//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Rescue Mission // Story: Heart Plus - Dawn Arc // by SparkStone //------------------------------// -3rd POV- -Gathering the others- Rainbow flew to the others with haste. It was an emergency after all, and she wanted to get everyone together as soon as possible. First, she headed towards Sweet Apple Acres to get Applejack. When Rainbow landed by her doorstep, she knocked the door repeatedly. Applejack opened the door grumbling to the noise. "Rainbow? What are you doing back so soon? It's almost late you know." Applejack reminded her. "This is an emergency! When I dropped off Kasin at the library, the whole place was messed up!" Rainbow quickly explained. She then pulled out the scrap of paper from earlier and showed it to Applejack. "What's worse is that Twilight and Spike has been pony-napped!" Applejack read the letter and immediately her eyes widened with much horror. "Rainbow, go get the others, I'll meet you at the forest." Applejack requested while holding a worried look. Rainbow nodded and headed back to Ponyville to get the others. The next house was Fluttershy's cottage. As Rainbow closed in, she rapidly knocked the door the same way as earlier. Inside, Fluttershy awoke frightened of the noise. She snuck downstairs quietly and peeked out the window to see who was slamming the door so loudly, but before she could confirm who it was, a hoof broke through the door giving it a small hole. "EEEP!" Fluttershy screamed. "Come on Fluttershy! This is an emergency!" Rainbow yelled. "R-Rainbow?" She realized as she opened the broken door. "W-What's wrong?" "Twilight's been pony napped and we need to head into the Everfree forest RIGHT NOW!" "Oh my gosh! Twilight's been-!!" To much horror, Fluttershy couldn't finish the last part of her sentence. Rainbow placed both hooves on Fluttershy's shoulders as she said, "We have to get the others! You go get Rarity and I'll go get Pinkie, alright?" Fluttershy nodded and the two split up to get the others. -Rainbow's POV- -Picking up Pinkie- I dashed over to Sugar Cube Corner and decided to skip the door knocking. I flew up the second story of the place and tapped the window to wake up Pinkie. She opened it and gave me that warm smile as always. "Hi Dashie! What are you doing up?" Pinkie asked. Before I could answer, she started shooting guesses at me. "Oh, are you out night patrolling?" "No, Pinkie-" "Oh! Are you trying to be a night hero?" "Pinkie-!" "Are you lost?" I shoved my hoof up that yammering mouth of hers before she could dart out anymore questions. "Pinkie! This is serious! Twilight's been pony-napped and I'm getting the rest of us to meet up at the Everfree forest to rescue her!" I explained as fast as I could. Pinkie's eyes went all big all of a sudden before she said, "WHAT!? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER!?" I placed my hoof on my face annoyed. "That's what I've been trying to do!" "We have to go right now!" She stated. I don't know what she did, but we were suddenly at the entrance of the Everfree forest. "Pinkie, how did you-?" Before I could ask, that girl looked around to see two more ponies missing. "Where's Fluttershy and Rarity!?" "I told Fluttershy to get Rarity, they should be here soon." I explained. "We're here!" Rarity yelled. I looked to see they came right on time. I was glad too so we wouldn't have to waste anymore time. "I guess it's really true, Twilight and Spike have been taken." Rarity said all sad of this turn up. "Which is why we'll need to give it our all to help them out!" Applejack told us. "Now, we all went to the abandoned castle before, so it shouldn't be too hard to find." "Why do we need to go there?" Fluttershy asked, scared as always. "The letter Spike left before they were taken said that's where they were heading, so we find them, we'll find Twi and Spike!" I explained. "Well, let's not waste a second more! Let's go!" Rarity declared. We went in the forest to start our rescue mission for Twi. Just hold on! We're coming guys! -Twilight's POV- -Base of the revolutionaries- I was tied up with Spike by me. Gnosis and the revolutionaries were using the crumbling castle Celestia once used a long time ago as their base of operations. I could see tents set up and the ponies taking off their armor relaxing by the camp fire. Gnosis walked up to me with a sly smile. "How are you Ms. Sparkle?" "Better if you'd untie us!" I complained. "I'm sorry if I couldn't get you more comfortable ropes, but this one here is the same one that net was made of." Gnosis explained to me. "Dry Stone is imbedded along the ropes making sure you have no use of your magic." "Dry stone?" I repeated. "I never heard of such a material." "Have you ever visited Unity?" He asked me. "Unity? No, I haven't." I answered. "No surprise." He retorted. "Do you even know of such a place?" I nodded no in response. He leaned in closer as his smile seemed to have turned into a displeased frown. "Do you know why?" He asked. Before I could reply, he continued. "It's because the land had "left" the jurisdiction of Equestria." "What? I don't understand." I replied. He placed his hoof on his eyes rubbing them for a moment. "Once, there was a king that wanted power…the first place he took was Unity. Princess Celestia responded to the lost of Unity by defeating the tyrant and banishing him to the bottom of the oceans, petrified in stone for all eternity. Though we have fought alongside her, we have done all we could to prevent HIM from entering Equestria any further, and we have even believed in her!" For a moment he stopped. Once again, he rubbed his eyes before continuing. "She never reclaimed Unity. For a long time, we have waited for her to send supplies and news, but nothing from Equestria came…nothing from Canterlot…Just what was she doing up there!? Many of us have suffered through famine and drought due to that king, and yet, she chose to leave us be?! We nearly died out! If we didn't leave Unity before things got worse, then we wouldn't be alive…" I never knew this. What happened to the Princess during their time of need? But even so, there must be a reason. "I didn't know it was this bad in your home Gnosis." I replied. "But there's a more peaceful way to settle this! You don't have to do this!" "No…" He responded with a cold voice. "Knowing that the ruler is this incompetent, we must overthrow her in order to start setting things right." I was shocked by his plans. "Overthrow Princess Celestia!? You'll cause all kinds of chaos and disorder if you do that!" I scolded. "What you're about to do will do even more harm!" "The land may bleed at first, but the scab will form to let the country heal to an even better state." "You're wrong!" I shouted at him. "You don't know what you're doing!" Gnosis walked away from me as he said, "Did the princess know what she was doing when she let a land of ponies struggle in the after war?" I glared at Gnosis as he looked up at the moon. A moment later, I saw another one of his soldiers run up to him saying, "Sir! W-We saw some kind of creature!" "What kind of creature?" Gnosis questioned. "I-I'm not sure sir! It walks on two legs and it uses its forelegs to hold what I think were maps!" He explained. "Kasin?" Spike realized. "What was that?" Gnosis reacted as he walked up to us again. "Do you know of this creature?" I tried not to say anything, but another one of his soldiers came in and said, "I saw it before. It was with those two." "Oh? A friend?" He deduced. He then turned to a unicorn and said, "It's probably trying to rescue her from our clutches. Eliminate him." Me and Spike were in shock. "Wait! D-Don't do it!" I pleaded. "He's not gonna hurt anypony!" Spike added. "Since when do I take orders from my enemies?" Gnosis replied coldly. The unicorn climbed up to one of the towers where he could see what I believed was Kasin trying to find us. Gnosis raised his hoof and after a moment, he threw it down, signaling the unicorn to do the worst thing possible. The unicorn's horn glowed a dark blue aura streaming with black lines around it. He then shot it towards the forest and all I heard was a loud explosion. "KASIN!!!" For a while, nothing was heard…Another pony next to the unicorn looked at the horizon and reported, "Commander Gnosis! The creature has been obliterated! All there's left is a crater in the forest, nothing could have escaped it." "No…" Spike said sorrowfully. "How could you do this!?" I yelled at Gnosis. "He was my friend!" "A creature that is not like us cannot be your friend." He stated without care. "A creature…like THAT is an enemy." I gritted my teeth while shedding tears, hearing that Kasin was… -Applejack's POV- -Discovery of the worst- Going through the Everfree forest was still pretty spooky no matter how many times we went in and out. Of course, it didn't matter since Twilight was on the line, and we had to give it our all to help her. We were all crossing the forest with ease. Well, it would have been that way if Rarity didn't stop complaining about the mud. "Oh! Why did those hooligans have to take Twilight through here!?" She grumbled. "Shouldn't you ask why they took her at all?" I retorted. "Oh…right, I meant to say that." She responded with some shame. Right after that little talk, we all heard a big bang right near us. "What the hay was that!?" Rainbow reacted. "Is somepony setting off fireworks!?" Pinkie wondered. Sometimes I ask myself what's going on in that girls mind. "We better check it out!" I suggested. We all ran towards the sound of the explosion and there we saw one heck of a sight. Somepony made one heck of a scene since there was a huge crater in the middle of the forest! We looked around to see toppled trees and flattened crispy bushes. Lots of animals seemed to be running, even the timber wolves were scared out of their woods! "What in the world would do such a thing?" Rarity questioned. "Oh, I hope nopony got hurt…" Fluttershy spoke with much worry. "From the looks of it, no animal seems to have stayed long enough for the boom just now." Rainbow deduced. "So I have a feeling it's all good here." "Well, no time to stop, let's go…" I said to the girls. But before we left, I noticed Pinkie wasn't with us. I looked back to see Pinkie sitting down in the crater. "Pinkie! What's the hold up?" She didn't say anything. It was not like of her to just stop, so I slid down the crater and checked up on her. "Pinkie, what's wrong-?" Before I could finish, I saw Pinkie crying. "Pinkie?" She turned to me before she looked back to the ground. On the floor were a pair of…green headphones? I admit, I was a bit baffled at first. "Pinkie, why are crying over a pair of…" Then I realized something. I took another look at them and saw how familiar they looked. "Wait…Aren’t these…No…T-That can't be…!" Pinkie nodded and seemed to be sure of it. On the ground were not just any headphones…they were the same one Kasin had around his neck… Rainbow flew down by us while Fluttershy helped Rarity get down in the cleanest way possible. Rainbow went next to us impatient. "What are you doing down here!? We need to get a move on!" Rainbow complained. "Indeed Applejack! Now is not the time to dawdle, we need to help Twilight!" Rarity added. I couldn't say a word to them. Right now I just felt…Awful…To find out the boy from just a day ago had gone the next day. I took off my hat and held it by my chest to pay him my respect. Rainbow didn't understand yet. "Seriously, what's up? You two are acting like somepony…" She stopped after she saw the pair of headphones. Soon, Rarity and Fluttershy saw it too and understood why me and Pinkie were down. "No…" Fluttershy muttered as she started to tear up. "K-Kasin…!" "Just today I measured you…" Rarity remembered the moment of time. "You can't be gone yet…" "…Dang it…!" Rainbow cursed. "I told him to stay behind! I told him to stay at the library! Why did he still go!?" She started to wipe her eyes. I then realized she was crying more than Pinkie. "I…I just saw him alive an hour ago! You can't tell me the second I let him out of my sights, he…!" I got it now…Rainbow was the last one to see him alive. I placed my hoof on her shoulder, trying to comfort her from all this. We all shed our tears for a while. The next thing I did was the most painful. "Come on everypony…we have to go…" I told them. Rainbow gave me a nasty glare. "Excuse me Applejack?" She flew up to me with a lot of anger showing on her face. "We just found out Kasin just died! How could you move on so easily!?" She complained. "It ain't easy for me either Rainbow." I told her. "But in case you forgotten, we have to rescue Twilight and Spike, and I have a feeling that Kasin was out here to do the same. We don't want to lose them like we just lost Kasin, do you!?" For a while, Rainbow looked down. She braced herself as she inhaled and exhaled all the frustration off of her. "Alright, just…give me a sec…I'll catch up with you soon, okay?" Rainbow requested. I gave her a nod and lead Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie out of the crater. I looked back to see Rainbow looking at the headphones. I watched for a bit longer and saw her place the headphones around her neck. She then scribbled something in the dirt and then flew up to us. I gave a small look at the headphones and she replied to my watchful eye saying, "I…just want to remember him a bit longer…" -Fluttershy's POV- -Grimacing loss- Right now was just so…horrible…Kasin came here only yesterday, and today he… We all felt really sad, especially just when he was so happy. When Kasin arrived, he was so scared, but then he started to smile and open up to us. When I first saw him, I was actually willing to take him in before Twilight offered her hospitality. Rainbow seemed to be hurt most of all, because she held onto the his headphones as a memento. Applejack wasn't happy either, she seemed to have really gotten along with him too. And Rarity was just about to give him new clothes, but she seemed to have regretted not working on them sooner. Pinkie Pie…? She seemed awfully devastated. Her mane was near the point of turning all flat. "Pinkie?" I called out. "Are you okay?" "…No…" Pinkie said bluntly. "…I…didn't even…spend that much time with him!" She suddenly broke down crying. I tried to help her up, but she was so sad, she stuck to the floor. Rainbow came up to Pinkie and held out her hoof. "Come on Pinkie…we have to help Twilight and Spike…Kasin came here to help them." Rainbow stated without showing any feeling. "Let’s help him do that…" Pinkie stared at Rainbow for a moment before nodding and wiping her eyes. She got up with Rainbows help and we moved on forward. Moving on was hard. Even if Kasin was only here for a day, he really showed how much he appreciated all of us, and we did the same for him. The thought of him dying so soon…It was like losing a foal right after it was born. I'm sorry, that was a little too dark…I'm just so sad. Maybe it's because we regretted not spending enough time with him. "Look ya'll, up ahead!" Applejack pointed out. We all snapped out of our trance and looked at the castle we once fought Nightmare Moon in. "Just like old times…" Rarity remembered the earlier days. I noticed there were some ponies around the castle. They wore this…intimidating armor. "Girls, I-I think there's somepony in there." "You're right Fluttershy." Applejack responded. "There seems to be more than we thought." "Come on! We gotta hit 'em hard!" Rainbow declared as she then took off to the air. Applejack stopped her by grabbing her tail "Hold on Rainbow!" Once Rainbow realized she wasn't going anywhere, she turned back to Applejack and landed onto the ground with impatience. "Oh, what AJ? We gotta go save them!" "We gotta have a plan first." Applejack explained. "We don't have the best fighting force with who knows how many ponies in there?" "They could be dangerous!" I added. "Right, so we'll have to use our minds to figure this out." Rarity proposed. "Hmm…If Twilight was here, this would be a lot easier!" Pinkie stated. "Pinkie…Twilight's the one in there." Applejack reminded her. "Oh yeah!" Pinkie remembered. "Alright then! What's the plan?" Rainbow asked. "Hold on…I think I have an idea…" Applejack replied as she drew on the floor. -Rainbow's POV- -Rainbow Dash VS. Wing Gar- Applejack thought up a simple plan that would sneak Twilight out while they didn't notice us. She told us our part and we started it off with me flying over the castle. When I did, one of those armored stallions noticed and called in more ponies. While I distracted them, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy headed in deeper. "Quick! Get that pegasus!" One of those ponies demanded. "On it!" Another voice yelled. They started shooting bolts of magic and throwing spears at me. Seeing either how awesomely fast I was and how off their aim was, I managed to evade all of their attacks and push a few of them off the tower. "Haha! Take that!" I yelled at them. I could tell that these guys knew they were no match for me. I guess they have SOME smarts, all except for this one pegasus that went up to the edge. "A little overconfident, don't you think?" He said with a straight face. This guy had the same armor as the rest of them, but he didn't wear a helmet, so I could tell that he was an orange dude with yellow eyes, and had a green mane. His wings had some king of armor or something on them. How could he fly with that much weight? "I'm don't think, I know I'm better than you all!" I declared. "Well, let's see how you do in a dogfight then." The orange dude said. He then suddenly flew up into the air and his wings expanded! They were huge! But it was only because the armor on them was the part that was big, his normal wings were like mine, but DANG! He had some strong wings to carry THAT! I managed to dodge it in time before those big things could even touch me. "Whoa!" I yelped. "That's…pretty awesome, but I'm still gonna beat you!" "Heh, I'd like to see you try and beat me! Wing Gar, second in command of Commander Gnosis!" He bragged. "So what? You're not even the strongest?" I retorted. "Not a big deal to me." "Stop talking so cocky!" He yelled, I think I hit a nerve~! He tried to hit me with those big metal wings of his by flying all over the place. He wasn't as fast as me, so I could outclass him in speed, but his wings…DANG! They were so huge, I got hit a couple of times. Those soldier dudes were cheering for Gar, it was annoying. "I can't just let him hit me! I gotta think of something!" I thought to myself. "Talking to yourself in the middle of a fight?" Wing Gar caught me thinking as he dove right at me. "This will be your downfall!" He was right on me, so I didn't have time to get out of the way. But when I took another look at him, I found out how to beat him! His wings were big alright, but between them was just a regular size pony! So I dashed towards him head on! "Is she…Is she really going up to Wing Gar like that?!" I heard one of those guys speak. "She's toast." Another said. Once we got close enough, I flew right over his body. When I flew passed him, I bit his tail and brought the guy with me by the tail. "H-Hey! Get off my tail!" He demanded. "If you say so!" I let go of his tail, throwing him all the way to the wall of the tower. It crumbled and all the other ponies on it fell with Wing Gar and got knocked out when they hit the floor. I landed on the rubble, triumphing over yet another difficult challenge! But then I remembered now isn't the time for that, since I did come here to save Twilight and Spike. I flew to the others inside the castle to meet up with them. -Applejack's POV- -Applejack VS. Tone Blast- We were outside as I told Rainbow what to do. She nodded and flew up to distract the other ponies while me, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie snuck in during all the commotion Rainbow was bringing in. We didn't find a lot of any other ponies patrolling around, seeing how Rainbow managed to grab their full attention. It looked like the plan was going good so far. We went so far to the point where we found Twilight and Spike, but they were tied up and two other unicorns were near her. One had a red coat and an orange combed mane, and his eyes were a ruby red. His cutie mark was a magic spark being crossed out by an "X". The other had armor on, but had no helmet like the others. He had a dark blue coat with an even darker blue scruffy mane. He had black eyes, which was kinda hard to really tell since he had those weird looking sunglasses on. "Aren't you going to help take care of that ruckus?" The red one questioned. "As much as I would love to, dude, I have to take a quick break after doing that MAJOR EXPLOSION! …Dude." The blue one talked in a…I don't know how to describe it. Teenager? Who took a long sun tan to the brain? Probably. "Explosion?" Rarity repeated. "You don't suppose he's the one who made that crater, do you?" "Was he?" Pinkie responded. "Oh! That meanie! How could he do that!?" She scowled "Girls! Try and keep it down, as much as how much I would love to find out, we need to focus on getting Twilight first, then we'll handle these guys later." I recommended them. They seemed to understand after nodding in agreement. We snuck closer towards Twilight behind a pillar near her. Sadly, we couldn't get in any closer without the chance of those unicorns from seeing us. "I'll have to make this quick." I thought. With Twilight and Spike so close, all I have to do is jump quietly over there before they saw me. "By the way Tone Blast, you are sure you got rid of…that creature from earlier, right?" The red on asked. "Totally commander Gnosis!" The blue one I guess his name was Tone Blast replied. "He was all, KABOOM! When I shot my super sound spell." "…They…They were the ones who…" Fluttershy realized as well as the rest of us. "You're certain? I would be horrified if such a disgusting sight came before me." Gnosis expressed his distaste. "Totally sir! I mean, my super sound spell went RIGHT TO HIM dude! He probably exploded himself when it hit him! I mean, just think about it!" Tone continued. "When you get hit but that much sound power in your body, it's just a bunch of energy waiting to get out, dude! It was pretty much like putting dynamite in a tree before it explodes, only, the thing on two legs was the tree, and the dynamite was my super sound spell!" We were horrified to hear such a twisted thing! How could they say that?! "You two…are monsters!" Twilight growled at the two. Gnosis ignored Twilight while Tone responded, "Monster? Us? Are you kidding me? Now if anything's a monster, it would probably be the thing I totally shot out of this world, dude! He's better off dead." That did it. When he said that, I…I didn't know what came over me. I ran out there and bucked that Tone Blast right in the face! He was surprised and was knocked all the way to the pillar, making it crumble down. The Gnosis character stepped back and sat down while Tone got up from the rubble. "D-Dude! What was that for!?" Tone questioned. "Applejack!" Rarity called me. "What about the plan!?" "Sorry I blew our cover…But I couldn't let him talk about Kasin anymore!" I explained. "You varmints don't know anything about him, so stop spitting on his name!" "Kasin was that thing's name?" Tone scoffed. "Well, I'm glad I know what to call the animal!" "Animal!?" Fluttershy growled. "Was that supposed to be an insult!?" Fluttershy seemed to be angered since Tone used the animals the wrong way. Pinkie grabbed her before she could fly out any further. We pretty much spoiled the plan to be hidden all thanks to me, but I couldn't hold myself down to Tone's flabbergasting. "I'm not gonna forgive you for what you did to Kasin!" I told him. "Well I'll tell you this." Tone started off. "When my commander gave the signal, I was GLAD to do it dude!" I didn't need to talk to this no good armor idiot anymore. I rushed at him with a lot of rage in me. I admit I don't get this angry often, but when you're fighting somepony who took your friend away, you might do the same. "Well, you think you can take me on dude? Well, get ready to feel the same super sound that monster did!" Tone gloated as he charged his horn. When it was done, I felt a huge wave fly right pass me, and behind me, the castle wall exploded! It was the same thing from earlier alright. From the sound to the power. "Scared yet dude?" Tone asked. "If you want, we could let you-" Before he could finished, I gave him another buck to the face, pushing him to the wall. He rubbed his jaw and seemed to have lost a tooth, but it didn't matter to me. I stomped on him and hit him with my forelegs. I didn't stop until he finally stopped bragging. "M….M…M-M…Mercy…P…P-Please…" He begged. I got off of him seeing he had no more energy to do anything else. I despised Tone Blast, hearing him gloat earlier like he was really that important. It got him no where except to a good roughhousing for what he did to Kasin. I then turned my glare to Gnosis as he still sat down while clapping his hooves onto the floor. "Well done, well done miss." He commended me. "You took down a strong pony, strong indeed." "Don't think you're off the hook just for complimenting me." I stated. "If I remember correctly, you're the pony who said it was okay to hurt Kasin, aren't you?" "Guilty." He replied with a villainous chuckle. "Even so, your strength seems very useful. Would you like to join me in order to make Equestria a…better place?" "First you kidnap two of my friends, kill Kasin for being different, and now you think I'm just going to join you for flattering me!? You must have one sick mind." I commented. "Oh, what a shame." Gnosis replied. "Well, I guess I'll have to tie you all up too." "Not a chance!" Rainbow yelled. She flew down by me ready to fight as well. "You're not gonna get us that easily! Just watch! We're gonna beat you before you even blink!" "Oh, before I blink?" Gnosis repeated the phrase while the five of us got ready to battle him. Before we could however, Gnosis started to close his eyes. "You mean…like this?" When Gnosis blinked, we saw a red hand form out of Gnosis's horn. It pinned us all down while his lackeys came in and held us down. he then withdrew his magic and laughed. "Oh, what was that earlier about beating me? Weren't you going to save your friend!?" He laughed. "I mean, I honestly thought the friends of Twilight Sparkle would put up more of a match, but you only seemed to have beaten some idiot henchmen just barely! Truly pitiful." We all struggled to get out of the other ponies hold. "Ngh, You cheater!" Rainbow complained. "Cheater?" Gnosis repeated. "Don't blame your failure on me. In the end, we just know this one fact. Twilight's friends were never a match, nor will they ever be against the revolution that will reshape Equestria for the better-!" Suddenly, out of surprise, something hit Gnosis right on the face. He fell to the floor which shocked his men. "Sir! Are you alright-" Before whoever could finish that sentence, something hit all the other ponies on the heads to, knocking them out of submission. We all got up a bit sore from that red hand earlier and wondered what that was. "What happened?" Pinkie wondered. "I'm not sure, but whatever it was, it just saved us!" Rarity pointed out. But before things could get better, Gnosis got up with a small bruise. "Who did that?!" He growled. "Bah! Such nuisance! I'll just use my red claw spell to pulverize you this time!" His horn glowed again and here comes that big hand again! It was coming really fast this time too! Just before it could reach us though, something hit Gnosis's horn, causing him to lose focus. This time, Gnosis looked where it was shot from, and to our surprise, we saw through the hole in the wall of the castle was Kasin! He was aiming a slingshot right at Gnosis and seemed to have wrapped his arm in bandages. On his belt was a case of medical supplies and a satchel bag too. The boy seemed to have come well prepared. "You…" Gnosis spoke. "You must be the monster on two legs…but I thought Tone took care of you." "Like I care what you thought." Kasin replied. "The only thing that I DO care about is why you've been doing all of this to my friends." "For the greater good my boy." Gnosis explained. "A greater good that an outsider like you can never be a part of!" Gnosis shot a few red beams at Kasin. I was extremely worried remembering Kasin wasn't very athletic, even Rainbow had the same idea too. Before we could help Kasin though, he did things that made us completely baffled. First, Kasin started running along the walls, outmaneuvering the shots Gnosis did and counter fired with his sling shot. I don't know how strong it was, because when one of those things Kasin shot hit Gnosis, it exploded! "NAGH!" Gnosis yelped in pain before standing back up. "What's with this monster?! He's moving so fast and dodging so quick!" Kasin didn't reply, he seemed too focused on beating Gnosis. When close up, Gnosis pulled a dirty trick and levitated Kasin off the ground. "Hey! That's cheating!" Spike complained. "All is fair in love and war!" Gnosis rebutted. "What are you going to do now creature?" Kasin simply pulled out his slingshot and slicked Gnosis's horn with a little metal bead. The hit made him lose focus and the levitation wore off. Kasin ran in close to Gnosis and punched him hard with his bandaged arm. After the impact, Gnosis was swung way, passing us and made a hole in the wall of the castle! We couldn't believe it. Kasin had just beaten this guy without getting scared or hesitating at all. It was like looking at a whole new person. Of course, it was short lived, because after Gnosis had been beaten to a pulp, Kasin looked over to us with a concerned look. "A-Are you alright everyone?" He asked. "…Uh…yeah, we're fine…I think…" I answered. "Thank goodness…" Kasin said in relief. "That was SO COOL!" Rainbow praised him. "I…I was?" "Yeah!" Pinkie added. "I mean, you were all like, "BAM!", and he was all like, "Oh no!", and there were the explosions and running on walls, it was super exciting!" Kasin seemed to have blushed, scratching the back of his head uncertain of their compliments. "Well, I don't know about that…Wait…hold on! We need to get Twilight and Spike!" Kasin ran over to the two and untied the ropes. Twilight got up stretching as well as Spike. Getting tied up that long must be exhausting. "Kasin, thank you for rescuing us." Twilight said gratefully. "I didn't know you were a fighter." "Fighter?" Kasin repeated confused. "I honestly don't have a profession in fighting. In fact, the strength I had to punch that red dude off was brand new." "What about the running on the walls and the sling shot you have there?" Rarity questioned. "I will admit, I do have a thing with marksmanship and the running on the walls too, otherwise known as parkour." Kasin answered. "Well, whatever you did back there, it sure saved us!" I commended the boy. "I…I don't know, maybe things would have been fine without me too…" He replied blushing. This boy does not take much pride after all. "You don't know what you're talking about Kasin." Rainbow told the boy. "Seriously, if you hadn't come, we'd be in serious trouble." Kasin was a bit surprised to hear that from Rainbow. Finally, he admits. "Well, if you say so, then I'm glad to have helped. Uh, hey Fluttershy? You alright?" We turned to Fluttershy to see her crying yet with a smile. She lunged over to Kasin with a hug, pushing him down to the floor. "I'm so happy that you're alive!" She cried. "U-Um…why wouldn't I be?" He wondered. "Because we thought you were done for from that explosion a while back in the forest." I explained. "We saw a crater and found your headphones. We thought the worst had happened." Kasin stared at us with unease. He gave us a grim smile, almost as if he was both happy for himself, and yet sad for us. "I…didn't know you cared about me this much…" "Of course we do!" Twilight told Kasin. "You have to stop thinking you're not worth anything Kasin! We all value more than anything, and we'd be heartbroken if you really had…" We all paused. Kasin seemed to have smiled even more. "I get it…alright, no more beating myself up, I got it now." "Good." Rainbow replied. "Now…take this." Rainbow took off the headphones around her neck and brought them over to Kasin's hand, who was still being bear hugged by Fluttershy. "My headphones! Thanks for holding on to them Rainbow!" Kasin said gratefully. "Wait, if you thought I was dead, why were you holding on to them?" Rainbow blushed and said, "W-Well, I thought I'd keep it to remember you by." Kasin blushed and gave a nervous smile as he said, "That's…wow, I don't know what to say. I'm grateful to have someone as loyal as you." After a quick break, we tied up all of the ponies that pony-napped Twilight and Spike as well as used Kasin's medical kit to bandage us up. I had to treat my hind legs since I may have overused them on Tone too much. Rainbow bruised her right wing a bit, Twilight and Spike just had some around their foreleg and arm. Kasin took one heck of a beating though. As it turns out, Tone's spell had missed Kasin as he managed to dodge it and get away from the boom, but his arm was still caught in the blast. He had a broken arm that needed a good long rest. "By the way Twi, why were they after you?" I couldn't help but ask. "Apparently, it has something to do with a revolution from a place called Unity." Twilight explained. "Never heard of it." Rainbow commented. Twilight explained to us the whole thing. About Unity, the revolution, and most of all, overthrowing Princess Celestia. "They want to do what!?" Rarity reacted rather dramatic. No comment there though, I was also shocked. "Wow! They must have a few loose screws!" Pinkie joked. "But I don't get it, what does the princess have to do with you?" Kasin asked Twilight. "I know the princess cares about the well being of all ponies in her domain, but why you specifically?" "That’s because I'm the princess's most faithful student." Twilight answered rather proudly. Kasin's jaw dropped at the fact. "NO WAY!!! You…know royalty?!" Twilight nodded yes in response making Kasin got all worked up about it. "That's one heck of an achievement!" "Oh, well, it's not that big of a deal." She replied while closing her eyes. "Yeah, it only got us captured by a bunch of crazy ponies." Spike pointed out, making Twilight glare at him in the process. "Well, even so, I won't forgive them for what they did to you all." Kasin declared. "I mean, seriously. I just hate it when there are people out there who don't have faith in anything. It's just sad and pitiful sometimes." "I agree." I told Kasin. "If they could just have the sense to do things more peaceful, then this wouldn't have happened." We all nodded in agreement. The revolution to us felt like it was over the top just for some peace in Unity. Rainbow started to yawn loudly before saying, "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm beat." Rarity nodded in agreement. "Yes, it's already getting late, and we wouldn't want to sleep in the Everfree forest after all this, do we?" We didn't even need to speak knowing we all agreed with her. "Well, we can't leave these guys out here, they might try to escape." Twilight thought. "Let's just bring them back with us then." Spike recommended. Before Kasin could pick one up, Fluttershy stopped him. "Oh no, Kasin! You have a broken arm! You need to make sure you let it rest and stay out of harm." "But…don't you need help bring them all back to town?" "I'm sure we can do it ourselves." Rainbow assured him. "Besides, you did more than enough help today Kasin. You deserve a break." Kasin gave a cheeky grin. "I'll try." After carrying them from the abandoned castle all the way to Ponyville, we left those varmints with some local guards, who wanted a report on everything that happened tomorrow. Twilight agreed to go on our behalf, happy to testify against the ones who had taken her by force. We all walked off the three at the library, and there, we gave each other a good night before Twilight, Spike, and Kasin went inside. When we left, I couldn't help but notice Kasin on the balcony looking up at the night sky. What was he doing up there? I'll just ask him tomorrow, considering how tired he must be. Nothing else exciting happened on the way home. Glad too since we already spent the day in danger. When I went inside, Applebloom and Big Macintosh were up probably waiting for me. "Hey sis, why were you out for so long?" Applebloom asked me. She's my little sister by the way. "It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it tomorrow after I get some shut eye." I told the two. "Is that okay with you too Big Macintosh?" "Eeyup." My big brother replied casual as always. I went to bed after that. Boy, this was one heck of a day! Who knew Kasin was so strong? I'm definitely sure he'll have no problem helping with the farm. Heck, he might even help the whole town with anymore secrets like that! That sure is one interesting guy…