There come a time in anyone’s life where they have to question what they are willing to deal with today, some try to just make it through the day so they can do what they want another time while others don’t have such a luxury and have to deal with their plans going haywire at the first signs. Michael only had one job, make it to the hostage civilians and escort them somewhere safe, but of course he had to be nice and stop the other from getting blown up by a somehow magic cannon which then launched him through the sky and crashed him and the corpse of diamond dog through the roof of the building they were looking for along with alerting probably every enemy in the nearby vicinity without anyone to back him up so when the unicorn guard keeping the civilians locked in here came down the stairs moments after he stepped down from the pile of rubble he rode down on Michael only had one response to the dumbfounded guard that peeked through the opened cell to see what happened.
“Fuck this” Forgoing the sword altogether Michael grabbed the partially opened cell door and slammed it closed on the stunned unicorn smashing into his head with a dull thud before the unicorn promptly collapsed unconscious from the blow. Silence reigned for a while while the occupants stared at their odd guest who just knocked out their warden in silent shock and amazement that is until a voice sounded out from the corner of the room.
“That was amazing, who are you?” A teenage diamond dog walked up from the corner of the room wearing nothing but a frayed red neckerchief and a few nicks and scratches could be seen through his ruffled fur. His eyes were a bit dull from the somber atmosphere that no doubt hung over them all but now had started to regain their bright emerald color.
“I’m here to get you out of here and away from the battle above us, there’s supposed to be two of us but he has to catch up so we’ll see him in a bit” Michael responder while checking himself over for any serious injuries and when he reached his lower back he felt a sticky wetness and brought his hand back to see his fingers covered with some blood. Now that he was aware of the injury a throbbing sensation started to emanate from the area making him need to lean against the cell bars for a moment out of pain and this didn’t go unnoticed from the other inhabitants of the room.
“Excuse me um… sir are you injured?” A tan unicorn stepped forward with a slightly haggard appearance, she had a blond mane with matching warm eyes and a cutie mark of two bandaids crossed over each other.
“Um yeah” At the strained response she seemed to straighten up and smile a bit.
“well I am rather proficient at first-aid spells, I could patch you up if you’ll allow me?” When she finished speaking her horn started to glow a sunset orange and she waited for his consent to heal him to which Michael just turned and lifted his shirt up to show the long slice going along the width of his lower back that still had blood oozing out slowly.
“This will only take a moment so please hold still” The unicorn approached the injured human and tilted her horn towards the cut and slowly the blood was wiped away and the cut slowly knitted together leaving a fresh scar along is back. When she finished healing the cut Michael shivered violently then pulled his shirt back down slowly so he wouldn’t touch the blood still on his shirt or pants.
“Thank you, now is there any more civilians trapped in here?” The one who replied was a donkey that had gauze wrapped around his head.
“No, were the only ones who were captured, the others were released so word would get out to the capital about the ransom but some … didn’t make it” the donkey finished with its head bowed and a moment of silence passed while everyone thought of the ones they lost, that is until they heard a groaning sound from the door interrupting the silence. The guard that came to check on his prisoners was still knocked out on the floor in the doorway and was now slowly waking up while rubbing their head disoriented.
“Wha-” He was promptly cut off by Michael kicking the door closed again knocking him out for the second time but this time he was softly snoring and seemed to be dreaming peacefully.
“Okay, now not the time to mourn the dead we can do that after this is all over but for now let’s get out of here” Michael was about to turn and lead them out but the diamond dog from before spoke up again.
“Wait! Some of us had weapons that were taken from us maybe we could help” The hound stepped forward with a pink pegasus pony with a purple mane done up in a ponytail with a look of excitement and determination respectively in their eye.
“If we find them, then we’ll talk about it.” With that the human turned and went through the door with the other occupants of the room following him while stepping quietly over the incapacitated guard who now sported two large nasty looking knots on either side of his head. The jail cell led out to a corridor with other empty cells that led up to a staircase with a few lit sconces line the walls as a primary source of light, when the leading group of the human, Diamond dog, and pegasus reached the stairs there was a loud snapping noise from above them and no even seconds after they heard the loud sound of something crashing into the jail cell and the sound of something splashing. It was then Michael remember the diamond dog corpse that was hanging from the chandelier when he fell through the floor and the first one to address the sound was the unicorn that healed Michael earlier.
“What was that?” and before anyone could turn and check what the sound was Michael called everyone’s attention and pushed the pony along up the stairs.
“Nothing’s wrong keep moving” After he ushered the residents up the stairs they had to bare witness to the destruction that happened during Michael’s ‘entrance’.
“Did you do this?” The young hound asked this question as the rest of the people filed out of the staircase with Michael being last up so when he heard the question everyone was looking to him again for his answer.
“Well they asked me to drop in, so I did” Michael tried to play it off with a joke and while it seemed to work with most of them, the diamond dog’s eyes seemed to sparkle when he looked at the human before his eyes trailed over to a barrel that was knocked over during the entrance and peeking out of the top of the barrel was multiple handles to a variety of objects.
“Hey! they’re over here” The young canine picked up the barrel back onto its right side and reached inside and pulled out what seemed to be a wooden sword with green rune like designs near the hilt, it looked sharp enough to leave a cut but nothing lethal. Next the pegasus stepped up and the diamond dog reached in for her and pulled out a bow and a quiver full of real arrows, but besides those the only things left in the barrel were crudely shaped clubs and makeshift weapons like shovels and rakes.
“Now that you got your weapons let get out of here, my partner should be nearby” Michael turned and walked around the large gaping hole and went for the door to leave.
“We should probably hurry, my entrance has most likely attracted the attention of some of the bandits nearby” While speaking Michael was opening the door and when his view of the outside wasn’t obstructed anymore he was greeted with two crossbows being pointed at him by a griffin and a earth pony with a unicorn between them with their horn lit from across the street.
______________________________________________________________________________
PoV Change: Michael’s PoV
“That is just my luck” I slowly tried to raise my hand to my sword on my back but one of the bowman perked up and was ready to shoot me for any reason so I froze with my right hand hovering over the handle of my sword. We were in a stand-off and they knew it, if they just shot at me there was the chance they could hit their only bargaining chips and if they came closer I could knock them out somehow but the same could be said for me so we just had a stare down. While we stood in silence with the civilians hiding behind me, but that changed when in the area between the four of us a black feather slowly floated to the ground… and I smiled.
What happened next was a flurry of action as a smoke bomb fell from the sky to obscure our views of each other so I took that chance to jump forward while unsheathing my sword from my back and when I landed I could hear an arrow hit the wood where I was standing moments ago and seconds later the griffin bowman burst through the smoke and was startled that I was there and was rewarded by a swift hit to the temple by the flat of my blade knocking him to the ground then getting knocked out by my foot to his beak and then I turned to where I thought the unicorn was and through a break in the cloud of smoke I could see the unicorn charging their horn with a pink aura and I only had seconds to bring of my sword to defend myself when a large beam of magic left their horn and when it made contact with the blade it felt like someone took a high powered pressure washer and fired it at me but after a moment of struggle the blade cut through the energy re-angling the now two beams in two different direction then slowly it petered out. The shockwave from the blast had cleared the smoke and the unicorn was staring at me in terror before bolting into an alleyway leaving me standing there with the sword glowing from the friction and me with my hand feeling like they’re on fire.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes” I said this to Triton who was standing over the other bowman while I nursed my hands trying not to cry out and he just stood there of a moment blinking before shaking himself out of whatever stupor he was in and responding.
“Sorry I took so long, got a little held up but I was still able to save your sorry hide so I guess we’re even in the saving department” I nodded to my friend and rolled my eyes while putting the sword away then turned to the townspeople but they were just standing there and staring at us especially the young diamond dog and it was getting pretty creepy.
“What?” The question seemed knock some sense into them and they exited the building and started to surround us waiting for orders.
“Now that we’re all here let’s get out of here before anymore show up, last I checked there are two direct entrances to the town the front entrance and a smaller and more guarded back exit behind the mayor's house.” I turned to Triton as he fished out the map we were given of the town and our exit route.
“The distraction at the front was so the back exit would be weaker or even unguarded so we could escape and get you a safe distance away” My gaze wandered over everyone and I could see most of them were confident they could make it but some seemed to be nervous and ready to run which is what we want for now.
“Alright let’s move!” I turned towards the center of town with Triton at my side as we ran and judging from the sounds we were being followed by the civilians and no one was speaking leaving it quiet beside the sound of appendages hitting the ground. We had been running for a few minutes with no obstructions so far so I decided to strike up a conversation with Triton.
“Hey, where did you get those smoke bombs?” I was genuinely curious because I don’t remember being given any during the briefing.
“Oh I found them along with a few other stuff in the storage room while I was putting on the armor and when I asked someone they said go ahead so I helped myself” He started flying for a bit while he rummaged through his bag and pulled out two more smoke bombs and a small bag of what look to be caltrops and handed them to me.
“Don’t worry, I got a few more where those came from” I grinned at him while putting the smoke bombs is my pocket and tying the bag to my belt for ease of use.
“Thanks man, these might come in handy” I responded as he landed and continued to job along with me only slightly winded from flying.
“No problem, now let’s just hope nothing else goes wrong” When Triton said those cursed words I wanted to slap him across the beak so hard! I never got the chance as we had reached the mayor’s house, but we weren't alone. When we ran up with the civilians in toe, a whole squad of seven different species greeted us, some with crossbows others with swords and knives, but the worst one standing in the middle holding a beaten and injured Quick in the air by her mane was none other than … Light Spire.