"By order of Equestria, stop right there!"
The kid keeps his life-long friend at the ready, no bronzed cages to deal with, instead, a clear blue barrier stopping his path to the shard. Blue instead of purple, and heart-shaped, but the crest recognized it as a shard, so did the bastion. Shards were Shards no matter their shape and color.
He turned around, facing the pony that had tried to order him around. A horned stallion with white fur and a blue and teal-streaked mane. Recognized as only a unicorn, if only for the small number of myths surrounding them, as a fairytale. He finds himself at a crossroads in the story. Listen to the talking horse, or press forward?
Shining Armor stood, unsure of what he was looking at. The being in front of him was unfamiliar, except for how it vaguely stood like a minotaur, or more accurately like a dragon, on two legs. It was small, but despite that still had enough force behind that hammer to knock a pony down in one swing, and was apparently strong enough to withstand a fall from the sky. For a moment he'd worried King Sombra had suddenly returned, but he detected no dark magic behind the sudden intruder that was after the Crystal heart. Which left another question, why steal it? Not even the diamond dogs dared to steal an important magical artifact.
"Step away from the Crystal Heart, and stand down." He said sternly, in a commanding tone.
In response, the snow-haired being hanged its hammer on its back, and gave a strange gaze in its brown eyes, not one of malice, but more of an indifference, whatever emotions it held were hard to read. It was outnumbered, twenty-one to one, and with no magic to even the unlikely odds. It at least seemed to know what was said. That's great, he could get to the bottom of this. "Good. Come forward, the guards will take you into custody, you will not be-"
They suddenly pulled out a cylinder, propped on three legs, which Shining recognized. While heavy artillery like mortars had been seldom used except for rare skirmishes against griffin airships decades ago, as Captain of the royal guard he was still trained in them, in an unlikely event they were required.
And as such knew how much power one of them contained, and was surprised when it fired inside, and launched a tall pillar, with a blue middle barrel and the shape of a dragon's head at the top, right behind them. Instinctively he flared up a shield around him and the guardsponies, stopping the impact of a bright blue explosive shell, cracking his shield, but not breaking it.
Great, now he was stuck fighting on both ends.
Unsure of how to handle the turret, Shining had the guard focus on the human while he shielded them from the turret. He couldn't keep his eye behind him, but despite his best efforts to rally the group it seemed like a live shell was fired indoors, the noise was deafening and broke his focus, and the turret fired again, sending him skidding across the floor as it broke the shield he'd put up again at the last second.
There was a hole in the roof where the mortar impacted, and the guards cautiously stepped back in shock before they cranked the mortar again, winding it up. "STOP THEM!" He barked. If there was too much damage the whole building could fall in-
The loud explosion impacted against the barrier protecting the Crystal Heart, and he felt himself drain in magic as he focused on both his shield and the barrier, full of fading spider webs as it threatened to shatter. Once again the winding started, and this time the guards rushed forward, only to suddenly get knocked back by a rush of wind from being so close to the third explosion. Another shell and he'd lack the magic needed to keep his shields up.
The turret shot at him again, every few seconds. It had a pattern of some type, but he couldn't figure it out just yet. His head scrambled to find a strategy to beat the turret, he dropped his shield and fired a stunning spell at it with no effect on the construct. It was worth a shot, and he followed up with a simple magical bolt of energy at the turret, which chipped away at it.
That surprised him, and the shield went up when it fired. He fully expected it to not be standing, but it looks like it was built sturdier than most cannons. This was quickly getting more complicated, if he had another unicorn to help, maybe it'd even the odds.
He could hear shouting as the being swung its hammer, defending the emplacement as it was half prepared to fire another shot. A group of six rushed to encircle him with spears and was knocked down as it used its hammer as a counterweight, spinning in place and knocking them all down with a flurry of swings. A strong downward swing struck at the barrier, and it briefly broke a hole in the shield which regenerated quickly as Shining Armor focused new magic into it as quickly as possible, as much as he could spare.
As the guards slowly broke formation he found the number of able ponies slowly dwindling, the hammer was swift and hit hard, and spears thrown and jabbed it's way were dodged by a dexterous roll, or blocked by the clang of a metal shield. If he couldn't hurt it, maybe its own turret could.
Dropping the shield he let it fire and ducked, the shell headed straight towards the direction of the human, mid-process of knocking down another pony guard when he suddenly paused, and turned, rotating and drawing the shield in what looked to him as a desperate attempt to block the explosive power.
And deflected it back at him.
Boom. Right back at ya.
Kid knocks the unicorn down, he isn't all that happy about his choice, in fact, he had half a mind to just surrender and see where it went from there, these were not his people, and the Marshals Badge he had, what little rank he had in the old world? Well, it just wouldn't let him stand down to Captain O' Horse-Town. The mortar winded up again with a perfectly timed shot, and the charge flew with a whistle and this time...
The barrier stayed broken.
Guards shouted at him and rushed to attack, but the Kid is just a bit too quick, and his shield keeps his hide safe. Until he got a bit too cocky and let a spear cut his sides. Starts bleeding a little. But a tonic and some time at the Bastion will fix him right up, don't you worry.
Kids been through far worse to little a paper cut stop him now.
He rushes to the heart and grabs it. The ground beneath him seems to rumble and shake, and it's like he's at the Rippling Walls during its collapse on his first day of the Calamity. The eyes of the ponies widen.
Kid eyes the hole he's made in the process. It's a... Bit of a drop.
Shining Armor got up, dazed and confused as he thought the building was about to cave in, before realizing that though damaged, it was still structurally sound, and he sighed in relief.
It was short-lived when he realized the rumbling came as a short wave from the direction of outside the city, from the snowstorms that were kept at bay by the Crystal Heart. And with its absence, the storms could come back into the city, a disaster waiting to happen when winter hit and the storms got even worse.
The heart needed to be recovered. That was his one thought when he glanced around and saw that the being had escaped, and there were worried glances from the remaining guards-ponies.
"Sound the alarm. Get every guard to find and recover the Crystal Heart, we cannot afford to lose it!"
The Kid lands on a table, breaking it in the process. He's alive but bruised. He gets up, groaning audibly. So much for landing on something soft.
Has to get up a lot faster if he wants to make a clean getaway, starts running despite his bruises. Anyone else would've not made that fall, but living on the Rippling Walls tends to make you a little used to falling from heights. There was a limit though, and he knew it well.
His March turns to a run, his gear clinking on itself as his boots hit the ground, not much point in being discreet when you're a one-man demolition team. The idle jog turns more to a free run as magical bolts of energy get shot his way, and guards arrive to cut him off.
Kid doesn't stop running for anything, rolling like crazy.
Rolling underneath tables in the streets, running around boxes, the one thing it seems he didn't do was try to vault or things. If it was directly in his way as a sudden barricade, well, a souped-up mortar shell later and a whirlwind from his hammer would make short work of it, serving to delay him just a few minutes. Skyway, he needed a Skyway to get out of here, something that could direct air, usually there's one no matter how remote the area.
A little brick plate forms up in the ground ahead near the outskirts of town, spotting it by the drops of light that flew up into the sky from it. Escape to the Bastion had shown up. So did the unicorn. The approach had changed from making barricades to simple barriers that he was forced to roll around or smash through with his hammer, which he briefly did, but with the Bastion so close and with night up in the sky, he would just play it smartly and run, as fast as he could. Kid pauses and feels something hit his back, and he falls down.
Kid falls out like a light, but the Skyway picks him up, whisking him up away
The ponies attempts at following are unsuccessful...
Marshals Badge - A simple but ornate Badge carved from a fragment of a core, worn by honorable men who acted as peacekeepers and handymen for the people of Caelondia.