Lily Glamerspear

---

If that batpony sergeant of Lily’s was going to drag her, her quaternion, and her VIP all the way down into this cave under the mountain, past a Royal Guard Military Ponice checkpoint and a group of vile, shadow-stalking Night Guards, then by Celestia, she was going to get a show out of it! And that meant seeing what this 'Seventh Rank of the School of the Shining Stellar Dance' could do!

"So, come on, let's see what you've got, 'Estelar'!"

Yeah, she was picking up on their language a bit. ‘It ain't so tough.’

The middle-aged batpony mare looked dismissively at her. "There is little chance that the Royal Engineer should ever have to fight against someone from my school. More useful would be to have an ordinary Night Guard soldier demonstrate their techniques, but sadly, none is available at this time."

‘What a cop-out!’

The Royal Engineer shuffled his feet slightly, agitating the mini-kilt around his armor. "'Little chance,' Sergeant, but not impossible?"

Heh, of course the VIP, who was dressed much as Lily was -- although her skirt was more for comfort than for protection -- backed her up. 'Same clothes, same foes,' as the saying goes.

Eb put on the charm for Anonymous. "Almost impossible, Great Lord. In fact, I think improbable in general that any Child of the Stars should wish to challenge the Royal Engineer, particularly in his current position. We do not have the same rules about duelling as the nobility of Equestria does. Far more likely that you should face again one of their number in combat, as you almost did with the Lieutenant Kilfeather."

Lily had no way of knowing if Eb’s assertions about these cave-dwellers were true, but since she was trying to deflect the demonstration this way, Lily could think of another way to get her to step up.

"Sure, Sarge -- but if that creep comes trotting around for more trouble, we're gonna clobber him as a team, ain't we?"

The unicorn specialist looked down the line and received an enthusiastic head-bobbing from Sparkshower, as well as a single nod of acknowledgement by Honour. Turning back to the batpony, she continued. "Which means we've all got to know how you fight."

Lifting up a forehoof and nonchalantly examining it, Lily drilled the point in a bit further. "And, since you didn't have to follow through on your threat to take out those 'hatch-a-door' bats back in the tunnels -- not that some of us weren't ready to jump right into battle with you -- where better to arrange a demonstration than right here in the Night Guard training pit?" She nodded in the direction of the two servile batpony attendants. "I bet they've got at least twelve target dummies stashed away down in that trench for you to 'dance' with."

Sparkshower piped up helpfully. "I counted sixteen!"

Of course she did, that sweet little armored scout pegasister of hers.

The Sergeant took a moment to reflect on -- or maybe to recover from -- Glamerspear’s verbal assault. Finally, she sighed. "If the Great Lord wishes this, I will perform."

Anonymous rolled his shoulders around, frowning slightly. "I'd like to see what you can do, Sergeant. But you make it sound like you're not exactly in the mood for a demonstration."

Ebonshield sighed a second time. "Eh! I came prepared to demonstrate as the others did, of course. The reception provided by my people has given me 'mala leche' -- a bad mood."

As she stretched out her hind legs, Lily heard one of Ebonshield’s knees crack. "But, in my school there is the expression: 'I fight when I must fight, no import my mood.'"

She took a deep breath and stretched the other leg. "To properly demonstrate the technique of the Shining Stellar Dance requires great exertion, and I admit I was hoping to avoid a work-out this morning. Of course, this was pure selfishness on my part."

Their batpony sergeant raised one forehoof and, in a single swift motion, threw off the black cloak that had concealed her ever since she emerged from her room that morning.

A room that she’d left still occupied, too! Visions flashed through Lily’s head of Ebonshield's latest one-night-stand breaking into their bedrooms and rifling through their stuff. There was a lot of fine jewellery, nice makeup, and sweet fashions in the unicorn’s dresser!

Well, at least the single most valuable and important thing she owned -- her Silver Ram -- was right there with her, safely around her neck.

"I shall impose my selfishness upon you no more. I will demonstrate. Director!"

Lily snapped out of imagining herself returning to a ransacked room as one of the pit attendants scurried forward to gather up Ebonshield's cloak, carefully bundling it up and hustling it out of the ring, while the now uncovered batpony herself cantered away towards the outer edge closest to the musicians. Seeing her approach, they lowered their instruments.

"Where is the Balladeer of Gh-” The music-director squinted at Ebonshield, but before he could utter that same 'kay' thing he kept repeating before, she cut herself off with a dismissive snort and switched to the batpony tongue.

"...¿Dónde está el Baladista de Fantasmas?"

The musicians all glanced up at the funny raised wooden... gazebo?

Watch-tower?

Litter-on-stilts?

Lily wasn’t quite sure what to call the small, black wooden structure with the red curtains, but before she could make any more guesses, a loud, coltish voice with a sharp batpony accent crackled out from inside it.

"He is RIGHT HERE! And he is also trying to SLEEP!" A withered old hoof appeared from behind one of the curtains, hooking a grey foreleg onto the edge of the gazebo-tower's wall.

“Puta mierda, do jou have any idea of what time this is?"

A second hoof appeared, and they rose to part the red curtains of the raised box, which was barely larger than Lily’s own single-pony bed back in the barracks.

Finally, the speaker's dark grey head appeared. It was an ancient-looking batpony colt, with white whiskers and a beard, and a short white mane to match, framing a face covered by a large black sleeping-mask fringed with long red strips that swayed and bounced as he spoke.

Ebonshield called up to him, bowing her head. "Just after nine o'clock, oh Balladeer of Ghosts."

Still keeping his mask on, the old colt's upper lip twitched and he sneered down at her, baring his teeth. "After nine! Joder, what is the meaning for all this racket jou are making at such a late hour, then? Now is the time for the good batponies to be sleeping, damn the shadows!"

Their sergeant took the torrent of abuse in stride, keeping her head held low. "I am training with Children of the Sun, and we have need of your music."

After a long delay, the old colt in the gazebo shouted back down to her. "¿Qué? ¿Qué?" He thrusted one of his hooves in her general direction. "Lift your damned head when jou speak to me, or else speak up! Difficult to hear things all the way up here, cabrón!"

Doing both, the Sergeant exited her bow and hollered up at the 'balladeer' in his little pulpit. "We have need of your music!"

The old colt's upper lip and whiskers twitched for a few moments while he processed what she'd said, then he sniffed deeply, before spitting what appeared to be a loogie down into the trench.

‘Gross!’

"You need my music? I will give jou music, gilipollas!"

With a hesitant step -- probably owing to his refusal to remove the damned sleeping-mask, he moved over to the side of his balcony that looked down on the musicians, then leaned over to harangue them.

"Stop with all this horrible shit jou have been playing until now! The noise burns my ears! The 'estrela' says that she wants music, so I will give her music!"

Baring his teeth, he barely avoided clonking his head into one of the pillars that held the little roof above his head as he turned back to Sergeant Ebonshield.

“Prepare yourself, Estrela Siete! I will give you music worth dancing to, you mequetrefe!"

Before he could get to it, she called back up to him, with a somewhat angry tone to her voice.

No surprise, given how he'd been cussing her out!

"Just play something standard, if you please!"

Shouting back down at her, he lowered his forehooves to pick something up from the floor of his pulpit. "Hah! Standard, jou say? Standard!? What would jour Old Colt of the Mountain say to jour 'standard'?"

Before she could reply, he leaned out over the trench. "¡Que te folle un pez! Do not wake me up at such a profane hour of the day and then pretend also to give me orders!"

Turning away, Lily saw him place something small in his mouth -- a small pipe, perhaps? -- as he fussed over something larger with his hooves, muttering away to himself.

"I will give jou 'standard,' all right."

Frowning, Ebonshield retired to the center of the arena. Now that her exchange with the strange old colt in the little pulpit was done, Lily glanced around.

‘Hey -- those damned pit-attendants haven't brought out any more of the target dummies!’

As a matter of fact, they'd put away the two that were out previously!

‘Now what the buck is this?’

Lily hadn’t come all the way down into the Tartarean depths of Canterlot Mountain just for an abstract ballet show!

Scanning the 'Grand Hall of Stars,' she finally caught sight of the two sandpit-workers. They'd pushed one of the benches up against the inner wall of the trench, and were standing on it, their forelegs and faces just peeking over onto the inner rim.

Lily poked Honour in the shoulder and pointed them out. "Look at those two goons hiding over there!"

The corporal nodded. "Hmmm... Maybe we ought to climb down as well."

Lily looked around the room once more. Eb was posed like a statue in the middle of the arena floor, waiting, presumably, for her 'standard' music to begin. The musicians themselves, after a brief scurry to grab other instruments, were now perched at the edge of their ring, looking rather less relaxed and rather more formally composed than previously.

Something was going to happen for sure.

"Yeah, let's take cover."

Without waiting for an order either way, Lily materialized a whole triple-bundle of blunted spears to form steps. Honour gave her a nod as she trotted down them, but their VIP just jumped right down into the pit, landing easily on his feet. Sparkshower, of course, floated down on her wings. Lily was the only one left to make use of her makeshift magical staircase.

By the time she reached the floor, Anonymous had already laid down his equipment and grabbed one of the wooden benches in his arms, hauling it over to the inner rim.

‘Geez…’

Lily could have easily telekinesis'd it over, but still.

‘The muscles on this colt…’

As she moved to perch herself on her hind legs on top of the bench, resting her forelegs on the outer ring of the arena, Lily’s mind wandered a bit to the manaburn-induced fever dream she had in the coltswear store. No question now that her VIP would be able to scoop her up in his arms if he ever wanted to.

‘Unf.’

She felt a bit of a buzz in her horn as she momentarily imagined him hauling her around, one arm under her barrel, the other arm holding his shield. What a team they’d make!

Buff hairless monkey-colt doing all the exhausting legwork and protecting her with his colossal minotaur aegis.

Sexy young unicorn mare blasting everything in sight, giggling as she gunned down foe after foe, almost breathless from the excitement of battle and from his tantalizingly firm grip.

‘Mmmf.’

"Look, he's got something in his mouth."

‘Oh, he'll have something in his mouth, all right.’

‘My hor-wait, what did Sparkshower say?’

The old grey colt -- still wearing that stupid fringed blindfold-mask of his -- reappeared at the arena-facing window of his raised gazebo, clutching a small wooden flute-looking instrument in his forehooves.

The pegasus continued, peering at the distant batpony. “That looks kind of like an oboe, but with less holes and a bigger opening at the bottom."

‘How the buck does this pegasus pick out details at a hundred hooves away?’

Then Lily remembered -- two of them could play that game. Giving a sharp triple-tap to her helmet's optics button, she dropped down her magnifying viewfinder. Sure enough, zoomed in, she could make out the 'Balladeer's' apparent instrument of choice, and it did look a bit oboe-ish.

He waved his left hoof in the air -- with the other musicians watching him carefully from below -- and then, with a final jerk of his foreleg, a great low drone from one of the ordinary musician's horns fills the hall, accompanied by the occasional thrub of a great drum.

---

Strongly recommended background music: Paul Ruskay - 'Swarmer Battle Music', from 'Homeworld' [2000]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY1fVrI2NFQ

---

It was a little creepy how the atmospheric droning echoed around the room, but it sure didn’t sound like dance music to Lily. That's when the music-director batpony joined in, stoically tapping away on a pair of bongo drums.

Okay, it was a pretty slow and sensuous rhythm, but at least now there was a beat. She started nodding her head along, staring at Ebonshield and wondering when the show was going to start. Against the backdrop of the droning horns, the soft patter of the bongos, and the occasional thud of a massive kettle-drum somewhere further back, Lily heard a low, guttural singing voice join.

It was that old colt, up in the pulpit!

‘Bizarre.’

There was another sound, too...

‘Sounds like... moving sand?’

Glancing left and right, Lily saw little dust-storms kick up here and there across the pit.

Strange; she didn’t feel any wind down there.

Quickly folding up her optics, she barely had the time to get a good look at the closest miniature cyclone before a powerful, sharp higher-pitched sound pierced the air. She looked up, and saw the 'Balladeer' had his oboe-thing held up to his lips.

‘Crazy sound that thing makes!’

But when she looked down, that's when her eyes really went wide.

As the music played, dark black spots appeared in the sandpit, enveloping and enlarging the miniature sandstorms, pulling them up out of the ground!

Lily heard a gasp from Sparkshower at the other end of the bench, and the rising black sand started to form itself into shadowy forms ringed with red auras. Within moments, they coalesced into the shapes of strange ponies who appeared to be made of charcoal. And not just any charcoal-ponies -- charcoal-ponies in ebony-black Royal Guard uniforms!

The Balladeer of Ghosts lowered his instrument and began to chant once more, and the shadow-sand ponies started to move, circling menacingly around the lone Sergeant in the centre.

Gaping, Lily saw weapons materialize out of the sand and into their hooves.

‘It's a whole buckin' conjured-sand army!’

Scanning left and right, Lily counted a unicorn, four pegasi, and four earth ponies -- nine opponents in all!

That's when she realized that Ebonshield wasn’t sitting still any longer -- she was stepping towards a gap between the approaching groups of shadow-ponies. As she darted towards the safe open space, Lily caught a glimpse of Eb’s equipment, and realized this was the first time she’d seen the sergeant fully decked out.

She wasn’t wearing much.

Besides the simple leather chanfron that she could see earlier, the batpony had a small leather peytral -- little more than a pectoral boss, really -- and four short leather greaves, one on each leg.

And that's it!

Protection rating: practically zilch!

But as Ebonshield hustled towards the rim, trying to keep the musically summoned opponents to one side of her, Lily caught a shiny, silver glimpse of the daggers attached to the greaves, on the insides of her legs.

‘How is she going to hit anything with them tucked in like that?’

‘Unless…’

Gears turned in Lily’s head, and just as quickly as they struggled to crank out the solution, Ebonshield turned around and flapped her wings, leaping towards the closest shadow-figure, an earth pony struggling to bring its short javelin to bear on her flank. Passing clear over the weapon, she thrust her left forehoof forward, and with a 'snik' noise just barely loud enough to hear, the dagger strapped to that limb sliced forward, neatly jabbing right into the creature's throat.

While the momentum of her sergeant's jump pushed the target over backwards, she withdrew her foreleg to the sound of another 'snak' noise as the blade snapped back into its previous position. She landed on the ground and ducked into a roll just as one of the other earth-pony simulacrums stabbed its spear down where she’d landed, while the target she'd stabbed collapsed in a heap before melting back into the sand.

‘What the buck is this?!’

More incredulous at the mechanical magic powering the batpony's daggers than the actual sorcery fuelling her targets, Lily followed Ebonshield’s roll and watched her flip around to crash into the spear-wielding pony's upper torso, stabbing her right-hoof's spring-activated dagger repeatedly into the base of its neck, where the main armor connected with the neck-guard. With an ethereal moan, this one, too, collapsed down into the pit, the shadow-stuff evaporating as the sand regained its usual brown color.

Now it was the conjured pegasi's turn to charge in, and two of them took to the air, setting the batpony up for a quick one-two perpendicular crossover charge. All the while, the remaining two earth ponies waved their spears menacingly, trying to herd their sergeant into the trap. The charcoal-figure unicorn, meanwhile, looked to be charging up a spell of some kind -- and he was flanked by the other two pegasi, floating in the air beside him.

Ebonshield extended her wings, and that's when Lily caught another flash of silvery metal.

Sparkshower blurted it out before Glamerspear could. "She's got blades on her wing-arms!"

Smashing one wing forward, Ebonshield used the metal wing-blade to knock one earth pony's weapon up just enough for her to duck underneath, and in a blink of an eye, administered another quick dagger-plunge up the black-sand creature's throat and into its snarling head. Quickly, as the first pegasus just came roaring in, his companion close beside him, Ebonshield grasped the dying creature's neck and rolled onto her back, flipping the disintegrating sand-creature into the path of her first flying foe. The spray of sand sent the black-winged pony off-course, though he pulled up with more than enough time to avoid any counter-stroke.

She was back on her hooves again, and the second pegasus had her flank dead to rights, his spear lined up in a charge just like Sparkshower demonstrated moments ago. But at the last second, Ebonshield fluttered to one side with unbelievable agility, narrowly avoiding being harpooned straight through as Lily’s pegasister had done to her own target. That second pegasus joined its temporarily-blinded comrade for another pass around, while the earth pony retreated slowly towards the mage.

‘Say -- just how realistic are these sand-creatures, anyways?’

‘If she got stabbed, would it even hurt?’

As if to answer her question, the unicorn's horn suddenly glowed with a red, arcane light, and an enormous conjured harpoon hurtled towards the recovering batpony. She raised her wing-blades and her forehoof-blades to block it, and there was a tremendous clong as the harpoon dissipated against her weapons, but nonetheless the sheer force of the impact sent her tumbling back, almost to the edge of the ring. It took Ebonshield a second to struggle back to her hooves, panting heavily, but she managed it just as the unicorn's horn lit up once more. This time, there was no chance of blocking, so she took to the air, sinuously wiggling up like a snake.

One of the airborne pegasi passed by and raised its weapon to slash at her, but she aerially tumbled out of the way even as the second black magic harpoon crashed into the ceiling, exploding in a fury of black sand and crushed stone.

‘Holy Celestia!’

There was a damn hole in the painted ceiling where it hit! That answered Lily’s question about realism. And it was definitely a good thing they’d all taken cover in the pit. The unicorn surreptitiously pulled her forelegs off the edge and lowered herself down so that her eyes were just peeking over the top, and she was not surprised to see the rest of her group doing the same.

Back up in the air, Ebonshield had somehow maneuvered herself around and above one of the pegasi, and wrapped her forelegs around his neck before slashing down and forward with her wing-blades, slicing off his means of flight. She kicked herself off of the falling target, who flailed his limbs in a panic before slamming into the arena floor with an explosion of sand.

The two pegasi floating by the unicorn tipped up their spears, and even the earth pony hurled a conjured javelin as the acrobatic batpony came fluttering down towards the dangerous unicorn, the remaining airborne pegasus still struggling to match Ebonshield’s tight turns and get on top of her. The batpony landed short, dodging the thrown projectile and rolling forwards into a slide before kicking herself up off her back and right into the last earth pony, her left forehoof-blade slicing open yet another charcoal neck. At close range, the pegasi slashed awkwardly with their long spears, while the unicorn abandoned its attack for a hastily-erected shield. Yet the sergeant just cantered away, satisfied for the moment with eliminating the last earth pony.

Five down, four to go.

The high-altitude pegasus came shearing down across the battlefield, spear held well out, but the middle-aged acrobatic batpony ducked down early, then sprung up above into a backflip when the shadow-creature lowered his aim. This time, there was no way for her to bring her foreleg weapons to bear, so she kicked out with a hind leg, and the same 'snik-snak' blade cut through the open face of the pegasus' helmet. By the time she'd landed on her hooves again, gasping for breath, her target had collapsed behind her into a pile of sand.

Just three left.

The unicorn had dropped its shield and decided to trade power for rate of fire, sending black dart after black dart crackling forward towards their target, while she zig-zagged towards the gunner. Puffs of sand flew up into the air as shots fell short, while darts that ran long clattered noisily against the raised wall of the outer rim.

‘Geez, if that thing aims any higher, the musicians might be in danger, too!’

‘Unless maybe there's some magical shielding at work to keep that outer ring safe…’

As Ebonshield worked her way closer, one of the pegasi guards broke to the left, while the other stuck with the unicorn, who took a second to reload for its next magical volley. Before the flanking pegasus could make a move, the batpony bolted straight up into the air, and the unicorn desperately dropped the fresh spell to try and raise a shield. It was all too late, though, because she came powering down on top of it, crashing hooves-first through the half-raised protective dome and right onto the surprised spellcaster, only to lash out sideways with a wing, slicing open the pegasus bodyguard's neck. Then she raised her forehooves up and brought them sharply down again, and Lily heard a double 'snik-snak' as the two blades did their work.

Just the one target left -- a lone shadowy pegasus keeping to the air, hoarding its kinetic energy against a target clearly more maneuverable than it was. For the moment, the batpony just followed it with her gaze, probably glad for the respite -- she was panting heavily, and flapping her wings gently to cool herself off. Her rest was cut short when immediately beside her, however, a black sand-pile rose up into a towering figure.

The 'Balladeer of Ghosts' had other plans, it would seem.

Ebonshield retreated as the shape coalesced into an enormous minotaur wielding a great maul. That thing was almost as big as Bronzehorn!

Their batpony sergeant cried out towards the musicians. "I said standard, Ignacio!"

Another black shape formed just behind her, and she had to change her direction of retreat.

'Ignacio,' the balladeer in the pulpit, lowered his instrument and hollered down to the sandpit. "There is no 'standard' in war! The only standard in war is death!" Snarling, he raised his instrument back up, but bellowed out before returning to his melody. "If jou have not yet learned this, then I shall gladly supply the lesson!"

With another haunting reprise of the strange melody, the second newcomer took shape -- and it was a dragon, down on all fours! Barely had Ebonshield trotted away from it that it inhaled and then lanced out a stream of shadowy, red-hot flame! The blazing jet flew right by Lily’s group, prompting everypony to duck, and poured against the back wall of the trench.

‘Holy buck!’

Lily could feel the heat even ten hooves away! Horrified by the attack, but desperate to see the end of the fight, she raised her head up once more, and so did everypony else.

The shadow-minotaur had Ebonshield up against the outer rim with its two-handed hammer raised above its head. She dodged away at the last instant as the maul slammed down into the sand, thudding angrily and raising a plume of yellow dust. Before she could dart in and administer the usual treatment, however, the minotaur quickly stepped right and swung the weapon left, clotheslining her chest with the handle. With a loud 'Oof!', Eb dropped to the ground, then rolled sideways to avoid another hammer blow.

Meanwhile, the dragon was circling the ring, moving closer for a larger target.

That pegasus was still up in the ceiling, too, waiting for a moment to strike.

Dodging yet another overhead slam from the minotaur by rolling away, the batpony finally spun herself up onto her hooves and launched onto its back, stabbing again and again with one forehoof-blade and one hindhoof-blade as she climbed up towards its neck. The conjured minotaur roared in pain, and dropped its weapon to try to grab her off, but all it managed to do was stagger forward as she continued her relentless assault, now shouting with every half-desperate strike.

"Hrah! Hyah! Hiyah!"

Finally, she reached his neck, and jammed both of her foreleg blades down into his collar-region. There was another roar of pain, but she once again failed to deliver a fatal blow, and the confused cow-beast stumbled further forward still.

... Right towards the dragon, Lily noted, who opened its mouth and sent a streak of flame right at the minotaur's head and shoulders. Ebonshield dodged back down to the ground as the two-legged cow's head melted right off, then she burst through the collapsing sand-creature's torso to strike the dragon head-on with a forehoof blade already extended. Slicing sideways, she caught it in the jaw, and as it tumbled over, she swept her hind legs forward to stab it through the chest. An abortive puff of flame was the final gasp of the dragon-creature, and now she was back down to the single pegasus in the sky once again. Standing on level ground, Ebonshield looked up, almost collapsing onto her forelegs, gasping for air.

Curiously, the pegasus came gently floating down on the opposite side of the arena, and dropped its spear to the ground. Even their batpony sergeant appeared confused, and then from the pulpit, Lily heard another moaning chant. The black shadowy pegasus bent forward, its body wracked with convulsions, and seemed to quadruple in size as its shape twisted and reformed itself. Then it reared up on its hind legs, and Lily saw hands -- hands! -- in place of forehooves.

A black disk materialized in its left arm, and as the pegasus' shadow-spear disappeared into the ground, a great mace with a geometric head formed itself in the creature's right hand.

Anonymous gasped. "Good grief, that's me!"

Retreating before it, Sergeant Ebonshield shook her head, stumbling towards the musicians. "No! No, you must not do this! Ignacio! Please, stop now!"

The thing's helmet finally took its proper shape, and from behind the thin 'T' cut into the face, Lily could see two burning, red eyes and glowing-white teeth. Heedless of Ebonshield's cries, the band played on -- and the towering conjured shadow-human spread its legs and clanged its weapon into its shield. Then it opened its mouth, and a roar emerged that sounded like Cerberus itself was tearing its way out of the Tartarean depths.

Sparkshower gasped, ducking down, and even Honour whispered out loud.

"What the buck is that thing?"

‘That is a good bucking question.’

But for now, it was all Lily could do to watch as the brimstone doppelganger of their VIP closed in, shield first, on their exhausted batpony Sergeant. Still panting, and stepping weakly, she circled around away from it, keeping space.

His creation fully-formed, Ignacio lowers his instrument and bellows out from the tower. "Since when does an estellar refuse to kill? Jou have been given a target -- dispose of him! This is the way of jour college!"

Almost stumbling, Ebonshield hollered back. "I tell you I am done, Ignacio! Send it back to the pit!"

"Pah! You are done when I say jou are done! Does this one have some special meaning to jou?" Without waiting for an answer, he grinned his old withered teeth and gums at her. "...Good! For I send him against thee wickedly! Haha!" Punctuating his statement with a cackle, he returned to his instrument with heightened vigor, directing the fight to continue.

Ebonshield took one final, deep breath, and then appeared to resolve to end the combat quickly, charging forwards and leaping up into the air towards the simulacrum's head -- only to crash into the shield which he raised to his shoulder just in time. Thrown back against the floor by the force of his push, it was all she could do to roll out of the way as the heavy mace crashed into the ground where she lay, showering everything with sand. This time, she avoided darting in again on the clone's weapon side, remembering the minotaur's earlier trick -- and, indeed, the shadow-Anonymous recovered from the missed attack just as quickly as that other combatant had, if not faster. Lily almost held her breath as the black figure hunched over, shield firmly in front, closing in on her escaping sergeant.

‘She just wasted eight ponies, a minotaur, and a young dragon!’

‘Surely she can take on a lone armored monkey, too?’

As Ebonshield darted to the far side of the arena, the shadow stood upright again, aggressively clanging its weapon into its shield. In the other corner, the batpony swallowed and then hunched down on her forelegs. With a loud grunt, she kicked her hind legs in the air, the blades snapping out -- and staying out, too, as she brought her legs back down and stood in the sand on the dagger-tips. She repeated the same motion with her forelegs, and she was standing on sharp metal stilts, raised up higher than before. A quick flap of her wings, and the blades on those snapped out to an extended length as well.

‘Get the buck outta here!’

‘Every single one of her friggin' weapons is spring-loaded?!’

Having traded surprise for reach, and a surer footing for height, Ebonshield closed back in. The shadow-human hunched back down, shield out front and weapon held level at the side, ready to deliver a forceful thrust. The batpony had an almost spider-like gait as she scurried in, more easily able to dart sideways with a higher center of gravity, throwing up sand as she sliced her weapon-hooves around. In moments, they were just in front of each other, and Ebonshield began to strike at the shield with her forelegs and wings. It was all pointless, though -- the shield easily deflected her slashes, and each attack puts her off balance.

‘Why is she even bothering??’

Lily’s answer came when the shadow-Anonymous swung his weapon overhead in a great arc -- she could see it clearly from where she was, but somehow Ebonshield knew it was coming, too, and ducked towards his weapon arm only to slice upwards with her blades at his wrist. With a cry of pain, the weapon left his grasp and tumbled to the ground, and the creature retreated, holding his wounded hand against his flank.

They must be pretty bucking sharp blades to cut through Bronzehorn's gloves -- but then again, it was just leather padding in that spot.

Now that her opponent had been disarmed, Ebonshield took the offensive, leaping up once more for the killing blow. But the shadow-human just leaned back and raised its shield -- she landed on top of it and tried to slash down, catching only the sides of his helmet before he shoved the shield forwards and hurled her off again. The exhausted batpony tumbled to the ground, and took a moment too long to recover, giving the creature enough time to raise and then slam the edge of his shield down at her exposed right leg.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

That genuine shriek of pain was enough to absolutely confirm that what happened in the pit was horribly real.

Before he could bring it down again, she lifted her left leg and reached down with one forehoof. In what surely must have been a desperation measure, she slapped her hoof against her raised leg, and the spring-loaded dagger flew out, burying itself in the shadow-human's exposed thigh. This time, there was no marely scream, but another Tartarean roar as the shield-slam missed its mark from the sudden injury. With her neck covered in white sweat-foam, Ebonshield spun around onto her chest and pushed herself up with her three good legs, grimacing in pain as she limped away.

The shadow-creature limped, too -- but towards her, crouched behind his shield, eager to finish the fight. Trotting as fast as she could, she tried to circle around to his exposed right side, but having only three legs to work with, it was far more difficult than it was before. She had him almost spinning in place, then suddenly she flapped her wings and reversed direction. The abrupt need to twist the other way forced the shadow-creature to unintentionally put weight on its bad leg, and it roared again, almost toppling over sideways from the excruciating pain.

That was her moment to strike, and Ebonshield leapt in, latching onto his shield and punching forward again and again with her foreleg-daggers. They clanked and clattered against his helmet as he bobbed and weaved, and then there was a terrifying moment when that injured right hand reappeared from below -- holding her own launched dagger in a fist! He thrust it forward around his shield, and she barely launched herself away in time to avoid it.

‘Damn, now he's got a weapon again!’

That was probably what Ebonshield was thinking, too. The shadow-human's right hand was still injured, but it could hold a dagger -- and that short, swift weapon was a far better tool against the lightly-armored, agile batpony.

What to do?

Lily could see Ebonshield floating in the air before her target, spittle dripping from her open mouth and an exhausted look in her eyes. In her place, Lily would probably go for broke.

Apparently, the batpony had the same thought, and she darted to the right -- towards the shadow-creature's shield-arm instead of the menacing dagger -- juking low before turning away, only to slash at his eyes with her left wing-blade. This time, she either punctured through the bronze or managed to find the gap, and, with another horrifying roar of pain, the shadow creature tumbled over sideways. Ebonshield landed, her right leg tucked up tight against her torso, panting heavily and apparently relieved to be done with the fight.

Except it wasn't over, because the charcoal figure, rather than collapsing down into the sand, lifted itself up onto its knees and tried to stagger back up to its feet. Hearing the clattering of metal instead of the expected pouring of sand, the batpony hustled over.

"¡Sombra maldita! ¡¡¿Por qué no mueres?!!"

With a toothy snarl, she launched herself onto its back, and then stabbed down at its neck again and again, snarling and shrieking with every blow. The Grand Hall of Stars, in the Rookery of the Night Guard under Canterlot Mountain, was filled with a terrifying, otherworldly howl as the shadow-creature collapsed first to its knees, then onto its chest... and then finally, as the howl was reduced to echoes, it melted back into the sand.

Purity Ebonshield, having defeated the final foe, toppled over sideways and sprawled out on the sand, utterly exhausted, her chest heaving so hard that her ribcage rippled against her fur.

As the arcane composition finally ended, the musicians lowered their instruments, and Lily felt at last able to lift her head up past eye-level -- but then she spotted 'Ignacio,' the ornery colt in the parapet, flip a ramp down behind his perch and start to trot down it.

"Step aside, miscreants! Put out the plank! I want to get down to the arena!"

Hurling insults at the other musicians, the 'Balladeer of Ghosts' ambled back towards the edge of the outer ring as four of the chastened batpony orchestra-members brought forward what looked like another ramp -- one long enough to bridge the trench between the sandpit and the elevated observation area.

Lily’s blood instantly boiled.

This bucking colt, after trying to kill her squadmate with magic apparitions, thought he could just trot down and finish her off in person?

‘Not the buck on my watch!’

"Hey!" With a cry, Lily leaped up onto the fighting stage and galloped towards her fallen comrade, reaching her and raising a magical shield over her crumpled body just as the old colt hobbled his way down the plank towards her.

Literally hobbled -- he had a crutch under his left foreleg. And he was still wearing that bucking black night-mask blindfold with the red fringe! How the buck did he even see where he was going!

Lily heard hoofsteps and footsteps hustling towards her from behind, but it was all up to her to stop this batpony mage before he did what those bastards at the checkpoint tried to do.

"That's far enough, buster! Stand the buck back!"

Craning his head sideways, the old dark-grey colt bared his teeth and spoke in a raspy tone. "Oho? Who is this, then? Jou have a stalwart defender to come to jour rescue, estelar?"

Nothing came but a pained groan from Lily’s comrade on the floor, in-between weak breaths. "Uhnnnn..."

The colt took a step forward, but she threateningly expanded the shield-bubble.

"I said that's close enough!"

Ignacio snarled angrily at the unicorn. "Step aside! I will inspect my subject!"

‘Pfft, as if!’

"Yeah? You wanna see what you did to her? You don't gotta get close! Just take off that blindfold and look with your eyes, you jerk!"

From below, Lily heard another weak moan -- it almost sounded like words.

"... Glamerspear... do not..."

But it was drowned out by a loud cackling from in front of her. "Oho! Ohohohoho! Ahah! Jou want I should take off my blindfold, jes? Ahaha!"

Still giggling, she saw him sit down and reach his forehooves up behind his head, leaning on his crutch. "And if I should do this, unicornio, what... exactly... do jou think..."

He untied the blindfold, and allowed it to fall lazily to the sandy floor.

"... I will see?"

Just above two rows of withered teeth clenched in an amused grimace, two utterly featureless, milky-white orbs stare back at Glamerspear, freezing her in place.

‘What the buck!’

‘He's blind!’

‘This son-of-a-bitch performed all that magic... blind?!’

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