The Great Escape
Fluttershy’s wings burned and her chest felt tight as she pursued her friends. The group had been running after Corvo and Pinkie for what seemed like hours, but their efforts were fruitless, the group hadn’t found a single hint to the whereabouts of their escaped convict or pink maned friend.
The yellow mare, being as timid and easily frightened as she was, had no interest in learning about the creature. In all honesty, she had been against the pursuit of the assassin from the get go. The only reason she followed now was because her friend’s life was in jeopardy.
As she galloped, her breath came in short gasps and her legs felt as if they were on fire. She and then flapped her wings hard, flying close to the ground to give her overworked hooves a break. She sped up until she was flying next to Twilight.
“Twilight? Do we even know where they are?”
The unicorn shook her head; she was too winded to give an actual response.
The small group turned a corner and continued down the hall to the main entrance hall. As they ran, Luna blew the doors open with a blast of bright blue magic. The ponies sprinted outside to the castle courtyard. Suddenly, Luna stopped. Turning around, she yelled at the guards.
“Close the gates! The castle must be secure!”
The stallions gave quick salutes and then began closing the gates by pulling on huge chains that hung over pulleys.
Luna turned back to the small group of ponies. “If he wishes to leave, we will stop him! He cannot escape!”
Twilight shook her head, “Wha- What if he...Just jumps out a window or something?”
Luna looked at her and smiled in an effort to comfort the purple pony. “He will not. He has a hostage, and the castle is built on a mountain. Jumping from this height would kill him.”
Twilight nodded and put blind faith into the princess’s words, praying to Celestia that what she was saying would hold true.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Corvo sprinted toward what he believed to be a balcony. Getting out into open air was his first priority. That, and getting Pinkie to shut up. The mare had been attempting to scream ever since Corvo had kidnapped her. In an attempt to silence her, Corvo had cut a small section out of a nearby curtain with his sword and shoved the cloth into her mouth.
Pulling open the door, he put Pinkie, who was immobilized by large amounts of cloth, similar to the way he had stopped the guard, on the floor and walked out onto the large balcony.
‘I love it when my hunches are right.’
Walking outside, he was immediately struck by an interesting sight. The vantage point allowed him to see the entire city. He thought of how interestingly Canterlot contrasted with his own city, Dunwall. Even the bright lights that illuminated the streets of Canterlot were much different from the harsh, trans powered street lights of Dunwall.
He took a deep breath, then looked down towards the main gates. The sheer amount of guards and ponies was intimidating. To add to his discomfort, he could see Luna standing with her horn pointed at the door.
‘There has to be a reason they’re concentrating their forces there. They should have considered all my avenues...’
Turning around he grabbed Pinkie Pie and the curtains hanging from the door. He quickly tied the curtain around her neck, then pulled it taut. Pinkie began squirming in fear as the cloth was wrapped around her neck. The constriction and lack of breath was extremely uncomfortable.
Walking back onto the balcony, he put Pinkie under his arm and prepared to blink.
Sprinting forward, he put a foot up on the rail and used it as leverage to propel himself into the air. As he lost momentum, he focused mana in his feet and kicked again. The energy produced a small, invisible platform for him to jump on.
Corvo’s momentum carried him to the trim of the wall, where he landed. Getting to his feet, he carefully balanced his way towards the trim on the tower over the courtyard where the ponies were.
When he was finally over the area, he took the other end of Pinkie’s improvised noose and tied it to a small, decorative hole in the trim. Then he held her over the edge. The pink pony looked down at the drop and remembered the fabric around her neck.
‘He’s going to hang me?!’
The mare’s eyes widened and she looked back at Corvo. “Wait...please- do- don’t.” Corvo could no longer comprehend her words, the mare had burst into tears and was squirming, a futile attempt to escape.
Ignoring the lump in his throat he pulled out his crossbow and loaded an explosive bolt. Taking aim at the nearest group of guards. he fired.
The arrow whizzed through the air before slamming into the ground and detonating, the resulting explosion causing panic and confusion throughout the courtyard.
Form the ponies’ point of view, explosions were raining out of the sky and arrows were flying everywhere. It was about five seconds of utter terror before they spotted the assassin who was attacking them.
Shining Armour was the one who spotted the perpetrator.
“Up there, on the ledge! Celestia, it’s going to hang somepony!”
As the guards scrambled for a way to get the pink maned pony down safely, Corvo began his escape. Letting go of Pinkie, he jumped off the ledge alongside her and sent energy down his arm.
As he fell, he targeted the nearest guard. Just before he impacted the ground, he loosed the possession. The bolt impacted the stallion, and Corvo’s mind slammed into the pony’s.
Once he’d secured the body, he turned and began galloping towards the gates. On the way, he had to jump over small craters left by his arrows and avoid ponies that were attempting to help Pinkie.
Once he arrived at the gate, he released the possession and got to his feet. The dizzy guard stumbled around for a moment before collapsing. Corvo looked around, placing a hand on his aching head. Suddenly, he stopped when he saw Rainbow Dash setting Pinkie on the ground.
He sighed in relief. After a brief pause, he stuck his hand through the slots in the gate and, steeling himself, he teleported out of the courtyard and sprinted towards the drawbridge.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Big Macintosh stood patiently outside the castle. He had just recently arrived and learned that the place was in lockdown until further notice, and so the farmer had been denied entrance.
Though the red stallion could easily force his way in, he knew that would cause trouble for the princess, and worst case scenario, have him banished or imprisoned. Maybe even imprisoned in the place he was banished to...
Mac looked up at the stars for a moment. As he stared up, he heard hoofsteps.
‘Wait. The pace is wrong. One. Two. One. Two. They seem too soft to be hoofsteps...’
Looking down again, he saw a hulking biped running towards the bridge. Mac looked up at the guards. They all seemed to be watching something in the courtyard. Looking back at the biped, his eyes widened.
‘Big, eeyup. Metal face, eeyup. Great. He’s the one that knows where AJ is.’
Getting to his hooves, Big Mac pulled out the rope he brought with him, and began swinging the lasso above his head. As Corvo sprinted towards him, he threw the rope.
The assassin had seen it coming from a mile away. Corvo had concealed his glowing hand in his overcoat, waiting for the right moment.
The rope, which had been flying at Corvo, was knocked aside by a blast of kinetic energy, which proceeded to slam into the heavy stallion. Big Mac, being as heavy as he was, only stumbled slightly from the impact.
Corvo skidded to a halt and turned around, staring at Big Mac, his expression of disbelief hidden by his mask. Though his ‘face’ remained expressionless, the farmer knew something had gone wrong, and that this was his chance.
Leaning forward, the stallion charged the surprised assassin.
Corvo stumbled backwards, and attempted to perform another Windblast. Unfortunately for him, he was completely out of mana, meaning his attempt was unsuccessful.
Big Mac increased his speed and slammed into his target. Standing above the fallen assassin, the farmer put a heavy hoof on Corvo, immobilizing him.
“Where’s Applejack?”
Corvo remained silent.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-