. . . promptly throws the apple in the direction of your head and galloped away as fast as their little legs could take them. Shaking your head from the apple bits you proceed to chase down your chagrin. Awhile into the chase, you lose sight of them, leaving you very irate for losing them in the city. “Curses, I am dangerous predator of the Everfree, how could I have lost them so easily-wait a minute, what’s this?”
Checking your disguise, you notice that a section of the blue cloth wrapped around you body was torn off. However, you can still feel the section of missing cloth, but it feels as if it’s moving through the city . . .
Oh, one of those foals must have taken a piece of my cloak. This will make finding them exponentially easier. Now I just need to track them, thank Gaea.
Making your way through a series of alleyways, you find yourself in an inside of a worn factory with various vendors selling their wares of questionable origins and purpose. Left and right, you hear merchants yelling their wares to attract the attention to possible customers. One particular vendor piques your interest.
"ARMS AND ARMOR! ALL IN PRISTINE CONDITION! ROYAL GUARDS ARMOR WITH FUNCTIONAL DISGUISE ENCHANTMENTS! NEED A FIX GOT SOME- OH HELLO THERE-*cough cough* hrmph, I mean hello there my good stallion. Care to browse my wares?”
“Hmmmm, you said something about disguise enchantments, right? Are you sure they still function? And if they do, what kind of disguise?”
“Oh, interested in some of the royal guards armor ey? Well, I just so happen to, ‘procure,’ some to display in my inventory. Guaranteed one of a kind. How's about this one for . . . one thousand bits, yea guy?”
His smile falters slightly, having a hard time reading your reaction due to your covered face.
“Hey, I'm joking, so one thousand bits might be askin for too much right? Let me whittle that down to, ah, lets see, eight hundred bits. I’ll even throw in a weapon for ya.”
He winces as he glances to the wicked looking greatswords on your back.
“'course, you probably don’t need another. So, how's 'bout we settle for, 750 bits, eh guy?”
You stroke your chin, mulling over your choices. Your eyes catches a light shining from several crate behind his stall. Pointing your hoof at them, you ask: “What are those?”
The vendor pony appears to be sweating bullets as tries to cover the crate of familiar armor. “Oh, these, these are just, umm, broken-no faulty, yea faulty. These aren’t for sale sooo-”
One of the crates 'miraculously' (you totally didn't move a few loose sticks of your body over to them to do that, using your control that is better than telekinesis) spills over showing several suits of similar armor. “Ehehe, yea sooooo . . . “
“One of a kind you said?”
“Hey hey hey, these are just, umm-”, you lean over the counter, grabbing the vendors head and pulling him toward you.
You switch to a way of talking you once heard, and found more intimidating: “Listen here thou cur, if thou expects us to purchase illicit merchandise of thou, thou best not try thou trickery upon us less thou might-”, at this your shoulder is shifting to display your greatsword, “- meet an untimely demise. So, let us continue as this never happen, shall we? . . .*Ahem*, We would like to purchase that suit of armor for . . . 250 bits. Is that not a fair price?”
“Uhhhh, yes-no, I mean, just take the stupid armor and leave me alone!!! Please?” Please?”
Thanks to your exceptional bartering skills you now own a suit of outdated royal guards armor. For free. You make your way out of the black market, but before you do that, you turn around to address the quivering vendor.
“Excuse me, did you happen to see a small group of foals traveling through here?”
“NOT THE FACE- o-oh? U-uumm, I think I sa-saw some foals saying that they w-we-ere heading somewhere that way. W-w-would that b-be all, um, sir?”
"Yes, that would be all."
"Finally!- I mean, have a nice! *sigh*, goddesses above do I need a drink . . . "
After leaving the market, you go down an abandoned section of the factory to don your new set of armor. Less than a second after attaching the last piece of armor, your 'pony' form is shrouded in the armors illusion enchantment, leaving behind a simple white coated blue mane earth pony stallion. "Good. So he didn't lie about the enchantment. This should make finding those foals a simpler task.
New item acquired: O.G.A. (Outdated guards armor)
-Enchantment
Only high ranking officers of the royal guard wear these heavy suits of armor. Disguise more likely to works on civilians and lower ranking officers.
A foal's perspective
After I nailed that cloaked pony-thing with the apple, we hightailed it out of there. We practically ran halfway across the damned city.
"*gasp* Oheh, *pant* I think *pant* we lost him."
With one final step, I decided that that was 'nuff for today. I'm glad the others were able to keep up, those slow pokes.
"I'm surprised we have made it this far, we've not eaten any thing since yesterday. *ggrrrrooOoowwllll*, shut up you! Can't hear myself thinking with your whining." *rooOoaarr*, Uuggghhhh, wish I still had that apple. I really wished we could rest here, but I knew we weren't safe resting here.
"Ok, we should keep moving. Who knows when that overclothed pony's gonna find us. So com'on fillies."
" *sigh*, can't we just wait a little bit longer. I feel like my legs are gonna fall off."
"Oi, not yet, not until it's safe. So move 'em noodle legs so we can- omph!! Aahhh! I'm blind halp getitoffgetitoffgetitoff- *smack!* ack! EY COSY, NOT COOL-, oh hey, I can see. Thanks."
" Don't mention it. Hmm? Hey Twist! Look at this flyer." "Oh hey a convention. Welcome to the 21st annual Manehattan convention found on something . . . . . Maybe we should check it out? What do you think?"
"I think it would be a fun idea."
"Hmmm, you're right, sounds like fun. Maybe we could steal some merchandise and pick some pockets, yea. I'm in!"
So, after our voting we decided it's in our best interest to head for that convention and maybe snag a few 'souvenirs'.
"Alrighty then, I guess our next destination's the convention. Gosh, I hope they have some power ponies there. Nothing's gonna ruin our day now!"
<2 hours later>
“Can you believe that stallion? Kicking some foals to the curbs like some garbage. Bet he’s compensating for something.”
“Well, we did try to sneak in without tickets? Anypony have any ideas?”
“Hmmmm, perhaps I could carry one of you two onto the roof at a time?”
“Nah, bet the doors up there is locked. Even if we make our way up, someone's gonna spot us. Perhaps we need a more subtle approach?” Pointing a hoof at a random 20 hoof long costume in an alley, my two friends look at each other before turning to me with recognition in their faces. Using the costume we sneaked through the entrance . . .
Right turn... Straight... Straight... Left... Right...
As you turn around another corner, you see the pony running towards you too late, and crash into it. Luckily, you are able to avoid the pony just enough not to fall apart, and not to reveal yourself.
You see two shadows jumping above you from your position on the ground, but they are gone when you stand up.
You look at the pony you crashed into, it just now standing up and holding its head in pain.
"Look where you're going, idiot", you tell it, upon looking closer you can determine its a he, "If you would run with open eyes, you wouldn't have crashed into me."
Now, for the next part you need to know something. The pony was very hard to see because it wore a very specific robe with a very specific symbol stitched into it. It was very clear the symbol was stitched by an amateur.
"Sorry... OFFICER?", the pony suddenly tried to run away, but you pounced at him and caught him again.
"Sooo... trying to run away, eh?", you mumble into his ear, causing him to shiver in fright.
"I swear, they roped me into it! I didn't want to do it, they have my family…" he whines.
You snicker at that, and tell him: "Why do you think I care? You idiot, prayers go to your god, 'cause I won't answer them."
You hear the sound of two ponies galloping behind you, and turn your head to look at them.
They are two guards. "S-sir! We have been chasing these criminals... where are the others? I mean, Sir, we have been chasing this criminal and two others because they belong to the Crimson Horde!" one of them tells you.
Your eyes lit up, and just while you are turning your head back to the -Member of the possible Pack-, he kicks you off him. He stares at you, before turning around and running away.
"Get him!", one of the guards shouts before trying to chase him, only to trip onto his face.
Noone takes my -Future packmate- from me
"C-captain? What is it?", he asks you confused.
You growl at him, then jump.
What do you do?