A New World Fools

Night Rose looked around for a better hiding spot, but didn’t really see one. Then she looked up. “Oh, I hope Mom isn’t going to be upset about this…” She thought, flying up into the tree she was hiding behind and taking refuge in it’s thicker branches. Though, as good as this was, it could be better. She placed her hands on the tree and silently willed it to grow more branches and leaves around her, further obstructing her from view. It was a bit tiring, as she was not used to working with plants as wild as those from the Everfree, but the tree made no attempt to stop her.

Verde scowls in the direction of the hooded figure but is prevented from objecting to the imposition by the swirl of darkness appearing, coalescing into a portal through which a tall thin green pegasus stepped followed by mooks, thugs, muscle, meatheads, and various other forms of minions. This wanker, Verde inferred from the thestral calling him by name, appeared to be Kuleco and was an excellent argument for widespread spinal and wing injuries caused by crowbar, followed by multiple subdural hemotomas which Auntie Silver warned her were the leading cause of unconsciousness, coma, and death following a concussive injury. Granted, the crossbows and other assorted sharp and deadly objects that the mooks were holding constituted a compelling argument for obedience and inaction, but Auntie Knife had always told her that taking a fight when it's offered when you can get something out of it is never an opportunity to be wasted, and Kuleco getting his nearly-nonexistent plot shot and the fact that the pair of ponies who'd welcomed them were in mortal peril made walking away a loser's game. Besides, she'd been preparing Mister Shiny especially for such a moment ever since they became friends.

So a thoroughly insane unicorn mare clad in a shirt with an expensive and very soft bathrobe wrapped around her pulls out a machete and crowbar and comes out of the trees to say hello to the nearest guard. "Hello" in this context means getting Mister Shiny in between his weapon and her very tender flesh, and ringing his bells as thoroughly as possible with Mister Hook. "Howsabout the lot of us run like 'ell together, eh wot?" she asks of Equinox and Live Iron. "Although I'm happy to beat the beanpole upside the head if you'd rather."

The guard making his way into the woods wheeled around and pointed his polearm towards the direction of the firecrackers going off, making an odd clicking noise as he did. He turned his back at just the wrong moment for the unfortunate guard to be welcomed by Verde smashing her weapons painfully into him, producing an oddly strangled sounding hiss from the guard before the second blow sent him crashing into the floor of the forest where he lay still, his helmet dented slightly from the force of the blow.

A kunai thudded into the trunk of the tree Night Rose was hiding up mere inches from Verde's head, the green pegasus Kuleco already slipping several more into his hand from up his sleeve while his free hand produced an ornate, highly decorated combat knife from inside his coat.

Live Iron took advantage of the distractions at almost the same moment as Equinox did, sword and gun both catching the moonlight as Equinox buried his weapon to the hilt in the stomach of the nearest axe wielding guard while Live Iron's muzzle flashes illuminated the scene as three crossbowmen were downed in two bullets, one dead instantly, the others clutching at severe wounds in their limbs.

"Someone's in the tree!" A guard yelled, pointing upwards to where Night Rose had made the branches and leaves expand to cover her. Equinox took advantage of the distraction to thump the guard in the back of the head but already Kuleco had sprinted past, propelling himself with his wings right toward the source of the disturbance, his icey blue eyes alive with malice and fury as he descended on where the filly was hiding, Live Iron aimed her guns after him but quickly had her aim thrown off by Equinox for fearing of accidentally hitting the filly.

Almost like they had read each other's thoughts a pair of guards ran behind Kuleco, ducking right under him as he took off and leaping at Verde, aiming to bring their axes down on her head while a surviving crossbowman scanned the treeline with his weapon looking for more of the group.

Jammex looked up at Kuleco as he landed where Night Rose was hiding, taking a short moment to root through his bag of explosives and pulled out a small bottle rocket. After quickly removing most of the fuse so he'd have just enough time to run away before it went off he rammed the attached  stick into the ground, pointing at Kuleco, and lit the fuse.

Almost as soon as he lit the fuse Jammex ran out from behind the tree and headed straight for the crossbowman. Knowing that he didn't have time pull out another firework and not get shot he opted to throw his lighter at the guard's head instead in the hope that it would distract/confuse him long enough for Jammex to provide a serving of delicious knuckle sandwich.

The two guards would find their axes  being blocked by a thick pole of ice coming from a nearby tree. "You know it not nice to hit a woman, especially with two of you, with axes. Especially a mare with fruits like those." If the two guards would look They would see a blue unicorn mare hanging upside down from her legs and holding the ice with her magic. She will then give the two guards a cute little wave.
The mare then put one of her hands up to her mouth and blow a steady stream of snow, which she then form to Sickle of ice. (Ice-sickle Hehe ice puns.)

Swindle stayed still during the events that took place in the fields before him, opting to not take part. He wished that those who were brought with him would stop trying to do anything and just stay still, and stay quiet. He was disdainful of them, especially considering that they were putting all their lives in danger. Especially the one who threw firecrackers. That was the one he disliked the most, until the mare in the towel came out and decided to attack. Then he decided he liked her the least.

He took a few small steps backwards, slowly as to not draw attention, as he had no plans for getting involved. The most he did was check his gun up his sleeve to make certain it was still there, as a comfort. He would be ready to shoot anyone who got too close. But that was the extent of how much he would participate.

Night Rose yelped in fear, seeing the terrifying pegasus charge after her. She didn’t really see any quick way to escape without being attacked, so she did the first thing that came to mind. She slammed her hands on the tree, and silently yelled at it to protect her. It responded by rapidly growing long pointed branches at Kuleco, intending to stab and/or skewer him. More branches then grew around her in defense.

Verde pauses just long enough to watch the guard she'd attacked crumple from the shot he'd taken to the head before she continued to move in on the rest of the guards, head on a swivel and tracking the movements of Kuleco as he sidestepped Live Iron and went straight at the filly. The pegasus was fortunate, really, that his mooks were clever enough to rush her at the same time, as it was the only thing between his nearest wing and the hook of a crowbar grabbing the crest bone and yanking in a completely unnatural direction. Instead, Verde pauses a short moment to watch the axes descend towards her before ducking slightly to avoid the beards and striking out to smash the flat of Mister Shiny over one guard's fingers and bring Mister Hook down as hard as she can on the wrist of the other. Whatever the results of these strikes, she doesn't stop moving, trying to charge passed them before turning around and surrendering her machete into her magical grip, lining up to 'throw' it at Kuleco's receding back, hopefully in time to prevent him from doing any harm to the filly.

Kuleco snarled as the branches jutted out at him, one nearly taking his eye out as it lurched suddenly into his face. The green pegasus ducked low and sent a knife flying at Verde before she could let the machete fly but realised too late that he had ducked right into the path of the bottle rocket, which exploded in his face; the green pegaus let out a loud snarl of pain and slipped from the branch he was stood on, catching himself with his wings halfway down and still clutching at his face.

On the ground Jammex's lighter did very little to distract the crossbowman, who reacted quickly enough to aim up and shoot a bolt right at his head but was thrown off course when Equinox smashed the hilt of his sword into the crossbowman's head; with a loud shout of laughter at his luck, Equinox grinned in satisfaction as the bolt flew right into the stomach of another guard.

"Into the forest you lot!" Live Iron called out to the strangers as a stream of bullets from her revolvers made the two remaining soldiers think twice about trying another approach after they had been blocked by the ice wall; one of them threw off their damaged helmet to free up his vision, exposing a black chitin covered head with a curved, unpleasant jaw growling in anger.

"Fall back!" He hissed loudly, he and his partner not wasting anytime following his own advice as they took off for the edge of the field where the door they had appeared through was waiting for them again.

"Oh no you don't!" Live Iron shouted, aiming her guns and opening fire again; one of the guards dropped under the force of five separate shots to the back but his friend evaded the initial flurry. Live Iron attempted to reload but the green blur that was Kuleco smashed a kick into the back of her head as he returned from the woods; one of his eyes was bloodshot and swollen and his face was covered in several small cuts and burns from the bottle rocket.

Looking slightly deranged, Kuleco locked eyes with Jammex and Verde, pale blue burning with the hatred of Tartarus itself. For a moment it seemed like he would have another go, charge them once more for revenge but luckily for Live Iron he seemed to know a losing battle and turned tail, taking off with his wings toward the portal, outstripping the changeling guard through it despite it's impressive headstart.

Equinox and Live Iron gathered themselves briefly; the stallion had a cut going across his chest and Live Iron's left eye was rapidly developing a shocking bruise where Kuleco had just hit her. The two looked shaken but not badly hurt.

Jammex picked up the lighter and flipped it shut before looking at Equinox. "Well the lighter plan could have gone better but hey, we kicked some serious ass!" He pauses to take a quick breath before speaking again. "You okay?" He asks, gesturing to the cut on his chest as he put the lighter in the bag.

"Well, that was weird."Sickle said as jumped down from the branch and grabbed her sketch bag. She decided to walk back to the stranger that brought her here Taking a long piece of her ice wall with her. On her way back she broke off the blade to ice Sickle, Crushed it and reformed it into a  small block of ice passing it to the revolver pony. (AKA Live iron.)  then handed the Longer piece of ice to Equinox. "I may not be the best medic. but icing down cuts and bruses should help the swelling. But, can you two explain why I went from being surrounded by hipsters and fillies on a playground to being surrounded by dead? I'm not a half breed vampony ya know." Sickle said, reaching into her bag and pulling out lolipop, (She lost the first one in the woods.)

Seeing the scary pony leave, the tree slowly returned to its original state, having done its duty to protect the filly in its branches. The filly in question slowly calmed down and got down from the tree, breathing heavily and sweating, like she had just ran a marathon. She leaned back against the tree and slumped into a sitting position. “That… was terrifying…” She looked up at the tree and gave it a pat. “Thanks tree…”

When the coast seemed clear, Swindle began to carefully crawl out of the woods, cautious of any threats that could potentially blindside him. Many thoughts ran through his head as he did so, the main one being that of how he planned on getting home, and, more urgently, how he would even survive. To him, things seemed bleak, as he thought his odds of living through his current situation were low.

When he eventually got out of the woods, and made his way towards the others, he opted to keep his concerns to himself, as he was certain that his thoughts wouldn't be appreciated, given how he hid away, and would likely be chasitsed if he worried out loud. Plus, he didn't want to show weakness, as he wasn't sure yet who was a potential threat and who was an ally.

Verde sees Kuleco twist around and the flash of starlight on his knife, and immediately drops the blade of her machete vertically and revolves it. It's not enough to catch the blade solidly and knock it to a side, but it converts the tumbling motion of a properly-thrown knife into a drunken wobble and instead of the blade hitting her in a shoulder, the handle hits her in the stomach and she coughs as the breath is knocked out of her. When she comes back up a few seconds later, it's in time to see Kuleco look murderously at her. She manages to smirk before he turns and goes, her smirk expanding to a grin as he disappears into the portal. "Well, good riddance to bad rubbish, eh wot?" She turns and looks over Live Iron and Equinox. "I think they've skived off for now. Should we pause and get the lot of you bound up before we go wherever the buck we end up going?"

"I'm fine." Equinox said in a dismissive sort of way, not fussing over his wound while Live Iron held the offered ice to her head with a grateful mumble; she seemed annoyed at herself more than anything, frustrated that she had allowed an enemy to get the drop on her so easily.

"We'll live, for now we need to get moving." Live Iron grumbled while Equinox walked over to Night Rose and patted her gently on the head; he seemed to be impressed by her trick with the tree. "We have an ally in the forest by the name of Zecora, it would be best for us to be somewhere protected and then we can give you a proper explanation."

"Want a ride?" Equinox offered Night Rose, gesturing to his shoulders for a piggyback.

"We've got a bit of a hike so..." Live Iron seemed a bit awkward. "I don't suppose you'd mind telling me who you all are? No offense but you don't exactly look like mighty warriors."

Sickle smiled, "Name's Dream sickle. Equestria best (and possibly only) ice artists. Pretty much anything ice related, I can control." She cheerfully said as she twirled the ice pole like a baton. 
"Plus I can do this." She said before she popped out her lollipop with her free hand, She then blew ou a steady stream of snow on the ice pole. With her magic, she used the snow. to transform the pole into an ice short sword.  "Cool, right."

Night Rose stood up slowly and looked over at Live Iron. “My name is Night Rose, and no I’m not a mighty warrior. I’m still in school.” She introduced herself. “Though, Mom told me when I get a little older, I get to start training to be an adventurer like her and Sunny.” She looked around at her surroundings. “I guess I get that training a little sooner than I thought.” She accepted the piggyback ride offer from Equinox and got on his shoulders. “Thanks.”

"Oh, I'm mighty all right," Verde says with a grin. "Mighty pissed, mighty annoyed, mighty doomed, mighty naked but for the shirt, mighty poor, and I have mighty threws." Despite having declared herself mighty pissed and mighty annoyed, Verde seems remarkably cheerful. "But also a mighty warrior. Sort of. I have this other mighty thing, called an intellect, and it kept me mighty alive while a mighty fabulous stallion brought down a mighty large critter with a single mighty blow that made no sense whatsoever. A mighty large number of buildings were smashed. All in all, it was a mighty cool night on the town, with lots of screaming and destruction, and I got to smack a ridiculously handsome stallion--not the same one--upside the head and tell him to pull himself together." She thinks about this visibly. "Which may or may not have been the best course of action, encouraging a thief to get his steal on and kick some plot, but he had a glorious hat so that made it OK."

She takes a good long pause at the end of the monologue, letting the silence settle around her, before smiling cheerfully in the direction of Live Iron. "The machete is Mister Shiny, the crowbar is Mister Hook, and I'm Verde Tin, master of applied sciences, Trotsford University. And on a complete tangent, do you know a thestral named Razor Back? On the short side, looks younger than she is, generally good-looking, usually horny, and the only pony I know who can be measured in donnybrooks per second. Ring a bell?"

Swindle listened to the others introduce themselves, making mental notes about the towel clad mare and the ice mage, about how one was a bit of a showboat, doing theatrics in the situation they were in, and how the other was a tad bit... Off. He made sure he would be watching her, just in case.

He then gave a quiet sigh through his nose, and stepped forward a bit. "I'm Swindle." He said, before quickly adding, "Which is an unfortunate name, I'm aware, so please, refrain from any judgements for now."

He then turned to Live Iron, specifically adresssing her, "Oh, and there's a reason I don't look like a mighty warrior. Three guesses as to why" He said, bitterly. He was going to say more, but barely refrained from doing so, taking a step backwards to show he was done. He hadn't really meant to throw that in there, but he was bitter at being brung into someone else's problem against his own will. He decided, however, to once again keep his grievences to himself, as now wasn't the time for them.

"Gotta admit, that's a nifty trick." Equinox agreed with Sickle as he carried the filly on his shoulders through the forest. "Watch your head up there little one." He said to Night Rose as they passed some low hanging branches. "So, you're mum's an adventurer eh? Hmm, wish I hadn't dragged her little one into this but I'm sure she takes after her mum a little, right?"

"Don't start sounding hopeful Equinox." Live Iron advised him as she followed behind the group, bringing up the rear with her guns drawn. "Trust me, Swingle was it? Trust me, you're not the only one, Equinox used to be a nature tour guide, didn't ya Eq-" She paused and turned sharply to Viridian when she mentioned the name Razor Back; until that point the gunslinger thestral had been only half-listening to her listing her weapons, paying fuller attention to Swindle instead.

"Oi, fireworks boy? You got any sparklers in that bag?" Equinox called back to Jammex as the trees began to thicken and cut off what little light there was provided by the moon and stars.

"If you know anything about Razor Back, we need to know it." Live Iron said sharply to Viridian.

Verde blinks, visibly take-aback at Live Iron's sudden focus on her and oddly intense interest in her mother's marefriend. "Um... well, she's a thestral, she's about yay tall," she holds a hand above the ground as an approximate representation of Razor's height, "not overly busty but, you know, just enough to make it interesting. Likes a good brawl and is pretty good at it when she finds one--which is kind of frequent, come to think of it--is in real tight with a group of adventureres that includes an adorably shy dryad, the most debonair possible gentleman thief, and this really cute engineer thestral with a magitechnical arm she made herself--totally, totally my personal hero, by the way--is currently banging my mother with mutual enthusiasm on both sides of the arrangement, is a member of the Night Guard and I think she's pretty high up there, and does this hilarious thing when she orgasms where she bounces off the ceiling. We've had to replace the ceiling a few times, by the way, because that mare is tough as nails and a lot harder than the ceiling is." She visibly searches her mind for other factoids. "Um, I think that's about it." Her eyes light up. "Oh yeah, forgot... comes from a family that's completely batshit insane worshippers of Nightmare Moon. She has absolutely nothing to do with them but practically no one believes that so she kind of gets shit on by an association she can do nothing about and wants nothing to do with. It's a pretty shitty situation, as you can imagine."

Verde turns a look of equally intense interest on Live Iron. "So why do you want to know about my mom's marefriend, exactly? I mean, she's a really interesting person and all but this place seems a bit too FUBAR for one fun, violent, horny lesbian to matter much in the grand scheme of things."

Jammex shakes his head. "Nope, just about the only thing I don't have. I do have more fluid for this though." He says as he picks up a stick.

Pulling out a small bottle of lighter fluid, Jammex tears off the label and wraps it around the end of the stick. He then covers it in the fluid before pulling out the lighter and setting light to the improv torch. "Way better am I right?" He says with a smirk.

When equinox as about a light. Sickle's horn began to glow about the same brightness as a torch. "Trust me,I had to do this a lot more than any normal unicorn should," she said as she smashes the ice sword back into the snow and let it trail off. placing the lollipop back in her mouth.
She shortly got board of walking and pulled out a small sketchbook and materials. "Geez even in nightmare land I'm still stumped on what my next batch sculptures are going to be. I not joking, for like the last six months, every other request was, "Can you come to my daughter's birthday and build a castle as a show. Oh, and can you come dress as a princess."(doing this is a stereotypical fancy mom's voice.) Seriously it fun the first two times, but after that, I wanted to light my own art on fire." She said kind of annoyed voice.as she began to walk and sketch out princess luna. (non-nightmare form.)
((If you did not get the reference she was talking about.... your lucky.))

Night Rose ducked her head to avoid a branch. “Yeah, and I expect my mom will be trying to rescue me as fast as she can. She’s protective like that. And a bit crazy. Though it’s not her I’m worried about. It’s her partner, Sunshine.” She said, shuddering. “That was both the coolest and scariest Bring Your Daughter to Work Day ever.”

((Sorry for delays, next post will be sometime this week))