DATE: February 25th
LOCATION: Appleloosa

[Perspective: Asylum]

“Shoryuken!”

I screamed and shut my eyes as the pony rushed at me, his hoof glowing. A dull thud reached my ears, and after realizing I hadn’t been hit by anything yet, I opened my eyes.

At the last second, Nimble had tackled the pony to the ground. That didn’t hold long, however, as he was kicked off easily and the pony jumped back up. With a brief growl of rage, he lunged at the downed colt...

...who suddenly wasn’t there anymore.

I blinked, briefly confused by what just happened. The pony with the headband, meanwhile, didn’t seem confused at all. Instead, he just turned to me and growled again.

Flapping my wings, I quickly flew up into the sky safely...

“Hadoken!”

...and just barely dodged a searing ball of blue energy.

I yelped, remembering the lethality of that attack. Darting to the side, I started looking around frantically for somepony to help, but considering we were behind the saloon, not a lot of ponies were nearby.

“Hadoken! Hadoken!” He continued firing balls of energy up at me. He sometimes jumped to try and reach me, but he just fell short. Even then, it was horrifying, since he was at least fifteen feet below me and was still only a few inches away after a jump. “Hado-”

“Will you quit spamming that! FUS RO DAH!”

The pony was suddenly sent flying by a burst of powerful air from a familiar Windigo. Arrell charged in, dropped his saddlebags on the ground, and turned to look up at me.

“Asylum, go get the sheriff! We might need back-” He was cut off when the pony ran up to him and punched him square in the face. He went flying into the wall of the saloon.

Cringing, I turned and flew off as he ordered. Please be okay, please be okay...

[Perspective: Arrell]

I am SO not gonna be okay when this is over.

I rubbed my jaw and stood back up just in time to be Shoryuken’d. This sent me into the air. Thinking fast, I tried to kick away my back end and start flying.

THWUMP

Instead, I landed on the ground, and got kicked in the gut for my troubles.

“You know, I really wish this was an actual fighting game so I could pull out some kind of Super Move,” I groaned up at my attacker. He apparently didn’t care for what I had to say, because he picked me up and threw me at the wall again. “...that was just rude.”

“Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!”

...and here comes the hurricane kick. Buck that. I cast Din’s Fire, sending out a wave of heat that knocked the wannabe streetfighter back before he reached me. I got up, my body aching terribly, and started charging my Focus Punch.

...well, I thought I did, but my hoof wasn’t glowing. I stared at it in a panic. First my flight, now this?!

My opponent didn’t feel like waiting, though, and while I was trying to get my hoof to glow, he ran up and kicked me in the chin, knocking me upwards and causing me to crash-land on my back. Groaning, I tried to pull myself up, but I was stopped by a hoof landing on my chest. I gasped, the breath knocked out of me as he held out his front hooves.

“No no no no no...”

“Hadoken!”

[Perspective: Risk Reward]

We galloped after Arrell, but even when he wasn’t flying, he pulled ahead of us easily. After briefly getting lost in a crowd of ponies, we made our way to the saloon - just in time to see somepony charging out from behind it.

I grunted in pain as a sudden surge coursed through my head. False looked at me in worry and said something, but all I could think of was that pony. Something about him was ringing alarm bells.

“...the article!” I suddenly gasped. “That pony has the article!”

False looked at the stallion who was quickly getting away. She looked back at me. “I’ll go after him! You go find the others!” She ran off before I could respond.

The pain fading, I dashed around the saloon to the back, hoping everything was fine. I nearly tripped on Arrell’s saddlebags, which he had apparently decided to just leave in the middle of nowhere. Looking around, I soon found the Windigo himself.

Arrell was lying still on the ground, not moving. Bruises decorated his body, and a mixture of water and blood was dampening the ground below him. The heat of the sun combined with his injuries was slowly melting him - assuming he wasn’t dead already.

“Arrell!” I ran to his side, shaking him. “Wake up! Arrell, wake up!”

He was breathing, but he wouldn’t wake up. Whatever hit him must have almost killed him. I hoisted him onto my back and began trotting back around the saloon, grabbing the saddlebags in my magic on the way.

“The headband is the article.”

I turned with a start, seeing Nimble come out of almost literally nowhere. “What?”

“The headband the stallion wore. It is the article. I sensed something off about it.” He looked around. “Where is he? And where is Asylum?”

Asylum... I froze. She was back here too. Where did she go?

“False is going after the headband,” I told Nimble. “I don’t know where Asylum is, but right now, we need to get Arrell help. He’s hurt, and if his injuries don’t do him in, this desert heat will.”

Nimble nodded. “Are you sure False will be fine?”

“Why wouldn’t she be?”

“The pony with the headband is very strong. He is the one who defeated Arrell.”

I swallowed nervously. “She doesn’t know what she’s getting into...”

[Perspective: Asylum]

I flew about in a hurry, getting lost constantly. I had no idea where the sheriff was, and in the state of mind I was in, it never occurred to me to ask for directions. I was panicking.

“Asylum!”

I looked down, seeing False run beneath me. I flew down and glided along beside her. “False! What’s wrong?”

“We found the guy! Risk is checking on-” She halted her speech. “...you! Weren’t you behind the saloon? Where’s Nimble and Arrell?”

“Nimble just...disappeared! And Arrell’s fighting somepony who we’re pretty sure has the article!”

She completely stopped running. “...Asylum...I’m chasing the guy with the article!”

“What?!”

“So if he’s out here...and Arrell’s back there...what happened?!”

We were silent for a moment. A loud yell, crash, and the screams of several ponies jerked us out of it.

“He’ll...he’ll be fine,” I tried to assure her - and myself. “We need to stop this guy before he kills somepony else!”

False nodded, and we began running off in the direction the noises were coming from.

Everything’s just falling to bits...

Author's Notes:

What will happen to our heroes? Will this superpowered pony be stopped? Why is Arrell forgetting his powers? Will I manage to start writing chapters that are actually a decent length? Find out soon!