I continued to sit there while watching Twilight struggle against my circle. Normally this would not have been problem for me as I have done this spell many times. However, it was glaringly obvious that she was leagues stronger than anypony I have used it on previously. This fact was only further supported by her fits of rebellion that were quickly burning through my already low energy levels. It would be only a matter of time before she would overpower me and break loose. So in an act of partial desperation I tried to hide this fact from her and attempt a bluff.

“Twilight, there is no way you are getting out of there. I have used this spell on ponies numerous times. Many of whom were also quite powerful. Please yield, I can do this all day if I must, but I do not wish to harm you further,” I bluffed.

“No! I am not…done yet!” She spat back, glared at me and struggled more.

I could feel my spell start to buckle a bit before I managed to restrain her again. The difficult effort caused a few beads of sweat to form on my head. However, that was the least of my worries. I had begun to grow nervous when I heard the rage that was boiling in her tone of voice. It was obvious that she was getting hungry from our spar. Now normally that would not be a problem with mortals. However, with us vampires, we can go into a violent frenzy as a result. The second she broke free, I was in for it.

“Twilight, please yield. You are getting hungry. I will do what I have to, to prevent you from losing control,” I stated as I strained further to control my spell.

“I am…not…GIVING UP!” she snarled in barely comprehensible speech. Her fury filled eyes glowed purple and flared to life. What happened next was far worse than I could have expected. It was well known that the “elements” gave up their elements of harmony many moons ago to save the tree of harmony. On the other hoof, what was not commonly known was they apparently still shared a link with them. In turn, it was a massive miscalculation on my part.

The six pointed star of the element of magic appeared as if summoned from Twilight struggling and floated above her head. I could see the wraith in her eyes as she reached for her kanata. She then snarled at me and then said something completely incomprehensible. In one quick movement she stood up and easily overloaded my circle.

Blue and purple sparks sprayed the area in a blinding flash of light as she roared and then teleported. I did not have enough time to properly react. My body and mind were heavily drained and tired from my efforts. I only managed re-armor my helm and harden my armor as I saw her reappear and fly straight at me from my left.

With an ear splitting howl she swung her katana at me in a horizontal slash. The enchanted wooden blade made contact with my armor and exploded. The impact was so violent that it flung my scythe from my forehooves as I flew through the air. In less than a second I slammed into one of the walls of the arena at full force.

An audible crunch echoed as my armor dug into the hard stone. After a few moments I slid from the wall and fell to the ground on my back. My vision blurred as I saw a purple glow right above me. I shook my head and my eyesight partially cleared.

Twilight was standing directly above of me with her helm down and fangs bared. Through clenched teeth she said only “DO YOU YIELD?!” as she leaned her face close to mine. In response my cloudy mind worked furiously to find some way to get out of this. However, that was until I looked into her eyes and saw the burning fury in them that could only be described as terrifying.

As I slowly lowered my helm, she moved her head closer until our faces were almost touching. All the while I just continued to stare into those burning purple eyes as she did so. For some reason I was transfixed on them and I could not seem to look away. After a minute of this she growled out the word “Well?!”

It did not take much thought to know that I had been defeated. I truly tried my best, but I lost. This should have brought on some sort of feeling of aggravation, but it did not. I did not even feel displeased in the slightest. The only things I felt were a strange form of pride and a strong attraction towards her.

After only a moment’s pause I reached up with my left forehoof and touched the side of her face. Her expression softened right before I whispered “yes” and then passionately kissed her.

We both leaned into the kiss as if we could not get enough of it. Even the snickering and whistling from my lieutenants and Twilight’s friends did not hinder it. It probably would have continued longer if the need for air did not intervene. As we pulled away, our pointed tongues were the last part of us to stop touching each other.

When I opened my eyes from that wonderful moment, I saw Twilight looking down at me. The smile on her face slowly slipped to a look of concern. “Oooh what did I do to you?” she stated in a worried tone as she touched the side of my face with her right forehoof.

It was then I realized that I could only partially see out of my right eye. I also believe I was bleeding from the side of my mouth. In addition, I soon noticed that half of my ribs were also broken, I could not feel my one hind leg, and to top it off I was quickly losing consciousness. It did not take long before my eyes slowly closed in exhaustion. I then said in a quiet whisper, “I am fine…I just need some rest…yes…rest,” before everything faded to black.

After an unknown amount of time I started to hear muffled voices. “Dear Celestia, Twilight. What did you do to him?” somepony stated right next to me.

“I don’t know, Spike. I didn't mean to go that far. I just got so angry for some reason,” a voice replied of who I supposed was Twilight.

“Hahaha ya sure in Tartarus did a number on him, Princess Twilight. Ah never saw his plot get kicked so bad. It’s even funnier how he has that awkward ear to ear smile on his face. I think he enjoyed it heh heh heh. However, it’s probably none too healthy that his back leg is bent that way. Heh, remind me to never spar with ya, princess” another voice replied.

“Knock it off, Shadow Dancer. Its not like you’ve never lost control during a spar,” a voice to my left stated. It sounded like Cloud Streak.

After a moment of silence, a voice came from my right, “Sooo what ya’ll think we should do?”

“Well Applejack, Ah say we wake his lazy plot up,” replied a voice that sounded like Shadow Dancer.

“How and why would we do that?” a voice that sounded like Applejack inquired.

“Why is because we still need to finish the rest of the matches. Includin’ the fact that ah ain’t gonna have him make us do these again because he’s out cold. The how is fairly easy. All ya gotta do is this,” Shadow Dancer’s voice replied as I felt a hard impact on my ribcage.

Almost immediately, blinding pain flared in horrible intensity as my still working left eye snapped opened. I had attempted to howl in pain, but my lungs refused to function. After a few moments the pain subsided enough to concentrate on breathing.

After a few moments I managed to gather enough of my wits to use my blurry vision to search around me. I continued this until I angrily located the pony I was looking for. I then narrowed my left eye in rage as I focused my magic. Shadow Dancer only had the enough time to say “Uh oh” before I smashed him square in the jaw with his own right forehoof.

“Do not EVER…do that…AGAIN!” I snarled.

I heard some laughter as Shadow Dancer coughed a few times and as he picked himself up. “Yeah, he’ll be all right,” he grumbled.

After waving away several attempts of aid, I tried to get out of the cot I was in. However it hurt too great to stand and I was forced to lie back down. It did not take me long to realize the problem. Shadow Dancer’s comment was, as I feared, correct. My one hind leg was broken in several places. To add to my problems, my right eye was now swollen shut and it hurt every time I took a breath due to my broken ribs. After my assessment I grumbled in annoyance, “This is not going to do.”

I took a labored breath and stated, “Tactics please set my hind leg and can somepony please give me my scythe?”

Tactics cleared his throat. “You have been greatly injured. The best course of action is for you to rest,” he stated in his usual monotone voice. However, there was a slight hint of concern.

“Like Tartatus I am. Although Shadow Dancer’s method at bringing me back to consciousness was deplorable, he was right. We need to continue the matches. So in turn I require to be somewhat functional to properly oversee them. So please set my-” I said, but got interrupted by another wave of blinding pain from my hind leg. There was then a few popping noises and a snap.

“I already knew you were going to refuse my suggestion of rest. I had determined having you speak to us was a valid distraction for my task. The bones are set. You may continue with your healing procedures,” Tactics replied.

I choked out “Thank…you,” as somepony handed me my scythe. I just hoped that I had enough stored life force to heal myself. With a labored breath and raised my power as I began to work.

After a great amount of agony, I managed to mostly patch myself up. This was then proceeded by me gulping down quite a bit of fresh blood from our refreshment table. After I had my fill I then helped the others get ready for their matches. It luckily only took a few minutes of preparation before I was able sit down in a chair on the sidelines and take notes in my tome.

As I opened my tome, Twilight kept looking at me and then my tome again. I chuckled and said, “I require this for notes. Do not worry you can continue to read this when I am done.”

“Okay,” Twilight said while frowning and then crossed her forelegs as she sunk back into her chair in apparent disappointment.

I just laughed, rolled my eyes and stated, “Gray Mane and Fluttershy, you are up.”

As they walked into the center of the ring Twilight leaned over in the chair next to me. “Umm I really thought you were joking with this match up, Blood Moon heh heh eeeeh. Please tell me you are joking. Your friend there is well…a monst…errr twice her size,” Twilight said with a concerned tone. Twilight’s other friends and even my other lieutenants looked concerned as well.

“Ah’m with Princess Twilight, Blood Moon. Gray Mane is a beast as the best of times. He’ll tear her to pieces,” Shadow Dancer said in response to Twilight’s statement.

“Do not worry you two. I have this all under control,” I stated in a confident tone.

“Yeah ya see, that ‘you’ shaped hole in the wall does nothin’ to instill confidence,” Shadow Dancer retorted.

I just glared at him and he quieted down. I then shook my head and stated “All right you two. You may begin.”

Gray Mane just rested his battle axe on his shoulder with his right foreleg as he half closed his eyes. Fluttershy was just shaking and cowering behind her shepard’s staff in front of him. He soon snorted and looked over at me. “You’ve got to be joking. You’ve played some bullshit gags on me down the years, Blood Moon, but this takes the prize. You really want me to fight her? She looks like she’s about to wet herself,” he said as he nodded in Fluttershy’s direction.

“You got this Fluttershy! Kick his plot!” Rainbow Dash yelled out in response to Gray Mane’s comment. However, it was not convincing in the least and only served to make Fluttershy cower more.

I raised an eyebrow and stated aloud, “You have your orders, Gray Mane.” This in turn got me looks of disbelief from everypony on the sidelines.

Gray Mane just looked back at Fluttershy, then me in amusement, and then Fluttershy again. “Alright I guess it’s going to be a one way ticket to the critical unit for you then,” he said with a chuckle as he stood up on his hind legs and then readied to swing his axe.

He flexed his muscles and was about to swing before he began to frown. “You’re gonna have to toughen up if you want to make it in this world, ya runt,” he stated while looking down at the cowering Fluttershy.

He was about to swing his axe when Fluttershy looked up with her tear soaked face and made the barely audible statement of “P-please d-d-don’t hurt me.” The butterfly shape element of kindness appeared around her neck after she spoke. Then what happened next was something even I could not have predicted.

Gray Mane’s grip on his axe wobbled as their eyes met. He swallowed hard and tried to say something, but he appeared to choke on the words. The axe then slipped from his forehooves and fell into the ground next to him. Right as the axe hit the earth he fell to his knees and began to do something I never thought he could. He covered his face and began to openly weep.

The noise was barely heard at first until a minute later when he began to howl in anguish. A few minutes pasted as a river of tears flowed out of his eyes. While weeping he completely lowered his armor then reached forward. He then picked up Fluttershy and cradled her like one would a small child. His tears continued to pour out as he kept stating over and over again “I’m sorry”.

Then without any warning, he got up, walked over to sidelines while still cradling Fluttershy and then sat down. Fluttershy just said in a quiet voice, “It’s okay. It’ll be all right. You’re not such a bad pony,” as she snuggled into his chest. Only a few seconds passed before they both fell asleep.

I had to rub my eyes a few times with my forehooves to make sure I was not hallucinating. I then looked around and everypony, but Tactics had shared looks of shocked disbelief. What had happened was completely astonishing. When I had first setup the spar, I had figured that Fluttershy was going to just sweetly talk him into submission, but not this.

After a few moments I leaned over and whispered to Twilight, “Can you please put up an anti-sound ward around them. I truly do not wish to discover what would happen if we woke them.”

“Yeah…I’ll do that,” Twilight replied, but her voice was unfocused and distant.

Only after the ward was up did everypony stop holding their breath and relax. I think a few of us were going to say something, but we all got the same confused look on our faces and decided not to. With nothing really to say on the matter I cleared my throat and said, “Applejack and Shadow Dancer, you two are next.”

They both entered the ring and bowed to each other. Shadow Dancer then smirked and stated, “Don’t think ah’m gonna go easy on ya because yer a lady.”

Applejack laughed and replied “Ah Good, I wouldn't want ya to bruise yer ego.”

Shadow Dancer snorted and smirked again. “So that’s how it’s gonna be huh? HEY WHAT’S THAT!” he stated and then shouted while he pointed in a direction behind her.

I just chuckled to myself as she fell for one of oldest tricks ever invented. He then ran, jumped, and pulled her hat off her head before landing a few meters away. After he looked at the hat for a few seconds, he placed it on his own head.

Applejack’s facial expression went from surprise to irritation. “Give me back mah hat,” she stated in a stern tone.

Shadow Dancer seemly ignored her comment and said “Ya got a mighty fine hat here. Ah always wanted one like this ever since ah was a colt.”

I saw Applejack’s eyes narrow as she said, “Ah said...Give…me…back…mah…Hat!

Shadow Dancer rolled his eyes in response and said “Or what?”

“Or yer gonna be sorry,” she replied as she flexed her legs.

“Ha, come and get it little lady!” Shadow Dancer mocked.

Right after he spoke, she charged right at him. She then spun on her forelegs and kicked. However, Shadow Dancer did not get his name for nothing. He had been an acrobat from some circus many moons ago. So in turn he was able to dodge the attack with ease. When she kicked again the same result happened. After the third attempt he just sidestepped and slapped her across her left flank with the flat of his katar.

She yelped and then snarled while pressing her attacks further. However, he was always one step ahead of her and was doing nothing, but mostly dodging. Even his attacks were pretty lazy considering his skills. This ultimately alluded to one of his few weaknesses, his arrogance. I had attempted to break him of that, but old habits die hard I suppose. In the end it was his hubris that eventually led to his downfall.

This became well evident with each additional dodge. Every time she would kick, he would attempt an increasingly difficult aerial trick. This continued until he had landed too hard on the latest trick and he stumbled sideways. It seemed that was all the opening she required. She dove at him and proceeded to stomp and buck the moonlight out of him.

I smirked when I saw Twilight and her friends along with Night Star and Cloud Streak cheering Applejack on. I know I probably should have felt bad for Shadow Dancer as he received his thrashing. However, I was still bitter from before when he struck my broken ribs.

After an amusing display of Shadow Dancer getting his plot served on a silver platter, he finally had enough and yielded. Well it was more like he was lying nearly flat on his stomach from the beating and could not get up. Applejack just laughed and then yanked her hat off of his head and placed it back on her own.

She then said “That’s what ya’ll git fer pilferin’ mah hat.” She was about the walk to sidelines when she stopped and added, “And I owe ya this!” She then yanked off one of his katars and slapped him across the rear with flat of the blade. He yelped, jumped forward, and then smashed face first into the dirt ground.

Again, I probably would have felt bad for him if he had not deserved it. After a few moments he picked himself up and dragged his battered body over to one of the cots on the sidelines. He then lifted himself into it without a single word and passed out.

After several bouts laughter, I silenced everypony and stated, “Night Star and Rarity, you are next.”

They both walked into the center of the arena and bowed. Upon closer inspection, Rarity seemed to somehow know her way around her rapier. Before the match started she swung the sword around with a bit of elegance that would have required practice. I raised an eyebrow and leaned forward in my chair. I then stated in my mind, ‘It appears this was going to get interesting,” as I started taking notes.

Night Star made the first move as she spun on her hind legs and tossed one of her throwing knives. Rarity just stood there and then at the last moment she swatted the knife out of the air with her rapier. She then grinned and said “You are going to have to do better than that darling.”

Even though I could not see her face, I could tell Night Star was smiling. With little hesitation she spun on hind legs again and released an onslaught of throwing knives. In response Rarity dodged, slashed her rapier, or danced out of way. Then just as Night Star ran out, Rarity jumped forward and thrust her rapier.

Night Star however, was able to anticipate Rarity’s attacks and gracefully dodged each attempt. The swaying of them dancing back and forth around the arena was hypnotizing. It was only interrupted every so often when Night Star recovered one of her knives and tossed it at Rarity.

The beautiful sight continued for a better part of twenty minutes until Rarity missed a block. The knife came in too quick and impacted her right forehoof. Rarity then froze with shock and looked at her right forehoof. She then sputtered as she said “y-y-you c-c-chipped my hoof.”

In only a few seconds her shock turned to wailing as she cried out, “Yoooou chipped mmmyyyy hohuhuhuhoooof.” This probably would have ended the match for Rarity if not for what happened next. With little warning Rarity charged her horn and the pack she had on the sidelines popped open. Dozens of strands of multi-colored ribbons fired out and flew directly at Night Star.

Night Star managed to dodge them with her usual grace until one caught her left hindleg. She then tripped and was wrapped up like a cocoon. With little warning she was then lifted five meters into the air and was violently thrown to the earth. The violent impacts repeated each time Rarity cried out another statement about her chipped hoof.

After about twenty of these hard slams, Rarity just tossed Night Star away from her. She then raced to the sidelines and started to frantically use a hoof file on herself. She continued her weeping as she worked.

In only a few seconds, I saw the cocooned form of Night Star unravel as she rolled towards me. Her near limp body stopped directly in from my chair. She coughed a few times and stated “C-c-captain.”

“Yes, Night Star?” I replied with a hint of concern as I got out of my chair to help her.

She then weakly said, “Do not…chip her hoof…” before she passed out

I cleared my throat, glanced over at Rarity, and said “Noted.”

With a small amount of aid from the others, I helped Night Star into one of the cots on the sidelines. I made sure she was not gravely injured before going back to my seat. I wrote some notes in my tome before I stated “Cloud Streak and Rainbow Dash, you two are next.”

Now admittedly for some reason I was looking forward to this match. Both Rainbow Dash and Cloud Streak were quite powerful in their own regards. It was going to be interesting to see what was going to happen. Perhaps I would even get some valuable information on pegasi fighting styles. In excitement I commanded the top of the arena to be opened for a greater aerial space.

They both walked into the arena center and flexed their wings. Then Rainbow Dash just squinted for a moment and looked at Cloud Streak. “So you like the Wonderbolts huh?” she inquired.

“No…I love Wonderbolts,” Cloud Streak replied with a grin.

Soon Rainbow Dash glared at Cloud Streak and blurted out, “Wait a minute! You have one of their old collector pins?! They don’t even make those anymore! Where did you get it!?”

Cloud Streak just looked at her pin and said in an excited tone, “I got this from one of their shows decades ago! I haven’t missed a show yet and I almost never take this baby off!”

“Oh my gosh! You are sooo lucky! I went to their flight camp you know, it was awesome,” Rainbow Dash sounding more excited than ever.

Cloud Streak covered her mouth in surprise and said, “How the hay did you get in there?! They don’t just let anypony in there!”

Rainbow Dash began to reply when I interrupted and said “Alright you two. This is supposed to be a sparring match, not a forum for Wonderbolt fandom.”

Rainbow Dash just waved at me in what appeared to be annoyance and stated “Yeah yeah yeah we’ll get to that. Now where was I? Oh yeah, they said I was the fastest flier in Equestria,” as she puffed out her chest.

I slammed my face into my tome. I then groaned realizing this was not going to go anywhere anytime soon. In turn I waited, and then waited some more. This continued until my sheer boredom and irritation got the better of me and blurted out, “Okay you two had enough time to chat! Back to the match and remember this is knock out or yield!”

Cloud Streak just looked at me for a moment, tilted her head, and said “Yeeaaah I yield” before continuing her conversation with Rainbow Dash.

“Me too,” Rainbow Dash added as they began to talk about sky racing.

Again I slammed my face into my tome. This was indeed a letdown. I supposed there was no data to be had on this one. My apparent irritation was only met with, “Well Blood Moon, pegasi will be pegasi,” from Twilight as she giggled and shrugged.

The conversation between Rainbow Dash and Cloud Streak continued until they got on to racing again. “I bet I could beat you to that cloud,” Rainbow Dash stated.

“Yeah right! I’ll leave you in the dust!” Cloud Streak replied and then looked at me and said “Blood Moon can I go racing? I want make this mare to eat her words.”

I sighed and said “Fine, as you two are not going to spar against each other I suppose you can get to know each other by some other method.”

I should not have waste my breath on that sentence. They were gone right as I stated the word “Fine”. Twilight just giggled in response.

After rubbing my temples of few times with my forehooves I stated “Alright Tactics and Pinkie Pie, you two are up”

“Well Finally! I have waiting sooooo long. I mean come on…” Pinkie Pie said as she began babble. However, I could not understand much of it after a short amount of time. The jumbled mess made my tired mind hurt too much. I was only able to endure a minute of her verbal onslaught before I interrupted her and told them to continue with the match.

I have to admit, when I first setup this match I found a battle between these two to be an amusing thought. On one side you had Tactics. He was pony who analyzed his opponents to the extreme. He changed his attacks to exploit any weakness somepony had. However, he was very logical in his methods and it worked because he usually fought opponents that could be read in such a way. On the other side though, we had Pinkie Pie, who was completely random and could not be predicted in such a way.

This ultimately turned the spar into a stalemate. A few minutes passed and then an hour. Soon it turned into two hours. Tactics was on the offensive the nearly entire time, but he could not hit her. I had lost count how many times he changed his methods. Each time resulted in the same outcome. Pinkie Pie was just not there when the attack was committed.

It was only when I suppose she finally got tired, hungry or just plain bored, did an attack partially reach its mark. Pinkie Pie had accidentally slipped and lost her hoofing for a merely moment and Tactics opened up a long scratch on her right shoulder. However, his usual nature took over and it lead to probably one of the largest follies of his life.

Before I was able to stop him, his obsessive analyzing habits kicked in. He soon licked Pinkie Pie’s blood off of his dirk and swallowed. In a reaction that did not surprise me in the least, his eyes snapped open and pupils shrank to mere dots. The relatable experience completely immobilized him as he twitched uncontrollably in place. However, what surprised me more was the final blow did not come from this horrid mistake, but from Pinkie Pie herself.

I was not sure how to describe it, but it appeared her mane and tail seemed to deflate as if they were balloons. Then in a complete switch from her normal personality she got some strange dark, angry look in her eyes. She soon screeched out “YOU BIG MEANIE!” before raising her mallet into the air. She then slammed it square into Tactics’ back with a force that shook the ground. The impact flattened him into the dirt arena floor and he just to laid there continuing to twitch.

Pinkie Pie then returned to her normal cheerful self as she began having her wounds attended to by Applejack. I had no idea what had happened, but that this point I did care. I was just pleased the sparring was done. However my feeling of relief soured when I realized an awful fact while I giving Twilight my tome. Every single one of me and my lieutenants were defeated. I soon groaned in frustration as I got up out of my chair.

So on that delightfully awful note, I decided that I had more than my fill of getting humiliated and set my sights on going to bed. But, responsibilities took precedence first and had to help take care of anypony that was injured before I called it a day. It at least did not take too long to do so.

After such duties, I showed every pony to their rooms. Well, all but Rainbow Dash and Cloud Streak who decided to continue to fly around racing each other. I was bit worried at first, but the pleasing thought of sleep started to overtake my mind. It was not hard to fathom as I was still not fully healed and my body hurt all over. Twilight on the other hoof, did not seem any worse for the wear. She just walked next to me in perfect condition while continuing to read my tome.

The observation annoyed me until something kept nagging at my thoughts. Just then it clicked in my head. Dread filled my heart as I spoke in my mind ‘By the moon! Twilight is going to discover how I have been sleeping all these decades!’

By the moon this chapter took a long time to write and edit hahahaha. It however was still very entertaining to do so, enjoy.