Chapter 1 (Part I: A New Threat)

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The elegant city of Canterlot had three important shopping districts; one was located in the northern section of the city near the Royal Castle, while the other two were in the southeastern section. Shermane's Avenue in the north held the most expensive and popular stores in the city that were renowned for displaying exquisite clothes, artwork, and food -- both domestic and foreign. The Hermit, a cluster of buildings near the city's southeastern gate dedicated to history and archaeology, was home to various stores that sold relics from various cultures and merchandise that anypony would expect to see in a general museum gift shop.

Also in the southeast but farther away from the gate was Autumn Square, an area small in size and not as distinct as Shermane's and the Hermit, but nonetheless possessed a welcoming and adoring atmosphere to it. In its center, the square consisted of three small gardens adjacent to each other and encased in sidewalk tiles; each garden consisted of flowerbeds of their own unique design, with the middle garden having a marble fountain with a statue of a griffon in the center. Autumn Square was surrounded on all four sides by various shops and other buildings. Unlike the buildings distances away that possessed the regal appearance and the typical gold, white, and purple color designs associated with common Canterlot architecture, the buildings at the square were of simple built and were unique in appearance from one another.

The shops in Autumn Square each provided their own services and displayed themselves in their own little way to attract potential customers. A pink and white clothing store on the eastern side of the square with a purple pyramid-shaped roof was bedazzled with neon red and blue lights; as well, it displayed a yellow neon sign of a dressed up mare posing in an elegant fashion, which at times would have the mare put her foreleg up and down. Male and female pony mannequins could be seen through the front windows wearing clothes meant to entice the public to come in. An ice cream shop on the western side near the street exiting the square was built as a waffle cone bowl with Neapolitan ice cream on top serving as the roof; the shop had a snap-open sign on the sidewalk in front of it that listed the various dessert items that were offered to the customers. And on the southern side of the square was a little yellow and beige coffee shop with a sign of a steaming coffee cup on the front of the roof; the coffee shop had tables with umbrellas outside near the front door where many ponies were now seated, including two stallions --- one a grey earth pony with glasses, and the other a white unicorn. The earth stallion had a cutiemark of a paper origami bird spreading its wings, while the unicorn's was that of a phoenix.

With an emotionless face, the earth stallion was reading from The Canterlot Weekly newspaper splayed across the wooden table surface. His body language was relaxed but dull at the same time, as he remained fixed to his cushioned stool with his forelegs resting on the table surface. The only moments the earth stallion made was when he craned his neck to take occasional sips from his coffee cup, or when he turned a page in his newspaper. The unicorn stallion had a more laid-back appearance, as he had his backlegs crisscrossed to each other on the side of the table while his forelegs rested behind his neck. The unicorn had a calm grin on his face --- the kind of which anypony would wear if they assumed that there was nothing bad for them to worry about in the world today.

While the earth stallion's eyes were glued to his newspaper, the unicorn spent most of his time staring across the street at the shifting crowd of ponies at the square while eating a lemon square that he would levitate with an orange glow from his plate into from his mouth.

"There seems to be a lot of ponies out here, today," the unicorn said out loud before giving a shrug. "I mean, I obviously don't live in Canterlot, so I'm not really being that much objective here. But, I'm guessing that since Hearth's Warming is coming up soon, ponies are in a hurry to get enough presents for their folks."

The unicorn looked at the earth stallion, but the earth stallion kept his gaze on his newspaper.

"It's a little bit chilly," the unicorn noted, "now that I start to think about it. The guess the city's weather team is already working on bringing in that holiday weather. Guess it'll also be snowing in a couple of days, though I wouldn't mind if autumn stuck around for a bit. How 'bout you?"

The unicorn directed his eyes at the earth stallion again, but the grey pony said no words to his friend. Instead, he craned his neck towards his coffee cup and took a quick sip from the beverage before returning to read. The unicorn sent a glare at the earth stallion before levitating another lemon square into his mouth and looking back at the crowd. He then spoke once again.

"You know, this shopping rush reminds me of how busy ponies usually were during the holidays back in Vanhoover. I remember that sometimes me and the other kids from Orange Grove would pick bits out from unsuspecting folk that were too busy buying stuff to even notice us." The unicorn chuckled with nostalgia as he brushed a front hoof through his slick black mane that had a streak of grey in the middle.

"I think that Balloon Box once stole fifty bucks from a mare's purse while she was getting clothes to buy. I remember that we bought a bunch of ice cream and toys. It was fun until the police found us after the mare filed a complaint, because then we had to return the toys we bought, and of course we got a huge scolding from Ms. Acrefield when we got back to the orphanage."

The unicorn intended to hear a response, but once again the earth stallion said nothing. The unicorn groaned in frustration.

"I'm trying to strike up a conversation with you, Sonnet! It wouldn't hurt if we had a good chat." The unicorn gave an irritable squint at the earth stallion. "Can you a least say something? Maybe at least one word?"

With a sigh, Sonnet looked up from his newspaper and stared at the unicorn with a blank face.

"I rather that you weren't be distracted with finding the target," Sonnet said plainly. "It's been nearly forty-five minutes since Boxer was supposed to meet the dealer here." He directed his eyes on his right foreleg where his watch was. "It's already near one o'clock."

"Me?" the unicorn said in surprise as he pointed a hoof to himself in defense before pointing it to his friend in accusation. "I'm the one who's been keeping an eye out for the guy for nearly a whole hour, you've spent most of your time reading the paper and drinking that bland coffee."

"It's best not to draw attention to ourselves, Apollo," Sonnet said. "If we were both looking into the crowd for a long time, Boxer might see us and he could get suspicious. And if he's suspicious, he might leave the square. We need to see if he meets with the weapon's dealer."

Apollo gave an audible huff in scoff. "I doubt that they're even in this place. They could be in Shermane or the Hermit."

"Well, we haven't heard anything from the others yet. And the last message we got from Gamer and Violet was how they saw a few wagons come into the city from the southeastern and northern gates. If the dealer is bringing those weapons in, it's likely he's coming in as or with somepony else drawing a wagon."

Apollo popped another lemon square into his mouth and placed his chin onto the surface of the table. "Well, Shermane's in the north, and we haven't heard anything from Kunai and Scarlet over there, so I don't think they spotted the dealer meeting with the crony." A heavy yawn, likely from boredom, escaped from the unicorn's mouth, who then smacked his lips together. "And since the Hermit is closer to the southeast gate, Lion and Newton probably haven't struck any luck, either. The dealer could have passed them."

Seeing that his partner was distracted, Sonnet directed his eyes to the ever-changing crowd of ponies across the street. "Hopefully this is the place where Boxer will meet the dealer," he said with a little sigh afterward. "I'd hate to think that we all missed them. The sentries in Canterlot were useful with digging up information on Boxer, like his appearance, so it's easy to spot him out." The earth stallion sipped from his coffee cup. "But as for the dealer, other than his gender and the fact that he's coming in from Manehattan, we got nothing."

Apollo leaned downwards in his seat to grab his tan saddlebags underneath the table. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to go over that information again," Apollo chuckled with a slight grunt as he placed the saddlebags on the table between the two of them, being careful not to knock over his plate of lemon squares nor Sonnet's cup. He used his magic to unzip the left bag and levitated out a black manila folder and dropped it on the table.

"Okay, so let's review," Apollo said as he opened the folder and spread out the papers within. The unicorn pointed to a picture of a yellow earth pony stallion with a short bronze mane and a cutiemark that was a pair of boxing gloves. The stallion was pictured walking past a store in a city, as skyscrapers could be seen distances away from the store. He had a big black scar on the right side of his torso that looked like it resulted from an injury from an incident long ago. The stallion's face in the photo could best be described as worn out, as he had a rather grim and annoyed frown, and his teal eyes were bloodshot red.

Apollo covered his unshorn black hoof over his mouth and cleared his throat with a loud, repetitive cough. "So, this Boxer fellow is about thirty-nine years old and was born in Fillydelphia. He has a criminal record that dates back to when he was around twelve years old, and most of the bad stuff he's done is basic theft and assault --- with most of the assaults being orders from a few gangs in Filly that he worked for. When he wasn't causing trouble, he worked as a local boxer downtown. He wasn't a favorite, though. Played roughed and dirty." Apollo levitated a paper that was underneath the photo and read from it. "Around 992 he was sentenced to seven years at Alcoltraz for attacking a convenience store owner who wouldn't pay protection money to a local gang. After those seven years, Boxer went back to Filly and did some more small crimes on behalf of gangs, but three years ago he left Filly and moved to Canterlot. According to the sentries, he began doing more work for other criminals, including Orion."

Keeping his eyes on the crowd, Sonnet spoke up. "That's what I remember from the reports." The earth stallion recalled in his mind how seven months ago a sentry that was following Boxer discovered that the small time criminal was working on behalf of the Canterlot crime boss Orion. Orion was infamous for supplying crime organizations in other Equestrian cities with modified weapons from foreign places around the world. The increase in violence in cities in Equestria was mainly a result of these crime bosses distributing these weapons to their subordinates and other buyers. For nearly a decade, the police forces of Canterlot and other cities have tried to find the true identity of Orion and stop his weapons trade, but most of their investigations lead to dead ends or to the wrong ponies.

However, the sentry who discovered that Boxer was working for Orion eventually ended up joining Orion's underlings after several weeks of committing small crimes to impress Boxer and the other criminals. Sonnet remembered that though the sentry earned Boxer's respect, it took months for them to rise up within the ranks after committing more crimes in order for them to hear about how Boxer was to be sent by Orion to one of the city's shopping districts in early December to meet up with the weapons dealer that gave Orion the weapons.

Sonnet found it frustrating that even after the sentry infiltrated Orion's organization, they were never able to see Orion, nor were they able to get any information about who Orion really was. But luckily the sentry confirmed that Orion usually met with the dealer in person to inspect the weapons.

Orion really prioritizes his privacy, Sonnet thought. If we don't find Boxer now, we may not get another chance to confront Orion.

Sonnet shifted his glasses on the ridge of his nose to make sure they were adjusted properly. He looked intensely at the crowd in the square to the point at which he nearly strained his eyes, but he stopped the strain for all of a sudden; Sonnet was afraid that if he looked to intensely at the crowd that Boxer may notice the determination he has on his face and will leave the area.

Looking at his watch, Sonnet discovered that the time was around 1:14.

"I have to go in," he said abruptly, which startled Apollo somewhat.

"What?" asked the confused unicorn. "What do you mean?"

"It's been too long, and we haven't gotten a message yet from the others. This shop might not have a good view of the entire square." Sonnet scooted his chair backward and stood on the ground on all four legs. "I'm going to walk around the square to search for him. He could be somewhere that we can't see from here."

"But I thought you said you didn't want to draw suspicion?" Apollo recalled. "I mean, what if you stare at him for too long or something?"

Sonnet turned around to look at the unicorn. "If I do see him, I'll be sure not to keep my eyes on him for the entire time," he said calmly. "There's a free newspaper stand to the north. I might hang around over there for a little bit before moving on."

"And if you do find him, what then?"

"I'll contact you with the spell and then you'll bring your saddlebags and follow me when they leave."

Sonnet crouched under the table to pull out his burgundy saddlebags with his teeth. With his mouth, he threw the saddlebags over his back and then walked past the table and past the black gates surrounding the coffee shop. He looked back at Apollo, who resumed looking at the crowd, before walking to the sidewalk. Sonnet made a turn towards the right bottom corner of the square, and as he slowly walked past the stores on his right, he looked around for a yellow earth stallion with a cutiemark of boxing gloves. None of the ponies around him on that sidewalk matched the description of his target; the only ponies worth catching his attention were a straight couple that affectionately nuzzled each other as they left a restaurant and a properly dressed unicorn stallion with a monocle and a top hat leaving a shoe store. Sonnet sighed lightly in frustration and annoyance.

By the time that Sonnet got to the bottom right corner, which ended at a little green space with a park bench under a tree, he turned to the left and was on the sidewalk heading up to the top right corner of the square. Like before, Sonnet passed many ponies. Some of them were also walking past him, but he paid most of his attention towards finding a pony identical in appearance to his target who was either sitting or standing. However, he found nopony who looked like Boxer by the time he got to the middle of the sidewalk; and as Sonnet looked forward to the end of the sidewalk at the corner, he could see that the ponies in his path were also unlikely to be his target. His face, while still stoic as before, grew a small, anxious expression.

The possibility of Orion's subordinate having left the square with the weapons dealer dwelled well inside Sonnet's thoughts --- so much that he felt that his throat had suddenly dried up. A sudden wave of nervousness took over the young stallion's body, even though he kept a calm and confident composure out in public. He had only begun his search minutes ago, but he already feared that it might be too late -- that none of the other teams had made contact with Boxer and the weapons dealer.

After a few more seconds, Sonnet reached the end of the sidewalk. A traffic of taxi coaches and wagons drove across the street that entered Autumn Square, so Sonnet waited for it to pass before crossing the street and heading to the sidewalk of the northern side of the square. As Sonnet turned left he saw a wagon covered by a dark purple tarp was parked near the sidewalk that he didn't notice before the recent traffic arrived. He moved up the sidewalk and saw that a purple pegasus stallion was hitched to the wagon; the pegasus' posture was mostly still, but he would fluff his wings a little and often pawed at the ground below him. It took a while for Sonnet to realize that he stared at the wagon puller for too long before he averted his eyes. Luckily, the pegasus took no notice of him, as he was looking at something to his left.

Out of curiosity, Sonnet looked in the direction of the wagon puller's gaze and saw nothing other than a blue pegasus stallion walking across the street to reach the middle garden of the square where the griffon fountain was. The blue pegasus stopped when he found himself standing in front of a yellow earth stallion with a rather dark brownish mane. Sonnet's eyes widen briefly before he was able to retain his impassive expression. Sonnet looked around for a place to move to, a place where those two ponies at the garden would not see him easily, where he would get an eye on them -- especially the yellow one.

There was a restaurant in front of Sonnet only a few feet away from the middle garden that he believed would be best to set up, as it had tables and seating-cushions on the patio. Keeping a brisk, yet calm pace, Sonnet trotted to the restaurant. For split moments, he would turn his head backwards to look at the two stallions at the garden, before quickly turning his head forwards again. There were a few times when Sonnet found himself either nearly or definitely bumping into somepony while he was looking back at the garden, in which he would apologize swiftly to the surprised or annoyed stranger.

By nearly twenty seconds, Sonnet reached the restaurant and entered the elevated patio. When he reached the top of the stairs, he ran into the side of a waitress who was returning from a table that she had served. Luckily, the mare was a unicorn and was using her magic to levitate her tray of food, but nonetheless she gave Sonnet a silent glare.

"My mistake," Sonnet said hastily. "Sorry."

Though the waitress still looked annoyed, she left to continue her work, and so Sonnet went to a table that was near the railing of the patio. Once he laid his saddlebags under the table and sat on his cushion, he resumed his observation of the two ponies at the garden. The patio he was on was underneath a red awning attached to the building that drowned everypony in a red shade, so he felt confident that he would not be spotted easily.

The middle garden was at a good distance from the restaurant, which was suitable for Sonnet as he got a clear detail of the two ponies' appearances. The blue pegasus had a short navy blue mane with bangs and had stubble on his chin; he wore a white jacket with a black shirt underneath and he wore a white fisherpony's hat with a black band. Sonnet could make out triangle-shaped cutiemark on his flank, but he could not tell what it was. The yellow earth pony's physical appearance matched that of Boxer's profile: a short bronze mane and a big scar on the right side of his torso near the waist. Sonnet could make out two circles on his flank, one purple and the other red, which he assumed made up the boxing gloves for his cutiemark.

While the restaurant was a good vantage point for Sonnet, he had a hard time understanding what the two ponies were talking about from such a distance. All he could do was note their lip movement and body language. Both stallions maintained a calm and confident composure while they talked, but Sonnet noticed that the pegasus was more fluid with his movements than the earth stallion. The pegasus often made air gestures with his front hooves whenever he made a sentence, and he would often look away when the earth stallion talked to him. The earth stallion, on the other hand, stood stiffly on the sidewalk and kept his deadpan eyes on the pegasus during their conversation. While the earth stallion was talking, the little effort in lip movement that Sonnet catch displayed that he must have been talking in a low level, as even the pegasus would shift his ear closer to the earth stallion's mouth from time to time.

After a few more minutes, the blue pegasus gave a smile and patted the earth stallion's back before he walked back towards the purple pegasus attached to the wagon. Sonnet saw that the earth stallion also had turned around and was walking in the opposite direction towards the upper left corner of the square, and within a few seconds Sonnet saw that the blue pegasus and the pegasus puller were behind the earth stallion. As Sonnet watched the three stallions pass by the restaurant, he held his right forehoof below the apple of his throat.

Apollo, I think I've found Boxer and the dealer, Sonnet thought. In a few seconds, the earth stallion heard his partner's voice in his own mind.

Are you sure it's him?

I saw an earth stallion that matched Boxer's description talking with a blue pegasus that came with a wagon puller. The wagon was covered with a purple tarp, so I couldn't see anything in it. You should spot a purple stallion pulling a wagon following a yellow stallion and a blue stallion at the north end of the square.

There was silence for a few moments before Apollo spoke again. Yeah, I can see them.

Get out of the cafe and follow them. Be careful not to draw any notice from them. I'm going to contact Kunai.

With his hoof still on his throat, Sonnet closed his eyes and focused his imagination on picturing the appearance of his squad leader.

Kunai, it's Sonnet. We've found Boxer in Autumn Square.

Seconds later, Sonnet hears a calm, masculine voice.

Are you sure? Are you confident in your assessment?

Sonnet nodded. The stallion I saw matched Boxer's description. He was talking with a blue pegasus stallion who arrived at the square with a purple pegasus attached to wagon covered by a purple tarp. I think the blue pegasus is the dealer.

Sonnet heard nothing for a few seconds, but then the voice came back.

If what you've said is true, then follow them. Scarlet and I will leave, and I'll contact Newton and Lion to do the same. I'll inform Gamer and Violet to follow you from above and inform them to tell everypony else where to meet the wagon. We'll all meet at the location. Unless something happens, allow Gamer and Violet to use what's left of the telepathic spell to direct the rest of us.

With the voice gone, Sonnet put on his saddlebags and left the restaurant. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked to his right and saw the wagon and the other two stallions leaving the square. At a building on the left side of the square near the street, Sonnet spotted Apollo gazing at the wagon. Sonnet trotted to Apollo and touched the back of his neck, which startled the white unicorn.

"Let's get going," Sonnet said unfazed.

After finding Boxer and the weapons dealer, Sonnet and Apollo followed them through the streets of Canterlot at a safe distance so as to prevent drawing any suspicion from the criminals. To paint themselves as regular individuals, the two partners would often walk themselves through lightly dense crowds or take their eyes off the wagon for a second to look at something intriguing that they encountered along the way; such techniques appeared to work, as the two never saw the criminals stopping in their tracks to look at what was behind them.

For several long minutes, Sonnet and Apollo followed the criminals from one street into another. There were moments when the two believed that the criminals had already arrived at the place where Orion would be, as at times the wagon would slow down at a building that the criminals were looking at, only for the wagon to end up moving past the building at normal speed. This traveling had gotten to a point at which irritation reared its head with these metaphorical dead ends.

Apollo groaned. "Damn, this is getting nowhere. We must be in the center of Canterlot by now!"

Sonnet, keeping his eyes on the wagon, made a stern "Shush!" sound at Apollo. "Don't speak so loud. We need to keep a low profile."

The white unicorn huffed at him. "As if they can hear us from over here."

"It's better to be safe and smart."

By now, the two ended up in a suburban neighborhood, as most of the houses had the typical Canterlot appearance and color scheme. The street they were on was not as crowded as the others before, but there were still enough ponies moving on the sidewalk that Sonnet felt no worry that they were completely out in the open. He checked up on the wagon again and was satisfied at how the three criminals were still unaware of the two following them. Though they have been walking for such a long time, Sonnet began to felt somewhat hopeful of a positive ending.

"So, how was the coffee?" Apollo asked suddenly.

"What?" Sonnet said, caught off from his train of thought.

"I said how was your coffee?"

Sonnet took a few seconds before giving a reluctant, calm reply. "It was fine, I guess. I couldn't really taste anything good about it, but it wasn't bad either."

Apollo chuckled. "Well since you just got bland coffee it makes sense. If I get coffee it needs to be chocolate-flavored or something like that." Apollo spat out an audible "yuck!" sound with a face of disgust. "I am never going through the experience of drinking black coffee again."

With a smile, Apollo looked at Sonnet and hoped that his partner would make a response, but the grey earth stallion still had his eyes on the wagon. Though he was not pleased with Sonnet's silence, Apollo kept his smile and sought to keep a conversation going.

"I really enjoyed those lemon cakes. They weren't the best ones I have, but I think the cafe did a good enough job with them -- with the frosted icing and lemon cream in the middle and all that. You sure you didn't want to eat anything back there?"

"I was sure," Sonnet replied, without looking at Apollo. "Didn't really feel like eating."

Turning left, Sonnet and Apollo followed the wagon into a street that took them out of the neighborhood they were in previously. Most of the buildings around them were not houses but were likely to be restaurants, stores, and other public or private places.

"So, what were you reading?" Apollo asked.

Sonnet sighed. "Just some news about Canterlot."

"Such as... ?"

"Weather, construction projects, school events, comics --"

Apollo's face lit up with amusement and he nudges Sonnet. "Oh! So you did find something entertaining to do! How good were those comics?"

Sonnet gave Apollo an annoyed, dull glance. "They weren't anything special. Just regular four frame stuff. You wouldn't be interested in them."

Turning away from Apollo's grin, Sonnet brought his head up to the skies to watch Celestia's sun partially disappear behind a large cloud, which caused a light shade to be cast over the street. His observation of the skies was interrupted when he felt a nudge on his right shoulder.

"They've stopped," Apollo said, with his eyes looking down the street.

Sonnet followed the direction of his partner's eyes and spotted the wagon parked on the side of the road near a large light yellow building. The purple pegasus was still attached to the wagon, but Sonnet saw Boxer and the weapons' dealer walk up a short flight of stairs to meet with a trio of rough-looking stallions with black jackets. The dealer stood behind Boxer as the yellow earth pony talked to the stallions. The dealer remained silent until Boxer and the other three stallions directed their eyes towards him, at which point the dealer went a few more steps up and gave a rather elegant bow after he took his fisherpony's hat off, which all but Boxer found amusing.

"We should probably keep walking," Apollo whispered. "You keep an eye on them."

With a nod, Sonnet followed Apollo along the sidewalk while watching the scene occurring on the steps. He could see that the dealer was talking happily with the doorponies while an annoyed Boxer looked further off down the street opposite of him and Apollo. Sonnet was also pleased to notice that the purple stallion was too busy pawing at the ground to spend any time looking at his surroundings. Eventually, the conversation on the stairs came to an end, as Boxer, the dealer, and one of the doorponies went down to the sidewalk and went to the wagon's side. The purple tarp quivered a bit as if it was moved, but Sonnet was unable to get a clear view of what was occurring.

After half a minute, the purple pegasus drove the wagon into the road for a quick second before making a small u-turn, in which he followed the other three stallions into a dim alley on the left side of the building. As the wagon disappeared into the alley, Apollo looked at Sonnet with a concerned frown.

"Well, considering how shady those guys seem," he said, "I say that this is Orion's meeting place."

With a mixed expression of anxiety and annoyance, Sonnet sighed. "We don't know how long this meeting will be. We need to get in there before Orion leaves with those weapons."

"Don't worry," Apollo reassured. "If Gamer and Violet are still up above, they've probably told everypony by now that the wagon's here. Kunai and the other will be here in time."

Sonnet sighed. "I guess we should go and follow them just to be safe." He walked toward the edge of the sidewalk and looked back at Apollo. "Let's stick to the shadows."

"Hey! Over hear!"

Sonnet stopped in his tracks when he heard the masculine voice behind him. He and Apollo turned around to discover the source of the voice had come from a dim alleyway littered with trash and garbage cans. Sonnet could make out two tall ponies that stood side-by-side within the light shadows. The sight of the mysterious figures at first put Sonnet on edge -- as he suspected that they were associates of Boxer; but upon further inspection of the two, the earth stallion became calm. He looked at Apollo, who nodded at him and walked into the alley with him.

Though the alley was still dark, Sonnet and Apollo could make out the two ponies in front of them. To their right was a young unicorn stallion with a greenish-blue coat and a short blonde mane with bangs; the unicorn had longs legs that aided him in his tall appearance. The pony to their left was a youthful and muscular earth stallion; his coat was dark gold, like the wrapping paper of expensive chocolate, and he had a brown beard that connected to his wild and curly brown mane. The blue unicorn wore a yellow sunhat and a pair of red glasses. Both stallions wore saddlebags. The unicorn had a cutiemark of a planetary atom, and the earth stallion's cutiemark was that of a yellow dandelion flower.

"It's nice to know you two made it," Apollo chuckled. "It would be disappointing if you couldn't make it in time to join in on the fun."

"I'm not afraid to admit that I did enjoy myself quite well at the Hermit," the blue unicorn explained with a Canterlot accent that many would find to be rather lofty. "There was a rather interesting store that displayed ancient artifacts belonging originally to the satyr and minotaur civilizations that I wanted to take a peak at." He placed a hoof on the bottom of his chin and gazed up at the sky. "Not to mention that there was also going to be a speech presented by an archaeologist about his discoveries from his time in the Badlands."

The gold earth stallion next to the unicorn gave a deep yet soft-hearted chuckle. "Maybe when we're not on duty, Newt," he said with a warm smile aided by a slight country accent, "we can come back here and explore more over there."

The unicorn sighed. "You're right, Lion. Historic adventures must be on hold for another time, I suppose."

"Were you following us, Newton?" Sonnet asked abruptly.

"Yes," Newton responded. "The both of us kept our distance behind you and Apollo at first, but as the crowd got thinner over time we had to be more secretive -- hence why you found us right here in this little --" he looked at the littered ground with a disgusted "ugh!" " --- lovely alleyway."

Apollo snickered with a white flash of his teeth, much to Newton's disapproval. "With the all the mess this job brings, I'll never understand why trash is the only thing that gets you to shudder."

Before Newton could open another inch of his mouth, the grey stallion had cut him off.

"Does everypony else know that the wagon is here?" he asked to nopony in particular, leaving Lion to answer.

"Yes," the gold earth stallion replied before looking up to the sky. "Gamer and Violet should be up above us right now."

Apollo squinted up to the air also. "Yeah, but it's hard to tell if the invisible duo are even up there, though."

"So...," Lion began to say as he trotted past Newton and toward Apollo and Sonnet. "Are you sure you got Orion's guy?"

Sonnet responded first. "Yes," he addressed with stoic confidence. "The stallion's appearance was an exact match from the intel the sentries gathered on Boxer."

Newton, from the back, looked at Apollo. "Do you believe his hunch?"

Apollo shrugged. "I think he has better intuition than me if you want my two bits. I doubt he'd make such an amateur choice."

With a frown, Newton studied Sonnet's presence as if to search for more clarity. While the grey stallion held a stiff posture, his face betrayed a mixture of both anxiety and impatience that was hidden underneath his dull exterior. It was an expression that Newton was familiar with.

The blue unicorn's eyes shifted to Lion, who nodded at him.

"I'm going to call in Kunai about this," Newton said.

Newton placed a front hoof on top of his throat's apple and stared up to the sky in silence. The other three stallions kept their eyes on their companion for some time until the blue unicorn brought his sight down and broke the silence.

"He's got the message," Newton announced. "We got a green light to go ahead. I told him about the blokes at the front door, so we have to be sneaky about getting in."

Apollo chimed in. "What's the entrance plan, then?"

"Kunai and Scarlet are coming down from the north, so they'll find a way to get in from the building's west side. As for Violet and Gamer, Kunai mentioned he'd tell them to find a way in from the rooftop or from windows away from the guards." Newton raised a front hoof to the building down the street. "Which leaves us with the back and the east side of the place."

"I guess we better get a move on it then," Lion said. "I rather we didn't waste time moving through the neighborhood alleys to get around those guys." He shot a friendly grin at Newton. "You mind taking us across the pond, buddy?"

Newton smiled back. "Of course," he said before he suddenly portrayed a serious and posh posture. "Now, then, I do believe that we are all very much as close as is appropriate to one another, so I will just go ahead with this."

Newton closed his eyes and a hue of green light emitted from the unicorn's horn, and in a few seconds the green light exploded from his horn and engulfed him and everypony else. Once the green flash had disappeared the four ponies found themselves in a different alleyway that was just as dark and riddled with trash and debris as the previous one.

"Well, I guess we don't have any time to just chit-chat," Lion said to Sonnet and Apollo. "Me and Newton can enter through the rear while you two take care of this side."

Sonnet nodded. "We can handle that," he said.

"You both have all that you'll need in your bags, am I correct?" Newton asked with a slight concern on his face.

"We should," Apollo answered. "I'm pretty sure we got all the goodies we need."

"Well then, squires," Newton started to gleefully say as he followed Lion further down the alley. "If we cross each other again later on please try to recognize me. I would ohso hate it if you were to slice my delicate throat."

Apollo groaned in annoyance. "You're never gonna get over that thing in Arkansaddle, are you? Look, I know I almost took your head off, but that trafficker looked just like you."

Instead of responding, the blue unicorn rolled his eyes and kept on his way.

As Lion and Newton continued walking down the alley, the other two ponies sat on their haunches, took off their saddlebags, and began to withdrew the various items from inside. From his left bag, Sonnet pulled out two cloaks with only foreleg sleeves --- one grey with black edges and the other tan with brown edges. From his right bag, the earth stallion pulled out two flexible, grey metal objects that closely resembled equine spines. The metal spines had an upward curve at the front that became slightly straight further down to the end. Attached to both sides of the mid-section of the spines were two cylinders of small length. The spines also had 5 pairs of rib-like structures attached to them -- one on each side; the first pair of ribs were at the upward curve of the spines, and there was space between the first and second pairs that were slightly larger than the others.

Sonnet tossed his saddlebags to the side and placed one of the metal spines on his back. The first pair of ribs wrapped around his neck while the other ones lied on the sides of his torso. Using his right fronthoof, Sonnet tapped on the left rib four times, paused for a second, tapped on it again two times, paused again, and tapped once more two times. At an instant, the cracks of the spine and the ribs themselves glowed faintly blue and emitted a low, calm hum. Most of the blue light from the ribs spread out and connected to each other at the spaces between the ribs, including Sonnet's chest and stomach areas. Soon the light faded away and all that was left were new layers of grey metal that surrounded most of the pony's torso.

"I'd like to think that things won't be too bad in there," Apollo said. Sonnet looked at this partner and saw that he had taken the other metal spine and was now wearing his own set of armor. The earth stallion stared at several metal bracers on the ground that Apollo had gotten from his bags.

"If Orion's the head of the weapons' trafficking, then it's likely we only have to take him and his second-in-commands to Sanctuary," Sonnet replied back. "But I doubt it'll stop with just that, especially if there are guards inside."

Sonnet picked two particular bracers from the pile and held them up to his face to inspect. These pair of bracers were metal and grey just like the metallic spines, and attached to them at the bottom was a flat, rectangular, black container of small size; the left-hoofed gauntlet held on its right side a small container with a grapple hook at the top, which was also on the left side of the right-hoofed gauntlet. He placed both bracers on his forelegs and wherein a few seconds a small surge of energy spreads through his unfazed body. Sonnet sat on his haunches and placed two more bracers on his hindlegs; these bracers only had the rectangular containers on their sides. As before, Sonnet felt energy radiate throughout his body.

After rising up, Sonnet's eyes catch the tan cloak that he had taken out earlier, and so the earth stallion grabbed it and put it on. Upon feeling the fabric draped over his body, a familiar sense of apprehension took him over as he imagined what was to come. He looked again at Apollo, who now had his bracers on as well as the grey cloak Sonnet had tossed out. Apollo must have noticed Sonnet's troubling expression, as the unicorn exchanged a frown of concern with his partner.

"You okay?" he asked.

Hearing those words, Sonnet shook his head to retrieve himself from his minor daze.

"I'm fine," Sonnet answered softly. "I am."

Apollo's face remained somewhat sullen for a while, but he let it go and turned his back from the earth stallion.

"Well, if that's the case then let's go ahead," Apollo said as he sat down to open his left saddlebag. Sonnet walked over to Apollo and saw that the unicorn had retrieved a small glass vial of a brownish yellow liquid. Using his magic, Apollo twisted off the cap and took a quick sip from the vial. Immediately, the white unicorn's head reeled back and he gagged in disgust, and with watery eyes he levitated the bottle to Sonnet's mouth. Catching the bottle's neck with his teeth, Sonnet craned his head back and drank a small amount of the liquid inside. Like Apollo, the earth stallion coughed from the repugnant taste of bitter cigarettes and charcoal that had offended his mouth, and soon his eyes began to water.

With his reaction to the potion beginning to fade, Sonnet grabbed his saddlebags and placed them on his back. Scanning the building, Sonnet spotted a small window close to the ground that was guarded by small iron bars. Once there, Sonnet crouched and looked past the rusted bars and smeared glass and could make out what looked like a small room with a door slightly open.

"We can get in through here," Sonnet told Apollo."It doesn't seem like anypony's around."

"If it's all clear, then I'm good," Apollo replied as he inspected the bars. "I should be able to get them off, though I don't want to yank them off too quick."

Sonnet nodded. "I understand."

"Hey... Do you think we might need him?"

Sonnet's eyebrows rose in confusion. "What?"

Apollo looked at him. "I said do you think we'll need him -- for what we're about to go through. I mean, we don't exactly know what kind of heat Orion's packing."

Sonnet's initial confusion went away as he understood what Apollo was referring to.

"Oh, well... I don't really know," he answered with a sudden dull voice. "I haven't heard from him in a while since Las Pegasus."

"So, he's like on a break or something? That's odd."

The earth stallion shrugged. "Either way, it's unlikely he'll be popping up anytime. But hopefully we won't need him for this."

Sonnet placed the hood of the cloak over his head and pulled the face mask over his muzzle. "Let's go."

The thin, tall grate exploded into several burnt wooden chunks of various sizes upon being shredded by a blue flash of light. Before the smoke and fire from the wreckage had completely formed, a neighboring stack of steel beams was blasted by a huge jet of blue light traveling at an immense speed through the air. Soon after, an orange and yellow slick, slimy pool of molted metal oozed out of the middle of the stack like sweet filling out of a candy treat, and the remaining structures of the beams collapsed to the center of the stack, causing it to have a "v" shape. As the molten metal leaked out and spread out amongst the floor, a stallion laughed with heartfelt glee at the scene witnessed.

This stallion was an earth pony with a light orange coat, a darker orange short mane, a black suit and a tie, and a cutiemark of a fireworks explosion. The earth stallion stood on his hindlegs while his forehooves held a cannon-shaped object the was connect to a metal tank on his back by a cord. The stallion possessed a wild, untamed glint in his eyes and a wide smile that one might see as a warning of something unpredictable about to take place. His happy gaze laid on the destruction that occurred in front of him several feet away for a few more seconds until he turned his attention to an old refrigerator away at the same distance.

The stallion's left forehoof gripped the handle on the side of the cannon as he lifted at the cannon up and directed it in the direction of the refrigerator. With his right forehoof, the stallion brought down a level switch on top of the cannon, and immediately a jet of blue light shot out. The force of the shot had little effect on the resistant stallion, who watched as the refrigerator exploded violently once the jet made contact. Though the explosion did not destroy the refrigerator entirely, a large hole with a melting orange ring nearly broke the machine in half, and without warning a series of circuit sparks danced off inside the household appliance and caused a fire to start.

"Oh, Celestia!" the stallion remarked with great excitement. "This baby is a damn art piece"!

The stallion heard a laugh from behind him and turned around to look at a blue pegasus stallion with a white jacket and a fisherpony's hat. "Well, I really appreciate it. I'm sure the griffon folk in Arv'Va would appreciate that comment. But as much as it fills my heart up to see you so happy, my friend, I do need to move on with my other gifts."

At the request of the pegasus, the earth stallion walked on his hindlegs toward the table that the pegasus was at, passing by a few other stallions in similar black suits, a few of which went over to the recently destroyed item materials to move them aside. The earth stallion ended up at a long, ornamental wooden table that displayed on its surface a variety of seemingly dangerous gadgets. The earth stallion took off the cannon and placed it on a vacant spot further down the table and sat down in a chair between a purple pegasus stallion and a unicorn stallion with a proper Canterlot appearance. The unicorn was in his forties and had a vanilla white colored coat; his neatly kept mane, tail, and mustache were mainly red and orange, with a thin strip of pink, as well. The unicorn wore an elegant velvet green suit and a gold trim monocle.

The unicorn, who had entertained himself with a plate of cranberries and herbed potatoes during the demonstration, was now engaged in a conversation with the blue pegasus, who sat at the end of the table. None of the stallions down at the table were aware of the two ponies several feet above them -- who watched them through a grating inside of the exposed air duct system on the ceiling.

"Well, it's good to know that we're not that late to the party," Apollo said. "Probably just a few minutes late, but I doubt we missed a lot." The unicorn grunted a bit as he attempted to shift his weight within the duct to fend off the feeling of discomfort, but Sonnet, who was pressed up along side him, poked Apollo with this elbow and gave him a scowl. Understanding the message, Apollo sighed in defeat and laid his stomach on the dirty metal surface.

The two stallions did not have a hard time reaching the meeting area once they were inside the building. After entering an aged office space through the gated window, Sonnet and Apollo had traveled through the empty hallways of the floor they were on for some time. They searched the rooms of the floor for any hint of where the weapons had been taken to but found nothing of relevant importance. Minutes later, they were about to go down a flight of stairs leading to a hallway that was too dark to see ahead, but they stopped when they noticed a few stallions guarding the area.

Not wanting to start a fight that could give Orion an early start to flee, the two decided to break into the air duct system nearby to get past the guards; while they knew that their vision would be limited, they hoped that the ducts would give them cover and easy access to most of the building. Sonnet and Apollo had a encountered a few dead ends, but eventually, they entered what appeared to be the basement of the building just in time to watch the weapons be used.

Sonnet trained his eyes on the estimated twenty or criminals below, but he especially paid attention at the white unicorn talking to the weapons' dealer. The sentries and Canterlot police officials had reported numerous times that Orion was likely to be a unicorn containing an immense amount of wealth to help drive his business, and from what could be seen, anypony would be reasonable to assume that this stallion was one of the "elites" of Canterlot.

"I think I know him," he said.

Apollo looked at him. "What?"

"I've seen that unicorn before. I don't know everything, but from what I've heard from the news I think this is one of the stallions associated with the Canterlot's Gentlecolts Society."

"You mean that club run by Fancypants and those brown-nosed snobs?"

"Yeah. From what I remember, his name is Pisces. He's supposed to be an owner of a train-manufacturing company in the city."

"I'm not really up to date with the news these days," Apollo quipped. "Was there ever any mention of him doing something dirty?"

The grey stallion shook his head. "No. Like I said, I've only heard about him just a few times. If he's a part of that society group, then maybe he did a few charity donations --- like the others."

Apollo looked down at the meeting with a glared eyes. "Well, not everypony's skeletons are that obvious, I guess."

The two stallions continued to observe the conversation below between Pisces and the weapons dealer.

"So..., there's no worry of at all about the danger of overheating?" Pisces asked with a rich Canterlot accent.

"Well," the weapons dealer began as he put down a glass of wine from his lips, "if you keep the cannon firing for five hours straight then overheating would definitely be a disaster for you. But I doubt that will happen, so no --there's nothing to worry about."

Pisces raised his eyebrows. "Five hours, you say? The battery lasts for that long?"

With a chuckle and a slight adjustment of his white fisherpony's hat, the weapons' dealer beamed at the unicorn. "Of course. The Maper crystals from the Goldbaron Mountains in Arv'Va contain a remarkable amount of energy that can be harvested for a variety of needs and desires -- from simple things such as producing fuel or electricity to causing the fate of wars to be ultimately decided by those with the right resources."

"Wars?" Pisces chuckled and he levitated a spoon with cranberries to his mouth. "Delight me more about this."

The weapons dealer leaned back in his chair. "Well, two years ago when the king of Gammana refused to provide the griffons of the Arv'Va with medicine and aid after a plague had broken out ---despite the two kingdoms' old alliance --- Arv'Va's king launched a campaign." He then leaned in closer across the table. "Now, knowing how hot-headed and unforgiving griffons can be, the Arv'Van forces were merciless and brutal in their journey towards the capital. Burning towns, salting crops and killing farm animals, creating widows and orphans, all of those horrors. They even brought there infected dead with them to catapult their bodies over city walls. But the main thing that helped them win the capital were the valkyrie cannons Arv'Va's scientists and engineers had designed with the Maper crystals. Those cannons were able to penetrate through the defenses of Gamanna's airships and siege towers -- known for being iron monstrosities -- in a matter of minutes rather than the usual hours."

Pisces stared at the weapons dealer for a few minutes before swallowing his food. "Well, we definitely are experiencing a century filled with advancements that couldn't have been foretold long ago."

The blue pegasus grinned and tipped his hat down. "You're certainly right, my friend."

"Well, though I was aware of how happy Copperbolt was with testing out the cannon, I don't believe that the weapon is a device that should be operated in a city like Manehattan or Chicolto. The police would be quite rattled, reasonably so, if such a dangerous foreign weapon was to be discovered in the hooves of a common gang."

"Yeah," Copperbolt chimed in, still sitting next to Pisces. "We don't need the media and the cops telling everypony about anything like that. That type of attention isn't good -- 'specially if it points back to Canterlot."

"Yes, of course," Pisces resumed. "However, I can imagine providing such arsenals to towns in the southern frontier, such as Oatmane and Dodge Junction; I've heard there's still some tensions between pony settlers and buffalo natives, and with limited government influence there, I don't suspect there will be too much of a problem. With the reign I have there, I can handle the loose ends myself."

The weapons dealer nodded. "That sounds completely find to me, Pisces. I have plenty of other toys that can be used up here in the north."

"Of course, Voltage Warning. I've come to expect that you and your assistant Quicks will always have a way to make up for small inconveniences."

The weapons dealer chuckled. "Thank you for that comment, but I'd like it if you just call me Volt."

"Of course, my friend. I apologize." Having finished his plate, Pisces nodded in the direction of one of his black-suited subordinates, who walked over and took the unicorn's plate off the table, leaving him with only his wine glass. "Well, if you're more than happy to continue on, I would like to see what else you--"

A loud, metallic bang erupted from within the basement --- a sound so loud that it startled everypony who was in the area, including Sonnet and Apollo, who noticed that everypony else was staring at a double door entrance above a flight of stairs. Pisces's guards, many of whom were unicorns, stared at the doors with intense, serious glares and anxious, gritted teeth. Pisces himself and Copperbolt only expressed wide, shocked eyes from their stiff, motionless bodies, with Pisces being frozen in place with his lips touching the rim of his glass.

"Quicks," Volt whispered to the purple pegasus driver across the table, with a tense demeanor that deeply contrasted with his laid-back attitude earlier on. "Be ready, just in case."

With a nod, Quicks got out of his sheet and walked a short distance down the table to where the weapons were displayed. The purple pegasus quickly scanned the table before he picked up a gauntlet attached with what resembled an antenna rod and slid it through his foreleg. Another bang was heard behind the doors, and at this moment, many of the guards rushed over to several smaller tables and turned them over to use as cover to hide behind; the guards who were unicorns already lit up their horns with spells ready to be used at any awaiting moment.

Taking a cue from the guards, Quicks crouched down to where his head was nearly equal to the table's surface. He peeked over to watch the stallions near the entrance and then turned his attention to Volt, who had taken cover behind the chair he was in. With the arrival of a third bang and an accompanied unnerving scream audible to anypony with functioning ears, Pisces bolted out of his chair and backed away from the table with no regard to what was behind him. Even the presence of his lieutenant Copperbolt, who jumped in front of him to protect him, was ineffective in preventing the shaking unicorn from beading sweat, nor was Copperbolt's commitment able to stop Pisces's cream color coat from turning a sickly shade of white.

The daunting silence that filled the air of the room was slowly replaced by a sound of stomping hoofsteps that grew louder and louder each passing second. Realizing what was about to happen, Sonnet turned to Apollo.

"When it goes down, that's when we go in. Don't let anything stop you from getting to Pisces."

Despite the weight in his chest for what was to come, Apollo recognized the severity in his friend's voice and nodded. He continued to stare down at the basement, watching the other ponies below brace themselves for what was to come.

After several haunting seconds, the doors finally opened to reveal a stallion -- a stallion who was panting hysterically and had thin strips of blood splashed across his face and chest. The stallion was near the verge of collapse as his weak, trembling legs barely kept him standing and his chest rose and fell like a tidal wave. The stallion kept his head down towards the ground for some time, creating a small thick pool of his own sweat; but once he remembered where he was, he snapped out of his daze.

The stallion, with his best effort, lifted his weary head and was about to address the audience of tense ponies in front of him, but before he could sing a word, a loud "thunk!" came from behind him, and his eyes widen out of horror. The ponies in the room became forced witnesses to the convulsions the stallion's body made before he finally shut down and collapsed on the floor, revealing to everypony a small knife handle protruding out of the back of his neck. Gasps and profanities were made as Pisces and others stared at the fresh corpse, with the blood from the neck wound already spilling out on the ground.

Within the next second, two ponies sprinted out of the entrance, both of whom wore metal bracers and green hooded cloaks with light green fringes. Before the two ponies could descend down the staircase, they were met with a hostile barrage of jets of light from the unicorns down below. The two cloaked ponies dodged and danced between the numerous jets of light shot at them until one of them -- a unicorn -- cast a spell creating a teal colored shield that engulfed the two of them, as well as the dead body.

The unicorn goons began to shoot numerous spells at the shield in the hopes of breaking it down to get to the strangers, but their attention to the shield took their focus away from the actions of the ponies under it, as out of nowhere a thin object shot out of the shield and hit one of the unicorns between the eyes. While the more focused unicorns kept shooting spells at the shield, the two ponies at one of the turned over tables gazed in horror at their unicorn companion as he slumped to the ground with a knife deep in his forehead -- that was soon swept away by a teal aura back into the shield bubble.

As the chaos near the staircase occurred, Sonnet looked down at the table were Pisces was and saw that the unicorn had started to run away towards the other end of the basement with a few guards. Without warning his partner, the earth stallion pushed away the grating blocking the vent and shot himself out of his hiding spot. After falling to the ground from a great height, Sonnet met face to face with a disturbed Quicks, who turned his gauntlet weapon towards the earth stallion; but before it fired Sonnet turned around, ducked, and bucked Quicks in the torso and face, sending the purple pegasus flying onto the table and sending other weapons scattering across the room.

Following his partner's lead, Apollo jumped out of the vent and shot a spell at the ground below him. When the spell met the ground, an orange circle radiating of magic energy appeared that broke Apollo's fall by suspending him in the air for a few seconds. Once on the ground, Apollo sprinted after Pisces and shot several stun spells in his target's directions, but around four guards stayed behind to shoot several of their own spells at him, causing the white unicorn to summon a small shield to deflect the spells coming at him.

Near the double door entrance, an earth pony guard hid behind a table while his unicorn companions continued to assault the shield above, with the cloaked unicorn throwing knives out of the shield toward the guards whenever possible. The earth pony turned around to spot Apollo confronted by the other guards and Sonnet engaging in a fight with Quicks.

"We got more of them behind us!" the guard screamed frighteningly, but before he could repeat those words to his companions, a metal noise from above caught his attention. When he looked up he saw two ponies dropping down from the venting system of the ceiling, with the pony closest to him carrying two shining metal objects in their forehooves. Paralyzed with fear, the earth pony laid on the ground and screamed as falling pony came down on him and plunged the metal objects into his chest, killing him.

The pony that killed the helpless guard was a tan unicorn stallion that wore a dark blue hooded cloak with cyan fringes, and the pony that came down with him was a bright pink pegasus mare with a hooded green cloak similar to the ones near the staircase. Both ponies had torso armor and wore bracers on their fore- and hindlegs, but the tan unicorn held two katanas in his forehooves. The tan unicorn sprinted on his hindlegs toward a nearby duo of unicorn guards that were unaware of his presence.

Floating in mid-air, the pink pegasus looked over at the row of guards behind the tables and noticed four unicorns, along with a single earth pony, at the end who were battering the shield through a barrage of various spells. With three curved blades sticking out horizontally from each end of the pegasus' front bracers, she rose up higher in the air and dashed past the tan unicorn and over the other guards in the row towards her five targets. The five guards were so focused on their task that they were unable to notice the new danger that had just arrived, until one of the unicorns fell to the ground as a blue web-like material suddenly hit him and spontaneously entangled itself around him.

With fewer spells being cast due to this disturbance, his four companions turned in time to spot a blue and pink blur coming down at them, but before any of them could make a move to defend themselves, the pink pegasus dashed past the two nearest unicorns and then stopped in front of the other stallions, with two thin streaks of blood behind her that stood in the air for a split second before falling to the ground. Initially, the earth pony and the last standing unicorn stared in shock at the sight of their two companions dropping to the ground with red slashes across their throats, but once the earth pony and the other living unicorn remembered the foe in front of them, they scowled at her.

The unicorn started it off by firing a spell at the pegasus, but she moved out of the way and flew in an arc to hit him from the back. The unicorn conjured a shield behind himself just in time to protect, as the pegasus stopped mid-air as she nearly collided with the barrier. Seeing an opportunity, the earth pony snucked up behind the pegasus and hugged her torso with his forelegs. The earth pony stood on his hindlegs as the pegasus thrashed against his massive body, but seeing how no results were made in her favor, the earth pony laughed, unbothered by her resistance or grunts.

For a moment, the two guards were confident that they were about to end everything right away, with the unicorn even flashing a sick grin at the mare as he levitated a switchblade from his breast pocket and waved it threateningly as he approached her. Suddenly, a metal lance shot out of the pegasus' cloak at a rapid speed and pierced through the superficial layer of the earth pony's left face, which took off a chunk of his ear. The earth pony screamed in pain as a long, nasty streak of crimson ran down his face. This incident was enough to distract the unicorn guard, who was too disturbed by the spontaneous scene to notice the pink pegasus aim her foreleg at him. A blue blob shot out of a cylinder barrel of the pegasus' bracer, and once it hit the unicorn's chest it branched out into web strings and surrounded him before bringing him down to the ground. He tried to perform any spell he knew to get him out of the trap, but tiny pricks from the web dug into his skin and desensitized his nerves.

Taking advantage of the earth pony's attention to his injury, the pegasus summoned the lance back underneath the cloak and broke out of his forelegs. Floating midair, the pegasus rose a hind leg up, summoned a blade from out rectangular container of the bracer, and bucked the blade into the earth pony's chest, killing him.

At the same time that the two new cloaked intruders fought the guards, Sonnet continued his fight with Volt's assistant.

Sonnet crouched just in time to avoid a violent yellow ray of light that shot out of Quicks' weapon. The purple pegasus, with blood seeping out of his bruised nose and dirtying his lips and teeth, growled at the earth pony and flew off the table he had landed on earlier. In the air, Quicks' tapped on a red spot on his gauntlet numerous times to shoot more yellow rays down at Sonnet, but for each oncoming blast the earth pony would sidestep or jump away just in time. At one point, the gauntlet malfunctioned to Quicks' anger and misfortune, and as the pegasus beat the device with his free hoof, Sonnet stood on his hindlegs and pointed his left bracer up towards a column support that rose to the ceiling. After a short moment of concentration from Sonnet, a grappling hook shot out of the cylinder container of the bracer, with an ever-extending metallic thread of cable following right behind the hook. When the hook plunged into the column, Sonnet was lifted up into the air by the cable as it re-winded itself back inside the bracer with a metallic whirling sound. Before he made complete contact with the column he was heading towards, Sonnet lifted his right bracer up at another column and shot out another hook into the column, which brought him up even higher; the earth pony shot his left bracer at the first column again and came up to around Quicks' height.

Taking advantage of gravity's delay, as well as Quicks' lack of awareness, Sonnet pointed his bracer at Quicks and shot out a hook that whistled through the air and struck the secondaries of the pegasus' left wing, causing purple feathers and specks of blood to fly away. Quicks' cries at his wound were cut short when the cable pulled back on itself and propelled him towards Sonnet's direction, who was also propelled by the cable towards the pegasus. Before the pegasus could react in any manner of self-defense, Sonnet kicked up his hindleg and ejected a blade from the bracer.

When the two ponies collided, Sonnet drove the blade into Quicks' stomach and dragged it down his abdomen. The pain from the newly created wound was too much for him to handle, as evident by his voiceless scream and his eyes rolling to the back of his head. This pain dulled any sense of self-preservation for the pegasus, which gave permission for Sonnet to drive another blade from his front bracer into Quicks' neck. A tiny squirt of blood shot out of Quicks' neck wound and hit Sonnet on his cheek. As the two ponies began to fall closer to the ground, Sonnet removed his blades from the pegasus' body and braced his body for impact; while he landed unharmed on all four of his legs, the pegasus' body simply crashed and remained unmoved.

Sonnet looked over at Apollo's direction and saw his partner sheltered by a magic shield as four unicorn guards barraged him with various spells. Apollo's shield was on the verge of breaking down as chips of orange light soon flew off the surface each time it was hit by a spell. The white unicorn definitely felt the stress of the situation he was boxed in, with his concentration on his shield beginning to waver, but he was still confident in his ability to solve his problem, as evident by his sly smile.

At the right moment, when most of the guards slowed their spell casting, Apollo used his magic to throw his shield at the guards, before jumping to the side to avoid any oncoming spells. On impact, the shield dispersed into an orange cloud of twinkling dust and electricity that overwhelmed the guards to their knees due to its sting. Apollo took this moment of vulnerability to shoot a stun spell at one of the guards and felt proud when the guard fell unconscious. The presence of luck seemed to be evident to Apollo when another of his stun spell hit a second guard, but as the orange cloud disappeared the remaining two guards got back on their hooves with very angered expressions on their faces.

Apollo shot a stun spell at one guard for it to be only deflected by the rival unicorn's shield. The guard shot a spell at Apollo in the form of a lightning bolt, but Apollo was able to conjure a block of concrete from the ground in time to shield himself. The lightning blasted the block into a puff of dust and rubble that temporarily blinded Apollo; by the time Apollo could see again, he was greeted by a bald unicorn guard that threw himself at him. The two wrestled on the ground for some time until the guard was on top of Apollo and he glared down at him with a scowl. A brown light glowed from the guard's horn, but before a spell could be summoned Apollo lit his horn with a light bright enough to blind and discomfort the guard enough to remove his grip on the white unicorn. With his forelegs free, Apollo ejected a blade from his front bracer and stabbed the guard below the apple of his throat. The white unicorn turned his head in disgust as blood trickled down his chest; the guard above him gagged for air and pawed at his throat before turning over and collapsing to the ground.

Apollo rose to his hooves and pointed his glowing horn at the guard who shot the green spell at him. The remaining guard also braced himself for conflict with a similar glow on his horn, but before another move could be made by either unicorn, a blurry brown figure collapsed on top of the guard from above, bringing him to the ground. The guard struggled to get up to remove the mass on top of him, but a blade that lodged itself into the back of his head stopped his efforts, and so he slumped to the ground.

Sonnet retracted his blade into his bracer and got off the guard's body. He walked over to Apollo, who was taken aback by his friend's sudden entrance, but nonetheless seemingly unharmed.

"Are you fine?" Sonnet asked, his brown eyes tracing the blood splattered on Apollo's neck and grey cloak.

The white unicorn let out an exhausted chuckle. "It was getting a little rough back there, but I'm good. And this blood isn't mine, by the way, so don't worry."

Sonnet nodded. "We still need to get --- "

The stinging irritation of icicles digging into the back of their necks promoted Sonnet and Apollo to turn around almost spontaneously to meet the unknown danger behind them. So as soon as they both turned, Sonnet was punched in the side of his jaw by a blue blurry object that had zoomed at him. The powerful force of the punch was painful for the grey earth stallion, but the circumstance was made worst for him when the punch soon generated a shock-wave that sent him crashing into a column.

"Sonnet!" Apollo yelled at toward his friend, before looking at his new enemy, who was Volt. The blue pegasus wore a gauntlet on his right foreleg that was fitted with a mace ball whose spikes had flattened ends. Though Volt still had his white jacket and black shirt, his white fisherpony's hat was absent, as well as the pleasant, social personality he had been displaying for most of the afternoon.

With a violent flash in his eyes, the irate pegasus swooped down at Apollo and swung his mace at him, but the unicorn sidestepped in time. Apollo shot a stun spell at Volt, but the pegasus flew to the side to avoid it and flew down toward Apollo. Volt made a short sequence of several swings at Apollo, but every time the mace missed its hit as Apollo simply jumped away or dodged.

Eventually, Apollo had been directed toward the meeting table as he backed away from Volt, who snorted at how futile his attempts at murder were. The blue pegasus backed away some distances from Apollo, but then he rocketed toward the unicorn with his mace right in front of him. Apollo, panicked at the pegasus' abrupt action, conjured a shield to defend himself just a few mere seconds before Volt had come back and struck the shield. Upon contact, the mace exploded with blue and purple sparks of electricity between the spikes, and these sparks became more intense as Volt pressed the mace against the shield.

Apollo gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep up a mental fortitude against Volt's advances, but each push of the mace made it harder for him; the sensation was similar to the difficulty of a family of beavers faced in trying to keep flooding water at bay from destroying their dam. Then, without warning, a shock-wave erupted from the mace and vibrated ripples throughout the shield's surface until the shield itself shattered; the force of the explosion sent Apollo crashing into the table behind him, turning it over on its side with various weapons clattering to the floor.

Recovering from the impact, Sonnet groaned and struggled to get up from against the column, but the hot, pulsating pain on his left face made him slide back down. A "woosh!" sound above him caught his ears, and so he looked up weakly to see Volt glaring down at him with his mace bright with electricity.

"You killed him, you bastard!" Volt spat out with disgust and rage.

Volt lifted his mace higher while he kept his gaze on the earth stallion, but before anything else could be done by him, a lance protruded out of his chest, and he, in horror, found himself incapable of moving his any of his appendages. As blood dripped from the lance and soaked his black shirt, Volt, now in shock, turned around to see a pink pegasus with a blue hooded cloak floating behind him. With a grunt, the pink pegasus twisted her body and slid her lance out of Volt's chest, with his body falling to the ground, landing near Sonnet.

"Sonnet!" the pink pegasus shouted to the earth stallion. She flew down to the column and helped the stallion rise off the ground with the use of her forehooves.

"Scarlet... Is Apollo okay?" Sonnet asked calmly, his voice devoid of any sign of fatigue or pain despite the blow he received not long ago.

"I'm fine," a familiar voice said from behind. Sonnet turned around to see Apollo and the tan unicorn with the blue cloak trotting toward his direction. Sonnet looked past the two and over the meeting tables to see around a dozen guards laying motionless on the floor near the staircase, with small red puddles at some of the bodies. The two green cloaked ponies at the top of the stairs were no longer under the protection of the magic shield.

The tan unicorn approached Volt's body and poked at it with his fronthoof. His cold grey eyes traced the pegasus' corpse until Apollo interrupted.

"Hey, Kunai," Apollo said, looking far off past the others. "It looks like Orion's having trouble leaving."

Sonnet, Scarlet, and Kunai looked at where Apollo's sight was and saw Pisces, Copperbolt, and several other guards crowded around a double door entrance. From the distance Sonnet and the others were at, it appeared that the criminals were inspecting the doors, as some of the guards were pressed up against them.

"Is it locked?" Scarlet asked.

"It seems that way," Kunai said with a cool, monotone expression underneath his mask. "Poor preparation, it seems. Apollo, Scarlet, you're with me." The tan unicorn glanced at the grey earth stallion. "Sonnet, join up with Newton and Lion. Newton mentioned the possibility of reinforcement arriving soon."

Sonnet nodded. "Understood." And with that, he galloped over toward the staircase while the other three advanced toward Pisces.

"Damn it!" Pisces yelled over Copperbolt's head with a cracking voice. "What is the matter with you!? WHY are you are taking so long for a damn DOOR!?"

Copperbolt, who was frantically turning the wheels of a padlock chained to the doors' handles, looked up at his boss. "I'm trying to figure out the combination, sir. It's been a while since we've used this room, but I'm sure I got the right numbers in my mind somewhere."

Despite, or rather because of, his panicked, accelerated breaths and the bright redness spreading through his cheeks and forehead, Pisces grabbed a hold of his second-in-command's shoulders and pinned the surprised stallion against the doors; his face twisted into an expression mixed of both rage and desperation.

"If you had the right numbers you would have gotten me out of here by now!" he spat. "Gods! The one day I need to you to prove your commitment to me by being something other than a baffling brute, and you fail me at that! Why do I even keep you around? I swear, if I'm done for because of a ---"

The crime boss' rant was cut short by the cries of one guard. "They're coming!"

Pisces turned around to see two unicorns and a pegasus running straight at him and the others. Though the trio showed no visible signs of hostility, the mere sight of them dejected all of Pisces' passionate emotions, as he let out a shriek, released Copperbolt, sat on his haunches, and covered his head with his forelegs.

"D-Do something, you f-f-fools!" he wailed. "Don't j-just stand there!"

At that moment, five of Pisces' nine remaining guards --- three unicorns and two earth ponies --- left the doors and galloped over to halt the three cloaked ponies approaching.

Kunai, who was in front of the other two, stood on his hindlegs and reached for the handles of two katana hilts on each side of his belt below his armor. When he pulled the hilts out, Kunai crossed his forelegs in front of his muzzle, and seconds later a long thin blade shot out of each hilt. Kunai noticed that a unicorn guard with a short red mane was the closest one running at him, and so he decided that this first pony was his to take care of.

The red maned guard shot a cyan colored spell at Kunai, but a small grey shield conjured by the tan unicorn bounced the spell away. With a grey glow of his horn, Kunai levitated the guard off his hooves and threw the poor stallion right toward himself. Kunai bent his knees and crouched under the flying stallion before the guard would have collided with him. As the guard flew over his head, Kunai raised his right foreleg and drove his katana into the guard's chest. The tan unicorn withdrew his blade from his victim before the body even hit the ground, and went about to handle the other two guards in the center, while Apollo and Scarlet took care of their own individual targets.

Apollo found himself up against a large and burly earth stallion who went on a psychotic series of bucks and stomps against the white unicorn as soon as he saw him. Apollo shot several stun spells at the guard, with a few of them making their hits, but like flea bites against an elephant, they did nothing to bring the crazed, adrenaline-driven powerhouse down. A unicorn that fought with Scarlet levitated a pair of knives out of his vest and sent them loose in the air to chase after the pink pegasus. As she flew, Scarlet twisted her body in the air to avoid getting pierced by the blades, evading them with almost catlike movements.

Kunai's opponents, one unicorn and one earth stallion, continued to charge at him despite witnessing the recent kill he had made. The unicorn stopped a few feet in front of Kunai and levitated a long knife out of his vest. The guard launched the knife at Kunai's face, but Kunai brought up his right katana and blocked the incoming blade. The floating knife backed up before attempting another jab at Kunai, but it was turned away again by a downward swat from his left katana. The knife then made three more attempts at stabbing Kunai at his side, but each time the knife got around him the tan unicorn simply swatted it away with his katanas. Finally, with a flash of light, the guard teleported his knife out of Kunai's sight and placed it several feet in the air behind the tan unicorn. The guard brought the knife down at a diagonal angle toward his opponent, but before it could make its hit, a cold sting on the back of Kunai's neck motivated him to spin around to his left side.

When the knife hit the ground, Kunai shot a spell at the weapon that melted both the blade and handle into sludge, and with that done he ran off toward the guard, whose face was nearly drained of all of its color. In a panicked hurry and with backward stumbles, he began to erect a magical shield in front of his body, but as the premature construct was forming Kunai shot a spell at it that broke it into pieces. With an opening presented to him, Kunai plunged his right katana through the guard's abdomen, with the tip of the blade reappearing at the right side of his abdomen. As the unicorn guard screamed in pain, the earth stallion guard, in a state of shattered nerves, snuck up behind Kunai; but before he could do anything, the earth stallion found himself standing on his hindlegs with his forelegs spread out as a result of a grey aura around him. With a slash of his left katana, Kunai twisted his torso around to face the earth stallion and tore through the remaining guard's throat.

Kunai withdrew his right katana from the unicorn's body and gazed for a moment at the two bodies at the floor before checking in on how his two comrades were handling their own fights. Scarlet herself had managed to overcome her opponent rather quickly by shooting her web-like substance at him at a moment when he lagged in directing the movements of his knives.

After crouching down to duck another buck, Apollo shot a spell at the earth stallion's tie and it turned into a medium-sized black snake. The snake wrapped its lower half around the guard's neck and struck him on his nose with its mouth. The guard let out a loud cry as the reptile's fangs sank deeper into his nose that quickly leaked streams of blood. He employed his forehooves with the task of ripping the snake off his face as he continued screaming, unaware that Apollo had ejected a lance from the right-sided cylinder on the back of his armor and was now charging at him. With a downward duck of his head, Apollo plunged the lance into the guard's thoracic cavity and brought the giant down, most likely by the lance piercing through the heart.

The sight of his first line of defense crumbling apart sent Pisces into a hyperventilating fit. When Copperbolt saw his boss slide down to the floor and lay motionless against the doors, he hit each of the remaining three unicorn guards with his fronthoof to draw their attention away from the scene.

"Make us a shield, you dolts!" he barked as he turned to the padlock. "Give me time to get this door open."

The three unicorns looked each other and they generated unique glows on their horns, resulting in a dome-like shield of three different colors that enclosed all five stallions --- as well as a section of the wall containing the doors --- within itself. The three of them kept their eyes on the approaching three ponies until a rattling, buzzing sound in their minds forced them to close their eyes and grit their teeth in pain. A grey glow from Kunai's horn increased as the volume of the noise grew louder in the guards' minds. The affliction was too much for the stallions to handle --- it was like a hammer from an alarm clock was pounding against their brain matter. As their mental fortitude wavered, the shield began to crack and crack until it exploded out of existence, to the horror of all five ponies once inside it.

The moment the shield went down, Kunai, now on all four legs, searched out with his magic for the unicorn who put up the most resistance to his disturbance spell, and found him to be the one guard farthest off to his left. Kunai levitated two four-bladed shurikens out of the pockets inside his cloak and hurled them at the guard. The first star hit the guard between the eyes with such force that it made his head bounce back; the second star found itself in the middle of his throat and was the one to bring him down.

Scarlet dashed after the two guards who were still disoriented by Kunai's spell. She plunged a singular blade from her front bracer into the temple of the middle guard and swung her right foreleg to slash the throat of the other guard with the three side-wayed blades of her other bracer. Apollo came to face to with Copperbolt, with the latter standing on his hindlegs throwing punch after punch at the agile unicorn. The fight ended with Apollo moving past Copperbolt as he threw and another punch, standing up on his own hindlegs, and stabbing the earth stallion in the back of the neck with his blade through his vertebrae. Copperbolt struggled to muster up the strength to turn around, but a swift slash of the blade out of his neck sent him falling to the floor.

"Gods, no... No."

A collection of whimpers and sniffles behind Apollo made him turn around to see a shaking Pisces huddled on the floor with his legs crowded underneath his body and his tearful face pressed against the cold tiles. The mess of a stallion soon caught the attention of Kunai and Scarlet, who walked up to him; the deafening silence, aside from his own blubbering, beckoned Pisces to weakly lift up his head to reveal his wet, snot-ridden face to the three ponies above him, each of whom glared at him.

"W-Whoever s-s-sent you, I'm sure they're n-not paying you enough," Pisces struggled to say between more sniffles. "I'm sure w-we can be reasonable ponies and t-talk this through, now. I have p-plenty of wealth to give --- if y-you just l-l-leave me alone."

Apollo chuckled in response. "I'll admit the pay isn't that good for my taste, but I'm gonna have to pass --- for moral reasons, you know. But thanks, though. I appreciate that."

Pisces brought out his forelegs and clamped his hooves together. "Please, I'm begging you! Don't kill me! Don't!"

Scarlet let out a groan in disgust. "Calm down, you idiot," she scoffed. "We're not going to kill you."

"Yeah," Apollo interjected. "We kinda need you to spill whatever secrets you got about your business. Our job will be harder if you're a corpse."

Though the fear of death had left his face, Pisces retained his sniffles and his shaking as the uncertainty of his fate buried itself deep in his mind. His condition was not helped when Kunai brought his head down to have closer eye contact with him; despite how the blue hood and muzzle mask hid most of Kunai's face, his frigid, unfeeling grey eyes were enough to chill Pisces.

"Many ponies have been hurt because of your lucrative crimes and your shameless hunger," Kunai said calmly. "You must answer for your wrong-doings, Orion." The tan unicorn looked up to his left at Apollo. "Do it."

With a respectful nod, Apollo used his magic to open his left-sided saddlebag and pulled out a small, clear cylinder container with shiny purple marbles inside. He twisted the cap open and levitated one marble into the air and began to spin it horizontally. After eleven seconds, the marble's purple color became much brighter until the light slowly blinked on and off like the lights on an ambulance.

Apollo looked down at Pisces with a small smile. "Well, in you go."

Apollo shot the marble at Pisces' head, and as it bounced off harmlessly, a strange purple aura spontaneously took over Pisces's body until he was nothing more than a purple silhouette. His silhouette was then sucked into the bright floating marble, with his front body tapering at its end and stretching out to the marble. When his entire form was gone, the marble dropped to the floor with a glass-sounded "clank!", bouncing for just a bit before stopping still.

Scarlet walked over to the marble and lowered her head to inspect it. Inside, she could see a television-like image of a pony sitting down on all fours with their head buried in their forelegs. The sight forced her to adopt an unamused frown.

"A crime boss responsible for spreading weapons across the country to over sixty cities and towns," she said. "... Able to evade the law and continue hurting ponies for over a decade, just brought to tears like that."

"I don't know why it surprises you," Apollo said. "It's the same thing with every mission. Some asshole always throws a fit or breaks into tears when we catch up to them."

"Yeah, but nopony's been able to find out who Orion was until today. If he's been able to stay hidden for this long, I would at least expect him to be a charismatic mastermind with strong nerves. But instead he's like a foal when he's cornered."

Apollo pondered on Scarlet's comment for a few seconds before sighing. "That's true. I guess it's understandable to imagine somepony okay with indirectly starting several gang wars to be somewhat cold-blooded."

"One doesn't need to be without fear to have a callous soul," Kunai interjected. The tan unicorn levitated the marble and placed it inside Apollo's left-sided saddlebag. "Many criminals are simply cowards that crave being under the shadows of anonymity when they prey on others or do wrong, and so their true natures are often shown when they are brought out from those shadows. Therefore I am not surprised to find out that Orion was merely a foal instead of a stallion."

"Yeah, that definitely was embarrassing seeing those waterworks and all that snot," Apollo said.

Kunai walked over at the guard he had slain and levitated the two shurikens out of the corpse and back into his cloak.

"Come," he said. "Let's meet with the others at the stairs."

Kunai, Scarlet, and Apollo left the doors and went over to the staircase where Sonnet, Lion, and Newton were. As they crossed the basement to the other side, Scarlet look over at the guards that she had trapped in her web-like material, and was pleased to see that none of them had any success with escaping. At the top of the staircase, Sonnet, Lion, and Newton were hiding behind a newly-placed barrier made of two turned-over tables that blocked the entrance. When Lion turned around to see the other three coming up the stairs, he jabbed at Sonnet's and Newton's sides.

"Kunai!" Newton shouted. He and Sonnet left their positions to meet with their leader at the stairs while Lion remained on watch. "Nopony's came down here so far."

"Even with that big noise that erupted before everything went down?" Scarlet asked.

With a sheepish grin, Newton scratched the back of his head. "Yes," he chuckled guilty, "about that, that was somewhat my own fault. A bloke that was sleeping under a table after a few drinks caught sight of me as I was passing by, and that's when he starting 'sound the alarming' to the rest. Luckily, that accident was contained to this floor only; there was nopony on the floor above when Lion and I came down."

"Good to hear you take accountability, Newt," Apollo joked.

"I always take accountability, mind you, Mustang," Newton jabbed back in a rather annoyed, yet playful, manner before turning back to Kunai. "Orion? Was he here?"

"He was, indeed," Kunai answered. "Turns out he's Pisces, owner of the Heartstrange Railroad Company. He's in the marble in Apollo's bag."

"And the weapons' dealer?"

"He's dead," Sonnet chimed in, looking at the blue-coated corpse far away near a certain column. "I was hoping I could incapacitate him." The sound of disappointment in his voice was enough to bring Scarlet's head down in a way that drew little attention. Nonetheless, she maintained an overall confident stature.

"I didn't want to risk you getting hurt," Scarlet said.

"Whatever else he would have done to me wouldn't have been that severe," Sonnet replied. "Everypony knows that."

"It wasn't necessary for him to be left alive," Kunai said to Newton, "but bringing him back to Sanctuary would have been helpful if he could tell us about other potential buyers, or where he got his tech from. But what is done is done."

"Right," Newton said. "It would have been nice to know who else needed a little visit, but I guess we did the job."

"Yep, we did the job," Apollo said rather happily, stretching his neck and back to the point where they made satisfying pops to his ears. "Almost got killed again, but the job is done. Gods, I can't wait to get back home."

"Not yet," Sonnet said. "We need to deal with the other weapons here."

Lion joined in the conversation without moving his gaze down the corridor. "He's right. There's a lot. We can't just leave them here."

"And we still need to handle the other guards in the building," Scarlet mentioned.

A moment of silence befell on the ponies as Kunai pondered over the comments of his team members.

"We'll take some of the weapons with us to the Sanctuary and give the others over to the sentries in the city until the Council makes a declaration. We can't risk leaving them here for Pisces' affiliates to find, if he has any." Kunai went up the stairs and used his magic to drive apart the tables that made up the barrier. "Newton and Apollo will stay here to watch over the weapons and apprehend of the guards still alive. Everypony else is with me to clear out the building."

"Have you've gotten anything from Gamer or Violet?" Sonnet asked. In return, he received only a head shake.

"Last time we made contact was when Violet said that the two of them were entering through the windows above. I haven't received anything after that."

"Did the spell wear off?"

"No, but I'm confident they would have alerted me if they were in serious danger, so for now we can only assume they're safe. But we'll meet up with them soon." Kunai looked at Newton. "See if you can collect any info from the room. Check Orion's and Volt's belongings. We'll do the same upstairs."

A long-winded sigh escaped Newton's lips as he removed his muzzle mask and put down his hood. "Well, Apollo," he said as he descended the stairs to the white unicorn, "let's round up these criminals."

Apollo, with a weary look, also relieved himself of his hood and mask and followed Newton to one of the two guards wrapped in the web-like material. He levitated the cylinder container out of his bag and got out two marbles. Kunai and the others moved past the tables and walked into the dimly-lit corridor. Sonnet, who was behind the others, turned around to stare at the bodies spread out amongst the area, catching a glimpse of Quicks, Volt, and the guard he killed to save Apollo. Sonnet stood there for some time to observe the presence of death in the basement until a call from Scarlet summoned him to rejoin the group.

Chapter 2.1

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The weather team of Manehattan had blanketed the metropolitan island with an average but strong amount of snowfall on the third day of December. The falling company of snowflakes and the arrival of the chilly winds that stung underneath the naked coat of anypony were unpleasant and bothersome experiences for many residents of the city, though they all knew that such weather was needed in order to maintain a healthy balance between the seasons. Regardless of such inconveniences, the Manehattanites continued on with their day without delay; the natural elements of winter that dotted the grey city with white spots could not stop the ponies who needed to performs their actions in society.

On the numerous, countless streets of Manehatten, ponies on the sidewalks traveled through the snow wearing various forms of clothing articles to face the cold weather; and on the road, the pullers of taxi carriages and other vehicles raced through the city against the wind and snowfall. The ceaseless, flowing activity of ponies moving about to their destinations was present throughout all of Manehattan, including in the southwestern portion of the city, where the famous Maple Heights neighborhood was. With Hearth's Warming coming around in just a few weeks, various citizens and visitors toured through the block to explore the nice little array of shopping stores in search of presents.

The moderate traffic of ponies through the Maple Heights streets was observed by one pony who lived on the middle floor of an apartment complex in the neighborhood. She was an earth mare with a light yellow coat and a long, beautiful mane with glistening orange and hot-pink parallel streaks that covered her right eye. Her cutiemark on her flank consisted of an orange circle resembling a sun and a total of eight raindrops around the sun that each held all of the six colors of the rainbow.

Through the window in her kitchen, that sat between the refrigerator and the sink, the earth mare looked down at the street. In front of the complex, the mare saw ponies, mostly adults, enter through the little shops on the streets in search of presents to buy or leave the shops with gift bags in their teeth or their saddlebags weighing down a bit. On the western end of the street, the mare could make out from distances away the faint motion picture of fillies and colts playing about in the snow in a small park; the pleasant sight of multiple young ponies chasing each other through the white mist to hit each other with snowballs, or also building snow angels and snow ponies, was enough to bring out a small smile from the corners of the mare's mouth.

Her admiration for the city's youth was interrupted when she heard a male voice from down below on the street. The mare leaned her upper half out of the window and looked down to see two stallions standing on the sidewalk looking right up at her. One of the stallions, a cream-colored unicorn, suddenly stared at her with half-lidded eyes and a sly smile, which took her at a surprise for a moment, but when the same stallion bit his bottom lip at her and raised his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, she got the message. Irked by the stallion's weak advances, the mare rolled her eyes, retreated into her kitchen without giving another glance at the stallion, and brought the window down to a shut -- the tasks all completed with her mood slightly soured.

The past few weeks of near-isolation inside of her apartment to catch up with studying and research had barred the mare from much social interaction, even when she had gone out for errands; and so to her, it made sense as for why she did not initially recognize that stallion's attempts to flirt with her. Though her physical beauty had forced her to become familiar with having a stranger's longing eyes on her, the mare was still uneasy when encountering random stallions who were less than subtle with hiding their attraction toward her.

Leaving her kitchen, the mare traveled into the nearby living room, which was decorated with abundant holiday lights, wreaths, and garlands that spread out to every accessory available. The mare went over to a red couch that was situated in the middle of the living room, laid down on it on her side, and stared at the television in front of her. The show that she was watching was a simple high school sit-com series that she unabashedly indulged in during her teen years; but when as before she would find herself immersed in the show whenever it came on, she was now merely watching it to pass time, as an atmosphere of fatigue was muddling her mind.

The mare grabbed a pink and purple coffee mug from the small table between the couch and TV and brought the cup up to her lips. The chocolate liquid that had been prepared hot nearly an hour ago was now cold and bland as a result of some last-minute errands that the mare had on her hooves. With the sound of the cast's dialogue and the audience's laughter in her ears, the mare looked around at the state of her living room. Along with the decorations for Hearth's Warming, a mound of books on psychology, sociology, and neuroscience took over the surface of a dining table near her bedroom, and a mess of papers from her graduate school classes laid scattered about around the table and near the recliner chair.

The depressing reminder of her chaotic education repelled her eyes to the holiday tree that sat by its lonesome self in the corner of the living room next to the TV. Each unique ornament pulled down the thin branches by its own weight, and cables of orange, red, blue, and green lights swirled down the small spruce in a display of neon showiness. At the base of the tree, covered in spruce needles, was a family of eight presents that had been laid down there in the previous night. The mare had bought the gifts a month before December as a guaranteed way of assuring that her college friends would get the things they really wanted this holiday; it was a pain for her to find the right places online to order from, with it sometimes taking two or three days to find one certain item, but she saw her friends as worth the labor.

The abrupt blare of a sports drink ad had cut off the mare's recent train of thoughts, as the volume from the sit-com was not so loud. She grabbed the remote on the table and lowered down the sound as the energized commercial ran through its course. Exchanging the remote in return for the coffee cup, the mare gulped down the last essence of the brown liquid. Just as she put down the cup, her attention was brought to the presence of a single piece of paper that she had been oblivious to until now. With her curiosity now captured, the mare took the paper in her hooves and brought it up to her nose. Once she saw the writing, not only did she remembered what the paper was about, but nearly in an instant was she put into a nostalgic trance by the first words she read:

Stargazer 4

A filly carrying green saddlebags patiently trots up

the lively green hill behind her house. Her legs brush

past the grass blades and pinwheel flowers that dance

wildly to the late spring wind's conducting.

With her Thursday homework done and her early dinner

rested well in her stomach, a march up the hill underneath

the violet-dark and orange-bright night sky was what she

needed to keep her spirits up and opened for the next day.

The heaven cloud of positivity over the filly's head was

brightened even more by the party of flying ladybugs,

fireflies, and grasshoppers that met her at the top of the

hill that overlooked the dimly-lit little houses of her town.

Now at her destination, the little filly dropped down her

saddlebags and sat down on her haunches with her telescope

assembled to watch the thousands of thousand-mile stars

with her small guests while enjoying the warm wind.

After she finished reading the poem, the mare placed the paper back on the table and stared blankly up at the red-painted ceiling. Her situation with her classes and her studies had been on her mind for such a long time that she had completely forgotten about her brother. It had been only two months since she last saw him, which was when he gave her the poem, but the fact that she barely thought about his well-being for over a month brought a shadow of disappointment over her. With her mood even more soured than before, the mare shifted her position on the couch to face the TV; she grabbed the green blanket draped on the back off the couch and wrapped it around her body.

The sit-com came back on after the commercials, and though the laugh track was rolling constantly in this episode, the mare's face remained distressed.

"Sonnet," the mare said softly, "please come see me soon."

Author's Notes:

Hello, guys! I am SO SORRY for the huge delay for chapter 2 after chapter 1 was released. I meant to have Ch.2 finished after May, but I was dealing with stuff at home and simply forgot or chose not to write on some days. I also had to revise the chapter two times because I didn't feel that the plot I initially went for made sense.

Though this chapter is out, it's only the first part (hence Chapter 2.1). I am in college now (a senior) and so I have to focus on my studies; but to make sure I keep on track with this story, I may release portions of my chapters instead of the whole chapter as I did for the first one.

Once again, I apologize for the delay. As said before, if you want to give out criticism or want to be a proofreader, please reach out to me.

Sincerely,
EquestrianKnight97

STORY CANCELLED, BUT WILL BE REWRITTEN. PLEASE READ CHAPTER.

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Hello, fellow readers. It's me, EquestrianKnight97.

As you know, I have not made much progress with my story since September of 2019, which basically means that the story has been on hiatus for nearly a year. There are several reasons for why I haven't made other chapters as quickly as I had promised before (college work, writer's block, studying for my driver's license, etc.), but as I have graduated from college now, and plan to attend grad school in over a year. I now have enough time to truly work on my fanfic.

Looking back, though, I feel like the story I started off writing focused more on action/adventure and less on the lessons of friendship and morality, which I intended my story to truly be centered on. I know this is my story, and I can do whatever I want with it, but in the end of the day, I want to tell a story the emulates the message(s) portrayed in MLP:FIM concerning relationships and being our best selves; therefore, I have decided to rewrite my story. Some of the characters in the first and second chapters will be re-introduced, though their roles may be slightly different. Because I want to get my chapters out as quick as possible, I will try to set a maximum of 5000 words to each chapter, and if necessary I will try to segment chapters (e.g. Chapter 2.1, 2.2., 2.3, etc).

I am going to wait until the end of October to change the status of "A Knight's Tale" from Incomplete to Cancelled, to give others a chance to read the message in this chapter, especially those that don't visit FIMFiction that often. I plan to release my first chapter for the new story sometime during October. Continue to check on me to see when I release the rewritten story, and if you liked "A Knight's Tale", please follow me for any updates and other news.

As of now, I am currently working on a novel series, non-MLP, so my progress with the rewritten fanfic may not be so quick, but I do intend to keep working on it. Though the series is over after 9 seasons, I am still a dedicated brony, and I want to make some contribution to the MLP:FIM fandom. The story may take years to finish, but my love for the show and for my fellow bronies and pegasisters will hopefully motivate me to stay on track.

Best to all,
Equestrian Knight

A Knight's Tale: Present Dangers and Past Sorrows

by EquestrianKnight97

Chapter 1 (Part I: A New Threat)

Chapter 2.1

STORY CANCELLED, BUT WILL BE REWRITTEN. PLEASE READ CHAPTER.