Strider didn't know Twilight or Pinkie Pie very well, but even he could put together the fact that both of them being in Everfree, and a duet of screams filling the air likely belonged to the only two ponies that were in a dangerous location near Ponyville. He was in the air lightning-fast, his tired muscles making sure he knew that he wasn't in the best shape for whatever was about to happen. Were they being attacked by a Manticore, or a Hydra? That could have been troublesome, even fatal, especially since he didn't have his armor!

Rainbow Dash was faster than her coltfriend by far, in the air and far ahead of him, rushing towards the screams. Rarity and Applejack looked to each other for a moment, not really sure what was going on, but it had their friends at attention. That was enough reason for them to rush off after Rainbow and Strider. Fluttershy would normally have hesitated, and even as she gave pursuit to her friends, she was muttering 'ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness....!' for a few moments under her breath, unsure of what was happening. The screams had her thoroughly worried, enough to forego her concerns and just GO.

"Twilight?!" Rainbow Dash called out, several other ponies from town rushing towards the source of the screams, and they were only getting closer. She was starting to make out words too, panicked pleas and demands. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were telling someone to stay away from them, but who? There was a distinct lack of roaring or anything loud as well, And surely Twilight wouldn't be so utterly terrified by a Cockatrice. Rainbow Dash hadn't a clue.

Strider felt the blood run from his face the closer he got to the entrance of Everfree Forest. He recognized the dark energy he felt, like a pressure that only he could feel out of all of them, pressing on his very soul. He couldn't see the looks of anxiety some of the Unicorns on the ground, however; he wasn't the only one that could feel something odd in the air. No, he was more worried about the fact that whatever this was, he didn't have the power to contend with such power on his own, and he had no way of contacting Commander Nocturnus or any other Royal Guard ponies with the abilities he had. He was mostly on his own with what was likely a very volatile situation, and he knew it.

Twilight and Pinkie were running for their lives, and they both knew that if they dared hesitate even for a moment, they would be caught, and what would happen next only Twilight could grasp the true horror of. She had seen the infinite void that dwelled within that pony's vile maw. She continuously grabbed Pinkie and blinked forward with bursts of magic, the dark twisted pony's words beginning to echo in her mind the more she spoke. "I can help you Sister, please don't run away from me!" the shadow pony called out to Twilight with a genuinely sad-sounding tone of voice. Neither of the fleeing ponies would have any of it, though.

They both rushed out of the entrance with the shadow pony right behind them, a sense of relief washing over them once the sunlight hit their bodies. That didn't stop them from running, but they felt much safer. Twilight was horrified to find a crowd growing outside of the entrance, looking back at her pursuer and gritting her teeth. Summoning up an immense amount of courage, her horn lit up and her magic surrounded the seemingly startled creature, her black hooves being lifted from the ground. Soon she was suspended in place, her eyes wide for only a moment until she figured out what was going on. She laughed.

"Really sister, is this the best you can do?" she asked, her own horn lighting up with a black-tainted light, barely noticeable against her already dark body. Pinkie had given herself much more distance between herself and the twisted pony, but the moment Twilight's flimsy magical stasis field crumbled beneath a mini-explosion of dark magic, she started to step back. There was no smile on her face, she didn't dare try to laugh such an imposing presence away. She had felt fear she thought herself incapable of feeling until now, and she had felt it the moment she gazed upon this pony, making such brief eye contact with her....but it was enough.

Twilight fell back on her dock when her hold was so easily powered out of, shaking her head a few times to clear her vision. That was when she noticed the dark pony only a few steps away from her, the creature that had initially presented itself as a foal now the size of Princess Celestia and Luna, it even had both a horn AND wings. "Y-you're an Alicorn....?" she stuttered, forelegs semi-frantically pressing against the ground as she tried to back away. She only succeeded on falling backwards and slumping over onto her side.

The dark Alicorn laughed a hearty laugh and stepped closer until her forelegs were on each side of Twilight's body, looming over her with a menacing grin, baring razor-sharp teeth. "Oh, sister, I am SO many things, believe you me. So are you!" she said in a surprisingly cheery tone, a foreleg tapping Twilight's side. "After all, YOU haven't been very happy lately, have you sister? It must be dreadful, being something you can't understand. Am I right?" she asked her with such glee that Twilight could only take her words as little more than mockery....save for the fact that she was right. Very right.

A moment of silence hung between them, both looking into each other's eyes expectantly, but this was far from a lover's moment. No, Twilight's mind was stuck, terrified and alone in her stand-off against this creature. Would she be eaten? She couldn't tell, one moment it was chasing her down, the next moment it was striking up conversation with her! Despite the indignant anger welling up within her, she was afraid to move, her mind trying to grasp at what this....THING might do to her if she tried to get away. She was definitely something other than a pony, that much she was certain of. The magical aura she felt from the creature looming over her wasn't that of normal pony magic, it....it tasted different to her, the magic strong enough to actually leave a bitter flavor on her tongue. She could only describe it as pure hate manifesting itself.

The dark Alicorn lowered her head some and looked over Twilight's body, her smile fading the more she looked the lavender Unicorn up and down. "Hmm....but perhaps it hasn't taken hold entirely yet. You still resist what you truly are deep down. I suppose you need-" she began to say, but a hard impact in her side accompanied by a loud battle cry cut her off and sent her flying across the ground, tumbling a few times and settling on her left side. Rainbow Dash stood a few feet away from the stunned Alicorn, wings spread and her body hunkered down, ready to tackle her again if need be. "Twilight! You okay back there?" she called out to her friend, not turning her gaze away from her friend's assailant.

Applejack and Rarity were running as fast as they could, but Strider and Rainbow Dash had the speed advantage in the air, Strider landing moments after Rainbow Dash, right next to Twilight. He quickly gave Twilight a once-over, kneeling down to get a better look. "Are you alright?" he asked with a certain amount of urgency, his eyes darting from her head to her hindlegs, then back up to her face....where a hoof slammed into the side of his face, making him stumble back and sidewayd some. "Augh! What the hell was-"

"YOU! You were hiding HER from me, weren't you?!" Twilight yelled at him, Strider's eyes snapping open and locking in on the Unicorn stomping towards him with a certain fury in her eyes. "I knew I couldn't trust you, I knew there was something bad about you! I should've called you on it, you almost got me killed!" she shouted at him, her eyes slitted and nose touching his, pushing his head back with some force. He began to push back, but his attention diverted to the true problem at hoof when he heard a shrill cry of pain from the direction of the shadow Alicorn.

Twilight was too busy verbally berating Strider to notice that Rainbow Dash, being the headstrong pony that she was, had charged in in an attempt to take on the creature assailing her friends. However, a well-placed shot left a deep gash across Rainbow Dash's chest, making her wings flap irregularly and lose altitude, until she fell on wobbly legs a ways away, closer to Strider and Twilight now, after she backed herself away, surprised by the range the shadow pony had. She cringed and groaned through clenched teeth, pressing a forehoof to the cut, her body hunching up a little in pain. "Gaaah, damn it, it burns....!" she growled out, looking down to the wound and back to the now standing Alicorn a ways away from the three. Rarity and Applejack showed up moments after Rainbow received her injury, both of them standing in a line alongside their friends, AJ offering to help Rainbow, who simply refused. That injury was nothing after all....though it felt like it was on fire.

Twilight got to her hooves with a little of Rarity's help, and immediately shoved Strider again. "You didn't ANSWER me!" she growled out at him. "What did you do in there?!" she demanded from him, stamping a hoof against the ground. Strider just winced and stepped forward, away from her menacing gaze. "All the others were mindless drones. Why is it that you can speak?" he calmly asked the imposing figure before him, keeping a good ten feet of distance between himself and her.

The dark Alicorn stood up straighter and dusted herself off, her irritation with being taken by surprise fading away just as quickly as it had risen up from within her. "Why can I speak? Because I am no mindless drone, no 'stolen pony' to do with as I please," she said simply, standing with a sense of poise and confidence. "You're the one that destroyed my minions, called them to yourself just to slay them....tell me, are all Royal Guards trained in Runic Magic as weak as you are? You were so winded, after all....I feared that you would collapse, and then I would have to EAT you alive...." she said casually, a grin crossing her wicked visage, razor-sharp teeth bared while her tongue ran over them, her eyes focused on him with a predatorial hunger. "You are such an amusing specimen after all, such potential. I would hate to waste it."

He clenched his teeth while he tried to evaluate his current position in this whole matter. There was a crowd, and unless he could find some way to get them to clear out, somepony could wind up dead. On the other hoof, if he didn't fight right this moment or somehow stall her further, there was a good possibility that more than just a few ponies would be ensnared in her vile grasp. He knew for certain that he didn't stand any real chance of actually defeating her....he could feel the overwhelming malice emanating from her. Not to mention he was still exhausted from his earlier scuffle.

So what could he do? He was an ant before an elephant in this situation, even if he weren't tired. In the midst of his thoughts, he didn't notice Twilight approaching him and standing at his side. "You're going to fight her? I want to know why she's after me first," she muttered to him, glaring at him. "What do you know?" she asked, but he shook his head. "I don't know what she wants with you, Twilight. I really don't, I swear."

"Yeah, I'm sure I can take your word for that," she said in a sarcastic tone, turning her gaze to the shadow Alicorn a way away. "So what're you going to do without your armor? As if that'd make a difference...." she muttered, but Strider shook his head. "If I had my armor and I could get her into the Everfree Forest again it actually would, but that's not an option. Can you get everypony away from here? They'll get caught up in the fight if they stay here."

Twilight looked at him with no small amount of disbelief. He had guts at least....that or youthful bravado that was about to get him killed. She was too angry at him to realize that some part of her hoped that would be the end result, all because he kept secrets from her. "You have a lot of explaining to do," she muttered and turned away. "I'll try to help you when we get everypony out of here. Just....do whatever it is you're going to do to supposedly keep us safe!"

He snorted and lowered his head, grinding a forehoof against the ground. "I'll be fine, but....make sure you take care of Rainbow Dash too. She's got a cut on her chest, it's like an infection. Disinfect it fast, or she could die," he told her quickly, stepping forward. Twilight's eyes bulged and she looked back at him with a snap of her head. "WHAT?! Why didn't you-" she tried to say, but he was already disregarding her and charging forward.

His mind was alight with thought, anything to avoid the thought of the potential death he was charging straight into. But the smirk on the dark Alicorn's lips told him that she was more amused than offended by his willingness to fight her head-on. He quickly tried to think of a spell he knew that would get him through this with some semblance of offensive and defensive effectiveness....but the only thing he could think of was the most risky spell he had outside of his Accelerator spell. His wings spread and he cringed as a thin tendril drew blood and left a black outline on the wound, a sure sign of the same kind of infection that Rainbow Dash was struggling to fight against, the burning sensation only getting more and more debilitating over time. His, however, began to fade, and eventually, the black outline disappeared, leaving only a gash behind.

The black Alicorn looked surprised, but then she grinned. "Oh-ho, you know Shadow Magic! Aren't you just the little all-rounder! No wonder your Runic Magic is weak, you've been spread thin. Tsk, not very smart," she muttered, two more tendrils lashing out and slicing into his forelegs, making them buckle under the pain, him crying out briefly and sharply. He gritted his teeth and rose up again, only to find her standing over him, looming over his comparatively smaller form. To say that he felt fear was an understatement. His wings spread and beat hard as a series of tendrils rose up from out of her back and came down, him just barely dodging each one as they rained down only inches from his body, hindlegs kicking him backwards in hard lunges to get some distance while his wings carried him just a foot above the ground when he wasn't running backwards.

Strider took a breath and looked around. The crowd had begun to disperse on its own, him shouting out to them. "Someone get a letter to the castle!!!" he shouted as loud as he could, Pinkie Pie snapping to attention as the crowd ran away around her. "Twilight! Wh-where's Spike?! I c-can go get him an-and-" she struggled to say, the poor trembling party pony looking to her friend desperately, wanting to get away, but wanting to help as well. Twilight called out to her quickly. "Tell him to send Princess Celestia a letter to get more of the Royal Guard over here, it's an emergency! GO!!" Twilight shouted over the slowly panicking crowd, her horn alight as she tended to the wound on Rainbow Dash's chest, the tainted infection slowly disappearing, fading away from the wound.

He swallowed hard and looked back to the Alicorn, who had her forelegs crossed over each other, her smug smile and regal poise making him swallow the lump in his throat. He had the spell prepared in his mind....it was time to make this happen. He looked back and noticed that Twilight had finished cleaning the taint from Dash's wound, the rainbow-maned pegasus sighing in relief as the burning pain subsided rapidly. "Twilight! Can you cover me with a shield spell?" he called out to the lavender Unicorn, her turning to him and nodding, her horn lighting up with a bright, powerful aura. She felt funny, somehow angry....but blissful. Like she was enjoying this. She didn't question it for the time being, there were more important things to focus on, but she made sure to remember how she felt at this very moment.

Pinkie Pie ran off with the dispersing crowd, rushing towards the library and slamming the door open, panting for breath from how hard she had sprinted, almost matching Rainbow Dash in speed. "Spike!!" she called out, running in and looking around, twirling a few times to take in the entirety of the circular-shaped library. "SPIKE!!!" she cried out louder. She heard noise from the bathroom, and a flush of a toilet. The party pony breathed a sigh of relief when he stepped out, rubbing his head and blushing lightly. "What?! Can't a dragon use the bathroom?!"

Pinkie Pie shook her head quickly and fwumped down on the floor, gasping for breath, now that she could calm down a little. "Sp-Spike, you've gotta get a letter to Princess Celestia, now! There's big trouble near Everfree Forest, we need the Royal Guard! That Wind Strider guard pony is in trouble, and Twilight's helping him and I don't know where Applejack and Rarity are and-"

"Pinkie?! Are you okay, sugarcube?!" came a familiar voice from the doorway to the library. Applejack ran over to her, along with Rarity, who already had a letter written and ready. "Spike, send this right away!" Rarity said to the little, confused dragon, Spike grabbing it and lighting it up with his green flames, the leftover smoke drifting out the doorway and quickly heading for Canterlot through teleportation once it was in the open air.

Princess Celestia was standing in the throne room with her sister, a forlorn expression on her visage. She couldn't stop thinking about Twilight, even now. She kept thinking back to that look on her face, those glowing eyes, and that intense magical aura, how full of fury it was, how unbridled her anger was. It sent a shiver through Celestia's body, a chill at the thought of what that could have been caused by, outside of the pressures of her studies. Luna woke her sister from her daydreaming, Celestia apparently not having paid attention to what Luna was trying to say to her. "Sister? Art thou there? Equestria to Celestia~!" she said, trying to sound as cheery as she could, since they were alone save for the Royal Guards standing at the doors leading in and out of the throne room.

Celestia's head jerked upward and she looked around, soon gazing at Luna with a weak smile. "Oh....wh-what were you saying, dear sister?" she asked in that same regal, elegant and charismatic way she always spoke, or so it seemed to most ponies. Luna was far from fooled, however. "Celestia, thou cannot fool thy sister....ugh," she said, clearing her throat. "I mean, you know that you cannot fool me so easily. Sorry, I am still getting used to this modern form of speech."

The Sun Regent sighed and nodded a little, lowering her head once more. "I'm sorry, dear sister. I was thinking of Twilight once again," she muttered, lightly rubbing the side of her head with the flat of one of her forehooves. "It's just, I practically raised her! To see her break down so completely, right before my eyes....it....!" she said quietly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I know, I'm being-"

"-Motherly? Yes, you are, Celestia," Luna said, smiling and cutting her off, reaching over to hug the Sun Goddess around her neck. "Like you said, you practically raised her. I cannot blame you if you feel responsible....but I can tell you that you should not. You could not have prevented what happened, she would have reached her limit eventually. Even I can tell that that is simply the kind of pony she is," she muttered, gently letting her saddened sister go. "I have no doubt that you know that too."

Celestia could only nod. "I just....wish I could have done something more," she muttered under her breath, while Luna sighed and threw her forelegs up in frustration. "Celestia, please! You cannot stop what you cannot control! You can only guide such things in certain directions, and hope that the course you have plotted is followed. Life is not meant to be perfect!" she said with a certain amount of desperation, settling down and sighing. "You are only one pony-"

"-And I am the one pony that watches out for Twilight whenever I possibly can. I should have seen it coming, there is no excuse....hm?" Celestia stated with finality in her voice, just as a letter appeared from a billow of smoke. Her horn lit up and began to open it quickly. "Our first letter from Twilight since she returned to Ponyville! I hope-...." she said with utter delight, her eyes lighting up as if a filly in a candy store, stocking up on her favorite treat. But, as she read the letter, Luna could almost see the blood drain from her already pristinely white-furred face.

Celestia's horn died down and she almost leapt out of her seat, charging out of the throne room and forcing the large doors of said room open on her own. "Celestia! WAIT!! What in the world...." Luna called out to her, quickly picking up the letter and giving it a rapid look-through. Her reaction was much the same, though she didn't rush out of the castle like her sister did. Instead, she rushed to the guards watching the throne room from outside, the two both looking at each other in confusion thanks to Celestia's sudden burst of activity.

Luna approached them quickly. "Find Commander Aolimnus in the Barracks, have him and his squad sent over to Ponyville, immediately! Aolimnus, do you understand?!" she said quickly, her eyes wide with urgency. The guard took in her orders and bowed his head immediately after. "As you wish, Princess!" he said, both of the guards running off with her down the hallway out of the throne room, breaking left down another hallway while Luna chased after Celestia. "Sister, stop!!"

"I have to buy time....just time...." he whispered to himself, the thoroughly injured Strider wincing with every flap of his wings. His muscles faltered and he stumbled down onto his hindlegs, then slumped into a sitting position. His body was covered in cuts, large and small, there wasn't much of his body left that was unmarred. She was having fun with him, and he knew it. It was what he wanted, so despite the burning pain coursing through every inch of his form, he continued to pretend to stand against her.

"C'mon Strider, you've got to buy time....!" he muttered to himself, his wings spreading once more and letting him hover up off of his hindlegs, his limbs feeling wobbly. His normally pristine blue coat was marred with streaks of red all over, the larger cuts letting his blood flow free from his veins. He felt far more tired than he should, no doubt from the pain and blood loss thus far, on top of his own exertions to evade most of the attacks made against him. Twilight's barriers helped somewhat in deflecting the dark Alicorn's seemingly effortless strikes, but time and again they buckled like sheets of glass under the repeated assault of those stabbing and slicing tendrils.

He felt the wind leave his lungs in a forced huff as his side was impacted, a plank of wood from a barrel he'd been sent flying through earlier slamming into his side while he was lost in thought, trying to concoct some sort of plan, anything that would buy him more time than just 'standing there and taking it'. Every hit sapped him of his strength, and he struggled back to his feet only to catch another whack of that plank across the side of his head. Blood seeped from a re-opened cut on his cheek, him catching sight of the tendril holding onto the piece of wood that he'd been bludgeoned with.

She grinned at him from afar, taking a few steps forward and tossing the plank aside. "You're a hardy one! I simply MUST wonder where you get all of that willpower from. Everypony else has left, save for you, Twilight, and that other weakling pegasus up in the sky...." she said, gazing up in Rainbow Dash's direction. "I wonder where she went....?" she mused idly to herself, turning her head this way and that to see if she could perhaps make another pony squirm under her wrath. It had been such a long time since she'd been allowed to have such fun, she wanted to get all that she could out of it.

Strider dropped her words to the back of his mind in favor of the opening the overconfident shadow Alicorn had given him....but it seemed far too obvious. Still, he couldn't risk just letting it pass him by, and if he waited any longer for another one, he might not have the strength to take it! He gritted his teeth and spread his wings, lifting off of the ground and rocketing forward, hindlegs kicking him off for an added boost of speed. He'd rapidly chanted the words for the only spell he knew he had the strength to use here, outside of the untamed magicks of the Everfree Forest, a warmth spreading through his left foreleg the closer he came to finishing it.

She didn't return her gaze and her focus to Strider until he was too close for her to react in time. His body lit up with runes all over, three circles appearing, one on his forehead, one on his chest, and one on his stomach, the lines of runes all over his body shimmering and looking as if they were pulled into those circles, creating three large dots of energy that rushed to that left foreleg and lit it up with a bright, white light. "PARING SHIELD, EXIST!!!" he called out just as he extended his leg out to his left, keeping it straight while starting a swing across in front of himself just as he began to reach the dark Alicorn.

Twilight's focus was gone. She didn't even think of trying to keep him covered any longer. Not only was she exhausted, but she was dumbstruck at the sight before her. A shield big enough to cover the entire front of Strider's body and then some appeared on his command, without his armor! She didn't know much about the Royal Guard's uses for their armor, but she assumed that they were all imbued with magic, since all Royal Guards were colored the same, but he was wearing nothing! Her disbelief was furthered by the fact that he was a pegasus and not a Unicorn, but she felt magic, she CLEARLY felt magic emanating from him. Not normal magic either, but magic that fed on the pony's soul, the most dangerous kind of magic.

The sickening CRACK that filled the air was heard even by Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on a large cloud, listing lazily over the makeshift battlefield, her peeking over the edge just as Strider called out his final incantation. Her eyes bulged as that shield appeared and his arm swung around, slamming the edge of it into the side of the Alicorn's head, the oscillating magic that made up the shield seeming to jolt towards the point of impact faster than the blink of an eye, intensifying the impact to make it even more brutal than it already was. The brutalized shadow pony stumbled back and to her left, dazed and in pain, her shriek of agony an unearthly groan. She lacked the mental faculties to make sense of what just happened enough to properly voice just how badly that hurt her, her head wobbling left and right as if her neck were a wet noodle.

Strider veered to his right with the swing and spun twice, leaning back and beating his wings as hard as he could, his muscles threatening to buckle under the strain of trying to stop his momentum, inertia working against him. He dug his hindhooves into the ground to help, and that was enough to stop him, and with a few more hard beats of his wings, he turned and started at her again, his shield held in front of himself in case she had the awareness to strike within that short amount of time. Sure enough, two tendrils erupted from the side he was approaching, but he was ready. He angled his round ethereal shield, and when they attempted to spear through his barrier, the oscillating magic did the work for him and deflected them up and to his right, away from his body.

Black blood dripped from the Alicorn's mouth and vaporized upon impact with the ground, her right eye closed, the 'bone' around it having been caved in by Strider's hard hit on her head. She turned her head just in time to see the agile pony spinning in the air, his momentum keeping him moving towards her, and before she could turn to face him the flat of his shield impacted into her side. That was when she fully understood the way this shield worked; it had its own punch. The force of impact alone wasn't enough to send her flying, but a sudden impulse of his very soul into the shield made that oscillating magical power sustaining the shield emanate outward in a punching wave of kinetic energy.

The force of the magic sent her shadowy body flying through the air, not in a high arc, but a low arc that made her tumble and roll over the ground in ways that no doubt battered her body in ways that only vaguely made up for the wounds that plagued Strider's. He, on the other hoof, was done, twirling on one hindleg while his shield dissipated, that final burst of energy taking it out of him and fatiguing him beyond being able to keep himself in fighting condition. He had energy left, yes....but his body was beyond protesting and was now punishing him for pushing himself so hard. The wounds and the expended energy made him feel sick, and he barely managed to keep himself upright enough to slump into a sitting position and cough up some blood.

Rainbow Dash dismounted from her cloud, but she didn't have time to reach Strider before a violent scream of fury erupted from the direction he'd knocked his adversary. A surge of darkness hurtled towards him like a black cloud of pure malevolence intent on his demise, and he barely had time to recite his incantations and get his shield up once more in a panic before eight powerful, thick tendrils, razor-sharp, stabbed at him and pushed him back. His hindlegs strained and his wings flapped in a panic, his eyes wide as she appeared from the black mists in front of him. "You INSOLENT little worm! How DARE YOU!!!"

He didn't even see the three smaller tendrils coming around from both sides, one slicing straight through the bone of his left wing and snapping it in half, making him cry out in pain, the other two stabbing into his back and making him arch forward somewhat. He was just barely managing to survive now, his shield crackling and bending back towards him. With a final, desperate dig into his deepest reserves, he pushed against the shield and his hindlegs slid back, just enough for him to yank his shield leg away from the shield itself, only to slam forward as if punching it, the flat of his forehoof pushing it forward once more. He poured himself into it in a struggle to maintain it, but it was no use. His focus was broken and he didn't have nearly enough left to stand against her onslaught. He knew this was over the moment she gave another hard push towards him.

His eyes were filled with horror when she shattered his shield. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion for him, his foreleg outstretched as the very magic he'd poured into his barrier turned on him, as was the nature of such a strong spell. His body didn't have time to react as the magic ripped through the bones in his extended foreleg first, the oscillating nature of the magic shield causing it to twist his leg until the bones were pushed beyond their breaking point. First, his hoof twisted and twisted, then snapped at the joint. Then another crack, and another, the bones snapping and splintering in five different places until his arm was a horrifying, twisted mass of utter agony. It didn't stop there though.

The magic continued to wreak havoc, pushing him back through the air and pressing against his ribs, twisting them as well. First left, then right, then left again....then finally, a wrench to the right and his ribs, every single one, snapped and splintered apart, bone fragments being pushed back and into his lungs. The force of it all finally passed through his torso and through his back, sending him flying in the same way he'd sent his opponent flying, his body soaring just above the ground, only to fall down and tumble like a ragdoll, the sickening crunch of his broken bones breaking even more sounding off, much to Rainbow Dash's terror. It all happened in less than five seconds, but to him, the pain felt like an eternity's worth.

He came to a stop headfirst into the side of a nearby building, or rather, a building over a hundred feet away from where he was before things went horribly wrong for him. He was barely conscious and the pain was surging through his body, not to mention the concussion he no doubt had from his rather sudden, forced stop. He turned his head a little and winced, a sharp pain in his neck making him wonder if that had broken on him as well, his eyes gazing down and spotting part of the bone in his leg jutting out at the joint, straight through his skin. The pain in his chest made rolling onto his back a painstaking process, but he managed it, keeping his broken leg as still as possible.

He could barely think. The pain was so overwhelming that he couldn't even scream, and he silently begged for either death or to fall unconscious, either one....but he got neither. A sudden stomp of a hoof on his chest broke his silence, and he screamed for all he was worth, blood erupting from his mouth and drooling down his cheeks from the corners of his lips. "AAAGGH!! AAAHH-AAAGHSTOPSTOPPLEASESTOOOOP!!!" he pleaded, a vice suddenly surrounding his throat and lifting him off the ground, the force of gravity alone sending a fresh wave of pain through his body. "Suh-sompony....hhheelp....me....!" he barely managed to whimper out, his body sagging limply, his will to fight gone under a sea of agony and brutal defeat.

Tears ran down his cheeks while he stared into her piercing, yellow eyes, the one he'd damaged already repaired, which only cemented his defeat in his mind even further. He hadn't done anything noteworthy to her, she wasn't even limping from the impact to her side, she showed no signs of pain in the slightest. Blood dripped from his lips and down over the thick tentacle encircling his neck while she looked him over, laughing at the sight of him. "Oh-ho, my! I didn't expect that! To use such a dangerous spell, just to get the chance to harm me so....you ARE a gutsy one! I was right, you're worth keeping around for later!" she said with a jovial smile....but then she yanked him almost nose-to-nose with her, glaring into his eyes, the injured pegasus sharply crying out in pain. "You will make a lovely slave. SO entertaining."

He barely heard her taunting words, his lips moving with silent pleas for her to spare his life, for somepony to save him, for ANYTHING to happen that would make the pain stop. She smirked and reached up with a hoof and decked him across his cheek, making him stop and barely acknowledge her as she spoke. "What's your name?" she said with a smile, her voice ringing with happiness. He cringed and swallowed hard. "Suh....Strider...." he managed to choke out in her grasp, the shards of bone in his lungs and the blood clogging his throat making it hard to get any air, let alone her tentacle choking the life out of him. She grinned and giggled to herself. "Well-met....I have no name other than a number, but you may call me your Nightmare....just as your dear Princess Luna did, once."

His eyes slowly began to close, and she chose that time to toss him down to the ground. He let out another cry of pain when he landed, his broken leg slamming limply against the ground. He could feel his ribs shift as his body moved, and the blood pooled from his mouth now that he was laying sideways, as if draining from his throat. He coughed a few times as the world around him darkened....and soon, he was out, blissfully out cold and unable to feel the havoc wrought upon his body.

With her rather entertaining detour taken care of, she walked away from Strider's unconscious body and began approaching both Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the two standing next to each other, stone-still at the sight of the infinitely more intimidating creature approaching them. She was no longer a pony in their eyes. She was a monster that would tear them apart in seconds if they dared to make a move. The closer she got, however, the more Twilight realized that the monstrous dark Alicorn was staring directly at her, as if Rainbow Dash didn't even exist.

Twilight leaned back and looked up at the Nightmare, horrified of what she might do, but she merely leaned in and muttered something into the lavender Unicorn's ear, smiling the whole time. "If you wish to understand yourself once more....find me, deep in Everfree Forest. You know the location, dear sister...." she muttered to her, Rainbow Dash standing off to the side, wanting to do something, anything, but the most she could do was strike a half-hearted, barely threatening pose, as if she were about to pounce upon the Nightmare.

The dark Alicorn scoffed at Rainbow's meager attempt at bravado and turned away from them both, walking towards the Everfree Forest once more and melting down into the ground, a black shadow swiftly moving across the ground towards the treeline. In an instant, she was gone, and they were left alone once more. Twilight slumped down, her legs unwilling to move, she had never felt so scared in her entire life. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, rushed to Strider's side, calling out as loud as she could for somepony to come and help.