//------------------------------//
// Pegasus Fight 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Starlight released her spell with a gasp as the elevator reached its highest point, the shaft door opening with a blare of emergency lights. With a rush of wings, she was seized by Gerardo and flung out of the carriage alongside Maple, Howe and Neon making their own escape behind them. Somehow, lacking their weight pressing down on it, the bottom of the carriage didn't fall away.

A trio of pegasus mares backed by a battered stallion stood in front of them, holding flash clubs aggressively. They tensed to attack... and then blinked in confusion, sizing up the group.

"Well, uhh..." Howe chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with a wing. "This sure was unforeseen!"

"Howe?" One of the mares blinked, looking incredulous. "And Neon-"

The middle mare silenced her with a feather to the muzzle, eyeing Starlight's group sharply. The tip of her flash club blazed, and when Valey failed to materialize from a hidden crevice, she said, "Looks like she hasn't made it this far yet. Harshwater, fly down the shaft and try to trap her against the rest of the squad. You two, guard the entrance, just in case."

"Ah." Gerardo's eyes narrowed. "Someone who can speak before attacking. What is the meaning of this? Has the Defense Force became an Attack Force whilst my back was turned? Have we somehow meddled too far in someone's villainous plans? To what am I not privy?"

The commanding mare tossed her flash club, catching it deftly in a wing and keeping it trained on the group. "Doesn't matter. We're after a pony who calls herself Valey. Apparently, the three of you mean something to her, so we need you as bait. We'll let you go after that; we aren't heartless. Now surrender!" With a yell, she lunged forward, swinging her weapon at the unarmed Gerardo.

He caught it with both talons, pressing back using his superior griffon strength. "The three of us?" he panted, fighting to keep his balance as the mare jerked and tried to throw him on his side. "Whatever are you talking..."

Maple stood behind him, ears folded, holding Starlight as she rubbed at her horn. To the side, Howe and Neon Nova sat awkwardly, nobody paying them any attention.

Gerardo dropped his grip and rolled out of the way, causing the mare to briefly stagger and redouble on him as her primary target. "Howe! This had better not have anything to do with you!"

"Well, technically..." Howe spun his forehooves. "It doesn't anymore? See, these are some of my friends from my old mercenary band that I just got fired from... But since Herman was our employer and not my boss, he kinda only fired me from the job I was hired for and not from the band itself, so my hooves are kind of tied either way, here." Neon Nova nodded in agreement.

"Not for us or against us," Gerardo grunted, exchanging another blow with the armed mare. "That's absolutely brilliant. Need I remind you you technically hired yourself on as an ally to us, and we have yet to deliver your payment?"

Howe shrugged. "Well, I... do suppose you could hire us to duel our own comrades. But since you have everything we want on you in the first place and they're already trying to subdue you..."

Starlight seethed in realization, the fur along her spine bristling. Was he betraying them, now that he thought they had both windigo hearts and were about to lose? He didn't know they had hidden the first heart on Shinespark's ship! And she had never liked Neon Nova, either. Her horn lit, preparing to make them regret ever coming to Ironridge.

Instantly, the commanding pegasus mare lost all interest in fighting Gerardo, bolting across the room and clubbing Howe so hard that his gelled mane was knocked askew. "Are you selling out on a contract!? I knew you two didn't have what it took to do real mercenary work when we let you join on last year! Stand up and fight your hardest for your job, cowards!"

Gerardo and Maple gaped as she set into the stallions, twirling and hammering with a ferocity that forced them back even with their backs to the wall, more than a match for the duo in their surprised condition. "Well, this may be our cue to sneak away," Gerardo whispered, edging toward the unguarded door. "If they see fit to throw us under the proverbial cart, I'm moderately inclined to return the favor."

"Rainstorm, guard the door!" the commander barked without even looking over her shoulder.

Instantly, a small, determined pegasus mare the color of bruised thunderclouds was blocking the exit with her wings spread wide, leaving the guarding of the elevator shaft to the battered stallion. She glared at them, making it known she wasn't about to back down from a three-against-one or a fight with a griffon.

Scrrkkkk! A wall-mounted flatscreen that had been showing dormant feeds of data lost its signal in a flurry of static. It fuzzed, and the data was gone, replaced by a camera feed of Selma's face.

"Well, this is interesting," the white stallion's voice hummed, using the same inflated, egotistical tone he had carried in the Flame Barracks while trying and failing to taunt Valey. "I'm so glad I left someone in the data station who could patch me in if any funny business occurred while I was away. Defense Force operatives, disobeying my order to leave the bat alone? Defense Force operatives, ignoring the mandate to secure the base and wandering around the Flame District? Defense Force operatives working with other Defense Force operatives who aren't even stallions, as per the rules? By Herman's one horn, it's almost like you aren't even Defense Force operatives at all!"

Grinning far too broadly, he hissed in glee. "You're mercenaries, aren't you? That pesky, secretive, unofficially-hired group Herman keeps around to go behind my back day in and night out? Well, guess what? I don't know what you're up to, but I've been getting some very interesting reports of battle damage in the Flame District, and that means you are breaking the law and defacing a domain that is mine to protect! Now, I can legally-"

Crash!

The lead mercenary mare's hoof went clear through the screen to the wall behind, causing it to shatter in a cascade of sparks that she effortlessly shrugged off. "Don't do that!" Selma's voice snarled from an intact speaker somewhere. "Those things are expensive!"

"Not as expensive as a contract." The mare shrugged in no direction in particular, and she turned back to Howe and Neon Nova.

Selma's voice only scoffed. A second passed... and Rainstorm, the mare guarding the door, had to desperately roll to the side to avoid getting skewered as a platoon of Defense Force pegasi stormed in with spears lowered.

"Change targets!" the leader's voice hollered above the din as the room suddenly became occupied by far more ponies than its intended capacity, the real Defense Force members focusing on the mercenaries and ignoring Maple, Starlight and Gerardo.

Pressing together, the three made it to the door and past, the hallway beyond narrow and empty. Maple sighed; pressed against her, Starlight could hear her heart beating thunderously. "What do we do now!?"

"Worry not, I've sustained no injuries and still possess the orb." Gerardo patted a bulging pocket in his uniform. "Are you hale as well, friends?"

"I'm okay," Maple quickly said, then nuzzled Starlight.

"I'm fine..." Starlight groaned. Her horn had clearly taken some wear from the prolonged crystal spell, though not nearly as much as it would have without the pink magic's assistance. She could no longer feel the tree's influence, though. If she had to fight further, it would be on her own.

Gerardo nodded. "Then I'd say our best course of action is to flee. Valey will find us, and hopefully these two sides will serve to knock each other out."

"Up on the dam..." Maple gulped. "It sounded like this wasn't planned? Do you think Selma's troops are coming from there? Like this could change what's happening?"

"It may," Gerardo acknowledged. "I believe you said you wished to seek out the lift to that place so that we could make it to the dams ourselves and do our part to help?"

"I... what?" Maple's brows scrunched. "No I didn't! At least, I didn't mean that. I meant that if we found the lift, I'd know where we were, like a landmark. I could find my way to the exit from there, going through the outer Flame District like where we are now."

Starlight swallowed, cutting in. "If we go outside, we'll be easy targets for pegasi."

"Indeed. But let us walk as we talk." Spreading his wings, Gerardo pushed them along, hurrying down the corridor away from the fighting. "It may well be worth noting that Selma just sent an army in our defense. If this lift goes to the upper Water District, as you've described, that could very well be the path they entered by, meaning it would be safe. Meanwhile, I wouldn't put it past these mercenaries to have guards on any normal exits to the outside world. And if both factions gathering for a confrontation on the dam believe themselves to be our allies..."

Maple's ears folded. "You're not suggesting we go back up there, are you? There's nothing at the top of that lift but a terrible maze! Me and Starlight were lost for hours last time!"

"Ah, you were..." Gerardo lifted a talon as he ran. "But I have a feeling the sounds of conflict would travel well were it nearby, especially that far removed from any heavy machinery. There's also the chance we could run into some friendlies using the caves as a base, who would already know their way around. And it could serve to bamboozle the mercenaries just as much as us. Also, in the unlikely event that we found a door to the outside leading southwest, that would put us in the perfect position to make a break across the Sky District snowfields to the skyport, as we planned! Don't forget, I should be able to carry you two together so long as your weight isn't magically inflated."

"You are suggesting it," Maple grumbled, resignation in her voice. "Well... let's find the lift first, and see if it isn't guarded. We can see what happens from there. But unless the regular way out is heavily guarded, I just want to get somewhere safe."