely in the back. Once again, she ended up behind the stallion as he laid in a clump on the ground. He was slower to get back up this time, and huffed in pain as his got his legs underneath him.

"Please, I won't fight…a mare… that I can hurt…"

"As if! You couldn't hurt me in the state that you're in! Pathetic…" Shadow walked up to her opponent in disappointment. She placed a hook on his face in a loving manner. "You aren't very good, you know." The loving hoof smacked Bandana square in the muzzle. Bandana tasted blood in his mouth. 'She drew blood. She insulted me.' thought Bandana. "You're going to regret that."

"As if you—" was all Shadow could get out before Bandana's front hooves made contact with her chest. She went about 3 feet into the air and landed onto the ground with a loud thud. She was crying.

"I think you broke a rib!" Shadow started to tear up.

"I'm sorry missie, you drove me to do it. Now I know first aid, I can help you." Bandana started to walk toward the helpless mare when she spun on her stomach and spin kicked bandana in the muzzle again. 'Dang it, I let my guard down,' thought Bandana as blood began to pour freely from the now multiple cuts on his face.

"Wow, gullible, too! What do they teach you at Canterlot?"

"How do you know that?" Bandana didn't remember mentioning that he was from Canterlot when they were here.

"I can read people. You've been in a war, too. And you think that not fighting girls means you're tough. But now, all I see in front of me is a pansy pony that can't fight. I bet Celestia would feel safer if she was guarded by bunnies!"

"I won't fight a girl…" Bandana was really losing a lot of blood, and he didn't think he could take another beating like that. "…but anyone who insults the Royal guard needs to answer for it!" His rage gave him just enough strength to stand up and lunge toward the annoying mare, but she gracefully dodged it. "Try again!" as she raised a hoof over his head. Just like when he was in the war.

She brought the hoof down to hit him square in the head. It would have been a finishing blow, but he caught it with his two front hoofs and used this leverage to swing her over him and smashing onto the ground. He picked her up once again and did the same on the other side. It looked to Shadow like he wasn't going to stop until she was dead or unconscious: whichever came first. She had to do something. Each smack took a lot of strength out of her, she felt bruises all over her body being formed, even bones were feeling as if they would break.

She swung her body just wide enough to land on her feet when the war pony brought her down a third time. But he quickly sprang to his feet and the two ended up in the place they started—in another stare-down.

"Can't take much more of this, can you?" Shadow huffed. That takedown of Bandana's was really getting to her now.

"Nope… but it sounds like you can't either."

"Then let's finish this."

The two charged at each other once again.

Steel wasn't faring as well as his friends. He had tried every nerve and pressure point he knew on a pony—the jawline, the upper leg, above the cutie mark—but he couldn't get through all the muscle on Berserk. Even normal fighting styles he learned seemed to have no effect. He was just too huge.

His speed was the only thing saving him. He was barely able to dodge Berserk's kicks, and he felt the force behind them through the air. One hit could kill him if he wasn't careful.

'Maybe I can use that as my advantage,' thought Steel mid-dodge. He started to lure Berserk to a metal workbench that was left in the warehouse. If he could get Berserk to punch it, it would do some serious damage to him. The process was slow, but Berserk inched his way closer and closer. Finally, they were there. Steel positioned himself in front of the metal object and waited for the gigantic blue pony to punch. He dodged once again and heard the sound of hoof meeting metal. But when he turned around to see what his plan accomplished, Berserk hadn't even flinched. He actually dented the metal with his punch. Berserk smiled as he swung and made contact with Steel, who was thrown across the room. For a fighter, Steel knew he was out of his element here. This pony was all power and brute strength, and Steel couldn't keep up.

Steel smacked into something hard. He turned around and saw that it was his friend Bandana, only with the mare on his neck in a chokehold.

"You doing okay, buddy?" wheezed Bandana with the limited air he could take in.

"This pony…raw power. I cannot battle him."

"Sure you can, every pony has a weak spot. Just gotta find it."

This was one of the first lessons Bandana taught him while in the royal guard. Bandana had fought tougher creatures than this stallion, and came out on top. Steel couldn't lose hope from one failed attempt. "Thank you, Bandana-san."

"Oh, and Steel?"

"Yes?"

"A little help?" Bandana was starting to turn blue from all the talking and the lack of air.

"Yes, Bandana-san."

Neck. Back knee. Wrist. Chest. In less than a second, Steel hit the four points of the yin meridian and released Shadows ki. But as far any anypony else knew, she was on the ground unconscious.

"Dang, how do you make this look so easy? I'm gonna go help out Applejack, you can handle this bozo on your own."

"Of course… I can…" Steel was a little hesitant, but his friends had faith in him, so he got up and readied himself for Berserk.

…

Spike was still on the ground when the fighting started. He was trying to get out of the ropes binding him, but they tied the knots well. They obviously didn't want him escaping. But he had to go help his friends in this fight. Bandana was being choked out, Steel hadn't made any noticeable impact on Berserk and even without a knife, Fang was still hard to take out. But most importantly, Twilight was probably dead.

No more blood was coming from her, and she would not respond to any noise that anypony made, including Spike. She just laid there in her shackles, her body completely limp. He felt his blood boil in him. These ponies killed her; he needed to do something for Twilight. This was all his fault after all. He tried to tell Twilight not to go out there, if only he wasn't a dragon…

It all came back to this. If only he was a pony, not a dragon. Why did these ponies hate dragons so much that they would go to all this trouble just to get rid of one baby dragon? Did other ponies feel this way about them? What if this feeling was common among ponies and Spike had just been lucky enough to meet all the nice ponyfolk?

'I can't just sit here and think what if's, I need to go out there and help!' thought Spike as he continued to try and wiggle out of the rope. Suddenly, a scale from his wrists came off. "Wait a minute," said Spike, "My scales!" He grabbed the scale and began using it as a knife to cut through the rope.

…..

Applejack finally had Fang on the ropes. While the evil pony was slowing down in exhaustion, AJ, through a combination of adrenaline and bucking apples on the acres for years, felt like she had energy to go for hours. It was only a matter of time before…

She made contact. Though Fang was on the ground, she was flexible and could evade Applejack's hooves. But now that fatigue was setting in, the orange pony made contact with Fang's chest hard. Fang stopped moving, and now Applejack had a chance to relax. She heard galloping from behind her. It was that thick-skulled Bandana coming to "rescue" her. 'That pony doesn't think I can handle myself?' she thought. 'I ought'a give him one in the jaw for thinkin' me all defenseless!"

"Applejack, look out!"

He fell and slid on the floor to kick Fang once again. When she turned around, she saw why Bandana was running towards her; Fang wasn't knocked out, and when AJ let her guard down she grabbed the knife she dropped and went for a cheap shot. Bandana saw this, slid his hoof into Fang's open chest, and definitively knocked her out.

"Gosh, I thought I took care'a her. Y'all just saved mah flank!"

"Well, you sure did do a number on her without me. Are you sure you don't want to go get some cider after all of this?"

"Apple-san? Bandana-san? I do not want to interrupt romantic moment, but… help?" the voice of Steel called out to his friends.

While Bandana and Applejack were victorious in their fight, Steel was not so lucky. He still couldn't see what Berserk's weak spot was, and Berserk would not give him enough time to try and find it. Again, Steel was on the defensive, and now he felt like he was at a loss. He needed help quick. He looked over to see how far his friends were. They were running as fast as they could, but Bandana was limping.

'Did he throw out his shoulder joint again? I warned him about trying to kick too hard, especially with that injury…' suddenly, the thought clicked in Steel's mind. Now that he thought of it, he scolded himself for not thinking about it before. This Berserk was throwing so much force behind his punches and kicks and it was putting a lot of stress in his shoulder joint.

So this time when Berserk swung, Steel slid under the massive pony's arm, right under his shoulder, and with all four legs, whacked his joint with all his force. Steel rolled out from under Berserk, and just in time. The leg was completely unusable, and when he put weight on it, the blue pony yelped and fell to the ground. With one limb made completely ineffective, Berserk accepted defeat and stayed on the ground. Bandana and Applejack came up just in time to see Steel victorious.

"Good job Steel, I knew you could take this bozo on your own!"

"Yes, thank you friend. Now, we save Spike-san!"

"But where'd he go?"

The three bloodied ponies looked around for their dragon companion, but he was nowhere to be found. Then Steel asked, "Who took care of fourth gang pony?"

…..

Spike was almost done cutting the rope when he heard the pony that found him give out a roar in pain. It seems like all the enemy ponies were taken care of. But when Spike looked up, he saw him; the one named Runner. He looked like he was hiding in the hallway. The thought that he thought he could get away from what he did to Twilight was enough to infuriate Spike. As he took the final cuts from the rope, his vision started to blur and everything he saw was turning red. All he could think about was getting revenge for Twilight. The rope snapped and fell away from Spike's claws, and he set the ropes on his legs aflame with his breath. He grabbed a length of rope and ran straight for Runner.

Runner seemed to be so distracted by the fight he didn't notice the dragon until it was too late. Spike jumped onto the colt's back and threw the rope around his neck. He started choking him. At first, all he wanted was to get justice for Twilight's death, but now that he heard the sound of Runner choking and gasping for breath, a new feeling came out; blood thirst. Spike's primal instincts finally began to set in. He didn't even remember now what he was doing this for, why he felt such misery before. All he knew now was that this pony would die, and afterwards, Spike would feast. Runner turned blue. Spike began to salivate.

"SPIKE! CALM DOWN SOLDIER!" Bandana called out as he yanked Spike and his rope off the young pony that was now an unhealthy shade of blue.

"He must die!" was all Spike could growl. Who was this pony that was preventing Spike from killing his prey?

"Spike, we don't want to kill these people. You aren't a murderer."

Spike was just trying to get away. He needed blood now. "They killed Twilight. I'll kill them all!"

"Twilight isn't dead you idiot! Calm down! You aren't a killer!" Bandana could still see Spike wasn't listening to what he was saying. "Twilight wouldn't want you to be a killer. What would she do without her helper?"

Then Spike remembered Twilight. Bandana was right. No matter what happened, even if she was in his place, Twilight would never kill anypony no matter what they did. He stopped struggling against Bandana, and Bandana released Spike. When Spike looked up at his friend, he saw an emotion that Bandana never had before: fear. Spike looked at his claws. They were longer than he had ever seen them. He felt his teeth—or what used to be teeth. They were now fangs that looked like they could tear a pony to bits. Did Spike's emotional response do this? The last time something like this happened, it was because he gave into greed. Was this what happened when he gave into hate?

…..

Spike's Journal Entry 16 (con't)

After I calmed down, the police ponies finally came and arrested the ponies we had taken care of; all four of the ponies in the warehouse, and in the building that the others had broken into before. As it turns out, that was the gang's main headquarters. Now that most of the gang was behind bars, the detective ponies predicted that Dragon Blood would disappear within a few weeks. But is it enough for what they did? Why can't they kill them for what they did?

Bandana was right as well. Twilight was still alive, but just barely. They rushed her to the hospital. The doctors said that she would recover, but it would be a week before she would even have a chance to stand on her own four hoofs. So Twilight won't join us for the rest of this journey. Without her, this journey will be even harder. She was the best friend I ever had.

Steel and Bandana will leave tomorrow for Canterlot as well; but Applejack said something about owing Bandana a glass of cider. They are out tonight, while I sleep here with Fluttershy and Steel, who aren't the most talkative ponies.

Even if Dragon Blood didn't get what they deserve, what's done is done. And we are finally done here. Now we can go back to what I started this journey for; finding my parents.