Wolfgang was pleased with himself. He had defeated this group of ponies without killing anyone. He didn't believe in Violence but accepted that sometimes it was necessary.
Intellectually Amadeus knew that he could've probably negotiated with the slavers since he had yet to meet something that could penetrate his Automatic defenses. But Wolfgang had a long history of not dealing with criminals and he wouldn't make an exception for some cute multi-coloured ponies.
Especially slavers.
Yet when Wolfgang thought about it he realized his own hypocrisy. He claimed to leave violence as a last resort, but attacked the slavers once he found out about them. Not even trying to negotiate as a formality.
As he floated downwards from his hiding spot, he frowned heavily as he contemplated this. Suddenly Wolfgang got a strange feeling. As if he were forgetting something...
Ah, yes! His Draconian companion. Using his magic he he picked her up, and his stuff which was laying around beside her. As Wolfgang looked up he was pleased to see the Dragoness and his personal items come floating into view.
As they lowered themselves he turned his attention towards the unconscious bodies of the slavers which lay around doing naught but take up space on the floor and those few he grabbed and pulled into hallways like in a horror movie.
As much as it would be satisfying he didn't kill them. Instead he just smacked their head against the wall knocking them out and removing them from the equation. Quickly utilizing his magic he grabbed the unconscious slavers and arranged them in a row.
With that done he went and checked upon his Draconian friend before turning sharply and heading for the cells. Amadeus only loosely used the word cell as cells would imply basic living things are provided for. These cages are however nothing more than two metal surfaces separated by walls of metal bars which serve as the walls. The cages seem to have a small, however Wolfgang was aware that what constituted as small to him was probably medium to these ponies, entrance hatch on the top.
As he approached the cages the ponies inside decided to take a couple dozen steps back. Or at least tried, as after five they hit the metal bars.
There was utter and total silence as nothing happened.
"Uhh, so uhm.. will you, uh... Help us out... but I mean it would be fine if you didn't... uh, please ignore me..."
Wolfgang turned to the speaking pony and as he did so the Earth Pony folded its ears and looked down. It's voice was also reduced to almost a whisper. Truth be told Wolfgang didn't really know why he hadn't helped them yet. It was probably to fuck with them a bit, but that wasn't very kind. And Wolfgang was all about kindness, peace and harmony and so on and so forth.
"Why yes kind lady! I honestly know naught why I haven't opened those hatches for you!"
Wolfgang immediately ditched his neutral face and replaced it with something full of happiness and excitement. His voice reflected this. As the cages were grabbed in his white magic they dipped ever so slightly until their hatches no longer pointed upwards but were now located in front of them.
Amadeus' magic surrounded the Metal Hatches before ripping them off.
"Okay... the door's gone now. You can come out..." Yet no one moved
Amadeus' right eyebrow rose with the intention of hitting the roof. Unfortunately they were restricted in their and only formed a confused look.
"I'm not gonna eat you"
No response
"There's food here"
Still nothing
"Oh well, if your going to do that, then you leave me no choice!"
As his magic engulfed the slaves they were guided out of their cages and were placed in a row. Wolfgang counted twenty five Earth ponies, three Pegasi, two Zebras and four Unicorns.
Still no movement. Each of them was stiff as a stone. Wolfgang rolled his eyes at their fear, but would later come to understand it after having given it a thought.
"Okay... well. Umm, does anyone know the way to the Everfree forest?"
"What?"
Finally! Wolfgang turned to face the Earth pony from whom the outburst came from. Upon seeing Amadeus' confused look he elaborated and not without a hint of fear
"W-what I meant to say was; Why'd ya want to visit that place. Not even the C-Councillors dare enter that place..."
The pony gulped audibly as Wolfgang thought of a response not revealing the tree of Harmony.
"That, I think, is none of your business"
Quickly the Earth pony nodded whilst doing its best to shrink further into the ground
"Oh come on. Chill guys, and gals, I won't kill you! I've set you free! And honestly I can't wait to get out of here! Why aren't you also happy and excited about your new found freedom"
After no response came forth Wolfgang's frustration arrived at its borders.
"Bah, I have no patience nor the strength of will to continue this! Typisch! Nur weil er Deutsch ist heißt es, dass er der Böse ist!"
With disgust evident on his face he turned his face from the assembled ponies, before stopping.
"Wait, where are we?"
"I do believe it to be the Equestrian Badlands, Surrender now or I'll maim the slaves"
Out of the shadows stepped forth that Naval Blue pony Amadeus had sacred into unconsciousness. Behind him were his accompanying Earth Pony, who held a dagger, might be a sword in their eyes, in his mouth and above them flew a Pegasus with a crossbow in hand- er hoof.
"Lad, you do realize that I was the one who kicked everyone's flank here and caused the rest to run away to their mothers"
"Well, they're not us. We never run away from anything. Or me and Bulky Vision at least"
"Hey!" came an undignified shout from the Pegasus.
My only response was to raise my Eye Brow and roll my eyes
"Psh, Yeah. I'm sure it wasn't you who passed out after I side stepped your spell. Hell all I did was looked pissed"
"Erh- Ehm- Enough! Surrender now and I wont hurt the- argh!"
He and his companions cried out as a white aurora picked them up and shook them violently making them loose their weapons. Without looking or realizing what he was doing he used his magic to take off one of the magic prohibiting rings from the two unicorn slaves and put it on the Naval blue Unicorn.
At this point in time Wolfgang had completely forgotten that he had dispatched four other slavers during his fist encounter with the pony who he would later know as Von Vanhoofer. That is the main reason why he was caught off guard when two Pegasi came slamming their bodies at 80 kilometers per hour. In his shock he let go of his staff as it went skittering over the floor. Both Pegasi wanted to hold him down so the Unicorns in their little Spec-Ops group could stun him. However they ran into a little problem in the form of Angry Slaves.
The Unicorn who had his inhibitor removed did so too for his fellow and they both removed the clamps on the three Pegasi before turning and helping the Earth ponies with their shackles. Even though none of the freed slaves trusted the strange bipedal Mummy they realized he was their only hope to anywhere. And so two of the three Freed Pegasi rammed the other pair of Pegasi holding the Human whilst the third one grabbed a crossbow from the ground and started shooting from an overwatch position.
The Earth ponies meanwhile grabbed fallen swords or in some rare cases fallen bows and stated to swarm the two Unicorns handing out stun spells like some sort of organic machine gun.
"Ah. Ah. Ow. My entire torso is in unimaginable pain!"
"Oh stallion up, you little colt!" one of the Earth ponies yelled as he threw the staff of unimaginable power towards Wolfgang.
"Alright! Alright!"
He got up and with a mumbled word the slavers, who at this point were running for their lives, were caught in a dreamy white aurora and suspended in the air. A happy cheer went up among the emancipated slaves as they rejoiced, feeling great for beating a foe who could've never won in the first place due to numerical inferiority and Amadeus.
With a hand on his rib cage, Wolfgang smiled lightly and asked if anyone were hurt. When he got no answer he said "Ah, I see. Still think I'm bad some how."
"Okay folks. Grab the metal bindings and lets secure these scum and their unconscious fellows. We'll wait out the storm grab as much as we can carry and head for the Free Cities-" The Earth pony who had been wordlessly elected as leader was suddenly cut off by Wolfgang
"Free Cities?"
"You know. The ICL? The Ironclad alliance?"
Shaking his head Amadeus replied
"No. I don't"
"But how could this be?"
"Well, for one I assume I have been asleep for the last few thousand years. And secondly, I'm a Human. I wasn't exactly up to date regarding pony politics when I showed up in the first place; all I knew Princess Celestia and Luna ruled this land side by side"
"Who? I don't know anything about any Celestia nor Luna. Equestria is ruled by the council. Each of the Five Councillors control's a Province and its subordinate states. And- why are we even discussing this. Look all you need to know is that a few cities to the east have banded together and opposed their rule, the Council that is. Until now the Councillors couldn't be bothered to take them out and until that time the League represents the last Beacon of hope in this-"
"That's, uh, nice... But I really don't care. All I want is to get to the Everfree forest"
"Are- Are you sure?"
"Yes. Absolutley"
"But you'd need to cross Hundreds of Kilometers on foot!"
"Doesn't seem that bad"
"Across a harsh and unforgiving desert"
"I can always pack enough supplies"
"filled with Xenolings, marauders, slavers, changelings and what not!"
"I can handle them"
"You'd be left stranded at the mercy of the Council and their uniformed goons!"
Sighing, Wolfgang raised his hands in defeat
"God bloody dammit. Fine, I'll come with you to this Iron League"
"
And so the ponies began restraining their former captors and preparing for the night and the following day. For everyone had a plan; The freed slaves wanted to go to the Free Cities, Amadeus wanted to get his hands on the Elements of Harmony as the first step in finding out what happened to Luna and Celestia and fixing it and the slavers wanted revenge.
High in the shadows of the Catwalks. A hooded Pony-like figure disappeared in a muted flash of black and dark blue light