//------------------------------// // Flight to Freedom // Story: The Voice of the Sun // by Lev the Lurker //------------------------------// Chapter 12: Flight to Freedom The passage at the bottom of the ladder was cramped and stuffy. The party was forced to travel single file with Bootheel leading the way. The only source of light was the occasional beam showing through cracks and spy holes in the walls. Lyra had offered to light the way with her horn but her golden light spilling out into other rooms would give away their presence. Raindrops was very grateful that she didn’t suffer from claustrophobia like many of her tribe, still the conditions were wearing on her already frayed nerves. She kept her ears and eyes pricked for the ambush she was sure Bootheel was leading them into. After a short time they came across a section of the tunnel which seemed to have been made into a sort of den. A large cushion had been positioned in the passage to make it more comfortable. Confused, Raindrops peered out through a nearby spy hole. She heard water dripping and the room beyond seemed to be covered in tiles. It took her a few moments to realise where they were and she recoiled in disgust. “The mare’s shower room!” she spat, “You sick pervert!” She glared over at Bootheel who grinned unrepentantly. “It’s only when Vast wants me to, she likes the idea that somepony might be watching her while she’s being a naughty, naughty, mare,” his eyes unfocused for a moment and a smile spread over his face, making both Lyra and Raindrops shudder for a moment, possibly for different reasons. “Besides,” he continued after a moment, “I didn’t build these tunnels, I just found them. Right, the path to the chariot bay is this way,” he gestured down one side of a t-junction. “Can we get to the teleport room from here?” asked Lyra, causing Raindrops to make a double take. “Well, it’s not all that far down the other way,” said Bootheel, “But why would we go there? It’s got to be crawling with guards.” “Maybe, they might not be guarding it that much now that they think we’re all under lock and key. We can’t leave the booster with them, they might figure out how to use it and catch the rest of the element bearers.” Raindrops frowned, this was what she’d warned Lyra against! If Bootheel was really a traitor it was the sort of thing he’d suggest. Except he hadn’t suggested it, he’d tried to lead them away. Could it be some sort of reverse psychology trick her friend had fallen into? Trying to think about it made her head hurt. Apparently noticing her friend’s confusion, Lyra turned and gave a reassuring. “Trust me.” Raindrops paused for a moment then nodded before hefting Captain Lightning into a more comfortable position. “Let's get going then,” she said. Bootheel looked like he was going to argue for a moment then he shrugged. “Crazy mares,” he mumbled underneath his breath before turning down the path towards the teleport room. * * * The journey wasn’t far and Bootheel soon opened a secret door out of the tunnels which lead into a small office off of the room the teleport booster had been set up in. Lyra trotted across the office as quietly as she could and carefully pushed the door open, it let out a slight creak which set her teeth on edge. She glanced around the larger room but there was no sign of anypony else being present. It seemed almost too easy, and she gave the room a second closer inspection. She knew that Smoke was a talented illusionist, Lyra couldn’t see any distortion in the air which might suggest that magic was being used to hide anypony, but if she was anything like Trixie’s caliber she could be standing right in front of them and she’d never know. She gestured to her friends and started to creep across the room; each hoofstep felt like it was loud enough to wake the dead against the silence of the hall and sweat started to form on her flanks. Finally she made her way to the teleport booster and held her horn next to it ready to unlock its power. “Come on!” hissed Bootheel. “Get a move on, somepony could turn up at any moment!” Lyra glanced over at him noting that Raindrops had positioned herself behind the guard and looked ready to jump him if he turned traitor. Carefully, she touched the top of the jeweled tower with her horn and quickly ran through the code Captain Lightning had given her to activate it. If things went right and Twilight was on the ball they could be back on Equestrian soil in less than a minute. Nothing happened. She tried again, slower this time, making sure she used the right pattern. The artifact still didn’t react. “What’s wrong?” whispered Bootheel, “Why isn’t it working?” “I don’t know!” hissed Lyra trying to keep panic from her voice. She ran her horn over the device for a moment trying to get a feel of its workings. Had she remembered the code wrongly? Then she realised. “They’ve drained it!” “What?” asked Raindrops. “They’ve drained it of most of its magic, probably trying to get it mobile or to stop anypony else trying to escape. It’ll be hours before it charges up again!” “Well that’s just great!” grumbled Bootheel. “I said we should go to the chariot park, but you dragged us down here, we could be discovered at any moment!” Raindrops gave Bootheel a glare but didn’t disagree with him. “What now?” she asked. Lyra dithered between the booster and the door they had used to enter for a moment. Should they run or risk waiting for the device to recharge? She hated being the one in charge; she really just wanted somepony to tell her what to do, but there wasn’t anypony else. “We’re going to take the booster with us,” she announced. “What!” exclaimed Bootheel. “We take it with us, we take it to a chariot and get out of here. Hopefully Gilda knows somewhere we can hide out for a while. Once it’s recharged we can activate it and get help.” Before anypony could argue she took the device in her aura and tugged. It didn’t budge. Frowning, she tried to increase her force, causing her horn to spark and her teeth to grit but all to no avail. “Problems?” asked Bootheel. “It’s stuck!” said Lyra trying to yank at the booster again. “Ooh!” she exclaimed, her cheeks colouring. She remembered Lightning telling her about it being locked in place, she’d assumed the power drain would have stopped that but the last of its energy must be powering that function. She held her horn against the pillar again and tried to replicate the code the captain had shown her. She gave the booster an experimental tug and this time found it was movable, although it was still heavy. She glanced at her companions, Raindrops could probably carry it but she already had Lightning to lug about. “Bootheel, give me a hoof,” she said. “Sure, ask the earth pony to carry things,” he grumbled, starting to lever the device onto his back. “Well you know how us mares enjoy getting to see all those hard muscles,” she said resting a hoof on the soldier’s flank. He grinned and flexed his legs a little as he positioned the booster. “Well I’ve got something else hard to show you,” he boasted. Behind him Raindrops looked like she was going to be sick. “Maybe later,” said Lyra. “Now we better get moving before someone notices that we, or that thing,” she pointed at the booster, “are missing.” * * * The journey to the chariot bay went almost too easily, thought Raindrops. Although Bootheel didn’t seem to have done anything to betray them yet, she still trusted the stallion far less than she could throw him. Given Lyra had unlocked the booster and given it to him he was in the perfect position to run off to Corona with it, but instead he had once again led them through the secret tunnels to their destination in apparent safety. See peered through one of the eye slits hidden in the wall to get a better idea of what they were getting themselves into. The room was large and half full with the various vehicles and supplies that the embassy used. One wall was mostly filled by a large gate leading out onto a rather unsafe looking path which snaked around the embassy and headed out through the mountains towards the Griffin city. Positioned right at the centre of the space, and looking rather out of place was the majestic sky chariot they had been using to get back and forth between the embassy. Several other plainer vehicles were positioned around the walls. They ranged in size from a small one person cart which looked about right for somepony to carry their shopping around in, to a full sized wagon which probably needed eight or more ponies to pull it. None of them looked like they could fly so there was no way they could be used to escape at any speed. “Things can’t be this easy,” she whispered to Lyra as they opened the hidden door, “There’s no way they wouldn’t guard this place.” “Maybe they did!” came a cry from above and Raindrops spun around in time to see a brown and white mass dropping onto her from above. She saw claws, and her instincts and hours of iron hoof training took over. She stepped smoothly aside and swung a hoof at the attacker who veered to avoid the blow. She followed up the first attack by leaping forwards despite the ungainly weight on her back and ramming into her now off balance opponent who was sent bouncing away across the floor while Raindrops stepped back trying to rebalance her cargo. “Nice to see you havn’t slowed up Dropsy,” said the griffin with a grin on her beak as she spun back onto her feet. “Gilda!” exclaimed Raindrops. Oddly, she actually felt buoyed by the griffin’s presence despite their fight back in Ponyville and their rather confusing relationship since; she at least knew the griffin could fight. “The one and only. Good to see you again.” The griffin approached and bumped heavily into her shoulder in what Raindrops hoped was a greeting. “What took you so long to get here? I was just about ready to come and get you.” “Heartstrings wanted to get this thing,” said Bootheel gesturing to the booster on his back. “Huh, shiney,” said the griffin admiringly. “It’ll let us get back to Equestria,” explained Lyra. “What are you doing here?” asked Raindrops. “After the duel I thought it would be best to keep an eye on Terry for a while, make sure he didn’t do anything stupider than normal. He and a few of his minions headed this way, I followed them to find out what was going on. They met up with Smoke and a few other ponies just outside. I snuck inside, you really need better guards,” she pointed a talon at two rather battered looking armoured ponies tied up behind a nearby crate. “I was going to see what had happened to you two when I caught that one,” she nodded at Bootheel, “trying to sneak away.” “I was trying to get help!” said the stallion sounding offended. “Sure you were! Anyway, I figured he’d blend in a bit better than me so I sent him in to get you. Looks like things worked out.” “Thanks,” said Lyra trotting over to the sky chariot, “We better get moving before a guard spots us.” “Yeah, someone’ll miss those chumps over there sooner or later,” said Gilda. Joining Lyra at the chariot Raindrops unloaded captain Lightning off her back as gently as she could in the passenger section. The stallion seemed to be recovering slowly and let out a groan. His limbs feebly tried to lift himself into a standing position and he glanced around with glazed eyes for a moment before slumping back down again. Raindrops hoped he didn’t fall off the chariot while they were escaping. She moved around to the front of the vehicle and glanced at the harness with a sinking heart. The chariot was designed to be pulled by four trained chauffeurs. She didn’t doubt she could get it moving by herself but the effort would probably reduce her already abysmal airspeed to a crawl. “Gilda, can you give me a hoo... um, claw here,” she asked. “What is it?” asked the griffin strutting around to the front of the chariot as Lyra and Bootheel struggled to get the teleport booster loaded. Raindrops was doing her best to strap on the front harness, she didn’t pull vehicles often and she’d never powered a sky chariot before. She knew that some of the enchantments depended on drawing power from the chauffeurs, hopefully it was all instinctive or this would be a very short trip. “I need you to help me pull this thing.” Hopefully griffin magic wasn’t different enough from pegasus to be incompatible with the chariot. Gilda glared at one of the empty harnesses like it was going to eat her. For a moment Raindrops thought she was going to argue but the griffiness nodded and started to strap herself in with, if anything, less skill than Raindrops. Suddenly there came a cry from behind them. “Come on, grub’s up!” Raindrops tried to turn as best she could in the straps to see a guard standing near the entrance, a large plate of sandwiches resting on his back and a look of shock on his face. “We’ve got to get moving!” yelled Lyra seemingly in Raindrops ear. She nodded and gritted her teeth as she started to pull forwards, hoping that she was firmly attached to the vehicle and that its enchantments were working properly. Gilda gave a surprisingly cute squeak as the straps around her suddenly tightened and the bulk of the chariot started to grind across the floor. The Griffin was forced to hobble forwards on three legs as she struggled to get in position. Behind them the guard had shaken off his initial surprise and had thrown aside his cargo of food to draw and load his crossbow. There was a thud from somewhere behind Raindrops’ head as the bolt buried itself in the wood. “Hurry up!” cried Bootheel. The guard had spread himself over Lyra and Lightning using his body to give them cover. The surprisingly heroic act drove Raindrops on and she started to accelerate to a trot, her muscles straining to force one hoof in front of the other. Suddenly and with a slight hum the bulk of the chariot lifted into the air and Raindrops almost staggered at the reduction in friction. She could feel the device drawing on her innate magic, it was a strange and slightly uncomfortable feeling. “The door!” cried Gilda, now managing to use all four legs to help drag the vehicle along. Raindrops lifted her head to see the very solid looking obstruction getting closer and closer as they rushed across the room. “Got it!” cried Lyra, her horn glowing as she yanked at the lever. A weight was released and the door began to drop open, almost blinding Raindrops as a shaft of morning sunlight hit her in the face. Suddenly there was a scream of pain from behind and for a moment Raindrops’ stomach dropped, had Lyra been hit? The cry was followed by a barrage of extremely inventive and obscene swearing, and she realised it was Bootheel, then she felt bad again for caring less about him than her friend. Lowering her ears she tried to ignore the noise around her and pushed forwards even harder, flapping her wings with all her might. She managed to lift herself and the chariot lifted about a length into the air before gravity dragged her back to the ground. “Are you alright?” cried Lyra in a panic from the back of the chariot. “I’ve got a bloody bolt sticking out of my leg!” yelled Bootheel, “Of course I’m not alright! This really hurts!” With a burst of energy Raindrops once again managed to lift off and this time maintained altitude as the ground below them dropped away down the mountain. She looked over to Gilda, the griffin was panting hard but managed to grin back at her. Glancing back she saw the guard standing in the entrance to the embassy, his third bolt shot out towards them but fell short. They were safe, for the moment. * * * “How is he?” asked Raindrops craning her neck to try and get a view of the back of the chariot. She and Gilda had managed to synchronize their wing beats to keep the vehicle moving at a speed at least approaching a fast trot, still it would take an hour or more to get to the Griffin city at this rate. There wasn’t much they could do for the injured Bootheel until then. The bolt that had hit him was sticking out of the guard’s upper thigh on his rear left leg, it wasn’t bleeding much but it had to be painful. Lyra’s aura encased the wounded area. As far as Raindrops knew the unicorn didn’t know any healing magic, so she was probably just keeping pressure on the wound or feeling out how bad the injury was. “We should get him to a healer as soon as possible,” said Lyra, a touch of panic in her voice. “I’ll be fine,” growled Bootheel through clenched teeth, sweat matting his coat to his flanks. “I’ve had worse than this before.” He struggled to move to the front of the chariot, giving a hiss as he accidentally tried to put weight on his injured leg. “I’ll just lie here and enjoy the scenery.” Raindrops nodded before realising that the stallion had positioned himself so that he was facing directly towards her and Gilda’s flexing plots as they drove the chariot forwards. With a snort she clamped her tail tightly down. Seemingly amused rather than disgusted by the stallion’s antics Gilda’s tail thrashed around a few times before smacking Bootheel on the forehead. “At least he’s got good taste,” she whispered to Raindrops. The pegasus grumbled to herself and concentrated on getting the chariot to move as quickly as she could. The guard back at the embassy had to have raised the alarm by now, how long would it take for his fellows to organise a pursuit? How many pegasus were there that had turned to Corona? Would Kindle himself lead them? She glanced around, there was a fair cloud bank above the city itself but nothing nearby so they stood out like a sore hoof in the sky, it wouldn’t be hard for any pursuers to find them. Even if they did get to the Griffin city, they might not be welcomed with open arms. Trying to ignore her worries Raindrops fell into a sort of fugue state, only concentrating on the rhythm of her wings. She almost missed it when Lyra finally broke the silence. “What?” she asked. “I said, we’ve got company!” repeated the bard. “Where?” asked Raindrops trying to turn her head without affecting her flying. Out of the corner of her eye she could just about make out a few dots in the distance, she blinked and they appeared worryingly larger in only a few seconds. “How many?” “I don’t know, four? Five?” said Lyra shading her eyes with her hoof. Gilda turned her head towards their pursuers. “Nine pegasus, in guard armour, carrying crossbows. The leader has a bracelet on her left foreleg.” Raindrops gawped at her in awe. Gilda pointed a pair of talons at her face. “Eagle eyes,” she said, “Although I was joking about the bracelet.” “Did you see the Voice of the Sun with them, or Terror Wing?” she asked. She certainly didn’t want to fight the giant; as for Kindle, well she didn’t know what to think, or feel about him at the moment. Gilda shook her head. “No griffin, and I think I’d notice a guy with his head on fire.” The griffin paused to a moment before continuing more quietly. “They’re going to be in range in a few minutes Dropsy. What are we going to do?” Raindrops looked out at the city in front of them; it was getting closer with each passing minute, but still too far away. “We get as close as we can, then we land and let the others off. They can hide and we can try to take on the guards.” Gilda looked down at the ground below. “Not much cover down there, and two of them can’t move, they’ll get picked off for sure.” She flexed her talons eagerly. “I can cut down their numbers a bit.” “No! No killing!” exclaimed Raindrops. Behind them, Lyra looked up in alarm. Maybe these guards had sworn allegiance to Corona but they were still ponies. She wouldn’t see them hurt more than was necessary. For a moment it looked like Gilda was going to argue but Raindrops glared at her and slowly the Griffin’s eyes dropped. “Fine, but you’re taking all the fun out of this.” There was a whistle as a bolt fell out of the sky nearby. “Looks like they don’t feel the same way.” “Fly harder!” yelled Raindrops, “maybe we can outdistance them for a bit longer.” She gritted her teeth and pushed her wings as hard as she could. “Then we just die tired,” said Gilda, “time to take the fight to them.” She slashed out with her claws cutting easily through the straps that held her to the chariot. For a moment she hovered in place next to Raindrops and gave out a salute with one claw, grinning as she did so “See you on the other side Dropsy!” Then she was gone, rocketing off towards the approaching guards, now close enough for even pony eyes to make out their features. A stream of bolts shot towards the approaching griffin but she jinxed from side to side to avoid them before plunging into the flock, claws slashing this way and that. The formation shattered as the soldiers split to avoid their attacker. Tearing her eyes away from the fight, Raindrops struggled against the mass of the chariot now that she was forced to pull it by herself. Gilda’s departure had left the harness unbalanced and she had to fight to prevent the vehicle corkscrewing. “I’m sure she’ll be all right,” called Lyra from the back, “she’s tough. Maybe she’d appreciate it if I wrote a song about this.” She continued with forced bravado. “She is, but nine against one...” began Raindrops. “Not nine against one,” cried Bootheel. Raindrops’ heart leapt, had Gilda managed to deal with one of the attackers already? Then she heard the thud of a bolt impacting onto the chariot. She snapped her head around. About half of the soldiers had managed to avoid Gilda and were keeping position not that far above them, their hind legs peddling to wind the cranks reloading their weapons. “Get down!” called Lyra trying to keep the teleport booster between herself and the attackers. “There’s no cover!” cried Bootheel trying to cover Lightning’s prone form with his own as another bolt flashed past his face. “I wish I had my own bow.” Raindrops desperately tried to maneuver the chariot to avoid the attacks but the huge thing flew like a rock. There wasn’t anything she could do! She was going to get them all killed! “Flip the chariot!” cried Lyra, her horn flashing. “What?!” exclaimed Raindrops, the ground was hundreds of feet away, if they fell her friends would plummet to their deaths. “Do it!” cried the unicorn, forcing a foreleg through the carrying loop at the top of the booster. “Are you crazy!!” cried Bootheel. “Just grab hold of something!” “What?” called the soldier looking around the inside of the chariot, empty but for his fellow passengers and the booster Lyra was curled around. Trusting her friend had a plan, however suicidal things looked, Raindrops threw herself sideways against the harness causing the vehicle to tip. It teetered on the edge for a moment then started to swing back as whatever magic powered it worked to keep it level. Swinging with the recoil Raindrops added her strength to the pendulum like motion and this time the vehicle tipped all the way over its thick wooden base acting as a shield against the bolts fired by the pegasus hovering above. Behind her, Raindrops heard a scream from Lyra, her head snapping around where she expected to see her friend plunging away. Instead she saw the unicorn clutching herself to the teleport beacon which, against the laws of gravity, remained firmly affixed to the floor of the chariot. Her horn was glowing white hot as her aura encased captain Lightning’s limp form up keeping him in the chariot. “My tail!” screamed Lyra, gritting her teeth. Bootheel had apparently decided that it was the only thing to hold onto and now hung from the strip of mint hair by his teeth. Raindrops winced in sympathy then returned to her own problems. Trying to fly upside down while strapped to a lump of wood was not easy. She was surprised they weren’t all plummeting to the ground right now. She struggled in the straps trying to get a better position, there was something strange about how the vehicle was handling... “That should give us some cover!” gasped Lyra trying to ignore the pain of a fully grown stallion hanging onto her tail. “They can’t get us down here.” “Lyra,” said Raindrops, “they’re pegasus, they can fly.” The first of the guards appeared dropping under the lip of the chariot and pointing her weapon. “Oh.” With a burst of adrenaline Raindrops managed to tear herself away from the harness and shot out towards the soldier. The mare seemed to react in slow motion, her eyes widening and her hooves slowing bringing her weapon to bear as Raindrops swung her hoof at her. The limb made contact and suddenly things seemed to be running at normal speed again as the mare shot back at least two lengths from the blow, her weapon knocked from her legs. Raindrops moved to follow up on her attack then realised the chariot was unsupported. She flipped over and began to dive before she realised that the vehicle, rather than falling to the ground, was actually hovering more or less in place, only slowly sinking downwards like a leaf on the breeze. She hovered in puzzlement for a moment before she reaslised the vehicle must have some sort of safety feature which protected the occupants from accidents. Unfortunately her opponent took advantage of her distraction to leap onto her back and tried to immobilize her wings and legs using some sort of hold. However, the soldier was in no way prepared for her opponent's strength and Raindrops sent her sprawling with a shrug, a following up kick sent her falling away from the fight. A second soldier followed up after the first cautiously dropping under the cover of the chariot to get a look at the unlikely collection of ponies clinging there. He frowned for a moment then moved forwards, sword drawn to attack Lyra as she clung to the booster for dear life. The unicorn took a deep breath and let out a shriek into her attacker's face. The sound of her voice boosted by her magic caused the guard to drop his weapon and clamp his hooves to his ears, his eyes screwed up tight against the pain. Opening her mouth even further Lyra cried even louder, the force of her magic throwing the pegasus spinning away from them. Panting, she returned her aura to holding Lightning into the chariot, he had fallen several feet during the few moments she had been distracted. A third, fourth and fifth pegasus flashed under the chariot, one taking up a position below the vehicle while the other two circled around it. Raindrops flew back to the chariot ready to protect her friends, her eyes trying to keep all three opponents in sight at the same time. The lower pegasus, a dark gray mare with a black mane sighted along her crossbow, ready to fire at the targets above her. Glancing down at her Bootheel grinned. “Geronimo!” he yelled releasing his grip on Lyra’s tail. The mare beneath his eyes widened as she saw his body dropping towards her. She fired but the bolt went wide. She tried to turn and get away, only for him to land solidly on her back. With a grunt of pain he wrapped his legs around her waist to keep himself in place, the tip of the bolt stuck through his leg pressing against her side. “Now let's go for a little ride shall we,” he cried through the wind. The pegasus flailed desperately trying to throw off her passenger, but then let out a scream as Bootheel grabbed her wings for a moment, stopping her flying and causing the two of them to start to plummet towards the ground. “Stop it,” he hissed into her ear, releasing his grip. The mare flapped wildly for a moment to arrest their fall then hovered in place as he gripped her wings again as a warning. “Good, I think that makes me in charge for the moment.” She nodded desperately. “Now you look like a speedy model, so here’s what we’re going to do...” * * * Raindrops spun around trying to see what had happened to Bootheel; she had noticed him falling to the ground and hitting one of their attackers. The impact had sent both of them spiraling away into one of the nearby cloud banks which were getting more frequent as they got closer to the city. She glanced up at the chariot and noticed the other attackers starting to reform around it. She dithered for a moment, should she try and find Bootheel or help Lyra? She had no idea where the soldier was, and Lyra could be overcome any second; she hoped she didn’t live to regret her choice as she flew back up towards the chariot. Lyra let out another enhanced shriek keeping a swooping pegasus away from them and then let out a pitiful cough. Her horn was sparking dangerously as she split her effort between keeping Lightning safe and warding off her attackers. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Raindrops flying up to help her, but she knew that even both of them together couldn’t hold off all of their attackers. There had been no sign of Gilda since she had flown off to engage the other guards, if felt like hours ago but was probably less than ten minutes. Suddenly one of the soldiers took advantage of her momentary distraction to swoop in. She turned to try and cast at him but before she could react he already had a leg around her neck. “Quiet!” he yelled at her. “You,” he gestured to Raindrops who had frozen in place. “Get this thing back on the ground. There’s a few ponies back at the embassy who’d like to have a word with you lot.” Grimacing, Raindrops reached up and grabbed the side of the chariot and began to pull it down towards the ground. “Turn it back up,” called the stallion, and with a grunt the rest of the soldiers put their backs into righting the craft. Lyra gave a sigh as she turned off her horn, no longer needing to use her power to keep Lightning in the craft. She glanced over at the captain and noticed his eyes were open but still a little glazed. One of his legs twitched and his head raised slightly, pointing towards her attacker. Trying not to give the game away Lyra locked her eyes on her attacker. “You don’t need to do this, you know. I’m sure if you just fly away now princess Luna would forgive you,” she pleaded. “Luna! She just threw us away, exiled us to the middle of nowhere. And for what? Sleeping through a few drills? I’d been on guard duty all night!” There were nods of agreement from most of the troops although one mare looked rather hesitant. “No, Celestia is going to make us rich, give us power, titles. She’s the way to g-arghh!” He cried out as he was struck in the back by a bolt of electricity from Lightning’s horn. The soldier’s feathers stood on end and he started to drop limply towards the ground, his fall slowed by his magic despite being unconscious. “Traitor!” grunted Lightning as he staggered to his hooves, his horn still sparking. The other guards seemed shocked for a moment but quickly recovered and started to approach their new opponent from multiple sides. Lyra moved to cover Lightning's back, her horn glowing. The two groups slowly circled for a few moments then unexpectedly the chariot shifted under Lyra’s hooves, she struggled to stand while Lightning was sent tumbling. With a snarl Raindrops shoved against the bulk of the chariot swinging it through the air like a huge bat. The first pegasus in its path gave a surprised squawk and dived out of the way, the next wasn’t so lucky and was swatted by its mass, sent flying into the sky. Then with a grunt Raindrops swung the vehicle in the opposite direction, striking the third attacker in the back and catching the wing of the pegasus who had avoided her first blow. With all of the attackers at least temporarily disabled Raindrops shifted her position and rested her hooves on the back of the chariot, pushing with all of her might and getting the vehicle moving again towards the now clearly visible bulk of the city. She squeezed her eyes closed with concentration as she tried to milk every drop of speed she could from her wings. Behind her she could hear the sound of wings getting closer and closer, there was an odd sort of echo to them as if they were coming from all around but she ignored that, her ears were probably playing tricks on her. With one last push she threw the chariot as far in front of her as she could and spun around. Maybe she could delay her pursuers long enough for Lyra and Lightning to get to safety. Raindrops turned and snarled at the four soldiers pursuing her, to her surprise she could see Gilda approaching from above pursued by a further trio of troops, she looked a little battered and one wing was missing a few feathers but generally whole. Good, the two of them could delay the guards for even longer. Buoyed, Raindrops set her wings and swooped towards her attackers, hooves held ready to strike. To her surprise the lead mare’s eyes widened as she approached and the guard spun in the air struggling to get out of Raindrops’ path as quickly as possible. Raindrops blinked as the next pegasus in line did the same, turning tail and heading for the embassy as fast as his wings would carry him. She looked around, all the guards were fleeing, what was... suddenly she was buffeted as a large armoured griffin streaked past, talons outstretched, then another, and another. Raindrops hovered in the air, brow furrowed. What was going on? She turned to see the carriage surrounded by a dozen griffin warriors. “I’m back,” said Bootheel, clutched in the talons of one of the warriors, “and I bought some friends.” “Chief Garvil would like a word with all of you,” growled the Griffin leader.