Paved with Good Intentions

The flames didn't scare Dusk as much as it would for a normal pony. Fire was his forte. He knew how to take the heat. He helped the rest of his knights follow their Grand Marshal, following his orders to the letter. He didn't like waiting when they should already be charging into the fray. But then again, the forest wasn't supposed to be on fire in the plan anyway.

"Okay you know what, I think I like your idea better!" Hoodwink said hurriedly as he took off from the Earth Pony camp before anyone could even try to stop him, taking off, not away from the blazing forest as would make sense to any logical pony but seemingly right toward it as if he'd suddenly decided to test whether he was fireproof in the worst way.

Once he reached his camp he swept everything into his saddlebags as fast as he could then set off at a sprint for the nearby village. If a battle was going to break out he wanted to be somewhere defensible.

Accentria looked to the pegasi, to the guard, and back again. "Oh bother..." She mumbled, getting up and brandishing the Geas. "Go?" She questioned the guard, pointing to the incoming pegasi. "You look like you need all the help you can get, you know..." She said, twirling her blades over her head. "After all, five swords are better than one... Riiight?" She continues, her horn beginning to glow a soft violet as she readied a lightning stunning-bolt spell. "Plus! I've never been one to run from a fight, especially not one of this preeminence!" And, with that said, she fired her spell.

- Zen -

The first arrow caught Sonata's target in the neck, sending the limp body collapsing to the ground on the stage. After that, the shield went up and absorbed the blow of the next few arrows, but then the full force of the armoured pegasus division descended upon the shield and cracked it like an egg. Everything descended into a melee brawl from there, with the unicorns drawing their arms and colliding with the front lines of the pegasus wall. The front three pegasi fell quickly, heads rolling on the ground in front of the determined but vastly outnumbered unicorns, but then a loud cry from the figure in sky-blue signalled the definitive turning of the tides as the unicorns were washed over like rocks on the beach in high tide.

Sonata didn't seem to be in combat just yet, with none of the unicorns able to achieve actual flight. That is, until a lightning stunning-bolt spell ricocheted from the ground below, near the stage where a nexus of twirling blades was positioned, and flew directly at her.

---

- Eq -

The pegasi reached the stage before the earth ponies did, with the soldiers having to take the time to brush away the ground-based obstacles like the fence of stakes, and to keep a steady footing on the wet ground as they scrambled to reach the Chancellor, which seemed in the heat of the moment far more slippery than water had any business being.

To compound upon that difficulty, a flight of ten heavily armoured pegasi slammed down from the sky onto the ground in front of the advancing earth pony force, and directly in front of Wolfe. The frontmost pegasus took a swing at Wolfe's neck with his sword, the blade slicing quickly and cleanly through the air towards its target.

---

- Sharp -

"Go!" said the guard as the shield closed him off from Accentria, still gazing at her in a panic as she managed to successfully fire off the lightning spell towards the sky. "You have no idea what's going to happen! You need to get out of here, now!"

In the meantime, the other pegasi were beginning to take notice of Accentria. A little while after the shield shattered, two of the fully armoured ones detached themselves from the battle on the stage and leapt down in front of Accentria, swords drawn and ready to fight.

---

- OP -

Hoodwink's journey was a relatively peaceful one, or at least as peaceful as a blazing fire directly adjacent to him could be. In order to reach the village he had to skirt the edge of the burning forest, which was at a temperature most would consider to be quite unpleasantly warm. What was far more unpleasant, however, was the battle scene he emerged into when he reached the town.

His position was at the edge of the forest, and from where he was the outlying ring of stakes of the unicorn camp was beginning to show. His vantage point allowed him the luxury of seeing Wolfe's earth pony battalion facing off against the armoured pegasi standing between them and the stage. Behind him, the rumbling of the earth pony reinforcements grew louder and louder, and another crash nearby signified a fresh volley from the trebuchets landing in the forest.

---

- Dragon Soul -

"Three," Ician whispered, "two, one, and..."

kaboom

A cascade of burning hail crashed down on top of the shield, slamming hard into them. Despite all that, however, the shield still managed to hold, although it clearly came quite close to wearing down. Many of the mages were panting from the exertion.

"Okay, let it drop." Ician said, eyes fixed forward. The shield fell to the relief of the mages who were maintaining it. Around them, all the trees were on fire, some of them having already collapsed from all the burning. In fact, the front group of trees had toppled quite neatly, revealing what lay beyond.

"There." Ician pointed forward, at the main earth pony camp just two hundred metres away. The trebuchets were clearly visible from where they were, and the pennants fluttering in the wind left no doubt as to its identity. "Okay, everypony, this is the moment we've been waiting for! Charge quickly, and give no mercy." He turned to the battlemages. "They don't stand a chance. Just make sure the shields are all properly up when we need them, and be sure to burn down all those siege devices," he gestured to the trebuchets, "except one. We'll need to study and reverse-engineer it. And also, be careful of poison," he continued, now addressing everyone. "I am familiar their commander, and knowing her she'd have something like that up her sleeve. After the battle is over, report to any battlemage to get your wounds checked. I want any slow-acting poison purged from your bodies."

With that, he charged forward at full speed towards the camp, his troops following shortly behind him with the mages looking particularly sharp. Dusk's knights would stay by his side, however, until ordered otherwise.

---

- Arry -

((My apologies, I realised I accidentally wrote Canterlot instead of Unicornia, like a dumb idiot who forgets his own continuity. I'll change all instances of Canterlot to Unicornia from now on. Sorry about that.))

The bartender raised his eyebrows, looking discreetly around and then quickly slipping Griff a hoofwritten note, which simply had the words 5 Castle District written on them. If he were familiar enough with the city, or at least heard about the famous castle that was the prominent centrepiece of the city that stood literally on the side of the mountain, he would know that Castle District was the ring of houses - or mansions, rather - around the castle. The residences reserved for only the most influential and powerful ponies in the country. The bar he was in was at the outer region of the town, meaning that he'd have to walk further into the city itself to reach this new destination. That wasn't the only problem, however; the houses there were a lot fancier, with walls, gates and other similar designs that restricted movement in and out, not to mention some of them even had guards stationed on the outside. Simply walking up to the door and knocking might not work as well as it had previously. Nonetheless, he had his destination. What he intended to do with it was up to him.

---

((New player, everyone. Please welcome him!))

- Wiserodin -

The small room, perhaps only three metres long and wide, was dark and dreary. Only the light from a solitary torch on the wall opposite Auftrag. The walls were made of drab stone bricks, making pretty much everything grey. The only parts of the room that weren't grey were the chair he was sitting in, and the table in front of him behind which a grey unicorn in a ragged jailor's outfit was seated.

"So," the grey unicorn rasped, having not had the decency to even introduce himself, "the Lady's pretty satisfied with your last job. So you get this extra one as a reward." He reached under the desk and pulled out a set of keys, throwing it over to Auftrag. "One of 'em's the right one, I can't remember which. Just try them all on Cell 48." He gestured out what might be referred to as the entrance to the room, given a certain generosity of spirit in differentiating an entrance and a hole in the wall. It certainly lacked any form of door, at least. "The prisoner's supposedly a high-ranking pegasus agent. The Lady wants you to interrogate him and find out what he knows. He was caught right here in Unicornia, and the Palace has no idea how he managed to get in without bein' found out. Feel free to be rough on 'im, he's a worthless piece of trash anyhow."

Outside the entrance, the corridor was approximately a metre wide with small cells about half the size of the room Auftrag was currently in lining both sides. Some were empty, but others were filled with a pony each, most of which looked dirty, thirsty, half-starved, and not like a unicorn.

"48's all the way at the other end o' this block. Sorry for the long walk." The unicorn said dismissively. "You shouldn't lose the way, it's just a straight path for a hundred metres or so."

---

((And we're back from the hiatus, everyone. So sorry about that. But I do also have a final announcement for all. Here's how combat works: If you attack, don't assume the attack lands unless I say so, which I probably will, but at times things happen which can come out of left field, so try not to assume that your attempt will be successful.

Secondly, if the enemy does an attack on you, I will most often not say whether it lands or not. This does not mean that you can simply dodge it; it's your job to detail what you do in response to that attack, and based on that and some complex algorithm and logic puzzles for me (read: sitting back and thinking about it) I will determine whether or not it lands.

Alternatively for both, if your post is too short and/or you don't want to have to wait for the next GM post to determine if an attack lands and what you're going to do after that, you can PM me with the details of the situation and ask me whether or not it ends up being successful. Then you can incorporate my response into your post.

Finally, just a point to note: From now on, after every one of my posts, all players have a maximum time limit of three days to give their next post. It would be best to avoid a repeat of the previous delay. I will try to ignore your character - ie freeze them in time - if you don't respond, but if they are in a vital situation that involves other characters too I may be forced to puppet them for a bit, if only to get them out of the way. Then freeze them.

If for whatever reason you can't meet the deadline and don't want to be skipped, please PM me or chat with me on the Cloudsdale OOC Chat, and I'll try to work something out, or probably just give you an extension if it's not too long. Again, sorry everybody for the hiatus, and thanks for bearing with me this long.))

Things to be thankful for: charging slower than the rest, maintaining a high airborne altitude, and not wearing metal armor, Sonata thought afterwards as she fired off one arrow down and to the left to give the approaching lightning something else to aim for while she flew to the right to hopefully avoid the attack. If and when the attack passed by, or if it hit then when she recovered from it, Sonata would simply keep at what she was doing, firing off arrows at any target that wasn't paying attention to the dot of a mare in the sky while the fray of fighting continued down below. Despite the constant search for targets though, Sonata kept priority placed on stage, wanting to make sure that none got too close to the mission target.

Auftrag twirled one of his folding knives and licked his lips. "Thank you sir." He picked up the keys and set out to find cell 48. He walked down the row of cells, trailing one of his knives and whistling a tune, he stopped when his count hit forty-eight. A sadistic smile slowly crossed his face, showing his fangs.

Auftrag took a knife and rattled it against the bars. "Hey there little buddy, I've got some questions for you. If you answer them all correctly, you can get a meal and maybe even go free." He said in a voice of false assurance. Of course it was all a lie, but the pegasus didn't know that, and he didn't have to know. He couldn't wait to pluck the dirty mongrel until it cried for mercy. He had heard from a Griffon that roast pegasus tasted like fried fish, if all went according to plan, he might be able to try that, and the other prisoners might get fed today...

Dusk followed his commander's lead without hesitation, ordering his knights to charge. Though it wasn't the original plan, this was perhaps better.

Being knights, he knew they'd be the first into the fray. As he charged he kept his tower shield up and his halberd out to skewer anypony in front of him, with his knights by his side. He gave one last thought to his family back home, then fully steeled himself for whatever was to come.

Griff took the note, looked at it and grinned while releasing a barely-audible chuckle. 'Castle District, huh? Heard of that place before. A bunch of rich guys, nothing else.' he thought and mashed the note into a tight ball that would take up no space in his bag. He turned back to the bartender. "I'd also have a pint of your finest beer, please." he said, thinking what awaited him at his next destination. After receiving the pint of beer he had ordered, he gulped it down, tossed the required amount of bits onto the counter and left the bar without a word. He started walking through the streets of Unicornia, making sure to always look out for anyone who would potentially want to attack him. Upon finally arriving to the circle of fancy mansions and houses. He walked around a bit, walking past each one, waiting for the almost unnoticeable effects of beer to go away before finally coming to the house with a number 5 on it. The gates in the wall were closed, but looked unlocked. Griff tested it, and it really was unlocked. he made his way through the gate and walked up to the door. Griff slightly hesitated before finally knocking on the door.

Wolfe would turn his head to the side to bring the haft of the axe he was carrying between his neck and the blade, charging straight at the armored pony in front of him. If they were struggling in the mud, he figured, then it wouldn't be that hard to trample some lighter-bodied pegasi, even if they were wearing heavy armor. The rest of the difference, he supposed, would be compensated by momentum.

"You worry too much, Mister Guard." Accentria giggled, and after noticing the duo of pegasi,
She gave the two mischievous grin. "Hi there!" She greeted them, her voice oddly cheery for somepony in her position, and at the end of her greeting, as if on cue, the Geas lunged towards the duo.

The swords, relentless in their assault, actively attempted to flank the pegasi, two attacking at a time, and the others repositioning themselves as to allow for random attack paterns, constantly keeping the two on their hooves. This gave Accentria the freedom to cast spells... But most importantly, it allowed her to taunt the pegasi. "Come on!" She began, shooting them a sly grin. "My grandmother can fight better than that..... And I don't even know her!" She continued, charging yet another spell, the only indication of which being the tell-tale violet aura encompassing both her horn, and the Geas.

"You know, you'd think these soldier types would prove to be more... Entertaining. Ah well." Accentria mused.
She returned her attention to her weapons, which were now absolutely glowing with the aura, their assault picking up in both speed and force

"Son of a changeling whore." Hoodwink spat as he sprinted into the village, not wanting to stay too close to the burning forest if he didn't have to. He took to the nearest house that was still standing and busted the door open, slamming it shut behind him; whoever lived here had wisely ran for their life from the battle, or maybe they were fighting in it, who knew.

Hoodwink slammed his materials under the table and ducked back out of the house, marking the door with a splash of a vial of blue dye before he moved further into the village; there was an old black market portal in the basement of a run down pub, if it was still intact he could use it to escape.

"Yes!" He hissed to himself as he found it intact; he tapped the runes around the archway type doors base, in a specific order until the archway lit up with a shimmering golden light. After a brief retreat back upstairs to retrieve his gear, Hoodwink waved a sarcastic goodbye to the battlefield madness and leapt into the portal which would, hopefully, carry him to Saddle Arabia.

- Zen -

The lightning was powerful, but indeed much of the blast was diverted off its path by the arrow, conducting into its metal head. The rest of the lightning went wide anyway as she strafed to the right, and her constant stream of arrows managed to hit several enemies of the pegasi, regardless of whether they were unicorn or earth pony. However, any and all attempts at the reinforcements of the unicorns were in vain, the arrows bouncing off the powerful shield that the unicorn in the centre had erected around them.

Then suddenly, a loud creaking noise and a rush of air sounded from behind her, on the ground. The earth ponies' anti-air siege engines were firing. If she turned around, she would shortly see a wall of arrows twenty metres tall and wide flying through the air and hurtling in her general direction at a high speed, as well as the other airborne pegasi.

---

- Eq -

Wolfe's manoeuvre caught the pegasus' blade just centimetres away from his neck, and the pegasi were clearly unprepared for a charge. Wolfe's soldiers followed suit behind him, charging as well as they could over the muddy ground and colliding with the frontmost pegasi, trampling them underhoof, though the killing blows had yet to be dealt, with the heavy armour protecting their bodies, and now they were slashing at the earth ponies from their positions flat on the ground.

The other pegasi took flight immediately, evading the charge, and flew out of the way, circling around and to the sides of the earth pony formation, slashing and striking from there.

From behind and above him, and out of his field of vision, an arrow lanced out from the sky and hurtled towards Wolfe, courtesy of that one bow-wielding thestral in the sky.

---

- Sharp -

The pegasi turned sharply and deflected the blows from Accentria's swords, but then began to struggle further as the other two swords attacked randomly. They were well-trained, of course, but they had their limits. They used their armoured forehooves to deflect the blows from the other two swords, and as the speed of the swords began to pick up the pegasi danced their own agile dance, whirling and ducking and rolling with precision and agility, avoiding everything more severe than cuts across their faces. However, they were forced solidly onto the defensive, retreating slowly away from Accentria and certainly not paying any attention to any spells she may have been casting.

---

- Dragon Soul -

Dusk heard it rather than saw it; numerous arrows thudding against his shield from in front of them. He was taking the brunt of the assault, but it wasn't particularly heavy - he would see, though the gaps between his shield and that of his knights', that there weren't that many enemies in the camp. Nonetheless, they were coming out in a concerted effort to meet him; all he could see through the gaps was a massed earth pony armoured formation marching in quiet synchronisation towards him, shields similarly raised and spears stretching out through the gaps. Then all at once they gave a manic roar and charged, determined to trample the unicorns underhoof.

Then Dusk would see bright flashes from behind him, possibly disorienting him for a moment, and then a second later powerful fireballs would begin to rain down from the sky, courtesy of the battlemages who had teleported up there. The massed formation dispersed shortly, but still charged at the knights, while remaining siege engines at the camp begin to fire anti-air walls of arrows at the battlemages.

Dusk himself would soon be faced with a powerful collision at the hooves of two bulky earth pony guards, fully armoured and armed with shields and spears. They worked in a concerted effort to push at Dusk, trying to force him backwards and possibly stumble and fall.

---

- OP and Arry -

The portal flashed brightly as Hoodwink leapt into it, fizzling white, then yellow, then red, and then he unceremoniously appeared a metre in the air, in a place that definitely was not Saddle Arabia by any means. Instead, it seemed to be a private garden surrounded by a low brick wall, and looming right in front of him was the monolithic structure of a large mansion. Clearly the portal had been very poorly maintained.

Hoodwink shortly after found himself just slightly above Griff, whom he would proceed to fall down on unless the latter moved out of the way in time. In any case, the door to the mansion opened very slightly and a frowning face of a yellow-maned white unicorn peered out. "Who are you two?"

"Oh, don't worry about them, Bluey." The door opened all the way afterwards, revealing a dull yellow unicorn with a dark grey mane, peering out the door and at the two of them in a kindly fashion. "They're just my childhood friend... er, friends, perhaps. Actually, I don't know the other one." He pointed at Hoodwink. "Is he an acquaintance of yours, Xereth?" He questioned Griff, winking subtly at him. "He didn't go to the same school we did, that's for sure."

"Enough, enough." The white unicorn grumbled. "I don't care who they are, Vis, they leave now."

"Don't be like that, they've come a long way from Manehattan just to meet me again, you know. Well, at least Xereth has. Invite them in for a while, won't you? I'd like to catch up with some old acquaintances."

"No."

"I hear Xereth is quite close to... certain organisations you've expressed interest in in Manehattan."

"... Is that so?" The white unicorn brightened up considerably. "Welcome in, then. I'm sure you recognise me as Prince Blueblood the First." He gestured to the other unicorn. "And he's my younger brother, Prince Vision, whom you might not know as well. Please, come in and make yourselves comfortable."

Past the door, Griff and Hoodwink would see a large, expansive, high-ceilinged living room, with several luxurious couches arrayed around a wood table in the middle. Staircases near the back of the large room led up to a second floor overlooking the living room, which had a single double-door situated there. To their right and left were even more doors - four to be precise - but it seemed that Blueblood was only gesturing to the couches in the living room.

---

- Wiserodin -

Inside the cramped jail cell was a single grey-coated pegasus, who looked starved to the bone. He was cowering in the darkest corner of the cell, huddling there as he glared angrily at Auftrag. "I'm not telling you anything... damned unicorns... get away from me." He swiped weakly at Auftrag, but of course he did not have a long enough reach to get within range anyway, huddled in the corner as he was. "Just go away..."

Wolfe would just keep moving past the downed pegasi. The light-armored squad wouldn't win if he stayed to fight these pegasi, but they might just be fast enough to complete the mission. He obviously doesn't react to the arrow coming from out of his field of vision, but it would probably bury itself in a soldier behind him's leather armor, or his own leather armor if it was shot to compensate for him moving forward.

Against one average Earth Pony, Dusk would have the advantage. Against two large Earth Ponies, brute strength alone wouldn't work. Though hardly stumbling, he was getting pushed back. With his tower shield in the way, he couldn't hit either of them with his magic. Instead, he used his magic to thrust his halberd low, hoping to hit one, or both of them in the legs. With at least one down, he should be able to match the strength of the other.

"Oh my, you must not have cooperated with the previous interrogator. That explains your malnourished appearance and my being here" He used his predestination ability to figure out which key on the ring fitted the cell. He unlocked the door and walked through, almost closing it behind him. "You see, they bring me in when prisoners don't cooperate. I have my ways of making you talk. Unpleasant methods, but methods none the less. You must know that there is a road we all travel. We unicorns are here to pave the road. Pave it with good intentions. Defiant pegesai and earth ponies are merely imperfections on it" He stopped mid-rant. "I'm Auftrag by the way. If your superiors didn't warn you about me, then your superiors are underinformed. Now eat. I hardly want to interrogate a starving prisoner" He threw a piece of jerky (made from a pegasus wing) at the pegasus. "I said EAT."

Hoodwink fell onto Griff with a grunt of pain and annoyance, hopping off the mercenary as quickly as he had landed on him. His hat and cloak completely defied all sense of physics during this, his cloak staying in place to hide his cutie mark and his hat staying on his head even though he flipped over in the process of falling.

"Yes, I'm accompanying Griff here." Hoodwink said quickly, giving the other pony a subtle bump in the side and hoping he would play along until he could explain himself without prying ears. "Name's Tea Leaf." He said, tipping his hat respectfully. His eyes widened a little as he heard Blueblood's name and realised where that meant he had ended up but he tried to keep that sense of panic under control and play it cool, at least until he had a chance to get away.

The site of the inner mansion quickly made his eyes widen again for a completely different reason.

And now I wish I had gone with the heavy armor, Sonata thought bitterly as the wall of arrows was approaching. Knowing she wasn't a fast enough flyer to get out of the way by going to either side, or above it, Sonata gave her wings a powerful flap and dove downward on a burst of speed, folding her wings in and hoping to clear the roughly 10 meters of arrows (assuming that she was about in the center of the 20 by 20 meter wall).

Seeing that the high sky wasn't much of a safe place anymore, especially given the horror stories of other pegasi caught by anti-air barrages, Sonata continued her dive for a while before angling out at a much lower elevation, hopefully under the danger range of the anti-air barrages. While it gave less time to dodge the unicorn spells, and the earth pony's thrown weapons, it also made flying a little easier as her wings were able to catch the thicker air and allowed greater mobility.

From here Sonata would continue firing if she'd managed to dodge the anti-air barrage completely, she'd continue firing off her own arrows, but more spaced out, only taking shots when she was sure there wasn't anything flying at her. If she hadn't managed to escape the anti-air unscathed, Sonata would start to rise again and angle off towards the woods, away from the fighting and battle to hopefully have a moment to assess her wounds.

Griff was surprised when Hoodwink landed on him. Sure, he was always on high alert for backstabbers, especially in times like these, but even with his cat senses and reflexes, he failed to acknowledge a pony appearing just a meter above him and landing down on him. Griff quickly got up and grumbled something, and he would've probably attempt to punch the pony that landed on him, if it weren't for the door finally opening and the unicorns popping out. It would be just stupid to fight on someone important's property as they watch.

He listened to what the unicorns had to say, and when he was questioned about the pony who landed on him, he saw the wink. "Yeah... I...I guess." Griff was confused as to why he was called Xereth. Did they mistook me for someone else? Someone named Xereth? he thought as he listened to unicorns have their conversation and slowly nodded. He felt the bump in his side from Hoodwink and heard his lies, to which he almost growled, but decided not to... ..yet. When he realized that he was standing in front of two princes, he quickly bowed, his necklace made out of fangs of various animals shook violently and rattled thanks to quick change of position.

When he got back up and got invited into the mansion, he almost gasped of amazement, but he didn't want to spend too much time here. He hastily went to one of the couches Blueblood was gesturing at. Before sitting down, however, he hesitated a bit, before finally doing so.

Accentria sighed. This... is kinda boring. She thought to herself, passively observing the Geas beat the two pegasi back. She turned to her side, where Mr. Guard had previously been... and was met with  the last desperate vestiges of Unicorn resistance, crumbling under the torrent of Pegasi forces. "Well... That can't be good." She mused to herself, charging for another spell. This time, one falling under the conjuration tree, a teleportation spell. As one the Geas make a particularly dirty attempt at an uppercut on one of the two pegasi, Accentria returns her attention to them, flashing the two a smile, and waving.  "Well, boys, it's been fun... But... I'm afraid I must make my leave now. Play nice, you two!" She finishes, willing the Geas to make one final all-out lunge at the pegasi before she released the energy she had been charging. On impact, both she and the Geas disappeared, reappearing somewhere within the Everfree.

- Zen -

Sonata was indeed unfortunate enough to find herself smack in the middle of the incoming wall of arrows. Her rapid descent was, however, sufficiently well-timed to put her only just at the very edge of the threat. Only a pair of arrows managed to catch her; one jabbing only slightly into her back, most of its power caught by the armour and the layer of silk beneath, and one which struck her left hindleg. Other pegasi were not as fortunate, though, and many began to fall to the ground, dead or dying.

Sonata moved much closer to the ground, out of range of the initial anti-air firing but not beyond that of the inevitable descent of the arrows from the sky. Nonetheless, no further volleys seemed to be incoming at the moment. A few half-hearted fireball spells were sent her way, but they weren't particularly accurate nor powerful. It was quite clear that the source of unicorn attention was on the conflict at the stage, as was that of the earth pony's.

The Everfree Forest itself would be, as had earlier been witnessed, largely on fire from the angle visible at Sonata's position. But on closer inspection, if Sonata was paying close enough attention to the flames, she would see a barely-visible figure just beyond the current extent of the fire, mostly hidden between the still-unburnt trees.

---

- Eq -

His squad of soldiers followed his lead, ignoring the restrained attempts of the downed pegasi and charging towards the stage, where the majority of the unicorns had already been overwhelmed. It was clear that the pegasi would soon be able to capture not just their Commander but also the Chancellor, given perhaps just another half-minute.

Then the arrow descended from the sky, embedding itself in Wolfe's back. His armour, however, took the brunt of the blow; light as it was, it managed to break the momentum of the arrow and cause it to only minimally penetrate his skin. Whoever was the architect responsible for this armour also quite clearly had foresight against archer interference; the inside was layered with silk, which instead of tearing around the arrowhead extended into the wound, making it easier to remove later on.

By now, however, the stage was tantalisingly close for Wolfe. It was only a few metres away, where the worst of the fighting was happening. And by virtue of that, their Chancellor was also somewhere in there, probably hidden behind masses and masses of pegasi and a few unicorns here and there.

---

- Sharp -

The uppercut by Accentria's Geas took one of the pegasi by surprise, hitting him on the underside of his armoured head and sending him reeling back. The final all-out lunge finally got him, spearing him through one of the chinks in his armour, while the other pegasus managed to deflect it and come after Accentria, just a moment before the release of energy and her reappearance in the Everfree.

Unfortunately for her, it appeared that the Everfree wasn't particularly welcoming at the moment. She appeared right next to a raging wildfire, spreading outwards from what once might have once been a dense cluster of trees but was now an open clearing. Just through the flickering flames, she would see what appeared to be a small figure in the distance, steadily drawing closer and revealing certain parts of its anatomy with greater clarity - such as the bat-wings that flapped quickly, carrying it across the sky.

---

- Dragon Soul -

The halberd he thrust beneath the shield caught one of the earth ponies in the leg - or at least as far as Dusk could tell, given that there was resistance to his blade similar to that of flesh, a sound that matched that of his halberd puncturing skin, and a sudden lightening of the force pressing against his shield. Nonetheless, the strength of the other earth pony was still there, continuing to press relentlessly against his shield.

Suddenly there was a thud, and for a brief moment the force against his shield intensified, but shortly after it returned to normal. However, there was a figure now high in the sky, silhouetted against the sun, having presumably used whatever leverage it could find, possibly including his shield, to propel itself into the sky. It drew near to one of the airborne battlemages with extreme speed, and its hooves slashed in an X-scissor pattern. The head of the hapless mage fell to the ground just beside Dusk.

Thankfully, the figure didn't seem to go after him, instead descending into the troops behind him. Then there was a gasp, and an unfamiliar but distinctly feminine voice drifted over to Dusk.

"Ician?!" It said.

There was a brief pause. And then the very familiar voice of the Grand Marshal said neutrally, "Take her alive."

The commotion behind him intensified, but the pressure of the other earth pony on his shield still did not relent.

---

- OP and Arry -

Blueblood nodded in approval as Griff bowed. "Very well, you know your place." He frowned when Hoodwink failed to make a similar gesture, but noticeably refrained from saying anything.

Vision, however, was far more accommodating. "Ah, I see. Welcome, Tea Leaf, though perhaps I shouldn't be the one to say it. This is Blueblood's abode, after all." He turned to Griff. "You should have told me you were bringing guests, Xereth. I would have prepared more for your arrival at my house."

The two princes went into the house shortly after and took their places as Griff and Hoodwink did. "Now, ah, Vis, would you mind telling me what Xereth does in Manehattan?"

"Of course, of course." Vision nodded. His horn glowed, and an image of a tall building, reminiscent of a royal palace, manifested itself in the middle of the table. "As you know, Slavers Inc. is bringing in the latest shipment of goods in just a week or so. Xereth is the advance guard, so to speak. He's here to take stock of existing slave conditions under proprietors looking to procure more and ensure that working conditions meet the criteria as set down by the Royal Court."

"Of course, of course." Blueblood nodded. "I am sure he will find that everything here falls within those limits."

"No doubt." Vision nodded in turn. On Griff's side of the illusion, however, a set of words began to form, obscured from Blueblood's view by the image of the palace-like building. Ask to use the washroom, it said. Tea Leaf to stay here and entertain Blueblood.

In the meantime, Blueblood continued speaking. "And when the examination is complete, the next shipment will come in as ordered, right? No more delays?"

"None, as far as I am aware." Vision assured him. "Last time was an anomaly, I'm given to believe. Nonetheless, you shouldn't be asking me. I'm not the representative of the corporation."

"Hm." Blueblood sat back contemplatively, turning his gaze to Griff. "So what about it? I trust that there won't be any more procedure to swin through?"

---

- Wiserodin -

The pegasus looked, trembling, at the jerky, then back up at Auftrag. His defiant spirit was still evident in his eyes, however, which looked up at the unicorn unyieldingly. Throughout the entire speech, he had remained silent, betraying no emotion other than continued defiance and disgust; but then when Auftrag finally stopped and waited for him to eat the jerky a note of panic and adrenaline surged into his eyes, and he quickly stood up and attempted to push past the unicorn, going for the almost-closed door.

((You can assume that he fails to get away, for obvious reasons.))

Auftrag smiled, he loved it when they played hard to get. He slammed a forehoof into the pegesai's gut, spun the pegesai around in order to imbalance him, then took out his knives and cut a tendon that was necessary for flight in each of the pegesai's wings. He flew straight into a high kick to knock the pegesai in the air. "Jayoku Houtenjin!" The kick connected dead on and knocked the pegesai into the ceiling. He had been holding back as to not kill the prisoner, so he caught the pegesai on its fall from the (low) ceiling. "Nice try, next is your legs. Now either eat the jerky, or talk."

The first arrow drew a gasp of shock more than pain, the second one however was definitely pain. While this wasn't the first time she'd been injured, that didn't make the blow any less painful as she adjusted her flight path to under the arc of the anti-air barrages. Sonata could feel the arrows sticking in her, and while one could be ignored, the one in her hoof needed to be removed and the wound treated before too much of the blood that even now she could feel trickling down her leg leaked out.

Luckily, neither arrow seemed to hamper her flying or her shooting. So while continuing to fly over the field, Sonata continued to loose a couple more arrows at random targets, including a few to make the travel back towards the stage. When she saw the boon that was the clearing, Sonata was grateful to her luck and quickly angled towards it already preparing herself mentally for pulling out the arrows and applying some at least simple bandages. Then the flash of a teleport and visage of a pony in the clearing siphoned off her better feelings.

With a grimace, Sonata drew out another arrow and nocked it on the string. Maybe, if I can catch it off guard... Sonata thought as she started to draw the arrow back. No dangit, it's looking right at me, great, no hope of that, Maybe... Sonata looked around more as she eased the tension on the draw, but only saw the inferno and the battle within easy flying distance and to try and go up to the false sanctuary of the clouds would be suicide with the anti-air barrages being launched. With a renewed grimace, Sonata continued flying forward without drawing the arrow back, or removing it from the string so to be ready to react as needed.

Griff stayed quiet as he let the princes talk between each-other. He had zero idea what were they talking about. Slavers? Manehatten? I feel like I'm dipping my hooves into something big here... he thought as he continued listening, and then the illusion came up. Griff was most certainly impressed, since illusion magic like such was rather rare to him. Then the words sprung up. Washroom? Is Vis holding secrets from Blueblood? Or rather, is he against him...? Griff continued thinking while listening to what he could call 'random words', until he was asked a question by Blueblood.

"I highly doubt there will be, sir." He answered prince Blueblood sheepishly, before turning his gaze to prince Vision. "Excuse me, but can I please use the washroom?" he asked while attempting to look calm.

Accentria noticed two things upon rematerializing. The first was the temperature... The forest was on fire. "Damn it, Everfree, can't you do anything right?" She gave an irritated sigh and moved away from the flames, mentally denouncing all forests--- And then the second. A pony shaped figure with bat wings flying in her direction.

Accentria of course, did the most sensible thing for a pony in her position to do, obviously. She waved the figure a hello, the four swords flanking her following a similar motion.

Wolfe would grunt as he felt an arrow embed itself into his back, but keep going. It wasn't a fatal wound, he could get patched up as soon as the mission was done. Casualties would be inevitable, but if everyone kept the formation he talked about, at least the center column of the 5 would make it through, the other 4 acting as a shield for them. His plan was to stampede straight through the execution zone, and pretty much just charge the Chancellor and tell him to hang on. The Chancellor may not be a soldiering mare, but Wolfe supposed that she'd just have to buck up. There was no time to waste with things like stopping to make sure the escape was comfortable.