//------------------------------//
// Infiltration 
// Story: Rescue on Diamond Mountain 
// by moguera 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 8: Infiltration

As it turned out, eating at the griffon establishment had proven to be a very good decision.  Dawn quickly learned that griffons were not ones to heavily emphasize seasonings or overly-fancy cooking methods with rich foods that were likely to make him sick.  Instead, the trout he tasted was cooked simply and flavored very lightly, with just a hint of parsley and lemon, all with the intent of allowing the flavor of the fish itself to shine through.  His episodes of overwhelming guilt aside, Dawn never did nor ever would regret coming to live in Ponyville.  However, he couldn't help but regret Ponyville's location, finding himself wishing that it could have been placed somewhere with better access to foods like this.
Still, as long as he had Caramel's onion soup to look forward to when he came home, Dawn couldn't really complain.  But he resolved to enjoy this unexpected treat as much as possible while he had the option to.
If there was one thing that Dawn regretted by stopping to eat, it was the fact that he was suddenly aware of all the attention he was drawing.  The inhabitants of Ponyville had, by and large, ceased to pay any extra attention to Dawn simply because of the unique appearance of his eyes after growing used to him.  But, ever since arriving at Diamond Mountain, Dawn was conscious that he was beginning to draw quite a few stares.  Even here, in this restaurant, where griffons and ponies (mostly pegasi) mingled freely, Dawn realized that he was a true oddity.
Several occupants of neighboring tables had paused both their meals and conversations to stare at the pegasus with strangely draconic eyes.  Dawn was careful, trying to avoid making eye-contact with anypony or anygriffon, but also trying to avoid looking like he was doing so.  Instead, he kept his posture relaxed and his attention focused on his food and Perlin, as though he was thinking of nothing else but his meal and his dining companion.
Perlin, of course, was completely nonchalant about Dawn's situation.  "Looks like you're a bit of a novelty," commented the older colt as he maneuvered another bite of his smallmouth bass towards his mouth.
"I suppose," said Dawn.
Perlin chuckled around a mouthful of his fish before swallowing it down.  "I wouldn't be surprised if you were recognized.  After all, you've been featured in a paper that's distributed throughout the entire nation.  Ponies from one side of Equestria to the other know your face now."
The realization made Dawn nervous and more keenly aware of his surroundings.  There was no sense of hostility from any of the creatures watching him, but that could change in a mere moment's time.  This far, tucked away in a rather isolated settlement on the border of Equestria, the Cult Solar could have a very strong presence.
"If you're worried about that Cult Solar bunch, I wouldn't," said Perlin, "We're not here for long.  I doubt word could spread quickly enough for them to get anything together before we get out."
"If you say so," said Dawn, wondering just how true that could be, "You don't suppose that people recognizing me could cause problems relating to our reason for being here?"
Perlin shrugged.  "I doubt it.  I'm willing to bet that almost nopony knows that Hope Spot is even here or, if they do, exactly why she is here.  They certainly wouldn't have enough information to connect it to your presence, seeing as Sweet Water would want to keep that little chain of cause and effect as hidden as possible.  If Hope Spot is being held under guard, then the ones doing the guarding most likely have no idea as to the reason they are guarding an ordinary mare on the Viscountess' orders.
"Besides, even if they decided your presence here was of interest to Sweet Water, by the time any missives made it to Canterlot and any orders came back in reply, we'd be long gone."
Dawn frowned, still not liking the connotations of the situation at all.  However, he had little choice but to continue on.  Perlin was the one running this little show of theirs, so it was his call to make.  Dawn could only hope things worked out that well.
"Well," said Perlin, dabbing at his lips with a napkin, "There's no reason to dilly-dally.  Now that we're fed and watered, we should go ahead and make our move."
"Are you sure we should try anything in the middle of the afternoon?" asked Dawn.
"Of course not," replied Perlin, "Which is why we won't go in during the afternoon.  The best time to strike would be around the dinner hour, while the sun's setting.  We'll break in, bust out Hope Spot, rush back down to the station and catch the final evening train out.  I've already checked and we'll have to make a transfer later on down the line.  But once we're out of here, finding a train back to Canterlot'll be a cakewalk for us."
"If you say so," said Dawn, wondering if things would go even remotely that smoothly.
"Relax," said Perlin, smirking over his hooves, which he had pressed together, his elbows resting on the table so that he could rest his chin on his hooves, "The last train leaves at ten this evening.  Even if we end up in a pretty serious scrap, we'll still have time to make it down.  It's not as though Sweet Water would invest any money in serious protection when, by all rights, nopony should even know that she's holding Hope Spot out here."
"But you know," Dawn pointed out, "I don't know how, but don't you think she might have prepared for the possibility."
"But," Perlin countered, "The only pony who should know is Grayblood.  And he doesn't have the resources to pull anything like we're about to.  The Viscountess has no reason to worry."
Dawn nodded, hoping that Perlin was right about this.  However, he couldn't shake the feeling that things wouldn't go as nicely as the cream-colored colt suggested.  Plans rarely worked out exactly as they were envisioned after all.
Something strange occurred to him.  "You expect very little trouble, correct?" he asked Perlin.
"Yeah," replied the young stallion, nodding with a confused look on his face, "I thought I'd just finished explaining that."
"Then it seems that this would easily be something that you could settle yourself," said Dawn, "Why then, did you come to me?"
Perlin's confusion disolved and a smirk replaced it.  "That is the question," he admitted, "There are a few reasons, some related to my job and some not.  My general orders were to get Hope Spot out of Diamond Mountain, one way or another.  However, the overarching plan is to stop Sweet Water's plan in its tracks, which means ensuring Hope Spot's safety."  He chuckled.  "While Sweet Water shouldn't be such an idiot that she would try the exact same trick twice, there's always the chance she could come after Hope Spot again, if only to keep her from talking about what happened.  That means that ensuring Hope Spot's safety requires delivering her into the charge of ponies who can protect her."
"The authorities, you mean," said Dawn.
Perlin nodded.  "Yes.  Of course, there's a bit of a problem with that.  I'm a wanted pony you see.  If I tried to escort Hope Spot into the custody of the Royal Guard, well...there'd be trouble and I daresay Shining Armor wouldn't like a repeat of the last time he tried to bar my way."
Dawn's eyes narrowed.  "That makes sense.  But is that all?  Why me?"
"Well, because you're not uninvolved in this," said Perlin, "It is your future on the line after all.  But, more importantly, it's fun."
Dawn blinked.  "That's it?  What is fun about this?"
The older colt grinned.  "The first time we met, we tried to kill each other.  Now we're working together, allies with a common goal.  But, one day, we'll be enemies again.  The more time I spend with you, the more I learn about you, the more I learn about you, the more exciting it gets, the more I look forward to our final altercation."
"Why?" asked Dawn.
"Because fighting someone you don't know at all isn't nearly as satisfying," explained Perlin, "Fighting is different from every other form of competition.  Ponies compete for prizes, for pride, for fame.  But in battle, the stakes are no more or less than our very lives.  I want to stake my life in battle against you, just as I want you to stake yours.  In battle, the boundaries between us fall and we see everything that we are, meeting each other in a way that can't be matched by mere words, the two of us dancing in that space between life and death.
"The more I know about you, the more I learn about who you are, how you fight, what moves you, the better I can match it, the further I can push myself, the greater the limits we can reach as we clash and put our very lives on the line.  Someday, you and I will bare our souls to one another.  We will seek to devour one another.  I want to savor the experience to its fullest.  In order to do so, I need to know you as I've known no one else."
"I...see..." said Dawn, shivering.  Perlin's words had struck a chord within him.  Dawn had no love of bloodshed.  However, he couldn't deny feeling a certain feeling of exhilaration in the heat of battle.  He recalled it well enough during his fight with Storm Front and Red River, and his first battle with Perlin.  There was an excitement that came with pushing his limits, living at the edge, where everything else drained away and Dawn could fully immerse himself in the fight and nothing else.  Perhaps Perlin had sensed that in him.  Perhaps that was why Perlin had extended a helping hoof to Dawn in his time of need.  The older colt seemed to have marked Dawn as a kindred spirit, even if Perlin took his desire to satisfy his need for excitement farther than Dawn ever would.
It was almost as though Perlin was reaching out in order to become his friend...
And that thought disturbed Dawn more than anything else.



There were ten of them, a mixed group of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi.  They were a motley bunch, having apparently come from a variety of different locations.  In spite of their disparate origins, they moved with a singular unity of purpose as they stepped off the train and onto the platform which, along with the grim looks on their faces, caused the ponies around them to give them a wide berth.  They carried hardly any luggage among them.  However, more than a few bore pickaxes, hatchets, large knives, and crudely fashioned chunks of wood that were poorly-disguised cudgels.  It was obvious to anypony looking on that this group was looking for trouble.
The group paused briefly to examine a map of the town before pressing on, heading away from the station and wandering along the road through the center of town.  As they moved, their heads turned back and forth, surveying everything, their expressions morphing from grim determination to disdain, as though everything they saw within the pastoral village disgusted them.  Though it was obvious this small herd was up to no good, nopony made an effort to stop them as they made their way deliberately through town.  They took no interest in any of the market stalls they passed, nor did they eye any of the stores.  They continued straight on through, never deviating from their path as they made their way along the road leading to the outskirts of town and the path that led to a single cottage, perched near the edge of the Everfree Forest.
Once they had left the last few houses behind, a single unicorn stepped out in front of the group and turned to address the rest of the group.  "Alright, is everypony ready?"
The others nodded, their eyes glinting.
The unicorn coughed self-importantly.  "Now, I know that the official word is to standby and wait for the Cardinal to take care of the demon.  But I don't think that any of us care to wait until the spring just to know that he's been dealt with."
The group had already been meeting in Hoofington, gathering together in order to put just this plan into action when word had come from higher up in the Order that they were to not make any attempt on Dawn Lightwing's life.  Over half of the ponies that had arrived up to that point had returned to their homes immediately, leaving only this small group who had decided to press on, in spite of instructions to the contrary.
"Now, show no mercy to the abomination.  We will kill it and burn its corpse and this will be over."
A pegasus near the back raised a hoof.  "What if the Bearer of Kindness interferes?"
"There is no need to worry," replied the leader in a calm and reassuring tone, "The Element Bearers have been corrupted by the fiend.  Corruption must be cleansed.  If she tries to intervene, we will do what is necessary."
"That's a rather ominous statement."
The unicorn whirled about to find the source of the voice.  There, standing on the path, between them and the way to Fluttershy's cottage outside of town, was a single dark-blue earth pony with a crimson mane.
Red River graced the assembled group of ponies with a thin-lipped smile.  "I have to say, this is rather foolish of you.  The last fellow to try this at least attempted to be subtle.  He failed miserably, but still, it's the effort that counts."
"What do you want?" asked the leader of the mob, his eyes narrowing.
"Firstly, I wanted to inform you that your quarry is not here right now," replied Red, "He had to leave on an errand, though he should be back soon.  Secondly, as a designated representative of the Guard, I am here to inform you that you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder."
An angry growl slowly crawled forth from the unicorn's throat.  "Just who do you think you are, trying to obstruct our efforts to bring justice?"
Red simply chuckled.  "That's rather simple," said Red, "I am one who is obstructing you by serving justice."
The unicorn lowered his horn, pointing the tip towards the azure earth pony.  "I hope you've made peace with your life.  We will not suffer your mockery any longer."  Behind him came a flurry of rustling noises as the other members of the group began to draw their improvised weapons, all of them leveling angry glares at the stallion in their way.
Red merely shrugged and reached up over his shoulder, curling his fetlock over the handle of his own weapon.  In a single swift motion, he drew, swinging out in an arc so that the shaft of the spear fully extended as Red sank into a crouch, his weapon angled downwards and to the side.  "This is about what I expected," he said, "What do you think, Storm?"
From the behind the group came the flapping of wings, causing them to turn to regard the pegasus that was descending towards them, his purplish-gray body and red silk shirt standing out against the brilliant blue of the skies.  Storm Front's meteor hammer was already out, its cord being wrapped tightly over Storm's shoulders, held taught by his hoof, which was pressed against the weight.
"I think," said Storm, "We're gonna need a bigger jail."
"Get them!" snapped the mob's leader.
However, just as the words left his mouth, he was conscious of a series of rapid impacts against the ground as something rushed by him before he could even react.  Four members of the mob immediately cried out, dropping their weapons and then sinking to the ground, cradling forelegs that had been so precisely cut that barely any blood was shed.  Red was suddenly standing on the other side of the group, his spear resting casually over his shoulder as he glanced back at his handiwork.  One of the remaining members, a unicorn turned and leveled his horn at Red, only to be stopped with a loud crack as Red simply swung the spear, slamming the shaft directly into the unicorn's horn.  With a cry of agony, the attacker dropped, glittering motes being the only remnant of the spell he'd been about to try and use on Red.
The three pegasi of the group had taken to the air in an effort to challenge Storm.  However, their flight was quickly cut short as Storm simply dropped right into their midst.  Letting go of the weight, Storm swung the cord, inscribing a circle in the air around him, the weight quickly clipping the heads of all three of the other pegasi and dropping them before they'd risen any further than a meter.  A single pony, the only one left over from Red's swift passage through the group, rushed at Storm, swinging a wooden cudgel at his legs from below.  Storm simply turned the direction of his swing so that the weight swung up behind him.  Storm caught the cord with his shoulder, using to adjust the arc of the swing so that the weight now came hurtling down before arcing so that it struck the remaining mare in the back of the head.  She too dropped without any further ceremony.
Storm Front settled onto the ground as Red River stepped up to stand beside him.  Together, the two of them faced the final member of the mob, their self-appointed leader, who could only stare dumbly at his nine comrades, all sprawled out on the ground.  Red grinned and leveled his spear directly at the leader's head.  "So, ready to give your life for your sacred cause?"
The leader gulped nervously before settling onto his haunches and raising his hooves.  "I surrender."
Red snorted derisively.  "Well, that was anticlimactic."



The sun was setting as Dawn and Perlin made their way towards Sweet Water's ancestral estate.  The air was growing cold, so much so that Dawn could see his breath condensing in the air.  They were at a higher altitude than Ponyville, and much further north.  Here, he could already see the first signs of the oncoming winter, as opposed to his home, which was still in the midst of fall.
Finally, their path ended at a gate, set into a solid stone wall that loomed over them.  Behind the wall, Dawn could see the uppermost towers of the estate.  The highest tower was especially distinct.  Instead of the smooth, conical roofs of its cousins, the highest tower sported an uneven roof that was a single, solid piece of stone that had been left unworked.  Dawn realized that this must have been the mountain's original peak, which had been left intact and unworked as the original inhabitants carved their home out from beneath it.
"Do we know where Hope Spot is supposed to be kept?" asked Dawn, glancing sidelong at Perlin.
Perlin shrugged.  "Well, whatever passes for a dungeon in this place would probably be my first guess.  It depends on Sweet Water's attitude towards Hope Spot and whether she's going with the straightforward prisoner/hostage piece or if she's pushing the classic 'honored guest' schtick.  If it's the latter, then Hope Spot might be in one of the guest bedrooms.  It's not as though they'd repurpose a room to serve as a prison cell if they already have a room that works just as fine for that."
"Well, I'd suppose you'd know," said Dawn with an indifferent shrug.  He eyed the wall in  front of them.  "Now how shall we approach this?  It won't be difficult to get over the wall.  But we may want to wait until it's darker if we want to avoid causing a ruckus"
Looking over at Perlin, Dawn suddenly got a sickening feeling at the downright mischievous smile on the older colt's face.  Oh no...No no no no no!  He wouldn't...
"Hey Dawn," said Perlin, "I should let you know that, for me, the value of a job comes from the satisfaction I derive from carrying it out."
Dawn sagged.  He would...  "I have one thing to say then."
"And what is that?" asked Perlin, turning to regard Dawn once again.
"If we do things your way, then the only concession I will demand is that there is no killing unless it is absolutely necessary."  Dawn narrowed his eyes at Perlin, who did the same.  "Do you understand?  No killing for killing's sake.  If you do, then you will be fighting me as well."
For the moment, the tension between the two colts was a palpable, tangible force, actually making the air pop as their respective intents clashed against one another, neither yielding.  Dawn raised his wing the faintest fraction, to which Perlin responded by raising the hem of his cloak, slightly baring the mithril feathers of his wing.
Finally, Perlin's face broke out into a sly smile.  "Fine then.  I would much rather settle our conflict on our own terms than like this."  He hardly seemed troubled by the concession Dawn had forced out of him.  Instead, Perlin seemed amused and excited.  "I won't kill if I can avoid it."
Dawn frowned.  It almost felt too easy to make Perlin give up.  It was almost as though Perlin didn't have any specific intent to kill in the first place.  I may have misjudged him somewhat.  I can't ever seem to figure him out.
"Now then, since we've agreed to that, we can do the rest of this my way."  Stepping forward, Perlin drew back the hems of his cloak fully in order to spread his wings.  He broke into a gallop, flapping downwards to push off the ground.  As he approached the gate in the wall, both of Perlin's wings beat erratically, detaching his wired feathers, which slashed outward in shining arcs with such speed that Dawn's eyes couldn't keep up with them.
The razor-sharp edges of those feathers cleaved cleanly through the wood of the gate.  Less than a second later, Perlin reached it with his body, spinning about so that he could buck the doors, smashing through them easily and sending the pieces flying.  With a sigh, Dawn followed behind the older colt at a trot, content to watch as Perlin stepped over the remains of the entrance to Sweet Water's estate, looking very satisfied with the dramatic nature of his arrival.
"I hope that this place can provide me with some form of entertainment," said Perlin with a wry smirk, "I'd hate for this job to be boring."
"At least being boring would mean that it was going without a hitch," muttered Dawn as he stepped through the gate, taking in the estate beyond the walls.
It stood somewhere between a manor-house and a castle, it's sloping, shingled roofs resembling the former, while the solid stone walls and multiple towers resembled the latter.  Given what Perlin had told him about the mountain's architectural origins, Dawn supposed that this was perhaps the result of some compromise between griffon and unicorn architecture that produced the peculiar building in front of them, which gave the impression of house-shaped blocks stacked up atop one another, from which towers sprouted at irregular intervals, including the tallest.
At first, Dawn's body tensed as he anticipated the response to Perlin's loud and sudden entry.  However, as seconds became minutes, the two colts continued to stand just inside the gate as nopony came out to greet them.  Dawn's gaze wandered over the windows decorating the building.  Several were lit and Dawn's sharp eyes were able to pick out the occasional figure looking out of one or the other before ducking down.  He supposed those might have been servants or members of the household staff who had been charged with maintaining the place.  But where are the guards?
Perlin, on the other hoof, was distinctly dissatisfied with the results.  "Well, this is boring," he said, "If nopony's gonna come out and meet us, we might as well get this over with so that I can find something better to do with my time."  He glanced sidelong and smirked hungrily at Dawn, making the younger colt swallow nervously.
The two of them began the short trek across the courtyard towards the main entrance to the manor itself, where Perlin no doubt intended to repeat his previous dynamic entry to see if that elicited a response.  However, before they were halfway along the path that divided the masterfully-trimmed lawn, the doors to the manor swung open of their own accord, making both colts pause in their advance as they took a second to see who was greeting them from within.
A pair of griffons stood just inside the doorway.  One was an especially large specimen for his kind (if only by the view of Dawn's limited experience).  The feathers of the griffon's forequarters and the fur of his hindquarters were a uniform black color, not unlike Dawn's coat, which served to make the yellow colors of his forepaws, beak, and eyes stand out all the more vividly.  His body had been fitted with dull-black armor, consisting of plates that rested across his chest, back, and haunches.  His shoulders were bare, but his forelegs were enclosed with ridged gauntlets.  As he eyed them, the griffon's lips, just behind his beak, curled up in an amused smile.
The other griffon was a female, as different from her companion as night was from day.  She actually seemed to be small by the standards of their species.  However, that small frame consisted of lithe, powerful musculature that was clearly visible as she, unlike her companion, wore no armor.  Her coloring was less uniform than her companions, the brindled brown and gold color of the plumage and fur along her back, wings, and hindquarters fading to a lighter, white color along her underside.  The only armor she wore was a pair of gauntlets that extended all the way down over the tops of her forepaws.  Dawn noted that her claws were shorter and blunter, as opposed to the large, sickle-shaped talons of the male, though the fingers of her forepaws appeared to be more flexible and dextrous.  Her expression was more serious and composed than her companion's, her eyes narrowing as she regarded the unexpected arrivals.
From the way they held themselves, their bodies completely relaxed in spite of this strange and troubling situation, Dawn could tell they were experienced and skilled fighters.  Their eyes swept over Dawn and Perlin, studying the two colts just as intently as Dawn had been studying them.  From the look on their faces, it was clear that these griffons would not be underestimating their opponents.
"Well now," said the black griffon with a chuckle, "We weren't expecting visitors.  To think that we'd get two in one night and that both of them would be celebrities."
"Skan..." said the female in a warning tone.
"I know Zhan," said the black griffon, smiling fondly at the female, "We'll have to be careful."  He turned his attention back to Dawn and Perlin.  "These two aren't pushovers after all."
Dawn stepped forward.  "We've heard that a mare named Hope Spot is being kept here.  We would like to take custody of her, if you please.  I would rather not fight if we don't have to."
Skan smiled wryly and glanced sidelong at Zhan, whose body tensed at the mention of Hope Spot's name.  "It looks like our dear employer was mistaken when she said there shouldn't be any trouble over that mare."  He looked back at Dawn and Perlin, flexing his claws, which began to gouge out the stone floor beneath him.  "I'm afraid we can't give her over to your care.  We have been charged with ensuring that she remains under our lady's protection, so we can't simply let her go just like that."
"In other words," said Zhan coldly, "To get to her, you're going to have to go through us."
Perlin smirked and laughed.  "You're making it sound like we're the bad guys when you're the ones holding her prisoner."  He lowered himself into a crouch and spread his mithril-feathered wings.  "Let's not waste any more time then.  We have a train to catch after all."
With a sigh, Dawn bent his legs and half-spread his wings, eyeing their opponents carefully.  A shiver went down his spine as he saw them sink into similar crouches, their eyes focusing on him and Perlin.  Immediately, Dawn noticed some troubling cues; the way their breath was in synch and how they moved into positions meant to support each other.  These two griffons were very accustomed to fighting as a team.  It reminded Dawn of how formidable Red River and Storm Front could be when they were working together.  Their best bet then, was to confront them one-on-one.
"What do you think?" asked Perlin, "That one in the armor's probably a pretty tough customer.  I think I'll take him."
Dawn frowned, but nodded in agreement.  "I'll take the smaller one then.  She seems to be very quick, so it'll be better if I fight her."
The two colts tensed, then leapt forward in unison.  However, the pair of griffons didn't rush forward to meet their charge.  Instead, with a beat of their wings, the griffons launched themselves backwards into the manor, clearing the way, as though they were inviting the colts inside.  The reason was immediately apparent.  Out in the open, with the sky above, the pegasi would be able to fight to the fullest extent of their abilities.  However, in the enclosed conditions of the mansion's interior, the griffons, with their claws and beaks, would have the advantage.
Nonetheless, Dawn and Perlin did not falter and instead charged straight through the doors, trying to corner their opponents before they could seize any further advantages.  However, as Dawn and Perlin barreled through the doorway, the griffons suddenly switched positions and dodged to the side to come at the two colts from opposite angles.  To Dawn's surprise and confusion, the large, black griffon came rushing at him like an out-of-control locomotive.  Perlin, on the other hoof, was barely able to react in time as the agile, brindled female came shooting at him like an arrow.
Dawn kicked out with his legs, bringing his advance to an immediate halt.  Beating his wings straight down and pushing off with his hooves, he launched himself upward in a blink, just as the black griffon rushed through the space he had been occupying, swinging those deadly talons through the space where Dawn's head had been an instant before.  The flow of air being displaced by the swing told Dawn just how much power was behind that blow.  A second later, the griffon's claws made contact with the wall immediately behind where Dawn had been.  Though the tips of his talons barely scraped against the stone, they still managed to cut a massive gash straight through the wall.
Dawn's eyes widened in shock.  The sheer power of the blow beggared description.  Even so much as a glancing impact would probably eviscerate him on the spot.  If he so much as touches me with one of those swings, I'm dead.  He barely even noticed the metallic ring that signaled that Zhan had begun fighting with Perlin.  However, Dawn couldn't spare a thought for the other battle, as his own promised to be extremely difficult.
Though his attack had missed, Skan didn't even hesitate.  Instead, he sank his hind claws into the rock floor of the room and used them as anchors to completely halt his momentum, allowing him to turn on the spot orient on Dawn's new position.  His wings spread in preparation for takeoff.
Dawn's reaction was immediate, using both his wings to grab as much of the available air as possible and send it slamming down towards his opponent.  A roar filled the room as twin blasts of compressed air merged together into a single powerful hammer-blow.  Skan immediately abandoned his efforts to takeoff and instead crossed his gauntleted forelimbs above him, ducking his head beneath them.  The gauntlets took the full force of the blow, even as the griffon's hind legs, which had been extended in his attempt to kick off the ground, bent back down, helping abate the force of the attack.  Still, the strike drove Skan all the way back down to the floor, forcing him onto his haunches.  The remainder of the blast of wind cracked and crushed the rock beneath and around Skan's feet.  However, the black griffon did not buckle beneath the assault and, the instant Dawn's attack abated, he launched himself straight off the floor at the colt, once again leading with an overwhelmingly powerful swing of his claws.
Skan's charge was so abrupt that Dawn had no time to attack with another blast of wind.  He tried to deflect Skan's attack with a barrier of compressed air.  But Skan's claws easily ripped through it as though it hadn't even been there.  Falling back, Dawn dodged desperately as the attack barely brushed against the hair-tips of his mane, the brief contact sending a stinging sensation down the colt's neck as several of his mane hairs were torn right out.  Beating his wings, Dawn continued to retreat away from the assault as Skan closed in.
The large, heavy griffon used his body like a battering ram, closing off the space in front of Dawn as he swung inwards from the outside with his claws, keeping the colt from fully escaping to either flank.  Dawn tried numerous efforts to deflect and parry Skan's slashes.  But each swing had so much power behind it that they simply tore through the swirling eddies of wind as though they weren't there.  On several occasions, Dawn tried to take back the offensive by launching blasts of wind straight into Skan's chest.  However, the bursts of air simply scattered against the griffon's armor.
Not seeing much in the way of options, Dawn decided to start changing tactics.  It took him less than a second to build up a charge within his feathers.  As he dodged back from another of Skan's powerful slashes, Dawn swung his wing up, a blue-white arc of lightning launching off his primaries.  Skan hardly reacted at all, twisting the foreleg he'd just slashed with so that the gauntlet caught the the burst of electricity, which, to Dawn's shock, seemed to get sucked down along the griffon's arm and burst out from his back, where it blasted molten chunks from the rock wall on the far side of the mansion's foyer.
There was no time to be surprised.  Dawn's wind-sense told him that he was running out of room.  This had been what Skan was leading him towards.  The black griffon was fully aware of the threat that Dawn's greater mobility represented.  If he let up for even an instant, Dawn would quickly escape and attack from a more advantageous angle, which Skan would be hard-pressed to defend against.  As such, his intent was to pin Dawn against the wall and box him in to close off his options.  Then, Dawn would be crushed between a rock and a very hard griffon.
However, Dawn's wind-sense also presented him with an option to avoid that fate.  He could feel the flow of air coming from a small portion of the wall, indicating an entry that led to what was probably a hallway.  However, reaching that doorway meant breaking from his original line of retreat, which Skan would not allow.  Even now, the black griffon was rearing up and slashing inwards with his foreclaws, from both directions.
Though Dawn could duck under those slashes, the position would make it awkward and difficult to dodge towards the passage off to the side.  If he tried, Skan would easily catch him with the backswing from his claws.  For all his size and bulk, the ebony griffon was deceptively fast, especially with his forelegs.  Simply ducking and falling back was not an option now, as the wall was rapidly looming up behind Dawn.
With the power of the Gale King, it would be foal's play to break through that wall.  But Dawn had no idea what was one the other side, which might only lead him into an even more disadvantageous situation.  On top of that, he didn't have the time he needed to muster up that kind of power.  While his close-combat training with Red River was definitely paying off, Dawn still couldn't muster up a great deal of power on such short notice.
I have to deflect it, he realized.  Skan's overwhelming power had torn effortlessly through any attempt at defense, even when Dawn tried to intercept his attacks at oblique angles to try and divert the force.  If Dawn wanted to deflect Skan's overwhelming strength, he would have to apply all his own.
Without even thinking, Dawn's wings were already dipping down, his magic drawing and warping the atmosphere around them with as much force as he could muster.  Almost immediately, he could tell it wasn't going to be enough.  Even using his fullest strength to drive the compressed air upwards, Dawn realized he couldn't possibly compete with Skan's raw power.  The impact would only succeed in repelling his own body and slamming it down into the floor.
In that instant, inspiration struck in a flash as Dawn's mind recalled one of the most mundane images he could remember, that of Applejack slamming her front hooves into the ground as she turned to buck at him.  His eyes widened, fully aware that he'd never even thought once about what he was about to attempt.  But there was no time for thinking.  He would simply have to act and hope he could do it right.
Dawn slammed his forehooves into the ground.  In that same motion, he swept his wings upward, slamming the blasts of compressed air that the appendages were driving straight into Skan's forelegs from below at an angle nearly perpendicular to their movement.  Dawn felt and heard the stone crack beneath his hooves as the impact jolted up his legs.  Rather than try to endure it, Dawn instead directed that jolting feeling, funneling every ounce of force from his hooves meeting the ground into his wings.
Finally, Dawn felt Skan's unyielding arms respond to the impact as his desperate parry forced both limbs upwards, throwing them over Skan's head.  The griffon reacted almost immediately, lunging forward, trying to simply crush Dawn with his armored chest, even as he interlaced his fingers over his head, bringing his forepaws together before swinging them back down in a hammer-blow.
However, he was already too late.  Dawn had his opening and took it.  Kicking off both the floor below and the wall behind, Dawn used one wing to dodge sharply to the side.  His body seemed to vanish from Skan's view, skipping over in front of the hallway before using his other wing and a kick from his forelegs to leap backwards down the hall, quickly bringing his other wing back into play to get as much distance as possible.  Skimming backwards, Dawn retreated as far down the hall as he could.  His ears picked up the sound of rock splintering as Skan's overhead blow slammed into the floor where he'd been standing.  The force was such that Dawn could feel the rock around him shuddering from it, even though he was already a fair distance away.
Behind him, he felt the hall turn sharply to the right.  He supposed that he could simply continue his retreat, even toying with the possibility of abandoning the fight so that he could start searching for Hope Spot.  However, his instincts told him that was a foolish idea.  This mansion was completely unfamiliar territory to him.  There was no way he could search it and keep away from Skan at the same time.  The black griffon's natural hunter's senses would probably allow him to track Dawn down in mere seconds, given that he knew the layout of mansion much better.  More importantly, even if Dawn did succeed in disengaging and managed to find Hope Spot without anymore conflict with Skan, the black griffon would remain an obstacle and would undoubtedly waylay their departure, which would lead to Hope Spot being put at risk if she got caught up in the fight herself.
I need to face him here and win, concluded Dawn grimly as he settled back onto the floor, steadying himself and his resolve.  There was also the matter of Perlin's fight with Zhan.  While Dawn had difficulty imagining the older colt losing, he couldn't exactly take it for granted that Perlin would win either.  In either case, he had to be prepared for the possibility of fighting Zhan as well before Hope Spot could be rescued.
Dawn braced himself and prepared for the battle to come.



As the two griffons parted, Zhan had darted off to the side before turning sharply to come at Perlin like an arrow.  The cream-colored colt had reacted instantly, swinging one of his wings up, preparing to slash her to pieces with his razor-edged feathers.  However, as she approached, Zhan curled her fingers slightly, triggering some sort of mechanism within her gauntlets, as sickle-shaped claws of metal slid out from hidden grooves and over her fingers, taking the place of her smaller, blunter, natural claws.  Lashing out she struck at Perlin's wing with those claws.
Metal met metal with a loud ringing sound.  Perlin's wing easily parried Zhan's attack before he swung around with the other wing, which Zhan simply countered with her other hand.  The two of them quickly settled into a rapid exchange of blows as metal met metal repeatedly, sparks striking off as claw met feather.  Perlin's natural instinct was to go on the offensive.  However, he was instead finding himself being driven back from the sheer speed with which Zhan struck, finding himself spending more time and effort fending off her strikes than trying to land a blow of his own.  In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the larger area covered by his wings enabled him to position them to defend himself without having to move them too much from a previous position, Zhan would have gutted him and torn his throat out within the first five seconds of their battle.
What perplexed Perlin even more was that Zhan was matching his attacks, blow for blow, and yet there was no sign that her fighting claws were about to break.  Perlin's mithril feathers would have sheared through ordinary steel without the slightest difficulty.  However, the griffoness's weapons showed no signs of even the slightest dent.  Given their slightly matte coloring, he doubted that her claws were mithril as well.  An alloy perhaps, he wondered.  He sincerely doubted that her claws were orichalcum.  If that were the case, he would be the one in trouble.  Fortunately, while orichalcum was stronger than mithril, it was also denser and heaver, making it a poor choice for most weapons, particularly those that depended on speed and precision over power.
However, the time for such thought quickly passed as Zhan abruptly shifted strategies.  Instead of continuing to batter at his defenses from the front, she beat her wings and flashed upwards before shifting to come at Perlin from behind and above with a suddenness that would have matched Dawn's skill at rapid movement.  Perlin's wings, still shifted forward to protect from the original frontal assault, were now out of position and his entire back was open to Zhan's claws...
...Or so it seemed.  Perlin barely moved his wings, flicking them backward.  At the same instant, he detached two of his wired feathers, launching them like darts, straight for Zhan's head.  Backwinging quickly, Zhan raised her forelimbs and batted the feathers away with the gauntlets mounted on them.  Taking advantage of her sudden halt, Perlin swept his wings backward, closing them over his back like pair of scissors, nearly catching Zhan between them.  However, the brindled griffoness managed to escape by leaning backwards and diving downwards at the same moment, Perlin's wings closing with a grating noise mere centimeters away from her beak.
Not wanting to lose the initiative, Perlin whipped his entire body around, swinging his wing out, launching a wired feather once again, this one slightly out to the side.  The arc of his swing sent the wing itself towards Zhan's neck, while a slight tug on the wire had the feather slicing toward her from behind.
Zhan's eyes tracked the wired feather effortlessly, even as she caught the swing of his wing with an upraised hand, the impact knocking her away.  She managed to dodge under the feather as well, but was forced to dart out of the way as Perlin launched a feather off his other wing.
She can see them, he thought, Impressive.  Being able to actually see his feathers was no mean feat  Not even Dawn, with the superior visual acuity and motion sensitivity that his unique eyes afforded him, had been able to track the wired feathers with his sight.  And yet, Zhan's eyes were following the lightning-fast weapons with shocking ease.
However, even if she could see them in motion, Zhan still had difficulties keeping up with them physically.  The wired feathers not only extended the reach of Perlin's attacks.  They also allowed him to strike from unexpected directions, enabling him to flank Zhan even when he was right in front of her.  Even as she tried to defend against his wings, the detached feathers hemmed her in and hindered her movements.
Seeing no reason to continue withholding anything, Perlin unleashed all ten of his feathers as Zhan backpedalled away from him, launching them straight for her like a volley of arrows.  Zhan responded by shooting directly upward, a movement that Perlin mirrored as he took to the air, his feathers trailing behind him on their wires like streamers.  The two of them charged along parallel paths before Perlin pulled up beside Zhan and slashed at her with a wing.  She parried with her claws, allowing the force of his blow to knock her back slightly and gain some distance.  At that same instant, both fighters flipped upside down so that they landed on the ceiling of the room, hooves and claws smacking down as though they'd been falling upwards.  Perlin drew in the wires of his feathers to keep them from going slack, rotating his wings so that they now swung upwards (or was it downwards) at Zhan.
The griffoness responded by throwing herself forward along the ceiling, charging straight for Perlin, who swept his wings in front of him so that his feathers extended out in front of his body like a wall of spears.  Zhan twisted her body frantically trying to slip over (or under, rather) his wings and strike at his head.  However, Perlin ducked beneath his own wings and swept them outward in arcing slashes that cut into Zhan's path of evasion.  She caught the feathers of his wings with her gauntlets, being forced back by the strength of the blow as Perlin used the ceiling to brace his legs and add to the attack's power.
Even as Perlin knocked Zhan back with his counter, he fully retracted the wires on his feathers.  When he'd originally swung his wings out in front of him, he'd changed the feathers' downward arcs into sidways arcs, swinging their wires across his body.  When he swung the wings back out and retracted the feathers, the resulting motion pulled the feathers back towards the wings, causing them to come slicing at Zhan from behind at separate angles.
Zhan lashed out with her hind paw, kicking off the ceiling as hard as she could, using both the power of her kick, her wings, and gravity itself to speed her movement.  At the same time, she twisted her spine, moving with all the skill of an acrobat, barely managing to twist her body out of the way of Perlin's attack, which snipped a few hairs from the tuft on the end of her tail.
Perlin's feathers settled back onto his wings as he too kicked off the ceiling, moving to match Zhan's course, pressing the offensive.  To his surprise, the griffoness didn't try counterattack, but instead focused on dodging as Perlin lashed at her with his wings and launched the wired feathers once more.  Zhan swooped and dodged, darting around the feathers as they slashed and stabbed at her.  Abruptly, she changed her course and dodged for a corridor, one opposite the hallway Dawn and Skan had gone down.  Perlin followed the griffoness in pursuit, drawing his feathers back in to avoid tangling them in the narrow opening.



Dawn took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to relax his body.  Already, Skan's shadow was blocking out the light from the end of the corridor as the griffon came through the entry, his pace positively sedate compared to his previous charge earlier.  From the look in his eyes, it was clear that he was fully aware of Dawn's intentions.  Skan came strolling down the hallway, stopping several meters short of where Dawn waited.
The lips behind Skan's beak curled up in a smile.  "I'm impressed, little cub.  For someone so young, you have incredible strength and skill."
"To hear that from someone with your strength, that is high praise indeed," said Dawn, glad to feed the conversation if it gave him more time to ready himself.  He tilted his head as a thought occurred to him.  "How is it that you ended up working here?  I very much doubt that Viscountess Sweet Water anticipated this much trouble when she arranged for Hope Spot's abduction."
Skan simply chuckled and shook his head.  "I doubt she thinks as highly of us as you do.  The pittance she offered for this work probably speaks her opinion of our skills."
"Or perhaps how little trouble she expected you to encounter," Dawn pointed out, "If she pays you so poorly, then why are you so determined to remain an obstacle?  Is it wise to risk your life for so little pay?"
Skan simply shrugged.  "We had no other offers at the time.  We have to provide for ourselves after all.  Given what the job entailed, we figured the pay was sufficient.
"However, even if it's true that we weren't paid for the possibility of fighting someone at your level, we still have our pride and reputation as professionals.  Professionals don't leave jobs half-done."
Dawn bowed his head slightly.  "I see.  Please forgive me for my impertinence."
That earned a laugh from Skan.  "Worry not!  Cubs will make mistakes.  This job will be worth it for the chance to see your mettle alone."
"Then I shall try not to disappoint you," said Dawn.
"I certainly hope you won't," said Skan, sinking into a crouch as the muscles in his body tightened like winding springs, "Otherwise, you'll die an instant from now.  You are definitely have a great deal of skill in manipulating the air.  This must be the Gale King I read about.  But it seems you're at a disadvantage, surrounded by all this stone."
"You needn't trouble yourself," said Dawn as he began to wheel his wings, "The walls, floor, and ceiling...all sides may be stone.  But everything in between is air.  And all of that..."  He turned sideways, inscribing circular arcs with his wings.  "...is under my control."
Dawn abruptly twisted to the other side and lashed straight out with his wing, putting the full force of his body behind the attack.  A swirling whirlwind rushed down the corridor, straight for Skan.  The stone on all sides was ground into gravel by its passing and swept along in a deadly hail of minuscule bullets that would tear through flesh and perforate bone, bearing down on Skan with blinding speed.
Skan did not flinch at the oncoming blast of wind.  Instead, he opened his beak and let out a sound halfway between an eagle's screech and a lion's roar.  Surging forward, he stood on his hind legs, pushing off his floor with his paws and beating fiercely with his wings at the same time, moving forward just in time to meet the whirlwind charging down the hall.  In the same smooth motion, Skan thrust forward with one forepaw, extended so that the palm of his clawed hand would slam straight into the spinning wall of air.
The two attacks met with a thunderous crash.  Its force stymied like water in a plugged hose, the whirling gale exploded outward, completely shattering the rock on all sides, solid stone being more fragile and yielding than the strength of the black griffon.  The stone of the wall on one side exploded outwards into the open air outside the manor as the corridor was all but gutted by the meeting of the two opposing forces.  In less than a second, an entire section of the mansion wall had been ripped open.  The two warriors faced each other through the storm of dust, pausing only for a second before lunging forward to join battle once more.