“Jeepers creepers!” Props gasped as she ducked a chunk of shattered debris flying overhead. “Where did these creeps jeep’d from?!”
“I have no clue!” Eagle Eye panted as he twirled and met an attacking figure with his shield. He shoved and slashed at the attacker’s cloak with his sword. “But they don’t seem to be wanting to tell us!”
“They grabbed Pilate!” Belle shrieked. “Rainbow Dash flew after her!”
“Pilate?!” Ebon shivered from where he huddled on the sideline of the street fight. “But what would they want with--?!” He gasped. “EE! Behind you!”
Eagle Eye gasped and spun to face two cloaked ponies charging in from the sidelines. He successfully blocked the dagger-slash of the first figure. The second came charging in from the side, stabbing at the mercenary’s flank.
The air whistled as a wrench spun past Eagle’s head and slammed into the figure’s hood, grounding the aching pony to the ground.
“Ha!” Props smirked, her body relaxing from the heavy toss. “Take that! How dare you attack his hairdo!”
Eagle Eye was too breathless to shout his gratitude. He smacked the first attacker upside the skull with his shield and spun in time to deflect the charge of two other figures. “Gaaaaugh!” He gnashed his teeth as he was shoved back on all fours by the combined strength of the assailants. “Belle!” he sputtered towards the golden shape in his peripheral vision. “Take the others and run for cover! I-I’ve got this--”
“Haaaaugh!” Belle charged in, smacking both ponies’ skulls with a metal pole. She spun low, sweeping their hooves out from beneath them before propelling herself up with the staff and bucking the pair into a produce vendor with her rear hooves. Some Gray Smoke resident may or may not have loudly bemoaned the fate of his cabbages.
Eagle Eye blinked.
Belle stood, propping her sweaty self up with the pole gripped in the crooks of her hooves. “Wh-what?! You need help!”
“I… I…”
“Thought I was only good for brushing your mane?”
“Well, yes--I mean no--I mean--”
“At your six!”
Eagle Eye spun until he and Belle were flank to flank. Together, the two fended off a growing number of cloaked equines rushing in and stabbing with serrated blades. The street clattered metallic noise and showering sparks.
All the while, Props kept throwing every tool she could muster into the fray, knocking random attackers back, one by one. “Shoo! Shoo! Go dunk your head in something that stains, ya meanie popcorn farts!”
“Where in blazes is the security force?!” Ebon shouted as he huddled besides Props. “It’s not like them to waste this much time!”
“Whoever these creeps are, they probably got them distracted!” Belle grunted between parries.
“Yeah!” Eagle Eye panted as he telekinetically twirled his blade towards an advancing line of figures. “And if I didn’t know better, I’d say they were just wasting our time! Otherwise, we’d be dead by now!”
“Yeah, but why?!” Ebon shouted.
Props’ ears twitched. “Hey. Does anypony hear a faint whistling sound?”
“Huh?” Eagle Eye glanced up. He gasped and plowed immediately into Belle’s body. “Hit the deck!”
The figures dove in, only to be blown back by a metal body landing like a comet in the very center of the street, denting the cobblestone in a hundred places. As the thunderous thud settled, Roarke’s body stood up straight, then pivoted icily about to face the off-balance gang. Her visor flickered, reflecting a dozen shadowed faces. Then, with a whurr of metal parts, she extended several missiles from her suit.
“Who’s first to suckle on the teats of death? Any takers?”
The figures exchanged glances. Less than two seconds passed before three of them tossed pellets onto the ground simultaneously. The Bronze District filled with instant smoke. Ebon and Props coughed. Belle wheezed as she leaned on Eagle Eye. Even before the haze had settled, the mercenary was glancing around with squinting eyes.
“Th-they’re gone!” he exclaimed. “They tore off!”
“Hmmph…” Roarke retracted her projectiles. “Cowards.” She spun about as the fog dissipated. “Is anypony injured?”
“No…” Belle coughed and hacked. “Thanks to you…”
“I banged up all my tools trying to shoo them away!” Props pouted as she examined a scuffed wrench up close. “Ohhhhhh… maybe Uncle Prowse left because he was ashamed of my carelessness!”
“I hate to sound insensitive, Propsy,” Ebon stammered. “But there’s something a bit more pressing right now.”
Roarke cocked her head to the side. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?”
“Pilate!” Belle gasped, snapping back to reality. Her eyes moistened as she grasped Roarke’s armored shoulders. “It’s Pilate! They’ve taken him!”
“Who, exactly?” the bounty hunter’s voice metallically rang.
“Those creeps! Those creeps just now!” Eagle Eye exclaimed, kneeling down to examine the shredded scraps of brown fabric from his sword swings. “I’ve no clue who they are, but they’re well-trained and they move fast!”
“One of them ran off northeast of here, dragging Pilate along!” Belle cried. “As a hostage!” She gulped and added, “Rainbow Dash gave chase! But that was nearly ten minutes ago! Roarke, you have to help!”
“Calm down…”
“Please! I’d give anything to have him back--”
“I said calm down!” Roarke grasped Belle’s hooves and opened her helmet to stare at her through her lenses. “Now… tell me. Did the breeder have his manasphere with him?”
“You come from a great distance, Austraeoh,” the figure said within the bowels of Gray Smoke’s Industrial District. Large gears and pendulums undulated around her as she stood opposite the pegasus on the rusted platform. “You’ve made many sacrifices, and I would venture to say you haven’t understood the significance of it… until recently. Until you started opening your eyes to the multicolored light of the past.”
“What…” Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed. “Is she talking about…?”
“Maybe if you gave her a breath, Rainbow,” Pilate murmured, fidgeting nervously. “She’ll venture to inform us.”
“Unnngh… Goddess, I hate villainous monologues…”
“I assure you, you’ve had more than your fair share of psychopaths and vagabonds,” the mare said. “But for no longer, not so long as you accept the escort that I and my Order have to give you.”
“Heh… yeah right…” Rainbow Dash frowned. “If you’re so friggin’ benevolent, then why kidnap one of my best friends?!”
“You have a grand, courageous spirit, Austraeoh,” she said. “But from what we’ve witnessed, you also possess a supremely narrow mind. This was the only way we could get your attention, to bring you to a position where you would be forced to listen to and perhaps even accept the truth.”
“Hold the soundstone…” Rainbow raised her hoof. “What do you mean ‘you’ve witnessed?’ You’ve been following me?”
“For quite a while, ever since the Divine brought your battered body upon this continent. That was how we knew that the Age of the Harbinger had begun.”
“The ‘Divine?’” Pilate murmured.
Rainbow’s throat went tight. “Axan…”
“We observed from afar to see if your actions would confirm the prophecy of the Host, and we were not disappointed. You displayed every trait of the Harbinger, up to and even beyond the acquisition of the Relic.”
“Look, I’ve been through too much crap and too many explosions to learn a whole new vocabulary book of horse hockey!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward with a snarling expression. “Just get to the point! Who in the hay are you and what do you want with me?!”
“We want that which the Angelic Host wanted,” she said. “To dispense with the last barricades to fate that haunt this afflicted world, and once more reignite the spark to the terrestrial heart. Only then will the ring become complete once again, and all that lives will be reunited with brothers and sisters abroad.”
“The ring…” Pilate’s mouth fell agape. His ears twitched as a rune lit up on his skull. “My stars! The vision that Bellesmith had while sequencing with Nightshade’s children!”
“Buh?”
Pilate leaned in and whispered in Rainbow’s ears. “She saw several planes--much like ours--split apart, where once they were a solid circle.”
“Do I look like a jigsaw puzzle to you?”
“What say you, Austraeoh?” the mare asked.
“Snkkt--Stop calling me that!” Rainbow frowned her way. “You didn’t friggin’ answer my question!”
“Very well.” The figure bowed. “We went to great lengths to intercept you in this one neutral spot in the whole continent. Now would be a superb time to start building a foundation of trust.” She reached up to her hood with two forelimbs.
Rainbow’s eyes instantly caught the prismatic bands tattooed over her hooves.
At last, the mare shook her mane loose. Her hair was braided into countless dreadlocks, and each strand was dyed with a different color of the spectrum. A series of multi-colored feathers hung from her ear, and white wing marks were painted across her muzzle.
“I am Khao, Lead Wing of the Herald of Angels.” Khao’s amber eyes narrowed. “And we are your Eljunbyro, Austraeoh.”
Pilate tilted his head towards Rainbow Dash.
The pegasus stared, her mouth hanging open. After several seconds…
“Bullcrap.”