Captain Iron Heart made her way down the main path of the forest, her sharp eyes snapping left and right for any more signs of movement in the trees.
It may have just been her imagination, but Iron Heart took no chances when she thought she had seen something in the forest.
The moment she noticed it, she had excused herself from her post, replacing herself with one of her more seasoned veterans. From there, she had given an order to one of the unicorn Guards to scan the forest.
As it turned out, they had found activity in the form of a wayward pegasus that had most certainly not been of her own regiment, or indeed any Guard at all.
Again, taking no chances, she redoubled the security of the blockade and went to investigate herself. Thus, she made her way through the forest—eyes peeled and wingblades at the ready.
From then on, she had one of her most powerful unicorn mages cast a Scrying spell in different parts of the forest at regular intervals while keeping her updated via Telepathy.
Unfortunately, only the one mage could properly cast the spell, and even then, within a very limited range, so she had to send out more Guards to search along with them.
If there had indeed been somepony else in this forest, Iron Heart had to wonder how they could've missed them.
Though to be fair, the forest was immense and the search had been slow and methodical, sweeping from one end of the forest to the other. In fact it was only now that they had made any kind of significant progress since they had started a few days ago.
The thought made Iron Heart sigh inwardly.
At the very least, her hunch had been right, and there was something or somepony here, now she just had to find out who or what it was.
It was a little over an hour and a half of searching the forest before she received any noteworthy news from the mage scanning the forest.
It seemed a large caravan had been found in a clearing not far from her location. Nopony had been spotted outside the caravan, but they assumed there had to be somepony there.
A mental path was drawn through the forest and into the clearing via the Telepathy spell, and Iron Heart made haste in heading to that location.
As she ordered the mage to inform the rest of the squads in the area, she allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction. It had been a long shot, but she took comfort in the fact that her gut feelings had never steered her wrong, yet.
They were running out of time.
The plan was risky, but now that Ancient Scroll knew the Guard had brought a mage who could cast a Scrying spell, there was no telling when they'd find the Vardo.
With the Guard closing in, the old stallion had been forced to improvise. He could've cast his own Scrying spell, but if that had triggered some kind of ward or other magic based trap the soldiers had against magic, it would look suspicious, and that would interfere with his plan.
His plan, at this point, was to take Trixie's suggestion and cooperate with the Guard as innocent passersby. At best, he figured they would let them pass in peace or escort them out of the forest.
He didn't want to think about the worst.
And then there was the one wrench thrown into that plan—the one thing that made this much more complicated than it needed to be.
The wayward filly.
If there was even the smallest chance the Guard was looking for Fia, he didn't want to expose her in any way, but at the same time, he couldn't just leave her out in the forest if the Guard decided to force them to leave.
It was also because of this reason that he didn't risk Scrying Fia's location either. The mage that had cast the Scrying spell may not have done so competently, but that didn't necessarily mean he didn't have a way to counteract Ancient Scroll's own attempt.
No, he wouldn't risk it, and instead trusted Fell Wind and Yojimbo to keep Fia safe for the moment.
And so it was that he put the other parts of his plan into action. Unfortunately the plan required that Ancient Scroll and the others act as though they had no knowledge of or affiliation with the crazy pegasus that had been provoking the Guard.
The old stallion wasn't too worried about Fell Wind, and he had already informed her to look for Fia once she had lost the Guards on her tail.
He had hoped to use himself as bait for most of the Guard since they had already figured out they were there, and also reapplied Trixie's disguise in the meantime.
The disguise spell had its basis in changeling magic, and therefore made it harder to detect, but it wasn't a fail-proof solution.
Changelings hadn't been seen around the more populated areas of Equestria in a few centuries, and he prayed the Princess hadn't incorporated changeling detection spells in the Royal Battle Mage's training curriculum.
As Ancient Scroll, the remaining two fillies, and Rouge all waited for the Guard to arrive, Ancient Scroll had once again contacted Yojimbo to check on his progress.
He was relieved to hear that the husky had found Fia, but less so when he was informed that the Guards had also found her. He had begun to give Yojimbo instructions on what to do next... but then things hadn't quite gone to plan...
Ancient Scroll and the others sat in the sitting room as they waited for the inevitable confrontation with one or more of the Royal Guard. Corona and Blue Moon watched worriedly as Ancient Scroll sat in the armchair, his eyes closed in concentration.
No one among the group made a sound, too afraid to disturb the stallion as he tried to get in touch with Yojimbo via Telepathy. Rouge sat with the two fillies on the couch—her arms crossed and her gaze occasionally shifting towards the open doorway of the sitting room.
The tense silence continued for another few minutes before what felt and sounded like a sudden rush of air passed through the caravan and through each creature in the room.
To Rouge, it was an odd occurrence, but had no effect otherwise. To Ancient Scroll and the fillies however, the effect was much more drastic and immediate.
Rogue flinched slightly as Corona and Blue Moon suddenly squeaked in surprise. Ancient Scroll for his part flinched as well before his eyes snapped open.
"What the hay was that?!" Blue Moon cried, latching onto her horn with both hooves. She looked over to Ancient Scroll with a bewildered and panicked expression, "I... I can't... my horn! I can't feel my magic!"
"Me either," Corona added in a somewhat calmer, though no less scared tone, "i-it's like... like the connection to my own mana's been... severed."
It was true.
Ancient Scroll tried to channel the mana from his own wellspring into his horn, but nothing happened. He grimaced and turned his narrowed eyes towards the doorway.
"Well, fillies," he announced as he rose from his chair, "it looks as somepony's finally arrived, and it seems she's brought quite an interesting little trinket with them."
"What do we do?" Blue Moon asked, looking from the doorway to Ancient Scroll, "Should we stay in the Vardo? Or—"
"That's exactly what I want you all to do," Ancient Scroll interjected, glancing back at the others, "I'll go out to meet her alone, and if need be, I'll come and get the rest of you."
He turned his full attention to Rouge as he spoke, his serious expression turning somewhat apologetic.
"You remember our cover story, right?"
"I remember, Ancient Scroll," Rouge said, nodding stiffly, an almost imperceptible blush marking her face, "I will act accordingly, as will the little ones."
Despite the gravity of the situation, both Corona and Blue Moon couldn't help but snicker behind their hooves at Rouge's expense, knowing full well what each of their roles were supposed to be.
Ancient Scroll gave a single nod and a grateful smile before trotting out of the room. He made his way down the short hall and towards the platform, reaching it just as something dropped down from above and landed before him with a heavy thud.
Ancient Scroll scrambled away from the platform with a surprised grunt, instinctively reaching for magic that wasn't there. He inwardly cursed as the tall armor clad pegasus charged forward in the blink of an eye, slamming into the stallion and pushing him all the way across the hall.
He hit the backdoor with a cry of pain, and before he could regain his bearings, he was pulled forward and down. He grunted again as he was thrown down to the floor and pinned to the ground.
Within a span of roughly six seconds, the taller pegasus mare had completely immobilized Ancient Scroll. The stallion now lay flat on his stomach—his face pressed against the ground, and a wingblade placed just above the base of his skull.
Ancient Scroll was many things, but a fool was not one of them.
He knew when he was beat, and even had the blade not come into play, he wouldn't have resisted. That would've gone against his plan in any case.
"State your name and your business traveling this forest," a low feminine voice growled menacingly just above his ear, "answer quickly or things are gonna get a lot worse for you."
"The name's... Ancient Scroll, ma'am," Ancient Scroll grunted, "just an...old stallion traveling with... his family on a road trip is all."
"Family?" the mare above repeated, furrowing her brow, "on a road trip? What—"
"GRANDPA!"
A wing shot out and towards the direction of the sudden voice partway before it faltered. The mare's eyes widened in horror when she finally realized she had almost thrown an incredibly lethal bladed weapon into the eye socket of a small frightened filly.
The little maroon filly and another filly with a silvery blue coat both squealed in terror and quickly shuffled back into the sitting room. The mare glanced at her own partially extended wing in disbelief before shaking her head and retracting it.
"Oh sweet Celestia," she breathed in a shaky whisper before calling out to the two fillies, "W-Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean—"
"Excuse me, ma'am," came an irate voice below the mare, "now that you've nearly killed one of my grandchildren, do you think you could let me up? I'm not as spry as I used to be, and you're not doing my back any favors."