//------------------------------// // Chapter Twelve: The Blades That Come // Story: Gems II: Dawn of The Princesses // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Chapter Twelve: The Blades That Come It had taken them a little longer then they had expected, but Watcher and Techorse managed to make it to the train station with it now being 9:05 PM which wasn’t a big deal, but after walking for hours just to get to a train station outside of Everfree City was a really pain and had worked up quite the appetite for the two stallions while Scarlet Rain continued to sleep in the unicorn’s large white mane. Something that didn’t really bother him to say the least, but was still odd she’d sleep on him instead of Techorse, the earth pony’s mane was longer and bushier than his. “We’ll see if we can try to catch a train heading towards Los Pegasus and from their we should be able to reach White Tail Woods just fine,” Watcher explained, relieved to have made it as the two could probably blend into the crowd and purchase some snacks from some of the vendors set up at the station. “We should get some food, otherwise we’ll end up buying that overpriced garbage from the servers on board.” “It isn’t that bad, but I do agree we should probably get something before they decide to close for the reminder of the night.” Techorse said, as the inventor placed a cap over his head and placed a jacket to try and hide his saddle. However before they could get to the nearest vendor, Watcher noticed several Order mages spread out across the whole station. Each one wearing white cloaks with Apollo’s cutie mark on them. It was then that the both of them began to realize that these ponies weren’t just high ranking members of the Order, but Apollo’s Honor Guards. “Psst, you're seeing this too right Tech?” The large unicorn asked  quietly so he wouldn’t draw any suspicion as the inventor nodded in response. “We need to get out of here… slowly and quietly. Maybe they haven’t noticed us yet.” “I don’t know… so far I’ve counted ten...  Honor Guards? Wait a minute, why are these guys here? They should be down in Baltimare defending the Chancellor’s estate,” Techorse said, the situation confusing him. It was then Watcher started to put the pieces together as the realization began to dawn on him. The honor guards of Apollo would never leave his side, meaning the Chancellor was most likely… “It’s truly odd don’t you two think?” A voice called out to them, “That a couple of ponies who had been born within the Order would turn against us? I mean why would they betray us? Care to explain… Watcher, Beta Class student of Baltimare and Techorse, son of Workhorse and Serendipity, why you mean to turn against the nation you called home?” Techorse and Watcher turned slowly, to find the chancellor standing before them, horn crackling with magical energy and a haughty sneer on his face. A number of Honor Guard troops stood behind him, standing there motionless with their faces concealed by their traditional hoods. Despite the feeling of dread the leader gave off, Techorse remained calm, in a way almost stumped that he had met what amounted to his worst enemy in such a casual way. With the two stallions stunned, the Chancellor chuckled and shook his head, “Well, I didn’t expect total silence! Is it really such a surprise to find me out here that you cannot even muster a few words about how awful I am? This is the legendary bounty hunter that put away so many of my officers I’m speaking to, is it not?” “W-Why are you here?” Watcher spoke, trying to conceal his fear, but the Chancellor could see through it right away. “Ah, so the traitor finally speaks… It should be no surprise that I’d eventually step in to put down an insurrection, no?” He replied, motioning to his troops. They left quietly, leaving only the two stallions facing the Chancellor and his immediate guards. Techorse looked around quickly at what the chancellor was doing, trying to come up with a plan while blocking out other information. Unfortunately, Apollo spotted the pony’s blue eyes darting around, and reprimanded him for it. “Oh, such beautiful, curious eyes of yours, Techorse,” he said in a teasing tone of voice, “already you’re planning on how you can take me down. Why do you hate me so? Or is it really just the amount of money the rebellion is offering you for my severed head?” The inventor glared at Apollo and snapped back, “I’m one of the dispossessed, Apollo. Remember? You locked up my family and sent your spy after me to make sure I didn’t find out.” “But you’ve never cared about that railway business, you’ve always wanted to create!” the chancellor responded, rolling his eyes, “This has always been about taking away your dear mom and pop. Who, I assure you, are very much alive.” “That I know,” Techorse grunted, “unfortunately, Apollo, I’m not as selfish as I used to be. I was going to just live my life being a hunter and hoping someday I could pay someone off to free my parents. Wasn’t even going to bother coming for you. But… then I met another dispossessed. The hurt she and her brother went through made me change my mind.” “And… yet here we are… Nothing has changed, your parents are still locked away serving their sentence, and you working with traitors to our very nation. Well I suppose being born from low class pigs, you’re expected to act this way!” “Excuse me?” Watcher growled. “A Beta unicorn and a murderer for hire, exactly what I called you,” Apollo laughed, “you’re both wastes of life, can’t you see?” Techorse stomped his front hoof, and to Watcher’s surprised, shouted bloody murder at Apollo, “At LEAST we’re not YOU, Apollo! You’ve broken up THOUSANDS of families, slaughtered innocent ponies, and waged war on your OWN NATION! Watcher has done more good with his life in one month than you’ve done since your BIRTHDAY, you monster!” “T… Tech,” stuttered Watcher, amazed at the anger. “Oh, now there’s the speech of the son of a wealthy stallion,” Apollo said, “all it took was a little motivation! But do you really consider this lower unicorn your friend, Techorse? If so…” Apollo took a quick shot, casting off magic faster than Techorse had ever seen from a unicorn. A bright orange dagger made of energy streaked for Watcher, taking him off guard. Instantly Techorse reacted by opening his saddle and moving his left side robotic arm as fast as it could, smacking Watcher in the barrel and shoving the large stallion down out of the way of the attack. The magically summoned weapon flew past the intended target with a loud hissing noise, striking a nearby rock and slicing it in two. “Hmm, quite the invention you have Techorse! Could prove quite useful to my cause. If only you could find it in your heart to switch sides. I might even consider freeing your parents… what do you say?” Apollo offered, his hoof extended towards the earth pony, but before a response could be given, a blast of red electricity was shot directly towards Chancellor, exploding on impact, sending the earth pony flying backwards.  “Buck  your offer, bastard!” Watcher shouted, before turning towards Techorse with a grin, “Didn’t think you had an ounce of anger in you at all!”  Techorse gave him a quick side-smile, and Watcher added, “We’ll get your parents out, and we won’t have to turn our backs on the Princess to do it.” “I can see why my troops had trouble detaining you Watcher,” Apollo spoke as he emerged from the smoke unharmed, dusting the soot that had fallen on his robe. “Let us see… how the two of you worms fair against my own students.” It was then the four guards that were behind him emerged from the smoke as well, removing their hoods to reveal four identical mares with bright tanish fur and blonde manes, with the only differences that Watcher could tell from them were their eyes were each different colors. “We’re bucked…” Watcher responded, before quickly putting a magical wall in front of them before they were quickly blown away by a simultaneous attack from the mares. “It just had to be these four idiots!?” “Who are they?!” Techorse asked as he helped Watcher to his hooves. Watcher growled as he glared at the four mares approaching them. “These four were part of Umbra’s graduating class… the four Hex sisters… and last I checked these girls were just flirty, dumb blondes who barely graduated.” The other stallion wanted to roll his eyes, “Can’t you just talk to them?” Watcher quickly charged up a red beam of magical energy from his horn and quickly fired it off, moving it so it can hit each of the four Hex sisters, but they quickly split off separating as the blast created a fog of smoke on impact, blinding the two stallions while Apollo watched in amusement.  “Did you see where they went?” Watcher asked, unable to see anything through the smoke. “No idea, but I can clear the smoke with my saddle’s propellers. Just keep me alive until then, ok?” he said, robotic arms already snaking back into the saddle. “Easier said than done!” Watcher responded, before he quickly received a quick kick to the face, sending him landing against an empty vendors stand. “Ow… Just as Tech managed to prepare the turbofan propellers to clear the smoke, he was quickly sent crashing to the ground by a quick side swipe from one of the sisters. It was then he started to hear giggling coming from the mares. “Hey, Grey, this one is kinda cute… think Master Apollo will let us take him home to play?” One of them called out. “Probably not, because you killed the last one Blue.” “Come on, girls… I’m sure Apollo won’t mind, after all it’s not everyday we get a haaaandsome earth pony,” A third voice spoke out. “Very true, Yellow.” “What about the big guy, Pinks?” Grey asked “Nah, he’s too ugly to care about.” She responded. “Still nasty… as ever,” Techorse heard Watcher mutter as he quickly picked himself up and tried to run over to help Techorse, but was quickly stabbed in the shoulder by a flying dagger. “GAH! You all are still cliched dumb blondes, even if you can throw!” Techorse stood up and started the sequence to turn on the motors sticking out of his saddle, still unhappy he couldn’t see more than an inch in front of his face, “Handsome? You’re not seriously thinking about… that, are you?” He felt multiple pairs of lips smack on the sides of his face, nearly jumping out of his green coat. Stowing one of the propellers, he drew a robotic hand out again and quickly ran it from left to right cheek, inspecting the metal hand. It was now stained with four different colors of lipstick, matching the names he had heard in the fog. “They... they’re seriously thinking about that. WAAAATCHER!” “Hey!!! DON’T SHOUT!!! I’m right here!” Watcher said, rubbing his ear. “And you should feel lucky, not every stallion gets four chicks hitting on him at the same time… Not like you’re dating anypony anyways and this is probably the most action you’ll get in your whole life.” “I’m not exactly attracted to folks trying to stab me and my friend!” he answered, “Good to know you’re right there though, if I had turned on this fan you’d be even more deaf…” “We are in quite a bind aren’t we? Four chicks want to murder me… and want you for some other reason… and even if we beat them, we still have the Chancellor to deal with. What’s really shocking though is that Scarlet has been sleeping through all of this,” He responded, still seeing the little breezie sleeping in his mane. “Hey! Could use a bit of that healing magic you’re sister has been bragging about!?” “Huh? Okay…” She responded, her little wings flaring up and before the two stallions knew it, they were both enveloped in a bright golden light as the cuts and bruises they both received instantly vanished. Both of them were speechless, but remembering they were still in a bind, Watcher’s horn lit up and formed a barrier around Techorse before lifting the breezie off his head with his magic and putting her on the inventor’s back.  “How long until those fans start working?!” “About a minute maybe, buy me some time!” Techorse responded, causing the large unicorn to groan in annoyance. “Fine, just take of this smoke and I’ll be able to deal with them.” Watcher responded, his horn glowing brightly as four illusions of himself appeared in front of him. “Oooooh! Are we going to be playing tag now?” They heard Grey somewhere in the smoke as Watcher and his illusions began to scatter. It was then the four mares began to give chase as Techorse’s propellers began to start up. The inventor watched as one of Watcher’s illusions was sliced in half in front of him as one of the sisters with pink eyes appeared in front of the barrier holding a knife with her magic, grinning as she stared directly at him.  “Mmm… Don’t worry handsome, we’ll get you out of there in no time flat! The big oaf can’t hide from us,” Pinks responded, tapping the barrier with her knife before blowing the stallion a kiss. Techorse did not appreciate being flirted with in the middle of combat, “Oh, um… no thanks, I’m good in here!” “No need to be shy! I already got two more of the big guy’s lame illusions,” A voice spoke from behind him, turning to see the other sister with grey eyes, winking at him. “Only a matter of time when they find the real one… And then…” Grey motioned with her hooves to show how the barrier would vanish and how they were going to grab him, but before she could lay a hoof on the barrier, Grey felt a lot of pressure strike her and sent her flying back into the smoke. This was followed up by a white cloak thrown directly into Pink's face, covering her view before Watcher emerged from the smoke and quickly kicked her out of sight.  “IS IT READY YET!?” Watcher yelled, the inventor seeing multiple cuts and a black eye on his friend’s face. Techorse took a look at the two sets of propellers, having finally gotten them up to speed, “Ready! Just gotta deal with this barrier!” “Got it!” Watcher replied, his horn glowing as the red barrier dissolved. Grinning, the earth pony stomped on his front hooves and turned the saddle’s two disk-shaped propellers outwards, locking himself in place while allowing the blades to spin in reverse. The thrust output moved the fog in front of him away, granting him vision to the outside world. “Watch this!” he said, before leaping into the air. With a well-practiced maneuver, the fan blades twisted in opposite directions, the thrust causing him to rotate like a figure skater and evaporating the fog. Watcher felt columns of air hit his face and flow through his mane, but he was more than pleased with the amount of visibility he was getting back from the fog clearing maneuver. When his friend touched down a moment later, they were able to see the battlefield in its entirety again. The four sisters had surrounded them, each of them scowling at the two of them as their horns glowed brightly. It wasn’t until Grey stepped forward and gave a scowl towards Techorse. “You had to ruin our fun eh bub?” She replied, pointing her knife at him. “Ha! So much for handsome,” answered Techorse, the fans stowing away in the saddle. “Hehehe, don’t get the wrong idea… we are still going to take you, the only difference is now we aren’t going easy on you anymore,” she added, smirking as her eyes started to glow brightly, “Try not to scream you two, and we’ll make this fun for the both of you!” “Heh… Hey, Tech? You wouldn’t by any chance have something to take these four down all at once right?” Watcher asked, glancing at his partner. “At this range a missile is going to make things worse for us, too,” he answered, not liking their odds, “plus, I don’t really want to hurt them if we can avoid it. They’re not our objective.” “Well, it’s either we knock them out, or we both die… I do have a new spell I’ve been practicing, but the problem is I need time to concentrate. Care to buy some time for me?”  “I can return the time favor you gave me. Do you need to be able to see?” asked the inventor, getting an idea. “No I don’t, but it’ll be hard to cast the spell if they keep stabbing and kicking me,” Just keep them off me, this should take care of them and Apollo all at once.” He replied, his horn starting to glow. “Got it,” answered the other stallion, who took out his robot arms, one of which was now carrying a cylindrical object with a metal ring at the top. He held it in his right hand, and brought the left robotic appendage over to grab the metal ring. Pulling out the pin from the object, he casually rolled it underhanded in front of two of the mares. All four of them were temporarily distracted by the tossed device, the blue metallic coating on it reflecting some of the low ambient light. “What’s that thing supposed to be?” asked Pinks, sticking her neck out at the object, “Some kind of water bottle?” “Tough luck sweetie,” chuckled Grey, shuffling over to the tube and picking it up, “if you think you can just get out of this by chucking a gift and running, you’ve got another thing coming.” Techorse rolled his eyes, and held up his saddle’s left hand, displaying three fingers proudly. He then, while making deliberate eye contact with the mares and scowling, counted down to two, then one finger. “You MORONS!” shouted Apollo, far too late. WHOOSH A sudden and continuous series of flashes of white light blinded the four mares as Techorse quickly covered his own eyes with his front hoof, leaving the robotic arms free. The magnesium flare burned brightly in front of the enemies, who covered their eyes and screamed. “That emergency flare ought to hold them a bit,” said Techorse, feeling the stinging in his eyeballs himself, “hope this doesn’t permanently damage their eyes...” “I’m blliiiiiind!” shouted Yellow, stumbling around and running into Pinks, causing them to both fall over. Apollo cast a spell for himself to create what amounted to a magical pair of sunglasses in front of his face, a polarizing filter of dark energy. His four “elites” were now blind as bats and stumbling around as the flare continued to unleash horrid amounts of bright white light. As he watched on, the glow began to shift to more of a softer yellow color. Techorse knew that meant the flare would run out, “Ready, Watcher?” “Yeah, it’s ready, just duck and keep Scarlet Safe!” Watcher replied, as a giant sphere of energy formed above them. Doing as told, the inventor dropped to the ground and made sure to cover Scarlet in his hooves as the sphere erupted, splitting off in five directions. Each projectile struck a mare, putting them all into a daze and ultimately causing them to collapse to the ground.  “That should take care of them… Let’s get out of here while we still-”  Before Watcher could finish his sentence, a white magic blade was quickly thrusted into his chest, causing the unicorn to cough up some blood while he fell to the ground in pain. “Watcher!” shouted Techorse, having witnessed the now vanishing energy blade cause a deep gash. Apollo slowly approached the two as two more blades formed above him. The chancellor couldn’t help but grin in delight as he watched as his opponent fell to the ground in agony. “I must admit, you did catch me by surprise with that attack, but it’ll take a lot more than that to stop me,” Apollo stated as he stood over the fallen unicorn. “If only you’d have remained loyal to me, I could have helped you tame that magical power. Such a shame, honestly.” “G-Go to… hell,” Watcher muttered as he struggled to look up, only to have the chancellor stamp his face to the ground with his hoof. “How uncouth of you… Low class pigs like you are the reason this world is in such disarray. No matter, I’ll be executing the both of you this instant,” He replied, as both blades began to rotate and aimed directly at the injured unicorn. “Hey, Apollo!” called a voice. The chancellor turned his head, to find Techorse staring at him, both of his laser cannons pointed directly at him, and a scowl on his enemy’s face. Without saying a word, the earth pony fired a pair of yellow beams of coherent light into his barrel, the explosive force of the bolts catapulting him off of Watcher and sending him into a short roll on the ground. Black smoke poured from the new wound on the stallion’s side, his robe and flesh burnt through by the beams. “That felt great,” said Techorse, a look of pride on his face. “B… because of your family, Tech?” asked Watcher, coughing up a small bit of blood. “Because you’re a friend,” he answered, running over to check his wounds, “my past can wait a bit. Right now we have to do something about these wounds.” “I got you!” Scarlet responded, hopping on the fallen stallion’s head, enveloping him with her healing magic, “Are you alright Watchy?” “Not you too…” He muttered as he still felt pain in his chest. “Well, I’m still alive… I guess.” “You fools… You’ll soon regret ever defying me.” Apollo said, glaring at the two stallions as multiple blades began to form above him. Both Watcher and Techorse watched in horror at the amount of blades that formed above the Chancellor, each one of them poised to strike at their hearts. The rings of blades circled around each other, preparing for the plunge. “We’re screwed… I’m all out of magic…” Watcher responded, passing out beside the inventor. Techorse looked down at his friend, and then back at the chancellor, whose injury from the laser blasts had barely seemed to matter. In any case, shooting him hadn’t given him the sense of accomplishment or closure he thought it would. It was time to get Watcher out of the situation, but first… he needed to give Scarlet’s magic some time to work. “Apollo,” he said, standing up and facing him again, “you seem confident that we can’t stop you, and well... maybe we can’t. All I know is, I spent a lot of time since the Dispossession wanting to blast you, and now that I have, I don’t feel much better.” The chancellor raised an eyebrow, “Oh? What does this mean?” Noticing a slight relaxation in the behavior of the floating blades, Techorse continued, “Suppose I choose to join you, and manufacture weapons for you. Will you at least consider letting go of Watcher and my family?” “And why should I do that?” he asked, smirking, “I don’t need this loser at all! I might be willing to negotiate for your family, though, if you share your secrets.” Techorse used the conversation as an excuse to stow his laser cannons, but left the doors on the saddle open, “Look, Apollo, you want the princess, not Watcher, right? You called him a beta unicorn, which, while I only know a little bit about magical power classes… doesn’t sound like he’s a meaningful target for you...” Carefully, he half drew his missile launchers, the tips of the rockets just barely visible, while maintaining a sharp eye contact with Apollo, making sure his gaze didn’t wander down to the weapons. “I’ll give you a choice,” said the sinister chancellor, “I’ll give you a second to get out of the way of the knives. If you’re still alive once I’ve moved them, we’ll sign you up for our weapons development program! I do hope you’re okay with the catch!” Techorse fully extended the missile racks, and aimed them for the array of knives, before smirking, “Catch!” The pair of missiles launched from the racks with a hiss, streaking into the circle of blades. One of the warheads smashed into the ring, detonating both of the munitions and evaporating the weapons while consuming Apollo in a blast of explosive force and disrupted magical energy. Smoke and crackling white power from the explosion drifted into the air, and Techorse wasted no time. If the lasers hadn’t taken down Apollo, the missiles probably didn’t either. “Scarlet, we need to move, is he okay now?” “I healed him, but he’s still out cold!” She responded, hitting Watcher on the head as hard as she could, but no response of any kind came, “What are we going to do now!?” Techorse looked around and considered the team’s options, before hearing the sounds of a train’s horn blaring loudly into the night.  “That train… it probably runs on one of the lines my family used to own,” he pondered aloud, “we need to move Watcher to the nearest station and get onboard. Based on what I remember, the line runs out to where we need to go.” “But he can’t move!” answered Scarlet. Techorse took off his saddle quickly, the black straps coming undone with a few hoof movements. He then widened the straps by their buckles and placed it around Watcher’s larger body, the device looking quite small on him. Because the saddle was still controlled by Techorse’s thoughts as long as he was within a reasonable range, he was able to deploy the turbofan propellers again, and the unconscious stallion lifted a few centimeters in the air as the motors strained under the unexpected weight. “I can make him hover for a bit, but we’re going to have to drag him eventually,” he answered, “the rotors will break at some point.” “I can see that,” answered the breezie, nodding, “I’ll keep healing him while we go!” “We won’t have much time… so as soon as I give the word, we’re going to jump onto the last cart of the train.” Techorse responded as the train started to speed past them. “YOUR CRAZY!!” Scarlet shouted, but it was then that Tech’s robotic arms extended out from the saddle and grabbed hold of the railing of the last cart and the inventor leaped while his saddle carried the unconscious unicorn. Barely making it, the three of them crashed through the back doors of the last cart. Just before the propellers were crushed under the weight of Watcher. “We… made it… barely.” Tech responded, watching out the door as the station began to get further and further away before falling back to the ground. The inventor honestly thought the two of them could have at least done some kind of harm to the chancellor, but all their efforts were for nothing. For the moment they were safe. “Um… Excuse me? Are you okay sir?” Techorse heard, rearing his head backwards to find a grey coated unicorn with a light orange mane, wearing a brown coat and red scarf on. Behind her was a red unicorn with a long blonde spiky mane and black spots on his body, wearing a long blue trench coat, giving Tech a gentle grin before revealing a pair of swords under his coat. “Wasn’t expecting you to come crashing in, but I’ve noticed you were carrying somepony I have business with.” She spoke kindly, motioning her hoof over to Watcher who was still unconscious. “Uh… yeah… Um, who are you exactly?” Techorse said, cautiously getting to his hooves. “Oh right, forgive me, my name is Stencil Guide… I use to work for Dragon Corporation and that stallion right there… is an old acquaintance of Pen Dragon.” She replied. Meanwhile… “Useless!” Apollo shouted at his four students as they were all lined up as they were surrounded by his honor guards. “You wanted to prove yourselves worthy of being a part of my elite guards, the honor guard. So I gave you the opportunity to show me what you could do, and you were bested by that beta and earth pony.” “Forget it!” Apollo said, motioning his hooves for them to all leave as he looked out into the distance. The train has long since vanished, but his main concern however is if “the stranger” he acquired his information from was being honest with him when they first met. “Moro The Consumer” huh? I wonder what your game really is?”