Twilight Sparkle
Hard to miss the biped yells, even at a distance. I cast my updated shield spell as I flew forward, two of the royal guard and Spike flying behind me. Behind us came Winks, Shiny Hoof, and Sweet Tooth, all unicorns, and Big Mac who proved very stubborn. We were in no way an imposing force, but somepony had to be a focus of the bipeds when they started to worry and possibly started thinking whether to attack or flee. I needed to see and control the creatures to the greatest extent possible.
I heard shots.
I landed at the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, propping my shield before us, getting the rest to crowd behind the puny thing. Tuned, it was barely three pony lengths wide, two high, and thick enough to make seeing the buildings ahead of us like seeing an oasis through a heat mirage. The luminous apparition wasn't close to a sphere. As a partial arc, it didn't even protect our sides, let alone our flanks. Starlight teleported in just behind me, with Trixie, who immediately collapsed, shaking.
"Are you hit?" asked Starlight.
Trixie said, "No. My legs are too shaky to stand!" The mare whined, trying to hug the ground.
I asked, "AJ?"
"Trixie imagined her bed. She wants to be under it right now!"
Starlight clarified, "I saw AJ teleported away."
Big Mac nickered. I heard him say, "yep" as his form retreated down the road. I cringed, looking quickly back toward the farm, expecting shots, but none came.
"Good enough," I said. "Spike, inform the princess. Everypony else, light up the farm."
The unicorns cast Illuminate on the farmhouse and the barn, just as the bipeds threw open the barn door. Oddly, the diffuse green, gold, and sky-blue lights popping on didn't seem to phase the bipeds as they streamed out from the house, also into the night, which was good because I wanted them outside and not shooting using the house like crenellations on a castle or as arrow slits as protection.
They yelled at one another and scrambled for the vehicles.
As I saw a reflection of Spike's green flames, I shouted, "Volley!"
The guards behind me wound up, whirled, and each launched a javelin. Their offensive attack worked more efficiently, I understood, if they tossed while flying, but their launch had to be unmistakable even as the bipeds shielded their eyes from the bright light.
The two thunked into the ground to either side of the truck parked in front of the farmhouse as if teleported.
Three others appeared out of nowhere to either side of the barn doors. A half-dozen bipeds dove into the dirt facing us, apparently not suspecting where the extra javelins had dropped from.
"There were seven in the barn," Starlight said, "And I count seven."
I pointed at the barn and yelled, "Volley!"
Three more pointed sticks bloomed from the ground. The bipeds, some now with hand-cannons unholstered, dodged toward the house.
The guard knew their orders. Individual javelins struck dirt and the steps of the veranda before the startled creatures, quivering and upright. It quickly deterred returning into the house, but it didn't stop three from dashing for the truck, each throwing open a door, diving in, and slamming the door behind them.
The engine roared to life.
I shouted, "Volley!" as the truck lurched forward.
While the pegasi behind me whirled and launched two more javelins with enchanted diamond tips in an upward arc, a dozen javelins fell from the sky this time. Two hit in the vehicle's path, two splintered, and two bounced off. Six pierced the metal armor of the engine cover in a line just up to the glass enclosure. The engine made a sudden destructive Clank! The truck stopped so abruptly, the rear wheels lifted and the vehicle skidded onward, toward the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, finally sliding sideways. The last two sent from behind me, landed to the right and left of the truck.
I didn't like the implication of the biped's intent. Had they wanted to hit us or scatter us? Vapor arose from the front of the vehicle as a couple bipeds dived for the cover of the disabled vehicle.
Cover from us.
Five stood in the middle of the yard, carrying barking arrows. None made to use them. None looked at the sky. It hadn't occurred to them yet. Maybe the horse riders hadn't reported their findings? It felt inescapable that no creature had missed seeing my wings or that of the guard. Had they completely missed our charge? If they had no winged-horses, and there was no way I could have been certain they did not, perhaps the implications just hadn't come to their minds.
Yet.
In any case, I had their attention now. "Starlight, please take my hoof-cannons and knife and lay them beside the shield."
I could tell by the tilt of the biped's heads that they had noticed that the hand-cannons and the knife had floated aside. I gave them a minute and had Starlight holster the weapons again, then put them aside. Starlight was careful never to point the muzzle at any creature, but nevertheless, I'd seen a few shudder when they saw my weapons re-holster.
Having witnessed the giant stallion lose its composure earlier, which directly made it easier for us to find and capture his masters, I mused about what went on in their biped heads. They saw what their experience and world view led them to believe were dumb animals. Not only that, we were substantially smaller than themselves or their giant-sized horses
And I carried a hoof-cannon. And a barking arrow. And a knife.
It made more of an impression than all the magic before them.
Because they could understand that.
I waited a minute and repeated the act.
Starlight muttered, "I'm not impressed with biped intelligence. They are tenacious, though. I'll give them that."
"See that black-haired stallion with the red shirt whose arm is drooping? Can you pull his hoof-cannon to the ground?"
She imitated Big Mac. "E-yup."
When a green aura blossomed around his fleshy claw and tugged hard, he overbalanced. He stumbled, arm down. Possibly due to the unaccustomed tingle of magic, he also tossed the weapon from his grasp with a yelp. Starlight planted it on the ground as he backed away, pushing down with her magic.
The bipeds suddenly clumped together, speaking loudly, pointing at the hoof-cannon that thus far hadn't pointed at them but seemed to radiate a greenish glow.
I wasn't sure if it made them feel more or less threatened or more or less likely to disarm. Language was a barrier.
One of the guards muttered, "Don't they know they're making themselves better targets?"
The other said, "Herd instinct. First thing you gotta train out of the recruits."
I repeated my pantomime of laying aside the weapons five more times until the frustration bubbled up. "Ugh! What am I missing? Are there other bipeds that escaped us and they're waiting for them to attack? Are they waiting for reinforcements?"
Starlight squinted into the well manicured apple orchards on the farm side of the fence and the woods, methodically cleared of undergrowth, on this side of the fence. "Pegasi have pretty good night vision."
"Winks, can you move your light to the trees on the right?" The yellow ball of illumination glided away like a breezie with a lantern lofted in the wind, leaving the red floating near the barn and the blue near the house. The pegasus guard were to drop javelins if they saw any creature in the orchard or forest, to herd them and bring attention to the stragglers.
Nothing. The yellow globe of light meandered back and over to the other side. Nothing on the left, either.
As Winks moved the light back and in place, making the farm look like an oddly lit Hearths Warming Eve display, I said, "Reinforcements, based on what looks like an amateur operation, don't seem likely, and they'd be spotted."
Trixie, still prone, her hooves over her head and mashing down her mane, said, "Trixie thinks they could just be scared. Not everypony saves Equestria for a living, you know."
Starlight and I huffed at the same time. When I looked into her violet eyes, we both smiled. "I can see that. Or, they could be worried about the horse-rider bipeds."
"Or hoping the pair will rescue them?" Starlight asked.
I thought about the stallion, who had trouble controlling his mount, then about the mare's reactions. I wasn't entirely sure they were even supposed to be in Equestria, but like the CMC, perhaps they were allowed to stay once they arrived? I shook my head. "No. I don't think they're counting on a sweeping rescue." As I repeated the disarming pantomime one more time, I said, "Spike, ask the princess when the horse riders will be ready for that good-faith return."
Her response came about ten minutes later in the form of the sound of marching hooves up the road from the direction of Ponyville.