The three friends were currently being led over the grassy plains here in the heartland of Equestria only a short walk from where they had been initially captured, all their things left behind. Steel Wing walked beside his grandfather while the other six pegasi formed a circle around Lustrous and Trail Blazer and followed behind their leader. The earth pony and unicorn may have been wondering why Steel Wing wasn’t doing anything but a sad look given to them over his shoulder was enough for them to get the message.
They were in worse trouble than ever before.
Steel Wing seemed loathe to start a fight and any attempt Lustrous made to ask what was going on was met with silence. Trail Blazer was keeping her thoughts to herself, the way these pegasi were acting was giving her a weird feeling. They didn’t seem like any other pegasi she had known. And that geezer up there… he looked a little like Steel Wing and there was only one pony she could think of that he might be.
“Where are you taking us?” Steel Wing decided to ask his grandfather, the two of them out of earshot of the others.
“To our base, obviously.”
Steel Wing raised an eyebrow at him. “Base? You were all exiled from Equestria.”
“And so what?” His grandfather gave him an eyebrow of his own. “Equestria’s a big place. You think the Princess and Thunderstorm could keep us from coming back right under their noses? Hardly anyone lives out here, how would they ever know?”
“So you’ve just been biding your time here,” Steel Wing sighed.
“Biding implies we were planning something. Actually as much as it pains me to admit it was more like we were stewing,” He grinned. “But then I heard about a special mission the three representatives were planning from some of my eyes and ears in your stupid city.”
Steel Wing grimaced. “Thunderstorm wont be happy to hear something like that...”
“Heh, it’s only natural I’d have an agent or two in your center of government if I’m still hiding out in Equestria,” He chuckled and stretched, cracking his neck. “Anyways we’ve been keeping an eye on you three off and on for most of your journey across Equestria, we knew you’d eventually come around here so all we had to do was wait.”
It certainly made Steel Wing unhappy to know they had been spied on for ages and he didn’t even notice. His grandfather obviously clued in his underlings on how to avoid Steel Wing’s notice.
“But what do you actually want with us?” The red pegasus frowned and asked his grandfather.
Silence was his answer. For a moment it seemed his grandfather wouldn’t respond at all as they kept walking through the grass, a rocky hill sprung up a short distance away, they seemed to be going directly towards it. But then he calmly opened his mouth again.
“We’ll talk more inside.”
“Inside?”
Steel Wing was left to wonder at his words as they got closer and closer to the hill. The party of pegasi and their prisoners turned to walk alongside the rocky cliffs of the hill and it was there that Steel Wing saw what he meant. An outcropping of rock that was invisible when looking at it from the front jutted out from the hill, leaving a small indenture in the rocky hillside. At the back of that indenture sat a cave that undoubtedly led deep into the hill.
“You’re hiding underground in a cave?” Steel Wing asked his grandfather.
“They’d never think to look for pegasi in here now would they?”
Steel Wing had to admit, they probably wouldn’t.
The entrance to the cave was flanked by two pegasus guards wearing the traditional armor that they used to wear back before unification. They both saluted to Steel Wing’s grandfather and let them pass without comment. The cave was well lit by torches lining the wall, Steel Wing was taking in every single detail. Just in case. But so far they were only walking down a simple path.
Behind him Trail Blazer was doing the same while Lustrous scowled at their unfair treatment. The unicorn was very put off that ponies like these were still around. This was the new age, why did they have to be like this?
He had almost opened his mouth to say something akin to that but Trail Blazer kept stepping on his hoof.
“I don’t think it’s fair that we haven’t even been told what’s going on,” Lustrous whispered to Trail Blazer.
“Just forget about it for now, it’s not important. If Steel Wing doesn’t think he can do anything to help us right now we just have to sit and wait,” She said back to him.
“This is not how I wanted the last leg of our journey to go. Things were so nice lately...” Lustrous sighed.
“I think that’s just our luck,” Trail Blazer shrugged.
Up ahead, Steel Wing was still paying attention to his grandfather and anything else notable about the cave. But his grandfather could be like an iceberg or a statue whenever he wanted, even more than he was, and the old pegasus gave nothing away to his grandson.
“How many of you are there even left? I can’t imagine some didn’t desert you after your plans failed,” Steel Wing ventured to ask.
His grandfather regarded him coldly. “Like I’m going to answer that. And if I recall my plans only failed because of a certain traitor that couldn’t fulfill his purpose.”
“I did the right thing,” Steel Wing’s eyes narrowed.
“You betrayed the poor old pegasus who raised you after your parents died. You were meant to be a weapon to return us pegasi to the old ways, and you turned your back on that too,” His voice and appearance was far calmer than Steel Wing’s, it seemed he almost wanted to get a rise out of his grandson.
“I wasn’t your tool,” Steel Wing’s wings shook. “Maybe if you had shown me even an ounce of affection I would’ve wanted to help you.”
His grandfather stopped and the others with him. Slowly he turned his old, wizened, face to Steel Wing.
“Affection is for the weak.”
He started walking again, letting the others catch up. “Affection, love, friendship? They’re what led to this pathetic unification and the destruction of what it truly means to be a pegasus. I’ll fix that mistake.”
Steel Wing knew it was pointless to say anything more. And soon they came up to a fork in the path where a single pegasus guard stood. To the left the path went down deeper into the cave and there were stairs built into the ground, while to the right the path went curving upwards. Grandfather stopped the whole group and looked back at the pegasi surrounding Lustrous and Trail Blazer.
“You take those two down to the dungeon and wait on further orders,” He said.
The nearest pegasus snapped a salute. “Yes, Rolling Fog.”
“Dungeon?!” Steel Wing wheeled about on his grandfather, Rolling Fog.
“Where did you think they were going to go? The spa?” Rolling Fog raised an eyebrow at him. “No harm will come to them yet though, so long as you listen to me. So I suggest calming down and coming with me.” The elderly pegasus didn’t wait for a response, he merely started walking up the curving path.
“How dare you! Don’t you have any shame?!” Lustrous whined as he and Trail Blazer were herded down the path to the left. “Don’t you know how upset Princess Celestia would be if she knew about this?!”
“Lustrous, Trail Blazer!” Steel Wing called out to them but he was worried about what would happen if he tried to help them right now.
“Don’t worry about us,” Trail Blazer told him before disappearing down the tunnel. “You’re the one who’s always saved us, just do whatever you think you need to do.”
“But you’re my friends now...” He weakly said even as the procession carried them away.
In a situation where he wanted and needed to help them more than ever before he found himself at a loss. All Steel Wing could do at the moment was follow his grandfather, the fate of his friends weighing heavily on his mind.
The journey down the left tunnel was uneventful. A few paths leading off to other sections of the cave and underground base were seen at regular intervals but the captives were merely being led straight down. Trail Blazer and Lustrous ended up tossed into a cell together in the pegasi’s makeshift dungeon, it was the last room at the bottom of the cave and there were a few other unoccupied cells in there bedecked in dust and cobwebs. Their abductors locked the cell and hung up the keys by the door, ignoring Lustrous’s protests the whole time they simply slammed the door leading back out into the tunnels shut.
“Well this is just great!” Lustrous pouted, he folded his forelegs over each other and sat down on the ground.
The earth pony was a bit calmer at their state of affairs, although no less annoyed on the inside she didn’t see the need to constantly complain about it like her unicorn friend.
“They don’t seem to have had much use for this dungeon before now.” She said.
Lustrous looked around too, coming to the same conclusion. “If they don’t normally do something like this then what’s so special about us? What are they going to do to us?”
“I’m ninety-nine percent certain that old pegasus was Steel Wing’s grandfather,” Trail Blazer said. “Obviously he wants Steel Wing for some reason. Revenge maybe? And we got caught up in it, I guess.”
Lustrous paled. “Wait. The grandfather that wanted to assassinate Hurricane and Thunderstorm?”
“You didn’t put two and two together?” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“I wasn’t thinking about it. I was just annoyed.”
“Well it doesn’t really matter I guess. Maybe we should work on escaping,” Trail Blazer shrugged.
“Escaping?” Lustrous seemed surprised by the suggestion.
“Can’t rely on Steel Wing to save us every time.”
“You told him to just do what he needed to do. I figured that would entail helping us.”
Trail Blazer smirked at him. “Yeah. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make things a little easier for us all.”
She went up to the bars and pressed her head as close up to them as possible so she could see around the whole room. Even as far as dungeons went it was very sparse. There weren’t any tables or chests to hold things in, the only thing in the room besides the two ponies were the keys to their cell left on a hook by the door and a single flickering lantern on the far wall.
“Are you going to try and seduce one of the guards when they come back?” Lustrous teased her.
“No,” She looked back and scowled at him. “I think these guys would just be angry if an earth pony started hitting on them anyways.”
But as she looked back at the door and the keys she smiled. “However it’s pretty darn lucky for us that they’re not used to being around earth ponies and unicorns.”
“What do you mean?” Lustrous asked, coming up to the bars and trying to look at what she was seeing.
“They just left the keys hanging there. And no one is even watching over us. They probably think we’re helpless and not even worth worrying about because we aren’t pegasi,” Trail Blazer snorted. “Joke’s on them.”
“That’s all well and good but we still have no way to get those keys,” The unicorn said as he gazed at them.
“Just use your magic to grab them and levitate them over here!” Trail Blazer darn near shouted at him. Amazed that that option didn’t even occur to him.
“You know very well that I don’t use my magic for anything. It’s very weak,” Lustrous looked away in embarrassment.
The map pony rolled her eyes and sighed. “Well maybe if you practiced with it more it wouldn’t be so weak.”
“Some unicorns just aren’t naturally gifted in magic, okay?” He frowned.
“Lustrous,” Trail Blazer put a hoof on his shoulder. “Just at least try it. We’ve got nothing better to do and your magic might be our one ticket to getting out of here.”
The unicorn grimaced. He looked between the pleading earth pony and the keys maybe about a dozen feet away from them. She was right of course, he couldn’t even argue with her about that. But he just had no faith in himself. When was the last time he had even lit up his horn? Despite being a unicorn he hardly felt like one. More like a particularly bookish earth pony. This wasn’t something that truly upset him, Lustrous was comfortable with who he was but it still needed to be said that he was an oddity when it came to unicorns. Like if he was a pegasus that chose never to fly.
And to try to use his magic for something so important when he would probably fail… the thought was embarrassing and made him even more nervous.
“Come on Lustrous! You’re not the same sheltered pony you were when I first met you, right?” Trail Blazer attempted to reassure him. “What would Poppy Hymn think?”
Lustrous blushed. “P-Poppy Hymn?!”
“Yeah! Wouldn’t it be cool if you could impress her with your magic? Imagine if she was here right now and you had to rescue her too!” She grinned at the blushing unicorn.
He gulped but put his focus back on the keys. “I-If she was here I would definitely do anything to save her...”
His horn sparkled and Lustrous narrowed his eyes at the keys. His brow furrowed and his jaw clenched, the unicorn doing all he could to vanquish any thoughts in his mind that didn’t have to do with getting those keys. He could feel his magic, now he just needed to get it to do what he wanted it to. This was the difficult part since he just wasn’t used to it. How did he will his magic to cross the distance and grab the keys? Is that even how he should be thinking about it? No, he was already overthinking things.
Just get over here, keys! He yelled inside his head.
A shimmering aura appeared around the keys and they trembled on their hook.
Trail Blazer’s eyes opened wide in surprise and elation. “You’re doing it Lustrous! Just a little more!”
He strained and struggled to pull them off the hook, a vein nearly bulging out of his neck. This was perhaps the greatest battle of his uneventful life. With a jerk of his head to help him visualize, like a pony tugging a big carrot out of the ground, Lustrou’s magic pulled the keys off the hook and they clattered to the floor.
Both of the ponies held their breath. Worried that if there was anyone close by they might’ve heard that. But the seconds passed by and no one came to check on things.
Trail Blazer grinned at Lustrous and he grinned right back at her, sweating profusely as he was.
“Knew you could do it,” She winked at him.
“You knew something I didn’t then...” He wheezed.
“Not the first time.”
The unicorn turned his head to look at the keys on the floor of the dungeon. “Well… I still need to get them the rest of the way over here.”
Trail Blazer hunkered down to the ground and reached a foreleg out between the bars, stretching as far as she could. “Eight feet! You can do it!”
It was more and more straining and Lustrous was nearly exhausted at the end of it but he managed to noisily slide the keys across the floor to Trail Blazer’s hoof. The mare was a big help in bridging that last little gap, otherwise Lustrous might have near passed out. She got up with a stretch and a groan, happily jangling their newly acquired keys.
“Easy enough,” She said, smirking at the sweat-drenched Lustrous.
“Ha...ha...” He breathed heavily.
Trail Blazer fidgeted around with the lock, the fact she couldn’t see it made getting the key in right slightly difficult but it only took a second for her to unlock their cell.
“Since no one heard any of that I’m gonna figure there aren’t any guards watching over the dungeon at all,” Trail Blazer said as she pushed the cell door open. “But there was one up above where the paths branched off, we’ll need to try one of the side passages we saw on the way down here and either hide for a bit or look for another exit.”
“And Steel Wing?” Lustrous asked her.
She grinned. “Hey, if there’s one thing we know about him it’s that he can take care of himself in a situation like this. He may have looked worried but that pegasus isn’t one to let injustice like this go on for long, right?”
Lustrous couldn’t help but smile too. “No, he isn’t.”
Up above, Steel Wing was led by his grandfather to the top of the twisting tunnel. Multiple other “floors” branched off from it but they didn’t even so much as glance down those. It did tell Steel Wing that this entire hill was hollowed out for the pegasi to use though. At the end of the tunnel a single door stood and his grandfather pushed it open while Steel Wing followed him inside. The room was clearly his grandfather’s personal office. A table with various scrolls and books on it lay covered in the center of the room, chairs haphazardly thrown around it. A few small slits in the stone wall of the hill facing east let light in from the setting sun, they’d be impossible to see from the outside looking in.
“So this is your new home?” Steel Wing looked about.
“Not for long. Soon we’ll return to our rightful place,” Rolling Fog said.
“There is no rightful place for you. You should really speak to my friend Lustrous, he’s very passionate about the new age we’re in,” Steel Wing said, knowing something like that would annoy his grandfather.
To Rolling Fog’s credit he kept his emotions in check. “We can always undo mistakes. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about anyways.”
Steel Wing bristled slightly, his eyes narrowing at his grandfather. “What do you mean?”
“You made a mistake all those years ago. It’s time for you to correct it.”
“I didn’t-”
“Oh be quiet already,” Rolling Fog cut him off. “You’re not really in a position to refuse or disagree with me right now, you know? You don’t have to worry about killing Thunderstorm or Hurricane though. We’re done with that.” The old pegasus stretched his wings. “Instead your new mission will be to kill Bright Diamond and Cheese Souffle.”
Steel Wing gawked at him, his face an absolute perfect example of surprise. It was quite a rare sight on the normally stoic pegasus.
“You can’t be serious!”
“Dead serious,” Rolling Fog’s eyes showed no hint of humor. “You will return to the city, assassinate the two representatives while leaving behind a note claiming your reasons for doing such. Those being pegasi superiority and independence. And then you will kill yourself, since it’s obvious you could never keep up the ruse.”
Steel Wing regarded him with more and more shock as he continued on. “Grandfather, you’ve completely lost your mind...”
“Hardly,” Rolling Fog said. “I’ve thought this out quite well. We won’t try to blame this on Thunderstorm, no one would believe that anyways, but since you were under his command it will still naturally make ponies suspicious of him. Not to mention every other pegasus in Equestria.”
The young red pegasus looked in disbelief at his grandfather. “You plan on driving a wedge between the tribes… the purpose of the assassination isn’t to hurt earth pony and unicorn leadership but to foster suspicion and resentment towards pegasi...”
“Very good,” Rolling Fog actually smiled. “Thunderstorm would be the only representative left. And he’ll be hated for it. Most ponies of course will know that the average pegasi doesn’t feel like I do. But there are plenty who will strike out in anger. Pegasi will be unjustly attacked and discriminated against after the assassination. And that will create hate among them as well, they’ll seek to get revenge on the earth ponies and unicorns that wronged them. And they’ll find me ready to help them.”
The room was silent for a second after Rolling Fog finished. Steel Wing’s head hung towards the ground, his eyes closed.
“Don’t you even care?” The young pegasus asked. He slowly raised his face to look his grandfather in the eye. “Don’t you even care how horrible this is? That all of ponykind almost died because of things like this?”
Rolling Fog rolled his eyes. “You have the sentimentality of a child. Either way, like I said, you can’t refuse. The life you’ve led has been worthless but at least you can do something useful for the pegasi with your death.”
“I will never, ever, do what you want me to do,” Steel Wing’s eyes were on fire as he stared down his grandfather.
“You should know you can’t intimidate me, Steel Wing,” Rolling Fog said. “And unless you want your friends to die you will do as I say. No harm will come to them if you complete your mission. If not, you don’t want to know what will happen.”
The threat against the first friends Steel Wing had ever made sent him into a chaotic mix of emotions. He wanted to attack his grandfather. He wanted to collapse. He wanted to run out of this room and go look for them. Lustrous and Trail Blazer weren’t just his wards anymore, they were his true friends. He couldn’t stand to see them hurt… but he couldn’t listen to his grandfather. Part of him knew that even if his grandfather was telling the truth of them not being harmed it would mean they likely would never leave this place. But what could he do? The pegasi here weren't random thugs, they all had martial training, and his grandfather wasn’t bluffing when he said he knew how to beat him. Rolling Fog had gotten older though, and Steel Wing has been training and fighting all kinds of other foes since. Steel Wing kept struggling with what he should do, he had to save his friends but could he take the risk while they were still already in captivity?
“Stop with your faux reservations and just get ready to go on the mission, you’ll be able to accomplish it with ease,” Rolling Fog told him, either oblivious or apathetic to Steel Wing’s internal struggle.
Steel Wing stood there, stock still, the red pegasus was stuck between another horrible decision. Another choice foisted upon him by his grandfather that could have grievous repercussions for Equestria. Something so cruel and without mercy that would resort in either his own grandson’s death or the death of his close friends. And Steel Wing couldn’t stand it.
“No,” He said. His jaw set in a tight frown and his eyes as hard as steel.
Rolling Fog looked at him, for the first time anger and surprise seemed to flash across his face. “No?”
“You heard me. I refuse to be your tool. And I won’t allow you to harm my friends either.”
The older pegasus scowled at his grandson. “Big words. We’ll see how long you keep saying that after the unicorn has his horn slowly cut off.”
Although that set a raging fire in Steel Wing’s heart the pegasus refused to be scared by such a threat. He was getting them all out of here right now even if he had to go through his grandfather.
And if there were any doubts or worries in Steel Wing’s mind about how this might get his friends hurt, providence then struck.
The door to the room busted open and a winded pegasus warrior came in with a nervous expression on his face. He saluted Rolling Fog and didn’t even seem to take notice of Steel Wing. “S-Sir, when Snowstorm went to give the prisoners their dinner they were gone!”
“What?!” Rolling Fog yelled.
Steel Wing on the other hand had a different reaction. Seeing his grandfather distracted his warrior instincts took hold and he dashed forward, clubbing Rolling Fog in the back of the head with the edge of his wing and knocking the old pegasus to the ground. The messenger pegasus saw this and reacted as quickly as he could, which was to say not nearly as quickly as Steel Wing. A single jab from his hoof was dodged and Steel Wing uppercutted him fiercely in the jaw, breaking several teeth and knocking him out cold.
“Steel Wing! You think you can escape?!” Rolling Fog yelled at him from behind as the old pegasus struggled to get back up, still hurt and disoriented from Steel Wing’s surprise attack.
But Steel Wing didn’t even bother paying attention, he flew through the open door and back down the curved tunnel, heading in the direction of the dungeon.
“Trail Blazer! Lustrous! If you can hear me I’m coming!”
“Now hold on, let’s not be too hasty here,” Lustrous said to the advancing squad of pegasi warriors. He and Trail Blazer had been searching for a way out but now found themselves at a dead end and surrounded. The warriors looked particularly angry at them and Lustrous was worried that they might not simply be thrown in a cell this time.
“I don’t think they’re gonna listen Lustrous,” Trail Blazer grumbled.
“Well… perhaps I can reason with them about how we’re in a beautiful new age and they should just embrace it already?” He grinned.
“I mean, if you want to get beat up even worse then be my guest,” She shrugged.
The guards advanced on them… until some shouting at the back of the tunnel reached their ears. The commotion of screams and loud sounds of fighting got the attention of everyone and a pegasi being thrown against a wall was the signal for the squad of warriors corralling Trail Blazer and Lustrous to turn and face this new threat. To no one’s surprise, Steel Wing rounded the corner into the tunnel, his face lighting up in joy when he saw his friends.
“Steel Wing!” Lustrous cried out.
It was all their pegasus friend needed to hear. He barreled into the warriors and tossed them aside like they were nothing. He felt stronger and more full of energy than ever before in his life. Maybe his grandfather had trained him to be a tool of assassination, but fighting to save his friends felt like his true calling. Pegasus after pegasus was thrown to the ground or beaten into submission, Steel Wing truly looked like a one-pony army.
After he got through the last of them he stopped in front of his friends and smiled.
“Well, I’m ready to leave if the both of you are?”
Trail Blazer and Lustrous both smiled back at him.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” The map pony said.
The three made their way back through the tunnels, going up to the main one that they had first entered from the outside. Along the way Trail Blazer and Lustrous got to see how many other pegasi Steel Wing had beat up on his way down here.
“This has not been a pleasant day...” Lustrous muttered, running behind his friends.
“It’ll be the best day ever if we can just get out of here in one piece,” Trail Blazer said back to him.
As they made it up to that first fork they could hear clamoring coming from above, Rolling Fog and whatever other forces he had with him were coming for them. The three adventurers quickened their pace and ran back to the entrance to this cave system so they could escape the hollowed hill. The two guards who had been stationed at the front entrance heard the commotion and were running in when they spotted Steel Wing. Steel Wing leaped between them and bucked one into the side of the cave while his wing clipped the other in the face, breaking his muzzle.
“That’s it, let’s go!” Steel Wing said and the three ran for it.
They saw the last vestiges of daylight as they made it back out of the cave they had so rudely been taken into just earlier in the day. The sun was setting but it was infinitely better than the torches and Lustrous had to blink a few times to get used to it.
“Now what?” Trail Blazer asked. “They’ll still probably chase us and all our stuff was left behind in that little forested area.”
Steel Wing paused, frowning. “I actually hadn’t been thinking that far ahead. I just wanted us to escape.”
“Well don’t worry, you aren’t escaping at all,” The voice of Rolling Fog came from behind the three and they turned to see the pegasus leading a dozen more warriors out from their hill base. He held a dagger in his hoof and was glaring dispassionately at his grandson. “It’s over Steel Wing. There are many more coming, I’ll give you one last chance to accept the mission. It’s more important than your life. And certainly your friends lives.”
“No, grandfather,” Steel Wing shook his head. “Just let us go.”
Rolling Fog’s expression didn’t change. “Are you really going to make me kill you?”
Trail Blazer and Lustrous both hid behind their pegasus friend, the two looking at the back of his head and wondering what was going through his mind right now.
“You’re welcome to try,” Steel Wing finally answered.
“You know you can’t fight me, that’s why you didn’t do anything when we first caught you,” Rolling Fog said as he stepped closer, brandishing his knife.
“It’s been a long time since you trained me.”
Steel Wing was confident but on the inside he knew he couldn’t beat his grandfather in a straight fight. But he was a pony willing to sacrifice.
Rolling Fog lurched forward with a lightning quickness that one would never expect from a pony his age, the dagger aimed right at Steel Wing’s chest. When you have speed and the reflexes to counter anything your opponent might do the simplest of attacks is usually the best. So Steel Wing didn’t try and dodge or counter attack. He blocked.
His left wing was brought forward in front of his chest and the knife of his grandfather slashed straight through the membrane and feathers, slicing across his bone. It hurt, but Steel Wing didn’t wince. He pulled his wing down to drive the dagger towards the ground and brought his head forward, headbutting his grandfather hard right between the eyes.
A resounding crack filled the ears of all the other ponies and Rolling Fog collapsed in a heap at Steel Wing’s hooves.
His wing was shaking and dripping blood, the knife still embedded inside it, but he now turned to the other pegasi warriors.
“Who’s next?”
Against common thieves or outlaws that threat probably would’ve worked. But against warriors such as these Steel Wing was now out of luck. They had seen what he did to their comrades and their leader, but they vastly outnumbered Steel Wing and he was injured. Not to mention the fact that they simply weren’t the type to run away scared and wanted revenge. The dozen warriors steadily approached their targets and from behind them in the cave Steel Wing could make out the sound of more coming.
“Is this it?” Lustrous asked Trail Blazer as his legs trembled.
“I dunno, there’s no way for us to run away...” She answered, a frown on her face.
Steel Wing backed up so he could stand in front of his friends. Whatever happened now they would face it together.
“STOP!”
The powerful voice came down from the heavens, causing all those on the ground to look up.
Dozens of armored pegasi came flying down from the sky, surrounding the warriors under the command of Rolling Fog. In the low light of the evening their shiny new armor glistened, showing off how unused it was. Their rescuers were the warriors of the new Equestria. The three adventurers gaped in awe at what was happening, and who they saw next.
Like an angel descending with the last rays of sun shining off her brilliantly white body a large Alicorn floated down into the middle of the chaos.
Lustrous and Steel Wing were in sheer disbelief. The enemy warriors seemed dumbstruck as well.
Only Trail Blazer could find her voice as she looked at one of the rulers of Equestria.
“Princess Celestia.”