Chapter 7: Minotaur.
Pinkie's visit to the apple ranch late in the evening went as well as she had expected and tomorrow she had a hospital to visit, but for some reason the cold twitch wouldn't leave her spine. No matter, she traveled back to Sugar Cube Corner after watching the sun set with Applejack and her little sister Applebloom.
As she made her way into town she saw a familiar if odd sight of two grey coated blonde pegasi and Princess Luna chatting at a table at an outdoor diner.
Soon out of curiosity Pinkie made her way up to the table.
As they were talking into the onset of night Pinkie couldn't get over the feeling, like someone she knew personally was about to be injured badly and she wouldn't be able to help them. Trying to ignore the chill Pinkie continued chatting with Ditzy and Dixie who were waiting for Luna to get back from raising and setting the moon into motion.
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In Hippolytus things were going downhill very slowly for the wargs and there were several reasons why the wargs advancement on the settlement was stopped cold. When they had attacked Hippolytus several times previously they didn't expect the town's forces to be exceptionally bolstered by a grey flying mare with a knack for invention and close range evasive combat, a zebra whose was good at quick fixing wounds and a unicorn with a decent range of useful tricks under her hat.
Also it didn't hurt that Hippolytus now had five trebuchets, two catapults and one side of the town being defended entirely by very peculiar blue flower alone, which were planted carefully into the ground by residents who were good at botany and or farming.
The trebuchets while not hitting much altogether created a shotgun affect when it launched sacks full of rocks bigger than turtles, only some of the rocks hit and they definitely looked to have hurt. The catapults were loaded down with hay bales that were lit ablaze by none other than the useful and needed Trixie.
The wargs that ran through the blue flowers didn't come out of them quite the same; apparently the larger the area the flower touches the quicker the affects. They were incapacitated by multiple different syndromes brought on by the Poison Joke. These effects include: Nausea, turning into cute little rabbits, having all their teeth fall out and their claws dulled, falling into a deep sleep, constant sneezing fits, legs that go ridiculously limp and that's only half of what the flowers wrought.
The other entrance to town however had been breached lightly by a bunch of injured and very angry wargs. Derpy joined in with the few ponies, hippogriffs an griffons that were capable of fighting and quite a few of the wargs targeted her based on magical direction that she was the biggest threat there.
The magic behind them would not let the wargs leave a mail pony unscarred which was easier said than done given Derpy's ability to stumble and bumble her way around. Derpy had the attention of at least five wargs at any given time and none of them could hit her, it was like she was just dancing and taking potshots at them when she could throwing a nasty hoof strike and sometimes slamming warg into the ground when she grappled onto one with her front two hooves.
Zecora was staying around the hotel happily handling the injured and when the long range defenses became useless she started moving them into the hotel in the center of town. She felt for them and their pain.
The tired and brave Trixie; as soon as the ranged defenses were useless, was careful not to attract the ire of the wargs like Derpy somehow had and was launching a fireworks spell that exploded in a flashy impacts blinding a few and scorching others.
Trixie was picked her targets well and timed her attacks for the right moments, she was actually carefully planning out each move and not only that, she was putting on a great show too. All the while Trixie was watching Derpy roll, flip and flop, she even did a break dance move as an effective counter attack. It was quite graceful in a way despite how clumsy Derpy was making herself look, she was kicking more flank than several of surrounding guards combined and she wasn't even going on the offensive. Also the surprised and enthused Trixie didn't think a pony's spine could actually bend like that.
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"Doll-face?" Twilight queried with a raised eyebrow, it was a curious nickname to call someone considering what it meant. Currently Dolly's face was scarred.
"Yeah, it's my codename. The mailing organization takes its mail delivery and freelancing seriously. Sorry I didn't ask for your name, but I'm looking for a package that's been held here for three years and in this mailing office under my name." Dolly turned from twilight and addressed the colt who was had his entire attention focused on her.
"Oh sorry, I'm Noct Ernest. Other than my night time deskwork for this mailing office I'm a part time doctor. I get plenty of freelance jobs for it and it's a plus side that our mailing office doesn't have to pay medical if I'm good enough to patch up whatever injury pops up. I'll get right on finding that package immediately Ms. Verance, if you'll follow me." The charcoal colt quickly went into the back room to presumably do just that, showing that his flank symbol was a red cross overlaid on a white circle with black spots that looked like the moon.
Dolly motioned for Twilight to follow her and they stepped over the spilled dirt and made their way into the back room, when they did Twilight's eyes bulged out.
"Yeah, that's the same reaction everyone get's when they see one of our mail rooms for the first time." Dolly smacked Twilights jaw back into a closed position and she made her way passed the surprised purple pony.
Twilight while knowing that the amount of letters and packages were normal was thoroughly surprised by the other things in the mailing office. There were rooms with beds, a kitchen, an armory with lockers with several pony names on them and other multiple luxuries. As they followed Noct, Twilight looked into one of the ones and saw a snoozing male unicorn snuggling a Luna plushy to his body with a smile. Twilight turned her head forward as Noct opened a door that led to this mailing offices storage.
This room was a lot bigger than most of the building and Twilights eyes were so wide, how were they supposed to find what Dolly was looking for in all this? Dolly looked at the date on a few nearby by packages and made her way down the large rectangular room until she stopped at a nearby shelf and started to move things out of the way. Noct just stood by silently as Dolly seemed to know what she was looking for and where it was, the red coated mare soon pulled out a moderate size box with a flip open lid.
"Oka y now that we have this we can be on our…" An explosion shook the building slightly and Dolly's eyes narrowed. "I guess it's a good thing I agreed to alert the local Wonderbolts, what's the defensive ability of this facility?"
"The mailing room is impervious to magic and can withstand something the size of a land dragon stomping down on it, it's practically a bunker in here. However the other portions of this place can easily be destroyed and is not as protective." Noct saw the stern look on Dolly's face.
"Get as many ponies as you can into this part of the building, if it's anything really serious you might have to use the back door protocol on this place." The colt looked horribly put off by what Dolly had just suggested in the stiffest manner.
"And sacrifice the mail?" Noct couldn't believe what he was hearing; Dolly was actually willing to drop the mailing facility and all its important mail?
"Lives matter more than the mail does Doctor, I shouldn't have to tell you that. That said take care of any injured I send your way. However I wouldn't mind you saving the mail if you could, but don't be a hero… that's my job. Twilight you are to take this package; as a daring duly deputized dispatch of our mailing services by the association of being a part of DERP, directly to HIppolytus immediately. That package needs to reach the rest of the group's members, also take this with you as well." With that Dolly got a wince from Noct. Twilight was both hoofed the small box like package and Dolly's right hoof saddle bag that was loaded with the 'Pinkie Pie' gear; she shifted her left hoof saddle bag to her back over her weapons sheath.
"What… but I can help; you don't seriously expect me to just…" Twilight saw a look in Dolly's eyes, no room for discussion was what they said. Dolly made her way for the front door of the Novascoltia's post office. Twilight followed and caught up with Dolly, she came to a stop by her side at the entrance to stare at the streets of the town.
A few houses were on fire, a large mass of shadowy red eyed crows were everywhere attacking panicking ponies and at the end of the street facing the post office a large red cow headed beast walking on its hind hooves. It turned to face them and it gave a snort at them while the muscles on the arms at its side bulged angrily.
So far the only thing putting up much of a fight were three Wonderbolts that were slinging bolts of energy at clusters of crows and using nearby clouds to try and put out the fires with rain while making them firing lightning bolts at the big red monster to little effect as it started stomping towards the post office.
"Nightlight, please get out of here right now. I'm invoking the element of courage." A bright light shined from around Dolly. Twilight blinked the spots out of her eyes to see Dolly wearing a silver necklace much like the ones her friends wore; it had a black and white swirling colored gem in the shape of a shield at hanging at her chest. "WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE, I SAID GO AND DON'T LOOK BACK!"
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In Canterlot, Princess Celestia lay in her bed napping finally getting some well deserved rest after a long day of keeping things running in Equestria. That was until she felt a sudden surge of energy, though distant it was immediately recognizable.
Her eyes snapped opened and she immediately sat up and moved to the balcony to stare into the distance. The element of Courage had never called upon her power in so long Celestia had thought she was relatively safe. Right now, she knew better as she hoped Twilight and Dolly were both okay. She did the only thing she could think to do when all her ponies were threatened; she took matters into her own hooves and since the threat warranted such a reaction from Dolly she was personally needed, she was not about to let another Element of Courage perish before their time. "Summon the guards!"
There was no way in the world Dolly would ever use that power unless the threat was effectively large enough to warrant it and from here she could even feel a sense of unease growing as an unknown energy source flared up as well within the same general area.
()
In Ponyville Luna felt and odd surge of energy to the north and just stared off into the distance, beside her the pink pony who had been throwing her a small nighttime party just sat and stared northward as well.
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Turning away from the stunned Twilight, Dolly took off for the nearest pack of crows picking at a small earth pony foal who was crying as the sharp beaks were finding purchase on its coat. With a flash and sudden sheathing of her sword the crows dispersed into black mist. "Run to the post office and stay safe kid."
"Whoa…." The little colt watched as Dolly then took off to the sky to support the Wonderbolts. Dizzy Duh was being chased by a small swarm of crows. A few other pegasi were putting up some form of a fight with mid air bucks and some mild weather control, but it wasn't enough or near as potent. Taking heed to her advice the little colt started heading for the post office before more black birds came to attack him.
Dizzy did a loop; a barrel roll and even a Split S maneuver but that didn't shake them off. The shadowy crows were too fast and maneuverable to lose. They were almost nipping at the feathers on her wings, they were so close and in a flash of metal the entire cloud was sent dispersing into the atmosphere.
From the ground the red bull headed beast snorted as it watched the grey coats take to conversation, it couldn't let them plan a counter-attack. A large ball of fire started to form in its big five clawed fist that can easily transform into a hoof. It threw it at the two hoping to bring them down.
"Remember Dizzy once you get me enough cloud you are to immediately start helping others take shelter at the post office. Do what you think is right after that. By the way your cousin is a credit to my..." Dolly immediately stopped spun and pulled her Neighyashi out and thrust it forcefully into the ball of flame causing it to blast outward around both Dizzy and her. Their bodies and feathers were singed as the heat washed over them, despite the flames missing them personally.
"Forget what I was saying and just hurry Dizzy, Remember I'll need it at the soonest convenience." She stared down at the red bull creature with its two large jutting horns pointed at her and its black fur rippling down its back in anger. It was a Taurus or in other words a Minotaur, a magical race with more physical strength than a group of earth ponies and more magical ability then most unicorns could even bother to match. They were thought to be extinct but apparently one or two were still alive even to this day, this one in particular seemed powerful as the end of her Neighyashi was still glowing red hot from dispersing that ball of flame.
The creature stood snorting with displeasure as the streets around him burned; one of the winged creatures he hated was powerful enough to disperse his magic with physical force alone? It would be a grand battle of the ages and he would have his revenge on at least one of their kind when he emerged victorious. The mail pony would suffer before she died and he doubted she could handle his magical force, for he was an all powerful Taurus named Malice! He was one who has survived since those ancient wars of the past.
His tail twitched and he held up his clawed hand focusing a great mass of magic into them, he gave out a roar and more crows poured from the shadowy sphere he held above his head as several lightning blast struck his thick red skin harmlessly. The Wonderbolts were but gnats to him and he'd swat them as soon as he was done taking care of 'HER'. Soon more than just shadowy crows poured from the sphere it was followed by a swarms of vicious shadow harpy's but in lesser number which was more than made up by their size, they were enlarged vulture like creatures in many a way partly resembling griffons.
They all surged upwards and chose their targets at random, anyone who was capable of fighting even in a little was here and the Wonderbolts were probably the most effective source of help Dolly had. At the moment they were put off by the sudden surge of creatures all baring red eyes and shadowy forms and if things weren't bad enough the harpy's could fire beams of darkness from their mouths.
Dolly dodged around the first few arcane blasts and noticed how the Wonderbolts were handling the new change up by the Minotaur, its magical power had to be absolutely massive to summon this many dangerous entities. The few Wonderbolts that were in the air weren't taking it so well having to use more tricky maneuvers and combined electrical energy blasts, their team effort proved successful in some spots but it wasn't near enough. They were soon joined by several more Wonderbolts who looked to have finally woken up and were fresh for the fight.
Swooping in Dolly let loose a flash of her blunt weapon as she passed by one of the harpy's blowing off one of its shadowy talons before it could sink into a Wonderbolts back. She turned around and immediately guarded against the other talon that clutched at her braced hoof tightly; it was strong enough to almost start warping the metal around left hoof. Before she could deal with the one legged shadow Harpy personally, several blasts of energy from off to the side blew it to pieces.
"Thanks for the assist lady, just returning the favor." The Wonderbolt sounded young as he flew by before performing a Spark Drill maneuver into a cloud of shadow crows; he was rapidly spinning in mid air and holding his hooves in front of him creating a large cone of energy before him. Arcs of lightning shot off the well cone of energy and ripped the magically summoned creatures to shreds by the dozens as he plowed through them.
Dolly gave a nod and turned to meet an oncoming wing of crows; she quickly swung twice destroying five enclosing crows as she flew by them. She soon took out a sixth with a roll by slapping it straight towards the ground with one of her wings. She stopped to hover looking around for anymore support she could lend while she waited for Dizzy to get back. She could see into one of the nearby burning buildings upper floors and saw that a unicorn was trapped under the support structure; she appeared to be trying to cast a water spell to put out the surrounding fires but it was too hot for the spell to work. Dolly darted towards the slowly collapsing structure only to have a harpy quickly take to following her towards the house, the longer things went on the more painful the burning sensation in the back of Dolly's head got.
Flying at street level with a Harpy hot on her heels, Dolly swerved up slightly and stop dead in the air clamping her wings to her sides to drop straight down for a few feet before catching herself and flying straight towards the burning building. The harpy sailed over her and a second harpy slammed into coming from around the corner in the streets corner junction, if Dolly had kept flying straight she would have been caught between them.
From above, a weather pony pegasus took notice of Dolly's maneuver and moved carefully above the cloud he was working over several of the burning houses. He gave it a sharp buck sending a blast of lighting through the two crashing shadow harpy's. One of them evaporated, leaving the other on the ground slowly getting up, it was recovering quickly. A second later one of the fighting Wonderbolts flew in and let the remaining harpy have it with two blasts of electricity to the back. It let out a screech of pain as it slowly evaporate and thrashed against the ground.
Dolly flew up and quickly swooped into the building, ignoring the flames as they licked at her. She really disliked burning buildings and this wasn't the first time she's had to rescue some pony or creature from one.
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Twilight ran down the street and ducked into a building as a Harpy tried to get her with its claws. She was making sure the levitated box stay with her and it was getting rather hard as the red eyed shadows were attacking every pony in sight. She levitated the box hard into the shadow harpy's face knocking it to the ground before retreating.
What was so important about the box anyway? It didn't matter; she trusted Dolly's judgment as she made for the outskirts of the town only to witness a pack of shadow creatures trying to keep a crowd of ponies from escaping the town's destruction.
Okay she had to think what could she do? How had Dolly invoked her element from wherever it was? Well Dolly had told Twilight that it was connected to the pony that earned it, but also said that the element could be dangerous if abused. She didn't need hers at any time in the past so why was she considering it now? Was it the power she could have been wielding? Well that made her feel horrible; maybe that's why she had the element of magic? Because she wouldn't abuse the power given to her?
In any case she had to exit town now and those ponies wouldn't get past that wall of dark creatures without her, she needed to come up with an offensive use for one of her spells or something… wait she had Dolly's bag and it was loaded down with Pinkie's strange stuff. One of those things wasn't entirely explained, thus she knew she shouldn't use it; the ballistic balloons would have to do.
The instructions were simple enough in using them, just don't inhale anything from inside the balloons and once active don't pop them anywhere near yourself. After inflating four balloons with a quick speed and tying off the ends with her magic, she levitated the explosively charged balloons close to herself. Who knew a small amount of carbon dioxide could cause such an explosive reaction inside a rubbery inflated sphere? She wondered how Pinkie could create something like this and if it was her fault that the pink pony had done so in the first place. Then again she has seen Pinkie in confetti launcher equipment that definitely weren't sold in stores, was that another one of Pinkie's weird inventions and how did she work it without using her hooves?
(Pinkie Interruption)
"Well duh! The confetti suit was based off... no wait… that would be spoiling the plot, oopsie! No more from me until after it comes up later." Pinkie smiled slightly as she shut down the background screen before anyone saw what was on it.
"But I work it easily enough, Earth pony magic and all that." Pinkie gave a grinning smile hoping the readers buy her explanation for the time being.
(Pinkie Interruption end)
Taking carefully aim at the swarm of shadows the adult ponies were trying to puncture through, Twilight let out a yell to warn them about what she was going to do. Soon the wall of shadow crows and harpies were ripped apart in four explosive blasts, the ponies took advantage in the lull of blocking shadows and started running out of the warzone that was currently Novascoltia.
Soon Twilight followed the escaping ponies levitating a box carefully alongside her. She was heading back towards Hippolytus.
As she crested the hill overlooking Novascoltia heading back towards Fetlock Forest a huge explosion of bright light shot up behind her near where the post office was. The glow was of a golden color and the pillar seemed to be made of pure lightning heading for the stars. There was also a horrible scream echoing from there, she turned away and made way for Hippolytus hoping Dolly was alright for Derpy's sake. The muffin loving pony really wanted to learn more about Dolly, even she herself hadn't learned much except Dolly was the Element of Courage and a few interesting facts about other lesser known elements being seen throughout history.
What Dolly knew of the elements of harmony was also rather surprising, Twilight would make sure to hug her friends tightly when this was all over.
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Dolly had rescued several ponies up until the point she parked herself outside the mailing office where Dizzy brought down a large chunk of cloud. So far Dolly had been dodging death and saving lives at an effectively staggering rate that her stamina couldn't keep up with much longer. But she no longer had to keep saving ponies; she took the cloud from Dizzy and told her to move away as the Minotaur came into view staring at her specifically as she slowly crushed the cloud between her hooves and a monumental electrical buildup started around her.
The Minotaur known as Malice just snorted, he had been just randomly having fun by destroying parts of Novascoltia with waves of shadow summons. Of course the upside effect of doing so was that he was tiring out a strong opponent. He has yet to succeed with what he set out to do yet and it appears she was going to get in his way.
Zecora had asked Dolly if she had a gift… well, she had two. One made her resilient but not immune to poisons and the other was something she was about to reveal. Pegasus magic, in its rawest and most painful form was starting to crackle around her. Her coat stood out jaggedly, her white hair slowly started to glow blue and the black hair from her tail started to kink up.
The Wonderbolts needed their suits to survive holding and shooting lightning with their hooves. Dolly had no such luxury as a suit would dilute the powers she was about to unleash. She needed the full spectrum of everything if she was to repel this magical pawn from destroying any more of the town.
Speaking of Wonderbolts, one had finally noticed what Dolly was doing and he stopped and stared wide eyed as her hooves were slowly coming together. The pressure of energy was just unreal and a normal pony shouldn't be able to handle that much stress, much less a thousand volts and quite a few amps above any level that Dolly must now be experiencing.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing? You're going to die if you keep that up!" The Wonderbolt obviously had the right idea to worry. As what Dolly was doing would have almost killed any other Pegasus that wasn't wearing a specially made suit. To say it wasn't harming her body or causing her undue amount of pain would have been a bold faced lie, because the following blinding light of an electrical beam shooting to the heavens should have killed her. It just made her give out a horrific scream before the pillar of energy disappeared leaving a rather odd looking form behind that shook with electricity as it trailed in sparks across writhing shifting form in a small dense fog.
What the Wonderbolt and few others were witnesses to was the twisted altered form of a pony.
The clouds unfurled revealing that they were actually where Dolly's wings should be, soft gentle puffs of white instead of feathers. In her forehead was a solidified bolt of white jagged lightning, like Dolly had just acquired a unicorn horn made of pure energy. Her tail having turned into a tornado swayed creating a small breeze behind her. When she opened her eyes as she stood up they were glowing solid grey, her body was making jerking motions and when she exhaled a few snowflakes flew from her mouth. Her coat was the oddest change as it seemed to have turned entirely blue and slightly transparent like water, as her fur rippled it sounded like falling rain. There soon was a storm quickly swirling overhead where Dolly stood.
Without saying a word Dolly floated into the air without moving her wings and shot towards the surprised Minotaur. What was more surprising was that Dolly's remaining saddle bag was perfectly fine as was her sheathed weapon and her armored bracers. She was still the same size despite the fact that she now looked like she was made out of multiple different weather patterns.
She slammed into the Malice's arm hooves first with a meaty thud, before the Minotaur brought his arm in and thrust it outwards with a snort. It sent the mare spiraling through three buildings causing the cast on her leg finally shatter.
Slowly the mare herself floated back up with an angry twitch in her glowing eyes. It was hard to tell if that twitch was in anger as the rest of her was jerking about at random with sparks of lightning tracing around her body. Apparently she didn't seem to be in any pain even after being put through six walls.
The transformation technically doesn't fix problems with the body; it just temporarily nullifies any pain and made one resilient to damage for as long as it could last. In trade Dolly was numb to feeling much of anything done to her and was in a completely different state of mind.
She shot forward in a blaze of speed raring to attack the Malice again; he simple snorted and punched his right fist downward at the right moment. He had a small smirk on his face before he frowned; he missed hitting the winged abomination? He received his answer when a blast of energy struck up at him staggering him slightly; he actually felt the hit that time and received a hard buck to the chest that was a lot more damaging as it created the sound of thunder that rattled his mostly impervious bones with a heavy shockwave as the transformed pony kicked off of him.
Sturdy was the word for a Minotaur, more strength and magic then an earth pony and unicorn combined and multiplied by two. To actually feel any pain was something of a surprise to Malice, Then again he was dealing with a pony who obviously took to direct confrontation whereas the rest of their species in the past just used subterfuge and cunning. Mostly said subterfuge and cunning happened when a pony was on the run, to actually have the fight brought to him brought some kind of sick joy to Malice's heart.
Rare was it that a Minotaur could face such a small opponent and receive even hints of a good fight. Forming a fireball Malice slung it at the form in the sky absorbing lightning into itself. Said form turned away from absorbing energy out of the clouds and shot a beam of white energy that immediately dissipated his fireball and continued towards him. He brought his left arm up to block the beam and received a nasty sensation of his entire arm starting to freeze from his clenched clawed fist to his elbow.
His arm being frozen was followed by a flash and suddenly appearing in the blink of an eye he was hit with a left hoof to the face and his head was actually turned with the blow. He was quickly struck several more time by a right left combo, before he slammed his frozen left arm to the ground and slapped the buzzing little gnat away from his face with the back of his right hand. The mare recovered and stared him down.
The ice covering his left arm flew off in a sound of splintering glass and in his right hand he was already summoning more crows. Said crows were proven useless as the mare before him acted like a giant bug zapper, but a curious thing happened as Malice watched his crows burn in the electrical fields of the weather formed mare.
Malice took keen notice that the lightning bolt in her head receded slightly with each show of power, giving Malice a bit of insight into how long the little problem could hold that form. Apparently attacking or defending herself used very little energy, but getting hurt causes the solidified lightning in her forehead to shrink faster. He saw the lightning bolt less then it was for a scant second or so before she kicked off of him.
She needed raw energy from the sky to keep up with him; all he would have to do is make sure he could separate her from the sky and thus her power. Her power wouldn't last forever and it was only a matter of time. A fog rolled in and her eyes disappeared into it, Malice would not lose to this winged one.
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While the fight with the Malice was going on, the shadowy summoned creatures were being dealt with and without reinforcements they were falling fast. In the shadows Dizzy Duh watched as Dolly reared back and spat deadly icicles from her hidden cover in the fog. The icicles appeared to be made out of her own spit as they flew at the Taurus; she was busy writing down every detail of the fight and was hovering above the ground ready to move further away from the battle.
Dolly was getting thrashed out there, as seen by the fact that she was grabbed by the hind leg and slammed into the ground back first and then had a big meaty fist slam into her. Dizzy winced but she kept up to date on the amount of injuries Dolly should be incurring.
The mare watched as the weather formed mare struck the Minotaur back with a tornado of bladed winds from her tail lightly cutting up the red beast. Dizzy was cheering Dolly on to victory, even if the fight was one sided and Dolly didn't seem to be doing nearly enough damage.
"Dizzy, what are you doing? Come on, The Wonderbolts are busy evacuating and we need to get back to the post office to put it on lockdown." Looking back to Noct she stared him stiffly in the eyes.
"Go ahead; I'll follow in a minute." Turning back to the fight Dizzy eyes widened as the outcome went south. It was said that when Dolly loses it's always a pyrrhic victory for the opponent and if it wasn't it was a good idea to avoid what brought her down. The cow beast slapped her hard and she slammed into the wall her lightning formed horn shrunk down to a glowing sliver at the top of her skull.
Dolly form flickered and her body started reverting from head to tail. Her head started to return to normal with the last flecks of the solidified lightning bolt disappearing from her head. Her mane lost its tint becoming entirely white once more. Her breathing stopped giving off frost and became labored. The color slowly drained away from her transformed body as water splashed to the ground falling from her, seeming to have acted as an armor leaving behind a pale battered form. The fog lifted from her wings showing they weren't in prime condition. Her black haired tail became it's once silken straight self the winds died down.
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Control, she had lost it. She didn't have any of the necessary control of the transformation to keep it going or use it effectively; she felt heavy and could feel the life fluids leaking from numerous injuries on her body mostly around her chest, stomach and even worse off broken leg. She felt a solid bruise running down her back, her hind leg was almost killing her in blinding pain, the feathers on her left wing were charred in half and her right wing was paralyzed and limp from all the electric discharge.
Every previous element of courage has had a horrendous death awaiting them, was this her time? She hadn't said near enough to her mailing team, her mailing team was her family. Was she finally going to see her adopted sister in the afterlife? Her breathing was shallow and she started coughing up blood, she had to have some pretty bad internal injuries alongside possible spinal damage. She couldn't feel her danger sense going off; it had likely over loaded in the ensuing fight.
The only thing left was the power of the element of courage itself; its light would only protect her for so long. She still had so much left to give even if she was barely stand on one hind leg, flapping her left wing barely keeping herself standing.
Malice snorted in amusement, she had managed to injure him. He had Injuries which wouldn't heal with magic, a curious side effect of being actually struck by the wounded mare who still stood before him with her cold wild grey eyes and her left hoof on her sheathed weapon. Her armoring had been knocked from her hooves in the ensuing short lived scuffle and were lying somewhere on the ground, but it was inconsequential to Malice as they didn't help her all too much.
This creature was an impressive specimen of her race if Malice did say so himself, but she was beneath him now. He lifted his massive right hand a glowing black orb formed and he sent ten shadow crows to finish her off. What the quickly waning pony did next surprised him.
"Courage… impulse." Dolly slammed the tip of her neighyashi into the ground propping herself up on her blunt weapon. Her necklace gave off a bright flash that charged through the sword and sent out a blinding shockwave that dispersed the swarming shadow crows with the power of her element alone fighting off the darkness.
No matter, Malice thought. He would send a harpy, she couldn't possible have enough power to finish something like that off and she was quite literally balancing on her last leg with one burnt wing flapping futilely to keep her standing.
Dolly gripped her neighyashi in both hooves, she hobbled forward using the sword trying to get in range to do a last ditch effort attack. But to do so, she had to go through a shadow harpy. The Minotaur was too strong, she had barely scratched him and only her last move could possibly do enough damage. If only she could get close enough, was the only thing on her mind.
"Light… sets with… ILLUMINATION." With an upward golf swing of her neighyashi in both hooves, only a small spark popped off the sword. With the sword still raised she quickly reversed the sword to prop herself up once again and continue to shamble forward at a abysmal pace despite the seemingly untouched shadow harpy baring down on her.
Seconds before it reach her a blue line formed on the shadows harpies body and it bisected in two, a thin line of dirt could be seen along the ground leading up to Malice with a large gash in his cheek almost reaching his left eye which he quickly clutched at in pain.
Dolly gritted her teeth and continued to press forward once she was in range the Minotaur finished clutching at his marred face, his claws heated up and his hand came away from his face having cauterized the injury. He watched as the mare with both hooves on her weapon drew a small circled around her on the ground slowly, her element of courage remained undamaged and unblemished through all this. The colors of the gem in the element were slowly swirling and soon the gem turned entirely gray, a light glow formed around Dolly.
As she finished the circle time slowed down for Malice as he was reminded of something of the past, the wars where warrior ponies of the night were a slowly disappearing breed came back in full force to wage battle with his kin. If anything Celestia knew how to train the night guard with Luna's methods and in honor of her sealed sister.
Unfortunately it was too late for Malice to dodge or realize the damage Dolly could still do, one doesn't avoid a goddess or trains to bring one down without the ability to kill. Most ponies wouldn't stomach blood or be ready for a fight.
"FAS… TI… AER!" Blood didn't make a lick of difference when almost half of Dolly's neighyashi burrowed its way towards the Taurus's heart within the blink of an eye. She had covered the distance between them spectacularly and had stabbed to kill, her element had swiftly stopped glowing and it faded from existence and off of Dolly's chest. She scrabbled to gain purchase on the Minotaur she barely managed to knock over.
Malice let out and agonizing scream as he fell on his back, he felt an indescribable pain in his chest. But with a minute of thrashing he finally calmed down and sat up to grab at the mare weakly clutching at his chest and the blunt sword rammed into it. He gripped Dolly with his right hand by her upper torso and neck squeezing her to the point she started choking, causing her to lose grip of the sword. He slowly stood up, which was hard for him to do when a quick stream of blood started falling from his chest and all. Her sword had stopped just short of hitting his heart; she had failed to gain victory from defeat.
Dolly knew the technique only because it was capable of being done with ones bare hoof. With a weapon it can be more or less deadly depending on where one aims the weapon, her aim was impeccable to get between his ribs but she wasn't strong enough to get her sword far enough into him to ultimately drop him. Her vision was started to blur and it was fading as the monstrous red creature held her aloft in the air and snorted his pained disdain at the injury he had just received.
"If… don't… kill… regret it…" Dolly's eyes weren't fearful they were only suggesting scorn and that he should make her death quick or else. She watched as the beast narrowed its eyes at her, her mind was racing trying to figure out why it didn't just immediately crush her windpipe and be done with it.
Lifting up his left hand Malice grabbed at the sword sticking into his chest, he wrenched it out with a sickening squelching sound and tossed the sword carelessly away. He swiftly slapped his chest with a flaming hand cauterizing the wound even if it was still agonizingly painful; he was resilient in his agony by being of a larger size then Dolly was. Dolly was almost like her namesake, a rag doll in his clutches when he tightened his grip for a second causing her to scream out in pain.
Malice thought of killing her now, but that would have been too easy, too simple for her. No, he had to make this insignificant little bug pay for injuring him so grievously. He had plans for torturing this impudent mare; he wanted to see the fire in those eyes die in fear.
As Malice was about to rip off one of Dolly's hind legs with his left hand, he stopped and felt a strong presence. He was in a weakened state and would always have an Achilles heel in the area around his heart now until he could recover from at least some of the damage that was dealt to him.
On the horizon he saw a bright white pony with wings and a horn and his bravado faltered, he lifted his left claw to the sky and encased himself in a wall of dark purple energy. When the solid wall of energy disappeared in a flash, Malice was gone and he took along a mare that last was seen barely struggling in his grip.
It would only be a minute or two later before Celestia touched down on the ground after scattering the last of the shadow summons in a burst of light. As she marched along the ground she stopped to witness a dizzy looking pony stumble and tripped her way up to the sunny goddess with a sad look on her face. In the background ponies were busy putting out fires and rescuing others buried under the rubble of a few buildings felled by the sudden magical beast attack. This pony just looked up at her and proffered a blunt blood covered weapon that pierced the tough hide of a Taurus where ice, wind and lightning had little effect to halt its rampage.
()
Twilight had often wondered if making friends with animals was as easy as Fluttershy made it out to be, now she was riding a bear and at the behest of a friendly if familiar Brownie sitting on its head. Two miles outside Hippolytus Twilight got off taking the right saddlebag and box with her and she turned to the ever helpful peaceful brownie.
"Thanks for the help, but remember not every pony is the same and not all of us are nice. You have to keep a slightly suspicious nature because not everyone is as friendly as we were, thanks again for the ride and please don't let me take too much advantage of your kindness again." The brownie shook her head in understanding of Twilights word, not all things were evil and not all things were good. It depends on whether or not the brownie could actually look creatures in the eye and see no deceit or evil, the kobold might have made them a little sour to visitors in their forest and the brownies were still apologetic for putting an arrow into the flank of one of their nice plant eating saviors.
Twilight was a bit more humble with thoughts of the elements of kindness. Sometimes too much kindness is a bad thing, even if she got a ride on a grizzly bear back through Fetlock Forest which had put her on the fast track back to Hippolytus.
Speaking of said square shaped town, she could see the outer walls as she galloped up to it with three packs on her back and a floating hinged box next to her head. The little place didn't look to good from the outside, smoking patches of ground littered the entire area around and there was dried blood in places where a battle was obviously fought and everything seemed too quiet for her taste as she made her approach to the south gate. She stopped momentarily to goggle at the large amounts of poison joke guarding the gateway; apparently Trixie was good at summoning flowers.
Being careful not to be joked again, Twilight made her way around the flowers and into the gate. What she saw there had caused her eyes to widen with disbelief. Every single warg that had attacked Hippolytus had been captured and were in wooden cages that looked to have been made out of catapults and some trebuchets.
There also seemed to be a party going on and her acquaintance and two friends were all okay.
Trixie looked to be clawed and scraped up a bit, which was obviously patched up by Zecora using the local fauna given the leaves covering the other unicorns' body. She was getting a nice crowd around her but she wasn't bragging, she was just stating her small part in a larger battle. Twilight stopped to listen in and was surprised to find out that Derpy was the mare of the hour.
The grey mail mare barely had two scratches on her and was getting a hardy slap on the back by the local Hippolytus guards, hippogriff, pony and griffon alike. Apparently Derpy seemed to have been a large target like their one mail mare that mysteriously disappeared after a rather nasty Warg incursion started up.
The last they heard of the mail pony was when said pony had been curse by the wargs and couldn't bear to stay in Hippolytus in fear that they might hurt some pony. Incidentally Dipsy met that particular mail pony on a train bound for vamponies.
Looking at Zecora though, Twilight could see she looked melancholy. It probably had to do with the zebra statuette that looked to have split clean in half right next to her. Even Luwi the local medic and doctor couldn't seem to cheer her up even if he was complementing her on her great healing skills.
Somewhere into her wandering stare Derpy had noticed Twilight. It didn't take long for Trixie or Zecora to follow her in moving towards the purple mage. All three of them seemed a little worried to see her there without Dolly and a little more than curious about the box she was levitating.
"What's wrong Zecora?" Twilight was not going to get sidetracked while Zecora was looking down in the dumps.
"It's nothing new to me, my statue broke and its powers were set free. It's saved a life of someone who was injured badly, the power of the statue I would give up gladly. Only now it has split apart, maybe you can put it back together or at least think of some way to start. But a bigger question I have to ask, where is our good friend Dolly in whose presence we don't bask." Zecora had set the little statue down in front of Twilight and looked pleadingly at the mare.
Twilight's magic stuck the two halves of the statue together, she wasn't sure what powers it held before it split in half and couldn't put that back in it. All Twilight really did was restore the objects form, one too many cracked vases from Rainbow crashing into her library forced her hoof in learning a repair spell.
"I thank you for that, maybe I won't be so smiley but my mood is no longer flat." Zecora sat down waiting for an answer with Derpy and Trixie who joined her in seating position in front of Twilight.
Twilight bit her bottom lip hoping this would go over well more curious thing to explain about the as of yet unopened box along with Dolly's right hoof saddle bag.
()
Pain… blinding pain… if she was feeling pain then that meant she wasn't dead yet. She didn't know how long she was out or how many hours or maybe even days had passed. Blurry vision started to come into view.
Slowly Dolly's eyes cracked opened and she wished she hadn't seen what she already had, above her were three parallel axes on pendulums. Judging by their positioning two were designed to flay limbs from a body before the last one gutted whatever's left a few minutes later, if said thing is even alive after dismemberment. Aside from the obvious dangerous sharp implements hanging above her head she felt a chill filter through the room.
Looking at the rooms' stone walls and the high placed small windows, it didn't take Dolly long to figure out where she was. Shifting parts of her body experimentally she checked herself for damage, first thing of good note was that she didn't have frostbite and that she was relatively warm if slightly chilled.
After a bit more wiggling she had learn a lot more facts of her situation. Her spine was still bruised and her innards had been healed slightly, possibly by magical means. Her outwards injuries were clotted over and itching slightly, her back right leg was still broken and moving it caused agonizing pain to shoot throughout her body. She gritted her teeth and refused to scream and settled for a wince, at least her leg seemed to have mended some.
Now she checked her senses, looking around she took in the reason why she couldn't move, she was strapped down to a stone slab with an engraving on it that wasn't entirely visible considering she was on top of it. She also happened to see she was lying on her left hand saddle bag and empty sheathe, she didn't bother to think about what the straps were made out of because she didn't want to go down that train of thought.
The food in the saddle bag was most likely crushed, but it didn't matter as the food was made to last even in its current condition of being squashed under her body. There also was the curious prodding sensation around her left wing.
To her right were a lever and pulleys and cranks that probably set up the swinging axes. To her left was a staircase leading to a large wooden door and other then that the room was particularly empty.
Things she took note of, she was in a castle tower, she still had her left hand saddle bag and her sword sheathe. The Minotaur had captured her and most likely sought to give her a torturous death, he kept her barely alive for this moment and…
Lifting her front left hoof the pressure tightened on her right hoof.
And if she moved one hoof the other would have pressure put on it, she had enough slack to reach her left hand saddle bag and possibly move it around but it wouldn't do much good to throw a bag at a Minotaur. She could possible get contents from her bag, but it was nothing but food.
If anything she should probably eat a final meal and be done with it. A small part of her didn't want to be done with it and insisted that she wanted to get out of this situation. She certainly didn't see how she was going to do that, she also understood why the Minotaur left her saddle bag with her.
It was to make her uncomfortable as possible. It was just adding insult to injury and Dolly still had facial scars to prove the injury portion, but insulting her actually took quite a lot. She'd find a way out of this or else she wasn't the mare her mail ponies looked to as a leader. If she doesn't make it out of this situation she knows that at least Derpy would take up the torch and she'd persevere… or at least Dolly hopes the enigmatic merry muffin munching mare would last. She really needed to do a background check on Derpy if and when she survives this; it was a thought more out of curiosity than distrust.
She heard a thunder footfall and shifted her towards the wooden door and it slammed open. In stalked big mighty and gruesome, upon seeing her awake a smile slowly overtook his face. Okay, now Dolly could feel insulted.
He walked over to the lever with his thunderous hoof steps striking the stone floor, lifting his left hand he wrapped it tightly around the large lever and gave it a stiff jerk. Above her the left and right axes started swinging, while the middle one stayed still.
With the deed done the Minotaur turned his back on the strapped down mare and started to leave the room.
"Mistake..." When dolly spoke she hadn't realized how dry her throat was, she really needed something to drink. She watched as the thing chuckled as it slammed the door to the room and left her to her fate, not caring about her final spoken word. Soon the middle axe would start swinging and thus the pressure was on for Dolly to figure a way out of the situation.
()
Pinkie Pie felt her knee get all pinched up late at night, but she couldn't describe the feeling of why it was doing that. Maybe it woke her up from a 'Night Terrror', but she didn't remember having a nightmare. She sat up in bed feeling a strange, a shift, a shudder and a bit of her mane going limp.
Deciding it was nothing Pinkie went back to sleep with a smile on her face.
()
Spitfire lead flyer of the Canterlot Wonderbolts was investigating the scene with coffee; some ponies had perished in the attack on Novascoltia. The number of deaths could have been a lot higher if it wasn't reported that a white haired mare with a black tail and red coat hadn't been there. Spitfire paid particular interest as it sounded like an old friend she first met in her circus days had a part in fending off what was reportedly a minotaur assaulting the town with magical summons and fire.
Looking over her shoulder she could see Celestia looked frazzled and was organizing all medical personnel that the town had to offer. One of the best doctors in town was giving it his all the help with the injured.
It wasn't long before the mare of the night itself arrived on scene with a questioning look on her face until she saw the devastation done to the place; she offered her own aid immediately when she saw her sister so discontent.
"Dolly what have you gotten yourself into this time?" Spitfire said slowly, remembering a day of stone gargoyles being beaten back by a mare she saw as a hero. Then again, the elements of courage in history were always thrusting themselves towards good causes at life and limb until nothing was left.
They lived bravely and died quickly for a righteous cause, but Dolly wasn't like that. Spitfire knew that whatever happened, Dolly wouldn't just stay down and die.
()
The room was covered in shadows and it was dark as a swishing sound could be heard.
"Back and forth did the pendulum swing, the last death tolls it did ring.
The middle axe descended into a bloody chunk of meat sending the blood flying into stone walls, on a slab of solid stone arcanely carved a lonely silent spirit falls.
Nothing moved in the room, nothing likes the smell of doom."
End Chapter.