A Life For Two

by RedBlack

Criminals

"PRINCESS!"

Maddie quickly silenced the guard by kicking him into the wall, fully knocking him out.

"Fuck, tie her up, we'll take her hostage. Daisy, you're free to roam." Maddie made the decision as the sounds of hooves thumping were resonating through the castle.

Daisy quickly climbed upwards, completely disappearing into the shadows as she soon vanished.

Bliss stuck a block in the blue alicorn's chest, ropes extended from the block, fully restricting her movements.

Dragging Luna through the castle halls, the trio sprinted without direction, slowly going up and up. Right as they were about to turn a corner, a pair of guards appeared.

Letting go of Luna, Maddie instantly threw the first punch. Alas, the pegasus acted fast, blocking his punch as the other tried to pierce Maddie. As the spearhead reached ever closer, its path was interrupted by a knife with a dull glow.

Bliss grimaced as sparks flew from her parry, fully knocking the spear away.

Maddie used the chance and rotated on his free front hoof and put his hind legs behind the one who blocked. Pulling hard, he staggered the guard ever so slightly, giving him the chance to deliver an uppercut.

Bliss rushed in instantly, completely ignoring her brother's opponent and gave a normal cut, which was unfortunately blocked as her opponent brought a sword from his side. Sparks ignited as the stared at the other behind their respective blades, but Bliss was focusing on something else. After only a few seconds, she lost the struggle as she jumped back, plugging a wire into her knife from inside her cloak. Several blue lights shone through the cloth, creating a chilling image.

Maddie's uppercut took the guard by surprise, hitting at enough force to launch his helmet away. Taking the chance, Maddie grabbed the stunned guards neck and used it as leverage to flip the guard over him. Crystal shards flew as the pristine floor was now ruined with a hole in its place.

Bliss's knife glowed at a brighter hue, hinting at something as the guard got nervous. To him, the filly had ridiculous strength for her age, as if she's worked out for her whole life. Bliss charged forward, prompting the guard to focus on her. He's both more skilled and powerful, so he will win if he's just careful. But that thought was broken to pieces in their very first exchange. His sword met her knife. Fully expecting another exchange, he prepared his body.

Only for the knife to go through the sword, completely melting the point of contact.

Bliss smirked once again, this time hitting the hard steel of the armor. Melting through the armor, the guard screamed in pain at the scorching feeling. Until he felt a hard tap behind his neck, causing him to slowly lose consciousness.

"Let's move." Maddie commanded as Bliss removed the plug from her knife, the glow from both her knife and cloak faded away.

Dragging the princess through the halls once more, they rushed to anywhere they could leave without getting caught.

"HALT! HOW DARE YOU BRING HARM TO THE PRINCESS!"

Hearing the shout, Maddie grabbed Luna by the neck as he held her towards the guards.

"BACK OFF! I HAVE A HOSTAGE!"

This was not what they had wanted to do.

Bliss acted quickly, putting a knife to Luna's neck as she stared sharply at the guards.

More and more stomping of hooves rang throughout the castle halls, making the situation even worse for the duo.

But, they can still make it.

They've been through worse.

"Don't panic Bliss, we'll get out fine"

"I fucking know that"

Their little banter ended as Maddie was about to negotiate.

Until.

A pair bluish green eyes opened.

---

In the hallways, only lit by the moonlight, stood our duo.

Breathing heavily through gritted teeth, Maddie groaned as he tried to stay quiet as he slumped against the crystal wall. Bliss took half of his jacket off of him and put the sleeve in his mouth as he bit hard. Blood flowed to the ground in worrying amounts. Knowing that there wasn't much of a choice, Maddie started to mentally prepare himself for the oncoming pain.

Bliss took off her cloak, revealing a few gears for her cutie mark and a metal construct half her size. She took it off as she pressed on a few latches, opening it up. Bringing out two bottles from her storage of sorts, she opened one filled with clean water, and the other with a brown liquid.

"Open your mouth." Bliss demanded silently.

Maddie complied, letting go of his jacket for a drink. Tasting the harsh alcohol, he was patiently waiting for it to numb his pain for a bit.

Bliss breathed in and let it out slowly, trying to calm herself as she stared at the wound on Maddie's side.

Maddie bit back into his jacket as he waited for the oncoming pain.

Bliss, after sufficiently calming down, poured water over the gaping wound. Maddie's muffled screams rang through the hallway as he struggled to stay put. Eyes bulging, he breathed erratically as Bliss tried to hold him down.

"FUCK! MADDIE, STAY PUT OR I'LL SILENCE YOU MYSELF!" Bliss yelled in both frustration and desperation as more blood flooded the floor.

Hearing her voice, Maddie calmed himself as much as he could, breathing heavily as if he's just went through the hardest exercise he's ever known. Grunting through the pain, he painfully grabbed the bottle of whiskey. Taking in gulps at a time, he coughed a bit.

"Good, it means your organs are fine." Bliss told him after seeing that there was no blood in his cough.

"You, *cough*, sure that's, *inhale*, how that works?" Maddie asked, full of pain as he grimaced hard.

"It doesn't fucking matter." Bliss harshly said as she brought out more items from her storage. "For fuck's sake, I didn't think my first try at sewing would be like this"

"You know how?" He asked with a raspy voice.

Bliss tore into her backpack, breaking it down to build something else.

"I had to have a few hobbies when I wasn't working." Bliss said with sarcasm, attempting to disperse the tenseness of the situation.

Sparks of electricity flew out from exposed wires, a few scrapes from breaking the plates. Folding it all by ripping pieces off of her robe, she squashed it on the ground, making a nest like shape. Placing one final metal, shaped somewhat like bowl from it being a corner of the bag, on top of the gathered wires, she poured some of the water into it.

"Alright asshole, just wait for a minute or so, you can stay alive until fucking water boils right?" Bliss asked with a nervous smile as she started organising the items she brought out.

"Sure." Maddie replied, albeit much weaker than before.

Bliss, with a grimace, placed the items in her desired place, in reach if she needed it.

A few tiny sparks, and smoke rose from underneath the water bowl.

Maddie tried to shift his position, only to frown harder as pain came from an unexpected place.

"Hey, don't fucking move." Bliss angrily said.

"Ugh, sis, I need you to check my shoulder"

"What." She said with more worry.

Taking the rest of his jacket off, she clenched her teeth as another gash appeared on the shoulder.

She stared back at the water, noticing that a small fire started.

"Fuck it, this one isn't too deep, I think we cauterize it." Bliss said as she brought out her knife.

"You sure?" Maddie asked, knowing what she would have to ruin.

"We both know how serious it can be if wounds get infected, so yes." She replied as she took a random piece of sharp metal.

Poking in seemingly random positions, Bliss finally manages to loosen the edge of the blade. Forcing out more parts, pieces of the tech used to heat the knife fell to the ground. Finally taking out the last piece, a small stone with the power of a previous dragon lord, she was left with something that could barely be called a knife. Without barely even a single edge, a crooked piece of metal, shone in the light of the fire.

Bliss shoved the metal part into the fire, heating it up considerably.

She turned to look at Maddie.

"Ready?"

Maddie took one last gulp of the whiskey, finishing it before nodding.

Releasing a deep breathe, Maddie held the leather in his mouth as he stared at the glowing metal piece, coming closer and closer.

Loud hissing noise came from his shoulder as the hall started to smell like burnt flesh.

Maddie's eyes widened in pain, screaming as he did everything in his power to not move.

"JUST A TINY BIT MORE MADDIE, COME ON! YOU'VE GONE THROUGH WORSE!" Bliss shouted, hoping to give some relief to him.

Eyes slightly becoming wet from the pain, Maddie just clenched his teeth harder into the leather, almost tearing it apart from the amount of force he used.

After a few seconds, Bliss judged that it was enough and pulled it back, sighing in relief as no pieces of flesh or such were stuck to the knife. Cutting more into her robe, she made a makeshift bandage and wrapped the wound after wetting it with some water.

Finding the water over the fire boiling, she used her magic.

A few sparks appeared as magic coiled around her horn, acting like electricity as the bowl was lifted off and slowly placed on the ground.

"Don't push yourself Bliss." Maddie said as sweat poured down from Bliss's forehead.

"Shut it." Bliss snapped back, grunting slightly as she levitated a sewing needle and metal strings inside the boiling hot water.

With great effort, she slides one end of the metal string into the sewing needle. Fully cleansing it, she holds it in her hoof as the sparks around her horn die down.

"Alright, the final stretch." Bliss roughly said as she breathed hard from the overuse of magic.

"I'm ready." Maddie replied before gulping dry air.

Bliss nodded.

Slowly, the needle approached the slash in his side. Constantly shaking, Bliss felt a stinging pain in her eyes as her vision went slightly blurry, consumed by the thoughts of losing Maddie.

Until, she felt a weight on her head.

"Hey, don't worry, don't forget what I taught you." Maddie told her with a low voice as his hoof patted the top of her head.

Shakily taking a breath, Bliss let it out, calming her body as she swiped her eyes once to get rid of the forming tears.

Now, with conviction, she brought the needle to the wound.

"UGH." Maddie growled, but managed to keep still enough as the whiskey he drank did its wonders.

Taking deep breaths, Bliss concentrated as she pushed the needle further, piercing through the other end of the gap.

Taking even deeper breaths, Maddie looked upwards to deal with the pain as his face was enveloped with a large frown.

"One done, just, about twelve more to go." Bliss commented nervously as her mouth went dry from the stress.

Letting out one more breath, Maddie steeled his mind, trying to distract himself from the pain.

"Alright, here we go." Bliss told him.

"GAH! FUCK!"

---

"Hang in there Maddie, only one more to go." Bliss said as she took tired breaths.

Despite having spent about forty minutes on the wound, it felt like she had worked nonstop for a whole month.

"Shit. Damn it. Fuck." Maddie constantly spewed out curses, trying to expel the pain out of him along with anger and frustration.

He was currently tied to the wall, the blood that painted his body being mostly dried off. Several holes were formed in the wall behind him, roped with hooks embedded deep into it, holding him back from flailing around from pain. The wound was mostly closed, looking like someone had stitched a tear in their favorite stuffed toy.

"Alright, the last one." Bliss told him, feeling like she's more energized than ever.

Maddie, hearing that the end of his suffering was close, gained more hope as he bit into his leather jacket, having left plenty of permanent teeth marks by now.

"Phuuuuuuuuck!" His muffled cries were left unattended as the bloody needle pierced through his skin.

His hoof, the one with the uninjured shoulder, banged the wall repeatedly. Already cracked from the amount of punches Maddie gave it.

"DONE!" Bliss shouted happily, glad that their impromptu surgery was successful.

Maddie stared up, giving it his all to stay conscious as his mouth hung open, allowing the jacket to drop down.

Bliss tore through the rest of her cloak as she used it all to bandage Maddie's entire gut section.

After a tight binding, they sat there.

Staring at each other, they broke into smiles as small chuckles left their mouths.

"Gah, fuck." Maddie cursed as his side hurt from his laughing.

"Careful, you lost a lot of blood." Bliss pointed to the ground where a puddle of blood formed a pool as she started to loosen the ropes holding Maddie.

"Doesn't matter, we gotta start moving. They said that one was a princess, it's a miracle we haven't been attacked yet." He stood up shakily, prompting Bliss to try to support him with her shorter height as she thought about the alicorn.

Bliss simply stared at the body on the ground.

In the hall, over a dozen guards stay sprawled on the ground. Some were bleeding while most others were simply knocked out. Most, being the keyword as Maddie stared at one of the unicorns. This one was different, as the neck was twisted a full circle.

Although Maddie had this aim in mind, he was sure that he only performed a simple buck. Having killed enough that he lost count, Maddie couldn't care about adding one more to the number, or the way he performed it. He was just annoyed by his gut telling him that this was going to bite him in the ass down the line.

Bliss, however, was focusing her gaze on the only body, different from the rest. With a fierce frown on her face, Bliss glared at the body of Luna with soul drenching bloodlust, heavy enough to drop the temperature of the area by several times.

Until she felt the familiar soft rubbing on her head.

"Leave her, we'll really be hunted down if we kill her." Maddie told her while patting her head.

Bliss nodded lightly in response.

Looking around the area, Bliss sighed as she knows she'll have to rebuild all her stuff.

Maddie stared for a few seconds at her figure, noticing that her body felt much colder.

"Here." Maddie told her whilst putting his jacket on her.

"This shit's too big." Bliss happily complained.

"The fucking cloak was too big, but that didn't stop you from wearing it." Maddie replied with a soft smile.

She chuckled as a response after putting the jacket on.

"Shit, gimme a cig." Maddie told her.

Feeling a slight bump on her chest, Bliss went through the pockets and brought out a white box.

"Here." She put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it with her magic.

"Thank you"

They once again, start their little journey throughout the castle.

---

Walking through hallways upon hallways, the duo met up with their friend rabbit, who was heavily breathing while covered in blood.

As she angrily spouted, something, at the duo, she stopped mid rant as she noticed the injuries.

"Yeah yeah, I got hurt, you don't gotta rub it in." Maddie tiredly told Daisy, who was shaking her head with exasperated expression.

Slight thumping sounds suddenly started to echo through the area.

Maddie tried to stay on the defensive, but failed to keep steady with his injuries as Bliss was too busy holding him.

Daisy, noticing the situation, quickly scaled the ceiling for a plan.

"Hello? Anypony there?" A tired voice called out.

The duo stayed silent, having long since hid in the shadows, waiting to see who it was.

"If you're hurt, I ca-." The voice was interrupted.

Walking out of the shadows and into the moonlight, there was the purple alicorn.

Daisy was wrapped around her neck, sharp claws threatening to cut into the throat at any moment.

"You-"

She was cut off.

As the claws held on tighter, drawing a small amount of blood, the pain told the alicorn, not to try anything.

"Move." Maddie told her with a cold voice.

Twilight Sparkle, fearfully looking at the duo with wide eyes, carefully followed the instruction silently.

Maddie, however, was starting to stumble.

"Fuck it, let's go here." Bliss told the crew as she led Maddie to a random door.

The door opened, revealing a dark room, completed with a bed that had a purple blanket on top, a simple drawer with a lamp on top, a big carpet in the middle with Twilight's cutie mark etched on it. A simple wardrobe close to the wall, and two big windows with curtains. A single door with towels stacked on a shelf next to it.

"Don't try shit." Bliss said to Twilight before rummaging through the drawers and wardrobes.

Maddie laid down on the carpet, ragged breathing sounds filled the room as he was close to passing out from exhaustion.

Twilight wanted to say something, ask if he was alright, or carry him to a hospital. Anything to help, but with them not trusting her in the slightest, as well as the sharp claws holding her hostage told her not to try. Filled with both worry and fear, she simply chose to wait for a chance to speak up.

"Fuck! Seriously? What the hell kind of moron doesn't keep anything useful in their rooms." Bliss yelled angrily as she kicked the extra door open, revealing a bathroom thoroughly checked.

"Those with luxury?" Maddie replied with a smirk.

"Yeah. That's why I said moron." Bliss responded with her own smirk.

Twilight was just slightly offended at their exchange.

Daisy let out a few rabbit noises, grabbing the attention of the duo as they just lie down.

"Alright, we'll rest for a bit, and leave before sunrise. We should be fine since took care of the night guards, and the day ones won't come before their shift." Maddie planned it out, completely ignoring the fact that Twilight was there.

"What about her?" Bliss asked while pointing her head to Twilight.

Maddie simply stared at Twilight as simulations upon simulations ran through his head, trying to see every possible outcome, even with the biggest variables.

"She's weaker than the blue one, so we'll use her until we get away, somehow." He finished.

"Aight, makes sense." Bliss replied.

Twilight was simply worried now, for she didn't know the state of Luna.

---

In the royal castle of Canterlot, a very distressed mare was trying to calm herself down.

"Come ooon, Celestia, she'll be fine, Lulu is a fully grown mare after all, she's even staying with Twilight, nothing is going to happen"

The alicorn of the sun. Celestia of the day, was very worried about her sister.

Despite wanting to head down there herself, she was also tied down by her royal duties, and her sister specifically told her not to follow her. She's aware that she has been treating her sister as if she were a foal, but by the stars, she could not see her any other way than her precious little sister. Even if, she tends to let out a few less than pleasant thoughts.

"Yes, Fluttershy is not really a fighter, and Rainbow Dash is known to be impulsive. So it's not too big of a surprise if they were defeated by thieves. Surely, Luna, with her thousands of years of experience in combat, and the guards she took with her, will be completely fine." She finished her little rant with a relieved breath as she sat down by her fireplace with a cup of steaming tea.

The fireplace was magically lit despite having nothing to burn on.

The evening gust felt more comfortable than chilling.

The simple blend of one of Celestia's favorite tea, calmed her down quite nicely.

As she let out a soft sigh, the smallest trace of magic came to her. She watched with small anticipation as the gust of green magic turned to fire, before swiftly being replaced by a white scroll. Her calmness, however, was broken by the traces of blood on the parchment. Any thoughts of it being red paint was broken by the small traces of iron wafting off the spots. Trying not to freak out, she quickly unrolled the scroll and read its contents.

With widened eyes, she quickly stood up to leave.

"GUARDS!" She yelled, her voice reverberating through the castle.

"Your highness." The ponies, looking oddly similar to one another, fully donned in golden armor, came in the room and bowed.

"Tell Captain Sword Edge to take his stallions, and head straight to Ponyville as fast as he can, tell him to land at Twilight's Castle." With that, she disappeared in a flash of light.

Appearing inside the Castle of Friendship, Celestia hastily started to check the rooms one by one with a glowing horn, hoping to find her sister. Bodies were scattered throughout here and there. Guards that she had sent as support, and a few specialists from Luna's personal regimen. She closed the wounds of those who would have died, and awoke those who were only knocked out.

Then she spotted someone she knew.

"Spike!" Celestia shouted louder than intended as she ran up to the poor dragon.

The small dragon was huddled up, terrified by something as his scales were colored red on random spots.

"P-princess." He looked up with a stutter as tears were flowing from his eyes.

"Spike, tell me what happeened." Celestai demanded peacefully.

"I-I don't know, I wanted something to drink, then, then, there were just, guards laying there, and-and my feet felt wet, so I ran, and, I wanted to tell Twilight, but she was missing, and I, I panicked." He finished his story while supressing sobs.

"Alright, you're safe now, I'll get to the bottom of this." Celestia told him as she placed him on her back and teleported.

Author's Note:

OK, next chapter.

I'll be busy with a traditional holiday, so I probably won't post for like a week.

Anyways, thanks for reading.