Paved with Good Intentions

"Oh, so now you decide to talk." The mare rolled her eyes. "Yes, I said Drem. What does that mean to you? I suppose now you're going to tell me that you snuck into the Royal Library to study ancient texts, too." She snorted. "As if they would have any of those books. Look, I've had enough. I'm in no mood for you jokes anymore. Can you just leave me alone so I can report you in peace?"

Griff groans at the mare with apparently no sense of humor. "No, I will certainly not say that, but... I met someone who called himself 'Drem'. Now I won't tell you the exact location where, but he was the... well, reason for all this." Griff answers with now a rather serious expression.

"I... see." The mare's exasperated expression and body language disappeared instantly, now replaced by a thoughtful gaze directed at Griff. She stopped quite suddenly in her tracks, seemingly no longer inclined to proceed away from the conversation. Though she did push Griff's hoof off her shoulder. "What is 'all this', exactly?"

Griff hesitated for a moment, looking at the ground before lifting his head and looking at the mare again. "The whole reason I'm in Unicornia." he answered shortly before adding "You see... erm, miss, I'm a mercenary. I do what I'm told if there's good money behind it."

"That's... good to know." The mare cringed. "Somewhat." She shook her head. "Anyway, so you came to Unicornia just for this job that Drem gave you. Fine. But what exactly was the job about? Surely it couldn't have been sightseeing. That's something you don't need to break into the Palace for."

Griff sighed. "What would the point of secret missions be if they wouldn't be kept as a secret?" Griff only partially playfully asks the mare. "And before you get angry for not telling you again, look, I'm sorry, but some things must be kept as a secret. Unless you could prove that you are trustworthy, then in that case, I would tell you. I have no idea why.. " Griff took a moment to look at the mare's cutie mark 'A musician? Now that's interesting..' "...would a musician need to worry about these things. And one more thing, you mentioned that someone sent you, who is that someone?

When the earth ponies backed up, Dusk took that time to get back up and raise his shield. Now out of immediate danger, He calmed himself down enough to no longer be panicking, but he was also very much on edge. He blocked the spear strikes with his shield, while keeping a close on on what the two ponies were doing. Dusk was planning for them to come to him, and swing his halberd down on the first one that got too close.

Auftrag ducked by his cubical, a nice neat cubical with all the papers organized and filed away, dropped off his hat and suit jacket, looked into a nearby mirror, and combed his mane out. Always look your best when speaking to superiors. Nice motto to live by. He straitened up his waistcoat and shirt collar, then his tie, and brushed his mane back so that both of his eyes were visible. Looking sharp! He made sure that his cuff links weren't soiled and were straight. Alright, perfect. He picked up his report and put it in a folder to protect it. He knew he had to report to Lady Plant, so he levitated the report as he trekked down the mess of papers and pens that was the Intelligence Division. Unicornia's brightest and best, stuck here pushing papers and pens (off the desk), a disorganized mess, but they help keep everyone safe. And that's all we can ask for.

He finally finished traversing the mess of papers and pens, and knocked on the the door to Lady Plant's office. His report hovered next to him. "Lady Plant? It's Auftrag. Permission to enter?"

Pocket Change, despite being the early riser of the two brothers, was the early bird who did not get the worm on this fine morning. Nay, it was while he was taking a nice stretch--his shoulders had been killing him for a week, and this was the first morning they'd not been cramped up in a tiny space or been trapped in public--in the secluded little section of cloud he and his brother had taken over for the night.
Nay, it was Spare's airhead tendencies that had him staring blankly up at the sky when the birds began their sudden flight. In a single instant, he chirruped for his brother's attention in the only way he knew how:
"Pocket! Pocket! Looky looky! Birds! Lots of birds! Like, lots of lots of birds!"

His brother's incessant cry drew Pocket's attention up to the skies as well, and forced a sigh from his beak, though he did flash a short smile at his twin, "I believe you mean 'breakfast', Spare. Breakfast."
"Really?! We get to eat real food for once! Ooh, but there's so many!"
"That just makes them easier to catch. Come on, let's go."

And with those words, a true band of brothers took to the skies.

"Hey, you're not telling me everything, so don't expect me to either." The mare said defensively. A second later, she looked down at the ground and sighed. "So, let me just go through everything you've said. You're a mercenary, hired by somepony who goes by the name of Drem, to infiltrate the Palace for... some reason or another." She looked at him. "You'll do any job for money?"

Griff grinned at the mare. "As long as the money is good for the mission, sure." he said and remembered the envelope he received. A payment and instructions for next mission. "...Though I was about to go on another mission after my celebration drinking... so if you're tempted to give me a job, it's gonna have to wait." He said and slightly bowed and then suddenly stood up again, his necklace of animal fangs rattling as he did.

The mare sighed. "Fine, fine. All I needed was somepony who could get into the Palace without arousing suspicion. I'll look for somepony else, but if you find yourself in a position to get in and want a job... I suppose you could come to me. I'll be at the Royal Opera House; ask to see Harmony and they'll let you go backstage. Hopefully. At the very least they'll tell me that somepony wants to see me." She moved to walk away, before turning back and adding, "We never had this discussion, of course." And she left, in aneastward direction.

Griff shrugged as he watched her walk away. "Sheesh." He muttered under his breath before transforming into hsi flight form and flew on top of one of the houses, where he transformed back. He then took the envelope he received and opened it, looking at its contents.

Wolfe shrugs, grabbing his Chancellor and heading to go around the other side of the burning Everfree. There was no way he was going to take his force through a bunch of fire if he didn't need to. He'd laugh and turn to his men, however, after leaving the hot zone of the stage. "Sometimes, you don't need to succeed at diplomacy, sometimes you just need to stall them until the crossbows arrive!" He grins, heading his way back to the camp.

"I apologise your majesty, I shouldn't question your designs at least not unless I have a better idea." Hoodwink said with a nod. His face betrayed nothing of the brief stab of panic, his easy going grin maintained. "I'm afraid it'll have to do my king; my employers employ me for my versatility which sometimes leads to... hostile situations."

He sidled up to the look out one of the windows with a contemplative look. "Minotaurs are just a little less friendly than the rumors say." He said with a chuckle of dark humor to his voice. "Thankfully they're also woefully incompetent at how to properly scalp a pony. Still, the results of failure are... ugly to look at." Hoodwink said, casting a sideways glance to Hoodwink. "Unless his majesty is fascinated by that sort of disfigurement I'd make it a point to keep my hat on." He explained. "Rude as it may be, the alternative seems more so."

- Zen -

As Sonata moved forward, the fatigue in her system still gave no signs of letting up, but her pursuers were thankfully nowhere to be seen. Through the fog of the darkness, nothing seemed to be coming up behind her. The crackling of the fires, though distant, did mess with her hearing slightly, but not much. And as much as she could hear, there was nopony approaching at all, except from... in front of her.

Two and a half seconds later, what appeared to be an enraged manticore leapt out from behind a set of trees, growling and snarling and foaming at the mouth. It charged at Sonata, claws outstretched and ready to slash, and as soon as it could it would attempt a swing of its claws.

---

- Eq -

Wolfe's departure from the stage was somewhat more difficult than it was previously, owing to the fact that not only the stage but also now the very ground around it was burning with an intensity that was sure to hurt if any were to walk into it. While the pegasi were able to flee into the sky, there seemed to be no immediately evident way for the earth pony squadron to leave the encampment without taking a trek through the fire.

Then the sound of an unleashing catapult snapped through the air, and a ball of many wet cloths flipped end over end through the air above them and landed on the stage with a wet splat. Unrolling it would allow Wolfe to see that there were at least a hundred in that ball.

---

- Sharp -

Blackwing continued to sweat as Accentria pressed on, and then his expression of trepidation abruptly morphed to one of confusion - and quite definitely relief - when Accentria backed away and turned back to Clover.

When Accentria faced Clover again, she would notice that Clover was staring at Blackwing quite intently, but immediately looked back at Accentria and smiled. "You're welcome, Accentria. Anything for a friend." She gestured to the door. "I've just got to go out for a little bit, once I get back we can talk a little more, alright?" With that, she trotted out of the door, whistling a soft tune as she went.

In her room, Accentria would realise that it was rather small and spartan, with the biggest feature of the room being a single bed in the corner, accompanied by a little bedside table and an oil lamp. A bookshelf - though empty - was located at the far end of the space. But just beside the bookshelf was something very interesting.

On that wall hung a full map of the continent. Encompassing all the territories of the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, the whole land and all its cities - except for the Crystal Empire, curiously - was reproduced in stark and unmistakeably upbeat relief on the map. But most curiously of all, the map was labelled with an unfamiliar name: Equestria.

---

- Dragon Soul -

All of a sudden, Dusk would feel an almost crippling sense of fatigue spread out through his body, emanating from the places where the arrows from the earlier volley had nicked him. While not fatal (yet, at least) his current condition would likely hinder his fighting capabilities at least somewhat. At this point, the two earth ponies he was facing against now charged forward, shields up and spears emerging from the sides, attempting to stab at Dusk from around his own tower shield.

---

- OP -

Blueblood continued to stare inquisitively at Hoodwink, for a long while seeming to lack his usual haughtiness and arrogant posture. Then, he said slowly, "Very well. Here, let me show you more of my accomodations." He moved slowly out of the double doors and back into the corridor, beckoning to Hoodwink to follow him and continuing his movement only when Hoodwink began to follow along.

Back out in the corridor, he would turn left, walking forwards past more valuables encased in the glass cases Hoodwink had seen earlier. However, as he went along the valuables seem to get cheaper and cheaper; gold turned to other cheaper metals, and diamonds turned to polished imitations, as they went along. Eventually Blueblood came to the end of the corridor and pushed open a noticeably plain-looking door, opening the way onto a stairwell. "Come on, I've yet to show you my finest displays. But before I do... I must entreat you to shed more light on your occupation, as it were. I'm afraid you've been unmistakeably vague up until this point, almost as if... you were trying to hide something from me." A brief flash of... something went across his eyes, and then his arrogance returned. "Not that you would dare, of course. Not from me."

---

- Arry -

Within the envelope, Griff would find enclosed his next instructions; instructions that might throw a wrench into his plans to leave Unicornia as quickly as possible.

Now for the next task, for which you will once again be paid handsomely, the document within read, I require you to once again enter the Palace. However, you will have to move into a very high-security block, and to faciliate an easier entrance on your part you have received an invitation to tonight's Grand Galloping Gala, as Xereth. Your task is to slip out of the ballroom where the Gala is being held and enter the Ministry of Economy's offices themselves. Here, tight security is kept, so you will have to exercise discretion. Further instructions will be given tonight.

Were Griff to look now, he would find not only his payment but also a gleaming, gold-coloured ticket labelled the Grand Galloping Gala: Invitation on it.

---

- Wise -

"Hm? Oh come in, come in." A female voice from the other side of the door said, and when Auftrag pushed the door open he would see what would normally be a bizarre sight but for him, one he would have grown used to in his time working in the Bureau.

Flora of all sorts hung from the ceiling and lined the edge of the circular room in pots of varying sizes, with everything from roses and daisies to much more menacing pitcher plants and Venus flytraps taking up the space in the room. Auftrag would have to take note, as well, of the vines growing along the floor in erratic patterns and posing a potential tripping hazard to anypony who was to enter.

"Hello, Auftrag." The mare behind the sole desk in the room, a light green unicorn mare with a long, flowing yellow mane and a similarly flowing lavender gown, looked up at him as he entered. "Your report?"

---

- Khaos -

As the two hippogryphs ascended to the skies, a few wayward look were thrown in their direction from the pegasi below; some curious looks, but mostly disapproving ones as the ponies tried to keep their distance from the two. In the sky, the birds seemed to exhibit similar behaviour, but only because they suspected they had suddenly become prey. With a loud series of calls, the flock dispersed in several directions, all trying to fly away from the brothers but not being able to accumulate as much speed as their pursuers could.

Wolfe raises an eyebrow at the MacGyver'd fire suppression system that had just been deployed in front of him. "Never doubt the engineering corps, I suppose..." He mutters to himself, gathering some of the wet cloths that missed the fire for use later and running straight back the way he came.

"Shit!" Sonata cursed as the beast suddenly emerged from the foliage. To say it was unexpected would be an understatement, and with her bow now across her chest, it'd take too long to get. Instead, Sonata instantly spread her wings and backpedaled as the manticore charged forward. Each fore hoof went for a pistol crossbow at her sides. Luckily, a manticore charging straight at her was one big target that'd be fairly hard to miss, so Sonata wasted little time in firing off the first two bolts.

If the monster was still charging her after that, she'd continued flying back while tossing one of the pistol crossbows off to the side. This way she'd have her one hoof free to reload her other crossbow as she'd continue flying away while firing.

When Dusk felt the poison begin to kick in, he suddenly cursed his luck. With it, he knew he couldn't retreat from the two ponies, but perhaps could draw them in so other unicorns could kill them. If that didn't work though, he didn't think he'd be able to fight both of them. He needed to kill or cripple one of them now.

He started backing up, keeping his shield facing the one on the left, while he charged up the most powerful magic blast he could muster, one that would actually be lethal, and fired it at the pony on the right.

Griff smiled at his reward, knowing that he could get even more beers, or say, better equipment with it. His twin swords were getting a little dull and rusty, so they could use a replacement, even if they worked as decoys to hide his true powers.

His smile, however, quickly turned into a frown as he read instructions. "Oh come on!" he groaned. "Not only that I have to stay in this ... this place where nobodies think of themselves as kings, but I have to participate in the most boring event of all?!" he thought as he was looking at the golden ticket and re-reading the instructions. "That means I'd also have to buy some decent clothing... my rugged mercenary's clothes won't get me far without raising suspicion." he thought and looked at his rugged and partially torn cloak and leather armor. "Perhaps I should wait for that pony that likes landing on others and then visit that mare... perhaps she could help me fit into Gala better..." he thought out loud as he glanced over at Blueblood's mansion, waiting for Hoodwink to come out.

Whilst neither hippogriff could care less about the pegasi below them, so long as none of them felt the need to summon guards to protect the "poor, innocent creatures", they cared a lot about the "poor, innocent creatures" that were attempting to remain living, "poor, innocent creatures". This state of affairs was thoroughly intolerable, and would require immediate, forceful correction.
As such, each brother set their sights on a target. And they shot forward like the predatory birds they halfway-were. Now was the time to dine; and it was the flock's time to die.
When Spare would close on birds, he was likely to simply attempt to take them straight into his beak, biting down hard and quickly to break them in midair, before dropping them and letting his claws catch them. Pocket would take a more economical approach with his food, coming down from above and grasping them in a powerful set of claws and simply crushing the life from their tiny, fragile skeletons. A couple of birds apiece would make for an amazing breakfast, if they could make the captures properly.

Auftrag activated predestination and stepped around the vines. When he finally got to her, he placed the report on the desk and bowed. "Lady Plant, I see you are looking your best today. The pegasus refused to talk, even after I used my best techniques. He seems to be trained to resist most torture techniques and methods. He did say that Unicornia was going to suffer 'humiliation and defeat'....I know n-" Auftrag paused for a minute. "Was there supposed to be a public execution of any enemy political leaders today? I have a hunch...." Auftrag brushed his errant mane away from his right eye.

The first thing Accentria noticed was the empty bookshelf. “Soon!” she thought to herself, smiling. The second, was the map, which she eyed curiously. “Equestria…. Equestria..” She mused.  “Nope… I don’t think I’ve ever heard it being called that before.” she continued, taking a closer look at the map. “Huh. That’s peculiar. No borders.” she mused, her eyes widening in realization.  “Ah… One day indeed, Clover." Accentria shook her head in amusement. "Equestria. Not bad. Not bad at all.” she laughed to herself, stepping away from the map and turning her attention to her bed.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Accentria? Your own bed. Though... I can’t help but feel like something is going to go horribly wrong--- and soon. Too many secrets… Too many secrets.” she repeated, continuing with her musing. “Ah. Well. Regardless! I’ve been looking forward to this.” With a smile, she lay down. Yawning, Accentria gave the map one final look…. and dozed off.

- Zen -

The two bolts struck the manticore square in its chest, though it didn't seem to immediately die. The arrows didn't appear to have penetrated any vital organs, but unless Sonata was well-versed in manticore anatomy the effectiveness of her shots remained to be seen. The manticore didn't continue its forward charge any longer, instead drawing to a slow halt and staying in between a couple of trees, silently eyeing Sonata but not seeming to make any move to attack her.

---

- Eq -

The wet cloths were not, in fact, any kind of fire suppression system, though they did serve to allow Wolfe and his team to come out of the fire at least somewhat safe. His squad followed behind him as he headed out of the fire with the aid of the wet cloths, also in turn protecting the Chancellor as they moved out. After passing through what could be compared to the fires of Tartarus, Wolfe would emerge out onto the sight of an enormous amassed formation of heavily armoured earth ponies, the lighter catapults at the back still propelling arrows into the air at the fleeing pegasi.

"Well done," the earth pony at the head of the formation said to Wolfe, galloping forward and offering a helping hoof. "Is the Chancellor safe?"

---

- Sharp -

Accentria's nap would be long and undisturbed, with nothing coming along to break the almost sacred tranquility of her own personal room. When she woke up, however, she would find Clover looking at her with a gentle smile on her face, sitting on the floor beside the bed. "Awake? I wondered if you'd be soon." She gestured to the door. "I was planning for us to go out and explore. I do have a few things to show you."

---

- Dragon Soul -

Owing to his previous usage of fire, the magic blast was not as powerful as he hoped it would be; however, it was still strong enough to hit the earth pony knight full in the face and propel him back several metres, sending him crumpling into a (still alive) heap and his spear impaling itself in the dirt beside him. It seemed that the poison did not affect magical strength, at least.

The other earth pony's attack was naturally blocked by the shield, but he backtracked and attempted to charge straight into Dusk's shield, using his armour and protection and his bulk to try and push him back.

---

- Arry -

Watch as he did, for the time being Griff would not see Hoodwink emerging from Blueblood's mansion. Indeed, at the moment Unicornia seemed most tranquil, with only the faint bustling of noise at the outer districts making any sort of disturbance in the air. The Castle District was quite quiet at this point in time; nary a pony seemed to be around at this time.

---

- Wise -

"Hm?" Lady Plant cocked her head to the side. "Ah, another one of those feisty ones, must be. I wouldn't worry though, our new Grand Marshal assured us that the executions of Puddinghead and Hurricane is well under control. I'm inclined to believe him, too; he's the first Grand Marshal in a very long time to be selected based on merit rather than lineage. That, and I've seen the plan, it's quite sound. I expect he'll return triumphant any day now."

---

- Khaos -

Both Spare and Pocket succeeded, to a certain extent. Spare's efforts would clinch him an unfortunately small magpie, crushed instantly by the powerful force of his beak and now very much lifeless. Pocket's attempt would yield a much larger, fatter pigeon. In fact, it seemed disproportionately fat, so much so that it really shouldn't be in the air. It was probably bad for its health, and it certainly proved to be so when Pocket easily caught the big fat bird and crushed it to immediate, painful, and horrifying death.

As the manticore stopped it's charge, Sonata stopped her shooting. That doesn't mean she didn't re-prepare herself with going ahead and reloading the crossbow she had, but then slowly and carefully sliding it back in it's holster, always ready to pull it out and shoot again should the manitcore start charging again. If it didn't, Sonata would then slowly and carefully crept towards her other crossbow, trying to look non-threatening as she tried to retrieve the weapon.

Or she would start trying to at least, before the sudden rush wore off and she reverted back to the drug enhanced lethargy. Slumping to a knee, Sonata let out a gasp as she tried to catch herself and struggled to push herself back up. A battle was tiring enough as is, and trying to contend with drugs working against her, Sonata was not in a good position but sheer determination set her hooves under her this time, and that same determination was what was trying to force her to standing again so she could retrieve that other crossbow.