//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4- A Little Skirmish 
// Story: Thief of Redemption 
// by One Tin Soldier 
//------------------------------//

I stepped into the living room. Stormy had his bags packed, which contained some dry fruits, some bits and pieces, and not much else.

I had my armor and tunic and gloves on. They were pretty much a set now, and I had gotten used to them by wearing them everywhere for the last day or so. Besides that, I had my sword in its scabbard strapped to my side and that same coin purse filled with bits. Oh yeah, and that shard infused in my body.

Weird, eh?

Stormy started and looked up. He materialized his helmet over his head and grabbed his bag. "Time!"

An arrow shattered the stillness of the morning by crashing into the large balcony window. Time seemed to stop as shards of glass flew through the room. I barely dodged the actual arrow, though I was pelted with glass. "STORM, GO!"

Stormy bolted for the back, and I wasn't far behind. I glanced behind me and saw an orange pegasus wielding some sort of crossbow flying through the window and looking intent on stopping our own flight. Another Bob? 

Stormy got the door open and started racing into the alley to the left. I followed closely and slammed the door behind me, almost feeling the impact of another arrow half a second later.

"Storm. Go and find the train station. I'll distract them. Wait for me as long as you can."

"But–" Another arrow impacted the door, causing it to split slightly. "Ah, whatever. You'd better get there before it leaves. If there even is a train there." He looked up for a moment and then started galloping down the street to my left. 

Yet another arrow caused a hole to form in the door. I backed away from it slowly and glanced to down the way Stormy had went. Then I tore off in the opposite direction. 

The alley quickly came to a close and I found myself near the front end of the house, faced with one of the city squares. It even had one of those fountains in the middle. I heard the door splinter into pieces a ways off behind me and quickly sprinted toward the fountain.

Sprinting out into the middle of an open city square is pretty much the best way of telling your assailants: "I'm right here!"

In fact, they were spread out on buildings facing the rich guy's house. Most of them noticed me quickly and took to the air, some carrying unicorns in their grip.

They quickly surrounded me and the pegasus from before slid to a halt at the end of the alleyway, fixing me with one of the worst kind of stares. A stare that meant: "My first loyalty is to my duty alone, and you suck."

Who knows? From what I've heard, he's pretty spot-on.

I scanned my attackers. About twenty of them. Something about the way they held their spears, or twitched anxiously, seemed off. They looked almost... uncomfortable, as if this was somewhat new to them. All except...

There. That one was more confident, and something told me she was the leader. They all donned symbols of the sun and moon, which most likely meant Celestia and Luna, as I had learned from the ponies of Brown. 

The pony I had bet on stepped forward, confirming my suspicions. She was a hot pink pegasus, with a lacy, royal purple mane. Her cutie mark (another term I learned from the residents of Brown) was covered up by that military uniform.

"Stand down," she said.

I looked around me. "I'm not sure how to do that, ma'am."

"Drop your weapon, then."

"Oh, this?" I gestured to my sheath. "No."

Now she looked triggered. She gave the tiniest nod to a unicorn next to her. 

I looked down at my sword. The hilt was encapsulated by an orange glow for a moment, before it flickered and died out. I saw the unicorn's horn light up again as she struggled to probably pull my sword out of its sheath. Instead, the magic kind of just drained away, leaving tiny runes on the hilt glowing orange, before those too faded.

I marveled at the sword. This thing was definitely a winner, and I was glad I had gotten an awesome sheath for it.

The leader pegasus thing called out again. "Will you surrender to us peacefully?"

"Maybe," I called back.

"Yes or no!"

"Then my answer is..." I pretended to think for a moment. "Yes."

The leader seemed surprised and fairly happy with this. She gestured to two of the other guards and they came up to me. 

One looked like they were about to put some kind of handcuffs on me, before I yelled, "PHSYCE!" and whipped out my sword, slitting the throat of one and decapitating the other in the same motion.

Their bodies crumpled to the ground on either side of me. I looked around me at the other seventeen rookies. Their eyes were wide and pinned on me.

"Charge him!" the leader's call rang out. They all started and then started racing towards me. I turned tail and fled, dodging one and scoring a gash down another as I raced past. I ducked into the nearest alley and held out my sword for any inexperienced flyers to crash into. The first barely stopped in time, causing the others to slow and bump into each other. In their confusion, I ran.

I had no idea if I was going in the right direction, and something told me I could take them if I wanted to. However, like that little filly back on the street, hurting or killing these ponies might cause negative rippling to somehow effect me.

Actually, screw that. I had already killed two of them, might as well kill the rest. If I only killed two, it would just seem weird and get awkward whenever anyone talked about it. Better to just kill them all and be seen as a bloodthirsty monster that no one should trifle with. That way, nobody would really waste time by getting in my way.

Then again, I had all the time in the world. Maybe I should just– you know what? Nevermind. I'm in the middle of a freaking battle. No need for logic and plans and morality here.

I ground to a halt and turned around slicing my sword skywards. Just as I had hoped, one of the pegasi was right there, and was sliced all the way down the belly. They fell sideways and crashed into one of the walls before falling to the ground on some garbage. 

"Oh, does your tummy hur–"

I was pummeled from behind and smashed flat on the ground, held down by that stupid orange pegasus from before. Ambitious little guy, aren't you? Fury twisted his features to the utmost degree. Why was this guy so mad at me?

He raised a hoof and punched me in the face. I felt my head knock into the cobblestone street. Funny, that blow felt far weaker than it should have, coming from a horse.

He decked me again and again, and I felt blood ooze from various spots on my face. When at last he stopped laying into me, I said, "You're weak, boy."

He decked me again, extra hard, but it was like your seven-year brother punching you in the face. Pitiful.

Even still, it was getting slightly annoying. I heaved him off of me and kicked him away from me. I took off down the alley again. 

A few seconds later, I felt a very unwelcome presence in my back. The force of it almost made me trip, but I kept going. From what I knew, I imagined having an arrow in your back was very painful, to say the least. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

I felt another arrow make a clanging sound as it bounced off of one of my greaves. That awful pegasus. He needed to die.

I had a feeling that the longer I had the arrow in my back, the worse, so I found a side street that I ducked into. I reached back and ripped the arrow out of my back. My back felt slightly worse, and I looked at the arrow. It wasn't barbed, but it was dripping blood. I could feel half my backside soaked with blood, too. Something like this should hurt far more than it did.

Ah wait. I held out my hand and conjured up the earth shard. Immediately my back exploded in pain and I almost fell over as a wave of exhaustion and pain crashed over me. So that explains things slightly. I get a weird version of leprosy. 

I let the stone melt back into my skin and stood up again, as the pain went back to being a dull throb. Where all those other soldiers were at, I didn't know. I did know that orange pegasus was out for my blood, though.

I needed to find the train station. I couldn't afford to lose Stormy, and fighting these guys was just a distraction anyway. I looked at the shabby building next to me. There was literally some sort of service ladder going up the side. 

Soon I was on top. I still couldn't see much, but I heard a train whistle in the distance. The topside of Brown was almost easier to navigate; most of the buildings had flat tops and many extended over the streets.

That evil pegasus flew up a ways to my left. We made eye contact for just a moment before I tore off in the direction of the train whistle I heard. He flew after me at unfair speeds. 


~/\^/\~
Rules of my Descention
.III.

Only I and those I appoint worthy can recognize and obtain the shards of the Seeker.
~\/v\/~



Stormy glanced back the way he had come. There was still no sign of Time's Grave. He hoped Time had gotten away from whoever was attacking. 

A few other ponies milled about on the train platform. It was a larger train station, and had four different tracks which led to four different places. The earliest departure time would be coming any minute now, and, luckily enough, the train it conceded headed somewhat North.

The station was surrounded by a flatter area with tracks and even a full-blown freight yard. A metal chainlink fence surrounded the whole perimeter. 

CHUUU CHUUU, a train whistle jolted Stormy to turn his head and sense down the tracks. Soon enough, a train found its way to the platform and halted.

A train ticket pony got off once the rest of the ponies exited the cars. "Departure in fifteen minutes!" he called.

Stormy waited and waited, but there was no sign of Time's Grave.

"Hey, you!" the ticket pony said after about fifteen minutes. "You getting on?" 

Stormy had been waiting there anxiously. He dipped his head and boarded the train. A few elderly ponies and a young couple turned their heads towards him, most likely looking at him. He found a spot somewhat isolated and turned his head toward a window.

C'mon, Time. Hurry it up!


<:---.'.---:>


I hurried across the new terrain with a strange, practiced ease, while Mr. Hothead back there kept ramming into things. The horrible part was that he didn't even seem phased when he'd collide with something like a chimney, or a heap of bricks. Heck, there was even a fridge up there.

Then I saw it. Ahead of me, the rooftops opened up into a large field at the edge of the city. Train tracks tied themselves around a single, large building in the middle. There was a train stopped at one of the platforms. 

Too soon, the roofs came to an end. Lacking anything better to do, I jumped off the edge of the last roof, relying on the earth shard to make my fall meaningless.

I felt weightlessness for a moment, and then I seemed to simply glide on the air. I looked around, for I was getting even higher. The beautiful sun, and the clouds, and the seagulls; it was amazing. I looked down at the ground and saw my shadow pass over a fence. I had wings!

My shadow had wings, and I was elated. I turned around to look at them and saw the grinning face of the orange pegasus. Oh crap. He dropped me and suddenly, I was plummeting towards the earth.

I landed face down in the mud. For a forty foot drop, it could've been worse. Then again, I almost felt the artificiality of my body working on literally only magic.

I got up and slipped back down into the mud again.

"Fine, just," I muttered. "Just, ugh, let's go." I got up again and absolutely pelted towards the train. I tripped one or two more times on the way there. 

About halfway across, I was met by the orange pegasus again. He tackled me from behind, sending us both sprawling into the mud. The sky seemed darker now, for some reason. Weird.

He lost his grip on me when we decided to use the muddy ground as a slip-and-slide course, and I recovered first. I ripped the blade out of its scabbard and charged over to where he lay. He saw me coming and surged forward using his wings, crashing into me and knocking the blade loose. I kept my footing and he backed away.

We stood five feet from each other, having a staring contest.

"What's your deal?" I asked.

The pegasus spat on the ground. "You are a worthless scumbag. You are the reason I have to be here, instead of helping the soon-to-be prince. He was my best friend, and now I have to come here to capture some low-life threat to Equestria."

"Listen, I'm not your friend. But seriously, do you have a name? I keep thinking of you as 'the orange pegasus'."

"I'll not give you the honor of knowing my name!" He flew at me.

What the pegasus had not realized was that in the few moments of our conversation, we had circled each other slightly, and I had picked up my sword at that last moment. I slammed upwards, the flat of the blade connecting with the pegasus' jaw. The pegasus fell backwards into the mud from the brutal uppercut. I almost wanted to finish him off, but the train whistle told me I had no time.

I turned around and raced toward the locomotive; it had already started moving. Hopefully Stormy was on this train, otherwise, I didn't really know what I would do. I felt the magic of the earth shard ebbing away as I ran. Something told me I had pretty much exhausted its power and was almost back to the drawing board.

I had almost made it to the train, running sideways ever so slightly for maximum chances of catching the train. The caboose had almost passed.

I leaped toward it, but my hand didn't catch a good enough grip, and I tumbled down on the tracks behind the train.

Nope, not quite right.


<:---.'.---:>


I leaped toward the caboose, extending my arm as far as I could, but it caught in the railing and I was flung off to side, my hand throbbing.

Still not correct.


<:---.'.---:>


I leaped toward the caboose, my hand catching the side of the rail and flinging the rest of me over it into the tiny car. Regaining my footing, I found a smallish door and opened it, finding nobody inside of the small seating area at the very back of the train.

I clamored up onto one of the weird seats and slumped my head down, feeling the speed of the train increasing every second until I fell asleep. 

Ah.

There it is.