Twilight Sparkle was never a "marely" mare, she was quite nerdy, shy, and weak when it came to strenght, she would always lose any strenght contest, and she would never hide that fact, being the lonely filly she used to be during several years of her life, there wasn't any reason to act tough or use strenght, not while she had such a good grasp when it came to magic.
Her magic was everything to her, right alongside knowledge, the two things wich made Twilight Sparkle... well Twilight Sparkle, her magic was powerful, back in the day, she could always go hoof to hoof with her brother, Shining armor, a talented colt whose magic happened to be almost on par with only the most powerful ponies beside the alicorns themselves, her brother rose ranks in the royal guard at such speed that most believed that he slept his way up... only to be silenced once he actually went to lead his troops or use spells, Twilight will never forget the face of the former Lieutenant of Shining back when he kicked the ass of several experienced guards by himself.
If only he was here... Maybe, only mabe Twilight would stand a chance to save more lives...
It was horrible, the smell of burnt coats, the iron in the air as blood was spilled, the maniatic laughs of the invaders, those raiders wich fought without any honour, those cold blooded murderers wich stood before her, holding those strange spear-staffs while shooting dangerous spells, instantly killing anyone wich got hit, forcing her to keep a shield every single second, hoping to keep any innocent pony behind her.
Every once in a while, those griffons would apparently run out of magic and put something in their staffs, allowing Twilight to shoot an spell to get rid of those staffs, it was such a hard task because of how many were after her... it seemed that they were no longer interested in the running ponies, but were fully focused in someone else...
"T...Twilight!" Spike, the poor baby dragon stood under her, hugging her leg, trembling like if he was made of jelly, the small lizard looked at the griffins with such a fear that Twilight felt her heart break looking at how scared he was, and that... angered her... "You...."
"Oi, shut up lass, just give up the li'l lizard and we'll leave, easy as it is!" The apparent leader laughed, meanwhile she toyed around with the helmet of a fallen guard, throwing it from one claw to the other as if it was a ball, toying with the golden piece like if it was made of paper instead of a heavy piece of armor "Hold fire lasses, she will get tired, she will get tired"
Obeying the leader, the griffins held their shots, just pointing at Twilight but yet to shoot her, merely chuckling as they slowly but surely moved to circle Twilight, be it by land or sky, their long weapons smoking just a tiny bit by the end, however, that was just the leftovers of the trail, the smoke trail wich came after each shot was gigantic, as if each spell caused an explosion too.
"O'i, Boss, should we hunt for more stallions?" One of the griffons asked their leader, landing at her side as she was eyeing the forest "No, we have more than enough, we just need that li'l dragon, my aunt will pay a fine ammount for someone so young"
"Heh, good o'l Imperial accent, you really want to go back boss?" She joked a bit and the leader giggled "Yes, speaking in 'Arrrrr' gets tiring after a while my friend"
Twilight heard everything, slowly backing while keeping Spike under her, the powerful barrier protecting both of them managing to harmlessly bounce off an stab from the griffon behind, she cursed out loud and went for another stab, bouncing again, it seemed that Twilight's magic was her safeguard, and yet, it felt like standing before a pack of Timberwolves with nothing but your naked hooves.
Slowly backing Twilight felt herself growing tired, she could see it, not too far there was a river, maybe, only maybe she could try something, however, the fear of losing Spike kept growing as the griffins drawing nearer and nearer, something in her display seemed to entince them to act in a whole different way.
It started up with the one behind her breaking the knife on her staff, she let out an small growl before landing back to all fours, stalking behind, in a way not too different from a big cat, hanging her weapon, it was a relief since she wouldn't be able to use to insta-kill magicless spells, but at the same time, it awoke something deep winthin Twilight, the urge to trample her way out here, an urge wich at times seemed to almost overcome the need to protect her little dragon.
"Please... be quick Rarity" Twilight spoke under her breath, in a hushed, scared tone, almost soundless but being clearly hopeful, lifting her front leg to embrance Spike, just as she stood on the verge of the river, but, just as she tried to quickly dive with Spike, the griffon behind her lunged way faster, Twilight's body acted on instinct kicking with her back legs, managing to push back the assaulter and quickly reforming her shield just in time to deflect the killing shots "Ohohoo, someone got bucked in the beak!"
"I'm going to skin ya alive lasss!" The Griffon wasn't happy after Twilight Kicked her, the kick didn't even hurt her, it just pained her, and it kept adding to her frustration her stalking rendering Twilight more and more nervous "Just surrender the dragon, there's nothing you can do after all, we separated you from the others, you are alone"
"You killed innocent ponies!" Twilight pointed at the leader with her hoof, keeping her magic barrier up, but she merely laughed at Twilight accusation "Business is Business gal, let's face the writing on the wall, you are alone, with a kid, agains't a whole bucanneer troop led by a former Imperial Lieutenant, turned corsair, what are your odds? You may be a demigodess but there's nothing you can do against gunpowder and steel, I have killed creatures like you before, wouldn't it be easier to just surrender the kid in exchange for your life?"
"..." Twilight was speechless, did this mare just imply that she has killed beings like her before?, that was absolutely impossible, there wasn't any way that such was true... "Now... do we have a deal Horned pegasus?"
"I..." Twilight was at a loss of words, however, she quickly looked down and let out an small breath "Spike... I want you to run, and to not look back...."
"B...tu... but Twilight!" The little dragon cried out loud, but Twilight gave him an small, sad smile "Do it, please, go with Rarity, I'm going to do something different"
"So be it then..." The leader sighed and lifted her weapon "Glentlehens, prepare muske...!"
"WAIT!" Twilight shouted as she took with her hoof an small rock from the ground "I... I offer myself instead of the dragon"
"Pffft, why would we want a fat mare?" One of them shrugged her offer, but soon grew silent after Twilight weakened her shield but, with an small energy beam, turned the rock into a golden pellet "Gentlehens do not open fire!"
The leader was awestruck, looking at the pellet, and with an small growl ordered one of her subordinates to catch the enraged one behind the duo.
"I... I have powerful magic, I can turn stone into gold, the same way I can turn a Mare into a Stallion with proper preparations, I am the magical ruler of this land after all..." Twilight spoke, as she got rid of her shield, and with an small spell Spike dissapeared too, just before he could say anything "I can see that... you used the illusion of a dragon to distract us from your running stallions... clever bitch"
"..." Twilight didn't say anything, as the leader drew near sizing her up "A princess of an unknow land, with the power to turn stone to gold, and powerful magic, yes... it is a better deal that some dragon slave, chain her up Gentlehens, we're leaving this place"
"B...but, the dragon..." One of them spoke but the leader gave her a mean glare "Even if the dragon wasn't an illusion, used goods don't sell well, don't think that I don't know what you do with the cute ones, be glad I haven't sewn your cunt for ruining valuable goods behind my back"
" Oh come on, boss!" The angriest roared, but the leader drew her claws and quickly hit her in the neck, slitting her throat in a clearly mortal wound "Let her to die here, i'm tired of her bullshit"
"Please... set the others free too" Twilight spoke, begging the leader, but she merely glanced back before smiling "Why?, They aren't some dragon illusion, they are real stallions, the deal was to leave those who fled, not to free those captured"
"There wasn't such deal!" Twilight answered, but the griffon sized her up again, puffing her chest tuft, a tuft wich was easily bigger than Twilight's head and thicker than her mane "Should I capture those fleeing then?"
"Tsk" Twilight backed up just in time for a pair of pirates to chain her legs together throwing her out of balance, while a third one punched her in the face with her closed claw, leaving her to fall down totally unconscious "Done boss, what should we do with this one?"
"The same thing we did with the long legged Stud we found on Filliyi, put her on the main galleon..."