Dark looked around, it was extremely dark in this Cave, but Rainbow had told him it was the quickest way to Ponyville. Sure, Dark was happy to be here, with the Mare of his dreams, but he couldn't stop thinking about his friends. Hopefully they would be alive and unharmed. Turns was a fairly good fighter, being slightly stronger than Dark, but Dark was sure he could easily avoid all of his attacks. Keith on the other hand, well, Dark didn't know. He'd never seen Keith fight or anything, so Dark just assumed that Keith wouldn't be able to handle himself, but he could always be wrong. Adjusting to being a Stallion was actually pretty easy. The sad thing? He couldn't hold onto things very well, which meant that he couldn't use swords or anything like that. Or could he? Dark didn't know if he could quite yet, so he decided that he would hold things in his Mouth until he did.

"So, Rainbow, are ya sure that this is the quick way?". Dark was slightly nervous about being in a Cave, considering the Beast in the Forest earlier. Dark was sure it wanted to... "Damn, I need to get off this thought train, it's driving me nuts" Dark thought to himself. His head was clouded with visions, thoughts, and on top of that, every step he took, it felt like something was hunting him. Numerous times throughout his and Rainbow's journey through the Cave had Dark heard something hit a rock, or heavy breathing, or something else like that, and Dark didn't like it. Dark looked over at Rainbow, barely visible in the nearly nonexistent light. He was about to say something when a blade whizzed past him, well, it would have if his shoulder wasn't in the way.

The Blade was lodged right into his left shoulder blade, in the ball and socket joint that connected his arm to his shoulder. The blood spurted out almost immediately, exploding in a fine, red mist, showering both Dark Star and Rainbow Dash with crimson liquid. Dark nearly cried out in agony, but felt that if he did, Rainbow would think he was weak and abandon him, so he kept his jaw clenched shut and focused on not showing any emotion. Rainbow leaped back as she realised what the heck just happened. She gave Dark a look of curiosity, then turn and looked in the direction that the blade had come from. There, standing over them, was another Stallion, and it seemed like it knew who both of them were. Rainbow yelled up at the figure, asking what the heck it was doing, why it decided to throw a freaking knife into her friends shoulder. Rainbow looked at it harder and noticed that it didn't look like any Demon she'd ever seen, so it must just be a crazed Stallion that snapped due to, well, Chaos.

Dark Star looked at the wound, inspecting it, not even really minding the blood that had now coated the walls and his mane, tail and body. He stood up on two hooves and tried to turn, only to find something was holding him back. He pulled himself as hard as he could, but he couldn't budge. He turned to Rainbow and realised. "Rainbow, this thing is attached to something, and I know that some-". He didn't even finish his sentence before the Stallion glaring at them tugged brutally on the cord that Dark only now realised he was holding. Dark heard a crunch, followed by a slight snap as he felt the top of his humerus pop out of his shoulder socket. The skin tore and bone jutted out, the force of the tug sending Dark flying, and eventually he smacked into the ground with a sickening thud. His arm was pinned under him, whilst his working arm fumbled to push him up, but the pain was too great, and as soon as he moved, the knife cut deeper into him, sometimes scraping the bone. Dark grunted in pain, even though on the inside he was screaming, thrashing around and making the pain even worse.

For Rainbow Dash, who's life had just been saved by the Stallion who called himself Dark Star, there were two courses of action. One, she could just run off, save herself the injury, and betray him. Or she could do the 'right' things, and get up there and smack the shit out of that Masked Stallion. Rainbow was about to rush up there when the bastard tugged on the knife, ripping a massive gash through Dark's arm and pulling the bone out of place. Which in turn sent even more blood everywhere. Rainbow was over it. She leaped up, unfurling her wings as she did so. She flapped them when she reached the highest point in her jump, which accelerated her through the air. She thought of tackling her opposition, but that would probably cause even more damage to Dark. So she did something that even she didn't think she would ever do. She raced over to the cord, and as the Stallion pulled on it, she tugged it in her direction, which basically meant that the pony with the strongest will won, and the better endurance. Dash was sure she had this in the bag, when she felt something whiz past her ear. It was another of those blades, and Rainbow wondered where the fucker was pulling them from. She kept pulling, and as she was sure she was about to win, the rope behind her slackened, and she barely had enough time to duck before it sliced the air over her head. She looked down at Dark Star in amazement, after all, it took guts to pull out a knife, and she was sure that he was feeling faint, there was way too much blood around.

Dark tugged again, finally jerking the knife free with a sickening tearing sound. The Knife still had pieces of him on it, but it wasn't too bad. What he was really worried about was the fact that he couldn't move his left arm at all, and that there was an obviously crazy Stallion up there, and it had attacked him and Rainbow Dash when they weren't expecting it. Dark was angry, but he couldn't really attack the stallion when his arm was completely mangled. He didn't even know if he could walk properly any more.Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rainbow Dash charge at the Masked Stallion. She tackled right into him, and sent the both of the crashing to the ground. As soon as it was clear who was on top, Dark ran over, but as soon as he did, something happened. The Stallion bucked Dash in the stomach, sending her flying way too far away for that kick to be natural. Rainbow hit the wall with a cracking sound, but she flipped herself around and kicked off of the wall, dashing toward her target. Dark Star followed suit, basically racing her to the Stallion. They both leaped at the same time, giving the Stallion a chance to kick one of them, and he decided to kick Dark, just to be a prick. His hooves hit Dark's left shoulder, basically destroying the mess of blood, flesh and bones that was already there. Dark impacted into the wall, and felt something tug at his consciousness. He was about to pass out when he realised something.

Rainbow hit the Stallion once again in the face, and then again. Sure, there was a mask there, but it was starting to crack now and Rainbow felt like she was smashing something under there. She hit the fucker again and heard something snap. Yes! She'd broken it's nose, or something. Hopefully it would be enough to kill it. Rainbow was about to crack it's mask when Dark Star called out. She turned angrily toward him, and he motioned to the Stallions mouth. Rainbow looked, and in it's mouth was a rope, which was connected to a lever. Rainbow realised what was going to happen. In it's last dying breaths, it would pull the rope, then the lever would activate. And the-

Rainbow's thoughts were interrupted by something grabbing her from behind and throwing her off of the Stallion. She looked to see Dark standing over it, and then he did something she would later yell at him for doing. Firstly, Dark removed the mask, and the face was unidentifiable. Something was off, and Dark could feel it. He turned around, looking at Rainbow, and then he did the silliest thing ever. He kicked the Stallion in the face, which jerked the rope free, which pulled the lever, which caused the Roof to Cave in. Rainbow stared at the Stallion, and even though he looked a year older, she was pissed. "What the hay did you do THAT for? Are you CRAZY? Seriously? I mean, we might di- wait, why are we still standing here? Let's go! MOVE IT MISTER!". Something told Dark Star that it would never end until she'd gotten all of her anger out.

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Ten minutes later Dark and Rainbow were outside. It was sunny at first, the brilliant, beaming sun shot straight down onto them, blinding them and stopping them from looking around. Dark's eyes adjusted fairly quickly, but still looking directly at the Sun would still blind him. Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. She turned to Dark and gave him a quick look over. "Well, you look like you need some help there. Anyway, since we're out of that stupid cave now, and into the AWESOME open Fields again, which aren't covered in blood, I can fill you in about what the hay is going on here. Before I start though, I need to know something first". Rainbow paused, looking at Dark with an expression that showed him that she wanted him to ask her 'What'. Dark looked at her, half covered in blood and with a scratch here and there. Dark looked at his shoulder, bandaged up with, obviously, bandages. Luckily Rainbow had been carrying some with her, so he hadn't lost too much blood, but he still felt faint and couldn't move his left arm at all. He looked at the Mare in front of him and asked: "What?"

Rainbow grinned a smile that sent ripples down Dark's spine, in a good way. Or at least that's what he thought. "You think you're man enough to handle it?".

HarlequinKnight: =D Comment, Watch, Track, etc. The Party's about to get started! >8D